An omnibus collecting a relatively early (late 70s) trilogy by Cherryh. This is part of her Union/Alliance universe, but it predates most of the actuaAn omnibus collecting a relatively early (late 70s) trilogy by Cherryh. This is part of her Union/Alliance universe, but it predates most of the actual Union/Alliance books and is set very, very far down the timeline; but the main human government is referred to as Alliance, so ...
The first book, Kesrith, opens on the world of, well, Kesrith, in the aftermath of what had been a devastating 40 year long interstellar war between, on one side, humans, and on the other side the regul (kind of walking mercantilist slugs with eidetic memories; and as they age into adulthood, their legs atrophy to the point where they're effectively immobile if they're not riding in mechanized sleds); but all of the actual fighting was being done by the mri, a race of mostly humanoid-looking mercenaries who had been employed by the regul for the past few thousand years.
And we never get a lot of detail about the war, but at some point the mri took Haven, the Alliance capital, and then the humans took it back, and this is still a sore spot for many of the humans, some of whom are Haveners and some of whom might have merely fought there.
But at this point, as mentioned, the war is basically over -- the humans defeated the regul/mri alliance (with deleterious consequences for the mri in particular, given that they were the ones who did all of the actual fighting) and have now come to take control of the rather unpleasant and inhospitable world of Kesrith, which is, in fact, the mri's current homeworld.
And while there are quite a few POV characters, at least one from each of the three races, the important ones are a pair of young mri, Niun of the Kel (the warrior caste) and Melein of the Sen (sort of a priestess caste); and Sten Duncan, a young human who during the war had served as sort of a commando but now is an aide to the incoming human planetary governor. And yes, their paths will eventually cross, with both good and bad consequences; and yes, the regul are doing their best to gum things up (they're terrified that the humans will hire the mri, even though but a handful of mri remain in the entirety of known space -- while the mri did the actual fighting, the regul did all of the "strategizing", and they made quite the botch of it), and by the end, unforgivable acts will have been committed and Duncan, Niun and Melein will have to try to recon with what has happened.
Which leads to the second book, Shon'jir, in which Niun and Melein (and Sten, who has been sent with them and who is trying to become mri in thought and deed, at least) set out on a journey retracing the mri's long, long wanderings that led them ultimately to Kesrith (and why are all of the worlds in the mri's backtrail dead?), and then to Kutath, the third book, where Niun and Melein and Duncan have, in fact, found the long-lost mri homeworld and learned that they are not, in fact, the only mri left in existence; but humans and regul have followed their backtrail as well and the regul are determined that this time the mri "problem" will be solved for once and for all (and if bad things happen to their human "allies", well, gosh, isn't that a shame?).
And although this is, as mentioned, early Cherryh, it already has the elements that make her so great -- multiple, well-imagined cultures, both human and alien, rubbing uncomfortably together, and deeply-flawed or damaged characters trying to adapt to their new circumstances....more
Twenty years after publishing his masterpiece (She), Haggard finally decided to tell us what Leo and Holly and Ayesha (yes, I know, she perished horriTwenty years after publishing his masterpiece (She), Haggard finally decided to tell us what Leo and Holly and Ayesha (yes, I know, she perished horribly at the end of the original book, but bear with me) were up to in the intervening years. Although Haggard, per his introductory note, is disinclined to call it a sequel, preferring to regard it as the continuation of the story begun in the first book; and honestly, I'm inclined to agree with him.
Spoilers for a 120 year old book, although I'll try to keep them to a minimum.
So we open, as per usual, with Haggard explaining how yet another mysterious manuscript came into his hands -- L. Horace Holly, after being absent from England's green and pleasant lands for some 20 years, has returned alone and in poor health. He provides Haggard with a manuscript (well, most of one -- he at one point had chucked it into the fire, but changed his mind and retrieved it with minimal damage) and an artifact, and then promptly expires.
After the calamitous events that ended the original book, Holly and Leo had returned to England where they spent a year recuperating (and, in Leo's case, moping) until Leo had a vision that suggested that Ayesha was maybe not completely dead? So he & Holly pack their bags and set out for central Asia -- Thibet [sic] and suchlike parts.
Smash cut to sixteen years later ... Leo and Holly have been wandering the Himalayas searching unsuccessfully for the vista that Leo had seen in his vision (a looming volcano with what appears to be a giant ankh on its crest). They find themselves (after dangers untold and hardships unnumbered) in a particularly isolated monastery and wouldn't you know it, the valley they seek is just up the way.
Well, in this case "just up the way" means "over there, across many, many miles of treacherous mountain terrain and glaciers in utterly unforgiving weather".
And it won't come as too much of a surprise, I assume, to say that yes, they do make it to that valley and yes, it's inhabited by two warring factions and one of them (the place where they first make their entrance via a glacial river) is ruled by a beautiful queen, Atene, and her jerk of a husband, and the other (over on the slopes of the volcano) is ruled by the goddess Hes and her oracle, and Atene gets the total hots for Leo, which will not do because Hes and her oracle have seen Leo and Holly arrive and have their own interest in the two of them.
