melita66 | Entries tagged with 2011

Because I was going to be traveling, I decided to reread Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett. Set in an alternative Renaissance Amsterdam or London (called Astreiant), they focus on Nicolas Rathe, a pointsman, and Philip Eslingen, a unemployed mercenary. Another reason to read them (besides that they're good) is that Scott is working on a novella, "Point of Knives", to be published early next year by Lethe Press, and a novel, Fairs' Point, due end of the year from Lethe. These two books were collaborations (implied in a blog post is that each author took one of the main characters) but unfortunately, Barnett died several years ago. After several years without much activity from Scott that I noticed in the SF/F genre, she's working on these books, plus several Stargate: Atlantis books with Jo Graham and Amy Griswold. They're in the midst of a mini-series of 6 books.

In Astreiant, it's a matrilineal culture, with an emphasis on astrology (which works), and same sex relationships are taken for granted. Pointsmen are a relatively new police force who can call a 'point' on a criminal, and hope that the point is upheld by the courts. Rathe is known as an honest pointsman. He won't take money or bribes, but follows the evidence. He's investigating the disappearance of several children--normally, they would thought to be runaways, but they don't seem to fit the type (excellent apprenticeships, nothing personal taken, etc.). Eslingen, who recently paid off from a company, is waiting for a good offer, and becomes embroiled in the mystery as well. While they're attracted to each other, nothing much happens in this book. In the second, we find that they've been off-and-on, and then Eslingen loses his current position and asks to move in with Rathe, temporarily. This is a side issue to a new mystery bound up with a masque that will be performed in a few weeks and which will strengthen the queen's reign. The worldbuilding is well thought out, with the consequences of the astrology--your stars have to be good for a particular line of work.

I appreciate that there aren't any explicit sex scenes (for anyone). The more equal society is welcome too. I would often think of some character in charge as male until the next sentence or paragraph which revealed that the person is female instead!

Anyway, lovely books, and I am really looking forward to more in the series. If you like Madeleine Robins, or Martha Wells, you may like these.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: xmas celtic

I've been on a re-reading kick for the past week or so. After REAMDE, I decided I wanted a book or books that I knew I loved with excellent writing style. I went with Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy. Because these were published in the 1970's each book is relatively short and I ripped through them pretty quickly. The three books are The Riddle-Master of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire, and Harpist in the Wind. They're set in a post-apocalyptic world that has since recovered. The apocalypse was caused by the abuse of (magical) power, and is now controlled in a benign way by the High One. A ruler of a kingdom has "land-law" and "land-sense", particularly when one ruler dies and the heir takes over, the heir often has knowledge of everything within the boundaries of the kingdom.

Both music (mainly harping) and knowledge are very important. The college teaches riddles and the books are liberally sprinkled with them as one character points out a flaw in reasoning or decision by another character. Morgon is the land-ruler of the island of Hed, something like rural England, where everyone cares only about the crops and weather and nothing of import ever happens. Before he became the land-ruler, Morgon trained at the college, and would have become a master if he'd stayed. He also has 3 stars (birthmarks?) over one brow. The first book is his story and he's forced to find out about the three stars and what his destiny might be. The book ends on an incredible surprise, so make sure that you have the second book handy!

Now I can see some faults in the writing style, and sometimes I just want to smack Morgon upside his head, but there are still passages that just make me sigh in pleasure. Here's one that I love. Morgon and the High One's Harpist are traveling to see the High One. One night while camping:

...His [Morgon] eyes moved to Deth's harp, its pale, carved pieces burnished in the firelight. It was adorned with neither metal nor jewels, but the oak pieces were finely scrolled on all sides with delicate carving. "Did you make your harp?"

Deth smiled, surprised. "Yes." He traced a line of carving, and something in his face opened unexpectedly. "I made it when I was young, by my standards, after years of playing on various harps. I shaped its pieces out of Ymris oak beside night fires in far, lonely places where I heard no man's voice but my own. I carved on each piece the shapes of leaves, flowers, birds I saw in my wanderings. In An, I searched three months for strings for it. I found them finally, sold my horse for them. They were strung to the broken harp of Ustin of Aum, who died of sorrow over the conquering of Aum. Its strings were tuned to his sorrow, and its wood split like his heart. I strung my harp with them, matching note for note in the restringing. Then I retuned them to my joy."

McKillip usually writes what I think of mythic stories. The characters have a destiny to fulfill, or have been caught up in someone else's destiny. The trilogy is full of very memorable characters, although you may find them a bit hard to keep straight when you read the series for the first time. There is a glossary of people and places.

