Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

I won't finish reading my current book by the end of the year, so I can make my annual wrap-up post now.

The number of books I read this year wasn't too different from the last two years.
2015: 46 read ( +17 I didn't reach the 50% point + 5 graphic novels)
2014: 41 read ( +8 I didn't reach the 50% point + 2 graphic novels)
2013: 53 read ( +20 I didn't reach the 50% point + 6 graphic novels)

In 2013 I was reviewing children's books as well, and counted those in the "I didn't reach the 50% point" group. So this year I actually did more reading than 2013, because of the greater number of non-children's books I didn't finish. Still, sadly I didn't reach my 50 book goal. Boo!

I enjoyed books more than average this year. This year only a total of 20% fell into disliked or hated, while in 2014 41% were disliked/hated and 2013 had 39% disliked/hated.

Loved: 13
Liked: 11
Okay: 13
Disliked: 5
Hated: 4

2015: Loved: 28% / Liked: 24% / Okay: 28% / Disliked: 11% / Hated: 9%
2014: Loved: 32% / Liked: 12% / Okay: 12% / Disliked: 34% / Hated: 7%
2013: Loved: 40% / Liked: 9% / Okay: 11% / Disliked: 13% / Hated: 26%


( 46 books with a link to my review and a short quote from my review )


( 18 books I didn't reach the 50% point, with a link to my review and a short quote from my review )

( 5 graphic novels with a link to my review and a short quote from my review )

2013 book reviews overview
2014 book reviews overview

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky (AKA Less Wrong)
Rating: Loved (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)

A couple years ago, I had to decide about including fanfics in my year count of books. The rule I came up with was that if the fic was longer than multiple books, and if I read it 100%, then I could include it. Until now, I've read a couple multi-book length fics, but finished none of them. Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, longer than the first four HP books combined, is the first one I'm able to include.

Methods of Rationality is an AU. In it, Harry Potter was raised by parents who liked him. He's also a young genius, determined to be a scientist. So, when his Hogwarts letter arrived and he attended the school, he applied a more realistic scientific mind to everything.

As interesting as that set-up is, the draw of the story quickly became Harry's relationship with professor Quirrell. Never once did it become slashy (though I wish it had), it was still such a fascinating relationship. Both characters were just so intelligent, I couldn't stop reading their interactions.

Unfortunately there was one major part I didn't like. It wasn't badly written, it made more than perfect sense for it to happen, but I still disliked it a whole lot.



While many things in this AU fic were different than in the book, one thing that wasn't different was that professor Quirrell had Voldemort inside him. The fic made it unclear until the very end, and I had held out strong hope that he would indeed have been the probably-good person he seemed to be, but nope.

All the signs were there. I (and Harry) should have realized he was Voldemort, but neither of us did. So then, when Quirrell was killed, my love of the story went out the window. Totally unfair to the fic, but I had just liked that character so much, without him the story didn't hold me anymore. [End spoiler.]



Now's a good time to read this fic, as the final chapter was posted earlier this year -- no need to wait to learn what happens! There will be an epilogue, but the author said he wouldn't post that for a year, to give people writing fanfics on his work a chance to complete their works first.

Even if you're no longer a fan of HP (like me), this fic still works. I highly recommend it! I'm about to start reading it again, so I can see all the foreshadowing and such that I missed the first time through.

Dog Diaries #2: Buddy by Kate Klimo
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



This book could have been a perfect match for me: Told in first person POV, from a dog's perspective. Unfortunately this series was written for very young children, younger than YA even, so the whole thing was too juvenile for adult reader me.

Each book in the Dog Diaries series tells the story of one real dog, from that dog's POV. Knowing that, I didn't try to find the first book in my mess of a To Read list, I just started the first one I found. #2, Buddy, was about the first dog trained as a seeing eye dog.

I found neither the dog nor the people to be very realistic, and everything was way too simplistic. I reached the 50% point of the book, so I can count it towards my 50 book goal for the year, but I didn't finish it. I'm going to delete the whole series from my Kindle, I don't think any of the other books will be a better match for me (all have the same author and the same audience). ...or not. I opened my Kindle to delete them and kept saying "Well maybe I'll keep just this one, it might be better..." I guess at some future time I'll give another of the books a chance, maybe it will work for me better then.

