What I've Been Reading: Weekend Edition (original) (raw)

It's been a slow weekend, so I'm going to talk about what I've been reading. AHAHAH... etc.

I finished up the Space Wolf books by William King/Lee Lightner, the latter of which is actually two people. These books were good. While I still find the Space Wolves to be hypocritical idiots, I was also genuinely impressed, if not a little startled, by how human they are. Ragnar (the main character), is attracted to women, and he's not the only one. They drink, they brawl, they get down and dirty with it. It makes a very nice change from the ridiculous, puritan, 'girls are icky and beneath real warriors' attitude that far, far too many writers bring to 40K's table. I'm sad that there aren't any more, and I'm going to wait until there's a cheaper version of Blood of Asaheim before I start getting more. Enhanced e-Books are silly. So I needed something else to read.

Brotherhood of the Storm was given to me as a Christmas gift by friends, and I've read it once, but I then read it again. I remain impressed by how well it was written, how interesting the White Scars are, and yet there are tiny nit picks: if Yesugei really was 'just an apprentice' at the Edict of Nikaea, he cannot also have been one of the first Chogoris-recruited White Scars. Why? Because those dates are too far apart for it to make any sense, though there is now an order for when the Primarchs were selected. It still can't be possible because Yesugei was present at Ullanor, which the White Scars participated in, which happened before the Edict of Nikaea. Also, the view he supposedly presented at Nikaea is literally what the Librarius was already doing so I have no idea why it's being touted as new or revolutionary.

Additionally, and I know it's because a lot of these writers have no idea what they're talking about, but as romantic as it may seem to them to have the idea of a culture that is constantly in motion, that 'has no centre'... congratulations, you're never going to leave the hunter-gatherer phase. Jaghatai may have conquered his world, but in no way does he rule it. During the story, he gets huffy and offended by an official of the Departmento Munitorium, essentially the Imperial Quartermasters, that he needs to share his plans with them so they can send them food, supplies, ammunition, and their Imperial Guard back up. Sorry, man, armies don't run on blood and adrenaline. People. Need. Food. Needless to say, while I think the White Scars are cool, there's a reason why I have the most respect for the Ultramarines: they actually know what they're doing. Imperium Secundis ftmfw.

I reread Brotherhood of the Storm because they're releasing a serialized novel called Scars, and it's quite convenient that I did, because Scars features two of the main characters from Brotherhood. Brotherhood also has a cameo of the bad guy from Garro: Sword of Truth, which gave me decided suspicions about Torghun, who leads the "Brotherhood of the Moon". As it turns out in Scars, apparently he was originally recruited from Terra to be a Luna Wolf, but they were 'over quota' and he got shunted to the White Scars because they were under quota. Um. What? How does that make any sense? In any case, I have seen Shiban and Torghun be recruited, and I've got until next Wednesday to see what's up next.

After Scars, I decided to dig into the non-40K books I have, as I am, oddly, running out of new things to read. First I started Android: Mimic, which is the second book in the Identity trilogy. My experience went something to the effect of this: "Wow, I'm only 90 pages in and all this stuff has happened. Holy crap..." [later] "What do you mean there are only 30 pages left? Nuuuu." *claws at screen* It's good. Things are getting very tense. Bodies are piling up. There are a surprisingly large number of female supporting characters that are all important to the main character: Mara, who was the one who built the main character's neural pathways so that should something happen to her, her dead husband's memories would activate and Drake (the main character) would work to rescue her. Shelly, Drake's dead partner, still haunts him (literally), and is a part of his continued learning and growing process as she whispers advice to him outside of his programming. The two women at Haas-Bioroid who repair him and do his 'psychological evaluations'. Both are sympathetic and help him when he can. Rachael, the mercenary hired by the police chief he gets moved to work with, and another mercenary Rachael is friends with. And of course, Director Haas herself, though she doesn't really show up on screen. I look forward to the next book a great deal.

Next I read The Friday Society, which I got because it was recommended from Smart Bitches, Trashy Romances as a good book, if not a particularly good romance because there isn't much of it. They're right. They're also right that there are a lot of relationships. Each of the three main characters (Cara, Nellie, and Michiko) have relationships with men. Cara was essentially scraped out of the gutter by a nutty inventor/Lord/MP and encouraged to work on her own projects. Nellie started as a dancer in a burlesque show and wound up becoming the assistant to a stage magician named Raheem. Michiko is from Japan, and initially she ran away from her parents because they wanted to arrange a marriage for her to an old geisha, who brought her around until she saw a samurai, and she ran away to learn from him. Realizing that he was never going to complete her training because the samurai (it's mentioned it's illegal at this point to be a samurai), she winds up being hired by an Englishman, Callum, so that she can teach self-defense to English ladies and their daughters.

