lady_ragnell (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lady_ragnell) wrote2022-04-14 12:14 pm
lady_ragnell) wrote2022-04-14 12:14 pm
2022 Books, Post 6
Haven't had the brain to read a lot of the things that I desperately want to read, so this has a slightly higher density of rereads than usual, but there are some good new ones in there too!
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
Continuing on with Murderbot! Once I saw a post saying that this series is all about deus ex machina from the POV of the deus ex machina (should the first one be dei ex machina? Can you/ought you pluralize that?), and I feel like this novella is where that peaks, it's amazing to imagine this book from any of the other characters' points of view.
The Unexpected Wife by Jess Michaels
Historical romance in which a woman is told that her husband died ... at the very same moment where she is told that he was also married to two other women and that thus her marriage to him was illegal due to bigamy. (Why yes, this is the first in a series and the other two wives get their own books.) This one was actually really nice! I hadn't read any Michaels before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I did like it for the most part, even if it spent more time than I would have liked setting up the romances for the next two books. I do intend to read the other two books, though!
Clockwork Boys & The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher
Two books, but they're a VERY closely-related duology and I read them one right after another, so I'll talk about them together! T. Kingfisher is just a delightfully competent writer. She knows what she likes and knows how to accomplish it, with humor and style and at least one moment per book that makes me go "ah, right, she also writes horror." That said, these aren't her strongest in this world--she's really deepened the worldbuilding since this duology, and since I'm reading this world all out of order it felt like a bit of a step back. And also I'm sulking because they really ought to have been poly and they weren't, rude. (Not that it was ever even a remote possibility, especially when how things ended up was very well telegraphed indeed, it's just that the chemistry between all three was very good.)
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
I wanted to read in chronological as opposed to publishing order this time! There's a lot of good in this one--an excellent, fast-paced plot, some good moments for Ratthi and for Gurathin, both of whom I love for very different reasons, further worldbuilding--but what really sticks with me from it is Murderbot's feelings on other bots and constructs, specifically the ones here as a continuation of its feelings about Miki. Wells does a really good job drawing all of that out.
Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter
Contemporary romance, and I really wanted to like it, because I do love a convoluted identity porn romance and complications brought on by the "you're my sibling's best friend" trope, but this one was, at best, forgettable. It continues something that I've seen in a few contemporaries lately and that I hate, where the heroine's parents are shitty for one reason or another but that never gets dealt with, and it's fine, her parents love the hero better, ha ha. So that turned me off in a major way, and then the heroine is a Disaster Person, they just seem to Happen around her, and that really annoys me as a character flaw in the same way that "Bella Swan is adorably clumsy" annoyed me in the Twilight years. (Actually, this having started its life as Twilight fic would make sense with the way a few things work, hmm. Like, no shade for going pro with your fic! I just wonder.) Anyway, just a lot of things rubbed me the wrong way in this one. I haven't had the best luck with contemporaries recently!
Silk & Steel ed. Janine A. Southard
A short story anthology I'd been meaning to read for a while that I finally spent the money on as reward for getting through my show! Anyway, while I've been reading All The SFF Romance, I've been feeling a very sad lack of sapphic books in that, so I was overjoyed to get to read through a whole anthology that is very precisely just what I've been missing. As with any anthology, there were stories I liked more and those that didn't do as much for me, but it was quite a high rate of me enjoying them! I think perhaps my favorite might have been Bartlett's story? But de Bodard and Mace were pretty high up there as well, and Marske.
Network Effect by Martha Wells
I just truly love this book past the telling of it, not least because there are several moments that are some of my favorite beats when they get used in romances (mainly the "the person I care deeply about is in severe danger or perhaps already dead and I am going to rain destruction about it," what I would not give for ART's POV on parts of this book) that here get to be used for platonic relationships that are just as important as any romance! It's wonderful and some very good craft and just very iddy indeed for me. I really need to go back and read more of Wells's earlier work.
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
I've been meaning to read more McGuire, and when this came up as tor.com's free read for March, I was delighted for the chance to grab it! This books is so cleverly written and structured, with the resets and all, how it kept some mystery while still being very clear about what was going on. I think this book could really easily have been confusing and it wasn't, which is high praise given the complexity! That doesn't mean it was wholly to my taste (high body count, and also someone needs to make a handshake meme for Kingfisher and McGuire with "reminding us that they're also horror novelists in non-horror books" in the middle, and also there's at least one death that's very bullshit), but overall I'm very glad I picked it up and read it, and I'll keep picking away at McGuire bit by bit.
Someone to Cherish by Mary Balogh
I needed a good cozy reread on a rainy day, and this is the one I hit upon! The last romance in Balogh's most recent long series (aside from a companion book that's not in the series but not NOT in the series, if you know what I mean. There's supposed to be one more of those and I am crossing my fingers about it, because she's half-hinted about who the love interest might be and I think it would be perfect), and it does a good job of balancing the current romance with showing how everybody else the books have been about are happily living in their own epilogues. Which I appreciate, some books tip too far one way or another on that, I think. I do think this isn't one you want to read before you've read the rest of the series, though, it's a nice fairly quiet love story but it relies a whole lot on the books that came before.
I'm out of town for a long weekend, which means either I'll read very little or a whole lot, so we'll see how that impacts the speed of my next post! In the meantime: questions? Comments? Recommendations?
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
Continuing on with Murderbot! Once I saw a post saying that this series is all about deus ex machina from the POV of the deus ex machina (should the first one be dei ex machina? Can you/ought you pluralize that?), and I feel like this novella is where that peaks, it's amazing to imagine this book from any of the other characters' points of view.
