Books and comics read in March 2015
Wednesday, 1 April 2015 14:29![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
*Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary - Anita Anand
Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo
New Grub Street - George Gissing
*X-Force: Hide/Fear
Mighty Avengers: Not Your Father's Avengers
*Agatha H and the Airship City - Phil and Kaja Foglio
Arsenic For Tea - Robin Stevens
Star Wars Omnibus: Knights of the Old Republic, Volume 2
Library: An Unquiet History - Matthew Battles
*The Oracle's Secret - Amber Darke
*The Quick - Lauren Owen
Red Sonja: The Art of Blood and Fire
Jubilee
X-Men: Bloodline
A Face Like Glass - Frances Hardinge
*Quicksilver - RJ Anderson
The Quick
This is a book that I found very hard to rate, because I found it a pretty compelling read, and I think in many ways it was a good book, and yet every time I wanted it to go one way, it went the other, so that by the time I finished it only the fact that it was a library book stopped me from dropping it in the bath in sheer frustration. It's also a hard book to review without spoilers, which is why I'm reviewing it out of order and under it's own cut. I was spoiled for the genre switch, and I am so pleased I was - I would otherwise have been much more dismayed by it. Because for the first hundred pages, it was a queer historical romance, my reaction to which was YES PLEASE I'LL TAKE TWELVE. And then it turned into a vampire book. And it's a good vampire book (if somewhat bleaker and nastier than I prefer)! But I can't help wishing that I hadn't had to lose the first book to get it, and that I hadn't had to lose one of the book's two queer characters. But the vampire book did give me two excellent heroines in Adeline and Charlotte, who liked and respected each other. But then it took Adeline away, and denied me a team up between them in favour of het romance between Charlotte and some dude (whyyyyyy). And it meant having to spend far too much time in the head of Augustus Mould, a deeply unpleasant individual. And so many times it hinted at something I was interested in, and then went elsewhere, or held out hope that things might work out ok for the characters I was invested in, only to deny it. So in conclusion: The Quick might be a good book! I think I liked it! But I also hated it.
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary
Very readable biography of Sophia Duleep Singh, which illuminated the early twentieth century feminist and anti-colonialist movements through her involvement with them.
X-Force: Hide/Fear
I picked this up because Faiza Hussain was on the cover. Sadly she didn't have much to do, but otherwise I quite liked it. It was actually a pretty weird reading experience, because I didn't really like the plot (examining the edges of morality and asking at what point do heroes become essentially villains is a plot I respect when it's done well, but not one I particularly like reading), but on a line-by-line basis I liked the writing a lot - all the dialogue was excellent, thoughtful and witty.
Agatha H and the Airship City
I enjoyed this steampunk fantasy adventure book (based on the webcomic, which I haven't read), but with caveats. Firstly I thought the tone was a bit off, uncomfortably interspersing its wacky fun with the occasional brutal violence or horrible murder. And secondly I was unhappy with the intermittent objectification Agatha is hit with: there was an awful lot of focus on how attractive basically every dude she meets finds her, because all men are of course attracted to buxom blonde eighteen year olds who, oh look, are in their nightie for important plot reasons again. /o\ Especially since none of the women, not even the eponymous Agatha, got enough to do. (And it's not a flaw with this book per se but I am SO TIRED of boring standard het romance plots. Well written romance, that arises organically from the characters or is important to the plot or somehow meaningful: fine. But so many of them just feel... cursory.) So, um. This was fun, but also I rolled my eyes a lot.
The Oracle's Secret
(Full disclosure: I know the author of this book!) I thoroughly enjoyed this paranormal romance. Intriguing worldbuilding, great characters, really well written. I read it in one sitting, having only sat down to read a few chapters, and am excited to read more. :D
Quicksilver
This is another book where I'm having trouble separating my feelings about what it was from my feelings about what it wasn't. (I definitely liked it miles better than The Quick, though!) I really wanted to love it, because I enjoyed Ultraviolet, which it's the sequel to, a great deal, plus this one has an asexual main character! Unfortunately, the thing I didn't love about Ultraviolet was the romance, so having the man half of that romance be a major character was not ideal for me, and I really grew to dislike him over the course of the book. And although the main character's asexual, she's not aromantic, so we still got pretty much all the usual YA het romance stuff. Which is fine, I definitely think it's good to show that asexual people and non-asexual people can be in romantic relationships, but it's just... not what I wanted to read. :/ So, yes. Good book, wrong for me.
Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo
New Grub Street - George Gissing
*X-Force: Hide/Fear
Mighty Avengers: Not Your Father's Avengers
*Agatha H and the Airship City - Phil and Kaja Foglio
Arsenic For Tea - Robin Stevens
Star Wars Omnibus: Knights of the Old Republic, Volume 2
Library: An Unquiet History - Matthew Battles
*The Oracle's Secret - Amber Darke
*The Quick - Lauren Owen
Red Sonja: The Art of Blood and Fire
Jubilee
X-Men: Bloodline
A Face Like Glass - Frances Hardinge
*Quicksilver - RJ Anderson
The Quick
This is a book that I found very hard to rate, because I found it a pretty compelling read, and I think in many ways it was a good book, and yet every time I wanted it to go one way, it went the other, so that by the time I finished it only the fact that it was a library book stopped me from dropping it in the bath in sheer frustration. It's also a hard book to review without spoilers, which is why I'm reviewing it out of order and under it's own cut. I was spoiled for the genre switch, and I am so pleased I was - I would otherwise have been much more dismayed by it. Because for the first hundred pages, it was a queer historical romance, my reaction to which was YES PLEASE I'LL TAKE TWELVE. And then it turned into a vampire book. And it's a good vampire book (if somewhat bleaker and nastier than I prefer)! But I can't help wishing that I hadn't had to lose the first book to get it, and that I hadn't had to lose one of the book's two queer characters. But the vampire book did give me two excellent heroines in Adeline and Charlotte, who liked and respected each other. But then it took Adeline away, and denied me a team up between them in favour of het romance between Charlotte and some dude (whyyyyyy). And it meant having to spend far too much time in the head of Augustus Mould, a deeply unpleasant individual. And so many times it hinted at something I was interested in, and then went elsewhere, or held out hope that things might work out ok for the characters I was invested in, only to deny it. So in conclusion: The Quick might be a good book! I think I liked it! But I also hated it.
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary
Very readable biography of Sophia Duleep Singh, which illuminated the early twentieth century feminist and anti-colonialist movements through her involvement with them.
X-Force: Hide/Fear
I picked this up because Faiza Hussain was on the cover. Sadly she didn't have much to do, but otherwise I quite liked it. It was actually a pretty weird reading experience, because I didn't really like the plot (examining the edges of morality and asking at what point do heroes become essentially villains is a plot I respect when it's done well, but not one I particularly like reading), but on a line-by-line basis I liked the writing a lot - all the dialogue was excellent, thoughtful and witty.
Agatha H and the Airship City
I enjoyed this steampunk fantasy adventure book (based on the webcomic, which I haven't read), but with caveats. Firstly I thought the tone was a bit off, uncomfortably interspersing its wacky fun with the occasional brutal violence or horrible murder. And secondly I was unhappy with the intermittent objectification Agatha is hit with: there was an awful lot of focus on how attractive basically every dude she meets finds her, because all men are of course attracted to buxom blonde eighteen year olds who, oh look, are in their nightie for important plot reasons again. /o\ Especially since none of the women, not even the eponymous Agatha, got enough to do. (And it's not a flaw with this book per se but I am SO TIRED of boring standard het romance plots. Well written romance, that arises organically from the characters or is important to the plot or somehow meaningful: fine. But so many of them just feel... cursory.) So, um. This was fun, but also I rolled my eyes a lot.
The Oracle's Secret
(Full disclosure: I know the author of this book!) I thoroughly enjoyed this paranormal romance. Intriguing worldbuilding, great characters, really well written. I read it in one sitting, having only sat down to read a few chapters, and am excited to read more. :D
Quicksilver
This is another book where I'm having trouble separating my feelings about what it was from my feelings about what it wasn't. (I definitely liked it miles better than The Quick, though!) I really wanted to love it, because I enjoyed Ultraviolet, which it's the sequel to, a great deal, plus this one has an asexual main character! Unfortunately, the thing I didn't love about Ultraviolet was the romance, so having the man half of that romance be a major character was not ideal for me, and I really grew to dislike him over the course of the book. And although the main character's asexual, she's not aromantic, so we still got pretty much all the usual YA het romance stuff. Which is fine, I definitely think it's good to show that asexual people and non-asexual people can be in romantic relationships, but it's just... not what I wanted to read. :/ So, yes. Good book, wrong for me.