A brilliant new historical epic from the best-selling author of The Alexander Trilogy. As the Western Roman Empire begins to collapses in 470AD, a small band of British Roman soldiers, make a long and arduous journey to Rome. They arrive to find the city on the edge of chaos, over-run with rebellion, not far from destruction. Despite the tumultuous events around them, they resolve to continue their mission: to keep the spirit of Empire alive by rescuing the young son of the last Emperor, Romulus Augustus. A daring rescue ensures and, hearing rumours of an entire Legion of the Roman Army that has remained loyal to Rome, they begin a trek across Northern Europe to find them. By finding the Legion, and establishing the boy as the legitimate Emperor, the Romans believe an uprising can be launched and the Empire revived. But the journey is futile, the Legion is nowhere to be found and they find themselves quickly losing heart. Deciding to turn back to Britain, they cross the channel in defeat, little knowing the mysterious revelations and magical destinies that await them on their return.
The Last Legion is an historical novel with a healthy dose of fantasy thrown in for good measure, as the author's inventive plot describes the events leading up to the end of the Roman Empire as being the root of the Arthurian legend. I didn't hate reading the book, but I found it quite simplistic, both in terms of plot and characters. Sometimes simplicity is best; in this case, I think he could have done so much more with the idea, not to mention the characters - but perhaps that was not the novel Manfredi set out to write. I have a deep affection for historical novels, and I have read many that have enthralled and inspired me. Unfortunately, although it was a pleasant read, this was not one of them; and really, to call a book pleasant is not much of a compliment at all. Read only if you have nothing else on your bookshelf. I hear they've recently made a move based on the novel - I will probably be giving that a skip too.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
The Last Legion by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
In 1971, as Mao's Cultural Revolution swept over China, shutting down universities and banishing "reactionary intellectuals" to the countryside, two teenage boys are sent to live on the remote and unforgiving mountain known as Phoenix in the Sky. Even though the knowledge the narrator and his best friend Luo had acquired in middle school was "precisely nil," they are nevertheless considered dangerous intellectuals and forced to spend their days carrying buckets of excrement up and down the mountain to fertilize the fields. But when they bargain their way into obtaining a forbidden Balzac novel from their friend Four Eyes, a new and dizzyingly vast world opens up to them. Through Balzac, the narrator discovers "awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, all the subjects that had, until then, been hidden" [p. 57]. And when Luo falls in love with the beautiful Little Seamstress, life and literature come together in a passionate romance. Luo and the narrator plot to steal Four Eyes' suitcase full of books both for their own pleasure and to transform the seamstress from a simple peasant into a sophisticated woman. Their success in doing so, and the unexpected consequences that follow, drive the novel to its stunning, heart-wrenching conclusion. Part historical novel, part fable, part love story, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a moving testament to the transformative power of literature.
While trying to find the picture, I found that they made a movie out of this book. I'd love to see it. The book is set in post-Cultural Revolution China. The children with high school education or more of the people classed as "enemies of the state" are sent into the rural areas to be re-educated by the peasants. This book follows the story of two young boys, one of which is 'writing' in the first person and his name is never mentioned. The life of re-education is harsh, often brutal and almost utterly without reward. Until, that is, the two boys meet the Little Seamstress and a talent for storytelling no the part of the one gets them out of some of the work. The story is intense and strangely gripping. I say strangely because at first glance this is a simple story about two boys who fall in love with a girl, watch some movies and read some [forbidden] books. It is, however, engaging and so well-written that you can almost smell the sweat and the excrement as they toil up to the fields. You can feel their joy and their pain - and more importantly their confusion in a world they've barely lived in that has branded them dangerous outcasts.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?
Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil. Unlike the popular 1939 movie and Baum's writings, this novel is not directed at children. It contains language and content which catches some readers by surprise. Wicked, the hit Broadway musical based upon the novel, is also very different in tone from Maguire's book.
Alright, I'll start by saying that this book took me an inordinately long time to read ... and I'm not convinced it was purely because I took it on holiday with me and was saving it for my flight. Even once home, I've struggled thru it.
Maybe I didn't remember the basic story of The Wizard of Oz well enough, but even on it's own this book is draining. It is a complex (and not terribly interesting) book with many very odd characters that I just couldn't bond with. Apparently it's supposed to be "a political, social, and ethical commentary on what good and evil really are" - obviously I just didn't get it at all. And for the life of me I cannot imagine what the musical must be like!
