My Kind of World-Building

Well, vacation is over, just a speck in the distant past, but the book reviews remain ahead. One book I am still in middle of (priorities change when vacation ends... really just it worked out like that), but one I finished on vacation, just did not take the opportunity to review while I could. And now, now the memory is fading, the impression not as vivid as it once was, the details are hazy... Oh well, reviews must be done. SO

Continuing my list of favored authors, I picked up Jasper Fforde's latest (yes, his latest - he does take a while to write books :)), the next installment of the Thursday Next books.  Thursday is recovering from an assassination attempt and thus not quite on her game, so that's one fun element lost. But eh, that's not what I read these books for.  What do I read them for? Ah, the cleverness, of course! The books remind me of Terry Pratchett's in that the world they portray is not an arbitrarily imagined future, but a careful satire of our own, where the slightly illogical is transformed into the obviously ridiculous.  The Toast Marketing Board, law enforcement agencies dedicated to books, time travel, and creatures with unauthorized DNA, and (in this book), a stupidity surplus the government keeps an eye on.  All very tongue-in-cheek of course.  The tone is absurd yet subtle, and I enjoy the silly parallels between this world and ours.  Beyond that, there is a cleverness in the plots themselves, somewhat complex threads that all come together nice and neatly at the end.  And all with a light touch and ne'er a whiff of undue tension.

So yeah, that's why I read those books, and I'd say this one lived up to promise in that way.  Anything specific? Well, it didn't take place in the BookWorld, unlike some of the recent ones, which I think was somewhat of a loss, but that's ok.  As I said, I didn't particular enjoy the older, creakier Thursday who seemed somewhat behind Goliath most of the time.  And though  threads were resolved in the end, I thought some felt either anti-climatic or somewhat unfinished (the last one deliberately, as the next book will continue developing those).  But yeah, totally clever, totally funny, totally light fun, as anticipated.

Verdict: 4/5

Universe Appeal?

Behind, behind.  But I was on a trip! For 10 days! Yes, I got back a week ago... Anyway, three books behind, not exactly fresh in my mind, it's time to get going.  First up, Terry Pratchett kind of has a new one out - I saw kind of because it's a collaboration with another author, I assume an SF writer.  Which means we're not exactly going to get vintage Pratchett, whose books are only SF because they don't take place in our universe (you know what I mean, that genre takes itself so seriously).  Not sure how much of this book is Pratchett anyway, you know I just I assume that what with his Alzheimer's and all, this collaboration might have been easier than writing his own stuff... So given that I knew this wasn't going to be Pratchett, why read it? Well, I guess it was mostly why not? That's why I reserved it and once I reserved it, might as well read it.

It was indeed, much more in the usual bent of SF/fantasy.  World building and all that, and taking itself seriously... On its merits as fantasy, I'm not sure how well qualified I am to judge (well not this type of fantasy anyway).  But I didn't think the world was all that creative or revolutionary.   And not amazingly crafted either, the laws of the universe definitely seemed at times haphazard.  I much prefer Jasper Fforde's whimsical Bookworld or even Sharon Shinn's Archangel universe.  But I guess it's not fair to compare this to some of my favorite books.  Elegantly crafted or not, this universe is certainly interesting, and I'm not going to say it doesn't have potential.

This one is only the first in the series, so potential is something it better have.  Being the first, it spent most of the time just setting the scene, and then ended on somewhat of a crisis.  But before reaching the crisis, the menace of this book had already been revealed, and I have to say I did not find it spectacular. Maybe I wasn't meant it and this was all just part of the setup, but I hope the further secrets of this universe prove more momentous.  I say I hope... because you know there's a good chance I'll be reading at least the next one in the series.   Even though it's not my thing, once I start I like to continue.

But if it was that bad, I'm pretty sure I'd abandon ship no matter what.  So I guess it's not that bad.  Actually, don't get me wrong, I didn't think it was anything terrible at all.  The book managed to stay interesting even with not much going on.  And if the characters weren't the most likable, at least they had universal relevance/importance going for them (we meet the central players in this brave new world of course).  There were plenty enough times I found myself annoyed with this or that (hard to remember what at this late juncture) but overall there was never much doubt that I would continue reading.   It was definitely interesting enough for that.  And I'm not sure what else I could ask from the genre.

