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Belated April Booklog + A Cautionary Tale
May. 7th, 2015 11:17 pmShadow Scale - Rachel Hartman
Fair Fight - Anna Freeman
Shadow Scale is the sequel to Seraphina, about a half dragon girl caught between a coming war between humans and dragons. I didn't like it quite so much as the first one; this is partly grading on a curve because I freakin' adored the first one, partly that the first half of the novel follows Seraphina as she travels around trying to find the other half dragons, and quest narratives do very little for me. I also wasn't thrilled about a wild love triangle appearing. I mean, I loved that Glisselda isn't straight (called it!) and that she and Kiggs went through with their marriage of political convenience. But I wasn't wild about Glisselda turning out to be in love with Seraphina, and if that kiss was meant to be an implication that Seraphina isn't straight herself and they're going to come to some sort of poly understanding it could have stood to be less... wishy washy. I still wonder if the decision to market the books as YA was made at a comparatively late stage, because the characters all seem to have been written as 3-5 years older than their stated ages; it would explain the pasted on love triangle, and vagueness of its conclusion too. I like that it is a duology (everything is a bloody trilogy these days) but I do wonder if it wouldn't have stood up better as one slightly longer volume.
Don't get me wrong, I did like them, and I do recommend them. I think Rachel Hartman did a bang up job with a premise that could very easily have veered into 'sparkling vampires' territory. I just liked the first one better.
Fair Fight is a historical novel set in Victorian England featuring three revolving POVs; Ruth, a boxer raised in a brothel, Charlotte an upperclass miss who is married beneath her station and forms an unlikely friendship with Ruth, and George a manipulative dandy who's involved in a long standing relationship with Charlotte's brother. You know how when you have a book with rotating POVs there's usually one where you go 'oh, not you again', but here I found all three characters compelling, and sympathetic, and repulsive in very different but equally fascinating ways.
I absolutely fell in love with this book, and I usually find boxing a bit... distasteful, but I absolutely loved it. It was a bit like The Crimson Petal and the White, a bit like Fingersmith, and a bit like Life Mask. Highly recommended.
Two thirds of the way through and I think I'll abandon The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. It's a play on the Scarlet Pimpernel and the first real dud of my stroll through historical romance; a bland plucky by the numbers heroine, and equally bland former rake with a heart of gold hero. And maybe it's because of the royal baby has been all over the news this week, but every time the heroine started talking about restoring the monarchy my grumpy inner republican (small r) reared her head.
*
I've got the election coverage on in the background. Hmm, if the exit polls are right Scotland should have taken independence when it was on the cards. I'm probably not going to stay up much longer, but before I go to bed have a story of the these people don't vote, do they? variety.
My sister is a doctor. An actual medical, dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor not a... doctor. She is a clever lady. She also wanted to vote Green today. I'd voted in the morning and texted her to say that there wasn't a Green standing where we live. We live in a Labour/SNP marginal, our Labour incumbent is a wanker and Dr. Sister hates the SNP. I assumed she'd hold her nose and vote Lib Dem, or spoil her ballot.
Instead - and again this woman is a doctor - she voted for an independent who she knew nothing about on the assumption that he was one of the harmless save-our-hills, save-our-hospital type independents. She went home and googled him; turns out he's a loon of the radical right, who got kicked out of UKIP for being too reactionary, and whose main platform is the reestablishment of the British Empire.
I've never been the brains of the family before; I don't like it.
Fair Fight - Anna Freeman
Shadow Scale is the sequel to Seraphina, about a half dragon girl caught between a coming war between humans and dragons. I didn't like it quite so much as the first one; this is partly grading on a curve because I freakin' adored the first one, partly that the first half of the novel follows Seraphina as she travels around trying to find the other half dragons, and quest narratives do very little for me. I also wasn't thrilled about a wild love triangle appearing. I mean, I loved that Glisselda isn't straight (called it!) and that she and Kiggs went through with their marriage of political convenience. But I wasn't wild about Glisselda turning out to be in love with Seraphina, and if that kiss was meant to be an implication that Seraphina isn't straight herself and they're going to come to some sort of poly understanding it could have stood to be less... wishy washy. I still wonder if the decision to market the books as YA was made at a comparatively late stage, because the characters all seem to have been written as 3-5 years older than their stated ages; it would explain the pasted on love triangle, and vagueness of its conclusion too. I like that it is a duology (everything is a bloody trilogy these days) but I do wonder if it wouldn't have stood up better as one slightly longer volume.
Don't get me wrong, I did like them, and I do recommend them. I think Rachel Hartman did a bang up job with a premise that could very easily have veered into 'sparkling vampires' territory. I just liked the first one better.
Fair Fight is a historical novel set in Victorian England featuring three revolving POVs; Ruth, a boxer raised in a brothel, Charlotte an upperclass miss who is married beneath her station and forms an unlikely friendship with Ruth, and George a manipulative dandy who's involved in a long standing relationship with Charlotte's brother. You know how when you have a book with rotating POVs there's usually one where you go 'oh, not you again', but here I found all three characters compelling, and sympathetic, and repulsive in very different but equally fascinating ways.
I absolutely fell in love with this book, and I usually find boxing a bit... distasteful, but I absolutely loved it. It was a bit like The Crimson Petal and the White, a bit like Fingersmith, and a bit like Life Mask. Highly recommended.
Two thirds of the way through and I think I'll abandon The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. It's a play on the Scarlet Pimpernel and the first real dud of my stroll through historical romance; a bland plucky by the numbers heroine, and equally bland former rake with a heart of gold hero. And maybe it's because of the royal baby has been all over the news this week, but every time the heroine started talking about restoring the monarchy my grumpy inner republican (small r) reared her head.
*
I've got the election coverage on in the background. Hmm, if the exit polls are right Scotland should have taken independence when it was on the cards. I'm probably not going to stay up much longer, but before I go to bed have a story of the these people don't vote, do they? variety.
My sister is a doctor. An actual medical, dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor not a... doctor. She is a clever lady. She also wanted to vote Green today. I'd voted in the morning and texted her to say that there wasn't a Green standing where we live. We live in a Labour/SNP marginal, our Labour incumbent is a wanker and Dr. Sister hates the SNP. I assumed she'd hold her nose and vote Lib Dem, or spoil her ballot.
Instead - and again this woman is a doctor - she voted for an independent who she knew nothing about on the assumption that he was one of the harmless save-our-hills, save-our-hospital type independents. She went home and googled him; turns out he's a loon of the radical right, who got kicked out of UKIP for being too reactionary, and whose main platform is the reestablishment of the British Empire.
I've never been the brains of the family before; I don't like it.