Personal Note: What's in the queue
Jan. 23rd, 2007 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nebroadweThe pile of books on my (notional) bedside table has grown a bit since Christmas, although I've finished the bulk of the books I received as presents -- including Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith, Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's Mislaid Magician and Philip Reeve's Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space (which gets a startling amount of mileage out of its central conceit, i.e. that the sun never set on the British Empire because it went extraterrestrial shortly after Sir Isaac Newton discovered spaceflight). Still, there always seems to be something else to read, such as ...
Beauvallet (Georgette Heyer)
I'm not a romance fan, but I do enjoy Heyer's novels. I'm particularly partial to Frederica, The Corinthian and The Grand Sophy, though I'll also put in a good word for The Unknown Ajax and Venetia. Beauvallet is Heyer in Sabatini-mode: her protagonist, Nicholas Beauvallet, is a daredevil privateer in the service of Queen Elizabeth. He's got his heart set on a fiery Spanish beauty (query: is there any other sort?), Dominica de Rada y Sylva, and at the moment he's impersonating a French courier in order to pluck her out from under the nose of her guardians. Good clean fun; the Renaissance English slang (Heyer loved slang) adds flavor to the dialogue without becoming unmanageable tushery (see My Lord John. Or, better yet, don't.)
The Pandora Principle (Carolyn Clowes)
A Star Trek: TOS novel loaned to me by my good friend Katie the Elder, it concerns (amid the action plot) Spock's relationship with Saavik. The author seems to have been influenced by Diane Duane's ST:TOS work, which can only be a plus, IMO. Duane is probably my favorite writer of media tie-ins -- I don't understand why other people insist on making such a fuss over what's-his-name, Peter Somebody. ;-)
Rise of a Hero (Hilari Bell)
Book two of a projected trilogy about how the kingdom of Farsala, a Persia-analogue, escapes (or doesn't escape) domination by the neighboring Hrum and its legions (guess who they're based on?). I wasn't all that thrilled by the first book (Fall of a Kingdom), but I did have some mild curiosity as to whether (or how) competent Jiaan, petulant Soraya and traitor-turned-patriot Kavi were going to stall the conquest for the required year (after which the Hrum, by their own law, are obligated to give up and go home). I've enjoyed some of Bell's other books, such as The Goblin Wood and A Matter of Profit, so I've got incentive to give this one a try, but it keeps slipping down the stack.
Drowned Wednesday (Garth Nix)
Garth Nix won my heart with the magnificent Sabriel and its interesting sequels, but his Keys to the Kingdom sequence, after a rousing start in Mister Monday, has been flagging. Nix is fond of creating elaborate hierarchical otherworlds, but this one takes that elaboration and turns it up to eleven, to the point where the principals (not to mention the plot) are in danger of being overwhelmed by the world-building. Still, as with Rise of a Hero, I want to know how it all turns out and the author has a great deal of goodwill banked with me, so I'll give this series another shot.
Scrapped Princess (Sakaki Ichiro, Yabuki Go; tr. Nibley/Bradner)
This came as a Christmas present. I've seen and liked part of the anime, but am told there's no plot overlap with this piece -- and that the manga consists of a limited number of volumes (3?). Manga's too expensive for me to make any more long-term commitments (right now I'm acquiring Fullmetal Alchemist and Cardcaptor Sakura in both English and Japanese and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle in English, and just put acquisition of the English version of Fruits Basket on hiatus). But on first glance I liked the artwork in Scrapped Princess; the characters look engaging and the stories seem interesting, so if this really only involves two more volumes, I might keep an eye peeled for them.
The Time-Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
This has been touted to me by both![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
silverkatie and James Berardinelli, my favorite online film critic. The title aptly high-concepts the book; I got about fifty pages in and stopped, picking up Beauvallet instead. Hasn't grabbed me yet, but since it comes as highly recommended as it does, I intend to give it at least another fifty pages before I decide whether it's worth my time. (The hundred-page rule got me through the rather dull opening of Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep, for which I am profoundly grateful. What a wonderful novel! Truly an inspiration to librarians everywhere! :-)
The Chrysanthemum and the Fish (Howard Hibbett)
Non-fiction; a highly readable analysis of Japanese humor which I picked up for a research project but am happily engrossed by on its own merits. It's fun to discover the Japanese equivalent of the shaggy dog story.
