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starladyI've been reading a lot, as usual. I even dreamed of a Redwall book that doesn't exist yesterday morning--it was about Queen Mariel, who had left her realm in the Northlands after the death of King Dankin and the death of their only child. I have a very clear image of the cover painting in my mind even now. I always did like Mariel and Dankin. But then the book turned metatextual and there were a couple of pages in the front that were flattened-out tissue packages. Not Brian Jacques' usual forte.
I read Elizabeth Bear (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala)'s novella Seven for a Secret and, honestly, enjoyed it a lot more than the previous work about the vampire Sebastien and his cohort Lady Abigail Irene, former Crown Investigator, New Amsterdam. Old age suits Abby Irene better than did middle age, and I appreciated Bear's insistence on showing Sebastien's inhumanity--and the humanity it engenders. What annoyed me about New Amsterdam was Abby Irene's naivete about the Crown she served, but since England has now been conquered by Prussia in Bear's alternate timeline, that's less of a concern. Also, the novella only has six chapters--the seventh is after the end--I like cute tricks like that, what can I say? It's also hard for me to not read Sebastien as a critique of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Count Saint-Germain, or at least to compare them, and I sort of think Sebastien comes out as the more interesting character, not because of what he remembers, but because of his insistence on the virtues of forgetting.
I got the anthology The Queen in Winter out of the library to read the story "A Gift of Wings" by Sarah Monette (truepenny) and was not disappointed. It's set in the same world as her Mélusine novels and features probably the only Troian who isn't terminally ill or terminally annoying, which doubtless explains why she isn't in Troia during the story. Anyway, if you like Monette (or any of the other three authors in the collection), it's worth digging up.
I also cherry-picked some stories out of the anthology The Starry Rift, edited by Jonathan Strahan.
I finished Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (catvalente) and loved it. It's a tribute to the power of her storytelling that not only did I get over my initial reaction (which was BWAHAHA SHINKANSEN SEX BWAHA), but by the end of the book it seemed completely believable. Palimpsest is the story of a fantastic city, and of a clutch of desperate people trying to immigrate to it, but more than that it is the story of a single woman, Casimira, who ought not to have come into her inheritance, and who started and ended a war in order to have her heart's desire. I sometimes think that every fantasy city after Perdido Street Station owes a debt and an influence to New Crobuzon, but Valente carries the influence lightly, and with conviction and grace.
I'm not yet completely finished Tamora Pierce (tammypierce)'s Bloodhound, but I'm far enough along that I'm going to venture my comments anyway: essentially, I think this may be Pierce's best book yet. I certainly like Beka as much as I've liked any Pierce heroine, and I have to say, Tortall was much more interesting 200 years before the Alanna books. Partly this is because Pierce's editors now let her go into much greater detail, but that very detail invests a lot of her uses of fantasy tropes (i.e. a thieves' guild in every city) with more believability. And I do love her continued committment to having strong, believable characters of all skin colors and sexual orientations (yup, there's a really interesting gay couple in this book). I'm still rooting for Beka/Rosto, though.
I read Elizabeth Bear (
matociquala)'s novella Seven for a Secret and, honestly, enjoyed it a lot more than the previous work about the vampire Sebastien and his cohort Lady Abigail Irene, former Crown Investigator, New Amsterdam. Old age suits Abby Irene better than did middle age, and I appreciated Bear's insistence on showing Sebastien's inhumanity--and the humanity it engenders. What annoyed me about New Amsterdam was Abby Irene's naivete about the Crown she served, but since England has now been conquered by Prussia in Bear's alternate timeline, that's less of a concern. Also, the novella only has six chapters--the seventh is after the end--I like cute tricks like that, what can I say? It's also hard for me to not read Sebastien as a critique of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Count Saint-Germain, or at least to compare them, and I sort of think Sebastien comes out as the more interesting character, not because of what he remembers, but because of his insistence on the virtues of forgetting.I got the anthology The Queen in Winter out of the library to read the story "A Gift of Wings" by Sarah Monette (
truepenny) and was not disappointed. It's set in the same world as her Mélusine novels and features probably the only Troian who isn't terminally ill or terminally annoying, which doubtless explains why she isn't in Troia during the story. Anyway, if you like Monette (or any of the other three authors in the collection), it's worth digging up.I also cherry-picked some stories out of the anthology The Starry Rift, edited by Jonathan Strahan.
- "Infestation" by Garth Nix. Oh how I love Garth Nix--I don't have too much to say about this story that wouldn't be entirely spoiler-ish, but I certainly like the image of a vampire hunter in board shorts and a Billabong T-shirt, kicking ass and taking names.
- "Orange" by Neil Gamain has an unusual format (a Q&A form with only answers) and is absolutely hilarious. I especially enjoyed the children all having SFF names.
- "Post-Ironic Stress Syndrome" by Tricia Sullivan seemed to me a cross between Ender's Game and yhlee's story "Blue Ink." I enjoyed it, though, especially since it featured a girl as the hero.
- Alastair Reynolds' "The Star Surgeon's Apprentice" likewise reminded me of "Boojum" by Bear & Monette, but not overpoweringly so.
- And "Incomers" by Paul McAuley reminded me of Delany, in a good way.
I finished Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (
catvalente) and loved it. It's a tribute to the power of her storytelling that not only did I get over my initial reaction (which was BWAHAHA SHINKANSEN SEX BWAHA), but by the end of the book it seemed completely believable. Palimpsest is the story of a fantastic city, and of a clutch of desperate people trying to immigrate to it, but more than that it is the story of a single woman, Casimira, who ought not to have come into her inheritance, and who started and ended a war in order to have her heart's desire. I sometimes think that every fantasy city after Perdido Street Station owes a debt and an influence to New Crobuzon, but Valente carries the influence lightly, and with conviction and grace.I'm not yet completely finished Tamora Pierce (
tammypierce)'s Bloodhound, but I'm far enough along that I'm going to venture my comments anyway: essentially, I think this may be Pierce's best book yet. I certainly like Beka as much as I've liked any Pierce heroine, and I have to say, Tortall was much more interesting 200 years before the Alanna books. Partly this is because Pierce's editors now let her go into much greater detail, but that very detail invests a lot of her uses of fantasy tropes (i.e. a thieves' guild in every city) with more believability. And I do love her continued committment to having strong, believable characters of all skin colors and sexual orientations (yup, there's a really interesting gay couple in this book). I'm still rooting for Beka/Rosto, though.