library_mama (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
library_mama) wrote2004-10-11 03:46 pm
library_mama) wrote2004-10-11 03:46 pm
Entry tags:
Escape
Once again, I try to prove that I can think of things besides babies. So, two alternate reality fiction books, and escape by retail therapy.
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde This is the third book (of four so far) in a series of literary science fiction starring our heroine, Thursday Next. The books are action-packed and hilariously funny, full of subtle and not-so-subtle references to classic literature. “Science fiction” here means alternate reality, not spaceships, as Thursday is from a 1980s England where history and the rules are just a little different. In this book, though, Thursday is hiding from the evil Goliath Corporation in the world of fiction – taking over the part of a character in an unpublished mystery, while continuing her apprenticeship with Miss Haversham of Great Expectations as a JurisFiction agent. Even here, though, it looks like someone is out to get her. Her husband was eradicated by Goliath in the previous books, and now she’s struggling to keep her enemy, Aornis, from erasing her memories of him as well. I’m afraid I’ve simplified things a great deal – Fforde seems to add another layer or two of complication to the world with each book in the series. If you’ve read the previous two books, you won’t want to miss this one, and it may even make sense. If you haven’t, avoid getting lost in this one by starting with the first one, Lost in a Good Book, in which Thursday sets out to rescue Jane Eyre, who has been kidnapped from her book.
Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling The year is 1998, and the world is our own. Mike Havel, a former Marine turned private pilot is flying a family to their cabin in Montana when his plane – and his watch, and their guns, and all the city lights around – stop working. Meanwhile, in Oregon, folk musician and coven leader Juniper MacKenzie is playing a tavern gig when the same thing happens (except she’s happily not in a plane.) The technology of the past couple hundred years has all stopped working, and only those who can adapt will survive. Yes, it requires a major leap of faith to believe that the principles that make our technology work could change overnight. This improbability is brought up several times over the course of the book, but it’s not the focus of the book. Instead, it focuses on what makes a society stripped down to the bare bones work. Our two heroes pick up a bunch of followers with useful skills – a Tolkein fan whose Legolas delusions are suddenly essential, rodeo hands, SCA members with knowledge of fighting and metal crafting. Besides practical skills, the book looks at the importance of myth and belief, as our heroes adjust to being treated as such, and the leader of a small coven suddenly finds her previously marginalized religion in demand. I enjoyed the characters, reflecting on the deeper issues, and was pulled in by the action. And yeah, as a Scadian, it’s pretty funny to read a book where SCA membership could be a life or death matter.
thepurplebook by Hillary Mendelsohn And for a complete change of pace – shopping. Ok, you might think, as I generally do, that a guide to internet shopping is pretty superfluous when you have Google. But if you do shop – or want to shop – on-line, this book is pretty darn useful. It’s divided by major shopping categories, and gives brief one or two sentence reviews of different on-line retailers, along with telling what they sell and icons saying how expensive shipping is, how easy the site is to use, etc. I do wish that her icons included general price ranges for the store, not just shipping, but this is a relatively small quibble, as one can generally tell from the reviews how high-brow a store will be. While some of the retailers were familiar to me, many of them were not – whole worlds of cool sites to browse opened up! I don’t plan to buy it for myself, especially as they come out with a new edition every year, but it’s definitely worth checking out at the library.
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde This is the third book (of four so far) in a series of literary science fiction starring our heroine, Thursday Next. The books are action-packed and hilariously funny, full of subtle and not-so-subtle references to classic literature. “Science fiction” here means alternate reality, not spaceships, as Thursday is from a 1980s England where history and the rules are just a little different. In this book, though, Thursday is hiding from the evil Goliath Corporation in the world of fiction – taking over the part of a character in an unpublished mystery, while continuing her apprenticeship with Miss Haversham of Great Expectations as a JurisFiction agent. Even here, though, it looks like someone is out to get her. Her husband was eradicated by Goliath in the previous books, and now she’s struggling to keep her enemy, Aornis, from erasing her memories of him as well. I’m afraid I’ve simplified things a great deal – Fforde seems to add another layer or two of complication to the world with each book in the series. If you’ve read the previous two books, you won’t want to miss this one, and it may even make sense. If you haven’t, avoid getting lost in this one by starting with the first one, Lost in a Good Book, in which Thursday sets out to rescue Jane Eyre, who has been kidnapped from her book.
Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling The year is 1998, and the world is our own. Mike Havel, a former Marine turned private pilot is flying a family to their cabin in Montana when his plane – and his watch, and their guns, and all the city lights around – stop working. Meanwhile, in Oregon, folk musician and coven leader Juniper MacKenzie is playing a tavern gig when the same thing happens (except she’s happily not in a plane.) The technology of the past couple hundred years has all stopped working, and only those who can adapt will survive. Yes, it requires a major leap of faith to believe that the principles that make our technology work could change overnight. This improbability is brought up several times over the course of the book, but it’s not the focus of the book. Instead, it focuses on what makes a society stripped down to the bare bones work. Our two heroes pick up a bunch of followers with useful skills – a Tolkein fan whose Legolas delusions are suddenly essential, rodeo hands, SCA members with knowledge of fighting and metal crafting. Besides practical skills, the book looks at the importance of myth and belief, as our heroes adjust to being treated as such, and the leader of a small coven suddenly finds her previously marginalized religion in demand. I enjoyed the characters, reflecting on the deeper issues, and was pulled in by the action. And yeah, as a Scadian, it’s pretty funny to read a book where SCA membership could be a life or death matter.
thepurplebook by Hillary Mendelsohn And for a complete change of pace – shopping. Ok, you might think, as I generally do, that a guide to internet shopping is pretty superfluous when you have Google. But if you do shop – or want to shop – on-line, this book is pretty darn useful. It’s divided by major shopping categories, and gives brief one or two sentence reviews of different on-line retailers, along with telling what they sell and icons saying how expensive shipping is, how easy the site is to use, etc. I do wish that her icons included general price ranges for the store, not just shipping, but this is a relatively small quibble, as one can generally tell from the reviews how high-brow a store will be. While some of the retailers were familiar to me, many of them were not – whole worlds of cool sites to browse opened up! I don’t plan to buy it for myself, especially as they come out with a new edition every year, but it’s definitely worth checking out at the library.