Book Reviews

[firstfrost]

Summers at Castle Auburn (Sharon Shinn)

This is the first book of Shinn's I've read, though I keep meaning to read the Archangel set. She has a very deft writing style. The conceit of the book, where all the plot happens over the summers and the rest of the year passes quickly is surprisingly non-awkward. The aliora (sort of elves) servant/slave subplot is the first time I've seen a new and interesting variant on the theme of "slavery bad!". The "apprentice wisewoman/herbalist that nobody takes seriously" was amusingly reminiscent of Kith. My only complaint would be that I saw the clues coming together for the mystery before the mystery even happened. (Hmm. I wonder how that interacts with my claim I don't mind spoilers. But that is a digression too long to fit in the margin). Overall: 4 stars of 5.

Inherit the Earth, Architects of Emortality (Brian Stableford)

The bio/nano background to the world is kinda neat. The characters are mostly just mouthpieces for philosophy and exposition; I can't imagine real people spending pages to explain the machinations of the entire previous generation of longevity-treated people, the way these do. The first book had some interesting spy tension; the second was strangely tedious, on the serial killer's carefully scripted tour, like a Disney ride of bioengineered plants. Overall: 2 of 5, more because it wasn't to my taste, not because it was actually Bad.

Death of the Necromancer, the Wizard Hunters (Martha Wells)

This is the fourth time I've read Death of the Necromancer, inspired by reading its somewhat-sequel, the Wizard Hunters. The former is amazing (and has caused me to go and get Element of Fire, the very-far-prequel to them all). The main characters are a bit like the standard Good-Hearted Scoundrels, but substantially different still, and clearly written. The plot is dark and clever and convoluted. Ile-Rien, the city most of the action takes place in, is as clear in my head as Ankh-Morpork or Lankhmar or New Crobuzon. The Wizard Hunters falls a little from being clearly the first part of a trilogy, so the plot doesn't really resolve. I also didn't really need the introduction of a higher tech enemy into the Renaissance-ish era Ile-Rien; I was happier with necromancers. Overall: 5 of 5 for DotN; 3.5 of 5 for tWH (perhaps to be revised upwards when the other two of the trilogy are written).

Comments

is not a double negative

[rifmeister.livejournal.com]

"isn't surprisingly non-awkward?"
Does that translate to "is surprisingly awkward?"

Do you think I would enjoy Death of the Necromancer? Anything you've read four times and give 5 of 5 to is probably good...

Re: is not a double negative

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Oops, that was one of the sentences that got edited too much. "Isn't awkward" meant to turn into "is surprisingly non-awkward".

Death of the Necromancer isn't what I'd think of as a rif book - there aren't as many pyrotechnics of ideas, and nothing is terribly surreal. But it's still a *good* book, so you ought to like it.