November novel-reading

[garran]

Oh, right.

Steven Brust, Jhereg (reread)
Scott Westerfeld, The Last Days
John M. Ford, The Last Hot Time
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife: Beguilement
Dan Simmons, Hyperion
Steven Brust, Yendi
Steven Brust, Teckla

All the usual stuff applies -- I'm only keeping track of novels, I'm happy to be asked my opinion of any of these, and so on. (So far, the 'getting people to ask me about books' aspect of this experiment has gone really well.)

This month included the first time since I started keeping track that I reread something, and I even that I did in preparation for my first reading of the sequels, later. This might give the impression that I'm generally a pretty forward-looking reader, but actually I seem to go through phases, depending somewhat nebulously on my mood; there are periods sometimes when the familiar is firmly in the majority. It also contained the inevitable first time that the fact of the record-keeping put me through my arts student version of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle -- there was a day or two early on where I couldn't decide what to read next in large part because I was, semi-consciously, trying to decide what would look best next on the list -- but it was, happily, transitory and not overwhelming.

Comments

[guthrek.livejournal.com]

I loved Jhereg (and whichever sequals to it I read).
wait, that wasn't a question.

did You love Jhereg and whatever sequals I read?

[garran.livejournal.com]

I think I'm on my way to loving them -- I'm getting more invested with each book -- but I'm still early enough and in the middle enough that making a judgement from the outside like that isn't quite intuitive.

Because it's taken me so long to hunt down these first few Vlad books, I actually read the first two Khaavren books before I read Jhereg, which was an interesting (and, I gather, unusual) order in which to encounter a bunch of the worldbuilding stuff. For instance, I remember being surprised to find out that there's somewhere on that planet where the sun can be seen.

It's interesting that I was bothered by Agyar's amorality, but I'm not bothered by Vlad's (I want to say, in fact, that his is not so extreme, but every distinction that I try to draw in order to defend that judgement falls down). Perhaps it's just a matter of his being less alien?


-Andy H.

[vegetius.livejournal.com]

John M. Ford, The Last Hot Time.

As you already know, I've a high opinion of Mr. Ford's work, so I'm curious as to what you thought of The Last Hot Time.

Also, is this the first Ford novel you've read?

[garran.livejournal.com]

No; as you already know, I read The Dragon Waiting in October. ^^

The beginning of November actually feels like a long time ago, now; the book is hazier than I'd like it to be. I definitely liked it, and I'm definitely going to have to read it again, because there were a lot of things I didn't understand (most especially, I didn't get what had supposedly been revealed in the final conversation between Doc and whatshisname the mob boss mentor at all). (Actually, that guy's name constitutes a different sort of puzzle: I recall that when I knew it I couldn't for the life of me work out how to pronounce it.) Possibly it would have helped if I'd ever read any of the Bordertown books or collections; I'm sure a close familiarity with the details would also be useful. Fortunately I like books like that, the ones that work the first time on an emotional level, but leave a mystery nagging at you that slowly comes into focus on repeated reading (see also my well-documented affection for Pamela Dean).


-Garran

[vegetius.livejournal.com]

*smacks forehead* Ah, right!

The ambiguity/haziness is something I think Mr. Ford valued. This may not be the exact quote, but in The Illusionist (found in Casting Fortune), one of the character says, "All but the cheapest of melodramas needs a certain ambiguity."

Now, I'm not sure why Mr. Ford wanted to incorporate such ambiguity into his written work, but at least for me, it does mean I continue to think about the story afterwards. "It looks like this came about due to X, Y, and Z, but there's a chance it could be due to A,B, & C." It also make rereading the work rewarding if one is trying to tease out further details one might have missed, or fully understand the implications of subtle hints.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_quinn/]

I'm rather fond of the entirity of Brust's Draegaran works (for lack of a better term). What did you think of Hyperion? I liked later books in the series better, IIRC.

[caduceuskun.livejournal.com]

I'm curious, too, because the Hyperion series is my favorite science-fiction (as opposed to fantasy) series. I loves them. The second and fourth book, particularly, being incredible. Though, I suppose you could consider the second two books (Endymion and Rise of Endymion) a second, but related series.

[garran.livejournal.com]

'Entirety' might be a better term. :-p

For at least the first hundred pages or so, I very nearly hated Hyperion. I think this is the fault of the Priest's Tale. I thought that the voice of the protagonist of the epistolary section was thoroughly unlikeable -- pompous, stilted and artificial -- but I also thought that this wasn't intentional; it seemed from the way he was introduced that we were supposed to find him not only sympathetic and compelling, but actually wise. Since this was the first character we'd really spent time with, I decided that the author must actually not be able to write sympathetic characters -- that the book itself was pompous, stilted and artificial. This snowballed quickly into opinions like, "The allusions are cute, but the writing itself is totally barren"; I composed disappointed journal entries in my head as I read.

