Read for joy

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

2008-11-23T17:04:00.003+09:00

The first reviews of this book I read were rather odd, and can be summarized as “This is an admirable book but will anybody love it?” Now that I’ve read it I think the ambivalence was due to the great wads of philosophy and theory in the book, as well as the length. I loved Anathem myself, but I did have to stop reading occasionally to digest the theory.

I also loved the idea of the monastery like setting where the inhabitants concentrate on the life of the mind (not the spirit or soul, though it rates the occasional fleeting mention). And current events outside are only filtered inside occasionally, so everyone automatically has a very long view of events and history. I especially liked the history branch, who went around pointing out when this idea or theory had come up before, an essential group when you have 7000 years of recorded history - this book is not set on Earth, by the way.

I liked Stephenson’s The Diamond Age also, though the lack of any denouement in it was a bit surprising. Anathem however has lots of denouement, and a plot that is quite easy to follow, and better characterisation than The Diamond Age also. An admirable book, but set aside some serious time to read it! And don't read any reviews before you do, they mostly give away too much plot. When I had finished I missed reading it and getting lost in another world.

Anathem first published 2008

A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones

2008-11-22T14:45:00.004+09:00

Don’t bother reading this book. There is too much torture and death, all described in unnecessary detail, and always from the POV (point of view) of the dying or being tortured person. Ages is spent on situations that have little to do with the overall plot, but are there to set a character in motion, unfortunately in immense detail and length. The teaser incident described on the back cover blurb happens on page 348! A sure sign of a bloated book.

It also has lots of my pet hate, the current POV character’s emotions and attitudes mentioned in detail very often. I gave up on reading the whole book and started skipping madly, but nothing much happened in terms of plot. There was lots of travel and deaths, and also many mentions of ravens, flagged early in the book as significant. The cover perfoms the astonishing feat of being worse than the book.

A Cavern of Black Ice first published 1999

A Pound of Paper by John Baxter

2008-11-17T20:55:00.005+09:00

I purchased this at the Cathedral fete, which is always notable for the plant, book and jam stalls. I was very amused reading it. Baxter's concentration on one part of his life, book collecting and the people he met through it, makes this far more interesting than the usual autobiography. The glimpses of the rest of his life were interesting, too. I know autobiographical works are filed with non-fiction in libraries, but at home I always file them with fiction. Usually the style is much more like fiction than non-fiction, as it is here.

It seems in the world of rare and collectable books, it is far more Seller Beware than Buyer Beware. Personally I don't care about books signed by the author or first editions, it is the words that are important to me, but I can see the attraction to other people. Definitely an enjoyable read.

A Pound of Paper first published 2002

Gods and Pawns by Kage Baker

2008-01-14T19:06:00.000+09:00

This is another excellent collection of seven short stories in the Company series. Lewis and Mendoza, my favourite characters, turn up frequently. I liked nearly all the stories, even if I feel the operatives spend too much time in Hollywood!

Boundary by Eric Flint & Ryk E. Spore

2008-01-14T17:48:00.000+09:00

This was quite fun, though there were a few info dump paragraphs. This was an Aliens Visited our Solar System, (so lets send a space ship to Mars to look at the base our sensors found) story. Entertaining enough, and the characters were fun too, though too many of the women were beautiful. The engineers were happy to use low tech solutions when they were most appropriate, to the horror of the IT people, whose motto was always newer is better.

The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross

2008-01-11T10:43:00.000+09:00

This is the third in The Merchant Princes series, which has quite a fascinating and well thought out premise. A very small number of people (with 2 copies of a recessive gene) can travel with difficulty and pain from one parallel world to another, with what they can carry. The Families that can do this are powerful in the other world and unknown, rich and drug smugglers in our world. The worlds have had quite different histories, even coast lines are different.

Miriam has this ability, and was raised in our world and is now trying to live in the other. Unfortunately she behaves like a stereotypical American, ie with complete disregard for different cultural values and norms and lines of power, so things go rather pear shaped.

The American Government also finds out about the other world, and their smuggling and general skulduggery, and behaves as the American Government always does in near future SF books, ie by setting up yet another security agency which behaves as though the immoral means justifies the imperial ends, the ends being them winning at all costs, and laws (especially habeas corpus) only applying to other people.

The Clan Corporate first published 2006

Lots of other books I've read

2008-01-10T18:06:00.000+09:00

Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier, 2007, YA- very good, interesting setting.
Betwixt by Tara Bray Smith, 2007, YA - takes ages for anything to happen, full of angst ridden teenagers - pity, the idea was interesting, but the execution really overblown.
Black Projects, White Knights by Kage Baker, 2002, SF short stories - very good.
Death of an Effendi by Michael Pearce, 2000, mystery detective set in Egypt in 1909, very amusing, one of Pearce's best efforts.
Higher Education by Charles Sheffield and Jerry Pournelle, 1996, SF extrapolation of certain trends in society (especially education) and mining in space, interesting.
Latter End by Patricia Wentworth, 1949, mystery detective, good, especially characterisation and post WWII troubles.
Miss Silver Intervenes by Patricia Wentworth, 1944, mystery detective, good though I don't think she researched memory loss very well. But the people living in the block of flats during WWII were all interesting.
The Case is Closed by Patricia Wentworth, 1937, mystery detective. good. More action than usual in a Wentworth and I liked the couple, who were both worried about being bossed around by the other.

Also lots of New Scientist magazines.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

2008-01-06T15:58:00.000+09:00

This story is excellent, particularly the people and families. The characterisation is excellent, and I liked the way Hale made Miri (and the reader) think again about people's motivations and character. The title is both extremely accurate and rather misleading.

I thought Hale's first book, The Goose Girl, showed a lot of promise, ans it is good to see that promise fulfilled in this delightful story about the power of knowledge. Watching characters working out what they really want in life, and seeing a community working together was also interesting.

Princess Academy first published 2005

Short Stories by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson

2008-01-06T15:28:00.000+09:00

A Knot in the Grain is five fantasy stories by Robin McKinley, I liked them all. I enjoyed the title story most, as it surprised me most. Buttercups was also excellent, as the characters break the rules then try to fix their mistakes.

Elementals: Water is six fantasy stories by McKinley and Peter Dickinson. Dickinson's first story, Mermaid Song, is my favourite, though I found his Kraken boringly unreadable. McKinley's Pool in the Desert and The Sea King's Son were interesting chiefly for the characters and the family relationships, in very different ways.

Both books are well worth reading.
A Knot in the Grain first published 1994, 3 stories first published 1982- 85; Elementals Water first published 2003

His Master's Voice by Ivy Litvinov

2008-01-06T14:55:00.000+09:00

This is a detective novel set in Russia in 1926. Ivy Litvinov nee Low was an Englishwoman, who was then living in Russia and married to a Russian. The writing and plot is passable, the main interest is the contemporary view of 1920's Russia. Russia after the Revolution but before Stalin seems very different than post Stalin, the society is not so controlled; the author goes off on little polemics occasionally about the new society cleaning up the debris of the revolution and wars.

His Master's Voice first published 1930

Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn

2008-01-04T17:20:00.000+09:00

This book is fun to read, Shinn does people you care about and a decent plot line. Her conception of the sidhe/elves was unusual and interesting. There were a few plot holes however - only three days journey from Corrie's home to the castle and yet a useful medical drug is rarely used in the castle? And another is practically unknown in Corrie's home? Hasn't any travelling merchant heard that healers want these drugs? Why doesn't Corrie start bartering the two every summer as she travels back and forth?

However Corrie's growth in understanding and changes in perception as she grows are handled well; she is reluctant to see the imperfections in people she loves, as most of us are. Shinn is not afraid to have large imperfections and the problems of hereditary rulers with power is also shown. Some parts of the ending were a little over the top (not who the murderer was, however). Recommended if you like fantasy romances.

Summers at Castle Auburn first published 2001

Wildwood Dancing By Juliet Marillier

2008-01-01T11:50:00.000+09:00

This is a good enjoyable book. You will find yourself a bit confused as to which fairy tale you are in at times, but this does not detract from the book or make the plot confusing in the least. I liked Jena and her sisters, I thought the Other Kingdom was very well done, and I thought everyones decisions were understandable, even most of those of the Other Kingdom - thought not till the end.

This is a YA/ Adult crossover, not for children. Highly recommended.

Wildwood Dancing first published 2006

The Children of the Company by Kage Baker

2008-01-01T11:19:00.000+09:00

This book has a lot of the horrible Labienus in it, as he is the viewpoint character for all the linking bits between the short stories/reports. This book is fascinating but a lot less humorous than the other Baker books I've read, except for my favourite story, about Latif and the delightful van Drouten. I liked the story about Lewis in the Irish monastery too.

There is quite a lot about the little people in The Children of the Company, which is full of information we will obviously need to know to enjoy the rest of the series to the full, but shows the dark side of the company, and the corruptness of some of the immortals. Some of the stories are pretty sad, but I am happy to have read this book.

The Children of the Company first published 2005, some parts of it previously published 1999-2001

Dark Moon Defender by Sharon Shinn

2007-12-31T10:13:00.000+09:00

Another fun book to read in this series - Ellynor is a character we haven't met before, and she is that rarity, a sensible but interesting character. She is also that rarity in modern writing, though not in life, a women who can see her male relatives are oppressive and controlling in some ways but still loves them and wants to remain in the family. She also copes well in another restrictive environment, having an excellent sense of what to conceal and what is worth rebelling against.

Justin is the other main character. I am certainly not giving away any part of the plot if I say they fall in love - a couple always fall in love in Shinn books. However, when he objects to her going to nurse in a place he thinks dangerous, do they compromise and she goes with a guard? No, she goes alone and is captured. Marriage is about both parties wisdom and worries being accommodated, not one person getting their own way entirely, which makes me worry a bit about them.

We also see that Shinn is cheating with Senneth and Tayse, a couple from an earlier book. Because of Senneth's power the king is quite happy to have Tayse, a kings guard, trail around after Senneth permanently: most people have to come to some compromise about careers. I did enjoy this book, even though I think Shinn is not being realistic about relationships.

Dark Moon Defender first published 2006

Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia Wrede

2007-12-30T14:13:00.000+09:00

This book is a retelling of the fairy tale of the same name. I enjoyed the story and plot, which makes more emotional sense than the original. I didn't enjoy the language and style. Wrede attempts an Elizabethan style of speaking for all characters, which doesn't quite come off. The characterisation is passable, but better for the villains than the heroes.

Snow White and Rose Red first published 1989

Two Miss Silver books by Patricia Wentworth

2007-12-30T11:06:00.000+09:00

Both the The Brading Collection and The Benevent Treasure have jewelry or treasure playing an important part in the plot. I think Wentworth was running out of realistic plots - both these books were written in the fifties, near the end of her life. I enjoyed them both however, finding the characters interesting as usual, and enjoying the romance subplots. I didn't spot the actual murderer in one, only the accomplice, and though I was right in the other it was only because I noticed the fuss they made setting up their alibi.

