Monday, August 26, 2013

Review: The Daylight War


The Daylight War
The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



So, the second book in the demon cycle, The Desert Spear, was remarkable because it managed to recast the events in the first book in a way that significantly changed my perspectives about the main character while also successfully advancing the overall story. It was a tremendous, George R.R. Martin-ian achievement, and I really really liked it.

Consequently, I had incredibly high hopes that this book would do the same.

It it utterly fails to do so.

Spoilers for all three books from here on out.
The major thing that happens in book two is that we realize that Jardir betrayed Arlen because his wife, Inevera, told him to. This revelation, and the added detail of just how awful Jardir feels about the whole thing, turns him into a sympathetic character where before he was just an asshole.

And it is kind of implied by the fact that Inevera is the principal character in this book, that a similar kind of revelation was waiting for her. And the main failing of this book is that such a revelation never occurs. She told him to betray Arlen. She doesn't have a particularly good reason for it, and while knowing some more of her back story makes her more sympathetic than she was, there isn't anything giant or earth shattering about her story arc*.

Meanwhile, since the book makes it so incredibly clear that the demons are the real enemy, the inevitable clash between Jardir and Arlen just felt forced and lame. They are both sympathetic characters, so I approached the thing with annoyance rather than interest about who would survive. Oh yeah, and the answer to that question is left as a cliffhanger.

Now, one should give credit where credit is due. Peter V. Brett is an amazing writer. These books beyond readable; they are downright unputdownable. The characters are great; there's lots of sex, violence, badassery, triumphs of the human spirit, etc; the plot moves at a steady pace, with a healthy selection of bad characters turning out to be good, and good characters delivering just dessert to the bad characters that stay bad. Plus I absolutely adore Renna, and I really liked her relationship with Arlen in this book.

Bottom line, I still recommend this series, fairly heartily, but this was weaker than it could have been.

* What's that you say? Her magic truth telling dice tell her that Deliverers are made not born? I'm shocked. Shocked, I say, particularly since this has.......been a theme of the novels since the very beginning.



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Review: The Theory of Poker


The Theory of Poker
The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This is an excellent introduction into the mechanics of good poker play.
The explanations are clear and detailed, and the writing is actually pretty engaging for a two hundred book that is basically a lecture about odds ratios.

There were a few minor things that bothered me about this book. In order to have the aforementioned discussion about odds ratios you have to know what the probability of various things happening are. For certain poker events, you can calculate these things readily.* For others you can't, and yet the author just states these things as given. In other words, I lost count of the time an example includes assume you know there's a 30% chance your opponent will beat you." How the #$%^ am I supposed to know this?!?!?! I found this somewhat frustrating.**

Secondly, the reason I picked up this book is that I was playing a fair bit of Texas Hold 'em at the time, and I was interested in improving my game. Certainly, the concepts presented here are extraordinarily valuable regardless of which game one is playing, and in particular for Hold'em, but, the examples across lots of different games got to be kind of annoying. Seriously, who the #@$% plays 7 Card Razz?

But again, these are minor complaints. I got from this book exactly what I needed: the fundamental mathematical concepts behind good poker play, and I can actually say it has worked for me.***

* Wikipedia has a fabulous article on Texas Hold 'em probabilities amongst others.
** I am being too hard on the book. The author says repeatedly, that the estimates of opponents hand strength are for didactic convenience, and that in actual play you attempt to glean this knowledge from learning how your opponent plays and reading their hand strength, the author also talks some about how to do this. Nevertheless, I found it frustrating.
*** By which I mean I have finished "in the money" in the last three poker tournaments I've played in.



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Friday, August 23, 2013

Review: Detroit: An American Autopsy


Detroit: An American Autopsy
Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



At some point when I was a kid, I decided that I wanted to be a reporter. I'm sure this was a reaction to too many detective novels, but at the time it seemed like a perfect fit: I would be kind of like a detectives, uncovering crime and corruption lurking in the seedy underbelly of the city, without having to walk a beat, get shot at, etc. It was a revelation, a clear path for me to follow, and of course, I told my parents about it. I think it might have been the only time* when my parents flat out laughed at me. "You hate cities," they pointed out, "you don't like talking to people." Although, I probably pouted about it at the time, they were not wrong, and I am tremendously glad I found a different path...

I like to think, though, that if I had been temperamentally suited to being a journalist, I would have been something like Charlie Le Duff. Fearless, determined, able to use a mixture of wits, detective power, and sneakiness, to get at the root cause of the ills in america.

