Reading Wednesday
Jan. 21st, 2015 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dhampyresaWhat did you finish reading
Stained Glass Monsters (Eferum #1), by Andrea K. Höst: I bought this for cheap when Höst had a sale before the end of 2014 where every book was ~1$ (although, for some reason, I think I paid more for this book. Still, it was a bargain). It was fairly short and I read it in one afternoon (i'm a very fast reader, though). I greatly enjoyed it! I wish it'd been longer and/or that there was a sequel. One is set up, at any rate.
For the most part, the story is split up between Kendall and Rennyn's PoVs. I think there are spots in which other people are the PoV, which is why I say "the most part", but it's really Kendall and Rennyn's show.
Well... It's definitely Rennyn's show. Kendall feels more like a sideshow, in part due to pacing issues and the fact that Rennyn might be slightly overpowered. I mean, it makes sense for Rennyn to know stuff no one else does, because of the whole 'family working in the shadows for generations' thing and she is pretty awesome, but there were bits where it felt a bit like the narrative was pushing "Rennyn is AWESOME" at me a little too hard. From Kendall, I can understand, because her life was saved by Rennyn and she wants to learn all the cool stuff Rennyn knows, but it was a bit of a harder sell coming from other characters. Which is strange, because the narrative shows us Rennyn is awesome plenty and I think if all it did was show us and not show + tell, it wouldn't have bothered me.
(A side-note: There's a passage where Rennyn gets sexually assaulted. I thought it was treated respectfully, but I figured I'd mention it, in case that was something anyone wanted to avoid.)
I also didn't particularly buy Rennyn's romance, although I like it. I felt as though it happened too fast and there was no emotional fall-out from the reveal(s). And on the subject of the narrative pushing things at us: I think there's the setting up of a Kendall/Sebastian romance and I'm really not buying it. They make better friends.
You know which romance I DID buy, though? Kendall/Sukata. Tiny beby lesv=bians! They are so so so adorable! And Kendall is so grumpy about it.
And I though for sure they were going to kiss here
But no, they just fought monsters. It was exciting monster fighting, mind you, but I was shipping Sukata/Kendall really hard by that point, okay and haven't stopped since. And there's lots of little things that made me ship more, like when Kendall was jealous of how Sukata reacted to the news that Rennyn wanted to see her:
And they pretty much end the novel by being apprenticed together to the same person and yeah, I ship it bad.
I vastly enjoyed the worldbuilding, too. It was more early-Renaissance pseudo-Europe than vaguely-medieval-y pseudo-Europe and the magic system was a nice change.
It wasn't the best book I ever read, but it was certainly very cozy and nice. I think I might re-read it in the future. Perhaps before the sequel comes out?
(More LGBTQ characters -- or any -- would be nice, though.)
House of Mystery (2008), writing by Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham, art by Luca Rossi (and others): I've read all 42 issues of this (plus the two (out of continuity?) annuals), which Wikipedia informs me was published as a total of 8 trade paperbacks so that's how I'll be counting it for my tally of books read.
I enjoyed this! Obviously, or else I wouldn't have read all of it.
I had the vague notion that it would be a Sandman spin-off. It might be, but it's sufficently different from it that the comparaison wasn't forced on me at any point. The only overlapping characters are, if memory serves, Cain and Abel, who I think are corporately owned by DC/Vertigo, so that probably doesn't mean much. (In fact, if I had to name a Vertigo series it reminded me off, I would say some of the later plot arcs are very reminiscient of Lucifer, but again, it's its own thing enough that it didn't bother me.)
Anyway, the story is about Fig. It's all about Fig and I like Fig, so that was alright! It's kind of hard to describe, though, because Fig-at-the-end is very much not Fig-at-the-beginning and watching her change and evolve was a joy.
It's hard to describe because it's also kind of an anthology: every issue has a framing narrative (the story of Fig and the House) and one (or more) framed stories, that may or may not relate to the framing narrative. This is because Fig accidentally ends up as one of the permanent guests of theHouse Pub of Mystery, where people pay for their drinks and food by telling stories. Fig, by the way, has been dreaming of and designig the House in her dreams for years. THEN it gets weird.
I was very very pleasantly surprised by the number of main LGBTQ characters there were! There's at least one gay dude, one bisexual woman and another queer woman (could be lesbian or bi, but we only see her attracted to the aforementionned bisexual woman).
It starts out a lot creepier than it ends, but it never completely loses its creepy edge. (Okay, typing that, I've realised that for all three Vertigo series I've read -- Sandman, Lucifer and House of Mystery -- the first issues are more bent towards horror than the rest. Is this a house rule?)
