Reading Wednesday meme

[firecat]

What are you currently reading?

Ebook on my iPad: Still picking my way through Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold. It's unusual for me to pick my way through a Vorkosigan novel instead of gobbling it. Before starting this book I didn't much care for Captain Vorpatril. I like him a little better now, but not a lot better.

Ebook on my smart phone: The Big Meow, Diana Duane. This is the 3d Cat Wizards book, the one she self-published in installments. Still liking it a lot, but I mostly only read it in cars and doctors' offices so I'm not getting through it very fast (which means not too many doctors' offices. Yay!).

Audiobook: Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori, #1) by Lian Hearn. Lian Hearn is a pen name of Gillian Rubinstein. Most of her books are YA. This one is semi-historical fantasy set in a land an whole lot like feudal Japan after the introduction of Christianity.

What did you recently finish reading?

Audiobook: Probability Moon, Nancy Kress. First in a trilogy. Hard SF with space opera and humans studying human-like aliens on the aliens' planet (called World). I liked the human scientist characters. They had vivid personalities. I also liked the detail about the command structure on the human warship. I didn't like the main alien character's personality (and got the impression one was supposed to like her). Maybe part of the trouble was that the narrator read her with such a monotone. I had trouble suspending my disbelief about some aspects of the people and culture on World, and that affected my enjoyment of the book. (I won't mention details here but I will in the comments if anyone asks.) Not sure if I'll read the next one.

What do you think you’ll read next?

The OH wants me to read Scalzi's Redshirts.
I also want to read An Exchange of Hostages by Susan R. Matthews because she's going to be a guest of honor at FogCon.

Comments

[shanaqui]

Huh, I didn't know about Lian Hearn's other identity. *notes this down*

I've got Scalzi's Redshirts in my queue, too.

[cordialcount]

An Exchange of Hostages is such a blatant (delicious) idfest I'd honestly be a bit embarrassed to meet the author afterwards-- hope you enjoy it. :P

[firecat]

idfest! Great word.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The useful thing about Captain Vorpatril's Alliance is that there really aren't that many more adventure stories to tell about any of the other characters. Miles and Mark are grownups who have figured out responsible ways to deal with their problems -- one thing that Cryoburn made clear was that stories where Miles goes off and does Miles-ing really are kind of lame once he's Lord Auditor Miles, and ESPECIALLY now that he's Lord Auditor Count Vorkosigan.

So, focusing on Vorpatril is a good idea. But, well. There's only so far that can go. Everybody's getting settled down and not-so-adventury. Baz and Elana have settled down to raise kids. Bel and ... blanking on its wife's name ... have settled down to raise kids. Taura has died of old age. Quinn's around, but we haven't seen anything of her.

There's really nowhere else to go until and unless other characters are introduced. Me, I'd like to see the first woman to join ImpMil -- perhaps a Sergyaran or a Komarran? It doesn't make sense that Komarr has an egalitarian military, but ImpMil doesn't take women. That's going to change, and soon.

[submarine-bells.livejournal.com]

I dunno. Wasn't it Bujold who once memorably said that the way she writes stories is to figure out what the worst thing possible is that she could do to her characters, and then explore how they cope with that? I don't see that happening in the most recent books. They're enjoyable romps, certainly; but I can see plenty of scope for "bad things" to happen to mature, settled characters as well as young unsettled ones. I personally suspect that she's gotten so fond of her characters that she just can't bear to put them through the really tough stuff any more. And that's how we get books like Cryoburn and CVA - enjoyable as they are to read, there's not a lot of real depth or darkness to them that can compare to the best of some of her older books in that series (such as Mirror Dance, Memory and the like).

[firecat]

I kind of prefer the romps, but mainly the ones with more of Miles, I guess.

I think there's room for adventure stories with the other characters, or new characters.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

i enjoyed captain vorpatril's alliance! i did find myself kind of slogging through the second and third chalion books, though, which was a bit of a surprise because i devoured the first one.

[firecat]

Yeah, I felt the same about the Chalion books, and I hated the first Sharing Knife book so I didn't keep reading that series.

[semperfiona]

The Susan Matthews books...I read several in the series, and had bought the rest, but I had to give them all away. It's not that they aren't good, they are, but I couldn't handle the headspace they put me in.

[firecat]

Well I must have gotten your copy then :)