Language: Using i.e. versus e.g. - why, when?

I have a fascination for language. New words I find exciting and understanding the phonetic history and etymology of words is an insatiable source of curiousity for me.

This is one of the reasons the Lord of the Rings and the entirety of the works of Middle Earth struck me. It's why articles from the early part of the last century (some pulpy sci-fi, for instance) and things from even further back draw me in, despite simplicity of plot and sometimes the characters themselves.  They draw me in because of the language - different enough from the spoken word of today, yet cloyingly familiar. I find Broad Scots, Medeival English, and Latin all give me elements of that feeling as well.

I'm also amused and fascinated by the rules of grammar; The conventions of grammar are sometimes esoteric or opaque, but being educated into their mysteries means understanding the value in breaking them and when and where it makes sense to do so, as well as why!

One of the areas I've always had a bit of a fight with myself over (other than the correct spelling of guard... my trouble word of many years....) was when it was appropriate to use i.e. (id est) and when it was appropriate to use e.g. (exempli gratia).

Well, I wonder no more, thanks to the wonders (not to overuse a word) of Google. I have found a brilliant article that makes very clear the distinction in usage between i.e. ane e.g. and I think that I shall not confuse the two again because of it.

Perhaps you already know the distinction, or think you do, but I recommend you check out the link.

id est versus exempli gratia

The world is a wonderful place!

Review - Valor's Trial by Tanya Huff

Valor's Trial
(4th book in the Confederation series)
Author: Tanya Huff
Publisher: DAW
Copyright: 2009 (this release)
ISBN: 978-0756405571
Book Type: Science Fiction (Military, but shades of Romance)
Size: 416 page paperback
Amazon Link: Amazon Link

Review


Valor's Trial (and the entire Confederation series) is another example of military serial science fiction with a touch of the romance influence. This is the 4th book in the series after Valor's Choice, The Better Part of Valor, The Heart of Valor and there is already a 5th book, the Truth of Valor, scheduled for 2010. In 2006, there was an omnibus Confederation of Valor which repackaged Valor's Choice and The Better Part of Valor as well.

The protagonist is Torin Kerr, lately Confederation Marine Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr, aka the next best thing to God as far as the Marine Corps enlisted personel account such things. She's a tough, mission-focused character who has her own personal interests and aspirations, but who knows how to be a professional and subordinate those to the mission, which is primarily getting whatever job done as is required and keeping her Marines alive.

The Confederation setting sees a number of Elder Races who have come recruiting for the Humans and some other young races to fight their war with an alien multi-species polity called The Others (at least, that's what the Confederation calls them). The Elder Races are, predictably, running the show and keeping the younger races somewhat out of the loop for unspecified reasons.

The thing that caught my attention and drew me to the first book in the series was the examination of the challenges of integrating different races with different physical needs and capabilities into unified combat formations. The thing that kept me reading was a slowly evolving arc about the war with The Others and about the characters. Like most military fiction, non-Protagonist character turnover can sometimes be high, but that's part of the genre.

Another thing that kept me interested is the focus on the role of the senior NCO (Torrin, if I recall correctly, starts as a Sergeant in book one, moves through Staff Sergeant to Gunnery Sergeant in this book) in managing the squad, the platoon, and the company. Tanya seems to have a good grasp of the relationship of the NCO and the Officer. There is some very archetypal commentary about Officers and about the NCO's role as a shepherd. Beyond that, there is an appreciation of the Officer's role as the big picture manager of a unit, with the NCO being the details-focused leader whose decisions are mostly focused on keeping her people alive and prepared for whatever comes next. Both the Officer and the NCO play tactical decision making roles and the cooperation between both (at times) is shown as is the tension (if the officer is an idiot or martinet or a REMF).

The latest book, Valor's Trial, covers a POW situation. It is a truly unique POW situation insofar as the prison is on the interior of an alien world. I won't say much more about the plot because I certainly don't want to give away the good things you'll discover by reading it. I will say the overall series story arc moves ahead with a variety of new an interesting discoveries, one learns a bit more about the foes, and more is learned about another mysterious player in the big picture.

Throughout the book, the focus is on a psychological treatment of the effects of imprisonment without it becoming too much of a lead pipe to bludgeon the reader with. There is also a focus on the consequences of decisions - sometimes you make the right one, sometimes not and there is always a price of some sort. There is also a focus on the psychology of command, of (to some extent) the power of conviction, of patterns, and of the familiar bonds of unit and duty and how these things can guide soldier's behaviours in both good and bad ways.

The story flows along and is an easy read. The main character isn't prone to vast amounts of melodrama and the inclusion of some moderately challenging and irrascible characters in various spots in the book makes for a form of comic relief from the challenges and difficulties of the overall bleak scenario the protagonist is confronted with.

In the end, there is some change in the shape of things and there is at least one big cliffhanger point on which, no doubt, the next book or books will be focused.

I look forward to that next book, unlike some other series I'm getting distinctly tired of reading - Mr. Ringo, Mr. Weber, someone is calling your name.....

About the Author


Tanya (Sue) Huff was born in Halifax but left the Maritimes while very young. She lived in Kingston until graduation from High School and did a Radio and TV-related program at Ryerson. She spent 3 years in the Naval Reserve. She now lives with Fiona, her partner, and some cats in rural Ontario and makes her living entirely as a writer without taking government grants of any form. She reviews books for the Mop and Pail (Globe and Mail) from time to time. She wrote for Realms magazine in Toronto.

