![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Not that much reading this week, as still sniffling/coughing and distracted by puzzles. (I have recently been feeling a lot of sympathy with Ophélie from La Passe-Miroir, who is basically the only protagonist I've met who coughs and sniffles through large parts of the books. I realized that she wears a scarf, not for fashion or because the animated scarf is a fantastic character, but because she's sick and protecting her throat!)
Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky. I've gotten a bit further into it. There are intelligent spiders and a human spaceship with a mutiny, which makes me nostalgic for A Deepness in the Sky, but this is a rather different story! We're starting to get to see spider society, which is interesting. Though it also seems so far to be the sort of matriarchy which is mostly just patriarchy with the genders flipped, which I find uncomfortable to read.
A Short History of Fantasy , Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James. Should actually have gone in last week's post, but there was too much to catch up on. A read this to me when I was sick, chapter-by-chapter in reverse chronological order, skipping over the less interesting bits. It was fun, and interesting to travel back in time. Mostly reading the book out of its intended order was fine, though there were issues with not getting to where the book defines "quest fantasy" until after most of the discussion of them. (I also have some issues with the definition and how it's applied, but that's separate.) Some books/authors I knew well, others I knew less well, and the authors are happy to take any opportunity to squee about DWJ, which I appreciated. The three DWJ books that were specifically highlighted were Archer's Goon, Fire and Hemlock, and ... The Magicians of Caprona??? That last one seemed like an odd choice.
Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky. I've gotten a bit further into it. There are intelligent spiders and a human spaceship with a mutiny, which makes me nostalgic for A Deepness in the Sky, but this is a rather different story! We're starting to get to see spider society, which is interesting. Though it also seems so far to be the sort of matriarchy which is mostly just patriarchy with the genders flipped, which I find uncomfortable to read.
A Short History of Fantasy , Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James. Should actually have gone in last week's post, but there was too much to catch up on. A read this to me when I was sick, chapter-by-chapter in reverse chronological order, skipping over the less interesting bits. It was fun, and interesting to travel back in time. Mostly reading the book out of its intended order was fine, though there were issues with not getting to where the book defines "quest fantasy" until after most of the discussion of them. (I also have some issues with the definition and how it's applied, but that's separate.) Some books/authors I knew well, others I knew less well, and the authors are happy to take any opportunity to squee about DWJ, which I appreciated. The three DWJ books that were specifically highlighted were Archer's Goon, Fire and Hemlock, and ... The Magicians of Caprona??? That last one seemed like an odd choice.