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Quickie Book Reviews
Mar. 3rd, 2010 10:52 pmNorse Code by Greg van Eekhout: Ragnarok happening now, played straight -- yup, it's un-Whedonised despite having a female lead and plenty of invitations to slide that way. There are goats. There are ravens: those two frame many chapters with a literal overview. There is some really lovely scene-setting and occasional kennings that are bang on the money: "a hole made of wolf" is one that will stay with me. Or how about this: "Jörmungandr, the Midgard serpent. It lies on the seafloor, its hide camouflaged with crags and volcanoes. Whenever it twitches in its sleep, tidal waves kill hundreds of thousands. It opened its great red eye once, and fish took to land and evolved lungs and legs, just to get away from it."
I liked Greg's gods and scenes a lot, but found his humans and plot a bit thin. It carries along nicely without captivating, and the twisty turny bits are, well, yeah, twisty turny bits. Come for the scenery and brooding eyeless gods, stay for the Ragna-puppies.
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest: YA steampunk with glowing plaudits from the steamophiles, but you know what? Steampunk is best as an emergent property. Steampunk that happens because the author and world and story are going somewhere awesome and bonkers and weird - that works, that's great. Steampunk that has airships because steampunk should have airships, that's more like Etsy jewelery with glued-on cogs, and that's how Boneshaker felt to me.
The story -- in alt-history Gold Rush era post-mad-science-Oops Seattle, nearly-estranged mom and teen son struggle for survival when separately thrown into a wretched hive of scum and villainy, and must face the Family Past as well as sundry gribblies -- is decent fare, but I kept on being annoyed by the clip-on steaminess. If the idea of moving an airship using steam thrusters makes you smile, you'll like it; if you immediately think about thrust moment, and ask yourself where the hell an airship would carry all that water reaction mass, it'll annoy and distract.
Both are available in pdf'd epub and pdf from Books On Board and elsewhere, and in dead tree too.
I liked Greg's gods and scenes a lot, but found his humans and plot a bit thin. It carries along nicely without captivating, and the twisty turny bits are, well, yeah, twisty turny bits. Come for the scenery and brooding eyeless gods, stay for the Ragna-puppies.
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest: YA steampunk with glowing plaudits from the steamophiles, but you know what? Steampunk is best as an emergent property. Steampunk that happens because the author and world and story are going somewhere awesome and bonkers and weird - that works, that's great. Steampunk that has airships because steampunk should have airships, that's more like Etsy jewelery with glued-on cogs, and that's how Boneshaker felt to me.
The story -- in alt-history Gold Rush era post-mad-science-Oops Seattle, nearly-estranged mom and teen son struggle for survival when separately thrown into a wretched hive of scum and villainy, and must face the Family Past as well as sundry gribblies -- is decent fare, but I kept on being annoyed by the clip-on steaminess. If the idea of moving an airship using steam thrusters makes you smile, you'll like it; if you immediately think about thrust moment, and ask yourself where the hell an airship would carry all that water reaction mass, it'll annoy and distract.
Both are available in pdf'd epub and pdf from Books On Board and elsewhere, and in dead tree too.
