What I've been reading
Jul. 21st, 2016 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichigan"The Undead Pool" by Kim Harrison, the 12th of 13 in the author's "The Hollows" series, as an audiobook. This was another enjoyable installment in the series, though it did feel like a set-up for the final book. Our heroine, witch-demon Rachel Morgan, has grown a lot over the series, as have her friends and co-workers, and a former enemy has become someone dear to her. In this penultimate book in the series, waves of energy are causing magical "misfires" all over Cincinnati, and the undead have fallen asleep, leaving a group of "free vampires" to terrorize the city with their own agenda. Rachel of course gets mixed up in it all and has to save the world once again. Harrison's prose is utilitarian and not beautiful, but she's middling good at character development and great at plotting and suspense, which is what keeps me reading.
and
"On Such a Full Sea" by Chang-Rae Lee. I have had this on my "to read" list for a while. I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. First, I will say that some critics were less enthusiastic about it. One criticism is for the storytelling style - we don't get to hear from our main character, Fan, directly. Instead, her tale is told by the collective voice of "B-Mor," the work settlement where Fan works taking care of fishes to feed the "charters" - upscale neighborhoods ringing the working class settlement. When Fan's boyfriend, Reg, goes missing, she leaves the relative safety and comfort of B-Mor to find him, and discovers how rough life in the "open counties" is and how twisted life can become in the the comfortable "Charters." I understand the criticisms but think both the storytelling style and the plotting give it a legendary/fable-like quality. I found the author's creations to be twisted and weird and wonderful. I really enjoyed this and recommend it.
My full comments on both books here.
and
"On Such a Full Sea" by Chang-Rae Lee. I have had this on my "to read" list for a while. I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. First, I will say that some critics were less enthusiastic about it. One criticism is for the storytelling style - we don't get to hear from our main character, Fan, directly. Instead, her tale is told by the collective voice of "B-Mor," the work settlement where Fan works taking care of fishes to feed the "charters" - upscale neighborhoods ringing the working class settlement. When Fan's boyfriend, Reg, goes missing, she leaves the relative safety and comfort of B-Mor to find him, and discovers how rough life in the "open counties" is and how twisted life can become in the the comfortable "Charters." I understand the criticisms but think both the storytelling style and the plotting give it a legendary/fable-like quality. I found the author's creations to be twisted and weird and wonderful. I really enjoyed this and recommend it.
My full comments on both books here.
