So I finished this like a week ago but I’ve been putting of writing a review because a) I’m not sure what to say b) there’s too much to say and c) I don’t have the energy to try and say it all.  So this will be about 10% as long as it should be.

First:

Every US citizen should be obligated to read this book, probably senior year of high school.  I would say first year of college, but so many don’t make it to college that I think HS has to be the place for it.  Of course, a 900 page history book is probably a pretty epic undertaking for many HS students soo…. I dunno.  A semester long class on it?  Is that too much to ask?  I mean, I had to take a (somewhat pointless) quarter long class called “California Today” that was ostensibly some kind of history class but I don’t remember jack shit of it.  I guarantee you that if I had a class on this book, I’d remember some of it.

Second:

The above is obviously not going to happen, so instead I’ll say that anyone with a serious interest in a) current politics b) race relations in this country or c) how the hell we got to be the way we are (see, I’m on a 3 point list thing today!) really should read this book.  It is not at all boring.  It is the most engrossing, interesting history book I have ever read, and the prose is better than a decent portion of the fiction I’ve read.  Even though it took me a while to read, I still moved through it like I would a good novel – excepting that I needed more time to process a lot of the stuff in there.

Third:

I can’t make anyone read this book.  But seriously, if you’re (as an American, primarily) going to read one history book in your life, make it this one.  a) I’m sure there must be a better history book out there but b) I haven’t seen it yet and c) if I do, I will most certainly tell you about it but d) I kinda doubt I’ll run into such a thing.  The subject matter and quality of scholarship and writing here are just well, good.

Hah!  Confused you with that 4 part list there eh?  Thought I was going to do a three-quence of threes didn’t you?  Well.

FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS

What else is there to say?  To list the number of “new” things I encountered in this book that I was previously unaware of would be like forcing you to watch a movie of me sleeping on a night when I have bad gas.

For Civil War aficionados, this is maybe not the the same kind of mind-blowing history that it was for me, as a historical novice.  So my recommendation is primarily for folks like me with a passing interest in history, and a  more consuming interest in modern race relations and the like.

“Of course it’s not!”  you say, “This is gripping shit!”

Sure, fine, but that’s you.  If you asked my what I read on an average day last year I would have said “genre fiction, random non-fiction, and histories of places other than the US”.  Because it just seemed much less interesting than other places to which I had little exposure, I suppose. Still, I’ve read a handful of US history books and am slowly working my way through the span of our existence as a nation.

They have all been interesting to one degree or another, but none of them has really gripped me (although Zinn’s People’s History was close).  But then last night I find the clock getting late and myself pushing forward through a book about the freaking Civil War.  This would have been anathema (similar in sound to the book I just took a break in the middle of: Anathem.  Hah!) to me a decade, or even maybe 5 years ago.  The older I get I guess, the more I want to understand how we got here as a country, partially for my own benefit and partially so I can be a better father to my kids.

My point?  Oh yeah.  BCoF is really well written and covers an extremely interesting (maybe the most interesting) period in the history of our wonderful and $%#%ed up country.  Random things I didn’t know (try not to laugh, I told you already I was never into US history):

• How, when & why West Virginia split from Virginia
• that Missouri and Maryland were “slave” states (but they didn’t secede).
• all the drama involving the creation of Kansas as a free or slave state.  Wow.
• how ill-prepared both armies were at the outset of the war

It’s also really interesting to see political doublespeak at work  – some things never change!  In a way, this is a good thing.  It’s somewhat encouraging to know that politicians have always avoided saying what they actually believe, but still continued working toward those goals.  One example: the way various parties and groups temporarily avoided mentioning the slavery issue so they could form certain alliances, while still driving toward abolition.  I mean, in some ways it seems kind of gross – glossing over something so hugely important, but when you take the political climate and state of the country into account, maybe it was the best/only way?  See: keeping Kentucky from seceding and Lincoln’s “I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky!” and the strategic importance of that, etc.

There have been a number of points in the narrative thus far where I’ve been emotionally moved by seemingly trivial details.  Totally unexpected.  I think I mentioned a while back – yeah, here it is – that being a parent totally changed the way my emotions work and/or added to them.  Some junk.  Anyway, short story: I get more affected by things than I used to.  And man, are there some *things* going on when you start talking about the Civil War & the buildup.

