Books 2009: I can haz backlog

I've been reading away since January 1. Things being what they are, though - more than usually busy - this is the first weekend I've looked around and said, "About a dozen? Really? That few?"

Books 2009: 1-11.

1. Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Mercy.

For a number of reasons, I'm rather happier with the Imriel trilogy than I was with the Phaedre one. This one, the concluding volume, has more than sufficient helping of the epic romance, travel and adventure that Carey does so well, with a number of truly excellent moments. It's a really good book, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to all and sundry.


2. Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife: Horizon.

Another concluding volume, and a most excellent one. The story of Dag and Fawn is a quiet, intimate one, and yet it manages to have gently epic implications. Excellent book. Do read it.


3. Robin McKinley, Deerskin.

I have ambivalent feelings towards all four of McKinley's books that I've read so far. There's a lot about them that's really good, and there's a lot that I'm either uncomfortable with, or find completely orthogonal to my worldview. Deerskin is a very interesting story about surviving something personal and horrific, and it's very well done. And at the same time, I have some problems with it, so in sum, I am ambivalent.


4. Jim C. Hines, The Stepsister Scheme.

The premise of this - Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty try to rescue Cinderella's prince in a fairytale world where the fairytales have proper teeth - sounded amusing. The book itself is better than amusing: it's very entertaining, with well-drawn characters, and I kind of wish the next one was published already.


5. Jennifer Rardin, One More Bite.

If someone can explain to me adequately why I am reading this series, I will be in their debt. It is so wrong. And yet so amusing. More for how wrong it is than for any other reason.


6. Carrie Vaughn, Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand.

I'm not quite sure what the 'Dead Man's Hand' of the title refers to, but anyway. Kitty, werewolf and host of radio show 'The Midnight Hour' goes to get married in Las Vegas with fellow alpha Ben. What could go wrong? Start with a gun convention in the hotel they're staying in, and move on to kidnapping and possible human sacrifice. It's very entertaining.


7. Diane Duane and Peter Morwood, Star Trek: Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages.

I can't remember where I heard about this book, but I'm glad I took whoever it was up on their recommendation. It collects four novels: My Enemy, My Ally; The Romulan Way; Swordhunt; and Honor Blade, and I'm not a big Star Trek fan, but these? Are classic space operatics. With decent writing and really good characterisation.


8. Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase.

I've read this before. It's not my favourite Lord Peter Wimsey novel, being a bit more convoluted and clichéd than it really needs to be. But it has one of my favourite moments in the entire set of books, the one that starts when Harriet says,

"I can't hide my name - it's what I live by... But do you think it makes matters any more agreeable to know that it is only the patronage of Lord Peter Wimsey that prevents men like Umpelty from being openly hostile?"

"I have been afraid of this," said Wimsey.

"Then why did you come?"

"So that you might not have to send for me."

And continues into all that about gratitude. I really like that part.


9. Laurell K. Hamilton, Swallowing Darkness.

I must be insane. That is the only reason I can think of for reading anything more by Hamilton.


non-fiction:

10. Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire (AD 354 - 378), Penguin Classics, translation by Walter Hamilton, London 1986.

Our major source for the reign of the emperor Julian, sometimes called the Apostate. Also for the brief reign of Jovian, and the reign of Valens and Valentinian. The first thirteen books of thirty-one are lost: they would have described the reigns of emperors from Domitian to Constantius. What does remain - from Constantius to the death of Valens - deals disproportionately with the reign of Julian, the last pagan emperor. Ammianus, himself a pagan, a soldier, and a Greek, admires Julian excessively, but his treatment of Christianity is reasonably fair. There are interesting references to gods: Justice and Nemesis are forces which feature large, and Bellona gets a handful of mentions.

It's a very interesting source for the later empire, as well as being interesting in its own right.


11. Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark (eds), Witchcraft and Magic in Europe Vol. I: Biblical and Pagan Societies, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2001.

There are two essays in this short volume. One is an introduction and overview of 'magical' texts from ancient Mesopotamia - Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia - down to the Seleucid period, written by Marie-Louise Thomsen, which uses a significant amount of the texts themselves in translation, and struck me as scholarly, balanced and useful.

The second essay was by one Frederick H. Cryer. It's short - less than fifty pages - and spends a quarter of that space on sketching - rather poorly, at that - the socio-historical background to the development of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Another quarter is given over to attempting to define 'magic' and place it in its socio-historical context, which Cryer again does poorly, with a lack of stringent analysis and a lack of sufficient clarity. Despite complaining about the use of the Bible as a sole source, when he comes to talk about 'magic' and 'magical practice', Cryer himself uses only Biblical passages. He does not display awareness of or consideration of archaeological evidence, nor does he seem to have considered the Hellenistic period apocryphal and apocalyptic texts. It is, in fact, unclear what period(s) - pre or post exilic (and we'll leave "The exile: history or myth?" as a discussion for another time) - he is discussing 'magic' in relation to, and his position on its socio-historical roles and functions is likewise unclear. I do not recommend his part of this work. In fact, I do the opposite. I recommend you avoid it.

(If you are looking for good works on this subject, try J. Blenkinsopp - some of his stuff on prophecy, and family, in ancient Israel/Judah touches on magic, if only tangentally - or J.J. Collins, who's one of the major writers on apocalyptic. I think I came across a discussion of magical practice that struck me as useful in one of his books, although I'm not sure.)

Books 2009: I can haz backlog

I've been reading away since January 1. Things being what they are, though - more than usually busy - this is the first weekend I've looked around and said, "About a dozen? Really? That few?"

Books 2009: 1-11.

1. Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Mercy.

