What I am reading Wednesday
Feb. 4th, 2015 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiFirst I just want to say that I think (if you are a Doctor Who-fan) that you should join, or watch, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
who_contest You don’t have to write fics to join, but you have to belong if you want to vote for the stories. Which I think you should! First because it is great fun to read a bunch of fics that are sprung from the same prompt. Second because this is an opportunity to both praise, or be praised, on good fanfiction. Note that I’m not saying that you should vote on my entries. I think you should join and vote for the very best entries! And perhaps write something yourself? Right now the entries for the promt ‘Vast* is up voting and fics with the prompt ‘Master’ is up for posting.
What I am reading: The Vor Game, a novella by Lois McMaster Bujold.
What I have finished reading: Pioneer Girl by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was very interesting, but probably only if you are a hard-core fan. Pioneer Girl is basically all the Little House-books (apart from Farmer Boy) rolled into one dense, short volume. I can see why it was rejected, because it isn’t a well-written book and rather dry at times. At this point I think it is well-established that Wilder’s daughter Rose Wilder Lane edited her mother’s books, (how much is debated, though) and I think it shows, Pioneer Girl is very raw. It is also an autobiography, which the Little House-books are not, even if the majority of events are from Wilder’s life. Pioneer Girl is also grittier and bleaker and there are several episodes that are not suitable for children’s books. For example, when Wilder was about thirteen she worked as a nanny and one night she awoke when the man in the house tried to get into the bed with her. Pioneer Girl also describes the years that are omitted in the Little House-books, the unhappy years when Mary got blind and their baby brother died. So if you are a fan, then I think you will enjoy it!
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is a direct sequel to Shards of Honor. Cordelia is trying to learn to live on her new home planet with her new husband, something that is greatly disrupted when the emperor dies and Aral is appointed regent as the new emperor, Gregor, is just five years old. This is not a popular decision by all and civil war erupts. Barrayar is a much better book than Shards of Honor, but it is not a happy one. Bujold can be extremely funny, but here you just a glimpse of it when Cordelia is forced to ride a horse and when she acts as a couple counselor to friends who has got it a bit wrong. But even if the story is bleak, it is also very exiting and it ends on a very hopeful note. As always even minor characters are interesting, I for ne would love to read more about Gregor’s abused mother, Princess Kareen, who only have a few short scenes and still manages to be a compelling character.
This book also presents all the characters that are Miles closes friends and family. His parents, Aral and Cordelia, his grandfather, his aunt Alys, his cousin Ivan and Gregor. Miles bodyguard Bothari and his daughter Elena and Simon Illyan, the chief of Imperial Security, a man who has a chip in his brain which makes him remember everything..
The Warrior’s Apprentice by L. M. Bujold. This novella is the first with Miles Vorkosigan as the main character. Due to an attack of poison gas when he is still in his mother’s womb, his bones are very brittle and he is short, just less than 5 feet. He is also born on Barrayar, a planet so scared of mutated genes that infanticide of perceived mutants still happens and Miles himself has to fight prejudices since childhood, despite being the son of one of the most powerful men on the planet. He is one of the most original heroes I know of, manic, intelligent and charming. In The Warrior’s Apprentice he is seventeen and has just flunked getting into military school. He goes to visit his grandmother on Beta Colony and manages, completely by accident, to acquire a fleet of mercenaries. This is not my favourite story, but it is important as it sets up Miles in his other persona, Admiral Naismith.
The Mountains of Morning by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is another novella and takes place when Miles is twenty. Several of Bujold’s stories are actually crime novels and so is this novella. He is sent into the poor people of the region his father is Count of to investigate the murder of a baby born with a hare-lip. The young mother thinks it is her husband, but Miles quickly starts to think it may be someone else. It is a rather harrowing story, infanticide can ever be anything else than bleak, but it is a very good story nevertheless.
The Haunter of the Dark by H. P. Lovecraft. Do you enjoy Lovecraft? I do, a lot, but reading him in one go can be a bit too many nameless horrors. Reading one novella a week for Tor.com’s re-read is a good pace, though. This short story about a deadly darkness confined into the steeple of an abandoned church is one of my favourites.
What I will be reading next I will undoubtly continue to read the books about Miles, Cetaganda is up next.
I will also read Trigger Warning, Neil Gaiman’s new short story collection that arrived on my Kindle yesterday.
And the next Lovecraft’s story; The Strange High House In the Mist.
who_contest You don’t have to write fics to join, but you have to belong if you want to vote for the stories. Which I think you should! First because it is great fun to read a bunch of fics that are sprung from the same prompt. Second because this is an opportunity to both praise, or be praised, on good fanfiction. Note that I’m not saying that you should vote on my entries. I think you should join and vote for the very best entries! And perhaps write something yourself? Right now the entries for the promt ‘Vast* is up voting and fics with the prompt ‘Master’ is up for posting.What I am reading: The Vor Game, a novella by Lois McMaster Bujold.
