hold my cards up close to my chest
May. 13th, 2008 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbI can't read the international news anymore. I'm sorry, I just can't. It has overwhelmed my ability to comprehend scale. It is, quite simply, unimaginable.
I can't read the national news anymore, either, but at least that's for somewhat less horrific reasons.
#
Swimming today. I must be getting used to the sea, because it's actually starting to feel tolerably warm.
I completely fail at study, but, you know? I have decided for today and tomorrow not to care.
#
Books 2008: 62-66.
62. Marie Brennan, Midnight Never Come
Bright and sharp and vicious faeries. Elizabethan London. Plots. Pacts. Deceptions. Great characters, good plot, good prose, great pacing.
What's not to like?
63. Lisa Shearin, Magic Lost, Trouble Found
While enjoyable, this is a fantasy that's very... modern? I'm not sure that's precisely the right word, but it'll do - in it's attitudes. It also feels as though it owes somewhat to roleplaying settings such as Forbidden Realms, etc.
I guess what I'm saying is that it's a fun book, but it didn't feel especially fresh to me.
64-65. Joshua Palmatier, The Skewed Throne and The Cracked Throne
Now, this is fresh. Interesting set-up, a fascinating and very clearly realised main character, and some very interesting character growth over the course of the two books.
I look forward to book three.
66. A.N. Wilson, The Victorians
A dense and comprehensive overview of the Victorian period, from the accession of Queen Victoria until her death. It is, more than anything, a history of the rise of the modern world - the intellectual trends of the time, the conflicting moral and capitalist impulses of the Victorians, the questions and issues that defined their different worlds, and how the identity of Victorian Britain altered over the course of eighty years.
It's over six hundred pages long, not including notes, and is, as I said, fairly dense. That said, however, it's also pretty accessible, and unlike many histories that aim to be overviews of such a lengthy period, more than slightly interesting.
I can't read the national news anymore, either, but at least that's for somewhat less horrific reasons.
#
Swimming today. I must be getting used to the sea, because it's actually starting to feel tolerably warm.
I completely fail at study, but, you know? I have decided for today and tomorrow not to care.
#
Books 2008: 62-66.
62. Marie Brennan, Midnight Never Come
Bright and sharp and vicious faeries. Elizabethan London. Plots. Pacts. Deceptions. Great characters, good plot, good prose, great pacing.
What's not to like?
63. Lisa Shearin, Magic Lost, Trouble Found
While enjoyable, this is a fantasy that's very... modern? I'm not sure that's precisely the right word, but it'll do - in it's attitudes. It also feels as though it owes somewhat to roleplaying settings such as Forbidden Realms, etc.
I guess what I'm saying is that it's a fun book, but it didn't feel especially fresh to me.
64-65. Joshua Palmatier, The Skewed Throne and The Cracked Throne
Now, this is fresh. Interesting set-up, a fascinating and very clearly realised main character, and some very interesting character growth over the course of the two books.
I look forward to book three.
66. A.N. Wilson, The Victorians
A dense and comprehensive overview of the Victorian period, from the accession of Queen Victoria until her death. It is, more than anything, a history of the rise of the modern world - the intellectual trends of the time, the conflicting moral and capitalist impulses of the Victorians, the questions and issues that defined their different worlds, and how the identity of Victorian Britain altered over the course of eighty years.
It's over six hundred pages long, not including notes, and is, as I said, fairly dense. That said, however, it's also pretty accessible, and unlike many histories that aim to be overviews of such a lengthy period, more than slightly interesting.
