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About me: I'm an unrepentant generalist finding my way in a world of specialists. I started this blog to review books, but I now talk about topics ranging from management to cognition to social software.
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Lots of book reviews to catch up on, so I’m going to do capsule reviews until I’m caught up.
Balance of Trade, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
I really like the Liaden universe books, but hadn’t gotten around to reading the new books in the universe. When I saw this one in the library, I picked it up and read it last weekend. It was decent. I didn’t think the characters sparkled as much as in the other Liaden books, and some of the plot twists were far-fetched. But it was solidly entertaining, which is about all I can ask from a library book.
A Dirty Job, by Christopher Moore
Christopher Moore is an author that I’d like to read more of. I read his book Coyote Blue, and was tolerably amused by it, and would like to read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal just for the sheer blasphemy. This one describes what happens when a normal schmo (described as a Beta Male, the subservient to the prototypical Alpha Male) gets imbued with the powers of Death. It’s a little bit odd. But quite funny.
The Jazz, by Melissa Scott
Melissa Scott is another author whose work I like, even though it’s not part of my regular rotation of comfort reading. I’ve read a lot of her stuff, and particularly like Burning Bright for its projection of gaming in the future, and Trouble and her Friends which is cyperpunk-y with a dash of women’s studies. So when I saw a Scott book at the library, I picked it up. This one is a near future projection where “the jazz” is a major component of the net. “The jazz” is basically a combination of gossip-mongering, tabloid journalism, and rumors with just enough truth to make people believe it. It’s another book describing a future where image is more important than reality. Anyway, a teenage kid puts out a new piece of jazz, but is discovered to have stolen a program to help him make it. Pursuit ensues. The kid picks up unlikely allies along the way, while the record studio chases them with a ruthlessness that reminds one of the RIAA. The book itself is kind of by the numbers, but I liked the idea of the jazz; it reminds me of Bug Jack Barron in a way.
I’ve been a big fan of George R.R. Martin since I was introduced to the Wild Cards books in high school. I’ve been buying the Song of Ice and Fire books in hardcover because I want to read them right away, which is stupid, because the elapsed time in between book releases is way too long (in an interesting aside, while trying to figure out when the next one would be released, I went to Martin’s website and found out that because I bought the hardcover of the first book as soon as it came out, I have a collector’s item). I bluffed my way through the third book when it came out, but this time it had been long enough that I decided it was time to re-read the series in its entirety (partially because I was taking some time off). 2800 pages later, I’m bummed because he’s nowhere near done.
Re-reading the first one was eye-opening, though - it was fantastically well done, reminding me of what I love about good fantasy. I picked it up one Saturday afternoon and was most of the way through it by the end of the weekend, because I couldn’t put it down. The others became more and more of a slog. I’m mildly curious to see how he ends things, but if it takes another 1800 pages, I may not make it (and looking at the website, he says about A Dance with Dragons, “My hope is to bring the book in at around 1200 to 1300 pages.” And it’s not even the last one!).
My recommendation - wait until he finishes the entire series, and then read it. Or not. He may pull a Robert Jordan and never finish the series. But even if you decide to skip the series, read the first book - good stuff.
Jovah’s Angel, and Angelica, by Sharon Shinn
Two more books in the world of Archangel. I like the world, and its exploration of questions of faith and science (and particularly the question of whether a world designed for faith is sustainable), but the plots started to run together, always being about an angel man and a human woman, assigned to each other by the god, then falling in love. Yes, yes, romance and all that, but some variation would be nice. They were moderately diverting, but I’m glad I got them at the library.
Wildside, by Steven Gould
After enjoying Gould’s book Reflex, I saw this at the library and decided to give it a chance. Blech. Terrible uncreative work. It starts with a reasonable scifi premise (a portal to an alternate Earth where humans never evolved), but does nothing interesting with it. No characterization, no clever plans to exploit the alternate Earth, no memorable dialogue. I don’t even know why I bothered finishing reading it except that it was mercifully quick and I figured it had to get better. It didn’t. Spare yourself.
I saw this in the library in the new sci-fi section, and it looked interesting, so I picked it up. It’s the sequel to a book called Jumper, which I’ve never read, but I may go try to look up now. The premise is that the protagonist has developed the ability to teleport. No real explanation of how, he can just do it. But only to places he’s been before, or can see. Of course, the government finds out about him and tries to figure out ways to use him. And off the plot goes.
But the interesting bit to me was the thought that Gould had placed into how being an instantaneous teleport would affect one’s life. One could whisk off for a relaxing two hour swim in the Caribbean after work and sleep in one’s own bed - hotels are no longer necessary. One can always go to the store because it’s business hours somewhere in the world. One can find a completely desolate cabin in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no access by road or air, and move in because one can pop out for supplies whenever one wants. I’m sure there’s more that Gould missed, but he covered several that I hadn’t thought of, and that was neat.
