Two books this week.
Steven Brust - Iorich
Thursday or Friday last week, Amazon sent me the copy of this I had ordered (for 12th Night, sort of). Tor has clearly decided not to publish further editions of the Vlad Taltos in mass market paperback, so this is a Trade Paperback, which means it doesn't match my existing collection, which is surprisingly distressing, while not really being that important. Also, not to judge a book by it's cover, but this has the same sort of rubbery feel as Dark Jenny, which I reviewed several months ago. As with that book, I did get used to the feeling of the cover while reading, but it bugged me every time I picked up the book.
Ok. All that aside, the book was really quite good. It picks up sometime after Dzur. Vlad returns to Dragaera City when he learns that Aliera has been arrested. His efforts to get her acquitted plunge him into a complex plot to subvert the Empire. Meantime, he's busy dodging assassins who are still trying to kill him.
None of the big issues of the series are resolved. Vlad and Cawti have some civil conversations, and Vlad gets to know his son a little better, but there isn't a simple way even beginning to find a way of fixing that mess without there being a way of fixing the mess with the Jhereg, and there probably isn't a way of fixing that second mess. The novel begins with Vlad on the run, and it ends with Vlad on the run. The Empress owes him a favor, but cannot help with his significant problem. We still do not know what happened to Vlad's finger, even.
That being said, all of the issues within the novel are resolved. Brust presents an interesting legal drama twined around some political issues. There seems to be some gentle propagandizing about the nature of war - could be a reference to Vietnam, could be a reference to Iraq, could just be musing on the nature of war, it's really hard to tell sometimes. If you already feel that Brust is too political, you probably won't like this - but then, you probably stopped reading several books back anyway, right?
This book is somewhat less fun than some of the books set, chronologically, earlier in the series. At the same time, it's nowhere near as sad as, say, Teckla - about even, really. There are some nice jokes within the text - and Brust ends the book with a series of "deleted scenes" - snippets of dialog, mostly, positing how the book would be different if written in different styles. The scenes conclude with a snippet in the tone of Paarfi, which is both spot on and absolutely hilarious.
This is not the book to read if you are just starting the series - it assumes a certain familiarity with the characters and their various back stories.
Jill Lepore - A is For American
I've reviewed one of Lepore's works earlier - The Whites of their Eyes - and so, when I saw this book at the book fair, I knew I would like it. I was right. Lepore explores issues of language in the United States, mostly before the Civil War. There was considerable interest, prior to 1860, to create some sort of unifying language which would paper over the divisions between North and South. (and, by "prior to 1860", I mean "from the 1780s on" - this wasn't a last ditch effort to unify the country, it was a lasting movement to respond to well known tensions.) Lepore discusses that, and also various ways in which language is used to define a culture - either to bring that culture more in line with the dominant culture of the region, or to set a minority culture more solidly apart.
Lepore presents Noah Webster (who wrote the American dictionary), Samuel Morse (inventor of the telegraph and Morse code), William Thornton (who tried to invent a universal alphabet, which would allow all languages to be learned by all people) Sequoya (who developed a syllabary for the Cherokee language - not quite an alphabet, but a collection of symbols for the various sounds in Cherokee - a non-universal language), Thomas Galludet (who introduced French sign language to the United States - and who was convinced that sign language was the "natural" language of humanity; the common means of communication which would unite all people and bring about the Millenium), Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima (who used his knowledge of Arabic to win his freedom from slavery), and Alexander Graham Bell (who, while promoting his father's "Visible Speech", ended up inventing the telephone). All of these men, Lepore suggests, are linked through their thinking about language, what it is for, and where it comes from.
The book is scholarly, with extensive footnotes and considerable evidence of research. At the same time, it is written in an accessible style - I think that the educated layman could easily handle this book. My only complaint is that, in her concluding chapter, Lepore makes what feels like a clumsy attempt to connect the rest of the book to the current moment, with a discussion of the Graffiti alphabet designed to help people write on Palm PDA computers. In 2002, when the book was published, Palm PDAs were state of the art - they aren't anymore, and so the Epilogue dates the book a little. More, though, it feels tacked on, and unnecessary. Other than that, an excellent book. Scraps of it have already started showing up in my lectures.
