I did see a couple of movies a bit more recently, though, and so I offer up my thoughts on those.

The Secret World of Arrietty

This is the latest animated Studio Ghibli film to be released by Disney in North America.  While Ghibli’s legendary director Hayao Miyazaki did not helm this one, he was heavily involved in the script and planning, and it bodes well for the future of Ghibli that this movie turned out awfully good.  The movie is a Japanese transplant of Mary Norton’s classic Borrowers children’s novels about tiny people who beneath the floorboards of our homes and “borrow” things to survive, and focusses on the Borrower girl Arrietty.

In typical Ghibli fashion, the animation is lush, beautiful, and detailed.  The perspectives they use evoke the sense of being a tiny person in a giant world better than anything else I’ve seen.  From duels with cockroaches, using leaves as umbrellas, and the dangers posed by the cat and the hungry bird attacking from above, it really gives you a sense of a whole other world surrounding us in our everyday lives.

The story skews to the family-friendly end of the Ghibli spectrum, but is oddly slow-paced and contemplative.  That is not to say it is boring—I was rapt throughout—but much of its wonder arises from the discovery of the world of the Borrowers rather than artificial external dangers, though those arise in due time.  It succeeds by being genuinely beautiful and interesting, not simply because it keeps throwing cheap gags and explosions in your face.

While I wouldn’t say this is the best example of what Studio Ghibli has to offer, The Secret World of Arrietty can stand quite comfortably alongside it.  Anyone who is a fan of quality animation—or quality film in general—should definitely check this out.

John Carter

John Carter is another Disney release that has already gained notoriety as being declared one of the biggest flops of all time within 2 weeks of opening.  There has been much debate over why that is the case even as the film continues to do okay worldwide, so who knows whether it might eventually earn back its massive production budget.

Had Disney actually cared enough to market the film properly, it might have done better domestically.  As a science fiction reader, I knew that the titular John Carter referred to John Carter of Mars, the hero of Edgar Rice Burroughs‘s (creator of Tarzan) Barsoom novels.  This was not at all apparent from any of the trailers I saw.  The one I sort of vaguely remember made it unclear whether it was a science fiction film at all, or a superhero film, or a dumb fantasy movie.  I’m not sure that there was a single thing done to market this film to people who didn’t already know who John Carter was.

Anyway, all of that is beside the point.  John Carter is a good movie.  It has its flaws, to be sure—it starts too slowly, throws in some unnecessary back story, gets a bit muddled in the middle, and has villains with unclear motivations—but it is a fun, enjoyable movie.

It is approximately ONE BILLION TIMES BETTER than any Michael Bay film.  Especially those ones with the transforming robots.

It looked beautiful and the action was fun and well-choreographed.  There was good chemistry between John Carter and Dejah Thoris (the Princess of Mars played by Lynn Collins, who is providing competition to Princess Leia for my Favouritest Space Princess Ever!), and the supporting cast (both human and alien) was strong.  And it did a pretty decent job of evoking a sense of wonder at Burroughs’s vision of Mars Barsoom.

So John Carter was a good (but not great) movie that I enjoyed more than, say, James Cameron’s Avatar (which was well-made and more tightly scripted, but less interesting to me for all its technical superiority) and which did not suck like those bowel movements that Michael Bay keeps excreting onto screens around the world and calling movies.  John Carter is not a deep, mind-blowing, revolutionary movie, but it is a lot of fun, and if a sci-fi action movie is the sort of thing you like, it is well worth seeing.

On a Tuesday night, however, we had no trouble getting an order in.  Unfortunately, we were a bit late picking it up due to Stoggers being in the most inconvenient location ever.  (Okay, I exaggerate a little bit, but when you’re coming along the opposite side of the street and don’t know the area well, it takes a hell of an effort to figure out how to get to where you need to be.)  As a result, it was not quite as piping fresh and hot as I’d ideally like by the time we got to eating it.

That said, it was a really good pizza.  The girlfriend and I each scarfed down half the pizza in fairly short order.  The crust was decently thick but not too doughy, and the toppings were generous.  I think it is definitely a contender in my pizza quest, and requires further study.  I can imagine it would only be better when hotter and fresher.  When I get around to giving it a second chance, I’ll wax more eloquently on the details of its deliciousness.

