Books 31-35
31. Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card. This is another book from the Writer's Digest series of instructional tomes. It's a quick, entertaining, and somewhat informative read. Card discusses how to create character depth and the various ways in which viewpoint can affect the telling of a story. I'll probably read more from the series (written by a variety of other authors) eventually.
32. Marcovaldo: or Seasons in the City by Italo Calvino. This book is a series of short stories about Marcovaldo, a poor unskilled worker living with his family in an Italian city. The stories in this book cycle with the seasons, as if taking a glimpse at what Marcovaldo is up to every few months. Marcovaldo is somewhat of a dreamer, as he easily becomes preoccupied by the everyday beauty not always apparent when living in the city. Marcovaldo's imagination also proves fertile ground for a variety of hare-brained schemes that usually end up with Marcovaldo getting in trouble with the local police, severely ill or injured, and in one case, inadvertently sent by plane to India. These stories are a lot of fun to read, and Calvino's lyrical and imaginative writing style reminded me of Ray Bradbury, which perfectly segues into....
33. Classic Stories I by Ray Bradbury. This book contains selections from Bradbury's short story collections R is for Rocket and The Golden Apples of the Sun. I had read some of these stories in other collections as well, including stories from Dandelion Wine and his recent From the Dust Returned. Although not all of the stories work well, the ones that do are great, as Bradbury was great at writing stories that combined scifi and fantasy, while being more than just genre exercises but very personal stories as well. This is a great overview of Bradbury's short work.
34. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. I have been reading a lot of Card books this year. This one falls somewhat into a genre that usually doesn't interest me: alternative history, which is basically fictional history where a "What if?" is posed and the story is written around it. In this case, the "What if?" is "What if Christopher Columbus didn't begin the age of European conquest of the New World in 1492?" People from a future in which the human race is dying from the excesses of its ancestors have a technology that enables them to look into the past, and they soon realize, even influence it. A group of such scientists begin to theorize about Christopher Columbus, specifically how he became obsessed with the notion of reaching the Orient by sailing west, and how Columbus's eventual success resulted in the destruction of the native people of the New World through warfare and disease. The scientists then begin to figure out whether history could be changed, and their society saved, by influencing the life of this one influential man. This is a very entertaining story, and as with the other Card books I have read this year, shows connections to Card's Mormon faith, namely the spread of a form of Christianity among American Indians before the Europeans arrive. I really enjoyed this story, and will (selectively) look into getting some more alternative history books, perhaps Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle next.
35. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. This is the first book in a trilogy about Fitz, the bastard son of a prince, and the apprentice to the King's assassin. As a child, Fitz is thrust into the hands of Burrich, his father Prince Chivalry's groom, who, along with everyone else in the royal family, hadn't even known that Fitz existed. The story is told from Fitz's perspective as he grows up in the shadows of a royal family that is being strained by the relations of those aspiring to the throne as well as the mysterious sea raiders who are cursing towns throughout the land. Fitz isn't a particularly bright person, but as a narrator is rendered sympathetically, and seems often to be more an observer than an active participant. However, as the story reaches its climactic conflict, Fitz proves his worth through courage and wit. This is an interesting twist on the usual high fantasy story by being told from the perspective of a character hiding in the shadows behind the throne.
32. Marcovaldo: or Seasons in the City by Italo Calvino. This book is a series of short stories about Marcovaldo, a poor unskilled worker living with his family in an Italian city. The stories in this book cycle with the seasons, as if taking a glimpse at what Marcovaldo is up to every few months. Marcovaldo is somewhat of a dreamer, as he easily becomes preoccupied by the everyday beauty not always apparent when living in the city. Marcovaldo's imagination also proves fertile ground for a variety of hare-brained schemes that usually end up with Marcovaldo getting in trouble with the local police, severely ill or injured, and in one case, inadvertently sent by plane to India. These stories are a lot of fun to read, and Calvino's lyrical and imaginative writing style reminded me of Ray Bradbury, which perfectly segues into....
33. Classic Stories I by Ray Bradbury. This book contains selections from Bradbury's short story collections R is for Rocket and The Golden Apples of the Sun. I had read some of these stories in other collections as well, including stories from Dandelion Wine and his recent From the Dust Returned. Although not all of the stories work well, the ones that do are great, as Bradbury was great at writing stories that combined scifi and fantasy, while being more than just genre exercises but very personal stories as well. This is a great overview of Bradbury's short work.
34. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. I have been reading a lot of Card books this year. This one falls somewhat into a genre that usually doesn't interest me: alternative history, which is basically fictional history where a "What if?" is posed and the story is written around it. In this case, the "What if?" is "What if Christopher Columbus didn't begin the age of European conquest of the New World in 1492?" People from a future in which the human race is dying from the excesses of its ancestors have a technology that enables them to look into the past, and they soon realize, even influence it. A group of such scientists begin to theorize about Christopher Columbus, specifically how he became obsessed with the notion of reaching the Orient by sailing west, and how Columbus's eventual success resulted in the destruction of the native people of the New World through warfare and disease. The scientists then begin to figure out whether history could be changed, and their society saved, by influencing the life of this one influential man. This is a very entertaining story, and as with the other Card books I have read this year, shows connections to Card's Mormon faith, namely the spread of a form of Christianity among American Indians before the Europeans arrive. I really enjoyed this story, and will (selectively) look into getting some more alternative history books, perhaps Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle next.
35. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. This is the first book in a trilogy about Fitz, the bastard son of a prince, and the apprentice to the King's assassin. As a child, Fitz is thrust into the hands of Burrich, his father Prince Chivalry's groom, who, along with everyone else in the royal family, hadn't even known that Fitz existed. The story is told from Fitz's perspective as he grows up in the shadows of a royal family that is being strained by the relations of those aspiring to the throne as well as the mysterious sea raiders who are cursing towns throughout the land. Fitz isn't a particularly bright person, but as a narrator is rendered sympathetically, and seems often to be more an observer than an active participant. However, as the story reaches its climactic conflict, Fitz proves his worth through courage and wit. This is an interesting twist on the usual high fantasy story by being told from the perspective of a character hiding in the shadows behind the throne.