Summer's end book round-up

by Doctor Science

Between preparing for, going to, and recovering from Worldcon, it's been a while since I wrote about what I've been reading. This round-up covers several weeks, and includes novels by Genevieve Cogman, Laura Anne Gilman, Jo Walton, N.K. Jemisin, and Mary Robinette Kowal. huh. I didn't plan to read only books by woman, it just happened.

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The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. In this variation on the Supernatural Librarians trope, the Library is connected to alternate worlds with varying degrees of "order" and "chaos", magic and science. It's an amusing romp with horror elements, and everyone in the Science household is looking forward to the next one -- already published in the UK, it's coming out in the US in September. I've been assured by a friend of the author that the heroine won't get Anita Blake Disease and waste my time and hers see-sawing between Possible Romantic Interests #1 and #2. I have some hopes of a threesome in their future, in fact.

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Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman. I liked it! A very different kind of Western, with magic (/horror) that's not quite overt, in a setting that's just a little offset from our world. Mr Dr and I are both looking forward to the next installment.

The only thing I was dissatisfied with: not enough specific names of animals and plants! I wanted to know what *kind* of blue flowers, what *kind* of birds. I'm not sure how aware a girl raised in a small town on the plains would be of such things, of how much diversity there is in the natural world. Possibly I'm projecting. Ooo, but now I've found the bibliography, I'll have LOTS of fun with this!

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The Philosopher Kings and Necessity are numbers 2 and 3 in Jo Walton's "Thessaly" series: in which the goddess Athene gathers people from many time periods to create a society based on Plato's Republic. I'm also dipping into Crooked Timber's seminar on the series -- which they did based on the first two books only, for no reason I understand. I mean, why not wait for the conclusion?

As for the series as a whole: it's a thought experiment about a thought experiment, taking on Plato and Sokrates in the cheekiest manner possible. I don't exactly *believe* in it, because the experiment is far too successful, and a number of things are *much* easier than they'd be in reality. The first thing that struck me is that both Plato and Walton underestimate the energy, time, and dangers of human reproduction. Without spoilers, I'll say that the unconsidered trouble with the Festivals of Hera is that they won't *work*: only about 1/4 of the eligible women will be fertile at any given time, and the chance of conception in a single fertile period is at best 25% (humans are actually very infertile, compared to other mammals). And then, with the technology described at least 1 out of a hundred births would kill the mother, while the infant death rate would be at best 1 out of 10. All this in a society with a very imperfect grasp of the germ theory of disease, as witness Sokrates and Crocus' discussion of the importance (or otherwise) of plumbing repair.

The problem "Necessity" has, as a book and a series finale, is that a lot of it has to be about Gods, and my suspension of disbelief gets a really hard workout. This is partly due to the fact that the personalities of the Gods don't match my takes on them: I think Apollo is actually more of a Divine Nerd Boy, not to mention that--like his sister-- he's Mostly Gay. And I think of Athena as less distant toward humans in general, not just to her crushes. But the idea of [rot-13 spoilers] Mrhf npghnyyl orvat gur rphzravpny Fhcerzr Orvat -- no, I just can't do it.

Anyway, I have many more Thoughts about the trilogy, which I should probably write up at some point. The fact that it *does* make me think and want to argue with it is the biggest sign of its success, because that's what philosophy is *supposed* to do. I'm not sure I'll nominate it for a Hugo next year, but I'm not sure I won't, either.

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I read N.K. Jemisin's The Obelisk Gate while I was at Worldcon. I found it even more moving than her now Hugo-winning The Fifth Season, possibly because less happened externally, more inside people's heads. Showing how Our Multi-Named Heroine came to her "Orogene Lives Matter" moment was very powerful for me. I didn't find it preachy or pasted-on, but resonant: this is how it would feel, this is how it does feel.

As for the world-building, things now seem to be coming down a bit heavier on the Magic side of the Magic-Science spectrum. That's partly because of Jemisin's choice of words, but also that the Psi Powers that got tossed around so freely in the 50s-70s now look so much more magic-y and less science-y than they did then.

There are two things about the world-building that make me scratch my head. One is saying "Father Earth" instead of the usual "Mother Earth" -- and then not talking about who the Mother might be instead.

There's also the question of whether the "Stillness" continent is big enough to be a Pangaea-type supercontinent. Looking at maps of possible future supercontinents, I can see that the Stillness -- which is about 5000-mi wide at the equator, but stretches pole-to-pole (10K-12K miles or more) might have the same area as Novopangaea or Amasia, but rotated 90°. That implies 250M- years-worth of plate tectonics has happened on fast-forward, which would work in a hand-wavey kind of way. This IS "rock opera", after all.

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Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal. If magic/psychic powers are used in WWI, does that become horror? A lot of the prose is light and even a little silly, but the topic is so dark the mix doesn't quite work, for me. And I can't figure out if the implied Qbpgbe Jub pebffbire vf whfg n fvyyvarff: Yrguoevqtr-Fgrjneg pbhyq whfg or n fvyyl, ohg gura Gbz-Onxre-Qbpgbe fubjf hc. Ohg jul qbrf gur ivyynva rfpncr sebz uvz fb rnfvyl? (ah - I am told similar cameos show up in most of Kowal's longer works.)

