Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In Dhalgren, the town of Bellona is isolated. It's somewhere in the central United States, but we don't know exactly where. People live in a kind of chaotic anarchy, with no authorities present to enforce order. Occasionally strange things happen in the sky, but generally life continues with little interference from whatever has affected the town. The story follows the Kid, a wanderer who comes into town without knowing even his own name, but becomes part of the community.

Dhalgren is a very different kind of escapism than I usually look for in science fiction or fantasy. There's very little in the way of explaining why the world is the way it is, or how. Instead it's almost entirely about people finding ways to keep living their lives. Some go with the flow of things, some fight against it. Bellona is a place of benevolent anarchy, where everyone pretty much does whatever they like and things will largely just work out.

There are a lot of themes running through this book. Sex is a big one, present at the very beginning, and explicitly pornographic at times. Homosexuality, multiple partners, wide promiscuity - it reads to me as if Delaney was trying to touch on everything from the 1960s free love movement. Racial tensions appear as well, with some fairly bigoted characters as well as prominent black figures. Several characters, including the Kid, exhibit symptoms of mental illness. There's plenty of drug and alcohol use, sometimes to the point of abuse.

But it's just as interesting what doesn't appear. There are basically no economics - everyone just takes what they need from abandoned stores, squats in the park or abandoned homes, even drinks are free at the bar. There's no religion - the one church that we see is a community center but not a place for traditional worship, and the characters largely ignore the spiritual (at least in a religious context). And there's no government or other controlling authority, or any attempts to form one.

Taken together, the things that Delaney includes and chooses to leave out gives the impression of being unhappy with many realities of the world - living under authority, restrictions on sexual expression, economic hardships - and describing a world that simply removes them. I don't know if that's how Delaney felt himself, or it was a viewpoint he was trying to capture. I think it succeeds to some extent, although it's clearly not a stable reality. The reader can see that at some point, either resources will begin to run low or someone will get power-hungry, and the anarchy will turn much less benevolent. But that time doesn't come during the book.

All told, I can't say I particularly liked Dhalgren. It says some interesting things on quite a few topics, and that part I did enjoy. However, I just couldn't get behind the idea that you can take a random city full of people, remove the constraints mentioned above, and end up with a chaotic-but-largely-benign utopia of personal freedom and sexual expression. Someone or something has to make an effort to get that scenario and keep it going, and Dhalgren doesn't have any such controlling force. Without that, it feels like reading one long dream sequence rather than a commentary on reality, which is just not my thing.

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Darius the Great Is Not Okay is written from the perspective of a Persian-American teenage boy who struggles with depression and anxiety. It's a young adult novel, but it says plenty of good things for adults as well.

The story starts with Darius at home in Portland, Oregon, where he doesn't seem to fit. Teased by his peers, uncomfortable with his father, unpopular at school, overweight, feeling neither truly Persian or American...he's got plenty of reasons to feel out of place. Then his family takes a trip to his mother's home in Iran, which is stressful but also gives him a different perspective, the opportunity to meet family in person for the first time, and where he finds a friend for life.

I know something about being a teenager who doesn't feel like he fits in - don't we all? Some of the situations Darius finds himself in, and his reactions, were extremely familiar. But other parts - Darius' split heritage, his treatment for depression - stood out to me as they hadn't been part of my own experience. Khorram does an excellent job of helping the reader understand how those aspects of Darius' life impacted everything, from how he relates to his family to his ability to communicate to his peer interactions.

This book was a quick read for me, and Khorram's simple and clear writing style is great. There's plenty of humor to balance some of those heavy psychological topics. For me, the fact that Darius' thoughts are laced with references to Star Trek and Lord of the Rings was a big plus. There are also a lot of discussions of tea, for those heavily into that.

I'd recommend that everyone read Darius the Great Is Not Okay. If your personal experience has parallels with that of Darius, you'll find a story that hits close to home. If not, then you'll find a window into a world of split cultural heritage and living with depression. An excellent experience either way.

The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey

The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Monkey Wrench Gang is a rant against wilderness development and commercialism through the lens of outrageous ecoterrorism. It's often funny, too, and on occasion deep. But mostly, it's really, really wordy.

The first thing I noticed about this book is just how many words it takes Abbey to say anything. No simple description will do. Entire paragraphs are devoted to what could easily have been described as "the car moved forward" or "cars full of wild teenagers zoomed past on the highway" - and those are just a couple of examples from the first chapter. I appreciate detailed and descriptive writing, but this was excessive. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, he of the famous quote "Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away", would not have approved.

