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bluegargantua) wrote2016-06-15 03:06 pm
bluegargantua) wrote2016-06-15 03:06 pm
Entry tags:
Too Like We DIdn't Mean to Review
Hey,
So I read/listened to more books.
First up, I listed to We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome. This is the 7th in the Swallows and Amazons series about British children having outdoors-y holiday adventures. I'm completely in the tank for this series so you can assume I enjoyed it.
This time around, the children are on holiday in Harwich awaiting the return of their father, a naval commander. With a few days to kill they fall in with a young man who agrees to let them help crew his boat on a simple voyage around the harbor and rivers that flow into it. Because they need to stick close in case Father returns home early, the children and their babysitter promise not to leave the safety of the harbor for the open sea.
There's a series of unfortunate events and...yeah, the kids go out to sea on their own.
So I did like this book, but it suffered a bit because usually the kids have some self-directed idea about what they want to do and they go do it. In this case, there's an accident and things are forced on them. As always, they rise to the occasion with pluck and spirit but I'm a little sad it wasn't an imaginative play-adventure for them. Still, we get to see Father for the first time and get to know him a bit better so that's nice.
Fun series, well worth it for kids and adults alike.
Next up is Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. It's a sci-fi book written by Mycroft Canner a Servicer living the 25th Century. A servicer is a convicted criminal who is stripped of all rights and serves at the whim of the public for his sustenance. He is also deeply enamoured of the 18th Century and the Age of Reason and his writing reflects that style. This causes a bit of tension because in the future, gender has been smoothed out and gendered pronouns are Just Not Done. He apologizes to the reader (because of course in the 18th Century style, he addresses himself to the reader), but after defending his choice to use gendered pronouns promptly assigns those pronouns to people based on how he perceives their gender not on what it actually is. Which leads to a few amusing surprises when you realize the "she" has a beard. Shades of Ancillary Justice and well done.
So Mycroft has done some terrible things, but he's too valuable to simply execute and as a result all the major power-players in this future world have need of him. The person who needs him most, however, is Bridger, a young boy who has the power to magically bring any toy or representation to life. He draws pictures of food and makes it real. He's protected by toy soldiers who remember a vivid past fighting their green/yellow foes and are fiercely devoted to Bridger even in this strange new world of giants.
All of this is miraculous and miracles are expressly verboten. After the last War of Religion that re-shaped the world's structure into the form we see in the book, you keep your thoughts on religion (or non-religion) to your own damn self. And if you want to talk to someone, you talk to a sensayer -- a sort of all purpose chaplin/psychiatrist who is trained to debate the divine with you -- in private.
Carlyle has been sent to the home of the Saneer-Weeksbooth family where he accidentally encounters Mycroft, Bridger and Thisbe Sanner-Weeksbooth trying to clean up a magical problem. Things escalate from there.
So this book was written by a history professor who's using sci-fi to re-examine hot issues from the Age of Enlightenment to see how they may apply to our present-day concerns. It's an interesting application of sci-fi and it's a pretty interesting read. The future Ms. Palmer envisions doesn't stand up to close scrutiny, but those aren't the questions she wants you to ask and the world-building is sufficient to stop you from asking them.
Instead, she wants to point you towards great thinkers of the Enlightenment and the things that were important to them. Mycroft's affection for the period is shared by a number of others and that allows these themes to get woven through the story without being too badly lamp-shaded.
Although Mycroft intends to recount a momentous week in Earth's history, the book only covers the first seven days so...sequel. However it does seem clear that the book is driving towards a conclusion in that second book. Overall, I found it an interesting and thought-provoking read and it's worth checking out.
later
Tom
So I read/listened to more books.
First up, I listed to We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome. This is the 7th in the Swallows and Amazons series about British children having outdoors-y holiday adventures. I'm completely in the tank for this series so you can assume I enjoyed it.
This time around, the children are on holiday in Harwich awaiting the return of their father, a naval commander. With a few days to kill they fall in with a young man who agrees to let them help crew his boat on a simple voyage around the harbor and rivers that flow into it. Because they need to stick close in case Father returns home early, the children and their babysitter promise not to leave the safety of the harbor for the open sea.
There's a series of unfortunate events and...yeah, the kids go out to sea on their own.
So I did like this book, but it suffered a bit because usually the kids have some self-directed idea about what they want to do and they go do it. In this case, there's an accident and things are forced on them. As always, they rise to the occasion with pluck and spirit but I'm a little sad it wasn't an imaginative play-adventure for them. Still, we get to see Father for the first time and get to know him a bit better so that's nice.
Fun series, well worth it for kids and adults alike.
Next up is Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. It's a sci-fi book written by Mycroft Canner a Servicer living the 25th Century. A servicer is a convicted criminal who is stripped of all rights and serves at the whim of the public for his sustenance. He is also deeply enamoured of the 18th Century and the Age of Reason and his writing reflects that style. This causes a bit of tension because in the future, gender has been smoothed out and gendered pronouns are Just Not Done. He apologizes to the reader (because of course in the 18th Century style, he addresses himself to the reader), but after defending his choice to use gendered pronouns promptly assigns those pronouns to people based on how he perceives their gender not on what it actually is. Which leads to a few amusing surprises when you realize the "she" has a beard. Shades of Ancillary Justice and well done.
So Mycroft has done some terrible things, but he's too valuable to simply execute and as a result all the major power-players in this future world have need of him. The person who needs him most, however, is Bridger, a young boy who has the power to magically bring any toy or representation to life. He draws pictures of food and makes it real. He's protected by toy soldiers who remember a vivid past fighting their green/yellow foes and are fiercely devoted to Bridger even in this strange new world of giants.
All of this is miraculous and miracles are expressly verboten. After the last War of Religion that re-shaped the world's structure into the form we see in the book, you keep your thoughts on religion (or non-religion) to your own damn self. And if you want to talk to someone, you talk to a sensayer -- a sort of all purpose chaplin/psychiatrist who is trained to debate the divine with you -- in private.
Carlyle has been sent to the home of the Saneer-Weeksbooth family where he accidentally encounters Mycroft, Bridger and Thisbe Sanner-Weeksbooth trying to clean up a magical problem. Things escalate from there.
So this book was written by a history professor who's using sci-fi to re-examine hot issues from the Age of Enlightenment to see how they may apply to our present-day concerns. It's an interesting application of sci-fi and it's a pretty interesting read. The future Ms. Palmer envisions doesn't stand up to close scrutiny, but those aren't the questions she wants you to ask and the world-building is sufficient to stop you from asking them.
Instead, she wants to point you towards great thinkers of the Enlightenment and the things that were important to them. Mycroft's affection for the period is shared by a number of others and that allows these themes to get woven through the story without being too badly lamp-shaded.
Although Mycroft intends to recount a momentous week in Earth's history, the book only covers the first seven days so...sequel. However it does seem clear that the book is driving towards a conclusion in that second book. Overall, I found it an interesting and thought-provoking read and it's worth checking out.
later
Tom