Showing posts with label Lepore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lepore. Show all posts
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, December 31, 2010
Friday Review, New Years Eve Edition - 12/31/2010
[eta: This is the last post of 2010!]
Cassandra Clare - The Clockwork Angel
So, this is the first book of a prequel trilogy to Clare's Mortal Instruments series, about which I know almost nothing (but the covers are pretty, in a conventional way). When I brought it home, I speculated on how one might classify it's genre - neo-Victorian, steampunk? Having read it, I'd say that it's sort of neo-Victorian, more than steampunk, although clockwork and steam machinery do play a role. I don't think it necessarily fits the steampunk ethos, although perhaps that will change over the course of the series. At any rate, a young girl from New York arrives in London to meet her brother, but discovers that she is not who she thinks she is, that her brother is not who she thinks he is, and the world is not as she thinks it is. She falls into a enduring struggle between - well, not good and evil, per se, since one of the major themes of the novel is that conventional definitions of good and evil tend not to fit well, but between order and chaos, perhaps. On the side of order are the Nephilim, descendants of an ancient race of human/angel hybrids. On the chaos side is the Shadow-world of vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night. Further on the chaos side are demons, and so the Nephilim and the Shadow dwellers have warily put aside their differences in order to deal with an influx of demons. The loose alliance between traditional enemies seems to be fraying, however, as the Shadow dwellers have begun to move into the mundane shadow world of gambling and drugs (which in Victorian London means opium and card games like Faro).
The book was fun, and well written enough that I am considering picking up the first of the Mortal Instruments books. The plot was fairly conventional, the twists were moderately predictable, and the characters were interesting enough to be worth reading. The Victorian background seemed fairly background - I suspect it was used because these books are prequels, rather than any real desire to set them in the Victorian period - but Clare has obviously done some research, and the setting was not jarring for all that it was more or less non intrusive.
Cinda Williams Chima - The Warrior Heir
I enjoyed this book. Like the Clare, it wasn't all that deep, but the characters were fun, and the plot was simple. I think I would have split the book in two, ending book one with the end of the school year and having book two cover the trip to England (England seems to feature in reading this week). This book was a romp, a quick read, with a few twists. Although part of an expanding series, this book seemed perfectly complete in its own right. I'll probably pick up the next one - Chima seems to be writing a series of interlocking stories within her world rather than following the same characters through several books -- interesting if done well.
Jill Lepore - The Whites of Their Eyes
A short work, more like a long essay than a book. Lepore is a Colonial historian, and this is an interesting musing on the ways in which Americans use (and abuse) the history of the Revolution, the early republic, and the Founding Fathers. Lepore tells three historical stories: the story of the Revolution (when did it start? 1776? 1760? Earlier? It depends on what you mean by the Revolution - the war, or the radical shift in ideology?) and the early republic (who were the Founding Fathers? When did they become Founding Fathers?); the (largely unsuccessful) effort to organize an inclusive Bicentennial celebration in 1976; and the current use/abuse of Revolutionary history by the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, and folks like the Texas School Board (who revised their US History curriculum to remove Thomas Jefferson as a Founding Father).
This was a fascinating book. I found Lepore's discussion of the Revolutionary generation most interesting. Her discussion of the current attempts to re-cast US history into a Fundamentalist mold felt mildly screed like (even if I agree with her) - it wasn't necessary to convince the people who agree with her, and wasn't sufficient to convince the people who disagree with her. The general theme of the work was that the Revolution has been a political football since 1779, and that what we are currently experiencing isn't really all that different from previous attempts to control the meaning of the beginning of the nation (although, perhaps, somewhat more shrill and certainly louder than in previous iterations.)
I have only one complaint. Much of the work, I felt, would have been better as a lecture than as written - Lepore has a fairly breezy writing style that probably works very nicely when spoken. This reflects, I suspect, her view that academic historians should write histories that non-academics can understand and appreciate (I agree!), but sometimes it is difficult to walk the line between a tone which is open and conversational and one which seems to trivialize the subject under discussion. There were places where I think Lepore crossed that line, places where, in a lecture, she might have softened the words with an ironic smile, or a wink.
