23 September, 2006

The Full Cupboard of Life (Alexander McCall Smith)

The Full Cupboard of Life is another lovely book in McCall Smith's series about private detective Precious Ramotswe. While these stories are technically mysteries, these really take a back seat to McCall Smith's beautifully simply writing, Botswana and Precious herself.

I found myself smiling often while reading this book - it evokes a sense of sweet contentment, and the ending is really beautiful. I loved it - I must read more of these, as I don't think I've read them all.

Murder in the Dark (Kerry Greenwood)

Ah, the latest Phryne Fisher mystery - the perfect book to read, snuggled down on the sofa with a mug of hot chocolate. Murder in the Dark has all the familiar elements of Greenwood's Phryne Fisher books - beautiful descriptions of costumes, an enjoyable mystery, and the delightful Phryne being gorgeous. Lovely. Such a fun book.

Broken (Kelley Armstrong)

I quite enjoy Armstrong's series of fantasy/horror books, set in a world where witches, vampires and werewolves live undercover among humans. Broken is a book set in the werewolf family we've met before. I really like Elena and the pack of werewolves, and Elena's pregnancy storyline runs concurrently with a little problem of a time hole and Jack the Ripper. I wasn't heavily involved with what was probably intended to be the main storyline, involving a rogue wizard, but I really enjoyed Elena's storyline - I love her relationship with Clay. A fun read.

The Bitch in the House (ed. Cathi Hanauer)

The Bitch in the House is an anthology of essays about marriage, housework, raising kids and family, from many different perspectives. As always with these sorts of compilations, I really enjoyed some of the essays, but others fell rather flat. The piece written by the woman with the open marriage was really fascinating, as were several others about women negotiating within their marriages and relationships. I wouldn't buy it, because it's not something I'd re-read, but it was very enjoyable collection.

The Oracle's Queen (Lynn Flewelling)

I've been waiting for this book, the conclusion of the Tamir Trilogy for ages. Flewelling is an excellent fantasy author, and this final book doesn't disappoint (thought I wish there were going to be more.)

Tamir, now revealed to everyone in her true form, claims the crown and begins the difficult task of learning how to rule. I think Flewelling does a great job writing a young woman dealing not only with a completely changed body, but the usual emotional turmoil that we all deal with during our teenage years.

The conflict between Tamir and her cousin, Korin (whose holed up at one end of the country with his own army) is done really well, as is the beautifully realistic relationship between Tamir and her squire, Ki. A wonderful story - I can't wait until Flewelling's next book.)

New X-Men: Riot at Xavier's and Assault on Weapon Plus

Riot at Xavier's and Assault on Weapon Plus are volumes four and five of Grant Morrison's New X-Men.

I really loved Riot at Xavier's. The Stepford Cuckoos are so cool, and Emma Frost is both fabulously cool and very human (in her own delightful way). I wished that there was some more about... well, I'll just say the babies, so as not to spoil the plot for anyone. And the whole mutant gang thing is a really cool plot.

Assault on Weapon Plus is quite different (although it still has the same deft dialogue which I really enjoy). Cyclops, Wolverine and Fantomex go searching for the clues to the latter two's past. It's shorter than Riot, and less full of touching moments - it also leaves us on a pretty intense cliffhanger. Next volume please!

Serenity: Those Left Behind (Joss Whedon)

I think this is the first in what will presumably be a series of Serenity comics. It's nicely drawn, with a kind of matte colour pencil look, which I really liked. Interspered in the story are portraits of each of the characters.

While I really love the Serenity/Firefly universe and the series and movie, I found the language, which seems quite natural in the TV series, rather forced when I'm reading it. The occasional Mandarin phrase (which is written in Chinese characters) is difficult to imagine, so instead of their voices flowing through my head, they stop and start. The slang, also, seems rather out of place.

It wasn't all terrible though - a decent story, and I really liked how it was drawn. The dialogue just didn't really click with me.

13 September, 2006

Magic Lessons (Justine Larbalestier)

This YA fantasy novel is a sequel to Magic or Madness, which I read earlier in the year. Magic Lessons continues the stories of Reason, Tom and Jay-Tee, as is more fast paced than Magic or Madness, I think. There are a few quiet moments, when Reason talks about her childhood, for example, but mostly we charge frenetically through the story as a strange creature attacks the door between New York and Sydney, trying to get through to the other side. What is it and what does it want? These are the questions that Reason and her friends try to answer.

