2018 books: 21 - 27

[the_siobhan]

I'm definitely not going to hit 100 this year. I'm using the bus for my Duolingo time, which has really cut into how much I'm reading on a weekly basis.

Since I'm not currently culling books, I decided to go back to the "read a few good books followed by a less good book" strategy from last year. I think it's working, I'm find I'm getting better at picking out exactly what I'm reacting to when I decided I don't like a piece of my own writing.

And no matter how much I hate a book, they have fans. So there's that, too.




The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun by NK Jemisin

I love this woman's writing so much.

Reading Jemisin is amazing for my motivation, because although she is a fabulous writer, she is also one that feels entirely accessible. A friend posted once that she reads Jemisin's books and thinks that someday, with enough work, she could write that well. I really get that. Where she would be much harder to equal is in her world-building. Entire complex, multi-faceted universes built on completely different principles, and populated with equally complex but fallable people.

In the universe of The Dreamblood books, magic comes from dreams. Most of the story takes place in the city-state of Gujaareh where the priesthood are responsible for gathering dream energy and channeling it for healing and protection. But where there is power there is inevitably corruption and people who want to use it for their own ends. Plot ensues.




The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin

The setting of The Broken Earth trilogy is even more alien. It takes place on a world that experiences frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The "fifth season" of the first book's title refers to periodic global winters caused by ash blocking out the sun, sometimes for hundreds of years.

A small percentage of people called "orogenes" are born with the ability to control tectonic movement to varying degrees. An orogene without full control of their powers can easily kill people by accident, so they are feared and hated and the only good orogene is considered to be an enslaved and controlled orogene. An entire society based on subjugation and control of some of it's members is not an inherently stable society so eventually shit goes sideways.

These are both fantastic series and I highly recommend them both. And apparently The Fifth Season has been optioned for TV treatment so I have my fingers crossed that they can do it justice.

    

Hidden by Meg Jensen So this one starts off in a village cut off from the outside world by a thick layer of fog. Anybody who goes into the fog doesn't come out again. I once wrote a short story based on the same idea so I was curious to see what she did with it. As it turns out the fog was a magic spell cast to guard the town and area against the neighbouring "dragonlords" who wanted to conquer it. The good part: The writer has a few interesting ideas in here - what happens when a society is isolated for several generations, some political intrigue, and what was most interesting to me, a ruling class that is secretly a whole different species.

The bad part: Her writing is so so bad. Repetitive, clunky, the scenes that are supposed to build sexual tension just made me cringe. The freebie from BookBub was for the first three books of the series and I barely finished the first one. So I will never know if she manages to to go to interesting places with those ideas.

    

Driven by Eve Kenin You typical society-has-revived-in-the-wake-of-the-apocalyse-and-it's-still-being-run-by-assholes scenario. This time our plucky heroine fights to survive a frozen wasteland where truckers are the only access to food and supplies. She she's going up against government thugs in trucks and ice pirates also in trucks and falling in with the group of stalwart rebels (in trucks) in spite of a lifetime of relying only on herself. So she's basically Han Solo but without a wookie. The good part: Really what's not to love about this entire concept? And she's actually not a bad writer, a little too much tell rather than show but still entirely readable, especially after the dragon thing.

The bad part: It's essentially a romance. Which in itself isn't a bad thing - I've read some really engaging romances. But 95% of the text is her obsessing about the love interest dude and I get it already, hot as balls, seriously shut up. Ramp actual plot up another 10-15% and you would have an entirely readable book, but if I have to wade through one more three-page screed banging on about "she must be losing her mind, what is she thinking even giving this guy a second look, oh hey, he's breathing so sexily with his big muscle-y breathing muscles" and I will fucking hurl.

So a bit of a mixed bag there.

Comments

[sabotabby]

Every word N.K. Jemisin writes is fucking gold. That is all.

[50ftqueenie]

I owe you big time for introducing me to NK Jemisin. I have in turn lent her books to other people, who have also loved them.