Turkey day's a lot easier on you without, well, turkey. Mmmm.... lasagna.

"The Mystery of Courage" is an excellent book. Very well written, and the author treats the subject with respect. I especially like the idea that the threat of physical violence against insolence is important in maintaining civility.

¶ 4 Posted at 10.23 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books | me )

It's almost sad how clearly I reflect the books I am reading. Take, for instance, "No Logo," by Naomi Klein, which I just finished. It's about branding, consumerism, etc. Look at recent posts. They're about branding, consumerism, etc. So are these books actually teaching me and informing me, or do they merely stimulate evanescent thoughts that vanish once I have found something else to distract me?

Consumerism, I've decided, is like heroin. The first few times it's great. But then after that, it becomes impossible to extract any joy from anything else. They just grow to possess you. So while buying things makes you happy, it accentuates the emptiness that lies between materialistic orgies. Or something like that. Here, look at this.

¶ 19 Posted at 12.36 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

So, some woman called me this morning. She wasn't looking for me. She was looking for Tony. I suppose checking the number was too much for her to do this early. It wasn't too much to do for her to wake me. Nothing (on the scale of annoyances) angers me more than having my sleep frivolously disturbed. Nothing nothing nothing. Angry angry angry. So when she asked if I was Tony I just said No and hung up. Usually I try to be helpful, asking them who they intended to call, etc. Of course, that's when people just hang up on you. You say, "I'm sorry, but you have the wrong number," and they don't even bother to thank you or apologize to you for the disturbance. They just hang up. Reminds me of the line from Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor that I just read last night. It went something like: "People use telephones because they can't stand to be near each other but can't stand to be alone."

Speaking of Chuck Palahniuk, I had a dream that he was in my apartment telling me that Fight Club (the movie) made $40 million, and had only cost $4 million. I don't know where these numbers come from; I just think it's strange that my dream was so specific. Of course, it was also very specific about the lighting in my living room. It was very accurate; dreams usually are. I was telling him that most people I knew really liked the movie, but there were some who didn't. I think (this was outside the dream) the difference was, people who think there is something significantly wrong with society today liked it. Peoeple who are relatively satisfied with the status quo or can't be bothered to think about it (effectively the same group) didn't like it. What does that say about us? I know what it says. It says we don't care about other people's problems. It says that, as long as things are good for us, we don't want them to change.

Another dream I had, though I think it was tangentially connected to the Palahniuk one, had something to do with me being a substitute justice on the Supreme Court. For some reason a justice (don't remember who; none of them were recognizable in the dream world) had recused himself (from this Gore recount case), I think to go and work on some alien archaeology (his murdered body was found in a storage room for artifacts, like these weird alien skulls). The atmosphere in the Supreme Court was very casual, very collegial. I remember thinking it was going to be weird explaining to everybody how I ended up being a justice at one of the most important cases of the century. Then at some point I was on a spaceship that we were hijacking to take us away from Earth. The impressions of this dream universe were somewhat like that of the Alien movies, but also somewhat like that series by Piers Anthony on Jupiter that I read so long ago. Somehow, though, I was there and also reading about it in a book. It also triggered thoughts about what the ideal size of human space. I was thinking 30 years of travel. Then it would keep humanity separate enough that real changes would develop rather than the mass-media monoculture towards which we are moving slowly. That sort of difficulty in seeing the human universe would (hopefully) bring back a certain sense of mystery that has been lost. We know entirely too much about the world; there isn't much adventure left.

And all of this because some annoying woman called me too early in the morning. Without her, I wouldn't have remembered any of this. So blame her; it's her fault.

¶ 20 Posted at 09.37 AM ⇒ No Comments ( deep thoughts | books )

I was inspired by Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor to resolve against referential humor. But then I started wondering what that meant. I mean, saying "Doh!" is not really referential anymore. It's become another word. And besides, if I make a joke (yes, it's possible) about "suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," is that really something that bothers me? I think not. It's the modern mass media being used as a substitute for conversation that bothers me. Probably too much, but it's really annoying when I say something and get the response, "What's that from?" Is it so hard to think that something funny or insightful could come from a normal person, rather than a professional wit who gets paid to be so. Not only can we no longer make things ourselves for ourselves, now we can no longer come up with things to say by ourselves.

¶ 23 Posted at 02.36 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I just finished Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card. If you haven't read Ender's Game, you should. It's about, in simplest terms, a brilliant child who is used by the world government to defeat an alien race. Sounds silly, but it was actually pretty good, as such books go. Ender's Shadow is a retelling of the story of one of the side characters of the first book, an orphan named Bean. Many of the same events occur, but we follow Bean's story and perspective through them. It was an interesting idea, and worth trying. Card didn't fail, but that's because his sights weren't set high enough. There was a certain something about the first book that put it a cut above this one. Or maybe it is because the idea is no longer new, and I was younger and less discriminating when I first read Ender's Game. If I read one more time how smart Bean is... Let's face it. Writers like Orson Scott Card just aren't that great. They're entertaining, somewhat interesting, and every now and then will make you think, but not too hard. It's not his fault; he's probably a pretty smart and interesting guy. It's just that his prose doesn't evoke much. It's a story, albeit an interesting one, but that's about it.

¶ 27 Posted at 11.15 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I just finished reading a book called "The Last Samurai," by Helen DeWitt. Loosely, it is about a very educated, intelligent single mother with an obsession for "The Seven Samurai," and her even more intelligent son. That's the story in a nutshell. A poorly-fitting, cracking-at-the-seams nutshell. The book is a work of genius. It is brilliant. I can't articulate exactly why it is so brilliant, but rest assured that it is. It's also rather confusing. But still, brilliant. Read it. Just be aware that it'll be slow going. It's some 540 pages of less than crystal clear prose. But it's worth it. Read it.

¶ 40 Posted at 01.46 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

So, it's 1:30am on Tuesday, and I can't sleep. Rather than sit in my bed waiting for sleep to come, I decided to read. The book I was reading was Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown. It's supposed to be a thought-provoking, eye-opening, affecting story of growing up "different" in the middle part of the 20th century. It is none of those things.

