Crocodile on the Sandbank
The Amelia Peabody series, Book 1
Elizabeth Peters
Grand Central Publishing
Fiction, Adventure/Historical Fiction/Mystery/Thriller
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Amelia Peabody is a woman who knows her own mind and isn't afraid to express it, which does not make her particularly popular in the social circles of 1880's England, but she's never much cared what others think of her. What she does care about is history, thanks to her late father; now that he has passed and left his fortune to her, she intends to travel to all the places she read about in his library, the ancient wonders of the classical world. She does care enough about propriety to bring along a companion - unconventional as she is, she knows it would only invite trouble to travel alone - but illness sends the woman packing just as they reach Rome, leaving Amelia in a pinch. Then she happens upon Evelyn Barton-Forbes, a young lady in need of a companion herself after some terrible turns of fate left her stranded and penniless in a foreign land. Together, the two set sail for Cairo, to spend some months traveling up the Nile... but their plans are about to be interrupted by a persistent suitor, a pair of archaeologist brothers, a newly-discovered city and tombs attributed to a heretical king... and what may possibly be an ancient curse walking the desert.
REVIEW: First published in 1975, Crocodile on the Sandbank is the first entry in a popular series about Victorian-era amateur archaeologist Amelia Peabody, consciously drawing on old-school adventure tales of lost tombs and cursed mummies and tangled, borderline convoluted and occasionally unbelievable, villainous plots. Even given the stories that it intentionally mimics, though, there are aspects that don't age that well, aspects that I'm not sure were deliberate "homage" or not. The white Egyptologist claiming ownership and mastery of another culture's artifacts and heritage is not quite such a romantic image these days, and though characters give some lip service to how Egypt's treasures are being mismanaged, it comes across more as a beef between the French and the English, with Egyptians themselves dismissed from the equation as not worth mentioning. There's also the worn-out trope of the fainting, helpless lady (not Amelia, usually, but Evelyn could've used a portable fainting couch to soften the landing of her swoons) whose only purpose or goal is marriage; even Amelia, who declares herself above such "outdated" concepts as marriage and claims to be quite happy as a "spinster" in her thirties, gets so caught up in her companion's marriage prospects and potential mates that it's clear she's not telling the reader the whole truth of her mind on the matter. And, of course, the man who - right out of the gate - verbally abuses Amelia and has a particular hatred for her gender and very existence... if you're following along on the trope bingo card, not many surprises there. Other players aren't exactly unique characters, either, and wouldn't be out of place in one of those old adventure tales that Peters references, for all that there's a certain charm to their overblown nature, and the same could be said about the rather convoluted plot that's eventually exposed after causing no end of trouble on the seemingly-cursed dig site. Along the way, the setting of Victorian-era Egypt is a richly detailed backdrop, if one necessarily viewed through an Englishwoman's lens (both the character and the writer) and with a romanticized rosy tint. There's adventure and intrigue and ancient wonders and, of course, some heavy-handed romance (and the requisite failures of communication and stiff-upper-lip English propriety that nearly scuttles the whole prospect). The mystery, though, just plain doesn't make sense in anything like reality; one has to suspend disbelief and accept that the world of Amelia Peabody has more akin to the world of old, over-the-top adventure stories and movies than our own Earth to begin to believe it, and not poke too hard lest the logic crumble like old mummy wrappings. Some of the casually racist descriptions and assumptions also got a bit of a side-eye; some went beyond the narrator Amelia being "in character", and while I know that judging older stories by modern standards is a losing game, I'm reading it now, not in 1975, and these things stand out. After a somewhat overblown climax, complete with a monologuing villain helpfully explaining the details of the story to their victims, there's an epilogue to wrap things up, in a way that doesn't necessitate a sequel (though of course there are more books - twenty total, according to Amazon).
While there are doubtless some faults in this story, and it's not as fresh as it must've been when originally published, Crocodile on the Sandbank does at least deliver on its promise of old-school Victorianesque adventure and romance amongst the lost world of old Egypt, with some larger than life (if sometimes too familiar) characters and a fair bit of action. I just found a few too many things bugging me, most particularly about the "mystery" story and some overused tropes, to justify a solid four stars.
You Might Also Enjoy:
A Natural History of Dragons (Marie Brennan) - My Review
King Solomon's Mines (H. Rider Haggard) - My Review
The Jewel of Seven Stars (Bram Stoker) - My Review
Thursday, August 31, 2023
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
Lost in Shangri-La (Mitchell Zuckoff)
Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II
Mitchell Zuckoff
Harper Perennial
Nonfiction, History
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In 1945, as the Second World War neared its end, an incredible news story grabbed headlines across America and around the world: a plane crash in the unexplored depths of Papau New Guinea, leaving the three survivors stranded in a "lost world" of primitive, possibly cannibalistic headhunting tribes and inhospitable terrain. How the Americans got there, how they survived, and how the military mounted an audacious rescue kept the public riveted for weeks, but today the tale is nearly forgotten. Using original articles and records and interviews with the few survivors who experienced the events firsthand, the author recounts the story as it unfolded, a story filled with danger, bravery, despair, and larger-than-life characters.
REVIEW: Another random Libby audiobook to make work somewhat less tedious, Lost in Shangri-La delivers just what it promises, a true-life story that rivals fiction. From the rough-sketch history of the region and the war and what Americans were doing there in the first place to the "discovery" of the lost valley - technically for the second time in "civilized" history, but the pilots didn't know that at the time - through the crash, the rescue, and the fates of the various people involved, Zuckoff spins a decent yarn. He even includes commentary and interviews with the natives (or their descendants), offering the "other side" viewpoint and how cultural misunderstandings almost made things so much worse. From the start, the Americans viewed the locals as Eurocentric cultures so often do, with a mix of condescension and vague revulsion. Projecting their own ideas onto a people they only ever glimpsed from airplanes until the crash, they decided it looked like a peaceful primitive paradise and dubbed the "lost" valley Shangri-La, after the fictional isolated utopia that had evolved beyond war - a truly ironic name, given that the natives of the valley were essentially in a perpetual state of intertribal combat, if one often lacking the devastating vitriol and sheer scale of atrocities practiced by "civilized" nations. Treating another culture as a tourist attraction, a day trip to relieve the tedium of military base life, is what led to the tragedy to begin with, costing the lives of almost everyone on board the plane save three... and even their survival is a near thing, with serious injuries and the onset of infection and gangrene in the jungle environment. Back at the base, rescue efforts are hampered by the remoteness and high altitude of the crash site, plus the risk of complications from both natives and enemy soldiers (Japanese soldiers were known to be scattered across the islands in the jungle), with luck both good and bad eventually leading to an audacious, risky rescue plan. Along the way, the survivors and rescuers end up reassessing their opinions of the locals; while they never did truly understand the native language or culture, they did come to see them as real people, not stereotypes or subhumans. In the epilogue, Zuckoff tells what happened to all the players after the rescue and later in their lives... even, sadly, what happened to the native tribes. There was a local legend about "sky spirits" whose return would herald the end times, and unfortunately that prediction came all too true, as the modern "Shangri-La" is nothing at all like the paradise first encountered by outsiders in the 1940's.
Given the time since the events occurred, there are some gaps now and again, and a few parts felt glossed over or thin. Still, it tells a decent story.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Gone to the Woods (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
Nation (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
The Lost City of the Monkey God (Douglas Preston) - My Review
Mitchell Zuckoff
Harper Perennial
Nonfiction, History
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In 1945, as the Second World War neared its end, an incredible news story grabbed headlines across America and around the world: a plane crash in the unexplored depths of Papau New Guinea, leaving the three survivors stranded in a "lost world" of primitive, possibly cannibalistic headhunting tribes and inhospitable terrain. How the Americans got there, how they survived, and how the military mounted an audacious rescue kept the public riveted for weeks, but today the tale is nearly forgotten. Using original articles and records and interviews with the few survivors who experienced the events firsthand, the author recounts the story as it unfolded, a story filled with danger, bravery, despair, and larger-than-life characters.
REVIEW: Another random Libby audiobook to make work somewhat less tedious, Lost in Shangri-La delivers just what it promises, a true-life story that rivals fiction. From the rough-sketch history of the region and the war and what Americans were doing there in the first place to the "discovery" of the lost valley - technically for the second time in "civilized" history, but the pilots didn't know that at the time - through the crash, the rescue, and the fates of the various people involved, Zuckoff spins a decent yarn. He even includes commentary and interviews with the natives (or their descendants), offering the "other side" viewpoint and how cultural misunderstandings almost made things so much worse. From the start, the Americans viewed the locals as Eurocentric cultures so often do, with a mix of condescension and vague revulsion. Projecting their own ideas onto a people they only ever glimpsed from airplanes until the crash, they decided it looked like a peaceful primitive paradise and dubbed the "lost" valley Shangri-La, after the fictional isolated utopia that had evolved beyond war - a truly ironic name, given that the natives of the valley were essentially in a perpetual state of intertribal combat, if one often lacking the devastating vitriol and sheer scale of atrocities practiced by "civilized" nations. Treating another culture as a tourist attraction, a day trip to relieve the tedium of military base life, is what led to the tragedy to begin with, costing the lives of almost everyone on board the plane save three... and even their survival is a near thing, with serious injuries and the onset of infection and gangrene in the jungle environment. Back at the base, rescue efforts are hampered by the remoteness and high altitude of the crash site, plus the risk of complications from both natives and enemy soldiers (Japanese soldiers were known to be scattered across the islands in the jungle), with luck both good and bad eventually leading to an audacious, risky rescue plan. Along the way, the survivors and rescuers end up reassessing their opinions of the locals; while they never did truly understand the native language or culture, they did come to see them as real people, not stereotypes or subhumans. In the epilogue, Zuckoff tells what happened to all the players after the rescue and later in their lives... even, sadly, what happened to the native tribes. There was a local legend about "sky spirits" whose return would herald the end times, and unfortunately that prediction came all too true, as the modern "Shangri-La" is nothing at all like the paradise first encountered by outsiders in the 1940's.
