evelyn_b

What I've Finished Reading

Murder at the ABA is a very minor treat, if you don't mind Isaac Asimov's Twentieth Century Horndog persona, and an irritating waste of time if you do. I'm somewhere in the middle, I think. It should be noted, if you're planning to read this book, that the 20thC.HD is essential to the narrative and cannot be overlooked for the sake of a good time. Honestly, even if you're horndog-neutral I think your patience might be tested. Every single female character will be assessed for fuckability by Darius Just, the smug and genial narrator; those who come up short on the Darius Just Scale of Would I Tap That are given the consolation prize of an off-the-cuff psychoanalysis explaining how their low score has shaped their personality and outlook.

Did I like it, though? Maybe "like" is too strong a word. I enjoyed reading it. The mystery is neither great nor insultingly weak, though dedicated mystery fans will probably think the red herrings look a little pale. Darius Just gets his friend Isaac Asimov to help him solve a mystery in exchange for a ready-made plot (i.e., the plot of this book). Just seems to be a stand-in for Asimov's friend Harlan Ellison (all my evidence for this is internal, but it looks likely) and the book is really an excuse for the two of them to mock-bicker self-deprecatingly, make a long paper-chain of inside jokes, and chortle about their inverse preferences in re: the female form. The inordinate amount of time spent on the murder victim's embarrassing sexual proclivity is probably also an inside joke. There are lots and lots of shallow digs at "libbers" (if these so-called women want equality so much, why don't they check their own coats? SHEESH), because it's 1976, and every seventy-five pages or so Asimov will remind you that Several Attractive Black Women Also Exist in This Book, Albeit Without Any Lines. Because it's 1976! Murder at the ABA is peak "of its time."

What I'm Reading Now

The Brass Rainbow by Michael Collins:

You can't really feel better by hitting a man weaker than you. At least, I never could. Maybe that's why I never made my mark in the world.

That's one of the first things Dan Fortune says, which pretty much guarantees that I'm going to like Dan Fortune, unless and until he starts shooting people left and right. Dan's a private detective who lost one of his arms in a vaguely defined juvenile delinquency incident during his misspent youth. He's well versed in the oblique figurative language and confusion that make up most of the private-detection skill set. Right now, he's trying to keep the cops off his hotheaded friend's back, and not having much luck. I originally bought this book for its cheesy pulp cover (three women undressing in the same room, while an affronted-looking man bursts in through a tiny door in the background) but it stands a good chance of being better than I expected.

What I Plan to Read Next

Three Act Murder, which isn't called Three Act Tragedy at all. Either orderofbooks.com has some inaccuracies, or it got a new name in America.

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What I've Finished Reading

( There were a lot of things he could say. )

The Fifth Elephant. You know, I would have been perfectly happy with a big pile of dumb jokes about trousers and Chekov. I don't need the abrupt sideswerves into bottomless quarry lakes of emotion. And I kind of expected this to be a break from that kind of thing (for no particular reason, except the genre shift to Comedy Transylvania). I should have known better! Anyway, it's not like I mind. I don't love all of the Comedy Transylvania stuff quite as much as I love the polis, but The Fifth Elephant grew on me pretty quickly once it started to grow on me.

And now [SPOILER:Sybil and Sam are going to have a baby, which is both adorable and alarming. ]

Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth. I had a good time with these books, right up until about the last ten pages of Foundation and Earth, where I just wasn't on board any more. In general they suffer a little by comparison with the original Foundation books just because we're stuck with the same set of characters for two whole novels. Asimov's broad-brush characterization works just fine in a novella-length snapshot of made-up history, but starts to lose some of its appeal once we're spending every day with the same three people.

I wasn't particularly happy about [A MAJOR SPOILER in white text:lonely immortal space mastermind Daneel Olivaw], and the argument for the final decision re: Galaxia was kind of weak even by handwavey sci-fi standards. Plus, it was never really clear why Trevize was so convinced that Earth held the key to everything, unless you assume that he's already read the galley proofs for this book about himself. Or that the [SPOILER: immortal space mastermind] planted the idea in his head, which I find kind of boring. I'm not really into the thing where Asimov tries to hitch the robot books up to the Foundation history, though it was still nice to see some of the old Spacer worlds again (well, sad, but that's time for you). On the whole I enjoyed them, but they probably won't be perennial favorites and I might just mentally erase some of the continuity to please myself. But I'm still in the mood for Asimov, so I might also push on and read Prelude and Forward the Foundation, too.

What I'm Reading Now

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. This is a Shakespeare homage (with a dash of Fisher King) and a complete delight. I haven't been terribly interested in the magic side of Pratchett up to now, except as a joke and situation generator, but the three witches are such great characters. They're perfectly balanced -- that is, equally funny and distinct from one another -- in a way that reminds me a little of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Plus, the young by-the-book witch Magrat reminds me a lot of Amy Santiago. She wants to do things the right way, with a coven and sigils and proper bonds of sisterhood and all that, and can't understand why the older witches aren't more interested in being nurturing spiritual mother figures and using the right consecrated knife. Magrat isn't happy when she has to help them do an emergency demon summoning in an old wash-house, with a bunch of rusty household implements and a scrubbing board for a Shield of Protection. But it works, doesn't it? Meanwhile, the new king is having a rough time of it, being haunted by the old king and his own guilt about stabbing the old king in the back. How can he make it right? By hiring one of those playwrights to do up a play about how much better he is than the old king, of course! What could go wrong? I am pretty sure that something is going to go wrong.

