sophia_sol | Entries tagged with pub date: 2016

This is the last of my read-in-2016 books to post!

Ursula Vernon (under her penname T. Kingfisher) released this story as an online serial over the last several months, and it ended on December 29. It was wonderful following it as a serial, with new updates to look forward to twice a week! And when I read the last part it was weird to think that was actually over.

It's a portal fantasy, and stars a girl named Summer who gets sent to the magical world of Orcus by Baba Yaga in search of her heart's desire. She meets friends, but she also meets awful things happening. The whole thing is done with Vernon's usual depth and soul, as well as her usual delightful quirkiness, and the combination of these things makes for a wonderful book. In the early stages of release, Vernon seemed to be somewhat nervous about presenting this book to the world, thinking it maybe too odd to really work for people, but: it works. It really works. It's wonderful.

It's hard to know how to talk about this book in more detail though, because I was reading it for months, so a lot of the details were already fuzzy by the time I got to the end. But I highly recommend it, and you can read the whole thing here.

Crossposts: http://sophia-sol.livejournal.com/271420.html

A fun Squirrel Girl story in the usual style for this creative team. ( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://sophia-sol.livejournal.com/271356.html

And so we embark on the period where for approximately a month straight I read almost nothing but lots and lots of Courtney Milan and Tamora Pierce.

The following two are the first Courtney Milan books I have ever read. They are the beginning of her new contemporary romance series. I don't know why I started with these instead of her copious quantities of historical fiction, given my general preference for reading stories about the 19th c over the 21st c, but I did! And clearly it worked because it inspired me to keep reading her books. Courtney Milan writes really compelling romance novels, I must say.

Trade Me, by Courtney Milan

( Read more... )

Hold Me, by Courtney Milan

( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://sophia-sol.livejournal.com/267745.html

At any rate the world doesn't stop having good books in it just because everything else is horrible.

Here's a collection of short book thoughts about some books I liked, that aren't substantive or spoilery enough thoughts to get their own posts.

The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex

A reread. Still an impressively successful and delightful book! A kid's book about alien invasion(s), told from the point of view of a young biracial girl, with the conceit that it was written by her for a school project with a goal of it ending up in a time capsule. Tip is a really engaging narrator, and the themes the book is addressing are all well handled, and it's just all SO GOOD. I have a lot of feelings.

Also http://archiveofourown.org/works/1087542 is pretty much exactly right for what happens after the book imo. I love this fic. (though really I ought to read the ACTUAL Smek sequel at some point I think. There is one now!)

Quilting: Poems 1987-1990, by Lucille Clifton

An interesting collection of poems written by an African-American woman. Worth reading, though I have nothing to say about it because I'm not comfortable enough yet with poetry to have the words to describe it.

Dogsbody, by Diana Wynne Jones

A well written and charming book, as is to be expected from DWJ. I'm not the right audience for it, since I don't particularly care one way or another about dogs, and our main character is fairly thoroughly a dog for much of the book. But DWJ is a good enough writer to keep me invested despite this, and I did care an awful lot about Kathleen!

The Emperor's Soul, by Brandon Sanderson

A reread. I still love this book. But do I have anything else to say about it that I didn't say last time? No.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now, by Ryan North, art by Erica Henderson

A total delight, just like the last two Squirrel Girl tpbs! I love Ryan North's sense of humour, and Erica Henderson's art is perfect for the story. Doreen and her friends are all amazing, and I love just about everything about this book.

However. The last two issues in this collection are a two-part crossover with Howard Duck. The first part (done by the Squirrel Girl team) was just about as good as the rest of the series but the second part (done by the Howard Duck team) I just wasn't as into. It wasn't as funny or as charming, and I didn't like the art as much, and I just didn't care as much. It's too bad that this is the note the book ended on, because the rest of the book had me gleeful all the way through.

Crossposts: http://sophia-sol.livejournal.com/265979.html

learntocheat bought the Hamiltome! So obviously I read it asap. A thoroughly enjoyable book, a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Hamilton along with lyrics annotations by the author himself. And lots of photos.

The thing that struck me most while reading the book was that while yes, Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius who did a hell of a lot of work to bring this musical to life, it would never have happened without a whole team of people who all contributed in a whole bunch of different important ways. It really is a team effort to create something like Hamilton.

The other thing is how from the beginning there were so many people excited about this show and eager to somehow be a part of it, even when there wasn't even a show yet! This whole book is basically a love letter to musical theatre nerds who care deeply and passionately about good theatre and put a lot of effort into making it happen and supporting each other through the process. So great.

Also I really enjoyed Miranda's lyrics annotations! There's some really charming notes in there, and some interesting thoughts.

And the pictures throughout that illustrate the whole thing are just stunning. There's a lot of beautiful shots of individual cast members in some extraordinary pose in the middle of dancing their way through the show and I loved it.

The book is also just really pretty as a book. Large and well-constructed and with a proper binding. And I am just too delighted by the title page inside the book, which is done in the style of period books with a 31-word-long title in at least five different font sizes.