Perhaps when it was first published in 1973, it got attention for being new and shocking, and so its flaws were overlooked. But after 28 years, it is clear that those "virtues" were only such because of the times. The heroine, one Molly Holt, is flawless. Pretty, intelligent, determined, she escapes her poor white trash beginnings to become a strong independent woman blah blah blah. I hate flawless protagonists. That isn't the only way this book departs from reality. In Rita Mae Brown's worldview, all women are lesbians, it's just that most don't know it or want to believe it. The only people who will treat lesbians well are those who are unaware. Otherwise there is a uniform disgust/resentment. In men, this is the result of their resentment towards strong women for emasculating them, and towards other men for oppressing their universal homosexual tendencies. In women, it is a result of their unwillingness to embrace their lesbianism and their oppression by the patriarchy.

She idealizes men and women, gay and straight, into cliched archetypes. Each actor is a plot element, even our beloved Molly. Of complex character portrayals there are none. The prose is pedestrian and uninspired. It is quite clear that Ms. Brown was trying to be trenchant and witty in her unoriginal perspective, but she falls short. Her depictions of the trials and travails endured by our fearless heroine are also laughable; in most situations, you could swap lesbian for black or Jewish and leave the story basically unaltered. Then there is the complete lack of subtlety in Ms. Brown's condemnation of prejudice. Conversations between characters quickly become polemics against the intolerance of society. Various characters exist solely to spout an offensive and intolerant view of lesbians/blacks/Jews/Puerto Ricans/etc. in a heavy-handed attempt to illustrate the ridiculousness of these perspectives. It's like reading a lesbian Ayn Rand, except (thankfully), a much more brief one.

Don't get me wrong; this is not a worthless book. Your life will not be worse for having read it. But there are so many better ways to spend your time. This book will bring you nothing that could not be conveyed better and more effectively by other means (literary, film, musical, or other). This book is like the literary Elizabeth Taylor; she is now famous for having once been. It is a cultural relic, significant only because it of what it once was, not what it is today.

Blech. Written at 3am, but posted at 8am because my DNS servers broke.

¶ 53 Posted at 07.52 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Salon reviewed The Constant Gardener by John le Carré . That is the latest in my Avoid Infinite Jest Because It's Hard task list. Be careful of that review; there are spoilers. The book is about the murder of a minor British diplomat's do-gooder wife in Kenya and how that is related to the unethical practices of a large pharmaceutical corporation. It's pretty scary. The portrayal of UN humanitarian initiatives is particularly bothersome. In this view, the international aid system is basically a front for Western governments (who are themselves a front for large corporations) to dictate the policies of the Third World under cover of an idealistic program. The real problem is that what le Carré writes jibes with what I've read and heard elsewhere. The world out there sucks. We could probably do something about it, but we don't care enough. And too many powerful people profit from the powerlessness of others. It's depressing. The book itself is worth a read. It's no Galatea 2.2 or The Hours, but 'twill serve.

¶ 64 Posted at 03.29 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I just finished reading Chuck Palahniuk's (of Fight Club fame) third book, Invisible Monsters. I was disappointed. The guy needs to get a new trick. A quote:

But what I hate most is how she's just like me. What I really hate is me so I hate pretty much everybody.

The same language, the same sentiments, and the same story structure (flashbacks) as the other two books (Fight Club and Survivor) . Granted, they aren't the same books in the same way that Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels are the same movie, but it's close. His constant cynicism is tired, though there's a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel of this one. His ranting against the meaninglessness of modern life, against corporatism and consumerism, his fascination for abnormal characters experiencing violent life changes, and his penchant for open-ended surprise endings are done. Very done. Do something else, man. Show me you're not a one-trick pony. Do something completely different. Otherwise it's just pointless.

I'd talk about White Teeth, a book I just recently finished, but that one was pretty good. That will take more time. I want to think about that one. It took me weeks to read, so I think I should give it some more effort. Invisible Monsters took a day. Read into that what you would.

¶ 103 Posted at 10.48 PM ⇒ No Comments ( movies | books )

Oh my god:

In the brutal Nov. 12 battle to keep the Germans from breaking through to the Volga, "only one man survived from the marine infantry guarding the regimental command post. His right hand was smashed and he could no longer fire. He went down into the bunker, and on hearing that there were no reserves left, filled his cap with grenades. 'I can throw these with my left hand,' he explained. Close by, a platoon from another regiment fought until only four were left alive and their ammunition ran out. A wounded man was sent back with the message: 'Begin shelling our position. In front of us is a large group of fascists. Farewell comrades, we did not retreat.'"

Another futile salvo in the attempt to teach the West that Russia won the worst war ever.

¶ 114 Posted at 01.30 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books | whoa )

I'm about halfway through Nick Hornby's new book How To Be Good. So far it's the best one of his that I have read (High Fidelity and About A Boy being the others, as well one of his short stories in the anthology Speaking With The Angel). He has a disarmingly simple and clear way of expressing himself; his sentences are clever and insightful without being self-conscious (Dave Eggers) or pregnant with weight (Jonathan Franzen). I don't know anything about marriage, but what he writes about being in a slowly deteriorating marriage just feels very geniuine. The flipping between anger and love and back again in seconds, the deep and hidden bitterness only possible with someone you love deeply, and the desperate desire to make it work are all there. Hornby's prose is expressive and evocative, but calls so little attention to itself that you have to pay close attention to realize what he's doing. It's fantastic.

¶ 419 Posted at 03.10 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I am about 100 pages into Neal Stephenson's newest book, "Quicksilver." Two words: colossal disappointment. Stephenson has constructed a veritable armada of annoyances with which to assault me. The constant use of anachronistic language, even in narration: "phant'sy" instead of "fancy," for example. The incessant name-dropping of era "natural philosphers." The endless and condescending explications of the difference between natural philosophy and modern science, with the heavy-handed illustration of ideas that are forerunners of modern practice. And then there's the parade of familiar names from "Cryptonomicon," with Stephenson so intent on connecting the two and thus creating the "Aha!" in the reader that he brings in a character whose only previous reference was as a maker of fine furniture. And through it all, we have the redoubtable Enoch Root passing through it all like an Enlightenment-era Forest Gump. I don't blame Stephenson so much as the spineless editor who indulged him. Rather than the taut and effective prose of "Cryptonomicon," where digressions and meanderings were purposeful and whose language was well-refined to tell the story it told, we instead have a clumsy and graceless tale that collapses under the weight of its own self-importance. At least, that is the case for the first 100 pages.

