May-ish bookpost
Jun. 18th, 2009 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienKarl Schroeder, Queen of Candesce
In the vast, low-gravity bubble of Virga, the complex, manipulative Venera Fanning lands on the ancient habitat of Spyre and proceeds to involve herself in the local politics. It's a strange, claustrophobic world of tiny, single-building "nations," and Venera's meddling thoroughly upsets the balance of power. She grows in the process, and ends up a rather more sympathetic character than she started.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Mage Guard of Hamor
Sequel to Natural Ordermage. Rahl is an ordermage with a difference
-- much less trouble with killing people than most, for one thing -- struggling with
an attitude problem under the mentorship of another unconventional ordermage
who's high in the counsels of the Emperor of Hamor; now he finds himself fighting in a civil war. It's hard for these fill-in Recluce entries to have very high stakes any more, or tell us much of anything we don't already know about the world, but I still found this gripping read. I think Modesitt's writing has improved over the years; less onamatopeia, these days, and more variety.
Iain M Banks, Matter
Banks returns to the Culture with a tale of war on a massive constructed world of concentric shells; the inhabitants are at a fairly low tech level (early C19th or thereabouts, mostly), but the Culture and other advanced civilisations are taking an interest, even before an exiled prince goes out into the galaxy in search of his sister in Special Circumstances. The scenery is mostly more interesting than the people, but it's not wise to get attached to the characters in a Banks novel anyway.
Dudley Pope, Ramage's Challenge
Ramage is sent to the Mediterranean to find and rescue a bunch of important hostages taken by the French when the war broke out again. He waltzes off with the first batch in his usual sneaky style -- and then finds himself saddled with a bunch of nobles and mostly non-serving officers who want him to go after their womenfolk too, though that rather exceeds the scope of his orders.
Paul Park, The White Tyger
Miranda, after spending two books (A Princess of Roumania, The Tourmaline) as a stubbornly incompetent and useless protagonist, throwing away and losing plot tokens as soon as she finds them, finally wakes up and tries to act. Is it too late? The nature of the world unfolds itself a little more, and the villainous Baroness continues to be the heroine of her own story.
Jim Butcher, Small Favor
The Vampire war is on hiatus, but as an unnaturally severe winter closes on Chicago, Harry Dresden finds himself caught between the demonic Denarians and the Winter and Summer Faerie courts. (I never did figure out quite why the Summer court had such a problem with him.) Most of the regular recurring characters put in appearances, and there are some impressive set-piece battles, the usual dry wit, and some poignant moments.
Charles Stross, The Revolution Business
The Clan and their nuke-stealing faction are well and truly in the sights of the US War-on-Terror machine; Helge/Miriam belatedly accepts her role in the aristocracy as an ugly civil war, partly fought with smuggled-in modern weapons, racks the Gruinmarkt; in New Britain, the revolution is beginning. Ends on a major cliffhanger. (Also, I was tickled to see a minor character named after![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
marykaykare, presumably by arrangement.)
C.J. Cherryh, Conspirator
In this opening volume of the fourth Atevi trilogy, the rebellion seems to be over but the dust hasn't quite settled yet. Bren Cameron is back in Shejidan, but not in his own apartment, still occupied by a politically suspect plan -- so when the redoubtable Uncle Tatiseigi wants the Atageini apartment back for the legislative session, Bren volunteers to spend some time at his seaside estate, where he entertains his brother and his brother's partner who also happens to be Bren's ex and still not exactly over him. That's only the beginning of his problems, though as the young heir to the throne decides to join the party, and there are difficulties with the neighboring estate. It's interesting to see Bren dealing with what it really means to be an Atevi lord -- and not doing too badly at it; there's plenty of excitement and tension, as he realizes that dissuading the Atevi from adopting cell phones is not the only thing he needs to worry about. The ending is ... abrupt -- almost in the middle of a scene, in fact, right after Ilisidi drops a bombshell.
In the vast, low-gravity bubble of Virga, the complex, manipulative Venera Fanning lands on the ancient habitat of Spyre and proceeds to involve herself in the local politics. It's a strange, claustrophobic world of tiny, single-building "nations," and Venera's meddling thoroughly upsets the balance of power. She grows in the process, and ends up a rather more sympathetic character than she started.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Mage Guard of Hamor
Sequel to Natural Ordermage. Rahl is an ordermage with a difference
-- much less trouble with killing people than most, for one thing -- struggling with
an attitude problem under the mentorship of another unconventional ordermage
who's high in the counsels of the Emperor of Hamor; now he finds himself fighting in a civil war. It's hard for these fill-in Recluce entries to have very high stakes any more, or tell us much of anything we don't already know about the world, but I still found this gripping read. I think Modesitt's writing has improved over the years; less onamatopeia, these days, and more variety.
Iain M Banks, Matter
Banks returns to the Culture with a tale of war on a massive constructed world of concentric shells; the inhabitants are at a fairly low tech level (early C19th or thereabouts, mostly), but the Culture and other advanced civilisations are taking an interest, even before an exiled prince goes out into the galaxy in search of his sister in Special Circumstances. The scenery is mostly more interesting than the people, but it's not wise to get attached to the characters in a Banks novel anyway.
Dudley Pope, Ramage's Challenge
Ramage is sent to the Mediterranean to find and rescue a bunch of important hostages taken by the French when the war broke out again. He waltzes off with the first batch in his usual sneaky style -- and then finds himself saddled with a bunch of nobles and mostly non-serving officers who want him to go after their womenfolk too, though that rather exceeds the scope of his orders.
Paul Park, The White Tyger
Miranda, after spending two books (A Princess of Roumania, The Tourmaline) as a stubbornly incompetent and useless protagonist, throwing away and losing plot tokens as soon as she finds them, finally wakes up and tries to act. Is it too late? The nature of the world unfolds itself a little more, and the villainous Baroness continues to be the heroine of her own story.
Jim Butcher, Small Favor
The Vampire war is on hiatus, but as an unnaturally severe winter closes on Chicago, Harry Dresden finds himself caught between the demonic Denarians and the Winter and Summer Faerie courts. (I never did figure out quite why the Summer court had such a problem with him.) Most of the regular recurring characters put in appearances, and there are some impressive set-piece battles, the usual dry wit, and some poignant moments.
Charles Stross, The Revolution Business
The Clan and their nuke-stealing faction are well and truly in the sights of the US War-on-Terror machine; Helge/Miriam belatedly accepts her role in the aristocracy as an ugly civil war, partly fought with smuggled-in modern weapons, racks the Gruinmarkt; in New Britain, the revolution is beginning. Ends on a major cliffhanger. (Also, I was tickled to see a minor character named after
marykaykare, presumably by arrangement.)C.J. Cherryh, Conspirator
In this opening volume of the fourth Atevi trilogy, the rebellion seems to be over but the dust hasn't quite settled yet. Bren Cameron is back in Shejidan, but not in his own apartment, still occupied by a politically suspect plan -- so when the redoubtable Uncle Tatiseigi wants the Atageini apartment back for the legislative session, Bren volunteers to spend some time at his seaside estate, where he entertains his brother and his brother's partner who also happens to be Bren's ex and still not exactly over him. That's only the beginning of his problems, though as the young heir to the throne decides to join the party, and there are difficulties with the neighboring estate. It's interesting to see Bren dealing with what it really means to be an Atevi lord -- and not doing too badly at it; there's plenty of excitement and tension, as he realizes that dissuading the Atevi from adopting cell phones is not the only thing he needs to worry about. The ending is ... abrupt -- almost in the middle of a scene, in fact, right after Ilisidi drops a bombshell.
