![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yeah, I know, I know. I keep forgetting to post this every week...
Did I mention I got myself a ticket for a play based on Jonas Gardell's trilogy "Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar". I'm looking forward to that. Those are excellent books.
What I've recently finished reading
Warren Ellis: Hellblazer: Haunted
Tamora Pierce: Tortall: A Spy's Guide
Jonathan Hickman: The Black Monday Murders vol. 1.: All Hail, God Mammon
I'm not sure if capitalism is actually black magic is the best way to go, and really, I find it hard to cheer for the main character, since she's really just as bad as the rest of them.
Robert Kirkman: The Walking Dead 29.: Lines We Cross
Rachel Kadish: The Weight of Ink
This book tells two stories - one about a young 17th century Jewish woman with a great love of learning in a time and place where she's expected to conform to the standards of her society, the other about two researchers - one nearing retirement age, the other young and far too arrogant - discovering her left behind papers and gradually piecing her story together.
I must admit, I'm divided on this book. The story of Ester Velasquez, a woman intellectual creating a life for herself against all odds in the time just around the Great Fire of London, that story I enjoyed. The story of Helen Watt, an elderly researcher whose entire life seems to have hinged on one youthful romance - well, I liked Helen and I cheered for her in her fight to keep her dignity and professional pride and wanting to actually get to stake the claim on this last great moment of her career before retirement and Parkinson's claim her once and for all. On the other hand, I disliked Aaron Levy - he felt so utterly arrogant and he was so very unprofessional (somehow, I can't imagine he'd ever have acted or thought the same way about a male superior as he did towards Helen Watt), and as the book went on, it felt like more and more of the modern half of the story was put in his chapters.
Apart from that, I mostly enjoyed the novel. The author does have a few moments when she's too fond of having the modern characters make some discovery, except then waiting - for the suspense, no doubt - one or more chapters before allowing the reader to take part. And then there's that final twist to the story, which frankly tips over and becomes a far too neat bow on the entire story, too coincidentally and conveniently tying things together. But the story of Ester Velasquez I thoroughly enjoyed.
Richard Kadrey: Lucifer: Blood in the Streets
The plotlines were quite neatly and satisfactorily concluded. That said, this whole series mostly felt like pastiche of the original Lucifer series and an attempt to re-create the 80s and 90s era Vertigo and similar comics that spawned it - and I'm sorry to say that it never quite manages to rise above that to become something new, something its own.
Steve Orlando: Midnighter and Apollo
I'll freely admit this isn't exactly a deep or even particularly original story. The core plot is literally one of the oldest tales in the book - the tale of the lover descending into the underworld to retrieve his beloved. In this case, that means the Midnighter going to Hell in his own special way to save Apollo.
I enjoyed the glimpse of DC's Hell (it feels a lot more like the Hell of comics like, say, Sandman, than some other newer DC comics I've read) and I enjoyed easter eggs like the Ace of Winchesters turning up in the plot. It's a simple, straightforward story, and really, you're never really in doubt how it's going to end, but that's okay.
Katherine Arden: The Girl in the Tower
I had hoped that - once Vasya got away from her home village and out into the world - that the world would stop trying to force her to conform quite so much. I suppose I have that in common with Vasya, along with the bitter disappointment when it turns out that the world is not that easily escaped.
I think I enjoyed the first book more and frankly, it could have been left standing as a single novel without any problem. Still, I enjoyed watching Vasya making her way disguised as a boy, and I liked seeing more of the frost demon Morozko, and I hope the third book will delve further into the mystery of Vasya's family line.
Reading this, I found myself reminded of Naomi Mitchison's "Travel Light", another story of a young woman touched by the supernatural in medieval Russia, though Halla's story takes place a few centuries earlier and she manages to range further than Vasya has done so far.
Mackenzi Lee: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
This book - it felt like the author was trying so hard for her main characters to be daringly anachronistic, that she fell into the trap of making her story feel incredibly unrealistic. I mean - as an example: a young gentleman on his Grand Tour in 18th century France, sneaking off to an empty room at Versailles to have sex with an amenable young woman? That's not a scandal. I was just reading that Versailles had a fashion for midnight orgies right around that time. It - that's just an example, but really, the author tries too hard in making her characters be modern and it feels like she does a disservice to the historical period.
Zach Whedon: Dr. Horrible and other horrible stories
I was utterly underwhelmed by this comic. I mean, I never expect much from tie-in comics, but at least they usually have stories that expand on the universe they are set in, even if the developments never affect the original canon. But this? The stories offer nothing new - there's not a single thing here that couldn't be more or less inferred from the show except possibly the exact reason behind Moist's "powers". Even the Evil League of Evil's supervillain scheme is just a throwaway line from one of Dr. Horrible's songs...
Love is Love
Lisa Hågensen: Gæld til Djævelen
Daniel José Older: Shadowhouse Fall
I didn't particularly like this. It - I quite enjoyed the first one, but this one is too - it falls too heavily into the tropes of adults being useless and/or bad guys, and reading about Sierra bossing everybody including her own mother around does not appeal to me. Considering I tried the author's adult urban fantasy and didn't like that either, I guess the first book was the aberration for me.
