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ladyofastolatOh dear. I have completely, utterly failed in my attempt to record everything I read for a year. Here I will attempt to recreate the list of Books Read Since I Failed So Utterly.
Arthurian
The Idylls of the Queen: A Tale of Queen Guenevere by Phyllis Ann Karr. A tale of Sir Kay, more like, in which he tries to solve the mystery of who poisoned a knight with an apple at the queen's dinner party, an incident (minus the whodunnit element) recounted in Malory. Part whodunnit, part road trip (Kay and Mordred as reluctant travelling companions) in which everyone encountered has a tale to tell. All the stories told are straight out of Malory or Chretien. The knights of the Round Table do not appear in a very glowing light in these. Interesting characterisation of Mordred.
Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve. The clue is in the title here. Lies. This is Arthur as the thuggish warlord, and Merlin as the spin doctor spreading stories of his awesomeness, since he believes that this is the only way to unite the squabbling war bands to face the Saxon threat. Told by a young girl who has a starring role in one of the staged stories, then goes on to watch the evolution of the legend - and the sad, tawdry truth behind it - over the years. Raises interesting issues about the power of stories and whether it's ever acceptable to spread a lie, but I couldn't love it. I like my Arthur good and I like adulation to be deserved, and nastiness to be widely known.
The Once and Future King by TH White (reread.) I liked The Sword in the Stone, when young Arthur is turned into a series of animals and learns moral lessons that aren't as nearly heavy handed as I remembered. I liked the second book, apart from the few scenes of animal cruelty. I liked the questing beast and the anachronistic comedy. But once the Lancelot and Guinevere plot takes over, I found myself getting more and more bored. When I was 14, I loved Lancelot and his doomed love affair. Now I find him and his love stories annoying and tiresome. The narration became increasingly more journalistic and remote, with authorial asides that annoyed me. I just got bored. Shame. I liked this so much more when I was a teenager.
Camelot's Shadow by Sarah Zettel. Romance between a girl called Rhian and Sir Gawain, with an evil sorcerer as the villain. Some elements from the Loathly Lady and the Green Knight tales are worked into the story, but it's mostly an original work with an Arthurian backdrop. I made it to the end, but it never really grabbed my emotions. I can barely remember it now.
The King's Peace by Jo Walton. This is essentially a retelling of the career of a 4th/5th century Arthur, but all the names are changed. By changing the names and making it fantasy, the author is free to make changes. Women can be warriors in this world, and the story's narrator is one such. The gods of the land are real and can manifest themselves. I really wanted to like this, but I kept getting the secondary characters confused, and I found myself increasingly reluctant to pick it up. I stopped reading in the end when I realised that there was a book two, as well, so persistence with this volume wouldn't even get me to the finishing line.
Not Arthurian
Necessity by Jo Walton. (Actually read before I read The King's Peace.) Third book in the series that starts with The Just City. I loved The Just City and its sequel, even though the first book, in particular, was mostly just people sitting around discussing philosophy. A spoiler happened at the end of book two that made me quite excited about book three, since the premise seemed full of potential. Although I enjoyed the book, I didn't like it as much as the other two. There was a lot of whizzing around through time searching for clues to a thing (being vague because of spoilers) that felt like the plot for an RPG, and the stuff about Time confused me. Still, I found a lot to like, and do still love the series.
Possibly something else. I have no idea what. There's a three week gap between my purchase of Necessity and The King's Peace and my purchase of the next book. I didn't borrow any library books in this period, either. I know I stalled on The King's Peace for quite a while, but nearly 3 weeks...? Since Summerfest then intervened, and I didn't get to read the newly acquired book for a week, did I really go nearly a month with only one book?
The Element of Fire by Martha Wells. Fantasy set in the kingdom of Ile-Rein, which is under threat from a vengeful sorcerer. The young king is weak, and his formidable mother tries to hold things together. Main characters are the captain of the queen's guard and the king's errant half-sister, who is half-fairy. It's full of court intrigue, magic and adventure, and I found it fairly enjoyable, but nothing special, with conversations and action constantly being interrupted with exposition. But it's a first novel. A few years ago, I read The Death of the Necromancer, set in the same world but a few generations later, and I liked it a lot more than this one. In fact, I meant to go on to reread it, before I decided to read some novels set in Venice, to prepare for our holiday.