¶ 614 Posted at 01.11 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I currently about halfway through Perfectly Legal, by NY Times tax reporter David Cay Johnston. The subtitle is "The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else." It's a pretty interesting read. It has a lot of good data. Johnston demonstrates how changes in the structure of Social Security have turned it from a pension plan into basically an income tax by another name, one unbalanced against the poor and middle class. He provides data indicating that the poor are many times more likely to face an IRS audit than the wealthy, and even when the wealthy are audited, the IRS is far less likely to pursue them and actually get paid. Johnston discusses how deferred executive pay allows CEOs and other corporate officers accumulate many millions through interest and capital gains on pay, while deferring taxes for decades. He goes over the corporate jet boondoggle, which allows corporate officers to get nearly free rides on the shareholders' dimes. He talks about how the Alternative Minimum Tax will effectively replace the standard income tax over the next decade for a substantial number of Americans in the middle and upper class (but not the very rich), and thus prevent them from realizing a large part of the benefits of the Bush tax cuts that were promised them. And that's only part of what I've read in the first half of the book. Johnston has assembled an impressive array of evidence in this book. Unfortunately, it's fundamentally flawed.

The flaw isn't in the content or the analysis, but instead the tone that the author chose. He has a tendency to stray from objective language. While he criticizes the (rather successful) language campaign to change the neutral "estate tax" to the politically charged "death tax," he makes a similar mistake by often using phrases like "tax burden." While you may agree that taxes are a burden, it is not objective language. He also will praise certain figures, while making a few (rather mild) ad hominem jabs. "Tax burden" is a phrase often used by Republicans, but Johnston's language is biased from the other side of the aisle; that's just the only example I could remember just now.

Johnston's editor could have helped him a little with structuring his arguments as well. He will go from talking about one set of numbers that apply to those earning $50K - $500K, and in the next paragraph start talking about those making $75K - $500K. That type of slipperiness sets off flags in my mind, because it makes me think I'm being tricked. So I reread it, only to discover there is no sleight of hand at work. But the feeling of discomfort doesn't completely disappear.

Also a problem is Johnston's tendency to state that some people are paying "too much" in taxes while other people are not paying "enough." The obvious problem with that is people have widely divergent opinions on what is "too much" and what is "not enough." Johnston's baseline for "just right" appears to be the tax structure that existed until the early 1970s. But really, statements of "too much" and "not enough" should have no place in this book. It makes the book sound like it's about determining what people should pay, rather than revealing what people actually pay.

Now, you may ask why this matters. I mean, fact are facts, right? The problem is that this is a work on public policy, and implicit in that is a call for change. However, for the change to happen, it is necessary to enlist the aid of the upper middle class. The standard Democratic position on the flaws in the tax system is that the poor and the middle class are paying too much while the upper class isn't paying enough. Johnston's thesis, however, is that everyone except the very rich is paying too much. Not just the poor and the middle class, but even most of the upper class. Both parties have structured the system in such a way that the moderately rich are worse off than they realize and potentially worse off than they should be.

However, many of the upper class are Republicans, and have heard the standard Democratic party line so much that they tune it out. And so when the Republican leadership tells them the tax cuts will help them, they'll vote for them, even though they are hurting themselves. To fix the problems with the tax system, it is essential to break through to those moderately rich Republicans and get them to understand that they are subsidizing the very rich, that things don't actually work the way they have been told. The flaw in the book is that, while it is a well-researched, analytical text, it looks and sounds like a screed. By his use of language, Johnston makes it seem like it is a screed against the upper class. Johnston gives those people far too many reasons to stop reading, because he unnecessarily attacks many things they identify with. And that's a bad thing, because for any meaningful change to happen, they need to be on board.

Johnston has written a revealing book. It contains a lot of data supporting how the tax system has shifted over the years. This is not a book about rich vs. poor. It is not a book about the flaws or merits of capitalism. IT is not a book about spending priorities of the federal government. It is about taxes. It is about how some people make a lot of money and pay little in taxes, while others make little, and pay a lot. You may agree with his conclusions. You may disagree with them. The tone of the book may make you want to put it down immediately, and I understand. But the book is worth reading, to get a clearer picture of the reality behind the rhetoric. The system is broken. Not just for the bottom 50%, or the bottom 75%, but for the bottom 99%. Johnston is angry. Rightfully so, I think. But nothing will get accomplished as long as most Republicans think he is attacking them.

¶ 671 Posted at 12.37 PM ⇒ No Comments ( politics | books )

There's a new book out called "The Paradox of Choice," written by social scientist Barry Schwartz out of Swarthmore College. The thesis of the book seems to be that a profusion of choices, rather than empowering us, in fact confuse and depress us. Just going by the New Yorker review, it sounds really interesting. There is no clear connection, but for some reason it feels akin to The Tipping Point. It's going on my wishlist for sure.

¶ 701 Posted at 09.18 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: The Life of Pi
Author: Yann Martel
Verdict: Read it

I need to keep better track of the books I read. Recently I did a little SF jag, with "A Deepness in the Sky" by Vernor Vinge, "The Stone Canal" by Ken MacLeod, and "Singularity Sky" by Charles Stross. Having a large public library system where you can request books online is really handy. I don't have to buy books anymore. I never had to before, but it's so much less work now.

¶ 737 Posted at 09.40 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: The Black Echo
Author: Michael Connelly
Genre: Mystery Verdict: Eh. It was ok. The main flaw was the amateurish writing, which I found rather strange because the author's day job is as a reporter and he claimed to have been nominated for a Pulitzer. The story was fine and the characters were ok, but the prose was clunky and awkward. I expected better since the New York Times wrote a fawining article about him last week, which is why I picked the book up in the first place. Oh well. It was his first novel, I believe, so maybe he managed to pick up the quality with more practice. I'll give another one a shot; I need something to read when allergies wake me up at 5am.

