And so we draw down our list. And finally pass 2020, that kidney-stone of a year.
Battleship Yamato: Of War, Beauty and Irony by Jan Morris. A curious essay in which the warship acts as the central symbol for an examination of the aesthetics of warfare. What a contrast with the previous title (The First Blitz, November). (2 December)
The Dawn Patrol by Guy Fowler. Bears only some resemblance to the movie. Poor historical detail, overly melodramatic. A curiosity more than an entertainment. (3 December)
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. Hard to get too excited about a space opera in which the main characters are overly flawed. Reasonably compelling, but I don’t know if I’m in for the full series. (4 December)
The Great War: The Persuasive Power of Photography by Ann Thomas. Companion to a Canadian museum display of photos. Not as much material as I’d expected, and doesn’t address all of the issues it raises. (5 December)
Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey. Too many POV characters, and not all of them likeable. But the SOB authors pulled a wicked switcheroo at the end, damn them. Maybe I’ll get book 3 after all. (6 December)
Masters of the Air: The Great War Pilots McLeod, McKeever and Maclaren by Roger Gunn. Mini-biographies of three Canadian WWI pilots. Not very well written, but there’s enough of A.A. McLeod’s letters to really define his character. Not so much for McKeever and Maclaren, I’m afraid. An editor who knew the subject would have been a good idea, too. (7 December)
The Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara Tuchman. The only part of her “WWI Trilogy” I had never read. (I thought it might be her first book; it’s actually her third.) Fascinating stuff about espionage, but also about racist US international politics under Wilson. Still hard-pressed to understand why Zimmermann would admit to having sent the titular message. (9 December)
The Urban Fantasy Anthology ed. Peter S. Beagle and Joe R. Lansdale. Signed out mostly because of who the editors are. Good stories, and they aren’t just about fucking werewolves and vampires. The “noir” fantasies (the last third?) were mostly depressing; bloody hell but I hate werewolf stories. (10 December)
*The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett. I just needed something to make me laugh. Would have worked better if I’d remembered (spoiler alert!) the bloody cat dies at one point (though not permanently). (11 December)
Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard. A mystery with some nicely steamy (but allusive) sex and a strange SF universe. Interesting to have the McGuffin right in front of me the entire time and not recognize it. I like her writing; it’s very odd and elusive. (11 December)
*The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. First of the Five Gods books and still one of the best. I have really been identifying with Caz lately. (12 December)
Captain Future and the Emperor of Space by Edmond Hamilton. Almost too pulpy to be borne with. Sort of an early SF version of the Hardy Boys, I guess. (13 December)
The Social Life of Coffee by Brian Cowan. Overly academic study of the emergence of coffee house culture in 17th-century England (and Britain). A tougher slog than it ought to have been. Made me want to learn more about the virtuosi of 17th-century England. (15 December)
*Wasp by Eric Frank Russell. Does it count as a re-read when the first time it was read to me rather than by me? Fun in a somewhat antisocial way. (15 December)
Star Gate by Andre Norton. An SF novel with fantasy tropes, and quite well done. (It does show its age in some respects.) I was impressed with its anti-colonial approach―and with the fact the Terrans are described as being brown-skinned. (16 December)
The Coming of the Terrans by Leigh Brackett. She invented a wonderful fictional Mars, and these stories―though they also show their age (there are unfortunate hints of “noble savage” and “exotic primitive” attitudes in some of these)―are great examples of world-building. Last one is best. (17 December)
Somewhere a Voice by Eric Frank Russell. Short-story collection. Title story didn’t work for me, but I liked most of the others. “U-Turn” was clever, “Dear Devil” nice without being too cloyingly sentimental. (18 December)
*Miracle and other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis. ‘Tis the season. “Miracle” is still my favourite, but “Epiphany” is coming up the inside rail, with “Inn” and “Adaptation” close behind. What a lovely book. (19 December)
Men, Martians and Machines by Eric Frank Russell. Not a novel, but a quartet of stories involving the same people. Unfortunately pretty much the same plot, too. Shows its age as well. (21 December)
Mortal Republic by Edward J. Watts. The downfall of pre-Imperial Rome. Well-written and carefully researched, but a depressing story given the current travails of the modern Rome to the south of us. Decent historical detail as well. (22 December
Coffee A Global History by Jonathan Morris. A very brief history, but it does seem to touch all of the bases. Don’t know that it was necessary to give me recipes for Tiramisu and such-like, but I did learn a few things. (23 December)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Believe it or not, I had never read this before. I’ve seen multiple movie versions, I’ve watched it on stage, I’ve even heard “Fireside Al” Maitland read a wonderful scene from Stave III over the radio. But until this week I’d never read it myself. Wonderful story, and what a pity no movie-maker ever tried to make Marley’s lower jaw fall off. (24 December)
Knights of the Air: Canadian Fighter Pilots in the First World War by Lt-Col David L. Bashow. More hero-worship than history, I think. The Bishop hagiography is a bit nauseating, despite Bashow’s obvious effort at balance. Most of the paintings are of fairly low quality. Good photo selection. (26 December)
Rivers of London: The Fey and the Furious by Ben Aaronovitch & Andrew Cartmel. Latest Peter Grant graphic tale. Not that successful, I am sad to report. I don’t find street-racing an interesting subject anyway, but this seemed to be all process and no character. Certainly wasn’t at all engaging to me. (26 December)
The Portable Paradise by Jonathan Keates. A brief, charming essay on the subject of travel books (notably, Murray and Baekdecker) from the Proud Tower period. Keates just gets it where these books are concerned. (27 December)
Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster. Based on a series of radio lectures. Interesting but perhaps not all that helpful to this would-be writer; I think it’s more about how to read novels. Forster sometimes comes across as little more than a snob. (27 December)
The Space Willies by Eric Frank Russell. Another of his Solitary-Human-vs-Alien-Bureaucracy tales. A short novel and even at that it’s stretched pretty thinly. If anything the alien bad guys are even more stupid than the ones in Wasp. (28 December)
Six Worlds Yonder by Eric Frank Russell. More of his Arrogant-Humans-Learn-Better tales. Not an especially strong collection, though “The Waitabits” is fun (albeit overlong). (29 December)
Judgment on Janus by Andre Norton. More fantasy-tinged SF. Nice delineation of a nasty religious cult, and I like the multiple personality aspects. Story doesn’t end, though, so much as it just stops. Word-count issues? (29 December)
Victory on Janus by Andre Norton. The missing conclusion to #312. Not quite as satisfying as Judgement; I think the story would have been much better as a single novel. (30 December)
The Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton. More sword-and-sorcery than SF, I think. And why did it take me so long to realize how much golden-age SF was rural in setting? Not much attention paid to cities in any of these books. Very frontier-like. (31 December)
And that's all for 2020. Think we'll miss that year at any point down the timeline? Nope, me neither.
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