Recent books (re)read (National Put Quotes in Your Blog Month)

[cahn]

The little food machine (whom I shall also probably refer to as Princess Baby The First) is quiet right now for once, so I shall indulge myself with a quick post instead of doing the sixteen other things I really ought to be doing. (By the way, this post is dedicated to Harvey Karp's Happiest Baby on the Block, without which you would not be getting a post at all. YAY SWADDLING.)

Once again Deaver was alone on the boundary between the pageant wagon and the town, belonging to neither-- yet now, because of the show, belonging a little to both.

From Orson Scott Card's Folk of the Fringe, which I reread the first week post-delivery. Dystopian-future-SF short stories featuring Mormons and non-Mormons. I think it's amazing stuff, and reads much better now I'm in my 30's than it did when I was in my teens. I wish Card had gone more this way-- I enjoy hearing what he has to say about community (and family as a subset of community) and belonging, but he doesn't do nearly as much of that anymore, choosing instead to focus explicitly on Families Forever. Mind you, I do think Card is at his best when he writes about Mormons, in fact, because it frees him up to actually, you know, think about ideas (and almost all of his Mormon-centric stuff has stuff that contraindicates theology for a True Believer), as opposed to Giving You a Lecture.

"Powers preserve me from thickheaded, self-centered, cocky teenage wizards!"

Diana Wynne Jones, The Merlin Conspiracy. If this isn't a shout-out to Harry Potter (the publication date is 2003) I'll be very surprised, although of course in context it has nothing to do with HP. I really, really liked this one. (Though nolly, I suspect this is the DWJ you read which made you decide you might not like DWJ. If so, all I can say is, yeah, you're probably right.) Any other author would be content with one-tenth of the imagination DWJ has, and it's in full display in this book, which pulls in Arthurian tropes, Welsh tropes, a world with a lot of hard radiation, the Little People, and an elephant, among other things. It's a sort of vague sequel to Deep Secret, which I didn't realize until after finishing it, and honestly it stands rather better on its own than as a sequel (where is any mention of Maree?) - but I just love the mad rush of ideas, plus which DWJ has that elusive quality that I absolutely love, where her descriptions can go between prosaic-English to wild-elegant-Welsh, with humor as well:

"Forgive me," [the King] said, looking up at the Count of Blest. "I haven't exactly done well, have I?"
"Others have done almost as badly," the Count of Blest said, quite kindly, riding on.

Speaking of humor, I just reread the Attolia trilogy-so-far (Megan Whalen Turner). My favorite bit has always been

"...and I threw an ink jar at his head."
..."I had not pictured you for a fishwife."
"Lo, the transforming power of love."

These books are The Best. Oh, well, The Thief is mildly entertaining, but I don't love it with overwhelming passion the way I do Queen of Attolia (though YES, I have vast trouble with the relationship) and King of Attolia (which I just love, partially because I pretend like some of the relationship from the previous book does not exist, or is tamped down a couple notches), though one must read The Thief to get to the good stuff in the later two books. Although, as julianyap points out, Gen is rather a Gary Stu, I love them madly anyway -- Turner has a precise, elegant way of writing; and her elegant plots remind me of Bujold's or Brust's in the neat way they hang together. Really, these are some of my favorite books (maybe top 20 or so) I am SO psyched for Conspiracy of Kings, due out at the end of March. If you have not read them you should go read them right away. Just be warned about The Thief not being quite as good, and Queen having the somewhat disturbing relationship thing (though, when I think about it, somewhat less disturbing than Twilight).

Comments

[ase.livejournal.com]

I read The Thief for the first time last week! I was mildly entertained, until the end, and then I went, "what? I must read the sequel!" I am not sure it was a good novel, but it held my attention enough that I will be reading the sequel.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

I don't think Thief is a bad book at all, really -- honestly, what I don't like about it is that I intensely dislike having information withheld from me on purpose. Others' mileage varies.

You will probably also be rather taken aback by one large disturbing thing in Queen, just to warn you. I would encourage you not to let that ruin your enjoyment of the rest of it, which I really like :) (And, though I don't like it either, I can actually defend the Disturbing Thing, but I shall wait until after you read it.)

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Deep Secret is the one I read. I didn't exactly hate it; I just thought it felt like it had a book before it, only it apparently doesn't.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

It's certainly possible -- I have lost track of when her books do and don't have other ones that take place in the same universe. But even the ones that don't act like they do, which is why you may not like her work in general, because it's all like that :)

[julianyap.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the only problem with recommending the Attolia books to people is that it starts with The Thief and you really can't skip it.

It's a little like recommending Sandman to people. The tone of Preludes and Nocturnes is so different from everything else. Though I have had some luck starting people on either Seasons of Mist or Fables and Reflections

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

And yeah, I don't dislike Thief. It's just not as good -- and I hate having information withheld on purpose. (I used to think that I hated Turner doing first person, but then I read the first couple of chapters of Conspiracy, which is available online, and is told from first-person Sophos POV, and I really liked that.)

Hmm, I haven't read Sandman. I take this to mean I should start?