¶ 738 Posted at 11.22 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: High St@kes, No Prisoners : A Winner's Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars
Author: Charles Ferguson
Verdict: Yuck. Well, ok, I didn't get very far. My time is precious and so I don't waste it on books I can't stand. I got maybe 40 pages in. The short summary of the book is that it is a story of Ferguson starting and then selling his software company to Microsoft, giving them the product that became FrontPage. Seems at least a little interesting, but I just could not get past his writing style. He was insufferably smug while trying to seem humble. He dropped names at every opportunity. He made bold but vague pronouncements in the manner of a not-quite-smart-enough 12-year old. His sentences weren't so much written as they were assembled. The non-narrative sections where he waxed prophetic about the future of the Internet were alternately annoying and laughable, clear (and weak) attempts to be a visionary. That the book was published in 1999 may give you some idea of how accurate they were. And then there was the horrid l33tification of the title; I cannot imagine the meeting that came up with th@t. I can't deliver a verdict because I didn't read it. I couldn't stand it. Take that for what it's worth. I'm moving on to greener pastures (well, actually, I'm about 60 pages from the end of a greener pasture).

¶ 748 Posted at 11.22 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: The Con-fusion, aka Book 2 of the Baroque Cycle, aka The Empire Strikes Back (ok, I made that up)
Author: Neal Stephenson
Verdict: The sort of thing for those who like that sort of thing. If you liked "Cryptonomicon" and "Quicksilver," you'll want to read it.

If you liked "Quicksilver," you'll like "The Con-fusion" more. If you were ambivalent about "Quicksilver," as I was, you may still like "The Con-fusion." Indeed, "The Con-fusion" made me like Q more, oddly enough. To recap, the Baroque Cycle is Neal Stephenson's latest monster, weighing in at about 1700 pages so far, with probably another 700-900 to go. It's part steam-punk, part "Gulliver's Travels," part romantic novel (in the classical sense), and part Forest Gump. We return to the same main cast of characters as in Q, Eliza, Jack and Bob Shaftoe, and Daniel Waterhouse. We also revisit and add to the rather large supporting cast of characters from Q. The geographic scope of the book is also greatly expanded; in Q, the focus stayed mainly in northern and central Europe, with a brief spell in Massachusetts. TC, on the other hand, visits Spain, the Ottoman Empire, India, Japan, Mexico, and a half dozen other places. Q covered a roughly 6 year period in the 1680s; TC picks up roughly where Q left off and brings us to the beginning of the 18th century.

Plot-wise, there isn't much obviously connecting the two books. The closing of Q sets up much of the story of TC, but there is no clear plot in either book. That isn't to say they are plotless, just that the plot seems to meander on a random walk. I expect that the third book will wrap it up into a neat package. Actually, "random walk" is also unfair, as the progression from point to point is, if not logical, certainly consequential. Stephenson weaves disparate threads into a mostly-cohesive story. The book is actually presented as two parallel, separate "books," "Juncto" and "Bonanza," with sections from the two interwoven chronologically. Again, the fictional characters mix with real characters and move through a slightly fictionalized 17th century. I am curious to research how accurate Stephenson's portrayal of history is, but I cannot investigate until after reading the third book lest I stumble upon "spoilers." Anyway, the point is that Stephenson has written an interesting, absorbing story that combines many historical elements with some fantastical ones. He even sets you up for some pretty solid punches to the gut; the 800-odd pages are filled with complicated twists and turns, but not so complicated as to be unbelievable or to confuse.

One of the key connectors with previous works by Stephenson is his focus on the science. This being the 17th century, that means a rather different thing than in "The Diamond Age" or in "Snow Crash." It isn't just a question of technological development, but also of social, political, and economic change. Stephenson is clearly fascinated with this time period, and it's easy to understand why. It was the Age of Enlightenment, when the superstitions of the medieval age were giving way to the coming industrial age. Natural philosophy and alchemy were developing into something we could legitimately call "science." At the same time, the political structures were becoming more complex than the feudal monarchies of the past, and global trading networks were being constructed as colonialism took hold. The world was becoming smaller and larger at the same time. The combined impact of these technological, political, and economic forces was unpredictable, but it was clear it would be world-changing. Seen through Stephenson's eyes, I can understand his fascination with the period; while all periods of history have their change and upheaval, in few periods were as many different, diverse, and significant trends at work, combining and recombining in complex ways.

Believability may be one of the larger hurdles a reader would have to leap. Stephenson's characters are, as I previously stated, sort of like Enlightenment-era Forest Gumps; they are involved at least peripherally in nearly every historically significant event of that period. He never makes it hard to suspend your disbelief, but if you step back from the story, it's a little shaky. This is mostly alleviated by the writing style that he uses; in many ways, his prose in these books is the most mature I have seen him write. Certain affectations caused me some annoyance in Q, but I have apparently callused my brain in just the right places. Those affectations were the most clumsy of his efforts, but they are part of a broader, more subtle effort to foster a certain point of view and attitude. Shocking, brutal things happen through the course of the book, but he keeps them at a distance through the perspective his writing creates. Think of the style of magical realism, or the language of "Gulliver's Travels," "Candide," and Gabriela Garcia Marquez, and you'll understand a little of what I mean. Stephenson is even more windily discursive in TC and Q than he was in previous works like "Cryptonomicon," but for me, at least, it works. I fully recognize that it won't work for everyone, but it's the sort of thing for those who like that sort of thing.

Hrmph. Writing a book review is hard. Oh well. Practice makes, well, practice can't make you worse, right?

¶ 752 Posted at 11.46 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

In the last couple of months, I have also read "Permutation City" by Greg Egan and "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Neither of those was noteworthy enough to say more about them, either positively or negatively. I'm sure I'm forgetting some also. I wish I could look at my book-borrowing history from the Austin Public Library, but they erase patron borrowing records once the books are returned so that they cannot be subpoenaed under the PATRIOT Act. I prefer it that way.

¶ 756 Posted at 11.58 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: Distraction
Author: Bruce Sterling
Verdict: OK. It had some interesting ideas and was well-constructed, but it didn't grab me.

¶ 761 Posted at 10.49 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: Neverwhere
Author: Neil Gaiman
Verdict: Decent. It's a slim little book, weighing at only 248 pages. If you liked "American Gods," you may find this to your liking as well. It's got some of the same themes; a protagonist who is disconnected from the world, a mystical realm below and around the prosaic world we see, ambiguous alliances, etc. If you haven't read Neil Gaiman, this is a good place to start; it's not nearly as long as "American Gods" but gives enough flavor for you to know if you want more.

¶ 762 Posted at 09.13 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: Perdido Street Station
Author: China Miéville
Verdict: Read it if you like weird science fiction-y stories. It's a crazy book. The guy has some kind of imagination. Take a Dickensian Industrial-era, a fantastic (in the traditional sense) and brutal world, a pinch of horror, put them all together, and this is what you get. Definitely not for everyone, but if that little description sounds like your thing, you'll enjoy it.

