Too Short?

Booking Through Thursday

“Life is too short to read bad books.” I’d always heard that, but I still read books through until the end no matter how bad they were because I had this sense of obligation.

That is, until this week when I tried (really tried) to read a book that is utterly boring and unrealistic. I had to stop reading.

Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?

The latter. I’m also pretty quick to drop a series which doesn’t interest me. I try to avoid books I know I don’t like by reading reviews first.

 

Karl Schroeder: Pirate Sun

Karl Schroeder’s Pirate Sun

Book three of Virga. The very good fantasy steampunk series continues.

4 and half stars from 5

 

Kim Harrison: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

The second book in the urban fantasy series called Hollows.

It’s also the last book in my 2nds challenge . The final book list turned out to be somewhat different that the one I started with but I had fun! If this challenge is done next year, too, I’m likely to join again. Of course, I already have quite a few series now to get through…

Much to my surprise, this book was in my local library. As far as I can tell, it’s also the only book of the Hollows –series which is in the Finnish library system. Sigh.

The book starts with Rachel Morgan and her pixie partner Jenks undercover trying to steal a fish. One of the local baseball teams suspect that a rival has stolen their mascot, the fish, and hired Rachel to steal it back. Things don’t go exactly as planned but Rachel and Jenks manage to get away with their prize. A F.I.B agent rescues them from the rival team’s werewolves. It appears that the F.I.B. need a consult in Interlanders affairs and because Rachel had worked with them before, their Captain Edden decided to employ her again.

Trent Kalamack’s secretary Sara Jane has tearfully reported that her fiancé is missing. Rachel feels that she owes Sara Jane for what she did for Rachel in the previous book and agrees to investigate. Dan is witch and Captain Edden believes that he was murdered by a notorious serial killer who is targeting lay line witches. Edden’s primary suspect is Dr. Anders because many of the victims were on her classes and he offers Rachel a chance to go into the Anders’ class undercover. However, Rachel is convinced that Kalamack is behind the killings but she agrees to take the class despite the fact that when she took it the first time, also under Dr. Anders, she failed it. To say the least, Anders doesn’t want Rachel in her class.

Rachel’s roommate, the living vamp Ivy, is horrified that Rachel agreed to work a case that’s connected to Kalamack. However, something else is also bothering the normally cool and level-headed Ivy. To make matters worse, Rachel finds out that her human boyfriend Nick seems to be dabbling into summoning demons. Also, she has trouble getting around because one of her spell went awry in a bus last year and the bus drivers are trying to avoid her. She doesn’t own a car.

I rather enjoy Rachel’s circle of friends: Ivy, Jenks, Nick, and even captain Edden and agent Glenn. They are all distinct from each other and rather dysfunctional as a group. Ivy is an upper class vampire who is “slumming” with Rachel and this time we come to see quite a bit more about her decision to leave I.S. and to stay with Rachel. The pixie Jenks is a very entertaining character: curious, loudmouthed, opinionated, and yet fiercely protective of his own. His clouds of children are also entertaining.

We also get more info about the lay line magic when Rachel is forced to use more of it. Dr. Anders requires her to have a familiar so that she can continue the class and so she has to find a way to bind one to her. The demon which was seen in the previous book has a large part to play in this book as well. I guess I have to admit that I’m a bit frustrated with how little Rachel seems to know about magic which is supposed to be her specialty. She mostly muddles through with luck and guessing.

The plot flows out more smoothly this time than in the previous book, Dead Witch Walking. However, it still somewhat relies on characters doing stupid thing such as not listening to others or doing something in the heat of anger. Rachel is quite impatient and not subtle at all. Still, it strikes me a bit odd that she would be so impatient to arrest Kalamack that she would ignore proper procedure which might lead to Kalamack not being sentenced even if he was arrested.

There’s also a change in the mood in the last part of the book which I found a little jarring. The start and the middle feel to me quite light hearted. Then, near the end the stakes are raised dramatically and the mood becomes much darker. At the end, Rachel is in even more trouble than when she started and her circle of friends will probably not trust each other as much as before. I have mixed feelings about it but I’m curious to see what happens next.

