Reading status updates

[cimorene]

Asaro's Primary Inversion: 0%

Heard from a friend that it was extremely weird and am a little bit leery.

Engdahl's Enchantress from the Stars: 48% [=====-----]

It is obviously Star Trek (Prime Directive) inspired in a fun way, but also simultaneously a lot more serious and philosophical than Star Trek and definitely YA/less sophisiticated in others. The narrative style is refreshingly unusual and it's all a fun trip, but on the minus side it's a bit too YA for my taste (I could've read and enjoyed this a lot at age 9 or so probably) and I do get a bit bored/impatient with the pace. Also, not that I don't understand the author's choices, but I don't love first-person narration.

Crowley's Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr: 3%

I was excited to read this novel about a man who learns to understand crow speech and recounts the life history of an immortal crow named Dar Oakley. It's very Dude, though, sort of in the same way that John le Carré novels eventually got too wearing for me to keep going; and also it's in first person. It does have some lovely crow illustrations in the section breaks.

Ford's The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque: FINISHED. 0/5. Review.

Infuriatingly preposterous, sexist and subtly transphobic tripe was the sole content of one of the dumbest thriller twist endings I've ever encountered. Pretty sure the author himself didn't know what he was trying to say.

Lee's Night's Master: FINISHED. 5/5 (4.5/5?). Review.

Lovely dreamy fairytale book style, lush prose, and a fairly original high fantasy world in a string of interconnected episodic stories dressed up in some slightly dubious Persian and Semitic stereotypes and sexual attitudes that now read as very much of their time (1978). CW noncon, violence, various unhappy fates.

Maitland's Company of Liars: 3%

Got suspicious after a chapter and went back to goodreads reviews, thinking of something viggorlijah said about saving oneself from throwing a book across the room. I read more reviews and realized that this book is 1. more Canterbury Tales retelling-focused than fantasy; 2. apparently depressingly dark; 3. possessed of an extremely disappointing ending that everybody hated.

McKillip's Ombria in Shadow: 10%. [=---------]

On the one hand, I liked my first taste of McKillip's style; but on the other, several things about the worldbuilding here were really getting on my nerves. I think I may try a different McKillip book instead. Any McKillip recs, anyone?

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

I have started The Riddle Master by McKillip but have nothing to report there yet.

[cimorene]

I started this after stranger told me a bit more about it below, but it's certainly an odd introduction. After a chapter I'm not sure if I'm going to keep reading it either.

[stranger]

McKillip's writing seems very fantasy-esque, often poetic, imagery worth reading for its own sake sometimes. I have trouble connecting with a plotline in any of her books, and I get the feeling that I'm missing a layer. I used to compare her with McKinley since their books showed up in bookstores at the same time, and they inevitably were shelved close together, and both showed richer internal landscapes than many genre fantasies at the time.

One of her earlier published works, Riddlemaster of Hed was packaged as a fantasy trilogy with some traditional features and something of a plot through-line, but it's... meandering, lyrical, fascinating moments, but tilted very much toward the internal landscape of someone going through a metamorphosis, so the apparent plotline changes, or is further revealed, throughout the story. I wonder if I should re-read it and see if age has improved understanding?

[cimorene]

Interesting! I went to try the first one of those almost right away. The beginning is a bit... something... fanficcy? Self-indulgent... just demonstrating the writer's youth, perhaps? It's introducing the plot a little sideways, through a fight with his siblings and a trade delegation coming to visit. After a few pages I got annoyed, but I gave it a second chance. Maybe I should try that Beasts of Eld one. Apparently it's famous.