Books read, late February

[mrissa]

 

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility. Kindle, reread. I hadn't reread this in decades, and it made me laugh as it was supposed to do (though it did not particularly make me cheer in the places it was supposed to, goals having changed). I had forgotten, however, that this book contains one of my Jane Austen identification characters, by which I mean Sir John, because: Sir John is always and basically only concerned with other people's dogs. "We met Willoughby," the Dashwood sisters tell him, and he immediately perks up and asks, "did he have his dog with him?" and starts describing the dog. Well done that man, one of the few people in literature to understand the proper focus of a conversation. Later, when he is angry at Willoughby: "and to think I offered him a puppy just yesterday morning!" Indeed, sir! You have moved me to indignation alongside you! And so on through the book. He is sharply observed, but also oh dear, he is me. Unfortunately no one else in the book is him, so I don't know enough about his dogs, who I expect are quite nice also, if anything nicer. I wonder if this is what fanfiction is for, but I have too much else to do. Various people marry each other, but in only one case are we explicitly assured that their dogs are nice after, and he doesn't deserve it. Ah well.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Demon Daughter. Kindle. The latest Penric and Desdemona novella, featuring a young Roknari girl adjusting to an equally young demon under the theology of this world. This continues the standing tradition of the Roknari being basically objectively wrong about the nature of demons and the Bastard God, so if that's something that bothers you in this worldbuilding, there's a lot of focus on it. It also has the protagonist family being quite nice to a child in need, so--it really depends on your focus and needs of this novella.

Adrian Cooper, ed., Arboreal: A Collection of New Woodland Writing. All fairly brief essays, all tree- or forest-focused, nothing particularly deep unfortunately, and the authors I'd read before were not at their particular best here. Fine but not outstanding.

Christine Coulson, One Woman Show. A "novel" (probably not by length, no, probably novelette or novella) told as placards at an art exhibition--the entire life of an unhappy wealthy woman, birth to death. Coulson was clever here but not particularly compassionate to any of the characters--basically none of them had any redeeming traits. Which is a choice she can make, and you can judge for yourself whether the cleverness of the conceit will be worth the time for you.

Genoveva Dimova, Foul Days. Discussed elsewhere.

Rose Fox (now going by Asher Rose Fox) and Daniel José Older, eds., Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History. Reread. Picked up for a memorial reread on the passing of one of the authors (S. Lynn), who was the dear friend of a dear friend though I did not know her at all, and the entire rest of the volume was engaging enough that I just kept going with the whole thing. At a decade on it was interesting to see that some of the new and unfamiliar authors had become household names at least in this very nerdy household. As with any anthology not every story could be a favorite but there were enough that qualified in that category that I had a hard time putting it down even though it was my designated "short bits" book.

Antonia Fraser, Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit. Fraser seems to be particularly taken with defending Lady Caroline on the grounds that the people who were most upset with her did most of the same things she did, and if she was appalling, so were they. For this she makes a pretty good case. She also makes a somewhat reasonable case that Lady Caroline's mental health needs were not well-served by the medical care available at her time, although this occasionally strays into specific diagnoses in ways that I don't find entirely well-judged for the level of historical distance we have. This is a very short book and probably should not be your first introduction to Whig society of this period (early 19th century).

Barbara Hambly, The Nubian's Curse. The latest Benjamin January mystery, and the title refers to a statue from an ancient kingdom rather than getting cutesy about a semi-modern person. Probably not the best place to start with the series but a reasonable enough place to continue.

Florian Illies, Love in a Time of Hate: Art and Passion in the Shadow of War. Episodic flashes of how notable figures in various of the arts got by in Europe in the 1930s. Interesting, sad, engaging.

Catherine E. Karkov, Art and the Formation of Early Modern England. Kindle. A brief Kindle monograph on influences on the art of this period and how it, in turn, influenced its world. Not of great depth but with interesting bits about, for example, stone-carving and enamel-working.

Mark Monmonier, How to Lie With Maps. I was not the audience for this book. I'm frankly having a hard time imagining the audience for this book, which is an audience who is interested enough to read an entire book on map inaccuracy but not interested enough to have thought for even one moment about the topic before. It was so basic, and despite the catchy title it did not spend a great deal of time on things like gerrymandering. I kept waiting for the chapters where it leveled up. There were no such chapters.

Christopher Priest, The Prestige. Reread. I picked this up for a memorial reread after he passed away recently, and what a relief it was to find it still basically where I left it: the prose so readable, the characters as flawed as they ever were but handled so well by the author in their differing settings and voices, the stagecraft vivid and fun/horrifying to contemplate.

