Lois McMaster Bujold "The Spirit Ring"

My friend Kenny O'Leary recommended this writer, though a different book. I managed to get a copy of this novel first. Lois has been writing sci fi and fantasy for years and has a slew of awards, but for some reason I had never read anything by her before, so thanks for the tip Kenny.

The spirit ring is a fun and easy read. I did not want to put it down too much as I really enjoyed it from start to finish. Its a classic approach to a fantasy novel, as she did not create a new world or anything, basically she went back to early renaissance Italy and added a little bit of magic, by Priests and Wizards to the mix. The characters that are introduced and developed are quite likable and you get to know them during the course of the book. The plot is straightforward and keeps it s momentum well and has a particularly fine ending.

I was however left with the feeling that she could have done more. Her prose is good and deceptively light. There are gems of philosophy and morality hidden away in odd locations that are valid outside of a magical schema, the kind of thing that makes fantasy matter. I think there could have been more of this and a little more weight put on the decisions made by the characters.

Regardless, it was a fine read, and I will add her to my list, while avidly seeking other books penned by her hand.

John Ringo, "The Last Centurion"

I have been on something of an apocalyptic kick, to the point were I have been worried about the amount of dried goods and water I have on hand in the house, so this book by John Ringo will hopefully be the last of them for a while, as I do not want to lose it, at least not completely. This book is a complicated one to talk about, or should I say uncomfortable. Not because of strong language or violence etc, which I can take in spades, but rather because it moves away from the standard sci fi writers territory.

It is set in the very near future, 2019 to be exact, and is strongly based on current events pre Obama, This means that it does not have that essence of separation that science fiction lends the exploration of ideas. Instead it has all the context of your Sunday newspaper.

That distance that most SF gets from an alien setting, or alternate reality etc gives the writer the freedom to explore ideas without being strongly colored by current opinion. John Ringo dropped all that and the narrator, telling his own story, is the Republicans Republican. He posits the confounding events of a plague of H5N1 that wipes out half the worlds population, the onset of global cooling due to the sun entering a calm phase of no sunspots and famine world wide due to the breakdown of most societies, including the US.

Now the lead character has the first half of the book as a rant on these issues, it then turns into the story of a military conflict in the Middle East, comes back to a diatribe on farming and finishes with civil war in the USA. He is not afraid to write without political correctness, and for all that Bandit Six uses strong and colorful language, he is willing to give people a shot before writing them off, regardless of color or whatever. It is powerful. The character is an interesting one for all his strong opinions, and the book admittedly drew me in.

However, I am not sure I could recommend him yet because I want to know if all his books are similarly colored first. If one book has a character with strong (and often justifiable views) that's one thing, but if he cannot get off his hobby horse and just write then he does not make it to my list of recommendations. So, John Ringo is in Limbo for me as of the moment.

(I will leave it to those of you who know me to come to an opinion on which issues I might hold common ground with the protoganist)