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Relevant to your interests?: What is going on with the accents in Game of Thrones?
Brandon Sanderson, The Emperor’s Soul: Sanderson’s talent for setting up interesting magical rules is on display in this short book about a Forger, someone whose magical talent is to rewrite the history of objects—and even people—to make them different, thus allowing them to transform. In an empire in which Forgery of souls is the worst kind of apostasy, the rulers demand that a captured thief-Forger make their emperor a new soul, and she has to figure out what to do to survive. Though the book could’ve used one more editing run to remove a couple of ‘as you know, Bob’ awkward bits, it was a quick enough read, and seems to represent Sanderson’s version of magic as storytelling/storytelling as magic.
Scott Westerfeld, Stupid Perfect World: Shortish story (ebook) about what people do in a future of zero scarcity—make their kids take Scarcity class, where the final project is to experience something the way people used to, which in the protagonists’ cases are respectively to sleep (and dream) and to shut off hormone regulation so that she experiences the same rush of emotions as a non-regulated teenager. This leads to self-discovery and romance. It’s got some cute bits, like the kid who complains about having to travel by boat instead of teleporting: “‘Capsizing, Mr. Solomon!’ Lao said. ‘That’s a special word just for ships turning upside down. I checked in headspace, and I couldn’t find a single word for trains turning upside down! Or cars or hovercraft—just ships. Think about it!’” And the male narrator on Hamlet: “We’d been practicing this scene for hours, trying to get the blocking right. Most of this was William Shakespeare’s fault; it’s pretty hard to switch two swords in the middle of a fight by accident. Come on.” (Though he’s wrong about that with good performers, it’s still funny.)
P.D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley: As it says on the tin, P.D. James writes Austen fic. There is meta (If only there were some way that we could determine the person whose blood this is! Isn’t it a little bit odd that Elizabeth and Darcy figured out their true love after a total of about half an hour alone with each other in total?) and some Darcy groveling at the end, but I admit I’m not an Austen fan and was mostly reading to see what James could do. It seemed a creditable attempt to me, with much pondering of social meaning and rather more overt acknowledgement of the sexual exploitation of vulnerable women by powerful men than I recall from Austen herself.
Brandon Sanderson, The Emperor’s Soul: Sanderson’s talent for setting up interesting magical rules is on display in this short book about a Forger, someone whose magical talent is to rewrite the history of objects—and even people—to make them different, thus allowing them to transform. In an empire in which Forgery of souls is the worst kind of apostasy, the rulers demand that a captured thief-Forger make their emperor a new soul, and she has to figure out what to do to survive. Though the book could’ve used one more editing run to remove a couple of ‘as you know, Bob’ awkward bits, it was a quick enough read, and seems to represent Sanderson’s version of magic as storytelling/storytelling as magic.
Scott Westerfeld, Stupid Perfect World: Shortish story (ebook) about what people do in a future of zero scarcity—make their kids take Scarcity class, where the final project is to experience something the way people used to, which in the protagonists’ cases are respectively to sleep (and dream) and to shut off hormone regulation so that she experiences the same rush of emotions as a non-regulated teenager. This leads to self-discovery and romance. It’s got some cute bits, like the kid who complains about having to travel by boat instead of teleporting: “‘Capsizing, Mr. Solomon!’ Lao said. ‘That’s a special word just for ships turning upside down. I checked in headspace, and I couldn’t find a single word for trains turning upside down! Or cars or hovercraft—just ships. Think about it!’” And the male narrator on Hamlet: “We’d been practicing this scene for hours, trying to get the blocking right. Most of this was William Shakespeare’s fault; it’s pretty hard to switch two swords in the middle of a fight by accident. Come on.” (Though he’s wrong about that with good performers, it’s still funny.)
P.D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley: As it says on the tin, P.D. James writes Austen fic. There is meta (If only there were some way that we could determine the person whose blood this is! Isn’t it a little bit odd that Elizabeth and Darcy figured out their true love after a total of about half an hour alone with each other in total?) and some Darcy groveling at the end, but I admit I’m not an Austen fan and was mostly reading to see what James could do. It seemed a creditable attempt to me, with much pondering of social meaning and rather more overt acknowledgement of the sexual exploitation of vulnerable women by powerful men than I recall from Austen herself.
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Not to me, coming from a long line of folks who fell madly in love at first sight of their future spouses, the big weirdoes. /tangent
I wanted to like Death Comes to Pemberley but didn't. The crime seemed a bit contrived and the pleasures of Austen's writing were largely absent, to my mind. I haven't read anything else by PD James, so I can't say whether it's more one of hers in Regency dress than it is a, to my mind, less than effective Austen pastiche. I did enjoy the stuff about the party arrangements and also the matter of fact way Darcy and Elizabeth only lay eyes on their kids for about a nanosecond a day. True to the time, of course, but a bit eyebrow-raising for modern day practice.
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