What I'm doing between classes.
Sep. 18th, 2006 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseIn my quick-reviews last time I forgot to discuss Mojo: Conjure Stories - short story collections seem to have a hard time really standing out on my radar.
I read about three stories in this when I bought it, at Torcon 3 so i could get Toby Buckell to sign his story and Nalo Hopkinson to sign the inside cover. I liked two of the three a fair bit (One was Toby's) - the third (actually the first story in the collection) didn't impress me as much, but it wasn't so much bad as not for me.
That was about the worst I have to say about the rest of the stories, too. Most were very good, a handful were middling, nothing was bad. The flaw in the middling stories, too, was almost universally the same (The 60's Black Power story alienated me in different ways, it's the special exception), and that's the integration of the setting details with the events. I ran into a handful of cases of details I was pretty sure were present only because the author had done the research and felt they ahd to show up on the page.
Nisi Shawl's contribution I especially liked, and Neil Gaiman's - the ones that left more implied than stated. I particularly liked how the first used the conceit of letters whitten and hidden -- I was dubious to start about how they were being made (Not the urine, just the paper and the lngth of time) but she convinced me.
I feel like a cad not much liking Jarla Tangh's the Skinned, whose story and conclusion just seemed too much what I expected. The cad part is because it does have significant things to say about horrors in the world and the people who do them, because it uses Rwanda unflinchingly. By contrast I quite like Barth Anderson's story, full of drag queens and nightclubs, and Steven Barnes' Heartspace, both of which felt like they played it a little safe, gave a bit too easy an answer, made things just a little softer in the name of a happy ending. It's what they did until then. (The Anderson story has the main character getting away with consequences because of someone else's action)
______________
I've started reading three more books (two new and a re-read) finished none yet:
Elizabeth Bear - Blood and Iron. So far, very good, but a bit heavy for my headached state this weekend. I was warned it's a bit dense, and it is, but so far I like this evocation of faerie and all its nastiness. It's been really hard reading her journal around the spoilery comments.
Anyhow, while I had a headache, I started to reread Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Honestly, do you have to ask who wrote it?) This time through (only my second) I'm seeing a bit more about why some people were accusing Ginny of turning into a Mary-Sue, though I think it would take a revision of a handful of sentences about quidditch to fix, so it's not a serious case. I'm seeing less of the character inconsistencies with Harry's other friends than I've heard complained about. My problems with this one the first time came towards the end, where the only reason Harry himself doesn't do something established in all the books (Including this one) as unforgiveable is because he's blocked. He has the intent, even starts to cast the spells. That, to me, is a pretty shoddy moral lesson.
I also finally noticed that she's set up the last book as a plot coupon story> we'll see how that goes.
The last one is a mite embarrassing, as I started to read A.J. Hall's Lust Over Pendle - which is Harry Potter novel-length fanfic, though it seems to make every recommendation list I've seen that doesn't specifically forbid slash, adn damn, it's pretty well written.
Yes, it's technically slash. Two male characters from Rowling's series have hitched up (No, not Harry; he, Ron Weasley and Ginny haven't shown up at all yet.) However, so far it seems to be doing so for the sake of story rather than smut; at least, in spite of the title, it's been a clean book so far. There's been less Kissing than in the Half-blood Prince (Caveat, I'm not that far in. This could change. OTOH, the two characters -- Okay, okay, it's Neville and Draco, and yes you read that right -- have been together from the start.)
It gets away from the whole underage sex thing which is my reason for shunning HP slash by, simply enough, taking place after Rowling's series, after the characters have grown up. The intended backstory, of course, got mucked up by book Six of the canon series, which came out after it was written -- but not in ways that change the current story. It could probably be tweaked to accommodate.