There are some problems with this book. There are some factual inconsistencies****. LeDuff has a weird perspective on race and privilege that ranges from vaguely insensitive to downright offensive.

But overall this is a fascinating read about how greed, incompetence, and corruption (from all sides: absenteeist workers, incompetent executives, and corrupt politicians) can destroy an empire, and how the honest, hardworking people at all levels suffer as a result.

* This includes a surprisingly lengthy tolerance of my declaration that I was going to be a veterinarian. This was a clear rebellion against my parents no pets rule, but their forbearance was impressive**.
** The veterinarian stratagem came to a spectacular close when my mother (the most stringent enforcer of the pet ban) strongly suggested that if I wanted to be a veterinarian I really ought to examine and dissect the dead squirrel that had been hit by a car in our neighborhood, and I squeamishly refused.***
*** Never play poker with my mother.
**** According to the epilogue (uh, spoiler, i guess?) the city executive gets fired for covering up theft of property, but I thought the who reason Charlie Le Duff was pissed at him was because he was overly zealously pursuing the theft of property, while simultaneously mismanaging the departments resources?



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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Review: A Game of Thrones


A Game of Thrones
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I think this might be the great American Novel. A Game of Thrones simultaneously celebrates and deconstructs the American obsession with bravery and heroism; it interrogates the trend of the powerful towards corruption, and even has time to explore the nuances of privilege.

What's really amazing with this book is how effectively it subverts the tropes of modern fantasy, and at the same time revels in them. There are no particular heroes, barely a quest to be found, and the dragons don't show up until literally the last page At the same time we get heroic showdowns*, a fabulous detour through of a mountaintop fortress, and a creepy undercurrent of the wonders yet to behold in this world.

And there are wonderful characters, pithy dialogue, some well written battle scenes, and lots of sex, to boot!


* just not necessarily between the people we would choose to face off...



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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Review: Towers of Midnight


Towers of Midnight
Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really really liked The Gathering Storm, and so I was super enthusiastic about Towers of Midnight. Sadly I didn't like nearly as well as the previous one.

Brandon Sanderson continues to do some things very well.
One of Robert Jordan's major weaknesses was in buildup*. Very frequently the big finale of a book just happened sort of abruptly and arbitrarily. Conversely, the slow build to the conclusion of a few of the storylines here is very satisfying. This is particularly true of Perrins Arc: the grindingly slow progress of Perrin vs. the Whitecloaks; Perrin vs. the Wolf Dream, and finally Perrin vs. Slayer build and build until they come to an epic conclusion**.

And the fights are great! I loved Mat vs. The Golam; and I really loved the multiway Tel'aran'rhiod/Wolf Dream/Holy @#$%, there incredibly powerful assassins in the white tower battle***, ****.

Honestly the biggest weakness in this book was the actual Epic Finale. We have been waiting for Mat's return to the Ael/Eel'finn for eight 1000 page books: It really deserved to a) have been more than 60 pages long and b) be more than just a kind of lame fight scene*****. The ultimate reveal was cute enough, i suppose, but this is one area where I would have most like Robert Jordan's more assured handling of Mat's roguish nature.

But, all in all, it was a very satisfying penultimate volume. On to A Memory of Light!

* Yes, yes some things were built up for Books on end, that's not really what I'm talking about.
** Ok, maybe a little too much. I did get kind of tired after the fourth Perrin vs. the Whitecloaks standoff.
*** Egwene continues to be a bad-ass. I really am enjoying Brandon Sanderson's handling of her.
**** Can Brandon Sanderson write Star Wars VII? I would pay good money to see that.
***** Although I did appreciate that the inside of the Tower of Ghenji is the random room puzzle that's been in every top down scrolling rpg video game since Final Fantasy II.




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Review: The Rook


The Rook
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I don't know how sophisticated Goodreads' add generation is, but they certainly work on me. I would never have even heard of it if it hadn't shown up here, and I was intrigued enough by the blurb to pick it up.

I'm glad I did, too, although I can't say I loved it. The premise is very compelling--a young woman with no memory wakes up in a park surrounded by dead bodies and discovers in her pocket a note from her past, obliterated, self explaining what's going on.*

The counterpoint between the old self and the new self was delightful. Apart from that the book is just so so. It has the usual modern urban fantasy hijinks: A secret governmental organization that protect us from supernatural threats**, a hodgepodge of barely believable superpowers, and lots of quirky asides about the bureaucracy and mundanity of both these things.

These are the same old tricks as you will find in the Dresden Files, or the Laundry, and these are no better or worse than the ones you'd find there, which is frankly this books downfall. Apart from the conceit mentioned above the book really does nothing to distinguish itself.

