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Book reviews
Oct. 29th, 2017 02:53 pm#78. If I Were an Evil Overlord ed. by Martin H. Greenberg. 3.5. A couple of these stories are quite fun. Unfortunately, most of them are kind of obvious and overly purple in prose.
#79. The Rise and Fall of DODO by Neal Stephensen and Nicole Galland. 3. This is actually a rating of a 4 and a 2 averaged together. Mostly, I'm pissed at myself--I know Stephensen can't stick a landing and I keep reading his tomes anyway. For 9/10ths of this book, it's a delightful time travel romp that's got too many sidequests, but enough of them are entertaining enough to let it pass. (I particularly love the useless details such as the transcript of the Secret Service's radio conversations about a Halloween party thrown by actual witches in which the soccer moms are nearly the biggest hazard.) But in the ending, we discover that the entire thing is a shaggy dog story. It's nothing but the long winded set-up for a far-reaching war that will determine the history of humanity that the authors clearly have no intention of writing. There's no climax; they feel no obligation to wrap up a single dangling plot thread beyond a romance that was kept unconsummated for no reason and then summarily consummated without fanfare. The conspiracy that kicks everything off is shrugged off (the person in question literally says things aren't as complicated as it looked and shrugs) and the massive conspiracy that has been built is just...left there. What the hell?? I need to stop doing this to myself.
#80. The Life of Elizabeth I. by Alison Weir. 4. Nice biography of Queen Elizabeth I that neatly balances the fact that she was tempestuous and impulsive (like her father, by the way) without slipping into infuriating sexism with the fact that she accomplished some very impressive things without slipping into idolatry.
#81. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. 4.5. From a structure perspective, this book is somewhat flawed; the flashbacks are vaguely entertaining but do very little to move the story forward. You know what? I don't care. The book is just that much fun. Ocean's 11 with magic, and a George R.R. Martin willingness to kill off major characters without flinching. Camorr is a terribly dark place to live, and yet Lamora's crew manages such flair and style, even truly horrifying circumstances, that it still a wild and delightful ride. The multiple shells of multiple con games, all in a delightfully inventive and iconic city, keeps the reader guessing as to how each setpiece will be used. Nearly everything has multiple purposes; nothing in the present is wasted. So much fun.
#82. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin. 4.5. I'll admit that I kind of liked the implications in the first book that the world of the Stillness might be entirely based on tech and possibly our distant future. The fact that we're solidly in magic territory at this point was a bit of a disappointment. But overall, Jemisin brings this trilogy to a solid and satisfying close. She's managed to find ways to keep us guessing about the true nature of things, even after the big reveals of the last two books. And the climactic showdown between mother and daughter both capable of literally shaking the earth is everything that was promised.
#83. The Vampire's Mail Order Bride by Kristin Painter. 2.5. This may have just not been "for me," but this urban fantasy romance was just too...pat. The protagonist's giggly quirk of reciting chocolate facts when nervous, the vampiric hero's perfection (complete with obscene wealth, shaded by tragic past easily overcome in a day and a half, and capped off with a ludicrous engagement ring), the vengeful ex who disappears halfway through the book...it just all felt kind of trite and hackneyed. Romance is supposed to be wish fulfillment, but this was just too much fluff for me. I was never quite sold on these folks as charming or their emotional predicaments as believable.
#84. Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik. 3. Oh, Temeraire. I realize dragons don't think like people, but you'd think they'd eventually get a little better at thinking about how people think. We're off on another adventure to see alternate ways of how dragons and people might relate, this time in South America. On one hand, I can't point to anything specific that is enthralling me about this book; on the other, I still kind of want to see how the series plays out.
#85. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. 4. Somehow this both feels very much like an 80s fantasy and still is sufficiently different to not be at all hackneyed. I think some of it is the prosaicness of Aerin's early dragon fighting, that her later battles feel less stereotypically epic fantasy. I also like the complicatedness of her own interior romances - she ends up following the traditional arc outwardly, but the fact that she's become effectively immortal means that what would be an endpoint for most people will just be a side journey for her, a fact she doesn't seem compelled to share.
