Book Post: Doerr, Jones, Bujold and Chekhov

[bearshorty]

Cloud Cockoo Land by Anthony Doerr, 622pp

This book was excellent. Doerr has a talent in the way he uses language to just draw you into the world. I really enjoyed his "All the Light We Cannot See" so I wanted to check this out. This book is split into three time periods or there about with several young child/teenager (we see many as they grow as well but the main focus is on their young period). One time period is the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 from the perspective of Anna, a Christian girl, and Omier, a Turkish boy with a cleft lip and a gift with animals. There is the Idaho in February 2020, with an old man, 5 teenagers and a would be ecoterrorist. We also see the old man, Zeno, through his whole life. And there is Konstance, a teenage girl on a twenty-second century starship. What unites them all is one fable story from the 1st century and how the characters find and and interact with this story and how they find answers in their life through it. It is a book about love of books about how books can shape and influence our lives.

There is just so much going on but there are connections between all these characters. You go from one to the other time period but it is so masterfully done so you don't earn to focus on just one, you want to know what is going on in all these people's lives. It is a book you want to keep reading. I just really enjoyed this book and it really solidified for me that Doerr is one modern author that I really enjoy.

Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones, 316pp

This is such a Diana Wynne Jones book. Just her writing style. It was pretty fun book. Howard is 13 and comes home one day from school with his younger sister nicknamed Awful, to find a Goon sitting in his kitchen demanding Archer's two thousand. Two thousand are words that Howard's Dad has to type every three month. As the story progresses Howard finds out that the town is actually run by 7 weird siblings, some nice, some not so much and it all leads to a complicated puzzle. The tone is pretty funny and it was a really nice break for my brain. Some twists I was able to figure out and some I wasn't but it was all good fun, especially everyone's attitude and how they reacted to various weird demands on people. I like Christomanci series more but I really need to read even more of Jones.


Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold, 344pp [Vorkosigan Saga]

This is the last novel of the Vorkosigan Saga. I had pretty low expectations of it coming in, since I heard ambivalent things but I have enjoyed all the books in this series so I wasn't going to skip it. And I do see why people might not particularly enjoy it. There is no traditional plot - not much happens beyond the personal level, there are no galaxy wide consequences, not too much action, the stakes are very family based. It is a much personal story of Cordelia, Admiral Oliver Jole and how Miles and his family take the news of Cordelia having more children as she faces widowhood and retirement and her relationship with Oliver. And about Oliver's decision to have children at 50. And Miles getting 6 sisters and 3 half brothers all of a sudden in his 40s. I really enjoyed it. It felt nice and relaxing after all the drama of other books. It felt like a good bookend since I started the series with Shards of Honor, which was about Cordelia meeting Aral in the first places and choosing the life the Barrayar. I also didn't realize that Sergyar was that planet where she and Aral met. It is a story of Cordelia in her 70s, recovering from Aral's death, choosing love again and also separately making her plans to have daughters and what she wants to do next. So it felt right to close the series with it. (I read a novella after that, so it wasn't my last Vorkosigan book, but it felt like it was. Plus novella was short). I also really liked Oliver and his thoughts on losing Aral and moving on and deciding between different kind of futures. The whole book just felt relaxing and nice and I always love adults having nice conversations without miscommunications and being all reasonable and good. It was comfort read, just like Oliver and Cordelia's sailing trips.

It was also fun to see Miles, who is now slightly older that me, with six! kids in tow and to get some glimpse of older kids personalities. I like when all the secrets are out in the open and people can just process.

And this book made Sergyar and colonization of it much more tangible and filled in the universe even more. I will miss this series. I enjoyed being in this world and liked all the books, even those not in the main timeline. "Shards of Honor" was probably my least favorite but I wonder how I will see it on reread, knowing more about the world and the characters. "Memory" was my favorite book of the series. But I really did enjoy them all.

The Flowers of Vashnoi by Lois McMaster Bujold, 74pp [Vorkosigan Saga]
A good novella. Nothing too special. It was nice to spend time with Ekaterin and see the butter bugs and also to se Enrique fleshed out a bit more. And to see Ekaterin in her still sort of new role as Lady Vorkosigan. And it was good to see Miles and his local concerns and his parenting techniques. The story itself was pretty good since you sympathize with everyone. It wasn't the best novella - it reminded me a little of the first Miles one since that also concern a local district. A nice glimpse into this world but "Gentleman Joli" was definitely more of an ending.

