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.

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.

ii march planning guide

 Sweet, sweet March! said no one, ever

Its that time of year friends; actually its 5 days into that time of year as I write this. My apologies for being late, and I hope I haven't messed up your ability to effectively plan your month's activities without the ii March Planning Guide at your fingertips. As today is the 5th, its Wolf, or the Wolf of March, in the generally accepted nomenclature of pretty much nobody but me. But maybe that's changing! 

New and Improved for this year!

This is exciting folks. Not only have we added the days of the week, but we've also highlighted the weekends. That's five full weekends this year in March, so now the ii March Planning Guide is even more useful than it ever was! no way to go but up, amiright

So what are you planning for Saturday, the Horse of March this year? Should be a pretty good one. Sunday the Pig, maybe not as much.

And finally, where else folks are you going to learn that the Snake of March this year--in the Year of the Snake--is on a Saturday! There's your party theme, right there! Sunset is at 6:51 PM in the Boston area that night. Its also the Ides of March, as it is every year, just not as stabby. Now that's a planning guide, brah.

UPDATE: There is a lunar eclipse late tonight, the Bat of March, into Monkey. The penumbral eclipse begins just 3 minutes before midnight, here in the east, or just before 9:00 PM on the west coast. Partially eclipse starts at 1:09 AM on Monkey here, and at 10:09 in Cali. Totality starts at 2:26 AM, here, and 11:26 tonight in the west. Totality goes for about an hour. If you're up late, take a peek! This is what color the moon will be!

MARCH 2025

March 1, Saturday - Lion: Its a good thing it was on a weekend. 4 inches of snow three weeks ago, and its still here!
March 2, Sunday - Tiger: About 11-feet long, they can leap over 30-feet in length.
March 3, Monday - Bear: Its a Monday, of course.
March 4, Tuesday - Shark: Dwarf lantern sharks are the smallest at about 8-inches. That's like... here to here
March 5, Wednesday - Wolf: They don't want to be friends.
March 6, Thursday - Bull: Ole! Looks like rain.
March 7, Friday - Moose: Up to 6 1/2 feet at the shoulder
March 8, Saturday - Eagle: America! Turn your clock ahead tonight
March 9, Sunday - Scorpion: Sunny but cool. Like a bug with sunglasses?
March 10, Monday - Dingo: Dogs that returned to their origins
March 11, Tuesday - Hawk: We have about 7 hawk types in Massachusetts. Skinny Accipiters & chubby Buteos
March 12, Wednesday - Lynx: Not the same as a bobcat, but similar.
March 13, Thursday - Bat: Hang a bat house!
March 14, Friday - Monkey: New world monkeys have prehensile tails. African & Asian monkeys don't. HBD Coleen!
March 15, Saturday - Snake: The Snake of March, on the Ides of March, in the Year of the Snake!? Dude! PARTY!
March 16, Sunday - Ox: Yep, just a trained cow.
March 17, Monday - Elephant: Green elephants for St. Patricks Day?
March 18, Tuesday - Raven: They still keep ravens in the Tower of London
March 19, Wednesday - Stag: Symbolic of many things from nobility to Christ trampling the devil.
March 20, Thursday - Crab: Sidewids walkin' sea bug. First day of spring! Equinox at 5:01 AM in the Boston area
March 2, Friday1 - Goat: Symbol for practical wisdom and diplomacy. And, you know, satan.
March 22, Saturday - Horse: Spanish horses were introduced to the American Continent in the 1500s.
March 23, Sunday - Pig: Thars mud in yer sty, varmint!
March 24, Monday - Dog: You have a dog? OMG, I have a dog too!
March 25, Tuesday - Dolphin: Dolphins have a snout. Porpoises are like small whales.
March 26, Wednesday - Rooster: One rooster for every ten hens is the rule. Harem say what?
March 27, Thursday - Turtle: All tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises. Tortoise = just on land.
March 28, Friday - Toad: Frogs got thin, slippery skin. Toads have thick, lumpy skin to hold in moisture.
March 29, Saturday - Robin: "In flew a sea robin (la!)". Yeah, that's not it.
March 30, Sunday - Rabbit: We have New England Cottontail rabbits here AND snowshoe hares. Similar. HBD Kelton!
March 31, Monday - Lamb: Useful for socks, hats, and BBQ.

 

 

 

metropolis

Metropolis by Philip Kerr.

