Friday Review Post, 10/15/2011

Maybe I should just move my Friday post to Saturday? Anyway, four books this week:

Emily Diamand - Raiders' Ransom

Lilly is a fisher girl in a post apocalyptic England. The exact basis of the apocalypse is never made clear, but it is presumed to be global warming combined with some sort of computer virus. Much of England is under water, London in particular. Technology is largely banned (except in Scotland, where they use solar power and such.) Scotland has expanded southward to swallow up most of the island, leaving only ten counties of England in the extreme south. I'd love to post a map, but I can't find one. Anyway, a raid by pirate/vikings from the fringes of Scotland occurs while Lilly is out at sea. She returns to find that the daughter of the English Prime Minister has been kidnapped. In an effort to avert a war, in which her sweetheart has been forcibly enlisted, Lilly sets out to rescue the Prime Minister's daughter.

The plot was satisfying, although not particularly deep. The writing was good, the characters were enjoyable. I would, perhaps, suggest that this was a little younger than most young adult books - 12 or 13, rather than 15-16, say. Good world building - the setting is several generations post-disaster, and Diamond has clearly thought through what that would mean in terms of culture and society. Highly recommended; I've grabbed the sequel.

David Liss - The 12th Enchantment


Mr. Liss continues to be a very dangerous author. This is pretty typical of his work - a complex historical drama with strong characters, a twisty plot, and excellent writing. Set in England during the height of the Napoleonic Wars, the book tells the story of Lucy Derrick. Lucy, an orphan, is dependent on the good will of her uncle (who is not actually her uncle, but rather a distantly good friend of her father). She is engaged to be married to a local industrialist; the owner of a cloth factory who is plagued by Luddites. Lucy's plans are complicated by the sudden arrival of Lord Byron. Byron is incoherent, spitting up pins, and tells Lucy that she must not marry her industrialist, and that she must "gather the leaves". With the timely intervention of a local woman schooled in magic, Lucy removes a curse from Byron, and finds herself plunged into a dense conspiracy. This conspiracy involves fairies, the Rosicrucians, ancient vampires, and alchemy, and it unfolds delightfully into a deeply convoluted but entirely satisfying plot.

Some reviewers have found Liss' use of magic to be distasteful. Liss' other works tend to be less ... fanciful, perhaps. However, given the setting, the conflict between magic and technology is entirely appropriate. The inclusion of Byron and, later, William Blake, did not bother me either. If you are going to write a novel about mystical politics in Regency England, Byron and Blake are bound to show up (as are the Rosicrucians, naturally). I think this is clearly a case of "you got fantasy in my historical fiction!" "no, you got historical fiction in my fantasy!," and, ultimately, the merger works remarkably well.

This, by the way, was the book that my wife kept stealing last week. She also enjoyed it, especially the way that the plot built and expanded and grew increasingly more complex the further into the book she got.

Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl, scion of the Fowl crime family, billionaire, and 12 years old. In an effort to restore his family's fortunes after the untimely death of his father, Fowl devises a scheme to extort gold from fairies. What ensues is a complex narrative of double-crossing and high technology, mixed with fairy magic (and fairy technology, which is often the same thing).

I can see why the books are popular, and there's nothing really wrong with the writing. I just didn't really like the characters. The narrator is clearly sympathetic to the fairies (the book is supposed to be an official report on Fowl), but the fairies are hard to like. Fowl is presented as evil (although he clearly isn't), and I couldn't find myself rooting for him either. Perhaps my problem is a timing thing - this clearly compared poorly to the Liss. I may try the next on my next research trip - as fluff, the books might work.

Steve Turner - The Band that Played On


A delightful history of the band from the Titanic. Turner was commissioned to write a book to catch the wave of the Titanic anniversary. Telling the story of the band which continued to play as the ship went down provides a new and interesting entrance into the well known story of the ill-fated ship Turner had his work cut out for him, though, because we don't know very much about the various members of the band. As such, this was a fascinating book on a number of levels.

On one level, this is a retelling of the story of the Titanic. One of the reasons that the Titanic continues to grab our attention is that it's a great story, and Turner works with that. He doesn't go into a great deal of detail about the nature of the ship, the technical specs, or any of that - as he points out, there are plenty of books about that. Instead, he discusses the lives of the band members, explaining where they came from, why they were hired to serve on the ship, and what, potentially, motivated them to sacrifice themselves as the ship sank. Turner tells a compelling story of heroism in the face of tragedy.

