icarusabides's reviews
574 reviews

What a strange little story

It centers around one person's obsession as they are seemingly attempting to staving off grief and loss by waging a one woman war against a prairie dog invasion. There's more to it than meets the eye however and things start to get eerie pretty quick. Towards the end the protagonist does make a few logical leaps that probably weren't quite there in the text but that's forgivable given the short page count and definitely preferable to a vague sense of confusion. The writing style is interesting too and I'll be on the lookout for more of Graham Jones work in the future as a result. Another very solid outing in the Trespass collection. 

Enjoyed this short story a lot, it's full of engrossing writing and VanderMeer builds tension very well throughout as even the chapter numbering adds to a feeling of counting down to something ominous. The ending is clearly controversial as it intentionally leaves things open and mysteriously vague which will be very unsatisfactory to some but as a short story full of atmosphere it worked pretty well for me. 

Cage of Souls is quite the unique read in part because of the conversational and amusing tone with which the story is relayed but mostly because of the world building. This is a book packed with lots of ideas and full of glimpses at a fascinating world but told through the eyes of an unreliable and fairly uninformed narrator leaving a lot of the secrets about just how things came to be in this world left intentionally mysterious. 

It's definitely a book with far more questions than answers and there are many puzzles such as the mishmash of anachronistic technology present, possible time travelers, strange roaming robotic (?) leviathans, or the myriad species being thrown up in an evolutionary crucible occurring at what feels like the last days of humanity. There are simply many secrets lost to time and too many new mysteries thrown up by the chaotic world around to be investigated, if anyone even cared enough to do so in this seemingly decaying society. 

The lack of answers to some of this or the multiple theories proposed by the narrator can be somewhat frustrating but at the same time it's tantalising and realistic enough that it works for the most part. There are also a few issues with character motivations towards the end, it feels like the plot needing to be moved along rather than some things happening organically. And while I enjoyed my time with Cage of Souls it is a fairly slow read, and overlong in parts, that has to be experienced fairly languidly. 

Despite its flaws as a novel Cage of Souls remains rather charming throughout and while I don't always get on board fully with Tchaikovsky's works the ideas and style alone are worth the entry fee.

Hard to fully articulate quite why I love this book so much and why I keep coming back to it over and over again because my brain mostly refuses to progress past because it's great, that's why. 

It's just a really charming novel overall. It's witty and funny throughout, the prose is enthralling and appropriately poetic, without being too flowery, in how it portrays the time and place of the setting. Portis writing about landscape and Mattie's journey through it, with her very unique voice, is just magnetic to read. 

"What have you done when you have bested a fool?"

Mattie's voice and force of personality run right through this book and every line of her narration is imbued with that righteous personality that drives the adventure along as a fourteen year olds' stubbornness and sheer determination leads to her accompanying these two, very, mismatched peace officers on an expedition into the winding stair mountains.

"Goodbye, Reuben, a love for decency does not abide in you."

Then there's Rooster, who would be a rather hard man like in real life to the point that I'm not even sure Mattie would have gotten along with him all that well in regular circumstances, even after their adventure together which us probably why the somewhat bittersweet ending works. He is nevertheless very much the man for this job despite his slovenly ways, questionable morals, and penchant for taking on some very dubious work throughout his life. He probably shouldn't be likeable at all really but Portis writes him so damn well, he's just the right amount of curmudgeonly, world weary, cutting, and bold - very very bold - that his character works brilliantly. 

Basically it's just bloody great and I adore rereading it even if the why of that greatness escapes my understanding. 

Comfortable and charming just like the rest of the Wayfarers series, it's always nice to read Chambers work which is filled with such optimism and kindness about people in such an imperfect Galaxy. There's probably a good essay to written about how much of Chambers Wayfarers Galaxy could rightly be a dystopia in another authors hands but Chambers always looks for the best in writing their characters and that's why this series is just so lovely to read. 

It didn't quite grab me in the same way as some of the other entries in the series, especially Record of a Spaceborn Few, but it seems everyone has their favourites in this series that happen to speak to them and although the series loosely ties together around the themes of communication, decency, and consideration each entry is different in how it approaches telling those stories. 

The Galaxy and the Ground Within takes five people stuck together at a rest stop for a few days and explores their commonalities, struggles, and differences along the way. Though they're more the Charming Five rather than the Hateful Eight. Awful line but I'm leaving that in. 

As always it's a delight to spend time with a Wayfarers book and it's sad there won't be more coming in the series but it was worth the ride nevertheless and there will always be rereads. 

Tigana has a number of nice concepts going for it, the idea of wiping the name and culture of a place from the minds of the world is a nice upping on simply levelling cities and salting the earth. The binding of wizards to a person of royal blood is also a cool idea waiting to be explored. 