I felt that the ending was slightly rushed, as though the writers were suddenly on a deadline to end things and so had to provide a montage at the end for the epilogue of the characters. (This is one of the things that made it feel Lucifer-like, along with the circumstances for the flashback. Although, I think it was actually running concurrently with Lucifer, maybe? IDK.) It was still a satisfying ending that tied up most (all?) of the plot and emotional arcs, so props for that.
I think my favourite part of the book was the one where Fig and Cain run theHouse Bar of Mystery together, because Fig can't leave and Cain won't.
Cain is such an asshole, it's great.
They're so grumpy about it and they don't like each other and they don't get along and it's very hilarious and I like to think they come to care for each other a little. (Friendships in unlikely places, that's me.)
And what do you know! Canon does actually support that interpretation a little.
Like I said, that's my favourite bit of the comic, although I do love or like all of it.
I really like most of the art too. It took me a while to get used to, because it's, on the whole, slightly too cartoony for me and a little uncanny valley, but that's actually perfect for the story being told.
Murder Most Witchy (Wendy Lightower Mystery Book 1), by Emily Rylands: This was free on Amazon while I was looking for the Höst books and I liked the cover, so I grabbed it.
It was okay.
I enjoyed it, but I won't be reading anymore in this series. The whodunnit plot was a little flimsy and I'm not enjoying the romance triangle thing. I did greatly enjoy Wendy's relationship with her best friend Magda (Magda ♥) and her uncle. I even liked her friendship with Ian, but I'm not buying either that one or the Archer one as romantic. I mean, they're obviously romantic, I just don't like them.
What are you reading
I'm, embarrasingly enough, kind of between books right now, because I can't seem to manage to carve out some time for reading.
I'm currently in the process of reading the following, though:
Les Fleurs du Mal, by Charles Baudelaire: Say what you wnat about Baudelaire and it's probably all been said by now, but dude knows how to write. THAT's poetry. I often have to stop and read the poems out loud because they're just so goddamn beautiful! L'Albatros has been one of my favourites for a very long time, mostly for the last stanza (and the rest for how it sets it up):
You can find a bunch of translations of the whle thing here, of which I like this one of the previous stanza:
I'm excited to get to one of the poems who got this book banned in the first place.
I've made littel enough or no progress on any of The Art of War, Darshan, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Gustav Adolf Mossa: L'oeuvre symboliste: 1903-1918. This week, hopefully.
What are you reading next? (aka the to-read list)
A to-read list that is properly formatted, so I don't forget about books I wanted to read! Now updated with books I should have put on it a long time ago AND with recent recs I got.
Books that I have already: Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Darkness Over Cannae by Jenny Dolfen, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett (yuleswap book 1), February by Lisa Moore (yuleswap book 2), The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan, The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett
Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy and whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (Autumn 2015), The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley (Summer 2015? Still unsure if I'm even going to be reading this one), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is (THAT ART!) and probably Robert Jackson Bennett's next book.
Also, comics. I will probably also be reading some comics.
Stained Glass Monsters (Eferum #1), by Andrea K. Höst: I bought this for cheap when Höst had a sale before the end of 2014 where every book was ~1$ (although, for some reason, I think I paid more for this book. Still, it was a bargain). It was fairly short and I read it in one afternoon (i'm a very fast reader, though). I greatly enjoyed it! I wish it'd been longer and/or that there was a sequel. One is set up, at any rate.
For the most part, the story is split up between Kendall and Rennyn's PoVs. I think there are spots in which other people are the PoV, which is why I say "the most part", but it's really Kendall and Rennyn's show.
Well... It's definitely Rennyn's show. Kendall feels more like a sideshow, in part due to pacing issues and the fact that Rennyn might be slightly overpowered. I mean, it makes sense for Rennyn to know stuff no one else does, because of the whole 'family working in the shadows for generations' thing and she is pretty awesome, but there were bits where it felt a bit like the narrative was pushing "Rennyn is AWESOME" at me a little too hard. From Kendall, I can understand, because her life was saved by Rennyn and she wants to learn all the cool stuff Rennyn knows, but it was a bit of a harder sell coming from other characters. Which is strange, because the narrative shows us Rennyn is awesome plenty and I think if all it did was show us and not show + tell, it wouldn't have bothered me.
(A side-note: There's a passage where Rennyn gets sexually assaulted. I thought it was treated respectfully, but I figured I'd mention it, in case that was something anyone wanted to avoid.)
