Sly Mongoose-- Tobias Buckell-- Review

Sly Mongoose-- Tobias Buckell-- Review

Sly Mongoose by Tobias Buckell is the third book in a science fiction series starting with Crystal Rain, then advancing to Ragamuffin. The setting for the third novel is quite interesting. It is on a planet like mercury with floating cities in the clouds, and very high pressure on the planet below. The clouds are acidic and the air is not breathable. It is also one of the homes of the Azteca, a human group once ruled by ruthless aliens. The Azteca have since declared the aliens false gods, and formed a democracy based on group consensus.

The story begins with a Pepper, a character who has appeared in the previous novels, falling from the sky into the dome of a floating city. Because of the alien biotechnology permeating his body, he survives the fall, although he is missing an arm and a leg in the story. This does not stop him from building a working armored suit so he can move around in the story. Pepper is the founder of the "Mongoose Men" and a member of the Dread Council on a world built by Caribbean immigrants.

Pepper has just escaped a harrowing battle with plague zombies on a passenger liner. He is wanted by several factions who want to know what happened on the ship. There are at least three different factions in the story, The Dread Council, The Azteca Consensus, and the Human League (which is virulently anti-alien).

Pepper is the center of intrigue. There is another character Timas, a teenage boy who goes to the surface sometimes to scavenge technology in a pressure suit. Timas provides the spare parts for a pressure suit so Pepper can lead the fight against the plague zombies.

This book has lots of action in it. There are battles aboard a spaceship, airship battles, pirate confrontations, and constant intrigue. The characterization is quite intriguing. The different characters in the story are culturally and individually distinct.

Pepper, one of the heros of the story leads the fight against the zombies, and must help the people of Chilo defend themselves. He helps them prepare the defenses and makes a last stand until the Mongoose Men can help. There is another hero in this story as well, Timas who has seen something which the zombies are seeking on the surface.

This was a fun book to read. The setting, plot, and characterization were all unique. Most science fiction stories are based on cardboard cutouts with aliens that are little more than substitutes for human fears. This was not one of them. An excellent addition to a series that gets better with each book. Once the action starts in this book, it does not stop until the book is done. Ragamuffin was short listed for the Hugo award. I think this book will be listed for the Hugo award and might win it.

Morning Thoughts

La Censure by George Lafosse c 1874

Morning Thoughts

I am not happy with the publisher Chelsea Green's decision to limit sales of the book Obama's Challenge: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency to Amazon.com for the first week of the release. This shows a disregard for openness in competition in the book industry. It also restricts people's choices of where to purchase books. In some ways, I am not a fan of Amazon's practices in selling books. I think it was a bad decision on the part of the publisher.

http://news.bookweb.org/6245.html

In a similar vein, September 27- October 4, 2008 is banned book week. There is a site up for booksellers and libraries http://bannedbooksweek.org/ . It shows one of my favorite books on the site, Maurcice Sendak In The Night Kitchen.

We have six of the ten Most Banned Books of 2007. Most are young adult titles or classics. I don't know why they want to ban teenage books so much. I put up a small display of the six books. I am going to try and get the other four as we go forward this month.

I am up to page 200 of Wikinomics. It is getting even more complicated. Wikinomics is writing about mashups, combining two or more sites to create a third sites. For example, you might combine google maps with the location of vacation rentals to create a new kind of information-- maps to vacation rentals.

I also took a break again and started reading Sly Mongoose by Tobias Buckell. I especially like Pepper, the main character who has been in all the novels. Pepper is the essence of being beat down and still going. I also like the new enemy, space zombies. They are a lot of fun to read about. I also like the continuity of setting. The Azteca even though they lose their alien masters, still remain a coherent culture in the novels. They proclaim that the aliens were false gods and become a democracy led by a council.

Today, I plan on doing some weeding of the business books. I still have quite a bit more to do with this.

Afternoon Thoughts, Reaper's Gale-- Steven Erikson

Kay Nielsen Illustration from East of the Sun West of the Moon, c1914


Afternoon Thoughts

Tonight is my late night. This morning, I did some desk cleaning. I got rid of more old phone books, processed some law material which had been laying on my desk for a while, and went through some of my piles of paper. I am one of those people who are a paper magnet. I attract paper to my desk. We got a directive to clean all of our desks. So, it is a cleaning day.

When I did some desk cleaning, I went back to weeding more business books. The section is starting to look much better. I like to have 8-12 inches at the end of each shelf. I can put bookends in the shelves now.

Every day this week, I am going to do a little bit of weeding and desk cleaning.

Apparently, my business book orders are doing well. Some of the books I am ordering are getting two or three hundred holds already. Many of the titles like Michael Porter's Competitive Intelligence and The Complete MBA for Dummies are new to our library cooperative. So far, I am pretty happy with the orders that are coming in.

We also got a new octagonal book display with three levels. The book display itself is kind of ugly, but it is very functional. You can display books in a 360 degree fashion. There are a lot of new books being displayed.

I reserved a few books, Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost which is the second book in a fantasy series, Sly Mongoose by Tobias Buckell. I am really looking forward to reading Sly Mongoose.
I also had a chance to look at the New York Times Bestseller List for Business and reserved The Drunkard's Walk How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow.

I spent a little bit of time picking out films for the September and October films. I am going to do an anime and a science fiction film this time. We also ordered a new microphone for the Open Microphone poetry readings. One of the patrons didn't like the current one which is not working too well. We are going to do a Spades card tournament. Cards are a dollar a pack, so it is another cheap program activity you can do.

Today has been very busy.

I was reading Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson on the train this morning. Reading this book is quite an experience, there is not a single main character. Each chapter seems to have a different viewpoint character. The story is almost historical in sweep. There are at least five main characters, Rhulad Sengar-- The Emperor, Karsa Orlong, Icarium Lifestealer, Fear Sengar, Silchas Ruin, and others. This makes the story quite interesting.

In the front of the book, there is a large map of The Empire of Lether where much of the action takes place, and a list of three pages of Dramatis Personae, these are broken down by nation or status, Letherii, Tiste Edur, The Malazans, The Awl'Dan, and Others. The names of the characters are very interesting along with the place names.

However, because there is so much action, and so many intrigues the book reads like a giant jigsaw puzzle with many pieces. I just read through it enjoying the characters who are mostly very dark in their natures.

In addition in the back of the book, there is a two page glossary describing different made up things in the fantasy setting, everything from nasty brutish creatures to weapons to groups like the Patriotists who are the the nationalistic thugs of the Letherii empire.

The book is practically impossible to review in many ways because describing the plot would take several pages. Even figuring out what is happening can be quite tricky. There are many different factions in the book with opposing goals.

Despite this I am enjoying the book. I don't try and figure out all the twists and turns, I just read taking in the complexity of the wording, the names, the setttings, the place descriptions, the characterization, and marveling at how the author can put together a book, no less a series with eight books in it that are this complex.

The setting often switches between tribesmen and city dwellers, gods and men, warriors and scholars. This is what makes the book so interesting to read.

The book is very dark and bloody. There are ghosts, demons, witches, shamans, and all the things that go bump in the night. However, they are not the familiar fantasy creatures for the most part, and they are described very differently than most other fantasy books. The names like Emlava-- a sabre tooth cat say it all.

The setting is a fantasy empire, The Empire of Lether. It is kind of hard to pinpoint where it would be in terms of time. The setting is not medieval, and it is not quite roman. It has that feeling of a bygone age much like Robert E. Howard's Cimmeria might where things mix and flow together.

This is book seven in the series. It is a tome of a book. 823 pages long of complexity. There is an eighth book in the series coming out soon.