(no subject)
Aug. 5th, 2008 09:54 amSomeday I will be caught up on booklogging! Today . . . is probably not that day, but oh well.
I read Elizabeth Knox's Dreamhunter a little while ago, and found it interesting but frustrating. The sequel, Dreamquake, was equally interesting and much less frustrating! Questions get answered, relationships are portrayed with wonderful complexity, there are several brilliantly well-written and chilling sections (much of the strength of the books as a pair come from Elizabeth Knox's ability to convey genuine terror in each novel's climactic scene, the opera house and the debutantes' ball) and all of the characters grow and develop, and you guys know I love that. I do, however, think that the author slightly copped out on the ending and did not really explore all the implications of a development that is FULL of Implications, but I will leave it at that because spoilers, and I don't want to spoil because, despite that, with the completion of the pair I can now say that I really do recommend the books.
On the subject of continuing fictional universes, I read Kage Baker's Mother Aegypt and Other Stories because it contained one of the very last few stories in the Company universe that I had not read. That would be the title novella, and it did not in the least disappoint, dealing with, among other things, the suicidal immortal Amaunet, deals with the devil, and evil chickens of doom done right. As for the rest of the stories, the first four didn't grab me, and I was beginning to be disappointed when I got to "What The Tyger Told Her," a thoroughly creepy and wonderful story about a little girl observing the twisted family dynamics on her grandfather's estate. After that, there were a whole slew of stories that I really liked. Special fondness went to "Nightmare Mountain", which filled me with joy as a one-time Californian for intertwining the story of Cupid and Psyche with the legend of the Winchester House; "Pueblo, Colorado Has The Answer", which does the kind of mix of thoroughly ordinary people and thoroughly extraordinary happenings that I love best; and "Her Father's Eyes," which I had to read twice to figure out what was going on (and then felt extraordinarily dim for not getting it), but which is also one of the best little-girl-with-the-Sight stories I have ever read. I'm not a big short story reader on the whole - they don't tend to satisfy me the way novels do - but when Kage Baker is on, I enjoy her stories in a way that I usually don't with others.
Because I'm curious: how do you guys feel about short stories? Love them 'cause they're short, hate them for the same reason, think they're well used but only by some?
I read Elizabeth Knox's Dreamhunter a little while ago, and found it interesting but frustrating. The sequel, Dreamquake, was equally interesting and much less frustrating! Questions get answered, relationships are portrayed with wonderful complexity, there are several brilliantly well-written and chilling sections (much of the strength of the books as a pair come from Elizabeth Knox's ability to convey genuine terror in each novel's climactic scene, the opera house and the debutantes' ball) and all of the characters grow and develop, and you guys know I love that. I do, however, think that the author slightly copped out on the ending and did not really explore all the implications of a development that is FULL of Implications, but I will leave it at that because spoilers, and I don't want to spoil because, despite that, with the completion of the pair I can now say that I really do recommend the books.
On the subject of continuing fictional universes, I read Kage Baker's Mother Aegypt and Other Stories because it contained one of the very last few stories in the Company universe that I had not read. That would be the title novella, and it did not in the least disappoint, dealing with, among other things, the suicidal immortal Amaunet, deals with the devil, and evil chickens of doom done right. As for the rest of the stories, the first four didn't grab me, and I was beginning to be disappointed when I got to "What The Tyger Told Her," a thoroughly creepy and wonderful story about a little girl observing the twisted family dynamics on her grandfather's estate. After that, there were a whole slew of stories that I really liked. Special fondness went to "Nightmare Mountain", which filled me with joy as a one-time Californian for intertwining the story of Cupid and Psyche with the legend of the Winchester House; "Pueblo, Colorado Has The Answer", which does the kind of mix of thoroughly ordinary people and thoroughly extraordinary happenings that I love best; and "Her Father's Eyes," which I had to read twice to figure out what was going on (and then felt extraordinarily dim for not getting it), but which is also one of the best little-girl-with-the-Sight stories I have ever read. I'm not a big short story reader on the whole - they don't tend to satisfy me the way novels do - but when Kage Baker is on, I enjoy her stories in a way that I usually don't with others.
Because I'm curious: how do you guys feel about short stories? Love them 'cause they're short, hate them for the same reason, think they're well used but only by some?