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Catch a Fire: the Life of Bob Marley Revised and Enlarged by Timothy White
My mother went to Jamaica in the 80s, and when she came back she gave everyone presents. My Dad got some good rum; I got reggae.
Well, not all of it, obviously; we had to leave some of it for the rest of the world. But for a while I was a real Bob Marley fanatic; the obsession wore off but I still love the music. And it has been a long time since I read a Marley Bio, so I grabbed this one.
It's kinda weird, being written more like a novel, including conversations that White could not have been there to hear (White does explain how these were reconstructed), and an overall attempt to show an overt supernatural element in Marley's life (kinda like the way the makers of Dragon: the Bruce Lee story focussed on the so-called curse that killed both Bruce and Brandon). Also, the final chapter is a one-hundred page long follow-up of everything that followed after Marley's death (everything relevant, that is, not everything that happened in the world.
On the other hand, there are chapters explaining the whole Rastafarian thing, including the history of Ras Tafari himself and what happened with Ethiopia during that period, and the Jamaican musical and political scenes (funny how often those two were intertwined)--stuff that helps make sense of Marley's career.
Cautiously recommended.
Women of War edited by Tanya Huff and Alexander Potter
I don't normally buy anthologies, unless they have stories by authors I'm really fond of. More than one author I'm fond of really helps.
This anthology featured stories by both Huff and Michelle West that I wanted to read, so it fit the bill handily (the story by West was being referred to by fans on her mailing list, so I wanted to make sure I got a look at it). It turned out there was stuff here both to like and dislike:
"Fighting Chance" by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller gives us a young woman living in a slum environment who, in dodging trouble gets helped out by a military recruiting officer who used to know her mother and offers the girl a chance at a new life. Not a bad piece, but a bit short, methought.
"Painted Child of Earth" by Rosemary Edgehill was an unexpected treat, being a story of Ruana Rulane, hero, and her sword Shadowkiss. I read at least one Ruana story before and greatly enjoyed it, so finding her here was nice. The story itself is good, though I don't know how it would feel for someone who hadn't encountered the character before.
"She's such a nasty morsel: a web shifters story" by Julie E. Czerneda was crap. I couldn't read enough of it to figure out what the hell it was about. I've seen Czerneda's books around, and always waffled about picking them up, but I shall waffle no more: I am not interested.
"The children of Diardin: to find the advantage" by Fiona Patton. The children in question are young Irish heroes who can transform into hounds and who in this story face an invasion by sea giants that they must seek to defeat. The woman of war in this case is their properly respected mother. This was a fun story.
"Not that kind of a war" by Tanya Huff. This is a story from Huff's "Space Opera" universe, featuring Staff Sgt. Torin Kerr and Sh'Quo company. I like Torin and don't mind seeing more of her, but ultimately her stories all revolve around war and sacrifice and there does sometimes seem to be certain sameness about them all. I'm pretty sure this one is set before the novels, though.
[N.B.: It was amusing to read first Patton's bio: Fiona Patton was born in Alberta and . . . moved to rural Ontario with her partner, one tiny dog, and a series of ever changing cats. and then Huff's: Tanya Huff lives and writes in rural Ontario with her partner, four cats, and an unintentional Chihuahua.]
"The Black Ospreys" by Michelle West is set in the same world as West's successful series The Sun Sword. It's set in the wake (pun unintentional) of the events of the last book in that series (and it took me a little while to figure that out) and, by flashback, tells the story of that series' most controversial military unit.
I assume it's a coincidence that these three appear so close together?
"The art of war" by Bruce Holland Rogers, is set in a future in which mysterious aliens called the Scorchers are destroying Earth's colonies. A local colony has a theory that the aliens are engaging in a sort of art, and can be convinced not to destroy their planet by replying in the same kind of art. But will the Marines let them try it? I'm not sure how I felt about this one. It was a bit odd for my tastes. I like my wars straightforward.
