Reading List 2010: #18-21

[jedibuttercup]

Four more books in, uh, the last four days? I read myself awake on the weekends anyway, but I've also been keeping a book with me while watching Olympics coverage. One scifi, one fantasy, one nonfiction, and one historical fiction this time.

18. The Devil's Eye by Jack McDevitt. Hardback, 359pp. 4th of Alex Benedict series. This one seemed a little slow in places, and Alex himself is getting less and less of the focus as the series progresses; I do like his assistant, but I'd rather hear more about his archaeological inquiries and less about her romantic adventures, you know? Nevertheless, I really enjoy the far-future world portrayed here, and the mysteries always keep me turning the pages wanting to know what happens next. McDevitt hasn't let me down yet.

19. The Blood of a Dragon by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Paperback, 296pp. Part of the Ethshar series. This author, on the other hand, gets less impressive over time. He's decent when doing light-weight fantasy as in this novel, but I tried some of his serious work a few years ago and kept wanting to bang my forehead with the book due to character stupidity. Anyway, I do like the Ethshar world, and the loosely connected way characters from one book tend to pop up as cameos in others, but there wasn't anything special about this one in particular.

20. Napoleon's Glance: The Secret of Strategy by William Duggan. Hardback nonfiction, 280pp. Really interesting. I felt like the author was reaching at points trying to shoehorn his chosen scenarios into the textbook definition of coup d'oeil, but apart from that, each chapter was a really interesting illustration of strategy in action, and taught me a few important historical facts I hadn't known before. Touched on not only Napoleon, but also Patton, Ella Brown (civil rights), Alice Paul (suffrage), Joan of Arc, Sundiata (the African king behind the Lion King story), and several others.

21. Black Horses for the King by Anne McCaffrey. Paperback, 203pp. A short, quick story, covering the life of a teenage farrier in the court of Artos, Comes Brittanorum, aka King Arthur. The book's really about the boy, the horses, and his world, not the myths, and has no magic in it; it's a fairly enjoyable, uncomplicated read.

Next: Currently reading an old 60's & 70's scifi collection, The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat. A little dated in terms of sexism and technology, but otherwise a lot of fun so far.
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Comments

[beege22.livejournal.com]

Slippery Jim DiGriz - The Stainless Steel Rat - is just awesome. Reading those books was a transformative experience for me when I was a teenager in terms of understanding what science fiction could be. The sexism is at least partially countered by Angela, who kicks the ass of everyone she meets, and often uses male stereotypes about women to her own advantage - especially when she and Jim first cross paths (plus, her origin story).

[jedibuttercup]

She is pretty tough; I'm about halfway through the 400 pages, and so far most of the women he's met in person are. It's just that the main character's background assumptions in that first book (women can't come into power on their own, they need a male figurehead, etc.) kind of betray how long ago it was written.

I'm about halfway through now-- near the end of the second novella-- and it actually reminds me more of the Leverage TV show than it does most scifi. =)

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

I just spent the cruise to NZ rereading all the Pern books :D

[jedibuttercup]

The later ones don't wear as well as the earlier books do, but I've been an enormous Pern fan since middle school. I might have to schedule those first two trilogies for a reread again soon. =)

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

I just love them all :D