The Bookish Hamster

Long time, no entry...Part I

2011-11-16T11:26:00.002-05:00

Well, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), real life has once again caught up with me, and I haven't had time to properly review any books. Never fear! I have been steadily reading away as usual, keeping track of everything over at Goodreads! Since it is obvious that I stand no chance of ever catching up with my back log of books to review, I thought I'd go ahead and post a more succinct summary of my recent reads in a multi-part series. So...without any further ado:

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)
Co-winner of the 2010 Hugo Award (tied with The City & The City, previously reviewed by yours truly here). The novel takes place in a near-future where energy sources have become severely depleted, forcing massive changes on society. Food production is completely controlled by mega-corporations who engineer plants to suit their clients' needs. An extremely good book with a lot of thought-provoking ideas about where humanity is heading if we continue on with our unsustainable rate of consumption. [5 hamsters]

The Brothers K by David James Duncan (1992)
This book follows the ups and downs of a midwestern family whose four sons come of age in the '50s and '60s. Narrated by the youngest son, it focuses on the father's minor league baseball career and how his brothers deal very differently with the reality of war. Laced throughout is some of the best writing about families that I've ever read--it really captures the love and dynamics of family in an unforgettable way. [4.5 hamsters]

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)
Is there anyone who doesn't know what The Hunger Games is about? In a post-apocalyptic world, a central government holds the Hunger Games, where teenagers from different districts are pitted against one another in a televised battle from which there is only one survivor. Fantastic premise, though the main plot is strongly reminiscent of Stephen King's The Long Walk (see my review here). This is a heck of a good book--one of those that I simply couldn't read fast enough. Highly, highly recommended. [5 hamsters]

House of Chains by Stephen Erikson (2002)
This is the fourth book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series (reviews of previous volumes here). These novels continue to be somewhat convoluted and a challenge to piece together, but they also continue to capture my fascination. House of Chains, a direct sequel to Deadhouse Gates, was a little slower moving than its predecessors, but carried the story forward nicely once everything got going. [3.5 hamsters]

The Broken Wheel by David Wingrove (1990)
The second volume to the Chung Kuo series (first volume reviewed here). No surprises in this one--nothing deep but a fast paced story in a well-realized future world. Wingrove is in the process of reissuing an expanded 20-volume (if you can believe it) set of Chung Kuo books which I'm pretty excited about checking out in the future since it fills in some of the gaps in the original series. [3.5 hamsters]

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (2007)
There was a lot of buzz around this novel on the nets, so I thought I'd check out Rothfuss's debut novel. It is a really interesting book despite employing more than a few fantasy cliches. The best description I can give it sells it short but here goes anyway: a mature version of Harry Potter. Not quite fair, but the comparison is inevitable. A well written book, it has one of the most logical, developed systems of magic of any novel I've come across. There aren't people going around pointing wands at each other and saying cute phrases to wield magic; instead, a caster acts as more of a conduit for energies from the natural world. Great stuff! [4.5 hamsters]

Stay tuned! More updates to come soon!

A Dance With Dragons

2011-08-08T16:59:00.001-04:00

Never fear, dear reader, I've not forgotten about the blog but, rather, have been attending to more important things in real life (like earning a Ph.D.). As it happens, it takes one of the biggest publishing events in geekdom to draw me out of my silence. So, without further ado:

[Don't worry, I'm not going to include any real spoilers in the review.]

Unless you've been living under a rock lately, you probably know about George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF). The HBO series based on the first novel in the series, A Game of Thrones, has been hugely successful and drawn people to ASOIAF that I otherwise would never have expected to show any interest. My Goodreads and Facebook feeds have lit up in recent weeks with people talking about ASOIAF. We're talking females who I went to high school here, for goodness sakes. The powers of HBO are truly mind boggling.

Well, A Dance With Dragons is the fifth novel in ASOIAF. It has been in the works for six, count 'em, SIX years. Everyone (read: geeks on the internet) was getting a bit worried about GRRM's ability to pull this one off after his long delay. Also, he is not exactly a young man (or a particularly healthy-looking man for that matter), so this break was (is?) possibly threatening the completion of the series (let's not forget the tragic death of Robert Jordan). Well, I'm happy to say that GRRM's latest novel is a solid effort; GRRM has lost none of his flair with the quill.

So: Is there action? Adventure? Intrigue? Violence? Sex? Fire-breathing dragons? The answer to all these is, happily, YES! Do we meet up with our favorite characters so cruelly abandoned in A Feast for Crows? Yes! Are there any events that are going to rock the foundations of ASOIAF? I guess so (note the lack of enthusiasm; see below).

So what gives? Why the 3.5 hamster rating? While the novel has all these things and more, you will be forced to meander with each character across Westeros and the Free Cities many times over in between encounters of substance. No form of transportation has been left out: wagon, river boat, horse, sea galleon, and, most importantly, good ol' feet. A Dance With Dragons cries out for a good editor--I could cut several hundred pages out of the book without raising a sweat and there would more than ample room to tell the same story.

This brings me to my biggest problem with the novel. Simply put: the novel spectacularly fails to push the main plot forward. Characters are shuttled around the world, some things happen, but the threads of main plot are coming together so achingly slowly (or in several cases not at all), at this rate it is going to take at least 15 more books to reach some semblance of a conclusion to all this.

All this being said, the novel is a good read, certainly better than A Feast for Crows. I look forward with great anticipation to the next book in the series, so I guess on that account, A Dance With Dragons is a spectacular success!

The Company

2011-06-13T17:02:00.000-04:00

The Company (2002) is a huge door-stopper of a book (nearly 900 pages) that chronicles the Cold War as seen through the lens of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Mixing fact and fiction, the novel is a sweeping Clavell-style epic that begins with the end of World War 2 and continues through the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Company (as the CIA is more colloquially known) revolves around a group of men who are recruited to join the newly minted agency after their graduation in the early 1950s. They are soon thrown into the wild west that was post-war Europe and cut their teeth running agents and coordinating resistance within the Eastern bloc. Soon the cohort becomes involved in several of the major covert operations that would come to characterize the West's struggle against the Soviet Union (e.g. the failed Bay of Pigs invasion). These "on the ground" action sequences are some of the most compelling in the novel. Littell portrays actual historic personalities alongside his fictional characters, and the two are blended together seamlessly.

Woven throughout the novel is a plot hatched by Starik, a sinister Soviet spymaster, to bring about the downfall of his glavny protivnik (principal adversary), America. Taking the long view, Starik quietly embeds a double agent, SASHA, within the CIA and dangles tantalizing clues as to his identity in front of the Americans for decades in the hopes of creating a paralyzing climate of paranoia. This plot arc, based on the career of the notorious spy-hunter James Jesus Angleton (featured prominently in The Company), provides continuity and links each major section of the novel together. The climax of the novel comes as the fictional identity of SASHA is finally revealed (the real SASHA was never identified...if he even existed in the first place).

With a few notable exceptions, many of the fictional characters, though having well-developed personal stories, are fairly wooden. The author also takes some liberties with his unflattering portrayal of real characters--Littell's Robert Kennedy is a rabid dog, and his Ronald Reagan a lost sheep. Thankfully, these quibbles are fairly minor and the gripping plot quickly carries the reader past them. Overall, The Company succeeds magnificently in its attempt to offer a panoramic look at the Cold War and the culture within the CIA during one of the more turbulent periods of American history.

Never Let Me Go

2011-05-25T15:07:00.000-04:00

I'm the first to admit that I easily get swept up by the bandwagon when something big rolls around. I take almost giddy delight in reading reviewer's quotes on the back of nearly every book I read. So, when on the cover of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005), Time magazine declares the book to be "the best novel of the decade," I go into it with fairly high expectations. Moreover, Never Let Me Go is held up as a stirring expression of the moral disquietude that often comes hand-in-hand with advances in biomedical science, a field which is near and dear to my own heart.

The story itself revolves around a three children who are raised at Hailsham, a boarding school nestled in the English countryside. Kathy H., the narrator of the novel, provides a window into Hailsham through her recollections of day-to-day life with her friends. In the course of these vignettes, it becomes clear that Hailsham is no ordinary school. The children, while seemingly well cared-for by their guardians, are not taught the skills necessary to lead an independent life and, arguably more damaging to them, lack any nurturing emotional connections save those they clumsily forge amongst themselves.

As they grow older, the children slowly come to the realization of exactly who and what they are. As it turns out, they are clones being raised to provide organs needed by others in the outside world. At some point in their lives, each of them will become a donor and eventually, unable to give any more, will "complete." There is no great moment of realization here. Instead, the children catch snippets of information about what their future holds here and there as they grow older, and are, remarkably, almost wholly unphased by the revelation.

While Kathy spends a good deal of time trying to understand how they become aware of their role in the world, she never once comments on the injustice of the system. And therein lies what, to me, is the most tragic circumstance of Never Let Me Go. The society portrayed in the novel has set up a quiet, out-of-view system to essentially strip the humanity from the cloned children. The psychological tools needed to question or otherwise analyze their circumstance are purposefully withheld from them, and, as a result, they are left to float through life detached from many of the things that make us humans who we are. And everyone in the outside world benefiting from the clones' existence is quietly complicit.

The lack of overt action and sparse plot might be difficult for some readers to overcome (as they certainly were for me). I had trouble at times mustering the fortitude to endure another seemingly mundane conversation between Kathy and her friends. However, thinking back over the novel as a whole has made me realize that Never Let Me Go has much to offer a thoughtful reader!

Conspirata (Lustrum)

2011-05-10T15:41:00.002-04:00

Up this time around is Conspirata (2010; known in the UK as Lustrum), the second volume in Robert Harris's planned trilogy about the famous Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. The first novel (reviewed here) in the series was exceptionally good, so I was quite excited to dive into Conspirata.

Conspirata chronicles the momentous events in the year of Cicero's consulship and the succeeding four years (63-58 BC), a span of time known in ancient Rome as a lustrum (hence the original title of the novel...I guess that wasn't juicy enough for the American audience). The novel is once again narrated by Cicero's slave Tiro, who, by virtue of being Cicero's personal secretary, is in a unique position to observe and comment on events.

After struggling to achieve his life's goal--the consulship--Cicero struggles to make a lasting mark on Rome from his post. That is, until he uncovers a plot led by Sergius Catalina to overthrow the Republic with the aid of foreign troops (later to become known as the Catalinarian conspiracy). After taking his case against Cataline to the Senate, to which he delivers a series of brilliant orations, Cicero uses his authority to arrest and summarily execute the five leading members of the conspiracy without a trial, effectively quashing the rebellion.

Despite being hailed as patres patriae (only the third Roman ever so honored) for his decisive actions, Cicero will be haunted by this decision for the rest of his life. Indeed, the years following his consulship see his dignitas undermined by the efforts of Julius Caesar and his populist allies. The culmination of this is the promulgation of a law by Publius Clodius (a rogue if ever there was one) that punishes anyone who executes a Roman citizen without a trial. After seeing his political clout completely erode, Cicero is forced to confront the ugly truth that Rome is no longer safe for him, and he rides away from Rome in the dark of night into voluntary exile. How's that for a grateful nation?

The story, being a retelling of history, can only be so suspenseful. So, while it was sad to see Cicero treated so shabbily by nearly everyone in Rome, there is some consolation in knowing that he will be recalled to the center of Roman politics in fairly short order. I certainly look forward to seeing how Harris wraps up the latter part of Cicero's life!

As an interesting side note, I was quite struck by the difference in the portrayals of Julius Caesar in Conspirata and Colleen McCullough's 'Masters of Rome' series. In McCullough's works, Caesar is a paragon of virtue who forthrightly struggles to correct the course of the Republic. In contrast, Harris chooses to cast Caesar in a decidedly shady light. This Caesar actively seeks to destroy the remains of the Roman republic, whether through associating with demagogues like Clodius or by "social engineering" with his opponents' wives (wink, wink. nudge, nudge). I suspect that neither author has it quite right, and that the real man is somewhere between angel and demon. I might check out a comprehensive Caesar biography sometime to get to the bottom of this.

The Warded Man

2011-04-28T13:47:00.001-04:00

[Note: I listed to this as an audiobook.]

The Warded Man is Peter V. Brett's 2007 debut fantasy novel. I sought it out after hearing it described online as a fresh, modern take on a genre that sees more rehashing than just about any other I can think of. While Brett's creation has some interesting diversions, overall the writing is unfulfilling and uses a number of the same, tired fantasy elements that are seen again and again in fantasy literature.

The novel is set in a world ravaged by demons. Each night, the corelings (as they are known), rise from the ground and proceed to wreak havoc on anything they can get their claws on. After a night of rampaging, they dissolve away in the light of the morning. The corelings are virtually indestructible, and even the most skilled human warrior would be powerless against them. Luckily for the humans, a series of wards that are drawn or etched provide a magical net capable of repelling the corelings. The demon scourge has completely shaped day-to-day life--travel is limited to the daytime, outlying communities are fairly small and isolated, a network of skilled messengers that courier messages and goods between communities has developed, warding is a highly sought after skill, etc. The worldbuilding in The Warded Man is fairly well realized and definitely the novel's strong point.

As the novel opens, wards are limited to a defensive role, though there are tales of wards long-forgotten that could give humans the power to fight to the demons. Wait, let me guess...you can see where this is going, right?

In steps Arlen, a...wait for it...ordinary boy from a poor village that has just been ravaged by a demon attack. After watching his mother die and the cowardice of his father in preventing that death, Arlen vows that his days of cowering in fear of the demons are over. He sets out to begin training as a messenger in the hopes of honing his martial skills to the point where he can begin to realize his dream of taking the fight to the corelings. In addition to Arlen, there are two other POV characters, Leesha and Rojer (oh how I hate that name), both also children raised from humble beginnings in outlying villages. As the novel progresses, the years slip by and the characters grow into adults and assume their roles in the society at large.

Now I won't spoil the big surprise about who the Warded Man turns out to be, but eventually the three characters meet up and are thrust into a desperate fight against a horde of demons bent on destroying Leesha's home village.

Now for the criticism...
1) It turns out that the plot was working up to...nothing! I kept waiting for some overarching storyline to assert itself, but other than a vague prophecy about a Deliverer coming to save the humans, there was nothing. The entire novel works up to a final battle scene with little or no consequence for anyone other than Leesha.
2) We learn absolutely nothing about the corelings other than what they look like and a bit about their animal-like behavior. Given that they relatively recently returned to the world after being banished for thousands of years, I would expect there is some story to tell there. To be fair, the novel is clearly written as the first of a series, so perhaps criticism 1 and 2 will be addressed in later volumes.
3) There were some really awkward sexual scenes in the novel that did little or nothing to advance the plot or characterization. I couldn't help but wonder if, by including these scenes, Brett was trying to make some sort of statement about morality. It was very reminiscent of Terry Goodkind's proselytizing in the Sword of Truth novels, and, quite frankly, off putting.

To sum up, The Warded Man was a moderately enjoyable novel with a serviceable, if derivative, plot. However, in the end, the criticisms I've noted above cheapened the reading experience quite a bit. I'll probably skip the sequel.

Antony and Cleopatra

2011-04-27T17:05:00.006-04:00

Antony and Cleopatra is Colleen McCullough's 2007 novel that wraps up her epic (and I do mean epic) 'Masters of Rome' series. While it is good to bring a sense of closure to the series, I think that this novel lacked some of the spark of the previous volumes. Perhaps McCullough lost a bit of her muse with the death of Julius Caesar in the last volume, The October Horse (though his specter hangs over the entire novel).

[To be fair, it should be noted that McCullough considers the Roman Republic to have ended with the defeat of Caesar's assassins in 42 BC and originally intended to conclude her series with The October Horse. She buckled to pressure and wrote Antony and Cleopatra to appease her legions (pun definitely intended) of fans.]

The novel opens in 41 BC in the aftermath of the Battle of Phillipi. Two years before, the Roman world has been divided into two parts (well, to be technical, there are three, but who counts the oft-overlooked Lepidus anyway?): the west, controlled by Octavian, and the east, by Mark Antony. The delicate balance of power that has kept the two from each other's throats since the death of Julius Caesar is slowly unraveling.

Octavian struggles to consolidate his power in Italia in the face of growing discontent over the price of wheat, inflated by the constant raiding of that piratical nuisance, Sextus Pompey. In the east, Mark Antony is intent on leading a campaign against the Parthian empire which he hopes will bring him untold wealth along with the prestige he needs to stand above Octavian once and for all. Into the mix comes Cleopatra, pharaoh of Egypt and once lover of Julius Caesar, who has her own designs on power in the Mediterranean region. She recognizes in Mark Antony a tool she can use to promote her own interests (i.e. making her son by Julius Caesar king of Rome) and sets out to ensnare him with first wealth and, later, her feminine wiles.

