Friday Review Post, 6/3/2011

Three books this week. I know! I'm as surprised as you are.

First up,

Francis Fukuyama - The Origins of Political Order


This was a monster. Fukuyama was clearly aiming for a nice middle ground between scholarly and readable, and he mostly hit it. Nonetheless, the book was very dense, and the topic was hugely ambitious. Fukuyama has set out to explain where politics comes from. This book, the first of two, starts with the philosophical construct of the State of Nature - literally, Fukuyama starts with primates. It ends on the eve of the American and French revolutions, the point at which politics and state organisations changed for ever.

In simplest terms, Fukuyama is arguing two things. 1) Human beings are, by nature, social beings, and always have been. Hobbes' position (and Rousseau's) that humans, in the State of Nature, were solitary (and, for Hobbes, brutish; for Rousseau, gentle) is wrong. Any attempt to explain group cooperation as some sort of gamesmanship - "we work in a group because it gets us what we want as individuals, even though we really don't like working in groups" - ignores the fact that, biologically, we are inclined to work in groups. 2) There is no one route to a "modern" state (one which, politically, a) has a strong central government; b) operates under the Rule of Law [the strong central government sees itself as subject to law]; c) the strong central government is accountable to the people). Fukuyama looks at a variety of states, in Europe, in the Middle East, and in Asia, and shows how each approach modernity by different routes. This second thing is, perhaps, more important than the first. Modernity theory, especially in History, has often been condemned as Eurocentric, in that it seems to suggest that "modern" is synonymous with "western" or "European". Fukuyama argues quite the opposite - a state can attain "modernity" without looking anything like a European state. Further, not all European states evolved in the same way.

So. It was dense. It was heavily cited, and the bibliography is daunting. On some level, Fukuyama isn't saying anything that I haven't read elsewhere. On the other hand, noone else has said it all in one place before. As an historian, I liked that Fukuyama put his theory at the end of the work instead of the beginning, thus allowing his theory to flow from his evidence, rather than the other way around. As a reader, I found it somewhat distracting that he kept referring to chapters as yet un-read ("as we will explore in chapter X"). A glossary would have been nice - I don't know that he ever really defined latifundia* (maybe it was in the endnotes). If you are taking a political theory class, or an introductory historiography class, you may well encounter this work. Under those circumstances, it's worth the effort. Otherwise, maybe not.

* Basically, large farms - a situation where a single person owns a lot of different pieces of farm land. Wikipedia explains it here.

Well, so. Dr. Fukuyama wasn't exactly beach reading, so I didn't take him with me to the beach on Monday. Instead, a friend has asked, all wide eyed, if I had any Charles de Lint I could lend to him. Yes, I allowed as how I might, given that I have a whole shelf of de Lint - I gave him Waifs and Strays, but I also pulled Jack of Kinrowan off the shelf - I had, apparently, already loaned him that once. But I re-read it myself, so no harm done.

Charles de Lint - Jack of Kinrowan


This volume comprises Jack the Giant-Killer, which is de Lint's contribution to the Terri Windling Fairytales project, and Drink Down the Moon, which is the sequel. Both are set in Ottawa, in Canada, which was where I was living when I read them. Both are absolutely delightful - de Lint had just begun playing with the idea of fairies and magic impinging on our world, and these are a great example of that. Reading them made me a little homesick - not so much for Ottawa, but for being 19.

Anyway, Jacky Rowan discovers that the fairies of ancient myth and legend live more or less on top of the "real" world, leading a shadowy life that we know nothing about. Due to an accident, she is dragged into that world, and becomes the Jack of the Seelie Court (the good fairies, more or less), killing a pair of giants, and rescuing the fairy princess. In the second book, Jacky's friend, Kate, has an adventure of her own, in which she becomes, more or less, a wizard. Both are nice, simple stories with strong female characters, lots of magic and music, and some lovely descriptions of Ottawa landmarks. My only complaint is that there is no third book - the second book leaves some plot points very badly unresolved (mostly romance-y stuff) and I'd love a book to finish that story out, even if it meant buying another compilation.