Still, a solidly thought provoking work, and one which I would recommend to anyone currently frustrated by the political rhetoric in the United States.
Cassandra Clare - The Clockwork Angel
So, this is the first book of a prequel trilogy to Clare's Mortal Instruments series, about which I know almost nothing (but the covers are pretty, in a conventional way). When I brought it home, I speculated on how one might classify it's genre - neo-Victorian, steampunk? Having read it, I'd say that it's sort of neo-Victorian, more than steampunk, although clockwork and steam machinery do play a role. I don't think it necessarily fits the steampunk ethos, although perhaps that will change over the course of the series. At any rate, a young girl from New York arrives in London to meet her brother, but discovers that she is not who she thinks she is, that her brother is not who she thinks he is, and the world is not as she thinks it is. She falls into a enduring struggle between - well, not good and evil, per se, since one of the major themes of the novel is that conventional definitions of good and evil tend not to fit well, but between order and chaos, perhaps. On the side of order are the Nephilim, descendants of an ancient race of human/angel hybrids. On the chaos side is the Shadow-world of vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night. Further on the chaos side are demons, and so the Nephilim and the Shadow dwellers have warily put aside their differences in order to deal with an influx of demons. The loose alliance between traditional enemies seems to be fraying, however, as the Shadow dwellers have begun to move into the mundane shadow world of gambling and drugs (which in Victorian London means opium and card games like Faro).
The book was fun, and well written enough that I am considering picking up the first of the Mortal Instruments books. The plot was fairly conventional, the twists were moderately predictable, and the characters were interesting enough to be worth reading. The Victorian background seemed fairly background - I suspect it was used because these books are prequels, rather than any real desire to set them in the Victorian period - but Clare has obviously done some research, and the setting was not jarring for all that it was more or less non intrusive.
Cinda Williams Chima - The Warrior Heir
I enjoyed this book. Like the Clare, it wasn't all that deep, but the characters were fun, and the plot was simple. I think I would have split the book in two, ending book one with the end of the school year and having book two cover the trip to England (England seems to feature in reading this week). This book was a romp, a quick read, with a few twists. Although part of an expanding series, this book seemed perfectly complete in its own right. I'll probably pick up the next one - Chima seems to be writing a series of interlocking stories within her world rather than following the same characters through several books -- interesting if done well.
Jill Lepore - The Whites of Their Eyes
A short work, more like a long essay than a book. Lepore is a Colonial historian, and this is an interesting musing on the ways in which Americans use (and abuse) the history of the Revolution, the early republic, and the Founding Fathers. Lepore tells three historical stories: the story of the Revolution (when did it start? 1776? 1760? Earlier? It depends on what you mean by the Revolution - the war, or the radical shift in ideology?) and the early republic (who were the Founding Fathers? When did they become Founding Fathers?); the (largely unsuccessful) effort to organize an inclusive Bicentennial celebration in 1976; and the current use/abuse of Revolutionary history by the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, and folks like the Texas School Board (who revised their US History curriculum to remove Thomas Jefferson as a Founding Father).
This was a fascinating book. I found Lepore's discussion of the Revolutionary generation most interesting. Her discussion of the current attempts to re-cast US history into a Fundamentalist mold felt mildly screed like (even if I agree with her) - it wasn't necessary to convince the people who agree with her, and wasn't sufficient to convince the people who disagree with her. The general theme of the work was that the Revolution has been a political football since 1779, and that what we are currently experiencing isn't really all that different from previous attempts to control the meaning of the beginning of the nation (although, perhaps, somewhat more shrill and certainly louder than in previous iterations.)
I have only one complaint. Much of the work, I felt, would have been better as a lecture than as written - Lepore has a fairly breezy writing style that probably works very nicely when spoken. This reflects, I suspect, her view that academic historians should write histories that non-academics can understand and appreciate (I agree!), but sometimes it is difficult to walk the line between a tone which is open and conversational and one which seems to trivialize the subject under discussion. There were places where I think Lepore crossed that line, places where, in a lecture, she might have softened the words with an ironic smile, or a wink.
Still, a solidly thought provoking work, and one which I would recommend to anyone currently frustrated by the political rhetoric in the United States.
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