The Darkness That Comes Before / R. Scott Bakker

 

3 out of 5 stars

This book reminds me in many ways of Gardens of the Moon. As the reader, you are plunged directly into the action and into a world consisting of myriad tribes, races, religions, and gods. There is no hand-holding, you must pick clues up as you go. There is plenty of fighting and smiting, but somehow this novel seemed more contemplative to me. Nevertheless, there is still a Holy War going on. Like Erikson's Malazan saga, everyone's motives are murky—perhaps a realistic detail, but frustrating to me as a reader. Why do they want this fight? What's the desired result? Neither series answers these questions for me.

As in so many fantasy worlds, many of the names don't trip easily off the tongue. This author shows a predilection for umlauts and circumflexes that I'm not sure how I'm to interpret. Not too important in the grand scheme of things, but it crossed my mind whenever I encountered one of these names, yanking me out of the story.

Perhaps it's from the steady stream of this kind of fantasy that I've read over the last few years in pursuit of this reading list, but I'm becoming pretty weary of globe-spanning battles. I keep thinking that there must be a plotline more interesting than war. When I figure it out, I will let you know.

Book number 423 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.

The Twisted Ones / T. Kingfisher

 

4 out of 5 stars

***2021 Dog Days of Summer***

This is the last book of my summer reading project featuring canine companions. I’m so glad that I overcame my usual reluctance to read anything tending towards the horror genre. Kingfisher (actually Ursula Vernon) writes humorous horror that doesn't scare me completely out of my socks and she obviously knows and loves dogs. I also appreciate that I understand her sense of humour, as that's not always a given for me.

Bongo (named after the antelope, not the drum) is a redbone coonhound, big on affection, short on brains. He provides the comic relief all the way through the novel.

"Bongo ... strode out as if we were going for a perfectly normal walk. His ears and tail were still up, though I had had the impression that he was thinking very hard about something (or more accurately, that his nose was thinking very hard about something. Bongo's nose is far more intelligent than the rest of him, and I believe it uses his brain primarily as a counterweight.

It was Bongo who kept me reading (having been assured by a friend that the dog does not die) and he dragged me right to the very end. If you're a fan of the horror genre, you probably won't need this kind of hand-holding in order to enjoy it, but I think you would likely still have fun. My library has two more titles by Kingfisher and after this very positive experience I think I might just borrow them eventually.

The Outcast Dead / Elly Griffiths

 

4 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2021 I really enjoy this series by Elly Griffiths and was delighted to be able to shoe horn a volume into my Halloween reading. I've been depleting my self restraint, trying not to binge read these books, to dole them out gradually and savour them. Ruth Galloway is a very independent woman, despite her occasional longings for a male partner. She realizes that she probably couldn't live with her baby's father and she's sent her last male friend packing (much to her religious parents' dismay). In addition to her job as a forensic archeologist, she's got a book coming out and is involved in a TV program, so she can hardly be called unsuccessful. Her daughter, Kate, is as strong willed as her mom (and dad for that matter) so it's no surprise that donkeys seem to be Kate's spirit animal. Griffiths takes the modern fear of a missing child and turns it into a gripping plotline. As a mother herself, she intuits how the affected parents would feel and react. To echo this modern crime, Ruth finds herself involved in a dig which has seemed to reveal the remains of a notorious woman, Jemima Green, who kept abandoned children, some of whom died in her care. An amputee, she is reviled as Mother Hook, the child killer. Now Ruth and the handsome American historian on the TV shoot have to determine whether Jemima was a horrible murderess or an unfortunate victim of injustice. The only kind of off note is how beautifully the old and the new crimes interact. What are the chances of that kind of synchronicity in real life? I know the truth is stranger than fiction, but this correspondence was just a little too neat and perfect for me. However, I am delighted that Cathbad the druid has returned to Norfolk—he hasn’t been gone for long, but I missed him. This remains a favoured series for me and I'll look forward to my next visit with Ruth & Kate to see what they get up to next.

 

Ivanhoe / Sir Walter Scott

 

3.5 stars out of 5

This was my DWS birthday book selection, Sir Walter Scott being an August baby. I went into it knowing that it was about knights and chivalry, but there is much more to it.

First things first: there is a TON of anti-Semitism. Scott portrays his Jewish characters very schizophrenically, alternating between sympathizing with them and depicting them stereotypically as grasping and money loving. There are scenes directly equivalent to The Merchant of Venice with Isaac of York trying to decide between his daughter and his money. Rebecca is depicted as virtuous, skilled, and possessed of wisdom, while her beauty makes her the desire of lecherous men. Still, she does not receive the affection that she desires from a particular English knight. That two centuries later we still have people who hate Jews and Muslims beggars belief. 

