The Sentence is Death
Anthony Horowitz
Mystery
[Note: At the time of posting, the U.S. edition of this book hasn't yet been published.]
Sequel to The Word Is Murder. All of my comments on the latter are applicable. As between the two books, this one has less character development--perhaps inevitably, since it's not introducing a new main character--but an even better puzzle. I did spot a crucial clue early on, and I did figure out what Horowitz was up to (using meta-book thinking) a couple of chapters ahead of time, but I nonetheless liked The Sentence is Death a great deal.
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Friday, February 22, 2019
Book Review: Heart
Heart: A History
Sandeep Jauhar
Medicine, biography
Yes, it's the fourth book in my heart-books trilogy. Heart is one of those works where the author intersperses his personal biography with medical and/or historical facts. It works pretty well here, although the integration between the two faces of the text is sometimes a bit slipshod. The personal stories are interesting, though, and the history of heart medicine and surgery--organized, interestingly, by theme; each chapter deals with one aspect of the heart's functioning--is clear and concise. Not an all-time classic, but worth a read if you're interested.
I see that it's been a while since I've recommended Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies as an inspired book of medical history. Consider it re-recommended.
Sandeep Jauhar
Medicine, biography
Yes, it's the fourth book in my heart-books trilogy. Heart is one of those works where the author intersperses his personal biography with medical and/or historical facts. It works pretty well here, although the integration between the two faces of the text is sometimes a bit slipshod. The personal stories are interesting, though, and the history of heart medicine and surgery--organized, interestingly, by theme; each chapter deals with one aspect of the heart's functioning--is clear and concise. Not an all-time classic, but worth a read if you're interested.
I see that it's been a while since I've recommended Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies as an inspired book of medical history. Consider it re-recommended.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Book Review: Terra Incognita
Terra Incognita: Three Novellas
Connie Willis
Science fiction
The thing is, Connie Willis is a really good writer. It's just that she has certain extremely predictable elements. Characters talking past each other. Muddle. A protagonist (often female) who can't get anyone to listen to her. An annoying authority figure (often male). Muddle. A resolution that occurs in spite of, rather than because of, anything the characters do. More muddle.
Two of the three stories in Terra Incognita--"Uncharted Territory" and "D.A."--partake of this pattern. That said, it's much more tolerable at shorter length, and when it's played for laughs. Willis's Passage, for example, is an interminable slog which only becomes readable when the main character finally dies; but To Say Nothing of the Dog is a tour-de-force that I'd recommend to just about anyone. "Uncharted Territory" applies the formula to the classic exploring-strange-new-worlds plot, and it works quite well if you accept the premise that such an endeavor would be run like a Monty Python skit. It's funny--exceedingly so, in spots--and it has a nice ending. "D.A." (which is really a short story, and the only recent piece) reads pretty well, but the outcome is awfully predictable.
The exception is the middle story, "Remake". This one is more of a classic what-if scenario than the others, and it's one that could actually be coming to pass. The tone is downbeat, almost noir. The characterization is very strong, too. You'd need to be more of a film buff than I am to fully appreciate it, but it's an effective piece of work.
Terra Incognita isn't a book for readers who like exploding spaceships, nor is it really suitable for SF non-aficionados. (Willis's Domesday Book is known to have filled the latter role, although in my opinion it's overrated.) It's worth reading if you're a fan of literate science fiction. If you've only ever tried Willis's novels, definitely give this one a shot.
The collection doesn't include what I think is Willis's best shorter work, Bellwether. Her two-parter Blackout and All Clear is a good short novel wrapped around a massive doorstop consisting of people muddling around ineffectually and, ultimately, pointlessly. Lincoln's Dreams is well-written but falls flat at the ending.
Connie Willis
Science fiction
The thing is, Connie Willis is a really good writer. It's just that she has certain extremely predictable elements. Characters talking past each other. Muddle. A protagonist (often female) who can't get anyone to listen to her. An annoying authority figure (often male). Muddle. A resolution that occurs in spite of, rather than because of, anything the characters do. More muddle.
