New books fifty to sixty-eight (June)
Sep. 19th, 2009 02:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tigerfortStill catching up on my backlog. I'm cheating a little bit here by not putting individual comments for each volume of the series, but there is some overall commentary in the notes on the first book in each case.
50) Between Planets (Robert Heinlein). Solid plot, plausible characters and good writing; one of the best Heinlein "juveniles", IMO, though not as good as "Have Space-suit - will travel".
51) Rocketship Galileo (Robert Heinlein). An OK "Boys' Own Adventure" type story, but nothing special. To be fair, it is Heinlein's first published novel, and not bad for a first novel, if very much of its period.
52) His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik). Pretty good, although I found the structural flaws became more obvious in the sequels. The errors of fact were irritating (all the more so because I actually read these three interspersed with the early O'Brian novels), but the world-building failures were more problematic, for me at least. So fun, but frustrating, and arguably a good demonstration of the problems with using not-quite-the-real-world; the contingent changes aren't thought - or followed - through. ISTR that I also found the way that the ethical issues of the relationship between the two sentient species - humans and dragons - were (largely not) treated in the first three books more than a little disturbing.
53) Throne of Jade (Naomi Novik).[library]
54) Black Powder War (Naomi Novik).[library]
55) Master and Commander (Patrick O'Brian). Strangely, although I've been surrounded by these for a long time (asmobbsy has cause to know:), and I've read and enjoyed short passages from several, I'd never previously read any of the series properly. So, I started at the beginning.... (Arguably cheating a little, since while I haven't read them, they're not coming from my bookcase full of unread books, but hey ;-) I can happily assure anyone here who hasn't read them that the series lived up to my high expectations with ease.
56) Post Captain (Patrick O'Brian).
57) HMS Surprise (Patrick O'Brian).
58) The Mauritius Command (Patrick O'Brian).
59) Desolation Island (Patrick O'Brian).
60) The Fortune of War (Patrick O'Brian).
61) The Surgeon's Mate (Patrick O'Brian).
62) The Ionian Mission (Patrick O'Brian).
63) Treason's Harbour (Patrick O'Brian).
64) The Far Side of the World (Patrick O'Brian).
65) The Reverse of the Medal (Patrick O'Brian).
66) The Letter of Marque (Patrick O'Brian). Where I had to stop, for the time being, as we don't seem to have a copy of the next one ("The thirteen gun Salute").
67) The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester). (Originally published in the UK as "Tiger, Tiger!".) Perhaps less well-known than "The Demolished Man" (which won the first-ever Hugo best-novel award), but IMO a better book (and a better story) - and TDM is extremely good. Everything by Bester is good, but Haldemann is right to describe this as one of sci-fi's "few works of actual genius".[library]
68) Changeling (Roger Zelazny). An entertaining, although not wildly original (especially by Zelazny's standards) magic-versus-technology tale of stolen and swapped children. Good enough to pass a couple of hours in light fluffy reading, but no deep thoughts here. [Library]
Which leaves me only two and a half months behind.
50) Between Planets (Robert Heinlein). Solid plot, plausible characters and good writing; one of the best Heinlein "juveniles", IMO, though not as good as "Have Space-suit - will travel".
51) Rocketship Galileo (Robert Heinlein). An OK "Boys' Own Adventure" type story, but nothing special. To be fair, it is Heinlein's first published novel, and not bad for a first novel, if very much of its period.
52) His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik). Pretty good, although I found the structural flaws became more obvious in the sequels. The errors of fact were irritating (all the more so because I actually read these three interspersed with the early O'Brian novels), but the world-building failures were more problematic, for me at least. So fun, but frustrating, and arguably a good demonstration of the problems with using not-quite-the-real-world; the contingent changes aren't thought - or followed - through. ISTR that I also found the way that the ethical issues of the relationship between the two sentient species - humans and dragons - were (largely not) treated in the first three books more than a little disturbing.
53) Throne of Jade (Naomi Novik).[library]
54) Black Powder War (Naomi Novik).[library]
55) Master and Commander (Patrick O'Brian). Strangely, although I've been surrounded by these for a long time (as
mobbsy has cause to know:), and I've read and enjoyed short passages from several, I'd never previously read any of the series properly. So, I started at the beginning.... (Arguably cheating a little, since while I haven't read them, they're not coming from my bookcase full of unread books, but hey ;-) I can happily assure anyone here who hasn't read them that the series lived up to my high expectations with ease.56) Post Captain (Patrick O'Brian).
57) HMS Surprise (Patrick O'Brian).
58) The Mauritius Command (Patrick O'Brian).
59) Desolation Island (Patrick O'Brian).
60) The Fortune of War (Patrick O'Brian).
61) The Surgeon's Mate (Patrick O'Brian).
62) The Ionian Mission (Patrick O'Brian).
63) Treason's Harbour (Patrick O'Brian).
64) The Far Side of the World (Patrick O'Brian).
65) The Reverse of the Medal (Patrick O'Brian).
66) The Letter of Marque (Patrick O'Brian). Where I had to stop, for the time being, as we don't seem to have a copy of the next one ("The thirteen gun Salute").
67) The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester). (Originally published in the UK as "Tiger, Tiger!".) Perhaps less well-known than "The Demolished Man" (which won the first-ever Hugo best-novel award), but IMO a better book (and a better story) - and TDM is extremely good. Everything by Bester is good, but Haldemann is right to describe this as one of sci-fi's "few works of actual genius".[library]
68) Changeling (Roger Zelazny). An entertaining, although not wildly original (especially by Zelazny's standards) magic-versus-technology tale of stolen and swapped children. Good enough to pass a couple of hours in light fluffy reading, but no deep thoughts here. [Library]
Which leaves me only two and a half months behind.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-19 03:42 pm (UTC)I still haven't gotten around to buying the 4th book yet (and the 5th is now out in the states...) - twas flaw in being given books 1-3 with American covers. I'm hoping that the library here might stock it - if not it's 70p request fee!
Well done in the catching up on the catching up so far! It mus be difficult to write about books you read so long ago...
* pounce *
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-19 04:09 pm (UTC)