Archive | book review RSS feed for this section

Of Clear Waters & Shrieks

20 Jun

Hey, folks.  I’ve been on vacation.  Visited some places in California, like Catalina Island–which has some amazingly clear water, much to my surprise, given the rather greyish stuff sopping every other (mainland) Californian beach I’ve ever visited.  Along with visits to Knott’s Berry Farm and Universal Studios–both of which had refreshingly short wait times for attractions…it was really nice.

With that said…

Well, I obviously didn’t get any editing done. -__- (Besides, I went with my family and they would not tolerate laptops on what was supposed to be a “relaxing retreat.”)

In other news…

I am back out job-hunting and whatnot, again.  Fun stuff! (Not.)  Also, I (finally!) finished reading a novel I’ve been revisiting on and off for the longest time now, Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer.  As I’ve come to expect from him, it’s quite strange in content though the format in which he tells the story is unusual, as well.  A woman named Janice Shriek bittersweet-ly reflects on her and her brother Duncan’s life in the fantastical city of Ambergris, a place which apparently is periodically attacked with fungal infestations and violence employed by an underground race of shroom-people known as the gray caps.

Tell me that doesn’t sound the least bit interesting.

The format of the story didn’t really grab my attention at first.  Actually, I thought it was kinda boring during the first half.  It wasn’t really until about 5/8 into the tale that I felt things really started to pick up–and perhaps that’s because that’s when the really weird fantasy elements came into full effect (the stuff I was actually looking forward to).

In any case, Shriek is not VanderMeer’s first story set in this city, as I understand (the collection City of Saints and Madmen came before), and for some strange reason I actually started with the last book, Finch, which I liked better in comparison.  Still, it was an interesting read.

A little disturbing in parts, to be sure (certainly not a book for the kiddos out there), but interesting nevertheless.

Other than that…not much else has been going on, I’m afraid. :/

Read Any Interesting Books Lately?

Any worth recommending?  I mean, my “To Be Read” list is already ridiculously long as it is, but I’ve got the rest of my life to read all this stuff, ya know?  (However long that may be…)

Tags:

The Time In Between

4 Jan

Last time I posted I said I was going to share my thoughts on a novel I’d just finished reading.  I’ll try and keep this brief, though, ’cause I already talked some about it before.

The Time In Between

The Time In Between is an international bestselling novel (historical fiction) by Spanish author María Dueñas.  Written in first person, the story is set in 1930s Spain (initially) and follows Sira Quiroga, daughter and apprentice to a seamstress.  By her twenties she’s learned a great deal about the business which, unbeknownst to her, will help her immensely in the near future.

The novel opens splendidly: “A typewriter shattered my destiny.”  Immediately you want to know how this could possibly be.  From there the story is completely engaging.

Sira is already engaged to a government clerk at the beginning, but things go terribly awry when she meets a particularly charming salesman.  Unfortunately, she decides to leave her fiance for Señor Suave and her life is completely turned upside down.  She later ends up stranded in Morocco with her father’s inheritance in the hands of the conniving salesman, who’s gone off to God knows where.  Though, perhaps this was a blessing in disguise; back home there’s a civil war a-brewing, and WWII is just around the corner…

With no means of leaving Morocco, fate has left Sira with no other choice but to depend on the one thing she knows well: how to sew clothes.  With the help of a weary commissioner and a landlady of questionable repute, Sira decides to reinvent herself and open her own haute couture studio.  Word starts to spread about her work, and before she knows it she’s developed quite the reputation.

What she wasn’t expecting by now was to become a target of a British intelligence recruiter.  And that’s where things get really interesting…

Why I Love This Novel

First off, Dueñas really knows how to keep you turning the pages.  There were several times throughout the story where I simply did not want to put my e-reader down.  Interested writers could learn a thing or two on where to end their scenes and chapters from this author.

Another thing I mentioned before that was done well was the characters.  Sira doesn’t especially grab me until the latter half of the book–which is, btw, over 600 pages long–but initially the secondary characters were what really caught my interest.  Some are smoldering, some are quirky, and some are suspiciously plucky.  In any case, these characters add a lot of spice to Sira’s adventures.

