Blood Spirits / Sherwood Smith

Blood Spirits
by Sherwood Smith

fantasy, romance
copyright 2011

rated 7: well worth reading

The adventure continues from Coronets and Steel... The fantasy element is more obvious. There's less of the beautiful woman being put-upon by handsome men. It's just as much fun :-)

The target audience is more obviously teenage girls... The heroine is a young woman of marriageable age but there is more involvement by the local schoolgirls: admire the heroine while you identify with the plucky young assistants.

The first book ended with the hero marrying the wrong woman. So how can a second book sort out that rather awkward problem?! It's too nice a book to assassinate "the wrong woman"! I rather liked the solution to that little problem... And it also provided an interesting new direction for the next book. Well done, the author :-)

Some threads on the last few chapters are, I think, somewhat unraveled. (Hmmm... poor analogy. I mean, I can't follow what happened.) I gave up trying to remember who was who amongst the many secondary characters. But who cares!?

This book is a lot of fun. Likeable characters. Not too much tension.

I enjoyed reading Blood Spirits. I look forward to reading more.

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Problems ? Solved

Coronets and Steel / Sherwood Smith

Coronets and Steel
by Sherwood Smith

fantasy romance

copyright 2010
read in February 2013
rated 7 out of 10: well worth reading

Fantasy, sort of. Romance, definitely. Chick lit, absolutely... Rated seven out of ten? Depends on your point of view!

My original rating was six, read to pass the time. A fun book but not great. Then I thought, what is the point of my rating?

My rating reflects my own opinion of the book. Sometimes I am impressed by how well -- or how poorly -- a book is written. I may notice that characters are well fleshed out -- or as two dimensional as cheap cardboard. Some of my "quality of writing" opinions affect my enjoyment of a book.

My rating is an overall impression of how much I *enjoyed* the book.

I thoroughly *enjoyed* Coronets and Steel!

A feisty heroine, a dashing prince, the amoral and dashing cousin. Set in a country which -- by an amazing set of circumstances -- has maintained the best parts of Scarlet Pimpernel-style courtly behavior. With enough modern conveniences to maintain good health and entertainment.

I read Coronets as a pick-me-up after the tedium of The Wise Man's Fear. Found that Coronets has much of the same descriptive space-filling as Fear. Found that Coronets does it much better... I was skipping lightly through the flowering fields of Coronets verbosity. Where I needed Wellington boots for the swamps of extraneous sludge in Fear.

Coronets is light. It's fun. And you know that the story is progressing towards a satisfying conclusion.

A line from the back-cover blurb is worth quoting, if only in the hope that fantasy writers will take note: "Smith dares to resolve several plot lines, in defiance of fantasy sequel conventions..." Message to other fantasy authors: If you don't know how your story will end -- please do not publish.

Back to Coronets.

There are plenty of references to other books and poems. They do more than show off the author's knowledge... Smith provides enough detail to allow me to Google the work and understand the reference. Thank you! Though one reference did give me a huge hint as to how Coronets was going to end...

On the negative side... I suspect that Smith did not check the meaning of "droit de seigneur"... Or perhaps it's just me... I may be too innocent to accept the heroine's imaginings in this chick lit fantasy of a romantic age adventure...

Great fun, easy reading, an enjoyable novel.

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Problems ? Solved

Triplanetary / E.E. Doc Smith

Triplanetary
by E.E. Doc Smith

Science fiction... Space opera

Published 1948
Read in January 2013... and many times before

rating 8 out of 10: really quite good

Really quite good... or really quite bad: your choice! This is space opera: over the top, boys own adventures in space. Love it, or...

Well, no. Just love it :-)

I don't like to bias my opinions by reading other views of books. (At least, not till my own review is posted.) But it seems to me that this first book of the series was written after most of the others. Whatever.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was this race of super intelligent aliens. Then there were two races. One was good, the other was evil... Unlike Smith's Skylark series, there is no doubt: the lines are clearly drawn between good and evil.

Unfortunately the good aliens are not powerful enough to defeat the evil aliens. So they spend this -- and six more books -- developing a race which will be able to wipe evil from the galaxy.

And that race... is humanity.

Surprise!

Atlantis falls. Rome declines. World wars come and go. And then the serious space-based action begins.

