Discuss and rate the last thing you read

[Agema]

Mage Bane - Stephen Aryan

Concluding part of whatever name this trilogy goes by. Mages have been persecuted to the edges of society, but there's a rogue god on the loose threatening to (inadvertantly, I guess) wreak havoc with reality. Our plucky band of mages must both work on rehabilitating their kind and also join in an alliance with gods determined to put down this upstart.

This is totally bread and butter fantasy fare and none the worse for it, competently done. Nothing much else to say, really.

 

[Dalisclock]

Been reading "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe.

I read Shadow of the Torturer a couple of years ago. I've got the other books in the series as well. They're the fiction books I most want to read, but SotT was also the heaviest piece of fiction I've ever tried to read (but not the most opaque, which is a title that goes to Ulysses). I don't have the mental energy for it while I'm studying in grad school. Someday I'll get around to them. I've read some of Gene Wolfe's short fiction, and he seems to be by far the author who most consistently puts out interesting, layered, and intelligent writing.

It is a bit of a read, I'll grant you that. I'm reading a chapter or two a day(and luckily the chapters are fairly reasonable in length) but it does tend to throw stuff at you a lot and assume you understand the context(it's mentioned a number of time how the dead are weighted down and tossed in the river but still doesn't explain why they do this). There's also a couple points where the narrator just drops a plot point without any real lead up beforehand or explaining his reasoning and you're just expected to go with it. Which leads to the conclusion either he's not disclosing certain details that lead him to make that conclusion(Kinda like how Sherlock Holmes made conclusions based off details the reader couldn't know) or he's completely mistaken and doesn't want to admit it. Unreliable Narrator is definitely in play here.

There'a also the weirdness how it's clearly set in the far future and a lot of the weirder shit is explained to be advanced tech, except there's certain things that still comes across as legit magic.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Re-read "Heart of Steel" + "Tethered", book 2 and 2.5 of the Iron Seas series by Meljean Brooks.

Much better than "Iron Duke", as it has the same worldbuilding (steampunk magic), but the author doesn't constantly blather on about how rape is really romantic or whatever.

 

[Hawki]

The Hive (3/5)

This is the second installment in the Second Formic War trilogy. You might recall awhile ago that I reviewed The Swarm, the first installment in said trilogy. When I did so, I ranked it as being among the best Enderverse novels. This however, I rank as being among the weakest. Which is kind of odd, because The Hive doesn't really do anything differently from The Swarm. It's effectively more of the same. However, having read said book, there's a number of shortcomings I feel can explain why I was less enamoured with this book than its predecessor (apart from familiarity breeding cotnempt I suppose):

-Throughout the book, we're constantly reminded that the war against the formics is going very poorly for the IF. However, we don't actually see much of that. We're told, rather than shown it, with the protagonists mostly being far away from the fighting bar a few exceptions where we see the action up close and personal. Again, this isn't really a bad thing. The Swarm didn't do much close quarters combat, and the Enderverse has never really been based around action. In Ender's Game, the final battle is Ender simply giving orders to a fleet from Eros. However, I think the constant barrage of bad news within the book kind of got me to drown it out. I already know what the ending is, because this is a prequel, and how that ending will come about, plus what will happen in the hundred years between this trilogy and the events of Ender's Game. Is "prequelitis" a word? Cause this book may have it.

-There's a core plot point (or at least theme) that the IF is beset by incompetent commanders, while a number of individuals on Earth want to pursue political/personal gain over all else. Now, this isn't too bad a plot point, but it's a tired one, and rammed home a lot. Also, maybe I'm idealistic, but if humanity was faced with alien invasion, one that would presumably result in human extinction if it succeeded, I think most people, even those in power, would put the survival of the human race over personal gain. Yes yes, I know, climate change, but the formics are a tangible threat that can be defeated in tangible ways (guns, bombs, bullets). Thing is, there's arguably an in-universe precedent for this, considering that the IF is a new space force, and if you're drafting 'grounders' from Earth's armed forces to fight in a new environment, then not everyone's going to be up to snuff, but still, it hammers it home.

