Not many completed books this month due to hosting Thanksgiving and a lot of stress. I do have a lot of half-finished books on my pile that I’m trying to get through by the end of the year. Gotta start the new year with a clean book slate. Anyway, here’s what I read in November.
Speculative Fiction
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch – I tried to finish this one because it was recommended by an author I love, but ended up DNFing one hour from the end because I just couldn’t care. This book strongly reminded me of the Dresden Files. If you like Dresden, this might be a good thing for you, but I didn’t enjoy Dresden for all the same reasons I didn’t enjoy this.
The biggest problem for me was the blatant sexism. Our main character is constantly fantasizing about and oogling every woman in the book, and when they catch him doing it, they like it. Ugh. You can argue that “the character is just like this” and sure, there are people like this in the world, but you don’t have to write about them and I certainly don’t want to read about them. This book was more explicit with these and even worse than Dresden in this area. No thanks.
Other problems for me were: random world building, the main character basically being on passive info-quests the entire book instead of being active, etc. The folk story (?) that the book hinges on is not one I’m familiar with either, so that probably made the book less fun as I couldn’t guess what was going to happen and have that “surprising-yet-inevitable” feeling. Overall, definitely not for me, but would recommend to Dresden fans.
Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson – The Skyward series stays true to form by introducing a completely new supporting cast in this third volume. Leaving behind the original Skyward crew for Starsight was controversial in the fandom, so hopefully people are starting to get the pattern now. I enjoyed the new characters in this book more than those in Starsight. Space pirates forever!
On a more serious note, this volume was a lot less action packed and more introspective than the first two. I enjoyed the contemplation of what the individual owes to the system they neither created or asked to be a part of. What is the ethical way to act when the world is falling apart around you? Overall, I enjoyed this volume more than Starsight but less than the original Skyward. It’s a worthy sequel to this YA SF adventure.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Rift – Not as amazing as The Search, but still a fun extension of the show. I loved Toph’s reunion with a certain character, though I felt the resolution of the conflict between her and Aang was a little rushed and didn’t land. You can also see echoes of Legend of Korra in the relationship between the spirits and the humans.
Fiction
A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg – This book was a perfectly charming little Christmas story. Strangely, it ends up being more about the whole town rather than the main character of the first few chapters, so don’t be too stressed about his plotline. Reminded me strongly of other quirky Southern fiction about small towns, like Cold Sassy Tree. If you’re in the mood for a feel-good story, this will fit the bill, but it’s nothing particularly amazing that I’d want to return to again.
