Books Read: 2007
Jul. 13th, 2007 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiThis is the special mule edition of Books Read 2007. Both books feature mules (the four-legged ones who don't smuggle drugs in their stomachs). Which makes that two more books featuring mules than I'd read in the past, um, ever?
61. The Shadows, Kith and Kin, by Joe Lansdale. This collection is something of a mixed bag, but there are a few highlights. The title story, written before the VA Tech shootings (and inspired by the Charles Whitman case), is disturbing without ever feeling sleazy, and one of Landsale's better recent works. "Deadman's Road" and "The Gentleman's Hotel" will be fun for Dead in the West fans, but don't really offer anything new, story-wise. "The Long Dead Day" is a short but touching zombie story, and "White Mule, Spotted Pig" is just plain good. The weak point in the volume is "Bill, the Little Steam Shovel," which is not only mediocre, but also written in a smug, "look at me! I'm breaking new ground" tone that the story simply doesn't deserve. The volume also suffers greatly from a lack of proofreading (so much so that I had to look on the spine to verify that it was from Subterranean, and not a late Meisha Merlin book). Recommended for Lansdale fans, skippable for others.
62. The Secret City, by Carol Emshwiller. This is a short but enormously touching novel, dealing with first contact, star-crossed lovers, and aliens who look shockingly like humans, complete with many similar faults. A group of said aliens, having visited our planet as tourists, are now trapped here, and this novel focuses on two of them. Lorpas has been living amongst the humans, passing as a bum, while Allush has been living in the titular "city," hiding out with a few other survivors and waiting to be rescued. Both discover much about the nature of "humanity," as it's represented in their two races and their respective worlds. The Secret City is a lovely little book about innocence and innocents; there are some horrible events in this book, but Lorpas and Allush both strive to overcome these events beautifully. Highly recommended.
61. The Shadows, Kith and Kin, by Joe Lansdale. This collection is something of a mixed bag, but there are a few highlights. The title story, written before the VA Tech shootings (and inspired by the Charles Whitman case), is disturbing without ever feeling sleazy, and one of Landsale's better recent works. "Deadman's Road" and "The Gentleman's Hotel" will be fun for Dead in the West fans, but don't really offer anything new, story-wise. "The Long Dead Day" is a short but touching zombie story, and "White Mule, Spotted Pig" is just plain good. The weak point in the volume is "Bill, the Little Steam Shovel," which is not only mediocre, but also written in a smug, "look at me! I'm breaking new ground" tone that the story simply doesn't deserve. The volume also suffers greatly from a lack of proofreading (so much so that I had to look on the spine to verify that it was from Subterranean, and not a late Meisha Merlin book). Recommended for Lansdale fans, skippable for others.
62. The Secret City, by Carol Emshwiller. This is a short but enormously touching novel, dealing with first contact, star-crossed lovers, and aliens who look shockingly like humans, complete with many similar faults. A group of said aliens, having visited our planet as tourists, are now trapped here, and this novel focuses on two of them. Lorpas has been living amongst the humans, passing as a bum, while Allush has been living in the titular "city," hiding out with a few other survivors and waiting to be rescued. Both discover much about the nature of "humanity," as it's represented in their two races and their respective worlds. The Secret City is a lovely little book about innocence and innocents; there are some horrible events in this book, but Lorpas and Allush both strive to overcome these events beautifully. Highly recommended.