Books 2017: concentration flees
Feb. 26th, 2017 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbBooks 2017: 32-34
32. Erika Lewis, Game of Shadows. Tor, 2017. Copy via publisher.
Read for review. Er. Eeep. WTF.
33. Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin, eds., The Djinn Falls In Love & other stories. Solaris, 2017.
Read for review for Tor.com. Really excellent anthology.
nonfiction
34. Ibn Fadhlan, Ibn Fadhlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. Penguin Classics, 2012. Translated with an introduction by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone.
Ibn Fadhlan left an account of his journey from Baghdad to the court of the Bulghar khan in 921 CE. (The account of his return journey doesn't survive.) Full of precise observations and surprisingly little judgment - and a certain amount of what comes across as good-humoured honesty - this is really lovely medieval travel writing. It includes the only eye-witness description of a Viking boat funeral in the lands of the Rus.
Ibn Fadhlan's account takes up a little less than half the book. The remainder is given over to extracts from other Arabic travel writers (or compilers of geographic information) who deal with the far north or with people from the far north, such as Vikings. These are usually far less self-aware and precise than Ibn Fadhlan, but fascinating in their own right.
(I really like the Arabic literature of the medieval period, at least as much of it as I've been able to read in English translation. It'd be really cool to have a good translation of Ibn Hayyan, you know. Or ibn Rusta. Hell, Mas'udi.)
32. Erika Lewis, Game of Shadows. Tor, 2017. Copy via publisher.
Read for review. Er. Eeep. WTF.
33. Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin, eds., The Djinn Falls In Love & other stories. Solaris, 2017.
Read for review for Tor.com. Really excellent anthology.
nonfiction
34. Ibn Fadhlan, Ibn Fadhlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. Penguin Classics, 2012. Translated with an introduction by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone.
Ibn Fadhlan left an account of his journey from Baghdad to the court of the Bulghar khan in 921 CE. (The account of his return journey doesn't survive.) Full of precise observations and surprisingly little judgment - and a certain amount of what comes across as good-humoured honesty - this is really lovely medieval travel writing. It includes the only eye-witness description of a Viking boat funeral in the lands of the Rus.
Ibn Fadhlan's account takes up a little less than half the book. The remainder is given over to extracts from other Arabic travel writers (or compilers of geographic information) who deal with the far north or with people from the far north, such as Vikings. These are usually far less self-aware and precise than Ibn Fadhlan, but fascinating in their own right.
(I really like the Arabic literature of the medieval period, at least as much of it as I've been able to read in English translation. It'd be really cool to have a good translation of Ibn Hayyan, you know. Or ibn Rusta. Hell, Mas'udi.)
no subject
Date: 2017-02-27 03:13 pm (UTC)I really need to pick up a copy of Ibn Fadhlan. It's exactly the sort of glimpse into an "alien culture" that inspires me when writing fantasy.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-27 03:17 pm (UTC)So I recommend Ibn Fadhlan. It's really good. If you're interested in other really good medieval Arab writers, Osama (Usama) ibn Munqidh's Book of Contemplation is very interesting.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-27 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-27 07:16 pm (UTC)