justchris succumbs in 2010

Okay, resistance is futile. I'll get started. I'm going to try to cut back on my review efforts because I would like to concentrate on other writing.

Here's the list:
1. The Gathering Flame* #6
2. The Price of the Stars* #6
3. Starpilot's Grave* #6
4. By Honor Betray'd* #6
5. Gandalara Cycle I by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron #76
6. Moonraker's Bride by Madeleine Brent* #27
7. The Wind Crystal by Diana L. Paxson #65
8. Tactics of Mistake by Gordon R. Dickson #33
9. To Ride A Rathorn by P. C. Hodgell* #109
10. Gandalara Cycle II by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron(*)#76
11. Famous Wisconsin Women(*) #30
12. The Sacketts: Volume 1 by Louis L'Amour*(*) #23
13. The Sacketts: Vol. 2 by Louis L'Amour*(*) #23
14. The Sacketts: Vol. 3 by Louis L'Amour*(*) #23
15. The Sacketts: Vol. 4 by Louis L'Amour*(*) #23
16. The Tenth Anniversary Calvin and Hobbes Book by bill watterson::Bill Watterson #16
17. Seduction by Amanda Quick #46
18. The Delight of Hearts by al-Tifashi NF P #83
19. Stardust by Neil Gaiman #54
20. Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs* (2009 review)
21. Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs* (2009 review)
22. The River Wall by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron #76
23. The Jewel of Fire by Diana L. Paxson #65
24. Down the Long Hills by Louis L'Amour* #85
25. "Why Are All of the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" by Beverley Daniel Tatum NF #97
26. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs* (2009 review)
27. Robert Frost's Poems P #105
28. Wave Without a Shore in Alternate Realities by C. J. Cherryh* #128
29. Bound in Blood by P. C. Hodgell #109
30. The Gold Scent Bottle by Dorothy Mack #124
31. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
32. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson #130
33. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher #204
34. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher #204
35. Storm Front by Jim Butcher* #204
36. Summer Knight by Jim Butcher #204
37. Death Masks by Jim Butcher #204
38. Blood Rites by Jim Butcher #204
39. Dead Beat by Jim Butcher #204
40. Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher #204
41. White Night by Jim Butcher #204
42. Small Favor by Jim Butcher #204
43. Turn Coat by Jim Butcher #204
44. Changes by Jim Butcher #204
45. The Seventh Suitor by Laura Matthews* #132
46. The Song of Mavin Manyshaped by Sherri S. Tepper #202
47. The Flight of Mavin Manyshaped by Sherri S. Tepper #202
48. The Search of Mavin Manyshaped by Sherri S. Tepper #202
49. The True Game by Sherri S. Tepper* #202
50. The End of the Game by Sherri S. Tepper* #202
51. The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
52. The Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede*
53. The Raven Ring by Patricia C. Wrede*
54. The Privilege of the Sword by kushnerellen::Ellen Kushner* (2009 review)
55. Drinker of Souls by Jo Clayton* #210
56. Blue Magic by Jo Clayton* #210
57. A Gathering of Stones by Jo Clayton* #210
58. Bellwether by Connie Willis*
59. Catseye by Andre Norton*
60. Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart*
61. Stardoc by S. L. Viehl #194
62. Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
63. Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy*
64. Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer*
65. Andalusian Poems translated by Christopher Middleton and Leticia Garza-Falcon P
66. Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
67. Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs* (2009 review)
68. Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs* (2009 review)
69. The Dark Hand of Magic by Barbara Hambly*
70. The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip*
71. Heir of Sea and Fire by Patricia McKillip*
72. Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn
73. Harpist in the Wind by Patricia McKillip*
74. Poesia Feminina Hispanoarabe edited by Maria Jesus Rubiera Mata P
75. Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs* (2009 review)
76. Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs* (2009 review
77. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs* (2009 review
78. Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs* (2009 review)
79. Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer
80. Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre*
81. Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich NF
82. Deerskin by Robin McKinley*
83. The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold* (2009 review)
84. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs* (2009 review)
85. To Ride the Rathorn by P. C. Hodgell* #109

And that completes the year.

Stupid touchstones keep breaking!

My status on Don Quijote: Chapter 5 of Book 2

* indicates reread
(*) I know I read it before, but I sure as hell don't remember much if anything
+ indicates not in English (such ambition!)
NF is nonfiction (going to try harder this year)
P is poetry (definitely need to expand)

My 2009 thread is here.

Welcome back!

Glad to see that you have given in, Chris!

Best of luck with your challenge! I've never read Debra Doyle, though I know plenty of others who have. I take it she is a favorite of yours, or at least an author you particularly enjoy?

Hi! Good to see you in here. Looking forward to follow your reading this year:)

@1-5: Whoops, sorry folks. Totally forgot to star my own thread. No wonder I was having a hard time finding it. Thank you for the welcome.

4: Welcome Alana. I can't say I've really read much by Debra Doyle and James MacDonald (I have read and now own 5 books by this pair), but I have enjoyed the ones that I have read. Perfect segue to the review:

These books comprise the Magewar trilogy and the prequel (The Gathering Flame). They are just about my favorite space opera, hence the reread. They're essentially a different take on the Star Wars trilogy. Instead of a princess, a dashing starpilot and his alien sidekick, and a mystical young hero with android sidekicks, we get the Rosselin-Metadi siblings (from youngest to oldest): Beka (princess and swashbucklinging starpilot rolled into one), Owen (unassuming mystical apprentice Adept who fights with two-handed staff), and Ari (the giant but peaceful medic in the Space Force). They've got the political, religious, and military angles all covered amongst themselves.

Like the original Star Wars trilogy, these books represent the second generation. Their parents are the famous Domina Perada Rosselin and General Jos Metadi, who were instrumental in stopping the Mages from taking over the "civilized galaxy." Their story is told in the prequel, which I always find interesting for the "continuity errors" between its narrative and the legends/history as portrayed in the main trilogy.

Anyway, Beka is the main plot driver, and most (but certainly not all) of the action revolves around her, but the story jumps around among the three siblings and their important supporting characters. It's a fast-paced action story with some very amusing dialogue.

Beside the main character differences from Star Wars, these books also differ on the story angle. Rather than being a battle between good and evil (or the Dark Side of the Force), it's really about two different cultures and philosophies/religions: the Adepts believe in a kind of metaphysical noninterference policy and are essentially individualists, while the Mages (who fight with one-handed staffs) believe in manipulating space-time/reality for higher purposes and work in groups ("Circles"). The battles with staffs involve just as much light show as lightsabers, but it's generated by each individual's own power rather than a little gizmo. So the Mages aren't evil, per se, just different, and from a different part of the galaxy.

Those are the reasons why I like the stories.

Problems: well, once again, an entire galaxy of white people, even from two apparently completely distinct civilizations. Only one person in the entire series is described as being brown, and with all of the extras involved in such an epic tale, there's plenty of room for more. And of course, as far as we know, everyone is straight.

However, I must say that a definite strength is that there is about a 50:50 gender ratio in terms of characters. If anything, when two secondary characters are presented, the woman is more likely to be in the leadership position. So lots of strong women characters as both protagonists and window dressing. Definitely passes the Bechdel/Wallace test.

Nonhumans get pretty short shrift too; I mean, really, an entire galaxy full of two human civilizations? The Selvaurs are the only ones that get any playtime in the story, since one of them is Jos Metadi's engineer during his privateer days during the Magewar (pilot with alien sidekick, check) in the prequel. It was this relationship that allowed Jos and Perada to begin to form an allied space fleet to kick Mage ass, so the Selvaurs played a pretty pivotal role in the historical context.

And since Ari, the oldest sibling, was fostered on the Selvaur homeworld to cement that alliance, the Selvaurs do turn up as relatively minor characters throughout the trilogy. The only other aliens who make a very brief appearance are the Rotis, who show up in By Honor Betray'd during a key plot moment. That's it? C'mon. What's the use of space opera with some aliens if you don't have fun with it?

And what's with this "civilized" space thing? The Mages are barbarians? They clearly have better technology in a few different fields. They're a unified culture, as opposed to the hodgepodge of independent planets of the Adept territories. And if they were so hurting for goods in their home territory that they needed to start raiding "civilized" space (Vikings, anyone?), how the hell did they get the advanced technology in the first place? So some flaws to basic underlying premises and the way the story is framed.

But hey, if you ignore subtext (subtext, what's that?) and lack of representation and the general shallowness of the story, characters, etc., it is entertaining. And like I said, an interesting spin on Star Wars, defects aside.

Glad to see you finally got your thread set up. And thanks for the comments on the Magewar books. I have all four of these books, acquired from friends, but have never read them. Good to know you think they are entertaining.

Hey, good to see you Roni. I do find them entertaining. They have some great one-liners in fine Hollywood action-movie tradition.

I still plan to review the remaining big books from 2009 on the old thread...just been so behind at work.

Ha ha! Done with 2009. I'll try to catch up with 2010 soon. I keep hoping to be more succinct, but there's so much to share about each book...

Bravo! Bet that feels good. And I love reading your reviews. If not succinct, they are also not verbose; it is all good information.

Hi Chris. I almost thought you fell off the wagon a while back, being so quiet and all.. how is your writing (and reading) doing?

I will have to check in on your 2009 thread again. I checked the other day and it looked like you were still plugging away at reviews. Thanks for the update!

11: Hey Apolline, thanks for asking. I'm afraid I'm neglecting the writing again. Clearly a case of me being more of a wannabe than an actual writer. The good news is that I woke up at 4:30 this morning from a dream that was a story telling itself, I was just following along. Been doing a lot of reading lately, which means a lot to catch up on here...

12: Thanks for the continued interest, Stasia. I know 2009 is long gone, but I really wanted to write those reviews. I just haven't had much energy and have had to concentrate on work and immediate priorities this winter, I'm afraid. Which means I haven't kept up with most of the LT threads I've starred either.

This is probably all I'll get done this weekend. So I'm still falling behind. The L'Amour books are quick reads and I expect the write-ups to be brief.

How nice having the story just unfold itself without too much effort. I have to admit the writing is slow here as well. I've been so preoccupied with my reading, trying to keep up with the challenge. Maybe my head will burst soon, and then I just have to get it out anyway;) But it's just a hobby, so why stress about it?

14: Admittedly, not a whole story, but a couple of scenes, a handful of characters, and an inkling of plot and motivation. I'm not sure it would get me past the four-chapter road block in the writing goals thread. I found that keeping up with this challenge, particularly making the effort to write meaningful (to me) reviews, kept me from other writing endeavors last year, so I waffled before signing up again. But the sad truth is that I'm a reader before I'm a writer, and the temptation was just too great.

So on to at least one review...

I'm going to jump around in my backlog, rather than writing reviews in the same order that I read the books. I'll start with the book that I finished in the wee hours this morning: The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book by Bill Watterson. I think this may be one of the most beloved of comic strips, certainly the only others I have ever been tempted to collect are the Bloom County books by Berke Breathed (yes, I have a few), The Far Side by Gary Larson, and most recently Get Fuzzy by, I think, Darby Conley (I own none of the latter two). Other graphic works that have appealed to me enough to contemplate acquisition: Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics/graphic novels (I have some scattered items; sorry, Steph--I know you're done with him for now), The Green Arrow (I have a soft spot for archery, though I recognize the weaknesses of this one), and Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike (once again, nothing in hand of the last two). I'm afraid this list shows my age, more than anything. I precede the manga era.

This book was my most recent bedtime fare. As I've mentioned before, it has been a challenge to find something that will help me unwind, calm the mental cacaphony, NOT engage the brain too much, and finally fall asleep. I've been alternating among Montaigne's Essays, the Bible, the Qur'an, and whatever other books I decide to assay. My querido has been pulling various graphic books off the bookcase that was relocated to the bedroom, and it occurred to me that I should follow his lead. So here I am, and it was an excellent choice.

The presentation in this book is generally different from other comic strip compilations, including those by Bill Watterson himself. He includes a preface that provides great background and perspective on his own artistic vision, the history and contract disputes of his wildly successful comic strip, his artistic influences, the process to create the strip, the major characters, the history and trends of newspaper comics, and his philosophy and ethics as an artist, and how this comes into conflict with the limits created by format standardization, marketing pressures, and so on. This last is not unlike part of the discussion taking place over here about writing vs. publishing. The overview of newspaper comic books, and how they've radically changed, and the potential for the future is quite interesting.

And then onto the selection of comics. Each strip or longer story arc has been selected to reveal particular points, either what inspired this item, or what his objective was, how it reflected his style or understanding at the time, or reader reactions he received. So each representative is accompanied by one or two sentences acknowledging the influences of his cat Sprite, childhood memories, personal outside interests, career struggles at the time, how ideas worked or panned, and so on. So the cartoons remain delightful, and the additional insights on the artist and his process are pleasant. Well worth reading.

I love Calvin and Hobbes. I will have to pull out my collection - if I can locate them.

My favorite comic strips are Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, and Get Fuzzy! I've been wanting the complete boxed set of Calvin and Hobbes for a while now...maybe it will drop in price soon. Nice review.

I also enjoy the C&H books, as well as the Far Side. Problem is that I don't remember whey they are- probably relegated to the basement. Your comments made me want to read them again.

17: Good luck with the search Stasia,

18: Angela, I didn't know they had complete boxed sets. I've been acquiring them piecemeal over the years as gifts or thrift store finds. As much as I enjoy comics, they are not priority books to buy. It's good to know that someone else has the same tastes. I forgot to mention that I like Overboard too, but I don't see it as often, since it's not carried by the local paper (which I no longer subscribe to anyway).

19: Again, good luck searching for them Manuel.

I think Calvin & Hobbes is one of the most beloved comics created and simply brilliant in terms of both the art and the messages.

Here's the link on amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Calvin-Hobbes-v/dp/0740748475/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&...

I guess the cheapest is a used one for $85, but with shipping you're probably better off buying new from amazon!

Still too pricey for me...

21: I agree--I spend money like that on my research library, not entertainment.

For the sake of the upcoming travel and need to wrap the gift, I will review the Louis L'Amour ouevre, with a brief sketch of the key items for each of the stories in these volumes.

I've read just about every book that Louis L'Amour wrote, so I assume most of these stories are rereads, though some I don't remember very well. He's really the only author of Westerns that I've explored much, though I did greatly enjoy Lonesome Dove and found Angle of Repose to be a bizarre tangential perspective on the period. I tried Riders of the Purple Sage and couldn't get beyond the first few chapters. So I don't really have much basis for comparison in the book realm, though I've seen a lot of movies.

What I can say is that L'Amour's stories are some of the most placed-based fiction I've ever read. He has thoroughly done his homework on the history of the European settlement of different regions of North America, displaying a thorough, detailed knowledge of local geography, both key and obscure figures and events, and the ephemeral culture of the pioneers of the "Old West." This research is accompanied by his first-hand experience with many of these landscapes over a lifetime of travel and exploration. So the sites in which his stories occur are neither imaginary nor synthesized, rather they are usually very specific locales that he often discusses in prefatory Author Notes, along with comments on other aspects of his research. The dialogue is salted with the slang of the era and references to local events and people and place names and so on, giving his extremely formulaic stories substance that is otherwise lacking. The stories are almost entirely in first-person, with occasional third-person vignettes to share otherwise inaccessible plot points. His fiction is essentially a portrait of a particular, short-lived era of American history, in much the same way that A Woman Named Solitude was a portrait of slavery on the island of Guadeloupe.

Another feature of his writing is that he is actually quite a proponent of multiculturalism. While the protagonist is always a white man, most of the stories include secondary characters who are black, Hispanic, or from the many Indian tribes, in addition to the many supporting white characters. While I don't recall any Asian characters, he does have very rare characters from more remote regions: at least one Gypsy/Rom and one from the Middle East, along with several Basques. Because these stories are about European settlement, they invariably involve interactions with native cultures and the various colonial cultures (French, Spanish, English), and quite often his protagonists are multilingual and consider it normal. Moreover, the only bigots in the books are white, and they are invariably bad guys. All of the goods guys are quite racially, ethnically, and culturally tolerant. However, these stories don't really paint a world of greys, just cultural misunderstandings between people living on the frontier and easterners who happen to be in the West.

The downside of his writing? As I said, formulaic and relying on very shallow stereotypical characters. First, the solitary hero: lonesome, rugged, and extremely self-reliant, good with fists and horses and guns, and usually facing overwhelming opposition. Often philosophical about what drives him to always wander, seeking far mountains, etc. Either handsome and charismatic and has a way with the ladies, or homely and tongue-tied and inexperienced with the ladies. The good guys usually hit what they aim for; the bad guys frequently only wing the hero, often because of a serendipitous sudden movement by hero or horse, but sometimes even when shooting straight down into the body of the prone and unconscious hero! The protagonist is always sticking up for the weak and defenseless, and often provokes a fight with the bullying type who just gets on his nerves. However, he often prefers to avoid killing and will frequently try to talk sense into some idiot itching for a showdown with pistols. And of course, not only does the hero defeat the bad guys against the odds, he also survives where mere mortals would fail: being shot, falling off cliffs, escaping naked into the wilderness, blizzards, etc.

The female characters in general are even more shallowly realized, if that is possible. They are usually beautiful, petite, feminine, vulnerable (or at least giving the appearance of). If they are bad guys (which in these first books most of them are), then they are quite amoral and vicious (often beyond the limits of their male counterparts), usually seeking to lure the hero into a trap or inveigle riches or favors out of him. However, if the woman is a blood relative of the hero or destined to become his love interest, then she is brave, bold, strong, usually a good shot, also good with horses or ships or whatever is most relevant to the story's milieu (no fistfights though), an excellent cook, etc. In other words, she possesses all of the womanly virtues and many of the masculine ones as well--in other words, she outmans the average man. If she is captured by bad guys, then she often manages to effect her own escape when the hero provides the necessary distraction/opening. However, a couple of the romantic interests start out in very adversarial relationships with the hero (usually the one without the wooing skills), and thus proceed to act exceedingly stupidly, such as running off with bad guys who are better looking and smoother talking.

Bad guys? The usual: some combination of greedy, selfish, clueless, arrogant, lazy, bully, bigoted, inethical, and so on. They are always seeking the quick and easy path to power and riches--whether it is robbery or fraud or blackmail or whatever. They are always defeated in the end, though minor bad guys who are just starting to stray off the path of the righteous often have the opportunity to drop their weapons and seek a new line of work. The masterminds invariably end up dead or maybe just beaten to a pulp and left to live in humiliation, sometimes both (in reverse order, obviously).

Secondary characters: the hero often is often assisted by complete strangers that he stumbles across in the course of his adventure. These characters then become loyal NPCs who continue to help him on his quest, often at great personal expense (since the hero can't die, and we must truly understand how dire their situation is). Sometimes these sidekicks are friends of friends and may recur through several stories. These are also usually stereotypes: the crusty old mountain man, the good man at heart who has fallen afoul of the law, the cowboy who rides for the brand, and so on.

Louis L'Amour also has an agenda in his stories, or let us say beliefs that he wants to share:

1. The Indian is a warrior, and not being Christian, mercy, compassion, nonviolence, love-thy-neighbor, etc. have no part in his philosophy. His virtues are directed to his own tribe, everyone else is fair game. He respects strength and courage.

2. Native American cultures are simply different from, not better or worse, than the imported European cultures. However, they are so different, that coexistence is untenable in the long term (of course, he has the benefit of hindsight here). The movement of peoples and the disappearance of weaker cultures is an inevitable part of human history.

3. The frontier is uncivilized in the sense that formal government and other social institutions are few and far between. It is up to the individual to find his own justice, punish wrongdoers, and otherwise maintain some semblance of social order.

4. Business transactions rely on personal reputations (which are widely disseminated through gossip and news from travelers), and people's true characters are quickly revealed among the sparse populations of the West, since they cannot hide among a crowd.

5. Violence must be confronted with violence or it will continue unchecked. Hence, the fistfights and gun battles and the hero never backing down. And often, as a matter of survival against the odds, the hero preemptively strikes when he sees a setup coming.

6. Education is essential to getting ahead in life. Even if his hero starts out illiterate and ignorant, he soon works to improve himself. He may overcome using his common sense, physical prowess, and traditional skills, but he recognizes that he is still lacking.

