A Monkey Who Says "Boo"!
Jan. 29th, 2005 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lathanyMy books, though, and not Roly Mo's.
I found this book of Arthur C Clarke's short stories on our bookshelves; I assume it belongs to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bateleur. It contains eighteen stories which span his writing career. I read 2001 (and the two sequels) many years ago and I enjoyed these as much (if not more). My favourites were Travel By Wire (for the lab fights and the sheer arrogance of the narrator), Hide and Seek (how to escape from a pursuing starship) and Sunjammer (for not having the ending I expected) particularly. I was less fond of Second Dawn (more about viewpoint than plot) and Hate (mainly because I found it painful to read). All-in-all, recommended.
A Game of Thrones is the start of a series (after a quick check it seems to be at least four books long and probably more) and it was lent to me bycardinalsin. I had been warned that it was a tricky book to get into (by frax and secretrebel) because of the rapid changes of viewpoint. The book is divided into chapters each named after the character whose viewpoint is used (about eight or nine in total, which then rotate).
I had no trouble at all with the changing viewpoint. Partly because the characters are all linked to each other anyway (most of them come from the Stark family) and partly because the author goes to some trouble to explain who's who. I also found the story gripping and most of the characters easy to empathise with (exceptions were Sansa and Daenerys). OK, some of the characters are archetypes (eg. Arya), but that's not a bad thing in itself.
My main objections come from the details. For a political book, too many of the characters are completely stupid. Sansa, full stop. The entire business with the easily-identified assassination weapon (which screamed stupidity or set-up). Catelyn for not believing Tyrion's story. Eddard for his handling of the truth behind the poisoning (he should have sent his daughters home and secured his allies first - look what happened to his predecessor!). And as for King Robert... words fail me.
Additionally, I felt that George R R Martin was too into his foreshadowing that there were no surprises. From the moment Bran decided to climb the tower, both the immediate outcome and the poisoning plot were clear. Plus Sansa's fate, Eddard's fate and especially Viserys' fate. I feel I know the truth behind Jon's parentage as well (if my guesses are right, then it's a complete spoiler for some later point in the series).
Perhaps this comes from it being the first book in a pretty large series; but I also hated how it all started with deaths and downfalls and evil triumphing and thus found it pretty depressing reading (Bran's fate was particularly horrific for me, but that's a personal thing). Although, one nice thing, I liked the ending(s).
Overall, this is the sort of book where I'd wait for the rest of the series to come out before passing final judgement on it. However, as this won't be for some years I'd settle for readable and interesting yet slightly predictable and slow-moving.
Tangled Up In Blue is set in the Snow Queen universe and is a prequel (although should be read as published, otherwise it contains spoilers for the other books). It was lent to me byealuscerwen, I think because she was aware I'd read the other books in the series.
By Joan D Vinge's standards, this one is relatively upbeat. The characters only get tortured/raped/blown up roughly once each which shows that she's learning restraint. I was amused to see that all the most powerful characters were women (most of whom have appeared in previous books), but that the two main characters were both blokes (it's the men who do badly out of being in her books, too). However, whether she's making a point, or I've spent too much time looking at books from the this viewpoint I couldn't say.
Sarcasm (mostly) aside; Tangled Up In Blue has a decent plot and pace. The characters, including the minor ones, are interesting (my favourite was Staun and he's almost not in it) and their interactions believable. It does require previous knowledge of the background to follow the factions (and understand the side-characters such as Inspector Jerusha PalaThion and The Snow Queen Arienrhod), but that's not such a bad thing in itself.
Overall - recommended if you like (and have read) the other books in this series.
Well, seven books down and forty-three to go. Maybe 2005 will be a fifty book year for me!
