treasure island

I think I read Treasure Island for a book report in middle school--which was called junior high school where I grew up. This was before I was a reader and I recall this book, like the others I was forced to read at the time, was a slog. Not so this time around! Robert Louis Stevenson wrote this, in the 1880s; it was originally published serialized in something called Young Folks under a pseudonym in 1881 and 1882, and first published in novel form by Cassell & Co., of London, under the author's name.

The story is set in the 1700s, and is one of the first to popularize pirates and buried treasure. According to the Wikipedia article, a lot of what we think of when we think of pirates, namely "deserted tropical islands, treasure maps marked with an "X", and one-legged seamen with parrots perched on their shoulders" comes from Stevenson's depiction of buccaneers in Treasure Island.

The version I read is a handsome volume published by Grosset & Dunlap of New York, copyrighted in 1942, but printed in 1972, as part of what they called their Illustrated Junior Library.* It has a number of full color plates, and many pen & ink vignettes throughout, done by Norman Price. Price's illustrations are warm and vibrant. The sketches help to fill in some of the imagery, that probably helps sell the story to the younger audience it was intended for. They certainly weren't worried about violence in stories for young people. It seems like folks may have had a better understanding about what teens can handle than we do today. 

 

Norman Price Illustration

 

The story follows the adventures of a young man named Jim Hawkins, who is referred to as a boy by others in the story, but because most of the story is told in first person from Hawkins' point of view, he never says exactly how old he is. Depictions of him in movies, plays, TV shows, radio plays (there are a lot!) have shown him at varying ages from about 12 to his middle teens. I'd say he is on the older end of that range, given what he gets up to, but considering that John Quincy Adams was asked by the new U.S. emissary to join him on his trip to St. Petersburg as his personal secretary and translator when he was 14, I think its safe to say that what we consider "kids" when this story was set, were often more capable than we train them up to be now.

Hawkins joins the ship on a hunt for treasure as the cabin boy, which I think is part of pop culture now and not a spoiler for folks. He takes a bold and heroic, one could say, view of his roll and I'm sure the idea is to inspire young readers, especially young men, to do the same in their lives, and to look for adventure. 

This was a goody. Read this book. Or better yet, give it to one of your kids and tell them to read it outside. 

 

* More pictures here from a similar volume, printed a year or two later, for sale online. 

 

 

 

book that held her heart

The third and final book of the Library Trilogy by Mark Lawrence is called The Book that Held her Heart. I was hopeful, as I mentioned in my review of book 2, that Lawrence would fill in some more details about the mechanics of the library, and put a little more flesh on the bones of the title book, and why it poses such a threat, and more importantly, hope it actually does that.

I didn't get that.

What I did get, didn't, in some cases, make sense to me. Are they plot holes, or is the author taking an easy way out. I'm not sure, but it can't just be me. This book was shorter than the others, and included a whole subplot that I'm not sure was originally even intended to be part of the story. Maybe I'm wrong, but it this was a television series, some of that stuff was filler episodes. Did it ask important questions? Sure. Did it help tie the fantasy of the first two books more firmly to our own shared reality? You betcha. Did it need to do those things, especially if they were done in lieu of resolving some other things that seem to have slipped by? Nope.

The ending of this one, reminded my of the end of The Firm, by John Grisham. Link has spoilers, but you know... it was written in the 90s. Not my favorite, and a little bit of a disappointment given the time Lawrence and his readers put into this. I would go as far as putting on my 'myeh' list, but it could have been better.

 

book that broke the world

The Book that Broke the World is book 2 in the Library Trilogy by Mark Lawrence. I mentioned that I was reading this in my review of the first book, but then forgot to write about it. That was a month or so ago,* but I actually purchased this book at a used book sale so I have it, and could give it a flip through to remind myself about it.

This books helps to explain what exactly is up with this book that is so dangerous has done, and how its doing it. Maybe I read over that part too quickly, but I'm not sure I got the explanation in the kind of detail I was looking for. I understand that this universe Lawrence has created is different, and has different rules, but as a reader, I don't understand those rules unless you explain them to me, and I'm not sure I left this one completely satisfied. 

I also think (if I remember correctly) that I was hopeful that the third installment would provide that clarification I was looking for. Now that I've read book 3 as well, I can confirm that this book was Lawrence's opportunity to explain it to me, and I don't think I got it.

This was a fin book in any case, and I certainly didn't give up on the series because of my confusion. Would I have if I'd known that the third book wouldn't provide the full answer to my niggling question? I don't think so. Maybe I'm not the only one?

 

* Okay, its more than a month ago now, I just found this when I opened this to get caught up. I've also finished the 3rd book in this series, as well. 

