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Thursday, 4 March 2004
WORLDS THAT WEREN'T
A collection of four novellas by Harry Turtledove, S. M. Stirling, Mary Gentle, and Walter Jon Williams. The recurring theme is the classic alternative history story. Lately, I've been avoiding Turtledove like the plague, but he really returns to his strengths in his novella THE DAIMON, which is a "what-if" story set in the time period of the Pelopenessian War. The two lead characters are Socraters and Alicbediades, the same lead in TIDES OF WAR by Steven Pressfield. This is the best novella Turtledove has written in a long while. I also recommend Mary Gentle's alt-history version of the Fall of Constantinople (several years later) entitled THE LOGISTICS OF CARTHAGE. This is a story in the same universe as her earlier ASH: A SECRET HISTORY. Probably the best written novella of the bunch. I had given up on S.M. Stirling by the end of the first Draka book (though did try him again in that series he did with Drake sometime later), but found SHIKARI IN GALVESTON to be emminently readable, if not exactly the most skillful plot I've ever read. A good gap-filler, replete with the classic SM Stirling sex scenes. The oddest story might be Williams' THE LAST RIDE OF GERMAN FREDDIE, which places Friedrich Nietzsche at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Funny, but a trifle forced and artificial. Not as big of a fluff piece as SHIKARI is, but nothing heavy either. As in most collections, you take the bad with the good. The Turtledove and the Gentle piece make this one worth the price of admissions! Walt

Posted by mrnizz at 9:36 AM EST
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Wednesday, 15 October 2003
FERMAT'S ENIGMA by SIMON SINGH
CATEGORY: NON-FICTION, MATHEMATICAL HISTORY
I remember a friend of mine, Art Carroll, trying to describe the significance of Antoine Fermat (17th century French mathmetician, and wacky burner of priests at the stake). I appreciated, in a very abstract way, the effects of Fermat's last theorem on the mathematical theory community. Proving Fermat's theorem, which is an outgrowth of the Pythagorean theorem (remember a2 + b2 = c2?), has kept mathmeticians busy for years. As you may or may not know, Mathmetician Andrew Wiles of Princeton University delivered a proof in 1993, which was found to have a flaw in it that caused an additional solid year of work to fix. This is only part of the story, though. The history of mathematical theory, starting with a fantastic chapter on the Pythagorean school in Greece and going on into the history of Fermat's accomplishments. I bought Fermat's Enigma on the strength of Singh's earlier work CODE BOOK. I make a hobby of cypers and code-breaking, and of all the books I've read on the subject, I find Singh's CODE BOOK to be the most consistently approachable, easy to read, and erudite approach to the subject I've ever read. FERMAT is just as good, but in a different fashion-- it's a great introduction to the history of mathematics that anyone can read. I highly recommend this book. Walt

Posted by mrnizz at 12:40 AM EDT
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Friday, 26 September 2003
ARMS OF NEMESIS by Steven Saylor
CATEGORY: HISTORICAL MYSTERY (in the Gordianus the Finder series, same as ROMAN BLOOD) Although I'm still partial to Lindsey Davis' superb "Falco" series, I'm deep into a "Gordianus the Finder" fix right now. This novel, Saylor's second (I believe) is quite good.. not as good as Roman Blood, I think, but very deftly written. A patrician is murdered at his villa. Two runaway slaves are suspected. Gordianus is called in to prevent the entire household staff from being ritualistically slaughtered (the story takes place during the Spartican revolts (depicted in the movie, Spartacus) so Roman estate owners are a tad sensitive about the slave population). There are fewer blatant surprises in ARMS than there were in BLOOD, yet it's still a very engaging (and oftimes funny) read. Naturally, there's a huge scandal behind it all; I would be surprised if there wasn't one in Saylor's plots. I rather liked the settings and characters, most of which are historical. In summary, not much better or worse than Roman Blood, and quite enjoyable.

