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ithiliens's reviews
119 reviews
The Arrangement by Mary Balogh
4.0
When you need to be really comforted there's no one better to read than Mary Balogh. This series in particular focusing as it does on healing and gentleness is so lovely to read.
The Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour
3.0
Short review: Sometimes opaque and repetitive but overall provided a fascinating and repellant deconstruction of social media use. This is a work of theory and not self help (ie how to unplug etc).
Long review:
I expected this to be more along the lines of Sarah Jeong's Internet of Garbage. In fact it felt much more like a work of lit theory, for reasons that are clear within the first couple pages with how Seymour defines writing in our present moment for the purposes of his argument.
I have mixed feelings. For the negative, I felt this was too long and underedited. A number of times almost identical sentences were used to explain a given concept, or a subject that had been explained already was introduced again as if for the first time. The overall structure of this book did not work for me. I am sympathetic to what Seymour might call the metastatic nature of the subject creating difficulty here. Many of the topics flow back into one another naturally, but rather than feeling like connections were being made, points often felt redundant. In particular I found myself rolling my eyes at the constant rehashing and re-examining of the online pile on. This is a subject worth examining to be sure, but after the initial discussion there's not much new ground covered. The chapter on trolling, while also offering a good overview of the subject and some quite cutting insights, felt to me almost punitive in the descriptions of depravity. I suppose that is part of the purpose, and does pointedly recall the image of the twittering machine, but it was still a lot to read. TW for discussions of sexual violence and suicide, and anything else you imagine would turn up under the heading of trolling.
As for what I did like quite a lot: The point that social media addiction is much more similar to gambling addiction than substance abuse was incredibly well made and frankly kind of chilling. I particularly found the description of "playing not to win but to stay in the machine zone where nothing matters" to be uncomfortably familiar. Anyone who has gotten sucked into scrolling only to look up and see three hours have gone by will understand the idea discussed here of "dropping out of time."
There's also the assertion that users of social media are its workers as well as suppliers of its primary product (namely, attention and data from which to mine advertising dollars). We are both the means of production and the product itself. This is a miserable fact but one I have not seen put quite as well anywhere as it was here.
For the two above points it was a worthwhile read for me. I struggled with Seymour's style which felt occluded to me but I don't believe in any intentional way. Anyone who is terminally online will perhaps not find much new in the basic points being made. But I think the overall perspective taken here, against sensationalism and questioning rather than providing answers, is a good contribution of the literature of social media.
Long review:
I expected this to be more along the lines of Sarah Jeong's Internet of Garbage. In fact it felt much more like a work of lit theory, for reasons that are clear within the first couple pages with how Seymour defines writing in our present moment for the purposes of his argument.
I have mixed feelings. For the negative, I felt this was too long and underedited. A number of times almost identical sentences were used to explain a given concept, or a subject that had been explained already was introduced again as if for the first time. The overall structure of this book did not work for me. I am sympathetic to what Seymour might call the metastatic nature of the subject creating difficulty here. Many of the topics flow back into one another naturally, but rather than feeling like connections were being made, points often felt redundant. In particular I found myself rolling my eyes at the constant rehashing and re-examining of the online pile on. This is a subject worth examining to be sure, but after the initial discussion there's not much new ground covered. The chapter on trolling, while also offering a good overview of the subject and some quite cutting insights, felt to me almost punitive in the descriptions of depravity. I suppose that is part of the purpose, and does pointedly recall the image of the twittering machine, but it was still a lot to read. TW for discussions of sexual violence and suicide, and anything else you imagine would turn up under the heading of trolling.
As for what I did like quite a lot: The point that social media addiction is much more similar to gambling addiction than substance abuse was incredibly well made and frankly kind of chilling. I particularly found the description of "playing not to win but to stay in the machine zone where nothing matters" to be uncomfortably familiar. Anyone who has gotten sucked into scrolling only to look up and see three hours have gone by will understand the idea discussed here of "dropping out of time."
There's also the assertion that users of social media are its workers as well as suppliers of its primary product (namely, attention and data from which to mine advertising dollars). We are both the means of production and the product itself. This is a miserable fact but one I have not seen put quite as well anywhere as it was here.
For the two above points it was a worthwhile read for me. I struggled with Seymour's style which felt occluded to me but I don't believe in any intentional way. Anyone who is terminally online will perhaps not find much new in the basic points being made. But I think the overall perspective taken here, against sensationalism and questioning rather than providing answers, is a good contribution of the literature of social media.
