Clearly, I read too much.
Aug. 19th, 2006 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbAnyone else think I read too much?
Steven Brust, Orca, Issola, Dragon.
Brust is an author of the kind most excellent. I enjoyed all of these three, but if I had to pick the one I enjoyed least, it would be Dragon, simply because I found it immensely distracting to be jumped back and forth through the narrative all the time.
Enjoyed most? Orca. Not only because of its interestingly twisty plot, but because it's told half from Vlad's point of view, and half from that of Kiera the Thief, which made it even more interesting, and edged it just ahead of Issola.
And I really regret that I won't be able to get my hands on a copy of Dzur for a year or two, damn it.
Catherine Asaro, Skyfall, Spherical Harmonic, The Radiant Seas, The Quantum Rose, The Moon's Shadow. Not necessarily in that order.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Asaro has Issues with endings. Namely the fact that in all the aforementioned books, it feels as though almost more plotty-threads are left dangling than are wrapped up.
Skyfall reads as a bizarre mixture of semi-hackneyed (not hackneyed, as the characters are more than cardboard cut-outs) romance and space-opera SF. The SF is backgrounded in favour of the romance: Roca Skolia, mother of the Skolian Imperator Kurj, is stranded on a backwater planet while trying to get home in time to prevent her son from forcing a vote that will almost certainly lead to war, and meets and falls in love with said backwater planet's local bigwig Eldrinson Valdoria. Novel touches on a lot of issues, and deals with few of them in depth, leaving me very unsatisfied.
The Quantum Rose. Another SF-romance where the romance is the prime element. A lot of things made me uncomfortable with this book, not least of which was the difference in age and experience between Kamoj and Vyrl. One of the things that makes me uncomfortable with romance in general is the idea that Twoo Wuv (in this case 'mental resonance') wins out over all. Just because being with someone gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling doesn't mean that you can have a life together and make it work. Ack. Also, the lack-of-focus deal I had with Schism and Skyfall? Present here, as well.
The Moon's Shadow. Jai Qox-Skolia, son of the former Skolian Imperator Sauscony Valdoria and the former Eubian emperor Jaibriol II, a Rhon psion in a culture that makes all psions slaves, becomes emperor of Eube. Pretty good, even if the ending left me unsatisfied. And not a thoughtful unsatisfied, either. A 'Where the hell is the rest of the plot?' unsatisfied. Dangling plotty-threads, fine. Whole interstellar treaty negotiations? Not so fine.
Sperical Harmonic. Pharaoh Dehianna returns from an insubstantial state (sorry, Asaro's theoretical mathematics are beyond me) at the end of the Radiance War to find Skolia in disarray and most of her family in the protective custody of Earth. Many interesting events transpire, and the book ends with hints of future things. Which is damned unsatisfying to someone who likes a fairly well-wrapped ending.
The Radiant Seas. Undoubtedly my favourite volume of the series, because Soz Valdoria kya Skolia kicks ass (to use an American phrase that has also pervaded Irish slang). Bang-up space battles and interesting character dynamics. I do want to know what happens to the rest of her children, though. Again, I have Issues with Asaro's endings.
Margaret Collins-Weitz, Sisters in the Resistance: How Women Fought to Free France, 1940-1944. A well-researched, thought-provoking, and at times fascinating account of the role played by women in the French resistance, interweaving the personal narratives (from interviews and archives) of women with historical analysis.
The percentage of French people involved in the resistance was lower than most people might realise, which makes the sacrifices of the résistants all the more amazing. While comparatively few women served under arms with the maquis, many were involved in publishing counter-propaganda and underground newspapers, in the vital work of running escape lines for Jews, downed allied airmen, and résistants for whom it was too dangerous to remain in France. They were involved in providing aid to prisoners and the families of the arrested; they did intelligence-gathering and courier work, forged papers, decoded and encoded messages, scouted sites for parachute drops, organised escapes, arranged for food despite ever-growing scarcities, and hid weapons, radios, and explosives. Much of this work was work that few French women had ever done before, and many did it while attempting to take care of small children or in the face of disapproval from their families.
They did much of the vital work that allowed the Resistance to function, and only recently are their contributions being recognised to any large extent.
Books catalogued: 700.
Books yet to be catalogued: An innumerable quantity. Just looking at them makes my head hurt.
Steven Brust, Orca, Issola, Dragon.
Brust is an author of the kind most excellent. I enjoyed all of these three, but if I had to pick the one I enjoyed least, it would be Dragon, simply because I found it immensely distracting to be jumped back and forth through the narrative all the time.
Enjoyed most? Orca. Not only because of its interestingly twisty plot, but because it's told half from Vlad's point of view, and half from that of Kiera the Thief, which made it even more interesting, and edged it just ahead of Issola.
And I really regret that I won't be able to get my hands on a copy of Dzur for a year or two, damn it.
Catherine Asaro, Skyfall, Spherical Harmonic, The Radiant Seas, The Quantum Rose, The Moon's Shadow. Not necessarily in that order.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Asaro has Issues with endings. Namely the fact that in all the aforementioned books, it feels as though almost more plotty-threads are left dangling than are wrapped up.