Given the time since the events occurred, there are some gaps now and again, and a few parts felt glossed over or thin. Still, it tells a decent story.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Gone to the Woods (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
Nation (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
The Lost City of the Monkey God (Douglas Preston) - My Review
Friday, August 25, 2023
A Vanishing of Griffins (S. A. Patrick)
A Vanishing of Griffins
The Songs of Magic series, Book 1
S. A. Patrick
Peachtree
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Once, young Patch Brightwater was a failure, running away from his Piper training - where he learned to play magical music - because he didn't want to train in battle magic. After finding Wren, the maid transformed into a rat by a sorcerer, and Barver, a dracogriff protector abandoned by a dragon army, he learned that the man imprisoned for ten years in the Piper dungeons - the ones the dragons executed in fire before his eyes - was not the dreaded Piper of Hamelyn, the madman who stole away human and dragon children for his own nefarious purposes. Indeed, Patch, Wren, and Barver were instrumental in stopping the real Piper of Hamelyn when he attempted to take over the minds of every Piper in the lands, to create a nigh-unstoppable army... but nobody ever found the villain's body. Worse, he fears that members of the Pipers' Council are traitors after hearing a prophecy from a witch woman. But, for all their heroics, he and Wren are still children and Barver's an outsider. What can they do?
After a rescue mission to save a former friend and traveling companion from the clutches of a pirate king (a friend who, due to a misinterpretation of the witch's prophecy, Patch abandoned), Patch and his companions reunite with the few people they know they can trust, remnants of the legendary Eight Pipers who originally hunted down the Piper of Hamelyn (even if they ended up grabbing the wrong man). Unrest is spreading through the land, and the Pipers' Council is only making it worse by inexplicably recalling all of their Custodian Elite Pipers to dedicate them to the manhunt... a manhunt where they seem to be chasing shadows and rumors instead of solid leads. While searching for clues about the murder of one of the Eight, they uncover evidence of what the Piper of Hamelyn may be planning next, a terrible plot that, if it succeeds, would see the whole world of humans, dragons, and griffins fall under the monster's heel forevermore. Patch and his friends aren't about to let that happen if they can help it, but this time the stakes are much higher, as more of the world seems to be falling to chaos and ruin around them.
REVIEW: I hit a string of DNFs (did-not-finish titles) on Libby, so I decided to just go ahead and listen to the second installment of Patch's adventures. Like the first installment, it's a fun adventure in an interesting fantasy world, with some nice emotional weight to the characters and real risks of failure. It doesn't shy away from some of the nastier ways people can treat each other and what they are willing to do in pursuit of power, or just in pursuit of what they're convinced is right, even if that conviction is based on lies and iron-fisted cruelty to others. Patch, Wren, and Barver run afoul of politics and old prejudices wherever they turn for help, as the intelligent races of the world seem to be folding inward and turning away from each other, sometimes violently, just when they need to be uniting to face an existential threat. (Not at all what happens in the real world, of course... ahem...) They're all changing and growing up, though it seems Wren and Barver are facing more growth than Patch at this point; Barver in particular must confront his relationship with both sides of his family and himself, dragon and griffin. The griffins get some nice page time here, fleshing out their culture and history. Wren, meanwhile, still pursues magical knowledge with increasing ruthlessness, taking greater and greater risks that sometimes get her in trouble, as when she undergoes a risky procedure and spends more time learning "impressive" spells than practical ones. Not that Patch is entirely static, though; in addition to coping with the guilt over betraying his old friend over a mistaken reading of the prophecy, he starts taking on more responsibilities and developing his Piper skills. The Piper of Hamelyn, as before, is more of a specter than a character for much of the story, but he remains a formidable enemy when he does turn up in person, his actions made all the more terrifying for his utter conviction in his righteousness in destroying the world to remake it in his own image. This one ends on something closer to a cliffhanger than the previous installment... and, unfortunately, the third volume doesn't seem to be out yet, and isn't due until spring of 2024. Dang it... That delay aside, I enjoyed this book every bit as much as the first one, even if it does spend a little too much time on the excretions of a baby dragon (a detour that younger readers will likely find more amusing, but for me felt like a plot point setup that was never quite followed through on, unless something comes of it in the next book).
You Might Also Enjoy:
A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying (Kelley Armstrong) - My Review
The Wizards of Once (Cressida Cowell) - My Review
Sandry's Book (Tamora Pierce) - My Review
The Songs of Magic series, Book 1
S. A. Patrick
Peachtree
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Once, young Patch Brightwater was a failure, running away from his Piper training - where he learned to play magical music - because he didn't want to train in battle magic. After finding Wren, the maid transformed into a rat by a sorcerer, and Barver, a dracogriff protector abandoned by a dragon army, he learned that the man imprisoned for ten years in the Piper dungeons - the ones the dragons executed in fire before his eyes - was not the dreaded Piper of Hamelyn, the madman who stole away human and dragon children for his own nefarious purposes. Indeed, Patch, Wren, and Barver were instrumental in stopping the real Piper of Hamelyn when he attempted to take over the minds of every Piper in the lands, to create a nigh-unstoppable army... but nobody ever found the villain's body. Worse, he fears that members of the Pipers' Council are traitors after hearing a prophecy from a witch woman. But, for all their heroics, he and Wren are still children and Barver's an outsider. What can they do?
After a rescue mission to save a former friend and traveling companion from the clutches of a pirate king (a friend who, due to a misinterpretation of the witch's prophecy, Patch abandoned), Patch and his companions reunite with the few people they know they can trust, remnants of the legendary Eight Pipers who originally hunted down the Piper of Hamelyn (even if they ended up grabbing the wrong man). Unrest is spreading through the land, and the Pipers' Council is only making it worse by inexplicably recalling all of their Custodian Elite Pipers to dedicate them to the manhunt... a manhunt where they seem to be chasing shadows and rumors instead of solid leads. While searching for clues about the murder of one of the Eight, they uncover evidence of what the Piper of Hamelyn may be planning next, a terrible plot that, if it succeeds, would see the whole world of humans, dragons, and griffins fall under the monster's heel forevermore. Patch and his friends aren't about to let that happen if they can help it, but this time the stakes are much higher, as more of the world seems to be falling to chaos and ruin around them.
REVIEW: I hit a string of DNFs (did-not-finish titles) on Libby, so I decided to just go ahead and listen to the second installment of Patch's adventures. Like the first installment, it's a fun adventure in an interesting fantasy world, with some nice emotional weight to the characters and real risks of failure. It doesn't shy away from some of the nastier ways people can treat each other and what they are willing to do in pursuit of power, or just in pursuit of what they're convinced is right, even if that conviction is based on lies and iron-fisted cruelty to others. Patch, Wren, and Barver run afoul of politics and old prejudices wherever they turn for help, as the intelligent races of the world seem to be folding inward and turning away from each other, sometimes violently, just when they need to be uniting to face an existential threat. (Not at all what happens in the real world, of course... ahem...) They're all changing and growing up, though it seems Wren and Barver are facing more growth than Patch at this point; Barver in particular must confront his relationship with both sides of his family and himself, dragon and griffin. The griffins get some nice page time here, fleshing out their culture and history. Wren, meanwhile, still pursues magical knowledge with increasing ruthlessness, taking greater and greater risks that sometimes get her in trouble, as when she undergoes a risky procedure and spends more time learning "impressive" spells than practical ones. Not that Patch is entirely static, though; in addition to coping with the guilt over betraying his old friend over a mistaken reading of the prophecy, he starts taking on more responsibilities and developing his Piper skills. The Piper of Hamelyn, as before, is more of a specter than a character for much of the story, but he remains a formidable enemy when he does turn up in person, his actions made all the more terrifying for his utter conviction in his righteousness in destroying the world to remake it in his own image. This one ends on something closer to a cliffhanger than the previous installment... and, unfortunately, the third volume doesn't seem to be out yet, and isn't due until spring of 2024. Dang it... That delay aside, I enjoyed this book every bit as much as the first one, even if it does spend a little too much time on the excretions of a baby dragon (a detour that younger readers will likely find more amusing, but for me felt like a plot point setup that was never quite followed through on, unless something comes of it in the next book).
You Might Also Enjoy:
A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying (Kelley Armstrong) - My Review
The Wizards of Once (Cressida Cowell) - My Review
Sandry's Book (Tamora Pierce) - My Review
Thursday, August 24, 2023
Where's My Jetpack? (Daniel H. Wilson)
Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived
Daniel H. Wilson
Blackstone Audio
Nonfiction, Humor/Science
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Moon colonies, flying cars, robot servants, ray guns... the Golden Age of science fiction promised us all these things and more by the year 2000. We're several years past that, and so far, science has not delivered our personal jetpacks or hoverboards. What gives? Scientists had one job, after all: give us our Jetsons future. The author, a roboticist, runs down several amazing predictions and what happened to keep them from coming to pass... or, at least, coming to pass as part of everyday casual life.
REVIEW: Any book on "future" tech is bound to age iffily. This one, published in 2007, already feels almost quaint. Nevertheless, it does what it set out to do: with a humorous spin, it explores the fates of a selection of sci-fi staples. Many are (or were at the time) much closer to fruition than is apparent, while others fell victim to exorbitant costs (and/or lack of sufficient interest or return on investment to make it worth pursuing), or thus far are still basically impossible (such as revival from a cryonic state). Instantaneous transportation, in the vein of Star Trek's transporter beams, has actually occurred... but only at subatomic levels. Weapons that might be deemed "ray" guns have been developed, even if they aren't the retro-looking casual sidearm of many a fantastic space adventurer. Underwater colonization hasn't happened (yet), but at least one submerged hotel exists, or did as of this book's original publication. Thought-controlled robotics and prosthetics are still not universal but are doing more and more impressive things. Moving sidewalks and "people movers" have found some real-world applications. And robot "pets" were already being explored.
In the years since Where's My Jetpack? was published, some tech has leapfrogged those here; smartphones, for instance, seem to be taking up the cause of the "universal translator" better than the dedicated portable device Wilson describes. A few other predictions, unfortunately, have fallen victim to reality; we still have not sent a manned presence back to the moon, which Wilson excitedly predicted was supposed to happen in 2018 by original NASA timelines. (I might also mention that the growing contributions of nations other than America, Russia, England, and the European Union were also apparently not predicted, or not generally mentioned; I'm writing this mere days after India became the fourth nation to successfully land an unmanned mission on the moon - just after Russia's effort failed.) He also seemed blissfully unaware of what climate collapse would do to the potential tourism draws of those underwater hotels; bleached and lifeless coral reefs just aren't quite what most tourists have in mind.
