Saturday Post, 8/11/2012

                                           "Let me 'splain. No, is too much. Let me sum up..."


Ok. Two weeks of reading. I'll give you the highlights.

Dave Duncan - The Reluctant Swordsman

Wallie Smith enters a hospital here in our world, suffering from something brain related - a tumor? I forget. Anyway, he wakes up in a fantasy world, in the body of a barbarian swordsman. He is expected to do amazing things, because he is a seventh level swordsman - the best of the best. He is approached by a god, or a godlet (perhaps), who tells him that his job is to save the world...

In another author's hands, this book could have been mindless fluff. Duncan, however, does some amazing things here, and offers us a deeply philosophical text on the nature of free will. The pre-literate society that Wallie has found himself in is corrupt from the top down - and the top is the gods. Duncan gives us some delightful relationship parallels: Wallie and the gods (where Wallie is inferior and has no free will [at one point Wallie says something like, "what if I don't want to do what you want me to do?" and the godlet says "but you do want to do what we want you to do." and Wallie says, "yes, I do want to do that."]); Wallie and his apprentice (Wallie is superior due to skill, but the apprentice can be and is elevated to Wallie's level); Wallie and his love interest (she's a slave. Wallie is socially superior, but tells her she isn't a slave anymore. Does she have free will? Ahhhh. Wallie says she does, but she doesn't act as though she does - until she says "no" to Wallie, she is still acting as a slave, even if Wallie treats her nicely. IE, if Wallie wants her to eat dinner with him - elevating her to his social status - and she does it to please him rather than because she legitimately wants to, then she is still acting as a slave, even if she benefits from the exchange.) So, what does free will mean? And how do you save a world which is run by corrupt gods? Alas, unless I find the second and third books in some paperback sale somewhere, I'll never know - this is one of the few drawbacks of using a library.

Wait! A contest suggests itself! I'll make a separate post - watch this space.

John Scalzi - Redshirts

This book opens as a parody of classic Star Trek, shifts into a pastiche, and ultimately grows into it's own thing, a humorous yet deep musing on the nature of humanity, life, death, and (as with Duncan), free will. Unfortunately, I can't really say very much about the book without spoiling the plot twists that are a critical part of what makes the story great.

Here's what I can say. It's about a ship in the Universal Union - the starship Intrepid. Ensigns on board the ship have learned that when they serve on away teams with certain members of the command crew, their chances of survival are statistically very very low. A group of ensigns get together to figure out why, and what they can do about it.

There are some other things I can say about the book. One, I found it delightfully funny; biting in places, but over all a pleasure. However, I like Scalzi's style of dialogue and character description. If you don't, then you might find the book somewhat difficult to read. Two, the best best best part of the book is the short stories that serve as "codas" at the end of the book. There is more heart and character development per paragraph in the short stories than in the novel they are codas of (and there's a lot of heart and character development in the novel) But you can't read the stories without the context of the bigger novel. Still, Mr. Scalzi, in the unlikely instance that you are reading this, write more short stories!*

A last thing. I didn't like the very final twist - it felt a little cheap. Not enough to seriously affect my enjoyment of the novel, but still.

*A note on short stories. Charles DeLint suggested (somewhere, and I'm not going to hunt it down right now) that short stories are actually quite dangerous for authors. They take almost as long to write well as a novel, but they don't pay out nearly as well, and you need to accumulate several before you can actually do anything with them. And yet, sometimes you have no choice but to write them. Thus, DeLint contributes short stories to collections, and periodically he releases a collection of his own short stories - he does this for his own amusement. Still - more short stories! Everywhere!

Alex Bledsoe - The Hum and the Shiver

Speaking of Charles DeLint - this novel is reminiscent of DeLint's work. A truly amazing work of mythic fiction which mixes sweet with bitter, and offers a collection of really strong characters, centered on a powerful female character (which, you know, I love).

