Felix Gilman - The Half-Made World (Book Review)

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Reasons for reading: I enjoyed The Thunderer and was thrilled when I got a review copy of The Half-Made World from Tor.

I actually like it when I forget what exactly the book I pick up as my next read is supposed to be about. It seems to me that this way, a book stands a better chance to be a pleasant surprise – and I, like most everyone else, love pleasant surprises. The Half-Made World was a surprise in most every ways, but one aspect of it especially stood out: the amazing steampunk-ish world featured in the novel and the way this world was described and handled throughout the book.

Aside from being only half-made, the world Gilman builds in this novel is above all intriguing and depicted in surprising detail. There is the mysterious territory where the world is not yet made; there are lands belonging to Line, a dangerous faction that is all about discipline and hivemind attitude, and neutral countries in the East which care more about science than about world politics. There is also a faction called The Gun, whose agents are spread all over the world; it is led by demons who possess the weapons of their minions, and there is an ancient, immortal race of the (First) Folk, enslaved by the current residents of the West, and this could sound like a right cliché if the Folk were even remotely similar to elves, which they're not – they have spiderlike legs, deep red eyes and manes, and when I say 'immortal', I not only mean that they don't die unless killed, but that they don't die, ever. There are also the Smilers, the remains of the Red Valley Republic, which was defeated by the Line 20 years before the events in The Half-Made World; sadly, despite the Republic's noble cause – an effort to stand against the Gun and the Line – the Smilers come across as a bunch of brainwashed fanatics hiding deep in the unknown territory. Gilman paints us a world so vast that it could easily fuel a whole series of books and/or inspire dozens of other stories set in the same universe – a world which would be wasted if it were only used in a single novel.

We follow the story through the eyes of three protagonists: Sub-Invigilator Lowry, agent of the Line who, despite Line's best efforts, harbours possibly rebellious thoughts of fame and success; Creedmoor, agent of the Gun who, despite Gun's best efforts, harbours definitely rebellious thoughts of doubting his master's competence and planning to escape their grasp, and Dr. Lysvet 'Liv' Alverhuysen, a rather naïve psychologist who travels west with one of her patients, Maggfrid, and also happens to be addicted to her 'nerve tonic'. The three characters all have their own quests, but their paths all intersect and by a series of coincidences, they all end up in the same place on the very border of the made world.

The Half-Made World is not all innovative world-building, interesting characters and gripping plot, though. For instance, Liv is the only character that develops considerably in any way. Creedmoor and Lowry are both archetypes – the incredibly loyal servant who worships his masters but at the same time wishes his loyalty were recognised and repaid, and a dashing adventurer who enjoys the company of pretty women and is tired of his eternal servitude. If Creedmor changes at least somewhat throughout the novel, Lowry remains the same despite opportunities to break free of his role, and even though that's perfectly plausible (because Lowry is too scared to change in any way), I must admit I was a bit disappointed. Agatha seems to learn the most from the situations she finds herself in, but even her behaviour is rather predictable – she becomes sympathetic to her captor and shakes off her nerve tonic addiction.

Despite the small flaws, The Half-Made World is a very good read. The plot flows effortlesly over the pages and descriptions of the setting are not tedious, as it so often happens, but immensely enjoyable. Many of the reader's questions remain unanswered, though; I hope that the sequel, will take care of that. Either way, I'd recommend The Half-Made World both to everyone who loves good world-building and to people who usually skim over the descriptive paragraphs, because if there's one book that will make you want not only to read such paragraphs carefully but also over and over again, this is probably it. A pleasant surprise all around; I eagerly await the sequel.

4/5

TV Series: Game of Thrones - Season One (First Impressions)

*mild spoilers ahead*

A Song of Ice and Fire is probably my favorite series and book two and book three are one of my favorite books of all time. I watched the first episode yesterday evening with Trin who's just as big a fan as I am. She also reread the first three books recently and loved them immensely even though she feared they would lose some of the shine the second time around.

