This is an archive of my shorter book reviews and notes, which historically have been posted over at the 50 Book Challenge on LiveJournal, but which I’m starting to move over here. I’m posting them with altered date-stamps, but they might show up in my LiveJournal cross-post anyway. Bear with me, please.
Note: Many of these books also have full reviews available in the book review podcast (RSS).
#13:
Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson
A standalone (? I suspect a sequel will be forthcoming) novel set in a world with broken magic and major political upheaval. It’s an interesting story, well-written, and the love story is secondary to the rest of the novel. My one complaint is the use of non-English words for things we have perfectly useful equivalents, but he limits that to mainly cultural things (like priestly ranks and, more annoying, friend-relationships). It’s a good book if you like fantasy novels. It reminded me very strongly of the video game Planescape: Torment, in the sense of the main character being somewhat not-alive.
#14:
I love Sawyer’s novels, if only because they are precisely what I’ve tried to write in my own novels. This one could have done without one particular point of view in the story, but otherwise is a very entertaining read, and a good follow-up to Far Seer. I am not a fan of generational fantasy, in which the children from one book or series are the stars of the next, generally because the authors often fail to make the children into adults, out of fear of making their adult heroes into old people. Sawyer doesn’t indulge that fear in this novel– Fossil Hunter is about the son of Far Seer’s hero, but he’s a grown person, and a fully realized character, while his father, though appearing in the book as a major character, is not the vibrant hero he used to be.
#15 and 16
Technically, these were in an omnibus edition, but that’s just cause I’m cheap. They’re 2 books. They’re part of a series of novels about a private investigator who is a velociraptor in disguise, part of the large population of still-living dinosaurs currently in disguise among us.
Ah…. talking dinosaurs. Now who doesn’t love that?
Anyway, these were fun novels, kind of a Dashell Hammet meets Robert J. Sawyer kind of thing. Very enjoyable, not too predictable, and long enough that you can sink your teeth into them.
#17:
A good history-of-science book about the explosive eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. It was, however, not quite as compelling as The Professor and the Madman, and I found myself falling asleep pretty easily when reading it. It’s a good “broccoli for the brain” book, but it’s still broccoli.
#18: Practical silkworm culture and its possibilities in America,, by K. M Hazarabedian. I checked this very small almost-pamphlet out from the local library, having an interest in fiber arts and handspinning. It was published in 1938 and is basically an argument in favor of establishing a silk industry in the San joaquin Valley of the United States, mainly using the border spaces of the vinyards and the “down season” of April-May months for harvesting. One thing that Hazarabedian doesn’t cover is whether the mulberry tree is prone to diseases or parasites that may infect a farmer’s more valued crops, such as grapes or orchards. Since California’s agriculture is its most important industry, and wine being a major component of that (and since mulberries still, 70 years later, have little resale value except as animal feed), the presence of a potential harborer of pests is a very serious concern. To my dismay, the book doesn’t offer any spinning techniques.
#19:
An audiobook. Very enjoyable. The sequel to The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. They’re historical romance mystery/spy novels. Enjoyable, a little “fluffy,” but good beach reads. I’ve been listening to this one for several weeks, so it is nice to finally finish it.
#20:
Excellent fantasy novel about dragons during the Napoleonic wars. This is one of those rare fantasy novels in which the protagonist is not a 15 year old kid who manages to awaken his magical powers, master them, and save the world and find his True Love before he reaches the wizened old age of eighteen. Instead, our hero is a British Navy Captain of some years, a man of noble family who is just hitting the age in his life where he can determine for himself what changes to make– when a change is thrust upon him, unwilling and unprepared. It’s a stark contrast to a book like Eregon. They are both ostensibly the same basic premise: how wonderful would it be to have a dragon! But where Eregon is derivative, immature, and wooden, His Majesty’s Dragon is much richer, more mature, and addresses the real-life difficulties one might encounter in having such a creature as a companion.
I’m really glad I read this one, and that I have the sequels in hand for whenever I wish to peruse them!
Currently reading: The Punch, in audiobook form, about a particularly brutal fight during a basketball game in 1977. I’m having trouble listening to this one. I like to do my audiobooks while driving, and the graphic nature of this book, particularly the beginning, makes me woozy. So I find myself having to avoid listening to it while operating heavy machinery.