Books read in the first half of November
Nov. 12th, 2017 09:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolatI'd intended just to do monthly book posts this year, but with 6 books read (not all of them finished) so far this month, I thought I'd write them up now. I've also suddenly remembered another book that I read a few months ago and forgot about.
A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
YA, set just before and during the English Civil War. As a child, Makepeace has terrible nightmares of terrifying Things trying to possess her. Her mother explains that these aren't just dreams. The spirits of the newly dead are desperate to possess a new body, and Makepeace is one of those rare poeple who are suitable for possession. After her mother's death, Makepeace is taken in by her father's powerful and sinister family, who have a dreadful secret. Realising that she is likely to be sacrificed in the cause of this secret, Makepeace manages to escape, and travels through a war-torn England, gathering some rather unconventional allies along the way. But her father's family are never far behind...
I'm not entirely sure what I feel about this book. I can't think of anything to criticise it for, but it didn't love it in the way that many online reviewers did. The language seemed a bit less rich and delightful than in many of her other books, which probably played part in this. I often seem to struggle to engage emotinally with her books, but the lack of emotional engagement is usually at least partly compensated for by my delight in her use of language. But not this time. I did like it, thought. It just that everyone else seems to have loved it, and I didn't.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Children's book, winner of the Newbery medal. Every year, the downtrodden people of the Protectorate reluctantly leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. Unbeknownst to them, this is a lie told by their rulers (for Reasons) who have made up the witch story, and just abandon the baby to inevitable death. Unbeknownst to them, there is a witch, but she's good. She rescues the abandoned babies, and takes them to various prosperous cities where they are adopted and loved. On the journey, she feeds the babies on starlight, but one year she accidentally feeds the child on moonlight instead, which is deeply magical. She keeps the baby - Luna - bringing her up in her cottage, alongside a friendly swamp monster and a 500 year old baby dragon. A prodigiously magical toddler is a dangerous thing, so the witch locks Luna's magic away, hoping that it will only emerge when she has learnt how to control it and use it well. Years pass, and as Luna's 13th birthday approaches, new dangers approach and past dangers resurface...
I had high hopes for this after the first few chapters. It was amusing, nicely written and creative, with chapters headings that reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle. But, for me, it didn't live up to its promise. The narrative felt a bit detached from the characters and their emotions (presumably deliberately, to give it a fairy story / storytelling feel), and there were times when my attention wandered. It felt a bit repetitive at times, and while I normally like multiple viewpoints, I felt that this would have been better with a narrower focus. All of which sounds quite harsh, perhaps misleadingly so. I did find it an enjoyable read which frequently made me smile. I just hoped for more.
The Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer Nielsen
The False Prince
The Runaway King
The Shadow Throne
YA fantasy. Sage (who narrates in the first person) is a 15 year old orphan and talented thief. Sage is bought from the orphanage by a nobleman called Conner, who has already acquired 3 other similar-looking orphan boys. The royal family has been assassinated, he explains, although the news has been hushed up while the ruling council jostles over the succession. In order to save the country from the plottings of ambitious men, Conner says, he wants one of the boys to impersonate the king's younger son, missing presumed drowned after a pirate attack some years before. One boy of the four will have a chance to be Conner's puppet king. The other 3 will be killed. But Sage also has plans of his own...
I read the first of this series a few years ago, and enjoyed it. It's quite reminiscent of Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief. It doesn't have that series' depth of worldbuilding, subtlety of characterisation or mastery of language, but, really, very little could. A pale imitation of an awesome book can still offer me much to enjoy. And I did. I guessed the ending pretty much from the start, but, really, that one added to my enjoyment as I collected clues to support my theory and gleefully awaited the denouement.
Unfortunately, it all went wrong for me in the second and third books, which turned into implausibly hectic tales of adventure, battles and daring escapes. The places never seemed like more than names to me. All the bad guys were impossibly incompetent, with all camps sneak-uppable upon, and all prisons escapable from. The timescale was just silly, with 2 weeks - sometimes even just a few days - being enough to turn someone into a master swordsman or to utterly change people's loyalties. Teenagers - not just Sage - kept on being appointed to roles that realistically should have gone to someone with 20 years' experience, and, after a token day or two of faltering, doing the job well. I got bored in the end, and skimmed most of the final book.