Antony and Cleopatra is a solid conclusion to the Masters of Rome series--without a doubt it upholds the high standard I've come to expect from McCullough. The history is well researched. The characters jump off the page. At the same time, it lacked the spark of the previous volumes until the very climax of the story (hence the somewhat lower hamster rating).

So there you have it: after seven books comprising several thousand pages, the events of 110-27 BC come to a conclusion! Big thanks (and much respect) to Mrs. McCullough for making the events and people of the twilight of the Roman Republic come to life. Her 'Masters of Rome' series is truly a masterful achievement that I would recommend without hesitation (at least to those with some measure of literary stamina) .

The Defection of A.J. Lewinter

2011-04-19T14:29:00.008-04:00

A friend recommended The Defection of A.J. Lewinter (1973) by Robert Littell during a recent tour of his bookshelf. Having just finished an epic game of Twilight Struggle, the novel piqued my interest. It turned out to be a smart, tightly written novel with a lot to say about the nonsensical nature of espionage.

The novel opens up with the attempted defection of A.J. Lewinter, an academic and specialist in the field of missile ceramics, to the Soviet Union. While at a scientific conference in Tokyo, he walks into the Soviet embassy offering to share information related to the trajectory of warheads used in the MIRV missile system of the United States. This is, of course, highly valuable information to the Soviets, as it could facilitate the development of a more capable Soviet missile defense system.

After this opening salvo, the novels alternates between the viewpoints of American and Soviet intelligence agents. The Americans have to try and determine what, if any, security risk Lewinter's defection poses. Did he actually have access to any sensitive information? What were his motives? It is likewise up to the Soviets to determine what exactly to do with Lewinter and his information. Should they act on his information? Is he best used as political propaganda? Most importantly, could he be an American plant? Littell does a good job of doling out enough information about Lewinter that any scenario proposed by either side seems plausible.

I didn't expect anything more than a good spy story when I first began the novel. However, it quickly becomes clear that Littell is smartly commenting on the absurdity of intelligence operations. Consider the following snippet from a conversation between two of Lewinter's Soviet handlers:

"...it is also possible the Americans were trying to make it appear as if they were reacting to a genuine defection in order to convince us that Lewinter had valuable information. In which case, he would be a fraud. Or the Americans may have been trying to convince us he's real knowing we'd discover they were trying to convince us he's real and conclude instead he's a fraud. Which would mean they want us to think he's a fraud. Which would mean he's genuine."

The novel is full of little bits that call into question the sanity of high-stakes espionage between the United States and Soviet Union.

The Defection of A.J. Lewinter has little in the way of overt action. Espionage is portrayed as a highly cerebral psychological game (comparisons to chess are rampant) played by men in small rooms that are worlds apart from each other. It is undoubtedly a more realistic portrayal of espionage than anything offered by the likes of James Bond or Jason Bourne.

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, and I look forward to following it up soon with 'The Company,' Littell's definitive work about the American intelligence community.

Bridge of Birds

2011-03-31T16:03:00.003-04:00

[Another fairly hastily written review as I try to avoid slipping beneath the tidal wave of books waiting to be reviewed!]

Bridge of Birds (1984) by Barry Hughart is a unique novel set in a fantastical, whimsical version of imperial China. The novel won the World Fantasy Award and seems to have amassed a bit of a cult following. I first heard about it in a forum posting where people were suggesting their favorite novels. While it didn't end up being one of my favorites, Bridge of Birds was definitely a singular reading experience!

The novel tells the tale (and what a tale it is) of Lu Yu, better known as Number Ten Ox, and his journey to save the children of his village from a mysterious plague that has beset them during the silk harvest. Not knowing where to turn, Ox enlists the services of Master Li Kao, a sage found in the back alleys of Peking who is known more for his ability to quaff liquor than anything else. Master Li turns out to be a brilliant mind and steadfast ally to Ox during the search for the only known cure for the illness: a legendary plant known as the Great Root of Power. Indeed, the two travel to the ends of the earth together as they undergo adventures, each more unbelievably outrageous than the last.

Bridge of Birds has a brilliant, zany style that is all its own. The predicaments that Master Li and Ox find themselves in are all completely over the top, yet somehow they escape again and again (and again). Hughart manages to keep this manic tone going throughout the entire novel. In spite of this, I never worried that the story was going to go off the rails (despite the car leaning heavily to the side at times), because each encounter is deftly woven into a fairly complex overarching plot.

As I hinted above, this one wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but that has more to do about my personal taste than any deficit on the part of Bridge of Birds. Readers looking for a fun read full of madcap adventures would do well to check it out!

The Egyptian

2011-03-08T16:18:00.001-05:00

The Egyptian (1945) by Mika Waltari tells the fantastic tale of Sinuhe, an Egyptian physician whose life rises and falls like the waters of the river Nile during the tumultuous 14th century BC. It is a time of great upheaval, with a newly crowned pharaoh forcing a radically different monotheistic religion on the Egyptian empire. We all know that sort of thing usually turns out...

Sinuhe himself narrates the events of the novel, which opens with him being found in a reed boat on the banks of the river by a poor couple. Sinuhe follows in the footsteps of his adopted father and trains as a physician. Just as he is coming of age, the old pharoah, Amenhotep III, falls deathly ill. Through a chance encounter while tending the dying ruler, he is introduced to the boy who will become the pharaoh Akhenaton and a relationship is forged that will change Sinuhe's life, and indeed all of Egypt, forever.

Despite achieving material success as a physician of great renown in Egypt, Sinuhe is not happy with his life and sets out on a journey around the known world. Sinuhe's wanderings lead him to visit several of the other civilizations flourishing in the Mediterranean at the time, including Syria, Babylon, and Crete. He is even so bold as to venture into land of the Hittites, Egypt's main rival for power during the period. Of course, he has many hair-raising adventures along the way and even manages to fall in love. He eventually returns to Thebes, where he plays a crucial part in the great drama that is the Egypt of his day.

Waltari has written the novel in a style that is certainly evocative of an ancient tale, though its insights into humanity are timeless. The character of Sinuhe is entirely believable--sometimes acting foolishly or cruel, at other times wisely and with great kindness. In short, he is every man. Through his eyes, we see the entire gamut of the human experience from the extreme cruelty of warfare to the heartfelt love of a found soul mate. His wry, dispassionate observations about his own behavior and that of others are the great strength of The Egyptian and certainly spoke to me. It is not a novel that I will soon forget!

The City & The City

2011-02-17T15:21:00.004-05:00

The City and The City (2009) by China Mieville was one of two novels that shared the hallowed Hugo Award for best science fiction novel in 2010 (due to a voting tie). It also won a slew of other literary awards, including the World Fantasy Award. Being a huge fan of Mieville and a Hugo Award fanboy, I was really looking forward to digging into this one! The City and The City turns out to be an intriguing, thoughtful novel about how we are trained to view the world around us and what effects it can have.

The novel revolves around two fictional cities located somewhere in eastern Europe: Beszel and Ul Qoma. Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad is called to investigate the murder of a visiting foreign student found dead in the Beszel streets. The novel follows his investigation as it unravels into something entirely more sinister than it at first seemed.

So far, it sounds like it could be the beginning to just about any old detective novel, but here's the Mieville twist that makes it so brilliant: Beszel and Ul Qoma actually share the same geographic space. And it turns out that the two cities aren't exactly friendly toward each other. In fact, the citizens of the two cities actively work to "unsee" people and places in the other city. Unseeing is a mental process whereby people, places, and events in the other city are ignored. The act is ingrained in every citizen from birth and held in place by threat of a mysterious force known as "breach" that actively works to ensure the two cities remain divided. "Breaching," whereby a citizen of one city ignores the separation between the cities, is considered the most heinous of crimes and is dealt with harshly.

Their isolation from one another has led both cities to develop a distinct culture with differences in dress, language, and architecture despite overlapping in geographic space. As a consequence, Beszel and Ul Qoma are divided into areas that are either total (completely in one city), alter (completely in the other city), or crosshatched (shared by both cities where active unseeing is necessary to avoid breach). Citizens must be aware at all times of where they are and what they should be seeing. Fascinating, huh?

I've said before that books that really make me consider the world around me or my place within it are those that I consider some of the best. Well, to say that The City and The City is thought-provoking is, perhaps, an understatement. In fact, I've come to think of it as Mieville's grand thought experiment. It takes something that we all do (i.e. "tune out" parts of the world around us) to the logical extreme, and, in the process, asks us to consider the causes and consequences of our behavior. Really great stuff!

(Look for a review of the other 2010 Hugo best novel winner, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, soon!)

Revelation

2011-02-15T16:16:00.003-05:00

Revelation (2008) is another historical mystery novel that comes recommended by way of my mother (Thanks, Mom!). Though it is fourth in a series of historical thrillers that follow the Mathew Shardlake character, it read very well as a standalone novel. With a compelling plot that unfolds in a richly realized Tudor England, Revelation is one of the better mysteries I've read!

Set during post-Reformation England, Revelation fairly drips with atmosphere. It is 1543, and King Henry VIII is in the twilight of his reign. After orchestrating the split of the Church of England from Rome a decade earlier, Henry is returning to more conservative religious views. This leaves two sides of the religious debate, Reformers and Conservatives, once again jockeying for power in England. This makes for a seriously muddy political and religious situation, and the man on the street must measure his words carefully depending on which way the wind is currently blowing. Else, he could easily find himself hanging from a rope for no more than some offhanded remark. This seething mix of religious fervor and paranoia are the perfect setting for Revelation's plot.

In the midst of this political and religious turmoil, we find Mathew Shardlake, a London lawyer who has in his previous exploits garnered more than his fair share of negative attention from those in power. Having sworn never to become involved in state matters again, he, of course, finds himself ensnared in just such a sinister plot at the opening of the novel.

Shardlake's close friend and associate is discovered dead, having been the victim of a most foul and very public murder. Shardlake vows to the victim's widow to track down the killer and with the help of his man, Jack Barak, proceeds to investigate the circumstances of the killing. Unfortunately for Shardlake, his friend is only one victim in a string of murders with religious undertones. Shardlake is drafted into the confidence of Archbishop Cramner and other powerful men with an interest in seeing the case wrapped up as quickly as possible.

The investigation proves to be anything but straightforward, as Shardlake realizes that each murder is imitating the calamities of the seven vials of God's wrath poured out by angels in the Book of Revelation. These vials are some truly Old Testament-style wrath: water turning to blood, the sun scorches the earth, total darkness covers the earth, etc. Sansom does a really clever job of turning his victims into living (or should I say deceased) embodiment of the seven trials. The investigation slowly builds to a climax as Shardlake desperately tries to close in on the killer before he unleashes the final plague upon London, described in Revelation 16:8 as "Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake." It is quite a compelling race to the finish line!

(All this is to say nothing of the several side plots also unfolding in Revelation. Each is skillfully constructed to reveal more about Shardlake himself and the character of the setting.)

Revelation was really an excellent read. It has just the right mix of atmosphere, characterization, and plot. Usually when reading mystery novels, I'm completely clueless as to the identity of the bad guy (maybe that says more about me than the quality of the book though). There were several times during Revelation when I was sure that I had everything figured out. Of course, it turns out that I was off target, but I think it speaks to Sansom's skill at setting up a believably complex plot.

Any lover of a good mystery (or just a good book in general) should certainly treat themselves to Revelation. I certainly look forward to reading more Matthew Shardlake mysteries in the near future!

Memories of Ice

2011-02-07T16:37:00.001-05:00

Memories of Ice (2001) is the third volume in the Malazan Book of the Fallen (MBotF) series. It is a serious whopper of a book with the paperback weighing in at a cool 1,187 pages. While not as good as its predecessor, MoI carries the main plotline forward in an interesting, if not completely gripping, manner.

MoI is the direct sequel to the first novel in the series, Gardens of the Moon, and the events within happen concurrently with those of Deadhouse Gates. See? It is already getting complicated, and I haven't even tried to summarize the plot yet.

We once again join the fellows of Whiskeyjack's company in the Malazan army which now finds itself threatened by the Pannion Domin, a powerful army rising out of the south. It soon becomes clear that there is something altogether sinister with the power behind the Pannion Domin. As this tide sweeps ever closer to the Malazans, a desperate plan is hatched to forge an alliance with old enemies.

The majority of the novel describes the desperate struggle to hold Capustan from the Domin and is told from both the perspective of soldiers trapped within the city and the Malazan army racing across the continent to relieve the seige. The climactic struggle for Capustan is really the high watermark of the novel--I've not read many fictional battle scenes described as vividly (or as well) as here. Erickson does an excellent job of keeping the mood tense and desperate throughout this section of the novel.

Of course, it wouldn't be the MBotF if this action on the prime material plane wasn't part of some grand, cosmic scheming of the gods. There is plenty of divine, magical intrigue to add to the plot arc that has been building since the first novel.

Memories of Ice definitely has its high points, but, on the whole, I prefer its predecessor more. The climactic battle scenes were epic, but, boy, did it take a lot of slogging to get there. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if it had been broken up into two shorter novels (in fact, there was a perfect place to do just that). Nevertheless, I still find myself intrigued by the Malazan world and will read on to (hopefully) find some resolution to the main storyline.

Also: please don't get me started on the cover art--I would rank it as one of the cheeziest covers I've ever seen. I was actively embarrassed to be seen reading the book in public.

Mouse Guard: Winter 1152

2011-02-04T12:23:00.000-05:00

Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 (2008) is the second collection of David Petersen's Mouse Guard comic books. It collects the six-issue mini series that covers the time immediately following the events of Fall 1152.

Winter has set in and, in the aftermath of the failed uprising put down in the fall, the Guard is scrambling to lay in stores of food, medicine, and sundries in Lockhaven before the roads between settlements become impassable. Groups of guardmice have been sent out to collect supplies from remote mouse villages and to invite their leaders to a gathering where the issues that contributed to the unrest of the autumn before will be discussed. The series follows the adventures of a group of these mice as they struggle in the face of the weather and various other dangers to return safely to Lockhaven.

I thought the story itself was somewhat weaker than the previous series. It seems like Petersen's creativity is being constrained by the need to tell stories in six-issue bursts, particularly given his fairly voluminous art style. I would really like to see him given the pages to tell a more epic adventure story. This being said, I'm happy that he spent some time building upon each mouse's personal story.

As in the previous issue, the art is absolutely gorgeous. It was great getting to see some more exotic locations in the Mouse Guard world as well as different denizens of the surrounding forests. Here's a small sample of the rich texturing and attention to deal that characterizes Petersen's art:

As with the first volume, the art more than makes up for anything that the story lacks. Petersen's next series, entitled The Black Axe, is just making its way into comic form now. I look forward to picking up his next collection when it becomes available!

The Great Divorce

2011-01-07T16:50:00.002-05:00

And now for something completely different...at least different from the epic fantasies I have been reviewing of late....

To preface the review, I am both a Christian and unapologetic C.S. Lewis fan. While both of these things will obviously color my review, I think that any thoughtful reader will be able to take away a great deal from this short novel.

The Great Divorce (1945) by C.S. Lewis is a fantasy in which the narrator sets out on a bus excursion from a dull, gray city where he has inexplicably arrived. He and his fellow passengers soon disembark at what turns out to be the foothills of heaven. In this beautiful environment, they find themselves to be mere ghosts, unable to interact with the more substantive environment around them. They are soon greeted by shining figures who are the incarnations of people they have known while on earth. These spirits urge the passengers individually to turn away from their former lives and put their whole trust in heaven. The narrator observes several interactions between passengers and spirits and finds that the majority for various reasons are unable to make such a commitment. These passengers return to the bus and the drab existence that awaits them in the the gray world below (understood to be hell).

What I love about C.S. Lewis is his uncanny ability put into words the excuses, lies, and rationalizations that keep us all away from heaven. The narrator observes a minister who can't believe he has arrived at heaven since it doesn't fit his preconceived notion, an artist who is incredulous that he will not be able to exhibit his art in heaven, and a mother who is outraged that her son did not greet her upon her arrival. Each of these passengers returns to the bus (in fact, C.S. Lewis cleverly titled the original novel Who Goes Home?). As in his work The Screwtape Letters, Lewis reminds us that one does not arrive at hell due to a single horrific act. Rather it is the sum total of each word, thought, or deed in our lives (for what else are we?) that will decide our ultimate fate.

The narrator finally meets his own shining spirit who turns out to be the writer, George MacDonald (whose works highly influenced Lewis' own). MacDonald explains that people are able to enter heaven only if they repent completely. Upon doing so, the power of heaven is so great it is able to work backwards in a person's life, making their earthly existence an extension of heaven. Conversely, for those who turn away, the power of hell can retroactively change the joy in a person's life into unbearable misery.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Divorce, and whether or not you understand the various literary allusions (and it has lots) or fairly hefty theology, a thoughtful reader can't help but come away from the novel with some interesting insights into humanity.

