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I haven't posted one of these in five weeks due to Wednesday's standing D&D session, resulting quite the "to be reviewed" backlog. I'm clearing it out here with this
MEGAPOST!
and will hopefully keep things on track from now on.
What I Finished Reading This Week
Hammers on Bone – Cassandra Khaw
Noir meets Lovecraft. It’s stronger than most Tor freebies—the horror (both eldritch and human) is well done indeed. But Khaw fails to fully maintain the main character’s heavy-duty hardboiled P.I. narrative voice beyond the first chapter or so, and the abrupt switch to modern-day prose somewhat undermines the overall experience. Hammers on Bone is fine as an entertaining, low investment read, but I don’t think I’ll pick up the next installment unless it's a full-length novel.
Riot Baby – Tochi Onyebuchi
This one was a mixed bag for me. As a pure revenge fantasy, it works perfectly. But as a story, it’s rushed and underdeveloped, particularly the jarring and unexplained jump from the modern day to “the modern day, but with futuristic dystopian technology.” Onyebuchi doesn’t show—or even try to handwave away—how society got from one to the other, a decision that weakens the impact of the actual racist horrors he describes so well.
Welcome to Indonesian - Stuart Robson
This short, incredibly well-written book was a pleasure to read. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on the historical development of Malay and Indonesia, which filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge of the subject. I wish Robson had included more examples in the chapters on Indonesian words and sentence structure, but can't fault him for not doing so: that wasn't the purpose of the book and there's a very good grammar (published by Rutledge) to scratch that itch. Welcome to Indonesian is well worth checking out if you're interested in the subject.
What I Finished at Some Point in the Past Four Months
The Wicked Cometh – Laura Carlin
This one was sold to me as a combination of The House on Vesper Sands and Sarah Waters. ( And, well. ) There’s lots to like about this book, but it made enough major missteps that I probably won't read the whole thing again.
The Awakened Kingdom – N.K. Jemisin
This is the shortest of the six Jemisin titles I’ve read and the one I liked the best by far; maybe she just works better for me as a short(ish)-story author? The opening passages perfectly capture the scattered, breathless voice of an excited toddler trying to tell a story, and it’s great fun to follow Shill’s growing maturity through the character’s increasingly ordered and self-aware narration. The plot itself was less gripping, largely because I’ve seen the “misogyny, only the genders are reversed” concept done better elsewhere. But Shill’s reaction (Sexism sucks no matter which gender’s experiencing it, so maybe let’s not do it) was pretty great, because, yeah. And I love “I am born! Hello! / Many things happen. / The end!”
The Ten Thousand Kingdoms – N.K. Jemisin
I wanted to like this book so badly. Sieh is such a great character when readers are getting glimpses of him in the other novels! But oh, this was a slog. The disjointed plot meandered. The most interesting developments regularly happened offscreen while the main character was asleep, incapacitated, or moping around while others took action. As an absolute devotee of the slow burn romance, the instalove triangle left me cold. There are no through lines to any of the characters: their personalities, motivations, and reactions are whatever they need to be to move the plot from A to B. The prose is workmanlike and often relies on clunkily modern phrases, references, or analogies (at one point Sieh describes someone as a ‘teddy bear’) that jolt me right out of the novel’s high fantasy secondary world setting. It’s frustrating, because Jemisin’s premises and worldbuilding have uniformly been things I hear about and think, “Yes, that sounds awesome!” but the execution just does not click for me.
Monstress vol. 4 – Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
Be it color palette, atmosphere, or attention to detail, Takeda’s art is surpassingly beautiful and this volume is no exception. I could stare at the conservatory scenes for hours. Liu’s worldbuilding is as epic (and epically confusing) as ever; I need to reread every previous volume prior to starting a new one to retain anything more than a basic grasp on what’s occurring. But again, I read this series not for the plot but for the gorgeous art and darling, delightful Kippa, and as this volume had plenty of both, I enjoyed it on those merits alone.
The Last Graduate – Naomi Novik
I thought The Last Graduate was the conclusion to the story of the Scholomance as set up in A Wicked Education, but nope! It’s the second of (at least) a trilogy. So aaagh, I spent the last quarter of the book upset that the ending was going to be hopelessly rushed, and aaagh, I was upset when I realized it was actually a cliffhanger. But in a good way: The Last Graduate is an even better book than the first, largely, I think, because Novik was setting up the world and the stakes in the preceding volume, and in this one she’s free to force the characters to confront it.
Novik also pulls off a very tricky feat.( Read more... ) I eagerly await the release of The Golden Enclaves.
Scythe – Neal Schusterman
Oh boy. I did not like this book.( Read more... )
I could give many more examples in this vein, which, combined with the obligatory, underdeveloped romance and generally two-dimensional characters, did not leave much to recommend the experience to me. TL;DR: holy crap this "worldbuilding" is bad and the plot and characters humdrum. I am unlikely to read anything else by this author.