Bronwynn Hyatt returns to her tiny Tennessee town from Iraq with a badly injured leg and the adulation of a grateful nation. Hyatt is a hero, but she doesn't remember why - something to do with killing a bunch of Iraqis who were trying to kill her. (The structure of Hyatt's moment of heroism seems modeled on Pvt. Lynch) Anyway, that's not really central to the novel. Hyatt is a Tufa, a member of a secretive people which lives in the hills of the American South, and which is rumored to have certain powers.

The book is about coming home to a place you missed, and learning that you don't fit as well as you thought you might. It's about the duties of family, and about your identity within the family. The plot is a small one - no sweeping narratives about saving the world or foiling a grand scheme to kill the president or anything like that. Bronwynn struggles with herself, and with the petty powers in her local community. She falls in love, perhaps. She learns who she is, and how she fits into her world. And Bledsoe packs so much heart and character into the book that it feels like a much much larger work. Then, he wraps the whole thing up with mountain music so vibrant you can hear it - there's a lot to love about this book.

Trigger warnings, however - there are some scenes of violence that are a little raw; in particular a scene of animal cruelty. Also, there are some strong implications of rape, or at least rape ideation.

Harry Turtledove - Supervolcano: Eruption

Oh my god, this book was so awful! I'm a Turtledove fan, and I'm a fan of disaster novels, and neither of those things outweigh the fact that this was not a good book. How was it bad? Let me count the ways:

1) It's a book about the eruption of the supervolcano which is under Yellowstone National Park (an actual thing, I assure you). The title is pretty clear about that. And yet, for the first quarter of the book, characters wonder if the heroes are right about the possibility of the volcano erupting. That's right - the volcano doesn't erupt until nearly a quarter of the way through the book.
2) All of what happens before the volcano erupts is pretty banal. There are several descriptions of what Colin, one of the heroes, is eating for dinner. Nothing happens!
3) The eruption itself is somewhat anti-climactic. Almost all of the principle characters are well outside the danger zone. The two who are not escape fairly quickly. No long descriptions of devastation - everything is at a remove.
4) Speaking of which - there's a bit, about 3/4 of the way into the book, where Iran launches a nuke at Israel. The rationale is that since the American warheads are largely in the midwest, and since the midwest is covered by a heavy layer of volcanic ash and dead animals, the US can't retaliate in defense of Israel. Fair enough - a bit of a stretch, perhaps, and faulty logic on the part of the Iranians, because the Israeli's have nukes of their own, which they use. The problem is, this all takes place in a couple of paragraphs, is conveyed third-hand (a character watches a report on CNN about the event), and is Never Mentioned Again. A nuclear war. Well, skirmish. In the Middle East. Never mentioned again.
5) Most of what the characters do after the eruption is pretty banal as well. Nothing happens! I guess the point is that human beings basically keep on doing what they were doing - falling in love, getting married, having babies, playing music, taking classes - but the description of the book says this: "Those who survive find themselves caught in an apocalyptic catastrophe in which humanity has no choice but to rise from the ashes and recreate the world..." And there's none of that. There is no apocalyptic catastrophe (food shortages and extreme global cooling are beginning, but they are SLOOOOOW), and there is no rising from the ashes and recreating the world. Perhaps in later books? But I will never find out, because I have no desire to read later books.

There were a few scenes with real impact. There's a plane crash which was solidly well written. I liked the relationship between Colin and Kelly. That's about 50 pages, perhaps - a short story, maybe?

Ok. Those are the high (and low) points. I also read:

Andrew Blum - Tubes: A trip to the center of the Internet - interesting book, as much history as geography. A good way of looking at the infrastructure of the internet. A little dry - I took a break and read Redshirts.

Tanya Huff - The Heart of Valor - third book in the Valor's Confederation series. Good solid book, nice twists and some pleasant character development. A quick read.

Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer - Sorcery and Cecelia: Or the Magic Chocolate Pot - The first of Wrede and Stevermer's epistilary series. I've read them before, but there's a third book in the series that is new, and my wife agreed that we needed to re-read before advancing. This is a fun series; lots of little jokes. Wrede and Stevermer clearly had fun writing it, but the later books are better.

