![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Finished reading:
A skinful of shadows by Frances Hardinge. This was a really satisfyingly crafted and resolved story. It felt like a very moral and human tale, and I appreciated it keenly for that. Also the ending was immensely satisfying to me. Now I’m in the voting conundrum of: “I was more emotionally engaged with La belle sauvage, but Shadows was an infinitely better book”. *angsts at the YA ballot*
The collapsing empire by John Scalzi. I’m loving this. Scalzi’s writing is assured and fucking funny – it’s making me laugh out loud several times a chapter. And then something awful happens, and it’s making me catch my breath and bite my lip to ward off the emotional wallop. I feel like it could be… deeper? I’m fumbling for words. Perhaps I’m used to fat fantasy rather than space opera, but it’s only 300 pages long, and while it’s getting its point across well, I keep expecting something more complicated, or more depth from somewhere. But it’s still a very good read.
[Having now finished] I figured out what was bugging me: this is 3/4 of a novel. It’s a really good three quarters, I loved it, but it’s missing a chunk of worldbuilding and depth that was supposed to make me care about the point of the novel. (That sounds more dire than it actually is). But when there were [character deaths] I felt them viscerally, one so intensely that I read it that first time and then turned the page so I didn’t re-read and cry in public. But that …not even a twist, a pivot point – that didn’t feel earned, because the depth of this world felt as deep as “as much as was needed to write these particular set of characters” rather than ‘fleshing out a living, breathing world’ and that’s a damn shame.
Currently reading:
All systems red by Martha Wells. I’m a couple of pages in, and I cautiously think I’m going to like it.
Up next:
ALLLL the rest of the novellas (well, the four I haven’t read yet).
A skinful of shadows by Frances Hardinge. This was a really satisfyingly crafted and resolved story. It felt like a very moral and human tale, and I appreciated it keenly for that. Also the ending was immensely satisfying to me. Now I’m in the voting conundrum of: “I was more emotionally engaged with La belle sauvage, but Shadows was an infinitely better book”. *angsts at the YA ballot*
The collapsing empire by John Scalzi. I’m loving this. Scalzi’s writing is assured and fucking funny – it’s making me laugh out loud several times a chapter. And then something awful happens, and it’s making me catch my breath and bite my lip to ward off the emotional wallop. I feel like it could be… deeper? I’m fumbling for words. Perhaps I’m used to fat fantasy rather than space opera, but it’s only 300 pages long, and while it’s getting its point across well, I keep expecting something more complicated, or more depth from somewhere. But it’s still a very good read.
[Having now finished] I figured out what was bugging me: this is 3/4 of a novel. It’s a really good three quarters, I loved it, but it’s missing a chunk of worldbuilding and depth that was supposed to make me care about the point of the novel. (That sounds more dire than it actually is). But when there were [character deaths] I felt them viscerally, one so intensely that I read it that first time and then turned the page so I didn’t re-read and cry in public. But that …not even a twist, a pivot point – that didn’t feel earned, because the depth of this world felt as deep as “as much as was needed to write these particular set of characters” rather than ‘fleshing out a living, breathing world’ and that’s a damn shame.
Currently reading:
All systems red by Martha Wells. I’m a couple of pages in, and I cautiously think I’m going to like it.
Up next:
ALLLL the rest of the novellas (well, the four I haven’t read yet).
From:
no subject
Thank you for helping to clarify that. Here's hoping that the next in the series is better at forging a connection.