What are you reading? Second quarter 2024

[Iskaral Pust]

The Sorcerer And The Assassin by Stephen O’Shea is a novel of historical mystery fiction about Dominican Inquisitors persecuting and torturing Cathar heretics in the 13th century.  Someone starts killing the torturing inquisitors, so an investigator is summoned, with some similarity to Umberto Eco’s The Name Of The Rose.  I don’t enjoy these visceral depictions of torture; it’s just unpleasant to read even if the novel is overall well written.  Not the genre for me.

The Silver Eagle by Ben Kane is the second in his series (Forgotten Legion) of historical fiction about a Roman Legion serving the Parthians in the far northeast corner of their empire following a defeat in battle — protecting a region on the Silk Road from incursions by steppe horsemen.  This series is pretty good but develops very slowly as the author insists on relating the unfolding political crisis around Caesar a thousand miles away from the main characters in the legion in Parthia.  I understand the desire of a historian to tell the bigger story of Roman history but it’s pretty unwieldy in the flow of the novel.

Web Of Lies by Sally Rigby is a cosy-ish mystery novel and start of a new series (Detective Sebastian Clifford) as a DI from the Met retires and gets pulled into private investigation in a small town.  There’s nothing revolutionary here but it’s a solid specimen of the genre.  The protagonist is a slightly aloof, slightly superior upper middle class career detective, while his side-kick is an earthier, younger working class WPC.  These oh-so-English class tones permeate the writing and characterization.  It’s all a bit vanilla but fine for the genre.

[ljkeane]

Ithaca was ok. It's well written like all of North's books but it felt a bit predictable being constrained to stick to the outline of the story we know from the Odyssey and the premise of 'actually all the men from the Illiad/Odyssey were fairly awful' doesn't feel like an especially radical reimagining of the original. I didn't dislike it and I'll read the sequel but it didn't really hold my attention that well either.

Next I'm going to read Adrian Tchaikovsky's Alien Clay.

[Zorral]

59 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

Ithaca

You might have liked Clytemnestra (2023) by Costanza Casati much more.

[williamjm]

I finished Jodi Taylor's Symphony of Echoes, the second part of her Chronicles of St Mary's series of time travel stories. Like the first book it is a quick and fun read, but also frustrating at times. Although often quite light-hearted it does have some darker moments in it but because it is bouncing from one plotline to another so quickly the attempts at more serious dramatic moments often lack weight. For example, near the end of the book the main character has to grapple with the moral consequences of preserving the historical timeline and they are disturbed by what they are having to do but there's very little time spent reflecting on this. The increasingly contrived roadblocks to the relationship between the main character and her love interest are also very tedious.

I've now started Ann Leckie's short collection, Lake of Souls. So far, the title story's first contact tale is the highlight.

Edited May 7 by williamjm

[Alytha]

I never thought I'd DNF a book at over 90%, but I did with Melanie Rawn's first Exiles book.

I'm not sure why I even read that far, probably hoping something interesting would finally happen.

Spoiler

The book is extremely sexist, but as the sexism is directed at men, I guess that's considered acceptable? 

The society is strictly matriarchal, but the female antagonist, for... reasons?... decides to join the male-dominated fascist Bene Gesserit copycat organisation, and try to take over the world?

But all ist not lost, there is a Resistance! (The Rising).  They just kinda don't do anything but shuttle people all over the world for most of the book. They've got these teleportation portals called Ladders which are pretty much the only interesting concept in the book. Like you get ladder-lag if you've been jumping around all over the planet too much.

And then there's the will they, won't they lovers setup. Like Han and Leia, or maybe rather Lonestar and Princess Vespa from Spaceballs, as I suspect that he's secretly the missing heir of some important noble family or something. At some point they get trapped in a magical cottage, and have to tell a Truth to get out, and no cookies (sorry), to the person who can guess what it is. Ugh. 

Also Luke Skywalker is female in this one as well.

And, to finally ruin it, the big final battle is not even a battle and happens entirely off-page, as apparently almost all the high-level politicians were secretly part of the Rising all along and just took over.