7. The frontier is about people reinventing themselves. It's a melting pot of social classes, education, economic status, ethnicities, etc. People cannot be judged by appearances, since that down-at-heels cowpoke may be the aristocratic, well-educated younger son or by-blow. And the unassuming, quiet stranger may be hell on wheels. Thus, many a local wannabe gunslinger dies young in these stories. And of course, the bad guys don't realize until too late that they picked on the Wrong Man.

There's probably more messages entrenched in these books, but these are what I can remember off the top of my head. Now I'll move on to the actual stories I read. These are four compilation volumes of Sackett stories. This is the clan that he has probably written the most stories around.

Volume 1:

Sackett's Land: Barnabas Sackett (progenitor of the dynasty); 1599 to 1603; England, West Indies, and Carolina coast; love interest--Abigail Tempany; fleeing bad guys, starting new life

To the Far Blue Mountains: starts a few months after the first book, continues the story and ends with the death of Barnabas decades later, more fleeing bad guys and expanding new life

The Warrior Path: Kin Ring Sackett (oldest son, ugly one) with his brother Yance Sackett (pretty one, married to Temperance Penney); Carolinas, Massachussetts, Jamaica; 1630; love interest--Diane Macklin; Samuel Maverick makes an anachronistic appearance; rescuing girls from white slavers helped by Maroons

Volume 2:

The Daybreakers: Tyrel Sackett (ugly one) with his older brother Orrin (pretty one); Tennessee to New Mexico; late 1860s, I think; love interests--Drusilla Alvarado (Tyrel), Mary Tripp (however, she is a classic case of the women in refrigerators syndrome) and Laura Pritts (Orrin); cattle drive, white squatters trying to take over Spanish land grant, Sacketts starting a new life; I believe this is where trusty sidekick Cap Rountree first appears

Sackett: William Tell Sackett (ugly one, oldest of the three brothers along with Orrin and Tyrel); Colorado; late 1860s again?; love interest--Ange Kerry; gold mine (hidden treasure!) and mining boom town; Cap Rountree again

Lando: Orlando Sackett, son of Falcon Sackett (cousin to the three brothers above); Tennessee to Texas to Mexico; 1869-1875; possible love interests--Virginia Locklear and Marsha Deckrow; cattle drive and treasure hunt (#2); the Tinker is the sidekick

Mojave Crossing: Tell Sackett again; Arizona and California via the Mojave Desert; possible love interest/bad guy--Dorinda Robiseau, though a letter from Ange Kerry appears at the end; desert survival, attempted hacienda takeover, stolen gold (to fund a supply run/business venture back to the Colorado mining town) and hidden treasure (#3); cameo by Nolan Sackett (some cousin from another branch of the family)

Volume 3:

The Sackett Brand: Tell Sackett (definitely a popular one); Mogollon region of Colorado/New Mexico; not long after previous Tell stories; love interest--Ange Kerry, murdered on their honeymoon trip to establish a new Sackett home (even more of a women in refrigerators syndrome); vengeance and then some, and the whole clan comes a-runnin';
Sackett cameos:
Tyrel and Orrin (and Cap Rountree) (Cumberland)
Falcon and Orlando Sackett (and the Tinker)
Galloway and Flagan Sackett (first appearance of these twins)
Nolan Sackett (Clinch Mountain)
Parmalee Sackett (first appearance) (flatlands)

The Lonely Men: Tell Sackett (again!); Tucson and the Sierra Madres of Mexico; possible love interest--Dorset Binney; rescuing children kidnapped by Apaches and another vengeance scenario

Treasure Mountain: Tell Sackett (of course), with his brother Orrin, the Tinker, Flagan Sackett; New Orleans to the La Plata Mountains; possible love interest--Nell Trelawney; seeking their father's final resting place, and more hidden treasure (#5); cameo by Tyrel Sackett

Mustang Man: Nolan Sackett; Texas plains to Rabbit Ear Mountains in New Mexico; possible love interest--Penelope Hume; another treasure hunt (#6)

Volume 4:

Galloway: Flagan Sackett (ugly one) with his twin brother Galloway Sackett (pretty one); New Mexico; possible love interest--Meg Rossiter; cameos by Parmalee Sackett, Logan Sackett (first appearance?, twin to Nolan); more Sacketts try to start new lives and a new ranch and run into trouble

The Sky-Liners: Flagan and Galloway again, joined by Cap Rountree; Tennessee to Colorado via Dodge City; around 1877-1878; possible love interest--Judith Costello (from a clan of Irish horse traders); after paying off the last of their late father's debts, they agree to escort Judith to her father's horse ranch in Colorado, bad guys pursue, another cattle drive, and more hidden treasure (#7); cameos by Sheriff Bat Masterson and Marshall Wyatt Earp

The Man from Broken Hills: Milo Talon, son of Emily Talon nee Sackett; Texas area between the Panhandle and Austin; possible love interests--Barby Ann Rossiter, Ann Timberley, China Benn

Ride the Dark Trail: Logan Sackett, with Em Talon; Wyoming area, I think; possible love interest--Pennywell Farman; cameos by Milo (younger brother) and Barnabas (older) Talon; bad guys try to take over the MT ranch, and Em Talon is fighting alone until Logan Sackett arrives in town

The only book of L'Amour's that I have read is his Education of a Wandering Man which I love. My mother, on the other hand, has read them all :)

Wonderful summaries Justchris, gives an appreciation for the author. The only Western style author that I've read is Zane Grey, read when I was a child before coming to the US. I can't recall much of the stories other than it painted great vistas and much struggle among people. Where does he rank compared to L'Amour?

24: Stasia, I confess that is one I haven't read, probably because it's a memoir rather than a novel. Maybe I'll have to check it out.

25: Manuel, I am not one to give an opinion on Zane Grey. I believe that he and Louis L'Amour are the two biggest names in the western genre, and Riders of the Purple Sage is perhaps Grey's best-known novel. But as I indicated above, I just couldn't get into it. Didn't like his writing style, couldn't get through the prose in just the first couple of chapters. It's one of a handful of books in my lifetime that I couldn't complete. L'Amour's writing does have its flaws, but the prose doesn't bog me down. He has a tendency to leave a lot of loose threads and introduce random people and incidents that don't really go anywhere, which sometimes leaves me scratching my head.

I'm going to hold off on the books that are parts of two series (Westria and Gandalara), since I am waiting for the final books. So that makes Moonraker's Bride next. This is a reread. I used to own it long ago and eventually decided not to keep it. Filled with a nostalgic desire to reread it, I finally found a used copy in a local bookstore. I even bought it in harcover, very rare for me in terms of fiction.

Moonraker's Bride by Madeleine Brent is a romance set during the time of the Boxer Uprising in China (sometime during 1898-1903). So it is later than most of the historical fiction I read. The heroine, Lucy Waring, has grown up in rural China in a mission orphanage. At the beginning of the story, as the oldest of the orphans, she tries to keep everyone fed when the elderly lady who is all that remains of the original staff falls ill and money runs out. However, she soon meets not one (Robert Falcon), but two (Nicholas Sabine), English men, both apparently trying to solve a riddle that will lead to treasure. Her life becomes entangled in theirs and the quest, as she is sent to England to help still a third gentleman (Mr. Gresham) solve the riddle from the comfort of his own home, thanks to his awful deductive powers.

It is an interesting blend of romance, comedy, drama, and scenery. Being unfamiliar with Chinese history and culture, I can't speak to the accuracy of her portrayal of turn-of-the-century peasant life, sociopolitical context, British colonial situation, etc. I can say that it certainly all appeared good to me; nothing struck me as particularly jarring or unrealistic. When confronted with the foibles and hypocrisy of a well-bred Victorian family of leisure after being bundled halfway around the world, her culture shock and grievous social missteps (and accompanying isolation and loss of identity) were both amusing and sad. The contrast with the local Bohemian family was also quite vivid.

In all, it is a charming story with a sympathetic protagonist. The plot has a few twists, and it all resolves quite neatly with a bow on top (not that I really consider this a positive). In fact, it practically feels like predestination, how everything in her life seems to lead inevitably to the resolution. It was generally worth reacquiring. I have one major pet peeve with it, which I can't really reveal without a spoiler. I think this is what motivated its departure from my life earlier (well, okay, an intertwined pet peeve).

As a total aside, while I definitely recalled some of the scenes and key plot points, this is not the story that contains a bit of dialogue that has been haunting me. Does anyone else suffer from these orphan quotes floating through the brain? I apparently read some other historical romance that involves an English girl growing up in China and then being sent to England. In that one, the matriarch of the hero's family sniffs over her lack of appropriate background. After all, not having grown up in a proper English household, the young heroine can't possibly be a competent enough household manager to prevent the petty larceny of the servants. And the heroine replies that to the contrary, having grown up in China, she knows how much low-level theft is acceptable, recognizing that such goings on are an inevitable part of human nature. Now I have no idea where to look for that tidbit.

#27: I will give that one a shot, Chris, despite my complete lack of knowledge regarding the Boxer Rebellion.

@28: You don't need to know anything about the historical events to enjoy the story, Stasia. It was this novel that taught me something about that particular episode of history, way back when I first read it. Most of the history I remember was learned from historical fiction, not textbooks.

I'm going to go through Famous Wisconsin Women next. This chapbook was produced by the Women's Auxiliary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. I don't remember quite where or when I picked this up. Probably on a rare visit to a local museum.

It is interesting to me for various reasons. First, the concept of a Women's Auxiliary is so very dated, since most professional societies now admit women, and most wives have careers of their own. Second, it is not surprising that it is a women's organization that makes the effort to profile women, since the men can't be bothered with such trivialities when concentrating on Real History (made for and by men). Third, none of these profiles involves much in the way of original research. Instead, each is a synthesis from newspaper and magazine articles and historical documents. Fourth, these brief biographies once again feel quite dated in their approach, highlighting the feminine virtues and social roles, even when participating in larger arenas. For example:

The children's birthdays were always special occasions, with parties for playmates...Mrs. Kohler believed in the benefits of travel and planned family trips in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Mexico. She closely observed the educational development of her children and used all available sources to increase their interest in literature and the arts.

The four women are Ruth Kohler (1928-1953), Theodora Youmans (1863-1932), Kate Newcomb (1886-1956), and Elizabeth Baird (1810-1890). Ruth was a socialite who married into the still very influential Kohler family. Her fame and influence were generally due to her social position. It is wonderful that she used her privilege to do good works, but it is also a little disappointing, perhaps, that in effect this supports the idea that only the rich are noteworthy. She is most noted for the restoration of the landmark Wade House, with all of the furnishings and wardrobes of various periods of Wisconsin settlement.

Theodora was a journalist, whose career was doubtless helped by marriage to a newspaper editor, and suffragette who was active in politics in various ways, including formation of the League of Women Voters.

Kate was a medical doctor who made house calls in the Northwoods of Wisconsin ("Angel on Snowhsoes"), an area still lacking in adequate medical coverage even today. She achieved the most fame in her own lifetime, including a biography and an appearance on "This is Your Life." Her efforts led to the founding of the Lakeland Memorial Hospital.

Elizabeth is the only woman of color in this chapbook. Her mother was French-Indian and ran a boarding school for the mixed-race daughters of fur traders and their Indian wives; she also translated the Bible into Ottawa. Elizabeth married the Irish immigrant Henry Baird, who went on to become a frontier lawyer in the Territory of Wisconsin. Elizabeth was the least educated of the four women, but she was multilingual, and her memoirs are filled with much anthropological information.

So it's a mixed bag and a springboard into further reading. Examples to pursue include Women's Wisconsin, Uncommon Lives of Common Women, On Wisconsin Women (the cover photo of this book is included in the chapbook), Calling This Place Home, and Wisconsin Women in the War Between the States. Then there's the whole Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography series, which offers several leads not limited to this state.

#29: That is good to know!

31: Thanks for stopping by, Stasia. It is kind of you to drop by so many backwater threads to give encouragement.

Tactics of Mistake by Gordon R. Dickson is the Dorsai novel where it all began, so a prequel in many ways. This was a book I mooched along with Soothsayer in order to receive The Wind Crystal from a BookMoocher in Australia. All three are also registered with BookCrossing (my first experience with this). I think I will happily return Tactics of Mistake to the flow.

This book was moderately interesting, but not a keeper for me. I've read only one other Dorsai novel, which I liked well enough, though, once again, not enough to keep. These are books in the militaristic SF tradition about the ultimate warrior society. Which is to say, they are short on characterizations and dialogue, concentrating on action orchestrated by the idealized hero who can do no wrong.

This book features Cletus Grahame as the protagonist (straight white guy, of course) who revolutionizes warfare. What starts as a bloody contest between the Western Alliance and the Eastern Coalition (both Earth-based powers), or rather between their frontier planet catspaws, becomes the beginning of an independence movement. Not surprisingly, the Earth powers unite in an attempt to quash the outplanets. The whole thing is framed as a personal contest between Cletus and Dow deCastries (the straight white antagonist). Throw in a half-baked not particularly believable romance and some secondary characters who are turned around by our hero, and you have standard old-style science fiction. I think it also reflects the Cold War struggle as well, which adds to the sense of being dated.

There are some minorities included in the story. Melissa Khan (the love interest) and her father Colonel Eachen Khan are Afghani. They are the crux of the story, and provide Cletus Grahame entree to the Dorsai planet and its mercenary operations. The only obviously black person is Major Swahili, and his portrayal is perhaps the most negative. When Grahame starts leading the Dorsai to bloodless coups, he decamps because he loves the violence, killing, and personal risk and courage involved in warfare (in other words, he's the savage--pretty standard stereotype). Many of the names peppered through the book give it a multicultural feel: Lu May, Ad Reyes, Tosca Aras, and so on. With respect to the single female character, I will lift this quote directly from a review of Dorsai! because it applies equally well here: "Dickson also maintains his inability to write convincing female characters, is a step forward and a step backward, she's a strong, opinionated character, it's just that all her opinions are wrong and she spends most of the book making snide judgements about that clearly make her look stupid" (names changed to reflect current novel.

Perhaps the most interesting science fiction element for me is the concept of the Exotics, or the Association for the Investigation and Development of the Exotic Sciences. This group is all for revolutionizing human society by fostering "the seeds of further evolution." Our hero rejects their invitation with the observation, "You Exotics are essentially ruthless toward all men, because you're philosophers, and by and large, philosophers are ruthless people." It's a strong statement, and I'm not sure I agree with him, but I think I understand where he's coming from. This was the basic thesis in Seeing Like a State, which explores how ideas about social engineering when married to totalitarian political power lead to some truly devastating events.

So, moderately interesting, not particularly unique or original. Worth a quick read, definitely not written for female audiences (but then, how much from 1971 was?). Feels dated in many ways. Pretty classic Dickson.

I still have my dorsai books on my shelves, but I agree with you that now they feel very dated. I enjoyed them reading them when they came out, though. The only Dickson I reread these days are Masters of Everon (for the cats, it's Dickson gets ecology), Wolfling (one guy takes on the universe and saves humanity--it's for the sheer chutzpah and nostalgia), and The Dragon and the George (forget the sequels, but this one was a lot of fun). Enjoyed your review!

>33 justchris:: Actually, it didn't start with Tactics of Mistake...that was about the third or fourth or book in the series. If I remember correctly, the first book published was Dorsai! a.k.a. The Genetic General, and the first book in the series' internal chronology is Necromancer a.k.a. No Room for Man.

I remember reading a few of them in the late 1960s and then being happy when he picked the series back up in the early 70s with the publication of Tactics of Mistake which I found, of all places, in a bookstore in La Paz, Bolivia. :-)

I've haven't re-read the Dorsai books in a few decades...mostly because I'm not sure they would hold up from my teens to my 50s. Based upon your comments, that's probably a good decision. I do remember that my favorite was always Soldier, Ask Not...I liked the crisis of faith aspect of that particular story.

Edit to try to get touchstones working. Heck with it; they'll either fix themselves or they won't.

@34: I am very fond of The Dragon and the George too. It was quite an entertaining take on the standard fantasy trope.

@35: I was thinking of story timelines rather than publication order. I was trying to figure out whether the one other Dorsai story I read lo these many years ago was Dorsai! or Soldier, Ask Not (I love that title!). I mean, I knew about the series, just as I knew about a great many SF "classics" that I never quite got around to reading (the Fuzzies, the Lensmen, the Dune saga after the absolutely brilliant original story, much of Heinlein's work, Asimov, Clarke, and so on). In my youth, I read a lot of Harry Harrison, Alan Dean Foster, David Brin, Andre Norton, Piers Anthony...

>36 justchris:: Ah, in internal chronology, Tactics of Mistake is second after Necromancer...a book that was truly not good.

I wouldn't bother with anything in the Dune universe after #1. As you say, Dune was brilliant. Dune Messiah was good. Unfortunately, from there, they go from bad to worse, imo. It's one of the few series where I can honestly say I wish I hadn't read the sequels and just left that first book preserved in my memory.

The rest of your "never quite got around to" should be tried. There's a group read of Lensmen going on, I think. It's probably up to Galactic Patrol, which is where it starts to become campily fun.

@37: I saw the Lensmen group read get set up, Tad, and waffled and ultimately decided against it at this time. I want to work on my backlog of TBR, so I'm avoiding the library. And now I've committed to a group read of Don Quijote in Spanish, so I'm booked for the moment.

I haven't heard anything good about the Dune series ever, so I was never motivated to pursue it. Dune just blew my mind as a teenager. I finished it, turned the book around, and read it straight through a second time--the first time I was motivated to do that.

I have since filled some of my reading gaps, thanks to the gifts and loans of friends horrified at my ignorance and my Hugo quest a couple years ago. I have tried several Heinlein novels now. Friday was one I read in high school and thought fabulous, though I became unhappy with it after a few rereads. He has some interesting ideas, but ultimately I am not fond of his works because there's some pretty serious sexism there that I'm not comfortable with (though it only percolates into the consciousness gradually), particularly given his rather transparent social/sexual agenda. Similarly, Asimov had some interesting ideas, but I wasn't enamored enough of his writing to pursue more than a handful of novels. I haven't had enough energy to pursue Philip Jose Farmer, Arthur C. Clarke, or others after reading their Hugo winners.

I own The Dragon and the George. I just need to find where I put it so I can give it a read!

>38 justchris:: Sounds like you've actually tried a number of them. I think that's the way to read science fiction—try the authors and see whom you like. There's never going to be mass agreement. Look at all the folks who rate the Foundation books as some of the top SF ever written...to that, I say, "ummm, no."

I'm not a big Farmer fan. I haven't read anything of his that I really cared for. I always thought of him as "intriguing ideas/very poor execution."

Clarke is interesting for me. I really enjoyed him in high school. However, in the last several years I've re-read a number of them and most didn't hold up. For example, I found Childhood's End to be only fair on the second go around (sacrilege, I know). One exception was Tales from the White Hart; I still liked that one.

Heinlein...what can I say? The man went off the deep end in his later books. I really feel his best work was the early YA stuff, which I still find pretty good if you consider the target audience.

Asimov I enjoyed, though my favorites were his early Robots books, especially the Caves of Steel series. Once he got into unifying all his series into a single story line, I wasn't so thrilled.

ETA: Part of the problem with the "classic" authors is that they have disproportionate fame simply by being early. I think writers like Cherryh, Le Guin, Brin, etc. are as good or better, but they were coming along in the second and third waves.

One of the best ways to try various SF is with what I think this the best collection of short stories ever put together: Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 edited by Silverberg.

#15 I really like your reviews though Chris, keep up the good work! They are so well written, I can tell you put a great deal of time and effort in them. But at least you are writing. Thumbs up. I heard this quote the other day and thought of our writers thread imidietly, you could call u wannabe writers or simply hobby writers. I like the last one best. Here it is:

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

Cyril Connolly
(1903 - 1974)

Just write for the fun of it:)

Whoops. Too much business and not enough energy. Sorry I am so slow to respond.

@39: Stasia, while it has been many, many years since I read The Dragon and the George, I still remember it quite fondly as a story that pokes fun at standard fantasy tropes. Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly is another story that subverts the trope of the hero killing the dragon menace, but in a rather grim vein, rather than light-hearted. And the series only becomes grimmer as it progresses.

@40: Tad, I have read extensively in the SF and fantasy genres, it's just that my habits are eclectic and I have a tendency to pursue the obscure rather than the mainstream. These have been my primary reading genres as long as I've been immersed in books. (I don't think my mom ever forgave me for losing her copy of Sea Siege when I was in the 3rd grade). But my reading has been rather random over the years, and I'm getting to that point where I don't remember everything.

