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yak_attak's reviews
754 reviews
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
2.5
An exciting premise undermined left and right, Roanhorse's multi-cultural fantasy just ends up not being my jam. It starts out with a bang - a mother mutiliating her child, turning him into an avatar of a god of a forgotten cult. A drunken half-mermaid pirate getting recruited to go on a life or death journey. And an elderly priestess desperately trying to hang onto her power as those around her scheme to bring her down - the core here is strong, and by mixing in a wealth of non-eurocentric details, Black Sun's world has the veneer of being strong, dazzling, exciting.
Unfortunately, I think Roanhorse mostly gets in her own way - a lot of the introduced elements are almost ignored in favor of doing the more standard thing. If you spend your time trying to figure out what's going to happen next it's pretty likely you're going to come up with something more interesting than the very straightforward plot that we do get. And though I don't want to judge a book necessarily based on how *I* think it should have gone, we're just not given a lot else to do in the meantime. The writing is basic and unflashy - never actively bad, but dull to the point it might as well be - in a world this vibrant, it should be lush with detail, instead we get basically most any other fantasy with the edges sanded off.
The strong character backgrounds are reduced when, inevitably, the characters become endlessly irritating - the elderly priest acts just as young and inept as does the drunken pirate. She has a background from a criminal area, but you'd not know this until of course it's revealled, because it has no bearing on her character at all. The mutiliated man has been groomed and trained his entire life to become a walking time bomb of violent revolution, but of course he's also just a misunderstood small bean who is just so nice that we can't take our eyes off of. Our main characters are as flawless and unjudgmental as the side characters are nasty - every single one of them is needlessly terrible, no one aside from the central four (far too many PoVs for this short a book) is generally reasonable in any way, and not one person listens to our (good, smart, correct) main heroes.
The plot degrades until you're just nitpicking details because that's all that's left. Why the hell does Xiala get described as "only having the clothes on her back" minutes after selling an entire ship's cargo? Who knows. Things are just presented as the plot needs it and we leave anything that could've been interesting behind. The romance is terrible, the character's reactions bizarre, the epigraphs are inane, and the books ends without any interesting or meaningful resolution at all whatsoever. I don't mind an open ending, but this is so clearly half of a book as to be a waste of your time unless you're going on to book 2.
I dunno. I was excited in the beginning, there's a lot of promise here, but it just didn't at all hold up to that. Your mileage may certainly vary, there's a fun breezy read in here with some cool Mesoamerican flavor that *could* go on to have some cool stuff to say about cultural in-group violence, but if it does, it's not in *this* book.
Also: unless I'm confused by the identity of a character, Roanhorse has included two (and only two!) characters who are a third gender who use neo-pronouns, both of which are nearly identical evil religious assassins. ...w...w...why? What a bizarre choice!
Unfortunately, I think Roanhorse mostly gets in her own way - a lot of the introduced elements are almost ignored in favor of doing the more standard thing. If you spend your time trying to figure out what's going to happen next it's pretty likely you're going to come up with something more interesting than the very straightforward plot that we do get. And though I don't want to judge a book necessarily based on how *I* think it should have gone, we're just not given a lot else to do in the meantime. The writing is basic and unflashy - never actively bad, but dull to the point it might as well be - in a world this vibrant, it should be lush with detail, instead we get basically most any other fantasy with the edges sanded off.
The strong character backgrounds are reduced when, inevitably, the characters become endlessly irritating - the elderly priest acts just as young and inept as does the drunken pirate. She has a background from a criminal area, but you'd not know this until of course it's revealled, because it has no bearing on her character at all. The mutiliated man has been groomed and trained his entire life to become a walking time bomb of violent revolution, but of course he's also just a misunderstood small bean who is just so nice that we can't take our eyes off of. Our main characters are as flawless and unjudgmental as the side characters are nasty - every single one of them is needlessly terrible, no one aside from the central four (far too many PoVs for this short a book) is generally reasonable in any way, and not one person listens to our (good, smart, correct) main heroes.