I really want to rave about episode one, I want to tell you how friggin' good it is, I really do, but I can't. It is good though, even great in some aspects, but it's not as good as I wanted it to be. I guess it's impossible to reach high standards that the novels set up for me. So yes, I have to say I'm disappointed...but just a bit, the potential is there. Maybe it would feel different, if I wouldn't know what's going to happen in advance and suspension would grip me tight, but it's also a possibility that I just might have felt lost with all the exposition being thrown my way and by the background story. I missed moments when a simple dialogue line or a short silence filled with meaning rise goosebumps on your skin. I missed the hook.

I appreciate the artistic idea for the intro, but it feels like the cogs and the wheels were a bit off key with the general atmosphere and setting. I didn't really care for the music, which means that while I don't think it's bad at all, but it also doesn't make me want to buy the original sound track.

Scenery is...faithful to the books, which is a good thing for the most part. I especially savoured The Wall and the short panorama shorts of King's Landing. The scene in godswood was also enjoyably eerie. I hoped Winterfell would look more imposing and forbidding. As it turned out it was more like a rowdy village-fort, but I guess there's gritty northern appeal to that as well.

Arya, Brann, Cersei, and King Robert to an extent, but especially Tyrion were brilliant. Both child actors felt like transformed from the books, but it's reasonable to expect that it's much easier to portray a tom-boy and a reserved boy with little dialogue than a fully grown individual who's riven with conflicting emotions and motivations. When I saw Cersei on trailer movies I was dismayed, because I visualized her differently (her looks go towards classical beauty, but I always pictured her like a blond porn-star -- without over-sized body attributes ofcourse -- comparable to early Jenna Jameson or Krystal Steal, but with downplayed wantonness), but she transforms the b**** from the books (pardon my french) into a more wholesome and complex character. This gives the "evil" Lannisters another human face from the start which produces a more believable antagonism between the two houses. I don't think many people are aware how ugly Tyrion should be, with dwindling strands of hair, mismatched eyes and an appearance of a much older man while he's still in his twenties, but for what it's worth, Dinklage's performance is indeed stellar. King Robert was the other person I was dismayed when considering previews. The actor seemed more inclined towards "milder" roles, but I must say he plays the raucous king pretty damn well. I also relished the brief appearances of Jorah Mormont and Benjen Stark.

Performance from Viserys and Caitlin was equally enjoyable, if only a bit less impressive. Visery's conveyed the ambition and impetuousness from his literary inspiration well, but I missed the streak of Targaryen madness running through him. Cat is shown more as a caring mother than a woman obsessed with the well-being of her litter, which is also great, given the fact that her single-minded determination dismayed many fans and casual readers. Jamie was OK, but there was something about the final scene that disappointed me. I expected it to have a bigger impact, but it felt somewhat lukewarm.

Daenerys and Eddard were up to their roles, but without any truly stellar moments. Sean Bean is comfortable in his Boromir role - a caring and noble protagonist who's riven with conflicting emotions  - but he doesn't have any stellar moments, at least not in the first episode. Assaults on Dany's dignity and her coping with given situation were portrayed rather well, but I believe that flashes of her future self should be glimpsed at, even in introductory scenes. Her blond wig was terrible though, they might have given her purple eye-lenses as well. It couldn't look any worse that's for sure.

Jon is, sad to say, unremarkable. The same goes for Robb, but given how little screen time he gets, it's nothing to condemn yet.

Now to the bad, or rather, to the things that bothered me.

The Dothraki were undercooked, plain and simple. The lived-in surroundings that many early viewers describe as favorable only applies to Westeros, the scenery beyond The Narrow Sea is anything but. The lack of "grit" is stark in comparison to what we see elsewhere, but it doesn't add to the mystique of the place, to the contrary, it takes all of it away. The costumes look like something straight from the shop, the ceremony looked like a parade gone bad, or a dance performance with tasteless choreography. The short deadly duel by two revelers felt out of place in the cheesy setting and under the staring eye of Khal Drogo. The problem is, Khal Drogo didn't look so much as a taciturn savage, full of bridled power and charisma, but more like a depilated jock, trying hard to remember the lines he was supposed to say. The closing scene between Khal Drogo and Dany feels forced - Drogo's more uncomfortable doing the undressing than us who're watching it.

