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juushikaMy reviews have been out of order since I've been grouping series/authors into single posts, and most of those groups are kid's books, and I've been reading a ton of them in between other novels. But the novels are more indicative of how I'm spending my time and the quality of what I'm reading. I don't know if I'd call it a slump or burnout or a bad streak, but there definitely has been a line of mediocrity—enlivened by a book about which my review notes read "it's trash, but it's MY trash and I love it." White Wing has been on my TBR for approximately seven million years, but is very much out of print, so I'm glad for a birthday trip to Powell's to make the rare acquisition of print books that I intend to own. (A rarity on both points, since ebooks are easier on my eyes and physical possessions are evil actually.)
Title: The Prey of Gods
Author: Nicky Drayden
Published: Harper Voyager, 2017
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 380
Total Page Count: 328,090
Text Number: 1161
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Animalistic demigods cause upheaval across South Africa. This is snarky ensemble kitchen-sink action/adventure pulp, not at all my style but so energetically written—a diverse, vibrant cast and refreshing setting; a wild escalation of scale and ever-longer list of speculative concepts—that it's nonetheless engaging. In a parallel universe, a version of this book exists which has been pared of the dropped subplots and has fewer but more robust speculative elements, and I hope it achieved that without losing its energy. Back in this universe, I'm not convinced I liked The Prey of Gods, but it's certainly distinctive and I admire its ambition.
Title: White Wing
Author: Gordon Kendall (Shariann Lewitt and Susan Shwartz)
Published: Tom Doherty Associates, 1985
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 328,410
Text Number: 1162
Read Because: mentioned in the comments of Five Books about Loving Everybody, used paperback purchased from Powell's (for my birthday!)
Review: A flight within the stoic, ostracized White Wing is challenged when the loss of one of their own coincides with an attempt at political sabotage. I came for this for the group marriage which constitutes the flight, and to my delight it's both textual (despite limitations of being published in 1985, read: no homo) and central to the narrative. The primary tension is the flight's need to hide the intimacy, vulnerability, joy, and even the fact of their marriage, and that setup is contrived—and the book also struggles on a technical level, with headhopping, overacting, and dense early scenes that all stem from an excess of "show, don't tell." But the payoff, although predictable, is hugely gratifying. I eat this stuff up: interpersonal issues hidden within a harsh space opera setting; martyrdom and longing and outsider status; intimacy as weakness, but that weakness as a hidden source of strength. Gordon Kendall is an overtly masculine pseudonym for Shariann Lewitt and Susan Shwartz, which I feel explains a lot: this is written directly from the id, but it's a different id than most sci-fi, and it's an id similar to my own.
(Very much a 3-3.5* book but I liked it, so.)
The primary reason this gets the "unusually intimate relationship" tag is quoted below. (There's absolutely social tension surrounding the group marriage, but that's more culture clash/external reasons for hiding it than a polyamory taboo, which, like the explicit recognition that it is a group marriage, is refreshing.) But death-drive is a not-insignificant force in the text, and this exploration of death-as-intimacy is a major climax and A+ content.
Title: House of Purple Cedar
Author: Tim Tingle
Published: Cinco Puntos Press, 2014 (2013)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 260
Total Page Count: 329,060
Text Number: 1172
Read Because: mentioned on this list of Native American authors, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: In the late 1800s, a small town is disturbed by the destructive violence that targets their Choctaw community. That historical focus is specific and refreshing, but this is an ensemble/stories-within-stories narrative; the many inset tales of the townfolk paint the broader historical picture, but their rambling, humorous tone is tiring and they overwhelm an underlying family tale which more intimate and haunting. So this is fine—evocative sometimes, interesting sometimes—but it gets in its own way or, at least, in way of the parts that I found interesting. I bounced off this so hard that I regret not DNFing it.
Title: The Prey of Gods
Author: Nicky Drayden
Published: Harper Voyager, 2017
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 380
Total Page Count: 328,090
Text Number: 1161
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Animalistic demigods cause upheaval across South Africa. This is snarky ensemble kitchen-sink action/adventure pulp, not at all my style but so energetically written—a diverse, vibrant cast and refreshing setting; a wild escalation of scale and ever-longer list of speculative concepts—that it's nonetheless engaging. In a parallel universe, a version of this book exists which has been pared of the dropped subplots and has fewer but more robust speculative elements, and I hope it achieved that without losing its energy. Back in this universe, I'm not convinced I liked The Prey of Gods, but it's certainly distinctive and I admire its ambition.