So, dear reader, what's in your queue?
Beauvallet (Georgette Heyer)
I'm not a romance fan, but I do enjoy Heyer's novels. I'm particularly partial to Frederica, The Corinthian and The Grand Sophy, though I'll also put in a good word for The Unknown Ajax and Venetia. Beauvallet is Heyer in Sabatini-mode: her protagonist, Nicholas Beauvallet, is a daredevil privateer in the service of Queen Elizabeth. He's got his heart set on a fiery Spanish beauty (query: is there any other sort?), Dominica de Rada y Sylva, and at the moment he's impersonating a French courier in order to pluck her out from under the nose of her guardians. Good clean fun; the Renaissance English slang (Heyer loved slang) adds flavor to the dialogue without becoming unmanageable tushery (see My Lord John. Or, better yet, don't.)
The Pandora Principle (Carolyn Clowes)
A Star Trek: TOS novel loaned to me by my good friend Katie the Elder, it concerns (amid the action plot) Spock's relationship with Saavik. The author seems to have been influenced by Diane Duane's ST:TOS work, which can only be a plus, IMO. Duane is probably my favorite writer of media tie-ins -- I don't understand why other people insist on making such a fuss over what's-his-name, Peter Somebody. ;-)
Rise of a Hero (Hilari Bell)
Book two of a projected trilogy about how the kingdom of Farsala, a Persia-analogue, escapes (or doesn't escape) domination by the neighboring Hrum and its legions (guess who they're based on?). I wasn't all that thrilled by the first book (Fall of a Kingdom), but I did have some mild curiosity as to whether (or how) competent Jiaan, petulant Soraya and traitor-turned-patriot Kavi were going to stall the conquest for the required year (after which the Hrum, by their own law, are obligated to give up and go home). I've enjoyed some of Bell's other books, such as The Goblin Wood and A Matter of Profit, so I've got incentive to give this one a try, but it keeps slipping down the stack.
Drowned Wednesday (Garth Nix)
Garth Nix won my heart with the magnificent Sabriel and its interesting sequels, but his Keys to the Kingdom sequence, after a rousing start in Mister Monday, has been flagging. Nix is fond of creating elaborate hierarchical otherworlds, but this one takes that elaboration and turns it up to eleven, to the point where the principals (not to mention the plot) are in danger of being overwhelmed by the world-building. Still, as with Rise of a Hero, I want to know how it all turns out and the author has a great deal of goodwill banked with me, so I'll give this series another shot.
Scrapped Princess (Sakaki Ichiro, Yabuki Go; tr. Nibley/Bradner)
This came as a Christmas present. I've seen and liked part of the anime, but am told there's no plot overlap with this piece -- and that the manga consists of a limited number of volumes (3?). Manga's too expensive for me to make any more long-term commitments (right now I'm acquiring Fullmetal Alchemist and Cardcaptor Sakura in both English and Japanese and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle in English, and just put acquisition of the English version of Fruits Basket on hiatus). But on first glance I liked the artwork in Scrapped Princess; the characters look engaging and the stories seem interesting, so if this really only involves two more volumes, I might keep an eye peeled for them.
The Time-Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
This has been touted to me by both
silverkatie and James Berardinelli, my favorite online film critic. The title aptly high-concepts the book; I got about fifty pages in and stopped, picking up Beauvallet instead. Hasn't grabbed me yet, but since it comes as highly recommended as it does, I intend to give it at least another fifty pages before I decide whether it's worth my time. (The hundred-page rule got me through the rather dull opening of Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep, for which I am profoundly grateful. What a wonderful novel! Truly an inspiration to librarians everywhere! :-)The Chrysanthemum and the Fish (Howard Hibbett)
Non-fiction; a highly readable analysis of Japanese humor which I picked up for a research project but am happily engrossed by on its own merits. It's fun to discover the Japanese equivalent of the shaggy dog story.
So, dear reader, what's in your queue?