Once you've dug the characters and plot out of the pile of words, The Monkey Wrench Gang isn't bad. A small group of arguably insane friends got roaming around the southwestern US, protesting against development encroaching on the wilderness. These aren't symbolic protests; they inflict destruction ranging from burning billboards to crippling heavy equipment to felling bridges. This isn't a dark, gritty, realistic description of ecoterrorism; it's more the telling of a larger-than-life legend, a play set on the stage of a disappearing wilderness.

This is a novel from the 1970s, and thus it's no surprise that some of the other themes of the time are also prominent. Marijuana appears regularly. One of the main characters is a Vietnam veteran, suffering from mental trauma from his experience. Another is a woman living well outside the traditional female role of wife and mother. We're used to all of this now, largely because of the cultural influence of these kinds of books, movies, songs, etc.

I'd have liked The Monkey Wrench Gang more without about half the words, but even so it was an interesting read. A bit of cultural history that informs the things we see in today's books and other media.

The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya

The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Girl Who Smiled Beads is a memoir by Clemantine Wamariya, who became a refugee in Rwanda as a child and later came to the United States. It's a story both of a child struggling to survive as a refugee, and a young woman struggling to adjust to a new world.

I picked up this book on recommendation from someone who works with refugee children at a nonprofit organization. She recommends it to those of us who volunteer so that we can get a small idea of what some of the kids we work with have gone through. Simply reading about an experience like living as a refugee will always be only a small window into the reality, but even that little gives us a bit more empathy.

The part of the story about Clemantine's days as a refugee described a sad, dangerous, desparate struggle for survival in terrible conditions. I more or less expected that, but expecting it doesn't make it any easier to read about people barely surviving on meager food handouts, children abandoned, unsanitary conditions, and all the other horrors of refugee life. Those of us in the developed world, in our comfort, tend to forget how awful things can be for people who simply had the misfortune to be born in the wrong place. It's good to be reminded occasionally, and hopefully jolted out of our apathy.

I was less prepared for the part of the story about Clemantine coming to the United States. Her life changed for the better, certainly, and there's no doubt she and her family were grateful, but it still was such a difficult experience. I knew in theory that the trauma of war and her refugee experience didn't disappear when she left Africa, but reading through repeated examples of how that trauma kept affecting her for years was still something of a shock. She describes a myriad of personal struggles that are completely foreign to those of us who haven't suffered through the same kinds of trauma.

And while plenty of people here in the United States provided help, there are also many examples of how Americans confused or frightened her with well-meaning gestures of assistance, or how things we take for granted grated against her instincts. Or how our reactions differed from hers - for instance, there's a brief story about 9-11, and how the extreme reaction of everyone around her was confusing. To her, that kind of terrible disaster was just part of life, another in a long line that she had seen, and she couldn't understand why it was such a shock to everyone else. It's a good lesson for those of us wanting to help, that we need to exercise empathy and do our best to understand when our actions or other circumstances cause confusion or misunderstanding.

The Girl Who Smiled Beads isn't an easy book to read, but I think it's an important one. Not just for those already involved with refugee families, but all of us with the good fortune to have avoided such experiences. Understanding their experience, even in a small way, is an important step in finding ways that we can be involved in a solution.

Markswoman by Rati Mehrotra

Markswoman by Rati Mehrotra
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Markswoman reads like a cross between the post-apocalyptic world of Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East, and the romantic space opera style of Star Wars. If that sounds like an interesting mix, you'll likely enjoy it.

The book is set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world where the human population is fairly small and technology is limited. But occasionally high technology (or magic, call it what you like) shows up, left over from the old world, such as the psionic blades wielded by the Orders of Markswomen. They are peacekeepers and (when necessary) executioners, focused on martial prowess and mental discipline.

The story mostly follows Kyra, an orphan who recently became a full member of the Order of Kali. Events force Kyra to leave everything she knows to strike out into the world. Along the way she discovers truths about the past, finds romance, confronts dangerous enemies, and makes allies. It's a fairly straightforward hero(ine)'s journey plot, but I thought it was well crafted.

Kyra is a well-developed character, as are many of those she meets along the way. The completely predictable romance angle is a little boring, but otherwise I thought Mehrotra did a good job of keeping the characters interesting.

One of my favorite parts of any sci-fi/fantasy work is discovering the world, and Markswoman is no exception. There are lots of hints of the history that led to Kyra's world, but not much in the way of hard facts. That worked fine for me in this case, as Mehrotra keeps the historical reveals relevant to the unfolding story. This book leaves plenty of that history to the imagination, presumably to be revealed in future books.