On another level, this is a story about music and management and the business of luxury cruise liners just prior to the First World War. In his narration of the lives of the musicians, Turner discusses where they would have played before serving on the Titanic, and uncovers a world of public musical performances in which world class musicians become ornaments for hotels, resorts, and the cruise liners which serve as both hotel and resort. Turner discusses the agents who hired musicians for the great cruise lines. He also touches, a little, on the business of cruise liners, discussing the rivalry between the Cunard and the White Star lines. What was the purpose of the Titanic? Bruce J. Ismay was clearly responding to Cunard's Lusitnania and Mauritania, the two fastest cruise ships in the world at the turn of the 20th century. The White Star Line decided it could not compete in speed, so Olympic and Titanic were not as fast, but were far more luxurious. As the most luxurious ships, they needed the best musicians.

On a further level, this is a story about how to do history. How do you re-construct the stories of eight people who were famous for a brief moment, but were otherwise not considered worthy of remembering?  Each of the musicians had a family, one was married, several were engaged to be married, at least one had a child. Turner looked at the letters and telegrams that were sent to the family members, before and after the disaster. He considered newspaper reports about the earlier performances of the musicians. He looked at play bills and reviews of their performances. Ultimately, he pieced together eight lives, based on solid but fragmented evidence. This is one of the things that historians do.

On a final level, Turner engages in the prominent debate over the band - what they played as the ship went down. According to legend, the band played "Nearer, my God, to Thee" as the ship began it's final plunge.  The newspaper reports of the event refer to this, based on the testimony of numerous survivors.  Monuments to the musicians often included reference to this song. The song was performed at the funerals of the musicians, and at concerts to commemorate the disaster. In their effort to raise money for the families of the musicians, the Amalgamated Musicians Union (AMU) printed a collectible poster with pictures of the eight band members and a verse from "Nearer, my God, to Thee." Several thousand copies of this poster were sold, and the money was given to the parents and sweethearts of the musicians.

Despite this clear connection to the hymn, there is continuing doubt over the performance.  Several of the survivors insist that the hymn was not played - that the band played popular music while the ship sank, and that a hymn would have reminded people of their mortality and caused panic. The hymn was not in the collection of music the band was commissioned to perform on the voyage. Further, there were at least three different versions of the hymn, none of which were alike, and yet American passengers, British passengers, Methodist and Anglican passengers all asserted that they had heard the hymn. All of this calls into doubt the possibility that "Nearer, my God, to Thee" was performed. Perhaps it was just one of those things - one person said they heard it, and suddenly everyone remembered hearing it.

Turner argues, quite persuasively, that the hymn was probably performed. He states that there were, in fact, four versions of the hymn, and that the fourth version was a popular (not a church) arrangement, which would have been relatively well known on both sides of the Atlantic, and across various denominations. Wallace Hartley was the band leader. His father was a choir leader in a Methodist church. Hartley's father was known to love "Nearer, my God, to Thee," and Hartley was quoted (after the disaster, certainly) as having said it was his favorite, and that he wanted it performed at his funeral. Turner contends that the band began playing hymns after the last life boat had been lowered - that is, at the point when it became clear that the band was going to go down with the ship.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what the band played - but that's what makes Turner a historian. This is the other thing that historians do; we argue about things that no one else really cares to argue about. It makes sense that the band played "Nearer, my God, to Thee," it also makes sense that they didn't. There isn't anyway (short of time travel) to resolve the issue. This is the sort of argument that historians thrive on, and the way that Turner presents his argument is an example of excellent historical craft.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is already interested in the Titanic. I would recommend it to budding historians. I would recommend it to people who like a gripping story of doomed heroism. This is a fine example of the intersection of popular and scholarly history - easily readable, yet well researched - a book for professionals and amateurs alike, and all around well written.

Library Advocacy, but fun!

And just a tad profane - Go the F*ck to the Library.

