mime order

The Mime Order is the second book in what Samantha Shannon refers to as a 7-book series known as the Bone Season series, after the first book. Two of the installments are novellas, which sound like they may or may not be critical to the overall story arc. My guess, based on nothing other than what I know--and that is limited to their titles and the fact that they’re novellas--is that they are based on background material Shannon prepared in the writing of the main books in the series.* Here’s my thought process: The Bone Season is Shannon’s first book, and it sounds like she is self-taught, and has been writing since adolescence. So, her editor gets ahold of The Bone Season draft and says, hey (I speculate, wildly) what’s all this exposé about the main character? Let's cut all this out. Then, said editor runs across all this background material that Shannon has stuffed in between the chapters which is presumably a pamphlet written by a supporting character, and says, hey (again) let's cut all this out.

Those cuttings are the raw material spun up into the two novellas. How’d I do? Maybe Samantha Shannon will read this and respond… that was me waiting.

Book two picks up after the events of the first book, but the end of the first one wasn’t so much of a cliffhanger, as the end of this one is. When I got to end of this one, I logged on to my local library and put a hold on the third book. I mean, come on, it was like, her hair was on fire and 14 people in the room had just pulled knives and started to run and then…

Tune in next week for another excited episode of…

Shannon’s work is fun to read. After reading The Bone Season a while ago, I also read some of her other stuff, so I had a pretty good feeling that going back to this series was going to work out okay. So far so good. As I write this, I’m almost halfway through book three; The Song Rising. Shannon has created an interesting alternate universe in a future London, which connects to another dimension (?) called the aether which is also where spirits of the dead go, and the folks that can connect to the aether are, as you might expect, called clairvoyants. But the aether has inhabitants of its own, and what are they exactly?

Love, anger, oppression, rebellion, friendship, justice, solitary, prejudice, class warfare, and communing with spirits (and other things) is all mixed up in this fast moving, and action-forward series. I get the feeling that when I’m getting close on the one I'm reading now, I’ll be reserving the next one at the library too. If and when I do, I’ll let all six of you know.

 

* So if you looked up the link above on the Main Series of books on Shannon's website, you may find that there is a placeholder for another book called The Moth Reborn, which is due next year. So I guess that makes it 8-books... Nope, wait, there is another novella on her website called The Dawn Chorus, so 9? But wait, the other book** I talked about coming from background material isn't listed on her site, so maybe we're back down to 7, or I guess 8 with the upcoming book? yeah, I'm confused too

** The other 'novella' from background material isn't a novella, its a 50 page pamphlet called On the Merits of Unnaturalness. My thoughts about its origins hold however, and I guess I'll add The Dawn Chorus novella mentioned immediately above to that group of edited out material, altho that novella fits between The Song Rising (reading now) and the next book, The Mask Falling.

 

 

spellbook of katrina van tassel

The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel: A Story of Sleepy Hollow may be the first book by Alyssa Palombo, but I guess I can check that. nope, she wrote a few other things before this  Maybe she’s too young to remember the Tim Burton movie "Sleepy Hollow" from 1999 with Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane and Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel but she is certainly aware of Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" from 1820, and she's a big fan. I don't recall the Tim Burton movie that well, but it came out in 1999, and I'm guessing she was a kid then. "Sleepy Hollow" was more of a murder mystery with spooky ghost tie-ins, a la Scooby Doo.

The spellbook in the title is just about the only place you'll find a spellbook in this novel. I get the creeping suspicion that someone (editor, publisher ?) suggested the title, or at least that part of it. Van Tassel does keep a diary, and I guess she may have scribbled the ingredients for an herbal tincture that her friend, the healer, gave her, but I'm not sure that makes it a spellbook. Certainly not enough of a spellbook to name a novel after. oooo, maybe this is the spellbook? nope

Otherwise, this book was okay. I thought Palombo may have been a little more detailed during the sex scenes--which showed up a little more frequently--than she needed to, which gives the whole story an little bit an Historical Romance* vibe. Van Tassel is a strong female lead, and does what she needs to do to stick up for herself in a time and place where women aren't typically given the opportunity to stand up for themselves. Palombo set this book in Sleepy Hollow, of course, but at an earlier time period that other interpretations. Washington refuses to run for a second term, and John Adams takes over as the second president during this story arc of this novel.

 

* See my note about 'bodice ripper' romance novels and the associated footnotes and links on this recent post.

 

 

lying game

 

The Lying Game is by Ruth Ware, and English author who brought us The Woman in Cabin 10. I saw this book at my library's book sale and because I thought the Cabin book was good I picked this one up.

