Thursday, July 17, 2008

Review of Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds

Absolution Gap is the third and final book in the sequence started by Revelation Space and almost neatly concludes the story of humankind’s near nemesis thanks to the Inhibitors.

The book is written in two main strands, one set on the planet of Ararat and the other set on the moon, Hela, 50 years in the future where a strange religion exists just to see the short disappearances of the local gas giant that are peculiar to the region.

On Ararat, the refugees of Resurgam destroyed in Redemption Ark, now live together with Scorpio, the pig, and Clavain. Clavain wants nothing more to do with humankind but is persuaded against his better judgment to help deal with a unopened escape capsule that has been picked up in the sea.

On opening, it is found to be Ana Khouri, one of the triumvir from the original book and who is now looking to get her baby, Aura, back. Apparently, Aura is a true space child, and although unborn she has been given implants already and has been helping mankind develop better weapons to fight the Inhibitors. Unfortunately, the conjoiner baddy, ( Can’t remember her name here), has stolen Aura and implanted her in herself.

Anyway, Aura is recovered at some cost and they all have to leave in the Nostalgia for Infinity because the Inhibitors are in the system. Eventually, they decide to journey to Hela via Yellowstone because of messages received. Unfortunately, on arriving at Yellowstone, disaster has struck and the Inhibitors have already wiped it out, so they go on to Hela.

By the time they arrive 50 years has passed and we’ve caught up with that strand of the story.
On Hela, an alien culture called the Scuttlers, was wiped out millennia ago. It is thought that the Inhibitors were to blame. Hela is an ice bound moon where people either dig for artefacts or observe the disappearances of the gas giant. Leading this cult is… who has his eyes perpetually open so that he doesn’t miss a disappearance of the gas giant. On Hela, cathedrals perpetually circle the world so that no disappearance is missed.

When the Nostalgia for Infinity arrives, both these worlds collide and a resolution to the trilogy is arrived at. In some ways, it is fitting for the universe that Reynolds has created but in other ways it is a bit unsatisfying, in that the destruction of the Inhibitors is summarised in a 2 page epilogue which seems to have been thrown in as an add in.

By the way, the Absolution Gap, is a planet circling chasm that goes round Hela and which has as bridge spanning it at one point. This bridge spans the so-called Absolution Gap.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Mister Pip was a Booker short listed novel written by antipodean novelist, Jones. We were lucky enough to get it as a book group selection. Fortunately, it’s quite short so I managed to get through it quite quickly.

Its set on the island of Bougainville, located near the Solomons, at the beginning of the 1990s. It tells us about Mathilda, a 15 year old girl who lives with her mother in what seems like an idyllic existence.

Unfortunately, that’s change recently because the Island’s inhabitants have been waging civil war against their rulers over control of the copper mine which provides a source of wealth for the authorities.

While the war isn’t particularly obvious at first its always there in the background and you just know that it will play a big part later on in the story.

As a consequence of the war, the school’s been closed recently. Mathilda is sad at this,,so she is glad when Mr Watts AKA popeye AKA Mister Pip takes it upon himself to reopen the school and make sure the kids gets some form of education even though he isn’t a teacher.

Mathilda’s excited and then bewitched, as Mr Watts begins reading to the class from Great Expectations by Dickens. This becomes very formative for Mathilda who becomes very involved, much to the chagrin of her mother. Unfortunately, her mother doesn’t like Mr Watts, because he is atheistic,

As well as reading the book, Mr Watts invites locals into the classrooms to try and teach the kids about different aspects of their lives.

Its at this point that the book changes tone when the government troops arrive at the village and start asking awkward questions. Unfortunately, when they ask who Mr Pip is, nobody can find the book to show them but they threaten to come back to find out later.

The rebels also make their presence felt but are quite happy to listen to Mr Watts read to them.

I won’t go on and reveal more about the book because the SO is going to read it and I don’t want to spoil it.
I think this is a wonderful book that is amusing and sad in different measures. It’s also quite tragic and makes us think about the injustices of civil war. I urge everyone to read it

Monday, February 11, 2008

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

This book kinda snuck into my reading list. I was waiting for the SO to finish at the hairdresser’s and I had forgot my current read and couldn’t find my current read on the esteemed shelves of Borders, I picked up this fine book since I had recently seen the film and bought a copy from Waterstone’s at half price.

By the time hairdressing duties had been complete I had got so far into the book, I decided that I would continue after reading about Barney Thomson.

If you’ve seen the film you don’t need to read this review but suffice to say that the book is every bit as good as the Coen brothers’ fine opus.

The book is painted on the canvas of South West Texas near the border with Mexico and tells of mainly three individuals. Llewellyn Moss, a welder, who stumbles upon a big case of money at a drug deal gone wrong when he’s out hunting: Anton Chigurrh, a psychotic hitman who’s been engaged to find the money and Sheriff Ed Tom, the local lawman caught up in the trail of dead bodies while trying to find Moss and help him out.

