wow. gotta say, for space opera this is real crackerjack stuff. right up there with the novelization of star wars from way back in the day. i mean, don't get me wrong, i love r.a. salvatore, but he writes about drow for fuck's sake. and while i suppose there's a certain similarity between spider-worshiping dark elves and lord sidious...
anyway. a distinct advantage of on basilisk station is that it can be read online for free! in fact the entire baen electronic library thing is a blessing to the pecuniarily conservative scifi/fantasy reader. either that or right up there with frogs and locusts as one of the plagues sent against people with too much to do.
another point i quite appreciate about this book is that the space battles are actually... i hesitate to say realistic... but the first thing everyone does when red alert is sounded is jump into their environment suit thingies so if the area of the ship they're in gets opened to space their brains don't pop out through their eye sockets. and the military has actually put some thought into the fact that a space battle would be pretty bumpy - there are stabilizer frames attached to every station so, say, the tactical officer can keep firing weapons because he won't get knocked out of his seat.
also honor harrington, the heroine of the tale, makes janeway look like a fainting lily of a captain. when i say harrington has balls, i'm talking 10 pound cannon shot. </evilstan> <!--11:04 PM-->
well i'm torn. this is a beautiful book full of wonderful patterns. any of them would take me literally years to knit, but are so gorgeous they're worth it. on the other hand there's some nasty politics surrounding the author/designer of this book. never say the knitting world doesn't have a sordid underbelly.
if you are a knitter i would not suggest getting this for yourself unless you find a cheap version - it's out of print so good luck - or are a rabid fan of SWMNBN, fair-isle or cablework. instead find a knitting friend and beg to borrow hir copy.
in other knitting news, as soon as i'm done with this baby sweater i'm working on for my boy's little niece, i'm thinking about making up a strongbad sweater. in a nice poofy yarn so it will go quickly. yeah. </evilstan> <!--9:00 PM-->
first, gotta say, this is one of those evil books where i stayed up until 3 to finish the last 10 chapters. in the face of really needing to study for the psychology gre. so be warned.
ok, loved this book for a few reasons.
first, it's all epic and stuff - it's the first book of the third series (the seventh book of a nonology?) dealing with the same world and to some extent the same set of characters. and yet unlike... oh, say, wheel of time... it's not managed to get dull. this is aided by the overall structure of the series: the first three follow young fitzchivalry farseer, a bastard royal son, as he makes his way in the court of his grandfather and becomes apprentice to the royal assassin; the second set move about 2 countries south and describe several members of an influential merchant family as all kinds of upheavals happen; this third set is back to fitzchivalry but he's now in his 30s and let's just say the relationship dynamics of court have changed for him.
second, it has the most wonderful central character in the whole wide world. ok, perhaps i exaggerate, but i'm not even going to try to explain because i wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone who might want to read this. just trust me on this.
third, there's just enough homoerotic tension between the above character and one of the other central characters to make me glowy and bouncy. it's not crass, just really sweet. i'm praying that it'll be consumated in book 9, but i don't think that's hobb's style.
unfortunately that's about all the describing i can do because fool's errand is rather fundamentally tied to the previous books. but check out the farseer trilogy [assassin's apprentice, royal assassin, & assassin's quest] and the liveship traders trilogy [ship of magic, mad ship, & ship of destiny]. then look up this one again. and believe me when i say that even if hobb can't pick a good title to save her life, she can write a wonderful story. </evilstan> <!--2:25 AM-->
<evilstan> sooner or later, when i get my shit further together (or possibly when i want to procrastinate from gre studying...) this will be a recently-read-books log - with reviews and links and the whole enchilada.
won't that be fun!!! </evilstan> <!--12:51 AM-->
/archives
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