Brownbetty's updates

Brownbetty's updates http://www.goodreads.com/user/updates_rss/274033 en-US Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:11:49 -0700 60 Brownbetty's updates http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 32363903 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:11:49 -0700 Review4461356 <![CDATA[Brownbetty added 'Tea With the Black Dragon']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4461356

to: Tea With the Black Dragon (Paperback) by R.A. MacAvoy
MacAvoy is an author who seems not to write as a career, but rather because she has a story she wishes to tell. Some authors seem to be telling the same story again and again, and I do not begrudge them that: it's the story they're interested in, and generally they are good at it. MacAvoy, however, seems to write one story well, and then move on to the next, which is generally completely unrelated-- not to say she doesn't write sequels, but when she is done with a story, she moves on, and writes the next thing.

This may make her less marketable, but I have never read anything by her that I didn't enjoy.

Tea With the Black Dragon is an example of what is apparently now called Urban Fantasy, (I think? Is there an oversight body?), a fantasy story set mostly in the here and now, with the impingement of the fantastical on the edges. Except that the here and now in which it was written is 1984, which makes it a sort of historical artifact, especially if you're me. (I was alive in 1984, but not a keen cultural observer.) It is a bit like War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, another author who seems to write only when a new story comes to her.

Between the title, and the fact that there is a Mr. Long in this book, I don't think there actually is any way I could spoil this book for you, so I'm not going to take any great pains to avoid it.

Martha Macnamara is a middle-aged hippie, a musician who couch surfs her way across America. Her daughter is a driven computer programmer who has gotten herself into trouble. Mr Long is the interesting man Ms. Macnamara meets when she comes to San Francisco, hoping to help her daughter.

This book is in general delightful, but my qualm was the way in which Mrs Macnamara was presented by the book as somehow an exceptional spirit, the qualities of whom are evidently self-evident and overwhelmingly attractive to the titular black dragon. I liked her, and I think she would be the sort of friend one would welcome when she came and collapse in gratitude when she left, but the black dragon seems to hold her in much higher esteem than that, and the reason why was not clear to me. ]]> 32255634 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:32:53 -0700 Review27977179 <![CDATA[Brownbetty added 'Ragamuffin']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27977179 Ragamuffin (Mass Market Paperback) by Tobias S. Buckell
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 32252779 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:12:27 -0700 Comment1288148 <![CDATA[new comment from Brownbetty]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27877382 Brownbetty's review of City of Pearl (Wess'Har, Book 1)
by Karen Traviss

Argh. Yeah, and here, all the paperbacks are spread out amongst the branch libraries, so you have to manually canvass every single one to be sure a book isn't there. ]]> 32124802 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:45:34 -0700 Review27877382 <![CDATA[Brownbetty added 'City of Pearl']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27877382

to: City of Pearl (Wess'Har, Book 1) by Karen Traviss
If you're reading this on Goodreads, you'll see I gave it four stars, and honestly, I almost gave it five, but decided not to only because of some uncertainty about the sequel. Not that I've read it, yet, because my public library, for reasons best known to certain city officials, lacks the funding to catalogue paperbacks, so every library expedition is a bit like a dungeon crawl. Does the library own the sequel? Who knows! Certainly not the Public Library! (Mr Katz, I hope to make you the number one google result for "library cheapskate." You're welcome.)

Back on topic. A lot of the SF I read is more properly space opera; it may pay some lip service to relativity, but the only physics it obeys are Newtonian. Here is SF with science behind it; undergirding it; moving it. Not the sort where a half chapter is taken up with cats in boxes and lecturing the reader, but the sort where the science is almost palpably a character in itself.

Shan Frankland is an interesting protagonist: a retirement-age civil-servant and former police officer. She's explicitly Pagan, something I would have liked to have seen more of, although there are something like five sequels to this book, and quite a bit more room for it to come up.

The other interesting thing, to me, was how much of the book was about ecology, and human (and alien) environments, environmental sustainability, and biology. More than is evident at the start of the novel, certainly. I want to say more, but am wary of spoiling.

