Code Girls

Liza Mundy

The Code Girls are the thousands of women who were recruited in WWII to work for the Army or Navy intelligence services on breaking codes and ciphers of Germans and Japanese. It is a well researched book and relies heavily on personal statements by the participants. We hear not only the story of the development of codebreaking skills, but also of life for women in the service during the war, the friendships that developed, and the massive & unifying effort that the war was. No-one in the US was not a participant or affected somehow. A fabulous telling of history for the next generations. The downside is the lack of a narrative thread. There are so many people involved (which is part of how astounding everything is) that there are too many to keep track of, and the resulting story is a meander through time and space that isn't always linear enough to be a story.

3 stars (out of 4)

The Land and Its People

David Sedaris

The latest collection of essays by Sedaris is both modern (with poignant reflections on current events) and classic (portraying his simultaneous frustration with all things stupid and loving of the the ridiculous). He is heartfelt in his reflections on love, relationship and death. He is unflinching in his critique of stupidity and the problems with "kids these days". I love his observations and turn of phrase. I do think that the only way to read one of his books is to listen to him read it. 

4 stars (out of 4)

The Warrior's Apprentice

Lois McMaster Bujold

Book 3 of The Vorkosigan Saga

Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is of age and planning to join the military academy. Since the emperor is also of age and inhabiting the throne, his dad is no longer the regent, but is named the Prime Minister. When Miles fails his test (his bones just can't hack it), he and Ellen (Sgt Bothari's girl and fellow Escobar War baby raised like Miles in a uterine replicator) travel to Beta Colony to visit Miles' grandmother. A series of chance meetings put Miles and Ellen on a ship to Tau Colony and their local war. Miles military logician mind get shown off as he "accidentally" creates a mercenary army and stops the planetary war. Of course there are repercussions when he gets home, but boy was that fun...

3 stars (out of 4)

Barrayar

Lois McMaster Bujold

Book 2 of The Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan is named the Regent for the new Emperor (4 years old) and Naismith is his new bride. As near as I can tell, Barrayar is some version of a Tsar led Russia, with the Emperor holding together a tenuous cease of violence by the local oligarch/counts. Of course everyone assumes that Vorkosigan will seek to hold the throne when the Emperor comes of age, and therefore the next 16 years will be one assassination attempt after the other. When everything kicks off, it is Naismith who discovers and quells the rebellion with daring commando excursions behind enemy lines. For a space opera, this episode takes place entirely on planet...

What is strange about the Saga is the availability. I actually had to buy a paper version of this book since it was not available in my library. Strange, and likely to mean I won't be reading the entire series. 

3 stars (out of 4)

Shards of Honor

Lois McMaster Bujold

Book 1 of The Vorkosigan Saga

Commander Cordelia Naismith is a survey leader on a planet that is at the terminus of a "new" wormhole. She and her team are surveying the flora and fauna, the geology and preparing a report to the Beta Colony administrators so the planet is registered. They are attacked, and while most of her team gets away in the shuttle, she and one team member are injured and then rescued? by a Commander Vorkosigan, who seems to have also been left on the planet for dead by his Barrayaran buddies. Vorkosigan and Naismith turn out to be birds of a feather in terms of how they view the human condition, meaning they are fighting the same war, even though their political affiliations have put them on opposite sides. Maybe this is soft sci-fi, with the plasma reflectors and wormholes and arc guns and nerve disruptors just showing up where convenient.  But it is a fast read and sets the stage for an epic space opera series.

3 stars (out of 4)

Artemis

Andy Weir

This book was written between The Martian and Project Hail Mary. It is a departure for Weir, since it includes more than one character, but is still all about innovation and creativity and problem solving. Here we follow Jazz, a teenaged resident of the Artemis, the only permanent colony on the Moon. In the afro-sci-fi tradition, the colony was created and is managed by Kenyan Space Corp, which is a global space power. But really, earth is only a side character here. Jazz has lived nearly her whole life in Artemis and, like all teens, pushes against the hopes and expectations of her family and those in authority. Jazz's most hated comment to receive is "you have so much potential". She is forging her own path, wanting to get EVA certified, and has her side gig of smuggling contraband into Artemis. And then she gets pulled into a massive scheme to alter everything. Of course, it goes FUBAR and Jazz utilizes her engineering brain and her friends to save the day. Pretty fun, but for some reason not "page turner" like the other Weir novels. 

3 stars (out of 4)

Falling Free

Lois McMaster Bujold

The start of a space opera known as The Vorkosigan Saga, this book is the first chronologically, but stands alone from the series as having taken place 200 years before anything else. The world allows for wormhole travel, so the setting is a remote system with a planet that is purely a resource mine for, in this case, Galactech Corporation. Engineer Leo Graf arrives to a new job posting on an orbiting habitat in this system, and finds that the habitat is a genetic engineering home for "Quaddies", people who have been "manufactured" with four arms for appendages (instead of 2 arms, 2 legs). They are Galactech's foward thinking solution to space construction and there are now 1000 quaddies on the habitat (all 15 years or younger). Just before they are about to take on their first paying job, political and economic winds shift turning this into a story of independence and revolution. Bujold does a pretty good job with the hard science part of the sci-fi, and keeps the engagement high with the storyline. I'll be giving the rest of the series a try. 

3 stars (out of 4)