Current Mood: awake

Neal Stephenson has been a buy-on-sight author for me since Cryptonomicon. It was the Cap'n Crunch scene that made me exclaim something like, "This is an author for me!" As I'm sure many people will understand, that doesn't mean that I've read all the books that I've bought. So far I haven't read the "Baroque Cycle" (wanted to reread Cryptonomicon first) or Anathem (because although I usually have no problem with invented languages (guess given context and keep going), it just seemed a bit too complicated given my life at the time). Stephenson's books usually run well over 800 pages, with most over 1k. That means a significant devotion of time and the books aren't something I'm going to drag around while traveling (I have no dedicated ereader and am not buying an e-edition of a book I haven't read yet).

REAMDE, although it's 1056 pages in the American hard cover edition, seemed like it might read quickly. Set in the current day, it's a technological thriller with no fantastical elements. It did read quickly, although part of that was that it just dragged me along. I really wanted to know what happened next and how were multiple characters going to get out their latest predicament. Some insomnia helped as well, and I spend few nights reading in the wee hours until I finally fell asleep with my head on the pages.

After seeing the book show up around the house for several days, C asked about the plot. That led to me excitedly describing the overall plot and characters for about 10-15 minutes. By that point I was around page 800, I believe. So. Richard Forthrast has created a wildly popular MMORPG. Unlike existing games where "gold farming" and selling equipment to other characters is frowned upon, T'Rain was designed to allow that, all based on a geologically correct world. That is, gold and other minerals are found where they should be in quantities that are not huge, and not just in dungeons or castles or randomly in the landscape. That has led young men around the world to focus on farming the gold and selling it, rather than focusing on the gaming/story aspect.

Yes, there could be small spoilers below, but nothing major.

A talented Chinese hacker puts together a team to exploit an Outlook security hole. Outlook is used in the T'Rain game to communicate and schedule team activities. The virus they create, reamde, encrypts data files on the target's computer. To get the key to uncrypt the files, you're told to take a ransom to one of various locations in the game world. Is this the focus of the book? No. As it turns out, the boyfriend of Richard's niece (Zula) decides to score big by selling a set of credit card information to a front man. The front man is actually trying to score big himself as he's embezzled money from the equivalent of a Russian mafia group. Before the credit card information can be transferred, the files get encrypted by the readme virus. Oops. After failing to get the ransom dropped off because thousands of people are trying to drop off ransoms and getting attacked by bandits, the Russian crowd decides to go after the Chinese hackers directly.

We end up with Russian mafia and related security experts and hackers, Chinese hackers, various computer- and gun-savvy Americans, Jihadists, and secret agents from a few different countries. Yeah, it gets crazy.

End possible spoilers

I gave up trying to count viewpoint characters. There are at least 5 main ones, and short sections with other characters. But, I think it works. I never had any problem keeping track of who was viewpoint in the current section.

I really appreciated that the characters are intelligent and competent (often extremely) without being infallible. The technology is also reasonable. At one point, a character is trying to set up a secure system on an internet cafe computer. It's riddled with spyware, viruses, etc. so he creates a partition, loads linux + patches, a bunch of software, and has to reboot multiple times. It takes him hours, just as it would in real life. No sit-down-at-system and immediately be able to do whatever you want without consequences.

If you're squeamish, you probably wouldn't pick up this book anyway, but fair warning, there are torture scenes, multiple deaths and injuries, and an attempted rape. There's also some gun porn, but not as much as, say, early Anita Blake books. It's more matter-of-fact.

Compared to his other books that I've read, I do think it's an easier read, and less complicated.

Highly recommended.

Note: I probably shouldn't use cozy-house-icon but I'm still in a post-happy turkey day mood. Mmm, leftover mashed potatoes and gravy for breakfast.

Current Mood: satisfied

These two books were eagerly awaited and another book that I'd just started got dropped to read these instead!

Tamora Pierce published the latest (and last, it looks like) book in the Beka Cooper series. The book is called Mastiff, to go along with the earlier Terrier and Bloodhound. Set in an early Tortall, Beka joins the Dogs, the street police, as an apprentice (Puppy). The books follow along as she learns her trade and moves up in the heirarchy to become a full Dog. A connection with her first series about Alanna is that Beka is an ancestor of George Cooper and there are framing pieces that make the connection.

Beka's a great heroine. She struggles with insecurity, making and keeping friends, and can barely bring herself to testify in court against the criminals she's caught. She never gives up though, and has accomplished great things in the earlier books. In Mastiff, she's roused at night and sent on a secret hunt with her partner and mage. The hunt is quite serious and connected to a possible coup attempt. There are some great twists and turns in the story, and I found myself teary at several points. You could probably start the series here, but there's a lot of background which adds to the story if you've read from the beginning.

