Recent reading
Feb. 25th, 2017 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaFinally have gotten rid of the cold and went running today again, and it felt great! \o/
Stretto by L. Timmel Duchamp (#5 in the Marq'ssan Cycle)
Final book in the series, and wow, it came together in a way that had me staying up late at night to finish it. Although like the previous books, there were some scenes that were hard to read--horrible patterns of interaction in both private and political relationships keep repeating themselves. But there are definitely also people who manage to get out of those patterns, and what a payoff that is. And the ending is hopeful. I think I understand why the author insists on having those difficult-to-read elements--she wants to write about a potentially utopian political transformation, but not to ignore the way that political actors such as intelligence agencies and the military manipulate, repress, and torture political opposition in today's world. So yeah. Recommended, if you can stomach extended scenes of (mostly psychological) torture, among other things.
Heavy Time by C J Cherryh (audiobook, in the Alliance-Union 'verse)
I was not that into this, although I ought to have been--it's about downtrodden miners in space who work for a corrupt company. Themes include: how much do you help other people, with risk to yourself? Basically, I liked the beginning and end but thought it dragged in the middle, and also I was confused about some things, which is maybe because of listening to it on audiobook. Like, I never figured out what the Shepherd organization actually was.
Stretto by L. Timmel Duchamp (#5 in the Marq'ssan Cycle)
Final book in the series, and wow, it came together in a way that had me staying up late at night to finish it. Although like the previous books, there were some scenes that were hard to read--horrible patterns of interaction in both private and political relationships keep repeating themselves. But there are definitely also people who manage to get out of those patterns, and what a payoff that is. And the ending is hopeful. I think I understand why the author insists on having those difficult-to-read elements--she wants to write about a potentially utopian political transformation, but not to ignore the way that political actors such as intelligence agencies and the military manipulate, repress, and torture political opposition in today's world. So yeah. Recommended, if you can stomach extended scenes of (mostly psychological) torture, among other things.
Heavy Time by C J Cherryh (audiobook, in the Alliance-Union 'verse)
I was not that into this, although I ought to have been--it's about downtrodden miners in space who work for a corrupt company. Themes include: how much do you help other people, with risk to yourself? Basically, I liked the beginning and end but thought it dragged in the middle, and also I was confused about some things, which is maybe because of listening to it on audiobook. Like, I never figured out what the Shepherd organization actually was.