 

[Wilbur]

This past week I read both Borne and the slim novella The Strange Bird that complements it by Jeff Vandermeer.  Borne was an audiobook read by Bahni Turpin, which was fine.

I want to like Vandermeer's work, but I found both of these post-apocalyptic stories to be meandering affairs where the protagonist is so vague that it is difficult to establish much empathy.  The writing is good, but the broken city setting just wasn't very interesting to me, either.  VDM does do a decent job of setting up some reveals, though.

 

[Wilbur]

On 4/24/2024 at 11:20 AM, Wilbur said:

I recently received Bruce Holsinger's A Burnable Book, and again, I think I placed the request based on a recommendation from one of the forum members in a previous iteration of this thread.  Whichever one of you reviewed this one, thank you!

The audiobook read by Simon Vance is excellent, as is every performance Vance does.  The plot is thick with unreliable narrators and twists and turns in a royal court sure to appeal to any fan of ASOIAF, the mysteries unravel slowly and with some good turns from predictability, the cryptography is dealt with in a light and non-Neal Stephenson manner.  The historical characters are well-limned, most especially the protagonist and poet philosopher John Gower and his friend and contemporary Geoffrey Chaucer.

The book's strengths lie in its portrayal of the politics of the late medieval period in London, and its weaknesses also lie there as well.  By this I mean that the story and writing transport the reader to the scene and the concerns of the characters so very effectively, but also, as an American and a republican, I can't bring myself to care all that much about threats to the king.  Still, the risks and dangers to the many non-noble characters are real, and the writer makes us care about them and their concerns.

Strongly recommended!

I also requested the second John Gower novel, The Invention of Fire, by Bruce Holsinger, in an audiobook read by the excellent Simon Vance.

These books both do a tremendous job of taking the poetry of the real-life John Gower, and then imagining what the man who wrote them must have been like, and how the court of Richard II worked.  It also deftly portrays Geoffrey Chaucer again, although in this one he has a less-pivotal role, despite his important diplomatic link to the mercenaries of Sir John Hawkwood in Italy.

Many times a successful novel like A Burnable Book is followed up by a hollow imitation of a second book, but this is not the case here.  Holsinger turns the reader's viewpoint to another key turning point of history, the advent of guns, and includes an excellent main story about the use and development thereof into a political thriller.  Really interesting history, characters with stories you want to hear, and technical writing skills at a level slightly above the normal middle-brow fiction.

[Jaxom 1974]

Posted this in the wrong thread earlier:

Today I finished listening to the entirety of Alan Smale's Clash of Eagles trilogy because I'm always looking for alternative history fiction.  And there is fun alt history, there is good alt history, and there is alt history that is good and fun.  I'm not sure where to classify this series.  Oh it's two topics I enjoy historically. But the divergent point of history to have the Western Empire continue and thrive and not break apart was muddy, but that's probably minor.  It was interesting listening to these books while watching the Shogun series on television, as I think I was projecting the latter on to the former. The lone surviving white guy brings "civilization" to the people of the land.  Oh it isn't a one for one comparison, but it did echo for me.  But the idea that the Roman Empire surviving into the 13th century and one surviving Praetor bringing together the disparate tribes and nations of America together to join forces with Rome to fight the Mongols on the Great Pains? 

Yeah. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

Just finished Otessa Moshfegh's Eileen.  One of the funnier books I've read lately, and a truly memorable narrator.  Mossfegh gets everything she can out of having the story being told by the main character as an old woman.  I feel like word for word it's tough to do as.much as she does in only 250ish pages.  

Will definitely read more of her stuff, going to pick up Death in Her Hands this week.  

[Fragile Bird]

I’ve been deep into mindless candy, the Hamish Macbeth books, as I mentioned in the previous thread. I said the audiobook narrator was great but getting too old to be mid-30s Macbeth, and looking up his name found out he died last year or the year before, and the new narrator of the most recent book is a bit too twee. I also mentioned that M. C. Beaton had started working with a co-writer, and I see he also picked up the writing on the Agatha Raisin books as well. Beaton apparently gave him a long list of ideas for books. I’ve been a bit disappointed in the book he wrote himself, there were a couple of continuity issues (the police station gains a second floor, and other minor points). The latest book has already been announced and I’ll try it when it comes out, I guess.

