Book Review Catch Up 2
Still catching up on books I've read but not reviewed. Here we go:
1. Anathem
In a world where science and philosophy are studied in convent-like institutions that are (mostly) sealed away for one, ten, a hundred or (occasionally) a thousand years at a time, our hero makes a record of what happens when some people come from another world.
To do this he sketches out the history of thought, multiple worlds, religion, magic etc.
Read This: For a novel packed as full of weird societal and technological ideas as it is of philosophical ones
Don’t Read This: If rather than drawing attention to the differences, the made-up words would be better translated to the nearest equivalent.
2. The Nano Flower
Greg Mandel’s final case (there’s a short story but essentially the three novels are the whole thing). Julia Evans, rich, powerful billionaire tycoon is trying her best to make a better world, without either getting screwed over by the politicians nor making them her puppets which would inevitably have them voted or thrown out. Then there is a clue from her missing lover Rylan, a flower of extra terrestrial origin.
Simultaneously a very weird technological innovation appears on the market, with several people willing to make a deal with her company to try and develop it. Are these linked? Are there aliens involved? She brings Greg, psychic private eye, out of retirement to find out. Things rapidly spiral out of control.
More of a thriller than a mystery, and a techno-thriller than that; it swiftly dives off into weird science fiction territory.
Read This: It’s a fun SF thriller that makes some interesting leaps into strangeness at the end
Don’t Read This: The billionaire saving the world has not aged quite as well as might be hoped and there is a tendency for mysteries to be resolved by pulling a new concept out the bag rather than a satisfying answer.
3. Against All Enemies
Paul Sinclair manages to get promoted again as his three year tour on the Michaelson comes to an end. He’s made friends, got his girlfriend to agree to marry him, performed well (SPOILERS: his final professional assessment is outstanding) and also got a lot of people worried. He keeps getting involved in court cases and doing the right thing, no matter who it might harm. At least one admiral is gunning for him and his next assignment is for Mars, the Siberia of the US Space Navy (though as more than one person notes, at least it isn’t Ceres).
That’s the subplots though, the actual plot revolves around a mission to evict some squatters from an asteroid (forbidden due to paranoia about them creating a dinosaur killer), which turns tragic. The South Asian Alliance (the recurring villains of the series) seemed to almost know what the rules of engagement were. As though someone were feeding them information. But that would be... espionage. Surely no officer would commit that?
(SPOILERS: One has and this inevitably becomes a court case again)
Read This: For an interesting and almost nuanced ending to the series; Sinclair competent and always willing to do the right thing, finds it costs him as well as rewards him
Don’t Read This: The delight the series shows in the minutiae of the US Space Navy can be grinding at times
4. Edison’s Conquest Of Mars
This is an 1898 sequel to HG Wells’ The War Of The Worlds. Or rather it is the sequel of an unauthorised and altered version of that novel, published in the US as Fighters From Mars. Following the Martian invasion and defeat in the previous book, the people of Earth decide to take the war to the Martians. Fortunately real world inventor Thomas Edison has plans for electrical spaceships (which can attract or repulse) and disintegrator rays.
The real person fic doesn’t stop there. Many leading scientists of the day (including a self-insert from the author, an astronomer) make an appearance. And in order to build the armada that will take the fight to the Martians they need a lot of money, which is raised at a great congress of nations in Washington City.
There’s some amusing competition between Great Britain and the German Empire in trying to one up each other, the king of Siam (Thailand) offers a fabulous diamond and at the ball to celebrate the Prince of Wales (future Edward VII) offers a toast admiring Edison and claiming him for the Anglo-Saxon race. The Czar and Kaiser are the only ones not to cheer.
They get on their way, discover ruins and diamonds on the moon, a gold mine on an asteroid, and when they get to Mars find it fortified against them and short of supplies. Landing to raid for food they discover an enslaved woman, the last of her kind on Mars. Apparently the Martians raided Earth 9,000 years ago, seized slaves from Kashmir (this proving to be the origin of the Caucasian race and also the Indo-European languages) had them build pyramids and the sphinx in Egypt, then returned to Mars.
The Martians are phrenologists, who use training to enhance the parts of their mind they want for the jobs that need to be done. Thus the Emperor of Mars is cold and warlike and immune to mercy or higher feelings. The women aren’t trained, and so are pretty hot.
Anyway, there’s some good ideas (this may be the first publication that includes a spacesuit), some interesting uses of the science (the electrical drive attracts them to a comet that they have difficulty getting away from), some dodgy stuff (racism, phrenology etc plus the economics are not thought through), one or two period bits of interest (they decide the Martian language will be a constructed one, proposing a “Volapuk of Mars”, this being a popular pre-Esperanto universal language), and some fun adventures including a somewhat bolted on romantic rivalry.
Read This: For an early and influential SF adventure
Don’t Read This: For deep thoughts or people leaving their prejudices on Earth
Out Of Copyright: And available to read online.
5. The Republic of Thieves
Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen are professional thieves and conmen. Now though they find themselves caught up in a dirtier business, politics. The Bondmages of Karthain resolve there differences through elections of the city state they control and so one faction hires Locke and Jean to win it for them. However there are compications; a Bondsmage, The Falconer, killed many of their friends and they took a horrible revenge on him. In turn there are Bondsmages with grudges. The other faction has hired Sabetha, who trained with Locke and Jean as a thief, and is also Locke’s former lover.