I'm not entirely certain if this book is very good, or just very much the sort of thing I enjoy. It takes mature loners and gives them a connection which they didn't expect to find. I like those sorts of stories. ]]> 31790316 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:49:26 -0700 Review27615200 <![CDATA[Brownbetty added 'The Demon Breed']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27615200 The Demon Breed (Paperback) by James H. Schmitz
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 31789752 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:45:09 -0700 Review27614734 <![CDATA[Brownbetty added 'Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27614734 Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story (Paperback) by Leonie Swann
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 31707442 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:45:56 -0700 Review27550992 <![CDATA[Brownbetty added 'Thin Air']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27550992

to: Thin Air (Weather Warden, Book 6) by Rachel Caine
It's not much of a spoiler to say what the back-cover gives away: this book uses the old 'amnesiac protagonist' device to put some uncertainty back into the story, which by book six is a welcome. I'm generally a sucker for the amnesiac protagonist, but I think that's because I like discovering the protagonist as the protagonist discovers themselves; in this one, Joanne doesn't know anything about herself, and I, the reader, did, which made Joanne seem kind of slow and annoying, especially when I was forced to take a detour through 'people who you have learnt to distrust the hard way.'

The big bad at the end seemed to come out of nowhere, and this book didn't quite hang together for me, but it wasn't a trial to read. ]]> 31706530 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:48:57 -0700 Review27550247 <![CDATA[Brownbetty added 'The Sharing Knife Volume Two: Legacy']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27550247

to: The Sharing Knife Volume Two: Legacy (Sharing Knife) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Since the general consensus on this book's predecessor, The Sharing Knife Volume One:The Beguilement was that it was a disappointment, and uncharacteristically lacklustre for bujold, it's not saying too much to say this raised my opinion of the story slightly, but it did.

In this second book, Fawn finds herself in the position of a war-bride, viewed with suspicion by her husband's people, uncomfortable, and alone. As such, it's a decent story.

Pros: Polyandrous family unit! In-laws from hell!

Cons: Fawn remains pretty speshul and sue-like, and although I found it not too annoying, it was undeniably there.

]]> 31306209 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:21:41 -0700 Review27242073 <![CDATA[Brownbetty added 'Black Magic Woman']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27242073

to: Black Magic Woman (Quincey Morris Supernatural Investigation) by Justin Gustainis
This was a good book, and I didn't like it. I'm trying to figure out why.

Morris is a sort of modern Van Hellsing, or more accurately, a modern Quincey Morris, Van Hellsing's American counterpart. (But really, who remembers Quincey Morris?) Like the back copy says "Quincey Morris and his "consultant", white witch Libby Chastain, are hired to free a family from a deadly curse that appears to date back to the Salem witch trials."

Not mentioned is a parallel story about African American FBI agent Dale Fenton, and his visiting counterpart from the South African police force Van Dreenan, who are searching for the agent behind a string of child murders and mutilations.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

So why didn't I like it? I think in part because the book presupposes a world view I don't share. I am uncomfortable with the very title of the book: Black Magic Woman? It seems to suggest a sort of exotic 'she', the unknowable and mysterious feminine.

Although Van Dreenan and Fenton don't know this, the children are being murdered by a South African woman, in order to extract various organs to make fetishes. (Not the sexy kind.) When you have a white South African as the agent of justice, law, and righteousness, and a Black woman as the agent of superstition, perversion, and evil, I'd like at least an acknowledgement from the book that this is sort of problematic.

And then there are the Salem witch trials, which in this book condemned at least one guilty woman, and it seems to hint, perhaps more. In urban fantasy, it makes sense that at least some historical instances of suspected witchcraft would be actual witchcraft, and yet this didn't sit well with me.

So, basically, I seem to be saying I didn't like this book because it failed to conform to my worldview, which seems very petty of me, but there you go. ]]> 31100995 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:44:04 -0700 QuestionUserStat5776 <![CDATA[Brownbetty took the never-ending book quiz]]> http://www.goodreads.com/trivia 274033

Brownbetty took the never-ending book quiz.

questions answered:	327
correct:	236 (72.2%)
skipped:	522
best streak:	8
questions added:	0

beat her score »

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