Oh, there’s one sex scene in the book but it’s relevant to the characters and the plot.

 

It’s All About Me

Booking Through Thursday

Which do you prefer? Biographies written about someone? Or Autobiographies written by the actual person (and/or ghost-writer)?

I’ve never read an autobiography, so I guess I prefer biographies.

 

Connie Wills: To Say Nothing of the Dog or How We Found the Bishop’s Bird stump at Last

Part of my 2nds challenge. I’ve only read the Doomsday book from Willis before.

What a great book! It combines comedy, time travel, Victorian times, theories about history, detective novels, romance, and lots more.

Ned Henry is an Oxford historian who has done too many time jumps between 1940s and the current day searching for a bishop’s bird stump from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral. Because of the too many jumps, he’s suffering from a severe time lag which causes among other things “tendency to maudlin sentimentality, like an Irishman in his cups or a Victorian poet cold-sober”, dizziness, difficulty in distinguishing sounds, and blurry vision. The cure is two weeks of bed rest. Unfortunately, it does not look likely that Ned will get that. Lady Shrapnell has taken over the history department and the time travel project. She intends to rebuild the ruined Coventry Cathedral and had commandeered every available person. Ned doesn’t think that he’ll be allowed to take any sick leave.

However, after Ned waxes poetical about a dog, “it’s no wonder you are called man’s best friend, faithful and loyal, and true. You share in our sorrows” etc. he’s yanked back to his own time and promptly assigned bed rest. Prudently, Ned seeks out professor Dunworthy who might know a place where Ned could rest. However, at the professor’s office Ned overhears that one of the historians has brought back something from the past which should be impossible according to the laws of time travel. Dunworthy decides to send Ned back to the Victorian era to recover. He also wants Ned to do something else but unfortunately Ned is so time lagged that he can’t understand that part. So, Ned ends up back in time with a mission he barely remembers.

The book refers often another book called “three men in a boat” which I’ve never even heard of but which is apparently a real book. I don’t really know much about Victorian times but I still felt that this was a very funny book. I enjoyed especially the two dueling history professors who had different theories about how history is former: just natural forces working blindly or people affecting events. We did see only professor Peddick who rants about historical people and events, and uses Latin quotes. His adversary professor Overforce is only talked about but never seen. I’m a dog person so I enjoyed the large part that dogs had in the book.

The book does have multiple courtship romances but surprisingly enough I didn’t mind. The rest of the story is just that entertaining.

I listened this as an audiobook and I think that the reader, Steven Crossley, was excellent. The audible download was in three 7 hour parts.

 

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne: vol. 6

By John Byrne and Jerry Ordway

Collects Fantastic Four #276-284, Secret Wars II #2, Thing #23.

In these issues Ordway is inking Byrne’s pencils and to me, at least, the change is noticeable. Ordway has a very distinctive style.

In the first two issues a couple of earlier subplots are tied up: Reed, Sue, and Franklin’s stint as a normal family in Connecticut, and Ben’s return. Next, Dr. Doom steals the Baxter Building and the FF head to Microverse.

The whole “normal family” thing was a nice change of pace in between the superheroics and I was almost sorry to see it end. However, it was quite a long running subplot so it just makes sense for Byrne to end it. Also, I was expecting someone to recognize Susan and Franklin because they should be quite famous. The nosy neighbor brought to mind a similar character from the TV-show “Bewitched” and she was quite entertaining.

The second story was Ben coming back from the Beyonder’s planet. He has already decided to dump Alicia and the FF. Yet, when he comes to Alicia’s place and meets the half naked Johnny there, he starts a fight. I guess he thinks that Alicia is his property. I was happy to see She-Hulk stay.

The next issue is pretty much a recap of Doom’s backstory. Of course, when I first read these comics I didn’t know Doom was, so the recap was appreciated. Doom’s young ward Kristoff is made to think that he is Doom and he “starts his career again” by stealing the Baxter Building. Meanwhile Johnny and Alicia are dealing with racial hatred which seems stronger than usual.

Kristoff as Doom floats the BB up to space and blows it up.

