Soundtrack Optional (July and August Reading)
That took entirely too long.
JULY
The Yiddish Policeman's Union(Michael Chabon): Noir set in Sitka Province as the clock ticks down toward its reversion from a Jewish resettlement state to the governance of the United States. Meyer Landsman must fight his alcoholism and his superiors to solve the murder of a chess-playing heroin addict with ( Read more... )
JULY
The Yiddish Policeman's Union(Michael Chabon): Noir set in Sitka Province as the clock ticks down toward its reversion from a Jewish resettlement state to the governance of the United States. Meyer Landsman must fight his alcoholism and his superiors to solve the murder of a chess-playing heroin addict with ( Read more... )
That's my guess.
It's not they that they're super capable, it's that their So Speshul no one can resist them. My and most character's reaction to her was annoyance.
I shouldn't find Perscitia so funny. And yet I do! Possibly it's the cap between Sue-ness and actual characterization. Perscitia isn't That Special, but she thinks she ought to be. (Or possibly I am reading too much into the math and firebombs.) Her skill-set is going to Sue her any time soon, but it's also culturally undervalued: if she will not fight, she's a disappointment, no matter what else she can do. She ought to be in the dragon civilian middle class, but there is no real dragon civvie middle class in the books' "now", so instead she's stuck in the breeding grounds.
Seriously, meta. Novik isn't deliberately being too thinky, but if you accept the initial premise, every change from real history is a comment on that history, and also on what's important at the moment in the SF/F field.
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