I'm trying to play catch up, so I'm working in reverse to gets some notes down, or a review, I guess you could say, of the recent books I've read. I tried to list them all in 'the books' tab above, and I did my best to put them in rough order. I fell down on the job of keeping track for most of this year, but I was able to cobble the list together based on the stack of books I have here, quick lists of books I jotted down in a draft posts here on the blog, and some photos I took of the book covers to help me remember, whenever it occurred to me that I wasn't getting the job done.

At some point, the books I've read will have been completed far enough in the past that I may not remember enough about them to be worth it to actually write about them. My guess is that it may depend on whether I still have the book and can flip through it, how much I liked it when I read it, etc. Metropolis is just a few books back, and while I don't recall the names of the characters, I do recall them, and the story.

As you can see in the Amazon link for the paperback version, linked above, Metropolis is a Bernie Gunther novel. Gunther is a recurring character in Kerr's books, altho I think this is the first one I've read. There is one other Kerr book included here on the blog,* but its not a crime story. Gunther is a detective (newly minted in this book) on the Berlin police force, between world wars I and II. Its the late 20s I think, and Nazism is on the rise. The murders Gunter is looking into appear to be hate related, and targeted at specific groups of people--prostitutes and disabled WWI veterans. Gunther is following leads, that no one else he works with thinks are worth his time, but he's young, and once he gets an idea in his head...

The story follows Gunther's rise into the Berlin Murder Squad, or whatever that group is called, and his investigation into these two groups of murders. His investigations take him to some of the seedier parts of Berlin, and his adventures (or misadventures) in that secret layer of Berlin society is what provides the colorful backdrop to this story, which was at times horrifying, disgusting, and sad, but was also, in some cases, sensual, and occasionally sexy.

Kerr has woven quite a tapestry upon which he has set these Bernie Gunther novels it seems, so I can see why folks keep reading. I'll keep my eyes out for more, but I won't be jumping in the car to get them today.

 

* in the link to the other Kerr story on the blog, you find a link to a third Philip Kerr book I read, called Dark Matter, which was pretty good.

sea of poppies

Amitav Ghosh has a number of books, but I don't recall reading any of them. I came across Sea of Poppies in a library book sale and decided to give it a whirl. Its an historical novel that takes place in India in the early 1800s when the English colonizers there were running an opium trade between there and China. After looking this up for a link, I found that it is the first in a Trilogy know collectively as The Ibis Trilogy. The other books are River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire.

There is a wide cast of characters, but they come from three major groups: the local Indians, the western colonists, and a sort mishmash of transplanted folks who end up being on the outside to both of the other parties. Its this group of people, who intermingle with the locals and the colonizers, whose perspective I ended up identifying with and thereby viewing the story from. I suppose, depending on where you're from, or where your sympathies lie, your viewpoint may be different, but perhaps its Ghosh's multicultural lifestyle* that allows us to see the story from each side. I felt the plight of the local folks who were being forced to grow poppies to feed the opium machine, even to the point that they weren't allowed subsistence crops to feed their families.

The story is epic in its story arc, but ended abruptly for my taste, but perhaps knowing as I do now that its the first of a trilogy, makes the needle lifted from the record ending a little more understandable. I do like books, part of a series or not, that have a beginning, a middle and an end. This one does, to be sure, but the ending was a little abrupt.

I'll keep my eye out for the others, but I won't be seeking them out at the store or the library.

 

Note: I'm trying to post about a few of the recent books I've read. I've fallen out of the habit of writing about them as I finish them, but I did manage to record what books they were. You can find a list of them on the Books page here, linked on the tab above.

* According to the book jacket, Ghosh lives in India and New York.

body in the fjord

The Body in the Fjord is an installment in the Faith Fairchild mystery series, by Katherine Hall Page. Number 8 of 26, according to the Amazon description. I haven't read any of the others, I picked this book up, along with a handful of others I've read recently, at a library book sale in Dracut, Massachusetts. I haven't written about my reading recently as I've been absorbed in other things that have eaten up some of my spare time.

This mystery doesn't feature Faith Fairchild much, but rather, her employee, Pix Miller, who works with her at the catering business Faith Fairchild runs in the fictional town of Aleford, Massachusetts. Pix's mother, Ursala Rowe, who emigrated to America from Norway, is contacted by an old fried who is missing her granddaughter, Kari. Pix promptly flies off with her mother to Norway, and books passage on the tour of Norway's fjords by cruise ship, where Ursula's friends granddaughter was working when she disappeared, and which is apparently still underway, notwithstanding  a death of one employee and a missing second.

