Brookmyre used to write very amusing books, then shifted to serious police procedurals, probably because they sold better, but he lost me. I might have to try this.
And Declare is finished. Thank god for long plane rides and down time on vacation.
I loved it. Fantastic read, even if much of it confused me. By the end I had it all figured out, but the way he writes (jumps back and forth in time) takes some getting used to.
Bought On Stranger Tides to read next. Whatās the next Powers book I should read after that? The Egyptian one sounds interestingā¦
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Anibis Gates is great. Not Egyptian though, time-travelling in London.
Last Call would be my other front-runner.
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Ah, okay. Saw the title and assumedā¦
Iāll put them both on my Kindle wishlist.
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Iāve read Anubis Gates, Declare, Drawing of the Dark, Last Call and the first quarter or so of both Stress of Her Regard and Three Days to Never. The feeling you describe is just a feature of his work. He tosses you in the deep end and explains much of it later, although many details will never be explained. A bit like Gene Wolfe in that regard, although more didactic. Wolfe just leaves you to figure practically everything out on your own, but in my opinion heās the stronger writer. Both Catholics, funnily enough. Anyway I didnāt care too much for Anubis Gates; I mean it was fine, just nowhere even close to Declare, though it was much earlier in his career. Drawing of the Dark was fun, and for 1979 some of the swordplay descriptions are much more accurate than I would have expected. Last Call was the first one I read, and I think almost as good as Declare. Iāll go back to the others eventually. Three Days to Never in particular seemed promising, and as a fan of Powers, antediluvian mythology and Romantic poetry I canāt very well not read Stress of Her Regard.
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FYI there is definitely some Egyptian stuff in Anubis Gates, but the action mainly happens in England.
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Probably fictionās best, most horrific werewolf, too.
alright, Iām in
The Lights That Failed, Zara Steiner.
If you ever feel too happy, I highly recommend reading a good, detailed history of virtually any subject, but especially politics, warfare, or economics, to emotionally flatline yourself. And so it is here, as Steiner lays out the post-WWI efforts to restore a European order, with uncomfortable Frankensteinian results. Not just an intermission where everyone got drinks and snacks between world wars, the 1920s and 30s are probably overlooked in any other context than as epilogue to WWI and prologue to WWII, and if you think ānot much happenedā itās because a great deal happened, itās just been overshadowed by peaks to either side. Steinerās work is thoroughly excellent. Itās not popular history, so itās not an easy read, at all, but itās worth the time. Well-informed, impeccably sourced, dense, and valuable.
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Me, tooā¦as soon as I finish the epic Sanderson book Iām working on.
The killer is that reading has been a lifelong hobby and love of mine, but Iām recently on a medication that really makes it difficult for me to read as much as I used to. Getting through an 800+ page book like the one Iām on could take quite a long time.
Iāve been catching up on G.M. Fordās Leo Waterman books from around the turn of the century.
He ended the series with The Deader the Better, and I didnāt even realize that he started it back up again a few years ago. Iāve been reading all of the old ones because I had no idea what had happened in them.
Theyāre really good, funny and with good characters.
The āhookā in this series (at least the old ones) is that he has a bunch of his dadās old cronies who fell out of favour and become homeless drunks, and he gives them extra money to do things for him as part of his cases because these people are largely ignored by society and thus can hang around places that most others would be looked upon suspiciously.
I definitely enjoy it.
Just got an email from Humble Bundle about a book bundle. I was prepared to scoff, but it looks like thereās actually some good shit in there.
Some highlights:
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Dinner at Deviantās Palace, an early offering from latterly-discussed author Tim Powers.
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Book of Skulls, a Silverberg absolute classic of almost pure characterization.
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Dhalgren isā¦well, itās Dahlgren.
And many more. Get it here:
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I think this is the first time Iāve seen āthe turn of the centuryā used in reference to the most recent one. Had a moment of thinking Ford was Methuselah.
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Yeah, it kind of sounded weird when I typed it tooā¦
Well, gents, I did it; I finished Moby-Dick. It was poetry and Shakespearean drama, although the end was a tad abrupt. It was easy sailing doing a chapter a day, and I think maybe Iāll do the same every year from here on out, perhaps when it becomes a damp, drizzly Novemberā¦
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Gnomon, Nick Harkaway. Somewhere between Pratchett and Mitchell, youāve got Harkaway. A little whimsical and amusing, but still quite capable of some astonishing writing. A future UK covered in an AI-run perfect surveillance network, and the murder of a privacy-obsessed librarian after her mind is literally read as part of an investigation. Hooked from the beginning, and more or less kept that way, even though it shifts around a lot.
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Re-reading The City & The City, China Mieville, in anticipation of persuading Mrs StC to watch the tv adaptation. Iād forgotten how delicately the idea of the [spoiler] intertwined but unmixing and mutually unseeing cities [/spoiler] is introduced, through odd asides and comments that the narrator of course expects you to understand. Excellent.
I have low expectations for the adaptation, of course, but Iām interested to see how the central idea is transferred to a visual medium.
For Want of a Nail. Of course we all know Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne won the Battle of Saratoga, and as one of the pivotal battles that sunk the attempted American revolution, this led to the overall British victory. Cue this book, a literal alternate history of the events that followed.
What makes this book particularly effective is itās written in a perfectly appropriate style, that of a historian producing a comprehensive work of history, with plenty of clarity and a slightly dry tone, and to complete the illusion, the book has footnotes and references to fictional works, and a bibliography that is likewise entirely invented. The only thing letting the book down in this respect is the subheading; it should have been āBurgoyneās Victory at Saratogaā or similar, to hook the history buffs and leave the ignorant undisturbed, but one cannot have everything.
Contained within this masterful work of duplicity, lies an entertaining alternate history of North America that has been constructed with care and attention to detail. Best textbook evar.
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I call this one the Silmarillion of alternate history, encompassing both its good and bad points. Superlatively imagined, as you say, but also reminiscent of the (as one reviewer of the Silmarillion called it) ātelephone book in elvishā. I have yet to finish it.
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Currently reading Mike Duncanās āStorm Before the Stormā about the fall of the Roman Republic.
Duncanās āThe History of Romeā was one of the best historical podcasts Iāve listened to, and his Revolutions is great too.
About 34% into the book (wow, that feels weird to type rather than pages) and Iām really enjoying it.
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