golden enclaves

That's Book Three: done and dusted. The Golden Enclaves is the third book in the Scholomance Trilogy by Naomi Novik, which I banged out is pretty quick order, for me. That normally means that the books are engaging enough that I'm going out of my way to find reading time, rather than just reading a little at breakfast, and when I go to bed. That methods usually ends up turning your average novel into a two to three week ordeal.

Novik did everything right here: compelling characters and storyline, some drama, some hooks, some fun, some romance, some action, some surprise, some death, a smackerel of foreshadowing, see what I did there? and as I said in my review of the first book, an original and engaging view of how magic works in this version of our world. And that magic and how it works is not just interesting, but it plays heavily into the story, and how the witches and wizards that use it need to manage its needs and implications. Reminds me a little of Isaac Asimov's three rules for robots. Once he came up with the rules, he wrote a series of short stories (I, Robot) to test them and see how they might function is 'real life' settings. Novik does the same thing, she pokes a prods at magic through her characters to see what it will do, testing the rules and implications.

If you enjoyed the Harry Potter series, enjoyed The Magicians books even more, but weren't as much of a fan of Narnia Series, then this is probably for you. The Bone Season has some similarities as well, in the interesting view of magic in our world, but the Scholomance is much better written.

Novik crushed it. Read this book.

 

last graduate

Part two of the Scholomance Trilogy is called The Last Graduate. Naomi Novik is pretty well practiced at multi-novel story arcs, she has a series called Temeraire, that has 10 books in it. You can find more about that, and Naomi Novik, as well as some kind of web interactive trip to the Scholomance on her website.

I had to wait for this book at the library as it was reserved by someone else, but I banged out a few others while I waited, but now that this one is done, I've started on the third book, as I bought a surplus copy at my library's book sale. Unlike a lot of middle books in trilogies, The Last Graduate is really the second part of a longer story, and it really does pick up right where the first book left off. And sneak peek: the same is true between the second and the third. I'm not sure if these books would read so well if taken alone, or out of order, but then, I don't think any writer assumes that will be the case, and any subtle summarizing of the earlier book is probably done to catch up those who have had to wait a year, or however long its been, since the earlier book was published.

Book two develops the main characters in more detail, and we watch them grow in this book from the juniors they were in Book one, to the seniors they are now, getting ready to graduate from the Scholomance. This story took some turns I wasn't expecting, but I guess that is the plan. I don't normally spend any time while reading trying to work out the ending, but in some cases I'm not surprised, and in others, I am. This was one of the latter type, which is always fun. Novik does a pretty good job of convincing you of one thing, along with the protagonists, only to then change your mind, and win you over about something you didn't think you'd ever change your mind about, taking you on the same journey as the characters. That's tough to do, and can sometimes seems clunky. The worse of which is just the explainer, whether to a supporting character, or even worse, in inner dialog.

I reserved judgement on this when i wrote about the first one, because I wasn't sure where this was going to go, but I'm going assume the third book is going finish this story up nicely, and say Read this Book.

 

On a side note, this series has the backbone that I think people look for in a movie premise, or more likely a TV series. I can imagine something with a fair amount of production value that might be pretty good on the small screen. Diverse cast, international scope, and enough intrigue to pull in various types of viewers.

sea of tranquility

Sea of Tranquility was on the New York Times Bestseller List, according to the cover of this paperback I picked up at my library's book sale while waiting for my shot at the second book in a trilogy I just started. That's not why I bought it, it was because the blurb on the back cover made this one sound like a wild romp with some Cloud Atlas vibes.

It was, but not AS out there as Cloud Atlas.

Emily St. John Mandel tells a pretty good tale. She probably best known as the author of Station Eleven, which they apparently made a mini-series out of over at the HBO Max, which, in case it isn't obvious, I haven't seen. St. John Mandel is also the author of The Glass Hotel, a blurb of which is included in the backmatter of this book, and if i understand that paragraph correctly, that book may include some of the same characters as this one. Another reminder of David Mitchell.

And I just needed to read the first line of this book to know that St. John Mandel is a funny woman.

Sea of Tranquility did nod in the David Mitchell direction, for me, but the story line was completely original, albeit with some time traveling antics that I guess we've all seen before, but how they're woven together here was a treat. This was a good one, and I'll keep my eye out for books by Emily St. John Mandel.*

Read this book.

