Reading Wednesday

What did you finish reading

The Mirror Empire, by Kameron Hurley: Aaaaaaaaaah! At some point in the last hundred or so pages this book really grabbed me and didn't let go. Until the epilogue, that is. I was very meh on the epilogue. I can tell it's supposed to be this great dramatoc reveal that's supposed to blow our minds, but nope, not feeling it. It was something I predicted, but I really was not surprised. Now, th direction of Lilia's storyline I had figured out about 80% of, but I was still fucking blown away by it and shit, I really really want to know more, you know? (Grumpy Taigan is best Taigan, lmao. Am a bit puzzled that Lilia trusted them this easily, though, after everything that's hppened between them.) Also, Zezili! Man, she was so awesome. I really love that she went from "my country, right or wrong" to "my country, right or wrong: if right to be kept right, if wrong to be set right" over the course of the book and the confrontation wth her Empress was nothing I expected to happen in this book, but it was amazing. (I still think the Empress is inhuman is some way.) I really want to know what happens next with Anavha, even though he doesn't have a PoV for the last, idk, 100-150 pages of the book.

Which brings me to my problems with the book. Don't get me wrong, it was great, I really enjoyed it and I would reccomend it. It does have problems though. (YMMV, obvs.) One of these is pacing: a lot of things in the book feel like they serve no real purpose, except maybe upping the grimdark and a lot of the exciting things tend to happen at the same times (especially towards the end). Anavha's plotline really does feel like it gets forgotten two-thirds of the way through and as I mentionned above, the epilogue fell flat. Another problem is that a lot of the characters tend to sound the same. There's one bit where two middle-aged women comment (inside their heads and somewhat regretfully) that they haven't had children (or wanted more children, maybe) in similar ways in two very close together chapters and I can't for the life of me remember which of Maralah, Ghrasia or Zezili they are. And that's another thing. For a book that's so in-your-face feminist, there were a couple of passages where the attitude towards women left a bad taste in my mouth, like the above mentionned "I picked my career over having children and now regret it" thing. It felt out of character for the peoplethey'd been presented as being earlier.

Also! i said I would talk about gender in this book, so I will. The Dai have five genders (female assertive, female passive, male assertive, male passive and ungendered) and the Saiduan have three (male, female and ataisa). The assertive/passive distinction in Dai is mentionned off-handedly a couple of times (as in "Akhio is male passive") but if you took it out it would change literally nothing about the plot. There's no indication anywhere in the text of there being different pronouns for assertive/passive and since we never even meet an ungendered Dai character, it feels like Dai is a gender binary with a thin coat of pain on. (The only time ungendered people are mentionned is in a derogatory way, because (we are told) Roh uses the ungendered pronoun to refer to someone and that's an insult. It's supposed to be an insult becaus ethat's not the gender the person identifies as, but still.) There is one ataisa character in the text, and that's Luna, who Roh constantly refers to as "he", even though we're told the ataisa pronoun is "ze". I think we're supposed to infer that Roh took his cue from Kihin (who, being madly in love with Luna, would know the appropriate pronouns), but it takes a while for the reveal of the relationship between Kihin and Luna to happen and this is never stated explictly in the text, so it feels like Roh is misgnedering Luna ALL THE FUCKING TIME and I don't like it. Then there's Taigan, who identifies as none of the above, but then again ~magically~ changes sex through no means of their own regularly and uses whatever pronoun fits their sex at any given time, because apparently that's what feels right. OY. I would like one character that identifies outside of male and female just because they do for the next book, please.


The Blood of Olympus, by Rick Riordan: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! This was good reading. SERIOUSLY. (I read it on two platforms (phone + ereader) though and while that normally wouldn't be a problem, I need to go to sleep now, so remind me to talk more about it next time if I forget.)


What are you reading now

Very little progress was made on the paper books (The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, Darshan, by Jade Baudain, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, de Jean Malye) because I'm mostly reading...

Crimson Angel, by Barbara Hambly: Again, more detailed thoughts coming later, but. But. ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE. (Yeah, I'm at that bit, wordsofastory .)


What are you reading next

Books that I have already: StoryKiller by Kelly Thompson, City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (it... sounded interesting? And then the opening page was amazing.)

Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix (why did no one tell me there was a new Old Kingdom book out?), Darkness Over Cannae, by Jenny Dolfen (SO EXCITED Y'ALL Technically have the package already, but not the book, if that makes sense It's Hannibal pwning the Romans, how could I not be)

Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan (Autumn 2015, first book in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series. Calling it now, Magnus is Thor's son. I will also headcanon him as Annabeth's cousin until proven otherwise.), Benjamin January #14, by Barbara Hambly (no idea), Empire Ascendant, by Kameron Hurley (Summer 2015? Maybe? IDK)

Hopefully formatting this like that will help me keep better track of my to-read list and especially of upcoming releases I'm interested in.