What Are You Reading? Second Quarter, 2023

[Fragile Bird]

We’re still making entries in the First Quarter thread, but it seems time to open this one.

I finally got around to reading Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House, triggered by the fact the second book in the series came out. I almost set it aside, once I got far enough to read about Alex’s background details. You may recall I went down the werewolf rabbit hole last summer, after I finally succumbed to the clickbait book descriptions on the Dreame website. So much trash on that site, even while there are excellent books as well. So many with characters that stuck in my craw. There’s a very popular series where the two main characters are introduced as “bottle girls” working at the swimming pool of a major Las Vegas hotel: one is a really smart Asian girl, genius at computer stuff, working the job because her parents died in a car crash and a demented ex-boyfriend is hunting her; the other is a Mexican immigrant who’s parents were drug addicts and were murdered by gang members in LA who, iirc, are hunting her as well, to collect the money owed to them. Werewolves run the hotel, of course, and werewolves come rolling in to the hotel for a meeting and two of them turn out to be the mates of the girls. My first comment on that story was, the racism made me grit my teeth, how about making the Asian girl the daughter of drug addicts and the Mexican the brilliant IT girl. Oh no, said other readers, that wouldn’t be realistic, it’s Mexicans who use drugs in LA and die of overdoses. Never finished that book.

So if you’ve read Ninth House you know what I mean, Alex is raised by her single mother, has no idea who her father is, some brown-skinned guy from the Caribbean or South America. Ah yes, that mysterious black blood that will mean she has some kind of wonderous woo-woo powers. And of course she’s a tattoo-covered drug user involved with drug gangs and horrible murders.

But I continued on because, dammit, the book is good. I guess if you wanted a total outsider dropped in at Yale she’d have to be someone like Alex. I guess if it was set in Europe the background might be either African or Middle Eastern. I plan to look up the Ninth House thread (I assume there is one) and read through the comments.

And the book is so well written it’s a pleasure to read. Well, I am listening to it, so the fact that it’s one of these “opens in the middle with flashbacks” books, set in a totally unfamiliar setting, dropping all kinds of names, made it a bit confusing at first, but now I am tempted to pick up a hard copy. And research the names Bardugo drops. I wonder if many are rolling in their graves, to be accused of horrible magic-craft. I wonder if their ancestors are deeply insulted or gleefully pleased. I wonder if Leigh Bardugo gets death threats from Yale alumni. I wonder if the people of New Haven have burnt her in effigy.

Leigh, who I first met at Titancon in Belfast before her first book was published, or just published, is a really cool person, btw.

 

[Zorral]

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them (2023), by Timothy Egan.

Disregarding the title's conjunctional phrase, which is a claim quite overblown, this is essential information for people who may not know it.

 

[williamjm]

9 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

And research the names Bardugo drops. I wonder if many are rolling in their graves, to be accused of horrible magic-craft. I wonder if their ancestors are deeply insulted or gleefully pleased. I wonder if Leigh Bardugo gets death threats from Yale alumni. I wonder if the people of New Haven have burnt her in effigy.

I noticed in the 'about the author' bit for the sequel that it said Leigh was an associate fellow at one of the Yale colleges. She's also an alumni of the Wolf's Head secret society, although she commented that they weren't actually shapeshifters (although that's exactly what a shapeshifter would say). I think she might have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Yale and New Haven.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Ian C Esselmont’s Forge of the High Mage (a Malazan book) arrived!

Hope he doesnt further fuck up continuity. 

[dog-days]

Finished The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty and it was indeed very good. Adventure on the Indian Ocean, fights, escapes, banter and secrets from the past –  it was all in there. The author's obvious love for the setting – the history, geography and folklore – were what made it stand out above other stories of its kind. 

Tiny setting spoiler: 

Spoiler

I found out that Socotra is a thing – in fact, is an island off Yemen with around 60 000 inhabitants and some truly weird trees – which I hadn't known before. 

The book made me want to go and find out more; I really value it when books do that. 

I also appreciated having an older woman as the protagonist-narrator rather than a young ingénue. She and her pirate crew seem only slightly more ruthless and blood-soaked than the Pirates of Penzance or Stede Bonnet, but that doesn't matter, and in fact is essential to the novel's brand of swashbuckling romance working. 

I missed the racial politics of the Daevabad books, but it didn't feel like a huge absence. It'll be interesting to see what Muslim commentators/academic responses make of Chakraborty's work. I expect there'll be some accusations of them purveying a kind of 21st century orientalism, but others will come to their defence.

