Minor Thoughts from me to you

Yesterday, Tor Books announced that they were going to go entirely DRM-free, by early July, 2012. This is huge news and I'm excited to hear it. "Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen."

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is the name for a software lock that publishers apply to movies and e-books that you've purchased. When something is "protected" by DRM, the publisher is protected from the risk that you'll copy it or use it in any way that they don't like.

DRM prohibits you from doing bad things, like distributing something to 1 million of your closest friends. It also prohibits you from doing good things, like copying your new DVD to your iPad or loading your Kindle e-book into your Barnes & Noble Nook.

It's worse than that though. It gives the publisher veto control over your devices—if you can't transfer your existing library to a new device, you'll be much less likely to buy it. With DRM, your e-books last only as long as the publisher does. If the publisher goes out of business (or leaves the market, as Wal-Mart did with digital music), you'll lose the ability to load your DRM files onto new devices. For the customer, there's absolutely nothing to like about a DRM lock.

With Tor's announcement, the e-book industry finally begins a move that I've been predicting for a couple of years now.

It's a move I've been predicting because of what I observed with digital music. In 2003, when the music publishers first made songs legally available through iTunes, they insisted that Apple wrap each track in a DRM lock. Their goal was to prevent widespread music piracy. Given the overwhelming popularity of the iPod, they succeeded in making Apple's store practically the only legal source of music for most customers.

For six years Apple gobbled up an increasing share of the music market. The music labels finally realized that their insistence on DRM was making them dangerously dependent on Apple. In January of 2009, the publishers agreed to let Apple—and other online retailers—sell music tracks without any DRM wrapper whatsoever.

For the first time, customers were able to legally buy digital music from Apple and play it on a non-Apple device. And, for the first time, Apple customers were able to legally buy digital music from Amazon and play it on their iPods. It took six years but the music labels finally realized that digital music without a DRM lock was better both for them and for their customers.

A similar situation has been playing out in the e-book market. Amazon was the first company to produce a mass-market e-book reader, introducing the Kindle in 2007. Publishers were slow to embrace the new platform but gradually began putting more of their catalog into Kindle format. As they released Kindle versions of each book, they insisted that Amazon wrap the e-books with a DRM lock.

The firs true competitor, the Nook from Barnes & Noble, wasn't introduced until 2009. At this point, digital music had already been DRM free for most of a year. E-books, however, were still DRM locked. As a result, Amazon was able to leverage their early start, large customer base, and solid hardware into a commanding market lead.

As Amazon grew, the publishers grew increasingly dependent on sales from Amazon. Each Kindle customer had a library that was locked to their Kindle device, through DRM. As long as those customers were locked to the Kindle hardware, they were also locked to the Kindle bookstore, making it hard to grow sales elsewhere. Amazon continued to grow Kindle and Kindle e-book sales, through aggressive pricing and discounting of e-books.

The publishers were aware of the trap that the music labels had fallen into with Apple. They were determined to avoid it but they were equally determined to ship e-books with DRM locks. The publishers decided to neuter some of Amazon's advantages by removing Amazon's ability to compete on price. In April, 2010 the publishers forced Amazon to purchase e-books through an "agency model". Amazon would no longer be free to price e-books as it saw fit. Instead, the publisher would set the price and Amazon would get to keep a flat 30% fee.

From now on, e-books would be priced at $7.99, $9.99, $12.99, $14.99, $16.99, or even $19.99, as the publisher dictated. These prices would apply identically across all stores (Apple iBooks, B&N; Nook, Amazon Kindle). The publishers hoped that by removing Amazon's price advantages, they could entice customers into other stores and prevent Amazon from gaining an effective monopoly over the e-book market.

It was an interesting tactic but one that I didn't expect to succeed, long term. Eventually one publisher would undercut another and the lock step pricing would fall apart. I continued to predict that publishers would eventually be forced to remove their DRM locks, if they wanted to have an open market with lots of sellers.

The agency model gambit hung together for 2 years and largely worked, until the publishers got sued. On April 12, the Department of Justice sued five publishers, under anti-trust law, alleging a conspiracy to fix prices. The DoJ sued HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Macmillan, and Penguin. All but Macmillan and Penguin immediately settled and agreed to stop using the agency model.

Macmillan, one of the two holdouts, is the parent to Tor Books. Tor publishes science fiction books. These books are written and purchased by tech-savvy people. Both groups have been begging for DRM free e-books for years. Tor has wanted to oblige them, but Macmillan has always set the rules and Macmillan has always said no.

Yesterday, watching the agency model go down in flames, Macmillan apparently relented, and Tor announced that, by early July, their entire catalog would be available DRM free. They'll continue to sell e-books through Amazon and B&N; but those e-books will now be DRM free. In addition, Tor will look to expand their reach by selling through additional retailers. (Until now, those other retailers have been off-limits because they only sell DRM free e-books.)

This policy shift will open up new opportunities for Tor. Because I believe it signals the beginning of an industry wide shift, it will also open up new opportunities for customers as well. No longer will you be locked into one e-book reader or one e-book store. You'll have the freedom to buy e-books from any store and read them on any reader. You'll have the freedom to switch readers, without needing the publishers to approve of your new device. You'll have the freedom to loan the e-book to a friend, without that friend needing to use the same device as you.