For a number of reasons, I'm rather happier with the Imriel trilogy than I was with the Phaedre one. This one, the concluding volume, has more than sufficient helping of the epic romance, travel and adventure that Carey does so well, with a number of truly excellent moments. It's a really good book, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to all and sundry.


2. Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife: Horizon.

Another concluding volume, and a most excellent one. The story of Dag and Fawn is a quiet, intimate one, and yet it manages to have gently epic implications. Excellent book. Do read it.


3. Robin McKinley, Deerskin.

I have ambivalent feelings towards all four of McKinley's books that I've read so far. There's a lot about them that's really good, and there's a lot that I'm either uncomfortable with, or find completely orthogonal to my worldview. Deerskin is a very interesting story about surviving something personal and horrific, and it's very well done. And at the same time, I have some problems with it, so in sum, I am ambivalent.


4. Jim C. Hines, The Stepsister Scheme.

The premise of this - Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty try to rescue Cinderella's prince in a fairytale world where the fairytales have proper teeth - sounded amusing. The book itself is better than amusing: it's very entertaining, with well-drawn characters, and I kind of wish the next one was published already.


5. Jennifer Rardin, One More Bite.

If someone can explain to me adequately why I am reading this series, I will be in their debt. It is so wrong. And yet so amusing. More for how wrong it is than for any other reason.


6. Carrie Vaughn, Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand.

I'm not quite sure what the 'Dead Man's Hand' of the title refers to, but anyway. Kitty, werewolf and host of radio show 'The Midnight Hour' goes to get married in Las Vegas with fellow alpha Ben. What could go wrong? Start with a gun convention in the hotel they're staying in, and move on to kidnapping and possible human sacrifice. It's very entertaining.


7. Diane Duane and Peter Morwood, Star Trek: Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages.

I can't remember where I heard about this book, but I'm glad I took whoever it was up on their recommendation. It collects four novels: My Enemy, My Ally; The Romulan Way; Swordhunt; and Honor Blade, and I'm not a big Star Trek fan, but these? Are classic space operatics. With decent writing and really good characterisation.


8. Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase.

I've read this before. It's not my favourite Lord Peter Wimsey novel, being a bit more convoluted and clichéd than it really needs to be. But it has one of my favourite moments in the entire set of books, the one that starts when Harriet says,

"I can't hide my name - it's what I live by... But do you think it makes matters any more agreeable to know that it is only the patronage of Lord Peter Wimsey that prevents men like Umpelty from being openly hostile?"

"I have been afraid of this," said Wimsey.

"Then why did you come?"

"So that you might not have to send for me."

And continues into all that about gratitude. I really like that part.


9. Laurell K. Hamilton, Swallowing Darkness.

I must be insane. That is the only reason I can think of for reading anything more by Hamilton.


non-fiction:

10. Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire (AD 354 - 378), Penguin Classics, translation by Walter Hamilton, London 1986.

Our major source for the reign of the emperor Julian, sometimes called the Apostate. Also for the brief reign of Jovian, and the reign of Valens and Valentinian. The first thirteen books of thirty-one are lost: they would have described the reigns of emperors from Domitian to Constantius. What does remain - from Constantius to the death of Valens - deals disproportionately with the reign of Julian, the last pagan emperor. Ammianus, himself a pagan, a soldier, and a Greek, admires Julian excessively, but his treatment of Christianity is reasonably fair. There are interesting references to gods: Justice and Nemesis are forces which feature large, and Bellona gets a handful of mentions.

It's a very interesting source for the later empire, as well as being interesting in its own right.


11. Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark (eds), Witchcraft and Magic in Europe Vol. I: Biblical and Pagan Societies, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2001.

There are two essays in this short volume. One is an introduction and overview of 'magical' texts from ancient Mesopotamia - Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia - down to the Seleucid period, written by Marie-Louise Thomsen, which uses a significant amount of the texts themselves in translation, and struck me as scholarly, balanced and useful.

The second essay was by one Frederick H. Cryer. It's short - less than fifty pages - and spends a quarter of that space on sketching - rather poorly, at that - the socio-historical background to the development of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Another quarter is given over to attempting to define 'magic' and place it in its socio-historical context, which Cryer again does poorly, with a lack of stringent analysis and a lack of sufficient clarity. Despite complaining about the use of the Bible as a sole source, when he comes to talk about 'magic' and 'magical practice', Cryer himself uses only Biblical passages. He does not display awareness of or consideration of archaeological evidence, nor does he seem to have considered the Hellenistic period apocryphal and apocalyptic texts. It is, in fact, unclear what period(s) - pre or post exilic (and we'll leave "The exile: history or myth?" as a discussion for another time) - he is discussing 'magic' in relation to, and his position on its socio-historical roles and functions is likewise unclear. I do not recommend his part of this work. In fact, I do the opposite. I recommend you avoid it.

(If you are looking for good works on this subject, try J. Blenkinsopp - some of his stuff on prophecy, and family, in ancient Israel/Judah touches on magic, if only tangentally - or J.J. Collins, who's one of the major writers on apocalyptic. I think I came across a discussion of magical practice that struck me as useful in one of his books, although I'm not sure.)

who needs love when there's law and order?

I've been accepted to the training dig at Silchester for four weeks, starting from June 28. I now have conceived a mad urge to see if I can spend some time afterwards tramping through scenic bits of Britain.

I can't afford that kind of thing. But it's tempting to give it a try.

who needs love when there's law and order?

I've been accepted to the training dig at Silchester for four weeks, starting from June 28. I now have conceived a mad urge to see if I can spend some time afterwards tramping through scenic bits of Britain.

I can't afford that kind of thing. But it's tempting to give it a try.