Books: an update
Jan. 21st, 2013 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricMore books!
Final book for 2012: The Puffin Book of Nonsense Verse, ed Quentin Blake. It was amusing and diverting!
2013:
Terry Prattchet, Snuff: Oh, this was charming, and the chase scenes were excellent. It seemed more coherent as a narrative than Unseen Academicals, but I didn't love it quite so much. I think the 'Sam Vimes' Inner Darkness' line is too familiar now?
Characters, though! This book, like Unseen Academicals, boasts such a great set of supporting and secondary characters. Young Sam is industrious and adorable! Constable Feeney grew up! Willikins continues to be awesome and deadly. And ladies! Pterry's books, at least since Equal Rites, have never been as *completely* male-dominated as some other sci-fi fantasy, but I do think he's had a good hard look at his worldbuilding as of the last few books (Thud onward, perhaps?) and now his female characters, even (or especially!) bit-part characters, simply sparkle. Feeny's old mum, with her Howandaland cooking and her fierce broomstick. Miss Felicity Beedle. Tears of the Mushroom. Cheery Littlebottom, back and fabulous again. While Vimes has been busy thinking about species and class issues, *Pterry* has obviously been thinking about gender and race as pertain to his human characters - there are Howandalandi (is that the adjective?) people in rural areas, there are vibrant female characters all over the place... yeah, good stuff.
And when did Wee Mad Arthur find out he was a feegle? I missed that bit!
Sam Starbuck, The Dead Isle: This is a difficult book to review: it's a magical alt-history steampunk novel in which some american (/american-raised) young people travel with a British spy to conduct espionage in Australia. It is about class and race and what drives people to cruel and/or creative action. Being as I am an Australian and the author is American - no matter how much I trust him - and neither I nor the author are Indigenous Australians, I have some issues and above all I have the uncomfortable feeling that I don't know enough to know if I ought to be offended.
Let's start with the good things, for they are many and various:
This book really showcases Sam at his storytelling best. It's long, and about half the novel goes past before they reach Darwin, so it's quite a feat on his part to keep the narrative pace steady. I love his pieces of faux-history - descriptions of museum exhibits, flyleaves from plays, lectures, introductions to Graveworthy's novels, etc - and in some places they are *brilliantly* used to create narrative tension. The introduction to Gepetto, which appears as they're spending three weeks in an airship doing nothing much, with it's little comment 'I wonder what Graveworthy and Baker got up to when they weren't formenting revolutions' - that was a particularly brilliant touch.
The characters are all great, the little interpersonal tensions and loyalties well woven into the narrative. The world-building of Europe and America is good, and peppered with amusing cameos of famous figures (Arthur Conan Doyle being my favourite) and nifty twists on history. So far so good.
The narrative's big themes - what does it mean to create something, as art or artifice? Who or what constitutes family? When is lying OK? Why is it ok to kill with machines and not with magic? - are all well-handled. Above all, I think, there's the question of what it means to be autonomous - as an individual, as a people, as a country.
And. Well. Class and race. I think Sam did achieve his aim of *not* writing a monomyth - the story is as much, if not more, a story of how William Libris and his people used a rag-tag bunch of British spies to facilitate their rebellion as it is the story of how Ellis Graveworthy and Jack Baker and Clare Fields changed Australia.
But. Here are some things I had trouble with:
- the term 'tribal'. 'Tribe' is not really a term used to describe Indigenous Australian groups now, and, although I'm sure it has been used haphazardly by white writers in the past, nor is it the most characterisitic one-size-fits-all paternalistic descriptor. Aborigines, Natives, these are terms used by Australian governments in the late 19th and early 20th century. And although I suppose in Sam's alt-history they could and did adopt other terms, this one rankled on me.
-- having said that, the term 'koori' does show up, as does specific clan-names like Wiradjuri, and an awareness that the indigenous peoples of Australia were not united prior to colonisation. This is a good sign.
