Books and comics read in February 2020
Tuesday, 3 March 2020 09:59![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhatsRosewater - Tade Thompson
Rivers of London: Night Witch
On a Red Station, Drifting - Aliette de Bodard
How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems - Randall Munroe
The Rosewater Insurrection - Tade Thompson
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
The Floating Brothel - Siân Rees
Pet - Akwaeke Emezi
The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo
Desolation Island - Patrick O'Brian
The Future of Another Timeline - Annalee Newitz
Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting - Matthew Mercer with James Haeck
The Rosewater Redemption - Tade Thompson
Tarnished Are the Stars - Rosiee Thor
Rivers of London: Night Witch
This and the previous volume were both solid comics, but they did make it clear to me that it's Peter's narrative voice that's the main draw of this series, rather than the plot and dialogue. I felt similarly about the art: it's not in any way bad, and it does some nice things occasionally, but I would have loved to see what someone with a less standard comics style might have done.
The Night Tiger
Gorgeously atmospheric and absorbing slice of magical realism, set in 1930s Malaya, with two extremely rounded and likeable protagonists. It lost a star for the m/f romance - I know, I know, but this time it was genuinely not great! The boy half of it turned out to be really controlling and possessive (the reveal that he had quietly driven off the girl half's previous potential suitors was... a time), and although this is challenged by the narrative, he is still presented as basically ok as a romance option. The two of them were also step-siblings (they met aged 10, ymmv on whether this makes it also a bit incesty: it didn't particularly bother me, but fyi) and I would much rather have stuck with just that as their bond. It's a shame, because I otherwise loved this.
(It is possible that it was meant to be not ok, but if so I could have done with more indication of that in the text, and honestly I am kind of anti that too. I like happy endings, or at least not ones with a sting in the tail, what can I say.)
(content notes: domestic abuse, people get eaten, a few instances of attempted sexual assault)
The Future of Another Timeline
This is set in a very near future AU where time travel exists, and a group of women and non-binary people who have formed a secret society to create a better now by editing the past - which is partly necessary, it transpires, because a group of terrible men are trying to do the opposite. It's a very good book with a lot to say about protest, revolution and the importance of collective action, and I enjoyed it very much, but I do wish it had remembered that countries other than the US exist and do things. That being said, I actually didn't notice this properly until about 300 pages in, which I think speaks to how good it otherwise is.
(content notes: ...the patriarchy, mostly. Violent misogyny, sexual assault, domestic abuse, child abuse and other things that terrible powerful men do.)
Tarnished Are the Stars
This book is set in SPACE and has an AROACE PROTAGONIST so I really wanted to love it, but sadly it wasn't great. Partly it was a mismatch in expectations - it was less space opera, more fantasy with some sf trimmings - but also I just didn't find the characters or the world convincing. I also spotted a couple of moments where a character reacts to something that didn't actually happen*, so I wonder if something went awry in the editorial process? Whatever happened, it's a real shame: there were some good ideas and the stuff about being aroace in an amatonormative world was solid, but overall, not nearly as good as I wanted it to be. (I didn't rate this on goodreads because I felt bad about the fact that I would have only given it two stars /o\)
*and not, to be clear, in a "this character has misinterpreted events" way
Didn't finish: The Rage of Dragons
There were a lot of good things about this book: it was readable and compelling, some first-book awkwardness aside, and it looked like it was building up to hit some fantasy tropes in a really satisfying way. But it also did that thing that fantasy novels by and about (afaik) straight men often do, ie the women weren't particularly fleshed out, and queer people didn't seem to exist. This could well have improved after I stopped reading, about a hundred pages in, but I wasn't quite enjoying it enough to sink any more reading time into it when I have so many other, queerer things I could be reading.
Short stories I enjoyed this month:
Kin, Painted by Penny Stirling: a weird, very queer, offbeat story of someone trying to find their place in the world. I enjoyed it very much.
Seonag and the Seawolves - M. Evan MacGriogair: absolutely spellbinding.
