Monday, January 28, 2008

NUKE THEM FROM ORBIT

I finally got through Minimum Means of Reprisal and I have to say, it was intriguing. As a primer for Chinese nuclear posture it's quite well written. I suspect that it is reasonably accessible even if you didn't get a degree in International Relations. The basic Chinese tenet appears to be that any nuclear reprisal, from one bomb to 100 million is sufficient for rational deterrence, so there isn't any need to have a massive nuclear industrial complex.

In addition, the removal of bombs from military authority, warhead and launch vehicles are separate, makes nukes a political and not a military weapon. I've argued before that nukes aren't a weapon system per se - they aren't dominant enough to make having them the only rational choice for a nation (mainly because of the side effect of their use.) These same side effects also limit their battlefield utility and the array of locations where they could be used to advantage. The colorful quote from Aliens up in the title bar "take off, nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure" gives a good anecdote for this lack of utility. They're useful for making large explosions, from orbit where the explosion can't harm the attacker, and in a situation where the ground that they're being used on isn't valuable enough that reoccupying it is important.

Anyway, I'm off to ponder this while at work, and I have to recommend the book if you've any interest in Chinese deterrence policy.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

331 PAGES OF QUICKSILVER

The frame story in Quicksilver is not nearly robust enough to support all the flashbacks heaped upon it. We begin with one character, who is interesting but who departs the story rather quickly. We then begin to follow Mr. Waterhouse. His frame story is interesting, but his flashbacks are pure exposition, many without wider meaning to the story. It is not until page 331 we finally begin to see the protagonist act as anything other than a cipher and the reasons for his trip in the frame story support the flashbacks.

Neal, come on. I know that you can write a fast paced novel. Snow Crash and Zodiac proved that you can write well and create interesting characters in the midst of an interesting plot. I recognize that this is going to be a long process. You've got three books, each broken into sections, but even Tolkien, king of huge three part books, made sure that plot and characters advanced together.

This problem is made worse by my suddenly renewed interest in the novel that occurred as soon as the protagonist began to act. I worry that Neal's editor no longer has enough power to make him write a good clean book. Ideally though I'll finish before I feel compelled to write another update on it.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

FAR TO FAR

I'm in the midst of Quicksilver and I have to say I'm still waiting for something to happen. I'm enjoying the characters and events as they pass by, but the key focus of the first portion: "who invented calculus" was lost. This is why Mr. Waterhouse leaves Boston, this is the driving source of conflict, but there is little tension, and instead we wander through England emersed in daydream. I'm finding that the lack of a cohesive focus on the plot is making it difficult to plow through. I enjoy the bits that I read, dipping in and out of the book, but it lost the hook that it had in my and I'm worried that I'll stop caring about the characters by the time the plot advances again.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Doom doomity doom doom doom

I'm in a bit of a moral quandary. I greatly dislike Eli Manning, but can't support the Patriots either. Leaving me at a loss last night once I got home from watching the Packer game. Still being in the denial phase, I went ahead and sought out the pulpiest book I could find. I'm pleased to report that I succeeded.

Death or Glory is set in the Warhammer 40k universe, is told in an autobiographical fashion, and has amusing footnotes from the editor of the biography. It's utter pulp fiction, but I love that it's well done pulp. Cain is a reluctant hero, longing for comfort and safety. The type of man who would have been at home running an upscale bordello, but for his placement it the universe. Watching him try to justify doing the right thing as being selfish amuses. And reading the book is a quick way to remove yourself from a reality in which your team managed to lose in overtime at home for the championship. Damn... so much for denial.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

SHHHH!!!

I read A Lifetime of Secrets yesterday. Read may be a strong word though. It's a collections of anonymous secrets that people send to the editor. I have to admit that the collection as a whole is quite moving, and I left it feeling the need to be snarky and elitist. So it was done well enough to leave me feeling vulnerable. I certainly recommend paging through the book, I don't know that I would want to own it. Seeing a secret like those in the book was cathartic, but I don't know that it would stand up to repeatition.

