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February RYO Review Poll Winners!
1st Place
Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente
Alix Heintzman (AlixHeintzman)
2nd Place
Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
Rhonda Knight (RhondaK101)
3rd Place
Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear
Nadine Gemeinböck (Linguana)
The February Roll-Your-Own Review Poll is closed and we have our three winners! Congrats to Alix, Rhonda and Nadine and thanks to everyone for all the great reviews! Our winners will find an Amazon.com gift card waiting for them in their email inbox for $25, $15 and $10 respectively.
This is Alix’s second 1st place win – congrats to her! We also had a tie for 3rd place between Nadine and Stephen Poltz for his review of Down Below Station but the tie breaking vote went to Nadine. Better luck next time, Stephen. I have no doubt you’ll be in the running again!
A look at the stats shows us that the RYO is still going strong with a nice jump in all areas except for the number of challenges. I’m going to post a new challenge in April that I think will be a lot of fun. It’s going to be interesting to see how many people can find time for yet another challenge but it will be a short one so I’m hoping to lure out a few adventurous souls.
| Challenges: | 27 |
| Participants: | 454 |
| Books Read: | 455 |
| Books Reviewed: | 224 |
Roll-Your-Own Reading Challenge: February Review Poll
So I guess it’s obvious we’re pretty far behind on getting this review poll started. My apologies for being so tardy but, in my own defense, I was on vacation this month and there have been over 200 reviews. You guys are not making this easy! Anywho, here are 16 great reviews that we featured in the blog from February. Your job is to read through them and pick your top three. In an effort to catch up we’re going to run a short poll so you only have until next Friday, the 28th to vote so don’t delay!
- We by Yevgeny Zamyatin – Charles Dee Mitchell (charlesdee)
- Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem – Rhonda Knight (RhondaK101)
- Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein – Scott Lazerus (Scott Laz)
- Orlando by Virginia Woolf – Rae McCausland (ParallelWorlds)
- The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe – Barry F. (bazhsw)
- The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin – Allie McCarn (Allie)
- Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford D. Simak – Megan AM (couchtomoon)
- The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett – Beth Besse (Badseedgirl)
- Changeless by Gail Carriger – Clare Fitzgerald (thecynicalromantic)
- Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear – Nadine Gemeinböck (Linguana)
- Astra by Naomi Foyle – Val (valashain)
- Titan by John Varley – Tiara W. (digitaltempest)
- Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress – Sue Bricknell (SueCCCP)
- An Autumn Tale by Teresa Frohock – Wendy B. (nightxade)
- Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh – Stephen Poltz (spoltz)
- Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente – Alix Heintzman (AlixHeintzman)
There are 3 prizes awarded each month for the best reviews: $25, $15 and $10 Amazon.com gift cards. Voting is open to all WWEnders not just those taking part in the RYO.
Thanks and good luck to all our reviewers!
RYO Review: Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente
I read the first few chapters of this novella as an act of faith, because Valente has earned my trust as a reader, and because Silently and Very Fast has an award and nomination list long enough to be its own short story (it won the Locus Award for Best Novella, and was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards). So I waded through dense cyber-fairytale imagery on the assumption that it would resolve itself into a story. It did. A very, very good one.
It’s difficult to find the beginning of Silently and Very Fast; it’s one of those Ouroboros stories which loops and curls until it’s eating its own tail. At some point, it becomes clear that your narrator is Elefsis, a self-aware program that lives in the consciousness of the Uoya-Agostino family in a future version of Hokkaido. Elefsis is passed down through the generations in a surgically-implanted jewel, and each human mind she lives in teaches her more about emotion, humanity, creation, and symbolic representation. When the book begins, Elefsis has just been hastily transferred to a woman named Neva — the last surviving member of the family. Neva is tense and unhappy to be saddled with the family heirloom, and she keeps secrets tucked away in their shared dreamscape. Elefsis mines their internal consciousness (the Interior), and discovers more about the world outside them and her place in it.
RYO Review: Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh
I’m not a big fan of C. J. Cherryh. I know she has a huge fan following, but I find her books a tough read. Downbelow Station was no exception. It started out interestingly, with a chapter summarizing Earth’s early space colonization activities. As space stations were built farther away, the more remote stations and merchants, which formed the Union, began to rebel against domination by the Earth Company. Chapter Two begins the story in the middle of the war between the Union and the Company at Downbelow Station, the first station built around a planet inhabited by sentient, although primitive beings. That’s where it fell apart for me.
As many of my readers know, I don’t care for space operas. This is first of the operas to win a Hugo. It’s full of anger, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, gangs, riots, assassins, and greed. No one is really happy and it takes a long time to figure out if any of the characters are even likeable. The book is divided into five parts, and Cherryh spends a lot of the first three inside the characters heads. They’re low on action, and high in exposition and setup. I found this unbearably tedious. All the characters are flawed. I don’t mind flawed characters, but was sad was that most of them were cardboard and unredeemable.
RYO Review: Miserere: An Autumn Tale by Teresa Frohock
Have you ever read a book and wished you could chat with the author to find out what they meant at a certain part? To learn what went into the crafting of a character or plot line? Well I’ve been chatting with Teresa Frohock a bit on Twitter for a while now, with the intent to read her book. Then I was struck with the idea of actually livetweeting my read the way I livetweet TV shows. Ms. Frohock loved the idea and as a result, I got to have the most wonderful reading experience with a great book and a fantastic author.
[View the story “MisLT: The Miserere Livetweet” on Storify]
Miserere is a tale of hope and redemption, of love and of faith. But it is not a tale involving pretty flowers (in fact, there is one not-so-pretty flower that would make an interesting Valentine’s Day gift) nor is it a sweet love story. Frohock delves into the darkest emotions and desires with Miserere and, perhaps the only flaw I have with this book is that she could have gone even deeper.
