Nov 26 2014

Premature Evaluation: Finding Poland by Matthew Kelly

The first chapters of this book are giving me a case of the Yabbuts. Finding Poland is mostly a family chronicle, concerning Matthew Kelly’s great-grandmother and her two daughters, and how they went from pre-WWII eastern Poland to later life in the United Kingdom. By way of Kazakhstan, Iran and India.

To get to why members of his family came such a long way around, he of course has to situate them in the first place, and that is in what is now Belarus, then eastern Poland. And to do that, Kelly must sketch the region’s complex history. Which is what gives me the Yabbuts. His abridged history of the region is mostly very good, but periodically I find myself thinking, “Yeah, but…” and considering either an omission or something else about his point of view.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/26/premature-evaluation-finding-poland-by-matthew-kelly/

Nov 25 2014

Shards of a Broken Crown by Raymond Feist

The final book in Feist’s Serpentwar Saga, unless there are more that I have overlooked. Like all of Feist’s novels, the story is incredibly tacky yet somehow enjoyable to read. There is a confusing jumble of place names and character names and story arcs, as well as a lot of implied back story that somehow I wasn’t that interested in trying to discover, and as always in such stories, magic introduces complications and implausibilities. Feist’s wizard characters are so apparently powerful that one wonders why they couldn’t have saved the world on the very first page, and I think the story would have been more compelling if he had left them out. But, you can’t have fantasy without magic, right? And there is even a dragon thrown in for good measure. The not so fantastic characters and story threads were actually the most interesting; Feist might be a halfway decent writer if he wouldn’t stray so much into the wildly fantastic, but this is a pretty good cheeseburger novel nonetheless.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/25/shards-of-a-broken-crown-by-raymond-feistthe-final-book-in-feists-serpentwar-saga-unless-there-are-more-that-i-have-overlooked-like-all-of-feists-novels-the-story-is-incredibly-tacky-yet-someh/

Nov 24 2014

Korea: The First War We Lost by Bevin Alexander

The subtitle may raise eyebrows, but the author argues that we defeated the North Koreans and were in turn defeated by the Communist Chinese. The figure of MacArthur looms large in this story, a figure of genius compounded with hubris. The Inchon landing was such an astoundingly successful maneuver that thereafter the Joint Chiefs and even Truman himself were so in awe of MacArthur that they failed to question his judgment later on when they should have…or so the author argues. It was mainly on MacArthur’s initiative that the scope of the war’s aim was expanded to included the unification of the peninsula under non-communist rule, which inevitably provoked the Chinese to intervene in a conflict they could have been kept out of if not for this tremendous misjudgment. Much of this book contains accounts of battles that are memorable only for their wastefulness of human life, but underneath this monotony is the cry of the soldier that his sacrifice not be forgotten. Dulce et decorum.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/24/korea-the-first-war-we-lost-by-bevin-alexander/

Nov 17 2014

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Sword puts author Ann Leckie in a strong position to be the first author since 1991-92 to repeat as winner of the Hugo for best novel, and indeed to be only the second person ever to repeat Hugo/Nebula awards in that category. Which is mainly to say that Ancillary Sword is a terrific book, one that deserves entrance into the pantheon of SF classics.

Hitherby spoilers.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/17/ancillary-sword-by-ann-leckie/

Nov 12 2014

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

There are a lot of angry reviews in various places, saying this book is boring, saying that the author should be working on the main trilogy and not messing around with odd novellas, saying it isn’t worth the time, nothing happens, etc.

They could not be more completely wrong.

This is not a book about doing; this is a book about knowing, about being aware of all the small things in your life and how important they are. When Auri takes the time to deeply contemplate exactly where an object should be placed and which direction it should be facing and how it should be touched, she is understanding that object, and through it, herself. In essence, how it should fit into the world, just as we all must fit into the world. Every single decision that Auri makes is based on thoughtfulness and awareness – of herself, of her surroundings, of her world. The language is beautiful and evocative, and Patrick Rothfuss captures perfectly the manner in which physical objects carry emotions for us, as well as the importance of doing things correctly, and with love.

Most importantly for me, though, is that he doesn’t tell, he shows. This frees me as the reader to fill in the gaps, to read between the lines, to find the meaning, to apply it all to myself in my own little world. I think it’s a brilliant book, and I feel sure it will end up in my digital to-read-again-and-again pile.

In the afterward of the book, Rothfuss admits that this book isn’t for everyone, but he put it out there anyway because he knows there are people like me out there who would find it a treasure, and I’m so so glad he did.

