Books read, 2014
Dec. 31st, 2014 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nonelvisThis year, I finally got organized enough to start tracking what I read on Goodreads, so if you follow me there, you've already seen my impressions of these books. But for those of you who haven't, here's this year's list.
My goal is usually to read at least two new books a month, and I generally don't count cookbooks or graphic novels in that tally. On strict numbers, I didn't quite meet my goal. On the other hand, the category of "things I read that I don't normally count" includes re-reads of London Falling, Mockingjay, and Inherent Vice; graphic novels I hadn't previously read: Saga volumes 3 & 4 (LOVE), the first Lazarus collection (wanted to like more than I did), Honour Among Punks (also wanted to like more than I did), the second Guardians of the Galaxy collection (much better than the first, IMO), and the new Middleman I helped crowdfund (also LOVE); every Hugo nominee for best novelette, novella, and short story (check my "hugo girl" tag for reviews); and Japanese Soul Cooking (fun read and good recipes so far). So I'm not exactly feeling like I slacked off on the reading, even if I didn't hit 24 new books.
Double Down: Game Change 2012, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann
Not as good as "Game Change" -- "Double Down" felt flabbier to me, particularly in the middle section discussing the Republican field. Admittedly, I despise each and every one of those candidates (well, Huntsman's less terrible than the others), but I think the book could have lost a good 50 pages and been just fine. (Or, better yet, take some of those 50 pages and dive a little deeper into uncovering why the Romney team's polls were so much less accurate than the Democrats', as well as covering the technological dichotomy between the two camps -- Obama's digital efforts were revamped and retuned multiple times during the campaign, while the Romney folks dropped a bundle on an election-night app that failed them completely.)
Most telling quote: on page 462, Romney reflects, "Who would have ever guessed that a kid with skinny legs from Cranbrook School would get to run for president and speak to the entire country? I got a chance to say the things I wanted to say." Yes, Mitt, who would ever guess that a tall, thin white male prep school graduate with a privileged background and a fortune of his own would ever make it far in American politics? That is indeed shocking.
No wonder so few people rated him highly as someone who could relate to ordinary folks. He doesn't get it, he never will, and I only wish he could have lost by a more embarrassingly large margin.
Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
Not the most subtle book in the world when it comes to social satire, but it's Jonathan Swift, so I wasn't expecting subtle. (Nor was I expecting some of the casual misogyny, but I suppose I should have given the time period in which the book was written.) Still, it was clever, funny, and hugely imaginative; I'd have loved this book as a child, even if I wouldn't have caught the sociopolitical jokes.
Hollow City, Ransom Riggs
Not quite as good as the first book in the Miss Peregrine series, but still very much worth reading. It's fast-paced and imaginative, and the peculiars are compelling characters, particularly because they don't completely get along. I have to admit, I didn't see the twist near the end coming, and things are left so off-kilter by the last page that I'm really disappointed the third book doesn't yet exist.
If I have only one complaint about the book, it's that twice a female character is placed in sexual peril seemingly only to elicit jealousy or anger on the part of a male one. You could certainly argue that this peril makes sense in context, given the time period in which the book is set, and you could also argue that the female character is more than capable of defending herself -- but it seemed to me that the characters faced more than enough danger without those scenes, and that they served no purpose other than to further male character development.
Metro 2033, Dmitry Glukhovsky (M. David Drevs, translator)
I wish I loved this book more than I did, and really wish I could give it 2.5 stars. (It's not bad enough for two, but barely good enough for three.) The premise is really interesting -- what would happen if a post-nuclear/biological war society arose in the Moscow subway system? -- but the storytelling meandered. The end in particular doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and there's a crucial realization that comes almost out of nowhere and is then superseded by external events. But the author does a good job of rendering what a post-apocalyptic society would look like, and the way different factions would naturally arise, so I give him points for that.
Biggest drawbacks for me, other than what I've already mentioned: not a single female character of any significance, and the fact that the book is written with a young, comparatively innocent male protagonist with unexplained powers who meets nothing but other males reads like gross masculine fantasy. (In fact, had the story not been compelling, I'd have probably dumped it halfway through because of this.) Also, the typesetting in the Kindle edition is appalling -- most paragraphs are missing spaces between them or even indents to supply readability, speech is sometimes incorrectly punctuated, and there are numerous cases of phrases run together without spaces. I don't know who's responsible for generating the Kindle edition, Amazon or the publisher, but they should be embarrassed.