It seems Umberto Eco was not as imaginative as I had thought in the method of murder used in The Name of the Rose; Miss Silver also predates Christie's Miss Marple.

The Brading Collection first published 1952,The Benevent Treasure 1956

The Ram Rebellion by Eric Flint & others

2007-12-29T10:29:00.000+09:00

I liked this, but only just. This isn't one of the better entries into the Ring of Fire series, but it is still interesting. The stories were of variable quality. As a farmer's daughter, I was very interested in the farming stories; though I think most people would have found Birdie's efforts to combine American and German farming and Flo's worries about wool quality interesting. The ballet story was fun too.

The Brillo fables need not have been printed, or not so many, in my opinion. Parts 3 & 4 had interesting moments, but were a bit laboured. I liked the accounts of the Mormons in the new world - I like the way religion is taken seriously as a motivating factor in this series - and I thought Johnnie F.'s sense of when to get involved and when to pretend he hadn't noticed a thing was great.

Flint's refusal to take the easy plot path of winning a few big battles and assuming that will then automatically win hearts and minds is the most interesting part of this series. Parts 3 & 4 are set in Franconia, a nearby area that the Americans are trying to administrate and make more democratic, or at least have less witch burning and disease, and more religious tolerance and voting. The path to revolution, especially when you are trying to have a low death toll, but know you can't help breaking some eggs, is always problematic, and the difficulties aren't made small and palatable. Worth reading just for the consideration of the problems of changing a society.

The Game by Diana Wynne Jones

2007-12-28T10:33:00.000+09:00

This is a wonderful story. Diana Wynne Jones usually does a great job of making all her worlds and characters totally convincing, and this book is no exception. I don't think there is a word out of place in this short book.

This book draws heavily on Greek mythology, but it isn't necessary to know any to enjoy the story; the world of the story is set up so well and is so internally consistent it carries you along without need for outside knowledge, except what we all know about families and how people think and behave. I and my daughter know lots of Greek mythology, but didn't realise Jones was using it till well into the book. Jones is so good at setting up new worlds of her own it comes as a surprise to see her using an outside mythology, and even then she fiddles with it (you'll get the pun when you read this highly recommended book).

The Game first published 2007

The Innocent Mage & Innocence Lost by Karen Miller

2007-12-23T15:53:00.000+09:00

Karen Miller can tell a story that keeps your attention, but this duology could have been shorter while still covering the same ground. All the characters were a bit one note, and each seemed to have a very small emotional range. As this is her first effort, I hope to see some improvements in later books.

In particular she needs to do some research. One character goes up in the world and starts wearing silk and brocade instead of cotton and linen - in pre-industrial societies, cotton was by far the most expensive fabric, due to the labour costs of production; wool and linen were the most common fabrics. Royal families who go off in a coach for a picnic would not only have a coachman, but one footman at least to put down the step, open the door, hold the horses so the coachman can get down - as though a royal family would go anywhere without several attendants anyway. And the likelihood of a king in any society collapsing in a crypt and no-one noticing his absence till next morning is vanishingly small. But no, not a valet or page in sight.

A few contradictions as well - the mage king needs to do weather magic every few days in a special tower, but also does an annual visit of several weeks to the seaside.

The Innocent Mage first published 2005, Innocence Lost (also published as The Awakened Mage) 2006

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

2007-12-22T14:42:00.000+09:00

This book, like some other famous children's books, is pushing a philosophy while telling a story - Theosophy in this case. As the philosophy of thinking positive works well in the story, it does the book no harm and does it some good.

Many women report this book struck them greatly as children. I read The Little Princess first when young, and still like it best, but can still read this book only skipping a few bits. And more parents should read it for its sensible comments on child rearing and child ruining. Not many adults come out of this book all that well. The exceptions are Mr Crawford, for his comment that if Mary's mother had carried her pretty manners into the nursery, Mary might have learned them; and the wise Susan Sowerby, mother of twelve cheerful children, who remarks she doesn't know which is worse for children, to be always given their own way or never given it.

Colin and Mary have been neglected and always given their own way to shut them up, but manage to save each other with the help of the garden - well Mary does more saving then Colin! And because Mrs Sowerby's advice is followed by other characters.

The best comment I ever read about Burnett's books said that Cedric in Little Lord Fauntleroy effortlessly was a hero, Sara in A Little Princess shows herself a heroine by how she reacts to losing everything, but Mary turns herself into a heroine by her own efforts.

The Secret Garden first published 1911

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon

2007-12-21T12:26:00.000+09:00

This was interesting, though a little long. It also had two plot lines which could have been 2 separate stories really.

The first plot line was about being homosexual when it was illegal and you could be executed if you were caught. That was very interesting, and the moral and social issues were covered well. In the eighteenth century what you did affected your family much more than now, even to job and marriage prospects; more pressure and guilt on the homosexual man.

The other plot line covered the mystery surrounding the death of parent many years ago, and efforts to solve it - this bit kept popping in and out of sight in the story line, as the trail went from one person to another. It wasn't as interesting.

Three Miss Silver books by Patricia Wentworth

2007-12-17T17:23:00.000+09:00

Wentworth writes mysteries where people are murdered or kidnapped for ordinary human reasons, like money, sex, and being blackmailed; not a mass murderer or terrorist in sight. Lonesome Road is set just before World War II, Out of the Past and The Catherine Wheel soon after. There is a big difference in attitude to money: after the war everyone seems more worried about earning a living and have less expectation of living off richer relatives, and plan on selling large old houses due to the expense of maintaining and staffing them.

I enjoyed The Catherine Wheel most, for its imaginative setting, and because you can see the start of changes in attitudes to female roles. For a start, all the single women are working or running small businesses, in marked contrast to Lonesome Road. The Catherine Wheel also gives an interesting view of class divisions.

Lonesome Road first published 1939, The Catherine Wheel, 1951, Out of the Past 1955

The Life of the World to Come by Kage Baker

2007-12-16T17:02:00.000+09:00

This Company novel starts with Mendoza deep in the past, but then shifts to the twenty-third century for the most part. The future is both familiar and unfamiliar, with what was then illegal being interesting. I thought the characters I christened The Three Nerds most amusing, and yet they were understandable people still.

The dual view of the same incident was very interesting and enlightening about the the two characters involved. I recomend this novel highly, and it could be read without having read any previous Company series novels.

The Life of the World to COme first published 2004

Mendoza in Hollywood by Kage Baker

2007-12-15T13:33:00.000+09:00

This is one of Baker's Company novels, and is an excellent read. Baker balances humour and sadness well in this book. Watching the immortal operatives get carried away by their specialities is amusing, especially Imarti and Juan. I found I even caught a bit of their enthusiasm as they enthused. But immortals have seen plenty of sorrow in their long lives, and must cope with it in some way - and Juan, at the beginning of his immortal life, has to learn sorrow like everyone else.

This is set in Hollywood before there was Hollywood, in the 1860's, and there are a lot of references to films, serving to point out how the operatives treat that now (1860's) as something they are watching rather than living in, as history already because they know what happens next. Where they don't know what will happen next, they make as many mistakes as the average mortal.

Mendoza in Hollywood first published 2000

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan

2007-12-11T21:45:00.000+09:00

Tan is a deservedly well regarded writer, but this story of survival means you go through a lot of shattering events with the main character. So not a fun book even if the ending is very satisfying. Worth reading just for the view of Chinese culture and history in the thirties and early forties, which is presented in an interesting and appropriate way, not at all info dump by sadistic author (I did all this research so the reader must suffer too...). Also has mother daughter relationships and some interesting points on memory.

Emma Watson - Joan Aiken and Jane Austen

2007-12-10T20:39:00.000+09:00

I read 2 books completing Jane Austen's The Watsons, of which she only wrote five chapters. Austen family history relates how she intended the plot to come out, though of course Austen might have changed her mind while writing.

Joan Aiken's effort, Emma Watson, starts after the fragment Austen left, and while keeping the personalities of the characters established by Austen the same, changes the plot considerably. Merryn William's completion, The Watsons, uses the original five chapters and the intended plot where it is known. Her effort is a lot closer to Austen than Aiken's, but the Aiken version is much more fun to read and better written, with more lively language. Although she puts in unusual events, everyone's reactions to them ring very true to their characters.

William's version is worth reading, and is better than nearly all the other Austen efforts I have read, but seems a little flat, being without Austen's gift for the right word and the right incident to show someone's true character. I'll be keeping the Aiken version.

Emma Watson first published 1996, The Watsons 2005

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

2007-12-09T12:55:00.000+09:00

This is the third Thursday Next adventure, but I think this could be read without having read the first two. I enjoyed this the most of the three. This is funnier if you have read some of the books which come up, but I'm sure I didn't get all the references, and I still enjoyed The Well of Lost Plots. One reviewer thought this worked well as a literary joke, but not as a mystery. This book is proof that if you set it up properly, you can have a deus ex machina work in a plot!

The Well of Lost Plots first published 2003

Three Serrano books by Elizabeth Moon

2007-12-08T19:29:00.000+09:00

There are seven books in the Serrano Legacy sequence. The first four books, which I read quite a while ago, read well as independent novels. I have just read the last three, Rules of Engagement, Change of Command and Against the Odds, and I think they read a lot more powerfully if you know what happened in the earlier books, and also form almost one long novel.

Esmay and Brun are the most important characters, though there are multiple viewpoints and many minor characters get a chapter. I didn't find the many viewpoints hard to follow and never wondered which character was which. I thought Moon handled the many strands of the plot well, and I enjoyed these books.

One of the issues this book is dealing with is effective immortality through rejuvenation, and how this will affect society. I was pleased to see that Moon didn't think everyone's reaction would be the same, there are plenty of people opposing it on various religious and philosophical grounds. I also noted with interest that her rejuvenated people tended to conservatism and opposition to change - most authors depict effectively undying people as perpetual adolescents.

Rules of Engagement first published 2000, Change of Command 2000, Against the Odds 2001.

Grantville Gazette II edited by Eric Flint

2007-12-07T12:36:00.000+09:00

I thought Grantville Gazette II didn't have as many fun stories as Gazettes I or III. Weber's The Company Men was a lot of fun, and so was Clark's alchemical style factual treatise on zinc. Several other stories were quite good. I have friends with firsthand experience in doing medical training and practice in countries without the hygiene/science beliefs we are used to, and thought Ewings's story on the problems of cross cultural medical training had an excellent and realistic grasp of the likely situation. But as an actual story it was a bit too long without a clear climax.

Grantville Gazette II published 2006

Two books by Ellis Peters

2007-12-04T10:58:00.000+09:00

Fallen into the Pit is a detective novel set just after World War II. The author is trying to portray the tensions in the changing society and the emotional aftermath of the war for the people who fought and came home, which is all quite interesting. However to modern readers what is most striking is the children regularly playing unsupervised for hours in an area full of mine shafts. This book gives the definite impression modern children are over-protected physically, though the parent's concerns about manners and obedience and bad influences seem timeless. As soon as the second person died I guessed who had done all the murders and why, usually I have no idea whodunnit. An interesting and recommended book on the whole, though a few too many coincidences.

