Nutmeg Angel

The Eurozone

2011-10-22T09:21:00.001+01:00

So, I confess to being something of a 'Euro-sceptic', even (or perhaps especially) after having studied how it came about last year while I was looking at modern Europe. But what I would like to point out before I throw my own two penneth into the ring of the debate, is that really, I'm not an economist or an economic historian. I'm just offering some musings.

The Eurozone is a bit of a weird thing, really. It's basically a band of countries saying 'we'll become one in currency, but not one in policy'. Now, that's bound to cause problems. Let's face it, we're having enough trouble in Britain dealing with the economic crisis (don't get me started on the Conservatives...), but while we're sort of four countries the countries have been largely united. In Europe, it's different. Whilst all the members of the Eurozone have to take the same knocks to the same currency, they don't have to respond to the crisis in the same way. I dare say doing something utterly wrong but at least all the same would be better than everyone pulling in different directions. The trouble is, through monetary union, the countries of the Eurozone have become one in practice, if not in fact. It's a little like England and Scotland when James I came to the throne. He couldn't get people to agree to a union, but he could drop trade barriers and deal with cross-border raiding. So that's what he did. And just over a hundred years later, you end up with the Act of Union, incorporating Scotland and England together.

Whenever you look into how the EU has progressed (ie, from all the bazillion acronyms with E and usually one or two Cs, and perhaps one or two other letters, to a slightly different set of a bazillion acronyms), perhaps the most striking thing is how the EU has grown and developed. From something which the Brits initially saw as a good way of making France and Germany never fight each other again, it's progressed to a sprawling empire of 'Eurocrats' and little real democracy. But the roots remain. Common Agricultural Policy, and the skewed balance of contributions from Germany (which was understandably keen to get involved in the first instance so that it was no longer a 'leper' country) still underlie the EU, together with disproportionate influence for France and Germany. And what of poor Italy? A founding member, arguably throwing a last desparate grasp at world power status, and now relegated somewhat to the sidelines, save for occaisional worried glances at the Italian economy and fearful noises being made.

The EU needs shaking up and refounding on a firmer, more democratic footing if it's going to make real progress into the future, and if people aren't going to remain sceptical. Sure, there were elections to the EU Parliament, but when does that ever make the news? The only thing that headlined for so far as I could see was that a couple of BNP members made it in. And let's face it, that's gotta be a measure of how unseriously people take the thing. If people had confidence in the institutions of the EU, we would be more willing to contribute to it, to allow for the fact that all member states are in this together.

That said, it will be pretty hard to dismember now that countries have switched to single currency. What they going to do, dig up their old currencies? Or have the same ones, but just differentiate based on area of issue? That'd cause chaos and no mistake...

The Priest

2011-10-13T19:36:00.000+01:00

Like I said, yesterday was hard work. So I decided to take the afternoon off doing uni work and just enjoy myself reading fiction instead. Sometimes, you just need some fun books :) Not that Bede isn't really interesting, but some of the books about Bede...

So, The Priest is a fairly standard crime thriller, with a freaky serial killer, excitable Spanish diplomats, and a cop with family trouble/girlfriend trouble (she's a journalist). It's also well-written and gripping, so maybe not too standard. Not entirely sure what else to say. Sorry. Feeling a bit tired, think I might go read some more fiction... Well, it's that or continue making notes on Eddius Stephanus' 'Life of Bishop Wilfrid', which is interesting, but I think I'd rather read fantasy or something a bit less demanding of brain power.

I could put this to post tomorrow. But then it won't make sense of the yesterday comment... Maybe though, I will start doing the 'Schedule' thing. That would be cool, right? And maybe demonstrate that I am technically competent and can do exciting things, rather than just write four book reviews at once (okay, not quite four today, but sometimes...) and then abandon the blog for a week. I could even start using pictures. But I don't see how a blog that's primarily about reviewing books actually needs pictures. The book cover, maybe? Then I could use one of the new blogger view options, and people could scroll by book cover. That might be interesting, but it'd take forever for me to add the pictures to all previous posts...

At the end of that ramble, let me sum up. The Priest is a pretty good book, with a rather sinister serial killer and a rather interesting detective tracking him down. Since I've come to the conclusion crime in particular stands or falls based on the characters, this one ones a pretty good job of 'standing'. You do feel a little terrified when... But you can read it and find out about that bit :)

Raising the Past

2011-10-13T19:23:00.000+01:00

For a great book to read to just relax, forget about a supervision that was definitely not the best I've ever had, and generally avoid thinking about the fact that I was feeling somewhat ill, Raising the Past is one to pick.

There's a buried woolly mammoth, there's an interesting main character who saw a previous expedition he led get destroyed by drug runners, and now he's up in the Arctic again. There're also aliens. Great fun. I mean, the Arctic plus aliens plus interesting characters, what more can you want? And it does have a plot (of the, 'oh heck, we need to save the world, forget the woolly mammoth that we were going to clone' variety, admittedly, but that's still a perfectly valid plot). It has plenty of action too, and it keeps you on your toes, keeps you interested. So while it might not make the BBC 100 Greatest Books due to some sort of intellectual snobbery, it's actually highly enjoyable.

Speaking of those 100 Greatest Books lists, you'd think, given how much I read, that I'd come out as pretty well read on them. But they're a bit skewed towards boring classics. Or you get each Harry Potter book listed separately. Haven't read Harry Potter, actually. Feel like I'm probably too old to enjoy it now--especially having analysed a couple of scenes in English Language. The general point of this paragraph is, I think, that I'm not 'officially' all that well read. Unless I'm allowed to tick books which I started, found incredibly dull/annoying and wondered why anyone ever put them on a 'books to read or you will die' list, and gave up on.

Anyway, Raising the Past is good fun, a great escapist novel. Really enjoyed it.

Writing...

2011-10-08T17:16:00.003+01:00

I've not been very good at keeping this up to date lately. In fact, I believe since I last wrote about my own writing, I've finished two novels. I say this because I don't quite remember when I last said anything on the topic. At any rate, I've now written twenty novels (some of them rather bad, some of them perhaps quite reasonable, none published). Which I reckon's a reasonable achievement given I'm only nineteen :)

The Game Layer was the second most recent that I finished. It was inspired by an article on the BBC about an app called Scvngr, and a few words in a long-distance conversation with another writer over facebook. He said something about me being able to mark books on goodreads with whether I owned them or had just read them, so that I don't end up buying multiple copies. To which I replied that I didn't have a smart phone (I believe my phone is probably the antithesis of a smart phone, as it doesn't even have a colour screen, and as it works without any problems...). Scvngr, I should perhaps add, is an app which lets you get offers by doing real world challenges. Using the new (or maybe just one I've never before used) button above, I shall now add a link to the very article which inspired this novel, isn't that exciting! Probably not, but I'll do it anyway... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12735762 . There, see. A link. So, that got me thinking about a future in which those with smart phones are able to get progressively richer and those without become progressively excluded as they cannot access the offers and challenges that people with them have. Then, just to make life more interesting, I altered the smart phone aspect to be in people's heads. After all, some people are so dependent on smart phones and the internet that they might as well have them surgically attached. From there, I just chucked in a crime/plot to dominate the world, and a bit of history leading up to the point at which the novel took place, and added a few characters. Basically, the games were being used to make people murder. And my main character had to figure out who was behind it.

Thorn at Kettree (not quite sure whether I'll stick with that title or not) is another sci-fi crime. Or at least, it was meant to be, but Thorn decided that overthrowing a dictatorship would be much more fun than solving the crime I'd decided I was going to use for this story. I plan on writing a sequel with the crime he was meant to solve put back in. Anyway, it's in a totally different 'world'. Humanity has spread to the universe, so there're lots of human settlements on a variety of roids and planets. Thorn gets sent to Kettree to act as a representative of a new UN-type body for the universe that focusses more on crime than anything else, along with Lady Veronica. He's somewhat appalled by the fact that despite the war which was meant to make the universe safe for democracy, Kettree's governor is effectively a dictator. And that's the basics of that story :)

Maybe one day I'll get them published. That'd be quite cool :) Then people can come look at this post and go 'hey, this is where the idea for that novel came from' and nobody will have to make random guesses like we sometimes do in English Lit. And I bet we always ascribe far more intricate and noble motives to writers than they actually had. I reckon Shakespeare's Tempest is full of magic purely because he wanted to write a big spectacular, I don't know that looking for meaning is always that useful. The meaning's probably there accidentally anyway.

Some musings on the new blogger

2011-10-08T16:59:00.005+01:00

I'm guessing that people who read this (does anyone read this?!) don't necessarily have blogger. But it's recently changed it's interface and it's very... White. Uncluttered. Minimalist. And I'm not quite convinced I like it in terms of the whiteness and lack of anything to click on. All the post settings are now at the side (which probably makes no sense, but basically the options where I choose things like labels aren't beneath the post any more). And there's a huge bit underneath where I'm typing this that's completely unused. Maybe it's so it can be used on a phone? But what about us users who happen to have a rather large screen?

It looks a lot more like a text editor now than it did before. Which I guess is nice in that it makes it a lot more obvious to use for new people. And I never really used the HTML stuff anyway, so that's not a problem. I believe there are now more fonts and colours and things, but as I've never had reason to use different fonts and colours and things and don't know that I necessarily ever will, that's not that exciting. There are buttons to add videos. Maybe one day I will add a video.

It's gone a lot more icon based, especially on the dashboard. I wonder if one day historians will look at screen shots of old computer programmes and try to extrapolate symbolic meanings. And will they compare the different symbols which do the same things? I wonder what you could learn from, for example, comparing the things that office, google, mac and open office use for functions within their documents. Probably nothing, to be honest. Which won't stop somebody trying, I'm sure.

I'm also most impressed with the 'send feedback' thing. I thought I'd mention the large empty space that could quite easily be used for something (what? I don't know, I'm not a software designer. Maybe just have the compose box take up the whole space to start with, instead of it jumping to the bigger size only when you reach the bottom.) So there was this button to highlight things using click and drag, and then you type the problem into the text box that pops up in the bottom corner of the screen. I wonder if there's some way of making this a bit more colourful. I miss the colourfulness.

So there you go, a nice random post as I procrastinate doing anything particularly productive on the conversion of the English. Maybe I'll tell you a bit about that topic in a future post, once I've got my head round (or got my head as far round as possible) what actually happened. Or what probably happened. It was a long time ago, and it seems nobody's entirely sure of the details. But that ramble doesn't belong in this post...

The Good Thief's Guide to Paris

2011-10-08T16:48:00.002+01:00

Okay, so I picked this up at the library the other day because it looked interesting. I nearly gave up part way through (it didn't have quite as much action as I was hoping for) but didn't because the library was closed and I hadn't really anything else to read.

It's quite a fun idea. Also somewhat complicated. The main character is talking in first person and is a thief who writes books 'pretending' to be a thief. There might be another layer of pretending to be a thief in there, somewhere, but I'm pretty sure I got them all. Just to make life a little more unusual, said thief (as in, the main character of the actual book, rather than the main character occaisionally mentioned in the book within the book) has early-onset arthritis.

The main character is pretty fun, as are the various characters in the somewhat eccentric bookshop. The plot is pretty good too. I think it was more of a personal taste issue--I suspect I would've rather read the book within the book with implausible action scenes and so on--but I did find it a little slow-going in parts.

In conclusion: an interesting idea, a fairly good book. I'll probably read the others, if I spot them (especially as I seem to be having one of my periodic running out of interesting things to read issues), but it's not competing to go on my list of favourites.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

2011-09-16T10:58:00.001+01:00

So, I've read another Robin Hood book. I'm rather fond of Robin Hood, and it's really interesting to look at all the different varieties of stories there are about him. I love how he, and other central characters, can be subtly or significantly recast, depending on the author, and how the incidents chosen and the era used to set the story in all alter the books to make many of them quite distinct.

This one, by Simon Green, is definitely one of the better versions I've read. I like the opening, with Robin in prison in the Holy Land, breaking out with the aid of a Saracen, only to return home and find his father executed for devil worship and his house burned down. I'm not entirely sure whether there was still much paganism in England at this point, but it does make a good addition to the story, and unlike in Angus MacDonald's 'Outlaw', Robin isn't involved in it at all.

All the characters you'd expect are there, from the evil Sheriff to Robin, Friar Tuck, Little John (in this one married and with children, which I don't recall seeing in the others, or at least, not as a major plot point), and with the addition of Azeem the Saracen who's vowed to remain by Robin's side until he can save his life and thus redeem himself of that debt. Azeem may be in one of the other versions I've read, but not as a major character like in this one.

It's a good read, there's plenty of action, stirring defences of liberty, and of course the romance between Robin Hood and Maid Marion, which isn't made a great deal of. Also, Maid Marion is nice and competent, which is always good :)

My only criticism is that it felt a bit short, and the ending almost read as if the author had been ordered to keep it under a certain word count, and had to rapidly cram in the last few bits of action in order to meet the target. Other than that, it was certainly an enjoyable version of the legend.

Dragon Haven

2011-09-16T10:49:00.001+01:00

(Slight note, unrelated: I've just started using the new interface, not entirely convinced by it. So if this post doesn't work/looks weird/does strange things, that's why...)

This is the second book in Robin Hobb's most recent trilogy, and it's really good. Meant I did absolutely no work for an entire day as I just lay on my bed and read this book. I blame the person who kindly leant it to me. I was meant to be doing uni work. Actually, I'm meant to be doing uni work now as well, but as you can see, that's not happening.

While I've read a lot of fantasy since I first started reading Robin Hobb, I think her novels remain my favourite fantasy. They're just so rich and detailed, so intensely real and so magically other.

Dragon Haven continues the tale of the crippled dragons and their keepers as they hunt for the mythical city the dragons sort of remember. Romance, intrigue and the struggle to survive all give the novel depth, coupled by the wonderful missives by carrier pigeon that appear at the start of each new section, giving you character by proxy. I love those bits, it's a really intriguing idea, to show how much (and how little) you can discover about these two characters by the notes on the edges of official post.

The dragons go stronger as they travel, and the people, cast-offs for the most part, along with a silent liveship and his tough captain, a trader lady indulging her dream of learning about the dragons and her attendant who doesn't want to be there, also grow and develop. It's a brilliant cast, and you find yourself caring intensely about the characters. Loved it, from start to finish.

This is definitely a recommended read, though it's worth reading the first, Dragon Keeper, first (and preferably sooner before this than I did), and you'll need plenty of time to set aside because you won't be able to put it down.

The Last Christian

2011-09-14T20:36:00.000+01:00

When the daughter of a missionary couple emerges from the jungle, her entire village dead, it is to find a totally different world to that her parents told her about. America has become completely secularised--preaching any sort of religion is seen as a hate crime, nobody seems to believe in God any more. Not only that, but people have implants in their brain, and the first brain transfusions, replacing the human brain with an artificial one, apparently identical, are just beginning. Abby receives a message from her grandparents: both of them dreamt that she would be the one to reintroduce Christianity to America. But it seems an impossible task.

Invited to appear on a well-watched morning tv show, Abby speaks out about her faith, and then receives numerous threats, and will be prosecuted for inciting hatred unless she leaves the country. But she's determined not to give up her mission, and a social historian, Deighton, decides that he'll help. She is, after all, a fascinating cultural specimen, a survival from a past world. Finding out what makes her tick could give him a huge insight into the 'religionists'. Trouble is, there's a problem with brain transplants, and Abby has been given a clue to it.

Great characters, and an intriguing take on the future, this is a brilliant sci-fi/thriller novel. I've passed it on to my mum to enjoy. And even if you don't care about God, you have to admit that the potential to live forever would change everything. If humans no longer die, there is no need for an afterlife. But how would society adapt to an eternal population?

Hereward

2011-09-14T20:26:00.000+01:00

I was browsing through Fantastic Fiction, looking at new authors (as you do, when you really can't face doing any more uni work and it's the holiday so there's not a whole lot to do), and happened to spot this one. The cover, I confess, grabbed my attention. Let's face it, we all judge books by their covers, or you'd never be able to make a decision about what you wanted to read. Anyway, clicking on it, I discovered that this was based on an old English legend I'd never heard of... Well, as a great lover of Robin Hood (I'm up to six different interpretations of it at the moment, with another on the way from ebay), I thought it was well worth a go.

Ah, before I go any further, I should perhaps say this version is by James Wilde, and should be easy enough to distinguish from others as it seems to be the only recent one.

Anyway, this is a fascinating read. I'm going to be doing the period in which it's set next year at uni (and I can't wait!), so it was interesting from that perspective. The sources from that period are so scanty that you can basically make up what you will, but it did feel fairly solidly based. I'm not an expert yet, probably never will be an expert expert, but I would hope I'll know a bit more this time next year.

Hereward is a brilliant hero, though not without his flaws and darker side, and I love the monk, Alric, who becomes his constant companion after a chance meeting. Alric is also portrayed very sympathetically, which often isn't the case with churchmen in historical novels (you only have to look at Angus Donald's version of Robin Hood, called Outlaw, which has a horrendous priest). Mind, the early church is not completely safe from attack. A rich cast of characters, and a great 'feel' to the story keep it compelling, along with some great sword play and action scenes. I'll definitely be keeping my eye out not just for anything else by James Wilde (this is a debut novel, but he's definitely left space for a sequel--perhaps a Hereward trilogy is in the making?) but also anything else about Hereward. The story's brilliant, and I love the fact that Hereward isn't portrayed as perfect, and also the way the story manages to cover a fairly long time span without feeling contrived.

This is a fantastic book, I thoroughly recommend it. Rescues a great hero from obscurity (or reinvents a great hero), and provides a brilliant adventure/historical novel too.

Halo: The Flood

2011-06-22T18:03:00.000+01:00

Okay, so I read a book based on an Xbox game. And I've also read Contact Harvest in the same series. But guess what? They're actually pretty decent. Okay, so there's not that much character development, save for the Master Chief and the AI Cortana which are developed somewhat (although most of the characters mentioned get a kind of brief personality). But it's very exciting. If you like Matthew Reilly, you'll probably like these--they're basically non-stop action thrillers with a lot of fighting aliens. And I mean a lot. The whole book is basically a single campaign.

If you've ever seen the Halo games, I have to say they do seem to match with the books. From the book, you can kinda tell that there's only one major character (ie the Master Chief) and that it's a fighting game. But I don't know that there's anything hugely wrong with that. It's a good book to sit and read when you just want a bit of entertainment, aren't too bothered about the characters, and would like to enjoy a well thought through alien culture as the enemy and some pretty impressive action scenes. I guess the fact that it's based on a game has given it advantages on the world-building side.

If you want a book that doesn't require much thought and is just a fast-paced, enjoyable read, this is for you.

10th Anniversary

2011-06-02T21:21:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure why I read this. And when I started, I thought my post would go something along the lines of 'I'm not sure why I bothered even trying to read this, it was rubbish'. But actually, this brings the Women's Murder Club back to being a great series. So if you read 1-4, skip a lot (don't worry about missing stuff, there's nothing majorly interesting, just a long drawn out side plot involving complicated romances) and carry on with 10, you'll probably think this is great.

I decided, since I ordered it before Varsity messed me around (I was going to write book reviews for them, after agreeing, they then abruptly decided they didn't actually want me to do that after all), and since I wasn't entirely sure how to cancel ordering the book from the library, that I'd better read it. And, um, it was pretty good. Not fantastic, but pretty good. My main criticism is that the story started breaking up towards the end. There were too many plot threads, and some of them felt like they'd been thrown in and then James Patterson decided he didn't actually like those threads but couldn't be bothered to remove them and so finished it off abruptly. Lindsay's boss going out with Yuki, for example. Lindsay goes 'wait, he's married', which could have caused some really interesting stuff. But then the boss, when confronted, says 'oh, we've been separated for about a year, I'm just waiting for the divorce to come through' and it's all fine. Might as well not have been there, in my opinion.

Lindsay and Joe finally get married (how long did that take?!) and Cindy is going out with Lindsay's partner (as in cop partner). Relationships look a little messy to be honest, but I guess it keeps the characters smaller in number. Also, not to sound a complete pessimist (and I don't think I'm really spoiling anything), but the story ends with Lindsay pregnant. I highly doubt the baby is going to survive, but that's just me. Also, I wonder why we never meet Claire's husband...

