November Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

[krait]

November is over! I signed up at 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.

Comments

[szzzt]

Sci-fi that focuses on understanding (or lack thereof) between species and language limitations

Every year I reread one or more of the Foreigner series, also by Cherryh, for the same reason. As a translator and interpreter myself, NAIL-BITINGLY TENSE interpretation scenes soothe my very soul. Even between human languages, you don't put one utterance in and get an exact match out! The interpreter has to be guessing and juggling all the time. (On my first or second read of Foreigner, when I eventually figured out that despite all his whining Bren is a stone-cold adrenaline junkie, his choice of job and choice of leisure started to make sense.)

[krait]

Oh, yes! Chanur is my first love - I read it years before I discovered Foreigner - but I really do love them both, and reread often from both (though Chanur more frequently, since it's shorter and easier to do a total reread).

The Chanur books are full of excellent translation difficulties, from Tully's first appearance on The Pride (to prove his sapience, he writes a sequence of numbers on the deck - in his own blood) all the way through to Hilfy's figuring out how to ask a stsho a fraught question about personality shift after being shut down. (When everything else failed, the maxim ran ... ask the alien how to ask the question. “Then,” she said carefully, and paused while Dlima poured; and paused further while Dlima served Tlisi-tlas-tin. “Then how shall I ask what information you might have gained in this port?”)

Also: haahaaha, yes, the moment Bren is all, "I kinda miss throwing myself down mountains skiing, but I guess my job is a good enough substitute" a lot of things become clear, don't they? :P

[szzzt]

EEEEEEEE ICON
(mental roulette to decide who that is)

Clearly I must reread Chanur! I read it long before starting serious language study, and all I remember is my envy of the earrings. I get so much out of my Foreigner rereads, I bet there's an awful lot in Chanur that I left on the page without noticing. YAY MORE BOOKS

[krait]

Every time I reread the Chanur books I feel that I absorb something new or the impact of something grows, so definitely. There's so much going on, and - in keeping with a series where translation is fraught - a lot of it is understated or builds upon small tells.

(Argh, now I need a Chanur icon!)