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landofnowhereLots to write about here!
North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell. A friend on the social network was asking for recommendations of classics with exciting plots (and Pride and Prejudice wouldn't do because his students all knew the story), so I recommended this (with the warning that there's a stretch where a bunch of people die without really advancing the plot). So then I decided I should reread it! And there are some exciting bits, and also some bits that are slower than I remember? It's a book that has the framework of a standard romance plot in it, but is also doing other things. Still, enjoyed it, and it has great characters.
The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie. Reread for online book club. I ended up late to book club, actually, because I was finishing my last-minute reread. But I suspect it was the better way of spending time, even if book club discussion did give me some things to think about. As in my first read, I'm struck by how this book has a similar "corporate model of godhood" to Max Gladstone's Craft sequence: gods are bound by contracts, have inherent power but also gain power from human worship/sacrifices, can be in debt to other gods, absorbed by other gods, go bankrupt. But it's also very different on a lot of axes!
The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer. Most of the way through this, will write more later.
Entertaining so far, but maybe not going the ways that I'd hoped. Also I still have no idea what the title is referring to (the book definitely has magicians, but no glass).
North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell. A friend on the social network was asking for recommendations of classics with exciting plots (and Pride and Prejudice wouldn't do because his students all knew the story), so I recommended this (with the warning that there's a stretch where a bunch of people die without really advancing the plot). So then I decided I should reread it! And there are some exciting bits, and also some bits that are slower than I remember? It's a book that has the framework of a standard romance plot in it, but is also doing other things. Still, enjoyed it, and it has great characters.
The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie. Reread for online book club. I ended up late to book club, actually, because I was finishing my last-minute reread. But I suspect it was the better way of spending time, even if book club discussion did give me some things to think about. As in my first read, I'm struck by how this book has a similar "corporate model of godhood" to Max Gladstone's Craft sequence: gods are bound by contracts, have inherent power but also gain power from human worship/sacrifices, can be in debt to other gods, absorbed by other gods, go bankrupt. But it's also very different on a lot of axes!
The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer. Most of the way through this, will write more later.
Entertaining so far, but maybe not going the ways that I'd hoped. Also I still have no idea what the title is referring to (the book definitely has magicians, but no glass).
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Date: 30 Apr 2020 11:51 (UTC)Oooh, interesting description of Leckie's characterization of godhood— I always like magic systems to have limits, and I really liked the idea that the gods had to phrase their statements very, very carefully, or risk accidentally draining themselves of power to pop an entire city out of nowhere or something.