Life, and Literature: #38 - 43

[jedibuttercup]

So, I'm back. As of 11:45pm Monday, actually. Exhausted, still. A bit browner than before, and a lot poorer; I'll be scraping the corners of my purse for quarters to fuel car and body until my next paycheck. But richer of spirit, I think.

More on our adventures tomorrow, when I finally have time to upload pictures; I dragged the digital camera everywhere. I didn't get as much writing done as I wanted, unfortunately; too tired, and virtually no opportunities for deliberate research, as I was always playing chaperone. But all that traveling about was good for my reading, at least.

One swords-and-manners fantasy; one epic fantasy; one sci-fi; one historical fiction; one paranormal romance; and one-- well, however one sums up Tolkien.

38. The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner. Paperback, 459pp. Set in the same world as Swordspoint (#13 this year) but twenty years or so later, and chiefly concerned with the niece of one of its main characters. I enjoyed this one more than the original; being inherently more stable and practical than her uncle ever was, Katherine is easier to cheer for. When the aforementioned Duke Alec abruptly takes charge of her life and drags her from farm to city she is initially thrown by the world of Riverside, but adapts quickly to its oddities and emerges as captain of her own fate while all around her end up wrecked on the shoals of their own passions. The characterization sparkles, the dialogue is fun, and if it weren't for all the alternate sexuality in it I'd wonder why it didn't have a wider following.

39. The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. Paperback, 505pp. Set in the same world as Swordspoint and Privilege of the Sword-- but nothing like either of them. This one, I had to really struggle to get through. It was written before Privilege, but set thirty or forty years afterward, and many of its minor characters were major ones in Privilege or Swordspoint. But the style is far different. Theron and Basil, the main characters of this book, are less likeable than Katherine, Richard, or Alec; the actual magic doesn't show up until the very end and is indeed an object of doubt until that point; the magic itself is more a Fate-like tool using the characters than a tool to be used by them, a plot device I have always hated; the story ends with one main character dead and the other crazy; and, indeed, it doesn't really end at all-- the main plot, dealing with the magical connection of King and Land and the possible revival of that long-lost bond, is left lamentably unresolved. It's interesting, in an abstract way, and I respect all the scholarship that went into it, but it's not a book I'd ever choose to read again.

40. The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian. Paperback, 348pp. 4th of the Aubrey-Maturin series. This novel opens with a snapshot of Aubrey ashore, without a ship and finding marriage to be not quite the supportive and equal union he was hoping for. Then in swoops a mostly recovered Stephen to rescue him, with news of a possible new ship and a Commodore's pennant to go with it. The rest of the book continues to swing between points of low and high fortune (concluding on a high note); much derring-do at sea and grappling with difficult situations both to do with the enemy and with other captains under Aubrey's command keep the pages turning. Lifted my spirits quite nicely after the frustrations of # 39.

41. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold. Paperback, 311pp. Part of the Vorkosigan saga. Okay, so is the rest of this space-opera series as enjoyable as this one and Cordelia's Honor were? I don't want to buy them all up and then get mired down abruptly four books in like I did with the Honor Harrington series. I like Miles Vorkosigan as a character, flaws and all; and the world around him is very richly built, and easy to get drawn into. The plot had just the right combination of comedy of errors and genius planning to keep it hilarous and touching and believable all at the same time, and ends at a good pausing-place for the characters; I'm definitely interested in finding out what happens next.

42. Spellbinder by Melanie Rawn. Paperback, 498pp. I picked this one up because I enjoyed the author's previous work, and because she's been quiet for a long time, not because I was particularly interested in the description. Bad idea. This book didn't seem to know whether it wanted to be a romance or a paranormal mystery; the join between the two plots is frayed in several places. The main characters, though decently developed, started life as the embodiment of various cliches that I am instinctively repelled by (having unwisely devoured my granny's entire stock of 60+ Harlequins one summer a decade ago). Lovely use of language, but includes too much detail in some cases and not enough in others, and some of the things the characters say seem just a wee bit author-pulpit-y. Not going on my rec list, and probably not staying on my bookshelves, either.

43. The Children of Húrin by J. R. R. Tolkien. Hardcover, 313pp. Tragedy as done by Tolkein; what else is there to say? Either you like his writing, or you don't, and this posthumous effort pieced together by his son is still very much his style, somewhat more distant than LOTR but more immediate than the Silmarillion. I'd have preferred a reassembly of the Lay of Lúthien or the Fall of Gondolin, the other two tales Christopher Tolkien mentions in the Intro as being his father's chief foci among the stories of the First Age, but I'll take any Tolkien I can get, even with all the doom, gloom, war losses, destruction, friend-slaying, incest and suicide involved in this tale.

Speaking of Tolkien. I just spent precious lunch dollars on Naomi Novik's A Victory of Eagles, newly out in hardcover, and what should I espy upon the back but a glowing review by Peter Jackson? So I googled, and discovered that the man who brought The Lord of the Rings to vivid on-screen life has apparently optioned Temeraire! *cautious glee* Anyway, that's what I'm reading next.
~

Comments

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

The rest of the Vorkosigan saga is equally as spectacular. With the possible exception of Diplomatic Immunity, which is still a great read, but felt ... off, somehow. I think it's because all the other novels are pivotal stages in Miles' development (and even most of the short stories!), and Diplomatic Immunity is distinctly not -- it's really more like an episode in the life of Miles. Still very exciting, but doesn't feel like it's building up to more.