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Recent reading
Jan. 9th, 2017 08:21 pmArra by Maria Turtschaninoff (only in Swedish)
YA fantasy, set in the same world as Anaché which I read recently and loved. I didn't enjoy this one as much, though. Arra, the main character, spends a lot of of the book being abused and basically enslaved by her awful sister. She does eventually get agency towards the end, but I feel like the whole storyline is a lot more traditional and less interesting than in Anaché. It's a bit like Cinderella but with a more heroic female role.
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
For my fannish book club. Wow, I loved this; we all did. Probably some spoilers ahead; it's hard to talk about this book without it.
As everyone else has said, it's either a sweet love story or it's about a creepy mastermind who manipulates everything around him. I think our conclusion was that these are not mutually exclusive things and that they are both true. But the book really leaves the question open. I liked Thaniel a lot, even in the beginning when he was just keeping his head down and wearily doing his job, and some other members of book club found him slightly boring. : ) I also really shipped the romance despite potential creepyness. I guess in my heart I do not believe that Mori is as omniscient/omnipotent as he would need to be to pull off that whole scene at the end. Anyway, I recommend this book (although I do feel like the last person in fandom to read it)! I've never seen anything quite like it before.
I am also pondering whether this is SF or fantasy? Mori's abilities could be explained in an SF-y way by Grace's explanation, although then it would be an alternate world where ether exists. But Mori's creations really feel too advanced. I mean, Katsu (who is adorable, btw) is almost an AI, right? He reacts to things and people in a way that is way too advanced to be clockwork. I guess Mori could be remembering tech from the future? But even so, such technology can't exist in isolation; it would need a whole industry around it. Or are Mori and his creations just magic?
YA fantasy, set in the same world as Anaché which I read recently and loved. I didn't enjoy this one as much, though. Arra, the main character, spends a lot of of the book being abused and basically enslaved by her awful sister. She does eventually get agency towards the end, but I feel like the whole storyline is a lot more traditional and less interesting than in Anaché. It's a bit like Cinderella but with a more heroic female role.
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
For my fannish book club. Wow, I loved this; we all did. Probably some spoilers ahead; it's hard to talk about this book without it.
As everyone else has said, it's either a sweet love story or it's about a creepy mastermind who manipulates everything around him. I think our conclusion was that these are not mutually exclusive things and that they are both true. But the book really leaves the question open. I liked Thaniel a lot, even in the beginning when he was just keeping his head down and wearily doing his job, and some other members of book club found him slightly boring. : ) I also really shipped the romance despite potential creepyness. I guess in my heart I do not believe that Mori is as omniscient/omnipotent as he would need to be to pull off that whole scene at the end. Anyway, I recommend this book (although I do feel like the last person in fandom to read it)! I've never seen anything quite like it before.
I am also pondering whether this is SF or fantasy? Mori's abilities could be explained in an SF-y way by Grace's explanation, although then it would be an alternate world where ether exists. But Mori's creations really feel too advanced. I mean, Katsu (who is adorable, btw) is almost an AI, right? He reacts to things and people in a way that is way too advanced to be clockwork. I guess Mori could be remembering tech from the future? But even so, such technology can't exist in isolation; it would need a whole industry around it. Or are Mori and his creations just magic?
