starlady: a circular well of books (well of books)
Electra ([personal profile] starlady) wrote2013-01-02 09:50 pm
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WWW Wednesdays

What I'm reading now
I started The Two of Them by Joanna Russ on the subway the other day. It's…not what I was expecting, though it's not like I had any expectations, precisely. I don't know. I've also been carrying Greer Gilman's Cloud and Ashes around with me, though I haven't read more than a few pages of it since I got it in…cripes, 2010.

What I just finished reading
The Jewel of the Kalderash by Marie Rutkoski. It's the third of The Kronos Chronicles series and probably the last one; I enjoyed it.

Also, a boatload of Yuletide. And my constant companion, XMFC fic.

What I'm reading next
Railsea. And then maybe Moby-Dick. Also Cloud and Ashes. I swear.
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gloss: woman in front of birch tree looking to the right (Grace - worldbreaker)

[personal profile] gloss 2013-01-03 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
There was a great YT fic for Railsea. If/when you read the Mieville, be sure to check it out. (Both works made me want to rereqd Moby-Dick, actually! It's on my pile next.)
seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)

[personal profile] seekingferret 2013-01-03 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
I'm about seventy pages into Railsea now. I'm mostly enjoying it, in the same way I enjoyed Kraken where as long as I ignore the way he's failing at the more sophisticated things he's trying, it's a fun adventure. It is not very good so far as Moby Dick parody/pastiche. And definitely read Moby Dick, it's wonderful.
rushthatspeaks: (Default)

[personal profile] rushthatspeaks 2013-01-04 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
Railsea was the book I enjoyed most last year; also Moby-Dick is awesome.

I copy-edited Cloud & Ashes, so let me know if you have any questions.
starlady: a circular well of books (well of books)

[personal profile] starlady 2013-01-07 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
My views on the relationship of the Moby-Dick elements to the rest of it have been pre-emptively shaped by this post: http://rushthatspeaks.dreamwidth.org/470693.html#cutid1
seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)

[personal profile] seekingferret 2013-01-08 07:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm... there's a moment in one of Mieville's short but very Melvillean digressions in which his outside-the-narrative narrator threatens to turn it into a long and Melvillean digression and then stops and says something like "No. There is a chase scene to talk about instead." It's like he's afraid of depth.

The Moby Dick stuff is very much off to the side. That is sometimes fabulous, as in the moment rushthatspeaks talks about with the moler captains all talking about their personal white whales, their 'philosophies'. And it is sometimes dangerously ironic and detached, an off-the-rails action-adventure that happens to be borrowing a steampunked Melvillean milieu for kicks.

So basically it's frustrating in the same way all Mieville is frustrating.
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