I'm excited about the shift and I'm excited about what it means for the future growth of the e-book industry.

Now, when is the movie industry going to finally going to catch up and quit putting DRM locks all over their DVD and Blu-Ray discs? Are we going to have to wait another 3 years for that shift to occur? Or another 10?

In which Pat Rothfuss does an interview with Mary Robinette Kowal and I learn a new word: eremitic. Also, I become even more interested in reading Ms. Kowal's two novels: Shades of Milk and Honey and Glamour in Glass.

∞

Caro began “The Years of Lyndon Johnson,” his multivolume biography of the 36th president, in 1976, not long after finishing “The Power Broker,” his immense, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Moses, and figured he could do Johnson’s life in three volumes, which would take him six years or so. Next month, a fourth installment, “The Passage of Power,” will appear 10 years after the last, “Master of the Senate,” which came out 12 years after its predecessor, “Means of Ascent,” which in turn was published 8 years after the first book, “The Path to Power.” These are not ordinary-size volumes, either. “Means of Ascent,” at 500 pages or so, is the comparative shrimp of the bunch. “The Path to Power” is almost 900 pages long; “Master of the Senate” is close to 1,200, or nearly as long as the previous two combined. If you try to read or reread them all in just a couple weeks, as I foolishly did not long ago, you find yourself reluctant to put them down but also worried that your eyeballs may fall out.

That about sums up the books. This is from a New York Times Magazine profile of Robert Caro. He's a very interesting man and a tireless biographer. If he had another 50 years to live, I'd love to see who we'd profile next—and what we'd learn about them from him.

∞

Means of Ascent by Robert Caro

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: A Great Book

I loved the first volume of Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson, The Path to Power. I'd ever read a better biography. I've still never read a better one but I've now read one that's just as good.

This book really succeeds because it's essentially four stories in one book.

Chapters 1-5 are the story of Johnson's later years in Congress and what he did during World War II. (Johnson spent most of the war avoid danger and then flew into danger, literally, at the last minute in order to have some record to present to his increasingly restless constituents.) This first section of the book is crucial. It portrays the absolute desperation that Johnson felt both to get out of the House and to gain wealth.

I feel that this section of the book is the slowest and repeats the most information from The Path to Power. (Sometimes entire paragraphs are listed from the previous book.) Caro did this to remind the reader of crucial aspects of Johnson's character but, when reading the books back to bad, it really feels repetitive and slows the pace.

Chapter 6 is a terrific look at crony capitalism. This is where the book really begins to pick up, in my opinion. It's the story of how Lyndon Johnson acquired the KTBC radio station. He used the power of politics to turn a money-losing business into an insanely profitable business practically overnight. If you've ever wondered how crony capitalism works or how a politician can become wealthy just from "serving" in Congress, this is your chapter. After reading it, I don't think I'll ever look at the intersection of business and politics the same way again.

Chapter 8 is an utterly fascinating mini-biography of Coke Stevens, a forgotten figure in Texas politics. Prior to the 1948 Senate race, he was a living legend. During the race, Johnson and his partisans slimed him mercilessly. Today, he's remembered only as another reactionary conservative in a long-line of reactionary conservatives.

Robert Caro corrects the historical record and shows a man who lived an incredible life as a self-taught lawyer, accountant, architect, and rancher. He ran a one-man "freight line" when he was just 17, transporting goods in and out of the most inhospitable regions of Texas. He drove the horses during the day and taught himself law at night, by firelight. He scrimped and saved to buy his own books, always saving a a tiny amount for the ranch that he wanted to one day buy.

When he did finally start to buy land for his ranch, he did all of his own branding and shearing. He taught himself architecture so that he could build single handedly build his ranch house. He dug his own post holes and set his own fence posts. He nearly singlehandedly built the entire ranch, from the ground up.

He was a politician only reluctantly but was the most successful politician in Texas history. In his second gubernatorial election, he received 85 percent of the vote (the highest ever total in a contested Texas primary) and won all 254 Texas counties. "He was also the only man in the state's history who had held all three of the top political posts in state government: Speaker, Lieutenant Governor, Governor." And he served an unprecedented two consecutive terms as Speaker: the only man in Texas to ever succeed himself as Speaker.

This mini-biography alone is nearly worth the entire purchase of the entire book.

Chapters 9-16 chronicle the 1948 Senate election. Caro definitely investigates allegations that Johnson stole the election—and finds them to be true beyond a reasonable doubt. The fraud was breathtaking in both its sheer audacity and scope.

More than that though, he chronicles the entire election. Johnson, a mediocre vote getter, was running against Coke Stevenson, the most successful vote getter in Texas history. Johnson had very little hope of beating Stevenson in a fair fight. So, he did the only thing he could: he relentlessly slimed his opponent. He used an unlimited fund of money, coming from crony capitalists dependent on him, to blanket the radio airwaves, to cover newspapers, and to stuff voter mailboxes with dishonest rhetoric and accusations. It was the most rotten and contemptible form of campaigning imaginable and Caro reports on every aspect of it.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. It was a fascinating and enlightening look at modern American politics and a pivotal player in them.

