el dang replied to Soh Kam Yung's status
@mouse @suzyxwvu @PunchoVita @sohkamyung I would love this, but I also think it's a real challenge to do because stories aren't indexed individually with anywhere near the thoroughness that books are.
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Also eldang@weirder.earth
I'm currently the coordinator of the #SFFBookClub so a lot of what I'm reading is suggestions from there.
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@mouse @PunchoVita @suzyxwvu Ooh! Yeah, let us pick the units: n books / short stories / chapters / pages / poems / paragraphs / sentences / words / linear feet of bookshelf.
[no can of worms here, oh no]
Took me a while to pick the Gogol back up because the antisemitism of "St. John's Eve" was so overwhelming. I'm glad I did though. "A May Night" is delightfully weird and I was actually able to enjoy it.
I may just skip Taras Bulba because I've heard that that's particularly hateful about both Jews and Turks, but it looks like I'll at least be able to enjoy the rest of the collection.
Content warning Four Hundred Souls (CW: slavery)
One chapter a day is definitely the right way for me to read this book. Each contributing author wrote either a single ~4-page chapter anchored to a 5-year timespan, or a poem to follow a block of 8 chapters (i.e. 40 years). It starts with the first documented landing of a cargo of enslaved Africans to the colonies that would later become the United States, so naturally the material is often grim. I felt like I knew a lot about the slave trade and its associated depredations before, but I'm still learning a lot about its depths as I read. Reading a chapter a day is giving me space to let each one sink in without becoming overwhelmed.
@whami It's always interesting reading reviews from someone who had a very different response to the book, because it's not like one of us is right and one is wrong. I'm definitely hoping that the next book gives more space to Anden and Wen, but I feel like it is set up to. I clearly engaged more with the main characters than you did, and I can't really explain why. I do think Hilo is the least interesting one, and I'm glad it became more Shae's story over time.
I took the ending as a testament to Hilo's utter desperation - that it was this or actual surrender, and he'd only choose something this deceitful (and risky to Anden who he clearly feels protective over) because he felt that those were the only two options left. I am also curious whether the dirtiness of the trick comes back to haunt …
@whami It's always interesting reading reviews from someone who had a very different response to the book, because it's not like one of us is right and one is wrong. I'm definitely hoping that the next book gives more space to Anden and Wen, but I feel like it is set up to. I clearly engaged more with the main characters than you did, and I can't really explain why. I do think Hilo is the least interesting one, and I'm glad it became more Shae's story over time.
I took the ending as a testament to Hilo's utter desperation - that it was this or actual surrender, and he'd only choose something this deceitful (and risky to Anden who he clearly feels protective over) because he felt that those were the only two options left. I am also curious whether the dirtiness of the trick comes back to haunt the Kauls in the next book.
@whami It's always interesting reading reviews from someone who had a very different response to the book, because it's not like one of us is right and one is wrong. I'm definitely hoping that the next book gives more space to Anden and Wen, but I feel like it is set up to. I clearly engaged more with the main characters than you did, and I can't really explain why. I do think Hilo is the least interesting one, and I'm glad it became more Shae's story over time.
I took the ending as a testament to Hilo's utter desperation - that it was this or actual surrender, and he'd only choose something this deceitful (and risky to Anden who he clearly feels protective over) because he felt that those were the only two options left. I am also curious whether the dirtiness of the trick comes back to haunt …
@whami It's always interesting reading reviews from someone who had a very different response to the book, because it's not like one of us is right and one is wrong. I'm definitely hoping that the next book gives more space to Anden and Wen, but I feel like it is set up to. I clearly engaged more with the main characters than you did, and I can't really explain why. I do think Hilo is the least interesting one, and I'm glad it became more Shae's story over time.
I took the ending as a testament to Hilo's utter desperation - that it was this or actual surrender, and he'd only choose something this deceitful (and risky to Anden who he clearly feels protective over) because he felt that those were the only two options left. I am also curious whether the dirtiness of the trick comes back to haunt the Kauls in the next book.
el dang reviewed A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark
Egypt, 1912. In Cairo, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between …
A Dead Djinn in Cairo review
5 stars
A lovely amuse bouche for Clark's steampunk Cairo stories, which has certainly left me wanting more of Fatma and of this world.
el dang replied to Gracious Anthracite's status
@anthracite@dragon.style On @sohkamyung's recommendation. And yes, it was.
el dang started reading A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark
A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark
Egypt, 1912. In Cairo, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly) …
urgh, the first story in the Gogol compilation dropped enough casual antisemitism that I didn't really process what the story was about, and I haven't had the gumption to read the next one yet. I hope they're not all like this, because I would like to be less clueless about this author.
Content warning Dune ending spoilers
I forgot to mention in my review: the ending is absolutely atrocious. I can only think of one book (The Flea Palace) the ending of which has upset me more, and that one was basically "it was all a dream". But for Paul to follow up that crushing military victory with some mediaeval-Europe marriage-for-political-ascendancy bullshit just feels like the ultimate betrayal of the Fremen... not just on his part but also on Frank Herbert's.
el dang replied to Soh Kam Yung's status
@sohkamyung I was already really looking forward to reading this, even more so now.
el dang started reading Short Fiction by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
This is Standard Ebooks' collection of Gogol's shorter works. It appears to be a compilation …
Confusing listing, because Standard Ebooks seems to have made their own meta-compilation from various translations of Gogol's shorter works. Here's their page: standardebooks.org/ebooks/nikolai-gogol/short-fiction/claud-field_isabel-f-hapgood_vizetelly-and-company_george-tolstoy
el dang started reading Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi
Christmas present! I think I might try reading one chapter a day.
Jade City is a 2017 fantasy novel by Fonda Lee. It won the World Fantasy …
The mobster-wuxia hybrid I never knew I needed (spoilers)
5 stars
I'm not usually all that excited about either really martial fantasy or mob stories, because both tend to rely on either very flatly good/evil dichotomies, or just telling the reader that one set of characters are the good ones and should be sympathised with.
At first, this book felt like it was going down that road, since our introduction to some of the core characters is them dispensing a lot of violence for profit, against some thieves who I found myself sympathising with. But by about 1/4 of the way I was getting reeled in by the Kauls' charm even as I was never convinced by their goodness. I think that ambiguity is one of the great strengths of Lee's writing. She could so easily have brought the world another set of Atreides/Skywalkers/Gandalf-and-the-hobbits, and instead we got some much more interesting, real and complex characters fighting a much smaller war. …
I'm not usually all that excited about either really martial fantasy or mob stories, because both tend to rely on either very flatly good/evil dichotomies, or just telling the reader that one set of characters are the good ones and should be sympathised with.
At first, this book felt like it was going down that road, since our introduction to some of the core characters is them dispensing a lot of violence for profit, against some thieves who I found myself sympathising with. But by about 1/4 of the way I was getting reeled in by the Kauls' charm even as I was never convinced by their goodness. I think that ambiguity is one of the great strengths of Lee's writing. She could so easily have brought the world another set of Atreides/Skywalkers/Gandalf-and-the-hobbits, and instead we got some much more interesting, real and complex characters fighting a much smaller war.
Along with that, Janloon feels like a living breathing city, the combination magic/technology/martial arts system strikes a good balance between epic powers and finite, human limitations, and the geopolitical background adds a little grounding without intruding too much.
Some criticisms: aesthetically I don't like magic systems being described as discrete Abilities--that can make a fight feel a bit like narration of a video game--and some of the world-building is a bit front-loaded. But overall I loved this book and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.