While I can't exactly blame it for aging, the presentation itself often gets too clever for its own good, offering thin glimpses of a given subject that gloss over a lot of material or nuance; even in old sci-fi, not all predictions were equal, with different authors offering different tech with different implementations, some more plausible than others. (And, seriously, no Asimov in either the "robot buddy" section or the "city-in-a-skyscraper" section?) He also seems reluctant to explore the drawbacks of a given tech that also play roles in keeping them out of the public eye (or not, as we've seen in the case of self-driving cars that keep being pushed onto public streets despite ample evidence of them not being ready for prime time, or skyscrapers that are growing so tall that they become death traps in the way predicted by Towering Inferno). It often seemed like Wilson was more interested in being funny than being informative and thought-provoking, and I found the humor a bit hit-and-miss myself. (I think the target audience of this book was that envisioned by most Golden Age sci-fi authors: almost exclusively young men, American or English or otherwise "light". The idea that anyone else might be interested in sci-fi still seems inconceivable to too many people... but I digress.)
Overall, while some of the entries are intriguing, I wished for fewer jokes and more substance.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Eurekaaargh! (Adam Hart-Davis) - My Review
It's Not Rocket Science (Ben Miller) - My Review
Soonish (Kelly and Zach Weinersmith) - My Review
Daniel H. Wilson
Blackstone Audio
Nonfiction, Humor/Science
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Moon colonies, flying cars, robot servants, ray guns... the Golden Age of science fiction promised us all these things and more by the year 2000. We're several years past that, and so far, science has not delivered our personal jetpacks or hoverboards. What gives? Scientists had one job, after all: give us our Jetsons future. The author, a roboticist, runs down several amazing predictions and what happened to keep them from coming to pass... or, at least, coming to pass as part of everyday casual life.
REVIEW: Any book on "future" tech is bound to age iffily. This one, published in 2007, already feels almost quaint. Nevertheless, it does what it set out to do: with a humorous spin, it explores the fates of a selection of sci-fi staples. Many are (or were at the time) much closer to fruition than is apparent, while others fell victim to exorbitant costs (and/or lack of sufficient interest or return on investment to make it worth pursuing), or thus far are still basically impossible (such as revival from a cryonic state). Instantaneous transportation, in the vein of Star Trek's transporter beams, has actually occurred... but only at subatomic levels. Weapons that might be deemed "ray" guns have been developed, even if they aren't the retro-looking casual sidearm of many a fantastic space adventurer. Underwater colonization hasn't happened (yet), but at least one submerged hotel exists, or did as of this book's original publication. Thought-controlled robotics and prosthetics are still not universal but are doing more and more impressive things. Moving sidewalks and "people movers" have found some real-world applications. And robot "pets" were already being explored.
In the years since Where's My Jetpack? was published, some tech has leapfrogged those here; smartphones, for instance, seem to be taking up the cause of the "universal translator" better than the dedicated portable device Wilson describes. A few other predictions, unfortunately, have fallen victim to reality; we still have not sent a manned presence back to the moon, which Wilson excitedly predicted was supposed to happen in 2018 by original NASA timelines. (I might also mention that the growing contributions of nations other than America, Russia, England, and the European Union were also apparently not predicted, or not generally mentioned; I'm writing this mere days after India became the fourth nation to successfully land an unmanned mission on the moon - just after Russia's effort failed.) He also seemed blissfully unaware of what climate collapse would do to the potential tourism draws of those underwater hotels; bleached and lifeless coral reefs just aren't quite what most tourists have in mind.
While I can't exactly blame it for aging, the presentation itself often gets too clever for its own good, offering thin glimpses of a given subject that gloss over a lot of material or nuance; even in old sci-fi, not all predictions were equal, with different authors offering different tech with different implementations, some more plausible than others. (And, seriously, no Asimov in either the "robot buddy" section or the "city-in-a-skyscraper" section?) He also seems reluctant to explore the drawbacks of a given tech that also play roles in keeping them out of the public eye (or not, as we've seen in the case of self-driving cars that keep being pushed onto public streets despite ample evidence of them not being ready for prime time, or skyscrapers that are growing so tall that they become death traps in the way predicted by Towering Inferno). It often seemed like Wilson was more interested in being funny than being informative and thought-provoking, and I found the humor a bit hit-and-miss myself. (I think the target audience of this book was that envisioned by most Golden Age sci-fi authors: almost exclusively young men, American or English or otherwise "light". The idea that anyone else might be interested in sci-fi still seems inconceivable to too many people... but I digress.)
Overall, while some of the entries are intriguing, I wished for fewer jokes and more substance.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Eurekaaargh! (Adam Hart-Davis) - My Review
It's Not Rocket Science (Ben Miller) - My Review
Soonish (Kelly and Zach Weinersmith) - My Review
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower (Tamsyn Muir)
Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower
Tamsyn Muir
Subterranean Press
Fiction, Fantasy/Humor
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: When Princess Floralinda was snatched away by a wicked witch, she saw little reason to panic. Witches and other ne'er-do-wells have been abducting princesses since time immemorial, and the young ladies are almost always rescued by a suitably brave and handsome prince in a timely fashion. This witch, however, doesn't want just any old prince getting through; she's built a masterpiece of a magical forty-story tower, with thirty-nine different monsters to test the mettle of any would-be rescuer to the limit. There's even a dragon with diamond-encrusted scales at the bottom. Still, Floralinda isn't too concerned. The witch has left her with magically-replenishing food and water, a shelf full of books (if mostly dry treatises on economics, plus a few Readers Digests for variety), and an embroidery project if she gets too bored... which she surely won't, because a champion will be along any day now.
Unfortunately, the first prince to arrive doesn't get past the dragon.
Neither do the second or third... or twenty-second or thirty-third.
At last, the princes stop altogether, and Princess Floralinda must face the very real possibility that nobody is going to rescue her, that she may well die alone in this tower listening to the incessant hungry roars of a diamond-scaled dragon.
Then a storm brings an unexpected visitor: a little fairy named Cobweb whose wing is too damaged to fly. Fairies aren't exactly pleasant in the best of circumstances, and this one is especially surly - she's meant to lure children away to Fairyland from the bottom of the garden, not deal with distraught princesses - but Cobweb's arrival gets Floralinda thinking (not something the average princess indulges in on a regular basis). If nobody is going to rescue the princess in this fairy tale, perhaps it's time that the princess rescues herself.
REVIEW: This novella starts out on a fun note, for all that tweaking fairy tale tropes isn't exactly new territory. Initially every inch the helpless/useless storybook princess, Floralinda finds her assumptions about the world sorely tested and transformed, as she herself transforms under pressure. Cobweb doesn't even pretend to care what happens to the girl, but isn't exactly a paragon of fairy virtue herself (or themselves; fairies don't care about human concepts like gender), and despite herself becomes drawn into the challenge of survival and escape. Her practical knowledge is invaluable to Floralinda's survival right from the start; the fairy finds her sickened by infected goblin bites, and manages to concoct an antibiotic of sorts from the peels of the ever-replenishing orange in the princess's room. Their relationship is never anything but dysfunctional, however, and at some point it crosses a line into unpleasant territory that seriously dampened my interest in seeing either of them, especially Floralinda, survive. I get that part of the point is how the tower twists the princess, but the whole thing reeked of toxic behavior and even mental illness; Stockholm syndrome is never going to be the basis for a solid relationship. (I also get that other people will read it differently, and may well enjoy the messed-up nature of Floralinda and Cobweb's master/slave, cruelty-based dynamic. But this is my review blog, and I'm the one reviewing it, and thus my revulsion affects my rating.) By the end I didn't like anyone or anything... except maybe a few of the monsters, who after all didn't have much choice about being stuck in a tower to devour wayward princes (though frankly even they were ultimately irredeemable). Though the tone was humorous (if sometimes darkly humorous, and frequently gory), and even got a few smiles and light chuckles out of me early on, my inability to care about anyone, which by the end had shifted into me actively hoping they met horrible ends (plus a sense that, even as a novella, parts of it felt stretched overlong), holds down the rating... and I came darned close to clipping another half-star. This one's just not my cup of cocoa on multiple levels.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Goblin Quest (Jim C. Hines) - My Review
Princeless: Save Yourself (Jeremy Whitley) - My Review
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Patricia C. Wrede) - My Review
Tamsyn Muir
Subterranean Press
Fiction, Fantasy/Humor
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: When Princess Floralinda was snatched away by a wicked witch, she saw little reason to panic. Witches and other ne'er-do-wells have been abducting princesses since time immemorial, and the young ladies are almost always rescued by a suitably brave and handsome prince in a timely fashion. This witch, however, doesn't want just any old prince getting through; she's built a masterpiece of a magical forty-story tower, with thirty-nine different monsters to test the mettle of any would-be rescuer to the limit. There's even a dragon with diamond-encrusted scales at the bottom. Still, Floralinda isn't too concerned. The witch has left her with magically-replenishing food and water, a shelf full of books (if mostly dry treatises on economics, plus a few Readers Digests for variety), and an embroidery project if she gets too bored... which she surely won't, because a champion will be along any day now.
Unfortunately, the first prince to arrive doesn't get past the dragon.
Neither do the second or third... or twenty-second or thirty-third.
At last, the princes stop altogether, and Princess Floralinda must face the very real possibility that nobody is going to rescue her, that she may well die alone in this tower listening to the incessant hungry roars of a diamond-scaled dragon.
Then a storm brings an unexpected visitor: a little fairy named Cobweb whose wing is too damaged to fly. Fairies aren't exactly pleasant in the best of circumstances, and this one is especially surly - she's meant to lure children away to Fairyland from the bottom of the garden, not deal with distraught princesses - but Cobweb's arrival gets Floralinda thinking (not something the average princess indulges in on a regular basis). If nobody is going to rescue the princess in this fairy tale, perhaps it's time that the princess rescues herself.
