bluedaisy

This was a lot of fun. I love Judith Martin's style, so reading this
is like reading Ettiquette
Hell with more answers and more super-polite snarkyness.

Mostly from this I reinforced things I think I already knew (like
never include registry cards---just throw them away) although I
learned a couple things (Don't invite "and guest"---ask who their
guest will be if you think they might want to bring one!) that I wasn't sure about.

Anyway, super-short-review, but I enjoyed this and am happy to lend it out.

Books Read in 2006: 15.5

I love John Ringo. He needs to write faster, because this series is fantastic, but there are *no more books*! (There will be more.) Ringo has made it onto my list, with George RR Martin, of authors for whom I will happily do favors for the next chapter. (By the way, guys, should you somehow come across this, I make great cookies.)

Before starting this series, you should be warned there are not just one but two "Mary Sue" characters---larger than life and everything the author wanted to be (or maybe is. I don't actually know. Maybe John Ringo really is a l33t SCA warmonger.) Herzer Herrick and Edmund Talbot are both amazing---but you do at least get to see the "zero to hero" transition for Herzer.

You should also be warned that the SCA, a self-confessed "cheap Japanese knockoff" of an Elf, spaceships, and dragons all do appear in this book. Therefore, since it's a Baen book, the elf, the dragon, and a (non-exploding) space ship are on the various cover of "There Will Be Dragons". As nakor said "Jim Baen was born to publish John Ringo's books".
(The other covers have a mermaid and a winged girl, respectively).
Also, the title is literal---there will be dragons in the first book, but you don't really see them until Emerald Sea. There's one dragon in There Will Be Dragons but you might miss her if you blink.

All warnings aside, the books are great. I had so much fun reading these that I am tempted to read them again, but I probably won't---there's too much else to read. The premise is fun (and doesn't wear out even with much exposition) and the characters are likeable and hateable and real. Even the bad guys are smart---evil, twisted, and tricky, but smart---so you can really enjoy the good guys' victories.

The plot also twists in intricate ways---you know the battles will come out with the Mary Sue party on top, but then you think "wait, no, they're going to lose!". And then you turn a page and realize that they've got a plan. Then you turn another page, and realize that the bad guys have a plan, too, and it's a really good one. And then he totally blows you out of the water with the Good Guy plan to beat all Good Guy plans.

The one thing that's wrong is that I do somewhat wish I knew more about the SCA. It's not necessary to the plot, but I think there are a bunch of things I would have been more amused by if I'd been an SCA member.

All in all, I really really enjoyed this series. I should go read more Ringo.

Books Read in 2006: 13.5

Here's another "three paperbacks stapled together" book---"The Black Company Goes South". It has two books about the Company going South, and one about the people who didn't go south with the company. (One of these things is not like the others, one of these things is not the same...)
( Read more... )

Books in 2006: 8.5

Fahrenheit 451
Author: Ray Bradbury

This has been on my "should have read long ago" list for some time, so I checked it out of MITSFS before the trip. I think I finished it in two sittings, of no more than an hour each, but I did really enjoy it.
(And it's nice sometimes to have a book that's nice and short.)

The characters seemed a little flat, but many of them were supposed to, I think. Mildred was clearly intended to be no more real than her "Family", Faber too afraid to really define himself, and the other firemen, neighbors, and friends just setting. Only Captain Beatty and Montag are real characters, as far as I can tell. (I think Clarisse only looks real for her brief moments "onscreen" because she's a mirror to show Montag what he can be)

I'm still trying to figure out whether Beatty was really a bad guy, or whether if Montag had given him a better way out, been less impetuous, he'd have shown that he was really a book-lover too. There were times I really wanted to beat up Montag and spin him so he'd really look around him and see his world, but he's supposed to be naïve.

I can't decide whether it's because the book is (compared to my worldview) so old, or because I'm missing something that I feel like the ideas in it are not as revolutionary as I'd have expected. It didn't seem as strange or terrifying to me as the world in Catch 22, or 1984... just sad.

Books read in 2006: 5

I'd forgotten how much I liked Honor Harrington. Even the soap opera plots (many of which, for those of you who don't like them, resolve in this book)
The cover honestly spoils an awful lot with respect to the soap opera plot, since it's a scene from the final chapter of the book. Boo to Baen. There aren't even any exploding spaceships. However, I'll cut for ( Spoilers/Review ) anyway.

Books in 2006: 2