Reading Wednesday
Jun. 4th, 2014 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold. A side novella to the Vorkosigan Saga. Athos is a world entirely populated by men; all reproduction is done via cloned ovaries and mechanical "uterine replicators", and words like female or woman are treated like swears. Though the story is set several hundred years after the original founding of the planet, the motivation seems to have been a medieval-esque "women are vessels of sin who tempt men into impure thoughts, ruining their lives" theology. Ethan, our main character, has never even seen a photo of a woman until he's chosen to venture off-planet to figure out who sabotaged a medical delivery. He promptly runs into Eli Quinn, female mercenary, and has to deal with culture shock in-between trying to figure out a galaxy-spanning mystery while avoiding being murdered.
Last week was certainly an appropriate time to be reading this book, what with all the discussion about MRAs, #YesAllWomen, and mass shootings. I'm not sure Ethan of Athos really has much to add to this discussion (I also should say that Ethan himself is not at all a terrible person, just someone who's grown up in a culture that denies women a place), but it's certainly an interesting thought-experiment.
Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly. In London in 1907, someone is killing vampires during the day. This leads the oldest of the London vampires, a Spanish man from the 1500s named Simon Ysidro (actually he has like 15 names, which I'm not bothering to look up) to hire James Asher, an Oxford professor who used to spy for England, to be the vampires' daytime spy and fighter. Asher is, understandably, reluctant to assist the vampires, since they, by definition, kill to live, so Ysidro convinces him by threatening Asher's wife, Lydia. Meanwhile, the other London vampires are not so happy about a human learning of their existence, which causes further difficulties.
This was really good! I liked the inhuman, unsympathetic-ness of the vampires; the way Asher – as a spy who's influenced the course of wars – feels himself to be responsible for as many deaths as any vampire; I loved the identity of the killer, which was perfect for the time period and the themes of the novel; and loved Lydia, who is a fearless fashionista doctor. The way it most reminded me of the Ben January series is the characters' careful, almost reluctant understanding and consideration across social barriers (or whatever the hell you'd call the barrier between a human and a vampire), which is a thing I very much like.
What are you currently reading?
The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson. Continuing the Longmire series about mysteries in rural Wyoming, the one has to do with a woman who confessed to murdering her husband, but Walt nonetheless is convinced she's innocent.
Ramayana by (or rather, translated and summarized by) R. K. Narayan. While I've read or watched approximately 500 different versions of the Ramayana, they've all been short stories, reinterpretations, or movies; this is the first novel-length version I've read. Also, this is based on Kamban's Tamil version, rather than the more well-known Valmiki's Sanskrit or Tulsidas's Hindi versions, so it'll be interesting to see how different it is from what I know.
Traveling with the Dead by Barbara Hambly. The sequel to Those Who Hunt the Night. James, Lydia and Ysidro go to Vienna!
Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold. A side novella to the Vorkosigan Saga. Athos is a world entirely populated by men; all reproduction is done via cloned ovaries and mechanical "uterine replicators", and words like female or woman are treated like swears. Though the story is set several hundred years after the original founding of the planet, the motivation seems to have been a medieval-esque "women are vessels of sin who tempt men into impure thoughts, ruining their lives" theology. Ethan, our main character, has never even seen a photo of a woman until he's chosen to venture off-planet to figure out who sabotaged a medical delivery. He promptly runs into Eli Quinn, female mercenary, and has to deal with culture shock in-between trying to figure out a galaxy-spanning mystery while avoiding being murdered.
Last week was certainly an appropriate time to be reading this book, what with all the discussion about MRAs, #YesAllWomen, and mass shootings. I'm not sure Ethan of Athos really has much to add to this discussion (I also should say that Ethan himself is not at all a terrible person, just someone who's grown up in a culture that denies women a place), but it's certainly an interesting thought-experiment.
Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly. In London in 1907, someone is killing vampires during the day. This leads the oldest of the London vampires, a Spanish man from the 1500s named Simon Ysidro (actually he has like 15 names, which I'm not bothering to look up) to hire James Asher, an Oxford professor who used to spy for England, to be the vampires' daytime spy and fighter. Asher is, understandably, reluctant to assist the vampires, since they, by definition, kill to live, so Ysidro convinces him by threatening Asher's wife, Lydia. Meanwhile, the other London vampires are not so happy about a human learning of their existence, which causes further difficulties.
This was really good! I liked the inhuman, unsympathetic-ness of the vampires; the way Asher – as a spy who's influenced the course of wars – feels himself to be responsible for as many deaths as any vampire; I loved the identity of the killer, which was perfect for the time period and the themes of the novel; and loved Lydia, who is a fearless fashionista doctor. The way it most reminded me of the Ben January series is the characters' careful, almost reluctant understanding and consideration across social barriers (or whatever the hell you'd call the barrier between a human and a vampire), which is a thing I very much like.
What are you currently reading?
The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson. Continuing the Longmire series about mysteries in rural Wyoming, the one has to do with a woman who confessed to murdering her husband, but Walt nonetheless is convinced she's innocent.
Ramayana by (or rather, translated and summarized by) R. K. Narayan. While I've read or watched approximately 500 different versions of the Ramayana, they've all been short stories, reinterpretations, or movies; this is the first novel-length version I've read. Also, this is based on Kamban's Tamil version, rather than the more well-known Valmiki's Sanskrit or Tulsidas's Hindi versions, so it'll be interesting to see how different it is from what I know.
Traveling with the Dead by Barbara Hambly. The sequel to Those Who Hunt the Night. James, Lydia and Ysidro go to Vienna!
