Title: Sing the Four Quarters (Quarters Book 1)
Author: Tanya Huff
Published: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, 2015 (1994)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 410
Total Page Count: 282,345
Text Number: 914
Read Because: later books in the series recommended by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
minutia_r, (temporarily) free on Kobo
Review: A bard returns to the capital to find herself the wildcard in a political plot. Huff's balance of gratifying character dynamics, distinctive characterization, and easy-reading action/political plots has grown on me. She's not a strong technical writer, and this isn't flawlessly balanced—there's some subplots here which I could do without; nor flawlessly written—her penchant for headhopping muddies the narrative and means spending time in poorer-rendered antagonist PoVs. But it's satisfying. Queer characters! immediate immersion into the world! successful marriage of character arcs to plot developments! It's engaging and rewarding stuff. I'm reminded of Tamora Pierce's Emelan books, despite their different intended audience; they feel as good, share similar elements, and I appreciate the focus on the local, non-mythic world.
Title: The Third Hotel
Author: Laura van den Berg
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 220
Total Page Count: 282,565
Text Number: 915
Read Because: recommended here, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A recent widow attends a horror film festival in Cuba that her husband was scheduled to attend—and sees him there. The elements that compose this novel are rich with potential: horror film criticism and sexism and heteronormative relationships; grief and internal landscapes, tourism and liminal space. The shifting reality of literary horror fiction provides an engaging playground, but the execution falls to see things through. The balance of aforementioned elements to the small, mundane details which ground literary fiction is wildly askew; the conclusions it comes to are insubstantial—not in a way that demands the reader work for them, but in a way that makes me feel like I could have done that work from a plot summary. So no, thanks, this wasn't for me; but I appreciate the glimpse into zombie criticism.
Title: The Pinhoe Egg (Chrestomanci Book 7)
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Narrator: Gerard Doyle
Published: Recorded Books, 2011 (2006)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 435
Total Page Count: 283,000
Text Number: 916
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A feud between families in the villages around Chrestomanci castle reveals a new type of magic. Extending the view to just outside the castle works better than some of the more distant, and therefore more tangential, stories while still broadening the world to a lovely ensemble cast of new and old characters. It meshes well with DWJ's humor and deceptively complex characterization. The ending relies too much on coincidence, the relationship between themes and social commentary never quite coalesces, and this isn't one of the greater Chrestomanci books; nor does it feel like an explicit finale, but I'm not sure it was meant to be. Rather, it's a solid installment, vivid, playful, and I love this world and these characters; I'm glad to have seen this delightful series through to the end.
As an aside: I typo'd this on my TBR as "The Pinhole Egg" and for ages thought it was named such. It's a great title!—what is a pinhole egg? an egg the size of a pinhole? a pinpricked egg? It's engagingly precise and strange, and, while I'd never speak ill of DWJ's imagination, I'm enthralled by the book that might have been.
Author: Tanya Huff
Published: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, 2015 (1994)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 410
Total Page Count: 282,345
Text Number: 914
Read Because: later books in the series recommended by
minutia_r, (temporarily) free on KoboReview: A bard returns to the capital to find herself the wildcard in a political plot. Huff's balance of gratifying character dynamics, distinctive characterization, and easy-reading action/political plots has grown on me. She's not a strong technical writer, and this isn't flawlessly balanced—there's some subplots here which I could do without; nor flawlessly written—her penchant for headhopping muddies the narrative and means spending time in poorer-rendered antagonist PoVs. But it's satisfying. Queer characters! immediate immersion into the world! successful marriage of character arcs to plot developments! It's engaging and rewarding stuff. I'm reminded of Tamora Pierce's Emelan books, despite their different intended audience; they feel as good, share similar elements, and I appreciate the focus on the local, non-mythic world.
Title: The Third Hotel
Author: Laura van den Berg
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 220
Total Page Count: 282,565
Text Number: 915
Read Because: recommended here, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A recent widow attends a horror film festival in Cuba that her husband was scheduled to attend—and sees him there. The elements that compose this novel are rich with potential: horror film criticism and sexism and heteronormative relationships; grief and internal landscapes, tourism and liminal space. The shifting reality of literary horror fiction provides an engaging playground, but the execution falls to see things through. The balance of aforementioned elements to the small, mundane details which ground literary fiction is wildly askew; the conclusions it comes to are insubstantial—not in a way that demands the reader work for them, but in a way that makes me feel like I could have done that work from a plot summary. So no, thanks, this wasn't for me; but I appreciate the glimpse into zombie criticism.
Title: The Pinhoe Egg (Chrestomanci Book 7)
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Narrator: Gerard Doyle
Published: Recorded Books, 2011 (2006)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 435
Total Page Count: 283,000
Text Number: 916
Read Because: continuing the series, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A feud between families in the villages around Chrestomanci castle reveals a new type of magic. Extending the view to just outside the castle works better than some of the more distant, and therefore more tangential, stories while still broadening the world to a lovely ensemble cast of new and old characters. It meshes well with DWJ's humor and deceptively complex characterization. The ending relies too much on coincidence, the relationship between themes and social commentary never quite coalesces, and this isn't one of the greater Chrestomanci books; nor does it feel like an explicit finale, but I'm not sure it was meant to be. Rather, it's a solid installment, vivid, playful, and I love this world and these characters; I'm glad to have seen this delightful series through to the end.
As an aside: I typo'd this on my TBR as "The Pinhole Egg" and for ages thought it was named such. It's a great title!—what is a pinhole egg? an egg the size of a pinhole? a pinpricked egg? It's engagingly precise and strange, and, while I'd never speak ill of DWJ's imagination, I'm enthralled by the book that might have been.
