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hawkwing_lb) wrote2011-11-23 11:26 pm
hawkwing_lb) wrote2011-11-23 11:26 pm
Entry tags:
Books 2011: I'm trying to keep up...
Books 2011: 172-179
172. Elizabeth Bear, Range of Ghosts (ARC).
This? This may well be the epic fantasy I have spent my whole life needing to read without knowing what it was I needed.
I'm supposed to review it next spring for Ideomancer. So, in a nutshell: epic vastness. Coming of age (in more than one sense). Excellent characters. It could have been made to hit my "epic fantasy with cool shit and strong women" kink. It seems you can't really get much "epic fantasy with cool shit" without hypermasculinity... and you can't get much "cool shit and strong women" with that coming-of-age expansive epic feel. And "epic fantasy with strong women" doesn't bring the cool shit that often but this one does.
It's the best damn thing I've read since Paladin of Souls hit me over the head with its wonderfulness. And unlike Paladin of Souls, it's epic.
Yes, I have a thing for BFF with maps. It rarely finds worthy satisfaction. Here, it did.
Go now and make sure you will be able to read it ASAP. Trust me. Go.
173. Richard K. Morgan, The Cold Commands.
Morgan is doing something very interesting in this, the sequel to The Steel Remains. Not only is he subverting the normalisation of hypermasculinity and violence common to such writers as Abercrombie and Martin - and doing so very cunningly indeed - he's also chosen, in The Cold Commands, to interrogate the idea of the hero itself.
Meanwhile, he tells a story which is gripping in its own right. Where The Steel Remains stood alone, The Cold Commands appears to set up the first arc of a longer narrative. And I'm interested to see what happens next.
174. Kate Elliott, Traitors' Gate.
Third and last in series. Suffers from typical epic problems: too many point of view characters, too little time, a curious diffusion of focus.
175. Kate Elliott, Cold Fire.
The start of a new series. Elliott is a much more focused, controlled writer in a first person point of view, and the world of Cold Fire seems vastly more immediate - and as a result, interesting - than that of the "Gate" series. It's also much more fascinating in terms of setting, background, worldbuilding, and detail.
And the plot and characters aren't half bad, either. It has radicals and revolution. Recommended.
176. Kate Elliott, Cold Magic.
Sequel to Cold Fire, which I am supposed to review. It's also good - better, in fact, than its predecessor.
177. Ilona Andrews, Magic Slays.
Fifth in the Kate Daniels series, which is a decent blend of urban fantasy fluff with Things What Go Messily Boom. Daniels is less annoying than many other urban fantasy protags: she has a reason for being mouthy and a loner, has gradually become less of a loner, and the Werewolf Jerk Boyfriend is turning into a decent, almost sensible, longterm relationship.
Good boom. Recommended for when one needs fluff with killing things in.
nonfiction
178. Cicero, Defence Speeches. Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000. Translated with an introduction and notes by D.H. Berry.
Like it says on the cover, a selection of speeches for the defence by Cicero. Interesting and occasionally entertaining, but, I imagine, only of real interest to Classics geeks.
179. Gunnel Ekroth, The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the early Hellenistic periods. Kernos Supplément, 12. Liège: Centre International d'Étude de la Religion Grecque Antique, 2002.
Mostly read - read enough that I will call it read - for my thesis. It contains much fascinating detailed discussion of the technical nomenclature of sacrifice and whether by calling sacrifices different names, different actions are meant, and what this means for the interpretation of heroic and chthonic cult.
Dry, but worthwhile.
172. Elizabeth Bear, Range of Ghosts (ARC).
This? This may well be the epic fantasy I have spent my whole life needing to read without knowing what it was I needed.
I'm supposed to review it next spring for Ideomancer. So, in a nutshell: epic vastness. Coming of age (in more than one sense). Excellent characters. It could have been made to hit my "epic fantasy with cool shit and strong women" kink. It seems you can't really get much "epic fantasy with cool shit" without hypermasculinity... and you can't get much "cool shit and strong women" with that coming-of-age expansive epic feel. And "epic fantasy with strong women" doesn't bring the cool shit that often but this one does.
It's the best damn thing I've read since Paladin of Souls hit me over the head with its wonderfulness. And unlike Paladin of Souls, it's epic.
Yes, I have a thing for BFF with maps. It rarely finds worthy satisfaction. Here, it did.
Go now and make sure you will be able to read it ASAP. Trust me. Go.
173. Richard K. Morgan, The Cold Commands.
Morgan is doing something very interesting in this, the sequel to The Steel Remains. Not only is he subverting the normalisation of hypermasculinity and violence common to such writers as Abercrombie and Martin - and doing so very cunningly indeed - he's also chosen, in The Cold Commands, to interrogate the idea of the hero itself.
Meanwhile, he tells a story which is gripping in its own right. Where The Steel Remains stood alone, The Cold Commands appears to set up the first arc of a longer narrative. And I'm interested to see what happens next.
174. Kate Elliott, Traitors' Gate.
Third and last in series. Suffers from typical epic problems: too many point of view characters, too little time, a curious diffusion of focus.
175. Kate Elliott, Cold Fire.
The start of a new series. Elliott is a much more focused, controlled writer in a first person point of view, and the world of Cold Fire seems vastly more immediate - and as a result, interesting - than that of the "Gate" series. It's also much more fascinating in terms of setting, background, worldbuilding, and detail.
And the plot and characters aren't half bad, either. It has radicals and revolution. Recommended.
176. Kate Elliott, Cold Magic.
Sequel to Cold Fire, which I am supposed to review. It's also good - better, in fact, than its predecessor.
177. Ilona Andrews, Magic Slays.
Fifth in the Kate Daniels series, which is a decent blend of urban fantasy fluff with Things What Go Messily Boom. Daniels is less annoying than many other urban fantasy protags: she has a reason for being mouthy and a loner, has gradually become less of a loner, and the Werewolf Jerk Boyfriend is turning into a decent, almost sensible, longterm relationship.
Good boom. Recommended for when one needs fluff with killing things in.
nonfiction
178. Cicero, Defence Speeches. Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000. Translated with an introduction and notes by D.H. Berry.
Like it says on the cover, a selection of speeches for the defence by Cicero. Interesting and occasionally entertaining, but, I imagine, only of real interest to Classics geeks.
179. Gunnel Ekroth, The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the early Hellenistic periods. Kernos Supplément, 12. Liège: Centre International d'Étude de la Religion Grecque Antique, 2002.
Mostly read - read enough that I will call it read - for my thesis. It contains much fascinating detailed discussion of the technical nomenclature of sacrifice and whether by calling sacrifices different names, different actions are meant, and what this means for the interpretation of heroic and chthonic cult.
Dry, but worthwhile.