Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold

Posted on July 30, 2010 by janicu

Lois McMaster Bujold

My plan is to slowly make myself through the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Ethan of Athos was a purchase at a used bookstore when I realized that it was a standalone indirectly related to Miles Vorkosigan which could be read out of chronological or published order. Yay, sort-of-standalones! I try to read things chronologically because I’m OCD like that, although I did read that most of the Miles Vorkosigan saga was written so that they could be read at any point.

The Premise: Athos is a men-only planet. The first settlers wanted to be completely independent of females, and reproduction is done through fertilization in Rep Centers which eligible fathers can have done after they’ve accrued enough points in a system based on their contributions to society. Dr. Ethan Urquhart is a obstetrician in Athos, so he is one of the first to be aware that his planet’s stock of viable female ovarian tissue has begun to deteriorate and they need a fresh supply. The problem is that the tissue they were promised from a supplier is a bunch of trash, and someone needs to leave Athos and straighten things out or there will be a huge population problem. Ethan is “volunteered” to be sent to Kline Station and retrace the path of the shipment of ovarian tissue to find out where things went wrong, and fix it.

My Thoughts: Ah, mono-gendered planets. This is an interesting take on that trope. I think the author could have easily made Ethan someone who has a prejudice against women because of his upbringing but instead he has a rather endearing innocence. Ethan was raised in a world where their religion equates women to demons and men are either gay or celibate, so when he leaves the rest of the galaxy is a huge culture shock. It’s sort of funny to read how he has problems recognizing what a woman looks like, shirks away when he figures it out, and is completely clueless when a woman flirts with him. He’s also baffled when he can’t find any men who’d like to get away from women and immigrate to Athos. Yet at the same time he treats the women he encounters like people, albeit alien-like ones. I liked his character but I couldn’t help comparing him to Cordelia Naismith in the Cordelia’s Honor omnibus I just finished. In comparison he’s a nice guy but so naive. He survives and does well yet you can’t help suspecting he’d be dead if it wasn’t for the people he encounters on Kiline Station who help him out.

Elli Quinn is the first person Ethan meets. Elli is a beauty with a rather swash-bucking devil-may-care persona, and many friends, but she’s also a mercenary with ties to Admiral Naismith and she has a hidden agenda. She pulls Ethan out of a couple of jams, and I imagine that’s her on the cover of the book with Ethan in the background. When I first bought this book they looked like they were working together, now I think that additionally Ethan is hiding behind her! (Also: he is Lee Majors’ twin). Ethan gets captured by Cetagandians who think he knows some information that they want about someone who is somehow linked to the missing Athos ovarian cultures. Elli wants to find out what the Cetagandians are up to. Each group thinks that the other knows more about what’s going on, and Elli and Ethan just have to stay alive long enough to get to the bottom of things. The story is sort of an action mystery set on a space station, with a little bit of humor thrown in. I began to suspect that the intent was to have Ethan and Elli fall in love, but despite a blurb that suggests that (describing Elli as an “utterly gorgeous mercenary intelligence officer” that Ethan allies with), Ethan is homosexual and there is no chemistry between them other than as friends. This actually works better for the book I think, and it leaves us with an ending that has much better possibilities (I would love to know what happens to Athos as a result of this ending), and an implied HEA for Ethan at least.

Overall: Not bad. This felt like a straightforward science fiction romp. I didn’t connect with this protagonist as much as I did with the last Bujold I read, but I did enjoy the ideas about gender, population, and genetics in this one. In terms of the Miles Vorkosigan saga, this is indirectly related – Elli Quinn, a character in this book, mentions him, but that is all.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Fantasy Cafe – reviewed as part of Miles, Mystery and Mayhem omnibus which was generally a positive review

Sureblood by Susan Grant

Posted on July 28, 2010 by janicu

Sureblood (Hqn)

Susan Grant

This is a romantic science fiction author I’ve been meaning to try for a while so I grabbed the eARC and used it to test out the new nook. This was provided by the publisher, Harlequin.