The book cover, which is similar to the illustration shown here,* also notes that this book was featured in a book club with Reese Witherspoon's name on it. I'm not sure what that means, I didn't know she had one, and this book is from 2017, although the paperback was probably printed a year or so later, and I'm not sure if Witherspoon still has a book club or not. Looks like she does and it looks like the club features books by women authors, so good on you Reece.

Not only is this book written by a woman, it focuses on the story of four women, that have know each other since their high school days at a boarding school near the coast, not too far from London. The story is about friendship, secrets, and lies, and how they shapes the young women in the story into the adults they become, and what it means when part of their youth, that they may have been hoping would stay in their past, catches up with them.

Its tightly written, with tension, mystery, and an interesting look at the things we share, and the things we don't. Ware did a pretty good job with this one too.

 

* Mine looks like this; the badging is different. 

 

 

eye of the needle

Eye of the Needle is a Ken Follett World War II novel from 1978. I picked this up from the book sale at the Bigelow Free Public Library in Clinton, MA. The Bigelow is a pretty little library built with Guastavino vaults about 100 years ago. It was built with funding from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, and opened in 1902. The library director gave me the thumbs up on this book, and altho I've read Follett's cathedral stories, I haven't read any of his spy thriller work (or maybe anything else he's written?)

Anyhoo, this is a well paced, inspired by reality kind of thriller, and it certainly checked off all the boxes for me. It was exciting, believable, seemingly well researched, tense, and in some cases brutal, and in other cases sad, and still others, sweet. The story is set mainly in the UK, toward the end of WWII, with glimpses of what was happening in Germany at the time, or at least what Follett speculated could have happened based on the information we do have, both about the events in the UK and Germany. He comes right out and says up front that we all know the results, but it was close there for a while, and while we don't know all the details something like this could have happened. I'm paraphrasing. because I didn't want to get up and get the book

 Its crazy to imagine that in 1978, the world was much closer to the end of WWII, than we are now to 1978. Follet wrote this just 30 or so years after the end of the war, and its getting close to 50 years since he wrote it. The story holds up however, probably because its set in an earlier period and it seems that Follet was careful to avoid modern terms and lingo in his writing (at lest to my eye.) This is James Bond without the tuxedos. Its gritty, and the story is wrapped up in everyday life, and the struggles of people living through a war, and doing the best they can in crummy circumstances.

dombey and son

Dombey and Son is not a book I’d heard of before. It was written by Charles Dickens beginning in 1846, and published as a serial, with pamphlet size installments issued once per month for 19 months between 1846 and 1848 by Bradbury & Evans, with illustrations Henry Clarence Pitz. Shortly after the last (double-issue) pamphlet was released, the entire book was published in hardback. Serialized books read differently than other books, in my mind anyway, as they can be had in one go without having to wait. And because one had to wait, there could be cliffhangers at the end of a monthly installment; but there also needs to be a way to make sure your readers will remember where they are in the story, and who the characters are. This is why, I believe, the characters are almost caricatures, or archetypes, which makes their personalities so striking, especially when contrasted to other characters in the story. The character names are also a clue, and consequently can be very amusing. One can imagine that a gruff imposing landlady named Mrs. MacStinger, should not be crossed without some consequence.

Reading a serialized novel is similar to spamming a television series that was designed to be broadcast once per week. The regular pacing of a weekly TV show, its alignment with holidays, and the passing of seasons, felt in many ways that you were following these characters along in their lives at the same pace you were living along with them. While Dombey and Son takes place over a longer story arc than the 19 months in which it was originally published, I’m sure that span of time helped with the pacing as the story stretched through the years. Reading it all in one volume is the 1840s equivalent of the spamming.

I picked up this volume at the book sale in my local library. It had no book jacket, although I assume it probably did,* and there was a small leaflet tucked inside the front cover which I thought was a found bookmark. Because I didn’t know about it, and had no book jacket to consult, I read the first line and I was sold. Between that first line, and the handsome binding, it was clearly worth the $2.00 I paid for it. After getting it home, I found that it is a Heritage Club edition. The Heritage Club published books with quality bindings, using their own editing staff, illustrators, and bindery, and made them available at an affordable price to their members. The leaflet tucked into the front is a small newsletter to the club members called  "Sandglass" that discusses the book, the printing, and Dickens himself.

The original title was Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. yeah, glad they shortened that up It’s a big book but I really enjoyed it. I can’t say that I couldn’t put it down but I did find myself picking it up more often that my usual reading times at breakfast and before bed. Not only that, Dickens had me emotionally tied up with these characters. It may be because of the serial format, or it may just be a literary tool, but the characters had such clear personalities that you could almost guess what they might do, and when wrong, it was either much worse or much better, depending on the character, than you may have guessed.

