Category: Books

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Books

October & Early November Books: Quick reviews to catch up

Sagan Diary by John Scalzi. I liked the idea of this, but didn’t enjoy the novella much separated from the remainder of the series. It’s an interesting experiment, and it’s so positive in outlook that it stands apart. Writing positively about love seems much tougher than hate, vengeance, and action-y revenge. So for a story on the skew, it’s well done. I want to read it alongside a reread of the series–I bet it works better when the characters are fresh in our minds.

The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley. This is as large and bold as everyone’s been saying. It’s fantasy world building that explicitly turns away from medieval European influences, and it’s vibrant for it.

There are a lot of protagonists; sometimes the queue for transitioning to a new character left me a little confused, getting up to speed over the first page of the chapter. That’s probably due to the sprawling cast and many POV characters.

I’m very much looking forward to rereading this. I suspect that having paid the price to adjust to the world (and fight off my default assumptions), the next read will allow me to focus more on the characters, their story arcs and adventures.

Randall Munroe’s What If is culled from his excellent What If? website. I really like the way that he approaches the questions, and there’s enough science transmitted to me that it checks some of my gut-feeling level assumption. (The rocket fuel/exhaust velocity relationship from the golfing to propel a ship question really illustrated something I’d never thought much about.)

Tobias Buckell’s Arctic Rising is a great near future adventure. It’s a bit fish-out-of-water, in that Anika is a pilot, but her challenges are up close and personal. It builds into a mystery that coheres (until it reaches peak Bond Villain, where it’s suddenly quite fantastic). The world building in the background feels all too realistic–particularly the competing powers in the arctic waters, the need of the navies to justify themselves, and so on.

All in all, it was well written and interesting. I’ll be checking out the sequel, Hurricane Fever, soon.

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercombie. This is a great low-fantasy world, very divided–much like Renaissance Italy, with neighboring powers influencing the local situation, shifting alliances, and mercenary bands.

Monza’s a driven anti-hero, well drawn, engaging, and I could identify with her despite her villainy and willingness to embrace horrific practices in her revenge. The book balances a number of things; Monza’s gather allies are each unique and have a healthy regard for themselves.

One of the great, very subtle things that emerges as the story advances is that Benna gains real heft. We see Monza encounter person after person who challenges her “avenging my innocent brother” story, and we see her flashback to the past with a new read, changing how we see both Monza and her brother.

I just finished Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey. I wasn’t a huge fan, mostly for subject and attitude, but did appreciate the pacing and world building. Ironically, as I sat down to write this below Best Served Cold, I realized how similar the plots are. (In each, the protagonist swears to kill their betrayers one-by-one.)

Stark didn’t click for me as well; I suspect looking deeper would be valuable. Quickly thinking about it: Monza begins hale, is broken, and we endure her painful recovery. Stark is better than ever, cocky and confident.

Stark is also consciously posing, almost from the first moment he steps on stage. As the book progresses, we figure out that his pose conceals pain, but it’s a heavy load of snark before it starts coming through. While there’s more to it, that’s what quickly comes to mind. (Though: his magic making things “too easy” might play into the same difference in feel between the Sandman versus Monza.)

Long story short: it was well written and kept me engaged. I read it quickly and mostly enjoyed it. But I’m not going to hunt for its sequels.

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Books

Reading recently

I’m behind on my notes/reviews of books. The last full reviews were for Ammonite by Nicola Griffith and Lock In by John Scalzi. https://www.scottrpg.com/llamafodder/ammonite-and-lock-in/

More recently, I’ve read (but haven’t written about yet): Sagan Diary (John Scalzi), The Mirror Empire (by Kameron Hurley), Evil Hat’s Atomic Robo, Randall Munroe’s What If, Tobias Buckell’s Arctic Rising, and Best Served Cold by Joe Abercombie. (The last was actually a reread… it’s excellent, but I’d forgotten that I’d read it before by title. The beginning’s pretty unmistakable and it was great, again.)

I just finished Sandman Slim. (I wasn’t a huge fan, mostly for subject and attitude, but did appreciate the pacing and world building.)

I’m currently reading a collection of short stories, Dangerous Women. The first stories have been very good.