So yeh, that was 10th Anniversary. It's probably worth a read if you see it around. Don't get too excited, it's not brilliant, but the characters are good--Lindsay's a favourite character of mine since I've followed the series pretty much from the start--and there's several interesting crimes/murders woven together.

The Bride Collector

2011-05-17T08:24:00.000+01:00

Okay, seriously, why has nobody told me about this author before? This book was AMAZING. Literally couldn't put it down, and hence am a weeny bit tired this morning (thankfully, I started it just before 8 and it wasn't too long, or I'd still be reading it now...) Talk about a brilliant crime novel, which completely underlines the fact to me that a crime novel stands or falls on its characters. Not necessarily the main characters who're chasing the 'bad guys' either, but the assorted victims, relatives and so on. That's what makes a truly great crime novel. And this one had interesting characters in abundance, particularly the cast from the Centre for Well Being and Intelligence, but I have to say I also loved the main character, special agent Brad Raines.

To be quite frank, I don't want to tell you what happens. Just that you'll adore Roudi (a wanna be Sherlock Holmes), Paradise (just an incredibly human, incredibly moving character), Cass (short for Cassanova, need I say more?) and Andrea.

Who's sane? Who's insane? And where do you draw the line?

Fascinating, gripping, it takes you right into the heart of mental health issues and their treatment. Plus there's a serial killer to catch. As an added bonus, I don't think there's any bad language (not noticeable at any rate), and the author doesn't have this strange belief that just because it's a thriller there have to be male and female characters leaping into bed with each other!

I can't recommend this book enough, and I can't wait to get hold of any other books by Ted Dekker.

61 Hours

2011-05-02T17:32:00.000+01:00

So, it's one of the more recent Jack Reacher books, the second most recent I think. I had a bit of a phase of reading loads of these all in one go, gave up for a while, and when I saw this in the library figured I should read it.

It's a pleasant enough way of spending an afternoon. I read it all in one go, which perhaps argues for it being a good book. Although I've recently realised that a better mark is being forced to stop and then launching yourself straight back at the book as soon as you've done whatever interrupted you.

I found the constant references to how many hours there were left somewhat irritating. A good way of keeping a sense of chronology perhaps, but not necessary. Especially as I couldn't tell you with any degree of certainty what the countdown was actually to. Was it the lady being attacked or the escape or when the lady was meant to be attacked or what?

The ending was a little bit like the one at the end of Six Sacred Stones, in that it's vaguely cliff-hangerry. You know he survives, because there's another book. It's just a case of working out how (I'm proud to say I was almost right with Six Ancient Stones). But that was good because it was guessable. I'm not seeing any way out based on the text so far, which would mean there's probably some loophole which enables Reacher to escape. Of course, I might just be being ignorant, in which case I'll hold up my hands and say okay, that works. Which I guess means I have to read the next one.

One thing I will say is that it doesn't particularly matter if this is the first one you start with. I presume there's a gradual chronological moving forward, but as Reacher just sort of drifts across America with no personal belongings and as each of the incidents described occur in a different place across America with little tying them together, it doesn't really matter. The only constant figure is Reacher, who according to one of those little sloganny bits you get on books all women are meant to fancy. I'm not quite convinced, but there you are. He's a great character in many ways, and it basically means the author gets to create loads of new characters for every book, which can be as fun as it can be hard work. (Personally, I find surnames hardest. They usually all need to be different, and while you can nab character traits and forenames of real people you know, surnames are a little more personal...).

At any rate, it's a decent enough book, albeit nothing spectacular. If you like crime with a slightly unusual main character, this is a series you'll undoubtedly enjoy. Although at times Reacher comes across a bit Sherlock Holmesy, if you know what I mean :)

Osama Bin Laden and 'Justice'

2011-05-02T17:20:00.000+01:00

I know I don't normally make political comments, but this is all over the news at the moment for obvious reasons, and I think it's worth making a few points.

While what has happened is almost certainly positive--and I certainly don't want to demean those who killed him--it's not justice. Justice would be putting him through the law courts, following due process, and then legally executing him. A comparison can probably be made with resisting arrest, in which case it's fair enough that he was shot. But again, not justice. Also, while I presume the burying him at sea was in order that his body doesn't become a rallying point, it does seem a little odd. Or is it only me that finds it strange that the body has been disposed of so rapidly? Again, I'm not trying to make up some wild conspiracy theory that the Americans either didn't find him or shot him without cause, but it does look odd.

I suppose we were all wondering just how quickly the Royal Wedding would be displaced from the news. Whilst media coverage did seem OTT (and in particular the idea that we need a bank holiday just before May Bank every year...), at least it was something positive in the news for a change. Now there seems to be a bit of a gore fest going on, and everyone's leaping in and this is dominating the news even more than the Wedding. What happened to balance? The Libyan ambassador to the UK was kicked out today (it kinda surprised me that hadn't happened weeks ago), there were a large number of tornadoes in Alabama, and I have no doubt that more things have happened that I haven't seen on the news. All of a sudden, nobody cares that Kate and William postponed their honeymoon for security reasons, and we're all panicking about revenge attacks.

I suppose the fear of revenge attacks is a big factor against having a 'proper' trial, not that we'd be in any doubt as to the outcome. But if that's a motive for making a mockery of justice, then surely the terrorists are winning by subverting exactly what makes 'us' different from what 'they' want.

At the end of the day, a certain part of me is glad that Bin Laden is gone. But surely we should be celebrating more in terms of attacks he now cannot organise, rather than fearing those his supporters might. And it's certainly not 'justice'. Call it revenge, call it the end of a man hunt, but I don't see how it can be rightly called justice.

iBoy

2011-04-29T20:52:00.000+01:00

I read this after my younger brother. He insisted it was great, I felt somewhat dubious based on the fact that it had a highly improbable plot (sixteen-year-old Tom Harvey has iPhone fall on his head and gains magical powers). After he read it in two days, and it took more effort to prise him away from it than it normally would to get him to stop playing on a game, I figured there had to be something to it. I was expecting to write a review that said it would be great for a younger audience. Actually, I think it was just generally pretty great.

I swear as you're reading the plot makes perfect sense. The 'powers' are all logical extensions of what an iPhone can do, and once you've suspended disbelief enough to get started it rapidly becomes so intriguing and enjoyable that you forget that this is based on a rather dubious premise.

Tom's close friend Lucy was raped at the same time he had a phone dropped on his head, and her brother was beaten up. Now that he has powers, he can seek revenge against the gangs who rule the estate he lives on, but how far is too far to go? And is there any point when nothing can change what happened to Lucy?

As iBoy, moreover, Tom starts up a MySpace page and starts chatting to Lucy. When she subsequently sees him outside her door, stopping the gangs from scrawling lewd graffiti on it, she realises iBoy on MySpace is her real world protector. And starts talking to Tom about it, creating an interesting conflict between the real Tom and the iBoy Tom.

As a book, I guess it raises all sorts of 'issues'. But it's also a really good read, half way between a superhero novel and 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time'. The characters are convincingly portrayed, and you find yourself developing quite significant attachments to them. It's also, like the other Kevin Brooks books I've read, one of those that I suspect will stay with me in some form or other for a long time.

Half of me would like to see a sequel, half of me will be happy if there isn't. There's something quite conclusive about the ending but which still leaves unresolved the issue of what Tom will continue to do with his newfound 'powers' and how he adapts to being back at school again with the ability to access wikipedia instantly in lessons. I wonder if there's any fanfiction out there...

In short, don't be put off by the blurb. I nearly was, and I nearly missed out on a brilliant read.

Shrike

2011-04-24T17:35:00.000+01:00

I haven't said anything about my writing for a while. In fact, I didn't even mention on here that I finished another novel the other week. It's provisionally titled Shrike, but I think it will eventually end up as Two For Joy. Took a fair while to get there, and I hadn't finished anything for a while (done plenty of writing, just on bits and pieces going nowhere, rather than concentrating and getting things done). Any rate, I've finished another novel :)

It's a sci-fi/crime novel (yes, that's definitely a genre, even if I've only ever read one that I would put in that genre...). Anyway, there's a Birdie police officer, because I like flying things/flying people, called Ash. There's a serial killer. There's a lot of prejudice against Ash because he's a Birdie. He's fighting for equality. What else can I say? It's not all typed up yet, so even if you wanted to I can't tell you to read it. And it needs editing too. And also means I have to edit the other stuff in the series I've written to take account of the fact that Ash as a character has developed somewhat.

I'm currently working on another sci-fi/crime novel, which I'm hoping to work on until I finish it, rather than getting distracted and meandering off chasing other bits of novels. I'm having fun at the moment with it at any rate. One thing I have noticed is that I find it hard to cover longer time-spans in my own work. So far, I'm on Chapter 5 and it's covered a couple of hours. I'm working on it :)

I think that's about it in terms of writing. Just thought I'd tell the whole world about what I'm up to :)

Outlaw

2011-04-24T17:25:00.000+01:00

I believe I've mentioned (several times...) before that I have a bit of a thing for Robin Hood. I actually intend at some point to write my own version set in a different era to usual (I think Robin Hood would make a good Digger :), and he could be loyal to the 'true king'). At any rate, that was why I finally decided that although the blurb wasn't hugely attractive (I'd rather read about Robin Hood the hero than Robin Hood the terrible bandit, the 'godfather of Sherwood forest') I'd give it a go.

I enjoyed it, but throughout there was a niggling sense that there was something just a little off. There was nothing really that I could put my finger on and say, no, this is definitely not right, this isn't how people would have acted, but it just didn't quite feel right. I think part of the problem was the pagan ceremony (unlikely in that period, as the author does acknowledge at the end), and the distaste for the church that seemed to be a common element of every outlaw apart from Tuck (although even he didn't seem hugely enamoured of it). I'm not saying the church was necessarily perfect, nor am I suggesting that everybody loved it wholeheartedly, but I don't think anti-clericalism was as prominent as what was suggested. Or perhaps more that where there was criticism of the people of the church, that it would be directed towards individual abusers of the power rather than the church in general.

I rather liked the ending, and the idea that Robin then went onto crusade (which is apparently the subject of a sequel). It's set in the reign of Henry II--Richard the Lionheart's father. I'd like to know more about the period. I think of the different versions I've read, there are two particular 'bits' that stand out to me. One is the idea of Robin as a rebel against the usurper John rather than Richard. The other is the tale of Robin's death, where he shoots an arrow and asks to be buried where it lands.

Oh, there was one bit that I wasn't convinced by. When the queen was referred to as reaching sixty, which was a huge age to live to, I wasn't sure whether that's entirely accurate. I don't know that we have a lot of information for the period, I do know that the previous conceptions of everyone dying young in the early modern period are somewhat flawed. Everyone either died very young or tended to live into their fifties/sixties. But I'm not an expert, so that might be quite accurate.

In short, it's not bad. But I think the perspective it takes makes it more of a teenage rather than an adult book (although there's some bad language and bits of quite graphic violence). Because it's from the perspective of a younger lad though, Alan Dale, who joins the band after having been a thief, and it basically charts his growing up against the background of Robin Hood, I would've put it as a teenage one. There's no reason why adults shouldn't read it (and technically, I'm both an adult and a teenager :) ), and I'd say that readers should probably be about 15 or so before I'd start recommending it (obviously that varies depending on an individual, but I wouldn't have a problem recommending it to my brother who's fifteen if I thought he'd actually read it).

I'll probably read the next one too, when I spot it. On the other hand, I won't be hunting about for it. It's a good book, I love Robin Hood (and he's interestingly enough portrayed in this version, though not in a great deal of depth I wouldn't say), and if you see it in a library it's probably worth your time to have a read.

The Seventeenth Century

2011-04-23T15:56:00.000+01:00

For a book on the Seventeenth Century, I thought it ended rather early... What happened to the last twelve years? What happened to the Glorious Revolution? Surely it would make more sense to have it in a book on the seventeenth century, so that you can get a sense of where it came from, rather than a book on the eigtheenth (I presume it does make it into the one in the series on the eighteenth century, but I haven't read it so I can't say). That apart, I did think this was really good.

Unlike the one on the sixteenth century in the same Oxford Short History of Britain series, it gave a pretty good sense of chronology. There were several chapters on the political 'story' as it were, explaining the early Stuarts, Civil War, Interregnum, and finishing up with the latter Stuarts. James II was barely covered, possibly he gets more space in the next one in the series.

It's a series of essays, rather than a single text, which I think works really well in this book. The one on culture was particularly interesting, as it made only passing reference to Shakespeare and instead focussed on other elements and writers, and paid particular attention to the development of theatre from the Court Masque.

I was surprised at how good a sense of chronology there was, and it managed to be clear about the various rulers. The Interregnum wasn't perhaps covered as well as it might have been, but it's hard to criticise when those twenty years were so confusing it must be incredibly difficult to structure them in a coherent manner. What else? Well, aside from a rather disappointing end (seriously, I really want to know about the Glorious Revolution, when can I do it?!) it was really good. Certainly, it proved readable and engrossing, as well as being clear. I really am turning into an early modernist though... Never mind. I'm sure it's curable. If not, well, I'll have to add portraits of Cromwell and Charles I to my noticeboards along with all the aeroplane posters...

Tudor England

2011-04-23T15:48:00.000+01:00

This is the one by John Guy, just so you know :) (I imagine there are a fair few out there with the same/similar title).

It started off a lot better than it finished. The Tudor Kings were discussed really well, there was a clear layout to the structure (mostly political, followed by mostly religious). Where it fell down was when it reached Mary and Elizabeth. Mary because she was skimmed over in what I thought was far too brief an analysis (okay, so she didn't reign for long, but she should still get something of a mention!). And then probably half the book focussed upon Elizabeth. Unfortunately, this disproportionate (or at least, what felt as I was reading rather disproportionate) focus didn't lead to greater clarity. The latter part of Elizabeth's reign was divorced from the beginning with some rather muddled chapters on culture and religion and social stuff. Maybe it was to avoid the charge that he'd just lumped all the 'unimportant extra bits' on at the end. I hasten to add that I am not implying that social, economic, or any other bits of history are unimportant. Just that the book said in the intro it was going to focus on politics, I was hoping for a book that focussed on politics, and that is what I mostly got. After the narrative had been hopelessly interrupted, became more than a little confused, and the Spanish Armada had been briefly dealt with.

If you want to know about the Tudors up til Edward VI, then it's great. Really well written, really interesting. Unless you already know a reasonable amount of the chronology and fancy untangling a rather awkward mess, avoid the stuff on Elizabeth. It's not worth the confusion.

The Golden Gate

2011-04-20T11:09:00.000+01:00

This is an Alistair MacLean I've had sat on my shelf for quite a long while, without me realising that besides being one I had, it was also one I hadn't read. There's a lot of others with similar titles (The Golden Rendezvous, The Golden Keel...) and Goodbye California is also set in California. Anyway, I realised I hadn't read it and decided it might be a good idea to do so, rather than having it sat there gathering dust.

It's a good one. In fact, it's one of his better ones, made all the better because I didn't know where the story was going. Not quite as many twists, perhaps, but fast-paced and your standard Alistair MacLean character. Undercover police officer, doesn't really care much about following orders, smart, tough... You get the picture :) Also the usual falling in love with somewhat hapless woman. Actually, the hapless woman in this case did have a bit more of a personality than normal. It sounds like I didn't like it that much, reading it over, but I did. It was definitely a good set up.

A determined thief has kidnapped the president of America and two oil barons. They were in a presidential coach (I want one of those! They sound really awesome!), with two other coaches on the route too. When they pulled onto the Golden Gate bridge, the thief struck. Actually, the villain in this piece was pretty interesting. Had a thing about not killing people, wasn't just a villain, more of a brainy thief who found having a real job too boring to bother with it. The American government has to pay up, three hundred million dollars for the president and the oil barons, two hundred million more for the bridge. And to keep himself safe afterwards, he demands a presidential pardon. Looks like he's got it all figured out (and if you want to know quite how the security was breached, it's really rather interesting). Unfortunately, in amongst the journalists who he's kept on the bridge in order to tell the world what he's up to, there's an FBI agent, who's determined to see the bridge remains intact and the money in Fort Knox.

I really rather enjoyed it. I still think Fear is the Key is his best (what a twist!) but it's definitely one of the great ones. Well worth keeping an eye out for.

Some Musings on Shakespeare

2011-04-13T19:25:00.000+01:00

Why does everyone revere the works of Shakespeare? Is he really a genius, more of a genius than any other poet, playwright or author England has ever produced, or is it merely a reputation? Certainly, one disgruntled Amazon customer was less than impressed with the complete works of Shakespeare...

I quote: 'Having read some of this mans works I have to say I'm thoroughly dissapointed. Considering most of his works have been made into blockbuster films I think it's important to note that this really is a case of the films being better than the books (in all cases). The language used is outdated and terrible for most people to understand. I'm surprised this man has become as sucessful as he is and I think he is massively overrated. Many of the plots have been done before or just been copied from history. Let's just hope he doesn't write anymore of this crap! Don't waste your money.'

Serious (which would be worrying) or not, is it time for Shakespeare to be replaced by someone more... modern? Here, I hide to avoid all the pens, probably quill pens, which are launched at my head by angry English Lit students.

I rather like Shakespeare, I have to say. I have voluntarily read a number of his plays (not all, though slowly getting there), and thoroughly enjoyed studying 'The Tempest' and the Scottish Play (seeing as I've annoyed the Lit students, I should probably avoid getting in the bad books of thesps too!). On the other hand, I also thoroughly enjoyed 'The Shakespeare Secret' by J L Carroll, which is unlikely to ever make it onto the reading lists of... Well, anyone apart from those like me who just enjoy a good read, whether it comes in mass market paperback form sold at Asda or not. Speaking of which, does anyone else find it amusing that with all the scorn for mass market paperbacks, most of the 'classics' have been reprinted cheaply in precisely that form? Ah well. I've digressed. Where was I? Whilst Shakespeare is a staple, some books are banned from use in A-level coursework, such as 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time'. What's wrong with that book? Is it merely that it was published in the last twenty years (bear with me while I check that... ah, last ten years, it's a modern imposter, only came out in 2003 so can't possibly be any good). Or is it that it was published as a children's book? Or... Who knows? But you cannot deny that it deals with 'issues' and is written in a distinctive style.

And that's what put me off English Lit, why, in the final analysis, I realised I was a historian. Does this sound hopelessly bizarre, that I'm a historian because I prefer modern books and so couldn't face doing English Lit? It sometimes feels that way to me. Especially as I have a long running love for Robin Hood, partially because of a wonderful computer game I played years ago. So what do I do? Not decide that I want to study the books I love, but decide that I'd much rather take the 'Robin Hood' paper in history... At any rate, I don't think Robin Hood makes it onto the curriculum. Well, the ballads might, but I doubt the rather interesting version (well, sequel) by Anthony Horowitz would make it.

Why is it that the idea of a modern version of Shakespeare throws up such horror? Is it because the genius is in the language of the plays, rather than the actual ideas? Well to be quite honest, what really fascinates me about the plays is the multiple stories, the relationships between the characters, the very human emotions evoked. And let's face it, Shakespeare was the mass market fiction of his day. I pause here to duck flying feather quills once more. But Shakespeare wrote for a popular audience. He wrote works that were performed in bawdy theatre houses, before an audience that was predominately made up of normal men and women who crammed into the pit to see his plays. So why can't we appreciate, just as much as Shakespeare, the works of authors like Frederick E Smith (633 Squadron series, I love 'em!), Matthew Reilly (fast paced thrillers, such as Seven Ancient Wonders), or Robin Hobb (best fantasy I've ever read, personal favourite is probably the Farseer Trilogy)? 633 Squadron does a wonderful job of exploring human relationships, and that's why I love it. Matthew Reilly... Well, apparently someone said of him that his books lack character development because they never live long enough to develop. But isn't a brilliant, fast-paced action scene that gets your pulse racing just what sword fights on stage are meant to deliver? As for Robin Hobb, well, if you want descriptive writing at its best, I doubt you could beat the Soldier Son trilogy. But for an exploration of what it means to be human, what it is to love and fear, to be discriminated against for something beyond your control, and, okay, some pretty ace sword fights, magic, and an intriguing take on dragons, I reckon the Farseer Trilogy beats all comers. And I'm sure there's excellent romantic fiction out there too, but that's not really my thing. And hey, was it really Shakespeare's thing either? I mean, even Romeo and Juliet has poison, feuding and death.