The Unexpected Wife by Jess Michaels
Historical romance in which a woman is told that her husband died ... at the very same moment where she is told that he was also married to two other women and that thus her marriage to him was illegal due to bigamy. (Why yes, this is the first in a series and the other two wives get their own books.) This one was actually really nice! I hadn't read any Michaels before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I did like it for the most part, even if it spent more time than I would have liked setting up the romances for the next two books. I do intend to read the other two books, though!
Clockwork Boys & The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher
Two books, but they're a VERY closely-related duology and I read them one right after another, so I'll talk about them together! T. Kingfisher is just a delightfully competent writer. She knows what she likes and knows how to accomplish it, with humor and style and at least one moment per book that makes me go "ah, right, she also writes horror." That said, these aren't her strongest in this world--she's really deepened the worldbuilding since this duology, and since I'm reading this world all out of order it felt like a bit of a step back. And also I'm sulking because they really ought to have been poly and they weren't, rude. (Not that it was ever even a remote possibility, especially when how things ended up was very well telegraphed indeed, it's just that the chemistry between all three was very good.)
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
I wanted to read in chronological as opposed to publishing order this time! There's a lot of good in this one--an excellent, fast-paced plot, some good moments for Ratthi and for Gurathin, both of whom I love for very different reasons, further worldbuilding--but what really sticks with me from it is Murderbot's feelings on other bots and constructs, specifically the ones here as a continuation of its feelings about Miki. Wells does a really good job drawing all of that out.
Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter
Contemporary romance, and I really wanted to like it, because I do love a convoluted identity porn romance and complications brought on by the "you're my sibling's best friend" trope, but this one was, at best, forgettable. It continues something that I've seen in a few contemporaries lately and that I hate, where the heroine's parents are shitty for one reason or another but that never gets dealt with, and it's fine, her parents love the hero better, ha ha. So that turned me off in a major way, and then the heroine is a Disaster Person, they just seem to Happen around her, and that really annoys me as a character flaw in the same way that "Bella Swan is adorably clumsy" annoyed me in the Twilight years. (Actually, this having started its life as Twilight fic would make sense with the way a few things work, hmm. Like, no shade for going pro with your fic! I just wonder.) Anyway, just a lot of things rubbed me the wrong way in this one. I haven't had the best luck with contemporaries recently!
Silk & Steel ed. Janine A. Southard
A short story anthology I'd been meaning to read for a while that I finally spent the money on as reward for getting through my show! Anyway, while I've been reading All The SFF Romance, I've been feeling a very sad lack of sapphic books in that, so I was overjoyed to get to read through a whole anthology that is very precisely just what I've been missing. As with any anthology, there were stories I liked more and those that didn't do as much for me, but it was quite a high rate of me enjoying them! I think perhaps my favorite might have been Bartlett's story? But de Bodard and Mace were pretty high up there as well, and Marske.
Network Effect by Martha Wells
I just truly love this book past the telling of it, not least because there are several moments that are some of my favorite beats when they get used in romances (mainly the "the person I care deeply about is in severe danger or perhaps already dead and I am going to rain destruction about it," what I would not give for ART's POV on parts of this book) that here get to be used for platonic relationships that are just as important as any romance! It's wonderful and some very good craft and just very iddy indeed for me. I really need to go back and read more of Wells's earlier work.
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
I've been meaning to read more McGuire, and when this came up as tor.com's free read for March, I was delighted for the chance to grab it! This books is so cleverly written and structured, with the resets and all, how it kept some mystery while still being very clear about what was going on. I think this book could really easily have been confusing and it wasn't, which is high praise given the complexity! That doesn't mean it was wholly to my taste (high body count, and also someone needs to make a handshake meme for Kingfisher and McGuire with "reminding us that they're also horror novelists in non-horror books" in the middle, and also there's at least one death that's very bullshit), but overall I'm very glad I picked it up and read it, and I'll keep picking away at McGuire bit by bit.
Someone to Cherish by Mary Balogh
I needed a good cozy reread on a rainy day, and this is the one I hit upon! The last romance in Balogh's most recent long series (aside from a companion book that's not in the series but not NOT in the series, if you know what I mean. There's supposed to be one more of those and I am crossing my fingers about it, because she's half-hinted about who the love interest might be and I think it would be perfect), and it does a good job of balancing the current romance with showing how everybody else the books have been about are happily living in their own epilogues. Which I appreciate, some books tip too far one way or another on that, I think. I do think this isn't one you want to read before you've read the rest of the series, though, it's a nice fairly quiet love story but it relies a whole lot on the books that came before.
I'm out of town for a long weekend, which means either I'll read very little or a whole lot, so we'll see how that impacts the speed of my next post! In the meantime: questions? Comments? Recommendations?
no subject
I also enjoyed Middlegame, because as you say that is some very well-executed plotting which could so easily have gone off the rails. The Jess Michaels looks very appealing, I'll have to see if my library has a copy.
And congrats on finishing your production! I'm currently in the throes of packing up for a big move after a decade in my flat. No prizes for guessing how often I've sat down to box up books and gotten sidetracked...!
no subject
Middlegame is just so clearly someone in full control of her craft in a way that's a delight to read! So glad I gave it a chance after being a bit dubious. And yes, the Michaels! It's not game-changing, but it's a really good cozy read and I do recommend it.
And oh gosh, packing up a decade of life is certainly anything but easy! I wish you luck, and lots of time to read and relax once you've finished unpacking, the way I have been after my show.
no subject
no subject
Due to the short story of it all, a few more of them are established relationships than I tend to prefer, but I think that was the only qualm I really had, and it's very much a YMMV thing!