Book Raves

I read a lot; as many as two or three books a day, sometimes. I'm opinionated. So, who better to rant and rave about books, old and new, in print and out....

I almost exclusively buy paperbacks, so my opinions are bound to be a year or more out-of-date. These days I don't begin to read {x-thousand page novels published in y-volumes} until I have the complete set. This can make me three, four, even seven years behind the times.

(this page is always under construction and subject to change at the whim of a moment)
My apologies to anyone whose web-crawler was looking for a rave m-u-s-i-c (don't want to compound the problem) page, but 'rave' has an ancient and honorable meaning that hasn't quite yet been completely eradicated by current usage.

Jump to
SF
Fantasy
Odd-ball stuff
Mystery/Action/Suspense
Boating
Computers/Internet/Web

SF

• The Homecoming Series from Orson Scott Card. April 1996 and the final volume is out in paperback at last. Card is one of the authors whose books I buy sight-unseen. This can get me into trouble sometimes; I bought the first volume back in January of 1993 without noticing that it was the first volume of a five volume novel. At least Card got paid (by me) for three out of the five volumes. By the time the final volume was published, #2 and #3 were only around in the used bookstores. Someone paid new price for them, but he (and his publisher) could have sold copies to me, also. Too bad, but I can't force them to publish the entire book at one time, and I won't knowingly buy a single novel in pieces.
  
  That said, get it and read it. You won't find another author who is more able to take a big idea set on a big stage and run with it. He has a deft touch with ideas that grab you and make you want to go out and share them with everyone you know. (I could quote until the Copyright Police came for me and still miss the exact ideas that will take you by the shoulders and shake you; there are more than enough for everyone.)
  
  I read the roughly 1800 pages over a two day period. If you can set aside the time to read it in one fell swoop, I recommend it. Total immersion is the best way I've found to absorb a major work like this with its multiple alien (or merely unfamiliar) backgrounds.
  
  A couple of final laments: the proofreading could have been better in the last two books; and by committing the first volumes to print before the final volumes were written, Card missed the opportunity to set up some of the events near the end in such a way as to enhance their significance. This doesn't kill the book -- far from it -- but a few things could have been even better.
  
• The Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold is a lot of fun and worth reading, if you haven't found your way to it yet. These are each complete novels; reading in order is only needed for background material.
  
• As always, my first pick for best SF series (and 20th century Comedy of Manners) is Alexei Panshin's Anthony Villiers series, which includes:
  1. Star Well
  2. The Thurb Revolution
  3. Masque World
  4. The Universal Pantograph (unfortunately, never published)
  If you haven't read these, do so. If you know Alexei Panshin, urge him to complete the series; please! I've read three sets of these books to tatters. Waiting for 25 years for the rest of the story is getting discouraging. Each book is complete in itself, unlike many modern series, but I can't help thinking that TUP might tie up some loose ends, answer some questions, and give me a good read at the same time.
  

Fantasy

• The Spellkey Trilogy by Ann Downer held me spellbound. A remarkably realized world populated with people I cared about. The liner blurb says she wrote these over a period of eighteen years beginning when she was thirteen years old. If so, it may be a while before we see another work from her this finely crafted, but I'll be looking for it.
• Try Stephan Grundy's Rhinegold. Good retelling of the Ring/Volsung stories. He keeps close to the historical events that are recounted in the Sagas and Leids and ties in contemporary figures whenever possible. Great page-turner; this guy has a way of making archaic phrases seem normal. Highly recommended.
• All time favorite has to be Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland/ Through the Looking-Glass. If you think it's just for kids, get Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice and see what you've been missing. Project Gutenberg has this one, and even has the Tenniel illustrations for AIW (but not TTLG) as .gif files. PG: how about getting the rest of the Tenniel illos digitized? BTW, if you get files from Project Gutenberg, send them a little something -- they're doing the digital community a great service. The address is in every file.
  Gutenberg EText Home Page
  
• I enjoyed R. A. MacAvoy's Lens of the World trilogy. Damiano and Tea with the Black Dragon made me willing to wait for this one. Very satisfying piece of work. Sub-genre type: adventures of especially (gifted|trained) person. Lots of flash, clash and glitter with good characterizations.
  