REVIEW: This novella starts out on a fun note, for all that tweaking fairy tale tropes isn't exactly new territory. Initially every inch the helpless/useless storybook princess, Floralinda finds her assumptions about the world sorely tested and transformed, as she herself transforms under pressure. Cobweb doesn't even pretend to care what happens to the girl, but isn't exactly a paragon of fairy virtue herself (or themselves; fairies don't care about human concepts like gender), and despite herself becomes drawn into the challenge of survival and escape. Her practical knowledge is invaluable to Floralinda's survival right from the start; the fairy finds her sickened by infected goblin bites, and manages to concoct an antibiotic of sorts from the peels of the ever-replenishing orange in the princess's room. Their relationship is never anything but dysfunctional, however, and at some point it crosses a line into unpleasant territory that seriously dampened my interest in seeing either of them, especially Floralinda, survive. I get that part of the point is how the tower twists the princess, but the whole thing reeked of toxic behavior and even mental illness; Stockholm syndrome is never going to be the basis for a solid relationship. (I also get that other people will read it differently, and may well enjoy the messed-up nature of Floralinda and Cobweb's master/slave, cruelty-based dynamic. But this is my review blog, and I'm the one reviewing it, and thus my revulsion affects my rating.) By the end I didn't like anyone or anything... except maybe a few of the monsters, who after all didn't have much choice about being stuck in a tower to devour wayward princes (though frankly even they were ultimately irredeemable). Though the tone was humorous (if sometimes darkly humorous, and frequently gory), and even got a few smiles and light chuckles out of me early on, my inability to care about anyone, which by the end had shifted into me actively hoping they met horrible ends (plus a sense that, even as a novella, parts of it felt stretched overlong), holds down the rating... and I came darned close to clipping another half-star. This one's just not my cup of cocoa on multiple levels.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Goblin Quest (Jim C. Hines) - My Review
Princeless: Save Yourself (Jeremy Whitley) - My Review
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Patricia C. Wrede) - My Review
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Written in Bone (Sue Black)
Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind
Sue Black
Arcade
Nonfiction, Anatomy/Autobiography/Science/True Crime
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The human body has more than two hundred bones, and we are born with more individual bones than we end up with as adults. Though all bones are marvels of engineering and evolution on a macro level (if not without failure points and potential flaws), they also record the story of our individual lives, from before birth until our deaths. Forensic anthropologist Sue Black, among the top experts in her field, offers a guided tour through the human skeleton, along with stories of how the bones have been used to identify remains and shed light on lost lives and possible crimes.
REVIEW: The relatively recent long-running TV series Bones (a highly fictionalized take on the matter) and popular crime novels (such as those the series was based on, by another forensic anthropologist) have raised public awareness of the field, a more specific offshoot of general anatomy and forensics (the latter of which has long been of general popular interest in various media). This is Black's second book, but the first I wandered across and picked up based on the admittedly unscientific method of "there was a multi-book discount sale, I needed one more book to take advantage of it, and this one looked interesting". It happily turned out to actually be interesting, even to a marginally educated and minimally intelligent person like myself. As promised by the cover and opening, she walks the reader through the skeleton from cranium to metatarsal, from initial fetal formation to lifelong changes. Many also come with stories, from her own career and other sources, on what particular purpose they have served in identifying bodies or victims of crimes. Unlike Hollywood or other fiction, these stories don't always tie up in a neat little bow in twenty to forty minutes (plus ad breaks), with a victim and a suspect and a dramatic courtroom presentation that breaks the defense and ensures justice is done (until the writers get desperate for a storyline and decide they need a recurring nemesis character). Black's stories are reality, which is often fragmentary and lacking a dramatic arc or resolution, her involvement with the case limited to her expertise and not the actual tracking down of perpetrators, when there is a perpetrator to be tracked down; many involve simply identifying remains of those who passed from natural or undetermined causes. Some stories are tragic, some are even amusing (more the living people involved than the deaths, of course), and Black's writing can take some witty turns. At several points, she refers the reader to her previous book, All That Remains; not having read that book, I was a little left out of those references, but overall this one stands on its own as an informative, accessible look at the human skeleton and how much information a skilled forensic anthropologist can extract from it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Dinosaurs Rediscovered (Michael J. Benton) - My Review
Atlas of Anatomy (Giovanni Iazzetti et al.) - My Review
Your Inner Fish (Neil Shubin) - My Review
Sue Black
Arcade
Nonfiction, Anatomy/Autobiography/Science/True Crime
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The human body has more than two hundred bones, and we are born with more individual bones than we end up with as adults. Though all bones are marvels of engineering and evolution on a macro level (if not without failure points and potential flaws), they also record the story of our individual lives, from before birth until our deaths. Forensic anthropologist Sue Black, among the top experts in her field, offers a guided tour through the human skeleton, along with stories of how the bones have been used to identify remains and shed light on lost lives and possible crimes.
REVIEW: The relatively recent long-running TV series Bones (a highly fictionalized take on the matter) and popular crime novels (such as those the series was based on, by another forensic anthropologist) have raised public awareness of the field, a more specific offshoot of general anatomy and forensics (the latter of which has long been of general popular interest in various media). This is Black's second book, but the first I wandered across and picked up based on the admittedly unscientific method of "there was a multi-book discount sale, I needed one more book to take advantage of it, and this one looked interesting". It happily turned out to actually be interesting, even to a marginally educated and minimally intelligent person like myself. As promised by the cover and opening, she walks the reader through the skeleton from cranium to metatarsal, from initial fetal formation to lifelong changes. Many also come with stories, from her own career and other sources, on what particular purpose they have served in identifying bodies or victims of crimes. Unlike Hollywood or other fiction, these stories don't always tie up in a neat little bow in twenty to forty minutes (plus ad breaks), with a victim and a suspect and a dramatic courtroom presentation that breaks the defense and ensures justice is done (until the writers get desperate for a storyline and decide they need a recurring nemesis character). Black's stories are reality, which is often fragmentary and lacking a dramatic arc or resolution, her involvement with the case limited to her expertise and not the actual tracking down of perpetrators, when there is a perpetrator to be tracked down; many involve simply identifying remains of those who passed from natural or undetermined causes. Some stories are tragic, some are even amusing (more the living people involved than the deaths, of course), and Black's writing can take some witty turns. At several points, she refers the reader to her previous book, All That Remains; not having read that book, I was a little left out of those references, but overall this one stands on its own as an informative, accessible look at the human skeleton and how much information a skilled forensic anthropologist can extract from it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Dinosaurs Rediscovered (Michael J. Benton) - My Review
Atlas of Anatomy (Giovanni Iazzetti et al.) - My Review
Your Inner Fish (Neil Shubin) - My Review
Friday, August 18, 2023
A Darkening of Dragons (S. A. Patrick)
A Darkening of Dragons
The Songs of Magic series, Book 1
S. A. Patrick
Peachtree
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When a half-frozen Patch Brightwater stumbled into the small mountain village, the people thought he was their hero: a Piper, albeit a young one, finally arriving to help them deal with the rats that are eating them out of house and home. But Patch isn't who they think, or hope, he is. True, he studied the art of magical music, but fled in disgrace and shame before finishing his training, and is now on the run from the Custodian Elite for playing tunes that are technically illegal - Dance songs, such as those once played by the infamous Piper of Hamelyn who stole away over a hundred human children before crossing to the dragon nations and doing the same to a hundred of their young. Though the madman has been imprisoned for over a decade, and Patch's music was nowhere near as powerful or malicious, the Pipers' Council takes a very dim view of anyone evoking even the slightest memory of the power that monster unleashed, which nearly led to war with the dragons. Worse, just when a pair of Custodians turn up to drag Patch back to justice, he learns that one of the town's rats is actually a girl, Wren, trapped in a rat body by a sorcerer... but he can hardly help her when he's probably going to be spending at least the next five years, likely more, in prison. Then he makes a startling, terrifying discovery - the man sealed in the iron mask may not be the real Piper of Hamelyn, scourge of humans and dragonkind alike. But, even with a magic rat and a friendly dracogriff, how is one disgraced (and now fugitive) Piper boy going to warn anyone, let alone stop a horrific plot that threatens the whole world?
REVIEW: After Pet Sematary, I figured I was due for something lighter, and A Darkening of Dragons fit the bill. (Plus it had dragons... and griffins. And dracogriffs, crosses between the two.) As promised by the cover and blurb, it's a reasonably straightforward fantasy adventure in a world of fantastic beasts, beings, sorcery, and songs with tangible magic, while also riffing on the Pied Piper fairy tale. From the start, Patch is a boy who tries his best but isn't above a little deception (even self-deception) and more than one mistake, such as the one that cost him his future as a proper Piper. Wren, too, is hiding some secrets, but is a steadfast companion nonetheless, if one who has few options: being a transformed rat isn't the kind of secret you can tell just anyone. As for the dracogriff Barver, he turned out to be my favorite character in the book, and not just because he melds two of my favorite fantasy creatures. Like the other two, he's an outcast in his own way as dracogriffs tend to be in this world, looked down on by both dragon and griffin sides of his family. His own journey, to fulfill his late mother's final requests, dovetails with that of the two humans in unexpected ways, and the trio make a solid adventuring team. Their travels are complicated by mishaps and misunderstandings and run-ins with one of Patch's old friends, now an apprentice Custodian Elite who may or may not be more loyal to his cloak than his fugitive friend. The whole tale moves well, with some nice emotional tweaks and a little more depth to it and the characters than I might've expected at the outset. The dangers faced here are not small or superficial for anyone, and they all understand what's at stake if they fail. It made for an entertaining read (or listen, rather, as another audiobook), and I'm looking forward to the second installment.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Kelly Barnhill) - My Review
Have Sword, Will Travel (Garth Nix and Sean Williams) - My Review
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
The Songs of Magic series, Book 1
S. A. Patrick
Peachtree
Fiction, MG Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When a half-frozen Patch Brightwater stumbled into the small mountain village, the people thought he was their hero: a Piper, albeit a young one, finally arriving to help them deal with the rats that are eating them out of house and home. But Patch isn't who they think, or hope, he is. True, he studied the art of magical music, but fled in disgrace and shame before finishing his training, and is now on the run from the Custodian Elite for playing tunes that are technically illegal - Dance songs, such as those once played by the infamous Piper of Hamelyn who stole away over a hundred human children before crossing to the dragon nations and doing the same to a hundred of their young. Though the madman has been imprisoned for over a decade, and Patch's music was nowhere near as powerful or malicious, the Pipers' Council takes a very dim view of anyone evoking even the slightest memory of the power that monster unleashed, which nearly led to war with the dragons. Worse, just when a pair of Custodians turn up to drag Patch back to justice, he learns that one of the town's rats is actually a girl, Wren, trapped in a rat body by a sorcerer... but he can hardly help her when he's probably going to be spending at least the next five years, likely more, in prison. Then he makes a startling, terrifying discovery - the man sealed in the iron mask may not be the real Piper of Hamelyn, scourge of humans and dragonkind alike. But, even with a magic rat and a friendly dracogriff, how is one disgraced (and now fugitive) Piper boy going to warn anyone, let alone stop a horrific plot that threatens the whole world?
