What did you just read?

Josephine: Desire, Ambition, Napoleon by Kate Williams

This book follows the life of Empress Josephine, and I think it is probably the most interesting book I have ever read that covers any facet of the Napoleonic Era. I recommend it to anyone who wants to see Napoleon through the eyes of a normal person, opposed to one of his soldiers. You get a really clear view of who the man was, and it is not pretty. Napoleon was an asshole. He hated women his entire life and used them for sex. He used Josephine for emotional stability, until he wanted an alliance with Austria at which point he divorced her and banished her to her home outside of Paris. Even then she wasn't free. In his need to dominate everything, Napoleon refused for her to pursue her own life.

On top of this new and interesting perspective, we also get a look at France and how the country transformed during the Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire. Williams covers fashion, social rituals and architecture in a way that gives a real well-rounded picture of what was going on in France at this time.

Fatal Purity by Ruth Scurr

This book follows the life of Robespierre, who was probably the only pure politician that has ever existed in the history of the world. He didn't care for women or gold or nice things. All he cared about were his beliefs.

What I really found interesting about this book is that Robespierre was not a bloodthirsty monster. In fact, he was quite squeamish. He could send people to their deaths for the littlest things, but he couldn't actually witness their executions. He couldn't even witness their transportation from the jails to the public square where the executions took place.

I think this is an excellent book because it takes the time to break down the soft power interactions that Robespierre took part in, and shows his rise from a provincial lawyer to the President of the committee that was running France.

Rapp: The Last Victor by Jean Rapp

I wanted to like this book, because I have a fascination with the Napoleonic Era.

Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy this book because of how dry it is. I understand these are Jean Rapp's memoirs, but that just leads me to believe Rapp had zero story-telling ability. The most interesting piece comes at page 200, and in book with about 239 pages of actual text this is quite unsatisfying.

Why does the book start after Napoleon is Emperor? Why didn't Rapp write about his early years, or his time in Egypt? I believe he wrote this book to provide a different look at Napoleon himself. After the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon didn't have a great reputation throughout Europe. Rapp was quite close with the Emperor, and probably took exception to this popular view. He seems to have written his memoirs, which frequently feel like a little brother writing about how cool and strong his older brother is, in order to redeem his former master.

If you have any interest in this book, I can tell you it is not worth it. You won't learn anything new about Napoleon. Rapp worships at his altar and completely ignores how the Emperor treated his wife Josephine, or how he threw away his soldiers. On top of that, you won't learn anything about Rapp. Just like fellow Alsatian Michel Ney, he was quite a reserved man. He also stuffed his memoirs with letters sent between himself and the Emperor, or to various sovereigns of European nations. There's little to no personality in this book and absolutely no new perspective to be attained.

Just finished up Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham.



I've been going through a bunch of old 1970s science fiction lately for lack of any other ideas. Going in with basically zero knowledge aside from what I thought was a goofy premise (genetically engineered plant apocalypse) I was surprised by how good it was. It has a "our hero wakes up in the hospital after things have already gone to shit" opening which made me wonder how old that trope is. He meets some people, things go good, things go bad, etc. I don't want to talk it up too much but it was a pleasant surprise just as Alas Babylon and The Death of Grass were.

I suspect the film is ridiculous.



edit - didn't realize the book was released in 1951. That makes its quality given the subject matter even more surprising.

Gonneville of the Cuirassiers: The Personal Recollections of a French Cavalryman of the First Empire

by the Countess de Mirabeau



With this book you get exactly what it says on the title. These are the persona recollections of a French cavalryman during the Napoleonic years.

There is little to no reference to politics or great battles. Gonneville only writes about where he was and what he say while he was there. For the most part it is dry. The man is literally doing his best to recollect everything that happened to him during the years of 1804-1815 (he also adds his view of the Revolution of 1830 in the final chapter).

Because of the author's thoroughness we come away from these memoirs with two things; very little of the content in this book is exciting or grandiose. There is none of the flair that makes Napoleonic history so attractive. But the strength of these memoirs lies in that fact. We get a look into the daily life of a soldier. Unlike Jean Rapp (who was Napoleon's translator and the castellan of both Danzig and Hamburg) and Joachim Murat (who rose to become King of Napoli and a Marshal of France), Gonneville's memoirs belong with the letters of Lasalle and the memoirs of Baron de Marbot.

These three men bring the perspective down to the men who actually struggled to bring about Napoleon's vision, and it is the little moments of their lives that make it worth reading their memoirs.

Some interesting things from Gonneville's memoirs; becoming a prisoner and making friends with his captors, hunting for bread and beer in a land ravaged by war, witnesses a feud between two generals, hunting down bandits in the highlands of Spain, and participating in a wild charge to escape a certain-death situation.

A Brightness Long Ago

by Guy Gavriel Kay



This is the third book by Guy Gavriel Kay that I had read. The one previous to this was The Lions of Al-Rassan. The third was Children of Earth and Sky.

In a lot of ways A Brightness Long Ago is a cousin to Lions. They both feature strong warriors facing off against each other, include an independent woman skilled in medicine, have a young man learning and growing as he enters the world, and a building plot that marches towards an outbreak of war.

