hawkwing_lb (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hawkwing_lb) wrote2013-10-02 02:51 pm
hawkwing_lb) wrote2013-10-02 02:51 pm
Entry tags:
Books 2013: I should update more often
I just know I will have forgotten some.
Books 2013: 139-160
139. Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: Scoundrels. Del Rey, 2013.
I have always loved Zahn's Star Wars novels. Scoundrel is Star Wars meets Ocean's 11, with Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian the only original trilogy characters really appearing - and with Han in the role of the man organising the Grand Heist. It takes place some time before the Battle for Hoth, between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back.
(A couple of my favourite extended universe characters - Kell and Winter - also appear here.)
It is a really well done heist narrative, with complications and recomplications, although I think one of the withholding-information tricks Zahn used in order to work another familiar character in did not, in final analysis, actually pay off.
Still really fun.
140. Martha Wells, Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge. Del Rey, 2013.
Another novel set after A New Hope and before Empire Strikes Back. Wells is an excellent writer and tells a good story - but for a novel purporting to focus on Leia, her character carries nearly none of the story's emotional freight. So that was a little disappointing.
Not disappointing at all, however, is how filled with interesting female characters Wells' vision of Star Wars is.
141. Nalo Hopkinson, Sister Mine. Grand Central, 2013.
A delightful urban fantasy with weird gods and weirder family dynamics set in Toronto. Well recommended.
142. D.B. Jackson, Thieves' Quarry. Tor, 2013.
Urban fantasy set in Boston in the 1770s. Entertaining, but not especially my cup of tea. Characters felt a bit flat, and the central mystery felt more People Running Around At Cross Purposes than actively compelling.
143. Diane Duane, Star Trek: The Wounded Sky. Titan, 1989.
Duane's Star Trek novels are always interesting space opera.
144. Kelly McCullough, Blade Reforged. Ace, 2013.
Entertaining second-world urban fantasy with assassins and a coup and Deeply Laid Plots. Fourth in series. Recommended.
145. Jeanne Lin, The Sword Dancer. Ebook.
Romance set in historic China. A bit odd (but that is a function of it being a romance), at points a bit slow, but entertaining.
146-147. Helen Lowe, The Heir of Night and The Gathering of the Lost. Orbit, 2010-2012.
Oh dear sweet overblown Grand Epic Fantasy. These books have serious structural problems and occasional line of direction fail. And yet. I would have loved these when I was thirteen, and they still curled into the Fond Of Overblown Destiny and COOL SHIT corner of my heart.
148. Madeleine E. Robins, Sold For Endless Rue. Forge, 2013.
Historical novel based on the bones of a Rapunzel story. I am a sucker for female doctors and Salerno, but I don't think the structure worked as well as it might have. Still, very good book.
149-150. Alex Bledsoe, The Hum and the Shiver and Wisp of a Thing. Tor, 2011-2013.
One of these is a very good book: The Hum and the Shiver is an excellent work of small-town fantasy, playing up its liminality and strangeness. It does not resolve all its threads, but it resolves many...
Wisp of a Thing, on the other hand, is full of manpain, has some dodgy SPECIALNESS, and resolves with an extra dodgy nod at a happy ending which SKEEVED ME THE FUCK OUT, okay. Thanks for ruining The Hum and the Shiver for me, Wisp of a Thing.
151-153. Andi Marquette, Friends in High Places, A Matter of Blood, and Edge of Rebellion. Ebooks.
Fun, pulpy, not excessively well-written (but on the other hand far from terrible) space opera. With lesbians. That is not a lesbian romance in terms of its focus. With a feel somewhere between Star Wars and Firefly.
154-155. Gaie Sebold, Babylon Steel and Dangerous Gifts. Solaris, 2011-2012.
I do not know how to talk about these books. I love them a lot: they are like a cross between noir and sword-and-sorcery in the Conan mould - except centering women. It is sword-and-sorcery for the girl who wanted to grow up to be Conan (except better), and I'm very happy with that.
156. Elizabeth Bear, Book of Iron. Subterranean Press, 2013.
A brilliant standalone novella in the same world as Bear's Range of Ghosts and Bone and Jewel Creatures. Read it.
157. Robert Graves, The White Goddess. Review copy, 2013 reprint.
I want those hours of my life back.
nonfiction
158. Charlotte Delbo, Auschwitz and After.
Which I spoke of here.
159. Pál Engel, The Realm of St. Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary 895-1526. English translation by Andrew Ayton. I.B. Tauris, 2005.
Which I spoke of here.
160. Daniela Dueck, Hugh Lindsay, and Sarah Pothecary, Strabo's Cultural Geography: the making of a kolossourgia. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
An interesting collection of papers on Strabo's work.
Books 2013: 139-160
139. Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: Scoundrels. Del Rey, 2013.
I have always loved Zahn's Star Wars novels. Scoundrel is Star Wars meets Ocean's 11, with Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian the only original trilogy characters really appearing - and with Han in the role of the man organising the Grand Heist. It takes place some time before the Battle for Hoth, between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back.
(A couple of my favourite extended universe characters - Kell and Winter - also appear here.)
It is a really well done heist narrative, with complications and recomplications, although I think one of the withholding-information tricks Zahn used in order to work another familiar character in did not, in final analysis, actually pay off.
Still really fun.
140. Martha Wells, Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge. Del Rey, 2013.
Another novel set after A New Hope and before Empire Strikes Back. Wells is an excellent writer and tells a good story - but for a novel purporting to focus on Leia, her character carries nearly none of the story's emotional freight. So that was a little disappointing.