Markswoman doesn't break much new ground, but many of the themes that it repeats are some of my favorites in the genre. I'll likely search out the later books in the series to see how it delivers on this good beginning.

φ, π, e, and i by David Perkins

φ, π, e, and i by David Perkins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's been a couple of decades since I did any real math study. φ, π, e, and i caught my eye because I know the author through an online forum, plus I was looking for a book with a non-alphanumeric character in the title for a book club.

Fortunately, φ, π, e, and i is written for undergraduates so it required only that I unearth some things that are buried in my brain under 20 years of other stuff. For someone who is actively learning college-level mathematics, most of the stuff that I'd forgotten would be fresh in mind. Of course, when I got confused I could always ask the author for clarification! But that wasn't often necessary, since the book is clearly written and uses endnotes to provide extra detail where a conclusion may not be obvious.

φ, π, e, and i isn't just about the math itself, but also some of the history behind the numbers. The Sanskrit poet and the Italian mathematician who both discovered the Fibonnaci sequence, for instance, which comes up as one learns about φ. Or the parallel conception of complex numbers in Norway and Germany around 1800. I found the history to be just as interesting as the math itself, particularly when more than one historical figure had approached a problem from different directions but came to the same conclusion. That kind of convergence really puts the universal nature of mathematics in focus.

The four chapters of the book (one for each constant, naturally) build on one another nicely. Techniques used in the earlier chapters make appearances later on, and the book ends with the well-known e^(iπ)=-1 and less well-known φ = e^(iπ/5) + e^(-iπ/5), tying all four together in one statement. A fitting way to wrap up an interesting trip through the definition and history of some of math's most important numbers!

"i hate the internet" by Jarett Kobek

i hate the internet by Jarett Kobek
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is not the kind of book I'd normally read...little in the way of plot, choppy writing style, not much action or character growth. But there is plenty to think about, so I enjoyed it nonetheless.

i hate the internet is largely a rant about the many imperfections in modern society, with special focus on how those imperfections tend to benefit white straight rich men over everyone who doesn't fit one of those four categories. The Internet is a primary target but far from the only one. Kobek pokes at everything, from religion to capitalism to despotic oppression to science fiction to music to celebrity. He shines the worst possible light on whatever he deems unfair, wrong, or just unlikable.

A few examples:

"...all revolutions happened because everyone everywhere wanted to be Americans."

"Wars were giant parties for the ruling elites, who sometimes thought it would be great fun to make the poor kill each other."

"A fluency with Black culture would attract more advertisers. Actual Black people would scare advertisers."

Those are some clean examples, of which there are not many...lots of profanity and tons of sexual references. But most of it is either humorous or thought-provoking, which makes it worthwhile in my view.

Now, this is not to say that I agree with all of what i hate the internet describes about our world. Far from it - I think much of what is said takes the imperfections in history and/or society, and blows them all out of proportion. But it's all entertaining and thought-provoking, whether you agree with how he describes something or not.

War of the Spark: Ravnica by Greg Weisman

War of the Spark: Ravnica by Greg Weisman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reading War of the Spark: Ravnica is like watching the latest season of a long-running TV series. There's a bunch of people with all kinds of history running around, with just enough explanation to follow the main plot but not enough to grasp all the implications of their past relationships. And on top of that, for some reason there's a big chunk of time missing from the storyline that's being doled out in weekly flashbacks.

The worlds of Magic: The Gathering have a fairly long history, and it hasn't always been very well organized. Hardly organized at all, at the very beginning in the early 1990s, and it took quite a few years for Wizards of the Coast to get their act together in terms of the game's story lore. But in the last few years, at least since Magic Origins in 2015, things have been much more coherent. (Argument can be made for some of the earlier set stories being pretty decent, too.) In general, the story behind the game has become pretty good, following a group of heroes called the Gatewatch across various planes of existence in the Magic multiverse. For the last few years they've been butting heads with a cunning Elder Dragon called Nicol Bolas.

The Magic set War of the Spark was released a few months ago, and with it the novel War of the Spark: Ravnica. I was looking forward to it, since the main storyline had largely been on hiatus for the second half of 2018. We got some background stories set on Ravnica (which weren't bad at all) but nothing to move ahead the big conflict between the Gatewatch and Nicol Bolas. The novel picks up those threads, which have been gathering for the last several years across many Magic sets on multiple planes.

