Byzantium's Crown

I have a rocky relationship with trilogies; I try to avoid reading them unless I've got the whole series, since I hate having read one of a series and not being able to find the others. So this book has been sitting on my shelves for over a decade; probably something closer to 20 years. I finally found the others in the series at a second hand book shop and got them (not too cheaply, of course; it was a Newtown secondhand bookshop), and so I figured it was time to read this one.

Also, historical fiction (and/or historical fantasy; I'm not an expert on the divisions between genres) is always a risk to read. When it's good it's great, but mostly it's awful.

Byzantium's Crown, by Susan Schwartz, fell closer to the awful end of the spectrum than the excellent end. The world is "Antony and Cleopatra won at Actium, and there's magic". Which could be cool, but ends up rather disappointing (possibly not quite all the way to awful, though). It may be because I had looked at it for twenty years and was expecting some awesome after this time; it may be also that I automatically end up comparing it to Gillian Bradshaw's excellent historical fiction. I probably should've read this one when I was fifteen; I think it might have been much better back then.

Stations of the tide

I think I missed something in this book. It's by Michael Swanwick, of whose books I've read Vacuum Flowers (many years ago) and The Iron Dragon's Daughter (quite recently), both of which blew me away. The subtlety and complexity of the concepts and world building was astounding in those two novels, and so I had high expectations. While it was interesting, it seemed like it was trying to jump a few too many genre boundaries, and never really went anywhere. This reviewer covers my feelings about it pretty well; I think the author of that book had a bit more of an idea of what was going on than I did. And now that I've read the spoiler-laden interpretation that is linked to from that review, I see that there's whole layers of meaning in there that I did completely miss, largely because it references things I've not been educated in. I've always been pretty poor at picking up on symbolism in literature (and people who've run roleplaying games with religious themes are often exasperated by my overly literal mind). I think it's part and parcel of my atheist upbringing and particularly of my having degree in mathematics. Math, while it's all about symbols and representation, is also about clarity of definition and structured, logical thought, which while generally useful, does at times tend to hinder one.

Well, it appears I ramble. I expected more of this book, and would only recommend it if you're into this sort of thing. I know that next time I read one of Swanwick's books I'll do so a lot more carefully.

The moral of the story...

I don't know if you've ever read and Care Bears stories (my advice: Don't!), but they are oppressively saccharine and dull. Unfortunately I was reading one to Atty and Elora the other evening (Elora grabbed the book from the shelf for her bedtime story). This one was about Sharing. Funshine Bear (or something stupid like that) had just received a box of Rainbow Bars (confectionery, I can only assume), and wasn't going to Share. But then Share Bear told him a story of other care bears who had failed to Share, and the dire consequences of this. Mainly that the other bears didn't play with them or were sad (disappointingly, no being torn to shreds by wolves or plummeting tragically over a cliff or anything). At the end of this tale of woe, Funshine Bear decides to Share the Rainbow Bars with the other care bears. Every Share second Share flipping Share word Share in Share the Share flipping Share story Share was Share Share. Share.

So, a little sarcastically, I then asked Atty and Elora what the moral of the story was. This should be easy, thinks I; Care Bears stories really hit you over the head with the moral mallet.

"Rainbow Bars" says Atty.

The kid is a genius.

Vernon God Little

Inspired by Jen's plan to read all the Man Booker prize winning books, I bought Vernon God Little (by DBC Pierre) a while back. It finally floated to the top of my to-read list, so I figured I'd give it a go.

I always find these literary masterpieces rather daunting to start. There's a girding of the loins, a deep breath to be taken before embarking on them. I think it goes back to a lot of badly translated classics that I've read in the past - always worth a read, even though the prose flows like a river of bricks. But then, as often as not, they take me by surprise.

This was one of those ones - lyrical, intense, and at times impossible to put down. It was responsible for several very late nights and cranky following days as I stayed up reading. It's story of a teenager wrongly accused of a crime, written in the first person. It chronicles the gathering of evidence for and against him, the various people in his life - his mother and her friends, schoolmates, and others who are brought in on the tide of publicity surrounding the crime.

This is definitely worth a read, and will propel on to try to get through more of the Man Booker winners.

The Jennifer Morgue

Another Charles Stross Laundry novel, this was a lot of fun, though not quite as awesome as the Atrocity Archive. Rather than Nazis, it's James Bond, but there's still whole bunch of geekery and Lovecraft.

Definitely worth a read, and I was quite excited to hear Stross is working on the next Laundry novel, due out next year.

Ambitions

Atticus, this evening: "When I grow up, I want to be a Daddy, so I'll have a phone and I can play the games on it"

World War Z

This was a really effective book. I know I seemto be saying everything I read is awesome, but World War Z is really a very good read. Especially when we're on the eve of a major flu pandemic. It chronicles the decade-long struggle of humanity to beat back a plague of zombies that wipes out most of humanity. It's told as a series of interviews with key survivors from around the world - naturally, as is often the way with these books, they're mostly from the USA, but there is a good sampling of people from other parts of the world.

Apart from a few sillinesses, and the obvious issue of zombies, there is a realistic feel to the book; the compromises made to ensure humanity's survival, and people's reactions to the situation. The only real downside is at the end, when some of the characters are reintroduced; because I read the book over a few weeks I found mydelf having to look back through the book to figure out who they were.

This is first rate horror; I thoroughly recommend it. It's the kind of book that you'll remember for a long time, and keep thinking about. Since I'm now blathering on about the books I read, I might as well start rating them. I'm going to give this one 4 out of 5 awesomes.