Wednesday Reading Meme - May 22 2024

 
What I’ve Read:

Soulstar - CL Polk – the final book in the trilogy! I put it off to avoid finishing it it and I really enjoyed it. This felt like this paid off a lot of elements that Polk had set up, and consequently was a very busy book.

The first two books set up a world similar to 1920s Britain and similar levels of inequality baked in at every level – the point of view characters are people raised at the highest levels of that hierarchy who are now evaluating it with a harsher eye, but they are still insiders. Soulstar is definitively from the viewpoint of someone who is NOT in the aristocracy and has been working all her life to pull it down. Consequently, it’s very much for me! It also has a LOT of plot to cover, from the salvation of people being exploited for their magic, to the outlines of an organizing effort for real democracy, to a criminal investigation, and I think Polk could do justice to any of these threads but ends up having to pick and choose where to put the book’s focus. So, while I liked everything about this book except how short it was – I really felt like giving it another 20% would have given the book a little more space to breathe. A very good conclusion to the series, tho.

Witches of World War II by Paul Cornell – Hugo Nominee for Graphic Novel. Eh. It’s fine. I had no idea until I finished it that ALL the character were British historical figures, as I’d only heard of Aleister Crowley, and so I was evaluating the story from the perspective of fiction. At that level, it’s fairly bland – the author doesn’t really decide clearly if magic is real or not, so the book suffers from reality’s unclarity. The plot was not fully sketched out, and art style was fine but not particularly dynamic. Writing a book is hard and I don’t want to offer unfair critique – I’m fairly certain the intended audience of this book would be more familiar with these British mystical bigwigs, but, well, I went in blind and the book didn’t get me to the story enough to care. Would not vote for it.


Peace Talks by Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files #16) Sigh – I started the Dresden Files in about 2009 and I feel mostly wistful about it. I wish I could like Jim Butcher, I wish I could like these books, there’s just enough interesting too keep me going, but mostly I spend the book annoyed at the main character and the utter lack of interest in personal growth he has maintained over the last 20 years. I found the sweetspot for engaging with this book was starting it as an audiobook to fall asleep to – given a 15 minute timer on this and I’m out like a light. Anyhoo, this is the series movement towards actually showing us the Big Bad Monsters Outside of Our Universe that Butcher has been hinting at for years. Harry is boring but occasionally the book gives you something really fascinating to work with for fanfic reasons, and I would very much like to see how things turn out, but I suspect I’m going to be infuriated by the outcome of the series. I


Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons by Kelly Sue DeConnick – Hugo nominee for graphic novel. Amazing art, interesting character work, really a good read. I admit to some personal irritation with the necessity for women’s empowerment (literally, getting superpowers) to come out of suffering and trauma, and I feel like this ended on a defeatist note. I don’t know if this is an ongoing series? Each issue seemed to have a different artist and I found the first one the most interesting to look at but also visually incoherent for the bigger scenes – I’d happily hang a poster on my wall but I can’t tell which character is speaking. So far this would have my vote but only by the thinnest margin.

What I’m Reading:
Children of Time (Xing book club) – 70% - The spiders have spider feminism, but also the concept of holy war. Sucks to be them.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York– Robert Caro – 31% - static, but I have followed the podcast ahead of the book.

Saint of Bright Doors – Hugo – Audiobook

The Spear Cuts Through Water – hugos and xing book club, I have technically read about 1 page

Battle Ground, Jim Butcher - sigh.

What I’ll Read Next:
Desperate Glory
Hugo Nominees:
Bea Wolf Saga, Vol. 11 Translation State Starter Villain The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi The Saint of Bright Doors “Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition” “Ivy, Angelica, Bay” “On the Fox Roads” “One Man’s Treasure” “The Year Without Sunshine” I AM AI Rose/House “Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet” The Mimicking of Known Successes Mammoths at the Gates “Seeds of Mercury” The Culture: The Drawings A City on Mars A Traveller in Time: The Critical Practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller, All These Worlds: Reviews & Essays “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld May 2023) “Answerless Journey” / 没有答案的航程, 韩松, “The Sound of Children Screaming” “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” “The Mausoleum’s Children”