cyrano | Entries tagged with goodreads

Down Among the Sticks and Bones, by Seanan McGuire

We were pretty much told how this story would go in the first book. And I went in knowing that.

But I got caught up in what was going on, and I forgot.

Until suddenly she whipped back the curtain and the last bit fell on me like rediscovering gravity.

The Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History
by Ken Gormley

This is an ensemble piece, with scholars of all stripes doing individual explorations on each president and then a final chapter discussing unifying themes and trends. I'm fully guilty of that syndrome where you know Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Ummm de dummm, Lincoln, Hmm hmm hmm, Roosevelt, Ummm, Roosevelt again, Cleveland's in there twice somewhere... This book helped a lot to establish identities behind the head of each administration, up to the Obama administration. It's also, at thirty dollars plus, the most I've spent on an ebook so far. And a worthwhile investment. I'd thought it would be more about the Supreme Court (and I'm still on the look out for that book) so I was a little disappointed at first, but this is just as rich and textured, and as much of a learning experience as I'd hoped.

Crossposts: https://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1271340.html

Fifty Shades of Alice in Wonderland by Melinda DuChamp

Let's start with the elephant in the room. This is a dirty book. Dirty people use dirty words and do dirty things. There's even some light BD/sM. The book describes itself as 'Mommy Porn'. There's also some meta humor, which is funny, and then there's too much meta humor, which is less funny.

In general, consent is modelled, but like in the original there's a case of a safeword being ignored. It's a fantasy, though, so maybe reading about a safeword being ignored is hot for you. There's also a lot of lefty propaganda about how you're allowed to enjoy sex, and if both parties/all three parties/the whole softball team enjoy themselves then it's much better than if only one person does. Unless there's only one person involved--ask Cheshire if you need tips on that.
Four stars because it was over so quickly.... ):

Crossposts: https://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1268750.html

Seer of Mars by Cindy Borgne

The story was engaging enough to carry me about half way through the book, but not all the way. It reads like a standard Special discovers he's a baddy and atones by becoming a Special for the good guys plot. But the writing is muddy, spending too many words describing inconsequential actions, overdescribing--especially explaining character motivations, which even if this is a YA novel feels condescending--and dialogue that sounds like no human being ever spoke those words in that order before. It felt a bit like "The Lives and Loves of Doby Gillis" meets one of those WWII propaganda films. I imagined Ian and Nate as being portrayed by a young James Stewart and Cary Grant, and I think this made it more entertaining for me. It may be perfectly in character for being sixteen, but our protagonist is actively annoying. He whines. A lot. He has this single-concept tunnel vision where he can only keep one thing in his head at a time. And he's got his heart set on this tragic martyr idea of love, where the pain he suffers shows how much love he feels. If the trilogy is not already finished, I would strongly advise the author to hire a good copy editor and a good editor. There's a story in here somewhere, and I think they can dig it out.

Crossposts: https://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1268510.html

Forevermore (A Pat O'Malley Steampunk Mysteries #1) by Jim Musgrave

This book bills itself as a detective novel. I made it about half way through, and then put it aside. There's not a lot of detecting here, really. Our main character has thrashed around this twenty year old case about the death of Poe, except in order to solve that, he has to solve the murder of a woman who worked in a cigar shop. And in order to solve that, he has to ask all of the suspects about a black cat he had a dream about. And in order to decipher his dreams, he has to overcome his crippling pathological fear of intimacy with women caused by his time in combat in the Civil War. And in order to do that, he has to have awkwardly lurid sex with a woman who's been trying to seduce him for years. And after that night he discovers that sex is pretty nifty. And that, your honor, is where I put down the book.

Also, regarding the 'steampunk' in the title, it doesn't apply to the technology level so much as, I suppose, the gritty film noir aesthetics of the writing.

Crossposts: https://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1268268.html

Loki--Mike Vasich

I saw this title and thought it would be a look at Norse mythology from the Bad Guy perspective, like Grendel or Wicked. It was not. Which was disappointing, because different perspectives is kind of my jam. What it was, was a retelling of the Ragnarok myth with a more modern vernacular and a more fleshed out storyline. Which is not a bad thing in and of itself, and I enjoyed the read.
However.