Deadhouse Gates

2011-01-05T15:05:00.001-05:00

[Alright, the time has come for me to bite the bullet and write this review of the second book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. I finished it way back before Thanksgiving and have put off reviewing it...I seem to have this reluctance every time i read one of these fantasies that span several novels.]

Deadhouse Gates (2000) generally continues the story introduced in the first novel of the series, Gardens of the Moon (GotM). Though the action in this novel takes place on another continent, a few of the characters from GotM are crucial participants in events as they unfold in DG.

To distill an extremely complex story down to its essentials, we follow an apocalyptic uprising known as The Whirlwind foretold by an ancient prophecy (what fantasy epic would be complete without an ancient prophecy?). We learn the unlikely circumstances behind its leader and some of her motivations for ridding the world of the Malazan Empire. Much of the novel follows a garrison of Malazan soldiers under the command of a foreign warrior across the desert in their desperate attempt to stave off the rebel force. There are some fantastic battle scenes where the Malazans use some clever tactics to hold off the vastly numerically superior Whirlwind force. This being the Malazan universe, there are also a fair number of powerful beings (be they gods or merely so-called "Ascendant" mortals) meddling around in everybody's affairs.

Astute followers of my blog (all two of you) will recall that while I was quite intrigued by the Malazan universe, I had some gripes with Gardens of the Moon. The most notable being that the reader is thrown head first into an extremely complex plot with close to no context for anything that is happening. Well, I'm glad to say that DG was much easier to follow than its predecessor. Not only did I have a better grasp of the Malazan world and magic this time around, but Erikson does a more skillful job of building the plot. The action slowly builds to high tension and is then rips loose near the end of the novel where there are some really memorable scenes.

All-in-all, Deadhouse Gates is a better novel than its predecessor. Seeing as how I'm currently reading the fourth book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen (told you I was falling behind with my reviews), I would recommend continuing the series!

A War of Gifts

2010-12-29T15:03:00.007-05:00

Anyone who knows anything about me (or at least about my taste in books) will tell you that Ender's Game is, without a doubt, my favorite book (with Speaker for the Dead not far behind). Given this, you might have expected me to rave about a "new" Ender story. Not only that, but a Christmas-themed Ender story! Sadly, this is not the case. A War of Gifts (2007) is just not a compelling story. Nor is it written particularly well.

A War of Gifts is a short novel set during the time when Ender is at the Battle School. The story follows Zeck, a boy with an evangelical Christian upbringing in rural North Carolina. Upon reaching Battle School, he chafes under the military rule prohibiting the practice of religion and refuses to participate in mock battles. Along about the middle of the story (I say this because the different threads of the story are only loosely connected most of the time), a fellow student decides to buck the system by participating in a Dutch Christmas tradition. Soon, the entire Battle School is in a gift-giving frenzy much to the chagrin of the administration. Zeck confronts the Battle School commander about the unfairness of the situation and is told that belief in Santa Clause does not constitute a religion. Seeing his teammate struggle with the meaning of his religion, Ender, the consummate empath, steps in to help Zeck reconcile his beliefs. In the process, Zeck learns some hard truths about his own upbringing.

One of the hangups I had with the novel is that Card has evolved his characters far past the confines of the original Ender novels (i.e. the Shadow novels). [Don't get me wrong--this is not a bad thing. Card has the right to do whatever he wants with his creation]. As a consequence of this, the style in which he presently writes the Battle School children seems quite different than that in Ender's Game (and Ender's Shadow for that matter). These differences were distracting enough for me to detract from A War of Gifts.

I can't help but think that A War of Gifts has great potential to be a better novel. Card strains to impart some sort of message about religion in general, but I'm at a loss to say what it is. This, combined with the lackluster writing, makes A War of Gifts a book only for those die-hard fans who thirst to read anything Ender-related.

The Road

2010-12-13T16:17:00.007-05:00

My latest read, The Road (2006) by Cormac McCarthy, came highly recommended by a friend. Boy, am I glad he suggested I read it. It is a deeply affecting story--one with the rare power to shift one's perception of the world and one's place within it.

"When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world."

So begins The Road. And let me tell you, the story doesn't get a whole lot cheerier for the rest of the 250-page novel. The narrative follows an unnamed man and his son as they wander a vast, dark landscape in the aftermath of some apocalyptic event. Details are left ambiguous, but the great majority of life on Earth has perished. The ash-covered land is barren and hostile, and the man and boy are fighting a daily struggle to subsist. As they head south across the wasteland to escape the oncoming winter, they must scavenge for food and water and fend off other travelers along the road.

But the novel really isn't about the narrative. This is not to say that there aren't a few seriously intense moments--there are. But the true centerpiece of The Road is the relationship between the man and his son. The simple love the father shows toward the child is remarkable in the midst of the almost unbearable agony of survival. He is endlessly patient with the boy, constantly teaches him, gives him his own space when necessary, and, above all, acts as a wellspring of comfort. The man is the archetypal parent--the kind we all hope to be. Being a fairly new parent myself, this theme resonated strongly with me.

Toward the beginning of the The Road, I confess I was trying to (over)analyze parts of the novel. It seemed there was an inconsistency between the boy's life experience and his behavior. At another point, when being given a glimpse of the family's past, I was incredulous at the callousness of the boy's mother. About halfway through the novel, I realized that I was missing the point. McCarthy chose to draw the characters the way he does for a reason. After all, they have been completely shaped by the apocalypse, something which I (thankfully) have not yet encountered. I needed to sit back and let myself be shaped by the novel.

The overall style of the novel can only be described as sparse. There is little dialog, and even less in the the way of overt action. Yet, The Road is infused with a richness that defies the spare prose. In its pages, the characters (and by extension, the reader) wrestle with huge questions: What is the purpose of one's life? What is death? Who or what is God? What is the essential difference between good and evil? While there are no concrete revelations to be had, I feel closer to understanding some of these things than before picking up the novel.

To me, The Road is a true tour de force. McCarthy uses a fairly simple concept, sparse language, and a couple of characters to fashion something altogether breathtaking. And, furthermore, he makes it seem completely effortless. The Road might well be the best book I've read this year!

The Leper of St. Giles

2010-12-09T16:52:00.003-05:00

A short review this time as I'm in danger of falling hopelessly behind in my reviews!

The Leper of Saint Giles (1981) is the fifth installment in the Brother Cadfael series of medieval mystery novels (see my previous entry for general information on the circumstances of the series). I'm in the middle of casually (re)reading the novels.

The novel opens as a wedding party makes its way to Shrewsbury Abbey. A callous, middle-aged noble, Huon de Domville, is marrying Iveta de Massard, a young maiden whose grandfather Cadfael knew from the First Crusade. It is immediately obvious to all present that this is a marriage arranged by the maiden's guardians for the sole purpose of advancing their own fortunes rather than for the happiness of Iveta.

Shortly after their arrival in the village, Cadfael stumbles upon Iveta and Joscelin Lucy, a young squire in the employ of de Domville, in his workshop. The two, secretly in love, have met to console each other over the impending nuptials. In a fit of youthful indiscretion, the young man declares to Cadfael that he would go so far as to commit murder to prevent Iveta from marrying.

Not so surprisingly, the next morning de Domville is found murdered in the forest. The hunt is soon on for the squire, who takes refuge a place that lies wholly separate from normal medieval society--a leper colony run by the monks on the outskirts of town. The novel has a fascinating description of how and why lepers set themselves apart from society during the Middle Ages. Brother Cadfael, being a softy at heart when it comes to young lovers, is determined to get the bottom of the de Domville's murder to absolve Joscelin of the crime.

I would rate The Leper of Saint Giles the best of the series that I have (re)read so far (mind you, I've only read three so far). The pace is swift, and Peters' characters are, as always, well drawn out. The descriptions of medieval society, and, specifically, the place of lepers within it, really made this novel stand out from the others.

Gardens of the Moon

2010-11-02T16:10:00.004-04:00

I caught wind of Gardens of the Moon (1999) in a thread of recommended books over on BGG. I had not heard of it before and was surprised to see that it has garnered an almost fanatical following among some internet circles (the kind that argue over whether GRRM's ASOIAF or Tolkein's LOR is the best series EVAR!). The internet fanboys promised world building on a grand scale, an intricate plot, lots of epic battle scenes, complex magic system, etc. Basically all the things that make D&D-raised fantasy readers drool over. Well, it is certainly epic enough--as it turns out, GotM is the first installment in a 10-volume series known as 'The Malazan Book of the Fallen' (which has thankfully been completed as of this writing...always something to worry about when embarking on reading an epic fantasy series). While the novel does deliver on most of these promises, it does so in an almost infuriatingly convoluted way.

GotM takes place in a world dominated by the Malazan Empire, a human government attempting to conquer anything and everything it can get its hands on. I certainly wouldn't want to spend much time in this world--everything is dark and gritty with evidence of war and despair everywhere. Perhaps the most striking feature of the Malazan universe and, indeed, what sets it apart from other fantasy series, is the complexity and importance of magic which is controlled through an enigmatic construct known as a 'warren.' In addition to different human factions, there are a number of non-human (but also non-elf/dwarf/[insert conventional fantasy race here]) races running around in the background controlling different and altogether more ancient kinds of sorcery. Did I also mention that there are gods battling with one another to control the action? Perhaps you are getting the picture here. Erikson, an archaeologist and anthropologist by training, has created a complex universe that, while well-realized, is somewhat difficult to approach (much less internalize fully) at the outset.

Couple this fantasy setting with a plot that matches it in complexity. My attempt at a complete summary would frankly be laughable given my level of confusion throughout most of the novel. Basically, the Malazan empire has come up against some stiff resistance from a mysterious group of warrior mages that ally themselves with the remaining free cities. In addition, the Malazans face internal dangers from an army that is growing increasingly loyal to its commander. The action centers around the struggle within Darujhistan, one of the last holdouts against the empire, and how the many different factions (soldiers, mages, residents of the city, gods) try to manipulate events, and are, in turn, manipulated by each other.

I've not been so seriously challenged reading what I thought was a light, "for-fun" read in a long time. The causes for this are manifold, but most prominent is the unusual plot structure employed by Erikson to tell his story. We are literally thrown head first into the middle of a complex plot with no context to the characters, their actions, their relation to one another, etc. This is not to say that there isn't a lot of background information given. Quite the opposite is true--there are dozens of characters, locations, and past events thrown at you. Right up until the end of the novel, I never seemed to grasp enough information to satisfy me that I actually understand what was happening at any given time. The best comparison I can make is to the TV show Lost...understanding the island's mysteries never seemed that far away if only you could get that one critical piece of information that would make everything clear. Reading the novel was certainly not a chore, but it did require some focused attention.

Despite my bafflement, GotM has whetted my appetite for more of the Malazan universe. I really (really, really) want to see how the major plot lines play out. So, perhaps GotM has done what its author intended!

St. Peter's Fair

2010-10-28T16:32:00.003-04:00

[Note: I listened to this as an audiobook.]

After reading a novel here and there for many years, I've recently set out to (re)read Ellis Peters' 'Brother Cadfael' series of historical mysteries in its entirety. St. Peter's Fair (1981) is the fourth installment in the series and takes place in Shrewsbury in the summer of 1139 during the period known as The Anarchy.

Brother Cadfael, a Benedictine monk, serves as an herbalist at the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shrewsbury. Far from being an ordinary monk, Cadfael has extensive experience in the outside world and even participated in the First Crusade to liberate the Holy Land. After an adventurous life, he has settled down into quiet contemplation as a man of the cloth. His keen powers of observation and the ability to read people make him well suited to the solving of various crimes--something which he does on a fairly regular basis!

In St. Peter's Fair, we find Shrewsbury still recovering from a siege by the forces of King Stephen the previous summer. It is the eve of the fair of St. Peter (surprise!), an annual event organized by the abbey where merchants from the surrounding regions gather to trade with one another. The fair is lucrative business, both for the merchants and the abbey, which receives a proportion of the profits through various tolls, taxes, and offerings.

The townspeople see their chance to recoup some of the damage done during last summer's seige and approach the abbey to demand that a portion of the tolls and taxes go to repair the town's defenses. The prior refuses, citing the royal charter that grants it the rights to all income from the fair. It is into this tense atmosphere that a throng of traders arrives at the start of the three day fair. There soon erupts a confrontation between a gang of rambunctious Shrewsbury youths and a merchant of some renown. When he is found dead the following day, the abbey (and, of course, Brother Cadfael) is drawn into a plot that could threaten the stability of England as a whole.

Ellis Peters has written another excellent little mystery which is both entertaining and engaging. She does a convincing job of turning a fairly commonplace murder of a merchant into a plot having wide implications for the security of the realm. There isn't much to be said in the way of critique for St. Peter's Fair!

Imperium

2010-10-18T22:15:00.000-04:00

I finished reading Imperium (2006) by Robert Harris quite a while ago but have only now gotten around to writing up a review. I feel like I'm cheating the novel a bit--it was so good it deserves an in-depth review, but in the interest of playing catchup on the blog, I'm going to make it fairly short!

Imperium follows the early life and burgeoning political career of Marcus Tullius Cicero, considered by most to be the greatest orator ever produced by Rome. From humble beginnings outside Rome, Cicero lacks the ancestral mystique and familial connections used by many of Rome's young politicians to jump start their careers. Instead, Cicero is forced to rely on his intelligence and political acumen to climb his way up the cursus honorum toward the consulship.

The story is narrated by Tiro, Cicero's slave and lifelong secretary. Tiro is accredited with having devised a shorthand system in order to transcribe the high volume of Latin dictations required by Cicero's verbosity. In fact, his writing system was so useful, it was widely used throughout ancient Rome and even as late as the Middle Ages by monks! Tiro makes for an interesting narrator as he is critical to Cicero's success but as a slave will ultimately always remain bereft of true power. There are a few poignant scenes in the novel where Tiro longs for nothing more than to be freed and settle down to a pastoral life but realizes it would only doom him to a life of obscurity away from Cicero's side. Simply put, it is clear that Cicero and Tiro need each other to function to the best of their abilities.

Imperium is a truly excellent novel. Outside of McCullough's 'Masters of Rome' series, it is probably the best Roman historical fiction I've read. I was a bit let down when I reached the end of Imperium which ends just as Cicero attains the consulship in 63 BC. For goodness sakes, Cicero plays such a pivotal role in the years to come that it would be cheating him out of his due to end there! What about the Cataline conspiracy? His opposition to Mark Antony? Give me more! Well, happily, I discovered that Imperium is the first of a trilogy of novels about Cicero by Harris, so there is much more to enjoy.

Un Lun Dun

2010-10-13T17:19:00.001-04:00

I was excited to finally get a chance to read Un Lun Dun (2007) by China Mieville when the book finally came up on my PBS wishlist (I think I'd been in line for almost two years waiting for it...). Mieville is arguably one of the best talents to appear on the science/fantasy/weird fiction scene in the last decade. His Perdido Street Station (2000) and The Scar (2002) were absolutely stunning novels, and I see that The City & The City (2010) finally netted him the big one, a Hugo Award, to add to his growing collection of honors.

In a major departure from these previous works, which were most definitely adult-themed, Un Lun Dun is geared toward a younger audience. I'd say a middle schooler could read the book and understand the plot fine, but some thematic devices and language complexity add a level of sophistication to the writing. I didn't think the book simplistic in the least (this was my major criticism of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman), so readers of "serious" fiction should not hesitate to pick up Un Lun Dun. I hate to drag out the well-worn 'If you like Neil Gaiman's [insert novel title here], you'll like [insert novel here]' line but, in this case, it rings true.

The story opens with a couple of friends, Zanna and Deeba, who begin to experience some fairly strange things in their everyday life. One such event, when a broken umbrella is very obviously spying on them from outside a window, leads them to the strange land of UnLondon (hence the name of the novel) which turns out to be a nonsensical mirror of the real London. UnLondon is inhabited by a vast array of characters that may or may not be human, and most of the objects in the city are a strange collection of things that have been cast off in London as junk.

Amid this strange setting, Zanna and Deeba learn that UnLondon is being threatened by a powerful enemy known as The Smog. The Smog, as it turns out, is a cloud of smog (think the smoke monster from Lost) that burns anything it can get its tendrils on to grow larger and more powerful. An ancient prophecy forcasts a Chosen One (the 'Shwazzy') who will save the city from The Smog. Zanna is immediately recognized as The Shwazzy, but in her first battle with Mr. Smog, she is incapacitated and returns home to London in a debilitated state.

This leaves Deeba (The UnChosen) to save her friend by herself in a series of interesting adventures that are so outlandish that my description couldn't do them justice. Besides, part of the fun of the book is seeing what crazy thing is around the next corner and what clever pun it will be built upon. Along the way she picks up a motley group of friends who turn out to be indispensable to her quest. Mieville throws in a good number of ink illustrations in the pages to help us imagine some of the stranger encounters.

