Tag: books

Review – Votan

Posted November 20, 2014 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Votan & Other Stories by John JamesVotan, John James

I found Votan a really interesting read; I’m not entirely sure I liked it, but it was mesmerising anyway. There’s something compulsive about it: I just needed to know what the heck Photinus did next, what trouble he got into and how he got out of it, and how that all works into the conceit that he’s at the back of a whole lot of Norse mythology. Sometimes I felt I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on — that I’d missed a reference or something: there’s a lot of playing around with the material, pulling from different stories and sources.

It’s been published as both a fantasy and a historical novel, and I’m not honestly sure where I’d classify it. It’s almost febrile, somehow — all the things Photinus does, all the places he goes; reading it felt like a fever-dream. I lost track of people, places; somehow it didn’t really matter.

I did enjoy it, I think, but I’m not so enamoured of it that I’m going to read Not For All The Gold In Ireland or Men Went to Cattreath. Not entirely sure I want to see John James ride roughshod over Y Gododdin, so I’ll skip it.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: , ,

Divider

Review – Darwin: A Life In Poems

Posted November 19, 2014 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Darwin: A Life in Poems by Ruth PadelDarwin: A Life in Poems, Ruth Padel

Darwin: A Life in Poems is an interesting endeavour, though it doesn’t quite work for me. Bits of Darwin’s words, descriptions of his life, little details — it makes for an interesting collection for its own sake, but the poetry mostly doesn’t read right. Some of the detail plucked from Darwin’s letters and work is interesting, some bits of it work startlingly well, but as a whole, it’s not a project that works for me.

A sort-of similar project making music around Darwin’s life worked much better for me — Karine Polwart’s song can bring tears to my eyes in the right mood. The Darwin Song Project is worth checking out, though their site now seems to be defunct. You can at least find Karine’s song on youtube.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: , ,

Divider

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted November 19, 2014 by in General / 4 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
Tooth & Claw, by Jo Walton. I had this vague impression of not being a big fan of it, but I think it must’ve caught me at a bad time originally, because actually, I love it. Ah, the benefits of rereading. I can’t help giggling every time I see a review complaining about the cannibalism, too… “Oh no, these dragons don’t act enough like humans!”

What are you currently reading?
Reread of The Hero and the Crown (Robin McKinley) — I’ve been needing familiar things. I need to finish The Just City (Jo Walton); it’s on my bedside table, but I haven’t wanted to be venturesome the last couple weeks. Not a good brain-week, this.

What will you read next?
I’ll finish up The Just City (Jo Walton) and Shadows (Robin McKinley), and then I want to get round to rereading Heart’s Blood (Juliet Marillier), before I lose the thread of my Beauty and the Beast themed reading.

Tags: , , ,

Divider

Review – The Thirteenth Tale

Posted November 18, 2014 by in Reviews / 4 Comments

Cover of The Thirteenth Tale by Diane SetterfieldThe Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield

The Thirteenth Tale is certainly an absorbing story in one way — and I prefer it to Bellman & Black, as people told me I probably would — but now I’m finished I’m left feeling a little bit cheated. The mysteries shook out more or less as I expected; the creepy gothic air never quite worked for me, because it’s very much a homage to books which are rather a lot better; the hints of supernatural stuff and ghosts never convinced me… And so on. I could see what it was trying to do, and if I tried hard enough, I could bury myself in it, but it never quite swept me away.

That said, I read it in more or less two massive chunks, and it certainly keeps the pages turning despite the slow pace to it. The stuff that’s obviously meant to appeal to bookworms, that sensation of reading something so bright and fresh and alive as Vida Winter’s work is supposed to be, she captures something of that enchantment, I think. I actually smiled a bit at the narrator’s stuff surrounding reading — yep, I’ve sat up with a book so long it accidentally got round to morning again, without even realising, and was stupid and clumsy the next day with sleepiness; yep, when I’ve been reading intensely all day, somehow I’m just not hungry, like the words have filled me up.

