Tag: Flashback Friday

Review – Kalpa Imperial

Posted May 20, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Kalpa Imperial by Angélica GorodischerKalpa Imperial, Angélica Gorodischer, trans. Ursula Le Guin

Originally reviewed September 30th, 2012

If you like Ursula Le Guin’s work, it’s worth trying Kalpa Imperial, even though Le Guin isn’t the author, only the translator. She was obviously the ideal choice of translator for Gorodischer’s style; there’s no sense of distance from the story, or rather stories, that you often get with translations.

It’s a bit of a strange book, a collection of connected stories that don’t follow on from each other — often the only link is in the common setting of the Empire That Never Was. Consequently, there is little character development (though the narrative voices are to some extent characters in themselves), and each story is just a window on a world that doesn’t exist, with very little context and very little pausing to explain. If you want to know everything about everything, this will prove more frustrating than anything, I think.

But I think it was well done, anyway, with the mythic tone and the air of half-remembered history. Some of the stories are more fascinating than others, but I enjoyed all of them.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The City & The City

Posted May 13, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of The City & The City by China MiévilleThe City & The City, China Miéville

Originally posted 30th November 2010

I read this one in bits. The last half or so was all in one go, on a long train journey, but for the most part, I just read it in bits, a few pages at a time, and didn’t really get involved with it. I didn’t really care how it ended, for most of the time. I did get tense during the last parts, and I was sad for the main character about the ending, but I didn’t really care, for the most part. I wanted to care more about Corwi and Dhatt, but I didn’t really see enough of them, or enough positive about Dhatt…

I suppose it was pretty realistic, in that, but what actually kept me reading was the core idea — and, to some extent, the mystery. I’ve always said that cities were the most interesting thing about Miéville’s work: he’s really good at making them feel alive, I think. Less the individual parts, more the whole life of the city. This is a particularly interesting one, especially the way he navigates it: nothing here is overtly fantastical or sci-fi ish, really. I mean, it sounds completely far-fetched, but we know how deeply cultural conditioning can affect people, and if you just take it as a thought experiment…

Still, I like the idea — and Miéville evokes his worlds well — but it really didn’t have me on the edge of my seat, or caring about the characters, or needing to read more.

Rating: 4/5

 

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Review – A History of the World in 100 Objects

Posted May 6, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of A History of the World in 100 ObjectsA History of the World in 100 Objects, Neil MacGregor

Originally reviewed 10th October 2012

The people who give this book low ratings and complain of being bored, and of now knowing tons of useless facts, just stagger me. I almost wish I’d caught the original radio program — I must look for similar things to listen to while I’m crocheting — because I find all the information intriguing and worth keeping in my head (if not exactly useful in the sense of practical). To me museums have always been magical places, and though the provenance of all the items in the British Museum troubles me, the range of them and the accessibility of them makes me very happy. I did go to the British Museum once, and was only allowed to stay there a few hours — this reaaaally makes me want to go back.

It’s inevitably framed by a fairly Western way of looking at the world, because though the objects in the museum which are used to make this history are from all over the world, they were obtained — bought, stolen, traded, permanently borrowed, and basically not always freely given — by British people and for a British audience. The book does acknowledge that, though, and the series did its best to celebrate all sorts of cultures, including those long-eclipsed by colonialism. It discusses the damage done by colonialism to now vanished cultures as part of the history some of these objects embody.

It’s a lovely book, well laid out in chapters and sections, with black and white photographs of each object to open the chapter about it, and colour inserts of selected objects. Honestly, I wish there were full colour photos of all the objects, but that would have been prohibitively expensive to print, I imagine. I doubt everyone, or even most people, would want to read this book the way I did, cover to cover in one go, but I actually found that I couldn’t put it down.

[Note in 2016: I went back, with my partner, in November 2015. It was as wonderful as expected.]

Rating: 5/5

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Review – Blackbirds

Posted April 29, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Blackbirds by Chuck WendigBlackbirds, Chuck Wendig

Originally reviewed 20th April, 2012; received to review via Netgalley

I got Blackbirds from Angry Robot on Netgalley, to review. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it from the description, and the pre-existing reviews, but I wanted to give it a go because the idea is something relatively simple that could be turned into a really good story. The core idea is that a girl (Miriam) gains a power which means the first time she has skin-on-skin contact with someone, she sees how they die.

I enjoyed the character of Miriam: she’s a tough talking girl who swears like a sailor and does whatever she has to do to get through life, trying to tell herself that all these deaths she witnesses (and can’t prevent) don’t matter to her, and that she can’t do anything about it. There’s a lot that isn’t explained about her gift, which is equal parts frustrating and intriguing: I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel, to fill in the gaps that Blackbirds has left.