Un Lun Dun deliberately turns a number of time-honored fantasy conventions on their head. It so happens that the hero chosen by fate turns out to be fairly useless, the all-important quest objects required to reach the ultimate goal go unclaimed by our heroes, and the book of UnLondon prophecy turns out to be almost wholly inaccurate.

I admit that I somewhat struggled to become engaged by Un Lun Dun. The chaotic, disorderly nature of UnLondon combined with Mieville unveiling it in short bursts (the 300 page book has nearly 100 chapters) prevented me from establishing a strong connection with the setting as a whole. This being said, there can be no argument that the novel is well-conceived and cleverly executed, and, in the end, I quite enjoyed it.

Where Men Win Glory

2010-10-01T12:33:00.004-04:00

My latest read came highly recommended by my dad, who I would describe as a huge Jon Krakauer fan. I must confess that I read about half of Krakauer's book Into the Wild based on several recommendations, and while it was very readable, could not establish much of a connection with the story. So, I wasn't sure what I would make of Where Men Win Glory (2009) since it is definitely not a book that I would have chosen to read on my own. Well, I'm certainly glad I gave it a chance--it was a deeply affecting and, dare I say, perspective-altering experience.

At its heart, Where Men Win Glory is a biographical sketch of Pat Tillman, a professional football player who left behind a successful career (and, I hasten to add, his wife of only a year) to enlist in the United States Army after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was subsequently killed in Afghanistan in 2004 as a result of friendly fire. I must admit before reading this book that I hadn't really given Tillman much credit in the hero department--I only vaguely remembered the story that had been put out in the mainstream media (much of which, as it turns out, was a complete fabrication).

Krakauer spends the first half of the book examining the personality and motives of Tillman, with much of the material culled from Tillman's personal journals. These pages are well spent. As it turns out, Tillman was the complete opposite of what I expected him to be. Instead of fitting the classic jock stereotype, he is revealed to be a deeply thoughtful individual who felt an almost instinctual need to serve his country in the wake of 9/11. This is in spite of the fact that he had considerable qualms over the morality or justice of the war effort of which he was to be part.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and time spent in Afghanistan on the ground, Krakauer proceeds to paint a vivid picture of the incident that ultimately resulted in Tillman's death. The description is so intense that during the firefight scene I found myself shrinking down a bit in my chair to avoid an imagined hail of gunfire. It was fairly agonizing reading this section, all the time knowing what was coming--I found myself irrationally hoping that Tillman might escape unscathed. Sadly, that was not the case.

The final portion of the book describes the aftermath of the death of Pat Tillman and, more specifically, the lengths to which the United States government went to obscure the truth of the incident. The conclusion that the Bush White House and the US Army ill-used the legacy of Pat Tillman is inescapable. Perhaps the most egregious decision by the powers-that-be was to withhold the real circumstances surrounding Tillman's death from his wife, brother, and parents. It was not until the media finally got wind of the real story that the Army was essentially forced to confess the truth.

Where Men Win Glory is an imminently readable book and a fitting tribute to Tillman and his family. I leave you with a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche (found in the book) which I found a poignant description of the life and legacy of Pat Tillman:

I love him who does not hold back one drop of spirit for himself, but wants to be entirely the spirit of his virtue: thus he strides over the bridge as spirit. I love him who makes his virtue his addiction and his catastrophe: for his virtue's sake he wants to live on and to live no longer.

SPQR I: The King's Gambit

2010-09-22T15:12:00.005-04:00

It seems like the majority of books I read are part of some series or another. I can't quite figure out why. Well, this time it is no different--The King's Gambit by John Maddox Roberts (1990) is the first book in his SPQR (standing for Senatus Populusque Romanus, the official name of the Republic) series of mystery novels set in the late Roman Republic.

The events in The King's Gambit take place in 70 BC during a fairly contentious time in Rome (was there ever not a contentious time in Rome after the exploits of the Gracchi brothers?). The Republic (such as it was at this point) was just coming out of the nightmare that was the reign of Marius and Sulla. Pompey, a mere Italian provincial, had been vaulted into the Roman elite after a series of unprecedented military commands. Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome and also an able military commander, was jealous of Pompey and would stop at nothing to outdo him. Both coveted the command of Lucius Lucullus, who was off in the East prosecuting a war against the wily King Mithridates of Pontus.

It is in this climate that we find Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger, a young Roman senator in charge of keeping the peace in the Subura, a rather seedy precinct of Rome. He is called upon to investigate what at first seems like a typical murder of a freed slave. After other bodies begin to pile up, and an arson burns a warehouse owned by a wealthy foreign merchant, Decius Metellus begins to realize that a conspiracy is afoot. He soon uncovers a plot to subvert the command of Lucullus the East. Needless to say, this enterprise goes right to the top of the Roman power hierarchy, bringing Decius Metellus into direct conflict with many a famous personage.

In the end, Decius Metellus does, of course, discover what is going on. Readers that are sticklers for justice might be somewhat disappointed with the ending of The King's Gambit since the culprit essentially gets away with their crimes. I would argue that this is a fitting ending, given that justice was in fairly short supply during fall of the Roman Republic!

The King's Gambit is a light read with several things going for it. First, and perhaps most importantly to me, the novel is set against a historically accurate backdrop. The majority of characters in the novel did exist (the major exception being Decius Metellus himself) and the major events portrayed unfolded essentially as described by Roberts. Second, the character of Decius Metellus is an interesting narrator who always has some insight into Roman politics or cutting remark about an individual to share. For example, when a crowd is gathered in the Forum to listen to one of the consuls speak about latest foreign threat to Rome, Decius Metellus wryly thinks to himself that Romans had more to fear from their own leaders than anything a foreign power could throw at them. These kinds of lines make for entertaining reading, and I've heard that Decius Metellus's narration in the following books of the series gets even better. I will definitely be checking out the second installment of SPQR sometime soon.

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152

2010-09-17T14:06:00.003-04:00

Mouse Guard is a delightful comic book series that I recently stumbled across. This volume, Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, collects the first story arc (six issues of the comic series) into a single paperback graphic novel. It is fabulous!

In the world of Mouse Guard, intelligent mice live in isolated settlements scattered throughout the land. The mice, being small and delicious, are constantly on the alert for predators lurking within their domain. The Mouse Guard was formed to do just what the name suggests--protect mice and their interests in the wider world. Comparisons to the Redwall books by Brian Jacques are inevitable, but Petersen's creation can easily stand on its own.

The story picks up as the Guard is recovering after a hard fought war with the weasels and getting back to its peacetime functions--escorting merchant mice, blazing new trails, and generally keeping watch over the mouse population. Three members of the Guard (pictured on the cover) are sent to investigate the disappearance of a merchant on a routine journey through the mouse lands. During the routine mission, they uncover evidence that there is a traitor inside the Guard and the rush is on to save Lockhaven, the Mouse Guard's fortress home. It is a cute, short story with fairly predictable character types, but what do you expect from a short comic pilot series?

While the story might be slightly lacking in complexity, what really makes Mouse Guard stand out is its absolutely beautiful art! I'm not sure any description if mine (vibrant color, rich texturing, great small details) could really do it justice, so take a peek at a couple of panels:

While there is a fair amount of violence, it is not overdone. In fact, there were times that I was having some trouble figuring out who was injured in a given fight sequence. This being said, I probably wouldn't recommend mouse guard for your really little ones due to its fairly realistic portrayals of battle.

Given that this is the pilot series, I can forgive the light plot--the artwork more than makes up for it. Did I mention how good the art is? I am now an affirmed Mouse Guard fan and can't wait to read the second volume which covers the events of winter 1152.

The Gunslinger

2010-09-16T15:20:00.000-04:00

I was so excited by the news this past week that a trilogy of movies (not to mention two TV series!) based on The Dark Tower novels is being produced that I ran to the bookshelf to set about rereading one of my favorite (science fiction-western-horror-fantasy) series of all time. Not a task to be undertaken lightly since all told the series runs several thousand trade paperback pages!

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

Great first line, eh? So begins The Gunslinger (1982), the first installment in Stephen King's epic seven book Dark Tower series. In it we meet Roland Deschain as he travels across a desolate wasteland in pursuit of a mysterious sorceror. This episode is only the latest trial in a life-long quest to reach his ultimate destination: the enigmatic Dark Tower.

Roland, thin and tough as a piece of old leather, is the last surviving gunslinger. In the baronies of Roland's homeland, the gunslingers were an honorable lot and acted as a sort of peace keeper and diplomat combined into one. Under increasing pressure from malevolent forces, the gunslingers (and, indeed, civilized society itself) eventually collapsed in the wake of a monumental struggle with said forces. Roland now stands (or more accurately, wanders) alone and has sworn a vow to seek the ultimate source of creation, the Dark Tower. This quest puts him directly at odds with the aforementioned malevolent forces who seek to destroy the tower for their own nefarious purposes.

The world which Roland inhabits is strangely reminiscent of our own and, indeed, contains many familiar elements. There are remnants of technology strewn about the desolate landscape, though Roland professes to not understand many of these devices. Moreover, some cultural references (for instance, the song 'Hey Jude') are shared with our own world. These elements suggest that the setting of The Gunslinger is a strange sort of parallel universe or perhaps lies somewhere in the distant future of our own reality. Roland claims that his world has "moved on" and hints that this might be caused by straying away from the ancient ways of magic. The odd incongruities between Roland's world and our own set up a kind of disoriented feeling in the reader and nicely enhance the overall mood of the novel.

The Gunslinger recounts Roland's pursuit of Walter, the mysterious man in black (though you may know him as Randall Flagg from The Stand), across the nameless desert. Along the way he encounters a number of situations that reveal themselves to be traps placed in his way by Walter to test his resolve. In one encounter, the town of Tull is whipped into a religious frenzy and attempts to lynch Roland. The townspeople ultimately learn what it is like to be on Roland's bad side (i.e. at the end of his gun--he doesn't have the title gunslinger for nothing). Roland survives the tests, though not without some serious psychological pain. Not surprisingly, the climax of the novel comes when Roland does, in fact, catch up to Walter. Instead of a titanic showdown, some serious philosophizing ensues, predictions about the future are made, and Roland is left alone next to a great sea to ponder how to proceed with his quest. [PLEASE NOTE: I'm intentionally glossing over the plot here...I don't want to reveal too much.]

It was interesting to reread this novel after gaining some perspective by reading the rest of the series. The novel was genuinely more enjoyable. In particular, there is a fairly stark contrast between the Roland of The Gunslinger and the Roland presented in the later novels. In this novel, he seems to be fairly flat and nearly void of emotion (at least on the surface), and his actions in The Gunslinger certainly reinforce this view. It takes some time for the reader to become sympathetic to Roland's cause. After my initial reading of the book, I was fairly unenthusiastic about continuing to follow what, at the time, seemed a flawed, unlikable character. It is not until such time that his ka-tet has been formed that the true character of Roland is revealed (and after the events chronicled in Wizard and Glass, I don't think anyone in their right mind could not help but sympathize with Roland).

Remember that The Gunslinger servers as an introduction to the Dark Tower mythos and really only begins to scratch its surface. The novel is carefully constructed to lay the groundwork for the epic story that follows in the later novels. Taken on its own, I would call it only a passable effort for a novel--there are intriguing parts but not a fabulously enjoyable read (hence the mediocre hamster number). When viewed in the context of the rest of the Dark Tower story, however, it is a fitting start to a truly grand (science fiction-western-horror-fantasy) adventure!

[I finally got around to creating a graphic to indicate half steps in the hamster rating scale. Please do not be alarmed--I want to state categorically that I do not condone violence toward hamsters!]

Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom

2010-09-07T16:40:00.001-04:00

Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom (1989) is the first volume of David Wingrove's massive Chung Kuo science fiction series. I read most of the series a long time ago and recently decided to revisit the novel(s). After reading it the first time, I was fairly amazed that the series as a whole has gotten so little attention from scifi readers. After this read, I find it to be nearly as good as I remember--not a literary novel by any means, just solid, shoot-from-the-hip adventure and intrigue. I would rate it 3.5 hamsters if my silly system allowed me to do so!

The novel is set in a future Earth where China (or at least Chinese culture) dominates the world. The events leading to this massive shift in world culture have not been made clear (though a prequel novel to be released soon might shed some light on how it originates). At any rate, the continents of Earth are ruled by a council of seven T'angs, who are akin to Chinese emperors and have absolute control over the life and death of the populace. The family of Li Shai Tung, the T'ang of Europe, is at the heart of the plot in Chung Kuo: TMK.

The entire population of Earth lives in a 300-story structure made of a super plastic material known only as Ice. Success in Chung Kuo (which is, incidentally, the ancient name for China itself, meaning 'The Middle Kingdom') is measured by where you reside in the structure: residents of the highest levels are those with the most power, while lowborn citizens are confined in the dirty, chaotic lower levels. Underneath Chung Kuo lies 'The Clay', where packs of humans live feral lives at best. The world-building in the novel is absolutely fantastic; Wingrove's Chung Kuo provides a wonderful setting in which the plot unfolds.

When we pick up the story, the T'angs are coming under increased pressure from a faction of wealthy industrialists and their political allies (known as the Dispersionists) for reforms. As seems to be the case with just about any entrenched ruler, the T'angs seek to avoid loosening their grip on power at any cost. They are particularly loathe to allow any sort of Western influence to work its way into society. This conflict in ideoology eventually leads to a bitter clash known as the 'War of Two Directions' for control of Chung Kuo and, with it, the population of Earth.

The novel tells the story from the viewpoints of a number of characters as they are swept into the unfolding struggle for power. As a result, we get a view of Chung Kuo society from the absolute top (the leaders of both factions) down to the lowest of the low (a Clay-born boy). There are a TON of characters in the novel and a lot of them have Chinese names. It is somewhat overwhelming at first, but the book has a handy cast of characters section to help readers keep them straight.

To be clear: Chung Kuo: TMK is not without its faults. Wingrove most definitely falls prey to a good dose of Orientalism every now and then (a definition from wikipedia: preconceived archetypes that envision all "Eastern" societies as fundamentally similar to one another, and fundamentally dissimilar to "Western" societies). Hmm...sounds a lot like the whole plot of the book, doesn't it? While the menace was always looming close, I feel like Wingrove only grossly fell prey to it on a few occasions. The reader will have to decide if this taints the whole novel--I don't think it does.

If you go to any book website and read reviews of Chung Kuo: TMK, you will see that much has been made about its violence. In fact, the most strident objections are raised over one sexually explicit scene in the book that lasts for maybe five pages. As with most anything you read on the internet, take these rather strangely impassioned reviews with a grain of salt. Yes, the scene is explicit. Yes, it is uncomfortable reading. BUT: the scene is not gratuitous and does serve a purpose. Namely, to cement in readers' minds the evilness of the leader of the Dispersionist faction, who, up until that point, may have turned out only to be an ideological hardliner. Who knows how many people have been scared away from reading what is a fairly good novel because of these reactionary reviews?

Despite some flaws, Chung Kuo: TMK is a great start to what can only be described as an epic science fiction series. As I said in the introduction--if you are looking for a deep book, put down Chung Kuo immediately and pick up the likes of Hyperion instead. Instead, if you go in expecting a well-written series with plenty of interesting characters and adventures, you won't be let down!

The (second) Uplift Trilogy: Review

2010-08-31T15:56:00.000-04:00

Alright, so you may have surmised from my last post that I really enjoyed reading Brin's second Uplift trilogy. Brightness Reef (1995), Infinity's Shore (1996) and Heaven's Reach (1998) contain so many thought-provoking ideas wrapped up in an exciting plot, how could I not rate it highly? [This is yet another example of how I need half steps in my rating system--I would give it 4.5 hamsters if I had a suitable graphic!]

First off--do you need to have read the previous Uplift novels to make sense of the story in this series? The answer is definitely not as the essential details (particularly the events of Startide Rising [1983]) are revealed as remembrances of the characters. But, on the other hand, it certainly couldn't hurt. I read the first Uplift books many years ago and had only a vague remembrance of the plot, and I did just fine. The better question is why haven't you read them yet anyway?

The story opens on Jijo, a backwoods planet that has been declared fallow by the galactic Institute of Migration so that its ecosystem might have time to recover after use by its former inhabitants. Here we find a society forged by members of six species (of which humans are one) who have independently colonized the planet for different reasons but with the same intent--to drop out of galactic society. Unauthorized use of the planet is, of course, highly illegal in the eyes of galactic law. As a result, the colonists have forsaken galactic technology and strive to leave no mark upon Jijo that might give them away from space. These circumstances have led to the development of a uniquely Jijoan religion based around the hope of regressing to a pre-sentient state by fostering a more primitive lifestyle. If this state can be achieved, perhaps the Jijoans will be discovered by a new patron species and uplifted to a more perfect state. This concept permeates every aspect of Jijoan culture.