Similarly, gur oneenpxf rkcybfvba vf fhccbfrq gb sybbq gur Fcvevg Pbecf, birejuryzvat gurz fb gurl pna'g qrny jvgu tubfgf sebz gur bapbzvat onggyr. Ohg gur fgbel ortvaf nsgre gur Pbecf unf qrnyg jvgu gur svefg qnl bs gur Onggyr bs gur Fbzzr, jura 20,000 Oevgvfu fbyqvref jrer xvyyrq ba n fvatyr qnl. Vs gurl pna pbcr jvgu gung naq abg pbyyncfr ragveryl, ubj pna n fvatyr rkcybfvba or na rssrpgvir QQBF nggnpx?

More importantly, I'd expect some of them to be realizing by July 1916 what a catastrophe the War is, and that the Germans might not be the real enemy compared to the commanders and politicians on all sides. WWI was a many-sided tragedy, and it's not clear that 'doing a better job' would have done any actual good.

Overall, it's amusing enough -- but I won't be seeking out the sequel unless the first penguins off the ice flow tell me it's much more serious about one of the most horrible and pointless disasters in human history.

Comments

[Nigel]

Thanks for the Jemesin report; I enjoyed the first book, and was wondering whether they got better or worse.
As for the magic, is this magic magic, or Arthur C Clarke magic ?

Has anyone read Too Like the Lightning yet ?

[Hartmut]

Having read lots of classical sources in the recent past my impression is that Apollo has far too positive PR these days. Looking at the classic epics and related materials the guy is a digestive rear exit, a sadistic hypocrite, a rapist and occasional crybaby. And he is the classic go-to guy when Zeus/Iuppiter has to do some really dirty work. Athena has her occasional hissy fits but turns for the worse with Roman authors (as Minerva). But about the only one who could rival Apollo's nastiness is Aprodite/Venus. Hera/Iuno who has usually the worst press, has actually almost always good reasons for her temper tantrums (being the agrieved party in most cases) and unlike the others she extremly rarely actually kills anyone (compare the genocidal rages of Venus).

[cleek]

i started the first of that Thessaly series, but couldn't get through. it felt like a teenage Lisa Simpson daydream - all the smartest, most handsomest and beautiful people are there, being smart and handsome, and she gets to date the most handsomest boy and they're all very smart and they have the best teachers from history and ... gack.

[Donald]

I got about two thirds of the way through Too Like the Lightning, got to an important plot twist and realized I just didn't care. For me the Crooked Timber recommendations have been disappointing, except for the Iain Banks Culture series books, which are often hilarious and sometimes exciting ( though with some long boring stretches-- for instance he describes at length a massive waterfall in an artificial world. Kinda boring given a universe with superintelligent starships running around manipulating societies for their own good.)

[Nigel]

Loved Banks' stuff, and will miss him.
Elon Musk is a fan:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Culture_series

I have no problem with long description. I read quite a lot of Victorian novels when younger, and developed the technique of speeding up my reading to get through the narrative light sections.

[Lurker]

Hartmut,

Apollo's good press is probably due to the fact that he is revered more as an idea than as a mythological person. This started rather early: Caesar Augustus made Apollo his personal patron deity, and laid heavy stress on Apollo's nature as the "Western" god of light, rationality and civilization, in contrast to Marci Antonii style of worshipping Egyptian gods and Dionysius.

Then, as ancient gods faded into allegories, Apollo was primarily the god of science and scholarship. Aesculapius and the muses are his children, so he is close to both humanists, writers and physicians. (As an engineer, I would be partial to Vulcanus, but ge is not really the role-model of a German-style Diplomingenieur. Seppo Ilmarinen of Kalevala would be closer.)

As an allegory of civilization, Apollo became the favorite god of 18th century humanists, especially in Germany and in Northern and Eastern Europe dominated by German culture. In Finland, the emblem of the Board of Matriculation Exam is a helmeted head of Apollo, and every Finnish university student carries his lyre as the cockade of their student cap.

Apollo's role as a shamanistic god of poetry, healing and trance, which makes him really primitive, really, is very seldom explored. Instead, poetry becomes literature, scholarship and science, healing becomes medicine and trance becomes wisdom and rational foresight.

[Slartibartfast]

I've recently read two out of Justin Cronin's trilogy that begins with The Passage.

So far: not bad, but not all that I expected it to be.

I also read "Going Clear", which was also far short of what I wanted it to be. But interesting. If you're new to the world of L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, Google-search "Operation Snow White" for a bit of jaw-droppingness.

Probably not news to many readers here, but new to me.

[Girl from the North Country]

Nigel, I miss Banks too, and mourn that there will be no more Culture novels. I'm utterly delighted that Elon Musk named some of his vessels after Culture ships!

Re Gods, and how they evolved, I think often of that Jung quote "Since we dismantled Olympus, the Gods are become symptoms."

[Nigel]

Anyone got anything for or against Hannu Rajaniemi ?

[Ugh]

Just finished The Twelve yesterday. I think The Passage was better, but still liked it. Now on to the last one.