Three-Toed Sloth

Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur, February 2011

Attention conservation notice: I have no taste.

Jonathan Goodwin and John Holbo (eds.), Reading Graphs, Maps, and Trees: Responses to Franco Moretti

I suppose it's a bit odd for me to recommend this, since I'm a contributor. (Said contribution is this [ == that], with cosmetic alterations.) But apart from that lapse on the part of the organizers, it's very worthwhile. The full text is free online under a Creative Commons license (follow the link), but the printed version is quite handsome.

V. S. Redick, The Red Wolf Conspiracy

Mind-candy. Yet another Big Fat Fantasy Epic; better than average for that sort of thing (good enough that I'll try the sequel), but not recommended for those who aren't already into the sub-genre.

Taylor Anderson, Rising Tides

Mind-candy. "What these lemurs need is a boat-load of vintage honkeys", continued. — It is a striking testament to the moral regeneration of this country in the second half of the twentieth century that, in order to make his white male American heroes sympathetic to a contemporary audience, Anderson gives them views on race and sex which would have marked them as extreme radicals in 1940. (Sequel.)

Walter Jon Williams, Deep State

In which the hero of This Is Not a Game returns to pit her skills against a military dictatorship. Connection to current events is entirely fortuitous. (But WJW would have been a good addition to the Blogs and Bullets workshop.)

(Sequel.)

Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur; Scientifiction and Fantastica; The Commonwealth of Letters; Writing for Antiquity; Self-Centered