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Nov. 20th, 2011 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerMore books.
38/50: Jefferson's War: America's First War on Terror, 1801–1805 by Joseph Wheelan. A fascinating book on a war I didn't know much about. I'll comment more on this when I have time.
39/50: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Again, I don't have time to say all I would like to about this now, but it is an excellent novel, spanning several genres and powerfully written (IMO). I loved it, thanked the friend who recommended it, and eagerly look forward to the next volume in the trilogy. If you haven't read these yet, I strongly suggest that you do.
This year's second reject, Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. I loved these guys; books when I was in high school. The distance I've come is not as far as that which separates the Jack-Higgins-loving me from today, but it's further than I thought. This pair used to write near-future and far-future science fiction novels. From reading their independent work, it's clear that Larry Niven contributed the science and Jerry Pournelle contributed the military and political elements. Sadly, neither one really seems to have a good idea of what people are like or how to write them; their central characters are always slightly geeky, 40-something men who find hidden strength in times of disaster and use a McGyver-like adeptness with chemistry, mechanics and physics to come out on top in a world gone mad. Otherwise, characters are fairly thin, stories follow fairly predictable arcs, and stereotypes abound. In the way that Marion Zimmer Bradley struggles to write three-dimensional male characters, these two have a hard time with women. Central female characters are rare--usually women in their books are supporting characters: good for sex or organising (a political campaign, a small business, a major corporation's legal affairs, a post-apocalyptic society's food and shelter), but not possessed of any depth of personality. And better just not to touch on their treatment of race (suffice to say, black characters are almost always men and only strong and self-confident if they are criminals or soldiers). I got about three-quarters of the way through this, one of their blockbuster novels but--IMO--one of their weaker ones, and just gave up. I won't toss it right away, but I'm sad to look back on something I once enjoyed and see how lacking it seems to me now.
In Progress
Europe's Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914? by David Fromkin.
Doom Castle by Neil Munro
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Knights of the Cross; or, Krzyzacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz
38/50: Jefferson's War: America's First War on Terror, 1801–1805 by Joseph Wheelan. A fascinating book on a war I didn't know much about. I'll comment more on this when I have time.
39/50: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Again, I don't have time to say all I would like to about this now, but it is an excellent novel, spanning several genres and powerfully written (IMO). I loved it, thanked the friend who recommended it, and eagerly look forward to the next volume in the trilogy. If you haven't read these yet, I strongly suggest that you do.
This year's second reject, Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. I loved these guys; books when I was in high school. The distance I've come is not as far as that which separates the Jack-Higgins-loving me from today, but it's further than I thought. This pair used to write near-future and far-future science fiction novels. From reading their independent work, it's clear that Larry Niven contributed the science and Jerry Pournelle contributed the military and political elements. Sadly, neither one really seems to have a good idea of what people are like or how to write them; their central characters are always slightly geeky, 40-something men who find hidden strength in times of disaster and use a McGyver-like adeptness with chemistry, mechanics and physics to come out on top in a world gone mad. Otherwise, characters are fairly thin, stories follow fairly predictable arcs, and stereotypes abound. In the way that Marion Zimmer Bradley struggles to write three-dimensional male characters, these two have a hard time with women. Central female characters are rare--usually women in their books are supporting characters: good for sex or organising (a political campaign, a small business, a major corporation's legal affairs, a post-apocalyptic society's food and shelter), but not possessed of any depth of personality. And better just not to touch on their treatment of race (suffice to say, black characters are almost always men and only strong and self-confident if they are criminals or soldiers). I got about three-quarters of the way through this, one of their blockbuster novels but--IMO--one of their weaker ones, and just gave up. I won't toss it right away, but I'm sad to look back on something I once enjoyed and see how lacking it seems to me now.
In Progress
Europe's Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914? by David Fromkin.
Doom Castle by Neil Munro
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Knights of the Cross; or, Krzyzacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz
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Date: 2011-11-21 03:09 pm (UTC)