The Premise: This is a story about a hero and heroine who belong to rival spice pirate clans. Valeeya (Val) Blue is the daughter of the clan leader and a relatively new raider, when the Blue’s hijack of a ship is crashed by the Sureblood clan, lead by Dake Sureblood. Although the pirate clans once worked together, for years they’ve been having more and more disagreements as there is little communication and many misunderstandings that have bred mistrust. Forced to work together on the hijacked freighter when the Coalition appear and start shooting at them, they both discover someone they can respect and admire. Their cooperation opens the door for potentially uniting the pirate clans and romance blossoms between the young space pirates, until a murder and betrayal rips them apart again.

My Thoughts: This book started with a bang. The story is set in space and there’s lots of action as Val and Dake do what space pirates do – suit up and raid other ships for the stolen zelfen ore inside (the mine owner, Nezerihm pays them a bounty for the return of it). What gripping reading each raid was! The preparation and adrenaline involved in the attacks. The camaraderie among the pirates. The customs, such painting their faces and refusing to wear oxygen masks in the thin air. And when the hero and heroine meet in this setting, I was loving it. I love the idea of a heroine who is a space pirate, and that the hero is one too, and that he accepts her is wonderful. The action amidst the stars and spaceships was very cool. I was mentally making comparisons to my favorite SF author, Linnea Sinclair.

When Val and Dake went planet-side for their celebration which brought together many pirate clans, the setting of Val’s very low-tech, humid village was an odd contrast to the high tech universe that they belonged to, but not enough to throw me. I was rather relieved that although Dake and Val were from different clans that don’t see eye to eye, they DO want to bridge the gap and form alliances, and so does Val’s father. Things look good at first but then of course Conflict butts in. During the tentative, fledgling moments of possible peace amongst the pirate clans, there is a terrible betrayal which causes a huge wedge between the Blue’s and the Surebloods, which splits the other pirate clans apart as well. Years (I believe it was 10?) pass after this event tears the hero and heroine apart.

It’s probably around this point that the book felt like it lost some of it inventiveness that had been delighting me. After the hero and heroine fell in love, the story threw wrenches at their relationships that were rather forced rather than natural. One of my biggest problems was the bad guy and how long it took the hero and heroine to figure out who he was. His machinations against the pirates for his own gain were so transparent, that even the main characters commented that they didn’t trust him and yet he wasn’t an immediate suspect when things start going wrong. I was hard to swallow that no one was really suspicious of him and instead blamed each other. It didn’t help that he was two dimensional, complete with a sadistic, child-torturing streak (I found the secondary bad guy a little more sympathetic and human, but he was not the main adversary), In the meantime, the long forced separation of the hero and heroine, along with the secret pregnancy (mentioned in the book’s blurb so it’s not a spoiler, but I blacked it out anyway) put the storyline too much into the romance cliche category despite it’s space setting. The final pages were so twee that it weakened my initial impression of the romance.

Overall: Pretty good. It started off strong with an exciting, space-pirate (!!) battle and a hero and heroine who are leaders in that livelihood, but also uses a of a couple of romantic cliches I’m not particularly fond of. I’d say I enjoyed myself and would read something else by this author. I’d recommend it to people who are fans of SFR, looking for a light read, and wouldn’t mind a perhaps overly-sweet ending.

Sureblood releases August 1st, 2010

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews
Impressions of a Reader.. – B

Commentary on the Sureblood cover at The Galaxy Express

Becoming Jane

Posted on July 26, 2010 by janicu

Photobucket
I finally watched Becoming Jane this month as part of the Everything Austen 2 challenge at Stephanie’s Written Word.

This is a fictional biopic of Jane’s life that takes facts from her real life and massages them to make a romantic story. Anne Hathaway plays a young Jane Austen who is interested in writing but hasn’t much use for men until she meets Thomas Lefroy, a young lawyer. They don’t hit it off immediately. In fact Jane dislikes him, but of course his rakish ways somehow charm her and soon they are in full blown love. Unfortunately Tom needs his uncle’s blessing to marry her because he’s dependent on his uncle’s money, and Jane may be a lady, but she’s a poor one.