 

 

dark mirror

I may have cried about this before, but I normally like to wait until all the books are out in a series before digging into it. I've been burned a few times yeah, George R. R. Martin, I'm looking at you When I started to read the Bone Season, I was under the impression it was a 3 book series. It wasn't until a few books in did I realize there were 7, and then only recently, did I learn that the other two books out there in this series were NOT part of the series, but addenda, and short stories--outtakes that were cut from the main books is my guess--and that I need to wait for tow more to come! Yeah, that's right, altho started back in 2013 or something, the sixth book is due out next year and then the seventh... at some point after that. Assuming there isn't an eighth, or whatever.

She even took a break to crack out another series, which was pretty good!

Book 5 is called The Dark Mirror, and in the preface, Shannon points out that after working on this series for close on 15 years, starting when she was pretty young, she's found that some of the earlier things she wrote either don't hold up or have become problematic as the story arc, the characters, or maybe both, have evolved, so she has released revised, and updated versions. The preface includes a link to her site where you can go read a summary of the changes, or find links to the updated texts.*

This was an interesting installment, and includes both new things, as well as the return to some older things. Fans of the series will likely enjoy this book, is my prediction, and I thought that it was pretty well put together. When it started up, I wasn't sure where we were going, but Shannon has crafted a way to maintain the tension and the action, and keep it interesting enough to make us look forward to the next volume. Do I think it would have been possible to tell this story in less than 7 volumes? Sure, but Shannon has created some likeable characters and an interesting alternate universe for them to inhabit so I can see hardcore fans looking forward to as many volumes as they can get. I recall hearing that Tolkien said that his only regret about The Lord of the Rings, was that it was too short. I also think that if he had lived longer, we probably would have seen more from him. So on a related note, lets hope George of the familiar R.R. moniker, doesn't kick it before he gets done what he'd like to.

This was a fun one. 

 

* If you haven't read the books, the Revision Guide Shannon has put together, linked above, may have spoilers. 

 

 

first commandment

The First Commandment by Brad Thor is apparently book 6 in the Scot Harvath series. I've read a few of these now, and I had a feeling this was an earlier adventure, just because there were some things that didn't seem to sync up with some of the other stories I've read, but because I've only ever read these with passing interest; my wife typically will read them, and I will go through and try to grab something I haven't read before, so I haven't paid much attention to publishing order. I suppose that would help keep track of the overall story arc that follow through on most character based series.

Scot Harvath is a lot like some other characters that series are built around in similar spy thriller books. Some similarities or characteristics that I don't think will surprise anyone may include something like: ex-military, special forces, apex predator with a heart of gold and plenty of righteous patriotism, who has had some personal loss or trauma that keeps them centered, and has later made his or her way through the CIA, the FBI, or the Secret Service, or maybe all three before being recruited to some super-secret, off book or even private espionage entity, that may or may not have direct oversight from the president, a prime minister, the director of the CIA, or some similar big wig who needs to get things done with credible deniability, for the good of the citizens and a free world. There are a bunch of them, and they are typically all fun to read. Brad Thor and Scot Harvath are not my favorite team, but they aren't the worst and I typically enjoy a read through one of their adventures. I just don't ever feel the need to run out and buy the next one (or even read the teaser chapter at the end of most paperbacks like this).

Looks like I've read book 11, 14, and 19. And I may have read book 1, The Lions of Lucerne * just recently, but didn't write here about it. Its possible I read some of the others as well, it looks like there are 25 books in the series so far.

 

* Yeah, I definitely read Lions a little while ago, but didn't write about it on the blog. 

 

 

 

a certain justice

Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team have been called upon to solve another murder, in this later book in P.D. James' series of mysteries featuring the detective. A Certain Justice was first published in 1997, a few years after James was created Baroness James of Holland Park. She died just about 10 years ago, well into her 90s.

The format follows that of some of her other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, that is the story focuses on the people surrounding, involved in, or otherwise impacted by the murder. This sets the stage, allows us to get to know the people involved, and typically the murder victim, prior to the deed. The deed itself is not shown to us, so we must work alongside Dalgliesh and his team while they try and sort it out.

James does a good job, and its clear why she's so popular. Lots of her books have been made into movies and television shows, including one of this book, in the UK. There are a fair number of English terms that may hang up American English readers, but that's pretty typical I think and context clues certainly help in most cases, but there are some things that just don't come across; Is that a clue or lunch they're taking about?

Some of the more complicated words have to do with the law and the courts. We're all familiar with what a barrister is, and that they wear wigs in court, and what robes? A gown? Not sure what those terms are. That doesn't prevent a good read however. 

the chemist

I've never read Stephenie Meyer before, and I don't think I've seen any of the various movies and television programs (?) made from her earlier, sexy vampire books. I think I have that right, the Twilight phenomenon seemed to have taken over the world for 10 or so years, and weren't they all young and make-outey? Like a bitey 90210 or something?* Whatever. The Chemist is not that.

