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Belle's Discovery by RH Disney
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
Though these "Young Disney princess" books are intended for 5-8 year old readers, I liked the first one I tried so much (Mulan's Secret Plan, my first book of this year), I didn't hesitate at all to give this one a chance. Sadly this one didn't work anywhere as well as that first one.
Mulan's Secret Plan was like the best fanfic out there. The characters were perfectly right, but they were put in a new situation. We got to see what Mulan would do in situations other than the movie.
Belle's Discovery was like that kind of fanfic where the author just writes the book or movie exactly as it happened, just in their own words. Nothing new. Doesn't feel fresh. To me, that kind of fic (and this book) are sort of pointless. Belle did sound exactly like she does in the movies, but the situation she was in (saving a book store) was nothing new.
In this book, she had to get other kids interested in books, so they'd bring their parents in, and the bookstore would be saved. I had to think for a moment to be sure that hadn't actually happened in the movie.
I guess I'd give another book of this series a try (they're such fast reads, why not). But if the third one is more like Belle's than Mulan's then I'd give up on the series.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
Oh this book. It's the reason I only read three books so far this year. I liked everything about it. Liked the writing. Loved the setting. Liked the characters. Plot was interesting. But for some reason I had no drive at all to read it. (Can't blame the current happenings, I lost my interest in it long before this virus stuff.) Rarely I lose interest in a book I like, but I really should have just given up on this one sooner.
Set in the far future (or perhaps some other reality), a space-going race is ever expanding and taking over other worlds. They use an army called "Ancillary forces". Basically dead bodies controlled by an AI. So a ship's AI might have a few hundred Ancillary bodies manning it, doing security, serving the officers, keeping the peace on planets, etc. It was a really cool idea, because it let the author play with POV. Even within a single paragraph, we might get two or three different conversations or things happening, because the ship's AI had so many eyes it saw through.
The other interesting thing the author did was play with gender. All the officers on the ships had female pronouns, so for a long time I thought all the crew (or important people in the world?) were female. I was wrong, and it was really a clever thing.The race had no different words for gender in their language, they don't see people as male/female, so the author used 'she' for everyone to represent that. End spoiler.
It took me weeks (literally weeks) to get to the 88% point of this book, and one night I realized I just didn't care about how the story was going to end, I just wanted to move on to something that would hold my interest.
This is a good book. It's well written and clever. I have no idea why it didn't work for me, but I can still recommend you give it a try.
Margaret's Ark by Daniel G Keohane
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Hated (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
This book, on the other hand, I cannot recommend you give a try. Not unless you want a book that has pro-Christianity stuff in every single sentence. I know, I know, a story about an ark that collects up all the animals in the world is religious? Shock! But I was hoping it would be a good story about religious stuff, not just nothing but how good religion is.
Hard pass. DNF at 4%
Partial book credits:
Point reached in these books: 88% + 4 % = 92%
Previous abandoned book total: 140%
New total: 232% (two books)
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
Though these "Young Disney princess" books are intended for 5-8 year old readers, I liked the first one I tried so much (Mulan's Secret Plan, my first book of this year), I didn't hesitate at all to give this one a chance. Sadly this one didn't work anywhere as well as that first one.
Mulan's Secret Plan was like the best fanfic out there. The characters were perfectly right, but they were put in a new situation. We got to see what Mulan would do in situations other than the movie.
Belle's Discovery was like that kind of fanfic where the author just writes the book or movie exactly as it happened, just in their own words. Nothing new. Doesn't feel fresh. To me, that kind of fic (and this book) are sort of pointless. Belle did sound exactly like she does in the movies, but the situation she was in (saving a book store) was nothing new.
In this book, she had to get other kids interested in books, so they'd bring their parents in, and the bookstore would be saved. I had to think for a moment to be sure that hadn't actually happened in the movie.
I guess I'd give another book of this series a try (they're such fast reads, why not). But if the third one is more like Belle's than Mulan's then I'd give up on the series.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
Oh this book. It's the reason I only read three books so far this year. I liked everything about it. Liked the writing. Loved the setting. Liked the characters. Plot was interesting. But for some reason I had no drive at all to read it. (Can't blame the current happenings, I lost my interest in it long before this virus stuff.) Rarely I lose interest in a book I like, but I really should have just given up on this one sooner.
Set in the far future (or perhaps some other reality), a space-going race is ever expanding and taking over other worlds. They use an army called "Ancillary forces". Basically dead bodies controlled by an AI. So a ship's AI might have a few hundred Ancillary bodies manning it, doing security, serving the officers, keeping the peace on planets, etc. It was a really cool idea, because it let the author play with POV. Even within a single paragraph, we might get two or three different conversations or things happening, because the ship's AI had so many eyes it saw through.
The other interesting thing the author did was play with gender. All the officers on the ships had female pronouns, so for a long time I thought all the crew (or important people in the world?) were female. I was wrong, and it was really a clever thing.
It took me weeks (literally weeks) to get to the 88% point of this book, and one night I realized I just didn't care about how the story was going to end, I just wanted to move on to something that would hold my interest.
This is a good book. It's well written and clever. I have no idea why it didn't work for me, but I can still recommend you give it a try.
Margaret's Ark by Daniel G Keohane
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Hated (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
This book, on the other hand, I cannot recommend you give a try. Not unless you want a book that has pro-Christianity stuff in every single sentence. I know, I know, a story about an ark that collects up all the animals in the world is religious? Shock! But I was hoping it would be a good story about religious stuff, not just nothing but how good religion is.
Hard pass. DNF at 4%
Partial book credits:
Point reached in these books: 88% + 4 % = 92%
Previous abandoned book total: 140%
New total: 232% (two books)