The Peace War by Vernor Vinge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: A Great Book

In 1997, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory developed a device that could generate a persistent, spherical force field of arbitrary size and project it almost anywhere. The resulting "bobble" will completely cut off whatever is inside the field from the rest of the world. These scientists quickly act to use the bobble to encase nuclear weapons, military bases, cities, and governments. They declare themselves the Peace Authority and enforce peace by threatening to bobble anyone who rejects their authority.

The Peace War starts 51 years later, in 2048. The world has been at peace for as long as most people can remember. Not everyone is happy with the Peace Authority's limitations on technology and freedom. Small bands of Tinkers have been clandestinely developing new technologies, in an attempt to overcome the Peace. And the original inventor of the Bobbler is still alive, a Tinker himself, and working hard to defeat the scientists who took his invention and used it to enslave the world.

Vernor Vinge does exactly what a good SF author should do: he poses a new technology and examines how it might change the world, for good and bad. I liked his depictions of how American society would change after the last year and enforced peace. I liked his depictions of how technology would progress in the face of severe restrictions against innovation. And I liked his depictions of how an insurrection might work when facing an enemy that not only had superior firepower but also had the ability to completely take pieces off of the map.

This was a very imaginative book and a great example of what "hard science fiction" should be. I highly recommend it.

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: A Solid Follow-Up

This is the second book in Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" series. After the events of the first book, PI Harry Dresden has found it hard to drum up work. Actually, it's been impossible. The police don't trust him and the underworld isn't certain it wants to work with him. That's true up until dead bodies start showing up. Dead bodies that look suspiciously like the result of werewolf killings.

This was a pretty solid follow-up to Storm Front. The first book in the series dealt the magic side of the supernatural world. This book dealt with the hairier side of the supernatural world. It was well written but I didn't think that it had as much tongue-in-cheek humor as the first book. I missed that.

Butcher incorporated many different variants of the werewolf legends. It made for a more complex story, as it involved a mix of characters, each with different motives, abilities, and weaknesses. On the other hand, it made the story more complex and I'm not entirely sure that that was such a good thing.

Overall, this was a solid, but not a great, follow-up to Storm Front. Dresden remains interesting as a character and his relationships with the people around him continue to evolve. Ultimately, any story is about people and this story, whatever minor flaws it may have, succeeded in making me continue to care about Dresden and to cheer the progress he's making in his relationships.

One Jump Ahead by Mark L. Van Name

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: I Loved It

Take one jaded, burn-out mercenary. Jon Moore. Give him an AI-enhanced Predator-Class Assault Vehicle. Lobo. One desparate to live a quiet life, in an out of the way spot. The other itching to leave the quiet, out of the way spot and get back into action. Mix in some corporations eager to gain an edge and some corporate officials willing to lie and cheat to gain an edge. The end result is an angry mercenary with a lot of weaponry and a burning desire to both gain revenge and set things right.

All of that by itself would make a decent military novel. What makes this novel really stand out, and what makes it a great SF novel, is Mark L. Van Name's use of nanotechnology and biotechnology. Jon Moore is loaded with nanotechnology that he can use to break in, break down, or confuse. Van Name, knowingly or not, keeps Sanderson's Second Law in mind. The nanotech doesn't make Moore invincible or omnipotent. It merely gives him a different set of tools. He still has to use his ingenuity to survive and win.

Moore also uses various bioengineered animals to achieve his goals. As with the nanotech, these animals are impressive for what they can do as well as what they can't do. It's a close look at another technology that's currently beyond our grasp but close enough to be convincingly portrayed.

This book was very well written and Van Name revealed some impressive worldbuilding skills. I especially liked the planet name of "Pinkelplonker" (named by the 5-year old son of the captain that discovered the planet) and the jump system used to travel between worlds. I very much look forward to reading the rest of the novels in the series.

A Rising Thunder by David Weber

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: I Shouldn’t Have Bothered

This is the 13th book in David Weber's Honor Harrington series. When the series started, back in 1992, it was pretty easy to follow. Sequel followed sequel and each book picked up where the last left off. More recently, in 2002, Weber approved the creation of two sub-series. The result is that the plotline and scope of the "Honorverse" expanded dramatically

The first sub-series was "The Wages of Sin", starting with Crown of Slaves, which follows book #10, War of Honor. The second sub-series was "Saganami Island", starting with The Shadow of Saganami, chronologically following both book #10 War of Honor and Crown of Slaves.

Later mainline novels, such as At All Costs and Mission of Honor, incorporated elements of both sub-series. The plotline of the sub-series's increasingly started to drive the plotline and direction of the main series. This book, A Rising Thunder, is Weber's attempt to fully tie the main series into the elements and events of the two sub-serieses.

The resulting book is a bit of a boring train wreck. It does include characters and plot elements from both sub-series. What it doesn't include is a lot of action. Given that all 3 serieses are built around action, this is a glaring omission. Mostly what we get is a lot of talking, as officials in 3 or 4 locations talk about how recent events will affect future events. I remember one main battle, out of 464 pages. Given how action packed the previous books have been, this was a major letdown.

In some respects, a slow book was almost inevitable. Given how much things have changed over the last several books, there needed to be an attempt to tie everything together and then to re-launch the series in its new direction. But I feel that the relaunching could have been achieved with a greater economy of words and a bit more action.

