Books for January (including some Pros recs)
Saturday, 10 February 2018 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
byslantedlightI'm just not getting the hang of this posting-and-working thing, am I? I'll try for a monthly book post, I think! So this was my January reading - counting long-ish Prosfic, but only short fics if I remember to add them at the time.
I ended up reading three books for the Sci-Fi Experience challenge (but with no way to link/post/comment to the challenge itself, it feels a bit odd this year) and I've read three books (and two fanfics, though I don't supposed they'd officially count) for Mount TBR - so off to a pretty decent start, I think.
1. Helstrom's Hive by Frank Herbert
2. Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
3. Encounters by Jason Wallace
4. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
5. Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell (book group)
6. His Maggie May by Spotty Dog (Pros fic)
7. So This is Us by Jojo (Pros fic)
Helstrom's Hive I've already reviewed.
Warrior's Apprentice turned out to be the second book in a series (which I'd been told but forgotten) although it focuses on a different character, so didn't stand alone too badly. I had a slight sense of missing information, but the story itself made sense. What bugged the hell out of me about this book was how condescending the male lead was to and about the female he had a crush on. She was supposed to be this amazing, if relatively untested, warrior - the daughter of his amazing and experienced bodyguard. She was, iirc, even slightly older than he was, and yet she was presented as a young innocent to whom he explained everything with all his wisdom. I can see how that might be explained away by their backstory, but god it bugged me. I want better than that by the time we get to other worlds and cultures in the future, especially from female authors!
It was properly science fiction, which was cool - an outer space story - but it also ended up being based around battles and fighting and politics as ends in themselves, which again, yawn... All well done, but at this stage I'd like something a bit different in my outer space science fiction, I think. That said, I did track down and buy the first book in the series, which everyone raves about and I have higher hopes for.
Encounters sort of counts as science fiction, but I must admit it's on the edge! It's the story of a UFO encounter by a large number of school children - although really it's the stories of various of those children (ages up to 18), and we're never given an answer about the UFO. It's apparently based on a true sighting, and, equally as interesting, it's set in Zimbabwe. The setting also makes it rather disturbing though, because the author isn't shy about showing us the ingrained racism, sexism and inequality of the time and place, and the first chapter is from the pov of a young boy whose mother has left the family, and whose father and brother are very unpleasant bullies. He has started to emulate them in reaction, and the inner thoughts and language almost made me put down the book. I'm glad I didn't though, because we switched between various povs all through, and saw other aspects of the country and its people too. I'd definitely recommend this one - but not as an easy read!
I also realised that the author, Jason Wallace, wrote another book I have in my Mount TBR pile, and hadn't connected with this one when I picked it up. It's also another book that I began and then put down because I found the views and language used really disturbing and pretty depressing (because it's well written and I suspect very true to life). I'll try again though, having seen that Wallace did leave us with some hope at the end of Encounters!
For some reason I thought I'd read The Wee Free Men ages ago, but I hadn't at all. It's the first of Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series, and as usual I loved his sharp insights into people and the world, his wit and wisdom, and the skill and often beauty of his writing. There's sometimes so much of all this in his books that I've become a little bogged down, but this was a smooth read, all through! Again, recommended.
Instructions for a Heatwave was the return-to-my-old-BBC2-bookclub book, which I always read in a rush at the end of the month so that I can remember it for the meeting! I enjoyed the premise of this well enough - in the incredibly hot summer of 1977 an elderly man goes out to buy a newspaper, and doesn't return and it's the story of the way his family deals with this. It's packed full of interesting and well-drawn characters, but it was slightly (and very unexpectedly) buggered for me by all the pov changes. I'm actually very happy with changing pov in a story, but it has to be done clearly and it's best done for a reason, and this just wasn't. And O'Farrell is a hugely popular traditionally-published (and presumably therefore professionally edited) author! Pov would change between paragraphs, for instance, without it being made clear at the start of the sentence that it had changed, so you'd begin the sentence thinking that you were still with someone else, and then realise you weren't. Gaah! One character's pov was added for a few paragraphs, and then they were dropped entirely, never to be seen again - and this was near the end of the book too, and for no apparent reason that I could see. It was just... unnecessarily confusing and meant that I was thrown out of the story trying to work out as a reader, not as part of the plot, what had just happened. I've got another of O'Farrell's books on my TBR shelf as well, and I'm not sure whether to look forward to it now or not...
