I've just finished Mary Robinette Kowal's 'Shades of Milk and Honey.' I think I'm going to give it a few days before I try to write a review for it, and I hope to stick with my previous plan of reviewing some past SF Masterwork before reviewing anything more modern. I still feel like I've been writing too many negative reviews, and I'm not entirely sure I won't have a few negative things to say about Milk and Honey.
Not that it's a bad book by any means, but having finished it I can honestly say that it just really wasn't my cup of tea. Just like I said when I finished Jo Walton's 'Farthing,' if you set out to read all the novels ever nominated for a Hugo or Nebula Award you're occasionally going to run across something that just doesn't interest you that much. Milk and Honey is a sort of Magical romance set during the British Regency based loosely on the novels of Jane Austen. There's nothing wrong with Kowal's story or her writing, I'm just not that interested in Historical novels set during this time period. I know a lot of people see it through rose colored glasses but whenever I read a story set in this time period I just imagine all the racism and mysogyny going on behind the curtains. I don't like it very much, or the idea that the greatest thing a woman can hope for is to be someone else's wife.
Though Kowal did suck me in with her little love triangle. By the end I was blazing through the novel trying to get to the conclusion. I'm a sucker for romance. So, the novel wasn't all bad, but I'm going to wait a little while to write a review so I can get the bad taste of Regency Britain out of my mouth. No sense taking my dislike of something out on an unsuspecting author, my lack of enjoyment is my fault not the author's.
I've noticed that I've had quite few new site hits in the last couple weeks so I figured I'd lay down once again what I'm trying to do with the blog. I'm reading all the novels ever nominated for the Hugo or Nebula Awards for Best Novel. It's something I've been trying to do for quite awhile, though I just recently started blogging about it. I'm about 40% of the way through all the books at this point. I'll publish reviews here in the blog but I immediately store them in the links at right. I try my best to mention when I'm going to write a spoiler for something, but I treat the reviews like actual reviews, I'm commenting on what I've read not trying to sell something. I wanted to create a space where people could really examine all these nominees without just reading opinions of them. Treat the blog like it's spoiler free and the reviews like they're full of spoilers and you can't go wrong.
I've read quite a bit of modern and classic SF and I try my best to point out what the precursors were to something you might have read, and when some otherwise unremarkable novel was actually the start of some random cliche. I have an excel spreadsheet containing all the nominees I've read and all the ones I haven't, I just don't really know how to link to that quite yet, but I'll figure it out soon.
Not a whole lot of people have been commenting on here, but I'm betting there are plenty of people out there who have views different than mine, and I'd love to hear about them. There have been some books that I've hated that I just know are fan favorites, and some books I defend (like 'Ender's Game') that people detest these days. If someone has a different viewpoint feel free to write all about it in the comments.
I try to update as often as I can, but it can get difficult trying to read as much as I can while writing about it at the same time. I'm thinking my next review might be for something by Ursula K. Leguin, my favorite author. I'll review 'The Left Hand of Darkness' if I can figure out a review that isn't just me typing how much I love it over and over. I'll try to have it up in the next few days.
Not that it's a bad book by any means, but having finished it I can honestly say that it just really wasn't my cup of tea. Just like I said when I finished Jo Walton's 'Farthing,' if you set out to read all the novels ever nominated for a Hugo or Nebula Award you're occasionally going to run across something that just doesn't interest you that much. Milk and Honey is a sort of Magical romance set during the British Regency based loosely on the novels of Jane Austen. There's nothing wrong with Kowal's story or her writing, I'm just not that interested in Historical novels set during this time period. I know a lot of people see it through rose colored glasses but whenever I read a story set in this time period I just imagine all the racism and mysogyny going on behind the curtains. I don't like it very much, or the idea that the greatest thing a woman can hope for is to be someone else's wife.
Though Kowal did suck me in with her little love triangle. By the end I was blazing through the novel trying to get to the conclusion. I'm a sucker for romance. So, the novel wasn't all bad, but I'm going to wait a little while to write a review so I can get the bad taste of Regency Britain out of my mouth. No sense taking my dislike of something out on an unsuspecting author, my lack of enjoyment is my fault not the author's.
I've noticed that I've had quite few new site hits in the last couple weeks so I figured I'd lay down once again what I'm trying to do with the blog. I'm reading all the novels ever nominated for the Hugo or Nebula Awards for Best Novel. It's something I've been trying to do for quite awhile, though I just recently started blogging about it. I'm about 40% of the way through all the books at this point. I'll publish reviews here in the blog but I immediately store them in the links at right. I try my best to mention when I'm going to write a spoiler for something, but I treat the reviews like actual reviews, I'm commenting on what I've read not trying to sell something. I wanted to create a space where people could really examine all these nominees without just reading opinions of them. Treat the blog like it's spoiler free and the reviews like they're full of spoilers and you can't go wrong.
I've read quite a bit of modern and classic SF and I try my best to point out what the precursors were to something you might have read, and when some otherwise unremarkable novel was actually the start of some random cliche. I have an excel spreadsheet containing all the nominees I've read and all the ones I haven't, I just don't really know how to link to that quite yet, but I'll figure it out soon.
Not a whole lot of people have been commenting on here, but I'm betting there are plenty of people out there who have views different than mine, and I'd love to hear about them. There have been some books that I've hated that I just know are fan favorites, and some books I defend (like 'Ender's Game') that people detest these days. If someone has a different viewpoint feel free to write all about it in the comments.
I try to update as often as I can, but it can get difficult trying to read as much as I can while writing about it at the same time. I'm thinking my next review might be for something by Ursula K. Leguin, my favorite author. I'll review 'The Left Hand of Darkness' if I can figure out a review that isn't just me typing how much I love it over and over. I'll try to have it up in the next few days.
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