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Lily Valley

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:rofl:  That doesn't make me like it.

Currently finishing the novelette category.  I had already nominated The Tomato Thief, which I really enjoyed.  I'm halfway through Alyssa Wong's story and need to read the RP offering.   These were all fun, but none of them had the "WOW!" factor of the novellas, but I think that's because novelette isn't my favorite length for work.  They always feel a little rushed for me.  Personal preference.  

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On 6/27/2017 at 10:33 AM, Lily Valley said:

:rofl:  That doesn't make me like it.

That's okay. It's no surprise that it's a polarizing novel -- books with such a strong viewpoint and narrative voice often are (like, for instance, The Library at Mount Char, another favorite of mine). Sort of like Marmite -- strong tastes tend to inspire love/hate reactions.

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Just finished most of the October Daye shorts.  They were fun.  I think I'll try to finish the novels before hitting The Craft Sequence or the Novik book.  Anyone got a favorite in the series category that's not in the packet?  I'm flying through material these days.

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2 hours ago, Lily Valley said:

Just finished most of the October Daye shorts.  They were fun.  I think I'll try to finish the novels before hitting The Craft Sequence or the Novik book.  Anyone got a favorite in the series category that's not in the packet?  I'm flying through material these days.

It's really no secret that I'd vote all the slots for Vorkosigan if I could. ;-)

 

I did very much enjoy the first Craft book. Not so much the second. IMHO, it's a great idea that wasn't really followed through well enough. Also on the Novik books, I thought the first book was probably the best -- though a twist at the end of book 4 made book 5 very interesting to me.

 

If you haven't read the Rivers of London books yet, you should. Same with the Expanse books.

 

Right now, I think my series list will look like this:

 

Vorkosigan

Expanse

Rivers of London

Craft (maaaaybe)

October Daye

Novik

 

I wish more of the Craft books were out in audio, but there are only two available. I've done all the other series in audio (at least four of each). My opinion might change if I read more of the Craft series, but I'm not very likely to get to them in eyes-on-the-page format.

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I finished Ada Palmer's Too Like The Lightning today. I have mixed feelings about it, its ambition is admirable but sometimes it felt the book wasn't as clever as it wanted to be. I know the characters are deliberately archetypes but I find a bit disconcerting that none of the character really feel believable and although I found some of the characters interesting it felt like too many of the characters were lacking nuance. The world-building also felt a bit shallow, I like the general idea of the ambiguous utopia setting but it didn't feel like it had much depth to it and we barely got to see anything of what regular life in that society would be like since we spent almost the entire time focusing on the couple of dozen people who seem to make up everyone of significance in the world - again I think this is deliberate and even an important plot point but it does meant the world feels a bit empty. On the plus side, the plot does build up some interesting mysteries and does a decent job of gradually revealing plot points and putting in some well-concealed plot twists (particularly in regard to Mycroft's background). Initially I felt there was a bit of a disconnect between the plot about Bridger and the more general mystery plot, but I'm willing to believe that they might converge in the concluding volume - I think this is a story which might be suffering a bit from being split into two parts when it would work much better as a single novel.

I think this is a reasonable nominee, but so far I'd say I prefer A Closed and Common Orbit and Ninefox Gambit over it.

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I read Kij Johnson's The Dream Quest of Vellit-Boe, which I thought was excellent. I haven't read the Lovecraft story it's apparently based upon, although I did see there was a Lovecraftian influence. There were some very vivid descriptions of the bizarre landscapes Vellit encounters on their quest, and I thought Vellit herself was a great character.

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As good as The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe is, it's on the ballot with The Ballad Of Black Tom, which does the same reimagining-Lovecraft thing but better IMO. There's a passion to Black Tom that drives it along much more powerfully. And, it's more on the horror side. So it's going above Dream-Quest on my ballot. Right now, it's at the top, in fact (though I still have to finish This Census-Taker, which hasn't grabbed me so far, and read Every Heart A Doorway.)

ETA - 're-appropriating' might be a better word than 're-imagining' for what these stories are doing, perhaps.

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1 hour ago, mormont said:

As good as The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe is, it's on the ballot with The Ballad Of Black Tom, which does the same reimagining-Lovecraft thing but better IMO. There's a passion to Black Tom that drives it along much more powerfully. And, it's more on the horror side. So it's going above Dream-Quest on my ballot. Right now, it's at the top, in fact (though I still have to finish This Census-Taker, which hasn't grabbed me so far, and read Every Heart A Doorway.)

ETA - 're-appropriating' might be a better word than 're-imagining' for what these stories are doing, perhaps.

Haven't read The Ballad of Black Tom yet, maybe I'll do that one next and see what I think.

