February, part 2

12. The Man In the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Very cerebral and kind of a downer, but since I've read Philip K. Dick before I kind of knew what to expect.  This book showcases pretty excellently how Dick excels at world-building; not only is his alternate reality where the U.S. lost World War II fully realized, but so is the alternate-alternate reality of the book-within-a-book, where the U.S. won the war (but not with the fallout we're familiar with).  And if that made sense to you, you should probably read this book.

13. White Cat, Holly Black
Holly Black is super fun - way darker and grittier than Melissa Marr, while still maintaining that thread of wish fulfillment that's kind of the hallmark of supernatural YA.  I found this one a little predictable, but still quite exciting; in this particular fantasy world, certain people have natural abilities to work magic on others (called "curse workers," or just "workers") and they come in different flavors - some can work luck, some emotion, some death, and so on.  Cassel, the main character, comes from an entirely worker family - except for him.  There's mobsters, con artists, and assassins, and the whole thing is pretty delightful.  (Except it's written in present tense, RAWR.  At least this one is first person.)

14.  The Reapers, John Connolly
I like John Connolly a whole lot.  He writes mostly crime noir, about a private detective named Charlie Parker (the first Parker book is Dark Hollow - I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone who likes crime fiction or gritty supernatural stuff); his stories are typically gripping and suspenseful, he has a nice subtle supernatural element, and his side characters are entertaining and rich.  But I had trouble with this one.  It focuses on Parker's two most notorious cohorts, Angel and Louis, who typically provide a nice dose of banter while being ruthless killers.  Having a whole book focused on them (mostly on Louis, the professional assassin) might be too much of a good thing.

February, part 1

9.  Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett
Can't stop, won't stop.  Tiffany Aching is one of Pratchett's most likable characters and I'm going to be sad when I've finished everything that he's put out about her.

10.  The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
This is a good book that I ultimately didn't care for.  Part of the issue is how nihilistic it is - and if I'd known that going in, I would have been better prepared for it.  It's pretty seriously depressing, which in and of itself isn't a deal breaker for me - but that combined with other elements that didn't work for me (3rd person, present tense narration, a seriously chaotic prose style) added up to a final product I wasn't crazy about.  It's a seriously dystopian story about the dying days of a city, and there's a lot to like here (if Bacigalupi had introduced his epidemic subplot sooner I would have been more on board, I do love a good disease story) but it wasn't for me.

11.  The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor
This was a whole lot of MEH.  It's kind of an interesting concept - a retelling of the Alice in Wonderland story, where Alice (or Alyss) is a princess of Wonderland and heir to the throne, ousted by her evil aunt Redd and escaped into our world for a time.  The second half involves Alyss returning to Wonderland to lead a rebel army against Redd and reclaim her throne in the name of White (good, as opposed to the evil Black) Imagination.  But the writing is not good, you guys.  All the exciting moments, of which there are many: assassination attempts, chase scenes, epic battles; they all fall flat due to a lack of description.  Apparently this is the first book of a trilogy, but I won't be reading the others.

January, part 2

6.  French Milk, Luck Knisley
A cute little travelogue about the author's six weeks spent in France during college.  It's a graphic novel, and the art is totally charming, but I wish there had been more introspection involved - it parses down to a lot of lists ("I ate these things, I bought these things") without much analysis or reflection.  The moments that are there, such as Knisely recalling an argument with her mother, are touching and emotionally connective.  The book could have used more of those.

7.  A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett
If you like Terry Pratchett, you should probably be reading the adventures of Tiffany Aching, which starts in Wee Free Men.  These books are pitched more toward the YA crowd (Tiffany is nine years old in the first book, and is eleven in this), but Pratchett doesn't tone down his wit or wordplay. 

8.  Kraken, China Mieville
Whoo, this was a doozy of a book.  It's incredibly dense and chaotic, but totally enrapturing, especially because I find religion and weird shit to be totally fascinating.  If you thought about Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, re-imagined by HP Lovecraft, with a guest appearance by a Stephen King villain, you'd be close to this book. 

January 2012, part one

I have a few books to start off with because I went on vacation for the first weekend in January that was a.) international (long plane rides) and b.) took place partially on a beach, so I got a lot of reading done.  I have a buffer!  Yay!

