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.