Reviews and Comments

Sure I'm going to regret this

Yukon holiday reading

Nerd time

After starting in a war, and finishing in something quite interesting, the middle of this book is mainly everyone sitting round and having a think about what to do next.

Not a good place to start reading Valdemar books. It'll make sense but it's using characters that have had several books of their own at this point.

Not much happens in what-feels-like the first half of this book, just pleasant froth of everyone agreeing to agree about things, and have a nice party. The second half though is a bit more interesting, with a journey into untravelled lands and a battle.

Another slow one, the barbarian tribe mentioned in the plot above doesn't turn up until about three-quarters through the book and there is minimal peril. The protagonists are less irritating though.

The protagonist, Darian, is pretty whiny for the first third of this book, until the standard Valdemar-type Event happens (in this case, the village is attacked) and shakes everything up. Then there's the training not-a-montage which takes the next third, before fixing things up in the third act.

I don't think this series is the best, all three are a bit slow. But it's a fine comfort read.

Finally got round to reading this after originally thinking the plot was going to be pretty dark. It is lighter than it sounds and very enjoyable.

And the kids are pretty cute.

I'm treating this as a more accessible version of Jerusalem by the same author, which is about four times longer.

I did not manage the first short which is written in a simple pidgin to show it is Early Human. It was very hard work.

The others were much easier to read. None are cheerful, and nearly all involved sex and death. Which isn't really a surprise. It does assume knowledge about local history, not all of which I have.

It's not that this is a bad book, but Green has done better, quite a few times at this point. If you like his stuff, read it. If not, this is set after Blue Moon Rising (I think) but with no major characters from it. So it's not really a good entry point.

This book does the job it aims to do, to cover the stories of Indigenous people who came to Europe once Europeans starting visiting the Americas. The footnotes are amusing, and the explanations of the terminology of reconciliation are useful.

Fundamentally though, it is a list of vignettes seen from half a millennium later. It is somewhat sorted into categories, but I found it easier to read in short bites.

Gosh, this was enthralling. The Belgica sets off for Antarctica late, with a crew that don't get on and a desire for glory over safety. And taking Amundsen for his first polar trip.

And because they all wrote each other letters as they were going insane from scurvy and despair there's some great detail preserved.

Then finally the solution somehow managed to be to cut up the pan ice by hand to get to open sea. They were ridiculously lucky.

Surprise hit, what a tale

On the bright side, not "dated and sexist" or "dated and creepy" or "dated, sexist, and really creepy" like some of the male SF writers. But still you do have to take this basic idea of "babies with birth defects are put in indentured servitude running space ships" and just let it go over you before dealing with how all the characters deal with it. In the future, with still a lot of domestic violence. A bit like Jack Vance, in some ways.