Sable Aradia's Blog, page 23
May 29, 2019
Book Review: Storm from the Shadows by David Weber
Storm from the Shadows by David Weber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I chewed through the Honorverse Saga over the last little while because a housemate is also reading the series, and I’m trying to keep ahead of him so that we can talk about it. So expect a lot of Honorverse reviews from me in the near future.
This book is a significant departure in style from Weber’s other Honorverse works. As a result, it has gotten mixed reviews. Some readers accept it as a natural extension of previously-established technique and perspectives; others dislike it because it loses some of the personal third-person focus that has characterized many other books in the series.
I find myself wondering at what Weber’s process was when writing this and the remainder of the series. Many of the events are repeated from other books. I suspect he said to himself:
“Okay, I’ve got this huge George R.R. Martin-style saga to tell, but if I did it that way, I’d have a book so thick you could use it as a brick with a little mortar. Welp; I’m really telling three different stories, aren’t I? So which events fit into the three different stories? Story one: Honor’s perspective. Story two: Cachat and Zilwicki. Story three: Michelle Henke and Saganami Island. Let’s divide them up with post-it notes.”
And then he set about telling those three separate stories. He lets you know that because he starts giving timeline information (ie. one section of chapters will appear under a heading like “March 1921 Post-Diaspora”).
As a result, some events are repeated, because some events are places where the three stories, and their characters, intersect. Sometimes he’s able to tell them in a way that provides new events and new insights. Sometimes he isn’t. I would argue you could skip those redone scenes, but skim them so that you know you haven’t missed anything important.
I’m not sure he wouldn’t have been better off telling all three storylines at once; or perhaps, merging the Honor and Saganami Island storylines and leaving Cachat and Zilwicki their own space (because he co-writes that storyline with Eric Flint.) But I can see why he didn’t. The story is really just too damn big for that. Not even Baen would publish it that way! So it’s the limitations of the genre that dictates the form.
On the other hand, BIG stories are a hallmark of good space opera.
This book, admittedly, suffers by the division when considered on its own. A lot of it feels like exposition and backstory. Secondary characters end up giving us a lot of it. I don’t mind that, but I would suggest he’d have done better with the intense third-person personal style of Martin that way. He’s clearly not as invested in some of these secondary characters as he is in Honor and Mike, Cachat and Zilwicki. That’s okay, but the result is that some of the voices sound more… distant, or impersonal, than they ought to.
Now that I’ve read the series to the end, I’m probably going to re-read these last several books simultaneously. That is, I’m going to stack them all on my table, start with the earliest date in the sequencing, and go through all the books reading what happened in that month. Then I’m going to go on to the next month and do the same thing. And so on. I suspect it will have much more immediacy and intensity that way.
But when you consider this book as a complete unit, it’s backstory. You need it to understand what’s going on in the rest of the books, and there are individual stories of secondary characters worth following. So read it if you’re reading the series. But if you’re focused on the adventures of the major characters, skim this one for the places where Honor, Mike and Aivars appear, and glance through the rest.
May 28, 2019
Book Review: A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin @GRRMspeaking
A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
So I wrote a big, long review for this a while ago, and then Goodreads ate it. Guess I took too long. So you’re going to get the short-and-dirty version.
This book differs significantly from the TV show. There are whole plotlines that aren’t even touched on in the show, including, for those of you who were not happy about the Game of Thrones ending, (view spoiler)[a whole new contender for the Iron Throne (hide spoiler)]. I personally think a lot of the way the show ended probably made more sense to someone who read this book, and there were whole plotlines that were almost completely dropped in the show besides the point.
Tyrion ends up in what I think would be his own personal hell in this book, and learns that “there but for the grace of God go I.” There’s a lot more going on with the Sons of the Harpy than TV fans might expect. And the Ironborn. And the Golden Company actually has a very important role to play.
And Martin sucks you right in with his intense, personally-focused style, his masterful command of the third person personal technique. Unreliable narrators, limited perspective, intense immersion into the psyche of the characters by the simple technique of changing the “name” of the character that heads each chapter to let you know who’s brain we’re in, people even interpreting omens to relate to their own personal experiences and what they themselves are doing… I haven’t seen anyone else comment on this, and it surprises me, because it’s my belief that it’s this, and this specifically, that changes Martin’s magnum opus from another excellent fantasy saga to something that rightfully earns him the moniker “the American Tolkien.”
Not his gritty realism permeating the fantastical elements; people have done that before. It’s the definition of “urban fantasy.” Not his well-informed look at what a high medieval period world would really be like; people have done that before too. Not his vast and epic worldbuilding; which, admittedly, is excellent – the genre is chock-full of people who can do that really well.
