On Kindle
This is the second volume in the Song of Ice and Fire Saga and Martin manages to keep both the pace and complexity going despite the episodic manner of the narrative with each chapter named for a character and describes their part of the action. That such a format avoids reducing the reader to vexation is a tribute to Martin's skill in building his characters and matching their actions to recognisable human limitations. There are no super-heroes here! Further, Martin's fantasy world is relatable to the real as, for example, the echoes of Lancaster/York of the Wars of the Roses in Lannister/Stark. Likewise the names that he gives his characters vere only slightly to the fantastical, an aspect that has put me off other similar works.
At the end of Game of Thrones King Robert was dead and his throne claimed by his eldest son Joffrey backed by his mother and her ambitious and ruthless Lannister clan. Joffrey orders the execution of Lord Eddard Stark which results in his son Robb rebelling and declaring himself King of the North. King Robert's two brothers, Stannis and Renly, both claim the throne and all the rest of the noble Houses sign up to one or other of the various claimants though their loyalty is flexible to say the least. On another continent Danaerys, last of the Royal House of Tregaryan is still trying to raise support for an invasion of the Seven Kingdoms and now she has three young dragons to back her claim. North of the Wall Jon Snow, bastard son of Eddard Stark, is on patrol trying to locate the forces of outlaw King Mace Ryder when he is captured and, under orders of his captain, pretends to change sides.
We are not half way through the saga yet let us hope that George Martin's imagination can keep up the pace.
Tuesday 20 August 2013
Saturday 17 August 2013
Huntingtower by John Buchan
On Kindle via Project Gutenberg
It takes courage for a writer of adventure stories to make a retired grocer the hero of a tale of derring do and when his main allies are a troop of scruffy boys from the Gorbals it would appear that he has made his task impossible. However, John Buchan takes on such a task and pulls it off with aplomb.
Dickson MacCumm has sold his grocers shops in Glasgow to a larger company and, as his wife is away at a therapeutic spa, decides to go on a walking holiday. With his head full of dreams of romance and adventure from his extensive reading of Scott, Stevenson and the romantic poets such as Browning and Tennyson he sets off and by chance meets John Heritage an aspiring poet. Together they walk to the village of Dalquharter where they become involved in the rescue from Bolshevik agents of a Russian princess who was entrusted with a fortune in jewels by the Tsar. Assisted by the Gorbals Diehards, as the gang of young ruffians is known, they manage to defeat the villains without straining credulity beyond bearing.
Despite it's age, it was published in 1922, I found Huntingtower an entertaining read for a fine summers day which is a tribute to the talent of this excellent writer.
It takes courage for a writer of adventure stories to make a retired grocer the hero of a tale of derring do and when his main allies are a troop of scruffy boys from the Gorbals it would appear that he has made his task impossible. However, John Buchan takes on such a task and pulls it off with aplomb.
Dickson MacCumm has sold his grocers shops in Glasgow to a larger company and, as his wife is away at a therapeutic spa, decides to go on a walking holiday. With his head full of dreams of romance and adventure from his extensive reading of Scott, Stevenson and the romantic poets such as Browning and Tennyson he sets off and by chance meets John Heritage an aspiring poet. Together they walk to the village of Dalquharter where they become involved in the rescue from Bolshevik agents of a Russian princess who was entrusted with a fortune in jewels by the Tsar. Assisted by the Gorbals Diehards, as the gang of young ruffians is known, they manage to defeat the villains without straining credulity beyond bearing.
Despite it's age, it was published in 1922, I found Huntingtower an entertaining read for a fine summers day which is a tribute to the talent of this excellent writer.
Monday 5 August 2013
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
I first discovered Neal Stephenson some eight years ago when I read his hugely entertaining Baroque Cycle of novels set in the eighteenth century. This book, by contrast, is as up-to-date as you like.
The book begins in 2010 as Richard Forthrast the black sheep of an Iowa farming familly, is attending the annual familly reunion. We are then given his back story as follows. In 1972 Richard had fled across the Canadian border to avoid being drafted for service in Vietnam and used his backwoods skills to make a living first as a hunting guide and then backpacking marijuana from Canada to America using remote hunting trails. His drugs contact in America is the leader of a motorcycle gang called Chet and when draft dodgers are amnestied by the US government he and Chet use their drug money to renovate a faux French Chateau built by a nineteenth century gold miner in British Columbia to use as a ski resort. This is successful but not half as lucrative as the online computer game he develops with a Chinese programer. This brings us back to the re-union and Richard's neice by adoption, an Eritrean refugee named Zula who he invites to visit his ski resort along with her boyfriend Peter an IT consultant from Seattle. Whilst at the resort Peter meets a Scottish accountant named Wallace to whom, unknown to the others, he has agreed to sell the details of one hundred thousand credit cards that he has hacked from the Net. Zula returns to Seattle with Peter determined to break off their relationship and so drives to the warehouse that Peter has converted to office/living space to collect her things. Whilst she is there Wallace turns up demanding a copy of the credit card file as the original has been hijacked and held to ransom by a group of Chinese hackers using a virus named REAMDE. Peter admits that he does not have a copy and when Wallace tells him that all the hackers are asking is seventy three dollars he says "Pay up". However, it is not as simple as that. The method of payment involves playing an online computer game called T'Rain which is the game run by Zula's uncle Richard. Before they can try to retrieve the files the warehouse is invaded by a Russian gangster called Ivanov accompanied by an entourage of heavies. It is Ivanov who was really buying the credit cards and he is most displeased with Wallace for losing them. Needless to say it is all downhill from there. As if the Russians were not enough in attempting to catch the Chinese hackers they break into a group of Muslim terrorists who are plotting a bombing campaign and we are still not halfway through the book.
