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hawkwing_lbBooks catalogued: 690
Estimate books yet to be catalogued: Uh. I dunno? 700, 800? More?
(Why do I keep buying books when a) I can't afford them and b) I haven't catalogued all the ones I own already?)
In the last week, my gmail address has been discovered by spam. The first day, this was a new and mildly amusing experience. By day three, it had moved from 'mildly amusing' directly to 'argh! Get these stupid phishers and advertisers out of my inbox!'
I mean, come on. I don't even have a paypal account.
My latest reading: Anne Bishop, Dreams Made Flesh. Four decent stories, all interesting. Her world, and worldbuilding here, however excellent, makes me distinctly uncomfortable. Still, it is very good.
Catherine Asaro, Schism. First book of Asaro's I've read: struck me as slightly off-balance and lacking in focus, but nonetheless compelling. I like the characters. Anyone out there have anything to say about her other books? I'd be interested in having a couple of extra opinions.
E. E. Knight, Way of the Wolf, Choice of the Cat, Tale of the Thunderbolt, and Valentine's Rising. The thinking person's post-alien-invasion, post-apocalyptic military fiction. Also a whole hell of a lot of fun. The series focuses on David Valentine, a soldier for one of the last free holdouts against the vampiric Kurian overlords. While the first book is very choppy and jumps around a lot, the rest are very well handled indeed.
Steven Brust, Athyra. Brust is always good: what else is there to say?
Regarding me: currently wallowing in self-imposed unemployment and the poverty brought on thereby, poking stories with sharp sticks to see if they'll roll over and cooperate. I need to start exercising again: I couldn't hack the job's eleven-hour shifts, and that, combined with the weather, has left me this past fortnight feeling rather under the weather and thus disinclined to anything more strenuous than going up and down stairs.
We improve and go onward.
Estimate books yet to be catalogued: Uh. I dunno? 700, 800? More?
(Why do I keep buying books when a) I can't afford them and b) I haven't catalogued all the ones I own already?)
In the last week, my gmail address has been discovered by spam. The first day, this was a new and mildly amusing experience. By day three, it had moved from 'mildly amusing' directly to 'argh! Get these stupid phishers and advertisers out of my inbox!'
I mean, come on. I don't even have a paypal account.
My latest reading: Anne Bishop, Dreams Made Flesh. Four decent stories, all interesting. Her world, and worldbuilding here, however excellent, makes me distinctly uncomfortable. Still, it is very good.
Catherine Asaro, Schism. First book of Asaro's I've read: struck me as slightly off-balance and lacking in focus, but nonetheless compelling. I like the characters. Anyone out there have anything to say about her other books? I'd be interested in having a couple of extra opinions.
E. E. Knight, Way of the Wolf, Choice of the Cat, Tale of the Thunderbolt, and Valentine's Rising. The thinking person's post-alien-invasion, post-apocalyptic military fiction. Also a whole hell of a lot of fun. The series focuses on David Valentine, a soldier for one of the last free holdouts against the vampiric Kurian overlords. While the first book is very choppy and jumps around a lot, the rest are very well handled indeed.
Steven Brust, Athyra. Brust is always good: what else is there to say?
Regarding me: currently wallowing in self-imposed unemployment and the poverty brought on thereby, poking stories with sharp sticks to see if they'll roll over and cooperate. I need to start exercising again: I couldn't hack the job's eleven-hour shifts, and that, combined with the weather, has left me this past fortnight feeling rather under the weather and thus disinclined to anything more strenuous than going up and down stairs.
We improve and go onward.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 11:19 am (UTC)The way that cruelty and violence were so frequently indulged in, even by the protagonists; the way that men wanted or needed a 'Queen' to serve - which triggers my twitch reflex: I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of a natural urge for subservience, or loyalty, or whatever you want to call it.
Added to the fact that Jaenelle was in the right because she was Witch and immensely powerful, and that to me her position and actions seemed morally ambiguous, but there seemed no hint that the author recognised or admitted of that moral ambiguity. There is recognition of moral ambiguity for Daemon, Lucivar, Saetan, Surreal, though not a lot of it: but not for Jaenelle, or not as far as I can see.
Also the villains? Much evilness, but I'm not really prepared to believe in power-hungry sadists who are power-hungry and sadistic for the sake of being power-hungry and sadistic. 'They came that way' doesn't really cut it, for me.
A distinct tendency to play up sex and pain and sex-related pain is not something I'm fond of, either.
I mean, I thought the characters were very compelling (at least the protags: not so much the villains), and it was an interesting, if confusing, cross-dimensional set of worlds, but I get this general feeling of discomfort when I look at it too closely.
That's just about the long and the short of it. What about you?