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Wednesday Reading Meme
Jan. 5th, 2022 10:15 am What I've Read
Neon Yang's The Descent of Monsters (Tensorate #3) & The Ascent to Godhood (Tensorate #4)
These quite short novellas are both the most experimental entries in the Tensorate series. Monsters is a great epistolary detective story with a new character who is outside the central band of rebels established in the previous two novels. Chuwan is an investigator for the Protectorate who's been assigned to discover when went wrong at a site for secret experimental magic, and gradual discovers that she's being asked to hide something. It's just as fucked up as the rest of these books would suggest. Bonus Rider!
Godhood takes off from the end of Monsters, and it looks forwards and backwards at the same time. The scheme that Chuwan uncovered in the last novella has come to fruition but it's in the background of this book - it focuses instead of the rise of the Protector Sanao Hekate and her vicious reform of the crumbling empire she inherited, as viewed by the servant she molded to her service. It's got excellent vibes about mourning someone who betrayed you.
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi, Vol.1
Ok, this is just a fun book, with goofy characters and a brisk plot and lot and lots of tropey fun. I definitely enjoyed this more than The Untamed on the level of handling the flashbacks. The Untamed seems to have run all the flashbacks together into a 30+ episode story inside their main present-day plot, but that just felt absurdly ponderous to me. This books drops the flashbacks into the present plot in much more engaging small chunks.
The Untamed also suffered for cutting out the overt gayness of the characters in Grandmaster - there are times when characters act and react in ways that only make sense if they are open about the fact that at least one character is overtly gay - leaving that information out makes some interactions incomprehensible. There's a gay hole (heh) in the center of the Untamed, and this book filled it (hehehe!). I really wish I had been able to snag a copy of the unofficial translation before it was taken down.
What I'm Reading
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
I've picked this book up again - I'm feeling the academic tone of the text, and this is one book that just BEGS you to write in the margins as you read it. Narrative layers on top of layers that just make the whole thing fascinating and interwoven and direly creepy. I am definitely jumping around in the text to read the stuff in the Appendices as they become relevant.
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
For book club - I have just barely started this but people were very enthused with this choice so I'm going to hope for the best.
TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen by Stacey Abbott, Lorna Jowett
For the Great Queer Supernatural Rewatch project - this is more an overview text on how horror TV has evolved over time. Not super engaging, but important background!
What I'll Read Next
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll - I received this book from Amazon without a note - I didn't order it! And it just arrived one day! Graphic novel.
Sweet Disorder by Rose Lerner (recommended via tiktok's Fat Girls in Fiction reading club)
The Missing Page by Cat Sebastian (comes out 1/18/2022)
Some by Virtue Fall by Alexandra Rowland (comes out 1/25/2022)
Neon Yang's The Descent of Monsters (Tensorate #3) & The Ascent to Godhood (Tensorate #4)
These quite short novellas are both the most experimental entries in the Tensorate series. Monsters is a great epistolary detective story with a new character who is outside the central band of rebels established in the previous two novels. Chuwan is an investigator for the Protectorate who's been assigned to discover when went wrong at a site for secret experimental magic, and gradual discovers that she's being asked to hide something. It's just as fucked up as the rest of these books would suggest. Bonus Rider!
Godhood takes off from the end of Monsters, and it looks forwards and backwards at the same time. The scheme that Chuwan uncovered in the last novella has come to fruition but it's in the background of this book - it focuses instead of the rise of the Protector Sanao Hekate and her vicious reform of the crumbling empire she inherited, as viewed by the servant she molded to her service. It's got excellent vibes about mourning someone who betrayed you.
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi, Vol.1
Ok, this is just a fun book, with goofy characters and a brisk plot and lot and lots of tropey fun. I definitely enjoyed this more than The Untamed on the level of handling the flashbacks. The Untamed seems to have run all the flashbacks together into a 30+ episode story inside their main present-day plot, but that just felt absurdly ponderous to me. This books drops the flashbacks into the present plot in much more engaging small chunks.
The Untamed also suffered for cutting out the overt gayness of the characters in Grandmaster - there are times when characters act and react in ways that only make sense if they are open about the fact that at least one character is overtly gay - leaving that information out makes some interactions incomprehensible. There's a gay hole (heh) in the center of the Untamed, and this book filled it (hehehe!). I really wish I had been able to snag a copy of the unofficial translation before it was taken down.
What I'm Reading
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
I've picked this book up again - I'm feeling the academic tone of the text, and this is one book that just BEGS you to write in the margins as you read it. Narrative layers on top of layers that just make the whole thing fascinating and interwoven and direly creepy. I am definitely jumping around in the text to read the stuff in the Appendices as they become relevant.
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
For book club - I have just barely started this but people were very enthused with this choice so I'm going to hope for the best.
TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen by Stacey Abbott, Lorna Jowett
For the Great Queer Supernatural Rewatch project - this is more an overview text on how horror TV has evolved over time. Not super engaging, but important background!
What I'll Read Next
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll - I received this book from Amazon without a note - I didn't order it! And it just arrived one day! Graphic novel.
Sweet Disorder by Rose Lerner (recommended via tiktok's Fat Girls in Fiction reading club)
The Missing Page by Cat Sebastian (comes out 1/18/2022)
Some by Virtue Fall by Alexandra Rowland (comes out 1/25/2022)