Kurt Busiek: Astro City: Reflections
It was nice to see the retired supervillain Steeljack again.
Carol K. Carr: India Black
I'll freely admit that this book is not great literature, but it's an excellent bit of guilty pleasure reading.
We follow India Black, the madam of an upperclass brothel in Victorian London, as she becomes entangled with a small matter of espionage. I quite like India - she's awfully snarky, and I like that, while the initial recruitment to assist the British government in a small matter of reclaiming a case of secret documents is less than entirely voluntary, India remains part of the case afterwards through sheer stubbornness, and she's actually fairly good at it.
Megan Whalen Turner: The Queen of Attolia
What I've recently watched
31. Øgendahl og de store forfattere
This series was mostly okay, and it had some nuggets I had never heard before (why didn't anybody ever tell me Johannes V. Jensen built a mammoth?). Alas, it opened with its absolutely weakest episode, the Hans Christian Andersen one - which felt superficial and as if it would leave the never heard of him before viewer with the impression that the man in question was just an awkward straight guy who just never got the cute merchant's daughter. Where was the Nightingale or his romantic friendships with men?
32. Ma Loute
What is with the French and comedic cannibalism?
33. Crooked House
34. Kong - Skull Island
35. Ocean's Eight
It's a perfectly fine heist movie, pretty much perfectly following the heist movie recipe. Maybe that's why it never properly engaged me. Even the ending twist with the second heist within the first is such a standard cliché of the genre. (Also: what European monarchies settled for such bland jewelry?)
36. Antman and the Wasp
The weakest MCU movie in years. Considering it's Antman, you'd think they could have tried to do another superhero/heist movie, but it's mostly just people running around trying to take a Macguffin back and forth. And the two sets of villains, well - if everybody actually sat down and talked for five seconds, it feels like everybody could have gotten what they wanted a lot easier than this. Even the evil villain black market dealer...
What I'm reading now
Maggie Stiefvater's "Blue Lily, Lily Blue" and Plato's Laws (which is describing a society full of censorship and enforced heterosexual monogamy (with plans to deliberately vilify things like same-sex relationships) while any work not involving farming or politics will rely on an ever-changing immigrant workforce due to get kicked out right as they reach retirement age - just charming and explains quite a lot. Funny how it's always the State and never the Laws I see people reference from Plato.)
Total number of books and comics read this year: 137
Did I mention I got myself a ticket for a play based on Jonas Gardell's trilogy "Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar". I'm looking forward to that. Those are excellent books.
What I've recently finished reading
Warren Ellis: Hellblazer: Haunted
Tamora Pierce: Tortall: A Spy's Guide
Jonathan Hickman: The Black Monday Murders vol. 1.: All Hail, God Mammon
I'm not sure if capitalism is actually black magic is the best way to go, and really, I find it hard to cheer for the main character, since she's really just as bad as the rest of them.
Robert Kirkman: The Walking Dead 29.: Lines We Cross
Rachel Kadish: The Weight of Ink
This book tells two stories - one about a young 17th century Jewish woman with a great love of learning in a time and place where she's expected to conform to the standards of her society, the other about two researchers - one nearing retirement age, the other young and far too arrogant - discovering her left behind papers and gradually piecing her story together.
I must admit, I'm divided on this book. The story of Ester Velasquez, a woman intellectual creating a life for herself against all odds in the time just around the Great Fire of London, that story I enjoyed. The story of Helen Watt, an elderly researcher whose entire life seems to have hinged on one youthful romance - well, I liked Helen and I cheered for her in her fight to keep her dignity and professional pride and wanting to actually get to stake the claim on this last great moment of her career before retirement and Parkinson's claim her once and for all. On the other hand, I disliked Aaron Levy - he felt so utterly arrogant and he was so very unprofessional (somehow, I can't imagine he'd ever have acted or thought the same way about a male superior as he did towards Helen Watt), and as the book went on, it felt like more and more of the modern half of the story was put in his chapters.
Apart from that, I mostly enjoyed the novel. The author does have a few moments when she's too fond of having the modern characters make some discovery, except then waiting - for the suspense, no doubt - one or more chapters before allowing the reader to take part. And then there's that final twist to the story, which frankly tips over and becomes a far too neat bow on the entire story, too coincidentally and conveniently tying things together. But the story of Ester Velasquez I thoroughly enjoyed.
Richard Kadrey: Lucifer: Blood in the Streets
The plotlines were quite neatly and satisfactorily concluded. That said, this whole series mostly felt like pastiche of the original Lucifer series and an attempt to re-create the 80s and 90s era Vertigo and similar comics that spawned it - and I'm sorry to say that it never quite manages to rise above that to become something new, something its own.
Steve Orlando: Midnighter and Apollo
I'll freely admit this isn't exactly a deep or even particularly original story. The core plot is literally one of the oldest tales in the book - the tale of the lover descending into the underworld to retrieve his beloved. In this case, that means the Midnighter going to Hell in his own special way to save Apollo.