The magically induced aphasia associated with the name and heritage of Tigana is a really interesting starting point but the author fails to capitalise on that potential thanks to repetitive, overly verbose and flowery writing that makes it a slog to get through the, rather limited, plot. This along with very flat characters and most of the plotting happening off screen really hamstrings the book the whole way through unfortunately. It's hard to care about a land and its plight when the main characters themselves don't really seem to care for much beyond the lost name and prestige rather than the people themselves. 

Women in particular are a real problem here with most of their function seeming to come as sexual conquests for the male characters whenever a plot element needs to be moved along. There's some very Rotfuss esque Felurian wish fulfillment writing going on at times and a lot really toxic attitudes towards women in general:

"I’ve been pleasant to you from the day we signed you on—and if you’re a professional you know that isn’t always the case in troupes on the road. If you must know, Marra, the woman you replaced, was my closest friend in the company. She died of the plague in Certando. I could have made life very hard for you. I didn’t and I’m not. I did let you know from the first that I found you attractive. I’m not aware that there is a sin in that if it is done with courtesy.’"

Dianora in particular, thanks to her predicament, is a real missed opportunity to write a deep and complex character, and she is about as close to one as Kay gets with this book but it falls short nevertheless with much of her dilemma in being torn between Tigana and Brandin left under developed. 

There's also the problem of the virulent homophobia early on in the novel which sours things massively and is completely unnecessary, as is the incredibly harmful allusion to the gay character being a paedophile:

"His father’s smile was so sad. Smiles are not supposed to be sad, Tomasso wanted to say. He had said that to a boy once, in a temple of Morian at night, in a room where he was not supposed to be."

"He might kidnap a boy from a temple of Morian, Astibar was saying, but plot against a Tyrant?" 

Creating a fantasy world and then adding that level of vitriol towards gay characters is a choice and since it offers precisely nothing to the overall plot or central arc of any character it just seems to be there because Kay wanted it to be as he even goes so far as to have one of the protagonists fearful to touch a gay character:

"Devin was impressed with the composure of the man. He was also aware, from the exaggerated courtesy and the undeniable sparkle in bar Sandre’s accentuated eyes, that although the fluting voice might be faked, Tomasso, in certain matters and propensities, was still very much what he was said to be. Devin accepted the glass, careful not to let their fingers touch."

Then there's the fact that one character, through the use of 'lotions and potions', assumes blackface for much of the book as well which just ugh... 

A very atmospheric and moving short story with a sad reflective tone running throughout it. The author does a fine job of telling a complete story, albeit a simple one, which is something that's not true of many short story works. 

Despite the lack of action perhaps expected from the genre, this is the story of Smiley patiently and methodically untying a knot of deception thread by thread and contact by contact. It's dense, as le Carre throws the reader into an existing web of history, deception, and relationships which are initially half explained at best. It's a book that very much leaves the reader to pick up the pieces and make connections as they go along through context. Presumably this either works for a reader or they bounce off it hard so I could see it not being for everyone, personally I find this style of writing and le Carré's prose in general to be magnetic, making for an interesting and engrossing read as each new revelation comes to light. 

Pretty refreshing take on an autobiography as it features stories and anecdotes from throughout his life which each chapter roughly based around a different theme. It's a very funny, quick, rather name drop heavy and for the most part pretty lighthearted read that features a lot of stories about drugs.

The audio version is pretty interesting as well as it features a whole cast of narrators, some of which are real people playing out their own parts, which allows the book to have sequences acted out as the stories (supposedly) happened. It works really well and helps with investing in the stories. Overall a decent read. 

The Looking Glass War is chiefly a story of hubris and futility, as (Leclerc) a head of intelligence operations desperate to stay relevant and restore his department to the glory of days past takes increasingly needless risks for the sake of his own pride. The mistakes are nearly endless; acting on clearly bad intelligence, supplied with out of date technology, using previously burnt agents, sending people on missions they're simply not trained for and are ill equipped to deal with, failing to do even the very basic due diligence. 

It loses itself in the second half as the story moves away from Leclerc and on to the training of Leiser. He's an odd duck, to say the least, and not a particularly engaging character to follow which is a shame considering so much of the book is focused on him. There's also definitely an issue with the attitude towards women in this book with the Wives and mistresses all being portrayed as reckless information leaking harpies which is a great shame. 

As is to be expected the actual writing from le Carre is great throughout but the mystery of the plot feels a little transparent so presumably it was intentional all along for the reader to see through it but unfortunately this leaves a feeling of disinterest in much of the plot as a result. Then there's the real mystery, namely that of why Control lets this whole thing play out at all which is interesting but unfortunately very much a background issue to the main plot.