Pilgrim continues to search as 2020 begins

I wish everyone here a happy, healthy and hopeful New Year!

Same to you sweetie!

>1 -pilgrim-: >2 -pilgrim-: Same to you, mate, and I love the cards!

I too love the cards! What languages are those featured in >1 -pilgrim-:?

Ευχαριστω πολλα!

Спасибо много!

Many thanks and the same to you, doubled.

En ook 'n baie voorspoedige nuwe jaar.

>5 jillmwo: If I may butt in:
Greek, Russian and English.

>6 hfglen: Baie dankie!

Happy New Year and happy reading!

Good wishes for 2020 with lots of great reads to enjoy.

Happy new year! I hope it contains many good books!

Best wishes for 2020.

Happy reading to you, pilgrim! Hope all of your reading choices bring you great pleasure.

January

✓1. The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard - 3 stars
✓2. Master of the Day of Judgment by Leo Perutz (trans. Eric Mosbacher) - 4 stars
✓3. Republic or Death!: Travels in Search of National Anthems by Alex Marshall - 2.5 stars
✓4. Firefly by Henry Porter - 3.5 stars
✓5. The White Rose Rescue by Astrid Lindgren (trans. Susan Beard) - 3 stars
✓6. Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch - 3.5 stars
✓7. Danger's Halo by Amanda Carlson - 2 stars
✓8. Monday Starts On Saturday by the Strugatsky brothers (trans. Andrew Bromfield) - 5 stars
9. Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson - 4.5 stars

February

1. VOX by Christina Dalcher - 1 star
✓2. Warrior Mage by Lindsay Buroker - 3.5 stars
✓3. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Part 1 by Mark Twain - 3 stars
✓4. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Part 2 by Mark Twain - 3.5 stars
✓5. Five Children and It by E. Nesbit - 4 stars
✓6. The Dying Trade by David Donachie - 2.5 stars
✓7. Dragon Storm by Lindsay Buroker - 3 stars
✓8. The Civil War as a Theological Crisis by Mark A. Noll - 4.5 stars
✓9. Oaths by Lindsay Buroker - 3 stars
✓10. Crazy Canyon by Lindsay Buroker - 4 stars
✓11. White Hot Silence by Henry Porter - 3 stars

March

✓1. Imperial Legend by Alexis S. Troubetzkoy - 4 stars
✓2. The Kindred of Darkness by Barbara Hambly - 4.5 stars
✓3. Revelations by Lindsay Buroker - 3.5 stars
✓4. Origins by Lindsay Buroker - 3 stars
✓5. Repentance and Confession by Hieromonk Gregorios (trans. Stelios Zarganes) - 3 stars
✓6. The Pendragon Protocol by Philip Purser-Hallard - 4.5 stars
✓7. The Way of a Pilgrim from The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way by an anonymous author (trans. Olga Savin) - 4.5 stars
✓8. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, I from The Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol, Volume 1 by Nikolai Gogol (trans. Constance Garnett, ed. Leonard J. Kent) - 3 stars
9. Unraveled by Lindsay Buroker - 2 stars
✓10. The Locksley Exploit by Philip Purser-Hallard - 3.5 stars

Series in progress

Fiction

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch: 1-7 - The Domestic; False Value
Dania Gorska by Hania Allen: 1 - Clearing the Dark

Chronicles of Amber by John Gregory Betancourt: P1, 1-10 - Chaos and Amber
The Folk of the Air by Holly Black: P1-3, 1-2 -The Queen of Nothing
Dominion of The Fallen by Aliette de Bodard: 1 - Children of Thorns, Children of Water
Pieter Posthumous by Britta Bolt: 3 - Lonely Graves
Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs: 1-2 - Fair Game
Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs: 1-8 - Fire Touched
Sianim by Patricia Briggs: 3-4 - Masques
World of the Five Gods by Lois McMasters Bujold: 1.1, 2 -Penric and the Shaman, The Paladin of Souls
Chains of Honor by Lindsay Buroker: P1-P3, 1-2 Snake Heart, Assassin's Bond
Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker: 1-8 - Diplomats and Fugitives
Fallen Empire by Lindsay Buroker: P-3 - Relic of Sorrows

Holly Danger by Amanda Carlson: 1 - Danger's Vice
Spellslinger by Sebastian de Castell: 1-5 - Crownbreaker
Greatcoats by Sebastian de Castell: 1 - Knight's Shadow
The Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty: 1 - The Kingdom of Copper
Chronicles of an Age of Darkness by Hugh Cook: 1 - The Wordsmiths and the Warguild
The Saxon Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell: 1-2 - The Lords of the North
Sharpe by Bernard Cornwell:1, 6, 8-9, 13 - Sharpe's Triumph
Arkady Renko by Martin Cruz Smith: 1 - Polar Star

Marcus Didius Falco by Lindsey Davis: 1-6 - Time to Depart
Flavia Albia by Lindsey Davis: 1-2.5 - Deadly Election
Priya's Shakti by Ram Devineni & Dan Goldman: 1-2 - Priya and the Lost Girls
John Pearce by David Donachie: 1, 14 - A Shot-Rolling Ship
The Privateersman Mysteries by David Donachie: 1-2 - A Hanging Matter
The Marie Antoinette Romances by Alexandre Dumas: 2 - Cagliostro
The Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: 1-3 - Louise de la Vallière
Cliff Janeway by John Dunning: 1 - The Bookman's Wake

The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy by Hailey Edwards: 1 - How to Claim an Undead Soul

Metro 203x by Dmitry Glukhovsky: 1-1.5 - Metro 2034
The Archangel Project by C Gockel: 1- 1.5 - Noa's Ark
The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula le Guin 1 - The Tombs of Atuan

Forever War by Joe Haldeman: 1 - Forever Free
Benjamin January by Barbara Hambly: 1 - Fever Season
Darwath by Barbara Hambly: 1-3 - Mother of Winter
James Asher by Barbara Hambly: 1-2, 4-5 - Blood Maidens, Darkness on His Bones
Sun Wolf and Star Hawk by Barbara Hambly: 1-3 - Hazard
The Windrose Chronicles by Barbara Hambly: 1-3 - Firemaggot
The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison 4-5, 9 - The Stainless Steel Rat Is Born
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg: 1-2, 4 - The Master Magician

Conqueror by Conn Iggulden: 1 - Lords of the Bow

Alex Verus by Benedict Jacka: 9 - Fated

The Danilov Quintet by Jasper Kent:1 - Thirteen Years Later

The Jane Doe Chronicles by Jeremy Lachlan: 1 - The Key of All Souls
The Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence: 1 - Grey Sister
The Kalle Blomqvist Mysteries by Astrid Lindgren: 3 - Master Detective

Robert Colbeck by Edward Marston: 1 - The Excursion Train
The Raven's Mark by Ed McDonald: 1 - Ravencry

The Psammead by E. Nesbit: 1-3 - The Story of the Amulet

Giordano Bruno by S.J. Parris: 5 - Heresy
Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters: 1-12 - The Rose Rent
The Gaian Consortium by Christine Pope: 1 - Breath of Life
Discworld by Sir Terry Pratchett: 1-15.5 - Soul Music
The Devices Trilogy by Philip Purser-Hallard: 1-2 - The Trojans

Divergent by Veronica Roth: 1, 2.5 - Insurgent

The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski: 1 - The Last Wish, Time of Contempt
Old Man's War by John Scalzi: 1 - The Ghost Brigades
The Rhenwars Saga by M. L. Spencer: 1 - Darklands
The Dolphin Ring by Rosemary Sutcliff: 1, 3-6, 8 - The Silver Branch

A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: 1-2 - Part 3

Miss Silver by Patricia Wentworth: 1 - The Case is Closed

Non-fiction

The Spiritual Life by Hieromonk Gregorios: 1 - Be Ready

The History of Middle Earth by Christopher Tolkien: ??

Series Completed in 2020

Dragon Blood by Lindsay Buroker: P, 1-8
Heritage of Power by Lindsay Buroker: 1-5

Series up to date

Paul Samson by Henry Porter: 1-2 - The Old Enemy
The Hitman's Guide by Alice Winters: 1-2

N.b.
(i) This list is still probably incomplete.
(ii) The named book is the next to be read
(iii) Inclusion of a series does not imply intent to complete it.
(iv) I have read some of the series in bold type during this year (2020), others are outstanding.
(v) I have pruned out of this list some series that I began in 2019, but definitely do not intend to continue.

Currently Reading


The Orthodox Church: 2 Worship by Fr Thomas Hopko
Started: 21/1/19


Grey Sister: Book 2 of the Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence
Started: 29/12/19


Agent Jack by Robert Hutton
Started: 23/1/2020


The Binding by Bridget Collins
Started: 25/2/2020


The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer by Professor Trisha Greenhalgh and Dr. Liz O'Riordan
Started:12/11/19


The Story of Kullervo by J.R.R. Tolkien
Started: 9/3/2020


Modern Orthodox Theology by Paul Ladouceur
Started: 4/8/19


Basic Polish: A Grammar and Workbook by Dana Bielec
Started: 24/8/19

On Kindle:

The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition by Rudyard Kipling
Started: 4/2/2020

And here is my first review of 2020:



The House of Shattered Wings: Book 1 of Dominion of the Fallen by Aliette de Bodard - 3 stars

I had high expectations here, and so this was something of a disappointment. I started this in October on my Kindle, and found I was not rushing back to it.

I really enjoyed Aliette de Bodard's world-building in the previous book that I read by her. And the setup here was also interesting. I just did not feel the story itself was that good.

This is set in Paris, but a ruined Paris, destroyed by the "Great War" between the Houses. The Houses are feudal domains, which divide up Paris and protect the members of their House, whilst expecting loyalty and obedience in return. Outside the Houses, street gangs roam and scavenge.

The Fallen are fallen angels, who literally fall from the City into Paris, their wings hacked off. But they arrive innocent, with no memory of the rebellion for which they are being presumably punished.

And they are vulnerable, because every scrap of their bodies can be used in alchemy - to imbue magic items which can be utilised by anyone, even humans, but which are basically storage items, whose power is gradually used up. Angel essence, which when inhaled briefly gives a human the powers of a Fallen, is considered an addictive drug. But the Fallen are still immortal (unless killed) and once they orient themselves, and work out how to use their innate power, they can return out to be extremely powerful - and terrifying.

And there is more. As in the war that we used to call the Great War, France called upon its colonies. Soldiers from Indochina were brought to fight for Paris. And these are not human either, but they served a different deity - the Jade Emperor.

How this history of Paris fits with our world is never explained. The streets and landmarks are recognisable. But a ruined Notre Dame - horribly presciently - points to a future setting, whilst references to Indochina, rather than Viet Nam, place it in the past.

As a premise, it is fascinating. Aliette de Bodard is a Parisienne of part-Vietnamese origin, and she uses these different cultural strands with great confidence.

But almost the entire story consists of the political manouevrings between the Houses. We watch as a newly arrived Fallen and an embittered Vietnamese ex-soldier (who fought for a now-destroyed House and is currently a member of a street gang), are drawn into the affairs of the House of Silver Spires, built around the ruins of Notre Dame, and founded by Morningstar himself. We see the internal conflicts of many House members. But mainly it is about how inhuman the Fallen can be, and how ruthless those who rule Houses are - and believe that they "have" to be - in order to preserve their House and its dependents... when not sacrificing them "for the good of the House".

The Fallen can remember nothing of their rebellion, and little of the City, except that they can never return. Despite this, some are still conventionally Christian, which does not entirely make sense to me (if they do not believe God's infinite mercy applies to them, yet do not take responsibility for their mysterious "rebellion" (since they do not remember it), in what exactly, do they believe?)) Basically, this makes the whole "fallen angel" concept somewhat pointless - they are just random-suoernatural-being-with-unspecified-powers.

The glimpses of the Vietnamese supernatural were more interesting, because these beings still retain beliefs and motivations related to their traditional conception. But unfortunately this references were often tantalisingly brief. Not being familiar with traditional Vietnamese religion, the hints were too little.

And this "I do what I have to do" mentality meant that most of the characters were hard to like. The jeopardy at the end was very much the logical consequence of this attitude. The tension was lacking not because the peril was not real, but because it was deserved.

Because we are dropped into the middle of this world (like a new Fallen), it takes a while to work out the 'rules'. What makes this vaguely unsatisfying is that they are never really made clear; new powers, or limitations, tend to pop up as needed.

As the setup for a novel, this showed real promise; but as the novel itself, it was disappointingly ordinary.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 30

So are all the books listed in post 15 what you are planning on reading in 2020?

>15 -pilgrim-: Eek, no! I am not that ambitious. Also, I don't enjoy planning my reading in advance: goals, challenges etc. too often seem to turn a pleasure into a chore (for me).

I don't tend to buy books when they first come out. So that is a list to remind me which books from various series I have read (the numbers), and the name of the next book to read in that series (so that I can look out for it).

>17 -pilgrim-: Your review seems to agree with my reaction to the book - great premise and set-up, but disappointing execution. I felt detached from all the characters so I couldn't really care about their intrigues and political manoeuvres or their ultimate fates. However, I went on to read the sequel, House of binding thorns, and loved it. It was much more immediate and involving, and there was more of the Vietnamese element.

>20 Sakerfalcon: Thank you for that. I had been undecided whether to continue with the series or not; it sounds as if it might be worthwhile after all.

I noticed that in her acknowledgements, Aliette de Bodard thanks various people for help where she was stuck. It sounds like she knew where she wanted to go with this, but got a bit lost on how to get there.

>19 -pilgrim-: Thanks!

Looks like you've been absent from this thread for a bit, hope it's not for totally awful reasons. I've just caught up and had to chime in with my dislike for The Dark Monk as well. Not for the same reasons altogether, but it was nice to see another perspective for all that is wrong with that book.

>23 Bookmarque: I have just read your review of The Dark Monk and agree with everything that you said there.

And no, there is too much going wrong at the moment. I have no heart for reading. Am trying to work out what I can do. (I just appear here occasionally to keep up with other people's threads.)

>1 -pilgrim-: Following, and wishing you a happy new year. Happiness occurs in moments, in my experience--not in days or months, much less years. Those moments are like diamonds in the grass.

>25 Meredy: Thank you (am following you also, even if I don't say much). You are right, of course. Wise words. Life is not without its moments.

Meeting up with @Sakerfalcon and @pgmcc at Foyle's last week was one of them.

But the news since then has made me feel that it is always a case of 1 step forward, 10 steps back.

And the trip to Foyle's was a good excuse to fulfil my Thingaversary requirements and purchase:
Scandinavians: In Search of the Soul of the North by Robert Ferguson

Germany: Memories of a Nation by Neil MacGregor

Someone in the GD recommended St. Peter's Snow, by Leo Perutz. Will the guilty party please stand up and take a bow?

In consequence, I picked up another book by at author, which I found in a Waterstones sale. The solitary copy called to me - and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

Master of the Day of Judgment by Leo Perutz (translated by Eric Mosbacher) - 4 stars

This is a strange mixture of crime fiction and gothic novel. The sinister, mysterious air arises from the unreliability of the narrator, who seems not entirely mentally stable.

The setting is in the alien world of Vienna in 1909. The mores of the period are such that the appropriate way to proceed regarding an aristocratic cavalry officer one believes guilty of murder, and then lying in denial "on his word of honour", is to take one's suspicions not to the police, but to the Court of Honour of his regiment - after first allowing the said officer an interval in which to "do the decent thing".

But although some attitudes are simply not those of the modern era, other thoughts of the narrator seem strange even by the standards of the time. Moreover the character assessments of him by others, as he recounts being told them, do not match his personality as he presents it in this "memoir".

The case involves a sequence of apparent suicides, all except one inexplicable in terms of the state of mind of the deceased, but resembling each other in circumstance. The victims know each other.

Investigation into these events is carried out partly by the narrator, and partly by mutual acquaintances. The narrator is not himself likeable, demonstrating both the arrogance of his class and the self-absorption of the mentally unstable, which results in little personal distress over the death of acquaintance, being more preoccupied with the reminiscences that the event invokes and how his own emotional response to those memories affects him. The distress of bereaved relatives barely enters his thoughts, even when he would describe himself as personally close to them. On the other hand he can be equally apathetic to events that one would think should concern him greatly.

But there are other attractive figures in the novel, so although the narrator is distant, the reader does not share his ennui.

I enjoyed this tremendously. The twists are unexpected, but the final conclusion is not fanciful.

This novel was written in the era of Sigmund Freud, and the then current understanding of psychology plays a prominent rôle in this novel. In particular there is is an epilogue, ostensibly written by another party after the death of the narrator, which gives another possible interpretation of the whole sequence of events, in psychological terms.

This book was published by Pushkin Press, in an imprint called Pushkin Vertigo, which seems to be an attempt to collect the best of classic European crime fiction and translate it for an English-speaking readership.

It was written in 1921 by a Jewish author of Czech origin, who fled Austria after the Anschluss but returned after the war. Its mood is very much of the between the wars Viennese intellectual community.

I will be looking for more books by Leo Perutz, and Pushkin Vertigo also seems to be worth investigating further.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 16, 22, 43

Republic or Death!: Travels in Search of National Anthems by Alex Marshall - 2.5 stars

I should have taken more notice of the author's background when I was tempted towards this book. He is a music and travel journalist - two genres in which the writer is used to giving primacy to his own thoughts, reactions and sense impressions. And that is exactly what he does here.

He was inspired to write this book when a rapper, who he was interviewing, kept telling him how "important" his music was. The writer doubted this to be the case, and (by his own admission) stopped listening to his interviewee, so that he could muse about what music he considered to be actually important. His conclusion was that anthems, the music that inspires people to fight for their country, might actually fit the case.

