Sunday Morning Book Thread - 11-05-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: From about that time)

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

This depicts the beautiful Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. "From about that time" sent it in with the accompanying blurb:

This beautiful, surreal library is called Cuypers, and it is home to thousands of books. This library holds the distinction of having the largest collection of art history books in the Netherlands. These colorful books glow in the beams of sunlight that waft into Cuypers.

You can climb up spiral, metal staircases to find the books of your choosing. This aesthetically-astounding library is located within the famous Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, though it is not often crowded with tourists.

FLAWED WORLD BUILDING

I'm fascinated by world building. I have a few books on the subject, but have never gotten around to really writing up my own stories set in strange worlds. Most of the time, I gloss over the details that would not make a whole lot of sense in the real world because I want to stay immersed in the narrative. Every once in a while, though, I come across a small detail that could have important ramifications when it's placed under a microscope.

I've been reading Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires series, which takes place on a world where humanity is confined into massive cylinders two miles high and two miles across scattered across the surface of an alien world. It's clear that humans are *NOT* natives but were relocated here in the distant past. These "Spires" are made of a super-dense, nearly indestructible material dubbed "cinderstone." They are self-contained and self-sufficient communities for the most part, as the inhabitants have ready access to air and water thanks to ingenious ventilation and plumbing systems that capture and recycle air/water from outside. Food is all hydroponically grown in large vats. Even meat. So far, so good, nothing too far outside the realm of plausibility.

However, the humans also seem to have ready access to wood and raw metals for construction. This is a bit of a problem because it's repeatedly mentioned that stepping out onto the surface of the planet is a death sentence thanks to the ultra-lethal wildlife that will fly into a murderous rage whenever they are around humans. Thus, humans are mostly prevented from harvesting any of the natural resources that would be available near their Spires such as forests or mineral deposits. They could, in theory, grow wood hydroponically, I suppose, or have a forest atop the Spire that is harvestable. The metals present a couple of problems. There's no explanation of where they obtain iron and copper, which are crucial to their civilization. Furthermore, the air seems to be mildly corrosive to iron, as any exposed iron must be covered by copper or it suffers from "iron rot." This is never explained, but it could be a form of rapid oxidation that only affects iron for some reason, and not the copper (which also tends to oxidize in Earth's atmosphere quite readily). Assuming they can even obtain iron, how can they forge it into tools and weapons before it succumbs to "iron rot?" Oddly, cladding them in copper is easily explained (assuming the tools can be fashioned safely) because the Spire inhabitants do have access to electricity, so electroplating would be an option.

Anyway, this is an example of how world building can sometimes fall apart at the seams when you look closely at it. I still enjoy Butcher's writing and I'm looking forward to The Olympian Affair (Book 2 of The Cinder Spires) coming out in a few days. This small little detail is not a show-stopper, just something I noticed and pondered while trying to get to sleep one night.

KILLING OFF CHARACTERS

Last week, I shared a meme that stirred up some interesting conversation in the comments:

Naturally, this got me thinking. Death, of course, is a frequent element in storytelling. It can be disheartening to us as the reader when our favorite character is killed off by the author, even if it is necessary for the story to continue. Not all deaths are permanent, though, as it's possible for the author to bring the character back. Famously, Arthur Conan Doyle attempted to kill Sherlock Holmes, but did it in such a way that he had a little bit of wriggle room. When readers protested Holmes' death, Doyle eventually brought him back to life for more stories, as Sherlock Holmes is one of the most popular literary characters of all time.

Some authors seem to delight in killing off their characters, or at least are not all that attached to them. Let's just say if you are adventuring in the Four Lands of Terry Brooks' Shannara series, and you don't have Ohmsford blood running through your veins, your chances of surviving the adventure are pretty slim. Usually, the characters are given at least one moment to shine before they fall, but sometimes characters are killed elsewhere to heighten the tension in the story. Murder mysteries rely on killing off characters as part of their literary charms, so that we the reader can work with the detective in the story to unravel the mystery.

Plot armor is one way to keep characters alive, at least for a while. However, once they have finished their role in the story, the plot armor can come right off. This happened in Robert Jordan's final volume of The Wheel of Time. By the time of the Last Battle, it was a tossup as to which main characters would survive the conflict, though a few of the main characters still had their plot armor going strong. Everyone else was more or less fair game for elimination at some point, leading to several tragic and poignant moments for characters that we'd enjoyed reading about for thirteen previous books.

