Books, books, books
Let's clear some backlog...
For the plane trip East, I decided to reread Crusade by David Weber and Steve White. Set in the distant future, humanity has settled numerous star systems, fought a couple of interstellar wars with the neighbors, and is generally doing pretty well. All that's about to change, though. From out of a previously no-ship-returns warp point arrives a fleet of starships... determine to liberate "Holy Mother Terra" from all infidels... even humanity. The story follows the war from numerous points of view on both sides of the conflict and makes for pretty good space opera. If you like the universe, there are at least three more books set there, but this one's fairly standalone.
Next up is Rule 34 by Charles Stross. This is a sequel to Halting State although there's virtually no overlap of characters. One of the focal characters is Edinburgh Police Inspector Liz Kavanaugh, a minor character from the first book. Her career arc blunted by the embarrassments of Halting State, she now heads up the "Rule 34" division of the police. Their mission is to monitor the Net for weird memes that can turn into viral crime sprees... a task that involves looking at a lot of seriously freaky porn. Other characters include a paroled loser employed as a consul by a newborn postage stamp republic in Eastern Europe and an entrepreneurial organized crime rep in town to build out the local franchise. While these three are the main characters, there are a number of others, and the point of view bounces around from chapter to chapter. It also keeps Halting State's somewhat annoying second person perspective.
All in all, it had a lot of good scenes, concepts, and characters... but I never felt like it gelled well. There were way too many convenient coincidences which were required both to setup the situation and to drive the resolution. The second person thing could make it hard to tell which character was "up", particularly when there was a one-off chapter with a previously unknown focus. Ultimately, I have to file it under "neat"... but not necessarily "good".
Next up is Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger. While set in the same universe as her Parasol Protectorate series, this is a new story with new characters. For those unfamiliar, this is a Victorian-era universe where the supernatural abounds - in the form of vampires, werewolves, and ghosts - but technology is lagging a bit behind (that darned ether, you know). Sophronia is a tomboyish fourteen year old daughter of a respectable family. Her mother despairs of her having proper manners but is too busy with her older siblings to take a firm hand. When a well reputed finishing school invites her to attend, her mother is only too happy to pack her off. Sophronia isn't big on this idea, but her opinion is not consulted. As she feared, the school expects her to learn how to properly dress, dance, host a dinner party, and manage household finances. However, it also expects her to learn how to conceal a knife, poison the party guests, and blackmail the servants. (Seduction is mentioned only in passing as a subject for senior students.) There is a specific plot involving a hidden MacGuffin, but it's basically there just as a driver for the story of a boarding school for proper young ladies/assassins.
It's clearly young adult fare, so don't expect too much meat on the bones. They're cute bones, though, so if the tone tickles your fancy you'll probably enjoy it.
Since it's way later than I meant to be up, let's finish with Michelle Sagara's Silence which bills itself as book one of The Queen of the Dead. This is the story of Emma, an 11th grader who lost first her father and then her boyfriend. Since that second death, she's been drifting through her life. She still interacts with her friends - who cut across a surprisingly wide range of types - most notably the autistic classmate she and her best friend took under their wings, but she doesn't really engage anymore. Her world is shaken up severely, though, when she starts seeing and interacting with the spirits of the dead. It seems Emma was born with the power of a necromancer. This is somewhat problematic since most necromancers are apparently monsters who prey on the dead for the power to dominate the living... and the new boy in class is part of an order sworn to hunt down and kill fledgling necromancers.
This was actually a pretty powerful book. There are aspects of bad guys, magical combat, and the like. There's also friendship, sacrifice, and compassion aplenty. Much of the book's conflict revolves around Emma's determination to rescue the spirit of a young boy who died in a fire despite the physical risks of being trapped in his endlessly repeating death and the emotional stress of facing both him and his survivor guilt-wracked mother. I'm not sure how the series is going to develop, but I liked this first installment.
This brings my total for the year to forty-two.
And I'm off for a nap. Cheers!
This entry was originally posted at http://squidminion.dreamwidth.org/370605.html.
There are
comments there. You could add one via OpenID.
Or you can comment here if you'd rather; it's okay.
