Ahira's Hangar

I have read Blackout/All Clear and think that with a good editing it would have been an outstanding, perhaps even classic book. Unfortunately, it was not well edited. Do they even edit books anymore????? I have been running into this problem more and more over the last few years - pretty much since the economy tanked.

I have also read Cryoburn and actually think it was perhaps the weakest novel in the entire Vorkosigan series (though it is a spectacularly good series, so...take that as you will). Middle Aged Milo is simply not as fun as young energetic Milo. The book was saved by the last three pages...which were stunning and gut wrenching.

Have The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms on my Sony Reader - it was on sale recently. I guess I will see if the other two are available in e-reader format.

Everything is sort of on hold right now, though, waiting for ADWD. (Though I will probably read the new Kitty book by Carrie Vaughn when it comes out next week).

edited to add:
Feed is available at the mass market paperback price at the e-reader store. The McDonald book is not, though many of his other well regarded books, such as Brasyl and River of Gods are.

There's a new Kitty book coming out? Yay! I'm not much of an urban fantasy fan, but hers are pretty good.

I've also been frustrated by the lack of editing being done on novels these days. It's not just typos any more -- it's stuff being repeated over and over, as if the author forgot that they explained X 50 pages back. Someone in my building had exactly that complaint about the new Jean Auel, and I've seen it in other books as well. Makes you wonder who they're hiring....

The new Kitty book came out yesterday.

Yeah, the last SRD book would have also benefited from a good editing/tightening/trimming, IMHO. As would have the fore mentioned Connie Willis books AND the latest two from Robin Hobb (both of those duologies could have been marvelous single volume books if you cut out the repetition, plot side trips, etc). And the Auel book was just plain awful.

I have wondered if all of the big publishing houses have laid off most of their editing/proof-reading staff in order to save $$$$ since the Great Recession started.

Renewed this conversation with the woman in my apartment building the other day. She said the publishers let go all their on-staff copy editors and are hiring freelancers. And the editors are more interested in marketing than in editing, apparently. It's sad, isn't it?

Dowloaded the new Kitty book *and* ADWD this morning.

Started The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemison. This seems to be fantasy rather than science fiction.

At first I thought it would be yet another rendition of long lost rusticated heir comes to the capital - but in the second or third chapter (forget which) we are introduced to some pretty cool characters, and I think this book might turn out to be a hoot!

I liked The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Very unique world and mythology. The sex scenes were a bit florid (heading towards bad paranormal romance) but the book was good otherwise. Turns out is is the first book in a trilogy, though it was a complete story in and of itself. I do not believe I will read the second book, The Broken Kingdoms because it does sound like a paranormal romance, and I have read too many bad books in that subgenre.

Started reading Feed by Mira Grant. The novel started out as a romping fun zombie book. Further in it looks like it will be mostly about blogging. Not sure what to make of it yet.

For now I will be skipping The Dervish House. I have checked a couple of times and there does not seem to be an ebook version or a mass market paperback version and if my local library does not have it (something I still have to check on) I just do not want to pay full hardback price for it. I read the same author's Brasyl which wove together three story lines. One (in the remote past about a priest exploring the deep jungle rivers) was absolutely fantastic and I love it. One, set in the future, was mind bogglingly boring. The third, set in the present was about a trashy reality tv producer and was as annoying as heck. So this author is capable of producing thrills, boredom, and annoyance in one book. I do not want to pay for the latter two in hardcover and I do not know which way this new book will tilt.

You know, this is the second year in row where I left the zombie book towards the end of my Hugo read. Second year in a row when my expectations of a fun adventure story were horribly dashed.

Last year's book, Cherie Priest's Boneshaker, was a steam punk with zombies, mad scientists, and zeppelin pirates. Should have been fun, right? But all of those elements were mere background noise to the story of a reclusive and emotionally unhealthy woman undertaking an impossible quest to save her teen aged son and face emotional demons from her past. (This should all sound very familiar to Stephen R. Donaldson fans. ) It actually turned out to be pretty boring.

This year's book Feed also has the zombies as mere background noise. They are basically a stand-in for whatever can terrify people and society - you could substitute terrorism, war, pandemics, or whatever. Which would be OK - zombies as metaphor - if the author did not constantly and clumsily beat you over the head with it. The heart of the story is news blogging - performed by shallowly developed characters who, while young, somehow are better at what they do than anybody else who lives and breathes and are followed with bated breath by everyone in the world. (Talk about teenage wish fulfillment fantasy). Before the book was halfway over, you can tell who the bad guy (who very clumsily and repeatedly uses zombies to try to assassinate a political rival) is - and the characters are so undeveloped you could care less which of them live and which die. I have about a hundred pages left to slog through and at this point the only thing I care about is the eventual fate of a rescued barn cat named Lois. How in the world can a book this bad be nominated for a major award?

And the winner is...Connie Willis!



I am glad it was that work. Of the ones I read I can easily say the greatest number of positive things about that one. It was certainly flawed - but in a way that a good editing could have taken care of. And her description of normal everyday people responding to the challenges of WW2 and the Blitz were stirring and moving. We live our lives while surrounded by quiet heros...