Maybe the best thing about Shakespeare is that it's convenient. After all, there are whole libraries out there of fiction to choose from, and sometimes you pick up a book and you wonder how it ever got published, before quickly putting it down again/tossing it across the floor in disgust. But Shakespeare is old, has a pedigree of being good, and you can't complain about him in quite the same way as you can for other books, as the reviewer on Amazon discovered. I bet you could go criticise any of my three examples (please don't, they're rather wonderful) and get barely a twitch of the eyebrow. But Shakespeare is defensible. Plus, he's written a variety of genres, so you don't have to worry that you can't just study thrillers, romances, or fantasy. I imagine Shakespeare will remain the most revered English writer. But perhaps it's time to make a little more space on the pedestal. If all the world's a stage, let's remember the bit players from time to time.

Zero Hour

2011-04-13T19:22:00.000+01:00

Slightly confused as to how this blurb: 'A terrorist group is on the brink of obtaining a code that will jam every item of military hardware from Washington to Kabul. Jets and helicopters will fall from the sky. Communications and weapons systems will fail. The West will be brought to its knees. Only one man can find and stop the perpetrator -- but for the first time in his life Nick Stone doesn't want to play ball.', fits with this book. I think Fantastic Fiction may have got an earlier version of the blurb... The only thing that is vaguely the same is the last sentence, which is in the blurb on the actual book. Just thought I'd make that observation, seeing as the book has very little to do with that, and is actually about a kidnapping and child trafficking (although I can see where the original blurb comes from, as there are aspects of it in the book, ish).

Right. That out the way (I was only looking to check I had the title right), I'll get on with reviewing the actual book :). I really enjoyed it. Like all the Nick Stone books, it's a fast paced thriller with a main character who's a little deeper than he seems than first glance, but I think this one is really really good in terms of character development. Unfortunately, I suspect it's going to be the last one, unless there's a sort of new phase in the series as it were. Although it is a strong ending, I've really enjoyed these books. They're fast paced, there're plenty of twists (particularly in this particular one), and they're incredibly realistic.

If you're looking for a fast paced thriller, that doesn't just offer guns and explosions but also a lot of depth both to the situation (rather than just having an excuse for plenty of action) and to the characters. Very enjoyable read, and they're highly addictive. Whilst not necessarily ones you'd read over and over again, whilst you are reading them they're all but impossible to put down (as my parents discovered when trying to get me to come for dinner yesterday...).

A great book.

The Conscience of the King

2011-04-11T15:28:00.000+01:00

Fancy an intriguing Shakespeare conspiracy, set, unlike the other two I've read, in the Jacobean era? This is a brilliant book, I couldn't put it down. Intrigue, action, and the question: could Shakespeare really have written what he wrote? The answer, at the end? I'm not going to tell you :p You'll have to read it and find out for yourself.

Wonderfully evocative, with an intriguing plot, fast-paced action, and a brilliant hero. I love these books :) Can you tell? From what I've seen, there are only four (although there is a mysterious book mentioned in the historical notes at the end of this one, which suggests a fifth one that google hasn't turned up, so perhaps it's not been published yet), two in the Jacobean period, two under Elizabeth, all fascinating and full of rich detail about court, country, and life. As well as, and this is a particular favourite for me, details about Cambridge at that time, well recreated. And this one even contains a wonderful scene in King's College Chapel. When I'm down in Cambridge, I walk past there every day :) Shame my college never got a mention (Christ's, if you're wondering).

I don't know what else to say really, save that these are definitely books to grab as soon as you see them. Took me long enough to find copies of this one and the one I reviewed yesterday. I don't see why they aren't more popular, to be perfectly honest. So yeh, read them :)

Imagined Communities

2011-04-09T20:43:00.000+01:00

I thought I should probably read this, seeing as the people leading my History of Collecting seminar group always seem to be going on about it. And it was interesting, and mostly well-written. It was just quite pompous in parts, and there were occasions when it felt like the author had been ordered to liven up his text a little, and had complied by throwing in the odd exclamation mark where it wasn't really needed.

That said, I thought the link between 'print capitalism' (yeh, does that give you the idea of how the thing was staged) and nationalism was well documented and explored. And the point that it's something we blame for things but don't often look at in any great depth is also a good one.

One other stylistic point that really, really annoyed me. I've gone to great length to learn how to do footnotes properly (footnotes and I had a long battle during my first term, a battle which was decisively solved in my favour when I discovered that most supervisors don't insist upon them), and got told off for putting in discursive footnotes. I complained that I was just copying what I'd seen done by other authors, which didn't really hold weight, and was told that footnotes are not the place to bung in additional information that kinda supports your argument. Be that as it may, Benedict Anderson was using them as though he got a bonus point for every footnote. I wonder why the blogger spelling checker doesn't like the word footnote, or at least, doesn't like it in some circumstances but is quite happy with it in others... Sorry, random aside :)

Right, well, aside from being somewhat pompous in parts and having these terrible discursive footnotes that we history students must not in any circumstances allow ourselves to use, (oh for goodness sake, what's wrong with ourselves?!) it's actually pretty interesting. And I guess it's one of those books that you bandy about to make the point that you are learned and all those wonderful things (now it's going after things, seriously, I think the blogger spellchecker machine has issues... just going to turn it off, there, obtrusive yellow highlighting which has enabled me to double the length of this otherwise rather humdrum review has been vanquished). I'm not sounding very positive, am I? I actually enjoyed the book, though was irritated by the number of words I didn't know. I do have a pretty reasonable vocabulary, and there wasn't a convenient dictionary while I was reading. Meh. Also, some of the illustrations used assumed knowledge I didn't have, and there was an assumed knowledge of language (one rather long paragraph in French had the attached footnote that the translation suchabody had done was unsatisfactory, without giving any sense of what the French bit actually said... My French was just about good enough to figure what it was probably saying, but it was irritating).

The way he studied the growth of nationalism was interesting, the reasons given for its arrival in the New World before the old convincing. It's quite an interesting book, and it's probably worth reading. I read it in two days, so it was certainly an interesting one. I still have Fritz Fischer's War of Illusions staring at me menacingly from under my desk with a bookmark maybe a quarter of the way through, and it's been there maybe two, three weeks. It's not a perfect book (is there such a thing?), but it's interesting.

The Desperate Remedy

2011-04-09T20:27:00.000+01:00

Quite simply, it's brilliant. An evocative rendering of the early years of James I/VI, an intense thriller, a gripping read. What amazes me is that the author, Martin Stephen, doesn't seem to be on any recommended reading lists, or not ones that I've seen. I don't normally go in for historical fiction, but I picked up one of his books before and was, quite frankly, hooked.

I have one quibble with the series, and it's this: what order are these books supposed to go in?! I'm sure that The Desparate Remedy is the first that was published (one sec, checking Fantastic Fiction... Yep, it is). But it seems to be the last chronologically. Also, according to the same source, the most recent was back in 2006. I hope there's more, I've nearly run out, I managed to find an omnibus in a charity shop today which had the only two I hadn't read.

The more I learn about Elizabethan and Jacobean England, the more intrigued I become, and the more convinced that these books are excellent portrayals of that period. Intrigue, spying, enough action to satisfy anyone who loves a good thriller (or three), mixed with a wonderful rendering of the period. The famous names are in there, and in this novel Henry Grisham, the main character, deals with the gunpowder plot. Apart from the main character and his two associates, I think all the others are real, historical figures, and from what I've seen the books tend to play around the gaps in the historical record and give a slant on what we know (or think we know) about the period. I confess I don't yet know huge amounts about the period, but these are certainly fascinating, and a much funner way of getting to the heart of the period than reading endless scholarly tomes (not, I hasten to add, that there isn't a place for such scholarly tomes, just that they can be a little drab and tend to rob the period of its drama and adventure).

I like the characters, I like the plot and the counter plot, and there's plenty of action. Real depth to the characters too, as well as to the periodisation. It's just so well brought out! If I were to learn something next month that flatly contradicted what I've read here, I'd be more inclined to believe these books than the contradiction... However, I suspect Martin Stephen has studied the period extensively, it certainly feels real.

If you're not sure whether you'd particularly like historical fiction, these books are a perfect method of convincing you that really, it's quite fantastic. Certainly they've shown me that romance doesn't have a monopoly on historical fiction (although there's certainly some of that in the book).

The Sixteenth Century

2011-04-08T21:18:00.000+01:00

On the basis that there might be a couple called this, it's a collection of essays by various people but the name on the front/spine is Patrick Collinson. Actually, if I'm being really exact, it's just Collinson. Because we historians clearly don't do such vulgar things as putting our names, let alone nicknames, on the title page of a book. (Can I count myself as a historian yet? I'm studying... reading... it, and I do try to pick up the attributes of a historian while I write, but apparently my essays are littered with colloquialisms and end up far too vivid in parts.) Anyway. Long introduction cut short, The Sixteenth Century, compiled/edited by Patrick Collinson.

As I said at the start, it's a collection of essays, which cover social, political, constitutional etc history. Not desparately integrated, but at least it's better than those surveys of social history 1500-1750 or whatever intermediate dates they pick that don't given any idea that there was a Civil War right slap bang in the middle of that, combined with plenty of religious and other upheaval. Ah yes, there's a bit on religious history too.

Really enjoyed it, have to say. It was odd to read about the social history with the arbitrary, in terms of social history, cut of point of 1600. For social history, it seems to make more sense to use the Civil War as a cut off point, or simply to blather on about how nothing really changes and so it doesn't really need a cut off point. Okay, not quite, but you get the picture :) But in terms of political history, it makes sense to go with the 'long' sixteenth century--in other words, to cover the reign of the Tudors.

There wasn't really any overview of who was ruling when and what the differences were, which was a shame, because I only just feel like I've got them straight in my head. Henry VIII, Edward VI (think it was VI at any rate), then Mary, and finally Elizabeth. Please correct me if I'm wrong, preferably before I go back to uni and make a fool of myself getting them in the wrong order or with the wrong numbers. After Edward (he might have been V, come to think of it), there was James VI / I (sixth of Scotland, first of England), Charles I, the interregnum/commonwealth/whatever you want to call it, Charles II, James II, and then the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 and William and Mary (dual monarchy, so you have to say both). I hope I have not just given you utterly incorrect information there!

I think the religious chapter in particular suffered because it pretty much skipped over Mary (as in Mary Tudor). Admittedly, she didn't rule that long, but I thought the changes in her reign were pretty dramatic and therefore probably worth giving more than a glancing reference too.

The book did, however, do a pretty good job of taking into account Scotland and Ireland, which was nice, as well as an interesting section on foreign policy. But I think the strongest chapter was probably the one on 'The Limits of Power', which was particularly good at looking at the way the Tudor monarchs actually exercised power and how far they were able to do so, and took into account the differences between different regions as well as looking a bit at Scotland and Ireland. Also, the chapter on the Renaissance was fascinating, thoroughly enjoyed reading about that. Especially about the mixing of culture and how Shakespeare was criticised for mingling tragedy and comedy, like many English playwrites.

It's a great introductory book, none too long, and generally fascinating. Sums things up nicely, and I particularly enjoyed the treatment of the social/economic side in the first chapter, which I thought was brilliant at summing up everything I learnt in my first term. Or at least, a good portion of it.

The Hidden Oaisis

2011-04-08T21:00:00.000+01:00

Yay, a new author that was brilliant :) Okay, so he's apparently been around for a while, and this is his third book, but new to me. And utterly gripping. Also, the whole can't put it down thing is not helped by the fact that there are no chapters! I didn't realise this until part way through when I realised I should go do something else and decided to follow my usual expedient of forcing myself to stop reading by putting in my bookmark at the start of the next chapter. On some books, this doesn't work anyway, but it certainly wouldn't have worked here!

I'm not sure where I stand on not chaptering. I've tried it myself, but the book was tremendously complicated and I had to colour code it to make it comprehensible to myself, so I certainly hope no one decides to publish it posthumously! That said, it worked with this book, and natural breaks in the text were provided by scene shifts.

I liked the characters. I liked them a lot, in fact. Especially Flin, obsessed Egyptologist trying to come to terms with his past and hunting down a lost oasis. Nice bit of magical/booby trap stuff in there at the end, and plenty of action. Really enjoyed it, and I've got another of Paul Sussman's books out already. I imagine these are going to be books that end up on my bookcase (although I am having major running out space issues at the moment! Might need to find somewhere to put another bookcase, though where on earth I could fit one is another matter altogether...).

I guess it's your standard archaeological thriller, which is definitely a legitimate category of books. It has to be, there's loads of them! And it makes a nice change from Atlantis books (although as long as they're well written, I have no problem with a plethora of Atlantis books, as my bookshelves will bear witness... I believe I have three with Atlantis in the title).

At any rate, it's well written and I struggled to put it down. Well worth keeping an eye out for it!

9th Judgement

2011-04-08T20:49:00.000+01:00

Meh. I saw it in the library and thought, hey, new Women's Murder Club, I might as well see if it's any good (this is now, I realise, the second most recent to come out). In about half an hour I'd read the first hundred or so pages, thanks to James Patterson's short chapters, which make the book look far fatter than it actually is, and to be honest I wasn't gripped, and decided to take it back to the next library we went to. So it didn't even make it home with me (okay, here I pause for an explanation: I went out to visit a handful of libraries in East Lancs with my mum, as we're trying to visit all the libraries in Lancashire, and some of them are closed at lunch time, so while we were waiting for the next library to open we started reading the books we'd already got out, hence the book not making it home from the library).

Is it just me, or are James Patterson's books getting worse and worse? Or did I just have a fit of enthusiasm for a new author and am only now realising... But I'm sure the earlier ones are actually pretty good, pretty thrilling. It's just the more recent ones (okay, scratch that, from Women's Murder Club I wouldn't rate any from about book 5 onwards, though I've read all of them up til half the 9th) that have descended into not that greatness. I suppose my taste in books may have changed. But one of the more recent Alex Cross books (not Cross Country cringes) was really good. Double Cross maybe? And I nearly didn't read it.

At any rate, if you're not totally fed up of this series by now, it might be worth having a look. It did, after all, hold my attention for half an hour and I'm more likley to give up a book within a few pages than within a hundred (though given the chapter length, I probably read as much as if it had been a few pages...)

On a related note, the most recent Maximum Ride appears to be terrible. I'm afraid I didn't get past the first chapter ie, the first three pages, before I wanted to slap Max! And she was one of my absolute favourite characters at one point, and in terms of inspiring my own writing probably a close second to Holly Short from Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl (you should know that!!!). I would also include in the list of inspiring characters Sean Dillon from the series by Jack Higgins, and Jack Howard from the series by Alan Gibbins. Oh, and also Jack West Jr from the Seven Ancient Wonders etc series by Matthew Reilly. Interestingly, apart from Artemis Fowl which is as good/better than ever with each new book, and Jack West which is probably as good, the other series have all had dodgy books. I didn't finish the most recent Sean Dillon either, got fed up half way through because I swear I'd read either that plot, or practically that plot, before.

Digression over. I probably wouldn't bother with 9th Judgement. Well, I kinda didn't, and I doubt I'll bother trying the 10th whatever unless it ends up on a library shelf in front of my nose. Which is a shame, because I really enjoyed the earlier ones in the series, but such is life.

Aftershock

2011-04-08T20:35:00.000+01:00

This is the second E-force book. I reviewed the first one when that first came out, as it looked like good fun, and I believe I said something along the lines of it's a series with great potential but was slightly let down by mediocre writing, and that I had high hopes for a sequel or three.

Well, this is the sequel, and it was definitely better written than the first. Bits still felt a little awkward (especially at the start), and the characters still weren't fantastically developed in terms of the members of E-force (I still get a few of them mixed up), but the supporting characters who were trying to survive the disaster were pretty well evoked, though there were rather a lot of them involved!

The action was great. Plenty of it, and once it really got started, say from about the third chapter or so, it really was quite well written and engaging. Took no small effort to tear myself away from it for tea.

I think this is a series that (please!) might turn out to be something like the Dirk Pitt books--a long-running series with a core of central characters and then supporting cast brought in as needed. But the closest thing to compare it to would have to be Thunderbirds. In fact, it practically is Thunderbirds, brought into the 21st Century and in adult book form (there is some swearing--though less than many thrillers--and not everyone makes it). So I was amused by the Stingray reference--I imagine that like the character who had watched every episode of Stingray obsessively, the author Sam Fisher has probably watched every episode of Thunderbirds, maybe several times over. Like my brother really. And by extension, myself. I think I've seen most/all of the original Thunderbirds, the new one two or three times, and then a handful of Stingrays and Captain Scarlets.

Whilst being a Thunderbirds fan, or vague appreciator as in my case, is probably not necessary, I imagine it's a bonus. The craft used are effectively Thunderbirds craft, with a few added extras, and rather than a philanthropic family there's instead a group of dedicated rescue personelle with little/no ties to the outside world and thus forming a tight-knit team within E-force.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Could have been better than it was if the main characters had perhaps been developed a little more--though by the end they were becoming more distinct entities than the Tracy brothers in the original Thunderbirds ever really were--and I think there was a definite improvement in writing style/quality as the book progressed. So I have high hopes for the future of this series.

The English Civil Wars, 1640-1660

2011-04-05T10:29:00.000+01:00

Okay, so I'm behind (again...), and I make no promises about my ability to catch up with all the books I've read and not reviewed over the past few weeks, but I shall try. It seems that every term, life starts to get on top of me, I don't post for a while, and then it feels like such an effort to catch up that I decide I don't have time. Anyway. For now, here goes :)

On the basis that there are probably a fair few books out there entitled The English Civil Wars, this is the one by Blair Wordon. It's a good introduction to the topic. That, it makes plain in the introduction to the book, is its sole aim in life, so I suppose it succeeds. I thought a little bit more on the military side of things--the experience of those who fought in particular--would have been good. I mean, it says in the introduction that approximately 1 in 10 people probably fought, and that casualties were probably higher than those caused to Britain by the First World War, but it says very little about battlefield conditions. I accept that not much is known, but a little bit would've been nice.

It covers the whole period, from the causes (starting with the reign Charles I), right through to the Restoration and why there was a Restoration. So in that respect, it's not so much on the English Civil War as I expected. It's also distinctly English in its treatment of the topic--whilst acknowledging the influence of events in the rest of the country at various points, they are not the main focus or even much of a peripheral focus in this book.

However, those criticisms out the way (and here I add one other, more stylistic point: I thought the chapters were too long), it is a good introduction. So if you haven't got a clue what happened 1640-1660 and you want to know what Cromwell got up to, why England briefly had a republic, and why we decided that republics were a bad idea and we were better off with a monarch, this is a good book to start with. It's pretty well written, and the topic itself is (well, in my opinion at any rate) fascinating. Hopefully, if you enjoy this, you'd go on to read some more detailed studies of various aspects of the period, or even bigger books with a similar title (this one is 165 pages, pretty short for a history book you have to agree). And when you do read those bigger books, you won't find yourself utterly lost, as I, admittedly was with the whole of the early modern period until about half way through my first term when it all started to make a bit more sense and I realised that Mary Tudor and Mary Queen of Scots were different people... Hey, I'd never studied the period before ever, I figure it's fair enough that I didn't realise things like that :)

So, in short, it's good as an introduction, and as that is all it makes a claim to be, I figure it fulfils its purpose in life pretty well.

The Lost Relic

2011-03-13T08:12:00.000Z

I was so chuffed when I spotted this at the library. And my excitement was not displaced. This is a gripping next instalment in the Ben Hope trilogy, this time involving art thieves and much excitement. Well, the much excitement is pretty well a given in these books. Also, a brilliant side plot (but not resolved!), involving Ben's ongoing relationship with his girlfriend and issues therein.

Well written, gripping, and they feel authentic too (in spite of the fact that, as far as I can see, the author has no real experience in the military... Do correct me if that's wrong).

I'm not quite sure what else to say. It's worth keeping an eye out for certainly, and I'll probably get myself a copy as soon as I see it second hand (this is nothing against the book, I'm a student--there are only a handful of books I'd buy new as soon as they come out). Also, space limitations at home mean this is probably a pretty good indication. I'm not sure where I'd fit it if I got a copy... I'm sure I'll manage somehow. I'm going to have a college and a home collection of books I think. Being a fast reader, who enjoys rereading, has disadvantages.

To conclude: read it!