I felt a little lost at points within this book, trying to figure out what was happening, who to trust, and who the hell the good guys were - but this is how we're supposed to feel, I think. The characters are equally lost, and there are a couple of great instances of 'good' characters doing terrible things that they regret. Larbalestier's characters are very human - sometimes they make terribly bad decisions - and I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

I was a bit stunned by the ending - I probably should have seen it coming, but was shortsighted in that regard. I was confused by what these developments mean for Reason, and everyone else - confused in a good "come on, what happens next?" way, that is - and am consequently greatly looking forward to the third and final novel in the series.

Black Powder War (Naomi Novik)

I raced through Black Powder War almost too fast - I was so excited to have it in my hands and so eager to find out what Temeraire and Lawrence did next. I had to remind myself to slow down. (When will the fourth book be released? Can it be twenty times as long, please?)

Basic plot - Temeraire and Lawrence receive orders and make their way from China to Turkey to retrieve dragon eggs purchased by Britain. They then detour to Prussia and take part in battles there against Napoleon's army.

I think this is the darkest of the three volumes so far - there are a couple of devastating battles, and Temeraire and Lawrence constantly encounter setbacks. Novik brings to life a terrible war and a sense of impending doom very well, I thought. Right at the end, they receive terrible news from England, which didn't really sink in until I closed the book and thought, "Oh my GOD. Where the hell is she going to take all this in the fourth book?" Terribly frustrating having to wait.

Birds of Prey: Sensei & Student (Gail Simone)

I'm really getting into Birds of Prey - I loved Sensei & Student . I'm not sure what it is about it - maybe the fantastic women characters? I haven't read any other comics where the women are centre stage, and these women characters are so well drawn (I mean in a character development sense, but I really enjoyed the artwork in this volume as well. Although I admit that as a beginner comic reader, I don't think I really pay as much attention to the artwork as other readers do. I'm sure that skill comes with time.)

I enjoyed the tension in this volume - Black Canary is forced to team up with Lady Shiva, an assassin, and there's also tension between the three 'Birds', as Huntress finds herself clashing with the other two. I found the ending, especially where Huntress is concerned, just a little sappy, but I'm sure it won't stay that way for long. Can't wait for the next volume.

07 September, 2006

Dreamhunter (Elizabeth Knox)

I picked up this YA novel while browsing in the library - the cover with the woman languidly reclining appealed to me, and so did the brief synopsis - a world where dreams are performed for the masses, who pay for the privilege. Dreamhunters travel into The Place, where they catch dreams - some are healing, some soothing, some erotic, some dangerous - and perform them for different audiences. It reminded me a little of Roald Dahl's The BFG, although I discovered that the dreamhunting in this novel is quite different.

Dreamhunter is actually an excellent YA fantasy novel, and I'm glad I discovered it. The story is wonderfully original - I loved the Victorian-style society, the world of The Place, and the mysteries set out for our heroines, Laura and Rose, to discover. The political and societal ramifications of dreamhunting are convincingly and intriguingly explored, without too much of a heavy hand. When Laura's father disappears, and Laura seems to make some rather irrational decisions, the story gets quite tense.

Dreamhunter is first in a "duet" and the story ends frustratingly, right in the middle it seems. I do wish they'd put out one big volume - now I have to wait until the second is published. It's an excellent story though, very exciting, and I'm eager to read the second book.

06 September, 2006

Silver's Bane (Anne Kelleher)

I got this out of the library because I'd read the book before it, Silver's Edge, and was impressed - it seemed like a decent Celtic-style fantasy without too many of the usual cliches, and decent writing for a change.

Perhaps there was too big a gap between reading Silver's Edge and Silver's Bane. I was confused, at first, as to who all these characters were and what the hell they were doing, particularly the faery characters. I got the hang of it again after a while, but was never as enthralled with this book as I recall being with Silver's Edge. There were conspiracies and love affairs and I just didn't care very much about any of it.

I think, when the third book of the series is published, I might wait a while and then re-read all three one after the other - they are decent fantasies, and I might enjoy them more if I could remember who people were. Definitely don't start Silver's Bane without having read Edge. You won't understand a thing.

Bookshop wanderings

I went to wander in the bookshop in my lunch break, and ended up buying myself a treat - Connie Willis' Doomsday Book, one of my favourite novels of all time.  I read it first last year, but won't link to my review of it, because it was incoherent and didn't do a truly amazing novel justice.

I went through various sections of the shop with pen and paper in hand, as is my habit, noting down anything that looked interesting so that I could see if the library has it.  Bookshops are much more fun to browse in than the library.  I am a bookseller's nightmare.

