cyphomandra (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cyphomandra) wrote2007-01-10 10:00 pm
cyphomandra) wrote2007-01-10 10:00 pm
Entry tags:
Backlog (20 books)
Everything else I read in December that I haven’t mentioned earlier. I did a lot of travelling this month, which means a lot of reading, but this is still a little startling. Still haven't mentioned Paul Park's A Princess of Roumania, but I have The Tourmaline to read, and will get to it then.
Darkland, Liz Williams. Part-sequel to The Ghost Sister. As always, excellent world-building, but it's all rather sombre. Vivid imagery, as well, and interesting technology, but overall it still hasn't gripped me to anywhere near the same degree Snake Agent has. Fortunately, I should get The Demon and the City soon, and am eagerly anticipating re-reading Snake Agent first.
Starring Tracey Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson. Not quite as good as the first one, partly because I now know what restrictions the characters will operate under.
The Sword and the Circle, Rosemary Sutcliffe. Needs an entry to itself. I read Sword at Sunset last time I went home, which is a gritty re-telling, Arthur as war-leader; this is a Malory re-telling, the legends rather than the people behind them. Excellently told, though, and now I need to track down the next two books in the sequence (and, at some stage, go on about Gawain, my first favourite knight).
The More the Merrier, Anne Fine. Christmas family disintegration. Not her best, but entertaining.
A Soul in a Bottle, Tim Powers. Collector’s edition. Amazing illustrations/photos, but I prefer him at novel length (Three Days til Never is in my pending pile).
Anybody out there? Marian Keyes. I really liked Rachel’s Holiday, and Angels had some surprisingly good stuff in it. Sushi for Beginners didn’t, tho’, and neither did The Other Side of the Story. This is halfway in-between the two sorts – strong beginning, interesting topic, but drifted and became obvious towards the ending.
Three of the Circle books by Tamora Pierce - The magic in the weaving, The fire in the forging, The power in the storm. Hmm. Competent, but forgettable; they don't have the same spark for me that her Alannah books did, and I don't think it's just that I'm no longer the target age group.
Welcome, Chaos, Kate Wilhelm. Hard to describe. A wildlife photographer comes into contact with a group of people who have an immortality serum (handwaving ensues), and various shady others who are after it. The serum has a 50% mortality rate when you take it, but this is surprisingly underplayed – it would put me off taking it until I was up against something else of similar danger, but this isn’t the case for the characters. The characterisation is good, and she doesn’t hold back in changing the world.
Sackcloth for Susan, Rosemary Rees. Nothing to do with Jane Shaw’s Susan books. Unconventional (for the 50s) romance in unspecified part of New Zealand, prob Hawke’s Bay area given climate and earthquake. One of those ones where headstrong woman thinks she can run things her own way until realising she’s nothing without the support of the strong silent male who’s been observing her since childhood (Jane Austen, I’m looking at you), but the characters are vivid enough and there’s some nice detail.
The Mysterious Orchard, John Elsworth. Schoolboys holidaying on Dartmoor (I think – near Exeter) discover bad guys and fabulous treasure. The bad guy has more than one dimension, but sadly only one of the schoolboys does.
Diane Duane, Wizards at War. Reward for completing my story. The Dairine plotline in this was particularly good (I do wish she’d stop selectively offing all the nonhumans, but as this was the main plot element I copied I really can’t complain!). I do think that the first 3 books are the best, though, and she’s running out of stakes to up.
Isabelle Carmody, Alyzon Whitestarr. After a head injury Alyzon develops the ability to smell wrongness, and detect a plot aimed at making all creative people produce only dark, unhappy stuff. I resented the implications that artists should only sing about sunny butterflies (and heavy metal is obviously Wrong), and it’s got that oddly flat setting of Australia with all the specifics filed off (apart from a dig at current government policy regarding refugees, which I appreciated).
Tim Flannery, The Weather Makers. Depressing, good and helpful. Climate change and what to do about it – and why, for many things, it may be already too late.
Mercedes Lackey, The Wizard of London. Just not good. Cardboard characters and obvious plotting, and it’s a shame that someone who wrote the earlier Herald books now thinks that all girls want a soft-nosed white pony to quietly pull a cart around, while all boys want a sprightly black pony who’ll jump fences for them.
Ursula Dubosarsky, Abyssinia. Odd, but good, book. “For every child who is found, another must be lost” it says on the cover (or something like that – I’ve taken it back to the library already) and it works through that, in a family – and a doll’s house – living in the Australian outback, Victorian/Edwardian times. Creepy and elegant.