---

The White Mare's Daughter by Judith Tarr
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



I feel bad that I didn't give this book more of a chance, but it just didn't interest me at all. I googled to see if it would improve, and found review after review saying nothing happened for the first 200 or so pages, so I gave up on it.

From what little I read, this was some kind of a Clan of the Cave Bear clone. Lots of sex (non-graphic), the dialogue was unrealistic to the point of being jarring to my ear, and what little I read of the plot held no interest for me.

Currently reading: The Catswold Portal , which I have the delightful experience of going into totally blind -- I didn't even know if it was YA or not when I started it! (I suspect it's not, the main character is an adult, but I still don't know for sure.)

Sadly, it looks like I won't be reaching 50 books this year, booo. Oh well, I set my goal higher on purpose -- I think I've only met the goal two years so far. I'll probably be high 40s by the time the end of the year comes, so I'll be close! If I wanted to cheat, I could read the rest of the Dog Diaries series, but I try not to pad my numbers like that -- there's no use cheating at solitaire.

Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



This is going to sound more snarky than I intend, but: This would have been a really good book if there had been a plot.

The worldbuilding in Silver on the Road was just amazing. I loved everything about it. Every single little detail and trait. It was set in an alternate version of the old west, one where the supernatural exists. The devil (lower case) controls everything west of the Mississippi. But for most folks, that the devil owns everything means little -- they still live out their lives, have families, nothing much different than anyone else. However, if one chooses, they can visit the devil and make a deal -- ask for something and offer something.

The main character worked the tavern that the devil worked out of (where his office was, but he was also a gambler, so its where he always played his cardgames). When she came of age, she decided to go to the devil and make a deal for a job she wanted. He agreed to her terms, thus the story began.

The whole book was about her being on the road with an older rider. What did they do? Rode the territory and looked at things. That's the whole story, him just teaching her how to live on the road in the territory. It was interesting only because the world they lived in was interesting, but for the first 90% of the book, there was zero plot other than them riding together and him teaching her about the land.

90% in, what seemed like plot was picking up: Something Evil was loose in the land, and main character decided it was her job to take care of it.

( How does one deal with a monster in the supernatural old west? (spoiler) )

All that being said, I didn't hate the book. The writing was good. I liked all the characters a lot (a whole lot!). I loved the world. It's just that, with so little plot, I had no drive to read it.

Apparently this is the first book in a series, but I suspect I won't bother picking up the second. It's really too bad, this could have been a great book if more happened in it.

The Sign of the Cat by Lynne Jonell
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



I have a confession to make: I'm horrible at seeing plot twists coming. I rarely guess what's going to happen next in a movie or TV show. I think it's because I don't want to know -- if I know, it's a lot less fun. That being said, I saw the answer to every single mystery in this book a mile ahead of time. From the biggest to the smallest, I was able to easily spot what was going to happen.

The story was about a boy who can speak the language of cats. How did he learn? Turns out anyone can learn to speak cat at a certain age, it's just that most cats don't bother to teach people. (I loved that detail, it was the high point of the story for me.)

The land the boy lived in lost its princess, killed by someone the characters were told was a bad guy. The main character had no idea who his father was. The supposed good guy who was "searching" for the princess happened to kidnap the boy "by mistake". Through the story we learned the truth of who the boy's father was, what happened to the princess, and other very unsurprising things. It was so obvious once you saw all the pieces how they were going to come together.

One of the biggest failings of the book was the bad guy. He ate not just cats, but kittens. Okay, author, you write a book about a boy who can talk to cats, thus you know you're likely going to get cat lovers as readers. How amazingly heavy-handed is it to have your bad guy eat kittens? Hell, he ate kitten pot pie with furry ears and tails sticking out of it. What the hell sense does that make? Who would want to eat any meat with the fur still on it?

I got about 70% through the book before I started skimming, and once I realized I really had no interested at all in reading the ending, I gave up on it. If I hadn't been able to see every plot twist coming, I probably would have enjoyed it more and finished it.

Next up: Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld. orangerful and I both have a hit-or-miss experience with Westerfeld, and Zeroes was in both of our To Read piles, so I figured I'd give it a try next. So far, about 10% in, I'm seriously indifferent to it. It's kind of an interesting idea (the characters have "super powers", but the powers aren't all that super at all; unfortunately they're not "not super" in an interesting way). I'm disappointed, as I loved Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy so much. Oh well, maybe it will improve as the story goes on.

