1/18/2013Why is it so easy to put down (for three months) a book I'm nearly halfway through? Because it's not on the Kindle.10/2013A bit after starting this book, I thought to me olde self, I thought: Well, only in the '70s would it be acceptable for your badass young (anti-?)heroine to rape a 13-year-old boy she has taken as battle booty. (Seriously, NO pun intended.) Then I checked and saw that this book was published in 1992. Hmmm. I guess it had been awhile since I read any high fantasy outside of George R.R. Martin, you know--true Swords & Sorcery. (Although that comparison may not be so ... um--oh, never mind.)I'm not done yet, and I don't mean to knock his honorable coolness, S.M. Stirling. I found this title on someone's Top 20 list of speculative books and finally acquired a used paperback as it seems to be sadly out of print. Real living actual review to follow ...But also! Names like Shkai'ra Mek Kermak's-kin. Really? Really?! Doesn't that just scream 1977 at you?I guess I need to rearrange my ideas of Stirling a just a steampunk guy. Apparently he also makes room for nubile young war-machines draped in hides and furs, with flashing eyes and Yoda-speak.
