Recent reading round-up
Dec. 6th, 2010 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerIt's cold enough to make a brass monkey scream and a tin monkey cry. Therefore, today I'm going to stay inside and read. And write miniature book reviews. Fun-size book reviews, like fun-size candy bars, which you can eat in one bite.
Ancient, Strange, and Lovely is the new Dragon’s Milk book I mentioned earlier. It is AMAZING.
It’s a bit slow to get rolling, but it hurtles ferociously forward once our heroine Bryn hits the road with her buddy Sasha and the dracling. Bryn is brilliantly – in way over her head, on the edge of overwhelmed, but fighting through because the dracling is counting on her. And the dracling, as in the earlier books, is pure distilled adorable.
The near future setting works surprisingly well. The fact that it’s set in our world did give me pause – because when and where precisely were the earlier books, then? – but that’s my own problem and will probably not bother anyone else.
Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Covenant is somewhat less awesome. I spent most of it torn between my affection for the heroine and my horror at everything she did. Why, for instance, is she so upset by her belief that Alan is going to betray his brother Nick? Sure, it might break what passes for Nick’s heart, but seriously, Mae, do you think it’s a good idea for him to run around with unlimited power? Really? Given he’s a psychopath?
Despite the fact that one is a betrayer and the other a psychopath, Mae spends much of the book contemplating dating one of the brothers. Oh Mae. You have the worst taste in men EVER.
Her taste in women is better. She has the biggest crush ever on the dancer Sin (short for Cynthia), who while still probably a terrible relationship choice would probably not be actively horrible for her. Unfortunately, Mae never notices that this crush exists, even though it drips off the page.
When Mae sees Sin, she feels “a pang of visceral longing.” She raves about how powerful and beautiful and graceful and seductive Sin is. When Sin smiles at her, Mae becomes breathless. They eat aphrodisiac fruits and dance together to summon demons, then go back to Sin’s caravan where Sin shakes her hair loose and flings herself next to Mae on the bed...
And that's the end of it. They part, and Mae goes back to pining for the psychopath. The really peculiar thing about this scene is that it seems completely unaware of its own sensual charge. It reads as though Mae is in love with Sin, but both Mae and the text are unaware of it.
The law of diminishing returns: I loved The Shakespeare Stealer, enjoyed it’s sequel Shakespeare’s Scribe, and can’t work up sufficient emotion about Shakespeare’s Spy to care one way or another. Many of the cool characters left or died in earlier books, destroying the sense of found family that animated them, and the plot is so limp that Blackwood tries to spice it up by tossing in a few prophecies.
The prophecies, rather than injecting a sense of urgency or mystery, mainly highlight the puppet strings yanking the characters around. They act as they do because the plot demands they do something, not because it makes sense.
The Boyfriend List is so much fun! Provided you have a taste for well-written high school drama. Our heroine, Ruby Oliver, has just had the Worst Week Ever, and she’s going to tell us about it in the most charmingly circuitous way possible. She makes lists! She delves into her memories! She writes footnotes! I love a good footnote.
The other characters are not as well drawn as Ruby, and there are so many of them that I sometimes got them confused. Presumably the sequels will help me get everyone sorted out.
Ancient, Strange, and Lovely is the new Dragon’s Milk book I mentioned earlier. It is AMAZING.
It’s a bit slow to get rolling, but it hurtles ferociously forward once our heroine Bryn hits the road with her buddy Sasha and the dracling. Bryn is brilliantly – in way over her head, on the edge of overwhelmed, but fighting through because the dracling is counting on her. And the dracling, as in the earlier books, is pure distilled adorable.
The near future setting works surprisingly well. The fact that it’s set in our world did give me pause – because when and where precisely were the earlier books, then? – but that’s my own problem and will probably not bother anyone else.
Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Covenant is somewhat less awesome. I spent most of it torn between my affection for the heroine and my horror at everything she did. Why, for instance, is she so upset by her belief that Alan is going to betray his brother Nick? Sure, it might break what passes for Nick’s heart, but seriously, Mae, do you think it’s a good idea for him to run around with unlimited power? Really? Given he’s a psychopath?
Despite the fact that one is a betrayer and the other a psychopath, Mae spends much of the book contemplating dating one of the brothers. Oh Mae. You have the worst taste in men EVER.
Her taste in women is better. She has the biggest crush ever on the dancer Sin (short for Cynthia), who while still probably a terrible relationship choice would probably not be actively horrible for her. Unfortunately, Mae never notices that this crush exists, even though it drips off the page.
When Mae sees Sin, she feels “a pang of visceral longing.” She raves about how powerful and beautiful and graceful and seductive Sin is. When Sin smiles at her, Mae becomes breathless. They eat aphrodisiac fruits and dance together to summon demons, then go back to Sin’s caravan where Sin shakes her hair loose and flings herself next to Mae on the bed...
And that's the end of it. They part, and Mae goes back to pining for the psychopath. The really peculiar thing about this scene is that it seems completely unaware of its own sensual charge. It reads as though Mae is in love with Sin, but both Mae and the text are unaware of it.
The law of diminishing returns: I loved The Shakespeare Stealer, enjoyed it’s sequel Shakespeare’s Scribe, and can’t work up sufficient emotion about Shakespeare’s Spy to care one way or another. Many of the cool characters left or died in earlier books, destroying the sense of found family that animated them, and the plot is so limp that Blackwood tries to spice it up by tossing in a few prophecies.
The prophecies, rather than injecting a sense of urgency or mystery, mainly highlight the puppet strings yanking the characters around. They act as they do because the plot demands they do something, not because it makes sense.
The Boyfriend List is so much fun! Provided you have a taste for well-written high school drama. Our heroine, Ruby Oliver, has just had the Worst Week Ever, and she’s going to tell us about it in the most charmingly circuitous way possible. She makes lists! She delves into her memories! She writes footnotes! I love a good footnote.
The other characters are not as well drawn as Ruby, and there are so many of them that I sometimes got them confused. Presumably the sequels will help me get everyone sorted out.
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-06 04:45 pm (UTC)Me too! And lists can also be fun (and revealing)
no subject
Date: 2010-12-07 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 06:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-06 05:34 pm (UTC)I'm sad Sarah Rees Brennan's books are not amazing, because I did love her fanfiction.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-07 01:58 am (UTC)Nonetheless I find Brennan's writing compelling enough that I came back for the second book, despite knowing I was letting myself in for that. And they are well-written and fast-paced and the characters, though their decisions drive me bats, are complex and interesting.
So the right reader could well find them amazing. I'm just not the right reader.