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Hasty Reviews (July Reading)
Aug. 11th, 2009 10:36 pmI am posting this now because my opinions will only stale in my head.
The Samurai's Daughter (Sujata Massey): Japanese-American antiques dealer becomes embroiled in the fallout from WW2 forced labor and comfort women when a series of attacks suggests someone wants the past to stay buried. Murder mystery novel, middle of a series.
I picked this up while house-sitting and between books, otherwise I would never have read it. I had a very hard time taking the protagonist seriously, since she considers herself middle-class while exhibiting many characteristics I associate with the wealthy. "My parents aren't like the rest of the neighborhood! They made one good real estate deal in the '70s, that has nothing to do with their extensive social network and the vintage clothes and antiques and other hallmarks of an affluent life I am narrating!" For a self-employed foreign worker who says more than once she only has so much to live on, Rei spends an awful lot of time not thinking about things like, oh, dental insurance. (Cough. Bitter, bitter, paying out of pocket until coverage kicks in October 1st cough.) So the themes were interesting, and I enjoyed the story a lot more when I decided the protagonist was an unreliable narrator. I also enjoyed it more when I wasn't entirely aware it was a mid-series book; the background felt very textured until I started wondering how much of it was recaps of previous events I just hadn't read about. Not strongly recommended, but I'd be curious to know what other people thought of the series.
Zoe's Tale (John Scalzi): Latest in the "Old Man's War" universe. I knew how much (or minimally) I would enjoy this going in, but was lured into giving it a shot this summer by its nomination for the Hugos, and by Scalzi saying many, many times, "I ran the first draft past actual women, and based on their dramatic thumbs-down, I tossed much of that draft!"Zoe's Tale reads very smoothly, but like The Last Colony, I found it frustratingly shallow. Also, I still think the entire Roanoke name gives away the premise - a premise which is amazingly poorly considered, in my opinion. So every time someone talks about the colony of Roanoke, I want to stop and shout at all the characters, "no! Don't be obvious! No!" It detracts from my enjoyment significantly.
Schuyler's Monster (Robert Rummel-Hudson): Okay, remember how books don't make me cry? Forget that noise. Apparently I just don't cry for fake people over the age of 10. Nonfiction account of one parent's discovery of his daughter's profound disability, but more importantly a story about how he was affected by his wonderful, beloved, very different daughter.
I found out about this book while surfing book blogs, and had mostly forgotten about it by the time my hold came through. The creeping discovery that Schuyler isn't quite right, evolving into a parental nightmare, is nicely handled, but Rummel-Hudson's frankness about his reactions and feelings are what wrecked me a bit. I'd like to go through and point out the good bits, but a lot of this is personal reaction, and I'm typing this in August. So: recommended, incoherently.
In a completionist fit, and a desire for emotional lightness, I read the second through fourth Rihannsu novels: The Romulan Way, Swordhunt, The Empty chair (Diane Duane). They are entertaining tie-in novels, but I can't shake the sense that Duane's invoking a pan-series multiverse and I should be looking for wizards. It's fairly distracting.
Numbers: 6 total. 6 new, 0 rereads; 5 fiction, 1 nonfiction.
The Samurai's Daughter (Sujata Massey): Japanese-American antiques dealer becomes embroiled in the fallout from WW2 forced labor and comfort women when a series of attacks suggests someone wants the past to stay buried. Murder mystery novel, middle of a series.
I picked this up while house-sitting and between books, otherwise I would never have read it. I had a very hard time taking the protagonist seriously, since she considers herself middle-class while exhibiting many characteristics I associate with the wealthy. "My parents aren't like the rest of the neighborhood! They made one good real estate deal in the '70s, that has nothing to do with their extensive social network and the vintage clothes and antiques and other hallmarks of an affluent life I am narrating!" For a self-employed foreign worker who says more than once she only has so much to live on, Rei spends an awful lot of time not thinking about things like, oh, dental insurance. (Cough. Bitter, bitter, paying out of pocket until coverage kicks in October 1st cough.) So the themes were interesting, and I enjoyed the story a lot more when I decided the protagonist was an unreliable narrator. I also enjoyed it more when I wasn't entirely aware it was a mid-series book; the background felt very textured until I started wondering how much of it was recaps of previous events I just hadn't read about. Not strongly recommended, but I'd be curious to know what other people thought of the series.
Zoe's Tale (John Scalzi): Latest in the "Old Man's War" universe. I knew how much (or minimally) I would enjoy this going in, but was lured into giving it a shot this summer by its nomination for the Hugos, and by Scalzi saying many, many times, "I ran the first draft past actual women, and based on their dramatic thumbs-down, I tossed much of that draft!"Zoe's Tale reads very smoothly, but like The Last Colony, I found it frustratingly shallow. Also, I still think the entire Roanoke name gives away the premise - a premise which is amazingly poorly considered, in my opinion. So every time someone talks about the colony of Roanoke, I want to stop and shout at all the characters, "no! Don't be obvious! No!" It detracts from my enjoyment significantly.
Schuyler's Monster (Robert Rummel-Hudson): Okay, remember how books don't make me cry? Forget that noise. Apparently I just don't cry for fake people over the age of 10. Nonfiction account of one parent's discovery of his daughter's profound disability, but more importantly a story about how he was affected by his wonderful, beloved, very different daughter.
I found out about this book while surfing book blogs, and had mostly forgotten about it by the time my hold came through. The creeping discovery that Schuyler isn't quite right, evolving into a parental nightmare, is nicely handled, but Rummel-Hudson's frankness about his reactions and feelings are what wrecked me a bit. I'd like to go through and point out the good bits, but a lot of this is personal reaction, and I'm typing this in August. So: recommended, incoherently.
In a completionist fit, and a desire for emotional lightness, I read the second through fourth Rihannsu novels: The Romulan Way, Swordhunt, The Empty chair (Diane Duane). They are entertaining tie-in novels, but I can't shake the sense that Duane's invoking a pan-series multiverse and I should be looking for wizards. It's fairly distracting.
Numbers: 6 total. 6 new, 0 rereads; 5 fiction, 1 nonfiction.
