Recent reading

[luzula]

Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson
This is not science fiction, but rather a historical novel about people during the end of the last Ice Age. And yet it feels like a logical next step for KSR--I've always loved his nature descriptions, and Mars is a cold and sparsely populated place where people are dependent on technology, just like paleolithic Earth was. Probably some people would find this book boring, because it's a bit slow-moving and rich in description in parts, but I really liked it. And there is some tense action, you just have to wait a bit for it. Recommended!

Eld [Fire] by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren (audiobook, #2 in the Engelsfors trilogy)
YA fantasy; I reviewed #1 here. Okay, yeah, the second part is really hooking me! It's got a large (mostly female) cast of characters which it built up in the first book, and that's paying off now. I like the descriptions of high school in small-town Sweden. It's got a TV-series feel to it, in that the story putters along jumping between POV:s and giving us new little episodes of drama, though there is an overarching story, and I'm enjoying the character development. There's some great emotional payoff with people becoming friends even though they're pretty different. Also please to resolve that f/f romantic tension and let them have a happy ending in the last book... These books are translated into English, if you want to give them a try.

I also started the Kate Elliot book Passage of Stars (#1 in the Highroad trilogy). I feel like everybody is reading Kate Elliot, and I never have. This book opens with a privileged teenage girl who is super-skilled at martial arts, rebelling against her parents. Meh, not in the mood for it--maybe I should try another one. Are all her books YA?

Comments

[isis]

Ooh, some good recs there! I've always loved KSR but I bounced hard off a couple of his recent ones. And I've seen the Engelsfors trilogy mentioned before.

Have you yet tried Memory of Water?

[luzula]

I bounced off Galileo's Dream recently. Haven't tried Aurora yet, but it's on my to-read list. Did you try that one?

I have gotten my library to buy Memory of Water and I am now on the waiting list for it as soon as it comes in. : )

ETA: The Engelsfors trilogy really gets better in the second book, IMO. Not that the first book is bad, but it takes you a while to get into the large cast of characters.

[frayadjacent]

I read all of A Passage of Stars and only had fleeting moments where I really liked it. I was interested enough to keep going but then the second book switched POV to my least favourite character so I put it down.

I also started Spirit Gate (which is fantasy) and a similar thing happened so I stopped again! /o\ I was starting to despair that I'd never get into this author that so many people are into. BTW, Spirit Gate isn't YA, but I also hadn't thought of A Passage of Stars as YA so maybe I don't know my genres.

Anyway, I'm now reading her latest novel, Black Wolves, and really liking it. The characters and story are working for me. Don't let the blurb fool you: most of the time (I've heard 70%) it's a woman POV.

[luzula]

but I also hadn't thought of A Passage of Stars as YA so maybe I don't know my genres.

I just assumed it was because it started with a teenage protagonist with special skills, etc, which seems to me like a YA trope. But maybe the book doesn't go on like that.

I'll put Black Wolves on my list of books to check out, then! Thanks for the rec. : )

[skygiants]

I think officially her latest (Court of Fives) is her first YA, but the Spiritwalker trilogy -- which is her only other stuff I've read -- felt very YA to me too.

[luzula]

Thanks! It's not that I dislike YA, it's just that sometimes I'm not in the mood for certain tropes.

[frayadjacent]

Oh, I just remembered, she's actually like 30 years old. But her family cultural norms infantilise her so her position feels like one of a teenager.

[luzula]

What, she was 30? I didn't read closely enough, then...