The plot degrades until you're just nitpicking details because that's all that's left. Why the hell does Xiala get described as "only having the clothes on her back" minutes after selling an entire ship's cargo? Who knows. Things are just presented as the plot needs it and we leave anything that could've been interesting behind. The romance is terrible, the character's reactions bizarre, the epigraphs are inane, and the books ends without any interesting or meaningful resolution at all whatsoever. I don't mind an open ending, but this is so clearly half of a book as to be a waste of your time unless you're going on to book 2.
I dunno. I was excited in the beginning, there's a lot of promise here, but it just didn't at all hold up to that. Your mileage may certainly vary, there's a fun breezy read in here with some cool Mesoamerican flavor that *could* go on to have some cool stuff to say about cultural in-group violence, but if it does, it's not in *this* book.
Also: unless I'm confused by the identity of a character, Roanhorse has included two (and only two!) characters who are a third gender who use neo-pronouns, both of which are nearly identical evil religious assassins. ...w...w...why? What a bizarre choice!
King Edward III by William Shakespeare
2.5
A fair but dull play, fairly ignorable were it not for the question of its dubious authorship. We see various scenes from the life of a King Edward, his affair with the countess, his conquests in France - none of the characters are particularly great (maaaaaybe Prince Edward), and few of the scenes memorable. Nothing terrible, but not really worth even my completionism.
As a note, this edition has a hell of a lot of notes and appendix pertaining to the 'did Shakespeare write this' question - much of which I assume is quite well researched and written, but I did not read it, so I leave that up to you.
As a note, this edition has a hell of a lot of notes and appendix pertaining to the 'did Shakespeare write this' question - much of which I assume is quite well researched and written, but I did not read it, so I leave that up to you.
Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer
3.0
In my original short review of this book, the overwhelming feeling was this: to me the 'pushing to the precipice' (Book 1) was *far* more interesting than actually watching the hammer drop (Book 2). I was very interested in rereading and giving it another shot (then continuing on with the rest of the series I haven't read). Dear reader, unfortunately, sometimes you get it in one.
Too Like the Lightning plays out as a complex interweaving murder mystery, introducing you to the world and its bizarre inhabitants alongside the investigation into a fairly arcane crime, but one you understand more and more as the story continues and you see how it might affect the balance before you. Revelations abound and twists confront you.
And then it all comes to a screeching halt for Seven Surrenders. Most of the reveals have been shown, and you know most of the characters, so in lieu of growing or changing them, we get this litany of scenes showing various characters (Most of which the narrator isn't present for, the framing device breaking down even further) spouting their philosophies at each other, but not driven to an end. The finale is fairly straightforward after what we learned in book one - Not that a gradual slide into the inevitable can't be a great story too, but well...
I think the main problem comes in the fact that Palmer's characters are anything but - they're more like avatars, signifiers and signs of an idea, used to spout philosophy and prose and aesthetic, but they're not well embodied in a person in a scene in a context. It's hard to take them seriously as more than a staged doll, even with all the beautiful, overwrought language Palmer architectures with. It's less political thriller than it is a personal diatribe in a dissertation about the enlightenment. And it's less substantial academic writing than it is just... lurid soap opera.
So we have a powerfully written story about the inevitability of war, the breakdown of power, the malleability of story, people with a whole bunch of raunchy hot people who are too smart not to be fun, and too stupid to actually exist, all scheming and playing against each other in a messy impermeable tangle... what's not to love? I dunno, it sounds pretty great, but man it's just kinda dull in the read. Everything on paper sounds great, dear reader, but in the doing, just so little of what Palmer is focusing on feels engaging to me - so even when things *do* get going, it's far too late.
Too Like the Lightning plays out as a complex interweaving murder mystery, introducing you to the world and its bizarre inhabitants alongside the investigation into a fairly arcane crime, but one you understand more and more as the story continues and you see how it might affect the balance before you. Revelations abound and twists confront you.
And then it all comes to a screeching halt for Seven Surrenders. Most of the reveals have been shown, and you know most of the characters, so in lieu of growing or changing them, we get this litany of scenes showing various characters (Most of which the narrator isn't present for, the framing device breaking down even further) spouting their philosophies at each other, but not driven to an end. The finale is fairly straightforward after what we learned in book one - Not that a gradual slide into the inevitable can't be a great story too, but well...