The Horn of Roland is not recommended unless you are a romantic who can believe six impossible things before breakfast. Like a person who has taken on their mother's vendetta so completely they try to kill a person over something that happened when they themselves were a baby is not mentally ill, but an otherwise normal person. And that a musician/composer has a daughter who does not play a musical instrument. Again, the villain is fairly obvious.

Fallen into the Pit first published 1951, The Horn of Roland 1974

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

2007-12-03T21:35:00.000+09:00

I thought this book was pretty funny, with a quite a few lines that made me laugh. The mystery wasn't all that mysterious, especially once a few clues were dropped, but there were still a few surprises. Apart from the character with post-natal depression, everyone had plenty of energy to focus on being emotionally fulfilled. A very light and fluffy read, good for a laugh.

YA books by Friesen, Voigt, Pratchett & Aiken

2007-12-02T15:37:00.000+09:00

The Wee Free Men: Tiffany is my favourite Terry Pratchett character (my husband the Rincewind fan is not that keen on her); and this is an excellent variant on the getting-back-your-stolen-sibling-from-fairyland plot. So excellent in fact, that you can read the whole book twice before realising the plot is actually familiar. Tiffany's conversation with Miss Tick is a delight, and so are the Nac Mac Feegles. Even in a YA book Pratchett can make you see the world differently.

Bad Girls by Cynthia Voigt: Usually I like Voigt, who has written some of my favourite YA novels, but I and my daughter found this one well written but not at all interesting or re-readable. I didn't understand the motivations of the bad girls at all. Why did they decide to start rumours, manipulate and annoy people?

The Isabel Factor by Gayle Friesen was very good, especially in comparison. Peer pressure and truthfulness clash in this book, in the shape of Jennifer and Isabel; to the horror of Anna who prefers to slide through life without trouble or notice but finds herself expected to side with both, while Karim & Zoe have another two sets of expectations for her. In my experience Canadian writers deal with teenage problems with a lot more subtlety and sense than American writers.

Joan Aiken's Creepy Company is a book of supernatural short stories. Although I think Aiken is a wonderful writer, I usually avoid her ghost stories as they are uncomfortably creepy and full of horrible people. These wildly imaginative stories are, as usual, uncomfortably creepy, though not all the people are horrible.

The Wee Free Men first published 2003, Bad Girls 1996, The Isabel Factor 2005, Creepy Company 1993

The Thirteenth House by Sharon Shinn

2007-12-01T14:20:00.000+09:00

Though technically a sequel, you can read this without having read Mystic and Rider. This was possibly a better book I thought, a very enjoyable read. More clues to the overall situation, a villain unmasked, another journey. Lots of romance readers will hate it.

Romantic novels often underestimate the prejudice against cross class marriages. They also underestimate how much most people's identity is bound up in their family and place in society, and thus how much they will lose with a disapproved of marriage. I was pleased to see some actual contemplation of the costs of this situation. Unfortunately the character should have been contemplating the costs of a completely different situation, but we can all manage to be wise after the event! And however good your motives, taking away someone else's choice/memory is despicably unethical. I am referring to the character here, not the author.

The Thirteenth House first published 2006

Incline Our Hearts by A.N. Wilson

2007-11-30T14:26:00.000+09:00

This is a well written and interesting novel, written in the first person. Unfortunately the protagonist has a very unattractive way of viewing the world and other people, so it is not always a fun experience to read. There were a few disliked-by-the-protagonist characters I felt were probably quite attractive people in real life. Apparently there are thinly disguised real people in this novel, which is not autobiographical but has a lot of elements from the author's life. Growing up middle class and male in Britain in the forties and fifties seems to have been an endurance test with not many moments of joy.

The increasing maturity and understanding of the protagonist is well done. He is twelve at the start, and as he gets older we get an increasingly nuanced view of his relatives. Interestingly, the objections made in the novel to a fictional biography of a fictional character mirror some of the objections made to Wilson's own biography of C.S. Lewis, published 2 years later.

Incline our Hearts first published 1988

Grantville Gazette III & Clifford Simak

2007-11-30T10:07:00.000+09:00

I like the 1632 series a lot, especially the way that the main novels set up a world and cover the important events, and then you have the Grantville Gazette short story collections showing what else was happening to some other people at the same time. These stories are of variable literary quality - a definite thumbs down to Hobson's Choice, written in imitation seventeenth century prose - but really increase the richness of the world as a whole. People who like every loose end tied up eventually, this is your series! I don't myself, but still love the way that you can spend time with people not important enough for even a mention in the main books.

I particularly enjoyed Pastor Kastenmayer's Revenge, all about finding husbands for a group of refugee girls - and increasing the number of Lutherans. Also Hell Fighters and If the Demons Will Sleep, where we see librarians and nurses and monks dealing with a changing world, and meet a family living around Post Traumatic Stress Disorder quite successfully - if you accept their definition of success, of course, which at least one nurse is not willing to do.

I read some science fiction short stories by Clifford Simak collected in The Civilisation Game - though an excellent writer, he mostly doesn't read all that well now as his SF future had changes in technology, but no changes to society. This reads very oddly when there are women in his stories, and just as much so when you read a whole story with a large cast of male only characters in a workplace.

Grantville Gazette III first published 2007; stories in The Civilisation Game first published 1939 to 1961.

Atmosphere: Gellis, Spider-Man and Vande Velde

2007-11-29T20:52:00.001+09:00

I was trying to work out what was wrong with Overstars Mail: Imperial Challenge by Roberta Gellis; which is a perfectly competent adventure cum mystery story set in an future interstellar empire on one level, yet totally unsatisfactory on every other level. Then I read a quote by C.S. Lewis about the importance of atmosphere in book - world building they call it now I think. Gellis's book is completely devoid of anything that would tell you what sort of society you are reading about. You could be in any age or time, if the action wasn't set on a spaceship; which has obviously been chosen to give a small group of suspects. Not really worth reading.

The Best of Spider-Man: Vol 2 disconcertingly has 3 different artists with very different artistic styles in the one volume, which somewhat ruins the atmosphere. The second artist could not bring himself to draw wrinkles, so Aunt May's supposedly elderly face looks like she has been face lifted and botoxed till her face is a skull with skin stretched over it, yuck. Apart from thinking that choosing today's emotions as your major guide to life's big decisions is bound to lead to tears and regrets, I quite enjoyed it.

Ghost of a Hanged Man by Vivian Vande Velde is a children's ghost story with an abundance of excellently done atmosphere, both as a ghost story and as a picture of a place and time. There is nothing unusual about the story, except that it is so well done it is worth reading.

Overstars Mail first published 2004, The Best of Spider-Man in 2003 (I am not sure whether it the year's best for 2002 or 2003), Ghost of Hanged man first published 1998

Robb, Lackey & Koontz

2007-11-27T10:22:00.000+09:00

Between travel, visitors, illness and other domestic dramas I am well behind in this journal. So I shall dispose of the bad and the so-so in this entry.

Earlier I read a JD Robb novel, the sixth in a detective series. I thought there would be character development over the series, but having tried the fifth and ninth I now know the plot of every one. Dallas is assigned a case, her extremely wealthy husband is involved (his building is blown up, there is a body in his house etc), they have hot sex often, lots more people die before the murderer/s are discovered and caught, the dead will include someone with a personal connection, and nobody changes or learns anything. A wonderful series for those who like to read the same book over and over.

Joust by Mercedes Lackey reads like a YA book, apart from a few mild references to adultery and prostitution. It is loosely based on Ancient Egypt, just add dragons. If you have nothing better to read it will do, but it is a teenage paint-by-numbers fantasy, obviously the beginning of a series.

I tried another book by the very popular Dean Koontz, Forever Odd, but gave up when it took Odd Thomas 2 pages to walk down a street for no plot or literary reason that I could see in the next 3 chapters. Koontz takes so long to get to the point of anything! And the narrator's gloominess is wearing even if he has excellent reasons to be gloomy.

Ceremony in Death first published 1997, Loyalty in Death 1999, Joust 2003, Forever Odd 2005.

Impossible Odds by Dave Duncan

2007-11-23T20:16:00.000+09:00

Another fun stand-alone Blades tale, this time a journey to Duncan's version of Ruritania. More of the tale than usual is taken up with the tale of a main character before the Blades arrive, and the stakes are lower, as all that will happen if they lose is they will die.

I enjoyed Paragon Lost more, but this will re-read well I think. I always enjoy reading Duncan, and I am impressed at his ability to give each world he writes about quite a different feel; even his prose style seems to change a little for each separate world.

Impossible Odds first published 2003

Century by Sarah Singleton

2007-11-21T11:02:00.000+09:00

This book is definitely worth reading. It is very well written and structured, and I found I was interested all the way through. The plot is not all that original for frequent fantasy and SF readers, but this book is so well done it doesn't matter. Mercy can see ghosts, but whose explanation and solution should she believe, and can she choose? And this isn't really a ghost story.

Century first published 2005

Final Witness by Simon Tolkien

2007-11-19T12:38:00.000+09:00

A competent detective cum courtroom drama novel. The characterisation is very clear, and even if the police are sure they have the right person, the author makes you wonder mostly by showing how people are acting and reacting. Is the teenage boy making it up or reporting it as it was?

Final Witness first published 2002

Night of the Wolf by Alice Borchardt

2007-11-19T12:04:00.000+09:00

This was a good book on the whole. I found the ending, how they got out of a tight situation, way too duex ex machina, but that was the only big flaw. I also thought there were more detailed sex scenes than needed, but probably most people wouldn't. And to my surprise, I didn't skip the fight scenes! Detailed accounts of fights usually bore me.

Night of the Wolf is part of a series, and although the second written it is the first in time, being set in the time of Julius Caesar. I liked the characters, and I liked the way Borchardt didn't make the historical setting overwhelming, it was just interestingly there and no more was said than we needed to know. A very competent writer.

Night of the Wolf first published 1999

Paragon Lost by Dave Duncan

2007-11-17T15:04:00.000+09:00

Dave Duncan is aways fun to read, and this book was no exception. I enjoyed this book, which had a strong plot, characters I had no trouble telling apart, politics and a hero too clever for his own good. Also Durendal makes a cameo appearance for fans of the Kings Blades trilogy, though this is a self contained book set a decade later.

Duncan is excellent at magic systems, and I like the way magic is just part of the society, not especially feared or desired, just there like death and taxes. Even when abused by rulers, as naturally it would be on occasion, it is not magic that is feared but the ruler - in this case a mad Czar, based on Ivan the Terrible. The long journey to the mad Czar is interesting all the way.