Verdict: 3/5

Not the Universe We Know and Love

In my last post reviewing a Terry Pratchett novel, I said that, although I really like his books, there's not much to choose between them.  He's a master of comic sci-fi, satirizing our world with just the right amount of absurdity thrown in, poker-facedly masterminding creation of the utterly crazy and yet utterly realized Discworld.  That was up until his latest, Snuff.  I think every Pratchett reader (in fact, I think I'll go check now - well I couldn't find it offhand, but I'd be shocked if it isn't there - nope, checked GoodReads, always plenty of people who share my feelings :)) must be saying, what happened?! The truth is, I think I know what happened, and it's kind of (actually really) sad - Terry Pratchett has early-onset Alzheimers.  Now I knew this going into this book, was even kind of expecting it, so maybe that's the reason I felt this way? Maybe it's been too long since I read a TP and my expectations got too high, or my tastes changed? There were probably elements of that, but this was not all in my head.  Snuff was just not up to par, not in the writing, not in the humor, not in the plot, and not even in the characters.

Let's start with the plot.  Now that's the one I care about least, of course, but I was waiting from about 1/3 of the way in for this book to be over.  There was overdramatic foreshadowing all over the place, but the actual movement... well it just felt like something out of an amateur thriller's playbook.  There's always some action in the Discworld, but it's never enough to distract me from the humor and the fun bits.  But I guess in this case, there just weren't many of either not to be distracted from.  The predominance of scatological and that other inappropriate kind of humor was disappointing enough.  The lack of subtly in the writing and the clumsiness of the occasional bits of Pratchett wisdom seem to suggest that Pratchett is trying, but can't hit his stride - or even manage a steady jog.  I hope it's not his brain, it could be just a temporary slump, but this is not the Pratchett I know and love.

But it's not just the the pale imitation of TP's usual style - I don't think I have read a Discworld novel yet that is so completely unfun.  It's almost as if Pratchett wants to write, besides a more thriller-esque tale than usual, a philosophical tome of sorts.  The central theme - sentient, non-human species are people too - is one that Discworld readers are eminently familiar with.  I hadn't remembered that the last book featured a creature known as the orc, but was reminded of it by someone's GoodReads review. Then there's the dwarves, the vampires, the trolls, the golems even... yes, we are all worthy of respect and common decency.  So why do we need another book pounding - and I mean pounding - it into our heads? Add to that Sam Vimes always present anxieties about class and how unfair it all is... and don't forget his crisis of conscience about his darker side and whether he lets it take over... and what you get is one heavy hunk of reading material.  Sam himself alternates between internal monologues stressing about the above issues and being supposedly supercool and tough-as-nails - but even that, the classic Vimesian grace under fire and inimitable ability to carry the day, seems mostly forced.

So overall, it's what have you done with the real Discworld? When we can we have our absurd and crude, yet sprightly alive universe of awesome dudes (Vimes and Vetinari, go Vs! :) and over-the-top something-other-than-dudes (can you say Nobby Nobbs? :)) Let's hope it's with the next book, though I don't hold out much hope of that.  I guess I can just go back and read the ones I skipped, or just reread them all.

Verdict: 2/5

Comfortable, Elegant, and All That Is Good In Life

You know I like to start out with my recommendation source... I have to say, I finally have one I can't really easily identify :) Cold Comfort Farm has been on my list of "Books to Read" for years, under the category "English countryside types."  Now, I don't know why I originally put it on my list (Lauren Willig? :)) but Stella Gibbons is only English countryside in the most literal sense.  Recently, I read the Wikipedia summary of the book (or maybe it was just of the author) and discovered that, in fact, Cold Comfort Farm is a humorous take on English society books of the '30s.  So we're talking not only funny, which actually English countryside typically is, but completely filled with levity (I wanted to say levitous, but I just couldn't :)).  And better, we're talking high society, babe ;) not those boring working class stiffs tat typically inherit rural literature :)  Once I realized this, I put the book rather up on my todo list, and got on line at the library to wait my turn.

Cold Comfort was a surprise delight from the start.  The main character, Flora, is not only a perfectly lovely society girl of nineteen, pretty, popular, and educated (if not rich :)) she's adorable, smart, and utterly capable.  She reminds of what Emma thinks she is (a rather astute observation if I do say so myself :)) - she likes to organize everyone's lives, and she's actually good at it.  She's also totally irrepressible, writing to each of her relatives for an invitation to mooch off them until such time as she sees fit to move on (to get married, perhaps? :)) And she gets welcomes from each of them too.  But she chooses to go stay with her disturbingly strange cousins at Cold Comfort Farm, and proceeds to amuse herself with fixing up their wretched lives.