I think the main problem comes in the fact that Palmer's characters are anything but - they're more like avatars, signifiers and signs of an idea, used to spout philosophy and prose and aesthetic, but they're not well embodied in a person in a scene in a context. It's hard to take them seriously as more than a staged doll, even with all the beautiful, overwrought language Palmer architectures with. It's less political thriller than it is a personal diatribe in a dissertation about the enlightenment. And it's less substantial academic writing than it is just... lurid soap opera.
So we have a powerfully written story about the inevitability of war, the breakdown of power, the malleability of story, people with a whole bunch of raunchy hot people who are too smart not to be fun, and too stupid to actually exist, all scheming and playing against each other in a messy impermeable tangle... what's not to love? I dunno, it sounds pretty great, but man it's just kinda dull in the read. Everything on paper sounds great, dear reader, but in the doing, just so little of what Palmer is focusing on feels engaging to me - so even when things *do* get going, it's far too late.
SwordsDark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery by Jonathan Strahan, Lou Anders
4.5
Strahan and Anders put together an absolutely stacked collection of modern fantasy heroes, turning them loose on broadly, Sword and Sorcery, and have ended up with a cracking collection of excellent stories. Despite the fairly irritating introduction (it does the "But THIS stuff is Not your TOLKIEN'S FANTASY" nonsense that. We get it. Booze and Tits. Okay.) (However it does serve as a good summary of the history of S&S) pitch sounding more flat than it should, there's a great amount of variety here, crossing styles, genre, settings, and more. Lots of Rogues and Scoundrels, bloody fights, Demons, and more - there's nothing you're going to miss out on. Honestly, only one or two (of *seventeen*!) stories are any less than great.
I came into this primarily to finally read Steven Erikson's Goats of Glory (which is good and fun), but after being shocked by the absolutely stacked roster assembled (Erikson. Cook. Wolfe. Cherryh. Moorcock. Silverberg. Abercrombie. And more!), the stories I ended up enjoying the most were often those from authors I'm *not* familiar with - either in name or reputation. The Sea Troll's Daughter by Caitlin Kiernan is quasi-Beowulf monsterslaying, except things don't go well for the town. And I'll join in calling The Deification of Dal Bamore the best story here - An Abercrombie-esque story of political upheaval, torture, violence, and god. I'm not familiar with Lebbon, but I'll absolutely be checking his other works out soon.
So yeah, to make things short, if you like S&S or any of these authors at all, get this. It's great.
Quick reviews:
Goats of Glory - Erikson - 4
A little simple for Erikson, but the twist is fun. Great writing, good characters, slightly empty.
Tides Elba - Cook - 3
I've already read (and hated) the book this was eventually turned into, but in short story format it dodges a lot of what made that novel terrible. It's alright, but not as good as older Cook.
Bloodsport - Wolfe - 4.5
I don't get the hate, this is beautifully written.
The Singing Spear - Enge - 3.5
A little too simple and obvious, but written well, and Morlock has enough character to at least make me curious about picking up Enge's other work.
A Wizard in Wiscezan - Cherryh - 4.5
One of the best in the bunch. Great setting, great scenario with a lot of character to it.
A Rich Full Week - Parker - 4.5
My first Parker, and it will absolutely not be my last - there's so much character and tone conveyed so simply, all of it a joy to read, and the ending is one of the better ones in the book, leaving you with a good bit to think about.
A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet - Nix - 3
Weaker showing from Nix, there's good ideas here, but it seems too wrapped up/neat to really be more than a fine story.
Red Pearls - Moorcock - 2.5
Sadly, the most disappointing story in the collection comes from legend Moorcock, but dang man, the pacing here is dismal, there's like 4 extra plots for no reason, and the eventual main one we're supposed to care about is the dullest of the bunch.
The Deification of Dal Bamore - Lebbon - 5
Already mentioned, but this is incredibly good.
Dark Times at the Midnight Market - Silverberg - 4.5
My first Silverberg, and won't be my last. One of the best works of setting in the collection, even though basically everything takes place in one room.
