The Scarlet Pimpernel is perhaps the prototypical swashbuckling novel written in the English language. The writing is clearly from a different era, but I had no troubles with it. Characterization- eh. Everyone French is evil. Everyone English is good. Everyone female is cowardly. Everyone with a title is heroic.

Also, it started as a stage play, and the book has the particular tics of a play converted to a novel. A few locations, none of which is very interesting. Travel between locations is essentially instant. A small number of characters, that are very broadly drawn.

If your leader was famous as a master of disguise, how long would you really keep getting surprised when he turns up... in disguise? I mean, really. Sure, the disguise might fool you... but there's no excuse for being shocked at the very idea that he was wearing a disguise, when it's the third time it happened in a week.

Also, the heroine is frequently (and at great length) described as being the most beautiful woman in England, and the most clever and witty woman in Europe. *cough*Mary Sue*cough*. She's an total idiot. So apparently Europian women were once so stupid as to need frequent reminders to continue breathing.

Overall, the book gets a "Meh."

A particular brief exchange from the book did bring to mind some philosophy. At one point, Our Frequently Sniveling Heroine is with the Assistant Hero, and they know that across town is the Evil Bad Guy, who was written to provoke audiences to throw fruit. If he's not strangling puppies, it's only because he's too busy eating babies. The following exchange happens:

"Then Chauvelin is still in Dover?" [Chauvelin is the EBG.]

"Undoubtedly. Shall I go waylay him and run my sword through him? That were indeed the quickest way out of the dilemma."

"Nay! Sir Andrew, do not jest! Alas! I have often since last night caught myself wishing for that fiend's death. But what you suggest is impossible! The laws of this country do not permit of murder! It is only in our beautiful France that the wholesale slaughters is done lawfully, in the name of Liberty and of brotherly love."

The point being, I disagree with the sentiment given. The heros are already engaging in widespread violations of law, what with the whole sneaking around France and rescuing people that are standing trial for crimes. So it's not the law that concerns our frequently-idiotic heroine, it's the principle of killing. This is probably not a surprise to read coming from a member of the military, but I do belive that killing is the correct thing to do to some people. Most especially to people that intend to harm others, as the Evil Bad Guy has done and cheerfully admits that he will do again.

Interestingly, I don't support the death penalty, a position that some people think inconsistant with my professional responsibilities that include stabbing my fellow humans with a bayonet until they become ex-humans. But I have two problems with the death penalty at law.

First, it's no deterrent. People that commit crimes that are punished by execution, do not expect to get caught, so no level of punishment is a factor in their calculations.

Second, application of the criminal justice system in the US (and everywhere else I've ever head of) is quite haphazard. I do not wish to have the innocent killed and the guilty go free.

Wow, did this book review go off-track!

Posted by: Boviate at 09:01 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The Knight and The Wizard, by Gene Wolfe, are the most approachable novels of Mr. Wolfe that I've read. Wolfe is perhaps the best English-language writer alive, and that he writes in the SF and fantasy genres is even more astonishing.

One can always identify Wolfe's writing by his use of the unreliable narrator. His books are stories told by their protagonists, and it's up to the reader to puzzle out who is truthful, who is lying, and when things are what they appear and when they are not. His masterwork, The Book of the New Sun, is tremdously difficult to interpret, and I've seen no less than five other books written by critics to untangle the mysteries of plot and character therein.

The Wizard Knight (published in two volumes) is much simpler, because it's set in a simpler world. It's the world of heroic legend, of Arthurian knights, of Norse gods. Our hero is an American high-schooler from the 1950s transported to a fantastic realm. He falls in love with the Queen of the Moss Elves, and becomes a knight to become worthy of her hand. As the story progresses, he loses some of his naivete and innocence, but his intellegence and cunning are always dedicated to his one overwhelming goal- to live with his one true love.

When I say it is simple, I mean two different things by that. First, the writing style is somewhat less ornate than Wolfe is know for, especially at first. Second, less has to be puzzled out than in many of Wolfe's other works, because this is an epistolary novel, and so the protagonist directly explains important details. Several mysteries are still left to the reader, of course, and although none has been announced, there was room left for a sequel. That too is typical of Wolfe; just because a book ends, doesn't mean that the characters have nothing left to do.

In summary: highly recommended, even to those who may have been intimidated by Wolfe's earlier novels.

Posted by: Boviate at 11:23 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The Draco Tavern is a collection of short stories by Larry Niven, about the most versitile bar on Earth. You see, aliens land in Siberia around 2010-ish, and if there's anything a traveller getting to port needs, it's a stiff drink. Or a stiff jolt of electricity. Or a shot of thorium dust. Lots of different aliens come through, all with their own desires. Thus the Draco Tavern, with a score of airlocks and two score of restrooms.

Presiding at the bar, and narrarating all the tales, is Rick Shumann. Like most bartenders, he's got a couple of PhDs, a willingness to listen, and the knowledge to talk only when it seems necessary.

