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What I Just Finished Reading
Circle – Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen
Different again from Triangle and Square, but equally as charming.
Preacher: Alamo – Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon
Completing a reread of the series I began a year(?) ago. Yes, there is a fair amount about this series that is dated now, but holy crap, Ennis saw through some of the Main Bullshit Comic Book Tropes years before anyone else. He is not shy about dissecting them here and it is wonderful.
Martin the Warrior – Brian Jacques
Read too many of Jacques’ Redwall books in succession and you will quickly find yourself fatigued, but taken singly, they are very, very good. Martin the Warrior has heroic quests, epic battles, idiosyncratic supporting characters, and memorable villains, all of it taking place against a backdrop of vivid scene setting and world building. It reads like Tolkien with animals, and today Martin may get all the cred for not sparing beloved characters, but Jacques doesn’t either. He does make one major misstep in killing the capable main female character/love interest to leaven the glory of Martin’s victory in an unfortunate delayed girlfriend-in-the-fridge narrative crutch but overall, this book hit all the right high fantasy notes for me.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms – N.K. Jemisin
Every now and then a really evocative sentence would jump out at me ("Wherever I wanted to be touched, he touched"; "The crowd opened and closed around me like lips") but overall, this was a typical YA fantasy in which the protagonist rushes from one Shocking Betrayal or Big Reveal of her Exceptional Heritage/Abilities to the next. That said, it agreed with me far more than 80 percent of other YA fare out there these days.
Uprooted – Naomi Novik
Completing a reread begun last year. This book really works best for me if I put it down for a long stretch between the first and second halves; the change in setting, pacing, and action is too jarring otherwise. But having left that pause, I was able to better enjoy the last 200 or so pages, especially as, isolated this way, they no longer read like one big, endless, exhausting climax (an issue I also had with Spinning Silver), which really increased the narrative tension for me.
What I Am Currently Reading
The Strangler Vine – M.J. Carter
I am happy to announce that our heroes have arrived in Jubblepore.
Japanese Grammar – Keiko Uesawa Chevray & Tomiko Kuwahira
Still trying to force my way through the crappy editing to the finish line.
The Broken Kingdom – N.K. Jemisin
I admit I’m intrigued by the idea of a fantasy city beneath a giant tree (which I understand Jemisin borrowed from a shoujou manga, anyway, so there you have it).
Outlaws of Sherwood – Robin McKinley
Since I kept forgetting, while reading Novik, that I was reading Novik and not McKinley, I thought I’d pick up something actually by McKinley. This is one of her earliest novels, but you’d never know it from the strong, polished prose. I’m excited to read further.
Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom – Rachel Pollack
I’ve skipped past the latter half of the Major Arcana directly to the chapter on the Minors, and I’m very much liking Pollack’s approach thus far.
What I'm Reading Next
The Bird King? Senlin Ascends? Eddie Izzard? Bueller? At this point, who knows...
これで以上です。
Circle – Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen
Different again from Triangle and Square, but equally as charming.
Preacher: Alamo – Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon
Completing a reread of the series I began a year(?) ago. Yes, there is a fair amount about this series that is dated now, but holy crap, Ennis saw through some of the Main Bullshit Comic Book Tropes years before anyone else. He is not shy about dissecting them here and it is wonderful.
Martin the Warrior – Brian Jacques
Read too many of Jacques’ Redwall books in succession and you will quickly find yourself fatigued, but taken singly, they are very, very good. Martin the Warrior has heroic quests, epic battles, idiosyncratic supporting characters, and memorable villains, all of it taking place against a backdrop of vivid scene setting and world building. It reads like Tolkien with animals, and today Martin may get all the cred for not sparing beloved characters, but Jacques doesn’t either. He does make one major misstep in killing the capable main female character/love interest to leaven the glory of Martin’s victory in an unfortunate delayed girlfriend-in-the-fridge narrative crutch but overall, this book hit all the right high fantasy notes for me.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms – N.K. Jemisin
Every now and then a really evocative sentence would jump out at me ("Wherever I wanted to be touched, he touched"; "The crowd opened and closed around me like lips") but overall, this was a typical YA fantasy in which the protagonist rushes from one Shocking Betrayal or Big Reveal of her Exceptional Heritage/Abilities to the next. That said, it agreed with me far more than 80 percent of other YA fare out there these days.
Uprooted – Naomi Novik
Completing a reread begun last year. This book really works best for me if I put it down for a long stretch between the first and second halves; the change in setting, pacing, and action is too jarring otherwise. But having left that pause, I was able to better enjoy the last 200 or so pages, especially as, isolated this way, they no longer read like one big, endless, exhausting climax (an issue I also had with Spinning Silver), which really increased the narrative tension for me.
What I Am Currently Reading
The Strangler Vine – M.J. Carter
I am happy to announce that our heroes have arrived in Jubblepore.
Japanese Grammar – Keiko Uesawa Chevray & Tomiko Kuwahira
Still trying to force my way through the crappy editing to the finish line.
The Broken Kingdom – N.K. Jemisin
I admit I’m intrigued by the idea of a fantasy city beneath a giant tree (which I understand Jemisin borrowed from a shoujou manga, anyway, so there you have it).
Outlaws of Sherwood – Robin McKinley
Since I kept forgetting, while reading Novik, that I was reading Novik and not McKinley, I thought I’d pick up something actually by McKinley. This is one of her earliest novels, but you’d never know it from the strong, polished prose. I’m excited to read further.
Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom – Rachel Pollack
I’ve skipped past the latter half of the Major Arcana directly to the chapter on the Minors, and I’m very much liking Pollack’s approach thus far.
What I'm Reading Next
The Bird King? Senlin Ascends? Eddie Izzard? Bueller? At this point, who knows...
これで以上です。
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On an unrelated note, are you excited for BG3? The wait has already been endless...
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And yes, I am so fucking psyched, even if I'm determined to mentally divorce myself from the original series and take it on its own merits unless it does everything the originals did and better (a less rushed and predictable ending than Throne of Bhaal would be all kinds of nice.) But the trailer was awesome and I can't wait to see what else comes out of it.
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Yes! And there's no authorial signaling that they're peaceful, nurturing types, they just are. I think that's why the stock characters don't bother me as much in this series, where they drive me up the wall in a lot of other books. Jacques characters have enough variety that their stock traits are just who they are, not what Jacques thinks "women" or "men" are. Rose is Rose and Columbine is Columbine, and readers aren't being prodded to evaluate one as inherently better than the other. I feel like that nudging is a lot more common in more recent stuff.
Oh, I'm absolutely going to take it on its own merits, because what I've seen so far looks fan-freaking-tastic. There are a fair number of promo videos and interviews on YT (that I may be obsessively watching in lieu of having the game to play already) and the CEO, dev team, etc. all seem a) super geeky, b) super excited to be on the project, and c) super into BG, so I feel like we're in good hands.
Though I'm still dying waiting...