I am the Kat that Walks By Itself

Finished reading "The Android's Dream" by John Scalzi. First bit of non-fanfic fiction I've read in a while. Initially hard to get into, but soon got caught up in the shenanigans. So many shenanigans! It was fun. ( spoilery philisophical ramblings )

Just finished listening to audiobook of "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" read by Lloyd James. Have tears in eyes at description of Mike's fate at end. Mycroft is one of my favourite AIs in SF.

Seanan McGuire is a guest of honour at Continuum XIII in June. I've made it a resolution to read at least one work by a GoH before the convention, rather than afterwards. I find it increases my enjoyment of the convention. And, look, I've read two: "Indexing" and "Every Heart A Doorway".

I think I'd say that Indexing is what would happen if you crossed Jim Hines' "The Stepsister Scheme" and his "Libriomancer" and upped the darkness a notch or two. With (forgive me Jim) better characterisation and more lyrical descriptions. I was surprised that I ended up liking the bitchy character quite a lot; funny how one can completely flip one's assessment of a character when you discover the motives behind their behaviour. The ensemble cast... you might consider them a team of firemen who have been dealing with a massive outbreak of serial arsonists in the middle of a drought in the height of summer. Only the "fire" is the intrusion of Fairy Tales into the real world. I'm reminded of this quote from Doctor Who:

"They want to kill us!"
"They want you to be happy. Killing you is just a side-effect."

The Fairy Tales want their Ever After. Killing you is just a side-effect.

"Every Heart A Doorway" is also urban fantasy; it again has the theme that "ever after" is seldom happy in the real world. In this case, it considers what happens to children after they come back from their portal-fantasies -- when they come back up the rabbit-hole, come out of the mirror, close the wardrobe door. When they come back changed and their parents can't accept it. Again with the good characterisation and the lyrical descriptions. Also again with the darkness. There are parts of this which are downright gruesome. I'm not very likely to read the upcoming prequel, which is the backstory of Jack and Jill, because I'm reeeeeally not into vampires. The third book (coming in 2018) looks more appealing to me.

I did also, a few years ago, start listening to an audiobook of the first October Daye novel, "Rosemary and Rue" but I couldn't get into it. Makes me think of the way I couldn't really get into Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series either... I think they're just past the line of how much darkness I can deal with in my fantasy. Just too much grimness and gloom, of the "life sucks" variety.

For the first time in a while, I've started reading a novel as soon as it arrived in my post-box, rather than adding it to my to-be-read pile. More of a matter of timing, really, the fact that I'm on holidays and had just finished re-reading "The Twenty" when it arrived.

This fantasy novel was recommended as something that an SS/HG fan would like, and I can certainly see the resemblance.

Vespasian Wyltt (aka Vespasian Jones), dark, despicable, thin, ugly, bastard (literally as well as figuratively), brilliant, driven, wielder of dark magics.
They would all be kindling to the fire of his ambition, and he would glory in their burning.

Persephone Fury, thin, plain, bluestocking, defiant, brave, troubled by dark and powerful magic that she cannot control.

This must be good, because I am only up to chapter nine, and I want to make notes!
So here follows my very SPOILERY notes, ponderings and speculations about the book so far.
( there be SPOILERS here! )
Has anyone else around here read this novel? What did you think?

I did as I had promised myself, and set aside Good Friday and Easter Saturday to read rj_anderson's ULTRAVIOLET. I finished it sooner than I expected, possibly because I woke up at 5am this morning and continued reading.

Spoiler-free review here.

( spoilery discussion )

Yes, I know it is a coincidence, but I could be forgiven for thinking that Fishpond has a grudge against Jean Johnson -- or at least, against her latest series.

The first book, "A Soldier's Duty" took so long to arrive that I had to order it from Amazon... and even though I ordered it from Amazon well after I ordered it from Fishpond... the Amazon book arrived first. (This does not usually happen.)

The second book, "An Officer's Duty", I ordered two copies, one for me and one for my brother. They only sent me one copy.

We shall have wait and see what they do with the third book.