Which means that I was a bit confused when I started the novel and the state of things on Ravinca was quite a bit different than what we'd been lead to expect. Dead guild leaders, plans to oppose Bolas gone awry, people mourning a character (Hekara) I'd never heard of. Turns out, there's an entire "prequel" novel that's being released one chapter at a time that took place before War of the Spark: Ravnica. I have no idea why the story folks would do this - it makes reading this book feel like I'm coming into a movie halfway through. It's a disappointing dropped ball from a story team that's been pretty good for quite a few years now.

As for characters - there's a lot of them. As a reader of Magic story articles, I have a pretty good idea of who is who in the Magic multiverse. But even so, the sheer cast of characters in War of the Spark: Ravnica is pretty daunting. Weisman makes an effort to introduce those important to the story, but that still leaves a whole lot of folks who are just kind of hanging around the background or have very limited contributions. I suspect anyone who hasn't followed the Magic story for several years will be fairly confused about who all these people are.

OK, having said all that - I still think War of the Spark: Ravnica is a pretty decent novel. Weisman is a good writer, other than the occasional tendency to toss in unnecessarily cheesy one-liners. (Haven't we heard "Can't we all just get along?" and "It's not the heat; it's the humidity" enough by now?) He does a fine job with Teyo and Rat, two new characters for this story. And once you get the gist of where things stand on Ravinca, the overall plot moves along pretty well, with very little downtime...it's action of one kind or another pretty much all the way.

If you've followed the Magic story for a while now, you'll want to check out War of the Spark: Ravnica. But if not, don't start here - you're better off reading through some of the older Magic story articles, and then if you want to know how things proceed, this book will be there.

The High House by James Stoddard

The High House by James Stoddard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Teenage me would have loved The High House, first in the Evenmere Chronicles series. Middle-aged me has seen enough of the classic heroic fantasy genre.

Evenmere is a Victorian mansion of apparently infinite size, containing entire nations within it, somehow linked to the entire universe. Wind the clocks, light the lamps, keep Order and Chaos in check within the house, or else the entire universe suffers the consequences. The son of the Master of the House, Carter Anderson, has lived away from the House but must take over when his father disappears and is presumed lost. He has to find his way and learn the powers he needs to become Master and keep Evenmere safe and secure.

This story is very familiar fantasy, with lots of magic, some fantastic creatures, and mystical forces. It's also a pretty standard "hero's journey" story, with the unready youngster given a trial by fire and emerging heroic. Other than Carter, the characters are largely one-dimensional stereotypes who fill one role with little complexity. The idea of an infinite house is a bit out of the ordinary, but it's divided into nations and regions much like any fantasy world.

Reading through The High House feels almost like deja vu. Hey, this bit sounds like Lord of the Rings. There's a part that reminds me of Narnia. Oh, some strange people that would fit nicely into the Wizard of Oz. Hey, that odd creature could be right out of Alice in Wonderland. And so on. This isn't a bad thing, exactly, it just means that I've read so much of the classic heroic fantasy genre that the story needs something pretty significantly different to stand out. And the infinite-house setting just wasn't enough do it, for me at least.

I didn't dislike The High House by any means, but I wasn't drawn into the story either. It just was too much like other similar series to hold my interest, so I'm in no rush to read the other books. Others who like this kind of fantasy story, particularly those who aren't as prone to compare to the classics as I am, may like it better.

Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax

Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Plum Rains is a wonderful story that touches on dozens of topics, from family to trauma to technology to culture. It just takes a while to get there.

The novel centers on two women, elderly Sayoko and her live-in nurse Angelica. The first third or so of the book is largely concerned with describing how these two women live and interact, and it's not a particularly happy story. Eventually, things start to happen...an android arrives to assist Sayoko, Angelica's various troubles catch up with her, Sayoko reveals past trauma that she's kept hidden for decades. The stories of Angelica and Sayoko end up affecting much more of the world than just themselves.

The setting in Plum Rains is near-future Japan, when some of today's trends...low birth rate, increased population age, significant foreign worker presence...have grown significantly. The wider world plays a role, too, most notably in development of robotics and artificial intelligence. And history is just as important as the future in this story, as events from Sayoko's past in particular come to light.

I felt that the early part of Plum Rains dragged a bit, but it gets much more interesting further in. Don't give up on it early. Romano-Lax tells a great story that's well worth the time to read.

Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan

Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author's note at the beginning of Market Forces says it evolved from "...nasty idea to short story to screenplay to the novel..." and that it was inspired in part by Mad Max. And that is exactly how it reads.

Market Forces is a near-future dystopia where international finance corporations openly bankroll wars around the world, inequality in capitalist nations is extreme, and corporate executives win promotion through road-rage battles. The protagonist is Chris, an executive with lower-class origins pushing his way upward into the privileged ranks. Along the way he struggles against the other executives, against his own conscience, and against the system.