Michael Thomas Ford - Jane Goes Batty


This is the second of Ford's Jane Austen books. The premise is delightfully absurd - Austen is a vampire, turned by Lord Byron (also a vampire) and currently living in upstate New York, where she has a bookstore. In the first book, Austen (as Jane Fairfax) has published a book (Constance), which, oddly enough, is viewed by many critics as being very nicely Austenesque. It becomes a modest best seller, and in this book, it is getting the Hollywood treatment. The director has decided to film in Jane's town of Brakestone (which does not, as far as I can tell, exist). Jane's nemesis, Beverly Shrop, has decided to hold a big romance convention in Brakestone at the same time. Jane's boyfriend, Walter, announces that his mother would like to come to visit, to meet Jane. At the same time. Oh, and by the way, Walter's mother is Jewish. Oh, and he may have suggested to her that Jane was thinking of converting. And Jane's editor has decided to come and babysit Jane, who is supposed to be writing her next book, which is greatly behind schedule. So, all that is happening at the same time - lovely complications.

Ford has some lovely characters, and he really puts them through the wringer, tossing in vampire hunters, bringing back characters we thought died earlier, having the movie re-set in the 1950s, twisting a sub-plot involving a pair of twins (one a vampire, the other, not) with annoyingly similar names (Ned and Ted) that no one can tell apart, and generally messing around with everyone at every chance he gets. I think, towards the end, he gets in over his head. In the last 1/4 of the book, he has one of the characters get murdered. My thought was "oh my, that's awfully close to the end of the book," and it was. Everything gets resolved, and the whole thing is pleasantly madcap, but the ending felt a little rushed, and also a little ... tidy. The characters carry the work All in all, I preferred the first book. I will read the third (Jane Vows Vengeance) if and when I see it.

Friday Review Post, 1/14/2011

I read a lot of books this past week. Next week, I start teaching again, so my average should go down.

Charles de Lint - Waifs and Strays


The last bit of de Lint week from last week.  As I mentioned, this book references and interview I did with Mr. de Lint, although my name is misspelled.

This is a collection of YA short stories.  De Lint likes to write short stories - there are several collections - and this is a collection of older works featuring young adults.  He explains in his introduction that he doesn't write stories specifically for young adults, but feels that his work probably appeals to a broad range.

There is one new work in this collection, but the rest had already been published elsewhere.  That means that this represents an interesting cross section of de Lint's growth as an author. The stories become increasingly character driven the further into the collection you get and the further from "traditional" fantasy de Lint gets (although there is a story in a "traditional" fantasy setting, and one in a rare sci fi setting as well - there's even a story which has nothing fantastical about it at all; great characters, but no magic.). Because I spent several of my formative years in Ottawa, I especially like the Ottawa stories, which take place in and around parts of the city and nearby country that I know and recognize.  Ottawa, I think, is an under exploited narrative setting, I'd love to see more books set there.

Anyway, last week I suggested some places to start reading de Lint's work, and this is an excellent place to start.  This is a broad selection of works, touching on a range of topics and a range of characters.  There's not a lot of continuity to worry about - you aren't going to meet lots of characters that have lengthy back stories, for instance - and you should be able to track back to a set of short stories or novels that you liked best - the Ottawa stories, or the Newford stories, or something else, perhaps.  De Lint plays with fairy tale tropes - no, that's not quite right, actually. More like, there's a strong feeling of fairy tale about these stories. If you like fairy tales, you'll probably like this collection, with the proviso that they are a little darker than Disney, much closer to the original Brother's Grimm.


Graham Moore - The Sherlockian


So, I needed to finish this one over the weekend, because it was due back, and had a hold on it, so I could not renew.  The premise is interesting, this is actually two short novels woven around each other.  In the modern setting, Harold White (a young fan of Sherlock Holmes) attempts to track down the killer of a fellow Sherlockian.  In the historical setting, Arthur Conan Doyle, shortly after killing off Sherlock Holmes, attempts to track down the person who mailed him a letter bomb, and solve a series of grisly murders at the same time.