Much of the past few months has involve repeat tastings of our previously discussed pizza places, to assess reliability, but a couple of new ones have slipped in.  This post looks at the first of those: Big Bite Pizza, in Churchill Square.

Once upon a time some years ago, Big Bite had been our go-to pizza place.  They may have been supplanted when something decent opened closer to us, as I have no recollection of why we stopped going there.  And let me tell you this: their name is no lie.  Their pizzas are big and incredibly filling.

It is all thanks to the dough.  Big Bite has the thickest crust by far of any of the places I’ve tried so far in the Pizza Quest.  A large from them is both larger in diameter than most other places and at least half-again as thick, making it quite filling.  They’re also reasonably generous with their toppings.  The thick crust gives it strong structural integrity—I don’t recall any instances of floppy slices.  It also reheats well, and is delicious both fresh and reheated.

There are a few major drawbacks, however.  One is the kind of bacon they use as a topping—it is not the crispy kind I prefer.  Also, the ratio of dough-to-toppings is ultimately not quite what I’m looking for in the perfect pizza, as the crust tends to dominate.  Lastly, they are a little far away, and so the pizza cools off a little more than I care for while getting it home.  (The first slices are fine, but round two is often room-temperature.)

I have had Big Bite a few times, and it rates well for consistency.  While it doesn’t approach some of my desired qualities, it is a damn good pizza, and one that has potential to become a go-to pizza place.

(It should be noted that was the third cake in some way related to my birthday, as I had a gathering the weekend before my birthday which featured a cake and there was also a potluck with cake for dessert.  And cookies.  Let’s just say I ate well.)

Along with the food, I got presents on my birthday!  And getting presents is pretty awesome.  I got a new compact digital camera (the Canon PowerShot ELPH 100HS) to replace the one I’ve been using since 2006 and that had been getting sluggish.  One of these days I’ll get myself a nice DSLR, but that will only happen once I have the time to learn how to use it.

I also got a carry-on travel bag (which was sorely needed) and a number of books.  The highlight was the signed, personalized copy of John Scalzi’s Fuzzy Nation—I enjoy me some signed books, and he’s one of my favourite authors.

So, all in all, a good day.  The week preceding it was also most excellent, what with the girlfriend visiting and all.  Apart from the aforementioned party and potluck, we also stuffed ourselves to the gills at Raymonds (which was excellent), baked some cookies, went to a movie, and generally hung out.

I am a little disappointed that my PhD wasn’t finished while I was 32 (it’s such a nice number for computer engineers!), but 33 is already shaping up to be a good year.  Now that I have a steady income, I’ll be able to visit the girlfriend more, and I don’t have to worry about how to pay the bills.  This means I’m free to concentrate on actually finishing that PhD and getting it out of my life.

Now that my life must necessarily be more structured, let’s hope that it translates into getting things done on all fronts.

Bad Stuff from 2011

(Please note that this is in terms of personal goals, not the world in general.  In general, my life is quite excellent, with little to complain about.)

• I didn’t finish my PhD.  Technically, I’m on leave of absence now.  However, I did make some good progress.
• I didn’t write enough.  One of my goals from last year was to write more, and while I wrote a bit, I don’t think it was more.  Unless you count Twitter, which are not the kind of words I want to write.
• I didn’t see the girlfriend nearly enough.  I mean, we’re kicking ass with the long distance thing, because we’re awesome, but we’d both rather like some more in-person face time, rather than just Skype.
• I wasted a lot of time.  I still need to break my internet time-wasting routines.

Good Stuff from 2011

• My teaching skills improved.  I taught a couple of courses, and my evaluations were on an upward trajectory.  I look forward to some day teaching courses directly in my specialty.
• I got a job.  Admittedly, this came at the end of the year, but it is interesting and pays well and means I don’t have to worry about financial stuff for the foreseeable future.
• I read more stuff.  Perhaps not as much as I would have liked to read, but I think I’ve made a good start at reconnecting with my love of reading.
• I ran.  And hated it.  There will be no epiphanies from me as I realize “I am a runner.”  I am not.  But I can do it, and it was good for me and improved my health.  (Granted, I’ve let that slide over the holidays, but I’ll get back to some kind of exercise now that they’re over.)