And yes, there's a dramatic reunion with Ayesha, and Atene takes things most poorly and things progress to their foreordained, tragic conclusion.
And is this book as good as the original? Well, no, but what could be? But it's still very worthy in its own right, not least because we get to see Ayesha unveiled and actually using her powers and she's even more reminiscent of Galadriel in her "in place of a Dark Lord you would have a queen!" speech.
So if you read and enjoyed She and want to see how it all turns out, well, then, this is the book for you.
Another Rider Haggard historical with another patented Haggard Love Triangle (which turns for a while into a parallelogram or a rhombus or some such fAnother Rider Haggard historical with another patented Haggard Love Triangle (which turns for a while into a parallelogram or a rhombus or some such figure), but this one I thought was really quite good.
As always, potential spoilers for a 120 year old book.
The setting this time is the late 12th Century. We open in Essex on the English coast, although we won't be staying here for an excessively long time.
Our cast this time around: Godwin and Wulf D'Arcy, twin brothers and men at arms, both in love with their attractive cousin Rosamund D'Arcy, whose own affections are ... indecisive between the two of them.
I tell you, I won't live in a town that robs men of the right to marry their cousins!
Complicating matters, to the extent of setting the whole book in motion: Rosamund is also niece to Saladin (yes, that Saladin) -- her father apparently eloped with one of Saladin's sisters, which he found ... less than pleasing.
So Saladin creates her Princess of Baalbec and sends a couple of Frankish knights who are actually spies in his service (and are otherwise low-down, dirty dogs) to abduct her and bring her back home and when that does eventually happen, the brothers, of course, set out in hot pursuit to bring her back, not least because they need her to tell them which of them she like likes.
(Before any of the kidnapping commences, the brothers come to an Arrangement: They both, separately, meet with Rosamund to declare their intentions, telling her not to reply immediately so that she'll have heard from both of them and then can, I guess, make an informed decision as to whether she's Team Wulf or Team Godwin. As mentioned, they're twins, both doughty at arms, but Wulf is perhaps moreso doughty while Godwin is perhaps moreso courtly. Decisions, decisions.)
And then commences a series of adventures that will take them across the Mediterranean to the Holy Land with stops in Cyprus and in Masyaf (city of the Old Man of the Mountain, the master of the Assassin cult, who has his own interests in the matter, mostly because he and Saladin hate each other), along the way picking up two extremely top-notch horses, Flame & Smoke, and also a local woman, Masouda, who obviously knows more than she lets on and who becomes the fourth point of the aforementioned Haggard Love Triangle.
And, because this book is set in the Holy Land in the late 12th Century, they manage to reach Damascus and Jerusalem just in time to get mixed up in the Battle of Hattin, and if some of the names start sounding familiar, that's because the end of this book overlaps pretty substantially with Ridley Scott's movie , so every time they encounter Balian or Sibylla, I'm envisioning Orlando Bloom or Eva Green which is, to be sure, no bad thing.
And while things don't end happily for everyone, they reach a satisfactory enough conclusion given the circumstances, and if you're interested in this sort of thing, I do recommend the book. (And also the movie Kingdom of Heaven, although be sure you're watching the full director's cut, not the badly-mangled theatrical release; and just pretend that some of the characters in the background are named Wulf and Godwin.)...more
Another of Haggard's Victorian (well, this came out in 1903, so I guess technically Edwardian) contemporary novels of romantic melodrama, this time arAnother of Haggard's Victorian (well, this came out in 1903, so I guess technically Edwardian) contemporary novels of romantic melodrama, this time around with just the barest hint of science fictional elements.
Spoilers below for a 120+ year old novel.
The players this time are:
Morris Monk (a young would-be inventor who's been trying to perfect an aerophone which, as described, sounds sort of like a set of walkie-talkies? IIRC, each pair of units would only be able to talk to each other, although the whole thing is very far from the focus of Haggard's story); Morris lives with his father, the Colonel, who has managed, mostly without the knowledge of his son, and not through any real fault of his own, to leave the family accounts exhausted and the family lands encumbered.
Mary Porson, Morris' attractive cousin, who lives with her father (the Colonel's brother-in-law), whose circumstances are considerably less straitened; in point of fact, her fairly wealthy father has been floating the Colonel loan after mortgage after loan).
Stella Fregelius, who enters partway through the book, newly-arrived with her father because he's come to take the local parish priest position.
The Colonel, needless to say, thinks it would be great if Morris (who never really evinced any interest in young ladies) would up and get married, preferably to someone in line to inherit considerable funds. The other local ladies being entirely unsuitable, well, Mary really is an attractive girl, isn't she?
I tell you, I won't live in a town that robs men of the right to marry their cousins!
So, with a bit of nudging by both of their respective fathers, Morris and Mary come to an Understanding, at which point Mary and her father (due to his ill health) promptly depart for more healthful climes in France.
And very shortly after they depart, the ship bringing Stella and her father to Monksland founders on the rocks and Morris very bravely sails out to the wreck where he finds and rescues Stella (who was left on the wreck by the panicked sailors, although they did rescue her father despite his broken leg) and Stella really is a remarkable sort of woman, isn't she?
