Books I read during the vacations
27 Jan 2005 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
salineaHey, i've been meaning to make that post for a while, but been lazy. No more. So :
The Destroyer Goddess by Laura Resnick : Nice conclusion of the pretty good serie started with In Legend Born and in Fire Forged. Resnick writes good, efficient fantasy, and some of my aprehensions in the beginning (the main character is a two swords wielder guy with a dark past (tm)) it's overall a serie I was very pleasantly surprised. Good characters, nice plotting, deadly intrigues, inspiration from Sicillian history which makes for a fresh outlook in a fantasy novel. The magic was a bit too flashy for my usual taste but the main point about the way the waterlord Society (read, mafia) controlled much of the island was an interesting take on it. And of course, there's one character I really, really loved in it. Baran's dry wit and self depreciative sarcasm made me fall in love with him right away. I wasn't disapointed by his role in this volume. I'll keep a look on that writer.
The Battle of Evernight by Cecilia Dart-Thorton : The conclusion of the Bitterbynde trillogy ends in its usual own peculiar style. Well, I think that's the book of the three I the least enjoyed. The main appeal of that serie - apart from the language itself - was the retelling of celtic fairy tales, but the ending just made me gag. It doesn't help that it's very difficult to like the main character who is o so pretty, so wise and so skillful while her friends are so often foolish. I was bored for a while by too long travels description, and then disapointed by the lack of surprised by the ending twists. The very end failed to deal with the one problem the story had put in the way of the main couple, whcih was gag-worthy. Besides Morrigan was way sexier.
The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper : Tepper can write strong, intense book that cut sharp with tragedy. This was not one of them. there were some interesting tibits in the start, genuinely intriguing metaphysics and ideas, but then all got drowned into preachy prose. It didn't help most of the characters were boring as hell.
The Reindeer People and Wolf's Brother by Megan Lindholm (aka Robin Hobb) : fresh and interesting story. The setting is northern place and the story deal with an almost autistic child who might become a very good shaman... as well as his mother who wants to protect him and do not believe any of those thing, and the reindeer people they seek refuge with. The wonderful and very unique - very genuine - feel of the magic in this book makes the main appeal. Hobb's always good with magic, I say, but this one was even better. It really felt like shamanism... strange and disturbing and tying ties between things and that might be more tricks and shrewdness than magic - and yet. The plot itself wasn't quite so good and Hobb suffers from her usual annoying flaw of making the bad guy oh so evil and boring. However Carp made an interesting ambiguous character, part villain and part mentor.
Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint : though there were some interesting thematics and ideas in this book, it was ultimately very disapointing. The plot was rather badly told - and with lots of problems of pacing. There were too many characters - most of them not that interesting, or maybe that's because we never had quite the time to deepen them enough - and the fact some chapters were told in 1st person and present tense and others in 3rd person and past tense didn't help it. Too bad, the whole urban fantasy feeling of it at first was pretty nifty.
The Destroyer Goddess by Laura Resnick : Nice conclusion of the pretty good serie started with In Legend Born and in Fire Forged. Resnick writes good, efficient fantasy, and some of my aprehensions in the beginning (the main character is a two swords wielder guy with a dark past (tm)) it's overall a serie I was very pleasantly surprised. Good characters, nice plotting, deadly intrigues, inspiration from Sicillian history which makes for a fresh outlook in a fantasy novel. The magic was a bit too flashy for my usual taste but the main point about the way the waterlord Society (read, mafia) controlled much of the island was an interesting take on it. And of course, there's one character I really, really loved in it. Baran's dry wit and self depreciative sarcasm made me fall in love with him right away. I wasn't disapointed by his role in this volume. I'll keep a look on that writer.
The Battle of Evernight by Cecilia Dart-Thorton : The conclusion of the Bitterbynde trillogy ends in its usual own peculiar style. Well, I think that's the book of the three I the least enjoyed. The main appeal of that serie - apart from the language itself - was the retelling of celtic fairy tales, but the ending just made me gag. It doesn't help that it's very difficult to like the main character who is o so pretty, so wise and so skillful while her friends are so often foolish. I was bored for a while by too long travels description, and then disapointed by the lack of surprised by the ending twists. The very end failed to deal with the one problem the story had put in the way of the main couple, whcih was gag-worthy. Besides Morrigan was way sexier.
