Recent reading and listening
May. 5th, 2013 11:48 amMatriarch, by Karen Traviss (#4 in the Wess'Har series)
Hmm. I loved the first book in this series (SF with an environmental focus), but I'm not entirely sold on it now. I don't know why? Maybe because its ethics lie closer to the animals rights movement than to the environmental movement? And there's an interesting vee-relationship with two humans and an alien, but there's a bit too much "what is this alien poly thing, humans couldn't possibly do it on their own, it's against our monogamous instincts!" And I dunno, I get the feeling that things are too black and white in the story, but OTOH people are always making hard choices and mulling over their ethics. Maybe it's that I don't get the feeling of there being a society behind it all with collective interaction? I can't put my finger on it. Anyway, the books are clearly making me think, at least, and I've already got the last two in the series, so I'll finish it.
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (audiobook read by Dylan Baker)
Wow, I loved this. ♥ I actually picked it up because Ursula K. Le Guin said in a blog post: If somebody came up to me in a dark alley with a sharp knife and said, "Name The Great American Novel or die!" — I would gasp forth, squeakily, "The Grapes of Wrath!" What surprised me about this book is how very much to the left it is, politically. I mean, this is a book that American kids read for school assignments, right? And it's not like the US doesn't have a strong tradition of politics to the left, I know, but the whole current political scale of Republicans and Democrats is shifted so far to the right that the Democrats are like the Swedish right-wing parties. I just didn't expect it. Anyway, back to the book itself. Lovely lovely writing, nnngh. I loved the alternating structure with every other chapter giving a wider view and putting it all into context (talk about getting a sense of a whole society surrounding the main characters!) And the audiobook really worked, too--this was one of those readers who can create distinct character voices for tons of different people.
Fic-wise, I have really enjoyed![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sineala's long Eagle fic Chosen Man. Deliciously drawn-out UST and relationship-building, and it's an AU, so you can go ahead and read it even if you're not in the fandom.
Hmm. I loved the first book in this series (SF with an environmental focus), but I'm not entirely sold on it now. I don't know why? Maybe because its ethics lie closer to the animals rights movement than to the environmental movement? And there's an interesting vee-relationship with two humans and an alien, but there's a bit too much "what is this alien poly thing, humans couldn't possibly do it on their own, it's against our monogamous instincts!" And I dunno, I get the feeling that things are too black and white in the story, but OTOH people are always making hard choices and mulling over their ethics. Maybe it's that I don't get the feeling of there being a society behind it all with collective interaction? I can't put my finger on it. Anyway, the books are clearly making me think, at least, and I've already got the last two in the series, so I'll finish it.
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (audiobook read by Dylan Baker)
Wow, I loved this. ♥ I actually picked it up because Ursula K. Le Guin said in a blog post: If somebody came up to me in a dark alley with a sharp knife and said, "Name The Great American Novel or die!" — I would gasp forth, squeakily, "The Grapes of Wrath!" What surprised me about this book is how very much to the left it is, politically. I mean, this is a book that American kids read for school assignments, right? And it's not like the US doesn't have a strong tradition of politics to the left, I know, but the whole current political scale of Republicans and Democrats is shifted so far to the right that the Democrats are like the Swedish right-wing parties. I just didn't expect it. Anyway, back to the book itself. Lovely lovely writing, nnngh. I loved the alternating structure with every other chapter giving a wider view and putting it all into context (talk about getting a sense of a whole society surrounding the main characters!) And the audiobook really worked, too--this was one of those readers who can create distinct character voices for tons of different people.
Fic-wise, I have really enjoyed
sineala's long Eagle fic Chosen Man. Deliciously drawn-out UST and relationship-building, and it's an AU, so you can go ahead and read it even if you're not in the fandom.