-National stereotypes are a thing. Now, they've arguably always been a thing, but here...well, let's see. The Russians want control of the Hegemony. Ukko Jukes wants an American as hegemon because America is just so damn awesome (there could be intended self-deprication here, but if so, it's damn subtle). Also, Somali space pirates. They're a thing. They were a thing in the past book, and they're a thing here, and of course they're brutal fuckers who have multiple women, who raid, space stations which they call New Somalia, and ugh. I mean, look. The setting's always had an emphasis on nationality, which remains a thing throughout much of its in-universe history, but these are stereotypes, and tired stereotypes at that. Which is odd, because when you consider the First/Second Formic War trilogy material up to this point, it's actually been pretty good with the nationality thing. The characters come from a diverse range of nationalities/ethnicites, but that never felt like the be all and end all of their characters. So when you get Somali space pirates, it feels out of sync with the rest of the book, but again, feels very, very tired. Or I dunno, maybe Somali pirates will still be a thing in the year 2118, and this book predicted the future.

-Not really an issue, but y'know in prequels how there's sometimes a tendency to name drop, or have stuff that only fans will recognise? Like, if I wrote a Star Wars prequel set thousands of years before the films, and name dropped a character after a period of time as being "Bob Skywalker?' Yeah. That thing. This book knows it's a prequel to Ender's Game, and as we get closer and closer to the book's events, we start to see the beginnings of Battle School, of the toon armies, and towards the end, Eros is dropped as a bombshell. Now, this works. Mostly. What doesn't work however, is when Ukko and Lem discuss the Third Invasion. As in, invading the formics' homeworld, foreshadowing the events of Ender's Game. This is kind of bizzare, because they're discussing an invasion using technology that doesn't even exist yet, against a world that they don't know the location of, in the midst of a war that they'll very likely lose. Lem, as if voicing the "huh?" reaction of the reader, points this out, and all Ukko can say is that he lacks vision. I mean, again, "huh?"

-There's a fair bit of filler in the novel, or at least what feels like filler. I suspect that this might be due to it being the second book in a trilogy, and therefore in a space where it needs to pad things. A lot of conversations go on way longer than they feel they need to, and a times, there aren't even conversations. For instance, there's a point where a character has to decide between Option A and Option B. The stakes are high. Fair enough. Only this is a period of self-reflection that takes up almost the entirety of a chapter, the only 'covnersation' being with his shipboard computer.

That aside, the strengths of the novel remain from the previous one, in that the characters remain engaging, the writing is good (filler aside), and it does have its space mechanics down pretty good, or at least I assume so. As in, accounting for transmission time, G-forces, fuel consumption, etc. Also, it conveys that the Sol system is really, REALLY big in a setting where FTL travel doesn't exist yet, and even then, space is still big. Also three-dimensional, as the IF and formics engage 'above' and 'below' the Sol system as opposed to a more traditional 2D war among planet rotations. But still, I didn't like this book as much as the last one. Might be because it has noticable flaws, while its strengths were already established in the previous novel. But it's a damn sight better than Children of the Fleet, and hopefully I'll be able to get the third book in the trilogy when it comes out.

 

[Agema]

There'a also the weirdness how it's clearly set in the far future and a lot of the weirder shit is explained to be advanced tech, except there's certain things that still comes across as legit magic.

The Book of the New Sun is from the Dying Earth subgenre of SF, and this is not unusual.

There are two approximate rationales for magic in the subgenre - one the Clark notion that some of the advanced tech still left is now so far advanced it basically is magic. (Somewhere in Jack Vance's genre-eponymous Dying Earth series, it is stated that mathematics/science was once so advanced it led to magic, and that magicians could still learn and utilise that powers even if no-one understood any more how they were discovered.) In others, the suggestion is that the universe is so old and decrepit that the laws of reality themselves are breaking down.

I find Gene Wolfe's books demanding to read, too. There's a lot of complexity and detail and you have to concentrate throughout, unlike most SF authors where you could skim or miss every second line and still have a decent idea what's going on.