The Last Hours by Minette Walters (didn't finish)
Black Death story, set in a small village in Dorset. When rumours of an approaching pestilence arrive while her brutish husband is away, Lady Anne - a woman with thoroughly 21st century ideas on equality, universal education and public health - brings all the serfs across into the moated manor and its grounds, hoping to survive the coming months in isolation. But there are tensions inside the compound, and soon there is a murder...
Being rather fascinated by the Black Death, I snapped this up from the library as soon as it arrived, but it never grabbed me, and I gave up by about page 100 - before the murder, in fact. The writing style ensured that I never felt any sympathy for any of the characters. Even as we were seeing through their eyes, we were getting authorial comments in which she informed us - rather than showing us - that our viewpoint character was selfish and spoiled, or unable to see past the prevailing beliefs of his century. I'm also quite suspicious of the historical accuracy. Much is made of the gulf between the French-speaking nobles and their entourages, who still think of themselves as Norman or French and many of whom can't understand English, and the Saxon peasantry. Really? In 1348? She also has everyone call the plague The Black Death right from the start, and nobody called it that for centuries after. (Well, of course, somebody might have called it that, but not in the way she has them do it.) A disappointment.
And, finally, a book read in one sitting back in September, and therefore forgotten about when it came to write up at the end of the month.
Read a few months ago, but forgotten:
The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud (final book in the Lockwood and Co series)
I reviewed the earlier books in October 2016, when I said this:
Ghostly adventures set in an AU present-day London. The Problem started some 50 years ago, when, for no reason that anyone has yet determined, ghosts started becoming increasingly common, unambiguously real, and deadly dangerous. Some people posssess psychic talents allowing them to see them clearly, and thus fight them and contain them, but these are invariably children, whose talents have faded to nothing by around 20. Psychic Agencies, managed by adults but staffed by particularly talented children, can be hired to deal with dangerous hauntings. The biggest are famous national businesses. The smallest, the titular Lockwood and Co, consists of just 3 agents in their mid-teens, and is unique in having no adult involvement. Lockwood is the leader, charismatic, self-possessed, dashing and slightly mysterious. Lucy is the narrator, with a very strong and growing talent allowing her not just to see but to talk to ghosts. George, scruffy and acerbic, is a whizz at research.
I really enjoyed these books, especially the third and fourth. Our supplier labels them as YA, but unlike most modern supernatural YA, there's no Chosen One narrative, no coming of age story, no romance. They feel more like children's books, aimed at 10 to 14s - although they'll be too long for some 10s and 11s, and too scary for others. However, the many very enthusiastic online reviews show that they have a strong adult following, and they never felt childish. Due to the set-up, children are employed in dangerous roles of great responsibility. Sometimes they die in the line of duty. In many ways, these teenage characters live as adults, running their own business and household, taking on clients, dealing with adult authority figures on equal terms. At 15-ish, they're already veterans of front-line conflict.
I liked all the characters. Lucy is a good narrator, and Lockwood... well, I've always had a guilty weakness for charismatic, self-possessed, well-dressed, slightly mysterious leader types. The AU was interesting, although never laboured. 50 years of The Problem have clearly resulted in a UK that's very different from our world, but the differences aren't really elaborated upon. How could they be, when the narrator has never known any different? I would have liked just a little bit more information - at least some mention of other countries, for example - but I also enjoyed trying to piece the setting together from little clues.
This is a series that ought to be read in order, although the actual adventure part of each book is self-contained, especially the first two. I enjoyed the first book, although the second one I found fractionally less interesting. But the stakes are upped in the third and fourth book, both in terms of character interactions and relationships, and in over-arching plot. I was gripped enough to buy book 4 on Kindle rather than wait a week for it to arrive in the library. Apparently there will be one more book, coming out next autumn. I will be reading it the minute to comes out.