Something else I liked was the way Dueñas tied in the whole espionage thread.  It developed slowly over time so that when it finally came it made sense.  Sira’s skills as a seamstress were brilliantly incorporated into the plot, both in the methods she passed on coded messages and her cover story for relocating to Spain in order to spy on a certain businessman.  Overall, I thought this was done well.

There were very few things I did not like about this novel.

The Nit-Picky Cons

Genre writers are forever encouraged to “show, don’t tell”; put the reader in the center of the story rather than making them watch.  It’s practically been drilled into our brains.  But The Time In Between is historical fiction–and to be honest I’m not sure if that’s really under “genre fiction”.  In any case, historical fiction tends to follow different rules than, say, fantasy does.  I tend to see a lot more telling with historical and for some reason it seems a bit more acceptable there than it would in sf/f.  (But maybe that’s just my skewed opinion.)  In any case, I think The Time In Between does a lot of telling, but you know what?  I actually didn’t mind it, for the most part.  At first I was aware of it, but over time it didn’t matter because Dueñas tells the parts that need to be told, never more.  And she does it interestingly.

This is really comparing apples to oranges, I realize, so it’s not so much a criticism as it is pointing out an observation.

The only real “con” I can think of with this novel is that sometimes Dueñas makes unnecessary long lists of things that have already happened–I presume for the purpose of reminding the reader.  But we really don’t need to be reminded of all the details, just the major ones.  And even then not all that often.  I guess it’s just a matter of balance, is all.

…And maybe Sira could have been more interesting in the first half, as the secondary characters fairly out-shined her.

Though, besides that, I pretty much loved everything else about this novel and would give it 5/5 stars.  Or how about hearts.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

(Ha!  So much for “brief”…)

Has anyone else read this novel?

If so, what did you think?  Or, if you haven’t, does this sound like something you might read?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Books & Movies

7 Dec

Hey, folks.

As you probably tell by my inert progress bar, heh, I haven’t been doing much writing of late.  Not sure when I’ll get back to Project Element 7.  I’ve kinda just been pondering about…things.  My life in general.  What’s important to me, what isn’t.  And in my ponderings I’ve discovered something quite disturbing: I’m kinda sick of the Internet right now. *collective gasp* I no longer want to be on it any more than I have to.  Though, of course, it’s still very much a necessary evil.

Maybe that means I’ll also have to change my writing habits and somehow detach the Internet from it.  Hmm…

Anyway, back to what I was really planning on talking about.

First, the movie.

I went to see Hugo on Monday with a friend.  Generally, I really liked it.  Especially in 3D.  The movie didn’t make extravagant use of that feature, yet at the same time I couldn’t imagine watching it in the regular theatre.  Somehow, the 3D version just brought the story that much more to life.  You really felt like you were in this romantic take on Paris–’k, ‘cept for the fact that pretty much everyone was speaking English.  Anyhow, the images were so clear.  You could actually see dust floating though the air.  It was a neat experience.

The pace was unusual, though.  Like in anime where they sometimes have those long awkward silences… But Scorsese’s silences were of the intentional kind, so for me it kinda worked.  It was still awkward in an almost Frenchy, quirky way, but that’s just part of the charm of the movie.  That said, I can see why a few reviewers criticized the movie for its pace, considering it’s supposed to be for children, too: kids may grow bored at first until the pace picks up some later on during the film.  With our go-go-go culture (here in the U.S. anyway) the use of negative space like this just isn’t something most kids would be used to.

Another point I’ve seen critiqued is Scorsese’s attention to (for some it may be more like “lecture on”) film history.  If you’ve ever seen Inglourious Basterds, you’ll know what I mean.  But personally I liked these bits.  Why shouldn’t filmmakers educate their viewers a bit on the history of film every once in a while?  I, for one, learned something new and found it to be entertaining.  It was all tied into the plot anyway, so it’s wasn’t exactly trivial stuff.

One last thing I liked were the child actors: Asa Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz.  Asa especially said some pretty insightful things for a kid–though, I guess the credit goes to the writers for that, heh.  The whole movie was thoughtful.  It had its light, playful moments and its dark, brooding ones and was overall delightful, imo.

And I don’t know the name of the singer during the end credits, but she has a really nice voice.  And the fact that the lyrics were in French and therefore largely incomprehensible to me only added to the magic.

Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

…Oh, yeah!  I also watched Another Earth which I really enjoyed from an artistic POV, though from a scientific POV some may have one or two gripes about it… Also, Brit Marling, the main actress in the movie, wrote the story herself–which I thought was impressive.

Now, about a book.

One day I was thinking about how I never use the Literati my grandmother gave me for graduation and how sad that was, and I happened to be on Goodreads at that time. While there I saw an ad for an international bestseller called The Time In Between by María Dueñas (her blog is in Spanish, FYI).  So I figured, hey, why not buy that on my Literati?  Try to finish reading a novel on that thing. (So far I’ve gotten too distracted while using the device to get through an entire book. -__-)

The novel is actually pretty good so far (still reading it).  It has a simple storytelling style and does a lot of telling instead of putting the reader right there in the moment, but somehow that’s okay with me.  My inner critic was mumbling things about this at first, but the story and the characters are so immersing that eventually he just had to shut up.  Also, it’s on the longer side, over 600 pages, but that’s what I’m used to, heh.

Why is it an international bestseller?

Well, I could suggest several reasons, but I’ll tell you why I personally am liking it thus far.

  1. It’s got espionage.  Um…hello?  (I’ve barely scratched the surface of this element in the novel, though the threads are certainly being woven…)
  2. The supporting characters are great–a real strong point for Dueñas.  They’re all so interesting.  Especially the smooth and charming Ramiro; you just know right away he’s going to be trouble.  In any case, I’m really enjoying the characters.
  3. I can relate to the main character, Sira Quiroga, the daughter of a humble seamstress.  (Immediately, I thought this might be another Coco Chanel story, but…that seems unlikely at this point.)  After a few unfortunate life events take place, she decides to open up her own business sewing clothes for expatriates in Morocco.  Since I’ve been considering doing something similar with interior design, the story strikes a particularly resonant chord in me just for this reason.
  4. It explores a place and time in history that is uncommon to see in fiction–at least on this side of the world.  It starts in 1935 just before the Spanish Civil War (SCW) and trails into WWII.  Before reading this novel my only exposure to this locale during this point in history was in an art history class learning about Pablo Picasso’s Guernica and while watching Pan’s Labyrinth (set some years after the SCW, yet the story is heavily influenced by it).  That said, I find a return to this theme and setting of the SCW quite interesting.

There are other reasons why I like this novel, but those are the main ones.

So that’s what I’ve been up to–in the storytelling department, anyway.

How about you folks?

Watch any good movies lately or read any good books?

Tags: , , , ,

Ganymede!

26 Oct

Normally I don’t like writing full reviews these days, but I just finished reading Ganymede by Cherie Priest and she’s one of my favorite authors.  So…I think I’ll write a bit about my thoughts on her latest steampunk work.

Cover art by Jon Foster. Cover design by Jamie Stafford-Hill.

Ganymede

Ganymede is the fourth addition to the Clockwork Century universe, coming after Boneshaker, Clementine, and Dreadnought (in that order)–all of which are centered around a steampunk alternate history in which the American Civil War has carried on for nearly decades longer than in real life.  The story follows two main characters: Andan Cly, the air pirate fans got to meet first in Boneshaker, and Josephine Early, a biracial prostitute and Union spy who is new to the series.

It all starts with Josephine down in New Orleans.  She’s on a mission to deliver a prototype war machine, the titular Ganymede, into the hands of the Union–a machine which could change the war, possibly end it.  So far, however, no one has been able to navigate the thing safely out of its hiding place in Lake Pontchartrain, down the Mississippi River and past Confederate forces into the Gulf, where a Union airship carrier is due to pick it up.  Many men have already died trying.

Josephine is running out of options fast, and there’s only one other person she can think of who might possibly be able to get the job done.  That’s airship captain Andan Cly, who also happens to be her former lover.  Now, Josephine must convince him to take the job–despite their past and despite the inherent danger.

Their previous relationship adds instant potential for drama to the plot, and folks, we wouldn’t have an adventure if Andan didn’t take the bait on piloting the Ganymede.  So there’s your setup.

Now for the adventure.

