Media roundup Dec - Jan
Feb. 6th, 2025 09:42Mirror Visitor Quartet (A Winter's Promise, The Missing of Clairdelune, The Memory of Babel, The Storm of Echoes) by Christelle Dabos, translated by Hildegarde Serle: The world has been broken up into 21 arks, each presided over by a family spirit whose descendants have related powers; our protag is about to marry into a different ark with an unknown and dangerous culture. Recced by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skygiants. I found all four to be fun, zippy reads, with the second book being the most compelling -- the characters felt more natural, and you had more time with the setting and characters from book 1, as books 1+2 are largely set in one ark with the same characters. I also found those characters the most interesting, though there were many places where I had to tell myself it's book logic, the characters are magic. Some of the text, especially the dialog is tonally inconsistent, which I guess might be the translation, but also generally there were some infelicities, like repeating oriental doll as the only feature of one side character. I really liked some of the reveals in the last book as the hints earlier came together, but I don't know that that needed so many words... Also parts of the worldbuilding logic are a bit, dwelling on it too long is probably best avoided, lest it fall apart. After contemplating it more, I think I overall enjoyed the ending as satisfying on a worldbuilding level, but what it did to the family spirits was not a satisfying resolution.
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (DNF): A history of cancer. Very easy to read, but not much new -- snippets of the discoveries on the way without much depth, so I stopped midway through.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis: Letters from a demon tempter to his nephew on how to tempt humans. I feel like I've learned a lot about what C.S. Lewis valued in a person and in society... But relatively few universal truths -- the multiple ways in which man tricks himself with a sense of superiority notable among them. Less fun than the premise made it seem.
Ghost Music by An Yu: Former concert pianist with depression finds a connection to a mysterious disappeared pianist and mushrooms. I really enjoyed this and read it in one gulp. Atmospheric meditation on loss and searching for meaning, with compelling characters.
Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa: First book in a series set in a fantasy Africa based world, heavily about power and caste. Do not love the way the world building has to be spelled out, it felt a bit YA? Felt often that people were making decisions / things were happening that drove plot instead of made sense. Didn't continue to the next book.
Nü Er Hong (2023): One of those mini GL cdramas. Pretty cute, super fast paced. I guess the twist was technically foreshadowed from the beginning, but it was so surprising I didn't expect it hahaha. I do enjoy these kinds of tropes (even though 'suck the poison out' really shouldn't work that much time afterwards...), but I don't think the mini dramas are for me...
skygiants. I found all four to be fun, zippy reads, with the second book being the most compelling -- the characters felt more natural, and you had more time with the setting and characters from book 1, as books 1+2 are largely set in one ark with the same characters. I also found those characters the most interesting, though there were many places where I had to tell myself it's book logic, the characters are magic. Some of the text, especially the dialog is tonally inconsistent, which I guess might be the translation, but also generally there were some infelicities, like repeating oriental doll as the only feature of one side character. I really liked some of the reveals in the last book as the hints earlier came together, but I don't know that that needed so many words... Also parts of the worldbuilding logic are a bit, dwelling on it too long is probably best avoided, lest it fall apart. After contemplating it more, I think I overall enjoyed the ending as satisfying on a worldbuilding level, but what it did to the family spirits was not a satisfying resolution.The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (DNF): A history of cancer. Very easy to read, but not much new -- snippets of the discoveries on the way without much depth, so I stopped midway through.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis: Letters from a demon tempter to his nephew on how to tempt humans. I feel like I've learned a lot about what C.S. Lewis valued in a person and in society... But relatively few universal truths -- the multiple ways in which man tricks himself with a sense of superiority notable among them. Less fun than the premise made it seem.
Ghost Music by An Yu: Former concert pianist with depression finds a connection to a mysterious disappeared pianist and mushrooms. I really enjoyed this and read it in one gulp. Atmospheric meditation on loss and searching for meaning, with compelling characters.
Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa: First book in a series set in a fantasy Africa based world, heavily about power and caste. Do not love the way the world building has to be spelled out, it felt a bit YA? Felt often that people were making decisions / things were happening that drove plot instead of made sense. Didn't continue to the next book.
Nü Er Hong (2023): One of those mini GL cdramas. Pretty cute, super fast paced. I guess the twist was technically foreshadowed from the beginning, but it was so surprising I didn't expect it hahaha. I do enjoy these kinds of tropes (even though 'suck the poison out' really shouldn't work that much time afterwards...), but I don't think the mini dramas are for me...