The author then travels around several countries, interviewing their inhabitants about what their national anthem means to them, and in the cases where it has changed recently, interview the writers of the anthem.

That is a basically sound premise for a really interesting book. Anthems are short pieces of music that we recognise, whilst knowing almost nothing about their composers. And they are important - the way new regimes agonise about how to change them is evidence for that. The countries that the author selects to visit are those where either the form of the anthem itself, or the history of his it came to be that country's national anthem, is particularly distinctive.

The problem is in the execution. The author is far more interested in himself than in his topic. I lost count of the number of times that he told us he had stopped listening to what his interviewee was saying - usually because it did not match his preconceptions of what he had decided that they ought to think - and regaled the reader with his own meandering ideas instead. Since I found all of his main interviewees more interesting than him, this irritated me intensely.

Apart from the infuriating narcissism this displayed, it also leads to incredibly disorganised material. Thus, for example, information about about Korean anthems appears in the chapter on France.

Nevertheless the interviews and nuggets of information about the history of the anthems are genuinely interesting.

I do have some qualms about his standards of accuracy, however. He seems to take it for granted that the Jacobite usage of "God Save the King" simply aped the Hanoverian anthem, whilst later admitting that the Hanoverians took the anthem from a published, anonymous source of what was already a popular tune, and puzzles as to how it could be so popular and yet so little known about its composer.

Now, I have a book on the history of Jacobite songs (unfortunately not to hand), which starts that "God Save the King" was originally a Jacobite song, praying for the preservation of the "King over the Water" (i.e. in exile in France), that was subsequently taken over by the Hanoverians and given additional polemical verses in praise of General Wade, and about crushing "rebellious Scots", as an astute propaganda move. My source named the Jacobite author, and stated that he had to be published anonymously because he was at that time already proscribed and on hiding. This account of the origins of the British national anthem may not be correct, but in a book which refers extensively to the use of anthems for propaganda purposes, I feel it should at least have been mentioned, rather than just the author's assumption that the official version was the first. Presumably his research was simply too facile for him to be aware of it - which makes me wary of his accuracy on the histories that he gives for other anthems.

I was extremely moved by the account from the Japanese schoolteacher whose career has been blighted by her refusal to stand when the Japanese national anthem is played at the beginning of the school year (because for her it symbolises her country's refusal to admit, and teach its children about, the atrocities it committed prior to and during the Second World War) - and of the headmaster who committed suicide from the dishonour of being unable to persuade his staff to stand for the anthem, as his school board had required.

Such stories are what made this book worth reading. It was therefore particularly galling to read, in the Acknowledgements, of all the anthem composers and writers, whom he had interviewed but not included - so that he could include such things as a lengthy account of drinking with Bosnians, several pages on his attempt to sing "The Star-spangled Banner in a competition, and an entire chapter on his own attempts to write a new national anthem for Switzerland.

Basically this is yet another of these "how can I get someone else to pay for my travelling?" books, where the theme is really just an excuse to go to certain countries. The fact that the author is apparently an "award-winning journalist" makes one despair of journalistic standards.

Countries visited are: France, USA, Nepal, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Liechtenstein (who still share a tune for their anthem with Britain), Japan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, South Africa (for their multilingual anthem) and Paraguay. (There is also a chapter on Islamic State, but he went to Germany to speak to experts on their naseed jihadya.)

Each chapter is preceded by a few verses of the relevant national anthem (or one version, in certain cases) both in the original language and in English translation. (Note: there is no transliteration, provided for those that do not use the Latin alphabet.)

Firefly (Book 1 of Paul Samson adventures) by Henry Porter - 3.5 stars

This has nothing to do with the science fiction TV series; "Firefly" is the codename for the "asset" being sought by multiple parties in this thriller.

Naji Tauma is an extremely intelligent thirteen-year old boy. He organised his family's escape from Syria into Turkey, after witnessing the massacres committed by Islamic State in his village. On seeing in their refugee camp men who had taken part in the massacre, and knowing that they recognised him, he escapes the camp and makes his way along the migrant trail through Greece and Macedonia, heading for Germany. Since he is an unaccompanied minor, he cannot pass through legally, even though he is a documented refugee, and is therefore traveling the illegal route.

Paul Samson is a British citizen of Lebanese origin, and a former child refugee himself. He was formerly in the employ of SIS (i.e. MI6), until fired because they disapproved of his private life - a habit of making occasional calculated, but sizeable, bets on horse racing. He now works freelance, looking for missing persons.

Naji had confided to the child psychologist in the camp that two men from IS were there, and that he was in danger from them because of what he had seen, and she reported this to her superiors. As a result, SIS hire Paul to find the boy, so that he can identify the terrorists responsible for the massacre.

The story switches between the points of view of Naji and Paul, during this pursuit across the Balkans - because far less well-intentioned parties are looking for Naji too.

This is a well constructed thriller dealing with topical problems: the threat that IS poses to Europe, and the European security services' response to it, and the massive influx of refugees, fleeing the mayhem in the Middle East, and swelling the ranks of migrants to such an extent that their countries of first arrival, such as Greece, struggle to cope.

It relies at times on some lucky coincidences, but there are also missed opportunities, so the result does not seem too fortuitous. This is, I suppose, what real intelligence work is like: successful operations require a combination of good luck, intelligent analysis of information, and hard work.

What raised this story above the average for me was two factors: the portrayal of the main protagonists and the way it dealt with atrocity.

An important theme in the plot is the sale by IS of thousands of young captured women as sex slaves, and their subsequent rape, torture, and possible divide or murder. Paul's previous, unsuccessful, job was to find and attempt to retrieve one such woman.

In a less skillful author's hands such atrocity could easily have been graphically described, with a lot of prurient detail. But the topic is handled sensitively; the book does not gloss over the horror of what these women endure, but it does not take pleasure in detailing specifics. Similarly, there is no gratuitous detail in the torture or murder, whether committed by IS or in Assad's prisons.

And I liked the portrayal of our hero, Paul. He is no "gung-ho" macho type. Although capable of both enduring physical violence, and committing it where necessary, it is never his first resort. He is no Jack Bauer type; he never tortures or roughs up anyone. He gets the information by skillful interrogation and and competent intelligence work. Furthermore, unlike so many modern heroes, he does not have a shady past. He is no shining idealist, but he is a basically decent guy, whose biggest flaw seems to be that he is too keen on risk to settle down and start a family, as his mother wants - and too aware of this flaw to start a relationship with someone who would be discomfited by this.

The portrayal of the young Syrian boy was equally skillful. It showed his above average intelligence, and how this both increased his competence and alteted his view of the world, but (unlike other portrayals of "boy genius" characters) it never forgot that emotionally he is still a boy, even though he has taken on the responsibilities of an adult, and seen things most adults would find hard to cope with. Some aspects of the "repressed memory" theme did not trying quite true to me, but I am not enough of a psychologist to know whether they are plausible or not.

This book was written by an author who has spent time in the Balkans, and visited the refugee camps in Greece. He knows about what he writes, and did it with realism rather than sensationalism.

I liked this book so much that I am disappointed by some things in the final two chapters. Firstly, Paul has made a major, very obvious, and stupid mistake - for no reason, he takes with him something that he has no user for, that should have been kept safe -but then he is tired, and no one is perfect. However some things happen that is never properly explained. Major spoilers: The three shots heard are not what they initially purport to be; but who actually fired them, and at what, is never explained - no one is actually hit. If Usaim and Denis were shooting at each other, one would not expect the spacing between shots. Also, how did Darko get untied, so that he can stagger out of the house at the end? Denis is hardly likely to have delayed going after the other IS members, whilst keeping Usaim covered, in order to detour via the farmhouse. However these are minor irritations, which in no way ruin the plot.

I have been reading a preview copy that I received from the Amazon Vine programme. There have been obvious changes before publication - Paul is called something else in my copy - so the above problems may have been fixed, along with the usual printing errors.

Helmet Challenge: 7, 10, 13, 30

The White Rose Rescue: Book 3 of the Kalle Blomqvist Mysteries by Astrid Lindgren (translated by Susan Beard) - 3 stars

Having read Astrid Lindgren's famous Pippi Longstocking as a child, I was intrigued to discover that she had written many other sequences of books and decided to try one.

This is the third in the Kalle Blomqvist sequence, but that is in no way a problem; the situation is summarised nicely in two pages before the start of the book. Kalle is one of a trio of friends: Anders, the leader, Eva-Lotta, a "fearless warrior", and Kalle himself, who sometimes fancies himself a Master Detective. They comprise the Knights of the White Rose, and spend their summer holidays happily battling three other children, the Knights of the Red Rose, for the possession of the Great Stonytotem. There is no actual enmity between the sides; it is simply an exciting way for the children to spend their summers, with taunting messages, puzzles, sneaking around and pummelings.

However, on the way back from a midnight rendez-vous, Knights of the White Rose see an actual crime in progress, decide that there is no time to get help, and decide to intervene.

This is the same style of innocent children's play mixed with foiling actual criminals that I vaguely remember from my childhood reading of Enid Blyton's Famous Five and Secret Seven.

However this is considerably better writing. The landscape, weather and wildlife are vividly described, in a way that really brings to life the joy the children take in the Swedish countryside. The immediacy of their thought processes also portrays their feelings, rather than simply describing what they actually do.

Eva-Lotta is also considerably more than the 'token girl'. Although Kalle is the point of view character, she is the best warrior of the White Roses, and genuinely heroic in her desire to protect a small boy. The fact that she goes soppy over small children, in a manner alien to her friends, is a traditional female trait, but her 'maternal instincts' inspire her to bravery rather than domesticity. In many ways, she is actually the central character in this story.

However this was first published in 1953, and in one aspect, the story seems incredibly dated. The oldest children at least, Anders and Sixten, are thirteen or fourteen. I cannot imagine modern teenagers playing imaginative games with wooden swords like this. My childhood feels rather far away, but I think I had given up such things by the age of ten, at the latest. (Having just read Firefly, in which a thirteen year old child, admittedly from an environment where he has been forced to grow up fast, is well aware of such threats as paedophiles, and mem who are capable of torturing and killing him, the contrast is rather stark.) Did childhood innocence really pay so much longer back then?

I know children's stories are usually aimed at children actually younger than the stated ages of the protagonists, but I am not clear what she group this is actually aimed at. There is a five year old in this story, whose frank stupidity is a major plot point - and here again the assigned age seems too old. The obliviousness to danger, even when explained by the older children, seems unrealistic, and more appropriate to a three year old. Surely younger children would be offended by such a portrayal of a boy nearer their own age group?

But I also found the lack of sense in the older boys unrealistic. I can see them dating each other into taking real risks, but after this had led to the near death of one, would they really shrug it off so lightly? And could such children make what are, on the whole, relatively sensible decisions and risk assessments when dealing with the adult threat?

In reading children's adventure stories written in the modern era, I find myself disturbed by the unrealistic suggestions of what children can do. Thirteen year olds successfully physically challenging adults, withstanding torture from them etc., might be exciting, but also gives an unrealistic sense of invincibility against the evils of the adult world. (I have the Alex Ryder spy stories in mind here.) What I liked about this story is that although the children are genuinely brave, as well as terrified at times, and their intervention is crucial in saving the kidnap victims, it takes the heroic action of an adult to actually save the day - and his fate is a moving reminder that in the real world heroism can have serious consequences.

This was both a beautiful evocation of the joys of an innocent childhood, and an exciting adventure, culminating in a reassuring return to the safety of the adult world.

I am actually curious as to who the bad guys were working for.They talk about "the cause", and are pursued by the Swedish security services, so they seem to be spies, rather than after money. I asked a Nordic friend who would have been seen as Sweden's enemy in that period, and he has suggested that, from the forms of their leader's names, he appears to be Danish. Is it clearer in the original, or just deliberately vague? Or is it a situation where it does not need to be stated, because everyone at the time would know who was meant (in the way that spies in an American book of the period would be assumed to be Soviet)?

I liked reading this. I think it would probably appeal to an age range of 11 or lower. Peril: No children are harmed, and the man who is shot almost dies, but actually survives.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 25, 32, 34

>31 -pilgrim-: That's not normally a genre I read, but that one sounds interesting.

>33 Karlstar: I don't read a lot of thriller or espionage either, but this was a lot more factually plausible than most. (It is far from the usual, super-competent author avatar "with a tortured past" fare .) It's not a book that I expect to keep and reread, but I am planning to buy the sequel.

Lies Sleeping: Book 7 of the Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch - 3.5 stars

Despite my previous mutterings, the fact that the series now does seem to be leading somewhere had led to me persisting with it as my chemotherapy read. Ben Aaronovitch's writing seems to be getting better. There were no false notes on behaviour, or out-of-character actions inserted to fit the plot. And there does seem to be an overarching plot.

I noticed that there was even an attempt to talk his way, retrospectively, out of the glaring plot holes in the first book, Rivers of London, that I pointed out in my review regarding why Mr Punch would actually alert our hero as to what was going on, and so sabotage his own goals, by suggesting that a lot was done, maybe, by an actor deluded that he was Mr Punch (and who, we know, primarily wanted acclaim for his convincing ability to impersonate others). This does, of course, lead to the unfortunate conclusion that Peter's final act in that book was perpetrated on a party innocent of that particular crime - although, by his nature, certainly guilty of many, many others.

The authentic-sounding London slang/police jargon mix has been one of the main strengths of this series and remains so.

One knows to expect multiple twists in the plot, but the outcome still took me by surprise.

There are still references to cases that are designed to push readers into buying the graphic novels, but they can be left as "unexplained vistas", rather than the infuriating plot holes created by the vanishing of Varvara and the unexplained addition of Maksim, that so annoyed me in Foxglove Summer (reviewed here).

The conclusion leaves the odd loose end: Peter gets Lady Tyburn to "put the fix in" re Foxglove's status in the mundane world, but if she was a slave, traded by her queen, and bound to serve the Faceless Man by that arrangement, so that she felt unable to flee, what repercussions will her actions have in the milieu of the fae?

Furthermore, although there is a mild attempt, by Lesley, to call Peter out over the hypocrisy of his horror regarding how a character - Foxglove - has been treated, by asking how Floxglove's situation differs from Molly's, this still ignores Peter's far greater hypocrisy in his continued tacit complicity in human slavery, as perpetrated by his girlfriend (on Maksim) and her family, as I discussed in
my review of The Hanging Tree and here.

The emphasis on mental health in this installment troubles me, however, particularly when combined with repeat installments of Peter's ability to have visions of dead versions of River gods and goddesses, who in some unclarified way overlap with their current versions, despite having their origins in different humans, whilst in reality he is dying/asphyxiating. If this series comes to the conclusion that everything supernatural was all in the head of an overstressed young policeman, I shall be very disappointed.

Nevertheless I do hope the current sequence of events reaches some sort of conclusion soon. I would not be averse to spending further time in the company of the Society of the Wise, but the feel that everything relates to one, still yet to be revealed, thing is starting to smack of being dragged out simply so as not to kill the cash cow.Surely some other Little Crocodiles had their own, independent, interests? And what about the other Nochnye Koldunyi and their German counterparts? Or the events in the New World briefly referred to here? There seem plenty of other avenues to explore.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 33, 41

Danger's Halo (Book 1 of Holly Danger) by Amanda Carlson - 2 stars

This is the first of a series of novels about salvager Hollywood California Danger (named by her mother from a postcard, because she liked the picture). They are set 153 years from now on a dystopian future America. The technology level is a mixture of advanced and not so advanced: after building a utopian technological future, Earth was hit by a meteor, resulting in permanent climate changes, and a situation where much of the technology around is no longer useable.

While the Government hoards the available resources, the culture of aggressive individualism means that in practice society has fragmented into small groups, each looking out for themselves.

Apparently the setting is that of the HALO video games (which I do not know). I have the impression that some of the things referenced in the book as 'possibly going on' will turn out to be backstories for plot aspects of the game. So there may well be a lot of nuances and hints here that I missed.

Being the first book, a fair amount of time was spent on introducing the technical and social environment. Holly is the typical streetwise, rather improbably badass combat-capable heroine. Her "crew" are the scary, huge mechanic, the suave security specialist and the likeable, nerdy technology expert. There is nothing original here, but not so totally clichéed as to be unbearable.

At the start of the book, Holly has been paid, anonymously, in actual coins (!), to prevent a street kid jumping into a gorge. Naturally she takes him in, find out what sort of trouble he is in, and things go downhill rapidly from there.

This is a solid, workmanlike addition to the dystopia genre. Some plot twists took me by surprise, others did not.

Although Holly is super-competent, she is not infallible; she makes plenty of mistakes.

By the end of the novel:
- it has been identified that Something Important exists, but not what it (information) does
- the initial situation is resolved
- the team is worse off than are beginning
- a Strange Man has appeared.

The Strange Man's jawline is mentioned repeatedly, he has a flowing trenchcoat, is amazingly competent, and irritates our heroine intensely - so I assume that this is the Love Interest being introduced.

Nothing particularly irritated me about this book, other than the obvious sequel-bait and lack of resolution. I enjoyed reading it.

One thing that frustrated me about the setting though is that, from the book, I have no idea how the rest of the world's fared after the meteor strike - is it in the same state America? Unaffected? Completely devastated? Or what?

Given the relatively recent nature of the disaster (in her mother's lifetime), then Holly must be aware of what used to exist. Maybe she does not know the answers to my questions, but given her repeated whining about how terrible it is that things are no longer like they used to be, and how much she hates how her current life is, I would have thought that she ought to have some interest in whether it was better or worse elsewhere!

I read this particular book because it had been lent to me; I did not find it particularly memorable in any way.

Maybe that is because I am not far enough into the story arc, or maybe my ignorance of the video game means that I am blind to hints about where it is going.

