Megatheriums for Breakfast

Yeah, well, I’ve been busy on so many fronts it’s ridiculous. But I’ve still been reading a lot.

Since it’s so long since I wrote about what I have been reading, this can only be the briefest of lists.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Hardcover, my own collection

This historical novel about Thomas Cromwell won the Man Booker Prize last year. I enjoyed it a lot – the historical period is endlessly fascinating (Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey and Anne Boleyn), and in the hands of Mantel, Cromwell comes across as a very sympathetic and interesting character.

But there are some puzzling quirks. The novel is written almost entirely in the present tense, which does lend a sense of immediacy to the work, making it seem less like an historical tome, but also gives it an odd flavor. And Mantel also mostly refers to Cromwell only with the impersonal “he”, which makes for many, many sentences which are deeply ambiguous and which take time to puzzle out (phrases like “He handed him the reins of his horse”).

My biggest puzzle/gripe is the title – “Wolf Hall” is the name of the seat of the Seymour family. Jane Seymour does appear as a character in the novel, but fleetingly, so why use this name as the title for the whole work? And the novel ends with Henry (and Cromwell) about to set off on a precession around the country, to include a visit to Wolf Hall. Bang, end of book. I can only assume that this is really only half a book, that the coming sequel will fill it out and complete it.

Nevertheless, well worth reading.

The Sun Kings by Stuart Clark

Hardcover, my own collection

Interesting enough non-fiction about a British Astronomer who observed and explained a huge solar flare impacting the Earth in the 1800s.

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Alison Hoover Bartlett

Hardcover, my own collection

OK but not terrific story about an habitual book thief and the bookseller who tracked him down.

Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie

Audiobook on my iPhone

This was the first Rushdie book I’ve read. Slightly weird. Best parts are about the tragic history of Kashmir, obviously deeply felt. But there are some silly plot quirks to do with the supposed one-time American ambassador to India, and one outright totally unbelievable moment. Can you imagine an ex-Ambassador, whose life has been threatened already by terrorists, would be allowed to appoint as his body servant and personal chauffeur, on a whim, a man who has a known record in terrorist activity and the very man whom the Ambassador had cuckolded in India?

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson

E-book on my iPhone

Not quite as strong as the first two books in the Millenium trilogy, but still a really good read.

Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

Hardcover, my own collection

Another in Card’s long series about Ender Wiggins and his associates. This one links the story from the close of the Bugger Wars and Ender’s role as Speaker for the Dead. Good stuff, if not fantastic. But the Ender canon is all so really good that it’s hardly surprising that these later additions and fill-ins aren’t knock-outs. But they do usefully expand the picture.

The Island of Dr Moreau by H.G.Wells

E-book on my iPhone

Well worth re-reading. Timeless works. I’m currently re-reading The Invisible Man, also as a (free) e-book.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Audiobook on my iPhone

Really gripping thriller. I can see why it was turned into a movie, as the writing is cinematic throughout. I enjoyed it a lot, and I’ll be looking for other books by this author.

Larklight by Phillip Reeve

Hardcover, my own collection

Fun science fiction for younger readers. By the same author who wrote the Mortal Engines series, but much less grim. In fact, designed to amuse and entertain.

The conceit of the books is that Isaac Newton, through his alchemical researches combined with his study of gravity, invented space travel in the late 1700s. So these books are set in the Victorian Era of this alternate history, with the British Empire reaching out into the Solar System, which is populated by a wide variety of creatures and intelligent species. Even the vacuum of space isn’t a vacuum in this alternate world, but ‘the aether’ which is partly breathable.

A lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequels.

Currently Reading

I’m currently re-reading, or rather re-listening to The Song of Fire and Ice by George R R Martin, having given up on waiting for Martin to finish the next book in the series.

Also reading:

• The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes (paperback)
• The Invisible Man by H.G.Wells (e-book)

And I have a bunch of other e-books lined up waiting for the arrival of my iPad.

My occasional summary of what I’ve been reading and listening to.

Gosh, I get through a lot of books in six weeks! Partly this is because I listen to a lot of audiobooks as I walk and drive, and partly because… well, I just like reading. So some of these comments will be rather brief.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

E-books on my iPhone

Really superior thrillers with some excellent characterization. It took me a little while to get into the first book because of the slightly off-putting Swedish references and context. But I was hooked by the time Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative finance reporter, is convicted of libel but then offered an intriguing puzzle by Henrik Vanger, an ageing industrialist: what happened to his grand-niece Harriet 40 years ago? The circumstances of her disappearance make it something like a classic “locked-room” mystery.

And we are also introduced to a young woman, Lisbeth Salander – the “Girl” of the titles – an original and memorable character, who drives the plot in some very interesting directions.

Both books were gripping, un-put-downable reading (wearing out my eyes on the small screen of the iPhone – I’m looking forward to buying an iPad).