There's a whole lot of big-budget action movie in this book. The driving duels, obviously, but plenty more too. Sex and drugs and money and betrayal and bloody fights (in and out of cars). It's not hard to see where "screenplay" fit into the evolution of the novel that the author mentioned. I'm pretty sure the same story could easily have been told with a lot less drinking, drugs, sex, and graphic violence...but it wouldn't have the same spectacle feel.

For the first half of the book, I had a hard time taking it very seriously. The idea of Mad Max-style road duels didn't fit all that well into the more serious world-building. It doesn't seem like too much of a stretch from today's world to get to the idea of giant financial powerhouses abandoning all pretense of morality, or to have society stratified into the privileged rich and downtrodden poor with governments pushed aside by corporate power. Executives running one another off the road made it all seem pretty cheesy, though. But as the book went on, there was a lot more intrigue and political maneuvering than straight-up road rage, and by the time it got back to driving I was used to the idea.

Much of the novel is taken up by Chris trying to come to terms with what kind of person he is. Is he a ruthless executive driver who ruins third-world nations and rival executives alike? Or does he have enough empathy for others in situations not unlike his own background to show some mercy? What does it mean to be loyal to his own beliefs and to the people he knows? Not easy questions, and there's not really a definitive answer. Everything ends up in shades of gray, no easy right or wrong resolutions.

Market Forces paints a disturbing-but-intriguing picture of a world where amoral financial interest has taken control. It's even fairly believable, aside from the idea of road-rage car duels. But those duels and the sex/drugs/violence action-movie spectacle isn't really my style, and felt over-done. If that's your thing, though, you'll likely enjoy this one.

Provenance by Ann Leckie

Provenance by Ann Leckie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Provenance tells the story of an insecure young woman finding her place in her world. Not an unusual theme, but then add that the world is part of a human diaspora of in space and the other characters aren't all human, and it gets a bit more interesting.

The protagonist in Provenance is Ingray, who hails from the world of Hwae and is competing with her brother to be their mother's heir. She makes some questionable decisions in pursuit of that goal, meets some very interesting other humans and non-humans, witnesses a murder, and gets herself unwittingly involved in some very high-stakes conflicts between governments. In resolving all of that excitement, she grows up enough to know more about what she really wants from life.

The entire novel is written from Ingray's viewpoint and we hear much of her inner dialogue, much of it revealing a distinct lack of self-confidence. This isn't new, I've read books with similar characters before - but it's pretty rare in my experience for the character to grow and yet continue to express that weakness. Ingray never does become a heroine with nerves of steel, but she does learn to use the skills and abilities she has, even if she's frightened and unsure of herself the entire time. And a little good fortune and some good friends certainly help.

There's plenty about the wider world - aliens, political intrigue, other cultures - that Ingray doesn't know, and so the reader tends to learn about those things along with her. That's convenient for explanation, but it does make some of the plot points feel like deus ex machina when she suddenly becomes aware of something new and it causes significant changes. I didn't like that at first, but then I realized that's pretty much how Ingray herself would have felt, and then it made more sense.

Provenance is set in the same universe as the Imperial Radch trilogy, which I read a few years ago. This book doesn't really touch on the events in the trilogy, though there are a few references to what happened. Even a few bits that could be considered minor spoilers, so be warned if you haven't read the trilogy. And we learn more about the universe, most notably the alien Geck.

One part of Provenance that I found particularly interesting was the Hwae culture's reverence for "vestiges" - basically souvenirs from important dates in a person's life or the history of the larger culture. Some pretty significant parts of the book rely on the way the Hwae assign importance to these objects...whether they're the real thing or not. As long as everyone believes they're seeing an important bit of history, it might as well be the real thing.

I enjoyed Provenance, and anyone who's read Leckie's other work certainly will as well. If you haven't yet given her work a try, do so...though I'd start with the Imperial Radch trilogy.

Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez

Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kill Decision is a near-future techno-thriller based on the disturbing concept of financial interests using technology to further their profit goals without morals or accountability. That's not a new idea, of course, there's been plenty of other books (and movies/TV/etc) based on the same idea of some shadowy conspiracy manipulating events with no regard for consequences to the world. I think Suarez does a fine job of implementing the concept using modern society and technology, so it didn't bother me that there wasn't much in the way of new ground covered.

