![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What I read recently:
Libriomancer by Jim Hines. I picked this up after following the author's blog for a while, because he has been saying interesting things about feminism, science fiction, and conventions. Libriomancer is a fannish sort of romp: the system of magic in this book practically requires Hines to toss in allusions to lots of his favorite books, and other people's favorite books, and a few books that don't actually exist. The hypothesis is that if enough people read the same book—meaning not just the same words, but the same edition, so a paragraph starts at the same point on page 25 for everyone—it becomes real enough that the magically talented can reach into the book, take things, and use them. Things like weapons that haven't been invented yet, or powerful healing potions. There are limits on the power, of course, but it's a nice set-up for complicated interactions among libriomancers (who get along better than some fictional magicians, but are hardly a unified force), fantasy monsters, and a couple of hundred kinds of vampire, all slightly different. The book is mostly set on Michigan's Upper Peninsula; the hero works in a small-town library, and doesn't much like cities. I both liked the ending, and found it plausible; it's also a good jumping-off point for the next book, which I plan to read.
What I am reading
Volcanoes of the Cacades: their rise and their risks, by Richard L. Hill. Once this gets into the mountain-by-mountain descriptions, it's somewhat repetitive, in a way that suggests the author expected most people to read the first 16 pages, and then skip to their favorite mountain, or maybe skip the introduction and just read three of the short entries on individual volcanoes. So the basic terminology for volcanic hazards is re-defined in every chapter, which is jutifiable, but we really don't need the same not-very-interesting legend about three of the volcanoes having formerly been two brothers and the woman they both loved.
(It's still Wednesday on this coast.)
Libriomancer by Jim Hines. I picked this up after following the author's blog for a while, because he has been saying interesting things about feminism, science fiction, and conventions. Libriomancer is a fannish sort of romp: the system of magic in this book practically requires Hines to toss in allusions to lots of his favorite books, and other people's favorite books, and a few books that don't actually exist. The hypothesis is that if enough people read the same book—meaning not just the same words, but the same edition, so a paragraph starts at the same point on page 25 for everyone—it becomes real enough that the magically talented can reach into the book, take things, and use them. Things like weapons that haven't been invented yet, or powerful healing potions. There are limits on the power, of course, but it's a nice set-up for complicated interactions among libriomancers (who get along better than some fictional magicians, but are hardly a unified force), fantasy monsters, and a couple of hundred kinds of vampire, all slightly different. The book is mostly set on Michigan's Upper Peninsula; the hero works in a small-town library, and doesn't much like cities. I both liked the ending, and found it plausible; it's also a good jumping-off point for the next book, which I plan to read.
What I am reading
Volcanoes of the Cacades: their rise and their risks, by Richard L. Hill. Once this gets into the mountain-by-mountain descriptions, it's somewhat repetitive, in a way that suggests the author expected most people to read the first 16 pages, and then skip to their favorite mountain, or maybe skip the introduction and just read three of the short entries on individual volcanoes. So the basic terminology for volcanic hazards is re-defined in every chapter, which is jutifiable, but we really don't need the same not-very-interesting legend about three of the volcanoes having formerly been two brothers and the woman they both loved.
(It's still Wednesday on this coast.)
Tags: