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I hope you all are okay and so are all that you know. To keep myself distracted from the news, and to possibly get some interaction in this time of isolation, here is a Reading Wednesday update! I meant to do the whole culture consumed thing, but since I've let this pile up, I've got way too much to put in one post, so I'll just post about podcasts and Other Things later, I hope.
Recently Read
Since the last time I posted, I've read at least:
- Pocket Apocalypse (Incryptid, #4) by Seanan McGuire. Alas, I didn't like this one anywhere near as much as the other books in the series so far. Doesn't help I'm not a fan of werewolves and it was too gory for my liking. But also the story wasn't particularly engaging, and besides Alex and Shelby all the other characters were flat caricatures. I also don't find it such a great aesthetic that in the one book where they go abroad (to Australia) pretty much all the local characters are horrible bigots and their motives and behaviour don't make any sense, and the American and his expat girlfriend are the enlightened ones, and I honestly would have expected better of Seanan McGuire. And seriously, what kind of a father is like that about his adult daughters? Is it normal enough in the US that it's presumed to be possible to happen without everyone thinking the man is certifiably insane? (In that case, I'm once again so glad to be Finnish.) Or was it just another assumption that countries that aren't the US are backwards like that? Oh well, at least the next book in the series will go back to Verity, she's fun. (Though I enjoyed Alex well enough when he was surrounded by his family members and we didn't have any "let's go to see the backward and bigoted foreigners" thing going on. He's not my favourite, but I didn't dislike him the way many readers seem to.)
- The True Queen by Zen Cho, the second book in her Sorcerer Royal series, which takes place in alternate history Regency England with magic, dragons, and people of colour. Though this one also takes partly in Malaysia and the Fairy (the series' spelling of what I usually see referred to as the Faerie in fantasy novels). Anyway, it was delightful and just what I needed at that point. The main character is Muna, a Malay girl who is not magical but her sister is, and neither of them remember their past. They're staying with Mak Gengang, an awesome powerhouse witch we already met in the previous book, but they end up travelling to England via Fairy to figure out what's happened to them, and shenanigans happen. We meet lots of characters from the first book, a lovely f/f romance develops, sisterhood is explored, magic is made, stuffy old Englishmen do not get their way, Prunella bosses people around as expected, and Rollo of Threllfall is as adorable as before. We also spend time with Rollo's formidable aunt Georgiana Without Ruth, powerhouse dragon ladies for the win. (How can you not love books that include a dragon aunt called Georgiana Without Ruth? It's impossible, I say.)
- Dead Djinn in Cairo and The Haunting of Tram Car 015, both by P. Djéli Clark, in this alternate history early 20th century Egypt where the Djinns and other magical beings are in our world and making fantastical inventions and changed the course of history so that Egypt was never colonized, and all kinds of awesome stuff. Dead Djinn in Cairo (a novelette, I think? probably not long enough to count as a novella?) has an awesome lady detective who dresses in exotic English men's garb and investigates the mystery of a dead djinn and flirts with a gorgeous woman along the side. She's sadly not the main character of The Haunting of Tram Car 015 but she does appear there, and the duo of male detectives in this novella are also very entertaining to follow. I love the world that Clark has created, the writing is delightful to read, and I love how it centres on a variety of non-Western cultures. I'd love to read entire books about this universe! The Haunting of Tram Car 015 totally went on my Hugo nominations list for Best Novella.
- Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen, a YA novel from the world of The Bright Sessions. It's a queer love story between two high school boys, one of whom is a powerful empath ie. he can feel other people's emotions (and gets therapy to help him deal with this from Dr. Bright, a therapist who specializes in individuals with special powers), the other having no special powers but he's super-smart and depressed. Caleb and Adam are definitely among the most popular characters of the show, and I love their story, and was excited to learn there would be a novel about them. I really enjoyed it! I'm not a big fan of first-person present tense, which seems to be near-ubiquitous in YA these days, but it worked fairly well here, I soon stopped noticing it. Probably it helps that the characters are constantly so confused about what's going on, so it makes sense they're not narrating from some vague point in the future. Anyway, I loved getting to know more about their story, including many parts the podcast can't tell us about at least directly. I'm pretty sure it works also for readers who don't know the podcast. Though it does end before the end of the podcast, so it's probably noticeable all threads haven't been followed to the end.
Although this is a part of a series, the other two books are not going to focus on Caleb and Adam's further story, but will feature other protagonists. I'm very curious about both of them as well; the second book will be Damien's origin story, and I'm really curious as to how she's going to pull that off, especially given that it can't really have a wholesome happy ending in a typical sense, and that you are not supposed to end up sympathizing overly much with the protagonist. Anyway, the third book will be about Rose, who I really wanted more time with during the show, so I'm happy the book will explore her story - especially as it means another YA book with a lesbian main character.
Currently reading
I've got too many books as usual that are technically being read, but most actively, I'm reading the sixth Flavia de Luce book by Alan Bradley, and Mythic Dream, a collection of short stories based on myths around the world, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe. Authors like Ann Leckie, T. Kingfisher, JY Yang, Arkady Martine, Naomi Novik, and Amal El-Mohtar. I admit, I already sneaked ahead to read Amal El-Mohtar's feminist and f/f Blodeauwedd retelling, Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers because I was so curious about it and wanted to see if I'd want to nominate it for the Hugos before the nominations closed. (I did.) Besides that, I've so far enjoyed T. Kingfisher's story (The Labours of Hercules from the point of view of a bird!) and JY Yang's stories best, but I've still got several to go.
Not trying to make guesses about what I'll read next, because I just stress myself unnecessarily if I do say that I'm going to read this or that. I'm such a creature of mood and whimsy when it comes to reading, I'll read what I want to read at the time. I do want to read more in my own language again, though. Well, now that I'm mostly expected to stay at home with my overflowing bookshelf, there should be plenty of time for reading.
