Books and More Books
Jan. 3rd, 2005 07:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowAh, bah. It's pouring down rain, the paper isn't here yet, D's gone to work, and Dad's still in bed. (BTW, today is C's birthday - happy birthday, sis! - and I'm sure she's just thrilled about that.)
I've read most of the books I bought at B&N a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I'd offer a few thoughts on some of them.
Myths and Legends of China: I should have taken a closer look at this before buying it. It's a Dover reprint of a text from the 1920s, and it's suffused with the casual pseudo-scientific racism of the period. (It also devotes much of one chapter to speculation on where the founders of the Chinese civilization could have come from, since they obviously couldn't have been natives. Akkad, maybe.) I haven't been able to get past the first few chapters, but I'll probably try again. Eventually. Blah.
What If? #2: This is a collection of essays in speculative history; most of the authors are historians, but there's a novelist or two in there as well. I don't think it's as good as the first volume; in particular, most of the essays spend more time on what really happened and why it was important, and less on what might have happened instead. Nonetheless, some of them are good, and the final essay, by William McNeill on the importance of the potato in world history, is quite interesting.
The Paths of the Dead and The Lord of Castle Black: The first few minutes of paging through the first of these led me to the realization that I already had it... (This is the third or fourth time that's happened to me, not counting the time I bought a book, decided I already had it, gave it away, couldn't find it in my library, and had to buy it a second - or perhaps third - time.) Brust being Brust, though, I probably would have had trouble following the second book without rereading the first, so that worked out. It's a good series; Brust's style, when he writes as "Paarfi", is always amusing, even when the subject matter is deadly serious. I'm not a hard-core Brustian, so I probably missed some of the connections, but I did enjoy seeing various characters whom I knew from the Vlad Taltos series making their appearances.
Cerulean Sins: This struck me as more cohesive than Narcissus in Chains. I'm still a couple of books behind, but I'm wondering if Hamilton isn't painting herself into a corner. The steady increase in Anita's powers and influence requires ever more formidable enemies to keep the stories interesting, and I'm not sure she'll be able to top "Mommie Dearest". (Admittedly, MD is still just an offstage presence, and it should take at least two books before Anita has to face her. We shall see.)
Singularity Sky: Somehow this reminded me of Sewer, Gas, and Electric; it's slightly more serious, but no less manic. I'll probably have more to say later.
Glory Road: I still enjoy this one, I find, but I'm as bugged as ever by RAH's sophomoric pontifications on sex, politics, and morality.
The Languages of Pao: A good read, as long as you don't take it too seriously. I don't think that even proponents of the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis would take it as far as Vance does here. The story also doesn't mesh well with what I know about language acquisition in children (little though that is).
Double Contact: I think this is my first White, although I have vague thirty-year-old memories of what may have been another of his works. Not bad; not outstanding either, but interesting enough that I may look for more.
Powder and Patch: This was apparently Heyer's first novel, and I think it shows. It's pretty good, but it's less intricate than her later stories, and I don't think the characters are quite as well drawn.
Honor of the Queen: Weber is, so far, good enough that I'll keep going with the series. He's showing some signs of black-and-white that bother me, but there was enough three-dimensionality, even among some of the minor characters, to keep it interesting.
I have nothing of interest to say about The Jungle Books, and I've just started on In the Forests of Serre.
I've read most of the books I bought at B&N a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I'd offer a few thoughts on some of them.
Myths and Legends of China: I should have taken a closer look at this before buying it. It's a Dover reprint of a text from the 1920s, and it's suffused with the casual pseudo-scientific racism of the period. (It also devotes much of one chapter to speculation on where the founders of the Chinese civilization could have come from, since they obviously couldn't have been natives. Akkad, maybe.) I haven't been able to get past the first few chapters, but I'll probably try again. Eventually. Blah.
What If? #2: This is a collection of essays in speculative history; most of the authors are historians, but there's a novelist or two in there as well. I don't think it's as good as the first volume; in particular, most of the essays spend more time on what really happened and why it was important, and less on what might have happened instead. Nonetheless, some of them are good, and the final essay, by William McNeill on the importance of the potato in world history, is quite interesting.
The Paths of the Dead and The Lord of Castle Black: The first few minutes of paging through the first of these led me to the realization that I already had it... (This is the third or fourth time that's happened to me, not counting the time I bought a book, decided I already had it, gave it away, couldn't find it in my library, and had to buy it a second - or perhaps third - time.) Brust being Brust, though, I probably would have had trouble following the second book without rereading the first, so that worked out. It's a good series; Brust's style, when he writes as "Paarfi", is always amusing, even when the subject matter is deadly serious. I'm not a hard-core Brustian, so I probably missed some of the connections, but I did enjoy seeing various characters whom I knew from the Vlad Taltos series making their appearances.
Cerulean Sins: This struck me as more cohesive than Narcissus in Chains. I'm still a couple of books behind, but I'm wondering if Hamilton isn't painting herself into a corner. The steady increase in Anita's powers and influence requires ever more formidable enemies to keep the stories interesting, and I'm not sure she'll be able to top "Mommie Dearest". (Admittedly, MD is still just an offstage presence, and it should take at least two books before Anita has to face her. We shall see.)
Singularity Sky: Somehow this reminded me of Sewer, Gas, and Electric; it's slightly more serious, but no less manic. I'll probably have more to say later.
Glory Road: I still enjoy this one, I find, but I'm as bugged as ever by RAH's sophomoric pontifications on sex, politics, and morality.
The Languages of Pao: A good read, as long as you don't take it too seriously. I don't think that even proponents of the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis would take it as far as Vance does here. The story also doesn't mesh well with what I know about language acquisition in children (little though that is).
Double Contact: I think this is my first White, although I have vague thirty-year-old memories of what may have been another of his works. Not bad; not outstanding either, but interesting enough that I may look for more.
Powder and Patch: This was apparently Heyer's first novel, and I think it shows. It's pretty good, but it's less intricate than her later stories, and I don't think the characters are quite as well drawn.
Honor of the Queen: Weber is, so far, good enough that I'll keep going with the series. He's showing some signs of black-and-white that bother me, but there was enough three-dimensionality, even among some of the minor characters, to keep it interesting.
I have nothing of interest to say about The Jungle Books, and I've just started on In the Forests of Serre.
