Lodestar: DNFs
Jun. 18th, 2019 09:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnThe Call (3/5), The Invasion (DNF) -
The Call was interesting, because although I liked it least of the Lodestar nominees I'd read so far, it had that elusive quality of narrative drive that I thought very few of the Hugos or the Lodestars had, where I was compulsively turning the pages even though I didn't actually consider it all that good. In this book, the Sidhe come back to Ireland and "call" teenagers at random times to the Sidhe world, at which point they hunt them for three days. The teenager survives if not captured. If captured... the Sidhe have powers to do a lot of body horror. The plot chapters are intercut with different teenagers' experiences in the land of the Sidhe, almost all of which do not turn out well for them. It's essentially a horror book, is what I'm saying.
The Invasion started out with the main character of The Call (a polio survivor whose legs are atrophied, and who -- spoiler! -- survived the Sidhe world in that book) being arrested under the presumption that she could not possibly have survived the Sidhe world without cutting a deal with the Sidhe and therefore being a dirty rotten traitor. Reasonable (though incorrect) inference though this may be, it apparently tripped one of my not-exactly-squicks; I... just don't want to read about that. And reviews made it sound as if the book was not really going to be worth my while anyway, so I didn't.
Children of Blood and Bone - DNF - It's so not this book's fault that it was one of the last YA nominees on my list, and so the most prone to my getting really really sick of first-person present tense and spunky heroines who protest against the injustice inherent in the system. I think it was pretty good, and I appreciated the non-European milieu (while still questioning why you would go to the trouble of having a milieu Not Like Those Other YA Books and then have a first-person present-tense storytelling Exactly Like All The Other YA Books). I suspect if I'd read this first and Dread Nation last, I would have liked this one and wouldn't have finished DN. Though seriously, let me know if there's, like, a really cool plot or something for which I should at least skim.
Only Belles is left of the Lodestars. I think if it's in first person present tense I'm only going to be able to finish it if it's either extremely good or extremely trashy.
I feel like last year's Lodestar nominees were so much better! (Also much less first person present tense, bah.)
The Call was interesting, because although I liked it least of the Lodestar nominees I'd read so far, it had that elusive quality of narrative drive that I thought very few of the Hugos or the Lodestars had, where I was compulsively turning the pages even though I didn't actually consider it all that good. In this book, the Sidhe come back to Ireland and "call" teenagers at random times to the Sidhe world, at which point they hunt them for three days. The teenager survives if not captured. If captured... the Sidhe have powers to do a lot of body horror. The plot chapters are intercut with different teenagers' experiences in the land of the Sidhe, almost all of which do not turn out well for them. It's essentially a horror book, is what I'm saying.
The Invasion started out with the main character of The Call (a polio survivor whose legs are atrophied, and who -- spoiler! -- survived the Sidhe world in that book) being arrested under the presumption that she could not possibly have survived the Sidhe world without cutting a deal with the Sidhe and therefore being a dirty rotten traitor. Reasonable (though incorrect) inference though this may be, it apparently tripped one of my not-exactly-squicks; I... just don't want to read about that. And reviews made it sound as if the book was not really going to be worth my while anyway, so I didn't.
Children of Blood and Bone - DNF - It's so not this book's fault that it was one of the last YA nominees on my list, and so the most prone to my getting really really sick of first-person present tense and spunky heroines who protest against the injustice inherent in the system. I think it was pretty good, and I appreciated the non-European milieu (while still questioning why you would go to the trouble of having a milieu Not Like Those Other YA Books and then have a first-person present-tense storytelling Exactly Like All The Other YA Books). I suspect if I'd read this first and Dread Nation last, I would have liked this one and wouldn't have finished DN. Though seriously, let me know if there's, like, a really cool plot or something for which I should at least skim.
Only Belles is left of the Lodestars. I think if it's in first person present tense I'm only going to be able to finish it if it's either extremely good or extremely trashy.
I feel like last year's Lodestar nominees were so much better! (Also much less first person present tense, bah.)
no subject
Date: 2019-06-20 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-21 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-21 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-21 11:50 pm (UTC)AUGH, this!!
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Date: 2019-07-06 05:46 am (UTC)Did you make it through The Belles? I did not make it through. It managed to set off my "BACK BUTTON BACK BACK" hackles on the first page.
What amazes me is that the novel was apparently very well received. YA and I may just not be meant for each other.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-08 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-11 04:06 am (UTC)A novel about magic that could transfer the ability to not exercise, eat badly, and still have excellent fitness, now...
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Date: 2019-07-12 04:45 am (UTC)...You could do an interesting magic system where magic was basically the healthcare system... okay, I'll stop now, YA is probably just not going to be the place where people do worldbuilding takes I think are super interesting.