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Coyote Blue, by Christopher Moore May 13, 2013

Coyote Blue, by Christopher Moore is, though not one of his best-known works, among my favorites.  The story of a Crow who runs from the reservation fearing that he has killed a policeman, Coyote Blue incorporates native American story-telling style (and perhaps substance—I don’t know enough Crow legends to judge) and Moore’s signature wry humor over fantastic characters (in this case, gods and their avatars/servants/victims) involved in petty human and god interactions).  And the characters are memorable, although the heroine is a bit of a Mary Sue, Samson Hunts Alone is pretty darned memorable, from his boyish beginnings through his murder of a policeman to his murder of a bloodthirsty biker.  Sam hides from justice, then gets so good at hiding that only Coyote will play hide-and-seek with him, for reasons only Coyote knows.

I listened to the Audible recording of this, and found the reader quite helpful in making the girl a less whiny Mary Sue and making the wise old uncle more crotchety (as befits wisdom.  Have you noticed how many wise people are thoroughly pissed off?—but I digress).  Coyote Blue is on Amazon (of course) and at sfpl.org, including the audio.

The Shadowed Sun, by N. K. Jemisin May 5, 2013

The Shadowed Sun, by N. K. Jemisin is another perfect novel from the author of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms which I reviewed earlier (glowingly, flatteringly and with much enthusiasm).  It is the conclusion of the story told in the previous work The Killing Moon of a mad prince’s desire to make himself immortal at a terrible cost to all around him.

N.K. Jemisin’s world, very loosely based upon ancient Egypt, features a priesthood devoted to Hananja, the goddess of peace, and of dreams.  The priests themselves are kind of like Shaolin monks in that they are badass killing machines with saintly intentions (ruthlessly killing for peace), but are actually devoted mostly to making sure people are healed in their sleep, or die peacefully therein.  They are hugely influential in making Gujaareh the city of peace, and one of the few civilized places in this world.

I was utterly charmed by their religion (eat your heart out, L. Ron Hubbard) and by the struggles each character has to keep and foster peace in extremely unpeaceful circumstances (see badass killing machines, above). 

The Prince tries to make himself immortal using very un-peaceful means; stealing the magic of dreams and enslaving one of the priests.

Both are worth a read, both have audiobook versions, and both are also available on Amazon.com and at sfpl.org

James Gleick – Faster April 27, 2013

Faster, by James Gleick, is not really a book about time.  That’s too ambitions for any popular bit of science writing, as Mr. Gleick is famous for producing.  It is more a meditation on the changing nature of the pace of human life, as (appropriately) measured by our ever-faster technology.  Said meditation produces a number of effects, as meditations are wont to do, but none of them are very meaningful except to sharpen the sense that, as time is ill-defined, so our sense of it must also be vague.  Gleick is one of my favorite authors for his choices of subject, mostly;  I am a geek, after all.  I enjoyed the listening but I’m not sure I learned anything (except that lately most changes to the rules of major league baseball have been made to speed up the game.  I would never have known that, since I only started watching baseball for the Giant’s Series wins).[Go Giants!—editor]

Still, if you like some soft popular science this would be a relaxing book.  It is certainly a well-researched book and I did like it.  Astoundingly, the price of the CDs containing the audiobook are for sale at the link above for $128.18 and the audible version is $17.95, a pretty easy choice.  Makes one wonder how Amazon calculates their markup, doesn’t it?

Soulless, by Gail Carriger March 5, 2013

A cheery mix of P. G. Wodehouse (wrong era, right style) and Bram Stoker (right era, wrong style), Soulless, by Gail Carriger is a pert look at a vaguely steampunk Victorian England where werewolves and vampires have been adopted by the more progressive Vickies and brought into polite mainstream society.  The story revolves around a woman with no soul whose touch renders vampire and werewolf alike merely human. The daughter of an Italian, she is doomed to a life of spinsterhood until she succumbs to the charm of a Scottish werewolf in the course of being attacked by her catty sisters, vampires, mad scientists, steam-and-blood-powered robots and defended only by her wits and a particularly stout parasol.

Naturally, she prevails.

A cheery read when things look bleak, I recommend Soulless for dreary winters, bad colds and feeling punk.  I understand Gail Carriger (currently a local girl in Bolinas) has five of these novels (the “Parasol Protectorate ” series) and a Young Adult novel Etiquette & Espionage which I am young enough to read right now (same world, younger female protagonist).

Both books apparently have audiobooks (dunno about the box set), but I went with the Kindle version.