Yet in a lot of ways Brightness is the older, more mature version of Lions. I think in that comparison we can see as clear as day how Kay has grown - not only as a writer - but as a person. He focuses more on character now. He focuses on how we perceive ourselves versus how others see us, and how virtuous action can have a ripple effect we never become aware of. I guess thirty years will do that to you.

One of the main reasons why I picked up this book is because it takes place in the same geographical location as Children of Earth and Sky. I wanted to revisit these lands, even though I knew it took place at a different place in time. What really struck me was that at the end of Brightness it dovetails into Children. Hugely satisfying moment that I didn't see coming, though I suppose I should have.

In short, there is a lot of wisdom and a lot of human truth in this novel. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to get attached to characters, and who get depressed when they finish a real good story.

Just finished rereading Snow Crash and all of the Stormlight books. Finally was able to get into The City We Became, almost done with it. It's by Jemison, it's awesome, very reminiscent of Neverwhere by Gaiman.

A bunch of Audible credits and I'm not sure where to spend them right now. I am leaning towards picking up Heart-Shaped Box and NOS4A2, I've heard good things about Joe Hill. I was tempted to pick up the Void Trilogy by Hamilton, I heard they were amazing and I liked the first two books from The Commonwealth Saga well enough and I really like The Great North Road. But the first couple of hours of The Dreaming Void was just a jumbled mess and didn't draw you in at all.

Short update this time around due to broken fingers. Only web serials for this one, caught up on a few long ones.

Delve - Senescent Soul
You know how in Isekai/Litrpg stories the ultra nerd main character has an instant and complete 180 in personality to be an action hero jock, with any nerdiness being relegated to random pop culture references ? I hadn't actually hadn't thought about it much until reading this story. In this one the MC is absolutely still a nerd, and his 'OP''ness is essentially basic math and extrapolation. He spends a lot of time testing how different skills and effects interact with each other and picking rarely used talents based on that. A man after my own heart.

I also rate his choice of purification aura as a skill. In retrospect, 99.9% of all Isekai stories probably should end with the MC dying of dysentery or food poisoning, or at the very least spending 90% of their time looking and smelling like a filthy hobo ;p

I like this one a lot, it's different from the usual run of the mill stuff, and very well written.

Defiance of the Fall - The First Defier
Earth gets pulled into a gigantic battle royale style rpg with a bunch of other people from different alien planets. MC gets a head start by accidentally telefragging one of the inbound invasion leaders.

This starts out as a pretty interesting survival game type scenario but gradually evolves into "OP'man smashes all before him, rawr smash !" Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that, but it's a bit of a tonal shift from where it started.

One thing that bugged me though is, as Ukerric pointed out, the MC basically continuously fails upward - any setback is actually the hidden secret to real ultimate power™. That's also not inherently bad, but it is waaaay overused here. If the guy slips in the shower it will turn out to be the secret requirement to unlock the unlimited levitation power.

Overall I still enjoy it, but some eye-rolling is definitely needed at times.

Azarinth Healer - Rhaegar
This was recommended by the author of Delve. It's kind of like the story equivalent of this xkcd joke, where the main character has about as much self reflection and reaction to being transported to a different world as a jaded WoW player does to a new expansion, basically focusing on punching everything to death, because why the fuck not.

There's a certain appeal to a stripped down power fantasy bare of anything resembling a plot, but I hesitate to recommend this one because the writing quality is truly next-level terrible on every level. Spelling and grammar errors are not uncommon in self-published stuff, but this author has trouble with tenses, basic sentence structure, speech, verbs and objects. I am pretty sure he invented a few new rules of grammar just so he could break them inconsistently ;p

Gods and Monsters - Ivan Kal
Ukerric pretty much covered the basics of this one earlier. It's well written and edited, with an interesting story that goes a few unexpected places.

My main complaint was one common to multiple storyline stories; some of the storylines are just more interesting than others. In my case, past Ryun was just vastly more interesting than current Zach. This was mitigated as the story went on though, as the author realised this, and basically folded it down into two storylines from the original four, with a relatively even balance between them.

I am a little sad ( and somewhat skeptical* ) at the attempts to re-frame Ryun's past crimes, as the original concept of the sociopathic monster contrasting with the failed avenger could have gone interesting places.
*
I will note that the game mechanics don't really pass the sniff test though - Ryun's skill would be the single most overpowered thing seen in any game ever, if it wasn't made to look weak by the artifact knife the jack the ripper wannabe has. That guy and his 'evil plan' has got to be the dumbest motherfucker to ever walk the earth.

I quite like this one and will continue reading.

TJT said:

@valk

I thought he did Ryun's weakness well enough. While he is hilariously OP when he has many enemies to fight at once to trigger his powers he is nearly defenseless against those who have duelist builds focusing on 1v1. As well as anyone with more technical skill at martial arts than he does.

Click to expand...

Oh sorry, I think I was unclear. I meant from if the rules were an actual game that people played - having a skill that is 'absorb x% of lifetime experience from a target' in a game where people 'spend' experience on stuff would be so laughably broken. It can work in a story for the same reason that Superman does.