In all, it's the kind of book that would be of no interest to people who don't care about the musical, but for fans of the musical it is GREAT.

But ultimately, you know, what I care about is the musical, so although the story behind it is interesting, I can't imagine myself ever feeling motivated to reread this book. Whereas I have listened to that musical an uncountable number of times since I decided to give it a try.

Crossposts: http://sophia-sol.livejournal.com/263118.html

This is the last book in the Temeraire series. The end of an era! I've been following these books for so long and I just have so many FEELINGS.

This is not going to be a coherent review with, like, structure and stuff. Have a list of things I thought about!

- I JUST LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR. BOOK. THING. All the characters are the best and the world is the best and I just. Yes. Good. More of this forever please. (It's so sad that this is the last book!)

( cut for spoilers )

- I feel like I ought to say something wrapping up my thoughts about the series in general. I don't even know what to say! I've been following these books for something like a decade, and while the strength of my love came and went somewhat over that time, I've never stopped loving them. In a lot of ways it felt like this series was written to cater directly to my tastes, and though these books are not perfect in every way they are certainly thoroughly excellent at delighting me. I'm gonna miss having new Temeraire to look forward to, and the fandom, though generally enthusiastic, is not what I'd call large and prolific. But I look forward to seeing what writing projects Novik will take on next!

Crossposts: http://sophia-sol.livejournal.com/260785.html

This is a Star Wars novel set just after the Original Trilogy, and the first official star wars novel I've ever read! Actually the first tie-in novel I've ever read for anything, I'm pretty sure. A new experience for me. And I understand that as tie-in quality goes this one is actually pretty good.

I found this book varying in quality - in some ways it was good, and in some ways it was not so much. But overall I definitely did enjoy it!

I was not a fan of the prose style (so choppy that I could never settle comfortably into the book because reading it didn't flow, resulting in me having to read much more slowly than I'm usually able to), and I found the action scenes boring and confusing, and there were too many viewpoint characters who were switched between too rapidly. And the "interlude" chapters felt like interruptions, as opposed to an essential part of the story, though they did add interesting details about what was going on in the rest of the galaxy.

I liked seeing how after the destruction of the second Death Star and the death of the Emperor and Darth Vader, the Empire is not actually all the way gone yet: there's still work to be done, lots of it. And there was a great collection of characters used to show this, a number of characters who are complicated, not all good or all bad, and obviously affected by life under the Empire.

My faves: Sinjir Rath Velin and Mister Bones. Sinjir is an ex-imperial officer and Mister Bones is a modified battle droid. I liked them both a lot. But I also enjoyed reading about all the characters!

Plus: there's actual queer characters in this! Which is wonderful. Including one of our main characters, Sinjir! And among the secondary characters there's a lesbian couple and neither of them die! (my standards for queer representation, they are so low, wow)

I'm interested to see what'll happen next - I gather this is going to be a trilogy?

Crossposts: http://sophia-sol.livejournal.com/257048.html

It's like this book was written JUST FOR ME and it is SO GOOOOOOD.

It's a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Snow Queen", which was one of my favourite fairy tales when I was a kid. I reread that story about a million times! And unlike things like Cinderella it's not a story that anybody ever bothers doing a retelling of or deconstruction of or analysis of (I'm not counting Frozen because like hell is that actually connected in any meaningful way with The Snow Queen, whatever Disney says).

But T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon) manages to capture in this book everything I loved about the original story while also making it BETTER.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://sophia-sol.livejournal.com/256305.html

Okay, here's some really brief reviews of the latest three books I've read. (...you'll notice I haven't been posting a lot of book reviews of late. This is because I haven't been reading a lot of books. It's weird and it sucks and I hate it and I don't know how to fix it. I've only read 4 books, one of which is novella-length, since the beginning of 2016!)

The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison

Writing reviews of books that I unreservedly love everything about is a lot harder than writing books where I have complaints. Especially writing reviews of a reread of a book I love. What is there to say?

Well, here's something. After I finished rereading this book, I was trying to think about what I like so much about it. And I mean there are lots of things, both big overarching things and lots of small choices that were made, that all come together and add up to why I love it to the degree I do. But one thing I realized is.....its main theme has a surprising amount in common with my perennial feel-good reread, The Blue Castle.

( thematic spoilers for Goblin Emperor and Blue Castle, no details )

The Seventh Bride, by T. Kingfisher

T. Kingfisher is a penname for Ursula Vernon, to keep her books for adults distinct from her books for kids. As Kingfisher she tends to write fairy tale retellings. This one is more or less a retelling of Bluebeard, though with fewer dead women, which is always nice.

I loved how the interplay between Rhea and the other wives made for the most important relationships in the book. And I loved the depth of complexity that Maria ended up having, more than I expected her to!

I don't seem to have a lot else to say about this book though. It was good and I liked it, the end? I guess?

The Terracotta Bride, by Zen Cho
I loved it and had a lot of feelings! And I wish I'd written more down immediately after finishing because I can no longer remember my thoughts in enough detail to write a more comprehensive review than this!