Received a gift voucher for by birthday, so have just bought And Put Away Childish Things. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by dog-days

[Zorral]

There are excellent histories wrt the Indian Ocean, trade, piracy and colonial imperialism, from both west and east.  Information that USians generally haven't a clue about, including the extensive Indian Ocean trade during the days of Rome ruling the Mediterranean, 'their sea.'

Here's one to be published next month:

Globalization and Transculturality from Antiquity to the Pre-Modern World
edited by Serena Autiero and Matthew Adam Cobb
Routledge, 282 pp., $170.00; $52.95 (paper; to be published in May)

 

This deals with earlier periods:

Rome and the Indian Ocean Trade from Augustus to the Early Third Century Century

Matthew A. Cobb (Author)

[Iskaral Pust]

Lords Of The North by Bernard Cornwell, #3 in his Saxon series.  Very enjoyable, assisted by my intentional long break between his books so that I don’t get fed up with the contrived personal tribulations for the protagonist to overcome in each volume.  If you’ve read Cornwell at all then you know what I mean.

Humankind: A Hopeful History a nonfiction by Rutger Bregman.  I was quite open to a more generous and optimistic perspective on human society but this was saccharine pablum.

Artemis by Julian Stockwin is a naval historical fiction.  It’s a genre I really like but I find this author strikes the wrong balance in trying to make his dialogue sound true to the period.  It just doesn’t flow well.

(I have lots more to post but I’ll limit myself to moderate post size)

[dog-days]

Finished And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Though a minor novella in his huge and expanding bibliography, I still found plenty to enjoy, not least for the fun of the writing:

Quote

"Who is this?" he asked. "I mean, yes. it is. Are you the press?" Simultaneously feeling the plunge of Are they not done with me? and the swoop of Perhaps they're not done with me?

Spoiler

Plus, the method of disposal of the villain was one of the more successful and entertaining exploitations of Chekhov's Gun that I've come across. 

The story is very meta and could be read as a more general comment on the place of classic English children's literature in the twenty-first century. "We were none of us meant to last this long," one of the fantastical characters grimly asserts. Read it to see if the book is in agreement with their verdict. 

Edited April 7, 2023 by dog-days

[dog-days]

Aaand have also just read What Moves the Dead, the T Kingfisher riff on The Fall of the House of Usher with added mushrooms. I enjoyed it, as I tend to enjoy much of what she writes, but I didn't feel she was straining herself overmuch here. I would like someone – a demanding editor or deadly rival author if one can be found or cultivated – to throw down the gauntlet and make her push a bit further. But I guess that while her writing is doing well and has found its market niche, there's no incentive for her to do more than keep creating pleasant, very readable, slightly twee diversions. 

[Underfoot]

2 hours ago, dog-days said:

Aaand have also just read What Moves the Dead, the T Kingfisher riff on The Fall of the House of Usher with added mushrooms. I enjoyed it, as I tend to enjoy much of what she writes, but I didn't feel she was straining herself overmuch here. I would like someone – a demanding editor or deadly rival author if one can be found or cultivated – to throw down the gauntlet and make her push a bit further. But I guess that while her writing is doing well and has found its market niche, there's no incentive for her to do more than keep creating pleasant, very readable, slightly twee diversions. 

Where would be a good place to start with T Kingfisher? 

[beniowa]

I read The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi, a great little fantasy novella from Tordotcom.  I really liked this one. 

Also read a space opera, Loki's Ring by Stina Leicht, about the captain of a salvage ship who gets a call for help from her AI "daughter" and shenanigans ensue.  I've been following this author for years so it's not surprising that I enjoyed this latest book.

[dog-days]

8 hours ago, Underfoot said:

Where would be a good place to start with T Kingfisher? 

A lot of them are quite similar tonally – maybe try the duology Clockwork Boys/The Wonder Engine if you have a fondness for traditional D&D-esque fantasy adventure, or The Raven and the Reindeer from her books inspired by fairy tales. 

[Underfoot]

6 hours ago, dog-days said:

A lot of them are quite similar tonally – maybe try the duology Clockwork Boys/The Wonder Engine if you have a fondness for traditional D&D-esque fantasy adventure, or The Raven and the Reindeer from her books inspired by fairy tales. 