I also didn't particularly buy Rennyn's romance, although I like it. I felt as though it happened too fast and there was no emotional fall-out from the reveal(s). And on the subject of the narrative pushing things at us: I think there's the setting up of a Kendall/Sebastian romance and I'm really not buying it. They make better friends.
You know which romance I DID buy, though? Kendall/Sukata. Tiny beby lesv=bians! They are so so so adorable! And Kendall is so grumpy about it.
Even though Sukata wasn't smiling, Kendall could tell that she'd made her feel better.
This needed to stop. She was letting others mind her business, and worse still she'd started minding theirs. Where would that get her?
And I though for sure they were going to kiss here
Kendall was introducing Sukata to the stars. City-raised, the Kellian girl had spent too much time in stone buildings, and not enough looking up. Besides, with almost everyone off standing around some random patch of forest waiting for Rennyn and any other monsters to come out of the Hells, there wasn't a whole heap to do.
"Are you certain you're not inventing these?" Sukata asked for the third time.
"Look them up in that library when we get back."
"I will do that."
Kellian humour, Kendall decided. It was growing easier to work out Sukata. Not chatty, but a lot like Nina Lippon, who was the quiet, smart one of the Lippon brood. She wasn't shy, she wasn't particularly stuck-up, but she liked to listen more than talk. The thing was all the Kellian were like that. Maybe talking hurt them: their voices all sounded damaged in some way, thin and weak. Captain Faille had said the first Kellian hadn't been able to speak at all.
"Do you see the wolf's nose?"
"Possibly."
"Look the way it's pointing and there's a swirly clump. That's the Emperor's Clasp, the one the Emperor of Kole lost when he was trying to walk across whatever that sea is called."
"The Sanase. The Sea of Tears. It is...it is a lake, not a sea, but a large lake. The legend says the water is sweet. Have you heard the story behind that?"
Kendall didn't answer right away, because Sukata had stopped looking at the sky, had turned her head and gone extra still.
But no, they just fought monsters. It was exciting monster fighting, mind you, but I was shipping Sukata/Kendall really hard by that point, okay and haven't stopped since. And there's lots of little things that made me ship more, like when Kendall was jealous of how Sukata reacted to the news that Rennyn wanted to see her:
"Lady Rennyn has asked for me?"and how she immediately offers comfort to Sukata in the wake of one the plot's big reveals
"I don't think she means to be nice," Kendall said, disliking the way Sukata sat up straighter, eyes widening with pleasure.
Kendall reached out blindly to take Sukata's hand, and had it immediately crushed. The Kellian girl's face was frozen with horror, staring at Rennyn as if she were a nightmare made flesh. Which, to the Kellian, she must be.
And they pretty much end the novel by being apprenticed together to the same person and yeah, I ship it bad.
I vastly enjoyed the worldbuilding, too. It was more early-Renaissance pseudo-Europe than vaguely-medieval-y pseudo-Europe and the magic system was a nice change.
It wasn't the best book I ever read, but it was certainly very cozy and nice. I think I might re-read it in the future. Perhaps before the sequel comes out?
(More LGBTQ characters -- or any -- would be nice, though.)
House of Mystery (2008), writing by Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham, art by Luca Rossi (and others): I've read all 42 issues of this (plus the two (out of continuity?) annuals), which Wikipedia informs me was published as a total of 8 trade paperbacks so that's how I'll be counting it for my tally of books read.
I enjoyed this! Obviously, or else I wouldn't have read all of it.
I had the vague notion that it would be a Sandman spin-off. It might be, but it's sufficently different from it that the comparaison wasn't forced on me at any point. The only overlapping characters are, if memory serves, Cain and Abel, who I think are corporately owned by DC/Vertigo, so that probably doesn't mean much. (In fact, if I had to name a Vertigo series it reminded me off, I would say some of the later plot arcs are very reminiscient of Lucifer, but again, it's its own thing enough that it didn't bother me.)
Anyway, the story is about Fig. It's all about Fig and I like Fig, so that was alright! It's kind of hard to describe, though, because Fig-at-the-end is very much not Fig-at-the-beginning and watching her change and evolve was a joy.
It's hard to describe because it's also kind of an anthology: every issue has a framing narrative (the story of Fig and the House) and one (or more) framed stories, that may or may not relate to the framing narrative. This is because Fig accidentally ends up as one of the permanent guests of the
I was very very pleasantly surprised by the number of main LGBTQ characters there were! There's at least one gay dude, one bisexual woman and another queer woman (could be lesbian or bi, but we only see her attracted to the aforementionned bisexual woman).