The book runs very closely with the film and except for a couple of scenes and minor characters plays along on very similar lines. The characterisation of the three main characters is well drawn and brings these men alive. In particular, the character of Chigurrh is chilling. He plays as a man doing a job and if anyone gets in the way they will be quickly despatched without much debate. In addition, the way he deals with his injuries gained when going about his ‘job’ is very clinical and almost professional.

The denouement and ending of the film are very similar to the film and although I know a few people were disappointed with it, downbeat as it is. I think it was the best way for the story to play out.

The whole sorry tale of death and more death gives the background for the Sheriff to decide why his time is up and why he has no stomach for the kind of lifestyle law enforcement has now forced upon him. No wonder! You feel sorry for Moss, who is caught up in the trail of bodies purely by chance and wanting to give him and his wife a better life than the two bit trailer they live in. You just know he will meet his maker. The book tries to say that although his death is as important as any other, its just another corpse in the drug wars that are now rife in SW Texas. What’s more important is in the way that it becomes the final nail in the coffin of Ed Tom’s career, not the way it is visualised in the book or on the big screen. This part of the book is the Sheriff’s tale and no-one else’s.

Cormac McCarthy’s writing is very vivid but sparse and not surprisingly very well received in literary circles. His portrayal of the ‘new’ Wild West is a measure of his own style and character and is very recognisable.

You Don’t Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem

I got this as a Christmas present thanks to its inclusion on my Amazon Wishlist. It was place there on the strength of The Fortress of Solitude, a cracking Lethem novel I read a year or two back.

This book was a very different kettle of fish!

It’s set in LA that city of dreamers, of people who are looking for their break in acting, music, or whatever. It follows the life and loves of Lucinda, a twenty something wannabe who hangs out with her pals, Denise, Bedwin and Matthew who play together in an Art Rock band that are nameless at the start. Lucinda starts the book off trying to dump Matthew, her on-off boyfriend, again and manages to succeed despite a goodbye grope.

She is about to start a new job for art gallery owner/entrepreneur, Falmouth who has designed a new installation called Complaints. He had advertised a telephone number all across LA just calling it Complaints. He has employed Lucinda and others to man the telephone and take anyone’s complaint, although not doing anything about them. Neat idea?

Lucinda gets hung up on one guy who complains all the time and she bends the rules and gets his number, eventually meeting and bedding him. All fine and well.

But then she decides to use some of the one liners and words he uses to form the basis of songs she writes with the band’s songwriter, Bedwin. They end up writing a few numbers which come off really well.

Of course, they then premier the new songs at a party thrown by Falmouth and go down a storm. Its at the party that the Complainer AKA Carlton Vogelsong, hears his words being used and inveigles his way into the band.

The book goes on from there. Its not a very long read but is very entertaining in its own way and manages to say something about LA society (I think). It is very strange sometimes with its subplots. For example, Matthew takes in a maladjusted kangaroo called Shelf from the zoo he works at and looks after at while the zoo deny an animal has gone missing.

Some of the scenes are very handled and put across very vividly eg the party the band play at is quite exciting.
This book does make me want to read more Jonathan Lethem but when that will be I don’t know since my shelves are already bulging with unread boo

The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan

The Doll is a pole dancer working in a sleazy strip joint in the Cross area of Sydney.

This isn’t the most interesting pretext to involve a reader in what turns out to be one or the more interesting and unusual thrillers of recent years.

The fact that The Doll or Gina Davies to giver her her real name is a pole dancer gives good reason to think she is a shallow person who uses her body to make a living and in so doing so perpetuates male fantasies.

Fortunately, this book is so much than that. It is more about the modern media establishment and the way that the establishment is dealing ongoing issues involving the ‘terrorist threat’.

Gina has the misfortune to spend a night with Tariq, who becomes a terrorist suspect involved in planting suspect devices in the Olympic stadium. As it happens, he probably isn’t a terrorist and is just a small time drug mule who gets killed for his troubles half way through the book.

Unfortunately, Gina gets caught on CCTV in the company of Tariq and is identified by a TV hack called Richard Cody. This may be his revenge at her treatment of him in the strip club but his TV special is more about resurrecting his career than trying to catch a bona fide terrorist.

Gina leaves it too late to turn herself in and runs around Sydney while her back story is filled in and we learn where she has come from. Slowly, her bolt holes run out and she is left with one option….

The Unknown Terrorist is a chilling, worrying tale about the power of the modern media and the way government is dealing with terrorism issues.

Flanagan has crafted a well written book with a good case of supporting characters who are developed well enough but not so that they detract with the main tale about the Doll.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Review of The Cutting Edge of Barney Thomson by Douglas Lindsay

Douglas Lindsay is another Scottish writer supposedly in the same vain as Irvine Welsh or Christopher Brookmyre.

After reading about him on the Internet I put one of the books on my wishlist for Christmas and duly received not the first in the sequence but the second. My fault entirely but at the end of the day this book served as good an introduction as any to Douglas Lindsay.

