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Finished reading
Translation state by Ann Leckie. This is one of those books that was...not written for me. It's, very reasonably, written for the people who have read and kept the previous four books fresh in their minds, rather than just the first one many years ago. It was well-written. I really liked the very casual queer foster parents. I wanted things to be okay for Rheet and Qven. I'm more of a visual reader than I realised, too, because the Presger are the only species that aren't given a detailed description, and I really felt that gap, as intentional as it probably was. I was very aware that there were scenes and off-hand mentions that would have had a loyal reader rolling around in glee that I didn't understand the significance of. It was probably in many ways the more frustrating book I've read in recent memory because of that: I was reading purely for the only question I wanted an answer to which was 'what was matching'? What did the process involve? What does it mean for the characters involved? I didn't actually for a minute think that the characters in question weren't going to match, which made the 'oh, I know e/he doesn't want to do it with me! I'm not even going to ask them!' tedious, but it was brief. Aannnnd then it all happens off-screen, and gets dealt with in about half a page and *screams quietly*. I have no idea where to place this one.
Starter villain by John Scalzi. I've only actually read Old man's war, which I thought was a really pleasing read, doubly so for a first novel. This feels like harkening back to that (not that I know how far he left it, tbf). This is a completely off-the-wall, tightly written romp that was still making me laugh on the bus at page 200. The landing didn't *quite* stick for me resetting that completely back to his regular life with no actual changes felt too close to 'it was all a dream' but it was still fun. Award-worthy? Eh, not really? It felt too popcorn-read, but that's probably my own biases there.
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher. This was delicious. Almost too rich, in fact: getting emotionally walloped by an exquisite sentence every other page was damn near exhausting. I loved it. I felt like the death wasn't given the gravity it had been built towards, and dealing with the body should have happened immediately after, all of which knocked it off 'perfection' for me, but I'm still tempted to buy a physical copy of my own so I can find that writing voice when I need it. This is setting a high bar for the novellas for me.
Put aside
Witch king by Martha Wells. I got about a fifth of the way into this and realised that I was really enjoying it, enough that I was already willing to rank it, and wanted to savour it rather than try and rush through it in the week I'd allocated each book. So I've put it aside and will get it out of the library again, probably post-Hugos at this point.
Currently reading
The adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. It's been a kinda intense week and a bit for me, which probably explains why starting to read this made me feel so *tired*. I'm going to give it at least 50 pages and see if I can find a groove with it.
Up next
The saints of bright doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, which given that it seems about as dense, style wise, and I'm going to have to shell out for a WorldCon membership/Hugo voting packet regardless to get it, I might jump straight to the novellas as a palette/achievement cleanser first.
Translation state by Ann Leckie. This is one of those books that was...not written for me. It's, very reasonably, written for the people who have read and kept the previous four books fresh in their minds, rather than just the first one many years ago. It was well-written. I really liked the very casual queer foster parents. I wanted things to be okay for Rheet and Qven. I'm more of a visual reader than I realised, too, because the Presger are the only species that aren't given a detailed description, and I really felt that gap, as intentional as it probably was. I was very aware that there were scenes and off-hand mentions that would have had a loyal reader rolling around in glee that I didn't understand the significance of. It was probably in many ways the more frustrating book I've read in recent memory because of that: I was reading purely for the only question I wanted an answer to which was 'what was matching'? What did the process involve? What does it mean for the characters involved? I didn't actually for a minute think that the characters in question weren't going to match, which made the 'oh, I know e/he doesn't want to do it with me! I'm not even going to ask them!' tedious, but it was brief. Aannnnd then it all happens off-screen, and gets dealt with in about half a page and *screams quietly*. I have no idea where to place this one.
Starter villain by John Scalzi. I've only actually read Old man's war, which I thought was a really pleasing read, doubly so for a first novel. This feels like harkening back to that (not that I know how far he left it, tbf). This is a completely off-the-wall, tightly written romp that was still making me laugh on the bus at page 200. The landing didn't *quite* stick for me resetting that completely back to his regular life with no actual changes felt too close to 'it was all a dream' but it was still fun. Award-worthy? Eh, not really? It felt too popcorn-read, but that's probably my own biases there.
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher. This was delicious. Almost too rich, in fact: getting emotionally walloped by an exquisite sentence every other page was damn near exhausting. I loved it. I felt like the death wasn't given the gravity it had been built towards, and dealing with the body should have happened immediately after, all of which knocked it off 'perfection' for me, but I'm still tempted to buy a physical copy of my own so I can find that writing voice when I need it. This is setting a high bar for the novellas for me.
Put aside
Witch king by Martha Wells. I got about a fifth of the way into this and realised that I was really enjoying it, enough that I was already willing to rank it, and wanted to savour it rather than try and rush through it in the week I'd allocated each book. So I've put it aside and will get it out of the library again, probably post-Hugos at this point.
Currently reading
The adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. It's been a kinda intense week and a bit for me, which probably explains why starting to read this made me feel so *tired*. I'm going to give it at least 50 pages and see if I can find a groove with it.
Up next
The saints of bright doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, which given that it seems about as dense, style wise, and I'm going to have to shell out for a WorldCon membership/Hugo voting packet regardless to get it, I might jump straight to the novellas as a palette/achievement cleanser first.