Full Details
WoGF Review: The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Jack Dowden (JDowds) doesn’t review Sci-Fi/Fantasy books on his blog 100 Stories 100 Weeks. Instead, he’s set himself the unbelievably naive task of writing 100 short stories in 100 weeks. The results are often disastrous. He came to WWEnd to talk to people about Sci-Fi/Fantasy books though, and is having a wonderful time doing it!
The Curse of Chalion is something I wish I hadn’t put off until now. I decided it would be the final book in the WOGF Challenge, because all the other books I had decided upon seemed fresh and different by juxtaposition. A medieval fantasy with lords and ladies and magic?
Meh. Been there, done that. Am I right?
Wrong, okay? Wrong.
There’s something to be said for authors who stick within prescribed limits, and then obliterate them. The Curse of Chalion may be a medieval fantasy with lords, ladies and magic, but it’s also a gripping tale with great characters and world building done right.
Let’s talk about Cazaril. Cazaril is the man. He’s the strong willed hero, if the strong willed hero got sold to a slave galley and spent the better part of two years being beaten and humiliated and threatened on a daily basis. Cazaril got screwed over in a political scheme (aren’t political schemes the worst?), but managed to survive.
WoGF Review: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Jack Dowden (JDowds) doesn’t review Sci-Fi/Fantasy books on his blog 100 Stories 100 Weeks. Instead, he’s set himself the unbelievably naive task of writing 100 short stories in 100 weeks. The results are often disastrous. He came to WWEnd to talk to people about Sci-Fi/Fantasy books though, and is having a wonderful time doing it!
There’s a certain humor that comes with SF, no matter how much we’d like to deny it. Murder… IN SPACE. Religion… IN SPACE. Nazis… IN SPACE. Like heavy metal music, the genre of SF/F can be inspiring and can ask a lot of questions about what it means to be a human, but there’s also a sense of hilarity to it.
Not so in Kindred. This book is called Science Fiction, but it isn’t filed under SF and even Butler said she thought it more of a “grim fantasy.” The only thing that makes this SF is the time traveling, and the time traveling isn’t ever explained.
Kindred is a simple story, at least in concept. A black woman, MC, living in modern day Los Angeles (by modern, I mean 1976) with her white husband, is sent back in time – against her own will – to the antebellum south, to a plantation where some of her ancestors are located.
In terms of plot and story structure, this novel obeys all the rules. There’s a gradual increase of tension, character arcs, and some clear plot points.
WoGF Review: The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin
Jack Dowden (JDowds) doesn’t review Sci-Fi/Fantasy books on his blog 100 Stories 100 Weeks. Instead, he’s set himself the unbelievably naive task of writing 100 short stories in 100 weeks. The results are often disastrous. He came to WWEnd to talk to people about Sci-Fi/Fantasy books though, and is having a wonderful time doing it!
I just bought a Queen size bed. It’s glorious. Granted, I can’t move around in my bedroom anymore, but it’s totally worth it.
There’s a little rack next to it. My girlfriend asked me to hang it in the bathroom months ago, but I never did. And I won’t, because it’s a great place to put my beer when I’m sitting in bed.
So I spent my weekend in bed, beers on standy, with The Killing Moon in hand. It was a near perfect weekend. I devoured N. K. Jemisin‘s book in four days. I would’ve gotten through it sooner, but eventually the drinking muddied my brain and I had to go play video games instead.
Nonetheless, The Killing Moon is a great book, and for the first time in a while, I found myself unable to put it down (when I was sober).
The story centers of three people: the Gatherers Ehiru and Nijiri, and a foreign emissary named Sunandi. Actually, there’s a fourth character, that of the main city, Gujaareh. Though there are no maps of the city, Jemisin weaves the place together with such strong visuals that it’s hard not to imagine it. Few authors nowadays seem capable of bringing a city to life like she has done here.
WoGF Review: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Jack Dowden (JDowds) doesn’t review Sci-Fi/Fantasy books on his blog 100 Stories 100 Weeks. Instead, he’s set himself the unbelievably naive task of writing 100 short stories in 100 weeks. The results are often disastrous. He came to WWEnd to talk to people about Sci-Fi/Fantasy books though, and is having a wonderful time doing it!
I finished To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis last night. After I read the last page, I closed the book and looked out the window at the stars. I said, “Wow. What an amazing b…”
That was as far as I got, because then my girlfriend walked in and asked why we weren’t engaged yet.
“Uh…. What?” I said, naturally.
She said some things.
Then I said, “Why can’t you be more like Verity Kindle?”
Turns out, that was the WORST POSSIBLE THING TO SAY. Not only because my girlfriend has never read To Say Nothing of the Dog, but also because she took the book, and happened to open up to the page where the main character describes Verity as the most beautiful creature in the world.
So yeah, I was a little fried when I sat down to review this book and I certainly hope the recent NUCLEAN EXPLOSION of a conversation I had with my girlfriend doesn’t affect my reactions to the book.
WoGF Review: Typhon’s Children by Toni Anzetti
Jack Dowden (JDowds) doesn’t review Sci-Fi/Fantasy books on his blog 100 Stories 100 Weeks. Instead, he’s set himself the unbelievably naive task of writing 100 short stories in 100 weeks. The results are often disastrous. He came to WWEnd to talk to people about Sci-Fi/Fantasy books though, and is having a wonderful time doing it! This is his first review on the site, and his first review for the WoGF Reading Challenge.
First, a disclaimer. I finished this book while reeling from the after-effects of the whiskey mixed with wine concoction my friends and I put together for New Year’s. So yeah, I was hung over. Still am a little, actually. Please don’t hold it against me, I’m doing my very best not to let the horse bucking around inside my skull taint my perception of this novel.
To make a long story short, this book was okay. Ann Zeddies (or Toni Anzetti as she calls herself here) managed to create a rich, biologically fascinating aquatic alien world. I rarely come across a world as interesting and diverse as Typhon in my reading. From ketos, to Round People, to Boogers, to the giant leviathans of the Deep, the inhabitants of Typhon are remarkable and very exciting to read about.
The biology of this book is what makes it stand out. The aliens you find here aren’t just some cleverly disguised humans. They’re alien. Communication via echolocation and scents excreted into the water, memories recorded in the form of underwater dance. Even the plant life briefly seen in the beginning of the book is given its fair shake. According to the back flap, Ms. Zeddies has been interested in biology and aquatic life since age three, and it shows here. The world of Typhon is fully realized and refreshing.
