Recent reading
Jul. 19th, 2016 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaSorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
This was very enjoyable, as everyone has been saying! But I found myself with reservations at the end. Zacharias thinks at the end that Prunella would be a much better Sorcerer Royal than he was, and she's certainly more effective. But I found myself a bit uncomfortable at the way she steam-rollered everyone and killed her familiar. She's a super-strong sorcerer now, so it's pretty much might makes right, and we're meant to sympathize with what she does because we sympathize with her ends. Not that I in any way sympathize with the ends or the means of her enemies. And the narrative of someone powerless coming into their power obviously has id-appeal. Still...it made me a bit unsettled. "Magic is not a democracy", as they say in the book. *ponders*
Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman
This had an enthusiastic blurb by Le Guin on the front. I don't know that it really earns it--this is exploring-a-new-planet SF and I enjoyed it enough to finish it, but it didn't blow me away.
This was very enjoyable, as everyone has been saying! But I found myself with reservations at the end. Zacharias thinks at the end that Prunella would be a much better Sorcerer Royal than he was, and she's certainly more effective. But I found myself a bit uncomfortable at the way she steam-rollered everyone and killed her familiar. She's a super-strong sorcerer now, so it's pretty much might makes right, and we're meant to sympathize with what she does because we sympathize with her ends. Not that I in any way sympathize with the ends or the means of her enemies. And the narrative of someone powerless coming into their power obviously has id-appeal. Still...it made me a bit unsettled. "Magic is not a democracy", as they say in the book. *ponders*
Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman
This had an enthusiastic blurb by Le Guin on the front. I don't know that it really earns it--this is exploring-a-new-planet SF and I enjoyed it enough to finish it, but it didn't blow me away.
