contrary_cal

...and I have finally got myself lined up to make a post instead of just desultorily reading DW every now and again. Go me?

I haven't been doing much reading lately - mostly resting instead. I have, however, written a few hundred words of the start of a Kleya story which I hope to do more on soon. And over the past week or so I have unexpectedly fallen down an All Creatures Great and Small (2020) TV rabbit-hole! I'm not feeling fannish about it, but I wanted something to watch after the Call the Midwife Xmas special was done (I have ditched Disney+ and am doing Britbox till the new season is over), and it was there, and...I gave the most recent Xmas special a try and it's quite nice? The scenery is stunning, and I like that Mrs Hall is actually a character in this version. I'm working my way through the seasons backward, as appears to be my wont lately (I did the same thing with Andor), and it's been very pleasant. The new series of Call the Midwife starts on 13 January here, too, so that will be good.

What I've read

A Stocking Full of Spies by Robin Stevens: Quite a good round-off for the Ministry of Unladylike Activity books; if there aren't going to be any more then this makes for a fine little trilogy. The Bletchley Park setting was well realised, and thankfully there was lots more Hazel than Daisy among the older characters.

I did a few rereads here and there too, but didn't log them so I'm not sure now what they were! Though thinking back, I'm pretty sure one was Exit Strategy - always fun.

What I'm reading

Nothing right now. Too much All Creatures to watch.

What's next

One of my very long list of holds at the library is now in transit, so soon (hopefully) I will have a Quarterly Essay about Woodside's state capture of the Australian government to read. Beyond that, I don't know!

In other news, it got to 43C here today and the heatwave is going to last another two days. Thank goodness for air conditioning...and insulation...and ceiling fans...and solar panels to help with the bills!

ETA: I did go and see The Choral last Saturday, to round off my break. It felt a little awkwardly over-full and the throughline wasn't as clear as it could have been, but I liked it overall, and the music was gorgeous.

...probably because I've not had much of a reading brain for the past few months. And I'm still not getting anywhere much with the final chapter/s of A Common Language, sigh.

On the other hand, I'm feeling better in general and am planning to start a new Couch to 5k on Monday next week. And I'm studying! I'm doing a course on book index construction, and yesterday also did the first half of a workshop on using macros in copy-editing. Both have been great so far. :)

What I've read

The Last Soul Among Wolves by Melissa Caruso: I enjoyed this rather better than the first book in the series, partly because it was less repetitive both in structure and in detail, but the plot about Kem's oh-so-special girlfriend's oh-so-evil mother is still annoying.

Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North: I had to DNF this one, as my reading brain gave out partway through. Maybe another time.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Toward the Night by James Swallow: a fun, standard tie-in book with some nice character work (especially Erica and her great-great-aunt and their developing relationship), a cool concept and a really sweet epilogue. Good for reading when you cannot brain.

The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez: enjoyable story with some good characters (especially the golem), but every one of the many references to eucalyptus being a standard herb regularly used by fantasy-equivalent Jewish healers in this fantasy medieval eastern/northern European setting made me wince. It's not that you can't do that, but if you choose to do it, explaining how that particularly famous bit of stolen Indigenous Australian botanical IP got to where your characters are at a point in fantasy-history when there'd be little to no contact between the relevant fantasy-equivalent cultures even via go-betweens might help.

The Legacy of Arniston House by TL Huchu: I've enjoyed the previous books in this series, but this one just felt dull and flat and empty, and kind of mean. I won't be keeping an eye out for the next one.

Provenance by Ann Leckie: a fun quick reread. I enjoy Ingray and her family and misadventures much better than I do Translation State, which I just started a reread of after finishing this only to remember that I only really like Enae and hir story. Fingers crossed the upcoming Imperial Radch book will be more to my taste.

What's next:

I have the latest Benjamin January book on its way to me via the library (it's been in transit for some time, so it's probably coming from halfway across the state), and am looking forward to Claire North's Slow Gods and Robin Stevens's A Stocking Full of Spies hitting the bookshop at different points in November.

Hopefully next week I'll be able to get some writing done too - but it will have to wait until next week, as I'm off to the coast over the weekend for my niece's eighteenth birthday (which, when did that happen?!). She's just finished her Year 12 work in time for the big day, the clever girl. :)

So, having watched the season finale of SNW...( Opinions follow. )

Anyway, having now watched all episodes, my ranking is:

Really very good: Hegemony Part II, Terrarium, The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail.
Pretty good: What Is Starfleet?, Through the Lens of Time.
Middling: Shuttle to Kenfori, A Space Adventure Hour.
Wonky: New Life and New Civilisations
Just, No: Wedding Bell Blues (despite a very solid guest performance from Rhys Darby), Four-and-a-half Vulcans.

