[Book Reviews] Gay Zen pirate phreakers in space
I finally got around to reading the classic "Zen and Japanese Culture", which was excellent. Although I had read many of the referenced works, it was nice to get a big-picture view of the history of Zen as a philosophical movement overall, its particular morphology in Japan, and relationship to other common Japanese cultural values. I was particularly struck by the chapters on the relationship of Zen to nature and the tea ceremony; I haven't read many of the classic texts on tea yet, and so a lot of that was new material to me. Four bamboo dippers out of five.
Perhaps my favorite book of this batch was Sam Hamill's translation of Basho's "Narrow Road to the Interior And Other Writings". Basho was a great traveler, and this volume contains his writings over four major journeys, interspersed with haiku commemorating moments along the way. Hamill produces lucid and evocative English renditions of many of Basho's most famous haiku, as well as the travel stories linking them like pearls on the strand. That intense sense of place and appreciation of even the most ordinary or vexing moments is something that I strive for in my own writing. (I'm no Basho, but I try.) The presence of haiku chronicling the miserable moments on the road ("Fleas, lice/A horse peeing/Near my pillow.") give more poignance to the beautiful ones. I felt greatly inspired by Basho's work, and was very pleased by Hamill's presentation of the subject matter. Five straw hats out of five.
I tore through the rest of Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" series like wildfire; I am only sorry that there weren't more of them. (Grave Peril, Fool Moon, Summer Knight, Death Masks, Blood Rites, Dead Beat.) All you Anita Blake fans should run right out and get these books. [grin] They're more with the mystery and less with the booty call, but there's plenty of action and magic in them. Of the collated, "Summer Knight" was probably my favorite, but they were all good. I'm impressed by an author that can write a good ceremonial magician hero without boring me or annoying me, and Butcher does a great job of giving his hero that film noir kind of feel. Plots not entirely predictable, but also not impossibly unguessable, sympathetic characters and shuddery villains aplenty, and no hesitation about having bad things happen to good characters without fifty pounds of foreshadowing first; Five dark alleyways out of five.
Based on my fondness for Butcher's work, I picked up the first two books of Rachel Caine's "Weather Warden" series, "Ill Wind" and "Heat Stroke". Unfortunately, I wasn't as fond of these... there was a notable initial handicap in my immediate dislike of her premise. (Mother Nature hates us and wants us dead, and it is only through the heroic actions of a magician subclass that humanity survives. Normal people have never heard of said magician subclass, but storms seek them out and try to fry them.) Caine does a good job capturing the mystical and loving bond between a woman and her beloved car, though, so that won me back over to some degree. Her characters are decent, but this didn't feel like the first book in a series... I never really felt completely immersed in the world, as new details were added and my picture of it changed rather than grew. I think "Ill Wind" would have made a decent third book in a series, but the rules were not sufficiently well established before being broken. Three thunderstorms out of five.
I picked up "The Merro Tree" from a list of GLBT sci-fi and fantasy. It's sort of like the Herald-Mage trilogy, if it had been sci-fi rather than fantasy. Weird sensitive kid gets kicked around by a cruel and unempathic family, is discovered to have Amazing Special Powers (in this case, of theater), and is swept off to train for his Special Destiny. While doing this, he falls deeply in love with another male. Shock! Horror! (And in this case, it's even cross-species! What *will* the bards say?) Eh, nobody really cares, except the forces of Evil Old Conservativism. But when our hero saves the world art, then they'll all see, and everyone is stunned by his pure and sublime talent. It was a good airport book, though I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that I'd read it before. Three gay space worms out of five.
One of my co-workers recommended John Sandford's "The Fool's Run" as a sort of retro cybercrime novel. Indeed it was. While there were moments of smirking (oh, your Apple ][ is your *good* computer?), the Art-of-War-like tactics and tie-ins to corporate spying made it a fun book with plenty of action. I don't know enough about technology that old to have had many "wait, that wouldn't work" moments, which no doubt enhanced my reading enjoyment. Sandford does a good job of capturing the sort of teamwork-cameraderie that fans of "Sneakers" or folks who have done pen-testing as a team are familiar with, which made me extra fond of his book. His hero is also definitely quirky enough to be based on an actual hacker; part of me wonders who he knew, or if he just invented someone. There are three more in the series; I'll be reading them as well. Four old-school phreakers out of five.
