Books read recently!
26 Aug 2008 05:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
salineaI'm lazy and didn't really summarize any of them...
Black Man aka Th1rt3n by Richard Morgan
I found this one to be somewhat disappointing, perhaps because I had too high expectations. It's a fairly well rounded Noir near future/cyberpunk thriller, with a good if not surprising plot and decent if not original world building. The big argument is the race thematics. I have to say there's some very good stuff there. For one, Morgan isn't content with dealing only with metaphors. He uses the genegeered "variants" to deal with the concept of prejudice, of fear and othering sure; but he overlays with a very big presence of characters of colour and is very upfront about it (in fact, that he's up front is almost distracting, it's like he put on neon lights all over his book with "Race and racism issues talked about HERE" - but, fair enough, sometimes that's what's has to be done). There's some very interesting done about the themes of anger, of the necessity to talk quietly and nicely to people, a deconstruction of the Scary Black Man trope. Some of it is subtle enough. There's a overarching narrative of evolutionary psychology applied to those dynamics that is irritating (and kinda oppressive at times), but Morgan does genuine effort to question it in the text at the same time so you could presume it's a narrative of that society not an actual answer. There's some attempt to address intersectionnality's with gender issues : this is one of the part where the book failed, for me. First because the book is entrenched with Male Gaze (not unusual and I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to if not for the neons aforementioned), and arguably resorts to fridging, second because it kept using expressions like "feminised, civilised society" and never questioned it, kept portraying women as essentially less violent and aggressive as an answer to the problematic. Then there's the issue of violence, of our main Thirteen character as an epitome of the violent, tough, independent alpha male which men wanna be and women wanna fuck (the latter part, again, is in the text), as this kind of character as a noir thriller hero and of the visceral pleasure that we the audience and him the writer enjoy reading and writing about - I'm still not sure if that was addressed properly or not. It's not all bad, far from it, and even about gender there's some interesting bits, but not enough for my taste.
My real big issue with the book, though, is the style. The writing sucks. It's cliché-ridden (I can't count the times I rolled my eyes), and very thriller-basic. Dunno how else to describe it, it feels very mechanical. The exposition/discussion of thematics done in dialogue is to a ridiculous point. Seriously, there is no way people would sit done and make philosophical discussions (often while pointing guns at each others) to this amount. The amount of villains who did it the novel is simply laughable. The characterisation is so-so : main character Marsani is great, the others less so.
The world building, as I said, is not original but decent : The Jesusland things is very 2004 and Morgan commits the mistake to think that fanatical = stupid, and you know, Divided States of America isn't exactly a new trope, especially for cyperpunk, but I liked the whole thing about Mars and the breath of the world, the use of the off PoV of a British character on American society, stuff like this.
Dust by Elisabeth Bear
Gorgeous writing (sometimes just a tadbit too purple for my taste but overall very pleasant to read), wonderfully evocative imagery and world building, I got immersed very vividly in this world of a huge, decaying space ship, its odd inhabitants, their complex feuds and Amber-like family and the near-magic-tech. I was much less interested in the plot : the pacing wasn't believable, the stakes too cryptic, and the characters' emotions and relationships were never things I believed in nor cared for. It feels like given more space to develop, a lot more, this could have been a great story, but as it is I only could enjoy the style and the world.
The Dreaming Tree by CJ Cherryh
Celtic fantasy, dealing with faeries. This a pretty good story, although I thought the pacing was sometimes a bit off. I liked some of characters well enough and was sorry when the generational jumps left them behind. Cherryh does magic in it as she always does : in a wonderfully evocative way. Still I wasn't as entranced by it as her best, and the whole celtitude was slightly irritating in a "been done many many many times" way. A minor if pleasant work.
The Beginning Place by Ursula K Leguin
This is a very odd little book, tackling on the good old trope of people from earth transplanted in a fantasy world, and I'm not sure if I have anything definite to say about it beyond the fact that I found it extremely pleasant to read : the writing just flows beautifully, the characters are intriguing and gripping immediately, some of them in a very raw way. I'm not sure what I think of the story, I think maybe I missed the point entirely.Well worth reading anyway.