For the plane trip East, I decided to reread Crusade by David Weber and Steve White. Set in the distant future, humanity has settled numerous star systems, fought a couple of interstellar wars with the neighbors, and is generally doing pretty well. All that's about to change, though. From out of a previously no-ship-returns warp point arrives a fleet of starships... determine to liberate "Holy Mother Terra" from all infidels... even humanity. The story follows the war from numerous points of view on both sides of the conflict and makes for pretty good space opera. If you like the universe, there are at least three more books set there, but this one's fairly standalone.
Next up is Rule 34 by Charles Stross. This is a sequel to Halting State although there's virtually no overlap of characters. One of the focal characters is Edinburgh Police Inspector Liz Kavanaugh, a minor character from the first book. Her career arc blunted by the embarrassments of Halting State, she now heads up the "Rule 34" division of the police. Their mission is to monitor the Net for weird memes that can turn into viral crime sprees... a task that involves looking at a lot of seriously freaky porn. Other characters include a paroled loser employed as a consul by a newborn postage stamp republic in Eastern Europe and an entrepreneurial organized crime rep in town to build out the local franchise. While these three are the main characters, there are a number of others, and the point of view bounces around from chapter to chapter. It also keeps Halting State's somewhat annoying second person perspective.
All in all, it had a lot of good scenes, concepts, and characters... but I never felt like it gelled well. There were way too many convenient coincidences which were required both to setup the situation and to drive the resolution. The second person thing could make it hard to tell which character was "up", particularly when there was a one-off chapter with a previously unknown focus. Ultimately, I have to file it under "neat"... but not necessarily "good".
Next up is Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger. While set in the same universe as her Parasol Protectorate series, this is a new story with new characters. For those unfamiliar, this is a Victorian-era universe where the supernatural abounds - in the form of vampires, werewolves, and ghosts - but technology is lagging a bit behind (that darned ether, you know). Sophronia is a tomboyish fourteen year old daughter of a respectable family. Her mother despairs of her having proper manners but is too busy with her older siblings to take a firm hand. When a well reputed finishing school invites her to attend, her mother is only too happy to pack her off. Sophronia isn't big on this idea, but her opinion is not consulted. As she feared, the school expects her to learn how to properly dress, dance, host a dinner party, and manage household finances. However, it also expects her to learn how to conceal a knife, poison the party guests, and blackmail the servants. (Seduction is mentioned only in passing as a subject for senior students.) There is a specific plot involving a hidden MacGuffin, but it's basically there just as a driver for the story of a boarding school for proper young ladies/assassins.
It's clearly young adult fare, so don't expect too much meat on the bones. They're cute bones, though, so if the tone tickles your fancy you'll probably enjoy it.
Since it's way later than I meant to be up, let's finish with Michelle Sagara's Silence which bills itself as book one of The Queen of the Dead. This is the story of Emma, an 11th grader who lost first her father and then her boyfriend. Since that second death, she's been drifting through her life. She still interacts with her friends - who cut across a surprisingly wide range of types - most notably the autistic classmate she and her best friend took under their wings, but she doesn't really engage anymore. Her world is shaken up severely, though, when she starts seeing and interacting with the spirits of the dead. It seems Emma was born with the power of a necromancer. This is somewhat problematic since most necromancers are apparently monsters who prey on the dead for the power to dominate the living... and the new boy in class is part of an order sworn to hunt down and kill fledgling necromancers.
This was actually a pretty powerful book. There are aspects of bad guys, magical combat, and the like. There's also friendship, sacrifice, and compassion aplenty. Much of the book's conflict revolves around Emma's determination to rescue the spirit of a young boy who died in a fire despite the physical risks of being trapped in his endlessly repeating death and the emotional stress of facing both him and his survivor guilt-wracked mother. I'm not sure how the series is going to develop, but I liked this first installment.
This brings my total for the year to forty-two.
And I'm off for a nap. Cheers!
This entry was originally posted at http://squidminion.dreamwidth.org/370605.html.
There are
comments there. You could add one via OpenID.
Or you can comment here if you'd rather; it's okay.