Ticker for 2011 Reads

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Hated it. Yes, the writing is great. But honestly, it is everything I despise about the Romance genre (however it ends and whether or not it as a HEA ending).

The heroine is a dolt, the hero is a lout and sex addles everyone.

It was like reading an entire Game of Thrones size tome of nothing but Sansa Stark chapters. Me, I want Arya!

January 2011 Reading List:

For TIOLI Challenges at Library Thing:

• Challenge 1  - The Briar King by Greg Keyes
• Challenge 1  - Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N.K.Jemisin
• Challenge 2  - The Blade Itself- Joe Abercrombie
• Challenge 11- Dust- Elizabeth Bear

For Women of Fantasy:  Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N.K.Jemisin

For Women of Sci Fi:  Dust- Elizabeth Bear

Currently attempting to finish Outlander by Diana Gabaldon before the end of the year.  Why oh why do I always select tomes to read...

Review:  The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman  3 1/2 out of 5 stars.


This was an Early Reviewer book. The Half-Made World paints a gritty and grim picture of a world where our worst traits come to life in the form of demons . It's a world whose landscape is marred by the war being fought between Line - Engines which have minds, needs and desires of their own - and Gun - whose Agents are made supernaturally strong and long-lived and enslaved in order to dedicate their lives to stopping the Line from taking over the world.

We are introduced to  this war through the eyes of someone who grew up and lived in the 'civilized' or fully-made part of the world. She, on a whim, decides to go westward because she's found her life staid and dull. And she sees an opportunity to learn from those broken in minds by the fearsome weapons of the Line.

The world-building in Half-Made World is terrific. The Reader is drawn into the created reality and immersed in it fully.  It's believable, in that it portrays the realities of the miseries wrought by men (or demons) determined to war until the bitter end.

My only complaint is that I thought the characterization was light. We're never allowed to care enough about any of the major characters. It's as if we are only observers watching their struggle, and never allowed to understand them enough to make an emotional connection to them.  This seems purposeful,  But as someone who needs that emotional connection to a protagonist, I thought it limiting.

Even so, I found the book compelling. I wanted to solve the mysteries of this world and of its demons. I wanted to traipse through the unmade portion of the world to its wild and unknown end. Mostly, I wanted to discover the mystery of the one weapon, or thought, or idea that might, possibly, bring an end to war.

Reading for the Remainder of the Year:

• Half-Made World by Felix Gilman. This is an Early Reviewer book from Library Thing  It is also a TIOLI challenge
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon  - Also A TIOLI Challenge

Hope I can get through both. I'm about halfway through Half-Made World.  Normally I'd manage it but we are planning on a trip north for a week, so we'll see!

Oh, and we'll be listening to the audiobook of A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin in the car during the trip.  Trying to get Jim ready for the HBO series that starts in April!

The Plan for the New Year:

Post Reviews and Reading list here.

Also plan to post on what I'm writing.  Will use two labels, Writing, and Reading.

Let's see how well I stick to the plan...

Just signing up for the Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge. See Link in sidebar.