Two Books (November Reading)
So. November. At least it's not February. And I read an awful lot of the Post. I still feel like I didn't get a lot read this month. Possibly because I was, you know, doing homework. Details, details.
Strange Destinations (Tim Powers): Anthology. After two or three stories, you begin to notice some trends: white men who done wrong by a woman, matter-of-fact magical intrusions into reality, bourbon, cigarettes, acknowledging that you were sort of a jerk to your (often dead) woman. After six stories of this, you don't care how nifty the fantastic elements are, you're bored with Powers. The end.
Fifty Degrees Below (Kim Stanley Robinson): Second book in the Science in the Capitol trilogy. This is fun because it's applied science, but the applied science goes a little too smoothly for me to buy into it as more than a happy pipe dream. There is - forgive me - a lack of stupid egos and pork barrel projects grinding Our Protags' agendas to dust.
That said, it's a really fun pipe dream. Living in Rock Creek Park! Floods! Freezes! Salting the ocean. The opening recap is a scream. My visceral joy in a book - an entire trilogy - set in my city and getting the petty details right is undiminished. I was disappointed Anna didn't get more screen time. Frank Vanderwal would totally be on my jerk-list if he were 1.) real and 2.) pulled that stunt with Marta and the mortgage on anyone I knew. He's going to turn out to be either brilliant or insane. Or maybe a reincarnated soul, but I doubt it. Some day Anna and Charlie are going to have a Talk about Joe. Possibly with "making family decisions without talking to me" drama. I certainly had the watching-a-crash feeling by the end of the book.
Next month: Barro Colorado Island. Also, I grabbed my copy of Downbelow Station from dad's over Thanksgiving, so there's the possibility of a reread. I haven't done a full page-the-first to page-the-last reread since I was 17, so it'll be interesting to see if it stands up. Right now I'm stuck in the first twenty or so pages; if you know the book, I just got to Elene and Estelle. And so far, the book is even more grim than I remember it. I'm impressed, in a, "maybe after finals" way. On the other hand, I did some of my best time management when Watchmen was my bedtime reading, so maybe unremitting character torture would concentrate my attention in the academic here-and-now. We'll see.
Strange Destinations (Tim Powers): Anthology. After two or three stories, you begin to notice some trends: white men who done wrong by a woman, matter-of-fact magical intrusions into reality, bourbon, cigarettes, acknowledging that you were sort of a jerk to your (often dead) woman. After six stories of this, you don't care how nifty the fantastic elements are, you're bored with Powers. The end.
Fifty Degrees Below (Kim Stanley Robinson): Second book in the Science in the Capitol trilogy. This is fun because it's applied science, but the applied science goes a little too smoothly for me to buy into it as more than a happy pipe dream. There is - forgive me - a lack of stupid egos and pork barrel projects grinding Our Protags' agendas to dust.
That said, it's a really fun pipe dream. Living in Rock Creek Park! Floods! Freezes! Salting the ocean. The opening recap is a scream. My visceral joy in a book - an entire trilogy - set in my city and getting the petty details right is undiminished. I was disappointed Anna didn't get more screen time. Frank Vanderwal would totally be on my jerk-list if he were 1.) real and 2.) pulled that stunt with Marta and the mortgage on anyone I knew. He's going to turn out to be either brilliant or insane. Or maybe a reincarnated soul, but I doubt it. Some day Anna and Charlie are going to have a Talk about Joe. Possibly with "making family decisions without talking to me" drama. I certainly had the watching-a-crash feeling by the end of the book.
Next month: Barro Colorado Island. Also, I grabbed my copy of Downbelow Station from dad's over Thanksgiving, so there's the possibility of a reread. I haven't done a full page-the-first to page-the-last reread since I was 17, so it'll be interesting to see if it stands up. Right now I'm stuck in the first twenty or so pages; if you know the book, I just got to Elene and Estelle. And so far, the book is even more grim than I remember it. I'm impressed, in a, "maybe after finals" way. On the other hand, I did some of my best time management when Watchmen was my bedtime reading, so maybe unremitting character torture would concentrate my attention in the academic here-and-now. We'll see.