*sniff* le cry

The Armour of Contempt, by Dan Abnett. As we noted at Kim's parents' house, you can tell it's British because of the 'u.' As usual, Abnett's writing style...well, there's just not room to go on about it. Cinematic in the best possible ways, and characters that are impossible not to feel for. That said, I can see how one might say that this book is something of a let down; it's something that should in a sense be a climactic triumph, but instead it hardly seems to go anywhere, and the main characters are almost tangent to the meat of the matter. I think this novel serves some important functions, though - showing the evolution of the main characters, embodied in Dalen Criid's portion of the story, and his development as a character. And in that, and in the rest, characterizing the main group of characters as a whole by placing them so starkly within the impersonal, dark setting, embodied in the reasoning behind the liberation the novel is about, and how it is executed, and their part in it. I could obviously explain that better, but it would take an essay. Good read, in any case (but for the tragic ending, which is its own bittersweetness).

big, and squishy: tempting

well, Kim's got it way handled (pinched?) already