I would continue to read this series if I was at a loose end, but will probably not seek the sequel out.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 8, 28

>36 -pilgrim-: I haven't played Halo in a VERY long time but I thought it was about Earth getting invaded or destroyed or something by aliens?

37 I don't know, because I have NEVER played it, but
(i) this was lent to me by a friend who believed it tied into the HALO universe;
(ii) in talking about a type of soldier known as Spartans, he mentioned something about their origins that makes think that this story is going to turn out to be the origin story for them.

That is why I put in the review the date at which the novel is set. Does that precede the setting for the game, and if so, by how much?

>38 -pilgrim-: For the date, I really have no idea. My fandom consisted of getting roped into playing Halo in a multiplayer environment back in the 90's.

but an origin story, I guess so? I didn't even realize the franchise was big enough for that kind of thing, but then, I'm not much of a gamer either :-D

>39 BookstoogeLT: It makes sense to write out of the main game period when you are dealing with an ongoing franchise. Many of the Star Wars novels - that used to be canon before Disney bought the franchise from George Lucas - were set prior to the events of the films.

I'm a "tabletop" gamer more than a computer one. When Iron Crown Enterprises had a licence from Tolkien Enterprises to publish original material set in Middle Earth, most of it was "in game" dated to Third Age 1640 i.e. a couple of thousand years before the events of the Lord of the Rings, but well after anything that happens in The Silmarillion. I suspect that was part of the terms of their being allowed to mess with what has always been a pretty closely controlled intellectual property.

Once you write in the same period as a game or film, it becomes harder to do so without making at least background use of copyrighted characters - so you can't write for profit in these settings without official permission. And a franchise is not going to give that, and make your work canon, if it restricts how they can develop their own plotlines in the future.

That is my take on it, anyway.

I am currently reading Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson, an American author and blogger who has lived in Cairo (and studied Arabic as part of the coursework for her history degree from Boston University).

The hero is a young hacker living in an unspecified Gulf State. His mother is an Indian convert to Islam, his father is Arab.

What is puzzling me, is that his mother tends to call him makan. I was curious as to what that actually meant - did it mean "son", or an affectionate insult like "rascal', or a babyish endearment, or what? - so I googled.

Online translators are quite definitive in insisting that makan means "place" in Arabic! (I can find other meanings in other languages, but none that I can see having right s relevant meaning, or likely to bring spoken in that context.)

Can anyone - @haydninvienna perhaps? - clarify this for me?

Am I missing something, or has the writer made a major blunder in attempting to give "local colour", that no one has picked up?

I would have thought that was unlikely, except for some of the technical stuff that she writes about Alif's hacker activities sounds technically incorrect to me. (Why would he pay someone to DISable the encryption on his own secure phone? I suppose he could want to install his own, if he believes there are backdoors into encryption as provided by manufacturers, but the text mentions only the disabling, not having put on anything else.)

>41 -pilgrim-: Sorry. I know that Gulf Arabic and Egyptian Arabic have differences, but that's about all I know. If the mother was Indian, how about it being an Indian word? Lots of languages in India, and not all Muslims speak Arabic. As I understand it, Muslims from other cultures use their own language for common purposes and treat Arabic as a religious language. (I was just now eating dinner with a Pakistani Muslim whose "home language" is Urdu.)

Wikipedia mentions a Pakistani TV series called "Makan" (also Urdu), which it translates as "Home a Heaven".

I found "Makan" as a boy's name in a Farsi compilation of the astrology of names.

>42 haydninvienna: Thank you.

I had considered the Indian languages as a viable possibility; even though the story makes it clear that Arabic is our hero's native language, his mother might well user loanwords from her own. But my Google search was not throwing up results in these languages (and Google Translate itself only covers a few).

I suspect that makan in Urdu (i.e. home) is a loanword from Arabic with a slight drift in meaning.

"Makan" is not the boy's name, although his real name - Mohammed - is not revealed until a long way into the story (most of the tune he is referred to by his hacker handle, Alif).

But since I have seen Urdu described as a "Persianised" Indian language, I am now wondering whether the answer lies in the meaning of the Farsi name that you found..

Makan is an Arabic boy's name. (ETA: An uncommon one, afaik)

Also, many Arabic given names concretely mean quotidian things but take on metaphorical meanings when used as first names. Eg, Noor = light = heavenly light or nobly illuminated. It actually is a pretty common naming convention in the Arabic language.

Addendum: I decided to do a Google Books search for the word 'makan' in Alif the Unseen, and a search of a paperback edition that contains a glossary states it is the Malayalam word for "son." So that's that, but I'm leaving my above comments, in case they are of interest.

>44 libraryperilous: Thank you!
I knew that 'makan' was not Alif's given name (as that is revealed later in the book), but my edition has no glossary.

Intriguingly, it also did not have the Prologue that is quoted on the LT page for the book either.

>44 libraryperilous: Annoyingly, I cannot read Google books on my phone. It blocks my phone's native enlargement option, whilst providing iits own scaling buttons - that are too small to select!

And I am falling behind in my reviewing again... The last 2 books that I read were stupendously good, the current one is turning out to be mind-blowingly bad - reviews of all three will follow. Eventually. ;-)

>47 -pilgrim-: What books would those be?

>48 BookstoogeLT: Monday Starts On Saturday and Alif the Unseen were superb, and Vox is awful.

(See >14 -pilgrim-: for my list of books read so far this quarter, and >16 -pilgrim-: for those I am currently reading.)

>49 -pilgrim-: Thanks. I didn't realize you updated earlier posts, so that is good to know!

>46 -pilgrim-: Oh, that is annoying. I've found the look inside feature of Google Books to be more helpful than Amazon's on several occasions.

You always write thoughtful and interesting reviews, even of books I'd never decide to read. I enjoy learning from them. Thanks for the care and time you spend.

January Summary

Average: 3.44 stars - a good month

8 fiction: 4 urban fantasy (Paris, London, an Emirate, Karelia), 1 psychological murder mystery (Vienna), 1 children's adventure (rural Sweden), 1 thriller (Greece and Macedonia), 1 science fiction (America)

1 non-fiction: travel

Original language: 6 English, 1 German, 1 Russian, 1 Swedish

Earliest date of first publication: 1921
Latest: 2018

7 paperbacks, 2 Kindle

Authors: 6 male, 4 female
(Translators: 3 male, 1 female)

Author nationality: 3 British, 2 American, 2 Russian, 1 Austrian, 1 French, 1 Swedish

New (to me) authors: 5 (5 familiar)

And, in acknowledgement of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz this month, I note that 4 authors were fully or partly Jewish.

>51 libraryperilous: Thank you. I appreciate your saying that.

And a couple of more statistics for January:

Most popular book on LT: Alif the Unseen (1301 copies)
Least popular: Republic or Death! (11 copies)

No. of books read: 9
From Mount TBR (books owned before 2020): 4
Books owned before joining Green Dragon: 2
No. of books acquired: 22
No. of books disposed of: 6

>51 libraryperilous: "You always write thoughtful and interesting reviews, even of books I'd never decide to read. I enjoy learning from them. Thanks for the care and time you spend."

Seconded... 100% agree.

>55 ScoLgo: Thank you too, for your encouraging words.

I have just finished reading VOX by Christina Dalcher.

I find I have a lot that I would like to say about this book, would starting a thread for that purpose (and of course for anyone else who wishes to comment on the book) be the appropriate thing to do here?

Also, this is a very political novel. It is obviously intended to reference certain trends in American politics. Those themes would not be appropriate for discussion here; but, not being American, I do not consider myself qualified to comment on the plausibility of her political points anyway. But her portrayal of women and feminism - would critiquing those be considered 'politics' under the remit of this pub? If such a discussion would be considered inappropriate for the Green Dragon and, if so, could s Dragoneer suggest somewhere that it might be appropriate to post it?

>57 -pilgrim-: No opinion about starting a thread here, but this new group might be just what you want:

https://www.librarything.com/groups/onebookonethread

>57 -pilgrim-: I was under the impression that "politics" were out in this group?

>59 BookstoogeLT: Discussion of politics is.
That is why I raised the question; I have no intention of commenting on the novel (which is set in an America of the near future) in terms of its attitude towards the American political scene - which is a subject on which I do not feel qualified to comment anyway - but I wanted guidance from the Powers That Be as to whether a discussion of its portrayal of women would be considered "politics" or not.

Thank you @2WonderY.

>60 -pilgrim-: I am not necessarily a "Power That Be" but as a long time member I can say that people here have frequently discussed when they were unhappy with the role of women in a book that they were reading. As for the discussion of Feminism, I would probably tread lightly with that one, as it can certainly get political.

Kinda depends on how it's done? :)

Five Children and It by E. Nesbit - 4 stars

I am feeling very much in need of comfort reads at the moment, so I bought a free eBook edition of a favourite from my childhood. Although the edition I have appears to be taken from the 1905 edition, and credits the original illustrator, this Kindle version did not actually include the illustrations! They were listed, however, and I found that their titles often brought them to my mind (I think the edition that I read as a child must have used the same ones.)

This is a story of four Edwardian children and their two year old baby brother, who are moved to a house in the country after their father is called away on business. Their mother also has to go away, to look after their grandmother who is ill, so they are left in the charge of the servants - Martha the nursemaid and the cook. In practice this means that they are usually left to entertain themselves during the day, coming home for the evening meal. That does not mean, however, that discipline is lax; Martha is kindly but strict, and does not tolerate bad behaviour.

As the author herself says, she could have told an interesting story of ordinary adventures that the children had in such an environment. However they meet a Psammead - a "sand fairy". That is what it calls itself, although in appearance it is very different from traditional views of fairies. It grants wishes. It is permanently grumpy, and as slippery to deal with as one might expect - although it puts all the blame on the stupidity of "modern children", compared to the days when they ate dinosaurs and made sensible food-related wishes.(The idea that dinosaurs were contemporary with early humans was commonplace at the time the book was written. In the story, the children often make errors of fact, but there are no deliberate distortions in the narrative - other than the existence of "sand fairies", of course!)

The story follows the "be careful what you wish for theme", as each of the children's wishes go awry. Although they know the old tale of the farmer and the black pudding, and they have read about the magic beans, they still manage to wish by accident, and even their planned wishes do not turn out as expected.

The four children have distinct personalities, of which Anthea's is the strongest; she is clever, resourceful and compassionate. Of her brothers, Robert is the more rumbunctuous, while Cyril is the more knowledgeable and scientifically minded. Jane is the youngest, and most inclined to sulk, or not quite realise what is going Although the boys sometimes patronise their sisters, in the manner typical of the period, the girls never "live down" to such descriptions, and their brothers fairly often have to apologize and admit that they were wrong.

The opening description of the family as "poor" is, naturally, relative, since they do have servants, and the children are educated. But it is obvious that finances are strained. When they lived in London there was no money for travel or entertainments, and it is evident that the rundown appearance, and inconvenience, of their new home is something that their mother struggles with. Anything new has to be carefully saved up for, and any new toy is a major event. In an era where anyone from the middle class was expected to have at least one servant, the family is clearly relatively low down the social scale. They do not have the unconscious arrogance of those to whom money is no object, and one of the wishes results in a scathing condemnation of such attitudes.

Both the relative freedom, and the expectation of using one's imagination during play, remind me of my own childhood.

The fact that this is the children's point of view needs to be emphasised. The portrayal of the "Red Indians" might well be offensive if considered as a representation of Native Americans; however it is clear that what the children get from their wish is the Red Indians of their imagination, and are no more related to the actual indigenous inhabitants of North America than the castle besiegers, dressed in armour that is a mish-mash of time periods (but matching the standards of accuracy of the historical romances that the children have read), are representative of any European army that ever existed.

The term "gypsy" was neutral, rather than a racial slur, at the time when the book was written. I winced initially at their child-stealing urges - fulfilling the stereotype - but those are the side-effects of a wish (and not confined only to the "gypsies"). The actual portrayal of their lifestyle and values was actually more sympathetic than many modern accounts, and one, Amelia, is one of the most sympathetic adults that the children encounter. They contrast strongly with the circus folk, whose portrayal is far less kindly.

This is an England divided by class. There are people far above the children, and the working class, whose company they would never meet socially. But all characters are individuals, not types, and both good and bad behaviour is demonstrated at all levels. The children do not take the servants, or anyone else, for granted.

The writing style is vividly descriptive, both in the mundane and fantastic sections. The realism of the social observation gives the story roots within to frame the magical element.

And there is a wry sense of humour in the tone of the author that amused me greatly when I first read this, and still does now.

This is the first of three books about these children, but it is a complete story in itself.

Helmet Reading Challenge 24, 33, 39

>62 -pilgrim-: - I loved this story as a child. You have inspired me to put it on my reread list.

>63 NorthernStar: I am glad. I am intending to read the trilogy myself.

This reminds me that I want to read The Railway Children soon. I hope you enjoy your reread, @-pilgrim-.

>64 -pilgrim-: I had no idea it was a trilogy. I remember reading it back in elementary school but I don't think I'd really picked up on the idea that if I liked a book to check out other books by the author. Took me a while to get THAT concept ;-)

So now I'm looking forward to your reviews of the other two!

>66 BookstoogeLT: I actually read the third book first, and only discovered the others because I liked it so much.

>62 -pilgrim-: I have heard about that story for years, yet never read it myself. I would like to one of these days.

>68 MrsLee: All the books of the trilogy are currently available for free on Amazon for Kindle (in the UK at least).

>69 -pilgrim-: Here in the USA, Amazon.com is charging for them but they are all three freely available on Gutenberg.org.

>70 ScoLgo: Do you have any idea of the quality of the gutenberg editions? I've had real 50/50 luck with some of the stuff I've gotten from them..

>71 BookstoogeLT: No, I haven't downloaded those particular books. I just took a peek to see if Gutenberg had them since Amazon often 're-packages' free books from the public domain and then sells them for $0.49 or $0.99. Questionable business practice IMHO but it is public domain material so there is no law against it. The sad part is that, at least IME, Amazon usually does not seem to fix any of the quality issues you mention. If they did, I would personally have less of an issue with them doing it.

>72 ScoLgo: Thanks. I can always check myself, just figured I'd try to save myself a whole 60 seconds :-D

The Amazon copy that I read (for free) was marked as having "quality issues". As far as I can see, that is simply because it included the list of illustrations without actually including the illustrations. I found no problems with the actual text.

There were some free versions for Kindle on Amazon, but since I had a .99 credit available to me, I ordered the .99 version hoping it is perhaps better quality than the free ones. :)

>75 MrsLee:. I hope you enjoy it.

>75 MrsLee: Mathematically speaking the 0.99 version is infinitely more expensive than the free one so you should expect the quality to be infinitely better.

EDT: As I have recently read Reality is not what it seems I will have to point out that infinite is finite. I had to mention this here because I am sure @hfglen or @haydninvienna would bring this up if I had not added this qualification.

>77 pgmcc: But then of course you can consider infinity raised to the power of infinity... And that process repeated an infinite number of times.
Hence there is an infinity of infinities.

>78 -pilgrim-: I need to dig out my copy of Rudy Rucker’s Infinity and the Mind, and see if I can make sense of the appendix about transfinite cardinals.

Does a transfinite cardinal outrank a pope?

>80 jjwilson61: only when raised to a higher power.

*applause*

The Dying Trade: Book 2 of The Privateersman Mysteries by David Donachie - 2.5 stars

I read the first book of this series ten years ago, sand have been looking out for its sequels ever since; have finally found them on Amazon's Kindle Unlimited.

The first book, The Devil's Own Luck, was an interesting mixture of the naval fiction, historical fiction and crime fiction genres. It was set in the Napoleonic era, and comprised a murder mystery aboard a Royal Navy ship.The captain had a long-standing grudge against Harry Ludlow, and was therefore quite willing to hang his brother, James, for the murder, on circumstantial grounds, unless Harry could find the real killer first.

In this book, Harry has been operating successfully as a privateer and amassed a significant amount of money, but is currently without ship or crew. After some negative interaction with Royal Navy officers - which, as James observes, Harry could easily have avoided - Harry is asked by Admiral Hood to investigate the death of a naval officer in Genoa. (The promised reward is s set of redemption certificates, which would enable him to operate as a privateer without having to run from every Royal Navy ship he encounters or risk having his entire crew impressed into the British navy.)

Genoa at this time was an independent republic, whose prosperity arose from trade. Although neutral, it currently has a French naval vessel birthed there. There also seem to be a lot of privateer vessels operating from there. If Harry can prove that the French were responsible for the murder, then he could make a case for having them ended, at the least. But that would necessitate coming to grips with the labyrinthine local politics. Meanwhile, Harry has a more selfish aim - rating himself with a suitable ship and a new crew.

The setting was vividly and beautifully described. Although the language was not as carefully 18th century as in Patrick O'Brian's novels, it nevertheless avoids any obvious anachronisms. And the behaviour of all the characters, particularly that of the Ludlow brothers, is certainly true to the period.

Further positive points are the portrayal of the ordinary seaman; although they are seen from an officer's point of view, they are portrayed as individuals, not as a forehead-knuckling mass (far from it!)

This is one of those books that, on looking back on it, I feel should have rated far higher than it does. It is well-written and authentic. The problem is that I just never found myself hurrying back to it; I kept picking up other books instead. I did not really get involved until a stonking sea-battle about two thirds of the way through.

I think that part of the problem was that I was not warming to either of the brothers. Away from the sea, Harry's habits of decision without consultation, as his brother points out, cease to be the standard behaviour of a naval captain, and become just obnoxious arrogance. However James' supercilious derision of those he judges to be insufficiently cultivated was equally annoying. Both brothers' personalities do seem highly representative of men of their rank in that period, so it feels unreasonable to carp. But the number of times that they created problems for themselves by giving gratuitous offence got rather wearing (even though realistic).

