Reading Wednesday

[oyceter]

I was going to say that I didn't manage to finish a book this week, but then I managed to read on the bus yesterday without getting carsick and then sped through the book at home.

What I've just finished: Martha Wells' The Wizard Hunters, the first book of the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. It is so nice to be able to luxuriate in sf/f worldbuilding and plot again, and even better when I manage to like the first part of a series. I looked at the next two volumes (or, well, their listing in my Nook) with great pleasure and anticipation: hours more of enjoyment! More time finding things out about the world! I usually read for character and still do, but it is a very nice feeling to be able to juggle more than one aspect of a book again.

I feel I should also note that I finished my audiobook listen of Tamora Pierce's Magic Steps. It seems that the return of plot brain also means the return of "brain whirring too much before sleep" and ergo the need for more meaty content to distract it. The Circle books have been really comforting to listen to and they soothe my anxiety.

What I'm reading: I stalled out on the Andrea K. Host. I think I am just not up for books that focus so much on the protagonist's inner life right now, which I find amusing, since that was basically all I could read for the past five years or so. Other than that, just started the next Ile-Rien book and am currently listening to Street Magic. I like the narrator's voice here better than Tamora Pierce's, who narrated all the other Circle books so far. I also really like the person doing Evvy. Other than that... Oh Tamora Pierce. You try so hard, but the vaguely West Asian coded villains in Magic Steps and the entire setting of Street Magic is making me facepalm.

What I'm reading next: Probably the third Wells book, and then maybe her Raksura trilogy? Or, hopefully by then I will have gotten my greedy hands on Karen Lord's next book.

Comments

[oracne]

I loved the new Karen Lord - I got a galley and was able to do a preview (focusing on the romantic elements).

The Host I found uneven, but I still thought it was a really creative apocalypse.

Yay Martha Wells! She is one of my favorite authors, as in I will buy her stuff in hardcover.

[oyceter]

OOoo I am jealous!

Hee, this is the first time I am getting into Martha Wells! I think I bounced off her City of Bones a long time ago, then later after hearing more about her on DW/LJ, I tried Element of Fire and bounced again. Glad it's working this time around.

[oracne]

The 2 you bounced off are earlier work, so maybe you just like her more recent stuff better?

[oyceter]

Possibly! I'll probably eventually read Death of the Necromancer, so it'll be interesting to see how I like it compared to the trilogy and to Element of Fire.

[estara]

Awww - well. Sometimes I can't handle books I know will be good from trusted authors either, if the mindset isn't right. I wish you had discovered AKH before now, then. Heh.

But reading Martha Wells is excellent! All of it, really. My favourites are Wheel of the Infinite, The Element of Fire, The Death of the Necromancer and Cloud Roads so far.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I've mostly found it's better to save things until I'm in the mood for them rather than read them and just be kind of apathetic.

Yay! I am looking forward to reading more of hers.

[shimizu_hitomi]

Oh, which Andrea Host were you reading? I really love her work but she does fall into kind of what I think of as "comfort reading" mode for me, so weirdly enough I can never read too much of it at once because I prefer to savor in small doses.

I've been interested in Martha Wells too, but couldn't get into the one book I tried (I think it was Cloud Roads). Maybe I should try a different series of hers.

[oyceter]

And All the Stars, which has a very cool apocalypse, like other people said. It's just... I hit the romance section and instead of enjoying it like I usually do, I keep thinking, "More apocalypse! Less romance!"

[chomiji]

Martha Wells is awesome! (And very sweet in person.) And Tremaine is such a great character!

Also, one of my favorite bits of snark ever to appear in a fantasy novel was when Ilias and Giliead were dungeoning in the beginning and Ilias is thinking about what might be waiting for them: "Ixion alive had been bad enough. Ixion, dead, headless and really, really annoyed was unimaginably worse."

That tone of hers appeals to me so much. The Raksura books are full of it too.

I also agree that Wheel of the Infinite is remarkable, especially because Maskelle is such an unusual character for fantasy: an older woman of color. She's also prickly and very intelligent and really wonderful. And the history of the cover was a chapter itself in the history of publishers' whitewashing. The original cover (by Donato Giancolo) was a wrap-around piece that had Maskelle on the front and the sidekick character, a young fair-skinned man, on the back. When the paperback was released, the publisher flipped the art so that Maskelle was relegated to the back!

[oyceter]

My favorite so far is Giliead observing that he wasn't sure if Tremaine knew how to not fight dirty and he and Ilias just sigh and nod at each other.

Oooo, older women of color, will have to check that out!

[lenora_rose]

Yes on Wheel of the Infinite. i also rather liked one thing I still find almost unique to it: the romance. This is kinda sorta spoilery in that it tells you a lot about what the plot isn't, but it goes essentially: Two mature characters recognize mutual attraction. They get together. They support one another. There are moments of cultural and personal confusion as each learns the others' priorities and habits, and moments of realistic minor annoyances, but no deep abiding threats to the relationship randomly crop up for false tension.. They'll probably be together for a while, but no whiff arises of "twoo wuv", fate, random angsting, hurt/comfort, doing things for the other person's good that infantilize the relationship, false pretenses, deep kept secrets that would be Problematic for trust, or not discussing things like adults.