The Undefiled - Keyes - 4
I know Greg Keyes from Star Wars, so having him pop in with the nastiest story of a heroic rape monster was a hell of a shock. It works great though.
Hew the Tintmaster - Shea - 3
Cool ideas/scenes, but a little too far up its own ass to connect
In the Stacks - Lynch - 4.5
Many of these stories I'd love to have been expanded, none more so than this one - This has such a cool setting, *far* more than enough for a full book. Sad there isn't more.
Two Lions, a Witch, and the War-Robe - Lee - 3.5
At first I was really enjoying this, and then I don't even know what was going on in the second half. Feels like it was written just for the pun title at some point. Great start though.
The Sea Troll's Daughter - Kiernan - 4.5
Again, mentioned already, but this one is excellent.
Theives of Daring - Willingham - 3
The shortest in the collection by far, there isn't enough here to really make it worth your time, but the idea is cool. Could've been much more.
The Fool Jobs - Abercrombie - 4
Great work from Abercrombie, short heist story, lots nasty characters, tons of great violence.
I came into this primarily to finally read Steven Erikson's Goats of Glory (which is good and fun), but after being shocked by the absolutely stacked roster assembled (Erikson. Cook. Wolfe. Cherryh. Moorcock. Silverberg. Abercrombie. And more!), the stories I ended up enjoying the most were often those from authors I'm *not* familiar with - either in name or reputation. The Sea Troll's Daughter by Caitlin Kiernan is quasi-Beowulf monsterslaying, except things don't go well for the town. And I'll join in calling The Deification of Dal Bamore the best story here - An Abercrombie-esque story of political upheaval, torture, violence, and god. I'm not familiar with Lebbon, but I'll absolutely be checking his other works out soon.
So yeah, to make things short, if you like S&S or any of these authors at all, get this. It's great.
Quick reviews:
Goats of Glory - Erikson - 4
A little simple for Erikson, but the twist is fun. Great writing, good characters, slightly empty.
Tides Elba - Cook - 3
I've already read (and hated) the book this was eventually turned into, but in short story format it dodges a lot of what made that novel terrible. It's alright, but not as good as older Cook.
Bloodsport - Wolfe - 4.5
I don't get the hate, this is beautifully written.
The Singing Spear - Enge - 3.5
A little too simple and obvious, but written well, and Morlock has enough character to at least make me curious about picking up Enge's other work.
A Wizard in Wiscezan - Cherryh - 4.5
One of the best in the bunch. Great setting, great scenario with a lot of character to it.
A Rich Full Week - Parker - 4.5
My first Parker, and it will absolutely not be my last - there's so much character and tone conveyed so simply, all of it a joy to read, and the ending is one of the better ones in the book, leaving you with a good bit to think about.
A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet - Nix - 3
Weaker showing from Nix, there's good ideas here, but it seems too wrapped up/neat to really be more than a fine story.
Red Pearls - Moorcock - 2.5
Sadly, the most disappointing story in the collection comes from legend Moorcock, but dang man, the pacing here is dismal, there's like 4 extra plots for no reason, and the eventual main one we're supposed to care about is the dullest of the bunch.
The Deification of Dal Bamore - Lebbon - 5
Already mentioned, but this is incredibly good.
Dark Times at the Midnight Market - Silverberg - 4.5
My first Silverberg, and won't be my last. One of the best works of setting in the collection, even though basically everything takes place in one room.
The Undefiled - Keyes - 4
I know Greg Keyes from Star Wars, so having him pop in with the nastiest story of a heroic rape monster was a hell of a shock. It works great though.
Hew the Tintmaster - Shea - 3
Cool ideas/scenes, but a little too far up its own ass to connect
In the Stacks - Lynch - 4.5
Many of these stories I'd love to have been expanded, none more so than this one - This has such a cool setting, *far* more than enough for a full book. Sad there isn't more.
Two Lions, a Witch, and the War-Robe - Lee - 3.5
At first I was really enjoying this, and then I don't even know what was going on in the second half. Feels like it was written just for the pun title at some point. Great start though.