And then Stella and Morris spend much of the rest of the book forming an extremely intimate but entirely proper (no throbbing biological urges here!) relationship as she helps him perfect his aerophone; and despite the best efforts of a particularly nasty local young woman (one of the ones Morris had previously deemed unsuitable; and worse yet, her brother proposed to Stella and was completely rebuffed), when Mary returns after her father's demise, she's extremely understanding about the whole situation and has no doubt whatsoever as to Morris' innocence, and Stella (for the record, Stella and Morris come to the conclusion that they are, in fact, truly, madly and deeply in love with one another, but they can Never Act Upon It in this world because Mary) plans to leave them forever by going to London and singing and playing the violin, but alas!, tragically drowns when the ruined church on the shore is lost to the sea, along with several hundred feet of shoreline, and of course she spends the last moments of her life talking to Morris on the aerophone.
And then Morris and Mary do get married and have a reasonably happy couple of years (and couple of children) before Morris discovers and read Stella's journals, gets reobsessed with her and eventually (even more spoilers) dies because he's too busy trying to conjure her spirit to settle down with a good meal.
And that, as they say, is that.
And again, it was a very readable but not especially memorable book and Haggard really does like his doomed romances and tragic triangles, doesn't he?...more
At risk of repeating myself, yet another fine assortment of modern sword & sorcery. And if I tell you that for me the standout story was Dariel QuioguAt risk of repeating myself, yet another fine assortment of modern sword & sorcery. And if I tell you that for me the standout story was Dariel Quiogue's "Battle of the Nine Waters", then you need to understand that I'm saying so although this issue also includes stories by both Michael Moorcock and Harry Turtledove, amongst others.
And the usual reviews, essays and interviews at the back, including a look at one of my personal favorite authors, Tanith Lee....more
Another carefully-curated selection of great modern sword & sorcery stories, beginning with Matthew John's "Beating Hearts, Dying Stars" (which remindAnother carefully-curated selection of great modern sword & sorcery stories, beginning with Matthew John's "Beating Hearts, Dying Stars" (which reminded me at times of something from a vintage Heavy Metal magazine or from the animated series Scavengers Reign) and culminating in Molly Tanzer's brand new Jirel of Joiry(!!!!) story, "Jirel and the Mirror of Truth", along the way showcasing contributions by Premee Mohamed, John R. Fultz and a whole rogues' gallery of other authors, some of whom were familiar to me already, and the rest of whom I'll be watching with great interest.
And the art; did I mention the art? I really do need to mention the art! Plus some thoughtful non-fiction pieces, including an essay about Jessica Amanda Salmonson that reminds me that I really do need to go back and read some of the anthologies she edited back in the day, and some of the novels she's written....more
A very early, short Heinlein novel (first published in hardcover 1948, but taken from a 2 part magazine serial from 1942) that I'd never read before. A very early, short Heinlein novel (first published in hardcover 1948, but taken from a 2 part magazine serial from 1942) that I'd never read before. (And apparently written before Pearl Harbor and the US entry into WWII.)
Hamilton Felix lives in utopia (well, relatively speaking -- technically, it seems more like a post-scarcity society where the economy is managed and everybody maintains a comfortable lifestyle; but most people men walk around armed, and duels to the death over real or perceived slights are perhaps not common, but at least not much remarked upon) and he's ... really just kind of bored, as is his friend Monroe-Alpha Clifford. (And it took me longer than it should have to realize that at some point society had changed so that people put their family name first rather than their personal name. So: Felix and Cliff.) And the District Moderator for Genetics would really like Felix to reproduce (on account of his superior genes; this is a lightly eugenic utopia), but Felix has no interest, although the District Moderator is sure he's found the perfect partner, genetically speaking. And, well, there are also scheming malcontents who think Felix might be interested in going along with their plan to overthrow society, and Longcourt Phyllis, the aforementioned perfect partner, really is kind of intriguing; and Cliff is also having his own meet-cute; and that's just the first half of the book (presumably, the part published in the first magazine issue) and the second half gets altogether more metaphysical.
And it's ... fine, I guess? It has ideas in great profusion, many, of course, based on science that was state-of-the-art in the 1930s, and even from the beginning Heinlein could spin an engaging sentence (and even from the beginning, he had some of his tics established -- Phyllis calls Felix "Filthy" in an effort to be gratingly cute, e.g.), and I'm glad I read it, but it's probably not one that I'll need to revisit, not least because of the aforementioned light eugenics, and it's just not as engaging as his later juvenile novels or The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress or what have you....more
A 141 year old book that I've known about for probably 45 years but never actually got around to reading until just now. And it was ... well, the actuA 141 year old book that I've known about for probably 45 years but never actually got around to reading until just now. And it was ... well, the actual two-dimensional stuff was interesting as an intellectual exercise, at least, but the somewhat ham-handed Victorian attempt at satire and/or social commentary was less easy to stomach....more
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