It's a pity really because I had quite high hopes for it based on the back-cover blurb (above). But I just honestly wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
Friday, August 31, 2007
A Booke of Days by Steven J. Rivelle
A fascinating account of the Crusades. Yes it's fiction dressed up as 'look what I found in the archives', but if you read the fine print, you'll see that it is indeed a novel. On the other hand, you could also argue that it's the story of a man's journey towards enlightenment dressed up as a book about a bunch of prejudiced religious fanatics going around killing people who don't agree with them. And if you were to suggest that I am prejudiced against the latter category, you would be right.
Essentially the book follows the author's 'ancestor' as he journeys from France to the Near East. The book focusses on his relationship with the people around him, the people he left behind and the people he meets on the way. It's written as a diary covering the activities, the people and his thoughts - specifically his doubts, which increase exponentially as they get closer and closer to the Holy Land. It's a fascinating, often crude, insight into what life might have been like in those times. Even if you don't like historical fiction, I'd suggest you read this simply to see the way blind faith can impact people's lives.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
To rescue her family from poverty and avoid marrying her slope-shouldered cousin, seventeen-year-old Orchid competes to be one of the Emperor’s wives. When she is chosen as a lower-ranking concubine she enters the erotically charged and ritualised Forbidden City. But beneath its immaculate façade lie whispers of murders and ghosts, and the thousands of concubines will stoop to any lengths to bear the Emperor’s son.
Orchid trains herself in the art of pleasuring a man, bribes her way into the royal bed, and seduces the monarch, drawing the attention of dangerous foes. Little does she know that China will collapse around her, and that she will be its last Empress.
Now I absolutely loved this book, Anchee Min is one of those rare and amazing writers who can literally transport you into the book and the characters become so real that I found myself thinking about what was going on in the Forbidden City whilst I wasn't even reading. The aspect that I really enjoyed with this book is that it is a fictional story with fictional characters which are based around historic happens of China at that time period. In fact that actual story of China's last Empress is true and Min has given her life once again. The real Empress was called Empress Dowager Tsu His and she ruled from 1856 to 1908 - she apparently is one of those historical figures that people love to be nasty about. After her death people were already portraying her as a psychopathic nymphomaniac and ever since many western biographers have gleefully wallowed in allegations of her badness: her extravagance, her conservatism and her ruthless disposal of inconvenient political opponents. This version of events in Min's story gives readers an insight into a woman's life in the forbidden city and her struggle to not only stay alive, but with her son as regent, to lead an empire already on its final legs. Min's amazing and detailed research into accounts and stories from the lives of eunuchs, maids, palace tutors, Imperial warlords, and generals gives the reader not only a wonderful story but also an insight into exactly how difficult it was must have been for Tsu His and how her actions led to her being known as the woman who led China to it's downfall.
"Anchee Min's exquisite new novel unfolds like a ribbon of gleaming, luminous silk — soothing in its beauty, mesmerizing in its variations, startling, delightful and ultimately transformative in a way that only the best works of art can aspire to be . . . an astonishing journey into China's recent past." — Los Angeles Times Book Review
"A magnificent book: consequential; significant; beautiful. The book has everything in its favor. The story is gripping. The style is simple and graceful. The themes — love, war, conquest, domination, violence, feminism, communism, individualism and power — are sweeping . . . The true heroine is writer Anchee Min." — San Diego Union-Tribune
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
It's 1808 and that Corsican upstart Napoleon is battering the English army and navy. Enter Mr. Norrell, a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside and the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Susanna Clarke's ingenious first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, has the cleverness and lightness of touch of the Harry Potter series, but is less a fairy tale of good versus evil than a fantastic comedy of manners, complete with elaborate false footnotes, occasional period spellings, and a dense, lively mythology teeming beneath the narrative. Mr. Norrell moves to London to establish his influence in government circles, devising such powerful illusions as an 11-day blockade of French ports by English ships fabricated from rainwater. But however skillful his magic, his vanity provides an Achilles heel, and the differing ambitions of his more glamorous apprentice, Jonathan Strange, threaten to topple all that Mr. Norrell has achieved. A sparkling debut from Susanna Clarke--and it's not all fairy dust.
