Where Am I?
Feb. 22nd, 2010 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
technocracygirlI am finished with The Battle of the Labyrinth and am moving forward into the last of the Percy Jackson books, The Last Olympian. Thank you, KCLS, for getting BotL to me before my time ran out on tLO, and I would have had to accrue fines on it. tBotL was pretty good, although I'd like Rachel more if she'd stop being Rachel Elizabeth Dare all over the place. I wish there was a little more meat on the bones in these books, but I'm not the target audience. Really, they're very well realized books.
I might be enjoying the PJ&tO books more if I didn't have a character that makes me constantly re-assess mythology in my head. Which makes getting through the second volume of JMS's run on Thor an interesting time. There were a lot of things that made me shake the book just in terms of actual Norse mythology. (Are Odin and Frigga not married? What do you mean Loki was raised as Odin's son? WHYINH*LL IS HEL A SMOKING HOT WOMAN WITHOUT ANY FACIAL DISFIGUREMENT?) But JMS is (once again) a truly awesome storyteller, and despite Skavi and research ringing in my ears, I actually enjoyed the stories. Mostly.
Which is a lot more than I can say for Rob Rodi's Loki. The premise is actually one I can be interested in: Loki has defeated Odin and become lord of Asgard. And I can totally see him wanting to keep Thor around for gratuitous humiliation. But Loki is whiny, bitchy, seems to have do freaking clue what he wants, and just in general acts like a bitchy jerk, as opposed to a smooth charmer who can talk his way in and out of everything. I gave up when Hela, Ice Queen of the Dead and Phenomenal Cosmic Power That Freaks Odin Out showed up in a skimpy leotard that would have shown hair had the lady not gotten an extra-fine Brazilian. Um, no. My Loki and my Hel are not like that, KTHXBYE. I am not cut out for mediocre Marvel-verse Thor, apparently.
I am a few chapters into Goddess of the Markets: Ayn Rand and the American Right. I almost think I should feel sorry for Rand. As a girl, she didn't get social cues and couldn't communicate with her peers except through arguing (it sounds a bit like a very mild Asperger's) and her family went from wealthy to nothing during the Russian Revolution. But dear heavens, the woman really, truly couldn't conceive that maybe some things are better done in groups, and really, truly believed that only a very few people are worthy human beings. I'd love to say that she considers 99% of humanity to be sub-human, but she doesn't seem to have stated things quite that baldly...yet. I just can't get behind her way of thinking. But it's an interesting a well-written book. Not hagiographic, but not shying away from the good stuff either.
I have finished Good Night, Mr. Holmes by Carole Nelson Douglas. I picked this up years and years ago, and couldn't even get into it, but this time, I found it amusing and engaging, and I have the sequel on hold right now. The only thing I really disliked was the author's insistence on Irene not having any sex at all in the time frame given by the book. Yes, it makes sense for the times, except the book keeps placing Irene into situations where it would make sense for her to have sex with someone to the point where it reminded me of some dreadful fiction I wrote in high school where people did not have sex until marriage for the most ridiculous reasons. And no published work ought to remind me of my own attempts at fiction. Other than that, though, I loved Penelope and Irene, and Geoffrey is absolutely my kind of man.
I might be enjoying the PJ&tO books more if I didn't have a character that makes me constantly re-assess mythology in my head. Which makes getting through the second volume of JMS's run on Thor an interesting time. There were a lot of things that made me shake the book just in terms of actual Norse mythology. (Are Odin and Frigga not married? What do you mean Loki was raised as Odin's son? WHYINH*LL IS HEL A SMOKING HOT WOMAN WITHOUT ANY FACIAL DISFIGUREMENT?) But JMS is (once again) a truly awesome storyteller, and despite Skavi and research ringing in my ears, I actually enjoyed the stories. Mostly.
Which is a lot more than I can say for Rob Rodi's Loki. The premise is actually one I can be interested in: Loki has defeated Odin and become lord of Asgard. And I can totally see him wanting to keep Thor around for gratuitous humiliation. But Loki is whiny, bitchy, seems to have do freaking clue what he wants, and just in general acts like a bitchy jerk, as opposed to a smooth charmer who can talk his way in and out of everything. I gave up when Hela, Ice Queen of the Dead and Phenomenal Cosmic Power That Freaks Odin Out showed up in a skimpy leotard that would have shown hair had the lady not gotten an extra-fine Brazilian. Um, no. My Loki and my Hel are not like that, KTHXBYE. I am not cut out for mediocre Marvel-verse Thor, apparently.
I am a few chapters into Goddess of the Markets: Ayn Rand and the American Right. I almost think I should feel sorry for Rand. As a girl, she didn't get social cues and couldn't communicate with her peers except through arguing (it sounds a bit like a very mild Asperger's) and her family went from wealthy to nothing during the Russian Revolution. But dear heavens, the woman really, truly couldn't conceive that maybe some things are better done in groups, and really, truly believed that only a very few people are worthy human beings. I'd love to say that she considers 99% of humanity to be sub-human, but she doesn't seem to have stated things quite that baldly...yet. I just can't get behind her way of thinking. But it's an interesting a well-written book. Not hagiographic, but not shying away from the good stuff either.
I have finished Good Night, Mr. Holmes by Carole Nelson Douglas. I picked this up years and years ago, and couldn't even get into it, but this time, I found it amusing and engaging, and I have the sequel on hold right now. The only thing I really disliked was the author's insistence on Irene not having any sex at all in the time frame given by the book. Yes, it makes sense for the times, except the book keeps placing Irene into situations where it would make sense for her to have sex with someone to the point where it reminded me of some dreadful fiction I wrote in high school where people did not have sex until marriage for the most ridiculous reasons. And no published work ought to remind me of my own attempts at fiction. Other than that, though, I loved Penelope and Irene, and Geoffrey is absolutely my kind of man.
