I suppose I should write this post before it gets any later and I run into Christmas Eve activities, and thus Christmas activities, and thus post Christmas activities, and thus not get to post until Tuesday.
Two books this week.
Neal Stephenson - Reamde
First up, this book took me a whole week to read. Clear some time if you want to read it. It's over 1000 pages long. 400 pages in, Stephenson introduces a new point of view character. a little over 500 pages in, Stephenson starts Part Two. The climax begins something like 150 pages from the end, and builds from there. What I'm saying is, this is a long book, and it builds slowly, but solidly.
Stephenson has made a name for himself by writing books that only geeks can love. Anathem is a thousand pages, deeply infused with mathematics and quantum mechanics. It has appendices, which are even more full of math. (It's also a great story - I don't really do math, and I loved it.) Cryptonomnicon (multi-hundreds of pages) features a scene in which the hero reprograms his laptop to blink its LED status lights in Morse code. The Baroque Cycle is three books long, each of them multi-hundreds of pages long, which include lengthy descriptions (among other things) of the process whereby phosphorous is made, as well as digressions discussing languages, physics, the nature of money, and all manner of other stuff which turn already meaty and complex books into door-stopping, toe-breaking tomes. Reamde is a tome - there's no getting around that - but this one is a little less geeky than some of his other works. No laptop programing sequences (although there is a bit where some of the people hack into a WiFi server to access some files), no discursive explanations of how language works, no complex math. There are, however, several scenes set entirely inside an MMORPG. They aren't as dense and geek-friendly as some of the bits in earlier works, but nor are they skippable.
The MMORPG elements concerned me going in - many many authors don't seem to get how online games actually work. There's a whole Cracked article about it - here - and I know I've complained about it before. Current game technologies don't allow the generation of the sort of immersive virtual reality that authors want from the games. At present, there is no way to "rob a bank" in a game, and no company currently employs people to take over NPCs when a player character asks complicated questions - most games I've seen use a pre-set dialog tree which limits you to a specific set of queries and responses. Either you take the quest or you don't, you can't actually have a conversation with a computer character. I think Stephenson dodges the worst elements of this.
That being said, he largely avoids the problem by defining very carefully what the game can and cannot do. He has the space - the book is over 1000 pages long - so he can say "the game is designed to do thus and so" and thus avoid someone saying "no game does thus and so." In particular, the use of money in the game seems to anticipate a potential next step in how games work - it's not outside of what's possible, it's just that noone is doing it. Still - remember that Cracked article? Stephenson does #2 from that list - a chase scene inside the game world - and makes it make logical sense. People on one side the Pacific need to talk to a person on the other side of the Pacific, and have no way of meeting him in person, and so must track him down in the game. The person on the other side of the Pacific can't simply log out, because if he does, he will lose some stuff he's worked hard to get (and which have real world value). I was watching for a slip, because I'd read the article before starting the book, and I think Stephenson does it pretty well.
Anyway, the game is only a small element of the book. The whole thing is about money (Stephenson is fascinated by money, I think - as a concept. What constitutes money? How does it work? How can it work differently? How will it work differently, now that we're playing with the internet and such?) and terrorism and very strong personalities clashing with each other in interesting and unpredictable ways.
Strong personalities - and deeply written characters (multi-hundreds of pages, you know) - are the other trademark of Stephenson's work, and this book is certainly no different. He uses his long books to very good effect, and presents really interesting characters who do things that are fun to read about. It's not hard to care about them. Which is what makes these monstrously long books a treat to read, even if you don't care about the math or the laptops, or the money, or whatever.
This books ranges all over, with big sequences in Portland, in various parts of China and the Philippines, in Western Canada, in Idaho, and all over the place. Terrorists feature heavily, as do hackers. There are lots of guns. There are some bikers who wear claymore swords on their backs. There's a troll. It's a spy story smooshed into a sci-fi/fantasy story, smooshed into a romance story, smooshed into an adventure story. The whole thing is a little unwieldy, but it works.
If you already like Neal Stephenson, you'll probably like this (although you might be disappointed that the characters from Cryptonomicon don't show up, even though they really ought to). If you like rollicking good yarns, you'll probably like this. If you like strong characters doing interesting things, you'll probably like this. If you like to watch stories unfold slowly, and characters get built up and built up and built up over many many pages, you'll definitely like this. But, if you fear long books, maybe give it a miss.
