What I am reading Wednesday
Nov. 4th, 2015 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiLong train rides makes for a lot of reading.
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. Bujold is one of my favourite authors and I re-read her whole series in the Vorkosigan Saga earlier this year. In case you missed it, this is a SF series, most of the books depicting the life, adventures and disasters of Miles Vorkosigan, brilliant and annoying in equal amounts. They range from space operas to crime novels to romance, all very well-written. Bujold has a knack of making all her characters into real persons and I sometimes feel she could put any of them as a main character and it would be a compelling history. And in the series first books, Shard of Honor and Barrayar, Miles only makes a cameo appearance, the story is about his parents and how they meet. Cordelia comes from Beta, a planet where equality and sexual freedom are rights you don’t even think about it. And she falls in love with Aral Vorkosigan, one of the most important men on the planet Barrayar, a place only a slight step away from the Middle Ages. They are both compelling characters and I almost didn’t want to continue with the Miles books as I wanted more Cordelia. And now I have got my wish, a book where she is again one of the main characters.
The Vorkosigan Saga has an internal timeline, though Bujold doesn’t always write her books in chronological order. For example, her last book, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance takes place before the next to last book Cryoburn. And Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen starts three years after the events in Cryoburn. Though Bujold always make sure you can pick up any book in the series and enjoy it without having read the rest, this book is not the one to start with. It’s not a book with great adventures, but rather a low key book about Cordelia and her long time friend Admiral Jole, with some extra spice in the form of Miles and his family. It takes up themes that was started in the first books and then only briefly alluded to like Aral’s bisexuality, Cordelia’s openness when it comes to sexuality, polyamory and why Cordelia and Aral never had more children after Miles. There has always been an explanation to why they don’t have any more sons, but they could have had daughters. It’s also nice to finally getting to know Jole who has been around as a minor character since the first Miles book. As a long time fan I absolutely loved this, but I can imagine people could find it boring.
I can’t recommend Bujold enough. If you want to read SF, do pick up Shards of Honor (or the double volume Cordelia’s Honor). Or start with Miles, if you want, in the novella The Warrior's Apprentice. Falling Free and Ethan of Athos are free standing novels set in the same universe. Falling Free is set about 200 years before Miles birth and Ethan of Athos being parallel to Cetaganda. At Baen it is possible to read several free chapters of all the books. And here is a handy list of the reading order. Bujold has also written fantasy, equally good. The Curse of Chalion is a good starting point, or the standalone The Spirit Ring. She has also written a series of fantasy Romance novels called The Sharing Knife.
The Cruelest Month, A Rule Against Murder and The Brutal Telling by Penny Louise. I am, as you may have guessed, rather charmed by this author. They are easy to read, the character’s real with both good and bad sides and they also develop and change over the books. In the Cruelest Month a woman who everyone seems to love, dies during a seance. By fright or murder? (Well, murder of course). A Rule Against Murder takes place at a resort hotel close to the village Three Pines where a family union ends with the death of a family member. And in The Brutal Telling a murdered man is found on the floor of Three Pines beloved bistro.
Of these three A Rule Against Murder is the weakest. Generally it is a strength that the author gives us glimpses of the various character’s inner lives and that she also points out that people are perceived differently by different people. But in this book it goes a bit too far as a person’s inner life seems to be completely deranged and then she’s suddenly not that bad, but it doesn’t gel completely. And it feels like she has worked so hard in who the murdered isn’t, that the actual culprit has such a bizarre and unlikely motive that it doesn’t gel either. Both over all Penny’s books are very enjoyable!
And now I have to bother you with another recommendation; The Engelsfors Trilogy by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren. The first book is called The Circle, and the other two Fire and The Key. Swedish fantasy isn’t that common and being translated to English even rarer, but these are really good. It’s about a group of teenagers in a small rural town who realise they are witches, each and every one possessing a unique magical talent. And, of course, they need to work together to fight an ancient evil power. Though the plot isn’t unique and you can tell the authors has seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s still engaging and interesting. But it is the character who makes the books. Though the main cast is large, they still have distinct characters and voices. In the beginning the comes across as stereotypes; the Mean Girl, the Bullied Girl, the Rebel, the Nerd, The Beauty Queen and so on, but as the story goes on the get more multi-layered. Just as people do when you get to know them. In the beginning some of them are friends, some hate each other, but they still have to learn both their powers and to rely on each other. and they are also always teenagers with the typical problems that brings when it comes to self esteem, school and falling in love. Go read! I picked up the first book just because I had forgotten to bring a book on a trip and didn’t thought I would find it very interesting. But I read through the whole series within a week, with my husband basically snatching them out of my hands as soon as I was done.
