Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey

Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars (aka 5/10)

I have had a strange response to this book.

I heard about it a while back and it had remained in the back of my mind as something I’d like to read. I love a good post-apocalyptic story that is all about piecing together what is happening now and what happened to cause/further the apocalypse in question. So it seemed this should be just the book for me, but somehow I never got around to it.

Then there was an internet brouhaha over Howey being an “author behaving badly” and, personally, I felt his behaviour was inappropriate. I can understand his feelings, but his actions completely put me off and I found I didn’t want to give the man my money. I took the book off my TBR list.

About a month ago, I had started listening to a new podcast (Sword and Laser) that chose to make Wool its May book of the month. I suddenly found myself caught between being interested in reading the book and not wanting to buy it. I finally compromised by requesting it from the library.

So now I’ve read it. And I remain conflicted, if now about the work itself rather than my personal ethics relating to buying it.

The ideas are great. I was fascinated by the world he’d created and how it was being held together (or not) as that was slowly revealed to us. But, to be honest, as I continued reading, I found that I was also bored. The book seemed to grow longer and longer as it went on. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about the characters, but that I connected less and less with the text as I went on. By a third through I was wishing I could read faster. By halfway, I was skimming.

I spent the whole book trying to decide if I was going to give up and look up the plot answers on the internet, or if I was going to keep reading and find out for myself. I never quite made the decision to look for spoilers as, once that decision was made, I couldn’t undo it, but I skimmed more and more.

I still think the world and the ideas are great and I’m glad I found out what they were, but I just wasn’t impressed by the book. As I finished, I still wanted to know the background and found myself in the same dilemma all over again as I tried to decide if I wanted to read the sequel/prequel, Shift. In the end, I decided I didn’t. I can’t go through the entire process again.

I know lots of people just love the book, and I don’t know why I so totally didn’t connect with it. I readily acknowledge I went into it with a possibly unfair bias against the author. I try not to conflate the author and his/her work, but it gets harder and harder in this internet age. When an author does something I strongly disagree with, it’s hard to stop that clouding my opinion. But I don’t think I’m so blind as to fail completely to see the worth in a work as I read it. I still think the ideas in this book were great; it’s just that I didn’t feel that book itself matched up.

So my final verdict is that this book turned out not to be for me. Don’t let that stop you. It might be just the thing for you.

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The Owl Service by Alan Garner

The first part of this is a repeat of what I posted as I began the book. To get to the new part without reading the beginning again, scroll down to the dashed line.

The Owl Service by Alan Garner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars (aka 7/10)

Written as I begin…

She wants to be flowers but you keep making her owls.

This will be a paraphrase rather than a direct quote, as it’s something I’ve always remembered, almost been haunted by, over the years since I read Alan Garner’s The Owl Service as a child. Every so often, that evocative phrase would bubble out of my subconscious and I’d think of it for a moment before going back to my everyday life.

She wants to be flowers but you keep making her owls.

Despite that deep memory, I’ve never reread the book. I was searching the shelves in the library a week or two ago, looking for books for Marcus, when I saw this edition sitting on the rack. I picked it up pretty much without thinking and checked it out on my card rather than his. I didn’t know if I’d read it, but that line floated up again and that’s why I brought it home.

Then I started making up a book pool for Once Upon a Time VII and it seemed only sensible to add this to it. Before I knew what had happened, I realised it was going to be my first book for the challenge. It’s either based on, or a retelling of (I can’t remember which since I read it so long ago) the story of Blodeuwedd, a Welsh tale from The Mabinogion and now I’ve written this introduction, I shall go and read it. I’ll report back when I’m finished.

=============

Okay, so I finished this 10 days ago and I still haven’t come back to finish my review. That’s because I don’t quite know what to say.

I have found myself with two reactions to this book. One is a response to the words on the page, and I find myself very disappointed to say that it didn’t hold up to my memories of it. BUT, and this is the strange thing, my emotional reaction remains the same. What I have carried away from the book remains magical and I don’t quite know why.

The prose is actually very sparse. You are thrown into the story without much – or really any – introduction to the characters or the setting. Immediately, Alison is hear scritchings in the ceiling and Gwyn is looking into it and finding the plates. Bang, off we go.

There’s a good bit of back-story that really isn’t fully spelled out. It isn’t always clear exactly what is happening and sometimes the story jumps ahead, straight into the next bit of action without transitioning you there. It also ends abruptly, as soon as the threat is done, with no wind-down or investigation into the consequences of what has just happened.

And YET…

Garner works some kind of subtle magic I totally don’t understand, so that the reader seems to pick up all those missing pieces by osmosis. And the result is that while I noticed those things while reading, once I was finished, the magic was back and I found myself loving the book all over again.

I don’t know what it is. I don’t know how he does it. But it works.

However, I may choose not to read the book itself again, and instead hold the glow of the story to myself like a warm and pleasant memory where some of the magic comes from the blurring of the actual experience.

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Starting The Owl Service

When I felt up to blogging more than I do now, I used to do a “Starting” post for books where I’d give the cover and blurb. I’m not going to go back to that, but I’ve just started The Owl Service by Alan Garner as my first book for Once Upon a Time VII. It kind of has an introduction, which I’ve already put up on Goodreads. I’ll finish the post once I’ve read the book. But I wanted to share it here too. When I do the actual review, I’ll do a new post, but again put this introductory piece at the beginning.

The Owl Service by Alan Garner

Written as I begin…

She wants to be flowers but you keep making her owls.

This will be a paraphrase rather than a direct quote, as it’s something I’ve always remembered, almost been haunted by, over the years since I read Alan Garner’s The Owl Service as a child. Every so often, that evocative phrase would bubble out of my subconscious and I’d think of it for a moment before going back to my everyday life.