Black Ships by Jo Graham
A retelling of the Aenid with a more historical bent and seen from the eyes of the Pythya which accompany them. This is a gorgeous book which I loved utterly. In terms of voice, I was seduced immediately by the narrative of Gull, and her life as a child as a slave in a Greek city. The writing is beautiful and just flows. The characterisation is very good as well, especially of Gull but also of the two other main characters Neas and Xandros. The world described is very entrancing as well, well detailed and vivid and made me want to learn more about the History of it. The rendering of the society with its own beliefs, its brutality and the technologies of that time was very believable. My biggest gripe was that sometimes the passage of time was a bit abrupt.
It reminded me of how much I used to love Avalon books by Bradley, you know. I probably wouldn't dare to read them again now, because I'm afraid I'll be disappointed, but Black Ship gave me the same pleasure, the same immediate swept in by the voice that tells her story.
Claudius the God by Robert Graves
I think I liked this one slightly less than I did I Claudius, despite the presence of Herod Agrippa the awesome Jewish trickster (seriously awesome character :)). Perhaps mostly due to reader's fatigue. It's still high quality writing, full of plotting, wittiness and funny anecdotes and generally speaking a great read.
Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
I was complaining of the lack of plot in the previous novel, this one made up for it. It was full of lovely lovely plot and very dramatic and in bigger scope. There was a few utterly fascinating chapters where our narrator Imriel is not himself, taking on another personality, and thus we the reader knew more than him in a way that was extremely fun to read. Otherwise it's your usual Carey : good, if purple, writing, lovable characters, evocative world building. I was getting a bit sick of Imriel and Sidonie before the end, though, mostly due to the fact that people who are deeply in love are really, really boring to me when all the opposition to their love is external. I hope the next time Carey lets this world rest and tries her hand at something else.
Next time, I'll have to do the reviews right after I finish the books, not wait a month and a half in some cases, it makes for sucky reviews... >_>;;
Black Man aka Th1rt3n by Richard Morgan
I found this one to be somewhat disappointing, perhaps because I had too high expectations. It's a fairly well rounded Noir near future/cyberpunk thriller, with a good if not surprising plot and decent if not original world building. The big argument is the race thematics. I have to say there's some very good stuff there. For one, Morgan isn't content with dealing only with metaphors. He uses the genegeered "variants" to deal with the concept of prejudice, of fear and othering sure; but he overlays with a very big presence of characters of colour and is very upfront about it (in fact, that he's up front is almost distracting, it's like he put on neon lights all over his book with "Race and racism issues talked about HERE" - but, fair enough, sometimes that's what's has to be done). There's some very interesting done about the themes of anger, of the necessity to talk quietly and nicely to people, a deconstruction of the Scary Black Man trope. Some of it is subtle enough. There's a overarching narrative of evolutionary psychology applied to those dynamics that is irritating (and kinda oppressive at times), but Morgan does genuine effort to question it in the text at the same time so you could presume it's a narrative of that society not an actual answer. There's some attempt to address intersectionnality's with gender issues : this is one of the part where the book failed, for me. First because the book is entrenched with Male Gaze (not unusual and I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to if not for the neons aforementioned), and arguably resorts to fridging, second because it kept using expressions like "feminised, civilised society" and never questioned it, kept portraying women as essentially less violent and aggressive as an answer to the problematic. Then there's the issue of violence, of our main Thirteen character as an epitome of the violent, tough, independent alpha male which men wanna be and women wanna fuck (the latter part, again, is in the text), as this kind of character as a noir thriller hero and of the visceral pleasure that we the audience and him the writer enjoy reading and writing about - I'm still not sure if that was addressed properly or not. It's not all bad, far from it, and even about gender there's some interesting bits, but not enough for my taste.
