January Reading Thread

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I finished Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl. I'm not sure what to make of this book. It is certainly a YA book. But more than that it is either a Science Fiction book for Fantasy readers, or a Fantasy book for Science Fiction readers. It does not easily fall into either category. For example magic is often thought to exist, but the ones in the know, know it is not real. But there is telepathy and Telekinesis. Since my genre of choice is SF, I found it more of Fantasy book but quite a good one.

The Good: This is a believable story about members of a/an older more evolved people(s) who have taken upon themselves the protection of developing people in other star systems. (There are older/first peoples, younger peoples, and young people.) The story is filled with sacrificial giving of self for the good of others. There are interesting, believable, and hopeful relationships between the main characters, which include falling in love and a father and his youngish grown daughter. The ending flows inevitably from the story and is (as is often the case in real life) bitter sweet.

The Bad: I was put off a bit by the tone of the story. It is all a journal entry (or some such) and the author continues to make this clear which certainly lowers the tension of the story. The science was not explained, and terraforming plays a fair role in the story and it is quite archaic for an interstellar people. --- I do note that the book was copyrighted in 1970 so that might play a role. Also there were a lot of unnecessary gender specific pronouns. (In the afterward I read that the author had changed then in her 2001 revamp of the book, so I'm guessing the Kindle version was of the original 1970 edition.)

The Indifferent: I would guess that there would be some who would take offense at the whole idea of more "more advanced races" deciding what was good for "less advanced races." Or even at the idea of more and less advanced in the first place. But I would see that is reading our non-universal judgements into situations that we haven't experienced.

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed
 
Last night I bought and immediately read the new Bujold novella (or short novel, if you go by Nebula word counts) featuring Penric and Desdemona, Demon Daughter.

It was nice to visit with old friends and see how they were doing. Also, some intriguing new twists on accidental demon possession. It struck me early on in the story (though it was never alluded to) that the Fifth God had approved the Pen and Des partnership in the very beginning because, among other reasons, they had the potential to be very good at handling special cases of approximately this sort. And I was glad to see that Penric is now officially teaching seminary classes, as who has broader experiences and deeper understanding—not to mention more words!—than he and Desdemona? This was something I was hoping to see in future stories before this one came out, and though we don't actually get to see it, the fact that it was established here might mean that we do see him in action teaching young divines in future stories.
 
Danny McG said:
I started reading Babel by her once...I thought it was a load of fancy words to impress the reader but the story was dross DNF
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Now I've got to the end of The Poppy War I will agree with Danny that Kuang can overwrite in sections. Between action sections she can be painfully slow at times, but... and there is a but, she did keep me hooked in. Her action scenes however can be good and with good elements of realism, and a stunning body count.

Despite Kuang being slow to get going at times I have bought the trilogy and I'll report back when that's done. The writing has been good enough to keep my interest, which is good enough a recommendation in the end. Two more to go and I'll be back - most likely by February.
 
Finished A Fever In The Heartland by Timothy Egan, a revealing look at the dark side of freedom that allowed the Ku Klux Klan to gain with little resistance almost unlimited political power in the 1920s. Be careful where you pledge your allegiance.

Next a few more short stories by J.G. Ballard until I decide what’s next.
 
The Forever War (1997 definitive edition), by Joe Haldeman.

Recently, I’ve been addicted to war movies, and with my eagerness to continue my military SF WIPs where I left off increasing, I decided to read some novels too. The Forever War is the second, after Ender’s Game.

The beginning is weak. It lacks a strong hook. What actually managed to hook me was the foreword. It explains that writing SF as a metaphor for life, as opposed to just writing about real life, is much stronger. It summarizes some of the plot, and it tells that it won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards, after being serialized in Ben Bova’s Analog. Now that’s a hook.

The part that I’m most interested in is the device that allows the soldiers to travel anywhere in an instant, but it has relativistic time effects. It’s an Einsteinian device called a collapsar that makes you travel light-years in a split second, but the time in the universe “outside” passes much quicker than for the user. Which explains the title.

