WWW Wednesdays

[starlady]

Meme from various people, because I do love talking about books.

What are you reading now?
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne Valente. A Christmas gift from my aunt, and sequel to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland…, which I loved. I like this book too, though its pleasures are not as fierce and immediate as those of its predecessor, but which fits with the fact that this is a sequel, and kind of a double katabasis, and that September is growing up. I have about a quarter of the book to go and it just did that thing where it turned and now I love it fiercely.

What did you just finish reading? 
A Secret History by Mary Gentle. It's an alternate history of the Burgundian Wars of the late 15thC in central and western Europe (that entire clause contains more knowledge of the period/region than I had before reading the book) with a female mercenary captain as the protagonist. Having finished the book, I can't decide if it's techno-Orientalist or not, which probably means that it is, but I also know that I need to read the other three books in the sequence before I can fully evaluate it, since it was planned as one novel originally. I hated the frame-tale characters, though, omg.

What will you read next?
I got China Miéville's Railsea for Christmas, so I will definitely read that before the end of break, and I have a stack of books to try to read down as well as a stack of books I borrowed from shveta_writes, including the next book of Marie Rutkoski's The Kronos Chronicles, yay!

Comments

[owlectomy]

Ash: A Secret History became one of my favorite books when it first came out and I read the British/Canadian 1-volume 1100-page edition. It definitely reads more as one book than four books, I think. (But I read it too long ago, and like it too well, to really be able to be objective about its Orientalism and other things in the later parts that may be super sketchy.)

[starlady]

I highly doubt I would have spotted the folderol with the Arian heresy (this is me facepalming unto death over here) if I hadn't read Orientalism not three weeks ago, but there it is. I'm trying to reserve full judgment until the end, though.

[cofax7]

Oh, you're reading Ash? ::flails:: I love that; I mean it's sneaky and twisty and brutal and horrifying and kind of brilliant. It reminds me of the Steerswomen novels in one specific way, although at least there's a payoff.

I think Mary Gentle is amazing, because she always swings for the fences.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing what you think once you've finished them.

[starlady]

*has not read Steerswomen books yet, plugs ears*

I like it so far! So I will definitely be reading the other three when I get back to California.

[seekingferret]

Let me know how you feel about Railsea. It looks like the kind of Mieville novel I might have confused mixed feelings about. (Wait, isn't that all of them?)

[lnhammer]

Yes, you do need to read the other three-quarters of the novel to evaluate it. The nature of the story and the world changes throughout, and the first US volume is just the opening act.

---L.