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Over the last few months the articles have descended in length in quality with only the rare exception. It’s my intent to get back into more substantial articles. It’s a never-ending process of measuring time and other projects against a desire to make this website at least moderately worth maintaing and, hopefully, reading.

My tastes in reading tend to take me in obscure directions. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was a modern fantasy novel of its own peculiar, pedantic bent. George RR Martin furfills my historical fantasy wishes. Neuromancer and Snowcrash would likely fall under science-fiction, cyberpunk, things like that. In fiction, I rotate between histories, cookbooks, biographies, a never ending line of words and stories.

My most recent labor has been The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon. This epic tome (6 volumes, each many hundreds of thousands of words) from the 18th century remains a respected general history of Rome and the template from which most modern histories are derived. As a work of writing it maintains an intimate, though sarcastic, tone that reveals the author more than one would expect. It dabbles with personal narratives, often finding fault and merit in the various personages that drove the history of Rome, and explors the curiosities of history with an eye for their greater affect and analysis. The story is pushed along even more fully by a rigorous exploration of the religious, military, and economics circumstances affecting the most important provinces and people of the realm. It is, quite simply, a very complete history of Rome from its pinnacle age under the early Emperors to its ignominious collapse and then, in the second half, through the crusades and beyond.

It is an incredibly impressive achievement. It remains a respected work in the field, which attests to the scholarship, the prodigious footnotes validate the years of research that went into the book, and the scope, the life of an empire, is unmatched. Nevertheless, I would have hard time recommending this great achievement. The prose is outdated and simply tough to read. It is a literary and academic masterpiece, but its length and obtuseness to the modern tongue makes more modern histories of Rome far more accessible.

In lieu of a recommendation, I would prefer to say that, for me, it has been an immensely beneficial book to read. My own story is, in a way, a sort of general history. A fictional futuristic history, but a history nonetheless. I find, quite often, that many stories lack a world. They have a dramatic scenario and characters to furfill to the obligations of the plot, but there is no anchor and no setting. The events transcend any particular culture and thus lose so much of their effect. The best stories work within and win a greater historical narrative. The Sharpe and Flashman Series provide easy examples, but historical fiction is hardly the only field this is true. Lord of the Rings created a world history almost as epic as that of Gibbon. Don Quixote only makes sense in a world where chivalry is on the cusp of irrelevancy. Jurassic Park requires a world that is freely dabbling with the consequences of genetic manipulation. Tom Clancy’s works are predicated on the tensions of a post cold-war world. Every story requires a history to provide context and verisimilitude to the drama.

Reading Gibbon has provided a great deal of inspiration to flesh out the world in my own, hopefully nearing completion, novel. I need to touch more fully on the political establishment, the mindset of the people, the economics, the military, the religious and spiritual inclinations. My futuristic world needs a setting that expands beyond the immediate locale to a world that is, like all worlds and all settings, twisting with a number of idealistic conflicts. Gibbon provides an example of a real empire suffering an extended drama that would make for the greatest fiction work of all, if it wasn’t so true, so tragic, and so complete.

As an update, I am proceeding along with my work. I’m quite a bit behind where I should like to be, but that is always the case with schedules. I’ll have more to say as soon as I have more done!

My favorite living writer’s best book (well, one of my favorite) is going to HBO!!! Normally I’d be wringing my hands of the impending travesty, but HBO did Band of Brothers and Rome, so I trust their pedigree to make something appreciable. (IMHO obviously.) George RR Martin keeps up the action and romance in the novels, so HBO shouldnt have to ‘sex it up’ too much.

For those out the loop, A Game of Thrones is the first book in a seven book series (four are out currently) that follows the political intrigue, epic warriors, and arcane mysteries of Westeros. It’s epic fantasy, but it’s not hack and slash. Rather, it’s a dense, expansive, ‘old’ world, threatened as much by the animosities of its own history, as by any mythic beast or tyrannical king. (Although both exist…kind of.) Its also a world of magic, but not of visible magic. Superstition clouds any genuine arcane power and arguments and made and settled by words, swords, and poison. Altogether, George RR Martin continues the long and respected tradition of Chanson de Roland, La Morte de Arthur, and the Iliad.

A Game of Thrones has been one of my favorite books since I first read it, oh, nearly a decade ago and if you haven’t read it yet, better start now. Each of the four books are long. Think Harry Potter, but dense. They’re well worth the time spent though and I’m eagerly await both the next book in the series and now this HBO miniseries.

