Monthly Roundup: September 2015

So I spent the majority of the summer imitating a toddler going, "I DON'T WAAANNNAA". It was hot, the house was falling apart, everything sucked, and dammit I just didn't waaaannnaaa.

Now that it's cooled off and my garden has died back, I feel like an adult once more. I also started a new job in August that switched me back to day shift, consequently knocking me on my ass as far as my sleep schedule, so there's been a lot of residual crankiness in that department too. Suffice to say, I'm feeling a bit kinder towards the authors I'm reading at this time.

Here's some quick thoughts on books I read these last few months:

Writing Fiction - Janet Burroway
Nonfiction
I had this book recommended to me as part of the Writers in Paradise conference as a great reference text on crafting fiction. On the one hand, I do see how this kind of thing is helpful and contains a lot of good information. On the other? It's a slog, and while the info seems really good and helpful when you read it, for me it's not so easy to retain that information and apply it to my own works. It's one thing to think in the abstract and say, "A character needs contradictions to be three dimensional!" and another to apply that to creating your own characters. My own process often feels so nebulous and meandering, and things just kind of seem to happen or they don't. These are things that are, maybe, better applied during an editing phase than a first draft. I still firmly believe that the most important thing about a first draft is to just word vomit it all out and clean it up later, and that's worked ok for me so far. Now that I'm on, say, a third draft of a big project and it's morphed into a completely different beast from what it started as, these are things I want to keep in the back of my mind but not allow to take over. Good reference, I'll probably keep it around, but I'm conflicted on exactly how much it'll help.

Assholes: A Theory - Aaron James
Nonfiction
Another nonfiction book. I thought this would be a semi-humorous look at why assholes are assholes and strategies to manage their assholeness, but it falls far short of it's promised premise. This seems like an idea that started off really interesting, but would have benefited from handing the first draft to an actual writer. James is circular and monotonous, even when tongue-in-cheek, so that the whole thing just reads like a college freshman's philosophy text. It lacks general accessibility and  readability, which I think would have benefited from someone who could make it more palatable to an average reader.

Voices in the Night - Steven Millhauser
Magical realism
 A collection of short stories that was recommended to me by a writerly friend. It started off very interesting, but quickly fell into a rote pattern--Story is set in Small Town, where Something Weird is happening, but it's totally Normal, even as it is Weird. Relies heavily on American nostalgia and a sense of oddity, which I do like, but not as a pattern. The first half of the book just all felt vaguely similar, and then we got to a retelling of Rapunzel where we dive into the main characters' heads in a rotating turn, which just didn't grab me, and the same goes for a hyperbolic Paul Bunyan short that went on much, much too long. Short stories are difficult, I imagine, to not fall into these traps. Still, I enjoy the sense of magical realism and oddity in each setting, something I want to pull into my own work.

Glamour in Glass - Mary Robinette Kowal
Alternate history, fantasy
 The second in Kowal's Glamourist Histories series, Glamour in Glass follows the now-married couple Jane and Mr. Vincent in Brussels. They develop some neat new glamour techniques, and then get caught up in the Napoleonic wars. At one point, Jane has to use all her wits and techniques at her disposal to rescue her husband. Again I like the worldbuilding and the magic system, which Kowal establishes very well. The relationship between the two isn't particularly compelling, with lots of misunderstandings and such that makes it seem like they don't really understand each other much at all, and doesn't make them seem like a particularly close couple. Just didn't work for me as well as it could have, but as a whole it works well enough that I'll continue to follow the series.

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover - Sarah MacLean
Romance
I've never given romance novels much stock, honestly, especially historical ones. I love historical novels, but historical romances seem to love to throw accuracy to the side in favor of bodice-ripping, and it irritates me to no end. I thought I'd give the genre another chance when MacLean was recommended to me, and this is the second in her Rule of Scoundrels series. They're not bad, if you set your expectations for accuracy low, though I have to say her tendency to make dramatically short sentences/paragraphs is rather grating. It's a style affectation, but I don't care for it. It sticks out like a sore thumb when reading, and I feel like writing styles should be subtler than that. If it trips up a reader, it's too much, girl. But overall, some fun and funny characters, even if the constant harping on their stock personality traits (We get it, Penny is a scientist. She doesn't understand love. She needs to study it and conduct experiments and gets herself into hilarious(!) situations because of it. Enough.) gets overwhelming. At least it's a fast read.

