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callistotoniWoo Hoo, I have my laptop back! Won't make too much difference this weekend, though, because I'll hardly be home.
In the last several months (most of this year?) I haven't had any time to read. When I was sick these last 2 weeks, however, I could do little more than read in be. Add that to the reading I did while travelling and I've read more recently than I have for a long time.
I finished the Novik Napolionic dragon books (His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, and the Blackpower War) and am hungry for more. :-) The second book is really a set up for the third, IMHO. Either that or Novik is taking Patrick O'Brian for her model even moreso than I thought (I'm of the opinion that the P O'B books all blend together more than they are separate stories).
I finished the Blackpower War while in York, so I bought a Pratchett book I hadn't gotten around to reading, Carpe Jugulum. Pratchett does make good train/plane reading, I must say (if you like Pratchett, that is; I realize he's not everyone's cup of tea). Had to borrow a book from Johanna and Martin to finish out the plane trip home, so they lent me Beyond The Hanging Wall, by Sara Douglass. I'v not read much "mainstream" fantasy before. The story was enjoyable, if the writing a tad pedestrian (started with a style that made my eyes roll, but it quickly got better).
Got home and, as you all know, got sick. I read Pratchett's new book, Wintersmith, which is the third of his Tiffany Aching stories. I'm a fan of Pratchett, so I liked it.
Next it was Lois McMaster Bujold's latest, The Sharing Knife, part 1: Beguilment. You should check out madbaker's comments from last week on this one. LMB has written what is essentially a romance set in a fantasy world. I liked it more than I thought I would, primarly because LMB is such a good writer. OK, there are times when her style tricks get a bit old -- her wry aside in italics, for example -- but she can create and economically present really interesting worlds. But, damn, that woman seems to have some "issues", one being a recurrent theme in her work of the Older Emotionally Wounded Man Fnding the Young Brunette (often short) Who Brings Him Back To Life Because Of Her Plucky Spirit. Another is The Put-upon, Underappreciated Middle Class Female Who Finally Finds Love With Someone Who Recognizes Her Worth. In this latest book, not much really happens. Older Emotionally Wounded Fighter Man finds Young Spirited Women they have one 'scary adventure' and the rest of the book is them falling in love and getting married. Oh, and having people tell them that Their Relationship Is Doomed because they come from different cultures. The book ends with, I kid you not, time spent with her family so that you the reader have it bludgened into you how underappreciated and emotionally wounded the Spirited Girl is.
To be fair, I finished the book and have to say that I found one part of myself enjoying it. I'm a sucker for interesting worlds, and Lois is a pro at that. But another part of my brain continually was thinking, Oh, *pleeeeaaaassse*...
Now that I'm feeling a bit better (not a 100 percent, but better)n and I fall into my usual work/barn/crash routine the reading will probably go back to what it was. I've started reading a book that I picked up at the Jorvik Viking Center, however: Viking Clothing by Thor Ewing. I know several of you know about this book (just published this year). Looks like a relatively quick read, and I want to get up to speed on the latest study/evidence on what these folks wore. I'm also poking at the essays that frame the collection pictures in the catalog of the At Home In Rennaissance Italy exhibit. Looks very good, and I'm looking forward to sharing this book with a number of you. :-)
In the last several months (most of this year?) I haven't had any time to read. When I was sick these last 2 weeks, however, I could do little more than read in be. Add that to the reading I did while travelling and I've read more recently than I have for a long time.
I finished the Novik Napolionic dragon books (His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, and the Blackpower War) and am hungry for more. :-) The second book is really a set up for the third, IMHO. Either that or Novik is taking Patrick O'Brian for her model even moreso than I thought (I'm of the opinion that the P O'B books all blend together more than they are separate stories).
I finished the Blackpower War while in York, so I bought a Pratchett book I hadn't gotten around to reading, Carpe Jugulum. Pratchett does make good train/plane reading, I must say (if you like Pratchett, that is; I realize he's not everyone's cup of tea). Had to borrow a book from Johanna and Martin to finish out the plane trip home, so they lent me Beyond The Hanging Wall, by Sara Douglass. I'v not read much "mainstream" fantasy before. The story was enjoyable, if the writing a tad pedestrian (started with a style that made my eyes roll, but it quickly got better).
Got home and, as you all know, got sick. I read Pratchett's new book, Wintersmith, which is the third of his Tiffany Aching stories. I'm a fan of Pratchett, so I liked it.
Next it was Lois McMaster Bujold's latest, The Sharing Knife, part 1: Beguilment. You should check out madbaker's comments from last week on this one. LMB has written what is essentially a romance set in a fantasy world. I liked it more than I thought I would, primarly because LMB is such a good writer. OK, there are times when her style tricks get a bit old -- her wry aside in italics, for example -- but she can create and economically present really interesting worlds. But, damn, that woman seems to have some "issues", one being a recurrent theme in her work of the Older Emotionally Wounded Man Fnding the Young Brunette (often short) Who Brings Him Back To Life Because Of Her Plucky Spirit. Another is The Put-upon, Underappreciated Middle Class Female Who Finally Finds Love With Someone Who Recognizes Her Worth. In this latest book, not much really happens. Older Emotionally Wounded Fighter Man finds Young Spirited Women they have one 'scary adventure' and the rest of the book is them falling in love and getting married. Oh, and having people tell them that Their Relationship Is Doomed because they come from different cultures. The book ends with, I kid you not, time spent with her family so that you the reader have it bludgened into you how underappreciated and emotionally wounded the Spirited Girl is.
To be fair, I finished the book and have to say that I found one part of myself enjoying it. I'm a sucker for interesting worlds, and Lois is a pro at that. But another part of my brain continually was thinking, Oh, *pleeeeaaaassse*...
Now that I'm feeling a bit better (not a 100 percent, but better)n and I fall into my usual work/barn/crash routine the reading will probably go back to what it was. I've started reading a book that I picked up at the Jorvik Viking Center, however: Viking Clothing by Thor Ewing. I know several of you know about this book (just published this year). Looks like a relatively quick read, and I want to get up to speed on the latest study/evidence on what these folks wore. I'm also poking at the essays that frame the collection pictures in the catalog of the At Home In Rennaissance Italy exhibit. Looks very good, and I'm looking forward to sharing this book with a number of you. :-)
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 06:23 pm (UTC)Carpe Jugulum
Date: 2006-10-28 03:17 am (UTC)Too bad that Miles is no longer making an appearance in Bujold books. I really liked him a lot.
Let us know about the Viking clothing. It's an interesting time, although I don't want to dress like that.
Re: Miles
Date: 2006-10-28 05:08 pm (UTC)I believe I also recall her saying that in the Sharing Knife series she wanted to do something a bit easier, having gotten rather tired of gods and complicated theology after the Chalion books.
I pretty much had the same reaction