I read the hardback edition of REAMDE, one thousand and forty two pages packed with incident and an amazing cast of characters all fleshed out with detail and back story. What more can I say than this is a thumping good read which kept me turning the pages until forced to stop and got a good bicep work out into the bargain!
The book begins in 2010 as Richard Forthrast the black sheep of an Iowa farming familly, is attending the annual familly reunion. We are then given his back story as follows. In 1972 Richard had fled across the Canadian border to avoid being drafted for service in Vietnam and used his backwoods skills to make a living first as a hunting guide and then backpacking marijuana from Canada to America using remote hunting trails. His drugs contact in America is the leader of a motorcycle gang called Chet and when draft dodgers are amnestied by the US government he and Chet use their drug money to renovate a faux French Chateau built by a nineteenth century gold miner in British Columbia to use as a ski resort. This is successful but not half as lucrative as the online computer game he develops with a Chinese programer. This brings us back to the re-union and Richard's neice by adoption, an Eritrean refugee named Zula who he invites to visit his ski resort along with her boyfriend Peter an IT consultant from Seattle. Whilst at the resort Peter meets a Scottish accountant named Wallace to whom, unknown to the others, he has agreed to sell the details of one hundred thousand credit cards that he has hacked from the Net. Zula returns to Seattle with Peter determined to break off their relationship and so drives to the warehouse that Peter has converted to office/living space to collect her things. Whilst she is there Wallace turns up demanding a copy of the credit card file as the original has been hijacked and held to ransom by a group of Chinese hackers using a virus named REAMDE. Peter admits that he does not have a copy and when Wallace tells him that all the hackers are asking is seventy three dollars he says "Pay up". However, it is not as simple as that. The method of payment involves playing an online computer game called T'Rain which is the game run by Zula's uncle Richard. Before they can try to retrieve the files the warehouse is invaded by a Russian gangster called Ivanov accompanied by an entourage of heavies. It is Ivanov who was really buying the credit cards and he is most displeased with Wallace for losing them. Needless to say it is all downhill from there. As if the Russians were not enough in attempting to catch the Chinese hackers they break into a group of Muslim terrorists who are plotting a bombing campaign and we are still not halfway through the book.
I read the hardback edition of REAMDE, one thousand and forty two pages packed with incident and an amazing cast of characters all fleshed out with detail and back story. What more can I say than this is a thumping good read which kept me turning the pages until forced to stop and got a good bicep work out into the bargain!
The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
In the days of my youth Hammer Films were all the rage. As soon as the names Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee appeared one knew that the next hour and a half would be devoted to pleasurable fear. Now the Hammer brand has been resurected and along with the films a series of paperbacks has been launched and very cleverly leading writers from many genres have been invited to contribute.
Jeanette Winterson has written a very entertaining piece about one of the seventeenth century's most famous witch trials, the Pendle witches. King James the First had a horror of witchcraft that went beyond anything seen before in England and he used his authority to promote witchfinding throughout the Realm. He was also ready to conflate Catholicism with witchcraft and as Lancashire was known as a stronghold of the Old Religion it was here that his officers were most tenacious.
Alice Nutter, a wealthy woman who had made a fortune in the dye trade in London, was also known to be an associate of the late Dr John Dee astrologer to Queen Elizabeth. Dee had a reputation as a magician which rubbed off on any of his associates. Two women are languishing in Lancaster Castle accused of witchcraft and their friends are convinced that Alice Nutter has learned enough magic from Dee to effect their escape. They embroil Alice in their schemes and all end up accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death.
The whole thing is very reminiscent of todays trial by television or tabloid with no word or deed of the accused that cannot be twisted to prove guilt. At least these days it is only ones character that is murdered.
Jeanette Winterson has written a very entertaining piece about one of the seventeenth century's most famous witch trials, the Pendle witches. King James the First had a horror of witchcraft that went beyond anything seen before in England and he used his authority to promote witchfinding throughout the Realm. He was also ready to conflate Catholicism with witchcraft and as Lancashire was known as a stronghold of the Old Religion it was here that his officers were most tenacious.
Alice Nutter, a wealthy woman who had made a fortune in the dye trade in London, was also known to be an associate of the late Dr John Dee astrologer to Queen Elizabeth. Dee had a reputation as a magician which rubbed off on any of his associates. Two women are languishing in Lancaster Castle accused of witchcraft and their friends are convinced that Alice Nutter has learned enough magic from Dee to effect their escape. They embroil Alice in their schemes and all end up accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death.