Ash, Malinda Lo
The only reason this isn't getting five stars is that the plot resolution felt a bit weak to me. Other than that, I loved the prose and the way Lo reworked "Cinderella," particularly the way no one blinked an eye about lesbian relationships.
Focus 2012: Highlights of Australia Short Fiction, compiled by Tehani Wessely
Got this for free for donating to the Cranky Ladies of History anthology on Pozible, but I'd have happily paid money for it if I'd known how good it was. I really enjoyed all but one of the stories; "Significant Dust" was fine, but just didn't grab me the way the others did, especially the simple but creepy concept behind "The Birthday Suit" and the Shirley Jacksonesque "Sky."
Parasite, Mira Grant
I also read all the Hugo nominees for best novel, of which this was one. (Well, I read some of the excerpt of Charlie Stross' nominee rather than reading the entire book, but that's because I hated even what little I read of the excerpt.)
I didn't expect to enjoy Parasite as much as I did, because body horror is really not my thing. But it was a fast-paced story and an intriguing mystery, and even though I'd mostly guessed the big reveal at the end, it still felt shocking. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
The Severed Streets, Paul Cornell
I loved this book as much as I loved London Falling, which is to say, quite a lot. There are a couple of clunky info-dumps (one from a real-life cameo I won't disclose, and one from the villain), but I was enjoying the story so much that this didn't really bother me. I also loved the way Cornell expanded on the characterization he covered in the first book; I was expecting the romance that appeared, but not the character insights that accompanied it.
I also knew from Cornell's Gallifrey One talk to expect a cameo from a real-life celebrity, and I got actively annoyed when that person appeared -- not that I don't enjoy this person's work, but they're a little overexposed online, and the cameo felt self-indulgent. Fortunately, Cornell had something more interesting in mind, and after a plot twist, I was much more satisfied with the cameo.
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
This was slow to start and a complicated read, but it was worth it: the pacing provided enough time for the plot to fully unfold, for the characters to become truly relatable, and for the social and cultural complexities of the Radch to reveal themselves. I was tempted to re-read right away to catch things I missed, but sadly, there wasn't enough time to do that before Hugo voting began.
Warbound, Larry Correia
It's not a bad book, but it's the type of Manly Man book I think I'd have enjoyed a lot more had Robert Heinlein or Philip José Farmer written it. Correia is a perfectly competent storyteller (although I want to talk to his editor about comma splices), but I found the characterization lacking -- there were only two or three characters I found well-rounded enough to care about, although admittedly, I might feel differently had I read the first two books in the series. (Warbound is the one nominated for a 2014 Hugo, though, which is why I read it.)
The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
This started off slowly for me, and I was worried it was just going to be an endless slog through generic faux-medieval fantasy clichés. But even if the fundamental "young chosen one must battle the forces of darkness" narrative isn't terribly original, there was a lot more interesting worldbuilding than I'd expected from the first few chapters; enough to hold my attention through the rest of the book, anyway. I'll probably read more in the Wheel of Time series, but I do wonder whether Jordan and his successor can sustain a compelling narrative over another 9,000+ pages.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan
This reminded me of Microserfs (which I loved) with a mystery layered on top. My only complaint is that I wished there had been a little more of a payoff after all the setup -- I knew that the final reveal couldn't live up to what some characters thought it would be (being vague here to avoid spoilers), but I still felt a little let down at the end. It's an enjoyable ride otherwise, though.
The Silkworm, "Robert Galbraith" (JK Rowling)
This one was almost as good as the first Galbraith book: it's snappily written and well-paced, and Strike is a compellingly prickly character. Minuses: I'd guessed the identity of the murderer about halfway through, but not their motive or how they pulled it off; unfortunately, some of that explanation fell a little flat for me. There's also what feels like slightly too much reliance on coincidence to create tension between Robin and her fiancé.
Grave, Joan Frances Turner
Once I got far enough into this to refresh my memory about what had happened in the previous two books, I couldn't put it down. You wouldn't think that a zombie trilogy would evolve into a poetic and deeply moving meditation on the nature of death, but that's what Grave became; the end was sad yet uplifting and incredibly satisfying at the same time.