Anyway, most of those classic stories and authors from the 1950s and 1960s just haven't done it for me. Clearly, they were not appealing enough for me to make the effort to read them when I was young, despite their acclaim.

Reading all of the Hugo award winners for best novel certainly addressed some lacunae and was an interesting exercise in itself. If I read too many in too short a period, my brain would melt from sensory overload, and my coworkers doubtless got sick of my hours of verbal processing. And clearly some years must have been slow, otherwise, I am not sure why some stories merited such recognition (The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber, say).

I did finally read the Foundation trilogy. Meh. Never read the Robots books. I liked The Gods Themselves, but one interesting concept was not enough to tempt me to keep the books. So much for Asimov.

Heinlein? I've already mentioned my issues. Some very intriguing ideas, but qualms about his approach to women and sex. I have no doubt that The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land were very highly influential, and with good reason. Farmer in the Sky, Double Star, Starship Troopers--a single interesting concept apiece does not adequately compensate for the disappointing characters and predictable plots.

I've tried only a few books by Ray Bradbury and feel like I should perhaps make more of an effort. R is for Rocket was disappointing, but I do own Fahrenheit 451.

Mark Clifton had some fascinating ideas, but clearly should have confined himself to short stories. Also, he is an excellent counterexample to the gender stereotype that women authors are too touchy feely and concerned with the "soft sciences" like psychic phenomena, thus ruining the fine, manly qualities of SF forever. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is another early counterexample.

And so on, and so forth. So many of the early stories of the classic age of SF have a single concept, lackluster prose, cardboard characters, and unoriginal and predictable plots. Most show their age too clearly and are not classics at all, in the sense of being timeless. I think Dune is a fine exception.

I agree with your taste in preferring many of the "second wave" authors. Cherryh and Brin both rank at the top, as do Le Guin, both Joan Vinge and Vernor Vinge, James H. Schmitz, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. I am just now becoming acquainted with Octavia Butler, and soon Samuel Delaney. I find these second-wave authors either introduce several worthwhile concepts in a single story, or explore a single concept in more depth, with more nuance and feeling, and overall better writing. And there's more biology geeks among them, which makes for inherently more interesting subject matter from my perspective.

I am impressed with the newer stuff that I have read. Neuromancer blew my mind when it first came out, but I have not kept up with either Gibson or cyberpunk. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson and the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson were both incredible. I was also impressed by Robert J. Sawyer, though I haven't followed the sequels to Hominid, and Joe Haldeman and Orson Scott Card--at least the first couple of books, but now I'm turned off by his political screeds. Dan Simmon's Hyperion was ultimately quite a turn-off, no matter how many people tell me how good the whole trilogy is.

I'll look up the anthology you recommend. Somehow, I have never gotten into short stories. Maybe it's the years of mandatory public school reading material, or the realization that the novel is closer to my own writing style (just look at this post). I've read the occasional theme anthology, such as Catfantastic, but the controversy surrounding the Mammoth Book of Mindblowing Science Fiction does not inspire. I understand that much of the cutting edge science fiction comes from short stories (and always has), so I am missing out. Sigh.

41: Thank you for the encouragement and the quote, Apolline. You're right, the reviews end up taking a bit effort, so I tend to postpone them to the weekends, when I pretend I have more time available. And for the last couple of weeks, all I've had energy for is lurking on a few LT threads.

But hey, the final books for two series are now in my hands, so I'll be able to do overall reviews for them soon. I just finished The River Wall today, and I expect the Jewel of Fire to follow soon.

LOL, why didn't you mention/link this thread before in your 2009 thread? I was anxiously awaiting to see if you would join 2010, but didn't want to push if you didn't feel up to being more than a commentator... and then I now I get to see all these new, very you, reviews!

BTW, I got The Complete Calvin and Hobbes for about 120 CDN, and I think it was worth every penny. Well... every penny that my parents spent. I begged them to get it for me during that year when it came out for the Xmas holidays. I love it, but it's dangerous! I go to find a specific comic, and then the next thing I notice is that an hour has flown by while I get trapped by Calvinball strips!

I'm slightly tempted to read a Louis L'amour, but I'm really hesitant because I am so not interested in a Western. I honestly don't think I've read any, other than a couple romances, but those don't really count. I think I avoid them because I know I'm bored by all that old-fashioned rugged manly cowboy stuff. Perhaps that is a side effect of being born in Calgary!

I'm like you and have only read Neuromancer as my cyberpunk. I did read The End of Mr. Y which was pretty good, but it's maybe a distant cousin to cyberpunk?

@43: Sorry Steph, didn't realize I'd left you hanging.

I know what you mean about Calvin and Hobbes; they really suck you in.

Louis L'Amour, and westerns in general, are not for everyone. In general, I tend to be fond of adult fiction that involve well-done child characters because children are rare outside of children's and YA literature, and even more rarely integral to the story when they do appear. My favorite L'Amour story is Down the Long Hills, which features seven-year-old Hardy Collins as the chief protagonist. He escapes a wagon train massacre, along with three-year-old Betty Sue Powell and his father's prize stallion. It's a standard plot device in western novels centering around children--another example in my library is Save Queen of Sheba.

I've never heard of The End of Mr. Y, so I can't give any input on that. Psion by Joan D. Vinge is psipunk rather than cyberpunk, but a very similar feel. It's one of my all-time favorites because it made me really upset the first time I read it. Not many books arouse such strong reactions.

I read Neuromancer way back when it came out. I'm sure I've read other cyberpunk, but the only one I have read more than once that I recall is Trouble and her Friends by Melissa Scott, a favorite.

Psion is a favorite of mine as well. I like Vinge's works in general, but that series is the one I like best.

I always enjoyed Calvin and Hobbes a lot when they were in the newspaper. However, when I read a collection, the realization that Calvin was the epitome of the little boys I constantly work with as a school psychologist made it too overwhelming to read strip after strip after strip. After all, I had to help teachers cope with the bright hyperactive little git!

Now that Steph has found me, I guess it's time to trash AManda Quick again. Well, that's not my intention, but I suspect that may be the outcome.

Browsing the discount corner of the nearest bookstore, I came across Seduction for $1. I figured that's not too big a gamble, so I picked it up along with several other books. Did I mention that my querido is an enabler?

Anyway, it is my second Amanda Quick novel after Affair last year, so the sample size is still quite small. I did like Seduction better, since the prose wasn't quite so overdone, particularly in terms of metaphors on a theme whipped out at every descriptive opportunity. This one had something more of an overt feminist subtext, but that worked against it, I think, because the serious questions raised about gender roles and the oppression of women and the female intellectual community portrayed in the story were ultimately shabby window dressing for another preposterous, melodramatic plotline involving an unknown villain.

Yes, I like a certain amount of escapist entertainment, and it can be plenty fluffy, but I also like a little bit of fiber in my diet--popcorn, not spun sugar, drama not melodrama. The Seventh Suitor by Laura Matthews touches on many of the same feminist themes and similarly references the relevant writings of the era, such as Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women, but without trying to shoehorn it into the classic gothic romance tropes.

Let us count the gothic ways. First wife dead under mysterious circumstances? Check. Hero is rude, arrogant, and privileged in so many ways at the beginning? Check--actually carried to an extreme to show what a sexist ass he is. Family member dead under secret, tragic circumstances? Check. Possible secret society of evildoers? Check. Possibly insane person(s)? Check. Faintly menacing ruins in an isolated location? Check. Blackmail, kidnapping, even possible rape? Check. Missing family jewels? Check. Heroine is strong yet naive, and eventually makes the hero become a loving, sensitive, devoted guy? Check.

Amanda Quick has clearly done her homework. She draws upon actual events and adapts them for her story. Harriette Wilson's sensational memoir (available today as The Game of Hearts) is one example. This most famous of Regency-era courtesans published this tell-all account in installments later in life when she'd fallen on hard times, and apparently gave her aristocratic lovers from the past the chance to opt-out for a small fee, leading to Duke Wellington's famous quote, "Publish, and be damned!" I suspect that she also drew inspiration from the Hell-Fire Club and its ilk.

But once again, these historical details feel inappropriately applied to characters with modern sensibilities and attitudes. The fact that all of the female characters are essentially feminists (and there's even a lesbian couple!) just makes the over-the-top melodramatic plot all the more ridiculous. And the portrayal of upper-crust society doesn't feel very realistic. The heroine is clumsy, always inadvertently has a sloppy appearance, is very direct in conversation that leans toward the prosaic, is amazingly naive about men and flirting, and yet she sets fashion, enthralls everyone with her discussion of herbal remedies and sheep farming, and becomes the belle of the ball while developing strong friendships with women without ever confronting scandal, gossip, and general mean-spiritedness. I'm dubious.

Sorry, I'm still in the Heyer camp. Yes, some of her characters are ridiculous, and some of the stories are very campy, but the dialogue is fun, and it never quite feels contrived.

Okay, you've convinced me. I will never read Amanda Quick. Gladly.

45: I will have to try Trouble and Her Friends. It's another I've never heard of.

Perhaps in the future Calvin and Hobbes will bring on nostalgia now that you are retiring. None of my jobs have involved children, so I can recognize the truth in the portrayal, but it has little bearing on me directly. My nieces and nephews are growing up so fast and I don't visit enough, so my opportunities are vanishing quickly.

@47: Roni, I didn't realize our posts were crossing. Regarding Amanda Quick, she does seem to be amazingly popular (under all of her pen names), so obviously her stories have a great deal of appeal. It makes me wonder again if I am just too demanding, critical, crotchety, etc.

I didn't even go into my pet peeve of how problematic it is to always ascribe bad behavior, villainy, and the like to mental instability. Because, you know, crazy = bad and wicked = mentally ill. It's right up there with childhood abuse being the root cause of adulthood wrongdoing and especially supervillainy. Yes, this may be a time-honored literary stereotype, but it's time to move on, people.

I like the Amanda Quick books but only because they are BC books for me. I do not have to think about them because I know exactly what to expect every time out, lol.

Hmmm... if you and ronincats both like this Psion, then on the List it goes!

Aaaaand I hate to disappoint you, but I didn't like Seduction, either. :) It is probably my least favourite of her earlier titles. The guy is WAY too autocratic and I think there's a squicky romance scene that really put me off. If I had been at the bookstore with you, I would have steered you differently. I'd still say go with Surrender (my favourite), because it's more of a Beatrice/Benedict sort of conflict and about moonlight escapades.

I also just put up a review on my thread about a book that I didn't like, but I totally think you would (if you haven't already read it). Carnival by Elizabeth Bear?

#43, 44 I read the End of Mr Y last year because I enjoyed Popco so much, I hadn't really thought about it being cyberpunk but I guess that could fit. It was quite a surreal book but I really enjoyed it although I think Scarlett Thomas struggles with decent endings at the moment.

Otherwise I haven't read most of the other books you mention but a lot of them are ones I've been meaning to investigate for a while now.

>42 justchris:: I'm with you on many of your authors, especially Joan D. Vinge. I enjoy most of her stuff, particularly the Cat books. Tangled Up in Blue didn't quite do it for me, but that was more the exception than the rule.

I'm a fan of cyberpunk and have read all of Gibson's stuff, as well as a fair bit of Melissa Scott, Lisa Mason, etc. Though I think Gibson's early stuff has held up very well, I don't think his later stuff is up to par and, 50 years from now, he'll be remembered for Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive, not for the books he's writing now. One book I found interesting in this field was N. Lee Wood's Looking for the Mahdi. I haven't cared much for anything else she's written, but that one was intriguing to me.

I'm afraid I don't really share your taste for Robert Sawyer. I find his sermonizing overwhelms the thin plots and characters. For me, he's like your opinion of Orson Scott Card (which I share): enough with the diatribes, let's get back to some good stories.

@49: The BC made me pause for a moment, Stasia, but I figured it out. I'm afraid your BC is not my BC. I read plenty of brain candy and have a hard time remembering character names, etc. because it's all so forgettable. Maybe it's just my age showing. Just as I am finding few of the modern, urban fantasy authors worth pursuing, so with modern authors of historical romances. It's the eternal plaint of the aged: X these days isn't as good as in the old days.

@50: Good to know, Steph, that I have not trashed a favorite read. I will have to write down the title Surrender, since one-word titles are hard for my brain to both distinguish from each other and remember.

It sounds like I might like Carnival. I might give it a try. But it will be hard to forget the controversy swirling around Elizabeth Bear last year...

With regards to Psion--I managed to confuse myself. Psion is okay, but it was Catspaw that really blew me away. I read Catspaw first and then hunted down Psion. I recently discovered Dreamfall but haven't read it yet.

51: Welcome to my thread, Heather. Let me know if you do in fact try any of the mentioned books.

@52: I stumbled across Tangled Up in Blue a year or two ago, myself. Did not like it as well as Winter Queen and Summer Queen. I'm thinking there was another spin-off novel featuring the Blues that I read too and also did not like as well as the main story arc.

I will look for Looking for the Mahdi. I find it interesting that many of the cyberpunk authors that people are mentioning appear to be women.

Regarding Robert Sawyer, I think I don't have a strong preference, just a generally favorable recollection of a single book I read three years ago. I didn't get an obvious sense of sermonizing, though looking back, I can certainly see the potential. I just mostly found several of the concepts interesting: a gender-segregated society (not unlike those portrayed by Eleanor Arnason, particularly in Ring of Swords), the quantum computer, the digital record of every moment of every person's life as some sort of incontrovertible body of evidence that effectively eliminates crime. In effect, a benevolent totalitarian society. The mind boggles. Okay, maybe I'm convinced.

I finished Stardust not too long ago--does that count as a good story? It had its charms as well as its limitations. I'm afraid I've been wallowing at the shallow end of my TBR pile lately. I'll have to start working on the better stuff.

So why don't I just go ahead and review Stardust? I saw the movie first, whenever it came out on DVD. I think it worked well in movie format, but I have only a dim recollection of it to influence my perception of the novel.

This is another fantasy by Neil Gaiman set in England. Once again, it features a protagonist who doesn't quite fit into his community, though he doesn't even seem to realize it this time, though it is quickly obvious to everyone else. And it's a standard heroic quest plot, when Tristran Thorn travels into Faerie (the magical realm conveniently next door to his home village) to find the falling star and bring it back to his True Love. Along the way, he meets various characters who help him out (for generally weak or nonexistent or never-explained reasons). And, of course, his quest intersects with those of various villains who do a good job of interfering with each other, thus also contributing to Tristran's success. In other words, it's a nice, predictable fantasy story where everything turns out well in the end. The hero is generally clueless, not particularly reflective, active, or talented, and ends up with just the faintest glimmering of growth and understanding, and success achieved largely without his direct input.

This isn't to say that it's a bad story. It's humorous, picturesque, and characters are more grey than simply good/bad. In the end, the bad guys fail, but we see that they aren't necessarily completely evil, and certainly the good guys are not completely virtuous. The movie is both starker and shallower in its characterizations. All of the primary characters are white, but a smattering of people of color provide diversity window dressing in the first chapter, indicating that it isn't really an all-white world, either in Faerie or the mundane sphere of our own existence.

I think the novel's strength is in the humor and the imagined alternate world, the usual for Neil Gaiman. I like Neverwhere best, and this is a rather insipid and banal fairy tale (despite the charm of the storytelling) compared to American Gods, without the many dark themes and complexity running through that Hugo winner.

Hi Chris. I have actually read Stardust! I think my thoughts were similar to yours, it wasn't a bad read, just less original than I expected from Neil Gaiman. I still need to read Neverwhere and American Gods.

55: Heather, nice to know we have some reads (and reactions) in common. I don't think my querido appreciated my lukewarm review of a book by his favorite author. In fact, the movie may better in some ways because of the humorous byplay of the ghosts. A charming, easy read, but not his best. I stand by it. Nyah.

Hi Chris.

Liked your review, again. Stardust is on my reading list this year, if I can get to it that is. It keeps growing out of proportion. I've seen the movie and liked it. I will give Neverwhere a go too, it's on my "to-buy-list":)

53: What controversy surrounding Elizabeth Bear? That book was the first one I've read by her, so I don't know anything about her as an author. You can look at my review on my thread, but the reason why I think you might like that book is that it's a SF character study with unusual gender relations and with a political plot and race diversity with the cast (umm... don't hesitate to kick me if I am off base about what you like). Heh.

57: Hey Apolline, I am glad you're going to try Stardust and haven't been put off by my review. I think I did a good job of not sharing any spoilers, too, which is sometimes quite hard for me when I want to critique specific points and issues. But you've already seen the movie, so I guess that wouldn't have hurt.

@58: I posted a link in my comment above regarding Elizabeth Bear's role in the first part of RaceFail2009 that began in January last year. The controversy revolves around an essay she wrote about trying to write about "the other," which is to say creating characters of various backgrounds that don't fall into rut of stereotypes or have other problems. Her original post is called "whatever you're doing, you're probably wrong." She makes many good points, and it's not a bad essay, but she gets quite defensive in the comments section, and some of her supporters downright hostile in response to some lukewarm reactions to her piece that included some real concerns. The conversation spiraled out from there into multiple forums. I think part of the outrage is because Elizabeth Bear has done a pretty good job with some of these touchy issues, but wasn't open to criticism to points where she perhaps needed improvement, or at least needed to understand another perspective.

If you want to be aware of the whole kerfuffle last year, the second part of that online shitstorm developed in May around discussions of Patricia Wrede's new novel The Thirteenth Child, and become known as MammothFail. Again, most of the controversy had to do with how an author, in this case her friend Lois McMaster Bujold, reacted to critiques. And again, an author known for addressing some issues very well, such as complex ethnicities, disability in a very ableist militaristic society, women in an extremely patriarchal society, etc. But race is not her strong point, based on the many, many stories with only white people.

This was then followed by controversy surrounding the release of the Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF.

I think you pegged my reading interest pretty well, I am interested in biology-related and social/political SF more than the highly technical approaches around machinery and gadgets.

hi Chris

I think something went wrong cutting/pasting your Stardust review, you might look at it.

Anita

@60: Thanks for the heads up, Anita. I had no idea that my whole thread loaded into the review page. Now I have to figure out if I can get my review unflagged, or whether I just have to delete it and start over. Sigh. I guess I was bound to bollix things up sooner or later.

#61 Chris, I greenflagged your amended review so hopefully it will get unflagged by someone official at some point?

I greenflagged it also. Send Tim an email.

62 & 63: Thanks for your efforts and suggestions. I have emailed Tim, so we'll see what happens.

I'm going to go ahead and review the remaining books of the Westria series by Diana L. Paxson. Last year, I decided to tackle this series, some of which I already owned. My review of the first five books can be found here. I hated the first two, Lady of Light and Lady of Darkness. I still generally enjoyed Silverhair the Wanderer, which was the book that got me involved in this series originally. Those three involve the first generation of protagonists, with Caolin the Seneschal, as overall bad guy sorceror type (though he is humanized and somewhat sympathetic in Silverhair).

The next four books involve the second generation, to wit, Prince Julian, the lost heir of Jehan and Faris (from the first two books), and his young friends and allies, with the assistance and opposition of the previous generation (Silverhair and Caolin, mostly). Julian is seeking the four jewels that give him power over the elements (lost at the same time as his disappearance many years ago). I already owned and had once read The Earthstone and The Sea Star. They were interesting enough that I made the effort to locate the remaining two: The Wind Crystal and The Jewel of Fire. The first was mooched, and I stumbled over the second quite serendipitously on my last expedition to the nearest bookstore. So now I have completed the series, barring the eighth story, which involves the third generation (The Golden Hills of Westria)--and I am not going to bother with that.

The Earthstone--Julian and his companions Rana, Frederic, and Silverhair go on their first quest, where they meet Piper, a child suffering from post-traumatic muteness. Caolin's raiders are harrying the inland villages. Our heroes have a showdown on the battlefield with Caolin, who appears to defeat Julian. Christian themes of resurrection ensue.

The Sea Star--Julian, Rana, Frederic, Silverhair go on their second quest. This time Caolin's sea raiders are harrying the coastal villages. Frederic finds love. Julian finds unrequited love. Rana finds assault and is traumatized. Again, showdown with Caolin, this time at sea, but it feels like everyone loses, thanks to the hurricane; surely this time Caolin is dead.