Thank you!  The Raven and the Reindeer looks really fun 

[williamjm]

I read Susanna Clarke's short story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu, and other stories, which I had on the shelf for many years without reading it. A couple of the stories are directly connected to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, the others have similar themes about faeries and magic and could also be set in the same world, with the exception of one which is in the setting of Neil Gaiman's Stardust. I thought the highlight was the title story, which features an appearance by Jonathan Strange but is using a different perspective to the novel. Despite being published 8 years before the novel it does tie in well with the story. Mr Simonelli or the Fairy Widower and Tom Brightwind or how the bridge was built at Thoresby were also good. Some of the other stories felt a bit slight, particularly the Stardust story The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse.

[ljkeane]

On 4/6/2023 at 8:02 PM, dog-days said:

Finished The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty and it was indeed very good. Adventure on the Indian Ocean, fights, escapes, banter and secrets from the past –  it was all in there. The author's obvious love for the setting – the history, geography and folklore – were what made it stand out above other stories of its kind. 

Tiny setting spoiler: 

  Reveal hidden contents

I found out that Socotra is a thing – in fact, is an island off Yemen with around 60 000 inhabitants and some truly weird trees – which I hadn't known before. 

 

I just finished this too. I did enjoy it but there was quite a lot of anachronistic terminology used which I found a bit jarring, especially given Chakraborty listed her research sources at the end of the book which all seemed very comprehensive. I know it was meant to be more of a lighthearted adventure rather than a strictly accurate historical fiction but I'm pretty sure people in the 12th century didn't use terms like business trip, garden city and overpass.

Anyway, the lighthearted adventure bits of the book were fun and I'm sure I'll read the next one.

[Sw33t Summ3r Ch1ld]

I have this book called Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty by Nancy Etcoff, and two books on near-death experiences called Blessings in Disguise: Another Side of the Near-Death Experience by Barbara R. Rommer MD and Lessons from the Light by Kenneth Ring PhD, and The Politics of Women's Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior.

All from a used bookstore

[polishgenius]

The new Malazan book, ICE's Forge of the High Mage. Always a welcome return. This one feels like it's starting to bridge a little towards the later Malazan novels- even ICE's- in terms of tone and style, compared to the much simpler first three Road to Ascendancy books. I'm not complaining, like. 

 

 

Before that I screamed through Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, mentioned by a couple others here, which is a good bit of fun. Very deliberately feelgood fantasy about an orc opening a coffee shop. 

 

 

 

And also Left Hand of Darkness for the first time. What can I say, it's Left Hand of Darkness.

 

 

 

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

And also Left Hand of Darkness for the first time. What can I say, it's Left Hand of Darkness.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh my, there’s a book I haven’t read in, what, 30 years? Maybe 40. Maybe I should read it again.

[TheLastWolf]

Catching up on the Strike series bh Galbraith alias Rowling

Something is always just missing you know, something. 

[dog-days]

On 4/9/2023 at 2:27 PM, ljkeane said:

I just finished this too. I did enjoy it but there was quite a lot of anachronistic terminology used which I found a bit jarring, especially given Chakraborty listed her research sources at the end of the book which all seemed very comprehensive. I know it was meant to be more of a lighthearted adventure rather than a strictly accurate historical fiction but I'm pretty sure people in the 12th century didn't use terms like business trip, garden city and overpass.

Anyway, the lighthearted adventure bits of the book were fun and I'm sure I'll read the next one.

I was by-and-large okay with the dialogue, and the obvious anachronisms didn't jump out at me as wrong – maybe because although Chakraborty has a genuine interest in the period, I mentally slotted the book into the 'fun adventure story' category, one that uses the period for setting, myths and language, rather than one that takes the more faithful and rigorous stance of e.g. the Shardlake books. Though with any historical fiction, modern attitudes, ideas, concerns seep in – in the way that Watership Down isn't about rabbits but really about characters based on WW2 soldiers known by the author, historical fiction is only ever what modern authors think being alive in a certain time might have been like. Added to that the artificialities of telling a story that modern people want to read. 

Maybe the degree of consciousness makes a difference. I'm pretty sure that in general Chakraborty was going for a chatty. contemporary tone, and if she felt she needed to include 'overpass' (!) to do that, that's okay. I don't struggle with it anymore than with the fantastic elements: the Moon of Saba, the marid, etc. 

I guess there are different ways of approaching the challenge of writing dialogue that sounds natural and modern but that's true to history. It's late, but I just got thinking about Latin, which did have masses of urban, slangy words, many of which came from Etruscan, and which would have created a vibrant, vulgar soundscape in 1st BC Rome. But translate it and the result might be okay if stilted, but probably wouldn't do for 21st century genre fiction. Okay, some of the 1st century AD graffiti from Pompeii would probably do just fine.