Book round-up: January 2022

[sixthlight]

I think this is the first month since I started keeping tabs that I've read more books by men than any other gender. Hmmm. Not sure how I feel about that! Sure I feel annoyed with myself for not having got around to my 2021 review yet, but this is a job for February Me, apparently.

Orwell's Roses (Rebecca Solnit)

Read because a bunch of my Twitter mates were reading it. It's a collection of essays on topics as varied as slavery, modern-day rose production, coal, and gardening, all drawn together by the thread of George Orwell's life and a garden he kept in a village outside London. Beautiful, thoughtful, and possessed of many phrases that will linger with me for days; it makes me want to plant roses.

 

The Wheel of Time Companion (Robert Jordan et al)

This is essentially an encyclopaedia of the world of the Wheel of Time (but they couldn't use that title because a companion book had been issued already under that name), organised alphabetically. I read it through because I am That Sort Of Person about this series but I could not possibly recommend doing so as a general practice. About 90% material that exists in the books, 9% Aes Sedai ages and bios, and 1% genuine gems of insight about characters. You know if you're a person who cares about this.

 

How Fiction Works (James Wood)

Part 1 of my attempt, this year, to read some books about how to write (a subject I have avoided learning anything about formally, for fiction anyway, since I left high school). There's some really useful stuff in here, especially about voice and perspective, but by 'fiction' the author very much means 'literary novels'. Solidified my feeling that I do not care for literary novels.

 

The Science of Sherlock Holmes (Stewart Ross)

Christmas gift from a friend, a review of all the uses of science (broadly interpreted, including technology and medicine) in the published ACD Holmes stories. It takes a pragmatic approach I enjoyed, always willing to acknowledge when Doyle picked story over scientific accuracy, and not considering this a flaw. Its major insight is that while Holmes feels like a very scientific detective, all the real up-to-date science in the stories is concentrated in the first ten. I think this would be a very useful reference if you wanted to write Holmes fic, or indeed detective fiction in the same setting and period.

Quantum of Nightmares (Charles Stross)

Second in the author's 'New Management' series which follows up the Laundry Files from an on-the-ground perspective of people just trying to get by in a hostile world, rather than the gods-and-monsters level the Laundry had hit by its last entry. This one is riffing off Sweeny Todd and Mary Poppins (note of reassurance: no child death!) by way of a supermarket deli counter, as well as the return of the gloriously queer gang of Imp, Wendy, and co from 'Dead Lies Dreaming'. A fun romp which somehow, despite the supervillains and Lovecraftian deities, barely manages to stay ahead of the real UK satire-wise. You *will* need a strong stomach.

 

Household Gods (Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove)

Tarr was recommended in my Twitter feed and this was the only one of her books the library had readily available. I hadn't read any Turtledove for years and I remembered why when I read this. It centres on a lawyer and single mum in 1990s LA who is magically body-swapped into a widowed tavernkeeper on the borders of the late second century CE Roman Empire. The attention to historical detail is impressive, and it's a page-turner.

 

The overall moral of the story, which is that modern feminists should really just be grateful for what they have because nobody's violently raping them, is...bloody infuriating actually. The protagonist learns lessons like Spanking Is The Most Effective Form Of Child Discipline Really, Sometimes When People Sexually Harass You They're Still Making Valuable Points About Your Performance At Work, and Some Women Are Just Naturally Sluts But That's Okay. TW for a pandemic with a significant death toll and - of course! - sexual harassment, assault, and rape. Also there's some Marcus Aurelius fanfic which honestly feels like it was the impetus for the whole book. That was quite fun actually. The stone-cold take on 1990s feminism though, blergh. BLERGH.
 

The Shadow Rising (Robert Jordan)

This is probably popularly considered the best of the WoT books and I read it to satisfy my post-show urges without embarking on a full series re-read. It's still really good, the point where the series kicks up a notch into a wider, messier, political sphere beyond the MacGuffin-centred quest fantasy tone of the first three books, and there are bits I am absolutely agog to see translated on screen.

Comments

[sixthlight]

There's often an issue with this sort of time-travel fiction, I think, where a large segment of its likely audience is very well-informed about the period but its protagonists aren't because the author wants maximum opportunity to have them Learn New Things. Which then frustrates the informed readers, because it makes the protagonists come across as exaggeratedly under-informed. This was certainly the case with this book, where the lead fully expected that the Roman Empire would be much less sexist than 1990s LA, for no obvious reason.