Aerrin99's 75 Book Challenge

#1 by @Aerrin99> Hello all!

I participated in the 100 Books Challenge last year (my thread is here), but I thought I'd give this group a try for the group reads and the like (although I think I'll duplicate my list over there as well). We'll see if I can keep up with the posting volume...

My tastes incline toward fantasy and science fiction, and I also read a lot of YA lit. See you in January!




January
.5 Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente - 2/5
1. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride - 4/5 (343 pgs)
2. Salem's Lot by Stephen King 4/5 (407 pgs)
3. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson - 4.5/5 (146 pgs)
4. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George - 4/5 (242 pgs)
5. Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George - 4/5 (257 pgs)
6. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher - 4/5 (442 pgs)
7. Soulless by Gail Carriger - 3.5/5 (357 pgs)
8. Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist - 4/5 (363 pgs)
9. Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin - 5/5 (304 pgs)

February
10. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin 5/5 (674 pgs)
11. Fables : 1001 nights of snowfall by Bill Willingham - 3.5/5 (140 pgs)
12. Fables: the great Fables crossover by Bill Willingham - 2.5/5 (224 pgs)
13. Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge - 4/5 (341 pgs)
14. The Judas Rose by Suzette Elgin - 3.4/5 (363 pgs)

March
15. Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan - 3.5/5 (433 pgs)
16. Tam Lin by Pamela Dean (456 pgs)
17. Earthsong by Suzette Elgin (254 pgs) - 3.5/5
18. Late Eclipses by Seannan McGuire (372 pgs) - 4.5/5
19. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (226 pgs) 4/5
20. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (728 pgs) 5/5
21. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (924 pgs) 5/5
22. The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead by Paul Elwork (307 pgs) 2.5/5

April
23. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (684 pgs) 4/5
24. Feed by Mira Grant (599 pgs) 5/5
25. Blindsight by Peter Watts (384 pgs) 3/5
26. Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco (305 pgs)
27. Embassytown by China Mieville

May
28. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (993 pgs) - 4.5/5
29. The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen (374 pgs) - 4/5
30. Terrier by Tamora Pierce (582 pgs) - 4/5
31. Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce (551 pgs) - 4/5
32. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (470 pgs) - 4/5
33. The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana G. Oliver (355 pgs) - 3/5
33. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (243 pgs) - 4/5
34. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (174 pgs) - 4/5
35. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (541 pgs) - 4.5/5
36. Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (590 pgs) - 4.5/5
37. Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (301 pgs) - 4/5

June
38. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (572 pgs) - 4.5/5
39. The Exile by Diana Gabaldon (224 pgs) - 3/5
40. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (492 pgs) - 5/5
41. Grace by Elizabeth Scott (200 pgs) - 3.5/5
42. The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter (293 pgs) - 2.5/5
43. Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler (177 pgs) 3.5/5
44. Secret Vampire by L.J. Smith - 3/5
45. Daughters of Darkness by L.J. Smith - 3/5
46. Spellbinder by L.J. Smith - 3/5 (752 pgs total)
47. Dark Angel by L.J. Smith - 3/5
48. The Chosen by L.J. Smith - 3/5
49. Soulmate by L.J. Smith - 3/5 (688 pgs total)
50. Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip (314 pgs) 3/5

July
51. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (1001 pgs) - 4.5/5
52. Among Others by Jo Walton (302 pgs) 3.5/5
53. Sapphique by Catherine Fisher 2.5/5
54. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 3.5/5
55. A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin 4/5

August
56. Huntress by L.J. Smith
57. Black Dawn by L.J. Smith
58. Witchlight by L.J. Smith
59. Hellbent by Cherie Priest 2.5/5
60. Deadline by Mira Grant 4/5
61. War for the Oaks by Emma Bull 4/5
62. The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff 4/5

September
63. One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire 4/5
64. Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire 4/5
65. A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire 4/5
66. An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire 4.5/5

October
67. Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire 4.5/5
68. One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

Welcome to the group!

I'm glad to see you here! I'll definitely be following this thread.

Hello see you in January! Not long now!

Hey, Aerrin--got you starred and I'll be back in January!

Hi Aerrin, have noticed you as a voice of reason on some site-related threads recently. Fantasy, sci-fi and YA sounds good to me, I'll be interested to see what you read in 2011!

> 6

Gosh, that's a scary thought! ;) Look forward to reading with you this year!

And thanks for the welcomes, everyone!

With your reading interests, I will confidently predict this thread will have 250 posts in about a week after your reviews start appearing. I hope that makes you smile, not cringe in terror!

Have a great reading year...150 and beyond....

Welcome! Check out the group wiki for group read links and the like...

http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Groups:75booksin2011

Sci-fi, fantasy and YA? Starred! I'll be following this thread too, looking forward to sharing reads!

I second that.

*tapping toe* *waiting for first book review*

Hey, Aerrin, what are you reading?

Nothing at present! My boyfriend has been visiting and is here til the 6th (tomorrow), so my reading time has been nil. I'll get there, promise!

I did decided to drop Palimpsest about 75 pages in and will be picking up Hold Me Closer Necromancer soon.

.5 Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente - 2/5



I'm not counting Palimpsest because I only read about the first hundred pages, but I am writing a review for it:

Palimpsest is a novel thick with wonderful language and detailed description and twisting, twining metaphors. Unfortunately, it's so thick that it was impossible for me to wade through it to find characters, plot, or world worth caring about. I struggled through the first hundred pages of this novel before I admitted to myself that I was hating it. The turning point was a paragraph 7 lines long which boiled down to 'He visited all the neighbors to ask if anyone had seen his wife', and which I had to read 3 times in order to process properly.

I like unique language and I love interesting visuals. But I don't want them to get in the way of my story. I won't be picking up Valente again.

1. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride - 4/5 (343 pgs)



This is a fantastically fun romp of an urban fantasy, and delightfully original for the genre.

Sam is a college drop-out who flips burgers for a living and has always felt a little lost. When a foreboding man stops by for dinner, he finds out why: he's a necromancer, and with Douglas Montgomery's entry into his life, he finds himself in an entirely different - and very dangerous - world.

McBride's writing is quick-paced and filled with enjoyable wit. Her characters are lively and interesting, and her world promising. There are a few nitpicks here - some of the solutions to problems feel a bit too easy if you think about them too hard, and Sam (and his friends) seem to fall into this new world with an amazing acceptance - but for the most part the ride is enjoyable enough that it's hard to let them bother you much.

I liked Sam a lot, and I like McBride's version of necromancy even more. I'd love to see more in this world. There's a lot to be mined here if she chooses. Room to talk about the nature of what makes a person good or evil, the role of a soul, and how one deals with immense power without becoming corrupted. I hope she comes back and touches on these - I'll definitely be reading it if she does!

#14: Sorry your reading year got off to such a rough start with that one. . .

#15: but glad it rebounded with this one :)

>15 Aerrin99: Hummm... This one sounds really interesting. I'm kind of up for a comedy/fantasy.

I'm not sure I'd call it comedy exactly, but it /is/ witty and fun. It's good light reading.

Well, glad to see you bounced back from that first disaster with a decent book! I've seen Hold Me Closer, Necromancer around here and there, but I hadn't heard anything about it one way or the other. Good to know it's worth picking up!

I have been reading a lot of YA, starred you to see where you lead.

2. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King - 4/5 (407 pgs)



'Salem's Lot tends to rank high on lists of favorite King books, and I can see why. It's a solid and fairly traditional vampire tale woven with King's skill at atmosphere and plain creepy.

I didn't love this book as much as my previous adventure in Stephen King - The Shining - but I did enjoy it. I've come to expect King's books to start slow and build slow until you almost don't notice that the pace has become frantic and you can't put the book down until you've turned the final page. He spends a good hundred pages here setting up the small town of Jerusalem's Lot and the people in it. The Lot is filled with spider-webbing connections and relationships that ring true to someone who grew up in a very small town, and I was pleased to see how King makes the time spent drawing the lines between people pay off near the end.

What Salem's Lot is lacking is subtly - it doesn't take much for our heroes to hit on 'vampires' or devise a course of action, and there's a level of rationality to their planning that rings a bit untrue. It doesn't have the glorious ambiguity of The Shining, where you wonder for awhile how much of the monsters are monsters and how much are the characters themselves.

It makes up for this to some degree by being truly creepy in the final pages. One death in particular was shocking and shockingly visual - it sticks with me even days later. I continue to be amazed at the way King can stir up fear and unease with the written word. I used to think of him as a hack who wrote about haunted cars and bloody prom queens, but after having read some of his work, I am revising my opinion - Stephen King does masterful things with atmosphere, and you don't want to be stuck in the middle of one of his books alone in the dark.

Great review. You really touch on what makes King such a popular writer. You get so involved in his books. He pulls you in without you realizing it.

Great review! I've been thinking of re-reading his Dark Tower series.

I just saw Ron Howard on the Daily Show and he said he is going to turn The Dark Tower series into films.

Wasn't Salem's Lot his first or almost his first? I read and enjoyed quite a few of his earlier ones but stopped when they became gargantuan.

It's very early I think, but I'm pretty sure Carrie was his first. To some extent I can kind of tell - it's a bit blunter than those works of his I've really loved, if that makes sense.

I've kind of skipped about in what King I've read. Some I haven't liked that much (like Lisey's Story), and some I really adore.

3. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson - 4.5/5 (146 pgs)



Jackson's work - which has been recommended to me again and again - is an exceedingly eerie gothic wonder that sticks with you long after you're done reading.

It's a bit difficult to describe We Have Always Lived in the Castle. It is not horror, it is not especially scary, and it is very unusual in a lot of ways.

Mary Katherine, called Merricat, is our narrator, and she sets up our expectations for the book. She relates her day-to-day activities with such matter-of-fact frankness that we accept them (at first) almost without question. Twice a week, she must navigate the village, where everyone hates her and her family. She bears their suspicion and their scorn and their haunting refrains ("Merricat," said Connie, "would you like a cup of tea?") stoically in order to return to her fenced-in house and her sister and her invalid uncle.

As the story progresses, more and more details unfold, and it's not until halfway through the book when an unexpected cousin arrives and seems to be turning Constance away from Merricat that we start to wonder about the reliability of our narrator.

The final surprise is not really shocking, but it /is/ beautiful, and there is something intensely haunting about this story of two sisters who are ultimately loyal to each other above all else, and who thus become figures of both terror and legend for the local town.

Jackson has a fantastic touch with voice, with character, and with atmosphere. The neatness with which she unfolds the events surrounding Merricat and Constance and Uncle Julian is fascinating, and even now that sing-song refrain sticks in my head ("Oh no!" said Merricat, "You'll /poison/ me!").

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, and it took me awhile to get into it in part because of that. But I'm very glad I persisted - I feel like We Have Always Lived in the Castle is one of those books that is an /experience/, and that you are always a little better for having had it.

This is one of those books I keep hearing about and desperately want to read, but continually forget about when I get to the bookstore or library. Gah!

#27: I like that one too! Glad to see the book has found another fan.

4. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George - 4/5 (272 pgs)



A fun and fresh fairytale retelling with engaging characters and a plot that trips along at a nice pace.

There's not a lot of depth here, but it's a lot of fun, and it delves into a fairytale that I was unfamiliar with.

Rose is the oldest of twelve, all sisters, all princesses. Their mother made a deadly deal with the King of Under Stone, and since her death they have been cursed to dance every night until their shoes are in tatters. They can't tell anyone what they do or where they go. When the girls get sick and their all-night dancing means they struggle to recover, the worried king offers up their hands in marriage to any prince who can uncover their secret.

After many failures and many mysterious deaths, a gardener and former soldier named Galen - armed with knitting needles and herblore - gives it a shot.

If you like fairy tale retellings, I definitely recommend this. I recommend the sequel - Princess of Glass - even more.

>30 Aerrin99: I love a fairy tale retelling and this sounds like a lot of fun. Plus, I love the idea of knitting needles coming to the rescue.

