What you're reading - July 2017

[AncalagonTheBlack]

On 7/20/2017 at 4:06 AM, Plessiez said:

..  Would you say that it was self contained enough to be worth carrying on with even if I'm not sure I'd be interested in reading any of the sequels?

Yes,most of the plot is resolved by the end.No cliffhangers! I would even go so far as to say that this could easily work as a standalone novel without the need for sequels.

[Astromech]

Finished Donald L. Miller's excellent history of the 8th Air Force in WW2, Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany.

[williamjm]

Hugo voting may have ended but I'm exploring some of the voter's packet. I've started Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead, the series seems to be well liked around here and it's been good fun so far, the plot feels quite fast-moving despite the amount of world-building it has to explain.

[Iskaral Pust]

Finished The Hangman's Daughter, a historical fiction set in 17th century Germany and translated from German.  It's the first of a series of the same name and Amazon was pretty insistent in recommending it so I gave it a try.  The plot is a murder mystery and witch trial amid a backdrop of ignorance, superstition and small town politics, but fortunately the two heroes -- the hangman and his daughter's suitor; it's not at all clear after the first volume why the series is named for the daughter, who is only a secondary character -- are enlightened, progressive and rational and we can easily spot the bad guys because they're pointedly the most ignorant, reactionary and misogynistic.  

I enjoyed the well-researched portrayal of this specific place and time in history, but the writing didn't really have enough quality to make it compelling.  Not terrible but not one I'd recommend.  I won't be reading further in the series. 

[Isis]

On 7/19/2017 at 9:38 AM, Summer Bass said:

I finished Francis Spufford's Golden Hill literally just a few minutes ago (I started reading it and read it all the way through). It is so very good, easily the best fiction I've read this year, and some of the best historical fiction I've ever read. If you haven't read either that or Spufford's Red Plenty, I strongly recommend both.

I so nearly bought this last weekend but went for Alif the Unseen instead. But this is clearly a tipping point, so I'll purchase it right now.

[Astromech]

14 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Finished The Hangman's Daughter, a historical fiction set in 17th century Germany and translated from German.  It's the first of a series of the same name and Amazon was pretty insistent in recommending it so I gave it a try.  The plot is a murder mystery and witch trial amid a backdrop of ignorance, superstition and small town politics, but fortunately the two heroes -- the hangman and his daughter's suitor; it's not at all clear after the first volume why the series is named for the daughter, who is only a secondary character -- are enlightened, progressive and rational and we can easily spot the bad guys because they're pointedly the most ignorant, reactionary and misogynistic.  

I enjoyed the well-researched portrayal of this specific place and time in history, but the writing didn't really have enough quality to make it compelling.  Not terrible but not one I'd recommend.  I won't be reading further in the series. 

I always debated starting that series. A similar novel would be Vaclav Kaplicky's Witch Hammer based upon a series of real witch trials and the surrounding hysteria and paranoia that plagued the region of Moravia in the 17th C. It's morbid, tragic and filled with dark humor.

Finally found a copy of Robert Graves' Count Belisarius, so started that the other day.

[Paxter]

Finally finished Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I struggled with this slightly due to the overly melodramatic central love story. But I loved the Gothic elements: the eerie descriptions of the moors, the bleak and loveless Heights and the

Spoiler

almost vampiric portrayal of Heathcliff as he meets his end.

I was also pretty impressed with Bronte's knowledge of inheritance law! Things get complicated with different rules applying to real and personal property.

Now on to Bakker's The Unholy Consult.

[unJon]

Read The Unholy Consult. My detailed thoughts are in the spoiler thread. 

Also just finished Foreign Devils by John Horner Jacob, the sequel to The Incorruptibles and second in a trilogy(?). It was very good and a fun continuation of the mash up. I had frankly forgotten most of the plot of the first book and had trouble finding a synopsis online, but it mostly came back to me as I read this book and the author did a good job of filling in relevant plot points from the first book. 

ETA: Looks line third book, Infernal Machines, hits on Thursday! Nice. So far recommend to people that like a good mash-up (Western, Romans, evil elves, dwarves, demons, good action). 

[williamjm]

I finished Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead, which I enjoyed a lot. It reminded me a bit of Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs, both being set in a formerly divine city whose Gods have recently been killed, although it perhaps doesn't quite have the same depth. The characters were likeable, there maybe wasn't a huge amount of character development but given that the book takes place over about three days that's perhaps understandable. It did also have a very effective main villain. The mystery plot worked well and I thought the conclusion was good. I'll probably start the second book next, although I'm not quite sure if I'll read all the way through the omnibus in one go.

[Darth Richard II]

Heh, man, I remember the year/ year and half City of Stairs and Three Parts Dead came out I think there were at least 3 other debuts about dead/dying Gods. It was almost a trend in SFF for a min then assassins took over again.

[End of Disc One]

1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

Heh, man, I remember the year/ year and half City of Stairs and Three Parts Dead came out I think there were at least 3 other debuts about dead/dying Gods. It was almost a trend in SFF for a min then assassins took over again.

Wasn't Ben Peek's series one of them?  I haven't read any of these yet but I have City of Stairs and the others look interesting too. 

[Darth Richard II]

22 minutes ago, End of Disc One said:

Wasn't Ben Peek's series one of them?  I haven't read any of these yet but I have City of Stairs and the others look interesting too. 

Yup. I think Luke Scull's first hit around then too.

[Maester Llama]

Yeah, I ... think Scull was 2013? The first of Gladstone's Craft novels -- glad you enjoyed it, I think they're great! -- was late 2012 I think, so yeah very close. Bennett's City of Stairs was I think September 2014, so definitely a mini trend.

