Title: Travel Light
Author: Naomi Mitchison
Published: Small Beer Press, 2005 (1952)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 145
Total Page Count: 225,180
Text Number: 717
Read Because: multiple recommendations, including![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mrissa, here and a few mentions (of author and book both) by rushthatspeaks, ebook requested and borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A rescued child, fostered by bears and dragons, learns to travel light. The title is central conceit, character growth and theme: what we carry with us, physically, psychologically; what it means to keep or discard, and how it informs our experience—couched within a playful, flexible narrative that slides from fairytale to Constantinople. The changing settings and tone can be disorientating, even disappointing for becoming less fantastic, but it also allows for increasingly ambiguous thematic development. That Mitchison can do this all, can speak with humor and sympathy, can be frivolous and profound, is a sincere delight (and it makes me want to read more of her work). I wish I'd encountered this earlier, but better late than never.
Title: A Plague of Unicorns
Author: Jane Yolen
Illustrator: Tom McGrath
Published: Zonderkidz, 2014
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 190
Total Page Count: 225,370
Text Number: 718
Read Because: reading more from the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A plague of apple-eating unicorns forces a monastery to seek outside help. This is a historical pastiche, a coming-of-age, a fairy tale, slipping lithely between categories with no great depth or sense of investment. But the combined effect is charming. It has a playful, irreverent tone which does much to demystify unicorns, and then an evocative, beautifully imagined climax which puts the magic back in; sweet, accessible, but with satisfying payoff. I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this, and would be interested in reading more of Yolen's middle grade fiction.
(The illustrations are adequate; decent atmosphere, but the technical skill leaves something to be desired. I don't find that they added anything substantial to the text, but they may work better for younger readers.)
Title: The Pride of Chanur (Chanur Book 1)
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: DAW, 1981
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 225
Total Page Count: 225,595
Text Number: 719
Read Because: fan of the author
Review: An alien stowaway thrusts one ship and crew into an interspecies conflict. The concept here—of human as alien, and as a secondary character—is fantastic, but not always fully realized: hani, the protagonist alien society, is insufficiently weird, insufficiently non-human; but other alien species are weirder, which is more intriguing and also convincing, and the approach to interspecies interactions, via cultural frameworks and linguistics, is a compelling addition to the space opera subgenre. This furthermore possesses Cherryh's hallmarks, the balance of personal narratives to larger plot; the distinctively terse but emotive relationships—functioning here across species lines. Cherryh has yet to disappoint me and this is no exception; I wasn't blown away, the ending action is a bit much, but the premise and sociological focus is thoughtful.
( A quote and very many feels about how Cherryh writes relationships )
I was going to write "sure is nice to have a good reading block!"—but I actually began The Pride of Chanur mid-July (then interrupted it to get through a bunch of things due back) and the further truth is that a lot of my recent books, including ones finished today/in progress now, have been fantastic. Out from under the shadow of The Martian and the good intentions of Trouble and Her Friends—and the endless audiobook which was The House of Shattered Wings.
Following up Travel Light with A Plague of Unicorns was fascinating. They're not especially comparable—Travel Light is all about the numinous, the thematic; A Plague of Unicorns is a more frivolous but then, that climax! (the image of a girl-warrior winding a labyrinth for unicorns is transcendent, and a pointed conversation on feminism and violence, and Alexandria is the true hero of the book). But I had a similar reaction to them both, to their language and accessibility, to how far they take their magics and morals. It made me write this post over on Tumblr, copied below for posterity:
( Read more... )
I've been reading an above-average (for me) amount of YA lately in my attempt to diversify my reading—it's so easy to find own voices reading lists for YA—and it's been occasionally spectacular (When the Moon was Ours) but, on the whole, has functioned mostly to remind me that I sure do hate the genre's standards. It's taken me a while to realize I tend to have the opposite reaction to MG.
Author: Naomi Mitchison
Published: Small Beer Press, 2005 (1952)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 145
Total Page Count: 225,180
Text Number: 717
Read Because: multiple recommendations, including
mrissa, here and a few mentions (of author and book both) by rushthatspeaks, ebook requested and borrowed from the Multnomah County LibraryReview: A rescued child, fostered by bears and dragons, learns to travel light. The title is central conceit, character growth and theme: what we carry with us, physically, psychologically; what it means to keep or discard, and how it informs our experience—couched within a playful, flexible narrative that slides from fairytale to Constantinople. The changing settings and tone can be disorientating, even disappointing for becoming less fantastic, but it also allows for increasingly ambiguous thematic development. That Mitchison can do this all, can speak with humor and sympathy, can be frivolous and profound, is a sincere delight (and it makes me want to read more of her work). I wish I'd encountered this earlier, but better late than never.
Title: A Plague of Unicorns
Author: Jane Yolen
Illustrator: Tom McGrath
Published: Zonderkidz, 2014
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 190
Total Page Count: 225,370
Text Number: 718
Read Because: reading more from the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A plague of apple-eating unicorns forces a monastery to seek outside help. This is a historical pastiche, a coming-of-age, a fairy tale, slipping lithely between categories with no great depth or sense of investment. But the combined effect is charming. It has a playful, irreverent tone which does much to demystify unicorns, and then an evocative, beautifully imagined climax which puts the magic back in; sweet, accessible, but with satisfying payoff. I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this, and would be interested in reading more of Yolen's middle grade fiction.
(The illustrations are adequate; decent atmosphere, but the technical skill leaves something to be desired. I don't find that they added anything substantial to the text, but they may work better for younger readers.)
Title: The Pride of Chanur (Chanur Book 1)
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: DAW, 1981
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 225
Total Page Count: 225,595
Text Number: 719
Read Because: fan of the author
Review: An alien stowaway thrusts one ship and crew into an interspecies conflict. The concept here—of human as alien, and as a secondary character—is fantastic, but not always fully realized: hani, the protagonist alien society, is insufficiently weird, insufficiently non-human; but other alien species are weirder, which is more intriguing and also convincing, and the approach to interspecies interactions, via cultural frameworks and linguistics, is a compelling addition to the space opera subgenre. This furthermore possesses Cherryh's hallmarks, the balance of personal narratives to larger plot; the distinctively terse but emotive relationships—functioning here across species lines. Cherryh has yet to disappoint me and this is no exception; I wasn't blown away, the ending action is a bit much, but the premise and sociological focus is thoughtful.
( A quote and very many feels about how Cherryh writes relationships )
I was going to write "sure is nice to have a good reading block!"—but I actually began The Pride of Chanur mid-July (then interrupted it to get through a bunch of things due back) and the further truth is that a lot of my recent books, including ones finished today/in progress now, have been fantastic. Out from under the shadow of The Martian and the good intentions of Trouble and Her Friends—and the endless audiobook which was The House of Shattered Wings.
Following up Travel Light with A Plague of Unicorns was fascinating. They're not especially comparable—Travel Light is all about the numinous, the thematic; A Plague of Unicorns is a more frivolous but then, that climax! (the image of a girl-warrior winding a labyrinth for unicorns is transcendent, and a pointed conversation on feminism and violence, and Alexandria is the true hero of the book). But I had a similar reaction to them both, to their language and accessibility, to how far they take their magics and morals. It made me write this post over on Tumblr, copied below for posterity:
( Read more... )
I've been reading an above-average (for me) amount of YA lately in my attempt to diversify my reading—it's so easy to find own voices reading lists for YA—and it's been occasionally spectacular (When the Moon was Ours) but, on the whole, has functioned mostly to remind me that I sure do hate the genre's standards. It's taken me a while to realize I tend to have the opposite reaction to MG.