 

[Drathnoxis]

The Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged) I really enjoyed this one. Dumas might go into a little too much detail when describing the settings, but even so the story always feels like it's moving forward, and it's fun to see how the chain of cause and effect play out, to see the schemers planting ideas in receptive minds, to see emotion get the better of the characters, anticipating the inevitable fruition of plans and revelations. It was very enjoyable.

Yes, I enjoyed it as well. I felt like it kind of dragged at the end, though. Too many instances of people moaning on and on about their wretchedness and terrible fates in quick succession. Morrel, Mercedes, and Donglar all go on and on and it becomes tedious. Especially Morrel because it's obvious Valentine isn't dead, because that poison that makes you seem dead is a plot device so overused I can spot it a mile away. Probably doesn't help that the guy reading the book started to really overact in the last couple dozen chapters.

Also Donglar's end was kind of disappointing. It wasn't as subtly worked as the others. He was just captured by some bandits and starved by them. No delicious irony of walking into a trap of his own making, like it would have been with the Cavalcanti marriage. It's just so common and boring. It kind of seemed like Dumas realized Donglar hadn't been punished enough and tacked on some bandit abuse with a loose connecting theme of starvation. If the count was willing to be so direct he could have simply had all 3 be abducted by bandits and saved a decade of planning.

Oh and what the heck Edmond!? That bit with Morrel Sr. nearly killing himself! What if Julie had been two seconds late and Morrel had blown his brains out? That would have been a good way to repay the only person to show kindness to his dying father. I really don't see why there was any need to push the guy to his absolute breaking point except out of some sadistic perversion.

On the whole I thought it was really good. Now I have to watch the movie again and see what a pale imitation it is of this monstrously long book. And maybe get around to watching Gankutsuou since I saw an episode or two a couple years ago.
Edit: Saw the 2002 movie and, oh man. That wasn't an adaptation of a book, that was an adaptation of a synopsis of a book, and not a very faithful one at that. There is only an extremely tenuous relationship between the events of the movie and the events of the book. The names are the same (actually quite a few were changed), he gets imprisoned, gets some treasure, and gets some revenge. Those were the extent of the similarities between the book and the movie. Every detail about those aspects were changed and the plot on the whole bears no resemblance. It's like comparing a crayon drawing of the Mona Lisa to the actual painting.

Hmmm, what do I read now... If it were a little closer to December I might go with a Christmas Carol.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Will Save the Galaxy for Food

Well crap. That was supposed to last me for November, but I ended up getting really into it and finishing it in two days. Yahtzee is actually a fairly good novel writer surprisingly. This is the third I've read and actually might be my favorite. Some of the characters were kind of flat and Warden was just boring and unfun and never got the comeuppance I felt she deserved, but I really liked the main character who's real name I don't remember, if it was ever actually mentioned. The action scenes were really good and gave a great feeling of Jack just frantically scraping by with the skin of his teeth. I felt the book was really well paced and flowed from location to location really well and the ever deepening mess Jack was getting into kept me enthralled.

A couple very minor nitpicks that just kind of bothered me. One, 1/3 of a millimeter isn't actually very precise. Modern machining regularly has tolerances of less than 0.02 mm. And two, snooker tables are actually really heavy. They are huge and have a big sheet of slate in them, there's no way Jack would have been able to knock one over onto it's side without some serious leverage.

Guess I'll have to do the sequel now.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Spoiler

American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton.

This was recomended to me by someone in relation to the research I had been doing about the Ross Ulbricht trial and specific pre-trial motions the judge had made. The book was very approachable, and could be read by someone who had followed Silk Road since its inception or someone who doesn't really understand what bitcoin is.

The approach is a narrative one, going from defining events in Ross's life and how he crafted one of the largest electronic drug empires. Since this was done on cyberspace, the author has a great wealth of chatlogs to go over. I also appreciated the fact that it shifted perspectives from the agents at various agencies hunting Ross and Ross himself. I was on the edge of my seat when it came to the climax of the story, even though I already knew the results.

