Books I read during the vacations

[salinea]

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
A series of short stories about a Witcher - a kind of magic user specialised in hunting down magical critters that harm humans - named Geralt, in a dark fantasy medieval world.
This is pulp at its best, the storytelling is very efficient, fun to read and often clever, the characters are sketchy but still intriguing enough for their roles; and there's an element reworking and deconstruction of fairy tale in most of the stories which was excellent. The sources of inspirations are slightly more Eastern European than your average fantasy novel, which was also well appreciated. This is very much pulp though, don't expect the novel of the century, but it was something I had much fun reading.
I also found interesting that, despite the male gaze and the bad ass male guy that kicks ass that wrapped the storytelling, every single story had at least one interesting female character, even when they were the monster or the love interest (or both), leaving me a bit puzzled about whether or not the treatment of gender dynamics was bad or not.


Gifts by Ursula Leguin
I read the sequel of this, Voices, before I did this one. This is an interesting story about a farming society that isolated from the rest of the world, where each of the powerful clans have one type of power that they use to rivalise and feud against one each others; and the life of one boy, Orrec, who should inherit the gift of Undoing as he comes to age.
I loved this one more than Voices, I thought the pacing and the themes were better handled, although the characters were perhaps less likeable. What I found most fascinating was the very realistic treatment of an agrarian society where people have some kind of powers, and the rather dreary analysis of how they would use them. At the same time the handling of the psychological weight that such a power has on people, as Orrec tries to come to grip with his own, were very well done and horrific. Also loved the stories within stories interwoven in the text (as I did in Voices) The writing style is as usual with Leguin, gorgeous and flowing.


The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Josef Kavalier escapes Prague in 1938, his family staying behind, for New York where he meets his cousin Sam Klay. Together they start writing comic books, inventing the superhero character of the Escapist who battles Nazi super villains, while the war in Europe expands and while Kavalier keeps trying without success to help his family come join him.
This was not the book I expected to read. I thought it was to be a book with a bit of SFF and pulp (there's "Amazing Adventure" in the title, you know); either of which it had very little of. It was also an excellent book, entrancing and with a lot of resonance. The exploration of Jewish lives and anxieties at this time, the way it is interwoven (as it was in reality) with the birth of superhero comic books; and the meta analysis that is played with those mirroring stories was nothing short of brilliant. The characters are also extremely well depicted and complex. The writing is a little bit heavy and dense for my taste, more omniscient PoV than I'm used to, with a flair for the quirky and the quaint which at sometime was a little bit annoying, but at other times succeeded at being darkly humorous or poignant. It was also a very "text, no subtext" book, which liked to spell out for the reader the themes and the various way they paralleled each others. The depiction of the society of that time, of various subcultures, was also extremely well done, quite researched, and with a lot of interesting cameo from people like Salvator Dali and Orson Wells. Overall an excellent read I would recommend to most.

Comments

[werthead.livejournal.com]

The Last Gift is a solid, fun read. Need to get back to the computer game at some point as it was good as well.

I'm having enormous difficulties getting into Yiddish Policemen's Union, so I'm not sure if I'd want to try any other Chabon.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

When i'll get around to reading the Yiddish Policemen's Union, I'll tell you how similar it is!

[hamsterwoman]

I generally like Chabon's books, but Yiddish Policemen's Union defeated me -- I gave up on it about two chapters in, even though I'm hoping I'll go back and try again some time. (I think the writing was *too* dense, even though there were some real neat things in there, and the premise was extremely intestesting.)

In addition to Kavalier and Clay, I liked Summerland (in spite of not caring one whit about baseball, which is sort of central to the book -- but then, I don't care about comic books, either, and that didn't hinder my enjoyment of Kavalier and Clay) and Gentlemen of the Road, which is a short little book that Chabon said in the afterword he kept thinking of as "Jews with swords".

[williamjm.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally I'm reading The Yiddish Policeman's Union at the moment and Etrangere's description of Kavalier and Clay does make it sound like the books are written in a fairly similar style. It took me a little while to get into it, but after I got past the first few chapters I did start enjoying it (it helps when the main character actually starts interacting with other people rather than just brooding). I agree that the writing style can get a little bit irritating at times, but at other times it works well.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Jews with swords sounds like a cool genre of stories lol I wanna see that.

[hamsterwoman]

Gentlemen of the Road is not as sweeping/profound as Kavalien and Clay, maybe, but I might have enjoyed it even more. Also, the two main characters and the dynamic between them actually reminded me a bit of Swordspoint. They're not lovers or anything, but there was something that put me in mind of Richard and Alec.