Books set in Venice
The Fallen Blade by John Courtney Grimwood. Included only for the sake of completeness. I barely got 20% of the way into this. I'd expected Venetian history, but instead got an AU with vampires in it. I didn't want vampires, and found nothing engaging in the small amount I read.
The Invisible Library and The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman. The first of these isn't anything to do with Venice, but I needed to read it first before reading the Venice-set sequel. Irene is an agent for The Library, a transdimensional organisation that harvests fiction from all sorts of different worlds and realities. In book one, she and her new assistant are in a vaguely steampunky AU London - one with fairies and magical creatures - where they team up with a Great Detective. In the second book, the assistant is kidnapped and the tale moves to an AU Venice. I found the first book fairly enjoyable, with a nice sense of humour, but it never really moved beyond mild enjoyment. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to sustain me through book two. I skimmed, in the end - although, to be fair, some of this was because I eager to move on to books about Real Venice, not an unrecognisable AU. I might try book 3 when it comes out, if I'm in a more receptive frame of mind.
The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorata. A woman risks everything on a one-way trip to Venice, where she was born, where she hopes to make a living as a glassblower. Interspersed with her story is the story of her ancestor, a famous 17th century glassmaker, who betrayed the secrets of glassmaking to Louis XIV. I found it all very readable, and read it in a single sitting, but the moment I finished it, I started feeling quite annoyed by it. The modern storyline in particular is full of plot holes, implausabilities, cliched Passionate Italians, and cardboard cutout characters with enormously overwrought emotions. Still, as I say, I found it very readable at the time.
The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillips. Another book in which a modern day story alternates with a story from the past. In this case, the historical story centres on a 17th century courtesan who exposes a Spanish plot to take over Venice. The modern story concerns a woman whose doctoral thesis centres on this courtesan. When she finds out that another historian is planning a book which overturns the accepted interpretation of the courtesan's role, she races off the Venice to try prove that they're wrong. Said doctoral candidate has somehow spent 4 years researching this plot, yet has never looked at a single primary source. Even the established historian, when someone suggests that he might actually want to read the letters of the person he's researching, can't see why on earth he should want to do that. Oh, and this is also a world in which the diary of a 17th century courtesan and the diary of a 21st century American teenager look so completely identical that they can get accidentally swapped.
In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant. A prominent courtesan barely escapes with her life from the Sack of Rome in 1527. Moving back to her native Venice, she tries to rise to prominence again, helped all the time by Bucino, the narrator, the clever dwarf who's her constant companion, assistant, accomplice and business partner. There's not really much plot here, but I found it really engaging and surprisingly gripping, even though so little was actually happening. It's well written, and full of atmospheric period details which certainly feel authentic, although I have no idea if they actually are or not.
Non-fiction
Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson (reread.) A history of kitchen utensils and cutlery, with each chapter devoted to a different theme or utensil. I first read this 2 or 3 years ago, and I remember becoming quite a bore about it, constantly telling people little snippets of trivia about medieval ovens or 18th century spoons. I realised that I had entirely forgotten every single one of those interesting snippets, so decided to reread it, this time by dipping into it and reading odd chapters here and there. Maybe this time I'll remember something.
Venice: Pure City by Peter Ackroyd. A thematic, discursive meander through the history, culture and atmosphere of Venice. Full of interesting stuff, but I was hoping for more straight history. Lots of generalisations about how "Venice" did certain things, without pinning it down to specific dates in history. Frequently really quite pretentious, with gushing purple prose. I wanted more dates and sources. I wanted to read Jan Morris's book on Venice, but it had gone AWOL in the library, so I settled for this instead. Some interesting content, but mostly just annoyed me.
For the last few weeks, I've been reading The Chronicles of St Mary's by Jodi Taylor, but I'll write about that in a separate post.