Polar Quest

2011-03-13T08:05:00.000Z

I am now more confused than ever about what sort of order (if any) Tom Grace's series is meant to go in. Certainly, they don't seem to have been published in anything vaguely resembling chronological order. That said...

It's brilliant. Quite similar to the Ben Hope series (temporarily forgotten author's name, but I've reviewed loads of them), though with more of a science/technology base rather than a more historical one. Lots of action, and a decent plot that's sufficient to support it without it seeming like gratuitous violence/action. There's not, perhaps, much character development in this book, but the supporting characters are well evoked, some familiar faces (Grin) return, and Nolan Kilkenny (the hero, if that's not too old-fashioned a word to use to describe him :) ) is convincing enough. There's just not a lot of inter-character relationship going on, but I guess that's somewhat inevitable if you want to have space for a tight, gripping thriller.

I have to recommend it. Don't bother reading the series in any order, since it hasn't been published, as far as I can tell, in any real order, but do read them whenever you spot 'em. Great fun, and I certainly hope there's more. At the moment, my mental classification scheme puts Tom Grace as: brilliant writer of small number of thrillers, and he fits next to Scott Mariani (Ben Hope series, just remembered!) and James Twinning (the ones about the ex-thief). I'd like to see more, from all those authors in fact, and most definitely from Tom Grace :)

A Great Deliverance

2011-02-28T16:04:00.000Z

This is the first book in the Inspector Lynley series. I got into the series after discovering that the TV series which mum and I had been watching on DVD was actually based on a book. After a few that were great, and one that really wasn't great, I gave up on the series for a while, but I've returned to reading the ones they have in my current local library (I was starting to run out of ideas...). And actually, this first one is brilliant.

The conflict between Havers and Lynley is well, and sympathetically, set out. It also opens out a lot of the personal relationships that are mentioned briefly in later books, which helped explain a lot. And the case itself is fascinating--and frightening in many respects.

The atmosphere is great, and I love the two main characters (especially Barbara Havers, she's fantastic :) ). I thoroughly recommend this to any crime lovers. A great novel, and it sheds a whole new light on the later books.

Doomwyte

2011-02-28T11:11:00.000Z

It's ages since I last read a Redwall book, but I felt like being nostalgic yesterday and so when I went to the library I picked this one up. As one of the more recent ones, it's one I haven't read as often as some of the earlier ones (all the ones before Rakkety Tam I've probably read at least 6/7 times, and Taggerung and Outcast of Redwall I reckon I've read somewhere between 15 and 20 times...), I couldn't really remember what happens. I worried as I determined on this course that I would discover that Redwall just isn't as great as I remember it being, and that I would lose a piece of childhood nostalgia by realising it wasn't actually that great. But it was still great.

There's something uplifting about a good vs evil book, where you know that good will win but you don't know how yet--or whether those who are 'goodies' will all survive. With the Redwall series being about the inhabitants of a place, rather than a specific character Brian Jacques had (he sadly died a few weeks ago) the freedom to kill off characters without jeopardising the future of the series. Unlike books set around a single character/characters (like the Dirk Pitt books, for example), you can't be sure that the main characters will survive. Which has led, I might add, to a good deal of sobbing on my part. Especially in Martin the Warrior.

Riddles, feasts, fighting, and a wonderful cast of characters, including a brilliant hare, plus a whole host of mice, squirrels, and a new Gousim tribe, plus the Gonfellin tribe, makes this a brilliantly woven tale. I thoroughly enjoyed it--couldn't put it down. And that's despite having read it before :) It's inspired me to go read the rest of the Redwall books, and I can't wait to get my hands on the most recent one (just come out in paperback, so I think amazon is called for as they seem impossible to find in most bookshops). It might be a children's series, but it's uplifting and exciting in equal measures.

Metropolis

2011-02-28T11:00:00.000Z

I really enjoyed this. It's a black and white, silent movie from 1927, and they recently found a few more bits of it and added them in (the new bits were lower quality in terms of the actual film, but added a lot to the story). I was surprised at how complex the plot was and the fact that it was comprehensible, and that despite the fact that there weren't all that many dialogue screens.

I suppose it's strictly speaking dystopian science fiction, and it's really good. The graphics still look good, and it was apparently the most expensive silent film ever made. There are some brilliant bits with the machinery, and it's intriguing to see one of the ways the future was envisaged in 1927.

Some bits were unintentionally amusing. There was a lot of clutching at hearts, and hugging, but most of it was excellent. I can well understand why Empire film magazine rated it 12th of 100 best films of world cinema last year. Well worth a watch. The soundtrack is also really good, and it gives a totally different viewing experience to a 'normal' film with words.

Somewhere

2011-02-28T10:56:00.000Z

Well, it wasn't a total waste of time. The characters were, for the most part, really good. There just wasn't much substance. It had a lot of potential, but it felt like they'd cut a bunch of scenes out, realised they'd cut too much, and then decided to simply stretch the ones they had left. Not much really happens. And some bits are decidedly random--the beginning and the ending, mostly. By the fourth time the car went round the race track, everyone was giggling, and I was waiting for a car crash so that the main character could break his arm in an exciting way. But nothing happened. He eventually stopped driving round in circles, randomly got out the car, and then the scene faded. (He broke his arm falling down stairs instead). Also, at the end, he's driving off into the distance, stops for no apparent reason, and gets off to walk into the sunset. Hmm.

Like I said though, the characters were good, and there were one or two gems in there. They were just few and far between. It's a relaxing film though, doesn't take much effort or energy to watch, and was a pretty good film for me to watch whilst knackered. Although perhaps I should have saved my 4 film ticket for another one (Nowhere Boy this week, and The Tourist next week, both of which look very interesting).

If somebody sticks it on in front of your nose, and you're feeling not particularly energetic, it's a reasonable film. But don't go getting all excited about it.

Blue Gold

2011-02-13T21:58:00.000Z

I recently traded in pretty much all my Clive Cussler books, but up til now had only read the Dirk Pitt ones and one of the Oregon files (was not that impressed with the Oregon files ones, the Dirk Pitt ones were good but I figured I probably wouldn't re-read them). Blue Gold was one that I picked up in Cambridge last term, didn't get round to reading, and so left here to enjoy when I got back. And I did enjoy it. I was quite surprised, in fact.

Blue Gold is one of the Kurt Austin books, set in the same world as the Dirk Pitt ones (indeed, in the other Kurt Austin book I've now read, Pitt makes a passing appearance). It's an adventure story, based loosely around the ocean, and it's certainly an entertaining enough way of passing the time. The character description sometimes felt a bit forced (particularly the bit about the jazz)--reminded me of my English Lit teachers rule of 'show, don't tell' when it comes to characters. But other than that, there was a reasonable amount of action, there was a reasonable plot, the science was, well, maybe a little exaggerated, but potentially plausible. Also, very amused by the giant woman.

In short, Blue Gold is pretty much what you'd expect from a Clive Cussler book. There's action, beautiful women, a hero and his sidekick... The Kurt Austin books could, in fact, almost be Dirk Pitt ones, save for a few little details about the two main characters. So if you're a fan, and you've run out of Dirk Pitt books (although to be fair, there are twenty-odd of them, so you'd have to be an obsessive reader like me for that to happen quickly...) these are just as good.

Final Theory

2011-02-13T21:50:00.000Z

It says on the book something along the lines of 'The Da Vinci Code, but with science'. Actually, I've never read the Da Vinci Code, so I can't tell you how accurate that is, but from what I know of it I dare say it's pretty close to the mark. It's a science based thriller, it seemed pretty plausible to me, but I'll hold my hands up now and admit that while I have at least a passing interest in science I'm no expert. And the science was explained well enough that it's reasonably comprehensible.

The basic premise? Einstein came up with a unified theory of everything (this sort of idea also features in a book by Tom Grace, I believe it's the one called Quantum), which could prove even more dangerous to humanity than the nuclear bomb. An interesting enough main character, who's actually a professor of the history of science (is that the right way of putting it?) and a pretty good cast of supporting characters, including the 'bad guy'.

At any rate, I enjoyed it enough to have a look for other books by that author. Unfortunately, there aren't any. Ah, actually, take that back. I've just looked on Fantastic Fiction, and there is! And it follows on in the same series. Bonus :) I shall certainly be keeping my eye out for that at the library (I have to be seriously strict on myself in terms of actually buying books now I'm afraid. All my bookcases at home are crammed to bursting, and I have maybe a dozen books here in Cambridge as well, so how they're gonna fit when I go back is beyond me... And I seem to have a thing for still ending up with more books! Ah well. I'll be keeping an eye out at the library, as I said.)

Final Theory is worth a read. It's maybe not the greatest thriller of the year, but it's certainly a solid book that's by no stretch of the imagination a waste of time to read.

Despicable Me

2011-02-01T15:36:00.000Z

I decided to be cultured this term, and watch more films. Despicable Me perhaps doesn't fit the bill of 'high' culture, but it was certainly enjoyable. A superhero movie with a difference, Despicable Me is, strictly speaking I suppose, a supervillain movie.

Gru is a supervillain who's never quite made it to the big time. He and his army of minions have managed to steal the Statue of Liberty... The small one from Las Vegas. With a new villain on the scene, Gru is determined to regain some prestiege, and so hatches an audacious plot to steal the moon. Dogged every step of the way by his tenacious rival, he finds himself adopting three young girls who turn his life inside out, and make him question what's really the most important part of his life.

Brilliantly hilarious (I especially love the Bank of Evil... Formerly Lehman Brothers), with a heart-warming ending, this is definitely a film to watch. It might be animated, it might have a plot that borders on the utterly ridiculous at times with shrink rays, sharks, and squid guns, but it's a great film.

The Social Network

2011-01-24T16:01:00.000Z

I really enjoyed this film. I've decided to be a bit more 'cultural' this term and try to actually go to the extra stuff that's on, especially films as I don't watch many and my college has its own cinema (ish).

Anyway, The Social Network charts the development of Facebook, in a non-boring way. Geeks, parties, law suits and... um... geeks again? provide a great plot full of human interest. And lots of laughs. It's really interesting to see how Facebook developed, and to consider that there was a point in my life when I *gasp!* didn't have Facebook. Indeed, I remember dial up, the early days of the internet, the start of personal computers. It constantly amazes me when I stop to think about it how much technology has moved on. For example, when I was last babysitting, I had a go on my next door neighbour's Playstation 3 Kinnect thing (is that what it's called?), and while the game was actually very similar to one of the first ones I ever played on, it's a totally different experience in many respects, to be waving about the controller in thin air and watching things happen on the screen.

That digression on the progress of technology aside, the characters are (mostly) portrayed sympathetically, and interestingly. I found the scene with the contest to get a job as an intern at Facebook absolutely hilarious--particularly in the explanation. Every ten lines of code, you have to drink a shot. Every three minutes you have to drink a shot. Every... etc. Very amusing.

If you get the chance to see it, it's well worth a watch. Startling to think how recently and how small Facebook started, and how big it's become.

The Budapest Protocol

2011-01-21T17:12:00.000Z

Wow. A gripping and just downright fantastic book, The Budapest Protocol revolves around a conspiracy at the heart of the EU--the continuation of the Nazi regime through peace, rather than war. A fascinating historical background (the Nazis did try and create a united Europe, and the document at the heart of the book is based off a real document included in the appendix) mingles with a gripping character-orientated narrative to create a book I struggled to put down for dinner (and subsequently read until about 11 in order to finish it off...).

Budapest is created convincingly--I confess I haven't been there so I can't say for certain how accurate it was but it felt good--and the characters were equally well crafted. I love the mingling snapshots of the past--both of the grandfather through the diary, and the main character's flashbacks to episodes in his career as war reporter.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't know, to be quite honest, what else there is to say. The concepts behind it, including the Gypsy holocaust, were plausible, the political struggles felt real, it's a great book.

Incompetence

2011-01-18T19:01:00.000Z

The United States of Europe has arrived, and with it, dozens of new laws every day. Things are becoming illegal so quickly, the jails have to be constantly deepened as more and more of Europe's citizens become inadvertent criminals. Furthermore, it is now illegal to fire someone for incompetence--indeed, it seems like only the incompetent are ever promoted.

A brilliant thriller venturing across Europe, the investigator hampered by people and police who should probably be described as criminally insane. An amusing, engrossing read with scatterings of brilliant characters, from the 'large' main character, through to the constantly angry Italian police chief, a forensic scientist who rearranges the dead bodies he's given as a hobby, a young woman with Sexually Inappropriate Response syndrome, and a dozen other hilarious characters and places--such as the train station where no train has ever stopped.

In style, it's probably closest to G K Chesterton or Douglas Adams, permeated with the same slightly wacky, off-beat humour, though with more of a plot than any of the Hitchiker books seem to have mustered... There is a definite chase after a serial killer, on the trail of a dead agent. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, really glad I happened to pick it up in a charity shop :) Well worth keeping an eye out for--I hope there's more.

The First Great Air War

2011-01-17T09:49:00.001Z

I probably shouldn't be fussy, since books about First World War aviation aren't always that easy to find (unless you happen to be near Cambridge University Library, in which case a little digging unearths a reasonable number). However, this book wasn't all that great to be honest. There was a lot about the pilots, and it was, in effect, a conglomeration of stories about individual pilots. There was a lot said about how the observers and the gunners and the pilots of reconnaisance aircraft deserved more recognition, but not a lot about those individuals. Most of the people followed were fighter pilots, generally aces (and often the more famous, high-scoring aces).

The first few chapters were very good, with some interesting stories about the early days of the Royal Flying Corps. Tortoise races, anyone? (Fly in a wind speed higher than your aircraft's top speed. The person who gets blown backwards the furthest is the winner!). However, the balance of the book wasn't great. 1916 and 1917 got the lions share of the book, with only two short chapters on 1918, despite the fact that there was a lot of fighting in 1918 and it was most of the year before the armistice was signed. There was a definite bias towards the Western Front and the RFC, with a handful of German pilots, a few French and American, an even smaller handful of Italian pilots (and the pilots of the RFC who went to Italy), and pretty much nothing about the Eastern Front, or the Austrian side of the fighting in Italy. In fact, it could probably have been improved by explicitly focussing on just the Western Front, rather than giving the lives of two or three Italian pilots, with a focus primarily on one of them. There were a lot of comparisons to the Second World War, and I'm not convinced they really helped explain anything.

That said, some of the personal stories were interesting. The Red Baron was described as a rabid dog who should've been shot, and there was a big emphasis on the fact that the war in the air wasn't chivalrous, but was really rather nasty and that even if they were knights of the air, knights weren't very nice when they were in battle. Wasn't entirely convinced by the description of the Red Baron to be perfectly honest, but there you go. There were some very amusing tales of various things that went on in the air, and some more poignant ones.

On the whole, it was pretty mediocre. If it weren't for the fact that it's quite difficult to find books on this topic, I'd probably say don't bother. It doesn't say anything particularly special, and you can probably find the amusing stories in just about any account of WWI aviation--there were some rather bizarre occurrences. I also felt that it was overly critical of Trenchard and his tactics. If you have an interest in the topic, it's reasonable. If you're not desperately interested, don't bother.

(Just realised: I should probably tell you who the author is. It's the one by Richard Townsend Bickers, published 1988)

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

2011-01-15T18:56:00.000Z

Up til, say, twenty years ago, if you'd heard of one historian, one history book, it would probably have been Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Written over 200 years ago, it's remained pertinent to the topic it covers, and while aspects are superseded by modern research, apparently (I can't vouch for this personally--I've read books on the book) it remains influential. And nobody's managed to produce a newer work of comparable length and breadth.

The first thing is: this is not a book I have read from cover to cover. Indeed, I haven't even read the abridged version from cover to cover--I imagine it would take about a year to get through the whole thing. It's enormous! One of those big, square books that you could quite happily use as a doorstop, or to make yourself look impressive. It covers about 1,500 years of history, dancing about across the provinces, taking in primarily political/military history but encompassing high culture, manners, society, social structure, law, and any number of other things that Gibbon felt pertinent to his wide-ranging organising principle of how the Roman Empire came to an end.

Despite being rather outdated in years, and in some places in content, it's surprisingly readable. If only I could have carried it around with me, and it didn't take a great effort to simply pick it up to read, I probably would have read significantly more. There are these brilliant footnotes scattered about through the text which are cynical, witty, or just amusingly acerbic. The text itself offers all the drama you might expect from court intrigues, military takeovers, and a memorable passage upon the girraffe (a gentle and useless animal, which has been described but not delineated), alongside occaisional steps back from the world of day to day happenings and a more detailed analysis of some aspect of society.

Despite its age then, this remains a classic historical work. Actually, it's probably a classic because of its age--when it first came out it was a bestseller. I'm going to horrify scholarly folk with my essay on it by comparing it to, say, Stephan Ambrose, or some other 'populist' historian. Maybe Max Hastings is a better comparison... Hmm. Does anyone else love those books?

Anyway. If you've a lot of time, it's worth reading this book. If you've a little, somebody must surely have published a 'selected exciting bits of Edward Gibbon'. Surely.

Robin Hood

2011-01-13T16:01:00.000Z

I'm quite a fan of Robin Hood. I have three different varieties of the book (since the 'real' Robin Hood is in an epic poem--which I don't have--there are plenty of different versions of the story out there, some of them really rather different), and it's always been one of my favourite legends. So when I saw this in the library, I figured it was high time I watched the film version.

Was it any good? Well, I enjoyed it. But I was watching it with my brother (who gave up about 15/20 minutes in) and my mum (who gave up about half way through). So that's a one in three success rate. Most of it was really rather impressive. I liked the horses, I thought the acting was good, the plot seemed reasoanble enough although I spent quite some time trying to relate it to the book versions, until at the very end discovering that it takes place before pretty much anything in the books (depends which book you read as to whether Robin starts out as an outlaw or is made an outlaw in the first chapter or so). The reason for my confusion was simple: as far as I'm aware, Robin Hood is conventionally set whilst King Richard the Lionheart is still alive, but captured, hence the increasingly high burden of taxes upon the population to pay for the release of the true king, and Robin Hood is not really an outlaw, but rather fighting for the true king of England against his usurping brother. Instead, the film begins with the death of Richard and Robin and his men's return to England masquarading as knights, and the story instead revolves around the Magna Carter. Ish. It's historically somewhat dubious (although I confess my knowledge of the period is scanty).

Most of it, as I said, is good. The big battle at the end, however, made me laugh (for the wrong reasons...). Seriously. Somebody wanted to film Saving Private Ryan, exchanging bullets for arrows and chain mail for body armour and helmets... That part was painful, and somewhat undermined the credibility of the whole film. Landing craft? An all but identical sequence of shots to the opening of Saving Private Ryan? No thanks. The rest of the battle was actually pretty good--if only they hadn't done that stupid thing with the landing craft.

I won't be rushing out to buy a copy, and on the basis of the interest levels within my family, you probably won't be either (unless you're a major Robin Hood fan like me, in which case it is worth watching and I did enjoy it--some parts far more than others). However, if I happen to see it on TV I'll certainly watch it again, perhaps get it from a charity shop in a few years. There are some excellent bits, and for the most part the characters are well developed and believable--Robin Hood in particular.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawntreader

2011-01-11T21:02:00.000Z

Went to see this last Thursday with my younger brother and thoroughly enjoyed it. We were the only two in the cinema, as we went in the morning and the vast majority of schools had already gone back, so that was doubly fun :)

The dragon was very impressively done, as were all the fantasy creatures. Eustace made me chuckle, and Lucy and Edmund, along with Caspian, were all well portrayed and developed. A great installment to a great trilogy--I hope they don't stop with this one just because Lucy and Edmund are no longer featured.

My brother, it must be said, has subsequently said he thought it lacked a bit of action and could have done with some more excitement. For my part (and I have only one movie that doesn't feature either an explosion or a fire of some description--that being Amazing Grace), I thought it had ample.

My favourite character remains Reepacheep (and this was true in the books as well), although I'm also rather fond of Prince Caspian. The characters were all more developed in this film, probably because there weren't quite so many of them to deal with. Eustace in particular proved a strong addition to the cast--although it wasn't until the end that he was a strong person! His moaning provided plenty of amusement, and was a good counterpoint to the enthusiasm of Lucy for her return.

It's well worth taking the time to go and see this film. A thoroughly enjoyable experience, with a wonderfully memorable ending.

