Reading Wednesday
Mar. 5th, 2014 02:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. Since I've spent all of my previous posts on this book ranting about the stories I hated, I figure I should mention the ones I actually liked.
All of the historical fiction stories were perfectly fine, though none of them were spectacular. "Nora’s Song" by Cecelia Holland was about one of Elanor of Aquitaine's daughters; "Raisa Stepanova" by Carrie Vaughn was about a female Russian pilot during WWII; and "A Queen in Exile" by Sharon Kay Penman was about the wife of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and sister of the King of Sicily, and also was partly responsible for introducing me to Salerno and its 12th century medical school that taught women, a factoid that ended up becoming the basis for the story I wrote last week.
"Neighbors" by Megan Lindholm. A magic realism story about an elderly woman who begins to see visions of another world in her backyard. But she doesn't know if the visions are real or the onset of Alzheimer's, and even if they are real, what she should do about it. Not particularly 'dangerous', but I liked the story nonetheless.
"Second Arabesque, Very Slowly" by Nancy Kress. In post-apocalyptic New York City, where society has become roving small groups of hunter-gatherers due to a disease that made most people infertile, an old woman rediscovers ballet. The tagline for the story is: "in a world where only basic brute survival counts, is there any room left for beauty? And would you be willing to kill for it if you found it?" which is a pretty good description.
"Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell" by Brandon Sanderson. This was by far my favorite story in the book. I haven't read anything else by Sanderson, so I don't know if this is a setting he's also used in other books, but the world-building is fascinating and complex enough that it could more than support a whole novel. It's a world where most people live in heavily-controlled Forts, though a few manage a more dangerous, precarious existence in the Forest. The problem with the Forest, you see, is that it's full of ghosts. As long as you follow three basic rules, though, the ghost usually don't attack the living: 1) don't move fast, 2) don't kindle fire, and 3) don't spill blood. The main character is a female bounty hunter, who of course ends up breaking all of these rules during the story.
Overall, the stories I hated far outweighed the ones I liked. I don't recommend the book.
Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal. Very well-done, insightful examination of South Asian history, with a focus on the 1800s and 1900s. I particularly liked how the authors examined parallels and similarities between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh after Partition, instead of treating them as entirely separate. It also had a very good take on how communal identities have become so important in politics. Unfortunately it only goes up to 1997.
What are you currently reading?
Cyroburn by Lois McMaster Bujold. More Vorkosigan Saga!
Raj by Gita Mehta. A novel of Rajasthan in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. Since I've spent all of my previous posts on this book ranting about the stories I hated, I figure I should mention the ones I actually liked.
All of the historical fiction stories were perfectly fine, though none of them were spectacular. "Nora’s Song" by Cecelia Holland was about one of Elanor of Aquitaine's daughters; "Raisa Stepanova" by Carrie Vaughn was about a female Russian pilot during WWII; and "A Queen in Exile" by Sharon Kay Penman was about the wife of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and sister of the King of Sicily, and also was partly responsible for introducing me to Salerno and its 12th century medical school that taught women, a factoid that ended up becoming the basis for the story I wrote last week.
"Neighbors" by Megan Lindholm. A magic realism story about an elderly woman who begins to see visions of another world in her backyard. But she doesn't know if the visions are real or the onset of Alzheimer's, and even if they are real, what she should do about it. Not particularly 'dangerous', but I liked the story nonetheless.
"Second Arabesque, Very Slowly" by Nancy Kress. In post-apocalyptic New York City, where society has become roving small groups of hunter-gatherers due to a disease that made most people infertile, an old woman rediscovers ballet. The tagline for the story is: "in a world where only basic brute survival counts, is there any room left for beauty? And would you be willing to kill for it if you found it?" which is a pretty good description.
"Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell" by Brandon Sanderson. This was by far my favorite story in the book. I haven't read anything else by Sanderson, so I don't know if this is a setting he's also used in other books, but the world-building is fascinating and complex enough that it could more than support a whole novel. It's a world where most people live in heavily-controlled Forts, though a few manage a more dangerous, precarious existence in the Forest. The problem with the Forest, you see, is that it's full of ghosts. As long as you follow three basic rules, though, the ghost usually don't attack the living: 1) don't move fast, 2) don't kindle fire, and 3) don't spill blood. The main character is a female bounty hunter, who of course ends up breaking all of these rules during the story.
Overall, the stories I hated far outweighed the ones I liked. I don't recommend the book.
Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal. Very well-done, insightful examination of South Asian history, with a focus on the 1800s and 1900s. I particularly liked how the authors examined parallels and similarities between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh after Partition, instead of treating them as entirely separate. It also had a very good take on how communal identities have become so important in politics. Unfortunately it only goes up to 1997.
What are you currently reading?
Cyroburn by Lois McMaster Bujold. More Vorkosigan Saga!
Raj by Gita Mehta. A novel of Rajasthan in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-03-05 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-06 12:53 am (UTC)