I’m only 1/3 or so into the book, so the war has just started.  I mean, we can safely say we know what the outcome was but wow… already I can see how things could have gone different in so many ways.  History is the most beautiful of accidents.

More when I finish, or maybe earlier.

There are many different ways to judge the quality of a book, I think.  Some stand out on a technical level, others shine in their mastery of wordcraft, or worldbuilding, or believable characters.  There’s also “emotional impact”, or something like that.  And, regardless of the other aspects of quality – if a book impacts me emotionally (in a positive way… you know not like making me want to burn it) I’m going to have to call that quality.

This book hit me in two places, the first of which was a surprise.  The second was the ending, so that was somewhat expected – especially as the closing book in a trilogy.  Based on those two hits alone, this book is four stars, but it has plenty of merit beyond that.  The pre-historic (but not prehistoric) world and it’s literal battle with the ice(age) is vividly done, the lead and three supporting characters each get a good amount of time and growth over the course of the trilogy, and the magic system is the only one of it’s kind I’ve seen so far (no actual “spells”, everything is crafted/enchanted by “smiths”) and really works quite well within the bounds of the setting.

Another kind of interesting thing about my experience with these books was that with each one I went into it expecting to be bored – even with the second and third, after I’d had the exact same expectations about the previous ones, I STILL had that feeling.  Something about the world – on paper it doesn’t sound quite as interesting as it actually is in words. So, another achievement for the author there.  Also, he does a great job of making the reader empathic to the leads pain – and he undergoes something in this book that still makes me physically cringe just to think about (no it’s not necessarily torture… just something incredibly painful that I haven’t encountered in a book yet, nor wish to again O.O).

SO.  In closing.  I highly recommend this series to fans of “classic” style epic fantasy.  Very much in the vein of Lord of the Rings… but I found it more approachable than that.

FOUR STARS

A NOTE ABOUT MY RATING SYSTEM: Yes, my rating system actually goes to FIVE, but I’m really fucking stingy with anything over four.  Even four is an achievement.  You need some seriously nuts stuff to get over FOUR, like the Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time or Reality Dysfunction series.  So, while this series is very well crafted, and was a wonderful read, it did lack a little in the mind blowing department.  But that’s ok.  If everything was awesome, awesome wouldn’t be so awesome.

ONWARD!

I’m guessing that one is about someone who bathes at night?  In front of a stained glass window?  Or something?  I mean, the cover must tell us something about the book right?  Oh, that there’s a dark haired woman in it.  OK.  (Because even the most egregious of fantasy covers usually at least shows you stuff that’s in the book.  Big, buff dude with sword? CHECK!)

Oh, and it looks like I already mentioned the above cover in the previous post.  The fact that there isn’t more overlap in two random samples probably says exactly what I want it to.

So, there’s obviously something going on, at least in some marketing departments.  They are signaling something here, but what?  That even in moonlight it’s still warm enough to wear a short shirt?

More with the backs.  I’m guessing these are supposed to be “classier” but uhh.  Does she strip a lot for plot reasons?  Is she a concubine?  Does this belong on the fantasy section or did it sneak over from romance?  I guess not, because there’s not a dude on the cover.  Maybe it’s some kind of new genre about self-romance?

I know I’ve heard this series mentioned favorably by urban fantasy readers… but I have a sneaking suspicion most of them are really reading them as paranormal romances.  I just can’t take it seriously with those covers.  I mean, the Dresden Files books have atrocious photo-realistic covers as well, but at least the dude is dressed.  Is this making me sound like a prude?

<.<

>.>

But seriously.  These covers are not pinups how?  Maybe that’s intentional and there’s no shame.  So that’s cool too.  But I’m just saying.  I mean, I guess fantasy covers have been decked out with half naked dudes forever, so this really should be cool, but it’s somehow unsettling.  It definitely feels like I’m in the romance section half the time.  Which is fine, except that’s totally not where I was trying to be.

