Where the Robots are Tired

The Liberation by Ian Tregillis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In some ways this novel (and series) didn't exactly work for me. It left some stuff out that I wanted, and it wasn't organized the way I like my stories organized. But it's so creative, thought-provoking, profound, and terrifying that it's still pretty damn awesome. I accomodate those contradictions with a 4/5, and I'll kinda explain.

The setup and world building are topnotch. The Dutch invented unstoppable robot servants in the 1600s, and used them to become the greatest world empire. The French, their only remaining enemy, use advanced chemistry to fight back, to hold, to barely survive, though they are forced to move all of government and the Catholic Church to the New World, our Quebec and Ontario, mostly. (The Dutch have the southern colonies.)

The central question of the series, concluding here, is whether the "Clakkers" are sentient beings with a right to free will, something they are denied by the various sciences used by their creators and masters, particularly alchemy. The robots are tightly controlled and are unable to do anything other than what they are told to do. We follow from book one a robot named Daniel who has accidentally gained freedom and escaped to the New World. But we learn he's not the only free robot, and by the third book many have been freed and are rampaging on both sides of the ocean, trampling their oppressors--who never believed they were sentient or capable of thought, and never knew they were committing horrible crimes against thinking beings.

There are many fantastic and horrible characters, brutal and cruel opponents among both the humans and robots, and it's the many factions and points of view that make the story less focused than I would like. The main conflict for humans, in a general sense, is very clear--survive the onslaught of emancipated and angry robots who are much, much faster and stronger than humans. That's cool. But when you try to narrow that down to a more specific goal, to something actionable, it's not there. There's no clear through-line of action; the main human characters are mostly just getting pushed around and chased and scattered. This is foxes and chickens, and I wanted the chickens to come up with something. I wanted to see a coherent plan of action, a coming-together of human factions much earlier, a dramatic push-back with explainable goals. Instead, we get a lot of muddling about, a lot of chaotic movement without purpose, before we reach a quick resolution with a lot of loose ends.

Still great. Very good prose. Lots of big ideas. I had fun reading the whole series, which is awesome in many ways, and for sure there's a lot to chew on. It's definitely worth investigating if you like fantasy.

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Where I Learned History from the Fantasy

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think this is an incredible book, and I have no idea how many people have read it, but it's not enough. I should be seeing this all over Twitter and TikTok and YouTube and I'm not. Crazy.

This is a retelling of events in England, France, and Haiti in the late 1700s, dealing with the abolitionist movement and the French Revolution. It's set in a universe almost identical to our own, except that magic is real (though generally prohibited, except for among aristocracy). The main characters are the real people involved in those events--Robespierre, Danton, and Desmoulins in France, Pitt and Wilberforce in England, Toussaint in Haiti, and all of the people surrounding them. The scholarship is rock solid, and the unfolding of complex events is handled with such confidence, such assurance, that I was blown away.

The characters are wonderfully drawn, becoming very real to me. I don't know what the actual people were like, whether or not this is a fair representation (I tend to think it is), but I feel like I know these people in the book. The author is so good at giving us, in the midst of conversations and arguments and speeches and riots and battles, a nuanced look into the minds of these characters, including their motivations and intentions and regrets and dreams, and it is presented with such clarity that I marveled over and over. It was as if I was getting just the right amount of help to make perfect sense of their actions, and I do not usually feel this way.

The writing itself, the language, is just incredible. Not flamboyant; I don't mean that. And not grungy or utilitarian. It's smooth prose with just enough poetry to round off the rough corners:

"His magic began to stir in his blood, trying to help him through the parade of meetings and parliamentary sessions. By the end of most nights, his head throbbed, his stomach spasmed painfully, and London's bloodlines were a dizzy swirl in his senses; by morning, either elixir or sleep had done its job, and he felt better, or close enough. He didn't mention this to anyone; it felt ridiculous to talk about being overworked when the work in question sent men to death and agony. Instead, he found himself telling half his cabinet to send him their work because he was relatively unoccupied. He had no idea why he always did this, or why everyone always seemed to believe him."

The effect is effortless clarity, and I thought it was incredible.

The only thing that I didn't love was the pacing, though there was nothing to be done, really; this tells the story of several nations over many years, so it is necessarily episodic, with a huge narrative arc whose contours are hard to make out over pages or chapters. Some days I didn't pick it up. However, every time I did open it, it was a pleasure.

Every scene felt necessary. The reframing of so many historical details is mesmerizing. But it moves along, as you would expect, more like history than a novel. It develops over time. Instead of being frustrated by that (which sometimes happens to me) I let it move its own way, letting it go the speed it wanted to go, and I just flowed along with it. Patience. Step by step. By reading it in small chunks over rather a long time, I found I liked it very much.

Overall, a great book. An enthusiastic 5/5. I loved the way these real world events seem to make more sense through a fantasy prism, through a fictional retelling, and I'm amazed at the quality of both the academic precision and the artistic creativity found in this novel. I'm already ordering the next book, plus a standalone by this author. So--recommended!