Дядя Ваня [Uncle Vanya] by Anton Chekhov, 61pp [in Russian]

I was watching "Drive My Car", the Japanese movie that was nominated for Best Picture and that won Best Foreign Film, and in the movie, 'Uncle Vanya" play has a big role. The main character is staging a multilingual production of the play a few years after his wife's death, he also listens to his wife reading some lines in the car on tape and he played that role when his wife died as well. So it is a play that is there to help him process his grief, to have similar themes as to what other characters are going through the movie and in general it plays a very big part of the movie. I know the play by osmosis, I have seen other Chekhov plays staged, but I don't think I watched or read this one before. So I asked my Dad to send me an e-copy and read it. Just reading some of it and getting a handle on the characters in the play, made me understand the characters and the intention of "Drive my Car" better.

And I think it is the right age for me to read it. I don't think I would have really got a lot out of it as a teenagers or someone in my 20s. But now I can appreciate what a lot of characters are going through. Vanya is 47, feels like he wasted his life, has little hope for his future and is generally depressed. I have seen that kind of conclusion before, that we just need to keep going and live (Buffy's musical was coming to mind, Spike's answer to Buffy's despair at the end). I felt bad for practically every character in this play, which feels very Russian. This is a classic play for a reason and even reading it felt very real to me. I should find a YouTube version of it to watch. Someone characterized the play as one where two guys are in love with the same woman, but I found that a minor part as it seems always incidental. I felt bad for Yelena, who wanted none of that and just wanted to leave.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

I'm surprised but pleased on your behalf that you liked GJatRQ as much as you did! I don't DISlike it -- I don't dislike any books in the Vorkosigan Saga -- but I definitely thought it was the weakest of the books by a long shot, and kind of feel like it drags down the whole series a bit. I mean, I like Jole, I like that Cordelia's life does not end when Aral dies, I like seeing Miles as a dad and his young family, and I LOVE the conversation between Miles and Cordelia where she tells him she and Oliver are lovers, comedy gold! I liked a lot about the book, in fact, but the whole thing doesn't come together into a coherent whole for me (which 'Vashnoi' does, and why I prefer it as the ending).

So weird that you're now done with the whole series... I guess there is still more Bujold to read at least (I don't think you've read her World of Five Gods books yet, right?)

[bearshorty]

I think I enjoyed Gentleman Jole book because I had low expectations and also it really felt like a true bookend to Shards of Honor and it just fit for me. Like saying goodbye instead of new adventure. So I appreciated it for what it was. And it was actually nice to be in this universe without things exploding!

Yes. The World of Five Gods is next, mainly because one of the novels won a Hugo so I have to read it for my Hugo novel goal. I know pretty much nothing about this world at all, so I will just dive into it completely unprepared. I want to do three novels next year and then one more novel and a bunch of novellas after that.

[hamsterwoman]

I'll be curious to see how you like the Chalion-verse -- they are kind of historical fantasy, so rather different from Vorkosigans, but I like them a lot, too. Paladin of Souls in particular is very good (the one that won the Hugo), but I do think it's best read after Curse of Chalion (Hallowed Hunt, the third novel, I don't like as much); the Penric novellas I've read -- I'm a bunch behind at this point -- are delightful).

[megan_moonlight]

I have The Flowers of Vashnoi and Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen on my to-read list. So far the only book from the Vorkosigan Saga I have read is Ethan of Athos, and I loved that one, so I hope I'll like the other ones as well.

[bearshorty]

You should start with 'Shards of Honor' and 'Barrayar' and then 'Warrior's Apprentice' with Vorkosigan Saga! Flowers of Vashtoi and Gentleman Jole can be read independently but they are so much richer if you know the characters. Those two are the end of the series! I absolutely enjoyed the whole series and highly recommend it. I read it mostly with internal chronology and it was fun following the characters as they got older!

[megan_moonlight]

Thanks for the pointers! Now I just have to see how many of these I'll be able to find.

[unbound_spirit]

I saw Three Sisters performed back when I was 19. I think it took me multiple days to recover from the depression that hit me afterwards. I’d be curious to read it now and see how I felt.