Now here's where the book could have gotten really boring, or worse, tense.  But instead, Flora remains totally in control of her absolutely bizarre relatives' various hang-ups and shenanigans.  And I'm telling you, they are bizarre.  But since the whole book is very clearly a joke, I could just relax and enjoy the joke of these larger-than-life, and for the most part, cruder than life, characters and their little neuroses.  Flora keeps everyone well in hand, and takes good care of disposing of every one to his or her greater happiness.  And she keeps herself pretty happy and very well liked while doing it.  At one point I noticed that not only were the characters simply out of this world outrageous, the setting, which takes place in the "near future" (which I interpreted to mean maybe within in a year of publication date 1932) actually takes place in some futuristic version of the 50's.  But it's funny, because far from greatly advanced, the book feels like a throwback to the last days of good English society - but why would I complain, that's exactly the society I like best :)

So Flora keeps herself, and us, entertained by meddling in all her silly cousins' lives, to their great benefit.  I'm sure you're asking by now, what about Flora? Well Flora's nice little love interest is introduced right at the beginning of the book.  There's not much suspense, since as far as I could tell, they liked each other immediately, and not much interaction, as Flora was far away in Susssex and only communicated with her Charles through letters we never see.  But you know she's going to be okay, not left alone at the end.  Since I didn't really expect the book to be a romance, I didn't mind the mostly lack of pathos threaded through Flora's own story.  But then, in the last chapter of the book, an extra bonus treat - she managed to finish up with a spectacular last chapter of a romance.  Despite my assumption that Flora's and Charles's romance was a foregone conclusion, there was apparently some suspense left between the two. And it made for some beautiful storytelling wrapping that suspense right up :) So not only thoroughly enjoyable, but a nice little tip at the end :)

Verdict: 4.5/5

A Good Romance, If a Stretched One

I'm not sure if I've mentioned her before, but Sharon Shinn is one of the 15 or so authors for whom I keep track of new publications (wow those prepositions were hard to get right :)) Anyway, her chief appeal is that she seems to be as big a fan of romance as I am :) That is, her books are technically science fiction/fantasy - actually, they *are* SF/fantasy - but she almost never fails to offer up a good romance as well.  The first book  I read of hers, Archangel (wait, now I remember, of course I've mentioned her before, I reviewed The Alleluiah Files a few months ago), was described to me by Peryl as a romance disguised as sci-fi.  That's not really true, as I've discovered since reading both genres a little more widely, but I'm not sure I would even want it to be true, since that would make the book a lot more trashy.  Anyway, the point is, Sharon Shinn's books are mostly composed of world description and a good romance, often with some transparent morality lesson woven in.  Her series that just finished up last year, The Twelve Houses, exemplified this, and also contained the added element of a continuing plotline involving political unrest in the fantasy land of the setting.  I had thought her new book, Troubled Waters, was the start of a new series set in a new world, but I'm not quite sure now that I've read it.  In any case, that's the book I'm reviewing now… which is all I really had to say :)

So like I said, what I mostly expect of these books is a decent romance, while I tolerate whatever else Sharon Shinn throws in there as she pleases.  In this one, I kind of liked what she threw in there anyway, it was a rather simple world where the emphasis was on the five "elements" of air, earth, fire, wood, and water.  There were very few complicated rules (some innocuous details about blessing coins light enough to be charming) and most of the magic seemed to be centered on our very powerful heroine (yay :)) You know I never say no to the main characters being awesome… and here we have the head of one of the most powerful families in the land along with the king's most trusted advisor, a pretty cool man in his own right too (I was going to write guy, but he's just not the type ;)) And big bonus, the plot was mostly court intrigue rather than national danger / war, which was a nice change from the Twelve Houses.  Because court intrigue can be dangerous, but it just doesn't reach to the level of tension of all out battle.  And we all know how much I *dont* like tension :) The book actually reminded me of Court Duel in that respect - though court duel did have the threat of war underlying all the polite chit-chat - it was just very underlying and didn't really emerge all that dramatically :) (one day I'll reread court duel and then you'll all get a more thorough review, don't worry :)) ANYWAY, what I'm saying is that there was really nothing not enjoyable about the rest of the book.  And it even ended pretty solidly, with nothing much left unresolved, which makes me think that there might not be a sequel in the works.  I mean, I guess there's room for one (though I'm not sure who would feature as the romantic couple) but there certainly doesn't need to be one… which of course makes this ending all the more satisfying. 

