Oct 03 2014

The Curse Of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

An almost perfect fantasy novel, with one major exception. Cazaril is a compelling hero but there are parts where his heroism seems less a function of himself than of the story. I loved that he had personality and flaws, but the author sometimes seems to forget those flaws and forego realism for the epic, when a few more lines explaining the manifestation of his inner strength might have served to ground his actions in the believable. I spent the whole book rooting for him, but in scenes such as his last confrontation with dy Jironal, I couldn’t suspend my disbelief long enough to really enjoy what was happening, which quite drew me out of the book altogether. Otherwise, it’s an excellent novel, and I loved the philosophical underpinnings of the religious system. Lois McMaster Bujold writes beautifully, with the occasional intrusion of the hero-on-steroids trope the only flaw in this otherwise excellent book.

On a side note that didn’t affect my enjoyment of this novel: I was somewhat horrified at how easily Ista passed off the (truth of the) death of dy Lutez. I’m hoping it’s addressed in the sequel, Paladin Of Souls, which I’m about to gleefully devour.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/03/the-curse-of-chalion-by-lois-mcmaster-bujold/

Oct 03 2014

St Joan Of Arc by V Sackville-West

What student of English literature hasn’t felt the slightest prurient interest in the personal lives of the Bloomsbury group? My fascination with Vita Sackville-West stems, of course, from her role as muse to Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, but I found her own novel, All Passion Spent, to be tedious rather than reflective. But here in this biography of St Joan of Arc, one sees clearly Ms Sackville-West’s genius, in presenting with clarity and sympathy — though not unduly so except at times, I felt, with Cauchon — the known facts and reasonable suppositions that can be drawn therefrom of the life of one of the most remarkable women to ever live. The only failing of the book is hardly the fault of the author, in that the medical and psychological advancements of her time would not be able to advance other theories of Joan that have come since to supplant or support some of those Ms Sackville-West discusses. Overall, though, this is an excellent biography of a controversial figure, well-researched and -written, intelligent and illuminating and, above all, interesting from start to end.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/03/st-joan-of-arc-by-v-sackville-west/

Oct 03 2014

Just Send Me Word by Orlando Figes

From the Preface to Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag, by Orlando Figes:

Three old trunks had just been delivered. They were sitting in a doorway, blocking people’s way into the busy room where members of the public and historical researchers were received in the Moscow offices of Memorial. … Noticing my interest in the trunks, they told me they contained the biggest private archive given to Memorial in its twenty years of existence. It belonged to Lev and Svetlana Mishchenko, a couple who had met as students in the 1930s, only to be separated by the war of 1941-5 and Lev’s subsequent imprisonment in the Gulag. …
We opened up the largest of the trunks. I had never seen anything like it: several thousand letters tightly stacked in bundles tied with string and rubber bands, notebooks, diaries, documents and photographs. The most valuable section of the archive was in the third and smallest of the trunks, a brown plywood case with leather trim and three metal locks that clicked open easily. We couldn’t say how many letters it contained – we guessed perhaps 2,000 – only how much the case weighed (37 kilograms). They were all love letters Lev and Svetlana had exchanged while he was a prisoner in Pechora, one of Stalin’s most notorious labour camps in the far north of Russia. The first was by Svetlana in July 1946, the last by Lev in July 1954. They were writing to each other at least twice a week. This was by far the largest cache of Gulag letters ever found. But what made them so remarkable was not just their quantity; it was the fact that nobody had censored them. They were smuggled in and out of the labour camp by voluntary workers and officials who sympathized with Lev. Rumours about the smuggling of letters were part of the Gulag’s rich folklore but nobody had ever imagined an illegal postbag of this size. …
As I leafed through the letters, my excitement grew. Lev’s were rich in details of the labour camp. They were possibly the only major contemporary record of daily life in the Gulag that would ever come to light. Many memoirs of the labour camps by former prisoners had appeared, but nothing to compare with these uncensored letters, composed at the time inside the barbed-wire zone. Written to explain to his sole intended reader what he was going through, Lev’s letters became, over the years, increasingly revealing about conditions in the camp. Svetlana’s letters were meant to support him in the camp, to give him hope, but, as I soon realized, they also told the story of her own struggle to keep her love for him alive.
Perhaps 20 million people, mostly men, endured Stalin’s labour camps. Prisoners, on average, were allowed to write and receive letters once a month, but all their correspondence was censored. It was difficult to maintain an intimate connection when all communication was first read by the police. An eight- or ten-year sentence almost always meant the breakings of relationships: girlfriends, wives or husbands, whole families, were lost by prisoners. Lev and Svetlana were exceptional. Not only did they find a way to write and even meet illegally – an extraordinary breach of Gulag rules that invited severe punishment – but they kept every precious letter (putting them at even greater risk) as a record of their love story.
There turned out to be almost 1,500 letters in that smallest trunk. … These letters are the documentary basis of Just Send Me Word, which also draws from the rich archive in the other trunks, from extensive interviews with Lev and Svetlana, their relatives and their friends, from the writings of other prisoners in Pechora, from visits to the town and interviews with its inhabitants and from the archives of the labour camp itself.