They quickly learn that Kari's fiance was killed in a tragic accident--he fell into a waterfall and was drowned in the fjord below--and Kari hasn't been seen since. 

Pix and her mother Ursula discover all kinds of interesting facts, altho its unclear if any have anything to do with the missing woman. Other people die, swastikas are lit on lawns, the other tour passengers are an odd group, and each of the mother and daughter team attempt to learn more about each of their fellow travelers in order to uncover the mystery of the woman's disappearance.

After a very set of adventures, and meals of interesting, traditional Norwegian food (recipes included) they eventually solve the mystery, altho I'm not sure exactly how. They seems to just stumble upon it, along with a another criminal enterprise, which they also help to put an end to.

This was a funny little story, but I can see how the quaintness of the travel, and the food, including recipes at the back of the book, can be fun for the right audience, and someone clearly buying Katherine Hall Page's books. I just think I will be one of those, based on this read.

path of vengeance

Star Wars: The High Republic: Path of Vengeance is a novel published by Disney Lucasfilm Press, so is is a novel or is it film related merchandise? I'm not sure, but it does seem clear that the author is likely working for the publisher, or is (was) under contract to produce this novel. Why do I say that? Well, if this author decided to write this on their own and just submitted it to Disney in hopes that they'd publish it, then this is fan fiction, and if this was an assignment that Disney gave to them then its merchandise, right? At least it is first and foremost; in my mind anyway.

Why is that important? For the same reason that when you pick up a book in the bookstore that has Tom Clancy or James Patterson's name on it. Those people aren't writing the stories, someone else is. Who? Somebody, but you'll probably have to dig a little to find their name. you can find your own links, I'm not going there

So what is the difference between an author who has been published in their own right, and an author who works for a corporation like Disney or James Patterson? Well, I don't think these companies are author mills, but the focus does appear to be more on cranking out the material (merch) rather than publishing the highest quality novels they can.

Long introduction (rant?) concluded. That said, here's where I am on Path of Vengeance and its author, Cavan Scott: The story was interesting, the writing isn't that great. 

I looked up Cavan Scott, who seems to be a good comic artist, and many comic artists are talented story tellers. Scott seems to have come up with a pretty good story, and it also seems like he originally started with Disney doing comics for them, and then started writing for them more recently. When you take a look at his work, it seems mostly to be comics. The writing isn't awful, its just a little flat, and has way too many clichés and idioms. Clichés aren't the worse things, but when you're writing about people living in a galaxy far, far away, its just unlikely that they are going to say things like we do, and that takes us out of the narrative. It lifts the veil. see what I did there? It disturbs our need to suspend disbelief while reading fiction. Here are some examples from the first few pages:

"the skin of her... teeth" p. 4 

"his nose had... been put out of joint" p. 8

They're pretty regular all the way through, and even the similes pull the reader out of the galaxy where the story takes place. Like the slur about Evereni being "sharks" or describing a creature that "ran on four legs like a lion." I assume they don't have sharks and lions in their galaxy. Its just the easy way out.

One cliché I couldn't find when writing this entry was something like 'lit up like a Light Festival bough.' That's just a lit up like a Christmas tree, with a few words changed. Try harder, bro.

Am I a snob? Maybe, but I probably won't go looking for more of these books. This one was a gift, and I'm very grateful. The story was fun, and it was interesting to look back at the Star Wars universe at a time when the republic was at peace, and things were good. This era seems ripe for stories, shows and movies, as well as books and comics. I just think the production value should be there regardless of the medium.

Here's an interview with Cavan Scott and 4 other authors working for Disney on these books and comics.

last kingdom

The Last Kingdom is not the latest Cotton Malone novel by Steve Berry, but it's pretty recent. I picked up this copy from the book sale at my library, which discarded my copy after the rush for this title calmed down (I assume.)

I've read a bunch of the Cotton Malone stories, because my wife likes them, but I haven't read all of them, nor have I read them in order, but it seems to me that Steve Berry is working on spinning off a new character; Luke Daniels. I don't recall the last one of the Cotton Malone stories I read, but Luke Daniels may have made an appearance in that one. I've been a little lax in keeping up the blog, and unfortunately, not every book makes it on here as it should

Maybe its just that Berry has written Cotton Malone as a more mature character, and now he's aging out. He's essentially retired, owns a small rare bookstore in Amsterdam, or someplace... sorry, you can read it if you want the details has new young wife, or girlfriend ibid and the new guy, Daniels, is a much younger man. Young enough that he looks to Malone for help. So maybe, its a passing of the baton, rather than a new series?