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Books

Ammonite and Lock In

Ammonite by Nicola Griffith. I liked this book; it felt very LeGuin, in that our heroine is an anthropologist. Interestingly, she dives into the local culture, which happens to destabilize the overall situation (inadvertently). It’s a richly realized world, filled with interesting cultures.

Lock In by John Scalzi. It’s a good book; a thriller with a strong corruption/ politics/ wealth angle that feels very like today–or even more like a future today imagined by Piketty. At times it feels very like an extrapolation of today, and when it deviates (as it does dramatically with regards to remote operation) it’s a big deal. It was enjoyable, though I wanted a chance to get a little deeper with the characters. Chris has a lot of nuance by the end (as does his father, surprisingly), and Vann has some explanation, but most of the other characters aren’t on screen enough to reveal lots of depth.

It’s a good police procedural, made better with threeps and sci-fi generally.

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Books

Traitor’s Blade and The Summer Prince

The Summer Prince by Alana Dawn Johnson is a great YA novel. It’s an interesting coming of age tale, told from a first person girl artist’s perspective. Despite the distance from me in age, outlook, and world view, the author does a great job of building my empathy with June.

It’s an interesting arcology style setting, in a post-apocalypse Brazil. The culture of the arcology is interesting, as is the caste system made express in the levels of the arcology. As the story continues, the world building elements come clear, explaining the Aunties system of governance, the changes in climate and relative prosperity in the world. The girly-crush elements were well written (though thoroughly alien to me) and the passion for art was well handled and identifiable. (I certainly remember deciding that some things about myself were true, then feeling bound to my self conception, and found kinship to June when her own self conception traps her.) Similarly, the exoticism of race had me nodding along, and the backroom maneuverings filtered through our inexperienced heroine’s eyes felt plausible and well handled.

The book’s final quarter shakes things up impressively, we learn a lot about June and her Summer King. The very ending was a sharp break from our June’s point of view, even though we could see (in retrospect) Enki’s evaluation and setting up the final scene. I was left satisfied with a solid tale and felt it was complete. I don’t really want the story to continue into a sequel.

One of the very well handled elements was the lifelong friendship of June and Gil. I like that the friendship weathered the changes, included elements where their minds wouldn’t meet and they had to give each other space, and Gil’s steadfastness. (Gil’s mom rocked too, even trapped in the background.)

Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell. Set in a low fantasy world, our heroic trio (of Brasti, Kest, and Falcio) feel very derring do; they’re not three musketeers, but they’re not far from it. I read this in one tremendous gulp (due mostly to weekend circumstances); it fared well, holding my interest steady for hours.

There’s a lot of politics and scheming, handled very well–it both felt authentic, and the complexities were introduced at a steady pace. The novel sticks to Falcio’s point of view and handles it very well. The story blossoms when he’s away from his companions, but the reunion feels earned and marks a difference.

Falcio goes through the wringer, repeatedly. That, like some Dresden books, feels a bit overdone–but he earns the ending by the book’s close. We’ve got several interesting elements to investigate hanging at the end–Tailor, “the friend in the dark hour” what’s her deal?, and the whole fated plan for restoration. Their rivals are well positioned too. I am very much looking forward to the sequel–evidently it’s in copy editing as we speak.

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Books

Links by Kaylia M. Metcalfe


Links: A Collection of Short Stories by Kaylia M. Metcalfe. I picked this book up at a local event last year; a friend of ours had partnered with two other authors to have a reading in a local coffee shop. The short stories are literary (or close to it); all but one are set in the world today, in various American cities. The stories are thematically similar–about bonds, connections, and contact in the modern world–but aren’t related other than their subject matter. The nine short stories vary interestingly.

The first story, Angel, was a dramatic, gripping kickoff to the collection. It starts off as a story of a place, focused on a panhandler, whose past and context we learn about in asides. Then the story takes a 90-degree turn… and it’s well done. A great taste of how a moment can change you (and others).

Aside is a dip into a complex moment of a life. Night Scape handles an older woman protagonist with grace; the age and humdrum elements feel twinklingly familiar, though no one would mistake my soul as an artist’s. Coffee Date is one evening that feels so normal, with our heroine well sketched and great to identify with. Her moment of breakthrough feels earned, and the background mystery keeps you puzzling and noting timelines.

