[Book Reviews] Amnesiac vampires, scheming matrons, counterinsurgency, cooking
I love Octavia Butler. She's probably my favorite science-fiction writer, in equal parts for her imaginative handling of what might be and for her unflinching ability to address difficult social issues without making one feel like one is taking a pounding from the Ideology Hammer. (I love my feminist writers, but if I read one more "It's Not Patriarchy: the Musical!" book I may scream.) So it was with some sadness that I picked up her final work, "Fledgling". While I have a slight bias against vampire stories, I trusted Octavia Butler not to fuck it up, and was borne out in this opinion. "Fledgling" isn't her finest work, but it's a strong novel with a central character that's interesting and sympathetic. There are the usual difficult Butler questions, in this case the free will or lack thereof of characters biologically compelled to become addicted to their vampiric symbiont, as well as the disturbing sexuality of a character who is 53 and looks ten. She also picks up issues of race and genetic engineering (the protagonist handles sunlight better than most other vampires, in large part because she's genetically engineered to have skin with more melanin -- cue vampire-purity freakout). The finish was rather open-ended, and I'm saddened that I won't get to read any more stories in this universe, having become rather fond of the protagonist. Three and a half mild sunburns out of five.
Having been a fan of silenceleigh's serial fiction on LJ, I was pleased to see that she'd published a novel. "Every Sacred Thing" is half political thriller, half historical whodunit in Roman Constantinople. There's a fair amount of magic in the world, but although its use is central to the plot, it takes a fact-of-life backseat to the detective work as protagonist Livia tries to figure out who assassinated her husband. (Naturally, now they're after her...) silenceleigh's writing is often thickly plotted with many twists -- dare I say Byzantine? [rimshot] -- and will keep the reader guessing as to the ultimate fate of Livia and her child right up until the end. Being a fan of the period, I would have liked to see more external world-building details in between all the scheming and action, but at 627 pages, perhaps it's good that I didn't get my wish. [grin] Four deadly perils out of five; well done, silenceleigh.
(ObBias: I know silenceleigh in person and think she's great. I'm always a little nervous when I review something that one of my friends has done; I'm so glad I liked it! Whew. [grin] Awkward moment averted.)
On a recommendation from fiveinchpixie, I picked up Banana Yoshimoto's "Kitchen" and was immediately charmed. I can see why she's Japan's most popular female novelist -- her writing is clear and lucid, and she sets little vignettes of understated emotion that are simultaneously adorable and unpredictable. I had several moments of hilarious stultitude when cheering on her plucky heroine. "I have no idea why you feel that way! But whatever! You are great and I hope that you win!" (This is not an unusual thing for me in dealing with high-context cultures that simultaneously value emotional truth and understated or unstated feelings. I don't get it, I know I don't get it, and so I end up feeling doltish and clumsy half the time... but I am sufficiently charmed that it's worth it, and I pick up a few more contextual crumbs with each interaction. I accept that I will be insider-stupid for the foreseeable future, and just do my best anyway.) Yoshimoto excels at characterization and at creating quirky situations, and I will certainly read some of her other novels. Five katsu don out of five.
David Galula's military classic "Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice" was a surprisingly easy read. At just under 100 pages, it does presume a basic acquaintance with the last fifty years of world military history which, sadly, I don't possess. But if you don't mind running to Google every few pages to supplement your understand of just what did happen in Algeria, or the timeline of the rise of Communism in China, the rest of the text is clear, sensible, and easy to understand. The language is blunt and dated -- all military personnel are "he", and there's a reference to "Negroes" which was common parlance at the time of writing but somewhat shocking to the modern reader. However, Galula does an excellent job of laying out for the reader the obstacles that someone mounting a counterinsurgent campaign faces, the many advantages on the side of the insurgency, and what must be done to neutralize them as effectively as possible. I was particularly impressed by his section on what factors of terrain, geography, and population will tend to favor insurgent movements versus counterinsurgencies, and the regularity with which he backs up his positions with historical examples. It's clearly laid out, well written, and I have no idea why our military largely seems to have ignored its principles (both in Vietnam and in Iraq). It's changed my strategic and political thinking, I hope for the better. Four and a half squishings out of five.
