Books update
19 June 2015 22:20![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kmusserOk, it's been over a year since I've done a books update, so this is a long list. I think I'm missing some too that went straight into the goodwill pile after being read.
Believer by David Axlerod - Axlerod was Obama's campaign manager and this is part Axlerod's biography and part an insider’s look at Obama's campaigns. Of Interest mainly to political junkies, nothing really surprising and the the writing is a little dry in places. What made it fascinating for me is that it read like a "what might have been" of my own life. In high school I was involved in Chicago/Illinois politics and I was volunteering for the same folks that he writes about working with, he even came to speak to my political science class once so I knew who he was pre-Obama. If I had stuck with politics rather than pursuing cartography my career could easily have followed a very similar path. I'm not at all sure I would've enjoyed that life though, so I'm ok with the path I chose, still is interesting to read about.
The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - the sequel to The Long Earth, which I have not read, the premise is that that a series of parallel Earths are discovered along with the ability to travel between them. While the premise is interesting, the story and characters are less so and it did not make for very compelling reading. Definitely more a Baxter novel than a Pratchett one, you'd get the occasional Pratchett paragraph, but it's mostly world building without much of a plot to go with it.
Year of the Demon, Disciple of the Wind, and Streaming Dawn by Steve Bein - Bein's Fated Blades series is definitely the highlight of this list, these are books 2 and 3 or the series with Streaming Dawn being a bonus short story. The series follows two plot lines, one present day following a cop dealing with crimes involving the namesake blades, and one in medieval Japan as a young samurai tries to honor the Bushido code. Year of the Demon focuses a bit more on the medieval period than the first book and is perhaps a little darker, plenty of action and more ninjas. Disciple of the Wind is probably the best yet, as battles in both the present and the past reach their climax, I think Bein's writing just gets better as he goes on. Streaming Dawn is both cruel and awesome as two of the coolest protagonists from the medieval storyline are pitted against each other and you want them both to win. Highly recommended, and I hope at some point this series is picked up for TV or film as it is totally made for it.
A Campaign in New Mexico by Frank Edwards - Some actual history for a change of pace, this is a travelogue written in 1847 by a soldier during the Mexican American war. The unit travels from Kansas, through central New Mexico, and then down the Rio Grande to the Gulf. At the time the area was very sparsely populated and the unit did not see much actual combat, Edwards comments on all sorts of things observed on the trip, so it really does read more like a travelogue than a description of a military campaign. Not surprisingly the writing style takes a little getting used to, but it’s an interesting glimpse into a different time.
Dragon Champion and Dragon Avenger by E.E. Knight - First two books in a fantasy series told from dragons point of view. Mostly typical high fantasy fare and writing style is sort of young adultish, but they are quite a bit of fun because, dragons! The books are not sequential, but overlapping from different points of view, Champion is the “brother” point of view and Avenger is the “sister”, they could be read in either order.
King Solomon's Mines and She by H. Rider Haggard - Catching up on my classics, these from the 1880’s. Haggard launched the pulp fiction/lost world genres and a lot of tropes that came to be standards in sci-fi/fantasy started with these books. King Solomon’s Mines starts the Allan Quartermain series, Quartermain being the seminal English adventurer who has seen it all. While the language is obviously dated, it still makes a good adventure story of our Englishmen in search of treasure stumbling upon the “lost” civilization in Africa and it’s obvious where stories like Indiana Jones got their inspiration. She has a very similar plot, but with a blander protagonist and a more interesting antagonist in Ayesha, immortal queen of a lost civilization. Also interesting from a historical perspective is Haggard and his characters views on race and sex, the Africans are definitely “other”, but not necessarily less as Allan admires them a great deal (pro-the noble savage stereotype, while also being pro-colonialism). In She the protagonist actually brags about being a misogynist while Ayesha wields supreme authority. Next to be read is She and Allan where the two characters come together, written much later in Haggard’s career.
Trolley by Grig Larson![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
punkwalrus - Larson’s one and only novel, a steampunk horror/cthulhuesque story with echoes of Girl Genius, but much darker; young adult oriented in writing style. The protagonist is tomboyish girl who wants to become an engineer in a society where women don’t do such things. An interesting and unusual story. Trigger warnings for sexual violence, though I will say how that is handled is not at all typical of genre fiction. Recommended to most, plus I’d like to see Larson write another book.
