Books Read in January
Feb. 1st, 2009 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanalithReviews of books from January:
1.) Mercedes Lackey, The Black Swan
Swan Lake, but told from the point of view of Odile instead of Odette. In this version, each of Rothbart’s swans were women who were somehow false or betrayed their husbands. Odette, as their leader, is given the chance to win the heart of Price Siegfried, and she will free the whole flock if successful. Odile is their keeper, and instead of painting her in the traditional role of evil assistant, the book follows her transformation from a doting daughter to a master magician as she learns the truth behind her father’s manipulations.
My main problem with this book was that about half of it was not, in fact, about Odile, and instead focused on Prince Siegfried, and I rather hated him. In the beginning he was nothing but a weak, womanizing, drunk scumbag, and if I could have given five stars to the parts with Odile and only one to the rest, I would have, but there you have it. Odile was beautifully written, she was given a strong personality as a sorceress in her own right, and I empathized with her greatly as she tried to please her father, a man unable to be pleased. Odette was also much stronger in this version than the original story, and Siegfried became much more tolerable for the last hundred or so pages, once he met her, so at least the book ended on a good note. I’ve noticed in general that Mercedes Lackey is rather hit or miss with me, however, so I suppose I’d at least recommend it to her fans. She does write magic exceedingly well, it’s just her politics that tend to bore me, I think.
2.) Jean Sasson, Princess Sultana’s Circle
Third in a trilogy of supposedly true stories about the life of a Saudi Arabian princess and her quest to improve the rights of women in her country. I can’t exactly say that I enjoy reading these books, because they are always sad and often gruesome, but I’ve always had a feminist streak in me, so I do like learning about ways in which women attempt to advance themselves in male dominated societies. Sultana herself is a strong character, by no means perfect or even gentle, but her lively spirit is a joy to learn about. This particular installment was darker than the two previous, as Sultana was 40 years old, a growing alcoholic, and had become increasingly disillusioned with the lack of results she was having in her attempts to assist other women. She eventually comes to realize that her mission begins with helping one woman, and convincing that woman to help another woman, thus creating a circle of protection that would spiral outward and (hopefully) never end. I can’t say the story itself was uplifting, but her revelations at the end were.
I know some people are skeptical about these “true stories” of women in oppressed cultures, but I’ve always believed that, even if all the things written in the book didn’t actually happen to one single woman, they most assuredly happened to some woman somewhere, and that alone makes the reading worth it. If you want a very humanized account of the life of Saudi Arabian women, this trilogy is a good one, I think, especially when presented with Sultana’s own imperfections. She’s not a pure heroine sacrificing her entire wealth and position to help others. In fact, she bluntly states that she doubts she could do just that. But she has a good heart, and her message is a strong, solid one.
3.) Keith R.A. DeCandido, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Q & A
This was a bit of a disappointment for me, quite frankly, and it reminded me why I stopped reading Star Trek books. I only picked it up because it was Q-centric (despite the lack of Peter David authorship) and I’m still a sucker for anything with Q. I only really scored the book as high as I did because the characterizations were, for the most part, well done. I think Worf was the only one who was rather OOC – at the risk of quoting Darcy, he smiled too much – but otherwise the author did well. Q himself was portrayed adequately, though really the only way you can mess him up is by not going over the top. The plot, however, left much to be desired. The premise was too close to All Good Things… to be really original – Picard and Co. set in motion the end of the universe, Q ends up sending him to different quantum realities to see the results, etc. – and I really didn’t get much from it. The resolution was most assuredly anti-climactic, and I don’t think our dear captain really learned anything from the events, as he usually does with Q. The author also had the annoying habit of creating random characters in random parts of the galaxy witnessing the effects of the so-called end of the universe. Like, they’d just be tossed in, see the anomalies, and either die or report their findings to their superiors. That’s all, the end.