Characterization and plot weren’t all that interesting. And Gould never makes any sort of attempt to explain how the power works. But it was worth the quick library read that it was.
Archangel, by Sharon Shinn
I saw this in the library and I had remembered that Beemer had once recommended it to me, so I picked it up. I liked it. Interesting world, and characters that I sympathized with. Not particularly deep, and not a book that I’m likely to rush out and buy for myself, but decent and memorable. Unlike the next book…
Shadow Puppets, by Orson Scott Card
I saw this in the library, picked it up, flipped through it, and still couldn’t remember whether I had read it, a problem which I’ve had with other books in this series. After reading a couple chapters, I realized I had. It’s really a sad commentary on this particular series of books from Card that they are completely forgettable. Normally, I have an almost encyclopedic memory of the books I’ve read, aided in the past few years by my writing reviews on my website, but these books just leave no impression. Strong anti-recommendation.
The Hallowed Hunt, by Lois McMaster Bujold
I adore the Vorkosigan series by Bujold, but haven’t been as enthralled by the Chalion series. But I saw it in the library, so I picked it up and read it. It was relatively engaging, but I’m still not that excited by the series. But that’s what the library is for.
As mentioned previously, my local library branch now stocks graphic novels. I picked up a few more yesterday, of which the only notable one was Fray, by Joss Whedon. As everybody knows, I was a huge fan of Buffy (and a somewhat lesser fan of Angel and Firefly (although I went to see Batman Begins (which was excellent) this afternoon and was totally totally jazzed to see the preview for Serenity, the movie that continues Firefly - the preview literally gave me goosebumps even though I’d already seen it online)) and once worshipped the ground that Joss walked upon. Anyway, I’d been meaning to read Joss’s attempt at a graphic novel, depicting a far future version of the Vampire Slayer, for a while. I even bought a couple of the Fray comic books from the store when they were being published before losing interest and deciding to wait for the graphic novel version. And then I never got around to it to buying the graphic novel, but now I was able to get it from the library.
It’s okay. It makes me realize how much of what I liked about Buffy is the interplay between the actors. The world of Fray just doesn’t come alive for me. Oh well.
The other graphic novels I got were all pretty awful. I picked up a Hellblazer compilation from long after Garth Ennis was done, and it was so bad I didn’t even finish an issue’s worth. I picked up a Books of Magic compilation, because I adore the original graphic novel, but the comic version does nothing for me, and I lost interest after only a couple issues. I also checked out an old Green Lantern compilation, but it was way too 70s Marvel-esque.
But, on the plus side, I bought none of them, so no harm, no foul.
A couple more books from my mindless fluff library trip.
Broken Angels, by Richard K. Morgan. Cyberpunk-y novel about a far future where personalities are downloadable into different human bodies, essentially making people immortal. Not too thrilling. But I read it anyway, because it was from the library and therefore free.
Astro City Vol. 1: Life in the Big City, by Kurt Busiek. A graphic novel collection of a comic that I’ve heard good things about. Busiek is subverting the superhero comic by examining what the rest of the people living in a city with superheroes would feel and how they would react. It’s kind of an interesting take on things, but not too compelling.
Similar to the Evanovich books, when I saw the latest Terry Pratchett at the library, I grabbed it and read it. As usual, it’s clever and funny, but not particularly memorable.
While we were driving up to Cornell, Jofish recommended this book. I’d read another of Smith’s books, Spares, borrowed from the library, but it made absolutely no impact on me, and I didn’t remember a single detail. But, in the mornings, while waiting for others to wake up, I picked up Only Forward from Jofish’s bookshelf, and slammed through it.
I thought it was interesting. I liked the world that it takes place in, which is sort of the logical extreme of the Burbclaves in Snow Crash, where the Neighborhoods grow to be completely separate and cut off from each other. And I really like how the protagonist’s flexible viewpoint lets him move between the different Neighborhoods seamlessly, because it picks up on the contextual nature of reality that I’ve been thinking about. The second half gets more metaphysical, and I’m not sure I liked where Smith went with it. But it was a quick read, and had some interesting ideas, so it’s a qualified thumbs up.
I remembered China Mieville’s name from Aneel’s book page, so when I stopped by the library, I looked him up, and this was the one book by him that they had. It’s somewhat in the same vein as Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, describing a London with more dimensions than most of us ever get to see, or the urban fantasies of Charles de Lint. The cover description plays up the importance of drum and bass techno music to the story, but I think that’s just to draw in the hip kids. I thought it was okay. The writing is gorgeous in spots, but the narrative seemed to kind of wander without a clear idea of where it was heading at times. It was okay. I’m happy I got it from the library.