Does the book live up to the promise of its preface? Yes. Yes, it does.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/03/just-send-me-word-by-orlando-figes/

Oct 02 2014

The Origins of the Second World War by A.J.P. Taylor

The author has done his homework. He marshals volumes of diplomatic correspondence and documentation in support of his argument. But what he ends up with is clearly a reductio ad absurdum. As Tony Judt has pointed out, the conclusion that Hitler was not the primary agent responsible for starting World War II simply defies common sense. Taylor would have us believe that the inept statesmen of Britain, France, Poland, and the Soviet Union all blundered into a war that no one, not even Hitler, wanted. Much of the blame is put on the obstinacy of Poland and the pusillanimity of the French, but he also says some scathing things about the moral hypocrisy of the British government, for whom taking the high road to peace meant sacrificing the smaller countries of Europe. As implausible as the thesis is, this book has the virtue of not being boring; it is written with a lot of dry English wit that makes it a pleasure to read. But unfortunately it gives fuel to revisionists.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/02/the-origins-of-the-second-world-war-by-a-j-p-taylor/

Oct 01 2014

Shades of Milk & Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Delight is something I probably shouldn’t inquire too deeply about, so I will simply say that Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal was a delight. I knew that Regency romances were a Thing, and I knew that not having read Jane Austen is a gap in my education, and so I am sure that there are conventions of the genre that Kowal is playing around with that went past me, but for all of my not really being the target audience, I enjoyed the heck out of the book.

Jane is the plain daughter of the Honourable Charles Ellsworth, a well-to-do landowner in the neighbourhood of Dorchester during the English Regency. She is versed in the womanly arts, particularly music and glamour, a kind of magic-making practised by pulling upon strands within the ether; mostly this work is done individually, but sometimes it can be done collectively. It is largely an art of illusion, sometimes stationary, sometimes accompanying music, and sometimes being more like a short movie.

The Honourable Charles’ other daughter, Melody, has “a face made for fortune” and far better marriage prospects, as a maid of 18, several years younger than Jane, who is nearly reconciled to becoming a spinster. Events, of course, intercede.

There are wealthy and noble neighbours, the FitzCamerons; there is a captain in the Royal Navy, one Henry Livingston, with whom the sisters played when they were children, now grown handsome and dashing in HM service; there is a Mr Dunkirk, in whom both sisters appear to have an interest; there is his sister, Miss Beth Dunkirk, who becomes a friend, but has a mysterious and likely tragic history; there is a nearly invalid mother, with convenient fainting spells; there is a Mr Vincent, itinerant and slightly disreputable glamourist retained by the FitzCamerons; there are also various servants, who do not rate.

Everyone, of course, has a secret, and some characters have several.

The FitzCamerons give a ball; everything is not as it seems. Intentions are hidden, then misconstrued, then deliberately played false. Lives are callously put in danger, but saved in the nick of time. Unfortunately, that puts still more in danger and the ending arrives in a rush, with thudding heartbeats and the likelihood of a deadly duel, first hindered and then abetted by the magic of glamour.

Is there a happy ending? Well of course there is, but not for everyone, not even some of the more sympathetic characters.

Kowal has a deft touch with the characters, none of whom is without a flaw, and the misunderstandings that arise from social convention are key to several points in the plot. The pace is one of the particular pleasures of the novel, leisurely as a country walk at first, then quick as a duellist’s draw at the height of the action. There are pairings and some droll commentary to analyze in things such as the chapter titles, but that would get in the way of the delight. And for now, I am happy to be charmed, and delighted, and just come along for the ride.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/01/shades-of-milk-honey-by-mary-robinette-kowal/

Sep 30 2014

The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness

Now this is how young adult science fiction should be written!

The three books in this trilogy are The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men. They were wonderful. These books addressed wide-ranging topics from terrorism and tyranny to morality and how difficult love can be, all while telling a fast-paced science fiction tale of human colonization on a planet that already had a sentient species existent. The writing was very good, the characterization was excellent, the little bits and pieces of world-building that make a place different and yet real were all there. I thoroughly enjoyed reading these and they’ll probably end up on my to-be-read-again pile.

