“Butterflies are not insects,” Captain John Sterling said soberly. They are self-propelled flowers.” — Robert A. Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
To celebrate the release of a new Elizabeth Bear White Space novel, we’re running Gary’s review of it and some other choice Elizabeth Bear titles.
Gary says in his review of The Folded Sky, ‘Is it just me, or is Elizabeth Bear’s third entry in her White Space series actually a cozy mystery? One that just happens to be wrapped up in a dramatic and far-ranging space opera?’ This space opera cum domestic drama cum murder mystery follows human archinformist Sunya Song to the farthest reaches of the Milky Way to save an alien sentient archive, and along the way to find some faith in her professional abilities and personal worth.
Speaking of mysteries, Cat reviewed the audiobooks of two tales in her Sub-Inspector Ferron series, In the House of Aryaman, A Lonely Signal Burns and A Blessing of Unicorns. He was careful to avoid spoilers. ‘What I will say is that their being set in a Hindu culture some fifty years in the future in a world that’s managed to survive ecological disaster and reach both environmental and technological stability is fascinating. I’ve lived in that part of our global culture and Bear gets the details quite right.’
Gary reviewed the first White Space book Ancestral Night, an adventure tale of engineer Haimey Dz on a deep space salvage tug. ‘… Ancestral Night is a riveting space opera, but it’s also a deep dive into deep ideas about internal space as well. Bear imparts valuable lessons about humanity, compassion and what it means to be a good person both in relation to one’s own ideals and as part of a community.’
He also reviewed her followup Machine in which we follow space ambulance doctor Llyn’s adventures. ‘The story of Machine is several things — including murder mystery, police procedural, and utopian/dystopian novel – wrapped up in a space opera. Bear also is using sizable chunks of this book to continue to build her universe and the Synarche, explaining how they work and why. Core General is a big part of that; it’s a huge multi-species Clarkean ring of a habitat-hospital in the crowded region of the Galactic Core to which Llyn is highly devoted.’
Robert dug into the archives of sorts and reviewed Elizabeth’s first three published novels, Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwide. ‘A reader coming back to these after reading Bear’s later books can see the seeds of some of her ongoing themes, particularly the focus on the costs of love and what I can only describe as an examination of the intersection of right, wrong, and necessity. It’s in these areas, her themes, that Bear has proven herself most adventurous and has reached her greatest depth, and while they’re understandably not as incisive and affecting as in later works, they’re there, which is more than you can say for a lot of writers.’
Gary brings us a fascinating look at the history of the tomato — at least, part of it — in Andrew F. Smith’s The Tomato in America: ‘The tomato is one of the most popular “vegetables” in America, where thousands of tons of them are consumed every year. They’re similarly popular around the world. They’re also the subject of a small mountain of folklore. And like all folklore, some of it’s true, and some isn’t.’
Robert reviewed Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: ‘I saw Peter Jackson’s first installment on his trilogy of The Hobbit twice, and, strangely enough, An Unexpected Journey was better the second time. Fortunately, I haven’t read The Hobbit in years, so I wasn’t having to pull myself back from what should have happened to what was actually happening.’ He later saw the second Hobbit film: ‘Inevitably, I found myself catching the first local showing of Peter Jackson’s latest entry into his J. R. R. Tolkien sweepstakes, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. It was better than I expected.’
Debbie took a thorough look at Charles Vess’ The Book Of Ballads And Sagas #1 – 4. ‘Vess, who has a solid reputation for illustrating such works as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman stories (also published in graphic novel form) also loves the ballads and sagas that have been entertaining people for hundreds of years, and in this series of books he has collaborated with some of the best-known writers in fantasy literature, including Gaiman, Jane Yolen, Charles de Lint, Sharyn McCrumb (not a fantasy writer but an author of mysteries with an Appalachian folkloric theme), Midori Snyder, Robert Walton and Delia Sherman (whew!) — I hope I’ve not left anyone out!’
In new releases, Gary reviews two jazz albums drawn mostly from the American Songbook, Noah Haidu’s Standards III, and John Abercrombie & Andy LaVerne’s Timeline. ‘Pianist Noah Haidu keeps going from strength to strength. For the third entry in his fabulous Standards series he has put together a masterful program that deftly mixes actual standards with originals and a surprise pop cover,’ he says of the former. Of the latter, originally released in 2003 and now being released on vinyl, he notes, ‘It’s a consistently engaging program of standards, classics and originals, inspired by two 1966 releases by pianist Bill Evans and guitarist Jim Hall: Intermodulations and Undercurrent.
From the Archives, Christopher enjoyed an offering from singer songwriter Eddie Cole. ‘What makes I Know What’s Going On so satisfying to my ears is the deft way Cole moves from tune to tune, varying instrumentation, tempo, and mood while maintaining an overall consistency. I can picture a small club stage with the basic trio set up, a handful of acoustic and electric guitars on stands, a keyboard rack and a trap set.’
Lydia Loveless’ album Somewhere Else, which Gary reviewed for Sleeping Hedgehog in 2014, remains one of his favorite releases of that decade. ‘Everthing that has come before has been pretty impressive for someone who started cutting her first record at 17, but Loveless has made a quantum leap with her latest on Bloodshot Somewhere Else. She has matured remarkably as a writer, a musician and a singer, and it shows in every aspect of this album.’
Judith proferred a concise review of Jed Marum’s Soul of a Wanderer. ‘Like many of the artists we review, Marum has released a potpourri of folk album containing what just have to be many of his favorite songs. Described as “a collection of American, Irish, and Scottish stories,” most are covers, some are Celtic, most are American. Others he has written himself. You can hear the folk in the Celtic and the Celtic in the folk, resulting in a consistent style.’
Peter Massey turned in a review of two by Jed Marum, his Streets Of Fall River, and Into The West: Celts In Texas, for which he teamed up with Michael Harrison. ‘Listening to Streets Of Fall River it’s possible to detect a hungrier Jed Marum before he achieved a modicum of fame, and from what I can hear, it is fame well deserved. On this album is a performer singing his favourite songs with a delivery that comes straight from the soul. Good honest folk music, as it should be, no guest musicians, just the man accompanying himself on his guitar or banjo.’
Peter also reviewed one by Michael Harrison, performing as Michael William Harrison, called First Time ‘Round. ‘On this album Michael presents his songs, for the most part, as just one man — voice and guitar. However, on one or two of the tracks that benefit from a bit of ‘filling out’, he has enlisted the help of guest musicians: Gordon McLeod (bass, fiddle and mandolin), Ernie Tafft on fiddle and Jed Marum on banjo; Jed Marum, with Gina Glidewell and Christy and Gordon McLeod, also adds harmony vocals.’
Books can get successfully turned into other forms as we see in this review by Vonnie of an interesting performance of an Ellen Kushner novel: ‘Ellen Kushner and Joe Kessler at Johnny D’s. Kushner performed Thomas the Rhymer as a combination reading/musical performance at Johnny D’s, the synergy between the songs and the narrative was much stronger. The pauses, in particular, highlighted the words far better than the end of a paragraph on a page ever could. Kushner sang and played guitar, whilst Josef Kessler played fiddle and mandolin.’
So I’ve got some music for you that I think fits pretty much any season but particularly the Summer given its name. It’s Michele Walther and Irina Behrendt playing a live version of Aaron Copland’s ‘Hoe Down’ from Rodeo from his Rodeo album. I sourced it off a Smithsonian Institution music archive which has no details where or when it was recorded which surprised me given how good they usually are at such things.