This was the second time I tried to watch this movie. The first time I tried was last year, and I was so bored after the first ten minutes I switched to something else. This time I made it half an hour before losing interest again. I took a break for a couple of days but made myself keep going for the challenge. The problem was I just did not care about this Jane or about Tom, and the story was just.. uninspiring. Jane spews off quotes directly taken from the real Jane Austen, and it felt like the screenwriter was trying really hard to make Jane seem as witty as she was supposed to be in real life.

The romance annoyed me. First Tom points out how much more worldly he is in comparison to Jane and suggests she is missing out on knowing real love in her novels. It felt kind of like he was using her curiosity to lure her in (and the fact that she IS lured puzzled me since she’s supposed to be smart), and then suddenly, they’re both in love with each other! Did I miss something? It didn’t make much sense.

The best part of the movie may have been the decisions Jane ultimately makes, along with the response of Mr. Wisley (who I liked better than Tom Lefroy), but you have to watch the whole movie to get there. Everything else.. I found myself picking it apart, perhaps unfairly, so I won’t go into it.

In summary – MEH. It was pretty, and it’s about Jane Austen, two positives, but with the exception of one or two scenes, it was bland.

Cordelia’s Honor (Part 2: Barrayar) by Lois McMaster Bujold

Posted on July 23, 2010 by janicu

Cordelia’s Honor

(Vorkosigan Saga Omnibus:

Shards of Honor /

Barrayar)

Lois McMaster Bujold

This is the second half of the omnibus, Cordelia’s Honor. I read the first half, which was Shards of Honor, earlier this year.

That review is here:

Now it’s taken me a while to read the second half but it is eligible (sort of) for Avid Book Reader’s TBR challenge. This months theme was “Unusual professions or not your usual setting.” Yeah, sure, this counts..

**** There are some SPOILERS for the end of Shards of Honor in describing the premise for Barrayar! If you want to stay completely unspoiled, leave now. Go look at the Shards of Honor review (see links above) *****

Falalala, waiting for people to leave…OK here goes –

The Premise: This continues the adventures of Cordelia Naismith after the events of Shards of Honor. After the reception on her home planet Beta Colony and the events in stopping a galactic war, Cordelia has married and settled down with Admiral Aral Vorkosigan in happy retirement on Barrayar. Their retirement is short-lived however when Aral accepts a position as Regent to the infant prince, Gregor Vorbarra, and Cordelia discovers she is pregnant. That’s what happened at the end of Shards of Honor. Now Cordelia learns the true price to her husband’s regency as they become political targets and Aral’s position is threatened by assassination attempts and coups.

My Thoughts: This half of the Cordelia’s Honor omnibus was very hard to get into compared to the first half. After finishing up Shards of Honor (which I loved), I immediately began Barrayar, but the first one hundred pages felt slowly paced. What happens is essentially Cordelia’s acclimation into Barrayaran life and as Regent-Consort. We revisit familiar Barrayarans from the last book – her bodyguard Drou, her husband’s secretary Koudelka, and Sgt. Bothari. A lot of this was just settling in and reminders of what had happened in Shards of Honor as well as introducing the reader to Barrayar. Unfortunately all of this was really dry, and I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to keep reading. Even the threat of looming danger, and the decisions of the new Regent didn’t really keep my interest because after a third of a book is done and hardly anything has actually happened, you begin to suspect nothing ever will. I kept trying but ended up putting the book down for a few months. Finally I picked it up again, and I must have chosen a bad place to stop because only a couple pages later did things start to get interesting.

The big instigator for much of what happens is of course now Regent Vorkosigan’s controversial political assignment. I think this book may be a little darker than Shards of Honor, but maybe it’s a bit of a toss up, depending on what affects you more. Cordelia and Aral become targets of terrorists and so to the people near them. The plots and political as well as military maneuvering and strategy, seen sort of after the fact were rather fascinating. Sometimes they were heartrending too. Cordelia is the anchor who sees what her husband has to go through knowing that his decisions have far reaching consequences. The most personal of these is the fate that befalls their son, who is still a fetus.