Devon Monk - Dead Iron
This book was a little lighter (ha!) than Stephenson. It's a steampunk western urban fantasy romance-y type thing. It features a werewolf bounty hunter, and an evil fairy type villain (truly mustache twirlish - nicely evil), a good witch, and some mysterious brothers who live in a silver mine.
The evil fairy is building a rail line across the United States. The brothers don't like him - there seems to be some history there. The werewolf sets out to find a lost boy. The witch sets out to avenge her dead husband. A pretty inventor girl (at the un-marry-able age of 17!) sets out to prove herself. Romance-y things happen off to the side. Magically infused steam-powered robots stomp around and blow things up. Magically infused steam-powered guns are used to devastating effect. The whole thing is a lot of fun, frankly.
It's a little deeper than that. The book does prompt some pondering about the nature of humanity, and the role of technology in our world. Monk hasn't taken an urban fantasy western plot and thrown gears at it The steampunkishness is deeper than the brass and brown surface - does technology make us all the same, or can it be twisted to allow individuality. Still, it's not all THAT deep - a quick read, with some fun characters, and just enough depth to make it worth the effort. There will be a sequel, but this book does conclude with sufficient satisfaction to not spoil things.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Wednesday Library Post, 12/21/2011
Three books yesterday:
Kirsten ImaniKasi - Ice Song
I swear I've read this - Sorykah Minuit is an engineer on an ice-drilling submarine. She is also a Trader - she can switch genders suddenly. When a madman kidnaps her twin infants, she has to go and rescue them. Anyway, there's a sequel, and though I swear I read this book, I can't actually remember anything about it (except the synopsis sounds awfully familiar), so I'm going to read it. Possibly again.
Helen Oyeyemi - Mr. Fox
A fairytale, perhaps. Mr. Fox writes novels, but keeps killing off his female leads. His muse, Mary, becomes real and drags Mr. Fox into his stories. Looks think-y.
Samuel Holt - One of Us is Wrong
In discussing Donald Westlake novels last week (not here, elsewhere), I discovered that Westlake had written four novels as Samuel Holt, about a semi-employed actor (named Sam Holt) solving mysteries. This is the first.
Kirsten ImaniKasi - Ice Song
I swear I've read this - Sorykah Minuit is an engineer on an ice-drilling submarine. She is also a Trader - she can switch genders suddenly. When a madman kidnaps her twin infants, she has to go and rescue them. Anyway, there's a sequel, and though I swear I read this book, I can't actually remember anything about it (except the synopsis sounds awfully familiar), so I'm going to read it. Possibly again.
Helen Oyeyemi - Mr. Fox
A fairytale, perhaps. Mr. Fox writes novels, but keeps killing off his female leads. His muse, Mary, becomes real and drags Mr. Fox into his stories. Looks think-y.
Samuel Holt - One of Us is Wrong
In discussing Donald Westlake novels last week (not here, elsewhere), I discovered that Westlake had written four novels as Samuel Holt, about a semi-employed actor (named Sam Holt) solving mysteries. This is the first.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Saturday Review Post, 12/17/2011
Ooo, can you feel it in the air? That's right, it's that time of year! Paper grading time! Woooohooo!
My final grades this semester are due on the 20th. That means that the grades will post sometime around the 23rd or 24th, and that means that the complaints about grades will begin sometime around the 26th or 27th. This is perfect - by the 26th, I'll be all out of eggnog, and I'll need something to drink instead - the frustrated tears of students are delicious, and I drink them neat, no chaser.
That, though, combined with the sheer length of Neal Stephenson's Reamde means I've only finished one book this week. And it isn't Reamde.
James R. Benn - Mortal Terror
I believe I've mentioned Benn's Billy Boyle mysteries before. I really like them. They are set during WWII. Boyle is the distant nephew of General Eisenhower. His family pulled strings to get Boyle on Eisenhower's staff in Washington (to keep him out of the fighting) and then Eisenhower got transferred to England, and took Boyle with him. Ike uses Boyle as a deep cover detective, investigating crimes that are too sensitive to allow the public to look too closely at. This, naturally, places Boyle in some hairy situations - not at all the cushy position his parents anticipated.
