Post by Livia Llewellyn on Dec 22, 2022 19:58:27 GMT
I'm just going to update as I finish books - if the thread gets too long and unwieldy, I'll start a Part II thread in a few months.
December 2022
GEORGE V: NEVER A DULL MOMENT by Jane Ridley
Probably won't be on a lot of people's reading lists, but I found it absolutely fascinating. This is essentially the story of the birth of the modern constitutional monarchy by a king who was never meant to be king (George's older brother, Prince Albert Victor, died of influenza), and a queen consort who was never meant to be his wife (May of Teck was originally engaged to Prince Albert). Together King George V and Queen Consort Mary (aka the grandparents of QEII) began the monumentally difficult task of steering the monarchy out of the Edwardian Era into the modern age, while dealing with parliamentary upheavals, commonwealth countries' push-back, World War I, and a new generation of young royals who would not be morally dictated to (looking at you, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson...). After finishing it, I decided that "The Crown" should have started with George V for a more complex and richer portrayal of a complicated family struggling to exist as both human beings and as a rigid and unbending institution and the eternal, unchanging embodiment of a country's mythic past.
FYI, I now have a book on Queen Mary in my to-read pile. She was a fucking baller.
CLICKERS NEVER DIE by Stephen Kozeniewski and Wile E. Young
Oh man, I <3 Pinchy and Doodles so much! I've been reading through the entire Clickers ouvre, and I'd have to say this might be my favorite in the series. The levels of bloodshed and gore are insane, the new types of Clickers and other creatures are amazingly inventive, and I was thrilled to seen the return of the (raised in captivity) rebellious teenage Deep One, Jade, from Kozeniewski's story "Deep into That Dark One Peering" from the previous book, CLICKERS FOREVER. The novel whips back and forth between the present and several separate-until-they-merge story lines during WWII Guadalcanal (in which it is slowly revealed that Clickers and Deep Ones have been interacting with humans to the point of influencing significant events in world history), but the action flows so quickly that I didn't consider it a drawback or distraction. A really fun and well-written read. And I have ideas now. I have ideas...
BABEL: OR THE NECESSITY OF VIOLENCE: AN ARCANE HISTORY OF THE OXFORD TRANSLATORS' REVOLUTION by R.F. Kuang
A dense, complex historical fantasy of an alternate world in which silver is infused with magicked languages to create not only new technologies but to control people, animals, and the world. The silver-working is controlled by a late 1800's Industrial Revolution-era Britain, who has colonized most of the world and retains a tight grip on commerce and culture everywhere it has spread. The protagonist is a half-Chinese boy named Robin Swift who is taken to London and raised by a professor and scientist of Oxford, who teaches silver working in the mysterious Babel building on the ancient campus. However, when Swift becomes a student of Babel, he discovers a secret society of former students who slowly radicalize him and his small group of friends, leading him to realize that he must destroy Babel and Oxford in order to free the enslaved and abused races of the world. This is a highly imaginative but highly political novel - perfect for those who love the more political and philosophical aspects of authors like Philip Pullman or China Mieville. I liked it, I'm glad I read it, but I have to admit I was a little exhausted at the end. Like most revolutions, there was not a lot of happiness when it was all over.