Stranger in Olondria (Satamar): Female author, POC characters! I wanted to like it, but the scenery was too lushly colored with richly descriptive mannered prose. Read two chapters and gave up.
Traitor in the Tunnel (Y.S. Lee): Respectably entertaining mystery, though suffers from Historical Accuracy Syndrome (Ladies Didn't Do Stuff In History) and Brooding YA Hero. Please stop writing romance into every young woman's story!!!
Red Rose Chain: another good read from Seanan McGuire. No women were overridden, unnecessarily romanced, or harmed in a gendered way in the making of this book.
Tower of Thorns (Marillier): less interesting than the first one in this series, not least because the heroine says "That ridiculous choice I made once? Let me do it a few more times." Ummmm.
Owl and the Japanese Circus/ City of Angels (Charish): entertaining fantasy/mystery. Heroine also fails to learn from experience, but in a more plausible way. Plus, it's fun and fluffy.
Chapelwood (Priest). Too strange and violent for me; did not finish.
Penric's Demon (Bujold): Okay, and a moderately interesting short, but entire paragraphs feel like they were lifted from various other novels.
Burned (Jacka): Another solid entry in a great series (urban fantasy, heavy on the fantasy, not too 'gritty'). Writer is male, but women do many things. The ending was a little unsatisfying but more to come, presumably.
Study in Ashes (Holloway): Couldn't finish. Too much angst and wandering around.
Goddess with a Blade: Bored, didn't finish, I don't even remember why.
Murder at the Brightwell (Weaver): Tolerably decent mystery, nothing to write home about, did not guess murderer. Not violent.
Magic Stars (Andrews): Not Good. A big step away from the plot-driven previous stories in the series and into later Laurell Hamilton-style very detailed violence, with 50% less interesting happenings. Please, make it stop.
"Too much angst and wandering around." sometimes describes my own life, so I definitely don't want to read it. Thank you for these! I read the Steerswoman series described in one of your posts and really enjoyed it, so you are now my go-to source. Totally agree about Tower of Thorns... Am about to be on a very long plane ride, so definitely need some ideas to save me from airport books.
ReplyDeleteWe here at Bored Housewives Inc. aim to please and entertain. :). I read your rec too (goblin emperor!) and enjoyed it.
DeleteStranger in Olondria (Satamar): totally agree with you, glad someone else felt like this as other people I respect RAVED about this, and I usually LIKE description...
ReplyDeleteThere was just... so... much... description. Nope.
DeleteThere was just... so... much... description. Nope.
Delete