The book is really about combat fatigue, and the things that combat does to the minds of soldiers. The plot concept rests on the idea that, if in combat long enough, 98% of soldiers will have some sort of mental breakdown. The remaining 2% will be sociopaths. One of those 2% decides to start killing US officers in Italy, just before the Anzio landings, and Boyle is tasked with tracking him down before he can mess up the invasion.
A new character enters the series - Boyle's kid brother gets called up and (in the way that fiction works) ends up in the thick of things. Boyle has to struggle with his sense of duty and his desire to protect his brother. This allows Benn to explore concepts about family, about duty, and, ultimately, about the nature of humanity. We keep starting wars - why? What does it do to us? I think that's what I like about Benn as a writer - he's playing with a couple of genres - historical mil fic and detective novels - that very easily collapse into formulas. Instead of giving into the temptation of formulaic writing, Benn continues to look more deeply at the human condition. Excellent stuff, highly recommended.
My final grades this semester are due on the 20th. That means that the grades will post sometime around the 23rd or 24th, and that means that the complaints about grades will begin sometime around the 26th or 27th. This is perfect - by the 26th, I'll be all out of eggnog, and I'll need something to drink instead - the frustrated tears of students are delicious, and I drink them neat, no chaser.
 |
| Mmmm. Tears of my Students. Just the ingredient I need! |
That, though, combined with the sheer length of Neal Stephenson's Reamde means I've only finished one book this week. And it isn't Reamde.
James R. Benn - Mortal Terror
I believe I've mentioned Benn's Billy Boyle mysteries before. I really like them. They are set during WWII. Boyle is the distant nephew of General Eisenhower. His family pulled strings to get Boyle on Eisenhower's staff in Washington (to keep him out of the fighting) and then Eisenhower got transferred to England, and took Boyle with him. Ike uses Boyle as a deep cover detective, investigating crimes that are too sensitive to allow the public to look too closely at. This, naturally, places Boyle in some hairy situations - not at all the cushy position his parents anticipated.
The book is really about combat fatigue, and the things that combat does to the minds of soldiers. The plot concept rests on the idea that, if in combat long enough, 98% of soldiers will have some sort of mental breakdown. The remaining 2% will be sociopaths. One of those 2% decides to start killing US officers in Italy, just before the Anzio landings, and Boyle is tasked with tracking him down before he can mess up the invasion.
A new character enters the series - Boyle's kid brother gets called up and (in the way that fiction works) ends up in the thick of things. Boyle has to struggle with his sense of duty and his desire to protect his brother. This allows Benn to explore concepts about family, about duty, and, ultimately, about the nature of humanity. We keep starting wars - why? What does it do to us? I think that's what I like about Benn as a writer - he's playing with a couple of genres - historical mil fic and detective novels - that very easily collapse into formulas. Instead of giving into the temptation of formulaic writing, Benn continues to look more deeply at the human condition. Excellent stuff, highly recommended.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Wednesday Library Post, 12/14/11
So, the trip to the library yesterday was something of a bust, frankly. Not much on the new book rack at all. Probably many other readers are realizing that, with the Christmas season upon them, they have some time in which to read, and have grabbed all the good books. Or something.
I did pick up a YA novel, however:
Janni Lee Simner - Bones of Faerie
This looks interesting. It's a post-apocalyptic setting, but the cause of the apocalypse was the return of faeries to Earth. They infested the natural world with inimical plants - dandelions now have thorns, for instance - and wove magic through the human population. But the magic in the human population calls ruin upon the human family. So that's an interesting twist.
I did pick up a YA novel, however:
Janni Lee Simner - Bones of Faerie
This looks interesting. It's a post-apocalyptic setting, but the cause of the apocalypse was the return of faeries to Earth. They infested the natural world with inimical plants - dandelions now have thorns, for instance - and wove magic through the human population. But the magic in the human population calls ruin upon the human family. So that's an interesting twist.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Saturday Review, 12/10/2011
4 books this week:
Kevin Mitnick - Ghost in the Wire
Mitnick is a big deal in the computer hacking world. This is something of an autobiography, covering Mitnick's discovery of social controls (con artistry, more or less) and then computers and phone networks in California. In the mid-80s, Mitnick became a desired target of the FBI and such agencies, a situation which did not change into the '90s. Eventually he was arrested and became something of a cause celebre because of the way his rights to sentencing were rather severely bent, because of his scary (and largely false) persona as super-hacker (what Mitnick calls the Mitnick Myth). He is now a consultant, engaging in hacking for companies who want to test their own network security.
