Fourth Quarter 2020 Reading

[Zorral]

William Dalrymple's The Anarchy tracing the the rise of the East India company will be turned into a TV series. So will his Kohinoor: The History Of World's Most Infamous Diamond, written together with Anita Anand.

https://www.cinemaexpress.com/stories/news/2020/nov/03/william-dalrymples-the-anarchy-to-be-adapted-into-a-premium-television-series-21120.html

Variety's report on this calls Dalrymple's book a novel ... (while another report that the last Bubonic Plague to hit England, known as the London Plague, 1665-66 is going to be turned into another television series, calls the era the Middle Ages!).

[Kyll.Ing.]

My one-Discworld-book-a-month quest is nearing its conclusion, taking me to The Science of Discworld in October as the store was temporarily sold out of I Shall Wear Midnight, which I picked up in November and am reading now.

Anyway, to take the former first: It's a neat summary of science and the history of the universe, I guess, but there's not much story to it. It's a long science textbook interluded with some Discworld characters being their usual selves between the chapters. Well-written, but not a page turner. Still unsure if I will bother with its three sequels.

The latter book is the second-to-last in the Tiffany Aching series, if I've understood it correctly. I really like it so far (around halfway in), but if I have one gripe with it is that it follows the exact same story premise as the former two books in the series: "Something supernatural stalks Tiffany Aching". Again. This was also a big plot point in the first of the Aching books, so by now I'd really have liked to see something else done with the character. Maybe if Pratchett hadn't got the condition he had, he would have had time to take her on some different adventures. But either way the story is well written and develops its characters nicely, so it's not like it's a bad book by any means.

[Ormond]

13 hours ago, Zorral said:

Variety's report on this calls Dalrymple's book a novel ... (while another report that the last Bubonic Plague to hit England, known as the London Plague, 1665-66 is going to be turned into another television series, calls the era the Middle Ages!).

Unfortunately a great many people no longer understand that the word "novel" means that a work is fiction, and call any book of over 100 pages a "novel". I have had to correct several of my students about this the last few years, and I see more and more references to nonfiction books as "novels" on the Internet all the time. 

[Wilbur]

I loaded up John Scalzi's two short works, The Dispatcher and Murder by Other Means, read by Zachary Quinto, and listened to them this morning out on the trail.

Scalzi's writing is smooth and easy to follow, and his alternate world where murder victims immediately regenerate back at home is well rendered.  I enjoyed them both very much.

For some reason the stories put me in mind of Walter Jon Williams' Dagmar Shaw series, which I like very much indeed.

This Is Not a Game (2009)
Deep State (2011)
The Fourth Wall (2012)
Diamonds from Tequila (2014)

[Starkess]

I finished listening to The Lightning Thief, the first book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackon series. This series came out when I was in college, so I had never read it. It was okay--I can certainly see why it's well-loved by many, but coming to it as an adult made the flaws a bit more glaring for me (notably in that I really rather disliked Percy Jackson). I didn't like the audiobook narrator much either. Still, it was fun and pretty quick, and I'll check out the next one.

For now, I'm listening to The Girls by Emma Cline. It's interesting so far--I'm glad they included a hook at the beginning about the cult/murders aspect of it, because otherwise I'd be a bit bored by the meandering recollections of the narrator's adolescence. Knowing that's coming, however, adds a dreading air to the whole thing that's a nice bit of authorial work.

[Plessiez]

21 hours ago, Kyll.Ing. said:

My one-Discworld-book-a-month quest is nearing its conclusion, taking me to The Science of Discworld in October [...] It's a neat summary of science and the history of the universe, I guess, but there's not much story to it. It's a long science textbook interluded with some Discworld characters being their usual selves between the chapters. Well-written, but not a page turner. Still unsure if I will bother with its three sequels.

The Science of Discworld is odd, yeah, and the actual Discworld/fiction content is pretty thin.  I assume that Pratchett's co-authors (Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen) wrote almost all of the even-numbered chapters, and I don't really know how different the content of that is to their other work.  Well, Ian Stewart's textbook on Galois Theory is very good, as it happens  (the second edition more so than the later ones) but I've not read any of his popular science beyond this book.

