Books read in July
Fewer books than normal this month, due to being on holiday last week, during which I spent much of my reading time reading guidebooks and maps and obsessively checking the weather forecast.
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde turns his hand to a children's book. Set in a modern-world-with-magic - although a world in which magic is fast fading, taking with it such magic-powered things as computers and phones. The story centers on a teenage girl, Jennifer Strange, who manages an agency of magicians for hire. Various soothsayers start predicting the slaying of the Last Dragon - an act which will open up the dragon's lands to a mass land grab, which could precipitate war. As forces gather in anticipation, it seems that Jennifer herself has an important role to play...
Although I really enjoyed his adult books, this one never grabbed me. It was very exposition heavy, with vast swathes of the book - or so it felt - occupied with Jennifer explaining the world to a new apprentice. I spent much of the book thinking that Diana Wynne Jones could have written the basic premise so much better. I didn't feel it had the sparkle of most of his adult works. Those are very much about word play and literary in-jokes, so maybe he felt that he couldn't indulge in such things in a children's book, and thus lost his signature style? But many other adults seem to like it, so maybe it was just me.
Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton
YA fantasy, set in an Arabian-inspired desert setting (sultans and djinn) with Wild West inspired elements (guns, trains and seedy bars.) The story is told in the first person by Amani, a feisty teenage girl in a dead-end village where girls and women have no rights. When she disguises herself as a boy to enter a shooting contest, she meets a mysterious foreign stranger - a teenage boy, naturally - and takes the opportunity to escape with him. Soon she is caught up in a rebellion and exposed to magic, treachery and love.
The first book had rave reviews and a lot of attention when it first came out. I'm not sure why. I didn't dislike it, but it seemed like perfectly generic YA fantasy. Even the eastern-western fusion, which everyone said was so original, was nothing new. However, I did like the second book quite a lot more, in which Amani ends up in the sultan’s court, part hostage, part spy, and has to make decisions about who to trust and what to believe. The romance subplot was fairly downplayed, and there was a pleasing ensemble of people with important roles to play, rather than one special heroine who alone can save the world. Still, I felt it was nothing hugely special - although I'll probably read book 3 when it comes out.
Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde
A strange future dystopia, set many centuries after Something Happened that destroyed civilisation. For some undetermined reason, people can no longer see all the colours of the visible spectrum. Status in society is entirely determined by what colours you can see, and every aspect is life is controlled by the Rules, many of which are utterly bizarre. The story is told by Eddie Russett, who starts the book inside a carnivorous plant, from where he recounts the events that led him to that unfortunate situation. The whole thing is really rather hard to describe, and kind of... odd. It's often funny, in a quirky bizarre way, but at the same time, it's the story of a very repressive dystopia. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.
Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce
Hard-boiled detective story set in a version of 1980s Aberystwyth in which organised crime is controlled by druids, and sneaks and informers meet their contacts at the 24 hour whelk stand. The story is narrated in hard-boiled detective manner by Louie Knight, private detective, who is approached by a femme fatale to investigate the disappearance of her cousin. I discovered this series while searching for novels set in Wales in advance of our holiday last week, and thought it sounded fun. The setting raised a few smiles, but ultimately this is a hard-boiled detective story pastiche - a genre that is not renowned for the sort of things I like in a book, such as pleasant characters and leisurely character exploration.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Fantasy. Book 1 of the Gentleman Bastards series. The titular Locke Lamora leads a small gang of thieves who are ostensibly petty robbers, but in reality secretly carry out elaborate confidence tricks on the nobility - something that is strictly against the terms of the agreement between the city's crime lord and the authorities. But now a new player is in town - the so-called Grey King - and he threatens to expose the gang's secrets unless Locke does a certain, very dangerous task for him...
I first read this some years ago, and remember having high hopes for it - I do love a clever hero who hides behind masks - but being rather disappointed. Still, I thought I’d try it again, since I'd entirely forgotten the plot and was in the mood for clever tricksters. Sadly, it still failed to grab me that much. I don't know why, since loads of people love it, and on paper, I ought to love it. But I just don't. I didn't dislike it, and I read it to the end, but I have no real desire to read on.
Non-fiction
Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and how it changed the world by Laura Spinney
I have a strange addiction to reading about historic pandemics, as witness the fact that I own at least 6 books on the Black Death alone, so I found this very interesting. Unlike the previous book on the subject that I read, it covers a wide variety of countries on all continents, bringing together eyewitness accounts of the epidemics and its aftermath, as well as modern scientific insights about the origin of the disease and its unusual death rate. I found it all very interesting.