* Spoiler alert she's the member of a secret government organization that protects us from supernatural threats.
** I hate this device, by the way. See *.



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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Review: Dauntless


Dauntless
Dauntless by Jack Campbell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Dauntless is a perfectly serviceable, good-not-great, sci-fi naval adventure.

I rather liked the conceit: the military hero long thought dead is found in cryogenically frozen in a survival pod, only to suddenly find hims self in command of the fleet, deep into enemy territory, and surrounded by people he can barely trust.

The themes* are presented in a somewhat heavy handed manner, but the plot moves quickly, the narrative voice is strong, and there are enough hooks for the future development of the universe that i'm interested in reading more.

* Military discipline is Important! Follow the chain of command! Respect your commanding officers! Don't fight stupidly! (Wait, one of these things is not like the others...)



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Review: Tribulations of the Shortcut Man


Tribulations of the Shortcut Man
Tribulations of the Shortcut Man by P.G. Sturges

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Ah, the shortcut man. these books have such potential, but they are beyond infuriating.

The shortcut man is a highly amusing anti-hero unleashing a fairly inventive set of methods to enact some measure of justice for the downtrodden. I did particularly like his voice, and his color commentary on his misdeeds particular in the form of jokes and short stories is an endearing trait.

The villains and the utter trainwreck that is their story arc is giddy fun.

And, to Sturges credit, he attempts to fit in a nuanced commentary on race relations in america that upon reflection I think is more right than it is problematic.

Unfortunately, in the narrative, none of these three subplots have much to do with each other. The save-the-ex-girlfriends house from gentrification story is utterly disconnected from the rest of the plot and the tonal shift was beyond jarring. Plot holes abound, from minor research issues*, to serious inconsistencies**, to just plain nonsensical plot twists.***

And sturges should be jailed for the abomination that is his point of view structure. The narrative jumps willy-nilly from character to character, occasionally in and out of first person within a few paragraphs.

I have said it before and will say it again, p.g. sturges is in no way shape or form the heir apparent to any of the detective mystery greats. I really wish people would stop saying that, in fact, because it detracts from the some of the truly fantastic mystery writers who are working now. The shortcut man is an enjoyable, but flawed series of mystery novels, and that's just fine.

* A glock 17 is not a revolver. Do you even know what a revolver is?! Hint, it has something quite obvious about it that revolves.

** If Pussy had the entrance code to the Art's gated community, why did they need to sneak in as gas company employees in the first place?!?!

*** Why the #$%^ did he steal the toe only to do nothing with it and feed it to the dog?!?!?!




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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Review: Pandemonium


Pandemonium
Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



You can get away with your novel being as weird as you like as long as you make it readable.

Pandemonium is pretty weird. It features a number of bizarre characters including demons who make their possessed hosts act out elaborate superhero fantasies, a lake monster, Sinead O'Connor re-imagined as a priest of an obscure catholic sect,, a paramilitary force on the watch for (effectively) the aliens from They Live*, and a demon who has taken over the persona of Philip K. Dick.

And it all mostly works because everything is delivered in a straight-up , thoroughly readable fashion.

Honestly, I'm not sure I got as much out of this novel as I could have because I'm not as familiar as I could be with the collected works of Philip K. Dick and A.E. van Vogt. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

* Actually Slans, but really the parallels are uncanny.




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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Review: Savages


Savages
Savages by Don Winslow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I read this book, because I thought the movie was interesting (but not, particularly good) and I wanted to see how it was handled in text.*

The good news is that in terms of just the reader (or watchers) experience the book just works better. The manic, free floating text of the book works much better than the weird after-thought voice-over narration.**

On the other hand, I actually liked the story of the movie better. Showing the relationship between O and Elena was a nice touch, and the twist at the end was very cute.***

In the end, I think that neither of them are very good. Savages the book was an awful lot of fun to read, though.

*As a result this is kind of a simultaneous review of the book and the movie. Sorry.
** And when said voiceover uses the text directly it's much more awkward without the context of the rapid fire, all knowing adhd voice of the book.
*** Although it would have been better if I'd read the book first. Oh well. And while we're on the subject, I even think the movie got the ending wrong. It should have ended with Chon and Ben going to Indonesia without O, because that was what was set up from Elena telling her that they loved each other more. Of course, that couldn't have been the ending to the book, because none of that happened in the book.



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Review: Gun Machine


Gun Machine
Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Going into gun machine I wondered how warren ellis was going to insert his trademark tidbits of all that is horrible in humanity into what, from the jacket copy appeared to be a straight up police procedural.