>30 Aerrin99: Princess of the Midnight Ball sounds fun. It must be based on the same fairytale as Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marrilier which was also good.

I've added Princess of the Midnight Ball to the TBR Someday list.

Whoo-hoo! Dodged a book bullet, that one's already on the list :D

>31 Tanglewood: She even includes knitting patterns for various important items in the back of the book! If you do read this, be sure to pick up the sequel - I might get around to reviewing it today. It was lovely.

> 32 Yes, it is - the Twelve Dancing Princesses. It's fairly straightforward, I think but, the sequel is a very creative Cinderella riff in the same world and featuring one of the younger princesses.

I am not doing very good on my vow to review promptly this year-- I finished this book early last week and another since then! I'm blaming it on the extremely cold weather - it's making me sluggish!

5. Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George - 4/5 (257 pgs)



This sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball is delightful and, in many ways, stronger than its predecessor. Where 'Midnight Ball' was fairly surface and predictable fun, 'Glass' mixes up the fairy tales in more interesting ways and is possessed of a heroine, Princess Poppy, who is determined and feisty and just tons of fun.

The ten unmarried dancing princesses from 'Midnight Ball' are being shipped off in a sort of royal 'study abroad' program in order to repair strained relations and possibly achieve some matchmaking. Sixteen-year-old Princess Poppy travels to Breton, where she makes some good friends and has an encounter with a serving girl named Ellen who, it turns out, has gotten into something a bit over her head. This is a pretty creative re-imagining of Cinderella, and I really enjoyed how neatly that story fit into the previous fairy tale. George really manages to make them feel like part of the same world, and she strikes a nice balance between politics and fairy tale magic.

My favorite part of this book, though, is Princess Poppy. I spent a lot of time while reading this book thinking that if I had a daughter, this is exactly the sort of Princess I'd want her reading about. Intelligent and quick-witted, scared of scary things but willing to face them when necessary anyway, eager to stretch her boundaries and willing to reevaluate her judgment of someone. She's an excellent role model, a lot of fun, and when things get bad, she starts knitting.

If Princess of the Midnight Ball struck your fancy, I definitely recommend this follow-up.

found your thread, looks like you have some great books to pull from.

Just browsing the 2011 threads and your thread has a list of books I need to add to my wishlist! In fact, I'm pretty sure all the books you've listed need to get added.

I read Shirley Jackson for the first time last year, so your #3 book looks good. If you haven't tried it yet, I would also recommend her The Haunting of Hill House.

> 37 Hello, good to see you over here!

> 38 I haven't read any other Shirley Jackson, but The Haunting of Hill House is definitely on my list. I had such a cheesy love for that movie (The Haunting) when I was in college.

Well, rats. My local library does not have either Jessica Day George book.

Oh no! So sorry to hear that!

6. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher - 4/5 (442 pgs)



Incarceron is a fascinating and compellingly original work set in a living prison and the world outside, which exists in a state of perpetual Victorian time-lock in an effort to keep society from its ills.

Incarceron was built to be a perfect prison, run by the prison itself. All problem parts of society were sent there and it was sealed off. Inside, it was supposed to be a paradise, carefully controlled to erase all signs of human vices or follies. In the century-and-change since Incaceron was built, though, things have gone wrong, and the world inside the prison is far from paradise.

Outside, the Warden's daughter is preparing for her arranged marriage to the prince, a spoiled brat she has been raised to rule. As the clock ticks, she breaks into her father's office and there finds a device that lets her communicate with Finn - a boy inside Incarceron who's convinced he wasn't born there, even though no one enters from the outside. He's looking for a way out, she's looking for a way in.

I actually upped my rating of this book because it stuck with me for a surprisingly long time. I still think about it now and then. The reason is the fantastic and very unique world Fisher creates, along with the driving mystery that had me turning page after page without stopping. Both Finn and Claudia are engaging and interesting characters who are clearly caught up in something larger than they understand.

Incarceron itself is fascinating. In some places, it's a bit flawed - Fisher struggles sometimes to make us understand exactly what is happening and why in the shifting sentient prison. There were times when I had a hard time maintaining a good visual. At the same time, however, that works in the story's favor - Incarceron is a mystery, and it is mysterious, and it is creepy and captivating.

I understand the sequel to this book is not as good - I'm terribly disappointed, even as I can see why it might not be - the strength of this book is the prison and the things that separate our heroes. I'll probably pick up Sapphique anyway, but I'm so sad to hear it doesn't live up to this first.

#42: I have had that one in the BlackHole for a while now. One of these days I will get to it!

>41 Aerrin99: Well, maybe now with lowered expecations you will enjoy Sapphique more.

oh boy, that sounds like something I have to read - yay

> 44

Haha! We'll see. I think I'll enjoy it enough to read it, anyway, and if it turns out that it bugs me as much as many reviewers, well -I can always write a scathing review!

>42 Aerrin99: This sounds an interesting plot, I will add this to my wishlist.

7. Soulless by Gail Carriger - 3.5/5 (357 pgs)



Soulless is fluffy and fun alternative Victorian history with vampires and werewolves, but has some flaws that really disappointed me.

I picked up this book after seeing it on a lot of LT threads and then flipping through it at a Barnes & Nobles. The first scene - wherein spinster Alexia Tarabotti encounters a vampire in a drawing room and then kills him with a hairpin and her parasol after the vampire discovers that she is soulless - and thus nullifys all his supernatural tendencies, including his fangs, with a touch - captured me right away. The book looked witty and fun and creative.

It /is/ witty and fun and creative. However, it's also a Romance, which I did not expect. The capital R is to indicate the particular sort of specimen I mean - don't get me wrong. I like romance in my books. In fact, I enjoy it quite a bit. But this was a Romance, wherein the fantastically creative faux-Victorian world of the supernatural was interrupted on a regular basis to speculate on the muscle tone of its lead werewolf or to tell us yet again how unattractive its heroine thought she was (That Italian complexion, you know! That Italian last name! That unbecoming tendency to have opinions and speak them aloud!) and yet how very attractive the lead werewolf (masculine! Scottish! Bad-tempered!) found her! Inexplicably!

It grated. It grated because the book was too clever for that laziness. It grated because it was so close to creating a truly interesting heroine - someone who accepts her soullessness and her spinsterhood and decides to do things according to her own rules and /maybe/ finds unexpected love in the process - and instead cast her in a number of Harlequin-esque stereotypes, all of them unflattering. The 'she's beautiful but doesn't know it' and 'he appreciates her wit at a time when no one else can!' tropes are tired and cliche and frankly they often border on sexist.

You may be able to sense my frustration here. It's leaking out in waves not because I did not enjoy this book, but because I /did/, and it bothers me to no end to have this tripe shoved into an otherwise engaging story.

I suppose I should talk about the good too though, hm?

There is a lot of good. Although Carringer occasionally fails in convincing faux-Victorian (writing style, that is), for the most part it holds up. The vampire hives, controlled by queens, and the werewolf packs are an interesting set-up - as is the agency which polices them, the bits of their mythology that control their numbers, and the sight of Victorian society attempting to decide just how the 200 year old undead fit into their dinner party seating arrangements.

It's a clever set-up, a clever premise, and lots of fun in the main storyline. When Alexia is not dithering about her werewolf, I find her engaging, smart, and spunky, and I love her no-nonsense attitude about the state of her soul.

I recommend this book if you have the tolerance for the Romantic shenanigans listed above. I /might/ give the sequel a try and see if they cool off a bit - I do, after all, like the world.

But gosh, I was just /disappointed/.

ack! I have that in my list and now I'm unsure about getting it.

48: I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one, though to be fair I didn't get very far into it. I just didn't latch on to any character that I liked. I hope your next read is better!

Humm. I think I might be taking this off my wishlist.

I almost feel bad for making people rethink it! I shouldn't overstate - I did enjoy the book. The parts of it that weren't Romance were very engaging, and I think I read it almost straight through - two days at the most. So if you're very into that pseudo-Victorian urban history thing, I'd still go for it.

But. If capable heroines who just don't realize How Pretty They Really Are and who Don't Know How to Do This Romance Thing and Melt At the Skillful Way He Kissed Me For the First Time Oh My There Was a Tongue! drive you bonkers-- I might give it a skip.

> 50 Oh good! You make me feel better, too! Don't worry - I just finished Native Tongue today and it was /excellent/ - the sort of idea book that also manages engaging characters and stories. I was at the same time eager to finish and disappointed when I did!

Sometimes I don't mind a fluffy sort of something to cleanse the palette after a particularly long and arduous book. I'll just drop it down a few pages on the list.

52> Oh no! That is the kind of thing I hate. I absolutely loathed Princess of the Midnight Ball because of the uselessness of the princesses and the Romance Novel-esque Perfect Hero (he even knits! such a wonderful, perfect man!), though otherwise it's the kind of book I enjoy - I love fairy tales and retellings.

I knew Soulless was as much romance novel as anything else, but I didn't realize it was so entrenched in romance novel tropes. Oh well, I'll give it a try anyway, because one interview Carriger gave talked about gothic novels and parodying them, and that's one of my favorite things ever.

I was more tolerant of the Romance tropes than you, I think, because they were so deliberately over the top and tongue-in-cheek. This is not a woman who was mindlessly or lazily using them, IMO, but who was intent on skewering them. That said, I think I enjoyed the next two books more because we got the main relationship brought on-line, for although Carriger does NOT dispense with the Romance, there are lots more interesting characters and action.

>54 keristars: You might like the sequel, Princess of Glass - Princess Poppy is quite the little go-getter (she knits too!) and I liked her a lot, after similar (but clearly less intense) qualms about the first.

> 55 If she was skewering, she sure was doing it subtly, in my opinion. Things played out pretty much as they would have in any novel doing it seriously, which is part of what was so frustrating for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed Soulless, but I lost a lot of my belief in Carriger's deliberate parodying after reading her blog and realizing how seriously the woman takes fashion. I can no longer laugh quite so freely when her characters think about their clothing in the midst of life-threatening situations.

But...but...but...surely you jest! Isn't it absolutely essential to be properly dressed to be at one's best, especially in an emergency?

Nope :)

Haha! You know, the clothing /was/ actually a part I enjoyed as a bit of parodying. But I don't think that her parodying is quite as spot on as perhaps she thinks it is.

Ok, now I'm back on board if there are clothes involved.

#48 Good review, but I think I will pass on that one.

I found the next two Carriger books much better, because like you, I found the romance was laid on a bit thick and detracted from the actual plot in the first book. There's a bit of it in the next two, but not nearly so much, and a much greater emphasis on action and various steampunk gadgets.

I, for one, was amazed at how much one could pack into an innocent umbrella!

My vow to review promptly seems to be falling by the wayside. Oops. Fortunately, I'm currently reading A Game of Thrones, which ought to take me long enough to get caught up!

8. Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist - 4/5 (363 pgs)



Handling the Undead is a 'zombie' story in about the same way that Let the Right One In was a 'vampire' story. That is, portions of the mythology fit, but the point of the story is entirely different, moving in a very different way. It's definitely not horror.

In Stockholm, the recently-dead begin to rise after an electrical power surge. For the most part they are just that - dead, in many cases rotting, unable to heal, in most cases unable to speak or communicate.

The story here focuses no on events, but on people - a grandfather and mother whose child died several months earlier and who take him away to hide him from authorities; an elderly woman whose husband returns and who struggles with her vow 'til death do us part'; a man whose wife died in a horrible car accident and rose only hours later.

Each story is interesting and moving. It explores what death means, what it might mean to have our grieving interrupted, what it means to be human, what part of each other we love and cherish. It's no surprise that Lindqvist does interesting things with these questions in an unconventional fashion.

Unfortunately, the rest of the mechanics of the novel fall short. As a character study, it sort of works, but as a story, it fails - there is basically no plot to speak of, the mechanics of the how and why are so tacked on it's almost embarrassing, and in the end none of it really seems to /mean/ anything.

