What are you reading (not on a) Wednesday?
Apr. 2nd, 2016 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricCurrently Reading: A metric fuckload of fanfiction, mostly. And "Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson. It's been a while since I did these updates because I really have read very little since Jan.
Recently Finished:
Well, I gave up on Welcome to Nightvale the novel. Bah. Couldn't hold my attention.
I read The Scarlet Letter for work, and it is more interesting in that context than it was when it was supposedly leisure reading, but I don't want to review it.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was... an odd reading experience. There was a lot about Alan Dean Foster's writing that I liked - his take on Rey on Jakku was particularly nuanced in ways I really wouldn't normally expect from a male sci-fi writer. I like his Finn much better than Rukka's, but he shortchanged Leia. I found the reading experience odd in that it was very hard to tell what was a cut scene (eg, the speeder chase on Starkiller) and what was Foster ad-libbing. Some of his ad-libbing, if that's what it was, was *excellent*. Either that or the final cut included lines that weren't as good as the original script.
What surprised me is how long it took me to finish it. I was expecting to binge-read it as I do fanfic, but nope. I read it slowly and critically. Huh.
Then CS Pacat, "Captive Prince", "Prince's Gambit" and "King's Rising".
Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Let this stand as a review for the whole series.
Pros: I binge-read it. It was candy and I binged on it. A lot of the dialogue was snappy, excellent banter.
Cons: I don't think you're absolved of skeevy orientalism just because you made your harem-having people in carving-heavy courtyard-based palaces all pale and gave them French names. I mean, that's better than nothing, but still.
Slavery in-world is one thing. The weird-ass distinctions Damen was drawing by the end between Actual Slavery and whatever indentured sex trafficking the Veretians practiced did not hold up, though. And nor, when it comes down to it, did Damen's abrupt abolitionist agenda. It was like... "oooh look, an abolitionist! pay no attention to the slaveowner he's fucking behind the curtain?" Either you accept that in your narrative context slavery is a thing, or you don't, but that was not an effective bait-and-switch manoeuvre. (For comparison, try Mary Renault's The Persian Boy! You can have characters accept slavery is a system they're stuck with and still hate being enslaved! You can have your romantic lead object to taking sexual advantage of slaves without becoming culturally implausible! Trufax.)
The politics at the end made NO SENSE. You can't solve an extended feud with the power of gay sex. Sorry guys. Been tried. May I refer you to the 1190s war over the Vexin?
I'm not sure if this is a pro or a con, but Damen is the MOST UNPERCEPTIVE POV CHARACTER EVER. I could tell what Laurent's issue with sex was by late in book one, and was absolutely certain by the time they shagged, and yet Damen couldn't figure it out? Lots of things like that. With that in mind, I am convinced that Nikandros' assessment of the political situation - that Laurent would fuck Damen, but he'd want something and that something would not be good for Akelios - I'm pretty sure the most likely outcome is Laurent becoming effective high king of both countries and Damen a titular king of Akelios while Laurent trains up Damen's young nephew as his own successor.
The second book was the best: the worldbuilding really tightened up but hadn't yet overstretched it self, the small-scale political drama of Laurent's entourage was working well, and the whole thing was a festival of ridiculous tropes. In the space of a single day in story-time we got COLLABORATING AND SNEAKING; CAPTURED BY MYSTERIOUS ENEMIES; SPECIAL HOSPITALITY ORGIES; and UST-FILLED BEDSHARING. It was really very good for me, and I'm disappointed the third book was unable to support this festival of ridiculous tropes with solid world-building.
Recently Finished:
Well, I gave up on Welcome to Nightvale the novel. Bah. Couldn't hold my attention.
I read The Scarlet Letter for work, and it is more interesting in that context than it was when it was supposedly leisure reading, but I don't want to review it.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Alan Dean FosterMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was... an odd reading experience. There was a lot about Alan Dean Foster's writing that I liked - his take on Rey on Jakku was particularly nuanced in ways I really wouldn't normally expect from a male sci-fi writer. I like his Finn much better than Rukka's, but he shortchanged Leia. I found the reading experience odd in that it was very hard to tell what was a cut scene (eg, the speeder chase on Starkiller) and what was Foster ad-libbing. Some of his ad-libbing, if that's what it was, was *excellent*. Either that or the final cut included lines that weren't as good as the original script.
What surprised me is how long it took me to finish it. I was expecting to binge-read it as I do fanfic, but nope. I read it slowly and critically. Huh.
Then CS Pacat, "Captive Prince", "Prince's Gambit" and "King's Rising".
Kings Rising by C.S. PacatMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Let this stand as a review for the whole series.
Pros: I binge-read it. It was candy and I binged on it. A lot of the dialogue was snappy, excellent banter.
Cons: I don't think you're absolved of skeevy orientalism just because you made your harem-having people in carving-heavy courtyard-based palaces all pale and gave them French names. I mean, that's better than nothing, but still.
Slavery in-world is one thing. The weird-ass distinctions Damen was drawing by the end between Actual Slavery and whatever indentured sex trafficking the Veretians practiced did not hold up, though. And nor, when it comes down to it, did Damen's abrupt abolitionist agenda. It was like... "oooh look, an abolitionist! pay no attention to the slaveowner he's fucking behind the curtain?" Either you accept that in your narrative context slavery is a thing, or you don't, but that was not an effective bait-and-switch manoeuvre. (For comparison, try Mary Renault's The Persian Boy! You can have characters accept slavery is a system they're stuck with and still hate being enslaved! You can have your romantic lead object to taking sexual advantage of slaves without becoming culturally implausible! Trufax.)
The politics at the end made NO SENSE. You can't solve an extended feud with the power of gay sex. Sorry guys. Been tried. May I refer you to the 1190s war over the Vexin?
I'm not sure if this is a pro or a con, but Damen is the MOST UNPERCEPTIVE POV CHARACTER EVER. I could tell what Laurent's issue with sex was by late in book one, and was absolutely certain by the time they shagged, and yet Damen couldn't figure it out? Lots of things like that. With that in mind, I am convinced that Nikandros' assessment of the political situation - that Laurent would fuck Damen, but he'd want something and that something would not be good for Akelios - I'm pretty sure the most likely outcome is Laurent becoming effective high king of both countries and Damen a titular king of Akelios while Laurent trains up Damen's young nephew as his own successor.
The second book was the best: the worldbuilding really tightened up but hadn't yet overstretched it self, the small-scale political drama of Laurent's entourage was working well, and the whole thing was a festival of ridiculous tropes. In the space of a single day in story-time we got COLLABORATING AND SNEAKING; CAPTURED BY MYSTERIOUS ENEMIES; SPECIAL HOSPITALITY ORGIES; and UST-FILLED BEDSHARING. It was really very good for me, and I'm disappointed the third book was unable to support this festival of ridiculous tropes with solid world-building.