Posted by mrnizz at 10:28 AM EDT
Updated: Friday, 26 September 2003 10:32 AM EDT
Thursday, 4 September 2003
ROMAN BLOOD, BY STEVEN SAYLOR

CATEGORY: HISTORICAL MYSTERY




In general, I like historical mysteries as a break from my steady diet of hard-boiled and noir type detective novels. I especially like mysteries set in ancient Rome. There's something so comfortingly familiar with the Roman setting, yet so distant. When a fictional Roman laments how dangerous walking in the streets at night is these days, I can only smile and think about walking around in Anacostia. Some things never change.


Steven Saylor's Gordianus the Finder is a central figure in a series of novels set in Ancient Rome, during a pivotal time in history-- The Marius-Sulla Civil War, the Spartacus Revolt, and the Founding of the Empire by Julius Caesar. It's a great background for murder-- one which SHOULD emphasize the historical events going on around the murder.


Fortunately, Saylor weaves in 'current' events rather deftly in Roman Blood (note bene: it's my first reading of one of his Gordianus novels. I don't have anything to compare it to). Gordianus, a freeman occupied as a "finder" or detective type, exercises the arts of deduction far in advance of Sherlock Holmes' day. In Roman Blood, Gordianus is called upon (by Cicero, no less) to solve a notorius murder (a paricide, which is evidently the worst crime in the Roman pantheon). The hook is that Gordianus must accomplish this feat in eight days-- all of this with the last days of Sulla transpiring in the background. In terms of historical detail, it's a great book. In terms of characterization, I was not that impressed. Gordianus seems a little flat to me-- he has none of the foibles and juicy background that I've seen in Falco (from Lindsay Davis' similar Roman era mysteries set in the time of Vespasian, of course. I'm sorry, the comparison has to be made).


Still, the plot had many fine twists and turns, and proceeded in workmanlike fashion. I enjoyed the bits about Rome and culture-- apparently Saylor is something of a scholar.


Summary: I'll read more from Saylor, though I don't think I'll invest in hardcovers. Not bad, but not great either.



Posted by mrnizz at 11:37 AM EDT
Wednesday, 3 September 2003
FOREIGN LEGIONS, By David Drake

Lots of Soldiers Work for Civilians They don't Like, but these Romans had It Worse than Most-- Their Commanders were Blue-Skinned Aliens!

A follow on to the excellent RANKS OF BRONZE by David Drake, published by Baen Books sometime back in the 1980s. The premise is that a ruthless syndicate of intergalactic traders kidnap Crassus' legion that was historically captured and enslaved by the Parthians (during the Roman Civil War era). The syndicate is governed by a Star Trek style non-interference edict that dictates use of crude technology on low-tech worlds. The Romans, naturally, are very, very good at this kind of warfare.

The follow-up, FOREIGN LEGIONS, is not a novel but a collection of novellas and the first short story that was the inspiration for RANKS OF BRONZE. The rest of the book is penned by other writers (not Drake).

These are the stories included:
RANKS OF BRONZE
SIR GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
LAMBS TO THE SLAUGHTER
A CLEAR SIGNAL
THE THREE WALLS--32nd CAMPAIGN
CARTHAGO DELENDA EST

Of the novellas included, Sir George (by Eric Flint) was the best-- basically a retelling of Ranks of Bronze, only about 900 years later or so, during the time of Edward III. Lambs to the Slaughter (by S.M. Stirling, who I usually don't like) was short and sweet, a story about a plot to destroy the Legion and what one hard-nosed centurion does to prevent it. A Clear Signal really sucked; it was anachronistic and rather silly in the midst of the others. The Three Walls was rather good, if somewhat jingoistic. Carthago Delenda Est (By David Weber) is rather good, but strains the concept far too much... though the idea of portraying what happens to Earth when the Romans who escaped in THE RANKS OF BRONZE come home is a good one.

Summary: Enjoyable, to be sure, but very uneven. Somewhat brought down by the modern era story, which was trite and hackneyed. Still, I got it for a couple bucks used, so who am I to complain?


Posted by mrnizz at 1:42 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, 3 September 2003 1:44 PM EDT

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