What Book Are You Reading XV - The Pile Keeps Growing!

[Smellincoffee]

Just finished Baseball in Blue and Gray, a history of baseball in the 1850s and 1860s. Antecedents to baseball and baseball proper were popular among soldiers in the Civil War, and spectator baseball continued to grow during the war, despite so many men being off at the front. On one ocassion, a baseball game was interupted by battle, and the outfielders shot and taken prisoner.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It's a (relatively!) famous rock formation, a series of interlocking hexagonal basalt pillars of varying heights, on the NI coast:

Giant's Causeway - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Ah, time for research.

I read CJ Cherryh's Downbelow Station over the weekend. Pretty good space opera with a fairly hard sci-fi background, although my personal quibbles with Cherryh's writing style kept me from fully enjoying it.
I always have a hard time piecing together what is actually happened in the setup to her novels (see spoiler), and character motivation always feels fuzzy (see spoiler).
Solid 7/10 book though. Plenty of good page-turning action, high politics, and space opera in a crunchy hard sci-fi shell. Might try and track down her other books in the Alliance-Union series.

Spoiler :

The big event that kicks off the book is one space station gets destroyed and the Earth Navy drops off a bunch of refugees at Downbelow Station. It comes out later in the book the Earth Navy wanted the space station to be destroyed to lure the Union Navy into overextending themselves and cut off lines of supply. While Cherryh does a good job is capturing the different perspectives and chaos of such an event -the destruction of the space station - the way she writes it and drops info later on in the book means I'm genuinely not sure if the station was destroyed by the Earth Navy after a brief evacuation; or the Union Navy destroyed the station stopping the evacuation. Cherryh goes into the viewpoint of high ranking characters who were there and would know what happened, but never really addressed it.
At the end of the book the Earth Navy carrier Norway goes rogue, splitting from the Earth Navy (which itself had already gone rogue). Cherryh established the Norway was a bit of an odd man out, but going from 'some jurisdictional disputes in a situation nobody had any experience with' to 'killing hundreds of Earth Navy personnel and going rogue because the Earth Navy was becoming the wrong kind of pirates' was just strange; especially as the book made it clear the crew of the Norway had no problem with piracy and it wasn't clear that attempting a coup on Earth crossed any moral line for the crew given their clear dislike and distrust of Earth. You can sort of piece things together after the book, but it feels very weird when reading the book and sort of feels like Cherryh wrote herself into a corner and needed a bit of an ass-pull to wrap up the story without all the likeable characters dying horribly.

C.J. Cherryh has a writing style that is unique to the point that you either like it or you don't. There's a rhythm to it that gives the reader a sense of the calmness or the anxiety that permeates a scene or situation, or how a character will react.

She's done a tremendous job of worldbuilding, whether the "world" is a star station, a merchanter ship, a spook ship, warship, the community of Reseune on the planet Cyteen, the creepy world of Gehenna, and so on. When it comes to plausible science, she does her homework.

When it comes to this particular novel... Downbelow Station was the first Cherryh novel I read, back in the early '80s, when she was the Guest of Honor at the science fiction convention I attended that year. It's special to me in that it's the first time I met a real science fiction author, had a chance to say a few words, and get a book autographed. Cherryh is someone who has a vast array of interests, and her attention to detail is beyond amazing.

The Alliance-Union setting is complex and detailed in that it feels like a place - somewhere that could plausibly exist.

Signy Mallory is a heroic character to a lot of fans, as there's none of the nonsense of "Ohmy, the captain is a woman" and a lot of sexist BS follows. She's got her own set of ideas of what's right and wrong, her own morality, and when the Fleet crossed the line of what she considered right and moral and workable, she refused to go along with it.

In this setting, the captain of a ship - fleet ship, merchanter, etc. tends to enjoy a great deal of respect and loyalty from the crew.

There's a classic filk song about Signy Mallory. This version is sung by Julia Ecklar:

I think I posted a list of the Alliance-Union novels I enjoy most, somewhere in this thread.

IIRC Downbelow Station is one of a series of books about that particular "universe". I have liked most of her Sci Fi stories and the various world building she engaged in. It has been quite a number of years since I read her books though.