The Sea Troll's Daughter - Kiernan - 4.5
Again, mentioned already, but this one is excellent.
Theives of Daring - Willingham - 3
The shortest in the collection by far, there isn't enough here to really make it worth your time, but the idea is cool. Could've been much more.
The Fool Jobs - Abercrombie - 4
Great work from Abercrombie, short heist story, lots nasty characters, tons of great violence.
Black Magic: The Rise and Fall of the Antichrist and Other Works by Marjorie Bowen (Halcyon Classics) by Marjorie Bowen
4.5
There's a level to which a modern audience will ascribe a certain reading of sexuality, of gender, of love to older works - a reading more romantic than the author intended. Sam and Frodo are gay as hell, etc. This isn't to say it's bad to think this way, but that we should at least be aware of the context that was relevant at the time, that the author's language may have been changed over the years and turned into something else it was never meant to be.
All this to say that Black Magic by Marjorie Bowen is gay as absolute hell, and about as transgressive as you could imagine a book from 1909 being. This story is less horror than it is arch gothic, a story of genderqueer romance stifled by societal norms, and the horrible lengths someone might go to make their love real. There are some very good reasons why this reading is pretty bad, particularly why one character is likely more problematic than they are trans, but let's just set that aside and revel instead in this emotional turmoil.
Our protagonists are deep in thrall to the powers of Satan, and their dark magics stain the pages. The writing is a little clunky: the language more simple than this story deserves or wants, but also the prose more meandering than ideal. Yet when you set aside the initial discomfort and fall into its meter, the atmosphere and feeling of grand primal darkness of the coming evening... the magic is perfectly realized, just beautiful enough to be attractive, but always clearly evil.
So - atmospheric, emotional, gothic, beautiful.... again, slightly clunky writing, the requisite orientalism of its day, and the will-they-won't-they attitude of the two main characters is formulaic and repetitive (I mean, one of them is specifically angry about it, so it does kinda work.), but these are pretty minor quibbles for a very compelling work. There's a level to which we as modern readers also underestimate the past and like to call things "modern for its time", but this book is precisely that - shockingly modern.
All this to say that Black Magic by Marjorie Bowen is gay as absolute hell, and about as transgressive as you could imagine a book from 1909 being. This story is less horror than it is arch gothic, a story of genderqueer romance stifled by societal norms, and the horrible lengths someone might go to make their love real. There are some very good reasons why this reading is pretty bad, particularly why one character is likely more problematic than they are trans, but let's just set that aside and revel instead in this emotional turmoil.
Our protagonists are deep in thrall to the powers of Satan, and their dark magics stain the pages. The writing is a little clunky: the language more simple than this story deserves or wants, but also the prose more meandering than ideal. Yet when you set aside the initial discomfort and fall into its meter, the atmosphere and feeling of grand primal darkness of the coming evening... the magic is perfectly realized, just beautiful enough to be attractive, but always clearly evil.
So - atmospheric, emotional, gothic, beautiful.... again, slightly clunky writing, the requisite orientalism of its day, and the will-they-won't-they attitude of the two main characters is formulaic and repetitive (I mean, one of them is specifically angry about it, so it does kinda work.), but these are pretty minor quibbles for a very compelling work. There's a level to which we as modern readers also underestimate the past and like to call things "modern for its time", but this book is precisely that - shockingly modern.
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
3.0
How High We Go in the Dark was a book that I was *sure* for so much of it that I would end up liking quite a bit. It presents as a series of interconnected short stories, that build and weave together, telling stories surrounding an incredibly deadly outbreak of an ancient virus, the social changes that it influences, and how humanity continues and lives on through and becomes more than its grief and pain. The stories are decently written, told in a nice straightforward style, and a couple of them in particular are fairly heart wrenching.
The thing that really dragged on me is, unfortunately, how samey they ended up being.
Nagamatsu is working with a lot of good stuff. He's particularly focused on damaged or estranged families, grief, loss and coming to terms with death, on immigrant asian experiences, and lastly some simple but sci-fi technological ideas to base things around - a robot dog that records your loved one's voice, a black hole generator, a roller coaster that kills you.... It's a wonderful mix of great themes that lead to a number of great stories and poignant moments, it's just that... it's kinda always the same theme done the same way. If you read one or two of the stories, I don't know that any of the others are going to surprise you.
