Cities In Flight

by on May 9, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This is a four-in-one of a series of James Blish novels. They’re all in the same universe, but only get truly related to each other later.

The first book, They Shall Have Stars, takes place in an early twenty-first century as seen from about 1956. This means there’s all sorts of technical oddities, but the meat of the story is an interesting take. The United States has grown so paranoid about security that everything is split up into little bits that don’t get to talk to each other. Notably, this has happened to science, and since technical progress depends on peer review, and other methods relying on the free flow of information, progress is grinding to a halt. The plot then revolves around a clandestine effort inside the government to squeeze out a couple last breakthroughs, so a young generation can go riding off into the sunset.

The second book, A Life for the Stars, takes place near the year 3000, and a decent chunk of the galaxy has been colonized by humanity in a couple of waves, thanks to the anti-gravity devices developed in the first book. Earth is seriously depleted of its natural resources, and apparently most of the cities have left for the stars, looking for places to work. Which means all these ‘cities’ are really just the major production centers; steel towns and the like, and there’s no reason why a financial, service, or administration center would need to (or rather, be able to) pick up and leave like that. Of course, the main city the remaining three books follow is former financial hub New York…. But, the story itself the best of the bunch, with a well-done coming of age theme.

What’s odd is that the main character of that book gets killed off-screen in between books, even though he could have made it (this looks to be a result of the stories that make up the second book being written later, necessitating writing him out). But the last two are further adventures of New York City (or at least Manhattan), focusing on the Mayor, who is just a secondary character before this. The fourth book (The Triumph of Time) has some of the oddest feel to it, as it’s kind of Blish’s extended farewell to the universe and characters of the first book. It also really runs into modern physics problems as modern cosmology renders the initial seed of the problem nonsense.

Earthman, Come Home is probably the longest, and most extensive plot of the series, and really shows its origins as a series of short stories stitched together. It indulges in lots action-adventure, and saving the day through engineering. Now, for that sort of thing, it is very well done, and overall hangs together well. Its the real core of the series, and works well as such.

I have to say, when I’d heard of antigravity and flying cities… this isn’t at all what I had in mind. My thoughts were far more down to Earth, with the engineering of cities where vertical distance, and the ground below not being a real concern… not space-opera concepts of ‘cities’ as interstellar vessels. However, in its own axioms, the stories do well, and I can see why its one of the classics.

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Sassanian Elite Cavalry AD 224-642

by on May 3, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Cavalry has nearly always been the prestige arm in the military, so the Osprey Elite book on the Sassanian empire is indeed focused on the ‘elite’ branch of their military. It does also touch on the rest of it, but the noble-based savaran cavalry is the focus.

The book starts with a very good look at pre-Sassanian cavalry, and how that shaped their units. A recurring theme is how much Parthian influence there was early in Sassanian rule, and how that shifted over time to northern Iranian influences. Unfortunately, while there’s a good amount of talk about things like this, and how the cavalry was generally equipped, there is no timeline, and most of this feels kind of nebulous (the lack of a good map doesn’t help).

I imagine the problem is a lack of written records. We’re getting outside of the realm where Roman sources are plentiful, and a fair amount of the photographs in the book are of various stellae… that are highly weathered or damaged. There’s also a couple of excellent metal plates, and a couple statuettes. The late Angus McBride’s art is great as always, and my only problem is actually on the cover. Sources describe something meant to fire five arrows at a time, but there’s no surviving evidence of what it was like, I don’t buy the idea used in that plate.

Six major campaigns are covered in the last chapter, most of which are often covered in other books. Three of them are familiar from the Roman side of things, and the last section is the career of Khosrow II, well known from his defeat of Eastern Rome, being defeated in turn, and the Arab conquest. In between, there’s a short discussion of the Peroz’s defeat of the Hephthalite Huns (which gets talked about with the Huns), and finally the campaigns of Bahram Chobin and Smbat Bagratuni, which are the most interesting part of the chapter.

So, it feel less grounded than most Osprey books, but as ever, the visual reference is good. At the same time, this is a subject without a lot of attention in English, so it is a good primer.

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Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire

by on April 25, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Another book bought because of non-selective Kindle sale buying. And a worthwhile one as it turns out.

