Friday Review Post, 6/17/2011

My girls have left to spend their week further south, and my hosts are out celebrating Father's Day (Happy Father's Day, incidentally, to any fathers, new or established), so I think that counts as downtime. Here's the expanded reviews.

Bernard Cornwell - The Archer's Tale


This is the first of Cornwell's "Grail Quest" trilogy (although Cornwell has a notorious habit of sneaking back and filling in bits he feels he left out, so it may well turn out to be much longer than a trilogy). It's Sharpe's Rifles, only in the Hundred Years' War, with long bows instead of rifles. Pretty good, but not very deep.

Weeeeell. It was a little deep in places. Cornwell does some nice things with villains and redemption. His protagonist is no saint, although clearly he has some admirable qualities. Cornwell does excellent character building in his primary characters - once you get past second tier characters, however, they become pastiches. Some interesting musing on the nature of war, and how it really hasn't changed all that much, and on the importance of competent leadership.

One thing that Cornwell has always done very well is the inclusion of an author's historical note. Cornwell is scrupulous in pointing out where he has taken liberties with the historical record in order to insert his character into the fray. He is also very good at not altering any major events in order to get the desired effect. This book is certainly true to that tradition. It needs maps, however - several of the Sharpe's Rifles books have excellent maps of the battlefield, with troop movements carefully displayed. This book, not so much. Since the book concludes in one of the very few set piece battles of the 100 Years War, a battlefield map would seem to be lacking.

Perhaps a trigger warning is in order - Cornwell's character muses on the use of rape as a weapon, and concludes, eventually, that it does more harm than good to the invaders, and acts to prevent it, as possible. This realization comes as a result of nursing a rape victim back to mental health. The rape scenes are not graphic, but they are present; if that bothers you, I'd say read with caution.

Elizabeth Adler - The Property of a Lady


I didn't finish this one - Adler kept introducing new characters, and it wasn't what I thought it was going to be at all. I thought it was going to be a novel about a Russian princess struggling to survive in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Instead, it was a heavy handed spy novel set just before the fall of the Soviet Union. Except Adler didn't know the Soviet Union was going to fall, so. Ultimately, I didn't care much about any of the characters, and I know how the history ends.

As mentioned in the comments, the book looks like a romance novel, and it certainly has elements of romance in it - handsome male spies, a beautiful news reporter, an attractive young woman with an aristocratic background who, in her old age, claims to have been married several times (it seems clear that Adler intended to introduce us to the woman's husbands over the course of the novel). Ultimately, I think the book was trying too hard to do too many things - is it a spy novel? Is it a novel about the television news business? Is it a romance novel? Is it a memoir? Hard to say. I think, had it been properly billed as a spy thriller, and the memories of the old lady been left out, it would have worked quite well. Equally, had it been billed as a recounting of the life of a remarkable woman, it would have worked well. Smooshing those two novels together, though, was a big mistake.

China Mieville - Kraken


This was a truly delightful novel. It was dense, with multiple story lines weaving in and out of each other, pulling the reader deeper and deeper into the murky plot. Mieville leads his readers down a branching path of a story, teasing them with false resolution after false resolution until he, and his readers, arrive at a pleasantly satisfying ending.

The premise - the theft of a preserved giant squid from the Darwin Center in London seems to have triggered an apocalypse of some sort. As Billy Harrow, Mieville's principal protagonist soon discovers, the squid is just the tip of an increasingly weird iceberg. Harrow finds that London is a remarkably complex city, with various cults vying for attention, each with an agenda and an apocalypse of its own. This web of Armageddonim - a lovely plural ("I find I need to know the plural of apocalypse," Riley Finn) makes the various cults fractious - clearly, only one apocalypse can be THE apocalypse - and so the London police have a special branch devoted to keeping the cults from each others' necks. This branch also handles all the weird stuff - the magicians and mystics of various ilks who, it becomes clear, inhabit the netherworld of London (and most other major cities, it is implied.) This netherworld includes magical villains such as Grishnamentum (who may or may not be dead) and the Tattoo, who has a warped and twisted sense of humor to match his warped and twist band of henchmen. It includes people who do origami on things other than paper - people, say - and people who can transport objects with magic, and people who can connect you to the magical protective power of music. It also includes cult collectors - an odd bunch of religion geeks who become members of cults in order to show off to their peers - and several unusual actors - the Ocean has an embassy in London, as does Fire. This is all delightful stuff.