I think the themes hit their apex early with 'Elegy Hotel', a story about an estranged son who works at a death hotel, who's being asked by his brother to care for his dying mother. Partially I think things are at their most straightforward here, and there's no sci-fi twist to really get in the way. Nothing wrong with those stories, but this is the core of things. 'Pig Son' is the other big standout, and I quite liked the generation ship story nearer to the end as well.
But more and more it felt like reading repeats. The same ideas, the same tone, the same outcome - these are beautiful things to deal with, but I'm not sure Nagamatsu *does* enough with it over the course of the stories. We weave together stories and characters meet each other, but it doesn't matter because they all seem homogenous, bland.
This is likely a me thing, I think if you read the first few stories and love them and weep (very likely) you'll love the rest of the book. Most seem to. And don't get me wrong, I think on the whole these are great stories, I just wanted more from this - a book that's poignant and moving on the surface, but that I'll walk away from and forget about pretty darn quick.
The thing that really dragged on me is, unfortunately, how samey they ended up being.
Nagamatsu is working with a lot of good stuff. He's particularly focused on damaged or estranged families, grief, loss and coming to terms with death, on immigrant asian experiences, and lastly some simple but sci-fi technological ideas to base things around - a robot dog that records your loved one's voice, a black hole generator, a roller coaster that kills you.... It's a wonderful mix of great themes that lead to a number of great stories and poignant moments, it's just that... it's kinda always the same theme done the same way. If you read one or two of the stories, I don't know that any of the others are going to surprise you.
I think the themes hit their apex early with 'Elegy Hotel', a story about an estranged son who works at a death hotel, who's being asked by his brother to care for his dying mother. Partially I think things are at their most straightforward here, and there's no sci-fi twist to really get in the way. Nothing wrong with those stories, but this is the core of things. 'Pig Son' is the other big standout, and I quite liked the generation ship story nearer to the end as well.
But more and more it felt like reading repeats. The same ideas, the same tone, the same outcome - these are beautiful things to deal with, but I'm not sure Nagamatsu *does* enough with it over the course of the stories. We weave together stories and characters meet each other, but it doesn't matter because they all seem homogenous, bland.
This is likely a me thing, I think if you read the first few stories and love them and weep (very likely) you'll love the rest of the book. Most seem to. And don't get me wrong, I think on the whole these are great stories, I just wanted more from this - a book that's poignant and moving on the surface, but that I'll walk away from and forget about pretty darn quick.
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
4.5
If Lois McMaster Bujold doesn't ever get a movie pitch for Falling Free, what are we even doing as a society. Grizzled seen-it-all engineering instructor comes into the company's secret project, has to essentially teach rowdy children, gets his heart melted by their plight, ends up leading them on a revolution against the exploitative company who thinks to own them, and helps them out with an ever increasing series of crazy one-in-a-million science experiments.
It fits almost too precisely into a 90's teen science adventure type thing. You know exactly the vibe I mean. You know exactly the plot beats and moments that will happen - this doesn't mean it's all by the numbers, Bujold does fantastic job with the children here, giving them a lot of life, sense of self and agency, while still keeping them as essentially kids who don't really get it yet. This spins into a lot of great commentary about bio-experimentation, corporate overreach, unionization, and general ethics.
The side she does a lesser job with is Leo, the Engineer's character - I think mainly in that the book is too short. This is also to its benefit, I don't know if a plot this simple needs to stick around longer, but we also don't get quite as much time to see how things are at present before they all go to shit. Leo doesn't discover the kids' plight so much as... is 100% on board with breaking them out the second he meets them. That means he's a cool guy, but also means he doesn't get much character development through the story. He's more a vehicle to deliver Science! and Speeches!
Cool scenes, big science, blue collar, anti-corporate, feel good... yeah. Can't complain about this one.
