December Book Update 2
Five books I read earlier this year. More to come I'm afraid.
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In first century Rome Falco gives a poetry reading along with a much posher writer he met in a previous case. It’s well attended, unfortunately bringing some guests he’d prefer not to have seen. One is Domitian Caesar, the Emperor’s younger son who has it out for Falco. Another is Chrysippus, a publisher and stalwart of the Roman literary scene who takes it upon himself to introduce the reading and makes an offer to publish Falco. Later it’s revealed this will be pay-to-play and Falco walks out.
Chrysippus is found dead that afternoon, a broken scroll stave rammed up his nose. Petronius, the vigile captain calls in Falco as a witness, then with plenty of other work as he’s been left in charge by the tribune, hires Falco to solve the case. Falco swiftly learns that Chrysippus, a Greek immigrant, gets his wealth from a bank; this is run by a freedman, a family retainer to keep it at arm’s length, the scriptorium being a more respectable sideline. Between various unhappy writers, clients of the bank, an ex-wife, a new wife and a son there are plenty of suspects and little to choose between them.
A dive into Roman banking and publishing, with various genres of literature considered, and also shipping and insurance. Who gets loans and why, who gets published and why. Plus Falco’s family go through another crisis, his father’s partner Flora (not Falco’s mother) has died. Their efforts to get Falco’s widowed sister Maia to take over the bar she ran get entertainingly diverted, grief and practicality rubbing against one another with a light touch. A satisfyingly interesting ancient Roman murder mystery.
Read This: Complex murder mystery in a fascinating setting
Don’t Read This: The only thing worse than a convoluted
crime is financial shenanigans
Waylander from Waylander and Waylander II: In The Realm OfThe Wolf has retired, is now a rich and mysterious landowner in far Kydor, known as The Gentleman. But all is not well there; the four Houses are competing violently and mercenaries raid his lands. Waylander goes out to deal with them on his own, but maybe he’s slowing down. In any case he’s injured but kills them all, rescuing Keena, a woman who turns out to be a natural with weapons and wants nothing to do with them.
Visitors come, a mysterious oracle, a merchant who is an old friend. The merchant has a perfect warrior from an order whose swords dissolve when they die, and a braggart who has somehow gained such a sword. And a magician comes too. Everyone is interested in the old ruins.
Waylander makes a third and final appearance. He has, perhaps, come to terms with his own black actions, yet he is tired of the world, intending to lead an expedition into unknown seas before being interrupted by the events of the novel. On the back cover is the line “Waylander, the Prince Of Assassins, must kill a man who cannot die.” This part is very nearly as brilliant as it promises.
Written after Winter Warriors, though set long before, it uses some of the demon-lore from that novel, to generally good effect. A later written Drenai novel, it also uses the portals idea that Gemmell put into much of his fantasy, though here more as a fantastical goal than as something to be used. All in all, a rewarding novel for those of us deep into Gemmell’s fiction and a solid heroic fantasy for those who aren’t.
Read This: Strong novel of redemption and heroism from
doubt, with some clever and spooky magic
Don’t Read This: Waylander is a murderer in the shadows
Ten years have passed since Kushiel’s Chosen. Phedre studies Habiru with a Yeshuite scholar, to try and learn how to release her friend Hyacinthe, bound to an island in the sea between Terre D’Ange and Alba. It is a curse due to the angel Rahab. All her studies suggest the only way to release him would be to use the name of the One God, which was lost, though perhaps one tribe carried it away.
She gets a letter from Melisandre Shahrizai, who plotted to take control of Terre D’Ange, Phedre’s lover and patron, the most dangerous woman in the world. Her son, Imriel, now third in line to the throne, has gone missing. Melisandre is trapped in her sanctuary, unable to search for him. She charges Phedre to do so. Phedre agrees; Imriel is the Queen’s cousin and if he can be returned to Terre D’Ange that will defuse any plot. And more; D’Angelines are descended from Elua, whose maxim is ”Love as thou wilt.” Melisandre has many flaws, sins, evil, yet she loves her son. And in return she gives Phedre a document that may lead to the Name Of God.
