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2009 Reading #3
Jan. 11th, 2009 03:47 pm1. Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left by Susan Braudy
2. The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini
3. From the Files of the Time Rangers by Richard Bowes. Full disclosure: I know and like Rick. That said, reading books by friends is a tricky thing, because if you don't like them what can you say? Luckily, this book is amazing. Parts of it were published previously as short stories, making this what some folks call a fix-up, but Rick in his afterword calls it a "Mosaic Novel," which is much more fitting. It's a marriage of pulp SF and classical myth, told at various stops in the Twentieth Century; the rules of time-travel and the multiverses have something of the feel of DC Comics, but with language that's elegant and hard-working both. There's a Bradburyesque feel to this, but a little less rose-colored, perhaps a little sadder. Much of so-called urban fantasy is clumsy in the way it brings in gods to meddle with the fate of humanity, but Bowes neither resorts to cheap humor nor strips away the mythic awe. Highly recommended.
ETA: Rick Bowes has published the afterword, The Mosaic Novel, over at Bookspot Central.
2. The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini
3. From the Files of the Time Rangers by Richard Bowes. Full disclosure: I know and like Rick. That said, reading books by friends is a tricky thing, because if you don't like them what can you say? Luckily, this book is amazing. Parts of it were published previously as short stories, making this what some folks call a fix-up, but Rick in his afterword calls it a "Mosaic Novel," which is much more fitting. It's a marriage of pulp SF and classical myth, told at various stops in the Twentieth Century; the rules of time-travel and the multiverses have something of the feel of DC Comics, but with language that's elegant and hard-working both. There's a Bradburyesque feel to this, but a little less rose-colored, perhaps a little sadder. Much of so-called urban fantasy is clumsy in the way it brings in gods to meddle with the fate of humanity, but Bowes neither resorts to cheap humor nor strips away the mythic awe. Highly recommended.
ETA: Rick Bowes has published the afterword, The Mosaic Novel, over at Bookspot Central.