February books
Monday, 1 March 2010 15:53![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
(Cut for length rather than spoilers!)
1. Sunshine by Robin McKinley SFX called this "a mesmerising SF horror romance"; I am not sure about the romance part but mesmerising is spot on. By the time I hit part two, it had gone from "I'm quite enjoying this - ooo, something shiny, brb" to snatching any moment I could to read a few more pages. A couple of nitpicks, but only little ones: some of the invented slang didn't quite convince me, and I wasn't too keen on McKinley's habit of having Sunshine stop mid conversation to explain and think about what was going on - I couldn't help picturing the person she was talking to sitting there patiently waiting for the answer to the question she asked several pages ago. But other than that, I loved it. I loved Sunshine, and her arc was very satisfying.
2. Doctor Who Short Trips: Companions I found that this collection had quite a lot of good but not particularly memorable stories, plus a few that I disliked on principle ('Notre Dame du Temps', for example: I really hate one companion being proclaimed in text as The Most Special. It did have Anji, which made up for things a little), which was a shame. But it also had 'Apocrypha Bipedium', which was EPIC LOVE, and 'Curriculum Vitae' which I also loved (it was a story about how Polly is awesome, I was always going to love it), so overall I think this one is a win.
3. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis My love for this book has already been documented, but I think it could bear repeating: I LOVE THIS BOOK.
4. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers I've already read Gaudy Night, so I was really looking forward to this, and I wasn't disappointed: I love Peter, I love Harriet and I love their relationship. Also I love Sayers' writing.
5. The Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko I enjoyed almost all of this (and the last ten pages or so gripped me completely), though I was pretty upset by Tiger Cub getting killed off so unceremoniously. I liked her! It does play the "Zabulon and/or Gesar Planned It All Along" card quite a lot, but it gets away with it by emphasising how hard it is to Plan It All Along: it only takes one person to do something unexpected and the whole enterprise collapses.
6. House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones I know one shouldn't judge books by their covers, but this one is SO PRETTY I have to mention it. It reminds me of that thing we used to do at playgroup, where we'd cover a piece of paper in multicoloured wax crayon, paint over it with black paint, then scratch bits of the black away to reveal the colour underneath. That was so much fun. Anyway, I really enjoyed the book too, though it isn't one of my favourites of hers: I thought the villains and the resolution weren't entirely satisfying. But I loved seeing Howl, Sophie and Calcifer again, Charmain was a great character, and I loved all the background detail.
7. Doctor Who: Option Lock by Justin Richards This was a fun, pacy read (if a little overfond of the Ironic Segue). I got a bit bogged down in some of the military stuff, all Bag Men and trigger codes and walls of acronyms, but other than that I liked it. The solution to the paintings mystery was great, simple but clever and not overplayed. And there were some lovely bits for Sam and the Doctor, both individually and together.
8. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler Very powerful, both in its depictions of slavery and of present-day racism. There was one particularly telling moment where Kevin comments on how hard it must be for Dana to experience slavery, and Dana replies that it's just as hard on the others too. I was also impressed by how well drawn all the 1815 characters were and how well the feeling of powerlessness came across.
9. Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz I can see why this was made into a film, I sort of felt like I was watching one in my head as I was reading it. It was a fun read, if a little throwaway.
1. Sunshine by Robin McKinley SFX called this "a mesmerising SF horror romance"; I am not sure about the romance part but mesmerising is spot on. By the time I hit part two, it had gone from "I'm quite enjoying this - ooo, something shiny, brb" to snatching any moment I could to read a few more pages. A couple of nitpicks, but only little ones: some of the invented slang didn't quite convince me, and I wasn't too keen on McKinley's habit of having Sunshine stop mid conversation to explain and think about what was going on - I couldn't help picturing the person she was talking to sitting there patiently waiting for the answer to the question she asked several pages ago. But other than that, I loved it. I loved Sunshine, and her arc was very satisfying.
2. Doctor Who Short Trips: Companions I found that this collection had quite a lot of good but not particularly memorable stories, plus a few that I disliked on principle ('Notre Dame du Temps', for example: I really hate one companion being proclaimed in text as The Most Special. It did have Anji, which made up for things a little), which was a shame. But it also had 'Apocrypha Bipedium', which was EPIC LOVE, and 'Curriculum Vitae' which I also loved (it was a story about how Polly is awesome, I was always going to love it), so overall I think this one is a win.
3. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis My love for this book has already been documented, but I think it could bear repeating: I LOVE THIS BOOK.
4. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers I've already read Gaudy Night, so I was really looking forward to this, and I wasn't disappointed: I love Peter, I love Harriet and I love their relationship. Also I love Sayers' writing.
5. The Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko I enjoyed almost all of this (and the last ten pages or so gripped me completely), though I was pretty upset by Tiger Cub getting killed off so unceremoniously. I liked her! It does play the "Zabulon and/or Gesar Planned It All Along" card quite a lot, but it gets away with it by emphasising how hard it is to Plan It All Along: it only takes one person to do something unexpected and the whole enterprise collapses.
6. House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones I know one shouldn't judge books by their covers, but this one is SO PRETTY I have to mention it. It reminds me of that thing we used to do at playgroup, where we'd cover a piece of paper in multicoloured wax crayon, paint over it with black paint, then scratch bits of the black away to reveal the colour underneath. That was so much fun. Anyway, I really enjoyed the book too, though it isn't one of my favourites of hers: I thought the villains and the resolution weren't entirely satisfying. But I loved seeing Howl, Sophie and Calcifer again, Charmain was a great character, and I loved all the background detail.
7. Doctor Who: Option Lock by Justin Richards This was a fun, pacy read (if a little overfond of the Ironic Segue). I got a bit bogged down in some of the military stuff, all Bag Men and trigger codes and walls of acronyms, but other than that I liked it. The solution to the paintings mystery was great, simple but clever and not overplayed. And there were some lovely bits for Sam and the Doctor, both individually and together.
8. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler Very powerful, both in its depictions of slavery and of present-day racism. There was one particularly telling moment where Kevin comments on how hard it must be for Dana to experience slavery, and Dana replies that it's just as hard on the others too. I was also impressed by how well drawn all the 1815 characters were and how well the feeling of powerlessness came across.
9. Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz I can see why this was made into a film, I sort of felt like I was watching one in my head as I was reading it. It was a fun read, if a little throwaway.