The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

Book #58 of 2018:

Mad Ship by Robin Hobb (Liveship Traders #2)

Overall, I would say that this sequel is an improvement over the first Liveship Traders book. The plot moves a little more quickly, and there’s great character work turning the most insufferable figure from the previous story into a compelling protagonist. These features build nicely on the swashbuckling pirate action and intricate fantasy worldbuilding that author Robin Hobb has previously established and create solid momentum going into the concluding volume.

With that being said, the sexual politics of the trilogy still leave much to be desired. One viewpoint character in this novel is raped repeatedly over the course of a long sea voyage; another escapes a similar attempt only by brutally fighting off her assailant. (Neither of these is even the rape scene I had remembered before this reread, which I guess must take place in the third book.) There’s also the continuing romance of an adult man courting a young teenage girl, which is never framed as particularly problematic even when characters are directly calling her an immature child. None of this seems at all essential for the story that Hobb is telling, and it may not be what some readers are looking for in their escapist fiction.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario

Book #57 of 2018:

Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario

This true-life illegal immigration story is initially quite powerful, but it loses a lot of focus once its subject has successfully crossed the southern border into the United States. Before that, it’s a heartbreaking journalistic investigation into the desperate circumstances that drive so many Central Americans to attempt such a journey, as well as the terrible risks of rape, murder, and dismemberment they face along the way. But there’s little of that kind of insight in the latter part of the book, which provides rather surface-level coverage of undocumented life. (Also on a pure mechanical level, the writing seems far below what one might expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner.) I appreciate this book, but I would have preferred it to end substantially earlier than it does.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Book #56 of 2018:

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles #1)

A sci-fi retelling of Snow White / Cinderella is a great story idea, but I’m a little underwhelmed at how author Marissa Meyer has exectued it here. The villains are pretty one-note, the love interest is whiny and entitled, and there are some fairly severe worldbuilding and character issues that are never properly addressed. Why are cyborgs like Cinder — who are essentially just humans that have received lifesaving medical implants — treated as second-class citizens? Does the prince share this prejudice, and if not, how does he reconcile his nation’s policies? (Or if so, how does Cinder reconcile her feelings for him?) These are the sort of basic details that should undergird the plot, and by not developing them with clarity, Meyer is never able to get me to fully invest in her story.

This is the first book of a four-part series, but I see no reason to read any further on the basis of this one.

★★☆☆☆

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TV Review: The Mindy Project, season 5

TV #13 of 2018:

The Mindy Project, season 5

My previous criticisms of this show – namely its inconsistent characterization and plotting, heavy reliance on slapstick, revolving cast door, and frustrating politics – unfortunately apply to this penultimate season as well. (What better way to resolve a love triangle cliffhanger that ended the previous season than to have your protagonist reject both options and immediately start dating a new character who’s never really fleshed out beyond nerdy and judgmental?) I like that season 5 was a smidgen more experimental, especially that Groundhog Day episode that never gets walked back as a dream or anything so I guess really happened. But in the end, this is largely the same old show doing the same old tired routines.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch

Book #55 of 2018:

Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch

The opening of this story about a boy working for a Victorian-era animal trader lulls a reader with Dickensian charm, but it all turns absolutely brutal by the end. After a pleasant start our urchin hero sails out of London in search of a Komodo dragon, only to find himself shipwrecked and slowly starving to death in a lifeboat with an ever-dwindling crew. It’s all very well-written, but in agonizingly feverish detail that is a sharp turn from the early chapters and definitely not for the faint of heart. An excellent, uncomfortable read.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

Book #54 of 2018:

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive #3)

I think I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve read a book of more than a thousand pages and thought that it should have been longer. Author Brandon Sanderson has always been juggling a lot of plots, characters, and worldbuilding details in The Stormlight Archive — especially as more hints of his wider Cosmere setting have begun leaking in — but it all comes close to collapsing in this third novel. When the writer maintains a tight focus on his characters, as in Shallan’s struggles with her fracturing identity or the flashbacks that finally explore Dalinar’s past, the narrative soars to usual levels of Sanderson excellence. But there’s an awful lot of checking in on various developing situations once every few hundred pages or so, and it’s pretty hard to invest in those matters when they aren’t given more space in the plot. The result feels more scattered than the first two books in the series, like there was really too much material here to do it all justice even in so many pages.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

Book #53 of 2018:

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas (Lady Sherlock #1)

I cannot over-emphasize how much I love Charlotte Holmes, author Sherry Thomas’s take on the famous consulting detective. She’s every bit as genius as the original figure, and Thomas writes insightfully about the restrictive Victorian gender roles that would stifle a woman like that. Charlotte is absolutely brilliant as she invents a brother to bring her talents to the outside world, and her every scene faintly crackles with wit and energy.

The problem is that far too many scenes in this first Lady Sherlock novel are missing our heroine, and the narrative sags in her absence. The plodding investigation of Inspector Treadles is pretty interminable, and it effectively reduces Charlotte to guest-starring in her own book. I hope that’s an issue that Thomas handles better in the sequels, because this story is great when she lets it actually be about Holmes.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff

Book #52 of 2018:

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff

There are reasonable criticisms to be made about Michael Wolff’s inside account of the first six months of Donald Trump’s presidency, and I’m hesitant to trust any particular anecdote within. In general terms, however, the book paints a credible picture of the chaos behind the headlines: a temperamental president who didn’t expect — and perhaps didn’t want — to win the election, a neophyte political staff in warring power centers, and a top-down focus on television broadcast news over traditional White House sources of intelligence and expertise. Overall it feels less gossipy than I had expected, and particularly insightful into Trump’s governing psyche. This is unlikely to go down as the definitive version of the historical record, but if taken with a grain of salt, it’s a surprisingly worthwhile read for anyone looking to better understand this administration.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Book #51 of 2018:

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

This definitive biography of America’s controversial Founding Father is meticulously-researched, exhaustively-detailed, and above all engaging to read. It really brings the past to life, especially in relating the political struggles that took place after the Revolution as Alexander Hamilton and other patriots pursued different visions of what was best for the new country. Although history has not always viewed our first Treasury Secretary favorably, author Ron Chernow shows him as a man of genius who made an incredible positive impact in his few short years shaping America. The tragedy of Hamilton’s life and death makes for a great Broadway musical, but this book that directly inspired the play is well worth reading on its own.

★★★★★

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Book Review: Page by Tamora Pierce

Book #50 of 2018:

Page by Tamora Pierce (Protector of the Small #2)

I like this book better than the first one, and it definitely has a more engaging climax, but I’m still finding this particular Tortall quartet to be a rather aimless bildungsroman. As likeable as the heroine is, there’s simply not much plot to her story so far beyond getting bullied for her gender and training to become a knight.

I would also appreciate it if author Tamora Pierce could either stop writing preteen girls having crushes on adult men or at least have the common sense not to make those feelings mutual. Young Adult fiction provides models for children to understand the world, and there are some really unhealthy relationship dynamics that Pierce continues to present in a positive, romantic light.

★★★☆☆

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