There are some familiar themes here that Dickens is examining. Themes that we’ve seen him mull over before in books like A Christmas Carol, and David Copperfield. Paul Dombey could be compared to Ebenezer Scrooge, and James Carker would give Uriah Heep a run for his money. What I especially liked is how Dickens examined insidiousness in his evil characters. They aren’t as smarmy or blatantly vile as they are in more modern stories; Dickens’ baddies use the very etiquette of a polite and civil society, especially the higher class norms, as the pool in which he has these creatures wriggle about like eels or prowl like sharks, outwardly smiling and nodding as they watch their prey twist in agony. By contrast, Dickens’ good characters are personifications of the divine upon the earthly plane. It doesn’t matter what happens to them, how terrible their misfortunes, how bleak their outlook may be, they smile or simply tighten their belts, and push on, with endless reservoirs of love, kindness, understanding, and forgiveness. Maybe that’s putting too fine a point on it, and perhaps it’s a bit of a spoiler, but if you’ve read Dickens, I don’t think this will come as a surprise.

I really enjoyed this one, and I can imagine reading it again at some point to see if it still holds up, like I’ve done with similar books, like The Count of Monte Cristo. After a quick look online, it seems as though Dombey and Son is not unknown in the UK; I found many different adaptations of the novel in British movies and television programs. 

Read this book. Maybe twice!

 

 

 

* After writing this, I discovered the Heritage Club edition came in a red slipcase as shown in the photo. This wasn't there at the library box sale, where I got mine.

 

 

 

 

 

murder room

The Murder Room is an Adam Dalgliesh mystery novel by P. D. James. This isn't the first of her mysteries I've read, and they've all been headed by Commander Adam Dalgliesh. This popular figure has apparently inspired a British TV series called "Dalgliesh", which appears to have begun at some point between the time of my last read of one of his stories, and the time previous. clear as mud

The Murder Room sounds like an archetype murder mystery where everyone is locked in a room, and someone gets killed, but that is not the case here. James takes her time with the first few chapters introducing the cast of characters, which gets a little dry, frankly. while I'm waiting to get to the fun, frigging, part of the game Once we got into the thick of it, the story moved right along for me. 

Altho the characters were saying to one another that it was all pretty clear to them, I only had some suspicions, but not enough for it to be clear to me, but then I'm not a big mystery reader, or a detective, so it was interesting to read the whodunit part.

This was another great installment in the Dalgliesh series and you can see why they've done a TV show, which may still be running in the UK. If you're a mystery fan, especially a British mystery fan--yep, they read differently--then look up P.D. James.

 

 

empire of gold

The last book of the Daevabad Trilogy is The Empire of Gold. I can always tell when a book, or in this case a trilogy, has me; I spend extra time reading. S.A. Chakraborty did a great job with this as a first time author. Since this trilogy was released, she's done some newer things--under her full name Shannon Chakraborty--and it was one of those newer books that turned me on to her writing.

Empire was a little longer (784 pages) than the first two books, and if I have any notes on this book its that it could have probably been edited down a little. Perhaps we could have had a little less of the travelogue. One of the things I liked about this book was the restraint in the romantic engagements. If you're looking for the bodice riper version of the Arabian Nights, you're in the wrong place.* The romance is more demure in this trilogy; think Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. There is fair amount of wrist touching and shivers.**

I was impressed with Chakraborty's world building, and she has the politics and history nailed down, as well as how the existence of the djinn is folded into our own world in ways that you and i just can't see, which gives the existence of the djinn their mythical quality. Chakraborty has taken a cue from Tolkien's writing when writing about the djinn. Instead of them being the wispy figments we see in other tales, the djinn of Daevabad are real, like the elves of Middle Earth.

If you're a fan of fantasy, swords and sorcery, and similar types of speculative fiction, you'll really enjoy this one. 

Read this book. Read all three! 

 

* If you're a fan of Shahrazad, however, you won't be disappointed about the heroine in this story. 

** If, on the other hand, you ARE interested in bodice ripping,*** rumor has it that Netflix has acquired the rights to do a series, and I'm assuming it will be a little sexier, if that series actually happens.

*** For those of you offended by the use of the term bodice ripper, I'm using it here to refer to that more modern, scandalous type of romance novel where (consensual) sexy time takes center stage, and can get pretty graphic. The term does have some harder meanings when referring to older stories which seemed to celebrate more violent scenes, ravishment, or other code words for taking advantage of women. No means no. See what I'm talking about in this one minute read here.