My other beef has to do with why I stopped reading ST novels in general, which is that they have picked up the annoying habit of almost following in a series…but not quite. As in, you really don’t have to read 20 other books first in order to understand the plot, but characters from past books will be present and events from at least two or three others will be heavily mentioned. This has bugged me with Star Wars books for a while, and it annoyed me greatly when it spread into the ST universe as well. Either make a clear-cut series where one needs to read all the books to follow the plot, or make them stand alone. I never minded references to the shows or movies – that’s just expected – but if I need to read other books, I’d like to know exactly which ones so I’m not just blundering along.
All in all, good characterization, weak plot, annoying references. But I still love Q.
4.) Eloisa James, When the Duke Returns
This was vastly disappointing for my first romance novel of the year. *sigh* It sounded so nice on the back cover: Man and woman engaged as children, married by proxy when the girl is of age, man off hunting in Africa and the Far East and only comes back when his mother forces him to, woman then tries to seduce her husband. I liked it because it’s odd to find a romance where the woman is the seducer, and, quite frankly, she was the only character I ended up liking throughout most of the novel. The male lead was a wimp and I disliked him intensely. The mother was a shrew and therefore at least an occasional source of amusement. The main female’s best friend and her husband were good characters, but and the end of the novel, the author seemed to just sort of forget about them, and their mini sub-plot was never resolved. This is a *huge* pet peeve of mine. If you’re going to start something, then finish it! I usually love regency romances, but this just left much to be desired.
5.) Helen Halstead, Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride
Ugh.
I’ve read a lot of Pride and Prejudice spin-offs. Some were wonderful. Some were not. This…this one gives a whole new meaning to the “not” category. I picked it up for two reasons, the first being because it promised to focus at least somewhat on Georgiana, who is my favorite of the minor characters, and the second because many of the reviewers praised the author for doing so well at imitating Jane Austen’s style of writing. I figured at the very least I could enjoy those aspects.
Yeah. Not so much.
No matter how much we like or dislike stories of this kind, they do inevitably tend to come across as published fanfiction. I’m not saying whether this is a good or bad thing, just that it is the case for many of them. As many of us know, being fic writers ourselves, one of the most important things to strive for is to keep the characters in character. (Unless the point of the fic is to make them otherwise, of course.) But honestly, I’ve come to stretch my definition of that, especially since actions and circumstances within the fic could justify a change of character. The point is to be consistent. This was not at all the case of this novel, especially with Darcy. In one breath, the author had him publically cutting anyone of any rank who dared to behave rudely toward Elizabeth, explaining that such people were beneath their notice regardless of their rank. In the next, he was encouraging Elizabeth to curry favor with a highly influential marchioness, whose high regard for her would make her a star in society despite her lowly origins. This despite the fact that he had very little regard for the marchioness and her hangers-on, and made it clear he only tolerated Elizabeth’s association with the group in order to further her elevation in society.
So…which is it? Does he care for society’s opinion or not? It’s either one or the other, not both.
This is just one of the many inconsistencies in story. I also disliked the way she portrayed Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage to begin with, and the fact that she literally threw new characters into the mix every other chapter without giving them a back-story or, in some cases, a personality. These aspects truly made this book un-enjoyable for me. I’ve said more than once that I can forgive bad story-telling if the author makes me care about her characters enough to overlook her writing. In this case, her writing made me severely dislike Elizabeth and Darcy, and I honestly couldn’t be bothered to keep straight too many of the author’s original characters, because she didn’t give them enough individual personality and history for me to care what happened to them. Blarg.
I'm also on a read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan, and so far I've gotten through all of Genesis, half of Exodus, and the first 20 chapters or so of Matthew. It's interesting to say the least. I forgot how jealous and, well, kind of mean Old Testament God is, and even Jesus seems a little fed up with us humans sometimes. Not that I blame him, since he knows we're going to betray him, but still. I think I actually enjoy the Old Testament a little bit better, at least for now. It has more...color, I guess? Maybe it's the history buff coming out in me, I dunno. I'm glad I'm doing this, though.