Afterwards, the FF have to deal with the fact that their home is gone. Hatred and intolerance is also building up. Meanwhile, Psycho-Man sends a very powerful woman called Malice after the FF. After a pitched battle, Reed manages to trace their enemy to Microverse. So, the FF shrinks themselves and goes after the bad guy.

Kristoff wasn’t really a match for Victor but I guess he wasn’t supposed to be. He was just a way to show us how far reaching and evil Doom’s plans are.

I rather enjoyed Psycho-Man as the villain because his ability to manipulate emotions was used to a very good effect. It seems, though, that he hasn’t been used much outside this adventure.

Malice was an interesting “character”. I liked the aggressive way she used her powers (and lets face it if she had been a male from the start, he would have used the very aggressively from the start) which clearly showed how dangerous she is. I suspect, though, that her fight with the FF was cut some pages short in the Finnish edition.

The Microverse part of this trade is again one of my favorite stories and the first Microverse story I’ve ever read. I loved it how She-Hulk was trying to overcome her fear. I also liked a lot the surreal FF story that Susan experienced under torture.

Still, the stories here aren’t as classics as the Galactus-story in vol. 2 or the aftermath with Tyros in vol. 4.

This marks the milestone where Susan finally becomes the Invisible Woman.

Overall: a decent trade.

 

Blurb

Booking Through Thursday
Suggested by Jennysbooks:

Something I’ve been thinking about lately: “What words/phrases in a blurb make a book irresistible? What words/phrases will make you put the book back down immediately?”

Ah, the back cover blurbs! One of my pet peeves. Warning: this will be long.

Short answer: I don’t trust blurbs. I tend to do my book shopping online so I look at reviews. I also get recommendations from other people.

Longer: I haven’t read back covers for a long time simply because I’ve been burned by them too many times. There are apparently hundreds of ways that the blurb can be wrong and I’ve seen most of them. They can be anything from slightly misleading to absolutely wrong. In my humble opinion, even blurbs that are only slightly wrong might raise wrong expectations and so sour the reading experience.

Examples which contain spoilers for Lois McMaster Bujold’s Shards of Honor and Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s the Disappeared. I’m a fan of both writers and hugely enjoyed the books.

Let’s look at a relatively minor incident from the back cover of Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the first book in the Dragonlance fantasy series. This is from the Finnish edition and it’s legendary among the Finnish fantasy fans. The start of the last paragraph translated into English:
“A knight and a barbarian, a warrior and an elf-like dwarf, a wise man and a black magician start a dangerous quest…”

Lets look at the actual heroes: Sturm Brighblade (who, surprisingly enough, is a knight), Riverwind (a barbarian), Goldmoon (another barbarian… but she’s a woman so maybe she doesn’t count because she’s only the catalyst to the whole damn plot!), Caramon (who is a fighter), Tanis Half-Elven (another fighter and the group leader), Flint Fireforge (a dwarf but not “elf-like” in any way, shape, or form. Also a fighter), Raistlin (a wizard but not a black wizard), and Tasslehoff Burrfot (a kent which is a sort of halfling. Another fighter). Later they are joined by two elves Laurana and her brother who are both fighters. How the blazes can you describe this group in the above way! The answer, of course, appears simple: you haven’t read the book in the first place!

Now, getting the characters only half right or completely wrong might still be a minor transgression but it can still influence people’s expectations and therefore their reading experience.

Some blurbs have more sinister errors: a, wrong plot, b, part of the plot is wrong, c, it reveals a surprise plot twist, or d, reveal the surprise ending! What the hell, marketing people??? None of the above are the right way to sell a book! Often enough, the back cover is the only way to market that book. That’s not the right place to save money!

Sadly, the blurbs about Lois McMaster Bujold’s Shard of Honor are often quite off the mark:

“IT WAS THE WRONG WAR…
In the wrong place, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. She even wore the wrong uniform; Cordelia Naismith, Betan Expeditionary Force, had been hurried into battle still wearing her old tan Astronomical Survey fatigues.

Now, captain of a throwaway ship on a mission of deception, she convoys a weapon of wicked subtlety to entrap and destroy an enemy armada.