 

 

 

city of brass

About a week and a half ago, I took an S. A. Chakraborty book out of the library, it ended up being book 2 of the Daevabad Trilogy, The Kingdom of Copper. I shouldn't take out books when I'm in a hurry I guess. So I returned it and took out this book, book 1: The City of Brass. I'll be going back to get book 2 again.

Once I started reading, the story and especially the characters, seemed familiar, but I haven't been diligent in keeping up this blog so I could only find one of  Chakraborty's more current books on the list here on the blog.* But after I finished this one, I think I did read something else a while ago, and after looking on Chakraborty's website, I think it must have been The River of Silver, which are "Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy," a book outside the trilogy, but including stories from that universe. If I remember correctly it included some stories that may contain spoilers for the trilogy, but it also contains stories that could have been, but weren't, part of the trilogy; alternative plot lines that may have originally been pursued while writing the trilogy and then abandoned or edited out.

Chakraborty says that she is a speculative fiction author, and who am I to disagree, but I'd say that this book falls into the fantasy group as well, and maybe more specifically the sword and sorcery sub-genre. The City of Brass exists in a concealed place where humans can't see or go, hidden in a world parallel to our own; similar to our culture of four or five hundred years ago, across lands that span from the northern and eastern coasts of Africa, across he Middle East to the Indian Subcontinent.** She's woven a pretty complex tale of the secret lives, cultures, and politics of the djinn culture. A people with races, homelands, languages, and abilities that may have all originated as one people, but have diverged over the centuries. Now these people are similar to men--who they do interact with--and have their own politics, religions, prejudices and wars.

Into this, drop our heroine, Nahri, who lives an orphaned, hand-to-mouth existence of cons and hustle on the streets of Cairo, and hopes for a better life, when she inadvertently becomes caught up in the djinn world. This was a fun one, and I found myself spending extra time reading it, and as I said, I'm looking forward to the next one.

 

* I speculated that The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi would have a follow-up, and it apparently does now--or will shortly. The Tapestry of Fate comes out in May.

** There is a map in the frontmatter of this book, and it wasn't until I finished that I discovered a glossary in the back, which would have been good to know as I was reading.

dark sacred night

I’m pretty sure this is a re-read... It’s possible I recognize the storyline from the TV show, but I’m not sure.* I haven’t been keeping up with my reviews or even recording which books I’ve read here on the blog, and preventing accidental purchases and re-reads is one of the main reasons I started keeping this blog.

Dark Sacred Night is a Harry Bosch novel is from 2018, and I may have read it in 2020 or '21, when I had some spotty record keeping on my reading, or even last year, when my record keeping bordered on nonexistent.

Michael Connelly has the Harry Bosch nailed down at this point, and this book may be our first introduction to Detective Renée Ballard, who teams up with Bosch to look at a cold case. There is a fair amount of Ballard own casework as well; a number of smaller cases that she works through at the same time the larger cold case arc is going on. This seems to me to help establish Ballard as a character readers (and Bosch) can relate to so that when she appears in future stories, we have a sense for who she is a little more quickly. Solving 2 or 3 other smaller cases builds her character’s résumé pretty quickly.**

Fans of Bosch books will probably like this one, although his overall personality story arc seems to be showing signs of stress in the form of a loosening of his moral code.

Because I’ve haven’t read the Bosch books in chronological order, it is harder to comment intelligently on the development of the Bosch character, but there it is!

 

* After some looking, this site says that Bosch season 6, is based on this book. Who would have thought that a site called Comic Book Resources, would be the site that has this info, altho I will say you need to dig for that name, as they seem to just go by CBR, and maybe that's why.

** Fans of Ballard may be pleased to hear that she has her own TV show, presumably a spinoff of the Bosch franchise. 

 

 

unwanted guest

I picked up the paperback version of An Unwanted Guest at my library's book sale. I'll admit that I was in a hurry, but I'm not sure that a few more minutes with this book before taking it home would have helped. I'm not a big reader of mystery stories, but I've read a few. I'm thinking of The Best of Dr. Thorndyke Detective Stories, by R. Austin Freeman--which you can see in the column on the right of this page under the 'good' books heading--and of course, Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, which I've written about in 4 separate reviews here on the blog. You won't find a bunch of Dame Agatha Christie books on this blog for instance, and if you use the word cloud on the right hand column to sort for 'mystery' you'd find a few, but most of those are detective stories or police procedurals, or more likely, have some mysterious happenings that aren't revealed until the end. An Unwanted Guest, by contrast, is more of a traditional whodunit, more like the Freeman, Conan-Doyle, or Christie examples I've given.

