Entry tags:
What Am I Reading Wednesday - July 29
Boy, I read a lot when daily temperatures top 90/32 degrees all week.
What I Just Finished Reading
Rat Queens vol. 1 – Ed Brisson, Roc Upchurch, and Kurtis Wiebe
I wish I’d picked this one up sooner. The pacing is a little uneven (which is not uncommon to first issues) but I do deeply dig all of our main characters and it’s so nice to see the sword ‘n sorcery wisecracking, spellcasting, grog slinging, and monster bashing undertaken by an entirely female cast of badasses. The art was great and the little character flourishes, from Dee’s social awkwardness to Betty’s fumbling romantic approaches, were just so much fun. The book does stumble in places: I found Lady Bernadette a deeply sympathetic character, for instance, although it’s clear the authors do not intend for readers to view her that way, but overall this first volume was really well done and I will eagerly proceed on to the next ones.
Crooked Little Vein – Warren Ellis
Easily the weakest thing I’ve read from Ellis, Crooked Little Vein is basically American Gods with a smattering of sexual subcultures. The plot involves down-on-his-luck private investigator and obvious Ellis stand-in Michael McGill, who is press-ganged by the president’s chief of staff to track down the secret backup Constitution written by the founding fathers, which compels moral obedience from anyone who views it in person.
But basically the plot is an excuse for Ellis to write set pieces involving those sexual subcultures.
I could have done without the weak pseudoscience in the Constitution plot, and the massive plot holes it creates that Ellis never addresses. And maybe the depictions of the subcultures would have been revelatory—to some—in 2007 when the novel was first published, but probably not for anyone who’d been on the Internet since the mid-90s. More fundamentally, Ellis wasn’t sure whether to use said subcultures to make a point about the futility of trying to mandate morality in the face of human variety, or to use them as “Hah hah, what a bunch of pervs these people are!" punchlines. A more subtly written book could perhaps have done both, but this is not that book. In hindsight, the romance between McGill and polyamorous Trix (get it?) reads like Ellis justifying his misbehavior toward women, and although he probably intended McGill’s “You can keep being polyamorous as long as you never spend the night with anyone but me” climactic speech to Trix as magnanimous, it struck me as anything but.
End verdict: this novel is a competently written trashy beach novel, but doesn’t stand up to Ellis’ other stuff.
The Bone Key - Sarah Monette
All the best parts of Lovecraft with the problematic elements expunged. “Drowning Palmer” continues to be my favorite story of the bunch.
Follow Me To Ground – Susan Rainsford
Set in a rural back country that could be the southern US or anywhere, this novel tells the story of Ada, a modern day Bloddeuwedd whose quasi-werewolf father created her from earth and plants. Ada and her father have the ability to heal humans—whom they refer to as “Cures”—by ripping open the Cures’ bodies and removing the diseased areas. They bury the Cure’s body in their backyard, aka The Ground, where it enters suspended animation until the diseased parts heal and can be replaced. Ada and her father have lived like this for centuries, but then she forms an attraction to a local man of which neither her father nor the Cures approve.
The body horror is well done: Rainsford resists going overboard on the obvious gore when Ada and her father are opening up Cures and saves the real horror for mundane things: descriptions of perspiration, drool, respiration, insects crawling through the hair on someone's leg as they sit in a sunny field. An early scene in which Ada realizes she needs genitals to have sex and then shapes them herself is particularly well done. The novel treats its Big Themes—overprotective parents, incest, sexual awakening, aging, to name a few—in the style of old folktales that haven’t been revised for modern sensibilities; that is, they’re there lurking in the narrative shadows, but with no authorial voice to tell readers what think about them. It’s remarkably creepy and effective, and definitely a book I spent a lot of time thinking about after I finished it.
Silver In The Wood – Emily Tesh
I usually bounce hard off of the Tor ebook selections, but oh my. Yes. This is my Platonic Ideal of a British folktale. Tesh writes absolutely beautiful prose, simultaneously simple and atmospheric, and her grasp of English faerie is superb. She switches effortlessly between drama, high tension, humor, and vivid scene-setting, with brisk and consistent pacing. This short novel did not hit a single wrong note for me and I eagerly await its sequel.
What I Am Currently Reading
The Angel of the Crows - Katherine Addison
Still plugging slowly away.
The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo
In English, although I would have preferred Japanese.
Tales from Earthsea – Ursala K. LeGuin
As I continue to work my way through my read-and-release backlog.
The Mountains Sing – Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The prose is nothing special, but Nguyen’s writing is heartfelt.
