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fullygoldy) wrote2007-07-08 01:45 pm
Saturday!
Wow! I spend one Saturday reading actual books with paper pages, and my flist explodes with the SGA Kissing squee, LOL. Lots of tasty morsels over there, yes indeedy.
Since I read two whole books though, I figure I ought to review them.
The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner was on my WisCon reading list. I hadn't intended to read it first, but I was in Borders with the kids on the 4th, and it was the only thing on my list I could remember well enough to find (although I suspect the majority of my WisCon list cannot be picked up at will at Borders). It's a YA Fantasy story, with a 15-16 yr-old girl as the central character. She learns to be a swordsman at her Uncle-the-Mad-Duke's whim, and she learns alot of other stuff too. Unfortunately, while I did lightly enjoy this read, because it is fun and engaging, I was also annoyed a lot of the time. It's set in a time when women are property and the rules of society are everything (and nothing simultaneously - as long as you have wealth and/or power). And the women are all trained from birth to help perpetuate the situation. So the semi-endless prattle about dresses and parties and catching a man just grated on me. The cool thing about the story is that the Mad Duke is completely in love with his former swordsman, and since he can't or won't let himself have that relationship, he runs around the city in a perpetual state of debauchery with both men and women. So our proper young Lady Katherine gets quite an eyeful of beautiful young men in various stages of undress, and actually engages in a bit of voyeurism near the end - so fun for any slashers reading along.
Next up, I picked up Mavis's latest as soon as she finished it. Sarah Dessen's, the truth about forever. Another YA, since Mavis is actually in that age group. It's about a girl's summer between Jr and Sr year. She'd lost her dad 18 mos before, and is still trying to come to grips with the loss. Her boyfriend is charming /sarcasm, but she manages to figure it out with the help of a bunch of new friends. See, she ends up working for a catering company run by an unorganized woman, her two nephews, and two other neighbor girls who may have been related as well. This wacky group of people are entirely unlike her normal crowd, and they're a little more realistic about surviving life in the real world. She learns something from them, and she's able to help her mom learn a little of it too. It's a sweet and hopeful story, with realistic depictions of what teenagers get up to during the summer months, minus the sex. ::g::
Rupert also got a book that day - the one missing from a series he was reading, and gobbled it down. He was happy to have some holes plugged, but it's not something I'm going to be reading.
no subject
In "The Fall of the Kings", Katherine is a background character, a strong no-nonsense Duchess, although I don't think there's a lot of info in there about her. Marcus does make an appearance though. The main story is about the Mad Duke's son, Theron, and Theron's lover, Prof. Basil St. Cloud. Basil is unraveling the history of the kings and their wizards, getting them both embroiled in it.
"Swordspoint" takes place maybe 20 years before Privilege, and is about Alec (the future Mad Duke) and his swordsman Richard. They cause a lot of trouble. I had a little harder time understanding what was going on in this one, but that means I should probably read it again sometime. Both of these books are kind of slashy! (Is that a word?)
:)
no subject
I'd been thinking of reading the others, but they'll have to go to the end of the list ;)