I'm a fairly picky reader. I have limited time, and don't want to waste my reading time on something I'm not enjoying that much. I start a lot more books than I finish, and abandon them if they don't grab me or get tedious. In fact, I suspect that I probably only finish about half the books I start. As a consequence, I'm always looking out for things that will grab me, because those books are special and I don't find nearly enough of them.
And I've been thinking lately about the sorts of books I enjoy, and the sorts of books I abandon. This isn't yet well-thought through, but I'm beginning to come to a realization about what I like, and it is this: I like books set in the future, not books about how we get to the future.
Let me be more specific. I like books that are set in the future, but which have an actual plot that is entertaining. I like books with interesting aliens set on weird planets. But there needs to be story beyond that. I don't want to read books about how we got there: I don't especially enjoy books about exploration, or Big Dumb Objects, or first contact novels, or scientists trying to figure something out. I don't want to read about how some odd phenomenon is discovered, and so the protagonists go try to figure it out. I don't want to read about trying to crack a code or find a way to communicate with aliens. I don't want to read books where the characters spend a lot of time arguing or speculating about what it going on. It's dull to me.
I want to read books that are set later: after we have already explored the planets and found ways to communicate with the aliens, if there are any. I like books with plots, books in which things happen, and in which the characters are neither scientists nor military personnel. I freely admit I like space operas. Give me space as a setting, new planets as backdrops. But the book needs to be about more than space and weird planets. It's true: I will always choose a space adventure over hard SF or military SF. That's just my taste; I'll even admit a soft spot for psionics.
This is a particularly interesting revelation to me, because I have recently started writing a story that isn't going very well, and I now realize that it falls firmly into the sort of story I've just said I don't enjoy. Which is probably why it isn't going anywhere. I need to think about this and try something different.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
The House of the Stag by Kage Baker
Several years ago I read a fun fantasy novel by Kage Baker called Anvil of the World. I enjoyed it very much and was pleased to discover that Baker is a good writer. Unfortunately I can't stomach her main series about The Company, so I have been waiting for her to write something else ever since. The House of the Stag is set in the same world as Anvil of the World.
It's a prequel, explaining the history of a couple of the minor characters from the other book. I was unsure I wanted to read it at first, as the subject didn't interest me that much, but once I dug in I found it very pleasant and absorbing. The House of the Stag is the story of how a Saint came to marry a Dark Lord and lived (mostly) happily ever after. It tells two story lines, that of each character. I found the Dark Lord's story more interesting than that of the Saint. But still, a pleasant read.
I did not enjoy it as much as I did The Anvil of the World, which I reread at regular intervals. The Anvil of the World is a funny book, and The House of the Stag really isn't. The Dark Lord is an interesting fellow, but the Saint not so much. So The House of the Stag was a pleasant read, and I enjoyed it. But it didn't particularly blow me away.
It's a prequel, explaining the history of a couple of the minor characters from the other book. I was unsure I wanted to read it at first, as the subject didn't interest me that much, but once I dug in I found it very pleasant and absorbing. The House of the Stag is the story of how a Saint came to marry a Dark Lord and lived (mostly) happily ever after. It tells two story lines, that of each character. I found the Dark Lord's story more interesting than that of the Saint. But still, a pleasant read.
I did not enjoy it as much as I did The Anvil of the World, which I reread at regular intervals. The Anvil of the World is a funny book, and The House of the Stag really isn't. The Dark Lord is an interesting fellow, but the Saint not so much. So The House of the Stag was a pleasant read, and I enjoyed it. But it didn't particularly blow me away.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip
Patricia McKillip is one of the few fantasy authors I still read regularly. (The others are Terry Pratchett and Steve Brust.) Since The Book of Atrix Wolfe, I've happily gobbled down every one of them: small, nicely-produced books from Ace with gorgeous covers by Kinuko Craft.
McKillip's stories have a dreamy quality about them. They're fairy tales, usually set in wild, beautiful places. The Bell at Sealey Head is set in a small coastal town. A bell rings out at sunset every day, though no ones knows where it comes from. Legend says that it was the bell on a ship that sank hundreds of years ago, and it still rings daily. But the people of Sealey Head are so accustomed to it that most don't even notice it any more, much less wonder where it's coming from. But one day a scholar comes to investigate, and surprises everyone by saying he thinks it's magic.