¶ 772 Posted at 11.24 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: Manifold: Time
Author: Stephen Baxter
Verdict: And it's good. If you're a fan of "hard" science fiction, you should read this book. Its scope is big, as in "heat death of the universe" big. Sure, the characters are a little thin and the writing could be better, but the plot, well, that's something. At times it's dizzying, vertigo-inducing in its scale. I've already acquired and started the sequel.

¶ 779 Posted at 04.17 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: Manifold: Space
Author: Stephen Baxter
Verdict: If you read "Manifold: Time," you have to read "Manifold: Space," the sequel. If it didn't sound like your thing, this isn't either.

¶ 782 Posted at 12.00 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: Manifold:Origin
Author: Stephen Baxter
Verdict: If you read the last two... I was disappointed, though. It kind of petered out. Oh well. I think I'm about book-ed out for a while.

¶ 802 Posted at 05.21 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I read a bunch of books recently. I'm not going to give them a full treatment:

Author: Roger Zelazny
Title: The Amber Chronicles
Verdict: Middle-weight fantasy series. It diverted without demanding much.

Author: Michael Connelly
Title: The Black Ice
Verdict: A decent mystery, the sequel to "The Black Echo."

Author: Anonymous
Title: Imperial Hubris: How the West is Losing the War on Terror
Verdict: A pretty good analysis of the threat from Al Qaeda. The author is an anonymous, senior CIA official. He goes into deep analysis of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, and the describes the context of the Islamic world that they operate in. He also criticizes US tactics in responding to September 11th and explains how to do it better. This is by no means some "liberal attack on our President," but a well-argued, reasoned analysis of the "war on terror" from a knowledgeable and frustrated intelligence veteran.

Author: Michael Connelly
Title: The Concrete Blonde
Verdict: The sequel to "The Black Ice," another decent modern day mystery.

Author: Alastair Reynolds
Title: Revelation Space
Verdict: A really solid, excellent piece of hard science fiction.

¶ 874 Posted at 11.25 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Title: The Years of Rice and Salt

Pretend the Black Death of the 1300s killed 99% of the population of Europe. Now tie that to metaphysical meanderings on reincarnation and the purpose of life and you get "The Years of Rice and Salt." The book is an alternate history, but rather than a series of unrelated vignettes, it is seen through the eyes of a group of reincarnating souls that move through time together. Robinson mixes into this a progressive view of history; his view is that the discovery of agriculture turned a mostly egalitarian hunter/gatherer society into a violently unequal civilization of kings, priests, and peasants, and that progress since then can be defined as the attempt to maintain the organized civilization while erasing the inequality. It's not as dry and preachy as I make it sound, or maybe I just think that because I approximately agree. Regardless, it's an interesting book worth reading, though not necessarily worth a spot near the top of the stack.

¶ 884 Posted at 05.30 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: Pandora's Star
Author: Peter F. Hamilton
Verdict: Excellent
I've read a lot of really good science fiction lately, and "Pandora's Star" is no exception. A few hundred years from now, an astronomer on a distant planet witnesses two stars becoming suddenly and completely enveloped by an impenetrable barrier. Events ensue. I am loath to tell much about what happens, not because there are any great surprises, but because I like things to be as fresh and new as possible. Suffice it to say that, while Hamilton gets a little hand-wavey with the physics and has an odd fetish for naming pieces of industrial equipment, this is a very well-written book, with a large and diverse cast, a richly imagined universe, and an engrossing, well-paced plot. If you like modern science fiction, you should definitely pick this one up.

¶ 910 Posted at 10.16 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I blew through a couple more of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch mysteries this weekend, "Trunk Music" and "Angels' Flight." At this point, there's not much to say; if you've read the first 4 books in the series, you know what to expect.

¶ 921 Posted at 08.36 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Last week, I blew through three more Harry Bosch books, "A Darkness More Than Night," "Lost Light," and "City of Bones." That is all.

¶ 927 Posted at 10.19 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I started the final tome in Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle" this weekend. I came across this particularly delightful 1 part last night:

Then he got a look on his face as if he were thinking. Daniel had learned, in his almost seventy years, no to expect much of people who got such looks, because thinking really was something one ought to do all the time.

I've always thought it strange and disturbing how many smart people seem to apply their intellect only to study and work and turn it off for the remaining parts of their lives, but I never expressed it so well.

¶ 936 Posted at 11.14 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books | quotes )

In the last month or so, I've read two more Harry Bosch books (City of Bones and Lost Light) second and third books in Ken MacLeod's "Engines of Light trilogy (Dark Light and Engine City) the third book in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (The System of the World) and Iron Sunrise, the sequel to Charles Stross's Singularity Sky. As usual, I'm not going to describe the books much; the Amazon links have better descriptions than any I could come up with. Reviewing is hard work; giving opinions is easy.

The Bosch books are decent mysteries, a step or two above "airplane books." Those have become my light reading, books that I find engaging and diverting enough that I can sprinkle them in my queue to mix things up a bit. I'm on the last one, though, so I'll have to find something else.

"Engines of Light" is a science fiction trilogy that started with Cosmonaut Keep. Those books were only so-so; I felt like there was something missing from the narrative. There was a lack of scope and scale appropriate to the universe described, and the ending was a complete nothing. There's better science fiction out there to read.

"The System of the World" was a fine conclusion to a satisfying trilogy. Neal Stephenson is a very smart, very knowledgeable man, but not in an in-your-face Dave Eggers sort of way. It's impossible to pick a single genre, or even a couple. It's part science fiction (of the steampunk variety), part romance, part political thriller, part travelogue, part philosophical treatise, part historical fiction, part comedy... there's a lot going on, but it all blends together in the end. The books are an acquired taste, though, and they are definitely not for everyone.

Finally, "Iron Sunrise" was an excellent hard science fiction book following up on another excellent hard science fiction book. Charles Stross is clearly a talented writer with a lot of good ideas. Plus the font used on the book's covers is neat. I'm going to have to catch up on his other stuff.

¶ 961 Posted at 11.38 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: Jennifer Government
Author: Max Barry
Verdict: Great. It's not science fiction, but it is speculative. There's no fancy futuristic gadgetry, but the world is different. The conservatives have won. The US government is a shadow of its former power and much of the world is run by big corporations. Then stuff happens. It's a cool book. I burned through it in a hurry. It's really sharp and surprisingly funny. It's a top quality read. Go get it.

