highlyeccentric (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
highlyeccentric) wrote2013-09-16 09:24 pm
highlyeccentric) wrote2013-09-16 09:24 pm
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Books: another update!
An update which, for once, brings me right up to date on my reading-for-fun list.
Lindsey Barraclough, Long Lankin: This was deliciously creepy. I loved the mixture of mundane and spooky - although the point where all the major characters had gastric bugs did force me to put it down for a while, because i didn't sign up to have my emetephobia poked while I read gothic novels, wut. For all that, that particular episode was well done - it really drove home that this haunting business was *life* for the locals. And I liked the parrallelism between Cora and Roger here - while Cora is willing to fight monsters for her little sister, Roger has to clean up puke for his little brothers, and while one of those requires outstanding courage, the other requires stubbornness and a sense of responsibility. I think Roger's responsibility and adulthood stood out particularly when the narrative focused on the things he *couldn't* or wouldn't do - he couldn't cook and he wouldn't weed out the stale smells from the house, but he more or less kept everything running while ALSO hunting monsters. He's not a mini-adult, and the narrative doesn't try to make him one, but he's a damn fine kid.
ROGER WAS AWESOME basically. So was Cora. I really liked Barraclough's decision to exploit multiple points of view in this book - especially the decision to include Aunt Ida in the POV cast. I do think that POV was under-used in the first 2/3 of the book: we got enough to know that she fully expected things to go to shit, but not enough to know why she wasn't doing anything. I also found it a wee bit hard to believe that Cora didn't talk to her aunt about Lankin - even in anger - until late in the plot. Ida had been physically violent to her, but Cora didn't seem unused to violence. I almost want Ida to have been *meaner* earlier on, so that the turning point when she and Cora join forces would be more climactic.
Finally, I have trouble processing this as YA fiction. Its protagonists are children, mostly, but I don't see why that means its target audience should be primarily so (except that YA supernatural is a booming market atm).
David Lodge, Nice Work: I liked this a lot better than Small World or Changing Places. I found both protagonists engaging and the core themes, especially the relevance of academia to the 'real world', are obviously interesting to me. I was particularly taken with the thread which was summed up, in one of Charles' few speeches, as 'the impossibility of teaching post-structuralism to those who haven't grasped traditional humanism'. There was, in a way, a defence of traditional liberal arts in here, as possibly the only meeting point between capitalism and post-structuralism. Or something.
I am, however, disappointed that Our Heroine turned down the job in America.
Sam Starbuck, The City War: Oooh my this was an excellent use of 5 USD! Sam's writing is solid, as usual; characterisation and historical detail are remarkably good (but in the latter case, unobtrusive) for a cheap gay e-book. I LOVED the original character, and the context-appropriate identity formation for a transman. And I loved the detail and respect put into characterising Brutus' wife - not the sort of thing you can be guaranteed from either history OR cheap gay e-books.
My only quibble was the terrible coding of the .mobi, which made reading difficult at times.
Sarah Rees Brennan, Untold: This did not break my heart! SRB would be very disappointed. But I am filled with admiration for the plot development, the broadening characterisation, and the handling of consent issues here.
TELEPATHIC CONSENT ISSUES. OH YES.
Lindsey Barraclough, Long Lankin: This was deliciously creepy. I loved the mixture of mundane and spooky - although the point where all the major characters had gastric bugs did force me to put it down for a while, because i didn't sign up to have my emetephobia poked while I read gothic novels, wut. For all that, that particular episode was well done - it really drove home that this haunting business was *life* for the locals. And I liked the parrallelism between Cora and Roger here - while Cora is willing to fight monsters for her little sister, Roger has to clean up puke for his little brothers, and while one of those requires outstanding courage, the other requires stubbornness and a sense of responsibility. I think Roger's responsibility and adulthood stood out particularly when the narrative focused on the things he *couldn't* or wouldn't do - he couldn't cook and he wouldn't weed out the stale smells from the house, but he more or less kept everything running while ALSO hunting monsters. He's not a mini-adult, and the narrative doesn't try to make him one, but he's a damn fine kid.
ROGER WAS AWESOME basically. So was Cora. I really liked Barraclough's decision to exploit multiple points of view in this book - especially the decision to include Aunt Ida in the POV cast. I do think that POV was under-used in the first 2/3 of the book: we got enough to know that she fully expected things to go to shit, but not enough to know why she wasn't doing anything. I also found it a wee bit hard to believe that Cora didn't talk to her aunt about Lankin - even in anger - until late in the plot. Ida had been physically violent to her, but Cora didn't seem unused to violence. I almost want Ida to have been *meaner* earlier on, so that the turning point when she and Cora join forces would be more climactic.
Finally, I have trouble processing this as YA fiction. Its protagonists are children, mostly, but I don't see why that means its target audience should be primarily so (except that YA supernatural is a booming market atm).
David Lodge, Nice Work: I liked this a lot better than Small World or Changing Places. I found both protagonists engaging and the core themes, especially the relevance of academia to the 'real world', are obviously interesting to me. I was particularly taken with the thread which was summed up, in one of Charles' few speeches, as 'the impossibility of teaching post-structuralism to those who haven't grasped traditional humanism'. There was, in a way, a defence of traditional liberal arts in here, as possibly the only meeting point between capitalism and post-structuralism. Or something.
I am, however, disappointed that Our Heroine turned down the job in America.
Sam Starbuck, The City War: Oooh my this was an excellent use of 5 USD! Sam's writing is solid, as usual; characterisation and historical detail are remarkably good (but in the latter case, unobtrusive) for a cheap gay e-book. I LOVED the original character, and the context-appropriate identity formation for a transman. And I loved the detail and respect put into characterising Brutus' wife - not the sort of thing you can be guaranteed from either history OR cheap gay e-books.
My only quibble was the terrible coding of the .mobi, which made reading difficult at times.
Sarah Rees Brennan, Untold: This did not break my heart! SRB would be very disappointed. But I am filled with admiration for the plot development, the broadening characterisation, and the handling of consent issues here.
TELEPATHIC CONSENT ISSUES. OH YES.