Hello, book friends! I have presents to wrap and cards to write, as soon as I'm back from teaching this morning's class. So let's get this done!
What I've just finished reading
The Price of Meat, by K.J. Charles. Absolutely what it says on the tin - a Victorian style penny dreadful/horror story. I get the feeling Charles is playing with a setting that may feature in some of her future work - the liberty of Alsatia, a lawless area in the midst of London where criminals flee as a last resort, ruled by iron-fisted blackguards who dole out food from positively Swiftian sources, certainly holds a lot of potential for horror. (Point of note for anyone who hadn't figured as much from the clear Sweeney Todd references: this is definitely not a novella to read while you're having lunch.) If this particular story has a weakness it's that Johanna seems largely unchanged by her experience; she's a pretty pragmatic and levelheaded sort to begin with, so her katabasis into this criminal underworld and subsequent shock and horror is definitely effective, but I feel like we could've used another scene between her and Bella to really see how it's haunted her. That said, the detective inspector's arc was surprisingly touching and effective.
What I'm currently reading
Ancillary Sword, by Ann Leckie. For all of Breq's broadening of experience, the scope of this volume is turning out to be somewhat more limited than I expected; the relatively domestic issues with Citizen Fosyf and her daughter Raughd and their systemic mistreatment of plantation workers, while certainly handled well, seems a little more like a filler Star Trek episode. Not a bad one! There's definitely a lot of good points here about social inequality, appearance vs. reality of social mobility, and what happens when a culture is conquered by a larger/more powerful one but refuses to be absorbed. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
asakiyume, I can see why you liked this one so much.) Just, from where I'm at now (roughly 2/3rds through), it feels like we're going to have a Lesson of the Week and then wrap this up with a more or less reset to the status quo. I suspect it'll be a little more than that, at least; we still have the major arc of Anaander Mianaai and her feuding selves to resolve. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if Leckie manages to make this (relative) microcosm of a story symbolic of the greater conflict; the personal *is* political, etc.
Also, I want to extend special props to Leckie's cleverness with Raughd in particular. Given that 90% of the book is written as a translation of a language where gender isn't specified, we've gotten used at this point to looking for clues either in-text (some characters are referred to as having facial hair, for instance) or in behavioral coding (Awn, while never set as a specific gender, codes heavily female through her caring for her crew and the people of the planet she's assigned to occupy). I was entertained at how Raughd's effete behavior, abuse of power, and utilization of social advantage to cover up cruelty all coded heavily as masculine...only to find out later, with characters speaking a different language, that Raughd was in fact female. Women can be just as abusive as men, provided the right proclivities, socialization, and opportunities!
What I plan to read next
Completely unsure! But then, I'm not sure if I'm going to have any time to read over the next few weeks, haha.
What I've just finished reading
The Price of Meat, by K.J. Charles. Absolutely what it says on the tin - a Victorian style penny dreadful/horror story. I get the feeling Charles is playing with a setting that may feature in some of her future work - the liberty of Alsatia, a lawless area in the midst of London where criminals flee as a last resort, ruled by iron-fisted blackguards who dole out food from positively Swiftian sources, certainly holds a lot of potential for horror. (Point of note for anyone who hadn't figured as much from the clear Sweeney Todd references: this is definitely not a novella to read while you're having lunch.) If this particular story has a weakness it's that Johanna seems largely unchanged by her experience; she's a pretty pragmatic and levelheaded sort to begin with, so her katabasis into this criminal underworld and subsequent shock and horror is definitely effective, but I feel like we could've used another scene between her and Bella to really see how it's haunted her. That said, the detective inspector's arc was surprisingly touching and effective.
What I'm currently reading
Ancillary Sword, by Ann Leckie. For all of Breq's broadening of experience, the scope of this volume is turning out to be somewhat more limited than I expected; the relatively domestic issues with Citizen Fosyf and her daughter Raughd and their systemic mistreatment of plantation workers, while certainly handled well, seems a little more like a filler Star Trek episode. Not a bad one! There's definitely a lot of good points here about social inequality, appearance vs. reality of social mobility, and what happens when a culture is conquered by a larger/more powerful one but refuses to be absorbed. (
asakiyume, I can see why you liked this one so much.) Just, from where I'm at now (roughly 2/3rds through), it feels like we're going to have a Lesson of the Week and then wrap this up with a more or less reset to the status quo. I suspect it'll be a little more than that, at least; we still have the major arc of Anaander Mianaai and her feuding selves to resolve. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if Leckie manages to make this (relative) microcosm of a story symbolic of the greater conflict; the personal *is* political, etc.Also, I want to extend special props to Leckie's cleverness with Raughd in particular. Given that 90% of the book is written as a translation of a language where gender isn't specified, we've gotten used at this point to looking for clues either in-text (some characters are referred to as having facial hair, for instance) or in behavioral coding (Awn, while never set as a specific gender, codes heavily female through her caring for her crew and the people of the planet she's assigned to occupy). I was entertained at how Raughd's effete behavior, abuse of power, and utilization of social advantage to cover up cruelty all coded heavily as masculine...only to find out later, with characters speaking a different language, that Raughd was in fact female. Women can be just as abusive as men, provided the right proclivities, socialization, and opportunities!
What I plan to read next
Completely unsure! But then, I'm not sure if I'm going to have any time to read over the next few weeks, haha.