I also appreciated the exploration of philosophical concepts that motivated Ross, since I used to be something of a libertarian myself. While I think the book makes an excellent case that the American war on drugs has been a failure, I think it also subtly presents a case that Ross's idea of just legalizing all drugs isn't the solution either. And that Ross, motivated by his ego and his belief that he was right, was willing to go to lengths that most people would never consider.

In short, it's a fantastic read, and I would recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, or the potential for crytocurrency.

 

[gorfias]

Oops, wrong thread

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

Another one for the non-fiction pile. This time around it's The Devil's Anvil: The Assault on Peleliu by James H. Hallas [1994].
Peleliu is one island of the Palaus island chain in the south Pacific. During World War II, it was decided that at least a few of the islands in that chain needed to be seized in order to protect the American fleet's flank as it moved in towards the Philippine Islands. Predicted to be a short, but tough, campaign, the fighting drug on for months against an entrenched Japanese force that had spent 6 months developing the cave system of Peleliu and fortifying the place with the operational intention of causing as many casualties as possible.

This was a hard book to read, not because of the book itself, but because of its subject matter and the way Hallas honestly described the conditions for the troops involved. The available sources meant that most of the spotlight was going to be on the Americans, obviously, but Hallas does include the Japanese viewpoint where possible. Unfortunately for the historian, one of the last orders given by Colonel Nakagawa (head of the Japanese forces on Peleliu) was to burn all official army records before he and his top aid committed suicide. As such, only fragmentary evidence remains for the Japanese perspective.

The battle for Peleliu was brutal, lasted from September through November 1944, and the casualty rates compare statistically with the far more famous battles on Io Jima and Okinawa. However, very few people knew about it because the push into the Philippines, the bombing of the main Japanese islands and the mainland battles in Europe pushed the battle out of the limelight. To add insult to injury, it quickly became apparent in the following months, that the Palaus Islands could have been completely skipped as the naval and air assets which could have made the islands dangerous had already been wiped out before the attack by ground forces. Hallas felt that the campaign, and especially the Marines and Army soldiers that fought there, deserved more recognition for what they went through and the price they paid to finally seize the island.

As a final note, the last 33 Japanese stragglers on the island didn't surrender until April of 1947. They didn't know the war had ended, they had just come to the end of their endurance for holding up in the caves with the group "torn by suspicion and dissension."

I do recommend the book, but be warned that the depictions of battle fatigue, combat, and the resulting casualties are pretty harsh.

 

[Elfgore]

I decided to take a break from Gemmell and move onto a type of fantasy novels I've not seen before. Novels from the perspective of the "bad" guys. I tried Grunts by Mary Gentle. The concept of orcs being cursed by modern weaponry to become U.S. Marines sounds hilarious on paper and it is, until the novel just ties itself up. It builds these Orc Marines to be badasses and just kind of stamps it into the ground in a few pages. I'm sure that's the point, but it murdered the pacing. By book two, it was just so off the rails I'd lost interest. The plot went missing and I don't think it was coming back. The use of "vast" to describe an orc woman's boobs though will forever remain with me.

After dropping that I moved onto to Stan Nicholls's Orc series. It's more grounded in traditional fantasy, with a nice little twist on the stereotypical orc roles in fantasy and how they aren't so different from the other generic fantasy races in this world. So far I'm really enjoying it. The idea of following elite Orc commandos works really well and the main cast has a good dynamic. My only complaints are the world-building and the other POV character. The world-building is fucked in terms of scale. I cannot for the life of me make sense of the map and if nations actually exist or areas are just "territory" of certain races. The other POV character, the evil overlord is a powerful mage. Magic seems to be fueled by life. She being a woman means for some reason she always needs to murder people in a sexual climax to get magical energy. The line "she unstrapped the bloodied unicorn horn dildo" made me put the book down for a spell. That's just stupid. I'm hoping for something here to be a twist. So far, this evil mage woman is just the same boring old hot mage woman who likes blood and sex.

 

[Hawki]

It builds these Orc Marines to be badasses and just kind of stamps it into the ground in a few pages.