Hopefully Season 4 will be a return to form, though - including the aSpockalyptic romance vortex dying down to background radiation from here on in. Speaking of dying, though: because of her involvement in said aSpockalypse, I'm afraid we're going to lose La'an by the end of the series. It's a shame. When she's not around Spock she's still a great character.

(With apologies to Daniel Andrews for nicking and adjusting his line.)

I have been hauling my brain back towards reading mode over the last few weeks; I don't think I'm there yet, but I'm getting better. I should say that I've also been watching some TV series that I initially didn't intend to watch over the last couple of months! The first series was Andor, which I wasn't interested in until I heard about the Kleya backstory episode and then watched in reverse order, mostly skipping the tedious bits (aka anything to do with non-Rebellion Cassian and Bix and Ferrix). The second, surprising me since I've previously only liked DS9, is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is a pleasant way to spend time so long as I skip anything with too much focus on Spock (no offence to the actor, I'm just not interested in Spock or Vulcans). I really like the show's sure touch with comedy, the fairy story episode and the crossover with the animated characters were fun (the musical one less so, unfortunately), and I am very much in favour of #Moretegas and was also in favour of more La'an except then they went and stuck her with Spock.

I kind of want to write something about Kleya but I am still stuck on the final bits of A Common Language and don't feel my brain unsludging for a change of topic yet.

Anyway. Books!

What I've read

The Serpent, The Thief and The Master by Claire North: I liked the first of these novellas very much, found the second mostly okay and was bored by the third. Sorry, don't care about Silver, give me more Thene.

The Iron Princess by Barbara Hambly: ....meh? I finished it. The story was enough to keep me going, but the characters were barely there, so it was hard to care about them. Also, pointless tacked-on last-second reassuringly het romance for our heroine ahoy! I expect better of Hambly than that.

Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn: I saw this recced somewhere around DW and thought it sounded okay, but unfortunately the rec failed to state that it's basically wish-fulfilment romantasy from before the term romantasy was invented. Some nice worldbuilding and magic systems, which kept me reading, plus some nice and some thunderingly dull characters, screamingly obvious He Was A Boy She Was A Girl throughout and a conclusion that lost all tension offscreen and didn't make a lick of sense either. Fortunately it was an e-book and cheap.

The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri: A solid, mostly effective end to the trilogy.

What I'm reading

Nothing right now, my brain has re-sludged.

What's up next

I have a Claire North in transit at the library and may pick up the new Melissa Caruso when I'm in town at the weekend. Plus there's another SNW episode to watch tomorrow, which should be nice.

So, it turns out I am not a fan of Murderbot short stories that don't have Murderbot in them. Oh, well.

In addition to having an absolutely vile bout of post-COVID sinusitis and coughing (now cleared, thankfully), I flew to Melbourne and saw Hadestown! And it was amazing. Christina Anu, always brilliant, was a fantastic Hermes, Aussie Eurydice (Abigail Adriano) was feral in a way I haven't heard coming off any other recording, understudy Sam Richardson made a very nice Orpheus, and I honestly think that this production has the best Hades yet cast: Adrian Tamburini is an actual opera singer, a bass-baritone, who does not growl-sing a single one of those lines and who genuinely makes you believe his voice could short out a power grid - and who isn't afraid to dork it up amusingly in the moments when the King of the Underworld has to be all soppy about his wife. We need a live cast recording a la the UK one, stat.

Other than that, I have been fiddling with the epilogue to A Common Language (and think I may finally be on the right track, thanks to watching some bits of Andor) and reading stuff.

What I've read

Fugitive Telemetry and System Collapse by Martha Wells: Continuing my reread - this was actually the first time I'd reread System Collapse and finding it as enjoyable as ever. I actually liked System Collapse better the second time around; I was very tired the first time I read it and this time it was much easier to track details. I love Three and its attachment to nonfiction reading, and AdaCol2!

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh: It was nice to read a school story from the POV of a teacher, especially a teacher who actually enjoys teaching! - and I liked the worldbuilding and character voices. The blank pages bit was annoying, though. Don't do that, authors.

What I'm reading

Wifedom by Anna Funder: I've only just started this, but it's already enjoyable and interesting.

What's up next

Depending on timing, it will be either Melaleuca by Angie Faye Martin or whatever nonfiction makes it into the library first.

...because I'm trying to get back to doing them regularly.

I've got a little bit more done on my chapter, but am not fiddling with it this week because it is an absolute pest of a work week and I'm in a mood. But I have been reading. New books as well as rereads! It's been nice.

What I've read

Network Effect by Martha Wells: I always get a bit bogged down towards the end of this because I find it hard to visualise the action sequences for some reason, and also I don't really enjoy ART's humans other than Iris, but overall it's as enjoyable as all the rest.