Speed II - Cruise Control

2011-01-11T20:56:00.000Z

It was on TV, I watched it. Wasn't feeling well, but it was the perfect escapist thriller. Lots of big explosions, a plot that was your standard thriller plot, it ticked all the boxes without being exceptional. Enjoyable, sure, but not memorable in the same way as Inception or as huge as Transformers II.

What is there to say? Cruise ship, terrorist type chap shutting down all the computer systems at will, and a rather spectacular ending sequence with exploding oil tankers and ships running aground (although this did somewhat stretch the credibility--I seriously doubt the ship could have got even half as far as it did). The girlfriend was your stereotypical screaming American girl, who didn't seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation half the time, and basically acted like a half wit for the vast majority of the movie. Amusing though. Main character was something of a stereotype too, but convincingly enough acted. If it's on TV again I'll probably watch it again, but I won't be rushing out to buy it. (That said, I must confess that I couldn't leave the telly while it was on, and the ad breaks turned this into what felt like something of a marathon watching session--though that might just be because I don't tend to watch that much in the way of films).

The Noah's Ark Quest

2011-01-11T20:51:00.000Z

Well, I traded in various books the other day for this one and one other (my whole Clive Cussler collection, if you're interested, bar a couple of hardbacks). Anyway, it was a can't put down variety of book.

Noah's Ark. Scientifically improbable, and yet many thousands believe in it, either literally or figuratively. As a wooden boat, it would have been the largest ever built, liable to collapse under its own weight. In order to load all the animals, something like one pair every 30 seconds would have to be loaded. On the other hand, flood mythologies feature in every major belief system, so is there a kernal of truth at the heart of the story?

Dilara's father has spent his life searching for the ark, but he's been missing for three years when the archaeologist gets a call from a family friend. Poisoned before he can relate things fully, his garbled words lead her on a quest to prevent the end of the world, aided by ex-army engineer Tyler Locke and his close friend Grant Westwood.

Plenty of action, excitement, and a fabulous quest, plus the requisite dastardly plot to misuse the remains of Noah's Ark this is a thoroughly enjoyable novel, and also surprisingly believable. A keep you up until you're finished sort of book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I'll certainly be keeping my eyes out for more.

Glass Tiger

2011-01-05T10:46:00.000Z

I was most impressed with this novel, especially as I only picked it up because books at the Harris booksale were five for a pound and there were four others I wanted. I decided to read it primarily because it looked like one of the view not mega long books I had left to read, and I wasn't feeling well yesterday, so I didn't feel like going into one of the new Robin Hobb ones I've got recently.

It's a thriller. It's got plenty of action, conspiracy, intrigue, and a brilliant plot twist, but what really drives it is the main character, or rather, main characters. The 'goodie' and the 'baddie' are both intriguingly written, and deliberately close to each other in their life experiences. Powerfully written, two hunters stalk each other across America, the prize: the life of the President.

Brendan Thorne, ex-CIA, now living in Kenya as a game keeper, is dragged back to the States to chase a man the new President thought was dead, a man with a grudge and the skills to act on that grudge. Trouble is, not only is Hal Corwin a worthy adversary, completely at home in the forests where Thorne has to chase him, adept at hiding in plain sight, those who recruited him have their own ambitions and motives best served by using Thorne and then getting him well and truly out the way--preferably dead, but a Kenyan prison will work just as well.

An excellent, unputdownable novel. I'll certainly be looking out for more by Joe Gores.

The Pursuit of History (Third Edition)

2011-01-03T21:54:00.000Z

I'd like to write that this was a load of tosh, purely because of the author's name, but in fairness to the book, I really can't. It was wonderfully interesting, and I read much of it whilst on lunch breaks at M&S, which proved a wonderful antidote to the crippling lack of anything interesting or intellectually challenging that stacking shelves offers.

I'm actually quite getting into this whole historiography thing, really starting to enjoy looking at the practice of history and how it should be done and shouldn't be done and so forth. I also feel like I'm starting to be in a position where I can start drawing my own conclusions. Despite what I initially thought, it seems that the point of historiography isn't just to lambast those historians you happened to have a falling out with at high school. In fact, Tosh doesn't have a go at anyone, and even points out the odd merit or two of psychohistory, which seems to be generally given short shrift (although he does go on to point out that it has its own unique set of weaknesses and runs huge risks of inferring waaaaay too much).

The section on oral history was interesting, postmodernism taken into account and explained without being resoundingly attacked as in Evans' book. In fact, while I initially worried there might be issues in terms of him referring to 'modern' trends in history which were modern thirty odd years back when the book was first written, the last few chapters make it clear that it really has been updated.

I particularly, though, enjoyed one of the first chapters, which looked at social memory and how society perceives history as opposed to how historians say it really happened. This theme was then picked up again in the section on oral history, making hte point that why people perceive things as having happened in a certain way when analysis suggests that they really didn't happen like that, is as interesting as the event in itself. Why is the Battle of Britain in popular culture a David v Goliath contest, when the numbers of fighters were actually pretty similar and many recent historians have challenged whether it was even that close a thing as to whether we were gonna win? Why does nobody remember instances of panic during the Blitz, instead subsuming it all into the wider Blitz spirit? Tosh argues that social memory serves a specific function, legitimating current rulers and practices, as well as offering 'guidance'. While no two instances in history are identical, he argues that history does offer suggestions of alternatives where we perceive no alternatives.

A very interesting book, not too theory-ridden, though it explains all the major theories well and assesses the impact and reasons for Marxist theories popularity amongst many historians. I was also quite chuffed to feel that I knew the majority of the historians he referred to from my first term at Cambridge and other reading :) Thoroughly enjoyed it, though it's not a book you can really read all in one go... Needs spreading out, and the chapter divisions do this well enough. One or two chapters at once is probably more than enough to digest at once.

Ice Age 2

2011-01-03T21:37:00.000Z

I suddenly realised that I hadn't actually watched this film, despite the fact we have it on DVD. And after reading a chapter of 'On Collecting', I felt like I needed some light relief.

I thoroughly enjoyed it actually. It was a good follow up plot to the original, amusing and Manny in particular was well developed. I love that mammoth :) Sid was... Well, he was Sid. An irritating younger brother, like mine when he was a bit younger (now he's a lovelorn teenager!). The new twins were interesting, added an additional comedic element although that was pretty well supplied by Sid (and the squirrel. Mustn't forget the sabre-toothed squirrel). I liked the new mammoth, thought she was well portrayed and very amusing with her decision that she really was a possum, in spite of her tree problems...

The only jarring note was the ending. In fact, I felt the ending would've been better skipped out completely. The last scene with the squirrel was unnecessary, a little confusing, and took away from what could have been a very strong ending with the extended 'pack' heading off together. The sabre-toothed squirrel is fine as a short, and as a comical note of relief, but I felt it was overdone a little and especially so in the ending. Unnecessary is the only way I can describe it. Fine as an extra bonus feature, or even after the credits, but it ruined the ending somewhat.

Sid and Dieago made a good pairing, constantly antagonising each other, although I think Diego was a stronger character in the first movie--although to be fair, it's impossible to develop equally wide range of new characters and I think they did a good job of keeping continuity with the first whilst introducing three new characters.

In short, it was a film that I thoroughly enjoyed watching, and while not perhaps quite as good as the first, certainly comparable. I shall have to see if I can get the third out the library now...

Happy New Year

2011-01-02T18:03:00.000Z

Well, Happy New Year one and all. Looking back, I've done pretty rubbishly at keeping up with this blog. Never mind. This is a new year and I'll have a bash at doing better this time round. It was easy to push it to one side while I was at uni, but I figure I was just making excuses really. And it's not as though there was nothing to write about, and I've had plenty of time since I came back. Anyhow, that's me done apologising for lack of blogging.

What's happened this year? I 'won' Nanowrimo for the fourth year running, with an end total of 113,114. Finished at Cardinal Newman, started at Christ's College Cambridge. Learnt lots about early modern social and economic history, including the fact that you apparently don't capitalise early modern. Also discovered that footnotes are impossible and incredibly annoying. Essays would be so much more fun without footnotes.

Got my A-level results. Made lots of new friends. Joined a new church in Cambridge, which I now find myself missing while I'm at home. Went to two airshows, the first time I've ever been to one. Sunderland was amazing, Southport was wet, and the commentators much harder to hear which was a shame because the commentating was very good at Sunderland.

The 'big' politically events of the year: coalition government, student protests, Harrier got retired :( (my favourite modern aircraft), what else is worth mentioning to any future historian? Nick Cameron and David Clegg of the Con-Dem party are useless liars, and I think there's a case to do Nick Clegg via the Advertising Standards Agency or for breach of contract or something. The expenses scandal. It was cold and England collapsed in a big heap of snow, even though there wasn't that much snow. Anything else? I guess there's the Royal Wedding announcement, but that's not that important. Do you like my value judgements, random future historian who just happens to be using my blog as a source? I'm afraid I'm probably quite atypical, but I really don't care about a Royal Wedding as a 'big event'. I mean, I like the fact we have a monarchy, don't get me wrong, but I don't like celebrity culture, it bugs me. Oh, the F-35 finally started getting somewhere. Does that count as news? Yeh, I guess it does. Budget cuts. Lots of them. And tax is going up on January 4th, again.

What else would you like to know? Or, more specifically, what else would I like to tell you? God's great, that's about all I can think of.

Oh, my goal for this year. Three posts per week, which I think is a perfectly reasonable aiming point. Possibly more, if exciting things happen. I shall try and talk a bit more about the world outside of my own life too, which has the added bonus of making me pay attention to things outside my own life. It's too easy, especially while in Cambridge, to loose all touch with the real world. I observed a few weeks into term that it would be quite plausible that London was flooded completely, or World War Three broke out, and we wouldn't know about it. So it's worth checking in with the BBC every now and again :)

Bye for now :)

Flight 103

2010-12-15T20:55:00.000Z

Featuring a former Mossad agent turned antique dealer, Sam Green's second book (at least, I think it's his second book, give me one sec to check... It's his second fiction book featuring Sam Woolfman, he's written non-fiction before) is a fast-paced, enjoyable read. An interesting enough plot with an intriguing conspiracy theory about the Lockerbie bombing, it actually manages to weave together two investigations without either becoming drowned out. There's a bit of a romance thrown in for good measure too--although it's not really much more than the standard romance thrown into a thriller.

It feels real, and it's rather unputdownable. What more could you ask for in a thriller? Woolfman is perhaps not the most well developed character I've found in a thriller, but having said that I thoroughly enjoy Matthew Reilly's work and someone's said of those books 'the characters don't live long enough to have personalities'... The antiques business side is also convincingly written, as is the conspiracy involving a cover-up by the Catholic church.

In fact, my only worry with the series (I enjoyed Max, the first one too--although I don't seem to have reviewed it, sorry), is that by setting the story at a definite point Sam Green is going to struggle to cover more modern conspiracies etc. Characters set in real time unfortunately age. I hope that there're plenty more issues in the recent past to turn over and rewrite. (The ageing problem is also present in James Barrington's excellent series, where the main character served in the Falklands war, and who knows how old Jack Higgins Sean Dillon is now, but that's not quite as much of an issue as they're set less at a definite time with definite events).

If you're looking for an interesting and unputdownable thriller, this is a great choice.

Nanowrimo 2010

2010-12-15T20:45:00.000Z

Gosh, I really haven't posted in a while, have I?! Well, apart from that last post I put in a few moments ago, but that's not what I meant. I haven't told you that I had my fourth Nanowrimo attempt, and my fourth win in November. Wonderful fun.

My novel was entitled Firejuggler, and I managed to write the entire thing in the month. My official word count was 113,114, which I reckon was a pretty intriguing number to come up with with absolutely no way of being able to tell what would come out the official word count machine since Open Office is rather more generous in counting words (and don't ask me how a word count can be different depending on who counts it--it's a mystery that puzzles me as well). It actually went surprisingly well. I had one character which showed up, then I decided I didn't want it, then I figured that actually, I did need that character after all. I did that last year as well actually, with a similar sort of character. Hmm. I also had a couple of other unexpected characters, and the grand scheme of the plot appeared when I was 60,000 words in, and then when I was 100,000 words in, and trying to actually follow a plan I realised that actually, the plan had it all wrong and the conclusion would be reached in an entirely different manner. So that needs smoothing over, and there's one or two extra scenes I need to bob in, but it's remarkably intact, considering the whole thing showed up in a month and that I started with a scene and two main and one minor characters. The rest of it just appeared as I wrote (and as I pondered it too, I guess).

Nanowrimo really does represent a remarkable creative event. There'll be another one next year, and I strongly recommend you get involved if you've ever considered writing a novel. Or even if you do write novels. It forces you to write and not worry too much about those niggling little details and the words that you can't spell and the occasional clunky sentence, and instead to tell a story. And let's face it, even if you've got the best writing in the world, if your plot is utter drivel no one's gonna enjoy it (the reverse is also true--although I'm more likely to persevere with an interesting plot and bad/mediocre writing than good writing and no/boring plot).

Should I tell you a little more about Firejuggler as it turned out to be? Oh, actually, I had the title right from the start as well which is pretty unusual for me. My story folders are full of things like 'Football Start.4' and 'Nutmeg's First Day' and 'Random Story'....

Sha is a firejuggler, but he wasn't always a wandering entertainer. Once, he was a respected soldier in the Royal Army, but after the Protector took over England, things for Sha have gone from bad to worse. Persecuted not only for his ties to the 'ancient regime' but also for his refusal--indeed, his physical inability--to give up practising the highly addictive fire magic, he's serving the resistance movement as a messenger as well as doing 'tricks' to earn coin. Until he discovers that the princess, rightful heir to the Naablian throne, is not dead as everyone thought but is very much alive, even if she doesn't know who she is and is utterly oblivious to the magic bubbling up inside her, ready to explode from her when the protective curse laid upon her at birth to prevent her using it until she turns eighteen. Princess Graci is forced to leave her home, embark on a rather perilous journey, and learn about the magic Sha insists she should have known about from birth, that she should have been taught about so that she can control the addictive impulses of the magic. The trouble, as she rapidly realises, is that Sha himself is heavily addicted to the magic. While it makes him a powerful practiser, it also leaves him with headaches and vulnerable to apparently random destructive whims.

And I think that'll do as a plot description. There are soldiers, dragons, plots, arguments, and orphans involved too, but I don't want to make my summary too complicated now do I?

The Whig Interpretation of History

2010-12-15T20:21:00.003Z

This was one of those 'historiography' books that people say you should read when you're studying history so that you understand the subject. For those of you who aren't historians, historiography is effectively the study of history--and the history of history. It can be quite interesting, it can be rather dull. Most books that I've read so far (actually, make that: the two books excluding this one) are in the rather dull and slightly incomprehensible category. This one was in the 'actually, that was rather interesting and well written' category.

Apparently, this book was rather influential, although the 'whigish' method of history which was criticised was beginning to fall out of favour even before its publication. At any rate, some of what's said seems like common sense to me now, based on what we've been told about doing history in lectures etc, but I am beginning to wonder whether seeing what I know about history in this book is like (hopefully!) seeing what a preacher talks about in the Bible.

At any rate, it's a nice short book (fall on the floor stunned!) and apart from a criticism of Lord Acton in the final chapter of the book does a remarkably good job of attacking ideas and principles rather than specific historians. In short, unlike Evans' 'In Defence of History' and one or two other things I've looked at, it doesn't feel like the historian has a personal grudge they want to settle with a fellow historian they fell out with at high school. (Although Evans' 'In Defence of History' is still a pretty decent book, and for those of you who happen to be studying history might have noticed, a rather standard authority in terms of historical practice, even if it does confuse the issues of postmodernism rather more than it helps clarify them). Sorry. That was a rather long digression from what was meant to be a review of 'The Whig Interpretation of History'. Wait, I should be using italics, not quotes... One of the many things I have discovered about footnoting while at Cambridge is that I can never seem to manage to follow all of the little rules at once. And so I have apparently yet to submit an essay which has the footnotes done completely right. But anyway. That's even more of a digression.

The Whig Interpretation of History is remarkably well written, and constantly tied down to a specific historical period--for most of the book, the Reformation and Luther, though other bits receive mention. The basic argument is that abridged history becomes, almost by default, very 'whiggish' in its tone and outlook, showing the great 'march of progress' and smoothing over historical complications by relegating everyone to either pro or anti progress. So, for example, the Catholics were reactionaries trying to preserve a corrupt old order and Luther was a revolutionary thinker who brought about religious liberty and created the modern rights to freedom of worship. But Butterfield makes the point succinctly that in fact, history is rather more complex than that. Luther wanted, ideally, an equally dominating religious autocracy on slightly different lines to the Catholic set up. What really created religious toleration was the clash of ideologies. An interesting point, and certainly one that seems viable.

History, Butterfield argues, is complication. And from what I've seen of it since starting A-levels it certainly seems to be. People defy neat categorisation. For example, how would a historian in fifty years time slot me into their equations? I'm studying at Cambridge--therefore I'm of an academic turn of mind. I'm a young female who happens to have a thing for aircraft and builds Airfix models--usually the stereotypical preserve of older men. I'm a Christian, but not a member of the 'established' church--both churches that I go to (up here in Preston and down in Cambridge) are 'free' churches with an emphasis on salvation by grace. Spirit fill churches, would probably be the best way of describing them. Aren't people who are 'intelligent' meant to be atheists too? Whenever the library does a display of 'books for men' and 'books for women', I find half the books on the men's stand are ones I've read, and I've rarely read any on the women's stand. Oh, and I live in a 'nuclear' family--mum, dad (been married for nearly 30 years) and younger brother. Aren't we supposed to be in a society where most people don't live in that sort of family? At any rate, you could classify me in any one of several dozen methods, and the same is true of any person. Societies have multiple layers of meaning and interaction, and it's impossible to completely unravel the complexities of our own time, let alone in the past when we have to start relying on sources that by their very appearance and survival tend to be atypical.

So, I think what I'm trying to say is that this is a very interesting book that also happens to be well written and isn't excessively long. In short, a wonderful historiography book to take a look at. And perfectly comprehensible.

Nanowrimo 2010

2010-10-31T20:09:00.000Z

Well, in just under four hours, the annual event of literary mayhem begins. National Novel Writing Month 2010 looks set to be the largest so far, and it's not too late to start now. Who needs a plan anyway? I still haven't decided which of the two ideas I have buzzing around pestering me to write. In fact, I haven't finished writing the story that I really ought to get finished before November begins yet...

So what, I hear you ask (or at least, I hypothetically pretend that you ask), is National Novel Writing Month? Well, it's basically a challenge to write 50,000 words on a new novel in the month of November. That works out at 1667 words per day, which is easily doable, trust me on that one. I've managed it three years running, and I hope to make this a fourth consecutive 'win' (all finishers who verify their wordcount before midnight, local time, on November 30th, are winners). The site is currently very slow, but that's because novellers all over the globe are checking in as they set off on the adventure of a lifetime. Or at least, the adventure of the year which doesn't even require leaving your chair.

If you have ever had any desire to write a novel, now's your chance. Don't miss out!

Raising Atlantis

2010-10-18T14:52:00.000+01:00

Yup. I've read another book involving the discovery of Atlantis as its central theme. And while you might think I'd be getting a little tired of that idea by now, I have to say this version is remarkably interesting. For one thing, the romance is a little more thought out than 'fit girl + fit guy + adventure = everyone chucks their clothes off', which is always encouraging. In fact, in the whole trilogy (what can I say, it was enjoyable, the library happened to have all three of them hanging about so I've now read them all...) there isn't any major throwing off of clothes. Which is quite exceptional for a thriller. Anyway, that minor digression aside, it's got a very interesting plot, and a fascinating main character (or main two characters in fact--Sister Serenghetti is a fantastic character and definitely more three dimensional than a lot of women in thrillers--or characters in general in thrillers). A different decision of locating Atlantis than any I've seen before, and an interesting location for it at that.

Lots of excitement, the sciency and historically stuff is plausible enough (I confess I'm no expert on ancient history or on science, but it certainly made sense), and... lots of excitement. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and there's an interesting twist on the archaeologist main character. He's a rather discredited bloke amongst the scientific community, a bit of an iconoclast, and also an astro-archaeologist. In other words, he looks at how the stars line up with ancient monuments, because although he doesn't believe in it the ancients did and so he uses star systems etc to get inside their heads. Also, having a nun as a second main character is fascinating, and she's a believable, realistic character to boot. Actually, she's not really a nun any more, but that's by the by.