Paragon Lost first published 2002

Monette, McCrumb and Goudge

2007-11-16T16:02:00.000+09:00

Foggy Mountain Breakdown by Sharon McCrumb is a collection of short stories, and well worth reading. The first story is very striking, and there is a Rattler story for Rattler fans, but no Norah Bonesteel, alas. There are Appalachian stories and straight detective stories, and humorous stories too. A few stories are not that interesting, in the usual way of collections.

Don't read Melusine by Sarah Monette unless you like detailed accounts of pain, anguish, betrayal, and violent sex. And other horrible events and people, though some of them can't help themselves because of their dreadful past, or at least that's the excuse. I only managed a few chapters before giving up, though I did check out the end. I requested this book at the library because I read a favourable review, but was doubtful as soon as I saw it. Pretty boy covers rarely presage books I enjoy.

Immediate Family by Eileen Goudge starts with four friends at a college reunion, aged 36, all with sufficient money and fulfilling enough jobs to give lots of attention to their not very interesting emotional lives. One is married, one is divorced with a child, one has a boyfriend and the single one decides to have a child without a partner. By the end of the book there has been one divorce and one healthy baby, two breakups and two deaths (a parent and a still born child), one father found and three weddings - I probably missed a few other events in this action packed 18 months as I got bored and skipped more than half the book. This book reminded me why I so rarely read straight romances (as in books where the whole focus is on finding a bloke to sweep you off your feet).

Foggy Mountain Breakdown first published 1998, Melusine in 2005, Immediate Family in 2006.

We'll Meet Again by Hilary Green

2007-11-15T16:41:00.000+09:00

This a pleasant enough book, if you have nothing better to read. It is set during World War II, and finding out about the people who did the radio communication and coding of messages for and from agents behind enemy lines was quite interesting, as were the characters. I found the events of the last quarter a bit unrealistic - the main character seems rather good at persuading higher authority to do things her way - which reduced my enjoyment of the book.

We'll Meet Again first published 2005

Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn

2007-11-14T15:50:00.000+09:00

Sharon Shinn is always interesting to read, though sometimes I don't like her endings. She does very interesting societies and characters, and her villains are real people too. But in spite of there nearly always being a political plot line, she writes the climax of the novel as the climax of the romance plot line, which is occasionally not strong enough for the book as a whole. (I'm thinking of Wrapt in Crystal here)

So I read this one and was fascinated as usual by her story, but a bit apprehensive about the ending. However, it was quite satisfactory, as this is part of a series, so the romance bit ended this book nicely with the political plot line obviously to be continued in next volume. This was a good strong fantasy novel, as in enjoyable and well thought out rather than anything strikingly new, highly recommended if you like fantasy or romance.

Mystic and Rider first published 2005

The Sighting by Jan Mark

2007-11-12T19:47:00.000+09:00

This is not science fiction or fantasy, even though the cover and title make perfect sense once you have read the book. UFO's do get a mention however. Jan Mark is a very good children's writer, with interesting plots and well differentiated characters and no facile answers to problems.

In this story 2 boys, with help from other family members, attempt to find out why their grandparent's generation became what one character refers to as a "thermonuclear family" - something happened and the brothers and sister never spoke to each other again. I enjoyed this book.

The Sighting first published 1997

The Angel and the Sword by Cecelia Holland

2007-11-11T17:42:00.000+09:00

This is marketed as a historical novel, because as it is set in the ninth century Holland can pass off the fantasy elements as theology. An angel is protecting the main character, Ragna, because she is the last person descended from the line of the rightful kings of Spain; or possibly because her mother has power over the supernatural.

This is a well written novel, with a decent plot, but I just didn't find it very interesting. Ragna didn't seem a very consistent character to me, even taking into account her need for disguise.

The Angel and the Sword first published 2000

Poetry and other

2007-11-08T20:32:00.000+09:00

This poem is by Margaret Stanley-Wrench, the last third in particular is lovely.

Hinterland

I like the backs of houses. Fronts are smug,

Stiff and formal, masks which smile at neighbours.

These roofs, shrugging, relaxed, these sun-warmed bricks,

Smooth, rounded bays, they are like lovers in bed

At ease, knowing and known. Cats stalk here.

The wagging lines of washing wave, the knops

Of hollyhocks knock and stroke the walls. A sunflower

Rises, bearded god with a black face.

And the swarthy, smiling, grape-bloomed neighbours stand

Amazed between the vines, the flower, the walls,

Themselves placid yet savage deities

Of these long gardens, of these hinterlands,

Green, warm and secret territory here

Like love behind the streets' correct facade.

Love, fierce and unexpected, sharp, uneven,

Sun and flower, the darkness and the sap

Surging through leaf and body, the quick flashed

Recognition of opened windows, white

Glances meeting, and doors, open wide.

There is another short poem by her here.

Otherwise I have mostly been re-reading - Flowers for the Judge (1953)by Margery Allingham, one of her charming light reads; The Corinthian (1940) by Georgette Heyer, not one of her best but with some funny moments and the usual amusing conversations; and The Gorgon in the Cupboard (2004), an excellent short story by Patricia McKillip, who is one of my favourite authors. This is one of the stories inspired by the Pre-Raphelite artists set (Victorian era), which all have women trying to live a human life in the confines of their society. We all need to live within the bounds of our society, but some times and some people seem to chafe more than others.

Lost Children by Edith Pargeter

2007-11-04T19:09:00.000+09:00

This is in some ways typical of a British post-WWII novel, containing a cross-class romance and friendships and social comment, both on class and on the acute shortage of housing in the post war period. It wasn't earnest and polemical about it though, and I enjoyed this book.

The style is a little stilted and wordy occasionally, but I liked the people, and the way there were four main characters and their interactions. I also liked how the novel left their history going on, some problems are solved or at least become manageable and some don't, like life.

The romance was only part of the plot. The title refers to the isolated family situation of several of the characters, the four main are all effectively motherless, and one is illegitimate. You can see the times changing, he is still presented as a sympathetic character!

Lost Children first published 1951

Give It Up! by Mary Carlomagno

2007-11-04T09:30:00.000+09:00

The subtitle of this book is My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less. Carlomagno decided her stressful life needed a bit of change. As a child she had been given up something small each Lent; as an adult she realised Lent was supposed to make you in some way a new person. So every month for a year she gave up one item or activity and assessed its place in her life. At the end of the month it was re-introduced, often in lessor amounts or differently.

Alcohol was her first effort, and she found it astonishing how much social pressure she experienced when she was with a group of people and was the only one not ordering alcohol. There was also pressure to keep up and drink the same amount as everyone else.

Giving up her mobile phone was not a good idea overall, as it inconvenienced everyone around her. Giving up chocolate led to no changes. Giving up TV proved one of the most difficult, even though she picked a month when her favourite sports team wasn't playing.

I thought giving something up cold turkey for a month and then re-introducing it, possibly with changes, was a sensible idea. A month is short enough to manage for most people's willpower, and long enough to work out your level of dependence and if you want to change it or not. It also gives you a good idea of how much it changes your social interactions, and whether that change is good or bad or neutral.

Giving up eating out (Carlomagno bought 3 meals a day) was one of the most valuable changes, as she re-discovered fresh food, choosing your own portion size, and re-connected with her mother over cooking.

Giving up shopping (by which she meant clothes and shoes and personal adornment rather than groceries) had a large and permanent impact on her finances, as she hadn't realised the amount she spent, how much she never wore anyway, or how much she bought just because she shopped socially with friends.

Of course, everyone would have to look at their own life for a list of things to trial - not being a single young women in a big city, in an average month I don't do 9 of the 12 things she chose to give up!

Give It Up! first published 2006

Terenesia by Greg Egan

2007-11-03T16:24:00.000+09:00

This book was fascinating to read, but I'm not entirely sure about the ending, which seemed a bit fast to me. Though on reflection (and re-reading the last page) probably what I thought was a sub-theme was what the author thought was the main theme. Oops.

The setting really seemed like a possible future 2030, the science and the politics likely to have sprung from our present. As this book was published 8 years ago, this is all the more cause for admiration. The science was a little daunting in parts, though not impenetrable and still very interesting.

I thought the relationships and people were very well done. This included the homosexual scenes, which have come off as pretty icky in some books I've read, but here were very good and a necessary part of the book and characters. (And yes, I've read some pretty yuck heterosexual scenes as well.)

All in all, this was the best straight science fiction novel I have read in ages, and I look forward to reading more of Greg Egan.

Teranesia first published 1999

Mulengro by Charles de Lint

2007-11-02T11:09:00.000+09:00

Charles de Lint is a prolific author whose style is always good and characterisation excellent. I find some of his more popular characters irritating, and his view of the world a bit cloying sometimes, but he is a good reliable read, sometimes excellent.

Mulengro is one of his earlier books and edges close to horror - the body count is pretty high! I enjoyed the depiction of the modern Romany (gypsy) world view, and I admired de Lint's ability to sympathetically portray characters with very different world views and attitudes. Even when the characters were interacting you could still see and understand both points of view.

Mulengro first published 1985

Men of Stone by Gayle Friesen

2007-11-01T13:02:00.000+09:00

Finally a decent book from the library! Sometimes it seems only the Young Adult genre is writing interesting books that deal with ordinary people ethical issues - I mean, most of us don't have that many murderers around, or find only we can save the world/country/family.

This book doesn't gloss over the pain caused by death and bad parenting and bullying and hate, but it doesn't make it look like you can't go on from there either. The first half of this book seemed well done but not unusual, but the second half was excellent. This book contains a sensible conversation about reasons for not fighting; and a very old person who actually seems like a real person grown old and not your generic always-been-old stock character. I recommend this book.

Men of Stone first published 2000

Stan Lee, Smith and Colfer

2007-10-31T15:55:00.000+09:00

We'll go from best to worst here. Alexa is a comic book (or graphic novel if you are under 35), I read the first 3 episodes, and it was quite interesting till the last few pages of episode 3 where it went all obvious and ordinary. Though perhaps I should mention this is the first graphic novel I have read in 20 years or so. Alexa is a comic book artist who objects to the normal depiction of females in graphic novels by wearing skintight jeans and skivvy. This comic is drawn by males, what a surprise.

Behold, a Mystery! by Joan Smith is a Regency romance cum mystery, quite competent (usually they are abysmal) though I skipped a few boring bits. I was only mildly interested in who done it and who the heroine would marry.

The Wish List by Eoin Colfer had a strange view of goodness, in fact a perfectly pukable view of goodness. The heroine's good deeds and bad deeds are perfectly balanced when she dies (this Ancient Egyptian theology is presented as Christian, the Pope and Martin Luther are both sobbing into their soup) so she is sent back to overbalance the scale one way or the other, by helping someone else achieve their wishes. A kiss in a television studio between two elderly people who regret not kissing in their youth is described as a moment of pure goodness (getting there has needed some deception and manipulation), complete with ethereal light. On the other hand, what seemed to me truly a moment of pure goodness later in the book, where someone asks for and receives forgiveness, in the ordinary difficult way, passed without such light. I have not read a decent story ever about someone coming back after death to fix things, they are all revoltingly sentimental at the least.

