Where It Ain't Great But I Still Like It

Castle Dangerous by Walter Scott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This isn't as good a book as most of Scott's novels, but it's still fun to read.

This was his last novel, written when he wasn't in good health and had trouble doing as much research as he usually liked to do. As a result, it's shorter and less complete, with an ending that could have been elaborated on to make it more satisfying. (I so often lament wordiness by 19th Century writers, but the ending of this was abrupt.) I'm sure, if he had had more energy, Scott would have given the ending of the novel much more attention, tying up more loose ends and giving us more time to savor the good parts.

Still, it's pretty fun. Intrigue in a Scottish castle under English occupation... patriots preparing for an attack... a beautiful young woman, an heiress, traveling in disguise... Lots to like. But it hurt the story, IMO, that the author couldn't account better for the main character putting herself into such danger, disguising her identity long after any good reason for it, running away from actual rescuers, when she could have at any time announced to her lover or his officers just who she was without any harm. The reason given was far too slight to account for it, making the plot unusually shaky.

If you enjoy the cadences of Sir Walter Scott's language or are a completist when it comes to this author (me... me, also...), you should go ahead and add this to your TBR pile bookcase library. Otherwise, make sure you've first looked into his more fully realized novels, because he's got plenty of 5-star books.

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Where I Saw the Play in my Head

Henry V by William Shakespeare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What do you picture when you read a Shakespeare play?

Usually, I picture something more like a movie, with real people in real settings. But reading this one, I definitely pictured actors on the stage in the Globe theatre. When I realized this, I had to backtrack to see why, and it's definitely because of the prologue, the opening "O for a Muse of fire" bit where the chorus asks the audience to imagine the fields of France:

... But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?...
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass...

I guess I got it backwards, then; instead of seeing a stage and imagining a world I sat in the world and imagined the stage. In any case, that worked for me. I saw in my mind's eye the play as it would have been performed for audiences 400 years ago, experiencing with them the range of feelings: the anxiety for the outnumbered British forces the night before Agincourt; the aggravation at overhearing the French forces' derision; the soul-stirring approval for the king's patriotic speeches; the contempt for the religious leaders and their venality; the pride in sense of duty portrayed by genuine heroes of the nation; the disappointment in cowards like Pistol; and the upsurge of jubilation at the ultimate victory. No doubt a lot depends on actors and staging, but I can imagine this working very well. Even though I'm anti-war (who isn't?) it worked for me.

I'm not sure the play has a distinct perspective regarding the value or virtue of war. Despite the patriotic support for war found in many speeches, there are also many arguments against it made throughout the play. The clearest expression is the speech by Williams, a soldier speaking unawares to the king in disguise. He argues that the cost of war is high, especially if the cause is unjust:

But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left.

That's a stark image. That's the perspective of soldiers with nothing to gain by hazarding their lives in battle. Between this and the St. Crispin's Day speech, it's hard to say what the author really felt. I don't think that's an interesting question, anyway. Or a trivial one. A better question is whether he's done a good job at showing us different faces of war and warriors, and I feel like he has.

Marlowe's Tamerlane plays tapped into a similar action/adventure excitement, bringing the thrill of bigger-than-life action to the stage. It just seems like Shakespeare did a better job of making it a story. For us groundlings, packed shoulder to shoulder, watching over the head of the guy in front of us, that mix of drama and spectacle feels like a blockbuster.

Recommended.

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Where We Get a Glimpse of a Different America

The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my favorite so far of the Leatherstocking Tales. A good plot, a good set of characters, a fun setting, a couple foul villains--it works well.

James Fenimore Cooper is not, in my opinion, an easy read. He has some tics that will annoy, and he belabors some dull scenes while rushing through the great ones, and I know that not too many of my friends would like this book. But he does some fun things that make it worthwhile for some readers.

Although the book is full of action--fighting down a river, chased by the enemy; sailing through a storm on Lake Ontario; facing overwhelming numbers from inside a fort hidden on a small island--one of the best scenes is just a shooting contest on a peaceful day at Fort Oswego. It's great fun seeing Hawkeye/Pathfinder outshooting everyone, just as you know he should, without breaking a sweat, but there's more to it. On one hand, we see the wives of the officers being bitchy to the humble, pretty daughter of a nobody sergeant. On the other, we find an annoying and cocky gentleman getting beaten by his inferiors. Just that is fun, but it's the juxtaposition of those events which supplies a nice critique of society at that time, the continued stratification of society that makes so little sense out in the forest. Of course, it's always fun to see Pathfinder be awesome. What's the point of his being the best shot on the frontier if we don't see him shoot?

The author puts less philosophy in Pathfinder's mouth in this book, and the novel's better for it. (He doesn't resist completely, however, and those are my least favorite passages.) Still, he has a lot more action in this novel than in others (IMO) and it makes a less laborious and more entertaining read. And, as always, knowing the whole of a classic novel has its own rewards, and I think for some readers that's reason enough.

So I liked it. Others may not. Recommended for a pretty narrow group of readers, I fear. :)

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The Principled Hero in the Middle of Extremists

Old Mortality by Walter Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is an education. I don't get it all--war between presbyterians and episcopalians? I had no idea--but I understand so much Scottish history so much more now.

And it works as a romance with a principled hero trying to win the sweet heroine who everyone wants to marry off to someone else.