I think the reason for this novel's longevity is Scott's incorporation of the elements of the Robin Hood tale. Once I realized that Richard the Lion Hearted and Prince John were involved, I hied me off to Wikipedia to learn more. Sure enough, it was Scott who consolidated the details of earlier legends into the storyline we all are familiar with today. The Merry Men, dressed in green, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, Friar Tuck, Allan-a-Dale, feats of marksmanship, opposition to Prince John—he melds it all together into a unified story that seems to have grabbed our imaginations.

The part that we have let go of is the Saxon-Norman rivalry which Scott layers into the mix. I'm sure that such discords existed at some point in history, but Scott was apparently trying to make a point about such prejudices to his contemporaries. Nowadays it doesn't hurt the story, but it doesn't really help it much either.

The writing is florid by today's standards, but still very readable. There are some odd sentence constructions and word spellings, but for a book that is over 200 years old, it is still entertaining. There are bits that are predictable to the modern reader, especially those familiar with the Robin Hood story, but it would have been new and exciting when it was first published. I've been nervous of Scott's writing until now, but I have the courage to try more of his work after enjoying this one.

Project Hail Mary

4 out of 5 stars

 Those of you who also loved The Martian but were underwhelmed by Artemis, rejoice! Andy Weir has returned with a book just as enjoyable as The Martian. He has found his mojo.

Weir is at his best when he is writing as the “every science geek" involved in a life threatening situation where he must use all his science knowhow to survive and accomplish his goal. Preferably without people that he must interact with (Mark Watney) or limited to one alien (Ryland Grace). There's a point where the woman in charge of the Hail Mary project bluntly tells Ryland that he's a coward who runs from scientific debate and from the messiness of romantic relationships. It's a common human condition.

I think that the point is that even us cowards sometimes have to make a stand, even though we may have to give up something we value as a result. At least when Ryland finds himself alone (the other crew members didn't survive the coma state they traveled in), he is committed to humanity's survival (and later to the possibility of his own). The woman who called him cowardly also said he was at heart a good person and it seems she was correct.

Weir creates an interesting alien, Rocky, for Ryland to interact with. From a planet with high gravity, high temperature, and an ammonia atmosphere. Rocky is an important addition to the equation, since the human engineer was dead before the first page of the book. Really Rocky's name should have been Scotty! He is continually saving their bacon with his ingenius creations. (And there are references to Star Trek and even The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show which delighted me.)

Just like The Martian, Weir doesn't give his characters much leeway. Every time they breathe a sigh of relief, you know there will shortly be another, more intense crisis. That pattern continues right until the end, so hold onto your hat! The ending is unexpected, but very appropriate. Well done, Mr. Weir!

Digging to America / Anne Tyler

 

3.5 stars out of 5

3.5 stars? Maybe more, depending on the day?

Book clubs are all about getting us to read outside our comfort zones (at least that's what I'm looking for in a club). I think I've only read one of Tyler's novels before and although I do have another of her books on my TBR, I probably wouldn't have chosen this one. I've had it out of the library for quite a while and was shocked when I checked it and found that it has been requested. No more renewals for me!

I was curious why Tyler chose to write about Iranian immigrants, so off to Wikipedia I went. She was married to an Iranian and obviously they discussed his immigrant experience in detail. She writes this novel like it was her own experience. The feeling of never fitting in, never knowing the “rules" of being American, and the American people who seem to want to become more Iranian than you are. It must be tiresome to be constantly regarded as “exotic," never just an ordinary citizen. I really felt for Maryam, who technically had an arranged marriage, but if anyone bothered to listen to her, they would realize that she and her husband actually chose each other. Sometimes blind dates actually work.

There are so many books about feeling like you don't belong, that the main character is somehow excluded from the magic circle that they perceive around everyone else. But don't we all have these feelings from time to time? Especially those of us who are introverts in a world seemingly dominated by extroverts. I think that's why these books are popular, because we all can identify. And, as Dave tells us, it's not easy being American (or Canadian) either. Are you unintentionally offending someone? Are your manners up to par? Are you uneducated or insensitive? We all have our insecurities.

This morning, I hear Iranian poet Kaveh Akbar reading from his poem The Palace and it really moved me. It inspired me to pick this novel back up and finish it. Below, I'm sharing part of the poem that really resonated in me.

A boy’s shirt says: “We Did It To Hiroshima, We Can Do It To Tehran!”
He is asked to turn his shirt inside out. He is asked? His insides, out. After he complies, his parents sue the school district.
Our souls want to knowhow they were made, what is owed.
These parents want their boy to want to melt my family, and I live among them.
Palace throne. Comfy, burning. I draw it without lifting my pen. I draw it fat as creation—
empty as a footprint.
How to live? reading poems, breathing shallow, spinning lettuce.
America the shallow breath, how to live?
The shallow trap, America catching
only what is too small to eat.

