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Title: Wake of Vultures (The Shadow Book 1)
Author: Lila Bowen
Narrator: Robin Miles
Published: Hachette Audio, 2015
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 365
Total Page Count: 326,715
Text Number: 1153
Read Because: this Tor.com post, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: After a lonely mixed-race girl kills a monster, she discovers a dangerous side of the American West landscape. There's such potential in a rough, historically-aware western with magic, monsters, and a progressive, nuanced view of identity, race, and gender. But I can feel the creative process all over this work—delineated themes, predictable beats; it has the imprint of urban fantasy/YA tropes in the thorny protagonist and earnest character arcs/appeals to the audience. The intent is valuable, but I bounce off this kind of narrative construction.
(Another entry in the "Juu, just ... just stop reading YA, stop, please" file.)
Title: Dragon's Winter (Dragon's Winter Book 1)
Author: Elizabeth A. Lynn
Published: Ace, 1997 (1995)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 350
Total Page Count: 327,065
Text Number: 1154
Read Because: fan of the author, used paperback bought at Browser's Bookstore
Review: Twin brothers are divided by a shapeshifting ability which graces only one of them. This is very much high fantasy, with stock tropes and battle against an ancient corrupting evil; it isn't a structure or style that I enjoy. What makes this interesting is that the "good" twin is an ambiguous figure, objectively justified but also dangerous, flawed; the tension between this danger and the loyalty he commands on account of rank and charisma is more interesting than the central conflict and arguably motivates more of the character arcs. Unfortunately, the bulk of the book leans towards the genre trappings, with an affected, distant voice that which compliments brutal wintery setting but fails to provide the vibrant intimacy, as in A Different Light or The Dancer of Arun, which would forefront the tense interpersonals. This is more in vein with The Watchtower, but more tropey and larger in scope, and thus less interesting. I'm a Lynn completionist and on that account found this worthwhile, but recommend other readers skip it and start her work elsewhere.
(2.5 stars, rounded up.)
Title: The New Topping Book
Author: Janet W. Hardy and Dossie Easton
Published: Greenery Press, 2002 (1996)
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 220
Total Page Count: 327,420
Text Number: 1157
Read Because: co-read, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: ( Read more... )
Title: The New Bottoming Book
Author: Janet W. Hardy and Dossie Easton
Published: Greenery Press, 2001 (1994)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 200
Total Page Count: 327,620
Text Number: 1158
Read Because: co-read, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: ( Read more... )
(I read these in the order indicated above, which ends on a high note but is very much not the intended or most beneficial order, especially given that, probably in an attempt to avoid repetition, the Bottoming book has pretty much all the concrete info.)
Author: Lila Bowen
Narrator: Robin Miles
Published: Hachette Audio, 2015
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 365
Total Page Count: 326,715
Text Number: 1153
Read Because: this Tor.com post, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: After a lonely mixed-race girl kills a monster, she discovers a dangerous side of the American West landscape. There's such potential in a rough, historically-aware western with magic, monsters, and a progressive, nuanced view of identity, race, and gender. But I can feel the creative process all over this work—delineated themes, predictable beats; it has the imprint of urban fantasy/YA tropes in the thorny protagonist and earnest character arcs/appeals to the audience. The intent is valuable, but I bounce off this kind of narrative construction.
(Another entry in the "Juu, just ... just stop reading YA, stop, please" file.)
Title: Dragon's Winter (Dragon's Winter Book 1)
Author: Elizabeth A. Lynn
Published: Ace, 1997 (1995)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 350
Total Page Count: 327,065
Text Number: 1154
Read Because: fan of the author, used paperback bought at Browser's Bookstore
Review: Twin brothers are divided by a shapeshifting ability which graces only one of them. This is very much high fantasy, with stock tropes and battle against an ancient corrupting evil; it isn't a structure or style that I enjoy. What makes this interesting is that the "good" twin is an ambiguous figure, objectively justified but also dangerous, flawed; the tension between this danger and the loyalty he commands on account of rank and charisma is more interesting than the central conflict and arguably motivates more of the character arcs. Unfortunately, the bulk of the book leans towards the genre trappings, with an affected, distant voice that which compliments brutal wintery setting but fails to provide the vibrant intimacy, as in A Different Light or The Dancer of Arun, which would forefront the tense interpersonals. This is more in vein with The Watchtower, but more tropey and larger in scope, and thus less interesting. I'm a Lynn completionist and on that account found this worthwhile, but recommend other readers skip it and start her work elsewhere.
(2.5 stars, rounded up.)
Title: The New Topping Book
Author: Janet W. Hardy and Dossie Easton
Published: Greenery Press, 2002 (1996)
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 220
Total Page Count: 327,420
Text Number: 1157
Read Because: co-read, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: ( Read more... )
Title: The New Bottoming Book
Author: Janet W. Hardy and Dossie Easton
Published: Greenery Press, 2001 (1994)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 200
Total Page Count: 327,620
Text Number: 1158
Read Because: co-read, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: ( Read more... )
(I read these in the order indicated above, which ends on a high note but is very much not the intended or most beneficial order, especially given that, probably in an attempt to avoid repetition, the Bottoming book has pretty much all the concrete info.)
