Reading meme

[cyphomandra]

What I've just read:

Kate Elliott's Cold Magic. At about page 200 I felt a moment of connection with the main character, but then it went again. This is mostly me, in that I think many people will like this book and it does a lot of things that, if told about, I would find very interesting. Especially the background setting, which is kind of a historical AU with Afro-Celt Europe and intelligent dinosaur (?I think) descendants. I just didn't find them interesting here, and it's mainly because I couldn't connect to the main character at all. Things were just too convenient for her; I never felt, in amongst all the perils and chases and revelations, that she was actually being asked to question anything central to her character (apart from that one brief moment) and there were too many attributes of specialness (Cat's origins, both sets, her sword fighting, her self-possession, her convenient half-brother) for me. I kept going out of sheer determination, but I don't think I'm going to pick up the next. I don't have to like the main character(s), but I do need to want to know what happens to them.

I have also stalled out on Elliott's Jaran series and the Crown of Stars series. Hmm. I think I liked her storyline in The Golden Key? An author that I've failed to connect with while not disliking in any way.

What I'm reading now:

Len Deighton's Mexico Set. I think Bernard is an interesting character, and it's becoming more obvious how much he lies to himself here. The Mexican street market bit made me massively hungry, and the set up is intriguing - Bernard has to try to persuade a KGB major to defect. Not far enough in for anything more.

What I expect to read next:

I have actually had a pretty stressful week and am looking for the fictional equivalent of macaroni & cheese, i.e. predictably comforting with a hint of nutritional value, leaving one with a warm and slightly stodgy feeling. Suggestions taken; otherwise will probably be prowling through fanfic.

Comments

[ambyr]

I think that's a pretty common issue with Cold Magic :-/. Elliott seems like an awesome person, she writes exactly the sort of themes and characters I like, and . . . I really wish her books worked for me. (I do like Jaran a lot, but I bounced off Crown of Stars, too).

[cyphomandra]

Hmm. I wonder what it is? Because I was trying to think how Cold Magic could be edited, because sometimes I do that, and yet in this case I really do think she'd have to write a completely different book (which seems unreasonable). And yes, she seems really cool.

Ooh - I saw in your last entry that you'd been playing Seven Wonders. I tried that for the first time recently with my gaming group and liked it a lot, despite losing badly in all three games. We have been going through a bit of a Dominion binge, so it's been good to try something different (even if I obviously suck at it!).

[ambyr]

The biggest complaint I could articulate about Cold Magic was that the exposition was too often clunky; she's built this immensely complicated world, but explaining it to the readers seemed to devolve into "As you know, Bob" exchanges because characters who both perfectly well did know and thus had no real reason to talk about it. In Jaran, that's not a problem for me because the main character is an outsider who doesn't know anything. But I'm sure that's not the only thing making me bounce.

I have yet to win a game of Seven Wonders, but at this point anything that gives variety from Dominion is a good thing ;-). And playing without the expansions for Seven Wonders, as we did last weekend, was actually kind of nice; we've been using them a lot lately, and I'm not actually sure I like the added complexity. (Of course, left to my own devices I would just play Race for the Galaxy over and over again. . . .)

[cyphomandra]

I've heard about Race for the Galaxy but not played it - what's it like? My impression is that it's one of those "each person can do certain things per turn" games like Seven Wonders or Agricola but, um, in Space, and just with cards?