The novel revolves around advances in autonomous drone technology, most notably vision processing and swarming behavior. I'm no expert in those fields, but I consider myself an informed layman, and it certainly doesn't feel like Suarez is reaching all that far past what's possible right now. What the novel proposes in these fields is advanced refinements of capabilities that we're already seeing in labs today - years away, not decades, if someone really wanted to do it and dedicated the resources.

It's not all techno-games, of course; there's plenty of interesting characters with personality in Kill Decision. The main character is Linda McKinney, a scientist who studies ants. Her work is co-opted by the bad guys, and she's saved from elimination by a team of black-ops soldiers. They proceed to spend the rest of the novel roaming around the world to stop the conspiratorial disaster. My favorite character was the heavy-metal-loving commando Foxy, right-hand man to team leader and hero Odin. All of it is well-written and engaging, if not particularly unique.

Kill Decision is a enjoyable read, fast-paced and interesting. The reader can just enjoy the action, or think a little deeper about some of the moral questions. (What kind of danger are we in from certain kinds of technological advances? Do we have any real control over bad actors using such technology?) Either way, I recommend it.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Less by Andrew Sean Greer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Less won lots of prizes and is clearly a work that many people appreciate. It's a good case in point of the fact that I am not one of those people, because I thought it was largely boring, and the main character uninteresting.

Less follows middle-aged author Arthur Less as he jets around the world avoiding reminders of twin impending disasters: his ex-partner's marriage and turning 50. He spends a lot of time feeling out of place, unsure of himself, nostalgic for a simpler past, and unable to write. Eventually he sorts out his feelings (somewhat) and manages to write again (but not finish his novel) and finds resolution for his romantic woes (but not on purpose). This is not a book with an exciting, gripping plot.

Arthur is gay. There were maybe one or two places where this actually mattered, as far as I can tell, most notably one bit where one of his books is rejected because it deals only with a white gay man instead of something more exotic. Other than that, you could swap the gender of a few characters and maybe a few locations to make this a straight novel and it would read very much the same. Arthur has no struggles over being gay, there's no discrimination, practically everyone he meets is either also gay or could care less. Which is fine, something of an ideal world in fact, but it begs the question of why write a novel about it? Ideal isn't interesting.

Romantic relationships seem to define Arthur's self-image. He's with an older partner in a long-term but still somewhat casual relationship; that ends and he finds a younger partner to do basically the same thing in mirror image; then that ends and he's alone and pathetic. Completely alien to my mindset, putting this kind of weight on romance and yet not actually pursuing a solid lasting relationship. To me, it makes Arthur simply look like someone unable to decide what he really wants out of life...not uncommon, but not interesting enough to base a novel on. This being a romantic novel, there is an eventual resolution to Arthur's love woes...but it fell flat with me, as it basically falls into his lap, through no fault of his own.

The writing style of Greer reminds me of when I was reading classics in school. Some genuinely funny or moving prose, surrounded by a whole lot of flowery language meant to convey characters' mindsets that goes off in all directions and is either uninteresting or confusing. So I can see why the literary critics loved it, but it is definitely not to my taste.

There are obviously lots of people who enjoyed Less, most notably a Pulitzer committee. However, I am not one of them.

On the Wing: American Poems of Air and Space Flight

On the Wing: American Poems of Air and Space Flight by Karen Yelena Olsen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm not much of a poetry person. On the rare occasions that I read any, about 90% of it does nothing for me. Too abstract, too vague, too flowery. But every once in a while, there's a bit that does make an impression.

On The Wing is a poetry collection all about flight, and it wasn't an exception to that 90% rule of thumb. Much of the parts that didn't click for me were about the feeling of flying, largely by pilots or those writing about pilots. It's not that I don't enjoy a bit of romanticism about flight...there are some songs I like that fit that description...but the format here didn't work for me.

The 10% that I did find interesting, though, was pretty good. Much of it was about passenger flight, which makes sense considering that I've spent a lot of time as a passenger. Rosanna Warren's "from North", for instance, the first section of which is about the feeling of being a passenger while flying through dangerous weather. And Simon Ortiz's "A San Diego Poem" that describes a whole trip, including feeling a bit lost in an airport after disembarking. I also enjoyed several in the section related to military flight, most notably "Tuskegee Airfield" by Marilyn Nelson Waniek.

This collection was published in 2004, but most of it came from prior to 2001. That means there's very little written after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Only one poem makes a direct reference, "History of the Airplane" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (written in 2002). Oh, there's still a few pieces that deal with hijackings, but they don't have the kind of urgency and trauma that you'd expect from people who lived through that day. I suspect that similar works written in the last two decades are quite a bit more focused on security and danger.

