October Reading Thread

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Tremendinah Rectiferus X said:
Precursor to Lara Croft ?
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No - far from it. Very far.... like another galaxy far. Lara Croft sounds downright exciting. 16th Century Doctoress up above just plodded (donkey + horse + servants) from one of her father's friends' (sometimes rivals) houses to the next house in the next city... following a bunch of letters. Stuff like the horse drowning (almost killing the Doctoress), the inquisition burning all the girls and women in a town, warnings that it wasn't safe for women doctors/herbalists 'cause they are witches, and someone getting mauled by a bear were... bland and boring... emotionless.​
 
Elentarri said:
No - far from it. Very far.... like another galaxy far. Lara Croft sounds downright exciting. 16th Century Doctoress up above just plodded (donkey + horse + servants) from one of her father's friends' (sometimes rivals) houses to the next house in the next city... following a bunch of letters. Stuff like the horse drowning (almost killing the Doctoress), the inquisition burning all the girls and women in a town, warnings that it wasn't safe for women doctors/herbalists 'cause they are witches, and someone getting mauled by a bear were... bland and boring... emotionless.​
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Vexing. It should at least have had the courtesy to provide a time travel spell so one could recoup the time spent in vain
 
I read the final novel, Land of the Dead by Thomas Harlan, in his Time of the Sixth Sun trilogy.

A massive artifact is discovered outside of Imperial space: a black hole, surrounded by three brown dwarfs, in turn surrounded by a Dyson sphere of force shields that shred any ship that ventures too close.

The Imperial Mirror has been studying the artifact, trying to determine what it is and what secrets it may hold. Now, however, the Imperial Judge Hummingbird has decided that this is too important to leave in the hands of the Mirror. Recruiting once again the archeologist Gretchen Anderssen, the pair make their way to the system aboard a mysterious freighter.

At the same time, the Empire dispatches a fleet to guard the artifact under the direction of an Imperial prince. One of the ships in the fleet is the battlecruiser Naniwa under the command of Susan Kosho. Finally, other sinister forces are also on their way, making for, you guessed it, some serious space battles.

I found the second part of this novel confusing. There are a lot of actors in play, and their motivations are not always clear. It gets very difficult sorting out the various conspiracies, especially as several of the characters seem to be very 'fluid' in their allegiances. As well, plot points developed in the previous novel, House of Reeds, appear to have been dropped.

We do learn that this alternate history stems from one point: the Mongols conquer Japan in the thirteenth century, and Japanese refugees flee to the North American west coast. There they trade with the Aztecs, and both begin their world conquests (with the Japanese being the minor partner of the two).

I'll put more comments in a spoiler:

I'm still somewhat confused about the purpose of the rebellion in House of Reeds. In Land of the Dead, we learn that all the Imperial agents involved were either reprimanded, or dispatched to forgotten corners of the Empire. Captain Hadeishi is reduced to playing music in a bar on Earth ... a fate worse than death for a fighting captain (but, don't worry, Hummingbird has plans for him).

Neither the mysterious agent of the Imperial flower nor the shape-shifting alien that compromised the 'rebellion' are mentioned in Land of the Dead. Odd.

Instead, new elements are introduced. We learn that the Empire, far from being a strong independent entity, is at the beck and call of a powerful alien species called the Hjogadim. These aliens refer to humans as 'dogs', 'apes' and 'toys', and the Emperor is shown almost groveling in the presence of their ambassador.

There is also a very powerful planet, New Malta, that is populated by a military order (Templars of Malta) with technology beyond that of the Imperial fleet. While apparently loyal to the Empire, they also play their own games.

Finally, there is a mortal threat to the Empire which is the motivation for discovering the secrets of the artifact, as a means of saving the Imperium. But this threat is never explained.

There are also a few parts that don't seem very rational.

In one part of the novel, the New Malta spaceship carrying Captain Hadeishi to the artifact is easily captured by the alien Khaid. Yet later we learn this ship is equipped with advanced cloaking technology and is crewed by Maltese super soldiers. I did not understand the point of this narrative at all, except that it adds more fighting to the novel.

In an odd coincidence, we learn that Captain Kosho and the Imperial Prince were schoolmates (!?). She speaks to him in a familiar tone that, based on previous novels, should have cost her her head. As well, at one point she refuses to rescue the prince who is in an escape pod, stating that pickup only happens after the battle is over. But then she spots a former crewman from the cruiser Cornuelle in the pod and, not wanting to abandon him, does stop to pick everyone up....

Anyway, I could go on to list further nitpicks ... how did Gretchen survive being shot, did her motives for killing Hummingbird make sense, what was Hummingbird's ultimate motive, etc, etc, but I'll stop now :).



One plot device was Captain Hadeishi thinking of the stories of the Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. Although in Land of the Dead Musashi obviously does things that did not occur in our timeline, it was interesting to do a bit of follow-up reading about him.