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. Bujold is one of my favourite authors and I re-read her whole series in the Vorkosigan Saga earlier this year. In case you missed it, this is a SF series, most of the books depicting the life, adventures and disasters of Miles Vorkosigan, brilliant and annoying in equal amounts. They range from space operas to crime novels to romance, all very well-written. Bujold has a knack of making all her characters into real persons and I sometimes feel she could put any of them as a main character and it would be a compelling history. And in the series first books, Shard of Honor and Barrayar, Miles only makes a cameo appearance, the story is about his parents and how they meet. Cordelia comes from Beta, a planet where equality and sexual freedom are rights you don’t even think about it. And she falls in love with Aral Vorkosigan, one of the most important men on the planet Barrayar, a place only a slight step away from the Middle Ages. They are both compelling characters and I almost didn’t want to continue with the Miles books as I wanted more Cordelia. And now I have got my wish, a book where she is again one of the main characters.
The Vorkosigan Saga has an internal timeline, though Bujold doesn’t always write her books in chronological order. For example, her last book, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance takes place before the next to last book Cryoburn. And Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen starts three years after the events in Cryoburn. Though Bujold always make sure you can pick up any book in the series and enjoy it without having read the rest, this book is not the one to start with. It’s not a book with great adventures, but rather a low key book about Cordelia and her long time friend Admiral Jole, with some extra spice in the form of Miles and his family. It takes up themes that was started in the first books and then only briefly alluded to like Aral’s bisexuality, Cordelia’s openness when it comes to sexuality, polyamory and why Cordelia and Aral never had more children after Miles. There has always been an explanation to why they don’t have any more sons, but they could have had daughters. It’s also nice to finally getting to know Jole who has been around as a minor character since the first Miles book. As a long time fan I absolutely loved this, but I can imagine people could find it boring.
I can’t recommend Bujold enough. If you want to read SF, do pick up Shards of Honor (or the double volume Cordelia’s Honor). Or start with Miles, if you want, in the novella The Warrior's Apprentice. Falling Free and Ethan of Athos are free standing novels set in the same universe. Falling Free is set about 200 years before Miles birth and Ethan of Athos being parallel to Cetaganda. At Baen it is possible to read several free chapters of all the books. And here is a handy list of the reading order. Bujold has also written fantasy, equally good. The Curse of Chalion is a good starting point, or the standalone The Spirit Ring. She has also written a series of fantasy Romance novels called The Sharing Knife.
The Cruelest Month, A Rule Against Murder and The Brutal Telling by Penny Louise. I am, as you may have guessed, rather charmed by this author. They are easy to read, the character’s real with both good and bad sides and they also develop and change over the books. In the Cruelest Month a woman who everyone seems to love, dies during a seance. By fright or murder? (Well, murder of course). A Rule Against Murder takes place at a resort hotel close to the village Three Pines where a family union ends with the death of a family member. And in The Brutal Telling a murdered man is found on the floor of Three Pines beloved bistro.
Of these three A Rule Against Murder is the weakest. Generally it is a strength that the author gives us glimpses of the various character’s inner lives and that she also points out that people are perceived differently by different people. But in this book it goes a bit too far as a person’s inner life seems to be completely deranged and then she’s suddenly not that bad, but it doesn’t gel completely. And it feels like she has worked so hard in who the murdered isn’t, that the actual culprit has such a bizarre and unlikely motive that it doesn’t gel either. Both over all Penny’s books are very enjoyable!
And now I have to bother you with another recommendation; The Engelsfors Trilogy by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren. The first book is called The Circle, and the other two Fire and The Key. Swedish fantasy isn’t that common and being translated to English even rarer, but these are really good. It’s about a group of teenagers in a small rural town who realise they are witches, each and every one possessing a unique magical talent. And, of course, they need to work together to fight an ancient evil power. Though the plot isn’t unique and you can tell the authors has seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s still engaging and interesting. But it is the character who makes the books. Though the main cast is large, they still have distinct characters and voices. In the beginning the comes across as stereotypes; the Mean Girl, the Bullied Girl, the Rebel, the Nerd, The Beauty Queen and so on, but as the story goes on the get more multi-layered. Just as people do when you get to know them. In the beginning some of them are friends, some hate each other, but they still have to learn both their powers and to rely on each other. and they are also always teenagers with the typical problems that brings when it comes to self esteem, school and falling in love. Go read! I picked up the first book just because I had forgotten to bring a book on a trip and didn’t thought I would find it very interesting. But I read through the whole series within a week, with my husband basically snatching them out of my hands as soon as I was done.