It did not help either that I guessed the culprit very early on, although the full motive (and explanation of the book's title) did not come until much later. Although the brother's failure to contemplate the possibility that agency could have come from that quarter is completely true to the attitudes of men of that period.

I found the depiction of eunuchs made me uncomfortable, but then we are seeing them through Harry's eyes (and he is not feeling very tolerant at the time), and his description matches those given by actual 18th century travellers.

There was, however, a distinct historical inaccuracy around the major theme of the book. MAJOR SPOILER:"The Dying Trade" refers to the selling of European children into the slave markets of the Ottoman Empire, "dying" since the suppression of the Barbary States pirates/privateers as a means of acquisition. It is specified that the fair-haired boys and girls, who have been collected and are being temporarily cared for by the aforementioned eunuchs, are intended for the sexual services market - hence the selection for appearance. This itself is plausible, as personal slaves raised a far higher price. However, it is said that the eunuchs are treating the children kindly and that they are all fit and healthy. This ignores the fact that, for the market specified, the boys would be gelded, and that it was other eunuchs who were often given the task. However kindly they are as people, these eunuchs are slaves whose task it is to prepare these children for market. They might perform the operation as humanely as possible, but realistically a large number of the boys would not be running around playing games, but instead lying in bed in considerable pain. More importantly, this is not an adventure from which they can be "sent home", having taken no permanent harm. The novel highlights the fact that many of the children may not be welcomed back, having been sold by their parents rather than stolen, and that some of the girls might be impregnated by the sailors (although the fact that the captain sees that as not a problem, since the girls initiated it by incorrigibly "flirting" with the sailors is another authentic but uncomfortable attitude). But it ignores the reality that there would also be a number of mutilated boys, who would struggle to find a place in Western European society, with its emphasis on sexual exploits as proof of masculinity.

But as a final frustration, the ending is ridiculous, considering everything that has gone before.

N.B. David Donachie is perhaps better known for writing under the pseudonym of Jack Ludlow.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 15, 24, 25, 30, 37

Dragon Storm: Book 1 of Heritage of Power by Lindsay Buroker - 3 stars

I have been aware of this series for a while, but not been particularly enthused to start it, as the description of the premise seemed extremely close to that of the author's Dragon Blood novels.

Having started it, I found that this was because it is set in the same world, on the same continent, just a few years after the Dragon Blood novels. It is basically a continuation, only with new central characters. This means that Ridgewalker Zirkander, having been made a general several books ago, is finally behaving like one and delegating, rather than haring of on adventures himself.

The new focus is another daredevil pilot, Telryn "Trip" Yert - whose official nickname is Sidetrip because he keeps disobeying orders. Chapters alternate between him and Rysha Ravenwood, a young, shy, bookish noblewoman who is determined to serve her country and qualify as a member of the elite Special Forces unit.

Regular readers of Lindsay Buroker's novels will find two extremely familiar tropes here, although Trip is far less cocky than Ridge, because he has an uncomfortable secret to protect - one which he thinks could get him executed.

The plot is also familiar - go fetch ancient artifact and use it to prevent impending doom.

The new features are that other aspect to Trip's background, and the fact that he, and fellow pilot Leftie, come from a more rural part of Iskandia, where attitudes regarding "witches" have not caught up with the more enlightened views in the capital (where Sardelle has, by now, repeatedly visibly saved everyone by using magic). Dragons are now a widely recognised problem, and there is a tenuous alliance with Cohfahre tackle the issue - resulting in the addition of an enigmatic, bloodthirsty Cofah warrior trip the expedition.

Major characters from Dragon Blood make cameo appearances: Ridge, Sardelle, and Raptor - and others are mentioned (King Angulus, Tolemek, Tylie, Bhrava Sureth, Phelistoth, Crash and Pimple).

But the only major character from Dragon Blood to take a central role here is the irrepressible Captain Kaika (now acting as Rysha's mentor) - and the extremely opinionated soulblade, Jaxi (loaned by a pregnant Sardelle, and looking set to mentor Trip!) Minor characters Duck and Blazer are also taking a more central role here.

So this series looks to be very much "more of the same" - wisecracking pilots, a mouthy soulblade, dragons, magic in a country where it is feared or not believed, an enigmatic, grim Cofah.

But I thoroughly enjoyed the Dragon Blood, and this series looks set to be just as enjoyable, if, by now, a trifle predictable.

And I need "comfort reads" right now, and Heritage of Power promises to be a reliable one.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 24, 39

I'm intrigued by the Donachie despite your lukewarm review. :)

>85 libraryperilous: I would warmly recommended the first book in that sequence - The Devil's Own Luck.

The sequel by comparison was so-so - not a waste of time, but I would not keep to reread.

The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (from The Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War) by Mark A. Noll - 4.5 stars

I complained about the standard of academic scholarship in my previous reviews of books on American history (in https://www.librarything.com/topic/312253#7007464); such criticisms do not apply here. There are no rhetorical flourishes; each point made is substantiated by reference to original texts, which are copiously quoted. I do not always agree with the conclusions that the author draws from particular texts, but it is the fact that he is so assiduous in providing his sources enables me to hold divergent opinions in this manner.

The author appears to have made a thorough examination of American contemporary writing on this topic, whether books, pamphlets, newspaper articles, correspondence or published sermons. His research into European material is less extensive, relying on a few news sources; however he acknowledges frankly this deficiency. It is commendable that he has realised that the European positions on the theological aspects of the conflict did not simply correspond to that of their American counterparts.

In reading Christina Dalcher's VOX, I was struck by her assumption that all Christian denominations speak with one voice on the subject of the position of women, particularly when the attitudes that she presented as characteristic of Christianity were such as I have only encountered amongst minority sects in England. Since she grew up in America's "Bible Belt", I assumed that she had actually encountered the opinions that she was castigating, and wondered at the difference.

Although this book's title refers to the American Civil War, it traced the roots of the beliefs of that era back to their development since the War of Independence. Combined with the early chapters of Religion in the Old South, it presented a clear explanation of why the theology of American denominations was distinctively different, even when they bore the same name as European counterparts (thus making the discrepancy between Christina Dalcher's assumptions and my own experience more comprehensible).

The first thesis of this book is that the American idealisation of individualism led to a shared theology amongst all Protestant denominations that elevated "common sense", literalist interpretations of Bible passages above sophisticated hermaneutics, because Americans were used to confidently interpreting the Bible for themselves. Therefore when both sides of a political issue sincerely found in the Bible support for their position, it provoked a profound theological crisis, which could only be settled by force, because they're was no higher authority which could be appealed to to resolve the issue.

Secondly, that America at that time was an intensely religious nation, so that among both the elite and ordinary people, the issues were debated in theological terms. This meant that there was a sizeable school of thought that was instinctively opposed to slavery, on general humanitarian terms, but did not know how to refute the apparent Biblical support for the practice, and responded by rejecting literal dependence on the Bible (as opposed to the Christian principles in general). He then argued that this religious liberalism proved disadvantageous to the abolitionist cause, because defence of the Bible became linked in public opinion with defence of slavery, and religious independence of interpretation with political independence and defence of federalism.

He next argued that both abolitionists and the defenders of slavery shared an assumption that black people were innately inferior, so that even when arguments re regarding slavery professed to be debated by reference to the "sole authority of Scripture", justification of its being based on race simply appealed to 'common sense" and "experience".

He then discusses how Americans, prior to the Civil War, were accustomed to believing that the direct intervention of God could be clearly detected in their history, and that God's actions and purposes could be as easily identified by any Christian observer as the "clear meaning of Scripture". He claims that the American Civil War was "the most religious war ever fought", in terms of the profound depth of faith shown by those fighting on both sides, and thus an immense post-War theological crisis arose from the fact that both sides had discerned the hand of Providence in their fortunes, but apparently acting to very different purposes, and this resulted in a withdrawal from belief in God's direct intervention in, and Providential selection of, America, to a concept of a God whose actions are "mediated" through human activity and whose intentions cannot be so clearly identified.

For a European reader, this provided the most comprehensive survey of distinctively American theology that I have so far encountered, since it encompassed not only the various Protestant denominations, but also Roman Catholic and Jewish contributions. Throughout he gives due attention to the arguments of African American theologians, which he characterises as being the most theologically sophisticated of any from American sources, although they had limited public impact, because their source caused them to be widely discounted.

The contemporary European perspective on the issues was very different.

European Protestants, as far as the author can ascertain, were uniformly abolitionist, although this did not necessarily mean that all were uncritical of the North, since those who admired American "liberty" tended to see the Union's actions as encroaching on that. They were just as Biblically based in their analysis of the slavery issue, but in a completely different way. Since they saw that American slavery was based on race, whilst slavery amongst the Biblical Hebrews, and in the Roman world, was colour-blind (and often involved slaves being whiter than their masters), they considered the issue of whether the types of slavery described in the Bible were licit nowadays irrelevant, and spent biblical exigesis on demonstrations of how slavery in America differed from that described in the Bible, and broke biblical injunctions regarding the treatment of slaves.

European Catholics tended to take the position that slavery was not forbidden, but should be voluntarily be ended, as going against principles of Christian brotherhood. They argued that enslaving peoples that they might receive religious instruction was permitted, but that the Christian slave was the equal of his master, and ought therefore to be freed. So their arguments followed the paths of attempting to demonstrate how American slavery, as practised, violated Christian principles, with a strong agenda of demonstrating how the Catholic countries had always behaved better than any others, and were in the forefront of enlightened treatment of slaves. The North was not immune from their critique, as they observed that free blacks were not treated as equals the.

I have the impression that its central argument, that the theological issues were central in leading the country into war, might be controversial. I have not read other histories of this war for comparison, but the author here makes his case in a logical and coherent manner.

Note: this is a history of a religious controversy, not a work of theology. Although the author does, at one point, mention that he is Christian, he places no theological interpretation of his own on events. His concern is solely to record the range of viewpoints and interpretations existing at the time. He provides extensive references for his sources for each quote. There are no unsupported statements of opinion.

The only point at which I disagreed with his interpretation was this: he claims that the London Times was unusual in providing a British pro-slavery voice, which he finds unsurprising in a newspaper of Tory sympathies. However the passages quoted appear to me to be more intended to expose what the writer saw as the hypocrisy in the arguments made by certain Northern abolitionists rather than as a genuine defence of American slavery. It seems to me that the author has fallen into the fallacy of assuming that he who attacks the North must support the South. He had previously mentioned a persisting anti-British stance in some American quarters, I find it plausible that a Tory newspaper is where one might expect to find similar residual anti-American sentiments that might predispose it to condemn both sides of the war.

As a history of changing attitudes, I found this an unusual an fascinating read. Its explanation for the rise of secular society is controversial, but well-reasoned. It should be of interest, regardless of which viewpoints you sympathise with.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 8, 16, 17, 18, 37, 43

Oaths: Book 8 of Dragon Blood by Lindsay Buroker - 3.5 stars

Having realised that the Heritage of Power series is actually a continuation of Dragon Blood, but with new central protagonists, I decided to read the final book of the Dragon Bloodsequence, and find out how it actually ends.

The proposal that took place in The Fowl Proposal has finally resulted in a wedding. And given who is getting married, almost everyone turns up. This makes it a nice end to the series, with Ridge (now in his forties) finally maturing and learning how to delegate.

Unlike The Fowl Proposal, which was almost exclusively concerned with how a hot-shot pilot hero can be an inept, nervous clutz in domestic matters, there is plenty of action and excitement in this book, as well as a satisfying domestic conclusion.

The books in this series had got a little repetitive, and Ridge's immaturity, given his age and seniority, were beginning to frustrate me. So I am glad to see these characters finding closure, and further stories in this world introducing new ones.

I would say that this rounds off the series except for one thing: Pimples mentions the girl he loves in the opening of the first chapter. Then she is never mentioned again. Given that Zia is on a different continent (to mention just one obstacle), a happy outcome is not a foregone conclusion. Lindsay Buroker can't just leave that hanging, can she?

Helmet Reading Challenge: 2, 7, 24, 39

Crazy Canyon (a short story set in the world of Dragon Blood) by Lindsay Buroker - 4 stars

This is a short story, originally published online independently, but now bundled together with Oaths, the events of which it precedes. It should be read before Oaths and after The Fowl Proposal, which should itself be read after Soulblade: Book 7 of Dragon Blood.

In this story General Ridgewalker Zirkander is trying to be "the better man", and less immature. Colonel Vann Therrik, now firmly in a relationship with Lilah Zirkander, under her influence is trying "to be a better man".

The result is these two flying together again - and coming across something unexpected. The result of that is one of the most amusing sequences of the series.

This is fairly light-hearted, and really good fun. And for once, Ridge does not get all the best lines:

"Therrik!" he sputtered as soon as his head broke the surface. "You can't throw generals out the window."
"Yeah, you can. It's called defenestration..."

ETA: My copy was supplied as an 'extra' with Oaths, but it is also available for free on the author's website.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 9, 24, 39

>87 -pilgrim-: Very interesting! Seems like a very deep book.

>90 Karlstar: I found it very enlightening. So often we can look at the past and see people holding opinions that are so far from anything we could consider viable, that we start to doubt their honesty.

This was a fascinating study as to how people could, quite honestly (and often whilst feeling personally unhappy with the consequences) come to completely different interpretations of the same facts.

I really recommend it.

ETA: Mark A. Noll makes an unconventional case for the American Civil War being classified as preeminently a War of Religion, since in both the causes over slavery and over federalism each side rooted their views on their interpretations of the Bible. Thus, since their interpretations of the same book differed, they had no point of contact from which to negotiate a non-violent solution to their conflict.

One might expect a lecturer in religion to make a case for the centrality of his subject, but it is certainly a plausible one.

White Hot Silence (Book 2 of the Paul Samson series) by Henry Porter - 3 stars

This is the sequel to Firefly, which I read last month. It takes place five years later, and includes many of the same characters. Paul Samson is still in the same line of work, and is hired by Denis Hisami when the latter's wife, and possibly the love of Samson's life, Anastasia, is kidnapped. The purpose is to exert pressure on Hisami, rather than for ransom.

The plot is very topical. Whereas Firefly's theme was the plight of refugees trying to escape war-torn countries into Europe, the plot here deals with far-right anti-migrant extremism.

Because of its topicality, the plot also makes clear the writer's political views regarding matters in America and Europe (and Russia).

The author is a former journalist for The Observer, who now writes for Vanity Fair's website Hive.com. He appears to be famous for the article those thrust was how significant he found it that Putin and Lenin share both forename and patronymic - despite the fact that actually they don't!

His antipathy to Russians is evident in this novel: there are good and bad Britons, and Americans, but many of the Russians are rather uniform stereotypes (only one has any characterisation).

However, the real quality of this novel rests in how well it portrays its characters. Paul Simon's complex personality comes further to the fore here - he is described (by two different characters) as "OMG SO TOUGH!!!" and a "romantic idealist" - and we see rather more depth given to Anastasia here too. Denis remains infuriatingly enigmatic, right to the end, even if we learn more reasons for his being the way he is. I admit I enjoy a thriller where the tough hero, and former spy, had still not actually shot anyone!

Nevertheless, this book is probably best enjoyed with a reasonable grasp of contemporary politics - knowing things like the differences between the PUK and PKK, for example, helps with the enjoyment. Some political points were a little odd, though. Major spoiler:Why a Ukrainian mafioso would be collaborating with a Russian government department was never actually explained.

I enjoyed this - and the reappearance of more familiar faces in the last third of the book was fun. But this was not as original as the previous volume, and rather more obvious in pushing its political agenda. (Not that I object to that - it just made the story more agenda-driven and less character-driven.) And this agenda was not so unique as to justify the change of emphasis.

Nevertheless, I still recommend this for reading (although I do not expect to reread). But fo not start here; without the establishment of the personalities of various protagonists in the previous volume, the events of this novel will be far less meaningful.

N.B. Robert Harland, the protagonist of another series of novels by Henry Porter, also appears here.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 13, 30

>91 -pilgrim-: I will respectfully decline to interpret the American Civil War as a war of religion. While there were certainly zealots on both sides that used the Bible as justification, I can't see that as the predominant rationale for the majority. However, that still sounds like interesting reading.

>93 Karlstar: It is certainly not an analysis that I would have thought of before reading that book.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Part 1 by Mark Twain - 3 stars
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Part 2 by Mark Twain - 3.5 stars

This was another reread for me. However I was disappointed to find that Parts 1 & 2 of the Kindle version did not comprise the complete novel, which apparently has been split into at least 9 parts, for some reason. The print edition that has been serialised for these Kindle books did not appear to have been subdivided like this. In the Parts that I have read, these Kindle portions do divide so as to give a sense of partial closure and make reasonably self-contained stories.

This was a reread of a book that I loved in my childhood. Twain's writing and humour are as good as I remembered, and the edition that I am reading here appears to be completely unabridged (merely truncated!)

I remember that, in my first reading, I felt a certain amount of frustration and irritation, because Twain was very much "having his cake and eating it"; he was mixing together episodes from different periods of English history, so that one has slavery (as practised by the Celts) alongside some of the more refined cruelties of the late mediaeval period, and so on. Including slavery (of the type involving open markets, of the sort his American readers would have been familiar with from their South, rather than the residual hereditary slavery in certain occupations that remained in the madiaeval period) alongside the parodying of the courtly manners found in the French Arthurian romances and Malory always struck me as a bizarre juxtaposition.

On that read through, I had attributed it to the author's desire to make things as dramatic and alien as possible for his Yankee visitor; on rereading the introductory section I was struck with a sense of the author's deep-seated hatred of everything English, and determination to attack them by every means at his disposal, fair or foul. He is well aware that he is mixing periods in order to maximize his attack. The attribution of American-style slavery, as practised by Twain's contemporaries - but having no parallel in England after the Roman and Celtic periods - is a particularly iniquitous attack, but so are the inclusion of the vicious laws, which prescribed the death sentence for minor offences, typical of 18th century England.