There’s very little more insipid than the narrator’s character, though. I’ve forgotten her name. I remember her twin’s name, but not hers. Set against her, maybe Vida Winter’s story can’t help but be fascinating.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: , ,

Divider

Review – The Mighty Thor: The Galactus Seed

Posted November 17, 2014 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of The Mighty Thor by Matt FractionThe Mighty Thor: The Galactus Seed, Matt Fraction, Olivier Coipel

I’ve never been quite as fond of Fraction’s work as others seem to be, but given his reputation I’m willing to keep trying. The Mighty Thor is okay; there are some fun moments, and it does feature kid!Loki, who is probably the most interesting character in the comic. That whole refresh of Loki’s character remains interesting to me because it plays with all sorts of stuff, bringing back the ambiguity of his character from the original legends rather than any straightforward comicbook villain stuff. (Some people don’t like that because it seems to be part of the woobification of Loki prompted by Hiddleston fans, but I see it there in the source material.)

Otherwise, the Galactus/Silver Surfer stuff seemed fairly routine — I knew how it’d go from playing Lego Marvel Superheroes, y’know? It’s not like there’s any real danger of Galactus being allowed to eat Earth.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: , , , ,

Divider

Review – What Matters in Jane Austen?

Posted November 16, 2014 by in Reviews / 6 Comments

Cover of What Matters In Jane Austen? by John MullenWhat Matters in Jane Austen?, John Mullan

I’m not a big fan of Jane — through I’ve come round somewhat on the subject since I couldn’t resist the urge to fling Pride and Prejudice out of a window — so you might think I was the wrong audience for this book anyway. But I am a big fan of close reading, and I find value in digging into what’s important in an author’s works in a way that I think the author of this would agree with, and I enjoy history, literary history, and all kinds of random facts. So I was hoping that though I’m no obsessive Austen fan, I’d still find this book of interest.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be quite sure where it’s aimed at. As a non-fan, I don’t know the books well enough for all the little details he references without fully contextualising to be exactly revelatory to me; as an MA in literature, I thought it was still a pretty simplistic level of analysis — is anyone really surprised that yes, Austen was saying that Lydia Bennet had sex outside of marriage? — and as a general reader, I didn’t find the stuff that interesting on its own merits either. It startles me more that apparently there was a fuss kicked up about ~Was Jane Austen Gay?~ because of her intimacy with her sister than that sisterly conversation or the lack thereof is centrally important in her work.

Overall, whatever the target audience was meant to be, I’m not it.

Rating: 1/5

Tags: , ,

Divider

Review – The Court of Lightning

Posted November 14, 2014 by in Reviews / 6 Comments

Cover of The Court of Lightning, by Amy Rae DurresonThe Court of Lightning, Amy Rae Durreson

I ended up reading this because Lynn mentioned it, and I felt like something fairly light and quick. This worked for that, and as a bonus, the worldbuilding is great. It’s not just the sort of story where the plot and world are a sketchy scaffold for a romance to hang on, but a world that feels much bigger, that invites more story and asks you to imagine the past and future of the world it contains.

It helps that the two main characters are fun — funny, in Shan’s case, and adorably awkward in Tirellian’s — and their relationship feels real. The way things work out between them feels right and natural, fits perfectly in the story and in the world, without taking away from everything else that’s interesting about the story. There’s no sudden three chapter interlude of sex before the plot gets underway — while there are some sex scenes, and you don’t have to read them to follow the plot, the point of the story is not about the sex; the sex is just part of that relationship, which is just part of the world, etc.

All in all, definitely a fun one, and I need to hurry up and read The Lodestar of Ys, clearly.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: , ,

Divider

Review – Drunk Tank Pink

Posted November 13, 2014 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Drunk Tank Pink by Adam AlterDrunk Tank Pink, Adam Alter

Drunk Tank Pink is one of those pop psychology books that’s fairly slight, doesn’t provide citations in-text, and presents a lot of experimental and theoretical thought as if it’s a fact. Taking it for what it is, it’s an enjoyable little survey of interesting facts, written well enough to keep the interest, and not getting into technical details which might bog down and confuse the interested but uninformed reader.

For me, since I’ve read a fair amount of pop psychology already, some of it rather higher standard, this had some anecdotes I hadn’t heard, but mostly referenced research I already knew about, or had read about in a lot greater depth. (For example, for discussions on colour, skip this and go for Through the Language Glass, by Guy Deutscher, which has a much more thorough approach to the issues of language, labels and how we perceive colour.)

