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beccaelizabethI mostly read the next Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher, Turncoat.
I was going to put the name up there in the subject and make a whole review and all, but I find I don't have much to say about it. I read it all in a row in one day. It had an adventure. Things went boom. I like it when things go boom. I was not wowed. I ended up sort of vaguely dissatisfied, like it had a sort of mist of Fail over it without me pinning particular Fail down anywhere. Lots of focus on succubus women, for example, and women using sex to get what they want in general, was not really counterbalanced by presence of Murphy or other competent women. And I think somewhere along the line it ended up saying that supporters of the Black Council, the bad guy magic user councils, were in fact black people. There was a bit about mages from countries that aren't Europe and North America being annoyed at the White Council and feeling that the Council didn't take them seriously and represent their interests, and then by the end of the book their representative is in place because of the machinations of the Black Council. Despite the ethnic diversity of some of the American characters there's a distinct whiff of Fail in that concept. But there are all those characters on both sides, and a big complicated many sides to the issue tangle going on, so it's not like I can pick something up and point and say Fail Is Here. It might be there's no particular Fail and I just didn't like the book much so I started poking it.
I'm not impressed with Harry Dresden as a point of view character any more. I don't know if the earlier books would work better if I re-read them or if I've just gone off the guy. Sexism with a chivalric tone is still sandpapery. And it's way less interesting to watch him be judgemental at other people struggling with their ethical choices than it was to watch him struggle with his own.
So I finished the book, and it was okay, but vaguely disatisfying.
I read it mostly to distract myself from what my digestive system was doing, so I was not in the best mood for books. I had plans for the day but by 0600 realised biology was going to rewrite them. Is a very good thing today was cleaner day.
House is clean. I is tired. Day was kind of flat.
I was going to put the name up there in the subject and make a whole review and all, but I find I don't have much to say about it. I read it all in a row in one day. It had an adventure. Things went boom. I like it when things go boom. I was not wowed. I ended up sort of vaguely dissatisfied, like it had a sort of mist of Fail over it without me pinning particular Fail down anywhere. Lots of focus on succubus women, for example, and women using sex to get what they want in general, was not really counterbalanced by presence of Murphy or other competent women. And I think somewhere along the line it ended up saying that supporters of the Black Council, the bad guy magic user councils, were in fact black people. There was a bit about mages from countries that aren't Europe and North America being annoyed at the White Council and feeling that the Council didn't take them seriously and represent their interests, and then by the end of the book their representative is in place because of the machinations of the Black Council. Despite the ethnic diversity of some of the American characters there's a distinct whiff of Fail in that concept. But there are all those characters on both sides, and a big complicated many sides to the issue tangle going on, so it's not like I can pick something up and point and say Fail Is Here. It might be there's no particular Fail and I just didn't like the book much so I started poking it.
I'm not impressed with Harry Dresden as a point of view character any more. I don't know if the earlier books would work better if I re-read them or if I've just gone off the guy. Sexism with a chivalric tone is still sandpapery. And it's way less interesting to watch him be judgemental at other people struggling with their ethical choices than it was to watch him struggle with his own.
So I finished the book, and it was okay, but vaguely disatisfying.
I read it mostly to distract myself from what my digestive system was doing, so I was not in the best mood for books. I had plans for the day but by 0600 realised biology was going to rewrite them. Is a very good thing today was cleaner day.
House is clean. I is tired. Day was kind of flat.
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Date: 2010-07-30 04:22 am (UTC)