This book was a weird mix of complicated and really simple. The writing is basic and serviceable; the story moves along at a brisk pace. But the sciencey bits bog things down a bit, and the sheer number of characters got a little confusing. I would say 85% of chapters begin like this: “Mr. A woke up and did Z.” Then the next chapter: “Mr. B left his office and did Y.” Then “Ms. C hung up the phone and did X.” “Mr. D cheated […]
Authors In Spaaaaaaaace!
I got this book as a gift, with the Lois McMaster Bujold story autographed (thank you, Shirley – you’re the best!). I admit I was tempted to only read the Lois story, because 1: I wasn’t sure how to review an anthology, and 2: Once you’ve read the Lois story, you know nothing can beat it, right? But I decided that was cheating, and I’m glad I read the rest. There was some good stuff from authors I knew, interesting stuff from authors I will […]
No-frills fairy tale
This is a fine book, and an author I normally like, but I think it suffered from being read right after The Scar. Every time I picked the book up, I wanted to be back on the floating pirate city. Instead, I got a retread of a million other fairies-in-the-wood story. Nothing fresh, nothing groundbreaking, but well-written with okay characters. Sylvia (get it? like sylvan? like woods?) hasn’t been home to visit her grandmother Iris (get it? like a flower? Yay Nature!) in almost a […]
Formidable, but fantastic
Bas-Lag is a land of water. There are all manner of creatures living above and below the water, and each little island seems to have its own race of people or monsters. There are great cities and small ports, heroes and villains, sailors, regular folk…and of course, pirates. I almost don’t want to say anything about this amazing, astoundingly creative book. I knew nothing going in, and watching it unfold, never knowing where it would turn, definitely heightened the experience. But I have to at […]
Poor little rich girl, but fewer eye-rolls than expected
This story took work to get through, and had a hard ending, but by the time I got there I’d decided it was worth it. It starts out with a handful of super-wealthy, super-whiny characters, and I spent the first several chapters wanting to slap them all. By the end of the book, though, Gibson had made me care – if not about all the people, at least about where the story was going. Carley lives in a tiny little town of ultra-rich people. The mothers […]
Pretty but kinda thin
This is a very simple story told in very flowery language. There’s a vicious conquering people (the Myetrans), a simple village whose inhabitants don’t even have a word for ‘weapon’ (Ciron), and a group of creatures with wings (the, uh, Winged Ones) who mostly stay out of everybody’s way. Oh, and two of those groups don’t wear any clothes, just to add to the rusticness and innocence. When the Myetrans come to conquer the hell out of the next town down the road (it’s nothing […]
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