The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Fantasy
It's hard for me to really make up my mind about this book. On the one hand, it plays in such stock fantasy tropes: beautiful elves! A half-breed prince suddenly thrust into a ruling position! Evil stepmothers! Pseudo-medieval speech patterns! Even the names are a bit over-syllabic. And the main character, despite being raised far from civilization and barely educated, manages to do nearly everything right without any realistic missteps. Yet for all that, it still wormed its way into my heart. It's a decent read, if not spectacular. I'm just rather burnt out on elves and royalty.

Texts from Jane Eyre - Mallory Ortberg
Humor
Simply brilliant. Enough said. Re-imagining classic stories through the medium of text (and a dark sense of humor), with references only book nerds will truly understand. Poe can't leave the house because a bird is looking at him, Emily Dickinson is concerned about the man who is definitely snakes, and Hamlet needs his mom to bring him a tuna fish sandwich WITHOUT THE LITTLE CRUNCHY THINGS. Read it and rejoice. Or weep. Whatever.

Raising the Stones - Sheri S. Tepper
Science fiction
This book has long been on my top list for science fiction. There's just something about it that really stuck to me, and, as a pretty avowed atheist, I find it's story of religion-gone-wrong and it's Hobbs Land Gods to be really compelling. A God that works, huh? A God that actually helps people get along, be happier, weeds out the bad seeds, helps them produce more (important on a farming planet!), and helps them communicate. And protects them from threats. This book is the second in a series, of which I have never read the first, but I'm told they aren't really related in story so much as taking place in the same universe, so it's an easy book to drop into the series with. This re-read proves no exception: Tepper is a thumbs-up.

The Magic Wars - Jo Clayton
Fantasy
I've previously talked about the book that got me into fantasy as a child, and how little it held up through the years. This is, finally, the third book in the series, that I found by accident at Half Price Books. I slogged through the others, but I gave up halfway through this book- once the magus falls through the dimensions and lands in Alice's Wonderland tea party, my disbelief is a little far stretched. The writing's not great anyway, and the formatting is annoying. Over it.

So that brings me up to the present time. I'll be trying to get back into the habit of posting about each book as I finish it to continue my dive into understanding what works and what doesn't.

What's coming up for October? Biggest of all: NerdCon Stories, of course. Helpfully based here in Minneapolis, many of my all-time favorite authors are coming to the Minneapolis Convention Center to tell some stories and talk about stories and sell some stories and sign some stories. People like the whole Nightvale podcast crew, John Green, John Scalzi, Maggie Stiefvater, Mara Wilson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Matt de la Pena, Nalo Hopkinson, Paolo Bacigalupi, Patrick Rothfuss and more. I'm going to get so many books signed, you have no idea.

Komarr - Lois McMaster Bujold

Back aboard the Vorkosigan train! I've done a lot of posts on the Vorkosigan and Temeraire series lately, and it may be getting a little repetitive/boring. After all, what new things can I say about the same authors, over and over again? I do try to pick out something new to talk about with each book, even if it ends up being a relatively short post. With the Temeraire series I like to look at how Novik's writing evolves over time, but Bujold has been writing since 1986, whereas Novik's only broken into the mainstream in 2006. A woman with almost thirty years of writing experience is probably at the top of her game, so it's hard to look for the 'improvement' with each book (besides, Vorkosigan was written completely out of chronological order so it's more difficult to see any kind of improvement arc). Maybe I use Bujold's books to analyze what's done right as far as plotting goes. And maybe it's just a nice escape into a world with characters that I really care for.

Komarr sees Miles Vorkosigan on his first assignment as an official Imperial Auditor (technically the ImpSec incident was the first-first assignment, but this is the first after really being assigned the office on a permanent basis). He travels to the planet Komarr with another auditor, to investigate an accident where a ship crashed into a solar array over the planet, and determine if it was deliberate sabotage or not. Naturally, in the vein of Vorkosigan's life, things quickly get complicated. It's also the first time we meet Ekaterin Vorsoisson, who--because I don't believe in spoilers and read some wikis to find out if Miles ever, ever is lucky in love--will eventually become Miles' wife. It's a bit of a thrill to see such an interesting character and know that one day he'll get to have a successful relationship. It's not the point of the book, but when you get attached to a character that is so perennially unlucky--even when he gets lucky!--with the ladies, it's comforting to see him find some happiness.