So, in terms of last year’s goals, I more or less managed about half of them, with progress toward others.  The only areas I really fell down were in reducing my time-wasting.  Moving forward into 2012, I’m hoping that the absolute need to structure my life more will help on that front.

Goals for 2012

• Finish the PhD.  I’m close now.  I know what I need to do.  And now that I’m working full time, I will have to focus and use the limited time I have available rather than goofing off.  I will be ready to defend in the summer, and I will convocate in November.  That is my goal.
• Get Healthier.  While running in the winter doesn’t work for me, I’m going to try to get some more exercise of some kind.  I’m going to go out and buy a scale to track my weight, and I’m going to avoid bringing a stash of junk food to work.  I will wean myself off my snacking habits.
• Read More.  I always want to read more.  I should probably figure out how much I read last year, and strive to beat that.
• Write More.  I need to get back in the saddle on writing.  Maybe I’ll aim for 250 words per day as a minimum.  Or to spend a half hour writing or revising something.
• Submit my Writing.  I will finish some stories and submit them to magazines or anthologies or somewhere.  It’s all well and good to vomit out first drafts and view that as “writing more”, but I need to kick myself in the pants to revise stories and finish final drafts and send them out into the world.
• Be More Social.  I think I’ve fallen into a tendency to just sit at home, talk to people online, and avoid going out at all.  This is helpful to my productivity, but probably not my sanity.  I have to try and get off my ass more and go out and do stuff from time to time.  (Now that I have an income, this includes the possibility of seeing the girlfriend more, though now I will be constrained by vacation time rather than finances.)

And so that’s my plan for the year to come.  Mostly the same as last year.  The nice thing about a lot of these is that they can never be “finished” (except for the PhD), so any progress toward them is a good thing.

I haven’t been getting out too much, lately, which has been pretty good for my thesis research.  I have been also bashing my head at working on a draft for a journal article that is due in a month.  A month seems like a long time, but this is turning out to be a long article and I can only hope that I have enough actual results to finish it off by then.

I have also been applying and interviewing for jobs, and have recently accepted an offer!  (I do not wish to go into any greater detail until I actually start, as I am pessimistic enough to believe it is not impossible that something could still go wrong.)  Among the many benefits this that this job offers—interesting experience, pay bills, etc.—I am perhaps most looking forward to having a bit of spending money so I can make a triumphant return to Timemasters and catch up on my comics.

Anyway, since my last post, I’ve only seen one movie, though several more should be coming in the next few weeks.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

When I saw trailers for the first Harold & Kumar movie many years ago, I was of the mind that it was not really my sort of thing. Thankfully, during the first year of my PhD I wanted to procrastinate more than I wanted to avoid the movie, and so I finally saw—and quite enjoyed—Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle.  The subsequent Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was a little bit of a letdown, but I think the latest one is an excellent synthesis of the best parts of its predecessors.

It recaptures the zany, ridiculous spirit of the first and combines it with the higher production values of the second, all wrapped in a surprisingly touching—and lewd, vulgar, and hilarious—Christmas story.  That’s right, they haven’t just made a Harold & Kumar movie set at Christmas—it’s a bona fide Christmas movie.  Hell, they even filmed with 3D cameras rather than using that bullshit conversion process used by so many of the summer “blockbusters”, and I’m happy to say I did not get a headache or feel nauseous at all.

John Cho and Kal Penn reprised their titular roles with ease, and thankfully the vast supporting cast of familiar faces was still there.  Especially excellent was Neil Patrick Harris, but really, this should not be surprising to fans of NPH.  The new characters introduced in this story were okay, but they certainly provided fodder for an amusing B-story.

I don’t think I really need to go in to the plot in this review.  If you liked previous Harold & Kumar movies—either of them—then you’ll enjoy this one.  If you haven’t seen any, you’ll possibly be horrified by this one, but if you’re interested you should start with White Castle, anyway.  I left quite happy with the movie and thought it was well worth my money.  (Okay, so I used a free pass and thus paid only for the 3Dness, but still.  Well worth it even at full price.)  I may need a repeat viewing next year to confirm, but this could have the makings of another traditional Christmas movie for me.

