Children of the Sky

by on July 22, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

A Fire Upon the Deep is an important novel that SF fans really should read. I think, like Niven’s Ringworld, it’s a flawed book with really good ideas. Like Ringworld, it also has a much better sequel.

The original book had two completely different plots centered around different, very interesting ideas. It was obvious that the one plot was moving toward the other, but only because they were appearing in the same book. There was no actual causal relationship between the two, so the book was extremely disjointed until right near the end. That does not happen here, and the plot is well structured throughout. At the same time, not everything gets truly addressed this time, so let us hope the next book does not take another twenty years.

One thing that helps both books, is that in the end they are character focused. I think that’s part of why this book focuses on the Tines, and examines more of the ways that their pack intelligence operates; the Blight and the entire zones of thought side can be fairly impersonal, and harder to do a more human-level story around. However, that part still drives conflict, and that is part of what isn’t resolved here, and it looks like Vinge is well set up for a fight over what to do about the Blight, how to do anything about it, and to delve into the entire nature of the ‘zones of thought’ in the future.

Another problem I had with the original book was being a long slog of a lot of depressing content. All the main characters are in horrible situations, and don’t have a whole lot of agency about it. This book does some of the same, but the characters retain a good sense of agency along the way. Yeah, things go from bad to worse, the fractures in the tiny remnant of human society are worse than it first appears, but all along there are possibilities, and one more card for the main characters to play.

My biggest problem was that it has been more than twenty years since I read A Fire Upon the Deep, and while I remembered some parts, there were a few things that came up here that I had forgotten completely. Vinge takes his time with this book, so while there’s a certain amount of being thrown in the deep end, I think new readers will get a good feel for what’s going on before the plot really gets going. That said, this is a direct sequel to another book, and I do recommend having read it first.

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Medieval Maritime Warfare

by on July 16, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

It is hard, at first glance, to see just what a book dedicated to naval (actually, the ‘maritime’ of the title is a better fit than ‘naval’…) warfare in the Middle Ages would have to say. However, Stanton has done a good job of rounding out the subject, and presents it well.

He starts with an excellent introduction, which lays out a few things: First he talks of the Olympias, the modern recreation of the classical trireme, and things that will carry over to later galleys, such as the need for great amounts of fresh water for a crew operating for hours in an extremely enervating environment, namely about one metric ton of water for the crew of a trireme per day. Available cargo space says that about four days of water would be on board at best. This says much the need for any sort of galley fleet to have access to the shore for replenishing water.

There is then a discussion of how the classic trireme had become outmoded in this period, as ships became more robust (in the Mediterranean; they were always more solid in northern Europe to have a chance of surviving outside the relatively placid waters of an inland sea), and ramming was no longer sufficient to break hulls. I’m a little surprised that classical rams weren’t retained to break oars and the like, but it looks like warfare shifted to boarding actions and archery.

Overall, the book is broken into two major sections, one on the Mediterranean, and one on the North Sea, Baltic, and English Channel. Both are relatively chronological, but not exclusively so. And the subjects are indeed ‘maritime’ in nature; much of the book is really about various land-based wars, but they still have an important sea-based component. Some parts, like the conflicts between Genoa and Pisa are actually naval in character. And the War of the Sicilian Vespers is about land (control of Sicily), but much of the war was decided by naval actions in the best Mahanian tradition.

I found the book very informative, and while it informed me well on a few subjects I don’t have any real background in, I do recommend having a basic knowledge of European history in this period before going to something more specialized like this. I was also a bit annoyed by his constant giving of basic stats (generally length and beam) of various types of ships known to be used at various times and places, but only because that info is hard to place by itself. I would have appreciated a few diagrams showing some relative sizes and general layouts (for the ones we know…). That’s more the province of a naval encyclopedia, but it was hard to keep that generally useful info straight in a pure reading.

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The Final Reflection

by on July 8, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

I’ve long known of The Final Reflection as one of the better Star Trek novels, but I’ve only recently gotten a chance to find out for myself.

It lives up to the reputation.

These days, it needs to be remembered that this came out in 1984, when the known universe was all original series-related, plus 15 years of fan development. At that point the Klingons were still under-developed, and this novel does a great job with one of the first looks at them from the inside. Ideas like the “Black Fleet” still show up in number of places.

The book itself is multi-layered, with a frame showing that The Final Reflection is a novel that exists at the time of TOS, an in-universe “Researcher’s Note” explaining that while fiction, it’s based on as much info as the author could get about events (an amazing number of people were just not available for interviews…) of around forty years previous. And then there’s the novel itself.

There’s some interesting decisions made. The Klingons are generally more advanced than the Federation (they have transporters first, their ships are generally more powerful), and seemingly have been in space longer than Earth, though looking between the lines, the Federation is probably catching up.

The central plot of the book doesn’t get going until late, and just what is going on in a couple places is obscure, with the main character apparently having been several steps ahead of everyone else… and that was largely off-screen. But the real purpose is to present the Klingon world-view. And this is 250 pages of that, and all of it is excellent. John M. Ford could definitely write, and one of his strengths was to take someone else’s world and make it his own by fleshing out a part of it. This book is largely overwritten by later Trek lore, but is well worth a read on its own strengths.