The book could use a copyeditor.
Perspective/Point of View shifts around rapidly, once within the same paragraph, and without warning. You eventually figure out what's going on, but it throws you out of the story and makes you cranky.
The practice of spending a chapter to give you the condensed story of part of the myth followed by three chapters of the more modern telling of what you just read means I spend three chapters vaguely bored. What's worse is that sometimes the condensed story is directly contradicted by events in the following chapters which means I spend three chapters vaguely confused.

Crossposts: https://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1267988.html

The House Eaters -- Aaron Polson

I am very much of two minds about The House Eaters. There were good things, and there were... missing things. Subplots started that might have been interesting (My parents had to move and aren't getting along) that sort of get brushed aside, dealt with offscreen, or just left to languish (btw: turns out dad was having an affair and they got divorced). The characters have interesting hooks, like AJ the jock with a human soul, that don't pan out into much of anything. The femme fatale with whom our main character is destined to fall into destructive love just sort of rubs up against him when she wants to get her footballer boyfriend's attention, and he sighs in exasperation before getting beaten up again. There was some quality YA creepy horror stuff in here, which again sort of gets handwaved at the end as if the point weren't the story but the fact that during the process it felt creepy. Also, I advise budding young authors to avoid descriptive phrases like "Her face was white as vanilla yogurt."

Crossposts: https://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1267867.html

The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

I found this book in my Kindle library, not really sure when or even if I'd bought it, or why. The title was evocative, and I imagined some kind of Victorian sensualist story. It was not a Victorian sensualist story.

This is a story about a girl in Grapes of Wrath times central California, nothing stable in her life, her family travelling and trying to find work, which she can see is slowly killing her dad. He finds orchard work on a ranch, and she finds this small library in an abandoned house on the grounds. It's got books and nice things, and it becomes a little haven for her. Which I totally get. Anyway, apparently this is an award winning YA title, and it deserves it.

Crossposts: https://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1267247.html

Divinity Circuit (Senyaza #5)

There are a lot of plates being juggled in the Senyaza universe, and it seems that in this book more of them are on stage at the same time. The long gap between reading the last book and this one definitely didn't help, and at times I had trouble keeping up with the plot. It feels like a lot of actions in this book are going to echo louder than usual into the later story--many shifts in relationships and revelations.

Crossposts: https://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1267159.html

Peter Pan

Part of why I'm reading this is research for a LoEG game where I'm playing Jas. Hook. Part of it is, much like Oz, I'm fascinated by the dystopian nature of the world. I'm firmly in the camp that Peter is a sociopath and that as well as boys, he's kidnapped sailors and 'redskins' and very possibly fairies to populate his kingdom. Oh yes, and he also kills the Lost Boys when they get too old. Sort of like Bill Mumy in the Cornfield Twilight Zone episode. And I take a certain delight in seeing Barrie relate this in a very Edwardian fashion. I laugh out louded over the author's conflicting views of Mary Darling, and was uncomfortable over the racist bits.

Crossposts: https://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1266777.html

Dorothy Must Die (Dorothy Must Die #1)

I am fascinated by the World of Oz, but I find LF Baum's authorial voice to be abrasive and condescending, so I don't want to read the original works. I did try, at least. The world of 're-imagined Oz' works is of wildly varying quality, sometimes within the same work. (Oz Squad comics, I'm looking at you.) So I was looking over some options, because I wanted some new Oz, but I was trepid because of the many opportunities for mis-steps. I ended up picking this one because the price was reasonable and reviews were good, and I was not disappointed. Apparently Dorothy realised what a shithole country Kansas was and somehow came back to Oz and essentially deposed Ozma, and what really fascinates me are the politics of Oz, so this played directly into my sweet spot as we begin the story of the rebel Kansan who is sent to free the country from her despotic yet happy and wonderful reign. (Okay, it's only happy and wonderful because Dorothy will execute or re-educate you if you say otherwise, but still.) I didn't know how extensive the sequel market to this was when I started, and further novels don't have the lure-you-in price tag that the first one did, so I'm hesitant to continue on because of the implications of investment. But I suspect I'll be reading more from this author in the near future.

Crossposts: https://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1266684.html

Morning Star (Red Rising #3)

There's a significant shift in tone in this book, which brings us to the conclusion of the first trilogy. It reads like a Vorkosigan novel, with planet hopping and engaged military struggles, both on the ground and in the void. There's a lot of talk about morals, without it seeming like a lecture, as Darrow continues to examine Eo's plans and his actions. No good deed goes unpunished. Although lots of bad deeds are also punished. Also features one of the best long cons since Romeo and Juliet.