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Aug. 1st, 2007 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseBook reviews in very-fast:
Doyle & Macdonald - The Long Hunt
Maybe not as good as the other mageworlds books, but that's a high bar, and it's still a very fun space opera with nicely drawn characters. Besides, it has a priceless quote: "When granda was telling us his adventures, he never once warned us about taking tea and pastries from sweet little old ladies." (Possibly slightly misquoted as book is not here). It does fill in some gaps in the overall series and the big picture, but not to the detriment of the current generation's own lives and advantures.
Ellen Kushner - The Privilege of the Sword
Saved (mostly) for the drive to Edmonton. Finished in the first 4 hours of it. Almost tempted to point to every other rave review and say "What s/he said." Probably Kushner's best yet. Heartbreaking and elevating at once; more heartbreaking for those who have absorbed Swordspoint into their beings. More of an emotional core to this one, the writing and the people as vivid and lyrical (And occasionally very funny), but Kushner didn't flinch from showing more of what was underlying the melodrama of manners.
Neil Gaiman - Anansi BOys (Audio as read by Lenny Henry)
Listened to for almost the entire rest of the drive. Neil himself is a darn good reader, but this was the perfect voice for telling this story, the more because he could do all the voices, clearly, distinctly, without caricature. Beautifully read. One of my favourite Gaiman stories anyhow; more humour and heart than American Gods, in whose world it takes place, less slight than Stardust, which has more of the same lighthearted tone and feel, but comes across as slightly simpler and shallower.
Emma Bull - Territory
Read mainly after we arrived, on the drive to and from my uncle's farm up north (With a few pauses when upstaged by the Athabasca valley views).
Not sure what to say; excellent and absorbing. I'm not a fan of westerns, nor do I have the appreciation for the incidents at Tombstone and their place in American History that Emma clearly has, and conveyed excellently at her signing. I loved this book. Very worth the wait.
Doyle & Macdonald - The Long Hunt
Maybe not as good as the other mageworlds books, but that's a high bar, and it's still a very fun space opera with nicely drawn characters. Besides, it has a priceless quote: "When granda was telling us his adventures, he never once warned us about taking tea and pastries from sweet little old ladies." (Possibly slightly misquoted as book is not here). It does fill in some gaps in the overall series and the big picture, but not to the detriment of the current generation's own lives and advantures.
Ellen Kushner - The Privilege of the Sword
Saved (mostly) for the drive to Edmonton. Finished in the first 4 hours of it. Almost tempted to point to every other rave review and say "What s/he said." Probably Kushner's best yet. Heartbreaking and elevating at once; more heartbreaking for those who have absorbed Swordspoint into their beings. More of an emotional core to this one, the writing and the people as vivid and lyrical (And occasionally very funny), but Kushner didn't flinch from showing more of what was underlying the melodrama of manners.
Neil Gaiman - Anansi BOys (Audio as read by Lenny Henry)
Listened to for almost the entire rest of the drive. Neil himself is a darn good reader, but this was the perfect voice for telling this story, the more because he could do all the voices, clearly, distinctly, without caricature. Beautifully read. One of my favourite Gaiman stories anyhow; more humour and heart than American Gods, in whose world it takes place, less slight than Stardust, which has more of the same lighthearted tone and feel, but comes across as slightly simpler and shallower.
Emma Bull - Territory
Read mainly after we arrived, on the drive to and from my uncle's farm up north (With a few pauses when upstaged by the Athabasca valley views).
Not sure what to say; excellent and absorbing. I'm not a fan of westerns, nor do I have the appreciation for the incidents at Tombstone and their place in American History that Emma clearly has, and conveyed excellently at her signing. I loved this book. Very worth the wait.