All in all, it was okay, but probably (for me) not worth the admission fee.

Rating: 2/5

Tags: , ,

Divider

Review – Wonders of the Invisible World

Posted November 12, 2014 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Wonders of the Invisible World, by Patricia McKillipWonders of the Invisible World, Patricia A. McKillip

Of all Patricia McKillip’s writings, perhaps this one is the most accessible. The short stories seem to have a different tone to her longer works — something less poetic, more matter of fact. It’s a great collection: pretty much all of the stories are strong, and each one contains a whole world — and each world is so very different from the next. There are some which are more like her novels, and oddly they seem to be ones which people who’re fans of her novels like less, based on the review. Maybe it’s because a novel may digress, may take time simply being lovely: poetry and short stories have to go right to the heart of it, whatever that heart is. Something that feels a bit too vague and artsy can come up totally inconclusive as a short story: that’s how I felt about just a couple of these, particularly ‘Xmas Cruise’. On the other hand, the twist and uncertainty in ‘Hunter’s Moon’ works really well — I’m just not sure that I’m meant to feel so vague about ‘Xmas Cruise’. It made me feel like I was missing something.

Most of the time, though, the stories are pretty strong. I wasn’t sure about some of them, and then they revealed themselves — the Arthurian twist in ‘Out of the Woods’ made me smile, and the way it contrasts the two worlds by laying them side by side, never saying anything explicitly about one or the other world, how they fit together. I think my favourite story was ‘Knight of the Well’; McKillip builds up a whole fantasy world, acquaints you wish it, turns it upside down and settles it down again in the space of what’s still a pretty short story.

Overall, a great collection; McKillip’s way with words remains a strength. The contemporary feel of a couple of these didn’t sit that well with me, partly because I was expecting something more olde-worlde, something to match the mythical look of the cover. Other people might find it the best ‘in’ to McKillip’s work they’ve ever had, though.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: , ,

Divider

Review – A Song for Arbonne

Posted November 11, 2014 by in Reviews / 4 Comments

Cover of A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel KayA Song for Arbonne, Guy Gavriel Kay

I can understand people who don’t like Guy Gavriel Kay’s work. I think I’ve said it before, but there are definite quirks of style, ways he plots and deals with characters, that can drive even me mad in the wrong mood — which is why I first picked this up to reread in April, and now it’s November when I’ve finally finished. I do love most of Kay’s work when I’m in the right mood, though, and A Song for Arbonne is additionally up my street because of the Court of Love, the troubadours, all the stuff that’s part of the Arthurian legends as well once they hit France.

I don’t think, though, that I fell for this book quite as much as I have for some of the others. I’m not as attached to Bertran as to Alessan or Diarmuid; not held in sympathy with his rival and enemy, Urté de Miraval, as I am with Brandin in Tigana, not until the very end of the book; not really caught up in Blaise’s story, in his fight for a throne, as I am with Aileron’s or Alessan’s. There’s some good stuff here, but some promising background characters didn’t really come to full bloom for me — Valery, Rudel, even Hirnan — and despite the women-centric society, we didn’t have female characters as striking as Catriana or as pivotal as Kim. Rosala was probably the female character I was most interested in, but she comes somewhat late into her own, and I felt as though I should be more aware of the other female characters. They shadowed the story, they were behind it, and yet they weren’t the visible drivers. Not quite the story Kay was aiming to tell, I think.

Still, all of that sounds harsh, when I really do enjoy this book. When Kay gives you a scene, a character, a moment, he expects you to remember. He will use it. One character’s chance word reveals another’s secret, one introspective passage becomes suddenly important. It’s a rich world he creates, and some parts of it dance with life — and ache with sadness.

It’s just, it does pale when held up against some of his other books. Even the flaws of The Summer Tree and the other two books of that trilogy are brilliant. I was a little surprised to like this book possibly less this time than last, which may be some combination of mood and timing; normally I like Kay’s work better with each reread.

Regardless, there’s always something to treasure in Kay’s work.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: , ,

Divider