Well, for anyone who's ever wondered what an 18th century England would do with magic, here's an answer. England knows that it used to have magic and there are still magicians who study it [though they don't actually do any magic]. There is a report of a man - Mr. Norrell - who does. This story is really about Mr. Norrell and his understanding of when to use magic, what for and why. Kind of. It's a bit hard to get into at first - especially if you're not used to the slow pace and excessive politeness of 18th century life, but once Jonathan Strange arrives on the scene, it's well worth reading. Who - or what - is the Raven King? What's the deal with the servant [I forget his name, he's important though]? Why is a simple street magician [also known as a charlatan or trickster] making prophecies? Definitely worth reading if you can make it past the beginning to the bit where you care about the people involved. If you're used to novels set in the 18th century and you like fantasy, I recommend this.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
In "God is Not Great", Christopher Hitchens takes on his biggest subject yet: the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In an acute reading of the world's major religious texts, Hitchens documents the ways in which religion is man made, a cause of dangerous sexual repression and a gross distortion of our origins in the cosmos.
How clever you think this book is depends, largely, on your perspective. In reading other reviews, this has been hailed as the greatest work on the subject of atheism ever written, and also as an act of such grand intellectual trickery it should have its own category in the local bookstore.
One thing everyone can agree on is that it's brilliantly written. Every sentence sparkles with wit and clarity. It's page after page of the smartest, most devastating prose you're likely to encounter. As another reviewer put it "Hitchens has never written a boring sentence in his life."
The subject matter, of course, is the real issue here. Hitchens applies his enormous brain to tearing apart, so the title says, God in all his various forms. In fact, the subtitle is more accurate, as the book is mostly about how awful religion is. God escapes with nothing more than the same roasting given him as far back as Betrand Russell, and in more detail recently by Richard Dawkins. There isn't much new there.
Relgion on the other hand, from Christianity to Islam to Mormonism to Judaism, even Buddhism, gets thoroughly slashed with the Hitchens tongue. It's packed with devastating facts: how about that the Dalai Lama was a big supporter of India's nuclear testing, or that Archbishops in the Catholic Church told their congregations that condoms spread HIV. And it's a powerful, thoroughgoing argument against religion per se.
Hitchens has been criticised by many intellectuals for two things: first, that he spends no energy on looking at why religion is important to people. In simply dismissing it, they argue, he's missing the elephant in the room. Secondly, he is said to imply too strongly that religion causes people to behave cruelly or violently. It does a lot of good too, it is said. Particularly in instilling moral fibre, and entreating people to think beyond their own selfish needs.
For my own part, I think these arguments against Hitchens are weak. And moreover don't dispute many of his most important arguments. Why religion is important is interesting, but a different book. And whether religion sometimes motivates goodness is, I don't think, never disputed by Hitchens. He does however want us to acknowledge the enormous horrors committed in its name. And the likewise good that is done by completely secular organisations. To argue that Stalin and Hitler weren't religious does not negate the fact that Bin Laden, the Ayatollah and the Crusaders were.
This is the most engaging book I've read in a very long time. Whether you're an atheist who wants to hear it said just right, or a believer who is open to debate, this is as close to must-read as its possible to find. An essential companion to living with religion, or in opposition to it.
The Skin Gods by Richard Montanari
It is the steaming heart of summer in the City of Brotherly Love. Back on the force after taking a bullet during the arrest of a sadistic murderer, Detective Kevin Byrne warily returns to police headquarters. He cannot shake the memory of the Rosary Killer's innocent victims-or his growing sense that the evil has not been vanquished. And when he and his partner, Detective Jessica Balzano, are called in on a bizarre case, Byrne's gravest suspicions are confirmed. A madman, dubbed The Actor by the homicide unit, is meticulously re-creating Hollywood's most famous-and most gruesome-death scenes. The first murder is caught on film, spliced into a rented VHS edition of the Hitchcock black-and-white masterpiece Psycho. But in place of Janet Leigh is a real-life woman, and this time, the blood is red and the knife is real. Soon, more thrilling classics are turned into terrifying snuff films and placed on video store shelves for an unsuspecting public to find.
