2021 Reading -- October
Nov. 2nd, 2021 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morganminstrelOk, now this is more like it. I wound up finishing the difficult book I spent a lot of September reading, and then was able to get back to it. It's been definitely true that going back to work full time in person has had a significant effect on how much I read, but I'm still pretty happy to track it all!
1. The Nature of Middle Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien/Carl Hostetter, editor. GENRE: Fantasy/Prose. FINISHED: October 7. REVIEW: The last book of Tolkien's Middle Earth notes, this is also one of the few not edited by the late Christopher Tolkien. My big note? FOR SERIOUS NERDS ONLY. This was a difficult read. A rewarding one, sure, but not one I'm sure I can recommend if you're not a serious Tolkien fan. The first section, mainly about the lives of Elves, involved so many math calculations of Valinor Time vs. Middle Earth Time vs. Elvish aging rates...My head definitely spun. Still it's all interesting stuff, fascinating to see where Tolkien's mind was in the last 20 or so years of his life. (Some of the papers date from as late as 1972!) And hey, apparently Aragorn couldn't have had a beard! Who knew?
2. Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds by R.B. Lemberg. GENRE: Fantasy/Prose. FINISHED: October 13. REVIEW: Ok, technically this is a novelette, published in the online magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies. (http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/grandmother-nai-leylits-cloth-of-winds/) But it was so incredibly good, I'm going to mention it here. It's pretty much a prologue to Lemberg's novel, The Four Profound Weaves, and it's just as amazing, just as beautiful, just as full of wonder, and just as stab-you-through-the-heart painful as the novel. Highest recommendation. Seriously.
3. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction September/October 2021 by Various. GENRE: SFF/Prose. FINISHED: October 15. REVIEW: Ok, this issue was excellent. Not only is the ridiculous "industry" column gone, but much of the content would make some morose young canines very unhappy. Lots of queer and queer-adjacent stories, as well as some more general stuff (like one of Matt Hughes' authorized Vance pastiches). Just a very good issue!
4. Game Wizards: the Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons by Jon Peterson. GENRE: RPG History/Prose. FINISHED: October 20. REVIEW: Ok, first of all, this is not a history of the development of D&D. What it is is a history of TSR and the game industry, from just before the original publication of the game to Gary Gygax's ouster in 1985. This book is fantastic. Incredibly readable, even for those not immersed in gaming history. It's certainly not a Gygax pangeac, nor an Arneson tribute. Honestly, it's fair and balanced history, and probably will be the definitive history of this period. (Like the author's "Playing at the World" is the definitive history of game development and design.) Very recommended.
5. Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary Wolf. GENRE: Mystery/Prose. FINISHED: October 25. REVIEW: Technically, this is a reread, but of a book I haven't read since 1988, when I bought it. It was really interesting reading it now; I'd remembered it being very different than the movie (for one thing it focuses on comic strips, not cartoons), but I hadn't remembered all the racism (barely) metaphors throughout. To be honest, parts of that made me a bit uncomfortable--Detective Eddie Valiant is very much a racist--there's no question 'toons stand in for minorities. (There's even a mention of "yellow 'toons being brought in to build the railroads" and "red toons catering the first Thanksgiving" is pretty egregious.) And, of course, the book is very much set when it was written, in the late '70s (it was published in 1981), which removed the "mythic 40s" distancing of the film. All of that being said, it's a mostly engaging mystery, a great hardboiled pastiche, with a very ridiculous solution. I don't know if I can fully recommend it for today's readers though.
6. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain. GENRE: Mystery/Prose. FINISHED: October 27. REVIEW: Another reread, while I waited for more new stuff to come in. I mean, this book is review-proof. It's absolutely fantastic, intricately plotted, wonderfully written. The movie is brilliant, and the book is better than the movie. What else can I say?
And that's it for October! Oddly, no spooky stuff on the list, which I hadn't thought about until now. Onward to November!
1. The Nature of Middle Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien/Carl Hostetter, editor. GENRE: Fantasy/Prose. FINISHED: October 7. REVIEW: The last book of Tolkien's Middle Earth notes, this is also one of the few not edited by the late Christopher Tolkien. My big note? FOR SERIOUS NERDS ONLY. This was a difficult read. A rewarding one, sure, but not one I'm sure I can recommend if you're not a serious Tolkien fan. The first section, mainly about the lives of Elves, involved so many math calculations of Valinor Time vs. Middle Earth Time vs. Elvish aging rates...My head definitely spun. Still it's all interesting stuff, fascinating to see where Tolkien's mind was in the last 20 or so years of his life. (Some of the papers date from as late as 1972!) And hey, apparently Aragorn couldn't have had a beard! Who knew?
2. Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds by R.B. Lemberg. GENRE: Fantasy/Prose. FINISHED: October 13. REVIEW: Ok, technically this is a novelette, published in the online magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies. (http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/grandmother-nai-leylits-cloth-of-winds/) But it was so incredibly good, I'm going to mention it here. It's pretty much a prologue to Lemberg's novel, The Four Profound Weaves, and it's just as amazing, just as beautiful, just as full of wonder, and just as stab-you-through-the-heart painful as the novel. Highest recommendation. Seriously.
3. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction September/October 2021 by Various. GENRE: SFF/Prose. FINISHED: October 15. REVIEW: Ok, this issue was excellent. Not only is the ridiculous "industry" column gone, but much of the content would make some morose young canines very unhappy. Lots of queer and queer-adjacent stories, as well as some more general stuff (like one of Matt Hughes' authorized Vance pastiches). Just a very good issue!
4. Game Wizards: the Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons by Jon Peterson. GENRE: RPG History/Prose. FINISHED: October 20. REVIEW: Ok, first of all, this is not a history of the development of D&D. What it is is a history of TSR and the game industry, from just before the original publication of the game to Gary Gygax's ouster in 1985. This book is fantastic. Incredibly readable, even for those not immersed in gaming history. It's certainly not a Gygax pangeac, nor an Arneson tribute. Honestly, it's fair and balanced history, and probably will be the definitive history of this period. (Like the author's "Playing at the World" is the definitive history of game development and design.) Very recommended.
5. Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary Wolf. GENRE: Mystery/Prose. FINISHED: October 25. REVIEW: Technically, this is a reread, but of a book I haven't read since 1988, when I bought it. It was really interesting reading it now; I'd remembered it being very different than the movie (for one thing it focuses on comic strips, not cartoons), but I hadn't remembered all the racism (barely) metaphors throughout. To be honest, parts of that made me a bit uncomfortable--Detective Eddie Valiant is very much a racist--there's no question 'toons stand in for minorities. (There's even a mention of "yellow 'toons being brought in to build the railroads" and "red toons catering the first Thanksgiving" is pretty egregious.) And, of course, the book is very much set when it was written, in the late '70s (it was published in 1981), which removed the "mythic 40s" distancing of the film. All of that being said, it's a mostly engaging mystery, a great hardboiled pastiche, with a very ridiculous solution. I don't know if I can fully recommend it for today's readers though.
6. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain. GENRE: Mystery/Prose. FINISHED: October 27. REVIEW: Another reread, while I waited for more new stuff to come in. I mean, this book is review-proof. It's absolutely fantastic, intricately plotted, wonderfully written. The movie is brilliant, and the book is better than the movie. What else can I say?
And that's it for October! Oddly, no spooky stuff on the list, which I hadn't thought about until now. Onward to November!
