Books That Need To Be Reread

So I'm reading this book on samurai legends. It's full of stories of, funnily enough, samurai throughout the ages. They're taken from the original sources and translated, because amazingly I cannot read nor understand ancient Japanese script.

I've just reached a section taken from The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, something that I've already read at least five times by my count. So, am I going to skip this section? Well, the title of this post gives a hint on that. Of course not!

The Book of Five Rings is a classic, especially for anyone interested in the Eastern sword arts, which I am. (I have mentioned that I'm currently studying kendo and have studied Ono Ha Itto-Ryu in the past, haven't I?) Rereading it every few years is a good idea. It refreshes the text's information in my mind, and since I keep changing as I age, I may find a new truth in it. The same goes for The Art of War by Sun Tzu, another text I've been known to reread.

Now before you go thinking that ancient Asian military texts are the only thing I reread, I do the same with plenty of fiction as well. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card gets reread every few years, same with most of the Honnor Harrington series by David Weber, mostly because it helps me remember where the thread of the story's going and because they're just damn fun books. I used to reread the Wheel of Time books, until they reached a point I felt they were never going to end before Robert Jordan died. Unfortunately he did pass before finishing them, but I have been hearing good things about what Brandon Sanderson is doing to finish the series, so once it's all done I think I'll read them all, from start to finish, just to say I have.

So I hand this off to you, those who are reading my words. What books/series to you reread every few years, and why?

The Dork Review #1: Storm From the Shadows

Alright, so we're going to try something a little different now, regular reviews of books that I've read or reading at the moment. I thought I'd start with one of my favorite authors, David Weber and his next to latest entry in the Honorverse series, Storm From the Shadows.

Now I'm going to assume that if you're reading this you're at least a little bit familiar with the Honorverse. If you're not then I recommend hitting Wikipedia and doing a search for Honor Harrington and then hitting the Baen Books website and downloading any of the Honorverse books they have available for free. Short description of the series would be Horatio Hornblower in space, but that fails to totally encapsulate what Weber has done.

So, on to the book itself. This novel picks up threads hanging around from Shadow of Saganami, and some characters too, and runs parallel to a lot of the action in At All Costs, and even though I have yet to read it, Torch of Freedom. One definitely nice thing is the introduction Mr. Weber provides that warns the reader that some of the events in this book are going to be different views on what's already happened and that all three story lines, the Honor Harrington one, the Talbott Cluster line, and the Queen Berry/Torch line, are all going to be interconnected. I sure the publisher is delighted by this, because to get the full picture of events you'll want to buy all the Honorverse books that come out so that you know exactly what's going on.

However, if you're unable to get them all or want to wait, usually Baen does include a CD in the first printing of a new hardcover that includes all of the books to date. Actually, that was my main motivation for picking up At All Costs in hardcover, so that I could finally get all of the books in the series and understand what was going on.

Finally, the introduction does include a warning. Events are going to get even grimmer for the heroes over the next few books, and this is borne out through this novel where we can see more of what's happening in the background, and it doesn't look good. The book ends on a forbidding note and you just know some serious shit is about to go down.

The two main characters I can see emerging in the text are Michelle Henke and Aviars Terekhov. Both assume more responsibility inside the military, and both get some very moving scenes in the book. Not wanting to give anything away, lets just say that Aviars is shown without a doubt that his actions in Shadow of Saganami were approved of and that the powers that be have great confidence in him.

This being an Honorverse book it does have to include at least one of two instances of Honor Harrington popping up and making a comment about current events. The nice part is that this is done with a light touch in most cases, and the only scene really where we see a lot of her is near the end of the book. This scene does involve Honor verbally pimp slapping the Queen of Manticore and is almost a reason in itself to read the book if you're a fan of Honor Harrington. However, this scene does little to drive the events in the rest of the book, being near the end and all, but for all appearances it is setup for the next Honor Harrington book. I have a feeling it will be referenced or copied over into Mission of Honor, which Mr. Weber has identified as being delivered and in the pipeline for publication.

All in all I enjoyed Storm From the Shadows. The best way I can describe it is as a middle book, kind of like The Empire Strikes Back from Star Wars. It has less action that some of the other Weber books, but it's main reason for existence seems to be to get things moving and setup the next few books after it. If you're only interested in Honor and her adventures then you could skip it, but then you'd be missing out.