But Cordelia will discover deception within deception, treachery within treachery, until finally she is forced into a separate peace with her chief opponent, Lord Vorkosigan. It is a peace that earns her only ignominy – even though it foreshadows a new beginning, for herself, her lover, and both their peoples.“

Part of this might be true… from a certain point of view. Problems: this is not the start of the book! The blurb starts about halfway into the book! I have no idea what’s going on with the whole “wrong war, wrong uniform” thing. The uniforms aren’t important at all. Why mention them in the blurb??? Cordelia’s a single soldier in a war; she has no control over “wrong wars”. Lord Vorkosigan is her lover, not “chief opponent”, mentioning the deceptions is also a major spoiler and only starts after the halfway point of the book. This sounds once again like the person who wrote this hasn’t bothered to read the book. I dearly hope s/he wasn’t paid for it!

Alas, this isn’t the most atrocious description of poor Shards of Honor. From Amazon.com about Cordelia’s Honor which combines SoH and the next book in the internal chronology, Barrayar:

“In this two-part story, Cordelia Naismith, made an outcast after being forced into marriage with her arch enemy, finds further trouble when her husband is made the guardian of the infant heir to the imperial throne.”

Umm. Cordelia married the love of her life, not her arch enemy and she was most definitely not forced into it. I also find it troublesome that this is supposed to be the description of the two books and yet, it describes the end of the book one and so manages to spoil the first book pretty much completely.

This one, again from Amazon.com, I find just weirdly wrong and peculiar:

“Cordelia Naismith, Betan Survey Captain, was expecting the unexpected: hexapods, floating creatures, odd parasites… She was not, however, expecting to find hostile humans on an uninhabited planet. And she wasn’t really expecting to fall in love with a 40-plus barbarian known to cosmopolitan galactics as the Butcher of Komarr. Will Mother ever understand? And can such an odd beast as love survive an interplanetary war?”

Spoiling again one of the plot points in SoH; the romance. I also find the sentence “Will Mother ever understand?” mightly peculiar because Cordelia’s mother isn’t seen until the end of the book. It also makes it feel like Cordelia is twelve and constantly worrying about what her mother thinks. In reality, Cordelia is in her mid thirties and a ship captain and most definitely not worrying about her mother’s opinions. Also, this makes it sound like SoH is 100% romance. Again, the impression is wrong; the romance is perhaps half of the plot and is also quite understated.

Then there’s the Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The actual back cover blurb (which I don’t have right now, sorry about that) mentions by name only one of the three POV character who is, perhaps not coincidentally, the only male POV character. There’s a reference to another POV character but the third one, the female detective, is left out completely.

This blurb is from the Internet Database of Fiction:
“In a world where humans and aliens co-exist, where murder is sanctioned, and where no one can find safe haven, one group of private detectives is willing to help the “Disappeared” find their way home. Meet the Retrieval Artists.”

Short, but it still got two things wrong:
1. Murder is not sanctioned. Alien laws are agreed to be valid even on human grounds. I find that to be quite a different concept.
2. You’re pretty safe if you don’t commit crimes. Now granted, it’s sometimes hard to know what aliens consider crimes but the claim that “no one is safe” is pure hyperbole.

I guess I’ve ranted enough. But really, I don’t trust blurbs.

 

Kage Baker: Sky Coyote

The second book in the Company –series and part of my 2nds challenge.

This time the main character is Joseph who is one of the oldest immortals around. He was made into an immortal in the Stone Age. The previous book’s main character, Mendoza, is a secondary character here.

Joseph has been assigned among the mortals for a quite a long while. His latest job is as a Spanish Jesuit. However, at the start of the book, he’s being reassigned. At first, he spends some free time at New World One which is one the Company’s places hidden from mortals. Even though the year is 1599, the people in New World One have every luxury imaginable from modern drinks to water toilets. Joseph enjoys his time there fully although the melodramatic director Houbert is a bit too enthusiastic about arranging entertainment for all no matter if the all what to participate or not. The immortals are served by Mayans who think the immortals are gods.

