Reviews and Comments

ju

ju@lire.boitam.eu

Joined 3 years, 2 months ago

Photojournalist and many other things in -ist.

I read a lot of SFF, obscure LGBT, travel, photography theory and women authors, in French and English.

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reviewed Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson (The Space Between Worlds, #2)

Micaiah Johnson: Those Beyond the Wall 4 stars

Faced with a coming apocalypse, a woman must reckon with her past to solve a …

A great read

5 stars

I had the re-read The Space Between Worlds quickly, after beginning this one, because there were things I didn't remember and a lot of the context is needed for this one. I liked the change of perspective, with Mr Scales being a runner this time and her different views on things. It was interesting to see that she's also an unreliable narrator, and that's all right really. One thing I regretted was the lack of explanation as to why a certain event happen (I won't spoil with explaining why what, it should be obvious I guess) In any case, it's a great read, lots of action, despair, anti-heroes and queerness.

Justine Niogret: Gueule de truie (French language, 2012, Éditions Critic) 3 stars

Il s’appelle Gueule de Truie. Le visage dissimulé sous un masque de métal, il est …

Un livre court aux prémices intéressantes

3 stars

J'aime bien écouter le podcast d'Arte "Bookmakers", parce que régulièrement, ça me fait découvrir des voix très singulières et des auteur·es dont je n'avais jamais entendu parler. Et après trois épisodes avec Justine Niogret, ça donnait pas mal envie. Alors sans doute Gueule de Truie n'est pas le plus évident pour aborder sa bibliographie, l'écriture est brutale, très imagée, le propos sans interdits, donc on aime ou pas. C'est un peu indigeste parfois, dans la seconde moitié, lorsqu'on perd un peu de vue où l'auteure veut nous emmener, où on a l'impression de tourner en rond dans la folie des personnages sans aller vers une résolution. Malgré tout, il y a plein de choses intéressantes, de tournures de phrases, d'idées, d'images.

Nghi Vo: City in Glass (2024, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 5 stars

A demon. An angel. A city.

The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city …

Deeply original

5 stars

Another brilliant book by Nghi Vo, who is such a consumed storyteller, the kind who gently take your hand and make you believe every detail. A fascinating read.

Sandra Lucbert: Personne ne sort les fusils (French language, 2020) 5 stars

De mai à juillet 2019 se tient le procès France Télécom - Orange. Sept dirigeants …

Percutant et poignant

5 stars

Un court livre hyper percutant, à la croisée entre le récit (des bribes du procès des dirigeants d'Orange), l'essai (sur le monde du travail et le langage managérial), et l'objet littéraire pour parler de cette langue et porter ce récit. Le chapitre 23 est l'illustration parfaite de la violence des entreprises et du mépris insondable de ses dirigeants pour leurs employés.

Francis Spufford: Cahokia Jazz (Hardcover, 2023, Faber & Faber) 5 stars

In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy …

A wonderful alternate history

5 stars

It has the tropes of the genre : a tired detective in a metropolis he doesn't quite know, powerful men, booze and prohibition, sleazy journalists, and of course, melancholia, jazz and femmes fatales. But the rest is a very smart departure in an alternate history: what if the smallpox brought to America was a non-lethal variant? The Native community would be thriving, along the Mississippi, it would have a city and a state built on their power and syncretic beliefs. That's Cahokia, where the delicate balance that holds it all is threatened by a gruesome murder. It's a book that takes you in, and embraces you and makes you believe that Cahokia is real and pulsating, on the right bank of the Mississippi.