Fishy aliens destroy human space fleets. And a major city or two. Humans respond with destruction of a major city, plus the killing of all the inhabitants of another city.

Then they each realise that it was all based on a misunderstanding... Hands, flippers and tentacles are shaken all round. A treaty of trade and cooperation is signed.

If only our real wars could end on such a reasonable note.

This is a universe of weird aliens, fierce battles, great science and sensible outcomes. Space opera at its best.

No need to believe it.

Just enjoy it :-)

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Problems ? Solved

Skylark DuQuesne / E. E. "Doc" Smith

Skylark DuQuesne

(category: science fiction)
book 4 of Skylark by

E. E. "Doc" Smith

published by Panther Books in 1974... 79 and originally in 1965
read in September 2009 (and many times before, over many years)

Agamedes' rating: 7 out of 10

Agamedes' opinion:

Another re-reading for the umpteenth time... This is the book where Marc "Blackie" DuQuesne is -- admit it! -- the hero. Sure, he's cold, ruthless, self-centred. But he's not evil -- just doesn't care who lives or dies, as long as it supports his own view of what should be happening. At the end, he's the only one with enough of the callous, cold-blooded killer instinct to save the cosmic all. And all he really wants, is a single Universe to rule... This book was written 30 years after the first three Skylarks. The Doc has introduced references to sex (purely for the purposes of racial improvement, of course), the women are stronger (when he remembers) and the secondary characters such as Shiro have a role to play (again, when Doc remembers them). The four original Skylarkers even have children... in the first chapter. When eight people are whisked to a safe area -- the children must have been left behind. Still space opera, still much, much larger than life, still with major oversights...

..o0o..

This blog is supported by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your own documents, email nick leth at gmail dot com.

Skylark of Valeron / E. E. "Doc" Smith

Skylark of Valeron

(category: science fiction, space opera)
book 3 of Skylark by

E. E. "Doc" Smith

published by Granada Publishing Ltd in 1934
read in August 2009 (and before, quite a few times)

Agamedes' rating: 6 out of 10

Agamedes' opinion:

Another re-re-reading of a very enjoyable book... Grand space opera, with the hero being more heroic, the spaceships travelling even faster, the weapons getting even more powerful. In this book I begin to wonder if Smith would really like to have du Quesne as his hero... According to something I just read, this series is an “Edisonade”: young inventor defeats baddies and has the role of ruler of the universe (or similar) thrust upon him. But I must admit... It can be almost embarrassing, when Shiro is suddenly remembered, he gets frozen by the baddies (along with the other good guys) and then is forgotten... again. At least the women do get some lines, no matter how pathetic those lines are.

..o0o..

This blog is supported by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your own documents, email nick leth at gmail dot com.

Skylark Three / E. E. "Doc" Smith

Skylark Three

(category: science fiction, space opera)
book 2 of Skylark by

E. E. "Doc" Smith

published by Grafton Books, 1974... 86, first published in 1930
read in August 2009 (and before, many times, way back)

Agamedes' rating: 7 out of 10

Agamedes' opinion:

More aliens, more alien threats... The invulnerable spaceship needed to be upgraded; now it’s a lot bigger, faster and capable of inter-galactic travel. More fast and furious fun!

And if you're wondering what I'm talking about... see The Skylark of Space. Or, follow the author:smith link at the foot of this post, to see more books by Doc Smith.

The Skylark of Space / E. E. "Doc" Smith

The Skylark of Space

(category: science fiction, space opera)
book 1 of Skylark by

E. E. "Doc" Smith

published by Panther Books, 1974, first published in 1928
read in August 2009 (and before, way back, many times)

Agamedes' rating: 8 out of 10

Agamedes' opinion:

What can I say?! It’s great! I’ve read this book so many times... and enjoyed it every time. The men build the spaceships and fight the fights, the women look gorgeous and make neatly triangular sandwiches. Clothes, of course, are optional. Definitely a book of its time. This is space opera supreme! I love the way that they deal with travel at the speed of light: “Nothing can go that fast... Einstein’s Theory is still a theory... And theories are modified to fit facts. Hokay.” ... And off they go, at many times the speed of light. Take that, Einstein!