Despite a somewhat fractious pass, the sooner species have forged peaceful bonds, united in their striving for redemption in the form of devolution. This fairly idyllic life is shattered when a starship descends to the planet surface in the middle of an annual gathering of the six species. It is soon discovered that these newcomers are not agents of the galactic government, but are, instead, criminals looking to raid fallow planets for species that may be ready for the uplift process. This revelation sparks a fierce debate among different Jijoan factions, and the first half of the trilogy deals with the upheaval caused by the conflict.

Unbeknownst to just about everyone on the planet, two other spaceships have also arrived on Jijo. The Streaker, from Earth and crewed by uplifted dolphins, has been on the run from most of the galaxy for several years following a spectacular discovery with implications for the identity of the revered Progenitors (detailed in Startide Rising). The second ship, from the feared Jophur clan, has arrived in pursuit of the Streaker. Streaker's predicament slowly transitions to the fore of the plot and drives the action for the remainder of series when a group of Jijoans are caught up in the trouble and forced to leave the planet. It turns out that the Streaker has a pivotal role to play in deciding the fate of not only humankind but that of galactic civilization at large!

The characterization of the dolphins aboard Streaker is definitely one of the high points of the novels. They are imbued with just the right blend of playfulness and intelligence. This often comes across in the haiku verse (named trinary) that the neofins use to communicate with one another aboard the Streaker. Also enjoyable was our first experience with hydrogen breathers, the second major order of life in the galaxy. The idea of a wholly separate division of life above the species level really grabbed me when I read the first Uplift books, and I was hoping it would get explored further in this trilogy!

I'm not sure that I've done the novels justice above, but I hope it comes across that I thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy for both its bold ideas and wonderful writing. This will teach me to combine three reviews into one next time I read a trilogy...it turns out to be harder than I thought!

The (second) Uplift Trilogy: Introduction

2010-08-26T11:26:00.004-04:00

No, I haven't abandoned posting to the blog! After nearly a month, I'm back to review not one but three novels: David Brin's "new" or "second" or whatever-you-want-to-call-it Uplift trilogy. Unlike the previous three novels set in the Uplift universe, Brightness Reef (1995), Infinity's Shore (1996) and Heaven's Reach (1998) share a continuous plot from book to book. For this reason, after finishing the first novel, I decided to review the series as a whole. To make this a less monumental task, I'm going to break the review into two parts: an introduction to the Uplift universe and a review of the three novels themselves.

Are you looking for a literary universe with mind bogglingly cool ideas? Well, David Brin has more of them than you can shake a stick at in his Uplift novels! I really don't even know where to begin. The essential feature of his universe revolves around the idea that more advanced starfaring civilizations "uplift" presapient species by directing the final stages of their evolution into an intelligent species. This is, of course, done through genetic and social manipulation over the course of many years. Once uplifted, the species is considered a member of galactic civilization in its own right but is indebted to and remains part of the "clan" of their patrons.

It is commonly believed that a mysterious race known as The Progenitors instituted the Uplift process up to a billion years ago before disappearing without a trace. This has led to the development of a number of different belief systems based around the fate of the Progenitors, and, indeed, the ultimate fate of all galactic species. In galactic society, the purpose and fate of individuals is rarely considered important (or even considered at all).

Humans are relative newcomers onto the galactic scene, having made contact a few hundred years prior to most of the events in the Uplift novels. They are one of the rare species (known as wolflings) who have managed to bootstrap themselves into the stars without the help of a patron species. The lack of patrons to guide and protect humans as they establish themselves puts them in a very rough spot among the rigid caste system that dominates every aspect of galactic life. Luckily, humans had already began the process of uplifting chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins before making contact with galactic civilization. This gives them a little more cred than the few other wolfling species have had in the past.

In the Uplift universe, life in the linked galaxies is divided into several orders of life. Not only are there oxygen breathing species, but also those that utilize hydrogen to sustain life (I won't comment on the biological feasibility of this concept). Suffice it to say that the two groups don't get along well. The Institute of Migration, an arm of galactic bureaucracy, coordinates oxy interactions with hydros, even going so far as ceding them whole swathes of galaxies to avoid conflict. While hydros were tangentially mentioned in the first three Uplift novels, they play a far larger role in the second series of novels. In addition to the two organic forms of life, there are a number of other orders that oxygen species have so far had limited interactions with: machine, quantum, memetic, etc.

The age of galactic civilization is staggering, with at least a billion years of history going back to the Progenitors. Starfaring civilizations have, therefore, been gathering and refining their knowledge for many hundreds of millions of years, collecting it in a repository known as the Galactic Library. This knowledge is communicated using a set of standardized languages that have been refined over the eons to transmit information as efficiently as possible between species with vastly different auditory, visual, and vocal organs. The languages vary from a series of pops and clicks that most any species produce (with tools if necessary) to higher level languages more akin to what we humans would call "talking." Because of these highly ordered information conventions, most species take the opinion that "everything that is done has been done before," thereby reinforcing the conservative nature of society as a whole. Needless to say, this conflicts with indomitable human nature and becomes one of the central themes of the Uplift novels.

Are you getting the drift here? Brin has created a rich and vibrant universe! I could list ten other provocative ideas he describes without even trying. The Uplift novels have a bit of everything--hard biology and physics with a large dose of sociology, anthropology (or species-pology?) and psychology thrown in. I highly recommend all six Uplift novels--they are both well written and thought-provoking and rank among the best that science fiction has to offer!

[Next time: an actual review of the second Uplift trilogy.]

A Morbid Taste for Bones

2010-07-22T17:19:00.000-04:00

A Morbid Taste For Bones (1977) is the first in the Brother Cadfael series of mystery novels set in 12th century England by Ellis Peters (of which there are 21 books). I have my mom to thank for introducing me to Brother Cadfael's adventures many years ago. I'd like to reread m . Note: I listened to this as an audiobook.

The main character, the Welshman Brother Cadfael, is an unusual example of a Benedictine monk who lives in the Shropshire village of Shrewsbury. I say unusual because he has come to his monks' habit late in life after having spent many years in the Holy Land as a Crusader in his younger years. His rich life experiences give him an eye for seeing people and events in a different light than most of his cloistered brothers.

As the novel opens, Colambanus, one of Cadfael's brothers is overcome at Mass by a fit of religious fervor and falls into a coma. A brother standing vigil in the night over the stricken brother is visited by a mysterious personage who instructs him to bring Columbanus to the Well of St. Winefride in Northern Wales. By no coincidence, St. Winefride has been shortlisted as a saint whose relics the Abbey (or more specifically, the overbearing Prior Robert) has an interest in acquiring. Getting a hold of a saint's relics was a big deal in medieval times, when housing such a religious relic would guarantee a constant stream of pilgrims (and revenue) for a church .

Columbanus is miraculously cured at the well and insists St. Winefride herself appeared to him and expressed a desire to be moved to a place more hospitable to pilgrims. The majority of the book revolves around a journey undertaken by the monks to translate her remains from the village of Gwytherin to the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Shrewsbury.

Needless to say, the residents of Gwytherin are none to happy with the sudden interest taken in their Welsh patroness by English monks. Despite having the permission and authority of both the church and local lord, the village is reluctant to allow the brothers to remove St. Winefride's body. At a village-wide meeting, an influential landowner, Rhisiart, clashes with Prior Robert and cements the village's intention to deny the monks their prize. The following day, Rhisiart is found foully murdered by an arrow through the chest. Being Welsh himself, Cadfael feels especially close to the involved parties, and he undertakes a full investigation of Rhisiart's murder. Using his uncanny ability to read people, Brother Cadfael unravels the mystery after several twists and turns.

Ah - but does St. Winefride ever make it to Shrewsbury? You'll have to read to find out!

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. Brother Cadfael's character is delightfully written. He is both irreverent and witty at times -two traits one does not usually associate with a medieval monk. He's the kind of guy you'd love to sit down and have a drink with. I look forward reading about his further adventures!

A Separate Peace

2010-06-29T16:52:00.002-04:00

I ran across A Separate Peace (1960) on our shelf when moving some of our book collection around. It turns out to be a fairly popular selection for high school English classes, but somehow I missed the bus on that one. At any rate, the description sounded fairly interesting as I'm always one to enjoy a good boys' school drama a la Dead Poets Society.

The novel, a fairly quick read, is the story of two friends at a boarding school in New England during World War 2. The two main characters, Gene and Phineas, are a study in opposites: Gene is the more introverted, studious type, while Phineas is a gregarious athlete. The two have been drawn to one another, and as the novel opens are enjoying the carefree days of the summer session at the Devon School.

Toward the end of summer an event occurs that will change both of their lives forever. Finny conceives of a club whose members must prove themselves by jumping from a tree into the river, a fairly dangerous affair as the tree is set back from the banks of the river. As the co-leaders, Gene and Finny contrive to impress everyone by jumping from the tree in tandem. While making their way out on a limb to do this, Gene inexplicably bounces the branch, causing Finny to fall onto the ground below and badly break his leg. The remainder of the novel is really a character study of Gene and the ugly truths he discovers about himself in the wake of the tree incident.

It becomes clear that Gene is extremely jealous of Finny's very natural good-natured approach to life. Gene convinces himself that Finny has plotted to bring about his academic downfall by goading him into spending time away from his studies on various pursuits. This jealousy eventually manifests itself physically in his treacherous act on the tree over the river. Gene's character is starkly contrasted by Phineas, who is an innately good individual, even going so far as to deny Gene's act when Gene visits him to confess. Another traumatic event forces Gene to come to terms with his character, and we are left with the hope that he will try to grow from his experiences with Phineas.

I enjoyed the overall message of the novel, but it was a fairly dull read. Since I have chosen to base my hamster scale mostly on my enjoyment of the reading experience, I give it only three hamsters. This is not to say I don't recommend it, but a thrilling read it is not!

The October Horse

2010-06-28T16:40:00.000-04:00

The October Horse (2002) is the sixth book in the 'Master of Rome' series that chronicles the people and events surrounding the downfall of the Roman Republic. True to its predecessors, this is a massive tome (1120 pages) that, while remaining fiction, is firmly rooted in primary historical sources.

The book is rather aptly named after a custom held after a particular chariot race held each year in Rome on the Ides of October. The strongest horse from the winning chariot team was sacrificed to the gods. Afterwards, its head was flung into a crowd consisting of two teams of plebeians who fought for its control. You don't have to be a classical scholar to realize that the October Horse is a thinly veiled allusion to Julius Caesar.

The book opens in 48 BC just after Pompey the Great has been treacherously murdered in Alexandria at the hands of the ruling Ptolemy. Julius Caesar lands in Alexandria and, upon discovering the circumstances of Pompey's death, immediately sides with Cleopatra who is embroiled in a civil war against her brother Ptolemy. After a short campaign, not only does Cleopatra solidify her rule of Egypt, but she also falls desperately in love with Caesar and will eventually bear him a son, Caesarion.

Of course the crowning moment of the entire series is the fateful event that took place in Rome on the Ides of March in 44 BC. McCullough does a fantastic job of building the conspiracy against Caesar that arises first from the grumbles of his discontented former legates. The pacing of events in this section of the novel is truly fantastic, and McCullough keeps the suspense taut until the final act of Caesar's life is played out. I can only imagine it must have been a difficult scene for her to write, as she has practically idolized Caesar from his earliest appearance in the series.

At this point, I should mention that I strongly feel that The October Horse should have been split into two separate novels. The death of Julius Caesar, without doubt the central character of the entire 'Masters of Rome' series, would have been a natural place to stop action. After the assassination, I wanted to take a break and come to grips with Caesar's death, and indeed that of the Republic, but felt I never really got the chance.

Instead, the remainder of the novel (we're talking hundreds of pages here) are left to deal with wrangling between Mark Antony and Octavian (Caesar's adopted son) for the control of Rome. We find Octavian to have many of the same outstanding qualities of Julius Caesar but also lacking his intense sense of fairness and scruples. Overall, Octavian comes off as a quite unlikable character in my estimation, although I suppose you don't get to be the emperor of Rome being nice!

Despite a few small quibbles, I was wholly satisfied with the novel, which was originally intended to end the 'Masters of Rome' series at the Battle of Phillipi, the point at which McCullough considers the Roman Republic to have died for all time. Luckily for us, she relented and wrote a seventh book to carry the characters through to Actium, where Mark Antony is defeated decisively and Octavian ascends to the throne as Augustus Caesar. Rest assured I'll be reviewing this last novel sometime in the near future!

Lisey's Story

2010-06-24T16:55:00.001-04:00

The author of Lisey's Story (2006) needs no introduction, so I'm going to dispense with that. Unlike many hardcore King fans, I prefer his recent more fantastical work over his earlier novels that tended toward classic horror tales. I really loved Duma Key (reviewed here on the blog), the novel that followed Lisey's Story and had read that the two novels together deal heavily with King's thoughts on marriage and divorce. Note: I listened to this as an audiobook.

The story recounts events over the course of several days in the life of Lisey Landon, wife of the award-winning novelist Scott Landon. As the novel opens, Lisey is settling down to go through her late husband's papers two years after his death before donating them to a public collection. A series of events causes Lisey to recall memories and events in Scott Landon's life that she had apparently been repressing for many years. These are presented to the reader as a series of flashback chapters scattered throughout the novel and often coincide with key events in the Landon's marriage.

It is in these portions of the book where the real story of the novel takes place. We learn the tragic upbringing of Scott Landon at the hands of his father who is held in the grips of a serious mental illness. He is forced to take refuge by traveling to a fantastical land he names "Boo'ya Moon." This location becomes central to Lisey in the present day, as she is slowly drawn by clues left by Scott into Boo'ya Moon in a desperate attempt to save her own sister from mental illness.

I must say that I almost didn't make it through the first part of the book for a couple of reasons. First, it took quite some time to build the groundwork so that the novel's actual plot could get underway. For instance, there was an extensive flashback toward the beginning of the book that I was unable to put into context until much later in the novel. The ultimately left me feeling fairly uninterested in what was going on until about halfway into the book. To compound my confusion, Scott and Lisey share a language between themselves. The novel is peppered with phrases such as "bool," "smucking," "SOWISA," and "strap it on." I suppose this speaks to the closeness and intimacy of their marriage, but it adds another layer of complexity to a fairly intricate plot. Plus, I honestly found the made-up language annoying.

Ultimately, the novel pulls itself together toward the latter quarter of the book and manages to redeem itself somewhat (I was going to give it a solid two hamster rating until near the end). If you had to choose one King book to read, I wouldn't recommend this one. On the other hand, if you a die hard King fan and can't get enough, Lisey's Story does a passable job of satisfy the craving.

Red Mars

2010-05-21T15:34:00.001-04:00

Red Mars (1992) was among the first novels that I read when I was really getting into "serious" science fiction. I remember enjoying the book, particularly the level of technical detail described by Robinson, and enthusiastically recommending it to everyone I knew. Well, I recently had a chance to give the novel a fresh look (or a listen since it was an audiobook) and it didn't completely live up to my memory.

The novel chronicles the first permanent human settlement on the planet Mars in the year 2026 (a date looking increasingly optimistic as the years go by!). A crew of one hundred of the brightest scientists, engineers, and other technical luminaries has been chosen to establish a base and open the planet to further colonization in the coming years. The array of characters who will shape Mars for years to come is introduced as they begin a year-long flight to Mars aboard the spaceship Ares.

After the initial settlement has been firmly established, the gates are opened for immigration to the red planet. The UN commission on Mars initially tightly controls the influx of people to ensure that proper infrastructure is in place on their arrival. Within a span of years, however, the interests of individuals and the planet itself begin to be passed over in favor of the interests of transnational corporations who have come to Mars looking for profits. A good portion of the book deals with the reactions of the original colonists to these developments and how key characters attempt to influence them.

There is an increasing, planet-wide sense of outrage as it becomes clear that Mars is headed down the same profit-driven path that has led to Earth's problems. Acts of sabotage abound, and soon Mars is in the grip of a revolution--the corporations and UN on one side, the Mars-first groups on the other. The war culminates with an apocalyptic series of events that might return Mars to its original, barren state.

