What are you reading? First Quarter 2023

[williamjm]

I finished Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary. I really enjoyed reading the book, despite feeling that it does have some big flaws. The best bits of the story all take place aboard the Hail Mary, which is fortunate since this makes up the majority of the novel. After trying to do something a bit different with Artemis and not really succeeding Weir has returned to the type of story that worked well in The Martian, a lone scientist isolated from the rest of humanity desperately trying to use his scientific knowledge to solve a seemingly intractable problem. Unlike The Martian this is about more than mere survival of the protagonist, it's also about trying to save humanity from an apocalyptic threat. This time round the protagonist also has an unlikely collaborator, which does provide some of the best scenes in the book. I don't know how plausible all of the science in this, but I think the book does a good job of capturing the thrill of scientific discovery and solving problems.

I think the book's weakness is the flashback scenes where we learn how Grace got involved with the mission. In the main plotline where Grace is narrating what he is doing I think his character works well enough, even if he is eerily like The Martian's Mark Watney except with less swearing. However, Weir's attempt to write Grace having normal human conversations with other humans in the flashback scenes often feel painfully stilted, nobody really seems to talk a real person or have more than a couple of personality traits (and have some national stereotypes if they happen to be non-American). This part of the plot also requires a lot of contrived and unlikely decisions being made to get Grace into position where he would be going on the mission.

I think the parts of the story in space are good enough to make up for the other weaknesses but I think the book might have been better if the flashbacks had been omitted.

[C.T. Phipps]

My current reading plans are going to be the entirety of the GARRETT PI series by Glen Cook. I'm a huge Dresden Files fan and am intrigued by something in the same vein of private detective stories in a fantastic world. I've already read the first one, SWEET SILVER BLUES, and have some fixed feelings about it but I'm intrigued enough to continue the series. Basically, the book was very good for 75% of it but then it became all action-based and lost the private detective elements. I also wasn't very fond of how it treated women.

[TheLastWolf]

Random Jack London stories always feel good

[williamjm]

I read Neil Gaiman's eighth Sandman collection, Worlds' End. Throughout the series I have found that the side-stories which aren't directly connected to the main story arcs are usually as good as the stories more focused on Dream and this was true here as well. There's a lot of variety in terms of both plot and artwork between the different stories, I thought all the different stories were good although perhaps some of the best scenes come in the framing story.

[Zorral]

R.F. Kuang's Babel: An Arcane History arrived today.  I've just glanced inside, but it looks to be a purrfect kind of read for me. snuggled in lovely warm bed on this cold night.  (Giving my tottering history tbr stack a go-by for a day or two; The Radical Potter: The Life and Times of Josiah Wedgewood. history of the Wedgewood potteries a/k/a biography of Josiah Wedgewood nearly did me in!)

 

[VigoTheCarpathian]

Just finished “Second Place” by Rachel Cusk, and started in on “The Subversive Simone Weil” by Zaretsky (kinda half biography, half philosophy), and “Postcolonial Love Poem” by Natalie Diaz, which I am really, really liking.

[Peadar]

I finished The Last Blade Priest by W.P. Wiles. Very enjoyable with a great low-fantasy take on elves.

 

Up next, historical fiction with Rose Tremain's Restoration. Great start.

[Gaston de Foix]

I finished the autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret Roberts.  It's long but fascinating.  I've always wanted to get behind Henry's eyes in a biography or novel as the Tudors did quite successfully.  Henry is (obviously) an unreliable narrator, but in his own eyes he was a prince of great virtue and faith.  The cognitive dissonance is the point. 

Next on my list is Elizabeth the struggle for the throne by when the library copy frees up, as well as Henry VIII: Virtuous Prince both by Starkey.   I'm probably also going to read Wolsey's biography at some point. 

Also on my to-do list is Democratic Justice, a biography of Felix Frankfurter.  But first is Spare, by another red-headed younger son named Harry :). 

