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Reading Wednesday
Oct. 15th, 2014 09:55 pmWhat did you finish reading
Nothing, but Imma talk about City Hall cause I been thinking I should and I haven't yet. So! City Hall (by Rémi Guérin (writing) and Guilaume Lapeyre (art)) is a manfra series, which is to say it looks exactly like you might expect a manga series to look as an actual book but is produced entirely by French people. (The only other manfra I've read, afaik, is Dreamland and based on these two... I would not try another, but more on this later.)
On a surface level, City Hall sounds really great and the worldbuilding is cool. It probably says a lot about me that the first thing that broke my Willing Suspension of Disbelief, in a world where US Presdient Abraham Lincoln sends the Culper Ring's Agent 355 (aka Amelia Earhart) to a London where the mayor is his frend Malcom X so that she can lend her expertise to THE CRIME-FIGHTING DUO OF JULES VERNE AND ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, was having Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" be described as "lesser-known". Bro, if I can identify it from two lines in the middle of it, in translation, it is not lesser-known. But you know what, fine, whatevs, alternate victoriana steampunk setting that's potentially contemporary with Poe? Who knows! Lovecraft is Lincoln's body guard and apparently Houdini knew Mary Shelley before she was the bad guy. I like OTT stuff and this series glories in being OTT and has quite clever plot-twists (saw the Lord Blackfowl one coming, didn't see the Jules Verne one), but ffs, would it kill you to have a) more than two female characters and b) not have them have the exact same bodytype and dress style? There's a moment where Mary Shelley wears a cloak and until she confessed to being the one who to do the thing the cloaked figure had done, I legit thought it was Amelia Earhart. This is not how character design works. I am pissed. This is made all the more annoying by how varied the men's bodyshapes are. Ain't nobody gonna confuse George Orwell with Pierre Verne. (Dreamland does no better by its female characters, from what little I read of it and the art's even worse.) Great wordlbuilding, cool plots, nice art but unfortunately too much sexism for me to keep reading.
What are you reading
Blood of Olympus, by Rick Riordan: I'm about half-way through. ( Spoiler-cut, because I know schneefink hasn't read it yet )
The Mirror Empire, by Kameron Hurley: I've about 50 pages left, so I think all that's left is setting up the cliff-hangers for the next book. More detailed thoughts to follow when I've actually finished the book. I'm still wavering on if I want to request it for yuletide. It'll probably depend on how bad that final cliff-hanger is, I think.
The next three books are both in French and paper books, which makes them a lot harder to read. (Véritable Histoire is some 600+ pages and probably weighs upwards of a pound.)
The Art of War, by Sun Tzu: I'm not sure the translator understands how translations work: if there's a better translation available, use it, don't make a note at the bottom of the page that it would have been better than what you actually went with in the text. I swear, sometimes the pages are half notes.
Darshan, by Jade Baudain: Who's bright idea was it to have all four of the former king's children travel together to the neighbouring country you've only just been at war with? And who's even brighter idea was it to leave the one place you can meet the dragon that gives you your divine right to rule in that very same country? YOU'RE ALL FIRED.
La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, de Jean Malye: So this is interesting (if really cumbersome to read) and I did like the parallels that were drawn between Carthage's mythical beginning at Dido's fiery death and Carthage's own demise where it burned itself to the ground so the Romans wouldn't have it. It burned for seventeen fucking days and boo hiss Scipio Aemilianus.
What are you reading next
Crimson Angel as soon as I finish one of my two ebooks, then back to Kelly Thompson's StoryKiller and after that, probably the newest Old Kingdom book (there's a new Old Kingdom book, aaaaaaaaaaaaah).
For paper books: Darkness Over Cannae as soon as it gets here. SO EXCITED!
Which reminds me: I tend not to worry about spoilers in these posts (although I do try not to be too spoiler-y), but if you want me to spoiler cut anything, please let me know and I will do so.
Nothing, but Imma talk about City Hall cause I been thinking I should and I haven't yet. So! City Hall (by Rémi Guérin (writing) and Guilaume Lapeyre (art)) is a manfra series, which is to say it looks exactly like you might expect a manga series to look as an actual book but is produced entirely by French people. (The only other manfra I've read, afaik, is Dreamland and based on these two... I would not try another, but more on this later.)
On a surface level, City Hall sounds really great and the worldbuilding is cool. It probably says a lot about me that the first thing that broke my Willing Suspension of Disbelief, in a world where US Presdient Abraham Lincoln sends the Culper Ring's Agent 355 (aka Amelia Earhart) to a London where the mayor is his frend Malcom X so that she can lend her expertise to THE CRIME-FIGHTING DUO OF JULES VERNE AND ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, was having Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" be described as "lesser-known". Bro, if I can identify it from two lines in the middle of it, in translation, it is not lesser-known. But you know what, fine, whatevs, alternate victoriana steampunk setting that's potentially contemporary with Poe? Who knows! Lovecraft is Lincoln's body guard and apparently Houdini knew Mary Shelley before she was the bad guy. I like OTT stuff and this series glories in being OTT and has quite clever plot-twists (saw the Lord Blackfowl one coming, didn't see the Jules Verne one), but ffs, would it kill you to have a) more than two female characters and b) not have them have the exact same bodytype and dress style? There's a moment where Mary Shelley wears a cloak and until she confessed to being the one who to do the thing the cloaked figure had done, I legit thought it was Amelia Earhart. This is not how character design works. I am pissed. This is made all the more annoying by how varied the men's bodyshapes are. Ain't nobody gonna confuse George Orwell with Pierre Verne. (Dreamland does no better by its female characters, from what little I read of it and the art's even worse.) Great wordlbuilding, cool plots, nice art but unfortunately too much sexism for me to keep reading.
What are you reading
Blood of Olympus, by Rick Riordan: I'm about half-way through. ( Spoiler-cut, because I know schneefink hasn't read it yet )
The Mirror Empire, by Kameron Hurley: I've about 50 pages left, so I think all that's left is setting up the cliff-hangers for the next book. More detailed thoughts to follow when I've actually finished the book. I'm still wavering on if I want to request it for yuletide. It'll probably depend on how bad that final cliff-hanger is, I think.
The next three books are both in French and paper books, which makes them a lot harder to read. (Véritable Histoire is some 600+ pages and probably weighs upwards of a pound.)
The Art of War, by Sun Tzu: I'm not sure the translator understands how translations work: if there's a better translation available, use it, don't make a note at the bottom of the page that it would have been better than what you actually went with in the text. I swear, sometimes the pages are half notes.
Darshan, by Jade Baudain: Who's bright idea was it to have all four of the former king's children travel together to the neighbouring country you've only just been at war with? And who's even brighter idea was it to leave the one place you can meet the dragon that gives you your divine right to rule in that very same country? YOU'RE ALL FIRED.
La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, de Jean Malye: So this is interesting (if really cumbersome to read) and I did like the parallels that were drawn between Carthage's mythical beginning at Dido's fiery death and Carthage's own demise where it burned itself to the ground so the Romans wouldn't have it. It burned for seventeen fucking days and boo hiss Scipio Aemilianus.
What are you reading next
Crimson Angel as soon as I finish one of my two ebooks, then back to Kelly Thompson's StoryKiller and after that, probably the newest Old Kingdom book (there's a new Old Kingdom book, aaaaaaaaaaaaah).
For paper books: Darkness Over Cannae as soon as it gets here. SO EXCITED!
Which reminds me: I tend not to worry about spoilers in these posts (although I do try not to be too spoiler-y), but if you want me to spoiler cut anything, please let me know and I will do so.