1.  The Help, Kathryn Stockett
I wanted to read this mostly out of the desire to be part of the conversation everyone is having about it - it's clearly problematic for some people, but has also elicited quite a lot of praise, and I can't talk about things when I haven't been exposed to them.  Now that I have read it, I can definitely see the problematic elements; you can't ignore the fact that Stockett is white, and is appropriating the culture of a marginalized group of people in order to tell her story.  I also think it's true that The Help was written out of a certain amount of guilt, owing to the conditions that Stockett herself grew up on.  BUT, I think the book is very matter-of-fact about its own problems, and isn't embarrassed to point them out to the reader.  It invites the discussion, which is important.  And the characters are just so FABULOUS, all of these marvelously strong women, and Stockett does a great job getting that sense of community across.  I recommend it.

2.  Naamah's Blessing, Jacqueline Carey
Carey has written nine books set in her Terre d'Ange world, and while all of them are enjoyable reads the latest set of three are the weakest.  Naamah's Blessing is the most recent and concludes the trilogy about Moirin, who is (in my opinion) Carey's weakest protagonist; mostly she reacts instead of acts, and is more content than previous characters to simply take her destiny as it comes.  Additionally problematic is the fact that this volume is almost a complete mirror of the third book in the series, Kushiel's Avatar, but less good.  I read it, I enjoyed it, and fans of Carey's work will enjoy it as well.  But it could have been better.

3.  Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
Easily my favorite thing I've read so far this year (which is not saying much, as it's only been eleven days, but...), this book combines many things that I love: 80s pop culture, cyberpunk, geeks, adventure...it's super fun.  Cline incorporates a lot of fascinating ideas that are particularly relevant to our current cultural landscape, like social media, technology-based communities, and the difficulties of keeping secrets in an internet based society.  Wade, our narrator, is endearing and self-deprecating and it's easy to keep rooting for him, even when Cline gives in a little too much to hand-wavey hacker science near the climax of the book; he recovers with an exciting finale.  Everyone should read this.

4.  The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
The circus of the title is composed of multiple stand-alone tents, each containing its own dream-like beauty and experience.  The book itself is composed this way as well - the plot is nearly secondary to the imagery that Morgenstern employs, describing the tents and the circus and a handful of colorful characters.  Her scenes are rich and her language is singularly beautiful.  The story, a duel between two magicians, and the romance, are hung on the scenes like a gauze scarf: floaty and nearly insubstantial, adding a sheen of color to the black-and-white striped circus tents.  It's a lovely experience; not a strong story, but it doesn't have to be.

5.  Swamplandia!, Karen Russell
I...don't really know how I feel about this?  I appreciated the ending for reasons I won't go into (I'm employing a strong anti-spoiler policy on this blog), and it's certainly got a strong, quirky cast.  They wrestle alligators!  And...have sex with ghosts?  Maybe?  I'm not entirely sure what I read here.  It's written in a really interesting fashion, though - it takes place in the Florida swamp, and it reads like a swamp.  It meanders and oozes, takes it time and rolls around in its setting.  It's never in a hurry to get anywhere until the climax starts rolling, and it gives you a lot of time to contemplate the things that go on.  Which you need.

In Service of a New Year's Resolution

It's been a really long time since I've posted anything here (Blogger is telling me almost two years.  I'm a bad blogger, apparently.), but I'd like to change that!  One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2012 was originally to read 30 books that I've never read before, but I decided that wasn't nearly as difficult as it could be, and so have decided to undertake the 52 Book Challenge.  The rules are simple: read 52 books in 52 weeks.  My own caveat is that they have to be books I've never read before, so anything I re-read this year doesn't count towards my tally.

I'll be logging the books I finish here, with a number and a paragraph or two with my thoughts on them.  I'll also be recording them on my Shelfari page, so if you don't follow me there, you should!  You can find my user page here.

Growing Up Literary

Occasionally, even though I know I should be reading new things, I re-read books that I find really enjoyable. Naamah's Kiss, by Jacqueline Carey, and indeed, Carey's whole Terre d'Ange series, are such books. And since Naamah's Kiss isn't mine but borrowed, and I know that eventually I will need to bring it back, I read it again. And there was nothing to be done except that I needed to read the Kushiel books again, too. I've now run out of those that I have in my home, and I needed something to read until I banished enough laziness to go to the library, so I picked up Exile's Honor by Mercedes Lackey. I own many of Lackey's Valdemar books, because for a long time they were my go-to fantasy books. They were fun, the characters were believable, and the stories were entertaining. Which is why I was SO distressed to realize that I may, in fact, have outgrown them.

