Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur, April 2016

Attention conservation notice: I have no taste.

Ruth Downie, Medicus; Terra Incognita; Persona Non Grata; Caveat Emptor; Semper Fidelis; Tabula Rasa

Mind candy: historical mysteries set in early 2nd century Roman Britain (and southern Gaul), following the mis-adventures of a Roman legionary doctor and his British wife. (Well, originally Tilla is his slave, but it's complicated.) They are, for me, absolute catnip, and the perfect thing to binge read while in the stage of recovering from food-poisoning where I can read but can't do anything more useful. (I also can't help thinking that they are exactly the sort of thing my grandmother would have loved.)

Kathleen George, A Measure of Blood

Yet another Pittsburgh-centric mystery, taking place largely in the mind of the murderer. Much of the action happens around the University of Pittsburgh, i.e., just down the street.

John Brunner, The Gaudy Shadows

Mind candy, and not exactly recommended. Brunner was one of the great science fiction writers, the publishers of the ancient paperback edition I have played this up, and there is in fact a very light science-fictional angle to the story. But really it's a mystery novel which is very much a period piece of Swinging London. I enjoyed it, but I also found it funny in ways I doubt Brunner intended. For Brunner completists (in which case, this is, astonishingly, available electronically), or those seeking documents of the milieu.

Scott Hawkins, The Library at Mount Char

Strictly speaking, this is a contemporary fantasy novel set in exurban Virginia, where the main characters are American children who have been selected by a nigh-omniscient teacher to learn the mystic arts at the titular library. What raises it above the level of mind candy is the fact that such a description give you no idea whatsoever of how strange this story is, either in its content or in its narration. Hawkins is obviously showing off from the very first lines (which hooked me), and makes basically no concessions for weak readers. He also has a pitiless quality towards his characters which I, for one, found very agreeable. The only thing I can begin to compare it to is somebody reading Shadowland, and then saying "That was really good, but Peter Straub's imagination is just too nice and normal". Even that doesn't really convey how impressive a performance this is.

(Picked up on Kameron Hurley's recommendation.)

Jen Williams, The Copper Promise

Mind candy: old-school fantasy, clearly inspired by role-playing games (there are both dungeons, plural, and dragons), but very enjoyably written, delivering the pleasures of light-hearted adventure without being either morally obtuse or wallowing in self-satisfied grimdarkness. It's self-contained, but at least one sequel has come out in the UK already, and both will appear in the US within the year.

I forget where I saw this recommended, but whoever it was, thank you; and additinal thanks to a surprisingly-good used English-language bookstore in Amsterdam last summer.

Eric Smith and Harold J. Morowitz, The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth: The Emergence of the Fourth Geosphere

To quote some know-it-all from the dust-jacket, "This is a truly unusual work of scholarship, which offers both novel perspectives on a huge range of disciplines and a model of scientific synthesis. This is a remarkable, and remarkably impressive, book." --- I will try to say more about this book in the coming