Time to read them again, then. There's a new one coming out next year (I was beyond annoyed to find it wasn't coming out this year, and the release date was 2024... a whole 'nother year... not fair!

 

[EgonSpengler]

I read CJ Cherryh's Downbelow Station over the weekend. Pretty good space opera with a fairly hard sci-fi background, although my personal quibbles with Cherryh's writing style kept me from fully enjoying it.
I always have a hard time piecing together what is actually happened in the setup to her novels (see spoiler), and character motivation always feels fuzzy (see spoiler).
Solid 7/10 book though. Plenty of good page-turning action, high politics, and space opera in a crunchy hard sci-fi shell. Might try and track down her other books in the Alliance-Union series.

Spoiler :

The big event that kicks off the book is one space station gets destroyed and the Earth Navy drops off a bunch of refugees at Downbelow Station. It comes out later in the book the Earth Navy wanted the space station to be destroyed to lure the Union Navy into overextending themselves and cut off lines of supply. While Cherryh does a good job is capturing the different perspectives and chaos of such an event -the destruction of the space station - the way she writes it and drops info later on in the book means I'm genuinely not sure if the station was destroyed by the Earth Navy after a brief evacuation; or the Union Navy destroyed the station stopping the evacuation. Cherryh goes into the viewpoint of high ranking characters who were there and would know what happened, but never really addressed it.
At the end of the book the Earth Navy carrier Norway goes rogue, splitting from the Earth Navy (which itself had already gone rogue). Cherryh established the Norway was a bit of an odd man out, but going from 'some jurisdictional disputes in a situation nobody had any experience with' to 'killing hundreds of Earth Navy personnel and going rogue because the Earth Navy was becoming the wrong kind of pirates' was just strange; especially as the book made it clear the crew of the Norway had no problem with piracy and it wasn't clear that attempting a coup on Earth crossed any moral line for the crew given their clear dislike and distrust of Earth. You can sort of piece things together after the book, but it feels very weird when reading the book and sort of feels like Cherryh wrote herself into a corner and needed a bit of an ass-pull to wrap up the story without all the likeable characters dying horribly.

If you haven't already read them, I recommend Leviathan Wakes (2011) by James S.A. Corey and Old Man's War (2007) by John Scalzi. Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire (2017) is also good. The Praxis (2002) by Walter Jon Williams was decent, but similar to Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire and I think I preferred Scalzi's (I guess Scalzi's book was similar to Williams', since Williams' was published first). I also think I preferred Williams' cyberpunk novels to his space opera. Hardwired (1986) is one of the OGs of the subgenre, if you're into cyberpunk and haven't read that one yet.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I recommend Leviathan Wakes (2011) by James S.A. Corey

Start with that one.

 

[Takhisis]

I hadn't intended to introduce giants. Honestly, the game's first several chapters were like a straightforward adventure story in which it was possible to simply dismiss the legend of Edwin Griffinrider as a legend.

But then they introduced a magic crown, and the game became historical fantasy. I decided to go with it that at some time in the past in this setting, griffins were real - and probably still are, but have just been in hiding.

At this point I have to ask what the Giants' Causeway is.

I am also thinking that maybe this part of the conversation should be moved to the Watcha Writin'? thread in A&E, since it's going to be years before I'm going to have this thing ready to post for anyone to actually read.

You don't have to actually introduce giants. It's just something that happened out of recorded history, let alone mere living memory, so who really knows? Some people say that myths of dragons and similar animals are based on findings of dinosaur bones. Many times, construction techniques have been lost after civilisations collapsed so people have explained away types of construction impossible to them by saying that gods, giants or whatever built them.

After all, this isn't Star Trek so you are not mandated to explain everything. You can just leave it as an unexplained myth from the past.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

You don't have to actually introduce giants. It's just something that happened out of recorded history, let alone mere living memory, so who really knows? Some people say that myths of dragons and similar animals are based on findings of dinosaur bones. Many times, construction techniques have been lost after civilisations collapsed so people have explained away types of construction impossible to them by saying that gods, giants or whatever built them.

After all, this isn't Star Trek so you are not mandated to explain everything. You can just leave it as an unexplained myth from the past.