The answer is genius in its simplicity: The characters listen to a police scanner. There you have it, all the depravity you could ever hope for. The other answer is that this is so much more than a "straight up police procedural."

Because, really, what this book is is a sterling example of what warren ellis does best: he presents highly competent, severely damaged characters, performing exceptionally, and through them says something about the world we live in for better or for worse.




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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Review: The Gathering Storm


The Gathering Storm
The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



OOOOOOOH! So THAT's what's been going on for the past 7000 pages.

That was my first impression upon finishing this book. And I gotta say, beyond the big reveal that has the nice touch of being simultaneously completely believable and TOTALLY unexpected, I really liked it quite a lot.

Brandon Sanderson was an inspired choice to finish the Wheel of Time. His prose style has a lot of similarities with Robert Jordan, which made the transition from the last book seem natural, and Sanderson has a nice way* of making things happen in a way that feels appropriate. True, I, like everyone else on the internet, found the too-modern sounding phrases annoying, but the vast majority of the time, I don't think I could tell whether a particular scene was written by either author.

The best part of the book by far is the Egwene story line. I mean, we've been waiting for this to happen for years, and it's pretty great. Egwene has always been one of my favorite characters and her dramatic moment defending the White Tower is both one of the best action sequences the series has had plus a nice showcase of her cleverness, determination, and leadership.**

Rand's story line is also very good. He get's a lot of "screen" time, which is nice since he's been absent for a while, his character undergoes some stark and significant changes which Sanderson handles deftly in my opinion. This is the first book in a while that felt like it had a complete story line for Rand, and it really worked well.*** Just as one example, the devastating scene with Tam is the most emotionally resonating thing in the series since...actually maybe ever.

Not that all story lines are winners.
Maybe it's just rose colored glasses, but I don't remember Gawyn being so annoying under Robert Jordan. And not even Brandon Sanderson can save Siuan's chapters.****

On the other hand, unlike the rest of the internet, I actually thought Mat's story line was pretty good. It was kind of silly, but then Mat has always been the joker so I think it's OK that his plot line is kind of silly.

Before I conclude, let's pause to reflect on how dreadful the cover art is of the print version, (and how awesome it is on the ebook.)

Seriously, it's a picture of Egwene blasting a To'raken out of a
destroyed wall in the White Tower. (source tor.com)

I mean, even if you insist on drawing for your cover Rand basically standing there doing nothing, you could have had the decency to choose the scene where Rand stands and does basically nothing ON TOP OF A FUCKING VOLCANO!!!!!

* Maybe even better than Robert Jordan who in many of these books got stuck in a "things and the same; things are the same; things are the same; SUDDENLY
DIFFERENT!; things are the same;..." rut.
** Plus, (minor spoiler), the absolutely awesome moment where everyone in the white tower realizes, "Wait, why are you even here?! You could have Traveled out of the white tower at any time..."
*** With some minor complaints. (Spoiler alert and technical wheel of time nerdery follows:) Like the part where, Rand is wondering how is possibly going to defeat The Dark One since using Saidin to seal his prison allowed him to taint it and then in the very next scene suddenly he can use the True Source! I kinda had it already figured out, thanks Brandon.
**** Blood and bloody ashes, woman, just bed the man already.




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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Review: Heart-Shaped Box


Heart-Shaped Box
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



So, when I checked this book out from the library, I found a 9 of Clubs serving as a bookmark about 90 pages in. As it turns out, this is a fabulous way to make a horror novel way scarier. I mean, it raises some creepy questions: if you use a playing card as a bookmark, you must mean to do so temporarily--so why was the book returned, apparently unfinished, with the card in place? What happened to the reader? And what of the deck of cards, now ruined due to the misfortune of the reader? Is there eve anyone left to play with the broken deck?*

But this is a digression from the actual book.** The actual book is pretty good. For one thing, playing card or no, it's actually pretty scary. One sleepless night in and the book was tossed on the the DO NOT READ AT BEDTIME pile, so that tells you something.

Joe Hill does a nice job of making the supernatural threat feel genuinely threatening, while also having weaknesses that the heroes could plausible exploit.

The best part of the book, though, is that the characterization is very good. Jude, in particular, is nicely balanced. He is interesting and appealing--one has no trouble rooting for him, but he is also flawed, and not completely good. He feels like a real person, even if his existence is kind of implausible.***

* When I returned the book to the library I put the 9 of clubs back where I found it, obviously.
** But keep in mind that my opinion is influenced by the creepy playing card bookmark.
*** Seriously, how many heavy metal frontmen are actually still millionaires into their fifties. I'm guessing not too many.



