Mini-rants #1

[cahn]

Okay, thanks to a suggestion by julianyap, I'm going to try something new. I usually don't post about books unless I can write a long rant, but I'm going to try in addition posting a little bit about every book I read (except maybe the ones I don't finish).

Antsy Does Time (Shusterman): Fun and quirky (for example, a character called "Skaterdud") and darker than it first appears. YA. I liked!

Speeding Bullet (Shusterman): Less fun than Antsy. Judith Krantz for the YA crowd, gone somewhat-darkly wrong.

Photographing the Southwest, Vol 2: Arizona (Martres): These books rock. Arizona is beautiful, and this book is probably worth it for the pics of slot canyons alone. Though I think I might prefer Utah overall.

Throne of Jade (Novik): I thought I had this book on hold for, like, a year. Then it turned out I hadn't actually put it on hold. Anyway. Liked it, actually better than Her Majesty's Dragon (which I also liked quite a bit), except for the ending, where we find out that the villianous guy... is actually a villain. Whee.

Mothers and Other Monsters (McHugh): SF/mainstreamy-ish. These are really, really good stories, most of which broke my heart. lightreads and julianyap spring to mind as people who might like them.

Comments

McHugh

[julianyap.livejournal.com]

I love Maureen McHugh, have you read China Mountain Zhang or Nekropolis

Re: McHugh

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

No to both, but I will definitely be looking them up! Mothers has a story called "Nekropolis" which I assume the novel is based on, and I quite enjoyed the story.

[ase.livejournal.com]

I think I like Novik best when she's doing the travelogue thing. Villains are not one of her strong suits. Unless I'm supposed to be rooting for Napoleon, which I do not think is the case.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Yes, the China travelogue was great! I'm a little worried about Temeraire's quest to rid dragons of their shackles, though... well. I'm looking forward to the next books, anyway!