Ron Shelton, The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham. This is an example of how I will read whatever is lying about because another family member has it, but honestly it was fast and interesting, and I like Bull Durham a lot. What was particularly interesting were the places where Shelton was talking about scenes that were cut that...would not have added to the movie and he did not seem clear on why but I, with 25 years of experience as a short story writer, could totally have told him why. We don't always understand our own work, this is why we get other eyes on it, I'm glad he got other eyes on his, I'm glad I have other eyes on mine. And I'm totally glad the studio person who wanted Anthony Michael Hall as Nuke LaLoosh lost out, because what tomfoolery is this.

Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz. On the one hand, I think it's amazing that someone tried to write an alternate history this sweeping, of an America where smallpox did not actually kill off most of the Native American population, where there is a vast and thriving Native culture in the early 20th century, where St. Louis does not exist but the city of Cahokia, with strong Native traditions, does. On the other hand the farther back the divergence point with our history the more convergence becomes a statement of inevitability. And having a divergence back in the 16th or 17th century that...still leads to a powerful KKK and a non-identical but quite similar Birth of a Nation? is making a statement about how powerful and how inevitable those things are that I don't like and don't agree with. Also frankly it really rubbed me the wrong way to have a British man coming in and writing about the KKK racism of the German-Americans in his fictional Missouri when I know a great deal about the history of German-Americans in actual Missouri and how it was German 48ers who kept it Bloody Missouri instead of entirely rolling over and showing belly for the enslavers so excuse me if I don't find it a compelling vision that oh it's those Germans who are racist, certainly not the Americans of similar ethnic background to Mr. Spufford himself who were the actual founders of the KKK, sir, own your shit. (In case you think I'm being defensive, I am not myself of German ethnicity. I just find it awfully convenient when someone comes in and points so hard at Them when there's a whole lot of his Us behaving badly to be had.) And the ending: I will give you three guesses as to what kind of ending someone who decided that his compelling vision of a future full of Native Americans featured a dominant KKK would give us for his Native hero. Heroic ending, certainly, but: happy or tragic, no spoiler here, you just guess though, you just give it one guess whether he wanted to imagine something good for a large, strong Native man in a strong Native culture...or not. I wanted so much better here. His prose is compelling. I have liked his other work. But the vision here is flawed in ways that I don't think he was even trying to understand. I don't think he knows what he doesn't know here.

Noel Streatfeild, The Silent Speaker. Kindle. Very clear, very large content warning: this is a book about a suicide. There is a dinner party in chapter one, in chapter two one of the people at the dinner party kills themself, and the entire rest of the book is the other characters trying to figure out why that person did it. This book was published in 1961, the last of Streatfeild's adult novels, and its mid-century status turns out to be very important to the plot as well as to its worldview. It's actually not one of the preachier Streatfeilds--the people who are ready to blame themselves are generally wrong and given authorial compassion as well as compassion from some of the other characters--but because of the subject matter I would put this in the "only if you are quite interested in her work in general" list; it's very much not for everyone for reasons that I would hope would be tolerably obvious.

Martha Wells, The Book of Ile-Rien (containing The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer). Discussed elsewhere.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

I remember really enjoying The Prestige years ago! Glad to hear that it holds up.

The map book sounds very frustrating, my goodness. (IME people who like maps really like maps.)

[sovay]

Heroic ending, certainly, but: happy or tragic, no spoiler here, you just guess though, you just give it one guess whether he wanted to imagine something good for a large, strong Native man in a strong Native culture...or not.

I actually disagree with you about the ending even if the countervailing information is almost literally buried in the footnotes. [rot13] Gurb Unfuv jbhyq abg unir orra noyr gb pbire uvf sngure'f "Erq, Oynpx, naq Oyhr" va 1970 vs Oneebj va 1922 unqa'g fheivirq gb erpbeq vg va Wnpxfba. Qrsreevat gur vasbezngvba gb gur irel ynfg fragrapr bs gur nsgrejbeq crezvgf gur nhgube gb unir gung fha-fnpevsvpvny raqvat bs gur abiry cebcre, ohg vg vf gurer.

[mrissa]

Good heavens, literally burying it in the footnotes is...I'm not sure I feel better about that choice.

[sovay]

Good heavens, literally burying it in the footnotes is...I'm not sure I feel better about that choice.

I personally would have done it as part of the novel, perhaps one last fictional epigram [rot13] fhpu nf n erivrj ol gur 1970 Pnubxvn rdhvinyrag bs Eboreg Puevfgtnh, ohg V yvxr vg n uryy bs n ybg orggre guna gur nzovthvgl bs Oneebj ynfg tyvzcfrq guebhtu gur lrne-xvat'f vpbabtencul bs oybbq naq fha.