In Time

In Time is from writer/director Andrew Niccol, who—to me, at least—is best known for Gattaca.  Gattaca was a slightly odd but well-done, thoughtful movie.  Unfortunately, In Time doesn’t hold together quite so well, despite being generally entertaining.

The basic premise is that the key to eternal youth has been unlocked, and so everyone stops aging at age 25.  However, to prevent overcrowding, everyone then has only a year of life left—unless they earn more.  The rich can live for hundreds—or thousands—of years, while the poor live from day to day, struggling to earn enough time at work to keep going until the next day.  Time is the new currency, and everyone is kept strictly isolated in different zones, according to how much time they have.

So, this is an interesting idea, and it certainly allows Niccol to work with a cast of young and beautiful people.  We’re given some heavy-handed tragedy early on, and then Will Salas (played not particularly well by Justin Timberlake, who couldn’t manage the full range of emotion the character demanded) lucks in to a hundred years, and that’s where all his problems start.  And while those problems are interesting, they just don’t hold the story together in a sensible way.

Specifically, there are a number or aspects of the worldbuilding that are necessary to tell the story, but that make NO SENSE AT ALL for a reasonable person.  For example, you can steal a person’s time while they are asleep/unconscious.  WHY WOULD ANYONE BUILD A SYSTEM THAT ALLOWED NON-CONSENSUAL TRANSFER OF TIME?  The answer, of course, it because it is needed for the plot, but that is exactly why this movie just doesn’t hold together well.

I realize this all sounds pretty negative, and I don’t mean to be.  It wasn’t a bad movie, just a flawed one.  It was still quite enjoyable, and while not as clever and thought-provoking as Gattaca, it is still more clever than a lot of movies that pass for science fiction these days.  I certainly don’t regret the time or money spent seeing it.

Tower Heist

Tower Heist was not really on my list to see, but some friends were going, so I figured, “Why not?”  Luckily, it turned out to be an enjoyable comedy.  The trailers play up the presence of Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller, but Tower Heist is not a “Ben Stiller movie” or an “Eddie Murphy movie”, and was actually more dependent on the ensemble cast and the clever writing for its humour.

So this movie was much better than expected.  The setup for the eponymous tower heist was original (compared to other heist films), and the execution has some genuinely tense and brilliant moments.  This was definitely a comedy with some heist movie more than a heist movie with some comedy, but that’s okay.  It was a lot of fun.

Now, I write these posts on my 7-year-old laptop because it has a nice big screen.  What it doesn’t have is a battery that works for more than 1 or 2 minutes.  So, trusting that autosave had been doing its thing, I quickly shut down everything and powered off the computer.  I knew I might lose a little bit, but not a huge amount.

Sadly, that whole thousand words is gone.  There is no evidence of any autosave revisions anywhere that I can find.  So I’ll have to recreate it, but I don’t have the will to re-blather that much again, so—perhaps luckily for you—you are in for a much more succinct version of this post than I had originally intended.

As a quick aside on the title, I had actually started this one right after my last post, and had intended to publish it in short order.  In that context, “a few straggler books” makes sense, since this post finishes off my discussion of books I’ve finished reading recently (for values of “recently” that encompass the last 8–12 months).

It is just as well that I didn’t post it right away, since I haven’t done much in the past month.  (I did get out to see one movie, 50/50, which was very well done.  Both touching and funny, and a lot less vulgar than I’m used to for a movie with Seth Rogen in it.)  So now I have something meaningful to post, more or less on my usual (i.e. monthly) schedule.

(One of these days—when my PhD is done—I will cultivate a more regular blogging habit.  I know you all shall be waiting with bated breath.)

Anyway, my thoughts on some more comparatively recently-finished books are blow.

The Sorcerer’s House, by Gene Wolfe

I won this from the Ranting Dragon giveaway as part of their Locus Reading Challenge.  I am somewhat ashamed to admit that, despite owning a number of Wolfe’s most famous works and hearing nothing about praise for him, The Sorcerer’s House is the first book of his I’ve actually read.

