I've got to get back to this and finish the last couple of sections. I'm just in the middle of too many books right now!
Reviews and Comments
Techie, software developer, hobbyist photographer, sci-fi/fantasy and comics fan in the Los Angeles area. He/him.
Mostly reading science fiction these days, mixing in some fantasy and some non-fiction (mostly tech and science), occasionally other stuff. As far as books go, anyway. (I read more random articles than I probably should.)
Reviews are cross-posted on my website and I have a blog dedicated to Les Misérables.
Fediverse Main: @kelson@notes.kvibber.com (GoToSocial) Websites: KVibber.com and Hyperborea.org
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Kelson Reads commented on A City on Mars by Zach Weinersmith
Kelson Reads reviewed Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher
By turns melancholy and creepy, with a dash of sarcastic armadillo
No rating
Minor Mage is firmly in the "kid goes on scary quest and comes back stronger" genre. The 12-year-old protagonist is cast out to complete a nigh-impossible quest alone (aside from his armadillo familiar), facing ghouls and starvation and bandits and ghosts and murderers. He's a wizard, yes, but he's barely half-trained and only knows a handful of spells (though his herbal lore is pretty strong). Like the young heroes of A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and Illuminations, he has to learn how to make the most of his limited abilities in order to survive -- only this story takes place not in a city but mostly in wilderness an abandoned farmlands.
From an adult perspective, Oliver's constant lamenting that he's "only a minor mage" starts to grate after a while. But that's not the perspective it's written for: it's a kids' book, and operates on kids' fantasy logic. …
Minor Mage is firmly in the "kid goes on scary quest and comes back stronger" genre. The 12-year-old protagonist is cast out to complete a nigh-impossible quest alone (aside from his armadillo familiar), facing ghouls and starvation and bandits and ghosts and murderers. He's a wizard, yes, but he's barely half-trained and only knows a handful of spells (though his herbal lore is pretty strong). Like the young heroes of A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and Illuminations, he has to learn how to make the most of his limited abilities in order to survive -- only this story takes place not in a city but mostly in wilderness an abandoned farmlands.
From an adult perspective, Oliver's constant lamenting that he's "only a minor mage" starts to grate after a while. But that's not the perspective it's written for: it's a kids' book, and operates on kids' fantasy logic.
Speaking of the target audience: In the afterward, Kingfisher/Vernon talks about trying to convince editors that yes, this is a children's book, and getting constant pushback that it's "too scary." (This is how she ended up publishing it as Kingfisher rather than Vernon) It reminded me of similar comments Neil Gaiman wrote about Coraline, remarking that it was too scary for adults but not too scary for children.
Sometimes I wonder: Do these editors remember being 12?
Interesting to see Le Guin as she's developing her craft.
4 stars
This collection of three early novels in Le Guin's Hainish series initially looks haphazard, as if they were only collected because of writing order and not being as well-known as her later works.
- Rocannon's World is a serviceable fantasy quest wrapped in sci-fi trappings.
- Planet of Exile is a tighter story of isolation and people forced together by an invasion.
- City of Illusions involves a stranger seeking his identity in a post-apocalyptic Earth controlled by unseen alien masters.
But common threads tie them together. Not just her frequent themes like culture clashes, critiquing colonization, challenging racial stereotypes (both in-world and real), and just getting people to communicate. The second and third novels form a thematic duology:
- A single city of Earth colonists struggles to survive and adapt to a primitive world.
- A single city of alien colonists controls a primitive Earth they've adapted to their own desires.
And you can …
This collection of three early novels in Le Guin's Hainish series initially looks haphazard, as if they were only collected because of writing order and not being as well-known as her later works.
- Rocannon's World is a serviceable fantasy quest wrapped in sci-fi trappings.
- Planet of Exile is a tighter story of isolation and people forced together by an invasion.
- City of Illusions involves a stranger seeking his identity in a post-apocalyptic Earth controlled by unseen alien masters.
But common threads tie them together. Not just her frequent themes like culture clashes, critiquing colonization, challenging racial stereotypes (both in-world and real), and just getting people to communicate. The second and third novels form a thematic duology:
- A single city of Earth colonists struggles to survive and adapt to a primitive world.
- A single city of alien colonists controls a primitive Earth they've adapted to their own desires.
And you can watch her craft growing stronger over the course of the three novels.
I wouldn't recommend someone start reading Le Guin here, but I would recommend it to someone who's familiar with her work.
Kelson Reads finished reading San Diego 2014 by Mira Grant
Yes, I read this on the train and later in line for a panel at Comic-Con the year it was released.
That made it a bit weird when I stumbled on the California Browncoats' booth.
Plus I kept looking around for exits wherever I went the next day...
Kelson Reads commented on The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
Finally bought it (and the rest of the series) through a Humble Bundle featuring a bunch of Scalzi's books. Time to move it up on my to-read list!
Kelson Reads commented on A City on Mars by Zach Weinersmith
Kelson Reads commented on A City on Mars by Zach Weinersmith
Kelson Reads reviewed Starter Villain by John Scalzi
A fun, fast read, parodying the James Bond Villain archetype. With talking dolphins and typing cats.
4 stars
A fun, fast read, parodying the James Bond Villain archetype. The main character is dropped into the deep end of supervillain society, complete with double-crosses, triple-crosses, assassination attempts, blackmail, framing...and of course the secret volcanic lair, superlasers, talking dolphins (who are really unpleasant and cranky) and a management layer of typing cats (who are much less so, depending on how well you feed and pet them).
Everyone knows he's way out of his depth and wants to take advantage of him. But he knows it too -- and between a background in business journalism and a willingness to listen to people with expertise (always considering that they have an agenda that might not be his own), he's able to manage better than anyone expects.
Of course, the skills that get you to the top of the backstabbing, chaotic world of villainy...aren't necessarily the best for financial stability. Or stability of …
A fun, fast read, parodying the James Bond Villain archetype. The main character is dropped into the deep end of supervillain society, complete with double-crosses, triple-crosses, assassination attempts, blackmail, framing...and of course the secret volcanic lair, superlasers, talking dolphins (who are really unpleasant and cranky) and a management layer of typing cats (who are much less so, depending on how well you feed and pet them).
Everyone knows he's way out of his depth and wants to take advantage of him. But he knows it too -- and between a background in business journalism and a willingness to listen to people with expertise (always considering that they have an agenda that might not be his own), he's able to manage better than anyone expects.
Of course, the skills that get you to the top of the backstabbing, chaotic world of villainy...aren't necessarily the best for financial stability. Or stability of any kind.
Kelson Reads reviewed The Daughter of Odren by Ursula K. Le Guin
Like one of Earthsea's folk tales
4 stars
...only told by people who were there when it happened. Betrayal and revenge drive the plot, but underneath it all are themes of kindness, power, of living your life as best as you can under circumstances you can't change, and the cost it sometimes takes to change them. And sometimes, figuring out what your best life is.
Kelson Reads reviewed The People of the Crater by Andre Norton
"Send the Black Throne to dust; conquer the Black Ones, and bring the Daughter from …
Standard fantasy rescue-the-princess adventure with sci-fi trappings
3 stars
Reading People of the Crater I had to remind myself that if I'd been reading it when I was, say, 12, in 1950, I might have devoured it. It's a fairly standard fantasy adventure that drops a random guy into a fish-out-of-water quest to rescue a lost princess and fight off an army. There are vague sci-fi trappings with nods to Hollow Earth, hidden ancient cities in Antarctica, the various species living there being from another planet. The Ancient Ones and unfortunately named Black Ones are conveniently humanoid enough that the hero and villain both lust after the princess. And the hero fights his way through weird challenges and weirder people, and the villain might as well be twirling his mustache, and it's all very Post-WW2 Tough American Manly Man Doing Manly Hero Things(tm).
But I'm not 12, it's not the 1950s, and while I still like a good adventure …
Reading People of the Crater I had to remind myself that if I'd been reading it when I was, say, 12, in 1950, I might have devoured it. It's a fairly standard fantasy adventure that drops a random guy into a fish-out-of-water quest to rescue a lost princess and fight off an army. There are vague sci-fi trappings with nods to Hollow Earth, hidden ancient cities in Antarctica, the various species living there being from another planet. The Ancient Ones and unfortunately named Black Ones are conveniently humanoid enough that the hero and villain both lust after the princess. And the hero fights his way through weird challenges and weirder people, and the villain might as well be twirling his mustache, and it's all very Post-WW2 Tough American Manly Man Doing Manly Hero Things(tm).
But I'm not 12, it's not the 1950s, and while I still like a good adventure story, I'd rather read one with more interesting concepts or compelling characters (or both).
Kelson Reads rated LES MISERABLES (Omnibus) Vol. 5-6: 5 stars

LES MISERABLES (Omnibus) Vol. 5-6 by Takahiro Arai, Victor Hugo
Cosette, having grown into a lovely young woman, has attracted the attention of student Marius Pontmercy. Jean Valjean, ever suspicious …