[mrissa]

Well, I wouldn't have done it at all from several chapters back--I wouldn't have done the thing it had to undo.

But I feel like a footnote to the afterword is maybe a half-step above mentioning it in post-publication interviews, in terms of "how much is this how the book goes."

[sovay]

Well, I wouldn't have done it at all from several chapters back--I wouldn't have done the thing it had to undo.

I know. [rot13] V yvxr gur rssrpg bs cnffvat guebhtu gur pbeban bs n zlgu jvgubhg orvat pbafhzrq ol vg. (Gung V pna frr Fchssbeq gnxvat sebz Yr Thva: ubj gb yvir nsgre gur yrtraq.) Vg qbrf frrz gb zr vagraqrq gb or gnxra nf pnabavpny, fvapr vg nyfb nafjref gur dhrfgvba bs jurgure Pbhzn rira pbaprvirq ol Oneebj, naq vg vf abg, yvxr gur frpbaq zneevntr bs guvf uvfgbel'f Nyserq Xebrore, senzrq nf gur nhgube'f jvfushy guvaxvat.

[mrissa]

I like the thing you've said so much, though, that I wish he'd written it at a hundred to five thousand words' length, which he could have done. Or hell, longer.

But other people also can write it, including us, so there's that.

[sovay]

But other people also can write it, including us, so there's that.

+1.

*hugs*

[mrissa]

I also feel like the scope of happiness involved, given the rest of the setting, is....well. I've said what I think about the rest of the setting. But. What a nasty kind of clever to decide to be in this particular racial context.

[sovay]

I also feel like the scope of happiness involved, given the rest of the setting, is....well.

This part I don't know what you mean. [rot13] Jr qba'g xabj nalguvat zber nobhg jung unccrarq gb Oneebj bapr ur yrsg Pnubxvn rkprcg gung ur erpbeqrq uvf fvtangher ghar naq vg orpnzr rknpgyl nf zhpu bs n pbearefgbar bs Nzrevpna wnmm nf vg sryg gb uvz jura ur jnf jbexvat vg bhg, ohg nf na nhgubevny qrpvfvba vg qbrfa'g frrz pbafcvphbhfyl evttrq ntnvafg gur punenpgre. V nz abg, va pnfr vg arrqf gb or fnvq, nethvat gung Fchssbeq qvq abg guvax guebhtu gur vzcyvpngvbaf bs uvf pureel-cvpxvat bs uvfgbel. Vg pbafcvphbhfyl vfa'g gur xvaq bs NH jurer gur nhgube ernyyl gevrq gb jbex bhg gur infg qviretraprf gung jbhyq unir fjrcg sebz uvf whzcvat-bss cbvag: Nyserq Xebrore nccrnef nf uvzfrys, cerfrag naq pbeerpg, naq Fchssbeq va gur fnzr nsgrejbeq uvagf gung uvf nygreangr gjragvrgu praghel jvyy pbagnva n erpbtavmnoyr Yr Thva. Jbeyq Jne V jnf gur fnzr, nccneragyl! Vg vf irel zhpu bhe uvfgbel jvgu Pnubxvn cyhttrq va. (Naq avpre Pngubyvpvfz. Gung cneg ybbxrq ebfr-tynffl gb zr.) Ohg V qba'g frr gung Oneebj'f sngr va uvf jbeyq vf zrnag gb or jbefr guna vg jbhyq unir orra va bhef.

[mrissa]

Ohg jung ur'f orra bssrerq nf bs gur raqvat gung ur fheivirf vf: lbh qba'g trg gb or cneg bs lbhe xvq'f yvsr be gur yvsr bs lbhe ybire, naq lbh trg gb tb onpx gb orvat phg bss sebz ng yrnfg unys bs lbhe urevgntr phyghenyyl (qrcraqvat ba ubj zhpu lbh jnag gb guvax bs uvz nf Oynpx, ng yrnfg ur trgf gung cneg bs uvf phygher, fb gung'f purrevat V fhccbfr). Gung qbrfa'g unir gb or jbefr guna bhe jbeyq gb or n cerggl tevz raqvat sbe n uhzna orvat.

This ties in with one of my major structural problems with the book, which is that I felt that having the particular naive narrator that he had for Doylean reasons--so that we, the reader, could have these things explained to us--required him to be cut off from his heritage not just to the levels that, for example, residential schools provided, but ignorant of very, very incredibly basic public knowledge things that would be common cultural competency things in the world of the book and certainly for a police officer in that city in the world of the book. The balance of how cut off he was did not ring true for me--it changed either the shape of the character for the much worse or the shape of the world for the much worse, if he could be that completely ignorant.

