Archives - November 2003 archives -- index by author -- index by category -- favorite books -- links

Search Now:

4 November 2003

• Robert B. Parker, Night Passage, Trouble in Paradise, Death in Paradise: the first three books in his Jesse Stone series, about the sheriff of a small Massachusetts town. Pretty good, with Parker's usual snappy dialogue and fast-paced plotting, though I'm already starting to get tired of Jesse's hot-and-cold relationship with his ex-wife.
  
  
• Stephen R. Donaldson, Daughter of Regals and Other Tales: on the whole, a good collection of short stories. I'm not sure Donaldson's intricate style is well-suited to the shorter format (although I must admit that it bogs down less than it does sometimes in his novels); probably not coincidentally, I thought "Ser Visal's Tale", one of the longer stories, was the best, as it allowed Donaldson to delve more deeply into the moral complexities with which his fiction deals than the shorter stories did. I actually disliked "Animal Lover", a horrifying tale about genetically modified animals, but that was because of the subject matter more than the style.
  
  
• Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice: one of my favorite books.
  
  
• Jo Walton, The Prize in the Game: another novel set in the same world as The King's Peace and The King's Name, about people who appear in those books (and some who are only mentioned). I was quite a way into this when I suddenly realized that it's a reworking of the Irish legend the Tain Bo Cuailnge, or the Cattle-Raid of Cooley. I'm sure I didn't pick up on all of the parallels to the Tain, as it's been a long time since I read it (I'll have to reread it before I reread The Prize in the Game). Anyway, it was fascinating to learn more about Emer, Conal, and Elenn, who appeared in the earlier books, and to meet Ferdia and Darag, who were only mentioned. I thought the ending was a little abrupt, or perhaps it's just that the book didn't continue up to the point where the characters were introduced into the previous books; I hope there will be a sequel.

Books read: 6

9 November 2003

• Madeleine E. Robins, Point of Honour: a historical mystery novel set in a Regency London that isn't quite our own. I suppose technically this is fantasy, because the history is a slightly altered one (Queen Charlotte is Regent, rather than Prince George), but it contains no magical or fantastical elements other than that. The mystery is intriguing, with a nicely unexpected twist at the end, and the language and milieu are convincing, as is the main character, a fallen woman named Sarah Tolerance who chose to become a private investigator (or "inquiry agent") rather than a prostitute. Quite enjoyable, and I hope it will turn into a series.
  
  
• Elizabeth Willey, The Price of Blood and Honor, The Well-Favored Man: the other books in the series that includes A Sorcerer and a Gentleman (TWFM was the first, then ASaAG and TPoBaH, though in internal chronology, TWFM actually comes after the other two.) The interesting characters and the detailed setting were appealing, but I thought the plot dragged, particularly in The Well-Favored Man.
  
  
• Sharyn November, ed., Firebirds: An Anthology of Fantasy and Science Fiction: an excellent collection of YA fantasy and science fiction short stories by a lot of great authors, including Lloyd Alexander, Kara Dalkey, Sherwood Smith, and Emma Bull. I particularly liked Garth Nix's "Hope Chest", a disturbing story about a girl who was left at a small town's train station as a baby, with only a hope chest; eventually she must use the contents of the chest to save her adopted family and the town from a would-be evil dictator. Diana Wynne Jones's contribution, "Little Dot", was my other favorite, a humorous and charming tale told from a cat's point of view.

Books read: 4

16 November 2003

• Jan Siegel, Prospero's Children, The Dragon Charmer, The Witch Queen: a series, which I really wanted to like more than I think I did. Interesting plot, convincing characters, but very overwritten: the ratio of description to action or dialogue was way off, at least for my tastes.
  
  
• Will Shetterly, Elsewhere, Nevernever: set in the Borderlands world (created by Terri Windling) in which the Elflands are separated from our world by the Border, a magical barrier controlled by the elves. These two books tell the story of Ron, a runaway who comes to Bordertown (a city just on our side of the border). They were fun, but not fabulous.
  
  
• Marcia Muller, Cyanide Wells: a stand-alone mystery by the author of the Sharon McCone mystery series, which I'm quite fond of. This is the second of Muller's stand-alones which I've read (the first being Point Deception, and it may be the last - both of them were oddly uninvolving, with characters I couldn't force myself to care about. A disappointment.
  
  
• Emma Bull, Finder: a reread. It's been a long time since I read it, but after reading the Shetterly books, which are set in the same world and have some of the same characters, I decided I needed to reread Finder.
  
