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Pride and Fuzzies
May. 25th, 2020 09:44 amYesterday, I finished three books!
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones was a re-read that I'm planning to discuss on an upcoming podcast episode.
Pride, the first Seven Deadly Sins anthology from Black Hare Press, is a collection of short stories around the theme of pride. I am one of the authors so I was interested to read the rest, and overall really enjoyed it. While there was inevitably some repetition of theme, the settings and plots were extremely varied. A fair few of the stories were disturbing or unsettling or downright creepy, but effectively so. The anthology started strong, dipped a bit in the middle and picked up again towards the end, though there were only one or two stories in the whole thing that I didn't think were quite up to standard. The thing that most impressed me was that the majority of protagonists were unlikeable, amoral, or downright reprehensible, but nearly all of the stories were compelling and had enough layers for the reader at least to understand the characters' motivations, even if we couldn't agree with them. Very well put together, and mostly very well written.
I also finished listening to Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi. I always enjoy books narrated by Wil Wheaton and this was no exception. It's about the discovery of a potentially sentient species on another planet, which risks the suspension of resource exploitation by a company that will thus lose a great deal of money. The protagonist, Jack Holloway, who starts out as a self-serving prospector who discovers a huge seam of valuable gems. The arc of his journey over the course of the book is very well written, as he is also the one who discovers the creatures, and grows to love them. The story is cleverly constructed and very satisfying, though it's also extremely sad. A good read overall.
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones was a re-read that I'm planning to discuss on an upcoming podcast episode.
Pride, the first Seven Deadly Sins anthology from Black Hare Press, is a collection of short stories around the theme of pride. I am one of the authors so I was interested to read the rest, and overall really enjoyed it. While there was inevitably some repetition of theme, the settings and plots were extremely varied. A fair few of the stories were disturbing or unsettling or downright creepy, but effectively so. The anthology started strong, dipped a bit in the middle and picked up again towards the end, though there were only one or two stories in the whole thing that I didn't think were quite up to standard. The thing that most impressed me was that the majority of protagonists were unlikeable, amoral, or downright reprehensible, but nearly all of the stories were compelling and had enough layers for the reader at least to understand the characters' motivations, even if we couldn't agree with them. Very well put together, and mostly very well written.
I also finished listening to Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi. I always enjoy books narrated by Wil Wheaton and this was no exception. It's about the discovery of a potentially sentient species on another planet, which risks the suspension of resource exploitation by a company that will thus lose a great deal of money. The protagonist, Jack Holloway, who starts out as a self-serving prospector who discovers a huge seam of valuable gems. The arc of his journey over the course of the book is very well written, as he is also the one who discovers the creatures, and grows to love them. The story is cleverly constructed and very satisfying, though it's also extremely sad. A good read overall.