I picked up a hardcover copy of The Chemist at, you guessed it, a used book sale at the library. I don't remember if it was my library or one of the libraries I visited at work. I think it was the latter. This book, published about 10 years ago, is a spy thriller. The main protagonist, a molecular biologist, referred to as a chemist for short, has had to learn to become self-sufficient in order to protect herself, and in the years she's had to live this way, she's developed a skill set that will really be put to the test when the threat escalates. That's the premise of this one. It does read a lot like a movie script. I'm not sure what it is about some writers, but the it may be something about scene setting, and brevity or efficiency of the prose that keeps the story moving forward? I may have said this about Andy Weir, or at least I was thinking it, but that maybe because he and Meyer have had movies made from their books.

The main protagonist is a great character, who takes advantage of the fact that adversaries will underestimate her, because she's a woman, because of her small stature, and because they don't understand what she can do with her skills. She uses this to maximum advantage, and it always satisfying to see someone laugh her off, and then get beat. It was also fun to watch this character grow outside her comfort zone as the pressures of what she is up against grow, and develop in ways she wasn't anticipating. This was a fun read.

 

* Didn't see that either. 

 

 

book that wouldn't burn

Yes, I've changed gears. After learning that Samantha Shannon has book 6 of her Bone Season series due out next year, and who knows when book 7 will be out (or if there will be more!) I decided to swap over to Mark Lawrence's Library Trilogy. I bought book 2 at some point at a used book sale, and didn't realize it was the second in a trilogy until I got home and cracked it open to read. So I borrowed book 1 from the library; The Book that Wouldn't Burn. I haven't read any of Mark Lawrence's stuff before and this was pretty good. The story arc is built around a library, that in the point of this story, seems to have been developed thousands of years ago, but a much more advanced society than the current one, but the reasons for that may be that the culture the present story takes place in is either new to the library or is possibly a newer culture that is developing after some post-apocalyptic event, or something. Its a little vague, but I wouldn't tell you what it was here in any case as I try to avoid spoilers.

The library itself reminds me a little of the library in Asimov's Foundation Series, but only in its abstract, font of all knowledge, people in service of the library vibe that story gave me, at least as far as I can recall. its been a while!

I actually finished this a few days ago, and I've been working on book 2. Its a smaller volume, so I don't think it will take me too long before I go grab book 3 from the library. I guess this probably fits into the fantasy genre, but there are also SciFi aspects to it as well, and it also reads a little like historical fiction, but that may be because the culture in which this takes place is slowly transitioning from edged weapons to firearms, and the customs, dress, architecture, societal norms, nobility etc. seem to reflect a historical era.

The writing is pretty tight, and there are some interesting twists and loops that creep in that I wasn't expecting, and some others I could see coming, but I think I could see them because Lawrence wanted me to. 

mask falling

Paige Mahoney is at it again. The Mask Falling is the 4th book in the 7-book Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon. In the dedication, Shannon notes that this is the middle book. I guess I didn't realize how many there were when I started, as I've probably mentioned in the past. The 6th book has been announced, and just recently revealed it's cover art on Shannon's website. That book is due out early next year. The 7th book? Who knows. And will Shannon decide that she needs an 8th to really wrap things up? I know, sorry, but... maybe. it's like, art, and stuff

Paige Mahoney is, of course, the main protagonist in this series, and you just can't keep a good woman down. After making serious and significant inroads on the UK battlefront, Mahoney has decamped to Paris for the majority of this installment. Many of the same characters we met in the first 3 books still appear, but many for only short periods, or mentions, as they are still in England. This book does take the overall story arc onto a more global stage, with implications mentioned for Portugal and Spain as well, altho we don't visit those places. Perhaps a foreshadowing of some future book's setting?

The series framework is a kind of sawtooth shaped story arc or increasing tragedy, conflict, or obstacle,  which ratchets up the tension, and when resolved drops the anxiety back down again for a beat, before the next thing comes along that needs to be overcome. The seem to come pretty regularly (hence the sawtooth analogy) in large part because the Mahoney character runs toward trouble rather than away. Its in her DNA to fight injustice and oppression and putting herself in harms way not only comes naturally, but appears to be her preferred modus operandi. i'll just let it eat me, and cut my way out from the inside *

So would I recommend that you read this series? Its not really SciFi, and its not Swords & Sorcery. Magical Realism? Is that even a thing? Maybe just call it Speculative Fiction. If you like that kind of thing, with some clairvoyance and some rebels-against-the-evil-empire action then you'll probably enjoy this series. You could wait until she's done, so you don't have to hang around waiting for the next installment, but some folks like that, so, you do you!

 

* That's not an actual quote from this book, but a trope we've all seen a number of times. I just read the exact thing in the book I'm reading right now. Which is NOT, by the way, the next book in this series.