The key to this horrific puzzle could lie with any of The Skin Gods' supporting cast: the A-list Hollywood director, the ruthless executive assistant, the convicted mass murderer-or perhaps someone else who has made a sinister art of gruesome violence. Hot on the psychopath's trail, Balzano and Byrne descend into the mouth of madness and beyond, deep into the depraved underworld of S&M clubs and the porn industry, where the worship of flesh leads to malevolent evil. Before the final credits roll, the investigators will discover that none of The Actor's victims are as innocent as they appear to be, and that the clue the police need to prevent future murders might be found in Detective Byrne's own dark past.
Written by the author of The Rosary Girls, this Hollywood blockbuster-type crime thriller is the second in what will hopefully be a long series of novels featuring Detectives Byrne and Balzano. I enjoy crime novels, but find myself getting easily bored with the constant rehashing of similar plot lines. Richard Montenari is different from the rest in that he has a wonderful warmth to his writing which is often absent in detective novels. His descriptive prose, more so in The Rosary Girls than in his second novel, is at times quite poetic, and his characters are beautifully developed, if a little cliched, in the short time that he has to cultivate them. His books are written versions of the current trend towards cult slasher flicks, but written with a gentleness that belies the gory subject matter. I am now a big fan, and eager to read the third book in the series, Merciless, which was released end of last month.
Memory In Death by J.D. Robb
Eve Dallas is one tough cop. She can take on purse snatchers, drug dealers, and worse. But when Trudy Lombard - a seemingly ordinary middle-aged lady - shows up at the station, it's all Eve can do to hold it together.
J.D. Robb is the pseudonym of Nora Roberts, better known for what I understand are romance novels [but since I've only ever read one of these and it only because it was related to the In Death series, I can't say for sure]. Memory In Death is somewhere in the middle of the series, which is set about 50 years into the future and follows the career of New York Police and Security Department Lieutenant Eve Dallas. In this particular book, she and her partner, Detective Peabody, are in the midst of closing a spectacularly pedestrian case when Eve walks into her office to find one of her former foster mothers sitting there. Since I presume that anyone who bothers to pick up this book is going to read the back of it, I'll tell you that it's not very much later that Trudy Lombard is dead. And it's up to Eve to find out the who and the why - but for the first time in her career, she's faced with a victim that she can't feel for. While this is not the best book in the series, and I personally found the question of who did the killing to be fairly obvious, readers who enjoy the series will enjoy the book and the insights into Eve's past that it gives. Besides which, it's a murder mystery and those are always fun. You can always pick up a different one in the series - you don't have to read them in order and it's usually more difficult to work out who the murderer is than in this particular case [for example: Conspiracy in Death] or, even when Eve herself knows who it was from the start - how do you prove it and what were they doing anyway [eg: Origin in Death].
Monday, August 27, 2007
By The Sword by Mercedes Lackey
By the Sword features Kerowyn, the grand-daughter of the Sorceress Kethry from The Oathbound, Oathbreakers, and Oathblood. By the Sword is set between events covered in the Arrows of the Queen Trilogy and The Mage Winds Trilogy.
The only stand-alone book in the entire Valdemar series, where the previous books serve as myths, etc. for the later books. This book is the tale of Kerowyn - she starts out as your usual whiny forced-into-doing-something-heroic lead character and matures nicely throughout the book. Unlike some of the other books set in this world, By The Sword takes you on a nice journey through a number of different provinces/countries as Kerowyn travels around the land as a mercenary. A straight, simple fantasy tale and a reasonable introduction to a fascinating world - animal companions [horses, usually], telepathy, gay people, 'thinking' swords ... what more could you ask for?
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
'His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.' With these words "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" draws to a close. And here, in this seventh and final book, Harry discovers what fate truly has in store for him as he inexorably makes his way to that final meeting with Voldemort. In this thrilling climax to the phenomenally bestselling series, J.K. Rowling will reveal all to her eagerly waiting readers.
What more pedestrian and popular book could I choose to write my first review on than this, one of the great bestsellers of all time from the woman who went from coffee shop to the first billionaire author?
Still, I just finished it and having trawled (and at times laboured) through all seven Potters, I figure it's worth a few comments to add to the many gazillion already out there.
I will try go easy on the spoilers as all good reviewers should.