Arthurian
The Idylls of the Queen: A Tale of Queen Guenevere by Phyllis Ann Karr. A tale of Sir Kay, more like, in which he tries to solve the mystery of who poisoned a knight with an apple at the queen's dinner party, an incident (minus the whodunnit element) recounted in Malory. Part whodunnit, part road trip (Kay and Mordred as reluctant travelling companions) in which everyone encountered has a tale to tell. All the stories told are straight out of Malory or Chretien. The knights of the Round Table do not appear in a very glowing light in these. Interesting characterisation of Mordred.
Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve. The clue is in the title here. Lies. This is Arthur as the thuggish warlord, and Merlin as the spin doctor spreading stories of his awesomeness, since he believes that this is the only way to unite the squabbling war bands to face the Saxon threat. Told by a young girl who has a starring role in one of the staged stories, then goes on to watch the evolution of the legend - and the sad, tawdry truth behind it - over the years. Raises interesting issues about the power of stories and whether it's ever acceptable to spread a lie, but I couldn't love it. I like my Arthur good and I like adulation to be deserved, and nastiness to be widely known.
The Once and Future King by TH White (reread.) I liked The Sword in the Stone, when young Arthur is turned into a series of animals and learns moral lessons that aren't as nearly heavy handed as I remembered. I liked the second book, apart from the few scenes of animal cruelty. I liked the questing beast and the anachronistic comedy. But once the Lancelot and Guinevere plot takes over, I found myself getting more and more bored. When I was 14, I loved Lancelot and his doomed love affair. Now I find him and his love stories annoying and tiresome. The narration became increasingly more journalistic and remote, with authorial asides that annoyed me. I just got bored. Shame. I liked this so much more when I was a teenager.
Camelot's Shadow by Sarah Zettel. Romance between a girl called Rhian and Sir Gawain, with an evil sorcerer as the villain. Some elements from the Loathly Lady and the Green Knight tales are worked into the story, but it's mostly an original work with an Arthurian backdrop. I made it to the end, but it never really grabbed my emotions. I can barely remember it now.
The King's Peace by Jo Walton. This is essentially a retelling of the career of a 4th/5th century Arthur, but all the names are changed. By changing the names and making it fantasy, the author is free to make changes. Women can be warriors in this world, and the story's narrator is one such. The gods of the land are real and can manifest themselves. I really wanted to like this, but I kept getting the secondary characters confused, and I found myself increasingly reluctant to pick it up. I stopped reading in the end when I realised that there was a book two, as well, so persistence with this volume wouldn't even get me to the finishing line.
Not Arthurian
Necessity by Jo Walton. (Actually read before I read The King's Peace.) Third book in the series that starts with The Just City. I loved The Just City and its sequel, even though the first book, in particular, was mostly just people sitting around discussing philosophy. A spoiler happened at the end of book two that made me quite excited about book three, since the premise seemed full of potential. Although I enjoyed the book, I didn't like it as much as the other two. There was a lot of whizzing around through time searching for clues to a thing (being vague because of spoilers) that felt like the plot for an RPG, and the stuff about Time confused me. Still, I found a lot to like, and do still love the series.
Possibly something else. I have no idea what. There's a three week gap between my purchase of Necessity and The King's Peace and my purchase of the next book. I didn't borrow any library books in this period, either. I know I stalled on The King's Peace for quite a while, but nearly 3 weeks...? Since Summerfest then intervened, and I didn't get to read the newly acquired book for a week, did I really go nearly a month with only one book?
The Element of Fire by Martha Wells. Fantasy set in the kingdom of Ile-Rein, which is under threat from a vengeful sorcerer. The young king is weak, and his formidable mother tries to hold things together. Main characters are the captain of the queen's guard and the king's errant half-sister, who is half-fairy. It's full of court intrigue, magic and adventure, and I found it fairly enjoyable, but nothing special, with conversations and action constantly being interrupted with exposition. But it's a first novel. A few years ago, I read The Death of the Necromancer, set in the same world but a few generations later, and I liked it a lot more than this one. In fact, I meant to go on to reread it, before I decided to read some novels set in Venice, to prepare for our holiday.