I'm no prude and enjoy the view of naked female breasts as much as anyone really. We have a fair share of these in episode one, as well as several glimpses of pertaining nocturnal activities. I'm not sure that it's the quantity of explicit material that bothered me, I was more put off by the forced nature of it. It just didn't feel natural to the flow of narrative. There's a a lot of coitus and nakedness going on in the books, but the nature of reading experience makes these things feel comfortably spaced out. Now if you cram all the boobs from the first third of book one into a single episode of the TV series I might cringe a bit, especially if there's so much actual story to be told (hidden behind the voluptuous lumps).

Despite my reservations, I think the story is setting up well and we can hope that the future episodes heighten the complexity, the drama and the immersion of the audience. I know I'm willing to give it my best, I hope you are as well.

Monthly report: January & February 2011

Because it often happens that I read a book but don't review it (or I take a long time writing a review), I've decided to start posting brief monthly reports on what I read, including a sentence or two about the book if it was not reviewed.
Since I didn't do a Monthly report for January yet, I'll bundle it together with the February report. :)

I've read a lot - considering that I had exams and everything - in both January and February. March has been slow going in comparison, but I still have a week left. I can read a lot in a week. :P



The Passage (Justin Cronin): Thrinidir found this one for me I didn't need a lot of convincing to buy it - a post-apocalyptic book that's being compared to The Stand? I'm sold.
The Passage didn't disappoint - it was more than decent, even though it's not terribly innovative or incredibly well written. It's a very enjoyable read despite that, and even though the last third of the book made me suspect that the ending will be corny as hell, I was proven wrong (and liked it).

Mr. Shivers (Robert Jackson Bennett): I've expected much, much more from this book. This was yet another title from someone's best of 2010 list, so naturally, I expected the book to be at least decent, but it left me completely cold. Not that it was horrible, but it was incredibly predictable and gave me the feeling that the author wrote it in a hurry. (Review upcoming)

Neuromancer (William Gibson): Usually, my uni obligations do nothing to help me with my TBR pile, but this time around, they actually did ... I had to read Neuromancer for a paper I was writing, and I enjoyed it a lot. I can see why it is a classic, and I can also understand why so many people dislike it. As a read, it was a bit confusing at first, but I got hooked in the last third of the book and was glad that I didn't give up on it. (Review upcoming)

Horns (Joe Hill): I actually don't have much to say about this one. I enjoyed it, but it was not as good as I'd expect (I saw it on numerous Best of 2010 lists). I also hoped that the author would focus on the whole 'horns that make you speak exactly what's on your mind' thing, but the book ended up being very similar to the wonderful Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrarri - only with Ig being more like Joby in reverse. (Review upcoming)

Kraken (Chine Miéville): Ah, Kraken. How can such a disappointing novel hide behind such a great cover art? I loved The City and The City, I loved Un Lun Dun and I really wanted to love Kraken, too. I mean, it's a book about a giant squid, what is there not to like? Sadly, I found plenty of things I didn't like about Kraken, and by the time I got near the end of it, I had long stopped caring about the characters. I can't help but think that I somehow got the wrong novel, that there must be another Kraken, the one that everyone loved. (Review upcoming)

The Half-Made World (Felix Gilman): This was one of the novels that actually lived up to its reputation. The Half-Made World is exactly what I was looking for - well-written steampunk with vivid imagery. The protagonists were a tad archetypal, but my journey through Gilman's half-made world was still enjoyable. (Review upcoming)

The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins): This novel was a huge surprise for me - I really didn't expect much from it, but I ended up completely enamored with it. I read it in one sitting and enjoyed it immensely. (Review upcoming)

The Road (Cormac McCarthy): A long overdue re-read, again for uni-related stuff. What can I say? I'm still convinced that The Road deserves to be called a post-apocalyptic literature classic.
(You can read Thrinidir's review of The Road here).

The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. Le Guin): Another re-read for the same paper I had to read Neuromancer for - what can I say, I've had some interesting papers to write this year. In Monthly report for December, I wrote that I found The Left Hand of Darkness somewhat odd when I first read it; I guess that was because I was still a more or less inexperienced reader at the time. I liked it much more this time around, but I can't possibly review it - not after reading so many different analyses of it.

