Ian Atrus - aNobii

Books (665)

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- Shades of Milk and Honey (5)
- By Mary Robinette Kowal
- Finished
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- Revenge of the Horned Bunnies (1)
- By Ursula Vernon
- Finished on Mar 8, 2012
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- The Sharing Knife Volume Two (59)
- Legacy (Sharing Knife)
- By Lois McMaster Bujold
- Finished on Mar 8, 2012
  
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The Sharing Knife Volume Two

These two books could be reduced to a very slim one if we removed all the dreadfully uninteresting parts where the respective families disapprove of the wedding because of tradition. The only time this book shines is in the few chapters dedicated to the malice and Dag's ghost hand.
It's a real pity ... (continue)

These two books could be reduced to a very slim one if we removed all the dreadfully uninteresting parts where the respective families disapprove of the wedding because of tradition. The only time this book shines is in the few chapters dedicated to the malice and Dag's ghost hand.
It's a real pity because, being a Bujold, even the boring bits are still exquisitely well written.

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— Apr 30, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Sharing Knife (26)
- (Beguilement, Vol. 1)
- By Lois McMaster Bujold
- Finished on Mar 6, 2012
  
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The Sharing Knife

First of all, this is definitely a romance book with some adventure traits, so if you're in it for the swashbuckling you might be disappointed.
The good is the usual Bujold's writing and world building: the backdrop is interesting, the cultures and magic are believable, the side characters painted w ... (continue)

First of all, this is definitely a romance book with some adventure traits, so if you're in it for the swashbuckling you might be disappointed.
The good is the usual Bujold's writing and world building: the backdrop is interesting, the cultures and magic are believable, the side characters painted with broad strokes but not enough to turn into caricatures.
Unfortunately this is literally a 'part one of two', as it was supposed to be one book but was split in two because of size: around one third into the book the romance blooms and the main story comes to a grinding halt, to be continued in the second book. This is not bad per se but it makes the book absolutely unable to stand on its own.
A tentative 3 stars which might go down to 2 depending on the sequel.

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- So You Want to Be a Wizard (33)
- The First Book in the Young Wizards Series
- By Diane Duane
- Finished on Feb 24, 2012
  
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So You Want to Be a Wizard

I think all I can say about this book is that it was OK. The magic as described by Duane is interesting and definitely more complicated than the usual D&D kind, and Fred the white hole is a delightful character. However, both the main characters and the story felt a little flat, even as they were ca ... (continue)

I think all I can say about this book is that it was OK. The magic as described by Duane is interesting and definitely more complicated than the usual D&D kind, and Fred the white hole is a delightful character. However, both the main characters and the story felt a little flat, even as they were carrying an impossibly powerful item and fighting against a Lucifer figure. At first I also thought that my ebook edition was missing a few pages because the ending was so sudden.
This is a book that came out in 1982 and the YA market has changed a lot since then, so maybe the series got better in time, but as a standalone it's not very satisfactory.

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- Walking Backward (1)
- By Catherine Austen
- Finished on Feb 19, 2012
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- The Labyrinth (3)
- By Catherynne M. Valente
- Finished on Feb 3, 2012
  
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The Labyrinth

This is a difficult read, heavy in language and word accretion, an interior monologue wrapped like a Quest through a Labyrinth at times fantastical, other times not unlike a journey through a deranged mind. It is Cat Valente's first novel, possibly her most poetic and lyrical, but also raw like an u ... (continue)

This is a difficult read, heavy in language and word accretion, an interior monologue wrapped like a Quest through a Labyrinth at times fantastical, other times not unlike a journey through a deranged mind. It is Cat Valente's first novel, possibly her most poetic and lyrical, but also raw like an unpolished gem - full of whatever it could be, but not quite there yet. And as hard as it is to talk about the plot of a novel which doesn't have much of one, the ending left me quite cold.
I admit it, if this had been my first Valente novel I'm not sure I would've bothered with a second one, or even to the end. It is however a very interesting read as part of an author's journey, compared to her more recent writings.