No. It’s his ability to show you his world through the eyes of his characters – and their eyes only.
As a writer, I’m taking notes. And as a reader, I encourage you to pick up this series and READ it, especially if you watched the show. Whether you liked how it ended, or not.
May 18, 2019
May 11, 2019
Soar Through the Heart of a Neutron Star
By Brendon Specktor
When the universe’s largest stars run out of fuel and die, they explode in technicolor tsunamis of gas and dust that can stretch on into space for dozens of light-years. To see the full array of cosmic colors left behind by a star gone supernova, you generally need some pretty sophisticated telescopes capable of seeing light beyond the visible spectrum. But today, you can grab a front-row seat to those cosmic pyrotechnics by clicking over to this new 3D simulation released by the Smithsonian.
The interactive, 360-degree graphic allows armchair astronauts to navigate through the heart of a supernova remnant using just their mouse and arrow keys. The simulation shows the likeness of an actual supernova site called Cassiopeia A, a 10-light-year-wide cloud of stellar debris located in the Milky Way’s Cassiopeia constellation (about 11,000 light-years from Earth). The supernova’s colorful likeness was re-created using actual observations measured in gamma ray, infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray and radio wavelengths, provided by half a dozen observatories around the United States.
Read the full article at LiveScience.
Find the simulation at Smithsonian’s website.
May 9, 2019
Hubble Spots Giant “Buckyballs” Jiggling Like Jello in Space
By Mindy Weisberger
The Hubble Space Telescope recently spied new evidence of a peculiar molecule: wiggly buckyballs, which have intrigued astrophysicists since they were discovered in space nearly a decade ago.
Dubbed Buckminsterfullerene, these supersize molecules are made of 60 carbon atoms linked together in pentagons and hexagons to form a hollow sphere. The shape of these structures is much like a soccer ball, or like the geodesic domes designed by 20th-century architect Richard Buckminster Fuller (the inspiration for the molecule’s name).
Read the full article at Livescience.
May 6, 2019
DNA from Medieval Crusader Skeletons Shows Surprising Diversity
By Kiona N. Smith
European soldiers and civilians poured into the Levant in the 12th and 13th centuries, often killing or displacing local Muslim populations and establishing their own settlements in an effort to seize control of sites sacred to three major religious groups.
But in a new study, DNA from the skeletons of nine soldiers hints that the armies of the Crusades were more diverse and more closely linked with local people in Lebanon than historians previously assumed. The genetic evidence suggests that the Crusaders also recruited from among local populations, and European soldiers sometimes married local women and raised children, some of whom may have grown up to fight in later campaigns.
Read the full article at Ars Technica.
May 4, 2019
The Best DIY Tools to Publish a Book on a Budget
Self-publishing is booming, and with this transition comes a plethora of organisations worldwide offering author services to writers. But what if your budget doesn’t extend to a professional editor, typesetter, cover designer, and so forth? Does this mean your book will not meet industry standards, be of poor quality, or sadly never be published? Absolutely not.
New technology is available, and it does not replace people; it complements them. Author services companies such as ours are not threatened by the productive tools available (stairs are still available even with the invention of elevators).
Read the full article at IngramSpark’s self-publishing blog.
April 26, 2019
When Ancient Societies Hit a Million People, Vengeful Gods Appeared
“For we know Him who said, ‘And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.'” Ezekiel 25:17.
The God depicted in the Old Testament may sometimes seem wrathful. And in that, he’s not alone; supernatural forces that punish evil play a central role in many modern religions.
But which came first: complex societies or the belief in a punishing god?
A new study suggests that the formation of complex societies came first and that the beliefs in such gods helped unite people under a common higher power.
Read the full article at LiveScience.
April 20, 2019
Good Reviews for Gunsmoke & Dragonfire
Pleased to announce that our first book blog and magazine reviews have come in, and we’re basking in the praise!
All in all, this is a smashing way to discover a host of authors in the Weird West genre – with some great stories to read along the way.
5/5
Altered Instinct, Sci-fi / Fantasy Book Blogger
With so many stories to choose from, there were a lot that grabbed my attention . . . If you enjoy westerns with fantasy (and sometimes sci-fi) elements, ranging from steampunk to magic and beyond, you’ll likely find a new favorite or several among the stories inGunsmoke and Dragonfire!
Check out the full reviews by following the links! Really, I encourage you to; for the most part, both reviewers enjoyed different stories particularly, and I want you to know just why each of them is awesome.
Thanks…
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