Boox

[digitaldiscipline]

So, I finally sprung for some new dead tree editions around the house. Here's what I think of 'em:

The Unincorporated Man: In a few hundred years, the plot conceit goes, government has been almost entirely replaced by the mechanism of individuals selling stock in themselves to earn money for ... stuff. It's never made particularly clear what people buy or barter with their stock, since they're also paid wages for doing their jobs (this would be my biggest pothole in the worldbuilding; YMMV). Into this utopia is thrust a man, cryogenically suspended from before the incorporated era, who doesn't wish to be. The ensuing hijinks are what would happen if Ayn Rand and Neil Stephenson somehow managed *not* to have irritatingly smug and pretentious offspring who wrote a book.

I enjoyed the social/societal conceit as a hypothetical structure, and there were enough wrinkles in the expected relationships to keep them from being too two-dimensional (but only just barely in some cases). The sting at the end was a nice twist, though the "Coming soon: The Unincorporated War" outro chapter did steal some of the thunder... though the ending wasn't really all that satisfying without knowing that there's more to come.

I did have a little bit of preconception to this one going in, based on discussion of it at TWH's journal after she'd read it, so I was slightly waiting for the subtle thing she mentioned... but I never saw it.

Blood and Iron (by matociquala) is way, way, way outside my normal foraging territory. The "urban fantasy" and "new weird" got thrown in a blender with some swords and magic and a bunch of mythology and then poured over southern New England (kind of). I mentioned this book previously, when I happened upon a particularly juicy quote. None of the characters interact simply with one another, and there is a complex and palpable weight to just about every relationship that feels like balancing an armload of brass spheres while navigating a room strewn with children's playthings.

Readers versed in Faerie tales or even just English/Irish mythology are going to have a lot more to grab onto than I did. It reads more like the middle book in a series than the introduction to one, because there are simply a lot of things left unexplained. (I know this is a Bear trait, challenging the reader to keep up or at least prove to be somewhat inventive; I felt at times like I was trying to jump from a moving train, hit the ground running, and then leap onto a zebra, bareback... and not only make the transition, but let out a hearty "Yee haw!" in a passable local dialect. Not reading for the inflexible or faint of heart, this.)

Comments

[etcet.livejournal.com]

You can borrow my copy, just need to arrange for transport. Hit me up tonight, I can bring it to work tomorrow, and can send it via Critus-pigeon.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

looks like an entertaining read. perhaps i'll give it a look.

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[ivy]

Interesting to see your thoughts -- did you get both those recs from me? Ayn Rand and Neil Stephenson cracked me up.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Unincorporated Man was one I picked up after reading your review of it (and, to be sure - I enjoyed it roughly to the tune of 7.8-8.1 out of 10); the Bear was something I picked up on a pseudo-whim.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

specific to what had been mentioned was the sympathetic (or at least understandable) motivations of the villain; i found him to be fairly unremittingly unlikable, though his motivations were internally consistent. *laugh*