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Books I've Read
Sep. 5th, 2010 01:05 pm-The Visitor, by Sheri S. Tepper. Again, I love Tepper's writing. This one is post-apocalypse with scientists and magic happening at the same time. Interesting premise, well-written, and the main characters are believable and kept me interested in them. A slight deus-ex-machina ending (...literally) but good. 8/10
-Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett. My favorite Discworld book ever. It makes me break out in squee. Miss Susan is, as ever, awesome; Lobsang and Jeremy are charmingly dysfunctional; and Lu-Tze is...adorable. I would cuddle him, but it would confuse him. Bonsai mountains! The incarnation of Time! Auditors! Chocolate! 10/10
-Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay. I keep seeing his stuff and being intimidated by the fact that he never writes anything under 500 pages and there are these huge hardcovers lurking on the shelves and eek. But this was engaging and wonderful. Tai, the main character, is sweet and kinda charming in an odd way; the setup of the court, and the political machinations, felt real to me; and the secondary characters and details were vivid and well-presented. The only complaint I have is that Kay expects the reader to remember tiny details from 200 pages ago so you get his in-jokes. Fun, and good for a long plane ride or something. 9/10
-Daughters of the Dolphin, by Roy Meyers. This is forty-year-old pulp scifi, which means that the only thing I can compare it to is Tarzan, a book I adore despite its many flaws (O HAI RACISM). (Tangent: While I was fine with the dinosaurs and the tailed people, I had to stop reading the Tarzan series somewhere between the doppelganger and the 'ant-men', because some things are just too silly.) This is the middle book of a trilogy, as far as I can tell, though I've never read the others, and while it's a perfectly good book to read while waiting at the laundromat, the flaws are manifold. First, can we have slightly less racism plz kthanx? Second, wow, sexism, we has it. Why would you assume that women raised by dolphins would give a good goddam for combs and mirrors? Or fancy clothes? Finally, while I have no objections whatsoever to threesomes in fiction or in real life, it does squick me a bit when the (heavily-hinted-at-but-never-appearing) eventual threesome turns out to be between the protagonist and his adopted daughters. Just...no. Abuse of authority squick, I has one. The protagonist is a bit of a Marty Sue, too - dolphin-strong, uber intelligent, and absurdly handsome, and probably immortal!!!11! So yeah...fun, I grant you that, but so, so wrong. 5/10
-Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett. My favorite Discworld book ever. It makes me break out in squee. Miss Susan is, as ever, awesome; Lobsang and Jeremy are charmingly dysfunctional; and Lu-Tze is...adorable. I would cuddle him, but it would confuse him. Bonsai mountains! The incarnation of Time! Auditors! Chocolate! 10/10
-Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay. I keep seeing his stuff and being intimidated by the fact that he never writes anything under 500 pages and there are these huge hardcovers lurking on the shelves and eek. But this was engaging and wonderful. Tai, the main character, is sweet and kinda charming in an odd way; the setup of the court, and the political machinations, felt real to me; and the secondary characters and details were vivid and well-presented. The only complaint I have is that Kay expects the reader to remember tiny details from 200 pages ago so you get his in-jokes. Fun, and good for a long plane ride or something. 9/10
-Daughters of the Dolphin, by Roy Meyers. This is forty-year-old pulp scifi, which means that the only thing I can compare it to is Tarzan, a book I adore despite its many flaws (O HAI RACISM). (Tangent: While I was fine with the dinosaurs and the tailed people, I had to stop reading the Tarzan series somewhere between the doppelganger and the 'ant-men', because some things are just too silly.) This is the middle book of a trilogy, as far as I can tell, though I've never read the others, and while it's a perfectly good book to read while waiting at the laundromat, the flaws are manifold. First, can we have slightly less racism plz kthanx? Second, wow, sexism, we has it. Why would you assume that women raised by dolphins would give a good goddam for combs and mirrors? Or fancy clothes? Finally, while I have no objections whatsoever to threesomes in fiction or in real life, it does squick me a bit when the (heavily-hinted-at-but-never-appearing) eventual threesome turns out to be between the protagonist and his adopted daughters. Just...no. Abuse of authority squick, I has one. The protagonist is a bit of a Marty Sue, too - dolphin-strong, uber intelligent, and absurdly handsome, and probably immortal!!!11! So yeah...fun, I grant you that, but so, so wrong. 5/10