[winter]

*snickers* With Sapkowski, you never know ;) The Last Wish collects the earliest stories, he later developed the characters a lot more in the next collection, and then in his five-book saga (which I adore, because it has the most badass fluffy apothecary vampire ever).

He stumbles with leading his female characters sometimes, especially if they get to be actual POV-characters (there's a gratuitous lesbian with PTSD at one point, rather cringe-worthy), but he has a real respect for women in a lot of ways. He's big on Arthurian and Celtic myths and the woman as a goddess archetype. I think it comes out better when it's a male POV than when he gets into a woman's head.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

*snickers* With Sapkowski, you never know ;)
Haha! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that's puzzled by that.

He stumbles with leading his female characters sometimes, especially if they get to be actual POV-characters (there's a gratuitous lesbian with PTSD at one point, rather cringe-worthy), but he has a real respect for women in a lot of ways
That makes a lot of sense. Still better than having no female characters, or having them only as passive object of male desire, but yeah...

Badass fluffy apothecary vampire sounds fun, and I'm not crazy about vampires XD

[winter]

I think the main thing is that Sapkowski doesn't get women all that well, but thinks they're damn cool ;)

In the saga, Geralt ends up as a leader of a posse of sorts, and these are my favourite bits of the novels. Sapkowski gets lost in long plots, but he's got a gift for vivid characters. For the longest time my email started with "Renfri" ;)

[werthead.livejournal.com]

"I think the main thing is that Sapkowski doesn't get women all that well, but thinks they're damn cool ;)"

So you are arguing that Sapkoski is, basically, a man? :-D

[winter]

Well, I know he is, I've seen him in the flesh ;) There are some male writers (William Gibson and Terry Pratchett, off the top of my head) who can do a very believable female POV, but some guys should just learn to stick to what they can do.

[novin-ha.livejournal.com]

Of course you mean women characters and not women fans? ;D

I really enjoyed the witcher novels as a teen (although the lesbian thing made me cringe A LOT) but my friend was treated abysmally by him when she asked for an autograph at some fan event ;)

Regis <3

[winter]

From what I heard, that happens to fans of both genders, and rather depends on the alcohol content in the vicinity, alas.

[hamsterwoman]

I didn't realize Gifts had a sequel! (At least I don't think I did...) I enjoyed that one a lot, in spite of thinking, before I started it, that the premise sounded dreary. But, of course, LeGuin writes everything beautifully, and so I ended up liking the book a whole lot, despite my expectations.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

It's got two! Voices and Powers (haven't read Powers yet). Although they're independent stories.

[hamsterwoman]

Oh, cool! I should add both to my list of books to look out for.

[solesakuma]

It's funny, but the points you disliked about The Amazing Adventures... are what tempted the most about it. XD

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

the heavy, omniscient PoV writing?

[solesakuma]

Exaaaaaaaaaaaaactly. I adore omnisciente PoV and heavy, pretentious narration. XP

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Heh. Have you read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel? I think you'll love it XD

[solesakuma]

No, but I always thought it look shiny.

[catiechu.livejournal.com]

I didn't find Chabon's writing necessarily pretentious, personally, more like possessing of a refreshing predisposition toward both intricacy and clarity. He's very adept at managing detail, though, in a way that brings life to his work.

[shiinabambi.livejournal.com]

I also liked Gifts a bit more than Voices (the BOOKS GOOD! thing in Voices was a smidge heavy-handed, although the theme of the trilogy seems to be Storytelling is a Grand Thing) but the thing I really adored in Voices was the treatment of the god Luck, who is deaf in the ear you pray to.

And yes, I loved that in Gifts they used their powers in a more realistic way.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

the BOOKS GOOD! thing in Voices was a smidge heavy-handed
YES!

although the theme of the trilogy seems to be Storytelling is a Grand Thing
Which I can't disapprove of!

the god Luck, who is deaf in the ear you pray to.
Haha! I'd forgotten this, it is awesome.

And yes, I loved that in Gifts they used their powers in a more realistic way.
It really made me think of my anthropology classes about witchcraft in Normandy.

[catiechu.livejournal.com]

I had just begun reading Kavalier & Clay when you posted this, so I decided to wait on reading your impression. Just finished it last night and... man. Incredible novel. Actually, when nearing the end, I cried... more than once. :x Spoilers: The little girl in me was sort of outraged at the extravagant amount of time it took Joe to return to his new family, but, you know, I could always understand why it did. And, you know, the nostalgia of the good old days for them. This is one of few books that made me want the characters all to just be HAPPY GOD DAMN IT. XD And then Sammy's very abrupt departure upon Joe's return both startled and confused me, but in any case, I am eager to know what sorts of things he gets up to in L.A. ;)