The Wind Crystal--Julian, Rana, Robert, Silverhair go on the third quest. Now Caolin is manipulating the council to prevent Julian's being named king and otherwise politicking behind the scenes. Piper discovers his voice. Julian and Robert discover their love. This time the showdown is in the capital city, involving a tornado. Caolin realizes he's beat, but he gets away.

The Jewel of Fire--Julian, Robert, and extras go on the fourth quest. This time Caolin captures Julian and is sure he's won. Torture! Depravity! Descent into madness! Rana reclaims her sexuality and rescues Julian. Robert turns to a new love. Caolin is defeated and forgiven, the king and queen marry, and the land is rejuvenated as the royal avatars resume their proper function.

So what's my overall impression? It feels like the rest of the series is trying to make up for the superlatively bad first two books. Only the bad guy appears to be homosexual, or at least bisexual? Okay, we'll show that good guys can have gay relationships, and it's okay. There's a total lack of diversity in California--okay, well show that the world is still a diverse place, just not in Westria itself. Totally flaky heroine who whines and hides away in the first book? No problem, we'll have a brave and bold heroine in the second generation who'll have good reasons to suffer and grow stronger. Totally clueless hero in the first generation who just takes what he wants with no thought for the consequences? Fine, the second generation leader will be thoughtful and always conscious of his responsibilities. Having grown up as a stonecutter, he isn't awash in a privileged upbringing and the rarified atmosphere of court intrigues. And so on.

And in the end--it's all about Caolin, really, even in the penultimate pages of book seven. Because it's not enough to vanquish evil, we must understand the root causes and forgive it. Blech. TOTAL SPOILER HERE: And why is he evil and troubled--because he was abused as a child, of course. And also of course, evil and mental instability go hand in hand. Again, with the Christian allegory, despite this being a neopagan postapocalyptic utopian society. Cognitive dissonance and general nausea at how virtuous and magnanimous and understanding the good guys are. Plus nausea at the lovingly detailed torture and other horrors described in the last book. And really, I didn't like Caolin, so to have it all be about him, no. Well, the final book did end with the consummation, the ecstasy (so overdone!), the metaphysical rebirth, as demonstrated by all of the beacon fires spontaneously combusting. Talk about over the top metaphors.

So what to do with the books? I think I'll keep Silverhair the Wanderer, which works pretty well as a stand alone novel, and get rid of the rest. Ultimately, it was disappointing, but perhaps my hopes were just too high.

#65: Ultimately, it was disappointing, but perhaps my hopes were just too high.

I hate when my expectations are high for a book and then it just does not deliver. I think I will skip that series except for Silverhair the Wanderer that you mentioned works as a stand alone.

@66: Maybe my expectations are too high in general. I don't know anymore. So many of my reviews are turning out to be rather negative. Maybe it's time to give up the diet of popcorn and cotton candy. Thanks for popping in, Stasia.

#67: I am always popping in, just not posting :)

#65 I think I will also give that series a miss. Hope your next reads are less disappointing

@68: I can well believe that you are a regular visitor. I am just impressed that you are able to keep up with everyone's threads. I am just managing to keep up with a handful, and I rarely post since I usually don't have anything to say.

@69: Heather, I've started Don Quijote in Spanish for the group read, and the prologue alone is quite amusing and well done. So I don't think I have to worry about disappointment. Follow through is going to be more of a concern, because the last time I read a major Spanish novel I had few distractions while living in Panama. Now I've got to fit this effort into everything else going on in daily life.

Chris, we seem to have such similar reactions to books that I've wondered if we were twins separated at birth! I read your responses on threads and all I can say is, "What Chris said!" ;-)
So I think I'll give the Westria series a pass.

Don Quixote in Spanish? I am impressed!

ETA did you ever get The River Wall to finish the Gandalara books?

ETA again, did you see that the new Hodgell book is due out next week? I've got it on pre-order from Amazon.

71: Yes, there seem to be a lot of LT twins. Good to know that I'm not necessarily completely out in left field in my reading reactions.

We'll see how long I manage to keep up with the Don Quijote. I'm not sure how well I'll do with even one chapter a week, and there's a lot more than that.

I did get The River Wall and hope to write up the review today in fact, but I have company at the moment.

Thanks for the heads up on the new Kencyrath novel. I knew it was going to be soon but haven't been monitoring closely enough. I'm thrilled.

The other series that I recently completed serendipitously was the Gandalara Cycle by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron. It's another fairly obscure fantasy series from the 1980s. I think these must have had a short print run, both the original singly published trilogies and the subsequent omnibuses, because Gandalara II is the only one I've ever noticed in years of browsing bookstores, and only rarely at that. The married authors outlined the overall story arc together, but apparently Randall Garrett died before the stories were written.

I read Gandalara II back in the 1980s and kept the book for many years--it has a very memorable cover. I recall enjoying the story but I never came across Gandalara I, and eventually I let the book go. So when I saw both books together in the thrift store last year, I pointed them out to my querido as an interesting curiosity, nothing more. And somehow through miscommunication and not paying attention, ended up going home with them along with a few other books that I never intended to buy.

So this time I read them in order. Gandalara I consists of The Steel of Raithskar, The Glass of Dyskornis, and The Bronze of Eddarta, while The Well of Darkness, The Search for Kä, and Return to Eddarta comprise Gandalara II. And then The River Wall completes the saga. Imagine my surprise getting to the end of Gandalara II this time around and realizing that in some ways it ends on a cliff-hanger. Yes, there's a partial resolution, but the final climax lies ahead. I can't believe that I read that as a teenager and didn't have some lingering sense of incompleteness or need to hunt down the seventh book. So to fully appreciate the Gandalara stories you need to read all of them.

The authors employed a plot device that I think was very popular in the 1980s--a person from our society is transported mysteriously to a complete different world. Examples include Barbara Hambly's The Darwath trilogy, Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold! by Terry Brooks, Her Majesty's Wizard by Christopher Stasheff, and several by Andre Norton, including the original Witch World, Dread Companion, Here Abide Monsters, and Quag Keep--the last involving gamers transported into their characters. The rest involve people keeping their own bodies in the new, alien world filled with pretty similar people (and magic!). I'm told this is also the plot device behind the innumerable hideous Gor novels, but I've never bothered with those.
A rarer example of people getting completely new bodies for environments that are intrinsically incompatible with human life is the science fiction story Spaceling by Doris Piserchia (her best version of this concept, in my opinion).
The alternative approach is

This is a fantasy series, but has a very scientific feel to it. It's written in third person from the point of view of the male protagonist. There's no obvious magic, civilization is at about the Bronze Age, and the hero (with his perspective as a well-educated, experienced, middle-aged man of the twentieth century) brings objective analysis and concepts from the sciences and humanities with him.

Ricardo Carillo is enjoying a ship cruise when a giant, flaming meteor appears out of nowhere headed straight for him. He wakes up in a desert next to a corpse, a scary-looking nonhuman corpse. The first living being he encounters is a giant cat. Adventures commence from there.

Our hero spends the whole series trying to understand what happened to him, why, and how. And ultimately there's a rational explanation for every aspect of the story, including the final plot twists. It's a bit of a wish-fulfillment story along the lines of youth being wasted on the young. Ricardo Carillo was retired and dying but is reborn as a young, muscular swordsman.

In general, I liked the story, and I think I'll keep these books. The plot is fairly straightforward and largely (but not completely) predictable. There are few characters, mostly simple, but there's some growth and lots of dialogue. There's the obligatory romance, and a lot of the character interactions involve the couple processing their feelings toward each other and various important secondary characters. Yes, there's plenty of action and lots of travel back and forth across the world, but lots of talking and processing during and afterward. And the most important relationship isn't the romance, it's the telepathic bond with the giant cat--remember the cat?

I think the main reason I'll keep these is the world-building apparent in the book. In fact, the plot appears to be a vehicle to expound on various elements of ecology, evolution, language, psychology, sociology, geology, etc. This is a desert world where it NEVER rains, which means that salt can be used as a construction material. And organisms are water-conserving, so while people may sob to express grief, they cannot cry. And bronze is the level of technology because the only iron ever found obviously came from meteors. There are no large trees or mammals either (besides the cats), so no timber or draft animals.

Now my quibbles: the authors raise a few problems and issues that just appear to vanish rather than being addressed. It's mighty convenient and not convincing for the most part. Romantic rivals suddenly become staunch allies. That whole entrenched slavery thing? Easily solved, or at least sidestepped. The city that's been lost for centuries? Not so hard to find, people just haven't bothered looking for it. I am not sure that this series would pass the Bechdel test, since there just aren't that many female characters. The prose and dialogue are serviceable but don't stand out. And there's lots of internal exposition to bring out the world-building. And it's all quite convenient, Ricardo is already marked for death, so he isn't really losing anything, and gaining a new, even better life. This is another story that wraps up neatly with a giant bow on top, which I tend to consider a flaw, even as I admire the symmetry of it all. But if that's the worst I can say, then this is generally a pretty good story, if not stellar.

What a nice review! I also finally read the whole series just 2 years ago. I had had the FIRST trilogy omnibus in my library for years and had never found the second trilogy or the final book. As I became familiar with BookMooch and PaperBackSwap, I decided to finish the series and was able to mooch both the books I was looking for. My version of the second omnibus, btw, was printed with the books out of order--a curiosity.

I loved Garrett's Lord Darcy books--clever, urbane, loved the alternate history. These books were much different. One wonders how they would have been if Garrett had been able to complete them himself throughout the series. I agree with you that I found the world-building very interesting, and also thought the lost city very easy to find. But overall, for its time, I think it was an ambitious and well-conceived story. And I have a weakness for big cats! (Have you read Masters of Everon? I think I mentioned it when you read some Dickson earlier this year.

@74: Huh, I posted a response yesterday, but it looks like it got lost. I forgot to mention that I too acquired The River Wall through BookMooch. I have the same printing error in Gandalara II, where the third story is found between the other two.

I have never read anything else by these authors. Maybe I will look for Lord Darcy--it certainly sounds interesting.

I think I've seen Masters of Everon but never read it. Let's see, large telepathic cats--A Judgment of Dragons comes instantly to mind. Then there's The X Factor and Starman's Son (also called Daybreak, 2250 A.D.) and The Universe Against Her. Maybe we should include Beast Master too. That's all that's coming immediately to mind.

@75 Yup, got all of those, including all three of the Gotlieb books in the series. The Demon Breed, also by James H. Schmitz, is almost as good with its telepathic sea otters--and a great story! And how about Jame's golden hunting cat? Speaking of which, I "pre-ordered" Bound in Blood online from Amazon on Saturday, and it arrived today!! Guess what I'm dropping everything to read!

Lord Darcy is set in an alternate universe where Richard the Lionhearted lived to establish a dynasty, and sympathetic magic works. He is basically Sherlock Holmes in that universe, these are whodunnits and it is very well done. There are two books of collected short stories and one novel written by Garrett before his death, then Michael Kurland wrote two more novels featuring Lord Darcy. Someone has created a Lord Darcy (character) entry on Wikipedia as a labor of love that gives background and traces the many allusions to other mystery writers that exist in the books without any story spoilers (they are mostly in character and place names). I do recommend the series.

Ok, both the Gandalara cycle and the Lord Darcy books have gone on the wishlist.

76: I debated whether to include Jorin, but he didn't strike me as quite large enough. And there are lots of connections with cats out there, some of them including telepathic conversation, but most of them seem to be about housecat in size. The sea otters definitely were a lot of fun. I'm looking into acquiring Bound in Blood through a local independent bookstore.

77: I am glad the conversation has piqued your interest in these stories.

I am supposed to be working diligently on Don Quijote, so I am not sure how quickly I'll go through other stuff. I did just reinhale Bone Crossed, since I just picked it up in paperback last night.

Los amigos de Don Quijote te esperan

79: Gracias, Manuel, sigo la conversación entre Matt y tú con mucho entusiasmo, pero estoy muy cansada esta noche y no tengo la fuerza a contribuir a ella. Ojalá que mañana me sienta mejor. Estoy casi al fin del prólogo.

Pero ya empezaste, sigue adelante!

@81: Ya hecho.

I've been so busy bopping around the threads the last week or so, I've been neglecting my own reviews. I'm going to postpone To Ride A Rathorn, since Bound in Blood is immanent, and I might as well wait to review them together (since that's my usual approach). Besides, I won't be able to talk about books 4 and 5 without mentioning the first 3, so I might as well be comprehensive. I'm not going to review any of the Patricia Briggs books because they are all rereads from last year, and my reviews can be found on last year's thread (and on the respective book pages. So that brings me to The Delight of Hearts, or What You Will Not Find in Any Book by al-Tifashi (see next post).

So, The Delight of Hearts, or What You Will Not Find in Any Book by al-Tifashi is part of my long-neglected research pile, though fairly tangential to my main interests. It is a book from the late 11 c. or early 12 c. and pulls together many stories and anecdotes from earlier periods as well (at least to 8 c.). This edition is an English translation of part of the complete French translation of the original Arabic manuscript, published by Gay Sunshine Press.

What is this book, you ask? It's a compendium of stories, poems, jokes and other vignettes about notable homosexual members of the Baghdad court and the intelligentsia of medieval Islam. The complete original treatise also includes heterosexual material, but that was considered outside the interests and scope of this edition. Sadly, they left out the chapter on "spanking" or "beating" style massage, which is apparently still in use in some areas. The translation tries to be true to the tone of the original, so there's a lot of crude language and some amazingly graphic material.

The introduction by the English translator was very useful in setting the context. It included a nice discussion of the evolution of Arabic poetic traditions and how to interpret some of the imagery and metaphors. It also connected gay sexual practices among the Muslim aristocracy to Greco-Roman and Persian traditions. The final chapter is an interview with a doctor who explains his theory on the cause of homosexuality and his prescriptions for curing it (depending on the age and experience of the patient). It's a very interesting look at medieval medicine and probably no worse than modern "cures."

I have mixed feelings about the book. On the one hand, there's a certain amusement about such literature from historical eras given such homophobia in modern Islamic cultures (and Christian too, for that matter, but I don't think we're going to find any comparable medieval sex treatises by Christian authors, whereas I've seen multiple Islamic sources on the topic--of course, that could just reflect where I'm looking more than the availability of such materials). On the other hand, while al-Tifashi indicates that some gay men of his day preferred adult partners, the vast majority of the material revolves around sex with adolescents at best. Moreover, it also largely portrays highly exploitative encounters--the worst was the chapter on "stinging" or "sleepwalking": sexually molesting boys while they're asleep, though sometimes full-grown men are the inadvertent recipients of such attentions. But there's also boy prostitutes colluding with housebreakers to rob johns, older men using young slaves to lure young men into isolated places, and on and on. And this is probably largely a reflection of how vulnerable gays and bisexuals were (and still are) in a society where such orientations are officially prohibited.

So while I am sympathetic in concept, and some of the material is pretty funny, my modern sensibilities are disturbed at best and horrified at worst by much of the content because of the ages of most of the targets of these stories and the way that most of them are consummated.

That leaves three to be caught up! And since I'm in the midst of Don Quijote for the foreseeable future (except for naughty side trips), maybe I can even *stay* caught up.

I'll do the easy one today: Down the Long Hills by Louis L'Amour. This is the only book by this author that has lasted in my personal collection over the years. As I've mentioned, I have a soft spot for children in adult novels. This book is unusual for L'Amour for several reasons. First, it is the only story told entirely in third person. Second (following from the first), it is the only one that relies on shifting POV consistently throughout the story. In this case, it rotates among seven-year-old Hardy Collins, his father Scott Collins, Ashawakie--a Cheyenne, and Jud (whose last name I can't find, and doesn't really matter to the story). And third, the story revolves around the two children, Hardy and three-year-old Betty Sue Powell. They are the only survivors of a Comanche massacre of a small, late wagon train somewhere east of Ft. Bridger, Wyoming, on the Oregon Trail.

The children go after a straying horse just before dawn at that fateful moment. Alone on the prairie with just the horse and a few canned goods, they head west and struggle to survive. Meantime, word of the massacre reaches Ft. Bridger, and Hardy's father heads east to look for his son with a couple of companions. The other POVs are other travelers who intersect the children and their stallion out there in the vast, unpopulated prairie.

I like the story in general. He does a pretty good job of moving the narrative both forward and around. As always, I enjoy all the little details of both the countryside and living in the open. In fact, some of the details are more explicit in this story *because* of the child protagonist--either he's struggling to remember everything he's been told or seen about camping and foraging, or the adults tracking him are studying and commenting on his survival skills.

In some ways, the plot feels a little contrived, but perhaps that's due to flawed assumptions on my part. In the largely unpopulated settings of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, there are an awful lot of fateful meetings among the various characters in defiance of my expectations of some sort of Poisson distribution. On the other hand, human settlement and travel are not randomly or evenly distributed across the landscape, rather tending to be aggregated according to available resources such as water, easy travel routes, etc. Regardless, the action keeps the plot moving forward at a good pace.

My mother loves L'Amour's books, but the only one I have ever read is nonfiction, Education of a Wandering Man. Maybe I should give Down the Long Hills a try.

86: And that is probably the only L'Amour book I haven't read, Stasia, since I read very few memoirs, autobiographies, or biographies. At the very least, Down the Long Hills is a quick read at 150 pages. And unlike some of his stories, there aren't any bizarre threads left hanging like non sequitors introduced for no apparent reason.

#87: Education of a Wandering Man is not a traditional autobiography. I really like it. That book is the reason that I try to read at least 100 nonfiction books a year. You might just give it a try some time.

88: I'll add it to my list. However, my list is being neglected this year as I concentrate on my personal collection. I'm trying really, really hard to actually read the stuff I own. I've moved around a lot in my life, and as a result I've liquidated most of the books I've ever owned. I'm facing another move this year, so time to reevaluate my stuff again. And since I've been in the same city for a decade now, I've accumulated an entire household of goods for the first time ever. It'll still more book boxes than anything else.

#89: I know how hard moving can be - especially with books. Good luck, Chris.

#89 Good luck with the moving Chris! It is definitely hard work. Are you happy about moving?

Good luck with the moving! I shipped my entire library a few months ago. Each 14x14x14 box weighs about 30-40 lbs and costs $30 to ship. *sigh* It really makes you wonder if it's worth it to keep all of those books. Some books I keep around for "reference" even though I'll never read again, and I have no clue when I would need beat up sci-fi novels for "reference." I tried to get rid of some but I could bear to part with only a handful.

The only thing I regret in life, actually two things, are two moves I made and left behind virtually all my books. From time to time I think about thoose books- it's almost like abonding your children.
Chris, get rid of everything else-- clothing, kitchen utensils, bedsheets, etc., but keep 'em books!

@91-93: Thank you Stasia, Bente, Sara, and Manuel for the encouragement. Mind you, the move is hypoethetical at this point because we are still finalizing the financing and haven't started visiting houses for sale quite yet (next week, I hope). I am working under the assumption that it will work out.

Bente, yes I think I am happy about the prospect of moving. I am in a great apartment right now, very close to work, so that my commute is a 30-40 minute walk (which I confess to usually taking with nose in book). I am also conveniently located next to some restaurants and other local businesses. And it was very nice to leave all of the snow removal to the landlord this winter. On the other hand, buying a house together is going to put an end to the long-distance aspect of our relationship. And I am looking forward to having a real herb garden, and turning up the music without worrying so much about neighbors (at least in the winter when the windows are closed). I am also hoping to be in a much more diverse neighborhood. But no more easy commute and likely no convenient stores across the street.

Sara, there are certainly quite a few books that I don't access very often--whether they are nonfiction references or novels. However, I do use many of them frequently for one reason or another--to further specific research projects, comfort reads, comparison with books I'm reviewing on LT, etc. So I don't regret them at all. It helps that I've been stable, geographically speaking, for the last decade.

Manuel, I completely understand that feeling about lost children. My major purges were in my 20s when so many of my possessions were in long-term storage at various friends' houses while I roamed the country or else had to fit into the back of a light truck. And those purges were almost entirely fiction. Nowadays I acquire most of my fiction from the library, though my buying has gone up sharply in the last year or so. I'm afraid that I couldn't give up the kitchen utensils. I do almost as much cooking and baking as I do reading, and I've delved into more esoteric utensils, ingredients, and recipes over the years. We're talking about installing smoker, oven, and outdoor hearth in our prospective backyard--basically an entire outdoor kitchen.