For starters, one must say there has been comparatively little noise and fanfare about this book save for the ceremonials of the launch day and the feverish reviews thereafter. My theory as to why this is, simply, that this book has rather fewer surprises than we may have hoped. I've heard all the gaaning-aan about how "dark" it is and how it has many twists and turns and resolves years worth of mysteries. And it does. Sort of. But while the details would have been hard to guess, the broad resolution strategy which Rowling picks is ultimately rather ordinary.
The biggest gripe I have about this volume is its long, needlessly fluffed out non-action sequences, which have been growing in magnitude ever since The Order of the Phoenix. Pages and pages of Weasley meals and inane chatter between minor characters. Like Tolkien, Rowling has tried to create a living, breathing world with 3-dimensional characters that we care to know a whole lot about. Like Tolkien, perhaps, she has not quite succeeded. Let's face it, the only things we adult readers care about is a) who dies and b) who wins. The rest is just boring.
Or it would be if it weren't written with the usual easy style and edge-of-your-seat suspense that makes Rowling every bit as un-put-downable as Dan Brown. Even though I can sum up the first half of the book as "they find and break a locket" (I mean that quite sincerely) it all does feel kind of exciting. I'm not sure her characters -- at least outside of Harry and Hermoine, Ron is a flat twit -- are all that interesting. Voldemort is drawn with the same complexity as Fox news' portrayal of Osama Bin Laden; the rest of the Weasleys are closer to wombles than wizards; and the myriad of other guest stars are appealing only in their recognisability.
My fiance points out that it feels like this was written with the film in mind, and it seems likely by now that that's true. It's not weaker for that, but the sense that you are being swept along by a cyclonic marketing storm instead of simply having fun is always there.
This is not a bad book, or an especially good book. It's best parts are nowhere near as good as the best of the earlier books which somewhat pre-dated the really crazy sales figures. It's an obvious must for anyone whose paid attention to the franchise over the years, old and young. And we mustn't forget that great achievement amidst all this serious critique: this is a series that appeals almost equally to adults and children, and that, among many other reasons, is what makes JK Rowling one of the greatest writers of all time.
phillygirl reviewed this book on 14 December 2007:
I liked this book, as with all the other Harry Potters in the series. But, I must say I'm glad the series is now closed. It's not that I wouldn't read another, if it were written ... it's more that I think JK Rowling has run out of Harry Potter stories to tell.
As I read I did have a theory or two about how she was going to end it, since she was not only ending a book, but an entire institution. She handled it delicately and I guess the way one would since there were so many fans out there waiting with bated breath. Still, as I said, I liked it (although the future based epilogue really annoyed me).
Saturday, August 18, 2007
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son is perfectly healthy, but his daughter has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect his wife, he asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, the nurse disappears into another city to raise the child herself.
The book was pretty good, I enjoyed it as a fairly light holiday read - nothing especially dark & twisty here. But a nice enough story with the obvious hollywood ending none the less.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
THE NO.1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY introduced the world to the one and only Precious Ramotswe - the engaging and sassy owner of Botswana's only detective agency. TEARS OF THE GIRAFFE, McCall Smith's second book, takes us further into this world as we follow Mama Ramotswe into more daring situations ... Among her cases this time are wayward wives, unscrupulous maids, and the challenge to resolve a mother's pain for her son who is long lost on the African plains. Indeed, Mma Ramotswe's own impending marriage to the most gentlemanly of men, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, the promotion of Mma's secretary to the dizzy heights of Assistant Detective, and the arrival of new members to the Matekoni family, all brew up the most humorous and charmingly entertaining of tales.
This was a fairly easy read. Quite a pleasant story but, nothing spectacular. I only really found it interesting because it was set in Botswana. Although I found the way it was written, the actual language, very strange and not especially easy to read.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
It is Berlin, year 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.
I loved this book. It is written in a similar style (like you're in the mind of a 9 year old child) to Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. It's a delightfully innocent story :)
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders
Citizens waiting to enter the country of Inner Horner, a strange land that is only large enough for one resident at a time, fall prey to the tyrannical rule of the ambitious and power-hungry Phil, igniting an outbreak of injustice and mass hysteria, in an unusual novel by the author of Pastoralia. Original.
A quick and truly bizarre read. I'm guessing I didn't pick up all the political innuendos but it was otherwise fairly entertaining and definitely had some amusing bits! Not for you if you require realism ;) In my defence, I did only buy the book because of it's fantastic title!
