New Books
Mmmm, Readings’ Bargain Books. Bought three books today: Isabella, She-Wolf of France, by Alison Weir (not academic, but bound to be an interesting read); The Speckled Monster, about immunising against smallpox; and a book about Walter Raleigh, by a dude called Raleigh Trevalyan, apparently because he is a distant relative. Should be a great deal of fun.
Simon Green
YAY for Simon Green. Seriously – YAY. I’ve just re-read Blue Moon Rising, and Beyond the Blue Moon. There’s a scene in the latter where there are a number of heroes fighting against overwhelming odds (of course), and I realised that it was really quite a lot like the scenes with Owen Deathstalker et al fighting a bunch of baddies. He really is a big fan of the group fight thing, with all of them bringing individual skills and so on. And Hawk and Fisher have a lot in common with Owen and Hazel. Hmm… I might have to read Deathstalker again… but probably not soon. I don’t think I could stand having to go through that again quite so soon.
Yay for Simon Green.
Labyrinth
Not the movie – big fan though I am – but the book, by Kate Mosse. Another Grail story… this one a time-slip idea, with Alice the amateur archaeologist in 2006 and Alais, possibly a Cathar or at least a sympathiser in 13th century France. Overall, I think it was a good book. Not a reat one; just good, quite enjoyable, moderately engrossing. There were a few bits I found clunky – some of the dialogue, and some of the descriptions, particularly of Alice (I really don’t care that she’s tanned and wearing cut offs, sorry), but mostly the story goes along at a reasonable pace. I think that writing two different narratives is quite a skill, and Mosse generally manages it, although in a few bits I think she left a character too early or too late. But, I think I would recommend it to people who aren’t totally over the whole Grail thing – this one doesn’t make a huge thing of the Grail itself, which I think is an advantage.
Alastair Reynolds!!!
I’ve just found out that there are two new Reynolds coming out!! No idea when, but who cares – just knowing is enough to keep me on edge. Yay! One’s a novel, the other is a collection of sort stories – which, thanks to the wonderful Kate, I am now totally fine with.
Definitely something to be looking forward to.
Origins and Forms of Greek Tragedy
I finished Origins and Form of Early Greek Tragedy on the weekend. It was fun – I really enjoyed it. He’s quite convincing, about tragedy not actually starting from satyr plays and Dionysus, but rather developing through Solon’s ideas (that bit I’m not entirely convinced about, not least because I don’t actually know enough about the time or the man), and Athens’ experiences in the Persian Wars, etc. What I really need to know now is why people today don’t take any notice, apparently, of what the dude said – this was published in the 1960s, and yet to this day it’s said that tragedy started from the “goat-songs” of Dionysus. So did someone write a rebuttal? Or has it just been ignored? Very curious… I might have to ask some people.
King Solomon’s Mines #2
Patrick Swayze was surprisingly good, although I wonder whether Quatermain was American in Haggard’s original. He looked surprisingly buff for a man who must be in his mid to late 40, surely, if not in his 50s. I don’t know why the girl was, but she was pretty average; the black guy, who played Mbosa (?? the one who turns out to be the king, anyway…) was really good.
I also didn’t realise that this was a telemovie, which is why it was so darn long – nearly 3 hours’ worth of it. And, not to spoil it too much, but they don’t even get to the mines until the last 15 minutes! It’s not really the point of the whole thing.
I think – I think – I might have to read this. Eventually. If only for comparisons sake.
Later edit: turns out I have seen the chick before. She played Dr Elsa Schneider, in the last Indiana Jones movie, which brings me to the other thing I meant to say – Alan Quatermain is basically Indiana’s father. Speilberg must have been a huge fan of Haggard.
King Solomon’s Mines
Just went to the vid store. I had no idea that a new movie had been made of King Solomon’s Mines! With Patrick Swayze as Alan Quatermain! This might give me a feel for whether I should actually go and read the books… I have heard some dubious things about the worth of H Rider Haggard’s style… the story will hae to be pretty good, I think, to make me go read it. Just looked it up in Wikipedia (my respect for which as a general source of probably-true information has grown recently), and I don’t think I realised that the oldest Alan Q book was published in 1885…
ASif! and volunteering
No, I’m not reverting to adolescence here. Aus Specific in Focus is a new website dedicated to reviewing all the Aussie scifi and fantasy it can get its hands on. I’ve volunteered to review stuff, starting with Garth Nix, of course. Looks like it will be great fun.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/
I’ve also started doing proofreading for the Digital Proofreaders, for Project Gutenberg. You just sign up and start proofing… I haven’t had anything proofed at the second round yet (there’s at least two, if not three I think, rounds of proofing), so I don’t know if there is anything that I should be doing that I haven’t. Currently I am doing pages of Wordsworth poetry. I don’t have to stick with this, which I started on, but I think I will stick with it – might as well help it get through.
Attila the Hun
I’ve been fascinated by Attila for a while, at least partly because there seems to be so little actually known about him and he – along with his Huns – have become synonymous with evil bad rampaging Vandals (with whom they were contemporaneous – lovely). So when I saw a bio of him written by John Man, who I just love after reading Alpha Beta and The Gutenberg Revolution, I was very impressed. And I am still impressed after reading it. He does a lot to make his work accessible, and bring the subject to life: I wonder how many other would-be biographers of Attila would go to Hungary and find the man who has, single-handedly, basically reinvented the art of horse-mounted archery? And from he description, this is quite an amazing feat.
So anyway, finally I have an understanding of where Attila actually fits into the whole world history picture. I also really appreciated Man spending a chapter on later representations of Attilla and the Huns, since I never understood why the Germans suddenly became Huns in WWI. Plus, to read about the near-veneration of Attila frm modern Hungarians is also eye-opening; that old chestnut about one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter…
Earth, Air, Fire… Custard…
New Tom Holt book – woohoo! And that really is the title. One of the partners at JW Wells and Co has created a new dimension, the substance of which bears a remarkable resemblance to, yes, custard. So cool.
I really do like Paul, the lead character in these three Wells books; he is just so normal. I like that he isn’t always expressing amazement at the bizarro things going on around him, because I think that – like him – I would just get to a point where amazement is just boring and you just go “yeh, whatever….”
So basically, it’s a good book. Enertaining, weird, twisty-turny, and just now and again laugh-out-loud-funny.
Randomly Yours, Alex 