Each set of relationships is interesting. Cara pretty much organizes Lord White's life because he has a habit of fucking off to go get high, play cards, and get drunk. He hires a boy, Andrew Harris, as an assistant, and Cara hates him. She feels betrayed, like she's being replaced. She and Andrew have an antagonistic relationship, and almost an intimate one, as the have make out sessions. Eventually, she meets his friends, who are basically all douchebags, and hears a little more about the 'duality' theory Andrew has, that everyone has a hidden side. Nellie adores Raheem, and enjoys the glitz, glamour, and attention, even as she feels awkward as men start to paw at her with more determination. Callum is basically awful. He loves to put on airs, but he's actually heavily in debt because he squanders money, and he takes it out on Michiko, who barely speaks English, and hates that she has no where left to go. The girls meet at the scene of a murder, and there are explosions. There are also faults, oh god.

First, the book is set in the 1900's, in steampunk-London. The setting does not at all feel like it's bright, vibrant, or prominent. It's not boring, but there's little to distinguish it from any other place or time aside from dress and attitude. I may be spoiled, but I'm used to Mercedes Lackey, Patricia Wrede and Naomi Novik taking the time to delicately craft their worlds, gently laid atop the real one. This? Feels like the background is only a two dimensional painting. Second, the narrative is extremely modern. Nellie would never think of herself as "smoking hot". Cara and Andrew would never have "make out sessions". People wouldn't use the word "crazy". It's extremely jarring. Also, people have an awful habit of moving bodies from crime scenes. I actually said, 'what are you doing, you idiots?' aloud and my boyfriend asked me who I was talking to. There's also a dead body in Nellie's house for about two days, and apparently it has "a greyish pallor" and "smells a bit". Uh, nonono. Author. Honey. Darling. Let me tell you about dead bodies. Bodies do not go grey. They go yellow. Also, green, as skin starts to blister and rot. I have seen a body that was out for three days because the old man lived alone and that's the first time someone came by. It does not 'smell a bit'. The smell is enormous and terrible unless you put a body on ice.

The book isn't really about the crimes, though, it's about these three girls, working together as a team, and discovering themselves. It's a great book, but don't take it too seriously, because it's ridiculous and silly. Anyway, the next book is Sold for Endless Rue, and this book is a retelling of Rapunzel, as told (at least initially) from the perspective of the witch. Laura, the main character (named after Laurel, the plant), is pursued by a bandit, a man who raped and murdered her mother and sister, and with a group of bandits that destroyed her village. She's taken in by the local healer who teaches her, and when she sees how smart Laura is, wants her to have a higher education so she can come back and teach it to her adoptive mother. That's the plan, at any rate. Things go awry when Laura gets involved with another medical student, sleeps with him, and then he disappears, getting sent away to be married. Laura, being pregnant, takes a draught that terminates her pregnancy and nearly kills her, and she's tended by her adoptive mother.

Her adoptive mother pretty much tells her that while she can be a doctor, she can't be a healer. One of the big things her mother taught her about was that there was "purity in what they did", so that the healer-woman had to be a virgin. Which of course her mother never specified. Laura and her mother get into a fight, and Laura moves into the city. Laura becomes a doctor of some repute. Then we switch over to the perspective of a woman who is newly married, and quite young. There's a lot of pressure on her to have a child, and she winds up meeting Laura, and they become friends. Laura even tells her how to perform a fertility test to see if there's anything actually wrong with them (they're fine), and the neighbour becomes pregnant. Laura advises them on various matters, including telling them to indulge the pregnant woman's cravings, so long as it's not to excess. This is where the Rapunzel bit comes in, because she winds up craving some manner of rare plant, and her husband, in desperation, steals it from Laura's garden. Late in the pregnancy, the truth comes out, and Laura's price (because you can never treat someone for free, because it devalues the service), is for their firstborn child.

Since we've switched from her perspective, this seems completely out of the blue. Apparently, Laura's wanted a child since she terminated her own (though she claims she couldn't have kept it since she wasn't married, but there was a perfectly good way to get married she never even considered), and while she wouldn't take a boy, she'd take a girl, and she says they'll have many more children. Her leverage is that because the pregnant woman's husband stole from her, she could report him and their family would fall into disgrace, and he'd probably lose a hand (yes, lose a hand for stealing, but apparently no one punishes a rapist... grr), so they have little choice... you know, other than just leaving. Or getting a different doctor, because sure enough, they get Laura to deliver the baby. She takes the girl. And they are never seen again.

We skip some time to Bieta (named after the plant her mother craved), and Laura and Bieta are moving back into the city they left, because Laura had moved away to tend to a rich family's daughter, who eventually died. Laura wants Bieta to become a doctor, and starts her on her education early. As Bieta grows, she finds that while she understands the herbalism and the theory fine, many of the other parts, like the math and other studies, is simply beyond her and she doesn't want to be a doctor. Laura repeatedly and continuously insists that Bieta will have a better life than she did. Bieta knows she was adopted, given to Laura "by parents who could not care for her". Bieta is initially kept fairly confined and winds up sneaking out, meeting a pair of brothers, one of whom broke his leg. She pretends to be a boy, which gets quickly unwound, and her mother permits her to go with escort with one of the brothers, though the other often joins them.