Another pick harvested from the GLBT list was Mark Anthony's "Beyond the Pale". While I didn't much enjoy the beginning sections set on Earth, and particularly disliked the religious-revival-as-gateway-to-Otherworld thing, I became more engaged with the novel once the Earthlings were dumped full-on into fantasy world Eldh. The old-magic-vs.-new-religion thing has been done before, but I was pleased with the wholesale co-option of the "duchess" into "here, social anxiety Earthling, now you are feudal nobility". She didn't seem unrealistically written, and giving her an unusual personality trait like that made her more engaging as a character. I didn't see until the end of the book why this was on the GLBT list, and had it not been for knowing the source of my slashy readings, I would have assumed that I was just hoping for a gay love interest rather than seeing actual foreshadowing. (Apparently I have to read through at least Book Three for the characters themselves to realize it. I'll hang in there.) Three and a half broken runes out of five.
It took me quite some time to find a copy of Anne Chambers's "Granuaile: Ireland's Pirate Queen C.1530-1603", but I'm glad that I finally did. This is *the* historical book about Grania O'Malley, terror of the Atlantic and pirate queen of the Irish. Many historical documents are quoted and photocopied, along with seacoast maps showing "Grany Imaly" and her territory, in a rather "here there be dragons" way. [grin] Legends are reprinted and cast alongside maps, and there's some trenchant historical commentary about why Grania was left out of some of the historical records of the time, even when she clearly was living and a dominant power in the region. There are also some quoted gems; my favorite is, "There came to me also a most famous feminine sea captain called Grany Imallye... with three galleys and 200 fighting men, either in Scotland or Ireland; she brought with her her husband for she was as well by sea as by land well more than Mrs. Mate with him; he was of the Nether Burkes and now [1583] as I hear Mack William Euter, and called by nickname Richard in Iron. This was a notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland." That's polite Elizabethan for "she wore the pants in the family, and good old Iron Richard did what he was told". [grin] Go go Grania; five sea pirates out of five for this book.
Perhaps my favorite book of this batch was Sam Hamill's translation of Basho's "Narrow Road to the Interior And Other Writings". Basho was a great traveler, and this volume contains his writings over four major journeys, interspersed with haiku commemorating moments along the way. Hamill produces lucid and evocative English renditions of many of Basho's most famous haiku, as well as the travel stories linking them like pearls on the strand. That intense sense of place and appreciation of even the most ordinary or vexing moments is something that I strive for in my own writing. (I'm no Basho, but I try.) The presence of haiku chronicling the miserable moments on the road ("Fleas, lice/A horse peeing/Near my pillow.") give more poignance to the beautiful ones. I felt greatly inspired by Basho's work, and was very pleased by Hamill's presentation of the subject matter. Five straw hats out of five.
I tore through the rest of Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" series like wildfire; I am only sorry that there weren't more of them. (Grave Peril, Fool Moon, Summer Knight, Death Masks, Blood Rites, Dead Beat.) All you Anita Blake fans should run right out and get these books. [grin] They're more with the mystery and less with the booty call, but there's plenty of action and magic in them. Of the collated, "Summer Knight" was probably my favorite, but they were all good. I'm impressed by an author that can write a good ceremonial magician hero without boring me or annoying me, and Butcher does a great job of giving his hero that film noir kind of feel. Plots not entirely predictable, but also not impossibly unguessable, sympathetic characters and shuddery villains aplenty, and no hesitation about having bad things happen to good characters without fifty pounds of foreshadowing first; Five dark alleyways out of five.