REVIEW: After Pet Sematary, I figured I was due for something lighter, and A Darkening of Dragons fit the bill. (Plus it had dragons... and griffins. And dracogriffs, crosses between the two.) As promised by the cover and blurb, it's a reasonably straightforward fantasy adventure in a world of fantastic beasts, beings, sorcery, and songs with tangible magic, while also riffing on the Pied Piper fairy tale. From the start, Patch is a boy who tries his best but isn't above a little deception (even self-deception) and more than one mistake, such as the one that cost him his future as a proper Piper. Wren, too, is hiding some secrets, but is a steadfast companion nonetheless, if one who has few options: being a transformed rat isn't the kind of secret you can tell just anyone. As for the dracogriff Barver, he turned out to be my favorite character in the book, and not just because he melds two of my favorite fantasy creatures. Like the other two, he's an outcast in his own way as dracogriffs tend to be in this world, looked down on by both dragon and griffin sides of his family. His own journey, to fulfill his late mother's final requests, dovetails with that of the two humans in unexpected ways, and the trio make a solid adventuring team. Their travels are complicated by mishaps and misunderstandings and run-ins with one of Patch's old friends, now an apprentice Custodian Elite who may or may not be more loyal to his cloak than his fugitive friend. The whole tale moves well, with some nice emotional tweaks and a little more depth to it and the characters than I might've expected at the outset. The dangers faced here are not small or superficial for anyone, and they all understand what's at stake if they fail. It made for an entertaining read (or listen, rather, as another audiobook), and I'm looking forward to the second installment.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Kelly Barnhill) - My Review
Have Sword, Will Travel (Garth Nix and Sean Williams) - My Review
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
Thursday, August 17, 2023
Pet Sematary (Stephen King)
Pet Sematary
Stephen King
Doubleday
Fiction, Horror
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Louis Creed had high hopes for the future when he moved his family - wife Rachel, young daughter Ellie, baby Gage, and cantankerous cat Winston Churchill (or "Church") - to the town of Ludlow. He has a new job as campus doctor for the University of Maine, and the old house has lots of room for a growing family. The elderly neighbors across the busy street almost feel like kin from the first day. Many's the night Louis sits on their front porch with a beer, listening to old Jud Crandall tell tales of yesterday's Ludlow... and tales of the strange little cemetery in the woods behind his new home, where the local kids have buried beloved pets since time immemorial. But when Church gets struck by a car while Rachel and the kids are visiting relatives for the holidays, Louis can't bring himself to destroy his daughter's childhood innocence by telling her that her beloved (if cranky) pet is dead - over Christmas break, no less. Old Jud has an unusual solution, leading him to a deeper, secret burial ground beyond the pet graves to bury the unlucky cat. Louis doesn't understand why - until a day later when Church returns. It's not quite the same as it was, oddly clumsy and smelling of the grave, but it seems like an ordinary, living cat. Somehow, impossibly, the hidden burial ground resurrected Church. But there are dark powers at work, powers that Louis is now part of. And when tragedy strikes his family, he feels a temptation to cross a dangerous line... for, if a cat can be brought back from the dead, why not a child?
REVIEW: This classic Stephen King horror story, in standard King fashion, brings an ordinary man and his family into contact with dark forces that crack open the veneer of normalcy and happiness and sanity in which they've been cocooned. It also serves as an examination of death, and how people cope (or fail to cope) with one of the most natural, inevitable events in existence. As a doctor, Louis understands on an academic level that death is the inescapable side-effect of life. He was half-raised in a mortuary by an undertaker uncle. If anyone should understand death on a practical level, it's him. He even tries to help his young daughter come to grips with the concept when their visit to the pet graveyard exposes her to mortality on a personal level for the first time in her life. His wife, on the other hand, was scarred by a childhood trauma involving a terminally ill sister and goes out of her way to not talk or even think about the d-word. When death enters their home, however, it's Louis who crumbles, scrambling to rationalize and undo the thing, despite his years of medical training and practice telling him that not only is death inescapable for all of us, but, as Jud puts it, "sometimes dead is better".
Disaster and darkness are foreshadowed from the start, but it takes a while for the plot ball to begin its roll. Along the way, the characters and the small Maine town come to life, the latter often through Jud's meandering tales of the town's history and the history of the secret burial grounds, which has been passed down through the generations as a local secret... one that has its own momentum, a way of creating circumstances where one in the know feels compelled to share the secret with another, feeding the ageless, shapeless, predatory darkness at its heart. There are many moments where Louis could step off the doomed path, many moments of possible salvation where the little voice of reason in his head tries desperately to be heard, but greater forces are at work, within Louis's increasingly-twisted mind and without in the woods beyond his home. Even seeing the disturbing changes in Church, how the once-docile animal develops something like a sadistic streak, isn't enough to stop the desperation of a father who sees the slenderest chance of mending an irrevocably shattered family. Tension and stakes raise ever more swiftly as the tale winds on, Louis's pains and torments drawn to excruciating extremes, eventually entangling the rest of his family. At some point, the climax becomes inevitable, yet remains riveting as it plays out. The finale is a masterful last twist of the knife.
Even as it plays on primal fears of death and unnamed evils in the dark and how quickly our logical higher minds (and the logical world views so many of us construct for ourselves) fall apart when confronted by the overwhelming and the impossible, topics King often explores in his works, the story ends up being about so much more than the gore and terror. For that it earned its extra half-star, even with the unrelenting darkness (and even with some old ideas on pet, particularly cat, ownership).
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Halloween Tree (Ray Bradbury) - My Review
It (Stephen King) - My Review
Three Quarters Dead (Richard Peck) - My Review
Stephen King
Doubleday
Fiction, Horror
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Louis Creed had high hopes for the future when he moved his family - wife Rachel, young daughter Ellie, baby Gage, and cantankerous cat Winston Churchill (or "Church") - to the town of Ludlow. He has a new job as campus doctor for the University of Maine, and the old house has lots of room for a growing family. The elderly neighbors across the busy street almost feel like kin from the first day. Many's the night Louis sits on their front porch with a beer, listening to old Jud Crandall tell tales of yesterday's Ludlow... and tales of the strange little cemetery in the woods behind his new home, where the local kids have buried beloved pets since time immemorial. But when Church gets struck by a car while Rachel and the kids are visiting relatives for the holidays, Louis can't bring himself to destroy his daughter's childhood innocence by telling her that her beloved (if cranky) pet is dead - over Christmas break, no less. Old Jud has an unusual solution, leading him to a deeper, secret burial ground beyond the pet graves to bury the unlucky cat. Louis doesn't understand why - until a day later when Church returns. It's not quite the same as it was, oddly clumsy and smelling of the grave, but it seems like an ordinary, living cat. Somehow, impossibly, the hidden burial ground resurrected Church. But there are dark powers at work, powers that Louis is now part of. And when tragedy strikes his family, he feels a temptation to cross a dangerous line... for, if a cat can be brought back from the dead, why not a child?
REVIEW: This classic Stephen King horror story, in standard King fashion, brings an ordinary man and his family into contact with dark forces that crack open the veneer of normalcy and happiness and sanity in which they've been cocooned. It also serves as an examination of death, and how people cope (or fail to cope) with one of the most natural, inevitable events in existence. As a doctor, Louis understands on an academic level that death is the inescapable side-effect of life. He was half-raised in a mortuary by an undertaker uncle. If anyone should understand death on a practical level, it's him. He even tries to help his young daughter come to grips with the concept when their visit to the pet graveyard exposes her to mortality on a personal level for the first time in her life. His wife, on the other hand, was scarred by a childhood trauma involving a terminally ill sister and goes out of her way to not talk or even think about the d-word. When death enters their home, however, it's Louis who crumbles, scrambling to rationalize and undo the thing, despite his years of medical training and practice telling him that not only is death inescapable for all of us, but, as Jud puts it, "sometimes dead is better".
Disaster and darkness are foreshadowed from the start, but it takes a while for the plot ball to begin its roll. Along the way, the characters and the small Maine town come to life, the latter often through Jud's meandering tales of the town's history and the history of the secret burial grounds, which has been passed down through the generations as a local secret... one that has its own momentum, a way of creating circumstances where one in the know feels compelled to share the secret with another, feeding the ageless, shapeless, predatory darkness at its heart. There are many moments where Louis could step off the doomed path, many moments of possible salvation where the little voice of reason in his head tries desperately to be heard, but greater forces are at work, within Louis's increasingly-twisted mind and without in the woods beyond his home. Even seeing the disturbing changes in Church, how the once-docile animal develops something like a sadistic streak, isn't enough to stop the desperation of a father who sees the slenderest chance of mending an irrevocably shattered family. Tension and stakes raise ever more swiftly as the tale winds on, Louis's pains and torments drawn to excruciating extremes, eventually entangling the rest of his family. At some point, the climax becomes inevitable, yet remains riveting as it plays out. The finale is a masterful last twist of the knife.
Even as it plays on primal fears of death and unnamed evils in the dark and how quickly our logical higher minds (and the logical world views so many of us construct for ourselves) fall apart when confronted by the overwhelming and the impossible, topics King often explores in his works, the story ends up being about so much more than the gore and terror. For that it earned its extra half-star, even with the unrelenting darkness (and even with some old ideas on pet, particularly cat, ownership).
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Halloween Tree (Ray Bradbury) - My Review
It (Stephen King) - My Review
Three Quarters Dead (Richard Peck) - My Review
Friday, August 11, 2023
American Gods (Neil Gaiman)
American Gods
The American Gods series, Book 1
Neil Gaiman
Harper Audio
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: After three years in prison, Shadow is looking forward to freedom again. His wife Laura has waited for him back home in Indiana, and he even has a job lined up, something few enough ex-cons can say. Mere days before his release, though, he learns that his wife has died in a terrible car crash, along with the friend who was holding his job open. It is on his way to Laura's funeral and an empty future that he finds himself on a plane, seated next to a strange man, who makes him an offer he can hardly afford to refuse. Thus Shadow finds himself employed as driver and general errand boy to Mr. Wednesday... and pulled into a mysterious world of fading old gods, rising new ones, and a coming war that will decide the future of America and possibly the world.
This audiobook edition includes an interview with the author.
REVIEW: American Gods is one of Gaiman's early novel-length efforts, and one of the most beloved by his fan base, for all that it's a bit hard to sum up easily. It's a road trip novel, an ode to America (particularly the Midwest), and an exploration of the powers (and pitfalls) of human belief and the contradictory ways gods and folklore both change through the ages and remain the same, similar beats persisting through myriad songs.