Xenos being marines?

Heresy!

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45 by Stephen E. Ambrose [2001]
Continuing my excursion into WWII books, I tackled this one. While the title claims the work is about all of the B-24 crews in the European theater, the books is really a biography of George McGovern, whom Ambrose interviewed extensively. Ambrose does extend his writing to include some biographical information on McGovern's flight crew and a few select others, but the spotlight is most definitely on McGovern himself.

While I do recommend the book, I feel the obligation to warn anyone wanting to read it (and really any other biography written by Ambrose), that the author tends to fall into hero worship when writing about people he admires. He tends to overly glorify and gives the impression of abandoning historical objectivity in favor of the people he's writing about. Honestly, he really does do a very good job of researching the subject matter and being honest, but he does wear his biases openly.

In the work, Ambrose does an excellent job detailing the problems faced by the bomber crews, their perceptions of the war and the other services the Army Air Forces worked with. The shortcomings and strengths of the B-24 bomber are explained very well, and the limitations and utility of the strategic bombing campaign are analyzed. A very interesting look into a particular facet of the war.

 

[Hawki]

Snapshot (3/5)

Fun fact, I actually thought this was in the Legion series, since the titular Snapshot technology is reminiscent, if not outright lifted from the first Legion book. Still, from what I can tell, this book is in its own setting.

So, what is the setting? Well, in what's obstensibly an alternate reality, a technology called Snapshot exists that allows an entire city to be recreated in a subterannean complex in a single day. Kind of like the holodeck from Star Trek. It can only be done for so long, both from the moment of creation, and the window of creation (as in, you can't re-recreate the city from a year ago, only a few days/weeks at most). It's used by police officers to observe crimes in the Snapshot and thus pin the suspects in real life. However, they can't interfere too much because it might cause Deviations, where things in the Snapshot occur that definitely didn't in the real world. If too many Deviations occur, the Snapshot can't be used as evidence.

It's honestly a pretty good premise. However, the two cops investigating the crime, which leads to a bigger crime/conspriacy...aren't engaging. It's basically your usual cop cliches, and Snapshot or otherwise, the serial killer they end up tracking is pretty generic. As in, the serial killer IRL thinks that the real world is a Snapshot and he can thus act with impunity (so, think Inception), but his motives and actions are bog standard. There's a twist at the end that you can see coming (well, I did), but there's a twist within the twist that I didn't, so, good job there. But at the end of the day, it's a case where an intriguing premise is let down by the characters exploring that premise. It also serves as further proof that I'm less a Sanderson fan, and more just a Mistborn fan.

 

[Hawki]

Read a bunch of stuff:

Overwatch: Valkyrie (3/5)

Mass Effect: Discovery (4/5)

Mass Effect: Homeworlds (4/5)

Aliens: Dead Orbit (3/5)

Aliens: Dust to Dust (3/5)

Don't have time to review each of them, but general criteria - the Mass Effect comics were better than the Aliens ones because, among other things, they're far more character-centric, and tie-in to the core storyline. The Aliens ones, while the artwork is pretty neat, are far weaker because we're dealing with redshirts, and there's only so many times that the plot of "xenomorphs appear, shit hits the fan" can be written before it gets old, and it got old long ago. I don't know if it's because writers can't or won't do more with the setting, but that's the price you pay for a franchise that's setting driven (Aliens) vs. one that's narrative driven (Mass Effect).

Also, Overwatch: Valkyrie. Ironically, of the three Overwatch novellas released so far, it's the most character-centric of the three, and yet, the weakest of them. Problem is that for all the stuff it deals with in regards to Mercy's character and backstory, it doesn't really tell me anything that wasn't already established.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash

Yahtzee once again surprises me at how good a writer he is. I stayed up 2 hours later than I should have last night so I could see how it ended. I liked the characters a lot more than the ones in the last book and once again the action was well written the story was well paced and the twists and turns kept the whole book exciting.