Here is the beginning:
"Judd Cauley stood in his father's rooms in the Inn at Sealey Head, looking out the back window at the magnificent struggle between dark and light as the sun fought its way into the sea. Dugold Cauley seemed to be watching, too, his gray head cocked toward the battle in the sky as though he could see the great, billowing purple clouds swelled to overwhelm the sun striving against them, sending sudden shafts of light out of every ragged tear in the cloud to spill across the tide and turn the spindrift gold."
I have said before that I don't visualize much as a I read, and don't appreciate long descriptions. McKillip, for me, does it well, just hinting at enough for me to get a sense of place without boring me with unimportant details. She suffices, for instance, with describing a room as rarely used and filled with exotic objects brought back from all over the world, without stopping to describe them all.
The Bell at Sealy Head was a pleasant read, but not one of my favorites. It cannot match A Winter Rose or Od Magic in my estimation, but still it's a lovely and dreamy tale that makes me yearn to kick off my shoes and go running outside on a beautiful summer day. Alas, the temperature outside is near zero, and there's a blizzard going on. But a lady can dream, and it makes me warm and happy just thinking about it.
McKillip's stories have a dreamy quality about them. They're fairy tales, usually set in wild, beautiful places. The Bell at Sealey Head is set in a small coastal town. A bell rings out at sunset every day, though no ones knows where it comes from. Legend says that it was the bell on a ship that sank hundreds of years ago, and it still rings daily. But the people of Sealey Head are so accustomed to it that most don't even notice it any more, much less wonder where it's coming from. But one day a scholar comes to investigate, and surprises everyone by saying he thinks it's magic.
Here is the beginning:
"Judd Cauley stood in his father's rooms in the Inn at Sealey Head, looking out the back window at the magnificent struggle between dark and light as the sun fought its way into the sea. Dugold Cauley seemed to be watching, too, his gray head cocked toward the battle in the sky as though he could see the great, billowing purple clouds swelled to overwhelm the sun striving against them, sending sudden shafts of light out of every ragged tear in the cloud to spill across the tide and turn the spindrift gold."
I have said before that I don't visualize much as a I read, and don't appreciate long descriptions. McKillip, for me, does it well, just hinting at enough for me to get a sense of place without boring me with unimportant details. She suffices, for instance, with describing a room as rarely used and filled with exotic objects brought back from all over the world, without stopping to describe them all.
The Bell at Sealy Head was a pleasant read, but not one of my favorites. It cannot match A Winter Rose or Od Magic in my estimation, but still it's a lovely and dreamy tale that makes me yearn to kick off my shoes and go running outside on a beautiful summer day. Alas, the temperature outside is near zero, and there's a blizzard going on. But a lady can dream, and it makes me warm and happy just thinking about it.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
I'm so glad I left the SCA
I never got around to unsubscribing from the kingdom mailing list. And there is a discussion going on now in which someone is complaining because some people aren't playing the game the way he would like them to.
People like that are one of the main things that made me uncomfortable with the SCA, for all the 12 years I was in. Events are tiring and stressful enough without people trying to pressure you into acting out their fantasies of how things ought to be. I grew very tired of that nonsense, and I am happy to be free of it.
People like that are one of the main things that made me uncomfortable with the SCA, for all the 12 years I was in. Events are tiring and stressful enough without people trying to pressure you into acting out their fantasies of how things ought to be. I grew very tired of that nonsense, and I am happy to be free of it.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Live Bait by P.J. Tracy
I'm always looking for new writers to try, and Tracy was recommended by an old friend. I immediately made my way to the bookstore and bought Live Bait.
I am always dubious about mysteries set locally, because I've tried a few and found that sometimes the quality is lacking. If the first thing someone says to me about a book is that it's a local author, it sets off alarms for me. I think people tend to be very forgiving with plot and characterization because they enjoy the novelty of reading a book where they recognize the setting. I have also found this to be true with cozies set around hobbies. It doesn't have to be a very good book to satisfy people who want to like it.
Am I a snob? Well, yes. I've read a hell of a lot of books over the past 25 years, and prefer to be selective in trying to avoid the ones I won't enjoy. My time is limited, and the supply of books is not.