It starts with Shadow as he looks forward to tasting freedom again, yet already there are premonitions of the trouble ahead (and one bit of foreshadowing that is especially obvious in the audiobook version). He has learned, through his years in prison especially, to keep his head down and not ask questions, which can work against him as a main character, as he can come across as rather passive, especially when standing next to the brash and charismatic Mr. Wednesday and other (literally) larger than life characters he encounters along the way. In other ways, his pragmatic nature helps him, as he is able to make the mental transition from a mundane existence, blissfully ignorant of the supernatural elements and ancient powers moving through the world, to one where his eyes have been at least partially opened to the greater wonders and dangers without too much backsliding or frustrating bouts of prolonged denial (a.k.a story padding). Though Wednesday is the main engine of events for much of the tale, Shadow does come into his own, at first more in a subplot involving his deceased wife and then more and more in events related to the main arc, the brewing turf war between classical gods and folklore beings and new deities of television and computers and conspiracy theories, further complicated when Shadow is contacted by a third party. From his original ignorance, Shadow must go through significant transformation and sacrifice, some forced upon him and some chosen by him as he comes to understand what's going on and where he fits into things. It's a journey that takes him across vast stretches of middle America, the classic heartland that is almost a character itself, a richly-described landscape speckled with distinct communities and roadside attractions that hide deeper secrets than the average tourist could dream existed. Interspersed throughout the story are asides and interludes about how the old gods and old ways made the voyage to the New World, and how difficult it often was for them to thrive so far from their roots. The tale sometimes meanders and occasionally threatens to stall out entirely, and it necessarily requires some intuitive leaps and acceptance of a certain dreamlike logic to integrate the many ideas and divinities, but manages to build to a solid climax, followed by a mildly drawn-out epilogue.
There were a few characters and elements that seemed underutilized by the end, and some places that felt stretched (plus one or two points that could've used a slight bit more building up), but overall the story was fairly satisfying, with a certain mythic resonance underlying the tale. It kept me interested enough to use my free time after work to wrap up the story, at least, which definitely speaks in its favor; mostly I use audiobooks to keep me marginally sane at my often-repetitious job.
(As for the author interview included in this version, it was recorded shortly after this book was released and so necessarily dates a little bit, but it's reasonably interesting and provides some insight into the inspiration and writing of the novel.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Black God's Drums (P. Djèlà Clark) - My Review
Fragile Things (Neil Gaiman) - My Review
Small Gods (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
The American Gods series, Book 1
Neil Gaiman
Harper Audio
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: After three years in prison, Shadow is looking forward to freedom again. His wife Laura has waited for him back home in Indiana, and he even has a job lined up, something few enough ex-cons can say. Mere days before his release, though, he learns that his wife has died in a terrible car crash, along with the friend who was holding his job open. It is on his way to Laura's funeral and an empty future that he finds himself on a plane, seated next to a strange man, who makes him an offer he can hardly afford to refuse. Thus Shadow finds himself employed as driver and general errand boy to Mr. Wednesday... and pulled into a mysterious world of fading old gods, rising new ones, and a coming war that will decide the future of America and possibly the world.
This audiobook edition includes an interview with the author.
REVIEW: American Gods is one of Gaiman's early novel-length efforts, and one of the most beloved by his fan base, for all that it's a bit hard to sum up easily. It's a road trip novel, an ode to America (particularly the Midwest), and an exploration of the powers (and pitfalls) of human belief and the contradictory ways gods and folklore both change through the ages and remain the same, similar beats persisting through myriad songs.
It starts with Shadow as he looks forward to tasting freedom again, yet already there are premonitions of the trouble ahead (and one bit of foreshadowing that is especially obvious in the audiobook version). He has learned, through his years in prison especially, to keep his head down and not ask questions, which can work against him as a main character, as he can come across as rather passive, especially when standing next to the brash and charismatic Mr. Wednesday and other (literally) larger than life characters he encounters along the way. In other ways, his pragmatic nature helps him, as he is able to make the mental transition from a mundane existence, blissfully ignorant of the supernatural elements and ancient powers moving through the world, to one where his eyes have been at least partially opened to the greater wonders and dangers without too much backsliding or frustrating bouts of prolonged denial (a.k.a story padding). Though Wednesday is the main engine of events for much of the tale, Shadow does come into his own, at first more in a subplot involving his deceased wife and then more and more in events related to the main arc, the brewing turf war between classical gods and folklore beings and new deities of television and computers and conspiracy theories, further complicated when Shadow is contacted by a third party. From his original ignorance, Shadow must go through significant transformation and sacrifice, some forced upon him and some chosen by him as he comes to understand what's going on and where he fits into things. It's a journey that takes him across vast stretches of middle America, the classic heartland that is almost a character itself, a richly-described landscape speckled with distinct communities and roadside attractions that hide deeper secrets than the average tourist could dream existed. Interspersed throughout the story are asides and interludes about how the old gods and old ways made the voyage to the New World, and how difficult it often was for them to thrive so far from their roots. The tale sometimes meanders and occasionally threatens to stall out entirely, and it necessarily requires some intuitive leaps and acceptance of a certain dreamlike logic to integrate the many ideas and divinities, but manages to build to a solid climax, followed by a mildly drawn-out epilogue.
There were a few characters and elements that seemed underutilized by the end, and some places that felt stretched (plus one or two points that could've used a slight bit more building up), but overall the story was fairly satisfying, with a certain mythic resonance underlying the tale. It kept me interested enough to use my free time after work to wrap up the story, at least, which definitely speaks in its favor; mostly I use audiobooks to keep me marginally sane at my often-repetitious job.
(As for the author interview included in this version, it was recorded shortly after this book was released and so necessarily dates a little bit, but it's reasonably interesting and provides some insight into the inspiration and writing of the novel.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Black God's Drums (P. Djèlà Clark) - My Review
Fragile Things (Neil Gaiman) - My Review
Small Gods (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
Wednesday, August 9, 2023
Three Hearts and Three Lions (Poul Anderson)
Three Hearts and Three Lions
The Holger Danske series, Book 1
Poul Anderson
Open Road Media
Fiction, Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Danish by birth, Holger was a decent but generally unremarkable sort of man, an engineer of middling competency when the author knew him in America. When Nazi Germany threatened his homeland, he felt called to return and help the underground movement against the invaders... and it was there, under fire, that a most extraordinary thing happened to him.
One moment, Holger was on a dark beach trading gunfire with Nazi soldiers. The next he wakes naked in a wild woodland unlike any he has seen in Denmark before. Nearby is a giant of a black warhorse and a full kit of armor - all sized for him - along with a shield bearing the device of three hearts and three lions. As disorienting as all of this is, it can hardly prepare him for what he finds when he stumbles across a lone cottage in the forest... and the old woman within, speaking a strange tongue that he somehow understands and can speak himself, performs what is undeniably a magical summoning right before his eyes.
Somehow, inexplicably, he has been transported to another Earth, one very much like elder-day Europe but where magic, demons, faeries, trolls, and other beasts and beings from old tales and folklore are very much real. In the neverending wars between the forces of good Law and the forces of evil Chaos, Chaos seems to be gaining the upper hand... a victory that would see the end of sunlight and happiness and humans who do not serve the darkness. In his quest to find out where he is and how to get home, Holger learns that he may be the one who can save this world or destroy it.
REVIEW: Poul Anderson is one of the big names in the genre, his works still considered classics. He also wrote for a different audience and era, unfortunately, and the age shows here.
The story has strong roots in old European folklore, particularly the tales of Charlemagne and other early Christian heroes, as Holger finds himself in a world, and a role, straight out of a bardic epic. As an engineer from mundane Earth, he often tries to rationalize the rules of this new world and its magic, which comes across as trying to use logic and science to "prove" that there is indeed a (Christian) God and an implied Devil, whose endless wars are played out through proxies on the mortal planes. In his journeys, he faces deception and temptation and traps. He falls in with a swan maiden, the obligatory teenaged innocent girl who exists in these stories to be a shiny bauble, a prize for the righteous warrior to claim (for all that Holger valiantly resists her because she's too fragile and innocent and young - he repeatedly describes her with childish terms and emphasizes her youthful appearance, her being half his age, even as he barely suppresses his lust, which is its own level of cringe - and he's too righteous a hero to dally with a local when he may be leaving for his home world at any time... then he gets stupidly jealous over others paying attention to her), while any woman with power and agency is automatically an agent of evil (in this case, the notorious Morgan le Fay of the Arthurian cycle... who still can't bring herself to do personal lasting harm to him, because he's just that great of a guy). He also travels with a local forest dwarf, whose accent was so thick in the audiobook narration I could barely understand half of what he said. Things happen from pretty early on (though Anderson takes a little too long actually getting to the portal world), and the story does indeed have the feel of an old Christian fantasy, but it all starts to feel a bit contrived and hollow, orchestrated by higher forces. Holger's frequent dropping of mundane Earth terms and tricks into the world of slack-jawed yokels is also by now a tiresome trope, though it was likely fresher when the book was originally released in 1961. The ending feels particularly contrived, especially to a nonbeliever reader.
On the plus side, Three Hearts and Three Lions succeeds at evoking the spirit of the classics, and there's a decently spirited old-school adventure in there. On the minus side, I just found that adventure too dated and too saddled with heavy-handed religious messaging (and cringeworthy sexism) for me to enjoy.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Bradamant's Quest (Ruth Berman) - My Review
The Dragon and the George (Gordon R. Dickson) - My Review
The Dark World (Henry Kuttner) - My Review
The Holger Danske series, Book 1
Poul Anderson
Open Road Media
Fiction, Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Danish by birth, Holger was a decent but generally unremarkable sort of man, an engineer of middling competency when the author knew him in America. When Nazi Germany threatened his homeland, he felt called to return and help the underground movement against the invaders... and it was there, under fire, that a most extraordinary thing happened to him.
One moment, Holger was on a dark beach trading gunfire with Nazi soldiers. The next he wakes naked in a wild woodland unlike any he has seen in Denmark before. Nearby is a giant of a black warhorse and a full kit of armor - all sized for him - along with a shield bearing the device of three hearts and three lions. As disorienting as all of this is, it can hardly prepare him for what he finds when he stumbles across a lone cottage in the forest... and the old woman within, speaking a strange tongue that he somehow understands and can speak himself, performs what is undeniably a magical summoning right before his eyes.
Somehow, inexplicably, he has been transported to another Earth, one very much like elder-day Europe but where magic, demons, faeries, trolls, and other beasts and beings from old tales and folklore are very much real. In the neverending wars between the forces of good Law and the forces of evil Chaos, Chaos seems to be gaining the upper hand... a victory that would see the end of sunlight and happiness and humans who do not serve the darkness. In his quest to find out where he is and how to get home, Holger learns that he may be the one who can save this world or destroy it.
