Stross wrote a fun series of novels combining the Lovecraftian and Spy Thriller genres. He also wrote a fine essay explaining that both genres explore our reactions to vast malevolent forces. In horror novels, we succumb along with the hero, while in thrillers we can at least hope the hero will save us, without succumbing to the malevolent forces of his own service’s bureaucracy… Stross is a great admirer of Len Deighton, and when I ran out of Deightons I moved on to le Carré, neither of whom I had read before (though I have seen both the 1979 BBC series and the 2011 film of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”.)
All highly recommended.
A nicely written social and technical history of the computer project at the Institute for Advanced Study, starting with the founding of the IAS, treating the lives and personalities of the many fascinating people involved, the history of mathematics and logic in the early 20th century, the engineering developments that led to the computer, the interwoven histories of the computer and of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, the effect of the computer on weather prediction and genetics, the inevitable politics and the quirks and foibles and human failures and human successes. The history is solid and well-documented, and this is above all a book about people and ideas and a great accomplishment.
Technically I didn’t read this - I only skimmed the grammar and didn’t work through the wordlists at all. But I read the afterword :)
I knew nothing of the Basques except that they spoke a language isolate predating the invasion of Indo-Europeans. Turns out they played pivotal roles in European history, introduced commercial whaling, figured heavily in the profitable cod fishing industry, were notable explorers and seamen, and early mercantile and industrial promoters (at one time they were the predominant producers of ironware, and had much to do with the spread of the new world crops of beans, corn and peppers.) Fiercely committed to their sense of identity in spite of never having a nation of their own, they resisted invasion from their first appearance in world records in Roman times and always managed to negotiate commercial and legal independence, self-rule by the Fueros, administered under the ancient Oaks… lost at the dawn of the 20th century, viciously suppressed by Franco. They are still here.
A fantasy novel of English Magic set during the Napoleonic wars, written in a nineteenth century style. Lovely prose, a bit melancholy, character driven, about the claustrophobia and loneliness of scholars, ambition, mentorship, the pain of living under enchantment. Reminds me of Neil Gaiman in themes and tone.
A fine time travel adventure to the early 19th c. with Ancient Egyptian magic thrown in. Fast paced, tense and compelling.
The orchestra and the staging overshadowed the voices. Juan Diego Flórez as Ory, Joyce DiDonato as Isolier, and Stéphane Degout were fine; Michele Pertusi as the Tutor was a little dull. The production is slapstick, which worked in the first act but was overdone in the second.
I liked the framing effect of showing the backstage and technical work: costumed crew operate fluttering butterfly puppets and dance the trees and doorframes around as though a movie camera were following the action; a crooked window descends from above and Ragonde delivers her aria through it from a stepladder. It created a fairy-tale feeling that I thought suited a light comedy about a rogue trickster, and the stage business between the hermit and the page competing for the countess was precisely timed and fun.
The flawed second act makes the countess’ peaceful retreat look like a bordello, the tippling knights disguised as nuns was well sung but unimaginatively staged, and Ory in nun’s habit, wooing the countess in the dark, while unknowingly holding Isolier’s hand, is turned into a tumbling threesome that doesn’t come off, since it isn’t at all clear which characters are aware of whom they are mis-grappling. But the first act was good enough to make up for the second.