What I'm Reading Next
This week I picked up Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
これで以上です。
What I Just Finished Reading
Rat Queens vol. 1 – Ed Brisson, Roc Upchurch, and Kurtis Wiebe
I wish I’d picked this one up sooner. The pacing is a little uneven (which is not uncommon to first issues) but I do deeply dig all of our main characters and it’s so nice to see the sword ‘n sorcery wisecracking, spellcasting, grog slinging, and monster bashing undertaken by an entirely female cast of badasses. The art was great and the little character flourishes, from Dee’s social awkwardness to Betty’s fumbling romantic approaches, were just so much fun. The book does stumble in places: I found Lady Bernadette a deeply sympathetic character, for instance, although it’s clear the authors do not intend for readers to view her that way, but overall this first volume was really well done and I will eagerly proceed on to the next ones.
Crooked Little Vein – Warren Ellis
Easily the weakest thing I’ve read from Ellis, Crooked Little Vein is basically American Gods with a smattering of sexual subcultures. The plot involves down-on-his-luck private investigator and obvious Ellis stand-in Michael McGill, who is press-ganged by the president’s chief of staff to track down the secret backup Constitution written by the founding fathers, which compels moral obedience from anyone who views it in person.
But basically the plot is an excuse for Ellis to write set pieces involving those sexual subcultures.
I could have done without the weak pseudoscience in the Constitution plot, and the massive plot holes it creates that Ellis never addresses. And maybe the depictions of the subcultures would have been revelatory—to some—in 2007 when the novel was first published, but probably not for anyone who’d been on the Internet since the mid-90s. More fundamentally, Ellis wasn’t sure whether to use said subcultures to make a point about the futility of trying to mandate morality in the face of human variety, or to use them as “Hah hah, what a bunch of pervs these people are!" punchlines. A more subtly written book could perhaps have done both, but this is not that book. In hindsight, the romance between McGill and polyamorous Trix (get it?) reads like Ellis justifying his misbehavior toward women, and although he probably intended McGill’s “You can keep being polyamorous as long as you never spend the night with anyone but me” climactic speech to Trix as magnanimous, it struck me as anything but.
End verdict: this novel is a competently written trashy beach novel, but doesn’t stand up to Ellis’ other stuff.
The Bone Key - Sarah Monette
All the best parts of Lovecraft with the problematic elements expunged. “Drowning Palmer” continues to be my favorite story of the bunch.
Follow Me To Ground – Susan Rainsford
Set in a rural back country that could be the southern US or anywhere, this novel tells the story of Ada, a modern day Bloddeuwedd whose quasi-werewolf father created her from earth and plants. Ada and her father have the ability to heal humans—whom they refer to as “Cures”—by ripping open the Cures’ bodies and removing the diseased areas. They bury the Cure’s body in their backyard, aka The Ground, where it enters suspended animation until the diseased parts heal and can be replaced. Ada and her father have lived like this for centuries, but then she forms an attraction to a local man of which neither her father nor the Cures approve.
The body horror is well done: Rainsford resists going overboard on the obvious gore when Ada and her father are opening up Cures and saves the real horror for mundane things: descriptions of perspiration, drool, respiration, insects crawling through the hair on someone's leg as they sit in a sunny field. An early scene in which Ada realizes she needs genitals to have sex and then shapes them herself is particularly well done. The novel treats its Big Themes—overprotective parents, incest, sexual awakening, aging, to name a few—in the style of old folktales that haven’t been revised for modern sensibilities; that is, they’re there lurking in the narrative shadows, but with no authorial voice to tell readers what think about them. It’s remarkably creepy and effective, and definitely a book I spent a lot of time thinking about after I finished it.
Silver In The Wood – Emily Tesh
I usually bounce hard off of the Tor ebook selections, but oh my. Yes. This is my Platonic Ideal of a British folktale. Tesh writes absolutely beautiful prose, simultaneously simple and atmospheric, and her grasp of English faerie is superb. She switches effortlessly between drama, high tension, humor, and vivid scene-setting, with brisk and consistent pacing. This short novel did not hit a single wrong note for me and I eagerly await its sequel.
What I Am Currently Reading
The Angel of the Crows - Katherine Addison
Still plugging slowly away.
The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo
In English, although I would have preferred Japanese.
Tales from Earthsea – Ursala K. LeGuin
As I continue to work my way through my read-and-release backlog.
The Mountains Sing – Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The prose is nothing special, but Nguyen’s writing is heartfelt.
What I'm Reading Next
This week I picked up Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
これで以上です。