Book List 2009

[glishara]

I have never done one of these before, but more and more people seem to be, so I present the works I have read in 2009, as it goes. I'll mark rereads (these will surely be the majority of my reading), and new audiobooks, though I will not let you guys know every time I listen all the way through The Princess Diaries again because I have it on as background noise at work. And since I will not be satisfied with a simple list, I'll write comments under a cut for each book.

My 2009 Reading List:

1. 1/4/2009 - Crown of Slaves, by David Weber and Eric Flint. Analysis: Appallingly bad novel. It reads like a mediocre self-insert fanfic, where we are constantly informed of how awesome all of the characters are and how much everyone admires them, but are not shown sufficient evidence to make it credible. Backfires badly because everyone is so awesome and so perfect they never lose control of the situation, so the novel steamrolls to an easy and unrealistic solution in which no good guys are ever hurt or killed. Helps that all the bad guys are venal morons and all the good guys are superhuman geniuses. BOO.
   
2. 1/6/2009 - Forever Princess, by Meg Cabot. Analysis: The final book in the Princess Diaries series. I just kind of blasted through it in 2 hours, which works out to something like 3 pages a minute, so this was not a really in-depth reading. I liked it, though. It wasn't what I'd wanted from the series, but it tied off a lot of loose ends and represented some real closure for just about everyone. It was a good ending to a Meg Cabot series. I need to get it in audiobook format, too. And Ransom My Heart.
   
3. 1/10/2009 - The Language of God, by Francis S. Collins. Analysis: Written by the leader of the Human Genome Project, this is a book about the conflict of faith and science, and the author's own views about their ability to not only coexist but complement each other. As a firm believer in science and someone who is in a seemingly endless period of questioning my own beliefs and seeking a truth outside of myself, a "rightness" of belief, I found it very interesting. He's not the most engrossing writer, but I found the science parts excitingly cool and the theology new to me, at least. I suspect most of his arguments are not unique to him, but this was my first experience with them. Follow-up reading: The Origin of Species, The Double Helix, something more on theistic evolution.
   
4. 1/11/2009 - AUDIO: Making Money, by Terry Pratchett. Analysis: I have been working through this audiobook for a few days. I like Terry Pratchett in audiobook almost more than in written text, I think. His sense of humor comes at you by surprise, and it works well in spoken form. I have not read Making Money before, and I enjoyed the story fairly well, though I found it more predictable than some. The mechanics of the audiobook recording drove me crazy, however. There was random annoying music at intervals, and while the narrator was fairly good, his sense of timing was not always spot on. It was enjoyable mainly because of the story, but won't be in my favorites list for audiobooks.
   
5. 1/13/2009 - Shadow of Saganami, by David Weber. Analysis: Arrrrrgh. Okay. I like David Weber. I really do. I like his books. I like his characters (usually). But the number of POV characters in each of his books is TOO DAMN HIGH. As of chapter 8, I still could not tell who the MAIN CHARACTERS were. CHAPTER EIGHT. By halfway through the book of so, I started getting absorbed in it, which seems to be the pattern with his stuff lately: I force my way through hundreds of pages feeling lost and ungripped, because I have faith that he'll make it worth my while in the end. So far, I've been right. But those days of slogging through the beginnings are getting harder.
   
6. 1/14/2009 - REREAD: Shards of Honor, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Analysis: After my intense reading of late-vintage David Weber over the last month or two, switching over to Bujold is like a glass of sparkling wine. Man, I love Cordelia. If Wesley had been a girl, he would have been named Cordelia, in main part after the Bujold character. She is a bit of a Mary Sue, it cannot be denied, but she's so plausible in spite of it, and she is just so, so... happy-making. I love Bujold's writing style and her stories, and oh, her characters. By so much her characters. Happy sigh.
   
7. 1/15/2009 - The Blood of Flowers: A Novel, by Anita Amirrezvani. Analysis: I downloaded this to my Kindle on a whim last night, because it made bethos happy and looked interesting, and because the setting of 17th-century Iran seemed interesting and outside my experience. It was a fantastic book. The environment was rich and compelling, and the characters jump out at you from the page. The protagonist is just what a protagonist should be: interesting, energetic, a prime actor in her own life and the lives of those around her without being in total control of anything, and flawed in real and vibrant ways that get her into trouble constantly but which are possible to overcome. I honestly did not even realize until I was reading the author's note that she does not have a name. I was too deeply inside her skin. Amazing book.
   
