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.
The Left Hand of Darkness
I have, of course, heard about this book by Ursula Le Guin – it’s up there as a seminal work, really, of early scifi especially. I think it counts as spec fic more than scifi per se, but that’s a bit beside the point. I bought it last weekend and read it over the week.
I have a friend who is a big scifi fan who read the Wizard of Earthsea series and was incredibly disappointed – actually, I think he only read the first one and didn’t bother with the others. I may have mentioned this before; to me, Le Guin and some of those other early writers are doing line sketches, whereas a lot of the stuff coming out these days is oil colours – whether they’re consciously thinking about it or not, I think they’re heavily movie-influenced, and writing for a grander and more detailed vision than the earlier writers. Now, I’m perfectly ready to be wrong about that, but it sounds good.
The Left Hand of Darkness is named for a poem of the planet Gethen, where it’s set – light is the left hand of darkness, darkness the right hand of light. Very yin and yang, which is what the whole thing is about, really: the natives of Gethen are ambisexual, that is they are neither man nor woman, or perhaps both, for most of the month, and then come into ‘kemmer’ for a few days – their sex is then decided by the others around them who are also coming into kemmer.
This way of looking at gender was really interesting, but I’ve got to say I wasn’t entirely sure what Le Guin was aiming to do. Her narrator for most of the book was male (from off-world), and he referred to all of the Gethenians as ‘he’. The only times they were described as female were almost derogatory or insulting, which I was really surprised and disappointed by. Now, maybe this is because they were a fairly non-aggressive race, so this was a male reaction to pacificism, but still, it was a bit uncomfortable to read.
Nonetheless, I actually did like the story. It was a poignant story, and she certainly doesn’t spare her characters. It hints at a much grander story – of the Ekumen, the not-governing body bringing 83 worlds together… the Hain, who seeded all of those world with humans… but the story itself, on Gethen, is also very personal and immediate. I think I liked it.
Fly by Night
I finally finished this today – it’s one of the books VATE sent me to review. It’s by Frances Hardinge; I think it may be a debut. It was brilliant! Highly original and interesting. The writing was very entertaining – the descriptions were original and evocative; the characters were fascinating and believable; and the world as a whole is one I would love to read more about. I’m really looking forward to writing the review, and I think I will probably donate the book to school – I can’t in good conscience have it sitting on my bookcase and not being read by other people who might enjoy it.
Weight
Not mine, Jeanette Winterson’s. In the same series as Atwood’s Penelopiad, it’s the re-telling of Atlas and Herakles’ story (I was very glad she called him that, not Hercules, although she spelt it with a ‘c’. Anyway). It’s very different from Penelope’s story, because Winterson has put herself into the story to some extent, talking about the changes and boundaries and re-telling stories from her own perspective. The story is mostly told from Atlas’ point of view, although some is from Herakles, which was also interesting: he is totally the thug, which of course he was when you cut to the bone. Atlas came across as very gentle; Winterson gives him a curious back-story: living on Atlantis, giving a reason for the war against the gods….
It’s good. Sometimes I don’t really understand why people who write seemingly serious literature insist on having sex in their books, but there you go – guess I can’t have everything my way.
Pushing Ice
The latest Alastair Reynolds – it’s been out for only 6 months or so, since it refers to an article in Scientific American in mid-2005 (about suspended animation being a closer reality than scifi readers might think). Once again, fantastic.
Much closer to home, this time, in that it starts in the 2050s and goes from there. It spans a huge amount of time, and it is most definitely science fiction, but still – at least the Earth is real and known, in this story, unlike the Revelation Space quartet. The characters are not as alien, the tech not as incomprehensible. It is true space opera: the gamut of human experiences, emotions, treacheries and heroism. All done in a style that still leaves me amazed at the sheer finesse of his writing, the exquisite way he manages to introduces new ideas and issues and not make it feel like a lurch in the plot. The man is a master. I am simply hanging out for the next book, and I have no idea when it might get coming out… or – terrifying thought – if there even will be one. Horrible thought!!
Century Rain
Another Alastair Reynolds book, completely (well, mostly, I think… hmmm… now that I think about it…) unrelated to the Absolution Gap et al universe. Once again, parallel stories happening, but only two, and they joined up much more quickly than in his other novels. It was also less techy that the others, probably because it isn’t set so far into the future – only (!) the 23rd century (again, mostly…). The characters were exceptionally well-drawn, as expected; I have to say that Reynolds doesn’t exactly give his characters an easy time of it, as a general rule. I really like the way Reynolds writes: he seems essentially to assume that he is describing a real place and time, and he’s just reminding the reader of stuff they already ought to know. Clever. His descriptions are unintrusive, which is highly commendable – like I said, it’s not like he’s trying to ram this new world down your throat.
Exceptionally highly recommended.
Cornelia Funke and Anna Lanyon
I know it’s a bit sad, but for only the second time in my life I sent a fan email to an author – to Cornelia Funke. I got areply today, from her sister, who apparently has taken on the task of answering the fan mail Cornelia receives. (Although of course, she still reads all of it, and it’s very precious to her….) Anyway, she let me in on the tentative title of the third Ink book: Inkdeath. Oh dear.
I think I quite like being a fan. I think I’ve written before about the issues of being a fan, me being such a snob and all… but the look on Anna Lanyon’s face, after I heard her speaking about her books Malinche and The New World of Martin Cortes, and then I asked her for her autograph, was incredibly worthwhile. I think, if I were an author, I would get a kick out of anyone saying they liked my work. Surely you don’t get sick of that too quickly?
Inkspell
This is the sequel to Inkheart – I’m sure I’ve raved about Cornelia Funke. I intro’d someone at work to her, he read the first, and then bought the sequel still in hardback (mind you, kids’ books are sooo much cheaper!). He gave it to me, and … well, it is of course brilliant. She certainly doesn’t pull any punches, though. No holding back on tricky issues and not too soppy about some of the characters, either! The feelings of Dustfinger for Resa, and Fenoglio for one of his characters, are certainly not straight forward. I think this is good; it’s real, anyway, which I think is good in a fantasy for kids – helps to think through these things in a less threatening way, or sonething (eh; what do I know).
Inkspell
I have just started reading Inkspell, the sequel to Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke. I didn’t buy it; I told a fellow English teacher at school about her, and he read the first one weekend, and then the next week came to school and announced he had bought the sequel and was getting through it, too. (As an aside, I love kids’ books; they’re cheaper than adult books, even when they are the same length!) It is, of course, fantastic, and the style is as enchanting as ever. And I really must make a list of the books quoted at the start of the chapters and find them.
I am still entertained by the publishing house , too – called The Chicken House – and its web address, http://www.doublecluck.com. Tee hee.
Randomly Yours, Alex 