Garth Nix, Superior Saturday

My dream last night ran into budgetary constraints, or something similar - my group of, obviously, law-abiding citizenry were fleeing on skis from a bunch of evil people in helicopters, with lots of vertical jumps and some very nice scenery; when we ran out of snow the chase sequence switched to trains, with high speed collisions and a slow-motion replay to establish that one of the characters had been able to jump clear just in time. And then all of us were in a very unexciting suburb from my childhood, hanging out on opposite sides of the road and glaring at each other while waiting to see whose bus would arrive first.

Anyway. Garth Nix is, fortunately, not running out of invention, although this is still not as good as the first book.
( Garth Nix, Superior Saturday. )

Sarah Hall, The Carhullan Army

This year’s Tiptree winner, and an interesting read – there are some things I like about it a lot, especially the setting/world-building, but there are also bits where it seems to slide right past me, and unfortunately these are increasingly more common towards the end. These may, however, represent problems with me as a reader rather than with the book; reviews I've read have been largely favourable, although others seem to have issues as well.

It’s set in a future Britain, rigidly controlled, with inhabitants leading lives of quiet and increasingly restricted desperation. The narrator, Sister, leaves the city to join a community of women on a hill farm; a community that is driven and shaped by its leader, Jackie Nixon. Jackie wants control, and uses Sister as a tool to do so – as she’s used everyone else in the community.

( Sarah Hall, The Carhullan Army (spoilers). )