The Reapers are the Angels (Alden Bell): I hate it when I buy a book despite my initial skepticism only to find that I was actually right about it. The Reapers are the Angels (or, as I much less eloquently dubbed it, 'The Crappy Title Book') is one of such cases - there are so many positive reviews on it that I ordered it despite my initial suspicions. While it was not terribly bad, it was still far from being good, and I was left wondering how the hell it managed to get all those positive reviews. (Review upcoming)

The Pile - February '11

The TBR pile - we all have one and it grows faster than we can read. Mine is no exception. I thought it might be interesting to round up and present all of my recent acquisitions once a month, so ... here we go.

I'm happy to say that February was a month when I bought less books than I read. Yay me! I'm also sorry for posting this so late. I guess 'beter late than never' is becoming my new motto.





K. J. Parker: The Folding Knife

This one was on so many Best of 2010 lists that I absolutely had to buy it. I already own the first book of The Engineer trilogy, but I think I'll start with this one. Reading priority: high.

Paolo Bacigalupi: The Windup Girl

Bacigalupi's collection of short stories, Pump Six and Other Stories, has been on my wishlist for some time, but it took so long for it to get published in paperback edition that I got tired of waiting and bought The Windup Girl (which was also praised all over the Internet) instead. Of course, after I bought it, I read some negative reviews on it and found out that the Pump Six paperback has been out since October. Just my luck, I guess. Reading priority: medium.

Dennis Lehane: Shutter Island

I bought this one because I liked the movie and because I adore unreliable narrators. The only problem is that I still remember what the twist was all about, so I either have to wait until I forget it or try to enjoy the book despite knowing what it's all about. For now, I'll try waiting a bit; reading priority is therefore low.






I also bought The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell, but since I've already read it, I'll describe it in the Monthly report for February.

The Pile Special

I bet you know the feeling when you have a book on your TBR pile that seemingly everyone has read and praised, but you still haven't gotten around to reading it. I have plenty of those, and I will select and present one every month. My goal? To read it ASAP, preferably during the next month. This month's special is:

Richard Morgan: Black Man

This one has been sitting on my shelf for at least two years now. I'd read Morgan's Steel Remains and loved it, but since he is primarily known as an SF author, I wanted to read one of his SF novels as well. I choose Black Man because of all the positive reviews it got ... and never touched it again.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Empire in Black and Gold (Book Review)

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Reasons for reading: I've had it for ages and it seemed to me that I really need to read it already

On a world populated by human-insect and human-arachnid creatures, each type of kinden has special powers and aptitudes. The otherwise average Stenwold Maker, a Beetle kinden, is caught up in times full of violence and impending war with the Wasps. He takes it upon himself to create a small cadre of resistance fighters before it is too late. Unfortunately, he keeps being ignored by the people in power - but he still tries to do his best to prepare for the onslaught he anticipates, even if it means sending his beloved apprentices into danger.

The beginning of The Empire in Black and Gold awoke a strong feeling of predictability that lingered throughout the book. I liked the idea of insect-like races and the variety of their attributes, but the plot that the reader follows in the opening chapters – a group of apprentices, one of whom is clumsy and seemingly untalented, are sent on a quest by their master – is hardly something new.

Unfortunately, it doesn't grow any less predictable. Che, the clumsy apprentice, seems to forget her clumsiness as soon as the adventure starts; despite being described as a bad fighter, she is never shown to be a burden to the others – even more, she takes a part, however small, in fighting scenes. Throughout the book, her abilities blossom without any real explanation or reason, and she becomes a full-fledged heroic protagonist …. but I found myself secretly hoping that, for once, her path will not be so very smooth.

Other characters are pretty archetypal as well. Stenwold is the wise mentor who regrets having to send his beloved apprentices into danger, Tynisia is an elegant swordsman of incredible beauty and cunning, Totho is a lowborn, but incredibly talented artificer … I would be hard-pressed to find a character that doesn't immediately fall under some category of clichés.

The curious thing is that despite everything I've just mentioned, I enjoyed reading The Empire in Black and Gold. The plot and the characters' behavior might be predictable, but they're far from boring; their adventures are gripping (if not fast-paced), made even more so by multiple POVs which exchange at the exactly right pace – not often enough to become annoying, not slow enough to get boring as it so often happens. The only thing that bothered me was that chapters frequently ended in cliffhangers; I'm not against those, but I don't like to see them overused as I prefer it when the tension is interwoven with the plot and not created artificially with cliffhangers, especially when the events transpiring are nothing much and cliffhangers are only there to give the reader the false impression that something exciting is going on.

