Title: The Winds of Marble Arch (Personal Correspondence and Travel Guides)
Author: Connie Willis
Pub Date: 2007
Genre: Science Fiction; Short Stories
Nutshell: The second and third sets of short stories in the collection.
Each of these sections had two stories, so I combined them.
First, Personal Correspondence, which is comprised of "A Letter from the Clearys" and "Newsletter." Second, Travel Guides, which includes "Fire Watch" and "Nonstop to Portales."
"A Letter from the Clearys": Another teenage girl as narrator, this time in a post-apocalyptic future living somewhere around Pike's Peak. It centers around a trip to the post office and the letter she retrieves there.
"Newsletter": A humorous one, wherein people start acting entirely too nice around Christmas, and of course, there has to be something wrong.
"Fire Watch": This is a prequel to the Time Travel series, where some of the ins-and-outs of the program are detailed. It takes place in London, 1940, during the Blitz, which is also where the last two books also occur. The main characters from Doomsday Book are present, and Kivrin's trip to the Middle Ages may have already happened.
"Nonstop to Portales": An ode to sci-fi author Jack Williamson.
I enjoyed "Fire Watch," but I'm not nearly as interested in the Blitz as Willis obviously is, so it always takes a bit of effort to get through those. "Newsletter" was funny, and was probably my favorite so far.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
The Winds of Marble Arch: Weather Reports
Title: The Winds of Marble Arch (Weather Reports)
Author: Connie Willis
Pub Date: 2007
Genre: Science Fiction; Short Stories
Nutshell: The first set of stories in the collection, all having something to do with weather or natural phenomenon.
This collection is entirely too long to only count as one book, so I'm taking each chapter heading and reviewing that. Each section is about 100 pages or so, so I think it should be kosher. If I hit two short sections, I'll put them together.
This first set consisted of four stories: "The Winds of Marble Arch," "Blued Moon," "Just Like the Ones We Used to Know," and "Daisy, in the Sun." I'm not entirely sure which was my favorite. I liked the idea of the first story, wherein the main character keeps smelling these awful winds in certain Underground stations, but the ending was a mite twee. The last story definitely stuck with me the most, even though it was probably the weirdest. But in order:
"The Winds of Marble Arch": As stated above. The narrator gets hit by these awful blasts of wind that smell like death and burning and all sorts of unpleasantness in certain stations on the London Underground. His attempts to work out what's causing them form the main narrative.
"Blued Moon": A funny one. It's mainly a riff on language and business speak, but also about luck and serendipity.
"Just Like the Ones We Used to Know": A mysterious winter storm system hits on Christmas Eve. Sweet, in the holiday spirit.
"Daisy, in the Sun": Teenage narrator Daisy is trapped in some kind of dream or hallucination where everything is cold and her surroundings keep changing. A mysterious boy whose full name she can't remember may have the answers.
Four stories in very different styles. I liked them all, but I'm not sure if any of them was a major standout. On to the next few.
Author: Connie Willis
Pub Date: 2007
Genre: Science Fiction; Short Stories
Nutshell: The first set of stories in the collection, all having something to do with weather or natural phenomenon.
This collection is entirely too long to only count as one book, so I'm taking each chapter heading and reviewing that. Each section is about 100 pages or so, so I think it should be kosher. If I hit two short sections, I'll put them together.
This first set consisted of four stories: "The Winds of Marble Arch," "Blued Moon," "Just Like the Ones We Used to Know," and "Daisy, in the Sun." I'm not entirely sure which was my favorite. I liked the idea of the first story, wherein the main character keeps smelling these awful winds in certain Underground stations, but the ending was a mite twee. The last story definitely stuck with me the most, even though it was probably the weirdest. But in order:
"The Winds of Marble Arch": As stated above. The narrator gets hit by these awful blasts of wind that smell like death and burning and all sorts of unpleasantness in certain stations on the London Underground. His attempts to work out what's causing them form the main narrative.