Passed on: I was offered Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys for review, and I was very tempted to accept it. loupnoir recommended her first book, Between Shades of Gray, which I enjoyed, so I was tempted by Salt to the Sea (LOVE that title). But the subject matter (some battle in WWII) just didn't interest me at all. Of course, the subject matter in Between Shades of Gray hadn't interested me either and I ended up really enjoying reading that, so Salt might have worked for me, but... I have a whole lot of books I'm waiting to read, so I decided to pass on Salt.

Remnants series by K. A. Applegate

Scale: (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
Mother, May I?: Okay
No Place Like Home: Okay
Lost and Found: Okay
Dream Storm: Hated
Aftermath: Disliked
Survival: Okay
Begin Again: Hated

One of the covers, the best of the bunch:


I really should have stopped reading this series early on. The first book was outstanding, the next couple were pretty good, but it quickly went downhill from there and never recovered.

Talking about anything in the later books would spoil the earlier ones, so I'm going to put everything plot-ish behind a cut: ( Here there be spoilers )

The author said she was unhappy she had taken the story in this direction (unhappy with this last half of the series), and I 100% agree with her. It makes zero sense, and it ruined whatever joy I had left for the series.

My earlier complaints about the series continued on through these books: I question if they were edited at all (typos on Every Single Page). Each book was was short! At my usual reading pace, each one took about an hour and a half to read. Insane. It felt like each book was a chapter, not a stand-alone book.

I can strongly recommend the first book of the series, but I'd just as strongly suggest stopping after it.

Reading next: The Dungeoneers -- I fell in love with it from the very first sentence!

Breakdown by K. A. Applegate
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)

Isolation by K. A. Applegate
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)

Man, these book covers are unimpressive. This one is the best of the series thus far:


This is a more typical cover. It does so little for me:


My enjoyment of this book series keeps going downhill. The awful, awful editing is part of it. (It's published by Scholastic! Marketed for schools and kids! They should be edited well!) I can overlook a couple errors in a book (though they make me grumpy), but these books tend to have an error per page.

( Plot spoilers )

The series is 14 books long, so I just hit the midpoint of it. I'm quickly losing interest in it though, I don't know if I'll make it to the end.

Them by K. A. Applegate
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



I'm this close to knocking this series' score down from a Liked to an Okay, just because of how darned short these books are. While they're YA books, they're about half the length of an average YA book, for no reason I can see (other than to stretch it out and make more money off the series). That annoys me.

As usual, anything I write about the plot at this point will be a spoiler, so putting it behind the cut.

( Spoilers for the series thus far. Book 3: An almost literal trip to hell for the characters! )

I'm a good way into book 4 already, I just hadn't had time to write about 3 until today.

The Mayflower Project (Remnants, No 1) by K. A. Applegate
Rating: Loved (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



It's rare when it happens, but it's the greatest thing when I fall in love with a book from the very first words -- when I know from the very start that this will be one of the best ever books that I've read. That's how I wanted to start this post, but it bugged me that that wasn't quite true. While I loved the story from the very first words of it, there was a puzzling forward that I scratched my head over before falling head over heels in love with the story itself.

The plot was about the world ending. But, unlike other end of the world stories, the author took the reader through everything that was happening, slow and scary step by step. An asteroid was coming, one miles across. One that made the one that killed off the dinosaurs look like a grain of sand. This first book was about how the news stories got out and how people reacted. The world would be destroyed -- literally destroyed, broken up, bits of it sent into space. Every human would be killed, there would be no planet left.

So why did the forward-- (Oh HELL I was googling so I could get one detail right and read a big spoiler. GRRRRR Idiot me! I was trying to be careful! Dammit. ;;) Anyway. The forward talked about a battle from our real history. Two armies, one of them lost 6,000 men, the other lost 70,000 (not sure if those figures are right, something like that, not going to google again. Endless tears!). The author ended that section with a line like "this is the definition of annihilation". That left me scratching my head. Why, in a book about a natural disaster, did the author start with a forward about a real war in history? What did the two have to do with each other? Then I remembered: Somewhere I had read about asteroids being used in space wars, you could destroy a planet with one, just like what was happening in this book. But why? While the book is set in the near future, there was no alien contact that we knew of. Why would Joe Random Alien want to destroy the Earth?

