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Books and comics read in April 2024
Monday, 20 May 2024 17:08Greta & Valdin - Rebecca K Reilly
A Fire Born of Exile - Aliette de Bodard
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Fjord Stone
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Nott the Brave
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Mollymauk Tealeaf
Fayne - Ann-Marie MacDonald
My Man Jeeves - PG Wodehouse
Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond - Alice Roberts
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World - Christian Cooper
Tiger Honor - Yoon Ha Lee
When the Angels Left the Old Country - Sacha Lamb
Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture - Sherronda J Brown
The Waking of Angantyr - Marie Brennan
Squire
Delightful novel about two disaster queer siblings and their Māori-Russian-Spanish family. Very warm, very funny, I loved it.
A Fire Born of Exile
This was billed as f/f Nirvana in Fire in space, and I really wanted to adore it, but although I enjoyed a lot of it, I never quite managed to let go of the fact that it wasn't quite what I wanted it to be and appreciate it for what it was. I wanted more complexity from the plot and from Quỳnh's machinations, and less explanation of what she was up to; I wanted more sense of the political situation she was stepping into and how she was manipulating it.
This might also be the fact that I'm a hard sell for romance, but I also felt like the romance plotline undermined the book somewhat: Quỳnh is meant to be this driven figure who'll stop at nothing to bring down the people who hurt her, but she seemed to spend most of the book focussing on the woman she'd fallen in instalove with, only snatching moments for the revenge plot here and there. I also raised an eyebrow at the part where
I don't know. I love the Xuya universe, I like de Bodard's writing a lot, I loved the casual queerness, but this one just didn't hit the mark for me. I thought the beginning was excellent, and nicely ambiguous, and was disappointed that the rest didn't really live up to it for me, but I can't really tell how much of that is the book, and how much is that I was expecting political manoeuvring and what I got was romance.
When the Angels Left the Old Country
This book is about a Jewish angel and demon leaving their shtetl in Poland to go to America, and it was an absolute delight. Along the way they meet an excellent lesbian, get drawn into union organising, spend some time considering morality and identity, and it's all a very good time, I enjoyed it immensely.
A Fire Born of Exile - Aliette de Bodard
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Fjord Stone
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Nott the Brave
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Mollymauk Tealeaf
Fayne - Ann-Marie MacDonald
My Man Jeeves - PG Wodehouse
Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond - Alice Roberts
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World - Christian Cooper
Tiger Honor - Yoon Ha Lee
When the Angels Left the Old Country - Sacha Lamb
Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture - Sherronda J Brown
The Waking of Angantyr - Marie Brennan
Squire
Greta & Valdin (four stars), A Fire Born of Exile (three stars), When the Angels Left the Old Country (four stars)
Greta & ValdinDelightful novel about two disaster queer siblings and their Māori-Russian-Spanish family. Very warm, very funny, I loved it.
A Fire Born of Exile
This was billed as f/f Nirvana in Fire in space, and I really wanted to adore it, but although I enjoyed a lot of it, I never quite managed to let go of the fact that it wasn't quite what I wanted it to be and appreciate it for what it was. I wanted more complexity from the plot and from Quỳnh's machinations, and less explanation of what she was up to; I wanted more sense of the political situation she was stepping into and how she was manipulating it.
This might also be the fact that I'm a hard sell for romance, but I also felt like the romance plotline undermined the book somewhat: Quỳnh is meant to be this driven figure who'll stop at nothing to bring down the people who hurt her, but she seemed to spend most of the book focussing on the woman she'd fallen in instalove with, only snatching moments for the revenge plot here and there. I also raised an eyebrow at the part where
spoilers
Quỳnh, allegedly a mastermind, goes to see her Secret Daughter in person and somehow doesn't spot the two teenagers following her until too late?I don't know. I love the Xuya universe, I like de Bodard's writing a lot, I loved the casual queerness, but this one just didn't hit the mark for me. I thought the beginning was excellent, and nicely ambiguous, and was disappointed that the rest didn't really live up to it for me, but I can't really tell how much of that is the book, and how much is that I was expecting political manoeuvring and what I got was romance.
When the Angels Left the Old Country
This book is about a Jewish angel and demon leaving their shtetl in Poland to go to America, and it was an absolute delight. Along the way they meet an excellent lesbian, get drawn into union organising, spend some time considering morality and identity, and it's all a very good time, I enjoyed it immensely.