After a couple of weeks, Joseph is reassigned to further up north, to the place which will be California later. He, and a group of other immortals, are to relocate a tribe of Chumash Indians to the future and to safety from the invading white people. In order to save them, Joseph has to masquerade as the trickster god Coyote who seems to be a sort of champion for the tribe although definitely not all-knowing or even good all the time. He gets implants from the Company and introduces himself to the Chumash.

Most of the story is Joseph’s experiences with the tribe who seems to be fairly prosperous and quite advanced in trade relations. They aren’t stupid or naive, though. Joseph enjoys spending time with them because they remind him of his childhood and youth in the Stone Age. I was amused by how Baker had decided to make the dialogue quite modern and so the Chumash had Canoemakers’ Union and United Steatite Workers alongside with shamans.

There’s also an interesting subplot about the Company. Apparently, none of the immortals are allowed to travel into the future beyond the year 2355. The humans say that this is the start of the glorious golden years but the immortals have their own, darker, thoughts. Also, the oldest immortals have disappeared over the years. Technically, they cannot die but Joseph hasn’t seen any of the Neanderthal immortals for centuries. They seem to be very loyal bunch but not very easy to blend into the crowd anymore. Also, we see some of Joseph’s memories about Budu who recruited him. Some time ago, Budu was arrested and Joseph hasn’t seen him since. I hope Baker will return to these plotlines later.

The Alta California base is run by humans from the future and there’s a stark contrast between the two bases. The New World One is a decadent place where the immortals drink and party all night and can indulge their every vice. In AltCal, the humans are strict vegans, don’t drink, and are deathly afraid of germs from a less civilized time. They impose these limits to the immortals as well. Also, the future humans don’t care for culture, even pop culture, and don’t even understand metaphors. The future doesn’t look very promising.

The plot isn’t really an adventure story. Instead if focuses on the Chumash society and also the differences between the immortals and their bosses from the future. But I tend to like that, from time to time. In fact, I’d like to read some more books like that.

Joseph’s way of coping with outliving mortals is that he makes a point to not to get involved. Not in people and not in ideas. As far as he’s concerned, they are all transitory. I think that’s a good way to cope, at least in the surface, but how long can anyone live like that? It might also make a character boring in the long run. We’ll see.

Overall: a good continuation. I already have the third book.

 

Hour 24 meme

I had a wonderful time even though I wasn’t able to keep awake the whole time. I’ll definitely have to think about time management more the next time. I even won a prize at Dana’s mini-challenge!

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
After 4 AM here which would have been hour 17. Fell asleep.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
That would depend on what the reader is interested in. But I’d definitely recommend “To Say Nothing of the Dog” by Willis. Of course, it’s not short.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Nope. Everything was great! Thanks very much for the awesome organizers!

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Everything worked well.

5. How many books did you read?
I didn’t finish any of them but I reached my goals for the read-a-thon.

6. What were the names of the books you read?
“To Say Nothing of the Dog” by Willis. I listened it around 6 hours which is about 1/3 of the whole book.
“the Spirit Gate” by Elliott. I read 102 pages so I reached my goal!
“the Empress of Mars” by Kage Baker. I read 140 pages so I reached my goal!

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
Both Willis’ and Baker’s books were very enjoyable. Perhaps Willis a bit more because it has more comedy.

8. Which did you enjoy least?
The Spirit Gate. For some reason I didn’t click at all with Elliott’s writing style. Or maybe I’m still in epic fantasy fatigue. I just thought it’s terribly slllooowww.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
No, I wasn’t.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
Very! Probably as a reader but I might take on a mini-challenge.

 

Hour 21 challenge

Update: I had to cave in and slept for some hours. But now I’m back up and reading!

Dana’’s challenge is:

In honor of Miss Adison who is 4, I’d like you to tell me 4 of your favorite books. To play along you need to link and/or post pictures of your favorite 4 reads either from childhood or from now.

I’ll take now.

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Cordelia’s Honor. It’s character centered science fiction.

Steven Brust’s Book of Jhereg. One of my favorite fantasy settings.

Anne Logston’s Shadow Hunt. The second book in one of my favorite fantasy series.

Roger Zelazny’s Guns of Avalon. The second in his Amber series.