Books read recently

[salinea]

Inda, The Fox, King's Shield, & Treason's Shore by Sherwood Smith
A very interesting series which I am at a loss as how to sumarise. It's about this guy who we follow from his childhood to adulthood, and as we do the story expend to include a whole lot of characters and the scope of the plot widens in nifty ways; but it's still mostly about this guy, Inda, who is kind of a tactical genius, born of a noble family in a country that turns out to be the barbaric, warlike and imperialistic upstarts of the region, which scares more than a bit their more civilised & peaceful neighbors and are also feeling threatened by the big byzantine Empire (- and at this point I start cracking myself because I guess that makes them the fantasy Barrayar, which is funny because asides from being a tactical genius, and, well, gathering himself his own army out of sheer happenstances and charisma while very young and away from home, Inda is nothing like Miles. Although Evred is a little bit like Gregor.)
The narration was told in omniscient 3rd person PoV, which i've realised that I've grown very unused to, and I generally doesn't like. It works for the sake of this story though, although it frequently left me feel a bit remote from the emotional action. In particular, despite having romantic & sexual relationships having a strong effect on the plot (in very various ways, this is a world where heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual, demisexual, polyamourous, monoamourous, & so on people all clearly exist and are represented at some point in the text) it never feels like a romance, because we're often plainly told of shifts in relationships. It's a bit off putting at times, but definitely not bad either.
The plot is overall very good; focused on the military and political events as well as how they affect all sorts of characters. In the end quite affecting.

Fearless by James Campbell
Sequel of Dauntless. Don't have much to add from what I said of it, it's more of the same.

Rivers of London & Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
Very good urban fantasy crime stories set in London about a freshly minted cop who ends up apprenticing as a wizard to deal with weird crimes. I especially enjoy the writing, in those, very nice quality of atmosphere and mood. Very, very British in ways both modern and old for all you guys on my flist who seem to like that sort of things. And the protagonist is a smartass which I always enjoy (also biracial, which is nice).

Dangerous Grounds, Old Poison, Blood Heat by Josh Lanyon
Two elite partner cops having arguments about their relationships and whether they should have one while fighting bad guys, etc. Mostly decent.

Storms & Stars by Jaydon Neena
Space opera stuck on a desert island planet. M/M novel. It was... err, not very good yet kept me entertained for some reason.

Smiley's People by John Le Carré
Third & last of the George Smiley series. I... don't actually have much to say about it? But it was good. Probably as good as Tinker Tailor. Great conclusion.

A Strange Place in Time by Alyx Shaw
A M/M fantasy novel with very little plot, and mildly entertaining banter & characters. I feel like I was much more entertained by it than its quality warranted, actually.

Archer's Heart by Astrid Amara
The Mahabharata as a M/M romance novel. Asides from the fact I feel it short changes Hindu philosophy quite a bit, this is a pretty solid M/M novel and an entertaining read.

Bundori by Laura Joh Rowland
Boring crap. I remember way back when I read Shinju I thought ti was boring too. Why did I try this series again?

Shadow of the Templar by M Chandler
Pretty good M/M caper series about a FBI and a catburglar. The catburglar character is very good as a cross between the mild-mannered badass & the smooth & smug badass character type ; and there's some very fun banter (if sometimes overly indulgent). I also like the solid use of the supporting cast; and there some very emotional twists here and there to keep the plot entertaining. Also a plus, Amanda Waller makes an appearance as a supporting character at some. (I mean, not really, but hardass middle-aged CIA agent who is an awesome pain in the ass of our FBI protagonist - I couldn't not picture her as Amanda Waller OKAY).

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

I've been very curious about the Inda books, because I've heard good things about them. Your description does make it sound a lot like a fantasy Vorkosigan Saga, which is only a plus to me, heh :)

Been meaning to read Rivers of London, too, so glad to have your enjoyment of it as an extra data point in its favour.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

would love to hear your feelings on the Inda books!

yeah, they are very different in mood than the Miles books, but there's some hilarious parallels in the situation overall (and from times to times, some similar themes & motifs). It'd be fun to draw more parallels between the characters from both series with someone! XD

[curtana.livejournal.com]

I liked the Inda books a lot :) I should read them again, because I had to wait for the later ones to come out and I'm sure I forgot details over time.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

they do have an awful lot of things going on in them!!