1.) Mercedes Lackey, The Black Swan
Swan Lake, but told from the point of view of Odile instead of Odette. In this version, each of Rothbart’s swans were women who were somehow false or betrayed their husbands. Odette, as their leader, is given the chance to win the heart of Price Siegfried, and she will free the whole flock if successful. Odile is their keeper, and instead of painting her in the traditional role of evil assistant, the book follows her transformation from a doting daughter to a master magician as she learns the truth behind her father’s manipulations.
My main problem with this book was that about half of it was not, in fact, about Odile, and instead focused on Prince Siegfried, and I rather hated him. In the beginning he was nothing but a weak, womanizing, drunk scumbag, and if I could have given five stars to the parts with Odile and only one to the rest, I would have, but there you have it. Odile was beautifully written, she was given a strong personality as a sorceress in her own right, and I empathized with her greatly as she tried to please her father, a man unable to be pleased. Odette was also much stronger in this version than the original story, and Siegfried became much more tolerable for the last hundred or so pages, once he met her, so at least the book ended on a good note. I’ve noticed in general that Mercedes Lackey is rather hit or miss with me, however, so I suppose I’d at least recommend it to her fans. She does write magic exceedingly well, it’s just her politics that tend to bore me, I think.
2.) Jean Sasson, Princess Sultana’s Circle
Third in a trilogy of supposedly true stories about the life of a Saudi Arabian princess and her quest to improve the rights of women in her country. I can’t exactly say that I enjoy reading these books, because they are always sad and often gruesome, but I’ve always had a feminist streak in me, so I do like learning about ways in which women attempt to advance themselves in male dominated societies. Sultana herself is a strong character, by no means perfect or even gentle, but her lively spirit is a joy to learn about. This particular installment was darker than the two previous, as Sultana was 40 years old, a growing alcoholic, and had become increasingly disillusioned with the lack of results she was having in her attempts to assist other women. She eventually comes to realize that her mission begins with helping one woman, and convincing that woman to help another woman, thus creating a circle of protection that would spiral outward and (hopefully) never end. I can’t say the story itself was uplifting, but her revelations at the end were.
I know some people are skeptical about these “true stories” of women in oppressed cultures, but I’ve always believed that, even if all the things written in the book didn’t actually happen to one single woman, they most assuredly happened to some woman somewhere, and that alone makes the reading worth it. If you want a very humanized account of the life of Saudi Arabian women, this trilogy is a good one, I think, especially when presented with Sultana’s own imperfections. She’s not a pure heroine sacrificing her entire wealth and position to help others. In fact, she bluntly states that she doubts she could do just that. But she has a good heart, and her message is a strong, solid one.
3.) Keith R.A. DeCandido, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Q & A
This was a bit of a disappointment for me, quite frankly, and it reminded me why I stopped reading Star Trek books. I only picked it up because it was Q-centric (despite the lack of Peter David authorship) and I’m still a sucker for anything with Q. I only really scored the book as high as I did because the characterizations were, for the most part, well done. I think Worf was the only one who was rather OOC – at the risk of quoting Darcy, he smiled too much – but otherwise the author did well. Q himself was portrayed adequately, though really the only way you can mess him up is by not going over the top. The plot, however, left much to be desired. The premise was too close to All Good Things… to be really original – Picard and Co. set in motion the end of the universe, Q ends up sending him to different quantum realities to see the results, etc. – and I really didn’t get much from it. The resolution was most assuredly anti-climactic, and I don’t think our dear captain really learned anything from the events, as he usually does with Q. The author also had the annoying habit of creating random characters in random parts of the galaxy witnessing the effects of the so-called end of the universe. Like, they’d just be tossed in, see the anomalies, and either die or report their findings to their superiors. That’s all, the end.