Nevertheless, The Empire in Black and Gold was a nice enough book. Though archetypal (or maybe because of it?), the characters were likeable enough and the relations between them interesting. The images from Stenwold's past also added a a certain flavour that is so often missing in the more generic epic fantasy novels. Shadows of the Apt series is far from ASOIAF, but it's a more than adequate novel to read while we're waiting for A Dance With Dragons*, even more so because it seems that Tchaikovsky has no problem with productivity (7 of the 9 books in Shadows of the Apt series are already published, with Heirs of the Blade on the way). Recommended – just don't expect anything overly creative.


3,5/5



*not much longer now, I hope ... :)


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Sory for the lack of reviews in the last month and a half. February (like June and September) means exams, but every time I find myself hoping that I'll still manage to update the blog regularly. Yeah, right.

A Dance With Dragons

Is going to see the light of day on July 12. This is not a bullshit date (barring a tsunami or multiple tsunamis or so George says). Fans all over the world: you can but rejoice.

Until then, this should do the trick to keep your appetites whet.

And while you're at it, don't forget to order The Wise Man's Fear. The Name of the Winds is just that good.

The Pile - January '11

The TBR pile - we all have one and it grows faster than we can read. Mine is no exception. I thought it might be interesting to round up and present all of my recent acquisitions once a month, so ... here we go.

This January, the number of new additions to the pile was exceptionally high as a direct result of all the Best of 2010 lists that were posted all around the blogosphere in December. I had to buy some of the favourites to see whether they're really that good. Some of them disappointed, some did not, and some are still waiting for me to pick them up and read them.




Nick Harkaway: The Gone-Away World

This one is not a 2010 book, but still one I've heard lots and lots of good things about. It's post-apocalyptic, a genre for which I have a soft spot, and the blurb on the back describes it as 'equal part raucous adventure, comic odyssey and romantic epic'. Reading priority: high.

Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games

This one, too, was not published in 2010, but I admit I first heard of Suzanne Collins when there was a great buzz around the blogosphere about the concluding book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay. The Hunger Games tells a story of sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, set in a post-apocalyptic (yes, again) US where people are kept in check by the Capitol in which they live. Reading priority: high.

Catherynne M. Valente: Palimpsest

Palimpsest is another book I've heard a lot of praise about, but I bought it mostly because I immensely enjoyed Valente's Orphan Tales. It's a book about four travellers who enter the mysterious city of Palimpsest, 'and what they will find [there] is more than they could ever imagine'. Reading priority: medium.

Felix Gilman: The Half-Made World
(courtesy of Tor Books)

A steampunkish story set in a world that is only half-made, three POVs that couldn't be more different from each other and an old man whose damaged mind keeps a great secret. The Half-Made World found its place on many Best of 2010 lists; I also enjoyed Gilman's Thunderer, so The Half-Made World was a must-have for me. Reading priority: high.

Other books I've bought in January were Justin Cronin's The Passage, China Miéville's Kraken, Joe Hill's Horns and R. J. Bennett's Mr. Shivers, but since I've already read those, I'll describe them in Monthly Report for January.


The Pile special

I bet you know the feeling when you have a book on your TBR pile that seemingly everyone has read and praised, but you still haven't gotten around to reading it. I have plenty of those, and I will select and present one every month. My goal? To read it ASAP, preferably during the next month. This month's special is:

Mark Charan Newton: Nigths of Villjamur

Everyone seems to like it. I've had it for ages, it's in hardcover, and if I remember correctly, we got it from the author himself. I remember being incredibly enthusiastic about it, but I was reading something else at the time, and Nights of Villjamur ended up standing there with the rest of TBR books, never getting read (or reviewed). I think it's time for that to change. :)

Emma Donoghue - Room (Book Review)

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Reasons for reading: read a very positive review of it on Book Smugglers

I was very excited about this book, possibly because I'm a student of sociology and the concept of a child growing up in a closed environment is very interesting – I have to wonder what happens when the child is suddenly brought into the 'normal' world and has to become a part of a society (s)he's never before come into contact with.