#79. The Rise and Fall of DODO by Neal Stephensen and Nicole Galland. 3. This is actually a rating of a 4 and a 2 averaged together. Mostly, I'm pissed at myself--I know Stephensen can't stick a landing and I keep reading his tomes anyway. For 9/10ths of this book, it's a delightful time travel romp that's got too many sidequests, but enough of them are entertaining enough to let it pass. (I particularly love the useless details such as the transcript of the Secret Service's radio conversations about a Halloween party thrown by actual witches in which the soccer moms are nearly the biggest hazard.) But in the ending, we discover that the entire thing is a shaggy dog story. It's nothing but the long winded set-up for a far-reaching war that will determine the history of humanity that the authors clearly have no intention of writing. There's no climax; they feel no obligation to wrap up a single dangling plot thread beyond a romance that was kept unconsummated for no reason and then summarily consummated without fanfare. The conspiracy that kicks everything off is shrugged off (the person in question literally says things aren't as complicated as it looked and shrugs) and the massive conspiracy that has been built is just...left there. What the hell?? I need to stop doing this to myself.
#80. The Life of Elizabeth I. by Alison Weir. 4. Nice biography of Queen Elizabeth I that neatly balances the fact that she was tempestuous and impulsive (like her father, by the way) without slipping into infuriating sexism with the fact that she accomplished some very impressive things without slipping into idolatry.
#81. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. 4.5. From a structure perspective, this book is somewhat flawed; the flashbacks are vaguely entertaining but do very little to move the story forward. You know what? I don't care. The book is just that much fun. Ocean's 11 with magic, and a George R.R. Martin willingness to kill off major characters without flinching. Camorr is a terribly dark place to live, and yet Lamora's crew manages such flair and style, even truly horrifying circumstances, that it still a wild and delightful ride. The multiple shells of multiple con games, all in a delightfully inventive and iconic city, keeps the reader guessing as to how each setpiece will be used. Nearly everything has multiple purposes; nothing in the present is wasted. So much fun.
#82. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin. 4.5. I'll admit that I kind of liked the implications in the first book that the world of the Stillness might be entirely based on tech and possibly our distant future. The fact that we're solidly in magic territory at this point was a bit of a disappointment. But overall, Jemisin brings this trilogy to a solid and satisfying close. She's managed to find ways to keep us guessing about the true nature of things, even after the big reveals of the last two books. And the climactic showdown between mother and daughter both capable of literally shaking the earth is everything that was promised.
#83. The Vampire's Mail Order Bride by Kristin Painter. 2.5. This may have just not been "for me," but this urban fantasy romance was just too...pat. The protagonist's giggly quirk of reciting chocolate facts when nervous, the vampiric hero's perfection (complete with obscene wealth, shaded by tragic past easily overcome in a day and a half, and capped off with a ludicrous engagement ring), the vengeful ex who disappears halfway through the book...it just all felt kind of trite and hackneyed. Romance is supposed to be wish fulfillment, but this was just too much fluff for me. I was never quite sold on these folks as charming or their emotional predicaments as believable.
#84. Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik. 3. Oh, Temeraire. I realize dragons don't think like people, but you'd think they'd eventually get a little better at thinking about how people think. We're off on another adventure to see alternate ways of how dragons and people might relate, this time in South America. On one hand, I can't point to anything specific that is enthralling me about this book; on the other, I still kind of want to see how the series plays out.
#85. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. 4. Somehow this both feels very much like an 80s fantasy and still is sufficiently different to not be at all hackneyed. I think some of it is the prosaicness of Aerin's early dragon fighting, that her later battles feel less stereotypically epic fantasy. I also like the complicatedness of her own interior romances - she ends up following the traditional arc outwardly, but the fact that she's become effectively immortal means that what would be an endpoint for most people will just be a side journey for her, a fact she doesn't seem compelled to share.