The Sittaford Mystery / Agatha Christie

4 out of 5 stars

 Another very enjoyable Christie novel with yet another wonderful young woman in a starring role. Emily was delightful. Everyone acknowledges that if anyone will sort things out it's Emily.

All the tribute paid to Arthur Conan Doyle and The Hound of the Baskervilles really appealed to me as well. Beginning the story with a séance, something very dear to ACD, was a great touch. Then the choice of setting, on Dartmoor, plus the mists and the escaped convict emphasized the similarities. Emily gets set up as a female version of Sherlock Holmes with Charles the reporter as her Watson. He is certainly recording her story for posterity. I think someone (the fellow involved in psychic research?) even muses about contacting Conan Doyle with such “good proof" of spiritual contact during the table-turning.

As usual, Christie fooled me with regards to the culprit. She laid excellent red herrings, what with all the South African and Australian connections. She really likes to use us colonials to muddy the waters! But real crimes are most often committed for revenge, love, or greed and this would definitely apply to any of her distracting characters. That lead me down the garden path, easily ignoring that the real criminal shared the same motivations.

If you also enjoyed this novel, you may also like The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor (which includes Conan Doyle and one of his real researches) or if you like non-fiction, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach which has a good section on Victorian séances.

The Man in the Queue / Josephine Tey

 

4 out of 5 stars

I enjoyed this mystery a great deal, despite the fact that I would never have guessed the murderer in a hundred years! Tey managed to lead me astray remarkably easily and I don't think she gave me enough clues to triangulate properly. But it was still an amusing story and it aroused my desire to read more of her mysteries.

I couldn't help comparing Inspector Alan Grant with my beloved Constable Peter Grant, having just finished The Hanging Tree. Alan Grant is a gentleman, he has an income and doesn't really need to work. He's looked up to and regarded as having “flair.” Unlike my Peter who is mixed race, gets called upon to help with his dad's dental bills, and has a reputation for destruction. Both of them do have a nose for the story of the crime, however, and a love of policing in London.

I was highly amused by the Scottish nurse, Miss Dinmont, called Dandie Dinmont. I imagine Tey named her after the breed of small Scottish terrier on purpose. They are known as being tough but friendly, as was our nurse.

Josephine Tey, it was lovely to meet you! I hope we will meet again soon.

The Glass Hotel / Emily St. John Mandel

 

4 out of 5 stars

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I absolutely adored Mandel's Station Eleven so I expected to love this one too. However this was my second kick at The Glass Hotel. The first time I had it out of the library I only made it a few pages in, then decided that I hated all the characters and returned it. But several people whose opinions I respect liked it a lot, so I decided to give it one more try. I made a deal with myself: to read 50 pages, then see how I felt.

At the 50 page mark, I wasn't captivated but I was getting there. I finally understood what Mandel was doing—trying to understand the people who would work for someone who is the head of a Ponzi scheme. They want to keep their jobs and income. They've become a tribe of sorts with their coworkers and no one wants to rat out their tribe. If they can avoid thinking about their “investors," they can pretend that they aren't criminals.

The side stories of Paul and Vincent (who seems to be at the centre, but has truly held herself aloof and detached) provide a contrast to Jonathan's world of money. Although we know that Jonathan's brother was an addict just as Paul is. Perhaps Mandel is telling us that the world of money is a complete illusion, we are all coming from the shadowlands and will return to them.

Christianity tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil and this novel seems to illustrate that concept. Saving money, investing, planning for retirement—none of these things are wrong, but wanting money which you tell lies to get, which you spend like it's your own, and then leaving people hopeless and penniless, there's true evil for you.

The Way of the Gardener / Lyndon Penner

4 out of 5 stars

 Lyndon Penner is well known to people who listen to CBC radio. He always provided fun and humorous information about gardening. I don't have a yard or garden, but I still enjoyed his radio segments because he was just so charming and amusing. Since he's moved back to Saskatchewan we've missed his words of wisdom.

 When one of my BFFs informed me that he'd written a memoir about walking the Camino de Santiago, I went directly to our library website and placed a hold. It is a measure of his enduring popularity that I had to wait several months to get my hands on it. I was surprised by its size (quite small) but pleased by the attractive cover and illustrations.

If you are a naturalist, a gardener, or a botanist, this is the Camino memoir for you. Penner regales the reader with all kinds of fascinating botanical information (olive trees can't withstand temperatures below -10C, zinnias are named after a Mr. Zinn, figs are pollinated by tiny wasps). His genuine love of plants of all shapes and sizes is infectious. I have zero desire to hike this trail, but if I had to do it, I would want someone like him along with me. (He states flatly that once was enough for him, so that's my excuse to stay home.)

Not a book that will appeal to everyone, but certainly I can recommend it to gardeners and fans of Mr. Penner.