Alexa (story by Stan Lee words by Steven Roman, pictures by 8 blokes and 3 women, the women did the colouring in and the lettering) first published 2005; Behold a Mystery! first published 1994, The Wish List first published 2000.

Friend of My Heart by Judith Clarke

2007-10-29T21:19:00.000+09:00

This short book has the slightest of plots and the strongest of themes. I read it every few years, and sometimes pick it up to just read a few pages for the humour, and the astonishing way the author manages to tell us something about every character's attitude to love or who they love. Just about every type of love is covered here from several angles, hopeless, happy, contented or mistaken, parents and children, romantic, friends, siblings. Read this delightful book!

Friend of My Heart first published 1994

Forest Mage by Robin Hobb

2007-10-28T13:37:00.000+09:00

Hobb is very good at trilogies, and I read this thick book, the second of The Soldier Son Trilogy, in 2 days. I did think at the end that the hero had taken a long time to arrive there, considering it was clear to me as a reader where he had to go. But it didn't seem long as I was reading it.

Someone wrote that Lewis and Tolkien cured writers of thinking hero's physical journeys were easy and not important enough to write about. Hobb makes you walk every step of the hero's mental, moral and emotional journey, as well as detailing the physical journeys. And yes, it is all interesting. We learn more about the Specks people, and what has happened to the Plains people. What we need to know from the first book is put in appropriately. An excellent reading experience, bring on the third book!

Forest Mage first published 2006

Other, Luckett, and Flint

2007-10-27T08:28:00.000+08:00

I borrowed a book called The Delaney Christmas Carol from the library, thinking it would be an updated version of Dickens. It was three novellas by three authors, each story being a romance; unfortunately the boring sort where at least one person is very rich, both people are exceptionally beautiful, and an overwhelming feeling of mutual lust is a sure sign you are soul mates. The past, present and future were all astonishingly similar. I tried each story but didn't manage to finish any. Avoid this book.

More fun was a re-reading of Dave Luckett's The Truth About Magic and The Return of Rathalorn, fantasy books for children with a good story and good characterisation - both the heroes and the villains have entirely understandable motivations. You can see a whole workable, even if not always admirable, society in the background. An excellent introduction to class, prejudice, and standing up for the right without wrecking your society or yourself. I also thoroughly recommend his Tenabran trilogy for adults.

I also read An Oblique Approach (free in Baen's online library) by David Drake and Eric Flint, which is an alternate history, Byzantium sixth century. A couple of "computers" have popped back in time to change history. A fun light read, and I enjoyed looking up to see which characters were historical (answer lots, who'd have thought we know so much about the sixth century), though way too many people are excellent at their jobs and repartee as well. Style is a bit variable.

A Delaney Christmas Carol first published 2004, The Truth About Magic 2005, The Return of Rathalorn 2005, An Oblique Approach 1998

Sight Unseen by Robert Goddard

2007-10-22T18:15:00.000+08:00

A retired policeman decides to re-investigate a case he wasn't satisfied about, and collects a witness (the usual rootless single depressed middle-aged male) to help him. They wander around asking questions. People start being attacked, murdered, framed, committing suicide etcetera. We are really none the wiser as to why, even though some lost items turn up, until someone decides to Explain All to save someone else. Pretty forgettable.

A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo

2007-10-21T10:49:00.000+08:00

For someone who skim reads fights, I read a lot of military SF. I like John Ringo, and this was his first novel (available free on the internet), which I haven't read before. I noted a few first novel type faults, which he doesn't have in later books; except for his strange way of referring to a planet as having mostly one type of terrain and climate all over - a mostly swampy planet? I don't think so. The utterly unrealistic cover picture is not his fault however, and not like anything he describes either.

The peace-loving aliens have arrived - peace loving in a no physical violence sense, as they are commercially rapacious, aristocratic (with serfs), and not all that truthful. Unfortunately, the war loving aliens are on the way, so they are all that is available in the way of allies.

I find it hard to believe the USA military is as stupidly hidebound as portrayed in this book, though not that the Chinese were better at working out more about the aliens. As for dumping lots of privates and NCO's in a camp without a command structure (ie officers and administrators) in place, surely no army has ever been so stupid. Still, you can't have a war novel without a few mistakes to give chances for heroes.

There are a few quiet military history jokes about which nation does best at fighting aliens, and I enjoyed it overall - Ringo is good at making you care about his characters. I am looking forward to reading the next, Gust Front, which is also on the net.

A Hymn Before Battle first published 2001

Inherit the Earth by Brian Stableford

2007-10-20T19:10:00.000+08:00

This novel kept me mildly interested all the way through, though I did keep stopping to read other more interesting looking works. There are lots of kidnappings, possible murders, people who are dead or maybe have faked their deaths, and the usual wrong side of the law hackers for hire. There are lots of pompous and initially opaque conversations, with people who want power and influence and for other people to stop playing god because it interferes with them playing god.

The main character has very few warm human relationships; mind you I can't blame him for breaking up with his histrionic girlfriend in the first chapter. Supposedly this book is about the problems of extended life and possible immortality (the population is much reduced after a series of possibly man made plagues). At the end the main character decides to change his life and career path drastically, but to what we don't know. This book was mildly interesting, but not fun.

Inherit the Earth first published1998

What Child is This? by Caroline Cooney

2007-10-19T19:18:00.000+08:00

Most fairy stories have the happy ending achieved through a lot of sorrow, pain, hard work and keeping on going. This Christmas story follows that pattern and throws in a few musings on God and choices and what makes a good person. And it shows a few law abiding respectable adults who are not good people.

"Christmas was only a chance: you could take the chance, or you could ignore it. You could open your heart, or just deck the halls with boughs of holly." p146
This is an excellent story which I highly recommend at any time of the year.

What Child is This first published 1997, I read the Macmillan 1998 edition.

Lost In A Good Book by Jasper Fforde

2007-10-18T16:49:00.000+08:00

The second hand bookshop had this filed under detective. I said I thought it was fantasy or SF. They said they did have trouble deciding. I can see why libraries stick to alphabetical order.

It's best to read The Eyre Affair before reading this book, the second in the Thursday Next series. Thursday is the heroine, a detective in special ops, the literature section, in a rather different world than ours. Except for bureaucracy and people, which are much the same.

These books are fascinating while you are reading them, but I do have trouble picking them up again after putting them down, though less in the second half of this book. I think Fforde is getting better as a writer.

The world of this book is indescribable in a few sentences, but Fforde is worth reading just for the strangeness. Some people can go into books, for example. I do hope there is more of Miss Havisham in the next book.

Lost In A Good Book first published 2002

Under Orders by Dick Francis

2007-10-16T20:55:00.000+08:00

I have usually found Dick Francis a nice reliable read, good for convalescence in particular. I like the way you find out something about different industries or professions in most books, and I like the way his characters are shown to be affected emotionally by violence and other wrong doing. Too many detective novels of the more violent sort behave as though the emotional effects of violence and crime don't exist at all. I like the way his villains rarely look like villains from the outside - most real life villains don't, after all.

This is the first novel he has written since his wife died, she researched and edited for him, some people suspect she did the actual writing. Under Orders isn't up to his usual standard. The information about new technology and web gambling is info dumped instead of being integrated gracefully into the text, ditto the information needed from previous books - this is one of his rare sequels, the third book about Sid Halley. There is too much repetition, too much telling instead of showing.

I still enjoyed it, but if you haven't read a Francis before, try an earlier one.

Under Orders First published in 2006

Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie

2007-10-15T13:37:00.000+08:00

This novel is set in a detective agency and has two dead bodies and missing people and missing diamonds. However it reads like romance, or maybe chick lit, so is a light fun read, and gets good marks on the style and plot. Characterisation not so hot - most characters were defined by one or two quirks. I kept losing track of which character was which in the pool of potential villains and who they are or were married to, but got them sorted out in time for the denouement.

The dialogue is pretty good, and the musings on relationships are higher quality than most romance/chick lit books - which isn't saying much I know! I borrowed this from the library, having seen Crusie's name recommended.

Fast Women first published 2001 -why it is called that I can't imagine.

Zorro by Isabel Allende

2007-10-12T21:45:00.000+08:00

This was a fun read. Allende's version of Zorro explains why and how he got his passion for justice and his almost superhuman skills; and covers his adventures and travels mostly up to the age of 20. The first Zorro story was written in 1919, and since then there have been TV, movies, books and comic versions.

This novel is in the magical realism genre. I haven't read a lot of magical realism, but what I have reminds me of the Brothers Grimm (random magical events and the main theme is people's choices) crossed with soap opera (only with less yelling, much better written dialogue, and more honourable characters).

"Heroism is a badly renumerated occupation, and often it leads to an early end, which is why it appeals to fanatics or persons with an unhealthy fascination with death. There are all too few heroes with a romantic heart and a fun-loving nature." Zorro, page 1

So in this Zorro expect exciting events, secret rooms and passages, deep affection, decisions made with honour and lack of common sense, and unusual people. And enjoy yourself.

Zorro (this one) first published in 2005

Stories by Ted Chiang & Eric Flint

2007-10-10T18:22:00.000+08:00

Reading short stories lately - Ted Chiang's Stories of My Life and Others is from the library, and while I'm not sure I'd want to own the whole lot I am glad to have read them. The title story is excellent, as are several others, but some are depressing - Chiang is better read as part of an anthology with other writers, in spite of his gift for memorable and absorbing stories.

I didn't find Towers of Babylon, his take on the Tower of Babel, depressing, though probably that is a matter of taste. It was fascinating, even though Egan's description of it as SF for Babylonians is quite accurate! Seventy-Two Letters is also highly recommended.

I have also been re-reading stories from the Ring of Fire anthology, notably The Wallenstein Gambit. The Ring of Fire/1632 series have a lot of charm, and are fun to read. My husband and daughter are both reading as many as I own currently. Unusually for a People-Dumped-Back-Into-The-Past plot line, what can be done and what can't has been thought out very carefully. Also religion (Judaism, Protestant & Catholic Christianity) is being covered seriously as a part of society and a motive for people's actions; not in every book or story, but it is one of the continuing threads.

Ring of Fire first published 2005, all stories first publication; Stories of your Life and Others first published 2002, stories first published 1990 to 2000

Roma Eternal by Robert Silverberg

2007-10-08T21:45:00.000+08:00

This is an alternate history, as a set of linked short stories. The Roman Empire did not fall, Jesus & Muhammad did not found religions. The stories can be read individually, which is good as a couple are not very interesting, and some are merely OK.

Some are very good - Silverberg mostly does better with the stories about people on the edge of great events than the people in the centre; I think because the characterisation is better in those stories. Several stories are concerned with people's choices, some admirable and some not, and in others people have very few choices they can make.