This is going to end up being one of those short posts.There's just not a lot left for me to say about Bujold short of raving about her characterization and clever dialogue, which I do every time. It's another solid entry in the Vorkosigan series that reliably leaves me asking "What next?"

Realistically I should probably leave the Vorkosigan series for a bit so my posts don't all become this predictable, but it's haaaaaard.

She rested her chin in her hand, and regarded him; her brows quirked in quizzical delight. "Lord Vorkosigan. Can I take a number and get in line?"
Whatever it was he'd been expecting her to say, it wasn't that; he was so taken aback he nearly fell off his chair. Wait, she hadn't meant it to come out sounding quite like--His smile stuck in the on position, but decidedly sideways.
"The next number up," he breathed, "is 'one.'"

Overall: 4 stars

Amazon: Komarr

More reviews: Komarr on Librarything (Average 4.26 stars)

Komarr on Goodreads (Average 4.27 stars)

I wonder who that's supposed to be?

Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik

Returning to the world of Temeraire like an old friend, we pick up in Empire of Ivory with every dragon in Britain--save Temeraire himself--suffering the effects of the dragon plague. Many have already died, leaving the Corps in dire straits. When Temeraire is exposed, but does not sicken, they begin to wonder if his earlier cold, cured by mushrooms at the Cape on their journey to China, may have been along the same lines. Laurence and Temeraire, and others of their cohort still sick but marginally well enough to travel, head out on Riley's dragon transport ship again to try to recover the cure. Blah blah, things happen, eventually they find the mushrooms, but they also find a civilization in the African interior that again challenges Europe's notions of how dragons and humans must live together. Laurence and Temeraire's crew are taken captive, they rescue them, Capetown is attacked by the African dragons, the Europeans are driven out of Africa, but they return to Britain with the cure. The most interesting part of this book is when Laurence discovers that the military has sent a captured French dragon back to the French--after exposing it to the plague. Without the cure, thousands of dragons all over Europe will die, and so Temeraire and Laurence together decide to steal the cure and bring it to the French, in the hopes of staving off such utter destruction, rending both of them traitors.

This is... not the strongest of the Temeraire series. It's not bad, per se, it just feels like a stepping stone between bigger issues. The previous storylines were almost mandatory based on logical progression: Temeraire must fight in the war for Britain, China must eventually find out, he must return to them to figure out his place in the world, they must return to Britain, etc. This book more feels like an excuse to explore the alternate history culture of another continent, with the only real development plot point coming right at the very end of the book.

I get the commercial sense of having more books in a series (see also every goddamn YA trilogy that could be condensed into one) but it makes me wonder what this series would be like condensed into a more efficient form. I imagine there would be only four books, instead of the total of seven. I also imagine I might skim less pages of introspection and philosophy. I want the meat of the plot, the rest is just sauce.

Still, there are some rather clever moments with the characters that I enjoy, and it's not like I'm going to quit the series or anything. Clearly there's something working, even if I'm getting rather more sauce than meat.

"Jane," Laurnece said, "will you marry me?"
"Why, no, dear fellow," she said, looking up in surprise from the chair where she was drawing on her boots. "It would be a puzzle to give you orders, you know, if I had vowed to obey; it could hardly be comfortable. But it is very handsome of you to have offered," she added, and standing up kissed him heartily, before she put on her coat."