Thankfully, his reputation does not seem to be overstated.  The book is an epistolary novel, mostly letters from ex-con Bax to his twin brother, his brother’s wife, or his old friend from jail.  The letters relate the strange goings-on as, recently released from prison, he finds himself the heir of a large house in a town he was just passing through.  Things get stranger from there.

While the plot is compelling enough, Wolfe is most lauded for the quality of his prose, and such praise is well deserved.  His writing is rich and nuanced and complex, and he expertly gives each character a unique voice that comes across on the page.  He seems to hit on all cylinders: complex, interesting characters doing interesting things via beautifully-written prose.  Just what I look for in a novel.

Though I did read it in a couple of days, I will say The Sorcerer’s House was not a quick or easy read.  The epistolary structure and potentially-unreliable narrator meant that you definitely had to pay attention to what you were reading.  So Wolfe is perhaps not what you are looking for when you want some brain-dead entertainment that is a fun way to kill some time.  He offers a richer reading experience, one that I look forward to partaking in again as I read some of his classics.

You know, when I get around to them.

The Floating Islands, by Rachel Neumeier

I picked up The Floating Islands by Rachel Neumeier because it had a pretty cover.  I bought it because I like floating islands.  Well, that, and I had a discount, and one of the staff at Bakka had posted a complimentary blurb about it on the shelf.  This is a YA novel, and so a bit out of my usual purchasing pattern, but it turned out to be an enjoyable read.

The story opens with recently-orphaned Trei arriving at the aforementioned Floating Islands where he is coming to live with his mother’s relatives.  On the way, he sees their winged warriors flitting about and vows to become one of them.  His relatives are nice, and after a rough start, he and his cousin Araene become close.  Araene chafes at the restrictions put on women in her society, but has found a number of clever workarounds.  Together, they face new tragedies, danger in the form of an invading army, and adventures neither of them could have imagined.

This was a quick and enjoyable read.  It was reasonably inventive throughout, and had some incredibly cool bits.  There were a few stylistic quirks that bothered me a bit, but I think that is mostly attributable to the, well, YAishness of the book.  I don’t read a lot of YA, but what little I have read has some… quality… that I can’t quite identify but that stands out for me just enough to make me notice it.  Anyway, quite a fun book overall.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente

Of course, I was just saying I don’t read much YA, and yet here I am, talking about another YA novel.  I picked this one up mostly due to the overwhelmingly-positive buzz, and I had seen the author on panels at Worldcon in 2009 where she impressed me.  Most of her work that I’ve looked into doesn’t quite strike me as being the kind of stuff I generally like to read, but when this one—a children’s fantasy that was the favourite book of a character in one of her other novels—came along, I figured it was time to take the plunge.

The story concerns a girl, September, who jumps at the chance to visit Fairyland when the Green Wind shows up and makes the offer.  (That was something of a refreshing change. She didn’t go there by accident, or while trying to get away from something else—it just sounded like fun!)  She makes new friends, sees wondrous things, and general wackiness ensues.

Valente’s Fairyland come across as a bizarre mashup of classic fairy tale tropes, Disney films, and clever original ideas.  It feels both familiar and new at the same time, and makes quite an interesting backdrop for September’s adventures.  Along the way September meets an entertaining cast of companions and enemies, and tries her very best to accomplish her quest.

The book, like Fairyland itself, walks the line between familiar and comfortable and wholly original.  I really enjoyed it, and bought a second copy to give to my niece.  As I had suspected after her panels at Worldcon and after reading her blog, Catherynne M. Valente is a clever and talented writer, one who is well worth checking out.

The Lifecycle of Software Objects, by Ted Chiang

This book is really only a novella, published in a fine edition by Subterranean Press.  Oddly, this was perhaps the most disappointing of the four books I talk about here.  That is not to say that it was bad, by any stretch—it was interesting, thoughtful, well-written, and eminently readable.  It was disappointing because the last thing I read by the author (the legendary Ted Chiang) was the short story “Exhalation“, which BLEW MY FREAKING MIND!

So it’s a case of my expectations being set too high.  I had been hoping this novella would be as awesome as “Exhalation”, and perhaps for some readers it is, but not quite for me.  So The Lifecycle of Software Objects was a letdown compared to “Exhalation”, but still very good overall.  Such is the life of a writer so lauded as Ted Chiang—even he can’t always live up to his own hype, I guess.

