octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)

Three generations of women, the first of them magical, and all of whom have their lives affected by one of the least self-aware and most selfish men in literature (at least the literature that I've read recently). As little sympathy as I have for Esteban Trueba, however, his characterisation is just amazingly good. His monstrous flaws shape the story in which these women live, and the different ways in which they choose to navigate the world he tries to create are fascinating. I really enjoyed the different variations on mother-daughter relationships, which are really the centre and emotional heart of this book - certainly more convincing than the romances. It all becomes truly horrifying towards the end, the political becoming personal as it always does, but I think perhaps that end, for me, is a little too compressed. Even so, it's a wonderful book and exceptionally well-written. The only story of Allende's that I've read before is - if I recall correctly - a YA series that didn't particularly grab me, but if this is typical of her adult work I certainly want to read more.

It's a bizarre concept for a story: a psychic rabbit and a group of friends lollop across the countryside in search of a new home. And it's so charming, and so well-written, and so fascinating in its gentle description of the natural world that I'd give almost anything to be able to rate it 5 stars. But I can't, because it's so bloody inaccurate.

There's a sad little truism when it comes to fantasy: everything changes but the status of women. I never for a minute would have believed I'd end up applying that maxim to a book of anthropomorphic rabbits, but there it is. Adams is clear when writing that he's referencing non-fiction work on the life and habits of rabbits, and it's so convincing on every level that I was fully prepared to believe him. Imagine my shock, then, when I found that every detail is accurate apart from anything pertaining to gender. Rabbits in real life are matriarchal, and apparently it's the female rabbits that are the instigators in forming new colonies. Not here, and not because Adams doesn't know better - he does (he's looked it all up, remember). He's just decided to erase that little bit of reality, goodness only knows why though it's easy enough to speculate.

I'm a science communicator by training - got a PhD in it, even. And fiction is such a useful tool for teaching others about the natural world! Why, then, ruin it with what are essentially lies, and for no good purpose? Yes, it's just a story. Yes, I'm sure some of you will think I'm taking this too seriously. But my suspension of disbelief has just been shattered, sorry, and I'm aware of how ridiculous that sounds with regard to a story about psychic bunnies. Even so...

This is a fairly short piece (either a novelette or a novella, I'm not entirely sure) and it is I think unintentionally hilarious. It's basically the story of the worst sea voyage ever, where everything that can possibly go wrong for the 20 year old narrator and the rest of the hapless crew does go wrong. The phrase "ridiculous troubles" is used and it is painfully accurate - it seems like every page has a new disaster crammed on in there. I think perhaps I'm meant to look with admiration at the adventurous spirit and fortitude of the protagonist, and I suppose I do, but it's a look that comes through sniggering.

An explorative grab-bag of a book, in which Hawkes - who was an archaeologist - traces the course of man's relationship with the sun from the ancient Egyptians to the Mesoamerican civilisations to Greece and Rome and finally to the understanding of the sun as a scientific object rather than a spiritual one. It sort of sits on the borderline of religion and mythology, though that's a modern assessment of its own (no doubt Akhenaten and the Aztecs and so on didn't think of their own religious beliefs as mythological, any more than Christians think so of their religion today).

There's a great deal of opinion in here, as well as more objective history, but this is I think primarily an imaginative book - as one would expect when dealing with a symbol such as the sun. It's interesting to read about how different cultures saw it, however - although it has to be said that Hawkes' sympathy is clearly and entirely with Akhenaten.

This is nostalgic! I know the characters, of course, but I didn't remember anything from reading this book as a kid... until I read it again. The first story's the best, Pooh covered in mud and hanging from a balloon, but they're all pretty charming really. What I really didn't remember was how funny it all was. Especially Eeyore, who's always been my favourite for all he's a miserable git. I'm telling myself that Milne must have based him on someone he knew. Dunno if that's true, but I'm sticking to it because it amuses me to think of the author stuck listening to this miseryguts and thinking "I'm about to turn you into a stuffed and grumpy donkey, mate."

Ever since discovering the Goodreads list function, I've gone after it like Winnie the Pooh at a honey pot. Having stumbled over the 50 Books A Kid Should Read Before 12 list and discovering to my horror that I'd never even glanced at the majority, well... there was another run of books to work through and this was on it. So over the past few months I've reacquainted myself with Pooh and Eeyore and the rest. I read and reviewed the 4 volumes in this collection separately so won't bother to repeat myself here, but suffice to say the average rating came to 4 stars. They're fun and funny and they do tend to the saccharine at times, which never impresses me - but you can't have everything, and Pooh hanging from a balloon pretending to be a cloud and James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree (little shit that he is) is enough for me.

Though a little more broadly focused in parts than I'd have preferred, this is still a largely fascinating account of women in horror films, centred around how their reproductive systems and sexuality are presented in those films. There's a wide range of examples used to illustrate the author's conclusions, and her close readings of the many texts are the best part of what is a very interesting book. Full disclosure: I got a free advance copy of the book, and the resulting full review will be coming out soon in Strange Horizons. I'll edit in the link when it appears.

Update: link to SH review here:
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/women-monstrosity-and-horror-film-gynaehorror-by-erin-harrington/

Well-written but extremely depressing novella about an old sailor on the edge of penury, trying to hide a disability long enough to keep a job that will support his daughter. It's a quiet little story with very little melodrama, and the muted misery of it is far more effective than the repetition of horror in Heart of Darkness, for instance. Ultimately it's so unhappy a story that I don't think I'll read it again, but it's certainly affecting and the characterisation is excellent.

Clever, entertaining, and often humorous novel - however, I can never quite shake the feeling that it's slighter than it thinks it is and that slickness is giving off a sheen of substance. The one point where this doesn't happen - after the accident and Walt - is for me the high point of the book and the only time I felt really emotionally attached to any of the characters. There's just more resonance there than anywhere else, and the rest of the novel pales a little in comparison.

Eh. It's well-written, I'll give it that. But it meanders along until it reaches a very abrupt end, and is remarkably shapeless in its narrative. There's torture, fights to the death, deception, theatre, and still I'm left with the feeling that nothing much is happening. I mean, objectively I know that it is but though I can recognise all the (clearly apparent) thought that Wolfe has put into this, I just don't feel any emotional connection to any of it. I do appreciate, though, that for a story where the main character is a torturer it hasn't fallen into shock and gore, as it so easily could have done. Credit's due for that.