When the Tiger Came Down from the Mountain – Nghi Vo
This was definitely one of the better Tor freebies. I enjoyed the Vietnam-inspired fantasy setting, and Vo’s descriptive language is beautiful. She does an excellent job of creating a sense of space and place, of a world that’s much larger than the glimpse readers see of it in this novella, and I loved that. The Rashomon-esque story, with its bickering tiger youkai and staunch scholar monk, was a little more predictable, but well done all the same. I have added the The Empress of Salt and Fortune to my reading list.
蟲師 7 – 漆原 友紀 (Mushishi vol. 7 – Urushihara Yuki)
The stories in this volume are darker in tone than those in previous collections—more Magnus Archives than Welcome to Night Vale—and that really worked for me here. I especially appreciated the final two chapters, “Road of Brambles,” which were a multipart story! That called back to a story in an earlier volume! And were deliciously creepy. (Plus, parts of it reminded me of one of my favorite settings from Silver Diamond, and yeah, anything that reminds me of Silver Diamond is going to win me over.) Mushishi is really well done for what it is, but I will always enjoy a multipart story with at least some overarching plot more than I will this series’ mushi-of-the-week format. And while this volume is still very much MoTW, it was just slightly less so than other volumes, which is why it worked for me more.
蟲師 8 – 漆原 友紀 (Mushishi vol. 8 – Urushihara Yuki)
Alas, we’re back to Mushi of the Week in this one. The tone is also pretty dark in this volume and the last chapter contains some very Magnus Archive-esque body horror (although it obviously predates said podcast). But then there’s also the “pregnant female bodies are scary” chapter that worked much less well for me, because Japan’s “female bodies are scary” trope is not my thing in general. All that said, “Hidden Streams” was probably my favorite chapter for the atmospheric beauty of the art, and the story’s sweetness and gentle f/f potential.
What I Am Currently Reading
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends – Nicole Pelroth
The first chapter is riveting. Unfortunately, Pelroth spends the next airing personal grudges, a la trump-lite, and I just do not care, Dear Author.
River Kings – Cat Jarman
So far, this is excellent.
Mencinta Hingga Terluka – Julianto Simanjuntak and Roswitha Ndraha
My current “30 minutes a day until it’s done” read.
What I’m Reading Next
This week I picked up River Kings by Cat Jarman, Kim Krans' The Wild Unknown Tarot deck in pocket format, and Living Language Italian. (Which, do I need to learn Italian? No. But there it was, factory sealed, in the Little Free Library, and I love the Living Language format and system. And after eight years of formal Latin instruction back in the day, I should have a bit of a leg up on Italian.)
これで以上です。
MEGAPOST!
and will hopefully keep things on track from now on.
What I Finished Reading This Week
Hammers on Bone – Cassandra Khaw
Noir meets Lovecraft. It’s stronger than most Tor freebies—the horror (both eldritch and human) is well done indeed. But Khaw fails to fully maintain the main character’s heavy-duty hardboiled P.I. narrative voice beyond the first chapter or so, and the abrupt switch to modern-day prose somewhat undermines the overall experience. Hammers on Bone is fine as an entertaining, low investment read, but I don’t think I’ll pick up the next installment unless it's a full-length novel.
Riot Baby – Tochi Onyebuchi
This one was a mixed bag for me. As a pure revenge fantasy, it works perfectly. But as a story, it’s rushed and underdeveloped, particularly the jarring and unexplained jump from the modern day to “the modern day, but with futuristic dystopian technology.” Onyebuchi doesn’t show—or even try to handwave away—how society got from one to the other, a decision that weakens the impact of the actual racist horrors he describes so well.
Welcome to Indonesian - Stuart Robson
This short, incredibly well-written book was a pleasure to read. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on the historical development of Malay and Indonesia, which filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge of the subject. I wish Robson had included more examples in the chapters on Indonesian words and sentence structure, but can't fault him for not doing so: that wasn't the purpose of the book and there's a very good grammar (published by Rutledge) to scratch that itch. Welcome to Indonesian is well worth checking out if you're interested in the subject.
What I Finished at Some Point in the Past Four Months
The Wicked Cometh – Laura Carlin
This one was sold to me as a combination of The House on Vesper Sands and Sarah Waters. ( And, well. ) There’s lots to like about this book, but it made enough major missteps that I probably won't read the whole thing again.
The Awakened Kingdom – N.K. Jemisin
This is the shortest of the six Jemisin titles I’ve read and the one I liked the best by far; maybe she just works better for me as a short(ish)-story author? The opening passages perfectly capture the scattered, breathless voice of an excited toddler trying to tell a story, and it’s great fun to follow Shill’s growing maturity through the character’s increasingly ordered and self-aware narration. The plot itself was less gripping, largely because I’ve seen the “misogyny, only the genders are reversed” concept done better elsewhere. But Shill’s reaction (Sexism sucks no matter which gender’s experiencing it, so maybe let’s not do it) was pretty great, because, yeah. And I love “I am born! Hello! / Many things happen. / The end!”