8. 1/16/2009 - AUDIO: Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. Analysis: Brrrr. This was a fantastic book: vampires the way they should be. Cold, alien, Other. McKinley is a real master of mood and atmosphere here, building tension through the smallest details. You can really feel the main character's terror and despair. It is a dark book, with a lot of moral ambiguity, and I like it. The audiobook was quite good, too, above and beyond the story. The narrator did terror without overdoing it: it can be hard to strike the balance of adding to the impact of the book without shifting to parody, and she did it well. The one downside to the audiobook: if it had been a novel, I'd have slammed through it in a night before sleeping. With a 16-hour audiobook, I really had to break for sleep, and man, was that hard.
   
9. 1/18/2009 - AUDIO: Gods Behaving Badly, by Marie Phillips. Analysis: Okay, it's the Greek gods living in 21st-century London. What's not to like? It is very dry and British at times, and reminds me at times of Good Omens, although not quite as good. It is very fun, though, and light and interesting. Will probably become a favorite for background listening, though on headphones, not speaker: there are a lot of, um, earthy words.
   
10. 1/19/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Fifth Elephant, by Terry Pratchett. Analysis: I have read this book, though the audiobook is new. Terry Pratchett is usually a good choice on audiobook: his characters have very distinct voices which make it fun to listen to, and the humor comes across well in the spoken format. I didn't remember much about the story when I got the audiobook: on reflection, it's not one of my favorite Pratchett works. It's enjoyable and witty, of course, but the plot really doesn't grab me. It's a Vimes book, and I do love me some Vimes, but on reflection I'll probably end up going back to the earlier or later Vimes works, instead of repeating this one.
    
11. 1/20/2009 - REREAD: Barrayar, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Analysis: I don't know why this isn't one of my favorite Bujold books. A lot of my favorite scenes come from it: Cordelia and Bothari with Gregor in the mountains, Cordelia's rules of Barrayaran behavior, Kou and the swordstick, the palace raid at the end. But the frame on which they're hung... drags, for me. I think that part of it is that for so much of the book Cordelia feels so very passive. Things happen to her or near her, and she doesn't act firmly enough or powerfully enough. It's a lack of action that fits oddly, for me, in the frame of the Vorkosigan series, which usually has a lot more action involved. That is probably why this is my least-read Vorkosigan book. But I do love Cordelia, and there are some truly fantastic scenes. Ah, well.
    
12. 1/20/2009 - Understanding Autism, by Lynn Kern Koegel and Claire LaZebnik. Analysis: This book tool me months to finish. It exhausted and frustrated me, and kind of makes me want to cry. I keep telling myself, Wesley isn't this extreme, it's okay, we're okay, but the book made it very hard to keep track of what is Wesley and what is a symptom of his PDD. And that hurts, a lot. I'm second-guessing... everything. It was probably good for me to read it, but... god, I am tired.
    
13. 1/22/2009 - Common Sense, by Thomas Paine. Analysis: I have watched 1776 approximately seven bajillion times since I got it as a Christmas present. I suppose it makes sense that I would start reading things like this. I was probably less impressed by it than I should have been. There were some interesting ideas, but it's very hard to separate myself from a 21st-century perspective enough to appreciate them. I don't know what was really unique and what was parroting other ideas of the time. It would probably be more interesting if I were seriously studying it, rather than just reading it.
    
14. 1/22/2009 - REREAD: Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett. Analysis: I am going backwards with these books. Having done Making Money earlier this month, I went back to reread the earlier Moist von Lipwig books. He and Vimes are my favorites of the Pratchett world. The witches in Lancre are okay, and the Unseen University books bore me. Death is usually a good time, too. At any rate, yay for early Moist. The activity of his stories and the pacing of the books carries me along cheerfully. Also, they have Vetinari, and I am a Vetinari fangirl.
    