I'm glad to have read the book, because I think it has interesting ideas, but it's definitely not one to re-read.

Hmm...and I was a huge fan of Let the right one in now I'm wondering if this is worth it?

I'm not sure. I mean, I liked it well enough, but it didn't have that wow factor for me that Let the Right One In did.

Ah, no! The worst has happened. I am far enough behind on reviewing this one that I'm pretty sure bits of it have slipped from my mind. Fortunately, discussion in the Future Women book read group is keeping me sharpish. So here we go!

9. Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin - 4.5/5 (304 pgs)



Native Tongue is an interesting thought experiment with a lot to say about communication, language, and how both shape our reality.

The premise itself can be a hard pill to swallow - in 1991, women's rights were rolled back, they are no longer legal entities. A couple of centuries later, women live in a state somewhere between perpetual children and slaves. Given this premise, there is of course a lot of sexism in the book, and a lot of overwhelming feminism as well. This is one of Elgin's greatest problems - her men are so one-dimensional that it makes her well-drawn and interesting women harder to swallow. The sexism is so blatant, sudden, and unexplained that many in our group read are finding it hard to accept her premise and get beyond it to the ideas (and I understand why). And worse, it sometimes feels simplistic, which undermines some of her very interesting thoughts about power and language.

That said, I found this book fascinating and had a hard time putting it down. I read a decent amount of basic linguistic theory when I was in graduate school, and the idea that the words we have to express ourselves - the language we speak - not only affects what and how we can communicate with each other, but also the very thoughts we can have, the very reality we can perceive, is fascinating.

The joy this book held for me was not in its (quite flawed) exploration of the relationship between men and women, or even the powerful and the powerless, but instead in its theory-come-to-life approach to linguistics.

The story focuses on several powerful families who, almost literally from birth, are trained up in half a dozen languages each (hundreds, if not thousands, in total), including at least one alien language. These families are the only ones who can speak to hundreds of different alien species with any fluency, and thus they hold a lot of power over the world's governments and corporations.

There's a subplot about attempting to learn nonhumanoid languages and the impossibility of such, because our brains simply cannot perceive - or describe - the world in the same way.

And of course there's Laadan - the woman's language which is created in secret over generations as the precursor to what might be (or might not be) revolution. The idea here is that the languages they know are insufficient for women, and that claiming language is part of claiming power. That those who control communication in fact control everything. We can probably find a dozen modern parallels - the reclaiming of pejoratives by the groups in question, for example, or the effort of politicians and news media to find the appropriate 'spin.' The effort of foreign governments to forcibly silence voices of dissent.

Thus, women claiming a language of their own, a language which men cannot speak, a language which can be spoken aloud or silently with such subtly that men (for some reason) cannot seem to even detect it being spoken - is the first step to claiming a real power.

This book has faults to be sure. I agree with all the complaints about the black and white sexism and the one-dimensional men. But I think there is something very interesting and powerful here in the idea of language - Elgin's thoughts on a woman's language (she actually created Laadan and hoped it would catch on, as Klingon did) are faulty in a number of ways. But the text illustrated a lot of linguistic theory in really fascinating ways.

I've got the sequels on my shelf and will read them as soon as Game of Thrones and sequels let me loose.

---

And that's it for January (what, it's February now? Shhh!) My roundup:

January
9.5 books, 2,861 pages.

.5 Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente - 2/5
1. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride - 4/5 (343 pgs)
2. Salem's Lot by Stephen King 4/5 (407 pgs)
3. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson - 4.5/5 (146 pgs)
4. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George - 4/5 (242 pgs)
5. Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George - 4/5 (257 pgs)
6. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher - 4/5 (442 pgs)
7. Soulless by Gail Carriger - 3.5/5 (357 pgs)
8. Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist - 4/5 (363 pgs)
9. Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin - 4.5/5 (304 pgs)

Nice review of Native Tongue. I am currently reading that one too and finding it thought-provoking although I did not much care for the book at first.

Really nice review of Native Tongue. I have never heard of it, but it looks very interesting.

Yes, I agree, a very nice review of Native Tongue. Thanks!

69-71

Thank you! I was afraid I'd forgotten too much of it, but I think the group read is keeping me fresh.

>68 Aerrin99:: Answering Lucy's question from the Group Read thread: I'm struggling to find something positive.

Given that, I'd be interested in hearing more about why you find this such a powerful book.

If we leave aside the characters, the plot, the worldbuilding (the things everyone is complaining about), then we're left with the linguistics. That would be fine for me; a new central idea is often enough to carry a speculative fiction book on its own. However, this basic premise had been tackled head-on in science fiction for 30 years before she wrote this book, so it's not new at all...and two things struck me about her particular twist to the concept that actually made her version seem weaker.

The first came quite early in the book. In watching the scenes with Thomas vs. the government, I was struck by the fact that Elgin describes the Linguist men as quite able to manipulate anyone around them but does not credit the female Linguists with the same ability. Linguist women are in contact with non-Linguist men on a regular basis, often not supervised by a Linguist male. If your premise is that language/communication is the slow-but-irresistable force, then wouldn't a century of master female communicators have made some kind of dent in things? I mean, at worst, all you'd have to do is insert a new concept as an "explanation" of what some alien said since there's no one on the entire planet who can contradict you.

The second came when I reached the point where the women in the Barren House are being chastised for not having the courage to actually start teaching Laaden to their daughters. My immediate reaction was, "If you don't teach it to your sons, what will you change?" Unless the only goal if for women to be able to express themselves in isolation from men...well, then OK. However, I didn't get that sense. It seemed to me that the goal was to reshape society. To do that, I would imagine that you have to change the way society—not half of it—thinks...especially when the half not thinking that way has most of the power.

I think the reason teaching it to the sons was not a goal is that the sons were part of the patriarchy and the women had enough sense to know they would betray them. In Elgin's book all the men think the same, boys are encouraged to disrespect their mothers, there really was no hope trying to teach them women's ways until the women could express their value among themselves. Then, of course, from a more secure position they'd have to share with the men, and childhood would be the place to begin.

I'm not all that interested in linguistics, but I loved the way older women were valued in the barren house and the way she described the natural tendency of older, sometimes very frail women and young girls to help each other. What's the point of women living beyond the age of menopause? What's the point of barren women? Elgin expresses that very well.

As for your question, Tad, about why the women linguists couldn't manipulate as well as the men. Well, the people they had most to manipulate would be male linguists who had all the power plus the abilities of a linguist. I imagine they could manipulate regular men, but I guess she didn't want to get into that aspect.

>74 Citizenjoyce:: Then, of course, from a more secure position they'd have to share with the men...

But see, I question that security.

I'm aware that we are dealing with a depiction of men where they are inutterably and incomprehensibly stupid (you may disagree with me on the incomprensible depending upon your view of men). However, on one hand, the more time that Laaden is "in the wild" the more time the men have to notice—some young girl says something she shouldn't in front of a male or something. Then we have swift and sudden repisal. On the other hand, having let it out, so to speak, only half the task is being accomplished. Women are learning to value themselves but men are not learning to value them. That, to me, seems a much riskier proposition than using those formative years on both sexes. A boy taught to value his mother, even partially, is not the same man as a father who wasn't.

About " the people they had most to manipulate would be male linguists". I agree that the most direct benefit to them would have been to manipulate the men that controlled their households and that this would be much more difficult. However, they were regularly in contact with government men, high power merchants, etc. A change there, be it ever so slight, starts a virus in society, no?

Were the men stupid, the linguists? No, they were hateful and bigoted. I'd like to think that such an attitude came from stupidity, but it doesn't seem to me that it does. When I hear people try to justify such attitudes they often sound pretty intelligent and reason well within their own reality system, or they know what they propose is based on lies, but they like the bigotry anyway. I think if you go along with the intention of the story, the boys don't value their mothers and the mothers know it. But in the end does it come to the old question of do you work with the establishment to change from within or do you try to overcome them from without? She picked the latter.

I too think it would have been a more interesting story if the women had used their all powerful linguistic magic on men. I haven't read the other 2 books, have you? I wonder if the women start growing in their power there. I do think such an idea would have made for a fuller story line.

> 73

Sorry for the late reply, things have been busy in these parts, and I wanted to have time to reply thoroughly.

I should probably mention that I don't find the characters as completely problematic as others seem to have - while I agree that the men were fairly flat, I found several of the women interesting.

I also feel compelled to argue that a central idea does not have to be /new/ in order to carry a speculative fiction book. This idea may have been done in science fiction before (I don't know enough to either argue or agree with that point - I've read a lot of sci fi, but never anything dealing with linguistics in this fashion), but it's new to me, and as such I have an appreciation for it. I feel the same way about people who are fretting over Matched's similarities to The Giver - what is important about a book is not whether it is new or first, but whether what it has to say connects with readers. There are definitely some kudos to be given for being the first, but from the viewpoint of someone who's never stumbled across anything else that treats language in this fashion - like me - the book is powerful in its ideas.

I do think that you underestimate Elgin's attribution of manipulation to female as well as male Linguists - it is never explicitly said, but we certainly /see/ women manipulating men quite often, and we see female linguists do something she claims 'outside' men can't manage - lie convincingly to the men. We also see them using such a subtle finger-language that men don't even notice.

I mean, I think the point is that /now/ is the time when these master female communicators are using that communication to make that dent. I'm more invested in the shape and form of the change they make than considering the timing overmuch - and I do agree that the foundation of her worldbuilding is lacking. This may be another area where that rears its head. I suspect she just wanted to skip forward to a point that felt 'far enough,' and in a thought exercise I'm willing enough to go along with her.

I got the sense at the end that the goal wasn't to reshape society, but to make it possible for women to have a society of their own. They talked about starting a woman-only colony or retreating to some safehouse - without men. I don't think the women want equal rights in this book - at least not yet. They want /separate/ rights. They want to split entirely.

Of course there are problems with this mindset and we've talked in the other thread about her flat male characters, which is what one might see as bringing the women to this point. But I do think that, at least, is internally consistent.

> 75 However, they were regularly in contact with government men, high power merchants, etc. A change there, be it ever so slight, starts a virus in society, no?

I'm not sure about this. We know that they went out to interpret often, but we don't see very many instances of repeated interaction - the sort of sustained contact that I think it would take to start a 'virus'. The only men we see these women having that sort of contact with are their husbands - and these are also women who are kept so busy until they reach Barren House (and often after, as well), that they have little if any free time.

Could it or should it have happened earlier? I don't know - honestly, I don't think Elgin's world it fleshed out enough for us to have that discussion with any degree of usefulness. We see bits and pieces and we don't know what happened in that vast span of time that may have affected things.

But I do think the story of them doing it /now/ is interesting, along with the ideas and implications it brings.

>76 Citizenjoyce: >Were the men stupid, the linguists? No, they were hateful and bigoted. I'd like to think that such an attitude came from stupidity, but it doesn't seem to me that it does.

I agree. People are very good at seeing what they want to see and what benefits them. And they are very good at rationalizing the same.

I do think the 'from within' story would be interesting (I haven't read the sequels either, but have them on my shelf and will in the next few weeks), but I dunno. I'm pretty interested in this 'from without' story, too!

I think a 'from within' story would have been very different - the theoretical premise Elgin is starting from has to do with language and power and its ability to separate and give strength. I think you could write a 'from within' linguistic story, but I feel like the starting theoretical premise would have been slightly different.

Right you are, Aerrin, about the women's ability to lie to or misdirect the the male linguists and their not having much chance to interact with non linguist men. She could have written something about the women subtly manipulating alien's language for the women's benefit. Maybe expanding on aliens sending women negotiators. But again saying you could have written something else doesn't make much sense. She write the story she wanted to write, concentrating on the language itself and the reason for its development.