Shari Lapena* has written her mystery using a classic whodunit scenario, or trope, if you prefer: Bunch of people thrown together in an isolated place, with no contact with the world beyond. When the crap hits the fan, everyone starts to wonder whodunit, quickly followed by, am I next? Whats different here, is that Lapena tells a complex, woven story, with lots of different viewpoints from the various character, and in many cases describes both what they are doing, as well as what they are feeling and thinking, when they are together, but also when they are alone. 

By the time we're getting toward then end, we know quite a bit about each of them, from both their personal thoughts as well as their conversations, and I was pretty impressed that I hadn't yet figured out who, in fact, dunit. 

The reason for that was a surprise! And yes, I guess you could say that this is a spoiler, which I don't normally do, but I'm not sure I could spoil this book any worse. The reason is because Lapena never tells us how or why the guilty person did what they did. Or, in fact, gave us any clues at all, until the final chapters where the guilty party graces us with a complete exposé of their history, their motives, and how they did it. Again, ALL invisible to us as readers until this very point. AND no one figured that out, or was ever privy to the guilty person's thoughts, just us readers. They got nabbed based on one piece of evidence found two pages before, which may or may not be enough to get them convicted. Its circumstantial, at best.

So I'm left feeling like: why did you make me read all this if there was nothing in there that would help me understand or solve any of it, and you were just going to tell me about it in 4 pages at the end. did she just mansplain that to me? i feel kind of dirty It was like watching Dateline. That show is aggravating: They already know who did it, they're just making me watch this drama play out for an hour before they tell me who did it. The only benefit Dateline has over this book, is that at least they share some of the evidence with you as they go along.

Don't bother. 

 

* When looking up the link to Lapena's website, I went there and another of her books is featured on the front page, with the title: She Didn't See It Coming, which is followed by the tagline; "and neither will you..." Hilarious! If its anything like this one, I can guarantee you won't see it coming, because Lapena won't show you!**

** That title and tagline--from a completely different book!--is almost enough to get me to add this title to my 'stinks' list on the right hand column. don't act when you're aggravated, phil

 

 

 

navola

I was in the library to look for some things to read. I normally check out the used book sale, which may seem crazy considering I'm buying books from a place that is full of free ones, but I do it for two reasons: first, I'm a slow reader, so I'm unlikely to finish a book before its due,* never mind multiple books, and second, the small amount of money goes to support the library, especially given the fact that I return most of those books in the form of donations to the book sale. One of the reasons I started this blog was to keep track of the books I've bought so that I don't buy them again. yeah, that happens

Anyhoo, I found two books at the book sale, one of which my wife read in about 2 days, and the second I've just started today. The third book I found was in the new books section. I thought I'd take a look and see if any of my favorite authors had published anything new. Alpha-by-author got me to Bacigalupi, Paolo, which was a pleasant surprise. Once I found Navola, I stopped looking. Bacigalupi** has written a few novels for adults, and a few more for teens. I read the teens books, and they're pretty good, but I like his adult fiction/SF better. Navola was a treat.

Bacigalupi has developed a world based on Renaissance Europe, and is focused on the city-state of Navola, in the upper eastern part of a 'hook' shaped peninsula poking out into a sea with countries to the north, west, and south coastal regions. Its pretty clear that the 'hook' is based on the pre-Italian conglomeration of city-states, duchies, and kingdoms, and has French-like and German-like countries to the north, Turkish and further Asian countries to the east, and Arabic-type countries on the southern shores of the sea. Where there they have dragons, or they used to, at least.

Navola is a coming of age story, with political, social, and familial intrigues, romance, and violence,with glimpses at historical gods, and the believe systems that grew from them. Bacigalupi has created a world with depth and history, rife with monetary, cultural, and nobility clashes. Navola also appears to be the first is a series of books based on this world Bacigalupi has created. Maybe the good news is that this book actually came out in 2024, although I'm not sure why I haven't seen it until now or why its on the new books shelf at the library a year and a half later, but maybe that means the next installment isn't too far off?

  

* Yes, I know I can renew it. In fact my library now has automatic renewals and no late fees. 

** Bacigalupi is a fun name, and its Italian, which may have something to do with the inspiration for the fantasy setting of this story in a pre-Italian peninsula of city-states and other Euro-inspired surrounding countries, but a search for the origin of this surname led to differing, but interesting results:

One site has it listed, confoundingly as "unattensted verb bacigare ‘to hunt’ + lupo ‘wolf’" Unattensted apparently means: not existing in any documented form. Super helpful.