[sovay]

Gung qbrfa'g unir gb or jbefr guna bhe jbeyq gb or n cerggl tevz raqvat sbe n uhzna orvat.

V qvqa'g frr yrnivat Pnubxvn nf erabhapvat unys bs uvf urevgntr be ybfvat npprff gb vg sberire. Sbe bar, ubjrire fxrgpuvyl Fchssbeq znl unir orra noyr gb pbaprvir bs gur bguref, gur pvgl vf abg gur bayl cynpr va gur Nzrevpnf jurer Angvir crbcyr yvir be rira jurer gurl znl or gur qbzvanag phygheny sbepr—Nabcn vf pnabavpnyyl n yvathn senapn, abg gur fbyr vaqvtrabhf ynathntr va gur ynaq. Sbe nabgure, juvpu znl ubyq zber jrvtug jvgu zr, ng gur gbc bs gur ynfg puncgre jura Oneebj vf jnyxvat qbja gur fgerrg guvaxvat bs uvzfrys nf Guebja-Njnl Obl, ur vf guvaxvat bs uvzfrys nf pneelvat gur pvgl jvgu uvz nf ur geniryf, juvpu znxrf cresrpg frafr gb zr nf n jnl gb or cneg bs n cynpr. Vg vf gur pbaprcg bs ubzr V jnf envfrq jvgu naq gur bar V yvir jvgu. V jbhyq srry qvssreragyl vs ur unq znqr uvf snerjryyf gb gur pvgl ol frggvat nfvqr gur anzr vg tnir uvz nf vs vg ernyyl jrer n evghny znfx, ohg vafgrnq ur gnxrf vg nf gur xrl gb uvf bja vqragvgl. Ur jbhyq arire unir orra cneg bs uvf puvyq'f yvsr rira vs ur unq fgnlrq orpnhfr jung ur jnf bssrerq ol Pbhzn jnf abg n zneevntr rkprcg va gur fnperq frafr: gur pbagvahngvba bs gur fhpprffvba, juvpu jvyy or cbyvgvpnyyl rnfvre sbe ure vs fur unf ab ivfvoyr znyr cnegare gb punyyratr gur cevznpl bs gur Jbzna bs gur Fha; vg qbrf abg cerpyhqr uvz ybivat nalbar ryfr va shgher. Vg'f abg yvxr gur raqvat bs Wbna Q. Ivatr'f Qernzsnyy, juvpu rkcyvpvgyl fgevcf gur ureb bs nyzbfg nyy ernyvfgvp ubcr bs ertnvavat gur ybir naq urnyvat naq pbagvahvgl bs phygher juvpu ur sbhaq ba gur vebavpnyyl anzrq Ershtr. Vg'f fb oevrs, vg'f na nyzbfg gbgnyyl bcra raqvat, ohg V qvqa'g srry rapbhentrq ol gur abiry gb svyy vg jvgu gur oyrnxrfg cbffvoyr bhgpbzrf.

This ties in with one of my major structural problems with the book, which is that I felt that having the particular naive narrator that he had for Doylean reasons--so that we, the reader, could have these things explained to us--required him to be cut off from his heritage not just to the levels that, for example, residential schools provided, but ignorant of very, very incredibly basic public knowledge things that would be common cultural competency things in the world of the book

That's the part where it feels to me as though the author just plugged Cahokia into our 1922. It would make sense for someone isekai'd from Jazz Age St. Louis not to know about the civic implications of hero-twin mythologies.

[mrissa]

Ah, and I know that we agree on the rest of the continent's worldbuilding--so that's where I did srry rapbhentrq gb svyy va gur oyrnxrfg bhgpbzr, orpnhfr guvf vf nyernql n abiry gung sryg vaperqvoyl oyrnx va vgf jbeyqohvyqvat gb zr.

Ah well. I just hope it doesn't encourage publishers to say "no, we already had one" and not publish anyone doing the kind of alternate history worldbuilding on this scope of idea that we've alluded to in private conversation.

[sovay]

so that's where I did srry rapbhentrq gb svyy va gur oyrnxrfg bhgpbzr, orpnhfr guvf vf nyernql n abiry gung sryg vaperqvoyl oyrnx va vgf jbeyqohvyqvat gb zr.