While the technical and political aspects of the colonization are an important focus of the novel, Red Mars is also an intense study of character and personality. Each colonist is chosen to go on the inaugural mission because they are a leader of their field and used to being in a position of authority. This setup leads to inevitable conflicts among the mission personnel. These conflicts come into sharp focus early in the novel when the question of terraforming Mars arises and the original one hundred are split into camps with different views. The fallout from this fundamental difference of opinion shapes the majority of events in the novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first third of the book. The technical descriptions of the initial phases of settlement are truly phenomenal. However, there are points in the story that get bogged down due to excessive (IMHO) levels of detail. This seemed to occur on a semi-regular basis when characters needed to "find their way" or decide on a course of action. The geology of Mars is interesting, but you can only take so much wandering around in a rover with detailed descriptions of escarpments, sediments, alluvial plains, etc. Despite the few sections that take some slogging to get through, Red Mars is a good, solid hard science fiction read--I give it 3.5 hamsters.

Agent Zigzag

2010-05-17T15:35:00.001-04:00

Agent Zigzag (2007) opens with a scene straight out of the movies. Two lovebirds are relaxing in a restaurant enjoying a romantic dinner when, all of a sudden, two policeman appear, prompting the man to dive through a glass window and run up the beach to evade his pursuers. This incident seems to nicely encapsulate the life and times of Edward Chapman, the man whose story Ben McIntyre has set out to tell in Agent Zigzag.

Eddie Chapman is a flamboyant, complicated character who spent much of his life on the wrong side of the law. He is also, incredibly, one of the most successful double agents ever to operate for British intelligence. This seeming dichotomy of character makes for a fascinating read.

When the story opens, he is involved in a gang of safe crackers implicated in a string of robberies in Britain. He winds up incarcerated on the island of Jersey when World War 2 breaks out and the island is captured by Nazi Germany. In a fairly ill-conceived bid to gain freedom, Chapman volunteers his services as a spy for the Germans.

He is eventually recruited and trained by the Abwehr to carry out sabotage missions within Britain. His background as a criminal made him a particularly appealing candidate as a spy to the Germans. Analysis suggested he was likely to feel ill-treated by the British and, as a result, less inclined to turn sides once released into Britain. Also, his expertise with using explosives to crack safes could be harnessed for more sinister purposes. Of course, Chapman, a consummate liar, did everything possible to reinforce these ideas.

Following a period of rigorous training, Chapman parachutes into Britain in the dead of night with orders to blow up an airplane production plant. Instead of proceeding as planned, he heads straight to MI5 to volunteer as a double agent working for British intelligence! While he is at first greeted with surprise and distrust, the British eventually realize what a useful tool they might have at their disposal.

Most of the account details his retraining by the British and subsequent missions working for both sides in Germany, Norway, and Britain. Chapman, though brilliant, is prone to wild mood swings, fits of bravado, and bouts of romanticism. This kind of behavior has his British and German handlers constantly on edge and questioning his motives--both sides are constantly confronted with the question of whether he is worth all the fuss.

Agent Zigzag is a highly compelling account of an almost larger-than-life personality. At times, it is difficult to believe that Chapman's story is not fiction!

Caesar

2010-05-06T12:36:00.014-04:00

Caesar is the fifth novel in Colleen McCullough's 'Masters of Rome' series of historical novels which describe the events leading to the downfall of the Roman Republic. The series opens in 110 B.C. and proceeds to chronicle the careers of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and the early life of Gaius Julius Caesar. This is, of course, a drastic understatement of the scope of the series--these novels are extremely thorough and well-researched. McCullough has made a concious effort to remain as faithful as possible to primary sources when writing her own account.

This installment opens in 54 B.C. when Julius Caesar is in the midst of his years-long campaign to subdue Gaul. Nearly all of the first half of the novel describes the tactics used by Caesar to break apart the alliance of Gauls cobbled together under the leadership of Vercingetorix with aid from the Druids.

Particularly interesting is the description of Caesar's tactics at Alesia (52 B.C.), a hilltop town where Vercingetorix had holed up in an attempt to avoid giving battle. To prevent any sizable Gallic force from escaping Alesia, Caesar completely surrounded the town in about three weeks time with a series of ditches stretching for over 14 kilometers. When word came that a Gallic relief force had been dispatched, Caesar incredibly built a second line of fortifications facing outward, thus encircling his army between the two defensive lines! Both Gallic forces attacked the Romans simultaneously over the course of two days but were repelled each time. In the climactic battle, a weak point in the Roman lines was nearly breached by the relief army 60,000 men strong. Recognizing this to be the critical moment of the battle, Caesar personally led a desperately small force of cavalry around to attack the Gallic army in the rear which broke into a headlong retreat. Vercingetorix, still in Alesia on the brink of starvation, was forced to capitulate, essentially marking the end of organized Gallic resistance to Roman rule.

The latter half of Caesar chronicles the events in Rome where the boni faction, led most vocally by Cato, is attempting to strip Caesar of his army and send him into exile. Following the death of Caesar's daughter, the personal relationship between Caesar and Pompey the Great is fractured irrevocably, thus ending the First Triumvirate that had dominated Roman politics for a decade. When Caesar crosses the Rubicon, bringing his army onto Roman soil, a state of civil war is declared by the senate. The novel closes with the rather anti-climactic Battle of Pharsalus where Pompey's force is easily defeated, and he is forced to flee to Egypt. On arrival, he is assassinated by the ruling Ptolemy king in an effort to make peace with Caesar. Though the remains of the boni faction have fled to western Africa, Caesar now stands the undisputed master of Rome.

I absolutely loved the book and give it 4.5 hamsters. McCullough really shines when describing the inner working of Rome's broken political system. The characterization, whether true or not, is brilliantly pulled off. However, I do have some small reservations about the way Caesar and Pompey are portrayed. McCullough veritably deifies Julius Caesar throughout the whole series. His failures, granted few and far between, are definitely downplayed in the narrative. On the other hand, Pompey is portrayed as a rather weak man who allows himself to be easily used. I can't believe that someone who had risen to such heights in the Roman Republic based nearly completely on his prowess commanding an army could have such a spineless nature. A very small quibble about a novel that is truly a masterpiece of historical fiction!

Spy

2010-04-20T11:37:00.003-04:00

Spy (2003), as the title suggests, is a non-fiction work about espionage, a topic that has held perennial interest for me over the years. Specifically, it chronicles the career of Robert P. Hanssen, an FBI agent who spied for both the Soviet Union and Russia over a 22 year period (1979-2001). He is arguably considered the most damaging mole in the history of American intelligence, and was responsible for betraying at least three Soviets working for America who were later executed in the USSR for treason. In addition to betraying American operatives, Hanssen sold highly sensitive information about US nuclear strategy and electronic intelligence gathering methods.

Rather than go into great detail about Hanssen's career, I would urge you to read the book. Suffice it to say that it is an interesting read for someone not overly familiar with the daily workings of the intelligence world.

One question nagged at me throughout the book and was never really explained to my satisfaction. In 1979, Robert Hanssen had been an FBI special agent for a mere three years and recently transferred to the counter-intelligence section. How is it that he was immediately given access to such highly sensitive information as the identity of Dmitri Polyakov (codename TOPHAT), one of the most productive CIA spies in history? I was not clear if this sort of access would be customary or, more likely, was given to Hanssen as part of his new duties. Either way, this seems like a gross error on the part of the FBI. Of course, as the author notes several times over the course of Spy, hindsight is 20-20.

For me, the strong point of the book is in the final chapters, where Wise analyzes Hanssen's motivation for his espionage activities. These chapters are largely based upon interviews with a psychologist who spent several weeks debriefing Hanssen in the immediate aftermath of his arrest. In fact, Hanssen gave permission for the psychologist to break patient-doctor privilege so that this information might be presented. It is clear that unlike some other notable spies, financial considerations were never in the forefront of Hanssen's mind (unlike the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by Aldrich Ames, the CIA mole who received over 2.7 million dollars for betraying upwards of ten agents working for the US and UK). Nor was Hanssen ideologically motivated. Instead, he seemed to harbor a serious inferiority complex that, over time, developed into a deep-seeded hatred of the FBI.

Wise's account stumbles in a few places (particularly unclear was the account of the Felix Bloch incident), though it is a fairly well written account and moves along at a good pace. I give it four hamsters based mostly on my interest in the subject matter.

The Little Country

2010-04-02T14:27:00.004-04:00

For some reason, I always get irrationally excited when I read the quotes on the backs of books. They get me really pumped about reading a book--I suppose that is why book publishers put them on the covers of so many books. Nary a book goes by without somebody proclaiming it is the bee's knees, the best thing since sliced bread, or some such sentiment. Well, the quotes on the back of The Little Country were in this vein, with high-caliber authors like Orson Scott Card, Greg Bear, and Gordon R. Dickson saying that with this novel de Lint was raising the bar for fantasy writing (or something along those lines). When, o when, am I going to realize that those quotes are just marketing ploys?

The Little Country (1991) is a mythic fantasy novel set in Mousehole, a small village in Cornwall, England in contemporary times. The story revolves around a mysterious book that is discovered by Janey Little, a folk musician by trade, in her grandfather's (known for some inexplicable reason as 'The Gaffer') attic. The book, a one-of-a-kind edition of an unpublished story, was written by a deceased family friend, William Dunthorn (an author of some renown), and placed in The Gaffer's care to guard. Over the years, various parties have shown some interest in obtaining the book, though The Gaffer has always written the attention off as people trying to make a buck off his dead friend.

As Janey begins to read the book, all sorts of odd things begin to happen. Her old boyfriend shows up unexpectedly in the village after a long departure following their breakup. An American woman with unknown motives begins to poke around Cornwall. A reporter from Rolling Stone magazine shows up for an unannounced interview with Janey Little. We eventually come to discover that an ancient magic is stirring (*gasp*!), and it is up to Janey and her companions to guard its secret from outside forces who would put it to nefarious purposes.

Intervening chapters tell the story that unfolds in the Dunthorn book as read by Janey Little. These detail the adventures of Jodi, a local girl who is captured by an old widow rumored to be a witch. Her escape and subsequent marshaling of Mousehole townfolk against the widow unfold alongside the "main" story of Janey Little. While the story-within-a-story idea is an interesting narrative technique, it was not clear to me that these chapters actually told the Dunthorn book's story until near the end of the novel. On the other hand, maybe I'm just slow...?

I found the first half of the book to be almost excruciatingly boring. Yes, the characters of Janey and her gang are well set up, but there is little in the way of action. The parallel story with Jodi was the only thing that kept me going. A major plot point revolves around a simple misunderstanding between Janey and her ex-flame that would have been cleared up in minutes by any normal adult. Instead, it just leads to all sorts of melodrama.

A positive comment: the setting of the novel is extremely well realized. Cornwall, with its connection to the ocean and links to the Celtic past, provides the perfect setting for a magical world to intersect with ours. De Lint obviously has a love of this country, and he writes about the land very well.

I was going to give the book a flat two hamsters, but the last third of the book improved by quite a bit. In the end, I'll score it a strong two and a half hamsters (I really need to find a graphic to add the half hamsters in!). Without doubt, there is a subset of readers out there that would probably find The Little Country to be a great read, but I'm afraid I'm just not in that group! You can quote me on that.

Night

2010-03-11T17:09:00.001-05:00

Night is the Holocaust memoir of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. To say that it is only a memoir, however, would be doing an extreme injustice to the work. The narrative ultimately draws on themes that we all struggle with in our lives at some point: the meaning of faith, death, family, and the importance of memory.

The New York Times describes the 107-page book as "A slim volume of terrifying power." I can't think of a better way to describe Night, so I'm going to leave it at that. Read the book and never forget.

The Graveyard Book

2010-03-10T14:22:00.002-05:00

Sadly, this is the last of the books I got for Christmas and/or birthday this year. I put off reading it as long as I could so I would savor it when the time came! Alas, I could wait no longer....The Graveyard Book (2008) is Neil Gaiman's first full-length children's book since Coraline (2002). It has received wide acclaim and garnered the 2009 Hugo and Newbery Awards, as well as a Locus Award for best young adult novel.

Apparently, the story is modeled after and contains many similarities to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (even the name The Graveyard Book is an homage). I must confess that I have never read The Jungle Book, so I am unable to comment on any comparison between the two works. I should probably add it to my reading list!

The novel is laid out as a series of what are essentially short stories that chronicle the life of Nobody Owens. Bod (for short) comes to live in a graveyard as a baby after his family is murdered in the opening pages of the novel by a mysterious man in black. He is raised by the ghosts of the graveyard and soon thinks of the graveyard as nothing other than home. Gaiman's prose does a terrific job of making the dark, haunted setting of a graveyard feel like a familiar, comfortable place to the reader (though trouble and magic are never far away).

Over the course of the book, Bod grows from boy into young adulthood, and we see him begin to consider his mysterious past and ponder what the future might hold for him. In due time, it becomes clear that the man who murdered his family is still about and looking to finish the job he started so many years ago. An ill-advised venture into the world outside the graveyard forces Bod to confront this past head on.

I was talking with a friend about the need to add a half-step in my hamster scoring system. This book is a perfect example--I would give The Graveyard Book [4.5 hamsters] if my current system allowed it. It was a fabulously written, entertaining book that fulfills its intended purpose (a young adult novel) exceedingly well. I leave off the last half point only because I think it could have made a spectacular "adult" novel with more depth of plot. I would really enjoy reading more about Bod--where does he settle? What becomes of him? On the other hand, perhaps that would just spoil the magic of the bittersweet ending?

The Graveyard Book is a great story with wonderful writing. A must read for fans of children's literature or Gaiman's other works!

The Ghost Brigades

2010-03-05T16:58:00.001-05:00

I quickly ordered John Scalzi's second book, The Ghost Brigades (2006), from PBS after reading Old Man's War (OMW) and really enjoying it. While not a direct sequel to OMW, The Ghost Brigades is set in the same universe and shares some characters. Unfortunately, Scalzi's sophomore effort didn't hook me the same way his first book did.

Set in the same universe as OMW, we follow the story of a member of the Colonial Defense Force (CDF) special forces (known colloquially as the Ghost Brigades). Special forces soldiers differ from conventional forces in that they are not conscripted from Earth's senior citizens. Instead, they are "born" from the genetic material of those who intended to join the CDF but, due to circumstances, were unable to fulfill their term (usually do to death prior to their 75th birthday). Special forces soldiers, therefore, enter life in a super-enhanced adult body with no emotional experience or instinctual base to rely upon. Instead, these parts of their personality must be built during a short, intense period of training with other just born soldiers.

At the opening of the novel, the CDF is facing a traitor in its midst--the scientist Charles Boutin has united three alien races against his own species. While humans are able to hold their own against any one of the species individually, the combined might of three together makes extinction of humans a very real possibility. Enter our main character, Jared Dirac, who has been instilled with the consciousness of Boutin in an effort by the CDF to understand what Boutin may be plotting and his motives for his betrayal.

This plan doesn't work as well as the CDF brass had hoped when Boutin's memories fail to be immediately accessible to Dirac. He is sent back to a normal special forces unit under Jane Sagan's watchful eye (why waste a good soldier?). When some aspects of Boutin's memories and personality begin to emerge during a combat mission, the loyalty of Dirac is put to question.

As a biologist by trade, I feel obligated to complain about some of the pseudo-genetics used to explain the principles behind the transfer of Boutin's consciousness from a computer to a human mind. It would have been more convincing to just leave it up to the reader to imagine how this might come about.

Don't get me wrong--The Ghost Brigades is an entertaining book with a solid plot (one of my complaints of the first book) that is well executed. Its more conventional nature seemed to lack a certain freshness that made OMW stand above a lot of other science fiction novels. On the other hand, if Scalzi had chosen simply to retread the adventures of John Perry in a sequel, I would no doubt be vigorously complaining. At any rate, I look forward to seeing what Scalzi does when he applies his considerable talent to a different theme/world!

Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact

2010-02-23T16:57:00.001-05:00

Switching gears back to nonfiction, I picked up Hitler's Scientists (2004), a detailed account of science and ethics in Germany during the first half of the 20th century. As a burgeoning scientist, I have sat through many an ethics class (thanks to the NIH initiative to raise responsible scientists) and was interested to read a completely different take on the subject.

The book is by John Cornwell, an English author most famous for Hitler's Pope (1999), a somewhat controversial (to put it lightly) work that contends that Pope Pius XII did not do enough to stand up to Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Hitler's Scientists presents a detailed description of the state of science in Germany in the decades surrounding World War 2. Such varied fields as medicine, biology, racial "science," physics, and conventional weaponry are discussed, always in light of the prevailing political climate of Nazi Germany. Two areas of research, the nuclear program under Werner Heisenberg and the rocket program headed by Wernher von Braun, receive special attention due to their importance (or seeming importance, anyway) for the German war effort and their consequent impact on the Cold War. The final chapters of the book examine how the ethical legacy of the Nazi scientists should temper the behavior of the scientific community in the present day.

