Placed another Amazon order. Kids books, a new cookbook, and some more fiction. I may even manage to save some of it until our trip in July...
May 2003 Archives
Charisma by Steven Barnes
The original Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin. Wanted a fairly uncomplicated comfortable book or two to read. These were it.
Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles DeLint. His most recent short story collection.
A fairly typical selection of DeLint shorts. I'm finding that the collection is long enough that I'm recognizing a rhythm to the stories that I might not have noticed in a shorter one. Somewhat more optomistic than Onion Girl, which soured me a bit on his writing, as I felt it was a bit heavy-handed. This is a collection of tales from Newford. None feature Jilly so far, though she's wandered through the edges of a few of the tales. (5/19)
Haven't read a book (except kids' books, which I'm not logging) in a week. How out-of-character.
The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson. Having a hard time starting this one. I'm not particularly caring about the protagonist, who's very much a slacker, and just got through wandering off to where he couldn't be reached while his daughter got sick. This isn't engendering much sympathy on my part. (5/6)
Got beyond the first chapter. Scott Warden, the protagonist, does try to redeem his slackerdom, which helps. But it's not quite the story I want to read. I want to read about the Chronoliths themselves, and more about how they're affecting the world, and how they happened, but instead, I'm getting drawn out meanderings from Scott about his life.
And I'm wondering about the contradictions inherent in pushing the chronoliths into the past (the chronoliths destroy the area they appear in, but they're supposed to be monuments to conquest, and have just wrecked what they're supposed to be commemerating. And yet nobody in the book seems to think about that.)
I came to a natural break (start of part three), and in spite of wondering what Kuin is up to, and who he/she is, and Scott's missing daughter Kaitlin, I'm not pushing right on to the next part just now. (5/8)
Reflecting on this book a couple of days after finishing it, I'm still dissatisfied. There was the hint of a story I would have been utterly fascinated by reading in here, but it wasn't the story being told. I really don't like Scott's point of view. His experience of the Chronoliths is too limited and dispassionate. I think Sulamith's story would have been more interesting. Especially her story as it corresponds to section three of the book.
A decent read, and I'll give Wilson another chance (with a library book), but I don't think I'll plan on re-reading this one. I'll be checking reviews to see if his other books have more compelling main characters.
Exile's Honor by Mercedes Lackey. Happened across the book on the new books shelf at the library, and knew it would be a quick, comfortable read. I found Alberich's syntax a little distracting. And it's yet another visit to one of those battles on the border with Karse, which is, I suppose, what happens when you write several books that overlap the same time frame with different points of view.
Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card.
Got this out of the library and whipped through it. A fast read. Still not as good as Ender's Game was. I think it has to do with the pacing. Ender's Game was a slow build, with some cool tech and aliens thrown in, to boot. The Shadow series could almost be happening in an alternate present.
I also thought all the characters started to sound the same (though perhaps that had something to do with the speed in which I read the book.) But all the conversations seemed to come down to witty bantering.
It was an OK read, but I'm glad I got it out of the library instead of buying it.
Glory Road by Heinlein. Just felt like reading something old and familiar.
