Books: Clearing The Decks

[woodwardiocom]

Quick reviews of the final books read in 2015:

The Castle Of Otranto by Horace Walpole

I read this largely for its relevance to the gothic genre (and thus to SF, fantasy, and a lot of other genre fiction). I can't say I much enjoyed it, but it was illuminating, and the feeling of brushing up against things large and dark and angry was well done.

From Here To Timbuktu by Milton Davis

An entertaining AU pulp novel with POC protagonists, though it suffers from a few plot flaws. (Like, a trip by zeppelin from Atlanta to London, by way of New York, that apparently only takes a few hours.) Recommended.

How About Never — Is Never Good For You? by Bob Mankoff

By the cartoon editor of the New Yorker, this is both an autobiography and a discussion of the business of cartoons. Recommended.

The Infinite Loop by Colinet, Charretier

This is a graphic novel about Time Police, which I originally though had an incidental lesbian romance. Actually, it's intensely about gay rights, and erasure of gays, using erasing things from time as metaphor and literal threat. Recommended.

The Green Leopard Plague by Walter Jon Williams

A fine collection of short stories. Recommended.

Embassytown by China Miéville

A novel about the difficult of translating an alien language, and the problems that arise when you dramatically alter people to fit that need. I didn't quite enjoy it like I have some of his earlier works, but there are some worthy questions in there.

The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks

Banks' final SF novel. Towards the end, there's some discussion about how the events of the novel will be recorded as "just another incident the Culture's ships got involved in, and patted themselves on the back about", and indeed it felt to me very much like "just another Culture novel". The final revelations are not revelatory, nor do they change much of anything, and the big event of the book, a civilization Subliming into the next level of existence, is not really explored. Mildly recommended.

The Sandman: Overture by Gaiman, Williams, Stewart

This graphic novel both fills in the cracks and questions about the Sandman, and opens up whole new realms to explore. It's mostly a prequel to the original comic, involving what Dream was up to before he got captured. Apart from an annoying fridging, very recommended.

The Chronicles Of Tornor by Elizabeth A. Lynn

I was not old enough to appreciate this series when I first read it 30 years ago. It is an interesting fantasy world where homosexuality and other forms of queerness are incidental (which was almost unprecedented in 1980). The three novels are set generations apart, and are interesting snapshots of an evolving society, particularly its relationship to psi powers and a certain form of combat. Recommended.