An Early Friday Post

But not a review, yet. Instead, I am engaged in my tireless quest to find new things to read, both for me and for you, dear readers. In a little over a month, Delia Sherman's* new book, The Freedom Maze, will be published. It is being published by a small Indy press, Small Beer Press. It looks really good:

It’s 1960, but on the decayed Fairchild sugar plantation in rural Louisiana, vestiges of a grimmer past remain—the old cottage, overgrown garden maze, relations between white and black races.Stuck for the summer in the family ancestral home under the thumb of her cranky, imperious grandmother, Sophie, 13, makes a reckless wish that lands her in 1860, enslaved—by her own ancestors.

Doesn't that sound good? Anyway, Ms. Sherman has two Advanced Reader Copies available. By posting this link - http://smallbeerpress.com/forthcoming/2011/03/02/the-freedom-maze/ - I am entering a contest to win one of those ARCs, so that I can review the book before it hits the stores. Not only that!

Posting a link will not only put you in the running for an advance peek at The Freedom Maze, but is a great way to help the cause of independent publishing. Which, in this increasingly conservative publishing climate, is very important for the future of all writers of odd, provocative, non-dominant-culture books.  Let's show the Big Boys how many of us there are out there.

 Indeed.

Tuesday Library Day, 10/11/2011

No luck on finding my sequels today. We're back at the library tomorrow for a (much belated) celebration of the Chinese Moon Festival, (The festival was preempted by the flood about a month ago) so perhaps I'll be able to find the book tomorrow. Today, however, I found four books. In no particular order:

Joseph Lunieviez - Open Wounds


A book about a young man in New York learning stage fencing as an escape from the mean streets. The jacket matter suggests that it's a cross between The Book Thief and Gangs of New York. I don't know; I grabbed it because it's got a fencing foil on the cover:

Simon Garfield - Just My Type


A book about fonts. Seriously, it's a book about type face fonts. It looks very clever.

John Sandford - Bad Blood


Sandford, as you know, is one of my guilty pleasures. This is one of the Virgil Flowers novels. I haven't even read the jacket matter for this one.

Mark Charam Newton - Nights of Villjamur


Dark gloomy sci fi with an East Indian flavor. The sequel to this was on the new book shelf, so I went hunting and grabbed the first book. The jacket matter compares Newton to Mieville and Richard K. Morgan. I like both Mieville and Morgan, so.

Friday Reviews, 10/7/2011

So, it comes to that point on a Friday evening where I'm reading a book, and I could probably finish it before midnight, and then post about three books instead of two - or I could wait, and post about it next week. And I'm thinking next week is the better bet, because what if I don't finish it by midnight? And, anyway, I have no particular desire to be up at midnight making a post, although heaven knows it's happened before. So, only two books this week. Although it might have been three, and not just because I'm part way through a third - my wife keeps stealing my books from me! Good taste, that.

Anyway. Two books this week:

Ally Carter - Heist Society


So, last week I read a couple of books that were "caper" novels. One, the Cherie Priest, I defined as such, and the other, the Eoin Colfer, I suggested was mis-advertised. This week, however, I had an actual caper novel, and I'm thinking that the Priest novels are not, really, caper novels at all. They're a lot closer to spy novels, perhaps. Raylene doesn't run a string so much as she reluctantly accepts the assistance of a side kick - she's very much a lone wolf type. And the focus of the books is not really so much a specific criminal exploit as it is a quest, a search for the next piece in a puzzle. So, I rescind Priest's caper novel designation (without, I should stress, implying that there is anything AT ALL wrong with the books, which are fantastic).

Ally Carter has written a caper novel. Katarina Bishop, for a number of very good reasons, must break into a heavily guarded art museum in London, and steal five paintings. To make things interesting, the art museum is entirely unaware that the paintings are there in the first place. To accomplish this, Kat (what the hell, spell check! Katarina isn't acceptable, but Kat is? No wonder my students can't spell.) must assemble a string of fellow thieves. Together, they assemble a complex plan which involves subterfuge, con artistry, a little bit of sneaking around, and a pinch of pyrotechnics. As is generally the case in a caper novel, things don't quite go as planned. As I suggested last week, one of the key elements of the caper novel is the moment at the end where all of the participants have gotten a piece of what they wanted, but not all. If the participants in a caper got everything, nothing would keep them from retirement. Just ask Donald Westlake - his character, John Dortmunder, gets almost everything he wants in What's the Worst that Could Happen?, and promptly retires (only to be brought back for another five novels, only one of which fully lives up to the tradition of the series.)

