Recent reading
Feb. 28th, 2016 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaThe Corn King and the Spring Queen by Naomi Mitchison
A 700-page historical brick. As always, I like her writing a lot. Especially in the beginning of the book, I sometimes empathized with the characters, and sometimes I was thrown out of their heads (usually because of some act of violence). But the length of the book paid off, and I was really into it by the end. I could see parallells to Mitchison's other work in the social movement in Sparta, which was interesting, and I enjoy seeing history written from that angle. Also, I wanted some more Philylla/Erif! There are plenty of hints of it, but. *wants more*
Turns out there is actually a Philylla and Erif friendship fic from last Yuletide, though, and I have that open in a tab. I know the author is good, so I'm going to save it up for a bit.
Tea With the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy
Hmmm. I did not quite connect with this book, although it wasn't bad or anything.
Letters To Zell by Camille Griep
For my fannish book club. I quit reading this book after 25%, and was prepared to be the grumpy one who liked neither this book nor the last one we read. But hey, turns out nobody enjoyed this one. It's a book that mashes up fairy tales and has the characters interact in the modern world, which is hard to do well, I think. I mean, I enjoy fairy tales in their own context, but if you just throw some random fairy tale characters together and let them interact in a modern context, you often lose what made them interesting to start with. I know, the author would say it wasn't random since it was meant to comment on the position of women in fairy tales, but it just didn't work for me. And the writing didn't grab me, either.
Book club team, feel free to jump in and tell me what didn't work for you.
A 700-page historical brick. As always, I like her writing a lot. Especially in the beginning of the book, I sometimes empathized with the characters, and sometimes I was thrown out of their heads (usually because of some act of violence). But the length of the book paid off, and I was really into it by the end. I could see parallells to Mitchison's other work in the social movement in Sparta, which was interesting, and I enjoy seeing history written from that angle. Also, I wanted some more Philylla/Erif! There are plenty of hints of it, but. *wants more*
Turns out there is actually a Philylla and Erif friendship fic from last Yuletide, though, and I have that open in a tab. I know the author is good, so I'm going to save it up for a bit.
Tea With the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy
Hmmm. I did not quite connect with this book, although it wasn't bad or anything.
Letters To Zell by Camille Griep
For my fannish book club. I quit reading this book after 25%, and was prepared to be the grumpy one who liked neither this book nor the last one we read. But hey, turns out nobody enjoyed this one. It's a book that mashes up fairy tales and has the characters interact in the modern world, which is hard to do well, I think. I mean, I enjoy fairy tales in their own context, but if you just throw some random fairy tale characters together and let them interact in a modern context, you often lose what made them interesting to start with. I know, the author would say it wasn't random since it was meant to comment on the position of women in fairy tales, but it just didn't work for me. And the writing didn't grab me, either.
Book club team, feel free to jump in and tell me what didn't work for you.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-03-03 07:58 pm (UTC)R. A. MacAvoy's name stirs warm feelings, but zero memories. Google showed me she's currently in the process of reviewing (the context of) her own bibliography:
http://ramacavoy.com
Checking my shelves, the Book of Kells and the "Trio for Lute" collection were of particular delight. I find her fantasy elements much lower-key (while still fantastic).
Margo Lanagan has done some outstanding fairy-tale revisions; Tender Morsels retells Snow White & Blood Red.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191922780
Her writing knocks my socks off: spare, with characters who stay in character.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-03-03 09:40 pm (UTC)The other brick lying in my to-read pile is C J Cherryh's Cyteen; will read it when I feel up to something of that thickness again.
I've previously read and enjoyed The Grey Horse by MacAvoy.
*makes note of Margo Lanagan*
(no subject)
Date: 2016-03-06 12:11 am (UTC)But rape as a social issue must be faced: I adored Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death, a grueling exploration of life as a child of weaponized rape. In the end, I was delighted that Le Guin wrote Shevek as a date rapist, to muddy the utopia even more.
So, I am confusing, I contain multitudes.
Cyteen is the one Cherryh I've read, and I'm glad I had a book group to keep me oriented. This might help:
http://alliance-union.wikia.com/wiki/Cyteen_(novel)
She draws complex, mean baddies in great detail; she doesn't flinch from amorality in the service of questioning ethics. And to keep things confusing, the most powerful people clone themselves to ensure they don't have any nasty succession issues, so there are various editions of many important characters. Cyteen is politics-as-warfare: the winning characters are peculiarly skilled at mind-fucking everyone else.
She's not particularly feminist; she dwells in a truly post-feminist universe, where she creates highly capable strong-female-protagonists. Her men tend to be led around by their dicks, however.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-03-06 07:11 pm (UTC)Yeah, I thought Who Fears Death was good, too.
I've read other Cherryh, so hopefully I know what I'm in for. : )