I finally worked out how to get into my Kobo again, just before Christmas (it was the cable I was using for the connection that was the problem, which seems odd to me, but was definitely the issue) and so finally got into the Prosfic I'd loaded way back when - hurrah!
His Maggie May was an excellent read, in that it felt fresh and made me want to keep reading Pros again. I thought Doyle was a bit less Doyle than in the eps - I don't think we get much canon that suggests he'd take drugs while on duty, for instance - and Bodie was a bit too much more diligent and professional in comparison (I'd say the eps suggest the opposite characterisation, personally) but the writing meant that I could go with it, and was able to trust the author rather than having to wince and put the story down, so... yeay! I had a feeling our Snailbones might be a fab Pros author to go with all her shiny artwork... *g*
I always feel in safe hands with Jojo's Pros fic too, so I was a bit wary when So This is Us turned out to feature a teacher (Doyle) and a hairdresser (Bodie) - but luckily it also turned out to be properly convincing in both cases, and another excellent read. *g* I'm especially wary of the way teachers are often portrayed in fic (and even on Doctor Who) as being able to take time off from their basically good-hearted ragamuffin classes whenever they need to, because they have such wonderful colleagues that they can magically provide cover for days at a time (just what-what-what?!) but the teaching part of the story was written with a light and realistic touch too, so phew! Also, hee for Cowley as the headteacher... *g*
And that was January, I think! Did anyone else read anything good?
I ended up reading three books for the Sci-Fi Experience challenge (but with no way to link/post/comment to the challenge itself, it feels a bit odd this year) and I've read three books (and two fanfics, though I don't supposed they'd officially count) for Mount TBR - so off to a pretty decent start, I think.
1. Helstrom's Hive by Frank Herbert
2. Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
3. Encounters by Jason Wallace
4. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
5. Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell (book group)
6. His Maggie May by Spotty Dog (Pros fic)
7. So This is Us by Jojo (Pros fic)
Helstrom's Hive I've already reviewed.
Warrior's Apprentice turned out to be the second book in a series (which I'd been told but forgotten) although it focuses on a different character, so didn't stand alone too badly. I had a slight sense of missing information, but the story itself made sense. What bugged the hell out of me about this book was how condescending the male lead was to and about the female he had a crush on. She was supposed to be this amazing, if relatively untested, warrior - the daughter of his amazing and experienced bodyguard. She was, iirc, even slightly older than he was, and yet she was presented as a young innocent to whom he explained everything with all his wisdom. I can see how that might be explained away by their backstory, but god it bugged me. I want better than that by the time we get to other worlds and cultures in the future, especially from female authors!
It was properly science fiction, which was cool - an outer space story - but it also ended up being based around battles and fighting and politics as ends in themselves, which again, yawn... All well done, but at this stage I'd like something a bit different in my outer space science fiction, I think. That said, I did track down and buy the first book in the series, which everyone raves about and I have higher hopes for.
Encounters sort of counts as science fiction, but I must admit it's on the edge! It's the story of a UFO encounter by a large number of school children - although really it's the stories of various of those children (ages up to 18), and we're never given an answer about the UFO. It's apparently based on a true sighting, and, equally as interesting, it's set in Zimbabwe. The setting also makes it rather disturbing though, because the author isn't shy about showing us the ingrained racism, sexism and inequality of the time and place, and the first chapter is from the pov of a young boy whose mother has left the family, and whose father and brother are very unpleasant bullies. He has started to emulate them in reaction, and the inner thoughts and language almost made me put down the book. I'm glad I didn't though, because we switched between various povs all through, and saw other aspects of the country and its people too. I'd definitely recommend this one - but not as an easy read!
I also realised that the author, Jason Wallace, wrote another book I have in my Mount TBR pile, and hadn't connected with this one when I picked it up. It's also another book that I began and then put down because I found the views and language used really disturbing and pretty depressing (because it's well written and I suspect very true to life). I'll try again though, having seen that Wallace did leave us with some hope at the end of Encounters!
For some reason I thought I'd read The Wee Free Men ages ago, but I hadn't at all. It's the first of Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series, and as usual I loved his sharp insights into people and the world, his wit and wisdom, and the skill and often beauty of his writing. There's sometimes so much of all this in his books that I've become a little bogged down, but this was a smooth read, all through! Again, recommended.