[Fragile Bird]

If you are interested in justice from the last century, you might be interested in reading My Life in Court, by famed trial lawyer Louis Nizer. He did all kinds of fascinating, ground-breaking trials. I read it 30 years ago, and mentioning Frankfurter put it in my mind. It was on the reading list when I was in law school in the 80s. Now I might do a re-read.

One of the more curious cases was a divorce case. It used to be very difficult to get a divorce, motel games were often played to get the guy “caught” with another woman, which was fine if the wife wanted a divorce as well. But if she didn’t, tough luck. (“I’ll never give you a divorce!”) Then laws were widened to allow additional grounds, like cruelty. Nizer got a divorce for a woman based on the emotional cruelty of being married to a man with a foot fetish. I remember how the woman thought he was so sweet and considerate before they got married, always giving her foot rubs. But once they were married his obsession with her feet just escalated and escalated. Why, I bet toe sucking was involved (I can’t remember now), if you read my comments in the Harry and Meghan thread. But I bet other sexual acts could be imagined, even if Nizer didn’t mention them. 

Lol, and now I’m reminded of a Canadian court case from the 30s or 40s, where the woman asked for a divorce because her husband demanded perverse sexual acts be performed. He asked her to put “it” in her mouth! Juries were all-male back then, and I remember wondering if they were shocked or jealous.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

It's a crime against friendship that I still haven't gotten to the book @Fragile Bird bought me.

[HokieStone]

I'm close to finishing Grayshade, which I picked up at Origins Game Fair in 2022, after talking a bit with the author, Gregory Wilson, in the "author's room" at the con.  I was intrigued by the idea - sort of an Assassin's Creed in a novel kind of thing.  I put off reading it for a while because I was slogging my way through the Lightbringer series.  (And then I dove into the latest from G.G. Kay).

Anyway, been reading it now, and...eh...it's just ok.  I feel more time could have been spent on the worldbuilding.  I do appreciate a good appendix with a list of characters and/or factions.  And a map!  But alas, none to be found.  We are introduced to several characters that appear to be pivotal to the main character (whose name, "Grayshade" is a bit puzzling), but they are killed off without the reader being able to get very invested in them.

As it turns out, this is not only the first novel of a trilogy, but one of 120(!) novels planned in a shared world called Stormtalons by Ed Greenwood of Forgotten Realms famed.  That seems...ambitious. In any case, all the more reason I would have liked some more world building...the book takes place in the city of "Cohrelle", but there's absolutely no information on how the city fits in the wider world.  (To be fair, I haven't finished quite yet, so maybe some info is forthcoming in the last few chapters).

I'm just intrigued enough by this book that I'll probably give book 2 a shot...not so sure I'll dive into the whole "Stormtalons" world.  

[Zorral]

As we know, Britain developed  forced the opium trade addiction on China  in order to reverse the flow of silver out of the Empire to China.  Thus one does admire Kuang making silver the matrix for her sort of alternate historical fantasy, Babel -- which begins, let us note, in the183o's, so appropriately. So far I'm liking the novel quite a bit.

From Silver to Opium: A Study of the Evolution and Impact of the British-Chinese Trade System from 1780 to 1842

https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

Quote

 

.... Despite the important benefits that the tea trade would eventually bring, Britain’s primary
form of payment for this tea in the early years of this trade system was still silver, not goods. For
Britain to get the most out of its tea-crazed trade system, it needed to export goods rather than
silver, so that it would not be draining its silver stores. Towards the end of the eighteenth
century, the shift away from silver began. The trade system started to see a rapid export of Indian
goods to China, which led to the subsequent reduction in Britain’s need to export silver to China

12 Chung, “The Britain-China-India Trade Triangle,” 416.
13 Chung, “The Britain-China-India Trade Triangle,” 416.
14 Chung, “The Britain-China-India Trade Triangle,” 416.

to pay for its massive tea imports.15 Although India exported a variety of goods to China, opium
was by far the most prominent. ....

