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November Reading Challenge Wrap-Up
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readingtogether for a November reading challenge to reduce my to-be-read pile. Here's the final count, with notes.
Talk books with me!
New books finished:
Half the Day is Night, Maureen McHugh
Primary Inversion, Catherine Asaro
Spock's World, Diane Duane
I really didn't enjoy Half the Day is Night - partly due to bad timing (the time to read a book about being trapped in a horrible corrupt dictatorship is... probably not the same month as the US Presidental election), but also on other levels. Not the least of them being grammar; there were some stylistic choices there that I found awkward or disruptive.
Primary Inversion was better, perhaps by contrast. It reminded me a lot of the Anne McCaffrey novels I read as a teen; if you like telepaths and souldbond-ish connections between characters who just met, give it a try! I didn't feel deeply engaged with it, but the main character was engaging and there was enough action that I got through it pretty quickly (unlike Half the Day is Night).
Spock's World was pretty delightful, mostly for the intercalary chapters featuring Vulcans at various historical points. I can't quite stop thinking of the main plot as, "Vulcan tries Brexit," which, well. See comments above regarding timing! :P Being a Star Trek novel, however, the outcome wasn't in doubt, so the fun in the main narrative stream was all in seeing the characters develop their approaches for the debate, and in seeing more of Sarek & Amanda. I finished the book and immediately went off to reread some favourite Original Vulcan Character fics, so there's that. :D
I almost finished:
Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed. I would have finished it, but I planned to read it on my work break and then forgot to bring it! It pings me very strongly as "the Witcher, but in Fantasy Middle East instead of Fantasy Poland;" it's not heavily fleshed out, but I do enjoy the Doctor's 'incantations' to stun demons, and his colourful insults!
I have reread:
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
The Pride of Chanur, CJ Cherryh
Chanur's Venture, CJ Cherryh
The Kif Strike Back, CJ Cherryh
Chanur's Homecoming, CJ Cherryh
Chanur's Legacy, CJ Cherryh
The Elvenbane, Andre Norton & Mercedes Lackey
I am never going to stop loving the Chanur series! I reread it at least once a year, and usually more. ♥ I wish I could find more novels like them. Sci-fi that focuses on understanding (or lack thereof) between species and language limitations are thinner on the ground than they should be.
On the Austen front, rereading has confirmed that S&S is just not my thing. I still spend the entire book convinced that Elinor and the Colonel would deal together so much better than their actual respective endgame relationships! The narrative repeatedly emphasises how well they get along and understand each other, and my brain won't stop wondering when they're going to realise that partnering the Colonel with a girl half his age whom he'll treat more like a daughter than a wife sounds like a terrible idea no matter how pretty she is, and meanwhile there's rational, perceptive Elinor right there doing her best to give him what he wants even though it doesn't sound pleasant for either party...
If you've read any of the above, hit me with your thoughts! Or tell me what you've been reading lately.
readingtogether for a November reading challenge to reduce my to-be-read pile. Here's the final count, with notes.Talk books with me!
New books finished:
Half the Day is Night, Maureen McHugh
Primary Inversion, Catherine Asaro
Spock's World, Diane Duane
I really didn't enjoy Half the Day is Night - partly due to bad timing (the time to read a book about being trapped in a horrible corrupt dictatorship is... probably not the same month as the US Presidental election), but also on other levels. Not the least of them being grammar; there were some stylistic choices there that I found awkward or disruptive.
Primary Inversion was better, perhaps by contrast. It reminded me a lot of the Anne McCaffrey novels I read as a teen; if you like telepaths and souldbond-ish connections between characters who just met, give it a try! I didn't feel deeply engaged with it, but the main character was engaging and there was enough action that I got through it pretty quickly (unlike Half the Day is Night).
Spock's World was pretty delightful, mostly for the intercalary chapters featuring Vulcans at various historical points. I can't quite stop thinking of the main plot as, "Vulcan tries Brexit," which, well. See comments above regarding timing! :P Being a Star Trek novel, however, the outcome wasn't in doubt, so the fun in the main narrative stream was all in seeing the characters develop their approaches for the debate, and in seeing more of Sarek & Amanda. I finished the book and immediately went off to reread some favourite Original Vulcan Character fics, so there's that. :D
I almost finished:
Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed. I would have finished it, but I planned to read it on my work break and then forgot to bring it! It pings me very strongly as "the Witcher, but in Fantasy Middle East instead of Fantasy Poland;" it's not heavily fleshed out, but I do enjoy the Doctor's 'incantations' to stun demons, and his colourful insults!
I have reread:
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
The Pride of Chanur, CJ Cherryh
Chanur's Venture, CJ Cherryh
The Kif Strike Back, CJ Cherryh
Chanur's Homecoming, CJ Cherryh
Chanur's Legacy, CJ Cherryh
The Elvenbane, Andre Norton & Mercedes Lackey
I am never going to stop loving the Chanur series! I reread it at least once a year, and usually more. ♥ I wish I could find more novels like them. Sci-fi that focuses on understanding (or lack thereof) between species and language limitations are thinner on the ground than they should be.
On the Austen front, rereading has confirmed that S&S is just not my thing. I still spend the entire book convinced that Elinor and the Colonel would deal together so much better than their actual respective endgame relationships! The narrative repeatedly emphasises how well they get along and understand each other, and my brain won't stop wondering when they're going to realise that partnering the Colonel with a girl half his age whom he'll treat more like a daughter than a wife sounds like a terrible idea no matter how pretty she is, and meanwhile there's rational, perceptive Elinor right there doing her best to give him what he wants even though it doesn't sound pleasant for either party...
If you've read any of the above, hit me with your thoughts! Or tell me what you've been reading lately.
no subject
One of the bits I remember most vividly is the meeting between Pyanfar and Sikkukkut, where she says, 'When you say the word 'friend,' I get very nervous,' and Sikkukkut replies, 'I suffer similar apprehensions when you use the word 'subordinate'.' ♥ Even two people who *aware* of the issues in translation don't have a magical fix for them. All they can do is be extra-cautious around culturally loaded words and remind everyone that translation is flawed.
The tc'a with their matrices are also great! There's a bit in the last book where the crew newbie has an accident involving a tc'a vehicle, and suggests to the captain that they get Station Control to explain to the tc'a about it. The captain's reaction: “That’s a myth. That’s a thorough-going myth. Station can approximate things like ‘Open the hatch,’ and ‘That’s a fire hazard!’ [...] They’ve been in space long before we were, and we still don’t know how to say ‘Stop it, you’re in my lane,’ and: ‘My ship can’t perform that maneuver.’
And the way everybody from Pyanfar to the kif to his own partner panics when it becames evident that Jik has been bargaining with the tc'a is another bit that really brings home their strangeness and the huge gaps in the interface between them and oxy-breathers.
(If you would really like to read the rest of the Chanur books, I, uh, can probably make that happen. Send me a PM?)
no subject
This and the next paragraph, yesss. Especially with how ... idk, sparse? spartan? utilitarian? Cherryhs' own narrator voice often is (which I always thought made her characters' voices more pronounced, too.)
And thanks on the offer. I just have to get around to actually buy the ebooks off Evil A (*sigh*) - getting the actual books in German is hard, since libraries and bookshops generally only carry the translations in English, which, hysterically, are notoriously bad to the point of being incomprehensible.