March's reading list

[geekchick]

Today is Prickle-Prickle, day 26 in the season of Discord, 3270.

The word for today: tedium. More than a day spent making updates by hand and then finding things I'd missed on a second pass through. Woo. At least today the streaming audio is working, so I've discovered Radio Paradise.

Since I'm thinking about it, let's look up March's reading list. It's very slim, which is disappointing. (Also cute and fluffy!) In all fairness to myself though, I was both moving and slogging through a 900+ page book, not exactly conducive to tearing through books at a high rate of speed.

• Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson. I started this in February and finally finished it in March. Good lord, I'm starting to feel like I'm reading more Robert "This is the story that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend" Jordan what with the thousand-ish pages that are only the first of three books and in which very little actually happens. Hey, I didn't realize I finished just in time to start the second book next week. I gave up on Cryptonomicon in frustration because more than 200 pages in, nothing had happened yet. I did manage to push past that point some months later and finished it, but it didn't exactly grab my attention and not let go. Quicksilver is much like that earlier book in that nothing happens, but for some reason I found this a much more entertaining version of nothing happening, as I think I mentioned earlier.


• The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman. I liked this, but I have to admit that it wasn't one of those "I have to stay up all night and finish this book" experiences. I also bought the second book in the series, but it ended up in a box and I haven't found it yet. I'm almost tempted to go buy another copy, as it will be faster and less of a headache than opening seventeen boxes to see if it's at the bottom. As a standalone book, I would find this disappointing; as the first volume of a trilogy though, I thought it was okay. I'll probably reserve judgement on the storyline until I've read all three books, which I do intend to do.


• Seduced by Moonlight, Laurell K. Hamilton. The latest Merry Gentry book; one long, extended kinky sex scene (not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you) interrupted with bits of sulking, angst and a couple of scenes that seem intended to try to move the story along. This was good brain candy * (because after all, who isn't into the idea of having a harem full of gorgeous fae?), but I would rate it below either of the previous two books. Again with the "nothing happens, really", at least nothing much related to advancing the plot. It does seem like things are being set up for a conclusion, but it ain't happening yet. Not intellectually taxing in the least, but definitely entertaining.
  
  * Heh, I have to agree with one of Amazon's reviews, which describes the Merry Gentry series thusly: ""It's the literary equivalent of cotton candy, but not the cheap stuff in the plastic bag. No, this is the really, really good kind you only get at the fair, pink and blue, soft, sweet, and mostly air. It won't replace a steak and potato dinner, but then, steak and potato won't replace cotton candy, if it's cotton candy you want."

Comments

Merry Gentry

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Did you see the "Iambe Pentameter" review of Seduced by Moonlight?

Re: Merry Gentry

[geekchick]

Nope, I didn't. Got a pointer?

[aroraborealis.livejournal.com]

I love the Pullman trilogy, although I've only read it once, so it has yet to stand up to the multiple-readings test. I'm hoping to find it in Spanish for the next go-round. I hope you like the rest :)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

"This is the story that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend"

I'll get you for that earworm! ;-)

Re: Merry Gentry

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Sent it to geekchick@ lj.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, I thought "The Amber Spyglass" did the best job as a stand-alone book.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Fairies having kinky sex? In a harem?! That just seems... wrong, somehow. (tries to imagine a horny Tinker Bell... or Cinderella's fairy godparents)

Re: Merry Gentry

[geekchick]

I think it must've fallen victim to my ISP's overzealous filtering. Could you resend to cathy@geekchick.org?

[geekchick]

I did enjoy it, but the ending just seemed to abrupt that it left me blinking for a bit until I remembered "oh yeah, two more books". Now if I could just figure out what box the second book ended up in, I'd be all set (since I'm about halfway through what I'm reading now and will be looking for something else soon).

[geekchick]

But it's true! Robert Jordan seems to be constitutionally unable to just Shut the F*** Up and Wrap Up the Story Already. ;)

[geekchick]

I actually liked the first one up until the ending, which seemed too abrupt to me (until I remembered "oh yeah, two more books").

