What Are You Reading?

I finished A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams a few days ago. I really enjoyed it. It switches back and forth between 1931 and 1938, and half of it takes place at the ocean. Makes me long to go.

Right now, I'm working my way through several Harlequins, some decent, some meh. I have several more of them to enjoy, a couple of cozies, and a historical romance in my loan queue. My Kindle is stuffed full of non-library books, too.

Oh, and a great non-fiction book for anyone who publishes wide is Killing it on Kobo, by Mark Lefebvre. He started and ran the self-publishing arm for Kobo for several years. Very informative.

I'm about to read another non-fiction book, Writing with Chronic Illness by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. She posted the first 3 chapters on her website and they were incredibly helpful.

I have just finished The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane, the first book in a trilogy.

The underlying premise is the speculation by Homer Dubs (Professor of Chinese History at Oxford University) that caucasion DNA found at Liqian came from a ‘lost’ legion of the Roman army defeated by the Parthians at Carrhae. So far so good (although more recent DNA tests are said to have disproved the hypothesis). He ties it into a plot that anyone with a little knowledge of Roman history can predict through to the end of the trilogy; I think it sould be more hidden and subtle than that.

There are aspects of the book I like, and others I dislike. There are many gory and graphic descriptions and the frequent description of characters’ feelings and reactions still left me unaffected and distanced. There are descriptions of slavery and the Empire’s addiction to foreign conquest and exploitation, but I don’t think it gets under the skin of the experience, although it tries. The military side of the plot is driven entirely by one character’s apparently total ability to predict the future.

There’s a very detailed description of the first sexual experience of a thirteen year old girl who had been sold to a brothel; it’s told from her point of view and I’m not sure it would count as erotic, but I can’t feel comfortable with a graphic description of what we would view as the rape of a child in a book that is fundamentally a historical political/military adventure. Her sexual prowess is a major driver of the plot, so I understand why he felt the need to do it, but I still don’t like it.

On the other hand, the pace builds slowly and then speeds up to the battle scenes. I suppose they are vivid and detailed, and pull you along with them. Quite detailed description of the tortures. I think those are valid because of its prevalence at the time; but, at the same time, I don’t think he gets under the skin of the experience.

So, for people who don’t mind its failings, it is probably a good read. People who do should avoid it completely.

Yesterday I finished Embers of War by Gareth Powell. Good science fiction novel about atonement. Had a few interesting characters, including a sentient starship.

Over the past few days I re-read Expecting Someone Taller and Who's Afraid of Beowulf, both by Tom Holt. I read them when they first came out. I decided to re-read them to get into a good frame of mind for a project I've started. Both are light fantasy with classic myths meeting the modern world. The first is about the Ring Cycle, while the other is about Viking Sagas. They both have sudden endings, though I still feel that the one in the first novel just feels better. They're both fun reads, though not as funny as I remembered.

I'm going to pause reading for a bit and do some watching to keep me in the right frame of mind...

I've recently finished reading Daniel Mendelsohn's 'An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic'.

A memoir, interleaved and mirroring a classicist criticism. It's lauded and genuinely very good: simultaneously revealing and not revealing, and educational. And emotionally moving - in a not very American, stiff but not British, maybe Ivy League way. In a very literary package.

It is one of the most crafted books I have read in a very long time, maybe ever. Full of observable technique. It describes, and illustrates, ring composition (chiastic structure) and it was interesting seeing how it can be used to control momentum. - but requires meticulous planning, interweaving, and attention to detail.

Which left me very surprised to find a significant error in academic deduction.
He is proud of having been trained in the school of thought developed by Friedrich August Wolf who believed that these texts should be analysed 'scientifically'; one part of this hypothesises Homeric epics as having been developed over many generations of oral bards and only written many years later. This accounts for inconsistencies in the text relating to time periods and even the same character dying twice. It is also known that other versions of the epics existed in the middle ages. His students came up with an interesting idea about the Calypso/Circe characters - the one described by the narrator and the other by Odysseus - which said that Circe was a deliberate distortion of his experiences with Calypso. This made sense psychologically and in the story. He ended by rejecting the idea because there was one line in the text where the narrator refers to Circe. Given the known inconsistencies, a simple mention in the text should not be sufficient to reject an otherwise compelling idea.
Sorry for the nerdish interlude. I just get immensely irritated by logic holes, especially when promulgated by someone who is supposed to be expert (I'm not - not a classicist & never had any interest in any form of traditional literary criticism).

Yes, plot holes are annoying, I agree. The only opera I know is the Phantom. We got a new kitten last week, so he's been keeping me busy. *tries to remember if I've read any books this week - memory matrix fails*

I read about half of Jack Treby's The Scandal at Bletchley (Hilary Manningham-Butler Book 1), A who-dun-it set in 1929. The premise is interesting enough. Sir Hilary Manningham-Butler, the protagonist, is a woman who has lived all her/his life as a man; the truth being known only to his valet. Despite that, there was no core to the character - or anything else of interest - and I found her/him a rather irritating narrator. It was all affectation. The only character that felt at all real or interesting was a stereotypical East End Eliza Doolittle (there's a reason the stereotype has endured so well). I then read the end and skimmed a few more pages, then stopped. I won't be reading any other books in the series.