15. 1/25/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Clan of the Cave Bear, by Jean M. Auel. Analysis: I read this book for the first time in the seventh grade, and it became one of my favorites in a hurry. As I've grown, I'm gotten lukewarm on most of the series, but I still feel a nostalgic affection for the early books, especially this one and The Mammoth Hunters. The audiobook is not at all my favorite audiobook version, since the narrator kind of pisses me off with her voices for various characters, but it is a way to "read" the books while multitasking. I'll probably get the whole series, for completeness, though I'm tempted to stop at three. We'll see.
    
16. 1/27/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Valley of the Horses, by Jean M. Auel. Analysis: Sigh. Jondalar needs to go jump off a cliff. He's a poop, and full of himself. Also, while the voice of Ayla was moderately annoying in Clan of the Cave Bear, where she was around 12, it royally pisses me off with her as an adult. It is completely wrong. Her voice is supposed to be a bit guttural, half-swallowing syllables. It is not supposed to be simpering and babyish. It is also interesting what speech patterns I notice in audiobook and not the written text. For instance, the way Jondalar calls her "woman" all the time, and keeps talking about how she's awesome because she doesn't need him, but is totally subservient and innocent and reminds him of the pubescent girls he so loves to "open." GROSS. CREEPY. Of course, I am still going on to The Mammoth Hunters, because I am an idiot.
    
17. 1/27/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Mammoth Hunters, by Jean M. Auel. Analysis: OH MY GOD. Okay. Done with this series now. Shudder. EVIL BOOK.
    
18. 1/30/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): Forever Princess, by Meg Cabot. Analysis: Number two above is my analysis of the book. That's really enough, I think. The audiobook is a lot of fun, as they always are. I will undoubtedly listen to it many many times.
    
19. 1/31/2009 - Ransom My Heart, by Meg Cabot. Analysis: Fun book! Sweet. Romance is not always to my taste, but it was Meg Cabot (as Mia Thermopolis), and she is always a fun read. The plot was ridiculous, the characters absurd, the contrivances transparent, but that's okay, because you can tell the author knows, too, and that's part of the fun.
    
20. 2/2/2009 - REREAD(?): Moving Pictures, by Terry Pratchett. Analysis: I could swear I have read this before, but the book was 100% unfamiliar. I am a bit distressed by this. Oh well! Kind of like a bonus new Pratchett book. I love reading Terry Pratchett when I'm sick. He's kind of like The Daily Show, in that: he makes me feel like I'm doing something kind of intelligent without actually requiring brainpower. I slammed through this book in a few hours, which is also nice: I like not having to go to bed with book still unread. At any rate, as Terry Pratchett books go, this one was... kind of lame. I couldn't get into the main characters, and the plot didn't really seize me. A mediocre Terry Pratchett is still a solid book, though, and I enjoyed it, just not as much as some of his others.
    
21. 2/5/2009 - Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. Analysis: I have started this book at least a dozen times, but this is the first time I have finished it all the way through. It undoubtedly helped, this time, that I have watched the BBC miniseries with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth a dozen times and can quote large chunks of it: it helped me keep clear the action in the novel. Jane Austen writes great characters and interesting society, but something about her prose makes it very difficult for me to tell who is speaking, sometimes. In dialogue-heavy sections, I get lost without careful attention, and while I like the stories, I don't like them enough to make them "careful attention" reading options. At any rate, I enjoyed it this time through! I started (and stopped again) Mansfield Park, but am thinking of giving Sense and Sensibility another try.
    
22. 2/8/2009 - REREAD: Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett. Analysis: I forgot how much I like this book until I was rereading it. I tend to go back to the characters I like from Discworld and reread the books for them, and Small Gods doesn't have many repeat characters, certainly not major ones. But Brutha is a very fun character, and there's some real themes behind the book about religion and faith and morality. It's not just funny, it's occasionally moving. I like that.
    
23. 2/14/2009 - REREAD: Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett. Analysis: Fun read. More Terry Pratchett. I am running out of interesting things to say about Terry Pratchett in here, I think. I like Susan a fair amount. I had forgotten her, but I got my husband the Hogfather DVD for Christmas, and it reminded me of her... existence, really. I wanted to read Soul Music, but I don't seem to own it. Very sad. Thief of Time was a decent substitute.
    