Wikipedia has this to say: "Bacigalupi (Ligurian: Bâçigalô) is an Italian surname from Liguria, literally translating to 'wolf-wounder' " Altho, its funny, when I translated bacigalo, it means 'kiss him,' but dialect is always funny.

Hunter, or wounder? And a few others besides, see below. So I used my dangerous level of Italian comprehension to search in Italian, and this site (thanks to google translate) says: "It derives from a nickname linked to the Genoese dialect word basigâ, "to swing/to tease," and lupi, meaning "the one who swings/teases the wolves." The nickname probably indicated a wolf hunter (who attached the skins to a stick to carry them, hence the swinging motion), or a wolf skin merchant." M'kay.

This guy, who maintains his own site, as a kind of commonplace book, thinks it's a: "compound surname derived from "bacia" (kiss) and "lupo" (wolf), thus literally meaning "kiss the wolf." I'm assuming that is a wild guess? I'll admit, I was under the impression it was baci [(you) kiss] + whatever galupi meant, but galupi meant nothing. Except...

The same guy has a page on the name origin of the surname Galuppi, which he says: "is derived from the nickname "galuppo," meaning "crest" or "tuft,". If that is the case, I'm not sure why he didn't assume that Bacigalupi means to 'kiss the crest' which certainly sounds like a thing... coat of arms, signet ring, to show respect, allegiance, etc. Well, to me anyway. 

The world may never know.

 

 

eisenhorn: the omnibus

This book is not one I would have picked out for myself--this was a Christmas gift this year (thanks Jacob!)--but I ended up enjoying it even more that I expected. I don't know anything about Warhammer or how its different from warcraft but I assume Gregor Eisenhorn is a character from the video game,* and Dan Abnett has written these stories about him under contract with the Warhammer folks. The frontmatter and backmatter in this paperback talk about a bunch of other stories in the 'Black Library', which is a series of stories from different writers about characters and storylines from Warhammer.

Because the Warhammer universe is so far into the future, mankind has moved out into the galaxy (maybe beyond? don't know, nerds) so that men now live on thousands of planets, and have done for thousands of years. This, I think, makes for a ripe backdrop for story telling given that these worlds now all have their own histories, cultures, flora and fauna, that influence the people that live there. While some planets are more centralized, and their cultures more homogeneous, more distance or isolated planets diverge more from the centralized culture and norms of the empire.

The stories in this book are all that have been written by Dan Abnett about this character, and they are arranged chronologically and so we can follow Eisenhorn's character development, along with those of his team members, throughout their long (and sometimes short) careers. I do love SciFi, but again, this isn't something I would have chosen for myself, however, I did find myself stealing extra moments to read a little longer, or forgoing other things in order to read another chapter. The stories range from novels (there are a few novel length stories) and some short stories of varying lengths (magazine article length, to novellas). Its a big boy; Eisenhorn: The Omnibus is nearly a thousand pages, but it didn't take too long for me to read. 

I especially liked how Abnett describes the dress, food, drink, or technology of a scene in detail (sometimes including the ingredients of a dish, for example) and then names off the bits that make up whatever he is describing using series of made-up words and phrases that can only be understood by their context, and gives no further definitions or descriptions. I think this needs to be done carefully so as not to overwhelm the reader with SciFi speak, and Abnett does a good job threading that needle.

 

* Sorry nerds, Warhammer is apparently not a video game (maybe Warcraft is?) Apparently its a fantasy combat board game played with miniatures and its been around since the early 80s. 

 

 

 

the thirst

Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø has penned another Harry Hole novel in the series, called The Thirst. Harry Hole (pronounced HO-leh, apparently; and Harry is pretty much pronounced like Harry) is a detective working for the police department in Oslo, and this is number 11 in the Harry Hole series. I've read a few others, but only one is listed here on the blog. When I wrote about that one, I commented that I was sure I read another but didn't write about it here. This one, like the other I've linked above, was translated into English by Neil Smith.

Hole is a murder detective, and at this point in his life he's actually retired from the police department and is teaching at the police college, but he is called back to work a case that appears to be perpetrated by a serial killer that got away from Hole years ago, and seems to gone to ground, at least until now. Hole reluctantly returns to police work to catch this deranged killer as the victims fall by the day.