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On 7/1/2017 at 3:12 PM, williamjm said:

I finished Ada Palmer's Too Like The Lightning today. I have mixed feelings about it, its ambition is admirable but sometimes it felt the book wasn't as clever as it wanted to be. I know the characters are deliberately archetypes but I find a bit disconcerting that none of the character really feel believable and although I found some of the characters interesting it felt like too many of the characters were lacking nuance. The world-building also felt a bit shallow, I like the general idea of the ambiguous utopia setting but it didn't feel like it had much depth to it and we barely got to see anything of what regular life in that society would be like since we spent almost the entire time focusing on the couple of dozen people who seem to make up everyone of significance in the world - again I think this is deliberate and even an important plot point but it does meant the world feels a bit empty. On the plus side, the plot does build up some interesting mysteries and does a decent job of gradually revealing plot points and putting in some well-concealed plot twists (particularly in regard to Mycroft's background). Initially I felt there was a bit of a disconnect between the plot about Bridger and the more general mystery plot, but I'm willing to believe that they might converge in the concluding volume - I think this is a story which might be suffering a bit from being split into two parts when it would work much better as a single novel.

I think this is a reasonable nominee, but so far I'd say I prefer A Closed and Common Orbit and Ninefox Gambit over it.

I haven't read it, but a prevailing opinion I've heard about it is "If I'd known about where the second volume went I never would have bothered with it in the first place", which is a very particular kind of regret.

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13 minutes ago, Little Valkyrie said:

I haven't read it, but a prevailing opinion I've heard about it is "If I'd known about where the second volume went I never would have bothered with it in the first place", which is a very particular kind of regret.

Really? I haven't seen that said anywhere, most people on here who liked the first liked the second. (In fact I don;t think anyone who enjoyed the first did not enjoy the second, although there are certainly some people here who hated the first).

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Yeah, and a lot of people (on a very different forum I frequent) really, really hated the gender stuff--as in, saw what it was trying to do and recognized that the narrator was an unreliable shitbag, but thought it was inadequately executed, etc.  Again, this is all second-hand to me, but the particulars of what I got spoiled for were enough to say "I can level up my Templar instead of reading this."

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On 7/1/2017 at 2:40 PM, Contrarius+ said:

It's really no secret that I'd vote all the slots for Vorkosigan if I could. ;-)

 

I did very much enjoy the first Craft book. Not so much the second. IMHO, it's a great idea that wasn't really followed through well enough. Also on the Novik books, I thought the first book was probably the best -- though a twist at the end of book 4 made book 5 very interesting to me.

 

If you haven't read the Rivers of London books yet, you should. Same with the Expanse books.

 

Right now, I think my series list will look like this:

 

Vorkosigan

Expanse

Rivers of London

Craft (maaaaybe)

October Daye

Novik

 

I wish more of the Craft books were out in audio, but there are only two available. I've done all the other series in audio (at least four of each). My opinion might change if I read more of the Craft series, but I'm not very likely to get to them in eyes-on-the-page format.

Nothing is beating Vorkosigan yet!  The second novella left me cold, I just couldn't get into the whole lady beast as damsel in distress thing.

I can't figure out how to get the October Daye Omnibus from NetGalley.  Anyone had any luck with this?  I'd like to read at least one of the novels.  I am registered, but absolutely clueless after a search turned up empty.  :shrugs:

On to the Craft sequence.  I am about halfway through book one and really loving it so far.

I will finish at least one of the Rivers of London books before the deadline too.

The pdf format with the stamp on Novik's book is unreadable, if I can pick it up before the deadline, I will.  If I can't, i may sit out this category due to a sense of fairness.

Edit:  The generosity of the publishers and the authors this year is really incredible.  Cannot stse this enough.

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2 hours ago, Lily Valley said:

 can't figure out how to get the October Daye Omnibus from NetGalley.  Anyone had any luck with this?  I'd like to read at least one of the novels.  I am registered, but absolutely clueless after a search turned up empty.  :shrugs:

Yeah, I got these right after the packet became available. I don't remember any special problem with getting them onto my Kindle, though I did have to fiddle quite a bit to get them downloaded directly to my laptop.

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52 minutes ago, Contrarius+ said:

Yeah, I got these right after the packet became available. I don't remember any special problem with getting them onto my Kindle, though I did have to fiddle quite a bit to get them downloaded directly to my laptop.

How?  I can't find them on the netgalley site.  Did you have to request through DAW?

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Okay, here's the path I took --

1. Hugo packet folder

2. Series folder

3. McGuire Folder

4. October Daye Omnibus pdf

5. click on Omnibus link within the pdf

6. this takes you to the Netgalley page for the omnibus

7. sign in to Netgalley -- if you don't have a sign-in, create one.

8. when I signed in I got taken to my personal dashboard, so I had to go back (just back-arrow) to the October Day page

9. there are options for download to Kindle or download protected e-pub

 

I hope this helps!

 

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I tried going in directly and it didn't show up.  I did finally find it with a very specific google search.  It's no longer available, but I put in a wish request for it.  Thanks for the help, but it looks like it was only up there for a short time.   :(  Well, no way I could have finished all ten novels before the deadline anyway and it's not like I don't have plenty of other reading to finish.

Bouncing back and forth today between Craft and the Related works.   So far LeGuin is in the lead.  Geek Feminist Revolution is a rehash of stuff I have lived through, but it's interesting enough to hear from a writer's perspective.  The Harry Potter essays were entertaining.  Nothing's really wowing me.  LeGuin's prose is so beautiful I swear she could turn a phonebook into a work of art.   

Sooner or later I must finish the Novels.   :grumbles:  I am doing my face yoga stretches in anticipation of my eyes cramping up from rolling too hard when I get back to the Palmer. :P

 

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