24. 2/20/2009 - John Adams, by David McCullough. Analysis: This is a very, very, very long book. It was entirely enjoyable, however, and gave me a much more complete picture of the years between 1775 and 1800 than I had before. After Adams leaves office, it becomes more of a skim across time: Adams was one of only 3 signers of the Declaration to see its 50th anniversary, but he didn't do all that much after his term as president. It was mostly a slow slog through to the deaths of important figures in his life after that point. It has given me a very poor impression of Thomas Jefferson, which I will need to see if further reading bears out, seeking out a good biography of Jefferson. It will be interesting to see how that book treats Adams, as well. McCullough is clearly very fond of Adams, and it shows in the way he handles certain topics. I had wondered, with his deep admiration of Adams, how McCullough would handle the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the answer was: as briefly as possible. Hah. At any rate, it was a good read, and has awakened some of my interest in history. It was always a very dull subject as taught in school, but when you get past names and dates to the people and principles and perils that lay below them, it becomes really fascinating. McCullough tells a good story.
    
25. 2/24/2009 - AUDIO: Poison Study, by Maria V. Snyder. Analysis: I won't say this book wasn't predictable, because I saw a lot of the twists coming. But there were a lot of twists I didn't see, and a lot of twists I thought I saw that actually weren't there. The main character is engaging and sympathetic, and I like that she's not passive. The secondary characters range from complex and interesting to 2-dimensional and flat, but it's cool for a quick read. I have also decided I really like first-person POV for an audiobook, although Gabra Zachman's reading is a bit flat at times. There are places where I am convinced she misinterpreted the text, and it threw me. I want to listen to it again, now, and will probably get the sequel.
    
26. 2/25/2009 - AUDIO: Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen. Analysis: I have been doing a lot of knitting in the past few days, and Jane Austen made a very good companion for my knitting. This book was narrated by Juliet Stevenson, who is a very good Jane Austen narrator. I listened to samples of all the narrators before settling on this one: most of them sound like schoolmarms. I cannot understand the motivations of people who treat classic works of literature like they were antique furniture to be placed around a room and then never touched. The whole reason these books are classics is that they still have the power to move modern audiences. Give them a chance to do so! I have the same objection to Shakespearean performances that declaim rather than performing: these plays are approachable and friendly if you treat them as if they are. But back to the topic, Juliet Stevenson does read Sense and Sensibility as if it were an engrossing story rather than a lengthy university lecture, and it is a pleasant and engaging book. I ended it with much less satisfaction than Pride and Prejudice, because I cannot predict the lasting happiness of any of the couples: Marianne and Col Brandin seem a very poor match, founded more on transient qualities than any real depth of understanding, and I can't help but feel that in 10 years he'd regret his choice. And Elinor and Edward are almost too much alike, and seem very lifeless and devoid of chemistry together. Oh, well. It was a fun listen anyway.
    
27. 2/26/2009 - AUDIO: Emma, by Jane Austen. Analysis: I really like Emma Woodhouse, which saves this book for me, because the storyline is unbelievably dull. The reader did well enough (Samantha Eggar, who I amusingly recognized as Hera from Disney's Hercules), but was not extraordinary. Good for knitting, but not likely to draw me in for many repeat listens.
    
28. 3/3/2009 - AUDIO: Magic Study, by Maria V. Snyder. Analysis: This is the sequel to Poison Study, and boy, can you tell. The basic story is EXACTLY THE SAME, though the execution is quite different. Essentially, it's: "Girl is on unfamiliar territory, where she is distrusted and unsure of who is friend or enemy. She learns a new trade and eventually fights and defeats an evil sorcerer who wants to prey on other magic-users to build his own power." The details change, and the unfamiliar territory is different unfamiliar territory, but... come on. Gabra Zachman's reading does not improve in the sequel, and her voices for many characters sound like parody, making it impossible to fall into their dialogue and believe it as two people talking. Fortunately, the main character is still an involving and vibrant character, despite venturing waaaay into Mary Sue territory in this book. I am moving on to the third book in the series, but I'm honestly kind of grateful there aren't more than three. I am happier releasing characters to run free than follow them until I hate them.
    