 

* Moments after publishing this post, I was cleaning up by closing browser tabs and read at the very top of Emily St. John Mandel's website, these words, "St. John is my middle name. The books go under M." I guess that's pretty clear, and apparently happens often enough that its the first line on her page. Mandel is a funny woman.

gawain and the green knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl & Sir Orfeo are three poems translated from Middle English by J.R.R. Tolkien. The first two were discovered contained in the same manuscript, along with two other poems, written in the same hand, around the year 1400, according to the introduction, edited by Christopher Tolkien from a number of sources which original with his father, including notes, transcripts from broadcast interviews, etc. Sir Orfeo is contained in three extant manuscripts, and the one Tolkien used is dated to the 1330s, inscribed, probably in London. The original authors are unknown.

Tolkien worked on the translations a number of times from the1920s up through at lest the 1950s according to the preface by Christopher Tolkien, and in some case in collaboration with other experts in the field. In some cases, Christopher found multiple versions, and made an effort to use the most recent updated forms for this publication. The copyright is dated 1975 and held by Tolkien's long time publisher, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. and published in 1980 by Ballantine Books, of New York.

The trickiest part of the translations, according to the front matter, is the rhythm, not the strict iambic metrical foot used in other forms, such as Shakespeare, but a more loose rhythm of stressed and less stressed syllables, more closely matching natural speech, combined with alliterative sounds within many of the lines, such as this example given in the Appendix (also credited to J.R.R. Tolkien, and edited by Christopher):

Tirius went to Tuscany         and towns founded*

In this line, I've bolded the stressed syllables in red, and obviously, Tirius, Tuscany and Towns alliterate. I've added the break in the line, as the example in the aforementioned appendix did, to illustrate that each line is composed of two chunks, according to Tolkien.

The trick is apparently finding the words in moderns English that both tell the same story, give the same intended meaning, maintain the meter and rhythm, and don't damage the structure of the poem or its speech patterns so much that it is no longer a worthy representation of the original.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the longest poem, at about 80 pages, Pearl is about 33 pages, and Sir Orfeo is shortest at about 15 pages. Each seems designed to be spoken aloud, as one assumes that not many in the 1300s and 1400s could read, and they each seems to be focused on a story that is both exciting, and includes lessons on life and strong moral. They each extol the glory of God and being good, and the rewards that come from keeping both of those aspirations close at heart. Each also has a sprinkling of magic, often dressed as dream or phantasm brought on by sleep, drink, or love. All of the ingredients for that which Tolkien was trying to restore to England, its lost native mythology, which he imagined was as rich and diverse as the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, or any other ancient civilization that didn't suffer the losses brought on by England's northern, damp climate, which is so hostile to things like old parchment manuscripts.

What I found most fun was the similarities in some of the themes from the adventures themselves that were clearly the inspirations,** at least in part, for some of Tolkien's fiction. That itself, is worth the price of admission.

* Sir Gawain, stanza 1 

** Tolkien fans out there will have heard the comparisons between The Lord of the Rings and Wagner's Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen) which Tolkien denied, and still many try to say that it is at least partially inspired by Wagner, regardless of the author's dismissal. But Wagner was himself inspired by an old Middle High German poem from around 1200, called Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs), which is in turn, based on oral traditions that likely go back to Old Norse sources, which Tolkien did study. In his 2011 essay on this comparison, Jamie McGregor provides a quote from Tom Shippey's work on Tolkien, indicating that Tolkien has a distinct dislike for Wagner (and other authors, including Shakespeare) and felt that they "had got something very important, not quite right." That, to me, explains why the similarities are present, i.e., they used the same source material, but Tolkien's inspiration, and what he took from the texts and traditions he studied, could be his own.***

*** One of Tolkien's friends--and a member of the Inklings, which they founded with their literary friends--C.S. Lewis, was described by Roberts Giddings, again, according to McGregor's essay, noted above, as a "rabid Wagnerite" and in his mind the source of the Wagner "taint" in Tolkien's work. Not having read Giddings work myself, I can't tell you if that theory is supported by any evidence, but in absence of that, I'll only add that it may be that Lewis saw these associations himself, and may have even brought them up to Tolkien himself, and if he did, I assume that Tolkien's response was the same to Lewis as it was to more public comparisons, altho, I also assume, perhaps more pointed.

deadly education

On a recent visit to my local library's book sale shelf, I found what ends up being the third book in a trilogy, about young magicians enrolled in a magic school of some kind. I was intrigued, but after discovering it was book three, I decided I should check out the first books before committing to the two-dollar purchase price my library was looking to collect for a used hard cover. that's frugality, right there

I found the first two volumes in the library catalog, and because my library is currently under construction, and I was standing in the gymnasium of a former elementary school which currently serves as the temporary home for my library, I needed the librarian’s help to collect the book from the closed stacks. That was just a few days ago.