Yes, this bookstore files horror with fantasy and sci-fi.  That might explain some of this (horror includes some paranormal romance type stuff like the Laurell K. Hamilton books, etc. these days), except that I’m pretty sure all the covers in question are ones I’ve seen in other books stores that don’t jumble stuff up.

So the one of the left looks like a standard fantasy cover.  Then the next two… midriff exposed? CHECK.  Photorealistic?  CHECK.  Girl leaning on sports car? WTF.

OK.  The one on the left.  Umm.  Maybe?  Kinda?  If the LOWER BACK TATTOO wasn’t, you know, existing?  But then the one on the right?  She doesn’t even deserve for her entire face to be seen evidently.  Because.  The belly tattoo evidently tells you all you need to know.  Which is probably true?

So what am I getting it?  I think I’m being genre-ist.  I think paranormal romance should be filed under romance.  Why?  Because … I’m going out on a limb here … but I *suspect* that most people browsing the fantasy/sci-fi (and even the horror section, where some of this also dwells) are not looking for romance.  Because then they would be in the romance section.  Because uh, Wheel of Time filed under romance?  I mean, there is a ton of romance there.  Right?  So it should be in romance right?  No.  Because why?  Because I’m too tired to explain it to you if you really need me to.  Maybe later.

Urban fantasy works in fantasy just fine.  The epic themes, confrontations & characters are all part and parcel of the fantasy world.  Hell, Zelazny did what we’d now call “urban fantasy” with his later Amber novels IIRC.   So far, the Dresden Files are the only modern urban fantasy I’ve read that I think fits here.  I’m sure there’s more. *fingers crossed*

Publishers/whoever labels books to be sold:  please stop.  Paranormal romance != urban fantasy.

That is all.

Oh no, wait.  Also: I hate photo-realistic covers.  Even the ones that “fit” in fantasy/sci-fi (and they work much better for sci-fi).  Especially when you can tell that the cover model was obviously someone’s friend or relative because uh… how else would they get the job?  (Hey – my main character looks like your ugly little sister – the one with the weird shaped head that always dated drunks – let’s use her for the cover!   Yeah.  I’m gonna bet a quarter that no one ever says that.)

Isn’t the point of sf/fantasy to take you AWAY from reality, not bring you closer to it?  (Hence I get why UF/PN covers have these covers… because they want to make it seem more like real life.  BUT STILL.)

So.  I don’t usually read “crime fiction”, or whatever this is.  Mystery?  Maybe?  I mean there was definitely a mystery or four involved.  Anyway, whatever it was I decided to bite the bullet for once and see what all the fuss is about.   And was pleasantly surprised.  The book is 600 pages but reads much faster, like a mid three hundred maybe – and not because things are all fast moving like one might expect in a “thriller” (this might be a thriller, I still don’t have the labeling of the crime/thriller/mystery subgenres mentally sorted) – but rather because the characters and story are genuinely interesting.

Don’t ask why but one moment from an office meeting stands out, where employees are asked to bicker and fight to trick another employee and the speaker tells them not to overdo it and “just be yourselves, but don’t hold back on the bitchiness” or something like that.  Very simple, but it rings solid and true.

Without giving anything away, I’ll say that I figured out pretty early who had to be the bad guy, based on structural conventions – but at the same time I was still surprised when the reveal came – there were some good herrings (without being obvious or purposeful).   There are a couple things you have to accept for the story to work, but I was ok with that.  Nothing too far-fetched (but also nothing I can say without giving away some major spoilers), and certainly nothing as far-fetched as most of the crap I see in “thrillers”.

They made a movie (in Swedish – the book was originally written in Swedish, although I’d bet money on an American version before too long) out of this, and I’ve seen scathing and positive reviews.  Frankly, it’s another book that I don’t think would convert to film well because there is SO MUCH in here and it all feels pretty necessary.  Sure, I can see how they might just grab a couple of the big scenes and.. UGH.  Please don’t make this movie Hollywood.

FOUR STARS

Without being a genre aficionado I can’t say how this holds up or compares, all I can do is rate it based on my enjoyment level and how I feel it holds up character, plot and interest- wise to my usual readings.