It fits almost too precisely into a 90's teen science adventure type thing. You know exactly the vibe I mean. You know exactly the plot beats and moments that will happen - this doesn't mean it's all by the numbers, Bujold does fantastic job with the children here, giving them a lot of life, sense of self and agency, while still keeping them as essentially kids who don't really get it yet. This spins into a lot of great commentary about bio-experimentation, corporate overreach, unionization, and general ethics.
The side she does a lesser job with is Leo, the Engineer's character - I think mainly in that the book is too short. This is also to its benefit, I don't know if a plot this simple needs to stick around longer, but we also don't get quite as much time to see how things are at present before they all go to shit. Leo doesn't discover the kids' plight so much as... is 100% on board with breaking them out the second he meets them. That means he's a cool guy, but also means he doesn't get much character development through the story. He's more a vehicle to deliver Science! and Speeches!
Cool scenes, big science, blue collar, anti-corporate, feel good... yeah. Can't complain about this one.
Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
3.0
Second Foundation takes the format of book two and improves on it in a couple of ways - Unlike that book's bifurcation, here the two stories deal with and build on each other well. There's an overriding mystery at the center of the book that, while its conclusion is utterly banal and annoying, the possibilities behind it are interesting while they last.
The first half was probably my preference, and while it's very much rife with Asimov's annoying "Hahaha! But you don't suspect it was actually I who solved everything from the very beginning!" oneupmanship that is just horridly shot through in these books, it has one of the better character beats in the whole thing. Han Pritcher's interesting situation where he's been mind-controlled by one character and knows about it, but *possibly* mind controlled by a second and is unsure... there's a lot of great little moments provided by that. Given a good character's rarity, this really helps.
The second half is messier, juggling a number of plotlines each of which aren't too stellar. Again some ridiculous Xanatos Gambit shit abounds to the point where you just don't care about the conclusion at all (and in fact, the *most interesting* option is one of the earliest thrown away. Ah well.) This at least better expands the galaxy than book 2, and gives some somewhat stronger characters. At least they're not directly irritating.
Not a great review, but there's just not tons to say here. You already know how you're going to feel about this book by the time you get done with the original Foundation book. It's more of the same, even if a bit lesser.
The first half was probably my preference, and while it's very much rife with Asimov's annoying "Hahaha! But you don't suspect it was actually I who solved everything from the very beginning!" oneupmanship that is just horridly shot through in these books, it has one of the better character beats in the whole thing. Han Pritcher's interesting situation where he's been mind-controlled by one character and knows about it, but *possibly* mind controlled by a second and is unsure... there's a lot of great little moments provided by that. Given a good character's rarity, this really helps.
The second half is messier, juggling a number of plotlines each of which aren't too stellar. Again some ridiculous Xanatos Gambit shit abounds to the point where you just don't care about the conclusion at all (and in fact, the *most interesting* option is one of the earliest thrown away. Ah well.) This at least better expands the galaxy than book 2, and gives some somewhat stronger characters. At least they're not directly irritating.
Not a great review, but there's just not tons to say here. You already know how you're going to feel about this book by the time you get done with the original Foundation book. It's more of the same, even if a bit lesser.
Hotel Transylvania by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
4.0
Hotel Transylvania seems to have been, along with contemporary Interview with a Vampire, on the bleeding edge of 'sympathetic vampire as hero' technology, and comparing it to its famous cousin reveals some interesting differences. Yarbro's book(s) seem to be much pulpier, campier, and dare I say fun, as we see dashing Edmund Dantes-esque master of all situations Saint-Germain worm his way into the hearts of Parisian society, woo and romance the ladies with his particular charms, and battle the vile Satan cult brewing in the subterrain.
In some ways this almost approaches flat wish-fulfullment, but, let's be honest, who doesn't deserve that at times? All the men in this book (barring the dashing hero) are venal, petty, wretched monsters who would abuse a woman at the drop of a hate. All the women are charming, intelligent, spunky, daring, and unfortunately put upon by the patriarchal hierarchy keeping them in place - Yarbro smartly uses Saint-Germain as a lens upon this time period (and our own), examining gendered prejudices and matters of control and expectation of women. Not bad for an otherwise tawdry scene-chewer.