That led me to deciding to revisit P. D. James, and I’ve listened to five of her Adam Dalgliesh books. It’s amazing what you see in retrospect. Since I earlier read all of Josephine Tey’s Alan Grant books, I can now see James must have been heavily influenced by Tey. Among other things, both detectives are heavily addicted to the job and reluctant to get involved in a serious relationship. Maybe if Tey had lived longer she would have eventually married off Grant, as James eventually marries off Dalgliesh. Both have mysteries that get wrapped up by unexpected confessions. Both detectives get seriously ill and go off somewhere to recover, getting involved in murders. Something I didn’t remember about Dalgliesh is that he really finds handicapped people repulsive, very apparent in Book 3, Unnatural Causes. I wonder if she faced criticism for that, as Book 5, The Black Tower, is actually set mainly in a home for the disabled. Dalgliesh still has issues but they’re really toned down. Still, well worth listening to.

And then something totally different, I finally finished The Three-Body Problem. It took me a couple of times to get through it, but I’ve now finished it and really enjoyed it in the end. There are trying stretches which get quite technical. Has anyone read books 2 and 3? I looked at the Wikipedia article on Three-Body and saw a synopsis, and I’d like to know if they make you feel as depressed as they sound. I’ve put a hold on The Dark Forest. I also looked at some of his other books and they do look grim ie Supernova Era.

[Underfoot]

Finally finished He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan, and it was a big step down for me vs. She Who Became The Sun. It seemed to wallow too much in the feelings and decisions of truly awful people, and was a little too "told not shown" when it came to certain themes along gender lines, trauma lines, etc. 

I went back and forth on if Zhu Yuanzhang's portions were engaging or not, as major plot points were really hit or miss for me on the believability and execution scale, but any time spent with Wang Biaoxang or Madame Zhang were just a really bad time. 

There was also too much disturbing sexual scenes, that weren't quite like sexual violence but were distinctly uncomfortable nontheless. 

Just very little about it was enjoyable, and the characters and plot didn't grip me the way SWBtS did. Disappointing. 

Next up: Parable of the Sower I think. 

[Alytha]

Finished Pole to Pole by Michael Palin.

In which he travels from the North Pole to the South Pole, hope that's not too much of a spoiler 

I really liked it, he travelled in 1991, along 30° East, more or less, so he went through the last days of the USSR, and it was interesting to see what has changed in those roughly 30 years, and what hasn't.

Interesting detail: In Ethiopia, he travelled with Graham "I can make up my own archaeological facts" fricking Hancock...

I don't know if he was that notorious already at that time?

Anyway, the book's at 0.99€ at amazon.de this month, so go get it if you're into that kind of content.

[Wilbur]

5 hours ago, Alytha said:

Finished Pole to Pole by Michael Palin.

In which he travels from the North Pole to the South Pole, hope that's not too much of a spoiler 

I really liked it, he travelled in 1991, along 30° East, more or less, so he went through the last days of the USSR, and it was interesting to see what has changed in those roughly 30 years, and what hasn't.

Interesting detail: In Ethiopia, he travelled with Graham "I can make up my own archaeological facts" fricking Hancock...

I don't know if he was that notorious already at that time?

Anyway, the book's at 0.99€ at amazon.de this month, so go get it if you're into that kind of content.

Was it his show of this book that was the precursor to all the of the "British Guy Travels Around" television and later internet shows that have been so ubiquitous in my adult lifetime?  I remember watching an episode of one of his travel shows on a BA flight circling Heathrow, waiting for a landing slot in the 90s and thinking, "Wow, this is great, I wonder if any more of these exist" in my innocence.

What sort of things stick out for you in terms of what he writes about that have made the greatest change since those pre-internet days?