Poetry is never going to be my favored form of writing. Given the right subject matter, though, I can find some pieces that I enjoy like I did with On The Wing.

The Boys (comics)

The Boys is a comic series based in a world where super-powers are real, but almost no one who has them is a hero. They put on a good public face, but behind the scenes nearly every one is terrible. And a small group of operatives, who are pretty terrible themselves, track down the secrets and hand out punishments.

All that sounds like it's a fun concept, and it would be, if the writers of The Boys weren't so fond of going over the top with every kind of the worst excess and immorality. Most of it is sexual, though there's plenty of violence as well. Some of it actually matters to the plot and world-building, and that part I don't mind. But I'd say that's maybe a third of what's actually presented, with the rest being just unnecessary crude sensationalism and humor.

It's possible to do this kind of "if super-powers were real people would be terrible with them" thing in a different way. I know because it already was done, back in 2003 with Supreme Power. That series had its share of sex and violence, but it wasn't thrown in your face on every page, and most of it had a purpose in the story.

I read the first collection volume of The Boys for a few reasons. I have friends who have liked it, I was looking for a new graphic novel to read anyway, and also I'd heard there was going to be a TV series made. But if the TV series holds true to the style of the comics, I doubt I'll want to watch it.

The world-building, the characters, the story plots...all that stuff is interesting and fairly well executed in The Boys. If the writers could have just restrained their impulse to cram crude language and humor into every possible nook and cranny of their creation, I'd have really liked it. But as it is, I can't say the good parts are worth the sludge you have to read through on the way.

David Drake's Books of the Elements

David Drake's Books of the Elements series is not historical fiction, but the setting is based heavily on historical elements with fantasy elements added - nature spirits, magic, etc. It's historical fantasy in the same sense that something like Harry Potter is modern fantasy.

There are four books in the series, each based on an element: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. The story follows a small group who are pulled into a major world-threatening conflict of magical forces: two young men and two young women, a learned elder, and various allies they meet along the way - both human and magical. At first they're largely ignorant of the big picture, and have to struggle both to stay alive and learn enough to make the right decisions.

If you've read Drake's books before and think that sounds familiar, it's because his Isles series could be described much the same way. As I read this series, I regularly had moments of near deja vu, when Hedia acted just like Ilna, or one of the characters was pulled through some magical portal and had to adventure their way back. There are a lot of similarities, enough so that anyone who didn't like the Isles series can safely skip this one too. But if you did like Isles and wanted more of the same, good news - this is it. (With one caveat - there's more sex in this series than I remember from Isles.)

Drake's writing style is descriptive and easy to read. He keeps the plot moving, constantly sending the main characters off to new places and dangers. I never felt the story bogged down. The characters are decently well developed, with plenty of time devoted to each. My only complaint is that they seem a bit too heroic and/or lucky at times, pulling victory out of some pretty crazy situations, but then this is a heroic fantasy so that's par for the course.

The historical elements of the setting are based on the Roman empire circa 30 AD, as stated in the author's note. The fantastic elements are more varied - there are Norse elements, shamanism, nature magic, and I'm sure plenty of other things I didn't specifically identify. Drake makes use of many sources to pull together his world, not least of which is his own imagination to weave them all together.

The Books of the Elements are a solid read for fans of Drake's work. They're not likely to convert anyone who didn't like his other fantasy titles, though.

The Accursed Kings series by Maurice Druon

I put Maurice Druon's series The Accursed Kings on my reading list several years ago, largely because I saw that George R. R. Martin referenced it as a major influence in his creation of A Song of Ice and Fire. Then I promptly forgot about it, until my recent binge on historical fiction (The Ivy Crown, A Very English Scandal) brought it to mind.

The series takes place mostly during the 14th century in France, from the last of Phillip the Fair's reign until the time of John the Good. The characters are many and varied, from royalty and courtiers to merchants and peasants. There are six books, which sounds long but really went quickly, as each book is fairly short and there's no lack of interesting activity to keep the reader turning the page. (There's a seventh book as well, but it was written many years later and doesn't quite fit with the rest. The library didn't have it, so I stopped at six.) Credit to both Druon and translator Humphrey Hare for well-crafted writing that maintains the reader's interest!

There's no lack of action and intrigue in the series, which I'm sure is part of why Druon chose to wrote about this particular time period. Love affairs, embezzlement, blackmail, secret plots against the powerful, torture and executions, conflict internal to France and externally with England...plenty of material to work with! Much of it centers around Robert of Artois, either directly or indirectly, who is clearly the author's favorite figure from the time. And with good reason, as his actions had huge impact on the direction of both France and England during his life. Robert wasn't a good man, but was certainly a very influential one, and his story is incredibly interesting.