REVIEW: Poul Anderson is one of the big names in the genre, his works still considered classics. He also wrote for a different audience and era, unfortunately, and the age shows here.
The story has strong roots in old European folklore, particularly the tales of Charlemagne and other early Christian heroes, as Holger finds himself in a world, and a role, straight out of a bardic epic. As an engineer from mundane Earth, he often tries to rationalize the rules of this new world and its magic, which comes across as trying to use logic and science to "prove" that there is indeed a (Christian) God and an implied Devil, whose endless wars are played out through proxies on the mortal planes. In his journeys, he faces deception and temptation and traps. He falls in with a swan maiden, the obligatory teenaged innocent girl who exists in these stories to be a shiny bauble, a prize for the righteous warrior to claim (for all that Holger valiantly resists her because she's too fragile and innocent and young - he repeatedly describes her with childish terms and emphasizes her youthful appearance, her being half his age, even as he barely suppresses his lust, which is its own level of cringe - and he's too righteous a hero to dally with a local when he may be leaving for his home world at any time... then he gets stupidly jealous over others paying attention to her), while any woman with power and agency is automatically an agent of evil (in this case, the notorious Morgan le Fay of the Arthurian cycle... who still can't bring herself to do personal lasting harm to him, because he's just that great of a guy). He also travels with a local forest dwarf, whose accent was so thick in the audiobook narration I could barely understand half of what he said. Things happen from pretty early on (though Anderson takes a little too long actually getting to the portal world), and the story does indeed have the feel of an old Christian fantasy, but it all starts to feel a bit contrived and hollow, orchestrated by higher forces. Holger's frequent dropping of mundane Earth terms and tricks into the world of slack-jawed yokels is also by now a tiresome trope, though it was likely fresher when the book was originally released in 1961. The ending feels particularly contrived, especially to a nonbeliever reader.
On the plus side, Three Hearts and Three Lions succeeds at evoking the spirit of the classics, and there's a decently spirited old-school adventure in there. On the minus side, I just found that adventure too dated and too saddled with heavy-handed religious messaging (and cringeworthy sexism) for me to enjoy.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Bradamant's Quest (Ruth Berman) - My Review
The Dragon and the George (Gordon R. Dickson) - My Review
The Dark World (Henry Kuttner) - My Review
Friday, August 4, 2023
The Mimicking of Known Successes (Malka Older)
The Mimicking of Known Successes
The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti series, Book 1
Malka Older
Tordotcom
Fiction, Mystery/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: It has been generations since humanity was forced to flee a dying, poisoned Earth for a floating colony in the gaseous atmosphere of Jupiter, but some things never change. People squabble over resource allocation. University scholars argue over the best use of research time and money. And people still have a way of disappearing... or becoming victims of violent crimes.
University scholar Pleiti has spent her career studying old Earth texts for clues on lost biomes and ecosystems, part of an effort that might eventually restore the old world for habitation. One day, she's surprised by a visit from her former girlfriend, Mossa. Now an Investigator, Mossa is looking into the disappearance of a university professor. The most likely explanation is suicide - a plunge over the platform railing into the crushing depths of Giant - but Mossa doesn't seem to think the case is that cut and dried. With Pleiti's help, Mossa digs deeper into the man's contacts and studies. Soon, the pair unearth a much deeper, more tangled mystery, one whose implications could alter the future of the colony.
REVIEW: The story melds the familiar Sherlock Holmes dynamic - a dispassionate, calculating, driven genius investigator with a humanizing sidekick trailing along in their wake to give the audience someone to relate to - with a far-future setting on a Jupiter colony, a many-tiered system of metal platforms and monorail trains. It's an interesting world, a different way to visualize an interplanetary presence, but at times I found it hard to visualize. The mystery wends through the halls of Pleiti's university and the schism between the Classisists, who look to the past and focus on restoring a perfect Earth, and the Modernists, who embrace "Giant" as their home and work to build a new future on the planet. Sometimes I felt a little left behind, not uncommon in Sherlockian mysteries as the detective is invariably far ahead (and only rarely bothers to clue in their partner, and thus the reader, though at least Mossa doesn't resort to the condescension the original character sometimes displayed), but also not helped by the sometimes-confusing setting and society. Still, I was intrigued, and might have given it a higher rating, except for the ending. The baddies, when unmasked, act like cardboard cackling villains, and their plot reminded me too much of the plot from a bad movie I saw once (which I won't elaborate on as it would constitute a significant spoiler, but once I realized that connection, darned if I could shake the image). I also am just plain tired of the whole Sherlock pastiche thing - Sherlock in space! Sherlock in Narnia! Sherlock in Heaven! Sherlockosaurus and paleontologist Watson! - as a gimmick. It starts feeling cheap and overused, or like a crutch to prop up another, weaker idea. There are other ways to do the whole detective thing, other team dynamics to explore, than yet another "Sherlock in..." iteration, and it was just one more of those little irritants that wound up chipping away that extra half-star. That said, it's a decent enough story for what it is, but it just wasn't quite what I hoped for, or quite what I wanted at the time.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (John Joseph Adams, editor) - My Review
The Tea Master and the Detective (Aliette de Bodard) - My Review
Artemis (Andy Weir) - My Review
The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti series, Book 1
Malka Older
Tordotcom
Fiction, Mystery/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: It has been generations since humanity was forced to flee a dying, poisoned Earth for a floating colony in the gaseous atmosphere of Jupiter, but some things never change. People squabble over resource allocation. University scholars argue over the best use of research time and money. And people still have a way of disappearing... or becoming victims of violent crimes.
University scholar Pleiti has spent her career studying old Earth texts for clues on lost biomes and ecosystems, part of an effort that might eventually restore the old world for habitation. One day, she's surprised by a visit from her former girlfriend, Mossa. Now an Investigator, Mossa is looking into the disappearance of a university professor. The most likely explanation is suicide - a plunge over the platform railing into the crushing depths of Giant - but Mossa doesn't seem to think the case is that cut and dried. With Pleiti's help, Mossa digs deeper into the man's contacts and studies. Soon, the pair unearth a much deeper, more tangled mystery, one whose implications could alter the future of the colony.
REVIEW: The story melds the familiar Sherlock Holmes dynamic - a dispassionate, calculating, driven genius investigator with a humanizing sidekick trailing along in their wake to give the audience someone to relate to - with a far-future setting on a Jupiter colony, a many-tiered system of metal platforms and monorail trains. It's an interesting world, a different way to visualize an interplanetary presence, but at times I found it hard to visualize. The mystery wends through the halls of Pleiti's university and the schism between the Classisists, who look to the past and focus on restoring a perfect Earth, and the Modernists, who embrace "Giant" as their home and work to build a new future on the planet. Sometimes I felt a little left behind, not uncommon in Sherlockian mysteries as the detective is invariably far ahead (and only rarely bothers to clue in their partner, and thus the reader, though at least Mossa doesn't resort to the condescension the original character sometimes displayed), but also not helped by the sometimes-confusing setting and society. Still, I was intrigued, and might have given it a higher rating, except for the ending. The baddies, when unmasked, act like cardboard cackling villains, and their plot reminded me too much of the plot from a bad movie I saw once (which I won't elaborate on as it would constitute a significant spoiler, but once I realized that connection, darned if I could shake the image). I also am just plain tired of the whole Sherlock pastiche thing - Sherlock in space! Sherlock in Narnia! Sherlock in Heaven! Sherlockosaurus and paleontologist Watson! - as a gimmick. It starts feeling cheap and overused, or like a crutch to prop up another, weaker idea. There are other ways to do the whole detective thing, other team dynamics to explore, than yet another "Sherlock in..." iteration, and it was just one more of those little irritants that wound up chipping away that extra half-star. That said, it's a decent enough story for what it is, but it just wasn't quite what I hoped for, or quite what I wanted at the time.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (John Joseph Adams, editor) - My Review
The Tea Master and the Detective (Aliette de Bodard) - My Review
Artemis (Andy Weir) - My Review
Thursday, August 3, 2023
Senlin Ascends (Josiah Bancroft)
Senlin Ascends
The Books of Babel series, Book 1
Josiah Bancroft
Orbit
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The Tower of Babel is, all agree, the greatest marvel in the world, but little else about it is agreed upon, not even who built it, or why, or how tall it stands above the perpetual clouds obscuring its impossible apex. Nobody even knows for sure how many "ringdoms" - inhabited levels, each acting as its own domain - exist. By foot, by caravan road, by airship or train, countless tourists travel to the Tower for the vacations of a lifetime... but, like any tourist destination, the guide books and traveler tales hardly scratch the surface of the truth.
Thomas Senlin, the mild-mannered school headmaster of a small coastal village, saved a lifetime for the trip to Babel, and could hardly have dreamed he'd travel there with a young wife, Marya, on his arm. Two weeks in the legendary spas of the third ringdom - what better way to start a life of marital bliss! He brings with him a well-thumbed copy of The Everyman's Guide to the Tower of Babel, which surely has all the advice he'll need for a successful and memorable honeymoon... but, shortly after stepping off the train, he loses Marya in the bustling, ever-shifting marketplace around the foot of the great tower. After two days of fruitless searching of the bazaar, he finally decides that he'll try his luck in the tower itself; after all, they were going to go to the third ringdom anyway, so maybe she went ahead when she couldn't find him, and even now is waiting for her new husband at one of the dozens of hotels. Almost from the start, however, Thomas learns just how inadequate his little guide book is at preparing him for what awaits inside the massive walls, realms of wonder, deceit, and deadly danger.
REVIEW: I've heard a lot of good things about this series, and finally decided to give it a try. As promised, Senlin Ascends offers a unique, even surreal alternate history where the Tower of Babel never fell, instead rising ever higher and becoming a world unto itself, operating under its own rules for its own unknown purpose. From the moment he leaves the train with Marya, it's clear just how unprepared the small town headmaster is for the real experience of the Tower of Babel and the greater experience of life and the world, for which the tower is a clear metaphor. This is a place that preys upon hope, monetizes vice, shatters faith, and punishes those who dare to resist the seemingly arbitrary rules and invariably corrupt rulers, where it's impossible to tell truth from lies and a friend from a foe. The only way out is up, with cruel punishments for those who try to sneak their way up through the ringdoms in the hopes that, somewhere a few rings higher, maybe they might find the utopian wonders that everyone insists are to be found within the Tower.