Awe, that's really sweet that her son is completing her work. That is a mother who raised her child right!

I have also read Sitting Murder: A Baffling Victorian Whodunit (A Lancashire Detective Mystery Book 3)
by A.J. Wright.

A suspense style mystery set in Wigan in the late nineteenth century.
For those who don't know Wigan, even in the irony of George Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier, it is one of a number of industrial towns in South Lancashire squished around and between Liverpool and Manchester. All cotton mills and coal mines. Accents are usually distinct, and were presumably even more so in the nineteenth century; I've no idea if the author has captured in accurately - seemed like a generic Lancashire accent to me - but he was brought up in Wigan, so maybe it is.

Does, I think, capture some of the feel of the time and place (I know the place, but obviously guessing about the time); not altogether convinced by the crime or the resolution.

Altogether, perfectly OK (which counts as a compliment in my book).

And today I finally finished The Unity Game by Leonora Meriel.
I paused reading about halfway through. I think I needed more head space. I'd finished writing one segment,, and needed to fully imagine the next before being able to move on. The mysteries helped me move on; The Unity Game needed more thought and reflection. Ready for the writing now, so I was able to return.

It's a good book. Not really science fiction. Metaphysical reflection, almost religious in content (but not). Well written - very well given the difficulty of some of the content; could be edited differently. It most reminded me of a time as a child when every night I would be thinking, dreaming and dwelling on infinity, galaxy upon galaxy, and then little me and how could I fit; nightmares really.

Three main streams: Scottish lawyer, Canadian/New York banker and aliens - all done well. And gradually pulled together in a metaphysical layer of overlying reality. A musing on the nature of Good and Evil and the Answer to the Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe, and Everything. I'm not in much sympathy with her answers, but it is a very good book. Although only for someone who might like that sort of thing.
But there are so many positive reviews, that I must be wrong about that.

I'm not a great video watcher. Or TV. I have to be in just the right mood. And usually I get bored, so I always have a book with me so I can read when the video is too slow. I watch far more when I'm working very long days or when I'm ill. Actually not sure about ill: it's nice to have something to distract me but not a lot goes in.

One of the things I like about reading, is that I can go at my own pace, rather than the one fixed by the director. And I'm freer to imagine. And it can facilitate my own words. But, again, I have to be in the right mood; if I'm niggled or scratchy with myself, I can't usually focus enough to read - video works better then. If I can find one able to grab my attention.

Over the last day or so, I've had three DNFs, all fantasy.

The first was the start of the Sword of Light trilogy by Aaron Hodges. I gave up after a couple of pages because it was so poorly written. I notice the reviews aren't awful and the author gets good reviews for his more recent books - I checked the Look Inside on one and that seemed poor to me, so what do I know?



The next was Mordecai by Michael G Manning; Riven Gates 1 - but part of a long existing series (none of which I'd read). I reached 15% on this one. An affected style. Not badly written; competent enough all round. Too many references to earlier events which simply bled momentum. But the world building was good. Familiar fantasy tropes aplenty. I didn't stop because it was bad but because continuing seemed pointless. It felt as if it would just use up my life. Rating of 4.56 on Goodreads (792 ratings), emphasising again how little I know. Must be a very good earner for the author.



The third was Time Trap - Book 1 of the Red Moon Trilogy by Micah Caida. I managed to reach 50% on this one. I eventually stopped because it felt again like familiar tropes being recycled without other compensation. It describes itself as Young Adult, so I understand the ages, the school and the interest in pairing. Not so sure about the emphasis on muscular male bodies - that felt more like preparing the audience for bad boy billionaire books in the future. Quite a lot of the world building was OK and some was good. I ended confused because some of the writing was talented, interesting and good but other parts were leaden, as was the plot.



I was interested enough to look up the author who self describes as "Micah Caida is the melding of two voices, two personalities and two minds - one NYT bestseller and one Award-winner". That makes sense. My money would be on the Award-winner being the talented one and the NYT bestseller producing the leaden prose and familiar tropes. Again 'her' books are very highly rated; I know nothing at all.



For what it's worth the kindle version seemed like a poorly formatted very indie book.

Sorry to hear you've been sick.
The memoir doesn't take much attention. Just a random collection of short events; mostly you don't need to have read the earlier ones to take in the later. I can imagine him telling the stories on his radio programme and a ghost writer recording them and sticking them together in a book (I've no idea if he actually had a ghost writer; I don't remember it saying).
I really don't know whether they would work at all for readers who don't know the place or the people.
Sheffield must almost be in the middle between Cornwall and the Shetlands. And dark, industrial and inland rather than pleasant, rural and coastal.