( Possible spoilers for Mastiff )

There are lots of authors, books, and series that I love. Sometimes, often when it's been a while since a new book in a series has been published, or I haven't read the series in a while, the feeling is amorphous. I remember that I love the series, but it's not an 'active' feeling, for want of a better description. That's how I felt about Madeleine Robins's The Sleeping Partner. It's the latest book in her Miss Sarah Tolerance series. Set in an alternate Regency-era England, Miss Tolerance eloped with her brother's fencing master as a teenager. They went to Holland, but never married. After his death, she returned to England, and helped by her aunt (also Fallen and now a brothel-keeper), she set up as an agent of inquiry.

Within a few pages, I thought, 'Yes! Now I remember why I love this series!' Miss Tolerance is a great character. She has the skills to keep herself out of trouble and an ability to extract and acquire information in a methodical manner. In this newest installment, she is asked to find a runaway sister. She is given a portrait, but no name--because they are trying to keep the elopement secret. No one seems to know of a particular friend that could have precipitated the elopement. Meanwhile, her aunt has been acting oddly and may remarry which is causing consternation in her staff and Miss Tolerance.

Miss Tolerance, although unusual, feels very much a product of her time. She is very aware of her status as a Fallen Woman but manages to survive and even prosper anyway.

I definitely hope we see more of Miss Tolerance in the future.

Current Mood: sick

It's been pretty slow the last few weeks. I went to the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego the week before last. I got some nice books in the book bag (publishers donate books for publicity reasons), traded some with a friend who went with me, and put on the 'free' table everything that I was sure I wouldn't read. I was also careful in the dealer's room and only bought 2 books (1 a gift).

I went to several panel sessions (crystal ceiling, worlds of Islam, some young adult sessions, the year in review). Several sessions where I hoped for some good recommendations hardly had any so that was a bust. I follow enough blogs now that I had at least heard of almost everything mentioned in the year-in-review session which definitely helped when writing down suggested books and authors!

I went to several readings. Sharon Shinn who has a new series starting next year. I had a problem with some timeline issues in the excerpt she read. Main character is a shapeshifter and its stated that as he's gotten older, he spends more time in nonhuman (animal) form to the point that he's only in human form for a few days a month. He shows up at main character's house after an absence of a few weeks. Based on her statement that she had to go to work for two days, it was probably on a Wednesday. She asks him about weekend plans, and he announces that they have to visit his sister on Sunday. Um, we're already getting past a few days there. The funnest was Ysabeau Wilce's. The first Flora book is coming out next spring! Hooray! Hip hip hooray! She had pictures of the cover, and chocolates. Really yummy chocolates. I also attended Alaya Dawn Johnson's reading. She had been recommended at either last years WFC or this year's worldcon so I thought I would see whether I would look up her stuff after the reading. I've done that before with unknown-to-me authors, but usually decided not to buy anything. This time the series did sound intriguing and I have the first book ordered.

I'm impatient enough now (due to a personal issue) that I actually asked a neighbor to be quiet. She was typing on a laptop most of the session--fine, maybe she's blogging--but then would quit to hold long (minutes long) whispered discussion with her neighbor. Worked okay when panelists were speaking, but once audience members started commenting, it was very difficult to hear them. She was quite surprised, quieted down for the rest of the session and apologized when we broke up. Thank you, unknown colleague!

Another session, the moderator brought in statements from what she called 'ghost panelists'. I understand the reasoning. She prepared well, and asked for statements from some well-known names in field. However, I thought it short-changed the panelists because she insisted on reading the statements verbatim. Briefly summarizing them would have left more time for the other panelists and audience members to comment. Sessions were only 55 minutes long (before the lost of the first minute or two for everyone to settle down).

I didn't have any problems with the convention hotel/site except trying to make my around the first day. It is a confusing layout. I think there were originally some two story room blocks. Later, hotel tower blocks, more restaurants, and the convention center buildings were added. Everything's a bit shoe-horned in, and that makes it difficult to get around. People with mobility issues were having a difficult time. I'd noticed one blatant problem. Readings were on the second floor of the conventions center. The women's bathroom had two stalled. The 'handicapped' stall was the same size as a regular stall, but had a rail installed. The stall door opened inwards! I could hardly maneuver enough to get the door shut.

Had some very good food. The hotel restaurants were fine. But, Boudin's, here's looking at you! Yum, yum. And, I was able to hit Boston Market on the way home and had yummy leftovers for several days. Nom nom, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, nom nom.

On the reading side, I was waiting for some books to arrive so I re-read Sharon Lee and Steve Miller: Plan B, I Dare, and Ghost Ship.

Current Mood: nauseated
Current Music: Pink and Adele (how's that for a mash-up?

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2011 books: Scott
2011 Books: McKillip
2011 Books: Stephenson
2011 Books: Pierce and Robins
Some 2011 World Fantasy Convention comments

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melita's booklog - mostly

Entries tagged with 2011

2011 books: Scott

2011 Books: McKillip

2011 Books: Stephenson

2011 Books: Pierce and Robins

Some 2011 World Fantasy Convention comments