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Where We Get the Last of Lord Darcy

A Study in Sorcery by Michael Kurland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Randall Garrett wrote one novel and a number of short stories about the investigator Lord Darcy. This is the second sequel written by Michael Kurland, the last of the Lord Darcy mysteries, and it's a bit thinner but still fun.

The setting remains the key component, with an original take on an alternate history with magic: England still controls France (never losing what Henry V gained) and has remained a real empire up to the sort-of present, including a tenuous hold on the Americas. (These stories mostly take place in the 70's, though the technology is more steampunk than modern. Much of society relies on magic instead.) This time, we're in North America, at a settlement I think is meant to be where New York should be. There's a murder involving an Aztec (here, Azteque) nobleman, a crime which needs to be solved before an important treaty is signed with Aztecque ambassadors, and Lord Darcy is called in to save the agreement. Altogether, this is an interesting society and world, with lots of fun what-if? answers, and the freshness of that setting all on its own makes the story fun to dip into.

The plot mostly works. It's a quick read, with decent pacing, and I have no real problem with any part of it--except I was expecting some more action at some point. It feels like we were hiking up a mountain and then were suddenly back at the bottom, as if a middle section was planned but abandoned, the story quickly wrapped up, to keep it at a tidy 75,000 words. There is pretty good rising action, but I can't really identify much of a major crisis, and I felt the lack of it.

That said, the conclusion makes sense and works fine. Maybe it's just a very long short story...

This may be the least successful (IMO) of the books and stories of Lord Darcy, but it's still fun, and if there were ten more I'd buy them today. Alas, this is it. Last one.

I wonder if Brandon Sanderson has a minute in his schedule.

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Where It's a New Author but the Same Lord Darcy

Ten Little Wizards by Michael Kurland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think Michael Kurland nailed it.

This book is a continuation of the Lord Darcy alternative history fantasy mystery (my words) series started by Randall Garrett. The original included one novel and a number of short stories, all set in a Europe where magic works and England never lost its lands in France. This novel follows up on those stories very well, with characters that feel unchanged and a setting that seems well understood and recaptured.

Kurland includes a touch more direct exposition to explain how things work than Garrett did, but in other ways seems to have followed the original in every way. The methodology and pacing are so similar. I would have liked a couple more pages of sorting out at the end of the novel, and reflecting on that I nearly dropped a star, but it's such a minor quibble. Reading (as I do) a number of other books at the same time, I found myself picking this one up again and again in preference to the other books, all of which I like quite a bit, and realized nah, this does all you want a book to do. It was a brisk, entertaining read, peopled by sympathetic characters, and I was pleasantly diverted thinking about how different things might be in another world. Lots of good stuff. All the stars. Fair play and well done to the author.

(As usual, the story involves a series of murders that seem impossible, including a couple of the "locked room" type. The mystery aspect is well handled and satisfying.)

If you like alternate histories and mysteries and fantasies, I recommend the whole series.

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Where I Was Riveted

Lord Darcy by Randall Garrett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I seldom read or like short stories (a little, sometimes), but I really liked this collection. Almost 700 pages long, I never got tired of picking it up, and I just wanted it to go on. (In fact, I already ordered one of the books that follow, though it's written by another author. Maybe it can keep the fun going for a bit. Fingers crossed.)

Set in an alternate Europe, where the Plantagenet descendants of Richard the Lionheart keep the throne, France and England remain united under one line, the entire New World is administered (though not much colonized, apparently) by the Anglo-French Empire, and magic works but isn't terribly common, it has a sort of steampunk feel. The original stories were set in the years they were written, in the 1960s and 1970s, but they seem 60 or 80 years behind technologically. The main enemy of the empire is the Polish empire, mirroring the east-west split of those years, but with a twist. All in all, it is clever and well carried out, leaving lots of room for more stories that we probably will never see. Alas.

Lord Darcy is rather like Sherlock, intuitive and well informed, gathering slight clues others miss, though he is much more socially adept and friendly. His assistant, Sean O Lochlainn, is a master wizard, using magic to do the kind of tests we expect forensics to do in modern stories. Together, they're highly effective, and they're both as round as they need to be for the stories to work.

I get it; deep stories need characters with tragic backstories, filling the pages with pathos. There's not a ton of that here, though. Instead, we get to see interesting people with amazing abilities be awesome while working as a team. That's my favorite thing.

(Every time I differ from the masses of novel readers--when I dislike books that everybody else loves--it's because the main characters are all kinda shitty to each other. They're not a team. They're not nice. It's every man and woman for themselves. Ack. I don't like that. In fact, I hate that. I love good friends or a found family, especially with awesome people being awesome. That's my favorite. That's this collection.)

(Others are free to continue liking the stuff I don't. I won't understand it, but that's cool.)

Anyway, these are entertaining short stories (and one novel) that I highly recommend to readers of all types--Sherlock-style mystery, fantasy, alternate history, espionage, and more--and I suspect lots of people who would love it missed it back in the 70s like I did. And if it weren't for the Austen-sounding title, I might not have taken a chance myself. Glad I did.

Good stuff.

