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larryhammerOkay, yes, I got a FABULOUS Ise monogatari fic for Yuletide, plus there's an entire archive of interesting things to read -- which is too much to take in yet, especially with my currently dodgy computer. So Wednesday reading memesheepage now, Yuletide stuff later. On other words, baa! before squee!:
What I've recently finished since my last post:
Madan no Ô to Vanadis volume 7 -- okay, that didn't go where I was expecting. I keep getting thrown by the brisk narrative arc of this series, and by the sometimes surprising places to end volumes. As usual, the cover and illustrations are embarassing, but the high fantasy adventure is interesting.
Gakusen Toshi Asterisk volume 3, the start of a tournament arc (the first one, as the world is designed to have several through the school year). It's, well, a tournament story -- magic battles a-hoy. Plus villains unveiling themselves. At least neither our young hero and his female partner are stupid about things, including (mostly) their own relationship, and are even somewhat genre-savvy. (Some of the fanservicey secondaries, though ... )
Sucks to Be Me and Still Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley, breezy YAs in which our narrator, Mina, the sixteen-year-old daughter of two vampires, has been given a month to decide whether to turn and join them or stay with her mortal, mundane life. These are earlier books by the author of Cat Girl's Day Off that are not quite as assured (and assurance matters when it comes to this sort of voice) but it's a near thing, and the second one nails the ending as solidly as Cat Girl. Recommended.
William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher, which casts the story of Episode IV into cod-Elizabethan blank verse that is a) better than you might expect (at least the conjugations are consistant, if not always accurate, but nothing is done with you/thou usage) and indeed b) quite readable out loud. The additions made during adaptation are the most interesting parts, including character asides to explain motivations that reflect material from the other movies, plus a couple of excellent scenes -- the twwo most notable being a conversation between two Death Star guards outside the Millenium Falcon before they get called inside and conked and, when Luke mourns Ben, in systematic parallel, Leia mourns Alderaan. There is probably, somewhere out there, a lot of fannish annotating going on, identifying which plays lines have been adapted from (and often cleverly repurposed). The major weaknesses are iambic pentameter straitened to the page instead of loosened to the stage and a complete lack of any bawdy double-meanings -- in other words, it's not as strong with the Shakespeare side of the crossover. Best read only by those familiar with both canons, and aloud.
The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin, a Harlequin historical romance cum murder mystery set in Tang dynasty China, in the courtesan quarter of Changan. I'm far from a specialist in the society of the period, but very little in the way of setting jarred me (though the mis-use of "keel" for "prow" and "laconic" for "lax" threw me out hard). The romance and story are, in general, good, and Yue-ying makes me emit little ♥s. I understand that some of the author's earlier books have more of a wuxia vibe (she lists Louis Cha as an influence), and I shall be checking them out forwith.
Ore no Kanojo to Osananajima ga Shuraba Siguru ("my girlfriend and childhood friend (commit) too much mayhem") volume 1 by Yuuji Yuuji. Shounen high school romcom with a girl next-door competing with a girlfriend of convenience for the attentions of a clueless protagonist -- who at least is not a non-entity, and in some ways just as weird, despite his protests, as the titular girls. Can't exactly recommend it unless this is your sort of thing. It's not exactly mine, if it comes to that.
Toradora! volume 1 by Yuyuko Takamiya, a high school romcom written by a woman, which meant there's a chance that, despite laden with tropes from stories for teen boys, there's a chance it'd be intelligent about them -- and indeed there are hints that there are interesting things being done with the character types. If slowly. Besides, I like the Palmtop Tiger.
What I'm reading now:
New Tales of Tono by Hisashi Inoue tr. Christopher Robins, being a synthesis of and parody of folktales from a particularly remote area of northern Japan, where the target of parody is the expectations of the cosmopolitan reader.
What I might read next:
ARCHIVE BINGE!
---L.
What I've recently finished since my last post:
Madan no Ô to Vanadis volume 7 -- okay, that didn't go where I was expecting. I keep getting thrown by the brisk narrative arc of this series, and by the sometimes surprising places to end volumes. As usual, the cover and illustrations are embarassing, but the high fantasy adventure is interesting.
Gakusen Toshi Asterisk volume 3, the start of a tournament arc (the first one, as the world is designed to have several through the school year). It's, well, a tournament story -- magic battles a-hoy. Plus villains unveiling themselves. At least neither our young hero and his female partner are stupid about things, including (mostly) their own relationship, and are even somewhat genre-savvy. (Some of the fanservicey secondaries, though ... )
Sucks to Be Me and Still Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley, breezy YAs in which our narrator, Mina, the sixteen-year-old daughter of two vampires, has been given a month to decide whether to turn and join them or stay with her mortal, mundane life. These are earlier books by the author of Cat Girl's Day Off that are not quite as assured (and assurance matters when it comes to this sort of voice) but it's a near thing, and the second one nails the ending as solidly as Cat Girl. Recommended.
William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher, which casts the story of Episode IV into cod-Elizabethan blank verse that is a) better than you might expect (at least the conjugations are consistant, if not always accurate, but nothing is done with you/thou usage) and indeed b) quite readable out loud. The additions made during adaptation are the most interesting parts, including character asides to explain motivations that reflect material from the other movies, plus a couple of excellent scenes -- the twwo most notable being a conversation between two Death Star guards outside the Millenium Falcon before they get called inside and conked and, when Luke mourns Ben, in systematic parallel, Leia mourns Alderaan. There is probably, somewhere out there, a lot of fannish annotating going on, identifying which plays lines have been adapted from (and often cleverly repurposed). The major weaknesses are iambic pentameter straitened to the page instead of loosened to the stage and a complete lack of any bawdy double-meanings -- in other words, it's not as strong with the Shakespeare side of the crossover. Best read only by those familiar with both canons, and aloud.
The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin, a Harlequin historical romance cum murder mystery set in Tang dynasty China, in the courtesan quarter of Changan. I'm far from a specialist in the society of the period, but very little in the way of setting jarred me (though the mis-use of "keel" for "prow" and "laconic" for "lax" threw me out hard). The romance and story are, in general, good, and Yue-ying makes me emit little ♥s. I understand that some of the author's earlier books have more of a wuxia vibe (she lists Louis Cha as an influence), and I shall be checking them out forwith.
Ore no Kanojo to Osananajima ga Shuraba Siguru ("my girlfriend and childhood friend (commit) too much mayhem") volume 1 by Yuuji Yuuji. Shounen high school romcom with a girl next-door competing with a girlfriend of convenience for the attentions of a clueless protagonist -- who at least is not a non-entity, and in some ways just as weird, despite his protests, as the titular girls. Can't exactly recommend it unless this is your sort of thing. It's not exactly mine, if it comes to that.
Toradora! volume 1 by Yuyuko Takamiya, a high school romcom written by a woman, which meant there's a chance that, despite laden with tropes from stories for teen boys, there's a chance it'd be intelligent about them -- and indeed there are hints that there are interesting things being done with the character types. If slowly. Besides, I like the Palmtop Tiger.
What I'm reading now:
New Tales of Tono by Hisashi Inoue tr. Christopher Robins, being a synthesis of and parody of folktales from a particularly remote area of northern Japan, where the target of parody is the expectations of the cosmopolitan reader.
What I might read next:
ARCHIVE BINGE!
---L.
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