[williamjm]

5 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Was it his show of this book that was the precursor to all the of the "British Guy Travels Around" television and later internet shows that have been so ubiquitous in my adult lifetime?  I remember watching an episode of one of his travel shows on a BA flight circling Heathrow, waiting for a landing slot in the 90s and thinking, "Wow, this is great, I wonder if any more of these exist" in my innocence.

What sort of things stick out for you in terms of what he writes about that have made the greatest change since those pre-internet days?

The first show (and tie-in book) was Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin, in which he tries to recreate Phileas Fogg's journey (and isn't allowed to use aircraft because Fogg couldn't use them). Pole to Pole was the follow-up. I think it did kickstart that genre of television, it does sometimes feel every British comedian gets their own travel show although I don't think they tend to live up to Palin.

[Fragile Bird]

I think I’m going to do some Alice Munro re-reads. RIP to a great Canadian writer.

[Alytha]

21 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Was it his show of this book that was the precursor to all the of the "British Guy Travels Around" television and later internet shows that have been so ubiquitous in my adult lifetime?  I remember watching an episode of one of his travel shows on a BA flight circling Heathrow, waiting for a landing slot in the 90s and thinking, "Wow, this is great, I wonder if any more of these exist" in my innocence.

What sort of things stick out for you in terms of what he writes about that have made the greatest change since those pre-internet days?

I only lived in the UK for 2 years in the early 2000's so I don't know much about that, this kind of content doesn't seem to have crossed the Channel much. I was surprised when looking through Palin's bibliography though, he's got tons of travel books like that one. I liked his writing style, so I might have a look at more of them.

William probably knows more about the TV programs.

In terms of changes, I seems to me that the biggest game changer might be portable phones, and not so much the internet? For the places he went to, it's possible that the internet wouldn't have helped all that much either. Maybe to look up phone numbers. If nobody told you that the book's from 1991 (Ok, ignoring the part with the USSR), it all feels pretty modern, at least to me.

[Zorral]

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
By Colin Elliott | May 15, 2024

A ‘plague’ comes before the fall: lessons from Roman history

https://thebulletin.org/2024/05/a-plague-comes-before-the-fall-lessons-from-roman-history/

Quote

.... In the year 166 AD, however, seemingly eternal Rome was caught completely off-guard as a deadly novel disease swept across the Eurasian landmass. It ransacked Rome’s cities for at least a decade and preceded centuries of decline. This major biological event—now known as the Antonine plague—appears to have been the world’s first pandemic. ....

 

Edited Friday at 08:14 PM by Zorral

[williamjm]

4 hours ago, Alytha said:

I only lived in the UK for 2 years in the early 2000's so I don't know much about that, this kind of content doesn't seem to have crossed the Channel much. I was surprised when looking through Palin's bibliography though, he's got tons of travel books like that one. I liked his writing style, so I might have a look at more of them.

William probably knows more about the TV programs.

I haven't read the book version but the TV show he did about visiting North Korea a few years ago was fascinating. Palin keeps up his trademark affability throughout but you can tell he's sometimes struggling with what a bizarre experience it is and what the constantly cheerful guides aren't telling him.

[IlyaP]

Finished reading The God Is Not Willing: The First Tale of Witness by Steven Erikson today, the first novel in a new Malazan trilogy, which was very meh. At least it was shorter than a standard Malazan novel, which is a plus (editorial self-restrained FTW!), but still left me feeling thoroughly underwhelmed. 

[ljkeane]

Alien Clay was ok. It had some interesting ideas in it as you'd expect with Tchaikovsky's books and the juxtaposition of a brutally repressive society with academic bickering was amusing but, unusually for Tchaikovsky, it felt a bit predictable how it all wrapped up. Overall not bad but not my favourite of his books.

I also read Sharpe's Command by Bernard Cornwell and this was a bit disappointing from an author I usually really enjoy. It feels a bit like he's phoning it in and I really don't think there's a need for anymore Sharpe books, which I think I said about the last one too (and there's going to be another one this year apparently). There was also some continuity errors apparently but honestly it's been probably at least 25 years since I read the other books from around this time period so I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't seen it pointed out.

Next up I'm going to read Mark Lawrence's The Book That Broke the World.