Also, looking back I can only assume that the mailbox that the editor has these post cards sent to is some kind of nexus a la the merry go round in American Gods. Damn it, now I want to go reread American Gods, which means I have to recall who I lent it to.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

HOW RUDE

Very Nice Ways to Say Very Bad Things: An Unusual Book of Euphemisms by Linda Berdoll was an interesting read. Berdoll's other writing is continuing doing sequels to Jane Austen classics, and while I haven't read them I'm given to understand that they are well written and in genre.

Very Nice Ways is a bird of a different feather. It is a primer for mockery and put downs, and supposed to allow us to tell people to their face what we really think of them. While cute, it doesn't do as good a job of this as we could hope. Berdoll gets caught up in the wordplay of writing the book, and the focus (or what I wish the focus was) suffers for it.

Finally, some of the chapters end up coming across as lists of euphemisms and synonyms for various bodily functions and substances, but such a list isn't as helpful as it could have been. A more perfected tome would have laid out some structural guides for insults, and perhaps set about to elucidate the situations under which various bodily functions are best put to use. Instead we have a book that can comfortably sit next to The Devil's Dictionary and be referred to perhaps as Satan's Synonyms or Beelzebub's Thesaurus.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

(More) BOOKS

I finished up J Gregory Keyes Age of Unreason series. Empire of Unreason and Shadows of God didn't fix the problems that I'd had with the first two books in the series. There wasn't enough character development, and the books felt to hectic. I think a lot more could have been done if instead of stuffing in plot points and including as many "real" historical figures as possible Keyes had expanded the series and fleshed out his main characters a bit more.

A case in point: Franklin and his wife's marriage issues. They crop up suddenly in the third book, remain a major problem throughout the fourth book, and are magically solved in 2 pages near the end. It made the people feel far less real than the setting, which is a major problem for a book of this type. If you make an alternate future/past book you need to limit changes as much as possible. The draw in these books comes from the "those people are real... that city exists..." and that draw is killed if the people don't seem real, but are instead one dimensional dolls made to advance the plot.

As an aside, I've been lending out my copies of A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. It's quite a good series. I should probably reread and write up the books. In the meantime, I'm pondering who Jon Snow's parents are. Current best guess: Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

TELEVISION

I was reading wikipedia at work today and learned that Top Gear is supposed to be the most downloaded television show on the internet. I absolutely adore this show, and am saddened that I can't get ahold of it without resorting to illegalities. I suppose my real question is why the hell they don't just make DVD's for each series (season) like they do for every other show in the world.

Honestly, bbc.co.uk/topgear and ask them why not. And play the stupidly hard quiz. That's hilarious hard fun.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

BOOKS

I've decided to keep up a series on what I've finished reading. I'd keep track of what I am reading, but that doesn't lend itself to comments or chronology. So briefly to get this started....

Newton's Cannon and Calculus of Angels by J Gregory Keyes.

I was lent these by a friend of mine, and they're an interesting take on the usual steampunk genre. David Brin's The Difference Engine is a better and more interesting take on Victorian era advanced technology, and Card's Alvin Maker series is better written. But having read both of those, Keyes' creates an interesting universe based on deism and then releases his characters into it.

The characters themselves are, I believe, the crux of my problem. A swashbuckling Ben Franklin just sits oddly with me. We'll see if that feeling improves as the series continues. There are further books in the series and I look forward to reading them, but I can't say that I'd reread the first two.

Dauntless Fearless Courageous by Jack Campbell

Swashbuckling space combat? Check. Lost hero returning to save the day? Check. Space battles that involve Einstein? Check.

It's that last one that keeps me reading the series. The first book, Dauntless was novel and interesting. The second built well on the first, but had some new elements. The third book started rehashing old material in a manner that I found distracting. I hear that the fourth book is supposed to be the climax, which bodes well, and I'm always willing to accept a bland filler book if it was building to something.