--- But why have they no idea what their sacred places are or mean? Sam's Kooris can remember who killed whose grandfather in what war, but not whether or not it's OK to eat near sacred paintings. What? That makes no sense. The Wiradjuri people today have, as I understand it, one of the better-preserved cultural traditions, with ongoing connection to the land and their sacred places - partly because they covered a wide territory, and also because they were able to concentrate their population in particular missions and/or farms near those sacred places. This much I picked up from tutoring first-year history in 2012!
---- Speaking of, the use of the term 'reservation' bugged me. It's just a slip - American indigenous people were sent to reservations; ours were usually sent to reserves or missions. Same thing, different term. There might be some called 'reservation', but the term just rang wrong to me.
- the lack of alt-history versions of real Australians. Sam's alt-history requires that all convicts sent to Australia were outlawed 'creationists' (magic-workers), and no or few free settlers, so I guess that does rule out most of our lines of descent. But c'mon, you can't let some of our notable figures be descended from these creationists? (There was a Barton in the parliament scene. I'm chosing to believe this was Edmond Barton). And, oooh, I dunno, what about 19th century indigenous australians? There were some of them around.
- How come Australia's the only really sexist or racist place in this world? Does America not have segregation going on? They shouldn't be utterly baffled when they find racism in Australia - Clare is not the kind of person who'd fail to notice that, y'know, white people are kinda racist everywhere. Hmm. I get that Sam's making a point (and I did like Ellis' theory about women having been protected and coddled in the colonial period, Anne Summers might even agree - I'd have liked him to have reason to meet some outback women, though, hah.). But I'm not entirely happy about my country being the scapegoat for all of western society's ills.
- TOTAL GEOGRAPHY FAIL. You can't run a train with no brakes from Darwin to Brisbane. Someone forgot to tell Sam about the Great Dividing Range.
-- speaking of, where was New Zealand? What's goin' on there. If New Zealand had been colonised, then IT OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN MENTIONED. Had they just failed to notice New Zealand? Is it part of Australia (federation happened early, it's concievable). Is it happily full of Maoris? I'd like to know!
Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets ed. by Michael Farrar and Jill Jones: lovely selection. Not all about sex or sexuality, but some of my favourites were.
Final book for 2012: The Puffin Book of Nonsense Verse, ed Quentin Blake. It was amusing and diverting!
2013:
Terry Prattchet, Snuff: Oh, this was charming, and the chase scenes were excellent. It seemed more coherent as a narrative than Unseen Academicals, but I didn't love it quite so much. I think the 'Sam Vimes' Inner Darkness' line is too familiar now?
Characters, though! This book, like Unseen Academicals, boasts such a great set of supporting and secondary characters. Young Sam is industrious and adorable! Constable Feeney grew up! Willikins continues to be awesome and deadly. And ladies! Pterry's books, at least since Equal Rites, have never been as *completely* male-dominated as some other sci-fi fantasy, but I do think he's had a good hard look at his worldbuilding as of the last few books (Thud onward, perhaps?) and now his female characters, even (or especially!) bit-part characters, simply sparkle. Feeny's old mum, with her Howandaland cooking and her fierce broomstick. Miss Felicity Beedle. Tears of the Mushroom. Cheery Littlebottom, back and fabulous again. While Vimes has been busy thinking about species and class issues, *Pterry* has obviously been thinking about gender and race as pertain to his human characters - there are Howandalandi (is that the adjective?) people in rural areas, there are vibrant female characters all over the place... yeah, good stuff.
And when did Wee Mad Arthur find out he was a feegle? I missed that bit!
Sam Starbuck, The Dead Isle: This is a difficult book to review: it's a magical alt-history steampunk novel in which some american (/american-raised) young people travel with a British spy to conduct espionage in Australia. It is about class and race and what drives people to cruel and/or creative action. Being as I am an Australian and the author is American - no matter how much I trust him - and neither I nor the author are Indigenous Australians, I have some issues and above all I have the uncomfortable feeling that I don't know enough to know if I ought to be offended.