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor - set in a post-apocalypse Africa with magic, this is a combined coming of age/save the world quest type story inspired by the Darfur conflict. Other than having an African setting and heroine this follows a fairly typical fantasy plotline. Trigger warnings for pretty much anything imaginable, I wanted to like this more than I did and found the writing decent, but the sheer amount of rape is a little overwhelming and it comes across as a Mary Sue-ish fantasy of a Darfur survivor. Not sure I can really recommend, unless you don’t know much about Darfur and would like a fictionalized account of how horrible it is (speaking of which the violence there is still on-going, not that you would know it from the mainstream media).
Flex by Ferrett Steinmetztheferrett - Like Bein’s books, this one blends a police procedural plot with an urban fantasy setting, but with significantly more magic. The magic system here is unique, with magic being born out of a passion for something, anything really as long as you obsess enough over it, and magic comes with drug addiction like side effects and is difficult to control. The protagonist is a bureaucrat whose job is to hunt magic users, but secretly is one himself, and the book has a theme of how far are you willing to go to protect the ones you love. Definitely has some echoes of Charles Stross' Laundry series, but with the magic playing a more central role. Plenty of action with a good sized dose of humour, all extremely well written. Highly recommended for urban fantasy fans, I’m looking forward to the sequel.
Dragonbreath and Nurk by Ursula Vernonursulav - these are illustrated kids books, highly recommended for those of you with young kids. The Dragonbreath series is a very cute and funny series about a young dragon who can’t breath fire. Nurk is a stand-alone story of a young shrew being a reluctant hero, similar plot, and I think the better of the two just on account of being funnier. Also the whimsical artwork is a definite bonus.
9 Goblins by Ursula Vernon as T. Kingfisher - novella from same author, but aimed at adults. Follows and satirizes the trope of the ragtag military unit of misfits getting into trouble. Comes off as Pratchett-like, nothing really new story-wise, but very funny with some nice social commentary worked in between the jokes. Highly recommended. As an aside if you haven’t read Vernon’s graphic story Digger you should put it on your list now, one of the best things I’ve ever read.
Believer by David Axlerod - Axlerod was Obama's campaign manager and this is part Axlerod's biography and part an insider’s look at Obama's campaigns. Of Interest mainly to political junkies, nothing really surprising and the the writing is a little dry in places. What made it fascinating for me is that it read like a "what might have been" of my own life. In high school I was involved in Chicago/Illinois politics and I was volunteering for the same folks that he writes about working with, he even came to speak to my political science class once so I knew who he was pre-Obama. If I had stuck with politics rather than pursuing cartography my career could easily have followed a very similar path. I'm not at all sure I would've enjoyed that life though, so I'm ok with the path I chose, still is interesting to read about.
The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - the sequel to The Long Earth, which I have not read, the premise is that that a series of parallel Earths are discovered along with the ability to travel between them. While the premise is interesting, the story and characters are less so and it did not make for very compelling reading. Definitely more a Baxter novel than a Pratchett one, you'd get the occasional Pratchett paragraph, but it's mostly world building without much of a plot to go with it.
Year of the Demon, Disciple of the Wind, and Streaming Dawn by Steve Bein - Bein's Fated Blades series is definitely the highlight of this list, these are books 2 and 3 or the series with Streaming Dawn being a bonus short story. The series follows two plot lines, one present day following a cop dealing with crimes involving the namesake blades, and one in medieval Japan as a young samurai tries to honor the Bushido code. Year of the Demon focuses a bit more on the medieval period than the first book and is perhaps a little darker, plenty of action and more ninjas. Disciple of the Wind is probably the best yet, as battles in both the present and the past reach their climax, I think Bein's writing just gets better as he goes on. Streaming Dawn is both cruel and awesome as two of the coolest protagonists from the medieval storyline are pitted against each other and you want them both to win. Highly recommended, and I hope at some point this series is picked up for TV or film as it is totally made for it.
