FACT SF Reading Group

March 2001

March 6: A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold

Fifteen people turned up for this meeting, including one first-time attendee. All but one of us had read the book. The topic of this discussion, A Civil Campaign, is the latest in Bujold's science fiction series about the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan, a nobleman of the planet Barrayar. The previous books in the series have been military/spy adventures, but this volume tells a different type of story. The thirty-ish Miles has become smitten with a young widow named Ekaterin, and he's trying to win her affections. His attempt at courtship takes place against a backdrop of court intrigue, a strange business venture by Miles's not-so-evil clone, and preparations for Emperor Gregor's wedding.

We had a lot of fun with this book. The emphasis of the story is romantic comedy, but the plot has several unquestionably SF elements including cloning and space travel. Miles gets himself into a series of increasingly strange and awkward situations, and we loved seeing him try to talk himself out of them. The comic centerpiece of the book is Miles's intricately-planned dinner party, which fails beyond belief. Miles spends half the book trying to make reparations.

Bujold displays a wonderful skill at writing snappy dialog, and we spent a lot of time quoting favorite lines. A participant who'd read a lot of romantic comedies felt that this book was an outstanding homage to the work of Austen, Heyer, and Bronte. One person remarked that the strong feelings we expressed about the characters, combined with the recitation of dialog, reminded her of people discussing favorite TV shows like Star Trek.

Several first-time Bujold readers in the group were impressed by how well they could follow and enjoy this book despite its being several volumes into a series. A couple of participants had liked this book so much that they'd gone out and read the complete body of Bujold's work, then reread A Civil Campaign. These people said that the book seemed much richer on a second reading.

There was only one real complaint about this book. A couple of people who'd read and enjoyed Bujold's earlier work were disappointed that A Civil Campaign lacked the military action elements they'd come to expect from a Miles book.

Overall we felt that A Civil Campaign was a delight. We wrapped up the discussion with several people reciting favorite anecdotes about Bujold's participation at the 1999 FACT Christmas party.

March 20: The Marriage of Sticks by Jonathan Carroll

This meeting had fourteen attendees. Eight had read the book, and the rest were there to socialize. Additionally, one person had e-mailed in comments. The subject of this discussion was Jonathan Carroll's The Marriage of Sticks. Several people in the group were longtime fans of Carroll's prior work (including The Land of Laughs and Outside the Dog Museum) and had been trying for years to get one of his books on our reading list. The mainstream packaging of his books, combined with their tendency to go out of print quickly, had thwarted those efforts until now. The Marriage of Sticks is an urban fantasy novel about Miranda Romanac, a young woman who owns a used bookstore in New York City. The book starts out reading like a mainstream novel, but gradually some weird stuff happens and Miranda discovers disturbing truths about herself.

Many of us liked Carroll's evocative prose and the quirky, surreal world he depicted. We liked one of the supporting characters, an offbeat small-town sheriff. A couple of people in the group who'd read Carroll's previous book (Kissing the Beehive) and next book (The Wooden Sea) said that this book provided some useful bridging material between the two. Unfortunately that's about all the positive comments there were.

We generally disliked this book. We wanted more to happen. The plot is filled with cliches, with a high school reunion being one of the low points. The directionless story provides no emotional payoff at the end. Carroll did a poor job of presenting a female protagonist. Miranda started out seeming a little dull, and as we learned more about her she seemed even more boring. The men in the book all considered Miranda a "selfish bitch", and we couldn't see why. Her most selfish act was refusing to sleep with men she didn't like. Throughout the meeting, several people commented that Sean Stewart (author of Mockingbird and Galveston) is much better at depicting women. Some people who'd liked Carroll's earlier books were wondering if they'd been mistaken. One person said that she'd been tempted to throw the book across the room several times, and only held back so that the book would be in good condition to sell back to Crime & Space.

We concluded that The Marriage of Sticks is a poor entry-level book for a reader who wants to try Jonathan Carroll. It offers little for established Carroll fans and nothing for new readers.

-- A. T. Campbell, III