I haven’t yet read the third in the series The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, though I am looking forward to it.*

Alas, there will be no more Lisbeth Salander books, as the author died of a heart attack not long after finishing the third book in the trilogy.

* I had to buy this in Kindle format, as the epub versions aren’t yet available. I must say that the Kindle app on the iPhone is rather poorly done. Given that Amazon bought up Stanza, I would hope that some of that technology gets put into the Kindle app.

Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy L. Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh

Audiobook

This Lord Peter Whimsey book was left unfinished at Sayers’ death, but it has been splendidly completed by Jill Paton Walsh, who seems to have channelled Sayers in her understanding of the characters of Whimsey and Harriet Vane (now Lady Peter). Very enjoyable mystery, and a wonderful picture of England as it moves inevitably towards war with Germany. I imagine, however, that some of the criticism of royalty developed in the book (the new King Edward VIII and his dallyings with Mrs Simpson, his loose behavior towards security and his dealings with the Nazis) would never have appeared in a book written by Sayers at the time.

The Water’s Lovely by Ruth Rendell

Audiobook

Rendell has an amazing ability to portray the psychological dramas of ordinary people, in novels written either under her own name or under the pen-name of Barbara Vine. And she is brilliant at inventing (or observing) remarkable characters in a seemingly ordinary urban environment.

In this book we have a fascinating and slowly developing story of two sisters influenced by the death by drowning of their step-father some fifteen years ago when they were both in their early teens. The slow revealing of this back story, the different way each of these sisters remembers this event, and the playing out of the consequences make for gripping reading.

Orpheus Rising by Colin Bateman

Audiobook

I borrowed this from the local library on a whim (the selection of audiobooks is limited, so I often pick up something on impulse). It was a bit strange, but quite enjoyable.

It tells the tale of a young Irish man who has moved to Florida, USA and writes a novel called “Space Coast” which after receiving many rejections is at last published and becomes an unexpected best-seller, making him exceedingly rich. So far so good: but his beloved wife is killed in a senseless bank robbery not long after the book is accepted for publication.

Ten years after the tragedy, after a decade wandering the world, rich but miserable, he comes back to the town where he and his wife had lived. After quite a long lead-up, about half-way through the book, strange things start happening… and at this point the book becomes intriguing, if not particularly deep.

I’ll look out for some other books by this author.

The Ladies of Grace-Adieu by Susanna Clarke

Audiobook

I am a huge fan of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which is an astonishingly good book (I’ve read it three times). Set in the 19th Century in a slightly different version of Britain, in which the study of ancient magic and faerie begins to yield positive and practical results.

This book is a compilation of stories which Clarke apparently couldn’t fit into the numerous side stories and footnotes in the original book. They vary greatly in character and seriousness, but most have an underlying humour. I particularly liked “Mr Simonelli, or the Fairy Widower” in which a country pastor discovers he has fairy relations. This is not necessarily a good thing…

Settling Accounts Quadrilogy by Harry Turtledove

E-books on my iPhone

Whew! I’ve finally finished the “Southern Victory” alternate history series by Turtledove – eleven long books detailing the consequences of the Confederate States winning “The War of Secession” in 1862. Great stuff, really, but I think I’m glad I have finished it. I feel like I have been reading this forever.

At least, I think I have finished, unless Turtledove unleashes yet another trilogy taking the history beyond the end of the Second Great War.

Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly

Paperback, my collection

The latest of Connelly’s Harry Bosch books. Bosch’s daughter, living in Hong Kong with her mother, is apparently kidnapped in retaliation for Bosch’s investigation of Chinese Triads in Los Angeles. Bosch charges off to do the Rambo thing, but not everything is as it seems…

Currently Reading

I’m currently reading:

• A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh & Dorothy L Sayers (Audiobook)
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Hardback*, my collection)

* Just a note on book prices in Australia – it was cheaper to buy this beautiful hardcover version from Amazon and have it shipped to Australia (admittedly with some other books to share the cost) than it would have been to buy a thick paperback version here, whose spine would have cracked in no time.

My fortnightly occasional summary of what I’ve been reading and listening to.

The Grail Quest by Bernard Cornwell

Audiobook on my iPhone

Amazon link

This is a trilogy of historical novels, set during the Hundred Years War between England and France (mid 1300s), and centered on the exploits of Thomas of Hookton, an English archer. In those days, the English longbow, en masse, had the devastating impact on opposing armies that the machine gun did during World War I. Arrows from such bows, plied by men trained from youth to have the strength to draw them, could pierce even plate armor.

