another big catch-up post...
Nov. 26th, 2007 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furyofvissarionHell's Belles - Jackie Kessler. Jezebel is a succubus in self-imposed exile from Hell. Where could a sex demon-turned-mortal hide from all the other demons who want her hide? Why, working as a stripper in New York City, of course! This book was fun, although it contained one of my biggest plot pet peeves, a love story that's not believable: Jezebel (known as Jesse to humans) is in love w/Paul, a stranger she met on Amtrak, but... I don't buy it. They just haven't had enough time for both of them to be in love, bah. Also, I wasn't particularly bowled over by the meant-to-be-shocking revelation of why Jezebel left Hell, either. Still, it was fluffy & fun.
The Language of Baklava - Diana Abu-Jaber. This is Abu-Jaber's memoir of growing up as mixed-race (half-white, half-Jordanian), in Syracuse & in Jordan. I really liked the centrality of food to the narrative (although in particular I was disturbed by the story of a botched lamb butchering, by which her uncles tried to reclaim their mythical childhoods in Jordan; I was also disturbed by how un-disturbed all the children, including Abu-Jaber, were by this, even though a few hours earlier they were cooing & petting "Lambie." Absent referent @ work!). Lots of stuff in here about being exotified, & exotifying others in turn, & what makes one American, or Arab, or perhaps both, and what "home" means. Here's my favorite quote:
The Nymphos of Rocky Flats - Mario Acevedo. I'm not sure what I think of using recent--in fact, ongoing--conflicts as background/plot points in otherwise unrelated fiction. I mean, in theory it shouldn't make a difference compared to, say, using the Vietnam War in a novel, but it feels kind of different to me. I'm not sure if that's justified or not. In this book, Felix Gomez served in Iraq (yes, in the war that continues today) & came back to the US a vampire. The massacre of Iraqi civilians, particularly a young girl, by Gomez's unit becomes the reason why Gomez, unusually for vampires, refuses to drink human blood. Maybe this--the young girl's death being used this way--is what makes me feel oogy about the whole thing.
I also felt that the narrative didn't think overly fondly of women, in general--& I'm not even talking about the plot involving the titular nymphomaniacal women at a secret government base in Colorado. No, that, & the tie-in w/vampires, & vampire hunters, & UFOs, just seemed deliberately goofy & tabloid-esque to me. But at one point, a character says, about the nymphos, that some of the women "were tramps to begin with," & later on there's some dismissive reference to PMS. Blah, blah. Oh, & there's an Asian character named Bigelow Wong, who gets referred to as--you guessed it--Big Wong. Ha ha. Except not. Sigh. It's a shame, because aside from these things which really poked @ me, the book was fun, & definitely went into places that I haven't seen paranormal novels go before.
Crown Duel - Sherwood Smith. Re-read. Oh, I love this book! I love how the first part is pretty much straight-up fantasy (rustic Countess Meliara & her brother trying to overthrow a tyrant), & the second part is delicious fantasy of manners. Fancy gowns! Fan language! Witty repartee! And one of the best, sweetest romances ever. It's totally obvious for a long, long time who will end up w/whom, but that's not the point. Whenever I read this book, I wish desperately for sequels. Although then I read the bonus short story included in this reprint edition, in which Meliara turns into a whiny, wimpy, utterly unconfident wretch, & think that perhaps it's a good thing that there aren't any published, because Mel is such an awesome heroine: brave & gutsy as hell, & stubborn, & determined to not stay ignorant, once she realizes that she is.
Gods and Pawns: Stories of the Company - Kage Baker. I love Baker's short stories, whether or not they're about the Company, but having recently finished off her Company series, I'm glad that these stories are Company ones. The first one stars Lewis & Mendoza! The last one is all Lewis! Everything is great & sarcastic & interesting & just what I expect from Baker. Yay!
