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What are you reading? First Quarter 2023


williamjm
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Just finished Martha Wells' forthcoming Witch King and I'm disappointed. Reads a bit like an incomplete novel or an unfinished draft. No endgame, no closure. No cliffhanger, the book simply ends the way a normal chapter would. Almost as if my ARC was missing the second half of the novel. Could this be a cash-grab by Tordotcom? Been reviewing SFF works for nearly 20 years and never encountered something like this before. . .

Full review here.

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I started listening to Half-Blown Rose, which is so far the worst of literary fiction tropes. Kinda want to quit but I don't have another audiobook lined up so I'll probably continue on.

Given extra free time this month, I started re-reading Wheel of Time. Almost done with Eye of the World, enjoying it a lot as always.

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Someone recommended The Garner Files on one of these threads.  I am not usually in the market for actor's reminiscences, but James Garner was the real life version of who Steve McQueen wanted to be, and a copy of the audiobook was on the Overdrive list at the library.

So this week I Iistened to it while I re-stained the gates, and it was reasonably enjoyable.  Michael Kramer reads it well, and James Garner is fairly restrained in his self-love for an actor.  He is pretty generous in his discussion of other actors and Hollywood types, and he isn't out to dish dirt on anyone.

Probably the best part comes at the end, as he lists all the movies in which he appeared, then gave his short summary and opinion, which was often very funny.  The least interesting part is the chapter and other references to golf; listening to someone talk about golf is even less interesting than watching other people golf.

It isn't really entrancing or anything like that, but neither do you feel dipped in filth after consuming it, which makes it better than 90% of the other Hollywood memoirs.  Garner is born poor in the dirt bowl of Oklahoma, serves and is wounded in Korea, drifts around and eventually into acting, marries a Jewish woman with a daughter who has polio, gets better at acting, drives racecars and golfs, sues the studios for their "creative accounting", starts his own production company, lives a creditable life.  It is fine, and clearly he enjoyed becoming skilled at both acting and the production business and being a husband and father.

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Read The Last Blade Priest by WP Wiles which I saw mentioned somewhere upthread. An easy, engaging read, though it could have done with another once over by a proofreader. e.g. the knight Timo was introduced twice, Franj was once mistakenly referred to as Elecy (if you're reading this, Angry Robot Books, I am available for freelance work!) The characters are generally kept busy getting on with the plot, and it's largely left to the non-POV characters to move things along, showing initiative and pursuing personal goals. Partly because of the busy plot, the characters seem to bounce back from experiencing horrible events quite fast. 

Spoiler

Would be interested to know more about how the Elves work. Duma eats Elfcap hidden in her meal, has a berserk fit (though how did Anzola manage to get her to the Brink between the meal and the massacre without her ward running mad beforehand?) and after a few days seems mostly to have recovered. Humans apply Elfcap poultices to open wounds, and the effects seem permanent. It also appears to induce, apart from a desire for maximum bloodshed and sense of invulnerability, a need to make more creatures like themselves. It seems difficult to imagine that these berserker-zombie Elves could have historically caused such problems to well-organised armies, as opposed to being isolated incidents quickly put down. 

The world was fine, the writing competent and discreet without being notably powerful. I'll happily read the sequel whenever it comes out; at the same time, if no sequel ever shows up, I won't be upset. 

Also read The History of Wales in Twelve Poems (text by M. Wynn Thomas, prints by Ruth Jên Evans) which was a nice way to pass a few lunchbreaks without being exactly revolutionary, just as might be expected of a book with such a title. I thought I was pessimist, but Wynn Thomas's view of Wales's present and future even gave me pause. ("...long, slow decline of rural areas...Wales haemorrhages talent to England...underfunded and overmanaged HE system lags well behind those of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.") 

Apart from the earlier poems which I'd already encountered, I was impressed by Gwenallt's Y Meirwon. Gwenallt was brought up in the industrial valley of the Tawe; his father was killed in accident when molten metal exploded over him. The poem evokes something of the experience of living and dying in the place. 