The stories are Niven's way of using aliens to provide an outside perspective on current events, political controversies, and philosophical questions. What is the purpose of life? Where's the dark matter? What constitues justice? Of course, it's not all heavy. I think there's a rule for members of the SFWA that if you use a SF bar as a setting, it must contain at least 15% shaggy dog stories. On that front, Niven doesn't disappoint.

These stories are quite typical Niven, with both the good and the bad. Aliens are creativly alien, with strange ecology and thought processes. But no variation is visible within any species other than humanity. Surely he's aware of the criticism, so he makes a joke of the two most common visitors being a hive mind, and a race where every adult member is physically identical.

In summary, if you like Niven, you'll like this book. If you're not familiar with Niven, give it a try.

Posted by: Boviate at 08:18 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I've been wanting the movie Six-String Samurai since I was in college. I'd been told I was pretty much the target market.

Having watched it, I wish it wasn't such a ripoff of other movies. I mean, how many times have we seen this? Buddy Holly wielding a katana, travelling across the post-apocalypic wilderness of Nevada, going to Lost Vegas to replace the dead Elvis as King. Along the way, his steps are haunted by Death aka Slash from Guns N' Roses, who wants to be King, and also seeks to prove the dominance of heavy metal over guitar rock. As I said, it's not like this movie hasn't been done a million times.

This was an indie movie with a $2 million budget, and was quite competently made. The fight choreography was good, although I was offended that only Japanese styles got to shine; the only guy that did kung-fu was presented as a buffoon. The star was an experienced hand in Hong Kong action movies; this was supposed to be his breakout American role, but it didn't quite work out for him. Which is a pity, because he's quite good.

So: I recommend this for people that like humor and/or martial arts movies. Raul, Cheryl, and Tim, that means you. My mom should probably not bother.

Posted by: Boviate at 12:03 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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My Gunny is a bicycling nut, and his latest care package included the novel The Rider, by Tim Krabbé, a Dutchman. It was translated by Sam Garrett.

 Krabbé is an avid cyclist, and in the book he projects himself as a top-level amatuer in a race. The short novel (150 pages) is the story of a race, and his musings as it progresses. There are no chapters; the internal divisions are the distances travelled, e.g. "Kilometer 89-92". Also, there are flashbacks to earlier in his career and his childhood.

The writing style is brisk and to the point, perhaps a legacy of Krabbé's journalistic experience. It read a little bit like Hemingway to me, although it's always hard to say how much that was the translator's hand.

I'm not an endurance athelete, but I practiced painful sports, and it rang true. Racing is way of pushing the body, proving the strength of your will.

Krabbé also makes a number of comparisons to chess playing; a little research shows that he was a decent player, and a specialist in creating joke chess problems. Everyone else in the shop just rolled their eyes when I tried to explain why castling vertically was funny.

So, in summary: Der Renner by Tim Krabbé is a quick and worthwhile read.

Posted by: Boviate at 09:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I just read Charles Sheffields's The Amazing Doctor Darwin. It's a collection of his short stories featuring Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin.

I am now looking for a biography of this man, who fame has been overshadowed by his grandson. He was accounted as England's finest medical doctor, who advocated scientific medicine. He organized the translation of Carolus Linneus's taxonomy into English. He was a co-founder of the Lunar Society, a club of English gentlemen that would create the Industrial Revolution and play a leading role in science. (Members included Joseph Priestly, Josiah Wedgewood, and James Watt.)

Sheffield, a well-respected author of hard science fiction, uses Darwin as a Sherlock Holmes. He is called upon for medical problems of supernatural aspect, and discovers the truths behind them. All are solved with science that was just becoming known at the time: Joseph Priestly, for instance, was a member of the Lunar Society, so Doctor Darwin has reason to know of "dephlogistinated air" (carbon dioxide) and it's effects. That sort of thing.

Of course, no homage to Sherlock Holes is complete without a Watson, and so Sheffield attaches Colonel Poole as a neighbor and friend to Darwin. The real Darwin was friends with such a man, but Sheffield admits taking entirely unwarrented liberties with their association. Such are the demands of fiction.

In general, I liked these stories. I think Sheffield wanted to show a more believeable Sherlock Holmes. Darwin deduces much from a stranger upon first meeting, but his perceptions seem much more reasonable: he looks as a master diagnostician, and thus sees signs of consumtion, heart disease, childhood rickets, chronic malaria, that sort of thing. None of the "Red mud on your boots and purple wool gloves means you took the 4:14 Express which means you live in the town of Obscure, Anglia", which annoyed me about Holmes. Darwin is a genius in these stories, but a believable one.

Which is a good thing, as he was a genius in life.

Posted by: Boviate at 07:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm still new at blogging, and rather than take the easy road and go to Livejounal or Blogger, I went with Pixy Misa's created solution.
Pixy doesn't have the resources of the big companies, and it shows: no premade pretty templates. But I like that; I started writing web pages with a text editor back when the Earth was still cooling, and I'm enjoying getting back to that. If I want this blog to look "cool", then I'd better do the coding necessary to coolify it!

And coolify is now a word, because I said it was.

So anyway, Mee.nu is still a little rough around the edges, but I like it that way, because I can get under the hood a little and make it work exactly the way I'd like it.

Posted by: Boviate at 07:33 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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