29. 3/6/2009 - REREAD: Taltos, by Steven Brust. Analysis: Man, I love the crap out of this series. I don't have a whole lot to say, because I kind of have too MUCH to say. I have read this series so many times that I find myself dissecting it line by line sometimes, and I am not doing that much in this format. But I love how his books all weave in and out of each other, with throwaway comments about events that are exposed in other books, and throwaway comments about events that AREN'T. I would be so terrified to ever write fanfic in this verse, because it is so deceptively tight-woven.
    
30. 3/7/2009 - REREAD: Phoenix, by Steven Brust. Analysis: This is one of my favorite books in the Vlad Taltos series. Vlad is a CRAZY MAN. But also awesome. Also, I hate Cawti. DITCH HER, VLAD. Get together with someone else. Don't care who.
    
31. 3/14/2009 - REREAD: Dragon, by Steven Brust. Analysis: Dragon fits into an odd niche in my brain, in the Taltos series. I always think I don't like it much, and then I read it and really enjoy it. And then within a few days I think I don't like it much again. The reason, I think, is that the big plot points -- the arc of the story, the motivations, the reveal at the end -- bore me in this book. But the actual construction of the book, the prose, the moments in between, grab me and hold me. I love some of the minor characters and the feel of reading the book. I just wish the storyline that went with it all was better.
    
32. 3/15/2009 - I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein, by Michael A. Burstein. Analysis: I am mulling this book over a bit helplessly now, trying to think what to write about it. And now I gave up and wrote a LONG ANALYSIS instead. Go read it here. Or don't. Whatever.
    
33. 3/18/2009 - Empress, by Karen Miller. Analysis: OH. MY. GOD. This book is appalling. Riveting and appalling. I could not stop reading it, and I hate myself for ever STARTING. It is a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, REALLY KIND OF AWESOME book. It has a heroine who starts out sympathetic but gradually loses that status through the course of the book. She's evil and cruel and totally devoid of most normal human feelings. And the book has a HORRIBLE ENDING. Do not read it hoping for a good payoff. IT DOES NOT COME. I am going to go put my head under a pillow and cry now.
    
34. 3/21/2009 - REREAD: Issola, by Steven Brust. Analysis: Issola is my very favorite Steven Brust book. When I want an easy yet gripping read, I turn to it again and again. It's very well constructed, and I love the crap ouit of Lady Teldra, and it has all my favorite characters and doesn't have ANY CAWTI AT ALL. It is fantastic.
    
35. 3/21/2009 - REREAD: Dzur, by Steven Brust. Analysis: This is sort of a weird book, as Brust books go. It doesn't feel very well-constructed. I like the story and the characters and the ending, but along the way, it feels clumsy in construction. It's like he only had 150 pages of book and really needed to stretch it to 300, so it winds up with clumsy extra bits. I still enjoy it, but it's not really up to the standards of the rest of the series, in my opinion.
    
36. 3/22/2009 - REREAD: Jhegaala, by Steven Brust. Analysis: It says something about my reading habits that I planned to start this description with 'I haven't read this book often, only 4-5 times since it came out in July.' I am still kind of lukewarm on it. I'm not honestly sure whether I like it or not: it's part of the continuity, and it's not like I want to put it down and read something else while I'm reading through it, but it doesn't leave me with much feeling at the end. It's a book. A story. It is Vlad, and there are cool bits, but I feel like Vlad-in-the-East is just not as compelling as Vlad-among-Dragaerans, and the supporting cast is comparatively weak. I don't know. It's not bad, but it doesn't arouse much emotion in me at all, which means it's also not very good.
    
37. 3/22/2009 - REREAD: First Test, by Tamora Pierce. Analysis: cabbitattack is reading Tamora Pierce again, and reminded me that I want to do the same. I love the Protector of the Small series. I love some of the characters, and especially Wyldon, who is one of the coolest characters ever in a YA book, deeply nuanced and varying between ally, enemy, and mentor as the series shifts. He's so real, and the only character that's ever really made me want to write Tamora Pierce fanfic. This first book is probably my favorite of the series, though I also really like Squire. I'm flying through the series now, not reading for depth, but I do adore it.
    
