January-February book roundup
Mar. 2nd, 2008 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienI've been having a hard time settling down to read lately -- particularly this last week, when my brain doesn't seem to want to focus on anything longer than a typical LJ post. Anyway, here are my brief and slightly cranky impressions of what I've managed to finish so far this year.
Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower
A tragedy of first contact; engagingly written history of the settlement of New England from the Mayflower to the end of King Philip's war.
Stephen R. Donaldson, Fatal Revenant
My reading of this, the second volume of the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, was somewhat hampered by the fact that the plot and characters of the first volume entirely failed to stick in my mind, so it took a while to catch up. Then a huge swathe of plot was devoted to apparent out-of-characterness which eventually turned out to be for good spoilery reasons but was tough on my suspension of disbelief.
Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora
I'm not usually keen on criminal protagonists, but the buzz on this was good enough for me to give it a try. Unfortunately, it turns out that in order to make criminals sympathetic, the villains have to be over-the-top Evil, with not entirely convincing motivations. The scenery was pretty, though.
Daniel Abraham, A Shadow in Summer
Now that's more like it. The magic system --- involving the enslavement of enfleshed abstract ideas called andat by "poets" is interestingly different, the setting is vividly evoked, and the characters are multifaceted and convincingly imperfect.
Jane Austen, Persuasion (reread)
It's been a while since I read this, but I was mostly reading this time for comparison with the two TV movie versions I'd recently seen. I was amused to note how both adaptations had made some of the same -- fairly obvious -- choices to simplify the plot, including, I think, the renaming of the silent and mostly offstage Charles Hayter to Henry.
Jim Butcher, White Night
I was less enthralled by this latest of the Harry Dresden series than I was by the earlier ones, but that may be partly because of the cold that was smothering my brain. The plot seemed needlessly convoluted, though the set-piece battle at the end is impressive, and I begin to worry that the original premise is too slender to hold up under the weight of ten books of escalating threats and accumulated angst.
David Donachie, The Dying Trade
Second in the "Privateersman Mysteries", a tale of murder and skulduggery in the Mediterranean. It had its moments, but I didn't enjoy it all that much.
Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower
A tragedy of first contact; engagingly written history of the settlement of New England from the Mayflower to the end of King Philip's war.
Stephen R. Donaldson, Fatal Revenant
My reading of this, the second volume of the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, was somewhat hampered by the fact that the plot and characters of the first volume entirely failed to stick in my mind, so it took a while to catch up. Then a huge swathe of plot was devoted to apparent out-of-characterness which eventually turned out to be for good spoilery reasons but was tough on my suspension of disbelief.
Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora
I'm not usually keen on criminal protagonists, but the buzz on this was good enough for me to give it a try. Unfortunately, it turns out that in order to make criminals sympathetic, the villains have to be over-the-top Evil, with not entirely convincing motivations. The scenery was pretty, though.
Daniel Abraham, A Shadow in Summer
Now that's more like it. The magic system --- involving the enslavement of enfleshed abstract ideas called andat by "poets" is interestingly different, the setting is vividly evoked, and the characters are multifaceted and convincingly imperfect.
Jane Austen, Persuasion (reread)
It's been a while since I read this, but I was mostly reading this time for comparison with the two TV movie versions I'd recently seen. I was amused to note how both adaptations had made some of the same -- fairly obvious -- choices to simplify the plot, including, I think, the renaming of the silent and mostly offstage Charles Hayter to Henry.
Jim Butcher, White Night
I was less enthralled by this latest of the Harry Dresden series than I was by the earlier ones, but that may be partly because of the cold that was smothering my brain. The plot seemed needlessly convoluted, though the set-piece battle at the end is impressive, and I begin to worry that the original premise is too slender to hold up under the weight of ten books of escalating threats and accumulated angst.
David Donachie, The Dying Trade
Second in the "Privateersman Mysteries", a tale of murder and skulduggery in the Mediterranean. It had its moments, but I didn't enjoy it all that much.