  
• Martha Wells, The Element of Fire: I hate it when I find a book I really like that's out of print and hard to find. I saw a great review of it in Kate Nepveu's book log and decided to get it from the library, and yup, it's a great read. Vital, well-rounded characters, fast-moving plot, interesting and detailed world: now I just have to find myself a copy of it. *sigh*
  
  
• Elizabeth E. Wein, The Winter Prince, A Coalition of Lions: I had to reread the former when I discovered the latter, a recently published sequel. A truly original twist on the Arthurian legends, the first from the point of view of Medraut (aka Mordred) and the second from the POV of Goewin, Arthur's daughter (I told you it was original). Medraut's story is a chilling tale of loyalty, jealousy, and betrayal, with Medraut torn between the love (and hate) he has for Morgause, his mother, and Arthur, his father, as well as his half-brother Lleu. Goewin's tale comes after Camlann, when Arthur and Lleu have both died, and Goewin has come to Ethiopia to meet with Constantine, her betrothed and the intended heir to the British throne. It's a worthy sequel to The Winter Prince, though not as intense; I look forward to the last book in the trilogy, Sunbird (which I think is due out next spring).

Books read: 10

22 November 2003

• Dorothy Gilman, Thale's Folly: typically entertaining romantic suspense from Gilman. Novelist Andrew Thale is sent by his father to check out Thale's Folly, a farmhouse owned by his aunt Harriet and left to Andrew's father on her death. Andrew finds that the house is occupied by a bunch of eccentric but charming squatters; mystery and romance ensue.
  
  
• Stephen R. Donaldson, The Man Who Killed His Brother: dark, hard-boiled detective novel by the author of the Thomas Covenant fantasy series. Bleak, as all of Donaldson's books are, but engrossing.
  
  
• Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard: reread. So you want to read something like Harry Potter. Well, give these a try - Duane was doing Young Wizards long before Rowling, though their takes on it are very different. Rowling's magic is pure fantasy, while Duane's magic has an intriguing scientific spin.
  
  
• Katherine Kurtz, Deryni Rising, Deryni Checkmate, High Deryni: reread. I hear she's rewriting these, and I'm looking forward to it - I love the intricate world and the involving characters, but Kurtz's writing style was fairly unpolished in these, her first novels.

Books read: 6

24 November 2003

• Katherine Kurtz, In the King's Service: the first book she's written in the Deryni universe for several years. Chronologically, this takes place about thirty years before the Kelson books; the main characters are the parents and grandparents of the characters from those books. Unlike her other books, the action in this one takes place over several years, which makes it tough to get to know any of the characters, although her beautifully detailed universe is still lovely to read about. It really feels like a setup book - I hope it's a setup book for the rest of the projected trilogy, rather than a setup book for the books she's already written.
  
  
• Diane Duane, Deep Wizardry: reread. This might be my favorite of the Young Wizards books. While at the beach with Nita's family, Nita and Kit stumble into helping a group of ocean wizards (whales and dolphins) with an important magical ceremony, and Nita commits to playing a role that turns out to be far more than she bargained for.
  
  
• Cornelia Funke, Inkheart: liked this even more than The Thief Lord, her first novel (at least in translation - apparently Funke is very well-known as a children's author in Germany, and I have no idea whether she's written more books than have yet been translated). 12-year-old Meggie finds out that her father has an unusual talent: the ability to read characters out of books. Mo reads so well that the characters literally come to life, but there are two drawbacks: 1) when something comes out of a book, something from the real world disappears into the books, and 2) once the characters are read out, there's no controlling them.

Books read: 3

30 November 2003

• Orson Scott Card, Seventh Son, Red Prophet, Prentice Alvin, Alvin Journeyman, Heartfire, The Crystal City: all rereads in Card's ongoing alternate America series, except for The Crystal City, which is new. Heartfire seemed like a real slowing down of the series to me, and The Crystal City was the same way for about two-thirds of it, and then it finally picked up the pace.
  
  
• Sara Paretsky, Blacklist: the latest in the V.I. Warshawski mystery series. It's really amazing to me how well Paretsky keeps this series going, particularly in comparison to other writers of female PI mysteries (such as, say, Sue "R Is for Repetitive" Grafton, whose Kinsey Millhone series I'm getting less and less interested in as time goes by).

Books read: 7

Total books read this month: 36
Total books read this year: 328

Last updated 29 November 2005. All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.