My overall reaction to the book is meh. Mitnick wanders through his personal narrative, often noting something to the effect of "while this was going on, this other thing happened," and breaking his narrative flow. Further, I found Mitnick's description of himself to be highly distasteful. Throughout, Mitnick engages in highly anti-social actions - breaking into networks to steal the code for cell phones; tweaking his own cell phone so that his calls were billed to someone else, tricking officials into giving him private information - and doesn't seem to fully get why these things got him in trouble. In his defense, he didn't use the data he stole, or even make money off of it in anyway, but if I break into your house and take pictures of your art collection, I have still engaged in an illegal action. Mitnick comes across as mildly sociopathic and, despite his protestation, doesn't seem to be particularly likable. Had the writing been more entertaining, the content wouldn't have mattered. Had the content been less disagreeable, the writing wouldn't have mattered. Combined, the whole was less than lovely.
Tom Perrotta - The Leftovers
The Rapture has occurred, or something that looks very much like the Rapture - lots and lots of people have disappeared. Only some of them are not the sort of people who the Rapture should affect - non-Christians, and open sinners, and all manner of people. The Sudden Disappearance, although central to the plot, is never explained - which is probably for the best, since that's not really the point of the book. As the title suggests, the book is about the people left behind, left with the painful task of picking up the pieces and figuring out what to do next.
Perrotta's characters do all manner of things next. Some of them join cults which are more or less destructive, depending on the cult, and on the joinee. Some of them throw away their lives on drugs and sex and general hedonism. Some of them become politicians. Some of them lose their faith, and some cheat on their spouses, and some of them remain faithful to something or someone. For the most part, life goes on - and, largely, I think that was Perrotta's point. Peoples is peoples (and frogs are frogs), rapture or no rapture.
So, that's somewhat hopeful, I suppose. Life goes on, and humanity adapts to all manner of oddness. Beyond that, though, the book was somewhat depressing, as you might expect. Billions of people just vanished, and the world has changed. Everyone in the book is damaged and grieving and not sure how to go on, all at once, all at the same time. It makes for very difficult reading at times. I can imagine that it would be extremely difficult reading if you've recently had a death in your close personal circle. Perrotta's writing is excellent, and that makes the book highly readable, even enjoyable in places, but the subject matter, ultimately, remains difficult to digest. Finally, the book just ends - on a hopeful note, with a baby who will probably reknit at least one small family - bang, right in the middle of things. Which is, more or less, where the book starts. This would be an interesting book to have a discussion about, and I imagine that lots of book groups will do that over the next year.
Peter Spiegelman - Thick as Thieves
Caper novel. A bunch of crooks set out to steal money from a money launderer. Things go awry, which is normal for this sort of book, but work themselves out, more or less, in the end. Which is also normal.
The book is a little deeper and twistier than the typical caper novel, asking questions about the nature of humanity, and about growing old, and about the danger of secrets, and the inevitability of betrayal. All around these deeper themes, Spiegelman tells a highly entertaining story about breaking into dark houses and stealing things. There's a lot of technical detail, and a few explosions. In the end, a delightful novel with some fantastic twists (although I had figured out one of the big twists before the end - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as the it makes the reader feel smart rather than the author look stupid, if you follow me) and a highly satisfying ending. Good read, and a nice step down from the Perrotta - deep enough that it stands up against the literature, but not so deep that the two books back to back swamped me.
Tanya Huff - The Wild Ways
A further step away from Perrotta and Spiegelman, this is the sequel to Huff's Enchanted Emporium, both pleasantly interesting paranormal romance. Huff, of course, has been writing paranormal romance since before paranormal romance was a thing - the Blood series, with Victoria Nelson the ex-cop PI and Henry Fitzroy the ancient vampire (and Victoria's lover) present clear precedents for the sub-genre. Huff has had, and continues to have, highly positive effects upon the sub-genre. In particular, Huff has gone out of her way to include characters of colour and characters with different sexual orientations, even (especially) when those features are not critical to the plot. In this book, the principle character is bisexual (well, ok, Charlotte Gale is more of an opportunistic forager when it comes to sex, but she clearly doesn't discriminate between genders), one of the important secondary characters is black (just because), another pair are gay (and deeply committed to each other). All great stuff.
