Last year, I began my love affair with Brandon Sanderson. I wrote about it here a fortnight ago, which for me, might as well be six months in book terms. Since then, I’ve read 11 books, some good, some bad and some reviewed (or will be) on this site. Happily for this review, my polyamorous relationship with Mr Sanderson continues. Shadows of Self, book 5 of the Mistborn series, or Book 2 of the Wax and Wayne series, is not consistently brilliant. The original trilogy […]
A feminist romance novel? Maybe?
I read somewhere that Joanna Bourne wrote feministish historical romances. I grew up on Georgette Heyer, on the Grand Sophy and Devil’s Cub, so I do have high standards for my strong women and men who let them be. I took a break of a day between those first lines: what has changed? I think my boyfriend may be breaking up with me. So this review may be a bit disjointed, bear with me. I had planned to talk about the problem areas in the […]
In which Temeraire has a lot of sex.
Gotta say, this one disappointed me. It is a truth universally acknowledged, the length of a series is inversely proportional to the quality of writing. Maybe not universally acknowledged, but it should be? We know Naomi Novik has mastered pacing, and can write, and is good at creating well-fleshed characters. However, if you didn’t know this about her and read this book, no one would blame you for thinking she was still figuring out her voice. Temeraire loses Laurence to a storm off the coast of […]
I’ve made a huge mistake
When I got into Robert Jordan last year, and read all 15 books of the Wheel of Time in a few short months, I told myself I wouldn’t allow myself to get sucked in again. Binge reading is bad. It leads to Vitamin D deficiencies, and a bad case of oh-shit-what-now-itis when you finish the set. I thought the pale skin ala the pre-religion Anne Rice books was behind me, and my foundation would no longer be a shade too dark. I was wrong. Since then, having […]