The Glass Sentence, S. E. Grove
A marvelously inventive alternate history reminiscent of The Golden Compass, but without the didacticism. Sophia is the type of plucky young nerd girl that always appeals to me, and her yearning for her family -- both the one that's lost to her, and the one that's been taken from her -- is palpable throughout the book.
What I especially enjoyed is that The Glass Sentence pushes "alternate history" as far as it can go, incorporating magical realist elements with an Oz-like surrealism. It's clever and hugely compelling; I read a good two-thirds of the book in a single day. Can't wait for the next one!
Insurgent, Veronica Roth
I enjoyed this more than Divergent, although the big reveal at the end was obvious and somewhat eyerolly. Still, the plot moved along at a quick pace, and it's an entertaining enough read. Just don't go into this series expecting Great Literature.
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie
I want to give this 3.5 or 3.75 stars -- it's not a bad book, but I didn't love it the way I loved Ancillary Justice. Some of that is that there's a lengthy middle section that turns out to be a fairly didactic and obvious narrative about Why Slavery Is Wrong, Kids, and how only someone from outside the slave community can start to make a difference. But there's also an intriguing mystery left unresolved at the end, presumably for another book, and I enjoyed watching Breq find her feet as Fleet Captain while still adjusting to being an ancillary with power in a world of humans who don't know what she really is.
The Peripheral, William Gibson
This was a difficult first 50 pages or so, as it took that long to grasp Gibson's lingo, and until I had that down, I had a hard time following the action. With that in place, though, the book moves along at a nice pace, taking its time worldbuilding in both near- and farther-future Earth. Flynne, like fellow Gibson heroine Cayce Pollard, is good at rolling with the punches the plot constantly delivers, but some readers may find her lacking in emotion.
I really enjoyed this, although the plot seemed to resolve far too quickly, despite 500 pages of buildup. Also, given that Gibson carefully laid small clues for a plot twist I really wasn't expecting (but was very pleased to see), I expected similar clues for the villain's identity. Perhaps I just missed them?
Shada, Gareth Roberts' novelization of Douglas Adams' DW episode
A delightful read from start to finish. Roberts does an excellent job mirroring Adams' writing style, with fizzy plot and dialogue and a Fourth Doctor and Romana II with exactly the right balance of fun and flirty banter. My only disappointment about this book is that Adams himself wasn't around to write it, or to write more Doctor Who. I'll just have to content myself with my "City of Death" DVD.
My goal is usually to read at least two new books a month, and I generally don't count cookbooks or graphic novels in that tally. On strict numbers, I didn't quite meet my goal. On the other hand, the category of "things I read that I don't normally count" includes re-reads of London Falling, Mockingjay, and Inherent Vice; graphic novels I hadn't previously read: Saga volumes 3 & 4 (LOVE), the first Lazarus collection (wanted to like more than I did), Honour Among Punks (also wanted to like more than I did), the second Guardians of the Galaxy collection (much better than the first, IMO), and the new Middleman I helped crowdfund (also LOVE); every Hugo nominee for best novelette, novella, and short story (check my "hugo girl" tag for reviews); and Japanese Soul Cooking (fun read and good recipes so far). So I'm not exactly feeling like I slacked off on the reading, even if I didn't hit 24 new books.
Double Down: Game Change 2012, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann
Not as good as "Game Change" -- "Double Down" felt flabbier to me, particularly in the middle section discussing the Republican field. Admittedly, I despise each and every one of those candidates (well, Huntsman's less terrible than the others), but I think the book could have lost a good 50 pages and been just fine. (Or, better yet, take some of those 50 pages and dive a little deeper into uncovering why the Romney team's polls were so much less accurate than the Democrats', as well as covering the technological dichotomy between the two camps -- Obama's digital efforts were revamped and retuned multiple times during the campaign, while the Romney folks dropped a bundle on an election-night app that failed them completely.)
Most telling quote: on page 462, Romney reflects, "Who would have ever guessed that a kid with skinny legs from Cranbrook School would get to run for president and speak to the entire country? I got a chance to say the things I wanted to say." Yes, Mitt, who would ever guess that a tall, thin white male prep school graduate with a privileged background and a fortune of his own would ever make it far in American politics? That is indeed shocking.
No wonder so few people rated him highly as someone who could relate to ordinary folks. He doesn't get it, he never will, and I only wish he could have lost by a more embarrassingly large margin.
Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
Not the most subtle book in the world when it comes to social satire, but it's Jonathan Swift, so I wasn't expecting subtle. (Nor was I expecting some of the casual misogyny, but I suppose I should have given the time period in which the book was written.) Still, it was clever, funny, and hugely imaginative; I'd have loved this book as a child, even if I wouldn't have caught the sociopolitical jokes.
Hollow City, Ransom Riggs
Not quite as good as the first book in the Miss Peregrine series, but still very much worth reading. It's fast-paced and imaginative, and the peculiars are compelling characters, particularly because they don't completely get along. I have to admit, I didn't see the twist near the end coming, and things are left so off-kilter by the last page that I'm really disappointed the third book doesn't yet exist.
If I have only one complaint about the book, it's that twice a female character is placed in sexual peril seemingly only to elicit jealousy or anger on the part of a male one. You could certainly argue that this peril makes sense in context, given the time period in which the book is set, and you could also argue that the female character is more than capable of defending herself -- but it seemed to me that the characters faced more than enough danger without those scenes, and that they served no purpose other than to further male character development.
Metro 2033, Dmitry Glukhovsky (M. David Drevs, translator)
I wish I loved this book more than I did, and really wish I could give it 2.5 stars. (It's not bad enough for two, but barely good enough for three.) The premise is really interesting -- what would happen if a post-nuclear/biological war society arose in the Moscow subway system? -- but the storytelling meandered. The end in particular doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and there's a crucial realization that comes almost out of nowhere and is then superseded by external events. But the author does a good job of rendering what a post-apocalyptic society would look like, and the way different factions would naturally arise, so I give him points for that.
Biggest drawbacks for me, other than what I've already mentioned: not a single female character of any significance, and the fact that the book is written with a young, comparatively innocent male protagonist with unexplained powers who meets nothing but other males reads like gross masculine fantasy. (In fact, had the story not been compelling, I'd have probably dumped it halfway through because of this.) Also, the typesetting in the Kindle edition is appalling -- most paragraphs are missing spaces between them or even indents to supply readability, speech is sometimes incorrectly punctuated, and there are numerous cases of phrases run together without spaces. I don't know who's responsible for generating the Kindle edition, Amazon or the publisher, but they should be embarrassed.
Ash, Malinda Lo
The only reason this isn't getting five stars is that the plot resolution felt a bit weak to me. Other than that, I loved the prose and the way Lo reworked "Cinderella," particularly the way no one blinked an eye about lesbian relationships.
Focus 2012: Highlights of Australia Short Fiction, compiled by Tehani Wessely
Got this for free for donating to the Cranky Ladies of History anthology on Pozible, but I'd have happily paid money for it if I'd known how good it was. I really enjoyed all but one of the stories; "Significant Dust" was fine, but just didn't grab me the way the others did, especially the simple but creepy concept behind "The Birthday Suit" and the Shirley Jacksonesque "Sky."
Parasite, Mira Grant
I also read all the Hugo nominees for best novel, of which this was one. (Well, I read some of the excerpt of Charlie Stross' nominee rather than reading the entire book, but that's because I hated even what little I read of the excerpt.)
I didn't expect to enjoy Parasite as much as I did, because body horror is really not my thing. But it was a fast-paced story and an intriguing mystery, and even though I'd mostly guessed the big reveal at the end, it still felt shocking. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
The Severed Streets, Paul Cornell
I loved this book as much as I loved London Falling, which is to say, quite a lot. There are a couple of clunky info-dumps (one from a real-life cameo I won't disclose, and one from the villain), but I was enjoying the story so much that this didn't really bother me. I also loved the way Cornell expanded on the characterization he covered in the first book; I was expecting the romance that appeared, but not the character insights that accompanied it.
I also knew from Cornell's Gallifrey One talk to expect a cameo from a real-life celebrity, and I got actively annoyed when that person appeared -- not that I don't enjoy this person's work, but they're a little overexposed online, and the cameo felt self-indulgent. Fortunately, Cornell had something more interesting in mind, and after a plot twist, I was much more satisfied with the cameo.
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
This was slow to start and a complicated read, but it was worth it: the pacing provided enough time for the plot to fully unfold, for the characters to become truly relatable, and for the social and cultural complexities of the Radch to reveal themselves. I was tempted to re-read right away to catch things I missed, but sadly, there wasn't enough time to do that before Hugo voting began.
