Remaining February Books, before I forget
Mar. 26th, 2006 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienTim Powers, Last Call
I didn't like this as much as I've liked most of Powers' work; the interweaving of different myths felt clumsy, it was all ugly and grungy, the poker didn't interest me, and I didn't like the characters much, though there were some interesting grotesques.
Tad Williams, Shadowmarch
Typical Tad Williams; richly detailed setting, the characters keep getting lost, and it isn't by any stretch of the imagination a stand-alone, ending on at least three different cliffhangers. The idea of Faerie, long driven out of mortal lands, coming back for one last desperate war, is intriguing. There's something a bit funny about the tech levels, with a god-king living in ancient-Egyptian splendour, and muskets.
Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist
Vintage fantasy, set in a small republic that's cut off imports of addictive fairy fruit from neighbouring fairyland. I did find myself wondering if it could be read as a parable about Prohibition. It had an interestingly stylized feel, as if all the images had outlines around them; in that sense the cover art was appropriate, though it seems to show a castle and there aren't any in the story.
Patricia McKillip, Solstice Wood
I enjoyed this, but I'm not sure McKillip was playing to her strengths by branching into contemporary fantasy; it felt a lot less original than most of her work. There were some charming touches, like the changeling who was clean, polite and generally much nicer to be around than the original teenager, and the village with only one spot that gets decent wireless reception, so that people stand in line to use it. The ending was ... different, and rather sweet, but a bit anticlimactic.
Simon Winchester, The River at the Center of the World
Fascinating saga of a trip up the Yangtze, from the delta to Tibet, the mid-1990's. Lovely vignettes, interesting snippets of history. I'm glad I read the basic history of China first, but this put a lot more flesh on the bones.
In other news, we've been having 90-degree weather, I'm running the a.c. right now, and I just turned off L&O:CI because I was completely failing to follow it.
I didn't like this as much as I've liked most of Powers' work; the interweaving of different myths felt clumsy, it was all ugly and grungy, the poker didn't interest me, and I didn't like the characters much, though there were some interesting grotesques.
Tad Williams, Shadowmarch
Typical Tad Williams; richly detailed setting, the characters keep getting lost, and it isn't by any stretch of the imagination a stand-alone, ending on at least three different cliffhangers. The idea of Faerie, long driven out of mortal lands, coming back for one last desperate war, is intriguing. There's something a bit funny about the tech levels, with a god-king living in ancient-Egyptian splendour, and muskets.
Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist
Vintage fantasy, set in a small republic that's cut off imports of addictive fairy fruit from neighbouring fairyland. I did find myself wondering if it could be read as a parable about Prohibition. It had an interestingly stylized feel, as if all the images had outlines around them; in that sense the cover art was appropriate, though it seems to show a castle and there aren't any in the story.
Patricia McKillip, Solstice Wood
I enjoyed this, but I'm not sure McKillip was playing to her strengths by branching into contemporary fantasy; it felt a lot less original than most of her work. There were some charming touches, like the changeling who was clean, polite and generally much nicer to be around than the original teenager, and the village with only one spot that gets decent wireless reception, so that people stand in line to use it. The ending was ... different, and rather sweet, but a bit anticlimactic.
Simon Winchester, The River at the Center of the World
Fascinating saga of a trip up the Yangtze, from the delta to Tibet, the mid-1990's. Lovely vignettes, interesting snippets of history. I'm glad I read the basic history of China first, but this put a lot more flesh on the bones.
In other news, we've been having 90-degree weather, I'm running the a.c. right now, and I just turned off L&O:CI because I was completely failing to follow it.