I can thoroughly recommend this book as an intriguing and edge-of-the-seat addition to the multitudes (well, four or five at the very least) of other books using the legend of Atlantis as their basis. Brilliant.

The Sanctuary Seeker

2010-10-10T13:58:00.000+01:00

I joined the Cambridge library yesterday. I think I need to go back again today to take some books back. It's quite a nice library actually, although I have yet to fully figure out their filing system... Anyway. I happened to spot this one in with the thrillers, and it looked pretty good so I brought it home and started reading.

The historical background feels realistic. The characters are mostly interesting. The plot is pretty good. In fact, if that was all I was assessing this on, it'd be doing pretty well. Unfortunately, the actual writing itself isn't great. I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong, but it just doesn't quite read as smoothly or as interestingly as it might. I think perhaps it's with the characters where the problem lies: they're great, interesting people, but the author appears to have broken the cardinal rule of 'show, don't tell'. However, this is the first in a series (or at least, it looked like it was the first, and there were plenty more), so there's every chance that the writing will improve further on in the series. I hope so.

As an idea, it's brilliant. Set in 1194, Sir John de Wolfe, retired soldier of the Crusades, is the first coroner for Devon. But where does his jurisdiction begin and that of his brother-in-law (whom, incidentally, he can't stand) end? So basically, a crime series set in a world without fingerprinting, DNA, cars, or any of the mod cons that detective novels today take for granted. Going out to investigate a murder in a village takes quite some effort on horse back, especially when the village is in the middle of nowhere. In short, it's a very interesting construct, the historical background certainly seems real enough (I confess I don't know a lot about the period, but what I do know seems to tally), and basically it'd be an excellent book if the quality of the writing were a little bit better. So I'm hopeful for the rest of the series.

Some Observations

2010-10-10T13:51:00.000+01:00

Being a student has led me to make some observations on life. Most of them are probably pretty obvious for people who have ever moved away from home.

1. If I want milk, I have to buy it. Preferably before I want it to put on breakfast cereal, because the shops aren't open when I have breakfast.

2. Dry brown bread is really not all that delicious. I should probably get some margarine.

3. What Heinz alleges is macaroni cheese is disgusting slop which I wouldn't inflict on... well, on anything. At all. Ever.

4. On the other hand, Heinz raviolli is actually fairly tasty.

5. I need to get something to put on a sandwich for tomorrow, or I will have to buy a sandwich. Buying a sandwich is more expensive than buying a whole loaf of bread and a tin of spam. In fact, I think it's at least twice as expensive.

6. College food is okay, but the curry is spicy. Thankfully I had a feeling it might be and avoided it. Oh, and the onion rings are kinda weird.

7. I have to go fetch water from the kitchen. I currently have none. Hmm... Dry bread makes you thirsty. I should perhaps go get some water. Which means finding my keys, closing the door, getting the water, coming back, unlocking hte door...

8. At some point, I will end up forgetting my keys. Probably in the middle of the night. Which will mean going to visit the plodge in my pyjamas. I'm not convinced that's a great idea...

9. I am now running out of observations.

Very Surreal Walk...

2010-10-08T20:38:00.000+01:00

Well, I think I've settled in. I say that because I was sat in the Seeley (history faculty library, see, I now know these things, and that you don't search for the history faculty, you search for the Seeley library when you're looking for books!) and I thought 'right, time to go home'. So I'm guessing that now I think of college as 'home', it's time to say I've settled in :). Really enjoying life here, it's absolutely awesome.

I have a regular walk to make to get to the History Faculty over at the Sidgewick site, and it's so awesome. First: through college, out the plodge--and that's impressive enough I would like to add, as Christ's is a pretty awesome college, then down past the market and onto King's Parade. Through King's College, which is spectacular, then through the King's College fields, complete with cows, squirrels and ducks. Over the bridge, where you could basically have gone back several hundred years in time, and then out of King's at the other side and across a main road. It just feels really bizarre to be making such a switch between centuries.

I had a wonderful dinner tonight with my college family, and then we did the most awesome thing ever, although it was slightly terrifying to get up there. We went up on the roof and we could see out over the college and the city. What a view! Well worth the fact that I really don't appreciate ladders.

Had six lectures so far. Met lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of people. Lectures have all been enjoyable, although the one earlier today on economics in Early Modern England was a little bit dull and in parts I thought the lecturer rather laboured the point. Still, I'm loving it. Part way through my first essay, due in on Tuesday morning (although I'll probably send it Monday night). Nearly the end of Fresher's week (ha, it's basically Fresher's couple of days, and then lectures start and we're still doing Fresher stuff). In some ways it's weird to think it's practically a week since I left Preston--sometimes it feels far longer, sometimes much more recent. I'll be glad when I've settled into a proper schedule though. I'm starting to get the hang of the whole 'I need to remember to eat, get milk, do stuff' thing, and getting to know the other people around. Good fun, rather exciting still.

Well, I can't think of anything much else to say and I'm really pretty knackered. Might do a little bit of writing, a little bit of reading, and go to bed. Night all :)

Fresher!

2010-10-05T08:07:00.000+01:00

I am now a Fresher at the University of Cambridge! And my college is absolutely amazing. I couldn't get on the internet on my first night, but I wrote a post anyway. Here you go...

Had an awesome day. Everyone's very friendly. Met Tom and Tom who are my new next door neighbours. Both seem really nice. Met Kate--a NatSci (like half + of the college appears to be!), got on really well with her. Room is massive! Have a firendly tree which popped a branch in to say 'hi!' when I opened the window--had to push the branch out again when I wanted to close it. Room is all set up, though still seems a little bereft of posters--didn't realise how much space I'd have to stick tehm up. Bathroom is a fair trek, but at least it's same floor. Kitchen is diddy and smells a bit. Bed seems comfy enough--let you know about that tomorrow (NB: Bed is comfy, but didn't sleep on first night because of strange noises like tree tapping...). Though the way I'm beginning to feel, I could sleep on a broken park bench! Whole day is a whirl of names and faces. Good to have time to reflct though--went to Evensong in the Chapel, stunningly beautiful in all respects. And whilst it was pretty high church, I really felt that God was present with us. The choir! They were amazing.

Met my tutor, she was very nice, and (finally!) found some more history students. All seem friendly, can't wait to get to know them better. And to get started with proper college. Place (so far) seems to revolve around drinks and biscuits, orange juice being the alternative to both hot drinks and alcoholic drinks.

Dined in formal hall (though not in formal dress tonight). What a place! Half way through blurted out 'I want to live here,' realised abruptly that I do! The food was really good and all. Fruit salad, chicken with potatoes and peas, then delicious toffee cheesecake.

Then we were all herded into hte function room. Wow that place gets hot. Freshers Mingle, kinda fun but I'm knackered from mingling all day. I love my room, actually think being away from bathroom will be good in terms of noise. Night all!

The Sword-Edged Blonde

2010-09-29T19:25:00.000+01:00

An excellent fantasy novel. I was intrigued by the title (I'm still not entirely certain how it relates to the book), and discovered a fantastically realised world, and character within the world. An intriguing plot, involving goddesses, the main character's uneasy past, and a brilliant mass of sub-plots.

One of the things I particularly liked was the way the swords used by the mercenary problem solver Eddie LaCrosse had brand names, like guns. There were fantastic action scenes, intense emotional sections, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't wait to find the sequel.

Redeeming Love

2010-09-29T19:19:00.000+01:00

Wow. I read this book last night when I couldn't sleep (I'm nervous about going to uni, and no matter how much I logically know that there's no reason for me to be this nervous and there's not exactly much I can do about it, it doesn't seem to make any difference to the fact that I'm struggling to sleep), and I was seriously impressed. I don't often read romances (ie, almost never unless I have no other choice), but I got this one for my birthday so I thought I'd better read it. And wow. What a story. Powerful, moving, and intense, it's one of those books that will stick with you forever.

Set in Gold Rush California, it is, in effect, a modern retelling of the story of Hosea. For those of you not familiar with the story: God told Hosea to marry a prostitute and love her, because He loved Israel but Israel was acting like a prostitute, running off and being besotted with other gods instead of following God. But this story looks at the more personal consequences, for both the man, Michael Hosea, the prostitute, Angel, and others who interact with them. Stunningly well told, with gripping and intriguing characters, from the quiet strength--and sometimes angry passion--of Michael Hosea, to the bubbly Miriam, the initially aloof and scarred Angel, and the pimps, fellow prostitutes and a whole host of excellent supporting characters. Wow is about all I can say to sum it up. Even if you're not much into romances or historical novels, this is well worth a read. It's incredibly powerful, incredibly gripping, incredibly moving. I had tears in my eyes several times over, and am really glad I was given it--I doubt I would have read it otherwise.

I can't recommend this book enough. An excellent story from start to finish.

Red Alert

2010-09-28T15:10:00.000+01:00

Another of the excellent UNACO series, written by Alastair MacNeill, based on the outlines for films (never filmed as far as I know) by Alastair MacLean. If it sounds like a somewhat improbable provenance, especially as Alastair MacNeill hasn't written anything outside this series, I gotta confess I felt the same until I started reading the series.

It's excellent. Great characters, particularly Sabrina and Mike. And yes, this is a thriller where there's a male and female character who don't fall hopelessly in love, and Sabrina is actually pretty independent and a great character in her own right! Amazing. And the plot is fantastic, lots of nice twists and turns, action, excitement. I reckon this is one of my favourites from the series. The Red Brigades in Italy have got hold of a deadly virus in a raid on a plant. They call it 'sleeping gas', and there's a power struggle amongst the leadership, meaning that nobody actually seems to know where the virus is--including the leaders of the Red Brigades, who decide to work alongside the police in order to get the virus back from the rogue cell. But all is not as it seems. Need I say more? All the excitement and plot twists you'd expect from an Alastair MacLean, but the characters are slightly more developed in this series and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dust to Dust

2010-09-28T15:02:00.000+01:00

I've rather enjoyed the Stephen Dunbar thrillers up til now. They've had interesting plots, and even if the romance element has followed exactly the same pattern throughout, they've shown good variety in terms of the main plot. And the science has always been fascinating. But this one, the latest (and given events in the book, presumably the last in the series) was really disappointing. The plot revolved around a cure for AIDS, which was kinda interesting and (apparently) a viable if somewhat risky bit of science. And also a murdered soldier. Well, not really murdered. But sorta murdered. But sorta just killed accidentally. But... Yeh, you get the picture. Fair enough to show that I guess, but the problem was that the mysterious 'patient x' who was getting the cure wasn't ever named, although was supposedly an important public figure. Member of the royal family I guess, but it never actually said. Which was annoying, because I was expecting there to be a bit of a scandal at the end. But no. Just a long drawn out plot, not as much excitement or interest as there usually is, a typically pathetic female character (seriously, I don't think it'd be such a problem that he has a dangerous job, I mean, let's face it, people do marry soldiers... But Ken McClure seems under the impression that every single woman would dump his main character in the end (as in, about the end of the book, so that he can introduce a new woman and do the same romance plot again) rather than stick with him...).

Yeh, wasn't impressed. Enjoyed the rest of the series, but this was a really feeble ending. Sorta spoilt the rest of the series for me too. Ah well. Don't bother reading it.

Packing...

2010-09-28T14:55:00.000+01:00

I am packing, honest. I've packed my books (get the most important things sorted first...), I've got some other stuff packed or dumped in the spare room to be packed, and I'm starting a packing list. But honestly, when did it get so hard to work out what I need to take with me? How many books? Glasses case, must remember that. And pyjamas, given that I have a talent for forgetting pyjamas. Alarm clock, need one of them. Notebooks, pens... It feels like I'm going away for years almost--although it's only two months. And I want to take loads of books but my mum's persuaded me not to. Well, told me not to more like.

I'm guessing I'll take too much stuff this time and then next time I go I'll have a better idea of what I need. I'm just worried that I'll get there and realise I need my bike (which I've decided not to take this time), or I'll have forgotten something vital, like my timetable for fresher's week or something important like that. Hopefully I won't. We'll just have to see I guess. So next week, you get to find out whether I remembered everything or not (lucky you!)

I'm kinda excited, but also getting a bit nervous. At least I know a couple of people at the church I'll be going to in Cambridge. Well, know them vaguely. Don't know anyone who's going to be at Cambridge with me though. Never mind. I might get there and discover someone I know who I didn't know was going. Failing that, I guess I just have to make new friends. Not like I haven't done that before, what with moving to the States and back again... Well, I've had a lot of prayer, and I know people will be thinking of me in Cambridge, so I'll just have to trust that God shows me the right people to be friends with when I get there.

Born Again

2010-09-27T17:26:00.000+01:00

I promised at the top of this blog that there would be music reviews. I think you'll find one or maybe two at most. Well, I'm doing a music review now.

The Newsboys Album Born Again features a new lead singer, Michael Tait (formerly DC Talk). It also includes a remix of the classic 'Jesus Freak', and the album has been, in my opinion, unfairly criticised for this. Okay, so it's perhaps not the same as the original, but actually, the words are clearer in parts on the new version. And while I do love the original, it's never been one of my favourites. At least part of the reason it's not been loved, I reckon, is simply because it's a bit different. The other cover version on the album (or at least on the download from Amazon one--it doesn't seem to be on the one on itunes), is a cover of Mighty To Save. Now this is one of my favourite songs, and I already have four other versions of it. It's a little bizarre in that it feels like it starts in the middle, but other than that I do love this version. It's a bit different, it's got great guitar in the background, and I particularly like the section (incidentally, it's playing right now), that goes 'My Saviour, you can move the mountains, you are mighty to save', addressing God directly rather than talking about Him in the third person.

Yes, it's not hugely similar to their previous album In the Hands of God, but I don't see why that's a bad thing. Isn't a vibrant, changing band much more interesting than one that stays pretty static? I don't know about you, but I like a bit of variety in the music I listen to. Someone was saying the other day that they reckoned the band should have a new name because nobody from the original line up is there. However, if you ever listen to some of Delirious' early stuff compared to their last album (well, last 'proper' album Kingdom of Comfort', I don't know about the Best Of album), there's a huge difference.

An excellent collection of music. I particularly love 'Build us Back' and 'When the Boys Light Up'. Great lyrics to all the songs, lyrics that you can sing along to without wondering 'what the heck am I singing about'. Very glad I decided to download this album after hearing one or two songs on CrossRhythms. Love it. 'Born Again' is also great, and I sincerely hope they come to this country on tour and I can see them live. The album has real 'live show' potential in my humble opinion (and I've not exactly been to many live shows... In fact, I've been to one--saw Delirious on the Kingdom of Comfort tour). Even if you're not enamoured with the two cover versions, the rest of the album is excellent, leaving you with 10 brilliant songs if you decide to delete the covers.

The Age of Zeus

2010-09-23T21:27:00.000+01:00

An interesting concept for certain. The gods have moved down to earth, to sort out human behaviour for us because we can't seem to stop fighting with ourselves. Trouble is, these gods are a mite too powerful, and who watches the watchers? Well, maybe the Titans. Made powerful by incredible suits of armour, the titans are the only people who have a hope of taking on the new Greek Gods.

Although it was interesting, and mostly well written, I didn't quite finish it. It got a little bit tedious and felt somewhat drawn out, and the interest of finding out whether or not one of my favourite characters survived gradually waned. So I gave it up and took it back to the library.

There was an intersting twist in where the gods came from, yes, but it seemed to be somewhat laboured. In fact, the whole thing seemed to be drawn out far more than necessary. So although it could have been quite enjoyable, and a pretty powerful comment on genetics etc, it became a little tedious and started to feel more like a project to wade through than an interesting fiction read. If you've more patience than I have with slower paced novels then you'll probably enjoy it--like I said, it was an interesting concept. It just wasn't written in a particularly exciting manner.

Sunborn

2010-09-23T21:16:00.000+01:00

Pretty average sci-fi really. Well, maybe better than average actually. I enjoyed it. The one thing that did niggle at me was after Bandie gave the new alien characters names that were pronounceable, the author subsequently used the 'proper' name so although Deeeeeeeaaaaabbb (or some other number of ees, aas and bbs might have been used) was called Deep in dialogue with Bandie, it was spelt out fully all the rest of the time. Which was kinda annoying. And I wasn't entirely convinced by the use of little *s before sun names. Didn't seem necessary. Plus there was an additional plot on Saturn (or a moon of Saturn, it wasn't all that clear), involving Bandie's ex-girlfriend, which seemed kinda unnecessary. There was more than enough plot for the novel with the main plot involving a mysterious alien technology that was steadily murdering stars for purposes (initially) unknown.

The translater stones were pretty interesting, particularly as they were, in effect, an intelligent life form that took the form of a pair of stones embedded in all the main characters. Maybe a bit similar to the bable fish in Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, although I don't think they ever couldn't translate anything, got infected, or had personalities. I've not read the whole series though. Anyway, this was a book four, so it's fair to assume that a bit of character development at least will have taken place in previous books rather than this one. As a result, the only characters who seemed more than two dimensional or plot enablers were Bandie, the female alien who he was in love with (and whose name escapes me--surely there's a case for writing a sci-fi with names that are actually memorable!), and the robots were reasonably well developed. But there were another two members to the 'team', and they seemed more there to fill up numbers than because they were all that interesting as characters.

However, it was a good story, and there was a reasonable amount of action. The plot was also (apart from the slightly dodgy subplot on earth, which might have made more of an impact if I'd read the first three?) pretty good. So I enjoyed it and I'll keep an eye out for the others, but I won't be rushing out to buy it.

Changeling: Dark Moon

2010-09-23T21:00:00.000+01:00

Not overly memorable in terms of plot--I was half way through before I was definitely sure I hadn't read this one before--but still pretty interesting. Basically, it was a good book while I was reading it, but now it's finished I'm not sure I could tell you with any degree of certainty what went on in that one as opposed to in the other Changeling books.

Basically a teenage werewolf/vampire/sorcerer story. Not a romance, although there's a half hearted romance plot (half hearted in that it's got the potential to turn up but neither character is pushing it at the moment, not in that it's no good). An interesting bit of action, some teenagey angsty issues (is that the right way of putting it?). I mean, being a teenager isn't all that easy, but being a teenager who could potentially turn into a humongous werewolf that everyone's terrified of when you get a bit mad or on the night of the full moon has gotta make things more difficult.

Well, it was enjoyable enough to read. Not the best thing ever, and I actually think the first one in the series has a bit more of an interesting plot, but it's not bad. I've read worse.

Hmm, having fun with the new buttons

2010-09-23T20:32:00.000+01:00

Hello. I am now going to try out every single one of the new buttons on the Compose side of the new blogger. Or at least, some of them.

I ~~like~~ love Crossrhythms. The link is: http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk. Ooh, that was exciting. I got to test the link out. There are also lots of colours, more than I expected. And the flashy bit changes colour depending on which colour I've decided to use. Now, what happens if I do this... Hmm, that. I don't have any pictures or videos I feel like inserting.
I'm not entirely sure what I just did, but we'll see when I publish this.

Different alignments to play with...

numbers

bullet points
something else

and a spellchecker which maybe doesn't do anything...

Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters

2010-09-23T20:28:00.000+01:00

Well, if you're looking for a comprehensive book on the u-boat war in all theatres during WWII, this is it. If you're looking for a humongous doorstopper to hold up your desk, it'll serve that purpose too. I got about half way through before the detail threatened to make my head explode and I started to lose the thread of the overall campaign. I was also slightly disappointed because my history teacher used a quote from Clay Blair that implied he thought the u-boat war was never particularly dangerous, but although you do get the impression it could've been a lot worse, what happened seems bad enough to me.

An exhaustive (and exhausting to read) catalogue of every u-boat action, and every attempted u-boat action, along with great technical detail about the u-boats themselves and the convoy system and the commanders and... Yeh, you get the picture. I suspect it's the biggest book I've ever seen, except maybe the Bible (which, admittedly, I have read all the way through twice over now, including once in 90 days which was pretty fun), and this was only part one.

I don't think it was meant to be read all the way through. In fact, although it starts off feeling pretty readable, the sheer quantity of information and detail just makes it impossible to read right through. As a reference, I suspect it's incomparable, with a heck of a lot of detailed research work going in to work out exactly which sub sunk which ship and when torpedoes malfunctioned and which ship was doing weather reports when. So if you fancy having a reference to every u-boat operation during WWII, and a nice and to be fair rather interesting, chunk at the beginning about the development of the u-boat arm and the specifications of the ship, this is the book to get.

