2018 books: The Horse Mistress Saga, Starship Mine, Teddycats

[thistlechaser]

The Horse Mistress Saga by Toby Bishop
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



The ebook omnibus edition I have is a mess. The first book was neither the first book the author wrote, nor the first book in chronological. Thinking the first book might be last (since it's not first), I went to the last "chapter" (book) and it was the series prologue...

If I had been able to read the series in proper order, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more, but I suspect not.

In the book's world, there are flying horses. The horses bond with one rider, but always women (they can't stand the scent of men), and for lord knows what reason, only virgin girls can bond. (What happens if a girl is raped? Is she unable to bond even though it's not her choice she is no longer a virgin? What kind of judgements are the horses making? Why do horses care if people have sex?)

In whichever not-first book of the series I read, there was an attack and lots of politics/arguing was going on. Very little horse stuff, except these magical flying horses were treated just like real horses (kept in a barn, groomed, cooled down by people). If horses can make decisions about sexuality, even if they're doing it on some magical instinct level, shouldn't they at least know they need to cool down after a long run/flight?

The book just didn't work for me, I stopped reading at 18%.

Starship Mine by Peter Cawdron
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Hated (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



Earth, current time, current reality. One night everyone on the planet has the same dream (about an alien world)... everyone on the planet except one man.

The story is about that one man, a gay man living in the Bible Belt in the American South.

Everything about the story should have worked for me, except wow did I hate the main character. I hated his voice. I hated how he acted. And once he said the phrase "cis white male" I was done with the story. It is a valid term to use in a book based in the current time and world, but once you get to that level of real world issues in a story, my interest drops through the floor. I'm all for equal rights for all, but my reading time is for fantasy and scifi. I stopped reading at the 29% point, at which time we still hadn't met any aliens or anything scifi at all, just the real life of the guy living with his family in the south. Not the book for me.

Teddycats by Mike Storey
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Hated (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



I've said it before and I'll say it again: You can't blame a MG/YA book for not working for an adult. This was a MG book, and while it was so simple that I couldn't enjoy it, I wasn't the target audience.

Set in the mountain rainforests of South America, the teddycats (a species of tree-dwelling animals) had names like Luke, Bill, Big Bill, Omar... WHY? If they're in South America, if they're animals, why have normal, human, North American names?

I only read to the 3% point, but that was as far as I needed to go. The story felt like it was actually about human kids, not animals -- I never once felt like the characters were animals. I strongly suspect young readers wouldn't have the issues I did -- the opposite, they might be able to better identify with the characters.

Partial book credits:
Point reached in these books: 18% + 29% + 3% = %50
Previous abandoned book total: 823%
New total: 873%

Currently reading: The Memory Wall by Lev AC Rosen. OH MY GOD, so good! I'm only two chapters in, but loving it. Alternating chapters between a kid in the real world and in a video game (not VR, just his character). In the real world, his mother has early onset Alzheimer's. Usually in these books where RL and game chapters alternate, I love the game ones better, but in this case so far the RL chapters are winning.

Heh, even just two chapters into the book, I'd like to keep writing and review it now!

Comments

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Whoa, Memory Wall sounds AMAZING!!!! Sorry the rest were such duds. If you end up loving Memory Wall, please write up a good review :D I was able to make Adventurer's Guild into a great little booktalk based on what you wrote!:)))

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yay! I hope lots of people try Adventurer's Guild based on it. :D

And Memory Wall continues to be AMAZING. And I think it will be great for young people, too. The main character teenage boy is seriously sad/angry but not in a way that's annoying to adult readers, and it talks about all sorts of social issues (race, gender, sexuality) but not in a way that interrupts the story at all.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

YAAAAAAAS! Those are exactly the kinds of books I like to take to schools because I feel like the kids crave those topics but would have no idea how to find them. I don't usually mention them directly in my booktalks but I like to have them in the mix so that when readers pick them up, they get high quality reading and food for thought.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Those teddy cats look like possums of some kind? And of the horse book I'm intrigued that for once they are pictured with bat wings (mammalian) instead of bird feathers. As for the other stuff- well, unicorns supposedly would only allow a virgin to touch them, I've read a story in which that was a rule and it fit because other magical elements were rules, too. But I need this case it sounds like the horse creatures weren't magic? So I wonder what the explanation was. If there was one.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That's what the teddycats look like to me, too. Maybe some South American form of possum?

You're right, I do like the thought of them having bat wings instead of bird/feathery ones, that's a good point.