Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Delicious reading material

I fear that I'll be waiting on Strange/Norrel for a bit longer, according to the good people at amazon.com I've got to read Reaper's Gale this weekend. The only question is if I'll have to purchase it in order to peruse it or if I'll be voraciously reading a friends copy prior to buying the paperback version in a few months. Regardless of outcome, it will be read this weekend.

My only problem will be talking about the book. I was considering this when I was thinking about something to read prior to picking Mutineer's Moon back up. I was thinking about rereading Neverwhere, but I couldn't figure out how to talk about a Neil Gaiman work without turning into a gushing fan-boy. I'm hoping that Reaper's Gale gives me some insight into that. I'm not at the same fan-boyish levels with Mr. Erikson, but I have to acknowledge that I'm going into this book with a prejudice, and I hope I'll be able to see problems if they exist.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Mooning over things

I was shooting to do Strange/Norrel next, but I ended up rereading (or starting to reread) a trilogy by David Weber. The wonderful thing is how quickly the read is. Enjoyment that doesn't really feel like an interruption of a longer and more ponderous work in progress. As far as the genre goes, Weber has a very nice take on a less than brand new plot. The alien menace and the extra-terrestrials who are here to help save us is a staple of the genre, but it's a staple because it makes it easy for the writer to create characters.

Mainly this comes from the lack of a time lag for the reader to overcome. "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..." sound cool, but getting into touch with the motivation of the characters can be dicey. All to often we never get well rounded characters because Adam Awesome is a dashing space adventurer! So there goes Adam off to save the princess. The human Id is easy enough to tap into - we all like fun and excitement, so there goes the space man finding space excitement. It's an infantile but easy method of putting together a story, and while it can be a fun distraction, it's rarely a worthwhile one.

A character worth caring about has to interact with the Ego and Superego. There have to be relationships that are dynamic and complex - and this is where a SF writer suddenly has a much harder time. What drives a sentient plant or an intelligent dolphin? How does and AI interact with and view the world? If they're all just humans with different body types then the setting loses the feel of the future.

An alien's visit nowish Earth avoids that issue by creating a modern human who can view the encounter and with whom the reader can easily bond with and support as the protagonist. Weber creates this world with an amusing twist. In Mutineer's Moon the Earth is hanging on the edge of a massive empire that is ravaged every few epochs by marauders bent on wiping out all competing life. There is a mutiny aboard one of this empire's ship, and the final stages of it play out on just post modern earth.

And the moon is a giant spaceship.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Props to the HZA

I finished Quicksilver last night, in one huge chunk. My general impressions of the book are positive, with a few rough edges that I hope are links into the second book in the series. I'll have to be getting to that one soon so I don't miss out on them.

I liked the voices used by the characters, they were almost always in period instead of creating modern characters and shoehorning them into an idealized past (Newton's Cannon we're looking at you.) The topic itself makes these characters accessible - they are all involved in the birth of modern science, so their worldview is modern enough for a reader to meet them half way. There were a few breaks in this; the mention of"gondola rage" towards the end of the book, and certain other moments. While jarring, they stood out for their rarity and can be set aside with only a mention.

The pacing of the book overcame my reservations regarding the frame story. As I mentioned back in January, I had trouble becoming involved with the characters and plot of the book until I was several hundred pages into the novel. While I appreciate that an author has to be given leeway to set up a story, I feel justified in critiquing the methods that were used. The story breaks down into four different parts - Sections one, two and three plus a frame story told out of synchronization with the rest of the book. I'll lay them out below:

The Frame Story - As the first portion of the book into which we delved, this should have been used to tie the story together. Instead it was used as a tool only for section one. This was jarring, and while I suspect that it will be resolved some time in book three, the author leaves it hanging to far out without support. A frame is a useful device to engross the reader into the story quickly. It establishes protagonists the reader knows they can follow throughout the rest of the story and usually gives the reader clues about what will become important to watch for. The frame story did this, somewhat, by introducing one of the protagonists, and setting up a conflict between Newton and Leibniz. But instead of wrapping that up and getting into the story proper, it hung around and made the first section seem dull in comparison to the swashbuckling underway.

Section One - Section one would have been better if it had lacked the frame story to interrupt it and give the reader something to compare it to within the book itself. A slow beginning to a 3 book series of novels is not a crime... yet; and much can be forgiven for an author setting up the mood of the books and bringing together the characters. The frame story interjects and shows a level of fast paced adventure that the first section of the book lacks, and this both interrupts the readers immersion into the story, and worse, makes reimmersion difficult. I found myself getting into the story, hitting a pirate bit, and then being unable to read more. This series of events usually led me to wander off to play Civ 4 for the purpose of building privateers.

Section Two - In comparison the the first portion, this read like an action/adventure/romance, and passed by quite swiftly. The characters were well drawn up, and their inability to reach a happy conclusion for their time together was a realistic portrayal of everything that led them to that point. If this section had a flaw it was the loose association that it had with Section one, and the lack of association that it had with the original frame. It felt that I was reading a separate novel with a few minor characters who transferred between the two. That said it was an enjoyable novel and one that led me happily into section three.

Section Three - This tied together the threads of the first two sections, and the characters really came into their own. Much of the characterizations were vibrant and the plot was interesting but not obtrusive. The letter writing and cryptography conceit was interesting, but not as engrossing as a reader as I suspect it was for the author. The plot was never made to feel as though it hinged on this, and so it was a method for conveying actions that sufficed as well as the more straightforward plotting of the second section. My only major complaint was the bait and switch about the events in northern France and the father of Eliza's child. It was sudden, annoying, and without any setup in the previous text. Neal is to good a writer to introduce a character so suddenly and importantly. It has a whiff of deus ex machina about it and I found it to be sloppy.

To leave this on a positive note, however, I find that I can't even look and other books dealing with the period now that have lesser pedigrees. They seem cloying and annoyingly saccharine. I'm probably going to pick up The Difference Engine, I suspect David Brin has retained his readability.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

They Might Be Giants... or

They might be dicks. Busy weekend as is the norm around here, but I wanted to make a comment about the TMBG concert on Friday. At a 14+ concert, how exactly do you judge who's 14+? I went with a friend of mine who brought her just turned 14 nephew. TMBG is a good first concert. And for reasons untold it's a 14+ show, so the stars aligned on that one. Until we were summarily thrown out because he's a small 14. And the hulk of a carnie in charge of the official "Guess your age" program didn't think he could be 14. And who brings a birth certificate to a TMBG concert? I mean Rob Zombie or Rammstein, sure I see needing proof. But They Might Be "Birdhouse in your Soul" Giants?

What's left to say except "but I'm not actually your friend..."