Books Read & Books Discarded

[cimorene]

Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro: discarded after 1 chapter

This just had way way too much military stuff in it for me. The pov character at the beginning is an engineered supersoldier and part of an engineered supersoldier army with cybernetic enhancements, and the stuff about the enhancements was kind of cool. There was too much cute banter for my taste, though, and also I just don't want to read about the military.

Ka by John Crowley: 3% still

I've opened this and tried to continue three times this week, but I keep losing interest after less than a paragraph. I don't know if I have the fortitude to keep going with a book this slow to start.

Death's Master by Tanith Lee: 83%

Lee's style is great and I like her world, but many of the main characters and a lot of the plot is a constant irritant. This is the sequel to Night's Master, and it's not as engaging, although set in the same world. The narration is closer to the action, although not without its storyteller distance, and it's a novel instead of an interconnected series of stories with a variety of different characters. And once again, I keep getting restless about the gender issues, although I can't exactly say it's sexist; the plot isn't punishing people or teaching morals, evil women or foolish women aren't really overrepresented in comparison to other women, or to evil and foolish men. So not exactly sexist, necessarily? Just like... dubious. I'm side-eyeing until the balance is redressed by a longer stretch of point of view from a female narrator who doesn't go all Dark Willow. I pick this book up out of interest, get annoyed and put it down and try switching to something else, but I keep coming back.

The Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia McKillip: 5%

I ALMOST discarded this after a very annoying first chapter, which started in the middle of some chaotic byplay and sibling rough-housing that appears to have been very tangential to the plot. (Actually the introduction of a bunch of characters through their familiar banter and injokes reminded me a bit of the beginning of Primary Inversion, and they both tried my patience.) I gave it another chance, though, and there was a quick change of scene - several, actually, and now it's somewhere very different, so... I guess I'll see.

Also I've read a third of the next Murderbot book and I'm still enjoying them. I haven't felt prompted to much discusson, because they seem to be deservedly popular and I think I like what everyone else likes about them, more or less. They do what they set out to do and what they say on the tin. I am still not quite in the mood for sf right now, and that's what usually makes me switch away from it to one of the others.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

I got farther than you did in the Asaro book but not by much. I was intrigued by the much-praised credentials of the author, but I just couldn't get through the book.

I really enjoy Murderbot. It's snappy and moves fast and the character voice is something I really enjoy. A very fun unreliable narrator. I get bogged down in the some of the action/fight scenes, but I have enjoyed them all very much.

[cimorene]

I've read an Asaro short story that was good, but it was fantasy. I had some interactions with her as a kid, and I really liked her, but that story was the only one I've read and I've meant to read more.

[brownbetty]

I love the Riddlemaster, so I hope it hooks you, although fair enough, if not!

[cimorene]

I've just reached a shipwreck and am feeling discombobulated. I wasn't prepared for a shipwreck and I'm not sure I like it. But you can't accuse this plot of predictability, that's for sure. I had left a bookmark right before the ship wrecked and switched books, and when I picked it up again I thought I had missed something and had to go back and reread, but nope, I hadn't, it really was THAT sudden.

[brownbetty]

I do remember that shipwreck being such a sudden shift that I was like: "did some pages go missing? Am I missing a chapter?"

[cimorene]

The next few shifts were also abrupt, but not quite that abrupt.