The thing about fanfic is that you never know what details the readers might pick up on and wonder about. They tend to get frustrated when you say, "I never thought about that." MaryKB asking me a question about a character who hadn't really been on my radar for much development prompted me to take another look at that character. Now he's a major character with a rich backstory that spans decades.

Someone left a reply similar to that earlier today on a Merlin story I commented on the other day. It was an AU season 3 in which the last episode (discovering the Round Table and knighting the knights) didn't happen. Since Gwaine turned up in the story as someone clearly working for Arthur, I was left wondering, "How did he escape from Jarl's slave pit, if Merlin wasn't there to distract the guards, and why would he end up working for Arthur when he's made it clear that it's Merlin he's loyal to - and Arthur hasn't knighted him?"

The author told me I could imagine it for myself.

So fine, I will. I've been wondering how Gwaine got caught by Jarl in the first place - it was glossed over with a glib line of dialogue - and I'll write my own version of that at some point.

 

[Ajidica]

Even Tolkien thought it was a good idea to leave some things unexplained.

Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow,
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.
None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the master:
His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.

 

[Josu]

My kindle e-reader died yesterday.
I am on reading stand-by until I receive my birthday present

 

[PhroX]

My kindle e-reader died yesterday.
I am on reading stand-by until I receive my birthday present

There's Kindle apps for both phone and PC which work fine for me.

 

[Josu]

There's Kindle apps for both phone and PC which work fine for me.

I know, but I don't enjoy too much the experience

 

[Birdjaguar]

I started Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini. His previous book I enjoyed was To Sleep in a Sea of Stars.

 

[Ajidica]

I've been working my way through John Scalzi Redshirts and I'm not really enjoying it. I'm finding the central concept too clever for its own good. It is a very inventive and well executed concept, but just too smug and clever for me.

 

[Hygro]

Your mom’s too smug

 

[EnglishEdward]

Yesterday I finished reading

The Korean War

by

Max Hastings

copyright 1987.

that I picked up from a local car boot sale a few weeks back.
It has a stamp implying it was issued to RAF Marham flight staff.

To make it interesting, I deliberately read the chapters in the wrong order.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Just started both Tom Standage's A Brief History of Motion (a history of land transport, presumably oriented toward looking at autonomous cars and the like) and Brad Birzer's Mythic Realms: The Moral Imagination in Literature and Film.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Brad Birzer's Mythic Realms: The Moral Imagination in Literature and Film.

This sounds interesting. Is it about the morality in already existing literature/film, or about works not yet created, in that what society will expect and tolerate now may not be what was expected or tolerated in the past?


Somebody should invent time travel and remove Mark Antony from history. Or at least give him a few more brain cells. Then maybe this book wouldn't be such a horrible slog. I honestly can't wait for him to die.

On the other hand, if you remove Mark Antony, Derek Jacobi would never play Claudius and I might not have developed an interest in Roman history.

Actually, Colleen McCullough should have written a more interesting novel.

 

[Smellincoffee]

This sounds interesting. Is it about the morality in already existing literature/film, or about works not yet created, in that what society will expect and tolerate now may not be what was expected or tolerated in the past?

I've only just started (literally in the introduction), so I can't say anything specifically. I think it's about the way the human soul, or the human condition, are regarded by different books and films. I'll tag you when I've read more into it.

 

[Narz]

Was moving house (again :/) and found & re-read The Long Walk by Stephen King (originally published under an alias). Homeboy wrote this @ age 19 & it may be the best book I ever read. Definitely the most atmospheric.

 

[Josu]

Ended His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire) by Naomi Novik
IMHO it has good elements to be an excelent fantasy novel, but it is not.
The background world is underexplained and it turns the novel in a cheap "How to Train Your Dragon"

Started Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

 

[Ajidica]

I read Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed over the weekend. It is the author's first book, and for a debut novel it is a pretty fun high fantasy adventure set in a 1001 Arabian Nights world. Everything about the book could be described as "competent, with enough flair to keep it interesting". Apparently the author saw it as the first book in a trilogy, though it has been over a decade and no sequel has been released. That isn't a huge problem as the main characters plots are wrapped up nicely enough.
Worth tracking down if you are interested in a fantasy book set in the Middle East, or are looking for a higher quality book to read when traveling.