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ergative's reviews
1058 reviews
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
3.75
... dafuq did I just read? That is a gruesome, bewildering, but also fascinating ride. I'm not sure I'll be panting at the bit to read another book by this author, but I also wouldn't avoid it. I'd need to be in the right head space. I don't trust him, not an inch, but he's definitely got my attention.
Crypt by Alice Roberts
3.75
This was more satisfying than the previous book (Buried) in the Alice Roberts trilogy, in large part because she could actually report archaeo-genomic results and what they told us, rather than promising that answers would be coming, really truly, just around the corner! The structure of the book worked really well, too: each dead body (or collection of dead bodies) was linked to a very nice historical vignette, such as the sinking of the Mary Rose, or the phenomenon of anchorites, or the spread of leprosy, or the debate surrounding the Columbian hypothesis about the origin of syphilis, or the murder of Thomas a Beckett. The problem is that each of the historical vignettes is very well told, complete with a mystery that, ideally, the archaeological investigation of the associated bodies should cast light on. And in most of the cases, they don't. Not really. Is that skull actually Thomas a Beckett's skull? Well, maybe? But probably not? It depends on how literally you believe the claim that the top of his head was chopped off during the murder: did it cleave the skull in two, or was he just scalped? We'll never know. So although the book did a great job of setting up the historical mysteries, the actual answers are never provided. In one way, it's probably an accurate glimpse into the true nature of Alice Roberts's job; but in another way, it makes for an unsatisfying reading experience.
The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke
0.5
If Clarke hadn't already been a famous writer, this would never have been published. It's just religion-flavoured vibes with nothing behind it. Clarke once saw a statue of a saint in a church and decided to spend her literary capital writing this thing in response. I feel betrayed.
Island of Whispers by Frances Hardinge
4.0
I'm not a huge fan of these Emily Gravett illustrations, but Hardinge, even when writing middle grade, is so good! I cried.
Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb
4.0
Great, satisfying end to the series, but I just don't like teenage mopey Fitz. This is the least good of the Robin Hobb RotE serieses (although Assassin's Apprentice is really very good), but I'm looking forward to finishing the whole saga, since I know at least three very good trilogies await me.
Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
3.5
Right,this is the one where Fitz is a mopey lovesick teenager. I remember getting quite bored with it all. Still, Hobb's writing is sufficiently engrossing that it was a very good book to occupy me during a very bad night.
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
5.0
Gosh, I'd forgotten how really, really good this book is. It's a perfect Book 1, too: introduces all the key events that I know will become important later, while still ending in a satisfying way, with a complete story wrapped up.
Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek
4.25
I really, really enjoyed reading this book. It style of narrative was very congenial to me, with more of a focus on the cultural innovations (lots about the language situation and the writing systems, and even a section on mathematics!) than the tedious back and forths of battles and rulers. Indeed,, not to at one point Kriwaczek says, 'The details of the unending conflict between [Assyria and Babylon], not to mention the constant warfare with the surrounding powers, great and small, recorded later in interminable epics and annals ful of boasts and dubious claims of victory, quickly become hard to follow and wearisome to relate. It is a relief when one of those powers leaves the stage . . . thus simplifying the picture. Enough to say that Assyria grew in territory . . .'
I also really enjoyed Kriwaczek's freewheeling associations and speculations. He's never shy about linking some particular phenomenon to a modern-day equivalent, whether it be the impossibility of preventing migrations of people (with some pointed remarks about US attempts at keeping out immigrants), or an association between diverse societies and a more authoritarian government style (with some pointed comparison between capital punishment and limited social safety measures in the US, a nation of immgirants, compared with more progressive European governments in nations that until recently have been much more culturally homogenious). To be sure, some of these speculations seem a bit cherry-picked; and others are just buck-wild and silly. His remarks about why the rise of bronze weaponry coincides with an age of heroes due to new fighting styles seems fun but probably unfounded; while his remarks about why a religious shift from immanent gods as part of nature to transcendent gods outside of nature coincides with an increase of societal misogyny is . . . kooky. (The logic goes that women's menstrual cycles and reproductive capacity tie them to nature in a way that men are not, so men can be seen as an image of a transcendent god, while women remain linked with animals. I myself think that piss and shit are pretty dang natural and link men to animals pretty hard, so probably the rise of misogyny is not the result of some shift in woo woo mysticism, but, hey, whatever floats your boat, Paul).
But despite my disagreement with certain perspectives, I really enjoyed reading them! Kriwaczek published this book the year before he died, so it's not surprising that he was unbothered about proposing unorthodox ideas. He already had established his name; why not have some fun? It was like having a drunken conversation with a slightly-high college friend who had just had their mind opened by some particularly lively Intro-to-Western-Civ class discussion. It was fun!
I also really enjoyed Kriwaczek's freewheeling associations and speculations. He's never shy about linking some particular phenomenon to a modern-day equivalent, whether it be the impossibility of preventing migrations of people (with some pointed remarks about US attempts at keeping out immigrants), or an association between diverse societies and a more authoritarian government style (with some pointed comparison between capital punishment and limited social safety measures in the US, a nation of immgirants, compared with more progressive European governments in nations that until recently have been much more culturally homogenious). To be sure, some of these speculations seem a bit cherry-picked; and others are just buck-wild and silly. His remarks about why the rise of bronze weaponry coincides with an age of heroes due to new fighting styles seems fun but probably unfounded; while his remarks about why a religious shift from immanent gods as part of nature to transcendent gods outside of nature coincides with an increase of societal misogyny is . . . kooky. (The logic goes that women's menstrual cycles and reproductive capacity tie them to nature in a way that men are not, so men can be seen as an image of a transcendent god, while women remain linked with animals. I myself think that piss and shit are pretty dang natural and link men to animals pretty hard, so probably the rise of misogyny is not the result of some shift in woo woo mysticism, but, hey, whatever floats your boat, Paul).
But despite my disagreement with certain perspectives, I really enjoyed reading them! Kriwaczek published this book the year before he died, so it's not surprising that he was unbothered about proposing unorthodox ideas. He already had established his name; why not have some fun? It was like having a drunken conversation with a slightly-high college friend who had just had their mind opened by some particularly lively Intro-to-Western-Civ class discussion. It was fun!
The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Frances Hardinge
5.0
This was just beautiful. I confess that the ARC ebook I received from Netgalley had very poor rendering of the illustrations, so probably this book is best appreciated in hard copy, but even with just the text I was enchanted. In a very short space, Hardinge has constructed a world in which an ever-hungry Forest has overpowered humanity's attempts to keep it back, until all that remains is the wreck of a Wall that was built, and which failed. Possibly the failure reflected internal human divisions, or perhaps its failure was inevitable, but as it is now, all that is left is pockets of humanity, some of whom believe that they are all that remains, and treat travellers as hungry ghosts. Into this world, our heroine, Feather, sets off, in pursuit of a thief who has taken something valuable from her own pocket of survivors, and in the process discovers what remains of the people in this world, and helps construct a way forward.
Point of Hopes by Lisa A. Barnett, Melissa Scott
2.0
It sure took its time to build the City As Character, which I usually appreciate, but the fact remains that all that City-As-Character building made the plot very slow (I knew several hundred pages before Rathe figured it out that the hedge astrologers were behind it all), and the City-As-Character wasn't really interesting enough to justify it all.