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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "araken" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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08:12 pm
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Book List
13. Wellsprings of Chaos by LE Modessitt
I went through lots of Modessitt's Recluce novels in high school and college, but hadn't read any since. Recluce is a world dominated by the twin opposing forces of order and chaos; throughout the series we see how the tension and uneasy Balance between the two powers has
played out.
In this particular installment, we follow Kharl, a Brystan cooper whose good heart and willingness to defend the defenseless leads to the loss of all that he has and his exile from Brysta. As he wanders the world he searches for answers, both to how to use his burgeoning order powers, and to deeper questions of how to find justice in an unjust world. The book takes place between The Order War and The Magic of Recluce, but aside from a few nods and cameos requires no previous experience in the series.
Like with so much in life, Modessitt's strengths are his weaknesses, and vice versa. He's described his work as "hard fantasy" -- imagine high fantasy as written by Arthur C Clarke or Isaac Asimov. The magic system, the worldbuilding, and the economics all work, which was uncommon in the 1990s when he began. The catch is that he spends lots of time and ink proving to the reader that he's done his homework, which can be fascinating, or deathly dull, depending on the reader's taste or even mood. We spend the first 100 pages establishing Kharl's daily life (enlivened by a little action, but mostly mundane.) It worked for me, but it might not have ten years ago.
Tags: book list, books, modessitt, recluce
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08:12 pm
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Book List
9. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.
A wonderfully researched biography, authorized by Jobs but not under his control; he never read it. It confirmed my view of Jobs: someone I greatly admired, but not someone I would ever want to work for. What did surprise me was Isaacson's sympathetic treatment of Bill Gates, and a moving scene near the end of the book where Gates visits Jobs for a last conversation in the months before Jobs's passing.
10. The Early Middle Ages: audio course by Phillip Daileader
11. Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card
This book is an odd one; while it's the latest in Card's "Shadow" series (which follows Bean, Ender's right hand man in the years following Ender's Game), this volume is short, straddling the divide between a long novella and a short novel. There are two plotlines here: the story of Bean's children, and an Arthur C Clark-esque plot involving a derelict Formic spaceship. There's not really enough plot to justify a longer novel, but the shortness of the book makes the character development that Bean's children go through far too abrupt.
12. The New Testament audio course by Bart Ehrman
Tags: book list, books, card, daileader, ehrman, isaacson, jobs, middle ages, new testament, osc
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08:11 pm
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Book List
8. Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
Disclaimer: The author's a friend of mine; we met at the Taos Toolbox workshop five years ago, where I critiqued an early draft of the first chapter or two of this novel. I've been eagerly awaiting it ever since.
Throne is a tribute in some ways to the sword-and-sorcery buddy stories of years past. The aging, world-weary ghul hunter Adoulla and Raseed, his young, zealous protege make great foils for each other; they each have something to teach the other.
The worldbuilding is one of the best parts of the novel; Saladin has created a world which is his own yet feels Islamic, yet isn't, in the same way that, say, Westeros feels like Christian Europe, yet not. This is reflected in everything from the magic system to speech patterns to descriptions of the city of Dhamsawat. For a relatively short book, we get a great sense of place.
The novel's not perfect; as the novel tells us, "Perfection is the palace in which only God resides." The pace seemed to slow a bit too much in the middle to focus on developing secondary characters, and so it loses some forward momentum. In the end though, it comes back with a vengeance to a thrilling climax.
I'll be eagerly waiting the next book too.
Tags: book list, books, saladin ahmed
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08:16 pm
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Book List
Given that I'm several months behind on the book list, and going to be focusing on writing fiction for the next few months as I prepare for the July workshop at TNEO, I'm just going to list the books I've read since my last post rather than try to write them all up. If anyone wants my take on a particular book, just let me know.