The plot of Room itself is pretty shocking, once we get past the initial introduction and put the pieces together – Jack and his mother are locked up in a room where Jack has spent all of his 5 years of life. His mother is only 27 and, after years of captivity, still hopes to be rescued, sending SOS signals through the window at night and playing a game of 'scream every day but Sunday' with her son.

For Jack, it's all just a game or a weird habit of his mother's. As we view the story through his eyes, we don't really get to feel the atmosphere that must be ever present in their tiny room; Jack doesn't have much worries and for him, the Room is all the world he knows, perfectly normal and safe. He is not unhappy, but seems to be completely satisfied living in the Room as long as his mother, who is obviously distressed and often depressive, is by his side. Jack cannot perceive his mother's suffering; he is only a child and his POV leads us to believe that the situation is not nearly as dire as it actually is.

As most children, Jack is able to adapt fairly quickly whenever the situation changes. Sure, he doesn't like it at first, and is a bit confused, but later on, he seems almost indifferent to new situations. Around him, things happen and change, but Jack cares only about things he always cared about – his mother, his toys, Dora the Explorer … Through his eyes, even the most incredible twists and turns in his life are of the same importance as things that seem perfectly ordinary to us, like going to the mall or getting a new toy. This gives reader something to think about, of course, but also leaves him longing for something more.

And here's where Room disappointed me. Throughout the book, Jack and especially his mother encountered different problems and lived through some important changes in their lifestyle. But the child POV, which was meant to bring us even closer to the story and the characters, was not really the best choice for the story Donoghue was trying to tell. Jack, being only five, doesn't have much personality; I was longing to hear the tale from Jack's mother, who would probably shed a different light on the story, but sadly, Jack remains the sole POV throughout the book. His mother's suffering and problems are much greater than Jack's, but as he cannot understand them, we only catch glimpses of what his mother's going through, and even those are rare – we probably see more of the average person's incompetence with handling a child that grew up in a tiny room than Jack's mother's trauma.

Room is not exactly what various reviews and blurbs on the cover led me to believe. Even though Jack is the POV, I felt that the real protagonist was his mother – but she got to explain her actions and feelings at only one, fairly short, point in the book. Room has a lot of potential – the plot itself is great, the style is OK, characters are well developed – but the bad POV choice is all that was needed to leave that potential unused. However cute the child POV might be, it lacks the intensity to make Room all it wanted to be.


3/5

Ursula Le Guin - Lavinia (Book Review)

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Reasons for reading: I've had it for ages and I remembered that it was supposed to be good

Lavinia – a character that got no lines in the Aeneid, just a brief mention, but I guess it intrigued Le Guin enough that she put Lavinia as the sole narrator of this novel, and I'm glad it is so.

It is clear from the very beginning that Lavinia is a retelling of the story of Aeneas and how he came to Italy, just from another point of view (so there will be no spoilers in this review ;). What I found amazing was that nonetheless, Le Guin managed to make this 'old' story not only interesting, but also very touching.

Lavinia is an unusual POV for this retelling; I'm more used to retellings where a new light is shed on an old, existing protagonist, which is not the case here. However, Lavinia's POV was a good idea, since she is not only a lively (and sometimes stubborn) character, but also a princess, which puts her into a great position to introduce her father's kingdom to the reader. Through her eyes, we are effortlessly introduced to how life in Italy was before Rome was built, and even if the pictures Le Guin paints us are not completely faithful (she herself admitted that she has downplayed the primitivism of the early Italian settlers), the narrative is masterfully done – in some novels, I had to struggle with long descriptions and paragraphs of world-building, but in Lavinia, the world simply grows around us as we read.

Lavinia tells us a story about a woman's life, whereas in Aeneid, the protagonists are mostly male – as the world of Aeneid is a male world. Where the recurring themes of Aeneid are hardships of war and travel, the prevalent theme in Lavinia is (however corny it might sound) love. At first, this is not obvious; Lavinia, too, focuses on skirmishes that take part when Aeneas comes to Italy and later, when his son rules in Alba Longa. Lavinia reminisces on the years of her youth before the war, on her meetings with the poet, her creator, who uncovers some of her future and asserts her that his poem will remain unfinished. She describes the war, too, but doesn't tell us much about the fighting; rather, she tells us about the decisions, relations and mishaps that, together, caused the war to happen as it did. The narrative is often interrupted with fragments of Lavinia's life with Aeneas, but these are very brief; the three summers and three winters that were promised to Lavinia and Aeneas pass all too quickly and Lavinia becomes dependent on her stepson's decisions while raising her only son.

