octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)

Really extraordinary post-apocalyptic fantasy set in Sudan. A lot of elements here are taken from - I don't really want to say "inspired by", as horror never strikes me positively as a source of inspiration - the ethnic warfare experienced in the Sudan today, so there's a lot of violence, particularly sexual violence. That makes this a difficult read in places, but it's never, I think, an exploitative one. Rape is so frequently and poorly used in fantasy as a shorthand for evil, a sort of continual nasty background, but here it's not simply there to provide a lazy impression of badness. The effects of sexual assault - on the individual woman, on her resulting child, on the society around them, are explored in what is genuinely compassionate detail. If this story is about anything, it's about recovery after evil, and how to make choices that prove you different to what's gone before. As such it's a quietly empowering read, strength and purpose and responsibility all tied up together with hope. I've been reading a library copy and I'm going to have to get one of my own, because I'll certainly be wanting to read this book again.

Extremely clear and very interesting exploration of how evolutionary change is a result of small useful changes built up over time. And when it's laid out like this it reads like clear common sense - apart from the last chapter, which repeats "fig" and "wasp" so very bloody often that both terms begin to lose all meaning, like when you spend too much time looking at a single word and the shape of it turns alien. But that's a small quibble, when placed against the chapter on the development of the eye. At near 60 pages, it's by far the longest chapter in here, but it's also the absolute highlight of the entire book. At first glance (ha, I know) the eye seems such a complex organ to have developed, and though I know that it's a product of evolution like all other organs, I couldn't have made the first guess of how the intervening stages developed. Well now I understand the basics at least, and isn't science marvellous? (Yes, even the figs.) It's fair to say this book requires some effort, but such effort is well-rewarded I think.

A collection of six short pieces, ranging from short story to novella. The best one here is, I think, "Sally", about a rest home for artificially intelligent cars - there's a sort of commentary on gender and exploitation in it that's unusually sharp for Asimov but really quite effective. Of the others, I admire the thought behind "The Martian Way" even if I've never managed to emotionally connect with it. The two stories I do connect to in that way, "Profession" and "Franchise", are examples of the type of science fiction thought experiments that don't quite work for me, in that I don't find the society built up around the central idea at all convincing. Yet I still enjoyed reading them, mostly because I felt for the characters, who were genuinely sympathetic and certainly more believable than their respective plots.

Not the best of the series, but not the worst either. The end is extremely good - I've been waiting for that death since I first read Philosopher's Stone, and I always thought it would come at the end of book 6. (It's always nice to feel smugly justified when predictions turn out correct.) But apart from the end and the failed horcrux trip, it's fairly... unmemorable, I suppose. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading it - 3 stars is "liked it" and I did. But those good things I just mentioned took up a very small part of the book, and a lot of the rest was filler. Mostly entertaining filler - although while I liked seeing Ginny get more of a personality, I was only very mildly interested in all the teen angst and romance - but filler all the same. It's no news to anyone that these books got hit badly by a case of page inflation around Goblet of Fire, and though I did like this, I can't help but wonder how much more effective it would be, how much more punch it would have, if the bloat were cut so that Prince had a similar length to Azkaban, which remains the best of the bunch.

A collection of essays related to writing - either Walker's own, or that of the authors she admires (like Zora Neale Hurston, for instance). Inextricably linked with her own creative experience is Walker's identity as a black woman, and she writes a lot about how her race and gender have impacted - and continue to impact - her role as author. There's a wide range of approaches here; everything from juggling motherhood and writing, to tracking down Hurston's grave in an overgrown cemetery, to navigating the unhappy expectation that black women's interests should be subordinate to the interests of black men. Always the essays are compulsively readable, and Walker's continuing emphasis on (and growing awareness of) the influence her mother's stories have had on her own development as a writer is the thread that ties the collection together. It's so thoughtful and so interesting and genuinely illuminating... well worth reading.

A collection of ten short pieces, mostly science fiction, although there's one fantasy story and one rather tedious essay. Most of the stories are pretty average, to be honest, and in this volume the flaws in the stories are rather reminiscent of the flaw in the essay - lots of technical detail, explained in ever more boringly obsessive detail. I mean, it's all very clever but the emotional connection isn't there for me... with one exception. There's one story in here that is, I think, excellent, and it drags up the others. "The Ugly Little Boy", about a Neanderthal child brought forward in time, and the relationship he develops with his caregiver, places as much emphasis on character as it does plot and it really pays off.

A collection of ten short pieces, and while there's the odd average story here, there's a higher overall quality than any of the volumes in this series I've read thus far, excepting perhaps volume 2. There are two excellent stories here - "That Thou Art Mindful of Him!" and "Bicentennial Man" - and if the latter is a little saccharine in places it can also be very affecting, if only one can get past just why Andrew wants to be human in the first place. The robots in the first story have no such hang-up, and are all the more realistic for it. No coincidence, I think, that the best stories in here are robot stories (and there are two more, "Feminine Intuition" and "Light Verse" that are also very good). It's nearly always the robot stories that I like best of Asimov's work, and this volume's particularly heavy on them.

Okay, I've had a small run of not-great picture books lately (I'm reading my way through the New York Library's list of 100 Great Children's Books, and there's been some difference of opinion) but this is hilarious. George's mother, in particular, is fantastic - each time I turned the page and saw her expression when faced with another indication that her precious pup was a greedy idiot I laughed my arse off. Delightful.

A collection of 11 short stories, most of which are science fiction but there are a handful of straight mysteries in there as well. They're mostly pretty average, likeable enough but there's no real stand-out as there's been in most of the other volumes of this series. I think the story I enjoyed most was "Lest We Remember", which as a novelette was the longest piece in here and dealt with an experiment to give a man total recall. As the experiment itself was pretty dodgy, so the results were in turn, and I liked the clear distinction made between memory and intelligence, as well as the relationship between the idiot experimented upon and his rather more clever fiancé.

It's been an odd experience, reading this. I've read it once before, on the day it came out, and I was genuinely disappointed with it then. I didn't like the treasure-hunt aspect of it, I thought the book was too long and weighed down in the middle with that interminable bloody camping trip, I hated that Ron ditched Harry again, I really hated the very silly epilogue, and none of the far too few deaths moved me in the slightest. (Apart from Dobby, but all I felt there was fucking delight because only Jar Jar Binks is more irritating.) In fact it's amazing how many of them happened offscreen, but god forbid we actually see Lupin, Tonks, or Moody go out when we could have another 50 pages of angst in the forest.

So. I was not pleased, and I wasn't looking forward to the reread. Recalling my emotions the first time round, I'd expected to give Deathly Hallows two stars. (Snape and Neville were bright spots even then.) In fact, when I read and reviewed book six last week, I said "it's not the best in the series, but it's not the worst either", as I was confident that the worst was yet to come. Well, dear reader, after all this moaning my opinion has changed. I appreciate a lot more of the story now than I did then - Dumbledore's history held my attention much more this time round, for instance. And again, Snape. I seriously considered giving this four stars... but as likeable as I find it, those flaws I mentioned above are still there. They simply bother me less now... and some, like the treasure-hunt aspect, don't bother me at all (in fact I rather enjoyed it this time round). The camping drear and the epilogue and the determined refusal to make the most of death scenes continue to act the anchor, and not in a positive way, but I find, previous review aside, that I genuinely prefer this to Half-Blood Prince... and, I think, to Chamber of Secrets as well. And that's been such a pleasant surprise.