In the tumultuous events that happen, it becomes clear that the strength of mothers is a reoccurring theme, which the author reiterates in the Afterword. There are a few examples in Barrayar, with the obvious case being Cordelia and her protectiveness of her son. I loved how her concerns as a mother butted against Aral’s position as the Regent, and how this problem was solved. I also liked how Aral had to make decisions that Cordelia did not like, but she still understood him and vice versa. They really compliment each other in the best way, and this is a couple that I really liked reading about beyond their initial romance and wedding and into their day-to-day marriage. Cordelia is the character that the book focuses on and she continues to be a heroine I root for – smart and resourceful, but it’s clear that even in the male dominated Barrayaran society, there are women who are just as strong if not stronger than their male counterparts.

Overall: Barrayar started slow as molasses for me, and I almost gave up on it, I’m sorry to say. Happily, the last two thirds of the book were excellent. That’s when there was plenty of action and the character development I had come to expect. I continue to love Cordelia Naismith (she’s a delightfully strong female character) and look forward to reading the adventures of her son.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
I couldn’t find any, although I did find many posts referencing Barrayar.
Please let me know if you have reviewed this and I’ll link to it.

Mind Games by Carolyn Crane

Posted on July 20, 2010 by janicu

Mind Games

Carolyn Crane

This has been one of my most anticipated reads of 2010, mostly because I’ve been reading and loving The Thrillionth Page, which is the author’s blog, and her creativity mixed with the promising premise is a difficult combination to resist. The only reason I didn’t read this earlier was it kept getting pre-empted by other books I’d promised people I’d read. Luckily this means less of a wait for me for book 2! I’m so relieved that this book did not disappoint.

The Premise: Justine Jones is a hypochondriac who fears vein star syndrome, a condition her mother also feared and actually died of. Despite constant trips to the ER, Justine manages to maintain the semblance of normality – with a job as a clothing store manager and a long term boyfriend named Cubby. Then she meets Sterling Packard, the owner of the Chinese restaurant, Mongolian Delites. Packard is a highcap (a person with special mental powers) with the ability to read a person’s psychology, and he says he can help Justine if she joins his team of Disillusionists. Justine will be able to fight crime by channeling her fear into criminals and breaking them down so that they can be reprogrammed to be productive members of society. In return Justine will release the fear that cripples her. That’s what she’s told anyway.

Read an excerpt of the first chapter of Mind Games

My Thoughts: The title of this book is perfect. Mind games are explored on several levels, from the mind against the self, to one mind against another, and outwards as highcaps affect a whole city. We begin with Justine, the first person narrator who readily admits she has a psychological problem (unique in urban fantasy in itself). As a hypochondriac, Justine’s fears lead her to lose perspective which affects her work and her relationship with her boyfriend, not to mention pushing Justine closer and closer to a breakdown. When Justine learns how to push those fears into others, the mind game is extended. Not only does Justine have to play a game – pretending to be someone else to get close to her marks to Disillusion them, but then she gets to see them go through the very thing she suffers through on a regular basis. As Justine becomes more involved in this new life, she begins to realize that there is even more games being played. In the same way Justine chooses to mislead and Disillusion people for the Greater Good, it seems that Packard chooses to keep his plans secret from his team. When Justine discovers more of Packard’s secrets, she begins to question everything.

And therein we have what I find delicious in this book. Ambiguity! It’s a real puzzle figuring out the good guys and the bad guys are. Justine wants to do the right thing, but what she’s doing is not within the law. She’s essentially part of a ragtag group of vigilantes who follow a mastermind of dubious reputation. And yet, she is drawn to Packard in a way that is different from other men. Cubby, and another love interest are perfect on the surface for being really normal and fitting Justine’s idea of perfect, but Packard sees Justine in a way that they don’t. Essentially, I think that Packard may look like the bad guy now, but this could change, and this is possibly the first time in a long time I found myself rooting for the “Bad Boy” over the “Nice Guy”. Of course, I could be totally wrong. I really am not sure if Packard is the right choice either. I can see things going very badly depending on his leadership, and I honestly can’t tell which way he leans or whether his idea of right and wrong is something I’d agree with. The uncertainty! It is so good.

