Ring Shout is in the horror/fantasy category, but I really began to enjoy it when I started to read it as a fable. The way the book works through its moral arc leads directly to its final lesson, that if we give back all the hate we receive then we lose ourselves in hatred. Come for the great storytelling but stay for the history--Clark has all his ducks in a row and delivers a real education in with the fable. The Gullah translations were really valuable to me. You kind of see things coming, but if you let go of the notion that you shouldn't then you will fully enjoy the book. TIL what a Ring Shout is, and I am better for it.
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Network Effect, by Martha Wells
The Murderbot Diaries is pretty reliable as entertainment. This one rolls along nicely, but it might have been a bit better as a novella like the others. We get a lot of description of frenetic battles, with Murderbot processing a lot of inputs at once. It's very true to the character but gets tiring to read after awhile. Murderbot was kind of growing up over the last four books, but at least the pace of that development is slowing--seems like fans really enjoy the petulant adolescent thing. If you're waiting for him to grow out of that you might get tired of this series after awhile. I wish that some of his clients were more memorable--I have trouble keeping them straight in the stories. But I crack on it too much--it's fine entertainment.
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