It slowly becomes clear, though, that Lavinia's three years of happiness were what really determined her and her life. Even though she is always strong, independent and quick to act, she stays emotionally bound to Lavinium, the city Aeneas built her and the place he was buried, and the the sacred place, Albunea, where she met the poet. After Aeneas' death, Lavinia describes in detail how she wilfully stole her son from under his stepbrother's influence, but as he grows to a young man, the narrative becomes less and less detailed, until it simply skims over the remaining events of Lavinia's life. As promised, Lavinia never dies as she lives along with her poem; at the end of her human life, she transforms into an owl:

I fly among the trees on soft wings that make no sound. Sometimes I call out, but not in a human voice. My cry is soft and quavering: i, i, I cry: go on, go.
Only sometimes my soul wakes as a woman again, and then when I listen I can hear silence, and in the silence his voice.


Lavinia is a remarkable heroine; Le Guin brings her, her land and her people to life not only with masterful world-building and carefully constructed characters, but also with excellent prose that practically sings to the reader. This story about a strong woman and her fierce love is easily one of the best books I've read in 2010.


5/5

Monthly report: December '10

Because it often happens that I read a book but don't review it (or I take a long time writing a review), I've decided to start posting brief monthly reports on what I read, including a sentence or two about the book if it was not reviewed. I hope you like it :)

December 2010 was a busy month for me. After I took a short break from reading in November, I had plenty of time (and books :) to read, so I didn't waste any. Books I've read in December were:

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First three books of ASOIAF (George R. R. Martin): a long overdue re-read. I was really scared that I might not enjoy these anymore - after all, it's been at least five years since I read them first (and last) - and I was thrilled to see that my worries were unnecessary. ASOIAF is still the best series out there.





Empire in Black and Gold (Adrian Tchaikovsky): didn't expect much, didn't get much. It wasn't a disappointment for me as it was for some other bloggers, but I think that was mostly so because I missed all the hype. Still, it's a decent fantasy book. (Review upcoming.)

Room (Emma Donoghue): this could be a great book if the protagonist were someone else. As it is, it's merely ok-ish, but definitely not what I expected from a Man Booker Prize finalist. (Review upcoming.)

Midsummer Night (Freda Warrington): one of the best urban fantasy books I've read lately. It's not extraordinarily good or anything, but it was a pleasant enough read that didn't get too boring or predictable.

Lavinia (Ursula Le Guin): I honestly didn't expect anything from this book, especially since I found Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness somewhat odd when I read it three years ago. Lavinia swept me off my feet. (Review upcoming.)

Trin's Best of 2010

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2010 was a year of mostly mediocre books for me, so I was hard-pressed to choose at least 4 that were really good enough to be worthy of the 'best of 2010' title. Additionally, only a couple of books I've read this year were actually 2010 releases, and I've reviewed only two or three of them. Oh well.

So, here's my best of '10 list, in no particular order:



The Separation (2002) by Christopher Priest

What can I say? It blew my mind. I've since read The Affirmation and I had a hard time deciding which one of the two was better. Priest's unreliable narrators are simply awesome.

(Here you can read what Thrinidir thought about The Separation)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth (2009) by Carrie Ryan

The one book on this list that I've actually reviewed :) I put it on this list partly because it really was one of the best books I've read this year, but also the most surprising one (in terms of quality).

You can read my review of Forest of Hands and Teeth here.

The Long Price Quartet (2006-2009) by Daniel Abraham

Definitely one of the best fantasy series I've read lately. I admit that I've not yet read the last book, but the first three were really good - and, which was even better, the quality went up with every next book (instead of down, as it so often happens). I honestly liked all of it - the setting, the characters, the plot.