Young Morton is a man of ability though he is untried and doesn't really know what he believes or what's worth fighting for. However, he is a man of strong principles, which lead him into a revolution that no one would have expected him to take part in. Partly, he's carried along by events he can't control, and partly he acts out of a sense of conscience. It's a fine line, but the author makes it work.

The presbyterian rebels--rather uncompromising, puritan folk who believe the whole country should be run according to their idea of Biblical principles--are shown to be frequently extreme, but perhaps more in the right than the government which does not allow them to practice their religion. Morton fights against the government tyranny, but would be satisfied with a compromise--let people worship as they will. That compromising spirit puts him in a bad spot with the other rebels, who want a complete win, complete capitulation from the king (which they cannot get), and he becomes everybody's enemy.

Which makes sense--he's trying to get two extremes to be moderate, and they don't wanna, either one.

The author is a master of language in general, but I was a amazed at the way he captured the speech patterns of the radical preachers and their followers. He was mocking them (sort of), but the way he gives us long speeches with unrelated scriptural references stitched together in a jumble without any regard for the context they come from is brilliant and disturbing and really rings true, and he has pages and pages of it throughout the book. Just that aspect of the novel was tour de force stuff; Sir Walter Scott puts those of us with average or (as one hopes) somewhat better than average knowledge of such things to absolute shame.

As always, the novel is filled with memorable characters. Burley, Morton's friend and eventual enemy, is impressive and crazy and unrelenting; Cuddie, a servant, is one of those characters who everyone thinks is dumb but shows the most sense; Major Bellenden is cool, one of those old soldiers who may no longer be able to fight but still knows more than everybody around him and shows them the ropes; Jenny, another servant, knows how to get stuff done without anyone finding out; and there are so many more. One character, old Lady Margaret, is a bit foolish and a little honorable, and she presents like a Dickens character--every time she gets a chance, she works into the conversation the time the king had breakfast at her home, and everybody tries to cut her off. It's a good bit.

The pacing is a little slow compared to some other Scott novels, which is why I didn't give it all the stars, but it's still a good adventure and an excellent history and a pleasure to read. And, as always, it should be read from an old hardcover; Project Gutenberg is good and all, but no way should this be read on an iPad.

You know, unless you wanna, of course. I'm just giving ideas. :)

Recommended for Scott fans.

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Get Your Science Fiction Here

Master Sergeant by Mel Odom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is straightforward science fiction in the old style--humans and aliens on distant planets coming into conflict, using advanced technology, facing the challenges of a harsh environment, fighting and trying to stay alive. For those who enjoy that kind of SF--like me--it might be just what you're looking for. Good action, good fun.

I like the characters, who are as round as they need to be for SF action, and the setting is sufficiently fleshed out to engage a reader. The pacing is quick and the story rolls along.

My one real quibble is that the novel is sort of incomplete. There is a little resolution at the end, and it is a self-contained novel, but it is also the beginning of a series and leaves most of the conflict and resolution for future novels. That's cool, but it makes it that much less fun for me. I'll probably get the next one, but the serial nature of it is not exactly to my taste.

Still, overall, it's fun, light enough to be enjoyed during an apocalypse, and complex enough to satisfy a regular SF reader. Also, having met the author at a convention, and finding him pleasant, humble, and engaging, I'm happy to be able to give him a boost and recommend this novel.

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Where the Main Character Is Terrifying. But Good.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. I planned to like it more, but it was still good, and most people who think this sounds like a good book are likely to find out they're right.

As a reader, I liked the setting and themes and the fact that it was written from an "own voices" perspectives. That lends the action some weight, and the real events in our timeline are echoed in this secondary world is very effective. It still reads like fantasy, but it has the power of real life behind it.

The characters are interesting and sympathetic, most of the time, but I didn't love the meandering plot they lived through. I thought at first it was a sort of Harry Potter outsider-at-school story: many fellow students are rounded out, the setting is fully developed, conflicts are established, and we are set up for continued action at the school. But that was just the first third or so. When we jumped into the next part of the story, it felt like the previous section was unnecessary (making the early sections at home even less relevant), and almost everything that happened there was redundant in the end. The student rivalries that gave the first part of the book its energy become swallowed up by the greater events going on outside.

Maybe that was a thematic choice. I dunno. Showing how school isn't quite real life yet... Maybe.

The last half is the most entertaining, and especially the last chapters. I read that with the most pleasure. I have seen many glowing reviews of the next book, so I hope to find the action I enjoyed most in book 1 rolls right into book 2.

Outside of entertainment, the book is important because of its handling of themes regarding race, colonialism, empire, prejudice, and all the ills attendant on them. Rin is underestimated because she's a dark-skinned peasant from the south; the light-skinned children of government officials are privileged and condescending; natives of Speer are considered dangerous and less human; and the people of Nikara and the people of Mugen despise each other equally, each seeing the other as beneath contempt.

Nothing is tidy here; no heroes, really; just problematic characters trying to figure out what it means to human.

Recommended.

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More good stuff from John Scalzi

Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an easy one.

I like John Scalzi's writing. Just in general. He's got a sound, a patter, that is recognizably his, and he doesn't screw it up.

This is a good story, with a proven plot, good pacing, sympathetic and interesting characters, and (as always) clever dialogue.

It was interesting to read the same story as the previous novel told from a different POV. It wasn't, of course, the same story, but something new. I liked it.

(Only quibble--what do the aliens look like? Come on! Not every species, but a few, please! Anyway...)

Five stars, of course.

So, read the book already. Off you go. :)

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