Stuff I've read recently
Apr. 6th, 2025 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuago+ Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher. An alternative take on "Sleeping Beauty". Whimsical and creepy. I enjoyed it. A novella, rather than a novel, so it's a quick read. Kingfisher being very Kingfisher-y.
+ Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein. Literary fiction about a woman who goes to live in her brother's house in a remote village in another country. It was weird and written in a very run-on, kind of breathless style that I actually kind of enjoyed even if I found the overall story kind of unappealing.
+ Fatal Isles by Maria Adolfsson. Scandinavian crime novel, first in the Doggerland series - "Doggerland" is a fictional country in the novel, situated somewhere in the North Sea between England and Denmark. (There is a prehistoric region called Doggerland that actually existed* in roughly that area.) ...Anyway, the novel was pretty fun, some nice building up of this fictional location. I enjoyed the main character, a rough-at-the-edges female detective possessing equal dosings of angst, cleverness, and compassion. I kept getting tripped up by the fictional setting though - more specifically, how Scandinavian history would have been affected by such a huge piece of land existing in this location (the novel doesn't go into it, but man. I keep chewing on it.) Will keep an eye out for more from this author.
+ The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Time-travel novel in which some people from the past are brought to our time as part of a super-secret project of the British government. One of the main time-travellers is Graham Gore from the Franklin Expedition. The author's note at the back strongly implies that this work was heavily influenced by AMC's The Terror (and possibly even started out as Terror fanfic). ...Anyway, I found it enjoyable enough, though it kind of unravelled and got too weird toward the end. I have that kind of reaction to time-travel fiction in most cases, though.
+ Space Opera by Catherynne Valente. Eurovision, but it's in Space! A story in which alien cultures compete musically instead of going to war with each other. They haven't allowed in a new species in a while, but humanity's a candidate. The problem? If the newbie loses, it's total obliteration for them. The style this novel is written in is kind of obnoxious - think Douglas Adams turned up to eleven, plus Catherynne Valente's usual... well, whatever it is. The ending was sudden and unsatisfying, like many ESC pop songs. Interesting premise, some neat aliens, but overall not what I'd hoped for.
+ Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein. Literary fiction about a woman who goes to live in her brother's house in a remote village in another country. It was weird and written in a very run-on, kind of breathless style that I actually kind of enjoyed even if I found the overall story kind of unappealing.
+ Fatal Isles by Maria Adolfsson. Scandinavian crime novel, first in the Doggerland series - "Doggerland" is a fictional country in the novel, situated somewhere in the North Sea between England and Denmark. (There is a prehistoric region called Doggerland that actually existed* in roughly that area.) ...Anyway, the novel was pretty fun, some nice building up of this fictional location. I enjoyed the main character, a rough-at-the-edges female detective possessing equal dosings of angst, cleverness, and compassion. I kept getting tripped up by the fictional setting though - more specifically, how Scandinavian history would have been affected by such a huge piece of land existing in this location (the novel doesn't go into it, but man. I keep chewing on it.) Will keep an eye out for more from this author.
+ The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Time-travel novel in which some people from the past are brought to our time as part of a super-secret project of the British government. One of the main time-travellers is Graham Gore from the Franklin Expedition. The author's note at the back strongly implies that this work was heavily influenced by AMC's The Terror (and possibly even started out as Terror fanfic). ...Anyway, I found it enjoyable enough, though it kind of unravelled and got too weird toward the end. I have that kind of reaction to time-travel fiction in most cases, though.
+ Space Opera by Catherynne Valente. Eurovision, but it's in Space! A story in which alien cultures compete musically instead of going to war with each other. They haven't allowed in a new species in a while, but humanity's a candidate. The problem? If the newbie loses, it's total obliteration for them. The style this novel is written in is kind of obnoxious - think Douglas Adams turned up to eleven, plus Catherynne Valente's usual... well, whatever it is. The ending was sudden and unsatisfying, like many ESC pop songs. Interesting premise, some neat aliens, but overall not what I'd hoped for.
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.