Oryx & Crake / Margaret Atwood

 

4 out of 5 stars

Margaret Atwood is one of my favourite Canadian authors and I find her work consistently thought provoking, entertaining, and humorous. I get her dry sense of humour. (When my mother was alive, we used to have spirited debates about the relevant merits of Margaret Laurence (her choice) vs. Margaret Atwood (mine). No resolution was ever reached.)

This book was published a few years before The World Without Us and the tv show Life After People and shows Atwood's usual skill at having her finger on the pulse of our current worries. She tells interviewers regularly that she uses the news and current research directions to inform her fiction, that she doesn't invent details that don't have some basis in fact. This attention to reality makes her look like a prophetess from time to time.

Having been living through the Covid-19 pandemic, her description of the spread of virus through this fictional world seemed spot on. The attempts to quarantine people, the hysteria, and the desire to flee the sites of contagion have all been evident over the last couple of years. If her predictions of the changes to climate illustrated here also come true, we will be living in a most uncomfortable world.

I'm glad to have finally met Snowman, Oryx, and Crake. The novel ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I'll definitely want to read The Year of the Flood when I reach it in my reading list.

Book number 422 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.

The Thursday Murder Club / Richard Osman

4+ stars Delightful. The Thursday Murder Club is the brainchild of two women of a certain age, Penny and Elizabeth. Penny is a retired detective and Elizabeth seems to have been in espionage. After retirement Penny hung on to her cold case files, which they have used as fodder for the club. Penny now lays comatose and Joyce has been recruited to take her place. Elizabeth and Joyce are joined by Ron, an old union organizer, and Ibrahim, a psychiatrist. They are exactly what we all want to be in our golden years—active, interested, social, and intellectually sharp. But one day, there is a murder right under the Club's nose. As Elizabeth says, “This is wonderful.” They throw themselves into the investigation, alternately annoying and assisting the local police. Things get complicated. Elizabeth calls in some old mysterious favours and takes some daring risks, making sure she has Joyce as backup. These folks are everything that we older folk want to be when we grow up. Connected with the modern world (although Tinder makes Joyce sad because it looks like lost cat posters) and connected to their children. Even though they are annoying and willing to break the law, the two police officers are reluctantly becoming friends with them. I have no idea whether Osman plans to write more adventures for these intrepid investigators but if he does, I want to read them. Although he blew through a lot of personal secrets in this volume, as Elizabeth and Joyce note life keeps moving on. And if anyone can find them more cases to solve, it will be Elizabeth.

The Angel's Game / Carl Ruiz Zafon

 

3.5 stars

Very Faustian and very Gothic. I'd decided to read some of the books that have been hanging around on my TBR for the longest time, this one being among them. I loved The Shadow of the Wind and had always meant to read the following novels. One down, one to go!

The Shadow of the Wind is a hard act to follow and I didn't like this book quite as much. For one thing, I felt like a number of the plot points were recycled from Shadow, the doomed love, the events happening at a building which is later revealed to be a burnt out wreck, things like that. Plus it's awfully obvious who David’s Boss is. I did find myself wondering if Kirsten White had read the Cristina-on-the-frozen-lake scene before she wrote The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein.

Zafon was a talented writer and I couldn't help but wonder how much (or how little) his writing process was like David's. All night writing fueled by coffee. They certainly wrote similar subject matter, Gothic intrigue in the streets of Barcelona. I have to say that I felt let down by the ending, despite it's nice circular arrangement with the photo of the young Cristina.

My aim is to read The Prisoner of Heaven before year's end. It remains to be seen if I can squeeze it into my reading queue, probably after October and Halloween Bingo.

Death With a Dark Red Rose / Julia Buckley

 

***2021 Dog Days of Summer***

It's time for my summer theme and this year I have chosen to read books that include canine companions. This was the latest volume of the Writers Apprentice Mystery series, which includes two German Shepherds, Heathcliff and Rochester. They get to do their usual guard duty and Rochester gets to go on a clandestine vet visit in the name of surveillance.

I have no idea if Julia Buckley plans to write more of these small town mysteries, but I do hope she will. I've enjoyed four of them this summer and even when read in fairly quick succession I didn't find them to be repetitive. Buckley has more than one or two plot lines, unlike some cozy writers who seem to recycle their plot details through every book. I was pleasantly surprised by the links that she wrote here between Camilla Graham, her senior novelist character, and Miss Marple.

Having said that I'll gladly read more installments of the series, I would also understand if the author ended right here. She's got everybody in the Scooby gang matched up successfully and in relatively happy places. This could be a natural stopping point.

If you enjoyed this book, might I suggest The Readaholics and the Falcon Fiasco by Laura Disilverio and the Murder-by-Month series by Jess Lourey. 

4 out of 5 stars