Reading Wednesday

[oyceter]

So, I am doing much better with the reading! As in, I actually have new books to discuss every Wednesday!

... hopefully now my blogging will catch up. Lumatere books 2 and 3, why so hard to write up?

What I've just finished: Cold Fire! It feels much more tight than the first book in the series, probably because much of the action takes place in a single setting. I'm not a huge fan of journey narratives, which explains why I've always liked the non-Frodo-Sam bits of LotR better. I think there's only so much scrounging for food and shelter and constantly moving on that I can take, particularly when I really like to dig into a specific setting. Luckily, the one in Cold Fire is incredibly cool: the city of Expedition (located in the world's equivalent of our Dominican Republic), which is a center of trade nestled up by the large Taino Emprie.

I also read Charlotte Stein's Sheltered, which has a sweet f/m relationship where the girl is usually the instigator of sex while the boy draws back a bit. I didn't find the portrayal of parental abuse that realistic though; it feels more like someone's idea of what abuse is and doesn't have as much of the emotional terror that goes with it. YMMV, since obviously there is no one right way to write about abuse.

What I'm reading: Currently in the middle of Andrea K. Host's And All the Stars, after starting and then not quite getting into Y.S. Lee's first Agency book or Malinda Lo's Adaptation. I like the Host so far, though I wish it had more worldbuilding and felt less YA. This, by the way, is more about my own mood and what I feel like reading right now than an actual critique of the book, since it is rather unfair to complain about something feeling like the genre it was written for!

What I'm going to read next: Who knows? I have some of Tansy Rayner Roberts' stuff and am eyeing Laini Taylor, which may also feel too YA for now. I might also pick up the Lee or the Lo again.

Comments

[estara]

AAtS is one of her two works of science fiction - the other also has an Australian teenager (she's 17) as the protagonist and is written in diary entries. It's her most popular book series, the Touchstone Trilogy. If you want more worldbuilding that might suit you as it is a portal science fantasy into a different world (or if I'm precise into at least two different worlds). And the first book doesn't even have a love story ^^.

But if you're in the mood for some adult women in fantasy, there's Champion of the Rose, Stained Glass Monsters of the Medair duology (the first part of that, the Silence of Medair, was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award in 2010).

As you can seee I'm a fangirl, and all her published books have spoken to me so far. My most comfort reread are the Touchstone books, though, including the freebie Gratuitous Epilogue ^^.

Most of all I'm happy to read you're enjoying the book. What's your impression of the portrayal of Noi?

[oracne]

And All the Stars is one of the most unusual apocalypses I've seen lately!

[jinian]

I really enjoyed these too. Hoping for more SF in the future, though all her stuff is good. The romance plot in Medair made me a little crazy, though; I feel like Touchstone is the healthiest of the romance plots.

[estara]

With regards to the dual nature of Fisher, you mean? And then when I consider the nature of the rose and the love interest in Stained Glass Monsters......you may be right, heh.

Addendum: Hunting should be fantasy and comes out this spring, I believe. She had follow-ups to Champion of the Rose and Stained Glass Monsters projected since last year, but has had ideas for a middle grade fantasy show up, too.

ETA2: Oh right, Medair! Yes, with all due respect to Medair's historical feelings, I really thought her current love interest was quite nice enough and considering he's supposed to be a reborn brother of her old love interest, I personally would have found it more fair if he hadn't had to relive the sacrifice again - and then add up with personality merger. Agreed.

[estara]

I don't usually read those in the first place, but from what I gather it's rare that one of these books is set while the apocalypse is still happening. And there's NO dystopia in the book. I appreciate that a lot.

[qian]

Yeah, I've been struggling to get into the first Y. S. Lee book too. (Are there other books? I've heard very little of it.) I dunno why; it's precisely the sort of set-up I should be really into, but the prose just slides off my mind. It's the only book on my smartphone at the moment, though, and my ereader battery is maxed out at the moment and I keep forgetting to charge it, so perhaps I'll finish it soon ....

[oyceter]

I think there are two other books so far? I can't really pinpoint why I didn't get into it either! It's very frustrating... so far it is all right but given how excited I was by the premise, I'm not having quite as much fun yet. I think some of it may be because Mary has been interacting more with the men of the book? Who knows!

[thistleingrey]

I started with the second, which I liked better than the first; the third one left me cold, partly because I could no longer suspend disbelief about the setting. I dunno. I like the idea of them very much!

[qian]

Part of the problem for me is that it's meant to be Regency/Victorian, isn't it, and the language just doesn't convince me -- it's too blatantly modern. It makes me feel a bit ungracious because I know how hard it is to keep up that sort of voice, but at least if the dialogue was right I could ignore the narration. But the dialogue doesn't work for my ears.