The writer is smooth (sometimes more so than Rowling), funny, usually in the same way Rowling is when she's being clever, mostly true to setting. If the characters sometimes do things they wouldn't do in the series, they're the kinds of things teenagers won't do, but grown people - especially who've been through war - might actually have matured enough to agree to. (I'm not totlally sure Draco will ever be that able to accommodate muggles, but growing up sometimes does mean that much change.) Except, of course, the parents and grandparents do smart things too. I guess once the characters are mature, Rowling's habit of making every adult who isn't intended as a Deus Ex Machina just a little less clever than they should be no longer washes.
Yes, I read fanfaic. I'll admit that. I'll even admit to reading slash sometimes, though the last one before this that i read I did because it was pointed to by Jim Macdonald, for non-slashy reasons. But I won't mention it unless it's really good. This is professional quality writing (if technically unpuublishable).
__________________________
I've been playing with Pandora - I started at work when I was alone alone alone in the new building's office and desperate for some kind of sound stimulus. on reflection, it might ahve been asking too much to try to get them to come up with a consistent set with Steeleye Span, Kate Rusby, Leonard Cohen, Emmylou Harris and Peter Gabriel as starting points. I cut the last to see if it helps, and so far so good. But I'm goign to ahve to do a rock station soon, too.
I am finding a handful of glitches. First, of course, the volume is inconsistent, though it has its own volume control to ease the fussing with the speakers.
Second, one song I actually rather enjoyed I had to say I didn't like, because the recording ends halfway through, like an unchecked download. Some songs ostensibly still playing drop into sudden silence, but don't seem to be loading anymore -- maybe they are. This at home is a slow computer.
It can't find Maddy Prior's solo work, but it doesn't notify them of a search for her stuff because her name is already linked to two other groups (If you type in something it totally doesn't recognize -- like, say Garmarna -- it claims it will tell them and they'll look for it.)
Anyhow, so far even with Peter Gabriel it was starting to give me a noticeably higher percentage of stuff I liked to stuff I didn't. Without, I'm also not having the genre-switch headaches. And I can just make another station when i feel like something louder.
Oh, and lookie! I found someone with an animated kodama icon! (For now I've cut out the wyvern because the blue didn't look angry and you couldn't really see he was breathing fire. I'm being firm about not wanting ads on my LJ -- I'd like more perks, but I'd rather pay my money than clutter my jounal.)
I read about three stories in this when I bought it, at Torcon 3 so i could get Toby Buckell to sign his story and Nalo Hopkinson to sign the inside cover. I liked two of the three a fair bit (One was Toby's) - the third (actually the first story in the collection) didn't impress me as much, but it wasn't so much bad as not for me.
That was about the worst I have to say about the rest of the stories, too. Most were very good, a handful were middling, nothing was bad. The flaw in the middling stories, too, was almost universally the same (The 60's Black Power story alienated me in different ways, it's the special exception), and that's the integration of the setting details with the events. I ran into a handful of cases of details I was pretty sure were present only because the author had done the research and felt they ahd to show up on the page.
Nisi Shawl's contribution I especially liked, and Neil Gaiman's - the ones that left more implied than stated. I particularly liked how the first used the conceit of letters whitten and hidden -- I was dubious to start about how they were being made (Not the urine, just the paper and the lngth of time) but she convinced me.
I feel like a cad not much liking Jarla Tangh's the Skinned, whose story and conclusion just seemed too much what I expected. The cad part is because it does have significant things to say about horrors in the world and the people who do them, because it uses Rwanda unflinchingly. By contrast I quite like Barth Anderson's story, full of drag queens and nightclubs, and Steven Barnes' Heartspace, both of which felt like they played it a little safe, gave a bit too easy an answer, made things just a little softer in the name of a happy ending. It's what they did until then. (The Anderson story has the main character getting away with consequences because of someone else's action)
______________
I've started reading three more books (two new and a re-read) finished none yet:
Elizabeth Bear - Blood and Iron. So far, very good, but a bit heavy for my headached state this weekend. I was warned it's a bit dense, and it is, but so far I like this evocation of faerie and all its nastiness. It's been really hard reading her journal around the spoilery comments.