A little background. The Gale family are not quite human. The women in the family are skilled at casting magic with "charms" - little patterns that cause things to go more smoothly - the car doesn't need repairing as often, the windows open more smoothly, people tend to like you a little more, etc etc - and they like to put these charms in baked goods, especially pies and pancakes. Pies and pancakes feature heavily in the books, almost a running gag. Perhaps exactly a running gag. As the women age, they become Aunties - matriarchs who control the family with carefully hidden iron fists. The Gale Aunties would give Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax a run for their money - or, at least, a fair fight. The men in the Gale family tend to turn into stags when frightened or excited. Especially when excited.
Sex in the Gale family is ... odd. Very open, and highly ritualized, and tightly tightly controlled for the good of the family. And it involves men who turn into stags when they get excited. Huff doesn't really discuss the logistics of that, particularly, but you can tuck it away for consideration, if you like. (That sort of implies that there's a lot of sex in these books, and that would be untrue - it happens, Huff sometimes describes it (not in particular detail), but it's not a central feature of the books.)
In this book, Charlotte (Charlie) Gale heads to Cape Breton to help out a friend with a Celtic rock band. (Did I mention that the books are set in Canada? They are - Canadianism runs deep in the books, which excites me a little - I've actually been to some of the places Huff describes! Whee!) While there, she gets mixed up with a bunch of selkies trying to save their habitat from an oil rig. This is all complicated by the fact that Charlie is a Wild Talent - she can do things that the average Gale girl cannot, like charm people with music, and walk between woods (allowing her to cross distances quickly by playing music to trees, more or less). Further, Charlie finds herself baby sitting one of her cousins - who is a dragon. (That's a bit of leftover plot from the first book, incidentally)
The good bits of the book - I love the Maritime Canada settings - brilliant. I love the whole magic through baking gag. I love the 14 year old dragon. I love Charlie. The characters are fantastic - the bad people are not one dimensional, and the secondary characters are almost as well described as the primaries (which makes sense, because Huff has a tendency to spin off secondary characters - easier to do that if they are well written in the first place).
The bits that I didn't like - the bad guys are an oil company. Huff (accurately) describes Cape Breton as a region of Canada desperate for employment, which the oil company would have provided. Clearly, the drilling would have disrupted the sensitive selkie habitat, and that's bad - but Huff's characters don't really offer any solid alternatives either. In an otherwise surprisingly deep book, this conflict is dealt with rather shallowly, and that bugged me a little. Also, Charlie's ability to walk through woods results in her bopping back and forth from Cape Breton to Calgary (where her familial support base is). A dangerous ability, which threated to derail the narrative in a couple of places. Huff manages to keep the whole thing moving forward, but I felt like telling Charlie to pick a locale and stay there, damn it.
In the end, a very satisfying read, and very quick - I started the book this morning, and finished it before dinner.
Kevin Mitnick - Ghost in the Wire
Mitnick is a big deal in the computer hacking world. This is something of an autobiography, covering Mitnick's discovery of social controls (con artistry, more or less) and then computers and phone networks in California. In the mid-80s, Mitnick became a desired target of the FBI and such agencies, a situation which did not change into the '90s. Eventually he was arrested and became something of a cause celebre because of the way his rights to sentencing were rather severely bent, because of his scary (and largely false) persona as super-hacker (what Mitnick calls the Mitnick Myth). He is now a consultant, engaging in hacking for companies who want to test their own network security.
