That Didn't Take Long

So after establishing a reading heuristic, no books with "empire" in the title, I nonetheless decided to read "Empress of Forever", by Max Gladstone, 2019, 655 pages. I liked his Craft Sequence, and this book had great reviews.

Bad behavior rewarded! There was 0 feudalism, just an insanely powerful Empress of the Galaxy, who got her job by taking control of The Cloud on earth - which expanded to be The Galactic Cloud - at a very early stage ?!?!?

Very engaging writing, a memorable fellowship established to fight the Empress, including a character who is gray goo. A very good read. Note, the fast majority of characters are female, & I think all the romantic relationships in the book are female-female. A lot of this lately in sci-fi. Male geeks aren't offended, & females are empowered, FTW!

Next up, non-fiction?!?!? "Rising Tide", by John M. Barry, 1998, 653 pages, subtitled "The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America". It was recommended to me several years ago by Michael Boggs of Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville. It is: a history of flood control theories from 1870 to 1930; the story of the 1927 Mississippi flood which put 1000s of miles^2 underwater; and the tragic tale of LeRoy Percy, friend of Teddy Roosevelt, boss man of Greenville MI, in the heart of Mississippi delta.

Very informative. I sometimes find it hard to read historical stuff when the real people being followed are total assholes. The main lesson from the book: aristocratic/oligarchic noblesse oblige will fall by the wayside when greed/capitalism dictate. Percy was very progressive in his treatment of blacks - but because economically, he needed their cheap labor. He kicked the klan out in the 1920s as his father had kicked them out after the civil war.

But when it was time for the blacks to be taken off the levy and to safety in the worst of the flooding, Percy undermined his son's decision to evacuate the blacks along with the whites because he was afraid the labor would not return. His son, the county disaster manager, reacted badly to his father's betrayal and his relationship with the now imprisoned blacks became increasingly bad, and a national scandal. Oof!

#3, "This Is How You Lose the Time War", by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, 2019, 136 pages. I enjoyed the other Max Gladstone a lot. This one not so much. I like the title, and it has an interesting plot: (female) time warriors/fixers, 1 from the Red civilization - computers, VR, the cybernetic singularity - and 1 from Blue - bioscience, genetic engineering, Avatar (the movie) type sensibilities - battle each other across the ages, trying to change various events to favor their side. They start corresponding, fall in love, etc. Romeo & Juliet I guess. Somehow it just didn't work for me. It was short though.