![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Lois McMaster Bujold: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
Oddly enough, I never really felt like saying "Ivan, you idiot" while reading this novel. And I never quite felt sorry for him either. I mean, yes, apparently he is perfectly capable of getting into trouble without his cousin (except its all Byerly's fault, really) - and it really isn't Miles' fault, he makes a brief appearance, but then spends most of the book off-planet.
I must confess, I liked this one better than Cryoburn. I mean, Cryoburn had Miles, sure, but it had him on a new planet, surrounded by new people, and frankly, while Miles in full forward momentum mode is fun, then I missed too many people. In CVA, on the other hand, we have Ivan (of course) and Simon Illyan and Lady Alys and Gregor, not to mention Barrayar itself, half the time seen through a completely new outsider POV, which is always fun. Also, it reminded me a bit of a Heyer romance I once read (one of the one's I liked, not the one that disgusted me enough to almost tempt me to throw it across the room, library book or not, and has had me not being willing to venture into that author's ouvre again since, nevermind how much I enjoyed the first two), except with more intergalactic kidnap attempts and genetically modified dance troups/crime families...
Steven Erikson: Forge of Darkness
While I rather enjoyed the way the legendary mythic past of the Malazan-verse apparently has a just as legendary mythic past of it's own, then overall, I was kind of disappointed. Not that I mind a novel with Tiste internal political scheeming, but really, there wasn't nearly enough Anomander Rake for my tastes. Still, it's the first in a trilogy - there's still time. Also, and this might just be me, but it always feels a bit like a comedown, seeing the society of elves and their equivalents, in medieval fantasy worlds. What I mean is, the Malazan Book of the Fallen series and Esslemont's novels are showing the Tiste as legendary, powerful, magical - and here we are in their heyday, and it's always a bit jarring that - as it is a medieval (if even that) fantasy world, that in a society consisting only of Tiste, some of those legendary creatures gets to be the scullery maid. And the poor charcoal burner. And so on.
P.D. James: Death Comes to Pemberley
I found this novel - uninspired. The mystery part was never properly developed, IMHO, and as for the Jane Austen part, the characters never quite felt like themselves - the complete lack of proper P&P interplay between Darcy and Elizabeth, for instance, since I find it hard that them marrying will immediately result in them agreeing on everything. Also, I found Lydia very annoying, which, as I am currently keeping up with the Lizzie Bennett Diaries and Lydia is one of my favourite characters there, didn't help - I mean, the portrayal might be quite in character, but, well, I just found it annoying. Anyway, not a book I recommend.
Erin Morgenstern: The Night Circus
This, on the other hand, I recommend very much. It's a lovely and elegant bit of fantasy, about two young mages just around 1900, who has been selected and trained by their respective mentors to compete against each other in a form of magical duel (except not a duel, but still). Both are involved with the so-called Night Circus, which arrives and leaves without warning and is only open at night, filling it with wonderous and unreal attractions, and gradually, they become fascinated with each other, and gradually, they begin to learn how their competition must inevitably end... It's good. Very good.
Felix J. Palma: The Map of the Sky
Also good, this one. Like the first novel in the series, which centered around H.G. Wells' Time Machine, this tells a story about another of the author's novels becoming unexpectedly real (and faked, but mostly real this time), and this time, it's War of the Worlds. So, we have an invasion of aliens (not really Martians, but still), locust-like in behaviour, and they win - except there's some time travel and alternate realities to save everything, which frankly felt a bit too convenient to me, even if the time travel was established in the first novel. Anyway.
John Scalzi: Redshirts
Yet another recommendation, if you like Star Trek, that is. A fourth wall breaking romp about a group of young people who has just been assigned to the (strangely familiar) flagship of the Universal Union and soon realize that there is something seriously wrong aboard, especially with the high number of people who die on away missions (though never the highest ranking officers). It's perhaps not anything revolutionary or new, this novel, but it's fun and sometimes, that plenty.