Perhaps the most damning indictment I have is that most fans would be best served by reading a plot summary of this book rather than reading the book itself.

Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: It Was Okay

I download this book for free, several years, ago as part of a Tor.com giveaway. I read it then and enjoyed it. I was always interested in the sequels but never quite got around to tracking them down. (There are a few series that I read but I'm generally pretty bad about tracking down sequels.)

Recently, I was visiting a used bookstore in preparation for air travel. I saw both this book and it's sequel, Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart. I really wanted to just pick up the sequel, to read on the airplane. But I discovered that I really couldn't remember anything about the first book. So I bought both and had to start by rereading this one.

Jane Lindskold plays with one idea: a child raised by wolves. But, just for fun, don't make this a Jack London story about a child raised by wild wolves. This is, after all, a fantasy novel. No, these wolves are Royal Wolves. They are bigger and stronger than normal wolves. Most importantly, they're smarter. They have a shared culture and language and are at least as intelligent as humans, even if it is in a very wolfian manner. Make the girl be the keeper of fire, leading the wolves to call her Firekeeper. And give her a friend: a Royal Falcon named Elation. Also bigger, stronger, and smarter than your average falcon.

Now, bring Firekeeper back to the kingdom of Hawk Haven. King Tedric is elderly, without a clear heir. Earl Kestrel believes that Firekeeper is the king's heir. The court, predictably, disagrees. Now, add in tensions with the neighboring kingdom of Bright Bay. Mix all of these ingredients together, stir, and simmer for the length of one novel.

Overall, I think this recipe works. True, it was slow moving. There was a lot of talking, as a girl accustomed to wolf society needed to have human society explained to her. There was a lot of political maneuvering too. While some of that is based in action most of it is also based in talking. But, after all, this books is titled "through wolf's eyes". It was all about depicting the kingdom of Hawk Haven from the perspective of a non-human outsider.

Yes, it was slow moving. But the book was entertaining nonetheless. Now that I know how the story starts, I can read Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart to see what happens to Firekeeper next. I see that the series has expanded to 6 books. I don't know yet whether or not I'll read all of them. A lot depends on what I think of the next book. And none of us will know how that turns out until I take my next trip by air.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: It Was Okay

I'm definitely not the target market for this book. Not if my general level of enthusiasm means something, at any rate. Still, it was a good novel and it deserves it's wide audience and fan base.

If you've been paying any attention to pop-culture at all, then you're familiar with the broad outlines of this book. (But I'm going to recap anyway.)

In the far future, America is gone. Panem, a totalitarian nation, now occupies North America. Panem is divided into 13 Districts plus the Capital. Years before the story begins, the Districts tried to rebel against the Capital. They lost and District 13 was destroyed.

As a result of the loss, the remaining Districts were forced to sign a treaty of unconditional surrender. But that wasn't enough. In a show of force and strength, the Capital instituted "The Hunger Games". Each year, each District is forced to send 2 teenage contestants to compete in a bloody arena battle, to the death. The winning contestant wins a year's supply of food and medicine, for his or her District.

This year, 16-year old Katniss will compete in the Hunger Games.

It's an interesting idea: how will a bunch of teenagers, still trying to grow into maturity, handle being flung into a life or death situation and forced to survive? What decisions will they make? What emotions will they feel? What lengths will they go to survive? And, even if they survive, will any of their humanity with them?

It's not only an interesting idea, it's a well-written book. Katniss is a very vivid character. The story is told from her perspective. As a result, some of the characters start out rather flat and then, as she interacts with them and gets to know them, they develop increasing depth and humanity. The book is full of action (especially the second half, once the games begin) and the action is well described. It was a very fun, fast, read.

I didn't enjoy the book as much as I could have though. While Ms.. Collins created interesting characters and engaging action, she failed to create a fully develop the world of Panem. To give just one example, the Capital is located in Denver and District 12 is located in the mountains of Appalachia. District 12 is desperately poor and most of the people there live on the edge of starvation. That's part of why the games are called the "Hunger Games" and why winning is such a big deal.

Some of the other Districts are fabulously wealthy though and don't have to worry about food. Why? The book portrays the Capital as sucking up nearly 100% of District 12's resources. The book also portrays the Capital lifestyle as tremendously decadent and lavish. It would seem that it would suck up most of the resources of all of the other Districts too. So why are some wealthy and some poor? What makes the world of Panem go around?

There is very little about the world of Panem that is explained. Much of it doesn't make sense and the book seems to just rush through the world building. Everything related to Katniss is in sharp focus and a pleasure to read. Everything else is distinctly fuzzy and out of focus, even the things that should be basic, background, knowledge for Katniss. That's certainly the author's prerogative but it turns what could have been a great book into merely a good book.

Still, I'll probably read the next book in the series, just to see where things go next.

Book publishers are starting to see the light.

“If we believe that convenience reading is moving at light speed over to e,” Mr. Schnittman said, using the industry shorthand for e-books, “then we need to think about what the physical qualities of a book might be that makes someone stop and say, ‘well there’s convenience reading, and then there’s book owning and reading.’ We realized what we wanted to create was a value package that would last.”