Feel free to chime in, about these books or others, or anything else related!
Recently Read
Since the last time I posted, I've read at least:
- Pocket Apocalypse (Incryptid, #4) by Seanan McGuire. Alas, I didn't like this one anywhere near as much as the other books in the series so far. Doesn't help I'm not a fan of werewolves and it was too gory for my liking. But also the story wasn't particularly engaging, and besides Alex and Shelby all the other characters were flat caricatures. I also don't find it such a great aesthetic that in the one book where they go abroad (to Australia) pretty much all the local characters are horrible bigots and their motives and behaviour don't make any sense, and the American and his expat girlfriend are the enlightened ones, and I honestly would have expected better of Seanan McGuire. And seriously, what kind of a father is like that about his adult daughters? Is it normal enough in the US that it's presumed to be possible to happen without everyone thinking the man is certifiably insane? (In that case, I'm once again so glad to be Finnish.) Or was it just another assumption that countries that aren't the US are backwards like that? Oh well, at least the next book in the series will go back to Verity, she's fun. (Though I enjoyed Alex well enough when he was surrounded by his family members and we didn't have any "let's go to see the backward and bigoted foreigners" thing going on. He's not my favourite, but I didn't dislike him the way many readers seem to.)
- The True Queen by Zen Cho, the second book in her Sorcerer Royal series, which takes place in alternate history Regency England with magic, dragons, and people of colour. Though this one also takes partly in Malaysia and the Fairy (the series' spelling of what I usually see referred to as the Faerie in fantasy novels). Anyway, it was delightful and just what I needed at that point. The main character is Muna, a Malay girl who is not magical but her sister is, and neither of them remember their past. They're staying with Mak Gengang, an awesome powerhouse witch we already met in the previous book, but they end up travelling to England via Fairy to figure out what's happened to them, and shenanigans happen. We meet lots of characters from the first book, a lovely f/f romance develops, sisterhood is explored, magic is made, stuffy old Englishmen do not get their way, Prunella bosses people around as expected, and Rollo of Threllfall is as adorable as before. We also spend time with Rollo's formidable aunt Georgiana Without Ruth, powerhouse dragon ladies for the win. (How can you not love books that include a dragon aunt called Georgiana Without Ruth? It's impossible, I say.)
- Dead Djinn in Cairo and The Haunting of Tram Car 015, both by P. Djéli Clark, in this alternate history early 20th century Egypt where the Djinns and other magical beings are in our world and making fantastical inventions and changed the course of history so that Egypt was never colonized, and all kinds of awesome stuff. Dead Djinn in Cairo (a novelette, I think? probably not long enough to count as a novella?) has an awesome lady detective who dresses in exotic English men's garb and investigates the mystery of a dead djinn and flirts with a gorgeous woman along the side. She's sadly not the main character of The Haunting of Tram Car 015 but she does appear there, and the duo of male detectives in this novella are also very entertaining to follow. I love the world that Clark has created, the writing is delightful to read, and I love how it centres on a variety of non-Western cultures. I'd love to read entire books about this universe! The Haunting of Tram Car 015 totally went on my Hugo nominations list for Best Novella.
- Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen, a YA novel from the world of The Bright Sessions. It's a queer love story between two high school boys, one of whom is a powerful empath ie. he can feel other people's emotions (and gets therapy to help him deal with this from Dr. Bright, a therapist who specializes in individuals with special powers), the other having no special powers but he's super-smart and depressed. Caleb and Adam are definitely among the most popular characters of the show, and I love their story, and was excited to learn there would be a novel about them. I really enjoyed it! I'm not a big fan of first-person present tense, which seems to be near-ubiquitous in YA these days, but it worked fairly well here, I soon stopped noticing it. Probably it helps that the characters are constantly so confused about what's going on, so it makes sense they're not narrating from some vague point in the future. Anyway, I loved getting to know more about their story, including many parts the podcast can't tell us about at least directly. I'm pretty sure it works also for readers who don't know the podcast. Though it does end before the end of the podcast, so it's probably noticeable all threads haven't been followed to the end.
Although this is a part of a series, the other two books are not going to focus on Caleb and Adam's further story, but will feature other protagonists. I'm very curious about both of them as well; the second book will be Damien's origin story, and I'm really curious as to how she's going to pull that off, especially given that it can't really have a wholesome happy ending in a typical sense, and that you are not supposed to end up sympathizing overly much with the protagonist. Anyway, the third book will be about Rose, who I really wanted more time with during the show, so I'm happy the book will explore her story - especially as it means another YA book with a lesbian main character.
Currently reading
I've got too many books as usual that are technically being read, but most actively, I'm reading the sixth Flavia de Luce book by Alan Bradley, and Mythic Dream, a collection of short stories based on myths around the world, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe. Authors like Ann Leckie, T. Kingfisher, JY Yang, Arkady Martine, Naomi Novik, and Amal El-Mohtar. I admit, I already sneaked ahead to read Amal El-Mohtar's feminist and f/f Blodeauwedd retelling, Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers because I was so curious about it and wanted to see if I'd want to nominate it for the Hugos before the nominations closed. (I did.) Besides that, I've so far enjoyed T. Kingfisher's story (The Labours of Hercules from the point of view of a bird!) and JY Yang's stories best, but I've still got several to go.
Not trying to make guesses about what I'll read next, because I just stress myself unnecessarily if I do say that I'm going to read this or that. I'm such a creature of mood and whimsy when it comes to reading, I'll read what I want to read at the time. I do want to read more in my own language again, though. Well, now that I'm mostly expected to stay at home with my overflowing bookshelf, there should be plenty of time for reading.
Feel free to chime in, about these books or others, or anything else related!
