Cataloguing, books, and a rant on the worst book I've read this year

507 books catalogued. At least another 300 or so to go: my initial estimate of 2000+ was off by a significant margin. I still think I’ll break 1000, though.

I’ve been looking at my Amazon.com wishlist as I type this. Anyone else looking at it will probably think I’m some kind of scatter-brained research freak: brane theory, string theory, viruses, genetics, the Turks, the Crusades, Arab perspectives of the Crusades, medieval and ancient medicine, a history of chemistry, how to make things blow up, histories of ancient Greece, histories of ancient Rome, histories of the ancient Near East, mythology, histories of the Winter War, histories of the Renaissance, histories of the Great War, histories of secret agents in WWII, histories of the Boer War, histories of the Franco-Prussian War, histories of the Crimean War, histories of Russia, writings from medieval Japan, histories of China, social histories, economic histories, historical atlases, astronomy, histories of warfare, examinations of religion in history, more histories of the Classical world... Oh, and some science fiction and fantasy, did I happen to mention that?

Okay, I admit it: I am a history freak - and I’d like to know enough to be a history geek, too - with a side interest in the sciences. But 24 pages of wishlist-freakish-ness may not be a healthy sign.

Speaking of history-freakish-ness, Michele Hauf’s Rhiana seriously pissed me off. It’s a Luna book, which should have warned me off,* and I picked it up on what amounted to a rather desperate whim. It had dragons and dragon-slayers, after all: how bad could it be?

Uh-uh. Bad idea, hawkwing_lb. The answer to that question is: very, very bad. Horribly bad.

For starters, Chapter One begins, Western shore of France - 1437. The author goes on to prove she knows absolutely nothing about the middle ages, its societies, foibles, wars and relationships. Nor can she decide whether St Rénan - the heroine’s place of birth - is a village or a city.

Now this heroine, one Rhiana by name (Rhiana! In medieval France!), strides around in men’s clothes doing men’s work - dragonslaying - to no great disapprobation. (Medieval Europe! Catholic Church! Clue-by-four!) She’s apparently religious, but never interacts with a priest, has no respect for her feudal lord and his band of merry men (Middle Ages! Capital punishment! No judicial oversight! Not to mention the doctrine of - I believe - divine right, which mandated that nobles and kings and such were appointed by God), and believes in the heresy that women are just as good as men.

In short, she - and the rest of the inhabitants of her village/city - go around acting...

Well, not to point the finger or anything, but like USians. Or at least, like members of a modern democracy, and not a feudal society. Hauf tries to dodge by making out that they’re all rich, because they have gold from a local dragon’s hoard, but that doesn’t wash. Feudal society. Dirty. Hungry. Afraid of the Church. Afraid of the overlords. Afraid of the next army to pass through. Fundamentally unhygienic.

I was tempted to put the book down on the second page, because the third person narration is told in a painful accent, full of incidents of ‘twould’ and ‘twas’ and other such abominations (they always make me think of caricatures of some country farmer). Still, I paid good money for it, and so I soldiered on.

The romance. Oh gods and fishes, the romance. Clichéd is too kind a word. She hates Macarius (the name! It burns!) at first sight, of course, and must of course dwell despite herself on how attractive and manly he is. Oh, did I mention that despite declaring that women are just as good as men, she worries that she’s not womanly enough to catch a man?

And she suffers from the most abominable case of Mary Sue-ism I can recall seeing in allegedly grown-up*** fiction.

( Read more... )

I felt more sympathy for the villain than the heroine. Poor man, struggling to be an Evil Overlord(tm) with the best intentions, and such a sad, thin excuse for a plot.


-------

*No offence intended to the rather good authors who write for Luna, such as C.E. Murphy, but the majority of my experience with them is that they publish romantic crap** masquerading as fantasy - and because it’s ‘fantasy’, their authors seem to think that this liberates them from any requirement to write anything remotely believeable.

**No, I don’t consider all romance to be crap. But much of it is – worse, it’s formulaic crap, so you don’t ever get anything new, which makes the crap that much more crappy.

***I hate having to avoid the word 'adult' when talking about fiction. Some people really need to scrub out their brains once in a while.