2. All Clear by Connie Willis
3. The Old Testament (Teaching Company class by Prof. Amy-Jill Levine)
4. In the Plex by Stephen Levy. (A history of Google)
5. Skirmish by Michelle West. (Book Four of House War)
6. A Rising Thunder by David Weber. (The latest Honor Harrington novel.)
7. Travel books for the New York/Vienna/Munich trip
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11:43 pm
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Book List
I've actually read five books so far this year; I've just been lax about recording them.
1. Initiate's Trial by Janny Wurts
Depending on how you count, this is either the ninth volume of Wurts's Wars of Light and Shadow, or the first volume of her Sword of the Canon, which forms the fourth arc of the larger series. Hence, just as the previous volume felt like an ending (because it was the end of the Alliance of Light arc), this one feels like a new beginning for the long-running series.
We've jumped forward a couple of centuries, and much has changed. Arithon, Master of Shadow, has been held prisoner by the Koriathain witches, trapped in enchanted forgetfulness. His half-brother Lysaer, still cursed with the desire to destroy Arithon at any cost but now actively resisting it, has rejected the false title of demigod he once claimed, and tries to rule with justice. Yet when Arithon, still amnesiac, escapes, this fragile peace will shatter as both the Koriathain and the sunwheel priests seek to use him to trigger Lysaer's curse and create a new War of Light and Shadow.
Wurts seems unclear whether this book is intended for new readers, existing ones, or both. The scenes surrounding Arithon seem written for new readers; they move slowly and reintroduce characters and concepts that have been seen before. Yet they're interleaved with chapters from Elaira, Dakar, and Daliana's POVs, which all assume prior knowledge to make sense. I found the Arithon chapters occasionally tedious, but loved the other plots, particularly Daliana's relationship with Lysaer and the growth that Lysaer's finally making. Yet I can't help but think that a new reader would find the plots that I liked confusing.
In the end, I think the only way to start the series is to begin at the beginning, with Curse of the Mistwraith. (This is a shame, as it's the weakest of the series--Wurts's wonderful layered complexity isn't yet fully developed, and it looks like a Standard 90s Epic Fantasy. The book, like many by Wurts, is not meant to be read, but reread, and it rewards close attention.)
For those who have already read the previous volumes, we have here a fine new beginning, though one with some rough edges. Only two more volumes remain until the projected end of the story; I'll be excited to see it at last.
Tags: booklist, books, wars of light and shadow, wolas, wurts
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09:15 am
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Book List 2011 Wrap Up
I read 46 books in 2011, two more than in 2010. While it's nice that I'm moving in the right direction, I'm actually a little disappointed that with all the long highway trips I took this year, I didn't amass more from audiobooks. (I started dating Amy in February, and she lives 300 miles away from me.) In large part, this is because I often chose long novels to listen to on those car drives, such as rereads of WOT's The Gathering Storm, and GRRM's A Storm of Swords.
I made a pretty good dent in the list of books I've been meaning to read or finish, finally polishing off The System of the World by Stephenson and Gardens of the Moon by Erikson. Both were worth the effort.
Unfinished novels carrying over into 2012:
1. Initiate's Trial by Janny Wurts. (my current read.)
2. All Clear by Connie Willis (my current audio listen)
3. Kushiel's Justice by Jacqueline Carey (audiobook I got irritated with because the hero hadn't learned anything from his first book. I'm sure I'll finish it eventually.)
4. Black Ships by Jo Graham.
Things I started in previous years that I haven't yet gone back to finish, but I will I promise:
5. The Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne Valente
6. The Darknesss that Comes Before by R Scott Bakker
7. The Burning Stone by Kate Elliott
8. The Blood Knight by Greg Keyes
Tags: 2011 summary, book list, books, wrapup
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08:55 am
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Book List
46. Working Effectively With Legacy Code by Michael Feathers. Another book I read for work, full of good tips about refactoring code bases which have become overgrown and disorganized. As most of them are.
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08:11 am
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Book List
Finishing up 2011...
45. Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
Finally! I bought this book over five years ago (actually, it was accidentally shipped to me when I forgot to say "No" to the monthly selection at the Science Fiction Book Club, and it looked interesting enough not to send back.) Yet over those years I'd tried three different times to read it, each time only getting through the first chapter.