This one had a little of that Dan Brown or "National Treasure" feel to it. The Last Kingdom has Malone and Daniels trotting around the Bavarian region in Germany searching for information about this local legend. They soon discover that they aren't the only ones looking, so the sub-plots, plot twists, double-crosses (and triple-crosses!) ensue. This was a fun romp, but didn't have me glued. I can usually tell based on how long it takes me to read a book; if it isn't a great book, I don't go out of my way to keep reading. Some books keep me at the breakfast table for an extra 10 minutes, or I stay up to finish a chapter before I go to bed. Great books have me skipping other things to find more time to read. This book took weeks, so, average read.

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.

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.

terminal list

My wife and I watched the TV show based on this book a little while ago, and after we finished it, she found this book and told me she'd read it a few years ago and thought she'd recognized the story. She said it was pretty good so I gave it a whirl.

Jack Carr is a retired navy SEAL, and like some others who have gone this route, Carr set about writing stories about SEALs. Write what you know, if the often heard advice for beginning writers, so its seems that's what he did. In the Preface, Carr tells us that because he's a retired SEAL, that of he wants to write about SEALs, or any other thing he may have been exposed to or knew about as an employee of the United States, he needs to get it cleared first, which he did. The powers that be found a few things they wanted him to take out, and rather than re-write around those items, Carr decided to leave them in and redact them; placing black bars in lieu of the original sensitive text. Its was his opinion that it would add some realism to the story, and I think it does.

When one does a search on the interwebs for The Terminal List, the first thing that shows up is the TV series starring Chris Pratt as Lieutenant Commander James Reece, rather than the book. No surprise there, I guess. Since the first book in this series, Carr has cranked out 5 more, James Reece books.

So what are you in for? Well I don't typically like spoilers, but I will say this; think of Jack Reacher, if he was put in a position like John Wick. In the acknowledgements, Carr takes a moment to thank Brad Thor, who apparently helped him out with advice when he was getting started. Its seems to have worked out pretty well for Carr, I think his James Reece character is a little stronger that Thor's Scot Harvath.

code of conduct

Scot Harvath is at it again, in Brad Thor's new spy/counterterrorism adventure, Code of Conduct. Well, I say new, but its just new to me. The copyright date is 2015, so I'm assuming this book has either been kicking around the house a while, or my wife bought in (along with a handful of other adventure books, I assume) on a more recent outing and I just found it. Either way, this is the kind of book my wife likes to read, and I read by default. 

I'm not complaining, I enjoy the spy/crime/intrigue novel as much as the next person, I just find that this isn't the type of book I actively go looking for at the library or the book store. I do buy books like this when I find them at book sales and the like, because I know that my wife and I will both get to read them. My wife is not likely to read the fantasy, or scifi, or surreal books which tend to be my first choices when I'm doing the aforementioned active looking.

Scot Harvath fills the role of  kick-ass guy in Thor's adventure series, commonly referred to as the Scot Harvath Series. I wouldn't worry too much about what the series is called, it doesn't look like Brad Thor has another series. Its working for him, so why mess with it. Code of Conduct is book 14 in the 22.5 book series. yeah, I don't know, that's just the way its written

This book--again, copyright 2015--is about a pandemic that spreads around the world pretty quickly, infecting folks from the poorest to the rich and powerful. So its a little eerie to think of him banging away on his word processing app writing this story of a pandemic 5-years before COVID, and just to get the conspiracy theory junkies all juiced, Thor's pandemic is a man-made terrorist attack, with some megalomaniacal, new-world-order sauce thrown in there. 

This isn't the first time Brad Thor has written a Harvath book that seems to predict the future either, sooo...

In my review of the last book I read in this series I said that Scot "Harvath is your standard super secret agent man..."* I had the same feeling about the Harvath character in this book, as you can see above. I'm not sure that's a big problem, Thor is writing a pretty good action story and doesn't get too wound up about the backstory or supporting characters so much, but I did get the sense that there was some depth to these characters, its just that I think you'd have to read a bunch of these books in order to understand that.

* Yeah, I just quoted myself. Get your own blog.

