And, as promised, it's time for...
Jen's Summer Vacation Reading!


Which is actually more like "Books I Have Read at Some Point Since, Oh, May".



I picked up Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay, which I had heard good things about on various book blogs. The first half was quite slow - the second half I read in one evening! It picked up a lot, and aside from a few WTF moments, it was a fun read.

I decided to venture further into Kay's work, and brought home, over the next few weeks, The Summer Tree, The Last Light of the Sun, A Song for Arbonne, and The Lions of Al-Rassan.

The Summer Tree is the first of Kay's four-book fantasy epic, and I couldn't get into it. A couple of the characters from this show up in Ysabel, so I wanted to get more info on what had been hinted at in that book. Perhaps it's my aversion to Tolkienesque "Nameless Evil Threatens Fantasy Realm" tales, but I got halfway through and decided to pick up The Last Light of the Sun and see if I had any more luck.

The Last Light of the Sun, A Song for Arbonne, and The Lions of Al-Rassan can best be described as historical fantasy, with the real-life serial numbers filed off and replaced with fantastical elements (ranging from as small as "hey, there are two moons" to as big as "hey, there are faeries"). This made for a few fun games of "What Culture/Country Is Being Referenced Here?" while reading. They all involve a mixture of personal and cultural clashes - Arbonne is pretty much one big conflict between the Viking conquer-and-pillage mentality and the continental tradtions of chivalry and courtly love. Kay blends these culture clashes with personal entanglements between engaging characters, and the result is three absorbing stories, with A Song for Arbonne as a personal favorite.

One final note - Kay doesn't pull many punches when describing the often-brutal methods of conquest and warfare used - those with squicks or triggers would do better to avoid. Vikings, people!



I finally got my hands on a library copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, just in time for vacation.

I wish it was as enjoyable as vacation was! I really wanted to like P&P&Z, but I couldn't get more than a quarter through. It really is a cut-down version of P&P with zombies added, but neither the cutting nor the adding were deftly done. Seth Grahame-Smith simply took a hatchet to the original text, then clumsily stuck in some gory fight scenes with the literary equivalent of kindergarten paste.

My biggest issue is that Grahame-Smith put the start of the zombie invasion several years before the start of P&P - so by the time the book opens, the characters are all seasoned zombie fighters, right down to the warrior princesses of the Bennet family.

Now, when dealing with zombies in a comedic setting, a whole load of the laughs come from seeing the characters flail around while they try to figure out what's going on and what to do about it. Think of the hilarious bit in "Shaun of the Dead" where Shaun and Ed think the zombie lady in their back garden is simply a harmless drunk and then throw junk from the shed at her. Comedy GOLD. It'd have been loads funnier to see Lizzy Bennet and the other well-bred ladies of Hertfordshire try to reconcile the nasty business of zombie dispatching with their ingrained societal rules to never ever ever be anything less than perfectly polite to everyone.

The second big issue is, simply, that zombie violence is almost always more effective when seen and not read. That's not Seth Grahame-Smith's fault, it's just the drawback of the medium.

The third big issue is the unneeded liberties taken with the original text. Yes, you read that right. I have no issue with liberties being taken, I have many issues with liberties that detract from the enjoyment of the book.

With characters, it dovetails with my biggest issue - almost all the characters are seasoned zombie hunters, and therefore almost all the distinction between their personalities is lost. All five of the Bennet sisters could be the Quentin Tarantino Asskicking Female #593. With the text itself, Grahame-Smith felt the need to interject bits of modern-minded commentary on the social mores of Austen's time - I particularly remember a bit about Mary being doomed to a life of loneliness after one of her pious remarks - and it just isn't necessary. Anyone who knows enough of Austen to appreciate P&P&Z will know enough to be irritated by Grahame-Smith's spoonfeeding of the obvious.

So, amusing idea, terrible execution. Just watch Shaun of the Dead and the '95 P&P back-to-back; it's a far more amusing way to spend an evening.




The Thief is another book I'd heard good things about on YA lit blogs, and got it from the library in time for vacation. The short plot is this: Gen is taken from prison and put to work by the king's magus, to steal an ancient treasure from a neighboring kingdom. The plot moved nicely - since a lot of the story is "Gen and his compatriots travel through wilderness", Turner breaks up what would be a dull slog with the stories the travelers tell along the way - stories of the gods that obviously draw on Greek mythology, but not so much that they feel warmed-over. She strikes a good balance between inspiration and originality. The characters are likable, and it's nice to see how they learn and change over the course of the story. It's told in first person, and Gen's narrative voice is often amusing, and there's a nice big twist at the end that had me going back and re-reading for the clues. So, a good read, and I've got its two sequels on hold.
</lj-cut Holy crap, the Pie's been asleep for almost 3 hours. Long naps ftw!