Blog Posts, Articles, and Reports To Read: March and February 2012

• “How To Write Readable – And Retweetable – Tweets“
• “Searching the Internet – A Primer“
• “The Annotated Emma, by Jane Austen, Annotated and Edited by David M. Shapard – A Review“
• “Why Ebooks Fail as Research Tools“
• “A Few New Releases: An Unfaithful Queen, A Kingmaker’s Daughter, a Mistress and a Time Traveler“

Dragon’s Time by Anne and Todd McCaffrey

The latest novel about Pern, Dragon’s Time (New York:  Ballantine Books, 2011), by Anne and Todd McCaffrey was disappointing.  The beginning, when Lorana has traveled to the future, was anticlimactic.  Lorana’s and F’jian’s jumping back and forth in time was confusing and unnecessary.  Taking the weyrlings and injured dragons and riders back in time to prepare for battling Thread is too reminiscent of Dragongirl.

The McCaffreys would have been well advised to combine the two novels and then cut out about half.

I would like to see a sequel about how Telgar Weyr deals with the return of all the dragons and riders.

The Sleeping God by Violette Malan

The Sleeping God (New York:  DAW Books, 2007) is Violette Malan‘s first fantasy novel about Dhulyn Wolfshead and Parno Lionsmane, who are Mercenary Brothers, even though Dhulyn is female, and Partners.  I enjoyed the novel and am looking forward to reading the others in the series:

• The Soldier King
• The Storm Witch
• Path of the Sun

Pern Novels

I finished reading and rereading all the Pern novels and updated my chronological list.

The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

The Maze of Bones is Book One of The 39 Clues series.  (Though this book is by Rick Riordan, I understand that the books are by different authors.)  My niece mentioned that she was reading the most recent volume in the series, so I thought I’d check it out.  I can see why kids from about ten to thirteen would enjoy the books, but I wouldn’t recommend them to adults.  From The Maze of Bones, young readers can learn a lot about Benjamin Franklin.  Based on the ending, I’d guess that in the next book they’ll learn about Mozart.

A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters

A River in the Sky (New York:  William Morrow-HarperCollins, 2010) is Elizabeth Peters‘ most recent installment in the Amelia Peabody series.  As with most lengthy series of novels, the later books aren’t as good as the first ones.  They become father formulaic as the author churns them out.  This is true of A River in the Sky.

In addition, as the series has progressed, I’ve found Amelia less and less likable.  She has gone from naively confident to arrogant.  I’m also not sure I like the integration of passages from “Manuscript H.”

A few years ago, I reread the then existing Amelia Peabody novels in chronological order according to when they were set not when they were written.  This latest novel was written and published out of sequence.  According to the “Amelia Peabody series” article at Wikipedia, the novels occur in the following order:

• Crocodile on the Sandbank
• The Curse of the Pharaohs
• The Mummy Case
• Lion in the Valley
• Deeds of the Disturber
• The Last Camel Died at Noon
• The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog
• The Hippopotamus Pool
• Seeing a Large Cat
• The Ape Who Guards the Balance
• Guardian of the Horizon
• A River in the Sky
• The Falcon at the Portal
• He Shall Thunder in the Sky
• Lord of the Silent
• The Golden One
• Children of the Storm
• The Serpent on the Crown
• Tomb of the Golden Bird
  

New Novel by Steve Berry

Steve Berry has a new Cotton Malone novel, The Emperor’s Tomb, which will be available November 23.  Unfortunately, I have no idea who the emperor is in the title.

Pern Novels by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey

In January I was looking for something to read, and I decided to read Anne and Todd McCaffrey’s Pern novels (in italics) and short stories (in quotation marks) in chronological order according to the order in which they occurred on Pern not the order in which they were written.  I found two lists (one by Anne McCaffrey and one by Cheryl B. Miller) that I’ve combined and updated to give the following order**:

1. “The Survey:  P.E.R.N.” (in The Chronicles of Pern:  First Fall)
2. Dragonsdawn
3. “The Dolphins’ Bell” (in The Chronicles of Pern:  First Fall)
4. “The Ford of Red Hanrahan” (in The Chronicles of Pern:  First Fall)
5. “The Second Weyr” (in The Chronicles of Pern:  First Fall)
6. “Rescue Run” (in The Chronicles of Pern:  First Fall)
7. Dragonseye (apparently published as Red Star Rising in the U.K.)
8. “Ever the Twain” (in A Gift of Dragons)
9. Dragon’s Kin
10. Dragon’s Fire
11. Dragon Harper
12. Dragonsblood
13. Dragonheart
14. Dragongirl
15. Dragon’s Time
16. Moreta:  Dragonlady of Pern
17. “Beyond Between” (source unknown)
18. Nerilka’s Story
19. Masterharper of Pern
20. Dragonflight
21. Dragonquest
22. Dragonsong
23. “The Impression” (source unknown)
24. “The Smallest Dragonboy” (in A Gift of Dragons)
25. Dragonsinger
26. Dragondrums
27. The White Dragon
28. “The Girl Who Heard Dragons” (in A Gift of Dragons)
29. Renegades of Pern
30. All the Weyrs of Pern
31. The Dolphins of Pern
32. “Runner of Pern” (in A Gift of Dragons)
33. The Skies of Pern

I’ve read through Dragon Harper, and as I mentioned in a post last week, I started (re)reading Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels as well.  I want to drag out the Pern novels, so I can read Dragongirl in the right order when it is released.

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* updated August 9, 2010
** list updated on December 20, 2010

Jack Ryan Novels by Tom Clancy

I just finished rereading Patriot Games by Tom Clancy and decided to (re)read Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels in the order in which they occur chronologically as I’m reading the Dragonriders of Pern novels (more on that later).  I found an article titled “How to Make Sense of Clancy’s Convoluted Chronology in Jack Ryan Series,” in which Alex Diaz-Granados explains the reading order I’ll follow:

• Patriot Games
• Red Rabbit
• The Hunt for Red October
• The Cardinal of the Kremlin
• Clear and Present Danger
• The Sum of All Fears
• Debt of Honor
• Executive Orders
• The Bear and the Dragon

I own all of the books except Red Rabbit, so I’m going to have to wait until I can get it from the library to continue this project.

The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry

I liked The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry better than The Alexandria Link but not as well as some of his other books that I’ve read.  Berry brought back Colin Michener from The Third Secret.   However, what I found most interesting was a passing reference to Painter Crowe from James Rollins‘ Sigma Series.  I learned a lot about Alexander the Great from reading this novel, and I appreciate Berry’s “Writer’s Note” where he “[separates] face from fiction” (470).