changeablelandscape's reviews
94 reviews

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I found this very readable and loved the mix of African-American culture and Arthurian legend, but for some reason I never got emotionally engaged despite the subject matter -- maybe just my mood when I was reading?   

Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman

emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I loved this so much!  And I'm really excited to keep reading the series since one of my favourite characters from Radio Silence shows up!

The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I read this once on an airplane in the late 90s and remembered nothing about it except that

Richard III showed up and that there were vampires

, so I am glad I took the time to reread it!  It's an interesting alt-historical world in which Christianity didn't take hold in the west but the rest of European history happened on track, which honestly doesn't hold up *at all* if I think about it -- but whatever!  Ford wanted 15th century Europe but with magic and Mithras, and so that's what he did.

My challenge with this book is that Ford famously had a horror of being too obvious in his writing, which means this is not a straightforward book -- what happens plot-wise is complex enough, with lots of intrigue and double-crossing and jumps in time and space, but what happens emotionally for the POV characters is even more complicated.  At times a character would have a huge emotional reaction to an event and I'd be completely at a loss to understand why, needing to go back and reread several times to pick up the tiny hints Ford drops about who loves/hates/wants whom, which makes for a very un-immersive book!   When I was younger I used to love that about Ford, and I hope I still will in some of my favourite work by him, but this time around it made things slog -- I'm not sure I'll reread this again, or at least not for a long time.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Wow, this was so good I'm not even sure where to start!  The worldbuilding is great --  there's a perfect blend of historical reality in all its grimness (poverty, illness, famine, misogyny) and Chinese cultural beliefs around the spiritual & supernatural made real -- so there are hungry ghosts, and the Mandate of Heaven is a visual event that can be seen by others.   It makes for a very different sort of fantasy than what I'm used to, and since I'm a huge fan of Chinese TV dramas, I found it very organic and of a piece with the rest of the worldbuilding.   The characters are interesitng and engaging, sympathetic without being simple, and the writing was incredibly moreish; I kept having to slow down to make sure I was really absorbing the book.   It was great, I'm really excited to see where the second one takes the story!

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

challenging dark emotional informative relaxing

3.5

A book of angry, well-written essays about being an Asian-American woman; it was not a comfortable read but it was a good one.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

adventurous emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I used to love this book so much, it was tied with Memory for my all-time favourite Bujold, but I am 20 years older than I was when I first read it, and it no longer speaks to me the way it used to.  It's still a perfectly readable fantasy novel, just not *for me* the way it used to be.

Undercover by Tamsyn Muir

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I really enjoyed this while I was reading it -- the vibe was very much Snowman from Homestuck -- but now that it's a few months later, do I remember much?  I do not.

K-Pop Revolution by Stephan Lee

emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This was a less enjoyable read than the first one, mostly because

I knew change couldn't come that easily and was pretty sure that either the company or the new CEO (or both, as it turned out!) were manipulating Candace

which made totally sense but was really not fun to read!  I liked where Lee took it, though, and how things turned out.

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

First reread, and it held up very well!  I was surprised by how few of the plot points I remembered -- the first time through I was really reading for the relationships, but this time I was more tuned in to all the things Leckie was doing about identity and freedom and searching for better forms of government that don't rely on oppressing huge sections of the population.

Westmark by Lloyd Alexander

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I read this once or twice back in middle school and liked it well enough, although the 2nd book of the trilogy was always my favourite, and it was fun to revisit!  I had forgotten that Florian & Justin show up in this book, and as a young teen I *totally* missed all the French Revolution parallels, but this time through I could see what Alexander was doing and enjoy it on an adult level as well as delighting in The Feelings.