This left a nasty taste, but is balanced by my memory of how the book ends: as an utter condemnation of Yankee values, which Twain portrays as necessarily and automatically leading to the industrialization of warfare and slaughter on a scale hitherto unimaginable. It is therefore possible to see Twain as simply a rather misanthropic character, and his more barbed jibes as evidence of his hatred of his fellow man.

However, after my recent reading about the American Civil War, I think that there is a more political interpretation. The juxtaposition of courtly manners and slavery are ridiculous from the standpoint of English history, but are a major component of how the antebellum American South is often portrayed. Thus his Yankee's reaction to the "England" of the novel can be seen as a metaphor for the ideological disparity between North and South in Twain's own day - a point that I completely missed in my previous readings.

I am currently unclear whether Twain's actual standpoint is a hatred of England - possibly espousing the view common in America in the 18th and 19th centuries, which liked to blame all that country's faults as being an inheritance from European origins - or simply a condemnation of the false "England" of his novel (i.e. his metaphor for the American South).

It remains that Twain writes extremely well, so that the jokes still amuse even when half-remembered. I intend to find the other portions some time; I am interested in seeing what the underlying political points that he was making were, in total (and to which I was oblivious when younger).

Helmet Reading Challenge: 9, 23, 30, 47, 48

February Summary

Average rating: 3.23

10 fiction: 4 fantasy, 2 satire (England), 1 science fiction (America), 1 urban fantasy (England), 1 historical fiction (Italy), 1 thriller (England, Italy, America, Finland, Russia, Estonia)

1 non-fiction: 1 history of religion/American history

Original language: 11 English

Earliest date of first publication: 1889
Latest: 2019

3 paperbacks, 8 Kindle

Authors: 4 male, 3 female
Author nationality: 4 American, 3 British
New (to me) authors: 2 (5 familiar)

Most popular book on LT: Five Children and It (3,304)
Least popular: Crazy Canyon (short story, my copy only); Oaths (novel; 7)

No. of books read: 11
From Mount TBR (books owned before 2020): 4
Books owned before joining Green Dragon: 3
No. of books acquired: 30
No. of books disposed of: 4

Best Book of February: The Civil War as a Theological Crisis
Worst Book of February: VOX: Silence Can Be Deafening

Best Book of January: Monday Starts on Saturday
Worst Book of January: Republic or Death! : Travels in Search of National Anthems

February was actually another good month for reading, once I got past the stinker at the start. It has been a bad month for me personally, resulting in a tendency to take comfort in familiar authors. They did not disappoint.

>95 -pilgrim-: I am surprised it's been separated into so many parts. You found these installments on Amazon? Usually ebooks don't need to be divided like that.

I really enjoyed this one when I read it 20 something years ago. Twain's humor is ageless.

>98 clamairy: Yes, I found that very odd. When I ordered the first two instalments, I assumed that was all there would be. However all 9 instalments are available for free on Amazon Kindle, so I suppose one should not look a gift horse in the mouth!

>99 -pilgrim-: I don't like the way Amazon has it's search feature set up when I'm using my Kindle, or an Amazon app on my phone or tablet to find free versions of older books. It's much easier to find what I'm looking for using my PC or a browser on my tablet. Obviously they want you to pay, but I consider it a challenge to find the freebies.

>99 -pilgrim-: So you're going to continue? I have had that one in my TBR for a few years now (paperback) and I find your review of installments 1 and 2 very interesting. Trying to decide if I should give it more priority or not.

>101 Narilka: You probably should. At one level it is a very funny light read, albeit with some heart-rendingly sad twists at times. That is how I saw it on first reading. On rereading, I am finding the implications of the satire as commentary on the American politics of Twain's era intriguing as well.

>100 clamairy: I agree. I object to the suggestion that I should pay for the electronic copy of an out-of-copyright book, unless that edition has had work out in in terms of editorial content (or even retypesetting).

The juxtaposition of courtly manners and slavery are ridiculous from the standpoint of English history, but are a major component of how the antebellum American South is often portrayed.

Yes, it's how elite white Southerners viewed themselves: "Culture of honor." The chivalric code actively was used to justify slavery by white Southerners from all economic classes, although it also was used by plantation elites to discriminate against poor whites. It also was used during Reconstruction and Jim Crow as one of many justifications for preventing newly-freed blacks from enfranchisement. You can find an undercurrent of the obsession with honor culture in some of the Lost Cause ideology's rhetoric.

Twain was an active critic of the South's chivalry during his lifetime, referring to it as "the Sir Walter disease." He may have hated all chivalry on the merits, too, but I have only encountered his opposition to it vis-à-vis the Deep South. A Connecticut Yankee is one of my favorite novels. I'm glad you enjoyed your reread.

ETA: Some of the pernicious lasting effects of honor culture are treated (and lambasted) in Charles W. Chesnutt's The House Behind the Cedars, including the way honor culture both trickled down to and was used to limit black communities. Chesnutt was inspired by Sir Walter's Ivanhoe. The novel also is the subject of one of the most gobsmacking "You missed all the points!" reviews I have ever read.

>104 libraryperilous: Yes, I first read about that aspect of Southern attitudes in Southern Honor last year.

The Scottish tradition of an honour culture is rather different.

It always puzzles me that anyone could use Ivanhoe in support of a slave-owning culture. The portrayal of Garth (who at the start of the novel is a serf, but is freed and accepted as a confidante by the hero), is one of the least condescending portrayals of the non-noble class in the early 19th century novel. Its whole thrust concerns the rights of despised classes (first Saxons, then peasants, then Jews) to be seen as people, and treated with dignity. Sir Wilfred shows true nobility in risking his life, by fighting a judicial fuel that he cannot expect to win, on behalf of a woman from whom he can expect no reward (nor wants any), because she is accused unjustly and will die if he does not. She is not noble; she is not even his co-religionist. His behaviour contrasts with the Norman knights who demonstrate their rank by abusing it to rape, extort and abuse. Of course, I have never seen a film adaptation that does not completely miss the point by making the hero in love with the heroine - I sometimes wonder if their were similar written "interpretations" or abridgements that likewise missed the point?

And yes, Ivanhoe is one of my favourite novels.

>105 -pilgrim-: Oh, I agree completely that Scott (esp. Ivanhoe) is misinterpreted and corrupted, especially in the antebellum South. I am not certain why the South latched on to Scott. Perhaps it mostly was a function of commerce: Ivanhoe was in print and sold in shops, so it became the text all their terrible impulses elevated. One suspects any tale that related to chivalry would have accomplished the same thing, in the end. Lots of things that become popular culture touchstones are a case of "right place at the right time." Or, in this case, awful place in an awful time.

Idly speculating, re: silly adaptations, and because this came up often in my comp lit days: Does the word 'romance' perhaps confuse readers?

Or, to go a smidge further: How much does being in a society that is conditioned to sexualize male-female relationships contribute? Do we impute on Sir Wilfred's romantic defense of Rebecca sexual attraction because we still view platonic opposite-sex relationships as untenable?

It's been ages since I've read Ivanhoe, but it was a favorite of mine when I was younger.

>106 libraryperilous: You raise some interesting points.
When was it that romance stopped being simply the counterpart of the French and German Roman and come to mean a story about romantic attraction?

Sir Wilfred's romantic desires remain focussed on Rowena throughout (possibly the most colourless romantic heroine in literature!) His rescue of Rebecca is honorable precisely because it is disinterested - Scott explicitly contrasts his behaviour with that of de Bois Gilbert, who offers to make the same action as Ivanhoe (actually at far greater personal cost, since he will lose either his life or his honour, country, wealth and home) - but for conventionally romantic motives. Yes, he wants her as lover, not wife, but there is no minister of religion, Christian or Jewish, that would marry a Jew and a Gentile, and he does not insult her by expecting her to renounce her faith.

I actually think the film-maker's problem with the Rebecca-Wilfred situation is that it is difficult to explain to the audience how inconceivable a Christian-Jewish relationship was, in that period, to a serious believer of either faith. If you can't explain how neither party can conceive of anything happening between them, then the simplest solution is to alter the plot so that they can. It then becomes a conventional tale of "forbidden love", rather than the more complex inconceivability that underlies both their actions.

From early February:


Warrior Mage: Book 1 of Chains of Honor by Lindsay Buroker

This was a reread of the first book in a trilogy, now that the third book, Assassin's Bond, is available. It references some of the events of the prequel novella trilogy, Swords and Salt. Reading those beforehand is not necessary - although I do heartily recommend them, and they are where Yanko's story begins.

The setting is Nuria, the continent with which Turgonia has been frequently at war. Turgonia was the setting for Lindsey Buroker's sequence The Emperor's Edge; here we have the viewpoint of their enemies. Nuria has resemblances to China/Japan, both in dress style and in a rigidly stratified culture.

There are a limited number of moksu families, whose status does not depend on present wealth but on lineage, and disgrace is not purely personal but affects one's entire clan. Members of such lineages are raised with the knowledge that any one of them may be called at any time to serve the Great Chief, and that there can be no higher ambition. The practitioners of the "mental sciences" - what Turgonians would call magic - are highly prized, with Warrior Mages outranking all others.

Yanko's clan is not particularly wealthy, and has been under a cloud since his mother ran away to become a notorious pirate chief. As the only son to possess any ability in the mental sciences, he has known from an early age that it is his duty to redeem his family's honour, and he feels this responsibility keenly.

The field of the mental sciences is wide, and any practitioner can only learn a small area. Yanko's father already disapproves of the fact that his son has more affinity for Earth than the more prestigious Fire work. As the book opens, Yanko is competing for a place at Stargrind Academy, an essential step for becoming an accredited Mage.

I enjoyed the reread immensely. Yanko is an extremely likeable protagonist. He is a rather insecure nineteen year old, used to the feeling that he is failing everyone's expectations of him, yet touchingly determined not to let anyone down.

At the start of the book he is still recovering from the realisation that the girl he has had a crush on since childhood - she is a few years older than him, and who basically brought him up in his mother's absence - is unrequited. (She turned him down in favour of running away for adventure, intending to try to become a pirate like his mother!)

His companion, Lakeo, often seems to be there simply to perform the obligatory sharp-tongued sidekick. A free worker in his uncle's mine, she has artistic talent, latent ability in the mental sciences, and a secret - she is part Turgonian. (Nurian culture has a strong emphasis on pure blood.) She hates Turgonians even more than the average Nurian does. Since she never knew her father, I think there is an implication that he raped her mother, but this is never spelt out. Orphaned early, and used to looking after herself, she goes with Yanko because that seems a route to an opportunity to study the mental sciences.

And it is fun to see Dak , the enslaved prisoner-of-war, whom Yanko helped escape in the prequel, turn up again, as monosyllabic and enigmatic as ever.

The plot is basically a coming-of-age story, structured as a quest (only the first part of which is resolved by the end of the book).

Yanko shows a remarkable ability to get himself into trouble, which combines with ingenious user of his talents in getting out of it. Despite his ambition to become a Warrior Mage (as is expected of him), in practice he has a strong aversion to killing anyone, even the enemy.

This was a light comfort read - and just as good as I remembered it.

And, after complaining about inappropriate covers recently, this has to be one of my favourites. It is completely accurate, and rather beautiful.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 24, 30

Revelations: Book 2 of Heritage of Power by Lindsay Buroker - 3.5 stars

After a slightly formulaic opening book to this series, which tended to recap the world setting, for readers who have not been previously introduced via Dragon Blood, we are now embarked on a more original story.

I find it slightly odd that this planet's southern polar ice cap continent is, like ours, called Antarctica, but anyway, that is where our team are headed, on a mission to seek and destroy the dragon portal they have heard about.

The chapters tend to alternate between the point of view of Captain Trip, pilot and reluctant sorceror, and Lieutenant Ravenwood, archaeologist, geek, and elite forces soldier-in-training. The incipient romance between these two nodes to become a more central theme than in the author's other fantasy novels (not counting the erotica that she writes under a pseudonym, of course).

The sexual innuendo jokes amongst the characters do get a bit wearing, but the main characters feel that way about them too, and they probably are an accurate reflection of how a bunch of military types behave as a group.

The relationship is at the mutual uncertainty and misunderstanding stage. Only instead of "does she only want me for my money?" we have "does she only hate me because of her sword?" It is the sort of situation that could be resolved by the parties concerned simply really talking to each other. Given the number of entities around that can read minds, this starts to feel a bit contrived. Lindsay Buroker does write insecure, but actually competent, characters charmingly, but this feels slightly too artificial.

The "big revelation" at the end is not really a surprise for the reader. Or indeed, for any if the characters other than those, such as Trip and Leftie, who are in a state of denial. However it is rather sad that Trip, having wondered all his life who his father was, also learns that he was considered an "asshole".

But I do enjoy her writing style, and its lightheartedness. It is a good, undemanding book, just right for a reader (like me) who was feeling ill at the time.

I should also add that, unsurprisingly for a former soldier, the author does write well-thought out and innovative combat scenes.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 16, 24, 39

Origins: Book 3 of Heritage of Power by ,Lindsay Buroker - 3 stars

At the end of the last book, Trip suggested to Ridge that, now he knew his father's probable identity, he would like to go looking for him, adding that he thought it might be good for Iskandia if Trip could persuade him to help defend the country. Somewhat to his surprise, rather than simply backing Trip taking leave for this, Ridge has obtained the king's approval for a mission to locate Trip's father.

Trip was allowed to nominate who he wanted, but left the choice mostly up to Ridge. And so the team turns out to be exactly the same as for the previous book.

So here we have another quest mission, for a person rather than an artifact (although the swords in these stories cause that distinction to become rather blurred!), and on a largely desert continent, mainly populated along the coasts by the convicts dumped there by the rules of the other continents, and their descendants. (Why do I feel the author had Australia in mind? At least Raskagoth is more imaginatively named than "Antarctica".)

Rysha and Trip, having found one solution to their relationship problems in the last book, develop a new one: this time based around issues of free will and Trip's dragonly aura, or skylori.

Their encounters this time include interesting wildlife and clichéd cultists (from the Brotherhood of the Dragon). The outcome of the quest is not really a suprise, having been copiously prefigured, but they do make a surprise discovery, which necessitates part of the expeditionary force making a detour to the nearest city to look for a boat home. (Why is not really clear - waiting in a secure location for reinforcements would appear to me to have been a better idea.)

And it is in the city that they make the genuinely shocking discovery of the book (which sets up the problem for the next one).

There is a brief cameo from Moe "Rock Cheetah" Zirkander, who has not changed at all. It is amusing, but rather a contrived coincidence that he should be just where the team turn up, right at that time.

There was also a rather contrived delay at the start of the book, where the expedition is briefly postponed for long enough for Captain Kaika to be promoted to Major. Dragon Storm opened with many of the protagonists of the Dragon Bloodseries now promoted from the rank at which we knew them, Captain Kaika was the exception. It was explained there that she remained a mere captain, despite her heroic actions in that series, because she had refused all promotions in order to be able to remain in the field, rather than get stuck behind a desk (like our previous pilot hero, Ridge). It is therefore rather odd that Kaika had suddenly agreed to accept a promotion now, with her enthusiasm for blowing things up undimmed, and even more hypocritical that she is loudly complaining about how long she has had to wait for this promotion!

The real reason for this odd set of events becomes clear in the last section of the book - for plot purposes, when the expedition divides, it is necessary that Kaika outranks Trip.

I enjoyed this book, but the cliché antagonists, coincidences, small inconsistencies and obviously contrived situations made me feel that laziness is setting in, and that the author is writing to an established formula while beginning to be getting bored by it.

It is a pity, because the elements that I like about her writing - well thought out fight scenes, humour, and realistic camaraderie - are still all present. I also like the way that her plots do not create tension through mean and vindictive behaviour. Her protagonists may have personal flaws, but they tend to be decent people, not selfish, narcissistic ones. They are the sort that out is comfortable to spend time in their company. So, although the freshness of plot is leaving here, I still want to keep reading.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 9,16, 24, 30, 39, 42

As part of clearing my shelves (who am I kidding? - that is NEVER going to actually happen!):

Dent's Modern Tribes: The Secret Languages of Britain by Susie Dent - 2 stars

Having respect for the author's credentials as a long term employee of the team at OUP who produce the Oxford English Dictionary, I expected a lot more from this book.

What it is, is a brief collection of the jargon associated with particular professional fields, a few pages per field.

I was not impressed with the entries for fields with whose jargon I am familiar (many of the more obvious choices were missing, for example, and there were some errors), and found that there was very little unfamiliar material even in the sections for professions and trades with which I have no connection.

Having had this sit on my shelf for over a year, without ever bothering to finish it, I now accept that I am unlikely ever to do so, and am propelling it off towards a new home.

>111 -pilgrim-: This was actually the book that I was reading in the waiting room before I got my cancer diagnosis. I don't think that altered my opinion of the book, which I was frustrated with at the time, but it may explain my reluctance to have it remain in my house.

>112 -pilgrim-: I can definitely understand wanting to get rid of that book due to circumstance.

Repentance and Confession: Book 1 of The Spiritual Life by Hieromonk Gregorios (trans. by Stelios Zarganes) - 3 stars

This is a very difficult book to review.
It is tiny, slim, and very expensive for the size. In proportions, it is like those "Little Book of..." (Mindfulness, for example) that you are supposed to slip into your handbag for a handy aphorism a day. Only the content is considerably more concentrated, consisting of dense theological exposition.

The book contains a short description of the need for repentance (for everyone), how to do this, the contribution made by confession, and the benefits to be obtained.

This is a pure work of theology. As is typical with traditional works of Orthodox theology, frequent quotations from the Bible are used with reference to every statement made, and almost every statement made is buttressed by excerpts from the Church fathers.