Nesbø writes a good story, and the differences between Norwegian crime fiction and American crime fiction is not all that is different, altho that is a treat. Nesbø weaves a complex tale, and when you think the twists and turns are all uncovered, there are more to come. This was a good one, and I'll keep my eye out for more of Nesbø's writing, whether its a Harry Hole story or something else Nesbø has written.

reality is not what it seems

Carlo Rovelli picked a great title when he chose Reality is Not What it Seems for this follow up to his Seven Brief Lessons on Physics,* which started out a pamphlet and became an international best seller. Rovelli talks a little bit about this in the introduction; how this book came to be; how people had been asking him to explain the theories of quantum gravity in layman's terms, which he was reluctant to try and do. He did try when pressed, and the result was a small book, but because of its popularity, he was pressed further to expand on that work and the result, he explains, is this book.

I will go ahead and tell you now, that I was quoting phrases, and reading passages out loud to anyone who would listen. my apologies to my family When I finished, I gave the book to my wife and recommended that she read it.

In the first few chapters, Rovelli traces the history of where we are in physics, and our understanding of how the universe works. How scientists and philosophers built upon the work of their predecessors to unlock the secrets of the universe as we know it. Because I am interested in this kind of thing, I had a pretty good idea about where we are and how we got there, but the story that Rovelli tells both provided missing links in the trail of information, extended what I understood and how different theories relate to one another, and in a way that was both succinct, and mesmerizing. Two chapters in and I was hooked.

Rovelli then goes on to describe quantum physics, and what we know about it, building upon what we've learned in the past, until he gets to the point where the theories aren't proven yet, and its still conjecture and competing theses. He points out that there are two main branches of theories, the one he is working on and believes in, and the other, which is string theory. You got me about which is correct, or more correct, but he makes a passionate argument.

Read this Book--I enjoyed it thoroughly--but maybe only if you are interested in this kind of stuff. Its good, but I'm not sure how much general appeal it will have for the less geekily inclined.

* You can download a copy of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by clicking here.

 

 

the overstory

The Overstory by Richard Powers is organized unlike any other book I can recall. Its like a series of short stories, that kind of grow together, around and among the trees. Its a series of related fables? Ovid's Metamorphoses is mentioned in here somewhere, and its at least part of the inspiration for this story, as much as global warming and deforestation is the implied warning or moral.

I don't recall reading anything by Richard Powers before, so I took a quick look, and this book apparently won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, so go figure. I enjoyed this book, but I'm not going to put it in my 'read this book'* category only because it was a little slow and disjointed for me. Its my guess that this won the Pulitzer because it is so different from other things I've read, and the structure of this book's story arc is like nothing else I've read. For me personally, being different as not the same as being entertaining, and that's why I read fiction. 

Lets be clear, was entertained, and I did enjoy this book, I'm just not weeping because I finished it, rapt with longing for more, and kicking down doors to find the next book by this author. Now, also to be clear, I don't feel that way about every book that makes it to the 'read this...' group, that's a high bar indeed, I just reserve that for books I'm recommending without reservation.

Powers writes fiction about science and technology, and it seems as though he is pretty well known for it. I'll keep my eye out and if I run into another that looks good I'll probably pick it up.

 

* The link to my 'read this book' tagged books can be found anytime by clicking on the appropriate tag on the tag cloud on the right-hand column on this page. Its under the heading: 'what i'm talking about'. You can use any of the other tags in the same way. They also show up at the bottom of every post, so if you're looking for something similar, I may have labeled it that way

 

started but...

I started these two books a few months ago, and just couldn't get through them. 

One of the reasons I keep this blog is because I pick up used books so often that its always a mixed bag; the books I find can be current or 50 years old, or whatever. Prior to keeping this blog I have found myself sitting down to read a newly acquired book only to discover that I've read it at some point in the past. The blog helps me with that in two ways: I can just look them up on my phone when I'm out and about, 'The Books' tab at the top of this page is a summary by author and title, and its really there for me, altho it is a handy way to find things, and there are links that take you to the reviews, if you need them. Second, I've found that writing about them helps me to remember them better. maybe that's why we had to do book reports in school... hmm

Recording books here that I didn't finish, is therefore especially important. I do NOT want to find myself re-purchasing and re-reading something I put down. 

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara seemed like it was going to be similar to some other time malleable stories I've read recently, such as The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, or Sea of Tranquility. It sort of was, but it just didn't measure up. Yanagihara has created an alternative universe for our world in which the history of the United States took a very different turn more than 100 years ago, and things that we still now argue about as too liberal became widely accepted in some placed, making the lives of those that have lived on the edged for society for so long, more welcome. Utopia, right! Nope. 

The story does take place over a number of.. generations? Eras? And we follow some of the same people? Generations? its not really clear, so... Any who, the past that could have been liberating and free, wasn't. The recent past, which could have been amazing, and non-stop party, wasn't so the future, right? That must be bright and sunny; a warm glow at the end of a long, hard slog.