One other thing I will mention that struck me was the sheer number of times the German torpedoes malfunctioned. Although the Battle of the Atlantic initially went rather disastrously for Britain, the number of ships saved by the torpedoes failing to detonate, or because the magnetic torpedoes which would 'kill' a ship with one torpedo rather than the contact pistols which usually needed two or three torpedoes per ship were utterly useless is quite astounding. In the end, the Germans resorted to copying British torpedoes which kept depth far better. So we were better with them at some things...

An interesting book then, if you've got a lot of time to read it or if you want to use it as a reference.

The Galleon's Grave

2010-09-23T20:18:00.000+01:00

This is the third Martin Stephen book (it's starting to look like I'm gonna read the series backwards, but never mind, it still makes sense). Oh, never mind. I've just had a look at the bibliography on Fantastic Fiction (great resource if you've never looked it up before) and it appears that they've not been published in chronological order anyway. That discussion aside, this is a fantastic book. Erroneously marked 'Historical Romance' by the library, there is a romantic plot in there but only as a sub plot. There's plenty of action though, more than enough to satsify. And twists and turns worty of an Alaistar MacLean novel too! Highly enjoyable, particularly in terms of the historical context. Martin Sephens really captures the feel of the era (or at least, he does it convincingly enough that if I read any books suggesting that the Elizabethan period felt any different I'd find myself seriously doubting the credibility of the latter). I loved it, can't wait to find the rest of the series. And regardless of whether I'll actaully manage to fit them anywhere, I think I might have to start hunting down my own copies. I'm going to uni soon, so that should relieve my bookcases on the basis that some of my books will have to come to Cambridge with me so the rest can have a little more space.

Henry Gresham is a believable and interesting character, and there's a bit more of his personal life showing through in this one than was evidenced in Rebel Heart. A spy for Queen Elizabeth, he finds himself caught up in a multi-layered intrigue, which leads to him sailing to England... with the Spanish Armada! Gripping and fascinating, this is a real page-turner, a read in one go sort of novel. Tense and exciting, well written and plausible. What more can you ask for in a novel?

The Hunt for Atlantis

2010-09-23T20:01:00.002+01:00

I'm sure I must have reviewed this before. It must be the third or fourth time I've read it, if not the fifth or sixth. There's an awful lot of books on discovering Atlantis, and I've read quite a few of them, but this one remains my favourite. An excellent fast paced thriller, with enough historical context to add interest but not so much you get drowned in hypotheticals and start feeling like you're reading a text book. The characters are engaging, particularly Eddie Chase and Nina Wilde, and the plot is, if somewhat grand in scale, at least plausible. And the action is great. And there's a lot of it. Exploding helicopters, jumbo jets, corrupt soldiers, exploding trains... Yeh, you get the picture. Lots of bad guys, lots of action and excitement, a great escapist read. One of my favourite books (although I think the most recent one in the same series is perhaps even more my favourite...).

So if you're looking for a fast paced, gripping thriller, you need look no further. And the best part is, it's the start of a series that just gets better and better, and has yet to fail to deliver an interesting historical mystery combined with plenty of action. I can't wait for the newest one to come out :)

Dead Lock

2010-09-23T19:49:00.002+01:00

The library had labelled it with a gun on the side. It wasn't a label I'd seen before, so I picked it up in an attempt to see what the gun sticker meant. Yes, that's how I've resorted to picking books--look at the stickers the library's put on and trust that they've done it accurately (which they haven't always... I read a thriller with a historical romance sticker, although I suppose there was a tiny bit of historical romance involved). Anyway. I presume the gun sticker means a thriller and they run out of the man running in cross hairs ones.

It's actually a similar idea to the Cherub book Maximum Security. I don't know that there's any actual link there though...

Basically, a leader from the Aryan Brotherhood has agreed to testify against fellow members with regard to the brutal murder of an undercover agent. The catch: he wants releasing into the general prison population, despite the fact that the Aryan Brotherhood will know he's a snitch, and go after him. So he has to be kept alive for a week, until he can testify. Enter Ryan Lock, an ex-military bodyguard, and close friend of the murdered undercover agent. Trouble is, keeping Reaper alive becomes the least of his worries, because Reaper has plans of his own. And they don't involve staying in the general prison population for long. In fact, they involve something more like the end of America...

An gripping read with plenty of twists and action. As good as the cover makes it look. I'll have to keep an eye out for the others (well, other--I've read the second, according to fantastic fiction there's one before it and one due to be released in 2011).

Rebel Heart

2010-09-20T10:02:00.006+01:00

I'm not entirely sure why I picked this book and decided to read it. There was a spy on the spine, I was getting pretty desparate to find a book--any book--to read because I've read all the ones I could find from authors I've previously enjoyed, I read the blurb and it didn't put me off completely. So I got it out the library, despite the fact I don't generally read historical fiction, and I've never thought of reading anything about Elizabethan England. Well, I was quite surprised to discover both how much I enjoyed it and how interesting the background was.

The Court was well created, the historical background seemed plausible (I can't say more than that, because to be quite frank I know absolutely nothing about it), and it was well-evoked. There were twists and turns worthy of a great spy novel, action worthy of a great thriller, and a little sprinkling of romance that added to the plot rather than being thrown in just because. In short, it was a great novel. Couldn't put it down (which meant reading til early in the morning... again), and instantly set out to find the rest of the series. Unfortunately, this was the fourth and there don't seem to be more planned--although just because there's not a new one shown on Fantastic Fiction doesn't mean there isn't another planned. However, that does mean another three books to find and enjoy. Shame there's not more, but I guess you can't have everything.

An enjoyable and gripping read, that catapulted you back to the Elizabethan court, mapping intrigues and plots, along with a good sprinkling of action.

24 Declassified: Veto Power

2010-09-20T09:56:00.003+01:00

Okay, so books based on TV series aren't always that great, but so far all the 24 Declassified books I've read have been gripping thrillers with plenty of action. I do wonder though, whether this might be one of the cases where the TV series is better than the books... Usually I'm a huge fan of books, even if they didn't come first (provided they're well written). However, I think something is lost from the fact that on the TV series it's one show per hour, whereas in the book it's one chapter per hour and, quite frankly, I reckon you can fit more into one hour of TV than one chapter of book. But having never actually seen the TV series, I'm not in the best position to judge that.

It's well written, it's got plenty of action. The characters are reasonably well developed, although with the exception of Jack Bauer, not brilliantly so. I certainly enjoyed reading it, and I'm keeping my eye out for the others (although they all seem to have been done by different authors so it's not all that easy to find them in the library). I think there's a case here for putting books from the same series but by different authors together.

An enjoyable thriller. Plenty of action, a pretty decent plot, and... plenty of action.

Fool's Errand

2010-09-19T20:22:00.002+01:00

I was something of a fool for starting to read this book in the evening. In fact, very much a fool. Despite the fact that I've read it once before, I was still compelled to read it all the way through in one go. Which with a book that comes in at 660 pages is quite a lot of book to read all in one go. Worth being knackered in the morning though.

Fitz, now calling himself Tom Badgerlock, reckons he's earned his retirement, even if he does miss some of those at the court. But he's got Nighteyes, his faithful wolf and Wit partner, he's got Hap, an orphan who he took on, and he's got Starling when she flits into his life to share his bed. Until Chade comes to visit, his old mentor, the man who does the quiet work for the throne. And then, shortly after Chade, the Fool. Times are changing, the Fool needs his Catalyst back. The prince has gone missing.

Which means that Fitz is launched once again into adventure and intrigue, with a gripping plot, fascinating characters, and a briliantly imagined and evoked world. I'm not entirely sure how best to describe this book, other than to say that by my reckoning Robin Hobb is the best fantasy author I've ever read.

Read it. Just don't start reading it in the evening or when you haven't much time. It's one of those books you can't put down no matter how smart it would be and how much you're yawning at half two in the morning...

Bloody Passage

2010-09-19T20:17:00.002+01:00

There's nothing particularly special about this book. By Jack Higgins, it seems to draw rather heavily on other works of his (or they draw on this). The main character is roughly the same as Sean Dillon or Martin Fallon, although ex-Special Forces rather than ex-IRA. Blind sister pops up, remarkably similar to a character in Prayer for the Dying. As is the hard man that goes along to keep Major Oliver Grant in line. Bit of a twist in the ending, although not entirely unexpected. Oh, and of course, a pretty girl who betrays him but doesn't really want to. In fact, the more I think about it, the more Bloody Passage and Prayer for the Dying are alike... And I think Prayer for the Dying has the edge--there's a lot more passion in it. Or maybe I just think it's better because I read it first so the ideas were newer. Given that I keep re-reading it though...

However, there are some very good action scenes that leave you breathless, which is something that Jack Higgins rarely disappoints on. In fact, I can't think of a single book where I've been disappointed with the quality of the action. Just occaisionally find that the plots have been somewhat recycled and regurgitated.

Still, for all that, it's not a bad book, it's an enjoyable read if not spectacular, and a great one for reading when you can't sleep. Well, maybe not so great because I couldn't put it down, but it's not too long so that didn't really matter, unlike some books that you can't put down...

I, Alex Cross

2010-09-19T20:01:00.003+01:00

Well, I'm perhaps not in the best position to judge this book as I didn't actually read all of it. In fact, I got to about chapter 12 (which if you've ever read a James Patterson book, means I really didn't get that far) before I gave up on it and decided that I could find better things to read. I used to be a huge James Patterson fan, but his writing's getting worse. Or maybe that's just me.

I didn't enjoy the previous Alex Cross book at all. I made it all the way through, but had serious reservations about the way the 'natives' had been treated--you rather get the impression the author has never been to Africa. Which made the whole plot fall rather flat, and to be perfectly honest, the plot itself appeared to have been contrived primarily to send Alex Cross to Africa--presumably so the author could explore 'deep issues' (like he did with Maximum Ride four which utterly ruined the book).

This one had a somewhat interesting start. Woman running away, shot in the back. Staggers to a road, gets picked up after being nearly run over. It was the man from the White House. Which man? The President? Why? Well, when it turns out that this woman who was killed is a) Alex Cross' niece (who incidentally, was somewhat estranged and he hasn't seen her for 20 odd years... so let's face it may as well be anyone) and b) a prostitute. And that latter fact was what decided me that I didn't want to keep reading. Don't get me wrong, I don't have an issue with reading books which touch on the darker side of life. I've just thoroughly enjoyed one in Ex-Kop. But James Patterson has a thing for writing... Well, I'll call it dodgy stuff, and leave it at that. As for the scandal, well, I was left thinking, so what? Killer above the law; read it quite a few times now.

So to be quite honest, the new Alex Cross book didn't interest me at all. I picked it up from the library because some of them have been very good, but when it all seemed a bit dull, contrived, and not really all that well-written, I gave up and it's going back to the library tomorrow. I've still not read the most recent Maximum Ride book either. To be fair, Max was reasonable, even if not up to the standards of the first three. I've just lost interest in James Patterson's writing because so much of it has been utter rubbish recently. Especially the Women's Murder Club, which was a series I thoroughly enjoyed.

Ex-Kop

2010-09-19T19:53:00.002+01:00

I've been reading quite a bit recently, so I'm way behind with reviewing stuff. However, I've just finished reading this book, so I figure I'll just get on and review it now.

A lot better than I anticipated. I was expecting a mediocre sci-fi, just picked it up at the library because the sci-fi section is somewhat limitted. Instead of finding, well, basically a 'trashy' sci-fi with plenty of action and not much plot, I discovered a gritty, intense novel that I couldn't put down, with flawed, all-too-human characters. The sci-fi element was more a background, an enabler for the plot, than what you might call 'true' sci-fi. Yeh, it was set on another planet, in the future, with high tech holograms and all that sort of stuff. But that wasn't the heart of the book, and the heart of the book was a gripping central character, an ex police officer, corrupt as they come, finger in every pie to control the crime on his planet. Well, in his city, even if the drug lords have taken over the areas outside the city. It perhaps belonged more in the crime section, where I could thoroughly recommend it as a great read, a crime novel set in an impoverished country. Instead, it took the guise of sci-fi and certainly surprised me when I realised this was no run of the mill space battle story.

My only disappointment is that it's a sequel and I haven't read the first. It is generally better to read books in the right order... However, the Harris being what it is, you can rarely if ever find the first book in a series.

If you're a crime fan who's bored of standard detective novels, this is certainly worth checking out. The nearest author I can think of would be Nick Stone, also with a flawed cop, not above twisting the law, as the central character. Or perhaps the novel Bait, can't remember who it was by. Thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking.

The Battle of Britain

2010-09-13T18:26:00.003+01:00

Well worth reading. Oh, just to clarify, this is the one that's just come out by James Holland. Not perfect, perhaps, but incredibly wide-ranging. To be honest, calling it a book on the Battle of Britain is a bit of a misnomer. It starts with the invasion of France and the Low Countries, it ends in October with the beginning of the Blitz. It doesn't just cover the air-fighting, but instead the war at sea, the war in France, the politics, the attempts to draw in America, the beginning of Lend-Lease, and, of course, the dog-fighting over England. Also gives brief mention to E-boats and the British bombing campaign. In short, a wide-ranging book, which perhaps isn't as detailed on the air-fighting as some books I've read but that's hardly to be expected when it covers such a vast swathe of the conflict. Oh, and covers the invasion planning, the Home Guard, Churchill's consolidation of power, supply and maintenance, and a myriad of related topics, also including the morale of pilots.

It's not overburdened with statistics and diagrams, it's not full of complex explanations of exactly how each aircraft works, and it's not narrowly focussed, although at the end it does seem to drop the story of the E-boats and doesn't give as much detail to the Battle of the Atlantic as perhaps it could, focussing instead on the air fighting. Uses a lot of first hand accounts, and well written enough that I quite happily sat in a library and read it for well over two hours without moving (other than to turn the pages). It is a big book, and I found the section on the Fall of France very interesting as it's not something that's all that easy to find books on.

On the other hand, I didn't agree with some of the analysis of why Britain won. Well, more specifically, I don't agree that the Me-109 (oh, and I've finally found out why it's alternately the Me or the Bf, it actually depends on when the aircraft was produced as the factory was initially called Bayerische Flugzeugwerke and later the name was changed to that of the chief designer, becoming Messerschmitt) was better than the Spitfire. It was interesting that apparently British pilots were more wary of pushing the Spitfire to the edge than the German pilots were of pushing the Me-109, but surely it's better to have an aircraft that can be flown well by everyone rather than an aircraft that can be flown reasonably by most and excellently by a few. The trouble is, while the Messerschmitt was faster and had a better rate of climb, it didn't have as good a turning circle. And in a dogfight, a turning circle was needed, and because of the way the fighters were being used as escorts for the bombers, dogfights were inevitable. Ideally, the Me-109 should have been flown in from the sun, drop down on an unsuspecting Spitfire or Hurricane, shoot it down, climb out the way and scoot off. But radar could be used to estimate heights and as the battle progressed they could be estimated quite accurately by increasingly experienced operators, the Germans did not then have the element of surprise that they had in France. So because of the way the aircraft were being used, the Spitfire was probably the better fighter.

That out the way, I was pleased to see that Holland didn't just say that because the numbers of fighter aircraft were equal that made it much easier for the British than previously assumed. Ah, not quite. Cos they did still have to shoot the bombers down, couldn't just let them meander off over England. It was the bombers that they had to focus on, truth be told, because it was the bombers that could do the damage. The fighters could only damage other fighters; if it was just fighter sweeps coming over England there'd be little point in meeting them.

The E-boat sections were fascinating, I would've liked to see a bit more made of that side of the story. However, I suspect that space was getting limited (as in, 600 pages full of words already and maybe not so great to put that many more pages in). And the politics was well told too, on both the British and German sides and in terms of relations between Britain and America. I think the point could have been made that although Beaverbrook did kick British aircraft production up the bum so to speak, he did so at the cost of various longer term projects, including four-engine bombers, and that there's no way he can be totally responsible for results coming in by the end of the week in which he was appointed. Further, what he did was a short term solution--people can't work the hours he was insisting on long term, not without burning out and starting to make mistakes.

In short, this was a thoroughly enjoyable book and I'm sure it will become a recommended read for anyone studying WWII. It wasn't quite as balanced as it could have been between the different aspects of the campaign--there was little on the British bomber campaign although to be fair it did get a mention which is unusual. And it is, as far as I'm aware, the first time the 'story's' been told like this, in such a wide-ranging interpretation of the Battle of Britain.

Definitely recommend it, might actually buy a copy when it comes out in paperback (borrowed it out the library--hardback history books are pretty expensive to buy loads without any real idea of whether they'll be all that great). So if you see one floating around at the library (although if the queue's anything like it was at mine to get hold of it, as in, about seven more people waiting after me and I thought I'd had to wait a long time for it you might not see it for a while), it's definitely worth taking the time to read it.

The Battle of the Atlantic

2010-09-13T18:09:00.003+01:00

How many books have I read with this title now?! This is the one by Marc Milner. And it's pretty reasonable, although I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be from reading the blurb. I thought it was going to say much more exciting things, but for the most part it just followed pretty standard lines. Was well written, did make some interesting points though, I'm inclined to recommend this as a good book to read on the Atlantic Campaign as it did cover the whole thing, and there was a good sense of perspective in terms of the air support and the shore based institutions, along with the politics that influenced the battle and the actual convoy battles. Made a very good point at the beginning that yeh, Germany's u-boat arm was dangerous and yeh, Britian didn't have much in the way of ships to fight it, but ships to fight u-boats were much easier to produce in war time under crash programmes than battleships and carriers, which were needed to effectively counter the German surface fleet--which was Raeder's priority before the war.

What else? Well, for a book that according to the blurb was gonna show that Enigma wasn't such a war winner as other things, it sure gave a lot of credit to Enigma and the ability to re-route convoys initially to avoid wolf packs and then to find them so that the u-boats could be fought and destroyed once effective means of fighting them had been found. Did go into the aircraft side of things, which seemed to be, at least according to this guy, the main reason the Battle was won, as it removed the u-boats ability to stay on the surface and re-charge batteries. In turn, that was only effective once decent radar was found to fit to the aircraft so that they could actually find the u-boats. Interesting, if not particularly new, documentation of all stages of the battle. Well written.

I guess the main reason I was a little disappointed in this book was because I've already read a fair bit on the Battle of the Atlantic and the blurb led me to think it was gonna be quite revisionist with a totally different take on things to usual. That wasn't really the case, but it was a pretty decent book.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

2010-09-13T18:01:00.003+01:00

Hilariously brilliant. The only way of describing it would be slightly off beat. Nothing, it seems, is what you would quite expect. And every time you think you've got a handle on the wildly engrossing plot, something shows up that screws up all pre-conceived ideas of what exactly is going on.

Marvin the paranoid android returns, miserable as ever. Talking psychic lifts, stupid sentient tanks, the Total Perspective Vortex, the somewhat ridiculous Beeblebrox who's President of the universe and currently on the run after stealing a ship he was meant to launch... And how could I forget? The Restaurant at the End of the Universe itself, an intriguing idea for the ultimate dining experience, that costs only a penny because you put it in a bank account and leave it and the interest allows you to pay for the meal. Whilst the universe ends outside. Sheer brilliance. I'm not entirely sure how you review a book with a plot that, quite frankly, can't be described without writing an essay. Makes it clear why The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is a classic. And one that, unlike Jane Eyre, is still a brilliantly enjoyable classic today. And retains its originality. I wonder if you can still get the radio series on tape... Or CD I guess. Either would work (actually, maybe CD would be better as my tape/CD/radio has gone kaput so I don't have anything to play a tape on).

Read it.

Cambridge!