So that's all well and good, I'm sure you're saying :), but what about the romance? Isn't that why you read these books in the first place? Yes indeedy-do, you are correct in that assumption (not surprisingly, since I think I stated it very clearly a few paragraphs ago :)) Anyway, the romance… so I said to S.B., if I had read this book a few years ago I think I would have thought the romance was AMAZING.  He likes her from the beginning, there's TONS of interaction, and they don't get together till the end.  What more could I need (other than more from the guy's POV, of course :)) So it was good… but it was a little weird too.  They really both like each other from the beginning, and while they don't acknowledge it, they don't really hide it either.  So there's very little tension of the good sort (romantic, that is :)) Maybe I would always have noticed this? I'm not sure, but I definitely noticed it now.  Was *quite* a weird dynamic.  Like if these characters were other people or in other circumstances, there would have been no romance (at least in the sense I define it) at all.  But these characters (proud, stubborn, very different) and these circumstances (tense, happening times) mean that there is a whole book for them to play out the courtship dance.  So okay… I can enjoy that, even if it takes just a *little* more effort than usual.  And the truth is, these days I find myself saying sometimes, but *why* does he like her? where's the attraction, the shared sympathies? (also something I never paid much attention to before - I wonder if it's the blog or just getting older?) In any case, there was none of that - they make sense together, two powerful people (with complementary personalities, as is emphasized to some length in the book - since the whole premise of the world is elements and how each person is drawn to one of the five).  So they make sense, and I don't have to get annoyed about that at least.  All in all, quite satisfying… Nothing to complain about, lots to enjoy… no wonder I had no trouble getting through this book, between a late Friday night, sleepless Shabbos afternoon, lazy motzei Shabbos, and relatively early night at a luxury hotel, all in the midst of my vacation :)

Verdict: 4/5

Why Do Authors Bother Trying to Make Me Think?

On Sunday, my wonderful mother went on a cleaning spree in the cl house.  Among  the items that fell under her swift sword were a number of books she designated as junk, and among  these books was Sharon Shinn's The Alleluiah Files.  The reason this book was in the house was that when I read the first two books in the Archangel series, I wanted to read this third one, but I couldn't find it anywhere, so I bought it at the borders in viewmont mall.  Anyway, as it sits there in cl, I end up rereading it every few years, and I naturally rescued it from the destruction that awaited it at the hands of my zealously clean and clutter-free mommy :) And having rescued it, I promptly sat down and read it (well I sat down and started to read it, and finished it two days later).

I can't argue that this book is junk in a certain sense.  I mean it's not junk like some of the chic lit I read.  It's written fairly well and it has some substance.  But the truth is, it's more than somewhat melodramatic and it has that certain trashy quality that hard core sci-fi/fantasy sometimes does - kind of comes with creating a world that is meant to be taken seriously, but of course is really only a completely arbitrary variation on our own G-d created one.  I guess that's a little unclear, but what I mean is, science fiction and fantasy writers take pride in their "world-building", but to me there isn't really much point or much skill involved in crafting an imaginary place where absolutely anything goes, no logical explanation needed.  

And this world is particularly offensive, as it draws heavily on Biblical themes, but recasts them to fit the author's more egalitarian and modern views.  So there are some disturbing echoes of places and people I consider sacred (e.g. the Jews wandering in the desert waiting for the promised land) but mixed with a very physical and morally ambiguous crew ("angels" and Edori with rather modern views of marriage, among other things).   All this is true of the first two books (well I barely remember the second book, as I've only read it once, but it's true of the first book as well), and in order to enjoy Archangel, I need to ignore all this.  But of course, I never find ignoring stuff in books too difficult, so I always thoroughly enjoy Archangel and its perfectly wonderful love story between a resilient and talented slave girl and a gorgeous and powerful angel ruler (I feel compulsion to again quote that angel, as of course I mean angel only in the Sharon Shinn sense here, but you know what I'm saying).  

