Books: another update
Nov. 30th, 2013 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricReading pace has slowed down drastically since term started, of course. Here are the three I've finished this term:
Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm, The Inheritance:This was really interesting! I definitely like "Hobb"'s work more than "Lindholm"'s, but it was interesting to see them together. There were some fascinating recurring threads across both - I was particularly struck by stories about poverty.
Early in Lindholm's section, I loved 'A Touch of Lavender', a futuristic sci-fi story about growing up poor; about music, addiction, and alien religions. The same sense of gritty realness infused Hobb's 'Cat's Meat', a story about a single mother in the Elderlings 'verse, facing down her abusive ex-partner. What I didn't like about the latter was the resolution - it seemed too... deus ex machina. I desperately wanted her to *win* something, but I guess you can't win in those circumstances.
'Homecoming', and to a lesser extent 'the inheritance' made my heart ache for Bingtown and desperately regret having shed my hard copies of the series before I left Australia. I love that 'verse and wish to climb inside it and roll around with delight.
Terry Prattchett, Dodger: This was delightful, and well fleshed-out, and rung through with the author's fascination with Victorian london. Not just "oooh, Vicotoriana" but "ooh, sewer architecture" and "nitty-gritty little details of poverty at the time" and "little-known historical figures". The original characters were excellent, my personal favourite being Dodger's patron Solomon, a mysterious pork-eating Jew who has personal deals with God and is equally happy in the company of the Queen as that of guttersnipes and theives.
It did not quite feel like *Pratchett*, though. Nevertheless I await the TV serial with bated breath.
Iris Murdoch, The Green Knight: Oh this was a fascinating and frustrating book. At first, it felt quite like A.S. Byatt - erudite, complex, with a wide cast. About 1/3 of the way through, though, the intellectual content ceased to do anything *new*, and I grew frustrated with all of the characters. I was particularly irritated by the fact that none of them seemed to have any *work*. Except for the aberrant character of Lukas, no one actually did any work, even those who had jobs. Sefton studied, but we only found out about it when it could furnish a metaphor for the strange little social drama.
In the last third the pace increased and I became more interested again, but I was still frustrated by the ending - pair everyone off, and Happy Endings? Whut?
Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm, The Inheritance:This was really interesting! I definitely like "Hobb"'s work more than "Lindholm"'s, but it was interesting to see them together. There were some fascinating recurring threads across both - I was particularly struck by stories about poverty.
Early in Lindholm's section, I loved 'A Touch of Lavender', a futuristic sci-fi story about growing up poor; about music, addiction, and alien religions. The same sense of gritty realness infused Hobb's 'Cat's Meat', a story about a single mother in the Elderlings 'verse, facing down her abusive ex-partner. What I didn't like about the latter was the resolution - it seemed too... deus ex machina. I desperately wanted her to *win* something, but I guess you can't win in those circumstances.
'Homecoming', and to a lesser extent 'the inheritance' made my heart ache for Bingtown and desperately regret having shed my hard copies of the series before I left Australia. I love that 'verse and wish to climb inside it and roll around with delight.
Terry Prattchett, Dodger: This was delightful, and well fleshed-out, and rung through with the author's fascination with Victorian london. Not just "oooh, Vicotoriana" but "ooh, sewer architecture" and "nitty-gritty little details of poverty at the time" and "little-known historical figures". The original characters were excellent, my personal favourite being Dodger's patron Solomon, a mysterious pork-eating Jew who has personal deals with God and is equally happy in the company of the Queen as that of guttersnipes and theives.
It did not quite feel like *Pratchett*, though. Nevertheless I await the TV serial with bated breath.
Iris Murdoch, The Green Knight: Oh this was a fascinating and frustrating book. At first, it felt quite like A.S. Byatt - erudite, complex, with a wide cast. About 1/3 of the way through, though, the intellectual content ceased to do anything *new*, and I grew frustrated with all of the characters. I was particularly irritated by the fact that none of them seemed to have any *work*. Except for the aberrant character of Lukas, no one actually did any work, even those who had jobs. Sefton studied, but we only found out about it when it could furnish a metaphor for the strange little social drama.
In the last third the pace increased and I became more interested again, but I was still frustrated by the ending - pair everyone off, and Happy Endings? Whut?