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May 13
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Brownbetty
took the never-ending book quiz.
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May 11
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Brownbetty
liked a trivia question:
How many ghosts visit Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol?
see if you know the answer »
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May 10
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Brownbetty
gave
 
to:
First Among Sequels (Hardcover)
by Jasper Fforde
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended for: People who like words put together to form stories
read in May, 2008
Brownbetty said:
" Jasper Fforde reminds me of a Douglas Adams who came from a happier home. (I have no idea what Adams' home life was like, but for the sak...more
Jasper Fforde reminds me of a Douglas Adams who came from a happier home. (I have no idea what Adams' home life was like, but for the sake of analogy, humour me.) His humour is less biting, but just as madcap, his characters are kinder, and easier to like, but the surreality is, I think, just as strong, and listen to this nice bit of language on pianos: "Composed of 550lbs of iron, wood, strings, and felt, the 88-key instrument is capable of the most subtle of melodies, yet stored up in the tensioned strings is the destructive force of a family saloon moving at 20 miles per hour."
If you read for plot, you're not going to like this book. In fact, if you read for narrative, you may not like it either: at one point, with the future of the time-stream in the balance, a chapter is taken off for an adventure in laying carpet. This interlude has no connection whatsoever to anything happening before or after; you either embrace this sort of thing, or go mad.
I can't remember if I've enthused about Thursday as a heroine, but really, she just keeps on getting better. She's an action heroine who doesn't carry a gun, (mostly), she's middle-aged, happily married with children, and not terribly good at communicating with her loved ones. She's female, but not highly gendered, and I think her hair colour may be mentioned once but I don't recall at the moment what it is.
This book is fairly standard for Fford, but he does two interesting things with the first-person narrator, neither of which I wish to spoil for you, so go read it yourself....less
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Brownbetty
gave
to:
Old Man's War (Mass Market Paperback)
by John Scalzi
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my rating:
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Brownbetty said:
"Not quite what I expected from the cover. In my experience of oil-paintings-of-planets-and-spacecraft covers, you tend to get pretty hard SF to go with them. This was more extra-firm tofu hard. The cover blurbs compared him to Heinlein, which was ...more
Not quite what I expected from the cover. In my experience of oil-paintings-of-planets-and-spacecraft covers, you tend to get pretty hard SF to go with them. This was more extra-firm tofu hard. The cover blurbs compared him to Heinlein, which was fair.
The book has a couple of reveals, the first of which I genuinely did not see coming, and the second of which I saw coming for a while, so I'll separate my review into the bits I can talk about without spoiling and the spoilery bits.
John Perry, the protagonist, is seventy-five when he joins the Colonial Defence Forces. Those recruited by the CDF never return to Earth, and are never heard from again. No one knows why the CF recruits senior citizens, and in fact, doesn't permit you to join younger than seventy-five, but the assumption is that they must have some kind of rejuvenation technology, because a seventy-five year-old isn't otherwise the ideal soldier.
Although many things in this book are Heinlein-esque, Perry is much older than the average Heinlein protagonist, and noticeably wiser, (although perhaps not as smart) which was a bit of a relief. It's nice not to have to watch a protagonist make mistakes the reader can see coming. Yet, Perry is still enough of a risk-taker to step out into the unknown.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
This book has two different kinds of fridge problems. The first is what TV-Tropes calls <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmw... logic<a/>: those logical inconsistencies which don't particularly bother you until you're finished the book, and, in a moment of boredom, suddenly realize part of it makes no sense.
It turns out that the CDF's plan for the elderly that it recruits is this: ten years before they reach the age necessary to join, they're signed, and given a rudimentary physical. Using materials culled from this physical, individual clone-bodies are prepared for them, and given significant upgrades. If, ten years later, these people still want to join (and are still alive), their consciousness is uploaded into their clone-bodies, and they become soldiers in war against any and every alien species that challenges or threatens the colonies.
However, given the population they work with, some of the people who originally were recruited don't make it to seventy-five. In these cases, the bodies prepared for them are given a basic personality template, soaked in military learning, and become "ghost forces," an elite company which have never known anything but war, and who are so well adapted to their specialized soldier-bodies that they use them more efficiently than anyone else ever could.
In the case of the book, the Ghost Forces exist so that Perry can encounter a body grown from the DNA of his dead wife, Kathy. It was actually done much better than I expected-- as I said before, Perry is old enough not to be stupid. He doesn't harass Jane, the woman living in Kathy's body, or expect her to be Kathy, although he is fascinated by her. He quickly grasps that she's her own person, and treats her that way.
However, the fridge-logic is this: if bodies without a personality upload are more effective soldiers, why bother with the personality upload? In fact, why bother with the DNA collection? Surely one could make a thousand, or a million soldiers with the same DNA, just as efficiently, if not more so? Why train soldiers who already have bad habits from a lifetime of living, and who have adapted themselves to Earth, when you can start fresh with someone who will only ever know war in space? I think the answer is "it would be a different story."