I enjoyed the glimpse of DC's Hell (it feels a lot more like the Hell of comics like, say, Sandman, than some other newer DC comics I've read) and I enjoyed easter eggs like the Ace of Winchesters turning up in the plot. It's a simple, straightforward story, and really, you're never really in doubt how it's going to end, but that's okay.
Katherine Arden: The Girl in the Tower
I had hoped that - once Vasya got away from her home village and out into the world - that the world would stop trying to force her to conform quite so much. I suppose I have that in common with Vasya, along with the bitter disappointment when it turns out that the world is not that easily escaped.
I think I enjoyed the first book more and frankly, it could have been left standing as a single novel without any problem. Still, I enjoyed watching Vasya making her way disguised as a boy, and I liked seeing more of the frost demon Morozko, and I hope the third book will delve further into the mystery of Vasya's family line.
Reading this, I found myself reminded of Naomi Mitchison's "Travel Light", another story of a young woman touched by the supernatural in medieval Russia, though Halla's story takes place a few centuries earlier and she manages to range further than Vasya has done so far.
Mackenzi Lee: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
This book - it felt like the author was trying so hard for her main characters to be daringly anachronistic, that she fell into the trap of making her story feel incredibly unrealistic. I mean - as an example: a young gentleman on his Grand Tour in 18th century France, sneaking off to an empty room at Versailles to have sex with an amenable young woman? That's not a scandal. I was just reading that Versailles had a fashion for midnight orgies right around that time. It - that's just an example, but really, the author tries too hard in making her characters be modern and it feels like she does a disservice to the historical period.
Zach Whedon: Dr. Horrible and other horrible stories
I was utterly underwhelmed by this comic. I mean, I never expect much from tie-in comics, but at least they usually have stories that expand on the universe they are set in, even if the developments never affect the original canon. But this? The stories offer nothing new - there's not a single thing here that couldn't be more or less inferred from the show except possibly the exact reason behind Moist's "powers". Even the Evil League of Evil's supervillain scheme is just a throwaway line from one of Dr. Horrible's songs...
Love is Love
Lisa Hågensen: Gæld til Djævelen
Daniel José Older: Shadowhouse Fall
I didn't particularly like this. It - I quite enjoyed the first one, but this one is too - it falls too heavily into the tropes of adults being useless and/or bad guys, and reading about Sierra bossing everybody including her own mother around does not appeal to me. Considering I tried the author's adult urban fantasy and didn't like that either, I guess the first book was the aberration for me.
Kurt Busiek: Astro City: Reflections
It was nice to see the retired supervillain Steeljack again.
Carol K. Carr: India Black
I'll freely admit that this book is not great literature, but it's an excellent bit of guilty pleasure reading.
We follow India Black, the madam of an upperclass brothel in Victorian London, as she becomes entangled with a small matter of espionage. I quite like India - she's awfully snarky, and I like that, while the initial recruitment to assist the British government in a small matter of reclaiming a case of secret documents is less than entirely voluntary, India remains part of the case afterwards through sheer stubbornness, and she's actually fairly good at it.
Megan Whalen Turner: The Queen of Attolia
What I've recently watched
31. Øgendahl og de store forfattere
This series was mostly okay, and it had some nuggets I had never heard before (why didn't anybody ever tell me Johannes V. Jensen built a mammoth?). Alas, it opened with its absolutely weakest episode, the Hans Christian Andersen one - which felt superficial and as if it would leave the never heard of him before viewer with the impression that the man in question was just an awkward straight guy who just never got the cute merchant's daughter. Where was the Nightingale or his romantic friendships with men?
32. Ma Loute
What is with the French and comedic cannibalism?
33. Crooked House
34. Kong - Skull Island
35. Ocean's Eight
It's a perfectly fine heist movie, pretty much perfectly following the heist movie recipe. Maybe that's why it never properly engaged me. Even the ending twist with the second heist within the first is such a standard cliché of the genre. (Also: what European monarchies settled for such bland jewelry?)
36. Antman and the Wasp
The weakest MCU movie in years. Considering it's Antman, you'd think they could have tried to do another superhero/heist movie, but it's mostly just people running around trying to take a Macguffin back and forth. And the two sets of villains, well - if everybody actually sat down and talked for five seconds, it feels like everybody could have gotten what they wanted a lot easier than this. Even the evil villain black market dealer...
What I'm reading now
Maggie Stiefvater's "Blue Lily, Lily Blue" and Plato's Laws (which is describing a society full of censorship and enforced heterosexual monogamy (with plans to deliberately vilify things like same-sex relationships) while any work not involving farming or politics will rely on an ever-changing immigrant workforce due to get kicked out right as they reach retirement age - just charming and explains quite a lot. Funny how it's always the State and never the Laws I see people reference from Plato.)
Total number of books and comics read this year: 137
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
But, your journal, it's completely up to you, obviously - spoilers just ruin things for me, so I will try and avoid them as best I can :)