Lavinia (2008) by Ursula Le Guin

This was my last (finished) read of 2010. I heard a lot of praise for Lavinia, but I hardly imagined that it will be that good. It was really nice, finishing a year of mostly unimpressive books with an unexpectedly good one.

Lavinia will be reviewed here; I'll probably put the review online next week.

Biggest Disappointments:

Empress by Karen Miller. First book I was unable to finish in a long, long time, partly because the plot was going nowhere, partly because the protagonist was so incredibly annoying.
The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan. After the surprisingly good first installment in the series, I expected something equally good from the second book, but got a lukewarm plot and boring protagonist instead.


Books I expect most in 2011:

The Islanders by Christopher Priest -this will be his first novel in a long time and I'm curious what it will bring.
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss - I liked The Name of the Wind, but this book will probably decide whether I'll keep following the series or not.
The Cold Commands by Richard Morgan - I got the impression that not many people liked The Steel Remains, but I actually enjoyed it. I just hope that the sequel will be as good or better.
His Father's Fist by Matthew Stover - Yay! ^^ After Blade of Tyshalle, which was great, I found Caine Black Knife a bit disappointing, mostly because it was very short and ended, if I remember correctly, with a huge cliffhanger. Naturally, my hopes for His Father's Fist are high.


Last, but not least, let me wish you all a happy 2011 :) May it bring as much joy as possible.

Freda Warrington - Midsummer Night (Book Review)

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Reasons for reading: I got a review copy from the publisher (Tor)

Gil wants to escape from the world, so she books a cottage on an estate belonging to Lady Juliana Flagg, a famous sculptor. Much to Gil's dismay, Lady Flagg's annual art school is taking place on the same estate, meaning Gil won't be as far from other people as she wanted to be. Despite her best efforts to stay away from other people, she stumbles onto a path into Otherworld, the realm of faeries, and forms a new friendship. And while friendship is going swimmingly, the Otherworld only brings trouble – first of them being a young boy who seeks shelter in Gil's cottage.
(This is what Midsummer Nights is actually about. I don't know who wrote the original summary, but it is full of weird mistakes.)

Midsummer Night is a second part of the Aetherial Tales series (first part being Elfland), but even though I didn't read Elfland, I didn't feel like I've missed anything – Midsummer Night can easily be read as a standalone novel. It's been a long time since I've read an urban fantasy book that dealt with the fairy world, and even those I've read last were all YA books, so I was happy to see one written for adults. Luckily, Midsummer Night didn't disappoint.

One of the first things I've noticed was that the troubled protagonist was very well written. Gill, suffering from PSD, is a perfect example of the 'show, not tell' principle - staying in character throughout the first few chapters, being paranoid and filled with irrational guilt, feeling asocial and broken. Her thoughts are full of pessimism, she doesn't know how to act with other people and everything she sees reminds her of the event that caused it all:

“What was it like, to be part of such a clique? Dangerous, maybe. You could find yourself suddenly rejected by the pack, alone and broken.”

Later on, though, Gill gets over her fears and negative feelings; she becomes much more normal and likeable, but also less interesting as a character. The plot of Midsummer Night is pretty generic, but since the book is well-written, I didn't mind it that much. It seemed to me that Warrington was not really trying to give us anything new or unique, but rather trying to write a decent genre book. I was also happy to see that she was aware that the whole 'I accidentally wandered into Otherworld' thing has been around for ages and therefore didn't overdo it – instead of dwelling on Gill's disbelief for a chapter or two, Warrington moves on with the story instead.

Sadly, after the first few chapters, the plot deteriorates a bit – it becomes a very typical urban fantasy plot, with protagonists moving to and fro between Earth and Otherworld and some romance tossed in for good measure. This could become boring very quickly, especially as the Otherworld parts were one of the least interesting in the book, but luckily, the parallel plotline saves the day – dealing with Lady Juliana Flagg's history, it was much more entertaining; I would actually be perfectly happy even if the Otherworld parts (or most of them) had not even been in the book.

While Midsummer Night was not one of my favourite books of 2010, it certainly was one of the best urban fantasy books I've read lately. Warrington obviously knows how to write and if the plot is a bit generic, the very lifelike characters and the family secrets more than make up for it. All in all – enjoyable.

3,5/5



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They say it's better late than never: merry Christmas, everyone!