Let's start with the good things, for they are many and various:
This book really showcases Sam at his storytelling best. It's long, and about half the novel goes past before they reach Darwin, so it's quite a feat on his part to keep the narrative pace steady. I love his pieces of faux-history - descriptions of museum exhibits, flyleaves from plays, lectures, introductions to Graveworthy's novels, etc - and in some places they are *brilliantly* used to create narrative tension. The introduction to Gepetto, which appears as they're spending three weeks in an airship doing nothing much, with it's little comment 'I wonder what Graveworthy and Baker got up to when they weren't formenting revolutions' - that was a particularly brilliant touch.
The characters are all great, the little interpersonal tensions and loyalties well woven into the narrative. The world-building of Europe and America is good, and peppered with amusing cameos of famous figures (Arthur Conan Doyle being my favourite) and nifty twists on history. So far so good.
The narrative's big themes - what does it mean to create something, as art or artifice? Who or what constitutes family? When is lying OK? Why is it ok to kill with machines and not with magic? - are all well-handled. Above all, I think, there's the question of what it means to be autonomous - as an individual, as a people, as a country.
And. Well. Class and race. I think Sam did achieve his aim of *not* writing a monomyth - the story is as much, if not more, a story of how William Libris and his people used a rag-tag bunch of British spies to facilitate their rebellion as it is the story of how Ellis Graveworthy and Jack Baker and Clare Fields changed Australia.
But. Here are some things I had trouble with:
- the term 'tribal'. 'Tribe' is not really a term used to describe Indigenous Australian groups now, and, although I'm sure it has been used haphazardly by white writers in the past, nor is it the most characterisitic one-size-fits-all paternalistic descriptor. Aborigines, Natives, these are terms used by Australian governments in the late 19th and early 20th century. And although I suppose in Sam's alt-history they could and did adopt other terms, this one rankled on me.
-- having said that, the term 'koori' does show up, as does specific clan-names like Wiradjuri, and an awareness that the indigenous peoples of Australia were not united prior to colonisation. This is a good sign.
--- But why have they no idea what their sacred places are or mean? Sam's Kooris can remember who killed whose grandfather in what war, but not whether or not it's OK to eat near sacred paintings. What? That makes no sense. The Wiradjuri people today have, as I understand it, one of the better-preserved cultural traditions, with ongoing connection to the land and their sacred places - partly because they covered a wide territory, and also because they were able to concentrate their population in particular missions and/or farms near those sacred places. This much I picked up from tutoring first-year history in 2012!
---- Speaking of, the use of the term 'reservation' bugged me. It's just a slip - American indigenous people were sent to reservations; ours were usually sent to reserves or missions. Same thing, different term. There might be some called 'reservation', but the term just rang wrong to me.
- the lack of alt-history versions of real Australians. Sam's alt-history requires that all convicts sent to Australia were outlawed 'creationists' (magic-workers), and no or few free settlers, so I guess that does rule out most of our lines of descent. But c'mon, you can't let some of our notable figures be descended from these creationists? (There was a Barton in the parliament scene. I'm chosing to believe this was Edmond Barton). And, oooh, I dunno, what about 19th century indigenous australians? There were some of them around.
- How come Australia's the only really sexist or racist place in this world? Does America not have segregation going on? They shouldn't be utterly baffled when they find racism in Australia - Clare is not the kind of person who'd fail to notice that, y'know, white people are kinda racist everywhere. Hmm. I get that Sam's making a point (and I did like Ellis' theory about women having been protected and coddled in the colonial period, Anne Summers might even agree - I'd have liked him to have reason to meet some outback women, though, hah.). But I'm not entirely happy about my country being the scapegoat for all of western society's ills.
- TOTAL GEOGRAPHY FAIL. You can't run a train with no brakes from Darwin to Brisbane. Someone forgot to tell Sam about the Great Dividing Range.
-- speaking of, where was New Zealand? What's goin' on there. If New Zealand had been colonised, then IT OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN MENTIONED. Had they just failed to notice New Zealand? Is it part of Australia (federation happened early, it's concievable). Is it happily full of Maoris? I'd like to know!
Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets ed. by Michael Farrar and Jill Jones: lovely selection. Not all about sex or sexuality, but some of my favourites were.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-21 06:28 pm (UTC)I think it was in one of the Tiffany books, I believe I Shall Wear Midnight.