There are other things I liked besides the delightful premise and the ambiguity of it’s characters. There is of course the setting. Midcity is a fictional place which seems to nod at comic book tropes. It’s a place where many believe in high capacity humans (highcaps), while many do not. A place where the dashing Chief of Police, Otto Sanchez fights a Brick throwing killer, and the vigilante Disillusionists fight crime secretly in the background. This is all a lovely backdrop, but what I liked first and foremost was Justine. You would think that her anxiety would make her annoying, but I found her to be a strong. logical character who happens to have this fear. On a personal level, anxiety runs in my family, so her description of the ramp up to an attack (especially when she watches her victims go through it) was both true-to-life and strangely comforting. Some of the things people do to reassure themselves they are ok, while simultaneously doing the opposite struck a cord. I also enjoyed the secondary characters who felt fully-fleshed no matter how short their time on the page. From Shelby, a Disillusionist girlfriend, who thinks that happiness is an unattainable illusion, to the Silver Widow, a target of disillusionment with a disturbing intellect mixed with no moral code. All of these things together made for a very strong story.

The only complaint I have (and it’s a small one) was that I wanted to know more. More in particular about what happened to the people Justine disillusioned. Once her part is done, it’s up to another Disillusionist to take over and we don’t really know what happens once Justine moves on to the next target. These are things that may be resolved in the next book however, and I’m eager to find out if they do.

Overall: So good! If you are a fan of UF or of stories with moral ambiguity, do go read this one. I thought this was a fast-paced urban fantasy with a refreshing new premise and a flawed, Everywoman main character who I liked, a plot with plenty of surprises, and plenty of gray areas to keep me turning things over in my head for months. I’m eagerly anticipating the second book, Double Cross (coming out September 28th this year).

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Lurv a la Mode – 3 scoops (out of 5)
See Michelle Read – positive review
Ellz Readz – positive review
The Book Smugglers – double 8’s (Excellent – a joint review)
SciFiChick – positive review
Read React Review – positive review
Angieville (and an interview) – positive review
Smexy Books – 5 (out of 5)

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

Posted on July 16, 2010 by janicu

Jekel Loves Hyde

Beth Fantaskey

This is another book that I picked up at BEA. If you’re wondering why I’m reading so many young adult books lately – there were a lot of young adult novels to pick up there and I’m trying to make a dent in the BEA TBR piles.

The Premise: This is a young adult story that is based upon the idea that the story Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was based on truth. Jill Jekel is one of Dr. Jekyll’s indirect descendants, while Tristen Hyde is descended from Mr. Hyde. Jill and Tristen are both in the same chemistry class but although they were teased because of their last names, they don’t really know each other. That begins to change after the murder of Jill’s father, a chemist. Tristen can relate because his mother has been missing for over a year and he’s sure she’s dead. When their teacher suggests they work together on a science competition, they work in secret on experiments Jill’s father was working on before he died. Experiments that are supposedly from the papers of the original Dr. Jekyll which Tristen believes are the only thing that can save him from his genetics.

My Thoughts: A comment about the cover: when you take the wrapper off the hardcover is a lovely silver-green-gray color. And the endpapers are bright neon green! This pleases me.

On to the review.

I really liked the idea of a young adult story based on Jekyll and Hyde, so I started this with high hopes. It began well with Jill’s father’s funeral and Jill trying to get back to her everyday life. I liked the writing style. It’s very smooth and I settled easily into the story. Tristen and Jill are the narrators (each chapter’s narrator is clearly marked), and their voices sound like teens, although I thought they did sound very similar to each other, which was distracting. Things are not really OK with either teen, they both seem to have problems. Jill’s problems are obvious – her dad was murdered, he was involved in shady dealings, and her mom is not coping well, so JIll has to take care of things she shouldn’t be responsible for. Tristen is pretending to be normal but has serious worries about the “Hyde curse” and questions about his mother’s disappearance, but his father, a prominent psychotherapist tells him not to be concerned.