Martha K. Levin, the executive vice president and publisher of Free Press, the imprint of Simon & Schuster that published “The Iliad,” said the presentation sent “the message that even if you’re buying 90 percent of your books on your e-reader, this is the one that you want to have on your bookshelf.”

Exactly. There are books that I just want to read---and then there are books that I want to treasure and display.

∞

Dune by Frank Herbert

My rating: 6 of 5 stars

Brian Herbert, on Dune.

Dune is a modern-day conglomeration of familiar myths, a tale in which great sandworms guard a precious treasure of melange, the geriatric spice that represents, among other things, the finite resource of oil. The planet Arrakis features immense, ferocious worms that are like dragons of lore, with “great teeth” and a “bellows breath of cinnamon.”

It’s hard to find something to say about Dune that hasn’t already been said. It raised for the bar for the entire genre of science fiction. It won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. It combined elements of ecology, politics, philosophy, history, evolution, religion, psychology, adventure, revenge, and more. It’s fantastically layered, lending itself to many different interpretations and explanations. It gave us a world complex enough, with a history rich enough to support 15 sequels, a movie, and 2 TV mini-series.

It can be a slow read at times, demanding close attention from the reader. Herbert introduces a dizzying array of characters, concepts, terms, languages, histories, and peoples. You are, in essence, dropped into a story already in progress and trusted to keep up as events unfold. But, in spite of its occasional flaws, it’s a worthwhile read. From start to finish, the book rewards the reader with an all-engaging universe.

If you have already read Dune, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you should probably give it a try. It’s a true classic of the genre for many very good reasons.

Glory Season by David Brin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: Loads of Fun

The best science fiction is, at its heart, speculative fiction. These books start with a single big idea—a single question—and develop it. The great books take that idea and develop it superbly. Glory Season is a great book. It starts with a single idea: what if humans could clone themselves when times are good and revert to sexual reproduction when times are bad and genetic diversity is at a premium?

David Brin explains how his idea developed, from that single root.

The idea of cloning has been explored widely in fiction, but always in terms of medical technology involving complex machinery, a dilettante obsession for the very rich. This may serve a pampered, self-obsessed class for a while, but it’s hardly a process any species could rely on over the long haul, through bad times as well as good. Not a way of life, machine-assisted cloning is the biosocial counterpart of a hobby.

What if, instead, self-cloning were just another of the many startling capabilities of the human womb? An interesting premise. But then, only female humans have wombs, so a contemplation of cloning became a novel about drastically altered relations between the sexes. Most aspects to the society of planet Stratos arose out of this one idea.

David Brin relentlessly develops this big idea, to see exactly where it takes him. He follows it through the sciences, to see where it takes him: biology, sociology, psychology, and more. By pursuing this idea so relentlessly, he constructs a society that is very alien to our own (uncomfortably so, in cases) but yet is still very recognizable.

Glory Season is a tale of a largely static society, where women hold the upper hand. Men are kept around primarily for their ability to "spark" clone births. It's a society largely dominated by extended clans of female clones. It's a society where being unique is very uncomfortable and where "var" is a derisive slur.

But David Brin didn't allow these big, well developed ideas to get in the way of telling a story. Glory Season is an adventure tale, a coming of age tale, and a tale of radicals seeking to remake society. It was both thought provoking and thoroughly entertaining. I highly recommend it.

Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) by Jim Butcher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: Loads of Fun

I ripped through this book in one day. In less than 12 hours, really. I loved it.

I have a real weakness for what I call “popcorn books”. These are books that can be appreciated much like a summer blockbuster movie can be appreciated: sit back, relax, grab a bag of popcorn, don’t think too hard, and just enjoy yourself. I love reading them whenever I’m too tired to appreciate an emotionally moving book or to learn from an educational book or when I just need a break from more serious fare.

Storm Front is a fantastic popcorn book. It’s the first-person narrative of Hard Dresden, warlock.

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

He’s a hard bitten, Chicago P.I., trying to stay on the right side of both the White Council (Wizard law) and the Chicago P.D. He’s usually successful, and usually down on his luck, until the day when everything starts happening at once…

This book is a cross between the hard boiled detective fiction of the early 1900’s and modern fantasy. It reminded me of reading Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler, crossed with a bit of the absurdist humor of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. The story was grimly dark and somewhat horrifying but told with a deft, light touch that made the experience more entertaining than depressing. Butcher peppers the story with fast-moving action pieces and witty asides that do a lot to move things along.

Highly recommended.

This book sounds really interesting. I may have to pick it up and give it a shot. Fortunately, it's only $7.99, on Kindle.

What does it mean to be human?

This was not the question I meant to ask when I set out to create the anthology, Human for a Day. But it is the question that was answered by my authors.

… What I came away with was a better sense of life bordered by death. By giving such a short timeline—one day—I required each author to tell a tale of birth, life, and death. Though the stories ranged from the far past to the far future and into worlds that never were but could have been, there was single thread of familiarity. There was a sense of wonder and emotion that was at the heart of it all.

In the end, I discovered that becoming human was an emotional thing rather than simply a biological one.

That is the big idea.

∞

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: It Was Okay

Since I've started reviewing books, I've been trying to force myself to review a book based on what it's meant to be rather than on what I wish it was. After all, that's the only way to be fair to the author. So it was with this book. I was hoping for a narrative of the life of Andrew Jackson. Instead, I got an analysis of the man and the times he lived in. I was annoyed at first but I forced myself to evaluate it fairly. I think I'm glad that I did.