As my on going love of Charles DeLint should indicate, I am fascinated with the idea that there is a world which operates in a state of "un, sub, or supernatural" being - just over, or under, or slight off from our own. Mieville is clearly playing with this idea here, as do authors like Neil Gaiman and Tim Powers. However, where DeLint's work presents that world as largely ... I don't know - harmless is not the word, because there's plenty of menace in DeLint's fantasy world, but, somehow, lighter than our own world? ... Anyway, Mieville's parallel world is dark, moody, heavier than our own world. The writing is not straightforward either - Mieville clearly delights in teasing his readers. He is playing a game with us; he is smarter than us, but, at least in this book, he doesn't come across as smug. He is inviting us into his joke, into his complex game, and hopes we enjoy what he has to offer. And I did. I will, perhaps, seek out something else by him - I understand that Perdido Station is not un-readable.

I will note that Mieville's London has coloured my dreams to some greater or lesser extent for the past week or so - I can't remember them when I wake up, but they are rambling, complex things, full of blind alleys and trap streets (and trap streets - I can't believe that Mieville is the first author to use them to narrative effect. Trap streets are streets that cartographers include in their maps in order to prove that they were the author of the map - they don't exist in the real world. Mieville posits that they DO exist in the real world, but that you can't find them unless you're in the right frame of mind. This is a simply brilliant bit, and I'm sure someone else has had the same brainwave, but I've never seen it before). If you don't like that sort of thing, perhaps you should read the book with caution.

Trashy Book Photo

There will be a review post here later, I promise. Until then, here's a photo of my trashy books for next week in DC.

The Main branch of my library put their letter stickers at the top of the spine, where they cover up vital information - I hope you can see all the titles. The one on the end, the one that isn't like all the other ones - that's from the last trip. It got left behind here.

Hickey of the Beast Wednesday, 6/15/2011

(Link Here)

Chapter 14

So, after the last chapter, Connie now sees red lines everywhere, connecting everything. I'm sure that will all be explained before the book ends.

Two big important things happen in this chapter. First, Tony asks Connie to the Red and White, the big winter dance. "Psychic stuff is beyond amazing, sure—even I think so now—but boys are fun, too." Second, we get a fine piece of foreshadowing - Connie notices Jenny talking to Edward Tinsley (who, we've been told, is hawt with a capital haw). Jenny says, at the end of the chapter, "'Well, I wouldn't read a lot into it,' said Jenny, as we passed out the doors and into the cold night. 'I mean, I'd like to, for sure, but I don't think I've got anything he wants.'" Only your immortal soul, Jenny. Only that. Have I mentioned that I think that Edward is probably the big bad here? Cuz I do. 


Other than that, not a lot happens in this chapter. Last chapter was build-up, this one contributes to the whole rising action that we should see here. We're almost half way through the book, and the pacing is spot on thus far. I think we've met all of the important characters (although I suppose it's possible that there's a shadowy antagonist lurking in the background somewhere), the plot has taken root, solidly - this is a well written book! Well, so far - I suppose it's possible that it will all fall apart in the second half.


Tangential: One of the things I looked at last week was microfilm of newspapers from Kansas City. I noticed that they ran serials daily - they alternated between something romance-y "Should Doctors Marry?" and something adventure-y - something cowboy; I don't really remember (that wasn't really what I was looking for). Each story ran about a week and a half, with multiple chapters per day. I wonder if circulation would improve if newspapers tried something like that again? Probably not. 

Wait, Monday was Yesterday? Library post, 6/14/2011

I actually WENT to the library yesterday, and I got books and everything. I went back today, I have my trashy books for next week all ready to go - I'll post a photo, maybe Thursday, to fill in that open gap in the weekend.

Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Eds - Teeth: Vampires Tales


This is an anthology of YA Vampire stories and poems. The author list is a who's who of authors that I like - Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Catherynne Valente, Ellen Kushner, Tanith Lee, Emma Bull, Garth Nix - an absolutely delicious list of authors. I know that Ellen Kushner has been very excited about the collection. Beyond that, I know nothing, but feel no qualms about picking it up.