The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense - Suzette Haden Elgin. It is such a relief to pick up a book that talks about how verbal violence is real, & that if someone punches you in the face, folks will take that seriously, but that verbal violence so often goes undetected & is not seen as a problem. Hello, childhood! Anyway, Elgin here provides some strategies for deflecting verbal attacks. I think it's generally v. sensible & smart--I just wish that her example confrontations sometimes went on past the first conversational exchange, once you deflect or defuse the opening salvo from the person being abusive. I've seen her techniques mentioned elsewhere, like in Living Among Meat Eaters, & they do seem like they would make sense in a lot of situations. I think I just wanted to know what to say after the first parry, y'know?
Twilight Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko. In the third book of the Night Watch series, we're still trying to figure out the difference between good & evil, between humans & Others. Does it matter? Is there any difference @ all? This book also seems a bit preoccupied w/discerning the difference between men & women; there's some meditation on the nobleness of motherhood, blah blah. I got annoyed when Tove Jansson was misidentified as male during one of these bits--how hard is it to fact-check that? Also I think it changes a bit one of the points being made about gender. Anyway--aside from these annoyances, the book had all the kinds of stuff I loved in the previous two books, yay. Now when the hell is the 4th book (Final Watch) going to be translated into English, & why does the British version of Twilight Watch say that this is a trilogy?
The Mirador - Sarah Monette. This comparison will probably raise some eyebrows, but Monette is like Anne Bishop in that they both have a slew of characters who are trying so hard to love each other, but they've been so battered & warped by the world that they don't know how to do it, or even admit really that they don't know how. That is what keeps me reading (this is the 3rd book in the series that starts w/Melusine). Her characters are so vivid in their pain it's hard not to follow along simply in hopes that they manage some sort of healing resolution for themselves. The city of Melusine itself continues to fascinate; even though I still haven't been able to pull a rough mental map together in my head (aside from the obviousness of, say, the Lower City), I just eat up all the place names: Boneprince, Laceshroud, Pharoahlight. The little wonky bits of magical philosophy bored me, but were thankfully not that many in number. And I'm still annoyed w/the number system used here, even though it gets explained more in this book (I wonder if she heard a lot of complaints from folks who had no idea how long an interdiction or a decad were meant to be).
Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead. Lissa is a Moroi vampire: mortal, & "good," w/earth magic. Her best friend is Rose, a dhampir (half-Moroi, half-human). The evil, immortal vampires, who are always trying to kill the Moroi, are the Strigoi. Lissa & Rose ran away from the special school for Moroi & dhampir two years ago, & the story begins when they get hauled back in.
It's a shame b/c I loved Succubus Blues, also by Mead, but this book rubbed me the wrong way for a few reasons. One: as I've said before, I don't often enjoy reading about privileged kids in fancy schools. Two: the dhampir are supposed to live & die around protecting Moroi, to the extent that going off & marrying another dhampir & giving up guardian duties is considered pretty much the greatest shame. Dhampir can only reproduce w/Moroi, which is part of the reason given for why they devote themselves to protecting the Moroi. But I still find the idea of a people whose entire souls & existence are dedicated to someone else, even @ the cost of their own life, repulsive. Lissa & Rose are obnoxious, too: they're both snobs, Rose spies on Lissa & lies to a boy Lissa likes about her. Bleh. Then Lissa turns out to be super-special, even for a Moroi princess--she has some kind of magic power that, if used, makes her mentally ill. I wasn't too excited by this when Justine Larbalestier did it, & I'm not super-excited about it here. There's hints that the social order of dhampirs & Moroi may be going down, so I'll probably end up reading the next book. I hope Lissa & Rose stop being so terribly annoying too.
Many Bloody Returns: Tales of Birthdays with Bite - Edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner. Generally a fun anthology--all the stories feature a vampire, & a birthday. Not necessarily a vampire's birthday (although Charlaine Harris' excellent "Dracula Night" does), which opens up a lot of fun possibilities. Although I wasn't into the first of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires books (shame, as I love her Weather Warden books), her short story here, which is in the same universe, was pretty good. If nothing else, it made me laugh b/c it namechecked BPAL. I also really liked Tanya Huff's "Blood Wrapped" (Henry & Tony, yay!) & Tate Hallaway's "Fire & Ice & Linguini for Two." The only one I definitely disliked was Elaine Viets' "Vampire Hours," about the aging rich wife of a plastic surgeon, about to be replaced by a trophy wife. Anyway--overall a fun book.