Let’s see where it takes me.
 
Rome Resurgent: War and Empire in the Age of Justinian by Peter Heather
Peter Heather has an engaging writing style with dashes of humour, and he is able to make complex subjects understandable without going on lengthy or convoluted diatribes.

The focus of this book is an analysis of the reign of Justinian I (527-565) in an effort to determine if Justinian's war conquests in North Africa and Italy fatally undermined the integrity of the Eastern Roman Empire, facilitating the disastrous territorial losses of the 7th century. Heather puts Justinian's reign in historical context, showing how his fiscal, legal, military and political policies evolved (almost) inadvertently after the unexpected and relatively easy conquest of Vandal North Africa, originally initiated to distract from problems at home (i.e. "a desperate gamble to save his imperial skin"), and his subsequent difficulties in conquering Italy due to Persian interference, not to mention difficulties in establishing and maintaining a lasting peace. Heather includes discussions about Roman fiscal policy, bureaucratic functioning, patronage, the problem of succession, religious disagreements, the creation of a legal code, and military organization, as well as imperial policies and politics (internal and external), and the rise of Islam within the context of the 50 years of almost constant war between Persia and Constantinople.​
 
Le trappeur galactique by BR Bruss - a strangely old fashioned tale of an interstellar "bring 'em back alive" trapper. It's taken four chapters, a couple of meals, a swim in the swimming pool, and a couple of post prandial strolls round the trapper's magnificent country estate before he softens enough to start to recount his adventures to a visiting reporter.

Episode one - Did I tell you about the time I went after the 'several hundred metre long, six or seven storey high,' beastie that weighed 'several thousand tonnes' on an unexplored planet so savage and teaming with prehistoric dangers we concidered dropping an atomic bomb to clear a space for us to land?
 
JunkMonkey said:
Le trappeur galactique by BR Bruss - a strangely old fashioned tale of an interstellar "bring 'em back alive" trapper. It's taken four chapters, a couple of meals, a swim in the swimming pool, and a couple of post prandial strolls round the trapper's magnificent country estate before he softens enough to start to recount his adventures to a visiting reporter.

Episode one - Did I tell you about the time I went after the 'several hundred metre long, six or seven storey high,' beastie that weighed 'several thousand tonnes' on an unexplored planet so savage and teaming with prehistoric dangers we concidered dropping an atomic bomb to clear a space for us to land?
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BR Bruss worked for the collaborationist Vichy Govt, and had a bit of an iffy time after the war. Not read any of his works but I found a pile of his books in a junk shop in Paris last year.
 
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I suppose I should list a couple of my latest DNFs.

The first of these is A Loop in Time by Clark Graham. This is a time travel book where a Fighter Pilot and his plane get thrown back in time from 2014 to 1965 Arizona. The book is on the simple side of a YA novel. It had a few moments while everyone was confused about where and why the pilot is there. The pilot can't help them because he has amnesia from the crash, and how he tries to fit into a time that wasn't that far behind him in time is a very different world. I quit halfway through the book when the pilot suddenly realizes that his girlfriend is actually his grandmother. It was obvious what was going to happen from that point on and I just quit because it had been only a marginal read up until that time.

The second of these is Children of Angels by Chaney Brazee. It is the second installment of the Sentenced to War series. It was just more of the last book and instead of dealing with the S.F. aspects of life its about the comradery of a group of what amount to marines. It probably succeeds on that level but that's just not what I wanted to read. I gave up after a third of the book.

The third of these is Discover by Jack and Sue Drafahl, book 1 in the Ship Series. This book became a DNF after 20% of the book. This one probably suffers from the fact that I've read so much SF that a story about a "found" space ship, which is actually run by an "AI." by a down on his luck loser, but now becomes the most powerful individual in the world is just trite and formulaic to me. I just didn't care to read another story like that.
 
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