Gosodwn Ddydd Sul y Blodau ar eu beddau bwys

On the Sunday of Flowers we place on their graves a bunch

O rosynnau silicotig a lili mor welw â'r nwy,

Of silicotic roses and a lily as wan as the gas,

A chasglu rhwng y cerrig annhymig a rhwng yr anaeddfed gwrb

Collecting between the untimely stones and between the unripe kerb

Yr hen regfeydd a'r cableddau yn eu hangladdau hwy.

The old curses and the blasphemies in their funerals.

Edited by dog-days
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Ugh, got too fed up with that Half-Blown Rose novel. Had a new hold come in at the library so now I'm listening to In A Garden Burning Gold. This was another I picked up without any context. So far it seems to be a story about a family that are kind of like gods for their nation? It's not terrible but hasn't really grabbed my interest yet. It feels very disjointed. Like on the one hand, they have to manually place the stars every night, but on the other, they're constantly worried about being deposed by humans? The fairy tale aspect and the politics aspect just don't line up for me so far. We'll see.

I also finished EEtW and am onto The Great Hunt in my WoT re-read. This has never been one of my favorites in the series, tbh. The middle section where everyone is split up and kind of killing time and the horn gets stolen back and forth feels a bit useless and everything to do with Selene is so annoying. I understand she's using some sort of compulsion so it's not exactly Rand's fault that he's such a dumbass, but still...! I've just reached the part where they're about to head to Falme, though, so looking forward to it picking up again. Also just our first big glimpse of the Seanchan with Domon and gods it's fun to be reminded how much I hate them!!

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Bill Watterson has published his first work in decades since Calvin & Hobbes.

https://www.tor.com/2023/02/15/calvin-hobbes-creator-bill-watterson-is-back-with-a-fable-for-grown-ups-called-the-mysteries/

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In a fable for grown-ups by cartoonist Bill Watterson, a long-ago kingdom is afflicted with unexplainable calamities. Hoping to end the torment, the king dispatches his knights to discover the source of the mysterious events. Years later, a single battered knight returns.

For the book’s illustrations, Watterson and caricaturist John Kascht worked together for several years in unusually close collaboration. Both artists abandoned their past ways of working, inventing images together that neither could anticipate—a mysterious process in its own right.

A few pages here:  https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Mysteries/Bill-Watterson/9781524884949

 

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I finished Ender's Game with the 9 year old (and recorded our podcast). The young man was captivated throughout and is hoping to read the rest of the series with me.

I've returned to the 3rd book of Shadowmarch by Tad Williams. I admit that I actively hate one of the main POV characters (though maybe he's entering a new, less obnoxious phase) and the pace has turned plodding, where I don't enjoy where he's lingering and simply want him to resolve stuff. Kind of want to put it aside but I don't think I'll come back and finish if I do that, so I'm just pushing through.

I also decided I had enough credits accrued in Audible and so I wanted to cancel my membership for awhile so that I can work through the backlog ... but that means I had to spent my credits. I bought The Berserker Trilogy by J. W. Webb, as well as the first 5 books of The Second Apocalypse by R. Scott Bakker. Looking forward to them.

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On 2/15/2023 at 12:21 PM, SpaceChampion said:

Goodness, but I love Calvin & Hobbes.

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More concerning Kuang's Babel:

“Translation is defying a curse laid by God”: R.F. Kuang’s Babel and the Colonialist Origins of Linguistics by CD Covington [CD Covington has masters degrees in German and Linguistics]

https://www.tor.com/2023/02/15/translation-is-defying-a-curse-laid-by-god-r-f-kuangs-babel-and-the-colonialist-origins-of-linguistics/#more-731281

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.... Kuang does a really good job depicting the utterly colonialist origins of comparative philology (linguistics’ problematic grandpa). This is the speech credited with starting it all: Sir William Jones, The Third Anniversary Discourse, Delivered 2 February 1786, “On the Hindus.” ....

.... Kuang invents a really cool piece of magic called “silverworking,” where someone who fluently speaks multiple languages can inscribe matched pairs of words on either side of a bar of silver and it will have an effect. As explained by one of the professors in Babel, silverworking is “the stuff of language that words are incapable of expressing—the stuff that gets lost when we move between one language and another. The silver catches what’s lost and manifests it into being.” ....