Anyway, this novella is an exploration of the issues surrounding artificial intelligence, and the implications of having to “raise” them from infancy in order for them to be useful in any way.  As I said, it is well done, thoughtful, and easy to read, though—uncharacteristically for stuff I read—nothing blows up.  (That I was still compelled to keep reading is perhaps a strong sign of Chiang’s skill as a writer.)  It wasn’t quite what I was hoping for after enjoying the hell out of “Exhalation”, but I still look forward to delving more into Chiang’s earlier works.

Except for today.  Today, I am going to talk about books, rather than movies!  While my love of collecting books never lessened during my graduate studies, unfortunately the time I spent actually reading for pleasure did.  When I left Toronto last fall and realized just how willing I was to sit and watch reruns of TV shows I had already seen, I decided I needed to remedy this sad neglect of my library.

While I have not come remotely close to the number of books I would like to be reading, I’m on track for at least one per month this year.  (Usually the book gets read over the span of 3–4 days, then nothing for a few weeks.)  I have also started going through the years worth of unread comics I have been collecting, to try and catch up.  Those will perhaps get their own post later on.

Anyway, here are my thoughts on some of the books I have been reading, in no particular order.  Originally—as with many of the movies I see—I had intended to grace each of these with their own, more in-depth blog post, but since I read some of them quite a while ago, some briefer musing are in order.

The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher

Though urban fantasy is definitely not my thing when it comes to reading, I actually picked up the first book of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files a while back after reading a blog post and discussion about series that keep getting better with every book.  The Dresden Files was suggested by many, many participants, with no qualms, caveats, or exceptions.  Since it was up to book 9 or 10 by that point, I figured it might be worth checking out, so I grabbed the first volume, Storm Front.

I think I read it in its entirety that first night.

As I said before, the general content (Harry Dresden, the protagonist, is a Wizard private investigator in Chicago) is not really my thing, but Butcher tells a story with break-neck pacing, lots of humour, and a compelling mystery.  It’s not a deep book—I wasn’t thinking about it for days after, or anything—but it was incredibly enjoyable.  The book was told in first-person (again, not usually a favourite), the action took place over a few days, and the world-building, plot development, and character development were deftly intertwined to keep the pages turning effortlessly.

I was tempted to continue the series right away, but I try to vary the authors I read, so I put off reading the next books until earlier this year, when I read books 2 and 3 (Fool Moon and Grave Peril) back-to-back over a couple of days.  I’m happy to say that so far the trend is holding.  The follow-ups to the first one are not necessarily better, but they are certain as good.  Each book so far is also standalone; while they do refer to events from previous books, they are definitely their own stories, as well.

About the only quibble I might have is that a lot of character development is done off-stage.  Since each book takes place over the course of a few days where months might pass between books, we have newly-blossomed relationships suddenly appearing, new characters well-known to the protagonist introduced in media res, and so on.  Butcher handles this very well, but all the same, a lot of that kind of stuff is what I might like to read about.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading more Dresden Files, albeit after I get a few more authors read in the meantime.

Angelmass, by Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn is probably best known for revitalizing the Star Wars brand—of novels, at least—with Heir to the Empire.  As you can see if you view his bibliography in that first link, he has written quite a lot outside of the Star Wars universe, and Angelmass is one of those.  I picked this one up ages ago; in my younger days I had read Zahn’s Star Wars novels, so if I see a new book of his I always at least pick it up to have a look.  This one sounded interesting.

he initial premise is that there is a black hole—Angelmass—that emits particles that cause humans in their proximity to behave calmly, reasonably, and without lying.  An empire of human colonies called the Empyrean requires that all politicians wear them; the rival human empire called the Pax believes the “angel” particles are an alien plot, and send in a spy to learn more about them.  Naturally, wackiness ensues.

Of course, by “wackiness”, I mean a sort of complex, multi-layered thriller that weaves several narratives together, peeling back mystery after mystery until we reach the end.  I think it paid off on that initial premise in spades (though at this point I forget if we ever learned exactly what the “angels” were), and I was happy to have read it.

