Month: November 2011

The cost of knowledge

As I was browsing Amazon this afternoon, I came across an interesting book about the relationship between the Duchy of Lancaster and the English Crown in the late Middle Ages. The historian of Britain in me squealed with delight until he saw the price: $140 for the Kindle edition. And that includes Amazon’s 20% discount!

Having spent several years in the Ivory Tower, I’m well aware that academic books are overpriced. I’ve spent a small fortune lining my bookshelves with titles like The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, and The Rise and Fall of the High Commission. Part of the reason for the inflated prices is that, let’s face it, these books aren’t exactly bestsellers. They’re big, bulky volumes that are almost always produced as hardcover editions to ensure maximum longevity. Their print runs are small since the vast majority of them are destined for purchase by academic libraries. I suspect that only a handful of them fall into the hands of private individuals. With such miniscule demand, you have to charge high prices in order to remain profitable.

But I’m not sure that same argument applies when ebooks are involved. For one thing, the press doesn’t have to worry about the cost of producing a physical copy since it’s all just a bunch of electrons. Charging $140 for something that exists solely on my Kindle is outrageous.

Unfortunately, I don’t see this situation changing any time soon. I don’t have any facts to back this up, but I suspect that the ebook revolution hasn’t exactly caught on in the academic market. Since academic libraries, not private individuals, make up the lion’s share of their sales, academic presses don’t have much incentive to lower their prices. And academic libraries are, to some extent, a captive market. If they want to have a respectable collection in a given field, they’re going to buy most of the new titles that are published in that field.

Thanks to the financial crisis gripping our institutions of higher education, university libraries have less money to spend on improving their collections. Perhaps academic presses will end up having to cut their prices in order to keep selling to these increasingly cash-strapped institutions. Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?

400 years of the KJV

Yesterday at Westminster Abbey there was a special service to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Authorized Version of the Bible (AKA the King James Version). The Archbishop of Canterbury gave a great sermon about this enduring masterpiece of English literature, and it’s well worth a read.

The KJV remains my preferred translation of the Bible. I realize of course that the modern translations are more accurate, but their prose lacks the richness and beauty of the KJV. Its glorious language has left an indelible mark on the English language, and many our everyday phrases, from “a fly in the ointment” to “the writing on the wall” have their origin in the KJV. I doubt the modern translations will have that sort of cultural staying power.

Forty-seven men worked on the translation that became the KJV. Most of their names are known only to historians now, but their abiding influence on our language lets them live on in our day-to-day speech. Few other writers can claim such a legacy and, wherever they are, I hope they’re proud of the monument they left behind.

Sometimes research drives me batty…

While working on my WIP yesterday, I had to ask myself whether or not an ancient Egyptian would have known anything about sharks.

After spending hours scouring both my library and the Interwebz, the answer still remained elusive. The Egyptians weren’t all that keen on sea travel, so they didn’t spend much time discussing marine life (though Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple contains some interesting depictions of creatures found encountered in the Red Sea during the journey to Punt).

Eventually, I decided to make an educated guess and assume that an Egyptian might have heard stories about great predatory fish that lived in the sea and occasionally took bites out of swimmers. The historian in me hates making guesses like that, but he’s rapidly learning to swallow his pedantic outrage. But it’s stuff like this that tempts me to switch gears and write about a world of my own creation. 🙂

In praise of Macs

As many of you know, I use a great program called Scrivener to write my fiction. Historically, it’s only been available for Macs, but they just came out with a Windows version after an interminably-long Beta test. I was tempted to buy it until I realized that I’d have to fork over $40. It seemed silly to spend that money when I still have a MacBook that can run the version I already own.

Last night, I dusted off my old MacBook, which had been relegated to auxiliary use since I purchased my gaming laptop last year. In doing so, I kind of fell in love with Macs all over again. Despite being several years old and suffering all kinds of abuse, it still runs great. It’s certainly less temperamental than the PC I bought less than two years ago. As I downloaded a bunch of long-neglected software updates, I was impressed at how hassle-free the Mac update process is. Unlike Windows 7, which seems intent on making the update process as painful and awkward as possible.

My only complaint about the Mac line is the price. A decent gaming Mac is still about twice as expensive as a comparable PC. But when it comes time to replace my current gaming laptop, I might just bite the bullet and spend the extra money. My trusty white MacBook has shown that Apple makes damn good computers, and it would be great to escape from the bloated, buggy, and byzantine mess that is Windows.

 

 

 

BOOK REVIEW: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

I had been meaning to read this for a long time, but it wasn’t until an Amazon promotion let me purchase it for $1 that I finally downloaded it onto my Kindle. Many of you may already know Rick Riordan because of his hugely successful Percy Jackson series. I’ve never read any of those books; Greek mythology just isn’t my thing. But when I discovered that Riordan also has a series incorporating Egyptian mythology, I decided to give it a try.

The Red Pyramid is told from the perspective of siblings Carter and Sadie Kane. They are the children of Dr. Julius Kane, a famous Egyptologist. After their mother died in a mysterious accident, Carter traveled the world with his father while Sadie lived in England with her fusty grandparents. The two siblings didn’t spend much time together, so when their father suddenly brings them together at the start of the book, they’re practically strangers.

Unfortunately, the family reunion goes awry when Dr. Kane attempts a mysterious ritual in the British Museum. He shatters the Rosetta Stone, unleashing a terrifying supernatural entity. He vanishes in the process, leaving his frightened children to try to figure out what happened to him. With the help of their Uncle Amos, Carter and Sadie soon discover that, not only was their father part of a secret society of Egyptian magicians, but the Egyptian gods are real and one of their number is plotting to plunge the world into chaos. The siblings also learn that they have the potential to become quite powerful. But the other magicians don’t trust them, forcing them to puzzle out their powers while simultaneously running for their lives and trying to stop the impending apocalypse.

All in all, Red Pyramid is an entertaining read. It’s breezy in a way that reminds me of the first Harry Potter book. Both Carter and Sadie share narrator duties, but the fact that the book is ostensibly a transcript of an audio-recording that they produced makes it easier to accept the first-person narration.

But where the book really shines is in its treatment of Egyptian magic. As many of you know, I get annoyed when Egypt is used as a garnish, but Riordan does a nice job of remaining true to history. For example, his Egyptian magicians frequently use various types of animated figurines, some of which are taken directly from Egyptian mythology (such as a wax crocodile and litter-bearers that want to drag you off and beat you). Riordan also incorporates a large number of Egyptian myths into the story, ranging from the fairly well-known account of Isis and Osiris to the less familiar story of Sekhmet’s bloody rampage.

Riordan also gets brownie points for his portrayal of Set. In a lot of modern works, Set is portrayed as an evil being similar to Satan in Christianity. But that is an oversimplification. For much of Egyptian history, Set was a respected member of the pantheon (in fact, the Ramessides felt a special connection to him). True, he killed his brother and attempted to usurp the throne from his nephew, but he was also the sun god’s primary defender against Apophis. It isn’t until the Late Period that Set starts to be seen as a purely evil deity. Therefore, I was glad to see that Riordan chose to go with a much more ambivalent portrayal of Set.

I only have two real complaints about Red Pyramid. First, sometimes it gets a bit too cute. I could have done without the basketball-playing baboon, or the cat-goddess who eats Friskies. Second, the romantic elements seemed a bit hamfisted at times. But these are very minor gripes, and overall I really, really liked it.