This isn't because of the quality of the writing, or the world. Erikson is a gifted stylist and storyteller (a rare combination), and his world is one of the most complex and intricate I've seen. However, while all first books of fantasy series have high learning curves, as the reader adjusts to a new world, characters, and laws of magic, Erikson's is higher than most. The reason why is simple: Erikson eschews exposition. The reader is on his own.
The tone is also dark and grim, leavened by moments of gallows humor that made me smile but not laugh. Erikson has been inspired by previous authors such as Glen Cook, whose Black Company series about a mercenary company in an Evil Overlady's army has great influence here.
Erickson, however, chooses to tell the story from both sides, and makes us love characters from both. As the expansionist Malazan Empire, led by a usurper empress and wracked with internal strife, tries to conquer the last free city on the continent of Genabackis, we follow both the covert team sent to take it, and the conspiracy of wizards and thieves who are trying to defend it. This description robs the book of much of its intricacy and invention: Erickson has created a world in which gods both meddle and are used as pawns in imperial stratagems. All the complex plots and counterplots build to a satifsying conclusion, but it's clearly just the beginning of a larger tale.
I'm glad I finally made myself read Gardens of the Moon, and I will likely read the rest of the Malazan series. But perhaps not just yet.
Tags: erickson, gardens of the moon, malazan
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03:43 am
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Book List
42. The Evolutionary Void by Peter F Hamilton. A fine finish to Hamilton's Void trilogy, though they still suffer a little in comparison to the excellent Pandora's Star series which preceded. Over the past several years Hamilton has become one of my favorite science fiction writers. He does space opera mixed with convincing, surprising worldbuilding extraordinarily well, which gives his universes a sense of versimilitude. Unlike many space operas, the world isn't just there for the author to play wargames in. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...)
43. Clean Code by Bob Martin. Programming book read several months ago for work. I'm pretty sure that most programmers will agree with 70% of the book and think the other 30% is flat out insane. I'm also sure that no two programmers will agree on what parts are the 70 and what are the 30. A valuable book that made me think about the way I work. Even if parts of it are crazy.
44. GRE Test Prep. (Kaplan and the Princeton Review). Princeton Review was far better test prep; Kaplan was useful mostly for the online practice tests.
Tags: bob martin, booklist, books, gre, peter f hamilton, void
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03:35 am
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Book List
40. 1636: The Saxon Uprising by Eric Flint
41. Ring of Fire II edited by Eric Flint
I'd grown less interested in Flint's 1632 series over the past year or two; it seemed to be floundering under the weight of a thousand subplots and coauthors less capable than Flint. While David Weber and Andrew Dennis did fine jobs in their entries, the dominance of Virginia DeMarce (who's obviously a brilliant researcher but a flawed writer) in most of the recent volumes caused me to avoid anything with her name on it.
Thankfully, 1635: The Eastern Front and 1636: The Saxon Uprising are by Flint alone, and he brings the series back on track. Where previous books in the series have dealt with the time-shifted Americans' conflicts with external threats, such as Richelieu, Charles I, or the Borgias, these two books examine the internal contradictions of the new United States of Europe, and the costs and contradictions of the alliances that Mike Stearns has made. It asks the long overdue question, "How do you create a democratic nation based in part on aristocratic power?" There's also plenty of action and political maneuvering, and a few scenes that are just laugh out loud funny. Flint has a wry, understated wit when he wants to use it.
Ring of Fire II is an anthology from a few years ago of stories set in the 1632 universe. While they're mostly by authors other than Flint, they're fully canon, and characters from them recur in the mainline novels. With the exception of a few (most by Demarce), they were generally strong, and fun reads. Flint's a fan of social history, and these stories often deal with the cultural implications of the American's arrival into the 17th century. For example, there's a surprisingly good story by David Carrico about what happens when the "downtimers" are exposed to classical music.
Tags: 1632, booklist, books, flint, ring of fire
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