Devilish - Maureen Johnson. Fun! Jane is the nerd of her senior class; Allison, her best friend, is similarly unpopular but w/o Jane's smarts to @ least garner some admiration from folks. Allison thus sells her soul to the devil in order to change this, & Jane sets out to save her. I liked this.
Prom Dates from Hell - Rosemary Clement-Moore. Charming & also surprisingly creepy, this is the story of high school senior Maggie Quinn, a budding clairvoyant who discovers that someone in her high school has summoned a demon that is picking off members of the popular/bully clique one by one. I liked this one a lot, but @ this point I would give a lot for good urban fantasy YA that takes place in a high school that's not elite.
Fly on the Wall - E. Lockhart. This was also charming, if somewhat predictable. Gretchen Yee attends an arts high school in Manhattan & feels out of place among the conforming-to-nonconformity student body. She also only really has one friend, & a massive crush on a popular boy. After telling her best friend she wishes she were a fly on the wall of the boys' locker room, somehow (it's never really explained how or why, which irks a little) she becomes just that. As expected, she learns a lot & gains a little bit of self-confidence in the process.
Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience - Edited by Chandra Prasad. These stories were not just by multiracial authors, but dealt w/the issue of being multiracial. And heaven knows I have plenty of angst connected to my own identity that I'm still working through, so I shouldn't be surprised that so much of it shows up here. I was still left kind of wishing we could collectively move past our dramas a little more, which I guess might be snotty of me, but when the collection as a whole feels suffused w/angst, it makes me want some multidimensionality along w/the multiracialness. Also, I was slightly perturbed by the inclusion, @ the start of each story, of a photograph of the author (along w/a bio). It smacked too much of trying to show off to the wider world how freaky & unusual-looking we are, although I know too that it could be directed towards multiracial readers: look, there are other folks who "look weird" like you or whatever.
The Language of Baklava - Diana Abu-Jaber. This is Abu-Jaber's memoir of growing up as mixed-race (half-white, half-Jordanian), in Syracuse & in Jordan. I really liked the centrality of food to the narrative (although in particular I was disturbed by the story of a botched lamb butchering, by which her uncles tried to reclaim their mythical childhoods in Jordan; I was also disturbed by how un-disturbed all the children, including Abu-Jaber, were by this, even though a few hours earlier they were cooing & petting "Lambie." Absent referent @ work!). Lots of stuff in here about being exotified, & exotifying others in turn, & what makes one American, or Arab, or perhaps both, and what "home" means. Here's my favorite quote:
"Marry, don't marry," Auntie Aya says as we unfold layers of dough to make an apple strudel. "Just don't have your babies unless it's absolutely necessary.
"How do I know if it's necessary?"
She stops and stares ahead, her hands gloved in flour. "Ask yourself, Do I want a baby or do I want to make a cake? The answer will come to you like bells ringing." She flickers her fingers in the air by her ear. "For me, almost always, the answer was cake."
The Nymphos of Rocky Flats - Mario Acevedo. I'm not sure what I think of using recent--in fact, ongoing--conflicts as background/plot points in otherwise unrelated fiction. I mean, in theory it shouldn't make a difference compared to, say, using the Vietnam War in a novel, but it feels kind of different to me. I'm not sure if that's justified or not. In this book, Felix Gomez served in Iraq (yes, in the war that continues today) & came back to the US a vampire. The massacre of Iraqi civilians, particularly a young girl, by Gomez's unit becomes the reason why Gomez, unusually for vampires, refuses to drink human blood. Maybe this--the young girl's death being used this way--is what makes me feel oogy about the whole thing.