The other fridge problem is who goes in it: The soldiers are told when they go through basic, that the odds are against their survival, and indeed, most of the people Perry trains with die, including the explicitly homosexual Alan. Scalzi sort of seems to write about straight, white men, although there are generally enough others thrown in for representation's sake.
It's mentioned that those from the Indian subcontinent are permitted to join the CDF earlier than seventy-five, presumably because their life expectancy is shorter. However, the only time that continent comes up is when a racist ass pontificates for the sole purpose of allowing Perry and another (white) recruit to bond over slapping him down. After they're popped into their new bodies, they're told racial divides have been abolished* since there is no longer any skin colour but green. (The new bodies are chlorophyll enhanced, among other changes.) I am somewhat sceptical of this. One of Scalzi's commanding officers is mentioned to be from South America: she dies.
The Ghost Forces are named by a simple convention: a common first name, and the last name of significant philosopher or scientist. However, they seem to be given common English first names. I didn't notice any of them named Samir, or Jamila. The only non-English last names I noted were those of ancient Greeks. (I admit, I think a soldier named Gandhi would be hilarious, but probably somewhat offencive, so, perhaps just as well.)
*(Although I should note that the person who makes this claim identifies himself as Latino, and doesn't, so far as I can recall, die.)...less
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May 08
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Brownbetty
gave
to:
Windfall (Weather Warden, Book 4)
by Rachel Caine
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
Brownbetty said:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Joanne suddenly has a sister, four books in. She may have been mentioned at some point in one of the previous books, but she certainly didn't make an impression on me, so the effect was r...more
More of the same, with the following notable differences:
Joanne suddenly has a sister, four books in. She may have been mentioned at some point in one of the previous books, but she certainly didn't make an impression on me, so the effect was rather that of watching the first episode of season five B:tVS. Their sisterly bond made me think the author is an only child-- I can imagine hating my brother, but I can't imagine the sort of absent-minded indifference Joanne displays. (With, I note, just cause.)
Joanne is trapped among muggles! Well, they're not called muggles, but Joanne is navigating human society, which is sort of interesting, when it's not sort of boring. It appears that as a secret conspiracy, the Weather Wardens are a passable social club: all it requires to be informed of it is to be petty criminal, and/or stalk Joanne for a bit.
Joanne carries a gun! OH WAIT NO SHE DOESN'T. So why on earth is that on the cover?
Spoilers! Stop reading now!
Again, David is kept to the sidelines, so that was nice, and again, Joanne is betrayed by putting her trust in a charming stranger who appears out of nowhere. It seems that when strangers appear out of nowhere, it's the ones she reflexively distrust who turn out to be trustworthy, and vice versa. She may want to get that looked in to....less
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Brownbetty
gave
to:
Little Brother (Hardcover)
by Cory Doctorow
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended to Brownbetty by:
Vassilissa
read in May, 2008
Brownbetty said:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Marcus is a smart-alec kid who is slightly too smart for his own good. He casually exploits the system and its loopholes, ...more
Here is a book that is clever without being smug, and cynical while standing for something, both of which are all too rare.
Marcus is a smart-alec kid who is slightly too smart for his own good. He casually exploits the system and its loopholes, confident that his ability to do so is all the justification he needs. However, he's basically a decent kid, so this is not too aggravating to read about.
This book actually does believe in things, like the power of citizenry, and human rights, and, because it's written by Doctorow, open source, and the magic of things that have an on-switch.
One thing I appreciated was that this book knows how the internet works. It knows how social networking works, and how it doesn't, and at one point annoying lj quiz-memes are actually a critical plot-point. I assume anyone reading this review will be in a position to appreciate that in a book.
I am not sure how geeky one has to be to read this book. I definitely found myself geeky enough, but I'm wondering at what point all the unfamiliar references would start to become so much chaff to be winnowed through. On the other hand, I suppose if you don't know how to do an md5checksum, it's essentially a magic incantation and can be treated as such for the purposes of the plot, an approach with which SF readers are very familiar.
If you have a certain baseline level of knowledge, though, you will find the book quite educational; it's not too lecture-ful, but it does set out to teach one things, much like a Heinlein juvenile. I would like to point out that the rfid neutralization method in the book is needlessly high-tech, and leaves traces of tampering: instead, hit it with a hammer.
If you enjoy books about clever people who get in trouble, and then get out of it again by being clever, this is definitely for you. If you don't enjoy those books, though, you may still want to give this a try: this is one of those books which really could only have been written by a white man. It has that touching faith in the adequacy of cleverness and nerve to meet any situation, and that casual acceptance of the recognition of his peers. However, and here is why it may be worth giving it a shot even if you find that tremendously aggravating, this book knows that it could only have been written by a white man.