Total number of books and comics read this month: 18
Currently reading: nothing, actually. Trying to decide which of the library books in the pile to read next. Decisions, decisions.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 300
Oddly enough, I never really felt like saying "Ivan, you idiot" while reading this novel. And I never quite felt sorry for him either. I mean, yes, apparently he is perfectly capable of getting into trouble without his cousin (except its all Byerly's fault, really) - and it really isn't Miles' fault, he makes a brief appearance, but then spends most of the book off-planet.
I must confess, I liked this one better than Cryoburn. I mean, Cryoburn had Miles, sure, but it had him on a new planet, surrounded by new people, and frankly, while Miles in full forward momentum mode is fun, then I missed too many people. In CVA, on the other hand, we have Ivan (of course) and Simon Illyan and Lady Alys and Gregor, not to mention Barrayar itself, half the time seen through a completely new outsider POV, which is always fun. Also, it reminded me a bit of a Heyer romance I once read (one of the one's I liked, not the one that disgusted me enough to almost tempt me to throw it across the room, library book or not, and has had me not being willing to venture into that author's ouvre again since, nevermind how much I enjoyed the first two), except with more intergalactic kidnap attempts and genetically modified dance troups/crime families...
Steven Erikson: Forge of Darkness
While I rather enjoyed the way the legendary mythic past of the Malazan-verse apparently has a just as legendary mythic past of it's own, then overall, I was kind of disappointed. Not that I mind a novel with Tiste internal political scheeming, but really, there wasn't nearly enough Anomander Rake for my tastes. Still, it's the first in a trilogy - there's still time. Also, and this might just be me, but it always feels a bit like a comedown, seeing the society of elves and their equivalents, in medieval fantasy worlds. What I mean is, the Malazan Book of the Fallen series and Esslemont's novels are showing the Tiste as legendary, powerful, magical - and here we are in their heyday, and it's always a bit jarring that - as it is a medieval (if even that) fantasy world, that in a society consisting only of Tiste, some of those legendary creatures gets to be the scullery maid. And the poor charcoal burner. And so on.
P.D. James: Death Comes to Pemberley
I found this novel - uninspired. The mystery part was never properly developed, IMHO, and as for the Jane Austen part, the characters never quite felt like themselves - the complete lack of proper P&P interplay between Darcy and Elizabeth, for instance, since I find it hard that them marrying will immediately result in them agreeing on everything. Also, I found Lydia very annoying, which, as I am currently keeping up with the Lizzie Bennett Diaries and Lydia is one of my favourite characters there, didn't help - I mean, the portrayal might be quite in character, but, well, I just found it annoying. Anyway, not a book I recommend.
Erin Morgenstern: The Night Circus
This, on the other hand, I recommend very much. It's a lovely and elegant bit of fantasy, about two young mages just around 1900, who has been selected and trained by their respective mentors to compete against each other in a form of magical duel (except not a duel, but still). Both are involved with the so-called Night Circus, which arrives and leaves without warning and is only open at night, filling it with wonderous and unreal attractions, and gradually, they become fascinated with each other, and gradually, they begin to learn how their competition must inevitably end... It's good. Very good.
Felix J. Palma: The Map of the Sky
Also good, this one. Like the first novel in the series, which centered around H.G. Wells' Time Machine, this tells a story about another of the author's novels becoming unexpectedly real (and faked, but mostly real this time), and this time, it's War of the Worlds. So, we have an invasion of aliens (not really Martians, but still), locust-like in behaviour, and they win - except there's some time travel and alternate realities to save everything, which frankly felt a bit too convenient to me, even if the time travel was established in the first novel. Anyway.
John Scalzi: Redshirts
Yet another recommendation, if you like Star Trek, that is. A fourth wall breaking romp about a group of young people who has just been assigned to the (strangely familiar) flagship of the Universal Union and soon realize that there is something seriously wrong aboard, especially with the high number of people who die on away missions (though never the highest ranking officers). It's perhaps not anything revolutionary or new, this novel, but it's fun and sometimes, that plenty.
Total number of books and comics read this month: 18
Currently reading: nothing, actually. Trying to decide which of the library books in the pile to read next. Decisions, decisions.
Total number of books and comics read this year: 300
Tags:
From:
no subject