It becomes clear that a hallmark of German science and technology development during the Nazi period is its highly fragmented nature. Hitler encouraged infighting (whether deliberate or through unskillful management) between the various personalities, cliques, and groups which constituted his government. As a result, many small groups were often working toward the same goal under different auspices with no knowledge of one another (let alone the science). Compare this to the centralized nature of the Manhattan Project and its policy of information sharing, and it is no wonder the Allies were able to win the race to an atomic weapon (remember, it wasn't until the very end of 1944 that the Allies conclusively knew that Germany did not have the capability to build an atomic weapon).

Alongside the historical account, Cornwell poses his central thesis. Namely, can science be free from the taint of politics? Should scientists consider their work within a vacuum or are they obligated to examine the possible consequences of their research? From the subtitle of the book, I think you can easily surmise that Cornwell absolutely rejects the idea that scientists are not responsible for the ultimate outcomes of their work.

Another interesting question raised by Cornwell is whether science in a totalitarian society inherently differs from that pursued in a democracy? Is a democracy better equipped to conduct science in an ethical manner or handle the resulting technologies in a more responsible manner? A number of incidents (e.g. the use of the atomic bomb, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments) suggest that this might not be the case.

For dealing with what some might consider a fairly dry subject, I found the book extremely easy to read--in fact, it was a real page-turner. I would recommend Hitler's Scientists to those who have an interest in the impact science can have on world at large.

Old Man's War

2010-02-19T15:34:00.000-05:00

What do you get when you combine Starship Troopers with David Brin's Uplift universe and add a dash of Ender's Game for good measure? Why, Old Man's War, the latest novel that I managed to finish during my extended bout with strep throat!

Old Man's War is the premiere novel by John Scalzi, a new talent (at least at the time this was published in 2005), with owes a heavy debt to other military SF (e.g. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman). It was nominated for a Hugo award for best novel in 2006.

The novel tells the story of John Perry, who at 75 years of age, enlists in the Colonial Defense Force (CDF). Like all recruits, in exchange for his service, he is given a new genetically-modified, youthful body, and, upon retirement, the freedom to settle on a colony off Earth. The first half of the book details his training and initial combat experiences. The second half really gets to the meat of the plot--the CDF finds itself in conflict with an alien species over Coral, one of the all-too-few planets in the galaxy appropriate for colonization. The Rraey have gotten a hold of technology which allows them to predict where CDF ships will materialize (see Skip Drive below) when they launch a counterattack to take back Coral. As a result, the CDF fleet is annihilated, and Perry is the only survivor. He is rescued from Coral by a company of soldiers from the Ghost Brigade, the special ops branch of the CDF. Perry is attached to this special force for the remainder of operations on Coral, and comes to some interesting realizations about himself in the process.

Interesting technology abounds in the book--while none of the concepts are particularly novel to SF, they are seamlessly integrated into the world without being gratuitous. Genetic engineering and consciousness transfer are essential for the creation of CDF troops. Each recruit is interfaced with a BrainPal that allows people to communicate images, sounds, thoughts, etc. with one another--this is critical to the efficiency of CDF forces in combat. FTL travel is made possible by the Skip Drive, which essentially works by punching a hole in the fabric of the current universe through to another highly similar universe.

While I found the novel to be both interesting and entertaining, I kept coming back to one major issue: the CDF lacked a really compelling adversary. They spent most of their time running around the galaxy fighting sporadic turf wars on any given colonial planet against any given alien race. I would have found the plot to be more compelling and had a more substantial connection with the characters if the CDF was fighting an avowed enemy of the human race. Something similar to the buggers in Ender's Game or the arachnids in Starship Troopers. By the end of the book, we did have a reason to disdain the Rraey, but it took three-quarters of the book to get to that point. Also, there was a large disconnect between the CDF fighters and the colonists they were defending such that the CDF seemed to have little reason to care them (other than the fact that they were human, which I suppose be a profound motivator in the depths of space), and, consequently, neither did I.

Overall though, an extremely entertaining read. I'm looking forward to reading the sequels (of which there are currently three)!

Under the Dome

2010-02-17T15:34:00.002-05:00

I have fallen somewhat behind on my updating due to some crazy weather and a week long bout of strep throat that really knocked me out. So, without further ado...

This is the second of the books I received as gifts during the holidays, and, boy, it is a whopper! It weighs in at almost 1100 pages. I hate to say it, but this book suffers from what I call "The Stand syndrome," meaning it could use some more rigorous editing.

The story opens with a mysterious series of events--a small plane crashes during a routine training flight, a truck explodes in the middle of the road into town, a woodchuck is sliced neatly in two. It soon becomes apparent that a mysterious invisible barrier has appeared around Chester's Mill, a small town in Maine. The barrier is impervious to any attempt to disrupt it, though is permeable to sound and air.

[In a funny coincidence, this is similar to the premise of The Simpsons movie (though I haven't seen it myself). When there was talk that King's idea may have been influenced by this, he went through the trouble of releasing a manuscript on his website from the 1970's entitled 'The Cannibals' whose plot eventually formed the basis for Under the Dome.]

Things go bad for the people in Chester's Mill when Big Jim Rennie, owner of the local used car superstore, makes a play to become leader of the town for the remainder of the crisis. He does this in dictator-esque fashion by gathering his own force of thugs around town to jam through his own "emergency measures" which serve only to consolidate his personal power. In fact, one pivotal scene where Rennie instigates a riot at the local supermarket is directly comparable to the Reichstag fire of 1933 that led to the Enabling Act and Hitler's subsequent assumption of total power in Germany.

Opposing Rennie is a small group of townspeople, led by Dale "Barbie" Barbara, an ex-army officer drifter who happens to get trapped when the Dome appears. This group, while attempting to resist Rennie and his thugs, seeks to discover the source of the Dome. In the end, this small band is able to free Chester's Mill, though not before a massive firestorm is unleashed which essentially destroys the town and most of its inhabitants.

Under the Dome has an interesting premise, though I think that, in the end, King didn't quite make the plot convincing enough. First, the notion that a town of several thousand people would fall so completely under Rennie's rule in such a short time stretches believability (the entire novel takes place in just over a week). I realize the appearance of the Dome is an extraordinary circumstance, but most of the people I know wouldn't fold up shop and stop caring about themselves or others in a few days! Second, the conclusion of the novel is just sort of meh. I was left with the same feeling I had after finishing The Stand: after building up a rich tapestry of characters and setting, the climax of the plot (i.e. how the Dome is lifted) was sort of a let down. Yes, it involves aliens and, yes is sort of cheesy (two criticisms from some of the more highbrow reviewers), but King has pulled this sort of thing off well before (see e.g. Insomnia).

[3/5 hamsters]

Hard Work

2010-01-14T16:02:00.013-05:00

Next in the line of books I received at Christmas time is this (auto)biography of Roy Williams, coach of my beloved North Carolina Tarheels men's basketball team.

It is often easy to forget, but there is no reason to assume that just because a person is extremely good at something, the rest of the person's character will turn out to be good too. No place is this truer than the sporting world (*ehem* Mr. Woods). Not so with Roy Williams, who happens to be an extremely successful coach (a Naismith Hall-of-famer and the winningest active coach by percentage among NCAA coaches) and, by all accounts, a genuinely good person.

The book follows Coach Williams' rise to basketball royalty from his meager beginnings as a stat tracker sitting in the upper deck of Carmichael Auditorium as an underclassman at UNC. Along the way, we are treated to recollections about his career, philosophy (basketball and otherwise), and personal life.

Something that becomes immediately apparent when you look at Coach Williams' life (at least the portions he has chosen to share with us in his book) is that he is a fairly uncomplicated person. He has lived his life with an almost single-minded approach to any task: an uncompromising devotion to outworking everyone around him. In a sport where a sense of entitlement seems to pervade the culture of both players and coaches, Williams' example should be lauded.

At the suggestion of a friend, I'm now going to include a rating for each review to serve as a quick way to determine my overall feeling about a given book. I will be staying with the theme of the blog and using a five hamster rating scheme.

The Year of the Flood

2010-01-09T21:00:00.002-05:00

The first of the four (count 'em, four) books that I got for Christmas! I have _really_ been looking forward to Margaret Atwood's new novel since it is a continuation of the ideas introduced in her previous Oryx and Crake (which happens to be on my top 10 list of all time favorite books).

Oryx and Crake introduced readers to a world where the material and moral excesses of the present day were taken to the extreme (and, indeed, nearly to a conclusion) in the near future. Corporations (The Corps) attempt to control every aspect of people's lives. Chains such as HelthWyzer and AnooYoo push products and treatments that guarantee to make you into a better, healthier, more attractive person. Society is highly stratified and divided into those who live comfortably in the security of company compounds, and those who must fend for themselves on the rough streets (the pleebs).

It is in the midst of this world of excess where we find a group called the God's Gardeners in The Year of the Flood. The group, led by a guru-like figure named Adam One, has a theology that revolves around humans treating the Earth with the same reverence and respect that should be shown toward God. Members lead an extreme organic-vegetarian lifestyle: no eating the meat of other animals, no use of pesticides (even worms are picked off plants and gently set aside), only rough-spun garments from indigenous fibers are worn, bathing is infrequent, no use of electronics, etc. The group prepares hidden caches ('Ararats') against the day when the Waterless Flood will sweep the self-absorbed human race from the planet.

The novel alternates between the viewpoints of Toby, a senior member (an Eve) of the God's Gardeners, and Ren, a younger woman who joins the group as a girl when her mother takes up with one of the men. The majority of the book is told in flashbacks when Toby and Ren remember the various life incidents that led to their association with the group and their experiences while members. Both are eventually forced to part with the group and must learn to reintegrate into a society in which they are ill-equipped to fit in.

The book culminates with the coming of the Waterless Flood predicted by the God's Gardeners. This turns out to be the engineered epidemic unleashed by Crake in the previous book through widespread use of the BlyssPlus drug (a compound enhancing the act of sex). Both Toby and Ren survive and are reunited in the joint cause of finding other surviving God's Gardeners members.

The world of After the Flood is vivid and fully imagined. In between major sections of the novel, Atwood presents a short sermon by Adam One, followed by a hymn taken from the hymnbook of the God's Gardeners. These small details really add to the ambience of the story.

Alas, the book went by far too fast (as most of Atwood's seem to). I thoroughly enjoyed it, though I didn't find it quite as compelling as Oryx and Crake. While the Gardeners were fascinating, the overall plot was not as intricate or climactic as the previous novel. Also, I would certainly recommend reading Oryx and Crake before After the Flood to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how society evolves into the state in which we find it at the opening of After the Flood.

Drood

2010-01-05T17:04:00.001-05:00

My latest read is by an author that I would consider to be one of my favorites: Dan Simmons (his Hyperion Cantos books are near the top of my list of favorite novels). Though somewhat hesitant about the setting of the novel (Victorian London...probably about as far from my interest as you could get), I went into the novel with high hopes. After all, Dan Simmons was behind the wheel!

The novel (which, incidentally, gets its title from the unfinished novel of Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood) is a fictionalized account of the final years of Charles Dickens' life as told by his friend Wilkie Collins, also a writer of some repute. It opens with an account of Dickens' experience during the Staplehurst rail accident of 1865, where he escaped injury but tended to the dead and dying in the immediate aftermath. Dickens notices an odd person dressed in a black cape and hat with white skin, sharp teeth, and strange face milling about the scene. This character turns out to be Drood, who will haunt both Dickens and Collins for the rest of their lives.

The accident has a profound effect on Dickens' psychological state, and he leads Collins on a hunt to find Drood in the seedy underbelly of London. The narration takes us through such colorful (actually rather drab and dirty) places as an opium den hidden in a graveyard to cities of homeless built in the sewer system. This half of the novel that really shined for me--I enjoyed the descriptions of London as well as the back story of the Drood character (which I won't give away).

The second part of the book concerns the growing opium addiction and subsequent degeneration of Wilkie Collins at the hands of Drood. The mystery of Drood the man, while not completely forgotten, becomes a more distant concern as Collins' jealousy of Dickens begins to take over his life. The novel reaches its climax when an unstable Collins comes to the decision that he must kill Dickens if he is to be rid of the troubles plaguing his life.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what really happened at the conclusion of the novel. By this point, Collins' narration becomes so unreliable, some events and conversations that I thought were real may or may not actually have taken place. In the end, I was left wondering if the entire plot had been an opium-induced fantasy by Collins. Perhaps this is what Simmons intended for his readers, but I was left completely unsatisfied at the end this fairly lengthy book.

I think that Drood is just crying out for a good editor. There were large swaths of the book about Collins's personal life that, while somewhat interesting (they managed to hold my attention enough to finish the book), did essentially nothing to advance the central plot. I couldn't help but think that Simmons was being somewhat self-indulgent at times by beating me over the head with details of the Victorian lifestyle. Had the book been shorter, say 400 pages instead of 750, its plot would have been tighter, its action more taut, and, in the end, a much better novel.

The Screwtape Letters

2010-01-04T12:48:00.000-05:00

We finally finished reading this short book in our small group from church (it only took us about 3 months to get through our 8 week informal study). The book is a series of letters written by Screwtape, a master tempter in the Lowerarchy of Hell, to his nephew, Wormwood, who is an inexperienced tempter handling his first case. I'll just make a couple of observations since I read it for study rather than pure leisure reading.

Two key points really hit home for me:
1) When you really sit down and examine human behavior (something which C.S. Lewis is extremely adept at), you begin to recognize that nearly all evil, un-Christian, etc. behaviors boil down to putting one's own wishes/wants/desires before those of others. Ol' Jesus really knew what he was talking about when he exhorted people to follow the famous Golden Rule: "Do to others as you would have them do to you" (Luke 6:31). An often overlooked point is that he wasn't speaking solely in terms of giving charity (though this is a good thing too). If one's thoughts, speech, and actions (about others AND yourself) are constantly and consistently held up to this litmus test, you have the makings of a virtuous life whatever your belief system may be.

2) Screwtape himself best sums up the second point when he counsels Wormwood that tempting humans to spectacular acts of evil will rarely pay off in the end (i.e. lead to the successful corruption of a soul). Instead, he notes that "the safest path to hell is the gradual one." That is to say, it is the mundane day-to-day choices in our words and actions that have the potential to do us humans the most harm by far. Screwtape continually advises Wormwood to set up fairly innocuous situations where someone might be tempted to act in a sinful manner (as an aside, the word "sinful" sounds awfully strong, but I imagine that Screwtape would say that tempters have toiled to warp the meaning of the word so that we can easily apply it to our own actions less and less). In the end, the message is that upright living requires a constant evaluation of one's thoughts, words, and deeds (hmm...sound repetitive? see Golden Rule above).

A Clash of Kings

2009-12-15T16:48:00.001-05:00

A Clash of Kings is the second installment in 'A Song of Ice and Fire' by George R. R. Martin. Like the first book, I listened to this one as an audiobook while working in the lab. The reading by British actor Roy Dotrice is really top notch!

The book picks up where the last volume ended. We are once again embroiled in the great wars that rage in the land of Westeros. No fewer than four kings are struggling for control of the Seven Kingdoms: Robb Stark (son of Eddard and King of the North), Joffrey Lannister (bastard son of Robert the Usurper), Stannis Baratheon (enthralled brother of Robert the Usurper) and Renly Baratheon (Stannis' younger brother). As in the first novel, the point of view changes between figures surrounding the men vying for power.

The book concludes with a climactic battle at King's Landing for control of the Iron Throne. I kept thinking that finally the devious Lannisters were going to get what was coming to them, but the 'wildfire' defenses put in place by Tyrion Lannister (and the forces marshaled by his father Tywin) are too much for Stannis Baratheon to overcome. In the end, the Lannisters retain control of the throne, though Tyrion Lannister lies on the verge of death from a mortal wound suffered during the battle.

The other major plot point is the attempt by Theon Greyjoy to insert himself into the picture by capturing Winterfell, the bastion of the Stark family. The main host of Starks left in the North (most of the Stark knights and bannermen are fighting in the South) converge on the castle to reclaim it and give Greyjoy his due justice. At the last moment they are tricked by House Bolton and decimated. These would-be saviors of Greyjoy betray him in the end and raze Winterfell to the ground. I'm not really sure where this thread of plot will lead.

I find that Tyrion Lannister is a rather likeable character. He seems to be the only one in the Lannister bunch that has any sort of moral compass. Now that his father has shown up, I fear that the more overbearing members of his family are going to marginalize him. I'm hoping that this sort of treatment will remove his blinders, and he will finally realize that he is fighting for the side of wrong. Perhaps in the next book he will come over to join the Starks? I'm probably asking too much.

I'm definitely enjoying the series. As I said in my review of the first novel, it is definitely a fresh take on a rather tired fantasy genre. I'm looking forward to immediately starting the third installment, A Storm of Swords.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

2009-12-05T09:50:00.000-05:00

This 2007 novel caught my attention by winning both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best science fiction novel of the year (among several other awards it has garnished). I've long been trying to read every Hugo award-winning novel--finishing this brings my percentage of total winners read to 70% (40 out of 57 total, not including the retro Hugos). Winning both awards is high praise for TYPU, so I went into it with great anticipation.

