Two Favourites.

I reread two novels by two of my favorite fantasy writers.

The Shadow of The Torturer by Gene Wolfe is the first in the Book of the New Sun series. I originally read it about 16 years ago. I enjoyed it and appreciated it far more this time around.

Set in a future so distant that the sun is dying. Wolfe uses the conceit of a found manuscript and a future history. He reinforces the feeling of strangeness by using archaic words and describes strange alien vistas.

Severian is expelled from the guild of Torturers for an act of compassion, he aids a prisoner in taking her own life. Dispatched to some distant regional town we follow his travels though a sprawling metropolis peopled with individuals strange and dangerous.

Severian is a unreliable narrator, albeit one with a perfect memory so we cannot always be sure of the veracity of what is reported. Underlying this is the author's own metaphysical, often neoplatonic musings informed by his own deep seated Catholic faith

Lyonesse III: Madouc by Jack Vance's is the last in the trilogy and the weakest. Far more whimsical than Wolfe, Vance's strength is his dialog. All his characters engage in rich and witty dialogue. The only downside being that since a 10 year old princess and an aging con artist use a similar turn of phrase character can al time blend in to one.

The series is brought to a climatic if somewhat rushed conclusion. Loose ends are ties up and each charater is given their own happy ending My problem is mostly with the pacing of the first half of the book and particularly of the episode involing Madouc herself.

While her escapades are often humorous they lack both the originality and verve of the adventures from the earlier novels.

Overall a fun read and not a bad conclusion to the series but weaker than the first two novels.

The King of Ireland's Son by Padraic Colum

A beautiful children's book. I'm really looking forward to reading this to my children when they are a little older.

The oak and the ram by Michael Moorkcock

The second book in the second of The Corum series. Corum was my first introduction to the writing ofMichael Moorcock and these stories remain some of my favourites. Moorcock play fast and loose with Irish myth and legend but the result is a fun and fast paced read.

I read the first book The Bull and the Spear during the summer. This sequel take up a few month after the last one finishes. Corum meets old friends and encounters old enemies, goes on perilous journeys, survives arduous sieges and retrieves mythical items. More of the same really but Moorcock's style and pace makes up for any shortcomings in the plot.

Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom

I has read Sansom's first Novel Dissolution a few years back. I'd enjoyed the historical details and the story. It was a fine detective novel with an interesting protagonist and a since of time and place.
Winter in Madrid is equally well researched. I've long been fascinated by the Spanish Civil War. Homage to Catalonia is one of my favourite book by one of my favourite authors, Orwell. This is the first work of fiction I have read about the period.

The story is set in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War in 1940. Madrid is devastated and Sansom's describes the desolation well. It is the other elements of the novel that let is down. I found the characters difficult to empathize with. The pacing seemed off. The beginning was slow and laborious while the ending seemed rushed with a twist which was unexpected but primarily because it was unbelievable. It's not a bad tale of espionage just not a great one.

Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective by Peter L. Berger

Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective was an optional text book for a course I'm currently studying. It is absolutely fantastic. Humorous and erudite, it is a wonderful introduction to the field of sociology as well as providing a lot of food for thought. I will definitely be seeking out some of Berger's other works.

Tank Books: tales to take your breath away

A few years ago my friend Chris gave me a give of a collection of miniature books as a birtday gift. The set is entitled Tank Books: tales to take your breath away. They are beautifully presented in 50's style cigareete packets and include works by some of the great. I started with Rudyard Kipling “The Man who would be King”, “The Phantom ’Rickshaw” and “Black Jack”

I had never read any Kipling and in fact had a certain bias against the author. I vaguely remeber his being described as anti Irish independence in history class. That said “The Man who would be King” was a fantastic film and much to my delight a equally fantastic novella. The two other short stories are equally enjoyable. "...Rickshaw" is an old fashioned ghost story and “Black Jack” a tale of plot and counter plot in a military barracks. All three stories are very evocative of The Raj with which Kipling was so familiar.

BTW I did some research and Kipling became virulently anti-Irish after the 1916 Easter rising, which is somewhat paradoxically as many of his protagonists are Irish or half Irish.

Berlin Game by Len Deighton

Just finished two very differnt fantasy novels.

I just finished reading Fritz Lieber's Swords against Deviltry and Parsival or a Knight's Tale by Richard Monaco. Two very different novels - actually Deviltry is three novellas - and two very different approaches to fantasy.