Saints both ancient and very modern are quoted, St John Chrysostom being one of the most frequently referenced.

There is nothing original here; this book does not claim to have any new perspective or fresh insights. Like the little books I mentioned earlier, it can either be viewed as a somewhat pointless rehash of the obvious, or as a challenging demand to take seriously the central tenets of the philosophy espoused.

The author lives in a monastic cell on Mount Athos. He lives his faith. He expects his readers to do so too.

This is not simply an encouraging summary of the promises of religion, it is an uncompromising demand to embrace its challenges too.

Great motivation, but no sugar coating.

This took me a long time to read for such a very short book - it could be skimmed in half an hour - because reading a short section, then thinking for a long time about it, seems to me the only way to use it.

As with all of these tiny little booklets, I do have some uncharitable thoughts about the possible profit motives of the source. The hieromonk's chosen asceticism of life places him beyond reproach; I am less certain about his American publishers.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 8, 43

The Way of the Pilgrim (from The Way of the Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues his Way) translated by Olga Savin - 4.5 stars


This is a sort of reread for me, as I first read The Way of the Pilgrim over ten years ago, in a different translation. (I received this copy as a gift.)

As Fr. Thomas Hopko says in his introduction, it is not known whether this anonymous work is really the autobiography of the nameless pilgrim, or whether it was written about him by someone else. It may even be a pious fiction. Written in Russian, it became highly popular in the19th century. The social conditions it describes date it to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century (and before the emancipation of the serfs).

The narrator tells us a little bit about himself in the Third Narrative. (There are four, which seem to be accounts given at different times.) Orphaned at the age of two, he has been a cripple since the age of seven, when his drunken older brother pushed him off the stove. His left arm was injured, and unusable, and is now "all withered up". (The Russian stove, which is used for cooking and heating, is designed to provide a flat, warmed sleeping space on top). "Grandfather realized that I would not be able to work on the land", so he taught the boy to read, using his Bible, then a county clerk, who often stayed at his grandfather's inn, taught him to write. When he was seventeen, his grandmother died, and his grandfather married him off to "a mature, kind twenty-old-girl", because he didn't know how to manage without a woman in the house! The grandfather died a year later, the narrator "everything", "the inn and the rest of the estate", but his older brother was so jealous of this that he tried to kill him by burning the inn down. The couple list everything in the fire, but borrowed some money to build a small cabin and lived as landless peasants, supported by the wife's handiwork -weaving, spinning and sewing- whilst he read the Bible to her. They lived happily for two years, and then she died. He could not bear to be in the hut without her, so he sold it, gave the money to the poor and set off on pilgrimage. He had a permanent disability passport, so could travel without being charged with vagrancy.

The account is quite specific about the province of his birth, and those through which he travels on his way to various holy places. It does not name the individual villages, but that is quite understandable, because all his anecdotes are designed to demonstrate the interior lives and holiness of people he has encountered, so it would be highly inappropriate to give sufficient detail to enable the reader to identify them.

The main purpose of the narrative is to extol the Jesus Prayer, and the hesychastic practice of "interior prayer". The pilgrim reads often both from his Bible and the Philokalia, which teaches how to pray.

He describes events that happen in his wanderings, the joy and peace that this prayer gives him, and people he encounters - either to praise they godly behaviour, or to tell their life stories, in which often sinners find redemption and comfort through asceticism and the Jesus Prayer, or those who are already pious enthusiastically embrace the deeper level of prayer that he teaches them, from the teachings of the Fathers in the Philokalia about this.

What I found most striking in this was how accepting he is of the harshness of his life. He is full of admiration of the goodness of people that he meets - and indeed, there are acts of startling generosity - but he also encounters, and endures, arbitrary cruelty.

For example, he meets a pious girl who wants him to escort her to a "woman's monastery", because she wants to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her, because her father is a "schismatic" (evidently an bezpopovtsy Old Believer) and the marriage would be conducted without a priest (and therefore not valid in her eyes, resulting in "debauchery"). He refuses to take her, saying that without a passport she could be arrested for vagrancy, and advising her to form illness to engage the marriage. "That's called pretending for the sake of salvation." Nevertheless, her father's friends find them, and throw him in jail as a "seducer". Although the priest plans to testify in his favour, the drunken magistrate does not bother to hear any evidence, but simply orderd the policemen to thrash him and expel him from the village.

This ends OK for the girl - the pilgrim later meets her mother, who tells him that the bridegroom withdrew from the marriage, because "he was angry with Akulka for running away from him". That night the pilgrim dreams that his old starets visits him and says Now you have experienced for yourself that a man is tempted only as much as he can endure it; 'but with the temptation God will also provide the way of escape' (1 Cor. 10:13)

These narratives are totally joyful in tone, yet they are horrifying in the level of random cruelty, illness and suffering that the narrator considers normal.

There is no sense here that his piety will be rewarded on earth. He hastens to church, falls into an icy stream, spends hours after the service in prayer, then find himself unable to use his legs - so he is thrown out into the street where he lies for several days, with people just walking past, until a peasant offers him help - but demands months of labour in payment!

The extreme asceticism makes it hard to believe this narrative, but it is incidents like that which make me think that it was not written as "inspirational fiction"; implying the reward for piety is suffering is not a likely " message"to be taught (although it is a logical outcome - standing for hours in icy soaked clothes is likely to induce cramps and locked joints when he subsequently lies down).

Therefore I tend to take these narratives at face value. For someone to find such peace, given the external circumstances of his life (he has no bad word for his brother, just sadness that the brother has "ruined his own life"), is inspiring but frightening. He is a better man than I am.

This is obviously a theological work. But there are few events that could be described as miracles; it is rather that the narrator sees the hand of God in the ordinary events of his life.

His conclusion seems to be that suffering too is a gift from God, because such experiences "teach us to be more attentive to prayer and lead us to that inexpressible consolation".

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 8, 16, 30, 31, 41, 45

Wow, you're on a great roll.

As always, I enjoy your reviews, even of books I will not ever read. I have Lindsay Buroker's The Emperor's Edge on my Kindle. It must have been free at some point. I don't often read e-books, so I never pay for them.

>116 libraryperilous: Yes, although my reading has been less adventurous than usual; I have tried fewer new authors.

I think The Emperor's Edge is always free. She plays fair though; although it is the first book in what turns out to be a 9 book series, it comes to a satisfactory conclusion in itself. If you stop there, you won't feel cheated. That was the first book of hers that I read too.

I am not keen on eBooks either; my collection are mostly either free, or 99p deals, which I find a good way to try out new authors, although I will occasionally buy books by favorite authors (like Roger Zelazny) that have long been out of print and are impossible to obtain otherwise.

By the way, I notice from your thread that you are feeling rather battered by real life at the moment. I find Buroker's novels a good escape. Her books don't tend to have scenes involving the petty malice and verbal sniping of real life (dangers are more physical and direct).

>117 -pilgrim-: Oh, that's great to know. I have trouble staying invested in long series if the story arc drags. I also could use an escape, as you've noticed. Thank you for the thoughtful recommendation.

I read an e-book a couple of weeks ago. I did manage to get caught up in the story. I suspect I'll always prefer physical books, but I may not be as adverse to the technology as I'd thought.

March Summary

Average rating: 3.6

6 fiction: 3 fantasy, 3 urban fantasy (Britain)
1 short story collection: 1 folklore fantasy (Russia)

1 non-fiction: 2 theology (Orthodoxy),1 history (Russia)

Original language: 7 English, 2 Russian, 1 Greek

Earliest date of first publication: 1831
Latest: 2018

7 paperbacks, 3 Kindle

Authors: 5 male, 2 female
Author nationality: 2 American, 2 Russian, 3 British
New (to me) authors: 4 (4 familiar)
1 re-read (in a new translation)

Most popular book on LT: The Way of a Pilgrim (165)
Least popular: The Spiritual Life: Repentance (my copy only)

No. of books read: 10
From Mount TBR (books owned before 2020): 3
Books owned before joining Green Dragon: 0
No. of books acquired: 30
No. of books disposed of: 5

Best Book of March: The Kindred of Darkness
Worst Book of March: Unraveled

An excellent reading month, when the worst book was simply a bit pedestrian. (But not so good regarding Mount TBR)

So far missing reviews:

January - 2 books
February - 1 book
March - 6 books

I notice that the books I am slowest to review are often the ones that I really loved. Why something seems excellent to me is often harder to put into words.

>121 -pilgrim-:
I often find that the books I like best are the ones I have a lot to say about. That being the case my comments will be long and I often do not find the time to write them, and if I do I am afraid I am going to miss some point that I think vitally important. This has happened me with:
- Melmoth the wanderer
- Into the Woods
- The Science of Storytelling
- Gnomon
- and a cast of thousands...

>122 pgmcc: And those are the books that I have been waiting to find out what you think of them...

>123 -pilgrim-:

-Melmoth the Wanderer: Excellent if a bit long. I think you might want to hear what I think of Melmoth by Sarah Perry, the recent imitation.
I see Maturin's book as being about himself and at the same time a book that exploits the sectarian/political issues existing in Ireland at the time of writing. He was a Church of Ireland minister and as such was opposed to anything Roman Catholic. As part of the Protestant Ascendancy community in Ireland he and his parishioners would have been in fear of another uprising. The book was published in 1820. There has been a major uprising in 1798, very much living memory for his parishioners and his peers.

Maturin's writing Gothic fiction was frowned upon by his clerical superiors. He had the reputation of being of a strict Calvinist in his outlook; his sermons attracted people from miles around and were often aimed at denouncing the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. There are five sermons in a series about the errors of the Roman Church. Yet he loved dancing and parties, and he married the leading opera singer and socialite of Dublin. I suspect he was not as Calvinistic as he is portrayed, but having been parked at Curate level by the Church because they frowned on his Gothic writings, he had to give the impression of being a good Protestant to hold onto the meager curate's income to sustain his family.

This book also contains the seeds of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey. Wilde was Maturin's Great Nephew and would have been well aware of Melmoth the Wanderer. Any doubt on this matter is wiped away by the fact that Wilde, when he left prison and went to France, used the name Melmoth to maintain anonymity.

While Maturin was very verbose in his writing Melmoth I loved the scope and depth of the story. He had a tendency to make a point and then carry on making the same point for another ten pages. It is a book one could get tired of, but I think his only offence in this matter is an inability to self-edit and not having an editor who would cut swathes of pages out of the way.

Another aspect of the book I loved was its relationship with other books. I have already mentioned its link to Wilde's novel, but it is also linked to many other volumes of the time. In its anti-Catholic nature it was in the same vain as The Monk by Matthew Lewis. In both cases they use the Spanish Church as the target for their attacks.

Apparently Maturin was a great lover of Don Quixote and used the descriptions of Spanish countryside in Cervantes's book in the part of Melmoth the Wanderer which involved travelling through parts of Spain.


-Into the Woods: A fantastic exploration of story structure and how, in the author's experience, all stories follow the Greek Tragedy five part structure, even if they think the don't. Yorke uses well known books and films to demonstrate his arguments. He claims not to be prescriptive but simply to be presenting what he has found. This is a really interesting book.

-The Science of Storytelling: Another super book about stories, this time the author comes at stories from a psychological viewpoint and spends as much time stating how the brain works to build the individual's view of the world and then works to defend that neural model against all challenge. This is a perfect complement to Yorke's Into the Woods.

-Gnomon: An interesting take on the world of surveillance and AI. It is long and challenging. Not for the fainthearted, and I would say you are anything but fainthearted.

-A Cast of Thousands: I will have to go and see who they are. :-)

I hope this gives you a flavour of how I regarded these books.

>124 pgmcc: OUCH!!!! I asked for it, I know, but I am now riddled with BBs. Superb shooting there.

ETA: I think you have the wrong Touchstone for the last one.

>125 -pilgrim-:

Thank you for pointing out the touchstone error. I was very careful to check the touchstones for the other titles and did not bother to look at Gnomon.

I am glad to hear you found my comments effective and that my aim was true. :-)

The Pendragon Protocol (Volume 1 of The Devices Trilogy) by Phillip Purser-Hallard - 4.5 stars

This was a BB from someone in Green Dragon (score one up to @reading_fox).

I really enjoyed this novel, but find it quite hard to describe. It is set in England in the present day and follows the careers of the Knights of the Circle.

The protagonist, Jordan "Jory" Taylor, was enthralled by the stories of King Arthur as a child. But he was not the quiet sort of bookworm; he enjoyed acting out their adventures with his friends and at Oxford he joined the Tournament Society and learned to joust. (He read English Literature, naturally.)

At a society dinner he is musing with two friends about how it should not be just the chivalric martial arts that are perpetuated, but the chivalric ideals of knightly honour and service. Shortly afterwards he and his friend are approached by the father of the third, and learn that this may indeed be possible.

So Jory becomes a Knight of the Circle, a classic order which does not merely copy the Round Table, but consists of Knights who are fused with a Device - the essence of a Round Table knight. They not only bear his shield, but reflect his personality, as they serve the country whilst waiting for the Head's return (King Arthur, of course).

The nature of the Devices, and how they relate to their bearers, is one of the themes of the book.

There are some unpleasant attitudes towards women and the disabled encapsulated in throwaway lines, early on, but I correctly surmised that these represent views held by characters, not those of the author.

For, like the Round Table of old, these knights, although meaning well, are flawed human beings. Only Sir Galahad was a paragon of virtue, after all.

In the course of the book, Jory discovers that the Arthurian legend is not the only one that personifies the British spirit; there is another, equally persistent, more populist legend - that of Robin Hood.

The narrator is Dale the Tale. He claims the impartiality of the bard - and is also known as either Allan a'Dale or Taliesin, depending on which company he is keeping.

He follows the convention of speaking in the historic present - a narrative style that I usually find extremely irritating. However here it serves the purpose of differentiating the main story from the various tales from the Arthurian corpus that he relates (and which may or may not be genuine components of the legend!)

My background rather resembles Jory's, so I find him an easy character to identify with. I would much rather have been approached by Dr Wendiman than received the famous "letter from Hogwarts" - although this is doubly implausible because of my gender. For unknown reasons the Arthurian Devices stick to the gender of their original bearers, even though this does not appear to be true of other Device-bearing orders.

A lot of extremely obscure Arthurian legend is referenced here, not just the most famous versions by Sir Thomas Malory and Chrétien de Troyes. The Mabinogion is equally relevant, for example. In fact when a new bond between knight and Device is found, Malory (the daughter of Edward Wendiman, not the 15th century knight) and others expend considerable effort in trying to determine which iteration of that character is currently embodied.

This was great fun, but also included some serious themes about the current divisions in Britain between rich and poor. King Arthur has always been a popular theme of elite art, but with less representation in pop culture, whilst with Robin Hood the converse is true. They both represent "British values"; yet the values that they embody are subtly different. And at times these values can come into conflict...

(English or British? It is hard to say which is the correct adjective to use here. Whilst Robin Hood (and his earlier analogues) are resolutely English, the Arthurian myth is an much Welsh as it is English, the most well-known accounts of the Arthurian cycle include those written in Norman French, and Arthur himself was a Romano-Briton, who lived before the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England.

This issue is touched on further in the next book of the cycle.)

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 33

>127 -pilgrim-: I'm intrigued

>128 libraryperilous: I think you would like it. At first it seems like a fun light read, but it has substance underlying it too.

ETA: one of the ideas I liked was the Saxon Shield: a far-right white supremacist organisation so rabidly xenophobic that it had managed to invent racist slurs for ethnicities that have not existed for over a thousand years!

The Locksley Exploit: Volume 2 of The Devices Trilogy by Phillip Purser-Hallard

This is the sequel to The Pendragon Protocol; although it continues Jory's story, and features many old friends from the previous book (as well as some new ones), the tone is much darker.

I was not entirely comfortable with the concept of changing one's Device, and that theme is very much to the fore here, as several known characters change their Devices/allies. Malory and Jory devote quite a lot of time into trying to understand how Devices actually work, and what the relationship between Device and bearer actually is, but the the answers are not entirely satisfactory - for them or for the reader.

Dale is still narrating, although he also takes a more active role here. Jory's role has changed as he aligns with a third device as a consequence of the death at the end of the previous book. The situation is very reminiscent of the Michael Praed/Jason Connery transition in Robin of Sherwood, and I think that this is completely deliberate on the part of the author. Jory is far less confident for most of this book, and seems to be feeling his way, having lost his earlier certainties, until he makes a final dramatic decision at the end.

Whereas political themes about the divided nature of contemporary Britain underlay much of the last book, here they come to dominate, as England eventually dissolves into civil war. The author seems to share the real anger of his characters, although this never descends into partisan ranting; his portrayal of those who he thinks are in the wrong is sympathetic to their motivations and intentions.

But it is grimmer reading. In The Pendragon Protocol battles were between the Deviced. Here ordinary people die, decent people are killed or maimed, and even children are killed. It is a realistic portrayal of a society descending into civil conflict, but at first I thought it rather at odds with the lighter tone of the first book.

Then I remembered my Arthurian myth. The bright hopes of the early years of the Round Table falter, the Grail quest takes away many of Arthur's best knights, and instead of chivalry and honour, there is treachery, infidelity and deceit, culminating in the ruinous fratricide at the Battle of Camlann, "where perished the flower of British chivalry".

This story takes the same trajectory; certainties are replaced with moral grey areas, with ignoble behaviour on all sides. Deceit is at the heart of it all, and there is an inexorable descent towards its own Camlann.

There is a concept called "story blindness", whereby the very fact of bonding with a Device causes the person so linked to become blind to the ways in which their own life follows the knight (or Merry Man) to which they are linked. (So, for example, the Circle always trust the knight bearing the Device of Sir Mordred - until he betrays them, again.) Yet some of the more aware characters see the fatal battle approaching (just as Arthur and some of his knights did), and strive to avert it.

