Recent reading
Feb. 26th, 2018 08:37 pmCinder by Marissa Meyer (#1 in the Lunar Chronicles)
For my fannish book club. This is a YA SF version of Cinderella, and it's page-turney enough, but I thought the world-building was shallow and unconvincing. Like, it's supposed to be set in future China, but the China felt kind of pasted on. Also, a couple of hundred years in the future there are people living on the moon who have more political and military power than all the people on Earth put together (and not because Earth society has collapsed in any way). Also the moon peoplehave magic can manipulate bioelectricity. I dunno, I can suspend disbelief for a fun plot, but I'm just not motivated enough here.
No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin
A collection of her blog posts, some of which I had already read on her website, but many not. Delightful and thoughtprovoking as always--I will happily read her musings about her cat, or whatever she chose to write. Aaah, her language, I love it so.
I also had a couple of false starts. I listened to about a third of Scatter, Adapt and Remember by Annalee Newitz, which is about how humanity might survive a mass extinction (possibly recced by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jesse_the_k?) But I thought it was too superficial, skipping from subject to subject quickly and not delving deeply enough into them. Like, I would have happily read a whole book on past mass extinctions and their causes, and this just tickled my curiosity before moving on. And then I read in a review that she spends a lot of time on space elevators as a method of survival for humanity? Eh, I'm skeptical.
Then I read fifty pages of Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer. I'd read Too Like the Lightning some time ago, and been intrigued but ambivalent about it. But it's done the opposite of growing on me since. I still thought I should give the second volume a try, but I didn't get far. Everything is so charged with power games in a way I don't enjoy, and there are two rapes in the first fifty pages. Wait, those aren't supposed to be two of the surrenders in the title, are they?? Anyway, I didn't get any further.
For my fannish book club. This is a YA SF version of Cinderella, and it's page-turney enough, but I thought the world-building was shallow and unconvincing. Like, it's supposed to be set in future China, but the China felt kind of pasted on. Also, a couple of hundred years in the future there are people living on the moon who have more political and military power than all the people on Earth put together (and not because Earth society has collapsed in any way). Also the moon people
No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin
A collection of her blog posts, some of which I had already read on her website, but many not. Delightful and thoughtprovoking as always--I will happily read her musings about her cat, or whatever she chose to write. Aaah, her language, I love it so.
I also had a couple of false starts. I listened to about a third of Scatter, Adapt and Remember by Annalee Newitz, which is about how humanity might survive a mass extinction (possibly recced by
jesse_the_k?) But I thought it was too superficial, skipping from subject to subject quickly and not delving deeply enough into them. Like, I would have happily read a whole book on past mass extinctions and their causes, and this just tickled my curiosity before moving on. And then I read in a review that she spends a lot of time on space elevators as a method of survival for humanity? Eh, I'm skeptical. Then I read fifty pages of Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer. I'd read Too Like the Lightning some time ago, and been intrigued but ambivalent about it. But it's done the opposite of growing on me since. I still thought I should give the second volume a try, but I didn't get far. Everything is so charged with power games in a way I don't enjoy, and there are two rapes in the first fifty pages. Wait, those aren't supposed to be two of the surrenders in the title, are they?? Anyway, I didn't get any further.
