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rose_griffes) wrote2021-09-20 05:13 pm
rose_griffes) wrote2021-09-20 05:13 pm
a (mostly) book update
TV: I’ve seen the first two episodes of Only Murders in the Building. Worth trying out just for the sheer novelty of having Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez in the same show. Thankfully it’s compelling for more than just the unusual cast: darkly funny without being TOO dark, and a solid mystery so far.
Movie: This weekend I saw Free Guy, a movie with a serviceable plot and a leading actor (Ryan Reynolds) whose charisma elevates the material enough to make it thoroughly entertaining.
BOOOOOOOOKS: T. Kingfisher is the pen name for Ursula Vernon--she uses it for her writing aimed at an older audience. Her novel The Hollow Places was just the right amount of creepy: excellent characterization for the two main characters, a real sense of place (including the not-a-place place), and plausibly snappy dialogue.
I also enjoyed Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Strength, an adventure romance set in a fictional world that she uses for multiple novels. So, magic, medieval-ish technology and culture, a bit of horror and a healthy serving of humor.
Late spring to early summer had me finishing up Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha-verse novels. Nikolai’s duology, to be more specific: Rule of Wolves and King of Scars, which were both highly entertaining. I like Nikolai; I don't love him, but Bardugo has a solid storyline going here with interesting characters.
Seanan McGuire now has three novels in her Ghost Roads series. Angel of the Overpass was, as all of McGuire’s novels, solidly plotted with character-appropriate prose. And there are ghosts, of course. A ghost car, a demonic movie star ghost, and so forth. Thumbs up. (A bit of book-specific humor there.)
New author to me: Jo Walton’s Or What You Will is a thrillingly original story about a book protagonist who just wants to bring his author-creator into his world instead of letting her die in ours.
Also new to me: Melissa Bashardoust, with Girl, Serpent, Thorn. I liked it, but didn’t love it. The magical world created was detailed and precise; the heroine was a mess of a girl, with good reason. But it held back in places where I think the author could have really pressed in with the horror inherent to some parts of the storyline.
Didn’t finish: Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro), Outcrossing (Mysterious Charm Book 1, by Celia Lake); Gentleman Jim: A Tale of Romance and Revenge (Mimi Matthews). Unfinished for various reasons, some of which I don't even recall by now.
Movie: This weekend I saw Free Guy, a movie with a serviceable plot and a leading actor (Ryan Reynolds) whose charisma elevates the material enough to make it thoroughly entertaining.
BOOOOOOOOKS: T. Kingfisher is the pen name for Ursula Vernon--she uses it for her writing aimed at an older audience. Her novel The Hollow Places was just the right amount of creepy: excellent characterization for the two main characters, a real sense of place (including the not-a-place place), and plausibly snappy dialogue.
I also enjoyed Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Strength, an adventure romance set in a fictional world that she uses for multiple novels. So, magic, medieval-ish technology and culture, a bit of horror and a healthy serving of humor.
Late spring to early summer had me finishing up Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha-verse novels. Nikolai’s duology, to be more specific: Rule of Wolves and King of Scars, which were both highly entertaining. I like Nikolai; I don't love him, but Bardugo has a solid storyline going here with interesting characters.
Seanan McGuire now has three novels in her Ghost Roads series. Angel of the Overpass was, as all of McGuire’s novels, solidly plotted with character-appropriate prose. And there are ghosts, of course. A ghost car, a demonic movie star ghost, and so forth. Thumbs up. (A bit of book-specific humor there.)
New author to me: Jo Walton’s Or What You Will is a thrillingly original story about a book protagonist who just wants to bring his author-creator into his world instead of letting her die in ours.
Also new to me: Melissa Bashardoust, with Girl, Serpent, Thorn. I liked it, but didn’t love it. The magical world created was detailed and precise; the heroine was a mess of a girl, with good reason. But it held back in places where I think the author could have really pressed in with the horror inherent to some parts of the storyline.
Didn’t finish: Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro), Outcrossing (Mysterious Charm Book 1, by Celia Lake); Gentleman Jim: A Tale of Romance and Revenge (Mimi Matthews). Unfinished for various reasons, some of which I don't even recall by now.
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But it held back in places where I think the author could have really pressed in with the horror inherent to some parts of the storyline.
Yeah! This is a good point!
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