Not disappointing at all, however, is how filled with interesting female characters Wells' vision of Star Wars is.
141. Nalo Hopkinson, Sister Mine. Grand Central, 2013.
A delightful urban fantasy with weird gods and weirder family dynamics set in Toronto. Well recommended.
142. D.B. Jackson, Thieves' Quarry. Tor, 2013.
Urban fantasy set in Boston in the 1770s. Entertaining, but not especially my cup of tea. Characters felt a bit flat, and the central mystery felt more People Running Around At Cross Purposes than actively compelling.
143. Diane Duane, Star Trek: The Wounded Sky. Titan, 1989.
Duane's Star Trek novels are always interesting space opera.
144. Kelly McCullough, Blade Reforged. Ace, 2013.
Entertaining second-world urban fantasy with assassins and a coup and Deeply Laid Plots. Fourth in series. Recommended.
145. Jeanne Lin, The Sword Dancer. Ebook.
Romance set in historic China. A bit odd (but that is a function of it being a romance), at points a bit slow, but entertaining.
146-147. Helen Lowe, The Heir of Night and The Gathering of the Lost. Orbit, 2010-2012.
Oh dear sweet overblown Grand Epic Fantasy. These books have serious structural problems and occasional line of direction fail. And yet. I would have loved these when I was thirteen, and they still curled into the Fond Of Overblown Destiny and COOL SHIT corner of my heart.
148. Madeleine E. Robins, Sold For Endless Rue. Forge, 2013.
Historical novel based on the bones of a Rapunzel story. I am a sucker for female doctors and Salerno, but I don't think the structure worked as well as it might have. Still, very good book.
149-150. Alex Bledsoe, The Hum and the Shiver and Wisp of a Thing. Tor, 2011-2013.
One of these is a very good book: The Hum and the Shiver is an excellent work of small-town fantasy, playing up its liminality and strangeness. It does not resolve all its threads, but it resolves many...
Wisp of a Thing, on the other hand, is full of manpain, has some dodgy SPECIALNESS, and resolves with an extra dodgy nod at a happy ending which SKEEVED ME THE FUCK OUT, okay. Thanks for ruining The Hum and the Shiver for me, Wisp of a Thing.
151-153. Andi Marquette, Friends in High Places, A Matter of Blood, and Edge of Rebellion. Ebooks.
Fun, pulpy, not excessively well-written (but on the other hand far from terrible) space opera. With lesbians. That is not a lesbian romance in terms of its focus. With a feel somewhere between Star Wars and Firefly.
154-155. Gaie Sebold, Babylon Steel and Dangerous Gifts. Solaris, 2011-2012.
I do not know how to talk about these books. I love them a lot: they are like a cross between noir and sword-and-sorcery in the Conan mould - except centering women. It is sword-and-sorcery for the girl who wanted to grow up to be Conan (except better), and I'm very happy with that.
156. Elizabeth Bear, Book of Iron. Subterranean Press, 2013.
A brilliant standalone novella in the same world as Bear's Range of Ghosts and Bone and Jewel Creatures. Read it.
157. Robert Graves, The White Goddess. Review copy, 2013 reprint.
I want those hours of my life back.
nonfiction
158. Charlotte Delbo, Auschwitz and After.
Which I spoke of here.
159. Pál Engel, The Realm of St. Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary 895-1526. English translation by Andrew Ayton. I.B. Tauris, 2005.
Which I spoke of here.
160. Daniela Dueck, Hugh Lindsay, and Sarah Pothecary, Strabo's Cultural Geography: the making of a kolossourgia. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
An interesting collection of papers on Strabo's work.
no subject
I want those hours of my life back.
1) YES. I only made it through five chapters and I still want that time back.
2) I am deeply pleased to see this not filed under Nonfiction.
no subject
FICTION NOW, OKAY.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
...Dear.
no subject
no subject
157. Robert Graves, The White Goddess. Review copy, 2013 reprint.
I want those hours of my life back.
Oh, that one always sounded....special. When/where may we see your review?
urban fantasy set in Boston in the 1770s.
Took me a second to process the implications of that. *g*
Sorry to hear the Bledsoe series didn't work out as a whole; I haven't read that one yet, but I'm rather fond of "Dark Jenny" and he's got an upcoming Shakespeare-based one with the fantastic title "He Drank And Saw The Spider," courtesy of a creepy passage of Winter's Tale.
no subject
no subject
Oh, I hope not; I would enjoy the hell out of that. I imprinted on Graves' Claudius, and I like several of his poems legitimately, and everything else see below.
no subject
I love Robert Graves as mythological crackfic. As anything else, however, AUGH NO.
no subject
no subject
I can empathise. One summer sometime back in the '70s (my late teens or early twenties), I read Graves's The Greek Myths. My memory is that the actual retellings of the myths were well-written - but each myth was followed by an explanation of what it was "really" about, which was usually very different from any plain reading of the myth. I found the explanations far-fetched enough to completely destroy any respect or trust I had for Graves except as a writer of fiction. Having now read the relevant Wikipedia articles, I gather that the explanations derived directly from his theories in The White Goddess.
I am looking forward to your review, wherever it appears.
I am fairly sure that I had some comments to make about some of the things you said in your review of Engel's The Realm of St. Stephen - but if I can remember and get them together sometime in the next few days, I'll make them there.
no subject