Silverberg is good on world building - Majipoor the world in the Majipoor series was very memorable - and he has no trouble making this changed world believable. There is also the interest of working out which historical event he is mining in some cases.

Roma Eterna first published 2003, stories in it first published 1989 to 2003

Christie, Childs, and other reading

2007-10-07T21:19:00.000+08:00

More detective books - I read a 1920's Agatha Christie, Murder in the Mews, and then two from the 1960's, The Clocks and Third Girl. The differences in society in the two decades were very clear. In The Clocks, I felt Christie was having trouble with the 1960's speech and society, it seemed to be set earlier in time, perhaps she had written it earlier in time. In Third Girl, she used the the point of view of an elderly person looking at the 1960's, which worked very well stylistically, even if the elderly person was the irritating Poirot.

I also tried Laura Childs' Blood Orange Brewing, which was an utter failure. I was really bored very quickly. It seems to be one of a series of detective novels set around people who run a teashop.

Otherwise I have read a lot of New Scientist magazines, the most interesting articles being one on how people make decisions, and one speculating how differing oxygen levels in the atmosphere have contributed to evolution and extinctions, with fascinating explanations of how (and possibly why) birds have much more efficient respiratory systems than mammals, and reptiles much less efficient. Some species of ducks fly over the Himalayas when migrating, humans need oxygen to climb them.

The Clocks first published in 1963, Third Girl in 1966, Murder in the Mews 1927, Blood Orange Brewing in 2006

Family Reunion by Caroline Cooney

2007-10-04T19:09:00.000+08:00

Caroline Cooney is a very prolific author, mostly young adults, but manages to turn out surprisingly good books. Her family relationships and characterisation in particular are excellent, and mostly there is a strong plot. I don't like her horror books, or the simpler thriller books she writes for reluctant readers.

Family Reunion is one of her funnier books, especially recommended for those with embarrassing or irritating relations. I enjoyed it, even though stepmothers and divorce came into it - usually I get bored with teenagers emoting about their difficult times, but not with Cooney. Not quite as funny as Tune In Anytime, (one of the rare Cooney's with not very good parents), but definitely worth a re-read.

Family Reunion first published 1984

Bartlett and the Ice Voyage by Odo Hirsch

2007-10-02T22:12:00.000+08:00

This short children's book is a lot of fun. It has adventure and clearly delineated characters and there is a lot of interest in watching choices that characters make, and why. Few authors can create dramatic tension over whether a character will keep their promise or not.

A taste of Hirsch's offbeat style can be found by reading this interview. The little pencil drawings by Andrew McLean complement the story nicely.

Bartlett and the Ice Voyage first published in 1998

Child of a Rainless Year by Jane Lindskold

2007-10-01T18:10:00.000+08:00

I was reading this book thinking yes, a so far well done version of coming of age story, (sub genre, young woman receives inheritance and sets off to find the mystery of her past and birth parents); when suddenly the woman turns out to be in her early fifties as she sets off to see her inherited house and look for her past.

One of the themes of this book is that other coming of age, when parents die and we stand on the threshold of old age ourselves. Or late middle age, as Old Age seems to have shifted to being older than 70 now. The other theme is change and thresholds, when we choose to change or stay the same, and whether we accept parental views of us or not. The author is American, so naturally change equals growth equals a good thing. Which it is in this book, though not always in real life.

I enjoyed this book, though around the middle I was thinking not much has happened yet. However, most of what we learned turned out to be necessary, though maybe not the detailing of what most meals were - though you could make the case the author is using food to show how Mira has moved to a different culture in the shift from Ohio to New Mexico. I also enjoyed the deftness with which the author set a fantasy in the modern world, email and magical happenings rarely seem so right together on the same page.

The climax of the book was particularly strong. This is the first Lindskold I have read, but I will look for more.

Child of a Rainless Year was first published in 2005

Poetry and Wislawa Szymborska

2007-09-27T20:02:00.000+08:00

When I read a translation, I often wonder how much is the author and how much the translator. Here are 2 translations of the same poem, which is about an idea so translates better than most I should think. I like lines from both poems. Szymborska won the Nobel Literature prize in 1996 for her poetry, and is a very interesting poet.

In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself
The buzzard never says it is to blame.
The panther wouldn't know what scruples mean.
When the piranha strikes, it feels no shame.
If snakes had hands, they'd claim their hands were clean.

A jackal doesn't understand remorse.
Lions and lice don't waver in their course.
Why should they, when they know they're right?

Though hearts of killer whales may weigh a ton,
In every other way they're light.

On this third planet of the sun,
among the signs of bestiality
A clear conscience is Number One.

IN PRAISE OF SELF- DEPRECATION

The Buzzard has nothing to fault himself with.
Scruples are alien to the black panther.
Piranhas do not doubt the rightness of their actions.
The rattlesnake approves of himself without reservations.

The self-critical jackal does not exist.
The locust, alligator, trichina, horsefly
Live as they live and are glad of it.

The killer-whale’s heart weighs one hundred kilos
but in other respects it is light.

There is nothing more animal-like
than a clear conscience
on the third planet of the Sun.

There are more translated poems here, try the two about the soul (one poem, different translators, one version much better than the other I think) and my favourite, A Word on Statistics.

When the King Comes Home by Caroline Stevermer

2007-09-26T21:30:00.000+08:00

In this short book Stevermer uses that difficult to achieve technique, the first person narrative where we see the person's character as they tell the tale - think of Browning's dramatic poetry, such as My Last Duchess.

Hail Rosamer has the artist's single minded determination and blinkered view.The obvious disparity between Hail's view of her character and her place in events, and those of the people around her can be amusing, and yet it is fairly subtly done. And the events are interesting - Stevermer has no trouble producing interesting plots.

This is the first Stevermer I ever read, the one that made me seek out other books she had written, and on re-reading I still like it best.

When the King Comes Home first published 2000

A Scholar of Magics by Caroline Stevermer

2007-09-23T15:46:00.000+08:00

An interesting theme in this book is its look at what different people need and want to live a satisfying life. What is a satisfying life to one person may not be to another. Though this is just a side issue to the plot, which is seen through the eyes of an American in Britain (late Victorian or Edwardian times).

Though this is set soon after A College of Magics, you don't need to have read the first book, as it is not a direct sequel, more set in the same world. Jane Brailsford is the only common character on stage. I like this book better than the first, probably because of the assortment of clearly delineated and eccentric characters. And the ending, of course.

Patum Peperium, or Gentleman's Relish, is an anchovy paste.
A Scholar of Magics first published in 2004

A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer

2007-09-23T10:04:00.000+08:00

The first time I read this book I liked it but thought it was a little disjointed. It doesn’t seem that way on re-reading though. The book is divided into 3 parts, in the first Faris goes to a college cum finishing school (and reads a lot of three part novels), the second is journeying (with several stops) and the third, well that would give away too much plot.

Faris has had plenty of things in her life to make her defensive, which makes her uncomfortable for many people as a Point Of View character. Also this book makes you feel the emotional cost of being a hero and losing what is important to you. Usually this story is told from the POV of a trusty sidekick rather that the hero. So much more comfortable for the reader to be able to sympathize with losses from the outside! Not that the ending is that miserable at all.

It is also a fantasy that is not medieval, and although set around 1900, is not steampunk. This is one of those books that some people like a lot and most people don’t. I like it a lot.

A College of Magic first published 1994

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

2007-09-21T20:22:00.000+08:00

I always feel cheerful after reading a new Pratchett book. Today I bought and read the latest Pratchett, and yes I feel cheerful. How does he go on writing amusingly and have a plot too? This book has Moist von Lipwig, the um, hero of Going Postal, as the hero again; this time lumbered with attempting to modernise banking and money.

I thought this book started a bit slowly, but even while thinking this I noticed I was carrying the book everywhere so I could read it any any spare half minute. We are also introduced to two new departments in the Unseen University, my favourite being the second one. Lots of characters from earlier books make cameo appearances, without slowing the plot in any way and usually making some point useful to the book.

Yep, this is another Pratchett worth buying in hardback, rather than the long wait to rise to the top of the library wait list (all the librarians are at the top of it I'm sure) or the whole year for the paperback. My husband is only up to page 17 and he's already read 3 or 4 bits out to me.

Making Money first published in 2007

The Golden Bough by J.G. Frazer

2007-09-18T20:50:00.000+08:00

This book has been my lunchtime reading for a while now - I work in the light industrial area and there is nowhere to go for lunch. Frazer has a very readable and euphonious style, and lots of charming stories and accounts.

Unfortunately, when ever he mentioned an Australian Aboriginal belief or custom as an example of whatever he was talking about, I found myself muttering "That's not right!" and "Oh dear, he hasn't quite understood that." Which made me less inclined to trust his other anthropological examples.

A little internet research and I found several references to support my mutters, best summarised by this wikipedia quote "Parts of the book, most notably its discussion of the symbolism of magic and its elucidation of the concept of sympathetic magic, remain accepted by scholars today. The larger theme of dying and reviving gods has not fared as well in the world of anthropology and comparative religion; most contemporary anthropologists have concluded that Frazer overinterpreted his evidence to fit it into his system."

I think he is an excellent source for fantasy writers, and for reading for pleasure, but I wouldn't take him as a prime source for anything else. I am reading the abridged 1922 version, without the notes and attributions.

The Golden Bough first published 1890, abridged version 1922

To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey

2007-09-17T21:58:00.000+08:00

This is one of Tey's charming detective stories. Like so many of her works it is concerned with identity and how people present themselves. Natasha Cooper puts it better, saying she had an obsession " with the masks people wear and the truths they hide." Tey wrote a famous play in her time; in this book a number of amusing minor characters are from the world of theatre and writing. I expect they all recognised other people but not themselves...

It is scarcely possible for a god to love and be wise - Publicus Syrus (1st century BC)

It is not granted to love and be wise. Francis Bacon (1605)

And the title is definitely a clue to the solution of this detective novel, which is rarely guessed on first reading it, though you can see the clues on the second read. I have read this book several times over the last 20 years, and still find pleasure in it.

To Love And Be Wise first published 1950

Agatha Christie 1920's Omnibus

2007-09-16T15:42:00.000+08:00

I have been on a light detective novel binge lately, reading the four Christie novels in this omnibus, which are all from the 1920's and do not feature the irritating Hercule Poirot. She is closer to the type of writing Margery Allingham, whom I like a lot more, did in these novels than in her later works. She also has a turn for more interesting characters, and for humour, than later on. I found the diary extracts in The Man in the Brown Suit definitely amusing.

As was fairly common in detective novels of the era, there are lots of criminal masterminds and events of national & international significance. I've read people saying detective novels show how concerns have changed each decade reflecting what people were concerned about, but I'm not so sure. These days people saving the nation/world and defeating the great criminal mastermind/dark lord are rarely found in straight detective novels, but only because they have migrated to thrillers and fantasy.