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The King’s Own

by on June 26, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Covenants, the first book of Lorna Freeman’s Borderlands series circles around and comes to an end pretty much where it started. The King’s Own picks up very shortly after this, and has the further adventures of Rabbit after the Border Patrol returns to Freston.

However, while Rabbit is still the central character, there’s a fairly extensive changeover in the rest of the cast. Some carry over, but Suiden and most of Rabbit’s unit are largely absent as Rabbit gets transferred from the Border Patrol (Horse) to the King’s Own Guard. This means that King Jusson IV and his inner circle take over as the bulk of the supporting cast, and the King is visiting as part of a progress to make sure everything’s nailed down after some of the events of the first book.

Of course, Freston, a place so safe that politically sensitive officers and men can be assigned to it isn’t safe. Whereas the first book was an extended trip with three major locales during the course of it, everything here happens in or around Freston itself. There’s some really annoying parts, where important happenings get basically ignored for other events until things circle around and the first bit bites everyone again. There’s a lot of that here, and one part of it is more a problem with delivery. Someone is trying to meddle with Rabbit through his dreams, and this doesn’t really go anywhere because, well, they’re dreams, and Rabbit doesn’t have any clear memory of them when he wakes up. But it’s told clearly with Rabbit’s normal lucid narrative, so you get even more info that the characters aren’t acting on.

However, some of the problems of the first book are much improved. Freeman had a habit of dropping wild, over-dramatic pronouncements as a end-of chapter… ‘cliffhanger’, and then the next chapter would pick up a few minutes later after things have been partially sorted out and calmed down again. There’s some true cliffhangerish bits here, but the bait-and-switch melodrama is gone, which really makes the entire book flow better.

As can be expected, there’s a fairly large cast, lots of action, lots of Rabbit (less, actually) being clueless, and something of a pretty creepy mystery for the first half. Sadly, there is still something of a habit of perfectly competent bad guys suddenly throwing out their smarts in a panic when Rabbit gets near, though there’s much better reasons for most of that this time. Overall, still an extremely good story, with some real improvements over the original.

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Patricians and Emperors

by on June 10, 2019 at 12:00 pm
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Hughes provides a good overview of the end of the western Empire in this volume. He does analyze things, and come to conclusions, but the primary focus is providing a chronological outline of events.

That latter is the primary value as it can be hard to find any coherent look at the four decades from the death of Aetius to the death of Odovacer. There’s no central figure, which is part of the point, political power and fortunes were so fractured by this period that no one entirely rises above the other players.

However, Ricimer (who should be more prominent in synopses of this era) does provide the central focus for part of this book (enough so that I wonder if Hughes really should have focused in a little bit more and done a book purely on him). He is generally considered to have been the ‘power behind the throne’ for, oh, maybe fifteen years, and often takes the fall for the instability of the West. Hughes gives good reasons to believe that this is not the case, and that his actions were often in response to other political pressures.

This largely comes down to the Roman Senate, which, like in his book on Stilicho, takes the blame for a fair number of ills without introducing any real evidence. He may reference some pertinent sources in the end notes (which I have not gone through), but there is nothing in the main body. Nobody from the senate is mentioned by name. No description of what the senate was like in the Fifth Century is provided. Now he ascribes the senators as a whole with motives that are likely (protecting their own position, and the safety of their own lands), but there’s nothing here to actually support these assertions, so it’s nothing more than an axiom of the book.

Other than that hole, there’s a lot of interest here. Beyond any problems with the Senate, problems of the division of the Empire between East and West are made manfest. Thanks to a lack of a stable dynasty, and a horde of ongoing problems, in the West, the Eastern Empire has become the senior political partner, which ends up crucially weakening the West. Any time an Emperor dies (too common), there is a wait while the choice of a new Western Emperor is coordinated with the East. If the Eastern court doesn’t care for what’s going on, political and military support can get withdrawn, which leaves the West’s leadership high and dry. Additionally, Marcellinus maintains an almost independent existence as comes rei militaris Dalmatiae for almost this entire period as he’s supported by the East, but refuses to work with Ricimer’s administration of the West.

And of course, at the same time there is growing ‘barbarian’ influence in the territories outside Italy and Dalmatia. The book has about one map per chapter showing the slowly shifting patterns of who had control of what. Now, these groups are settled in the Empire by agreement, and acknowledge it’s authority. Mostly. Even the better actors, like the Visigoths under Theoderic acted largely independently of the administration in Italy, even when pursing the same goals. Meanwhile, Vandal kingdom in Africa raided Italy regularly, and the book shows two attempts to counterinvade that came apart utterly, and likely recriminations did much to make the situation in Italy worse. Hughes figures Gaiseric to be the most able leader and diplomat of the period to explain his long stable reign, and the Empire’s inability to reclaim Africa.

Hughes sticks to a largely chronological format, which means he doesn’t give any one subject his full attention as nothing got wrapped up neatly within one year. Mostly, this is well handled, but with some real long-term trends going on here, I think seeing something concentrating on just one of them would be a real plus. I don’t recommend this one for a more casual read because of this, but it is definitely a great framework for anyone in an interest in the last years of the Western Empire.

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