Eric Flint - 1636: The Saxon Uprising


I reviewed 1635: The Eastern Front back a couple of months ago. This is both the next book in the Ring of Fire series and the direct sequel to The Eastern Front. I like Flint, I like the series; this was another that I grabbed without much deliberation.

Friday Review, 6/10/2011 - Trashy Books

There will probably be a Trashy Book addenda next week, because I will need to read something on the plane on Sunday, and after sightseeing tomorrow. So, watch for that.

First, not a trashy book - on the plane out, I read:

Donald R. McCoy -  The Presidency of Harry S. Truman

Truman was born and raised in Independence, Missouri, which is where I've been working all week, at his library. So, it seemed appropriate to read this in preparation. I own this book, I bought it years ago for a class, and never read it, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. It was an excellent plane book - long enough to occupy the pair of flights (and the bus ride in from the airport, and the waiting for my host to come and pick me up), but not so enthralling that I resented having to stop to change planes, or talk to a person, or whatever.

As a historian, I found some of McCoy's conclusions a little weak. He is clearly a fan of Truman, which colours his take on the conflicts of Truman's presidency. For instance, he takes at face value Truman's assertion that he chewed out Molotov, the Russian ambassador. The only source for this is Truman's diary, and it seems out of character. No one else in the White House remembers it, although it would seem to be the sort of thing that people would remember. Still, it's part of the Truman mythos now.

Another historical problem is that the book was published in the early '80s (1984), so some of the evidence he used is a little out of date now - especially his assumptions about the Soviets and their reaction to Truman's administration. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, cold war historians got access to the Soviet era archives, and that changed a number of things about cold war history. Clearly, it's not the fault of McCoy, because his book was published before the fall of the Berlin Wall, but it does mean that there are probably better histories from that regard published since.

As a reader, the book was not bad. A little dry in places, especially in the lengthy descriptions of legislation that Truman championed or vetoed, but clearly written for an educated layman reader. Truman is a fascinating president, and the experiences of his administration can teach us a great deal about our current political situation, if only we were paying attention.

Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason - The Rule of Four

I started this one next, because it prompted comment when I posted my photo. This book was delightful. The cover material alludes to Dan Brown, and that is entirely wrong and misleading. This book was so so so much better than anything Brown has cobbled together. The cover material also mentioned Umberto Eco, and that's a much better fit - it's not quite as dense and twisty and translated out of the Italian as Eco, but it has a hint of Eco's sparkle, and his tendency to tell complicated jokes through his characters.

The plot is complicated. 4 students at Princeton approach graduation. To graduate from Princeton, they must all complete (as all Princeton Seniors must do) a Senior Thesis. Paul Harris has chosen to write his thesis on an Italian Renaissance text, the Hypnerciomachia Poliphili. Scholars who study the book are convinced that it contains complex riddles, pointing readers to some sort of treasure or mystery. Paul, with the help of his 3 friends (Tom, Charlie, and Gil), has set out to solve the riddles, and thus locate the mysterious treasure. In this quest he is challenged by his thesis adviser, who is one of the few scholars of the text, and who shares an entirely different theory as to what the book is about, and how to unlock its secrets.

Caldwell and Thomason offer entirely believable characters, a lovely description of Princeton, a neat plot with a minimum of racing about, and a fun puzzle of a book within a book to explore. There is a sweet romance, a little mystery and confusion, some murder, and a little mayhem. I must say, I didn't like that most of the book was written in present tense - that bothers me. Also, as I look back on the week, it wasn't really a trashy book, either. Oh well, can't win all the time, right?

While doing research on Tuesday, this song came up on my Pandora - Sloan: Green Gardens and Cold Montreal. For some reason it reminded me of this book, which I had just finished reading the night before - something about the discussion of college and expectations and romance.

Gene Hackman and Daniel Lenihan - Wake of the Perdido Star


A pirate book! Well, sort of. In 1805, Jack O'Reilly and his family travel of the Perdido Star from Salem, Massachusetts to Cuba, to claim title to some land that O'Reilly's mother inherited. While there, they are betrayed, and O'Reilly's parents are killed. O'Reilly escapes, and returns to the ship, where he becomes a crew member. He vows revenge. The ship sails into the Pacific, where, due to a series of unfortunate events, the crew are forced to become pirates, and also deep sea divers.

