![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaI have been exhausted in the "play video games! pretend reality is the fiction!" sense—active enough on tumblr b/c it can be mindless, non-self posting; reading sometimes, reviewing slowly; crossposting never because to be here is to be more self & I don't want to be myself right now. Anyway, point here is that I am 93843 reviews behind, RIP.
Title: The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura Book 1)
Author: Martha Wells
Published: Night Shade Books, 2011
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 280
Total Page Count: 264,910
Text Number: 857
Read Because: on this list of canon polyamory book recommendations, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Turned out of yet another village for his unfortunate similarity to the aggressive Fell, Moon discovers that he is not the only one of his race. The worldbuilding here is fun and varied; the race-building (as it were) of the Raksura and the jealous, wary outsider view of its social structure is more engaging, with potential for intriguing character dynamics which closely engage speculative concepts. But the plot leaves something to be desired. Moon's prickly characterization and subsequent social wrong-headedness grates somewhat, but what bothers me more is the conflict between the Raksura and Fell--"remarkably similar to us, more complex than initially perceived, but Objectively Evil (with bonus miscegenation)" is tiresome, simplistic, and honestly gross. Maybe this improves in later books, and I'm sufficiently intrigued by the Raksura themselves to give the sequel a try, but I had some issues with this.
Title: A Human Stain
Author: Kelly Robson
Published: Tor, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 35
Total Page Count: 264,945
Text Number: 858
Read Because: reviewed by Kalanadi, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A governess arrives at a distant German estate to find a slew of subtle wrongs within the family's secrets. And many not so subtle--this builds from atmospheric into speculative and grotesque, and doesn't work particularly hard to justify itself: the final twist may be too predictable, but the journey there is fluid and strange. The protagonist's navigation through her situation--her exaggerated adaptability; her sudden insight and terror--is equally surreal. And all of this feels productive rather than like narrative oversight; it allows for evocative density despite the novelette length. This has psychological elements but isn't especially robust, not all its horror tropes work for me, but it was well worth my time to read.
Title: The Red Threads of Fortune (Tensorate Book 2)
Author: J.Y. Yang
Published: Tor, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 215
Total Page Count: 265,160
Text Number: 859
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Some years after the The Black Tides of Heaven, Mokoya investigates the appearance of an unusually large naga. The new character, Rider, is interesting, but their romance with Mokoya is sudden and insufficient to sell investment in a plot which is largely external both to the protagonist and to Black Tides; ostensibly these books can be read in any order, but functionally this is a sequel and the conflict in Black Tides is intimately tied to the characters and the worldbuilding. Mokoya is an nevertheless an engaging protagonist--particularly the contrast between this and her exterior characterization in Black Tides, especially given the complications if her grief. She's angry, fragile, volatile; the arc of her PTSD is fairly routine, which isn't to say it's without value, but it does pale compared to the stylized, intense reticence of Akeha's PoV. But the writing is still beautiful--Yang's turns of phrase are artistry, unique and precise. A good book--not as good, or as remarkable, as Black Tides.
Title: The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura Book 1)
Author: Martha Wells
Published: Night Shade Books, 2011
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 280
Total Page Count: 264,910
Text Number: 857
Read Because: on this list of canon polyamory book recommendations, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Turned out of yet another village for his unfortunate similarity to the aggressive Fell, Moon discovers that he is not the only one of his race. The worldbuilding here is fun and varied; the race-building (as it were) of the Raksura and the jealous, wary outsider view of its social structure is more engaging, with potential for intriguing character dynamics which closely engage speculative concepts. But the plot leaves something to be desired. Moon's prickly characterization and subsequent social wrong-headedness grates somewhat, but what bothers me more is the conflict between the Raksura and Fell--"remarkably similar to us, more complex than initially perceived, but Objectively Evil (with bonus miscegenation)" is tiresome, simplistic, and honestly gross. Maybe this improves in later books, and I'm sufficiently intrigued by the Raksura themselves to give the sequel a try, but I had some issues with this.
Title: A Human Stain
Author: Kelly Robson
Published: Tor, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 35
Total Page Count: 264,945
Text Number: 858
Read Because: reviewed by Kalanadi, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A governess arrives at a distant German estate to find a slew of subtle wrongs within the family's secrets. And many not so subtle--this builds from atmospheric into speculative and grotesque, and doesn't work particularly hard to justify itself: the final twist may be too predictable, but the journey there is fluid and strange. The protagonist's navigation through her situation--her exaggerated adaptability; her sudden insight and terror--is equally surreal. And all of this feels productive rather than like narrative oversight; it allows for evocative density despite the novelette length. This has psychological elements but isn't especially robust, not all its horror tropes work for me, but it was well worth my time to read.
Title: The Red Threads of Fortune (Tensorate Book 2)
Author: J.Y. Yang
Published: Tor, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 215
Total Page Count: 265,160
Text Number: 859
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Some years after the The Black Tides of Heaven, Mokoya investigates the appearance of an unusually large naga. The new character, Rider, is interesting, but their romance with Mokoya is sudden and insufficient to sell investment in a plot which is largely external both to the protagonist and to Black Tides; ostensibly these books can be read in any order, but functionally this is a sequel and the conflict in Black Tides is intimately tied to the characters and the worldbuilding. Mokoya is an nevertheless an engaging protagonist--particularly the contrast between this and her exterior characterization in Black Tides, especially given the complications if her grief. She's angry, fragile, volatile; the arc of her PTSD is fairly routine, which isn't to say it's without value, but it does pale compared to the stylized, intense reticence of Akeha's PoV. But the writing is still beautiful--Yang's turns of phrase are artistry, unique and precise. A good book--not as good, or as remarkable, as Black Tides.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-14 06:15 am (UTC)you're going to *love* moon's mom i bet
(really, not sarcasm)
no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 10:17 am (UTC)