yet another book post
Jan. 14th, 2020 10:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nrgburstOookay so my google chrome decided to auto translate the post page into Japanese for no goddamn reason (my settings are all in English) and therefore my DW draft re-autosaved as totally empty (WTFdude). So I just lost my half finished book post *cries* but in a nutshell:
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: SO GOOD. Gideon is a gift. Also this fanart of Gideon is amazing. And this one of Harrow. Here is a post canon fic rec. Also I'm rather disappointed by the lack of lesbian romance as promised (also the space part wasn't really space-y?) but maybe I've been spoiled by fanfic, IDK. It felt like enemies to friends mostly, and I want to read Harrow the Ninth because nooooooo FIX IT ALREADY although I am worried I won't like the style of it, judging by the excerpt. (It's going to be in second person. Which is like, a choice that I'm sure was made for a reason but...) Anyway. It takes awhile to get going, but like, the last three hundred pages are non-stop murder mystery necromantic action.
Cinder by Melissa Meyers was a hideous disappointment. I had to force myself to finish it and I won't be reading anything else by her. Like, her style is very readable- a good mix of descriptive prose and dialogue and a delightfully creative, subversive premise (Asian mechanic cyborg Cinderella!). She had me in the first half. And then things were just bothering me too much to continue to suspend my disbelief as the plot got more and more ridiculous. Like WHY would humans just decide to void human rights for people with surgically implanted prosthesis? How is Slavery 2.0 just fine with everybody? Need an insulin pump? LOL sucks to be you 'cause now you are property and all your money and bodily autonomy are belong to meeee! Like, people suck but they don't suck THAT much. (One would hope. Like, this wasn't supposed to be dystopian fiction.) A more nuanced look at ableism would have been preferable and far more plausible, although judging by her treatment of "Asian" culture, I have serious doubts that would have been well executed. The Asian label was window dressing, not understanding, and just... offensive. Like no, Chinese and Japanese cultures are not interchangeable, and nobody should have to explain that nowadays. Your pidgin honorifics and Asian names aren't enough. Also I guess a coy pond must be one that bats its eyelashes. Like. WTFeven was the editor doing.
I think it was the reliance on tell-don't-show that bothered me most, though. Like fantasy works as a genre not because you explain the magic. It's because your audience still feels the humanity of your characters even if they are using fantastic abilities and have fuzzy toes and pointy ears. That shows in their actions and thoughts. So you can't insist that a character was really close to their family member if you don't actually show them grieving when that family member dies. Like telling me the prince looked so sad but skipped holding a funeral for his dad in favour of a quick inauguration and then a fancy ball in a time of national public health emergency actually sends a totally different message about him?! Like I get that Meyers felt that The Ball needed to happen because Cinderella retelling. But it made the characters act in such bizarre ways just to get plot point done that it really threw me out of the book. Why does this have so many 5 star reviews. Why.
In utter contrast, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is such a masterful, gorgeous twist on Rumpelstiltskin that I think I reached nirvana while reading it and I am buying a paper copy so I can re-read it forever. Most of the POV characters are competent women in bad circumstances that are established before the magical entities even come in to prey. And not only are the Ice vs. Fire, Cold Logic vs. Warm Emotion themes gorgeously explored and depicted, the issues (misogyny, poverty, anti-semitism, sensory issues, abusive parent) are examined and fought against and beaten so thoughtfully while establishing the grounding of family relationships and friendships as sources of strength. Like I don't need fic because this book is actually perfect, but here is some fanart. HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: SO GOOD. Gideon is a gift. Also this fanart of Gideon is amazing. And this one of Harrow. Here is a post canon fic rec. Also I'm rather disappointed by the lack of lesbian romance as promised (also the space part wasn't really space-y?) but maybe I've been spoiled by fanfic, IDK. It felt like enemies to friends mostly, and I want to read Harrow the Ninth because nooooooo FIX IT ALREADY although I am worried I won't like the style of it, judging by the excerpt. (It's going to be in second person. Which is like, a choice that I'm sure was made for a reason but...) Anyway. It takes awhile to get going, but like, the last three hundred pages are non-stop murder mystery necromantic action.
Cinder by Melissa Meyers was a hideous disappointment. I had to force myself to finish it and I won't be reading anything else by her. Like, her style is very readable- a good mix of descriptive prose and dialogue and a delightfully creative, subversive premise (Asian mechanic cyborg Cinderella!). She had me in the first half. And then things were just bothering me too much to continue to suspend my disbelief as the plot got more and more ridiculous. Like WHY would humans just decide to void human rights for people with surgically implanted prosthesis? How is Slavery 2.0 just fine with everybody? Need an insulin pump? LOL sucks to be you 'cause now you are property and all your money and bodily autonomy are belong to meeee! Like, people suck but they don't suck THAT much. (One would hope. Like, this wasn't supposed to be dystopian fiction.) A more nuanced look at ableism would have been preferable and far more plausible, although judging by her treatment of "Asian" culture, I have serious doubts that would have been well executed. The Asian label was window dressing, not understanding, and just... offensive. Like no, Chinese and Japanese cultures are not interchangeable, and nobody should have to explain that nowadays. Your pidgin honorifics and Asian names aren't enough. Also I guess a coy pond must be one that bats its eyelashes. Like. WTFeven was the editor doing.
I think it was the reliance on tell-don't-show that bothered me most, though. Like fantasy works as a genre not because you explain the magic. It's because your audience still feels the humanity of your characters even if they are using fantastic abilities and have fuzzy toes and pointy ears. That shows in their actions and thoughts. So you can't insist that a character was really close to their family member if you don't actually show them grieving when that family member dies. Like telling me the prince looked so sad but skipped holding a funeral for his dad in favour of a quick inauguration and then a fancy ball in a time of national public health emergency actually sends a totally different message about him?! Like I get that Meyers felt that The Ball needed to happen because Cinderella retelling. But it made the characters act in such bizarre ways just to get plot point done that it really threw me out of the book. Why does this have so many 5 star reviews. Why.
In utter contrast, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is such a masterful, gorgeous twist on Rumpelstiltskin that I think I reached nirvana while reading it and I am buying a paper copy so I can re-read it forever. Most of the POV characters are competent women in bad circumstances that are established before the magical entities even come in to prey. And not only are the Ice vs. Fire, Cold Logic vs. Warm Emotion themes gorgeously explored and depicted, the issues (misogyny, poverty, anti-semitism, sensory issues, abusive parent) are examined and fought against and beaten so thoughtfully while establishing the grounding of family relationships and friendships as sources of strength. Like I don't need fic because this book is actually perfect, but here is some fanart. HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
