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Double Reading Retreat - Part One
I am currently on the most glorious reading retreat of the 20 (21?) I have been on to date - a whole week with a tiny cottage largely to myself, but with the big house just steps away, containing other lovely readers and my amazing hosts providing all the fantastic food and conversation I could wish for (when not enjoying my hermit era and reading, reading reading...).
In just under 48 hours so far, I have finished the audiobook I was partway through and listened to another one, plus read three whole novels!
Whispering Wood by Sharon Shinn:
I was most of the way through this audiobook when I set off on retreat, but finished it on the first full day in the cottage. It's the fifth and (currently) final book in the Elemental Blessings series, which I've been enjoying revisiting over the last few months. And, based on how this one ended, I expect there is more to come from this author in this world. This one, unfortunately, is probably my least favourite of the five, since I wasn't overly keen on either the protagonist or the love interest (at least at first) and I didn't feel the romance was given enough credible development for me to be invested in it. Still, I love this world and I enjoyed seeing the continuation of the global politics and the inclusion of various of the characters from earlier in the series. And the conclusion of this book suggests and interesting direction for the next instalment to go in, should there be one. Still fun overall - and I did get to like the protagonist by the end!
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson:
This tells the story of Cara, employed by a futuristic corporation to travel to different versions of Earth and collect demographic, financial, and climate data that might inform decisions and policies on Earth Zero. I was expecting a pacy, exciting, multidimensional adventure story - but this book is much more a treatise on social inequality and the exploitation of both people and resources by those with all the money and power. A lot of it was clever and meaningful - but the author kept pointing out *why* each instance was clever and/or impactful and/or meaningful, which rather diminished its impact, since I didn't feel trusted to see these aspects for myself. It was also pretty grim in places - and I'm getting quite tired of strong female protagonists being abused/manipulated/exploited/objectified by terrible men...
Still, it had complex, layered characters, lots of great inter-relationships, a fair few moments that did have a real impact in various ways and an interesting conclusion.
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel:
A giant metal hand is discovered buried in the Earth, leading to a belief that a whole immense robot has been disassembled and hidden across Earth by an ancient civilisation. The book follows the team who are tasked with finding the pieces, putting them together and trying to work out where the robot came from and what purpose it is meant to serve.
The whole book is made up of interview transcripts, journal entries and official reports of various kinds - which isn't my favourite format, since I precludes a real connection with the characters, since we're largely deprived of their inner thoughts.
It's very well put together and the premise is intriguing. I did get to like a few of the characters (particularly the unnamed interviewer) and I enjoyed the story overall, but I don't think it's one that's going to stay with me, and I'm not invested enough to carry on with the series.
The Just City by Jo Walton:
This is about a disparate group of people from all different time periods who, with the help of the goddess Athene, set out to try and create the 'just city' from Plato's Republic, on the island of Atlantis before it sinks.
So, yeah - that's the premise...
And I really don't know how to feel about this book.
The writing is good, I liked a lot of the characters, the extrapolation of how the thought experiment might play out was fascinating, and I was engaged throughout.
There was a lot of summary, a lot of telling, and a lot of philosophical discussion, but all that added to rather than detracting from the narrative.
But everything to do with sex and inter-relationship between the characters was absolutely appalling and sometimes a pretty tough read. All the terrible stuff was eventually called out as being terrible, but not in a wholly satisfying way. And the 'your body is responding so you must want my attentions despite your protestations' was used as justification more than once and never wholly condemned, which I had a real problem with.
The book also ended very abruptly without much of a real conclusion, which was annoying. It is the first in a trilogy (I found out afterwards) but the second book is set decades later, so it's not like to continues straight on from the end of this one.
It raised some fascinating questions and made me think really hard about a lot of things, but I also had a lot of issues with it, so I'm very undecided about it.
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar:
This is a novella about two sisters who vow to stay together forever - but then one of them gets involved with an inhabitant of the faerie realm and events spiral out of her control. The audiobook narrator was excellent and the listening experience was greatly enhanced by the inclusion of music and singing, which were pivotal to the story. It's very atmospheric but also very sad in places. I'm not sure I wholly connected with it in its pretty short run-time, but it's well written and quite emotional at times.