38. 3/23/2009 - REREAD: Page, by Tamora Pierce. Analysis: Of all of the Protector of the Small books, Page is my least favorite, though I do still like it. Part of the problem is that the pacing always feels off. The real point of the book is the end, but we have to get through three years to get there, so there are a lot of scenes separated by "Over that winter, she" or "Things went on like that for several months, until." At 11-14 (the age range she is here), I feel like that kind of skipping just doesn't work terribly well. Leaving out a whole year or two or three would be fine, but acknowledge the transition, you know? Anyway.
    
39. 3/23/2009 - REREAD: Squire, by Tamora Pierce. Analysis: Raoul is so awesome. So is Lord Wyldon. And that is most of what I have to say about this book. It is fun and vibrant and Kel away from the palace, which is very cool. The one thing I don't like, which bugs me every time I come back to this book, is Kel's stupid glaive. I know, I know, it's unique and different and blah blah blah. But she trained with it until she was only 10, and only the training every noble child in the Yamani islands got. Then she spent 4 years in intense weapon practice with sword and spear and lance and all kinds of other weapons. And the glaive is still supposed to be her "best" weapon? I don't buy it.
    
40. 3/24/2009 - REREAD: Lady Knight, by Tamora Pierce. Analysis: A solid conclusion to the series. I like that Kel really is a good commander. There's a lot of telling-not-showing along those lines in some YA books, but here, I can really believe Kel as the sort of person other people want to follow. She's not always confident of her ability to command, especially to command older, more experienced men, but she doesn't hesitate, and she doesn't let THEM see her uncertainty while the question matters. Blayce is freaky and Stenmun is messed up and it's a good book.
    
41. 3/27/2009 - REREAD: A College of Magics, by Caroline Stevermer. Analysis: I haven't read this book in years, but it's one of the ones that always sneaks by the cuts when I'm clearing out my book collection. It takes place in the early 20th century in a Europe a lot like ours, except with magic. Faris, the young duchess of the country of Galazon, is starting at a finishing school in France where they teach magic. And the book goes from there. I love the book for a lot of reasons. I like comedies of manners, which this resembles some of the time. I love the characters: Faris, Tyrian, Jane Jane Jane ("We regret Bonnie Prince Charlie... And we wish to expiate our common sense"), even the sometime villains. It's a fantastically fun read. I've never read any of the other books in the series, in part because I'm afraid to spoil this one. That is probably stupid, but there you are.
    
42. 4/9/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Sharing Knife, Volume 1: Beguilement, by Lois McMaster Bujold Analysis: The Sharing Knife series always feels so different from Bujold's other books to me. Its pace is slower, its people plainer. These books aren't about the movers and shakers of their world, they're about ordinary people who become movers and shakers almost despite themselves. I don't think it's her best series, but it's fun and the characters are fantastic. It's read by Bernadette Dunne, whom I like a lot. It's a bit unnerving hearing her at first, because she also does the narration for Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series, and I can't get Kel out of my head when I'm listening.
    
43. 4/10/2009 - AUDIO (Reread): The Sharing Knife, Volume 2: Legacy, by Lois McMaster Bujold Analysis: Hey, let no one accuse me of unnatural moderation. After finishing the first audiobook in this series, I pounded straight through the second. I really liked this book. I liked it because Fawn really starts to come into her own, and I liked it for the Lakewalker culture it reveals, and I like it because it doesn't artificially force success. I love how Bujold allows her characters to fail sometimes, and grow, and become better people. The reader continues to be excellent, and the weird Kel-voice was lessened in its effect with this second novel. Dag is awesome.
    
44. 4/11/2009 - REREAD: The Sharing Knife, Volume 3: Passage, by Lois McMaster Bujold Analysis: I have the audiobook for this book, but did not have the patience to sit slowly through it, so I read it on my Kindle. It's an interesting book. It feels very much like a penultimate book, in that the themes all seem to build, not wind around to completion. Much more than Beguilement, it feels incomplete, like half a story. The river people are all fairly fantastic, and Dag's exploration of his new powers is alternately cool and creepy. Whit is unexpectedly awesome, though we saw flashes of it even back in Legacy; he really comes into his own in this book, and it's a fairly fantastic journey.
    