I have also read 2 Patricia Wentworths, The Chinese Shawl and Through The Wall. All this has been in between slowly reading an exhausting science fiction novel about the fast moving future, which I will finish eventually. It has been a pleasure to go between it and the slower moving past, where a girl terrifies her male passengers by driving at 50 miles an hour, and people spend several days on a train and a week or two on a liner.

Omnibus first published 2006; The Secret Adversary first published 1922, The Man in the Brown Suit 1924, The Secret of Chimneys 1925 & The Seven Dials Mystery 1929.

Poetry and WH Auden

2007-09-14T17:22:00.000+08:00

I have been reading WH Auden's poetry lately. If you want to try some of his more popular poms, here are links to Roman Wall Blues, Lay Your Sleeping Head, or Funeral Blues.

Auden sometimes writes longer works in sections, each section having a different rhythm, style, line length and so on. His poem on the death of the poet WB Yeats is a great example of this, it is like 3 different but linked poems. I love the third section.

This is a section from The Quest, I thought it was amusing. Sections X, XI and XV are interesting too.

XIV. The Way
Fresh addenda are published every day
To the encyclopedia of the Way,

Linguistic notes and scientific explanations,
And texts for schools with modernised spelling and illustrations.

Now everyone knows the hero must choose the old horse,
Abstain from liquor and sexual intercourse,

And look out for a stranded fish to be kind to:
Now everyone thinks he could find, had he a mind to,

The way through the waste to the chapel in the rock
For a vision of the Triple Rainbow or the Astral Clock,

Forgetting his information comes mostly from married men
Who liked fishing and a flutter on the horses now and then.

And how reliable can any truth be that is got
By observing oneself and then just inserting a Not?

W. H. Auden 1907 - 1973

The Dollmage by Martine Leavitt

2007-09-13T15:55:00.000+08:00

I found this book unexpectedly powerful. It is quite short, and I found it in the Young Adult section of the library. Leavitt is Canadian.

The book is told in the first person by the dollmage of the title, who points out her own mistakes as she tells the story to her community. This sounds like it would be boring or preachy, but it isn't. Mistakes have consequences, and this book does not pretend all mistakes can be fixed just because you can look back and see what they were.

Leavitt has flawed characters who do wrong and yet can still maintain your sympathy and interest - well, most of them. This book is worth reading.

The Dollmage first published 2001

White Tiger by Kylie Chan

2007-09-10T15:56:00.000+08:00

Bruce, who is a martial artist, loaned me this book. When he had read about half, he said the relationship parts of this book were irritating but the fighting was OK. Further on he commented the heroine being so exceptionally good at everything was also irritating and didn't seem necessary for the plot. He also strongly disapproved when 2 characters disobeyed their martial arts teacher during training and weren't ashamed after.

I always skim over fights in books, so I won’t comment on that. I found the relationship stuff irritatingly repetitive for the first third, but after that I didn’t find it irritating. In fact I liked it, and found the book as a whole an interesting read. However I think this book could have done with some editing. Too many things are said too often, and too many heavy handed hints are dropped, and the book moves a bit slowly in parts. Hopefully these are first book faults.

I enjoyed the use of Chinese mythology by Kylie Chan in this book. I have read some Chinese folktales and a very little Chinese mythology, but I feel inspired to read more now. I will be reading the next in the trilogy.

White Tiger was first published in 2006

The Fair Folk edited by Marvin Kaye

2007-09-09T13:07:00.000+08:00

This is a very good collection – not wonderful, but good. The humans don’t always win in their dealings with the elves, fairies, other. There is a good variety of styles, themes and plots in the 6 stories, the shortest of which is about 50 pages long.

I loved The Kelpie by Patricia McKillip. She is one my favourite authors, and this delightful story is is about some people in a set of artists, similar to the Victorian Pre-Raphaelite painters. It is about more about relationships and choices than the intersection of humans and the fey.

The shortest story is by Megan Lindholm, Grace Notes, showing the problems you can have when your life intersects with the fey and you have never heard of them. The fey expect you to follow certain rules after all – which is a problem in a different way in UOUS, the Tanith Lee story.

The Kim Newman had an awkward style I thought, but I kept reading it as it was very interesting. It was another story set in Victorian times, and I may have found the style strange because I have read a fair few popular Victorian authors, and the style was neither that nor modern. Probably it won’t put off most people, and I still plan to read more by Newman if I can.

I didn’t like the Craig Shaw Gardner story, it was a not funny enough attempt at humour. I liked the Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder much more than I expected I would, in fact it is one of the three stories I will be keeping this book for.

The Fair Folk first published 2005, all stories first published in this collection

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

2007-09-08T15:18:00.000+08:00

This book has no words, yet with pictures only Tan made me feel like an immigrant to a strange and bewildering country, where I couldn't read the numbers or the writing or the maps, or understand the language. The buildings, the animals, the food and the way to buy a ticket were all strange.

Shaun Tan writes picture books for older readers, he says on his website. This book is dense and I couldn't read it all in one sitting. It shows the confusion of the immigrant, the longing for family left behind, and the kindness of strangers. I had read several reviews and descriptions of this book, yet still found it more powerful and moving than I expected.

"I became aware of the many common problems faced by all migrants, regardless of nationality and destination: grappling with language difficulties, home-sickness, poverty, a loss of social status and recognisable qualifications, not to mention the separation from family." Shaun Tan

And I loved the last four pages, but you'll have to find the book to read them.

The Arrival first published 2006

Dancing on Knives by Jenny Pausacker

2007-09-07T08:59:00.000+08:00

I ending up liking this book, to my surprise. The first 2 pages were boring, and I only kept reading as I had vague memories of hearing Pausacker commented on favourably. The next section, teenage girl (Rochelle) behaves oddly under stress, wasn't all that interesting.

Then Rochelle gets involved at a bookshop that specialises in fairy tales, and starts to think of situations and people she knows in terms of fairytales. This is not an escape from how things are for Rochelle, so much as a tool to help her think. It isn't always easy to apply your mind to your own emotions, and fiction (written and visual arts) can be a help for many people, though used less often in fiction than in real life from my observations.

I wonder if this book would be less or more interesting to people who don't already know lots of fairy tales and myths. There was only one story mentioned I didn't know, an Aboriginal story from the dreaming about how a local bay was made (I live on the other side of Australia to the city on the story). I know from talking to otherwise well read friends that some of the fairytales mentioned are not widely known, such as East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and Rose Red and Snow White.

I borrowed this copy from the library, but I may well buy it. There are lots of books on 'teenager struggles to cope with fallout of parents separating, especially if parent/s aren't coping too', but I liked the references to tales and story telling.

"People say that our lives aren't stories and fiction makes stories out of them, but I think one of the things fiction does is remind us our lives are stories. The trick is, there are three or four or eight different stories going on simultaneously, overlapping and with other crap happening that is not related to one particular story. ... Fiction gives us a sense of perspective, a sense of purpose. We don't have to turn our lives into stories; we just have to dig out the story that's there as a natural result of living." quote from Rosemary Kirstien in an interview.

Dancing on Knives first published 2004

Two books by Tamora Pierce

2007-09-05T21:22:00.000+08:00

I read 2 books by Tamora Pierce while in bed with a bad cold. Pierce is easy to read, so is eminently suitable for such times. One was Terrier, about a girl called Beka starting work in the police service in a medieval type fantasy setting with magic and gods. The other was Trickster's Queen, sequel to Trickster's Choice, about a girl called Aly helping run and plan a revolution to get rid of a bad ruler and put a better candidate on the throne, in the same sort of setting.

It isn't a good idea to read two Pierce's so close together though, it brings out her flaws. Pierce will over-egg the pudding - all her main characters are gifted at their jobs or desired vocation, are recognised as such by all around them, have good mentors, gain or already have the interested attention of high status persons, and have the help of the gods. Beka has a cat recognised as from the gods by everyone as it has purple eyes and behaves in very helpful ways. The Trickster god talks to Aly and sends her other assistance. Aly needs to spy on people - her aunt sends her the fantasy equivalent of listening bugs, conveniently tiny beings who can shape change.

The heroines never have tests of character in the novels, only tests of competence. They are always brilliantly competant at the climax of the book. Early in the novel they may briefly fail through inexperience, but in no other way. Read one Pierce at a time when you want something undemanding.

Terrier was first published in 2006.

Trickster's Queen was first published in 2004

Dark Alchemy edited by Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois

2007-09-03T15:28:00.000+08:00

This is an excellent collection of stories.

My favourite was the Patricia McKillip, Naming Day. I think McKillip is surely the only writer who could write about a teenager in a school for teaching magic and not have Harry Potter even cross the reader’s mind. (I read the seventh Potter the same day it came out, and re-read the previous 6 in the weeks before, but he certainly didn’t cross mine!) And Kage Baker’s The Ruby Incomparable came second – Baker manages to be comic and interesting, and also comment on parenting and growing up in this story about the children of a Dark Lord and his saintly wife.

This book has a high proportion of interesting ideas that are carried out well. My prize for most interesting goes to the Tad Williams story, The Stranger’s Hands, as I kept stopping and thinking about the situation.

I am not a fan of Gene Wolf at all, but I liked his story. I can take or leave Jane Yolen, but I thought Slipping Sideways Through Time was very moving. The stories by Peter Beagle, Orson Scott Card and Nancy Kress were all excellent.

I own several books of short stories with only one story in them I want to keep. There are 14 stories in this collection I want to keep, and three of the remaining four are well worth reading once.

Dark Alchemy was published in 2007, all stories not previously published elsewhere, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois

The Lighter Side by Keith Laumer

2007-09-02T08:11:00.000+08:00

My initial reaction on picking up this book was that I had never heard of Keith Laumer, but the first story in the book, In The Queue, was a story I had read years ago and never forgotten. It's the one about the bloke waiting most of his life in line (in shifts with other family members) to present his papers to the government.

The Lighter Side is a collection of short stories and one short novel, Time Trap. I purchased it on eBay as part of mixed set, and have been reading it over the last few weeks with amusement. Laumer has the ability to take a well worn idea from science fiction, present it amusingly, and then provide a different ending. You'd think that no-one could find anything more to say about 'friendly alien being comes to earth and gets shot by local xenophobe'. But Laumer's town council in The Exterminator, distressed at the bad publicity the xenophobe has provoked, manage to find a new solution to this perennial problem in fiction.

I also enjoyed The Planet Wreckers, which I had heard of but never read. I thought it must be a poke at all disaster films of the last decade or so, but it was first published in 1967. And The Body Builders, also amusing, was written in the 1960's not the 1990's; Laumer must have been psychic.