In just under 48 hours so far, I have finished the audiobook I was partway through and listened to another one, plus read three whole novels!
Whispering Wood by Sharon Shinn:
I was most of the way through this audiobook when I set off on retreat, but finished it on the first full day in the cottage. It's the fifth and (currently) final book in the Elemental Blessings series, which I've been enjoying revisiting over the last few months. And, based on how this one ended, I expect there is more to come from this author in this world. This one, unfortunately, is probably my least favourite of the five, since I wasn't overly keen on either the protagonist or the love interest (at least at first) and I didn't feel the romance was given enough credible development for me to be invested in it. Still, I love this world and I enjoyed seeing the continuation of the global politics and the inclusion of various of the characters from earlier in the series. And the conclusion of this book suggests and interesting direction for the next instalment to go in, should there be one. Still fun overall - and I did get to like the protagonist by the end!
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson:
This tells the story of Cara, employed by a futuristic corporation to travel to different versions of Earth and collect demographic, financial, and climate data that might inform decisions and policies on Earth Zero. I was expecting a pacy, exciting, multidimensional adventure story - but this book is much more a treatise on social inequality and the exploitation of both people and resources by those with all the money and power. A lot of it was clever and meaningful - but the author kept pointing out *why* each instance was clever and/or impactful and/or meaningful, which rather diminished its impact, since I didn't feel trusted to see these aspects for myself. It was also pretty grim in places - and I'm getting quite tired of strong female protagonists being abused/manipulated/exploited/objectified by terrible men...
Still, it had complex, layered characters, lots of great inter-relationships, a fair few moments that did have a real impact in various ways and an interesting conclusion.
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel:
A giant metal hand is discovered buried in the Earth, leading to a belief that a whole immense robot has been disassembled and hidden across Earth by an ancient civilisation. The book follows the team who are tasked with finding the pieces, putting them together and trying to work out where the robot came from and what purpose it is meant to serve.
The whole book is made up of interview transcripts, journal entries and official reports of various kinds - which isn't my favourite format, since I precludes a real connection with the characters, since we're largely deprived of their inner thoughts.
It's very well put together and the premise is intriguing. I did get to like a few of the characters (particularly the unnamed interviewer) and I enjoyed the story overall, but I don't think it's one that's going to stay with me, and I'm not invested enough to carry on with the series.
The Just City by Jo Walton:
This is about a disparate group of people from all different time periods who, with the help of the goddess Athene, set out to try and create the 'just city' from Plato's Republic, on the island of Atlantis before it sinks.
So, yeah - that's the premise...
And I really don't know how to feel about this book.
The writing is good, I liked a lot of the characters, the extrapolation of how the thought experiment might play out was fascinating, and I was engaged throughout.
There was a lot of summary, a lot of telling, and a lot of philosophical discussion, but all that added to rather than detracting from the narrative.
But everything to do with sex and inter-relationship between the characters was absolutely appalling and sometimes a pretty tough read. All the terrible stuff was eventually called out as being terrible, but not in a wholly satisfying way. And the 'your body is responding so you must want my attentions despite your protestations' was used as justification more than once and never wholly condemned, which I had a real problem with.
The book also ended very abruptly without much of a real conclusion, which was annoying. It is the first in a trilogy (I found out afterwards) but the second book is set decades later, so it's not like to continues straight on from the end of this one.
It raised some fascinating questions and made me think really hard about a lot of things, but I also had a lot of issues with it, so I'm very undecided about it.
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar:
This is a novella about two sisters who vow to stay together forever - but then one of them gets involved with an inhabitant of the faerie realm and events spiral out of her control. The audiobook narrator was excellent and the listening experience was greatly enhanced by the inclusion of music and singing, which were pivotal to the story. It's very atmospheric but also very sad in places. I'm not sure I wholly connected with it in its pretty short run-time, but it's well written and quite emotional at times.