Hackman, of course, is an actor. It is clear that he brings a sense of narrative pacing to this project. His partner, Lenihan, is an underwater archaeologist - he brings thoughts about deep sea diving and ocean retrieval, and probably thoughts about the history of the period, the nature of sailing ships, and etc. They combine to produce a really good book - swashbuckle-y! It's got fighting, revenge, deep sea diving, pirates - no fencing, no giants, and only a minimum of kissing, but otherwise a good book.

The scenes involving deep sea diving went on a bit - I'm sure they were achingly accurate in their depiction of how that process works and the dangers inherent in diving with very very pre-modern equipment. The whole sequence was, of course, entirely vital to the plot, but perhaps dragged on more than it really needed to. The decision to become pirates was, as far as I am aware, historically appropriate - driven by desperation, and accompanied by the trappings of democracy. That was very nicely done - but then the ship doesn't engage in any acts of piracy! That was a little disappointing - it would have been nice to have had at least one set piece naval battle. Also missing - a really good map (there is a map, but it lacks detail) and an historical note.

As with The Rule of Four, I am hard pressed to call this book trashy. Thus far, I'm 0 for 2.

Joanna Maitland - A Poor Relation


Period romance! Surely this one is trashy. Miss Isabella Winstanley is a wealthy single woman who, in order to engage in charitable works and to avoid being pursued by gentlemen with fancy titles, but no money and no manners, masquarades as a poor relation of her aunt. She catches the attention of Baron (also Major) Amburley (titled, but poor - well mannered, though, and attractive), largely because her cousin Sophia (actually a poor relation)  has caught the eye of Amburley's young associate, Lewiston (wealthy, but untitled.) Amburley is convinced that Sophia and Isabella are up to some plot to catch a rich husband for Isabella, and so sets out to find out what's up. Naturally, he and Isabella fall in love - he is gruff and moody, and she can ride like a man, play cards like a man, and drive a coach like a man, while remaining entirely feminine and alluring.

So, ok. It's a romance novel. The plot is fairly straightforward - we have  meetcute, we have a complicated mistaken identity, we have loathe at first sight, we have the gradual coming together and we have the epiphany wherein Amburley realizes that, yes, he really does love Isabella. Around that plot, though, there is a well researched and reasonably well written novel, with characters that it's not hard to care about. There is no swooning, there is a little kissing, but no historically inappropriate sex before marriage, Almack's plays a prominent role, and Sophie is not allowed to waltz until given permission to do so from a matron at Almack's. There is an overly long scene involving a game of Piquet, which, actually, I could have done without. The game (it's a card game) is deeply complicated, and Maitland doesn't really have the space to explain the rules or any of that. It's important to the plot to an extent, and it shows us that Isabella can hold her own against Amburley, but it goes on too long. Despite that, all in all, I enjoyed the book quite a lot - and it's only mildly trashy. 0 for 3.

Lawrence Block - The Hit List


Jack Keller is a hitman. That is, he earns his living by killing people. Periodically, he gets a call from Dorothy (Dot), his contact/broker, who tells him who the client wants removed, and where. Keller goes, he does the job, he comes back. He buys stamps for his collection. He serves jury duty. He falls, superficially, in love. He dabbles with astronomy. He worries, because there is some indication that someone else is trying to kill him - for reasons he cannot conceive. Eventually, Keller and Dot work out what's going on, and resolve things in the only way they know how.

The book seems to be written in a series of vignettes, or short stories. The time that Jack killed a guy in Louisville, and bought some stamps. The time he decided not to kill a guy in Brooklyn, and didn't buy a painting, but got a girlfriend (sort of). The time Keller didn't kill a couple of guys, but got paid for it anyway. The time Keller did jury duty. There's a thread there, but it's tenuous, and focuses on this guy who may, or may not, be trying to kill Keller.

