A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way

John Scalzi points out that you can join the World Science Fiction convention for $50 and get electronic versions of all the Hugo nominated works. Amazing deal.

A handful of escapist fare…

• The God Engines by John Scalzi. Vicious little tale of a civilization and the creatures they revere as gods. Amazon says 3.5 stars, Goodreads says 3.6. It is an interesting idea but not deeply developed, I’d say 3.5.
• Skeleton Hill by Peter Lovesey. A fine English countryside mystery. Horses, cemeteries, gardens, countryside, civil war reenactments. A humble insightful hardworking detective, prideful upper class protagonists. A good example of the form. Goodreads says 3.63, Amazon says 4.5 stars, I’d give it 4.
• Strip by Thomas Perry. Modern LA noir. Ok, showed more promise at beginning, but then lost some verve as the tale hopped around the ensemble cast. Would have been stronger to focus on one character, say the detective. Amazon says 3.5 stars, Goodreads says 3.44, I’d say 3.
• Echo by Jack McDevitt. Not his strongest effort. People running around the arm of the galaxy for just a modest payoff. If you are really committed to McDevitt then it is a fine story but if not, well. Amazon says 4 stars, Goodreads says 3.68, I’d have to say 3 tops.

OK my pleasure reading is way off because my brain is buried in Computational Fluid Dynamics and also in some pretty interesting things at work. I am reading a ton actually.

• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. A powerful tale, the ending is a gut punch. Totally drawn in by the characters and totally exposed at the end. I’m still reeling. Amazon says just 3.5 stars. Goodreads 3.66, I like this one way more, 4.5 stars. 
• The Economics of Intercollegiate Sports by Randy R. Grant, John Leadley, Zenon Zygmont. Scholarly look at the NCAA and BCS cartels and how they operate our primary “amateur” sports. Undergraduate economics level, good read overall. Clearly articulates exactly how the NCAA and member universities constrain the opportunities for athletes to benefit the institutions. Unrated on Amazon and Goodreads, but I give it a 4 if you are interested in this kind of thing. The biggest negative is its textbook pricing.
• Lords of the Horizons by Jason Goodwin. A somewhat literary history of the Ottoman Empire. It is a very pleasant read but I can’t say it is gripping. I am having problems finishing it because, while it is interesting and very nicely written, it lacks drama. Amazon gives 3.5 stars, Goodreads about the same, I have to stop at 2.5 stars.

• Through the Looking Glass by Guy Deutscher. Interesting exploration of how language may impact perception with examples drawn from color perception, direction, and gender in language. Engaging and educational. 3.63 on Goodreads, 4 stars on Amazon, I’d say 3.5.
• A Journey: My Political Life by Tony Blair. Could have used more editing. I was interested to see the past 20 years thru Blair’s eyes but it just wore me out, too many details and not enough conclusions and insight. 3.29 on Goodreads, 4 stars on Amazon, I give it just a 2.5 and that is generous.
• The Emperor’s Pearl by Robert van Gulik. Fine detective story set in first millenium CE China, starring Judge Dee, who per the author is the Sherlock Holmes of China. Much more readable than the typical Holmes story tho, closer in feel to an Agatha Christie tale (not shocking, the book was written in 1962). 3.95 on Goodreads, 4.5 stars on Amazon, I give it a 4.
• Misadventure by Millard Kaufman. Nice noir detective tale in modern-day LA, written by the (late) creator of Mr. Magoo. 4.5 stars on Amazon, 3.57 on Goodreads, I’d give it a 4.

• Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks. Banks has a unique and entertaining voice, in his universe advanced technology is just a little perverse and contrary and darkly witty. Fun read although a little long. Amazon says 4.5 stars, Goodreads 3.8, I would definitely comtimnue to read more Banks.
• Ancestor by Scott Sigler. 4.5 stars on Amazon, 4.1 on Goodreads, but utter crap. Derivative Crichtonesque garbage with 1D cartoon characters. Not finishable.
• Ariel by Steven R. Boyett. Terribly inconsistent tale of a young man and a unicorn in a post-apocalyptic world, but something endearing about the protagonist and his trials. 4 stars on Amazon, 3.53 on Goodreads. 3-3.5 seems about right, a good tale wrapped up in a kind of a sloppy book.
• The Company by K. J. Parker. Odd parable of a group of veterans in a vaguely Nordic country who come together years after a war. Their lives have come to be defined by their wartime experiences and their personal forms of cowardice and betrayal. Amazon says 3.5 stars, Goodreads says 3.2. I can’t highly recommend the book but it was interesting enough to finish.

Wow this is an underwhelming list to end the summer on.

OK, it is summer, so of course I am reading zombie books. There are enough of these to probably dedicate a blog just to the category.

• Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry. Terrorists and their greedy western sponsors create a zombie virus to bring the USA to its knees. Joe Ledger, supercop, leads the fight against the zombie plot. Typical escapist action fare. Amazon says 4 stars, goodreads 3.91, this is high, but an entertaining airplane read.
• World War Z by Max Brooks. A grittier look at an imagined future zombie war. Of course the humans win but massive deaths, and no one left alive is untouched. Nicely structured as a series of interviews with survivors. Amazon says 4.5 stars, goodreads says 4.17, that might be rich, but this was entertaining with some emotional depth.
• Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane. No zombies, just hordes of ghosts that won’t go away in the near future. Magic has been rediscovered to control them, and our heroine finds herself in the middle of multiple intersecting plots. An attempt to kickstart a franchise, but ultimately the attempt to create a flawed heroine just didn’t do it for me. Amazon says 4.5 stars, goodreads says 4.09, but I was left a little bored.
• Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. In an 1880s steampunk alterna-Seattle, a manmade disaster has unleashed a toxic cloud of zombification. The zombies are not really the main protagonist, rather it is all the humans scrabbling to live in the transformed city. Really quite good, Amazon says 4 stars, goodreads says 3.7, this is fair, the setting and characters are good.
• Feed by Mira Grant. A group of bloggers cover a presidential campaign and uncover a treasonous plot, against the backdrop of a world dealing with a virus which is pervasive in its dormant state and breaks out occasionally in its active zombie-inducing state. I like an author who isn’t afraid to kill off central characters, some real pathos in this tale. I’d like to read the next in the series. Maybe the most interesting science of any of the books. Amazon says 4.5 stars, goodreads says 4.24, this was probably the best of the set for me.

• 61 Hours by Lee Child. Reacher’s back and never fails to entertain. And gasp a cliffhanger, that is a new element. I hope Child pushes the character more to be honest, Reacher needs to evolve to keep my interest and to avoid replaying the same plot over and over again with ever more outlandish elements — and the crazy WWII era abandoned military facility had a little bit of shark-jumping in it. But still entertaining. Amazon says 3.5 stars, that seems fair. 
• The Law of Nines by Terry Goodkind. Goodkind seems to sell a lot of books based on shelf space at the local bookstore, so I decided to try one. What an epic piece of crap. Plodding, pedantic, characterless,derivative, logically-inconsistent crap. I am stunned that books this bad get published. How does it rate 3.5 stars on Amazon? This thing deserves negative stars, it saps the life out of any book it sits next to, it is a black hole of literature.
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. After the Goodkind crapfest I needed something of substance, and it was great to dive into a book of complex characters slowly revealed through events. Ultimately this book is not my style, a little too much towards farce, but I can admire the writing. Amazon says 4 stars and I guess I’d agree tho I didn’t finish as it just not my taste.
• Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. A great tale of a full life on the American frontier. Death comes easy when you have worked long and given much to people. A further cleansing of the mind after that terrible Goodkind book. Amazon says 4.5 stars and I’d agree.