Monday 21 January 2013

Shalee lhaih 2013: Shiaghtin 03

Jerrey'n treeoo hiaghtin, as shoh ny lhiah mee yn çhiaghtin shoh chaie:

More Starlight To Your Heart y.l. 1 (Matsuba Hiro)

Beggan aitt, agh er lhimmey jeh'n fer obbeeys as fiorag etlee, cha ghow mee monney noa assjeh. Shenn skeeal graih, dooinney kenjal lajer creeney as ben aeg ta goaill aggle dy aashagh as boirey er reddyn, as jannoo reddyn bolvaneagh as gleiy er y dooinney. T'eh screeuit as tayrnit schlei dy liooar, agh er lhiam nagh lhaihym ny smoo.

Strewberry Marshmallow y.l. 1 (Barasui)

Skeealyn sliss-jeh'n-teihll mychione daa huyr as nyn gaarjyn. So-chredjal, taitnyssagh, as kiune dy liooar.

Mabinogion (Gantz)

Far-skeealaghtagh.

Runemarks (Harris)

Skeeal mie dy liooar, er lhiam. She far-skeeal rere shenn far-skeealaght Norlynnagh t'ayn, mychione Oardagh, Corvaal, jeeghyn, roonyn, sleih as seihill. Cha nel mee lane shickyr er y jerrey - er lhiam nagh row eh baghtal dy mennick ny haghyr 'sy 50 duillag jerrinagh as ta drogh-ourys aym nagh ren Harris boirey monney tra vee stroie seihill as myr shen. V'ee cur ny smoo geill da'n eie eck, agh ta'n dowan skeealagh feer scanshoil ayns far-skeealyn as share lhiam dy vel eh baghtal.

V'eh 500 duillag er lhiurid, as foddee nagh row feme er shen. Chammah's shen, er lhiam dy choayl eh beggan jeh'n aittys v'ayn hoshiaght. Bare lhiam beggan ny smoo bree as aase ec Maddy, caillin veanagh y skeeal; t'ee gynsaghey reddyn as jannoo reddyn, agh cha nel ee caghlaa er lhiam. Eer 'sy toshiaght, cha nel ee ayn dy firrinagh agh 'sy 'naie-skeealagh, gyn kiangley da'n valley ny'n theay. Va karracteyryn elley anaasoil, agh fo trimmid y snaie-skeealagh, as wheesh dy charracteyryn, cha row rheamys oc dy aase as soilshaghey ad hene. Va ny jeeghyn fo ny soilshaghyn tradishoonagh oc, gyn caa erbee er son ronsaghey persoonagh, chamoo er son sym ayns cooish erbee agh reddyn jeeoil.

Ta reddyn taghyrt rere plannyn crampey as fadeyryssyn, cooie da skeeal Norlynnagh, agh ny keayrtyn t'ad gennaghtyn myr co-haghyrtyn ro-vooar as jus rouyr taghyrt ec yn un traa. As foddee nagh row oyr dy liooar ec sleih dy ghoaill rish plannyn sleih elley. Ta blass beg obbraghyn Tom Holt er cummey'n skeeal chammah, as cha nel mee lane shickyr dy row eh cooie. Myr shen, ghow mee soylley jeh, agh cha nel mee shickyr dy lhaihin ny smoo liorish Harris.


The end of week three of the Reading Project, and here's what I've read this week:

More Starlight To Your Heart v. 1 (Matsuba Hiro)

Mildly entertaining, but apart from the mystic with a pet flying squirrel, there just wasn't much novel about it. It's a variation on a rather clichéd romance, with a strong, caring, fairly sensible man, and a younger woman who scares easily, worries about things and is frankly a bit of a clingy ditz. It's written and drawn well enough, but I don't think I'll be reading any more.

Strewberry Marshmallow v. 1 (Barasui)

Slice-of-life stories about two sisters and their friends. Believable, enjoyable and pretty chilled.

Mabinogion (Gantz)

Mythy.

Runemarks (Harris)

A decent enough story, I thought. It's a fantasy based on Norse myth (obviously), about Order, Chaos, gods, runes, people and worlds. I'm not too sure about the end - to my mind in the last 50 pages or so it frequently wasn't that clear what was happening, and I have a sneaking suspicious Harris didn't worry too much about things when she was having worlds collapse into each other. She was maybe thinking more about her plot, but the setting cosmology is important in fantasy and I like it clear.

The book's 500 pages long, which I'm not convinced is necessary either, and I felt like it gradually lost the slight humour of the early chapters. I'd have liked more development for Maddy, the protagonist, and maybe a bit more spark: she learns some stuff over the course of the book but doesn't really change much, just do things. Right from the start she basically exists only in the plot, without any real connection to her town or family. Other characters showed signs of being interesting, but it felt a little bit crowded, like there wasn't enough room for any of them to develop properly. The gods were basically stuck with their classical descriptions, without much room for exploration or for any concerns other than godly ones.

Quite a lot of things in the book happen according to plots or prophecies, which is appropriate for mythological stories, but sometimes they felt rather more like improbably coincidences to me, without enough motivation for people to actually act as they were supposed to. There was a bit of Tom Holtianism to the plot too, which I'm not sure was really appropriate. So overall, okay, but I wouldn't necessarily read another one by Harris.

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