keighty

What I've Just Finished Reading

"Just" isn't quite the case, because I haven't had the motivation to sit down and read for quite some time. The last book I read was The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison. I really am torn on this book - I liked it, but I felt like it could've been about 100 pages shorter than it was. It certainly filled a niche I've been left wanting since I finished the author's previous series, Doctrine of Labyrinths, in the sense that the world was built beautifully and was absolutely engrossing, but character-wise... eh.

Don't get me wrong, The Goblin Emperor's protagonist, Maia, is nice enough - and being nice really is his defining character trait. Which is good! It's refreshing to read a story where the main character is good, but actively chooses to be good. And I have to commend Katherine Addison for making me care about Maia and his fiancee when they spent all of twenty pages together. It was on the whole a lot "cozier" than DoL, but...

While DoL could occassionally feel a little needlessly edgy and miserable, but I don't think I've ever loved a character in fantasy fiction as much as I have Mildmay. He has an entire scene which revolves around him going down on a woman purely to show what a good and selfless character he is like, come on.

What I'm Reading Now

Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-ju. My wife bought and read in the day, then has been gently pushing me to read it so I can talk about it with her. It's a novel which examines misogyny and sexism in South Korea, and... it's okay. I like the framing device of following one character throughout their life, from birth onwards - but otherwise, it's just bleak. Given the subject matter, that's understandable! But I don't think it was a great book to pick up with how I'm feeling right now.

What I Plan to Read Next

Man, I have no fuckin' clue, I've got far too many books to read and need to just see which of them 'clicks' for me when I get round to tackling them. Maybe I'll write about them next week, maybe not.