My overall reaction to the book is meh. Mitnick wanders through his personal narrative, often noting something to the effect of "while this was going on, this other thing happened," and breaking his narrative flow. Further, I found Mitnick's description of himself to be highly distasteful. Throughout, Mitnick engages in highly anti-social actions - breaking into networks to steal the code for cell phones; tweaking his own cell phone so that his calls were billed to someone else, tricking officials into giving him private information - and doesn't seem to fully get why these things got him in trouble. In his defense, he didn't use the data he stole, or even make money off of it in anyway, but if I break into your house and take pictures of your art collection, I have still engaged in an illegal action. Mitnick comes across as mildly sociopathic and, despite his protestation, doesn't seem to be particularly likable. Had the writing been more entertaining, the content wouldn't have mattered. Had the content been less disagreeable, the writing wouldn't have mattered. Combined, the whole was less than lovely.
Tom Perrotta - The Leftovers
The Rapture has occurred, or something that looks very much like the Rapture - lots and lots of people have disappeared. Only some of them are not the sort of people who the Rapture should affect - non-Christians, and open sinners, and all manner of people. The Sudden Disappearance, although central to the plot, is never explained - which is probably for the best, since that's not really the point of the book. As the title suggests, the book is about the people left behind, left with the painful task of picking up the pieces and figuring out what to do next.
Perrotta's characters do all manner of things next. Some of them join cults which are more or less destructive, depending on the cult, and on the joinee. Some of them throw away their lives on drugs and sex and general hedonism. Some of them become politicians. Some of them lose their faith, and some cheat on their spouses, and some of them remain faithful to something or someone. For the most part, life goes on - and, largely, I think that was Perrotta's point. Peoples is peoples (and frogs are frogs), rapture or no rapture.
So, that's somewhat hopeful, I suppose. Life goes on, and humanity adapts to all manner of oddness. Beyond that, though, the book was somewhat depressing, as you might expect. Billions of people just vanished, and the world has changed. Everyone in the book is damaged and grieving and not sure how to go on, all at once, all at the same time. It makes for very difficult reading at times. I can imagine that it would be extremely difficult reading if you've recently had a death in your close personal circle. Perrotta's writing is excellent, and that makes the book highly readable, even enjoyable in places, but the subject matter, ultimately, remains difficult to digest. Finally, the book just ends - on a hopeful note, with a baby who will probably reknit at least one small family - bang, right in the middle of things. Which is, more or less, where the book starts. This would be an interesting book to have a discussion about, and I imagine that lots of book groups will do that over the next year.
Peter Spiegelman - Thick as Thieves
Caper novel. A bunch of crooks set out to steal money from a money launderer. Things go awry, which is normal for this sort of book, but work themselves out, more or less, in the end. Which is also normal.
The book is a little deeper and twistier than the typical caper novel, asking questions about the nature of humanity, and about growing old, and about the danger of secrets, and the inevitability of betrayal. All around these deeper themes, Spiegelman tells a highly entertaining story about breaking into dark houses and stealing things. There's a lot of technical detail, and a few explosions. In the end, a delightful novel with some fantastic twists (although I had figured out one of the big twists before the end - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as the it makes the reader feel smart rather than the author look stupid, if you follow me) and a highly satisfying ending. Good read, and a nice step down from the Perrotta - deep enough that it stands up against the literature, but not so deep that the two books back to back swamped me.
Tanya Huff - The Wild Ways
A further step away from Perrotta and Spiegelman, this is the sequel to Huff's Enchanted Emporium, both pleasantly interesting paranormal romance. Huff, of course, has been writing paranormal romance since before paranormal romance was a thing - the Blood series, with Victoria Nelson the ex-cop PI and Henry Fitzroy the ancient vampire (and Victoria's lover) present clear precedents for the sub-genre. Huff has had, and continues to have, highly positive effects upon the sub-genre. In particular, Huff has gone out of her way to include characters of colour and characters with different sexual orientations, even (especially) when those features are not critical to the plot. In this book, the principle character is bisexual (well, ok, Charlotte Gale is more of an opportunistic forager when it comes to sex, but she clearly doesn't discriminate between genders), one of the important secondary characters is black (just because), another pair are gay (and deeply committed to each other). All great stuff.
A little background. The Gale family are not quite human. The women in the family are skilled at casting magic with "charms" - little patterns that cause things to go more smoothly - the car doesn't need repairing as often, the windows open more smoothly, people tend to like you a little more, etc etc - and they like to put these charms in baked goods, especially pies and pancakes. Pies and pancakes feature heavily in the books, almost a running gag. Perhaps exactly a running gag. As the women age, they become Aunties - matriarchs who control the family with carefully hidden iron fists. The Gale Aunties would give Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax a run for their money - or, at least, a fair fight. The men in the Gale family tend to turn into stags when frightened or excited. Especially when excited.