The Unnamed Princess was a brief kid’s view story; it grabbed me least. Reflection is a well done sliding doors scenario, an intimate look at the emotions of obligation and workings of abuse. The Season is brief, horrific, and unsympathetic to the adults around the main character. Surface Dweller was a short, sharp cautionary tale… and not about hooking up, as you might think from its beginning. Goals was a quick bite about two people I’d despise; the end, driving off, demonstrates change (and an escape from the purgatory of accompanying the well drawn Brett), but the waitress is only a moment’s boost out of a stable orbit–not the mutual change I’d hoped. Wife ends the series; it’s a weird future story, well told. While it feels mostly about her, her husband is sketched solidly, and grows as the story continues.

All in all, it was a great collection of stories. A few really stuck, and all were well crafted. Most of my disappointments came from wanting another character or two tackled more deeply… which is a good sign.

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Books DnD Roleplaying

5e PHB and Starter Set

I’ve read them both and like them. Today’s Gnome Stew article was about the various 5e products that are out and how they interact.

Long story short: I’ve read Lost Mines of Phandelver (the Starter Set adventure) and Hoard of the Dragon Queen (the adventure that’s being run this season for D&D Encounters). I like them both and am eager to see the system in action.

The system feels very familiar right away; it really does have a “best of” feel, with extensive borrowing from 3rd edition, some stealthy borrowing from 4th edition, and the gritty feel of 2nd edition. At least, on the page and as reported by others. I may join a game or two this weekend down at Strategicon to get some play experience.

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Edited to add: I did get a chance to play at the con, and it worked mostly as imagined. It’s new, so there’s lots to master, but the biggest issue as a GM is largely the same as Fate–keeping track of the cool background stuff to play to and reward is much like Aspects from a GM overhead POV.

(Sidenote: 1. Random short plot with a dungeon generator
2. 3D printable minis, mostly modern era.)

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Books

The Stars My Destination and Wetware

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. I disliked this story, mostly due to POV choice (I really didn’t like the main character and the portrayal of his madness.) It also suffers due to a very different depiction of women’s roles; the reduction of women to bit parts and supporting characters is noted by the author (he mentions a revival of the sergalio, to “protect” women’s virtue).

The fun bits, like jaunteing, drove a lot of the action, but I’m not sure how much they added. In the end, I felt sorry for the main character’s experience, but viscerally disliked the man he became, most of the people he interacted with, and the overall society. Despite those dislikes, I could see that it was well written and thought out; if you don’t dislike the character in the first fifty pages, you’ll probably enjoy the book. [The partial redemption at the end also rung hollow… maybe because it didn’t feel earned?]

Anyway, it’s a classic, but like many classics, I enjoy modern writing more. I recognize some of the aspects that were magnified later in cyberpunk, and appreciate that it may have made a good starting place for future writers to explore from.

Wetware by Craig Nova. Maybe I’m just grouchy; this book didn’t quite hit for me either. Part of the issue was the date (a few iterations of artificial life have passed by 2029), but most of it was the POV. The story was often written with access to the POV character’s mind–but their thoughts were abstracted to the point that they didn’t feel like thoughts.

The main character’s fugue/addiction and the later callbacks to it are done pretty well, but in the end I didn’t care about the characters beyond a vague sympathy. It’s not that they’re repulsive in a Game of Thrones sense… it’s more that they’re flat and blindered, despite their genius.

In the end, it’s not terrible, but not one I’ll recommend.

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The Best of All Possible Worlds

The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord. This book reminded me strongly and favorably of LeGuin’s Ekumen novels. Karen Lord does an excellent job of developing interesting cultures, and getting deep into them.

The novel is told from two point of view; one the local, the other the refugee. Delarua is the guide, but she has discoveries to make–including about herself and her past. Dllenahkh is the refugee; he comes across as grounded and experienced–it never feels false. You can feel his concern under the surface (in Delarua’s chapters); his doubt and concern are constant but don’t become one dimensional.

This is not action adventure; there are a few tense moments, but most of the book’s pleasure is exploring interesting people, on an interesting planet, and seeing how they’ll learn to share and evolve. I understand her first book, Redemption in Indigo, is quite different. I look forward to reading it soon.