Hit the wiki link from the author’s name above.  He’s an interesting guy and it’s a shame he died so young.

The first thing I notice about a history book is how fast it reads, and this one ready pretty fast – I’m guessing some of that is because an average of 1/4 of each page was filled by citations/annotations – most of which I could skip – but even beyond that it was written in an accessible manner and moved through it pretty quickly as these things go.

This book was basically a history of Virginia, with focus on the social and political constructs that paved the way for slavery.    You don’t get to the actual system of slavery until page 275/390ish  so… yeah there’s a lot of other buildup.

Even with the focus on Virginia, the book wasn’t as boring as I would have expected.  The writing style was clear and engaging – and the non-tiny font probably didn’t hurt ;p.

So yeah, not so much focus on slavery itself but there’s a lot of good foundation here – I think when I get to something more specific to slavery itself, this laid some really solid groundwork.    Stuff that should be common knowledge by now  – like the early bonds between white servants and slaves, and the legal and institutional systems the slaveholders enacted to drive the two lower classes apart and solidify the slave caste’s role at the dead bottom of the social ladder.   It’s good to be reminded that the slaveholding lawmakers knew exactly what they were doing when they institutionalized racism.

It’s also interesting to think about the mental circles the founding fathers (a good chunk of whom where Virginian) had to run themselves in in order to justify slavery while at the same time espousing freedom and liberty.

Another thing worth thinking about is the way history has been driven by the wealthy/top classes and their strategies of dealing with “the problem of the poor”….

THREE STARS

I have to say, the opening chapter put me off.  Especially the last page or so, I was like really?  Really? Not only do the apprentice’s master’s sons hate him, but one happens to beat him up and steal the last of his father’s money on the way out of town?  Ugh.  Are we back here again?  I get that this is probably a retelling of the classic poor/apprentice/beggar boy rises to the task of being a hero via steampunk BUT don’t overdo it.  Please.  There are other ways to stack the deck that aren’t so obvious.

Anyway, that aside, I enjoyed the book.  It wasn’t awesome, but it did pull me through it – and that’s the real test.  The characters were engaging enough to keep me reading  – although there was really only 1  actual character – the others all lacked in depth.  We don’t even get a proper motivation for the semi-villain other than a general philosophy (an actual philosophy) that he ascribes to that, by definition, is against what the hero is trying to do.

The world Lake paints here though is crazy interesting.  I mean, the Earth literally moves through space along a GIANT track….the gear teeth form a wall miles (?) high along the equator.  That wall divides the Earth in half (how could it not?) – the north is the more “steampunky” side, complete with dirigible airships, clocks and a funky religion that’s a mashup up of Victorian Christianity and uhh… gears.  Or something.  And the south is the more “magical” side, peopled with a ton of not-exactly-human humanoids, functional magic and other bits and pieces.  So yeah, very visually interesting.

There is a scene or two that wow umm, some people will not be cool with.  Maybe because they are old fashioned or maybe because <SPOILER>.  It surprised me, I’ll admit.  But maybe I’m just a <SPOILER>.   At the core, it’s a simple journey/quest story.  That’s it.  But the journey takes the lead through interesting terrain… potentially interesting terrain at least. Much of it is just skipped/skimmed/flown over and ignored.  Lake throws out so much stuff here that the majority of it gets basically ignored, and we’re left none the wiser.

The ending was… to be expected I suppose given the angelic/deity involvement but still… it was kinda lame.

THREE STARS

I wanted more than it had to give, but what it had was ok.

Another good read that I just tore through, but I’m starting to see a pattern… Maybe it’s just the (now somewhat) practiced writer in me – but her plot shapes are showing.  I suspect this is probably how all books read, more or less – but – I’m really noticing how the action bunches up at the end.  “But this is the climax!?” you say.  I suppose it is, still it seems to rush up so suddenly at the end…

Also, there’s generally a moment of sudden sadness about 2/3 of the way through each book, often a quick and unexpected death, rendered poignant for one reason or another.

This book continues our tour (often by really slow boat, which bugs me but I’m sure is historically sound or some junk :P) around Novik’s world – this time we’re spending more time in Africa, where the slave trade vs. status of dragons in English metaphor continues to grow.