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Heh. Never read any Jordan. I think maybe I'm tolerating Stephenson a little better, though, at least through Cryptonomicon. I haven't started Quicksilver yet, as I needed a break between heavy tomes. :-)

[geekchick]

Er, she doesn't write about the Disney version of fairies. =) (Read up a bit about the Unseelie Court.)

[geekchick]

With Jordan, the first few books in the series are really good and I found them very engaging. Unfortunately, it's an Epic[tm], and I thought that the quality started going downhill and stopped reading after the sixth book or so. Okay, maybe it wasn't the quality so much as my lack of patience with the plot stalling. I think he's up to book ten now (of supposedly thirteen, last I heard), all of which are at least five or six hundred pages and several are much longer than that. It's almost like he too is being paid by the word. ;) Had he wrapped things up in five or maybe six books, I'd've been happy.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Unseelie Court? Who's the author (assuming it is a novel)?

Even the Tolkien version of elves seemed pretty asexual to me... there was romantic tension, granted, but not lust per se.

I think that I internally classify most fantasy fiction into either "Disneyesque" or "Tolkienesque" buckets as an initial sorting filter... except for some of the Harlan Ellison-like stuff that read like visions from altered states...

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I worry that George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, as much as I love it so far (and if he ever does get the next one out), is going that route. Each one is longer than the previous, but they still move the plot well.

[geekchick]

Unseelie Court? Who's the author (assuming it is a novel)?

No, it's not a novel. Try this: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20021213a (Yeah, it's D&D info but will probably explain the idea of the Unseelie well enough.)

I think that I internally classify most fantasy fiction into either "Disneyesque" or "Tolkienesque" buckets as an initial sorting filter...

Heh. Laurell K. Hamilton's stuff shouldn't be classified under either of those.

[winterbadger]

Even the Tolkien version of elves seemed pretty asexual to me... there was romantic tension, granted, but not lust per se.

That's because JRRT was a good Anglo-Imperial writing Boys Own Paper "hero saves the day and clasps the wilting maiden to his breast" tosh. Actually, I give him points, considering his time and place, for having such a proactive and forceful heroine as Eowyn. They had to remake Arwen a lot in the movies to make her measure up (giving her Glorfindel's scene at the ford, frex), and she still seems a bit like a limp lily...

[winterbadger]

It was when he started recycling the bad guys that I gave up. Although he does have his good parts (including some rathe unexpectedly vivid D/s scenes that I think he even he didn't intend...)

[winterbadger]

Oh, dear hgeavens, just wait until you get to the end of the second book. Yes, its a trilogy, and it shows.

[winterbadger]

Laurell K. Hamilton's stuff shouldn't be classified under either of those.

Sounds, well, interesting. I'll have to give it a try.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Ah. I'm not a gamer and am unfamiliar with D&D worlds... thanks for the link, it was informative.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

(nods) actually, given no dating experience as a teenager, my concepts of relationships and courting were molded by JRRT and his books. Anything physical or lustful didn't really fit in, so I devalued them for years...

[geekchick]

I'm actually okay with that sort of ending, so long as the next book in the series is already out so I don't have to wait to read it. =)

[geekchick]

Well, she's not writing about D&D worlds either, it just seemed like a reasonable explanation of the difference between Seelie/Unseelie that appears in her books. You might pick up her "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter" series too; it's got a nice poly plotline running through it.

[geekchick]

Heh. From my .sig file, something I snagged from alt.poly a long time ago:

Movies like "Princess Bride" and "terminator" were my models for what it is suppose to be like to be in love. So I could not imagine a courtship with someone unless it involved ninjas and CIA agents.
- Scott McKinley

[geekchick]

Her Anita Blake series also has some pretty definite poly themes running through it, and there's also some stuff in at least one of the books that makes me think she's more kink-aware than one might imagine.