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Books

Hereville: How Mirka Met A Meteorite by Barry Deutsch and Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia

Hereville: How Mirka Met A Meteorite by Barry Deutsch. This is the second Hereville book. It’s a quick, fun adventure. It felt more unified but “less deep” than the first, but that may have been due to familiarity with the characters. Well, and Mirka’s relationship with her step mom is much less fraught.

If you liked Hereville, this is a nice continuation. I’d read the original first.

Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. The end notes mention that this book was originally self published–it has a very professional feel and few obvious errors.

The book is mostly what it says on the spine; it’s about a group that hunts supernatural creatures. The book starts off strong, with a mild mannered accountant who has a very unusual and terrifying day.

The second phase of the book is also solid; here Owen goes through training and learns how to hunt monsters. The romantic interest seemed strained at this point… and it kind of wobbles at the same level of not quite right throughout. The basic training is handled well; we get to know the whole incoming class, which ups the stakes when they risk being monster food.

During basic training, the major flaw that develops is that Owen loves guns. He is an expert (important to the book), but also rattles off extensive details about every gun he touches or witnesses. Over the course of the book, it’s a lot of pages of enthusiasm that I don’t really share. It felt very like creating characters for Shadowrun, and listening to the people who love guns discuss sights, gas vents, trigger modifications and the like. In some ways, it’s a little like Harry Dresden explaining magic… and, like Harry and his magic, Owen’s gun obsession defines him.

Once they hit the field, it becomes an action movie–and, actually, I could see this being more to my taste as a movie. The critters are bad to super bad, Owen is destined, and you know how Dresden gets mangled near the end of each of the first few books? Owen gets mangled a lot too… but magical healing lets him get mangled in many different ways. When he recounts the wounds he suffers four days straight, I signposts just how often “hurt the main character” is used in the toolkit.

In the end, it wasn’t a bad book. If the sequels were on hand and I didn’t have more desired books ahead of it in my queue, I’d be interested in seeing how the author develops. Given a stack of great books, though… this series is unlikely to get checked out of the library.

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Books

Sharp and Marked by Alex Hughes

Sharp and Marked follow Clean, a book about a recovering drug addict/telepath who works with the police in a dystopian future.

Sharp does a good job of presenting normal appearing cases in the foreground. They almost feel like a day-in-the-life, but it’s clear that good police and interrogation work aren’t the only dimension for Adam. The world of the police and politics gets further defined, as Adam and Cheribino (and now Michael) tackle a few apparently unrelated cases… and we, the readers, learn a bit more about tech control in this world.

Kara and the guild loom in the background; well, they come to the fore when Adam is investigated as a consequence of the first book’s events. We learn a bit about the Guild Enforcers and their absolute and looming authority… but the development is more on the mundane side. We get a better feel for everyday life in this post-crash work; the budget and political priorities feels like they’d ring true even today. Adam’s addiction remains a major theme that’s handled well–it’s ever present but rarely takes over the story.

The end feels a little artificial with the way the strings all come together so thoroughly, but it’s not that great a stretch. Throughout, though, Adam really does feel like a guy with so many things going on that he’s not going to be able to keep all of those plates spinning. Stress, frustration–and in this book particularly, lingering consequences, all add up to a guy who can’t please everyone but does an amazing job given how many ways he’s pulled.

In Marked, Adam has more of his telepathy, which is nice–it makes it feel more like the suggested high level concept (psychic investigator). This book delves much deeper into the telepath side of things; while Alex is juggling police commitments, a call from Kara near the start of the book plunges him into the Guild and its struggles.

There’s good world building, as we encounter the various guild factions and learn how they interact in their own spaces. The guild/tech theme from other books remains a strong current in this one, though we also learn about contagious madness and other unique threats to telepaths.

Over the course of the book, several true things change, leaving Adam in a very different position at the end then at the beginning. It’s a nice progression; book 2 kicked off with a lot of consequences from book 1, and Alex at the end of book 3 is in a very different place for finances and romance than he’s been before. There’s no sense of episodic writing or of a story not fitting in a very specific time in his life. It seems like the last few years were a bit of stasis, but everything is changing now. I am looking forward to book 4, Vacant, due out in December.