Erratica Reduex

The Zero Stone by Andre Norton

I continue my classic Sci- fi kick by reading the Zero Stone. The gem of the title is a  dull gray stone set in a ring sized to fit over a space suit glove. It is an ancient and mysterious artifact made by a long vanished race, and a family heirloom owned by apprentice gem trader Murdoc Jern. On the run from religious fanatics he manages to bargain his limited resources into escape with a Free Trader ship. This is when things turn weird. On a planetary stopover the ship's cat eats a strange rock and shortly gives birth to Eet, a feline maint that can communicate with Murdoc telepathically. Betrayed by the Free Traders, Murdoc and Eet begin a desperate race to find what the secret of the stone is, and why some will kill to find out its secrets.

This novel is classic space opera; we visit a desolate desert planet, a jungle planet, we meet space pirates and the Space Patrol, explore a derelict spacecraft, and zip through space without examining the physics too closely.  The novel concentrates more on the mystery to be solved, though the mixture of irritation and confusion  with which Murdoc approaches his relationship with the arrogant Eet is amusing. The characters are done in broad strokes, though they are consistent- the author avoids contradictions or plot holes. And really, when it comes to describing interesting scenery and action, Andre Norton delivers. The resolution is satisfying, though obviously a set-up for a sequel. Which I shall tackle next.

Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evens

So stop me if you've heard this one before. A young man is horribly betrayed, spends years in durance, acquires a fortune, and sets himself up as a noble, while looking for revenge. Yes, Dragon Weather has strong references to the Count of Monte Cristo, enough so that in places it could be said to be a fantasy version of CoMC, from the perspective of the Count. It's more than that though, it goes it's own way, both plotwise and in the nature of the character.

In Dragon Weather, Arlian witnesses the destruction of his village by dragons, and then is sold into slavery by the looters who follow them. He spends years as a slave in a mine before a good deed sets him free. By chance he efriends a prostitute at a brothel, and learns the location of a small fortune. He manages to parley that fortune into a large one, and begins planning his revenge against men and dragons, not only for the injustice done to him and his village, but also for the cruelties inflicted on the prostitutes. In the process, his sense of justice and desire for revenge collide, and he learns secrets about the dragons and himself that will potentially change the world of men. Having found he too has the heart of a dragon, will he retain his humanity, or become as cruel as the people he opposes?

I found this book one of the more enjoyable of Lawrence Watt-Evens' books. Mr. Watt-Evens is an expert at starting off characters with practically nothing, and then sending them off in a direction to improve their lot, and it was as interesting to see how Arlian comes into wealth by luck and cunning, as it was to see him duplicate parts of the Count of Monte Cristo. While the author's writing is workmanlike, and lacks the lyrical and emotional quality of the original Count of Monte Cristo, he is very good at plotting, and I was alsways interested in seeing what would come next in this book. Several of the plot developments were genuinely surprising, and I couldn't predict where the book would head next. The only complaint I would have about it is that the treatment of most of the female characters is very triggery- the prostitutes are mutilated to keep from escaping, and even the one strong female character (admittedly of a nonstandard type for fantasy) has rape in her background. I don't quite appreciate women characters existing mainly as focuses for the main character's sense of justice.

Despite this I would recommend this book; it showcases a rather dark (for Watt-Evens) situation, a hero who finds justice is more complicated than he thought, and an engaging plot involving revenge, magic and dragons.

In this second book of the Laundry series, Bob Howard, our geeky protagonist, has to deal with such mind-shattering horrors as eldritch zombies, insane cultists, and Power Point presentations. This is because Bob is a member of the Laundry, the agency tasked to prevent the end of the world through the improper use of arcane mathematics- or magic for the laymen. It being a British bureaucracy of course, there's far less gunfire, and far more filling out of proper requisition forms and traveling to training conferences. It's at one of these conferences that Bob, a computer expert meets a classic femme fatale, with some decidedly nonclassic nonhuman elements to her. then he meets some zombies, and the entire training presentation goes to hell.

In short order Bob is stuffed onto an airplane, and finds himself in the Carribean, where he apparently is expected to take the role of a famous British secret agent from literature, complete with slinky Bond girl at his side. Needless to say the role doesn't fit Bob very well, and he can't see why he has to play a part that he's totally unprepared for. The answer lies in a really clever use of sympathetic magic designed to further the plans of a mad industrialist, and Bob has an unexpected part to play in a scenario that could wipe out the human race...

I liked this book, though I didn't think it quite had either the humor or the horror of The Atrocity Archives. The central conceit, of making James Bond meet geekdom is amusing though, and Stross continues his mix of Cthuloid horror and snarky commentary about modern bureaucracy. I don't recommend it for anyone who hasn't read the previous book in the series, since it follows on from the previous events. But all in all, it's a solid, fast read.