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books I am in the middle of
Jun. 2nd, 2005 05:44 pm_The Steerswoman_ is really one long book. I'm only halfway through because only half of it has been written. A few weeks ago, Redbird lent me the fourth section (_The Language of Power_) with the warning that it wasn't as good as the previous ones. I'm not sure I agree. There was less focus on the worldbuilding in this section, but I've always been more interested in Rowan's approach to her work than in the world around her. There are some splendidly geeky moments that feel just exactly right, with alien mysteries explored from something that feels as familiar and comfortable as Ray Bradbury's old tennis shoes. Hurry, hurry, hurry, Rosemary Kirstein, write more!
The story of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin is another very long book, and I wish I had a title for referring to the whole thing. I've been reading it (listening to it, mostly) since last fall, and enjoying it enormously, but the pace of inter-library loan means I only just started _The Reverse of the Medal_. It's wonderful. There are more lovely interfaces between my familiar comfortable geekiness and an alien world. There are also some remarkably understated bits in there about pain and addiction. I hesitate to say more before I finish it, because I know some of you will be thinking "Stephen Who?" and others will be sitting on your hands to keep from telling me what happens later on.
_Sorcery and Cecilia_ is not a long book at all. Hiranu is reading it to me, a little at a time, at bedtime. We don't have all that many bedtimes together in a month, even if you count naps and those exhausted last few minutes in the airport (which we do.) I am an impatient turtle. Still, it would be inappropriate to find my own copy of the chocolate book and read ahead.
I've been working on _Gameplayers of Zan_ intermittently for the last 4 months, and finally managed to get through more than 100 pages. It really is difficult and unpleasant work to read something for which I have so little affinity. Brisingamen posted something last week about reading unpleasant texts that made me reconsider why I was putting so much effort into something with such strong negative feedback for me. So I gave it up. Even when I have nothing better to do, I have better things to do than this.
_Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul_ is not the world's most plot-driven novel, though it may be Douglas Adams' most plot-driven novel. (The bar is low.) I read it ages ago, I think, in a haze of migraine, scopalamine, sleep deprivation, and travel-related difficulties. Now I'm listening to it on MP3. When I have time to listen to a 72 minute section all in one go, it's great. I've heard most of the first four times. And the first half of the third, until it starts to drag a little. The fourth starts well, but not well enough for me to have been in the mood to want to listen to another 40 minutes of it again recently. It makes me wonder if the recording format were developed by one of the characters in the book. Or perhaps if there was a mistake somewhere, and I got the computer game instead of the novel.
Now I think I will go re-read the first half of The Song of Ice and Fire. Or something like that. Though champing at bits is not good for my teeth.
The story of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin is another very long book, and I wish I had a title for referring to the whole thing. I've been reading it (listening to it, mostly) since last fall, and enjoying it enormously, but the pace of inter-library loan means I only just started _The Reverse of the Medal_. It's wonderful. There are more lovely interfaces between my familiar comfortable geekiness and an alien world. There are also some remarkably understated bits in there about pain and addiction. I hesitate to say more before I finish it, because I know some of you will be thinking "Stephen Who?" and others will be sitting on your hands to keep from telling me what happens later on.
_Sorcery and Cecilia_ is not a long book at all. Hiranu is reading it to me, a little at a time, at bedtime. We don't have all that many bedtimes together in a month, even if you count naps and those exhausted last few minutes in the airport (which we do.) I am an impatient turtle. Still, it would be inappropriate to find my own copy of the chocolate book and read ahead.
I've been working on _Gameplayers of Zan_ intermittently for the last 4 months, and finally managed to get through more than 100 pages. It really is difficult and unpleasant work to read something for which I have so little affinity. Brisingamen posted something last week about reading unpleasant texts that made me reconsider why I was putting so much effort into something with such strong negative feedback for me. So I gave it up. Even when I have nothing better to do, I have better things to do than this.
_Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul_ is not the world's most plot-driven novel, though it may be Douglas Adams' most plot-driven novel. (The bar is low.) I read it ages ago, I think, in a haze of migraine, scopalamine, sleep deprivation, and travel-related difficulties. Now I'm listening to it on MP3. When I have time to listen to a 72 minute section all in one go, it's great. I've heard most of the first four times. And the first half of the third, until it starts to drag a little. The fourth starts well, but not well enough for me to have been in the mood to want to listen to another 40 minutes of it again recently. It makes me wonder if the recording format were developed by one of the characters in the book. Or perhaps if there was a mistake somewhere, and I got the computer game instead of the novel.
Now I think I will go re-read the first half of The Song of Ice and Fire. Or something like that. Though champing at bits is not good for my teeth.
