Kate Elliott, the Crown of Stars series: King's
Dragon, Prince of Dogs, The Burning Stone, Child of
Flame, The Gathering Storm, In the Ruins, Crown of
Stars: excellent chewy epic fantasy, with vivid characters and a well
thought out and deep setting, which shares elements with but does not
replicate medieval Europe; the differences are interesting to explore. I
particularly liked that the series looks at what happens after the event
that could easily have been the big climax, which is where most epic
fantasies seem to end.
Gillian Bradshaw, The Elixir of Youth:
This may be the last one of her SF thrillers I try, because they just don't
work as well as her historical novels do for me. I liked main character and
relationships, but wasn't gripped by the main plot, which had to do with the
heroine's father inventing an anti-aging serum.
Daphne de Marneffe, Maternal Desire:
Oddly, I don't have much to say about this. There were some interesting
insights, and I'd probably recommend it to anyone interested in mothering
and feminism.
Lois McMaster Bujold, the Vorkosigan series: Falling
Free, Shards of Honor, Barrayar, The Warrior's
Apprentice, The Vor Game, Borders of Infinity, Cetaganda,
Ethan of Athos, Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Memory,
Komarr, A Civil Campaign, "Winterfair Gifts" (in Irresistible
Forces), Diplomatic Immunity: my first reread, and I think they
were even better this time, given some familiarity with the characters and
history. I hadn't previously read "Winterfair Gifts", which comes
chronologically between A Civil Campaign and Diplomatic Immunity
and is included in Irresistible Forces, a collection of
fantasy/romance novellas by various authors; I liked "Winterfair
Gifts" quite a lot, read the next story (by Mary Jo Putney) and didn’t
like it much, and skipped the rest.
David Austin, The English Roses: the third
edition (I think) of his book on the roses he breeds. This one is just
gorgeous, with stunning photography. It was expensive, but worth it for me.
Suzanne Enoch, Don't Look Down: a good
followup to her Flirting with Danger, which I read in February. Enoch
manages to keep up the tension (sexual and otherwise) between the two leads,
while continuing to develop their characters and introducing a fairly
interesting mystery plot.
Julian Fellowes, Snobs: a frothy, quite
enjoyable novel about goings-on in the English upper classes, with
surprisingly memorable characters and zingy, witty writing (a favorite
sentence: "And so the afternoon passed in a litany of duchesses intoned
against a background of art enshrined by money").
Susan Vaught, Stormwitch: This was excellent.
Ruba is a Haitian girl who comes to live with her grandmother in Mississippi
in the late 1960's after the death of her other grandmother in Haiti. Ruba's
Haitian grandmother trained her in the magical powers of their African
ancestors, but her Grandmother Jones is Christian and thinks Ruba's powers
come from the devil. When they're caught up together in the sometimes
violent fight for civil rights, Ruba and her grandmother have to work out
their differences. The magic and the historical background are very
interesting, and the characters and relationships are well done and
powerful. I got this from the library, but I'll likely buy a copy when it
comes out in paperback, as I'd definitely like to reread it sometime.
Geraldine Brooks, March: I'm often not a fan
of books based on the books of other authors, but this one really worked for
me. It's based on Little Women and tells the story of the experiences
of Mr. March before the Civil War, when he travelled in the South before
meeting and marrying Marmee, and during the war, when he left his home and
family to become a chaplain for the Union Army. Brooks blends her narrative
and characters beautifully with those of Little Women; I didn't catch
any missteps, and I just reread Little Women a couple of months ago,
so it's fresh in my memory. The book is so well written, though, that I
think even non-Alcott fans would enjoy it; the prose is elegant and
evocative, and the historical details excellent.
Meredith Ann Pierce, Birth of the Firebringer, Dark
Moon, The Son of Summer Stars: I wanted to like these more
than I did, because I like her Darkangel books and her short stories so
much. It's about unicorns, which I was a little worried about, but I thought
Pierce pulled that off pretty well, actually; her unicorns aren't pretty,
fluffy things, but warriors who fight for their lives and land against other
beasts, gryphons and wyverns. I think what I mostly didn't like was the main
character, Jan the unicorn prince, who was all too often (particularly in
the last book) incredibly dim, in a way that seemed to serve the plot (so
that the big reveals could happen at the right time) more than the
character. Come to think of it, that's rather how I felt about Treasure
at the Heart of the Tanglewood, too. Still, I love Pierce's writing and
find her worldbuilding absorbing, so I'm not at all sorry I read these.
Elaine Showalter, A Literature of Their Own:
British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing: Someday I will have
to acquire some newer feminist literary criticism, but I'm really enjoying
reading some of the older stuff, including this (and Ellen Moers's Literary
Women a few months ago). The down side (if it's a down side) is that my
list of books to read increased exponentially after looking through the
Biographical Appendix, which lists what Showalter calls "the 213 women
writers and activists" who are "the most prominent literary women
born in England after 1800".
Oh, hey, I just looked this up on Amazon and discovered that there's a new
edition, from 1998. (Mine is the 1977 second printing.) I guess I'll have to
get that too, since the new intro and afterword (which includes Angela
Carter, not mentioned in the original book) sound very interesting.
Robert B. Parker, Sea Change: the latest in
his series about Jesse Stone, police chief in a small Massachusetts seaside
town. I've gone off Parker's Spenser books, but I still like these (although
I didn't think this one was as good as the last couple). I was thinking
about why the other day and decided that it's because Spenser doesn't change
anymore, so unless Parker comes up with a really great plot, I have no
interest in reading more about the same old unchanging hero. Stone, on the
other hand, is flawed, and working through his flaws; he changes in response
to his cases and to events in his life.
Robin McKinley, The Outlaws of Sherwood:
my first reread in a long while, as this is probably my least favorite
McKinley book (which doesn't mean I don't like it, it just means I like the
others more). It's clear from the start that McKinley's Robin Hood is very
different from the traditional figure. As the book opens, Robin, a forester
of Sherwood Forest, is practicing his archery in preparation for an archery
contest at the Nottingham fair; unfortunately for him, "[Robin] was not
a bad archer, but his father had been a splendid one, and he was his
father's only child." His skills take a turn for the worse quickly,
when in a skirmish with other foresters who bear him some enmity, he
accidentally kills a man when he meant only to injure him in order to
escape.
Robin's personality is very different from the swashbuckling, Errol
Flynn-like archetype. He is intelligent and brave, but also cautious and
pessimistic, which makes me like him very much. Much of the initial action
of the story comes from Robin's best friends, Marian and Much (son of the
local miller, and not a character I've encountered in Robin Hood stories
outside of this one -- I'd be interested to know if he's a McKinley creation
or if I simply haven't read enough Robin Hood to recognize him, which is
certainly possible). I like his quiet, unsure romance with Marian, but I
like the secondary romance (which I won't go into further for spoilery
reasons) much more.
Really, I think the book's main flaw is lack of action. The plot doesn't
really get going until at least halfway through, and though I love
McKinley's sense of place and exploration of character, I really need more
action to stay totally engaged.
Books read: 34
Total books read this month: 34
Total books read this year: 111