.... Opium entered the British-Chinese-Indian trade triangle shortly after the East India
Company began to seek control over the cultivation and sale of the drug in India. The
introduction of opium marked a huge turning point in British-Chinese trade, as Britain finally
had a product that China consistently desired more than silver. The result of the shift to opium in
British-Chinese trade was a massive increase in profit for Britain, as for the first time silver
flowed from China into Britain. The EIC was successful in its endeavors: “[s]tarting with the
Bengal Monopoly in 1773, the Company gradually consolidated control and, in 1797, prohibited
opium cultivation in their territories except under license.”18
 However, the opium trade was not
being used to its full potential until the 1820s, when the Board of Customs, Salt, and Opium of

15 Chung, “The Britain-China-India Trade Triangle,” 413.
16 Frank Dikötter, Lars Laamann and Zhou Xun, “Narcotic Culture: A Social History of Drug Consumption in
China,” The British Journal of Criminology 42, no. 2 (2002): 317.
17 Dikötter, Laamann, and Xun, “Narcotic Culture,” 318.
18 Warren Bailey and Lan Truong, “Opium and Empire: Some Evidence from Colonial-Era Asian Stock and
Commodity Markets,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 32, no. 2 (2001): 174

the Bengal Government discovered the advantages of the Malwa grown opium.19 At the time,
Malwa opium was not a Company enterprise and was, therefore, a competitor in the Chinese
opium market. Much of its value came from the fact that it was far easier to smuggle into China,
as the Malwa cakes were much smaller than the opium cakes grown in Bombay.20 Later that
year, the EIC opened Bombay’s ports to the export of Malwa opium, subsequently bringing that
enterprise under EIC control. Once again Britain’s desire to increase its trade with China had
forced its hand in colonial matters, allowing the EIC to exploit India further for economic gain. ....

19 Chung, “The Britain-China-India Trade Triangle,” 418.
20 Chung, “The Britain-China-India Trade Triangle,” 418

 

 

[Gaston de Foix]

6 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

If you are interested in justice from the last century, you might be interested in reading My Life in Court, by famed trial lawyer Louis Nizer. He did all kinds of fascinating, ground-breaking trials. I read it 30 years ago, and mentioning Frankfurter put it in my mind. It was on the reading list when I was in law school in the 80s. Now I might do a re-read.

One of the more curious cases was a divorce case. It used to be very difficult to get a divorce, motel games were often played to get the guy “caught” with another woman, which was fine if the wife wanted a divorce as well. But if she didn’t, tough luck. (“I’ll never give you a divorce!”) Then laws were widened to allow additional grounds, like cruelty. Nizer got a divorce for a woman based on the emotional cruelty of being married to a man with a foot fetish. I remember how the woman thought he was so sweet and considerate before they got married, always giving her foot rubs. But once they were married his obsession with her feet just escalated and escalated. Why, I bet toe sucking was involved (I can’t remember now), if you read my comments in the Harry and Meghan thread. But I bet other sexual acts could be imagined, even if Nizer didn’t mention them. 

Lol, and now I’m reminded of a Canadian court case from the 30s or 40s, where the woman asked for a divorce because her husband demanded perverse sexual acts be performed. He asked her to put “it” in her mouth! Juries were all-make back then, and I remember wondering if they were shocked or jealous.

I just ordered it!

The whole question of sexual acts other than traditional missionary intercourse has a fraught history Western history.  Henry VIII of the six wives and countless mistresses reportedly thought oral sex was a filthy (and french, naturally) proceeding, and one of the reasons he distrusted Anne Boleyn was her forwardness in sexual matters.   

My ancestors were more relaxed as the temple carvings at Khajuraho can confirm

[Gaston de Foix]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

As we know, Britain developed  forced the opium trade addiction on China  in order to reverse the flow of silver out of the Empire to China.  Thus one does admire Kuang making silver the matrix for her sort of alternate historical fantasy, Babel -- which begins, let us note, in the183o's, so appropriately. So far I'm liking the novel quite a bit.

