The Carnelian Throne
Janet E. Morris, 1979

Book four – finally! – of the Silistra quartet (the first three are reviewed here, here and here). In this one, the main series character Estri, accompanied by Sereth and Chayin, travels by ship to the planet’s other major land-mass, Aehre-Kanoss. Their reason for doing so was initially to hunt down some off-worlders left there in the last book by Khys, but that gets forgotten rather quickly. What they all three find once they get there is that a big chunk of the continent is under the sway of something called the ‘wehr’ – it’s hard to summarize, but it’s basically a sort of immense community that is connected by a shared consciousness – and it consists not only of humans, but also other animals. Humans, in fact, are mostly not dominant in the ‘wehrdom’; the dominant position seems to be held by giant winged creatures who are sort of like a hybrid of humans and bats. The ‘wehr’ is a apparently an evolutionary by-product of the genetic engineering common during the planet’s highly-industrialized, machine-age before times (although the explanation for how something like this could evolve unguided is pretty convoluted and unconvincing). Estri and her two companions fall afoul of the wehr when, separated from their ship on a cold rainy night, they build a fire and then hunt down a few small animals to eat and then also kill a large predatory beast that attacks them. Unfortunately, all of them were part of the wehr. They also briefly meet a young man named Deilcrit, who serves the wehr but is apparently not part of it – or so he thinks. He becomes a major character, and the chapters alternate between a standard third-person narrative that follows his story and Estri’s first-person narration as in the preceding books. Basically, the appearance of Estri and her crew serves as a catalyst for a major change that's about to occur in the wehr, in which Deilcrit also plays a pivotal role.
Just in terms of structure and pacing, I’d say this is probably the best of the four books – there is more action, fewer exposition-heavy dialogues and dry explanations (although they’re still here), and even far less sexual assault. It’s also – blessedly in my mind – about a hundred pages shorter than the preceding two books. However, none of those reasons are enough to make me say that this is actually a good book. Honestly, I’m just glad (almost giddy) that I’m done with this series – and I'm *never* going to read anything else by Morris.
By the way, Confessor , since you took an interest in the covers, here's the first printing cover of this book (also credited to Bob Larkin):

Shards of Earth
by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Breaking the Rothfuss Rule for book club... It's a pretty good Space Opera.. good world building, fun characters, and has some bits to make you think in it... there's definitely some analogues to the current political situation in the US. Not a huge part of the story by any stretch, but defintiely there.

Big, scary, unknowable aliens seem to be the thing right now, (the set up here reminded me very much of David Weber's 'Safehold' series, though the similarities ended very quickly).. I definitely like the diversity in the universe, too. The Star Trek model of humans-with-bumpy-heads is fine for TV with a limited budget, but doesn't seem very realistic. (I know, aliens and realism.. but still..)

The main character, Idris, is pretty unique... as is that who concept of Intermediaries as a 'weapon'. The down side is the plot was pretty predictable...the book was laid out with what was going to likely happen early on, and it happened just as one would picture. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but does limit the tension some.

Happily, there was enough of a ending that you can read just this book, and be reasonably satisfied. I'll definitely at least check out the review for the 2nd one.

It was a good enough book that I'm interested to read what looks like a long running fantasy series he by him. He's also got a different sci fi series that didn't sound bad.

Rise of A Dynasty: The '57 Celtics
by Bill Reynolds

I actually bought a DIFFERENT Celtics book to read to get me in the mood for basketball season, but this one jumped out at my at the library, and with Bill Russell's passing, and him being on the cover and all, I decided the other book could wait.

The was more about the historical context of the 1957 Celtics than anything about basketball... which was fine, but not really what I was looking for. The author had some cool quotes from Tommy Heinsohn and Red Auerbach, but Russell was definitely not the focus (despite being on the cover).

Not a huge amount of stuff in here I didn't already know, though it did make me wonder a bit more about The Hawks team in the late 50s... that might be worth a reading a book about some time

So I'm ludicrously behind on reviewing books.  But, whatcha gonna do?  





Chief Joseph the Flight of the Nez Perce: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy by Kent Nerburn

If you grow up in Idaho there are two things in history you are absolutely going to learn.  Lewis & Clark and Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War.  I grew up with Chief Joseph as one of my heroes.  But knowing what I know about how history was presented in the past, particularly in schools, I was interested in another view of the man and the fight between the Nez Perce and the U.S. military.  One of the things that attracted me to this book was that Nerburn did extensive interviews with tribal members on both the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho and The Chief Joseph (Wallowa) Band that is located on the Colville Indian Reservation in North-East Washington.  While Nerburn didn't get in to extensive detail, it's clear that the two groups view Joseph and his legacy very differently.  And rightly so. 

The book gives a brief general history of the Nez Perce becoming increasingly detailed after contact with the white man.  There's a fairly extensive look at the Treaty of Walla Walla.  This is very important as Joseph and the other bands that took part in the Nez Perce War rejected the treaty and did not feel they were bound by it.  The treaty itself was coercive and since each Nez Perce band acted independently was in no way binding on the non-signatories.  And here is one of those places that has historically been glossed over when talking about Joseph.  He was not the "Nez Perce leader."  He was the camp chief of the Wallowa Band.  And he really had no great heart to do anything but remain in the Wallowa Valley.  Even among the non-treaty bands and during the flight, Joseph was not a main player.  He was, again, a camp chief.  He organized the camps.  Made sure the women and children were cared for and were able to keep up in the flight and made sure there were provisions.  Looking Glass, White Bird and Poker Joe were the war chiefs.  They decided the route of the flight and when and where to fight (when given the opportunity).  

Joseph, as great war general, is largely an invention of the U.S. Army and of the media.  Nelson Miles, in attempting to make a name for himself during the pursuit of the Nez Perce, decided that a great military leader had to have a great opponent.  For whatever reason, that great opponent became Chief Joseph, rather than Looking Glass or White Bird.  The newspapers picked up on this as well.  Nerburn does a good job of looking at newspaper coverage of the war which was almost always inaccurate and varied wildly depending on the political persuasion of the publisher.  And while the stated reason for the pursuit of the non-treaty bands was to return them to the reservation (which they'd never agreed to enter) and to prevent them from joining up with Sitting Bull in Canada, it was ultimately a big dick-waving exercise by the U.S. Army.  

Overall it's a great book that punctures a number of myths while still treating the subjects with dignity.  But it's not without its issues.  Nerburn appears to have a fairly significant hate for the Lakota.  He makes some particularly egregious comments about the Red Cloud War and the Battle at the Little Big Horn talking about "gruesome murders and mutilations."  While there were definitely mutilations, there were frequent cultural reasons for them, unlike the very similar mutilations by the U.S. Army.  And characterizing the fight against invaders as murders was just about enough to make me toss the book.  But, those issues aside, it's a well researched and very interesting read.  

I have not... I read Red and me a ways back... Upon reflection though, I bet that would be the best one to read...I'll have to grad it sometimes.   
Full Court was referenced as a source in the book I read, definitely going on this list .   

The City Game sounds very interesting indeed.. also going on this list!