2010-08-30T17:25:00.003+01:00

Watch out Cambridge, here I come! I can't believe how behind I've got with this blog... I got my results the Thursday before last. 3 A*s (History, Maths, English Lit), A in General Studies and AS Ancient History. I got 118/120 in my final exam for History! I never imagined I'd do that well, I figured I'd be able to get the A* I needed for Cambridge in Maths, but never seriously thought I'd be able to get A* in all three of my main subjects. So chuffed :). And got home from getting my results and found two letters, one from Christ's College, one from UCAS. Naturally I opened the one from Christ's College first, they told me they were giving me a place, said congratulations, then there was an epic reading list (two and a half pages, although it did say I'm not expected to read them all) and a thing to say I need to pick what modules I want to do. Well, the modules I've chosen are: British Political and Constitutional History 1450-1750, British Social and Economic History 1500-1750, Utopian Writing 1516-1789, European History since 1890, Expansion of Europe from the Fifteenth Century to the First World War, and The West and the 'Third World' from the First World War to the present day. Can't wait!

Airshow

2010-08-30T17:17:00.003+01:00

I've just realised that I never typed this up. I went to Sunderland International Air Show on July 25th and wrote a 'blog' post immediately afterwards in my notebook. So, here it is:

Where can I possibly start? Okay: my favorites were: Breitling display team (a pair of biplanes, doing aerobatics around each other, whilst an acrobatic wing walker did a routine of handstands etc in a special harness on the top wing), the Harrier (gotta be the most awesome aircraft ever invented. It bowed!!! And hovered and then slid slowly sideways off the 'stage' area, which was incredibly spectacular to watch, I thought it was gonna fall out the sky), and of course, the Red Arrows. Wow! The Victory Roll formation was incredible, the aircraft got into a formation to look like a Spitfire, and then the whole formation rolled together, and then the spectacular breaks with coloured smoke and they looked at times like they were going to hit each other. Also, the Typhoon was fantastic. Rocket impersonater or what! And its agility too, it was incredible. The Spitfires were also fantastic to see (although I'm not entirely sure which was which mark, it was a bit too noisy to hear the commentator properly). The Dakota was also impressive--especially as the version I've built has the exact same markings. Was also rather impressed by the 8 engined bomber, and the warship sat out on the edge which launched its Merlin. Speaking of helicopters, the Black Cat display helicopter was absolutely stunning in its agility. If teh Harrier was flown like a helicopter, this Lynx was flown practically like a jet, swooping and twizzling all over hte place. The Avro Tutor displayed absolutely stunning acrobatics, particularly the stall turns. The F16 from the Netherlands as ace too. Oh! The pair of aircraft that opened. Very impressive. And a live demonstration (complete with some poor soul chucked in the water) of air sea rescue. Can you tell I was impressed? I would've liked to have seen a few WWI era aircraft (or at least, replicas of WWI era aircraft) and a Lancaster would've been nice. But I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed my first ever air show. And oh! How could I forget? The Falcons parachute display team was very impressive indeed, though it was a shame I couldn't actually see the beach where they landed.

Toy Story 3

2010-08-30T17:08:00.002+01:00

Well, it does certainly look like there are two must-see films this summer. I have to be honest, I thought Inception was the better film purely because of its originality. That said, Toy Story 3 is hilariously brilliant and brings the Toy Story trilogy to a great conclusion. With some of the original characters missing (including Bo Peep, and the soldiers who go AWOL at the very beginning of the story), it leaves room for new characters to be developed. Including the hilarious Ken. And it allows other characters to be developed too, particularly Barbie and Buzz and Woody.

I was told it'd make me cry, but have to confess the only reason I had tears in my eyes was from laughing so much. And everyone in the cinema was laughing too.

Great Escape style action escaping from Sunnyside, one rather terrifying scene set in a rubbish dump, and a very satisfying ending, the film holds your attention throughout. My only real criticism is that it was pointless seeing it in 3D. Very little of the action came out the screen. In fact, there was more 3D from the trailers shown before than from the film itself, so to be perfectly honest, you're better off saving your money and watching it in 2D.

In short: a funny and enjoyable film.

Inception

2010-08-15T16:16:00.003+01:00

The best film I have ever seen. Yes, I mean it. I've seen some excellent films and this doesn't detract from them, but Inception truly is the best film I have ever seen. It's original, it's engrossing, it makes you think rather than simply giving you a ride along on a feel good movie, the acting is superb. But it's the idea behind it all, the brilliant, fascinating, well thought through idea that permeates the film that makes this better than any other film I have ever watched and enjoyed. And I've enjoyed a fair few films.

'I specialise in a very special type of security. Sub conscious security'. The concept is simple. Put someone into a shared dream, they'll fill it with their secrets, you can get in and steal them. Cobb's been doing this for a living after being forced to leave his children. But now he's been given a new challenge. And if he succeeds, it's a way back home. The concept is simple. Instead of stealing an idea, he has to plant one. Carrying it out is another matter altogether. But not only is the concept interesting in itself, it's also been given detail, life, and plausibility. Architects to build dream worlds, paradoxes such as never-ending staircases to keep the subject within the boundaries of the dream you want them in, dream time that gives you longer for each real minute the deeper into a dream you go. Unstable dreams, rampant subconscious characters determined to wipe out invaders...

Not only that, but an engrossing and intriguing cast of characters, particularly Cobb and his wife Mal. A romantic element that doesn't follow your typical guy meets girl and falls madly in love but this is rather awkward because he's meant to be saving the world/doing a job/in love with someone else or whatever. And an ending that leaves you begging for more and desperate to watch it all over again.

For those of you who've watched it: I reckon dream. Those of you that haven't: watch it and find out what I mean. It truly is the best film I have ever watched.

The Mask of Troy

2010-07-14T16:30:00.001+01:00

I got really excited when I saw that David Gibbins had released another book. Quite frankly, I was disappointed. There was little action, and while the discoveries were interesting enough, without the excitement of a race to find it first, or a determined bunch of artefact thieves to fend off, the book just wasn't that great. If I wanted to read something just about finding archaeological treasures, I'd much rather read something factual. That said, Jack Howard remains an interesting character, even if there aren't really any particularly new revelations about him, like there have been in past books. It did pick up towards the end, with some kidnapping and action, but not as much as in previous books. I'm glad I finished it, and it most definitely did (eventually) get better, but to be perfectly honest I wouldn't bother starting it in the first place. It was a disappointment compared to the excellent previous books, and had it not been by David Gibbins I probably would have given up long before the end.

I'm glad I didn't rush out and buy it like I nearly did, but I can't help but feel the series would've been better if it had finished at book four rather than have this addendum. However, if there are more books, on the basis that the first four were truly excellent (especially Atlantis and Crusader Gold) I'll probably still get them out the library, even if I won't be rereading this one. I recommend you read the others, I don't recommend you bother with this one. The interesting bit at the end doesn't outweigh the fact that it takes an awful long time to get even vaguely exciting.

Map of Bones

2010-07-10T17:19:00.003+01:00

I've practically read this series backwards, or at least, in no recognisable order. However, it has not detracted from the fact that the Sigma Force series is truly excellent.

Ever heard of m state gold? Me neither, but apparently it's possible to create a fine powder from gold, by doing stuff to it that makes every atom split from every other atom and sit on its own. This gold has incredible properties, and unfortunately, they can be used for incredibly deadly purposes. An intriguing thriller, based on real science, well explained and utterly gripping. The characters are great, from Commander Gray Pierce, through Seichan, Monk, Kat, Rachel, and a whole host of other characters. I think Pierce is probably my favourite, but Monk has to come a close second. The novel delivers an excellent mix of ancient (and more recent) history, fascinating recent scientific developments, and action.

A massacre in a church and the theft of the bones of the Magi who visited Jesus at his birth launches the novel, and the action doesn't let up til the end. Nor does the plot wear thin. Highly enjoyable, although you'll probably get more out of the series if you read it in order, simply because everyone doesn't always make it(!)

On a slight aside, James Rollins also writes fantasy novels under the name James Clemens. I've just managed to get hold of one for the first time. Shall let you know how that goes :).

Ancients

2010-07-09T20:31:00.003+01:00

Well, I managed up to part way through the first chapter. Which is more than it sounds like, because the prologue was ridiculously long and involved. I'm sure the same amount of background information could've been given in a much shorter period and with a bit more drama. And it seemed excessive to draw on what, four or five separate historical periods to chart the continuation of a secret society. Surely that sort of stuff could've been left to be discovered further on into the book. Instead, it seemed more like the author wanted to get all the historical stuff out the way before getting onto the 'real' story. Hmm. Then the first chapter started with more disparate accounts of various natural disasters, making the whole beginning feel rather fragmented. Getting close to fifty pages in, we finally meet what I assume from the blurb is to be the main characters, lying on a boat and drunk. By this point, I was pretty well fed up, and gave up just as they were about to go and confront some possible archaeological pirate type people with a single gun between the two main characters. Or something of the sort. Perhaps it picked up after that. But I was rather fed up by that point and took it back to the library. Maybe I shouldn't have done, maybe the story would have improved and got rather exciting, but to be quite frank, if a book hasn't grabbed my interest by the time I'm fifty odd pages in, I'm about ready to give up on it if it's not an author I've read before, no matter how good the blurb sounded.

So unless you fancy skipping the prologue (which is a pretty major piece of writing in itself, rather defying what I thought was the general consensus that a prologue will be fairly short), and it does pick up, I wouldn't bother. However, if you did get further, please correct me and I'll get it back out the library. Like I said, it did have the potential to be quite interesting, but I just got rather fed up.

Exit Wound

2010-07-09T20:23:00.004+01:00

As promised, pretty much right after reading it. Okay, so maybe I didn't do quite so well with other books I've read recently, but it's a case of getting into a habit of blogging after reading.

Anyway, Exit Wound is brilliant. Fast paced action, featuring Nick Stone. It's the most recent thriller from Andy McNab, and it's well worth the read. I seem to have skipped out Brute Force, shall have to find that in the library. At the moment, I really cannot buy any more books. I have absolutely no space on any bookcase to fit them in, except slotted on top but that doesn't look very neat. I ramble. Nick Stone is a believable first person narrator, intriguing, not so shallow it may as well be third person, not so deep that you end up giving up because you can't understand the main character. Blunt, determined, authentic, Nick Stone narrates a gripping tale of espionage, dodgy dealings and revenge. The series just gets better and better. Unlike some thrillers you're not swamped with technology, terminology and acronyms. Instead, this highly readable book gives the bare bones of technical detail without being patronising, and allows the action and the plot to take centre stage. Up to date issues, realistic coverage of the war on terror, I guess this is what it felt like to read one of the 'classics' of the spy thriller genre when it first came out. Highly recommend it.

The Baa Baa Black Sheep Test

2010-07-09T17:39:00.002+01:00

Ever wondered how jets are tested to be sure they'll stand up to stress? No, I can't say I have either. But apparently, the test is done by broadcasting baa baa black sheep and other nursery rhymes at high volume in a special test chamber. Why? Because one day, a technician got bored. It was originally done simply using a number of different frequencies, but after testing the aircraft fully, the technician decided to hook a microphone into the system. Testing testing worked just fine, but singing baa baa black sheep caused the wheel to fall off the jet. So now (according to my dad anyway, but he assures me that the person who told him this wasn't pulling his leg), the US military sings nursery rhymes to their jets to make sure they won't drop apart.

It's possible to make a computer crash... by rattling a plastic bag with coins in it over the keyboard.

On a Sunday afternoon, a bunch of air traffic controllers in Scotland managed to put their machine out of order for several months. They were having a competition to see who could push the most buttons at once.

Can you tell my dad's an engineer?

Hunting Party

2010-07-08T21:07:00.004+01:00

Fox hunting and sci fi? Well, Elizabeth Moon brings it off brilliantly, to the extent that you wonder why you never thought of that combination before. In a word: fascinating.

Heris Serrano was forced to resign from the military. Now she has found herself new employment, as the captain of a space yacht for an eccentric elderly lady. The problem? The previous captain was incompetent, and up to something distinctly dodgy. He was not fired because of that, but instead because he took far too long to travel between planets, meaning Lady Cecelia de Marktos has to take her nephew and a handful of friends away on her yacht now they're persona non grata on the planet they had been living on. Forced to adjust to life away from the military, Serrano is determined to sharpen up the crew on the yacht, and then discovers that all is not as it seems on the apparently luxurious yacht. The interior decorator might have done a good job (at least in the eyes of some people...) but the yacht's vital systems are distinctly under-maintained. An amusing and fascinating book, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and will definitely be keeping an eye out for the rest of the series.

Highly recommended.

A Traitor to Memory

2010-07-08T21:00:00.003+01:00

Disappointing. I didn't finish it, I couldn't be bothered to plow through and was quite annoyed that I'd wasted so much time to get half way through when it became clear that the plot was being stretched way beyond reasonable limits. I admit, I don't often read crime books any more, but on the basis of the other Elizabeth George books I've read, and the Inspector Lynley TV series, I figured this was worth a go. Especially because my mum reckoned the TV episode that followed the plot of this book was one of the best.

To be quite honest, the plot could have been quite fantastic. In fact, much of the book was fantastic. The problem was with the fact that the book had been seriously bulked out by the inclusion of the ramblings of a prodigy violinist who had lost his memory and possibly had something to do with the violent hit and run that killed his mother--a mother he had not seen since he went on tour aged 8 with his father and returned to find the house wiped clean of both her presence and that of his murdered little sister. Fair enough to include some from the perspective of the possible killer, but really, over half the chapters filled with his ramblings? It just got tedious and boring, and detracted from what could have been a fantastic plot, and quite an original and intriguing one too. Instead, the book dragged. It was almost as though Elizabeth George had two ideas and decided to just combine them into one book, but ended up giving neither the attention or interest value they deserved.

In short, a disappointing book that I couldn't bring myself to finish. Perhaps if you were to skip out all the chapters dealing with the whinings of a musically talented brat it might be a good read.

Land of Ghosts

2010-07-08T20:55:00.002+01:00

When Paul Tallis is asked to go to Russia, or, more precisely, to Chechnya (is that spelt right?) he's not initially all that enthusiastic. Especially when he's told that he's going to pull out a spy who may or may not have 'gone native'. But that particular spy is his childhood friend, and Tallis finds himself launched into a deadly race to reach the spy before the attacks in Moscow escalate even further. Because if the British Intelligence Service is implicated, the international repercussions would be terrible.

Fast paced and engrossing, this book was as good as the blurb suggested. A spy thriller for the modern day, an interesting cast of characters, intriguing plot, gripping story telling. I don't know what else to say. For fans of James Bond, Robert Ludlum, Alistair MacLean, this really is a great spy story.

Mad Kestrel

2010-06-27T20:20:00.003+01:00

As promised, I'm reviewing as soon as I've read this book. Nearly took it back to the library unread--I'd grabbed it last minute off the shelf and wasn't totally convinced. It was certainly worth reading. Not the best piece of fantasy I've ever read, but certainly a decent enough one. I was about to say it was good enough that I'll keep an eye out for others, but there are none. Just waiting for the author's website to load so I can see if there's anything in the pipeline.

Any rate, it was fantasy, but I would probably call it more of a pirate story than a dragon and magic sort of fantasy. (Hmm, the author's website would appear to be a blank white page...). Kes is a pirate with a secret. (Oh, it's come up now, and it seems there's only short stories other than Mad Kestrel, which is a shame. I don't really like short stories.) Anyway. Kes ran away to sea, to avoid being imprisoned and forced to work for the Danisoba, because she can use magic. And she's safe at sea, because most Danisoba--all, in fact--are severely weakened by water. Kes has never had that problem. Just an interesting note, I wonder what the magicians are supposed to drink if they can't go near liquid... Anyway, it's a reasonable tale. Her captain isn't who she thought he was, gets himself captured, there's a magic plant which offers fifty years without ageing, and a good deal of swashbuckling adventure. So if you're into pirates, Mad Kestrel is certainly worth looking into. It certainly kept my interest, and there were a couple of nice twists to the plot. If you happen to see it, most definitely worth a read. If not, well, it's probably not worth going to a great deal of trouble looking for. A good book, but more of an adventure story with a bit of magic thrown in than a 'proper' fantasy (then again, who am I to talk about proper fantasy, when the angels in my stories tend to go on missions on earth and most don't have magical powers???). At any rate, if you're into pirate stories, I can recommend this one. If you're more of a 'proper' fantasy fan, well, the magic didn't seem terribly thought through in how it all worked, although it was interesting to have it summoned by whistling/humming/singing. It was the whole water thing that got me--I once had a similar idea as a weakness for a dragon-like species, but realised that they would then dehydrate and die, and that rain would destroy them. Oh, I suppose they can hide inside, but it doesn't seem a great flaw to give a magician. Anyway, Kes didn't suffer from it, for reasons that were disclosed late in the book so I won't tell you why.

On a slightly different aside, why is it that books tend to focus on magic users who have a more than usual skill or a quirk that lets them use magic in a way that other people can't? Anyone know of any fantasy that focusses on someone who can't use magic all that well but isn't a satirical poke at some other book?

Any rate, Mad Kestrel was worth the time it took to read it, and was certainly enjoyable even if not the greatest thing I've ever read. But then, if every book was the greatest thing I'd ever read, then none of them would be...

No Mercy

2010-06-26T18:49:00.003+01:00

Fantastic. I realised half way through that it was going to get a rave review, and the book just kept getting better and better. I nearly didn't read it as well! I wasn't sure if it was quite my kind of thing, but boy am I glad I picked it up at the library. Wow. Couldn't put it down, as in bursting for the loo but walked to the bathroom with book in front of my nose couldn't put it down. Tense, exciting, great action, great character... I realise it's starting to sound as though I like every book I read, but if I don't like them they tend to get abandoned a few chapters in and go back to the library, and hence don't get reviewed... Anyway.

Jonathan Grave. An expert in hostage rescue, who operates outside the law. The nearest character I can think of to compare him to would be Scott Mariani's Ben Hope, but they do have significant differences. Grave is a somewhat darker, more mysterious character, with enough personal details slipped in to bring him to life, but enough excluded to leave you begging for more. The plot is fantastic. You'd think there were only so many permutations of terrorist + biological weapons + shady government dealings that you could find, but John Gilstrap proves that there's always one more you haven't thought of.

It's a fairly standard mission for Grave, even if it does end more messily than he'd like. The hostage is safe, the kidnappers all dead. Nobody, including the hostage, knows who he is, and the cops should draw their own conclusions and not put too much effort into finding him. Until Grave's ex-wife is tortured and murdered, and the man who she loved is discovered, also tortured. And Grave gets a message in the post, a film of the negotiations between the kidnappers and the victims parents, just in case he didn't succeed. Trouble is, Grave discovers, the kidnappers didn't want money. The boss of the kidnappers was after secrets, or, more specifically, after a deadly bioweapon that he's already promised to an African warlord. And Grave had reckoned without a sheriff determined to obey her promise to uphold the law, regardless of weather the murders were committed to rescue a hostage or not.

Tense, exciting, leaves me in no doubt that I'll be after the next as soon as it comes out.

The Cult of Osiris

2010-06-26T18:40:00.003+01:00

Okay, I'm so far behind with book reviews it's actually ridiculous. However, I shall do what I can to catch up, and I shall make a determined effort to review everything I read as close to when I read it as possible. So I didn't actually read this book all that long ago, but it's easy to start with the titles and authors I remember off the top of my head and then go fishing up library records.

So, The Cult of Osiris. My only complaint: it finished. And it finished at a most inconvenient time for me too, as I was sat in the dentist waiting for paperwork to be ready to sign so that I could go home. But I'll tell you this now, the Eddie Chase/Nina Wilde (not sure which character has the official title of the series, I think it depends where you look) series just gets better and better. I mean, I thought the first four books were action packed, with interesting characters (especially Eddie and his dozens of friends who happen to be female scattered across the globe), but this one outdid them all. Corrupt government officials, an interesting legend to prove (and one that I'd not heard of before too, which is a definite bonus as there are, let's face it, quite a few books out there with tales of discovering Atlantis in them), great action, and a diabolical plot to foil. All in a day's work in your average archaeological thriller (and if it isn't a genre, there's enough books I've read that'd fit in that it should be), but the quality of the writing is great. I am torn, I don't think I could say it's my out and out favourite in the genre, because David Gibbins is ace too, but I have to say, it's probably better than the most recent Matthew Reilly. And since I'm quite a fan of his... Basically, the book delivered even better than I thought it would. I mean, the others have been great and I've got them all, but I hadn't bought this one. Half because I'm currently pretty skint and going to uni next year so don't want to start buying loads of books, half because I wasn't sure it was going to be as good as the others. I mean, how many interesting legends can you 'prove'? But this one proved to be better than ever. Now I just have to wait for the next one to come out.