 

[Asita]

The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

This is another book where you need to forget everything you learned from the Hollywood adaptations. If you're expecting the eponymous trio and D'Artagnan to be lovable rogues fighting against the clearly villainous Cardinal Richelieu, you're going to be disappointed. The protagonists are not good people and Richelieu is...well to use a contemporary example, I'd say David Xanatos (Gargoyles) was basically cut from the same cloth.

As with Monte Cristo, I found it an enjoyable read. Of particular fascination for me was Milady de Winter, as Dumas actually did go into detail showcasing how she leveraged her intelligence and ability to read people to manipulate them. As someone who likes to play a Face/Social Adept/Infiltrator/Con Man in RPs, it was as beautiful as it was frustrating to see how she played them like a fiddle.

While I would say that I enjoyed Monte Cristo more than Three Musketeers, this is still a book I enjoyed.

 

[Hawki]

The Fall of Shannara: The Black Elfstone (3/5)

Another Shannara book, another case of "average" rather than "good." Maybe some day.

Actually, in fairness, it is one of the better ones I've read, coming in at/around #4 by my ranking. It's using some of the tropes the series has repeatedly used, but it does offer some variation. Key word being "some" and by "variation," I mean "intrigue." And by "intrigue," I mean "a bit of backstabbing." Yeah, I know. A Song of Ice and Fire has spoiled me on the whole intigue/backstabbing thing, so when the extent of this one is a druid seeking to overthrow the Druid Council while casting in her lot with an invading force from the north...well, it's more than what I'm used to, but nothing much. I will say that the Skaar (which go unnamed in this book) are a potentailly interesting enemy, in that being human, and being driven to the Four Lands by need (it's implied that their point of origin is a shithole), you can't go the route of "evil horde that good guys must defeat." It also does raise an itneresting possibility of seeing stuff outside the Four Lands. I don't know if other books have done this, but the implication, at least in Bearers of the Black Staff, is that because of the Great Wars, all of Earth is a toxic wasteland except the Four Lands, which are kept this way because of magic. If the series is branching off, and expanding its geographical horizons, then that's something.

But then, this is all stuff that's in the context of the series itself. As a book, the writing is pretty basic (Brooks often "tells" rather than "shows," with paragraphs of narrative exposition), as is the plot. So, again, average.

Also the titular Black Elfstone doesn't even feature until, like, the last tenth of the book, nor is it even mentioned before then. Make of that what you will.

Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash

Huh. Thought he was saving the galaxy for food originally.

Damn capitalism. You can only make money by destroying everything around you.

 

[Hawki]

The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm (3/5)

After years of absence, Christopher Paolini returns to the setting of The Inheritance Cycle. And before I go any further, I'm actually going to give my quick thoughts on said cycle. Basically, I think the series gets way too much flak. Now, if you want to look at the first book, Eragon, and point out that its writing is basic, its plot is cliche, and its tropes are out in the forefront, then, yes, I agree with you. However, if you want to apply that criticism to the entire series, I'm less inclined to agree, because while I'm not that big a fan of the series, it does come into its own over time, as its world is more fleshed out and the writing improves. I'm reminded of the Shannara or Wheel of Time series. Both Sword of Shannara and Eye of the World are basically Lord of the Rings compressed to a single volume, but both series got their 'voices' later down the track, for better or worse. We don't hold the debuts of Brooks and Jordan against them, so why do we hold it against Paolini? He was around 15 when he published Eragon, what did you publish at that age? Heck, I didn't even start writing in any real sense until I was 16, and I sure as hell didn't get anything published.

All this aside however, there's an ugly truth to this book - it's the weakest Inheritance book he's written. As its title suggests, its plot is actually three separate stories. What its plot doesn't tell you is that all of these stories bear no resemblance to one another. Which would be fine, if not for the fact that it does have a 'core storyline' of what Eragon's doing after the events of the quadrilogy, which is a plotline I at least never saw a need for. It's like the equivalent of writing about Frodo in Valinor after Lord of the Rings. Yes, you CAN write a story about that, but does anyone want that? When a character sails off into the distance, usually you leave well enough alone. So, what you get is a book where there's three stories that supersede the main story, especially so in the last one. Reading them, you get the sense that Paolini just wrote three separate stories and put them together in the one volume. Reading the afterward, turns out that's exactly what happened. But, okay then. Suppose I ignore how tangental the stories are to the 'present' in the book. How does each short story fare?