Friday Review, 7/22/2011

Before I review my two books this week, I would like to make an observation. Right now, in most of North America, it is damn hot. Damn hot varies, depending on where you are, but, here in Upstate New York, not a place known for being sweltering, it has topped 100 F (that's 38 C, for those of you in the civilized world), and that's damn hot.

Many people do not have the luxury of air conditioning when it is damn hot outside. Heating in the cold is far more common, and generally viewed as a human necessity, but air conditioning is a luxury. My family has decided that, since we only really need A/C two or three days a year, we aren't going to buy a window unit for the house, so I am part of that group of people who does not have A/C when it gets damn hot. One of the places people like me go (and take their kids to) when it gets damn hot is the library. Because it's free. Because it's full of books, and we like to encourage our children to read. And, obviously, because most libraries are air conditioned - it's good for the books if a fairly steady heat and humidity is maintained in the library. This is a good reason to support your local library - it provides a shelter from the heat for folks who don't have or can't afford air conditioning when it's damn hot.

Ok. Book reviews.

This week, I re-read a book which I've had on my shelf (or in a box somewhere) for at least ten years. It's an older book, but it's really good, and you've probably never heard of it.

Julie Czerneda - In the Company of Others


Ten years ago, give or take, my wife and I were running a small student convention in Virginia for the second year in a row. We had decided that we would invite authors that we were interested in listening to, since we could only really guarantee that the two of us would show up for the panels. In our hunting, we discovered Jule Czerneda. Her background intrigued us - she had hard science credentials, and everything about her books suggested that she took a very hard science approach to her science fiction. Also, she had co-authored a middle school curriculum which used short works of science fiction to teach students basics of science. So we invited her. And she was awesome; both as an author and as an author guest. If you are running a convention, I seriously recommend her, she's lovely.

In the Company of Others had been released fairly recently prior to the convention, and was, I believe, nominated for a Nebula award or a Hugo - I'm not sure. Either way, she chose to come to our convention rather than attend the award ceremony. Others was her fifth book, and her first stand alone novel - the previous four were parts one and two of two separate trilogies. It's a serious slab of a novel as well, and it realistically took me about a week to read - it's dense.

The plot. At some point in the distant future, humanity has terraformed several distant planets to relieve crowding on Earth. Before settlers can put down on the planets, however, it becomes apparent that something is seriously wrong - advance scouts die suddenly. The sudden death is traced back to the presence of Quill on the planets - a non-sentient creature which deep-space explorers like to keep as pets. Quill are ribbon like critters that bond somehow with a specific person and cause them to remain calm, or tranQuill, hence the name. The Quill bond with a specific genetic pattern - once bonded, they cannot be given away, except sometimes to a direct child of the owner. Prior to the terraforming, they were regarded as expensive (because difficult to get) novelties, but not dangerous. After the terraforming disaster, they become monsters.

Complicating the situation is the fact that Earth released settlers to orbiting way-stations before the planets were ready to receive them, and are now unwilling to accept the settlers back on Earth. This results in severely over crowded stations, and a great deal of hostility from the station dwellers towards Earth.

A generation has passed since the initial disaster. Our hero, Aaron Pardell, lives on one of the stations. As our book begins, a science vessel from Earth has arrived - the head of the mission, Dr. Gail Smith, is looking for Aaron. Aaron thinks he knows why - he has an odd medical condition. If people touch him, both he and the other person experience extreme pain, often to the point of unconsciousness. I think that's all I can say without offering spoilers.

Stuff I liked - the science is really hard here. Scientists engage in science, not technobabble.

- The people are real, too. They react in reasonable, and sometimes unreasonable, ways, and basically behave like real people. Czerneda presents characters in considerable depth, both as individuals and as a collective - secondary, tertiary, even unnamed characters in the book have personalities. This is clear - in the end of the book, Czerneda includes a cast of characters. There are names for people who do not even have "speaking" parts in the book - people who, in the movie credits, would be "third man from the left in the lab scene." Czerneda gives them names, and the care she takes there shines throughout the novel, which is one of the reasons it so dense.