My real big issue with the book, though, is the style. The writing sucks. It's cliché-ridden (I can't count the times I rolled my eyes), and very thriller-basic. Dunno how else to describe it, it feels very mechanical. The exposition/discussion of thematics done in dialogue is to a ridiculous point. Seriously, there is no way people would sit done and make philosophical discussions (often while pointing guns at each others) to this amount. The amount of villains who did it the novel is simply laughable. The characterisation is so-so : main character Marsani is great, the others less so.
The world building, as I said, is not original but decent : The Jesusland things is very 2004 and Morgan commits the mistake to think that fanatical = stupid, and you know, Divided States of America isn't exactly a new trope, especially for cyperpunk, but I liked the whole thing about Mars and the breath of the world, the use of the off PoV of a British character on American society, stuff like this.
Dust by Elisabeth Bear
Gorgeous writing (sometimes just a tadbit too purple for my taste but overall very pleasant to read), wonderfully evocative imagery and world building, I got immersed very vividly in this world of a huge, decaying space ship, its odd inhabitants, their complex feuds and Amber-like family and the near-magic-tech. I was much less interested in the plot : the pacing wasn't believable, the stakes too cryptic, and the characters' emotions and relationships were never things I believed in nor cared for. It feels like given more space to develop, a lot more, this could have been a great story, but as it is I only could enjoy the style and the world.
The Dreaming Tree by CJ Cherryh
Celtic fantasy, dealing with faeries. This a pretty good story, although I thought the pacing was sometimes a bit off. I liked some of characters well enough and was sorry when the generational jumps left them behind. Cherryh does magic in it as she always does : in a wonderfully evocative way. Still I wasn't as entranced by it as her best, and the whole celtitude was slightly irritating in a "been done many many many times" way. A minor if pleasant work.
The Beginning Place by Ursula K Leguin
This is a very odd little book, tackling on the good old trope of people from earth transplanted in a fantasy world, and I'm not sure if I have anything definite to say about it beyond the fact that I found it extremely pleasant to read : the writing just flows beautifully, the characters are intriguing and gripping immediately, some of them in a very raw way. I'm not sure what I think of the story, I think maybe I missed the point entirely.Well worth reading anyway.
Black Ships by Jo Graham
A retelling of the Aenid with a more historical bent and seen from the eyes of the Pythya which accompany them. This is a gorgeous book which I loved utterly. In terms of voice, I was seduced immediately by the narrative of Gull, and her life as a child as a slave in a Greek city. The writing is beautiful and just flows. The characterisation is very good as well, especially of Gull but also of the two other main characters Neas and Xandros. The world described is very entrancing as well, well detailed and vivid and made me want to learn more about the History of it. The rendering of the society with its own beliefs, its brutality and the technologies of that time was very believable. My biggest gripe was that sometimes the passage of time was a bit abrupt.
It reminded me of how much I used to love Avalon books by Bradley, you know. I probably wouldn't dare to read them again now, because I'm afraid I'll be disappointed, but Black Ship gave me the same pleasure, the same immediate swept in by the voice that tells her story.
Claudius the God by Robert Graves
I think I liked this one slightly less than I did I Claudius, despite the presence of Herod Agrippa the awesome Jewish trickster (seriously awesome character :)). Perhaps mostly due to reader's fatigue. It's still high quality writing, full of plotting, wittiness and funny anecdotes and generally speaking a great read.
Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
I was complaining of the lack of plot in the previous novel, this one made up for it. It was full of lovely lovely plot and very dramatic and in bigger scope. There was a few utterly fascinating chapters where our narrator Imriel is not himself, taking on another personality, and thus we the reader knew more than him in a way that was extremely fun to read. Otherwise it's your usual Carey : good, if purple, writing, lovable characters, evocative world building. I was getting a bit sick of Imriel and Sidonie before the end, though, mostly due to the fact that people who are deeply in love are really, really boring to me when all the opposition to their love is external. I hope the next time Carey lets this world rest and tries her hand at something else.
Next time, I'll have to do the reviews right after I finish the books, not wait a month and a half in some cases, it makes for sucky reviews... >_>;;