Reading not-Wednesday 23/08

[liv]

Recently read:

Runemarks by Joanne Harris. (c) Frogspawn Ltd 2007; Pub 2012 Black Swan; ISBN 978-0-552-77898-5. Runemarks turned out to be a very original Norse-flavoured fantasy.

Two serpents rise by Max Gladstone. (c) Max Gladstone 2013; Pub Tor 2013. I absolutely loved TSR, it's thoroughly exciting.

I read Runemarks because several of my partners are keen on it. I wasn't that taken with the first third or so, finding it simplistic. So I put it down for a while, but it picked up a lot when I got back into it. Basically Harris' world-building is extremely superficial, utterly generic fantasy setting, but it turns out that that's because she's not interested in the humans, she's interested in the gods.

It's a remarkably daring idea to write Norse mythology, but without retelling the original myths at all. Runemarks is about a great conflict several hundred years after Ragnarok. It's an exciting adventure, and the different personalities of the gods are really interestingly explored while still keeping them as distinctly non-human, it doesn't descend into soap opera (though I stand by my original impression that Loki is somewhat weak). I was surprised, and impressed, by the plot twist where different divinities turn out to be the same individual.

In the first sections I thought the book was following well-worn grooves; by about halfway through I had no idea what was going to happen, even whether the viewpoint characters were going to triumph in the end. It's rare to find a book where it seems completely plausible that the protagonist might not survive, or even the world might not. I am not generally that excited about war among the gods as a genre, and I don't very much like Harris' prose, but I can definitely see why people are excited about this book.

I was quite enthusiastic about Three parts dead, but not enough to rush to read the sequel straight away. I had a copy included in the 2014 Hugo voters package on my e-reader, so it seemed just the right thing to read on holiday with fairly long stretches of travel.

And wow, Two serpents rise is amazing. It's one of those rare books that recapture the sheer joy of reading I experienced when I was younger. I could hardly bear to put the book aside in order to go and do fun things on holiday. I loved the Aztec-flavoured world building and the setting some decades after a war between magicians and gods. I loved the different roles, symbolic and literal, of the two serpents in the title. I loved Caleb's relationships with his best friend, his father, and his boss the extremely spooky King in Red who is a minor character in 3PD and is really interesting here. I really like the way the book considers the intricacies Omelas type dilemmas without ever being heavy-handed in moralizing. And it does both religion-as-human-institution, and theology as in actually presenting divine beings really well.

I wasn't completely convinced about the central relationship between Caleb and Mal (and good grief, could Gladstone have chosen a less obvious name!) It's quite subversive with the way it handles Caleb literally pursuing his love interest, and the ways Mal turned out not to be at all who she seemed were quite interesting. But there's still more than I'd ideally like about how sexy Mal is, and in a lot of ways she's more of a metaphor for destructive fanaticism than a character.

But yes, really really exciting and original book, much more consistent than 3PD. You can start here if you want to; it's set in the same world but it's not at all a direct prequel, so it stands alone really well.

Currently reading: Bring up the bodies by Hilary Mantel. This is the sequel to Wolf Hall which I enjoyed a lot 6 years ago, but I found it really dense so I had to be in the right mood to read more similar. On my recent trip, I didn't add anything new to my e-reader because I keep loading slightly more books than I read whenever I travel, so I thought I'd start working through some of the backlog. And when I finished 2SR I wanted something meaty to read.

So far I'm not liking BUtB as much as I liked WH. Partly because I was more interested in young Cromwell when he had to hustle to surpass his humble origins and achieve political influence, than well established Cromwell who's a senior political figure with a lot of money and power. Partly because it's about power plays between Katherine of Aragon's supporters and Anne Boleyn's family at Henry VIII's court, which is the most popular episode of English history ever and has been done to death. Mantel's take on it is vivid and original, and she has the most amazing way with language, and creating a sense of period while still making the characters relatable. So I'm definitely enjoying the book, just not as much.

Up next: All my friends keep enthusing about All systems red by Martha Wells, so it's probably about time I picked it up.

Comments

[flippac]

I went through the available Murderbot books while in hospital a couple of weeks back - I'm not sure I agree with how they're blurbed (you'll probably get why when you read them), but I found they work well. I'm at least as much impressed by them managing to stay fairly light in some sense, I think.

[seekingferret]

Glad you liked Two Serpents Rise! I liked the next book that was published, Full Fathom Five, a fair amount, but it's not all that connected to the other books in the series so it can be skipped if desired, whereas Last First Snow is a really satisfying synthesis of characters and themes from Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise that makes both of those books even more complex and interesting to think about.

[edrith.co.uk]

I felt the same about Bring Up the Bodies and for much the same reason. It's the same reason why Imperium is my favourite of Robert Harris's Cicero trilogy (though again, I like them all) - there is just something more compelling about the rise to power than the actual use of it.

I'll have to try Two Serpents Rise - it sounds really good! Do the books have to be read in order? From your reviews, they seem entirely separate, but I'm conscious that may not be the case.

[liv]

Sorry to hear your reading time was made available by needing to be in hospital. I'm definitely in favour of light books that aren't emotionally draining.

[liv]

Cool, thanks for the further info. I am mildly annoyed with the title of Full fathom five because a really obvious Shakespeare quote seems out of place. I don't especially want to skip it though, I'm excited enough about the series that I'm keen to read all five. And definitely excited about a synthesis of the first two.

[liv]

I didn't know Harris had done a Roman setting; I think I might like that better than his 20^th century books, so thank you for mentioning it.

I definitely recommend Two serpents rise. It's not *entirely* separate from Three parts dead but it's completely stand alone; it's set in a different continent of the same world, some decades (possibly centuries, I'm not even sure) before the events of the first book, so there's absolutely nothing essential in 3PD for following the plot. And I think 2SR is the stronger book, so starting there is likely to be a good choice.

[flippac]

I could well believe some people finding it emotionally draining, admittedly? My background means it definitely wasn't, though I might've found it rough going, say, 2010-2012. I still get snarky when intelligence agencies start looking to recruit autistics!

Thankfully the hospital stay wasn't over anything too serious - basically an executive function SNAFU towards the end of the heat wave did awkward things to my GI tract that wouldn't have been hospital-worthy if I'd been doing much better at looking after myself or had someone else around.

It might have given early warning for something worth dealing with, and I've been around long enough to see that as mostly a plus even if I'm mostly booked up "investing in myself" for this year already.

[flippac]

Speaking in general:

The actual use has a couple of things going against it as a story compared to the rise - you can't pretend the character isn't firmly complicit in things, and they inevitably have to play the defensive game as well. So they're blocking other people getting the same story that was fun during the rise, and they might be doing it as part of their own ongoing struggle with someone else who holds power rather than because the person they're blocking is actively after them.

The rise inevitably takes a bit more creativity to avoid being either blocked or overly co-opted, there's always question of whether someone can get through without being overly corrupted? Not just ending up someone else's pawn, but compromising until the reason to hold power has been broken.

The Wire plays that arc through more than once, though not everyone going through it ends up in the same place. Nor is everyone seeking the same kind of power.

[edrith.co.uk]

That's really helpful, thank you! I've added it to my 'books to get' list.

And yes, I'd recommend Imperium; most people I know who like Wolf Hall like it (though this may more reflect my circle of friends than a genuine overlap). The conceit is that it's Tiro's biography and y perception from reviews is that he's done a very good job of staying fully accurate to the historical facts we know - which is quite a lot, given Cicero's speeches and court records - in building the story, whilst interpolating the personal side.

[hairyears]

Where should I start with Max Gladstone?