posts interesting only to me

Bit late again this month with the list. Nine books read, six of which were science fiction.

The Last Valley — Martin Windrow
A very thorough history of the battle of Dien Bien Phu, which meant the end of any serious French attempts to defeat the Vietmin and keep control of Vietnam.

Golden Witchbreed — Mary Gentle
Another book read in my Year of Reading Women project, this was as good as I remembered it as.

A Sporting Chance — Elizabeth Moon
Another lightweight Elizabeth Moon space adventure, entertaining as everything else I read of her recently.

At All Costs — David Weber
More Honor Harrington read as ebook on my Android phone.

An Investigation of Murder — Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo
A BBC4 documentary on Nordic Noir mentioned the Sjowall and Wahloo novels which made me want to read them. This was the only one we had on our shelves. A terrible, terrible translation, done by somebody who has only a limited grasp on either English or Swedish, or perhaps both. The written equivalent of one of those text to speech translators.

Mission of Honor — David Weber
And even more Honor Harrington. Weber is by all objective measures not a very good writer, but these books are like chewing gum, more enjoyable than not reading them in those circumstances where any other book would be difficult.

The Wars of the Roses — Christine Carpenter
Full subtitle: Politics and the Constitution in England, c. 1437-1509, which gives you a flavour of the focus of this book. I don’t know that much about the War of the Roses and this isn’t really a proper introduction to the period, but it worked for me.

The Deep State — Walter John Williams
Sequel to This Is Not a Game, about bringing down the military junta in Turkey through the power of the internet and alternate reality games.

Old Man’s War — John Scalzi
Scalzi’s breakthrough novel, very Heinleinian in its structure, plot and concerns but without Heinlein’s more annoying habits.

I suppose the thing I find most tedious about Internet people is that a lot of them make a careful count of all the books they read in a year.

Nick can’t be talking about me, because I count how many books I read in a month. Ten this time. More than I thought I would manage this month, but there’s a lot of fluff on this list.

The Early Middle Ages — Rosamond McKitterick (editor)
This is intended as an introduction to and broad overview of (West) European history from 400 CE to 1000 CE, in which it succeeded reasonably well. Having some prior knowledge of this period helps though, especially if you got some grasp on the rough chronology.

The Sacred Art of Stealing — Christopher Brookmyre
Brookmyre’s slightly anarchistic thrillers are pure comfort reading.

An Imperial Possession — David Mattingly
A postcolonial history of Britain under Roman rule. What did the Romans ever do for us? Exploit our natural wealth, make our warriors into slaves and force us to grow cash crops for absentee landlords is the answer. This review at Blood & Treasure is why I bought this.

King of the Rainy Country — Nicolas Freeling
Another inspector van der Valk murder mystery, taking him far from his hometown of Amsterdam all across Europe.

Zoo City — Lauren Beukes
In Beukes’ near future/alternate South Africa (not quite clear which is the case) being a murderer can quite literally land you with a monkey on your back, or in Zinzi December’s case, a sloth. It makes her one of the new underclass, the Animalled, having to make a living exploiting the small magical talent to find anything she got along with her totem. Then she’s asked to find a lost person rather than a lost property.

Whoops! — John Lanchester
Readable if slightly out of date overview of why we were dropped in the shit when the financial crisis hit in 2007. Lanchester is the same guy who has written on this subject for the London Review of Books.

The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny — Simon R. Green
Green is a cheerful hack writer (and probably the last to deny this) and this is a volume in his urban fantasy series. The whole experience is like reading a mediocre superhero title (Alpha Flight say) long after the talent left. Still enjoyable though.

A Point of Honor — Dorothy J. Heydt
Mary Craven is a world renowned player in the VR game of Chivalry, whose alter ego Sir Mary de Courcy is that game’s current champion of the Winchester Lists. And now she has stumbled on a real world secret hidden in the game, people are trying to kill her and she has to fight both offline and online for her very life. Dated in its technological assumptions, but something of a precursor to novels like Charlie Stross’ Halting State and Walter John Williams’ This Is Not a Game.

Trading in Danger — Elizabeth Moon
Entertaining and competently written adventure science fiction. First in a series, but enjoyable on its own.

Making a Killing — Iain McDowall
Treading some of the same ground as Ian Rankin, this is a slightly disjoint police procedural set in the fictional town of Crowby.