Which I did. There's not really anything much I can say about the final book without giving spoilers for the earlier ones, except that I enjoyed it, and it was a good ending for the series: resolving lots of things, without wrapping absolutely everything up in an over-neat ending.
A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
YA, set just before and during the English Civil War. As a child, Makepeace has terrible nightmares of terrifying Things trying to possess her. Her mother explains that these aren't just dreams. The spirits of the newly dead are desperate to possess a new body, and Makepeace is one of those rare poeple who are suitable for possession. After her mother's death, Makepeace is taken in by her father's powerful and sinister family, who have a dreadful secret. Realising that she is likely to be sacrificed in the cause of this secret, Makepeace manages to escape, and travels through a war-torn England, gathering some rather unconventional allies along the way. But her father's family are never far behind...
I'm not entirely sure what I feel about this book. I can't think of anything to criticise it for, but it didn't love it in the way that many online reviewers did. The language seemed a bit less rich and delightful than in many of her other books, which probably played part in this. I often seem to struggle to engage emotinally with her books, but the lack of emotional engagement is usually at least partly compensated for by my delight in her use of language. But not this time. I did like it, thought. It just that everyone else seems to have loved it, and I didn't.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Children's book, winner of the Newbery medal. Every year, the downtrodden people of the Protectorate reluctantly leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. Unbeknownst to them, this is a lie told by their rulers (for Reasons) who have made up the witch story, and just abandon the baby to inevitable death. Unbeknownst to them, there is a witch, but she's good. She rescues the abandoned babies, and takes them to various prosperous cities where they are adopted and loved. On the journey, she feeds the babies on starlight, but one year she accidentally feeds the child on moonlight instead, which is deeply magical. She keeps the baby - Luna - bringing her up in her cottage, alongside a friendly swamp monster and a 500 year old baby dragon. A prodigiously magical toddler is a dangerous thing, so the witch locks Luna's magic away, hoping that it will only emerge when she has learnt how to control it and use it well. Years pass, and as Luna's 13th birthday approaches, new dangers approach and past dangers resurface...
I had high hopes for this after the first few chapters. It was amusing, nicely written and creative, with chapters headings that reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle. But, for me, it didn't live up to its promise. The narrative felt a bit detached from the characters and their emotions (presumably deliberately, to give it a fairy story / storytelling feel), and there were times when my attention wandered. It felt a bit repetitive at times, and while I normally like multiple viewpoints, I felt that this would have been better with a narrower focus. All of which sounds quite harsh, perhaps misleadingly so. I did find it an enjoyable read which frequently made me smile. I just hoped for more.
The Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer Nielsen
The False Prince
The Runaway King
The Shadow Throne
YA fantasy. Sage (who narrates in the first person) is a 15 year old orphan and talented thief. Sage is bought from the orphanage by a nobleman called Conner, who has already acquired 3 other similar-looking orphan boys. The royal family has been assassinated, he explains, although the news has been hushed up while the ruling council jostles over the succession. In order to save the country from the plottings of ambitious men, Conner says, he wants one of the boys to impersonate the king's younger son, missing presumed drowned after a pirate attack some years before. One boy of the four will have a chance to be Conner's puppet king. The other 3 will be killed. But Sage also has plans of his own...
I read the first of this series a few years ago, and enjoyed it. It's quite reminiscent of Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief. It doesn't have that series' depth of worldbuilding, subtlety of characterisation or mastery of language, but, really, very little could. A pale imitation of an awesome book can still offer me much to enjoy. And I did. I guessed the ending pretty much from the start, but, really, that one added to my enjoyment as I collected clues to support my theory and gleefully awaited the denouement.
Unfortunately, it all went wrong for me in the second and third books, which turned into implausibly hectic tales of adventure, battles and daring escapes. The places never seemed like more than names to me. All the bad guys were impossibly incompetent, with all camps sneak-uppable upon, and all prisons escapable from. The timescale was just silly, with 2 weeks - sometimes even just a few days - being enough to turn someone into a master swordsman or to utterly change people's loyalties. Teenagers - not just Sage - kept on being appointed to roles that realistically should have gone to someone with 20 years' experience, and, after a token day or two of faltering, doing the job well. I got bored in the end, and skimmed most of the final book.