-----

PS: WARM WEATHER CONTINUES STOP SEA WARM COMMA WAVES BIG COMMA SWIMMING GREAT EXCLAMATION END

Cataloguing, books, and a rant on the worst book I've read this year

507 books catalogued. At least another 300 or so to go: my initial estimate of 2000+ was off by a significant margin. I still think I’ll break 1000, though.

I’ve been looking at my Amazon.com wishlist as I type this. Anyone else looking at it will probably think I’m some kind of scatter-brained research freak: brane theory, string theory, viruses, genetics, the Turks, the Crusades, Arab perspectives of the Crusades, medieval and ancient medicine, a history of chemistry, how to make things blow up, histories of ancient Greece, histories of ancient Rome, histories of the ancient Near East, mythology, histories of the Winter War, histories of the Renaissance, histories of the Great War, histories of secret agents in WWII, histories of the Boer War, histories of the Franco-Prussian War, histories of the Crimean War, histories of Russia, writings from medieval Japan, histories of China, social histories, economic histories, historical atlases, astronomy, histories of warfare, examinations of religion in history, more histories of the Classical world... Oh, and some science fiction and fantasy, did I happen to mention that?

Okay, I admit it: I am a history freak - and I’d like to know enough to be a history geek, too - with a side interest in the sciences. But 24 pages of wishlist-freakish-ness may not be a healthy sign.

Speaking of history-freakish-ness, Michele Hauf’s Rhiana seriously pissed me off. It’s a Luna book, which should have warned me off,* and I picked it up on what amounted to a rather desperate whim. It had dragons and dragon-slayers, after all: how bad could it be?

Uh-uh. Bad idea, hawkwing_lb. The answer to that question is: very, very bad. Horribly bad.

For starters, Chapter One begins, Western shore of France - 1437. The author goes on to prove she knows absolutely nothing about the middle ages, its societies, foibles, wars and relationships. Nor can she decide whether St Rénan - the heroine’s place of birth - is a village or a city.

Now this heroine, one Rhiana by name (Rhiana! In medieval France!), strides around in men’s clothes doing men’s work - dragonslaying - to no great disapprobation. (Medieval Europe! Catholic Church! Clue-by-four!) She’s apparently religious, but never interacts with a priest, has no respect for her feudal lord and his band of merry men (Middle Ages! Capital punishment! No judicial oversight! Not to mention the doctrine of - I believe - divine right, which mandated that nobles and kings and such were appointed by God), and believes in the heresy that women are just as good as men.

In short, she - and the rest of the inhabitants of her village/city - go around acting...

Well, not to point the finger or anything, but like USians. Or at least, like members of a modern democracy, and not a feudal society. Hauf tries to dodge by making out that they’re all rich, because they have gold from a local dragon’s hoard, but that doesn’t wash. Feudal society. Dirty. Hungry. Afraid of the Church. Afraid of the overlords. Afraid of the next army to pass through. Fundamentally unhygienic.

I was tempted to put the book down on the second page, because the third person narration is told in a painful accent, full of incidents of ‘twould’ and ‘twas’ and other such abominations (they always make me think of caricatures of some country farmer). Still, I paid good money for it, and so I soldiered on.

The romance. Oh gods and fishes, the romance. Clichéd is too kind a word. She hates Macarius (the name! It burns!) at first sight, of course, and must of course dwell despite herself on how attractive and manly he is. Oh, did I mention that despite declaring that women are just as good as men, she worries that she’s not womanly enough to catch a man?

And she suffers from the most abominable case of Mary Sue-ism I can recall seeing in allegedly grown-up*** fiction.

( Read more... )

I felt more sympathy for the villain than the heroine. Poor man, struggling to be an Evil Overlord(tm) with the best intentions, and such a sad, thin excuse for a plot.


-------

*No offence intended to the rather good authors who write for Luna, such as C.E. Murphy, but the majority of my experience with them is that they publish romantic crap** masquerading as fantasy - and because it’s ‘fantasy’, their authors seem to think that this liberates them from any requirement to write anything remotely believeable.

**No, I don’t consider all romance to be crap. But much of it is – worse, it’s formulaic crap, so you don’t ever get anything new, which makes the crap that much more crappy.

***I hate having to avoid the word 'adult' when talking about fiction. Some people really need to scrub out their brains once in a while.

-----

PS: WARM WEATHER CONTINUES STOP SEA WARM COMMA WAVES BIG COMMA SWIMMING GREAT EXCLAMATION END