The Book Thread -- October, 2005

Psychohistorical Crisis, by Donald Kingsbury. A revisit of the concepts in Asimov’s Foundation books, without the crap Asimov introduced in his later sequels. It is set in a thinly disguised (for plagiarism/copyright reasons, no doubt) Second Galactic Empire, after the Great Plan has succeeded and the thousand-year dark age has come to an end - Splendid Wisdom is Trantor, Faraway is Terminus, “the Founder” is Hari Seldon, and the Warlords of Lakgan and the tuned psychic probe replaces the Mule and his powers.

This story hearkens back to what was best about the early Foundation stories: the ideas are the stars of the show, and the situation is believably inevitable - a crisis point where the slightest pressure to one side or the other can have vastly different consequences. Exactly the kind of thing Asimov did over and over in Foundation. There is a lot of discussion of mathematical concepts, of uncertainty, of the theoretical logic that is required to actually have a psychohistorical science, and of implications of having such a science that Asimov clearly never considered - implications that result directly in the titular psychohistorical crisis.

The sheer scale of the galaxy, and the depth given to cultures met only in passing, is one of the book’s best features. The visit to Earth (“Rith”) is one of the places this is done best. You really get a good sense of the hugeness and variety of human civilization and the depth of time it contends with. It punctures our Earthly self-importance, too - there are several scenes such as the one where Eron Osa (the main character) is trying to remember whether “Americ” type cavemen came before or after Roman type cavemen and whether said “Americs” knew how to read, or imagines Max Planck cobbling together crude engines by firelight in his cave. Several chapters open with quotes by “the Spear-Shaker of Rith” which I had trouble making sense of at first.

Lit: Going through a Anton Chekov run. Finally a classic russian author I can enjoy due to his brevity and humanity. Really good.

Non Fiction: One of our Submarines by Edward Young.
First rate war memoir of a british submarine commander. Thanks to SHIII for starting my submarine reading blitz, this is the best of the bunch.

SF: Ian Banks, the Algebraist.
This maybe the book that gets me enjoying banks. Enjoyable and meandering so far. Hopefully multiple plotlines/characters dont explode. So far its good.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, by Erik Larson. I didn’t put this in the serial killer novel thread because it’s non-fiction. Fascinating parallel tales of Daniel Burnham, the architect of the 1893 World’s Fair and the author of “Burnham Plan” that shaped Chicago’s lakefront and H.H. Holmes, the serial killer who used his “World’s Fair Hotel” to lure young women to their deaths.

I really enjoyed Gladwell’s book myself and am considering buying his 2nd book. I thought it a bit odd how the guy who did all the research in Freakonomics(his name escapes me at the moment) seems to be a big fan of Gladwell but gives a totally different reason for why crime went down in places like NYC though.

(ie. Abortion driving crime down vs the “Broken Window” theory at work)

Anyone else reading The World is Flat ?

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It’s another re-read, but as I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet.

Eats, shoots and leaves Lynne Truss
Who’d have thought a book about punctuation could be interesting? I don’t think my rampant comma usage is about to be tamed anytime soon, but an interesting and entertaining read, especially if you were never actually taught English grammar at school. Bizarrely I learnt French, German and Latin grammar, but not English. Go figure.

There are actual rules for English punctuation? I always put a comma where I think it would look nice. Is that wrong?

Just started 1634:The Galileo Somethingorother,and am getting annoyed as it appears to address none of the hanging plot threads from the previous novel.

I hate cheap author tricks…

Been on a sci-fi kick this year.

I just finished The Algebraist, which I enjoyed quite a bit. Loose and rambling but good space opera.

Just now started Richard Morgan’s latest, Woken Furies. It’s a another Takeshi Kovacs novel and so far I’m liking it.

Other good recent sci-fi: Century Rain by Alistair Reynolds, the first time I really “got” Reynolds. An ending that went a bit off the rails but otherwise quite good.

The Skinner by Neal Asher, and Cowl by Neal Asher. I tried his earlier Gridlinked and bounced off of it. I then read Cowl which is a time travel novel done right and enjoyed quite a bit. The Skinner is also quite strong, probably better than Cowl.

I also recently enjoyed Mammoth by John Varley. A fairly light sci-fi but Varley can write and it has a certain easy confidence that only the elder writers have.

I also picked up a collection of Varley short stories, The John Varley Reader. It adds a lot of flavor and background on Varely who I’ve read off and on over the years. Some of the stories are quite good.

I also recently read two by Joe Haldeman, Guardian and Camouflage. Both were well written and had that smooth flow of a veteran writer. Unfortunately I felt both had very little to say that hadn’t been said before. Haldeman has never really matched the brilliance of his Forever War.

That’s not really books for November, more like books for 05, :).

I read Mammoth as well, and it’s enjoyable. Not Steel Beach, but still good. If you haven’t read “The Golden Globe” I’d recommend it. It’s set in his future universe and it was awesome. I hope he goes back there soon, because I think that’s where he’s at his best.

Looking for Jake - short story collection by China Meiville - one of my all time favorite books. Really excellent read. Now just waiting for Jordan and Martin to come from Amazon next week :)

I’ve just about finished The Darkness That Comes Before. A little late to the party on this one.