Books: Various

[woodwardiocom]

Rise Of The Robotariat: Tales From The Front Lines by Jule Pattison-Gordon

A slim collection of stories about the slow rise of consciousness, and rebellion, in our faithful robot servants. Connected to a game. Recommended.

The Art Of Language Invention by David J. Peterson

By the creator of Dothraki, Shiväisith, and other languages, this book covers the sounds we make, the ways we make and change words, how languages evolve, and writing systems, in detail and with worked examples. I found it fascinating, particularly in how it illuminated my own personal conlang interests (I seem to be much more interested in prefxies and suffixes than in, for example, sounds). Highly recommended.

The Victorian Bookshelf: An Introduction To 61 Essential Novels by Jess Nevins

Lovely guide to what is and isn't worth reading in 19th century literature. It's a bit repetitive, since the reviews were clearly not originally written to be read one after another, but they are insightful, clear, and not afraid to describe faults as well as strengths. Recommended.

Off The Main Sequence by Robert A. Heinlein

There were a handful of Heinlein stories in here I hadn't read before, but it's been sitting on my to-be-reviewed shelf long enough that I don't recall the details. Heinlein remains a problematic fave.

The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross

A "Laundry Files" novel, in this one we swtich POV from Bob Howard to his wife, Mo O'Brien, who in this novel is put in charge of dealing with the outbreak of people with (what one might call) dark sorcerous gifts — but it's better to frame the narrative as "superpowers". When Stross writes a novel about people intentionally creative a narrative as a way to control magic, it's best to pay attention to the man behind the curtain. Recommended.

Star Wars: Red Harvest by Joe Schreiber

Prequel to Death Troopers, this novel is about the origins of the zombie plague in the Star Wars universe. It suffers from none of our best-know characters being on-stage, but it's still grim, grisly, and fun. (It also suffers from a lack of first causes. It sometimes seems like, no matter how far back you go, everything worth learning in the Star Wars universe is based on earlier teachings, unto the dawn of time. People in this universe don't do science, they do library research.) Still, recommended, if you're into zombies.

The Watcher In The Shadows by Chris Moriarty

Sequel to The Inquisitor's Apprentice, about turn-of-last-century magic amongst the immigrants in New York City. Like its predecessor, this novel does not shy away from the issues of the era, and the third act is marked by labor protests and Pinkerton violence. Recommended.

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman

Another perfectly nice collection of stories, though it's been sitting on the review shelf long enough that the only one I recall is "Truth Is A Cave", which is creepy, and resonates with me qua father. Gaiman gets a little blithe with the need for real trigger warnings in the introduction; I suspect his poetics got ahead of his empathy for a minute.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I was given Peterson's book for a Christmas gift, and I kept it on our shelves during our recent move; it's fairly basic but seems sound, and there are some things my more orthodox linguistic books don't cover. I'd call it a good introductory text in the field and definitely worth having if you have any interest.

I've been on a few panels with Peterson, and I've been interested to see a number of points where his aesthetic sensibilities about language and mine sharply differ. The one I remember most vividly was mentioning Anthony Burgess's invention of Nadsat, the Russian-influenced teen slang in which A Clockwork Orange is written, and having him recoil from the very idea, whereas I quite enjoyed Burgess's invented future English.

Trigger Warning

[mizarchivist]

I always enjoy his short stories, but damn if he innt so very creepy. It took much longer than it might have otherwise since I was reading before bed and often had to bail out.