Not that well, to be honest. The first one deals with Murtagh who gets into a fight and kills a foe with a fork, giving it to a girl who calls it Mister Stabby. Um, okay. There's actually hints at something larger going on (more on that later), but it isn't resolved in the story, nor the book as a whole. Look, I know a lot of people like Murtagh (I'm guessing mostly girls because he falls into "hunky boy who can be shipped with Nasuada"), but as someone who's indifferent to him (actually, most of the characters in the series), this was "meh."

Second story deals with Angela. It was written by Paolini's sister, and while I'm sure she's nice enough in the real world, this is the weakest of the three stories. I really can't tell you what happens in it because it's disorganized. Which is kind of the point, but still, if you set out to write something that doesn't follow writing convention, don't be surprised when people don't flock to it.

If I had to rank the book solely by these two stories, it would get a 2/5. Luckilly, the last story, the one that sparked the idea in the first place, is easily the best of the three. In fact, I think I'd have been more reciprocal to the whole thing if it was just 'The Worm' by itself. Because on one hand, the events have the least to do with the present of the novel of all three. On the other, it's best as a stand-alone. Because we get an urgal protagonist, and I'll be honest, when I said that the series found its voice after the first book, the urgals are part of the reason why, given how their impression of being not!orcs was lifted, showing them to have their own culture. So, here's a story that not only helps show that culture, but also has a theme pertaining to ecological balance. Yeah, it sucks having a dragon take your livestock every now and again, but without the dragon, you're easy prey for lethbarka, who are even worse. Lethbarka which, if I'm right, are hinted at in Murtagh's story as to eggs being found, which would sync with dragon eggs hatching at the end of the present story. So, yes. 'The Worm' is the best of the three, though is also the most tangental. Its reason is more "oh hey, Eragon's sad, hey urgals, lets tell him a story that has nothing to do with anything!"

At the end of the day, the book is a case of two 'meh' stories being salvaged by a decent one. Again, by the book's afterward, it's stated that The Worm was the main story Paolini wanted to write, and it shows. I don't know how/if/when the series will continue from here. On one hand, it's marked as "Tales of Aleglasia, Vol. 1," but on the other, Paolini's next book is in a sci-fi setting. Truth be told, I don't particuarly care if it continues or not, because one good story doesn't justify the fluff I had to get through to reach it. But, not bad. At the very least, while it's the weakest of the Inheritance novels, it does at least showcase how Paolini's worldbuilding improved over time, if not necessarily his characters.

And hey, he at least wrote two genuienly good books. That's more than Brooks or Jordan have accomplished in my experience.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

I polished off another of the older books I have on my shelf. This one was When Egypt Ruled the East by George Steindorff and Keith C. Seele [1942], a book that struck me as interesting in the used-book shop.

As a general primer for ancient Egyptian history, it's serves its purpose well enough. It does suffer from some of the problems of its time, notably the theories on race and cultural development that were prevalent at the time, but it doesn't push those ideas forward to a degree to make the book useless. One of the main strengths of the work is how the authors are willing to openly point out where the holes in their information lie. More than a few important personages are introduced with the caveat of: We have almost no surviving documentation on this person and know almost nothing about their reign/service/importance except for these fragments of information.

Would I recommend it, though? Well, not really. I am aware that further research over the years has clarified and expanded on the limited knowledge available to Steindorff and Seele. Also, the general tone of more recent research avoids the racial connotations as well as the ideas that cultures age and grow decrepit like individual human beings. So, the final analysis I have is that while the book is interesting, unless your research/interests lie along the lines of a historiographical examination of race theory and how it affected the perceptions of those who were immersed int it, I would recommend going with a more recent study of Egypt to read. I can appreciate how the work is a step along the path of our understanding, however, even if I can't recommend it outright.