Instructions for a Heatwave was the return-to-my-old-BBC2-bookclub book, which I always read in a rush at the end of the month so that I can remember it for the meeting! I enjoyed the premise of this well enough - in the incredibly hot summer of 1977 an elderly man goes out to buy a newspaper, and doesn't return and it's the story of the way his family deals with this. It's packed full of interesting and well-drawn characters, but it was slightly (and very unexpectedly) buggered for me by all the pov changes. I'm actually very happy with changing pov in a story, but it has to be done clearly and it's best done for a reason, and this just wasn't. And O'Farrell is a hugely popular traditionally-published (and presumably therefore professionally edited) author! Pov would change between paragraphs, for instance, without it being made clear at the start of the sentence that it had changed, so you'd begin the sentence thinking that you were still with someone else, and then realise you weren't. Gaah! One character's pov was added for a few paragraphs, and then they were dropped entirely, never to be seen again - and this was near the end of the book too, and for no apparent reason that I could see. It was just... unnecessarily confusing and meant that I was thrown out of the story trying to work out as a reader, not as part of the plot, what had just happened. I've got another of O'Farrell's books on my TBR shelf as well, and I'm not sure whether to look forward to it now or not...
I finally worked out how to get into my Kobo again, just before Christmas (it was the cable I was using for the connection that was the problem, which seems odd to me, but was definitely the issue) and so finally got into the Prosfic I'd loaded way back when - hurrah!
His Maggie May was an excellent read, in that it felt fresh and made me want to keep reading Pros again. I thought Doyle was a bit less Doyle than in the eps - I don't think we get much canon that suggests he'd take drugs while on duty, for instance - and Bodie was a bit too much more diligent and professional in comparison (I'd say the eps suggest the opposite characterisation, personally) but the writing meant that I could go with it, and was able to trust the author rather than having to wince and put the story down, so... yeay! I had a feeling our Snailbones might be a fab Pros author to go with all her shiny artwork... *g*
I always feel in safe hands with Jojo's Pros fic too, so I was a bit wary when So This is Us turned out to feature a teacher (Doyle) and a hairdresser (Bodie) - but luckily it also turned out to be properly convincing in both cases, and another excellent read. *g* I'm especially wary of the way teachers are often portrayed in fic (and even on Doctor Who) as being able to take time off from their basically good-hearted ragamuffin classes whenever they need to, because they have such wonderful colleagues that they can magically provide cover for days at a time (just what-what-what?!) but the teaching part of the story was written with a light and realistic touch too, so phew! Also, hee for Cowley as the headteacher... *g*
And that was January, I think! Did anyone else read anything good?
no subject
Date: Saturday, 10 February 2018 03:46 pm (UTC)If you have tried or try The Goblin Emperor you will notice the main character is a teenager. I usually avoid anything close to teenage angst but this book surprised me how well done the character is, how he matures and how he overcomes his challenges. It is not a teen drama kind of book. At least I didn't think so! :)
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Date: Sunday, 11 February 2018 06:36 pm (UTC)I must admit to not being a fan of listen to books rather than reading. I can do it sometimes, but I tend to get distracted by whatever I'm doing or thinking, and miss bits of the story! So I'm probably not a good person to judge the difference between listening and reading a story - but I imagine there must be one.
I'll have a look at The Goblin Emporer too - I tend to like YA fiction, so that's a definite recommendation for me. *g* Thanks!
no subject
Date: Saturday, 10 February 2018 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 11 February 2018 06:37 pm (UTC)Sorry to hear that work has been crazy though - I hope February is more peaceful for you!
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Date: Sunday, 11 February 2018 02:39 am (UTC)I have to join Macklingirl, and admit I've only read a few short stories. Too much stress and also some summer travel research and looking into possibly moving to Germany at some point in the future. Lots of conflicting information about bringing a foreign spouse!
You got a lot more readjng accomplished!
How is your new home working out? And how is the youngest new family member doing now?
no subject
Date: Sunday, 11 February 2018 06:41 pm (UTC)Ack for the stress though - I hope its just busy-ness, and not things to be really worried about... hope everyone's well.
I tend to read over breakfast, because with no one else around I can... *g* And when I need to crash for a bit, I can't just crash and chat to people, cos again, there's no one around, so I get to read then too.
I am so going to make a post tonight that will hopefully answer your questions! I've meant to for ages, and lots of people have asked, and... and... and... well, I just will!