OK, Chris, take along the kitchen utensils. I like to bake too, and I've been doing a lot more since my daughter gave me a Martha Stewart baking book for Christmas- problem is that my clothes don't fit any more!

95: I know that wardrobe problem only too well lately. My weight has gone up and down by 20 lbs. a few times now in the last couple of years. I'm glad that you're enjoying the gift--aren't books so enriching to our lives?

"Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" by Beverley Daniel Tatum is a quick, accessible introduction to race and racism in the United States and how these intersect with adolescent development and search for identity. I finished it in a few hours over a couple of days, and I strongly recommend it for anyone who wants to explore questions of identity and racism, whether as parents, teachers, or concerned citizens. One of the largest barriers to effectively addressing social problems is figuring out how to talk about them. This book looks at the psychology of developing self identity from the perspective of race, largely addressing the African American experience.

The author is a clinical psychologist who has taught many antiracism workshops in schools and communities, facilitated group discussions on race, and conducted research on children's racial identity development. This book is an extension of these activities, with the goal of meeting the needs of larger audiences who have not had the opportunity to attend her workshops or read her scholarly publications. She draws on her own life experiences as student, teacher and parent, as well as the experiences of many people she has interviewed and taught over the years. These examples drawn from real-world situations help define the subject matter and engage the reader, just like personal anecdotes from many self-help books.

This work could be considered the FAQ of racism in America, hence the title. Every chapter also has a commonly encountered question as the subtitle. The book consists of ten chapters organized into five sections: 1) definitions of racism and identity, 2) understanding blackness in a white context, 3) understanding whiteness in a white context, 4) beyond black and white (overview of other people of color), 5) breaking the silence (opening conversations on race). There's also an appendix of resources (largely additional reading material) sorted according to specific audiences and their needs (children, parents, older adults, educators, potential activists, and general audience learning about historical roots and current legacy of racism in the United States).

In essence, this book is a gentle introduction to a difficult topic that can be easily understood by a general audience. It addresses many of the commonly encountered questions and attitudes around race and racism in the United States. I would like lots of my friends to read at least the first couple of chapters discussing basic definitions and where they are coming from. Some of them might humor me in the coming months. So this might be a keeper, or I might end up passing it along as needed, but it won't be discarded.

A friend once recommended a book to me that she described as kind of a race FAQ written from an African American perspective. I wanted to read it, but immediately lost the name of it. I wonder if this is the same book? She recommended it to me about 6 or 7 years ago. The one thing that I remember is her saying that cashiers will often return change to people of a different race by putting it on the counter instead of in their hand.

#97: Thanks for the recommendation of that one, Chris. It definitely fits in with my reading these days.

Great review, Chris. Thanks for the reminder; I bought this book several years ago, but haven't read it yet.

98: I think there are quite a few books that might fit such a description, Sara. This happens to be the one that I heard about first on LT and found serendipitously at a library sale at a very good price. So this might be the book your friend was talking about, though I don't recall reading the particular item about putting change on the counter. However, that is certainly part of the real minutiae of everyday racism, and I am conscious of it every time I hand money to someone. Such an incident is one of several purported rationales for the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955.

99: What else are you reading along these lines, Stasia? The other ones that I've collected in my TBR pile include Liberal Racism, The Bell Curve, and The Bell Curve Debate. I've got a longer reading list, but those are the books I currently have in hand to tackle when I feel up to serious nonfiction.

100: I hope you get around to it soon, Darryl. I'm impressed by your 1010 challenge. I'm afraid I'm a little too intimidated to be that organized and committed up front.

I confess that most of my reading about social issues has been the blogosphere, not books. The two blogs that I read most right now are theangryblackwoman.com and Shakesville (shakespearessister.blogspot.com), but then I follow links to a lot of other sites. After a couple of years, this interest is starting to trickle into my personal library and reading lists.

#99: I have been concentrating on the Civil Rights movement as a whole, not specifically racism, but it certainly fits into my reading spectrum. Thanks for the mentions of the other titles. I will see if I can find those as well.

102: Stasia, sorry I am so slow to respond. All I can say is that I've been concentrating on Don Quijote. I am currently on chapter 22. It's slow going, as it requires a dictionary and lots of marginalia and somewhat frequent rereading of passages that I first read without making the effort to use the dictionary.

Do you have a list somewhere of the books related to the Civil Rights Movement that you've read? I confess my knowledge of 20th century history is fairly spotty. It isn't helped by the fact that I have such a hard time remembering names and dates and places, which seems to be what's most important when talking about such recent events. The further back in time, the easier it is to talk about general trends and patterns and not get lambasted for the lack of proper nouns.

#103: No problem, Chris. I will get a list together of what I have read and get it to you in the next couple of days.

Even though my reading has slowed to a crawl, I still manage to stay behind on book reviews. I will try to remedy that now, or at least get a start on it.

Next on my list is New Enlarged Anthology of Robert Frost's Poems. I am not sure where or when I acquired this little paperback. This compilation of Frost's works seems to be quite popular, since I have stumbled over other editions with exactly identical content, even to the line drawings peppering the pages. Louis Untermeyer wrote the introduction and divided it into eight sections. It provides a nice overview of Robert Frost's life and literary career. The 57 poems are organized into general themes: stories, people, places, animals, and things. Like any gathering of short works, they displayed a wide range of styles and imagery, some I liked a great deal, others not so much. His most widely quoted poems are included among many I had never heard of, not surprisingly, given my general ignorance of poetry.

So this was a very accessible edition of Robert Frost's poetry. The general introduction and the brief analytical preludes to individual or small groups of poems helped give the reader a greater understanding and perhaps appreciation for the works. The downside is that all too often these explanatory passages included quotes from the selfsame poems they prefaced, leading to a certain redundancy and even surfeit.

Sorry about the redundancy of that edition. I do enjoy much of Frost's poetry and I think he is still one of our most accessible poets.

Hi Chris! I was starting to wonder where you had gotten too! Hope you're okey:)

106: Thanks for the sympathy, Roni. I agree that the poems were quite accessible, and I mostly enjoyed them. It was just funny to see quoted lines from a very short poem just before reading the poem itself. And even with the longer poems, to read the "punchline" before reading the whole poem just seemed, kinda like stealing its thunder in the process of explaining it.

@107: Bente, thank you for the concern. I have been both busy and tired lately, so I haven't been spending much of my downtime on the computer. And I've really been trying to concentrate on Don Quijote, so once again, less online. And unfortunately, the next month is one of our quarterly deadlines at work, so everything is going to start ramping up at the office, if I am up to the work. Also, we've finally gotten the financing package and have started visiting houses, so much of my time (this week especially) is occupied looking at online photos and listings and driving around tramping in and out of various buildings. Plus it's spring, so we're basking in the sun and grilling and otherwise spending more time outside. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

I've been neglecting LT in general and this thread in particular. So I will take a little time this weekend to address this. The next books that I am due to review are To Ride A Rathorn and Bound in Blood by P. C. Hodgell. These are the fourth and fifth books of the series featuring Jame of the Kencyrath. I can't really talk about the later books without addressing the larger context of the series, so this review will cover the entire opus (minus the scattered short stories).

P. C. Hodgell has been very unlucky with her publishers. For this reason, her books remain quite obscure and hard to find, which is very unfortunate, because I consider this to be one of the most entertaining, worthwhile, and original fantasy series I have ever read. She is currently my favorite fantasy author. The difficulties with publishers, along with being a full-time professor (recently retired!) and other writing projects have meant that Bound in Blood appeared 22 years after God Stalk, the first book, was published (and 33 years after a piece the Kencyrath story, "A Matter of Honor", first appeared in print in Clarion Science Fiction).

On the other hand, every time she gets picked up by a new publisher, the older works are rereleased, so there are new opportunities to acquire some version of the series: from Berkeley to Hypatia Press to Meisha Merlin and now Baen. The original novels God Stalk (1982) and Dark of the Moon reappeared as Chronicles of the Kencyrath in 1987, and along with "Bones" as Dark of the Gods in 2000, and then The Godstalker Chronicles in 2009. The third book, Seeker's Mask originally appeared in 1994 and was rereleased in 2000 with a forward by Charles de Lint. Book 4, To Ride A Rathorn, first appeared in 2006. An omnibus edition called Seeker's Bane in 2009 included books 3 and 4. And now in 2010 we have book 5, Bound in Blood, available as a large-format paperback.

So what about the story? The protagonist is Jame, short for Jamethiel. She's young and alone, suffering from some pretty severe amnesia in God Stalk. She is searching for her twin brother Tori (short for Torisen). Eventually in the series she is reunited with her brother, but over the course of five books they share remarkably little time together as the storyline alternates between their viewpoints, though leaning more heavily toward Jame, who is more self-aware and has far more agency than her brother, who is stuck in a certain Egyptian river and mostly reacts to circumstances and events. Jame and Tori appear to be the last two pure-bred Highborn of the Knorth family, and the prophecy/destiny of the Kencyrath seems unlikely to ever be fulfilled.

Highborn? Knorth? Kencyrath? The underlying premise is that entropy animate in the form of Perimal Darkling has been consuming the cosmos and now leaks around the edges of the world Rathillien where the Kencyrath are apparently making their last stand. Or would be if they still believed in their ancient destiny. After all, 30,000 years ago their god took three different races (Highborn, Kendar, and Arrin-ken--loosely reminiscent of the three estates of nobility, commoners, and judges, respectively) and forged a new people led by the Knorth whose purpose was to defeat Perimal Darkling in the final battle. But that hasn't happened. Instead, they've retreated slowly over the millenia as abandoned worlds merge together into an endless undead night as living, dead, inanimate, and animate are all assimilated.

This series is like an onion, each book revealing another layer of culture, myth, society, as it explores concepts of divinity, honor, life and death, self-identity, and so on. All of the big stuff seasoned with dark humor and comic relief. In God Stalk Jame arrives in the city of Tai-Tastagon and wrestles with the nature of divinity--after all, her people are monotheistic but she's in the religious capital of the world with hundreds of shrines and gods. She meets the Kendar Marcarn, the first of her people that she is reunited with after years of apparent exile. In Dark of the Moon, Jame's story alternates with that of Tori, and they are reunited in the closing chapter. Through her we see some of the background history of the Kencyrath arrival on Rathillien as well as some of the indigenous culture. Through Tori we meet the Highborn lords of the Kencyrath. Jame also begins to recover some of her forgotten past. In Seeker's Mask, we learn about Highborn women in the gender-segregated upper echelons of Kencyrath society.

To Ride A Rathorn and Bound in Blood largely occur in Tentir at the randon college where the future military leaders are trained. Jame is enrolled there as her brother's heir (lordan) as a political ploy to buy Tori some time as the other Highborn houses try desperately to arrange either an alliance or destruction of the last of the Knorth.

To Ride A Rathorn was worth the wait. It builds upon the earlier stories and continues to expand our understanding of the Kencyrath and indigenous Rathillien culture. Whereas the Kencyrath have a single god encompassing creation, preservation, and destruction (much like the Triple Goddess of modern Wiccan traditions), Rathillien has four gods reflecting the elements: earth, air, fire. water. We also get to see more of the inner workings of Kencyrath society.

The randon college trains cadets and lordans from the nine major houses, and with Jame there, the Highborn lordans of the Caineron (enemy) and Ardeth (former ally) also arrive to keep an eye on her under the guise of also receiving military training. So we learn more about internal politics. Plus, the vast majority of the cadets and instructors are Kendar, so we begin to learn about the commoners--the soldiers, artisans, tradesmen--that form the backbone (military, artistic, and economic) of the Kencyrath and some of the inherent tension between the rulers and the people, both the power disparities and the different types of power encompassed by the Kendar and Highborn. And then there's the Shanir--Highborn full of magic, closest to the nature of god. Jame was exiled by her father when she was 8 because she manifested Shanir traits, and Tori still has a phobia toward the Shanir, but the Kendar do not have such issues.

While Jame struggles to pass her classes, she continues to learn about her shady family history. She also gets to know the other two lordan and the Kendar of her house. She avoids attempts to kill or discredit her. The plot thickens as she has a pivotal role not only in the destiny and politics of the Kencyrath, but also the larger metaphysical reality in Rathillien. The slow concatenation of events in the present are ineluctably shaped by the past at multiple scales, from her own recent travel experiences to the catastrophic events of the previous generation to the calamity 3,000 years ago, when a pitiful remnant of the Kencyrath arrived on Rathillien. This book delivers richly in plot twists, startling discoveries, character development, worldbuilding, foreshadowing the series climax and more as the tension builds.

Bound in Blood is not quite as satisfying. Because it is the fifth book in a very densely layered and self-referential series, it is impossible to start here and follow the story. And yet, P. C. Hodgell makes a valiant effort at it. I expected a certain amount of exposition in the first chapter or two as the author inevitably tries to recapitulate previous events. But the recycled dialogue and other snippets pulled from all four earlier novels, along with prose summaries of characters, places, and events from earlier works peppered the entire novel from beginning to end. I found that a bit of a drag, though it did not bother my querido. On top of it, the story was a bit thin. Seeker's Mask clocked in at 523 pages, To Ride ARathorn was a respectable 452. Bound in Blood was a measly 296 pages full of too much rehashed material.

Bound in Blood confirms several key points hinted at in earlier books and resolves one or two items but doesn't push the story forward much at all. What it does offer is another layer of Rathillien, previously unseen. Up to this point, all we know about are the city of Tai-Tastigon (God Stalk), the hill tribes rather generically in the Anarchy Mountains (Dark of the Moon), the Horde clans in the Great Waste (Dark of the Moon), and some of the Merrikit hill tribe religious customs (Seeker's Mask and To Ride A Rathorn). Now we get to see something of Merrikit village life and learn a little more about other hill tribes. Further reaches of Rathillien are hinted at.

Tori is still in denial, but people are starting to call him on it. Jame has shared some of her fundamental conclusions with her cousin Kindrie (the third Knorth!) and others. She continues to pursue her studies in the randon college and her relationships with key members of other houses: Shade (Randir), Gorbel (Caineron), and Timmon (Ardeth). She continues to fill her metaphysical role in larger world events and unravel the connections between past and present, the dead (perhaps) and the living. The metaphors and imagery of earlier stories are moved in new directions and given deeper meanings. But this book felt like a placeholder between the extremely rewarding To Ride A Rathorn and the still awaited sixth book. I'm eager for the next.

Very nice! Did you post it on any of the book pages so I can give it a thumbs up?

I didn't reread everything before reading Bound in Blood, so didn't notice so much recycling (the memory not being what it used to!), but agree, it was not as full and complete a story as the others, although still very entertaining. It really read like a continuation of To Ride a Rathorn, with the same settings and characters.

This is one of my very favorite fantasy settings too. I love God Stalk with a passion as a stand-alone (which it was for quite a while) and look forward to each new book eagerly.

ETA you might enjoy following along at
http://tagmeth.livejournal.com/

snippets from the next book, occasionally, and insight into the writing process.

@110: Hey Roni, I posted the review in its entirety on the book page for Bound in Blood and most of it on the page for To Ride A Rathorn. I was prepared to really like Bound in Blood, so it really felt like a let-down. Sure, we learn a few more tidbits and a few new hints are put in place. But it felt like so much potential wasn't realized. I also forgot to mention that the cover art was particularly atrocious. Sigh. I too like God Stalk a great deal. I picked it up secondhand on my travels in my youth, intrigued by the title--"stalk" as verb or noun? I was completely hooked. And until book 5, each installment was bigger and better and more exciting than the last in so many ways.

You pointed me to the author's blog before, but the reminder is good because I don't visit it much. I'm not sure that it's good for me to see her process in action. I tend to be prejudiced against authors who cater too much to their fans. Piers Anthony's Xanth series is a particularly egregious example of this.

Well, I got to get back to work. Later.

Hi Chris, I always enjoy your reviews, even though these books are not my favorite type of literature. But your review are so well written that are a pleasure to follow.

112: Thanks for the compliment, Manuel. I'm afraid I'm not capable of succint reviews, so I am glad that people enjoy reading them, because they're a lot to get through. I get that fantasy isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I grew up reading it. I am making efforts to expand my horizons, move beyond my comfort zone, become more well rounded and so on.

I'm still working on Don Quijote. Almost done with chapter 25, which had me in stitches. "For the love of God, I don't want to see you buck naked." I mean to post on the group thread soon.

I have God Stalk to read some time over the summer, Chris. I think it was you that pointed me in the book's direction last year.

114: You'll have to let me know how you like God Stalk, Stasia. It really isn't like anything else out there. Admittedly, it's another fantasy world filled with nothing but white people, but at least it has some interesting biology. Sure, there's horses and swords and so on. But trees with migratory leaves, carnivorous butterflies, and catfish fleeing the river in times of upheaval? Can't be matched elsewhere. Certainly, there's a European basis for much of the worldbuilding, but she's drawing from the myths and folklore of other places as well, such as ancient Egypt (particularly the sibling-consort idea).

#109 Loved the review Chris. As that's the second recommendation I've seen for this series I have added the books to my list of books to buy the next time I place a book order (I'm supposed to be reading the ones I own first..)

@116: Thanks for the positive response, Heather. I am rather fond of the Hodgell series, as doubtless was apparent, despite the partly lukewarm review. I know the dilemma of reading what one has already acquired. I am steadfastly resisting the library, though new books keep trickling into the apartment. That's somewhat problematic because I need to start packing for the big move. If and when you do try God Stalk, let me know what you think.

Sadly, my presence on LT is likely to continue to be sporadic at best. We just lost our internet connection at home, and it's hardly worth fixing for the remaining month (fingers crossed on closing in June). So I can only drop by on lunch break, except of course I'm not really taking lunch breaks so close to the quarterly deadline...

Just popping in to say hello, Chris:) Hope your are doing just fine, and that you will get your internet access back soon! When you move maybe??:)

I will just check in every now and again to see if you have popped up on your thread. Best of luck on the move and here's hoping you are up and running soon!

#117 Thanks Chris, hope the move goes smoothly.

Hope that all is going well and that you'll be back with us on a regular basis soon. You are missed!

@118-121: Thank you Bente, Stasia, Heather, and Roni. Internet was restored only last week. And beyond that, life has been rather hectic with work deadlines (and overruns), many appointments, and the house-buying flurry. We're supposed to close at the end of this month, and my apartment lease lasts until the end of July, so I imagine I will continue to be busy for the next couple of months. I don't know when I'll manage to catch up to LT and email, among other things.

I am still working on Don Quijote, which continues to amuse. I am approaching chapter 30 of book 1. And I just finished a run through the Dresden Files, thanks to a friend loaning nearly the entire series (and a second friend making up the difference). Couldn't wait on those because I'm supposed to be clearing stuff away as a prelude to packing. Now I'm working on belated holiday presents.

I hope everyone is well and having a fabulous summer.

I hope everything continues to progress smoothly for you Chris! Good luck on the closing.

123: Thanks, Stasia! There's lots of other things I should be doing tonight, but I'm going to write a belated review. Of course, pretty much all of my reviews are belated, but at least I just refreshed my memory by rereading this one.

The Gold Scent Bottle by Dorothy Mack is a newer Regency romance, having been published in 2000. I don't know if I've read any other books by this author, though she has over a dozen listed in LT. I don't read too many romances anymore, just the ones I occasionally swipe from my mom. I tend to find most of the newer ones not to my taste.

The title refers to the prize that the hero uses to coerce the heroine into feigning a betrothal during a visit to his ancestral estate. Modern writers often rely on such plot devices to bring strangers together into otherwise impossible intimacy, given the social strictures of the era, which tends to give all of these stories an aura of artificiality that cannot quite provide charm to the historical setting. So these stories are less about courtship and more about crisis and damage control--very much hewing to modern romantic conventions.

Anyway, Max Waring, Viscount Edgeworth, is newly returned from the Napoleonic wars and must now confront Felicity, the love of his life who traded up from the heir to the Earl, marrying Max's father to become Lady Dalmore. Distracted by his emotional distress, he beats Roland Monroe at cards, and the youth pledges his sister's gold keepsake from their dead mother as security for his gambling debt. Abigail finds out and tries to get the bottle back--thus the two meet, move on to coercion, rags to riches makeover, and finally the visit home to face his father and "mother-in-law" during a summer house party.

