Recent reading

[luzula]

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
I enjoyed this! I've given up on the Vorkosigan books--I loved the ones centered on Cordelia, but I just never warmed to Miles. But then I picked this one up at a bookswap, and it grabbed me at once. I like how this book avoids several of the usual fantasy tropes--for example, the main character is definitely not a teenager coming of age. Still with the feudalism, though, and I could've done without the romance. Anyway, this is solid entertaining fantasy, and I'll be reading the sequel.

A Betrayal In Winter by Daniel Abraham (book #2 in the Long Price Quartet)
It's been a year since I read the first book, and clearly I shouldn't have waited that long--the plot in this one stands reasonably on its own, and it's set at least ten years in the future from the first one, but it's better for knowing the characters and the fallout from the first book. It was interesting to compare this one with the Chalion book, which is similar on the surface: they are both fantasy books with court intrigue. But the Chalion book has much more id-appeal, in that you can cheer for the protagonists when they defeat the villains. This book doesn't really have any villains: we get POV sections from all sides and can empathize with them all, even the ones doing the murdering. As in the first one, the language is elegant and the feel of the book a bit elegiac.

Transformations by Anne Sexton
Fractured fairy tales, in poetry. I thought this would be up my alley, but sadly it didn't really speak to me.

Comments

[isis]

Re Chalion, the sequel is utterly different. But there is some fanfic (and that is how I got into the series, by beta-reading a Yuletide story).

[luzula]

Huh, it hadn't even occurred to me to look for fic. *goes to check* What, there's 71 fics for it? It didn't strike me as the kind of book that would inspire a lot of fic.

[espresso_addict]

I'm with you on Miles vs Cordelia, though he's somewhat less annoying in the later books (Memory onwards; if you like casefic and/or Alys Vorpatril, I'd strongly recommend Memory, though you have to wade through some Miles angst at the beginning to get to the good bit).

I was a bit disappointed in the sequel to Curse of Chalion as it concentrates on a romance that I found even less interesting than the ones in CoC.

[luzula]

Thanks for the tip about the sequel! I probably won't be reading it, then--I just wasn't interested in the romance in Curse of Chalion.

[antisoppist]

I gave up on Bujold halfway through Warrior's Apprentice because I couldn't stand Miles but then I found Komarr in a charity shop and got hooked back in again by Ekaterin. After that I read forwards to the end, then back to Brothers in Arms and forwards, then back to The Vor Game and Cetaganda and only finished The Warrior's Apprentice when I had really run out of everything else! I think I read the series in a sort of backwards spiral of irritating Mileslessness.

[luzula]

Ha. I think my feeling is that I have so much stuff on my to-read list that if I'm reading something even though it irritates me, I'm better off reading something else. I can always read fic with Cordelia in it instead...

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Fancy some back-story for The Curse of Chalion?

Life, stripped of all luxuries (http://archiveofourown.org/works/34159) (2609 words) by keerawa (http://archiveofourown.org/users/keerawa)
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Chalion Saga - Bujold (http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Chalion%20Saga%20-%20Bujold)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Cazaril/Palli
Characters: Lupe dy Cazaril, March dy Palliar
Additional Tags: Angst, warfare, siege, Hurt/Comfort, Soldiers, Military, Starvation, Poetry, Podfic Available
Summary:

Poetry created under siege.

[luzula]

I already have it open in a tab. : )