Awesome!

For a better review: SF Site: A Game of Thrones

A world where sword-wielding hackers deliver pizza for the mob, vengeful inuit throw glass-tipped harpoons and drive motorcycles with hydrogen bomb sidecars, extraterritorial franchises have their own consolates scattered across the country, or what remains of it. It’s safe to say life in Snow Crash is usually pretty interesting.

I heard about Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson, back in college. Amongst an innumerable number of computer types: programmers, admins, hackers, web designers etc, the hyper-stylzed life of a computer nerd-ninja had a wide-ranging appeal. I’m still not sure how I managed to avoid reading the book that so thoroughly defined my culture. Still, it remained on my list as a book I wanted to at least peek into.

And I happened to do just that last week. If I had to give a one-liner review it’d be, Neuromancer with healthy side of irreverance. It has all the dismal imagery of a cyberpunk novel: dystopian america, oligarchic tyranny, technology with a slavish tyranny over mankind, but it escapes the gloom with an endless cycle of just-on-the-edge of plausible absurdities. Couriers, called Kouriers, riding computerized skateboards pulled by tow cables, a main character named Hiro Protagonist, robotic dog guards, it hits them all and then some.

It’s a brilliant book and if I didn’t think so I wouldn’t waste my time here. For any science fiction junkies out there it’s definitely worth picking up. Snow Crash is the sort of novel that can’t help but inspire even more stories and makes for a hell of a read from beginning to end.

http://www.jonathanstrange.com/

I received Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell for Christmas. It’s a hefty book by any measure. 800 or so pages long it fits better on my reference book shelf than with the puny fiction stories it belongs with. Given an unfortunate lack of time I was not sure if I was all that keen on sloging through, yet one more oversized fantasy tome.

You could argue I finished the book out of good luck, free time became more available than expected, but really the credit belongs Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell alone. I would describe the writing as a cross between Harry Potter and Dickens. It’s a legitimate enough comparison, but not necessarily fair. Harry Potter, despite a number of adult readers, is still young adult fiction from any marketing position. Dickens, while well deserving of his reputation, tends to be slow-paced and stuffy. Susanna Clark managed to take the best of both and avoid the weaknesses.

As a book concerning magic in England, it’s as good as any non-magician could come to capturing the true events regarding the thistle-haired gentleman and the two most famous english magicians of our age. With an abundance of footnotes, a number of drawings, and a constant stream of references to other magical documentation, manages to create and sustain a sense of verisimilitude. A book of 800 pages is likely to either build up too slowly or die our too quickly. Susanna Clark has managed, through an endlessly expansive imagination, to bring the reader from Portugal to Italy, to England to Faerie, without dropping a step. It’s an entertaining row from beginning to end. As the Washington Post reviewed: Many books are to be read, some are to be studied, and a few are meant to be lived in for weeks. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is of this last kind…

The length is admittedly intimidating, but Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a thoroughly engaging work and well worth the read. I’d like to think that Harry Potter and Tolkein have provided a certain legitimacy to fantasy works that will allow books like this one, fantasy but mature, to become mainstream and appreciated. If the works produced continue to mirror the quality of this one, that may likely come true.

The author’s site about the book can found here. Make sure to read the biographies!

Today, a short book review: Mother Tongue: english and how it got to be that way.

I don’t happen to have my copy with me anymore. It was lent out and remains in a permanent state of being traded amongst friends, but I wanted to review it as we get closer and closer to Black Friday, (*shiver*) since it’d make a phenomenal gift (Just don’t loan it!).

As a style guide it doesn’t fill a niche. As an academic research into linguistics it’s far too light. As a makeshift thesaurus it falls a bit flat and it has nothing of a dictionary to it. Instead, Mother Tongue takes the careful road of linguistic travelogue. It’s a fast-paced and flighty journey through the strange nuances of the English language. Most of all it’s fun. English is a terribly neurotic language, but it’s a joyous fellow and appreciates the attention.

Neither a classic, nor heavy non-fiction, nor one of the thousands of books of new fiction coming out, Mother Tongue fills an interesting little place that all writers really should look into (and everyone else as well). There are chapters are interesting word etymologies, swearing and its endless variety, curious changes in spelling, and generous addition of language lore and rumor.

I’ll let Amazon’s review fill in the specifics that I can’t recall well enough to attempt, but The Mother Tongue is well worth looking for!