It wasn’t hard science fiction, which is usually one of my favorite genres (space opera FTW!), but the science bits that were in there were completely believable and didn’t distract me by popping my suspension-of-disbelief bubble.

I’ll be looking for more books by this guy.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/30/the-chaos-walking-trilogy-by-patrick-ness/

Sep 30 2014

The Powerless Series Omnibus (Books 1-3) by Jason Letts

A friend once gave me some good advice: life is too short to read bad books. She’s right.

The three books in this trilogy are The Synthesis, The Shadowing, and The Stasis. I got halfway through the second chapter of the first book and began wondering if I had the fortitude to continue through all three. That led to realizing that I had no obligation whatsoever to read all three, and so I promptly gave it one star on Goodreads and deleted the books from my Kindle. These are definitely Young Adult Fantasy books, but the tropes were old and worn and the writing was merely adequate, and it just didn’t capture me. There is so much stellar Young Adult fiction out there that no one should spend anytime reading mediocre examples.

Part of me will always wonder if I missed out on an especially tasty bit of world-building or characterization or even just good descriptions of Things Unusual, but even so, life is too short for bad books, and so I’m moving on.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/30/the-powerless-series-omnibus-books-1-3-by-jason-letts/

Sep 29 2014

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer

It is time for me to get off of my patootie and actually write up some of these books that I’ve been reading. At this point in time I am three trilogies and two novels behind, which doesn’t speak very well of my time management or my self discipline.

Regardless, here we go with trilogy the first, The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. This trilogy consists of three books (shocking, I know) – Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. I believe throughout the trilogy the author was attempting to achieve a sense of eeriness, what with the patch of land somewhere unspecified in the U.S. being eaten up by something the military calls a tremendously bad ecological disaster but which is really a creepy sentient world that is checking us out.

There are boundaries. There are tunnels through to the heart of “Area X,” as it’s called. There are expeditions, many of them, and there’s the Southern Reach where something only known as Central but presented as something rather CIAish is running things. People disappear. Plants write enigmatic words on a tower that goes down into the earth. A lighthouse contains the left-behind journals of every single failed expedition (so all of them, really), and sometimes people come back from failed expeditions (the kind where everyone is presumed dead), but they aren’t quite themselves, and then they die horrific deaths of cancer. There are weird howling creatures, and of course time works differently there.

It’s supposed to be creepy. It’s supposed to be a horror/maybe-sci-fi thriller. It’s supposed to give you chills.

It didn’t.

I didn’t mind reading them. I didn’t feel particularly forced into finishing the trilogy just for the sake of finishing it, but I wasn’t deeply involved with the books either. The characterization was a bit flat. I didn’t really care much about what was happening, or to whom. There were some good bits that I thought were original and I’m glad I read them, but I wouldn’t recommend this for someone looking for a really engrossing read.

I’ve liked Jeff VanderMeer’s other books. I’m not sure why these fell flat, but they did. Maybe he was trying to be Clive Barker and couldn’t quite pull it off.

Yay, only two trilogies and two books to go!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/29/the-southern-reach-trilogy-by-jeff-vandermeer/

Sep 28 2014

Journey Into the Heart by David Monagan

This is an incredible story. The daring, energy, and optimism of the men who pioneered cardiology in the twentieth century are truly extraordinary. This book focuses primarily on Andreas Gruentzig, the East German cardiologist who developed and refined angioplasty. The story becomes a Greek tragedy as success leads to hubris and hubris leads to nemesis. Yet the work of Gruentzig and his precursors lives on and has changed the lives of thousands of people suffering from heart disease. Gruentzig himself is practically a figure from an Ayn Rand novel, larger than life and seemingly superhuman, whose appetite for risk and pushing the limits unfortunately led to his untimely demise. This book is thus both inspiring and cautionary. But it does support the thesis that progress is the work of a few extraordinary individuals who stand head and shoulders above the rest of us.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/28/journey-into-the-heart-by-david-monagan/

Sep 28 2014

Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss

“It’s time for me to read Names for the Sea,” I told the friend who had sent me a copy. Some books are like that, resting placidly in the to-be-read pile for months before suddenly announcing, somehow, that it is time to read them. And indeed it was; despite a personal schedule that veers from hectic to frantic, I zipped through the book in just a couple of days, impatiently awaiting the next time I could take even a few minutes to read a little bit more.
Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/28/names-for-the-sea-by-sarah-moss/