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Monday, March 11, 2013

Review: Libriomancer


Libriomancer
Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The thing that makes Libriomancer really sing is the magic system. In this book, magicians (or Libriomancers) can reach into books and pull out items described therein. It's a really clever device and Jim C. Hines uses it extremely well, coming up with lots clever ways this magic can be used and creating a downright adorable urban fantasy world.*

To me, Jim C. Hines is best known for his blog and his writing about feminism and other diversity issues in Science Fiction and Fantasy.**
Not surprisingly, he does a decent job of diversifying the characters in this book***, and he even takes on women's sexuality and the problems with how that is portrayed in much of genre fiction. And honestly, I think he does a pretty decent job with these subjects.

So, yeah, cool magic system. Decent treatment of Issues of Importance to the Genre. Oh, and some fine action scenes and set pieces. I recommend this and am looking forward to the sequel.

* As a sample, the libriomancers are dismayed at the success of the Twilight books because it caused a new breed of sparkly vampires to come into existence.

** OK fine. To me, Jim C. Hines is best known for taking pictures of himself attempting the poses from trashy novel covers. For a middle aged guy, he's surprisingly flexible.

*** His principal female lead is a not-slender woman of color. But to be completely fair (and this is a mild spoiler) since her race is pleasure nymph, her color really doesn't affect her characterization. (I'm not saying that this is a bad thing or that skin color should have any bearing on behavior. On the other hand, this particular bit of diversity is purely cosmetic. Most of the characters (yes, except for the pleasure nymph) just kind of act like midwesterners. )



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Monday, February 25, 2013

Review: Foundation


Foundation
Foundation by Isaac Asimov

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I was talking to a friend about science fiction recently; he was waxing poetic about the good old days when a science fiction novel was 150 pages jam packed with ideas, and with none of the bloat of recent offerings in the genre.*

I am quite certain that my friend adored The Foundation novels because honestly there's hardly a character or other description to be found.

I'm not really complaining; I liked Foundation quite a lot, but it's kind of like reading the bible. It's not really a traditional narrative so much as an opportunity for Asimov to lay out his opinions about religion, science, economics, and technology and he's going to construct and ubermensch to cleverly tell you all about it and suddenly everything is right with the world again.

It's fun, it really is. It has some delightfully pithy** quotes like "For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works..." (That whole chapter is great, actually.) But everything is so easy. Near the end, I was really hoping for some Lannisters to show up*** and get in the way with their selfish ambition and politicking.

Don't get me wrong, I would be happy to live in the world that Asimov describes, but I think maybe those fatter science fiction titles with their nuanced characters and intricate relationships are a bit more real.

* And no, he's not that much older than me, but yes, I am trying to make his rant sound like "*sigh* the kids these days with their well defined characters and a complicated interpersonal relationships."
** And dishearteningly relevant
*** Or, you know, a SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER****!!!!!
**** Yes, I know the Commdor's wife makes an appearance near the end, but she really doesn't count. At some point, I got so sick of this particularly brutal imbalance that I just started imagining some of the characters as female.



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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Review: New Spring


New Spring
New Spring by Robert Jordan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



And I was so excited about this book. Moiraine and Lan have always been two of my favorite characters in the Wheel of Time series, and I was really excited to see their Origin story.

Too bad it's not any good.

First off, the plot. Really beloved and wise Amrylin, your plan to find the dragon reborn is to offer a ridiculous amount of money to everyone who had a kid in the vicinity of the prophesied location? That's not going to arouse suspicion or anything. And it seriously never occurred to you that that he might be born of the Aiel? Sheesh.

And secondly the characters. I know, I know, it's a subtle reference to the character struggles in Eye of the World, but Moiraine and Siuan as a ditzy school girls just didn't work for me. On the other hand, Lan apparently has never changed on iota from the day he was born. And, of course, the unending parade of minor characters, most of them Aes Sedai continues. For the eighteenth time, I know your world is impressive in its depth and scope. You don't have to remind me by breaking our 400 new Aes Sedai in every scene.

And finally, the ending. Seriously, why were any of those characters there doing those things? I like that it was all dramatic and brutal and that it let Lan and Moiraine grow into the heroes they are destined to be, but I have no idea why they were fighting that particular battle.

The book is not all bad. The "courtship" of Lan and Moiraine was fun. I liked Moiraine's Aes Sedai trial. There were some cute foreshadowings of the series. But all in all, this has been the most disappointing entry in The Wheel of Time. I'm sorry it's the last complete book of Robert Jordan's that I'm likely to read.





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