 

day of fallen night

A Day of Fallen Night is the follow-up to The Priory of the Orange Tree. I guess you could say that its the second book in a series, but I'm not sure if there will be others, but I think there will be and its more accurate to describe this book as prequel. This is the third book in a row I've read by Samantha Shannon, so I guess she's doing something right. 

Fallen Night, and the last one, are part of Shannon's Roots of Chaos Series. Based on the number of books in the Bone Season Series, I'm guessing that there will be more. Shannon has built a whole world here, and this prequel tells me that she has dug pretty deep into this world's history, mythos and culture.

The science and physics of this world differs from ours in that magic is woven into the energy that powers it and the universe it which it sits. Magic and science intertwine, as natural as the tides and the seasons. Shannon told us in the first book's foreword (or somewhere) that the cultures and myths that form the foundation upon which her world building grows, come from a variety of our own world cultures and traditions. Those histories bring some of their own weight to Shannon's world building, helping to cement them in the reader's mind. J.K Rowling was good at that, as is Lev Grossman, in an interesting derivative way, building on the worlds other authors built--including Rowling's--based on our own world.

Does that mean Shannon is standing on the shoulders of those who came before? Yes, as are all successful authors, to a greater or lesser extent. 

I think it may be tricky to create a prequel that has almost no characters in common with the cast of characters from the first book in a series. Its the characters we come to know, as well as their trials, so I think Shannon may have made herself a harder task than she could have, but ultimately did a good job. Like the last book, the climax was a soft one, and the Bone Season's was as well. That seems to be her MO. If you're looking for a dynamic, earth-shattering climax to wrap up some larger sized tomes, these book may not be for you.

There are a few less pages in this volume that the first one, but not by many. This book is a little thinner, and part of that thinness, unfortunately, is the thinness of the paper stock used to print it. The pages are a little too transparent for my taste. The text bleeds through. Its a small complaint, but given the size and length of this books, its was distracting too often for me. Maybe that's on the publisher, what do I know.

This was a fun read, and I will look for the next one when it comes out. This world Shannon has created has some staying power and I think the stories she can pull from it will also be fun.

 

 

priory of the orange tree

The last book I read, was also by Samantha Shannon, and I read it because I wasn't sure if The Priory of the Orange Tree was a follow up to her earlier works. That last book I read, The Bone Season, was the first in a series, but not this series. The Priory is actual the first in a new series, The Roots of Chaos Series, and I don't know how many volumes it will have. At least two; the second book in that series is what I'm reading now.

Shannon is still working in the fantasy realm here, but she created a whole new world to set this series in, and based on this first book, she's done a pretty good job. It seems clear from The Bone Season and now this book, that for Shannon, inclusivity and equality are fundamental. Its a good place to be, but how she's done it in this book is to bake it right into the world she's created. Its just normal, and anyone who feels differently is the outsider. Its an effective tool and reminds me a little of Ursula K. Le Guin.

You can tell by the cover art that there be dragons here, but Shannon has them with a different take. In the front matter, the book jacket, somewhere there is a note that the fictional lands of The Priory were inspired by legends from various parts of the world. or something like that Shannon has taken a kit of parts provided by various myths and legends around the world and reformed them into a massive crossover that forms the basis of her world building cultures, economies, magic, and religions. Its because they are familiar, that she can lean on them to help infill the backstory. The same technique is used for place names and personal names, which are similar to those cultures that inspire them, but different enough to set them apart. Western Dragons, with the wings and fire, are set against the Eastern Dragons, which slither through the air and and more water based.

This book is a beast at nearly 850 pages, and traverses the globe Shannon has created, following the stories of people from several different countries, who eventually learn that they probably need to work together to defeat an insurmountable common foe. I didn't love this book, but I did like it. Enough to go to the library and get the next installment, A Day of Fallen Night, which, so far at least (its another big one) is a prequel to The Priory.

bone season

The Bone Season is a novel by British writer Samantha Shannon, and it may be her first. I'm not sure. It is certainly the first in a series. According to Book Series in Order, its the first of 6 books in the series, and this one was published 10 years ago. I picked up my version at my local library after hear something about Samantha Shannon's current book, The Priory of the Orange Tree, which I'm reading now. it may be a while, that book is a monster

I don't have this book on hand to double check some of these things, as I've returned it to the library, but I'm under the impression that this is Shannon's first book because of the writing. It wasn't bad, there were just a few unresolved items that I think Shannon may have known the answers to but just didn't share with us. Perhaps these are loose ends that we be wrapped up in a later book in the series, but one in particular concerning a dead flower in a jar, is mentioned numerous times, and then we're left to wonder. I could guess. After all we're in this together, the author and me as a reader, but that seems like a heavy lift. not my job, man

I got about one third of the way through this book before I wondered (not for the last time) if this was going to be a vampire story and/or if this was going to be a Stockholm syndrome-type vampire love story. I'm happy to report that wasn't the case, and I hope that remains true in the rest of the series. I guess we'll see how the Priory book goes before I decide to dig further into Samantha Shannon's catalog of books.