Tibo (Tybalt) and Bieta wind up falling for each other, though Laura believes Tibo is the one telling Bieta that she can't be a doctor, so forbids him from seeing her. Bieta sneaks out to Tibo, and they marry in secret, planning to go to Sicily together, since "a husband's will exceeds a mother's", which is pretty sexist, but this is set in the early 1200's, so I forgave it. Also, it was Bieta's idea. Her mother is kind of nuts. They marry, and consummate, in secret. They agree to leave the next day together, they'll meet up. Laura returns, and tells her that she's used the fact that she helped deliver a General's grandson to get him to make Tibo a soldier and take him far, far away, so her daughter can concentrate on her studies. Bieta refuses, and is sent to her room where she's locked in. She waits for nightfall, cuts off her hair (so she can fake looking like she's asleep) and sneak out. Tibo, meanwhile, is getting antsy, and breaks into her room, where Laura is waiting. She yells at him, they get into a fight. She hits Tibo with her daughter's braid, though a jar gets hit and it falls across his eyes. Laura actually treats his eyes and bandages him, and he gets sent back home.

Tibo's father is pretty pissed off, and he takes Tibo to stay with friends of his until he recovers, and they can find more news of Bieta. He gets word back that Bieta and his brother made the boat, but there was a shipwreck and while his brother survived, Bieta didn't. Tibo decides to remain with the couple, because there's nothing for him in his hometown. Also, one of his eyes is completely blind, and the other is weak. Bieta, meanwhile, lived and was shipwrecked and found by traveling merchants. They make their way back, and along the way, Bieta learns she's pregnant, and eventually gives birth to twin girls, named after Tibo's mother, and as it turns out, her own, her mother's real name, not the herb-name that 'women of this craft' are given. She finds her in-laws, who are happy to see her, and they tell Tibo, who returns and the family is reunited. In Bieta's absence, a sexist monk who has hated Laura for a long time finds out she used her influence to get a favour from the General and her practice is shut down, and she's exiled from the city. Her father-in-law pretty much is glad, but Bieta is worried.

Seven years later, Bieta has managed to track down her mother, to the cottage she used to live in. Apparently she took vows, and wound up back at the cottage treating people. Bieta introduces her to her granddaughters, and it ends fairly happily. Obviously, I still have problems with it. This book would be great if it hadn't remembered rather suddenly it was based on a fairy tale. My promise of this story from the witch's perspective is basically a lie halfway through the book. Laura's desire for a child comes out of nowhere. If she had really wanted a child, she could potentially have married the son of the people she'd been living with. Sure, he was "simple" (it's described like he has Down's, possibly autism), but it's not impossible. She took Bieta because her neighbour was the cousin of the main who left her through no real fault of his own: his father sprung the marriage on him suddenly. I pretty much stopped feeling bad for her the minute she resorted to kidnapping and blackmail. Also, I wasn't terribly impressed by Laura's adopted mother: the man who murdered Laura's family comes back a second time. The first time, her mother dosed him with poppyseed and claimed he'd never remember how to get back to their house, but he does later, and recognizes Laura. He tells her that as soon as she's done treating his foot, he's going to do what he did to her mother and sister: rape her to death. He also threatens to do the same to her teacher, who tricked him. So Laura kills him, she poisons him with foxglove.

She tells her teacher this, who actually slaps her and tells her she doesn't want to be party to her excuse for taking a life, though she does help Laura get rid of the body and apologizes, though asks her if there wasn't another way. Look, lady. I get you're into religion, and purity, and a bunch of other stuff... but he raped and murdered people. Women. If you're a healer, you should understand that he's the kind of person who creates more pain, more victims. I'd have been happy if you'd killed him the first time instead of employing the 'if you hide maybe he'll go away' method. My inner-Lavinia was *seething*. I was also none to impressed with 'non-virgins can't be healers' any more than 'women can't be doctors'. You're still shaming someone for doing something natural. You didn't tell her, you didn't make her take vows, being mad at her is stupid. Also, we never see her again.

On the whole, I liked most of the book, but I felt it fell short of what was promised to me. Mercedes Lackey does it better. Way, way, way better. Plus, feminism. Though, as I said, it was set in the 1200's. Finally, the book that I am leaving DNF is called, Heroes Die. This book is supposed to be good, but I didn't get more than 50 pages in. Initially, it's set in medieval fantasylandia, but the narrative has modern points. "A slapstick bonk", "tripped over [an object] like Elmer Fudd", "the magick flickered like an old CRT [monitor]". As it turns out, this isn't as awful as it sounds, because they're ripping off Assassin's Creed, and this person is playing through a scenario, possibly from a movie. Okay, ripping off Assassin's Creed and Shadowrun's BTL chips. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but I cannot be arsed to care because of the terrible formatting.

Look, people, either indent a new paragraph or leave it un-indented and do a full blank space like I've done throughout this post. Do not do both. Why? Because it makes me think you're switching scenes every paragraph. I can't settle into the story because I think you're jumping around. It's annoying. STAHP. So I'm done with that. Now I'm going to read Angel of Fire, then poke through my books until FF14:R's open beta is available, and then probably play far, far too much of it. :3

Tags: android: mimic, bad paragraphing, bookworm, brotherhood of the storm, heroes die, i read a lot okay?, illogical, other books, ragey mcrageasaur, scars, sold for endless rue, the friday society, weird narrative tricks, wh40k