Initially, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The humor was black and dry - Keller is dubious about the morality of what he does, while, at the same time, doesn't care enough to actually stop doing it. There's a lot of Martin Blank in Keller - it wouldn't be hard to see John Cusack playing Keller in the movie version. I like a dry black humor, and I like an anti-hero who isn't convinced of his heroic status - Keller was a lot of fun, initially. Later, though, when Dot and Keller decide that the only way to resolve things is to kill Keller's ex-girlfriend; enh. He stopped being a sympathetic character. I dislike that. I kept expecting some sort of twist ending, and it didn't come. In fact, the book just sort of ends - Keller is still doing what he does, Dot is still doing what she does, and nothing changes. It's a little bleak - even a little depressing, frankly. Although disapointing in the end, I'm not sure I can classify this book as trashy, either. So, 0 for 4.

Theresa Medeiros - After Midnight

Ok, THIS book, this book is a trashy book. Regency romance, a little later in time than the earlier work, with added vampires. Vivienne Cabot is having her Season in London when her younger sister, Portia, becomes convinced that the man who seems to be courting Vivienne is a vampire. She tries to convince the eldest (and most sensible) Cabot girl, Caroline, that something must be done. Caroline is not convinced, but an invitation from Adrian Kane (potential vampire) brings Portia and Caroline to London anyway, where Caroline proceeds to fall madly (and unwillingly) in love with Adrian Kane. Who may or may not be a vampire. Portia falls for Kane's younger brother, Julian (who may or may not be a vampire, but is certainly an overly dramatic fop), and Constable Larkin (and old friend of Kane's, and definitely NOT a vampire) falls in love with Vivienne. There's a masquerade ball at Kane's castle in the country. There's a mysterious figure from Kane's past. There IS a vampire (naturally). There is also some steamy steamy extra-marital sex - totally inappropriate for the time period. Everyone is utterly dramatic about almost everything, all of the characters are perfect types of their type of character, and everything falls tidily into place (or into bed, as the case may be).

It's trashy, but it's not bad. It's a little overwritten in places, and Medeiros inserts character development at odd places - Caroline, we are told 3/4 of the way through the book, is better at math than at embroidery, for instance. She and Vivienne have a silly spat in the last 1/8th of the book, revealing that they are really sisters and behave like real sisters do. For the most part, though, the characters are acceptable, even if the story is silly. Medeiros clearly had fun writing it, and I had fun reading it.

1 for 5 on trashy books - but they served their purpose. Perhaps I'll do better in two weeks when I have to go to DC.

Wednesday Hickey of the Beast Post, 6/8/2011

(Link here)

Chapter 13

Connie goes to the chapel, alone - without Autumn, so my prediction from last week - entirely false. Well, so far. I suppose Jenny could still feel bent out of shape that Connie went to Autumn instead of Jenny. Weirdness is there - Connie experiences a trance, and there's a big glow-y ball thing. That's about it.

Some nice touches though. 1) Connie crashed her bike here in the summer - this we know from before - and bled a lot. Bets on that being significant later - blood tying Connie to a specific location of mystical significance? 2) "with the wind cutting through my wool coat and the fuzzy blue hat abuela Maria had knit me." a subtle reminder of the fact that Connie is Hispanic. Izzy isn't beating her readers with a sledgehammer, because that's not the point. Connie is a woman of colour - and that's totally normal. But we, as readers, should not allow ourselves to forget that and begin picturing her as a blonde blue-eyed white girl, because she isn't. Finally, 3) - a perfect description of epiphany:

It was looking at a Magic Eye painting and seeing the sailboat. It was running down the soccer field with the ball in front of me and Tisha at my side, knowing exactly where I needed to be and knowing that my body would do what needed doing, no questions. It was hearing the beat in a new song. It was the smell of chili when you walk into the house on a winter Saturday, a million different ingredients making up one scent that reaches right into your stomach and practically drags you to the kitchen. It was the feel of Autumn's afghan under my hand. It was everything. Everything broken into parts, and everything put together. I could see how it all fit.

The writing in this book - hell, I only paid $5 for this, and it's clearly worth more than that. If you haven't got a copy yet, when you click on the clicky link above, spring for one of the more expensive packages and get the bonus stuff, because you won't be disappointed.

No Library Post today

I am safely in Kansas City. I will, actually, be in a library today (and all week) - the Truman Presidential Library - but it's not the sort of place I can borrow books from. If I get a chance, I'll take some pictures for y'all.