The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper : Tepper can write strong, intense book that cut sharp with tragedy. This was not one of them. there were some interesting tibits in the start, genuinely intriguing metaphysics and ideas, but then all got drowned into preachy prose. It didn't help most of the characters were boring as hell.
The Reindeer People and Wolf's Brother by Megan Lindholm (aka Robin Hobb) : fresh and interesting story. The setting is northern place and the story deal with an almost autistic child who might become a very good shaman... as well as his mother who wants to protect him and do not believe any of those thing, and the reindeer people they seek refuge with. The wonderful and very unique - very genuine - feel of the magic in this book makes the main appeal. Hobb's always good with magic, I say, but this one was even better. It really felt like shamanism... strange and disturbing and tying ties between things and that might be more tricks and shrewdness than magic - and yet. The plot itself wasn't quite so good and Hobb suffers from her usual annoying flaw of making the bad guy oh so evil and boring. However Carp made an interesting ambiguous character, part villain and part mentor.
Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint : though there were some interesting thematics and ideas in this book, it was ultimately very disapointing. The plot was rather badly told - and with lots of problems of pacing. There were too many characters - most of them not that interesting, or maybe that's because we never had quite the time to deepen them enough - and the fact some chapters were told in 1st person and present tense and others in 3rd person and past tense didn't help it. Too bad, the whole urban fantasy feeling of it at first was pretty nifty.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 27 January 2005 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 January 2005 10:40 am (UTC)they are some books i reread again and again, but not so many ;) actually i re read two those vacatiobs : Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson and Distress by Greg Egan
yay, I'm a professionnal reader... wish I could be paid for that *snickers*
no subject
Date: 28 January 2005 02:20 pm (UTC)You should maybe read either SOMETHING DANGEROUS by Patrick Redmond or GOOD OMENS by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet. ^^ Good books. And lovely implications for slash. HAHAHAH! I'm a horrible fangirl. XD
no subject
Date: 30 January 2005 06:29 pm (UTC)I've read Good Omens a long, long time ago ^_^
no subject
Date: 30 January 2005 06:48 pm (UTC)Oh, lucky! What did you think of it??
I got a radar for book reviews
Date: 28 January 2005 12:06 am (UTC)About L Resnick, I read a bit of In Legend Born a while ago, did not progress much but book is still around waiting for me to give it another try.
About deLint, I read probably his book that people praise most, MoonHeart, and I so did NOT like it. Writing was clumsy, the characters a bit too something ( too rich, too unlikely, too I dunno, new agey?), and it was just awfully contrived to me. But then again sometimes I bounce off really hard from some things with lots of fans, maybe whatever worked for them just was not there for me. But abour urban fantasy, try War for the Oaks and the Last Hot Time :)
Re: I got a radar for book reviews
Date: 28 January 2005 10:42 am (UTC)Too new agey... oooh yeah. That's definitly it. XD that's what makes me want to like it, while rolling my eyes when it's badly done !
War of the Oaks and Last Hot Time ? Okay, by whom ?
Re: I got a radar for book reviews
Date: 28 January 2005 11:10 am (UTC)War of the Oaks -> Emma Bull . One of the first urban fantasies and it spawned almost a subsubgenre. It´s charming and it is well written, it´s not one of my most moving fantasy books ever, but it really is charming.
Last Hot Time -> John M Ford. A different kettle of fish, Ford does not tell you some things directly, you got to figure it out, but it´s mostly abou a boy coming of age in an America sent technologically back by elfland arriving. The setting is this elf-human bordertown, maybe like gangster Chicago. I liked it a lot, but not everybody would.
no subject
Date: 28 January 2005 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 January 2005 10:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 January 2005 05:57 am (UTC)I looked through "The Battle of Evernight", and didn't really enjoy it. I didn't get into it, and that's hard for such a voracious reader like me.
no subject
Date: 28 January 2005 10:43 am (UTC)*nods* I had troubles getting into it as well. I remained stuck at the beginning for monthes while i was reading other stuff ;) Too much boring travel
no subject
Date: 29 January 2005 12:20 am (UTC)He does a fabulous urban fantasy, doesn't he. ^__^ Try his short story anthologies (the first one is 'The Ivory and the Horn') -- I can guarantee you'll feel the magic (or should I say, magical realism ^_~).
no subject
Date: 30 January 2005 06:29 pm (UTC)