Booksex is an anagram for Koobex
6 Mar 2007 12:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
salineaI've been a bad, bad reader who hasn't posted any review of the books read in the last months. Let's see how much I remember :
Martha Wells, The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy (The Wizards Hunter, The Ships of Air, The Gate of God)
After years of being recced Wells' books by Teresa I finally found some in English and devoured them. Overall really liked them.
The first qualities are the characters, Tremaine, who is one of the most delightful female main character I've ever read in a book. The fact that she's extremely sarcastic, mildly psychothic, ruthlessly practical, very much into taking charge, and with the wry self-depreciative sense of humour I find sosexygreat, does help. Her father, who is a bit of the same except even more like James Bond on psychotropes, is also very much appreciated. Most other characters, apart from evil Wizard llion, sort of pale in comparison, IMHO. Which is sad.
Second comes setting. Ile-Rien is a wealthy culture enjoying both magical and technological development. It is also under siege by the unknown, seemingly invincible soldiers which were dubbed Gardier, which ends up giving to Ile Rien the figure of a magical London under the Blitz. The merging of early-to-mid-20th century technology with high fantasy magic are very fun to see unfold. Also any book with zeppelins cannot be bad; it is known. And this culture is forced by circumstances to ally themselves with the inhabitants of small, low tech, matriarcal islands where all Wizards and magic are all considered evil, because, as far as they've ever encounter, they are. Much fun ensues.
Cue world hopping, much havoc and adventures & discovery of old secrets. Well, the usual.
Which brings me to the series' low points, the fact that I really didn't care for the plot. I was rather surprised how I could find all the action boring in a story in which I love characters and settings so very much. I'm not sure why it was so. Maybe lack of originality in the plot itself, maybe a bad grasp of pacing. These were still good books, but they could have been very much better given the good ideas already present.
(Teresa by the way I deeply suck and fail at using mail postage. Whack me on the head, please?)
Naomi Novik, Throne of Jade, & Black Powder War
blablahblah, 19th century dragons in CHINA! blahblahblah, 19th century dragons in TURKEY! Bored now.
I was hoping that the Temeraire books would grow beyond the gimmicky nature of its start and badly digested McCaffrey & Lackey... no such luck. While the first book had the benefit of the freshness of the idea to pull you in, the next books don't really add anything apart from the description of dragons in China (boring) and wild dragons of mid-Asia (booooorng, except a dragon is named Arkady which amuses me because of KSRobinson flashbacks, nevermind). The plot is boring and uninteresting as hell, and most of the characters keep being lackluster and actually start getting more uninteresting. Even Temeraire is starting to get on my nerve. I'm not sure I'll take the trouble of reading the next ones.
Patricia McKillip, Harrowing the Dragon
While all of McKillip's writing is a delight and an enchantment to read, it appears from this one anthology that she's even better with short stories. Every one of these stories were stunningly beautiful. Much of it is fairy tale-ish (there's a few fairy tale rewrites as well), haunting and melancholy and extremely wonder-filled.
Megan Lindholm, Harpy's Flight and the Windsingers
I'm starting to get the feeling the books under Lindholm's name are actually better, certainly fresher and more original, than the book under Hobb's name. These are the two firs books of a serie of four, staring Ki and Vandian in a relatively basic fantasy world filled with alien creatures more fitting to a Piers Anthony Space Op book - to a rather odd world building effect. The coolest part is that Ki is just a (stubborn) woman, middle aged, and not very pretty, whose main occupation happens to be being a teamster. I love when these kind of female characters are the main protagonist of a fantasy serie ♥ At the beginning of Harpy's Flight Ki is grieving for her husband and her two children who died very recently. As she comes through her grief with a job carrying something through a mountain's pass. She meets vandian on the road who proposes help in guiding in exchange for passage on her charriot.
It's a rather introspective novel, very unusual for fantasy, and I liked it that way. There's some rough edges, and some of Hobb's usual idiosyncracies (the woman is incapable of writing a good vilain without making them a caricatures ;_;), but it's overall an interesting book. Windsingers is more of the same with only slightly more action.
Michael A. Stackpole, Cartomancy (second book The Age of Discovery)
I reviewed the first tome, A Secret Atlas here. All the good I said there remain true, and the bad have ebeded. I mean, there's still some exotic words for the sake of being exotic, and there's still some bad fantasy tropes, but there's also plently of twists that lef me saying Whhaaaaaat? OMG YAY! This tome was full of good dramatic moments, more original ideas of setting and magic, and excellent characterization. Special plus for the characters of the two warring Prince, enlightened Cyron and barbaric Pyrustwhich I so much want to slash. I am definitly looking forward to more!