I wonder if the five year delay between House of Reeds and Land of the Dead was partially responsible for the difference in writing. I realize that I am in the minority when I look at the ratings on Amazon and Goodreads, but I was disappointed with this novel. There are a lot of unanswered questions at the end of Land of the Dead that I gather were to be answered in the next proposed novel River of Ash. But this was never written and fifteen years later, I doubt it ever will be.

Such a pity because I thought that Wasteland of Flint and the context of the stories had a lot of promise.

So my recommendation is to read the first novel, Wasteland of Flint, and let your imagination carry you along ...
 
Walter M. Miller, Jr. “Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman” (1997)

This is the sequel to the Hugo Award winning A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959). After Canticle, Miller published nothing further other than reprints/compilations, but he worked on and off with this sequel over some twenty or thirty years, and in the end the last 70 pages were completed at his request by Terry Bisson using his notes. During this time, apparently, he became seriously reclusive, struggled with depression (WWII PTSD probably), and writer’s block, and killed himself in 1996 soon after his wife’s death and shortly before his 73rd birthday.

I read this with a lot of interest as, though I only vaguely remember them, I thought the original Canticle stories unusual and thought provoking, but at 566 pages I found the sequel a struggle. To begin with, it badly needs a Dune-style glossary, as after 230 pages I had to backtrack and construct my own (not only are there many many names, but most of them have other names also and these confuse). The overall layout of the novel is hugely ambitious, and parts of it read very well, but it comes across to me as a second draft that needs editing – not necessarily to reduce in length but to make more explicit certain of the sub-plots that badly need clarifying. I can see how completing the novel became increasingly daunting. I’m not sure if I’d have finished reading it if I hadn’t been interested in the author’s personal take on the interface between Roman Catholicism, Zen and Shamanism that underlies the action

The novel takes place in the thirty-third century. There’ve been significant changes since the nuclear ‘Fire Deluge’ and subsequent ‘Big Freeze’ a thousand years or more earlier. The action stretches from Valana, seat of the Papacy in exile (Colorado Springs) to the Mississipi, and centres on the conflict between the Texart Empire (Texas) which had wrested control of its territory from the Papacy and forced it into exile from its seat at New Rome (St Louis). The vast central plains area north of the Texart Empire is occupied by the three Hordes of fierce nomads, the Wild Dog, the Grasshopper, and the Jackrabbit who survive among pockets of radioactive craters that form part of their mythology. The Wild Horse Woman of the title is central to the visions and beliefs of these Nomad Hordes. Unsurprisingly, there are also two marginal areas under mutant control. The overall plot of the novel concerns the machinations of the Papacy to both return to its ancestral seat and to re-take the Texart Empire, thereby controlling both Church and State. However, the central thread underlying everything else is the journey through these events of the young (actually he’s thirty years old, but he sees himself as young), former Nomad, monk of the Order of St Leibowitz, Brother Blacktooth, usually referred to as Nimmy (one who has not yet endured the rite of passage into manhood). Nimmy is devout and has occasional visions, but is unsure of his spiritual path, and becomes swept along in the maelstrom of events due to his skill as a translator in the various Nomadic and Church languages. For me, the key to the book and to his ‘journey’ is the wonderful idiosyncratic hermit Amen Specklebird, who spouts outrageous but thought-provoking zen-style takes on the Roman Catholic belief system. If it wasn’t for Amen I’d have found the book even more hard going than I did.​
 
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Randy M. said:
Haven't finished that anthology, but I've read around half of the stories in it. Good selection. Alan Ryan also edited Haunting Women, another good anthology.
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First proper story by John Polidori (the Vampyre) is a struggle. Doesn't help that I'm tired and stressed, but 'classic' fiction is often a struggle. So much waffle
 
It's been years since I read it, but I agree. That one's a slog, though what appears waffle now was part of the culture then, either no longer observed socially dictated behavior or story telling conventions that have streamlined over the years.

A few of the early stories are pretty simple, part of establishing the form of vampire stories, but the "surprise" for readers of the time is not a surprise for the readers now (and maybe especially when it's in a book with "vampire" in the title).
 
Randy M. said:
A few of the early stories are pretty simple, part of establishing the form of vampire stories, but the "surprise" for readers of the time is not a surprise for the readers now (and maybe especially when it's in a book with "vampire" in the title).
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I know one of them is set on Mars...
 
Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child :)
 
Virginia Woolf "The Voyage Out"
Another failed attempt to read Virginia Woolf. Nothing against it really: it looks well written, I just couldn't bear the thought of being stuck on a ship with those people for 400 pages when there are other books I'd much rather read.
 
Dave Vicks said:
OT:Did anyone like the novel TIME PATROL
by Poul Anderson?
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I might have. I read a book entitled (as I remember it) TIME PATROL and enjoyed it a lot. But that's eons ago and I haven't a clue if Poul Anderson wrote it or not. Back then I paid zero attention to authors. I was just happy to find an appealing SF. The only book I know for sure I read by Poul Anderson was THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS and one I don't have a name for where a person from the era of Genghis Khan is transported into the future and plays a game of living history. Both more than adequate SF.
 
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