The book's plot never hinted at anything along the lines of war, so I still don't didn't (THANKS SPOILER) know how that tied in to everything.

K. A. Applegate is such a great writer. It shouldn't surprise me, since her and her husband have been writing for decades. They wrote the Animorphs series together, and probably hundreds of other YA books. I love love love this world she created for Remnants -- the tech is just a bit advanced from the current world, which makes me want it even more since it feels so close. The characters (mostly teens) are interesting, not annoying like many teens in YA books are.

I picked this book to read by chance. I did my "it's time to pick a book from the very bottom of my To Read Pile," and amusingly the choice was between her book and one of her husband's. I knew nothing about either of them, other than his was funny and hers was creepy. While I was in the mood for neither of those, I was less not in the mood for creepy, so I picked Remnants. I'm so glad I did!

I can't believe how genuinely creepy this book is. After being creeped out by one of her husband's books, I emailed him to ask if he had had any trouble selling something so honestly scary, something that scared adult me, as a YA book. He told me that he can get away with that in YA books because kids aren't experienced with the world enough to recognize fear and danger in the same way adults do. For example, in Remnants, the kids would be (rightfully!) scared about the world ending, but for me, it was how the people were behaving in the last days and hours that scared me. The world being destroyed was inevitable, but the scary way people were acting (mobs, being willing to kill, killing themselves, killing their families to "save" them) was what was chilling to me.

Book one ended with 80 humans on a space shuttle, one filled with untested tech. Solar wings that had never been used before. Hibernation pods that had been only used on animals and even then with only limited success. While the book didn't exactly end on a cliffhanger (all the characters asleep in the pods), if the second book hadn't been out already, I sure would have been frustrated waiting for it!

This is a 14 book series, and happily they're all out now. I started the second book immediately upon finishing the first. It has a great mystery right from the start, though that spoiler I read ruined it for me. I can only hope the spoiler information comes out in the second book and wasn't a series-long mystery. So sad!

Edit: Bah. While I said I was pretty much done accepting books for reviews anymore, this morning I got offered a whole bunch that sounded interesting! I narrowed it down to two I'd really like to read, but I'm reading nothing else until I finish the Remnants series, so I have to pass on them. Drat!

Frost Dancers by Garry Kilworth
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



While I had a number of issues with this book, all in all, I liked it quite a bit.

I love "talking animal" stories, and this was a perfect example of them -- I believed every animal in the book as an animal, not a human in animal shape. More than that, each of his animal species were so different -- it was just so enjoyable to see how he handled otter characters compared to hedgehogs. Their speech patterns and personalities were just so different.

The main character was a hare, born in the highlands of somewhere in Europe (Scotland I assumed, though it's never named). He's captured in a... hare beating? Bunch of men banging drums to herd hares into a small area where they can be captured or killed. The story tells of his life after he's caught in that.

The book's antagonist was fitting for the story. (And "antagonist" is the only word to describe what he was: "a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.") The book's antagonist was not a villain or a bad guy, it was a person bird who was made what he was by his environment. (Also, happily the greatest mystery of the book, just what kind of bird he was, was solved in the author's afterwards. I would have been highly frustrated if we had never learned what his species was.)

There were a number of things about the book that didn't work for me:

It was long. Very very long. My Kindle tells me how long it takes me to finish a book based on my reading speed. Most books take me about four hours to read. This one took me six and a half. The pages were not packed with story so much as lists. The author would do something like "And since it was spring, the hares ate... [three page list of all the plant that grow in the area]".

Somehow the writing was extremely dated. Before I had checked, I would have guessed that it had been published in the 30s-50s. It was published in 1992. I have no idea how one would even try to write in so dated a way...

It was in British English. Mostly this doesn't bother me in the least, but using single quotes for dialogue is distracting (and sometimes confusing -- what if there's a contraction or possessive in the middle of dialogue?). I had to use my Kindle's dictionary function on a number of words, and all of them turned out to be "chiefly British" or "archaic" words.

While it was about a hare's whole life, and it was an eventful life, it feels like the amount that happened in the plot no where matched how long it took me to read it. So all in all I enjoyed it, I just wish it had been a much, much shorter book. I'm very much ready to read something else now.