May 2006 books

[jinian]

The Mount, Carol Emshwiller. Very realistically alien humans. Aliens too. This is short, strange, and wonderful; read it now.

The Beginning Place, Ursula K. Le Guin. I hadn't read this before, and wanted to read rachelmanija's and the_red_shoes' discussions about it. It's a very symbolic and confusing coming-of-age story, perfect for the kind of close analysis they're doing. Great stuff.
Chapter 1, Chapter 1 some more,
Chapter 2,
Chapter 3, with more promised for sometime.

The Shortest Way to Hades, Sara Caudwell. Not quite as much fun as Thus Was Adonis Murdered, this was also a good, snarky, scholarly murder mystery at an epistolary remove.

Magic Lessons, Justine Larbalestier. Enh. Maybe second-book slump, maybe just PMS, but I couldn't get into this at all. More problems appear with no hint of how anyone is going to solve them, if that's even possible, and Reason is set up as a problem-solver but there's no apparent basis for that except her liking math.

Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge. Some pop-culture groaners, overall enjoyable but reminiscent of The Big U in terms of plot. I did like the character development in Robert, though. (If Vinge is a full-time author now, why is he not writing more books than this? Hmph.)

Faking It, Jennifer Crusie. First reread. Still fun! Lying liars and con men and gold-diggers and art forgery and realistic mad families and readable sex, yay. (Finally returned this to its home, which is now in a different state.)

The Decoy Princess, Dawn Cook. I read this while exhausted and in pain, and it was remarkably good fluff. A likable protagonist, an interesting situation, a world that's not too fantasy-standard. I was a little sorry to find that there'll be a sequel, but I expect to read and enjoy it.

DEATHSTALKER CODA, Simon R. Green. Do not start on these books unless you have a very, very high tolerance for cardboard characters, faux-witty dialogue, and repetitive authorial tics. I say not to start because it was grabby! I had to finish, ugh, and it's a good thing I started with the third-to-last. To illustrate the predictability of the book, a couple of hours after finishing it I couldn't remember who had killed [spoiler], just that [spoiler] needed killing so it happened. (Also, I completely forgot to write down that I'd read the penultimate one, which was called Deathstalker Something-Else, but I must have done so.)

Lois and Clark: A Superman Novel, C.J. Cherryh. Sibs-out-law swore it was good and the only reason they were ditching it was that they had two copies. I thought it sucked. Granted, there were emotional shadings present, and the idea that there are minutiae in a superhero's life would probably be new and interesting to some people. For me, though, it was a dud, with none of the usual virtues of Cherryh. (The language was truly awful in places; I really wonder how much of it was edited to meet melodrama standards, because I just can't think that Cherryh committed these horrors.) Also, author pictures are a bad idea.

Mirabile, Janet Kagan. Wim found this! I've been looking in used places for ages! He read it first. But then I got to read it! Love love love Kagan's stuff. Ecology geekery this time instead of language geekery, which is almost as good. Why, oh why, does she not write more? And now I am OUT OF KAGAN, which is way worse than not having read Mirabile was.

The Vanished Child, Sarah Smith. From rachelmanija. Mainstream novel in which a man is mistaken for a child who disappeared many years ago and then asked to become involved in the family's inheritance struggle. Surprisingly compelling, especially his relationship with the young fiancee of one of the family.

First Truth, Dawn Cook. Much, much more typical half-decent fantasy than previous Cook -- level 0 mage girl has to go on quest to find school, is saved from trouble by cute bard guy, finds school but has problems with villain, amazing! -- but still fun, and she has to hit her stride sometime. [The rest of this quartet does, in fact, get way better.]

Poison Study, Maria V. Snyder. From sibs-out-law. As oyceter warns, this is not a dark novel. Maybe about 20% gray screen. But it's fun, if you can ignore the obvious places that angst should have appeared (main character seems pretty much fine with being kept as a poison-testing slave, no moral problems or internal conflicts with liking her master here!) and doesn't.

Mister Boots, Carol Emshwiller. Belonged to boxofdelights. Deeply peculiar magic realism, with light gender transgression and shapechanging, but not very compelling to me.

His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik. (boxofdelights had this, and it made a fine thing to read by the lake at 5 on Saturday morning.) Has DRAGONS in. Temeraire is a really, really good dragon, too, and I love the way the very staid Lawrence adores his weird dragon right off the bat, despite the consequences to his entire life of this bizarre commitment to an alien partner. Warning: Books two and three are out, but there is a cliffhanger at the end of them. I don't know if Novik is going for Patrick O'Brien series length as well as something of the same feel, but watch out, there's clearly a lot still to write about here.

Carmen Dog, Carol Emshwiller. Started with boxofdelights' copy, but had to buy my own halfway through because I require one to keep. Previous summary from Wiscon reportlet: Wanted to read for ages, started with boxofdelights' copy and had to get my own. Simple and silly and lovely, about what happens when women start turning into animals and vice versa. I loved Pooch's poems and the way forgiveness was not even an issue.

Boys Over Flowers 16, Yoko Kamio. It is about time for this series to end, but it shows no signs of doing so.
Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For, Alison Bechdel. I think this also belonged to boxofdelights. I'd read most of the strips on the web, but was surprised by the book-exclusive (I think) ending.
Naruto 5-6. There is Sakura characterization payoff!! And some boys or something. I really like Rock Lee.
Nausicaa 2-4, Hayao Miyazaki. The library ordered volumes 5-7 with gratifying haste when I mailed them to say this was not the end.
Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness (SP3), Bryan Lee O'Malley. SO TOTALLY THE BEST SCOTT PILGRIM YET. If this goes on, I will likely implode due to awesomeness around volume 5. (I love that there's a Wikipedia article on Scott Pilgrim.) (Oh, crap, there was free SP on Free Comic Book Day! I missed it! Ebay!)
Yotsuba& 3, Kiyohiko Azuma. Not quite as absurd as volume 2, but it has the Azuma nature and it is good. Several laugh-out-loud moments.