Title: White Wing
Author: Gordon Kendall (Shariann Lewitt and Susan Shwartz)
Published: Tom Doherty Associates, 1985
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 328,410
Text Number: 1162
Read Because: mentioned in the comments of Five Books about Loving Everybody, used paperback purchased from Powell's (for my birthday!)
Review: A flight within the stoic, ostracized White Wing is challenged when the loss of one of their own coincides with an attempt at political sabotage. I came for this for the group marriage which constitutes the flight, and to my delight it's both textual (despite limitations of being published in 1985, read: no homo) and central to the narrative. The primary tension is the flight's need to hide the intimacy, vulnerability, joy, and even the fact of their marriage, and that setup is contrived—and the book also struggles on a technical level, with headhopping, overacting, and dense early scenes that all stem from an excess of "show, don't tell." But the payoff, although predictable, is hugely gratifying. I eat this stuff up: interpersonal issues hidden within a harsh space opera setting; martyrdom and longing and outsider status; intimacy as weakness, but that weakness as a hidden source of strength. Gordon Kendall is an overtly masculine pseudonym for Shariann Lewitt and Susan Shwartz, which I feel explains a lot: this is written directly from the id, but it's a different id than most sci-fi, and it's an id similar to my own.
(Very much a 3-3.5* book but I liked it, so.)
The primary reason this gets the "unusually intimate relationship" tag is quoted below. (There's absolutely social tension surrounding the group marriage, but that's more culture clash/external reasons for hiding it than a polyamory taboo, which, like the explicit recognition that it is a group marriage, is refreshing.) But death-drive is a not-insignificant force in the text, and this exploration of death-as-intimacy is a major climax and A+ content.
"No, they don't know," Yuri went on. "I do. It's how you feel when you're flying. When you're dumping tau, glory-riding. When you know you're hot. And one of those slim Sej fighters comes into your scans, and it's only the two of you. You're all alone, and you can feel your own power, and you can feel his. You're so very close, you and that stranger. [...]
"You're so close that opening fire is just a tease, pulling him closer to you. And you're half-glad when he evades. Then you evade too, slipping just barely to the side, playing with him, laughing. So you match each other, shot for shot, fire for fire, and the rhythm of the battles is your pulse beating out. And you slip into combat and you fire, cool like the smell of oxygen. And you evade and you breathe and you fire again, and it burns and feels good like old whiskey going down smooth. You know. You're wide open, feeling with him, breathing with him, matching him beat for beat. And you forget it ever started, and you forget it has to end.
"Then someone makes a mistake, and you report another kill. And you feel cold and sad because he was good, and he was pushing you to the last. You're sorry he's gone, and you never knew him. And he would have killed you if you'd given him half the chance.
"That's what you felt with Maryam, that power in the lasers, surging in the lines like the last breath of a kiss. You hate it, don't you, that you went on a glory-high when you gave her the Mercy [killing]? Don't you see that you were closer to her than you'd ever been? When you're fighting, you're only whole because the enemy is there. Only this time, it was Maryam who made it whole. She knew, too. It wasn't killing her you enjoyed. It was that she was so completely yours for that fragment of a second. Gregory, listen to me. I mean this. There's nothing evil here." Yuri's low voice went husky and broke. "Let me tell you, Gregory, if you had to do that for me, I'd be glad it as you and not some Sej who was closer to me than my own skin in that game. Me, I'd be glad it as you and not some Sej who was close."
Title: House of Purple Cedar
Author: Tim Tingle
Published: Cinco Puntos Press, 2014 (2013)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 260
Total Page Count: 329,060
Text Number: 1172
Read Because: mentioned on this list of Native American authors, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: In the late 1800s, a small town is disturbed by the destructive violence that targets their Choctaw community. That historical focus is specific and refreshing, but this is an ensemble/stories-within-stories narrative; the many inset tales of the townfolk paint the broader historical picture, but their rambling, humorous tone is tiring and they overwhelm an underlying family tale which more intimate and haunting. So this is fine—evocative sometimes, interesting sometimes—but it gets in its own way or, at least, in way of the parts that I found interesting. I bounced off this so hard that I regret not DNFing it.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-28 08:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-28 03:47 pm (UTC)This is consistently true of all her books, so I look forward to seeing what you think of the others! They are a little tighter on account of having fewer viewpoint characters.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-28 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 06:11 am (UTC)I do agree that it's RTYI, if only because it made me think of Courtship Rite, which made me think of you. It's not as weird as that book—really the only similarity is polyamory/a group marriage, but that's a reasonably rare and interesting point of overlap. I'd be fascinated to hear your thoughts, should you ever read it!
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 12:30 pm (UTC)