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bearshorty) wrote2023-12-15 03:01 pm
bearshorty) wrote2023-12-15 03:01 pm
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Book Post: Lecke, Kingfisher and Stephenson
Translation State by Anne Leckie, 421pp
I felt like a much less complicated book than the others in the same universe. Maybe because the plot was a bit more straight forward, maybe because I already had some knowledge of the universe. But that didn't take away from the enjoyment of the book. The book alternates between three individuals: Enae, Reet and Qven. Enae is a middle aged person who lived a very small type of life - in the same house as her Grand-Maman, taking care of everything with constant put downs from others. When her Grand-Maman dies, they are offered a change to be a diplomat and travel. It was supposed to be for just a perfunctory job but Enae turns out to be very good at it. Reet was adopted as a baby and is now almost 30 and he wants to know where he comes from. He is close to his foster family but it doesn't feel enough and he always had strange implulses. Qven is a young Presger translator who is very scared of matching, which is how Presger translators become adults and is thrown in a traumatic and terrifying situation. All three meet and influence each other.
There is also a diplomatic treaty to consider and a Radch Ambassador and other aliens. But this is a personal story as well: are you human if you claim you are. How much are you your genes and how much how you are raised. I did like finding out more about the Presger translators although they still remain very strange with their powers.
I didn't love this book as much as the Justice trilogy or Provenance but I liked it a lot and it was nice to read something in this universe again.
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), 240pp [Hugo book].
Since it just won a Hugo, I figured I should read it. Plus I really enjoyed Vernon's series for kids like Hamster Princess and Dragonbreath so I thought I would like her style. And I really did. This is a fairytale but a fairy tale where most people act like people and react to event like normal people would.
Marra is the third daughter of a King, raised in a convent, because the Prince of the neighboring kingdom, who married first one and then the next of her sisters didn't want any competition for heirs. Marra realizes the Prince had a hand in death of her eldest sister and is abusing the next one and it will be her turn if the second sister dies. So she sets out on a quest to kill the Prince and help her sister with the help of an elderly dust wife (a witch person who talks with the dead and takes care of cemetaries). She also acquires a dog made of bones, and a former knight they get at the goblin market and her Fairy Godmother to go on the quest with her.
I loved that in the story it was a 30 year old woman, a middle aged warrior and two elderly women on a quest. And a demon chicken and a bone dog. It was a fairy tale but with my kind of humor and people behaving in a interesting way.
The only weird thing for me was the use of the word "christening". There are Fairy Godmothers in this world who bestow gifts on the babies and there are "christenings" but why couldn't it have been "a naming ceremony" or something. It was emphasized that different countries had different gods and certainly not Christian beliefs so why would this ceremony for children still be called a christening? Just because it was a word automatically associated with that in our culture? It was just weird to me.
Anyway, I enjoyed this book and I'm happy it won the Hugo.
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, 500pp [Hugo book].
For my goal of five Hugo winning books a year I needed one more Hugo book, so I picked this one, which was published in the mid 90s and is about a word with nanotechnology. In Jo Walson's book "Informal History of the Hugos" she mentioned that she like 3/4 of the book and then the ending sort of went downhill, and she is pretty much right.
This book is set mostly in Shanghai, and the world is divided into basically clans, including Victorians, who emulate the 19th century Victorian as a reaction to much looser ancestors. In this world, everything is based with nanotechnology and a lot of possible. A girl growing up in the slums ends up with a very fancy technological book, a Primer, that basically raises her with the help of an actress. There are all kinds of political things too and a lot of weirdness.
What this book does really well was worldbuilding. It really did feel like a future world where technology changed a lot how the world worked. The little details of the world felt very thought out. But the overall plot was weird and it really didn't go anywhere interesting in the end, even with Nell. And some plot points like the Drummers were just really really weird.
This book was just OK for me. I understand why it won a Hugo but overall it is not a book one would reread. In some ways it reminded me of when I was reading Virge - interesting ideas but I was not eager to get back into it.