Understood. [rot13] Rira nyybjvat gung gur erfg bs gur pbagvarag'f jbeyqohvyvat vf shapgvbanyyl—fvapr gur nhgube qbrfa'g svyy va zhpu jrfg bs gur Zvffvffvccv orlbaq Qvargnu naq Qrfrerg naq Ubyyljbbq naq irel yvggyr abegu bs gur sbegl-avagu cnenyyry be fbhgu bs gur Evb Tenaqr—Nzrevpn bs 1922, V nz abg jvyyvat gb tenag gung bhe uvfgbel renfrq nyy cbffvovyvgvrf bs znetvanyvmrq wbl, fvapr gur fgbevrf gung crbcyr gryy nobhg gurzfryirf naq gurve snzvyvrf grfgvsl bgurejvfr, rira va gur snpr bs ybat bqqf. (Gung fnvq, guvf uvfgbel fgvyy unf gvzr gb vzcebir vgfrys ba bhef naq vg pbhyq qb fb nal gvzr abj.)

I just hope it doesn't encourage publishers to say "no, we already had one" and not publish anyone doing the kind of alternate history worldbuilding on this scope of idea that we've alluded to in private conversation.

I feel it's more likely to spark similar pitches if it's a success. My only reservation is that it wasn't published originally in the U.S. If it wins some kind of major award based in American-centric fandom, that might double-edged help.

[mrissa]

V srry yvxr vg'f abg fnlvat gung znetvanyvmrq punenpgref va trareny pna arire unir wbl gb srry yvxr Fchssbeq unf fgnpxrq gur qrpx ntnvafg guvf thl va cnegvphyne, ng yrnfg va gur vzzrqvngr grez.

[sovay]

gb srry yvxr Fchssbeq unf fgnpxrq gur qrpx ntnvafg guvf thl va cnegvphyne, ng yrnfg va gur vzzrqvngr grez.

Right. We may just disagree on [rot13] ubj onqyl jr srry gur qrpx unf orra fgnpxrq.

[mrissa]

But also I think we may just have reached the point of discussion where I fundamentally like alternate history less than many people, and possibly than you.

[sovay]

But also I think we may just have reached the point of discussion where I fundamentally like alternate history less than many people, and possibly than you.

Possibly. I don't think of it as a genre which I seek out particularly, although I have clearly encountered enough of it to have opinions. I have written two examples, although the one which I thought would have a sequel crashed and burned when I saw the research sinks opening up before me. One of my favorite sffnal books passes through a phase of alternate history in between the secret history, the historical fantasy, and the hard sci-fi. There is the problem that while World War II cannot be the biggest Jonbar point in the field, there are a lot of Nazis.

[mrissa]

I don't dislike all alternate history, but I'm SUPER picky about it. I was excited that this one wasn't WWII related! Ah well.

[rosefox]

Ah, I'm sorry to hear about Samantha (S.) Lynn. Her story is so good and thoughtful and compassionate. ISFDB doesn't list any other publications for her; I'm glad we at least have that remnant of her voice. And glad, too, that the anthology still resonates with you.

[mrissa]

What I hear from our mutual friend is that most of her work was in the realm of fanfic.

[mecurtin]

Thank you for the review of Cahokia Jazz. I've been circling it warily (it's only just come out in the US) because it's got all the This Way To The Appropriation warning signs. I found one interview with the author, he never mentions any specific Native American tribe or source by name, that's a big red flag, for instance.

But if he blames the KKK on German-Americans he's got the relationship between American racism and Nazi racism completely backward, which is unforgivable.

I really love the *premise*, but not in these hands.

[kore]

Martha Wells, The Book of Ile-Rien (containing The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer).

It is mine mine mine!

There is even a hilarious illo of the puppy-offering: https://images.app.goo.gl/YbioAy8k1rmfFZreA

[larryhammer]

How to Lie With Maps is indeed disappointingly thin. I read it as a teen soon after the much better How to Lie With Statistics, and kept it for sentimental reasons for far too long (i.e. though too many moves) before finally selling it off.

[full_metal_ox]

Christopher Priest, The Prestige. Reread. I picked this up for a memorial reread after he passed away recently, and what a relief it was to find it still basically where I left it: the prose so readable, the characters as flawed as they ever were but handled so well by the author in their differing settings and voices, the stagecraft vivid and fun/horrifying to contemplate.

I went in spoiled, having seen the movie before reading the book; that said, I was fascinated by the internal oddities of phrasing and inconsistencies, and the gradual reveal that unfurled behind them—to the point that this is the book I routinely cite as the exception to the 500-pound Writing Rule Set In Stone, “Never ever EVER use hanaabhaprq CBI fuvsgf!“

(I also applaud Priest for his deft misdirection regarding the cautionary example of Chung Ling Soo, né William Ellsworth Robinson; foreknowledge of the 24/7 core lie Robinson had been living does not spoil the story—because Priest then tossed in an additional layer of Masquerade!)