This book ends in a pretty serious cliffhanger too.  I mean, we know the MC won’t actually be executed but, you know, hell of a depressing way to end a book.  There is a general aura of malaise over the whole society – made even more evident from our “modern” perspective where we are much more aware of equality and injustice – and I hope it’s something Novik shifts at some point.  Everything doesn’t need to be depressing, does it?

The continued hints at unexpected qualities of dragons (the way they communicate with eggs, the way they control their mating cycle (?), etc.) and the MCs continued idiotic “proper” behavior which prevents him from asking questions to which we know that Temeraire has answers… THAT needs to end with a quickness.  I’ve always hated that kind of thing – where someone knows the answer, and the answer would save everyone, but the other person just never asks  (for some idiotic reason) while the audience is forced to stew in that?  HATE IT.  Not that it’s that dire here… but I can see how it could get there.  Please don’t go there Ms. Novik!

THREE AND A HALF STARS

I have to admit, I wasn’t particularly excited going into this one.  The whole Napoleon/history thing is just not a lure for me BUT I was pleasantly disabused of the notion of potential boredom.  Especially the last third of the book… that just zipped on by.

I do think that there were a few spots of weakness: the stop over in Turkey seemed to drag a bit (although it contained one of the books most poignant scenes), and the scenes with the Prussian army were maddening to read because JESUS everyone was an idiot.  And by that I mean that the Prussian generals were horrible strategists, or at least wholly unable to adjust to Napoleon’s thinking around them – this may be true to history though, what do I know?  I will say that the series has me at least curious enough about the era to throw it way down on my list of subjects to look into someday.

One angle that I am really enjoying is the whole “dragon emancipation” thing – I’m really excited about where that will lead.  One would think, after the demonstrations of the Chinese, and now the French, that the British would have to take the concept to heart – at bare minimum as something to help them win the war.  But who knows Novik has in mind?

One thing I that I was kind of dismayed by is that I never really got a grasp on any of the crew – other than Granby (2nd lt), the cook, the doctor and the daughter of the other aviator.  They just keep dying across the books and when another one does I’m like “Who?  Who cares?”  They are all red shirts.  This may be intentional, but if not, I hope Novik puts some more into individualizing them in coming books.

THREE AND A HALF STARS

Oh, and I hope Iskierka stays around!  I suspect they’ll just be shuffled off into the corps but a supporting dragon character and perspective would be nice as a foil for Temeraire.  That and, again, Granby is one of the few non red-shirts, hate to lose that.

I’m also really curious about Arkady (?) and the ferals… that alone made me head straight for the reading shelf to see if book 4 was waiting for me.  Alas, it was not – I was initially planning on mixing another history book in between.  Buuuuuuttt, after the drain on my reading time that was Radicalism of the American Revolution… I think I’m down for a genre book.  Or six.

The Radicalism of the American Revolution
by: Gordon S. Wood

It’s hard for me to rate this book, as it was both incredibly difficult/boring to read, yet it also had some really great information and some angles of looking that things that hadn’t occurred to me yet (such as  the  way the shift from monarchy to republic to democracy played out in the minds of Americans, and the way the founding fathers felt about their work just a few decades later).

It is definitely not an introductory text – this is part of what made it difficult for me – it really presupposes a familiarity with the details of the events, the persons involved (famous and obscure…) and the sequence of events itself.  I quickly gave up on trying to identify the context of a given quote, as the author would frequently jump forward and backwards a decade or two (to what one would presume, from the rest of the descriptions, were very different eras) with the quotes.

So yeah, this was more of a … sociological type angle on history than a straight “history book”, although it certainly read like a history textbook in the sense of sleep inducing boredom.

“Not intended for a layman” is the reasoning for that I guess – to someone with all the requisite background information at the brain’s beck and call it might have read a bit differently.

I’m glad I read it, and will use portions for reference in the future, but I can’t honestly give it a high rating because it was one of the most dreadfully boring history “type” books I’ve read.

TWO AND A HALF STARS

(averaging THREE AND A HALF for informational content, ONE AND A HALF for style)