Thucydides needed a ghost writer.

History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Good grief.

I love primary sources. Reading history written by the people who were closer to it than I am is always fascinating, as it gives you a window into different times and places. But I struggled with this book. The problem is, and I'll be blunt, is that Thucydides was a boring writer. What we have is a very dry, colorless, recitation of facts with almost no emotion even in emotional moments!

Thucydides takes great pains to recreate the various orations and debates surrounding the epic war between Athen and Sparta, but again, reading them is like listing to Ben Stein in Ferris Buehler's Day Off. These people were debating monumental issues, and at no point is there any energy in the speeches or the reactions. I'm sure the actual debates were full of fire and passion, and that the reactions ran the gamut from cheers of support to fruit being thrown, but that is entirely absent.

Even the battles are related as if you are reading about a chess match rather than thousands of troops clashing in bronze armor, spears and swords stained with blood, emotions running high. My previous sentence had more energy than this entire book. It takes a lot to make what amounted to a world war of the time boring, but Thucydides manages it.

One of the great mysteries is that Thucydides ends his writings mid-sentence. We know he lived a little longer, so there's no good explanation. I believe even he got sick of his own prose. I can't recommend this unless you are really interested in this particular period of Greek history.



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It took me a Year to read about the Hundred Years War

The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453 by Desmond Seward

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


(Would you believe I lost this book for almost a year? Picked it up and started up again a few days ago.)

A century and then some period of war that changed the course of European history and inspired much of Shakespeare's history, I had been long curious about the full picture of the Hundred Years War. I had picked up pieces of it reading other histories but was looking for a better focus on this incredibly important period.

Luckily, Steward's book was just what I was looking for. An excellent introduction to the people and places, and more importantly the motivations behind these long wars over territory and the right to the French Crown. Important players are identified and brought to life. The course of the various campaigns are detailed, with some battles meriting illustrations of how the battlefield was laid out.

A constant theme is the cost of the war on both sides. England, while largely supporting the war effort, was hard-pressed to find the money to keep troops in the field. The French had a similar problem as they faced near civil war for most of the period. Special attention is paid to how even the lowest men-at-arms and archers could get rich through capturing nobles for ransom and through looting. There are many halls and manors in England that were paid for in this way.

Steward even covers the changing technology of war from the late 14th century to the early 15th. A war that started with catapults and trebuchets ended with cannons and the first firearms being the weapons of choice.

I also noted with some sadness that the final end of English domination in France coming with the fall of Normandy and Guyenne coincided with the death of another great empire at the far end of Europe. 1453 was a bad year for empires.



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Ark! A novle approaches!

The Ark by Patrick S. Tomlinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a serviceable novel, using the old "last remnants of humanity are fleeing a dead Earth" trope to frame a murder mystery. Detective Bryan Benson got the job after retiring from the Ark's main spectator sport, Zero, a ball game played in zero-g. Normally, the police forces on the Ark don't have much to do.

But a missing member of the crew leads Benson down a path of intrigue and cover-ups, climaxing in a plot to end the Ark before it can reach Tau Ceti G. It's not a convoluted plot, and there are plenty of scenes where Benson is basically led by the nose, but it works as light detective fiction.

My big problem was the lack of development of some important characters. Benson's fellow constable and clandestine girlfriend is barely expanded beyond the bare-bones we need for her to operate. Another hundred pages would have allowed for more character development. I see what Tomlinson was going for, a sort of noir detective thriller, but those depend on strong characters, and it kind of failed here.

The ending hangs several interesting questions for the next books, so I'll be picking them up. But do not expect a great, deep SF novel, This is a fun detective story.



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