In his journey, Thomas stumbles and often falls, slowly and painfully transforming from a naive tourist convinced of the inherent justice of the Rules and that truth and kindness always win out to a driven, desperate man whose once-rigid morality has acquired distinct smears of gray. His little guide book, once a source of pride and knowing superiority, becomes a mockery as his experiences contradict its glib advice. Marya sometimes feels like a plot device, a promise of future happiness and a lure to lead him through ever higher tiers and ever further astray from the straight and narrow life he'd expected to live, but later the reader learns some of what she's going through, which rounds her out a bit as a character. As Thomas makes his way through the Tower, he starts seeing glimmers of a deeper mystery and corruption, tantalizing fragments that hint at the greater machinations behind the scenes. Now and again he seems a little too easily tricked, even later on when he's become more jaded and gotten his own hands dirty, and there are clearly deeper metaphors and symbolism at work under the surface that I'm sure I only barely clued into, but overall this story kept me interested, and the Tower of Babel is a fascinating place to visit (as a reader, if not as an actual tourist). By the end, Thomas has become someone else almost entirely (and almost literally), having made very few allies but many enemies as his pursuit of his missing wife continues... a pursuit I expect I might follow through at least another book in this unique series.
You Might Also Enjoy:
City of Stairs (Robert Jackson Bennett) - My Review
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman) - My Review
The Gunslinger (Stephen King) - My Review
The Books of Babel series, Book 1
Josiah Bancroft
Orbit
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The Tower of Babel is, all agree, the greatest marvel in the world, but little else about it is agreed upon, not even who built it, or why, or how tall it stands above the perpetual clouds obscuring its impossible apex. Nobody even knows for sure how many "ringdoms" - inhabited levels, each acting as its own domain - exist. By foot, by caravan road, by airship or train, countless tourists travel to the Tower for the vacations of a lifetime... but, like any tourist destination, the guide books and traveler tales hardly scratch the surface of the truth.
Thomas Senlin, the mild-mannered school headmaster of a small coastal village, saved a lifetime for the trip to Babel, and could hardly have dreamed he'd travel there with a young wife, Marya, on his arm. Two weeks in the legendary spas of the third ringdom - what better way to start a life of marital bliss! He brings with him a well-thumbed copy of The Everyman's Guide to the Tower of Babel, which surely has all the advice he'll need for a successful and memorable honeymoon... but, shortly after stepping off the train, he loses Marya in the bustling, ever-shifting marketplace around the foot of the great tower. After two days of fruitless searching of the bazaar, he finally decides that he'll try his luck in the tower itself; after all, they were going to go to the third ringdom anyway, so maybe she went ahead when she couldn't find him, and even now is waiting for her new husband at one of the dozens of hotels. Almost from the start, however, Thomas learns just how inadequate his little guide book is at preparing him for what awaits inside the massive walls, realms of wonder, deceit, and deadly danger.
REVIEW: I've heard a lot of good things about this series, and finally decided to give it a try. As promised, Senlin Ascends offers a unique, even surreal alternate history where the Tower of Babel never fell, instead rising ever higher and becoming a world unto itself, operating under its own rules for its own unknown purpose. From the moment he leaves the train with Marya, it's clear just how unprepared the small town headmaster is for the real experience of the Tower of Babel and the greater experience of life and the world, for which the tower is a clear metaphor. This is a place that preys upon hope, monetizes vice, shatters faith, and punishes those who dare to resist the seemingly arbitrary rules and invariably corrupt rulers, where it's impossible to tell truth from lies and a friend from a foe. The only way out is up, with cruel punishments for those who try to sneak their way up through the ringdoms in the hopes that, somewhere a few rings higher, maybe they might find the utopian wonders that everyone insists are to be found within the Tower.
In his journey, Thomas stumbles and often falls, slowly and painfully transforming from a naive tourist convinced of the inherent justice of the Rules and that truth and kindness always win out to a driven, desperate man whose once-rigid morality has acquired distinct smears of gray. His little guide book, once a source of pride and knowing superiority, becomes a mockery as his experiences contradict its glib advice. Marya sometimes feels like a plot device, a promise of future happiness and a lure to lead him through ever higher tiers and ever further astray from the straight and narrow life he'd expected to live, but later the reader learns some of what she's going through, which rounds her out a bit as a character. As Thomas makes his way through the Tower, he starts seeing glimmers of a deeper mystery and corruption, tantalizing fragments that hint at the greater machinations behind the scenes. Now and again he seems a little too easily tricked, even later on when he's become more jaded and gotten his own hands dirty, and there are clearly deeper metaphors and symbolism at work under the surface that I'm sure I only barely clued into, but overall this story kept me interested, and the Tower of Babel is a fascinating place to visit (as a reader, if not as an actual tourist). By the end, Thomas has become someone else almost entirely (and almost literally), having made very few allies but many enemies as his pursuit of his missing wife continues... a pursuit I expect I might follow through at least another book in this unique series.
You Might Also Enjoy:
City of Stairs (Robert Jackson Bennett) - My Review
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman) - My Review
The Gunslinger (Stephen King) - My Review
Wednesday, August 2, 2023
White Fragility (Dr. Robin DiAngelo)
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Race
Dr. Robin DiAngelo
Beacon Press
Nonfiction, Sociology
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: "I don't see color." "Only bad people are racist." "If I don't mean any harm, it's their fault if they're offended." "Some of my best friends are Black." "It's classism that's the problem, not racism." Antiracist educator Dr. Robin DiAngelo hears these and many more rationalizations, excuses, deflections, and brush-offs in her work. But racism is such an intrinsic, inherent part of the modern world that it's impossible not to have absorbed some racist ideas. In this book, she explores the tangled roots of racism, how it's more than possible for a "nice" person to perpetuate harm, how progressive approaches can backfire and regressive elements adapt with each new generation, and how nothing is ever going to change so long as the hard, individual work cannot be done and difficult, uncomfortable conversations cannot be had.
REVIEW: Anyone who thought America's racism issues ended with Barack Obama's election - look, a Black man in the highest elected office! Racism is obviously cured! - should have gotten a wake-up call with the next election, though we white people have long been blissfully ignorant and dismissive of the voices that have been trying to wake us up all along. The fact that we've been able to remain ignorant, and had the luxury to dismiss the problems, is yet more evidence that books like this are necessary reading.
This is a short read (or listen), but an important and impactful one. Written by a white woman, it forces the reader to confront uncomfortable truths about society and the lies we like to tell ourselves, showing just how deeply the messaging is embedded in pretty much every aspect of culture. Unless you were born and raised alone on an island, you have not only been exposed to racist cultural ideas but have absorbed and perpetuated them without thinking, part of the social contract we all are party to every time we interact with others. She makes the distinction between racial prejudice, a more personal problem (and what most people call "racism", what prompts the slurs and the rocks thrown at school kids and the rallies with torches), and racism, a systemic problem affecting every part of life especially in Western cultures (though spread, via economic and media influence, worldwide), and shows how, even if it's not considered socially acceptable to repeat racist slurs in public anymore, it's not only acceptable but encouraged to repeat the same attitudes in coded, softer language and behaviors. There is also an extensive look at the all-too-predictable behaviors of being confronted for racist infractions, all of which shuts down real dialog and learning possibilities, refocuses attention, and once again demands that others provide support and comfort to the white person being "attacked". While she acknowledges there have been some gains and changes, she also points out that those gains have all too often been absorbed and twisted to support the same old narratives, as the basic social mechanisms that created and perpetuated racism are still grinding along unchecked. Pointing to those gains alone is another way to circumvent the hard conversations and difficult work that needs to happen if we are ever going to move past the racism that is hurting everyone.
Before systems can change, individuals must change... yes, all of us, even the "nice" ones. Books like this one can help get the conversation started, at least.
You Might Also Enjoy:
How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi) - My Review
Born a Crime (Trevor Noah) - My Review
The Black Count (Tom Reiss) - My Review
Dr. Robin DiAngelo
Beacon Press
Nonfiction, Sociology
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: "I don't see color." "Only bad people are racist." "If I don't mean any harm, it's their fault if they're offended." "Some of my best friends are Black." "It's classism that's the problem, not racism." Antiracist educator Dr. Robin DiAngelo hears these and many more rationalizations, excuses, deflections, and brush-offs in her work. But racism is such an intrinsic, inherent part of the modern world that it's impossible not to have absorbed some racist ideas. In this book, she explores the tangled roots of racism, how it's more than possible for a "nice" person to perpetuate harm, how progressive approaches can backfire and regressive elements adapt with each new generation, and how nothing is ever going to change so long as the hard, individual work cannot be done and difficult, uncomfortable conversations cannot be had.
REVIEW: Anyone who thought America's racism issues ended with Barack Obama's election - look, a Black man in the highest elected office! Racism is obviously cured! - should have gotten a wake-up call with the next election, though we white people have long been blissfully ignorant and dismissive of the voices that have been trying to wake us up all along. The fact that we've been able to remain ignorant, and had the luxury to dismiss the problems, is yet more evidence that books like this are necessary reading.
This is a short read (or listen), but an important and impactful one. Written by a white woman, it forces the reader to confront uncomfortable truths about society and the lies we like to tell ourselves, showing just how deeply the messaging is embedded in pretty much every aspect of culture. Unless you were born and raised alone on an island, you have not only been exposed to racist cultural ideas but have absorbed and perpetuated them without thinking, part of the social contract we all are party to every time we interact with others. She makes the distinction between racial prejudice, a more personal problem (and what most people call "racism", what prompts the slurs and the rocks thrown at school kids and the rallies with torches), and racism, a systemic problem affecting every part of life especially in Western cultures (though spread, via economic and media influence, worldwide), and shows how, even if it's not considered socially acceptable to repeat racist slurs in public anymore, it's not only acceptable but encouraged to repeat the same attitudes in coded, softer language and behaviors. There is also an extensive look at the all-too-predictable behaviors of being confronted for racist infractions, all of which shuts down real dialog and learning possibilities, refocuses attention, and once again demands that others provide support and comfort to the white person being "attacked". While she acknowledges there have been some gains and changes, she also points out that those gains have all too often been absorbed and twisted to support the same old narratives, as the basic social mechanisms that created and perpetuated racism are still grinding along unchecked. Pointing to those gains alone is another way to circumvent the hard conversations and difficult work that needs to happen if we are ever going to move past the racism that is hurting everyone.
Before systems can change, individuals must change... yes, all of us, even the "nice" ones. Books like this one can help get the conversation started, at least.
You Might Also Enjoy:
How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi) - My Review
Born a Crime (Trevor Noah) - My Review
The Black Count (Tom Reiss) - My Review
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