The book did not disappoint. The novel is really only science fiction by virtue of the fact that it is set in an alternate future (my dad would argue strongly that this alone does not fit his purists' definition of scifi...but I digress). In Chabon's timeline, Israel is crushed shortly after its inception, leading to a mass emigration of Jews to the Alaska Territory in the United States. Alaska has been opened up to Jewish immigration by an act of Congress on the recommendation of the Slattery Report of 1940, a "real-life" proposal by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. Thus, the city of Sitka has become home to a large Jewish community, making it a metropolis of many millions of people.

It is here where we encounter Meyer Landsman, an alcoholic, down-on-his-luck homicide detective in the Sitka police department. He is investigating a murder that happened in his place of residence, a fleabag motel too cheap to afford a neon sign. His victim has been shot in the back of the head while studying a chess problem in a book by Seigbert Tarrasch. How is that for a classic hard-boiled detective story opening?

The plot follows the various threads of Landsman's investigation that lead from an old chess club frequented by Landsman's father to a meeting with Sitka's most powerful crime boss. Along the way, we meet a colorful cast of Sitka residents whose characterization is just fantastic. I don't want to give any of the plot away, but it culminates with a very personal experience for Meyer Landsman.

The novel is extremely well written with an amazing realization of the alternate-Sitka world. The whole novel just drips with atmosphere. It is one of those uncommon books that makes you wonder how an author can create something so complete without having actually experienced it himself. I highly recommend.

IBM and the Holocaust

2009-11-23T14:26:00.005-05:00

I was extremely excited to come across this book as it involves a couple of topics in which I'm extremely interested--early computing and World War 2--with a good dash of conspiracy thrown in. So interested, in fact, that it zoomed right to the top of my reading pile...I actually went bookless for two days waiting for it to arrive in the mail. My wife can tell you that this is an unprecedented turn of events!

Edwin Black does a magnificent job detailing the role that the technology controlled by International Business Machines played in accelerating the pace of the Holocaust. In the introduction to the book, Black unequivocally states so as the reader does not make a mistake: the Holocaust would have still happened without IBM's involvement. However, without the automation supplied by IBM, the process would have been vastly less efficient. Case in point: the stark contrast between the high percentage of Jews eliminated in Holland (which had an established IBM presence and expertise in automated census counting) and the much lower rate in France (where the market for automated census equipment was fragmented and not well developed).

To make an extremely complex story short, IBM controlled the world's leading technology for tabulation and subsequent sorting of populations, the Hollerith machine. These machines functioned by reading special punch cards representing digital data, and had been used in the early part of the century to automate census counts in the United States and several European countries. Despite clear indications that this technology was being used for nefarious purposes by the Nazi party in Germany (and later in conquered territories), IBM, through its German subsidiary, Dehomag, funneled machines and the paper necessary to run them into the Reich. Throughout the 1930s and into the war, the president of IBM, Thomas J. Watson (who incidentally is often hailed as a hero of American business), formulated a deliberate policy to maintain plausible deniability for his firm's actions that aided the enemy in both its war effort and its campaign to effect the Final Solution to the Jewish problem.

One gripe: I would have liked the account to have had a more technical discussion of how Hollerith machines used. I understand on a basic level how alphabetizing and sequential sorting based on categories could be applied to counting people. However, how these operations might be applied to something as complicated as cargo scheduling and maintaining a train transportation network were not clear to me.

Reading the book has given me a new perspective on the power of a census. The information (in many cases) voluntarily given to the Nazis by many Jews spelled their own doom throughout the Reich. The next time I'm filling out a form asking for seemingly unimportant personal details I might give pause to consider how the information might be used.

I went into this book not knowing how I would react. Isn't the job of a multinational corporation such as IBM to make money? I would suggest that the answer is "yes" but there is a moral line that should not be crossed to do so. Black's account proves that IBM didn't just step over the line but kept on walking and didn't look back. One example: IBM sent technicians into concentration camps to service the Hollerith machines that were clacking away sorting Jews to the gas chamber. It is a story of greed gone unchecked--there is no doubt in my mind that IBM, and particularly Thomas J. Watson, has blood on their hands.

The Long Walk

2009-11-10T14:32:00.002-05:00

I saw my latest read when I was browsing PBS for books. It sounded quite interesting, and I was able to pick up a paperback book that contained four novels written by Stephen King under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman.

Early in his career, King's publisher was concerned that he would oversaturate the market if he published more than one or two books a year. Thus, King convinced his publisher to release these novels straight to paperback as a way of increasing his publication number without diluting the King "brand" (see Wikipedia for more info). It was also an experiment on King's part to determine if his success had been due to luck or his skill as a writer (a question that he says remains open to discussion in his introduction entitled "Why I Was Bachman").

'The Long Walk' has a compelling premise: In a near-future America controlled by a dictator ("The Major"), a yearly race is held where 100 boys must walk for as long as possible. If someone falls below the speed of 4 miles per hour, he is tagged with a warning. Warnings are removed after an hour, but if four warnings are accrued, the unfortunate contestant is "ticketed." Ticketing results in immediate elimination from the Walk in the form of a fatal gunshot by the squad of guards constantly monitoring the race. The winner of the Walk wins the "Prize" which is described as anything the person wants for the rest of their life.

The novel follows Ray Garraty, a 16-year-old boy, who quickly forms a loose association with a number of other boys. As the Walk progresses, we learn bits and pieces about each boys' circumstances and motivations. Why each boy decided to participate in the Long Walk is a thread that runs throughout the story. Much of the hopelessness of the novel stems from the fact that while a few of the boys had concrete reasons for paricipating, for most it seemed to be a decision without much thought. This leaves them with the realization that their lives are being spent for no good purpose.

I found the story to be quite tense, and the first few ticketings really jolted me. But like the walkers, these incidents became more and more mundane as the Walk wore on. Overall, the circumstances and ideas presented in the novel were more than a little disturbing to me, but I can definitely recommend this tense, tight thriller.

A Man Called Intrepid

2009-11-05T17:08:00.002-05:00

This fascinating book describes the birth and early years of Allied secret operations during World War 2. The narrative centers around one man, William Stephenson (or INTREPID if you prefer his codename), a Canadian man of many (and considerable) talents who held the ear of both Churchill and Roosevelt. Stephenson had an amazing ability to apply his substantial intellect to the merger of science and business during peacetime. When it became apparent during the 1930s that war would soon come to Britain, he transitioned his efforts away from business to preparing covert operations for the Allies. His many contacts and relationships from around the world were a perfect cover for the people, products necessary for such an undertaking.

All sorts of capers against the backdrop of WW2 are recounted in A Man Called Intrepid. There was the plot to destroy the Nazi-controlled Norsk Hydro plant in Norway to cut off Germany's supply of heavy water that might be used to develop atomic weapons. There was the tale of the huge intelligence apparatus set up in Bermuda to monitor all incoming mail ships for the presence of Nazi correspondence (such as film microdots hidden in the periods of sentences!). There was the story of the "famed Hungarian astrologer" who toured the world predicting Hitler's doom but was actually a hired hand of the BSC and OSS. Documents were forged on typewriters that were constructed to have flaws identical to those seen in stolen papers originating from particular Nazi offices. The list goes on and on...

I was struck by how every detail of an operation was meticulously carried out, down to "collecting" (voluntarily or otherwise) authentic European clothing and personal articles from overseas travelers entering America for use by agents working undercover.

The book does an excellent job recounting the political feeling in the United States in the years leading up to our entry in the war. For instance, I had no idea that Roosevelt was forced to walk such a fine line in America with regards to his policy toward aid to Britain. He was constantly under assault from isolationists as a war monger and even had to put up with pro-Nazi elements in the US government (note that the majority of these people did not support Nazi policies per se but were deluding themselves as to the scope of Hitler's plan).

Overall, an extremely interesting book that tells many of the stories not found in histories of conventional warfare. I recommend it!

A Game of Thrones

2009-11-02T13:36:00.004-05:00

I've taken to listening to long fantasy epics while working in lab on the microscope--it is a great way to maintain a high entertainment level while actually getting work done!

I attempted to read a paper copy of A Game of Thrones a while back (at least I know I read the beginning) and, as I recalled, didn't find it extremely compelling. I now suspect that was because I didn't get fully into the plot and was bogged down by the large number of characters and place names in the novel. I think that the audiobook helped in this respect as the excellent narration (by Roy Doltrice) gave each character their own voice qualities such that it was easier to tell them apart.

The novel centers around House Stark, the family that has ruled the North for thousands of years from their seat at Winterfell castle. War is once again upon the land during the weak rule of the once strong King Robert Barratheon. Following his death, different factions in the land are playing at "the game of thrones" to consolidate their own power in the Seven Kingdoms.

Each chapter is told from the viewpoint of a different major character (most of them from House Stark). This type of narrative is particularly effective and moves the pace of the action along nicely--I was rarely left hanging wondering what was happening to one character during one of these shifts in narrative.

I definitely tend to more Tolkein-like fantasy with magic, different races, etc. A Game of Thrones definitely did not follow many of these conventions, instead tending to mimic the customs and culture of medieval Europe. There has been little mention of races other than humans and no magic in the conventional sense. It is definitely a different take on a fantasy setting (dare I say refreshing?), distancing itself from the more formulaic world/settings of the Wheel of Time, The Sword of Truth, etc.

The novel opens with a curious incident in the far North, beyond the Wall, where a party of rangers is attacked by a strange humanoid creature (what can only be one of the 'Others'). This somewhat mythical race (maybe human, maybe not) is referred to throughout the book but we never get another solid look at them. I hope that this plot line is expanded upon in subsequent installments of the series (there are apparently 7 books planned, of which there are currently 4 published).

Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician

2009-10-19T15:16:00.006-04:00

The end of the Roman Republic was shaped by the actions of men such as the Gracchi, Marius, Sulla, Cicero, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian...even more "minor" figures (e.g. Cato the Younger, Clodius) added their own brand of outrageousness to the events of the day. It strikes me that there have been very few times in history where the lives of so many larger-than-life personages have intersected one another during a relatively short period.

My most recent read was a biography of one of Rome's most influential figures during the first century BC, Marcus Tullius Cicero. While the story centers around Cicero, Everitt's book is also a great introduction to the events and personalities that eventually led to the fall of the Roman Republic. The book is clearly written with a relatively vigorous pace that does not dwell on any one event in too much detail. While attention is also given to Cicero's contributions to philosophy and oration, the majority of the account centers around Cicero's struggle to save the Republic he so dearly loved.

I didn't know that Cicero was actually offered a place in the Triumvirate of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey. I wonder what might have happened if he had set aside his misgivings about going against the Roman constitution and chosen to join his colleagues in their unofficial power-sharing scheme. Cicero is a rather unique Roman politician in that he had little military experience--nor did he have any desire to lead an army. As a result, Caesar and Pompey would certainly still have dominated the alliance from the head of their armies. But from this position, might have Cicero brokered a more stable solution to the problems that developed out of Caesar's assassination? Perhaps, at the very least, he might have curried enough favor with Mark Antony and Octavian to avoid the proscription that claimed his life the following year.

It is actually quite amazing that the Roman Republic lasted as long as it did once it slipped the tracks when Sulla marched on Rome (87 BC). It is hard to conceive today of a political system that relied almost solely on personal accomplishments/relationships/decisions to steer a vast central government. This kind of system almost begs for an ambitious person (or a whole series of ambitious people) to exploit it.

The Reality Dysfunction: Expansion

2009-10-09T12:22:00.003-04:00

Hmmm...there's honestly not much to say about this book other than it continues the story in the first book. My previous complaints about Emergence carry through this volume as well. I guess the main problem is I can't really tell what the author building up to (surely it must be something if there are two other parts to the Night's Dawn trilogy). Sure, everybody is going to band together and defeat the Reality Dysfunction but I have absolutely no inkling, not even a speck, of how that might be done. I don't really even know what the nature of the Reality Dysfuction is and I haven't been given many tantalizing clues that make me want to read more to find out.

I will say that we did get a couple of interesting, although brief, glimpses of the Laymil xenocs in Expansion through the sensory data stored in the artifact recovered by Joshua Calvert. Going into this series expecting something akin to David Brin's Uplift novels was clearly a silly assumption on my part.

Overall, I'm torn about whether I want to invest the time to read more of the series. I did PBS the next volume, but I've put it on the back burner as I currently have a 3 foot pile of other books that I'd rather read first.

Duma Key

2009-10-06T17:02:00.004-04:00

I finished listening to the audiobook of Stephen King's novel Duma Key this morning on the way into work and all I can say is WOW! As my wife will tell you, I've developed into quite the Stephen King fanboy over the past several years since reading the Dark Tower series. What can I say other than that the man has a genius talent for writing? I think that Duma Key is right up there with the best of his novels that I've read to date (not nearly all of them, btw).

Edgar Freemantle is horribly injured in an accident on a job site, losing his right arm and damaging the speech center of his brain. After his marriage falls apart, he moves to Duma Key off the Florida sun coast to convalesce on the advice of his therapi. He discovers an innate artistic ability and begins to sketch, and later paint, scenes that are unnaturally realistic. He soon discovers that his works of art come with the ability to affect the real world. Through his friendship with a fellow named Wireman, Freemantle comes to know Elizabeth Eastlake who grew up on the island and experienced a similar phenomenon early in her life. As events proceed it becomes clear that the same ancient evil that used Eastlake in the 1920's has plans for Freemantle in the present day. The novel culminates with a confrontation of this ancient evil in a furiously-paced conclusion to the book.

King's description of the Duma Key environs are rich and evoking. I particularly enjoyed the wisdom of Jerome Wireman that pervades the prose (my favorite Wireman-ism: "Do the day...and let the day do you.") Being a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft, I can almost describe Duma Key as a modern-day take on the Cthulhu Mythos (with Perse playing the part of an Ancient One).

Of course, reading any King book, I always look for references to the Dark Tower, and I did manage to find a few in Duma Key. Hey, maybe one might even have been on purpose? First, one of Freemantle's paintings depicts roses growing up through the shell bed that lies underneath his house on the Key. Roses are often used by King to denote sacred spots that are safe from evil. Freemantle's artistic talent immediately recalled that of Patrick Danville (whose life is saved in King's Insomnia) who used his power to ultimately allow Roland to enter the Dark Tower. Finally, the color red is used throughout the book to denote anger or evil. A red haze would come over Freemantle's vision when he lost control of his anger, Perse's cloak as she stands on the bow of her ship is red, etc. Perhaps the Crimson King was somehow influencing events in this world?

The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence

2009-09-19T11:10:00.002-04:00

I recently finished the first book in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn series. I had heard that the book was a sweeping epic that was comparable to Dan Simmon's Hyperion books and, thus, went into it with high hopes. Overall, I think it was a good read but definitely not in the same vein as Hyperion--more action-oriented and less literary for sure.

The book follows several individuals from different cultures around the Confederation as they become involved in a civilizaiton-changing event. On the colony world of Lalonde, a mysterious force has been unleashed that is seemingly able to possess humans and turn them into indestructible zombie-like beings. Artifacts from a mysterious alien culture hint that they have encountered such a force just before a catastrophic event ended their civilization. At this point, I'm extremely unclear what this force actually is...some kind of energy has been alluded to, but I'm hoping that it will become clear in subsequent books. The rest of the technology (spaceships, neural interfaces, weaponry, etc.) are well thought out, so I'm looking forward to a slick 'hard science' explanation for the 'Reality Dysfunction' as well.

A couple of complaints: 1) The treatment of the extant alien species ('xenocs' in the book) is rather limited. I would have liked more descriptions of their culture, language, customs, etc. An individual from one xenoc species is involved in extracting information from the alien relic that is central to the plot so perhaps it (he, she?) will play a larger role later on. 2) The parts of the book where the Reality Dysfunction runs amok on Lalonde are a bit too much like a pulpy horror novel. For me, the most compelling parts of the novel are those that take place away from this action.

Just a warning: 'Emergence' is only the first part of the complete Reality Dysfunction book. I would have expected the editors to divide the two parts of the whole work into halves that make a little more sense. 'Emergence' really just stops at the last page with no sort of conclusion or climax in the action--I felt a serious lack of accomplishment when I finished reading. This can be forgiven since both books were released around the same time. I would have been seriously upset had I bought the first half and not been able to immediately jump into the second.

Inauguration Day

2009-09-02T10:21:00.001-04:00

I'm hoping to turn this blog into a gathering place for the many and varied things I find myself looking at between doing experiments here in lab. A major focus will be on my current (and past) reading...hence the name. I also hope to include items of interest in gaming, history, science, and various other things that I stumble across.