Marcus doesn't have an easy time of it, but the book does acknowledge that it could be so much worse-- without his parents connections, without their money, without being white while mouthing off to cops, this book would be about a kid who is sentenced to jail and never gets out because he can't quite make himself shut up.
One thing which detracted from my enjoyment of the book: SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER STOP READING NOW.
In the end, it turned out that ninety percent of the things that Marcus did to defeat the department of homeland security were immaterial, and the solution lay in, you guessed it, privilege: contacts of his parents, a certain amount of credibility, and a deus ex cellphone.
...less
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May 02
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Brownbetty
gave
to:
Queen of the Orcs: Clan Daughter (Queen of the Orcs)
by Morgan Howell
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
Brownbetty said:
"In which Dar learns (or rather, doesn't, but the book makes clear that,) the bad thing about matriarchies is that there may be power struggles between women.
Oh, book.
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Brownbetty
gave
to:
Queen of the Orcs: King's Property (Queen of the Orcs)
by Morgan Howell
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
Brownbetty said:
"The story of Dar, more or less kidnapped to be a woman for the army, and I say 'be a woman' on purpose.
Dar is a woman in a culture that treats rape as the primary mode of interaction between men and women. Dar has been raped by her father befo...more
The story of Dar, more or less kidnapped to be a woman for the army, and I say 'be a woman' on purpose.
Dar is a woman in a culture that treats rape as the primary mode of interaction between men and women. Dar has been raped by her father before the book begins, and is very determined not to be raped again, but she has very few resources to do this. The other women for the army deal with the same problem, although most of them in different ways than Dar chooses.
Half-way through the first book, Dar realizes that the reason she was kidnapped is because the Orcs in the army require someone to fill the role of 'woman' for them, but that the Orc idea of womanhood is radically different: the Orcs aren't really aware that the women in the camp are subject to rape, simply because rape is such a nonsensical idea to them. Orcs are a matriarchy, and violence against women is literally blasphemous to them.
Dar, understandably, decides she would really rather be an Orc, and sets about doing everything she can to be accepted into their society.
My feelings toward this book (and the series, in fact, since I have read the second as well,) are intensely mixed. Many of the camp women deal with the threat of rape by putting themselves under the protection of a man, and while Dar is somewhat sympathetic to them, Dar nonetheless has no female friends by the end of the book. The fact that Orcs revere women is obviously a pretty good deal for Dar, but the book doesn't go into what that means for the male Orcs, who in the book seem delighted and honoured to be part of a society in which they will never be able to gain authority....less
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April 29
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Brownbetty
gave
to:
Selling Out: Quantum Gravity: Book Two (Paperback)
by Justina Robson
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Brownbetty said:
"Definitely not the sort of series where on can jump right in on the second book. Lots of different POV characters, no explanation of why you should care about them, and little indication that their stories will eventually tie together. Happily, I h...more
Definitely not the sort of series where on can jump right in on the second book. Lots of different POV characters, no explanation of why you should care about them, and little indication that their stories will eventually tie together. Happily, I had read the previous book.
Continues to be decent, although the theme of this book seems to be that the protagonist avoids critical self-reflection and seeks life-threatening situations so that she needn't think about other things too much, and it times she does become a little irksome in this respect.
A minor point, but something I want to quote (also, wouldn't it be cool if we had some kind of nice semantic mark-up for quotes, which when used within bookreviews would automagically source our quotes in the markup? Get right on that, elves!)
"Oojie boojie boozum poppet, yes, yes..." she said to Okie, burying her face in his ruff as he whimpered.
The she in the above quote is Lila Black, our tough-as-nails cyborg protagonist, talking to her dog, a mongrel. Certain people will know why I quote this....less
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April 21
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Brownbetty
gave
to:
Magic Bites (Paperback)
by Ilona Andrews
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended for: People who like this sort of thing
read in April, 2008
Brownbetty said:
"Finally! Here is what all those genre books are attempting to be-- you know the ones: first person narrator, a scrappy loner woman who fights with both fists, (or in this case, big-ass knife) and magic, in a world where humans co-exist with supernat...more
Finally! Here is what all those genre books are attempting to be-- you know the ones: first person narrator, a scrappy loner woman who fights with both fists, (or in this case, big-ass knife) and magic, in a world where humans co-exist with supernatural beings.
Basically, Anita Blake without the part where you want to slap some sense into Anita. Also without the smut, but Hamilton's smut is kinda skippable, so I didn't miss it.
Major points for things not done: Kate is not terribly attractive, and knows it, and isn't very bothered by it, every costume change is not described for the delight of the reader, and vampires are not in the least creatures of terrible sexual magnetism.
I know I describe this book mostly in terms of all the ways it is superior to a very bad book, but honestly, if you read the first Anita Blake book and thought "ooh, how interesting!" only to be disappointed, try this one. I can't guarantee it won't disappoint on the sequels, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for them....less
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