A Campaign in New Mexico by Frank Edwards - Some actual history for a change of pace, this is a travelogue written in 1847 by a soldier during the Mexican American war. The unit travels from Kansas, through central New Mexico, and then down the Rio Grande to the Gulf. At the time the area was very sparsely populated and the unit did not see much actual combat, Edwards comments on all sorts of things observed on the trip, so it really does read more like a travelogue than a description of a military campaign. Not surprisingly the writing style takes a little getting used to, but it’s an interesting glimpse into a different time.
Dragon Champion and Dragon Avenger by E.E. Knight - First two books in a fantasy series told from dragons point of view. Mostly typical high fantasy fare and writing style is sort of young adultish, but they are quite a bit of fun because, dragons! The books are not sequential, but overlapping from different points of view, Champion is the “brother” point of view and Avenger is the “sister”, they could be read in either order.
King Solomon's Mines and She by H. Rider Haggard - Catching up on my classics, these from the 1880’s. Haggard launched the pulp fiction/lost world genres and a lot of tropes that came to be standards in sci-fi/fantasy started with these books. King Solomon’s Mines starts the Allan Quartermain series, Quartermain being the seminal English adventurer who has seen it all. While the language is obviously dated, it still makes a good adventure story of our Englishmen in search of treasure stumbling upon the “lost” civilization in Africa and it’s obvious where stories like Indiana Jones got their inspiration. She has a very similar plot, but with a blander protagonist and a more interesting antagonist in Ayesha, immortal queen of a lost civilization. Also interesting from a historical perspective is Haggard and his characters views on race and sex, the Africans are definitely “other”, but not necessarily less as Allan admires them a great deal (pro-the noble savage stereotype, while also being pro-colonialism). In She the protagonist actually brags about being a misogynist while Ayesha wields supreme authority. Next to be read is She and Allan where the two characters come together, written much later in Haggard’s career.
Trolley by Grig Larson
punkwalrus - Larson’s one and only novel, a steampunk horror/cthulhuesque story with echoes of Girl Genius, but much darker; young adult oriented in writing style. The protagonist is tomboyish girl who wants to become an engineer in a society where women don’t do such things. An interesting and unusual story. Trigger warnings for sexual violence, though I will say how that is handled is not at all typical of genre fiction. Recommended to most, plus I’d like to see Larson write another book. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor - set in a post-apocalypse Africa with magic, this is a combined coming of age/save the world quest type story inspired by the Darfur conflict. Other than having an African setting and heroine this follows a fairly typical fantasy plotline. Trigger warnings for pretty much anything imaginable, I wanted to like this more than I did and found the writing decent, but the sheer amount of rape is a little overwhelming and it comes across as a Mary Sue-ish fantasy of a Darfur survivor. Not sure I can really recommend, unless you don’t know much about Darfur and would like a fictionalized account of how horrible it is (speaking of which the violence there is still on-going, not that you would know it from the mainstream media).
Flex by Ferrett Steinmetz
theferrett - Like Bein’s books, this one blends a police procedural plot with an urban fantasy setting, but with significantly more magic. The magic system here is unique, with magic being born out of a passion for something, anything really as long as you obsess enough over it, and magic comes with drug addiction like side effects and is difficult to control. The protagonist is a bureaucrat whose job is to hunt magic users, but secretly is one himself, and the book has a theme of how far are you willing to go to protect the ones you love. Definitely has some echoes of Charles Stross' Laundry series, but with the magic playing a more central role. Plenty of action with a good sized dose of humour, all extremely well written. Highly recommended for urban fantasy fans, I’m looking forward to the sequel. Dragonbreath and Nurk by Ursula Vernon
ursulav - these are illustrated kids books, highly recommended for those of you with young kids. The Dragonbreath series is a very cute and funny series about a young dragon who can’t breath fire. Nurk is a stand-alone story of a young shrew being a reluctant hero, similar plot, and I think the better of the two just on account of being funnier. Also the whimsical artwork is a definite bonus. 9 Goblins by Ursula Vernon as T. Kingfisher - novella from same author, but aimed at adults. Follows and satirizes the trope of the ragtag military unit of misfits getting into trouble. Comes off as Pratchett-like, nothing really new story-wise, but very funny with some nice social commentary worked in between the jokes. Highly recommended. As an aside if you haven’t read Vernon’s graphic story Digger you should put it on your list now, one of the best things I’ve ever read.