From Silver to Opium: A Study of the Evolution and Impact of the British-Chinese Trade System from 1780 to 1842

https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

 

I had strong (spoilery) feelings that I shared on the last quarter 2022 reading thread.  I'd be curious about your view of the novel once you are done. 

[Sw33t Summ3r Ch1ld]

A book called Opening the Akashic Records by Maureen J. St. Germain which my sister gave me for Christmas. According to this there is vibrational field surrounding everything you do or even say in the past, present, and future and what these records contain says things about you and your loved ones and you can learn your soul's purpose. It's kind of interesting. She worked in a spiritual little shop and got this for me. I'm also reading Eve of Chaos by Sylvia Day which I bought at Dollar General a while ago. It has sex in it and is about demon hunting.

[Zorral]

15 minutes ago, Gaston de Foix said:

I had strong (spoilery) feelings that I shared on the last quarter 2022 reading thread.  I'd be curious about your view of the novel once you are done. 

It will be fun to read your 'spoilery thoughts'! But it will be a while before I finish; it's long and this book is slotted for the recreational reading hour before the read aloud hour before bed! 

[Zorral]

150 pp. into Babel -- I. Am. Impressed.  I haven't come across an historical fantasy -- or any fantasy, for that matter -- in at least a decade this well structured, paced, organized, while also being so well grounded in Something That Matters and creates so skillfully the ways and means as to how it operates.  Her paradigm regarding colonial extraction of resources, right down to -- well, when it comes to slavery, even a mother's breast milk -- by the colonial powers, grounded in our most basic shared human characteristic, language -- I'm in awe, actually.

Now this is only 150 pp. of 542 pp. novel.  Past experience leaves me wondering if this elegance and sheer writing gift will hold up all the way through.  So many books fall apart in the middle, and I give up because I no longer care.

Also, I know a great deal about the skills and difficulties and complications of translation, as Partner has done a great deal of translation, and many others have worked with Partner on translating Partner's own work, books and speaking both.  There is a Haitian character, a great deal about that history of colonial slavery, and Partner has spent a great deal of time learning Kreyol.  So none of this is outside personal experience -- particularly after spending decades researching, studying, writing and presenting about slavery, particularly the African-Atlantic colonial imperiums into the 'New World.' 

This stated, the author-narrator is outright wrong with her/his footnote regarding slavery -- stating slavery was invented by Europeans, nobody else.  This just is not true, as even the most cursory of cursory google will reveal. One presumes then, the author, being Chinese, is thinking 'China.'  Nevertheless, China too kidnapped and enslaved in both ancient and medieval and later periods.

Now that stated, what is true is that no other cultures enslaved as did the Europeans of Africans, beginning strongly already in the 14th century, partly due to the northern Mediterranean labor shortages caused by the Bubonic Plague.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Just finished Lilith, by George MacDonald. Basically, a nineteenth century attempt at a Narnia novel.

[Wilbur]

14 hours ago, The Marquis de Leech said:

Just finished Lilith, by George MacDonald. Basically, a nineteenth century attempt at a Narnia novel.

I hear you.  I read Lilith as a teenager, and at the time I thought it was a Narnia prequel.  Which, given GM's relationship with Lewis, it might have been in spirit.

GM wrote a lot of stuff that, if you pasted a 1980s Baen cover on the front, would probably sell reasonably well.

[Peadar]

On 1/11/2023 at 6:44 PM, Zorral said:

This stated, the author-narrator is outright wrong with her/his footnote regarding slavery -- stating slavery was invented by Europeans, nobody else.  This just is not true, as even the most cursory of cursory google will reveal. One presumes then, the author, being Chinese, is thinking 'China.'  Nevertheless, China too kidnapped and enslaved in both ancient and medieval and later periods.

To be fair, the book is factually wrong about lots of things. As somebody who can speak Irish and has an MA in Italian linguistics, I spotted a lot of errors in these areas. I'm sure that people here who are experts in other fields will find issues too. However, it's a big book with such a wide scope that it would have been (in my opinion), impossible to research everything to sufficient depth to avoid making mistakes. Such is the fate of an author!