Reading Wednesday
Wed, Apr. 10th, 2013 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterWhat I've read: I finished Alison Bechdel's Fun Home after seeing her at a City Arts & Lectures event. The event itself was great; Bechdel herself isn't all too talkative, but there was a short video clip of her creating a comic page and discussion of her process, which I hadn't been expecting and was really interesting. I don't have much to say about Fun Home yet, especially since I'm still in the middle of her next memoir about her mother, but it's definitely worth reading, and I kind of wish I had read her stuff before going to see her. Oh well! At least it was incentive to get some of her books!
I also finished Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London, which I like, but possibly not as much as everyone else. As most people have said, the voice is fantastic, as is the sense of place, but every time I was getting into it, more murder mystery details showed up and I would promptly lose track of what was going on. Clearly plot brain has disappeared again.
And then I waffled around a bit because I wasn't in the mood to read anything, but I finally got around to Meljean Brook's Tethered, a novella that continues the adventures of Yasmeen and Archimedes post-Heart of Steel. Alas and alack, Yasmeen/Archimedes still doesn't work for me. I think my issue is that Brook is trying so hard to reassure romance readers that a) Yasmeen is badass but can be in love with Archimedes at the same time and b) Archimedes doesn't want to dominate her but is also not weak and badass and very manly! And my reaction is that I don't actually need to be reassured about these things, and in fact, the reassurance makes me buy into it less. Seriously! I'm perfectly fine with kickass women who seem cold and unemotional and the guys who love them. I could care less about what it means for Archimedes' manliness because I don't measure manliness that way, and the endless arguments about who's protecting whom don't really interest me because I am okay with guys not driven by manly instinct to automatically protect their women. This basically made me want to reread bits of Megan Whalen Turner or Melina Marchetta's Lumatere books.
Instead, I read the sample chapter of Guardian Demon (last book of Brook's Guardian series), realized I don't remember what happened in the previous book at all, and then went on to reread Demon Marked, where the final hundred pages of plot really seem to come out of nowhere. I also reread two Guardian novellas, Ascension and Thicker than Blood. Ascension is just okay: while I like that the Big Misunderstanding was cleared up fairly easily, there wasn't much romantic tension for the rest of it. Also, props for heroine of color, though I wish a) she weren't blue by choice and b) Brook had more POC protags you see in their own cultural context. At least in this there's the mention that Radha guards over most of SE and S Asia?
Thicker than Blood is still my favorite of all of Brook's novellas—overall the Iron Seas ones have been disappointing and overly invested in skeevy set ups and the Guardian ones haven't been as good as the books. I am always a sucker for relationships with a past, and the whole "I was turned into a vampire and my family told everyone, including the guy I loved, that I was dead" is a great angst-filled premise that doesn't rely on the hero or heroine being stupid. I also love how Jake slowly figures out Annie is a vampire, as well as the little bits of Annie's relationship with her mom and with Cricket. And Lilith showing up is always good.
What I'm reading now: I'm still in the middle of Bechdel's Are You My Mother, which is an interesting experience because it has therapy and mothers, but Bechdel's relationship to her mother, problematic as it is, is very different from mine with my mother. (Me: I WISH my mom would not talk to me!) I also started Aaronovitch's Moon over Soho because I wanted to see how a few dangling threads at the end of Rivers of London were resolved, but now the mystery has hit and, predictably and sadly, I have lost interest.
What I'm reading next: Who knows! I feel like a fantasy + romance fun blend but don't like most paranormals and their more dominant than you heroes, but I can't really think of anything. I should also read vol. 2 of Wandering Son before it's due back at the library.
I also finished Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London, which I like, but possibly not as much as everyone else. As most people have said, the voice is fantastic, as is the sense of place, but every time I was getting into it, more murder mystery details showed up and I would promptly lose track of what was going on. Clearly plot brain has disappeared again.
And then I waffled around a bit because I wasn't in the mood to read anything, but I finally got around to Meljean Brook's Tethered, a novella that continues the adventures of Yasmeen and Archimedes post-Heart of Steel. Alas and alack, Yasmeen/Archimedes still doesn't work for me. I think my issue is that Brook is trying so hard to reassure romance readers that a) Yasmeen is badass but can be in love with Archimedes at the same time and b) Archimedes doesn't want to dominate her but is also not weak and badass and very manly! And my reaction is that I don't actually need to be reassured about these things, and in fact, the reassurance makes me buy into it less. Seriously! I'm perfectly fine with kickass women who seem cold and unemotional and the guys who love them. I could care less about what it means for Archimedes' manliness because I don't measure manliness that way, and the endless arguments about who's protecting whom don't really interest me because I am okay with guys not driven by manly instinct to automatically protect their women. This basically made me want to reread bits of Megan Whalen Turner or Melina Marchetta's Lumatere books.
Instead, I read the sample chapter of Guardian Demon (last book of Brook's Guardian series), realized I don't remember what happened in the previous book at all, and then went on to reread Demon Marked, where the final hundred pages of plot really seem to come out of nowhere. I also reread two Guardian novellas, Ascension and Thicker than Blood. Ascension is just okay: while I like that the Big Misunderstanding was cleared up fairly easily, there wasn't much romantic tension for the rest of it. Also, props for heroine of color, though I wish a) she weren't blue by choice and b) Brook had more POC protags you see in their own cultural context. At least in this there's the mention that Radha guards over most of SE and S Asia?