There was one aspect of the novel’s structure that irritated me a bit, though it is really about personal preference.  The novel has a number of viewpoint characters, all of whom start apart in what appear to be entirely unrelated stories that eventually converge.  (I have noticed this structure in a number of other big space opera and hard SF novels, too.)  I find it irritating in the beginning—I hate being sidetracked from one character’s story into another one that seems entirely unrelated!  As I said, though, it all comes together, and that quibble really is just because a preference of mine.  (I don’t mind novels with multiple viewpoint characters, but I prefer when they start together and later split up.)

Anyway, Angelmass was an interesting and enjoyable novel.  I will definitely keep my eyes open for Zahn’s other non-Star Wars books.

The Sunless Countries, by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder is one of my favourite writers these days, and I’ve talked about his works here before.  The Sunless Countries is the fourth book in his Virga series, and is, perhaps, a bit more standalone than the previous two, even though characters from earlier books do show up.

The Virga series started big with Sun of Suns, which introduced us to a world that was a giant bubble floating in space, with people living in rotating cities that floated inside, clustered around artificial suns.  (As you may have gathered, I think this is awesome sauce!)  The follow-ups Queen of Candesce and Pirate Sun expanded the ideas and the world, and happily this trend continues into The Sunless Countries.

Apart from the awesome ideas and mysteries presented as part of the plot, what delighted me most about this book was the fact that the main character—one Leal Hieronyma Maspeth—is, essentially, a grad student.  (Technically, I think she was a postdoc or lecturer, but her life was close enough to grad student for me.)  She gets caught up in events much larger than her, but rather than just letting herself get swept along, she begins to chart her own course.  She is a fun character who more than holds her own in the face of big events and even bigger ideas.

I really enjoy this series.  You should too.  It is full of exciting plots and characters backed by ideas that are truly big.  Just what I want out of my science fiction.

Hammered, by Elizabeth Bear

I have read a number of short stories by Elizabeth Bear, drop in on her blog periodically, and have bought several of her novels, but only with my recent purchase of—oddly enough—her first published novel, Hammered, did I actually sit down to read one.

Hammered is the first book of Bear’s Jenny Casey trilogy.  Jenny is a retired augmented soldier who is simply trying to endure the pain of her physical and psychological trauma and lead a quiet life.  Her former employers want her back, however, and aren’t willing to take no for an answer.

(How’s that for movie tag-line writing! I should get paid to do this kind of stuff.)

What follows is a peculiar sort of novel.  Or, at least, peculiar compared to the stuff I normally read.  While the novel has plenty of action, not much of it rests on Jenny’s shoulders.  Hell, for much of her story, she can’t even take any action.  Sections from her point of view are in first person; it shifts to third for the other characters.  And despite the machinations around her, the story is basically about Jenny’s personal growth.

But it works.  It works well.  It kept me up late at night reading it.  This kind of book is not the sort of SF I normally read, but I’m glad I did.  I do, perhaps, wish the ending had been a bit punchier—I was a little irked that the book ended just as they were exposing some cool stuff that I wanted to know more about.  Of course, I guess that’s what the next book in the trilogy is for….

Napier’s Bones, by Derryl Murphy

I picked up Derryl Murphy’s Napier’s Bones at Ad Astra last April after hearing some good buzz about it (and because it was pretty, like all of CZP’s stuff).  Uncharacteristically, I actually got around to reading it!

The world of Napier’s Bones is one in which numbers have a power that underlies everything, and a select few can manipulate that power.  Those select few—numerates, like the protagonist Dom—tend to seek out artifacts that boost their mojo, often battling it out with other numerates seeking the same item.  (It’s kind of like Highlander except with numbers instead of swords.)

This is probably the most relentlessly fast-paced novel I have ever read.  It starts off with Dom on the run after just barely escaping another, more powerful numerate, and I’m pretty sure there was not a single chapter thereafter in which he was not in immediate peril at some point.  It’s almost like the novel was all climax and no rising action or denouement.  (A tantric novel, perhaps?)

This led to Napier’s Bones being a rather intense read, as the characters—and the reader—never get a chance to relax and catch their breath.  Help is found (mostly unexpected), mysteries are unraveled, and a lot of craziness goes down.  Minds may have been blown.  It was a lot of interesting and bizarre fun, and I am happy to have read it.