What I have finished reading: Pioneer Girl by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was very interesting, but probably only if you are a hard-core fan. Pioneer Girl is basically all the Little House-books (apart from Farmer Boy) rolled into one dense, short volume. I can see why it was rejected, because it isn’t a well-written book and rather dry at times. At this point I think it is well-established that Wilder’s daughter Rose Wilder Lane edited her mother’s books, (how much is debated, though) and I think it shows, Pioneer Girl is very raw. It is also an autobiography, which the Little House-books are not, even if the majority of events are from Wilder’s life. Pioneer Girl is also grittier and bleaker and there are several episodes that are not suitable for children’s books. For example, when Wilder was about thirteen she worked as a nanny and one night she awoke when the man in the house tried to get into the bed with her. Pioneer Girl also describes the years that are omitted in the Little House-books, the unhappy years when Mary got blind and their baby brother died. So if you are a fan, then I think you will enjoy it!
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is a direct sequel to Shards of Honor. Cordelia is trying to learn to live on her new home planet with her new husband, something that is greatly disrupted when the emperor dies and Aral is appointed regent as the new emperor, Gregor, is just five years old. This is not a popular decision by all and civil war erupts. Barrayar is a much better book than Shards of Honor, but it is not a happy one. Bujold can be extremely funny, but here you just a glimpse of it when Cordelia is forced to ride a horse and when she acts as a couple counselor to friends who has got it a bit wrong. But even if the story is bleak, it is also very exiting and it ends on a very hopeful note. As always even minor characters are interesting, I for ne would love to read more about Gregor’s abused mother, Princess Kareen, who only have a few short scenes and still manages to be a compelling character.
This book also presents all the characters that are Miles closes friends and family. His parents, Aral and Cordelia, his grandfather, his aunt Alys, his cousin Ivan and Gregor. Miles bodyguard Bothari and his daughter Elena and Simon Illyan, the chief of Imperial Security, a man who has a chip in his brain which makes him remember everything..
The Warrior’s Apprentice by L. M. Bujold. This novella is the first with Miles Vorkosigan as the main character. Due to an attack of poison gas when he is still in his mother’s womb, his bones are very brittle and he is short, just less than 5 feet. He is also born on Barrayar, a planet so scared of mutated genes that infanticide of perceived mutants still happens and Miles himself has to fight prejudices since childhood, despite being the son of one of the most powerful men on the planet. He is one of the most original heroes I know of, manic, intelligent and charming. In The Warrior’s Apprentice he is seventeen and has just flunked getting into military school. He goes to visit his grandmother on Beta Colony and manages, completely by accident, to acquire a fleet of mercenaries. This is not my favourite story, but it is important as it sets up Miles in his other persona, Admiral Naismith.
The Mountains of Morning by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is another novella and takes place when Miles is twenty. Several of Bujold’s stories are actually crime novels and so is this novella. He is sent into the poor people of the region his father is Count of to investigate the murder of a baby born with a hare-lip. The young mother thinks it is her husband, but Miles quickly starts to think it may be someone else. It is a rather harrowing story, infanticide can ever be anything else than bleak, but it is a very good story nevertheless.
The Haunter of the Dark by H. P. Lovecraft. Do you enjoy Lovecraft? I do, a lot, but reading him in one go can be a bit too many nameless horrors. Reading one novella a week for Tor.com’s re-read is a good pace, though. This short story about a deadly darkness confined into the steeple of an abandoned church is one of my favourites.
What I will be reading next I will undoubtly continue to read the books about Miles, Cetaganda is up next.
I will also read Trigger Warning, Neil Gaiman’s new short story collection that arrived on my Kindle yesterday.
And the next Lovecraft’s story; The Strange High House In the Mist.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-02-04 08:17 pm (UTC)Gabrielle
no subject
Date: 2015-02-04 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 12:17 am (UTC)Whats The Vor Game like? Heard about it and would love a new book!
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 02:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 04:03 am (UTC)*HUGS*
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 02:28 pm (UTC)I got a re-start into fandom late last year and one of my promises to myself when I did was to be more active in commenting- after all, I love to get feedback so I better give what I want to get. And a Contest Community like that is a Lovely way to both find good fics and to be given recognition!
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 02:30 pm (UTC)I like them. .) I'm big on re-reading books and Bujold's are among those that I re-read every third year, or so.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-06 06:49 am (UTC)