>77 Aerrin99:: I think, perhaps, that I didn't express myself clearly. I don't have a comment upon people saying that they found the book powerful because the concepts were new to them. I do have a comment upon people saying they found the book powerful because the concepts were new period...i.e., that "Elgin was the first..." Your review doesn't say the latter—I think perhaps I was reacting to all the people who are saying it, even though they later retract it. Imo, there's a cult that has grown up around this book that attributes more importance to it than it deserves...or, to be more accurate, for the wrong reasons. I argue that it is an important book but not because of pioneering linguistics in science fiction.

I do think that you underestimate Elgin's attribution of manipulation to female as well as male Linguists

Actually, the example you chose is exactly why I think the way I do. We are shown that Linguist women are superb liars...they can fool the human lie-detectors of male Linguists. We are also shown that they are subtle, intelligent and perceptive. Yet, demonstrably, they have not used these skills to alter their situation. I understand your point that Elgin was uninterested in the backstory, to the point of not caring if it made sense, and was focused on the "now" picture. However, from my point of view, she continually undermines her own structure by such a level of inattention that I can't ignore it; it becomes too much a deus ex machina where suddenly, "Oh, look, we could actually use these weapons we've had sitting around all along." I guess we'll just have to disagree on this one.

I got the sense at the end that the goal wasn't to reshape society, but to make it possible for women to have a society of their own

I think you are correct. Elgin seems to be of the "separate the sexes" line of feminism.

>78 Aerrin99:: the theoretical premise Elgin is starting from has to do with language and power and its ability to separate and give strength

I think this conclusion has a ring of truth to it despite the fact that it seems to contradict the purpose of the novel. If you look at her four theories being tested (which were articulated some time after the novel, if I understand correctly), two of them involve changing a society. Simplifying:

* There are languages whose presence in a society will destroy it.
* Language changes society, not vice-versa.

Those theories become ambiguous in the face of the novel because I don't think her goal was changing society so much as calving off a separate society.

> 80
Imo, there's a cult that has grown up around this book that attributes more importance to it than it deserves...or, to be more accurate, for the wrong reasons.

Could be. Like I said, I'm not fluent enough in early sci fi lit to really claim either way. I had no idea this particular book was notable at all until the conversation started around it, honestly. Although I suppose the presence of a lengthy introduction ought to have been a clue, huh?

Why do you think that this book claimed that cult where others did not? Is it because of the twining of linguistics and extreme feminism? Did she do anything better than some of the earlier books?

I guess we'll just have to disagree on this one.

I think so. I still don't think we saw much of a chance for these women to do much outside of what they did - and I'll note that most of the manipulation women managed played off of things that made them appear weak or senseless or to be discounted.

I'm also reminded suddenly that the Barren Houses - where for the first time women could talk and communicate and work without close observation of a man - were not centuries old. They were a fairly recent construction, and Elgin seems to posit that any sort of 'rebellious' work began truly in earnest when they came into place.

I guess I am still arguing the point huh? Sorry!

Those theories become ambiguous in the face of the novel because I don't think her goal was changing society so much as calving off a separate society.

Well, sort of - calving off as these women intend it - that is, taking all or at least most of the women with them - /does/ destroy the society as known.

Language changes society is less strongly-argued here, I think. What we have is a case of society changing language in order to change society, don't we? It seems so recursive that it's pointless, to me, to pinpoint the chicken and the egg. The argument that language can change society in significant ways is far more powerful than trying to pretend that society doesn't change language at all.

I'm pretty sure Elgin's own book undercuts that, doesn't it? The men of her world certainly don't talk the way the men of /our/ world do - and the book itself starts with strict redefining of certain words in a legal sense: citizen, rights, child, man, woman. If that isn't society changing language that changes society, I don't know what is!

>81 Aerrin99:: Why do you think that this book claimed that cult where others did not? Is it because of the twining of linguistics and extreme feminism? Did she do anything better than some of the earlier books?

My opinion is...yes and yes. On the second question, she moved the linguistics into a position in the foreground that it didn't occupy in its predecessors. Even though they were stories based firmly upon the premise that "language shapes society", they were still much more action-oriented with the linguistics being the vehicle, not the destination. (Does that make sense?) By making linguistics the whole point, the premises...even if not new...have less distractions around them.

The feminism aspect was also critical (again, my opinion). The book caught a particular moment in women's history where it just resonated. I don't think this was coincidental—Elgin was writing to capture her own disappointment and foreboding. From personal observation, my girlfriend at the time, who was quite concerned with women's issues, objected to this book strongly. The significant point was not whether she agreed or disagreed with Elgin's positions, it was that she was strongly engaged; the book hit a nerve or struck a chord or fill in your metaphor here.

I think this, alone, would have been enough. However, couple that with a credentialed linguist (the previous authors were not) speaking in her area of expertise, saying that how we talk affects how we think and that fact could be used to restructure our society...well, that's heady stuff. It was already out there in the general discourse and now it had authority.

calving off as these women intend it - that is, taking all or at least most of the women with them - /does/ destroy the society as known.

That's something I can't quite resolve in my mind. If the women retreated totally from society, agreed it's destroyed. However, they seemed to be continuing to give the men exactly what the latter wanted, just more "perfectly" (how the men in the book describe it, don't shoot me). It's as if the men continue to have their existing society but the women have two: one they participate in when around men and a completely separate one when by themselves. For some reason, my mind isn't wrapping around what that means very easily: have they changed society at large or haven't they? I don't particularly want to read the sequels but I wish I knew where Elgin took it.

Here's the question I find myself occupied with: If you postulate that Elgin's theories are true, particularly that language structures perception, then do the girls who grow up fluent in Laaden perceive themselves differently when speaking Laaden than when they speak English? Or, does the mindset of self worth permeate them and cross the barrier of whatever language they happen to be speaking?

The implications stemming from those answers go quite far.

Your thoughts on why the book gained its place in canon are very interesting! I suspect you are right - and your last paragraph captures a lot of why the book resonated with /me/. It brings to life (albeit in a flawed fashion) some of the theories that sort of blew my mind the first time I read them. It's applied theory in a fictional setting.

For some reason, my mind isn't wrapping around what that means very easily: have they changed society at large or haven't they? I don't particularly want to read the sequels but I wish I knew where Elgin took it.

Oh, I see the point of confusion (disagreement? I don't know) here - I'm not speaking so much of where the book ends, but with where the women /wished/ it to end. I agree that at the end of this book, the women are living in the dual world you see. But I think that it's just the first step, and the eventual goal is to split society entirely - that's the point that I'm talking about with the destroying.

I do plan to read the sequels, so stick around and I'll tell you where she takes it. ;)

If you postulate that Elgin's theories are true, particularly that language structures perception, then do the girls who grow up fluent in Laaden perceive themselves differently when speaking Laaden than when they speak English? Or, does the mindset of self worth permeate them and cross the barrier of whatever language they happen to be speaking?

I think this is an /excellent/ question and one you should make sure to bring up when the group read gets that far. I'm very interested to see whether Elgin herself addresses it at all. I think that the theoretical position indicates not so much that the language one is speaking at a particular time shapes oneself so much as the languages that one has available to them - or perhaps the ones they communicate in most often - do. That is, I doubt these girls have shifting self-identities from moment to moment (although the more I think about it, the more I can't discount it entirely - perhaps they play different roles in the different languages?), but I /do/ think that they would have a very different experience and growth of that self-identity from the older generation which did not grow up having the language available to them. How much this is because of the 'female' nature of the language in question and how much simply because they can communicate without the male gaze is up for question, I think.

In fact, I think we see hints of this at the end of the book, don't we? I seem to recall the older women commenting jealously on the communication the younger girls have with each other and remarking on the bond they have that they never had at their age.

the eventual goal is to split society entirely

I would agree with that. I'm having a hard time pinning Elgin down in her writings. I haven't found a simple statement of "I believed such-and-such then and now I believe this other thing," but my impression was that, during the 80s, she was tended toward the branch of feminism that wanted to separate from men.

Whether she still believes that, or whether she has been influenced by postmodern feminism enough that she wants to include men in the solution, I can't quite figure out. There's even some evidence, based upon an interview she did, that she believes that separation from men (separate schools, etc.) is necessary for some extended period and then an eventual re-integration of the sexes at some undefined point.

make sure to bring up when the group read gets that far

Yes, it's a question I plan to raise in the group, along with a number of follow-up discussion points. I'm a little frustrated with only being able to talk about a little bit of the stuff over there...I hate paced reading! :-D I think I'll suggest to Roni that, for the future books, she just have a spoiler thread and, when people are ready to talk, they talk about as much of the book as they want.

How much this is because of the 'female' nature of the language in question and how much simply because they can communicate without the male gaze is up for question

From my perspective, it wouldn't be all one or the other, but I think Elgin would argue that it is mainly the 'female' nature. The incremental value of a language that men are (to me, still incomprehensibly) unaware of is that you can communicate while men are present. After all, the girls have always been able to communicate freely when just around other females using English. Therefore, it becomes a question of how much extra bonding occurs while they are in the presence of males. If they as heavily over-scheduled as the book implies, it might be a small amount. This leaves the better fit of Laaden for a female as a major factor, no?

PS - Do you remember at what age young boys are removed from the nursery?

After all, the girls have always been able to communicate freely when just around other females using English.

True, but I think it's implied near the end of the book that the only time the girls usually have without men is tending the older women in the Barren House, and that the rest of the time they are pretty supervised. I think part of the point was that the silent 'men don't even know we are talking' language created a whole new avenue of conversation, even laying aside content.

I hate paced reading!

Meeee too. There's no way I'm putting a book down in the middle to wait on people! I cannot do it. Thanks for making the suggestion.

PS - Do you remember at what age young boys are removed from the nursery?

I don't sorry, nor do I actually remember where it was brought up so I could go look.

You might be right on that. I do remember a passage where they talked about young girls "giggling" over how stupid the teacher was during class.

Ok, I'm sitting here positively chafing for the 22nd to arrive. :-D The only relief is this conversation and another extended conversation going on in PMs.

So, let me follow up on the previous question. I agree with you that the girls are probably not switching their concept of self as they change languages. They may play different roles, but I don't see how they could be healthy if their actual self-image was undergoing hourly changes. Their identity is the product of the languages/though patterns they have available.

So...if we stipulate that for a moment, the next question is, is the male society inherently unstable, i.e., doomed to implode regardless of the Laaden efforts?

The line of thought goes like this—and let me note that I'm going with the "ignore the backstory and don't question why it hasn't happened already" line of thought we talked about:

a) The Linguist men are a power bloc in society with disproportionate influence. Regardless of whether non-Linguists like them, they listen to them.

b) Further, we might suppose the number of Linguist men will grow over time since the book says that the demand is increasing. In fact, history tells us that, for economic reasons, the monopoly will likely get broken, either by some government stepping in, by some Linguists going rogue, or even by the aliens starting up their own programs in frustration at not being able to speak to Earthlings.

c) The book tells us that alien races are not as gynophobic.

d) Linguist boys internalize alien thinking along with the language...that's the whole premise of the theory.

e) If a person's world/self view is defined by their language set as proven by the girls (our postulate), then Linguist boys are internalizing female value. This happens at a slower rate than with Linguist girls internalizing female value because the girls reinforce it due to shared language, whereas each boy is an island. However, the thought patterns are there.

f) Once you reach a critical mass of powerful males thinking this way...poof!

Thoughts?

Haha. I'm very happy to have someone to discuss this with, too!

Thoughts: Yes and no.

Particularly to your d, I think there is something a little different in terms of internalizing thinking according to languages you /can/ speak and languages you /do/ speak all the time. Once the boys learn the language 'natively', they are speaking it as part of a job - not as their primary means of communication.

That said, I think your point about their continued contact with alien races is an excellent one, and in fact I think it's a place Elgin doesn't hold up very well - she touched on it with the female delegation sent to insult Earth. But it baffles my mind that their treatment of females has not caused /any/ political or economic problems for them with other species. I suppose perhaps there could have developed an extreme system of extended tolerance for other beliefs, but it doesn't seem very backed up by the text.

