Overdue book post
Dec. 8th, 2008 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienIt's been a while. I blame Erikson and Nanowrimo.
Steven Erikson, Reaper's Gale
Very, very long; I read basically nothing else for a month. Not more than usually grim for a Malazan novel, but not as frivolous as Midnight Tides, to which it is a direct sequel. Towards the end there's a tour-de-force interweaving of three different battles. There's also a tendency towards odd flecks of purplish prose that made me wonder if the author had been reading Donaldson.
Patricia McKillip, The Bell at Sealey Head
Charming, with its bookish characters and gentle romances; would have been better if the writer-character's effusions had more to do with what was actually going on.
Robin McKinley, Chalice
Mmm. Took a long time to get going; after an intriguing first scene about the first third of the book is in disorganized flashbacks before the story actually starts moving, and not a great deal happens in the end, though the bees have a certain charm.
Minette Walters, Disordered Minds
Grungy British mystery with an odd couple investigating a generation-old miscarriage of justice, set against the tense early days of the Iraq war. I was a bit disconcerted by the way (presumably) the American editor had put all the dates in month-day-year format; also, what was up with the handwritten signatures on e-mails?
Michelle Sagara, Cast in Fury
More adventures among the races of Elantra (not to be confused with Elantris); this time it really isn't all about Kaylin, though she gets herself and friends deeply involved when her Leontine sergeant and mentor is framed for murder. We see a lot more of Leontine society, and learn about their origins and more about the origins and structure of the city. Moral: cute babies are worth saving even when they have the potential to grow up into existential threats.
K. D. Wentworth, House of Moons
Sequel to Moonspeaker, with a genetically-engineered psionic race uneasily coexisting with the far stranger indigenous inhabitants of their planet; trouble erupts when an unscrupulous minor aristocrat starts using what he thinks is a forbidden artifact to mind-control his enemies; it turns out to be something else. Amazingly full of incident and worldbuilding for such a slender volume.
Alma Alexander,Worldweavers: Spellspam
Sequel to Gift of the Unmage; Thea and her friends at the supposedly magic-free school, in a world where magic is everywhere, battle an outbreak of spell-bearing junk email; prank or something more sinister? Quirky and engaging; the 'elemental house' is great fun.
Jay Worrall, Sails on the Horizon
Yet another Napoleonic-wars naval yarn, this one with a strong-willed Quaker lady as love-interest for a hero who gets promotion, Ramage-fashion, by being the most senior officer to survive a battle. Also features a brief cameo appearance by Horatio Hornblower, overlapping with and incident in 'The Duchess and the Devil', except that the ship names don't match. Hero seems to get away with an awful lot of irregular behavior for a very junior captain, being given pretty much free rein to pursue personal vengeance against the Spanish ship that devastated his original crew, and taking his whole crew home on leave. The prose occasionally clunks a bit, but I'd read more in the series. (There seems to be only one more so far.)
Steven Erikson, Reaper's Gale
Very, very long; I read basically nothing else for a month. Not more than usually grim for a Malazan novel, but not as frivolous as Midnight Tides, to which it is a direct sequel. Towards the end there's a tour-de-force interweaving of three different battles. There's also a tendency towards odd flecks of purplish prose that made me wonder if the author had been reading Donaldson.
Patricia McKillip, The Bell at Sealey Head
Charming, with its bookish characters and gentle romances; would have been better if the writer-character's effusions had more to do with what was actually going on.
Robin McKinley, Chalice
Mmm. Took a long time to get going; after an intriguing first scene about the first third of the book is in disorganized flashbacks before the story actually starts moving, and not a great deal happens in the end, though the bees have a certain charm.
Minette Walters, Disordered Minds
Grungy British mystery with an odd couple investigating a generation-old miscarriage of justice, set against the tense early days of the Iraq war. I was a bit disconcerted by the way (presumably) the American editor had put all the dates in month-day-year format; also, what was up with the handwritten signatures on e-mails?
Michelle Sagara, Cast in Fury
More adventures among the races of Elantra (not to be confused with Elantris); this time it really isn't all about Kaylin, though she gets herself and friends deeply involved when her Leontine sergeant and mentor is framed for murder. We see a lot more of Leontine society, and learn about their origins and more about the origins and structure of the city. Moral: cute babies are worth saving even when they have the potential to grow up into existential threats.
K. D. Wentworth, House of Moons
Sequel to Moonspeaker, with a genetically-engineered psionic race uneasily coexisting with the far stranger indigenous inhabitants of their planet; trouble erupts when an unscrupulous minor aristocrat starts using what he thinks is a forbidden artifact to mind-control his enemies; it turns out to be something else. Amazingly full of incident and worldbuilding for such a slender volume.
Alma Alexander,Worldweavers: Spellspam
Sequel to Gift of the Unmage; Thea and her friends at the supposedly magic-free school, in a world where magic is everywhere, battle an outbreak of spell-bearing junk email; prank or something more sinister? Quirky and engaging; the 'elemental house' is great fun.
Jay Worrall, Sails on the Horizon
Yet another Napoleonic-wars naval yarn, this one with a strong-willed Quaker lady as love-interest for a hero who gets promotion, Ramage-fashion, by being the most senior officer to survive a battle. Also features a brief cameo appearance by Horatio Hornblower, overlapping with and incident in 'The Duchess and the Devil', except that the ship names don't match. Hero seems to get away with an awful lot of irregular behavior for a very junior captain, being given pretty much free rein to pursue personal vengeance against the Spanish ship that devastated his original crew, and taking his whole crew home on leave. The prose occasionally clunks a bit, but I'd read more in the series. (There seems to be only one more so far.)