Carter has not only written a proper caper novel, she's done an excellent job of it. The writing sparkles - consider this bit:

The assembly of a crew is a monumental event in a young thief's life. There are meetings and phone calls, Plans, and occasionally, a celebratory cake.

 It's the cake which really seals the deal for me, frankly. The whole book is like this, just a little wry, just a touch funny - and that's the way it should be. I think the standard audience isn't really interested in reading about criminals without that touch of funny - The Talented Mr. Ripley entirely to one side. Still, even with that touch of funny, Carter has woven a truly (and surprisingly!) complex plot which is about morals and ethics as much as it is about art theft. I really enjoyed the book, and would recommend it highly, especially for avid readers of YA. An example of high praise - I went looking for the sequel on Tuesday/  I didn't see it; perhaps it was on a cart somewhere, since it had been part of a display which had recently been dismantled. Maybe next week.

Daniel H. Wilson - Robopocalypse


If you liked Max Brooks' World War Z, I think there's a decent chance you'll enjoy this book too. It's not a zombie book, but there's an eerie similarity between Brooks' zombies and Wilson's robots. Both are implacable foes. Both overwhelm the humans more through the use of numbers than through cunning (although Wilson presents Archos as a central organizer of the robots, and the chief villain here - a queen ant, if you will - that Brooks does not. The robots have direction, in a very broad sense, just not autonomy). The narrative style is quite similar as well, distantly linked vignettes presented as historical primary sources, and finally coming together as a narrative whole.

I don't wish to imply that Wilson's novel is derivative, because it isn't. He's clearly going in his own direction here, and exploring some interesting questions about humanity while he does so. Still, by framing the book as a future history, Wilson is somewhat limited in his narrative choices. It's clear from the outset - from the first paragraph, even - that humanity wins the war against Big Rob. Wilson can only stray very tentatively from that central idea - he can't, half way through, present the idea that, in fact, humanity has lost. He can't even suggest it in a twisty sort of way, really. (Although, you know, it depends on how you view motivations. Archos claims from the beginning that his goal is to create a world in which humans and robots can share equally - to what extent is that the world that exists at the end of the book? Unpack and discuss, using no more than one blue book. You may, if you wish, use quotations. 50 pts) I can't help but wonder if that was a mistake, frankly. Would it have been better to keep the reader guessing, wondering if what we're reading is a triumphant account of victory or a final bitter account of ultimate defeat? I'm not really sure.

I will say this - zombies and robots solve one of the perennial problems of mil-fic. How can an author write about war while avoiding the human tendency to de-humanize the enemy? It is possible to present both sides of the conflict, if you are writing about a historical war (although few authors do, frankly. It's much easier to stick to one side of the account. Bernard Cornwell doesn't go out of his way to humanize Napoleon's army, any more that C.S. Forester went out of his way to humanize Napoleon's navy.). I suppose it might be easier to do that if you are writing about an entirely fictional war - but with zombies and/or robots, you don't have to humanize the enemy. Everyone recognizes that Big Zed or Big Rob is NOT human. (And yet, Wilson plays with that idea too - what constitutes "human"? CAN humans and robots live together, once true artificial intelligence is created?)

Hmmm. As I write about it, I am beginning to think that this was actually quite a deep book, pretending to be somewhat shallow. If you like deep books which, at least on the surface, feel somewhat shallow, or if you like mil-fic which turns out to ask some rather probing questions, or if you like zombie/robot apocalypse novels, then this is clearly the book for you.

Hickey of the Beast Wednesday, 10/5/2011

(Link - although if you haven't started reading the book til now ... you're probably one of my students.)

Chapter 30

This is it, the end of the book. Connie deals with repercussions, Edward deals with repercussions, and the student float a number of rumors. About what you would expect. This was a nice bit of realism:

You want to know something weird, Amanda? I mean, weird in a different way than all the rest of this? After the incubus had taken its power back, Edward still looked pretty good, or would have if he wasn't insane. It wasn't an instant hormone rush to see him any more, and his eyes were still a little beady, but he really had filled out over the summer, and I bet his hair would've looked fine, too. I think he could've been popular on his own. Maybe not captain-of-the-hockey-team popular, but he could've gotten invited to parties, and girls would have liked him; he could have done perfectly fine for himself. I wondered if he'd wanted more than that or just to be sure—or if he thought the other way would've taken more work.