I also agree with your comments about the Linguist/government power balance. I'm not sure how much that would affect the male/female dynamic (although it could - the females hold a TON of power simply by knowing the Linguist 'secrets' and could leverage that if they wanted to - here is one place I agree with your 'why hasn't it happened before?' complaints), but it certainly would shift a lot of other things.

e) If a person's world/self view is defined by their language set as proven by the girls (our postulate), then Linguist boys are internalizing female value. This happens at a slower rate than with Linguist girls internalizing female value because the girls reinforce it due to shared language, whereas each boy is an island. However, the thought patterns are there.

This is the one I'm least sure about. I mean, I agree that it follows the theory, but you also have these boys' /primary/ language and influence being that of the men around them. And valuing others when doing so lessens your own importance is a far different thing - that is, the men have a lot to lose by changing their opinions. And in this world, it's clear that they don't see much to gain.

On the other hand, I think that in some ways this change (minus the linguistic details) is what we have seen actually happen in women's rights, in civil rights, in the gay rights movement. A group claims control of the discourse in some way and things start to change.

I don't know. I think you're right that it's not self-sustaining and there are a lot of things at play here.

A month behind is simply unacceptable! I'm going to blame this (and my pathetic pagecount this month) on having spent two weeks sick and foggy-headed, and push on to catch up.

My February round-up:

1,742 pages

10. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin 5/5 (674 pgs)
11. Fables : 1001 nights of snowfall by Bill Willingham - 3.5/5 (140 pgs)
12. Fables: the great Fables crossover by Bill Willingham - 2.5/5 (224 pgs)
13. Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge - 4/5 (341 pgs)
14. The Judas Rose by Suzette Elgin - 3.4/5 (363 pgs)

10. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin 5/5 (674 pgs)



Everything you hear about how wonderful this book is is true. I was worried; I've read a number of other series in the past year or two that came with high praise from friends and that just didn't do it for me.

I was worried that I wouldn't be thrilled by the sweeping sprawl of the story. I was worried that I might not be able to keep the characters straight. I was worried that the politics, promised to be so intriguing, would fall flat to my mind. I was worried that some writing tic or trick of the author's would infuriate my reading sensibilities (as had happened with Kay's The Lions of al-Rassan). In short, I was /worried/.

I should not have been.

This book is rich and deep and wonderful. It is immersive. It's a book you can wrap tight around you like a blanket and get positively lost in. The world is gorgeously drawn. The language is clear but beautiful. The characters are, each and every one of them, fantastically detailed and fascinating, even the ones you don't like. The intrigue is properly intriguing, the adventures properly adventurous, and the mysteries eerily mysterious.

Martin's writing is fresh, and his ability to deal with the numerous characters and plotlines without losing the reader is, to my mind, almost perfect. I was surprised several times, but it was the /good/ sort of surprise, the sort that goes 'oh, of /course/' and 'I can't wait for what's next' and even 'I can't believe he did that, how dare he!'

Martin doesn't pull any punches. I've been warned not to fall too hard for any one character, and after even this first book I see why. But I'm going to fall anyway. It's impossible not to. Martin knows how to woo the reader, and let me tell you - I'm already his.

>90 Aerrin99:: The bit about keeping the characters straight may get a bit tougher as you read the coming books and the story expands greatly. However, I'd agree on the rest.

You know that HBO is making this into a mini-series airing mid-April?

Yeah, every one of my friends appears to have read these books (how I missed them in my younger epic-fantasy-consuming days I do not know) and has been harassing me for well into a year now. April is why I finally picked up the first one. Once I clear my shelf of a few other things I'll get to the rest.

I found that Martin was much better with the huge cast than many other authors - the way he introduces the characters starting with one family and then expanding outward helps greatly. I didn't find myself squinting with confusion at any point, unless some other sprawling casts (Kushiel's Dart, I'm looking at you) I've read recently.

I do want to get to the rest soon though, so I don't start to forget details. It's just that my shelf is so full...!

>92 Aerrin99:: I didn't have trouble with the Kushiel series but I know what you mean. For example, I found it hard to keep track of everyone in Jordan's books. In addition to the logical entrances of characters, I think Martin's people are easier to remember because he does such a good job of creating distinct characters. You don't Generic Warrior A and Stereotypical Damsel B. I think he's a step above all the other "big epic, big cast" authors in that regard.

I'm in a hiatus with the Martin. I had reached the last book published and, given how slowly he's producing the new ones, I realized that I'd have to re-read the entire series with each new book just to refamiliarize myself. So, I'm going to let him finish all 7 and then re-read from A Game of Thrones to the end in a more-or-less continous effort. I remember it well enough to watch the HBO series.

I can understand the full shelf thing. I was just groaning over on my own thread about the stress of this month in regard to reading.

11. Fables : 1001 nights of snowfall by Bill Willingham - 3.5/5 (140 pgs)



This companion piece to the main Fables storyline contains a number of short stories that reveal aspects of the characters' pasts, woven together in a framing narrative that has Snow White regaling a Sultan with a story for 1001 nights to prevent her execution.

Some of these were positively delightful - Snow White's backstory had a fantastically wicked twist, and uncovering the mysteries of Frau Totenkinder was lovely - while others were exceedingly mediocre. I think it's a good read if you love the series, but it's unlikely to win any new fans, and the majority of the stories don't enhance the world much.

12. Fables: the great Fables crossover by Bill Willingham - 2.5/5 (224 pgs)



I have adored every inch of this series to date, but this was a volume better left unread. Although I knew it was a crossover (conveniently labeled thus in the title), I expected the book to explain the concept firmly enough that it was understandable to either side - but it definitely did not. I spent most of the book confused and the first half trying to decide if I'd missed an important volume somewhere or something.

Worse, the story isn't even that engaging. The concept of the Literals doesn't seem to fit well into the world of Fables, I didn't find any of them that interesting, and the 'threat' of Thorn writing everything out of existence wasn't half so threatening or impressive as a little old man with wooden soldiers managed to be.

This is a cheap crossover story with little care for the characters and a lot of cheap 'laughs' that doesn't, to me, fit the mood of the series at all.

Basically worth it only for the artwork of Bigby as a little girl. I can like the pictures even when I hate the concept, right?

Belatedly reading your conversations about Native Tongue - thank you for those thoughtful explorations of the issues. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of the other two books in the trilogy - I'm not sure if I'll ever read them but I do kind of want to know where Elgin takes her theories next and how it plays out in the society she has created (however unbelievable the back-story etc may be).

Enjoyed reading your review of A Game of Thrones, which has been recommended to me by others as well. When I am able to read it, it will be with no worries or concerns such as you had. I look forward to it.....but, only if I am ever able to finish Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell which I have been reading on and off for months. I love it, get frustrated with it, and love it again. I only have about 250 pages to go. I am determined to finish it off before the end of March!

13. Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge - 4/5 (341 pgs)



Solitaire is a gorgeous exploration of human strength and identity and how it is shaped, changed, broken,and recreated.

The core of the story is what happens when Jackal, who finds out that she is not what she has always been told and trained to be, is caught up in a series of events beyond her control and imprisoned for a terrible crime. She is entered into an experimental program and will serve a sentence of 8 years in solitary confinement - inside her mind. Outside, only a few months will pass.

The time Jackal spends in solitary confinement is fascinating and powerful, and wonderfully written. It explores what happens to the human mind when we are deprived of social contact and outside stimulus in ways that ring true to what I've read on the subject elsewhere. It is impossible not to ache for Jackal, or to root for her when she is finally freed. The people she meets on the other side of solitary are varied and flawed and interesting, and watching her try to piece her life back together - and possibly to become something more important than the Hope she'd always been told she was - is wonderful.

Eskridge is a wonderful writer with a gift for characterization. Her ideas feel fresh and interesting, and I couldn't stop turning the pages until I knew how Jackal turned out. Definitely worth a read.

14. The Judas Rose by Suzette Elgin - 3.5/5 (363 pgs)



This middle book in the Native Tongue trilogy is the weakest by far. The characters are drier, the plot more muddled, the goals less clear. The only real thing of worth here is the persistence of Nazareth, who I enjoy as a character. Additionally, the book suffers from the fact that the main plan behind the spread of Laadan just-- doesn't make that much sense.

There are bits and pieces that still delve into Elgin's ideas on the power of language and how it can form self-image and society and thought, but for the most part this angle fades and what we're left with is something of a mess.

Thanks for the review of Solitaire, it looks great. I love stories of reformation. What was the movie in which Bridget Fonda becomes a competent assassin? I'll have to check this one out.

>99 Citizenjoyce:: "Point of No Return" a remake of the slightly better (imo) "Nikita" and predecessor to the "La Femme Nikita" TV show with Peta Wilson starring.

ETA: Had to go to IMDB to check: Anne Parillaud starred in the earlier film.

I meant to see "Nikita" but I can't remember if I ever did. The idea is much like the Kirt Russell character in "Soldier" or Jessica Alba in "Dark Angel". People can be forced to develop superhuman talents, but in order to do so they give up human feelings of love and compassion. The new movie Hannah seems to be on the same order. Does the girl in Solitaire manage to keep her humanity? Oh, maybe I shouldn't ask. I've ordered the book.

Haha, if you're going to read it I'm not telling! But it is a question that's dealt with.

Personally, I get a kick out of the tag line for "Hanna"—"The feel good child assassin movie of the year."

Thanks for that nice little chuckle in the middle of my day, Tad.

15. Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan - 3.5/5 (433 pgs)



This is an odd book, and a difficult one, but also a powerful one.

People call it a fairy tale, but other than the quaint fantasyish sort of setting, it doesn't bear much of what I'd call the 'fairy tale feel'. The story is shocking and controversial - a woman gives birth to two girls, one the product of incest and rape, the other the result of a brutal gang rape. Afterwards, some benevolent force in the world carries her away to a place where everyone is kind and friendly and all unsavory aspects of the world have been scrubbed away. The lines between that place and the real world start to thin, though, and eventually Liga and her daughters, Branza and Urdda, must fast it.

I spent a lot of time defending this book to a friend of mine while reading it (she hated the premise, hated the characters, hated the 'passivity'), which made me think hard about what works here and what doesn't. To be honest, I didn't enjoy reading it that much. The writing style wasn't to my taste, and for much of the book very little actually /happens/. And it's not a short book.

What works for me, though, is the book as an exploration of responses to abuse. Liga spends her entire life hiding from what happened to her by literally creating a world around her that she can control down to the finest detail. She accepts some aspects of her abuse - her two daughters - but scrubs away every unpleasant person, every threat, every dangerous emotion. She survives by locking herself away from anything that could break down her walls, and as the story progresses it becomes clear that even her relationship with her daughters is affected by her need to cling to this control.

It's heartbreaking, when taken as a whole. There are no happy endings here. My heart broke at the end. The few times that Liga reaches for healing or forward movement, she fails miserably. It's hard not to take as the lesson that there are some things some people simply never recover from.

But there are, at least, her daughters. Both struggle with anger and hurt and betrayal, and there is both fear and a thirst for vengeance. But both also step into the real world in the end and find something worth holding onto.

I'm not sure what it all means, in the end. And I'm not sure I liked it that much. But it /is/ interesting. And it is, in places, very powerful.

Now that's a weird sounding book. Definately unique in my opinion.

16. Tam Lin by Pamela Dean (456 pgs)



Never have I read a book which so wonderfully and perfectly captures that magical time that college can be, in the right place with the right people. This book made me absolutely /yearn/ for the days (8 years behind me now) that I spent reading complex literature and philosophy, listening to professors unfold the past or the particulars of a poem, and then talking into the night about an idea that felt so new and exciting and fresh that our whole worlds seemed changed.

It romanticizes college. Sure, it does. I've never met people who can quote poems and Shakespeare and the Iliad on demand, let alone a whole group of them. And of course my entire college experience wasn't just one big intellectual wonderland. But there was enough of it to color this whole book with a hazy wistfulness for that time in your life that is given over to learning, and ideas, and the people who share them.