Currently I am reading "The Sword", the first book in her "Sons of Destiny" series. I'm not really sure that it's my cup of tea. It looks to be romance mixed with adventure, rather than adventure mixed with romance, but I can't say I didn't know that. One only has to look at the cover (man's torso, bare-chested, only showing his body from lips to waist) to see that it's marketed as a romance rather than a fantasy novel. Fortunately, unlike most Romance-Fantasies, the author does know her fantasy tropes, and the plot is holding together so far, and I trust that it will continue to hold together. And there have been some quite amusing bits. 8-)

I'm posting this here because I fear I will forget what I thought of this book and not add it to my reviews site. I still might forget to add it, but still my thoughts will be recorded here.

I was listening to this book (with the help of http://www.librivox.org) over the past few days.
Good classic SF, though dated. A manned expedition to Mars, looking at the ruins of the Martian civilization. Debates and personality conflicts, the central question being, "How can one translate a language so dead that mankind were doing cave paintings when it was last spoken?"
( slightly spoilery niggles )
All that being said, I did like this. I liked the way the characters kept on citing archaeological precedents in their debates, I liked how Our Heroine kept on doggedly working on her word lists despite the derision of her peers. And I liked the resolution in the end, which didn't fall back on the "technology indistinguishable from magic" which other authors might have done. Then again, judging from "Little Fuzzy", Piper is more thoughtful than otherwise with his SF. He seems to like a blend of frontier ruggedness with a touch of thoughtful philosophy.

Military SF with a twist: Our Heroine has psi powers. Which she has to keep secret. Though that isn't the only thing that attracted me to this book. I was fortunate enough to hear the author reading an extract from it at WorldCon last year, and that taste was enough to make me think I would really like the lead character, Ia. And I did.

In some ways, this novel reminds me of Webber's "Off Armageddon Reef", in that you have a female soldier who is tasked with saving the entire human race against impossible odds, but who also has certain powers and abilities which make the odds not quite so impossible. Both of them have to conceal their natures and abilities. Both stories also require Our Heroine's plans to influence a lot of people and to unfold over a long period of time (and multiple books). That being said, the situations are also different, the characters are different, the problems are different, the abilities are different, and the solutions are different. Ia is more driven and more vulnerable than Nimue. Ia's task is both easier and more difficult than Nimue's task. Nimue's task is like herding a flock of sheep past a sleeping lion in order to escape from a dormant volcano that could erupt any time. Ia's task is like carrying a baby across a tightrope across the Niagara Falls while juggling multiple balls in the air, in order to get away from ravening super-locusts which will eat everything in their path, and are due to hatch in three hours time.

By the end of the book, Ia is a bit too much of a Superhero, but I can't really begrudge that, because the problem she's up against is as huge as the galaxy.

I like the way this story treats precognition; there are myriad possible futures, which Ia can see quite clearly, but there are also some parts of the close future which she can't see at all, obscured like fog. Her ability is both a strength and a weakness; she can see things in incredible detail, but she also has the risk of being dragged involuntarily into a vision if something triggers it. Ia knows too much; that is why she is so driven, because she needs to do something in order to stave off the nightmares.

Character is plot.

After saying for years that I didn't understand why anyone would want an E-Book reader when a netbook laptop would get you a lot more features... I have to eat my words. I now understand why, since I now own an E-Book reader. Yes, I recently bought myself a BeBook Neo.
( Read more... )
In conclusion: if I'd known the frustrations of this particular E-Book reader before I started, I would probably have bought something cheaper, but now that I have it, I might as well enjoy using it. It's not like I could ever get my money back.

One thing that puzzles me is why people like installing games on E-Book readers - why would I want to play a crappy game when I could read a book instead?

You know what's nifty? Three of the books I gave my neiflings for presents were written by friends of mine. Isn't it awesome? I personally know authors good enough to give their books as presents!

The authors in question were:
Anne Hamilton - "The Many-Coloured Realm" (given to niece)
rj_anderson - "Rebel" (given to same niece, who, on seeing it, said "Is Arrow out yet?" to which I answered "No, but I have it on pre-order")
altariel - "The King's Dragon" (given to nephew who loves Doctor Who)