Mid May Book Post

Passage to Dawn by RA Salvatore

This is the 10th book in the Legends of Drizzt series, and the last one I own. I can see why past me stopped here. It's not bad, as such, but there's this distinct thing of undoing narrative progress to go back (literally) where things started, as if Salvatore realised in the last book he was stuck. But it doesn't feel like the characters going full circle, it feels like taking things back to fix a problem that isn't actually a problem.

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

I have a lot of time at work to listen to audio books, and I've taken to listening to classics (along with other books, of course.)

It's interesting, and also reading it solved a plot problem I was having. It's interesting seeing all the "intuitively doing x feels correct, and you should never, ever do x."

I can also say that people using The Prince as general life advice makes more sense than the Art of War, though now I feel a deep urge to shout "IN ~~MICE~~ STATECRAFT" whenever it came up.

How Many More Women? by Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida

A look at the way laws screw over women who have been abused and media that tries to report on it, especially civil laws like defamation laws and non disclosure agreements. It's deeply depressing and enraging, but it's a good look at the system (and the "the system is for what it does" thing.)

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Recommended to me by a friend, and I'm glad I went in knowing that the narrator is constantly hiding things up his sleeves. I think otherwise I would have been annoyed by it not being a fair play mystery, but instead I was having a lot of fun watching the narrator's cuffs.

It's set in a fantasy Byzantium, with a strong political bent. Our hero, General, unwisely boasted he could steal anything and backed it up by stealing the kings seal. Now, he's been recruited by the king's Magus to retrieve a mythical stone of immortality that the king has promised to give to a foreign queen in marriage. Things Escalate From There.