The Dispossessed - A Non-Review

I woke up this morning and decided to abandon The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.  I've read a third of it and find myself mostly avoiding it, which is not a good thing.

It isn't that I don't like it, exactly. It's more I'm indifferent to it. In all that third of the book, not a bloody thing of note has happened. The character does a lot of soul searching, and comparing of societies and that's pretty much all the action there is. Yeah, he leaves his own planet and goes to another, and for him that's a huge step, but for me it is pretty boring.

A 4 Star romp begins where Changeless left off. Alexia is preggers and her husband doesn't believe it's his.  Alexia, not one to sit around feeling bad, decides to invade Europe rather than sit around until Connell comes to his senses. He is a werewolf after all.


Everyone needs a Floote. And it wouldn't hurt to be rescued by Channing Channing of the Chesterfield Channings, either. And Alexia does need rescuing this time. She gets herself into quite a pickle - why, she can't even get a decent up of TEA! Oh, those damn Templars! Although she does discover pesto.

A spirited romp across Europe ends up with our heroine as prisoner in the catacombs of Florence. And where you may ask is Connell? Stuck in London, dealing with vampiric uprisings and disappearances, a brand new werewolf and Ivy Tunstell ne Hisslepenny. No wonder he's in a bad mood.  Also, he knows he's going to have to grovel; and soon.

 What's a girl to do? She's been pretending to be a boy so she could serve on the Darwinist British Airship Leviathan. And poor Daryn is scrambling to keep her secret, but things keep getting in the way!  One, most notably, being the escaped prince of Austria-Hungary who is aboard and is struggling to keep his own secrets.

Between the two of them, well, mayhem ensues. Look out Istanbul, you're in their crosshairs.

Another great read from Scott Westerfeld!  4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Quotes

'Gravity was something something you could beat: all it took was hydrogen, hot air, or even a bit of rope. But being a girl was a miserable, never-ending struggle.' - Behemoth - Scott Westerfeld

LOL.I know the feeling...

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N.K. Jemisin - Review

            4 1/2 of 5 stars

Yiene, whose mother abdicated her claim to the throne, is suddenly recalled to the capital by her grandfather and informed he's naming her heir. Yiene, knowing he already has two heirs designated - her cousins - is immediately suspicious. And well she should be. For from the moment she arrives she finds herself embroiled in palace intrigue.

Bad enough that the humans are plotting and jockeying for positions of power, but so are the bound gods the king and his family have control over. Yiene finds herself allying with one god, and incredibly sexually aroused by the most dangerous of them.

She's horrified at how everyone is treated, but mostly at how the gods are treated.  The gods, defeated in a War with the God of Itempas, are bound forever and enslaved,  to be used and abused by Yiene's family. But they've got a plan to end their slavery and she discovers she's at the center of that plan.

It's hard to review this book, as the plots are intricate and spoilers would result, so I'll stick with the basics rather than the plot.

Characterization is wonderful. Description is wonderful. The book gripped me from almost the first page and I found myself drawn in and swept up in Yeine's discovery of the horrors of the capital city Sky, the confusion Yiene feels as she discovers the city's secrets, the gods' secrets and the horrors her family have and still are perpetrating.

Can she survive this place?  Does she even want to?

A wonderfully exciting and memorable book.

Read for The Women of Fantasy Challenge  

Yay. Book two for the year finished. Well worth reading and I'll have to read the rest of the Quartet now.

Review:  (posted at LibraryThing)

What a fun yarn! Good storytelling, great characterizations and an interesting world.

I initially had some issues with POV changes that seemed too abrupt and happened more often than I'd like and I also found transitions from current events to stream-of-consciousness flashbacks a bit jarring at a few points, but otherwise I enjoyed it very much..

I liked the cultural reactionary themes, particularly with respect to humans altering their bodies for differing environments and lifestyles. I can sooooo see that happening.

Also,she explores the militarization of space controversy which again I can see as a major issue if we ever do decide to come up with the resources to explore beyond our planet, especially where one powerful country might try to take control of the project for its own political and militaristic agenda.

There were some interesting twists that complicated the storyline and I found myself rooting for most of the main characters.

Highly recommended for those interested in space exploration and the issues surrounding the Earth's political climate with regard to expenditure of scarce resources for such a challenge.(  )

Current Reading

I've set aside Dust - not certain why I'm not grokking it.  Mostly appears to be that I'm not actually emotionally invested in the main characters.

Therefore, at the moment I'm reading Starfarers Quartet, an Early Review Book I received through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. I'll do a review on Book One, Starfarers once I'm finished.  Not sure when I'll get to the rest of the quartet and want to do the book justice.