What I Liked

How many cool things can you toss into one novel and still make it work?  Airship pirates, New Orleanian prostitutes, Texas Rangers, a submarine, spies, a Voodoo queen, zombis… Ganymede has got them all.  For those who have been following the series all along, we get the treat of seeing some past characters make appearances, though I won’t say who (besides Andan, of course).  We get to meet some new characters, as well.  A particularly interesting one for me–perhaps because of her mystery–was the Voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau, who was based on the real-life figure.  I really wanted to learn more about her, though.  It’s a shame we didn’t get to see more of her in action.

Another thing I liked was the attention to detail that Priest showed when it came to the settings.  You really get the sense that she knows these places: Seattle, New Orleans, the swamps.  Maybe at times we got just a little too much description–how many scents can the human nose really pick up on all at once?–but I did appreciate the details nonetheless.

Also, you get to take a ride in the Ganymede itself, of course.  And what a ride it was!  Priest gives us a lot of great details about how the submarine works, how the crew worked to navigate it, etc.  I found that interesting.

For Cherie Priest, steampunk is all about having fun, and as far as the aforementioned elements go, I believe she delivers plenty of this with Ganymede.

What I Wasn’t So Keen On

Up until Ganymede, one of the things about The Clockwork Century novels is that they didn’t have any romance.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I’ve always found it peculiar because most genre novels these days (of the ones I’ve read) seem like they have it in one form or another, however big or small.  Ganymede, however, features a few potential romances, though I won’t spoil anything.  The obvious one, as far as romantic tensions go anyway, is between Andan and Josephine.

Now, in a situation like theirs I’d expect a few sparks to fly–and they do, but I wonder if it was enough.  There were a few power struggles here and there, but…I felt like it didn’t amount to very much.  I guess I was expecting more.

There was also a certain reveal that popped up with one of the characters, which I was a little confuddled on.  It seems recently there’s been a huge surge with authors wanting to include more characters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered in their stories.  I’ve got nothing against this (I have a bi lady in my WIP myself), but when it is done I feel like it needs to be well-integrated.  If it’s sprung on you at the last minute then is never mentioned again, then why use it in the first place?  Mere shock factor doesn’t cut it for me.  If it’s supposed to shock, shouldn’t it also continue to add more tension throughout the rest of the story?

I won’t spoil who’s who, but I will say the reveal of character which occurred in this light didn’t hold any real significance for me.  I wasn’t shocked (that seemed to be the intent) so much as left scratching my head, wondering what it was supposed to mean in the scope of the larger story.

Anyway, those were the big things I wasn’t so sure about.

The Verdict

All in all, Ganymede may not be my favorite story in the Clockwork Century series, but I did enjoy reading it.  I liked spending time with the characters and thought they were all full of personality and pluck.  Priest excels in writing strong heroines, as well.  Sometimes, though, I wish she would take things a little further–like with Marie Laveau–but in some cases it could be she’s just saving some action for future novels.  In any case, I think I’ll stick around for the next to find out how it all ends. ;)

What I Took Away as a Writer

A couple of things:

  1. If you’re gonna do something and you want it to matter, then really go for it.  Romance, action, drama…it doesn’t matter what.  Just do it.  Take it all the way.  People don’t read genre fiction for the ho-hum and so-so.  They want you to take them to places they’ve never been and could otherwise never visit if it weren’t for fiction, or places they’re afraid to go to and yet hold intrigue for them.  As a writer, you can’t be afraid to take readers there and you have to be willing to.  If you aren’t, then it might be best to leave certain elements out rather than getting hopes up and failing to deliver.
  2. Writing action scenes is tough.  For the most part I actually liked Priest’s action scenes in Ganymede and thought that overall she succeeded, but there were times during the submarine rides where I thought there was a little too much dialogue going on.  I think it’s hard to find the balance between relaying important information and maintaining an appropriate pace for the situation at hand–especially during action scenes.  If you say too much, it can drag things out unnecessarily.  If you say too little, the scene is over before you know it.  Not an easy thing to work out!

Yeah, so that’s what I took away. :)

Have you read this novel yet?

Do you plan to?  How about any of the others in the Clockwork Century series?  If so, which ones were your favorites?  Least favorites?  (Care to share why?)

Personally, Clementine and Dreadnought are my two favorites out of the bunch.  I really enjoyed the pacing and the characters in those two more so than in the others.

Tags: , ,

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 341 other followers