I liked the other main characters, too: Ashley and Louis. Well, Ashley is kind of unlikeable, but I like what was done with him, and Louis… well, you can’t help liking Louis and rooting for him, even though the story is telling you the whole time that nothing good is going to come of this.

There are a couple of things that I didn’t find convincing enough: the motives of the people who were after her; Louis’ attraction to her; the whole Ashley thing. Some of that might be resolved in the next book, but either way, the momentum of the story carried me past anything that gave me pause. I read it in one sitting — if it sounds interesting to you, then I’d say go ahead and pick it up, as long as you can get past the fact that there’s graphic violence, swearing and sex!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Liar

Posted April 22, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Liar by Justine LarbalestierLiar, Justine Larbalestier

Originally reviewed 6th January 2011

I first heard of Liar when everyone was talking about the controversy surrounding the original cover. I filed it away in the back of my mind, thinking of picking the book up when it came out. I was reminded of it recently when friends started to talk about it again — through having read it, now — and put it on my last minute Christmas list. Cue me getting it in the mail yesterday, and being almost unable to resist the lure of the first page, which starts with the hook, “I was born with a light covering of fur.”

If you don’t enjoy unreliable narrators, step away right now. Micah is as unreliable as you can get, and the whole book peels back — or layers on — more of her lies.

For the first part of the book, it could be the story of a normal teenager — one who has had bad things happen to her, and who is a loner, yes, but one who is essentially like those around her. It doesn’t stay like that, though: if you’re not a fan of fantastical elements, you probably want to step back now.

The thing with this book is that there are at least two ways of reading it. It’s a delicate balance to walk, but Larbalestier does, in my opinion, walk it well. It wasn’t wholly unpredictable, but I have been spoiled a little by reading other people’s reviews. If you can, and this book sounds interesting to you, then try to go into it knowing as little as possible — just knowing that Micah is a liar (not a spoiler: it’s in the title).

The other thing that pleased me was the fact that the book has non-white characters — chiefly non-white characters, in fact — and LGBT content, plus a generally sex-positive attitude. There’s totally non-explicit sexual references, there’s an understanding of teenagers feeling and dealing with desire, and I didn’t get a ‘sex is bad, hush, we don’t talk about sex’ vibe from it.

(It irks me that there are likely people reading this review thinking, ‘I’d better not give this to my teenage daughter.’ There’s nothing in this that would have damaged my fragile fourteen year old psyche. It’s just people.)

I realise this doesn’t tell you much about how I, personally, felt about this book: I read it within the space of an afternoon, and kept stopping myself after every fifty pages so I could drag it out more and enjoy it for that bit longer. When I put it down, I already had a list of people I want to recommend it to.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps

Posted April 15, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of the The 199 Steps by Michael FaberThe Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps, Michel Faber

Originally reviewed 6th January, 2011

More of a novella than a novel, I think. I never really found myself engaging with it: most of it was just too perfunctory for me. The relationship between the main characters never really goes anywhere; the digging that is supposed to be absorbing her certainly doesn’t absorb me; her emotions regarding her accident barely seem to manifest; the charged emotions between the main characters fail to move me; her obsession with the man’s dog just seems a little odd…

There were two things I found well-described. One was her anxiety about her health, her determination through most of the book to stick it out without going to the hospital. I’ve felt that way, and Michel Faber made me feel it again. And the other — and less so — was the description of her painstaking efforts to separate the pages of the manuscript.

Ultimately, though, it took up an hour of my time and didn’t give me much back beside an echo of my anxious stomach-aches! That’s probably part of the reason I didn’t engage with the story. For something I got for £1 in the sale on the Kindle store, I wouldn’t say it was a waste, but it didn’t exactly glitter for me.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – The Owl Killers

Posted April 8, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Owl Killers by Karen MaitlandThe Owl Killers, Karen Maitland

Originally reviewed 25th August, 2012

I think this might be my favourite of Karen Maitland’s books so far — I definitely liked it more than The Gallows Curse, although it didn’t grip me as tightly as Company of Liars. I have nothing really to nitpick about here, though: the five POVs were well done and cast interesting lights on each other, and I love the research Maitland clearly put into it. The very concept of a beguinage is pretty fascinating, so that helps, but the way Maitland brought this one to life — and tried to explain a real historical event through it — is even more so. I’ve always loved historical novels that take something we know (a wingless Roman Eagle was found buried in Silchester, and Rosemary Sutcliff wrote The Eagle of the Ninth to explain it, for example) and try to puzzle out why. Karen Maitland explores why the beguinages failed to take root in Britain, despite some evidence of them existing here, and despite their longevity and appeal on the continent.

As with her other books, she evokes the Middle Ages well — the smells, the sounds, the sights. Perhaps a little predictably, I suppose: she gives us the vision of the Middle Ages we expect, dirt and plagues and superstition, but still. She does her work well.