I found the book entertaining enough. The two mysteries were sufficiently complex to hold my attention, and  the historical touches were well done. At the same time, over the past three or so years, I've read a novel about Ian Fleming working as a spy, about Oscar Wilde solving a crime and I'm pretty sure there was something about Bram Stoker doing something with vampires - it's getting hard to be a dead white guy. People keep digging you up and sending you off on adventures. (Stoker plays a secondary role in this book, btw, but no vampires that I saw.) I guess what I'm saying is that the Doyle half of the story was nice, but I'm not sure it was necessary. I'm not sure it added anything spectacular to the work. It didn't take anything away, though, and I did enjoy the read.

Two things more.  First, Moore has a scene where Doyle, an ardent opponent of granting the right to vote to women, is more convinced by arguments of conservative suffragettes (if government is going to meddle in the affairs of women, like education and child rearing, then women should be allowed to vote) than radicals (women should be allowed to vote because they have a natural right to do so).  This was an interesting observation, although not necessarily good strategy - Doyle never became a supporter of women's suffrage. Better to go radical and keep your rhetorical options open.

Second, this book was published by Twelve Publishing, which pledges to publish and market only one book a month, thus ensuring that they publish only the best works available and market it as effectively as possible. The purpose of this, says the company, is to produce books which further the national conversation.  I'm not entirely sure how this book furthers the national conversation - other works that the company has published touch on religion, and politics, on race/ethnicity, on the environment, on war, and a whole myriad of other meaty topics, some presented more reverently than others. I'm just not sure how this work fits with the rest of their catalogue - is there a burning desire to talk about Sherlock Holmes right now?

Anyway, it was a fun book, and intelligent, worth a read.


Rick Riordan - The Titan's Curse


After the heavier stuff I read last week and earlier this week, I wanted something to cleanse my palate. This book was perfect for that, a little fluffy while still well written; not too deep or too complex, but fun, and short. This is the third of the Olympians books, which follow the adventures of Perseus (Percy) Jackson and his fellow offspring of the classical Greek gods. Olympus is in New York; Hades is in Los Angeles, the Titans are imprisoned off the coast of San Francisco, Las Vegas is the Lotus Land - Riordan has clearly had a good time writing these, and that makes them good fun to read too. If you've got a young adolescent reader in the family, I'd toss these at them (if they haven't found them already by themselves!)


Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora


This book was the high point of my week.  Rushputin and Arashi recommended it, and they were right on the money.  This is a caper novel (the plot involves a group of con artists practicing their art - a genre for which I have much love) set in a well realized fantasy setting. What's not to enjoy?

Oh, but it's so much better than that. Lynch has a delightfully dark and sarcastic tone. His characters are marvelously witty (and they know it!), and there were several places where I literally laughed out loud. The book isn't humorous, however - if there is comedy, it's very much gallows comedy; Lynch's characters are in dire, desperate straights for most of the novel.  Lynch clearly draws from the "put the characters in peril, and keep them there" school of writing - which I enjoy as well.

So. Dark humor, witty characters, lots of peril, delightful con artists too smart for their own good - what more could you want?  How about excellent world-building?  Lynch has written a deep and well thought out fantasy setting, full of well realized nuance and interesting cul de sacs. He reveals this world through a very well done series of flash backs, each revealing a minor plot point just before it becomes important in the next chapter - but wrapping that plot point in enough extra material that you aren't sure which bit to be watching for - delightful! By doing this, he avoids needless exposition - "surely you know that this is such and so!", and invites the readers to explore the world as his characters are doing likewise. This is just superb writing craft. Makes me jealous.