"Blued Moon": A funny one. It's mainly a riff on language and business speak, but also about luck and serendipity.
"Just Like the Ones We Used to Know": A mysterious winter storm system hits on Christmas Eve. Sweet, in the holiday spirit.
"Daisy, in the Sun": Teenage narrator Daisy is trapped in some kind of dream or hallucination where everything is cold and her surroundings keep changing. A mysterious boy whose full name she can't remember may have the answers.
Four stories in very different styles. I liked them all, but I'm not sure if any of them was a major standout. On to the next few.
Friday, April 18, 2014
Doomsday Book
Title: Doomsday Book
Author: Connie Willis
Pub Date: 1992
Genre: Science Fiction; History
Nutshell: Part 1 of The Oxford Time Travel Series. A college student travels back to the Middle Ages and problems ensue both in the past and the present.
I appear to be on a roll, finally. I was beginning to think I'd forgotten how to read a book through.
This is, as stated, the first in a five-part series by Connie Willis. The present is 2054, and we have discovered time travel. The University of Oxford history department has taken full advantage of the discovery, and uses drops to research events in the past. Undergraduate Kivrin Engle volunteers to travel to 1320 in order to research the Middle Ages, over the loud objections of professor James Dunworthy, who is convinced that a young woman travelling alone in the 14th century will never survive long enough to return to the present. Kivrin manages to go, and lots of things happen after that point, both in 14th century England and in present-day Oxford.
I read this in about two days. I had profound trouble putting it down and going to bed like a normal person. Now, granted. I am a massive history nerd, and my main area of nerdery is Middle Ages England. It also intersects with another of my bizarre interests, which is historical epidemiology. So obviously, I was geared to love this book, and I did. Willis' writing, as usual, is fast-paced, with an engaging plot and well-written characters. As with the last novel of hers I read, To Say Nothing of the Dog, there were a few dead spots and places where I wanted to skip ahead and get back to the story. Some of her characters are stronger than others, and there's always at least one apparently that makes you want to scream, because no one can be that idiotic.
But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, the subject matter, the story, the characters... Willis obviously did her research into the Middle Ages, and really did a wonderful job of making the 14th century very real and interesting. She doesn't fall into a very common historical fiction trap of making medieval characters think modern thoughts. Kivrin is an excellent conduit between the two times, and serves as a really interesting counterpoint to the people she encounters in the past. She acts much the same as I might, if you stuck me back there. I think that her story was the more interesting of the plot lines. Some of what happens in the present day is certainly interesting and serves to drive the plot, but some of it is overdone and gets a bit tedious. Maybe that's the point, though. But the 14th century parts were definitely my favorite, and overall had the stronger story and writing and character development.
I would say that fans of sci fi or fans of historical fiction would like this book. It's not limited to one audience at all. It's solidly done on both fronts and worth a read, if you're into the subject matter at all.
Author: Connie Willis
Pub Date: 1992
Genre: Science Fiction; History
Nutshell: Part 1 of The Oxford Time Travel Series. A college student travels back to the Middle Ages and problems ensue both in the past and the present.
I appear to be on a roll, finally. I was beginning to think I'd forgotten how to read a book through.
This is, as stated, the first in a five-part series by Connie Willis. The present is 2054, and we have discovered time travel. The University of Oxford history department has taken full advantage of the discovery, and uses drops to research events in the past. Undergraduate Kivrin Engle volunteers to travel to 1320 in order to research the Middle Ages, over the loud objections of professor James Dunworthy, who is convinced that a young woman travelling alone in the 14th century will never survive long enough to return to the present. Kivrin manages to go, and lots of things happen after that point, both in 14th century England and in present-day Oxford.
