Relentless Inquiry

Yes, I've been catching up from overwork by reading too much. It all averages out. Eventually. We'll see how long the 'post a review' meme lasts.

Primary Inversion, Catherine Asaro The first novel she wrote about the Skolian Empire. I am becoming more attuned to first-novel-itis, and while it is excellent in many respects, I prefer her later work. Asaro has gotten a lot of justifiable praise for being a hard-science SF writer (she's a physicist in RL), but if I'd started with this book, I might not have really given a darn about the characters. It's very clear that she had scads and scads of backstory in her head when she wrote it, stuff that later got expanded into other novels. Since I started reading the series with 'Schism', describing Soz Valdoria's childhood and family on her homeworld, I was familiar enough with the character to be interested in her already. Other folks who flitted in and out, such as Kurj the Imperator, Roca (Soz's mom), etc, were also already familiar. Otherwise I'd have had a quite different reaction to the novel. That said, I still strongly recommend the series– but I also strongly recommend that you try to read them in story-chronological order rather than authorship-chronological order.

Sanctuary, Mercedes Lackey Well, heck. Even for the genre, I thought this was formulaic, and I generally find ML to be handy brain candy for tired times. I'm starting to wonder if her stated ambition to have as many or more books in print than Asimov before she quits might be impacting the quality of her work. Maybe it's really aimed at the teen/tween audience. The previous books, “Joust” and “Alta” were moderately engaging, but I had to keep myself awake to finish this one. The plot moved in pretty predictable ways, the confrontations between various forces seemed staged, etc etc. I think I'd say 'skip the whole series unless you're besotted with anything about dragons'. There are hints that ML herself might have been feeling a tad cynical about this, and/or acknowledging explicitly the somewhat derivative nature of the work (hey, it's based on a videogame, right? Remember Joust?). The one that jumped out at me was where a character is thinking about an upcoming rescue that will be tricky and require several trips by the dragon group ('wing', of course). He thinks how wonderful it would be if all the missing dragon groups could somehow appear and participate in this vital rescue, but then realizes the idea is ridiculous, “because dragons cannot go forward or backward in time, of course.” Snicker!

Knife of Dreams, Robert Jordan (11th in Wheel of Time series) We're starting to see hints of an endgame, FINALLY. If I'd realized the book was coming out, I would have re-read one or more of the previous volumes, since the number of names and plots to track seems to keep increasing. I had trouble remembering who some of the continuing characters were and had to piece it together from context! There seems to be less time spent on whining by certain characters (Elayne, especially) and more time doing, and that's a nice change from “Crossroads of Twilight”. There's not a lot I can say without spoilers, but the situation in the White Tower is definitely coming to a head, and Egwene's time with the Aiel seems to have been really good preparation for it. Speaking of the Aiel, I should go ping the WoT FAQ. I was in Bookbuyer's in downtown View the other night and saw a book on the Zulu wars titled 'Wash the Spears'. There were some references in it that made me think the Aiel might be heavily patterned on the Zulu, something I hadn't considered. I'd never spent much time wondering if they had RL antecedents, in fact, so seeing 'Wash the Spears' on a book title made me sit up and take notice.

Seems pretty clear to me that despite Min's fears about Availa, who is supposed to “help Rand die”, that what's likely to happen is that LTT will finally be nuked out of Rand's head. That would fulfill the prophecy of “he shall die and live”. I'll be very surprised if something different happens– and LTT isn't such a great guy, so getting him out of Rand's head would be a good thing. 🙂

Definitely looking forward to finding out more about the Aelfinn and Eelfinn, and Matt's upcoming confrontation with them. The whole 'Snakes and Foxes' thing is greatly interesting to me. Also really enjoying the interactions between Matt and Tuon, especially when she realizes that he isn't really a 'Toy' after all. I think Matt is the most interesting character in the series, actually, followed closely by Egwene. Of the 'hicks' that started out from Edmond's Field, the two of them have undergone the most change and maturity. Perrin and Aviendha are close seconds. Aviendha was more informed and well-travelled than Egwene, but she was sufficiently closed-minded as to any validity about life outside her paradigm that she qualifies as a 'hick' in this context. Not anymore, though.

I think Nynaeve has changed the least of any of them, and hasn't turned out to be as strong a character as I'd hoped. She is strong in the sense of doing what has to be done and rising to the occasion, but she seems to be more flawed than some of the other women, with more self-deception and making headstrong mistakes. At least, in earlier books– in this one, she's letting Lan go back to Malkier; but she's also tricking him in the process, and going ahead to rally support. Which is understandable since she loves him, but still is about manipulation rather than trust. Anyway.

BTW, I think Jordan completely wussed out on handling Faile's rescue, and the resolution between Faile, Perrin, and the Aiel guy who was courting her. I was more than slightly shocked at how that turned out, and at how Faile handled it. OK, it was a split-second situation, but I can't believe it had so little effect on her. I'm kinda grouchy about that, and prepared to not like her as much as before unless she does some serious soul-searching in the next book. 😦