That's it. Enjoyable fantasy, plus enjoyable caper novel, all rolled together with wit and good craft - a must read, I think. In addition to that, despite the fact that there is a sequel (which, you will note, I have a copy of to read in the near future), this book is complete in and of itself, no cliff hangers, no dangling loose ends. That, my readers, is confidence - Lynch doesn't feel the need to trick his readers into picking up the next book.  He trusts that readers will be sufficiently engaged with the world and the characters that they will want to investigate further, but he's not going to force the issue. You could, he suggests, stop reading right here, and pretend that Locke Lamora's adventures are over, but if you wanted to see where Lamora goes next, well...

Friday Review Post, 1/7/2011

Is this the first review post of 2011? Why, yes, I believe it is!

So, I suggested that this would be "de Lint Week", but that's perhaps an overstatement. Still, more de Lint than anything else, so that counts, right?  Additionally, authors in today's post are people that I have met in person!

L.E. Modesitt, Jr. - Empress of Eternity


Mr. Modesitt is a nice guy, and a snappy dresser. He worked, at one point, as the Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the US Environmental Protection Agency, and so he takes science and politics seriously, which is reflected in his writing.  This book is a great example of that.  There is plenty of science and lots of politics, and both are handled with care and attention.

The book starts a little slowly.  The first three chapters were actually a little difficult to get through, but it picked up after that.  The pace picked up, but the book never really a page turner.  This was a very character driven book, and a lot of the book was dialogue.  I don't mean to imply that there was no action - there was a car chase, and several battle scenes, two or three failed assassination attempts and one successful one - but there was a lot of dialogue in between the action, and so the whole book was a little slow.

As long as we're talking about things that might be off putting about this book - it's deeply (and not very subtly) allegorical (this is a thing which science fiction has always done, though, so that's ok).

Science allegory - This is a book about global warming, and Modesitt doesn't mince words, nor hide which side of the debate (the solidly scientific side) he falls on.  If you fall on the other side of the debate (the fluffy headed anti-science, denialist side), you may find this hard to swallow.  Even if you agree with Modesitt (as, perhaps you gather, I do), there are passages with moderate to severe overtones of preaching to the choir, which could be hard to endure. So, that's the science.

Politically, this book is also mildly allegorical, addressing issues of political power in a democracy, and the duties of citizens.  That's a little less heavy handed, but it's still there.

Other things - I would have liked a map and a timeline so that I could properly place the events geographically and temporally.

So, kinda preachy, and needed some maps. Despite that, a good book.  There are interesting heroes, both male and female.  There's a spy plot, there are big bad guys, there's a weird artifact (a canal which stretches across the "central continent" of Earth), there's far future technology - it's good sci fi.  There's some discussion of where myths come from which is interesting too. I won't steer you entirely away from this, but if you've never read any Modessit before, this may not be the best place to start, and if you're a big fan of the Recluce novels, but haven't read any of Modessit's sci fi, I'd suggest starting with Archform:Beauty or The Elysium Commission as entry points.

Charles de Lint


De Lint is also a nice guy, although not as snappy a dresser as Modessit.  He's also one of my favorite authors, one of the few whose books I will buy when I see them for sale, rather than borrowing them from the library first. (unless I see them first at the library, you know?)

For quite some time, de Lint has been writing Urban Fantasy (arguably, he's the father of the genre), and exploring questions about the nature of reality. What is real? Where do myths come from? What happens to our ideas when we put them out into the universe? Where do the ideas come from in the first place?  Questions like that.  His novels explore interactions between people and their environment, and the way that these interactions build upon each other and resonate with each other, creating "magic" and spirit, even in places where you don't expect to find it. (A note - while de Lint clearly believes that there is a broader world than our "consensual reality", he uses elements of myth and legend as metaphors, as he explains here.)

(A further note - just because they are metaphors doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't real. As Erik Amundsen says:

First first thing: magic is almost certainly not real in our world.  At least, not the way the word makes it sound.  Not real in the sense that it will cure your cancer or even your dandruff.  Not real in the sense that it will beguile your lovers or confound your enemies (well, actually, that part usually works pretty well, actually, but not, you know, like magic), most important, it is not real in the sense that it can replace a single ounce of real, actual work you really, actually need to do in this world o' sin.

