Reading notes, week 10

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Put aside: The Element of Fire by Martha Wells (of Murderbot fame, which I’m not sure I want to read). It’s interesting to read fantasy with such a Baroque (as in “the eighteenth century”, not “extravagant and bizarre”, though it’s got a bit of the latter too) flavour. It’s a slow and fussy book, and I don’t know if I’ll want to read the other Ile-Rien books after it (or even if I want to finish it).

At Amberleaf Fair by Phyllis Ann Karr. Just started so I can’t say much yet but it starts interestingly enough and I have it on good authority that it’s very gentle and low-conflict. At 5%: (a) fairly hard to read because of the medias-resness of the setting, as if we’re supposed to know all the social background; and (b) from reviews I gather that it’s actually postapocalyptic, set in the far future of our own world. If either (a) or (b) turns out to annoy me I may just stop trying.

March 12: The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie. Wanted something easy and familiar. It’s a very Poirotful Poirot and I almost chose something else, but I’m glad I persisted because it’s crafted wonderfully well.

March 11: although you know the snow will follow by greenlily. Novelette-length Magids fanfic. I do like this version of Roddy Hyde!

Canon review for an exchange. ETA: Forgot to leave a note to self but I’m practically sure it was Roald Dahl’s Matilda.

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard. Started out “oh this promises to be good”, then I lost patience with the middle (no head for politics at the moment), until supernatural things started happening and the protagonist got AGENCY and everything was just wow.

March 8: Carpe Demon (Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom #1) by Julie Kenner. Recommendation I picked up somewhere, it was only 99 cents, and it’s a lot of fun, though with its cringeworthy (gender-roley) moments. Perhaps I wouldn’t have bought it if I’d realised the writer is a romance writer in the first place, and indeed, the happily married protagonist and her husband suffer from severe Failure To Communicate. In some respects it reminds me of The Interior Life, though this protagonist isn’t quite so afraid to do things wrong and the supernatural comes to her instead of vice versa. I think I’ll pass on the rest of the series — no ebooks to be got of those for one (unless it’s Kindle-only and I refuse to buy from Amazon), and if I can believe the Goodreads reviews there will be more things that I don’t like and fewer that I do.

Index of reading notes is here.

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