Rating

Readability: 8.9 / 10
Detail: 7.0 / 10
Plot: 8.0 / 10
Value: 9.0 / 10
Overall: 8.1 / 10

Review - Kris Longknife: Undaunted

Kris Longknife: Undaunted
(7th book in the Kris Longknife series)
Author: Mike Shepherd
Publisher: Ace Books
Copyright: 2009
ISBN: 978-0041017867
Book Type: Science Fiction (Military, but shades of Romance)
Size: 368 page paperback
Amazon Link: Amazon Link
 
Review
If you enjoyed David Weber (Honor Harrington series) or David Feintuch before he became morbid enough to make his readers beg for Mercy or Anne McCaffrey (Merchanter series), then you'll probably get some enjoyment out of the Kris Longknife series.

The series features a strong female protagonist who grows from a troubled young adulthood into full possession of her gifts - military, social, and interpersonal. Kris suffers from the misfortunes of being capable, attractive but in an unconventional fashion, possessing an unwillingness to march to the beat of other's drums (be they King, General, Admiral, personal guard, or uppity AI), and a tendency to be in the right place at the right time for all Hell to break loose. And she's a Princess by birth, did I mention that?

In the early parts of the series, she is haunted by childhood trauma, by social isolation, by a problem with alcohol, and by an unwillingness to grow into the Princess and the dutiful daughter as defined by her father, the elected King of a union of planets trying to be some sort of federation worth living in and of general benefit to the citizenry.

During the earlier books, she gets to leave home, discover adventures military, political, and with espionage and trade dimensions, and discover herself along the way. As is not unusual in such risky business, she comes to understand the price the survivors pay.

One of the underlying themes in the books is the imperfect nature of even well-intentioned solutions. Everyone calls her "One of those damned Longknives" and most of them want nothing to do with her. It seems that her family has a reputation for being shot at, bombed, and so on and achieving various hard-fought victories over the bodies of many friends and enemies alike. Being close to the Longknives probably represents a serious jump in your insurance premiums!

All of this leads up to the current book, Undaunted. By this point in the series, Kris is a relatively complete adult, having went through many of the baptismal events previously. The new book throws in the twist of an old alien enemy come calling with a special request.

The aliens are not loved by the humans who fought them so bittery, but it turns out some popularly held myths about the past are set on their ear in this book. This is another theme in Shepherd's series - history often having actually happened rather differently than popular conceptions would have you believe. It also turns out the humans didn't really know as much about their enemies as they thought,  nor did the aliens understand the humans well in times of prior hostility.

In between all the larger story arc aspects of Kris' growth and grappling with being a person of power but also a magnet for trouble and death, there is a story more particular to this episode. I won't spoil it by telling you much about it save to say violence does ensue and adventure, with consequences, transpires.

This book feels more like a campaign arc book than a standalone work. Part of that is the long history drawn forth previously, but part of it is this is a transitional work of sorts. In the last few previous books, Kris reached a point of challenging the authorities that guide her life and asserting her independence. This book lays the groundwork for a new multi-book story arc that leads her beyond the fringes of human space and potentially into the face of a much greater foe than any she has faced previously.

There are romantic overtones in the series, vaguely reminiscent of Honor Harrington's series by Weber. There aren't the same huge clashes of mass fleets - ship actions tend to be on a smaller scale, no larger than a small task group. Kris has made fast progress, but is only verging on Lieutenant Commander's rank by the end of Undaunted, so she hasn't flown through the ranks quite as fast as the peerless Admiral Duchess Harrington.

All in all Undaunted is an okay installment in a series that had more punch in a few of the other books, but this book seems to be setting up for even more excitement in the following few. Much like the Two Towers had moments of lull before the storm that was the great climactic battles in the Return of the King, this book appears to be setting up a future of dire conflict that will surely involve the main characters.

Shepherd has a good eye for interesting characters and for some unexpected plot twists. He has an awareness of the political dimensions of the actions of the characters. The characters follow certain archetypes (of the Horatio Hornblower sort), but puts enough of a twist on them to make them interesting and to make them his own. Hornblower never had to deal with the background trauma that Kris Longknife had to. And Hornblower didn't always have a family member unrepentantly willing to throw him into the nasty situations, whether the results tended to work out after some blood and tears or not.

I'd say this is well worth owning, but I'd go back first and pick up the others in the series. The story is worth getting from the start as a fair amount of prior knowledge appears to be presumed by the author. If you aren't expecting powerful stand alone novels, but steady, workmanlike releases for an interesting series of light fiction, then you'll enjoy the Kris Longknife series.

Rating

Readability: 8.5 / 10
Detail: 7.0 / 10
Plot: 7.5 / 10
Value: 7.5 / 10
Overall: 7.5 / 10

Drawing The Quill Once More

Before Christmas, my friends Derek and Chris and I had started a writing project. We had wanted to work on writing a 10,000 - 20,0000 word story. The idea was to attempt to work our way through a complete story of some size. There was never any formal goal of publishing these anywhere and feedback would be given as we moved through the development.

We had each written a few chapters by the time things got busy for us all around Christmas and as usual, the project kind of slowed to a stall. Up to that point, we had managed to read each other's work, make some comments, and I think we had the roots of three interesting stories.

The stalling reminds me of the impact natural pressures can place upon the creative process and of how a full time job as a writer must demand a certain determined single-mindedness at times.

Before we started the contest, for a couple of months, I'd been writing hundreds or thousands of words a week, in the form of various stories, outlines, scenes, character sketches, ideas, etc.

I haven't returned to my project story yet, which probably sits at a few thousand unedited words now, but will probably end up in the 15,000+ word stage. But to get back on the horse, tonight I started doing character sketches and scenario sketches. Only about 385 words tonight, but I'm back at it.

My work will probably be sporadic, since the new job and situations at home are consuming of time and energy, but I reaffirm my goal to complete the original project.

Beyond that, I plan to work towards a compilation of short stories I can publish (even if I only produce a few copies for some friends) using the facilities of http://lulu.com.

They say everyone has a book in them. I'm planning to put that theory to the test.