Lois McMaster Bujold, Beguilement
One thing you have to give kudos to Bujold for is that she's never afraid of challenging herself by writing new things. This novel was definitly interesting, well written and with good, lovable characters and some intriguing setting ideas... it was also a bit weak on the plot side and left me hungering for more in the ending. I think I ought to blame it slightly on the fact that me and Romance aren't very good friend (though I did love the Laura Resnick's books, damnit!). Also I was expecting slightly more than your clichéed Mystical!Wandering!People from Bujold. Definitly a very enjoyable book though, and I hope the second tome properly warp plots in a more satisfying manner!
Martha Wells, The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy (The Wizards Hunter, The Ships of Air, The Gate of God)
After years of being recced Wells' books by Teresa I finally found some in English and devoured them. Overall really liked them.
The first qualities are the characters, Tremaine, who is one of the most delightful female main character I've ever read in a book. The fact that she's extremely sarcastic, mildly psychothic, ruthlessly practical, very much into taking charge, and with the wry self-depreciative sense of humour I find so
Second comes setting. Ile-Rien is a wealthy culture enjoying both magical and technological development. It is also under siege by the unknown, seemingly invincible soldiers which were dubbed Gardier, which ends up giving to Ile Rien the figure of a magical London under the Blitz. The merging of early-to-mid-20th century technology with high fantasy magic are very fun to see unfold. Also any book with zeppelins cannot be bad; it is known. And this culture is forced by circumstances to ally themselves with the inhabitants of small, low tech, matriarcal islands where all Wizards and magic are all considered evil, because, as far as they've ever encounter, they are. Much fun ensues.
Cue world hopping, much havoc and adventures & discovery of old secrets. Well, the usual.
Which brings me to the series' low points, the fact that I really didn't care for the plot. I was rather surprised how I could find all the action boring in a story in which I love characters and settings so very much. I'm not sure why it was so. Maybe lack of originality in the plot itself, maybe a bad grasp of pacing. These were still good books, but they could have been very much better given the good ideas already present.
(Teresa by the way I deeply suck and fail at using mail postage. Whack me on the head, please?)
Naomi Novik, Throne of Jade, & Black Powder War
blablahblah, 19th century dragons in CHINA! blahblahblah, 19th century dragons in TURKEY! Bored now.
I was hoping that the Temeraire books would grow beyond the gimmicky nature of its start and badly digested McCaffrey & Lackey... no such luck. While the first book had the benefit of the freshness of the idea to pull you in, the next books don't really add anything apart from the description of dragons in China (boring) and wild dragons of mid-Asia (booooorng, except a dragon is named Arkady which amuses me because of KSRobinson flashbacks, nevermind). The plot is boring and uninteresting as hell, and most of the characters keep being lackluster and actually start getting more uninteresting. Even Temeraire is starting to get on my nerve. I'm not sure I'll take the trouble of reading the next ones.
Patricia McKillip, Harrowing the Dragon
While all of McKillip's writing is a delight and an enchantment to read, it appears from this one anthology that she's even better with short stories. Every one of these stories were stunningly beautiful. Much of it is fairy tale-ish (there's a few fairy tale rewrites as well), haunting and melancholy and extremely wonder-filled.
Megan Lindholm, Harpy's Flight and the Windsingers
I'm starting to get the feeling the books under Lindholm's name are actually better, certainly fresher and more original, than the book under Hobb's name. These are the two firs books of a serie of four, staring Ki and Vandian in a relatively basic fantasy world filled with alien creatures more fitting to a Piers Anthony Space Op book - to a rather odd world building effect. The coolest part is that Ki is just a (stubborn) woman, middle aged, and not very pretty, whose main occupation happens to be being a teamster. I love when these kind of female characters are the main protagonist of a fantasy serie ♥ At the beginning of Harpy's Flight Ki is grieving for her husband and her two children who died very recently. As she comes through her grief with a job carrying something through a mountain's pass. She meets vandian on the road who proposes help in guiding in exchange for passage on her charriot.
It's a rather introspective novel, very unusual for fantasy, and I liked it that way. There's some rough edges, and some of Hobb's usual idiosyncracies (the woman is incapable of writing a good vilain without making them a caricatures ;_;), but it's overall an interesting book. Windsingers is more of the same with only slightly more action.
