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juushikaTitle: 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: A general overview of BDSM combined with life advice, low on technical details and not particularly demanding in tone—rather, playful and hopeful. Given that introductory tone, more concrete 101 info (ex. the anatomy of a scene) or more detail re: types of play (as explored in the Bottoming sibling-book) would be welcome. Some elements are poorly written and/or dated, like the unexamined emphasis on sex and roleplay and light emphasis on power dynamics, and the vaguely bizarre (and appropriative) section about sex magic. The worst offender is the interludes, which read like mediocre erotica and focus on happenstance or accidental encounters—useless in a book about intent and introspection in topping. This lacks the spark present in the Bottoming Book—it's an afterthought, and feels it. But it's not the worst starting place, and reads quick and easy.
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: Where the sibling Topping book feels like an afterthought, this is more grounded, concrete, and inspired. There's less filler, and it generally feels more applicable—in part because it offers more concrete information re: types and subcategories of play, perhaps because there's less to offer in a topping book unwilling to provide technical instruction, but mostly because it feels like a labor of love, richer with personal insight and passion. But it shares limitations with its sibling book: it has a strong emphasis on sex, and skews towards proto-lifestylers while being so general that it's likely to be redundant to that audience; further, some elements show their age, particularly the dated treatment of gender (in an otherwise diverse and accepting book) and the hilariously outdated section on the internet.
(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: A general overview of BDSM combined with life advice, low on technical details and not particularly demanding in tone—rather, playful and hopeful. Given that introductory tone, more concrete 101 info (ex. the anatomy of a scene) or more detail re: types of play (as explored in the Bottoming sibling-book) would be welcome. Some elements are poorly written and/or dated, like the unexamined emphasis on sex and roleplay and light emphasis on power dynamics, and the vaguely bizarre (and appropriative) section about sex magic. The worst offender is the interludes, which read like mediocre erotica and focus on happenstance or accidental encounters—useless in a book about intent and introspection in topping. This lacks the spark present in the Bottoming Book—it's an afterthought, and feels it. But it's not the worst starting place, and reads quick and easy.
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: Where the sibling Topping book feels like an afterthought, this is more grounded, concrete, and inspired. There's less filler, and it generally feels more applicable—in part because it offers more concrete information re: types and subcategories of play, perhaps because there's less to offer in a topping book unwilling to provide technical instruction, but mostly because it feels like a labor of love, richer with personal insight and passion. But it shares limitations with its sibling book: it has a strong emphasis on sex, and skews towards proto-lifestylers while being so general that it's likely to be redundant to that audience; further, some elements show their age, particularly the dated treatment of gender (in an otherwise diverse and accepting book) and the hilariously outdated section on the internet.
(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.)