It starts out a lot creepier than it ends, but it never completely loses its creepy edge. (Okay, typing that, I've realised that for all three Vertigo series I've read -- Sandman, Lucifer and House of Mystery -- the first issues are more bent towards horror than the rest. Is this a house rule?)
I felt that the ending was slightly rushed, as though the writers were suddenly on a deadline to end things and so had to provide a montage at the end for the epilogue of the characters. (This is one of the things that made it feel Lucifer-like, along with the circumstances for the flashback. Although, I think it was actually running concurrently with Lucifer, maybe? IDK.) It was still a satisfying ending that tied up most (all?) of the plot and emotional arcs, so props for that.
I think my favourite part of the book was the one where Fig and Cain run the
Fig: Cain!
Cain (standing over Abel's smoking corpse): Oh, here we go again.
Fig: I thought we agreed that you weren't going to kill your brother in the bar anymore!
Cain: No, Fig -- You agreed. I merely pretended to listen.
Fig: Listen, freak. If we're going to be partners, then --
Cain: I don't want to be partners! I never agreed to this infernal arrangement!
Fig: Well, we're stuck with each other. I can't leave, and you won't, so we might as well make the best of it.
Cain is such an asshole, it's great.
They're so grumpy about it and they don't like each other and they don't get along and it's very hilarious and I like to think they come to care for each other a little. (Friendships in unlikely places, that's me.)
And what do you know! Canon does actually support that interpretation a little.
Cain: You're looking at this all wrong. Sit down for a moment.First image is from issue 21 (when they reopen, "under new management") and the second from issue 33, which is about the span of time they co-own the house.
Fig: Um, okay.
Cain: Let me tell you a story...
Like I said, that's my favourite bit of the comic, although I do love or like all of it.
I really like most of the art too. It took me a while to get used to, because it's, on the whole, slightly too cartoony for me and a little uncanny valley, but that's actually perfect for the story being told.
Murder Most Witchy (Wendy Lightower Mystery Book 1), by Emily Rylands: This was free on Amazon while I was looking for the Höst books and I liked the cover, so I grabbed it.
It was okay.
I enjoyed it, but I won't be reading anymore in this series. The whodunnit plot was a little flimsy and I'm not enjoying the romance triangle thing. I did greatly enjoy Wendy's relationship with her best friend Magda (Magda ♥) and her uncle. I even liked her friendship with Ian, but I'm not buying either that one or the Archer one as romantic. I mean, they're obviously romantic, I just don't like them.
What are you reading
I'm, embarrasingly enough, kind of between books right now, because I can't seem to manage to carve out some time for reading.
I'm currently in the process of reading the following, though:
Les Fleurs du Mal, by Charles Baudelaire: Say what you wnat about Baudelaire and it's probably all been said by now, but dude knows how to write. THAT's poetry. I often have to stop and read the poems out loud because they're just so goddamn beautiful! L'Albatros has been one of my favourites for a very long time, mostly for the last stanza (and the rest for how it sets it up):
Le Poète est semblable au prince des nuées
Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l'archer ;
Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées,
Ses ailes de géant l'empêchent de marcher.
You can find a bunch of translations of the whle thing here, of which I like this one of the previous stanza:
Poets are like these lords of sky and cloud,
Who ride the storm and mock the bow's taut strings,
Exiled on earth amid a jeering crowd,
Prisoned and palsied by their giant wings.
I'm excited to get to one of the poems who got this book banned in the first place.
I've made littel enough or no progress on any of The Art of War, Darshan, The Kick-Ass Writer, La véritable histoire de Carthage et de Hannibal, Gustav Adolf Mossa: L'oeuvre symboliste: 1903-1918. This week, hopefully.
What are you reading next? (aka the to-read list)
A to-read list that is properly formatted, so I don't forget about books I wanted to read! Now updated with books I should have put on it a long time ago AND with recent recs I got.
Books that I have already: Prisoner (Echo's Wolf, Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver, Darkness Over Cannae by Jenny Dolfen, Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett (yuleswap book 1), February by Lisa Moore (yuleswap book 2), The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan, The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett
Books that are out and that I haven't got: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy and whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series.
Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (Autumn 2015), The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley (Summer 2015? Still unsure if I'm even going to be reading this one), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is (THAT ART!) and probably Robert Jackson Bennett's next book.
Also, comics. I will probably also be reading some comics.