Silverborn by Jessica Townsend: This was delightful. Detective Blackburn! The Jack reveal was painful (and needed). Loved the backstory that emerged, not just re. Meredith but re. Birdie and Ornella Crow (how did she know what to do to start with, given Birdie's extraction predated Meredith's arrival by some considerable time - and those nosebleeds - there's Wintersea Party plot happening there that's yet to be unspooled, isn't there?) and all the relationships between the Unit 919 members. Francis just really likes baking for his friends, okay?

Point of Hearts by Melissa Scott: Not as pacey as Fair's Point or Point of Sighs, but fun and enjoyable nevertheless. There is political plot unspooling in the background here too - not just the Not Quite Gunpowder Plot, but a bigger one that our protagonists don't have the vantage point to see yet. I hope we get more of the books and more of the plot.

What I'm reading

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells: My favourite Murderbot book! I love its lower-stakes feel and its humour and Ratthi and Gurathin helping Murderbot and Senior Indah and everything about it.

What's next

Well, System Collapse, of course, and also I want to see if there are e-book versions of the Westmark trilogy available on Kobo.

Also, in 16 days' time I will be newly in Melbourne, ready to see Hadestown with Christine Anu as Hermes on the weekend. Can't wait! (I'd say who's counting days, but it's literally the Qantas app...)

...because I have, finally, been reading again, a bit.

And writing, a bit. I've got about 700 words of the epilogue to A Common Language on the page, and am starting to get a feel for where it's going, but I'm taking it bit by bit and only poking at it when I have energy over at the end of the day (or on a public holiday - roll on Friday!). And at some point after I finish it I will, somehow, figure out how to tag it properly so that people who want to read what's actually in it can find it and people who are looking for something-not-that won't be misdirected to it and get stuck reading something they don't enjoy (it currently has exactly 1,000 hits, almost 300 of which appeared since the last chapter went up, but only 4 new kudos, which suggests to me that the second scenario is what's been happening, especially as the hit rate went down after I changed the tagging back to what it started out as).

What I've read

Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells: These would have been a fun quick reread, except I got COVID in the middle of it. I did pick them up again eventually, and enjoyed them, as I always do.*

The Legendary Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud: I think I broke off at the worst possible place I could have just before doing my last book post - ie with Alfred doing something that made me cross - because once I got going again I really enjoyed the rest of it. A fun end to the trilogy.

The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison: As a book on its own, I quite enjoyed this. As a conclusion to the Cemeteries of Amalo trilogy I did not like it so much. I found its insistence that, despite spending two books relearning how to trust people and accept he has a place among them, Thara Celehar is in fact infinitely replaceable and, in the grand scheme of things, largely unnecessary (despite being Special because Miracles), and must choof off into the ether with a potential boyfriend and stop getting in people's ways (but it's okay because Letters), to be rather at odds with the trilogy's apparent theme, and it made me grumpy.

What I'm reading

Network Effect by Martha Wells: Continuing the low-effort, high-enjoyment reread.

What's next

My copy of Point of Hearts (which I mixed up with Point of Dreams when I first heard of it, months ago, so I can't even blame the COVID) arrived today, so it will be that. And then Silverborn!

*No, I am not rereading "in preparation for" anything. Do not talk to me about the Adaptation. I do not want to know a single solitary thing about it, ever. It can fuck right off.

Or in other words, I have COVID, and it sucks. I was literally a week away from my next vaccination, too.

No reading post this week, too tired. Also, I'm too tired to write, which also sucks.

I'm still struggling with work motivation right now - or maybe it's just low ferritin, though I won't know till the doctor finally does what he said he'd do and calls me with my blood test results - but at least I've pretty much got the penultimate chapter of A Common Language done. Just a final edit pass and the HTML to do, and then I can post it. Possibly tomorrow - that would be nice given the birthday of it all. :)

I have been reading, though, at least a bit, so here's the list.

What I've read

All Systems Red and Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells: Comfort rereads for when the old brain isn't braining so much.

Nephthys, by Rachel Louise Driscoll: Interesting if somewhat unsubtle historical novel trying to do interesting things with the Gothic, Egyptomania and archaeology. I don't think it quite cohered, but I enjoyed it and will probably reread.

What I'm reading

Rogue Protocol, by Martha Wells: See above re brain not braining and comfort reads.

The Legendary Scarlett & Browne, by Jonathan Stroud: Final book in a trilogy, which I'm enjoying so far. Stroud really commits to his bonkers worldbuilding, and his characters are a lot of fun, even if Albert (the Browne of the title) can get on my nerves a bit from time to time with his choices.

What's next

The Tomb of Dragons, by Katherine Addison: It finally arrived! Just in time for my birthday! I plan to start it tomorrow, possibly over breakfast.