Overall: 3 stars

Amazon: Empire of Ivory

More reviews: Empire of Ivory on Librarything (Average 3.87 stars)

Empire of Ivory on Goodreads (Average 3.91 stars)

Shades of Milk and Honey - Mary Robinette Kowal

My relationship with e-books has had its ups and downs. Initially I was one of those squares who was all, "Real book 4eva! Smell of paper! Musty! Happy!" and then I moved five times and after lugging twenty plus boxes of books everywhere I began to rethink think my stance on seeing books as something to 'collect'. After that I got a Kobo and began exploring the world of free epubs, and eventually for convenience I've migrated to the Kindle app on my phone and computer. The convenience is undeniable: I only have to think of a book and I can find it on Amazon, purchase it in an instant, send it to my phone, and start reading. But as I learn more about some of Amazon's business practices, including the poor treatment of workers in their warehouses and the Amazon/Hatchett fiasco of yesteryear, I'm really considering changing my spending habits to focus more locally. It's a tough call, trying to weigh my consumer conscience with consumer convenience.

Long story short, this book is an example of why I'm just so hesitant to cut that convenience cord. I found this book solely through Amazon recommendations: Jane Austen plus magic? Count me in. It's like Temeraire (Napoleon plus dragons!) but from a lady perspective. And I am all about the lady perspective, being one myself.

So the main story of this book is about Jane and Melody Ellsworth, unmarried sisters of a fairly respectable family. A few cliches jump out at me here, particularly in that Jane is the plain but talented one, and Melody is the pretty but untalented one, and they each are jealous of the other for what they lack. Once you get past that, you've got a fairly Austen-esque story of love triangles, where Melody likes both Mr. Dunkirk and Captain Livingston, and both seem interested in her, but Jane also like Mr. Dunkirk, and Mr. Dunkirk's sister Elizabeth is interested in Captain Livingston, and then there's the artist Mr. Vincent who also is forming an attachment to one of these ladies, etc. etc. Add in a dash of glamour, magic used to create various illusions that is as important as painting or music to a lady's drawing room accomplishments.

The story is okay, but you really have to like that kind of thing to start with. Which I do! It's a niche that I fit neatly into, like people who like romance novels. My only real gripe is the characterization. Jane and Melody are fairly developed characters, but it's them we see the most of. The rest seem fairly flat, which may be due in part to our POV resting solely on Jane, and the restrictions of Regency society. The protocols of social interactions at the time so heavily emphasized propriety that it makes many of the interactions seem similar, and so it's realistic that a girl like Jane would not get to know the intricacies of Mr. Dunkirk or Mr. Vincent's personalities, and by consequence the reader, seeing through her eyes, would also see only what's on the surface. But it does leave our male heroes at a disadvantage because it's hard to root for one of them, when you're not emotionally connecting with any of them. A good romance is romancing the reader as much as the heroine, and without that connection, it's infinitely more difficult.

Also, once we got to the climax of the story, it and the resolution suddenly seemed to flow very quickly compared to the rest of the story. I had to go back and reread the climax to really understand what had happened, who had been shot, etc. and then it felt like within a very short span of time, the happily-ever-after was wrapped up in a nice little bow. It felt a little easy. I would have liked to see a few more obstacles to Jane's romance, after it was acknowledged. Writers are here to throw rocks at their characters: that's what we're here to see. I don't feel it diminished the story, necessarily, but perhaps was a missed opportunity.

But it's still one of those fun reads, a tasty little snack to fill the spaces between bigger, tougher books. I'll probably go on to read the rest of the series as well.

Overall: 3.5 stars

Amazon: Shades of Milk and Honey

More reviews: Shades of Milk and Honey on Librarything (Average 3.5 stars)

Shades of Milk and Honey on Goodreads (Average 3.51 stars)

Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer

When I started this book (available for 2.99 on Kindle at the time - I mean, why not? I'd heard of it.) a friend of mine, who read these books as the actual target audience (a child), implored me. "Don't compare it to Harry Potter," she said. "Just don't."

Inauspicious start.

I fully realize that this book is not written for a reader like myself. What's interesting is that we don't always seem to know who it IS written for: When I researching it to start with, all signs pointed towards Young Adult, but that's clearly incorrect. Young Adult features protagonists in the teenage range, maybe 15-17 or so, whereas Artemis is all of twelve. If anything, it's middle grade, and that's being generous to the writing style. Because the way the book patronizes the reader, I would expect it to be more for the lower end of such.

Seems a weird thing to say about a kids book: patronizing. But I'm serious. I think kids are a lot smarter than we necessarily give them credit for. This book lays everything down in such a heavyhanded manner that there's no room for nuance or inference, which I firmly believe kids CAN pick up on. You don't need a plot point beat into your face in quite the manner that Colfer does--with a mallet, over and over and over.