Kerry Greenwood has a new Phryne Fisher book out, Murder in the Dark, which I will get hold of when the library acquires it.  Seeing a glossy display of Neal Stephenson novels on the shelf reminded me how much I enjoyed reading Cryptonomicon and The Diamond Age, although both novels confused me to some extent.  I've decided, after reading some blurbs, that the next book of his I'd like to read is Quicksilver - as the beginning of his Baroque Cycle, it seems like a good choice.

The cover of Douglas Kennedy's The Pursuit of Happiness has a positive quote from Kate Atkinson on the cover, which immediately makes me pick it up.  It doesn't really seem like the sort of book that would attract me, but I'm curious - Atkinson's quote might just convince me to give it a go.

And speaking of Kate Atkinson, I'm enormously excited about reading her latest, One Good TurnIt seems that Be-Zen has her hands on it already - I'm waiting in a line at the library. 

I picked up Justina Robson's Keeping it Real because of the oh-so-funky cover - I can't quite decide if it's the sort of sci-fi I'd enjoy, or if it's the way-cool techno sci-fi littered with futuristic slang that drives me insane.  Some of her other books have got good reviews, and the library stocks her, so I might give it a go.

I remember seeing Labyrinth by Kate Mosse on a few bloggers' reading lists a while ago.  It looks like a fun read, but I don't think I'll be particularly seeking it out, unless I go through a dry patch.  It looks a little too adventurey for me.

Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian is also a book I've seen around a few blogs, and it's definitely one I want to read in the future.  Dracula, mysteries,  suspense -  sounds fun.

Margaret Drabble has a new book out, The Sea Lady.  I love Drabble's books - well-written, wonderful characters and relationships - I'll definitely be reading this one.

05 September, 2006

Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous (Joss Whedon)

I read Dangerous a while ago, but for some reason forgot to mention it here. I really enjoyed it - Professor X is portrayed really creepily, I thought, with his own ideas about what constitutes ethical behaviour. The Danger Room comes to life in a storyline that's both an action/adventure, and an exercise in understanding the characters more deeply, and their relationships with each other. Good stuff.

As I can recall, it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger/reveal with Emma Frost. I certainly won't know what's going on for a while, because the library doesn't have the next volume in this series yet. Bah.

04 September, 2006

Castle Waiting (Linda Medley)

If I had plenty of money to spare, I'd probably buy this graphic novel just because it's so prettily presented. However, not being able to roll around in piles of banknotes of an evening, I got a copy of Castle Waiting from the library, which is how I get hold of most of the books I read.

As one reviewer on Amazon says, this is a wandery story. Very wandery. It's a series of loosely interconnected stories that leap off on tangents, and don't really come to a satisfactory conclusion at the end. There's lots of characters I want to know more about - perhaps there will be a sequel.

Castle Waiting is beautifully drawn - it's a delight to read. There's a lot of humour and personality in its stories, and it's a well designed book - it's a pleasure to rest it in your hands, and turn its pages. I really loved the order of bearded nuns - I laughed a lot throughout that story. A very fun, enjoyable story, easy to pick up and read in spare moments - very good fun, overall.

Throne of Jade (Naomi Novik)

Just like the book that came before it, Throne of Jade made me sigh, and smile, and wish I had a dragon of my very own. Thankfully, it did not make me cry, much to Prince Valiant's relief. He didn't know he was signing up for a fiance who cried over fictional dragons.

In my defence (I always have something to say in my defence), Naomi Novik's characters - and yes, the dragons are very definite characters of their own - practically tap-dance their way into your brain, they're so real. I think, if anything, I enjoyed Throne of Jade more than Temeraire. We need no introduction into the world of dragons, or the air corps - we can relax and enjoy the many characters and political intrigues that litter Throne of Jade.

In this novel (and I realised when reading an interview with Novik that it's not just a trilogy, but a never-ending series! Well, a very lengthy one, anyway. Joy, happiness, etc), Laurence and Temeraire make their way to China, after a lengthy voyage, where they discover that dragons there lead very different lives to those in Britain. Temeraire meets his mother, and Laurence tries to deal with various plots to entice Temeraire away from him.

I thought Novik's writing really improved in this book - there were no moments of clunkiness, and I didn't feel that I was reading a YA novel, as I occasionally did while reading Temeraire. It's a smoother, cleaner production. I will be reading Black Powder War as soon as I can get my hands on it, and then will be psychically urging Novik to write faster, please, because there are some of us who need a Temeraire fix quite regularly. (There's a short story on the Temeraire website, for those who need more.)