There is some interesting world building here, which takes place in an alternate version of Earth, which shares a history with our own, albeit modified enough to allow for a dystopian future where Scion rules over the London of 30 years from now, and anyone found with any connection to the aether,* a condition better known as 'unnaturalness' is under threat of immediate arrest, presumably to protect the public.

Paige Mahoney, our hero, has a fair case of this unnaturalness, and rather than hide, as many in her position do, she joins a criminal underground, where she uses her connection to the aether and fight against the oppression of Scion. Mahoney ends up finding some interesting allies, and the story takes some weird turns when she is captured by Scion. Arresting folks with a connection to the aether IS in order to separate them from the public, but not because they're dangerous. The real reason they are separated is much worse.

 

* There are a number of old timey terms which have made there way back into the lexicon of this story. I guess because of the unnaturalness, and the need to have terms to describe its various facets. These old timey words are supplemented by a number of invented words for the same reason. Shannon has included a glossary in the back matter to clarify many of these terms.

death in vienna

A Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva is book 4 in the Gabriel Allon Series. I may have read this in the past, but it was probably before this blog, which makes sense given that this blog dates back to 2009, and this book was published in 2003. If I have read this previously, enough time has gone by that it didn't feel like a re-read. It was also interesting to go back into Silva's earlier Allon writing and see how things are different than they are now. There are obviously some similarities in the Allon series books, and the story arc (in more recent books) tend to be similar in a lot of cases, but not as much with this one.

It could be that this is an older, earlier work in the series, and the characters and style were still developing, but it may also be that this book is described in the backmatter as the third in a Holocaust series. It may be a combination of these things that makes things that makes this stand out, and I may be feeling like I've read this because I read one of the other books in that short series within a series.*

Fans of Silva and the Allon series will not be disappointed, and it may be worth while for serious fans to go back and re-read some of Silva's earlier efforts to see if I may be right about the style and story arc items I've pointed out, or at the very least, too see how things have changed, and remind ourselves about where these characters came from.

* I found 13 Daniel Silva books on my list of books read since 2009 on this blog.

shift

Book 2 in the Silo Series by Hugh Howey is Shift. I just read the first in the series, called Wool. I didn't like this one as much as Wool, and I guess I'd call this a prequel, rather than the second in a series, but this is based on publish date rather than a series in the traditional sense. The last in the series is called Dust, and based on what I've read thus far, I'll read that one too. But if my library doesn't have it on the shelf, I won't be running out to buy it, if you get what I mean.

Maybe prequel is too grand for this book. I know right? is this review going to get worse bro? Shift is more like the back story an author prepares for his main book, and then goes back and fleshes it out to make into a book. I'm tempted to say, Silmarillion, I'm looking at you, but that's not right. Silmarillion is a series of stories and lore from the first age of middle earth, and while they help to inform the later stories, they also stand on their own. I'm not sure if Shift came out first, if anyone would have been interested enough to read Wool.

Maybe I'm coming down too hard. There were some interesting parts to Shift, but I'm not sure I needed as much text to tell me what I learned, and I'm also wondering how much more text it would have taken to tell me everything I wanted to know. Here's my less hard critique: Story is pretty good, but it needs some tightening. This book is a lot like me; it just needs to lose 10% of its body weight and it will be fine. The story is pretty grim, and unlike some other stories involving supervillains, Shift gives us a group of villains, who have some twisted views on how to make the world a better place (yep, been there, seen that) and enough power to institute their evil plans (okay, seen that too) but apparently not enough smarts and/or foresight to understand either the short-term, mid-term or long-term drawbacks in their ridiculous plan.

Its as if they all got together and talked about this big, crazy idea, and all the while everyone assumed that it was just them that not only thought this idea was crazy, but that everyone else must be smarter than them and knew better than they did. "Go along to get along" may be a useful tactic in some situations, but a worldwide mass extinction pact is not one of those situations.