I read this in about two days. I had profound trouble putting it down and going to bed like a normal person. Now, granted. I am a massive history nerd, and my main area of nerdery is Middle Ages England. It also intersects with another of my bizarre interests, which is historical epidemiology. So obviously, I was geared to love this book, and I did. Willis' writing, as usual, is fast-paced, with an engaging plot and well-written characters. As with the last novel of hers I read, To Say Nothing of the Dog, there were a few dead spots and places where I wanted to skip ahead and get back to the story. Some of her characters are stronger than others, and there's always at least one apparently that makes you want to scream, because no one can be that idiotic.
But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, the subject matter, the story, the characters... Willis obviously did her research into the Middle Ages, and really did a wonderful job of making the 14th century very real and interesting. She doesn't fall into a very common historical fiction trap of making medieval characters think modern thoughts. Kivrin is an excellent conduit between the two times, and serves as a really interesting counterpoint to the people she encounters in the past. She acts much the same as I might, if you stuck me back there. I think that her story was the more interesting of the plot lines. Some of what happens in the present day is certainly interesting and serves to drive the plot, but some of it is overdone and gets a bit tedious. Maybe that's the point, though. But the 14th century parts were definitely my favorite, and overall had the stronger story and writing and character development.
I would say that fans of sci fi or fans of historical fiction would like this book. It's not limited to one audience at all. It's solidly done on both fronts and worth a read, if you're into the subject matter at all.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Inside Job
Title: Inside Job
Author: Connie Willis
Pub Date: 2005
Genre: Science Fiction, Novella
Nutshell: A confirmed skeptic investigates a channeler who may be more real than either of them realize
Finally, I finished something!
I read a Connie Willis novel last year, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and rather enjoyed it. It was the second in a series, but she wrote well enough and explained things so that I didn't feel like I was missing too much by not having read the first. I mean to go back to the rest of the series some time, maybe for this project.
This particular work is a novella, right at 99 pages. It has nothing to do with time travel, but it has plenty to do with history and science fiction. As usual, Willis's writing flows pretty well, and with a work this short you don't get the dead spots that happened a few times with the longer novel. It might have ended a bit twee for my taste, but it was enjoyable and a thoroughly easy and pleasant read, which I needed after my recent slogs through books about cancer and Puritans.
You don't have to be hardcore into science fiction to enjoy this, as long as you can maintain a fair suspension of disbelief. There's nothing about space or aliens or any kind of technobabble--just a benignly geeky fascination with a certain author (you'll see). I'd recommend it to anybody wanting a quick diversion that's well-written and amusing.
Author: Connie Willis
Pub Date: 2005
Genre: Science Fiction, Novella
Nutshell: A confirmed skeptic investigates a channeler who may be more real than either of them realize
Finally, I finished something!
I read a Connie Willis novel last year, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and rather enjoyed it. It was the second in a series, but she wrote well enough and explained things so that I didn't feel like I was missing too much by not having read the first. I mean to go back to the rest of the series some time, maybe for this project.
This particular work is a novella, right at 99 pages. It has nothing to do with time travel, but it has plenty to do with history and science fiction. As usual, Willis's writing flows pretty well, and with a work this short you don't get the dead spots that happened a few times with the longer novel. It might have ended a bit twee for my taste, but it was enjoyable and a thoroughly easy and pleasant read, which I needed after my recent slogs through books about cancer and Puritans.
You don't have to be hardcore into science fiction to enjoy this, as long as you can maintain a fair suspension of disbelief. There's nothing about space or aliens or any kind of technobabble--just a benignly geeky fascination with a certain author (you'll see). I'd recommend it to anybody wanting a quick diversion that's well-written and amusing.
Gah
I've been having a time, I can tell you. I can't seem to find a book to finish since the last one, which I don't even remember offhand. Oh, the Jane Austen. Since then, I've taken a stab at a couple cancer books (still hanging on to The Emperor of All Maladies, but it's thick), ghosts, Puritans, and some fiction, but nothing has much taken. I've gotten a bit of the way through The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, and it's not bad, but it's going to need to pick up a bit if I'm going to get anywhere.