What are some of your favorite character deaths?

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Book Recommendation: From friend of the blog Andrew Fox, who has penned a rather timely novel entitled The End of Daze. Per Andrew, it's "a satirical novel about Jews falling all over themselves to prove themselves properly progressive, identifying with those who would kill them." "Although full of science fiction and apocalyptic tropes, the book was very much intended as a social and political satire, a tool with which to metaphorically grab hold of the shoulders of Jewish defenders of Hamas and shake them out of their willful blindness and self-destructive moral vanities." Always a good thing to support one of our own in the culture war, especially with something this timely. [J.J. Sefton]

Comment: I honestly wasn't quite sure if I should categorize this as a Moron Recommendation because it came from J.J. Sefton, or as a Book By Morons because it was written by a friend of the blog. Either way, I'm happy to share J.J. recommendation here. It's also been featured in the sidebar content of the main blog page.

Currently in the middle of The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut. A novel centered around a semi-fictional John von Neumann. It has tons of positive book industry reviews, which is lately a counter correlation on expectations.

So far it's holding my interest, and I'd say very well written. The issue is with lots of fictional content there are bound to be areas where the characters deviate greatly from the real person.

Feynman feels right, but I'm pretty sure some early parts related to him are pure fiction. I've not read a full length bio on von Neumann, so have a nagging feeling as I'm 'learning' about him from this book.

Since it is a novel, I do expect it'll be diverging from history increasingly towards the end.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at October 29, 2023 10:38 AM (G7gvJ)

Comment: Von Neumann often showss up as a reference in science fiction stories, as he postulated the idea of a self-replicating machine that could potentially be used to colonize the galaxy. The basic idea is to send out swarms of these devices to set up shop on remote worlds, terraforming them ahead of time so that the worlds are "move-in ready" when humans come along behind them. Of course, some stories have Von Neumann machines that run amok, causing untold havoc while humans desperately try to shut them down. NOTE: The black monoliths in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 stories are suggested to be such a device.

I'm reading JFK and the Unspeakable, that a couple of folks here have commented on. I like its granular detail, but I noticed one of Douglass' other books was called "The Nonviolent Coming of God", and as an evangelical Christian I want to tell him "Dude, it's going to be violent." Plus, from what I have read about the CIA I don't think they were competent enough to pull off an event of the magnitude of the Kennedy assassination and get away with it. I read a few books about the assassination before I was 29 and concluded that it was all Oswald, but must admit that the current Deep State has given me cause to be open to other possibilities.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at October 29, 2023 09:24 AM (hsWtj)

Comment: Knowing what we now know about the machinations of the intelligence community, I can't dismiss out of hand the possibility that the CIA (or someone) used Oswald to take out JFK, for reasons we may never fully understand. On the other hand, we also know there are lone whackos out there that are capable of causing great mayhem should they so choose. Of course, Occam's Razor applies here as it usually does in many complex situations.

I was travelling this week, and horror of horrors, forgot my current book. I had to make an emergency book stop and picked up Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. Everyone has seen a movie or play version of this, but getting into the original text is interesting. The story involves Poirot vacationing on an Egyptian cruise, while a rich, recently married, nasty young woman is killed. Of course, there are several viable suspects on board, and each must be investigated. The original work has the benefit of knowing Poirot's thoughts instead of having to read them on an actor's face. It is a good story, and easy to see why it has been adapted so often.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 29, 2023 09:23 AM (ZdOio)

Comment: I have one rule above all others when it comes to traveling: Take at least 3 books with me. Even if I bring my iPad, which has a couple of hundred books on the Kindle app, I still pack a few paper books. Just in case. There was one time when I was stuck in a hospital with only a single book to keep me company. I read it cover to cover at least three times. Never again!

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK

• Proxima by Stephen Baxter
• Limbo of the Lost by John Wallace Spencer -- This is a copy of the rather well-worn book featured in Alberta Oil Peon's story from last week.

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

• The Cinder Spires Book 1 - The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher - The author of The Dresden Files and Codex Alera takes us to a new world where mighty warships sail through the skies between ancient spires inhabited by humans, while even more ancient evils stir on the ground beneath them. Book 2 is coming out in a couple of weeks.

• Proxima by Stephen Baxter - Humanity takes its first steps among the stars by colonizing an earthlike planet around our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri (part of the Alpha Centauri trinary solar system).

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding the Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or discussion topics that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

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