This latter is illustrated with a flashback story where the teenage Gentleman Bastards spend a summer as actors, which inevitably goes wrong in more and more complicated and farcical ways.
But there’s still more backstory and complications coming from a different direction.
Read This: For more high fantasy cons and misadventures
Don’t Read This: If political dirty tricks for amusement and entertainment is not for you
6. The Big Bow Mystery
A short 1892 murder mystery novel by then-popular comic author Israel Zangwill. It is an early example of the locked-room style of mystery. Zangwill himself, a man with a cutting sense of humour, did not take it too seriously, claiming that when it was originally published serially people wrote in with their solutions to the crime, all of which he then had to eliminate when writing the last part, the actual culprit being the only one not guessed.
The mystery itself is okay, the story moves briskly with a few satirical jabs. There’s a bit of period political commentary, though more poking fun at stereotypes (and also Gladstone), some of which is obscure.
Read This: For a short, light-hearted murder mystery with some period interest and weird characters
Don’t Read This: If you want to stick to the investigation rather than get sidetracked into comic (and “comic”) interludes
Out Of Copyright: And available to read online
7. Lea and Perrins Barbeque Cookbook
This book, originally published in 1979, was written by famed TV cook Mary Berry. Lea and Perrins are the makers of Worcestershire Sauce, unless you get an off-brand version, which you shouldn’t, not for the recipes in this book anyway. Show some respect!
The first section is a quite comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of barbequing as practiced in the UK in quite some detail. A reminder that it was a new and exciting idea to sit outside and get smoked while cooking and eating! Following on are recipes, some staples of barbeques, others odd. A whole lot of marinades and so on. Many include Worcestershire sauce for which I can’t blame them.
Perhaps something of a curiosity, nevertheless it offers some interesting alternatives to the traditional British barbequing of sausages, burgers and chicken drumsticks.
Read This: For a thorough introduction to barbequing as it took place in the UK in the 1980s, when it was at least a little novel
Don’t Read This: For state of the art barbequing, though it does sometimes seen that the art has moved on little
8. Fool’s Fate
The second trilogy featuring Fitz and the Fool comes to a conclusion. The Fool has prophesised he will die if he goes to the island that is the resting place of the dragon IceFyre. So Fitz plots to leave him behind as he joins Prince Dutiful’s party to kill the dragon and win the hand of the Narcheska.
But fate cannot be denied and they will all meet their destinies on the island, facing death and ruin and an alternative vision of the future. And if they manage to save the world, maybe Fitz can learn to save himself and the people he loves.
Read This: I’ve gone a bit marketing copy in this review, but I really liked this; it’s a good fantasy novel and then there’s a moment where Fitz is counting the cost of what’s happened and makes a choice that leads outside the boundaries set by the novel and it is (ahem) fantastic
Don’t Read This: We’re six or possibly nine books into a series now, if you’ve read the previous ones you know if you want to continue
9. The Wind In The Willows
There is a tendency to remember this as the adventures of Mr Toad, and adaptions like to follow this. And that’s good, it has a throughline, with Mr Toad’s eccentric enthusiasms getting him into trouble and his friends trying to get him out and eventually he learns something.
But when you emphasise those elements, you’re losing some of the others. Ratty and Moley getting lost in the Wild Wood and then the strangeness of meeting Badger. Ratty meeting the seafaring rat and being seduced by the idea of travel. And The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn where they go out to search for Little Portly, Otter’s missing child, and meet the Great God Pan. There’s a moment of divine experience in this kid’s book about a rich toad who gets locked up for joy riding, then it is erased “Lest the awful remembrance should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth and pleasure, and the great haunting memory should spoil all the after-lives of little animals helped out of difficulties, in order that they should be happy and lighthearted as before.”
I mean that’s basically what happened here.
Read This: For a gorgeously written story of the animals in the English countryside that occasionally slips sideways into something stranger (yet still very English)
Don’t Read This: It’s still 50% a kids book about some good animals trying to stop their idiot friend from getting into trouble
10. Terminal World
Quillon is a pathologist in Neon Heights, in the vertical city of Spearpoint. Each zone of the city (and out in the world) has different technological levels (there is an explanation for this that I won’t go into). Neon Heights sits between Circuit City (computers) and Steamville (no electricity).
He has a secret; he is a disguised angel from the Celestial Levels, and now someone is after him. He flees Spearpoint, and falls in with some others, including one who might be a tectomancer, one with power over the zones. Then there is a great zone storm, which shakes up the world; joining up with the Swarm, an airship fleet, the last military force on the planet, they have to try to understand what has happened to the world.
They think the planet is Earth but it isn’t, and the clues as to the actual planet are all there (dates, geography, the encroaching ice age etc). But there are still more enormous mysteries as well.
Read This: Gritty airship adventures, weird differing technologies, conspiracies, plots and every expectation subverted
Don’t Read This: If planetary adventure with several leaps of logic aren’t for you