• You will rarely go wrong with any of Dianna Wynne Jones' books. Howl's Moving Castle and Archer's Goon are prime examples. Her books are often classified as childrens' books by short-sighted book sellers, but most belong on the general fantasy shelves. Excellent read-alouds; this woman has a way with language. Read one to someone you love. The last volume of her Dalemark quartet has recently been published. It ties the first three relatively independant books together, so you should try to read them first.
  
• Charles de Lint is hard to beat; try The Little Country for a rich and complex fantasy.
  
• John Crowley has some trade-size paperbacks out now; I couldn't stand to wait for the massmarket size. Glad I didn't.
  

Odd-ball stuff

• Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series. (Game of Kings, Queen's Play, Disorderly Knights, Pawn in Frankincense, Ringed Castle, and Checkmate) Often stacked with the bodice-rippers, DD is a pleasantly literate (more familiarity with French and Latin than I have would help sometimes) writer who fabricates intricately detailed worlds in previous centuries. This one is 16th Century Scotland; try her Niccolo series, too. King Hereafter, a MacBeth retelling, is a classic in the field.
  
• Charles Palliser's The Quincunx, a huge meandering puzzle of a book set in mid-19th century England. From the dregs at the bottom to the scum floating on top, it's grittier than Dickens, presumably because Palliser can see what Dickens could only live with. I always read the supplemental material (appendices, charts, graphs, lists of characters) before starting the text. In this case, I wish I hadn't; it spoiled parts of the puzzle. Go straight to the text.
  
• Cao Xueqin & Gao E's The Story of the Stone, written in 18th century China and added to, modified, edited, and translated by generation after generation, is another giant book (in five volumes, in this case) that will take you somewhere else while you read it. More than you ever thought you would know about daily life in old China.
  
• Walt Kelly's Pogo and all the (20 odd) Pogo books; too bad they've become collectors' items. Even a copy in bad shape will set you back $10 or more. Gregg Press began to issue a library hard bound set, but quit after only 10 volumes. How about finishing, GP?

Mystery/Action/Suspense

• You could do worse than read John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series. Try to read them roughly in order as Travis changes a lot of attitude over the twenty years or so that the series covers.
  
• I 'discovered' Sue Grafton's alphabetical (A is for...) Kinsey Millhone series just as she announced she intended to take a break from writing. Too bad; I'd like to see more of these. If you haven't -- read them.
  

Boats and boating

• Some books about the Flats
• "...the simple act of tying a knot is an adventure in unlimited space." The Ashley Book of Knots, Clifford W. Ashley, is IMHO, the best knot book ever. 3900 knots, marlinspike seamanship, history, origin, when to use which knot -- it's all in this giant book. Now in its 35th printing since 1944. The only thing this book is missing is how to splice modern synthetic lines, in which case you should probably get a splicing manual direct from the manufacturer of the exact line you need to splice.
• Dave Gerr's The Nature of Boats, sub-titled Insights and Esoterica for the Nautically Obsessed. If you want to know something about boats and how and why they are what they are and do what they do, this is the book. The sub-title really says it all. Top-notch.
  
• Charles Coleman's Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! might just give you an idea of what it would be like to be afloat with NOTHING in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. If you go offshore, this book might someday make a big difference to you. If you're inclined to do your boating in inland waters (or don't boat at all), you still could someday find yourself in a survival situation. How you think might make the difference between reading about you in the newspapers or reading YOUR book someday. I met Charley Coleman in 1995 at the Miami Boat Show and have corresponded with him a little since. Boat/US has had it on the shelf, or his e-mail address is: <ccoleman@auglink.org> if you want to ask him where you can get it.
  

Computers/Internet/Web

• I owe just about everything I know about HTML and Web Publishing to Laura Lemay's Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in a Week. Great book; clear development; good examples; and it covers the ground. Sams Publishing can be proud of this one. There is a new edition of this that covers some of the newer, browser-specific additions to HTML.

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