Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' - March 2013 Edition

Cafe Society
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Since my last post…

Fleet of Worlds, Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner. 1st of four (eventually, five) novels set in the Ringworld universe. I read the third book in this series not knowing that it was a series, so I felt compelled to get these out of my system. The first book was decent, especially if you’re a Known Space fan.

Juggler of Worlds, book 2 of the above series. This one was easily the worst as it was a bit confusing and incorporated elements of Niven’s short stories released in the '60s, making for a fair number of “haven’t I read this story before?” moments. On the other hand, the events of this book occurred at the same time as the events of the first book (Fleet of Worlds), which was pretty interesting. But not enough for me to say this was as good as the other three.

Betrayer of Worlds, book 4 of the series. Better (by far) than book 2, but it took a while (it seemed) to wrap everything up. It’s likely a good thing that I haven’t read Ringworld in quite a while (20+ years) or else I would have concentrated on shit like “Wait, that’s not how it was said/done in RW!” type thoughts. If I had to rank the books, I would go (from worst to best, with the series sequence in parenthesis):

Juggler (#2)
Betrayer (#4)
Fleet (#1)
Destroyer (#3)

The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Do, by Clotaire Rapaille. Well, maybe not “ingenious”, but an interesting look at American culture by a French guy who doesn’t particularly care for France (and has little good to say about the British.) Don’t let the title fool you - most of the book deals with American culture. Pretty short at 199 pages, read this one Sunday between the “World” books, above.

Infected: A Novel, by Scott Sigler. Pulp fiction from a guy who is making a living writing books over the internet. Absolutely no character development in this one, it deals with a bizarre infectious disease which is prelude to an alien invasion. Mr. Sigler isn’t the greatest writer in the world, but he’s not the worst either - I just wish we knew more about Perry’s (one of the characters, of course) backstory. The guy grew up in an abusive home, but we never learn what happens to his mother. She exists, is beaten regularly by Perry’s dad, but is such a non-entity in Perry’s life that it’s never explained what happened to her after Perry’s dad died. Like I said - Sigler isn’t the greatest writer in the world, one who is far more concerned about the plot than the people that exist in the book.

Lightspeed: Year One, edited by John Joseph Adams. One of the finest collections of SF short stories I’ve ever read - space opera, post-apocalyptic, monsters, weird “Dangerous Visions” kind of stories, even an unread Stephen King story - this one has it all. Lightspeed is an online monthly magazine of SF and fantasy stories which I will have to check out regularly, this collection was that good.

The Lure, by Bill Napier. Another pulp SF novel, but better written than Infected, this deals with mankind receiving a First Contact message and how we react. Notable for two things: a Bush 2-esque President who isn’t thought of kindly by Napier (but does the right thing in the end), and a passel of Very Stupid Scientists who need explanations (i.e., exposition) by other scientists to explain things out of their disciplines. For example, the astronomer has to explain to the mathematician, the particle research people, and the biologist what the Oort Cloud is. In detail. Repeat for all of the other disciplines and you wish the author would have tried a bit harder to figure out another way to get the information across because it is VERY CLUNKY.

The Taking of Pelham 123, by John Godey. Much better than I expected, it’s a blast from the past that is more interesting in its depiction of a mid-70s New York City (and the racial/societal/sexual attitudes of the characters) than the actual story (which in itself isn’t bad.)

Next up… Peter F. Hamilton’s latest, Great North Road. 976 pages, 2.4 pounds of good ol’ space opera from my favorite (recent) author of the stuff. For those of us who read Hamilton, this is set in a new universe from his previous books (Night Dawn trilogy, Commonwealth.) I’ll let y’all know how it was when I’m done.

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Read Requiem, the final book in Lauren Oliver’s dystopian Delirium trilogy. As a whole, the trilogy was just okay for me, but I will probably still pick up the next thing Oliver writes.

And then I read Code Name Verity, which blew me away. I put in a new pair of contact lenses before reading it, since I had ruined my last pair with tears…if you’ve read the book, you may find that amusing. :slight_smile:

Next up, I have The Rook, but I think I might want to re-read Code Name Verity first. I see it is categorized as a young adult novel! How they make these distinctions I’ll never know.

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I am also reading The Rook after reading about it here - about half way through and definitely a good one so far! I always get the best recommendations here.

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Yes, please! I liked the Night’s Dawn books very much, although I thought Hamilton stumbled badly at the end.

Here’s the Wiki page on Great North Road: Great North Road (novel) - Wikipedia

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I just read Friday by Heinlein for the first time and really enjoyed it. Now I am re-reading The Ugly Little Boy by Asimov. I am really digging it as I haven’t read it since I was a teenager.