What I Plan to Read Next

It's back on the 99 Novels train with The Old Man and the Sea, a book I probably read in school at some point but have no memory of. And Night Watch, probably.

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What I've Finished Reading

( Feet of Clay )

Also finished in two days, though not exactly the same two days: Second Foundation. This one has a lot of fast-paced space adventure, which by Foundation standards means we get a continuous arc of many months instead of the usual "twenty pages of meetings + a fifty-year time jump." Don't worry, there are still plenty of time jumps! Arkady Darell, the fourteen-year-old fugitive, is delightful in a very Asimovian and 1950s way. The reader can probably see the big twist coming a little ahead of everyone else, but that's a feature here, not a bug. I love the brief but evocative descriptions of Trantor, now an agricultural planet, and its massive, silent ruins. The thing about the Foundation books is I don't actually care who wins, but they're fun anyway.

I didn't finish Nana in two days, but I did finish it. ( Nana does all right for a while )

And The Story of an African Farm, but I'll save that one for next week, or something.

What I'm Reading Now

The Dark Lantern is just as odd and fascinating and chock full of physical details as ever. Richard, the awkward and stiff-necked butterfly collector, has married Hetty, a sweet, good-humored girl who doesn't understand him but loves him anyway for reasons that are never entirely clear (as sometimes happens). Her father doesn't approve of Richard (he calls him a "humorless stick," which is accurate) and Richard's job depends on him remaining unmarried during his probationary period. Hetty is willing to wait, but Richard doesn't trust her, or himself to keep on attracting her, so they marry in secret. Is this ever not a terrible plan? Hetty goes back to live with her parents, but then she gets pregnant, so it has to come out. Now Hetty and Dickie have set up housekeeping and are waiting for the baby to be born before they attempt to make up with Hetty's dad. The last thing Hetty's dad did was punch Hetty hard enough to knock her unconscious. Everything's a little low-level awful, due in large part to Dickie's humorless stickness -- I was going to quote a passage here, but it looks like I've left the book at home, so next time! Poor Hetty can't do anything right.

Dickie is another character type I haven't necessarily seen a lot of in books - sort of a misanthropic socially conservative nerd? He assumes people won't like him and it makes him more unlikable, and spends a lot of mental energy recasting his insecurities as rare and unfashionable virtues. He reminds me a little of a younger, more physically attractive Ignatius J. Reilly. I think I mentioned this before -- one of the things that makes him interesting is that he's a prude by late Victorian standards, and the other characters recognize him as such.

Meanwhile, Hetty's brother Hughie has syphilis, and is busy trying to hide it from his innocent sister and mother. Aww, Hughie. :( Maybe if you'd been a little more prudish yourself, you wouldn't hurt so much. :(

I just started Foundation's Edge, a 30-years-later sequel to the Foundation trilogy. I haven't been able to get through the later Foundation books before, but now I am in a Foundation-positive mood, so we'll see how long the momentum lasts. Some guy keeps saying there is no Seldon Plan; the Seldonites are taking it badly. I'm inclined to agree with him; the whole thing's seemed fishy from the start.

What I Plan to Read Next

Homegoing, a new book(!) at some point in the near future -- I keep seeing it around and it looks good. The next Watch book, or Equal Rites, possibly depending on which one the library has (if the library has either). Pere Goriot. Maybe some nonfiction??

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What I Haven't Been Reading

I took a break from all reading for one week – with a time-limited exception for work-related emails, which I can't avoid this month without feeling guilty and confusing my co-workers. The results were pretty predictable: I got a lot of banking and other chores done, and wound up writing a lot of stray thoughts on scrap paper to stave off boredom at work. It did not make me suddenly creative, or anything like that. Still, it was difficult enough to create the illusion that it was good for my brain, so I'll probably do it again in the future – preferably at a time when I can avoid email entirely for a week – maybe May, definitely mid-July.

The most important result of this experiment for Wednesday Reading Meme purposes is that there isn't much to report this Wednesday.

What I've Finished Reading

The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov – for a local book group. It's not bad! The first two parts are very different from each other, but also very Asimovian – I'm not sure how to describe Isaac Asimov's writing style, but it's very distinctively mellow and unassuming, a little old-fashioned, almost too pleasantly familiar, even when dealing with the sexual problems of gelatinous non-humanoid aliens – perfect for reading on a plane. The third part has a lot to like, but it doesn't really live up to the promise of the first two. The problem the book begins with – a new source of effectively limitless energy will resolve all of Earth's crises and usher in a golden age of space exploration. . . until it inexorably warps the laws of physics and blows up the Sun! But how do you get people to give up unlimited energy? is so straightforwardly compelling, and so entertainingly and effectively drawn, that it's hard to imagine a solution that would be satisfying. So I can't blame Asimov too much for a non-spectacular ending.

What I'm Reading and What I'm Going to Read

You know, I thought I was going to, but I still haven't finished Under the Volcano? There's almost no book left; I'll probably finish it this afternoon. I think I'll miss it in one way and be relieved in another. I have had a hangover since I began.

The Victim and The Americans are still hovering in the near future. There might be other things.