¶ 984 Posted at 09.36 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I didn't stop reading over the last month. I made my way through the massive "Otherland" series by Tad Williams. Thems is long books. Took me a while. It was pretty good. Imagine a vast virtual reality network of unsurpassed realism that is somehow connected to mysterious comas striking children around the world. Now write 4 books about it, books that actually have a plausible plot, believable characters, and other hallmarks of quality, and there you go.

¶ 1016 Posted at 10.48 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

In the not-so-distant past, I have also read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night" by Mark Haddon and "Innumeracy" by John Paulos. They were worth reading. I am too tired to say more about them.

¶ 1025 Posted at 10.46 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

A couple of weeks back, I read through John C. Wright's trilogy of "The Golden Transcendence." As is obvious from the title, this is a series of SF books. They were engrossing in spite of several annoying affectations. They veered into self-parody from time to time, but were overall good. It was definitely a book full of ideas. Um. So there you go.

¶ 1046 Posted at 01.12 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I have recently read China Mieville's "The Scar" and Suketu Mehta's "Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found." "The Scar" is a sorta sequel to "Perdido Street Station," and similarly weird and fantastic. "Maximum City" is a book about the seamy underbelly of Bombay. Here's a good review.

¶ 1078 Posted at 02.28 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I read "Mathematics and Sex" by Clio Cresswell because it sounded interesting. Some of the subjects discussed were why there are two sexes, how many members of a population to "sample" before choosing a mate, and the difficulties of match-making. It's interesting stuff. The problem is it's delivered in a chatty, vapid style that makes it a real pain in the ass to read, full of stupid, unfunny jokes and "witticisms." I know why it's like that, of course. The book checks in at a slim 192 pages. Without all the crappy filler, it would probably be about 60 pages, and you can't get $15.95 (SRP) for that. It's annoying enough that it makes it a waste of time, though, which is unfortunate. It makes me glad I don't pay for books anymore.

¶ 1085 Posted at 01.01 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I just took another trip into China Miéville's twisted imagination in "Iron Council." Short summary: it's a step below "The Scar," which was itself a half step below "Perdido St. Station," but still a good book. I don't know where I found the time to read it (lots of late night reading). So, um, there you are. Man. I'm a sucky reviewer.

¶ 1110 Posted at 11.48 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: Peter the Great
Author: Robert K. Massie
Verdict: Excellent

This weekend, I finished slogging through Massie's excellent biography of Tsar Peter the Great of Russia. The slog had nothing to do with quality and everything to do with density 1 . In any era, Peter would have been an extraordinary figure, but in the 17th century, and in 17th century Russia, he was a prodigy. He was intensely curious, filled with amazing energy, and a tremendous determination to turn his country from a backward backwater into a modern, European Power. At the same time, he was still a Russian tsar, and could be shockingly brutal. His informal and limited education blunted the force of many of his initiatives, as many of them were poorly thought out, and his fickleness made it difficult for many of his subordinates to act independently. He had a bizarre fascination with the sea, considering he grew up in a land-locked nation, and many distinctly un-Tsarish habits that distinguished him from his predecessors. Nevertheless, this one man single-handedly hauled Russia from the 13th century into the 17th century 2 . Peter the Great is one of the few that can be legitimately be said to have changed history, rather than riding forces bigger than any single person. His reign came during (and arguably contributed to) a dynamic and fascinating period in world history, during the time of such famous figures as Louis XIV, Newton, Leibniz, the Duke of Marlborough, William III of England, King Charles XII of Sweden 3 and many more 4 . With regard to the book itself, Massie's biography is a rich and engaging portrait of this magnetic figure, though at times Massie struggles with the balance between excessive detachment and overflowing man-love for his subject . If you have any interest in history, I highly recommend you read this one.

¶ 1123 Posted at 04.49 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Over the long weekend, I read "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling, "Secrets from an Inventor's Notebook" by Maurice Kanbar, and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," also by J.K. Rowling. Back in July or so, I also read "The Know-It-All" by A.J. Jacobs and reread "The Practice of Programming" by Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike. I'm not reading nearly as much as I used to. That's not because I lacked the time, but just because. I'm going to try to fix that, because I like the bookses.

¶ 1184 Posted at 10.07 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

In the last week, I gobbled up "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and ".... and the Goblet of Fire." They're getting better, but J.K. Rowling is hamstrung by clumsy choices she made earlier, and by the need to throw in lots of cutesy silliness for the younger audience. At least, I assume she's hamstrung by it, and that the books would be better if she didn't have those constraints. Regardless, it's decent, easy reading to get me back in the habit again, which is good no matter what the books are like. I think I'm going to stick to pulpier stuff for a little while before trying to tackle some of the more serious books on my 328 book Amazon wishlist (only a few of which I actually want to own). Alas, I cannot read as quickly as I find interesting books to read.

¶ 1189 Posted at 05.47 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I zipped through "Knife of Dreams," book eleven of "The Wheel of Time." There's not a whole lot good to say beyond that it was more interesting than the previous few. I'm just reading them to get to the end, at this point. The series started well, but around book 7, the train started going off the rails. He pulled in more and more characters, spinning out more and more plot threads. It became a real pain to remember what was going on, especially when years passed between volumes. Time slowed down to almost the pace of a daytime soap opera, with pages and pages and pages of nothing. He's said that the next book will be the last, which says to me that even he has gotten sick of it and is going to wrap it up as quickly as possible. Books 7-10 could have been compressed into 2 books, leaving room for the 3 books from now on that I feel he needs to finish the story well, while still stopping at a dozen.

Now, Robert Jordan has been really good at several critical elements of a fantasy epic. He has a rich backstory and a well-fleshed out pantheon of heroes and villains. He's also introduced several clever innovations. The magic in the Wheel of Time is pretty well-described on a mechanical level, to the point that referring to it as "magic" doesn't feel right. He's also come up with a novel and effective way to justify the improbably convenient (or inconvenient) things that happen to main characters, folding that into an mechanism for prophecies and reincarnation of archetypal heroes. He has an active and creative imagination for nations and peoples and cultures. Regressing to mediocrity even with those advantages makes it especially frustrating that he so thoroughly dropped the ball when it came to good old-fashioned story-telling.