Occasionally the author steps outside the story and speaks directly to the reader about medieval society and events of the time, which I thought added to the feeling of listening to a great storyteller. Unfortunately, this also occasionally spoils some of the suspense for any reader who doesn't already know the fate of the various monarchs and nobles. I think Druon assumes that most of his readers have studied history in enough detail to already know who became king/died/was imprisoned/etc, and so doesn't worry about occasionally talking about future events.

I can definitely see the influence on Martin's work. The various factions playing the "game of thrones" have plenty of similarities to those in The Accursed Kings books. The intrigues and plots of 14th century France would fit right into the world of Westeros and Essos. Inspiration for individual characters can be seen on a regular basis: Enguerrand de Marigny reflected in Eddard Stark, or Marie of Hungary in Olenna Tyrell. Martin added magic and dragons, of course, but even there you see some reflection in Druon's writing when lack of understanding leads people to interpret poison as magic or the suffering of a stroke as the fulfillment of a curse.

For any historical fiction fan, The Accursed Kings series is a must-read. If you're not yet such a fan, read it anyway, you might become one.

The Ivy Crown by Mary M. Luke

The Ivy Crown by Mary M. Luke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

English royalty isn't something I'm particularly interested in. Most of what I know comes from the occasional Jeopardy category about the various Henrys and Richards and Edwards (which I almost always get wrong). But I was looking for something from the 1500-1800 timeframe and The Ivy Crown caught my eye, about Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII. And I was somewhat surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

The Ivy Crown is historical fiction, as opposed to an academic biography, which certainly helped make it entertaining. In the author's note, Mary Luke says that she enjoyed being free from the restrictions of direct quotes and citations, and I think it shows in the writing style. Having said all that, I still think the "historical" part of this book is the primary focus, not the "fiction" part. Luke may have imagined some of the happenings in Parr's life, but it's all in a framework of true history.

The Katherine Parr in this book is an intelligent woman who devoted herself to family and friends. She asked very little from life for herself; only her eventual final marriage to Thomas Seymour really came from her own desires. By all accounts she was well-loved by almost everyone she met, making few enemies and many friends. Even when she fell out with various people over political and religious issues, she did her best to reconcile when the situation changed. When reading historical fiction, I always wonder how much the person's life and reputation has been burnished by the author; in this case, I don't think Parr's life needed much help to stand out.

Parr lived through some very interesting times, with Henry VIII running around on his various wives and declaring himself head of the Church. She wasn't directly involved in most of it, but since she was friendly with many of those involved, all that upheaval played a large role in her life. And then, of course, she ended up right in the middle of it all when she became Henry's sixth queen. That lasted only a few years before the king died, and then Parr herself had only a few more years before dying after her daughter was born.

I knew in a general sense that people's lives in those times had much different norms than we do today, but Luke's writing really brings it to life. Children used as pawns in power games, the casual misogyny that women suffered, people dying from "the sweats" on a regular basis, teenagers married and having children, the nobility living richly while commoners barely survived...it was a very different time and mostly not in a good sense.

There are a bunch of intriguing characters in The Ivy Crown besides Katherine herself. Anne Askew, who became a martyr in the power struggle between Catholics, the Church of England, and Protestant reforms. The Princess Mary, Parr's childhood friend and eventual stepdaughter. Thomas Seymour, who would become Parr's fourth husband. And many more, from the famous to the common.

I highly recommend The Ivy Crown to anyone who enjoys a good story of a life with plenty of drama and intrigue. Even better if you're interested in the specifics of 16th century English royalty, but I don't think you need to care about the historical period to enjoy the book.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Book Thief is an uncomfortable book.

The setting is Germany in World War 2, certainly an uncomfortable place. The central character, Liesel, loses her brother, is taken from her mother, and placed with a foster family. Nearly everyone they know is poor, struggling to survive, even before the war comes to their doors.

The writing is uncomfortable, at least for me. The style is simple and easy to follow, but I found it uninteresting and was often bored. Very little happens in this book, it seemed to me. There are few major events and those are described quickly, with the majority of the book taken up with the slow, steady grind of difficult daily life.

Death is quite literally present throughout the entire book, because he is the narrator. Taking an interest in Liesel's story after she is present at his duty several times early in life, he tracks the minutia of her life for several years. This sounded intriguing to me at first, but interesting observations from the point of view of Death were few and far between.

I can see why The Book Thief is an important story. It describes a difficult but important time and place. But the style is emphatically not for me.