This is a fairly interesting look at the highest level of British society at the end of the 18th Century. As a biography, everything stays centered around Georgiana herself, and it stays strictly focused on her life. However, along the way, this brings in the Regency crisis, Whig politics, the French Revolution (at somewhat of a distance, but she was in France for some of the opening parts), and high fashion.

Naturally, the bulk of the book is still the more expected soap-opera of unhappy marriages, lovers, gambling—and some astonishingly large gambling debts—friends, rivals, and and the stresses of producing and raising children. Georgiana is treated very sympathetically, and Foreman has a great liking for her. This is fine, and frankly despite some problems, she is a person who it is easy to sympathize with, being generally a progressive person for her era, with her faults more lying in the realm of lack of self-control, than any actual desire to cause problems.

So, it’s a fairly engaging, but fairly long, look at an important period in history, from someone who is a bit more central than might be immediately supposed. I recommend it if you already have some interest and knowledge of the period. It adds a nice personal touch.

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The Honorable Barbarian

by on April 18, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The problem with shopping in used book stores is finding only the middle parts of series. However, it turned out that the fifth and final volume of de Camp’s Novarian books is a good place to start, because it picks up with a brand new main character. There’s a good number of references to the earlier books (often as stories told), but it’s by no means dependent on them.

Kerin, our new main character, gets into trouble with one of the looser respectable ladies of the area, and needs to take an extended trip. This powers the action of the rest of the novel, as he sets out for the east on an industrial espionage tour (he’s trying to find the secret of a better clock escapement).

And… this eventually comes up, near the end of the novel, and in a slightly unrelated note, the rest of the plot collapses into a conclusion shortly thereafter. The bulk of it is really more wandering travelogue, with somewhat episodic adventures, and a fair amount of humor. And also a fair amount of archaic speech. One of de Camp’s passions was history, and I think he does it to get more into the feel of the time and culture that his world is based around, but it does take quite a bit of getting used to.

It’s probably the closest I’ve read to a Myth Adventures book in some time. It’s certainly not the same (the brand of humor is different), but it’s aimed at the same light-hearted adventure on the road feel. It has also reminded me that I need to read more of de Camp’s books, and that there’s a number I’ve meant to get to. Overall, the tone is good, though certainly with a bit of male wish-fulfillment, and and the archaicisms are the toughest part to get into.

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Winter King

by on April 2, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Henry Tudor is a familiar name to students of English history, especially the military side of it. Henry VII is actually a less familiar figure, despite being the same person.

So, a book on Henry VII’s reign seemed like a good way to fill in the ‘hole’ between the Wars of the Roses and the ever-popular Henry VIII. And Penn’s Winter King does a very good job at that.

I would not call this a biography. Henry VII was fairly remote as a king, watching from afar, and generally letting others be the primary face of government. Similarly, you don’t get an up-close and personal view of him here. You do see a lot of him, and his drives. The book starts with a fairly brief overview of the time leading to Bosworth, and gives an idea of how that shaped him. More importantly, it spends a fair amount of time and attention on just how unstable England was after Bosworth. No one yet knew that the trading of the throne from one faction to another had come to an end, and there were still plenty of people that the next rebellion could center around (even if some of them had to be made up for the purpose).

Much of the book therefore focuses on Henry VII’s efforts at control. This turned more and more to economic means, which people fined and held to that debt as a promise of good behavior. The truly disturbing part of this is that it was all extra-judicial, operating outside all the traditional forms of accusations and trials of Common Law. It also shows a deep concern for money matters, and Henry VII was throwing around some vast sums on the continent effectively trying to bribe/finance his way to international deals, particularly ones involving pretenders to the English throne.

One thing I do wish the book had gone into more was the flow of money. It gets touched on a lot, and there’s much that would be hard to say with certainty, but just enough is said to bring up the topic for further interest. One thread in the middle of things deals with the illegal alum trade, which Henry VII made a fair amount of money on, and was part of the shape of international diplomacy.

So, there’s a few dropped threads in what is, after all, a layman’s history. And it does a good job of covering a lot of aspects of the subject, going into the stable transition of power to his son, and perhaps leaving you wanting that little bit more. Definitely a great book to round out understanding of the end of the Fifteenth Century.

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