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I am in the middle of a patch of books I've picked up because of numerous positive recommendations, all by female authors.
Hild, Nicola Griffith. Dark Ages Britain, Hild of Whitby, and an amazingly indepth world and people. Loved this. My only caveat for recommending it would be that it's the first of a proposed three book series and there is no word as to when the next is due out (also, I would warn for infant death).
Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel. Most of the world's population is wiped out by flu, an epidemic which started the same night an actor playing the lead in a Canadian production of King Lear died. Twenty years after, a travelling orchestra and Shakespeare theatre group make their circuit through the remaining clumps of civilisation. I liked this a lot. I liked the structure (back and forward through timelines and connections) and there are bits in this that really got to me. I do feel it's written from a literary rather than a genre sensibility and this may account for some of the bits that didn't work as well for me - the graphic novel that one of the character is obsessed with is far more important as a symbol than as an actual story, the actions of the Prophet, the lack of change in tone throughout the story - but I did like it and I would read more of her books. I also want to reread the short story Stephen King did as a prelude to The Stand (Mandel does name-check some genre works in interviews etc, but oddly not what I think of as the quintessential end-the-world-with-flu book).
Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho. Regency England with fantasy and nonwhite protagonists. I have loved a number of Zen Cho's short stories and was more than a little disappointed that I really didn't enjoy this. It's weak on plot, and while strong on character it a) feels as though the characters are all from slightly different stories and b) I really disliked Prunella, and it's hard to enjoy a book when you're deeply annoyed with one of the leads. I liked Zacharias more but I am never a big fan of a protagonist keeping something secret from the readers for no particularly good reason.
Also, I am now 50 pages from the end of the first of what a friend refers to as the Imperial Radish series, Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, and enjoying it a lot. I think this is a series which would be great to re-read.
Hild, Nicola Griffith. Dark Ages Britain, Hild of Whitby, and an amazingly indepth world and people. Loved this. My only caveat for recommending it would be that it's the first of a proposed three book series and there is no word as to when the next is due out (also, I would warn for infant death).
Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel. Most of the world's population is wiped out by flu, an epidemic which started the same night an actor playing the lead in a Canadian production of King Lear died. Twenty years after, a travelling orchestra and Shakespeare theatre group make their circuit through the remaining clumps of civilisation. I liked this a lot. I liked the structure (back and forward through timelines and connections) and there are bits in this that really got to me. I do feel it's written from a literary rather than a genre sensibility and this may account for some of the bits that didn't work as well for me - the graphic novel that one of the character is obsessed with is far more important as a symbol than as an actual story, the actions of the Prophet, the lack of change in tone throughout the story - but I did like it and I would read more of her books. I also want to reread the short story Stephen King did as a prelude to The Stand (Mandel does name-check some genre works in interviews etc, but oddly not what I think of as the quintessential end-the-world-with-flu book).
Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho. Regency England with fantasy and nonwhite protagonists. I have loved a number of Zen Cho's short stories and was more than a little disappointed that I really didn't enjoy this. It's weak on plot, and while strong on character it a) feels as though the characters are all from slightly different stories and b) I really disliked Prunella, and it's hard to enjoy a book when you're deeply annoyed with one of the leads. I liked Zacharias more but I am never a big fan of a protagonist keeping something secret from the readers for no particularly good reason.
Also, I am now 50 pages from the end of the first of what a friend refers to as the Imperial Radish series, Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, and enjoying it a lot. I think this is a series which would be great to re-read.