The Ten Thousand Kingdoms – N.K. Jemisin
I wanted to like this book so badly. Sieh is such a great character when readers are getting glimpses of him in the other novels! But oh, this was a slog. The disjointed plot meandered. The most interesting developments regularly happened offscreen while the main character was asleep, incapacitated, or moping around while others took action. As an absolute devotee of the slow burn romance, the instalove triangle left me cold. There are no through lines to any of the characters: their personalities, motivations, and reactions are whatever they need to be to move the plot from A to B. The prose is workmanlike and often relies on clunkily modern phrases, references, or analogies (at one point Sieh describes someone as a ‘teddy bear’) that jolt me right out of the novel’s high fantasy secondary world setting. It’s frustrating, because Jemisin’s premises and worldbuilding have uniformly been things I hear about and think, “Yes, that sounds awesome!” but the execution just does not click for me.
Monstress vol. 4 – Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
Be it color palette, atmosphere, or attention to detail, Takeda’s art is surpassingly beautiful and this volume is no exception. I could stare at the conservatory scenes for hours. Liu’s worldbuilding is as epic (and epically confusing) as ever; I need to reread every previous volume prior to starting a new one to retain anything more than a basic grasp on what’s occurring. But again, I read this series not for the plot but for the gorgeous art and darling, delightful Kippa, and as this volume had plenty of both, I enjoyed it on those merits alone.
The Last Graduate – Naomi Novik
I thought The Last Graduate was the conclusion to the story of the Scholomance as set up in A Wicked Education, but nope! It’s the second of (at least) a trilogy. So aaagh, I spent the last quarter of the book upset that the ending was going to be hopelessly rushed, and aaagh, I was upset when I realized it was actually a cliffhanger. But in a good way: The Last Graduate is an even better book than the first, largely, I think, because Novik was setting up the world and the stakes in the preceding volume, and in this one she’s free to force the characters to confront it.
Novik also pulls off a very tricky feat.( Read more... ) I eagerly await the release of The Golden Enclaves.
Scythe – Neal Schusterman
Oh boy. I did not like this book.( Read more... )
I could give many more examples in this vein, which, combined with the obligatory, underdeveloped romance and generally two-dimensional characters, did not leave much to recommend the experience to me. TL;DR: holy crap this "worldbuilding" is bad and the plot and characters humdrum. I am unlikely to read anything else by this author.
When the Tiger Came Down from the Mountain – Nghi Vo
This was definitely one of the better Tor freebies. I enjoyed the Vietnam-inspired fantasy setting, and Vo’s descriptive language is beautiful. She does an excellent job of creating a sense of space and place, of a world that’s much larger than the glimpse readers see of it in this novella, and I loved that. The Rashomon-esque story, with its bickering tiger youkai and staunch scholar monk, was a little more predictable, but well done all the same. I have added the The Empress of Salt and Fortune to my reading list.
蟲師 7 – 漆原 友紀 (Mushishi vol. 7 – Urushihara Yuki)
The stories in this volume are darker in tone than those in previous collections—more Magnus Archives than Welcome to Night Vale—and that really worked for me here. I especially appreciated the final two chapters, “Road of Brambles,” which were a multipart story! That called back to a story in an earlier volume! And were deliciously creepy. (Plus, parts of it reminded me of one of my favorite settings from Silver Diamond, and yeah, anything that reminds me of Silver Diamond is going to win me over.) Mushishi is really well done for what it is, but I will always enjoy a multipart story with at least some overarching plot more than I will this series’ mushi-of-the-week format. And while this volume is still very much MoTW, it was just slightly less so than other volumes, which is why it worked for me more.
蟲師 8 – 漆原 友紀 (Mushishi vol. 8 – Urushihara Yuki)
Alas, we’re back to Mushi of the Week in this one. The tone is also pretty dark in this volume and the last chapter contains some very Magnus Archive-esque body horror (although it obviously predates said podcast). But then there’s also the “pregnant female bodies are scary” chapter that worked much less well for me, because Japan’s “female bodies are scary” trope is not my thing in general. All that said, “Hidden Streams” was probably my favorite chapter for the atmospheric beauty of the art, and the story’s sweetness and gentle f/f potential.
What I Am Currently Reading
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends – Nicole Pelroth
The first chapter is riveting. Unfortunately, Pelroth spends the next airing personal grudges, a la trump-lite, and I just do not care, Dear Author.
River Kings – Cat Jarman
So far, this is excellent.
Mencinta Hingga Terluka – Julianto Simanjuntak and Roswitha Ndraha
My current “30 minutes a day until it’s done” read.
What I’m Reading Next
This week I picked up River Kings by Cat Jarman, Kim Krans' The Wild Unknown Tarot deck in pocket format, and Living Language Italian. (Which, do I need to learn Italian? No. But there it was, factory sealed, in the Little Free Library, and I love the Living Language format and system. And after eight years of formal Latin instruction back in the day, I should have a bit of a leg up on Italian.)
これで以上です。
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