October Books (Part 1)
Nov. 15th, 2006 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienThere were more, but I haven't written the others up yet. It was a good month, making a start on the hoarded riches of the summer.
Michelle Sagara, Cast in Courtlight
Sequel to Cast in Shadow. We learn a lot more about Barrani (sp? I'm in Colorado and the book is in Arizona) society, and the heroine shows some signs of growing up. I wasn't quite as enthralled by this as I was by the first one, but it could just be that this was a month full of excellent books, and this was merely a very good one. I gather another one is in the pipeline (despite Luna's troubles), and look forward to it.
Geoff Ryman, Air
The singularity comes to a remote village in a remote republic somewhere (as far as I can make out) on the Western fringe of China; the events are mostly seen through the eyes of mostly-illiterate Mae, who has a traumatic experience with the new technology early on, but learns to use it to her advantage and the benefit of her village. The portraits of village life and people are richly detailed, and the whole story is woven together with the ancient elements, earth, water, fire, air, spirit. The whole business of Mae's pregnancy seemed far-fetched, though.
Greg Keyes, The Blood Knight
Third volume of what is obviously not a story that can be wrapped up in a trilogy. Is this the third of four, or the close of the first trilogy in a multiplet of them, I wonder? Some threads are wrapped up, but the world is still in peril at the end. This is a rather dark fantasy epic, with so many not-quite-English (and not-quite-Italian, not-quite-German) words mixed in that it can be a bit hard to follow.
Charles Stross, Glasshouse
What do identity, memory, and guilt mean in a world where personalities can be uploaded, downloaded into completely different bodies, forked and merged?
I found this considerably easier to follow than Accelerando, or the MacLeod trilogy that plays with similar themes, but of course I could be missing things. There's a parallel (and rather topical) theme about prisons and the things people will do to each other in the name of obeying authority, and a sprinkling of cute Prisoner references.
Dudley Pope, Ramage's Diamond
By the creative use of pulleys, our hero leverages one frigate and a large rock into a captured French convoy. Someone remarks afterwards that he'll be in real trouble if his ridiculously risky plans ever fail to work out. Of course they won't, because the author is on his side. Not O'Brian standard, but these books are somewhat more-ish, or maybe I'm just a hopeless completist; I've laid in the next couple in the series already.
Bamber Gascoigne, A Short History of the Dynasties of China
Compact, well-written summary of Chinese history up to 1912, focusing as the title suggests on the main dynasties, and spending a fair amount of time with representative sages and poets in each time period.
Michelle Sagara, Cast in Courtlight
Sequel to Cast in Shadow. We learn a lot more about Barrani (sp? I'm in Colorado and the book is in Arizona) society, and the heroine shows some signs of growing up. I wasn't quite as enthralled by this as I was by the first one, but it could just be that this was a month full of excellent books, and this was merely a very good one. I gather another one is in the pipeline (despite Luna's troubles), and look forward to it.
Geoff Ryman, Air
The singularity comes to a remote village in a remote republic somewhere (as far as I can make out) on the Western fringe of China; the events are mostly seen through the eyes of mostly-illiterate Mae, who has a traumatic experience with the new technology early on, but learns to use it to her advantage and the benefit of her village. The portraits of village life and people are richly detailed, and the whole story is woven together with the ancient elements, earth, water, fire, air, spirit. The whole business of Mae's pregnancy seemed far-fetched, though.
Greg Keyes, The Blood Knight
Third volume of what is obviously not a story that can be wrapped up in a trilogy. Is this the third of four, or the close of the first trilogy in a multiplet of them, I wonder? Some threads are wrapped up, but the world is still in peril at the end. This is a rather dark fantasy epic, with so many not-quite-English (and not-quite-Italian, not-quite-German) words mixed in that it can be a bit hard to follow.
Charles Stross, Glasshouse
What do identity, memory, and guilt mean in a world where personalities can be uploaded, downloaded into completely different bodies, forked and merged?
I found this considerably easier to follow than Accelerando, or the MacLeod trilogy that plays with similar themes, but of course I could be missing things. There's a parallel (and rather topical) theme about prisons and the things people will do to each other in the name of obeying authority, and a sprinkling of cute Prisoner references.
Dudley Pope, Ramage's Diamond
By the creative use of pulleys, our hero leverages one frigate and a large rock into a captured French convoy. Someone remarks afterwards that he'll be in real trouble if his ridiculously risky plans ever fail to work out. Of course they won't, because the author is on his side. Not O'Brian standard, but these books are somewhat more-ish, or maybe I'm just a hopeless completist; I've laid in the next couple in the series already.
Bamber Gascoigne, A Short History of the Dynasties of China
Compact, well-written summary of Chinese history up to 1912, focusing as the title suggests on the main dynasties, and spending a fair amount of time with representative sages and poets in each time period.
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