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hawkwing_lbBooks 2014: 81 -99
81. Elizabeth Moon, Crown of Renewal. Orbit, 2014. Review copy courtesy of Orbit UK.
Concluding volume to Moon's Paladin's Legacy series. Read for inclusion in the column. Ends more with a whimper than a grand boom.
82. Gaie Sebold, Shanghai Sparrow. Solaris, 2014.
Entertaining steampunk/magic adventure that mixes caper and school stories in the seamy underbelly of the late 19th century Great Game and has some pretty dark points. Recommended.
83. Faith Hunter, Black Arts. Roc, 2014.
Latest installment in Hunter's "Jane Yellowrock" urban fantasy series. Fun, diverting, not too serious.
84-90. Timothy Zahn, Cobra, Cobra Strike, Cobra Bargain, Cobra Alliance, Cobra War, Cobra Guardian, and Cobra Slave. Baen, various dates.
The first Cobra trilogy was originally published between 1985 and 1987, and it's a little elderly now. But Zahn can always be relied on for an entertaining story, and I inhaled the trilogy omnibus and its sequels over the course of two days. Good fun, those books, if a little odd.
91-93. Mike Moscoe (aka Mike Shepherd), The First Casualty, The Price of Peace, and They Also Serve. Ace, 1999-2001.
Entertaining military science fiction novels, albeit annoyingly "USA-in-space" in their assumptions and set-up.
94-97. Mike Shepherd, Kris Longknife: Undaunted, Kris Longknife: Redoubtable, Kris Longknife: Daring and Kris Longknife: Furious. Ace, 2009-2012.
See above, except with more descriptions of breasts.
98. E.C. Blake, Masks. DAW, 2013. Review copy courtesy of DAW Books.
Masks is the first novel in a series. In the Autarchy of Aygrima, everyone wears a mask. The mask's magic tells the Watchers if a person has broken a law, or if they are disloyal to the Autarch. Not wearing a mask is punishable by death.
Mara is the daughter of the master mask-maker. But at her coming-of-age at fifteen, at her masking ceremony, her mask rejects her. Sentenced to labour in the Autarch's mines, she's rescued by a small band of rebels - before falling into the hands of the Autarch's enforcers once more. She discovers that the magic she has is powerful enough to kill, and one way or another, people want to make her into their tool.
The tone and style of this book seem to aim it at the Young Adult audience, but it doesn't turn up the emotional pitch the way most good YA does. This may, in part, be due to how much time Mara spends following other people's leads. At no point does she ever choose a direction that someone else hasn't pointed her in: she never tries to escape anywhere on her own, nor is she intelligent about using the leverage she does have. This makes for an unevenly paced and somewhat disappointing novel. On the other hand, things blow up, it's easy to read, and sufficiently entertaining to finish: perhaps the forthcoming sequel will have more of Mara doing things, rather than being done unto.
Warning for offscreen sexual violence, not done to our protagonists, but not treated with any particular depth.
nonfiction
99. Justine Larbalestier, The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction. Wesleyan University Press, 2002.
Larbalestier has gone on to be better known as a novelist than an academic, but this book, based on her doctoral thesis at the University of Sydney, is an extremely interesting survey and analysis of the presence and representation of women in science fiction between the late 1920s and the 1970s, with a further discussion of James Tiptree Jr., Tiptree/Sheldon's influence, and the role of the Tiptree Award from its creation in the early 1990s.
It's a really enjoyable piece of academic writing, and one I'm glad to have read.
81. Elizabeth Moon, Crown of Renewal. Orbit, 2014. Review copy courtesy of Orbit UK.
Concluding volume to Moon's Paladin's Legacy series. Read for inclusion in the column. Ends more with a whimper than a grand boom.
82. Gaie Sebold, Shanghai Sparrow. Solaris, 2014.
Entertaining steampunk/magic adventure that mixes caper and school stories in the seamy underbelly of the late 19th century Great Game and has some pretty dark points. Recommended.
83. Faith Hunter, Black Arts. Roc, 2014.
Latest installment in Hunter's "Jane Yellowrock" urban fantasy series. Fun, diverting, not too serious.
84-90. Timothy Zahn, Cobra, Cobra Strike, Cobra Bargain, Cobra Alliance, Cobra War, Cobra Guardian, and Cobra Slave. Baen, various dates.
The first Cobra trilogy was originally published between 1985 and 1987, and it's a little elderly now. But Zahn can always be relied on for an entertaining story, and I inhaled the trilogy omnibus and its sequels over the course of two days. Good fun, those books, if a little odd.
91-93. Mike Moscoe (aka Mike Shepherd), The First Casualty, The Price of Peace, and They Also Serve. Ace, 1999-2001.
Entertaining military science fiction novels, albeit annoyingly "USA-in-space" in their assumptions and set-up.
94-97. Mike Shepherd, Kris Longknife: Undaunted, Kris Longknife: Redoubtable, Kris Longknife: Daring and Kris Longknife: Furious. Ace, 2009-2012.
See above, except with more descriptions of breasts.
98. E.C. Blake, Masks. DAW, 2013. Review copy courtesy of DAW Books.
Masks is the first novel in a series. In the Autarchy of Aygrima, everyone wears a mask. The mask's magic tells the Watchers if a person has broken a law, or if they are disloyal to the Autarch. Not wearing a mask is punishable by death.
Mara is the daughter of the master mask-maker. But at her coming-of-age at fifteen, at her masking ceremony, her mask rejects her. Sentenced to labour in the Autarch's mines, she's rescued by a small band of rebels - before falling into the hands of the Autarch's enforcers once more. She discovers that the magic she has is powerful enough to kill, and one way or another, people want to make her into their tool.
The tone and style of this book seem to aim it at the Young Adult audience, but it doesn't turn up the emotional pitch the way most good YA does. This may, in part, be due to how much time Mara spends following other people's leads. At no point does she ever choose a direction that someone else hasn't pointed her in: she never tries to escape anywhere on her own, nor is she intelligent about using the leverage she does have. This makes for an unevenly paced and somewhat disappointing novel. On the other hand, things blow up, it's easy to read, and sufficiently entertaining to finish: perhaps the forthcoming sequel will have more of Mara doing things, rather than being done unto.
Warning for offscreen sexual violence, not done to our protagonists, but not treated with any particular depth.
nonfiction
99. Justine Larbalestier, The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction. Wesleyan University Press, 2002.
Larbalestier has gone on to be better known as a novelist than an academic, but this book, based on her doctoral thesis at the University of Sydney, is an extremely interesting survey and analysis of the presence and representation of women in science fiction between the late 1920s and the 1970s, with a further discussion of James Tiptree Jr., Tiptree/Sheldon's influence, and the role of the Tiptree Award from its creation in the early 1990s.
It's a really enjoyable piece of academic writing, and one I'm glad to have read.
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Date: 2014-05-15 04:19 pm (UTC)I really liked the Larbalestier: interesting stuff.
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Date: 2014-05-15 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-15 04:57 pm (UTC)