I found this book of Arthur C Clarke's short stories on our bookshelves; I assume it belongs to
bateleur. It contains eighteen stories which span his writing career. I read 2001 (and the two sequels) many years ago and I enjoyed these as much (if not more). My favourites were Travel By Wire (for the lab fights and the sheer arrogance of the narrator), Hide and Seek (how to escape from a pursuing starship) and Sunjammer (for not having the ending I expected) particularly. I was less fond of Second Dawn (more about viewpoint than plot) and Hate (mainly because I found it painful to read). All-in-all, recommended.A Game of Thrones is the start of a series (after a quick check it seems to be at least four books long and probably more) and it was lent to me by
cardinalsin. I had been warned that it was a tricky book to get into (by frax and secretrebel) because of the rapid changes of viewpoint. The book is divided into chapters each named after the character whose viewpoint is used (about eight or nine in total, which then rotate).I had no trouble at all with the changing viewpoint. Partly because the characters are all linked to each other anyway (most of them come from the Stark family) and partly because the author goes to some trouble to explain who's who. I also found the story gripping and most of the characters easy to empathise with (exceptions were Sansa and Daenerys). OK, some of the characters are archetypes (eg. Arya), but that's not a bad thing in itself.
My main objections come from the details. For a political book, too many of the characters are completely stupid. Sansa, full stop. The entire business with the easily-identified assassination weapon (which screamed stupidity or set-up). Catelyn for not believing Tyrion's story. Eddard for his handling of the truth behind the poisoning (he should have sent his daughters home and secured his allies first - look what happened to his predecessor!). And as for King Robert... words fail me.
Additionally, I felt that George R R Martin was too into his foreshadowing that there were no surprises. From the moment Bran decided to climb the tower, both the immediate outcome and the poisoning plot were clear. Plus Sansa's fate, Eddard's fate and especially Viserys' fate. I feel I know the truth behind Jon's parentage as well (if my guesses are right, then it's a complete spoiler for some later point in the series).
Perhaps this comes from it being the first book in a pretty large series; but I also hated how it all started with deaths and downfalls and evil triumphing and thus found it pretty depressing reading (Bran's fate was particularly horrific for me, but that's a personal thing). Although, one nice thing, I liked the ending(s).
Overall, this is the sort of book where I'd wait for the rest of the series to come out before passing final judgement on it. However, as this won't be for some years I'd settle for readable and interesting yet slightly predictable and slow-moving.
Tangled Up In Blue is set in the Snow Queen universe and is a prequel (although should be read as published, otherwise it contains spoilers for the other books). It was lent to me by
ealuscerwen, I think because she was aware I'd read the other books in the series.By Joan D Vinge's standards, this one is relatively upbeat. The characters only get tortured/raped/blown up roughly once each which shows that she's learning restraint. I was amused to see that all the most powerful characters were women (most of whom have appeared in previous books), but that the two main characters were both blokes (it's the men who do badly out of being in her books, too). However, whether she's making a point, or I've spent too much time looking at books from the this viewpoint I couldn't say.
Sarcasm (mostly) aside; Tangled Up In Blue has a decent plot and pace. The characters, including the minor ones, are interesting (my favourite was Staun and he's almost not in it) and their interactions believable. It does require previous knowledge of the background to follow the factions (and understand the side-characters such as Inspector Jerusha PalaThion and The Snow Queen Arienrhod), but that's not such a bad thing in itself.
Overall - recommended if you like (and have read) the other books in this series.
Well, seven books down and forty-three to go. Maybe 2005 will be a fifty book year for me!
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-30 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-30 06:42 pm (UTC)(That is indeed why I lent it to you, we had a chat some time ago about you liking previous books in the series.)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-30 07:13 pm (UTC)What did you think of it?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 10:36 am (UTC)I must admit that GM doesn't seem too intent on ending his plotlines (with one glaring exception from the first book), so if you're looking for closure you'll get nowt from the next couple of books AFAICT.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 10:37 am (UTC)What did Robert do that struck you as stupid?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 12:17 pm (UTC)True. Although she was brought up with the prospect of marrying into a political family. That sort of upbringing must count for something.
What did Robert do that struck you as stupid?
Having no real understanding of his wife's schemes or her family's. The whole bunch of them (Tyrion excepted) are such uncharismatic, unpleasant characters that it's a bit much for him to miss everything. Not dealing with her twin when he cut down Eddard and his men - I know he was cross with Eddard, but some sort of chastisement on the other side would have been the obvious thing (after all - Eddard's word, particularly as he becomes Hand again, is worth something). Agreeing that Lady should be killed when it was wholey inappropriate (his entire handling of Arya trial, in fact). Plus his total ignorance and cr*pness surrounding his finances.