In the Woods

In the Woods by Tana French

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm torn on this book. In many respects I thought it was very good. I like the way French strings words together. She is also very good at developing clear, complex, totally believable human beings. I found that when I was away from the book I was wondering what was coming next, how things were going to resolve, and that's usually the hallmark of a good book.

That said, I had some significant problems with the it. Betrayal and desolation pervade the book--they are ubiquitous and unrelenting. And even the one note of happiness at the end seems...illusory. Perhaps I wasn't in the mood for more Irish despair (after Christine Falls), or perhaps she does have an ability to create a nearly Donaldsonian level of despair. Whichever the case, it was so depressing I felt I needed medication after some sections. And I felt that the resolution of one of the central mysteries was too pat (I honestly knew "whodunit" as soon as I met the character, with only the slightest doubt at any point), and the irresolution of the second mystery (a phrase that will only make sense once you've read the book) was completely unsatisfying and not entirely convincing.

Because I very much like how French uses words, I may well go on and read volumes 2-5 in the Dublin Murder Squad series. But I think I'll wait until I've overdosed on happy optimism, cute kittens, and frolicking puppies. At that point bleak hopelessness might be just what the doctor ordered.



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Everyone has a list

Now that Christmas is over, the "lists" have started to pop up. "Worst Books of 2012," "Best Books of 2012," "Best 10 Movies of the Twenty-first Century," etc. I'm suspicious of those. For instance the "Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of All Time" has Lord of the Rings at number 1, and Game of Thrones at number 2. And then people start asking why the 3 volume Ring is first, but GoT is addressed per volume. Which beggars a number of questions. For instance, why is it that George R.R. Martin is apparently ignorant that LotR was written as a single book (given what he posted in his Not a Blog on LiveJournal) because the publisher balked at publishing it that way so instead insisted its three parts be published separately? And more importantly,  it totally skips the question of how one of the top two spots did not go to Bradbury, or Asimov, or Verne, or Wells, or Clarke? I'm an "early adopter" of GoT, and even I think that placement isn't justified. I began to get grumpy.

So, in a form of mental self-defense I started making my own list in my head. Because I'm shallow , especially during Christmas break, it's episodic television episodes, and because of what was in front of my eyes at the time it's not "best" or "pivotal"--it's the episodes that have stuck in my head, years after I saw them, with more than the usual clarity. In no particular order, here they are, without commentary.

Star Trek: "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"
Supernatural: "Swan Song"
M*A*S*H*: "Old Soldiers"
Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Yesterday's Enterprise"
Twilight Zone: "The After Hours"
The Big Valley: "Into the Widow's Web"
Hawaii Five-O: "Once Upon a Time"
Magnum, PI: "Home from the Sea"
Babylon Five: "The Geometry of Shadows"
The West Wing: "Posse Comitatus"
Maude: "Maude's Dilemma"
WKRP in Cincinnati: "In Concert"
The Big Bang Theory: "The Codpiece Topology"

When Darkness Falls

by Mercedes Lackey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've only given this 4 stars (which may be unfair) because I was disappointed by the too tidy ending, but otherwise I would have given this a glowing 5 star rating. As it is, I can only give it a four--but that four has brilliant glowing stars, and its own fireworks display.

When Darkness Falls is the third book in the Obsidian Mountain Trilogy, and all of the disaster, despair, and danger of the first two volumes does come to a head here, in mostly satisfying ways. The characters continue to develop and grow, the secondary characters become essential parts of the fabric of the world, the strong and beautiful begin to crumble. At times the mood and tone rival Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books for sheer hopelessness, and the Battle for Armethalieh rivals, even exceeds, the Battle at Pelennor Fields for sheer devastation of what is good and true.

Since there is a trilogy set after this one I don't believe I give much away when I say that our heroes triumph at a terrible cost. And that was satisfying. But the cost is very high.

The book has some profound flaws. Lacey and Mallory are not particularly good at sustained battle sequences (a problem when so much of the volume is about, well, battles, both massed and single combat). They are much better at the magic--making it feel real, in all its varied forms. And they are good at putting us inside the consciousness of very different characters. There, nuance and detail abound, which makes the paucity of those same elements even more conspicuous in the battle scenes.

Still, this trilogy is one of the best fantasy sets I've read in a very long time. When I look around after I have been reading these for awhile I'm a little startled that I'm not in The Wild Lands, or the streets of the City of a Thousand Bells, or the Flower Forest of Sentarshadeen. I want to be back there, in the story. I keep reaching for the book, only to remember I've finished it, and that provokes a sense of loss. I want to go back, and be with Kellen, and Cilarnen, and Jermayan, and Idalia. I miss them already.

Thank Leaf and Star for bringing these books into the world. They gave me joy.



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I want a helicopter, too!

The Shooters by W.E.B. Griffin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I enjoy The Presidential Agent series by Griffin, for all its flaws. It has many of the same characteristics I don't like in Tom Clancy novels (too much throwing away of names and specifications of various hardware), and the agency infighting can get a bit tedious in both. However, I enjoy them both for some of the same reasons--active story lines and interesting characters.

I could have done without the soap opera sub-text in this one, and all of the city hopping struck me as...not helpful in achieving the goal (i.e. it took way too much time to mount a rescue). But, even with its flaws, I'll pick up the next one and see what kind of fallout there is from this that Lt. Col. C. G. Castillo will have to make right now.



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Life Itself by Roger Ebert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Since I read this for free, and now intend to buy it, I suppose that's a strong endorsement.

The book itself is uneven, and as is true of memoirs, occasionally comes across as self-absorbed, but Ebert writes well, and his memories come across with strong senses of place, and at times you can almost hear the voices of the various, very diverse personalities whose lives have intersected, or run beside, his. Martin Scorsese jumps off the page, the wonderful woman who helped his get sober, the friends who stayed with him through the years.

If you love films, read this book for the insights on how to watch films and the people who make them. If you love babyboomers read this for a snapshot of life at the beginning of that group.

(Oh, and how did I read this for free? In one hour increments at Barnes and Noble on my Nook. I never would have borrowed it from a library, or bought it, but being able to open it up and read it over lunch or tea, a bit at a time, I found a book to treasure that would have slipped past me unremarked. Thank you, Barnes and Noble.)



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Familiar Stars

Star Wars: Jedi Search by Kevin J. Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Familiar characters, doing familiar things.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it was exactly what I wanted.

And I got my first introduction to Admiral Daala, which explains some things from later books.

Still like Han better than Luke. Is he ever going to grow out of being a moody teenager? *sigh*



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I'd Rather Some Tommy and Tuppence

The Modigliani Scandal by Ken Follett

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


For a long time I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was about this book that was so...familiar. And then I figured it out.

It reminds me of a Georgette Heyer London mystery (as opposed to one of her "cosy" mysteries, or Regency romances)--except Heyer does it much, much better.

Two days of reading out of my life that I'll never get back.



(And, yes, I know T&T are Christie, not Heyer.)



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