As England self-destructs, and Wales seems about to be drawn in, Scotland stands aloof, having its own self-defining myths.

Devices are not unique to Britain, although other cultures may give them other names. In this book one character turns out to be bonded to the Vizier from the Arabian Nights, and the Sons of Oisín and Companions of Roland send representatives to the peace negotiations (as do the Founding Frontiersmen, whose representative is bonded with Daniel Boone). Those chivalric orders consider themselves involved, because Arthurian myth encompasses Ireland and Brittany, although he failed to conquer Scotland.

I loved these glimpses of other Devices groups, and want to hear more about them.

I have no idea what will happen in the next book. The conclusion to this one was satisfying - for now.

However watching unforeseen circumstances propel my country into civil disintegration was at times a little too near the knuckle, given present circumstances. I would recommend this book more wholeheartedly at another time.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 6,7, 13, 33

You're a bit more shut-in than the rest of us. I link to Atlas Obscura fairly regularly, but this might be interesting: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wonder-from-home-schedule.

>131 haydninvienna: Thank you Richard, I shall investigate.

>129 -pilgrim-: I tend to overanalyze even my fluff reads, so it's nice when one has a bit of heft to it on purpose. Thanks for the recommendation!

Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, I from The Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol, Volume 1 by Nikolai Gogol (translation by Constance Garnett, edited by Leonard J. Kent) - 3 stars

As mentioned here, last November I was watching an excellent Russian TV series Gogol; it was a fantasy, based both on the life of Gogol, and placing him as involved in investigating the events that took place in Dikanka. I noticed that the Russian episode titles - although not the ones that they were given in English - were all the names of short stories by Gogol, and this inspired me to try reading those stories.

Since then I have been reading The Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol, Volume 1, the first volume of a two volume work which proposes to cover all his fiction, in the order in which they were published. In particular, the editor feels that the short stories should not be taken out of context; they were written and organised in particular way by the author, and his intentions should be respected.

I have now completed the first volume that Gogol published, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, I, which was first published in 1832.

The style is quite strange, and took some getting used to. The stories are set in rural Ukraine, among the free Cossacks (who were not subject to serfdom). Apparently Gogol write to his mother, requesting her assistance with details of Cossack life.

There is a great love for the landscape; it is a very visual account, with vivid and sometimes unexpected descriptive metaphors. It is easy to visualise everything that he describes. He seems also to admire the Cossack psyche, with its combative, resilient attitudes.

Yet in all his descriptions of black-browed girls and swaggering youths, I found very few likeable characters. I felt the author had a contempt for "the peasantry" - or perhaps for mankind in general. His protagonists tend to be foolish, venal and casually cruel. They trick each other, cheat each other, beat each other. Maybe 18th century life was really like that, but I felt the author had a contempt for "the peasantry" - or perhaps for mankind in general.

The supernatural is taken as a fact of life. In some tales it is overt and unmistakeable, in others it is how the villagers interpret events, but amenable to alternative interpretations.

Events appropriate to a horror story are not described in gory detail, in the manner of modern horror writers. They are part of the story, not its purpose.

The whole is framed by the character of Rudy Panko, who introduces the book, and some of the tales. I think we are meant to identify the gentleman in a pea green coat, who is always asking questions and taking notes, as Gogol himself.

This volume is one book where I would recommend reading the Introduction before the stories themselves. There is useful information both about Gogol's life and the social conditions in Ukraine at the time. There is also discussion of translation issues, and why the editor chose to amend Constance Garnett's translation, rather than create a more modern one. But, mercifully, there is no analysis of the content of the stories themselves. They remain fresh, and the reader can make up their own mind about them.

I found these interesting and fascinating rather than enjoyable exactly. I have been reading them between other books. I will probably continue with the sequel in the same way.

As to their relation to the TV series: the latter has its own story to tell. The episodes are not straight renditions of the short stories whose title they share, but diverge from them in various ways. Some episodes follow the original story more closely than others.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 4, 7, 12, 13, 31, 33, 36, 43

>134 -pilgrim-: I saw that Amazon had a "Complete Works of..." recently and added it to my wish list. This sounds promising :-)

It sounds like these are just his short stories. Is that correct? And if so, have you read anything else by Gogol? I won't be getting around to Gogol for a couple of years (I suspect) but am wondering what I'll be getting myself into, generally speaking.

>135 BookstoogeLT: I have been reading The Complete Tales of..., not The Complete Works of..., so I do not know what is in that collection.

I was particularly interested in The Complete Tales... because it takes the view that the sequence in which Gogol told his stories is relevant, and is covering them in original publication order.

So far, I only have Volume 1, which contains his first 4 works:

Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, I (1831)

Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, II (1832)

Mirgorod (a sequel to Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka)

Arabesques (1835) (short stories set in St Petersburg)

I tried Dead Souls in my early teens and liked it, but it was quite slow, and I had to return it to a library before finishing.

I have read The Overcoat and did not like it; the satire was too cruel for my taste.

On the other hand his play, The Government Inspector, is a hilarious satire, with a con man wallowing in the banality if a small town, and living in the lap of luxury because having been mistaken for a government official, everyone wants to bring him.

I have the impression that Gogol either had a low impression of humanity in general, or at least the venality and corruption that he saw around him; he seems to get sourer with time.

Unlike Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, there is no direct moralising, in his early work, anyway. Apparently he had intended Dead Souls to be the first volume of a trilogy, that would have portrayed the moral redemption of its protagonist, but he burnt the manuscript of volume 2 in a fit of religious zeal.

Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, I consists of 4 short stories, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, II contains 4 more.

>137 pgmcc: I went to a play in The Abbey Theatre in Dublin several years ago that was based on The Government Inspector. I can remember enjoying it very much.

I think I mentioned to you my reading Living Souls by Dmitry Bykov, which I took to be an attempt to do the same in post-Soviet Russia that Gogol had done in Dead Souls with the Russia of his era, i.e. show the lives of ordinary people (at least that is what I understand Gogol was trying to do based on preliminary investigation of the book). I have intended to read Dead Souls to see how the two books compare.

Of course, I am limited to English translations in my reading and cannot, therefore, make a real comparison between the two books as they appear in their original language. I am also not versed in the nuances of the culture and will miss a significant amount of the meaning.

Am reminded (once again by KUSC) that you are celebrating Easter. I hope it has been and is being a blessed one for you.

>138 haydninvienna: Thank you Richard. I wish a happy and blessed Pascha (Easter) to all who celebrate this festival.

>137 pgmcc: My impression of Dead Souls - which may well be wrong, given the length of time that has passed since I last read it, and the fact that I did not finish - is that Gogol's intention was to attack the corruption and venality that he sees around him (as he did in The Government Inspector).

He appears to have been the first Russian writer, as far as I am aware, who took an interest in portraying the lives of ordinary people - certainly that is very much the theme of Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka - but I am not sure how much he empathised with them. Certainly in his published letters he was a supporter of autocracy and serfdom

Still, a belief that some people ought to be ruled by others does not preclude a belief that that also implies that they ought to be ruled justly and honestly.

I have Living Souls on my TBR pile, so I think another attempt at Dead Souls is in order. We discussed the possibility of a joint read a while back, maybe @BookstoogeLT would join us?

>140 -pilgrim-: I'll have to pass for a bit of time. I'm currently working my way through Gulag Archipelago vol 1 and I'm having to go a lot slower than anticipated so as not to overwhelm myself. One russian at a time for me at the moment :-)

But if our schedules end up fitting together in another month or so, I'm certainly interested...

>141 BookstoogeLT: Excellent.

I really ought to try Gulag Archipelago some time. The problem is that I have never really been impressed by Solzhenitsyn as a person, and he never underwent the full Gulag experience. I have read both One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Apricot Jam and Other Stories. But to my mind, Varlam Shalamov (who sat for seventeen years in total, as opposed to Solzhenitsyn's three, and did his time in Kolyma, rather than in a sharashka) is the writer whose work epitomises those awful times.

>141 BookstoogeLT: >142 -pilgrim-: It's a painful read. A loooong painful read.

>143 clamairy: Painful because of the depressing nature of the subject material? Or because of how it is written/translated?

>144 -pilgrim-: Subject matter, for sure.

The Kindred of Darkness (Book 5 of the James Asher series) by Barbara Hambly - 4.5 stars

This is sequel to The Magistrates of Hell, and it dealt with all the complaints that I voiced in my
review of that book - it even has a cover design that is both atmospheric and completely relevant to something that happens!

Since Lydia's daughter is kidnapped by Dr. Grippen, it is very much her book as she uses everything James taught her about his former occupation to get her back. James is initially absent, having agreed to carry out a minor task for his former employers whilst ostensibly attending an academic conference in Vienna. So Lydia turns for help to the other man in her life..

I had been feeling that we had been getting very far from the roots of this story, and losing sight of exactly what a vampire is - and what it means to be friends with a mass murderer. Back in London, and with the Master of London taking an ungentle interest in the Ashers, the events of Immortal Blood are brought back in to focus, asking with the fear that James and Lydia felt then. Now they have cause to reproach themselves with how far they have become involved with the world of the undead.

There is a new vampire in town, whose goals are initially unclear. And he plays the role of the vampire lover in a gothic romance, beguiling a young acquaintance of Lydia's.

This story line rationalises how the bloodthirsty monster that is a vampire came to be regarded in some quarters as romantic and attractive - although Lydia is getting rather irritated by the dreams that are being sent into her head! Don Simon explains how a vampire uses glamour.. leaving Lydia wondering how much of that is involved in her impressions of him.

The failure of the settlement brokered at the end of the first book, and the threat to their family strain relations between the Ashers and Ysidro. His actions are again heroic, for his own reasons, but they are reminded what he unapologetically is. However James too is a murderer; as world war approaches old actions in service of King and Country haunt him.

We had begun to see James and Simon - the spy and the vampire - as dashing, glamorous figures. This book brings home the dirty underside that facilitates their existence.

In short, this book faces the moral issues that were being sidestepped, even as James acknowledges the situation between himself, Simon and his wife.

Meanwhile the events are as exciting, and the plot as convoluted as ever as the three work to rescue both Miranda and the besotted debutante.

The historical setting is perfectly realised, with manners and attitudes completely appropriate to the period. Barbara Hambly appears to enjoy gently poking fun at her compatriots again; this time with a nouveau riche businessman, who has obtained his wealth by ruthless methods and is now trying to buy his way into London society, as he launches his daughter into "the Season". It is such a pleasure to have English characters thinking and speaking in the authentic vocabulary of the era (although she does give James one "gotten"!) And Grippen's vocabulary is coloured by the era of his own birth, which also gives him an accent somewhat closer to that of the American.

A book plays an important role in the story, as James utilises his former studies under Rebbe Karlsbach, and realises that editions of a text that they had dismissed as fake differ significantly. This introduced one of my favourite minor characters, an obsessive book collector (and shop owner). Every booklover knows someone like him, whose conversation is peppered with multilingual tags.

This book has everything that I wanted, and expect, from a novel in this series - and I did not want it to end.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 16, 24, 30, 37, 38, 44

>146 -pilgrim-: I had no idea this series had gone on this far. I enjoyed the first book but I'm pretty sure I dnf'd the second and never looked around for more in the series.

>147 BookstoogeLT: That's Hambly for you! The second book came about 6 years after the first, then the third - Blood Maidens - came with a new publisher about 15 years after that.

I thought the first wonderful, the second good but not great. I knew the setting for the the third well enough to really appreciate the care with which she was using it, and did not want that book to end.

It is as much about Europe, and the Old Order it embodies, heading inevitably towards disaster, as it is about vampires. We are up to 1913 now.

Imperial Legend: The Mysterious Disappearance of Tsar Alexander I by Alexis S. Troubetzkoy - 4 stars

I had never heard of this apparently well-known theory before, but the author references multiple sources, most in Russian.

It states that Tsar Alexander I faked his own death, and lived out the rest of his life as the Siberian starets, Fyodor Kuzmich.

A starets is an elderly recluse, revered for his holiness, but often without ordination, or any affiliation to a monastic order. It should be pointed out that in this period in Russia, it was not unknown for a wealthy or successful person, repenting of the sins that he had committed earlier in his life, to forsake family and possessions to expiate them in this manner. It is not that the course of action is itself implausible, but the magnitude of a ruling autocrat secretly undertaking it.

The author believes this thesis, but his account is extremely balanced; he includes the evidence and testimonies that disagrees with his conclusion as well as those that support it.

To explain why Alexander might have felt the need to take such a drastic course, he starts his history of Alexander's reign with the assassination of his father, Tsar Paul I. Then, to explain the ground for believing that Alexander was complicit in this, he not only gives evidence from the accounts of all contemporary witnesses, but also examines the father's character and reign, and their respective relationships to Paul's mother, Catherine the Great.

Then follows a full history of Alexander I's reign, and his position as preeminent monarch in Europe at the time (including the defeat of Napoleon and his leading role in determining the subsequent peace treaty), also noting his robust health and increasing religious mysticism.

The circumstances of his death were as follows: the Tsarina was ailing, so he sent her south to Taganrog "for her health" (an odd choice of resort), where he subsequently joined her. There he succumbed suddenly to an unexpected illness, the nature of which is unclear from the autopsy report. His body decomposed (although the accounts differ as to how rapidly), so on its return to the capital the public were not permitted an open valley viewing as he lay in state in the cathedral.

The Tsar's movements and actions during his stay at Taganrog are minutely studied from eyewitness accounts of all who were present at the little court there - from diaries, official reports and letters. So too are all the details of his coffin's slow return to St Petersburg.

How he could have got away (by sea), who could have helped, and whose body would them have lain in the coffin are all discussed - but the author clearly distinguishes his own speculations from historical facts of record.

Everything that is known of the life of Fyodor Kuzmich is then covered, including accounts both from those who revered him, and some who were not impressed.

The author gives the reasons for believing that this man was in fact the Tsar, then covers alternative theories as to his identity; (He spoke several languages and was evidently a well-educated person who had been of some consequence).

Alexander's will - succession in Russia being determined by bequeathing property rather than a fixed law of succession - did not leave his throne to his older brother Constantine (who had told him that he did not want it), but to the younger, who became Tsar Nicholas I.

As the will was not immediately found there was some confusion, during which Constantine was hailed as emperor, but refused to return to Russia to be crowned.

Some young nobleman instigated a doomed attempt at revolution, aimed at denying Nicholas the throne and obtaining greater civil rights for the ordinary people of the Empire. The author's ancestor, Prince Sergei Trubetzkoi, was one of these Decembrists, giving him a personal interest in the events surrounding this accession.

Himself a Russian prince, Alexis Troubetzkoy had access to the descendents of the personages involved in these events. He knows of the report of an investigation into the Imperial Legend undertaken fitting the reign of Nicholas II, the results of which were suppressed, and further interest taken in the Stalin era, when the Tsar's time was opened for a second time.

In the course of the book Troubetzkoy marshals quite a bit of evidence in support of the Imperial Legend, and several eminent Russian historians who were convinced. What counted most with him was an interview with the elderly Grand Duchess Olga, sister of the last tsar, who told him "it is not something one talks about" but that "the whole family" believed it. (And her brother, of course, would have seen that report, which included references to official documents now destroyed.) Tolstoy also believed the Legend.

His stated aim in writing the book is to generate enough interest in the West to fund exhumations, so that DNA comparisons can be made with existing relatives and the mystery solved. As such, I believe the author to be a genuine historian, who honestly believes in the theory he is proposing.

As to why the truth should have still been politically sensitive do long after the event - Fyodor Kuzmich died during the reign of Nicholas' successor, Tsar Alexander II. If he was, in fact, Alexander I, since there was no formal abdication, those reigns did not, in fact, occur - and all ukazy promulgated by Nicholas I, and from the first part of the reign of Alexander II, would be void. In a country where the source of law is the absolute monarch, this would be a legislative nightmare. What about all those who had been convicted under these invalid laws - exiled, executed, had their property confiscated?

The Legend presupposes a cover-up; but there are good grounds for covering up such an event, if it did occur.

But it is not necessary to buy into the Imperial Legend to find this book valuable. The actual hypotheses regarding the transformation of Tsar Alexander I into Fyodor Kuzmich take up relatively little space.

What you have is a detailed biography of Alexander I and his father, plus the life of a Siberian holy man (recognised as a saint by the Orthodox Church in 1984), which form a fascinating insight into 18th and 19th century Russia.

Troubetzkoy 's style of writing is very visually descriptive, but, unlike a lot of popular historians he nowhere gives vent to imagination - every detail of the descriptions that he gives us taken from contemporary accounts.

When accounts are contradictory, he scrupulously notes the fact and gives both versions, along with comment as to which he finds the more trustworthy and why. His own speculations are clearly marked as such.

I recommend this as an excellent, conscientious but very readable, history of a fascinating period in Russian history.

As to the Imperial Legend? It is certainly not proven, but I found it a plausible hypothesis.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 18, 44

Monday Starts On Saturday by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky (translated by Andrew Bromfield) - 5 stars

The Strugatsky brothers were writing science fiction in the Soviet Union during the Kruschev and Brezhnev eras. Despite, like much of the best science fiction, these being serious works imbued with social commentary, they managed to be published, and not arrested. This took a considerable degree of skill, particularly since Arkady held a sensitive position as a military interpreter. It was achieved by such strategies as making it clear that their dystopian vision of the future, Roadside Picnic was set in the West, and their most sensitive novel, The Doomed City, was never submitted to publishers at all (until after the fall of the Soviet Union).

