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The Jevlir Caravansary

Month: July 2006

  • Book: Dragon’s Fire

    When I read the first two books set on Pern by Todd McCaffrey I really was not too impressed. Because they were from Pern, and the stories were OK, I knew I would keep reading them, but I didn’t feel that they had the same charm as Anne McCaffrey’s own work.

    For the first few pages of this book I felt much the same way, but over time the story became more interesting and the characters more engaging, and for a while again I simply enjoyed Pern. The story is fairly simple, dealing again with the period of time just before a fall when there are skeptics who claim thread will never fall, and others who disagree on the preparations. I really appreciate the effort to deal with the implications of some of the social practices started by the colonists as we see some of the impact of the practice of shunning, something that had practically disappeared from Pern during the time of F’lar and Lessa.

    We see a bit of overlap with Dragon’s Kin, and you may enjoy seeing some further development of those themes and characters. We also learn more about the watch whers.

    All in all, this book was a good experience, and while I doubt I’ll ever rate Todd McCaffrey as the equal of his mother, I’ve definitely upgraded my desire to read his writing in the future.

  • Book: Out on a Limb

    With an endorsement on the front cover from Elizabeth Peters, and another on the back that said, “She’s hilarious . . .” I had hopes for this mystery novel. After reading it, however, I have to rate it a 3 out of 5. I do find some of the characters engaging and interesting, but the story is scattered, the mystery is a bit weak, and the jokes fall short of hilarious for me.

    The strong female lead is diminished, in my view, by her weak and apparently inept boyfriend, a police Lieutenant who can’t seem to see fairly obvious things. At one point when the lead (Claire Malloy) is making an excuse for not telling him something that she really should have as a good citizen, she notes that the police have much greater resources than she has, and that a little simple police work would have produced the result. She’s right, it probably would have, thus indicating that the police work wasn’t done. It seems that Malloy wins not through intelligence or hard work, but rather through a combination of fortuitous information and police laziness or ineptness.

    Interesting characters might get me to pick up another book in this series. The story in this one will stand against that. We’ll have to see what happens.

  • Book: Claws and Effect

    Rita Mae Brown and her co-author Sneaky Pie Brown collaborate to produce this delightful new volume in the Mrs. Murphy mystery series. Mrs. Murphy is a cat, of course, whose human is named Mary Minor Haristeen, the village postmistress for Crozet, Virginia. I’m a sucker for all things feline, including feline detectives. If you don’t like books in which animals behave intelligently and converse, though in this case not with humans, then you’ll hate this one.

    The mystery begins this time in Crozet hospital, where an unexpected target is killed in an unexpected place. It will take all of Mrs. Murphy’s senses and good sense to solve this one and keep her human alive at the same time.

    For more information, see Claws and Effect.

  • Susanna: A Transformation

    For a literal translation of Daniel 13, “Susanna” see USCCB – NAB – Daniel 13. This is not a translation or even a paraphrase. One might even call it a “transformation.” What I am attempting to do is to rewrite this short story into a modern form. I allow myself to alter the order of the telling, what is told and what is ignored, but not to alter the facts of the story as recorded. I also allow myself to add some details and to exchange telling the story for created conversations. I chose names for the unnamed players at random from Chronicles. For this story I assume that the Daniel of the story is the same as the main character in the book of Daniel, though not all interpreters would agree. You can judge the results.

    The elders gather outside what would have been the city gates, if only they had been back in Judah, and this had been a city with gates. As it was, it was a quite prosperous little community for exiles from Judah living in Babylon. Those who lived here were the elders, people of importance in the community, and many who had good jobs working for Babylonians and thus had money to live relatively good lives in exile.

    Daniel stood to the side of the group of elders, watching with interest. His position in the court of Babylon gave him entry to assemblies such as this, but he was still too young to be invited to participate. He felt his chest tighten, and anguish gripped him as he heard the elders call for Susanna. Susanna was the wife of the well-known businessman, the most prosperous member of the community, Joakim. Nothing had ever been even whipered against the character of Joakim and his wife. Behind her followed her father Hilkiah and his wife, along with other members of her family, all weeping.

    (more…)

  • Book: Changelings

    This little book is the first volume in a series The Twins of Petaybee which continues the story of the planet Petaybee that was told in Powers that Be, Power Play, and Power Lines.

    Those who really like McCaffrey’s writing will really like these little books. They’re somewhat lighter than the Dragonriders series, but they still have plenty of fun and interesting characters and cultures. Don’t expect excessive depths of mystery or strategy; everything is kept on a much simpler level than that.

    The next volume in this series will appear in December of 2006.

  • Convenient Timing

    The new arrival joined the crowd in the bar of The Featherless Parrot, one of Shalem’s business inns. What was meant by a “business inn” was simply a place where it was more likely that the patrons were making deals than that they were being entertained. It suited the visitor to be in such a place.

    Those who watched him—and there were many—saw a youngish man with a slightly effeminate look. It was so obvious that he didn’t really belong in this place, that most assumed that he really did. Nobody could be as weak and inattentive as he looked, and yet alive, unless he was very competent indeed.

    It was some time before anyone decided to contact the visitor. Making contact with a stranger in a business bar could be dangerous, though this one didn’t look like he was waiting for anyone in particular. He seemed to be just enjoying a drink and some dinner, as unlikely as that might be. It was possible he was looking to hire, and was waiting for someone to contact him.

    “Welcome to Shalem.” The tone was not welcoming, but the visitor looked up into the face of a middle aged man.

    “Really?” he said, with a slight twinkle in his eyes. “I kind of doubt it.”

    “Well, as welcome as anyone is here. Why are you here?” It was abrupt, but one approach was as good as another.

    “I’m just looking around,” said the visitor. “I’m in from Malethia via Aagerinar, security consultant to the East Coast Commercial Guild.”

    (more…)