The Last Hours by Minette Walters (didn't finish)
Black Death story, set in a small village in Dorset. When rumours of an approaching pestilence arrive while her brutish husband is away, Lady Anne - a woman with thoroughly 21st century ideas on equality, universal education and public health - brings all the serfs across into the moated manor and its grounds, hoping to survive the coming months in isolation. But there are tensions inside the compound, and soon there is a murder...
Being rather fascinated by the Black Death, I snapped this up from the library as soon as it arrived, but it never grabbed me, and I gave up by about page 100 - before the murder, in fact. The writing style ensured that I never felt any sympathy for any of the characters. Even as we were seeing through their eyes, we were getting authorial comments in which she informed us - rather than showing us - that our viewpoint character was selfish and spoiled, or unable to see past the prevailing beliefs of his century. I'm also quite suspicious of the historical accuracy. Much is made of the gulf between the French-speaking nobles and their entourages, who still think of themselves as Norman or French and many of whom can't understand English, and the Saxon peasantry. Really? In 1348? She also has everyone call the plague The Black Death right from the start, and nobody called it that for centuries after. (Well, of course, somebody might have called it that, but not in the way she has them do it.) A disappointment.
And, finally, a book read in one sitting back in September, and therefore forgotten about when it came to write up at the end of the month.
Read a few months ago, but forgotten:
The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud (final book in the Lockwood and Co series)
I reviewed the earlier books in October 2016, when I said this:
Ghostly adventures set in an AU present-day London. The Problem started some 50 years ago, when, for no reason that anyone has yet determined, ghosts started becoming increasingly common, unambiguously real, and deadly dangerous. Some people posssess psychic talents allowing them to see them clearly, and thus fight them and contain them, but these are invariably children, whose talents have faded to nothing by around 20. Psychic Agencies, managed by adults but staffed by particularly talented children, can be hired to deal with dangerous hauntings. The biggest are famous national businesses. The smallest, the titular Lockwood and Co, consists of just 3 agents in their mid-teens, and is unique in having no adult involvement. Lockwood is the leader, charismatic, self-possessed, dashing and slightly mysterious. Lucy is the narrator, with a very strong and growing talent allowing her not just to see but to talk to ghosts. George, scruffy and acerbic, is a whizz at research.
I really enjoyed these books, especially the third and fourth. Our supplier labels them as YA, but unlike most modern supernatural YA, there's no Chosen One narrative, no coming of age story, no romance. They feel more like children's books, aimed at 10 to 14s - although they'll be too long for some 10s and 11s, and too scary for others. However, the many very enthusiastic online reviews show that they have a strong adult following, and they never felt childish. Due to the set-up, children are employed in dangerous roles of great responsibility. Sometimes they die in the line of duty. In many ways, these teenage characters live as adults, running their own business and household, taking on clients, dealing with adult authority figures on equal terms. At 15-ish, they're already veterans of front-line conflict.
I liked all the characters. Lucy is a good narrator, and Lockwood... well, I've always had a guilty weakness for charismatic, self-possessed, well-dressed, slightly mysterious leader types. The AU was interesting, although never laboured. 50 years of The Problem have clearly resulted in a UK that's very different from our world, but the differences aren't really elaborated upon. How could they be, when the narrator has never known any different? I would have liked just a little bit more information - at least some mention of other countries, for example - but I also enjoyed trying to piece the setting together from little clues.
This is a series that ought to be read in order, although the actual adventure part of each book is self-contained, especially the first two. I enjoyed the first book, although the second one I found fractionally less interesting. But the stakes are upped in the third and fourth book, both in terms of character interactions and relationships, and in over-arching plot. I was gripped enough to buy book 4 on Kindle rather than wait a week for it to arrive in the library. Apparently there will be one more book, coming out next autumn. I will be reading it the minute to comes out.
Which I did. There's not really anything much I can say about the final book without giving spoilers for the earlier ones, except that I enjoyed it, and it was a good ending for the series: resolving lots of things, without wrapping absolutely everything up in an over-neat ending.