I suppose I do have one nitpick, and that’s the POV of Pisspuddle, which doesn’t add much. It does add a villagers-eye view, so there’s that, but mostly she’s just a small child who doesn’t matter that much to the events happening around her.

The characters are all intriguing: I really felt for Osmanna, and for Servant Martha, particularly. I felt very sorry for Beatrice, even though I knew she was seeing things from a very biased point of view. And Healer Martha deserved better.

Oh yes, and trigger warning: rape, abusive parents, sickness. More or less what you might expect, but just in case.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – The Earth Hums in B-Flat

Posted April 1, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari StrachanThe Earth Hums in B-Flat, Mari Strachan

Originally reviewed 1st October, 2010

I don’t know what I expected from this book. It’s somewhat marketed as a mystery, I suppose, but that’s a little misleading. The central character, Gwenni, isn’t a precocious little child detective, a mini Sherlock Holmes. She’s a slightly odd child, with a lot of imagination and a funny way of putting things, and it’s about the complications in her life that begin with the disappearance of one of her neighbours.

She doesn’t actually find his body, or track down and confront his murderer, although she does figure things out. The story is much more about the emotional journey. It’s not a particularly light or fun one — it’s a hurting one, with a lot of pain and complex themes about mental illness. I found it a rather quiet story, oddly everyday, for all that there are horrible things happening.

One thing that bothered me was that the characters didn’t feel the right age. It was part of Gwenni’s oddness, I suppose, but she felt rather younger to me than she was supposed to be. I got used to it, but it definitely threw me off at first.

I loved how Welsh it all felt, at any rate. ‘Tada’ and ‘Mam’ and ‘Nain’ and ‘Taid’, and the turn of phrase, and… from the very first page, I recognised my own Welsh family in some of the characters and speech patterns.

I rarely offer advice about children reading books, since I was allowed a free hand with my parents’ books and in the library from the age of eight, and don’t believe it did me any harm — still, it’s not a comfortable, cosy book, and I don’t recommend it for young/immature teenagers. If I were to give this to a young person, I’d be at the ready to discuss it with them, I think, due to the domestic violence and mental illness that’s very much at the heart of the story.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore

Posted March 25, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Helen of Troy by Bettany HughesHelen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore, Bettany Hughes

Originally reviewed 11th October, 2012

Bettany Hughes was made an honorary Fellow of my university in the same ceremony as I became a graduate, so I’ve been planning to read this ever since. That, and the story of Troy has always been fascinating to me. There’s definitely something very compelling about Bettany Hughes’ writing, which though very detailed isn’t dry — or maybe I just have a weakness for descriptions of “sumptuous palaces” and so on trained into me by my early love of a book (by Christine Desroches-Noblecourt) describing the treasures of Tutankhamen’s tomb in detail. She makes the book colourful, anyway. And from whatever I know of Greek history and myths, she chooses her material well and does wonders in digging through the evidence of millennia to look at the idea of Helen of Troy, where she came from and what she has meant to generations of people.

I think my favourite section was actually the discussion of what the fabled Helen had to do with Eleanor of Aquitaine: the interaction of real queens with figures of legend like Helen of Troy, Queen Guinevere and female Christian saints fascinates me…

I’m not sure how well I think the information was organised, though. Admittedly, Helen is hard to pin down, but I’m not sure I can pinpoint how Hughes wanted to present her ideas. For me, reading cover to cover and for pleasure, it worked fine, but if I were to come back and try to refer to some specific point, I think I’d have trouble finding it.There are extensive notes and a long list of references to other works, so all in all I think this book is very well organised and researched. And — to me, more importantly — I really enjoyed reading it.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Postman

Posted March 18, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Postman by David BrinThe Postman, David Brin

I enjoyed the first two parts of this very much. The first part covers serendipitous discovery of an old uniform by the main character, Gordon Krantz, just when he needs it after his camp has been raided and all the gear he needs for survival taken. The second part involves the way he becomes a symbol, at first without meaning to, and then the way he builds up a movement around himself, making his lies a reality.

The third part is where it falls down a bit for me, where he comes seriously involved in a basically military operation, and themes of scientific manipulation and so on come in. The climax of the novel is a fight between two characters which barely involves the protagonist, though fortunately it returns to being about Gordon for the last part.

The world of The Postman is bleak, post-apocalyptic, both recognising the elements among us who are violent and opportunistic, and the basic decency a lot of people have. There’s hope here as well.

The way the novel deals with female characters… troubled me. The fact that there are few to no women in positions of power — at least among the decent folks, though of course not among the antagonists due to their philosophy — and the one who is ends up proving herself dangerously naive. Many women are strong, and would be capable of a lot better in a post-apocalyptic dystopian situation than the showing they make here.

Rating: 3/5

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