Michael A. Stackpole, Cartomancy (second book The Age of Discovery)
I reviewed the first tome, A Secret Atlas here. All the good I said there remain true, and the bad have ebeded. I mean, there's still some exotic words for the sake of being exotic, and there's still some bad fantasy tropes, but there's also plently of twists that lef me saying Whhaaaaaat? OMG YAY! This tome was full of good dramatic moments, more original ideas of setting and magic, and excellent characterization. Special plus for the characters of the two warring Prince, enlightened Cyron and barbaric Pyrust
Lois McMaster Bujold, Beguilement
One thing you have to give kudos to Bujold for is that she's never afraid of challenging herself by writing new things. This novel was definitly interesting, well written and with good, lovable characters and some intriguing setting ideas... it was also a bit weak on the plot side and left me hungering for more in the ending. I think I ought to blame it slightly on the fact that me and Romance aren't very good friend (though I did love the Laura Resnick's books, damnit!). Also I was expecting slightly more than your clichéed Mystical!Wandering!People from Bujold. Definitly a very enjoyable book though, and I hope the second tome properly warp plots in a more satisfying manner!
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no subject
Date: 5 March 2007 11:51 pm (UTC)outa cause.Glad to see you review A Secret Atlas and Cartomancy too - I picked those up on a whim b/c they were half price, and it's good to know they're probably worth it! :D
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Date: 6 March 2007 07:16 am (UTC)her fanfics were better.Oh! I was afraid I was the only person who knew of the Cartomancy serie XD I admit I'm biased toward exploration stories, and I love good setting ideas ^^
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Date: 6 March 2007 12:29 pm (UTC)Do you really think Novik might win the Hugo? God, I hope not. I mean, I guess her writing style is technically good, but her plots are repetitive and her characterization rather shoddy in the last ones. I felt like a lot of the characters became stereotypes the further along we went...
no subject
Date: 6 March 2007 12:52 pm (UTC)Well, nominations haven't even come up so it's early to cry in alarm, but I saw it in people's private list of books they thought could win it, and if Order of the Phoenix could win one (against GRRM, even! *grrr*), anything could happen.
I don't think her characterization were ever brillant ^_^;;
no subject
Date: 6 March 2007 01:38 pm (UTC)Yeah, I don't think the Order of the Phoenix should have won a Hugo. It's not even the best of the HP series, much less the best of all the books. *grumble* BTW, what is GRRM? I will probably feel stupid when you say what it is, but I can't think what that stands for right now...
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Date: 6 March 2007 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 March 2007 01:53 pm (UTC)8:40am *shudders* It's a comfortably mellow 3pm here ^^
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Date: 6 March 2007 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 March 2007 07:30 am (UTC)Lots of stuff get aunctionned, few get made ^^ I guess it could be very cool, though.
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Date: 6 March 2007 05:21 am (UTC)Oh yes, and your icon? Very cute. ^^
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Date: 6 March 2007 07:17 am (UTC)Thank you, you know it was made by
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Date: 6 March 2007 08:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 March 2007 08:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 March 2007 09:07 am (UTC)OMG we're three, we should make a club! ^^
I hope she won't get the Hugono subject
Date: 6 March 2007 08:55 pm (UTC)I did not even *know* of the new Bujold! I still got a hardcover of Paladin of Souls ( before the pb was out) still unread. Yikes.
About the Martha Wells books, actually this trilogy is my least favorite of her books, but glad you enjoyed it! The rest is best, and the interesting father is a character in another prequel ( well, not a prequel because it was written first) The Death of the Necromancer.
Stackpole hmm..
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Date: 7 March 2007 07:34 am (UTC)Good to know it's the least good stuff, and that there's more of Nicholas. I've got that book in French, actually ^^
And I need whacking because there's something I want to send you since last November. That's a long time to figure out how to use mail postage XD
Romance and me?
Date: 1 April 2007 06:17 am (UTC)Speak of the devil, and who should appear?
Glad someone liked them!
Laura Resnick
www.LauraResnick.com
Re: Romance and me?
Date: 1 April 2007 01:58 pm (UTC)Yeah, I really loved the In Legend Born serie. I've got a special love for Baran, who is awesome in ways I can't properly explain (ruthless manipulative characters with a wry, self-depreciative sense of humour are sexy? Hell, yeah.) But I really loved the overall complex themes of moral ambiguities, cycles of violence and the passionate intensity of all characters. Besides any story with a magical Mafia can't be bad XD. I give you special kudos for managing to work a story with some cheesy elements I never thought would work (such as the double katanas super warrior with a mysterious past guy...) but actually do.
Can't wait to see more of you writing in the SF/F field (there's a fourth volume planned for 2008, right? Cool!)... and I know that if I ever want to try out romance I'll likely pick up some of your Laura Leone books.