I felt like a much less complicated book than the others in the same universe. Maybe because the plot was a bit more straight forward, maybe because I already had some knowledge of the universe. But that didn't take away from the enjoyment of the book. The book alternates between three individuals: Enae, Reet and Qven. Enae is a middle aged person who lived a very small type of life - in the same house as her Grand-Maman, taking care of everything with constant put downs from others. When her Grand-Maman dies, they are offered a change to be a diplomat and travel. It was supposed to be for just a perfunctory job but Enae turns out to be very good at it. Reet was adopted as a baby and is now almost 30 and he wants to know where he comes from. He is close to his foster family but it doesn't feel enough and he always had strange implulses. Qven is a young Presger translator who is very scared of matching, which is how Presger translators become adults and is thrown in a traumatic and terrifying situation. All three meet and influence each other.
There is also a diplomatic treaty to consider and a Radch Ambassador and other aliens. But this is a personal story as well: are you human if you claim you are. How much are you your genes and how much how you are raised. I did like finding out more about the Presger translators although they still remain very strange with their powers.
I didn't love this book as much as the Justice trilogy or Provenance but I liked it a lot and it was nice to read something in this universe again.
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), 240pp [Hugo book].
Since it just won a Hugo, I figured I should read it. Plus I really enjoyed Vernon's series for kids like Hamster Princess and Dragonbreath so I thought I would like her style. And I really did. This is a fairytale but a fairy tale where most people act like people and react to event like normal people would.
Marra is the third daughter of a King, raised in a convent, because the Prince of the neighboring kingdom, who married first one and then the next of her sisters didn't want any competition for heirs. Marra realizes the Prince had a hand in death of her eldest sister and is abusing the next one and it will be her turn if the second sister dies. So she sets out on a quest to kill the Prince and help her sister with the help of an elderly dust wife (a witch person who talks with the dead and takes care of cemetaries). She also acquires a dog made of bones, and a former knight they get at the goblin market and her Fairy Godmother to go on the quest with her.
I loved that in the story it was a 30 year old woman, a middle aged warrior and two elderly women on a quest. And a demon chicken and a bone dog. It was a fairy tale but with my kind of humor and people behaving in a interesting way.
The only weird thing for me was the use of the word "christening". There are Fairy Godmothers in this world who bestow gifts on the babies and there are "christenings" but why couldn't it have been "a naming ceremony" or something. It was emphasized that different countries had different gods and certainly not Christian beliefs so why would this ceremony for children still be called a christening? Just because it was a word automatically associated with that in our culture? It was just weird to me.
Anyway, I enjoyed this book and I'm happy it won the Hugo.
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, 500pp [Hugo book].
For my goal of five Hugo winning books a year I needed one more Hugo book, so I picked this one, which was published in the mid 90s and is about a word with nanotechnology. In Jo Walson's book "Informal History of the Hugos" she mentioned that she like 3/4 of the book and then the ending sort of went downhill, and she is pretty much right.
This book is set mostly in Shanghai, and the world is divided into basically clans, including Victorians, who emulate the 19th century Victorian as a reaction to much looser ancestors. In this world, everything is based with nanotechnology and a lot of possible. A girl growing up in the slums ends up with a very fancy technological book, a Primer, that basically raises her with the help of an actress. There are all kinds of political things too and a lot of weirdness.
What this book does really well was worldbuilding. It really did feel like a future world where technology changed a lot how the world worked. The little details of the world felt very thought out. But the overall plot was weird and it really didn't go anywhere interesting in the end, even with Nell. And some plot points like the Drummers were just really really weird.
This book was just OK for me. I understand why it won a Hugo but overall it is not a book one would reread. In some ways it reminded me of when I was reading Virge - interesting ideas but I was not eager to get back into it.
no subject
It's been a while since I read The Diamond Age, but I remember hating it! It's true that the worldbuilding was interesting, but the plot was such a mess and went nowhere. I don't think I liked the writing style, either.
no subject
Some books I have to read for my Hugo project are really weird. This one had such promise but really didn't go anywhere at all.