Beyond the Sunrise by Mary Balogh
This was a very interesting read and unlike any of Mary Balogh's other books I've read so far (including another early one I forget the name of now!) It occupies an unusual space of being heavy on the historical side without really sacrificing any of the Romance genre conventions. I found the pacing a bit off at times and I think the back 20% could have been condensed or rearranged somehow-- after an important reveal and an amazing climactic moment the momentum fizzled out for me, but I did still finish so that must say something. Overall I enjoyed this. It had a lot more bite than I've found elsewhere thus far in spy/hidden identity romances.
Wrapt in Crystal by Sharon Shinn
3.0
This is a weird rating for me because I enjoyed this very much but also felt very aware of the fact that a lot of it was... not satisfying? In anyone else's hands the romance would have been a complete turn off for me but Sharon Shinn is a master so I ended up liking it somewhat. This book was written quite a while ago as part of what seems like Shinn's "issue" books (heart of gold is about racism via alien races which like... no thanks). And I really liked the thoughts on religion in this one. The racialization of the Semayese was ultimately very weird and a lot of the cop procedural stuff was just really not my thing. But like her other books, I absolutely love how Shinn lingers on small moments and takes an almost leisurely pace through her story. The scene when Drake and Lise drive out into the desert was probably my favorite in the whole book. I love that characters have space to think rather than constantly reacting to plot points. So I would say this is a worthwhile read but maybe not for a newcomer to her books.
Angelica by Sharon Shinn
1.0
Lol where to start.. This book was an exercise in frustration. I am shocked that more people in these reviews are not taking Shinn to task for the absurdly racist world building that felt excessive even with my low opinion of SFF's general handling of anything non-white. We get not one but TWO inherently evil races, both of whom the angels have visible and active disdain for. A white blonde haired secondary character is discouraged from having children with a character from one of these groups because his breeding is bad-- this is said by one of the wisest people in Samaria! I am NOT kidding!!!! I really hate to say it but this combined with my ambivalence toward Wrapt in Crystal is souring me on Shinn in general. Her later books have similar problems with either Orientalist tropes or fantasy racism in general but this was just beyond the pale for me. Perhaps it's because this is a work of science fiction which I am less a fan of. But then again I am used to read eye rolling stuff about aliens and purple racism in SF. the racism in THIS book however is incredibly disturbing because of the background premise of the series.
Spoilers but what the colonists of Samaria think of as a god is actually an AI, a concept that I find incredibly cynical. If that wasn't enough none of the world building holds up for me at all. Maybe some of it would be clearer if I read the others but having this "divine" appointed striation of society with angels at the top is so... horrible? I don't have a ton of knowledge of the Bible but the parallels I can see being drawn or alluded to just don't sit right with me. I looked up if Shinn is Mormon because of the whole idea of going to a new planet while the people left behind are over and over are described as being darker skinned than the darkest skinned people in Samaria is like huh!!! Maybe don't!!!!!
And to add to this, the romance was a huge disappointment. I really like political arranged marriage stories (which is what drew me to try this) and the leads do not admit their feelings for each other until the LAST PAGE. They spend so little time with each other and have such flimsy misunderstandings I really wondered what the point was. I was also frustrated by Miriam's POV constantly interrupting the flow of the story. Nothing at the end feels resolved and I think it's because the interior logic of the world would dictate the characters acting differently it instead we basically just get them accepting a "don't worry about it" and then the book ENDS!!!!!
I am really sorry to say that this has turned me off an author I like for the time being and I am honestly pretty upset about it!
Spoilers but what the colonists of Samaria think of as a god is actually an AI, a concept that I find incredibly cynical. If that wasn't enough none of the world building holds up for me at all. Maybe some of it would be clearer if I read the others but having this "divine" appointed striation of society with angels at the top is so... horrible? I don't have a ton of knowledge of the Bible but the parallels I can see being drawn or alluded to just don't sit right with me. I looked up if Shinn is Mormon because of the whole idea of going to a new planet while the people left behind are over and over are described as being darker skinned than the darkest skinned people in Samaria is like huh!!! Maybe don't!!!!!
And to add to this, the romance was a huge disappointment. I really like political arranged marriage stories (which is what drew me to try this) and the leads do not admit their feelings for each other until the LAST PAGE. They spend so little time with each other and have such flimsy misunderstandings I really wondered what the point was. I was also frustrated by Miriam's POV constantly interrupting the flow of the story. Nothing at the end feels resolved and I think it's because the interior logic of the world would dictate the characters acting differently it instead we basically just get them accepting a "don't worry about it" and then the book ENDS!!!!!
I am really sorry to say that this has turned me off an author I like for the time being and I am honestly pretty upset about it!
Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri
4.0
Painful to read but written with the elegance and force. Many images that I think will linger with me for a long time.