The whole thing is very reminiscent of todays trial by television or tabloid with no word or deed of the accused that cannot be twisted to prove guilt. At least these days it is only ones character that is murdered.
Saturday 3 August 2013
Game Changer by John R Childress
On Kindle
In 1968 Dr Matt Richards, newly qualified, travels to the Lebanon as part of a university mind-broadening scheme. There he meets and falls in love with a Jordanian graduate who is embittered by the death of her brother at the hands of the Israelis. The girl is killed in a bomb blast and Richards spirals down into alchoholism. Thirty years later and just about hanging on to a lecturers job he falls for Kelly Stevens, daughter of an American Senator, who is not happy with the relationship. At the same time multiple conspiracies are afoot one of which has the Senator involved and after an altercation at a cocktail party Richards and Kelly are forced into a motor accident. When he comes round he is in hospital and has had a face transplant. The new face belonged to an international assasin who had just been murdered by Mossad. It all goes downhill from there with Richards and a young woman journalist being chased from pillar to post until they finally manage to save the day.
This book is advertised as aimed at fans of Frederick Forsyth however, I do not feel that this is quite up to Forsyth's standard. Nonetheless it is an entertaining read for a long journey which is as much as one can ask.
In 1968 Dr Matt Richards, newly qualified, travels to the Lebanon as part of a university mind-broadening scheme. There he meets and falls in love with a Jordanian graduate who is embittered by the death of her brother at the hands of the Israelis. The girl is killed in a bomb blast and Richards spirals down into alchoholism. Thirty years later and just about hanging on to a lecturers job he falls for Kelly Stevens, daughter of an American Senator, who is not happy with the relationship. At the same time multiple conspiracies are afoot one of which has the Senator involved and after an altercation at a cocktail party Richards and Kelly are forced into a motor accident. When he comes round he is in hospital and has had a face transplant. The new face belonged to an international assasin who had just been murdered by Mossad. It all goes downhill from there with Richards and a young woman journalist being chased from pillar to post until they finally manage to save the day.
This book is advertised as aimed at fans of Frederick Forsyth however, I do not feel that this is quite up to Forsyth's standard. Nonetheless it is an entertaining read for a long journey which is as much as one can ask.
Friday 2 August 2013
Son of Heaven by David Wingrove
On Kindle
This is the start of a twenty volume saga of the future of Earth under Chinese rule. Wingrove actually started this over ten years ago but his then publisher restricted him to eight, later reduced to seven, volumes. Fortunately his present publisher, Corvus, is letting his imagination have free reign and, although I read the original books and thoroughly enjoyed them, I am looking forward with great anticipation to this expanded version.
This book opens in 2065 in a Britain reduced to a fragmented and technologicaly primitive state. The main character, Jake Reed, is a resourceful and honourable member of the small community surviving in the Purbeck area of Dorset in a manner very similar to their Celtic and Saxon ancestors. Having introduced Jake in his present condition Wingrove then takes us back to 2045 and shows how he and Britain are reduced to this state. The whole of the technology based society that we will come to know is infiltrated and then comprehensively trashed by the followers of a Chinese would-be warlord. It becomes obvious as the book progresses that in order to take power he has trashed China along with the West. Back to 2065 and the Chinese military arrive with overwhelming fire power and Jake is on the list of the secret police known as The Thousand Eyes. Some of the Brits are allowed to become citizens, the young and fit, following re-education but will Jake and his familly survive?
Wingrove has created a spine chilling vision of the future and if he can keep up this level of quality writing through all twenty volumes it will be a saga to last as long as his imaginary world.
This is the start of a twenty volume saga of the future of Earth under Chinese rule. Wingrove actually started this over ten years ago but his then publisher restricted him to eight, later reduced to seven, volumes. Fortunately his present publisher, Corvus, is letting his imagination have free reign and, although I read the original books and thoroughly enjoyed them, I am looking forward with great anticipation to this expanded version.
This book opens in 2065 in a Britain reduced to a fragmented and technologicaly primitive state. The main character, Jake Reed, is a resourceful and honourable member of the small community surviving in the Purbeck area of Dorset in a manner very similar to their Celtic and Saxon ancestors. Having introduced Jake in his present condition Wingrove then takes us back to 2045 and shows how he and Britain are reduced to this state. The whole of the technology based society that we will come to know is infiltrated and then comprehensively trashed by the followers of a Chinese would-be warlord. It becomes obvious as the book progresses that in order to take power he has trashed China along with the West. Back to 2065 and the Chinese military arrive with overwhelming fire power and Jake is on the list of the secret police known as The Thousand Eyes. Some of the Brits are allowed to become citizens, the young and fit, following re-education but will Jake and his familly survive?
Wingrove has created a spine chilling vision of the future and if he can keep up this level of quality writing through all twenty volumes it will be a saga to last as long as his imaginary world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)