Second first thing, is that, real or not, it works.  It won't do what you want for you, but it will with you, by you, throughyou, to you, eventually.  It doesn't negate the work you have to do, but it can make it easier, perhaps even make it possible for you to do it.)

So. That's what we're dealing with when we read something by Mr. de Lint - the world which may or may not exist beyond the world in which we live.

Charles de Lint - Spirit in the Wires

This is an older novel, set in de Lint's fictional city of Newford. Here, he explores a question which lies alongside the questions about reality listed above - How does all of this interact with the internet? When the book was published (2004), a lot of the issues of the internet were still relatively new (isn't that scary? 2004 wasn't THAT long ago!), and so there are elements of the book which feel a little dated - everyone connecting via dial up, for instance. Still, de Lint has been playing with the internet for quite some time (he's no Luddite!), and so the descriptions are fairly accurate - which is odd for many books discussing the internet.

Like the Modessit, this book is a little slow, because it is heavily character driven and has lots and lots of dialog.  Indeed, on a lot of levels, there are things about this book that are all wrong - de Lint introduces a new character deep into the book, he cuts back and forth between characters long after it seems like the actions of some of the characters no longer affect the primary action of the book, and there's a sudden "conversion" scene (or "face turn", if you prefer) - but somehow the whole thing works.

Despite the dialogue heavy nature of the book, there's plenty of action too.  Although dense and complicated, the book is a pure joy to read.  It was also deeply philosophical, prompting considerations about reality and magic, all in all, a fantastic book. De Lint tries to write each of his books as stand alone novels, so that you don't need a lot of backstory to enjoy the book.  In this work, that is mostly successful, but the book focuses on a number of characters who have been in other works - arguably, the book would be a richer experience if you stared with memory and dream, Trader, and Someplace to be Flying. Arguably. But it's not an overriding argument; you could start here and work your way backwards too.

Charles de Lint - The Painted Boy


Where Spirit is a relatively older novel, this is de Lint's most recent work.  Recently, he's been moving away from Newford - the city was a useful construct, but I get the sense that de Lint needs to move on to new ground periodically, and Newford was becoming restrictive.  This book is set in a small city on the US/Mexico border - de Lint spends his winters in New Mexico - and features a cast of characters which we've never seen before (another reason to shift away from Newford - less chance of running into people the readers already know). This is also part of a series of YA novels that de Lint has been working on recently (recently being "over the past decade or so", I guess) with The Blue Girl, Dingo, and Little (Grrl) Lost springing to mind. As such, the characters are younger than in the earlier novel (late teens instead of late 30s), the plot is moderately less convoluted, and there's a little less conversation (and a little more action).

As the novel begins, 17 year old Jim Li arrives in Santo del Vado Viejo from Chicago.  He's not sure why he's in Santo del Vado Viejo, but his grandmother suggested that it was time for him to travel, and his parents reluctantly agreed.  He knows it has something to do with the tattoo on his back - which isn't a tattoo, but rather an image of a black and gold dragon which appeared when he turned 11. Jim is a member of the Gold Dragon Clan, formerly defender of the Chinese emperor, but now a defender of where ever they happen to find themselves settling.  Jim ends up caught up in a struggle with the local gangs, and  (slowly, and reluctantly) comes into his inheritance.

This is a great book, a quick read, with enough depth to be entirely satisfying, but not so much complexity that you get bogged down. Something you could sit down with and read in an afternoon, and enough of a page turner that you may find yourself doing exactly that. A fine place to start exploring the world of de Lint.

eta: This evening, I started to read Waifs and Strays, de Lint's collection of YA short stories (and the other de Lint on my Christmas Bounty list), and discovered that the interview I did with de Lint, back forever ago (it's the one I linked to above) is cited in Terri Windling's intro to the collection. She misspelled my name, alas, but, hey, a tiny moment of meaningless fame!