All enjoyable, all with that little twist that makes them more than just comfort reading.
Miss Pym Disposes, Josephine Tey
Cotillion, Georgette Heyer
Audrey, a New Girl. Joanna Lloyd
Darkland, Liz Williams. Part-sequel to The Ghost Sister. As always, excellent world-building, but it's all rather sombre. Vivid imagery, as well, and interesting technology, but overall it still hasn't gripped me to anywhere near the same degree Snake Agent has. Fortunately, I should get The Demon and the City soon, and am eagerly anticipating re-reading Snake Agent first.
Starring Tracey Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson. Not quite as good as the first one, partly because I now know what restrictions the characters will operate under.
The Sword and the Circle, Rosemary Sutcliffe. Needs an entry to itself. I read Sword at Sunset last time I went home, which is a gritty re-telling, Arthur as war-leader; this is a Malory re-telling, the legends rather than the people behind them. Excellently told, though, and now I need to track down the next two books in the sequence (and, at some stage, go on about Gawain, my first favourite knight).
The More the Merrier, Anne Fine. Christmas family disintegration. Not her best, but entertaining.
A Soul in a Bottle, Tim Powers. Collector’s edition. Amazing illustrations/photos, but I prefer him at novel length (Three Days til Never is in my pending pile).
Anybody out there? Marian Keyes. I really liked Rachel’s Holiday, and Angels had some surprisingly good stuff in it. Sushi for Beginners didn’t, tho’, and neither did The Other Side of the Story. This is halfway in-between the two sorts – strong beginning, interesting topic, but drifted and became obvious towards the ending.
Three of the Circle books by Tamora Pierce - The magic in the weaving, The fire in the forging, The power in the storm. Hmm. Competent, but forgettable; they don't have the same spark for me that her Alannah books did, and I don't think it's just that I'm no longer the target age group.
Welcome, Chaos, Kate Wilhelm. Hard to describe. A wildlife photographer comes into contact with a group of people who have an immortality serum (handwaving ensues), and various shady others who are after it. The serum has a 50% mortality rate when you take it, but this is surprisingly underplayed – it would put me off taking it until I was up against something else of similar danger, but this isn’t the case for the characters. The characterisation is good, and she doesn’t hold back in changing the world.
Sackcloth for Susan, Rosemary Rees. Nothing to do with Jane Shaw’s Susan books. Unconventional (for the 50s) romance in unspecified part of New Zealand, prob Hawke’s Bay area given climate and earthquake. One of those ones where headstrong woman thinks she can run things her own way until realising she’s nothing without the support of the strong silent male who’s been observing her since childhood (Jane Austen, I’m looking at you), but the characters are vivid enough and there’s some nice detail.
The Mysterious Orchard, John Elsworth. Schoolboys holidaying on Dartmoor (I think – near Exeter) discover bad guys and fabulous treasure. The bad guy has more than one dimension, but sadly only one of the schoolboys does.
Diane Duane, Wizards at War. Reward for completing my story. The Dairine plotline in this was particularly good (I do wish she’d stop selectively offing all the nonhumans, but as this was the main plot element I copied I really can’t complain!). I do think that the first 3 books are the best, though, and she’s running out of stakes to up.
Isabelle Carmody, Alyzon Whitestarr. After a head injury Alyzon develops the ability to smell wrongness, and detect a plot aimed at making all creative people produce only dark, unhappy stuff. I resented the implications that artists should only sing about sunny butterflies (and heavy metal is obviously Wrong), and it’s got that oddly flat setting of Australia with all the specifics filed off (apart from a dig at current government policy regarding refugees, which I appreciated).
Tim Flannery, The Weather Makers. Depressing, good and helpful. Climate change and what to do about it – and why, for many things, it may be already too late.
Mercedes Lackey, The Wizard of London. Just not good. Cardboard characters and obvious plotting, and it’s a shame that someone who wrote the earlier Herald books now thinks that all girls want a soft-nosed white pony to quietly pull a cart around, while all boys want a sprightly black pony who’ll jump fences for them.
Ursula Dubosarsky, Abyssinia. Odd, but good, book. “For every child who is found, another must be lost” it says on the cover (or something like that – I’ve taken it back to the library already) and it works through that, in a family – and a doll’s house – living in the Australian outback, Victorian/Edwardian times. Creepy and elegant.
All enjoyable, all with that little twist that makes them more than just comfort reading.
Miss Pym Disposes, Josephine Tey
Cotillion, Georgette Heyer
Audrey, a New Girl. Joanna Lloyd