My other beef has to do with why I stopped reading ST novels in general, which is that they have picked up the annoying habit of almost following in a series…but not quite. As in, you really don’t have to read 20 other books first in order to understand the plot, but characters from past books will be present and events from at least two or three others will be heavily mentioned. This has bugged me with Star Wars books for a while, and it annoyed me greatly when it spread into the ST universe as well. Either make a clear-cut series where one needs to read all the books to follow the plot, or make them stand alone. I never minded references to the shows or movies – that’s just expected – but if I need to read other books, I’d like to know exactly which ones so I’m not just blundering along.
All in all, good characterization, weak plot, annoying references. But I still love Q.
4.) Eloisa James, When the Duke Returns
This was vastly disappointing for my first romance novel of the year. *sigh* It sounded so nice on the back cover: Man and woman engaged as children, married by proxy when the girl is of age, man off hunting in Africa and the Far East and only comes back when his mother forces him to, woman then tries to seduce her husband. I liked it because it’s odd to find a romance where the woman is the seducer, and, quite frankly, she was the only character I ended up liking throughout most of the novel. The male lead was a wimp and I disliked him intensely. The mother was a shrew and therefore at least an occasional source of amusement. The main female’s best friend and her husband were good characters, but and the end of the novel, the author seemed to just sort of forget about them, and their mini sub-plot was never resolved. This is a *huge* pet peeve of mine. If you’re going to start something, then finish it! I usually love regency romances, but this just left much to be desired.
5.) Helen Halstead, Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride
Ugh.
I’ve read a lot of Pride and Prejudice spin-offs. Some were wonderful. Some were not. This…this one gives a whole new meaning to the “not” category. I picked it up for two reasons, the first being because it promised to focus at least somewhat on Georgiana, who is my favorite of the minor characters, and the second because many of the reviewers praised the author for doing so well at imitating Jane Austen’s style of writing. I figured at the very least I could enjoy those aspects.
Yeah. Not so much.
No matter how much we like or dislike stories of this kind, they do inevitably tend to come across as published fanfiction. I’m not saying whether this is a good or bad thing, just that it is the case for many of them. As many of us know, being fic writers ourselves, one of the most important things to strive for is to keep the characters in character. (Unless the point of the fic is to make them otherwise, of course.) But honestly, I’ve come to stretch my definition of that, especially since actions and circumstances within the fic could justify a change of character. The point is to be consistent. This was not at all the case of this novel, especially with Darcy. In one breath, the author had him publically cutting anyone of any rank who dared to behave rudely toward Elizabeth, explaining that such people were beneath their notice regardless of their rank. In the next, he was encouraging Elizabeth to curry favor with a highly influential marchioness, whose high regard for her would make her a star in society despite her lowly origins. This despite the fact that he had very little regard for the marchioness and her hangers-on, and made it clear he only tolerated Elizabeth’s association with the group in order to further her elevation in society.
So…which is it? Does he care for society’s opinion or not? It’s either one or the other, not both.
This is just one of the many inconsistencies in story. I also disliked the way she portrayed Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage to begin with, and the fact that she literally threw new characters into the mix every other chapter without giving them a back-story or, in some cases, a personality. These aspects truly made this book un-enjoyable for me. I’ve said more than once that I can forgive bad story-telling if the author makes me care about her characters enough to overlook her writing. In this case, her writing made me severely dislike Elizabeth and Darcy, and I honestly couldn’t be bothered to keep straight too many of the author’s original characters, because she didn’t give them enough individual personality and history for me to care what happened to them. Blarg.
I'm also on a read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan, and so far I've gotten through all of Genesis, half of Exodus, and the first 20 chapters or so of Matthew. It's interesting to say the least. I forgot how jealous and, well, kind of mean Old Testament God is, and even Jesus seems a little fed up with us humans sometimes. Not that I blame him, since he knows we're going to betray him, but still. I think I actually enjoy the Old Testament a little bit better, at least for now. It has more...color, I guess? Maybe it's the history buff coming out in me, I dunno. I'm glad I'm doing this, though.