Based on my fondness for Butcher's work, I picked up the first two books of Rachel Caine's "Weather Warden" series, "Ill Wind" and "Heat Stroke". Unfortunately, I wasn't as fond of these... there was a notable initial handicap in my immediate dislike of her premise. (Mother Nature hates us and wants us dead, and it is only through the heroic actions of a magician subclass that humanity survives. Normal people have never heard of said magician subclass, but storms seek them out and try to fry them.) Caine does a good job capturing the mystical and loving bond between a woman and her beloved car, though, so that won me back over to some degree. Her characters are decent, but this didn't feel like the first book in a series... I never really felt completely immersed in the world, as new details were added and my picture of it changed rather than grew. I think "Ill Wind" would have made a decent third book in a series, but the rules were not sufficiently well established before being broken. Three thunderstorms out of five.
I picked up "The Merro Tree" from a list of GLBT sci-fi and fantasy. It's sort of like the Herald-Mage trilogy, if it had been sci-fi rather than fantasy. Weird sensitive kid gets kicked around by a cruel and unempathic family, is discovered to have Amazing Special Powers (in this case, of theater), and is swept off to train for his Special Destiny. While doing this, he falls deeply in love with another male. Shock! Horror! (And in this case, it's even cross-species! What *will* the bards say?) Eh, nobody really cares, except the forces of Evil Old Conservativism. But when our hero saves the world art, then they'll all see, and everyone is stunned by his pure and sublime talent. It was a good airport book, though I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that I'd read it before. Three gay space worms out of five.
One of my co-workers recommended John Sandford's "The Fool's Run" as a sort of retro cybercrime novel. Indeed it was. While there were moments of smirking (oh, your Apple ][ is your *good* computer?), the Art-of-War-like tactics and tie-ins to corporate spying made it a fun book with plenty of action. I don't know enough about technology that old to have had many "wait, that wouldn't work" moments, which no doubt enhanced my reading enjoyment. Sandford does a good job of capturing the sort of teamwork-cameraderie that fans of "Sneakers" or folks who have done pen-testing as a team are familiar with, which made me extra fond of his book. His hero is also definitely quirky enough to be based on an actual hacker; part of me wonders who he knew, or if he just invented someone. There are three more in the series; I'll be reading them as well. Four old-school phreakers out of five.
Another pick harvested from the GLBT list was Mark Anthony's "Beyond the Pale". While I didn't much enjoy the beginning sections set on Earth, and particularly disliked the religious-revival-as-gateway-to-Otherworld thing, I became more engaged with the novel once the Earthlings were dumped full-on into fantasy world Eldh. The old-magic-vs.-new-religion thing has been done before, but I was pleased with the wholesale co-option of the "duchess" into "here, social anxiety Earthling, now you are feudal nobility". She didn't seem unrealistically written, and giving her an unusual personality trait like that made her more engaging as a character. I didn't see until the end of the book why this was on the GLBT list, and had it not been for knowing the source of my slashy readings, I would have assumed that I was just hoping for a gay love interest rather than seeing actual foreshadowing. (Apparently I have to read through at least Book Three for the characters themselves to realize it. I'll hang in there.) Three and a half broken runes out of five.
It took me quite some time to find a copy of Anne Chambers's "Granuaile: Ireland's Pirate Queen C.1530-1603", but I'm glad that I finally did. This is *the* historical book about Grania O'Malley, terror of the Atlantic and pirate queen of the Irish. Many historical documents are quoted and photocopied, along with seacoast maps showing "Grany Imaly" and her territory, in a rather "here there be dragons" way. [grin] Legends are reprinted and cast alongside maps, and there's some trenchant historical commentary about why Grania was left out of some of the historical records of the time, even when she clearly was living and a dominant power in the region. There are also some quoted gems; my favorite is, "There came to me also a most famous feminine sea captain called Grany Imallye... with three galleys and 200 fighting men, either in Scotland or Ireland; she brought with her her husband for she was as well by sea as by land well more than Mrs. Mate with him; he was of the Nether Burkes and now [1583] as I hear Mack William Euter, and called by nickname Richard in Iron. This was a notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland." That's polite Elizabethan for "she wore the pants in the family, and good old Iron Richard did what he was told". [grin] Go go Grania; five sea pirates out of five for this book.