Imriel’s abduction turns out not to be due to mortal plots. But something is brewing far to the East in Drujan, something the gods are involved in. Dark forces have risen in response to the brutality of the Akkadians. Phedre finds herself being led inexorably into the very heart.
The third in the series, finishing Phedre’s trilogy, it dives deep into what it means to be a god’s servant, and how being able to feel pain as pleasure can be a curse and a blessing. And on top of that healing, of people, families and even nations, weird theology and some truly fantastic magic at the end.
Read This: Fantasy trilogy finale with more extraordinary
travels and clever and amazing magic
Don’t Read This: More dubious sex, child abuse and weirdness
On the planet of New Rho Nona is an amnesiac being brought up by Camilla Hecht and Palamedes, who share the same body, and by Pyrrha. The city is in rebellion against the necromancers and the Emperor John Gaius, the few remaining loyalists trapped in the Barracks, and what to do about them frequently becomes a violent argument amongst factions. One faction is The Blood Of Eden, a ten thousand year old organisation who have opposed the Emperor from the beginning; it seems they have got hold of the leaders of the Sixth House, the scientist necromancers, and Nona and her family may be part of the Blood Of Eden.
This is of lesser importance to Nona than such things as spotting dogs, hanging out with her friends and being Teacher’s Aide at the school. Nona loves this damaged city, though it’s doomed; the blue light in the sky that keeps the necromancers away will inevitably destroy them. And despite her gifts – she heals faster than even a Lyctor, and can understand every language – she knows that the end will come. So she wants a six month birthday as she will not see the year one.
A complex and confusing situation, in which characters from the first two books return in differing roles. Some who were dead live, and some are transformed. Muir succeeds in two extraordinary efforts, in keeping the plot impossible to understand yet compelling, and a viewpoint character who is almost entirely uninterested in what’s going on to an annoying extent still likable.
In between, in a dream sequence, John Gaius, the Emperor, explains how he became the Necromancer Supreme, back on Earth. Where he and everyone on Earth is lied to and betrayed and left to die and he somehow manages to commit a crime worse than that which could yet be salvation.
Read This: The series of necromancers being weird teens gets
weirder and teen-er
Don’t Read This: You’d like someone to explain something
clearly so you can understand, preferably without death and undeath being weird
along the way
In the first part of this novel Atanas Svilar, a Yugoslav architect whose buildings don’t get built, seeks his father. (He in fact has two fathers, just as his son has two mothers. There is a reason for this). His father vanished during World War 2, escaping as it turns out into Albania, then into Greece, and seeking refuge on Mount Athos.
Mount Athos is a centre of Eastern Orthodox Monasticism. In the novel a stylised, slightly fabulist version of the history of the place is laid out; that monks from various places moved there. They divided themselves in various ways, the most important being the solidaries or cenobites, who live as a group, and the solitaries or idiorrythmics, who are individual, hermits. This division into two groups continues throughout the novel, with other versions playing out; another important difference being between men and women.
To move between the two groups requires leaving a monastery, changing your name and joining a different monastery, which will often mean moving between (say) a Greek one and a Serbian one etc. After coming to the end of the trail and not finding his father Svilar changes his name to Razin, moves to the USA, takes his childhood sweetheart with him and makes a fortune with a pharmaceutical company.
The second part of the novel is for crossword lovers and can be read either across (more or less chronologically, though not entirely) or down (grouped by topic). All the sections have extraordinary parts combined with grounded sections, serious thoughts on how to live and frivolous asides. The world is absurd, and in every case divided into two sections. Crossing between those sections requires giving up what was on the other side.
There is a solution to the crossword that can be derived, and by doing so it implicates you, the reader, in the events of the novel. You have been put in one of two sections which determines the fate of a character.
The landscapes painted in tea are the residences of Josip Tito, the former president of Yugoslavia. Razin has painted them then, after making his fortune, recreates three of them, finally creating buildings, by recreating existing ones.
Read This: Pieces of folklore, parables and mysterious
history that captivate and occasionally enlighten
Don’t Read This: A lot of bitty tales illustrating
constructed and often incoherent binaries
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