That said, I have also read some good books by local authors, and a recommendation from a friend is enough to get me to try one. Live Bait is set in Minneapolis. It's April, and the weather is unseasonably warm. People are out enjoying the weather, but the police are occupied with the murders of several elderly people. They aren't the sort of people who make enemies, and yet the killings don't seem to be random. It's a puzzle, and the media is a thorn in the side of the police. I'm not sure I believed that part--perhaps I just don't see behind the scenes, but the local media in the Twin Cities are usually more interested in playing up tragedy and sympathy than they are in demanding that the police solve crimes faster.
Anyway, several elderly people are dead, and the crimes are being investigated by several detectives from the Minneapolis police. One of the dead is the father-in-law of a former police officer whose wife was murdered the previous year and is now drinking himself to death. Another was a clock-repairer who rarely went out except to work and to church. And then ballistics reports tie the crimes to other, unsolved murders, and the FBI wants to take over the case.
Naturally, our local detectives manage to solve the case. They do it with the help of a paranoid gun-toting computer guru who one of the officers is in love with. She hacks into databases and finds a connection between the victims, and with the old unsolved crimes. The police were slower to figure it out than I, but at least they got there in reasonable time. And, though I'd figured out who the killers were, there was still a small surprise a the end, which is gratifying.
I mostly enjoyed Live Bait. I don't like it when the police figure something out too late and are in a mad rush to save someone's life at the last second. Blech. It was also a bit too self-consciously clever in its structure, with the story essentially beginning with a corpse in the rain and ending with a corpse in the rain. I also dislike flashbacks, but that's just me. Everything contained in those flashbacks could easily have been told without them, which again looks like it's a little too self-consciously clever to me. It's got some interesting thoughts on revenge, but again there were parallel story lines that all came together a little too coincidentally. So I enjoyed Live Bait, mostly, but I'm not sure I would read another.
I am always dubious about mysteries set locally, because I've tried a few and found that sometimes the quality is lacking. If the first thing someone says to me about a book is that it's a local author, it sets off alarms for me. I think people tend to be very forgiving with plot and characterization because they enjoy the novelty of reading a book where they recognize the setting. I have also found this to be true with cozies set around hobbies. It doesn't have to be a very good book to satisfy people who want to like it.
Am I a snob? Well, yes. I've read a hell of a lot of books over the past 25 years, and prefer to be selective in trying to avoid the ones I won't enjoy. My time is limited, and the supply of books is not.
That said, I have also read some good books by local authors, and a recommendation from a friend is enough to get me to try one. Live Bait is set in Minneapolis. It's April, and the weather is unseasonably warm. People are out enjoying the weather, but the police are occupied with the murders of several elderly people. They aren't the sort of people who make enemies, and yet the killings don't seem to be random. It's a puzzle, and the media is a thorn in the side of the police. I'm not sure I believed that part--perhaps I just don't see behind the scenes, but the local media in the Twin Cities are usually more interested in playing up tragedy and sympathy than they are in demanding that the police solve crimes faster.
Anyway, several elderly people are dead, and the crimes are being investigated by several detectives from the Minneapolis police. One of the dead is the father-in-law of a former police officer whose wife was murdered the previous year and is now drinking himself to death. Another was a clock-repairer who rarely went out except to work and to church. And then ballistics reports tie the crimes to other, unsolved murders, and the FBI wants to take over the case.
Naturally, our local detectives manage to solve the case. They do it with the help of a paranoid gun-toting computer guru who one of the officers is in love with. She hacks into databases and finds a connection between the victims, and with the old unsolved crimes. The police were slower to figure it out than I, but at least they got there in reasonable time. And, though I'd figured out who the killers were, there was still a small surprise a the end, which is gratifying.
I mostly enjoyed Live Bait. I don't like it when the police figure something out too late and are in a mad rush to save someone's life at the last second. Blech. It was also a bit too self-consciously clever in its structure, with the story essentially beginning with a corpse in the rain and ending with a corpse in the rain. I also dislike flashbacks, but that's just me. Everything contained in those flashbacks could easily have been told without them, which again looks like it's a little too self-consciously clever to me. It's got some interesting thoughts on revenge, but again there were parallel story lines that all came together a little too coincidentally. So I enjoyed Live Bait, mostly, but I'm not sure I would read another.
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