Recent books

The Complete Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper

I recently polished off Ian M. BanksConsider Phlebas, about a changer named Horza; his Matter, a Culture novel about a shell world with multiple surfaces 1400 km apart; and his Transitions, which is not a book about the Culture but about hopping from one reality to another. I find his books a little hard to get into because it’s hard to care about what happens to the characters. I’ve read a couple of others and they seem very intellectual: Banks is a big-picture guy.

I read The Complete Fuzzy compendium of H. Beam Piper novels. The first is Little Fuzzy. The second is Fuzzy Sapiens. And the third is Fuzzies and Other People, which was discovered in manuscript many years after Piper’s unfortunate suicide.  They are old-fashioned space opera. Everyone smokes and drinks; women are called “girls” and work as secretaries. No one worries about alien diseases or incompatible biochemistry; but on the other hand, biochemistry and evolution are elements in the story. The stories also deal with greed and land grabs.  They were OK light reading and rather charming. They would also be suitable for young readers.

For fillers, I reread John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, an homage to Robert Heinlein but well done and not as obvious as Spider Robinson’s attempts, and Time Traps, a collection of time travel stories edited by Robert Silverberg, whose asides are full of himself as usual.

Finally, I read a couple of good science fiction cat stories from a big book of cat stories. The novella was Novice by James H. Schmitz, in which Telzey Amberdon first appears and makes telepathic contact with an alien species. The shorter story was “The Game of Rat and Dragon” by Cordwainer Smith (Paul Linebarger) from Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1955.

There’s a wrenching difference between the convoluted and rarefied worlds of Iain M. Banks and the straightforward stories by the other authors.

Eyes Like Leaves by Charles de Lint

From io9, here’s a review about a new book from Charles de Lint, Eyes Like Leaves:Trust Charles de Lint to understand the identity crises of shapeshifters.”

The book is described as “a rollicking epic quest fantasy” in which a motley crew try to save Summerland from never-ending winter. If you like fantasy, I think you’ll like Charles de Lint: he’s a good writer.

Books!

With LOLcats.

funny pictures - i got yew a book
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

The SO bought me the two C.J. Cherryh novels I needed to complete the First Contact (“Foreigner”) cycle so far—books 10 and 12.

The secret of Narnia

Michael Ward

New from the world of literature: Michael Ward has detected the organizing principle behind the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis: each of the seven books evokes the mood of one of the seven medieval heavens: Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Sol, Luna, Mars, and Saturn. At first glance it makes sense. That’s why the Christian theme is a minor one and why there’s a Father Christmas but no Nativity.

He has two books that analyze the parallels between medieval cosmology and the seven volumes. There’s a more scholarly critique called Planet Narnia and a more popular book called The Narnia Code. They came out a couple of years ago so you may have heard of them. You can read about them at Planet Narnia.

Hat tip to Jeffrey D. Koonistra, the book reviewer at Analog. He gets a point deducted, though for referring to representative people of their day as Medieval Man and Twenty-first-Century Man.

Summer reading

Those of you who are tired of George R. R. Martin’s meandering opus, A Game of Thrones, might like some Barbara Hambly’s novels. They have mystery, good and evil, monsters, and magic–and things get resolved.

The Antryg Windrose Chronicles (Empire of Gwenth fantasy):
1. The Silent Tower
2. The Silicon Mage (1 & 2 are also published together as Darkmage.)
3. Dog Wizard
4. Stranger at the Wedding (standalone novel in same universe, next summer)

The Kingdom of Darwath fantasy series:
1. The Time of the Dark
2. The Walls of Air
3. The Armies of Daylight
4. Mother of Winter
5. Icefalcon’s Quest

The Unschooled Wizard fantasy series (possibly the same universe in a different era):
1. The Ladies of Mandrigyn
2. The Witches of Wenshar
3. The Dark Hand of Magic

Winterlands (Dragonsbane) a ruined quasi-Scotland with dragons:
1. Dragonsbane
2. Dragonshadow
3. Knight of the Demon Queen
4. Dragonstar

Bride of the Rat God (standalone, 1920s Hollywood with Chinese magic)

Victorian vampires (Victorian Europe with vampires):
1. Those Who Hunt the Night
2. Travelling with the Dead
3. Blood Maidens (haven’t read this one)

Benjamin January mysteries (historical, New Orleans 1830s):
1. A Free Man of Color
2. Fever Season
3. Graveyard Dust
4. Sold Down the River
5. Die Upon a Kiss
6. Wet Grave
,,,etc.

Also recommended:
* Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series
* Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart Victorian series (lighter, YA style, but quite standable)
* Guy Gavriel Kay‘s Fionavar Tapesty series

Gregory Clark, soldier and journalist

Someone asked me about Gregory Clark‘s books. This is THE Gregory Clark, Canadian journalist: soldier, reporter, humourist, and family man, not the American fellow who writes about economics. Clark fought in World War I, winning the Military Cross at Vimy Ridge, and reported on World War II. Greg Clark’s father, Joseph T. Clark, was the editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star.  Clark worked for the Star for many years and developed his famous humour columns, often embellished with a cartoon drawn by Jimmy Frise. Clark’s son, James Murray Clark, was also a Star journalist, but was killed in 1944 while serving with the Regina Rifle Regiment.  Clark died in 1977.

The Canadian Journalism Foundation created the Greg Clark award in his honour.

In honour of spring, everyone should read his short essay, “Bird of Promise.”

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