The story is predictable without any real twists. All of the secondary characters exist for the purpose of the hero and heroine showing their virtues, although Felicity has the additional responsibility of driving the plot forward at key moments. And Max and Abigail are both wonderfully attractive, honest, smart, caring, kind, observant, reflective, yadda, yadda. No flaws beyond moments of smartassery for both of them, though Abigail is consistently described as wasp-tongued, asp-tongued, sharp-tongued when Max gets a rise out of her. You get the picture--a female who doesn't take guff from a man, apparently not quite an attractive trait, but he loves her anyway. The secondary characters are all nice too, in a superficial, one-dimensional sort of way. The only not-nice person is Felicity in that stereotypical drop-dead-gorgeous-beauty-only-skin-deep sort of poisonous personality dripping with charm that leaves an inexplicable burn if you're a woman and all-too-predictable burn if you're a (straight) man.

I thought that the author was going to give full rein to the villainess when she assigned Abigail to a lonely room in a remote wing from everyone else and later gave her directions to help her find her way. I thought for sure a male accomplice might try to compromise Abigail, or the directions were intended to lose her in that big old country home. Nope. Apparently just an excuse for Abigail to receive extra attention and care from the servants.

The story is somewhat unusual by including some of the servants as characters with dialogue detailing dynamics among the working members of the household, not just the family and guests. And this story has more attention to historical details and setting than many modern Regency romances. The dialogue and exposition were straightforward, neither sparkling nor dragging. The story is told in third person from both Max and Abigail's perspectives, though with one interlude from Felicity's perspective, which served no important purpose, as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, The Gold Scent Bottle was a middle-of-the-road story, eminently forgettable but at least without the melodramatic excess of the books by Amanda Quick that I've tried. Not bad, not disappointing, but not a keeper, either.

Skipping that one!

Glad to see you back Chris:) If just for a few posts now and then.

I think I will skip the book, but I still found your review very good. As usual:) Haha, really like your comment about Felicity, haven't we all come across such women in many books before. Sometimes I wish they could make them a little unpredictable, not just "you're out of this world gorgeous and therefore you must be Ms. Evil herself". Anyway it made me laugh really loud at work. I think people were looking, so I better get back...

Have a lovely summer! I hope you will have time for a little bit of ice cream in the sun, and a couple of good reads:)

125, 126: It wasn't a bad story, particularly as romances go, but given a finite amount of reading time, I can understand concentrating only on books with glowing reviews.

Bente, there are a few books where the girl is drop-dead gorgeous and not wicked, but then she is usually quite stupid. The eponymous character in The Foundling by Georgette Heyer is one. I can't think of any others at the moment, and my books got packed earlier this week, so no running to the shelves for examples.

I'm going to sneak in a review here, though I'm supposed to be making up some work, or researching hazard insurance, or catching up on correspondence, or packing, or...

Wave Without a Shore is a stand-alone novel by C. J. Cherryh, one of my favorites. I was reminded of it when reading Dr. Neutron's review of The City and the City, so I pulled it off the shelf for a quick reread. I currently own it in an omnibus edition called Alternate Realities, with Port Eternity and Voyager in Night. I used to own it as a discrete novel, but I gave it away to a professor whose research methods seminar reminded me of the story. He was always going on about defining reality with sketches of clouds (that would be the intangible concepts, or immaterial reality) and brick walls (that would be the operationalized definition for the purpose of collecting data to try to measure reality). Or maybe not, it's been a few years, and I just packed up all my notes from grad school.

Anyway, Wave Without a Shore is a sort of first not-quite-contact novel. And a story about the dialectic run amok. On a small, remote planet, a human colony was established. The planet is called Freedom, the main continent, Sartre, and the capitol, Kierkegaard. Can you see where this might be going? The three main human characters are Herrin Law the artist, Waden Jenks the politico and soon-to-be First Citizen (read: dictator), and Keye Lynn the creative ethicist, the three most brilliant students at University.

Except for the first, each chapter opens with a little dialectic interchange between Herrin and someone else. The first opens with a quote by Pythagoras: Man is the measure of all things. At first these little stand-along snippets of dialogue reflect Herrin's character through his past or future, but generally unrelated to the events in the chapter. Later in the book, the dialectic prologues converge with the story.

The story follows Herrin from his small-town upbringing to his arrival at the central university and meeting Waden and Keye to creating the first piece of public art once Waden assumes power to subsequent events once various conflicts emerge.

The culture of Freedom is structured by people's definitions of reality rather than anything so crass as objective reality. To acknowledge the existence of something that isn't considered "real" is to be declared insane, and therefore invisible. And so a whole invisible underclass, including the unacknowledged nonhuman Others populates the city. With them comes a grey economy, as goods disappear from the visible, "real" community to circulate among the invisibles, in effect, creating a closed system, even though all of its loops are not acknowledged. When offworlders come, they disrupt society and individual lives in so many ways, and the world will never be the same.

#128: Glad to see you sneaking back in, Chris!

@128: Thanks, Stasia. I know I'm so inactive here, and that might not change anytime soon. I'm busily packing, so I better review Snow Falling on Cedars in order to dispose of the book properly.

This was a gift from my landlord's wife, who feels a certain sympathy with me, having gone through some of my recent medical travails herself in years past. And I will be passing it along to my medical mentor in turn.

The cover indicates that this novel won the Pen/Faulkner Award, which I am unfamiliar with. I can believe that it is an award winner, because it was an engrossing story, well told.

It is set on San Piedro Island, which purports to be one of San Juan Islands between Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and the mainland State of Washington. This alone would predispose me to like the book, since it is a region I love deeply, though I have little experience of the islands themselves, having spent more time on the Olympic Peninsula.

The plot is a modern-day murder trial, with the apparent motive rooted in the past. The trial acts as a frame to move between past and present and among viewpoints. Each chapter opens in the courtroom, and as each witness begins his or her testimony, the story switches to a third-person narrative recounting that person's thoughts, feelings, and experiences, starting with the sheriff finding the body. Some chapters take a similar approach with key bystanders to the trial, such as the reporter Ishmael Chambers--moving from his actions as reporter to his background growing up on the island and then going to war. And so the story moves from sheriff to reporter, coroner, victim's widow, defendant's widow, victim's mother, etc.

As each piece of evidence and testimony ineluctably leads to another personal narrative, the tension builds, and past and present weave together, showing the tensions and bonds of a small, rural community that relies on farming and fishing for subsistence. Composed of German and Scandinavian and more recently Japanese immigrants, World War II and the accompanying internment of Japanese-Americans, tears the community and families apart, interrupting and disrupting lives, with consequences that ripple out to the present day. Throw in a love triangle, some bigotry, and we have the crisis of the past that leads to the climax of the present.

The prose is eloquent, the characterizations very believable. David Guterson does his best to maintain the suspense for as long as possible--did Kabuo Miyamoto really kill Carl Heine? All of the evidence and testimony seems pretty damning. Whether he did or not, two families are economically destroyed in the process, though this consequence of the sudden death and subsequent trial is outside the scope of the story. Because of this, it is a tender tragedy. It is well worth reading, though not a book I plan to keep (as mentioned earlier). It would doubtless make a fine movie, though many of the nuances would be lost.

#130: I have never read Snow Falling on Cedars but the books sounds very good, so I am going to have to rectify that fact. Nice review as usual, Chris!

And now the last of my stand-alone reads. Once I'm done with this, all of the books will be in boxes and I'll just have large series to review. This book is The Seventh Suitor by Laura Matthews. I've read two Regency romances by this author. This is the first.

In some ways, this book reminds me of Pride and Prejudice, but in a much shallower, more wooden way that also takes into account the issues of the day. The heroine is Kate Montgomery, the oldest of two daughters (but middle child). The title refers to the hero, Lord Winterton, while referencing her troubled romantic past and a neighborhood prank. In essence, when Kate was just 18, Lord Winterton's younger brother was madly in love with her, and when she refused to marry him, he stormed off to war and subsequently died of his injuries. In the meantime, she went to live with her aunt, and they traveled around the world together. Soon after her return years later, her brother and his friends overheard one of her anecdotes at a party and decided that all of them (minus the brother, obviously) proposing to her would be a fine joke. Hence the opening chapter of the story, and the title of the book to pull it all together.

The pride and prejudice part involves a large bequest from the dead suitor that Kate accepted, which the older brother thought inappropriate under the circumstances (prejudice). She refused to explain the reasons behind the bequest and its acceptance (pride).

And underlying all of this, and much of the dialogue between the hero and heroine, is the limited role of women in the society of the day. Marriage is really the only opportunity for a semblance of independence, and a career is out of the question, well, except for the oldest profession. Even running her own farm or small estate would not be acceptable, although she could afford it given the generous inheritance. The heroine quotes Mary Wollstonecraft and ponders her options and limitations as a woman. The story itself subverts the stereotype of woman as manipulative schemer. Kate does engage in some gentle, subtle direction of the young men of the neighborhood, but not for her own self interest. She even recruits Lord Winterton to assist her machinations.

The hero also turns her attention from institutional sexism to classism, and the plight of the ignorant poor. He gives her opportunities for social action. The dialogue also shares the agricultural innovations and trends of the day, mentions some key political and economic issues, and just generally does a good job portraying the historical era in terms of larger events and personal attitudes.

The characters are shallow, including the protagonists. On the other hand, unlike many modern romance writers, she doesn't rely on stock villains to drive the plot and the romance. Everyone in this story is nice but with faults. The dialogue is functional, with occasional sparkle or slog. The plot is straightforward, with three happy couples by the end (well, two for sure, and one with an understanding). There's no real tension, disagreement, or conflict, except between the two protagonists over the bequest (thus driving the tone of their interactions), which feels contrived. As I mentioned, the romance itself just feels somewhat forced. I like the story mostly because of what I learn from it. I keep it in my library not for the scintillating story but for the historical texture, I think.

#132: I think I will be skipping that one!

Glad to see you back Chris. I enjoyed your reviews. I think I will skip The Seventh Suitor but I will look out for the Cherry and Snow Falling on Cedars.

@133-134: I'm afraid the review of The Seventh Suitor is lukewarm, hence your disinterest, and yet it is one of the dozen or so romances I keep on my shelves rather than passing along. And while Snow Falling on Cedars was in every way a better book, I am passing it along because it is outside the scope of my very limited fiction collections, which lean very heavily toward science fiction and fantasy, with just a smattering of romance, mystery, western, children's, and literature. When I get organized, I'll review the Dresden Files series and the True Game triple trilogy.

That will have me largely caught up. But it may not be until next month, because we actually closed on the house this week, and I am rather busy. I'm going over to the new place to start the deep cleaning. Friends are coming over the next couple of days to help with the cleaning and to move everything that is already packed. That should give me room to operate in my apartment...I hope all of you are enjoying a fabulous summer.

#135: Chris, good luck with the cleaning and the closing and the moving and everything else!

136: Thanks, Stasia. Things are moving along. We have one more week to wrap up our respective apartments, so our focus is shifting from the house to clearing out the last of our stuff and cleaning the old places. Most of our stuff is in the garage pending cleaning and repair before actually moving into each room of our new house. But we are living there now. Well, camping out there is a more accurate description.

I don't know what the technical glitch was with the touchstones, but how annoying. In the meantime, I'm still plugging away at Don Quijote. I hope to pick things back up in late August, once we have the books unpacked and reestablished an internet connection and resumed something resembling a daily routine.

Good luck on wrapping up and clearing out!

I am planning to read Snow Falling on Cedars in the near future and so I enjoyed your review. I hope that I like it as much as you did.

#137: Good to know that things are moving right along for you!

139: I am glad you enjoyed the review, chinquapin. Please let me know your reaction to Snow Falling on Cedars, when yo do get around to reading it.

138, 140: Thank you both for the continued encouragement. We have finished the intensive cleaning phase, so I am starting to move book boxes into the house, soon to be unpacked. Sadly, we've been slow to make up our minds about ISP, so still no internet at home. And I got my layoff notice, so I'll probably be spending my evenings desperately job hunting rather than dealing with so many belated book reviews. Sigh. The circus never stops moving.

Is anyone else having the same problems with touchstones as my OP that tracks the year's reading? What's up with that, and can I fix it easily?

Sorry to hear about the layoff notice, Chris. I hope you find another position quickly.

As far as the Touchstones go, I do not know of a way to fix them easily. LT implemented a new TS system and all it seemed to do was mess everyone's up!

142: Thanks for replying so quickly. I guess I'll leave my list a mess for awhile.

The layoff is unpleasant but expected at this point. It's been looming over my head ever since they hired me in this "permanent" capacity. I do hope that I find another position in the same system--that would be simplest in many ways, even if I land a very different job. Given the Big Picture, it's time to sit down and think about sectors likely to retain positions in an ongoing recession (read: Depression). I love editing, but the publishing industry is an area of continuing cutbacks. I know so many people who've been un/underemployed for many months (years) in my area, which has a reputation for many part-time positions without benefits and so few full-time opportunities. We'll see.

This is yet another distraction from my LT life. But hey, this is a thread about books, so I'd better make a literary reference. Drawing a total blank here. Someone recommended that I consult What Color is Your Parachute, whose author (Richard Nelson Bolles), BTW, has a newer guide out (The Job-Hunter's Survival Guide: How to Find a Rewarding Job Even When "There Are No Jobs"). I went through the former when I graduated in 2004, along with What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson and Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer and another I don't remember very well called something like Jobs or Careers or something--it was hundreds of short transcribed interviews with people in an extremely wide range of work. I know what I want--the question is what can I get and keep in this economy?

I can't think of any fictional scenes of someone job hunting right now. That might be an interesting topic of conversation. Well, there's (sort-of) Dane Thorsen in Sargasso of Space and Troy Horan in Catseye, but I was thinking more of popular fiction characters. Maybe Mitchell McDeere in The Firm?

Sorry about your situation, but love your examples of some classic Andre Norton characters!

Good luck with the job hunt, Chris.

Sorry about the job thing Chris! I know how it is. After I graduated from uni two years ago, I had a temporary job at a hospital (I'm a historian), I worked 8 months in the archive at the city hall, and now I just started a new job a month ago. Both at the hospital and the city hall I sometimes didn't know if I had a job next month, and it gets very difficult to plan anything for the future. The recession had a bad timing;) Difficult to get relevant jobs.

I hope it works out for you...fingers and toes crossed! Positive thoughts are crossing the Atlantic right now:)

@144: Hey, Roni! Yeah, I just reread Catseye last week. All of my book boxes have been piled in the garage for weeks now, and when I can't take it any longer and MUST READ FICTION, I troll through the easiest to reach boxes for a book that seems moderately palatable at the moment. Hence the most recent items on my list at the top. The great book unpacking is happening this weekend, once I get the remaining bookcases cleaned and installed (and find the missing parts for the ones already in place, darn my efficiency in packing shelves in boxes!).

145: Thank you again for the good wishes Stasia. I found a listing for a very similar job in the same system with a deadline two weeks away. I'm especially hopeful because this same announcement originally appeared in June, so clearly they were unable to fill the position. Even if I do succeed, this won't solve all my woes, because it's only half-time, but I would keep my benefits without interruption and double up with my current job for the time remaining. And I should be able to find at least one other part-time position to make up the difference later on. So in addition to unpacking TEH BOOKZ I will be dusting off my most recent resume and getting to work on that.

146: Thank you for the sympathy, Bente. I hope your most recent job works out. I suspect your situation is more challenging than mine. I have quite a bit of work experience in several fields to draw from--I think I am still at a point where that history works in my favor. I also have several support networks to draw from in terms of job leads. Admittedly, I am wildly unqualified for many of the positions forwarded to me. You're competing with people like me and all of your cohort with relatively recent degrees. It's hard to stand out under those circumstances.

And now back to work...

#147: Best wishes on getting the part-time position! Keeping your benefits without interruption sounds very good.

Sorry to hear about the job situation Chris. Hope the part-time position you've applied for comes through.

What did you think of Bridge of Birds?

@148: I did manage to stop procrastinating long enough to come up with a first draft of the new resume. Now I need the cover letter and the careful selection of writing samples. And yes, uninterruption of benefits would be wonderful. An added benefit is that I could go back to commuting by bus. My current office is way off the bus routes. Luckily, until last month I lived close enough to walk. Now biking is still doable, and I just started pedaling on Friday.

@149: I LOVE Bridge of Birds. I think it is a very charming and original fantasy story. I loved Eight Skilled Gentleman and The Story of the Stone almost as much. I wish the books were easier to find. In years of searching diligently, I have come across the occasional copy of Bridge of Birds and the single copy of Eight Skilled Gentlemen that I immediately snapped up, but never the third book. I finally had to resort to the library to read The Story of the Stone, yet I still have hope of serendipitously acquiring it someday.

I think I've probably said this before on your thread, but I also love Bridge of Birds--utterly charming. The other two are not quite as good, but very good compared to the average run of fantasy out there. I was fortunate to be able to buy them as they first came out.

I love Bridge of Birds too. That book was one I discovered through LT back in 2008 and I promptly bought a copy of it and the next two for my very own.

Bridge of Birds was already on the wishlist but seems to be out of print in the UK. I will add it to my list of books to buy.

@153: You won't be disappointed, Heather.

@152: Stasia, I'm impressed with your success finding obscure books.

@151: Roni, I agree with your assessment of the three books, and I envy your being on the spot to acquire them when first published.

#154: I lucked out, Chris. I found an omnibus edition that had all 3 books. I bought it off EBay.

@155: Stasia, I congratulate you on the serendipitous find. I didn't even know there was an omnbus edition. I was similarly lucky with my Sheri S. Tepper omnibuses (The True Game and The End of the Game).

My home internet connection will be restored by the end of the month, at long last. Maybe then I can begin to resume some sort of routine. I'm continuing to rack up books without much effort, but the reviews continue languishing.

Reviews are not essential, your continued presence is--so I hope that internet connection gets restored in good time! (Mind you, I love your reviews...)

I am with Roni!

#157 Thirded! Glad to hear you will soon have the internet at home.

@157-159: Thank you for the kind words of support, everyone. At long last, we haz internetz, no thanx to ATT. After a month of repeated services outages for phone and runaround for internet, I canceled. Tell me again how the free market improves things? It's not really a free market, says my querido, because consumers don't really have choices. But wait--monopoly-busting would mean government intervention--that's not free market! I stand by my original question, but I digress.

Sadly, I am overbooked (ha!) with the job hunting and the last work deadline while trying to do two people's jobs. I'll try to start sneaking book reviews in though, probably one per weekend. I won't be following any logical order, simply whichever seems easiest or important at the moment. I'll probably start with Stardoc because that one really bugged me and I need to rant. It'll be long because I feel a need to deconstruct some seriously flawed elements. After that, I hope to tackle the entire Harry Dresden oeuvre in a single review, much as I handled the Louis L'Amour omnibuses.

Oooh, good. I felt like ranting after Stardoc as well. Looking forward to your take on it.

I've only read the first Harry Dresden and wasn't that impressed, but I hear they get better after that.

#160: Glad to see you back up and running, Chris!

>160 justchris:: I'll probably start with Stardoc because that one really bugged me and I need to rant

I've felt that way about every Viehl I've read...which is why I no longer read her books, I guess.

>163 TadAD: Well, see, I stopped after Stardoc and didn't read any more of her books. Life is too short...

Good to see you back, glad to hear the internet is finally up and working. I will look forward to your reviews although Stardoc sounds like one to miss. I've also only read the first Harry Dresden and thought it was ok but quite fun. I've also heard they get better so I will probably borrow the rest of the series from the library at some point. Will be interested in hearing your thoughts on the whole series.

#1 I've found that if one touchstone stops working, all the others listed after it also seem to go. Sometimes editing the post and deleting and retyping the first broken touchstone fixes them all. Author touchstones are still a mystery to me though.

Well, I did not manage the book review last weekend. That's because I had the weekend goal of three resumes for three specific jobs, and the best I managed was one. And I didn't get the cover letter written until Tuesday, just under deadline. So here's hoping for a better weekend.

@161, 163, 164: I'm glad I'm not alone, Roni and Tad. I read through the reviews for Stardoc, and mine is going to be 100 gallons of freezing water compared to the short and thrilled stuff currently posted, I'm afraid. I am tempted to get Beyond Varallan from the library out of a sort of morbid fascination. I can't look away from messy wounds either. Luckily, I don't run into gore much.