Barney Lindsay is a barber on the run. According to the tabloid press he is a psycho serial killer who is responsible for about half a dozen killings and just about every bad goal that the Scotland team have lost in the last 30 years! Fortunately, he isn’t really a bad guy and only two deaths were down to him (accidental, of course). The others were down to his crazy mother.

However, Barney is a bit of a feckless idiot who doiesn’t think anyone will believe him, so he goes on the run and ends up in a monastery near Durness in Sutherland. Of course, as soon as he gets there a mad monk goes on a killing spree while trying to revenge his wronged father from 30 years before. The reason for this is fairly silly as we found out at the end of the book. Again, Barney gets blamed and he has to go into hiding.

Meanwhile, DS Mulholland and DC Proudfoot are duly despatched from Strathclyde’s finest to investigate and apprehend the said demon barber. Their pursuit is quite amusing and incompetent and it is actually quite incredible how they accidentally manage to track Barney down. At the same time, they are trapped by the worst snowstorm of the century in the monastery while trying to find Barney.

I could go on. The plot of the book is quite silly and unbelievable at times but its only there to build on the previous book and to contribute to the asinine characterisation of Barney and also to gives us the laughs. The book is very funny in parts and if that wasn’t there I wouldn’t have much to recommend for the discerning crime fan. However, it is and it may make me end up reading more of the Barney Thomson tales. I just hope he starts to glean a wee bit of intelligence on the way!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Meet Cocoa ... she's been with us a month and is 7 months old and mischevious as kittens always are!

Review of We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver

The first thing I have to clear up here is that Lionel Shriver is a woman, not a man as I originally though! Apparently, she picked Lionel as her pen name because she liked it. So there.

Secondly, I finished this before the New Year so my memory is a wee bit hazy of it but all the stronger because it was such a gripping, harrowing read.

It tells the story of Kevin Khatchadourian, a 15-year old teenage who has apparently carried out a Columbine style massacre at his local High School.

The book is written in the first person as a series of letters from Kevin’s mother, Eva to her estranged husband, Franklin. To be honest the story is more about Eva’s relationship with Kevin and her husband rather than the massacre that Kevin uses to make his mark.

Through the story we are told of Eva’s background as a successful manager of a travel guide writer similar to Lonely Planet and her carefree life travelling the world researching new editions. She is happily married to Franklin who is a location scout for adverts.

Their’s is a happy marriage until the thorny subject of children comes up. Franklin is certain he wants a son to mould in his own image, Eva doesn’t want to lose independence and freedom to travel. In the end, they fudge it and Eva gets pregnant and gives birth to Kevin. From the off, Kevin is a very difficult child who goes through many nannies and is very noisy and wilful. He is 6 years old before he stops using nappies. Through all these formative years Eva tries very hard to hide the fact that she feels no connection with her son and thinks that his behaviour is just to spite her for bringing him into the world unloved and unwanted.

As time passes Kevin grows up being more difficult and Eva determines to have another child. This is very much against her husband’s wishes. She gives birth to Celia who seems to be the complete opposite to Kevin and is the apple in Eva’s eyes. Unfortunately, she is very afraid of everyday things like the toilet or small insects and she is also very trusting of the people around her including her older brother, Kevin. This is to be her own downfall later in the book.

Of course, the book is all building up to its expected climax, the shoot-out in the school. This is very well plotted and presented by Eva who has gathered her evidence from several sources including her son who she visits regularly in the detention centre where he passes his sentence until transfer to an adult facility when he hits 18,

In all the book is superbly written and is very moving at times. In particular , the ending is quite harrowing and is somewhat unexpected. Deservedly, it won the Orange Prize a couple of years ago. This is a must read.

Review of the Treasure of Khan by Clive Cussler

This is the first of my Christmas books and I managed to rush through it between Christmas and New Year despite its 600 plus pages.

I’ve never read Mr Cussler and to be honest he didn’t come across as the writer of quality fiction. His books were the kind you might buy on a whim before you got on a long haul flight to your holiday destination.

Unfortunately, my experience of reading the Treasure of Khan won’t make me rush out to read many more. It come across as a tired, formulaic, predictable kind of yarn which though readable and exciting at times was totally unbelievable in the James Bond kind of way.

The story is set in eastern Asia in Mongolia and Siberia with side trips to Hawaii and the Persian Gulf on the way. It is about a Mongolian warlord’s attempts to corner the world oil market by creating earthquakes and destroying oil pipelines and refineries in the Gulf and China. On the way he finds the tomb of Genghis Khan and sells off all his goodies to makes his fortune. Of course, our heroes Dirk Pitt and Al GIordino become involved in a long and circuitous way and foil his dastardly plot while finding the tomb of Kublia Khan on the way in Hawaii.

By all accounts, this isn’t Cussler’s best work with these two characters so maybe I should go further back in the series to find a better adventure. I don’t know. Anyway, it’ll be a while before I read him.