Warbound, Larry Correia
It's not a bad book, but it's the type of Manly Man book I think I'd have enjoyed a lot more had Robert Heinlein or Philip José Farmer written it. Correia is a perfectly competent storyteller (although I want to talk to his editor about comma splices), but I found the characterization lacking -- there were only two or three characters I found well-rounded enough to care about, although admittedly, I might feel differently had I read the first two books in the series. (Warbound is the one nominated for a 2014 Hugo, though, which is why I read it.)
The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
This started off slowly for me, and I was worried it was just going to be an endless slog through generic faux-medieval fantasy clichés. But even if the fundamental "young chosen one must battle the forces of darkness" narrative isn't terribly original, there was a lot more interesting worldbuilding than I'd expected from the first few chapters; enough to hold my attention through the rest of the book, anyway. I'll probably read more in the Wheel of Time series, but I do wonder whether Jordan and his successor can sustain a compelling narrative over another 9,000+ pages.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan
This reminded me of Microserfs (which I loved) with a mystery layered on top. My only complaint is that I wished there had been a little more of a payoff after all the setup -- I knew that the final reveal couldn't live up to what some characters thought it would be (being vague here to avoid spoilers), but I still felt a little let down at the end. It's an enjoyable ride otherwise, though.
The Silkworm, "Robert Galbraith" (JK Rowling)
This one was almost as good as the first Galbraith book: it's snappily written and well-paced, and Strike is a compellingly prickly character. Minuses: I'd guessed the identity of the murderer about halfway through, but not their motive or how they pulled it off; unfortunately, some of that explanation fell a little flat for me. There's also what feels like slightly too much reliance on coincidence to create tension between Robin and her fiancé.
Grave, Joan Frances Turner
Once I got far enough into this to refresh my memory about what had happened in the previous two books, I couldn't put it down. You wouldn't think that a zombie trilogy would evolve into a poetic and deeply moving meditation on the nature of death, but that's what Grave became; the end was sad yet uplifting and incredibly satisfying at the same time.
The Glass Sentence, S. E. Grove
A marvelously inventive alternate history reminiscent of The Golden Compass, but without the didacticism. Sophia is the type of plucky young nerd girl that always appeals to me, and her yearning for her family -- both the one that's lost to her, and the one that's been taken from her -- is palpable throughout the book.
What I especially enjoyed is that The Glass Sentence pushes "alternate history" as far as it can go, incorporating magical realist elements with an Oz-like surrealism. It's clever and hugely compelling; I read a good two-thirds of the book in a single day. Can't wait for the next one!
Insurgent, Veronica Roth
I enjoyed this more than Divergent, although the big reveal at the end was obvious and somewhat eyerolly. Still, the plot moved along at a quick pace, and it's an entertaining enough read. Just don't go into this series expecting Great Literature.
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie
I want to give this 3.5 or 3.75 stars -- it's not a bad book, but I didn't love it the way I loved Ancillary Justice. Some of that is that there's a lengthy middle section that turns out to be a fairly didactic and obvious narrative about Why Slavery Is Wrong, Kids, and how only someone from outside the slave community can start to make a difference. But there's also an intriguing mystery left unresolved at the end, presumably for another book, and I enjoyed watching Breq find her feet as Fleet Captain while still adjusting to being an ancillary with power in a world of humans who don't know what she really is.
The Peripheral, William Gibson
This was a difficult first 50 pages or so, as it took that long to grasp Gibson's lingo, and until I had that down, I had a hard time following the action. With that in place, though, the book moves along at a nice pace, taking its time worldbuilding in both near- and farther-future Earth. Flynne, like fellow Gibson heroine Cayce Pollard, is good at rolling with the punches the plot constantly delivers, but some readers may find her lacking in emotion.
I really enjoyed this, although the plot seemed to resolve far too quickly, despite 500 pages of buildup. Also, given that Gibson carefully laid small clues for a plot twist I really wasn't expecting (but was very pleased to see), I expected similar clues for the villain's identity. Perhaps I just missed them?
Shada, Gareth Roberts' novelization of Douglas Adams' DW episode
A delightful read from start to finish. Roberts does an excellent job mirroring Adams' writing style, with fizzy plot and dialogue and a Fourth Doctor and Romana II with exactly the right balance of fun and flirty banter. My only disappointment about this book is that Adams himself wasn't around to write it, or to write more Doctor Who. I'll just have to content myself with my "City of Death" DVD.