I talk a lot about the way this book made me /feel/ (I actually pulled down my Norton Anthology to read some Victorian poetry afterward, guys) because the actual plot is not a compelling force. The back of the book blurb gives you spoilers for the last /fifty pages of the book/ - which ought to tell you when the 'Tam Lin' aspect kicks in.

That's not to say that the plot is bad - it's not. It's simply not what it says on the box. This book is a coming of age tale set in the academic wonderland of a small liberal arts college filled with top-notch intellectuals. It's salted with foreboding hints of the fantastical and supernatural, but the flavor it imparts is small. The book /works/ on the strength of its more mundane story, and on the world it creates. Tam Lin got into my mind and into my heart. I daydreamed about this book. I wanted to /live/ in this book. The atmosphere Dean creates is rich and thick and powerful.

What does work about the plot itself is the backward view. In retrospect, the pieces fit nicely and there's that sense of uncovering a secret that sends a thrill of joy down your spine. I suspect it's an intensely rewarding re-read. But I don't recommend anyone reading it expecting a fairy tale filled with magic. It just isn't that sort of book.

I definitely recommend Tam Lin - and I wouldn't be surprised if, on some nostalgic day, I picked it up to read again myself.

>107 Aerrin99:: That's a great book. Have you read the rest of that series? I didn't like every single one, but I did like most of them.

Just Briar Rose, but I have a few others on my wishlist. What's your favorite?

Well, Tam Lin and Briar Rose might be the favorites but, really, the only one I didn't care for was Frost's Fitcher's Brides based upon the Bluebeard legend. The de Lint (Jack, the Giant Killer) was fun, YA sort of stuff. I thought Dalkey's take on The Nightingale was quite novel.

PS - Have you read Windling's The Wood Wife? If not, you really should.

17. Earthsong by Suzette Elgin (254 pgs) - 3.5/5



I enjoyed this third volume slightly more than the second, but again, it's a far cry from the first. The dramatic shift here is a bit unsettling - the first two books focus on earth, and on the women of the Lines trying to create a women's language and spread it to the world in the hopes that Laadan will bring about change.

By this third book, they've given up. Laadan came, it went, it was a failure. I can't help but feel that the novel echoes Elgin's own experiences with Laadan, and the whole thing comes off with a bit of a bitter note.

Now earth faces a new challenge: all the aliens have disappeared, and with them their trade. The technology humanity has come to rely on is starting to crumble, and civilization is in chaos.

It's been several weeks since I read this and by this point I can't actually recall what it was that I enjoyed somewhat here. The plot is thin, the characters weak, and the 'science' that goes with the fiction is so laughable that it's hard to even take it seriously as a thought experiment.

Nazareth is dead, and one of her granddaughters uses mystical Native American rituals to communicate with her about a life-altering problem: all the aliens have left. More importantly, earth can no longer trade for their technology. Nazareth tells her granddaughter that in order to solve the problem, humanity must conquer hunger, and so the women take up a new project.

*SPOILERS*

Eventually they discover that /sound/, when paid proper attention, can nourish the human body. Yeah, you read that right. We don't really need food. We just need to listen to some opera. Elgin goes so far as to suggest that the obesity epidemic at the end of the 20th century was related to the sudden abundant availability of portable music.

The problems in this idea are so numerous I trust I do not even have to begin to explain them. I'm willing to forgive a lot for an interesting idea - and Elgin /tries/ to make the idea interesting. The point of music-as-food is that creating a generation which has never had to kill so much as a vegetable to survive will be less violent in the end (violence being the reason the aliens had pulled away from earth), which is an interesting concept but-- it's simply too much, too poorly drawn and too poorly explained.

I suppose I'm glad I finished this trilogy but-- for the rest of you, stick with the first and leave the rest alone.

18. Late Eclipses by Seannan McGuire (372 pgs) - 4.5/5



McGuire doesn't fail to delight, and I fall a little more in love with Toby Daye in each volume of this series.

I read this entire book on a plane flight from Ohio to Texas, and found myself annoyed when I had to put it down now and then for things like landing and layovers. I feel like I'm repeating myself in my praise here, but I don't know what else to say: McGuire draws lovely, complex, fascinating characters and places them in a fantastic world that gives me chills and makes me daydream.

The plot here is ridiculously simple: Fey who should not be able to die are dying of diseases no one can place. Friends and enemies are unclear, and it turns out that if Toby doesn't solve the problem soon, she's not going to survive to solve many more.

It's a testament to McGuire's wonderful skills as a serial writer that a plot so simple and in some ways so mundane can be so terribly captivating. The story itself doesn't quite live up to the intensely creepy An Artificial Night, but it is solid and fun and had me worried more than once. More importantly, characters and relationships grow in this volume, several long-term mysteries are kicked up a serious notch, a few tantalizing secrets are revealed, and I turned the last page still wanting more, more, more.

It's a good thing she writes so quickly.

I have been out of the loop for a while now, Aerrin, but hopefully can keep up with you from here on out.

I will have to look to see if my local library has any of McGuire's books. Thanks for the review and recommendation.

No worries, I've been unable to keep up with LT for a few weeks now myself. I'm terribly behind on everyone else's threads too!

I like McGuire a ton. She also wrote the zombie book Feed under the name Mira Grant, which is how I found her.

I have heard about Feed. I did not realize that was the same author. Thanks for the heads up!

Did you really mean to say "doesn't fail to disappoint"? That doesn't seem to go with the rest of the review...

Haha. Gosh, no, that is /not/ what I meant! *fixes*

19. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (226 pgs) 4/5



My boyfriend handed this to me on a recent visit and I read it on the flight back.

Powerful, brutal, and richly told. Beah's book gives a face to the tragedy of civil war and makes you wonder what else you're missing in the world.

118 Aerrin - That's what I thought :)

>119 Aerrin99:: I read that last year and I agree it's very powerful. I suspect there's a slight bit of embellishment since I doubt he'd remember that much dialog and that much detail so clearly given how drug-hazed he said he was, but I suspect it's true to the spirit of what was happening.

>119 Aerrin99: I read that memoir also. You have a point about the embellishment, Tad, but I agree the spirit seems true. Alas, one would wish it weren't. The way humans treat each other sometimes almost defies imagination.

#118: I already have that one in the BlackHole. I hope to get to it some time soon.

119: ...makes you wonder what else you're missing in the world.

So true. I felt the same way when I read that book last year. I hope he's doing well.

Seannan McGuire is Mira Grant?! I've added the first book from the series - woot!

Aerrin, now that I've finished all the extant McGuire books, have you read Mark Del Franco? I've enjoyed his Connor Gray books (4 of them so far) at about the same level as the Toby Daye books, and just picked up the first of his series featuring a female protagonist to read. So much of the urban fantasy just doesn't click for me that these two series really have stood out.

I have not! With that recommendation, I'll check him out immediately. Good urban fantasy is hard to find.

Thanks for the reviews of the remaining two books of the Suzette Elgin trilogy. I had half wondered about reading them myself to see how her ideas play out, but from your reviews I don't think I'll bother, it sounds as if the plot and characters will continue to be less than satisfying...

Thanks for getting me to read Solitaire, I just finished and love it. I'd never read anything by Kelley Eskridge before probably because I'd never heard of her. I was especially interested in the treatment of Estar and how it differed from the way she would have been dealt with in Luciente's take no prisoners utopia in Woman on the Edge of Time. There was a discussion of the morality of self defense that left me wondering. But aside from that it was an interesting look into self discovery and how one deals with the corporations that run the world. So, thanks again Aerrin, I'm going to keep a closer eye on your library.

Glad you enjoyed it! I actually read Solitaire through the ER program, so I dunno that I can take credit for discovering it otherwise, but I did really enjoy the book.

Wow. I'm a month behind in reviews again. Gah.

So far behind again. I'm making a push to catch up! Unfortunately, it's been so long since I raced through these books (I did almost 2,000 pages in about 4 days) that there is no way I can remember what happened in which book. So consider this review to do for the both of them.

20. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (728 pgs) 5/5
21. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (924 pgs) 5/5

  

Although I liked A Game of Thrones, Clash is the book that really had me hooked. Martin is less fettered by the need to build his world (and his politics) and has a bit more room to just tell his story here.

What really shines, though, are the characters. Love them or hate them, it is impossible not to /react/ to them. I find that no two people I ask about the books can agree, either - I have friends who actively hate some of my favorite characters and adore a few I can't stand.

Martin is truly excellent, and these middle two books - Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords - are close to perfect.

22. The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead by Paul Elwork (307 pgs) 2.5/5



An ER book I reviewed for that purpose awhile ago (making my catching up a bit easier!), otherwise I doubt I would've finished it. Sad.

---

A book with a promising premise and a sadly mediocre execution. The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead is based loosely on the idea of the Fox sisters, who convinced many that they could communicate with the dead through a series of 'knocks' that were in actuality created through cracking joints in their feet.

It's an interesting premise, and with the right story to surround it it ought to have things to say about life and death and truth and deception and grief and healing. And the book /tries/. It clearly /wants/ to say these things. It just never manages it.

The characterization is thin to non-existent, and this fact is noticeable very early on. If this hadn't been an ER book, I'm not sure I would've made it past the first few chapters. Elwork doesn't build people, he builds vessels for his premise (which comes uncomfortably close to feeling like a gimmick).

The story is just as thin. Emily discovers her talent, her brother pulls the idea of convincing other children that she is speaking to ghosts out of nowhere, and they proceed to spend a summer duping first the neighborhood children and then a small group of older ladies. Nothing particularly builds, and through it all it's difficult to care even a little. Elwork comes close when Emily begins to visit the father of a friend, whose son died in WWI, but ultimately even that has a sort of 'pasted on' feel.

It's made worse by intervening chapters that reveal the amazingly boring history of the house Emily lives in. Worse still is the way these chapters hang onto the story and absolutely refuse to carry any thematic weight or provide any sense of continuity. In fact, the first several were so confusing and random that it wasn't until the third that I even realized what they were meant to be. They feel like nothing more than padding.

This is a book with one very small idea, and no big ones. A premise is not enough to carry a novel, for all that this one certainly tries. I didn't hate the book - I was simply bored with it, from start to finish. I wouldn't bother.

----

And with that I can do my (quite belated) March round-up!

March

Holy cow, 3,700 pages. Not bad for a month with a week's vacation and no reading in the middle.

15. Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan - 3.5/5 (433 pgs)
16. Tam Lin by Pamela Dean (456 pgs)
17. Earthsong by Suzette Elgin (254 pgs) - 3.5/5
18.Late Eclipses by Seannan McGuire (372 pgs) - 4.5/5
19. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (226 pgs) 4/5
20. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (728 pgs) 5/5
21. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (924 pgs) 5/5
22. The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead by Paul Elwork (307 pgs) 2.5/5

23. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (684 pgs) 4/5



Martin's work falters a bit with this fourth book. It feels like he's struggling to deal with the scope of his world and the number of his characters. He introduces several here who are necessary to show what's happening in particular parts of Westeros, but several of them are sadly outright boring. There are some names I dreaded seeing at the start of chapters.

The book also suffers from its split-in-two nature (Martin told only half the characters' stories, and will re-tell the same time period for the other half in the next installment). The lack of Tyrion, Jon, and Daenerys - three of the most interesting characters in my opinion - is sorely felt.

I still liked the book, mind - four out of five stars is still pretty darn good. It's just. It's hard not to be a little disappointed when you know he can be so much better than this.

24. Feed by Mira Grant (599 pgs) 5/5



This is a re-read of a book I adored last spring and had the craving for again. On a second read I was not as enamored - I already knew the world, so the bits that were a bit weak (the plot, and in some places the characters and exposition) felt weaker the second time through. I can see where people who don't love this book are coming from a bit more clearly - if you're someone who needs a strong plot, Feed might not be for you. But I still loved it a lot and I still cried at the end and I still can't wait for Deadline to come to my door this month.

