September Books

[ellarien]

Or at least, books read in the last three weeks.


Captain Scott, Ranulph Fiennes
This is a biography of the tragically famous polar explorer, by someone with first-hand experience of the conditions in the Antarctic. It's also, as it were, a re-bunking, an attempt to refute what was apparently a vicious 'debunking' of Scott by someone else, which I haven't read. It strikes me, thinking about it, that it may possibly be ever so slightly disingenuous to discount the nasty things written about Scott by his comrades at the time on the grounds that it was just venting and they didn't mean it, and then also dismiss the nasty things they wrote later on the grounds that they were embittered and/or ill and shouldn't be taken seriously, while taking more or less at face value all positive contemporary views. The book makes an interesting point about the final tragedy; taking the view that it wasn't so much that Scott's planning was bad, as that the weather was very unusually harsh that year, and also he may have been let down to some extent by the support teams who skimped on some depot-laying.

Viriconium, M. John Harrison
This is one of those Fantasy Masterworks editions from home -- not a single novel, but a compilation of several, interspersed with short stories, all set in the far-future, surreal city of Viriconium. It's very odd, not least because the same character names seem to be used and reused in stories that take place centuries apart or maybe in different parallel universes. The first long story reads more like science fiction than fantasy in spite of the rather standard fantasy cast, but things get stranger and more fantastical as they go on. The overall effect is dreamlike and weird, with lots of vivid imagery and recurring motifs that mutate from story to story, from foreshadowing to reality to vague distorted memory of the distant past. I suspect that a reread would be in order, if I can get around to it.

Accelerando, Charles Stross
Dense, witty tale -- or set of linked tales -- of the Singularity as seen through the eyes of successive generations of a family that starts at the cutting edge and ends up in a backwater where they're still recognizably human, kind of. Their electronic cat adapts rather better. There are signs of sequel-possibilities at the end.

Circle of the Moon, Barbara Hambly
Sequel to Sisters of the Raven. In an isolated desert kingdom that pretty much depends on magic to survive, the power of magic has been lost by men and gained by women. This is causing some social changes, but it also leaves the kingdom in trouble, because the women haven't yet learned to use their new powers effectively. When the King is called on to re-take his coronation tests -- which are customarily fixed by the use of magic -- this becomes an even more urgent problem. I can't say too much more without spoilers, but I will just remark that Ms. Hambly's recent preoccupation with the issue of slavery shows up here too.

Comments

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

I didn't know there was a sequel to Sisters of the Raven. Will have to check it out at some point, though the first one didn't hook me as hard as other Hambly's have done.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

Ditto! Must mention to sister, too.