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juushikaTitle: Tongues of Serpents (Temeraire Book 6)
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Tantor Media, 2010
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 315
Total Page Count: 214,540
Text Number: 676
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Laurence and Temeraire are exiled to Australia. This is a quiet book, especially so after the previous installment; the action is removed from the war, set on a smaller scale, and consists of little more than a long overland journey. But Australia is a compelling landscape, eerie and inhospitable, and there's room in this smaller novel to develop and introduce minor characters; later plot revelations continue the interesting dragons-as-technology alternate history themes. As a stand-alone, I would find this disappointing; at this point in the larger series, it's more successful (if still not a favorite): a break after the height of the action and before the ramp up to the finale, quiet and bitter but also easing the tension.
Title: Acceptance (Southern Reach Book 3)
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Published: FSG Originals, 2014
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 345
Total Page Count: 214,885
Text Number: 677
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The narratives of those involved in Area X—its creation, as well as its eventual fate—converge. That makes for substantial PoV- and voice-hopping, including some second person address, and it works surprisingly well—it's distinctive and develops secondary characters and elements; the number of simultaneous narratives also creates a better balance between the conspiracy side and nature preserve/alien phenomenon side of the story. But the conspiracy still bores me, and everything ties together too neatly, a litany of reoccurring, over-explained artifact and images; the ending is small, almost anticlimactic. These are the exact complaints I expected I wouldn't have, as they're the elements VanderMeer has handled best until now—but here, he creates too clear a picture of a subject which is meant to be unknowable. I enjoyed Annihilation; I don't know that any sequels could have held up to such an ambitious, strange beginning, and I didn't expect them too—and, as it turns out, they're okay: just okay.
Title: The Devourers
Author: Indra Das
Published: Del Ray, 2016
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 325
Total Page Count: 215,210
Text Number: 678
Read Because: this post from Penguin's Tumblr, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A professor meets a man who claims to be half-werewolf and charges him with the transcription of documents which tell an unusual story—a story of bodily transformation, ownership, and autonomy; of gender, rape, race, imperialism; of shapeshifters. Das's voice is beautiful, powerful, and distinctly grotesque—an unusual variation of lyrical which is particularly well suited to the themes at hand. The characters and dynamics which emerge are strongly voiced and unromanticized. Cyrah in particular fantastic, and images from her story—specifically, her first two beast rides—have not left me. This book became one of my lifetime favorites while I was still in the process of reading it and, in the nature of favorites, it's difficult for me to do it adequate praise. I'm a sucker for werewolves and shapeshifters, but I believe this works even if you're not; the style is the real determining factor, and it creates an empowered, complicated, visceral narrative. I adored it, of course recommend it, and look forward to my first reread.
Author: Naomi Novik
Narrator: Simon Vance
Published: Tantor Media, 2010
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 315
Total Page Count: 214,540
Text Number: 676
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Laurence and Temeraire are exiled to Australia. This is a quiet book, especially so after the previous installment; the action is removed from the war, set on a smaller scale, and consists of little more than a long overland journey. But Australia is a compelling landscape, eerie and inhospitable, and there's room in this smaller novel to develop and introduce minor characters; later plot revelations continue the interesting dragons-as-technology alternate history themes. As a stand-alone, I would find this disappointing; at this point in the larger series, it's more successful (if still not a favorite): a break after the height of the action and before the ramp up to the finale, quiet and bitter but also easing the tension.
Title: Acceptance (Southern Reach Book 3)
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Published: FSG Originals, 2014
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 345
Total Page Count: 214,885
Text Number: 677
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The narratives of those involved in Area X—its creation, as well as its eventual fate—converge. That makes for substantial PoV- and voice-hopping, including some second person address, and it works surprisingly well—it's distinctive and develops secondary characters and elements; the number of simultaneous narratives also creates a better balance between the conspiracy side and nature preserve/alien phenomenon side of the story. But the conspiracy still bores me, and everything ties together too neatly, a litany of reoccurring, over-explained artifact and images; the ending is small, almost anticlimactic. These are the exact complaints I expected I wouldn't have, as they're the elements VanderMeer has handled best until now—but here, he creates too clear a picture of a subject which is meant to be unknowable. I enjoyed Annihilation; I don't know that any sequels could have held up to such an ambitious, strange beginning, and I didn't expect them too—and, as it turns out, they're okay: just okay.
Title: The Devourers
Author: Indra Das
Published: Del Ray, 2016
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 325
Total Page Count: 215,210
Text Number: 678
Read Because: this post from Penguin's Tumblr, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A professor meets a man who claims to be half-werewolf and charges him with the transcription of documents which tell an unusual story—a story of bodily transformation, ownership, and autonomy; of gender, rape, race, imperialism; of shapeshifters. Das's voice is beautiful, powerful, and distinctly grotesque—an unusual variation of lyrical which is particularly well suited to the themes at hand. The characters and dynamics which emerge are strongly voiced and unromanticized. Cyrah in particular fantastic, and images from her story—specifically, her first two beast rides—have not left me. This book became one of my lifetime favorites while I was still in the process of reading it and, in the nature of favorites, it's difficult for me to do it adequate praise. I'm a sucker for werewolves and shapeshifters, but I believe this works even if you're not; the style is the real determining factor, and it creates an empowered, complicated, visceral narrative. I adored it, of course recommend it, and look forward to my first reread.