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Polished off Flashman and the Mountain of Light last night, which leaves me with just one left in the series, I fear. Not the best of the bunch, IMO, but Flashy is always quality. What an odd war the First Sikh War was…

Picked up When America First Met China based on DZedNConfused’s little review upthread, after several minutes spent rifling through Amazon recommendations. They’re bloody useless–my two most recent kindle buys, other than The Rook, have been Nero Wolfe and John Scalzi’s Redshirts. So what I I get? Page after page of Nero Wolfe, John Scalzi, and Nero Wolf pastiches. Guys, is it that hard to look a bit deeper into my purchasing history?

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I’ve always felt that way about Neal Stephenson but for some reason I bought *Anathem * when it was on sale at the Kindle store ( I was in the mood for long book ). I really enjoyed it, the premise was really interesting and it wasn’t particularly geeky.

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Nothing quite like being given a magnificently supplied, well-trained army that significantly outnumbers your disorganized enemy, and being told to find a way to lose. :smiley:

I’d love to know just how historical that accout was (I mean, minus Flashy, of course). Anyone know a good modern book on the 1st Sikh war?

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Oh, Hamilton is my most favorite author EVER, by a huge factor. I do agree about the ending of Night’s Dawn, though ( I don’t know that I ever finished it, I may have stopped a hundred pages or so short of the end. It was my least favorite- probably because of the violence.

*Great North Road *was pretty good, not his best though.

The Void Trilogy is my favorite read of all time, without question. I’ve read it twice- each book as it was released, then a year later I sat down and read them all back to back. I’m tempted to read it a 3rd time. Before that my favorite books were Judas Unchained and Pandora’s Star…which you really should read before the Void Trilogy…it’s sort of a sequel ( it happens a thousand or so years later but lifespans are longer in the Confederation. He has a talent for drawing really interesting female characters and his space operas are much more interesting and less militaristic than most.

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The Wiki article lists several, incl. the Flashman book itself: Sikh war - Wikipedia

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An elderly Flashman has a walk on in Fraser’s Mr. American.

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As for the accuracy of the Flashman novels, I believe George MacDonald Fraser was pretty scrupulous about accuracy. I know Brits who claim they learned everything about 19th-century British imperial doings solely through these novels.

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Heh, amusing reference. :smiley: I may check out “at them with the bayonet”.

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Finally finished The Gashouse Gang. Unless you’re a big fan of the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals, I wouldn’t bother.

Now I have finally gotten my hands on The Signal and the Noise, by (thank God for) Nate Silver. Only 20 pages in and it’s already excellent.

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I’m alternating between the East and West right now.

Two Years in the Forbidden City by Princess Der Ling. She and her sister were daughters of China’s Ambassador to France. They were called back to serve as ladies-in-waiting to the last Empress.

The other is The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo about the conquest of the Yucatan peninsulla of Mexico.

Cultural change by force and attraction as it ever was.

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I just finished reading THE MIRAGE by Matt Ruff. This has to be one of the most interesting books I’ve read lately.
It is set in a world where the UAS (United Arab States ) is a powerful democracy and America is a collection of religious states, kingdoms and tribes dominated by religious fanatiscism. The UAS is still reeling from the attack 10 years ago ( on November 9th) on the Tigress and Euphrates Towers thought to have been carried out by American terrorists and has embarked on a War on Terror culminating in their invasion of the religious state of America to bring democracy.

But a disturbing number of the terror suspects they apprehend are convinced that America is the real democractic superpower and that the world they are living in is a mirage.
A little weak at the end but worth reading.

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I read Village Books by Craig McLay. It was an Amazon freebie and I was pleasantly surprised. It felt a little like High Fidelity to me. I also read Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953. I won an advance copy through Goodreads. It was really fascinating—an in-depth look into the story behind The Bell Jar, complete with interviews of the other women who were guest editors at Mademoiselle that summer.

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Oh neat! I’ll have to add that to Mt. ToBeRead Which O’ertops Everest. I love The Bell Jar. I always wondered what the other women thought of Plath during that internship.

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Finished reviewing relevant parts of the Lonely Planet Japan for our trip there in a couple of weeks.

Now I’m going to read Cracker Culture: Celtic Ways in the Old South, by Grady McWhiney, who was a history professor at Texas Christian University but is now retired. A Brit loaned me the book. Said I might find it interesting.

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Still enjoying Stephen C. Neff’s Justice in Blue and Gray, and have made some headway in Ron Chernow’s massive but well-written Washington: A Life.