Daughter of the Blood (Bishop): starts off with a bang! Ritual rape and first-page violence. A record for how few pages I read (three) before giving up. NOPE.
Truthwitch: Heroine couldn't decide if she was intelligent or impulsive. Also mandatory falling in love with hero figure. Bored, DNF.
Mairelon the Magician/ The Magician's Ward (Wrede): A little dude-heavy on the first one, but the second is fantastic and has a saucy mother. I'd forgotten how much I liked them! (Reread.) How to do 'set in Victorian England' and still have ladies do stuff. A favorite line: "Lady Wendall has always had a reputation for... originality, even before the curried snails in aspic."
Disenchanted & co: Great premise, mediocre execution. Heroine is inconsistent until the last few chapters. Also there is random porn inserted (hah) here and there and a literal deus ex machina, which I always find irritating.
Grand Sophy (Heyer): My favorite Heyer of all, probably because Sophy doesn't give a fuck for social conventions. The 'crush you in my arms' ending could, as always, go.
Library at Mount Char: Well written but too violent and disturbing for me. First 40 pages feature violence, reanimation, violent abuse, maggots, and two messy, violent, graphic deaths. DNF.
Secrets of Drearcliffe Grange School: Very strange and a bit self-consciously precious, but enjoyably strange. Recommend.
Wireless (Stross): Tried to re-read while feverish. Do not do this; you will have nightmares of tentacled horrors abducting you to strange alien planets. With termites. (Great book otherwise but above-average disturbing.)
Frostfire (Viehl): Terribly boring. DNF.
What have you been reading?
Garth Nix. I'm trying to get C1 to read Sabriel, but I think he's worried about the undead villains. I've checked out the new one, Clariel, but haven't started it yet.
ReplyDeleteI read Clariel last year! (I liked it but didn't love it.)
DeleteI read Clariel a few months ago, and it was my first of the Nix books. It has remained my favorite, but I suspect that any one that I read first would've been my favorite, because they're all so...predictable. Finished up Sabriel a few weeks ago, was rather meh about it.
DeleteYou might like Sorcery and Cecilia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot; or The College of Magics.
ReplyDeleteI also liked Kitchens of the Great Midwest
Read the first two years ago! The Kitchens one sounds interesting!
DeleteThe Farseer Trilogy (Robin Hobb). Just finished the second one and still enjoying the tormented hero.
ReplyDeleteI've liked most of that (very long) series though I personally never got into the Dragon Traders series. Also! Female author! (Took me an embarrassingly long time to realize esp as one of fave authors is Robin McKinley.)
DeleteWow, between the post and the comments you've hit a good number of my all time favorites! Mairelon the Magician/The Magician's Ward, The Hero and the Crown, and The Farseer Trilogy. I really like Robin Hobb, but the husband couldn't finish it. He thought there was too much "kick him when he's down."
ReplyDelete