Fun story. Very horny. Decent plot with some excellent world-building, though the writing in certain scenes was a little dodgy. (There's one part wherFun story. Very horny. Decent plot with some excellent world-building, though the writing in certain scenes was a little dodgy. (There's one part where the narrator says something about losing classmates "exponentially" but that makes NO SENSE mathematically, esp. given the numbers we start with.)...more
Mixed feelings on this one. I was like 20-25% through before I really felt like there was momentum. (Almost abandoned it.) Feels a *little* over-long Mixed feelings on this one. I was like 20-25% through before I really felt like there was momentum. (Almost abandoned it.) Feels a *little* over-long maybe, but ultimately I liked where it landed … anti-climactic as it was, though that felt “right” to end there and that way....more
Almost five stars. This one didn't suck me in quite as quickly and completely as The Fifth Season — BUT: a great follow-up to the first novel in tAlmost five stars. This one didn't suck me in quite as quickly and completely as The Fifth Season — BUT: a great follow-up to the first novel in the series. And the scene where Essun tells everyone in Castrima that they don't get to vote on who gets to be people? CHILLS....more
Filed under "ah yes another hidden-from-view magical school" novel full of young adults and "oh look magic is actually real". If The Magicians wasFiled under "ah yes another hidden-from-view magical school" novel full of young adults and "oh look magic is actually real". If The Magicians was "an edgy (but still vaguely cartoonish) Harry Potter" than this is the variation that's... the gritty Americanized reboot? (But with more emphasis on the ghosts this time?)
An enjoyable, quick-paced story that's part Bildungsroman, and part grim allegory about how the world's power structures protect and perpetuate themselves. And a large side-portion of feminist critique piled alongside it.
As hinted above, whereas Harry Potter books and The Magicians lean heavily on the fantastic elements, Ninth House puts everything more-or-less in plain-sight and what makes it so interesting is the sheer banality of things -- the magic-practitioners are about as Vanilla/Mayo white people Ivy League as you can get, and there's not really anything all that special about magic at all, as long as you can get into the right House (i.e., frat) and get your hands on the right materials (i.e., money/connections) and you're good to go. Too bad all that magic is being used on entrenched-power-protecting things like stock market predictions, "iron clad" trusts and contracts, and enabling sexual assault. --
(And can we, for a moment, just GLOSS OVER the fact that the one mention of using magic for anything resembling altruism [i.e., healing magic] gets shrugged off with the seemingly conflicting "it's too hard" AND "it's too widely practiced by laypeople" and so WHATEVER OCULUS but this sounds pretty much exactly like the text's own Nano Metaphorical Hot Take on universal health care coverage arguments OR MAYBE THAT'S JUST ME.)
-- …so you can see what I mean by the banality of it all, and why that makes this an interesting take on this particular sub-genre of fantasy novel. In other words: the magic is real, but you don't need anything particularly special to be a practitioner -- just well-connected, and as a result, it gets practiced by the already-privileged to do even-more-privileged things and/or increase their already stunning gap in terms of wealth/power from Regular People™.
Like these kinds of "magical school" stories? Go for it. Want a book that's a bit of a scathing critique of Ivy League schools and the perpetuation of existing wealth/power structures that they represent? Go for it. …with a touch of Lovecraftian New England shit? Yup, that too.
BUT! it also tends to fall into some of the same trope traps as its cousins in the sub-genre. Not a Cardinal Sin of Genre Fiction, just… be advised....more
Fun read, and I say that as someone who is generally not a fan of fantasy. Some clockpunk-ish elements; magic system reminds me a bit of sympathy fromFun read, and I say that as someone who is generally not a fan of fantasy. Some clockpunk-ish elements; magic system reminds me a bit of sympathy from Name of the Wind, and Tevanne reminds me somewhat of New Crobuzon from Perdido Street Station. ...more
I grabbed a Kindle version in 2018 because it was on special (on sale? free? I forget) -- and I've been a fan of John Joseph Adams' collections in theI grabbed a Kindle version in 2018 because it was on special (on sale? free? I forget) -- and I've been a fan of John Joseph Adams' collections in the past.
I had a hard time getting into this one, and I really couldn't say why. Maybe I'm just not sucked in by the Oz fantasies? There was nothing objectionable -- the stories that I did read weren't awful or anything like that. I was certainly intrigued by these novel re-imaginings of the Oz world and the characters that populate it.
But after about a year and a half... I was just like: "You know what? I'm not going to finish this."
Maybe I'll come back to it later. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ...more
Clever conceits, delightful prose, and/but/so a bit tedious at times. A threadbare plot; more like a series of parables and vignettes. The characters Clever conceits, delightful prose, and/but/so a bit tedious at times. A threadbare plot; more like a series of parables and vignettes. The characters are a treat though, and the story just begs to be read aloud....more
Soft core disguised as romance disguised as murder fantasies disguised as sci-fi. Abandoned when it felt like the scenes were largely repeating themseSoft core disguised as romance disguised as murder fantasies disguised as sci-fi. Abandoned when it felt like the scenes were largely repeating themselves. Not that there weren't enjoyable parts (though the… prurient parts were also pretty juvenile [maybe I just didn't get to the good stuff?]) but when it started to felt tedious, I closed the covers....more
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