Sometimes it's worse when someone misses by inches instead of miles. Maybe someday, someone can work with the raw materials Jordan conceived and rewrite "The Wheel of Time" "the way it should have been." US Copyright laws won't allow that to happen without his blessing, however, which seems unlikely. It's unfortunate because it started off so well. Oh well. There's lots of good stuff to read. I'd like to see someone break the unwritten rules of epic fantasy. Robert Jordan innovated in several ways, but he still worked within the same constraints. Contrast him with China Miéville. The incomplete list of rules that I have compiled thus far is:

• The setting is Europe-ish, more specifically, like England. That means the action takes place north of the equator in a temperate region. The people are white, and the names generally Anglo-Saxon (-ish). I realize this is at least partly due to trying to appeal to the audience, but it's still lame.
• Also pertaining to setting, the time period is generally medieval. We're talking castles, knights, and longbows. In a lot of ways, that makes sense. The world was still relatively unknown, with natural and artificial barriers to the spread of knowledge permitting a great deal of mystery. Furthermore, one can argue that the medieval era ended with the introduction of three technologies: gunpowder, the printing press, and the steam engine. The first and last make it harder to sustain the romantic, individualist heroism common to epic fantasy, while the printing press works to banish mystery by making knowledge much more freely accessed and disseminated.
• Supernatural abilities are restricted to a small subset of the population.
• Our heroes are pretty darned good at a surprising number of things, though they all have a gentle dusting of warts.
• Good people are always good. Bad people are always bad.
• Good families always spawn good people. Bad families always spawn bad people.
• Gay people don't exist.
• Humanity is the dominant race.

That's my list so far. I'm sure there are more.

¶ 1191 Posted at 02.37 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

I read Chris Moriarty's "Spin State" last month. It's a generic, hard(ish) science fiction book. I found it unremarkable. Don't bother. There are better books out there.

¶ 1197 Posted at 05.19 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

For the last 6 weeks, I had been battling my through David Gilmour's "Curzon: Imperial Statesman". I've finally finished, and I'm ready to switch to a fluff diet again. George Curzon was the epitome of late Victorian English nobility. He was born to a member of the House of Lords. He believed strongly in the imperial mission of the British Empire. He served for seven years as Viceroy in India. A staunch Conservative, he opposed women's suffrage. He seemed destined to enter the highest ranks of British statesmen as Prime Minister, but due to a temperament that often exasperated his peers, fell just short of his goal. In Winston Churchill's words:

The morning had been golden; the noontide was bronze; and the evening lead. But all were polished till it shone after its fashion.

As a biography, Gilmour's book is a compelling portrait both of the man and his times in the late Victorian British Empire and the first quarter of the 20th century. He covers in great detail Curzon's upbringing and career, the latter being inextricable from his social life. In his early adulthood, Curzon was a prolific traveller throughout an Asia in the grip of European colonization. I found the parts about India especially interesting, although there were times when I was SO VERY ANGRY THESE WORDS FILL ME WITH RAGE due to the inherent injustice of British colonization, though Curzon himself was one of the more benign British rulers, trying to curb the abusive and unfair treatment by British occupiers of native Indians and working to restore historical buildings such as the Taj Mahal. The parts of the book covering British government during and after World War I are also informative, painting a picture of a nation beginning to realize that empire might not be all they had thought.

Where the biography falls down is in how the author constantly praises Curzon's administrative and rhetorical abilities. We get a taste of the latter, and we certainly are well-informed where it comes to the numerous gaffes and mistakes caused by his obvliousness or indifference to his colleagues personal feelings, but the author gives us little raw material to judge for ourselves his strengths as a ruler. This is especially important because Curzon's Viceroyalty ended controversially with him falling on his sword (so to speak) over an apparently minor issue of administrative policy. That particular scandal is covered in great detail, but due to the insufficient of policy details meant we knew his was the right position due to hindsight and the author's insistence, not by having developed any confidence in his abilities ourselves. That is a key omission, as Curzon's career was built on the twin foundations of rhetorical and administrative excellence, which were sufficient to overcome those aspects of his personality which were somewhat less excellent.

Overall, however, Gilmour does an excellent job of depicting an important and misunderstood historical figure, one whose all-too-human failings and poor luck have kept him in relative obscurity, with what little is generally thought of him being either wrong or unfair. If you're a fan of historical biography, this book certainly worth a look. I learned a great deal that I hadn't previously known, presented in clear (though dense) prose. It's motivated me to learn more about this interesting era, in spite of the SO FURIOUS I AM parts about imperial Britain.

¶ 1203 Posted at 05.30 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

This weekend, I caught up to the present by finishing "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth book in the series, after zipping through book five, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" the previous week. There's no a whole lot to say about them at this point. They're Harry Potter books. If you've gotten far enough in the series to contemplate reading those, you'll find them satisfying. These books are way easier to get through than historical biographies, I tell you what.

¶ 1206 Posted at 12.28 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Author: George R. R. Martin
Title: A Feast for Crows
Hey, look, another fantasy fiction mega-tome! I'm on it. This one's been a long time coming, there having been a five year gap between this, the fourth book in the series, and the book preceding it. So, hey, go read those and come back, right? What to expect from those is about what you'll expect from this one. That is to say, it's uncommonly good epic fantasy, but not for the faint of heart. Most other such books and series have a bit of a Disneyland feel. They're in semi-medieval ages, but they're not very medieval. People die nobly. There are Good People, and there are Bad People. Oh, sure, there are often people who switch sides because the author thinks [s]he is clever, but it's either completely random or telegraphed hundreds of pages in advance 1 . Martin does away with all that. You don't know what he's going to do. It's not because he's flat-out unpredictable, but because his characters are complex and changing in an uncertain world. With Robert Jordan, you know where he's going; you just want to see how he's going to get there. And then he'll annoy the crap out of you getting there. Not so with Martin. I just finished the fourth book in a projected seven book series, and I still don't know what's going to happen. In some ways, that's a bad thing; I almost feel as though the main action hasn't gotten started yet.

