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juushikaTitle: The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth Book 2)
Author: N.K. Jeminsin
Published: Orbit, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 430
Total Page Count: 241,950
Text Number: 770
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Continuing where the first book left off, but alternating between two characters; a more successful and convincing choice which maintains the momentum of multiple narrative threads and capitalizes on the narrator's role. The worldbuilding is expanded; the ongoing revelation that characters's backgrounds and methodologies inform their perceptions and therefore their magical abilities creates a convincing, lived magic system and meshes well with ongoing themes of society building and social control. The plot here is unexceptional—the dystopic social micro-plot isn't especially interesting, the larger revelations manage to be both vague and repetitive; but the tone is distinctive, "no voting on who gets to be people" coexisting with Nassun's ambiguous character growth in a combination that has little subtlety but much complexity. This is a better book than the first, and it makes me look forward to the finale.
Title: My Cousin Rachel
Author: Daphne du Maurier
Narrator: Jonathan Pryce
Published: Hachette Audio, 2014 (1951)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 360
Total Page Count: 242,310
Text Number: 771
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When his guardian dies not long after his late marriage, Philip is predisposed against the widow—that is, until he meets her. Du Maurier excels at two particular things: the tension between the idyllic and its fatal flaw; the ways in which people fail to communicate, not because of exaggerated miscommunication, but because of their personalities, or because their desires or worldviews fail to overlap. Some of the twists in this book, especially near the end, seem to exist for their own sake and don't balance well with the excess of pastoral scenes near the middle, and Philip's PoV is immersive and convincing and frequently obnoxious in its selfish immaturity—this is hardly a perfect book. But it's engaging, and I continue to admire the ways in which du Maurier takes tropey elements and sells them by means of her craft. Rachel's characterization and the complexity of the ending are especially strong.
Title: The Reader (Sea of Ink and Gold Book 1)
Author: Traci Chee
Narrator: Kim Mai Guest
Published: Listening Library, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 440
Total Page Count: 242,750
Text Number: 772
Read Because: on this list of PoC YA Own Voices, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: An orphaned young woman is in possession of something her world has never seen: a book. This has an engaging premise which deserves to be spoiled: individuals with the magical ability to "read" their surroundings, the future, the past; an illiterate world wherein exists an infinitely long book containing every human story. It's an evocative, if occasionally effusive, metaphor for the value of reading and storytelling, and opens the door to diverse and creative worldbuilding, from magical assassins to a sea voyage to the end of the earth. But the craft leaves much to be desired; the headhopping is excessive, the plotting tropey and transparent, and these things would slow any book but are especially disappointing in view of this one's subject and themes. I disliked this from page one, but it grew on me—but not enough. Chee has potential, though. Perhaps the sequels will be better?
Author: N.K. Jeminsin
Published: Orbit, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 430
Total Page Count: 241,950
Text Number: 770
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Continuing where the first book left off, but alternating between two characters; a more successful and convincing choice which maintains the momentum of multiple narrative threads and capitalizes on the narrator's role. The worldbuilding is expanded; the ongoing revelation that characters's backgrounds and methodologies inform their perceptions and therefore their magical abilities creates a convincing, lived magic system and meshes well with ongoing themes of society building and social control. The plot here is unexceptional—the dystopic social micro-plot isn't especially interesting, the larger revelations manage to be both vague and repetitive; but the tone is distinctive, "no voting on who gets to be people" coexisting with Nassun's ambiguous character growth in a combination that has little subtlety but much complexity. This is a better book than the first, and it makes me look forward to the finale.
Title: My Cousin Rachel
Author: Daphne du Maurier
Narrator: Jonathan Pryce
Published: Hachette Audio, 2014 (1951)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 360
Total Page Count: 242,310
Text Number: 771
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When his guardian dies not long after his late marriage, Philip is predisposed against the widow—that is, until he meets her. Du Maurier excels at two particular things: the tension between the idyllic and its fatal flaw; the ways in which people fail to communicate, not because of exaggerated miscommunication, but because of their personalities, or because their desires or worldviews fail to overlap. Some of the twists in this book, especially near the end, seem to exist for their own sake and don't balance well with the excess of pastoral scenes near the middle, and Philip's PoV is immersive and convincing and frequently obnoxious in its selfish immaturity—this is hardly a perfect book. But it's engaging, and I continue to admire the ways in which du Maurier takes tropey elements and sells them by means of her craft. Rachel's characterization and the complexity of the ending are especially strong.
Title: The Reader (Sea of Ink and Gold Book 1)
Author: Traci Chee
Narrator: Kim Mai Guest
Published: Listening Library, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 440
Total Page Count: 242,750
Text Number: 772
Read Because: on this list of PoC YA Own Voices, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: An orphaned young woman is in possession of something her world has never seen: a book. This has an engaging premise which deserves to be spoiled: individuals with the magical ability to "read" their surroundings, the future, the past; an illiterate world wherein exists an infinitely long book containing every human story. It's an evocative, if occasionally effusive, metaphor for the value of reading and storytelling, and opens the door to diverse and creative worldbuilding, from magical assassins to a sea voyage to the end of the earth. But the craft leaves much to be desired; the headhopping is excessive, the plotting tropey and transparent, and these things would slow any book but are especially disappointing in view of this one's subject and themes. I disliked this from page one, but it grew on me—but not enough. Chee has potential, though. Perhaps the sequels will be better?