I owned a copy of Science of Discworld as a teenager, but as I also owned The Streets of Ankh-Morpork and (two!) versions of The Discworld Companion it could be argued that I was not the most discerning of audiences at that point.   It's not a book I've ever felt the urge to reread, honestly. 

I certainly think you can skip the sequels (I think I only read the first of them myself).

 

[ljkeane]

I finished Rhythm of War. It was ok. There's a definite middle book feel to it but otherwise it's pretty much what you'd expect from a Sanderson book.

I've read quite a lot of epic fantasy recently so I think I'll make a change from that with reading Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic next.

[Zorral]

BREAKING BOOK NEWS!!!!!!!
 

Quote

Bad sex award cancelled as public exposed to ‘too many bad things in 2020’
Prize for ‘unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant passages of a sexual nature in sound literary novels’ will resume in 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/08/bad-sex-award-cancelled-as-public-exposed-to-too-many-bad-things-in-2020

~~~~~~~~~~

Have started Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry For the Future (2020).

[Corvinus85]

Finished War Lord, the last book in The Last Kingdom/Saxon Chronicles series. I liked it, well paced, with pretty much the same formula as most of the other books. Fewer deaths than I had anticipated, but of course Cornwell be Cornwell.

Spoiler

He has Uhtred make peace with his priestly son, and there I am thinking what a happy moment, and then off with the son!! At least no more women died because of reasons.

I didn't expect Uhtred to live at the end, and just leave out his days in Bebbanburg, especially considering how the one known historical Uhtred was assassinated. And Finan, I kept expecting him to die for the last three books. But Cornwell must have really liked both of these characters.

 

[Astromech]

Finished Daniel Woodrell's Bayou Trilogy.  The first entry was decent, the second very similar and the last was some bizarre family reunion I didn't care much about. The trilogy's protagonist was a fairly forgettable detective ticking the trope boxes. The only thing slightly memorable about the novels is the setting in Louisiana, which probably would have been better written by a Louisiana native. Woodrell's Ozarks novels are much better.

[SeanF]

I've just finished In the Legions of Napoleon by Heinrich von Brandt, a man who was Prussian, then Polish, then Prussian again, fighting both for and against the French Empire, as so many did.  So many battles in the Napoleonic wars saw fellow countrymen fighting each other, with surprisingly little bitterness.

[Ormond]

I recently finished King's Dragon, the first of five in Kate Elliott's "Crown of Stars" fantasy series.

I really liked this book. It was nominated for a Nebula back in 1997 when it was published and I think it deserved it. I found the characters interesting and was impressed by the world-building. Most of the novel focuses on the separate stories of two young people, Alain and Liath, who start out in obscure situations but by the end of the book end up closer to the seats of power in their world, though this was done in what I think was a more believable way than in many fantasy novels.

I was impressed by Elliott's "world-building". Her fantasy world is an alternate medieval Europe where most of the countries are obviously analogs of real European countries. In addition to magic and the existence of non-human elflike and orclike races, one of the main differences between our world and the world of Crown of Stars is that the sexes are much more equal. Elliott makes that very believable to me by basing it on a difference in religion -- the main religion, though based on the medieval Catholic church, features two supreme Gods, the Lord and the Lady. The bishops and popes in this world are women, not men. Among the ruling elite, though power is passed along hereditarily, the existing ruler largely decides which of his or her legitimate children will inherit the throne, regardless of gender or birth order. Women in the ruling class even have "bastard" children who are treated the same way royal bastards of male rulers were in medieval Europe. Of course Elliott's world's way of passing along power can result in civil conflict when older children are passed over, and that's a main part of the storyline here. 

By so specifically grounding her gender equality in the whole culture, Elliott made it very believable to me. There are other fantasies I have read where gender equality seems to be imposed by the author without any attention to how to make that seem realistic in the totality of their world -- the chief example being Steven Erikson's "Malazan" books, where I've read the first three, where the imperial army is said to be close to 50% women, including in combat roles, with little attention to how this would really work in his society and by for the most part making his women characters act and react as stereotypically male soldiers would in our world. So I really commend Elliott for being able to come up with a fantasy world where equality of the sexes in a "pre-modern" cultural context is worked out in a full and logical way. 

So -- highly recommended.

[Plessiez]