I've always been a Lieber fan. He approaches his subject with a sence of humour and a slight irreverence. The protagonists Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are probably tow of the most interesting and likable characters in the sword and sorcery genre.



This was teh first novel by Monaco I had read and it did little for me. He had some interesting takes on the Arthurian legends but the overall style and delivery left me cold. The novel seemed to wallow in the sheer awfulness of everything. I don't mind grim and gritty, I enjoyed Joe Abercrombie but you need a certain levity or it becomes a depressing trudge

Quicksilver

I finally finished Quicksilver. I originally bought the novel about five years ago and initially read 200 pages. Stephenson style initially seemed impenetrable with it reams of description and asides. I started it again in May 2008 and maybe read another 100 pages. I found it full of fascinating ideas and historical vignettes but the story was poorly paced and some of the language was strangely anachronistic. In hindsight I realize the author was deliberate in his choice of modern phrases.

I finally picked it up again mainly due to pressure from my better half to empty out some of the book shelves. It took me a few more chapters of slogging but now the book started to hold my attention.

Previously I had enjoyed Stephenson excellent cyberpunk novel Snowcrash. Quicksilver is a very different affair and lacks the former's snappy pace. It's only real science fiction trappings are a fascination with encryption and a minor if significant character Enoch root a possibly immortal alchemist.

The novels spans the middle to late 17th century and takes place in England, France, the German principalities and the Massachusetts colony. It cover a period of religious discord and scientific awakening; the development of the absolute monarchy in France and it's end in Britain.

The main character are Daniel Waterhouse; a contemporary and sometimes friend of Isaac Newton; Jack Shaftoe; rogue, vagabond and adventurer; and Eliza a former slave of the Turkish Sultan's Harem. These characters lives intersect at various point and also interact with a variety of persons of historical significance.

Stephenson style echos that of the early novel not only in the use of language but also in form. Parts of he book are epistolary while other read like a picaresque adventure. Throughout the author provides huge amounts of historical details, some times in overwhelming volumes.

The initial chapters deal with Waterhouse's background and a secondary plot set years later when he is an old man. It was here I kept getting bogged down and it was only in the final pages of the first part of the novel that my interest was really piqued. It also probably took me that long to adjust to Stephenson's style. The introduction of Jack and Eliza in part two brings about a change of pace and scenery and gradually the various plot threads and characters tie into a cohesive whole.

Stephenson is obviously proud of the research he has done and is quite happy to describe in depth everything from pike and shot warfare to the birth of the stock market. While I found each individual subject interesting; some so much so I intend to do further reading on them; they give the story a very stop start, almost episodic feel.

The novels ending ties up enough loose threads to leave me happy but leaves enough plot hooks for the two sequels. i'll certainly read them at some future point but probably when I have more free shelf space.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The Pastel City by M John Harrison

Thanks to Bookmooch I'm able to reread some pulp fantasy novels that I enjoyed in my teens.. The Pastel City was always a favourite of mine. I loaned my original copy to a friend and that was the last I ever saw of it.

It's a compact novel with a simple linear story. The main character suffers from a mild case of the Elric mopes. It is firmly in the dying earth tradition and bears similarities to some of Moorcock's works. Indeed Moorcock is a significant fan of M John Harrison's work. It is Harrison's descriptive prose and sense of the fantastic that really lifts this novel above similar sword and sorcery offerings. The landscape of endless rust deserts and encroaching moors is truly alien. I have read none of his later works and I believe The Pastel City is supposedly the most accessible and most easily defined as genre fiction.

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

Finally reading Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I started it twice before and both times lost my copy of the book. A conspiracy perhaps?

I love these quotes from Eco from a NYT interview.

All links WFS.

I am wondering if you read Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code,” which some critics see as the pop version of your “Name of the Rose.” I was obliged to read it because everybody was asking me about it.

My answer is that Dan Brown is one of the characters in my novel, “Foucault’s Pendulum,” which is about people who start believing in occult stuff.

But you yourself seem interested in the kabbalah, alchemy and other occult practices explored in the novel. No, in “Foucault’s Pendulum”

I wrote the grotesque representation of these kind of people. So Dan Brown is one of my creatures.

The Bull And The Spear by Michael Moorcock

Interview with Jack Vance

in the NY Times. The Lyonesse books; the first two of which I recently reread; are among my favourite fantasy novels. I've never read the Dying Earth series. I knew it as a source of inspiration for Moorcock's Dancers At The End Of Time and Wolfe's The Book Of The New Sun.

