Currently Reading #30

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The book du jour is Nicola Griffith's Slow River, recently re-released in a smart Gollancz Masterworks edition. After being kidnapped and publicly humiliated, courtesy of the internet, Lore begins a new life with the mysterious Spanner. In a parallel narrative, Lore begins a new new life without Spanner, working at a water treatment plant where she becomes increasingly concerned about the short-handedness and the lack of attention to safety procedures. The reader is also given little 'dips' into Lore's childhood as the youngest child of a rich family of business people.

The narrative switches not only between time and place but also between POV and tense; sometimes it's first person and past tense, sometimes it's third person and present tense. It's an elegant conceit that serves to underline the idea that Lore is different people at different times, to emphasise her frequent changes of identity, but it also serves to make the narrative choppy, to make it harder for at least this reader to sustain continuous engagement with the story. Swings and roundabouts.

Definitely enjoying the book, but now we've hit an infodump where Lore is explaining to a new treatment plant employee exactly how everything works, and it's slowed down accordingly. Daresay it's just a minor bump in an otherwise entertaining journey.

Recently Completed #6

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I was looking for something in the bedroom when I uncovered a little pile of books that had been buried under some upcycling. Two were by Diana Wynne Jones: The Spellcoats and The Crown of Dalemark. I devoured the first book, thoroughly drawn into the first person narrative and intrigued by the Undying and the weaving of spells and stories into cloth. The second book went more slowly, as I found the third person narrative less engaging, but it was almost as fun as the first one.

One observation I made to myself as I went along is that it takes either a heck of a lot of effort, or a great deal of skill, or perhaps both, to write stories that read so effortlessly.

Apparently these are books #3 and #4 in a series. Ooops. But maybe the first two books will show up in a charity shop someday soon :D. And who needs what I was originally looking for when there are BOOKS?