Rivers of London: Night Witch
On a Red Station, Drifting - Aliette de Bodard
How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems - Randall Munroe
The Rosewater Insurrection - Tade Thompson
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
The Floating Brothel - Siân Rees
Pet - Akwaeke Emezi
The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo
Desolation Island - Patrick O'Brian
The Future of Another Timeline - Annalee Newitz
Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting - Matthew Mercer with James Haeck
The Rosewater Redemption - Tade Thompson
Tarnished Are the Stars - Rosiee Thor
Rivers of London: Night Witch
This and the previous volume were both solid comics, but they did make it clear to me that it's Peter's narrative voice that's the main draw of this series, rather than the plot and dialogue. I felt similarly about the art: it's not in any way bad, and it does some nice things occasionally, but I would have loved to see what someone with a less standard comics style might have done.
The Night Tiger
Gorgeously atmospheric and absorbing slice of magical realism, set in 1930s Malaya, with two extremely rounded and likeable protagonists. It lost a star for the m/f romance - I know, I know, but this time it was genuinely not great! The boy half of it turned out to be really controlling and possessive (the reveal that he had quietly driven off the girl half's previous potential suitors was... a time), and although this is challenged by the narrative, he is still presented as basically ok as a romance option. The two of them were also step-siblings (they met aged 10, ymmv on whether this makes it also a bit incesty: it didn't particularly bother me, but fyi) and I would much rather have stuck with just that as their bond. It's a shame, because I otherwise loved this.
(It is possible that it was meant to be not ok, but if so I could have done with more indication of that in the text, and honestly I am kind of anti that too. I like happy endings, or at least not ones with a sting in the tail, what can I say.)
(content notes: domestic abuse, people get eaten, a few instances of attempted sexual assault)
The Future of Another Timeline
This is set in a very near future AU where time travel exists, and a group of women and non-binary people who have formed a secret society to create a better now by editing the past - which is partly necessary, it transpires, because a group of terrible men are trying to do the opposite. It's a very good book with a lot to say about protest, revolution and the importance of collective action, and I enjoyed it very much, but I do wish it had remembered that countries other than the US exist and do things. That being said, I actually didn't notice this properly until about 300 pages in, which I think speaks to how good it otherwise is.
(content notes: ...the patriarchy, mostly. Violent misogyny, sexual assault, domestic abuse, child abuse and other things that terrible powerful men do.)
Tarnished Are the Stars
This book is set in SPACE and has an AROACE PROTAGONIST so I really wanted to love it, but sadly it wasn't great. Partly it was a mismatch in expectations - it was less space opera, more fantasy with some sf trimmings - but also I just didn't find the characters or the world convincing. I also spotted a couple of moments where a character reacts to something that didn't actually happen*, so I wonder if something went awry in the editorial process? Whatever happened, it's a real shame: there were some good ideas and the stuff about being aroace in an amatonormative world was solid, but overall, not nearly as good as I wanted it to be. (I didn't rate this on goodreads because I felt bad about the fact that I would have only given it two stars /o\)
*and not, to be clear, in a "this character has misinterpreted events" way
Didn't finish: The Rage of Dragons
There were a lot of good things about this book: it was readable and compelling, some first-book awkwardness aside, and it looked like it was building up to hit some fantasy tropes in a really satisfying way. But it also did that thing that fantasy novels by and about (afaik) straight men often do, ie the women weren't particularly fleshed out, and queer people didn't seem to exist. This could well have improved after I stopped reading, about a hundred pages in, but I wasn't quite enjoying it enough to sink any more reading time into it when I have so many other, queerer things I could be reading.
Short stories I enjoyed this month:
Kin, Painted by Penny Stirling: a weird, very queer, offbeat story of someone trying to find their place in the world. I enjoyed it very much.
Seonag and the Seawolves - M. Evan MacGriogair: absolutely spellbinding.
no subject
Date: 3 Mar 2020 16:31 (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 Mar 2020 18:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Mar 2020 19:11 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Mar 2020 19:10 (UTC)