What boggles me is that I ran into another book by Viehl at Half-Price Books that had a cover blurb calling Stardoc "the best SF novel of the year." Um, no. Hell, I've never read William Shatner's attempts, but they really can't be much worse than Stardoc.

@161, 165: Heather and Roni, I completely agree with your lukewarm reaction to Storm Front. I kept with the series because of such glowing endorsements from friends. I don't think Jim Butcher really hit his stride until the third or fourth book. Having read all 12 of the currently available novels, I must say that the Dresden Files has been the best modern dark urban fantasy series that I have yet encountered. There are still some issues, but they're no more than quibbles.

@162: As always, thanks for the welcoming words, Stasia.

@165: Heather, your suggestion was very helpful. It took care of several of the bookmarks, though it appears that a functional link interrupting broken links makes them act as two series, requiring two fixes. That's still way better than 50 fixes.

Well, based on the general Zeitgeist, and especially on your recommendation, I will start over with the Harry Dresden series at some point this winter. When I get a chance...I'm reading the latest in the Inspector Chen series now, a series I really enjoy.

I read Stardoc before I was a Library Thing member, so no review. I LIKE medical science fiction, the Sector General books by James White, Star Surgeon by Alan Nourse, even Murray Leinster's Med Series. So I was predisposed to like it--but instead of being about medical adventures in space, it was all about HER. Bleah.

I agree with Roni. I also tried her Blade Dancer. Bleah is right.

#166 Sadly, resumes and covering letters are probably more important than book reviews. Hope this weekend has been less frantic

Hi, Chris! It's been a while and I hope everything is fine with you! Have a wonderful day:)

@169-170: Thanks, Bente and Heather, for the good wishes. I'm afraid that the last few weeks have been the worst yet in terms of stress, deadlines, etc. But I find out this week whether or not they offer me the job I interviewed for last week. If that's the case, then I can do something beyond resumes and cover letters in my off hours. If not, then back to job hunting, but with greatly reduced duties during the remaining weeks of my current job.

167: Roni, I've made a note of Nourse and Leisnter. I'm generally fond of medical SF, which is why I put up with the egregious sexism of White's Sector General stories. However, the series has gone sadly downhill, so I keep only the earlier novels. Even though Doctor/Diagnostician Conway is something of a Mary Sue in his own right, Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil takes the category to whole new levels, way beyond Ensign Wesley Crusher.

168: Tad, given your strong disrecommendation, I won't bother with any other Viehl books, on the off chance that these books were simply below her average.

Good luck, Chris! I hope the news is good for you.

#171 Chris, sorry to hear the last few weeks have been so stressful. Will be keeping my fingers crossed for the job offer this week.

@172-173: Thanks as always for the kind wishes. No job though. Back to applications and hoping for another interview...

Sorry to hear about the results, but hope something shows up soon that is perfect for you.

What Roni said!

@175-176: Thanks Roni and Stasia! Things are looking up. I attended a conference for the joys of networking this week, and I have not one but two job interviews next week. And after reading Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich, I gotta feel pretty good to net four interviews with no more than a dozen job applications, even if I end up in second place every time. So I'm a little more optimistic this week. And maybe I will still get to the review of Stardoc. I brought it with me on my travels so that I could refer to it while drafting the review during this weeklong timeout from the daily routine.

Glad to hear things are looking up!

Me too!

Happy Thanksgiving, Chris!

180: Right back at you Roni! I hope you have a warm, loving, and happy Thanksgiving.

The job interviews keep coming, so one of these days I'll get an offer. In the meantime, I continue reading and plugging away at Don Quijote, along with a lot of other activities. More at some later point...

Keep working on the job thing Chris- I've also been thinking of you and hoping that something comes up for you soon.
I have to admit that I have not done much reading of Don Quijote-- have not had much time to read.

#181: I am glad that the job interviews keep coming for you, Chris. I know that you will find the perfect fit!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Fingers crossed for you, Chris! Hope you get an interesting job soon and I hope to see more of you next year:)

@182: Thanks for the kind wishes, Manuel. I have kept plugging away at Don Quijote--I have just started book two and am now on the second chapter. I figured both of you just went ahead and finished it ages ago, since I was moving so slowly. Been loving it, and would love to have time to post my reactions and notes, but not yet. I can appreciate having little time to read. The only reason I've made progress with this story is that it sits at the dining room table and is part of my breakfast routine.

@183-184: Thank you Stasia and Bente for the continued encouragement. It's only a matter of time, I feel. And I passed the big work deadline, so now it's just packing up the office and winding down. Much less stressful, given my cautious optimism regarding finding a new position in a timely fashion.

Haven't forgotten Stardoc. I keep carrying it with me so that I can draft the first review to get back on the horse one of these days.

Good to hear about all the job interviews Chris. Will keep thinking of you.

Hi, Chris!

How are you? Just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas. i hope the new year will bring you a fantastic job offer:) Hope to see you around next year too!

Bente

@186-187: Thank you, Heather and Bente, for the continued words of support. Sadly, those many interviews did not result in any job offers, so I have about another two days of employment and start collecting unemployment in the new year. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to both of you and Stasia and everyone else who has dropped in to this quiet little thread.

The upside of imminent unemployment is more time to write. I should be pulling application materials together for the continued job hunt, but this review's been burning a hole in my pocket. So on to Stardoc.

Merry Christmas, Chris. I do hope the new year brings better prospects for you!

The 2011 group is up and running. Please join us again: http://www.librarything.com/groups/75booksin20111

Merry Christmas Chris. Sorry to hear about the continued disappointment on the job front. Will continue to keep you in my thoughts in the New Year, hopefully you will join us again in 2011 to keep us updated?

Merry Christmas, Chris! Hope you had a good one.

@189-191: As always, thanks for the kind wishes, and the invite. I will go ahead and join. I'm afraid Christmas intervened, but here I am again.

I have a list etiquette question--I am still interested in reviewing most if not all of the books in my 2010 thread--I wonder if I should post them here, or just upload them on the books page and skip the discussion thread?

Personally, I wish you would post them here. I've got you starred and so you'll come to the top every time you post a review. If you post to the book page, I won't know when and I won't be checking all those books regularly, so I'll miss your reviews, and I do love them so. Please?

I picked up Stardoc by chance a few months ago when I was in the bookstore for something else. I love science fiction with a biology or medical angle, and this looked like it would fit the bill--perhaps an updated, less sexist version of the Sector General novels, but featuring a female protagonist. This is the only book by S. L. Viehl book that I've read, and I don't expect to pursue any more of her books, unless I want to indulge in the morbid urge to drive slowly and stare at the wreckage littering the highway by reading the follow-up Beyond Varallan.

So you can see that this is going to be a negative review. Let's cover the few good points first: the book features a strong, independent woman who is nominally Native American (Cherokee, I believe), and the book readily passes the Bechdel test, and, I think, the Johnson Test, not that this leads to anything good. The story follows Cherijo Grey Veil, a young, brilliant human doctor who flees Earth and a secret from her past to a medical clinic on a remote colony planet. It’s a hybrid space opera and medical drama—what would be considered a “fast-paced, action-packed romp.” The dialogue is occasionally amusing. Viehl describes a parade of aliens that include multiple evolutionary types, including plants and single-cell organisms, and a broad range of sizes. And the premise that humanity is generally quite xenophobic (read: racist) and largely voluntarily confined to the home planet is a refreshing change from the predominant underlying assumption that (usually white-only) humanity is widespread, nay dominant, throughout the galaxies. Of course, this xenophobia is a necessary assumption for the crux point of this novel. We'll get to that. These vaguely positive aspects provide a micrometers-thin veneer of palatability for tired and problematic and even seriously damaging stereotypes and tropes.

The majority of the aliens, unfortunately, conformed to science fiction TV presentations of about human size and shape, with superficial differences in colors, coverings, foreheads, etc. And most disappointing, every single species apparently followed a male/female binary. This is very unoriginal and doesn't even recognize the diverse reproductive strategies on our own planet. Hell, even our own species doesn't neatly split into male and female in every instance. And these myriad aliens apparently are all carbon-based and rely on spoken language (sound waves) to communicate--once again not recognizing the diversity of communication approaches found on our own planet. The medical scenarios are likewise relatively uninteresting, unoriginal, and shallow, including the obligatory emergency surgery without technical assistance to save a patient's life while nurses and colleagues are breathless with admiration. Sigh.

Cherijo is too good to be true, the ultimate Mary Sue, perhaps even exceeding Ensign Wesley Crusher. She’s beautiful, brilliant, and invulnerable. She goes from a surgeon specialized only in human maladies, to ER doctor working with scores of species that she’s never encountered. While maintaining an active social life within the human segment of the population, she proceeds to effortlessly master the physiology and medical knowledge of these many species so that she can quickly diagnose and successfully treat any and all patients despite inadequate and misfunctioning equipment, apparently within a matter of weeks. She’s superhuman!

Cherijo’s the stereotypical talented and principled doctor, along the lines of Dr. Leonord McCoy, Dr. James Kildare, and Marcus Welby, MD, She cares first and foremost for her patient, no matter if it’s an enemy, because that’s Her Mission™. This, of course, makes her new enemies, because she’s aiding and abetting the enemy. Who knew the life of a peaceful yet cantankerous and arrogant doctor would be so fraught with enemies? But it’s okay, because she’s morally superior and always right. She has the predictable run-ins with the inexplicably hostile head of the clinic (Dr. William Mayer) and incompetent colleague and local law enforcement.

Then the head of the clinic boss becomes a staunch supporter in a sudden turnabout during a courtroom scene. This is entirely predictable because Viehl subscribes to the formula that the bad guys are ugly and the good guys are aesthetically pleasing, including the clinic boss—in fact an individual’s moral character is positively correlated and proportional to zie’s attractiveness. Thus Dr. Phorap Rogan is obviously the coward and bully, with his “jaundice yellow” skin and polyp-covered face and foul odor. And his villainy bursts forth during crisis, as Cherijo single-handedly identifies a newly emerging but undetectable epidemic that spreads quickly and fatally through the colony as bureaucrats drag their feet to avoid a panic and protect their interests. Phorap incites a mob, files civil and criminal charges, and otherwise harasses our heroine.

In contrast, Pilot Kao Torin is the romantic hero. However, he’s not just attractive, he’s a fantasy sex fetish for women, once again replete with stereotypes, this time gender based. He’s tall, handsome, yet gentle (from a clan of healers), a PILOT (we know they’re always sexy, look at Top Gun), and blue—the number one favorite color in America (just think of James Cameron’s Avatar). He’s not only not promiscuous, but biologically incapable of cheating—mandatory monogamy with a single life mate—so they’re both virgins the first time. He’s so large and therefore sexually quite fulfilling. SPOILER ALERT--But wait, all of this is too good to be true, plus he’s not human, so he must die, heroically and romantically, of course.

Will the real romantic hero please step forward? Duncan Reeve is the colony’s chief telepathic linguist. So in theory, he’s a great communicator. He too is principled in his work in the face of opposition and misunderstanding and despite personal costs. While he is indeed human, he knows little about being human, thanks to the inhumane upbringing by his xenoanthropologist parents who used him as a research tool in their field studies far from human space. In this sense, he fulfills the same role as characters like Spock, Lieutenant Commander Data, and Lieutenant Worf—the not-quite-human shedding light on what it means to be human.

So where does the aforementioned xenophobia come in? This story is exploring what it means to be human, and sentient, and therefore entitled to basic rights. The dilemma is first embodied in her neighbor Alunthri, a large talking pet cat, which has the feel of another fetish, this time for cat lovers. The conflation of slavery and animal rights is potentially problematic. While I understand the logic that activists use today to draw comparisons between domesticated animals and human slaves (and have made some of those connections myself in the past), these parallels also were used to justify race-based slavery in the United States. And this legacy of racism--comparing people of color to animals and nonhumans--remains commonplace in our culture from political jokes to fantasy novels. Given the shallow, unoriginal writing, it’s hard to see how Viehl could bring a delicate and nuanced touch to such a contentious and difficult topic.

Duncan is fascinated with Cherijo from their first meeting. This leads to some friction (gross understatement here) between him and Cherijo, who instantly takes him into dislike, as he repeatedly violates social norms and personal boundaries. SPOILER ALERT: He mentally assaults her multiple times using his telepathic powers, despite her explicit and strong lack of consent, both verbal and physical. This is followed by a full-on sexual assault. Cherijo is the Good Victim who says no multiple times, physically resists, violently defends herself, but still is overpowered and penetrated. Oh but wait, it wasn’t rape after all, because in the end, her involuntary sexual response meant that she wanted it as much he did. What the hell kind of message is this? No. NO NO NO. IT IS STILL RAPE. And he didn’t want to do it, but he had no choice, he was really trying to save her life. So sometimes rape is a necessary thing. Once again, no. NO NO NO. I reject this completely. The pernicious rape-as-romance trope just needs to go away now. This scene alone is sufficient for me to never pick up another book by Viehl.

#192/193: I agree with Roni. Please post them to your thread :)

#194: This scene alone is sufficient for me to never pick up another book by Viehl.

That scene alone is sufficient for me to never pick up a book by Viehl.

Chris, I also enjoy reading your reviews- I always learn something new not necessarily related to the book itself you may be reviewing, but due to the incisive comments you make.
Hope that your job situation improves soon. The economy seems to be pickinng up, albeit gradually, so job opportunities should be opening up.

@193, 195, 196: Thank you for the feedback, Roni, Stasia, and Manuel. I am glad that my verbose reviews continue to entertain and educate. I will continue posting here as I try to catch up. I will also start my 2011 thread. I got distracted looking through all of the items associated with the 75 book challenge. Wow, this is a community that continues to grow and self-organize. The Wiki is a great idea.

I am cautiously optimistic about the job hunt. I came in number two a couple of times, and my resume/interview ratio is surprisingly good. I still have a few leads to pursue, and my very wide-ranging background makes it possible to apply for jobs in several fields, which increases my share of the job market.

I was at first quite anxious to transition directly into another job once the editing gig ended (I still have maybe 10 hours left and some additional paperwork). But now, I figure it'll give me time to concentrate on writing, which was a major goal of mine in 2010 that once again was neglected. And the job hunting itself can be a full-time gig, and much less stressful now that it doesn't have to be crammed into evenings. So it's all good, for now.

And hopefully more book reviews will be forthcoming this week. Right now I am transferring files from various backup CDs onto my newly formated desktop, now that I've finally made the jump to Linux. It's great to get everything in one place and organized, after months of scattershot copies on various flash drives in the wake of a virus-induced crash. The fun never stops around here. Then finishing the latest resume and cover letter to apply for a job that is still vacant after several weeks--I guess I have a second chance after all, despite dragging my feet.

Thanks for the update. Looks like you have good reason to be cautiously optimistic and, again, wishing you the best of luck in your search! And your writing.

Yes, I was SO disappointed in the Viehl. I haven't picked up anything else by her either. Great comments.

Thanks for the update. Looks like you have good reason to be cautiously optimistic and, again, wishing you the best of luck in your search! And your writing.

Yes, I was SO disappointed in the Viehl. I haven't picked up anything else by her either. Great comments.

What I had been hoping for was someone to update those fun medical series from the Golden Age--Leinster's Med Series, Nourse's Star Surgeon, and White's Sector General books. All enjoyable but all with the biases and sexism of their time, although I think that became more tongue-in-cheek with White's later books. There is so much SCOPE for exploration in this area. And then Stardoc ended up being more about Cherijo's personal problems (MarySue that she is) than the challenges of medicine in an interstellar setting. Plus the yech factor in her relationships...

Just echoing what Roni said about your having good reason to be cautiously optimistic, Chris!

#194 Fantastic review of a dreadful book and one I will avoid at all costs!

I would also like to see your 2010 reviews in this thread. Like Roni said, I might miss them if they go straight to the book page.

Good to hear there are reasons to be optimistic on the job front. Hopefully you can get some time to write and get a new job in 2011. Happy New Year!

At last! I spent 12 hours at LAX yesterday, which meant some time to sit and write. Here's the first review in a while.

Sherri S. Tepper wrote three delightful little interconnected fantasy trilogies with a science fiction core back in the 1980s. These books are now rather obscure and quite difficult to find. The first trilogy features the eponymous Mavin Many-Shaped; the second, her son Peter; and the third, his sweetheart Jinian. I stumbled over the series bass-ackwards during my peripatetic youth. I spent a few years traveling between seasonal jobs and habitually browsed used bookstores to pick up cheap, interesting paperbacks, then discarded them at the next stop (I went through a lot of Dick Francis novels that way).

Thus I found Jinian Footseer. It was an imaginative fantasy novel featuring an intrepid young heroine confronting the challenges of adolescence as much as her magical quest, and very much a palate cleanser after the many derivative works I’d ingested by that point. About ten years ago, after I settled down, I visited a local bookstore and found The True Game omnibus edition of the Peter stories alongside The End of the Game omnibus of the Jinian stories. Although I typically do not purchase hardcover fiction, I did not hesitate to acquire these two volumes. I finally got to read Jinian’s entire story and the complementary Peter storyline. They were very much worth the wait.

I lacked only the Mavin books. Over the years, I patiently scoured used bookstores everywhere. I search online as well without success. But last year, finally, the local Half-Price Books had the entire trilogy in excellent condition—clearly someone had liquidated their inventory to my benefit. The broad parameters of the Mavin books were no surprise, given that I was already familiar with later events that built upon the earlier stories, but that did not hinder the joy of discovery. These books are all keepers, and I am glad that I can finally stop searching.

The series addresses fundamental social issues. The Mavin books feature strong feminist themes, while the Peter books (King's Blood Four, Necromancer Nine, and Wizard's Eleven) concentrate on class differences and more general social justice. Finally, the Jinian books (Jinian Footseer, Dervish Daughter, and Jinian Star-eye) take all of these and combine them with spiritual and environmental concerns on par with Aldo Leopold’s land ethic in something of a science fiction context of first contact.

The stories take place primarily in the Land of the True Game, where Gamesmen have various magical talents, such as teleporting (Elators), mindreading (Demons), telekinesis (Tragamors), flying (Sentinels), beguiling (Kings, Queens, etc.), and changing shape (Shifters). Their frequently short, interesting lives generally consist of exercising their talents in various Games, which range from one-on-one duels to large-scale wars. Caught up in these Games as well are the untalented lower-class pawns who actually keep civilization going as farmers, merchants, servants, etc. And a third class of people are the Immutables who not only are immune to the talents of Gamesmen, but also effectively neutralize their talents, thus creating a safe zone bordering the Land of the True Game.
Being a biology geek, I love the mix of familiar and strange: horses and zellers, rabbits and bunwits. Tepper creates a delightful alien world with its own ecology and logic. From the arboreal towns that straddle giant tree limbs crossing the depths of an enormous chasm in The Flight of Mavin Many-Shaped to the self-aware Chimmerdong Forest in Jinian Footseer, Tepper explores how nature and culture might commingle in new and interesting ways. Also, I particularly enjoyed the scathing satire of academia reduced to absurdity in Necromancer Nine.

In The Song of Mavin Many-Shaped, Mavin grows into her shifterish talent secretly at the onset of puberty so that she can flee her abusive home with her younger brother and free her older sister, the sole adult woman remaining in the family compound, who has been systematically raped and beaten by the family elders. As Mavin (along with her brother) hides from pursuers, she meets the Shadowpeople and the young man who becomes the Wizard Himaggery and falls into adventure. The Flight of Mavin Many-Shaped follows after a lag of several years. Mavin flies over the sea searching for her long-lost sister and once again meets interesting people and adventure. Finally, twenty years after they parted ways, Himaggery misses their reunion at the beginning of The Search of Mavin Many-Shaped, and Mavin goes on a quest to find him, uncovering still more evil plots and fun times. These books chronologically precede the Peter and Jinian books, but were written after the two later trilogies.

Peter’s story begins in King’s Blood Four as a foundling who grew up at a boarding school. After being injured in a Game, he discovers that he is Mavin’s son and is sent away in the company of the servant Chance. As is always the case in these stories, he meets many interesting people such as Silkhands the Healer and the Wizard Himaggery (his father) and Seer Windlow and falls into adventures. In Necromancer Nine, Peter searches for his famous mother (more adventures ensue). Finally, in Wizard’s Eleven, Peter meets Jinian, and the book ends with the climactic Battle of the Wastes of Bleer.

