Signal to Noise - by Silvia Moreno-García

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in Mexico city and alternating between 1988 -when teenage misfit Meche and two best friends discover they can do magic with vinyl records- and 2009 -when they are reunited at the funeral for Meche's dad.
With magic involved it does not go well. Weaving a plethora of music references -from Timbiriche to Nina Simone and Duncan Dhu- with witchcraft, I found this a refreshing story.

I enjoyed that the protagonist Meche, is not a nice person. Although she seems grown-up in the 2009 portion, she still carries around a huge chip on her shoulders from when she last saw her friends.

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His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The short description of this historical fantasy mashup is Horatio Hornblower with dragons.

And it works. Beautifully. Captain Will Laurence (gotta love the name) of the British Royal Navy captures a French frigate carrying a dragon egg. When it hatches unexpectedly and the newborn dragonet imprints on him, he is forced to give up his naval career to care for it and join the disreputable Aviator Corps in the fight against Napoleon.

Hornblower-like in his attitude, Laurence grows as a person as he bonds with Temeraire and learns about dragons and aerial combat.

Combat scenes are well depicted and are exciting and logical.

Besides the dragon Temeraire, there aren't other truly likeable characters, but there are funny conversations and insightful commentary from both humans and dragons. Oh, there is an absolute assh*le whom you will loathe, but I'll leave it at that.

Can't wait to start the next one.


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Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mashup a standard Young Adult dystopian fare with a fairy tale, and you'll get Dorothy Must Die.

Amy Gumm, an outsider and loner at her Kansas high school, unwillingly travels to the Land of Oz via tornado, and finds things are not going well.

Dorothy, the heroine from the classical tale has turned evil and is draining the magic from the land, with the help of her now evil and cruel friends the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion.

Amy is recruited and eventually trained by the Evil Witches to infiltrate Dorothy's palace and assassinate her.

Along the way she will find some allies, but will also be constantly reminded everything is more than meets the eye, and no one can be trusted.

So far, pretty much what I expected. Towards the end, things got very interesting, nicely setting up the sequels in this series.

Originally I intended to read just the first one, but now I am genuinely intrigued as to what will happen next.

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Yiddish for Pirates by Gary Barwin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. In this weird, funny and sad book, Aaron, a 500 year-old parrot narrates the story of Moishe, young Jewish boy who runs away from home, becomes Aaron's companion, and together they run from the Spanish Inquisition, discover America, become pirates and look for love.

Ripe with satire and Yiddish commentary, I had trouble getting into the story, given the narrator's quirks. After a couple of chapters I internalized them, and had no problems picturing Aaron's and Moishe's story in my mind.

My only complaint is with the rather abrupt ending - Without spoiling anything I imagine it is to set up a sequel. Will look forward to it.


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Mis Lecturas de 2010

Esta es una idea fusilada del Diario de la Pelusa.  Se lo agradezco mucho

1. La Amenaza del Caballo Oscuro - Marcus Sedgwick
2. Cometas en el cielo - Khaled Hosseini
3. Corazón de Tinta - Cornelia Funke
4. La costa Más lejana - Ursula K. LeGuin
5. El Rey del Invierno - Bernard Cornwell
6. Starwars: Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina - varios
7. The Sandman: Endless Nights - Neil Gaiman
8. High Five! - Ken Blanchard & Sheldon Bowles
9. Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein (reread)
10. The Forever War -  Joe Haldeman (reread)
11. Old Man's War - John Scalzi (reread)
12. The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi (reread)
13. The Last Colony - John Scalzi (reread)
14. Zoe's Tale -  John Scalzi  (reread)
15. World War Z: An oral history of the Zombie war - Max Brooks
16. La Puta de Babilonia - Fernando Vallejo
17. Cómo Ganar Amigos e Influir sobre las Personas - Dale Carnegie (reread)
18. The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
19. The Secret Handshake - Kathleen Kelly Reardon (no terminado aún)
20. Breathless - Dean Koontz (muy malo)

His Dark Materials

His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

This trilogy follows two children from different realities or universes, and how their fates entwine.

Lyra Belacqua is from a universe where people's soul or spirit is visible in animal form, and is known as a daemon. She becomes the possessor of an Alethiometer, a rare instrument that can answer any question, provided the answer can be interpreted.

Will is a boy from our reality, who becomes the wielder of the Subtle Knife, so sharp that it can cut through different realities. He is trying to find his father, an explorer who has been missing for ten years.

Their perilous journey is interspersed with fantastic creatures --armored bears, witches, Gallivespian spies, Mulefas-- some of which will aid and others will hinder their quest to stop the dissapearance of Dust, the substance of reality.

Characters who first appear as noble or evil will switch sides several times during the story, which some quarters have criticized as being "anti-church" and "anti-God". While some of the acts these characters do sometimes are terrible indeed, there are moments where the reader will wonder "would I have done any differently?".

The film adaptation of the first book was in my opinion, superb. I wonder how the rest of the books will fare, since there are scenes that may not translate well into film. Think of Stephen King novel adaptations to cinema. Some are very good, but the ones with the more fantastic elements end up looking ridiculous on screen. I fear for the Dark Materials.

Stardust

Stardust - Neil Gaiman
En inglés, en español

Reseñé la película en mi otro blog, y dejé claro que era una mamarrachada gringa hecha al vapor.

Sin embargo, mis amigos el 7 palabras e Ivanius comentaron que el autor de la novela, Neil Gaiman es un gran escritor contemporáneo, que además es famoso por la serie de cómics de Sandman para Vertigo comics (que no he leido).

Con esa recomendación del libro, fue una grata sorpresa recibirlo como regalo navideño de un muy querido amigo, al que le quedé mal con el suyo, pero generó buen humor.

Tristran Thorn es un joven que vive en Muro, un pueblo que toma su nombre del muro que separa los mundos de los humanos y de las hadas. Está locamente enamorado de Victoria Forrester, y promete traerle una estrella que ha caído esa noche.
Se aventura en el mundo mágico, donde capturará a la Estrella caída, conocerá diversos personajes y tendrá aventuras que lo harán madurar de muchacho a hombre, además de descubrir su verdadero origen y destino final.

La mayoría de las aventuras se deben a que la Estrella es un ser codiciado en estas tierras, y el joven Tristran pasa de secuestrador a héroe en un proceso lleno de conversaciones y reflexiones filosóficas interesantes y muy "británicas".

Tiene sus momentos para adolescentes y adultos, tanto románticos como de violencia, pero bien dosificados.

Si cometiste el error de ver la película, te recomiendo que tomes esta lectura y le des una oportunidad al Sr. Gaiman de atraparte en su mundo fantástico.

Reseña de la película aquí