Nevertheless, one of the brothers learnt that he was under investigation, so they decided to write something light, "nothing you could get put away for". Monday Starts on Saturday is the result. I described it earlier as whimsy, and @haydninvienna has disagreed, but how else would you describe a book that mixes figures from Russian folktales with a Soviet scientific institute set up to study magical phenomena? (The first story, in particular, has a strong element of farce, reminiscent of the film, The Twelve Chairs.)

Since the Strugatskys are incorrigibly satirical, this is thus a hilarious satire on the bureaucracy involved, recognisable to any reader who has worked in a scientific research setting, particularly a governmental one. If you also love Russian folklore, it is a must.

The brothers submitted the title to the publishers before actually writing the book. It comes in three sections. The first story is based on something put together by Boris and a co-worker when stuck and bored on an assignment in the Caucasus (essential equipment had not yet arrived).

In this story, a nice young man, Alexander Ivanovich Privalov, is on holiday in Karelia. Driving to meet up with his friends, he gives a lift to two men who are obviously not locals - one is Caucasian* in appearance. They turn out to work in a nearby science institute. Learning that he is a computer programmer - in the sixties, when this was written, that was a rare and prestigious specialty - they decide that he is needed there too. He is not convinced, but agrees to let them put him up for the night at the Institute (which is a rather strange place). He is billeted on a rather grumpy old lady, who makes up a bed for him on the floor of a dusty room.

Since there is a couch in the room, Sasha thinks "to hell with her" and makes up his bed on the couch. All in all, he probably should not have. It results in him having a very strange and incident-filled night (including a book that rewrites itself every time he looks at it).

In the subsequent stories our Sasha has become a member of staff in the Institute, which researches magical phenomena. Its mission goal is to create the maximum possible human happiness. Sasha is taking the strange in his stride; he can even do a little amount of magic himself now. His woes here are those of a very junior researcher in any scientific establishment - getting outmanoeuvred by the petty political intrigues of his superiors.

We meet the the heads of the various departments of research - types instantly recognisable to anyone who had worked in such an environment. Questions as to what is ethically permissible to do in research are also quietly raised, but the overt threat here is the research that leads to the development of the Ultimate Consumer.

In another story, Sasha volunteers as a guinea pig for someone else's experiment, and motorcycles into the future. The twist is that it is not the actual future, but the futures created by science fiction writers.Thus he periodically travels through the darkness of eras that no one has written about.

I particularly liked the way that Sasha is initially disturbed by the nakedness. He meets a lot of people wearing only one item of clothing. Eventually he realises that they are a result of authorial style; they were created by the sort of author who writes "a man with a green tie walked into the room" and then proceeds without further description.

He notes a Wall and eventually, bored by the endless stream of perfect, handsome young men and women, glowing with patriotic devotion, who give endless long, noble, morally edifying, but extremely boring speeches, he crawls through a gap. There he finds a world in ruins, where heroic, rugged individuals are trying to survive alien invasions. He hastily retreats. (It is a lovely comment on the contrasting préoccupations of Soviet and American pulp science fiction of their era.)

So that is this book. It mixes social comment and offbeat humour, the research scientist's endless 'war' with his administrative counterparts with characters recognisable from folklore, and a computer programmer learning to be a magician.

It is wonderful and weird, but also notably optimistic. "Monday Starts on Saturday" is a gloomy Soviet saying, referencing being forced to work over the weekend to meet some unrealistic production quota or other; here it is given a new, joyous meaning.

Despite Sasha's frustrations, who wouldn't want to work at the National Institute for Thaumaturgy and Witchcraft (NITWiT)?

Note: this is full of puns. The translator has done a wonderful job, but I am sure there were more in the original that proved untranslatable. This is the sort of book that really, really makes me wish that I knew Russian better.

Second note: The cover art is striking, but I find it hard to relate to the content.

*"Caucasian" in the context of Russian novels means "from the Caucasus".. (This relates only tangentially to the common American usage. Many Caucasians would not actually count as "Caucasian", as Americans use the term!)

ETA: A lot of the descriptions and events in the first story become a little more explicable (in a strictly relative use of the term!) if you know the right poen by Pushkin.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 9, 13, 16, 24, 33, 40, 43

>150 -pilgrim-: Oh, geez. I have never had any interest in the Strugatsky brothers, in large part because I assumed everything they wrote would be depressing and dystopian. I literally guffawed at NITWiT.

Adding this to my TBR s'sheet. Also, this is a great review. Thank you!

>151 libraryperilous: I am glad that I seem to have conveyed the nature of the book; it has taken so long to get around to writing this review because I found it almost indescribable. It has serious points to make at times, but combines them with a high level of the completely bonkers. And I loved it.

It is very different from the other books by the brothers that I have read, which are much more serious. But is worth keeping in mind that the Strugatskys are not Tarkovsky. He took a short episode from one of their books and turned it into a depressing masterpiece, Stalker. The book itself, Roadside Picnic, is not optimistic about humanity's first encounter with aliens, and there are truly tragic scenes, but there is a humanity to their writing, and the irrepressible satirical jibes, that make it far from unrelieved gloom.

>151 libraryperilous: It is also the sort of book that generates the desperate urge in the reader to recount anecdotes from! Trying to demonstrate the style without revealing too much was a real challenge.

I feel fairly sure the brothers have read The Once and Future King.

>153 -pilgrim-: Honestly, I think you could have just said "whimsy + NITWiT" and I would have been sold. I am still laughing. I think your review did a good job of enticing without spoiling.

I tried The Once and Future King several years ago and couldn't get into it. And I wasn't even to the jarring tone switch; I was still in happy childhood times.

Thank you for the further information on Roadside Picnic in >152 -pilgrim-:. I struggle with how to react to gloom in fiction, because sometimes even relieved gloom is too much for me. I don't shy away from, e.g., keeping up with terrible political news, because I think it is required of us not to look away. But it often is difficult for me to read bleak fiction, even if there are moments of levity or kindness. This is a decades-long struggle, not brought on by anything particular, and I've never quite figured out either why or how to correct for it.

ETA: Oh, I have read a Strugatsky book, The Dead Mountaineer's Inn.

I might have disagreed about calling Monday Starts on Saturday "whimsy" but I loved it all the same, and I agree that >150 -pilgrim-: is an excellent review of it. I have The Dead Mountaineer's Inn on my wishlist also.

>>154 libraryperilous:

I think that I understand completely your feelings about gloomy fiction. I read quite a lot of non-fiction, both historical and contemporary, that is grim, and sometimes feel that with do much that is truly depressing about our world, is it necessary to invent more? I understand the service that Charles Dickens was doing to his contemporaries in making them aware of the plight of chimney sweeps, but since no one nowadays is proposing to send small boys up chimneys, is there a good reason to read Oliver Twist (which I read, but did not enjoy)? ...and so on. I do read some novels that are downbeat in tone, but I tend to choose them carefully.

I didn't mean that Roadside Picnic was less grim because of interludes in the grimness exactly, but more because of the Strugatskys attitude to humanity.

I think the books that really depress me are the novels where the author does not seem to like his fellow man much. The Strugatskys have a deep suspicion of governments, and humanity acting en masse, but their writing demonstrates a warmth towards individuals.

To explain better will get a bit spoilerish. In Roadside Picnic, Red is a Stalker. This means that he scrapes a living retrieving alien artefacts from the Exclusion Zone, always going for the "big one" that will make him rich. This is illegal, so he has been to prison several times, and will probably go again, but he cannot imagine any other life, because he does not (for reasons that gradually become apparent) want to take orders from anyone ever again. There is a rough cameraderie along Stalkers, but they are hard men, with a "look out for number one" attitude to each other. One could not call Red a good man.

Life has treated Red badly. And it gets worse. His father returns from the grave (literally) and now sits in the corner of Red's tiny flat, while his mutant daughter becomes less human by the day. (Red spends all his spare time making toys for the local kids, so that they will play with his daughter and not tease her.) He watches tenderly as the child cuddle her unresponsive grandfather; throughout he treats his dead father as if he were still alive. The triumph of the story is when the corpse finally responds and raises a glass of vodka to his lips.

But there is a point to all this. In the final story, Red has a choice between doing something really appalling, and finally making it rich, or very probably getting himself killed. We have got to know Red, his hopes and his failures over several decades. It has been necessary to truly understand this choice that he makes.

I think that I can enjoy dystopian literature when there is a point to it, like this, but not to wallow in the darker side of human nature "just for the sake of it".

@haydninvienna, I know that you have read Roadside Picnic too, would you agree with that explanation?

>156 -pilgrim-: haydninvienna, I know that you have read Roadside Picnic too, would you agree with that explanation: Unfortunately I haven't. I bought a copy of the new translation in Dublin a while ago, but haven't read it yet. Under present circumstances, I'm not sure I'd be able to handle it. However, I have complete confidence in your review.

>157 haydninvienna: I think you may be overestimating its applicability.

The title is explained in the first few pages, which consist of an eminent scientist speculating on the origins of a series of Zones that have appeared across the surface of the Earth, which are littered with artefacts that disregard the known laws of physics. A bioweapon in advance of invasion? A gift from a technologically superior race, along the lines of "learn to understand these and you will have become worthy to join your Galactic brethren"? No, the scientist's explanation is simpler: the aliens had no intentions, neither hostile nor friendly. They simply stopped off, as they were passing through. And left some of their rubbish behind.

This is not a "world in distress" scenario. The Zones are places of curiosity to scientists, adventurers, and would-be exploiters of alien technology. They are local phenomena; the rest of the world is continuing as normal.

And not all Zones cause any problems at all - the Russians have thrown a 151km cordon exclusion zone around the Zone in their territory and forbidden all entry, and that's that. (Remember what I said earlier about censorship and not writing anything that contradicts the Soviet Union's Bright Future.)

But I think that the reason why I can read the Strugatskys with pleasure, even the books with grim settings : unlike a lot of 'grimdark' fiction, they never propagate the mentality that "all morality is grey; in a harsh world one has to be selfish".

Their characters are morally complex people, who are frequently far from perfect, or even good. But all their books address questions of morality, and have the attitude that in harsh situations, people have to care about one another, and remain human, in order to survive.

Arkady and his father were evacuated in 1942 from the Siege of Leningrad, but the boy was the only survivor from his railway car. Boris remained in the city throughout the War.

These are writers who have personally seen some of the worst the human beings can do to one another - and also the best in humanity that can also appear in such times.

They have a fundamental belief in humanity, I feel, however grim the circumstances their characters may be placed in.

>154 libraryperilous: Have you written a review of The Dead Mountaineer's Inn anywhere, @libraryperilous?

>159 -pilgrim-: Hmm, that's a good question. It also is no longer in my catalog, which means I had rated it three stars or lower. (The only under four-star ratings left are for Early Reviewers titles.)

I read it because I was interested in the concept of a noirish mystery with sci-fi elements. Iirc, I didn't think it blended the elements particularly well.

>156 -pilgrim-: Yes, I struggle with this. Other people seek grim books based on current events to help them process those events. Or they search for metaphors in post-apocalyptic or dystopian fiction. It's understandable! I just haven't found it a helpful way for me to process horrible things. I do better with news articles or by seeking out experts' analysis. For example, I have never read The Handmaid's Tale and probably never will.

Interestingly, Dickens is a comfort author for me. I read and loved a number of his books as child. With few exceptions, I find that to sink into the moralizing and sentimental endings is like shrugging on an old favorite sweater. It's easy to imagine someone else finding, e.g., Roadside Picnic comforting, because it expresses a fundamental humanity or holds up to the mirror some important truths about human nature for the reader.

Perhaps I have stumbled upon too many books where the authors just wanted to wallow. Much of the so-called 'grimdark' fantasy that is popular has seemed to me like the writer acted out their unpleasant locker room domination fantasies in the books.

I think the books that really depress me are the novels where the author does not seem to like his fellow man much.

This is one of my problems with contemporary literary fiction. So much of it seems written by people who are misanthropes or just absolute jerks. And they get mad that people think they are jerks, so they write a novel about a jerk who does jerk things and then spends the rest of the novel pouting that there are consequences for being a jerk. Sorry you live in society, my dude.

>160 libraryperilous: I share a lot of your views. I agree that a lot of 'grimdark' fiction seems to be a wallow in unpleasantness for its own sake, and I find that rather unhealthy.

I tend to read more non-fiction rather than fiction about grim subjects; if there were contemporary writers who have written well about their experiences in the more terrible parts of the world's history, then it feels rather exploitative to write fiction cannibalising their experiences.

That is possibly why I am not getting on well with Washington Black; I intend to give it a further chance, but the first part felt simply exploitative to me.

This is one of my problems with contemporary literary fiction. So much of it seems written by people who are misanthropes or just absolute jerks. And they get mad that people think they are jerks, so they write a novel about a jerk who does jerk things and then spends the rest of the novel pouting that there are consequences for being a jerk.

That was a brilliant summary of 90% of modern literary fiction!

>161 -pilgrim-: Aha! You put voice to why I don't like modern literary fiction. I hadn't thought about it in those terms, but, yeah.

>161 -pilgrim-: I think the credit goes to @libraryperilous for that summary.

I suspect the problem derived from the Creative Writing programmes that in America, and to a lesser extent in the UK now too, seem to be the established way of getting published.

So you get people who decide they want to be a Writer. So they take courses in How to Be a Writer, and then start to write. But since they have no experience of actually doing anything, and they exist in a little bubble of like-minded people, they turn to navel-gazing introspection, because that is all that they have experience of.

Certainly the protagonists of modern literary fiction seem usually to be writers too.

I hypothesise that the problem is less acute in the UK because, until relatively recently, Creative Writing courses were Master's degrees, so there was more chance of their students having a range of experiences before taking them.

When I think of the literary fiction that did engross me, it is mainly not written in English. I suspect that it is because the different literary cultures elsewhere mean that there are fewer writers there who started out to Be A Writer. They were doing something else when the idea for the first book came. They did not decide to be a Writer, then start looking for an idea to write about.

>160 libraryperilous:, >161 -pilgrim-: & >162 2wonderY:

I agree with what >162 2wonderY: said. Great descriptions.

>163 -pilgrim-: I suspect that it is because the different literary cultures elsewhere mean that there are fewer writers there who started out to Be A Writer. They were doing something else when the idea for the first book came. They did not decide to be a Writer, then start looking for an idea to write about.

This is a point I have pondered many times. When you look back at early novels you find the author was a doctor, a cleric, a cleric's daughter, a politician, etc... They were people who lived a life and wrote as well. I agree, >163 -pilgrim-:, that people who start out with the aim of being a writer will focus on their writing skills and ways to generate ideas to write about. This will include how to find an audience that will buy their book. They will not be writing a novel because there is something they want to say and a novel is a convenient way of communicating their message. The latter type of book is more likely to be of interest if it is well written and is a worthy message.

A recent book I read, Shadowplay, is a prime example of a book that was written to sell rather than written to inform, entertain, or enrich its reader. The author identified very well known people from the past, took a sketchy amount of information about their lives, twisted some of the facts to suit his narrative, and wrote a book that, if you were not careful, and I can see from the reviews of this book many readers were not careful enough, you would assume the book was biographical.

I have to conclude that there is a place in the world for professional writers, but if they are not something else as well, their fiction has a high probability of being trite, meaningless, and sterile. There has to be something authentic in their story for it to be of value. As Groucho Marx said, "Authenticity is the key. If you can fake that you've got it made."

>165 pgmcc: I can understand people becoming full-time writers later, if their earlier books were successful and they want to devote all their time to the steam of ideas that are clamouring to get out.

But any book that you write because you had to write for external reasons, either to pay the rent, satisfy your publisher, or because you have always wanted to be a Writer, and so need to write something, is unlikely to be worth reading.

I considered including a Creative Writing module in my second degree, but after seeing what it involved, I decided against it. I appreciate having my writing critiqued in detail, and would be interested in learning more about different techniques and styles. But the idea of being expected to write fiction to order, on a given topic, troubled me.

When I try to write, there is an idea in my head that I have a burning need to try to put into shape. It generally spends quite a lot of time coalescing in my head (during which I am likely to be doing background reading and so on). Then comes a period of frantically trying to get it down in written form. And then a much longer period of revising, improving the language and so on. This may or may not work.

But if the idea is not mine originally, I would expect it to take longer to take form, not less. And if I try writing before I have the idea fully formed, then it is always crap.

I don't understand how a "topic for this week" can be expected to produce anything good. That is writing for the sake of writing.

And if that is what Creative Writing courses teach how to do, then the result is hardly surprising.

My latest candidate for the."I want to Write a Book" school of literature is Washington Black. You can watch the buttons being pushed in sequence.

Conversely, one of my favourite fantasy novels is Dragonsbane. (It starts with a very traditional scenario, then subverts it.) The sequel, Knight of the Demon Queen is bad. It is not just that it is a pedestrian quest, but that it destroys subtleties of personality created in the first book. Why I respect the author, Barbara Hambly, was that she admits it was bad - and apologised to her readers.

She went through a divorce at the time. It is obvious that her mind was on things other than the book she was writing, and particularly out of tune with the first book's theme of mature, genuine love between a long-married couple. But she was mid-book, and her publisher had a deadline, so she had to finish it regardless.

I think that example shows the dangers of becoming a full-time writer, even if it is financially feasible. Barbara Hambly is usually meticulous be authenticity of the settings of her historical novels, and genuinely interested in character motivation. But she was forced by circumstances to write a book at the wrong time, and the result shows.

ETA: I am making no claims about the quality of my own writing. I only mention it in the context that the Creative Writing course syllabus seemed the antithesis of constructive.

If you are a journalist, then you need to learn to write on the topic given. But for creative writing, surely what you need to learn is how to write better on the topic that you have?

I stumbled across this Tweet today and chortled. How long until the Iowa Writers' Workshop begins offering degrees in Creative Podcasting?

>167 libraryperilous: I suspect someone, somewhere is already doing this.