The title of this book was deliberately chosen. Jackson was an orphan who felt alone much of his life. In reaction to that (as the book makes clear), he valued family highly and would go to any length to protect and defend family. For Jackson, the nation was but an extension of his own family. He loved his country and would go to any length (including invading Florida, risking war with France, evicting the Indian tribes, and suppressing free speech) to protect and defend it. He was very much the "American Lion", defending his pride.

Meacham’s intent with this book was not to exhaustively document Jackson’s life. Nor was it even to exhaustively document Jackson’s years as President. Instead, Meacham drew on newly available letters and papers to sketch a potrait of Jackson’s personal life and his relationships with his closest friends and family members.

While this approach has some advantages in humanizing “The General”, it also has some downfalls. Meacham does provide a thumbnail sketch of Jackson’s early years and his path to the White House. Regrettably, I feel that it’s cursory enough that it fails to fully setup the drama that was to follow.

For instance, I was really hoping for a look at the actual events of Jackson's life. For instance, how did he campaign for the Presidency? How did Presidential campaigns work, day to day, during the early 1800's? The book just glossed right over those details, mentioning only that Jackson won or lost a given election.

This became important when you consider that a central battle of the first two years of Jackson’s presidency involved Major Eaton, the Secretary of War. Jackson staked his entire Presidency on the question of whether or not people around him were loyal to Major Eaton. Eventually, the entire Cabinet was sacked over the question: the first time that had happened in American history.

I spent much of this portion of the book wondering why Jackson was being so incredibly loyal to Eaton. I later grew to realize that Eaton had been quite a central figure in Jackson’s earlier life and in winning the Presidency. Because Meacham passed over those years so quickly, I failed to understand (until much later) just how important Major Eaton was to General Jackson.

This flaw weakened the book, in my opinion.

I did learn quite a bit from this book (and may write more later on my impressions of Jackson and his age) but I felt that it would have benefited from more detail and more background information, both about Jackson and about the age Jackson lived in.

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: Loads of Fun

This book was a ton of fun to read. It's a heist mystery, that's almost steam punk, set in the Mistborn universe. If you're a Brandon Sanderson fan that's pretty much all you need to know. If you're not a Brandon Sanderson fan, well, you're in for a real treat. I've been waiting for this book since mid-summer and I'm happy to say that I wasn't at all disappointed.

The best part of the Mistborn universe is the magical system that Sanderson created for these stories: allomancy, feruchemy. Allomancers can "burn" various metals (which they've swallowed in trace amounts), to get various powers: increased strength, speed, ability to influence emotions, the ability to Push or Pull on steel, etc. Feruchemists can store various attributes (speed, weight, knowledge) in metal and then retrieve it as needed.

The stories are very character driven and resemble super hero stories, in the way that the characters creatively use their allomantic or feruchemic powers. This particular book is filled with a few great puns, interesting characters, mysterious heists, detective work, and some incredible fight scenes.

This book wasn't perfect. I felt like the main villain took a bit too much inspiration from Batman Begins and Renard (the Bond villain). This is still a very good book, if that's the only weakness (and I thought it was).

How does this book fit into the rest of the Mistborn universe? I'll let Sanderson explain.

I pitched my editor a series where the first trilogy is an epic fantasy series, and then years later an urban fantasy series, and then years after that a science fiction series, all set in the same world. And the magic exists all through, and it is treated differently in each of these time periods. And that’s what Alloy of Law is: looking at the Mistborn world, hundreds of years later, where society has been rebuilt following the events of the third book.

... This is actually a sort of side story I decided to start telling. ... With this one I decided to do something a little more action/adventure and a little more self-contained. So Alloy of Law is not the start of a trilogy, though I may do a little more with the characters, but in general the story I wanted to tell is told.

Now. Go forth, buy, and read.

Update (11/29): Esther Bochner, a publicist at Macmillan Audio, emailed me yesterday with a nice offer.

I saw your great review of ALLOY OF LAW by Brandon Sanderson and I wanted to make sure that you are aware that the book is also available as an audiobook from Macmillan Audio. I’d love to offer you a clip from the audiobook to post on your site alongside the review as multimedia content.

So, here's a nice preview both of the style of the book and of the sound of the audiobook.

Download the audio clip.

TARDIS Eruditorum - A Critical History of Doctor Who Volume 1: William Hartnell by Philip Sandifer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: Loads of Fun

I started watching Doctor Who about 2 years ago. It was a vivid awakening for me. I had been very dimly aware that the show existed but had never been exposed to it. Once I started watching it, I loved it but I always wanted to know more about it. It is a story with a rich and complex history. One that I knew nothing about it.

One can, of course, try using Google to do research. With something as complex as Doctor Who, the results are rather … confusing. So, I just suffered in ignorance, merely enjoying what was on TV in front of me.

Last week, randomly, I became aware that a new book had just been published through Amazon. It was a collection of essays from the blog TARDIS Eruditorum: A Psychochronography in Blue. Up until this point, I hadn’t even known that the blog existed. But, I clicked over and decided to take a look.