- There's a really hot love scene in which neither participant touches the other at all, and no genitals are exposed. It's steamy, yet totally understated. One of my professors back in undergrad - actually, I don't know that I ever had him as a professor, come to think of it, but he was in the department - wrote fiction. At one event, he suggested that sex scenes in novels tended to be either vulgar or farcical, I believe the exact phrase was "like a banana on the front of a suit of armor". This love scene is neither, and it's brilliant.

- Julie Czerneda is a Canadian, and she peppers her works with little Canadian references. In this book, the space craft are often named for Canadian cities - the one that comes to mind is a freighter named Mississagua, which is a city outside of Toronto, Ontario.

Stuff I didn't like - it's long? And kinda dense? And I stayed up late last night finishing it.

Final thoughts - Julie Czerneda is a fantastic person and author, and her books need a much much wider audience. If you like really good science fiction, you totally owe it to yourself to check her out.

Alex Bledsoe - Dark Jenny


While I was at the library yesterday, I grabbed this one off the new book shelf. I do this thing at the library where I let the older kid run wild wander sedately through the kids' section seeking books for herself while I sit with the baby and read part of a book I've grabbed. Sometimes, I'll pick up a graphic novel and read it all the way through, and then not bring it home (unless I think my wife would like it, in which case I'll bring it home for her).* My eldest has picked up on this habit, and she will often read the books she is bringing home before she puts them in the library bag - so she often reads her books three and four times before they go back. She's totally my kid. :)

Anyway, Bledsoe is an interesting author. This is the third of the Eddie LaCrosse novels. Eddie LaCrosse is a "sword jockey" - a guy who you can hire to do some strong arm stuff, or to look into a messy mystery type situation - a sword for hire, if you will. In short, he is a hardboiled private eye - but in a narrative setting involving knights and dragons and magic and swords and such. This particular book blends an Arthurian milleu with the hard boiled PI trope - it's very much "you got your hard boiled PI in my Arthurian romance", "no, you got your Arthurian romance in my hard boiled PI."

Eddie is at the bar on a hard winter's night when someone shows up with a box for him. Not a box, a coffin. The coffin points Eddie to an old case involving Marcus Drake, king of Grand Bruan, and head of the Knights of the Double Tarn. (Marcus is, of course, the Arthur figure.) He recounts the tale to the rest of the bar patrons, and a sordid tale it is. The story features murder, treachery, and villainy. It also features beautiful women (who aren't what they seem), strong men (who aren't what they seem), knights in shining armor (who aren't what they seem) and useless over dressed nobles (who are exactly what they seem).

There is quite a bit of violence in the book, much of it brutal, little of it really graphic, but some of it a little disturbing. Some of the violence is directed at women. The hard boiled PI genre is not kind to women - women are either dangerous man-traps or virtuous damsels in distress (and much more often the former) - but Bledsoe softens that a little. His female characters have some depth to them, and reasonable motivations for what they do. Still, I think it would be safe to argue that there's some serious misogyny in this book, and the genre in general, so you have been warned.

Something that bugged me a little that has nothing whatsoever to do with the writing - the cover has this matte coating on it that makes it feel almost like it has been rubberized. It's really odd. I don't know if that's the original covering, or if the library added some sort of coating to protect the cover - I suspect the former, but I couldn't find a copy today at Barnes and Noble (they have air conditioning too!) to confirm. Anyway, it felt really weird in my hands - I got used to it as I read the book, but every time I pick it up, it strikes me again.

The short review - It's a quick read, it's very very smart, and it's good in lots of ways, and disturbing in some other ways. It's also rubbery for some reason.

*You know what that means (besides the fact that I forgot to include the footnote last night)? That means a) I still read comics (not that there's anything wrong with that) and b), I read more books than I tell you all about. I don't know if that makes me evil or benevolent.