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Where Lord Darcy Solves Mysteries for the King

Too Many Magicians by Randall Garrett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this novel. (Technically, it's in the middle of an omnibus edition, but it's novel length, so I'm reacting to it on its own.) There's so much to like--an interesting setting, capable and engaging characters, a tricky mystery, and plenty of action.

Set in a sort-of England and France in the 1960s, the story takes place in a timeline where the Plantagenant kings never lost the throne and continued to control France as well as Great Britain. The technology lags about a century behind ours, but they excel at magic instead. This empire includes all of North and South America, though it seems to be less colonized than our world. In addition to his detective skills, Darcy--the Sherlock-like figure who is the main investigator here--is tough and good with weapons, making him a decent action hero, and although he cannot himself do magic, his partner--a good Dr. Watson stand-in--can and does. They are an effective team.

Throw in a few mysterious deaths, spies and double agents from the rival Polish Empire, and some practitioners of black magic, and you can't miss.

Something about the whole vibe of this novel and related short stories just really works for me, and I enjoy it. (As a result, I scored it quite a bit higher than the average. Not sure why some others didn't like it as well, but that's how it works.) I wish there were a bunch more novels, but we are not so lucky. I'll have to be satisfied with the chunky omnibus which still contains 6 more short stories I haven't read yet.

This probably is best for those attracted to alternate timeline stories and/or steampunk novels, especially mysteries, though it straddles several categories.

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Will Shakespeare, Hero of the Occupation

Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is another of those great "What if?" books that Harry Turtledove is rightly known for.

Imagining a victorious Spanish Armada and the occupation of Britain, it tells the story mostly of William Shakespeare being drawn into rebellious intrigues against the Spanish. He's getting along the best he can under the occupation when he's tasked with writing a play that will spark an uprising.

The logic of this alternate history is impeccable, the political and social ramifications thoroughly developed. This isn't how it happened, but it's a way it might have happened. The strange Elizabethan setting feels very real.

Shakespeare and his contemporaries are well drawn and compelling. Historic figures--Christopher Marlowe, Lope de Vega, his fellow actors, and the political figures like Sir William Cecil and his son--are fleshed out in a way that gives this story the feeling of history, and the minor characters (some invented, some actual people) are equally convincing. My favorite character is Cecily Sellis, the "witch" who lived in the same boarding house as Shakespeare and defied expectations. (She was probably the closest to a "fantasy" type character in the story, which in every other way feels like straightforward history.)

The author makes wonderful use of Shakespeare's lines throughout the novel, something I really enjoyed. (Despite being a high school English teacher, I'm an indifferent Shakespeare scholar, so I'm certain I passed over many of the quotes without noticing. But I caught plenty.) He works them into dialogue and banter as much as he uses them for the plays within the story, and they are often fun easter eggs without being obtrusive. It's the kind of erudition (no other word works) that is uncommon in modern fantasy as well as a reminder that we are fortunate to have a writer capable of pulling off a novel based on a premise this ambitious.

So, yeah, I liked it.

There is a lot of exciting action and entertaining subplots, especially the love life of Spanish writer Lope de Vega, though some of the middle does not move along with quite as much pace as one might like. The last quarter takes off again, though, and the loose ends are satisfyingly gathered by the end. Despite enjoying some bits more than others, I found it entertaining throughout, and I recommend the novel for fantasy readers as well as Shakespeare enthusiasts. And history people.

And now I have to go educate myself more on Lope de Vega, and I blame the author. ;)

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My Choice for "Coolest Book Title Ever"

Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is good fun. I mean, it's fun just to open a book with this title. Ack-Ack Macaque? Come on! Genius.

I expected this to be totally a pulp novel, and I was up for that, but it is actually a straight-forward alternate history science fiction novel. Well, that's cool too.

Ack-Ack Macaque is a character in an online game, but he turns out to be more than that. Like other important characters, his brain has been augmented by medical science, and that science turns out to be key later on. It's a mystery and an action story with airships and wing suits and hand-to-hand combat and a somewhat pulpy (in the best way) science fiction novel.

Highest marks for inventiveness and exciting action; decent marks for characterization and pacing. With two sequels, I'm eager to see if the author keeps the action going.

Recommended.

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Meteorite Hits America, but at Least We Got "Lady Astronauts"

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this novel. I love everything I read by Mary Robinette Kowal (this being the 5th title of hers I've read). I won't lie--it's best at the beginning and trails off (for me), but I still mostly liked it and want to read the sequel.

My bummer is that where we arrive in the last sentence is where I thought we'd be about halfway through the novel. It was the stuff that should probably come next that I was most wanting to read. Like we had an act I and act II, but no act III. (IMO, always.)

Looking back over it, evaluating it for the novel it actually is, I would say that it's a nice alternate history of America's space race, focusing on one of the first women to become trained as an astronaut. It works on that level, and I like it about 4/5 stars as that kind of novel. I thought we had been set up for an action story, more like a 50s science fiction novel, but it isn't that. Okay. That's cool. It's a bit smaller in scope; more intimate; more realistic, frankly, than I expected; and more grounded (no joke intended).

I'm betting the second book will be more like what I was looking forward to. I will definitely find out.

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