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I am quietly melting these days. If this keeps up, I might have to go swimming during my vacation days.
What I've recently finished reading
Yoon Ha Lee: Ninefox Gambit
I can't quite make up my mind about this book.
On one hand the worldbuilding is very interesting. Admittedly, the entire concept of the high calendar and the various exotic effects it can produce makes the entire thing, at least from where I am standing, a fantasy novel with a space opera setting. But it is a very cool magic system, and the rest of the worldbuilding, the factions and servitors and everything, that's all interesting.
On the other hand, the two main characters never quite managed to engage me. Kel Cheris has some traits that make her seem potentially interesting, like her unorthodox friendship with the AI Servitors, but most of the novel she feels like she's reacting and getting manipulated and never quite managing to come into her own. As for the manipulative and supposedly insane General Jedao, he spends the entire book being crazy and inscrutable and unknowable, right up until the infodump in the end.
As for the plot, it felt very straight-forwardly military space opera sf, just with the twist of a magic system. Even the political games and betrayals all feel pretty par for the course for the genre. So, to sum up - interesting worldbuilding, but the book never really feels like it actually does anything with it.
Leah Moore: Albion
I think this would have been more enjoyable if I'd had nostalgic memories of these characters. It was basically League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, except obscure 60s and 70s British comic books instead of classic Victoriana (and a prison break instead of saving the world, but them's the breaks).
M.D. Lachlan: Valkyrie's Song
Unlike the first books in this series, this is a more direct sequel to the previous book, even including some of the characters. Still didn't quite get to Ragnarok, though.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame vol. 9
I'll be running out of Don Rosa ducks soon.
What I've recently watched
25. God's Own Country
The nature imagery was gorgeous and it was nice getting a queer love story where for once the threat/challenge to the relationship was something as utterly mundane as the main character being asocial asshole. Of course, the asocial asshole thing was also the thing that meant I never quite liked the movie, but hey, can't win 'em all.
What I'm reading now
Oldtidssagaerne vol. 4., Greg Rucka's Gotham Central: Corrigan and Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (which is excellent and utterly frustratingly slow).
Total number of books and comics read this year: 110
What I've recently finished reading
Yoon Ha Lee: Ninefox Gambit
I can't quite make up my mind about this book.
On one hand the worldbuilding is very interesting. Admittedly, the entire concept of the high calendar and the various exotic effects it can produce makes the entire thing, at least from where I am standing, a fantasy novel with a space opera setting. But it is a very cool magic system, and the rest of the worldbuilding, the factions and servitors and everything, that's all interesting.
On the other hand, the two main characters never quite managed to engage me. Kel Cheris has some traits that make her seem potentially interesting, like her unorthodox friendship with the AI Servitors, but most of the novel she feels like she's reacting and getting manipulated and never quite managing to come into her own. As for the manipulative and supposedly insane General Jedao, he spends the entire book being crazy and inscrutable and unknowable, right up until the infodump in the end.
As for the plot, it felt very straight-forwardly military space opera sf, just with the twist of a magic system. Even the political games and betrayals all feel pretty par for the course for the genre. So, to sum up - interesting worldbuilding, but the book never really feels like it actually does anything with it.
Leah Moore: Albion
I think this would have been more enjoyable if I'd had nostalgic memories of these characters. It was basically League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, except obscure 60s and 70s British comic books instead of classic Victoriana (and a prison break instead of saving the world, but them's the breaks).
M.D. Lachlan: Valkyrie's Song
Unlike the first books in this series, this is a more direct sequel to the previous book, even including some of the characters. Still didn't quite get to Ragnarok, though.
Don Rosa: Hall of Fame vol. 9
I'll be running out of Don Rosa ducks soon.
What I've recently watched
25. God's Own Country
The nature imagery was gorgeous and it was nice getting a queer love story where for once the threat/challenge to the relationship was something as utterly mundane as the main character being asocial asshole. Of course, the asocial asshole thing was also the thing that meant I never quite liked the movie, but hey, can't win 'em all.
What I'm reading now
Oldtidssagaerne vol. 4., Greg Rucka's Gotham Central: Corrigan and Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (which is excellent and utterly frustratingly slow).
Total number of books and comics read this year: 110