Book post has a posse
Apr. 1st, 2008 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roadrunnertwiceThings I Read During March
Elizabeth Bear—"Shadow Unit: Knock on Coffins" (3/4)
More Shadow Unit. There was interesting stuff, and it was notable for actually moving the story forward, but the character work didn't really grab me the way it has in some of the other eps. Which was odd, but hey. Still good.
John Scalzi—You're Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop (3/11)
This was originally produced in a run of 500 signed copies, and the TRL system sprang for three of 'em. Actually, TRL seems to ♥ Subterranean Press in general; I've seen both New Amsterdam and the recent Connie Willis compilation/cinderblock (oh my fucking god have you SEEN that fucker) in prominent spots on the New Fiction rack. Have I mentioned that TRL is awesome?
Anyway, this book (which apparently pulls silly prices on eBay) is basically a prettied-up printout of the writing posts from Scalzi's blog. So I'm glad I never shelled out for this, since it turned out that I'd already read most of it. On the other hand, Scalzi's blog rocks, so I quite enjoyed rereading said posts in the (computerless) breakroom at work.
If you haven't read Scalzi's blog or the writing posts thereupon, here's the less glib review of the book: It's arrogant, confrontational, self-promoting, and bombastic, and more than a little bit repetitive to boot (because that's just what happens when you write multiple posts on similar topics with more than a month of space between them), but it's also quite smart and a great deal of fun. Scalzi is likable and the essays are readable, so their respective foibles are easy to forgive. Good stuff.
Elizabeth Bear—Dust (3/17)
Remember when I said that I like Bear's stuff best when she's playing hell with mythology? This is the first of her SF books to harness that to its full effect. Recommended without reservations.
Also, I love that it was basically an anime. Winged humans, big spaceships, mechas, power-ups and transformations, techno-medieval culture, hilariously unsubtle biblical nomenclature and symbolism, yuri overtones, swordfighting... Dang.
Sarah Monette—"Shadow Unit: Dexterity" (3/17)
There wasn't really any mystery or confusion in this one—very straightforward and linear. On the other hand, my god was that first scene chilling. (Avoid in the event of finger squick.) And good character work, especially with Daniel Brady! For the first time, I got him and liked him—chewing out Daphne at the end of Bull's "Breathe" made him interesting, but it didn't make him the slightest bit sympathetic. Monette sheds more light on his internal life, changing his position on the board a bit without undermining or invalidating his dickishness from Bull's turn.
Actually, it got me wondering how Martha Wells would hypothetically handle the character. He'd probably be my favorite of the whole cast; that strong, silent thing is right up her alley.
Elizabeth Bear—"Cryptic Coloration" (3/23, short story)
Excellent.
You know, I really like Matthew as a character. I found him a little boring for the first half or so of Blood and Iron, but there's a lot more to him than meets the eye. This story's from back when he was a true believer, and I'm impressed that he's recognizably the same person here as he was at the end of Whiskey and Water. Lots of changes, but they all make sense, in an unbroken line from here to there.
Elizabeth Bear—"The Rest of Your Life in a Day" (3/23, short story)
The other Matthew story I read today works well as a standalone, but I'm not sure how this one would sit without having read to the end of Blood and Iron. Still, it's pretty fantastic.
(But I didn't like how Kadiska totally told us about Kelly being basically sold up the river. It's like that bit in the Jenny Casey books where it suddenly switches to Barbara's POV and shows her thinking about how she killed her sister: that particular type of villainy is much nastier when the reader can't prove it in court, and I liked that part of B&I better when it was just ickily implied. Besides, how would Matthew NOT have followed up on that, even as a true-believing 18-year-old? So I'm just treating that one sentence as non-canon.)
Year's Best Fantasy 7, David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, eds. (not all of the stories, 3/24)
- Martha Wells, "The Potter's Daughter:" Kade Carrion on her way to becoming who she was when The Element of Fire started. Which is to say, she's not yet as interesting and cool as I think of her as being. So, eh.
- Greg von Eekhout, "The Osteomancer's Son:" Awesomely gross, and grossly awesome.
- Robert Reed, "Show Me Yours:" A short little revenge story, which does its job, takes a bow, and gets the hell out. Salut.
- Michael Swanwick, "An Episode of Stardust:" Apparently an excerpt from The Dragons of Babel, which I now have to read.
An inexplicable preponderance of "X's Daughter" and "X's Son" stories in this one: It also includes "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter," and The Dragons of Babel is, of course, a sequel of sorts to The Iron Dragon's Daughter.
Will Shetterly—"Shadow Unit: A Handful of Dust" (3/31)
Possibly my favorite SU so far. Yet more coolness with Brady (he's gay? Huh, I'd have thought bi), and I think it was the best-plotted of the current episodes. And it had the best UNSUB by far, which counts for a lot in a series about murderous psychics.
This one looks short and rather obsessive, unfortunately. The problem is that I've been switching off between like four other books, and I didn't finish any of them before the month ended. (Preview of Things I Read During April: Read Strapped, or at least skim it.)
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Date: 2008-04-02 07:19 am (UTC)You also made Dust sound awesome.
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Date: 2008-04-02 07:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 06:30 pm (UTC)headers and
---
- lists
- and
- stuff,
and those might be useful sometimes. Also, I think Firefox 3 can "print" pages as PDFs on all platforms instead of just on Mac, so that's gonna be an option pretty soon. Or right now, if that's how you roll.)
What do you use to read ebooks? Is it a Palm or something? I've been thinking that I want something for articles and books and PDFs and short stories on the go, but I don't know of a sane way to do that yet. Would it make sense to get something like your machine just for that?
(Right now I have a way to use my iPod for that, but I don't do it because reading books on a 2-inch screen is madness. Or at least Sparta. It's super nice for keeping my "buy these books and CDs" lists on hand, though.)
(Dust is, in fact, pretty awesome.)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 07:00 pm (UTC)I can read PDF's on it, but those are kinda a bitch, though that's how I read the Foundation Trilogy, so whatever. The main file type is PDB, for the FBReader program. All Gutenberg texts have PDB as an option for download. Other e-book files open in FBR fine, but sometimes they format funny. I love the usability of FBR, you thumb in the lower corner for the next page, top for previous. Choice of horizontal or "book-like" vertical format, text sizing as you like it, saves your place no matter how many books you read since, etc. I have something like a hundred and twenty-five books and stories on it already.
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Date: 2008-04-02 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 08:14 pm (UTC)If you are waffling on it, I'll have mine with me at Stumptown (if you go) and you can check it out, useage-wise.
The one thing that bothers me is that the 770 screen is softer than the 800, so mine is scratched (considering the heavy use it's had since October, I'm not surprised), so I'd get one of those screen protectors for it too.
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Date: 2008-04-02 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 09:15 pm (UTC)Also, is Elizabeth Bear related to Greg Bear at all?
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Date: 2008-04-02 09:31 pm (UTC)(No, not to my knowledge. And I think "Bear" is actually one of her middle names anyway; her real name is something else.)
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Date: 2008-04-03 05:23 am (UTC)