.... I loved Kuang’s depiction of the early days of comparative philology, and I appreciated how she not only didn’t shy away from but actually pointed out all the gross colonialist parts, which was part of the point of the novel. It may seem a bit on-the-nose to write a book about linguistics and translation and call it Babel and put the department at the university in a literal tower called Babel, but the whole arrogance of Empire and academia is entirely the point—and what better reference for that is there in the Western canon than the story of Babel? .....

 

 

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On 2/16/2023 at 2:31 PM, Ser Not Appearing said:

I finished Ender's Game with the 9 year old (and recorded our podcast). The young man was captivated throughout and is hoping to read the rest of the series with me.

Xenocide - :wub::wub::wub:

                                                                     (United Jaces)  

A permanent member of the Top-Ten Books UJ Security Council

 

I never got around to reading them until I was in my late-twenties though. Mighta saved me some staring at floorboard squiggles... :leaving:                                            

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Finished Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, an Ivy League campus dark fantasy with a murder mystery element. Picked it up in the library, having gone there to look for a completely different book, partly because of seeing favourable reactions here, and partly on the strength of its first line:

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By the time Alex managed to get the blood out of her good wool coat, it was too warm to wear it. 

Not quite up there with 'it was the day my grandmother exploded' (Iain Banks, Crow Road) but definitely a strong start. Anyway, the plot took a while to get going, but once it did, it was a very fun read with much peril and exciting happenings. I ended up becoming excessively attached to the ghost Morrissey character. 

If I just had the time and energy, it would be interesting to do a compare/contrast with Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy. Both books have cynical heroines with ambiguous powers and a kind, hippy, but powerless (not literally - in the narrative) mother. Also, the reveal at the end of Ninth House and the reveal in the Golden Enclaves share one particular similarity. 

I know that people have found the sequel disappointing, but I'll give it a try anyway. 

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The Secret Life Of Sam Holloway by Rhys Thomas is literary fiction about a slightly nebbish and withdrawn young man who moonlights as a masked vigilante, while also trying to come to grips with a new/first relationship and a past tragedy.  It’s ok, not great.  I feel like I’ve encountered a few novels like this in the past couple of years that posit an especially patient and caring girlfriend to nurture the man child into adulthood.  They seem far too (wishfully?) indulgent toward the man child.

Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths is a British police procedural told from multiple POVs (all women).  Quite good at character development and interaction.  I enjoyed it.

The Martyr by Anthony Ryan, the second in his Covenant Steel fantasy series.  This volume pivots to the foreshadowed religious crusade and power struggle.  Very good.  Most of the themes and characters have been done before but it’s well written and executed.  I’m looking forward to completing the series.

The Stranger Times by Caoimh McDonnell is the first in a series of humorous urban fantasy, which feels like a Terry Pritchett novel set in Black’s Books located in modern day Manchester.  But, unfortunately, it’s not as funny or clever as Pratchett so it just feels forced and contrived.  I really enjoyed this author’s earlier series of humorous mystery novels set in Dublin but this attempt fell flat for me.

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On 2/19/2023 at 10:25 PM, dog-days said:

If I just had the time and energy, it would be interesting to do a compare/contrast with Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy. Both books have cynical heroines with ambiguous powers and a kind, hippy, but powerless (not literally - in the narrative) mother. Also, the reveal at the end of Ninth House and the reveal in the Golden Enclaves share one particular similarity.

Also, both Galaxy and Galadriel are very reluctant to use their full names.

I think that Alex is maybe a bit like what El might be if she didn't have principles.

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Yes. In terms of tone, Scholomance is much more knowing than Ninth House, and genre-savvy. I'm not sure if El ever called the school Evil Hogwarts*, but she may as well have. 

I think Scholomance felt set around now, though I'd have to go back through the series to pick out indicators. Ninth House is (probably?) meant to take place around now, but I don't feel that the author had a particular year in mind. 

Anyway, I picked up the sequel from the library today, so I'll see where the narrative takes Alex. 

* On second thoughts, Scholomance is quite a bit nicer than Hogwarts in some respects, though not in terms of catering. 

Edited by dog-days
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