Nope. Maybe it ended great, I'll never know. Too depressing, to inward looking, too caught up in itself. It almost seems that the author asked themselves, what if I had a chance to do it all over, in a world where thinsg were different, and then just convinced themselves that things will never get better, because no matter where you run, you always bring yourself with you. 

Welp. Go on ahead without me.

 

I've got a couple of Bill Bryson books in my list of recommendations on the right side of this page. These are the books that folks tell me about, and I put them here so I can find them if I'm out book hunting somewheres. Made in America is not one of the two Bryson titles in my list, but I figured it was worth a shot. I've read some similar books like Damp Squid, and some by Richard Lederer. 

Made in America reminded me of those works, and other books, but after I got about halfway through, it was just more of the same. This wasn't so much a story about the American breed of English, as it was an annotated list of words and phrases and how they differ from the English spoken in other countries. It was like Bryson just had his notes typed up, gave them the once over, and went to print. 

I want you to tell me a story, and if you think I just wasn't looking hard enough, I read half of it! You had your chance bro.

 

Q: Where are the links Phil? 

A: Why?

 

world without end

World Without End is Ken Follett's 2007 follow-up to his 1989 The Pillars of the Earth. Its the second in his Kingsbridge series, which apparently has 3 more, making it a total of 5 in this series, so, pentology, I guess.

Pillars was good--it's actually listed in the 'good' section on the right-hand column of this blog--so I was interested to see where this one would go.  We're still in Kingsbridge, where the first story takes place, and the cathedral that formed the framework around which the first installment was built, is already in place. This book is also about the people, rather than the building, but things have changed in the years that have elapsed in Kingsbridge (or in the 18 years that elapsed between writing the first and second books!) This book is a little more soapy than I recall the first one being, and a little more sexy. Its not a bodice ripper, by any means, but I did get the feeling that Follett may have taken a little more freedom with what propriety may have allowed during the period without some shunning, if not hanging. But what do I know; my experience with what happened and what people did or could do in the 1200s is limited to the other things I've read and seen on the screen, so who's to say which notion is correct.

That said, World Without End was entertaining, if perhaps not quite as good as the original. As I said, there are now three more: after another 10 year gap, Follett produced A Column of Fire, sounds like he should have that looked at and then just three years later, and then another three more, he cracked out the remaining two. Are there more coming? Don't know, guess we'll wait and see. Based on this read, I won't be running out to get the next one, but if I stumble across it in the wild, as I did this one, I'll probably pick it up.

I read this a while ago (a few months ago?) and didn't get a chance or make a chance to write about this one at the time. I have a few more to catch up on too.

book of illusions

The Book of Illusions is a novel Paul Auster, published in 2002, and was apparently pretty well received at the time. I don't really follow things like that, but they show up when I do a little searching to put together my review, and lots of book descriptions say it was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award in 2004. His work is generally lauded, I've come to understand. Go Paul Auster.

I picked this one up at the book sale at the Moses Greeley Parker Memorial Library in Dracut, Massachusetts. Library books sales are one of my favorite ways to find books. Lost of times the library will stock up on new books that are very popular so they can meet the demand. Often times it is the Friends of the Library group, who helps to funds these additional copies so that patrons aren't disappointed by not being able to secure a copy of the latest popular book by being put on a wait list. Once the rush is over, the library may begin to sell off additional copies to make room for the new popular title.

I enjoyed this false history* story very much. David Zimmer is a professor who stumbles upon some thought to be lost silent movies by a less than well known actor from the 1920s, and contemporary of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Zimmer takes advantage of the discovery to create a project to help help cope with recent tragedy that has also left him with more time on his hands than he wants, and extra spending money to follow this pursuit. He takes it upon himself to find out all he can, and write the definitive book on this unknown champion of the silent film genre.

What he eventually finds changes his life more than he expected, and some of those experiences tilt into the surreal. I have read anything by Auster in the past that I recall, but I really like his writing style. Its direct, pared down, clean and easy to read. Like all the best writers, Auster is invisible, and the story just feels like its being absorbed rather than read and interpreted. Auster's first person story telling seamless slipped between Zimmer's story, the silent movies plots he was watching, and the book he was writing. All of which seem to inform, reflect, and in some cases foreshadow one another. Art evincing art, evincing art.

I'll keep my eye out for Paul Auster. Auster died last April at 77. Read this book. 

 

*In 2010, Duke Special recorded an album in tribute to the 12 fictional lost movies of the fictional silent film star, Hector Mann, in Auster's book. The 12 tracks on the album have the same names as the 12 silent films described in The Book of Illusions. Wild.