Julia Armfield: Private Rites (2024, HarperCollins Publishers Limited) 4 stars

Elegant and mysterious

4 stars

The ending felt a bit rushed but all the built-up and atmosphere was extremely well done -- the climate catastrophe was realistic, people coping, trying to live their lives, still going to their mindless jobs in offices or serving coffee while the world slowly goes under water...

reviewed The Language of Power by Rosemary Kirstein (Steerswoman, #4)

Rosemary Kirstein: The Language of Power (Paperback, 2018, Rosemary Kirstein) 4 stars

Rosemary Kirstein’s acclaimed epic continues, as a servant of truth journeys through a world where …

Pretty unforgettable

4 stars

I wanted to go as far as possible with the published books, and this one got back on the main plot with a lot more to learn, deduce, suspect and guess. The writer said she was working on the following ones, so I can leave the series for a while and be on the lookout for the next one when it's published. All in all, the whole series is really worth the time, even though it's a bit long sometimes, everything matters, all the details build up an very interesting universe, with its people, customs, landscapes and monsters of all types... it's pretty unforgettable.

reviewed The Lost Steersman by Rosemary Kirstein (Steerswoman, #3)

Rosemary Kirstein: The Lost Steersman (Paperback, 2017, Rosemary Kirstein) 3 stars

How do you find a person you have never seen, or have never heard described? …

A lot of fun moments

4 stars

The first half of the book is full of the promises one could expect after reading the first two : more clues, more local mysteries, more answers. I can't say I feel entirely satisfied, even though there's a lot of good moments. I can't say much about the second part without spoiling, but I felt it veered into horror a bit, and while the plot is extremely surprising, a bit of frustration lingers. I'll be looking for more answers in the fourth book I guess.

reviewed The Outskirter's Secret by Rosemary Kirstein (Steerswoman, #2)

Rosemary Kirstein: The Outskirter's Secret (Paperback, 2017, Rosemary Kirstein) 4 stars

Determined to learn the truth about the Guidestars--two points of light that hang motionless in …

Well worth it

4 stars

So here's the second volume of the series and as it's almost double the size, there's a change of pace in the story. Now it's a long march east in hostile land, with its challenges and encounters, and it will take up until the end to have a bit more revelations and clues as to what's really going on. There are some really interesting parts and a few that are a bit boring or repetitive (then again, the land itself seems very repetitive), but all in all, it's well worth it!

Rosemary Kirstein: The Steerswoman (Paperback, 1989, Del Rey) 4 stars

The Steerswoman is the first novel in the Steerswoman series. Steerswomen, and a very few …

A quite brilliant introduction to something very very original

4 stars

So, take a few fantasy tropes (wizards, dragons, barbarians...), twist them a bit (two smart women travelling together, one of them a barbarian), add an interesting take on magic and knowledge and who has it and shares it -- or not, and you would have already a pretty interesting novel. But the author adds a deeper layer with hints and unsettling details, and a few more obvious clues near the end, and suddenly you're not entirely sure what story you've been reading. I think I'll get on the three following books, because I've grown very curious about how it will all be explained. So no, there won't be a lot of answers at the end of this one, which is frustrating. But it's a quite brilliant introduction to something very very original.

Aliette de Bodard: The Tea Master and the Detective (2018) 4 stars

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by …

Fascinating worldbuilding and characters

4 stars

It's a short novella with a bit of a convoluted plot and mystery, but I found the characters amazingly fleshed out. There was something almost poetic in the world and the way they all navigate it, not everything is explained or described thoroughly, which leaves questions but also a lot to interpret.

reviewed Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Between Earth and Sky, #1)

Rebecca Roanhorse: Black Sun (Paperback, 2021, Gallery / Saga Press) 4 stars

A god will return When the earth and sky converge Under the black sun

In …

Interesting albeit not thrilling

4 stars

There was a lot of interesting elements in that first novel of a trilogy, with the worldbuilding, magic and beliefs system. The characters were also mostly engaging, but I didn't feel like I needed to start the second book of the series immediately. Maybe it just means that my expectations were too high.

Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things (Hardcover, 2008, Random House Trade Paperbacks) 4 stars

Compared favorably to the works of Faulkner and Dickens, Arundhati Roy’s modern classic is equal …

A vivid slow motion drama

4 stars

This book had been on my lists for ages, before I even knew who was Arundhati Roy, and I was surprised that it took me a while to like it. There was something holding me back a little. It's a slow drama, like a train crash in slow motion, often foreshadowed through the labyrinthine construction between the present and different times in the past. Eventually, it started to make sense and the incredible writing gripped me.