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ithiliens's reviews
119 reviews
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
I'm sorry to say this was a very mixed bag for me. I thought "Liking What You See" was asinine at best and found "Seventy-Two Letters" to be honestly offensive. But I loved "Story of Your Life" so so much and I don't think it's a coincidence that that particular story has the most well drawn characters. I'm thinking about something Chiang said in an interview with AAWW about not writing particularly to an asian american experience. I think "Liking What You See" at the very least could have been deeply improved by more fully addressing the obvious connotations of racism (in fact it was only made worse for me by there being a very throw away comment about racial discrimination). It's not that I disagree with him about it (thinking you have to write any kind of story b/c of the group you're a part of isn't what i'm angling for) but I just feel like there's something missing. maybe i'm not the audience for these stories. For me many of these felt quite dated, which is maybe a pitfall of speculative fiction.
At Your Pleasure by Meredith Duran
4.0
I finished this a few days ago and have been thinking about it and what put me off. The rating is mostly for the quality of the writing and the maybe first 25-30 percent of the book. I didn't feel it did any of the things I need a romance to do other than the HEA which ultimately feels a little empty because I ended up HATING the hero. I really liked Nora but before half of the book had elapsed I wanted her to escape literally every single man in this book who is constantly strong-arming and micromanaging her life (this is even referred to IN the book!)
Also I realized that the reason I never read Georgians (or similar, like Outlander) is because the nature of the political climate etc is such that I think authors have a more difficult time papering over it than they do with Regencies and Victorians. This is also why you see fewer very late Victorian or Edwardian set romances because of the more immediate knowledge we have of the impending war. It's not that Regency or Victorian England WASN'T a horrorscape, it's that the formal structure of Romance (and I mean capital R romance, not historical fiction with romance) has more or less gotten all of this down pat. Like frankly when authors in romance try to bring in too much history the illusion is immediately shattered and I lose absolutely all interest and sympathy in the heroes, specifically. This is also what I heard about Devil in Spring (from S, ty for warning me!!!) about addressing inequality re: women's rights and like yeah! You can't really bring up the 1857 and 1870 marriage acts re: women losing all of their rights/property when entering a marriage if you want to have the romance angle feel authentic and, frankly, non-threatening. If all romance is fantasy you NEED to commit to the fantasy instead of trying to present to me a more "accurate" historical atmosphere. I don't mean to get too down on Duran for this because it's not her specifically, and I think she wrote a strikingly lush and thoughtful book that is unusual in the genre. I just don't think it was very Romantic in the end.
I also think there's something here about the idea that blank cruelty in men is considered more historical and realistic which I certainly don't want to get into that AT ALL but throwing in frankly a lot of unacceptable behavior from the hero does not endear me to him in any way. You can't pull back the curtain like this and expect me to keep my Romance glasses on! This stuff felt more like holdovers from 80s romance (again, see Outlander!) than something I expect to read. There's more to say about this and genre and outside-genre criticism probably but I really just came here to say that this book was extraordinarily written and I wish I hadn't wanted to kill Adrian with my bare hands at the end of it.
Also I realized that the reason I never read Georgians (or similar, like Outlander) is because the nature of the political climate etc is such that I think authors have a more difficult time papering over it than they do with Regencies and Victorians. This is also why you see fewer very late Victorian or Edwardian set romances because of the more immediate knowledge we have of the impending war. It's not that Regency or Victorian England WASN'T a horrorscape, it's that the formal structure of Romance (and I mean capital R romance, not historical fiction with romance) has more or less gotten all of this down pat. Like frankly when authors in romance try to bring in too much history the illusion is immediately shattered and I lose absolutely all interest and sympathy in the heroes, specifically. This is also what I heard about Devil in Spring (from S, ty for warning me!!!) about addressing inequality re: women's rights and like yeah! You can't really bring up the 1857 and 1870 marriage acts re: women losing all of their rights/property when entering a marriage if you want to have the romance angle feel authentic and, frankly, non-threatening. If all romance is fantasy you NEED to commit to the fantasy instead of trying to present to me a more "accurate" historical atmosphere. I don't mean to get too down on Duran for this because it's not her specifically, and I think she wrote a strikingly lush and thoughtful book that is unusual in the genre. I just don't think it was very Romantic in the end.
I also think there's something here about the idea that blank cruelty in men is considered more historical and realistic which I certainly don't want to get into that AT ALL but throwing in frankly a lot of unacceptable behavior from the hero does not endear me to him in any way. You can't pull back the curtain like this and expect me to keep my Romance glasses on! This stuff felt more like holdovers from 80s romance (again, see Outlander!) than something I expect to read. There's more to say about this and genre and outside-genre criticism probably but I really just came here to say that this book was extraordinarily written and I wish I hadn't wanted to kill Adrian with my bare hands at the end of it.
Someone to Love by Mary Balogh
This was enjoyable and more or less what I expected/wanted going into a Balogh. I did have a feeling though that this particular story comes first because there’s not much heft to it, which allows room for the family etc to be introduced. This is not a bad thing but it made some of the actual romance feel a bit thin I guess. Overall a good reading experience, though as Amanda said the martial arts stuff is sooooo ludicrous.