Actually reading, not actually Wednesday

[liv]

Recently read: Clive Barker: Imajica (c) 1991 Clive Barker, published Harper Collins Perennial 2002, ISBN 978-0-06-093726-3. This was a present from rysmiel, who recommended based on the idea that it has some interesting exploration of non-standard relationships. The thing about this book is that I've been reading it for pretty much all of 2015 so far, and I only finished it because I was doing a lot of travelling at the weekend. It certainly has some real strengths but I'm not quite sure it justified spending that much of my life on it.

As portal fantasies go Imajica is pretty original. The magic feels really magical and the various beings from other dimensions are properly alien. I really liked the world-building; it has a mythological feel and I was particularly impressed with a setting where Christianity is sort of true but exists in parallel with fantasy gods and goddesses. And there's a complex and interesting plot, and a lot of emotional intensity and well-written, non-clichéd sex scenes. It's also the case that a big proportion of the 800 pages consists of long-winded descriptions of landscapes and buildings and several paragraphs about things like a character relieving herself. I was kind of skimming by the end, even though the last third is a lot more exciting and climactic than the earlier part which is a lot more description than action.

Basically all the characters, whether humans or gods or aliens or other sorts of beings, are somewhere on a scale between deeply unpleasant and horrifyingly evil. There's a rather off-putting amount of sympathy for characters who commit everything from rape to torture to genocide (all of which are described in far too much detail). And the gender stuff is just weird. The book is not exactly sexist in the obvious sense, and it's not exactly feminist in the obvious sense either, and it's not even gender essentialist in that there is a major character who's explicitly pangendered and everybody gets very upset when it [sic] is misgendered as male or female. But gender plays a big role in the mythology in ways that I couldn't quite get my head round.

I am not sure whether to recommend Imajica or not. I suspect it's a good example of what it is, but is not the sort of book I'm personally most fond of. And I used to be a fast reader but now I'm a slow reader, which doesn't help. Well, I still read at a fast rate of pages per minute, but I don't have very many minutes in which to read any more.

Currently reading: RA MacAvoy: Tea with the black dragon. I'm enjoying it a lot, it has lovely prose and lovely characterization and a highly original story. Also the protagonist is a fifty-year-old woman who is exceptional in some ways but not unrealistically awesome. I love this description of a connection between people (not sure whether it's going to be romantic or something else yet, which is another thing I'm appreciating about the book):

The moment rang for [ML]—rang as though the entire sky had become a gong and [MM] had struck it. He stood still, while the gray stone city reeled about him.

It has 80s attitudes to computers which is rather interesting, but also 80s attitudes to race and ethnicity, which can be a bit cringey.

Up next: TwtBD counts for a book I own but haven't read in the Bringing up Burns booklist I'm using to guide my reading at the moment. Next on the list is a book that was made into a movie, so I'm not sure what I'll pick for that. Looking at unread books on my bookshelves the most attractive candidate I've come across is Ian McEwan: Atonement. Though for ages I've been meaning to read Irène Némirovsky: Suite française which is also a recent film. Given that it's in French and it's set in Occupied France, it will be both intellectually and emotionally hard going, so I'll see how strong I'm feeling when I come to choose the next book.

I'm also keeping an eye on ceb's as yet untitled selection of non-stupid books nominated for SF awards this year. It was really fun when everybody was reading the Hugo slate and discussing it together last year, and I'm pissed off at the Sad and Rabid puppies for spoiling our fun (as well as for the much more serious reason of being racist jerks and deliberately griefing). And at this rate I am so not going to read 13 novels by August, but I might try to read some of them at least.

BTW, I am completely loving all your comments on my Passover post. I have the best friends, and I am rather amused at how much of my Passover has ended up being devoted to discussion of whiksy and Trinitarian theology. Thank you all for being interesting and knowledgeable and explaining so patiently.

Comments

[sonia]

Tea with the Black Dragon is one of my very favorite books. When I first read it, I was young enough that it didn't mean anything to me that a young woman had bought a condo in San Francisco. Then I moved to the Bay Area and learned about real estate prices...