Anyhow, while I had a headache, I started to reread Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Honestly, do you have to ask who wrote it?) This time through (only my second) I'm seeing a bit more about why some people were accusing Ginny of turning into a Mary-Sue, though I think it would take a revision of a handful of sentences about quidditch to fix, so it's not a serious case. I'm seeing less of the character inconsistencies with Harry's other friends than I've heard complained about. My problems with this one the first time came towards the end, where the only reason Harry himself doesn't do something established in all the books (Including this one) as unforgiveable is because he's blocked. He has the intent, even starts to cast the spells. That, to me, is a pretty shoddy moral lesson.
I also finally noticed that she's set up the last book as a plot coupon story> we'll see how that goes.
The last one is a mite embarrassing, as I started to read A.J. Hall's Lust Over Pendle - which is Harry Potter novel-length fanfic, though it seems to make every recommendation list I've seen that doesn't specifically forbid slash, adn damn, it's pretty well written.
Yes, it's technically slash. Two male characters from Rowling's series have hitched up (No, not Harry; he, Ron Weasley and Ginny haven't shown up at all yet.) However, so far it seems to be doing so for the sake of story rather than smut; at least, in spite of the title, it's been a clean book so far. There's been less Kissing than in the Half-blood Prince (Caveat, I'm not that far in. This could change. OTOH, the two characters -- Okay, okay, it's Neville and Draco, and yes you read that right -- have been together from the start.)
It gets away from the whole underage sex thing which is my reason for shunning HP slash by, simply enough, taking place after Rowling's series, after the characters have grown up. The intended backstory, of course, got mucked up by book Six of the canon series, which came out after it was written -- but not in ways that change the current story. It could probably be tweaked to accommodate.
The writer is smooth (sometimes more so than Rowling), funny, usually in the same way Rowling is when she's being clever, mostly true to setting. If the characters sometimes do things they wouldn't do in the series, they're the kinds of things teenagers won't do, but grown people - especially who've been through war - might actually have matured enough to agree to. (I'm not totlally sure Draco will ever be that able to accommodate muggles, but growing up sometimes does mean that much change.) Except, of course, the parents and grandparents do smart things too. I guess once the characters are mature, Rowling's habit of making every adult who isn't intended as a Deus Ex Machina just a little less clever than they should be no longer washes.
Yes, I read fanfaic. I'll admit that. I'll even admit to reading slash sometimes, though the last one before this that i read I did because it was pointed to by Jim Macdonald, for non-slashy reasons. But I won't mention it unless it's really good. This is professional quality writing (if technically unpuublishable).
__________________________
I've been playing with Pandora - I started at work when I was alone alone alone in the new building's office and desperate for some kind of sound stimulus. on reflection, it might ahve been asking too much to try to get them to come up with a consistent set with Steeleye Span, Kate Rusby, Leonard Cohen, Emmylou Harris and Peter Gabriel as starting points. I cut the last to see if it helps, and so far so good. But I'm goign to ahve to do a rock station soon, too.
I am finding a handful of glitches. First, of course, the volume is inconsistent, though it has its own volume control to ease the fussing with the speakers.
Second, one song I actually rather enjoyed I had to say I didn't like, because the recording ends halfway through, like an unchecked download. Some songs ostensibly still playing drop into sudden silence, but don't seem to be loading anymore -- maybe they are. This at home is a slow computer.
It can't find Maddy Prior's solo work, but it doesn't notify them of a search for her stuff because her name is already linked to two other groups (If you type in something it totally doesn't recognize -- like, say Garmarna -- it claims it will tell them and they'll look for it.)
Anyhow, so far even with Peter Gabriel it was starting to give me a noticeably higher percentage of stuff I liked to stuff I didn't. Without, I'm also not having the genre-switch headaches. And I can just make another station when i feel like something louder.
Oh, and lookie! I found someone with an animated kodama icon! (For now I've cut out the wyvern because the blue didn't look angry and you couldn't really see he was breathing fire. I'm being firm about not wanting ads on my LJ -- I'd like more perks, but I'd rather pay my money than clutter my jounal.)
