Reading Update

Laurie Marks Water Logic

The SeeLight Scale

Crap
Legible
Readable
Not Bad
*Recommended*
Highly Recommended
Do Not Go Another Day Without

This is the third Elemental Logic book and the book bucked up a bit from the second one in terms of stakes and danger and tension. But the plot was, if possible, even poorer than that in the second book. No matter, really. I love this world and will read the fourth book as well.

Walter Mosley 47

The SeeLight Scale

Crap
Legible
Readable
Not Bad
*Recommended*
Highly Recommended
Do Not Go Another Day Without

This won the Carl Brandon Society's Parallax Award last year. It's pretty good, but the language is stilted (rather than old-fashioned) and it felt very golden-age-of-sci-fi, with it's cutesy-amazing aliens and silly-scary villain. Maybe this will really appeal to younger folks, but I'm used to naturalistic fabulism and tend to think that Today's Teens would respond better to that.

I also find the contrast between the classic sci fi and the naturalistic slave narrative to be unsuccessful. It could have been amazing, or it could have read like Slaughterhouse Five, where you're never really sure if the protag is crazy or not. But it wasn't either one.