The characters are all extremely flat, and any dimension they might try to show feels forced. The worst offender is Artemis's mother, written like the author only has the barest glimmer of understanding of mental illness and disdained research, instead falling back on (in my opinion, damaging) stereotypes. Some of your readers might actually have family members with schizophrenia that don't remotely resemble the grab-bag of cliches that don't even apply to schizophrenia you assembled into Angeline Fowl. Not naming any names or anything.

On a more technical note, the POV shifts repeatedly in a single chapter, which is disorienting for a reader. Enough time needs to be spend in each POV to anchor the reader, or it feels like we're drifting all over the place. For this reason it can often be simpler, though by no means required, to stick to a single POV and eliminate the confusion.

So yes, in the vein of "Don't compare it to Harry Potter", I suppose that if I were not coming at this with a background of having read books before, it might fare better. But I don't think you should have to essentially not know any better to be able to enjoy a book if it's well-written. Like Harry Potter. Or Bridge to Terabithia. Or the entirety of the Redwall series, which is clearly written to a child's level and yet manages to not patronize. Hell, The Giver could arguably be middle grade too, if we're going based off of writing complexity and protagonist age, and it not only manages to use complicated and mature themes at kids' level but also uses a lot of inference instead of hammers-to-the-face. It can be done, well and often. Just not so much here.

Overall: 2 stars

Amazon: Artemis Fowl

More reviews: Artemis Fowl on Librarything (Average 3.75 stars)

Artemis Fowl on Goodreads (Average 3.79 stars)

Memory - Lois McMaster Bujold

So I've heard this idea here and there that some books enter your life just when you need them: I totally buy it. At least, I do now. First I talked about Serena, where I really envy the main character's ability to give-no-fucks and get what she wants (although, admittedly, I draw the line at murder). Now I identify heavily with Miles in this, the umpteenth book of Bujold's Vorkosigan series (seriously, I have no idea what number we're at). To explain this, I really have to get right into the meat of the plot.

In books previous to this incarnation, Miles was killed, cryogenically frozen, and reanimated, and still he suffers from some residual side effects of the resurrection process. He finds himself having seizures more and more often, and we open on a rescue mission going catastrophically wrong when Miles seizes while holding a plasma arc and accidentally amputates the legs of the very man he's supposed to be saving. He hadn't told the Dendarii, hoping to keep it secret, and though that cat's out of the bag he still hopes to keep it secret from Illyan and avoid a medical discharge from the Barrayaran military. So he lies on his report. Illyan, naturally, finds out, and does the only thing he can do: he fires Miles for falsifying reports.

Miles' life is completely falling apart, and we spend this book with him figuring out how, exactly, to deal with that, and the guilt of knowing he completely deserved for it to happen.

"Worse. I did that myself. I did it all to myself." - Miles

Why do I find this so personal? Well, I'm about doing the same thing to myself. I currently have a terrible boss at work, and the constant stress is really encouraging me to self-sabotage. For several months now I've felt like I'm watching my career circle the drain--and there's this sense of hopelessness, that I see reflected in Miles. How to go forward?

But, it naturally being a Bujold-written world, nothing can ever be uncomplicated. Illyan starts showing signs of rapid mental decline, and it's attributed to the memory chip in his brain failing. Miles believes that the failure is deliberate sabotage, but the acting head of ImpSec, Haroche, seems to be deliberately stepping in his way. Through a series of pushes where Miles explores his identity as Admiral Naismith vs Miles Vorkosigan, he ends up appointed as an Imperial Auditor, and swiftly unravels the sabotage, restoring balance to the Imperium. He earns his redemption, both internally and externally, as he figures out what it means to be Miles Vorkosigan again, and steps into the permanent role of Auditor, finding a new path forward in his life.

Again, I feel life imitating art: I received a great job offer recently that's also allowing me to continue my life forward on a different path. It's not the way I planned to go forward, but like Miles, I'm finding the opportunity in it.