Two of the three stories in Terra Incognita--"Uncharted Territory" and "D.A."--partake of this pattern. That said, it's much more tolerable at shorter length, and when it's played for laughs. Willis's Passage, for example, is an interminable slog which only becomes readable when the main character finally dies; but To Say Nothing of the Dog is a tour-de-force that I'd recommend to just about anyone. "Uncharted Territory" applies the formula to the classic exploring-strange-new-worlds plot, and it works quite well if you accept the premise that such an endeavor would be run like a Monty Python skit. It's funny--exceedingly so, in spots--and it has a nice ending. "D.A." (which is really a short story, and the only recent piece) reads pretty well, but the outcome is awfully predictable.
The exception is the middle story, "Remake". This one is more of a classic what-if scenario than the others, and it's one that could actually be coming to pass. The tone is downbeat, almost noir. The characterization is very strong, too. You'd need to be more of a film buff than I am to fully appreciate it, but it's an effective piece of work.
Terra Incognita isn't a book for readers who like exploding spaceships, nor is it really suitable for SF non-aficionados. (Willis's Domesday Book is known to have filled the latter role, although in my opinion it's overrated.) It's worth reading if you're a fan of literate science fiction. If you've only ever tried Willis's novels, definitely give this one a shot.
The collection doesn't include what I think is Willis's best shorter work, Bellwether. Her two-parter Blackout and All Clear is a good short novel wrapped around a massive doorstop consisting of people muddling around ineffectually and, ultimately, pointlessly. Lincoln's Dreams is well-written but falls flat at the ending.
Thursday, February 7, 2019
Book Review: Through Darkest Europe
Through Darkest Europe
Harry Turtledove
Science fiction
I was pretty sure when I picked up Through Darkest Europe in the library that it would be a lazy alternative history. By "lazy" I mean an alt-hist that doesn't make any real effort to ask "How would the world be different if . . .", but instead just does a one-for-one swap of terms. In this case, it reads as if Harry Turtledove took a contemporary setting and ran it through his word processor, doing two-way search-and-replace for certain key terms:
Some of Turtledove's other work, including but not limited to alternative history, is much better than this. Look for his short-story collections; "Counting Potsherds," in Departures, is a fine example of what this genre should do.
Harry Turtledove
Science fiction
I was pretty sure when I picked up Through Darkest Europe in the library that it would be a lazy alternative history. By "lazy" I mean an alt-hist that doesn't make any real effort to ask "How would the world be different if . . .", but instead just does a one-for-one swap of terms. In this case, it reads as if Harry Turtledove took a contemporary setting and ran it through his word processor, doing two-way search-and-replace for certain key terms:
- Christianity ↔ Islam
- ISIS ↔ Aquinist
- Syria ↔ Italy
- The West ↔ The Muslim world
- Europe ↔ The Middle East
- English ↔ Classical Arabic
- Allahu akbar! ↔ Deus vult!
- Jihadists ↔ Crusaders
And so on.
This makes it basically impossible to say anything interesting about the setting. I already know that free speech and equality are good, and religious fanaticism is bad. Uttering these sentiments in a setting where it's Europe that's the poor and backward region doesn't tell me anything I don't know.
This makes it basically impossible to say anything interesting about the setting. I already know that free speech and equality are good, and religious fanaticism is bad. Uttering these sentiments in a setting where it's Europe that's the poor and backward region doesn't tell me anything I don't know.
So, yeah, it's lazy writing. That's not necessarily a deal-breaker; sometimes I'm a lazy reader as well. The deeper problem with Through Darkest Europe is that Turtledove didn't find it necessary to include a story. His protagonists wander around his parallel-world Italy exclaiming at the parallels ("Look, Dawud! These Europeans force their women to dress conservatively! Gosh, isn't that awful?"), having meetings, and reacting to violence that happens around them. Instead of giving them a specific problem to solve or goal to achieve in chapter 1, they're on a vaguely-defined security-assistance mission, which they eventually pursue to the extent of making a couple of phone calls. There's also a superfluity of interior monologue, to much the same lack-of-effect as the dialogue.
Writers gotta eat. I guess the good news from Harry Turtledove's perspective is that he couldn't have taken long to crank this one out.
Some of Turtledove's other work, including but not limited to alternative history, is much better than this. Look for his short-story collections; "Counting Potsherds," in Departures, is a fine example of what this genre should do.
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