This is the story of a story that can never end. This is the story of how a daft idea from the bowels of the BBC in the 1960s changed everything. This is the story of an impossible man, and his magic box, and everything that happened after.

Because there's something you'd better understand about me. Because it's important, and one day, your life may depend on it.

I am definitely a mad man with a blog.

Okay, so Philip Sandifer (“a hopeless geek with a PhD in English focusing on media studies”) is an entertaining writer. After a few hours of reading through blog entries, I was also convinced that he knew Doctor Who, he knew British culture, and he knew literary criticism. So I bought the book.

From the book’s description:

TARDIS Eruditorum is a sprawling and very possibly completely mad critical history of Doctor Who from its first episode in 1963 to the present. In this first volume, we look at topics like how acid-fueled occultism influenced the development of the Cybermen, whether The Celestial Toymaker is irredeemably racist, and whether Barbara Wright was the greatest companion of all time. This book aims to be the most staggeringly thorough look at the evolution of Doctor Who, Great Britain, and the world from 1963 to 1966 ever published.

Revised and expanded versions of every entry from the acclaimed blog TARDIS Eruditorum from the start to finish of William Hartnell's tenure as the Doctor.

It was utterly fascinating and has already given me a lot of insight into the show and how it works. I’m eagerly awaiting the publication of future volumes and have every intention of purchasing them as they’re released. Why not? I’m a sucker for really good literary criticism and a sucker for Doctor Who.

A Desert Called Peace by Tom Kratman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Personal Enthusiasm: It Was Okay

Read for free, at the Baen Free Library

This is a story that mostly works. It's a combination of a revenge fantasy and a polemical and Kratman does a very good job of pulling off both sides.

The story centers around Patricio Hennessey de Carrera, a retired military officer living on the planet Terra Nova. His world is turned upside down when his wife and 4 children (the youngest daughter still unborn) are killed in a terrorist attack. Fighting his way out of nearly suicidal grief, he comes out of retirement, builds an army, and uses it towards the goal of killing everyone who directly or indirectly had a hand in the terrorist attacks.

That's, rather self-evidently, the revenge fantasy portion of the work. Those elements of the story really work and are done well.

The polemical bit comes when you consider who the various groups in the story are. Carrera is clearly a stand-in for a competent but too blunt American military officer. And the terrorists who killed his wife and children are clearly barbarian Islamic fanatics. And the building destroyed in the terrorist attack is clearly a stand-in for the World Trade Center towers. The story is best seen as a description of what happened to America on 9/11 and how we should have responded to it.

It's also a look at how we will have to become (at least somewhat) more like our enemies, in order to win. It's not always pleasant but Kratman doesn't try to make us feel good about the changes. He just wants us to recognizes that victory won't be easy and it will probably change us.

The polemical part of the story works fairly well and is well-integrated into the rest of the novel. It's not forced and the explanations and and motivations that make it up are simply in the natural flow of the story.

So far, so good. But the book goes completely off the rails when it comes to the setting. I mentioned that the book takes place on another planet, Terra Nova. This is a planet that a robotic exploring ship just happened to find. It's a planet that just happened to have been settled by every major nation and ethnic group on Earth. It's a planet that just happened to have geography similar to Earth's. It's a planet where the settlers just happened to group themselves similarly to how people are grouped on Earth.

There is a clear and direct correlation between the countries of Terra Nova and the countries of Earth. It's fairly easy to make a translation list.

• The USA is represented by the Federated States of Columbia (FSC).
• The United Kingdom is represented by the Kingdom of Anglia.
• France is represented by the Gallic Republic.
• Germany is represented by Sachsen.
• Iraq is represented by Sumer.
• Afghanistan is represented by Pashtia.
• Iran is represented by Farsia.
• Russia is represented by Volgon.
• Japan is represented by Yamato.
• Europe as a whole is represented by Taurus.
• The European Union is represented by the Tauran Union.

Yes, you saw that right. Not only are individual countries represented by their oh so similarly named counterparts but so are political boundaries. In fact, it gets much worse. Not only the geography and politics are the same between Earth and Terra Nova but so is the history!

This planet, settled from Earth, had many of the same wars and conflicts Earth. For instance, there was a Great Global War that featured the same alliances and events as World Wars I and II. In fact, at the end of the Great Global War, the FSC dropped two nuclear bombs on Yamato. There was a Sumer-Farsia War that happened in the not too distant past. There was a recent "Petrol War" that sounded very similar to Desert Storm.

Much of the book takes place in and around the country of Balboa. Balboa, geographically and culturally, is very similar to Panama. In fact, the Balboans even have a "Balboa Transitway" that's identical to the Panama Canal.

This level of correspondance is highly, highly frustrating. Why make the reader spend all of the effort to make a mental map between the nations and history of Terra Nova and the nations and history of Earth? Especially when the end result is Earth in everything but name? What is the point of all of that work? Why not just set the story in an alternate history version of this past decade?

Everytime I wanted to get lost in the world, I kept getting bludgeoned with the similarities between the world of the book and our world today. It totally destroyed my ability to immerse myself in the book and just enjoy it.

I liked the characters in the book (even if they were formulaic) and I liked the story. I really didn't like the setting, so I can't rate this book as highly as I would otherwise like too. I can only say that it was disappointing, overall.