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

I've been hearing a bit about those Sherwood Smith books lately and they sound interesting! I might try them someday, but right now I have far too many books I already own but haven't read. :P

The trilogy that starts with Tinker, Tailor is really great in a lot of ways, even if The Honorable Schoolboy can be a chore and doesn't fit in nearly as neatly with the plot of Smiley's dealings with Karla. I haven't read anything of his in a long time, but I do find le Carré fascinating (and I picked up Declare by Tim Powers recently on the strength of it being basically intended as a le Carré/Lovecraft fusion). I'm kind of intellectually fascinated by the potentially problematic gender issues that recur so much in his books: older male characters repeatedly ending up with much younger women, female characters being exceptionally treacherous and unfaithful. I want to read a le Carré book with a female protagonist to see how it holds up, but the only one I know of is The Little Drummer Girl, and I'm not in any state to read something centered on Israeli politics.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Declare is very good! Hope you enjoy it!

There's all sorts of skeevy things in the Le Carré books, aren't there? I mean, it doesn't feel like they're meant to be promoted though, usually. Although I don't see the female characters being any more treacherous than the male on average based upon the sample I've read.

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

It's the first Tim Powers book I've actually gone and bought even though I've heard loads of good things about him, so I hope so too. :)

Yeah, le Carré's gender issues feel more to me like personal hang-ups that happen to map onto some sexist patterns than overwhelming unfocused sexism, if that makes any sense. I was always more curious than outright condemning of them. It's been long enough that I don't have much distinct memory of individual novels, alas, but I've read all three of the Karla trilogy, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, A Pefect Spy, and The Tailor of Panama. The last stood out to me as rather different from the others in that it had more humor, although there was still a lot of depressing stuff. There was also a character who was transparently a vicious parody of James Bond, whereas before le Carré had been content to exercise his dislike by merely creating spy characters who were nothing like Bond. In a casting choice that could not have been coincidence, the character in question was played by Pierce Brosnan in the movie. I haven't seen it, but I liked the book a lot.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

The Constant Gardener doesn't have a female protagonist, but does have a very strong and admirable female main character. I read Little Drummer Girl long ago and remember not enjoying it much because of the problem you mention.

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that one is pretty high on my le Carré to-read list. There's a lot about the premise that could be done wrong (holding up a dead woman as a virtuous martyr and all that) but despite some of le Carré's other issues I'm inclined to trust him to handle that particular situation decently.

I don't think it's impossible to write a good book involving Israeli politics, but I'm not sure I trust a white and non-Jewish European (or Brit as distinct from European, possibly even worse given the history) to be the one to do it. And even if I did, the whole topic is such a sore spot for me that right now the only thing to do is avoid it entirely or wind up feeling stressed out and guilty.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Well, LeCarre is a man of his generation, so women always seem to be a little bit of another country to him--that's my take, at least. The women in Constatnt Gardener won't totally please you, possibly, but they are better than Smiley's wife!

And the other thing about Little Drummer Girl is that it was written and set quite a while ago, so that also makes it a little strange.

[williamjm.livejournal.com]

I thought the Aaranovitch books were very entertaining. I think the third is out here next month sometime, which I'm looking forward to.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

looking forward to reading it too!

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I really very much liked the Inda series, but agree about the no-romance feeling. That's fine for me, but suspect it's one reason why the books aren't as well known as I wish they were. I very much liked the different slants on politics--reminded me a little of Ursula LeGuin, in that.

Can't wait to read Moon Over Soho--really liked Rivers, despite its dumb American title.

I'm the opposite on Rowland--I always hate them when I start and then like them in the middle. She is kind of stilted and distant, for sure.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

yeah, I suspect you're right.

I thought the different slants on politics lacked a little bit of subtlety sometimes, but there were a lot of interesting things at times!!

With Rowland, i dunno, i just got too annoyed by the protagonist, he's such a boring, bland character; and the didactism of the writing, and the homophobic subtext.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

The homophobia isn't even subtext as the books go on. In fact, the last one made me so mad I think I will not read her again.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

yikes

[flo-nelja.livejournal.com]

J'entends de plus en plus de bien de Rivers of London et les suites. Il faudra que je m'y mette.

Sinon, d'après mes souvenirs, Smiley's People n'était pas centré sur un Tragic Minority Character, pour une fois ? :-)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

seulement si tu ne comptes pas des troubles mentaux (schizophrénie?) comme faisant de qqun une minorité.

[flo-nelja.livejournal.com]

C'est un peu de la triche ; c'est une minorité qu'il est très difficile de traiter de façon à la fois réaliste et non-tragique, non ?
[Edit] Je veux dire, il aurait pu lui arriver des choses bien pires que d'être malade, et ça n'arrive pas, justement.