"Geiko" by Kerrie Hughes, has nothing to do with those adds with the annoying cgi lizard, but is set in a fantasy world in which white people act and talk like Japanese, and Geiko is a word for bodyguard. Oh, and deus ex machina is an acceptable way to end a story. I, obviously, didn't like it. Oh, and I thought that those parts of the society explored in the story didn't ring true.
"Shin-gi-tai" by Robin Wayne Bailey, features a future in which pure-strain humanity (to borrow a term from Gamma World) is being defeated by a mutant strain from beyond the stars. The commander of Earth's most powerful battlecruiser, a female samurai, plans with her lover, one of the mutants, to betray Earth. There is a surprise coming at the final battle, and you can only see it coming pages away because the story is too short to allow you to see it coming chapters away. This one was okay, but not really good.
"The last hand of war" by Jana Paniccia, features a society where people are bonded to a spirit helper while they live, and then come back as spirit helpers once they die. For some reason, a traitor has come back as a spirit helper and bonded with the apprentice of the captain of the guards, or something--the whole cultural thing didn't make much sense to me. I really didn't get any sense of tension from the story.
"War Games" by Lisanne Norman. I wanted to like this one, but it's the story of a military captain reenacting a military rescue from years ago for a museum tour and at the same time remembering what actually happened. I couldn't figure out what time frame I was in at any particular time until after the scene ended; and knowing who lived and who died before the scenario ended kinda stripped it of all tension (okay, in these stories as in most you know that the hero will live, but at least you shouldn't be able to spot the background characters who die).
"Fire from the sun" by Jane Lindskold. Andrasta is a warrior in a society that rather resembles the steppe-roaming horse nomads of earth's past (such as Mongols, xeger, xanadumalion, and melvh!). She is the granddaughter of a great warlord, and while on a routine patrol her entire force is killed from ambush and she herself left for dead. Rescued by a nearby slave village, Andrasta is nursed back to health and quickly learns that there is more to the whole situation than meets the eye . . . and that she herself must take drastic action if her people are to survive. I liked this one.
"Sweeter far than flowing honey" by Stephen Leigh. A woman who runs drone fighters in a war with an alien race has a nervous breakdown. I couldn't get attached to the main character, possibly because most of the story is spent just trying to figure out who she really is and what is really going on.
"Token" by Anna Oster. Girls from an undescrbed culture are given porridge by priests. Some bowls contain stone carvings, and the one who gets the axe-head goes on to become an avatar of the war-goddess in some sort of battle. This story needed more space than it had, as too much was left undescribed.
"Elites" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. In the not-too distant future, someone figured out that if you boosted women's protective urges you could make them into nearly unbeatable soldiers. As this was done with hormone alteration, the real problem arrises when the women muster out. Suddenly, you have an influx of combat-trained soldiers, all of whom seem to be PMS-ing at the same time! Rowena runs a kind of halfway house for Elite troopers who need a place to recover before going out into society. Herself a former Elite, Rowena knows what they're going through, but even she is hard-put to keep order. And, of course, problems confront them from inside and outside. This was one of the more interesting stories in the book.
Overall, there was enough good stuff in the book to outweigh the bad. This one gets cautiously recommended.
Santiago: a myth of the far future by Mike Resnick
In the distant future, the galaxy is divided up into the Democracy, the outer frontier (the edge of the galaxy) and the inner frontier (towards the core). Humanity, as is so often the case, is the dominant species in the democracy. On the frontiers, one main source of law enforcement is bounty hunters. Sebastien Nightingale Cain is one such bounty hunter, and he works the inner frontier. The Angel is the best bounty hunter there is, and he works the outer frontier. Santiago is the ultimate criminal; there are huge bounties on his head and 11 governmental departments devoted to finding and stopping him.
Cain has no real quarrel with Santiago; going after him would be a lot of trouble. But when the Angel switches to the Inner frontier for the purpose of going after Santiago, Cain decides to try to beat him to the punch. He is joined by a cowardly gambler and a really pushy reporter determined to interview Santiago, and aided or opposed by a large cast of interesting characters.
A fun book, but not for everyone. Recommended.