 

Finished Theodora Goss's The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, her debut novel -- she's an experienced short story writer and poet -- that mashes up gothic novels from Jekyll and Hyde to Frankenstein to several others into a shared universe and approaches their stories from a feminist perspective, focusing on the daughters of the scientist / experimenter either mentioned briefly, implied but never discussed outright, or -- in the case of Frankenstein -- specifically never brought into being in each story. The daughters get together and solve a mystery -- or the beginnings of a mystery, since this sounds like it's at least a duology -- tied directly to their fathers' creepy experiments. The style's really interesting, and captures the book's move to give these elided characters back their voices in a way that was really effective for me: The book is written by one of the main characters within the universe, with the rest of the daughters offering frequent editorial comments, criticizing or praising the writing or offering differing perspectives or sometimes just talking, which are integrated directly into the body of the text on their own lines preceded by the appropriate character's name. I suspect some people will find this throws them out of the story and is distracting; for me it does the opposite and is one of my favourite parts of the book, a really effective blending of form and theme. One thing that I think might help here in terms of making this style choice more digestible for leery readers is that the writing is otherwise pretty no-frills; the language is clear and straightforward, with only the occasional minor flourish, often going with Victorian turns of phrase, but never leaning on Victorian pastiche when doing so might make anything less accessible -- there's lots of 21st century language when that'll make the story and the emotional register easier to grasp. Personally I'd have loved more chewy Victorianism in terms of style, but I can see how the book's lighter touch is the right choice.

 

I pretty much loved this: I was very much in the bag for it in terms of subject matter and thematic concerns, which I'm sure weighed with me, but I think it's great on the merits. The plot's brisk and absorbing, if maybe a bit less intricate than it first appears, and wraps up giving us some satisfying answers while leaving broad scope for more adventures. The writing is fine, and is elevated by the central conceit of the editorial comments. And the characters are just great; the daughters have well-drawn personalities that bounce off each other insightfully and entertainingly, and while they're absolutely the main focus an appearance by a pretty orthodox but -- for me -- very well-evoked Holmes and Watson is also very welcome. Great stuff and I look forward to the next one.

 

About a quarter of the way through Lara Elena Donelly's debut Amberlough, a secondary world novel without magic set in a country -- and mostly the titular city -- in which a repressive fascist party is on the rise against a backdrop of 1920s-esque glamor and nightclub culture, all overlaid with spy antics. Pretty compelling so far as a portrait of a society, and in microcosm particular people within that society, dancing toward the brink, convincing themselves that the worst will never actually happen or won't effect them. I can already tell the end is gonna be super cheerful!

[Plessiez]

On 7/19/2017 at 9:38 AM, Summer Bass said:

I finished Francis Spufford's Golden Hill literally just a few minutes ago (I started reading it and read it all the way through). It is so very good, easily the best fiction I've read this year, and some of the best historical fiction I've ever read. If you haven't read either that or Spufford's Red Plenty, I strongly recommend both. 

So, yeah, this was really good.  I don't know enough about colonial American history to have any idea if it's historically accurate (I had the vague feeling that some of the parallels seemed a bit too on the nose, if that makes sense), and my gut feeling at the moment is that I like Red Plenty a little bit more, but this was certainly one of the better things I've read this year.

On 7/19/2017 at 10:19 AM, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Also finished the epic fantasy debut, The Court of Broken Knives (Empires of Dust #1) by Anna Smith Spark.Unique voice and some pretty prose.She managed to pack a lot into a 400 page book.Reminded me of Mark Lawrence's debut in some ways.Definitely in my top 5 fantasy debuts of the year.

.I really didn't like this though.  Which I could probably have guessed in advance (I dislike Bakker's stuff quite a lot, I had mixed feelings about Richard Morgan's fantasy series, and so on) but several people have said good things about it (both here and elsewhere).  It's just not really my sort of thing, I guess.

It's definitely well-written (for the most part -- there's some slightly jarring first-person-perspective stuff that I don't really see the point of), and the middle third especially is pretty gripping.   But ultimately, it just felt like lots of horrible stuff happening to horrible people for no particular reason, which isn't really what I want out of fiction.

[Iskaral Pust]

Finished A Man With One Of Those Faces by Caimh McDonnell, a very humorous mystery novel set in Dublin.  Very similar to Bateman's Mystery Man series.  Definitely worth a read for the humor. 

Now reading Prisoners Of Geography.  Non-fiction geopolitics.  Good so far. 

[House Balstroko]

Quick question. I want to watch American Gods but feel like reading the novel first. Is it a standalone or part of a series?

[Mr. X]

4 hours ago, House Balstroko said:

Quick question. I want to watch American Gods but feel like reading the novel first. Is it a standalone or part of a series?

It's a standalone. Gaiman has used some characters in later works, but that's more a "writing in the same world" thing than a series thing.

[Peadar]

Starting Showstopper by Haley Barker. YA adventure.

[williamjm]

14 hours ago, House Balstroko said:

Quick question. I want to watch American Gods but feel like reading the novel first. Is it a standalone or part of a series?

As Mr X said, it's a standalone although there are a couple of novellas that follow on from the events in it - Monarch of the Glen (which was included at the end of the American Gods paperback I have) and Black Dog - which you might want to read afterwards. There's also the novel Anansi Boys which is set in the same world, I haven't read it yet but as I understand it it isn't a direct sequel.

I think in the past Gaiman has mentioned the idea of a potential American Gods sequel but I don't know of a firm plan.

[Astromech]

While still a fine novel, Robert Graves' Count Belisarius didn't entertain me nearly as much as his I, Claudius and Claudius the God. (But, in fairness, those are two of my favorite novels.) Part of it was wanting more political intrigue as in the Claudius novels and Eugenius being a bit of a bore as a narrator.

Next up are Daniel Ray Pollock's The Devil all the Time and William Gay's Provinces of Night.