Most of this applies just as well to the Alleluiah Files, but there is an additional element of to the disturbing themes in this book.  Actually I can think of three reasons why this book is not nearly as good as Archangel, but I'll get to the other two later.  About the religious overtones first - this book describes the fight of the rebel Jacobites to bring the rest of Samaria (the world) to the knowledge that what they see as their god is in fact a very advanced spaceship, that responds to their prayers with set replies to provide their needs.  This is obviously disturbing, and the Jacobites are seen as heretics, but in the end - the Jacobites are right! So here we have a small group of people insisting that science can explain away the god they know, that the religion they have followed for hundreds of years is simply wrong… sound familiar? So apparently, just as the Jacobites are proved right in the end, we are supposed to conclude that evolution and its associated ideas can explain away the need for any divine creation of our world.  Well, naturally, I know that's wrong, but I can't enjoy reading a book that basically makes a plot out of it.  The only redeeming element to the religious debate is that in the end, the characters conclude that even though their spaceship may not be a god, there is still in fact some overarching, intangible divine being that watches over the universe - and they're certainly right about that :) And their conclusion that the original settlers knew this, but that over the years the people forgot about the real G-d and began worshiping the intermediating machine, parallels the history of idol worship in the real world perfectly.  So I guess the end message isn't one I strictly disagree with.

But none of that matters very much, because I am of course not reading this book as a religious treatise and as far as I'm concerned, the less philosophy the better.  The other two objections to this book are much more typical complaints of mine.  First off - the angels in Archangel are like these superhumans (actually they are superhumans) whom everyone basically worships, and the Archangel is the coolest and most powerful of them all.  Of course, that makes for one great romance, just like the most fun romances are about noblemen, not to say about dukes.  But in The A. Files, the angels are taken down a notch or two from their status and basically re-outfitted as men with wings.  Wings and great voices that allow them to communicate with a machine, but nothing to be worshipped or allocating any extra degree of respect.  It's as if democracy did away with the nobility - and where's the fun in that?! :) But even with all that, Jared (main angel guy) is pretty darn cool - nice, gorgeous, smart, powerful, with it… so I guess I can't complain too much.

Objection number #3 is even more simple - there are two romances going on here - Tamar and Jared, which is great, and Lucinda and Reuben, which I find completely uninteresting.  In fact, that one doesn't even meet my definition of romance, because they like each other right away and there aren't really every any obstacles keeping them apart.  So where's the fun in that? :) In fact, I don't think theirs is even meant to be a fun romance - it's more a part of the plot and maybe more of Sharon Shinn's desire to make a statement about iconoclastic relationships (angel and Edori again).  So of course, we're basically talking about half the book where I was basically like, kay, let's get back to the other half here.  

The truth is though, there's so much more going on here than the romance, that even the other half wasn't wholly, or even mostly romantic.  And with all that, the book wasn't half hard to read.  Went by pretty fast, though I can't say I couldn't put it down (I think every time I put it down was probably at a Lucinda and Reuben part though :)) That all goes back to what I said at the beginning, Sharon Shinn is not a bad writer, not at all.  Of course, part of this can be attributed to the fact that I am very used to her writing style, having read almost (maybe all? all of her adult one anyway) of her books, and some of the multiple times (Summers at Castle Auburn is great, though not as great as I used to think it was by the way - I should really do a review of that one too…)  but anyway, I'm sure my familiarity with the writing somewhat biases me.  And I'm the first to admit she's melodramatic with a capital cantaloupe (like that expression? made it up just now :)) but still… the descriptions are good, the characters are mostly very likable, plot moves quickly, the tension is more than I'd like, but not crazy over the top… and what can I say, she's a good world builder :) So overall, I'm glad I rescued this book from the garbage can (literally - I took it out of the garbage can :)) 

Verdict: 3.5/5

Food: Something with the capacity to make me nauseous… but something that I go back to time and time again anyway… I think I've used sugar free pudding here already, but I think just the Hunt's kind, not the Jello kind.  So I'm going to use the Jello kind here - I eat them all the time, or at least all the time when I'm not on a real diet.  They do have sugar alcohols in them which means 1) they give me *major* stomach issues when I eat too many (tmi? sorry :)) and 2) I feel guilty eating them b/c they're not actually carb free. But yet every once in a while, the urge overcomes me and I buy a pack of cinnamon roll… or chocolate vanilla… or boston creme… and eat every last one :)

But on second thought, I have a much more original food - Morningside Farms vegetarian bacon strips.  They are not particularly good, and I feel kind of weird eating them, being that they're imitation bacon, but in the end of the day, I'll eat them anyway because they're not too bad… and they are kosher, don't worry :)