Sex in the Gale family is ... odd. Very open, and highly ritualized, and tightly tightly controlled for the good of the family. And it involves men who turn into stags when they get excited. Huff doesn't really discuss the logistics of that, particularly, but you can tuck it away for consideration, if you like. (That sort of implies that there's a lot of sex in these books, and that would be untrue - it happens, Huff sometimes describes it (not in particular detail), but it's not a central feature of the books.)
In this book, Charlotte (Charlie) Gale heads to Cape Breton to help out a friend with a Celtic rock band. (Did I mention that the books are set in Canada? They are - Canadianism runs deep in the books, which excites me a little - I've actually been to some of the places Huff describes! Whee!) While there, she gets mixed up with a bunch of selkies trying to save their habitat from an oil rig. This is all complicated by the fact that Charlie is a Wild Talent - she can do things that the average Gale girl cannot, like charm people with music, and walk between woods (allowing her to cross distances quickly by playing music to trees, more or less). Further, Charlie finds herself baby sitting one of her cousins - who is a dragon. (That's a bit of leftover plot from the first book, incidentally)
The good bits of the book - I love the Maritime Canada settings - brilliant. I love the whole magic through baking gag. I love the 14 year old dragon. I love Charlie. The characters are fantastic - the bad people are not one dimensional, and the secondary characters are almost as well described as the primaries (which makes sense, because Huff has a tendency to spin off secondary characters - easier to do that if they are well written in the first place).
The bits that I didn't like - the bad guys are an oil company. Huff (accurately) describes Cape Breton as a region of Canada desperate for employment, which the oil company would have provided. Clearly, the drilling would have disrupted the sensitive selkie habitat, and that's bad - but Huff's characters don't really offer any solid alternatives either. In an otherwise surprisingly deep book, this conflict is dealt with rather shallowly, and that bugged me a little. Also, Charlie's ability to walk through woods results in her bopping back and forth from Cape Breton to Calgary (where her familial support base is). A dangerous ability, which threated to derail the narrative in a couple of places. Huff manages to keep the whole thing moving forward, but I felt like telling Charlie to pick a locale and stay there, damn it.
In the end, a very satisfying read, and very quick - I started the book this morning, and finished it before dinner.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Tuesday Library Post, 6/12/2011
Two books this week.
Devon Monk - Dead Iron
I gather that Devon Monk is a rising star in the Urban Fantasy genre. This book isn't UF, though, it's steampunk and wild/weird west. And it's got a werewolf in it.
Neal Stephenson - Reamde
I like Stephenson. This is another of his bricks of a doorstop books. The plot revolves around a massively multiplayer roleplaying game, and some hackers who are trying to hold players' characters for ransom and, apparently this has real world repercussions and etc etc.
I like Stephenson, but I'm a little wary of this book, because too many writers really don't get MMOs; turning them into fantastic virtual realities, and having characters act within the game as they would outside of the game. Mr. Doctorow, Mr. Stross, I'm looking at you... The premises they spin, regarding virtual economies and etc, are neat - but not, yet, viable, and suggest that the authors haven't actually played an MMO. So, I don't know - I guess I hope Mr. Stephenson has done his research here.
Devon Monk - Dead Iron
I gather that Devon Monk is a rising star in the Urban Fantasy genre. This book isn't UF, though, it's steampunk and wild/weird west. And it's got a werewolf in it.
Neal Stephenson - Reamde
I like Stephenson. This is another of his bricks of a doorstop books. The plot revolves around a massively multiplayer roleplaying game, and some hackers who are trying to hold players' characters for ransom and, apparently this has real world repercussions and etc etc.
I like Stephenson, but I'm a little wary of this book, because too many writers really don't get MMOs; turning them into fantastic virtual realities, and having characters act within the game as they would outside of the game. Mr. Doctorow, Mr. Stross, I'm looking at you... The premises they spin, regarding virtual economies and etc, are neat - but not, yet, viable, and suggest that the authors haven't actually played an MMO. So, I don't know - I guess I hope Mr. Stephenson has done his research here.
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