And also a quite significant amount of intellectual and technological innovation. Medieval technological innovation may have been a very gradual process by modern standards, but cumulatively it had a profound effect on the world. It was the period that produced such innovations as clockwork, gunpowder, and printing, after all, to name only the three best-known.
Not to mention wind and water power!
My haul for May:Adrian Tchaikovsky - Redemption's Blade: After the War: An interesting collaborative series, in which each of many authors writes one novel. This is the first. It's a high fantasy tale that takes place after the great war against evil has been won and everyone is left to pick up the pieces of the world. It's an interesting idea, and the worldbuilding is very rich. It basically reads like a D&D campaign, however. That makes for a competent and fun story, but the D&D aspect is kind of distracting once you notice it. I'll read the next one if I come across it in a book box or something, although I'm somewhat skeptical of what the D&D campaign will look like in someone else's hands.
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Ogres: Spartacus meets Toussaint L'Ouverture in a distant-but-not-so-distant future that, in a way, imagines what the world would have looked like if the Confederacy had been a global power (and won). There's perhaps even a dash of that LeGuin novel about slavery. I've said before that Tchaikovsky really excels when it comes to novella-length works, and this is no different. I was reticent to read it, but almost immediately hooked. I think, however, that it should have ended with the penultimate scene.
Adrian Tchaikovsky - City of Last Chances: A bit of the Paris Commune (IIRC?) in a fantasy setting, with elements of Terry Pratchett's
Small Gods. Thoroughly enjoyable, with typically rich worldbuilding.
Rob Wilkins - Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: I'm not much for biographies, although I do enjoy reading about the authors I love and their creative process. This is that. It's engaging and very well written, with more than a hint of Pratchett himself in there. Learning about his life up to the Discworld success was a fascinating glimpse into the scifi/fantasy world of the 1970s and 1980s, and even the 1990s, as well as into the publishing industry of the time. It is, however, an
extremely sympathetic portrayal (borderline sycophantic or fanboy?), despite a few hints at some rough edges. He appears to have been a difficult man. I'd have liked to learn more about those rough edges; that they're glossed over in passing left me filling in the blanks in ways that are not entirely complimentary to Pratchett, and I'd have preferred a more direct look at those warts instead. I'd also have liked to learn more about his family life, which essentially doesn't feature
at all. I imagine that's deliberate, and in keeping with the estate's wishes (since it's the official biography, and Wilkins is a close friend of the Pratchetts), but in the end it serves to make Pratchett sounds like something of a monomaniacal workaholic. And while I get the sense that there is a grain or two of truth to that characterization, I also get the sense that this grossly distorts his character. The extended description of the descent into Alzheimer's is heart-wrenching, especially if you've any experience with that. Also, the job of being a personal assistant sounds like it sucks.
Darren Naish and Paul Barrett - Dinosaurs: How They Lived And Evolved: As far as I can see, this is the best popular up-to-date summary of dinosaur science out there (although it's no longer entirely up to date, since it was published seven years ago; I have the first edition, but the second seems to have made mostly relatively minor adjustments). As such, it's good and accessible (it starts with the
very basic basics), and it's nice that it devotes an entire chapter to birds (rather than just Mesozoic birds, or Mesozoic + early Cenozoic), and is entirely unapologetic about birds and dinosaurs. The art selection is a little dated, although the authors don't shy away from critiquing it (the cover of the first edition, however, is bad in all kinds of ways; I gather they had no control over it, and weren't happy about it). Some sections offer what is perhaps a slightly more balanced treatment than is warranted (e.g. the section on the end-Cretaceous extinction). At this point I don't think I learned much that was new to me, but (1) it's good to read an up-to-date palate cleanser after having delved for a bit into the dinosaur science of the '80s and '90s, and (2) there's so much that you're bound to forget stuff, and it's nice to be reminded of it all.
Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games: I found it at the yearly community book sale, and I'd been meaning to read it for years, so I picked it up. I expected it to be just another perfectly decent teen novel (I saw the film when it came out). I was wrong`; it's
very good. It's very well crafted, the satire surprisingly deft and surprisingly biting, and its singular focus makes it hard to put down. I have a few small quibbles--you don't
load a bow, goats need to be/have been pregnant to produce milk, and how could Clove know about what happened to Rue?--but really, it's a great read, even for an adult, and top-notch teen fare for sure. I'm desperate to read the sequels and prequel, although someone's got them out at the library. I suspect, however, that they'll dilute the focus and centre instead on fomenting a rebellion against the Capitol, and that will make it less interesting for me, and push it squarely into the teen novel realm. Which is fine--I like teen novels!--but will mean that they're just much less good than the first.