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m used to reading a series and watching the quality drop off, bit by bit, with each book in the series. That’s not the case with A Song of Ice and Fire. So far, each book maintains overall quality of the series and manages to ratchet the frenetic pace of events just a little bit higher. I really enjoyed reading A Storm of Swords and I’m already looking forward to tackling A Feast for Crows.

The action picked up right where A Clash of Kings left off. Actually, it backtracked a bit first, to cover what was happening in the rest of Westeros, during the final events of A Clash of Kings. The book was a non-stop parade of events, swirling ever more madly as the body count rose ever higher. In Martin’s world, no one is safe from death, betrayal—or redemption. It all combines for a very entertaining read and one that’s devilishly hard to put down.

As I’ve done for the first two books, I’m posting my own spoiler notes of what happened and where things stood by the end of the book.

Robb Stark finally reappears after spending most of the last book off stage. He reveals that he’s married Jayne Westerling, one of Lord Tywin’s banner men. This breaks off his promised engagement to one of the Frey’s and turns Lord Walder into an enemy. King Robb, the Young Wolf, is later murdered by Lord Frey, at the Red Wedding.

Catelyn Stark spends most of the book wondering about the fate of her daughters. She surreptitiously released Jamie Lannister, on his promise that he would release her daughters from King’s Landing and return them to her. Lady Catelyn is later murdered by Lord Frey, at the Red Wedding. At the very end of the book, she is seen with the Brotherhood Without Banners, apparently alive(?) though with a grievous throat wound that leaves her unable to talk.

Arya Stark spends most of the book riding out the river lands, with the Brotherhood Without Banners. She meets the (dead?) Lord Beric Dondarrion and eventually falls in with the Hound. After a fight with Ser Gregor Clegane’s men, she leaves the dying Hound and books passage on a ship bound for the Free City of Braavos. Before leaving, she sees her mother’s dead body, apparently through Nymeria’s eyes.

After the battle for King’s Landing, Sansa Stark was released from her betrothal to Joffrey Baratheon. King Joffrey married Margaery Tyrell and Sansa was forcibly married to Tyrion Lannister. She was spirited out of King’s Landing by Littlefinger’s agents and carried first to the Fingers and then to the Eyrie. While at the Eyrie, she learns that her Aunt Lysa was the one responsible for poisoning Jon Arryn (at Littlefinger’s prompting) and watches as Littlefinger escorts Lady Lysa out the Moon Door.

After Tyrion Lannister recovers from his wounds, his father appoints him to be the new master of the purse. After King Joffrey is poisoned, Queen Cersei accuses Tyrion of the murder. He claims trial by combat but his champion, Lord Oberyn Martell of Dorne, is killed by Cersei’s champion, Ser Gregor Clegane. Lord Oberyn does mortally Clegane, however. Tyrion is rescued before his execution, by his brother Jamie. Before making good his escape, he kills both Shae (his former whore, who testified against him) and his father, Lord Tywin.

Jamie Lannister was released from his Riverrun cell by Catelyn Stark. While traveling with Brienne of Tarth, he was captured by Vargo Hoat’s men. They cut off his sword hand, leaving him a cripple. When he finally does make it back to King’s Landing, he takes over the position of Lord’s Commander of the Kingsguard, prompting his father to disown him. After angering Cersei, he ends by rescuing Tyrion from execution.

Cersei Lannister watched her brother abandon her, listened to her father plan to marry her off against her will, and saw her firstborn son die in her arms. She’s now the regent to King Tommen.

Joffrey Baratheon was at his own wedding feast, when he was poisoned by one of the Tyrells. Having acted like a royal jerk for 3 books, he’s unlikely to be mourned by anyone other than his own mother.

Daenerys Targaryen used her dragons to conquer three slaver cities and liberate the slaves. She purchased a large Unsullied slave army, then liberated them all. She added Ser Barristan Selmy to her Kingsguard and exiled Ser Jorah Mormont. She decided to remain in Meereen, to learn how to rule as a queen rather than just continue moving forward as a destructive, conquering force.

John Snow successfully defected to the wildlings and traveled with them. He even took a wildling woman as his bedmate. He helped the wildlings cross the wall, then escaped to Castle Black to warn of their approach. He defended the tunnel under the wall until King Stannis Baratheon arrived to crush the wildling army. He was later elected as the new Lord Commander of the Nightswatch.

Bran Stark arrived safely at the wall and met Samwell Tarly there. He passed through a Nightswatch tunnel to go beyond the wall with the cold rider, Jojen and Meera Reed, and Summer, looking for the three eyed crow.

Theon Greyjoy is rumored to still be alive, being held by the Boltons. He isn’t seen at all, however.

Winterfell remains in ruins as the Greyjoys still claim to be king over the Iron Isles and the North.

Stannis Baratheon is alive and well, at the well. After raising Ser Davos Seaworth to be his hand, he learns off the wildling attack on the Wall and rushes North to defend the realm. He does, however, spend a lot of time grinding his teeth and clenching his muscles in range, every time people contradict him or refuse to give him his due.

Tywin Lannister was killed by his son Tyrion, after successfully scheming to kill the Young Wolf and arrange a closer alliance with the Tyrells.