For a long time, waterways were the only meaningful passages from one place to another. Roads might do in a pinch, but water was much faster and easier. Canals have been used throughout history to get this fact to work[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Archive for Books
This is a bit complicated. First, at a hundred pages (plus an appendix that really is part of the novel) this is pretty much in novella territory. Really though, it’s a jumble of short stories with the same inciting event.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The second prequel novella is sadly the last so far. It’s obvious there should be a third story, but after nine years, all we have is an independent side story, so I am worried that we will never get the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There’s a few things Miller’s book is about. Most centrally, it is about the Gag Rule, or really, the series of Gag Rules about slavery in the US House of Representatives in the 1830s. It is also about the birth[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Doing a story that hops back and forth between two distinct storylines is difficult. It’s done quite well here. There’s a lot of very deliberate parallels (in fact, this is brought up inside the novel), which help strengthen the structure.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I had thought Zamoyski’s book was just on the Congress of Vienna, but I should have taken a better look at the subtitle, which is accurate. Zamoyski starts the action in December 1812, with Napoleon racing into the Tuileries just[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This TNG novel is set in early fourth season (an actual stardate is given at the end), and was written in that period. The series had settled down into a long haul of success, and the novels are doing better.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The second Lost Fleet novel continues on from the first. It is more of the same: space opera military SF that is well-crafted all the way around. Now, while it is more of the same, Campbell is definitely paying attention[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
For most of the series, “English-speaking peoples” means “English”, but for Churchill’s final volume this really widens the scope, with the United States being an ever more important entity through out the time period of the book. However, the first[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The fifth Queen’s Thief book shifts main character again, this time to Kamet, who was last seen rescuing his master and fleeing back the Mede Empire near the end of Queen of Attolia. And he gets teamed up with Costis,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…