I also felt that the narrative didn't think overly fondly of women, in general--& I'm not even talking about the plot involving the titular nymphomaniacal women at a secret government base in Colorado. No, that, & the tie-in w/vampires, & vampire hunters, & UFOs, just seemed deliberately goofy & tabloid-esque to me. But at one point, a character says, about the nymphos, that some of the women "were tramps to begin with," & later on there's some dismissive reference to PMS. Blah, blah. Oh, & there's an Asian character named Bigelow Wong, who gets referred to as--you guessed it--Big Wong. Ha ha. Except not. Sigh. It's a shame, because aside from these things which really poked @ me, the book was fun, & definitely went into places that I haven't seen paranormal novels go before.
Crown Duel - Sherwood Smith. Re-read. Oh, I love this book! I love how the first part is pretty much straight-up fantasy (rustic Countess Meliara & her brother trying to overthrow a tyrant), & the second part is delicious fantasy of manners. Fancy gowns! Fan language! Witty repartee! And one of the best, sweetest romances ever. It's totally obvious for a long, long time who will end up w/whom, but that's not the point. Whenever I read this book, I wish desperately for sequels. Although then I read the bonus short story included in this reprint edition, in which Meliara turns into a whiny, wimpy, utterly unconfident wretch, & think that perhaps it's a good thing that there aren't any published, because Mel is such an awesome heroine: brave & gutsy as hell, & stubborn, & determined to not stay ignorant, once she realizes that she is.
Gods and Pawns: Stories of the Company - Kage Baker. I love Baker's short stories, whether or not they're about the Company, but having recently finished off her Company series, I'm glad that these stories are Company ones. The first one stars Lewis & Mendoza! The last one is all Lewis! Everything is great & sarcastic & interesting & just what I expect from Baker. Yay!
The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense - Suzette Haden Elgin. It is such a relief to pick up a book that talks about how verbal violence is real, & that if someone punches you in the face, folks will take that seriously, but that verbal violence so often goes undetected & is not seen as a problem. Hello, childhood! Anyway, Elgin here provides some strategies for deflecting verbal attacks. I think it's generally v. sensible & smart--I just wish that her example confrontations sometimes went on past the first conversational exchange, once you deflect or defuse the opening salvo from the person being abusive. I've seen her techniques mentioned elsewhere, like in Living Among Meat Eaters, & they do seem like they would make sense in a lot of situations. I think I just wanted to know what to say after the first parry, y'know?
Twilight Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko. In the third book of the Night Watch series, we're still trying to figure out the difference between good & evil, between humans & Others. Does it matter? Is there any difference @ all? This book also seems a bit preoccupied w/discerning the difference between men & women; there's some meditation on the nobleness of motherhood, blah blah. I got annoyed when Tove Jansson was misidentified as male during one of these bits--how hard is it to fact-check that? Also I think it changes a bit one of the points being made about gender. Anyway--aside from these annoyances, the book had all the kinds of stuff I loved in the previous two books, yay. Now when the hell is the 4th book (Final Watch) going to be translated into English, & why does the British version of Twilight Watch say that this is a trilogy?
The Mirador - Sarah Monette. This comparison will probably raise some eyebrows, but Monette is like Anne Bishop in that they both have a slew of characters who are trying so hard to love each other, but they've been so battered & warped by the world that they don't know how to do it, or even admit really that they don't know how. That is what keeps me reading (this is the 3rd book in the series that starts w/Melusine). Her characters are so vivid in their pain it's hard not to follow along simply in hopes that they manage some sort of healing resolution for themselves. The city of Melusine itself continues to fascinate; even though I still haven't been able to pull a rough mental map together in my head (aside from the obviousness of, say, the Lower City), I just eat up all the place names: Boneprince, Laceshroud, Pharoahlight. The little wonky bits of magical philosophy bored me, but were thankfully not that many in number. And I'm still annoyed w/the number system used here, even though it gets explained more in this book (I wonder if she heard a lot of complaints from folks who had no idea how long an interdiction or a decad were meant to be).
Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead. Lissa is a Moroi vampire: mortal, & "good," w/earth magic. Her best friend is Rose, a dhampir (half-Moroi, half-human). The evil, immortal vampires, who are always trying to kill the Moroi, are the Strigoi. Lissa & Rose ran away from the special school for Moroi & dhampir two years ago, & the story begins when they get hauled back in.
It's a shame b/c I loved Succubus Blues, also by Mead, but this book rubbed me the wrong way for a few reasons. One: as I've said before, I don't often enjoy reading about privileged kids in fancy schools. Two: the dhampir are supposed to live & die around protecting Moroi, to the extent that going off & marrying another dhampir & giving up guardian duties is considered pretty much the greatest shame. Dhampir can only reproduce w/Moroi, which is part of the reason given for why they devote themselves to protecting the Moroi. But I still find the idea of a people whose entire souls & existence are dedicated to someone else, even @ the cost of their own life, repulsive. Lissa & Rose are obnoxious, too: they're both snobs, Rose spies on Lissa & lies to a boy Lissa likes about her. Bleh. Then Lissa turns out to be super-special, even for a Moroi princess--she has some kind of magic power that, if used, makes her mentally ill. I wasn't too excited by this when Justine Larbalestier did it, & I'm not super-excited about it here. There's hints that the social order of dhampirs & Moroi may be going down, so I'll probably end up reading the next book. I hope Lissa & Rose stop being so terribly annoying too.
Many Bloody Returns: Tales of Birthdays with Bite - Edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner. Generally a fun anthology--all the stories feature a vampire, & a birthday. Not necessarily a vampire's birthday (although Charlaine Harris' excellent "Dracula Night" does), which opens up a lot of fun possibilities. Although I wasn't into the first of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires books (shame, as I love her Weather Warden books), her short story here, which is in the same universe, was pretty good. If nothing else, it made me laugh b/c it namechecked BPAL. I also really liked Tanya Huff's "Blood Wrapped" (Henry & Tony, yay!) & Tate Hallaway's "Fire & Ice & Linguini for Two." The only one I definitely disliked was Elaine Viets' "Vampire Hours," about the aging rich wife of a plastic surgeon, about to be replaced by a trophy wife. Anyway--overall a fun book.
Devilish - Maureen Johnson. Fun! Jane is the nerd of her senior class; Allison, her best friend, is similarly unpopular but w/o Jane's smarts to @ least garner some admiration from folks. Allison thus sells her soul to the devil in order to change this, & Jane sets out to save her. I liked this.
Prom Dates from Hell - Rosemary Clement-Moore. Charming & also surprisingly creepy, this is the story of high school senior Maggie Quinn, a budding clairvoyant who discovers that someone in her high school has summoned a demon that is picking off members of the popular/bully clique one by one. I liked this one a lot, but @ this point I would give a lot for good urban fantasy YA that takes place in a high school that's not elite.
Fly on the Wall - E. Lockhart. This was also charming, if somewhat predictable. Gretchen Yee attends an arts high school in Manhattan & feels out of place among the conforming-to-nonconformity student body. She also only really has one friend, & a massive crush on a popular boy. After telling her best friend she wishes she were a fly on the wall of the boys' locker room, somehow (it's never really explained how or why, which irks a little) she becomes just that. As expected, she learns a lot & gains a little bit of self-confidence in the process.
Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience - Edited by Chandra Prasad. These stories were not just by multiracial authors, but dealt w/the issue of being multiracial. And heaven knows I have plenty of angst connected to my own identity that I'm still working through, so I shouldn't be surprised that so much of it shows up here. I was still left kind of wishing we could collectively move past our dramas a little more, which I guess might be snotty of me, but when the collection as a whole feels suffused w/angst, it makes me want some multidimensionality along w/the multiracialness. Also, I was slightly perturbed by the inclusion, @ the start of each story, of a photograph of the author (along w/a bio). It smacked too much of trying to show off to the wider world how freaky & unusual-looking we are, although I know too that it could be directed towards multiracial readers: look, there are other folks who "look weird" like you or whatever.
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