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ellarien(Note: no, the crosspost facility still isn't doing cuts right. I did this the old-fashioned way.)
I'm woefully behind on book posts, so I decline to specify when I read these. Sometime between now and last December, anyway. There should be more along in a while.
Bram Stoker, Dracula
Yes, this was a first reading. Interesting as a historical artifact, of course, but quite readable as a story. The epistolary format made it easy to imagine it as a set of interlinked blogs -- particularly Jonathan's travel-blogging at the beginning -- so I was amused to learn that somebody or bodies actually posted the whole thing to LJ, asdracula1897. I was a little surprised by how modern it was -- it belongs in my mind in the same slot as Frankenstein, early C19th gothic, but of course it isn't, it's more Sherlock-Holmes era, and the characters aren't shy about embracing the contemporary bleeding-edge tech -- portable typewriters!
Greg Keyes, The Born Queen
Final volume of the KIngdoms of Thorn and Bone quadrology, in which Anne gains a bit more maturity but becomes if anything less sympathetic. The first few chapters feel disjointed, jumping around between unfamiliar POVs, but after that it settled down a bit. I'm not sure the series lived up to the promise of its opening, in the end.
Jay Worrall, Sails on the Horizon
I found myself wondering, half way through this, if it was really Napoloenic naval fiction or Napoleonic naval fanfic. Having the hero's wife, charming though she is, running around the quarterdeck in the middle of a battle will do that. The young protagonist, separated from his fleet during a storm, chases all over the Mediterranean after Nelson and Napoleon's fleet and eventually fetches up at the battle of the Nile. There's also a cameo appearance by another more famous fictional captain, echoing the Hornblower glimpse in the previous volume. I don't think there are any more of these at present, which is a pity.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Duainfey
Romance-regency-land meets fairly standard Faerie along a perilous and uneasy frontier; a young woman, compromised and disabled after an imprudent carriage jaunt, escapes what looks like being an abusive impending marriage and runs off with a charming faerie lord, but it doesn't turn out well. Not really a complete story; fortunately, the second half is out by now. Warning: contains adult themes and imagery, more than I was really comfortable with.
Margaret Frazer, The Clerk's Tale
Later entry in the series about Frevisse, the detecting medieval nun, in which her old foil the grumpy Crowner is the victim, caught up in some ugly family rivalry. The mystery is less simplistic -- and longer -- than the earlier ones; the setting and atmosphere still vividly detailed, the minor characters deftly if not very deeply drawn.
Naomi Novik, Victory of Eagles
History lurches firmly away from our time line as Napoleon invades Britain; Temeraire takes charge and gets a lot of POV, maybe half the book's worth; Lawrence mopes a lot in the aftermath of his actions at the end of Empire of Ivory.
C. C. Finlay, Traitor to the Crown: The Patriot Witch(e)
The opening moves of the Revolutionary War, in a Massachussets where the Salem witches had real powers -- and the young protagonist is descended from one of them, mostly untaught and keeping his powers secret -- until war breaks out. It's an unusual take on fantasy, where spells (at least for the good guys) are prayers, and black magic is ugly and cruel. Well, the e-book giveaway (http://www.ccfinlay.com/) worked for me, anyway; I've ordered the whole trilogy. (The e-book is a PDF, but it was trivial to convert it to Mobipocket format for Palm reading.)
I'm woefully behind on book posts, so I decline to specify when I read these. Sometime between now and last December, anyway. There should be more along in a while.
Bram Stoker, Dracula
Yes, this was a first reading. Interesting as a historical artifact, of course, but quite readable as a story. The epistolary format made it easy to imagine it as a set of interlinked blogs -- particularly Jonathan's travel-blogging at the beginning -- so I was amused to learn that somebody or bodies actually posted the whole thing to LJ, as
dracula1897. I was a little surprised by how modern it was -- it belongs in my mind in the same slot as Frankenstein, early C19th gothic, but of course it isn't, it's more Sherlock-Holmes era, and the characters aren't shy about embracing the contemporary bleeding-edge tech -- portable typewriters!Greg Keyes, The Born Queen
Final volume of the KIngdoms of Thorn and Bone quadrology, in which Anne gains a bit more maturity but becomes if anything less sympathetic. The first few chapters feel disjointed, jumping around between unfamiliar POVs, but after that it settled down a bit. I'm not sure the series lived up to the promise of its opening, in the end.
Jay Worrall, Sails on the Horizon
I found myself wondering, half way through this, if it was really Napoloenic naval fiction or Napoleonic naval fanfic. Having the hero's wife, charming though she is, running around the quarterdeck in the middle of a battle will do that. The young protagonist, separated from his fleet during a storm, chases all over the Mediterranean after Nelson and Napoleon's fleet and eventually fetches up at the battle of the Nile. There's also a cameo appearance by another more famous fictional captain, echoing the Hornblower glimpse in the previous volume. I don't think there are any more of these at present, which is a pity.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Duainfey
Romance-regency-land meets fairly standard Faerie along a perilous and uneasy frontier; a young woman, compromised and disabled after an imprudent carriage jaunt, escapes what looks like being an abusive impending marriage and runs off with a charming faerie lord, but it doesn't turn out well. Not really a complete story; fortunately, the second half is out by now. Warning: contains adult themes and imagery, more than I was really comfortable with.
Margaret Frazer, The Clerk's Tale
Later entry in the series about Frevisse, the detecting medieval nun, in which her old foil the grumpy Crowner is the victim, caught up in some ugly family rivalry. The mystery is less simplistic -- and longer -- than the earlier ones; the setting and atmosphere still vividly detailed, the minor characters deftly if not very deeply drawn.
Naomi Novik, Victory of Eagles
History lurches firmly away from our time line as Napoleon invades Britain; Temeraire takes charge and gets a lot of POV, maybe half the book's worth; Lawrence mopes a lot in the aftermath of his actions at the end of Empire of Ivory.
C. C. Finlay, Traitor to the Crown: The Patriot Witch(e)
The opening moves of the Revolutionary War, in a Massachussets where the Salem witches had real powers -- and the young protagonist is descended from one of them, mostly untaught and keeping his powers secret -- until war breaks out. It's an unusual take on fantasy, where spells (at least for the good guys) are prayers, and black magic is ugly and cruel. Well, the e-book giveaway (http://www.ccfinlay.com/) worked for me, anyway; I've ordered the whole trilogy. (The e-book is a PDF, but it was trivial to convert it to Mobipocket format for Palm reading.)