Another good thing about this series compared to some other epics is that Martin is honest. When the story is seen from a character's point of view, you know what's going on. There are none of the irritating hinting at secret plots and actions that the character knows about, but the reader is kept in the dark (and, as I see it, taunted). Martin still has too many characters, but at least he limits the number of PoVs to a more manageable number. I sort of wonder whether Robert Jordan's forking of plot threads, multiplication of characters, and half-assed attempts at intrigue in his last few books are a response to Martin's much defter storytelling. Robert Jordan has some gifts, as I've mentioned before, but Martin is as good in those departments and just plain better as a writer.

This book is a bit of an aberration, as it was originally much longer than its current 784 pages. In order to make it publishable, Martin broke it in half, not by splitting the narrative by time, but by character and plot thread. The next book will cover much of the same time period, but with the missing characters. It's a little bit unsatisfying, but it's better than having an artificial break in the story.

Then there's the medieval part. The world is a brutal place. The medieval era was even more so. Most fantasy fiction is pretty anachronistic 2 about that. Not our guy Martin. It's not graphic, but only because that is unnecessary. To some degree, actually, I think he overdoes it, but then I realize that's my own squeamishness, not any lack of historical 3 accuracy. Still, it's something a prospective reader ought to be warned about.

By this point in the ramble, I hope I've given you some idea as to whether you want to read the book. If not, I'll sum it up: this is for people who like fantasy fiction. It is not for people with sensitive stomachs. It's especially for people who are sick of mediocrity in the genre 4 , who want a more challenging and subtle story that doesn't pander to teenagers.

¶ 1212 Posted at 05.03 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Book: Accelerando
Author: Charles Stross
I enjoyed Charles Stross's last two books, "Singularity Sky" and "Iron Sunrise." They were the right balance of science fiction speculation and story. His latest, "Accelerando," is something less. It charts the path of humanity and a dysfunctional family from the near future, (possibly) through the technological singularity, and beyond. The problem is... well, there are several problems. In spite of being science fiction, "Accelerando" is firmly grounded in the present, the very specific present of the last several years. Writing your science fiction from the cutting edge of science, technology, and society is a sure-fire way to obsolete your story before it hits the bookshelves. Extrapolating from trends born a minute ago makes it impossible to filter out the inevitable noise from a near infinity of dead ends and mistakes as the collective mass of humanity stumbles blindly into the future. References to webloggers and slashdotting may have an immediate appeal and drive sales as members of those communities feel a flush of pride at their inclusion (possibly even praising Stross's daring vision in the process), but all they will do is render the book hopelessly dated in 10 years and incomprehensible in 20.

Stross brings some new ideas, but the story leaves something to be desired. mashups of current trends may be excitingly post-modern, but they are no substitute for actual creativity and a strong narrative. Stross adds incrementally to the growing corpus of concepts in science fiction. To the singularity, post-humanism, cybernetic implants, distributed intelligence, computronium, consciousness uploads, nanotechnology, simulated realities, personality backups, group minds, planetary engineering, whole solar system Matrioshka computers, and numerous other now-standard tropes of modern science fiction, he adds reputation markets, forking and converging consciousness, laws and contracts written in code, and some partially-imagined sketches of exotic economics concepts and the evolution of intelligence. There are a lot of other ideas, too, but many of them are not very good ideas. They're the product of throwing a lot of buzzwords and nascent concepts into a blender, not creativity, vision, and insight.

This is meant as a novel, however, and that's where the ultimate flaws lie. The Cory Doctorow quote on the front cover is especially telling:

Who knew it was possible to cram so many sizzling ideas into this many pages? Stross's brand of gonzo techno-speculation makes hallucinogens obsolete.

Once you clean the vomit from your mouth caused by such over-the-top praise from a personal friend of the author, it's also indicative of what is missing. The ideas are crammed in there. The story isn't important. The characters are only outlines. The main character through the first chunk of the book is the sort of person webloggers and Slashdotters want to be, an imagining of the alpha geek in his prime. He's not so good at relationships, but he has six great ideas before breakfast (an almost exact and cringe-inducing quote from the book), knows a lot about everything, and is wired for sound, sight, network, etc. He's not actually much of a person, though. We don't see much deeper than the surface. Then there's that darn cat, which is the source of some the more annoying parts of the story (including the ones that were left out and should have been kept). It all ends in an abrupt and unsatisfying conclusion. There isn't even hope for a sequel because the manner of the ending doesn't leave much room for a graceful continuation into another full-length novel. The end is the end, and it leaves too many loose ends to feel complete. It is full of ideas, but ultimately soulless.

Final verdict: skip it.

Addendum: This book was originally published as a serial in a science fiction magazine, which may explain some of those flaws. Painting characters with a broad brush avoids having to keep track of deep characters for month after month (9 in total). It also will create a bias toward stuffing each part with brief references to novel concepts based on the present, as magazines are more transient. Only pack rats hang on to magazines long after their publication, and few of them go back to reread the published stories (I assume). Stross would have done well to work harder on the transition from magazine to book.

¶ 1214 Posted at 12.00 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Title: Shadowmarch
Author: Tad Williams

I actually read Shadowmarch back in the spring (maybe even March), but I haven't said anything because there is very little to say. It's kind of a by-the-numbers, decent opener to an epic fantasy series. It's not particularly original, though, and it has the semi-Disneyfied feel of a lot of fantasy fiction, sort of like how a goth teenager is quote dark end quote. It'll do, but stacked up against the competition from George R. R. Martin or Steven Erikson (of which more shortly), its lack of ambition and depth is apparent. Those other authors have raised the bar, so to speak, but Tad Williams hasn't raised his game to match. This kind of bland story might have worked in the 1980s or 1990s, but the landscape has changed.

¶ 1326 Posted at 12.00 PM ⇒ No Comments ( books )

Author: Bruce Sterling
Title: Zeitgest

I picked up Zeitgeist because they didn't have Schismatrix on the shelves at the library. What a waste of time. It was just a limp nothing. Some hustler puts together a fake girl band pre-millennium and goes on an aimless journey where bizarre stuff happens. Woo. Sterling was trying too hard and got too little. Pre-millennial this, post-modern that, narrative structure blah blah blah. The story didn't go anywhere. The characters didn't go anywhere. There were no interesting ideas. It was a quarter-baked book at best on the things that mattered. I only finished it because it was a fluffy, quick read. If it wasn't such a nothing, I would have given up, but then, if it had been a something, it would have been worth reading.

¶ 1334 Posted at 11.02 AM ⇒ No Comments ( books )