Here's my original review, for anyone who is interested.

25. Blindsight by Peter Watts (384 pgs) 3/5



This book is odd and both interesting and difficult in turns. It was worth the read, but I wouldn't say I precisely /enjoyed/ the read.

Set in a future where humanity has resurrected vampires (which have specific genetic abilities and differences that set them clearly apart from humans) and can send someone off to a virtual-reality 'Heaven' while storing their body in a giant warehouse, Blindsight follows the actions of the crew sent to make first contact with the unknown beings who dropped by for an electronic peek several years earlier.

Watts does interesting things with the human brain and things that might be possible with technology. He's a biologist and it shows - in fact, there's a lovely essay at the end of the book detailing (with lots and lots of scientific citations!) what bits of his speculation are already becoming fact.

Here we have a linguist with several selves in one body who can process situations and languages with amazing speed. We have scientists with their consciousnesses grafted onto their tools and machines so that they can not only experience their work remotely, but via other senses, such as taste and smell. We have a synthesist - our protagonist, such as he is - who remains outside the action in order to properly communicate and interpret it for the folks back home. A man who remains so outside /everything/ that he seems almost a sociopath with emotions learned and grafted on.

We also have a vampire heading the mission, and no one quite knows what to make of him. The crew can never forget that they're his rightful prey, and they can never quite manage to trust him because his mind exists on entirely different levels - levels that process multiple realities at once. They think his judgment is probably good, he's probably right-- but what if he's not?

Because under his command they're interacting with a giant menacing spaceship which puts out radiation and causes hallucinations every time they go near. Reality is hard to parse. Intention is even harder to figure out.

Laid out like that, Blindsight sounds like a fantastic ride full of interesting ideas and truly alien aliens. And it is. The problem is that it's also trippily written. I spent a lot of time unsure what was happening, and while some of this is stylistic (see above re: hallucinations), some of it was just plain /frustrating/.

There are some interesting thoughts about the nature of humanity and emotions and technology, but I was bogged down by the amount of time I had to spend on details like 'what is actually occurring.' It wasn't helped by the fact that while I found all the characters interesting in theory, I was attached to none of them in practice.

Blindsight is probably a decent read if you're attached to hard sci fi or really want a dose of interesting eventually-possible-ideas from the biology field. Otherwise, I don't know that I found it worth the effort.

26. Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco (305 pgs) 3.5/5



Another step in my quest to find more fantastic urban fantasy, Unshapely Things proved to fall pretty firmly in the middle. I didn't find anything to hate, but I didn't find a lot to love, either.

Mostly, it felt fairly mediocre and rote. I didn't get a great sense of personality off our protagonist - magically-disabled Connor Grey - and the plot was pretty boilerplate 'PI-type solves a mystery'.

That said. There were some secondary characters who had some glimmerings of potential, and some of the hints at the larger world - how faerie came to be mixed up in our regular universe, how the regular universe has reacted to faerie in terms of politics and culture - that tell me it could be going somewhere interesting. It also feels like Connor could develop a personality if given a little space and maybe a little less effort at faerie noir.

So I might give another book or two a shot. I liked it a great deal more than Butcher's Harry Dresden books, but significantly less than McGuire's Toby Daye series.

27. Embassytown by China Mieville (368 pgs) 3.5/5



Embassytown is an uneven book that nevertheless managed to captivate me thoroughly in the second half and keep me turning the pages.

Mieville's world-building here is particularly disappointing, in part because his previous work leads the reader to expect him to paint new places with a vivid brush that makes us not only see, but hear and smell and feel and taste them. Here, though, Mieville seems to eschew such things as 'description' in favor of 'vague references that leave the reader confused about what they are actually looking at'.

I think he was trying to keep the frame of reference narrow in order to let us better delve into his protagonist's - Avice's - head. The problem is that Avice is an Embassytown native, and so she sweeps past important details of the Hosts (aliens who speak a Language that requires two mouths but one mind) and the Ambassadors (cloned doppels who are technologically 'linked' in an attempt to create one-mind-two-mouths as nearly as humans can) that are absolutely required to understand the story. So there, I've maybe spoiled you a bit, but knowing those two facts won't ruin your enjoyment of the story and might save you a lot of agony in the reading.

The first half of the novel meanders all over the place. I can sort of see what Mieville is trying to do. Through Avice - one of the few natives to make it off the island, so to speak - we gain a sense of the claustrophobic nature of Embassytown, of the larger world outside, of the narrowness of vision, of the things that are strange. Unfortunately, Avice has very little real personality to speak of and her wanderings aren't that interesting. By the time she returns to Embassytown with a linguist husband and the /actual plot/ kicks in, the book is half over and I was frustrated.

It's fortunate, then, that the second half of the book is engaging and interesting and thoughtful. I've recently read Suzette Elgin's Native Tongue, which makes this even more engaging, because Embassytown's real story is about communication and language and thought and the relationship between them.

You see, not only do the Hosts require two mouths and one mind - but they can't lie. They are unable to form the thoughts that allow them to speak a lie, and they're fascinated by humans' ability to do so. They hold festivals celebrating those among them who can come closest to mimicking a lie, via verbal tics or sleights of tongue or other tricks. They create elaborate similes (which must be acted out in order to be spoken - in order to be /thought) to describe things that might happen or could happen.

But for some, lying is more than just a fad or a game. It's something more. Because as the similes suggest, the Hosts' ability to conceive the world around them is limited by their Language. Abstract is nearly impossible. Contradicting truths are inconceivable. They can't signify. They have no concept of 'this' or 'that', only 'the glass with the flaw in the bottom next to the apple.' Specifics.

I won't get into the details, save to say that something happens that threatens the easy camaraderie in which the two species exist, and it revolves around the differences in how they speak - and thus in how they think. The second half of the novel explores interesting questions about how we perceive the world, and how we represent it.

It's worth the first half.

---

And with that I'm caught up! If anyone has an urge to read Embassytown, I'm happy to ship my ER copy via media mail to the first person to say so.

It's never-ending... I get caught up, I read books, I get behind again. Arg!

28. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (993 pgs) - 4.5/5



I hesitate to say that this second novel in the Kingkiller series is stronger than the first, but I do know that I /liked/ it more than the first.

I ordered it for our library's popular reading collection, then put off taking it off the shelf for weeks and weeks out of some sort of low dread. What if the problems that bothered me about the first book - namely that Kvothe, who is so spectacularly /wonderful/ at everything, can get a little insufferable in places and that the pacing is rather rotten with little payoff at the end - came back to haunt me in this volume? What if I had become more jaded and critical in the interim and it was even /worse/ this time around?

Fortunately, these fears were not well-placed. Rothfuss smooths off a lot of the character edges that bothered me in the first book, and now we have a Kvothe who remains charming and capable, but also struggles with some very real problems that don't ever seem to conveniently disappear when he needs them to. Both characterization and difficulties felt more consistent to me in this second volume.

The Wise Man's Fear sees Kvothe - a poor but brilliant magician-in-training who grew up among the Gypsy-like Ruh and is skilled in music, theatre, and making dangerous enemies - continue his studies at the University before circumstances make taking a leave of absence the wisest course of action. He heads off in search of a patron and does a number of services for a very wealthy man and in the course of it all has fantastical adventures. We start to see where the Kvothe of legend came from. The first stories start to spread, and it's rather interesting watching them grow from Kvothe's bemused eyes.

What's great about Rothfuss' work is that his world feels very lived in and his hero's journey feels in some ways very real. Kvothe struggles with finances and bullying, with his own cockiness and need to balance his talents against reality (oh, I've known some college students like this!), with girls and friendships and sometimes saying the wrong thing. He also performs unbelievable feats - and sometimes makes unbelievable feats out of believable ones through manipulation of story and song.

We still only have a glimpse of what Kvothe's legend actually /is/ - we're hearing the story a bit backwards in that regard - but in this volume we get the sense that it's both earned and not earned and far more complicated than anyone knows.

Which is just plain fun.

And it helps that Kvothe is a cocky, smarmy, gifted, arrogant character who manages to be charming and fascinating anyway.

I'll be picking up the next one, when it comes.

>137 Aerrin99:: Nice review. That's a book I'm definitely looking forward to reading.

Phew, I just caught up on more than a month's worth of posts. Tam Lin in particular sounds like one that I have to read. And I appreciated your review of Tender Morsels; I've been interested in that one since it was removed from that list of feminist YA books, and I still haven't decided whether I actually want to read it.

The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead is one I requested and didn't win--it sounds like I got lucky!

> 138 Thank you! I think you'll like it!

> 139 From what I know of your tastes, Zoe, I think you'd really like Tam Lin. I'm happy to have read Tender Morsels mostly so I can say I have and can take part in conversations about it, but that's honestly about it. If that doesn't interest you/hold some importance, I'd probably skip it.

My main interest in Tender Morsels would be to take part in the conversations too, but I'm not sure whether that desire is quite strong enough to bring me to read it. Maybe someday.

I am way behind on threads again, Aerrin. I am hoping to keep up better for the rest of the year!

29. The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen (374 pgs) - 4/5



I don't usually go for YA that is strictly 'high school kids deal with things high school kids deal with' - most of mine is fantasy or sci fi or in some other way unusual. Sarah Dessen is an exception for me.

Dessen digs into the tough emotions of dealing with tough things (in this book, the death of a father, in others, issues like rape) with a raw honesty and gorgeously driven characters that makes her hard to put down. Although absolutely appropriate for teenagers, they don't feel like teenager books. They feel like books that explore issues teens may not feel like anyone else understands.

I'm always impressed with the emotional honesty of Dessen's books, and The Truth About Forever is no exception. It follows Macy during one summer in which she struggles with how to deal with her own grief, as well as how to deal with her mothers', which manifests as control and a need to work constantly. She wrestles with the ability to be happy - and what being happy right now means.

I definitely like Dessen's work and will come back to it. Her treatment of difficult subjects is nuanced and her stories manage to be enjoyable, too.

143: I've never read a Dessen book before, though I see her often on the book shelves. Perhaps one of these days I'll give her a go since you described her writing so well.

I always hear very positive things about Dessen's books and I definitely will try her one of these days.

I have only read one of Dessen's books to this point. Thanks for the reminder that I need to get back to them!

30. Terrier by Tamora Pierce (582 pgs) - 4/5



This new-to-me series by childhood favorite Tamora Pierce did not disappoint! The setting is captivating, the characters engaging and fascinating, and the plot well-paced and engrossing.

Becca was rescued from the streets at a young age after a bit of keen detective work that brought the Dogs - a police force - a much-wanted gang. Her goal since has been to become a Dog herself, and she's determined to prove herself. As a Puppy-in-training, she gets caught up in a pair of investigations and uses every resources she's got -including her ability to hear the spirits of the dead on the pigeons that carry their souls and to talk to the swirling dust spirits that gather in alleyways and street corners.

Becca is a delightful voice to listen to, dedicated and capable, but also still clearly coming of age and thus coming to some realizations. The secondary characters - from her Dog partners to the shadier criminal types she's acquainted with - are all well-drawn and interesting.

The books are written a bit younger than I'd realized - they walk the line between children's and young adult - but they're interesting enough that I didn't mind, and I'll definitely be watching the series.

31. Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce (551 pgs) - 4/5



The second book in the Becca Cooper series delivers as well as the first. It works as an extension of the events and characters in Terrier, and it stays true to both story and character while bringing something new to the table.

Becca's a full Dog now, but that doesn't mean that things are easy. She struggles to deal with partners who don't take the job as seriously as she does and to find her place - and to strike a balance - in her new job. Circumstances send her to a distant city where danger is more dangerous and mysteries more mysterious, and it's just as much fun.

I really love Becca a lot. Her matter-of-fact confidence in her abilities (which she's worked hard for) and the way she's happy to step forward and get the job done make me want to hand these books to just about any girl between 9 and 14.