The book ends in such a way that a sequel is not out of the question, but no one will feel cheated out of a resolution if no sequel is forthcoming. But, Izzy, a sequel, please?

Some final thoughts. A solid novel, a little predictable in a couple of places. There were two or three places where a twist could have gone. Mind you, twists for their own sake are cheap ways of making an author look smarter than hir audience, so perhaps the straightforward approach has its good points too. As a serial novel, I think this mostly worked. The couple of places I think it missed were probably a result of the fact that the book existed in its finished form before being presented in its serial form. There were a few places where chapters could have ended in a more cliff-hanger-y way. I think had Izzy been writing the book as it was being published - had she been dependent on retaining readers from one installment to the next - the chapters would have ended more breathlessly. I'm not sure this would have been an overall improvement, though. Serially written novels (as opposed to serially published novels) lend themselves to numerous abuses, not the least continuity errors. I'm glad we avoided those. So. Final thoughts - I would read a sequel, and I'm looking for Izzy's other work, No Proper Lady - a romance novel. My local library HAS a copy, but it's check out. (which is good news, I think! It's in demand and stuff!). Further, I would happily read another serial novel, and review it in this way.

So, now my weekly reading project is done. I really like having something like this, and I'm open to suggestions. Right now, all I can think of is to read some book deliberately one chapter a week, but I don't know that I could do that, knowing that I didn't have to do that, you know? Perhaps if someone else were reading along with me, like some sort of virtual book club?

Tuesday Library Post, 10/4/2011

You know, the problem with moving Library Day from Monday to Tuesday is that, on Monday, I used to go to the library in the evening, just before dinner. So, after the library, I would come home and make dinner, and then make my post. (yeah, right. Because I was always punctual on Mondays!). But, on Tuesdays, I'm going to library in the middle of the afternoon. (which is nice, incidentally. There's noone else there. Which isn't true, but there are fewer people there, anyway. Actually, right now the library is busy as a FEMA data collection point, so people are coming into the lobby to talk to FEMA folks about the property they lost in the flood. Today, there was also a computer class in the back of the library, upstairs. So there were people wandering in and out.*) So, I get home much much later, and the books I've selected, I've forgotten already. Hmmm.

Anyway. Two books this week.

Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl


I thought, since I read his adult fiction debut, it would be good to go back and take a look at the books that made Colfer famous. Artemis Fowl is a YA caper novel (in that Artemis is a thief, who steals things), with fairies. Not the nice kind. There are several books in the series, and Colfer clearly rode on the Harry Potter wave. That is to say, this was a series of YA novels that were a) inordinately popular and b) had this huge publicity thing driving each release. Lots of authors benefited from Ms. Rowling's success, which is the way it should work. Good for her, and good for them, and good for us!

Steve Turner - The Band that Played On


This is a book about the band on the Titanic. I think, actually, that more or less says it all. My dad is a huge Titanic buff (he's a naval engineer, so I think it's partly a professional thing), so I sort of grew up around Titanic stuff, but not much of it rubbed off. Anyway, this looks like an interesting way into the Titanic story. I hope it's better written than the last non-fiction I picked up.

*(left a dangling footnote there. Oops.) This is a perfect example of why supporting your local library is a fantastically good investment for local government. It's not just a big building full of books. Last year, our City Hall had some sort of renovation accident which resulted in toxic dust throughout the building. While they cleaned up, the City Council met in the library (we had to go through metal detectors to get into the library for a month - it was trippy.) The library is a meeting place for essential services at the city, state, and even the federal level (like FEMA).  It's a place to offer classes which help people develop job skills, or personal independence, or both. A couple of weeks ago, we acquired a kitten for my eldest daughter. We found the kitten through craigslist (which my spell check recognizes as a word, incidentally), and the provider of the kitten wanted a safe public place to meet to do the kitten delivery - we met at the library. All this AND a building full of books!