The two series, Kushiel's Legacy and The Heralds of Valdemar, are similarly flavored. They are roughly historical fantasy, although Kushiel emphasizes the history and Valdemar has a stronger vein of magic. The main characters are usually strong women, in an elite profession, and political intrigue is a main component. I did not realize until today that Carey is essentially Lackey for grownups.

Carey's prose achieves a sophistication that Lackey doesn't, but I don't mean to say that Lackey is a less talented writer; she is writing for a younger crowd, and her stories are less layered. Carey has a larger cast of characters for whom each role is more clearly defined. Lackey is less concerned with the complexities than Carey, and as such, the Valdemar books are easier to follow and easier to read. Her characters are more transparent and easier to understand; they lack the necessity for further motivation than what's on the surface. Which made them good, easy comfort books in high school, but slightly boring now.

I feel kinda like when I moved from Tamora Pierce to Mercedes Lackey - it is weird to figure out that I am no longer an author's target audience. The good thing, though, is that there are ALWAYS more books to pick from. And I look forward to discovering where I'll go from Carey.

But I'm not in a hurry to get there, because I've still got four of her books to re-read.

Runemarks

There is a lot of crap fantasy being produced these days. I’m not going to name names, because I am a firm believer in the “someone, somewhere, likes it” theory, but you know it’s true. I also think that it is a fairly easy writing convention to base a story off some brand of mythology. This can be used to good or bad effect (American Gods was brilliant, the Percy Jackson books are shaping up to be a fun romp, Gods Behaving Badly was…only okay), and I don’t think it’s a bad thing to dig up old stories, but I do think it’s pretty amazing when an author manages to take old, worn out characters and make them new and fun.

Runemarks by Joanne Harris is a solid effort on those lines. The novel takes place post-Ragnarok, but the world hasn’t ended – indeed, she doesn’t even place us in a dystopic or post-apocalyptic type setting. Malbry, the town where all the action is, reminded me much more of Tolkein’s Shire: quiet, unassuming, and out-of-the-way. The Order, a religious sect that isn’t Christianity and yet totally is, reigns supreme even in such a small town; the Examiners dictate life from their glass cathedrals in World’s End, and they have declared magic, runes, and any other remnants from the Elder Age (before Ragnarok) to be anathema.

Enter our heroine, a sprightly girl named Maddy with an unbroken “ruinmark” emblazoned on her palm. Maddy is a fun character to ride with. She’s smart, but it’s an intelligence unpolished by age (she’s only fourteen) so she does make the occasional bad or rash decision, and she gets in trouble and has to get herself out. She’s resourceful, flexible, and endearing, and I was rooting for her all the way.

Maddy’s task is to set the world to rights and prevent another Ragnarok, from which the world probably won’t recover. Her journey takes her far from home and through an extensive network of “World Below” places, including waking sleeping gods, arguing with an Oracle, and outwitting the inhabitants of the lands of the dead. It’s an engaging, surprising journey, and I didn’t mind that I was always pretty sure how everything was going to turn out.

Harris really shines with her characterizations of the Norse pantheon. (A quick side note: these gods have so many thoroughly recognizable nicknames that I think it’s almost impossible for authors to hide their identities from the reader. I was not in the least surprised by the two big “reveals,” but I’m not sure that those reveals are for my sake anymore – is it acceptable for Maddy to be surprised, even if I’m not?) She makes them similar to the Greek gods, in that they are very human – they hold grudges, have tempers, are prone to vanity, and make mistakes. But as is appropriate to deities, those mistakes are on a MUCH larger level with a correspondingly large amount of destruction. But Harris makes sure that you really get to know them, especially Odin and Loki, the two predictable main players. Their personalities absolutely resonate with everything we know about them from their stories, and at the same time, I felt like I got to know them in a more intimate way.

Runemarks is a wonderfully fun odyssey, with a few gem-like surprises hidden in its occasionally predictable story. For fantasy lovers, it is a treasure among the largely sub par offerings, and for everyone else, it is an interesting take on mythology. Either way, it is definitely something to be enjoyed.