RYO Review: Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
Beggars in Spain won a number of awards when it was first published, including the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella, so I was expecting quite a lot going in. I was not disappointed. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I devoured this book and was constantly delighted by the ‘hard’ Science Fiction on display.
The premise sounds very intriguing: an exploration of the strains placed upon American society by the development by a group that is unquestionably not “created equal”. I mention the Declaration of Independence here, because it is a cornerstone for much of the political and sociological debate in the book. The concepts of freedom, responsibility, equality and community are explored in depth throughout the story and the characters repeatedly refer to the Declaration of Independence as well as the writings and speeches of Abraham Lincoln. I found this far more interesting than I would have imagined, because it sounds like it would be rather dry and dull. However, the author keeps such discourse to a minimum and presents the arguments in such a way that they hold the attention and provoke contemplation of the issues involved rather than causing the eyes to glaze over and the mind to skip over these sections. I feel educated by this book, and that is not something that I can say very frequently.
RYO Review: Titan by John Varley
During an exploration expedition to the planet Saturn, Cirocco “Rocky” Jones–captain of the space vessel, Ringmaster–and her crew encounter an anomalous satellite revolving around the planet. The closer they get to the anomaly, the more they begin to realize that it’s actually a habitat of some sort. While trying to report their findings back to NASA, they are pulled into the satellite. The Ringmaster is destroyed, and Cirocco and her crew are rendered unconscious.
After spending some time in darkness, with no idea of how much time has passed for them in that unconscious state, the crew wakens naked, hairless, and separated (at first) in this strange habitat. The descriptions used during their time unconscious and their eventual awakening sort of seems to be some analogy to birth. However, their time in the darkness is terrifying for them, and instead of coming into this new world innocent, they still have much of their personality and memories intact.
RYO Review: Astra by Naomi Foyle
A couple of weeks ago I won a copy of this novel from Worlds Without End. The nice things about book giveaways is that you tend to take a chance more easily on books that you wouldn’t have purchased or the release of which you most likely wouldn’t have noticed. This is one such book. Although the premise appealed to me I probably would have missed it without the giveaway. Naomi Foyle is a relatively new name in genre fiction. As far as I have been able to determine, this is her second published novel after Seoul Survivors (2013). Astra is the first novel in the Gaia Chronicles and it doesn’t appear to be related to Seoul Survivors. It set in a post apocalyptic world, with a generous helping of genetic engineering and social experiments mixed in. The premise and style of the novel are very interesting but I must admit that at times, the book tried my patience.
Growing up in Is-Land, seven year old Astra’s greatest wish is to do service in IMBOD, the agency that defends Is-Land’s borders against intruders an terrorists. To do that she needs her Security Shot, a serum that will make her more receptive to the training she will have to follow, more resistant to doubt and closer to the children she grows up with. One of her shelter mothers, Dr. Hokma Blesser, disagrees with Is-Land’s policies in this regards and fears that it will take away something of Astra’s intelligence and curiosity. To excel in science, she needs these qualities in tact. She offers Astra a choice to conspire to refuse the mandatory shot. Reluctantly Astra accepts.
RYO Review: Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear
I’m voting for the Hugo Awards this year (for the first time – yay!) and, in order to make informed decisions, trying to catch up on some of the best 2013 titles. This, however, means that I sometimes have more than one volume of a series to catch up on. But Elizabeth Bear has been on my finally-read-something-by-that-author list for a while, so I gladly dove into this epic fantasy.
RANGE OF GHOSTS
by Elizabeth Bear
Published by: Tor, 2012
Ebook: 336 pages
Series: The Eternal Sky #1
My rating: 8/10
First sentence: Ragged vultures spiraled up a cherry sky.
Temur, grandson of the Great Khan, is walking away from a battlefield where he was left for dead. All around lie the fallen armies of his cousin and his brother, who made war to rule the Khaganate. Temur is now the legitimate heir by blood to his grandfather’s throne, but he is not the strongest. Going into exile is the only way to survive his ruthless cousin.
Once-Princess Samarkar is climbing the thousand steps of the Citadel of the Wizards of Tsarepheth. She was heir to the Rasan Empire until her father got a son on a new wife. Then she was sent to be the wife of a Prince in Song, but that marriage ended in battle and blood. Now she has renounced her worldly power to seek the magical power of the wizards. These two will come together to stand against the hidden cult that has so carefully brought all the empires of the Celadon Highway to strife and civil war through guile and deceit and sorcerous power.
RYO Review: Changeless by Gail Carriger
Snowpocalypse. Again. This one I celebrated by drinking copious amounts of tea and reading Gail Carriger‘s Changeless, the sequel to her delightful absurdist steampunk fantasy mystery romance Soulless, which I read over the summer (in a delightful rustic lakeside cabin in Maine. God, I can’t wait for summer again).
In Changeless, our soulless heroine, formerly Alexia Tarabotti, now Mrs. Alexia Maccon, Lady Woolsey, is just settling in to her multiple new roles as a married woman, the female Alpha of Woolsey pack, and Queen Victoria’s muhjah, when chaos strikes, in the form of an entire regiment of werewolves camping out on her front lawn. Well, that happens, but it’s not the real chaos, unfortunately. The real chaos is a peculiarly exactingly defined area of London in which all supernatural have ceased being supernatural, as if a preternatural (a soulless person, like Alexia) were continually touching everyone within a certain radius at once. Needless to say, the vampires and werewolves are rather panicked. The ghosts, unfortunately, have been exorcised, and as such have nothing to say about the matter.