Thicker than Blood is still my favorite of all of Brook's novellas—overall the Iron Seas ones have been disappointing and overly invested in skeevy set ups and the Guardian ones haven't been as good as the books. I am always a sucker for relationships with a past, and the whole "I was turned into a vampire and my family told everyone, including the guy I loved, that I was dead" is a great angst-filled premise that doesn't rely on the hero or heroine being stupid. I also love how Jake slowly figures out Annie is a vampire, as well as the little bits of Annie's relationship with her mom and with Cricket. And Lilith showing up is always good.
What I'm reading now: I'm still in the middle of Bechdel's Are You My Mother, which is an interesting experience because it has therapy and mothers, but Bechdel's relationship to her mother, problematic as it is, is very different from mine with my mother. (Me: I WISH my mom would not talk to me!) I also started Aaronovitch's Moon over Soho because I wanted to see how a few dangling threads at the end of Rivers of London were resolved, but now the mystery has hit and, predictably and sadly, I have lost interest.
What I'm reading next: Who knows! I feel like a fantasy + romance fun blend but don't like most paranormals and their more dominant than you heroes, but I can't really think of anything. I should also read vol. 2 of Wandering Son before it's due back at the library.
(no subject)
Wed, Apr. 10th, 2013 08:22 pm (UTC)Martha Wells? I can't remember if you've tried her stuff. I always go back to Barbara Hambly, as well.
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Wed, Apr. 10th, 2013 08:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Apr. 10th, 2013 09:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Wed, Apr. 10th, 2013 11:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 12:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 12:36 am (UTC)OTOH, I am watching Game of Thrones now, so I feel almost anything in comparison will be much fluffier and less depressing...
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Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 12:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 12:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 12:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 12:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 12:53 am (UTC)It's still more in the realm of romance, especially since each book has a main couple, but Brook loves comics and fantasy and you can really tell from her worldbuilding, which is pretty cracktastic and complicated. I also like that she tries to subvert a lot of romance tropes and tends to have strong heroines, and bonus points for the women being the main movers and shakers in the Guardians series.
Demon Angel is really good in places (the heroine is a halfling demon and isn't great with ethics! She is still my fav of the series) and really flawed in terms of pacing and infodumping. Pretty much every recommends that you skip Demon Moon (second of the Guardian series), and the main plot really kicks off with book 3 (Demon Night... I can't keep any of the titles straight). My favs are probably Demon Angel (bk 1), Demon Night (bk 3, has heroine who is a recovering alcoholic), and Demon Marked (bk 7, has another halfling demon heroine).
She's also started the Iron Seas series, which I like better in terms of worldbuilding, but doesn't have the overarching plot that Guardians does. Warning: Iron Duke (bk 1) has really rapey scenes and I HATE THE HERO. I feel it is skippable! Riveted (bk 3) has POC as both hero and heroine, the hero has prosthetic limbs, they are nice to each other, and there are non-evil lesbians!
Basically, the worldbuilding doesn't feel quite as deep as a lot of the fantasy I like, but it's much better than most paranormals I've read. I tend to like her heroines a lot. Though she is still much fonder of the domineering hero than I am... Still, she's probably one of the romance authors I read the most and am most excited about, esp. if you're only looking at paranormals.
(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 12:54 am (UTC)And autocorrect undercut my message, that was "lesbian" life — context, thankfully, helps.
I had the good fortune to read it every other week, as she wrote it. Truly opened my mind to so many things — sex positivity, trans* issues, queer as opposed to lesbian. Also confirmed so many things — people going to Central America on agricultural solidarity trips! demonstrations in US! bookstores as both capitalist and community builders.
I am excite.
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Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 02:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 04:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 04:49 am (UTC)---L.
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Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 01:59 pm (UTC)I read your Ile-Rien posts. I remember them now. Not sure where I put my brain.
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Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 02:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 02:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 05:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 05:33 pm (UTC)Basically, while there are certain things that repeat, like her focus on Sartorias-deles or the love of using letter-writing or diary writing as a framing device, there are very different explorations of her world available.
I just picked the two that might be most appropriate for fantasy + romance fun ^^
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Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 05:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 07:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 07:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 07:48 pm (UTC)Ha, no problem. My memory is like a sieve all the time.
(no subject)
Thu, Apr. 11th, 2013 08:22 pm (UTC)I'd say
1: Wheel of the Infinite
2: The Death of the Necromancer (already established couple but great interaction)
3: The Element of Fire
are the most romantic subplots in order of Martha Wells books.
Then again Rachel Neumeier is doing a readthrough of all the books and she loves Ile-Rien, where the romance didn't work for me so well.
http://www.rachelneumeier.com/2013/04/08/recent-reading-city-of-bones-and-wheel-of-the-infinite/
http://www.rachelneumeier.com/2013/03/28/so-the-death-of-the-necromancer/
http://www.rachelneumeier.com/2013/03/26/recent-reading-the-fall-of-ile-rien/
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Fri, Apr. 12th, 2013 06:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Apr. 15th, 2013 11:28 pm (UTC)