Book Review Catch Up 2
Still behind on reviews but catching up, here's some books I read this year.
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1. On His Majesty’s Service
Hervey heads for the Balkans, there to observe the Russo-Turkish War of 1828 from the Russian side. Of course by "observe" we mean he keeps placing himself at the point of maximum danger and getting involved. This leads to the Russian Commander (a German like many of the senior officers in this Russian army) to offer him a brigade and a general’s rank.
This is tempting as his beloved 6th Light Dragoons which he is in line to take command of, will be reduced to a depot squadron. The alternative is a respectable infantry battalion in the garrison at Gibraltar. Neither quite appeal and in particular he has been unable to consult with his new wife about it, her having previously refused another command in Canada.
Enough of this though, there’s fightin’ to do. First Hervey and his companions go down to visit a port south of the Balkan Mountains that the Russians have seized in a daring amphibious attack. He goes out on patrol with some Cossacks who he impresses. Then he observes a Turkish attack on the strongpoints and concludes that it is strongly enough held that the Turks will not retake it without more guns and troops – guns and troops needed against the main Russian armies on the Danube.
Following this he then joins the main offensive which sidesteps the strong fortresses north of the Balkan Mountains, tricks the Turks, defeats them and fights its way into Adrianopole, within close range of Constantinople. There is quite a lot of action, some comparisons of the Russians and Turks to other armies and several closely observed 19th century events.
Read This: More 19th century cavalry adventure
Don’t Read This: Personal doubts while the long collapse of
the Ottoman’s begins is not for you
2. Interesting Times
Rincewind is back and is sent to the Counterweight Continent, home of the Disc’s oldest and most inscrutable empire. It’s fantasy China time everyone.
In this, Pratchett’s parody/pastiche style and cynical view of those in power serve him well. Yes they eat the bits of cows you’d normally not eat here in the west but 1. Asks the question who’s getting the steak and 2. Directly contrasts with the offal pies, pig knuckles and “animal product” sausages of Ankh-Morpork. Five families are waiting for the death of the emperor to make war and take control, the Hongs, the Sungs, the Tangs, the McSweeneys and the Fangs. But there are other forces at work trying in various farcical ways to reach their goals. And maybe there will actually be a way that will help the people of the empire?
Read This: A fun comic fantasy adventure with one or two
thoughts, though mostly on how the grass is greener on the other side
Don’t Read This: A minor entry in the Discworld series,
harking back to the roots
3. The Quiller Memorandum
You’ve seen the film, now read the book! A somewhat different experience though with essentially the same plot. Quiller is sent into West Berlin in 1965 to try and uncover Nazis, both neo- and old school. His method for doing so is to make a nuisance of himself so that his enemy have to expose themselves so they can be arrested.
The book is very interested in the details of how Quiller goes about his work. He communicates with his headquarters via a radio station (which receives a lot of mail that their agents can pick out and, despite being light music and chat for women at home has a twice daily stock price announcement that they hide coded messages in). “Tags” – people following you – are his main concern. They go through several sequences of this, both following and being followed. Quiller is drugged and interrogated, perhaps the highlight of both book and film, learning as much about his captors as they do about him. In addition he does a bunch of psychology.
This gets a bit dubious at times. Inga, who Quiller gets involved with, was in the Führerbunker as a child, right up to the end. Quiller wonders:
Sometimes, watching her, I wondered: what sex are you?... Lean, black, leather-belted and athletic-looking, gold hair thick along her arms: she might be anything. Lesbian, narcissist, sado-masochist, necrophile, any or all, and nothing for me, which was why I was here, a nihilist.
I mean, that’s a paragraph and a half. Quiller turns his own analytical mind on himself, possibly more on himself than anyone else and though he’s not a nice man, or a good one, there’s a certain satisfaction from seeing his own cold gaze turned inward and judging.
Read This: A spy thriller interested in the workings of both
spying and spies
Don’t Read This: Weird psycho-sexual analysis and being
drugged is off-putting
4. Grimm Tales For Young And Old
Phillip Pullman translates some stories from the Grimm Brothers’ Children’s And Household Tales. These versions of the stories aren’t always as familiar as we might expect. They are a little darker and more bloodthirsty than the sanitised ones we read and see, stripped of character and inner depths, and often very German. Pullman has made a few changes to clarify things, often pulled from similar tales in other countries, but keeps most of his commentary for notes to each story.
A good introduction to Grimm’s tales in English, with both clear, straight and entertaining telling, and some light commentary.
Read This: A fine selection of Grimm’s Tales, easily
accessible
Don’t Read This: If I want fairytales I’ll watch a cartoon
5. Galactic North
Eight stories set in Alistair Reynold’s Revelation Space universe – more or less as he explains in his afterword; some of the earliest ones have not been refitted to be absolutely consistent. Which is fine, read fiction supposedly set in the real world, people will be wrong and have different names for things.
Several of the stories working through ideas of the Conjoiners, humans with linked brain implants who are a hive mind – though one that is portrayed neutrally rather than sympathetically. Transhumanism and cyborgs occur again and again often being perverted into scenes of horror. Some are also efficient scientific mysteries, with the answers often hidden behind the obsession of a character. Others are stranger, revelations of sorts, delving into corners of the this setting.
Read This: Good Science Fiction elevated for those of us interested
in Reynolds’ worlds
Don’t Read This: What is a Revelations Space anyway?
6. Princess Daphne
An 1885 novel by Edgar Heron-Allen and Selina Dolaro, it opens with a peculiar legacy; Paul du Payral will receive the fortune of his deceased mentor Casimir Pérault if he proposes to and marries his niece, Miss Daphne Pérault; if she refuses him, he keeps the income from it’s investment until he marries or dies.
Du Payral promptly proposes, is refused, and settles down to enjoy his wealth. He spends his time in New York society, where eventually he fall in love with Madame Mahmouré, culminating in a secret marriage. They also get into mesmerism.
Meanwhile Daphne has moved to Holland Street in London, the Bohemian home of writers and artists, known as the “boys”. They call her “Princess Daphne,” and accept her as one of their own (the “boys” are cheerfully gender blind). There are some amusing escapades here before the plot kicks in. After Eric Trevanion is cut off by his father for refusing to go back to Cornwall and marry a local girl, she supports him by buying his articles secretly. They fall out over this. However then she mysteriously falls ill.
In New York it appears that Payral’s link to Daphne has been activated by the experiments in hypnosis, leading eventually to his death. Mahmouré then takes on many aspects of his personality, perhaps even his soul and travels to London for a rather confusing finale.
Anyway there’s fun bits of trying to make a living as an artist or writer (death, personal tragedy or churning out stuff pandering to the audience make money but a rich patron or private income is best – this section feels the most true to life), some weird spookiness and a few amusing jokes. People keep interfering in their children’s or protegee’s lives, leading inevitably to tragedy. Daphne, from New Orleans, has a maid called Clytemnestra who occasionally manages to develop something other than the stock character of the 19th century black servant.
Read This: For a weird Victorian novel about trans-Atlantic
psychic vampirism and the London arts scene
Don’t Read This: It’s page after page of people refusing to
get on with the plot or tell each other anything and when they do something
it’s to weirdly annoy another character
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