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- La valle della paura (1045)
- By Arthur Conan Doyle
- Finished on Jan 31, 2012
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- Cinque settimane in pallone (100)
- Gli Straordinari viaggi di Jules Verne 9
- By Jules Verne
- Finished on Jan 17, 2012
  
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Cinque settimane in pallone

Verne's first full-length novel, while setting the formula for many of his later books, is definitely not one of his best: the science is sketchy and the plot is basically a series of small misadventures in a row that the three main characters escape with usually not too much difficulty and a just m ... (continue)

Verne's first full-length novel, while setting the formula for many of his later books, is definitely not one of his best: the science is sketchy and the plot is basically a series of small misadventures in a row that the three main characters escape with usually not too much difficulty and a just modicum of ingenuity.
The book would still be enjoyable enough, however, if not for the blatant racism that permeates all the pages where they meet another human being: every single black person in Africa is either a savage killer (or a cannibal, or a bandit, or engaged in perverted rituals), or gullible and prone to worship our heroes as lunar deities; in any case, incapable of real civilization. The Arabs fare only a little better, in that they are rich and have fine cities, but then are all ruthless and intent on killing the infidels. This is way more than I'm able to tolerate even for a novel written in the 1850s, and the rest of the novel doesn't really make up for it.

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- C'è un tesoro in ogni dove (300)
- By Bill Watterson
- Finished on Jan 4, 2012
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- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (12)
- By Catherynne M. Valente
- Finished on Jan 3, 2012
  
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The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

I've just finished re-reading this story (this time in book format) and it's once again as wonderful as the first time. Born as a book within a book, Fairyland grew into the story of September, a young girl who is whisked into Fairyland and ends up having Adventures, meeting a Wiverary (part wyvern, ... (continue)

I've just finished re-reading this story (this time in book format) and it's once again as wonderful as the first time. Born as a book within a book, Fairyland grew into the story of September, a young girl who is whisked into Fairyland and ends up having Adventures, meeting a Wiverary (part wyvern, part library) and several other friends, rescuing a Witch's Spoon, riding on a Leopard, and more and more and more. Set into a pseudo-Victorian frame but historically close to World War 2 and with a distinct modern sensibility, the book melts all of its elements and ingredients into a delicious stew that is so much more than the single sum to its parts and is, in fact, a door into this wonderful Fairyland.

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- Testi e note (91)
- Oscar Fantascienza 65
- By Isaac Asimov
- Finished on Dec 11, 2011
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- Ventriloquism (2)
- By Catherynne M. Valente
- Finished on Dec 6, 2011
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- Hootcat Hill (2)
- By Lucy Coats
- Finished on Nov 29, 2011
  
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Hootcat Hill

A fantasy by numbers about a young chosen one in an alternate world setting that is supposed to resemble ours but with slightly different words (like technomagic for science or Frankish for French). There are some interesting ideas in the book, especially in the second part when Linnet goes to the l ... (continue)

A fantasy by numbers about a young chosen one in an alternate world setting that is supposed to resemble ours but with slightly different words (like technomagic for science or Frankish for French). There are some interesting ideas in the book, especially in the second part when Linnet goes to the land of the Fey, but the first half drags horribly slow and it seems sometimes to be rather quirky just for the sake of it. I think I would have rated it 3 stars if not for the language, that seems to make an effort to trivialize even the greatest magic and seems sometimes to have been written by, rather than for, a child.
And I know it's just a minor point in the overall book, but it's just wrong to sell kids on the idea that bullies will go away or even respect you if you stand up to them or show confidence. Not only it isn't true (most of the time it just makes them pick on you harder) but it shifts the blame from the bully to the bullied, reinforcing the idea that if you're being bullied then somehow it's your fault for not trying hard enough.

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- The Folded World (1)
- By Catherynne M. Valente
- Finished on Nov 18, 2011
  
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The Folded World

Wow. I am slain.
I didn't start the second part of this tale with the best of auspices. I admit that, while I loved The Habitation of the Blessed, I found it often hard to move through, as if I too were John struggling with a new world.
But this book. I don't know what his book is.
The second part ... (continue)

Wow. I am slain.
I didn't start the second part of this tale with the best of auspices. I admit that, while I loved The Habitation of the Blessed, I found it often hard to move through, as if I too were John struggling with a new world.
But this book. I don't know what his book is.
The second part of a trilogy is usually the weakest, being by nature the thread between two worlds, the beginning and the end, the exposition and the resolution, and therefore not exactly a creature on its own. The folded world plays on this, presenting us over and over with the theme of two worlds colliding: Anglitora, the daughter of John and a crane, whose left arm is a wing; Sefalet, the daughter of John and Hagia, with no face but two mouths on her hands and two voices in her heart; the two Pentexore, divided by a Wall, so close and yet so distant; Pentexore and Jerusalem; the past and the future, the past and the now; and so on, and so forth.
In so doing, The folded world manages to be even better than the first book, unfolding in front of us these four stories, which are really just one, giving us barely time to breathe as one chapter rushes into another and our heart gets broken over and over as it all tumbles down towards the end.

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