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Fell behind on reviewing again, so here's a mass post. Also, I've been trying to resist getting more books, so my kindle is down to 366 unread books!
In no special order:
Quantum Zoo, by (anthology). A collection of stories, all (supposedly) about zoos. Zoos in space, people held in zoos, all sorts of zoos. Unfortunately quite a few stories were clearly not written for this book, only shoehorned in by a character dropping the word "zoo" in dialogue (and that dialogue line obviously added after the story was written). But all in all, even those shoehorned stories were enjoyable. The book did do one thing that annoyed me: Each story came with URLs to Amazon for the authors' other books. I hate it when anthologies are used as advertising... but I got two books from authors I liked, so I guess it worked.
Warhorse, by Timothy Zahn. Going into this book, I had no idea it was 20 years old. I suspect his writing has gotten a lot better since then. This wasn't a bad book, but the characters were so flat. Even by the end of the story, I couldn't name a trait for the main character other than that he was a good man (and through most of the book, I only knew that because other characters said he was). The aliens were sort of interesting. The setting was okay. But with paper thin characters who rarely had more than one trait, the story never hooked me. I'm not sure why I finished it, I really should have dropped it.
The Storm, Cynthia Rylant. What a lovely, wonderful, beautiful little book. It may have been written for readers grades 1-5 (it took me less than an hour to read), but it was so lovely and perfect and just so good. In it a cat-woman dedicated her life to a lighthouse, so she could protect ships at sea. A dog-man's ship wrecked on the shore of her lighthouse, and she nursed him back to health. Though the short story, the two became friends and then more(? They seemed to be in love, but it was outright stated that they had their own beds, maybe because the story was meant for children). When the two rescued three mice-children, they became a family. Somehow, in this short, short story, all of the characters had growth and by the end became something new. Just a perfect little book for readers of any age.
Beast Master's Planet, by Andre Norton. I thought I remembered loving the Beast Master when I was younger. Maybe it didn't age well (it's 60 years old). I didn't hate it, but it just never hooked me. And while Amazon said the world loved the main character, he didn't work at all for me. DNF at 12% (This book was an omnibus though, so I really dropped it at 24% into the story -- plenty of chance for it to hook me.)
Partial book credits:
Point reached in DNF book: 12%
Previous abandoned book total: 515%
New total: 527% (five books)
In no special order:
Quantum Zoo, by (anthology). A collection of stories, all (supposedly) about zoos. Zoos in space, people held in zoos, all sorts of zoos. Unfortunately quite a few stories were clearly not written for this book, only shoehorned in by a character dropping the word "zoo" in dialogue (and that dialogue line obviously added after the story was written). But all in all, even those shoehorned stories were enjoyable. The book did do one thing that annoyed me: Each story came with URLs to Amazon for the authors' other books. I hate it when anthologies are used as advertising... but I got two books from authors I liked, so I guess it worked.
Warhorse, by Timothy Zahn. Going into this book, I had no idea it was 20 years old. I suspect his writing has gotten a lot better since then. This wasn't a bad book, but the characters were so flat. Even by the end of the story, I couldn't name a trait for the main character other than that he was a good man (and through most of the book, I only knew that because other characters said he was). The aliens were sort of interesting. The setting was okay. But with paper thin characters who rarely had more than one trait, the story never hooked me. I'm not sure why I finished it, I really should have dropped it.
The Storm, Cynthia Rylant. What a lovely, wonderful, beautiful little book. It may have been written for readers grades 1-5 (it took me less than an hour to read), but it was so lovely and perfect and just so good. In it a cat-woman dedicated her life to a lighthouse, so she could protect ships at sea. A dog-man's ship wrecked on the shore of her lighthouse, and she nursed him back to health. Though the short story, the two became friends and then more(? They seemed to be in love, but it was outright stated that they had their own beds, maybe because the story was meant for children). When the two rescued three mice-children, they became a family. Somehow, in this short, short story, all of the characters had growth and by the end became something new. Just a perfect little book for readers of any age.
Beast Master's Planet, by Andre Norton. I thought I remembered loving the Beast Master when I was younger. Maybe it didn't age well (it's 60 years old). I didn't hate it, but it just never hooked me. And while Amazon said the world loved the main character, he didn't work at all for me. DNF at 12% (This book was an omnibus though, so I really dropped it at 24% into the story -- plenty of chance for it to hook me.)
Partial book credits:
Point reached in DNF book: 12%
Previous abandoned book total: 515%
New total: 527% (five books)
