Cetaganda
I had a slightly frustrating incident at work today, which I'll simply describe as "an element of a database dictionary being used in a way I simply couldn't believe, until told that it really was being used in that way". Sometimes I think it would be best if programmers behaved as if coming up with something really devilishly clever raised a warning flag that doing that would be the worst possible thing they could do.
But, of course, what I really want is for everyone to be clever my way.
First, I was somehow told of an essay on the dangers of the Microsoft Monopoly. It is a little half-baked, but its heart is in the right place, I think. My opinion is that Microsoft as it presently exists is a huge threat to the well-being of the computer industry, and I am hoping that the federal government will step in and break up the monopoly.
Second, if you're a comic book fan, it turns out someone is conducting a poll on Marvel Masterworks. These are the hardcover collections of old Marvel Comics, 27 volumes of which were issues in the last decade, but which have mostly lapsed out-of-print and some of which are becoming quite valuable. (A few of the rarer volumes have increased from their $35.00 cover price to well over $100.00 apiece. Naturally, the four volumes I'm looking for are among these. Sigh.) Anyway, the poll is collecting opinions on a possible reissue and expansion of the series, with the data to be presented to Marvel as a lobbying effort. We can hope.
I just hope any further reissue is in the tasteful, elegant format of the original series, and not the garish, bug-ugly format of the recent reissue of a handful of the early volumes.
Finally, if you like this kind of thing, Charlie sent me the URL for a collection of Tom Swifties.
Cetaganda is written in a traditional mystery format: Miles and his cousin Ivan go to Cetaganda for a state funeral, and are immediately attacked (or nearly so, it seems), their attacker later turning up dead, most likely murdered. What's going on? The kicker is that the plot all has entirely science fictional premises, bound up in the nature of Cetagandan society and politics, and their efforts at genetically engineering their upper class. In my experience, true science fiction mysteries are rare, and I wish there were more of them. (Maybe there are more of them, but they just suck. I dunno.)
The book is a bit less over-the-top than the other Miles books as far as Miles' cockamamie schemes to "fix everything" go. It's not really an adventure, as such, and in particular it lacks the fecal-matter-about-to-hit-the-rotating-oscillator nature of grand adventures; it reminds me more of an Agatha Christie novel, or perhaps the Dorothy Sayers novel I read a few months ago, with Miles working to unravel the plot, going on various dangerous excursions, but spending most of its (and his) effort on figuring out what happened, what could happen next, and how everything fits together.
It unfortunately is a little shorter on outright humorous bits than, say, The Warrior's Apprentice, but the characterization is still there, and Cetaganda is in many ways a more fully-realized and more interesting society than Miles' homeworld of Barrayar, although perhaps it benefits from more of an outsider's perspective than we've gotten of Barrayar for the most part.
Overall, as you can tell, I liked it a lot.
I seem to be reading a lot these days. It's fun. It's been a while since I've read so many books that are just good fun. It seems like I periodically start slogging through some dreadfully disappointing novels, like Stand on Zanzibar or The Dazzle of Day. Hopefully it will be a while before I fall into that trap again.
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