I don't really have much more to add to this. Bujold is ever wonderful, Miles is ever engaging, Grover Gardner is ever a delight to listen to. I've mentioned previously how I intersperse my more difficult reads (whether because they actually require a higher reading skill or are just more boring) with fun reads, and Vorkosigan is like the equivalent of curling up with a blanket, hot tea and a warm fireplace. It's comforting, no matter how many times I go back to it.

"You have no mass and cannot move me. I'm tired, and I want my supper." - Miles

Overall: 4.5 stars

Amazon: Memory

More reviews: Memory on Librarything (Average 4.49 stars)

Memory on Goodreads (Average 4.42 stars)

Black Powder War - Naomi Novik

Welcome back to the Temeraire train! Still winding my way through a re-read so that I can pick up the latest book in the series right on the heels of the last. In Black Powder War we continue Temeraire and Laurence's journeys, leaving China after Laurence's adoption by the Chinese emperor when the pair receive urgent orders from home to return by way of Turkey and pick up some dragon eggs on the way (a bit like calling one's spouse to get eggs and milk on the way home, but much longer and with more danger). A lot of time in this book is spent traveling, which again, common to the previous books, does not much advance in the way of plot. They employ a guide named Tharkay who appears to be half British and half Mongolian, and implies a certain amount of suffering in consequence by the chip on his shoulder. They cross deserts and mountains, instigate an avalanche and befriend a large group of ferals, reach Turkey only to be denied the agreed-upon eggs, steal the eggs and flee (dropping one in the process, which I'll be honest, is pretty heartbreaking!). They get caught up in the war between France and Prussia, and Granby rather accidentally graduates to captain of a fire-breathing Kazilik from their Turkish eggs. Finally they arrive home, battered and bruised and worse for the wear, to find that all of Britain's dragons save themselves and the ferals they've brought along are sick with a plague and Britain's war effort is in serious danger.

Again the plot often seems as if nothing in particular is happening--there's a lot of flying, a lot of traveling, some waiting, some eating, some philosophizing. But you don't get to the third book in a series without knowing ahead of time that's what you're getting into, and must be okay with it at that point. Novik's got a talent for making that work.

But is this book that gives me the most egregious examples of terrible sentences. I give you:

Maden, who in his trade often served as a factor for British visitors, spoke excellent English, and his family also; they sat to table five, Maden's two sons being already established in their own homes; besides his wife only his daughter Sara remained at home, a young woman well out of the schoolroom: not yet thirty but old to be unmarried with so good a dowry as Maden seemed able to provide, and her looks and manner were pleasing if in a foreign mode, dark hair and brows striking against fair skin, very like her elegant mother.

That is one sentence. One sentence with two semicolons, one colon, and eight commas. I run out of breath just reading the thing. Semicolons are that tricky punctuation that everyone seems to love but few manage to use sparingly enough that they don't become obtrusively obnoxious. Let's boil it down very simply: try not to use them at all, but if you must, use them as little as possible. Periods are not the enemy. Ending sentences does not diminish your work. A period is a breath point, an internal signal for the brain to pause and catch itself; semicolons and commas do not give you that. Look, I just used one! Once.

Incidentally I've been reading about the semicolon tattoos recently and as an amateur punctuation fan I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I appreciate the message, but the metaphor doesn't carry. "A semicolon is used where the author could have ended a sentence and chose not to," so also apply that to your life. It's hard to criticize, because I think many would take it as criticizing the message, which I emphatically repeat that I am not. That said, any writer worth their salt would end that sentence with "...but they probably should have ended the sentence after all, really, because periods are important and semicolons are overused and overvalued."

Sigh. The life of a pedant.

Anyway. Another solid entry in the Temeraire series. I will note that for all my criticism I did not find these kinds of semicolon issues in Novik's most recent release Uprooted--or at least, they were few enough that they weren't obtrusive, which is really the goal. A writer can certainly (and probably should) improve their writing skill with each book as they learn more and more about their craft, so I do not lobby this as insults against Novik herself by any means. I still envy her ability to weave a story and hey, she's certainly doing better than I am!

Overall: 4 stars

Amazon: Black Powder War

More reviews: Black Powder War on Librarything (Average 3.84 stars)

Black Powder War on Goodreads (Average 3.89 stars)