45. 4/12/2009 - The Sharing Knife, Volume 4: Horizon, by Lois McMaster Bujold Analysis: The final book in the series! I managed somehow to totally miss it coming out in February, for which I am ashamed, but I have now found, bought, and read it. I am not sure yet what I think of it. There are a lot of things I really like, for starters. I like Dag getting real training, and Fawn pushing him to it. I like Arkady. Actually, as usual, I like pretty much all of the characters. In retrospect, I don't really like the malice fight in it. The entire series is about the line between farmer and Lakewalker, and how it gets blurred or needs to get blurred. There are some things in this book that play very well into that: Calla and Indigo, the healing Dag wants to do on farmers, unbeguilement, the travel party they build. And I know that the malice fight was supposed to play into it, too, but I also feel like... it's hard to put my finger on it. I think the problem is that in my mind, it's possible to have increasing peril and menace against a class of monster without just making each monster bigger and scarier than the last. And this book feels like it's cheating there. In book 1, we see a malice and talk about why and how it's scary. In book 2, we get a bigger and scarier malice, the scariest Dag's ever seen, which is why the Lakewalkers have such a hard time with it. Why, in this book, when it's a ragtag bunch of scared farmers and a half-dozen or so Lakewalkers, a few of whom aren't in fighting condition, does there have to be something NEW AND TERRIFYING about the malice? It feels cheap to me, I suppose. The book also evades some of the question it asks itself early on in order to make a happy ending. It's inelegant in the last third, I think. I still like it, but it's not really up to the standards I expect from Bujold. Ah well.
    
46. 4/12/2009 - The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett. Analysis: A coworker recommended this book to me over lunch on a recent business trip, and I got the Kindle preview not knowing how I'd feel about it in the event. I got into it, though, and bought the book. I found myself really caught up in the tale pretty quickly, without really knowing why. I think a big part of it is that I've had a steadily increasing fascination with books about crafts. I like to learn something from my books, and the loving detail of some craft or trade -- painting, rug-making, boating, or the cathedral-building of this novel -- carries me along and keeps me interested despite lulls in the action. I liked how the story was really the story of a cathedral and a town, and the people could come and go sometimes, varying in their importance to the story or leaving it entirely, as the story progressed. The tale spans something like 40 years, all told: it is a real epic, and holds together well. I don't know if it's something I need to reread, but it was very satisfying, and I'm glad I listened to my coworker's advice.
    

Comments

[aerrin.livejournal.com]

Hee, I was ripping through a Bujold re-read for MUSHing reasons this fall until I got hung up in the middle of Komarr (cannot. stand. that. book.). Aren't they /delightful/? There's just something... breath of fresh air about it all. They manage at once to be both popcorn-good and substantial.

Also, I did not know you were a Meg Cabot girl! I read the first several Princess Diaries books until the library ran out when I was in grad school. I should finish now that the series is done! She's fun and cute, I think.

Also. McKinley=Love. I recently read her two newest. I found Dragonhaven a surprising bit of a drag, but Chalice was definitely worth the read!

Also, I am done commenting on your books now.

[glishara.livejournal.com]

I am replying belatedly!

I am a total Meg Cabot groupie. I love her books in audiobook form, because they're simple enough that I can jump in and out of them, and they're short, so I can get through them easily in a day at work or a day of chores. I have nearly everything of hers that Audible.com had available in audiobook format, and they are my default choices for listening. The Princess Diaries books are fun, but my favorites of hers are Teen Idol and Jinx.

[bethos.livejournal.com]

Also, I hate Cawti. DITCH HER, VLAD. Get together with someone else. Don't care who.

YES PLEASE.

[glishara.livejournal.com]

I cannot even read Teckla anymore. It pisses me off too much.

(I am always kind of like, 'whoa,' when someone comments on this entry.)

[bethos.livejournal.com]

Every now and again I come look at it to see what you're reading in case it gives me an idea for a book to stick on my list, or in case I've already read it. ;)