I could mention a few more stories, but will just say I kept finding I was smiling when I finished most of the stories in this book. An enjoyable read.
And for those of us not from the USA who read this book, a rutabaga is also known as a swede, a swedish turnip, a yellow turnip, or a neep.
The Lighter Side collection first published 2001, contents first published 1964 to 1970

Nora Roberts & J.D. Robbs

2007-09-01T19:30:00.000+08:00

Roberts and Robb are the same person. I read Vengeance in Death by JD Robb, which is set 50 years in the future, not that you'd notice if you weren't told on page 2. OK, I did notice two items which haven't been invented yet, but other than that nothing much has changed. I found it a fairly absorbing read, though I doubt the motivations of the person/s the detective spends the book chasing - and catching , naturally. She is a police detective, and someone is trying to frame her husband, or possibly his butler, with a series of torture murders. I may read others in the series.

I also read Black Rose by Nora Roberts, which is a romance. It was a bit too much like a soap opera for me, everybody emoting all over the place, and doing things hardly ever done in real life, like asking their mother's new boyfriend his intentions. I kept skipping whole pages of dialogue, but the plot still made sense, which is a bad sign. And why did people have to keep thinking or saying how wonderful the main character was? A definite thumbs down, but if you like the type of TV soapie where everyone goes around confronting each other loudly and emotionally, give it a go.

Vengeance in Death first published 1997
Black Rose first published 2005

The Sharing Knife: Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold

2007-08-31T16:53:00.000+08:00

I stayed up late to finish this book, because I couldn't sleep not knowing how it finished.
This is the second book of a series. In the first book, Beguilement, Dag and Fawn survive fighting a malice and meeting her family. The ending was a pretty minor cliff-hanger – they set off to meet his family.

If we’d known more about his family and society at the end of book 1 however, we would have been more worried. Dag and Fawn come from two different societies that have very little respect or understanding for each other, and we learn more about what separates them in Legacy. Both groups have sensible enough rules and customs, given their world belief systems. Don't expect some wishy-washy paean to tolerance and niceness – the differences run a bit deep to be overcome in one book, if they ever will be.

To take a minor difference: on marriage, Fawn’s society expects her to go and live with her husband’s family, taking with her a dowry (her share of her family’s goods). Dag’s society expects him to go and live with his wife’s family, taking with him bride gifts.

Fawn’s efforts at settling in make interesting reading. But other events soon overtake this part of the plot, the ones which kept me up late, till we end on another minor cliff-hanger. This isn't my favourite Bujold by quite a few books, but I will be buying the next book as soon as it comes out in hardback, which is definitely not soon enough.

Legacy was first published in 2007

Cursed and Consulted by Rick Cook

2007-08-29T21:12:00.000+08:00

Rick Cook had a possibly decent idea, but stretched it well past what it could carry. Mind you, I have started in Book 3 of a series.

I haven't read books 1 & 2, but they went like this - geek goes to another world where magic works, becomes powerful through his knowledge of computing, has adventures, gets the girl, settles down as local aristocrat while remaining endearingly democratic in appearance, if not in substance. This is another installment of adventures.

Cursed and Consulted is an omnibus. I read all of The Wizardry Cursed which is book 3, and started on the The Wizardry Consulted, but can't work up enough interest to finish it. The first book, which I haven't read, may have been interesting enough to carry the cliched plot, characters, and setting, the third isn't. Only the comic relief, which was the incompetent ninja dwarfs, kept me reading. Okay, the comic relief was a bit heavy handed and not brilliant, but still funny.

I don't mind a totally cliched plot if it is done in an interesting way or has other redeeming virtues, like a consideration of ethics or interesting characters or great prose. I won't be keeping this book, as it doesn't have enough extras to hide the cliches. And why did I buy it in the first place? It came as a pack of 4 books on eBay, and I wanted 2 of them.

The Wizardry Cursed was first published in 1991

Poetry and Kathleen Raine

2007-08-26T20:49:00.000+08:00

There is a poem by Kathleen Raine called Spell of Creation in two of my books of poetry for children, which I have admired for several years, it speaks to me every time I read it. Today I decided to look for other poems by her, and found three on my shelves, my favourite being Envoi in The New Oxford Book of English Verse (the one edited by Helen Gardner). This is part of the second verse:

See how against the weight in the bone
The hawk hangs perfect in the air -
The blood pays dear to raise it there

And I found other poems on the internet at Old Poetry and PoemHunter, where I was particularly struck by Transit of the Gods and Change - here are 2 verses

Change
Says the moon to the waters,
All is flowing.
...
You must change said,
Said the worm to the bud,
Though not to a rose

I haven't read all the poems on the two internet sites yet. I also found a comment about her being in the poetic line of William Blake, which I can see. I didn't really like Blake when I was in my twenties except for the few famous poems like The Tyger that just about everybody likes, finding him a bit weird, but now I like his weirder poetry a lot.

Kathleen Raine 1908 - 2003

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

2007-08-25T17:36:00.000+08:00

I borrowed this from the library. I find Gabaldon enthralling while I'm reading her, but have doubts whenever I put whichever book down. I was trying to think why yesterday, as she passes the Plot, Characterisation, Style test I usually apply to books - if the book gets a really high score in one element I'm inclined to forgive deficiencies in another element, though I insist on a conceded pass in style as a minimum. But when I thought about it again I wonder if she does pass the Plot element - her plots are a bit too much like life, just one damn thing after another*. I wonder if I mean no theme apart from survival?

However, she does very satisfactory endings and beginnings, she slides in information you need from previous books or history in a graceful and unobtrusive manner, and her past is a different country*, for example not at all full of eighteenth century women with feisty feminist attitudes. And I always have to keep reading to find out what happens next. So I will probably continue to read her books, though not buy them.

I saw the lady who runs the local second hand shop reading this book at her counter when it first came out in Australia - I had just seen it in new arrivals at Angus & Robertson Books on the next block. "Goodness, has someone brought in the latest Gabaldon already!" I exclaimed - "No," she said, "It will be far too long before someone brings one in, I bought it new today before I opened up." She wasn't planning on selling it once read, either.

*And for those of you who like to know the origin of quotes: Life is just one damned thing after another. Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915). The past is a different country; they do things differently there." L.P. Hartley in "The Go-Between"
A Breath of Snow and Ashes first published in 2005

Eric by Terry Pratchett

2007-08-23T20:10:00.001+08:00

Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors. Eric is rather shorter than most of his books, and even though it is about Rincewind (and Eric), it is still very funny. My husband really likes the Rincewind books, but I can do without them. So this is only the second time I have read it, and I discovered to my surprise there was more plot than I noticed the first time, when the humour and the tour of literary cliches and classics must have blinded me with amusement. Perhaps I had better re-read the rest of the Rincewind books...

Eric first published in 1990

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

2007-08-23T09:12:00.000+08:00

This is a collection of short stories. I read the title story on the Internet when it was nominated for the Nebula novella prize, which it won. I loved it then and still love the story Magic for Beginners. I also loved the The Faery Handbag. Kelly Link has lots of fascinating sideways ideas.

But I didn't really like any of the other stories, except for thinking how interesting occasionally, especially in The Great Divorce. I actively disliked Stone Animals, I felt the ending was too abrupt and not nearly strong enough for the rest of the story, which I had enjoyed reading up till then.

Lull had interesting parts, though the opening section went on far too long, but I couldn't help wondering if the story in a story in a story format was chosen because she couldn't think of appropriate endings for all the stories. And Red Dwarf (the TV show episode and one of the books) did the idea of living backwards just as well, so I kept wishing for that bit to be over.

Catskin didn't really strike me as particularly interesting, but then I have read the unbowdlerised Brothers Grimm. And this is probably my problem in general with Kelly Link, she has lots of ideas but often not much plot, so if I have come across the idea before, the story doesn't work all that well for me.

I liked the black and white illustrations by Shelley Jackson in my copy (Harper Perennial 2005) - more books should be illustrated! Why should children have all the best illustrators? I expect to read my two favourite stories many more times, so on the whole I am pleased to own this book. I will also be on the lookout for other work by Link. In the collection Firebirds Rising I have another of her stories, The Wizards of Perfil, which I also liked a lot.

Magic for Beginners (the book) first published 2005 - stories first published 2002 to 2005

The Silent Pool by Patricia Wentworth

2007-08-21T15:08:00.000+08:00

Usually I don't care that much about the state of the book I'm reading, only the words matter! As long as the pages are clean that is, underlining and notes in the margin are so annoying. They rarely underline or comment on the bits that strike me, and undoubtedly they don't have a mother-in-law who is a librarian. And other than giving me feelings of guilt if I so much as pencil my name in a book I'm loaning, she is a perfect mother-in-law I assure you.

But I did keep noticing this copy whenever I picked it up to read. I bought it cheap on eBay, and it smells very musty, even to my cold blocked nose. The carefully mended dust cover is very tatty and faded.

I still enjoyed the book though. I like Wentworth because of her characters, the way even minor characters seem such definite people who behave consistently, for example the vicar and his wife in this one. (The recurring characters however, the detective and the police, are not very interesting as characters at all, but usually only have a small part.) However in this book, the murderer and a murderee were definitely unbelievable as real people I thought. The love interest, where the girl worries he has a roving eye, was more interesting than usual as they were contrasted with another older couple where the bloke was a serial philanderer.

What I most like about Wentworth is the glimpse of a past mindset and society - the past is a different country, they thought differently then. This is often clearest for the recent past in those detective novels where they are trying to give you a sense of a whole group of people and the way they think as part of the essential clues for the reader. Not that I use them as clues, I am no good at picking who the murderer is, though my list of people who aren't the murderer is usually correct. A pretty short list in some cases.

The Silent Pool first published in 1954

A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold

2007-08-20T15:46:00.000+08:00

I have just re-read this book, I meant to only read the section where Miles and Ekaterin talk about honour and breaking vows you intended to keep, but started at the first page and just kept going.

Bujold's character's frequently contend with their life not going in the direction they planned and intended.
On page 427 of my copy (Baen 2000 paperback, with a horrible cover of people I can't identify from the book) Ekaterin says

"I went from being the kind of person who made, and kept, a life-oath, to one who broke it in two and walked away."..." I am not who I was. I can't go back. I don't quite like who I have become. Yet I still - stand. But I hardly know how to go from here. No-one gave me a map for this road." ...

"In my experience," [Miles] said, "the trouble with oaths of the form, death before dishonour, is that eventually, given enough time and abrasion, they separate the world into just two sorts of people: the dead, and the forsworn. It's a survivors problem, this one."

I am not sure why this an important point in the book for me; perhaps because it relates back to Ekaterin's concerns about her choices in Komarr, and the consequences of two bad choices of Miles in Memory. And in general I prefer characters and people who keep their promises. But it isn't always possible, and people don't always make the best possible choice. And then we all have to go on from that point, that not so good choice we have made. Some people can accept that they are a different person than they thought they were. Some twist the story so it makes it sound as thought they were always that person, or that the choice was forced on them - I listened to a friend do this once a week or two after her choice, a very educational experience - and no, I didn't point it out.

A Civil Campaign first published in 1999