I sailed through this book. 

It was an easy, well-paced and exciting read. I returned the book just a few days later, and immediately tried to secure the second volume, only to find that the one copy the library has is currently out, and another patron had a hold on it, when it returns. So I added my name to the hold list, and then picked up a few more books from the book sale in the meantime.* I’m currently enjoying once of those, while I wait for my turn at book two of the Scholomance Trilogy, called The Last Graduate.

Book one is called A Deadly Education. Naomi Novik has written a few other books, including a whole bunch of books in her Temeraire Series, which seems to be about alternate history, dragons, and whatnot, but I don't recall ever reading any of her stuff. Novik also has a number of fantasy short stories that are often included in fantasy anthologies, so maybe I've run across one or two of those.

The Scholomance is the name of the school these young magical folks attend. This ain't Hogwarts or Brakebills. I was gratified to read Novik's take on a magical school, and how different it is from so many other's. It seems that when a particular literary archetype has been written about enough, the traits become so standardized that if a vampire doesn't cringe at garlic, we're all thinking, "That can't be true!" Its refreshing to read a story that breaks that mold, and Naomi Novik has built a world where magic, what powers it, and how it is taught is different from the other books I've read. There will be some hard-core magic  readers out there who've read everything is this genre magical realism? fabulism? swords & sorcery, sans swords? who beg to differ, and please do, I just haven't read anything quite like this before.

Book one is fast paced, well plotted, and exciting, with spots of action, trauma, classism, and a kind of teen rage-angst that could blacken stars and end worlds. 

Maybe that will be in part two... [rubs hands together like an evil spirit watching politics.]

* When I went back to return book one and reserve book two, the third book was still on the book sale shelf, so I bought it, along with a few others. cue more hand rubbing

fallen

The Fallen is a novel by David Baldacci in his Memory Man series. I’ve read a couple of these at this point, in no particular order as I’m usually grabbing one of my wife’s books when I don’t have anything else to read.

I’m not sure if was just this book or if it’s a pattern with Baldacci but this book has a really high body count, and like a lot of similar and unlikely storylines, the Memory Man just happens to be in town on vacation when he and his partner stumble into a multiple murder, which just happens to be murders 5 and 6 in what looks like a small town serial killing. 

 

Not oddly coincidental enough for you? Did I mention that memory man is on vacation with his female FBI partner, with whom he does not share an intimate relationship, and she is visiting her family. What, you don’t do that with your co-workers? Did I mention that the murder scene is the house directly behind the sisters house, where they are all staying?

 

I’ve used the Murder She Wrote comparison for this before: Jessica Fletcher is visiting and old friend that she hasn’t seen in years, and we’ve never met on the show, and on the first day of her three day stay, the golf pro who lives next door happens to get murdered in his hot tub with a golf iron. Good thing Jessica is there…. She’s like the four horsemen rolled into one, in a hip length sweater and sensible shoes. 

 

Dame Angela Lansbury... this must have been season 1

I get it, let’s just set the stage and get this mystery started. Folks pound through these books like a weekly TV series, and they’re willing to suspend disbelief enough to settle in and enjoy themselves. I’m there too, I just can’t read too many of these without mixing it up with something a little more carefully crafted or even challenging. 

 

Is this a solid entry in the series? Yep, as far as I can tell. If you’ve enjoyed others in the series this one is just fine. And I know I’ll end up reading another one, I just won’t go to the store or the library looking for a book like this. 

 

I think I just said I’m lazy. That what you heard?

 

 

[Note: This is another late one, I started this draft on October 17.] 

portrait of an unknown woman

My wife bought a bunch of Daniel Silva’s books, used, a while ago. I think she just wanted to catch up on the Gabriel Allon stories that she missed buying them whenever she saw them. Portrait of an Unknown Woman is not one of those books though; she bought this one new as it is a recent installment, with a title similar to one of the other books. The woman in this title is the subject of a painting, a painting that takes Allon and his associates on a chase around Europe and to the US to try and find out what they can about this painting and why people are dying because of it.

Silva has done nice job telling a different type of tale to keep things interesting for fans of the series. If you’re one of those fans, I think you’ll enjoy this one. If you aren’t, this is probably not the book I would start with.

 

Note: I'm behind on posting, this post is from a draft I wrote at the end of August, when I finished this book.