Skyfall reads as a bizarre mixture of semi-hackneyed (not hackneyed, as the characters are more than cardboard cut-outs) romance and space-opera SF. The SF is backgrounded in favour of the romance: Roca Skolia, mother of the Skolian Imperator Kurj, is stranded on a backwater planet while trying to get home in time to prevent her son from forcing a vote that will almost certainly lead to war, and meets and falls in love with said backwater planet's local bigwig Eldrinson Valdoria. Novel touches on a lot of issues, and deals with few of them in depth, leaving me very unsatisfied.
The Quantum Rose. Another SF-romance where the romance is the prime element. A lot of things made me uncomfortable with this book, not least of which was the difference in age and experience between Kamoj and Vyrl. One of the things that makes me uncomfortable with romance in general is the idea that Twoo Wuv (in this case 'mental resonance') wins out over all. Just because being with someone gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling doesn't mean that you can have a life together and make it work. Ack. Also, the lack-of-focus deal I had with Schism and Skyfall? Present here, as well.
The Moon's Shadow. Jai Qox-Skolia, son of the former Skolian Imperator Sauscony Valdoria and the former Eubian emperor Jaibriol II, a Rhon psion in a culture that makes all psions slaves, becomes emperor of Eube. Pretty good, even if the ending left me unsatisfied. And not a thoughtful unsatisfied, either. A 'Where the hell is the rest of the plot?' unsatisfied. Dangling plotty-threads, fine. Whole interstellar treaty negotiations? Not so fine.
Sperical Harmonic. Pharaoh Dehianna returns from an insubstantial state (sorry, Asaro's theoretical mathematics are beyond me) at the end of the Radiance War to find Skolia in disarray and most of her family in the protective custody of Earth. Many interesting events transpire, and the book ends with hints of future things. Which is damned unsatisfying to someone who likes a fairly well-wrapped ending.
The Radiant Seas. Undoubtedly my favourite volume of the series, because Soz Valdoria kya Skolia kicks ass (to use an American phrase that has also pervaded Irish slang). Bang-up space battles and interesting character dynamics. I do want to know what happens to the rest of her children, though. Again, I have Issues with Asaro's endings.
Margaret Collins-Weitz, Sisters in the Resistance: How Women Fought to Free France, 1940-1944. A well-researched, thought-provoking, and at times fascinating account of the role played by women in the French resistance, interweaving the personal narratives (from interviews and archives) of women with historical analysis.
The percentage of French people involved in the resistance was lower than most people might realise, which makes the sacrifices of the résistants all the more amazing. While comparatively few women served under arms with the maquis, many were involved in publishing counter-propaganda and underground newspapers, in the vital work of running escape lines for Jews, downed allied airmen, and résistants for whom it was too dangerous to remain in France. They were involved in providing aid to prisoners and the families of the arrested; they did intelligence-gathering and courier work, forged papers, decoded and encoded messages, scouted sites for parachute drops, organised escapes, arranged for food despite ever-growing scarcities, and hid weapons, radios, and explosives. Much of this work was work that few French women had ever done before, and many did it while attempting to take care of small children or in the face of disapproval from their families.
They did much of the vital work that allowed the Resistance to function, and only recently are their contributions being recognised to any large extent.
Books catalogued: 700.
Books yet to be catalogued: An innumerable quantity. Just looking at them makes my head hurt.
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Brust and Link
Date: 2006-08-21 02:17 am (UTC)I really love some of Steven Brust's books. To Reign in Hell might be my favorite book of all. I've read it four times and bought about six copies. I was cheering that one from the first sentence. I also really like the early Vlad Taltos books, Agyar, and Cowboy Feng's Bar and Grill is a guilty pleasure.
I met him once on Halloween. He was travelling with "Boiled in Lead", a folk/heavy metal fusion band who play some songs that Brust wrote. I was pretty tongue tied, so I just told him how much I liked To Reign in Hell and thanked him for writing it.
Right now, I'm reading Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners, and it's just amazing. That, by way of Link's web page, is what led me to OWW.
Re: Brust and Link
Date: 2006-08-21 12:29 pm (UTC)So far I've only read Brust's Taltos books. It's really interesting to see him do something new each time. I didn't know he's a songwriter as well - it must've been pretty cool to meet him.
Everybody, but everybody, is recommending Magic for Beginners. I'm behind the curve on that one: still haven't got my hands on a copy. I came to the OWW by way of LJ, myself -
Re: Brust and Link
Date: 2006-08-21 04:01 pm (UTC)Kelly Link is amazing. She makes this world that's inventive and rich enough for a three book series, and she puts it into a twenty page short story. Too much is going on, and you don't understand it, but that's very realistic because, in life, people all around us are doing things we don't really understand. I've heard her first collection, Stranger Things Happen is even better.
Re: Brust and Link
Date: 2006-08-21 06:23 pm (UTC)One day my local bookshop will have Magic for Beginners.
But on that day I will most assuredly be broke. :)