She wants to be flowers but you keep making her owls.

Despite that deep memory, I’ve never reread the book. I was searching the shelves in the library a week or two ago, looking for books for Marcus, when I saw this edition sitting on the rack. I picked it up pretty much without thinking and checked it out on my card rather than his. I didn’t know if I’d read it, but that line floated up again and that’s why I brought it home.

When I started making up a book pool for Once Upon a Time VII, it seemed only sensible to add this to it. Before I knew what had happened, I realised it was going to be my first book for the challenge. It’s either based on, or a retelling of (I can’t remember which since I read it so long ago) the story of Blodeuwedd, a Welsh tale from The Mabinogion and now I’ve written this introduction, I shall go and read it. I’ll report back when I’m finished.

Book Pool for Once Upon a Time VII

I hadn’t planned to do anything like a book pool for Once Upon a Time. Since I’ve only signed up for The Journey, that commits me to just as single book, I’d just thought something I picked up along the way would do. But Susan suggested it, and pretty lists of books are always fun, so I decided to go ahead.

These are mainly books from my TBR list or ones that I’ve recently added to my Kindle. A number are older books where I started rereading the series and got sidetracked, so this seems a good time and excuse to go back to them. Two (Traitor’s Knot and Fool’s Errand) I’d actually started before getting side tracked so maybe I should try to focus on those. We’ll see. Anyway, here’s a pretty list with pretty pictures.

(Now I know how to use it, I do like WordPress’ gallery function.)

The Bards of Bone Plain
Patricia A. McKillip

Changer
Jane Lindskold

Child of the Prophecy
Juliet Marillier

Elfhome
Wen Spencer

Fool’s Errand
Robin Hobb

The Shadowed Sun
N. K. Jemisin

The Master
Louise Cooper

Restoration
Carol Berg

Rosemary and Rue
Seanan McGuire

The Scorpio Races
Maggie Stiefvater

The Sword of Calandra
Susan Dexter

Traitor’s Knot
Janny Wurts

The Voice
Anne Bishop

Wild Invitation
Nalini Singh

The Throne of Scone
Patricia Kennealy-Morrison

Drowned Ammet
Diana Wynne Jones

Wraiths of Time
Andre NOrton

The Hounds of the Morrigan
Pat O’Shea

The Star Scroll
Melanie Rawn

The Owl Service
Alan Garner

Once Upon a Time VII: The Journey

Once again, Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting the Once Upon a Time reading challenge. He insists it isn’t really a challenge, but a chance to share reading fantasy, folklore, fairy tales and mythology. I love the idea, but I resisting setting myself large challenges these days. I’m trying to go with guidelines rather than rules, as a friend so eloquently put it for me.

So I’m signing up for The Journey. Carl describes that as:

This is really as simple as the name implies. It means you are participating, but not committing yourself to any specific number of books. By signing up for The Journey you are agreeing to read at least one book within one of the four categories during March 21st to June 21st period.Just one book. If you choose to read more, fantastic! If not, then we have still had the pleasure of your company during this three month reading journey and hopefully you have read a great book, met some interesting people, and enjoyed the various activities that occur during the challenge. It has always been of utmost importance to me that the challenges that I host be all about experiencing enjoyable literature and sharing it with others. I want you to participate. Hence, The Journey.

That sounds perfect for me. I’m sure I’ll read more than one book in that time. In fact, I’ll probably easily manage the five required for the Quest the First. All the same, I’m officially joining The Journey as a way to avoid the stress of a requirement. I will try to include reviews of the books I read that qualify so I can share my enjoyment with others.

Dinosaur Planet by Anne McCaffrey

Dinosaur Planet by Anne McCaffrey

My rating: 2 of 5 stars (aka 5/10)

An interesting little mystery (that goes completely unsolved) but otherwise, to be honest, quite boring. I’m happy to have read it for completeness, and I guess I do want to find out what the conclusion is, but it’s far from McCaffrey’s best.

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Written in Red by Anne Bishop

Written in Red by Anne Bishop

My rating: 5 of 5 stars (aka 10/10)

Awesome start to a new series.

For anyone who is tired of all those same old-same old urban fantasy and paranormal books out there, this is the perfect antidote. Werewolves and vampires who are truly scary without needing to be evil. Even scarier creatures who again are unhuman rather than evil. Humans who are the minority in the world population and know it (but try to pretend they don’t). Lots of slowly developing relationships and even cautious friendships without romance tropes.

Meg was an wonderful character who did some of the sterotypical things of the genre (such as making the Others see at least some humans as people rather than prey; being the only one who can get through to the scared and damaged child; having special powers) but did them all in unique and non-stereotypical ways. She was awesome without being annoying.

Sam was adorable and the ponies were awesome. (I shall say no more about the ponies, but they are such a cool idea and introduced, then developed ever so well). Simon was also great but I can either write several paragraphs or leave it at that. It’s late and I’m going to leave it at that. Discover these characters for yourself.

I highly recommend this to pretty much anyone. While totally different from any of Anne Bishop’s other novels so far, this book still contains her trademark brilliance, world building and skill with character. If the idea of her writing urban fantasy had you shaking you her in uncertainty, take heart. This is as much a Bishop book as anything else she’s written and it’s just as good.

Ms Bishop has just (8 March 2013) announced that there will be a sequel, titled Murder of Crows that will be published in March 2014. I’m already counting down. For me, this series has gone from “try the first book as an ebook to see what it’s like” to “automatic buy in hardcover for the collection and ebook for reading”.

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