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde turns his hand to a children's book. Set in a modern-world-with-magic - although a world in which magic is fast fading, taking with it such magic-powered things as computers and phones. The story centers on a teenage girl, Jennifer Strange, who manages an agency of magicians for hire. Various soothsayers start predicting the slaying of the Last Dragon - an act which will open up the dragon's lands to a mass land grab, which could precipitate war. As forces gather in anticipation, it seems that Jennifer herself has an important role to play...
Although I really enjoyed his adult books, this one never grabbed me. It was very exposition heavy, with vast swathes of the book - or so it felt - occupied with Jennifer explaining the world to a new apprentice. I spent much of the book thinking that Diana Wynne Jones could have written the basic premise so much better. I didn't feel it had the sparkle of most of his adult works. Those are very much about word play and literary in-jokes, so maybe he felt that he couldn't indulge in such things in a children's book, and thus lost his signature style? But many other adults seem to like it, so maybe it was just me.
Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton
YA fantasy, set in an Arabian-inspired desert setting (sultans and djinn) with Wild West inspired elements (guns, trains and seedy bars.) The story is told in the first person by Amani, a feisty teenage girl in a dead-end village where girls and women have no rights. When she disguises herself as a boy to enter a shooting contest, she meets a mysterious foreign stranger - a teenage boy, naturally - and takes the opportunity to escape with him. Soon she is caught up in a rebellion and exposed to magic, treachery and love.
The first book had rave reviews and a lot of attention when it first came out. I'm not sure why. I didn't dislike it, but it seemed like perfectly generic YA fantasy. Even the eastern-western fusion, which everyone said was so original, was nothing new. However, I did like the second book quite a lot more, in which Amani ends up in the sultan’s court, part hostage, part spy, and has to make decisions about who to trust and what to believe. The romance subplot was fairly downplayed, and there was a pleasing ensemble of people with important roles to play, rather than one special heroine who alone can save the world. Still, I felt it was nothing hugely special - although I'll probably read book 3 when it comes out.
Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde
A strange future dystopia, set many centuries after Something Happened that destroyed civilisation. For some undetermined reason, people can no longer see all the colours of the visible spectrum. Status in society is entirely determined by what colours you can see, and every aspect is life is controlled by the Rules, many of which are utterly bizarre. The story is told by Eddie Russett, who starts the book inside a carnivorous plant, from where he recounts the events that led him to that unfortunate situation. The whole thing is really rather hard to describe, and kind of... odd. It's often funny, in a quirky bizarre way, but at the same time, it's the story of a very repressive dystopia. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.
Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce
Hard-boiled detective story set in a version of 1980s Aberystwyth in which organised crime is controlled by druids, and sneaks and informers meet their contacts at the 24 hour whelk stand. The story is narrated in hard-boiled detective manner by Louie Knight, private detective, who is approached by a femme fatale to investigate the disappearance of her cousin. I discovered this series while searching for novels set in Wales in advance of our holiday last week, and thought it sounded fun. The setting raised a few smiles, but ultimately this is a hard-boiled detective story pastiche - a genre that is not renowned for the sort of things I like in a book, such as pleasant characters and leisurely character exploration.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Fantasy. Book 1 of the Gentleman Bastards series. The titular Locke Lamora leads a small gang of thieves who are ostensibly petty robbers, but in reality secretly carry out elaborate confidence tricks on the nobility - something that is strictly against the terms of the agreement between the city's crime lord and the authorities. But now a new player is in town - the so-called Grey King - and he threatens to expose the gang's secrets unless Locke does a certain, very dangerous task for him...
I first read this some years ago, and remember having high hopes for it - I do love a clever hero who hides behind masks - but being rather disappointed. Still, I thought I’d try it again, since I'd entirely forgotten the plot and was in the mood for clever tricksters. Sadly, it still failed to grab me that much. I don't know why, since loads of people love it, and on paper, I ought to love it. But I just don't. I didn't dislike it, and I read it to the end, but I have no real desire to read on.
Non-fiction
Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and how it changed the world by Laura Spinney
I have a strange addiction to reading about historic pandemics, as witness the fact that I own at least 6 books on the Black Death alone, so I found this very interesting. Unlike the previous book on the subject that I read, it covers a wide variety of countries on all continents, bringing together eyewitness accounts of the epidemics and its aftermath, as well as modern scientific insights about the origin of the disease and its unusual death rate. I found it all very interesting.