I'm looking forward to getting to the Beka Cooper books in the near future. I've been waiting for ages for the series to be done before I start, and it seems like the end is finally in sight.

I enjoyed Terrier when I read it but couldn't get into Bloodhound. I have no idea why...the books didn't seem that different. Maybe it was something about my mental state. I'll give it a try again someday, I suppose.

Yeah, they're tonally very similar, but I can see the mindset thing. Because they're written so young, I feel like it really does require more of a shift than most YA.

I read Terrier a couple of years ago but never made it to Bloodhound. Sounds like it is about time!

This is all so interesting, I didn't think they were written particularly young compared to the rest of the Tortall books, and I think Bloodhound is notably better than Terrier.

To be fair, I haven't read any of the other Tortall books since I /was/ quite young. I don't really remember how the Alanna books are written, and I haven't done any of her other series save for Trickster's Queen. I'm not comparing Pierce with Pierce so much as with other YA books.

32. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (470 pgs) - 4/5



This tale of a teen who relives the day of her death several times has gotten a lot of buzz recently, and most of it is well-deserved.

I had a few reservations when I started. It can be tough to do interesting and unique things with a story based around repetition, and it can be even harder to find something important to say. Before I Fall manages both nicely.

What jumps out to me is that the captivating part of this book is not the Groundhog-Day-esque premise, in which Sam lives the same day over and over again trying to find a way to prevent her death, but the deft growth of the characters who inhabit Oliver's world.

The Sam we start out with is not very likable. She's a popular girl, and she got that way by turning a blind eye to certain cruelties and happily participating in others. It might be going a touch far to call her an outright bully, but anyone who's experienced high school will recognize the group of friends who cements their place in the social hierarchy by reminding everyone else that they're better than they are - even if that means humiliating or dismissing others.

The day Sam relives isn't that eventful. There's a school tradition in which students give each other roses in a sort of popularity contest, and it ends with a party (and of course, Sam's death), but these are fairly typical high school things. This is a strength, because it makes the growth that Sam experiences even more remarkable. Everyone in Sam's life - her family, her friends, her ex-friends, those she helps pick on - starts from point A, every day. But every day, Sam starts from a slightly different point. She knows something a little more, and she knows that she might be stuck in this 'I'm dead' limbo forever, and it changes how she looks at things - which changes how she acts and thus what more she comes to know.

Oliver uses the premise of the book to form an engaging examination of the insecurities, hopes, dreams, and fears that make up teenagers and the society that live in. We learn not only about Sam and who she is, but also about the things driving her friends and the less popular kids they occasionally humiliate. Even better, Oliver manages to make us feel sympathy for all of them - she reminds us that they're all people coming from circumstances that affect how they behave.

Before I Fall is engaging and interesting, with fully-fleshed characters and an execution that manages to make something of its kitschy conceit.

33. The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana G. Oliver (355 pgs) - 3/5



The Demon Trapper's Daughter is a shallow and less-than fulfilling entry in the urban fantasy genre. Although the world-building is quite fascinating and strongly realized, the writing, dialog, characterization, and plot are all weak enough to prevent me from picking up any sequels or offering any recommendations.

Riley is a teenage demon-trapper-in-training in a world set in our not-too-distant future. Demon-trapping is both science and art, with a number of set rules, specific types of 'fiends', a good business in Holy Water, and an interesting relationship with the Vatican. This part of the book shone. The demon trapping world Oliver etches out is engaging and creative and promises lots of room for exciting plot developments and conflicts. I'd love to spend time in this world!

Unfortunately, the writing is clunky, something that is particularly noticeable in the dialog. Oliver chooses to spell out a 'Southern Redneck' accent that is just atrocious, but even pardoning that, the fact is that many of the conversations between characters just don't sound like things actual people would say.

It's made worse by thin characters who were so cliched and predictable that you almost didn't need to read the book. Riley has a hate-hate relationship with a fellow demon trapper several years her senior that is so incomprehensible (she once had a crush on him when she was young which he, quite rightly, discouraged - now despite all evidence of him being a good stand-up guy her dad approves of, she HATES HIM SO MUCH) that it makes our heroine seem completely irrational. The bits of her PoV that deal with this are just painful to read.

Other things don't ring true to consistent characterization. A tragedy early on in the book doesn't ever manage any real emotional impact and seems to affect the characters only on a surface level. To judge by their actions, you'd think months had passed rather than days. Trust is bestowed where it makes little sense and withheld where it makes a great deal of sense. Basically, it feels as if Oliver chooses character action based on the need for 'tension' or 'plot' but has no idea who her characters actually are.

I give 'tension' and 'plot' both scare quotes because there's precious little of either in this book. Something happens at the beginning and at the end, but there's very little in between. Some books can get away with this if they manage interesting introspection or internal change. There's none to be seen here.

It's a shame, really, because I think Oliver had a great idea, and the pieces of what could be a solid plot are in evidence. The execution was just sorely lacking.

I'm glad you liked Before I Fall. I first read that one less than a year ago, and I'm already looking forward to a reread.

I have Before I Fall in the BlackHole and have been waiting for my local library to get a copy. It has recently done so and I look forward to getting to the book soon.

*shakes dust off account*

So I haven't posted anything here in AGES. It's been a busy summer and fall - my long term long distance boyfriend moved from Texas to Ohio in June, we promptly went on vacation, school started up again, my family has been dealing with some health issues, and I'm getting married in January.

Suffice it to say I have not been reading as much as usual! Still, I'm going to hate myself if I let this list die off. So it's ROUNDUP time! I'll be doing a quick down-and-dirty to catch up and then see if I can do better from here on out.

I miss LT when I'm not around it!

Glad things have settled down some and you are shaking off the dust. Welcome back and all the best with the wedding planning and organizing.

Oh look, I haven't been posting books I've read since MAY. Several month round up!

33. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (243 pgs) - 4/5
Really cool old-school sci-fi that imagines a society where telepathy is a reality integrated into society. I love a lot of the ideas here. The main plot is about a man who plots to get away with murder when the police force can read your mind, but just the general picture of what telepathy might mean is most of what intrigued me here.

34. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (174 pgs) - 4/5
Absolutely lovely, spooky classic of the genre, as great as they all claim.

35. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (541 pgs) - 4.5/5
36. Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (590 pgs) - 4.5/5
These books (and Hero of Ages on down) are the ones I really regret not reviewing fully and in a timely fashion. Sanderson is one of my new favorite authors. He writes with emotion and lovely description, he does action /amazingly/, and he creates worlds unlike any other. He is intensely creative, and I'm as intrigued by his systems of magic and his world rules as I am about his plots - which is saying something given the level of dynamic intrique he creates. If you haven't read any Sanderson, pick him up IMMEDIATELY. Read Mistborn, read Elantris, it doesn't matter to me. Both are lovely and rich and wonderfully drawn with characters you'll love and ideas you'll love to pick over. READ HIM.

37. Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (301 pgs) - 4/5
I always love Scalzi, fiction or non, and Fuzzy Nation was no different. His work is usually more fun and well written than deep and meaningful - Scalzi is a comfort read for me, and Fuzzy Nation stands up to that.

June
38. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (572 pgs) - 4.5/5
39. The Exile by Diana Gabaldon (224 pgs) - 3/5
I loved Gabaldon's Outlander as a teen and I faithfully read every new volume now as an adult, but The Exile just-- wasn't awesome. It retells Outlander from Jamie's point of view in a graphic novel format with mediocre art, mediocre dialog, and somehow it manages to make even the story feel mediocre. Only recommended for Outlander completionists.

40. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (492 pgs) - 5/5
Mistborn is action and intrigue. Elantris is quieter and more romantic and, in some ways, sadder, but absolutely no less magical. In fact, some days I think I prefer it. I don't know. It depends on my mood. Anyway, read it!

41. Grace by Elizabeth Scott (200 pgs) - 3.5/5
The story of a girl raised to be a suicide bomber who decides not to at the last minute. It felt haunting and engaging while I was reading it, but it didn't stick with me much, sadly.

42. The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter (293 pgs) - 2.5/5
A modern-day greek mythology drags a teen into its grasp. This book tries to be interesting and creative and almost gets there, but suffers from weak writing and especially weak plotting that puts a non-sensical (and not sensual) romance at the center and doesn't do much else. Sounds far cooler than it is.

43. Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler (177 pgs) 3.5/5
Another book that doesn't quite live up to its high concept, though this one does better. An anorexic teen is tapped to become Hunger - as in one of the riders of the apocalypse. Certain revelations follow, some of them good and well thought through, some of them less so. It was interesting enough that I'll probably follow the sequels to see what happens, but I wish someone more adept had taken on this idea.

44. Secret Vampire by L.J. Smith - 3/5
45. Daughters of Darkness by L.J. Smith - 3/5
46. Spellbinder by L.J. Smith - 3/5 (752 pgs total)
47. Dark Angel by L.J. Smith - 3/5
48. The Chosen by L.J. Smith - 3/5
49. Soulmate by L.J. Smith - 3/5 (688 pgs total)

These books are early UF fare, light and fluffy and bite-sized and mostly meaningless and repetitive. I kept going out of hope that I'd see the Big Story that weaves them all together come to a satisfying conclusion. The world is changing, the hidden Night World may be revealed, or the world may end, or humans may triumph - who knows! But it all revolves around the Wild Powers and probably something having to do with the number of human/nightworld Soulmates that are suddenly starting to appear. Unfortunately, every book is mostly about an extremely tepid romance made even worse by the 'Soulmate' concept that means no one really has any choice in the matter. It makes everything decidedly more creepy, less sexy, and less romantic. I got distracted and bored and probably won't finish. The list here is only this long because they come packaged three books to a volume and are insanely quick reads. I think I once did all three in a night. Smith's writing is otherwise pretty solid - I hope she's improved since then.

50. Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip (314 pgs) 3/5
An interesting book set in a fantasy world with magic and mysteries and an orphan girl who lives in a library and translates lost languages for a living. When a particularly mysterious text falls into her lap and seems to call to her, all sorts of interesting things happen. Lots of people really love this book. I mostly just liked it okay. Parts of it were really interesting, parts of it felt slow and flat, but if you like fantasy and libraries I feel like it's worth a read.

Congratulations on your upcoming marriage!

I loved LJ Smith when I was about 12, but I'm afraid her writing hasn't gotten any better. When she finally got back to writing after a 10-year hiatus, the reviews of her new book were so awful that I resolved not to read it even though I had already purchased it in hardcover.

Busy life with lots going on? No need to apologize. It's nice that you do think of LT and stop by to catch everyone up now and again.

Congratulations on your upcoming marriage, Aerrin. Do you and your future husband share the same taste in speculative fiction?

Thank you!

> 163 We do! In fact, we first bonded over the new Battlestar Gallactica. He's a much slower reader than I am, though, which is occasionally frustrating. ;) He's currently finishing up A Feast for Crows. It's wonderful to be able to pass books back and forth.

>160 Aerrin99:: I read Elantris and really loved it. I then read Warbreaker and thought it was a bit awkward...certainly nothing to rave about. After your comments, perhaps I should try Mistborn to break the tie?

On the Fuzzy Nation front...I'm always afraid to try books where someone has taken up another author's invention. It works out so infrequently. However, I have eyed this book many times because I so liked the originals. I wish Piper had lived longer!

165 Tad - Fuzzy Nation is fun. I didn't think it was as good as Piper's books or Scalzi's other books, but worth a read.

Welcome back, Aerrin, and congratulations!

> 165 TAD I haven't read Warbreaker, but I liked Mistborn immensely, and so did my fiancé. I think that it's his most popular book. If you loved Elantris, I'd definitely give Mistborn a try! It's more action-oriented, but... in a good way.

I haven't read the original Fuzzy book, but I did find Fuzzy Nation to be pretty light fun.

> 167 Thanks!

I somehow missed your thread earlier in the year, which is a shame, because our reading tastes are similar in several areas. Glad to see that you are dusting off the thread!