Back to the library again today, this time for some more sci fi. I have a Connie Willis anthology and short novel to find and I'm also going to take a run at Asimov's Foundation trilogy. I just need something with enough of a plot (and no dog deaths) to keep me interested enough to finish. I can't make myself slog through things like I used to when there was a grade on the line, I guess.
Back to the library again today, this time for some more sci fi. I have a Connie Willis anthology and short novel to find and I'm also going to take a run at Asimov's Foundation trilogy. I just need something with enough of a plot (and no dog deaths) to keep me interested enough to finish. I can't make myself slog through things like I used to when there was a grade on the line, I guess.
Monday, April 7, 2014
A Jane Austen Education
Title: A Jane Austen Education
Author: William Deresiewicz
Pub Date: 2011
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Nutshell: A young man learns that some of life's most important lessons can be found in the works of Jane Austen
I picked this up on a whim while wandering the college library and read it in one afternoon. It's a small book, with a chapter devoted to Jane Austen's six major novels: Emma, Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Sense & Sensibility. A hardcore modernist, Deresiewicz encounters Jane in graduate school and comes to realize that many of the lessons he most needs to learn in life are present in these supposedly "girly" and "inconsequential" works of fiction. Of course, loves of Jane Austen don't necessarily need to be told this, but many Austenites are females and so it's interesting to hear a guy's perception of what these books mean.
Probably it's a bit too neat to boil each novel down to one overarching life lesson. I don't necessarily think that Austen was trying to have a moral to every story--she was writing in part to help pay the bills, after all, and if she had wanted to be moralizing she certainly could have been heavier with it. Such was the age. But this is a critique of English lit after all, and I at least enjoyed his interpretations more than the overheated analytic hoo-ha I myself had to endure during my own graduate school experience.
There are no great revelations in this book to my mind, but it was at least an interesting insight into Austen and what one guy feels she was trying to get at with her work. Deresiewicz himself comes across as fairly likable, naive, young, willing to learn in the end. If the life events that coincide with the books are maybe a bit too on-the-nose for my liking, that certainly isn't an argument that they didn't happen, or that the way he tells his narrative isn't effective. This isn't just a book for Austenites -- it's almost a self-help personal growth sort of book, about becoming an adult in a world where many of us have a great deal of trouble ever figuring out how to grow up.
Author: William Deresiewicz
Pub Date: 2011
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Nutshell: A young man learns that some of life's most important lessons can be found in the works of Jane Austen
I picked this up on a whim while wandering the college library and read it in one afternoon. It's a small book, with a chapter devoted to Jane Austen's six major novels: Emma, Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Sense & Sensibility. A hardcore modernist, Deresiewicz encounters Jane in graduate school and comes to realize that many of the lessons he most needs to learn in life are present in these supposedly "girly" and "inconsequential" works of fiction. Of course, loves of Jane Austen don't necessarily need to be told this, but many Austenites are females and so it's interesting to hear a guy's perception of what these books mean.
Probably it's a bit too neat to boil each novel down to one overarching life lesson. I don't necessarily think that Austen was trying to have a moral to every story--she was writing in part to help pay the bills, after all, and if she had wanted to be moralizing she certainly could have been heavier with it. Such was the age. But this is a critique of English lit after all, and I at least enjoyed his interpretations more than the overheated analytic hoo-ha I myself had to endure during my own graduate school experience.
There are no great revelations in this book to my mind, but it was at least an interesting insight into Austen and what one guy feels she was trying to get at with her work. Deresiewicz himself comes across as fairly likable, naive, young, willing to learn in the end. If the life events that coincide with the books are maybe a bit too on-the-nose for my liking, that certainly isn't an argument that they didn't happen, or that the way he tells his narrative isn't effective. This isn't just a book for Austenites -- it's almost a self-help personal growth sort of book, about becoming an adult in a world where many of us have a great deal of trouble ever figuring out how to grow up.
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