Jinian Footseer begins with her childhood and proceeds to overlap with Wizard’s Eleven. In Dervish Daughter, Jinian, Peter, and their friends try to learn more about Dream Minder and Storm Grower and the evil forces that have hunted them throughout the series. Jinian Star-Eye is about nothing less than saving the world.

The largest deficit in this series is the lack of diversity. In effect, we have an entire human colony filled with only white people as far as I can tell. And all of the characters are straight and able-bodied and so on. The characters are not particularly deep or complex, not surprising in plot-driven novels that average less than two hundred pages each. And they follow the standard fantasy formula of good triumphing over evil, with characters readily falling in one camp or the other. This is not to say that poignancy is lacking. Each trilogy has a bittersweet ending that encompasses profound loss as part of the cost of success, all part of the heroic formula, I suppose, along the lines of sacrifice for the greater good. And depending on your politics, you may object to the underlying political/ethical/moral messages in these stories. Personally, the Shadowpeople’s traditional greeting resonates: lolly duro balta lus lom (walk well upon the lovely land).

I am going to review the Dresden Files series overall. Someone loaned me Storm Front a couple years ago, after I had heard many friends praise the series. I read it; I thought it was okay; I wasn’t sure I cared for it much. I’ve seen descriptions of this series as dark urban fantasy meets gritty noir detective story. I think that’s accurate, particularly for the earlier books. Therein lies much of my initial lack of enthusiasm (sexist, shallow, formulaic), which persisted through Fool Moon and perhaps even Grave Peril. After that, I saw improvements and I was hooked. Now having read every Harry Dresden novel published to date, I must consider this the best modern urban fantasy series that I have seen. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a few quibbles and minor concerns, but that’s all they are.

Jim Butcher presents an interesting spin on the two supernatural standards: vampires and werewolves. In his books, both werewolves and vampires are divided into distinct categories that encompass different traits. Jim Butcher presents lycanthropes, werewolves, loup-garous, and other shapeshifters. The first is a human who channels an animal spirit of rage without actually changing shape, but gaining some phenomenal strength and endurance to pain (wolf on the inside, human on the outside). A werewolf learns this single spell to change shape into a regular wolf whenever desired retaining the ability to think and reason (wolf on the outside, human on the inside). The loup-garou is closest to the popular conception. It is inherited as the result of a family curse and uncontrollable. This gigantic vaguely wolf-like ravening monster does not retain any humanity and is vulnerable to silver (only special silver, though), and the change is tied to the full moon. There’s also the strong suggestion of a wolf that is able to change shape at will to human. In addition, the hexenwolf uses a magical artifact to transform into a larger, meaner wolf than natural, and the more transformations, the more humanity is eroded away from the beast and the wolf seeps into the human shape, leaving only a demonic beast that initially retains human intelligence. If the highly addictive artifact is removed, then so is the ability. Finally, there’s the skinwalker (naagloshii), a monster appropriated from Navajo lore, which was never human but can change shapes at will and is almost impossible to defeat. None of these shapeshifters are ever infected by a bite or other assault.

There are four vampire Courts in the Dresden Files: Black, Red, White, and Jade. The Black Court vampires are apparently closest to those described in classic horror literature: undead corpses that have a semblance of life and many horrific powers. In fact, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is referenced quite tongue in cheek as a very successful public education campaign. The Red Court, the most numerous, are described as monstrous, black bat-like monsters hidden within highly attractive “flesh masks.” These bloodsuckers with highly addictive narcotic saliva are conflated very consciously with the Latin American drug cartels. It is unclear to me whether the seductive flesh masks represent their original appearance before they were turned (thus only sexy people are targeted), or become imbued with allure as part of the transformation (but then how would they be recognized as the same person after being turned?). It’s a mystery. Also, there are some Red Court half-vampires running around—they’ve been bitten and infected, but since they haven’t fed on blood, they remain mostly human. Indeed, superhuman with super strength and super speed and super recuperative abilities, but easily triggered and aroused by blood and violence—it’s a fine balance. They have the usual vulnerability to sunlight, and their abdomens are reminiscent of mosquitoes: full of blood. Finally, the White Court are essentially succubi, feeding on strong emotions. However, they are genetically predisposed rather than infected. It runs in the family, and if one doesn’t feed and kill during the turbulent, change-filled adolescent period, then one grows up as a regular human after all. They also have super strength and super senses, but love is their bane, not sunlight. We don’t know anything about the Jade Court yet.

The series follows Harry Dresden, living in Chicago and listed in the yellow pages under “wizard.” At the beginning of the series, he is a powerful young wizard on probation from a death sentence for using magic to kill his master a few years earlier. His use of black magic, albeit in self-defense, and openly professing wizardry make him suspect within the magical community. Yet his magical abilities interfere with technology, limiting his ability to function in the mundane world, since computers, elevators, and other devices in his vicinity tend to catastrophically fail in short order. Initially, he’s lonely, callow, brash, to some degree hurt and angry, and at odds with the world, both magical and modern, eking out a living as a private investigator and police consultant for strange cases.

In Storm Front, we are introduced to the first of the principle supporting characters. Karrin Murphy is the stereotypical Irish cop, dedicated to her job, highly professional, a sexy little bombshell with guts and grit. She’s in charge of the squad that handles the odd cases and who retains Harry’s services. Gentleman Johnny Marconi is the stereotypical Italian Mafioso, the honorable crime lord “with eyes the color of faded dollar bills” (obvious metaphor) who will stop at nothing to defend his reputation but can be counted on to meet the terms of an agreement. Bianca is head of the local (Red Court) vampires, sultry and soon looking for Harry’s blood (femme fatale trope). Susan Rodriguez is the tabloid reporter who scents a good story and cultivates Harry as a source—another stunningly attractive woman and immediate love interest. The obvious stereotypes and shallow tropes are a quibble, but one could argue they are quintessential noir and thus requisite. Plus, they diminish over the course of the series.

Another quibble is what I consider to be a relatively weak plot device in the first couple of books: classic miscommunication is essential to driving the plot forward. This is along the lines of Harry saying something like, “Don’t do X, you’ll be sorry.” It’s intended as a warning, but of course is taken as a threat, and everything goes to hell after that. This may be the standard routine for a comedy-of-errors sitcom, but I’m not impressed when it’s used to anchor a dramatic plot. Luckily, it disappears fairly quickly from the series as Harry figures out that leaving people in the dark isn’t a good communication strategy.

As the series continues, we meet more and more characters, as Harry forms relationships and the story grows in complexity, each novel building on earlier works to create a rich, layered narrative that rewards close attention and rereading. The characters are some of the most diverse I’ve seen in any series, going well beyond a one-dimensional token person of color or woman or other category in some sort of incidental role once in a while.

Latino characters include Susan Rodriguez, the initial love interest who comes and goes in the series and plays the pivotal role in Changes (book 12), Carlos Ramirez, the young Warden (wizard law enforecement) who first appears in Dead Beat (book 7), and most of the Red Court vampires, as far as I can tell. Black characters include Sanya, the young Knight of the Cross (a black Russian, now there’s a minority group!), Martha Liberty, member of the ruling Senior Council of the White Council of Wizards (admittedly, a minor secondary character so far, but in a position of power), and Henry Rawlins, a Chicago police officer who becomes Murphy’s partner. Shiro Yoshimo is an important Asian character, the eldest and most experienced Knight of the Sword. Ancient Mai is another Asian, part of the powerful Senior Council, but a very minor character so far. Plus, the mysterious Jade Court of vampires is referenced at least once. The Senior Council also includes one Native American and one Middle Easterner. And of course, many of the white characters have ethnicities. From the Irish cops, to the Italian mobsters, to the French werewolf, to various Senior Council member, the predominant white characters also display diverse backgrounds rather than some sort of homogeneous, nonspecific white identity. Many, many people of color in positions of power and playing important roles in the story, and many different cultures are represented, making the wizard/supernatural community feel truly global in scope, which much better than most authors manage.

The vast majority of the characters are straight. Even the White Court vampires largely present as straight until the later books, when they appear to be bisexual, which is what I would expect, given the nature of their power. Also in this theme, Jim Butcher did a great job discussing sexuality and the porn industry in Blood Rites. Harry gets called in to act as a porn studio bodyguard because a curse appears to be killing the actresses. This new production company is trying to subvert the dominant, exploitative paradigm in the adult film industry by presenting more consensual sex and sex-positive messages, including a range of female body types beyond the ultra-thin prototype. The porn industry characters are also portrayed very reasonably as regular people with families and all of the usual concerns.

Jim Butcher also has more than one character that doesn’t fit mainstream ideas of what’s normal or acceptable, without being hapless victims or otherwise playing into common prejudices. Thus we have Billy, the young werewolf that appears in several stories who began as a rather gawky, fat nerd in Fool Moon. Another “fat” character is Meryl, one of the half-fae changelings in Summer Knight. Then there’s Lydia, the young woman in Grave Peril, with some possible symptoms of schizophrenia. That people with magical abilities (in this case, something called Cassandra’s Tears) are perceived by mainstream society as mentally ill is not a novel idea, but Jim Butcher does a good job with it. I can’t think of any characters off-hand who are physically disabled. This series comes across as one of the most inclusive to be found. Room for improvement? Absolutely, but it has already far exceeded the very low bar set by most modern fantasy.

Many, many strong female characters appear throughout the Dresden Files. They are almost uniformly strong, smart, stubborn, talented, attractive, etc. I think the series as a whole readily passes the Bechdel test, though I wasn’t particularly paying attention to this. While it’s great that all of the women in the books kick ass, it’s a little disappointing that none of the main female characters are really anything less than beautiful (though we do see them at their worst on occasion). The message is that while men can be powerful without being sexy, women must always be attractive to be successful.

Additionally, the pattern of Harry’s romantic entanglements is troubling. Once again, perhaps it’s the noir thing that love never quite works out, but every sexual relationship in Harry’s life involves some degree of coercion of the woman—never by Harry, but there nonetheless. SPOILER ALERT—This discussion necessarily entails revealing some key plot twists. First we see Susan Rodriguez, who accidentally drinks a love potion in Storm Front. Sure, they had agreed to a first date beforehand and the potion wears off or is neutralized, but who knows how much this influenced their relationship; certainly they’re a couple by the second book (Fool Moon). Then later on he meets Captain Anastasia Luccio, who loses her old, effectively neutered body and becomes young and hormonal again in Dead Beat (book 7). Harry and Anastasia become involved, but it turns out she’s being mind-controlled, or at least heavily influenced by a traitor on the White Council in Turn Coat. And then there’s Elaine Mallory, Harry’s first love. They were apprenticed together as teenagers to Justin DuMorne, who tried to turn them to evil. While their teenage love affair was sincere and started innocently, it was perverted when Justin held Elaine in thrall and tried to use her to enthrall Harry as well. So two of the women were coerced in some way at the outset of their relationship with Harry, and the other was coerced after the relationship was established.

Moreover, another of my minor quibbles was the reference to a woman’s nipples hardening in every single book. All of them. It struck me after the first few, so I started checking, and sure enough there it was each time. This observation was explicitly described and usually in a sexual context at first; it was more discreet (perhaps simply referencing a change in the texture of a shirt, or something similar) and not always sexual in tone later on. However, its constancy bugged me. My querido suggests that because the series is from Harry’s viewpoint, the narrative reflects the details that he notices, and it is certainly clear that he leans toward being a sexist jackass, but only in the nicest, most chivalrous sense. It usually gets him in trouble too. This leads into one of the best features of the series: Harry’s personal growth and magical development. In the first couple of stories, he withholds key information from women to “protect” them.

The Dresden Files also show steady growth among the characters. Harry learns from his mistakes and grows stronger. In other words, he learns to work as a team, share information, mentor, and otherwise develop leadership qualities. We also learn more about how the past (most particularly the actions of parents) shapes current events, not just for Harry but also Karrin. On the one hand, I consider predestination something of a tired old plot device (Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, anyone?). And yet, I have seen that in many cases present-day problems and controversies are very much a reflection of historical disputes going back five, twenty, fifty, even two hundred years. Certainly, linking past, present, and future in very personal ways makes the story very engaging.
One of the major strengths of this series is that events do not occur in some sort of vacuum divorced from real-world consequences. The police issue arrest warrants for Harry because evidence points toward his involvement in more than one crime scene. His police contact Karen Murphy is eventually demoted and risks losing her job because she is unable to resolve her unusual cases to the satisfaction of police bureaucracy that doesn’t allow for the supernatural. When Harry’s home or a police precinct is attacked in one book, the effects linger in later books. Indeed, when Harry carelessly damages storefronts in a confrontation with a necromancer in Dead Beat, he’s challenged on it and reminded of the cost to bystanders who own these businesses. This grounding gives the stories more heft than many fantasy stories that conveniently gloss over the implications of people regularly going missing, property being destroyed, and other havoc. I just got done watching the first season of Charmed, which was quite egregious in this regard. A police detective is murdered and an Internal Affairs officer mysteriously disappears within the Halliwell residence, and the three sisters just go about their normal lives without a police inquiry. Really? Another detail that I like about the series is that it’s clear that each book is a snapshot in Harry’s life. Yes, each novel usually entails a major life-changing or world-changing event, but we see that more ordinary life goes on in between. References to other cases that Harry investigates off-stage and other similar clues once again give the stories heft, making the whole thing feel very grounded and much more real.

The series is also doing an excellent job exploring the classic themes of power, temptation, responsibility, good and evil, and how society establishes and enforces limits, norms, punishments, rewards. Not to mention the more personal themes of love, trust, betrayal, and so on. Jim Butcher is doing a good job with all of these. This review is already quite long, so I’ll end it here.

What great reviews, Chris! You must put a lot of effort into them as they are so complete and fascinating to read.

The True Game books were my first introduction to Tepper and I pretty much picked them all up as they came out. I am delighted that you were finally able to find all of the Mavin Many-Shaped books and finally read the whole series.

I have read the first book of the Dresden Files and was not overly impressed, but people have been saying they get better as they go on, so I have now picked up books 2 and 3 and plan to read the first three to give it more of a chance. Your review pushes that plan higher up the TBR pile.

205: Thank you for the compliment, Roni. Yes, they do end up taking a few hours to write and revise. Notice that I rarely go into the specifics of the plot--I always wonder whether I should worry about this lack.

While I was digging up additional background on the True Game books, being away from home and unable to consult the books directly, I found a fairly negative review by a self-identified Christian man. It was an interesting perspective on the series. He objected to the "women are wiser and smarter than men" trope that he felt was very heavy handed, And he felt that the series explicitly slams the Catholic church. I think part of this stems from the concept of midwives. He felt that summarily judging and executing people, particularly fetuses and newborns, was very problematic, especially in terms of equating physical deformities with immorality/soullessness. Given the reasonable concern within the disabled communities for ongoing eugenics attitudes within more mainstream society, this is a very valid point.

BTW, I assume I have you to thank among others for that becoming a hot review yesterday. I was quite surprised to see that.

Seriously, the first couple of Dresden books were nothing wonderful. My querido said that Jim Butcher has confessed to some embarrassment with respect to these earlier works. Not only that, the Wikipedia entry indicates that these were intentionally written in a very formulaic style of a hack writer to please a writing instructor in order to be considered publishable.

Seconding the great reviews!

I found your thoughts about the Dresden Files series very helpful. I've read the first two books in the series but found them rather disappointing although enjoyable enough as fluff reads (if anything with that much blood in can be described as a fluff read). You've encouraged me to keep going with the series, it does seems as if there's a lot of potential there and I keep seeing rave reviews of the later books.

@207: Heather, thank you for the kind words. I really was dubious after the first two-three books, but I felt that the Dresden series did improve, if only from the serious world-building.

@208: Sorry I missed your message, Manuel. Hope you're doing well and long ago recuperated.

Because these lack review in LT, I'm going to review Jo Clayton's Soul Drinker trilogy: Drinker of Souls, Blue Magic, and A Gathering of Stones. I may or may not continue to pursue my 2010 reads, but all of the rest have multiple reviews, so they don't feel as urgent. And certainly, many of them are rereads that are likely to hit my list again.

As is the case with most of my reviews of series, this is going to lean more toward a review of the author and her oeuvre rather than the details of these individual books. Anyway, Jo Clayton is a science fiction and fantasy author with a very distinctive voice, and I appreciate many aspects of her work that keep me coming back over and over.

First, she doesn't rely on some sort of generic northern European cultural and geographical model for her fantasies. Instead, she draws upon many, many different cultures and landscapes for inspiration. Concomitantly, both her protagonists and especially other characters are ethnically very diverse--it's not a white universe with a few people of color thrown in as sparse leavening. No, entire swathes in every world she builds, whether SF or fantasy, feature people of all different colors and beyond the human spectrum, once the various humanoid species she creates are thrown in. We get to see her spectacular, diverse, and original world-building because her stories generally involve the characters traversing the landscape and negotiating many different cultures in the course of their quest.

Second, her characters are more than racially and ethnically diverse. She also has characters reflecting a wide range of ages, physical and mental abilities, sexualities, social classes and so on. In fact, many of her key players come squarely from marginalized populations. So her books are some of the most inclusive and representative of any I've ever read. Moreover, her plots invariably involve a resistance movement to a newly repressive regime, so she explicitly explores the kyriarchy and the nature of oppression, at scales ranging from the individual to entire societies. Rather than ignoring social inequalities in favor of some airy fantasy wish fulfillment, she uses these social tensions to motivate the plot. However, I confess that after reading 20+ of her books, this theme begins to get old, no matter how creatively she explores it.

Third, her stories abound with strong characters, particularly women. No need to consult the Bechdel test, because her protagonist is always a powerful woman working with many other women as well as men in an epic tale involving dozens of characters, and usually shifting viewpoints. Even fairly minor characters have names and personalities that make them individuals--once again, far exceeding the standard treatment in this genre. However, that is not to say that she doesn't succumb to a formula. Nowhere is this more apparent than her protagonists: always a powerful woman with exceptional abilities, usually seriously psychologically damaged by her past, fond of hot tea, long baths, and often sailing men. Brann, the Drinker of Souls, is no exception, though she's traumatized in thebeginning of the trilogy rather than her past, which is unusually wholesome and happy for this author.

Fourth, she clearly has a great love for artisans and others whose livelihoods derive from their labors. Every book I've read features important secondary characters and compelling descriptions of their labors (before the plot sends everything to hell, of course): weavers, potters, dancers, musicians, sailors, goldsmiths (jewelry), herbalists, and on and on. This narrative of daily life and tightly woven society gives her stories a reality and depth that are almost unique in action-driven novels.

Fifth, Jo Clayton is another author who invents an ecology to go along with her invented culture. We meet new animals, crops, trees, and many other organisms, and they aren't always mammals and angiosperms, which greatly please the biology geek in me, who is very unimpressed with the lackluster imaginations of most authors who at best might dream up new names for the same old things.

Sixth, her writing style can also be experimental. In the same way that Stand on Zanzibar introduced new narrative techniques to science fiction, Jo Clayton plays around with text, moving beyond linear prose in some passages, particularly opening material and especially in second and third installments of a trilogy. Often, it is very graphically oriented, reading more like staging directions in a screenplay. Mind you, this isn't necessarily easy to process, but once again, distinguishes her writing from the bulk of the genre.

So that's the general overview of Jo Clayton's works. Drinker of Souls introduces us to Brann, the young daughter of a potter in a remote, mountainous artisan community. She is out in the field one day, along the flanks of their (mostly) dormant volcano, sketching various creatures, when disaster strikes, and life as she knows it is over, and she can never go back home. Soldiers from the oh-so-distant king have appeared to enslave her people, and she is transformed by twin children (Yaril and Jaril) trapped from another reality to be a conduit of energy (souls!) to sustain their lives in this strange world. Adventure ensues as she copes with this trauma and tries to save her people.

Blue Magic takes place maybe a century later. The descendant of one of the secondary characters calls upon Brann for assistance, and someone tries to magically assassinate her. Again, adventure ensues and new parts of the world are explored.

There's another gap between A Gathering of Stones and Blue Magic. It retains some of the characters from Blue Magic and even Drinker of Souls (beyond the obvious Brann, Yaril, and Jaril, I mean). With a new exciting adventure plot, the loose ends are all wrapped up and the heroes mostly get their long-delayed happy ending.