For those people complaining about his writing timeline, I’ll paraphrase Neil Gaiman’s commentary about people who say the same thing to George R. R. Martin – Patrick Rothfuss is not your b****. Look up Gaiman’s blog post – it gives a very cogent explanation about why things aren’t all about you.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/12/the-slow-regard-of-silent-things-by-patrick-rothfuss/

Nov 11 2014

The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman

“If you grew up reading Harry Potter, read Lev Grossman’s Magicians trilogy.” That’s certainly how I would sell people on the books. They’re more adult than Potter, but they have structural similarities: Magic works in our world, but it is a secret known only to a few. There are schools that teach the adept how to master its techniques and arts.

Hitherby spoilers.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/11/the-magicians-land-by-lev-grossman/

Nov 11 2014

Warsaw 1920 by Adam Zamoyski

The argument of Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe is that “in the summer of 1920, outside the gates of Warsaw, there took place a battle that ranks alongside Marathon and Waterloo for its importance in history.” Zamoyski’s brisk, 148-page narrative sets out to make that argument, describe the campaign that reached its climax just across the river from downtown Warsaw, and sketch the aftermath. Six chapters take up the task, with the longest — fully one-third of the book — devoted to the dramatic August days of the battle for Warsaw itself.

Zamoyski has chosen carefully what to tell, and what to leave out. This is a book that describes fighting, battles and their consequences for a military and political narrative. While the book draws on interviews, memoirs and original documents, its main purpose is not to communicate the experience of fighting one of the sequels to World War I. Instead, as Zamoyski notes in his introduction, he has “concentrated on the military operations, and in particular on providing a synthesis accessible to the general reader and a succinct overview of what happened and how. This necessarily excludes dozens of minor actions and ignores the part played by many lesser actors, some of them of crucial importance. Nor can it give anything but a hint of the horrors and the heroism involved, or of the sense, which comes through all personal accounts and contemporary documents, that this was a crisis of European civilization.”
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/11/warsaw-1920-by-adam-zamoyski/

Nov 10 2014

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

As Stalin’s purges neared their apogee, show trials in Moscow featured heroes of the Russian Revolution confessing to the most astonishing things: that they had conspired with foreign powers, that they had plotted to kill Stalin; that they had knowingly and willfully wrecked whole sectors of the economy; and more. How could these men — leaders of the Revolution and the Civil War — say such things? Could they possibly be true? Did anyone believe them? Did they themselves believe what they were saying?

In Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler drew on his own experiences, both as an active Communist in the 1930s and as a prisoner under sentence of death in Franco’s Spain, to show in chilling detail how such things could come to pass. His protagonist, Rubashov is an Old Bolshevik, who was once high up in the power structure of Soviet Russia. He had been close to Lenin (referred to in the book as “the old man”) but then gotten crossways with Stalin (“No. 1”). Rubashov had thought to sit things out with a foreign assignment, but eventually the police came for him, too.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/10/darkness-at-noon-by-arthur-koestler/

Nov 09 2014

Aphrodite The Beauty (Goddess Girls Book 3) by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

Quick, cute read that is a tween-friendly adaptation of Greek mythology. Had I encountered these books at that age, I would have much preferred them to the pettiness of the actual myths. Not for purists, obviously, but not a terrible way to introduce children to the Greek myths either.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/09/aphrodite-the-beauty-goddess-girls-book-3-by-joan-holub-and-suzanne-williams/

Nov 09 2014

The Penguin Book Of Ghost Stories edited by J. A. Cuddon

Wow, I remembered so very little this re-read from the last (which was, granted, nigh on two decades ago.) The two stories that did stir memories, though faint, are likely the ones I will continue to remember, Ann Bridge’s “The Buick Saloon” and Marghanita Laski’s “The Tower”, both for the unflinching cruelty done to the heroines. I’ve come to believe that ghost stories at their best are allegories for the terrible meanness of fate, though even so I do rather like tales such as Joan Aiken’s “Sonata For Harp And Bicycle,” which showcase a delightful British pragmatism even as it allows for the worst. I also thought it interesting that stories I know would have thrilled me when younger (such as Edith Wharton’s “Afterward”) now just seem a bit much. Fun post-Halloween reading, though between this and the Nabokov I think I’ve ODed a bit on short stories.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/09/the-penguin-book-of-ghost-stories-edited-by-j-a-cuddon/