I really like Crown of Stars (and Elliott's writing more generally).  Still feel vaguely guilty that I didn't buy a copy of Black Wolves when it first came out, even if logically it can't have been entirely my fault that the publishers dropped that series.

42 minutes ago, Ormond said:

King's Dragon, the first of five in Kate Elliott's "Crown of Stars" fantasy series.

While I think at one point the series was meant to be five volumes, in the end there were a total of seven books in the series.

[Ormond]

8 minutes ago, Plessiez said:

I really like Crown of Stars (and Elliott's writing more generally).  Still feel vaguely guilty that I didn't buy a copy of Black Wolves when it first came out, even if logically it can't have been entirely my fault that the publishers dropped that series.

While I think at one point the series was meant to be five volumes, in the end there were a total of seven books in the series.

You're right, don't know how I made that mistake about number of volumes. Thanks for the correction!

[dog-days]

I've been on a T. Kingfisher kick. I read my first book by her a couple of months ago, and have been working my way through a large part of her books. They aren't for everyone, but I love the tone and her breezy narration. 

It's been a very difficult time. My dad died this morning after suffering from a long illness then catching Covid while in hospital for something else. Back to back T. Kingfisher is seeing me through, along with coffee, wine and fun films. Just finished Nine Goblins, which I loved. 

I've also started to read Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins. Liked the start a lot - I've put it aside for a bit since it currently feels a bit too serious and close to reality, but I'm definitely going to go back to it. I bought it as a present for my mum last summer, but my dad got hold of it and read it instead and liked it, so it'll be one of the last things that he read that I did too. 

I read Serpentine (Philip Pullman) a couple of days ago. Good little short story set between Lyra's Oxford and The Secret Commonwealth, which anticipates what happens to the relationship between Pan and Lyra a few years down the road. It does feel quite slight though - I read it in less than ten minutes, going quite slowly and carefully. 

[Wall Flower]

2 hours ago, dog-days said:

I've been on a T. Kingfisher kick. I read my first book by her a couple of months ago, and have been working my way through a large part of her books. They aren't for everyone, but I love the tone and her breezy narration. 

It's been a very difficult time. My dad died this morning after suffering from a long illness then catching Covid while in hospital for something else. Back to back T. Kingfisher is seeing me through, along with coffee, wine and fun films. Just finished Nine Goblins, which I loved. 

I've also started to read Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins. Liked the start a lot - I've put it aside for a bit since it currently feels a bit too serious and close to reality, but I'm definitely going to go back to it. I bought it as a present for my mum last summer, but my dad got hold of it and read it instead and liked it, so it'll be one of the last things that he read that I did too. 

I read Serpentine (Philip Pullman) a couple of days ago. Good little short story set between Lyra's Oxford and The Secret Commonwealth, which anticipates what happens to the relationship between Pan and Lyra a few years down the road. It does feel quite slight though - I read it in less than ten minutes, going quite slowly and carefully. 

I'm so very sorry about your Dad. I'm glad you're finding some comfort from reading and other distractions.

I lost my Mum and an aunt this year (although not from COVID) and reading, wine and chocolate helped to get me through.

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, dog-days said:

It's been a very difficult time. My dad died this morning after suffering from a long illness then catching Covid while in hospital for something else.

I'm so sorry.  As I too experienced when parents died the right series helped, and the longer the series, with all more titles, the better.

 

[ljkeane]

Sorry to hear about your dad dog-days.

[williamjm]

I read Neil Gaiman's Season of Mists which I thought was excellent. The plot twist in the middle was particularly good, even if I should perhaps have anticipated it since I've seen the TV show inspired by it.

I also read a couple of (very) short books by Philip Pullman in his His Dark Materials universe, Lyra's Oxford and Serpentine. They are both fairly slight stories but have some good character moments for Lyra and Pan in the period between The Amber Spyglass and The Secret Commonwealth. Serpentine also tied in quite well to the discussion we were recently having in the HDM TV series thread about people with difficult relationships with their daemons. I also thought it was interesting how Lyra's Oxford had some clear references to the events in The Secret Commonwealth even though it was written over a decade beforehand, Pullman seems to have planned things a long time in advance.

I've now started The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's been an interesting start so far although the excerpts from the scholarly work on alternative paths for evolution on Earth do break up the narrative a bit.

[TheLastWolf]

Dostoevesky's Crime and Punishment 

One word, fantastic