In another smart move, Yarbro takes the vampiric traditions and turns *some* of them on their head, keeping enough to give her hero a sense of mystery, of otherness and of sensuality, but then applying said traits to other characters instead, building out her world. Saint-German can hold crosses because he is a good christian, it's instead the Satanic cult who cannot stand their sight. Etc. It's all very clever and works in her world. Prop all this up with quite a well researched (or enough so that I can't tell) history, rife with all sorts of textual detail...
Lastly, it's punctuated all over with spots of the most amazing violence, the villains realized in about as evil detail as you could want. It is to some degree a book I would even warn people against - rapes and sexual violence abound, and even with the otherwise light tone, there's an underlying threat and hint of consequence. The one thing that doesn't work too well is how closely homosexuality, sodomy, and violence are tied together here. I choose to think Yarbro does better later in the series, but this book is... pretty direct about the tie.
All in all, a great read - a charming pulpy historical horror romance with all the scenes and characters you'd expect, with just enough depth and detail to really bring it all to life.
In some ways this almost approaches flat wish-fulfullment, but, let's be honest, who doesn't deserve that at times? All the men in this book (barring the dashing hero) are venal, petty, wretched monsters who would abuse a woman at the drop of a hate. All the women are charming, intelligent, spunky, daring, and unfortunately put upon by the patriarchal hierarchy keeping them in place - Yarbro smartly uses Saint-Germain as a lens upon this time period (and our own), examining gendered prejudices and matters of control and expectation of women. Not bad for an otherwise tawdry scene-chewer.
In another smart move, Yarbro takes the vampiric traditions and turns *some* of them on their head, keeping enough to give her hero a sense of mystery, of otherness and of sensuality, but then applying said traits to other characters instead, building out her world. Saint-German can hold crosses because he is a good christian, it's instead the Satanic cult who cannot stand their sight. Etc. It's all very clever and works in her world. Prop all this up with quite a well researched (or enough so that I can't tell) history, rife with all sorts of textual detail...
Lastly, it's punctuated all over with spots of the most amazing violence, the villains realized in about as evil detail as you could want. It is to some degree a book I would even warn people against - rapes and sexual violence abound, and even with the otherwise light tone, there's an underlying threat and hint of consequence. The one thing that doesn't work too well is how closely homosexuality, sodomy, and violence are tied together here. I choose to think Yarbro does better later in the series, but this book is... pretty direct about the tie.
All in all, a great read - a charming pulpy historical horror romance with all the scenes and characters you'd expect, with just enough depth and detail to really bring it all to life.
The Guest by Emma Cline
3.5
in The Guest, Emma Cline deftly submerges you into the fully transitory life of Alex, an aimless nobody who wheels and deals her way into the good graces of person after person, hanging on and using them for food, shelter, drugs... The graceful flowing from situation to situation is so well done, each rich bozo we're introduced to is well realized as the sole thing important in their horribly vapid world, and the ways Alex plays on (or fails to) their insecurities is great to watch. You root for her well, even if her ultimate goal is clearly a mistake.
Thing is, as well done as this aspect is - Great Gatsby as done by Eliza Clark, if you'll permit me the dumb blurb - I just wanted a little more? A heightening of tension, an explosion of debauchery, a horrific finale driving everything home, but instead it floats along, pushed and pulled by the tides until it just kinda... ends, little resolved, and Alex clearly continuing her unstable ways ad infinitum. It's a powerful ending, but one that will make this book disappear in the rearview mirror in the long run. Alex will disappear from my mind the same as she tries to disappear from others lives.
Thing is, as well done as this aspect is - Great Gatsby as done by Eliza Clark, if you'll permit me the dumb blurb - I just wanted a little more? A heightening of tension, an explosion of debauchery, a horrific finale driving everything home, but instead it floats along, pushed and pulled by the tides until it just kinda... ends, little resolved, and Alex clearly continuing her unstable ways ad infinitum. It's a powerful ending, but one that will make this book disappear in the rearview mirror in the long run. Alex will disappear from my mind the same as she tries to disappear from others lives.