The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bollander

Received to review via Netgalley; publication date January 23rd 2018

I didn’t actually know much about this before picking it up: only that there was an elephant, and it somehow involved the Radium Girls. I loved the bits from the perspective of the elephants, the stories they tell: it might be a little much at length, but in little doses it was cleverly done, figuring out the way they’d think and communicate. I wasn’t in love with the modern-day plot of making the elephants glow (it seemed a little goofy to me as an idea, so I didn’t get into the character who suggested it), but the interaction between Topsy and the Radium Girl who trained her was poignant and fascinating.

Overall, it’s an interesting idea and there’s some definite gems in the writing, but I’m not sure how long it’ll stay with me. It didn’t quite come together for me, the three threads of narrative.

Rating: 3/5

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The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Alan Garner

When I first read The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, I found it horribly disappointing after all the hype. Even back then, I noted that the beginning was promising and that there are some wonderfully evocative scenes of claustrophobia and fear… but the mythology, and particularly the mash-up of different mythologies without apparent meaning — someone called Grimnir appears, but he’s the twin of a wizard and did not really strike me as being intended to evoke Odin, for example — bothered me.

I have to say that I’m pretty much of the same opinion now. There are some really great elements, but they don’t come together for me because they’re such a mash-up — and there’s no reason given for the mash-up, as in a story like Gaiman’s American Gods. I didn’t really get a sense of great history to some of the mythology, even though the names given are ancient. Worse, I found the last third of the book almost incoherent in its scrambling from plot point to plot point. Why is this happening? What? I don’t follow…

Maybe as a child I’d have accepted it more easily, with fewer preconceptions and less pre-existing knowledge about some of the mythology used. Alan Garner’s books always gave me the willies as a kid, though, so I didn’t read it back then.

Rating: 2/5

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RUR, Karel Capek

When you read about robots, you have Capek to thank. He’s the one who first came up with that word for a separate group of manufactured people (automatons?) who carry out work around the house, in factories and in the fields, subservient to the needs of humans. He’s the first one who posited how they might rise up, and declare themselves as people too. It’s a shortish play, and one which I don’t always quite get — what’s with the men all falling in love with the one female character? Why do the characters act the way they do?

But it is fascinating to come back to one of the places where it all started, and it was worth the read to see where some of the themes and preoccupations of later science fiction originated.

Rating: 3/5

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Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo

It’s taken me far too long to get around to reading Six of Crows, but the bonus is that at least I have the next book ready to read. Like the Grisha trilogy, I absolutely sped through this. It’s an interesting crew of characters, with their own history and background that informs how they react and what they do. I was a little put off that the characters seemed to pair up so readily: I wouldn’t expect stable romantic relationships to come out of forming a team for a heist, so it feels like I’m being asked to invest in something fairly transient. Kaz and Inej, of course, make sense, and so do Matthias and Nina (in their conflicting way), but Jesper and Wylan… I have a feeling about where that’s going, and right now I’m not sure that it was narratively necessary or realistic.

On the other hand, it’s a fantasy novel, so realism can be somewhat overrated, and if my feeling is right about where they’re going, then yay for rep.

For a heist novel, it does spend a lot of time on the characterisation and how they interact: Nina and Matthias’ history, Kaz’s motivations and his feelings for Inej (and the complications in the way of them having a relationship)… I still want more of Wylan and Jesper before I really invest in either of them, though towards the end of Six of Crows they have a couple of good scenes.

In terms of the fantasy world, well, it helps to know the Grisha trilogy as well, to really understand what Nina and other Grisha can do. Ketterdam comes to life somewhat, particularly with the addition of Kaz’s memories from before he joined the Dregs, but it isn’t the richest world-building I’ve ever seen. Still, the characters are enough to keep me engaged, and of course, that cliffhanger…

Rating: 4/5

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