The interview is a fantastic insight into Vance's life and works. I will be buying or mooching more of Vance's work presently.

A free lunch or at least a free book

I joined Bookmooch last week. It a really great concept, and like most great ideas, really simple. You list books you no longer want and you browse for books you may like. My wife is happy because we finally will have some space in our bookcases. I'm happy because I'll be able to fill those space.

It's a great way to find older and out of print book, especially genre fiction. I'm currently in the mood to read lots of pulp fantasy. Maye I'm feeling nostalgic which would explain my joy when rereading the Lyonesse boooks.

All my favouriet fantasy writers - Wolfe, Moorcock, Lieber - are well represented. It promises to be a sumer of heap and cheerful reading.

Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden Bk.1 and The Green Pearl Bk 2 by Jack Vance Jack Vance

Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

This is the first Murakami novel I'd read and also one of his earliest. It's nearly fifteen years since I initially encountered the book. While I vaguely remembered the outline of the plot I'd forgotten all the details. It is in the details that the author excels.

It's Chandler meets Kafka or maybe Borges. Hard boiled insanity or pulp magic realism. t can be both hilariously funny and deeply moving, often in the same paragraph. The cast of charterers are weird to the extreme and almost all nameless.

While probably not his best it is certainly his tightest and funniest and I'm really glad I still have it on my shelf.

Innocents Abroad by Gene Wolfe

This was my first exposure to Gene Wolfe as a short story writer. It left me wanting more. The authors continues to use many of the themes and literary devices from his novels: memory loss; the unreliable narrator; the familiar presented in unfamiliar way; the interaction between the mundane and the fantastic.

The stories weave together science fiction, horror, fantasy and magic realism. A number of the shorter pieces are fun to read but really seem more like exercise in writing. It's in the longer stories that the author hits his stride and these are pure gold.

I especially loved The Lost Pilgrim. It's setting in ancinet Greece and
There is is a ravenous shark god in The Tree is My Hat and mad bad voodoo in Houston, 1943.

Castleview by Gene Wolfe

This isn't Wolfe at his best. The story is at times maddeningly confusing. It appears to be a mishmash of Arthurian legends, fairy folklore and vampire stories all set in small town America. The characters often seem to act in a contrived manner and for a short novel is has an extensive cast. But it's still Wolfe. The book has some interesting ideas and wonderful images and his prose is always a pleasure to read.

It moves along at a fair old clip and the second half is practically frenetic. This both serves to draw the reader in and then to leave them even more bemused when they have a moment to cogitate on what just occurred.

Definitely worth a read but would not recommend this to a first time reader of Gene Wolfe. The Book of The New Sun series or Soldier in the Mist would be better starting point.

Night Train to Innsbruck: A Commando's Escape to Freedom by Rex Woods

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

A fantastic, informative and enjoyable historical novel. I found Grave's style initially difficult but ultimately compelling. Narrated by Claudius himself the experience is totally immersive.

Eats shoots and leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

Does reading this book twice make me a pedant. A fun and informative look at modern punctuation. It always make me feel rather inadequate in the writing department.

Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard

I finished the novel a few days before the author's death.
This is Ballard's most accessible, personal and in many ways most harrowing novel.

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon

An amazing insightful read. The dense fact laden prose is offset by an amazing cast of characters and a rich collection of anecdotes.

I felt the book flagged a little in the middle due to the repetivie nature of teh activities being covered. However after a few days break I would be back for more. Some chapters were increbibly memorbale and difficult to put down even as my train pulled into it's station.

I really must rent or buy The Wire.

Night Manager by John Le Carre

An OK read from Le Carre. That said one of his middling efforts is still better that most other writers of the genre. The usually collection of back stabbing, jet setting and governmental double dealing combined with a cast of characters that will seem familiar to a regular reader of his works. All served with Le Carre's usual mastery of language.

Last Argument Of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

The Time-traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer

The Far-farers: A Journey from Viking Iceland to Crusader Jerusalem by Victoria Clark

The author follows the pilgrimage route of an 11th century Icelander and cover the history of schism between the eastern and western church and the first crusade.

The book is meticulously researched and written in a very engaging fashion. She cleverly juxtaposes events from her modern travels with those of her medieval inspiration.

It is both a history and a travelogue and while more successful as the former does contains many interesting and amusing anecdotes related to her own trip.