Cornwell has an excellent sense of period, and has clearly done his historical research thoroughly. There are several battles in the book which – if they were fiction – would seem to strain credibility: the Battle of Crécy, in which the English army in France under the command of Edward III, hugely outnumbered, desperate, out of supplies, and exhausted, nevertheless managed to wipe out a vast proportion of the French nobility and escape; the Battle of Durham, where again a greatly outnumbered English contingent destroyed the flower of Scottish arms and captured the King of Scotland; the Battle of La Roche-Darien where Duke Charles of Brittany thought he had a cunning plan to destroy the English archers, but was in fact defeated and captured. All of these are true stories, but Cornwell brings them vividly (and bloodily) to life; and it’s perfectly credible that his protagonist would be at each of these events, which happened within the span of a few years in the 1340s.

The character development of Thomas, his loves and friends, is all excellently handled, particularly the conflicts between Thomas and his one-time friend, the Scot Robbie Douglas in the last book.

And then there’s the plot device of the search for the Holy Grail. No Arthurian (or even Monty Pythonesque) romance here, but a belief that the relic exists among the powers of the Church, and a connection through Thomas’ family which holds out the tantalising thought that the Grail might really exist and be located. It’s this hope which drives the characters.

Really entertaining reading. And very well narrated by Sean Barrett.

Almost Perfect by W.E. Pete Peterson

E-book on my iPhone

Interesting history of the word processing software which for a time was the best-selling product in the field.

The book could have been subtitled “The Rise and Fall of Word Perfect”, I guess, for the product is now long gone, swept away by the ubiquitous Microsoft Word.

This e-book is a fascinating look at the early history of computing and word processing in particular. Since I am someone who cut their teeth on a dedicated Wang word processing system, and who has seen the introduction and rise of Microsoft’s products, it was particularly interesting to me. But it would be equally interesting, I think, to students of business dynamics and interpersonal relationships in business, as the company grows and grows and relationships get stressed. Peterson eventually gets shafted by his long-time partners, and a fair bit of his resentment and self-justification comes out in the book.

This is only available as an e-book these days as the original is long out of print (if it ever was in print, not sure).

Current Reading

I’m currently part-way through:

• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Hardcover, my own library) – yes, I’m still reading this – it’s a long book, and I find it hard to find time to sit down with a physical volume these days.
• Ruled Brittania by Harry Turtledove (Ebook)

My fortnightly monthly! summary of what I’ve been reading and listening to.

South! by Sir Ernest Shackleton

E-book on my iPod

Amazon link

This true story of Antarctic adventure in the early years of the 20th Century starts a little slowly, as Shackleton recounts the slow and frustrating progress of the expedition on the ship Endeavour as they vainly try to find a way through pack ice to make a landing on the Antarctic coast.

But it really takes off as a story of almost superhuman endurance and struggle when the Endeavour becomes permanently frozen into the ice, and is eventually crushed and destroyed, leaving nearly 30 men stranded on the shifting ice floes, hundreds of miles from the nearest land and with no hope of communicating with the outside world to seek rescue.

They float with the ice for many long months, unable to do more than hope that they will drift far enough north that they can become free of the pack ice and launch the ship’s boats which they drag with them from floe to floe. The long, long struggle to reach land is harrowing. Finally they manage to struggle ashore on Elephant Island, a desolate crag with barely any shore – and no people. From there, Shackleton and another five men set out in the strongest boat to try to reach the nearest outpost of civilization – the whaling station on South Georgia. Amazingly, they manage to do it, only to find they are on the far side of the island from the whaling station, and so have to trek across mountains and glaciers to reach help.

Even when they do reach the station, it is many months before a ship can successfully reach the stranded men on Elephant Island. It is astonishing that despite all the privations, not one man was lost on the expedition. And grimly ironic that most of the men, once rescued, set off for home to join up with those still fighting in the trenches in World War I, where many of them are then killed.

Real – but true life – Boy’s Own material.

The Appeal by John Grisham

Audiobook

Amazon link

This is a bleak indictment of the power of corporations and their disdain for the common person, as Grisham looks at the fall-out from a courtroom success against a major chemical company. The little guy – the community devastated by pollution of their water supply by the company – has won! But has he? Not if the billionaire running the company has anything to say about it. Quite gripping reading, but ultimately pretty depressing.

All the Colors of Darkness by Peter Robinson

E-book on my iPhone

Amazon link

This is the latest in Robinson’s series about Detective Chief Inspector Banks, set in the North of England. And I think Robinson has finally jumped the shark with the series. What starts off as apparently a straightforward case of murder-suicide by a homosexual man blows out into a pointless investigation into whether the murder had been triggered by Iago-like whisperings from another party – pointless because it’s clear all through that no charges can be laid against such a person – and into fantastical stuff with the involvement of Britain’s spy agency MI6 (with apparently unlimited powers).

Definitely not the best book of the series, but possibly the last, as I can’t see where Robinson can go from here with any credibility. A great pity.

Current Reading

I’m currently part-way through:

• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Hardcover, my own library) – yes, I’m still reading this.
• Almost Perfect by W.E. Pete Peterson (Ebook)
• Harlequin by Bernard Cornwell (Audiobook)