I did keep reading, though, in pretty much equal parts because A) people I respect had spoken highly of it, B) I'd already, assuming from point A that I'd like it, bought the whole rest of the series at a library booksale, and C) some of the ideas seemed compelling enough that the whole thing might eventually become worthwhile. And, in fact (as the reader has no doubt suspected) it did end up growing on me. I think that the Poet's Tale was the first time I wasn't having to push past some part of me that was fed up, maybe because Martin Silenus was so obviously supposed to be obnoxious that I was fine with his being so. It was after that, too, that the frame story started to acquire momentum, and the individual tales started to get more obviously connected.

In the end, I both liked it and was pretty strongly invested in it; I even came to feel more kindly about the writing style, though I still don't know what was up with the Priest's Tale. I guess it just hit me with all the weaknesses at once, too early for the strengths to be apparent. My favourite was probably the Detective's Tale, though I really liked the Consul's, too; I don't know whether I'll ever be able to bring myself to read the Scholar's Tale again, but that's certainly not because it's bad. I thought the worldbuilding was excellent.

It's interesting that you like the later ones better; the internet seemed to suggest that they weren't as well regarded, so I interpreted it as one of those Ender's Game deals. As mentioned I do own them, so I expect to read them eventually, but I think I'll leave it a while; for one thing, I think I need some time to recuperate emotionally from the first one, and for another I actually liked that ending a lot, so I want to let it stand on its own for a while.


-Garran

[masamage.livejournal.com]

Tell me about Pride and Prejudice! :) (I haven't read it.)

[vegetius.livejournal.com]

"Mr. Darcy's manners are such as to awaken bemusement, rather than affection, in the object of his attentions." :D

[masamage.livejournal.com]

That sounds delicious.

[vegetius.livejournal.com]

It's a favorite line. I hope I remember it correctly. One doesn't get that sort of incisive wordplay any more and it's so much fun.

[garran.livejournal.com]

Pride and Prejudice was interesting in part for being so obviously set -- and written -- in a foreign culture; there were times when having a better grasp of 18th century social distinctions would probably have helped. There are a lot of occasions in the book, for instance, on which characters declare or assume that a certain marriage or association has always been or has just become completely unsuitable, and on almost all of these occasions I basically had to take it on faith that they knew what they were talking about, because the divide they perceived was to me totally invisible. This is a shame in particular because I suspect that I was supposed to have seen some of them as unreliable narrators.

Along similar lines, the book manages despite being a romance not only never to mention sex or physical attraction, but never even to imply it; I often had trouble deciding when it wasn't being mentioned although it was present, and when it wasn't being mentioned because it wasn't.

As I think I mentioned to you as I was reading it, Jane Austen seems to write a lot about people who are foolish and ignorant and too stubbornly so to ever get wiser. She does this well enough that it was actually pretty distressing to read about, so it was lucky that she also had some likeable people to write about, and especially lucky that this included both the romantic principals. (I was also really fond of Elizabeth's father, despite his obvious faults; he made me grin whenever he appeared.)

The prose was indeed marvellous.


-Andy H.

Addenda

[garran.livejournal.com]

This was a BookCrossing book! The first I had ever knowingly seen with my own eyes. I'm trying to think of a good place to release it.

Saying that 'physical attraction' is not mentioned was probably a bit of an exaggeration; the characters do occasionally discuss each other's comeliness. It's just that these discussions seem to be divorced from the emotional reality of attraction to an almost Archie comics degree.


-Andy

[mordath.livejournal.com]

I have two Steven Brust compilations that I've been wanting to read hugely, but I don't have the first one, and so have refrained. My next buy.com order *will* include The Book of Jhereg.

...I want to reread the Hyperion series now, too, but I think my friend still has it.

[nathanbp.livejournal.com]

Steven Brust is awesome :D. And there's a weekend long LARP set in his universe that I so want to run very badly.

[garran.livejournal.com]

That's exactly the situation that my library is in, so I know just how annoying it is. I had to track down Jhereg through Teckla used (well, actually, I tracked down Jhereg used, and then cola tracked down Yendi and Teckla and gave them to me for my birthday; thanks, cola).

I'm responding to the people for whom I don't have to write book reports first. ^^;


-Garran

[synchcola.livejournal.com]

yay, did you buy "the sharing knife"? may i abnusticate it?

[garran.livejournal.com]

Alas, no! I reserved and absconded with it from the libraries. (Then I gave it back.)


-Andy H.

[synchcola.livejournal.com]

did i tell you about the time i stole a book from the vpl?! i don't think i did!

it was a dark and story night. rain dripped into every gutter and orifice. i sat in an upper alcove, holding sierpinski's "general topology". suddenly, the fire alarm rang out! i leapt to my feet and hurtled through the emergency exit. nothing was left but MY MORALS.

about halfway down the stairwell i realized i was still holding the book. so i didn't have a library card then, and i just kept the book for a bit beyond two weeks before returning it.

AND I DIDN'T PAY THE LATE FEE. end.