A birthday gift from my mother, Shunryu Suzuki's "Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen" is a series of dictated lectures given at the Tassajara center. I always find it hard to review Zen books, since they either hit you between the eyeballs or they don't, and what works for one person may not work well for another. I found these lectures hit and miss. Some made me pensive and contemplative, but others got tangled up in strongly held conflicting principles of mine -- for example, the lecture on the date of the moon landing about how we ought to be mindful of here and now rather than projecting our desires out into space didn't sit well with me. Overall, it did a fair job at calming my mind, but it wasn't the best Zen book I've read. Three drops into a still pool out of five.
Having been a fan of silenceleigh's serial fiction on LJ, I was pleased to see that she'd published a novel. "Every Sacred Thing" is half political thriller, half historical whodunit in Roman Constantinople. There's a fair amount of magic in the world, but although its use is central to the plot, it takes a fact-of-life backseat to the detective work as protagonist Livia tries to figure out who assassinated her husband. (Naturally, now they're after her...) silenceleigh's writing is often thickly plotted with many twists -- dare I say Byzantine? [rimshot] -- and will keep the reader guessing as to the ultimate fate of Livia and her child right up until the end. Being a fan of the period, I would have liked to see more external world-building details in between all the scheming and action, but at 627 pages, perhaps it's good that I didn't get my wish. [grin] Four deadly perils out of five; well done, silenceleigh.
(ObBias: I know silenceleigh in person and think she's great. I'm always a little nervous when I review something that one of my friends has done; I'm so glad I liked it! Whew. [grin] Awkward moment averted.)
On a recommendation from fiveinchpixie, I picked up Banana Yoshimoto's "Kitchen" and was immediately charmed. I can see why she's Japan's most popular female novelist -- her writing is clear and lucid, and she sets little vignettes of understated emotion that are simultaneously adorable and unpredictable. I had several moments of hilarious stultitude when cheering on her plucky heroine. "I have no idea why you feel that way! But whatever! You are great and I hope that you win!" (This is not an unusual thing for me in dealing with high-context cultures that simultaneously value emotional truth and understated or unstated feelings. I don't get it, I know I don't get it, and so I end up feeling doltish and clumsy half the time... but I am sufficiently charmed that it's worth it, and I pick up a few more contextual crumbs with each interaction. I accept that I will be insider-stupid for the foreseeable future, and just do my best anyway.) Yoshimoto excels at characterization and at creating quirky situations, and I will certainly read some of her other novels. Five katsu don out of five.
David Galula's military classic "Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice" was a surprisingly easy read. At just under 100 pages, it does presume a basic acquaintance with the last fifty years of world military history which, sadly, I don't possess. But if you don't mind running to Google every few pages to supplement your understand of just what did happen in Algeria, or the timeline of the rise of Communism in China, the rest of the text is clear, sensible, and easy to understand. The language is blunt and dated -- all military personnel are "he", and there's a reference to "Negroes" which was common parlance at the time of writing but somewhat shocking to the modern reader. However, Galula does an excellent job of laying out for the reader the obstacles that someone mounting a counterinsurgent campaign faces, the many advantages on the side of the insurgency, and what must be done to neutralize them as effectively as possible. I was particularly impressed by his section on what factors of terrain, geography, and population will tend to favor insurgent movements versus counterinsurgencies, and the regularity with which he backs up his positions with historical examples. It's clearly laid out, well written, and I have no idea why our military largely seems to have ignored its principles (both in Vietnam and in Iraq). It's changed my strategic and political thinking, I hope for the better. Four and a half squishings out of five.
A birthday gift from my mother, Shunryu Suzuki's "Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen" is a series of dictated lectures given at the Tassajara center. I always find it hard to review Zen books, since they either hit you between the eyeballs or they don't, and what works for one person may not work well for another. I found these lectures hit and miss. Some made me pensive and contemplative, but others got tangled up in strongly held conflicting principles of mine -- for example, the lecture on the date of the moon landing about how we ought to be mindful of here and now rather than projecting our desires out into space didn't sit well with me. Overall, it did a fair job at calming my mind, but it wasn't the best Zen book I've read. Three drops into a still pool out of five.