book list, November 2006

[edenfalling]

I made three resolutions this year. First, get a job. (Done!) Second, exercise more regularly and lose weight. (Done!) Third, keep a list of the books I read.

These are the books I read in November, 2006:

New: 6
---The Fall of the Kings, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman (fantasy: sequel to Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword. A bit loose in places, and I spent the second half of the book teetering on the point of such strong sympathetic embarrassment that I nearly couldn't finish reading it. I like the academics, though.)
---Thomas the Rhymer, Ellen Kushner (fantasy: lush but slight)
---Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist vol. 15, Kazuki Takahashi (manga: card games and more card games, and a metaphoric hymn to friendship. Oh, Kaiba, you idiot. Oh, Yugi, you wonderful bitty fierce creature, you! Fight, Jounouchi -- you can break free!)
---Dzur, Steven Brust (fantasy: a Vlad Taltos book, direct sequel to Issola. Fun, but it feels more like necessary filler and set-up than a complete book in and of itself.)
---Chobits vol. 1, CLAMP (manga: very cute, very silly. All about humanoid robots, except nobody calls them that.)
---Clover vol. 3, CLAMP (manga: I love the minimalism and the way you have to read the story out of what isn't said as much as what is. And I really, truly wish my library had the full series.)


Old: 13
---The Final Encyclopedia, Gordon R. Dickson (science fiction: there's something about the sweep of Dickson's Childe Cycle that catches my imagination, even if I find a number of the details incredibly wrong-headed, incomplete, or unconvincing.)
---The Rowan, Anne McCaffrey (sci-fi/romance: psychics in SPACE! *has quiet giggle fit*)
---Damia, Anne McCaffrey (sci-fi/romance: sequel to The Rowan. Afra totally deserved better than being turned into a skeevy old man.)
---The Ship Who Sang, Anne McCaffrey (sci-fi: pieced together from short stories. Her writing's younger and less fluid, but I think this is actually a decent book, if one glosses over the inadvertent sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, and whatnot.)
---The Ship Who Searched, Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey (sci-fi: in which we proceed to invent silly alien archaeology and attempt to be serious about interstellar plagues. Still, I like Tia and Alex, damnit.)
---Deerskin, Robin McKinley (fantasy: a fairy-tale retelling, dark and haunting. Also, dogs.)
---Clover vol. 1, CLAMP (manga: minimalist and gorgeous)
---Angel Sanctuary vols. 1-3, 8, 15-16, (manga: fucked up, brilliant, and very, very pretty. And now you know which volumes I own as of the beginning of December.)


November Total = 19 books (plus a few magazines and some fanfiction)

Year to Date = 342 books (237 new, 105 old)

Comments

[bewize.livejournal.com]

Based very much on your recommendation, I read the first Angel Sanctuary volume last week. I enjoyed it very much, and although I'm still a bit confused about the angels and who was what to whom, I can already tell it's sucking me in. I'll have to make time this weekend to get to the bookstore and read the second volume over a cup of coffee. *grins* I can't afford to buy them, the library doesn't carry them, so this is what I'm reduced to... but I shall do it anyway!

[edenfalling]

Angel Sanctuary doesn't quite have a cast of thousands, but it comes pretty close. And almost all the characters have actual story arcs, no matter how slight, and they all interlock sooner or later. Kaori Yuki's usually pretty good about cueing readers in to who's who and why you should care, but the early introductions do take some time to get the main players straight.

[bewize.livejournal.com]

I managed to make it through most of volume 2 tonight and I must say that I'm utterly intrigued by Kira. First, he's drawn amazingly and second, his story line looks like it's going to be a doozy!

As for casts of thousands, its a bit like trying to read Bleach... so many characters! Only this is a bit worse, because so many of the characters seem to be humans first, then angelic beings in human bodies!

I'll get them straight eventually, although I'm totally lost about Adam Kadamon... but I'm sure it'll become clear as I continue to read!

One question that you might have an answer to... is the series 16 volumes (as I thought) or 20 (as reported on wikipedia)?

Thanks!

*uses icon whose appropriateness will become apparent in a few volumes*

[edenfalling]

20 volumes, but I think only 16 have been published in English so far. IIRC from my recent attempt to make amazon.com cough up English volumes rather than Japanese or Spanish (this takes a bit of finagling with the search function, because they're listed oddly), vol. 17 is scheduled for release Real Soon Now. :-)

I love Kira. I like most of the characters in Angel Sanctuary, but Kira is definitely my favorite. And his story is, indeed, a doozy... several times over. :-D

Adam Kadamon suffers from a bit of confusion and also, I think, awkward translation. What I gathered, by the end of the series, is that hir name is actually Seraphita, and Adam Kadamon is a title. (Or possibly the other way around -- as I said, the translation can be muddled.) Se is both male and female, has six wings, has great power including the ability to control time, and is the acknowledged ancestor of at least two angels (Alexiel and Rosiel). Also, se has more or less been missing for a very long time. Telling any more would involve serious spoilers. ;-)

Re: *uses icon whose appropriateness will become apparent in a few volumes*

[bewize.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, thanks for the help! I managed to finish the second volume last night, but am still confused about who is who.

I'll have to get to the bookstore this week and get through volume 3. By the time I manage to read all of them, hopefully, they'll all be in print!

Thanks for the help re: Adam Kadamon, too.

[issadomae.livejournal.com]

Did you ever read McCaffrey's "The Death of Sleep" arc? (I think it starts with the weird Dinosaur Planet ones, then with Lunzie, then Sassinak...)

I ask because I've been periodically stalking this journal, well, since I got mine, and we seem to read many of the same things.

[edenfalling]

The planet pirates series? Which included collaborations with, IIRC, Elizabeth Moon and some other woman? Yeah, I read those (Dinosaur Planet, Dinosaur Planet Survivors, The Death of Sleep, Sassinak, and Generation Warriors, right?), and even owned most of them at one point.

It's a fun series, but those books, plus her recent sequels to the Petaybee series, are the ones that make me want to stand on a rooftop and SCREAM about the inconsistencies and utter STUPIDITY of McCaffrey's fwuffy bunny animal love vegetarianism nonsense.

...

Someday I really do have to write an essay about that.

[issadomae.livejournal.com]

Yes, those. They bugged me. (Although I did like "Death of Sleep" because I like stories about suspended animation and the world changing because of it.)

"We're the good guys--we don't eat meat!" I had the same problem with Acorna. Too fluffy and fuzzy.

I don't think I've read the Petaybee ones.


Dooo ittt! Essay!

Although currently I'm still re-reading Heinlein for the 4th time and thinking "Dammit, I hate his women," to get to up-in-arms about her inconsistencies.