The underlying issues that Jill and Tristen have and the suggestion that more is going on had me reading along at a happy clip. This was a relatively fast read for me, but as I was reading, I started feeling ambivalent. When the book begins, Tristen and Jill are up as opposites, which Jill being a plain, mousey type, while Tristen was a confident outsider. I thought Tristen was interesting because of his confidence and hoped that Jill would come out of her shell, but after the set up of the story and the two began to interact as more than strangers, I realized something about their personalities. I think Tristen was supposed to be a dark hero and Jill a pure heroine, but this did not come out the way I think the author intended. Jill is plain, good girl, but she was often walked all over by other girls. Tristen is a leader with a dark side – he doesn’t really care what anyone thinks of him, including teachers, so he treats them without much respect. Can you already see my problem? Jill’s goodness and innocence reads as milquetoast. Tristen’s dark edge comes off as rudeness. The disconnect between the way I perceived their characters and what the narrators were telling me their characters were like, was the issue. I wanted to see Tristen’s darkness and Jill’s purity but it didn’t really work (although Tristen comes closer than Jill does).

There are glimpses of more to these characters but they didn’t feel fully explored. For example, the dark other being that Tristen feels inside himself, telling him to do violent, despicable things is a threat that I never really feared. It just never evolves into something really dangerous within this story, despite all the warnings and flashbacks. Jill’s exploration of breaking out of her good girl mold was similarly disappointing and felt like an afterthought. I wanted more. I also wanted more from the way this story ended – which was rather abrupt and then we have an epilogue that was supposed to tie everything together. I thought it was wrapped up rather too conveniently, but after mulling over it I think it can be interpreted in a much darker way, and I like the implications. It’s much more horrifying, but I’m not sure that the ending I think could be there is the one that IS there so I can’t really credit the author.

Overall: This young adult paranormal has an excellent premise (Jekyll & Hyde re-imagined as teens of opposite sexes!) but the execution did not meet my expectations, which puts the book into the “it was alright, but I had reservations with it” category.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
On the Nightstand – 4 out of 5
The Book Butterfly – “Jekel Loves Hyde is a novel that will not appeal to all readers. Yet it’s a book that can still be enjoyed for its unique premise and intriguing plot line.”
Steph Su Reads – 3 out of 5 (I found myself nodding when I read her review after writing up mine. I agree)
Lurv a la Mode – DNF (very well written explanation why this was a DNF)

Winner of Married with Zombies ARC giveaway

Posted on July 14, 2010 by janicu

Married with Zombies (Living with the Dead)

Jesse Petersen

I had 16 entries and random.org selected entry number 1 as the winner.

This was:

JACQUELINE C!

I’m sending off an email to the winner. Congratulations!

Guest Dare at The Book Smugglers

Posted on July 14, 2010 by janicu

Today my review of Juliet Marillier’s The Daughter of the Forest is up at The Book Smugglers. A Guest Dare is what happens when you admit to bloggers that you have a certain book that they loved but you haven’t read it yet. Check out what I said about it!

Upcoming bookshelf review

Posted on July 14, 2010 by janicu

I was contacted by a representative at the online furniture store CSN to do a review on one of their products about a month ago and I was mulling on the offer for a while. An informal poll on twitter had positive votes on the idea so decided to take them up on it.

We have about a million to-dos in the house and we’d love to redo the bathroom. CSN has a bathroom vanity website, and it would be nice to replace our outdated one with something more modern.

But that’s not very book related. The other thing we’ve been meaning to do is put up shelves over the desk in our office, and that IS book related. So this is what I’m going to review – a Contemporary Hutch/Bookshelf in Espresso. Full disclosure – CSN is giving me a gift certificate and I’m paying the remainder. I’ll take lots of pictures!