Books set in Venice
The Fallen Blade by John Courtney Grimwood. Included only for the sake of completeness. I barely got 20% of the way into this. I'd expected Venetian history, but instead got an AU with vampires in it. I didn't want vampires, and found nothing engaging in the small amount I read.
The Invisible Library and The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman. The first of these isn't anything to do with Venice, but I needed to read it first before reading the Venice-set sequel. Irene is an agent for The Library, a transdimensional organisation that harvests fiction from all sorts of different worlds and realities. In book one, she and her new assistant are in a vaguely steampunky AU London - one with fairies and magical creatures - where they team up with a Great Detective. In the second book, the assistant is kidnapped and the tale moves to an AU Venice. I found the first book fairly enjoyable, with a nice sense of humour, but it never really moved beyond mild enjoyment. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to sustain me through book two. I skimmed, in the end - although, to be fair, some of this was because I eager to move on to books about Real Venice, not an unrecognisable AU. I might try book 3 when it comes out, if I'm in a more receptive frame of mind.
The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorata. A woman risks everything on a one-way trip to Venice, where she was born, where she hopes to make a living as a glassblower. Interspersed with her story is the story of her ancestor, a famous 17th century glassmaker, who betrayed the secrets of glassmaking to Louis XIV. I found it all very readable, and read it in a single sitting, but the moment I finished it, I started feeling quite annoyed by it. The modern storyline in particular is full of plot holes, implausabilities, cliched Passionate Italians, and cardboard cutout characters with enormously overwrought emotions. Still, as I say, I found it very readable at the time.
The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillips. Another book in which a modern day story alternates with a story from the past. In this case, the historical story centres on a 17th century courtesan who exposes a Spanish plot to take over Venice. The modern story concerns a woman whose doctoral thesis centres on this courtesan. When she finds out that another historian is planning a book which overturns the accepted interpretation of the courtesan's role, she races off the Venice to try prove that they're wrong. Said doctoral candidate has somehow spent 4 years researching this plot, yet has never looked at a single primary source. Even the established historian, when someone suggests that he might actually want to read the letters of the person he's researching, can't see why on earth he should want to do that. Oh, and this is also a world in which the diary of a 17th century courtesan and the diary of a 21st century American teenager look so completely identical that they can get accidentally swapped.
In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant. A prominent courtesan barely escapes with her life from the Sack of Rome in 1527. Moving back to her native Venice, she tries to rise to prominence again, helped all the time by Bucino, the narrator, the clever dwarf who's her constant companion, assistant, accomplice and business partner. There's not really much plot here, but I found it really engaging and surprisingly gripping, even though so little was actually happening. It's well written, and full of atmospheric period details which certainly feel authentic, although I have no idea if they actually are or not.
Non-fiction
Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson (reread.) A history of kitchen utensils and cutlery, with each chapter devoted to a different theme or utensil. I first read this 2 or 3 years ago, and I remember becoming quite a bore about it, constantly telling people little snippets of trivia about medieval ovens or 18th century spoons. I realised that I had entirely forgotten every single one of those interesting snippets, so decided to reread it, this time by dipping into it and reading odd chapters here and there. Maybe this time I'll remember something.
Venice: Pure City by Peter Ackroyd. A thematic, discursive meander through the history, culture and atmosphere of Venice. Full of interesting stuff, but I was hoping for more straight history. Lots of generalisations about how "Venice" did certain things, without pinning it down to specific dates in history. Frequently really quite pretentious, with gushing purple prose. I wanted more dates and sources. I wanted to read Jan Morris's book on Venice, but it had gone AWOL in the library, so I settled for this instead. Some interesting content, but mostly just annoyed me.
For the last few weeks, I've been reading The Chronicles of St Mary's by Jodi Taylor, but I'll write about that in a separate post.
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Date: 2016-10-06 09:36 pm (UTC)