Review: The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell

The power vacuum left when the Romans retreat from Britain, had been filled by kings and warlords who not only fight amongst themselves but also fight off invading Saxons and Irish warbands. One king, Uther, manages to cobble together a group of kingdoms. But he's dying, and leaves behind him only one legitimate son, Mordredd, born with a club foot. He gets a promise from one of his allies, that he will marry Mordredd's mother, Uther's queen, and act as regent until Mordredd, then only a baby, comes of age.
When Uther dies, the king betrays his promise and attacks, killing Uther's widow and attempting to kill Mordredd. But Merlin's band of Druids and outcasts manages to save and hide the future king.
Into that tableau comes Uther's bastard son Arthur, who had been banished to Amorica and who is now a warlord of great renown. Arthur promises to protect Mordredd and hold the kingdom for his half-brother.
Following the actual historical record (what there is of it), the tale is unlike all the other Arthurian books I've read. There's little brightness in the world of the Dark Ages. It is full of betrayals and endless wars and few men of honor to be found. Even Arthur is flawed and despite his desire to war for peace, he's foiled at almost every turn if not by his own flaws, then by betrayals and impossible odds.
An amazing book. ( )

Review: Full Dark House–Christopher Fowler

 

What a terrifically fun book. It’s 1940, London. The Blitz is on. One morning, making his way past the destruction from the bombers the night before, a young man makes his way to his new job at the Peculiar Crimes Unit. 

Thus begins the joint detective work of May and Bryant.  May, a few years younger, logical, practical, feet firmly planted on the ground, and Bryant, the dreamer, the thinker, the guy who calls in mediums and witches for consultant work.

The dialog is sparking with wit, lots of dry humor and lots of atmosphere, not only with regard to the Blitz but also the theatre.

Highly recommended.

Review: Crucible of Gold – Naomi Novik

Crucible of Gold is the seventh in the Temeraire series - Napoleonic Wars with dragons.

The tale finds Laurence and Temeraire, who had been drummed out of the military because of rank insubordination (mostly on Temeraire’s part), still stuck in Purgatory (in this case Australia), and doing what they could to make the most of it. Laurence was mostly just glad neither of them had gotten shot.

Suddenly the British ambassador to the Chinese crown turns up with papers saying Laurence is reinstated (grudgingly) into the Aviator Corps. He also brings orders for Laurence and Temeraire to board the dragon ship still docked in Sydney and head to Brazil where Napoleon is attempting to destroy Rio.

Glad to be back in harness, glad to be doing something useful, both are eager to find themselves back in the war.

Naturally things go very very wrong.

I found Crucible of Gold to be as enjoyable as the first of the series, His Majesty’s Dragon, was. I did find Tongues of Serpents, book six, to be a bit of a slog, but this one is right back up there, with Temeraire being his usual mouthy and opinionated self, Iskierka driving him nuts, and the dragons’ captains doing whatever it takes to keep their dragons focused on the big picture: Napoleon.

(I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program)

The Dogs of Riga- Henning Mankell

 

 

When a raft holding two dead well-dressed men washes ashore in Skane, Kurt Wallander finds himself in the midst of an international mystery. Latvia? He knows nothing of Latvia, yet first finds himself partnered with a Latvian police major, and then has to travel to Riga to find the beginnings of the mystery.

I love these mysteries. Wallander is no hero, he’s not psychic, he’s not gorgeous, he’s not sure of himself. He’s just a guy doing the best he can dealing with a changing world he hardly understands.

Comments on Wolf Hall–Hilary Mantel

I’ve decided to write an actual review. A zillion have already been done. Instead a few comments regarding the book.

Firstly, it was certainly a different take on things, to look at Henry VIII from, of all people’s viewpoints, Thomas Cromwell’s. I knew little about him as an individual before I began the book, so not sure how close to what we really know Mantel stayed. But the character she created was certainly interesting, with depth and intelligence. He certainly changed throughout the book, growing to fit his increasing stature and importance.

Second, why the heck did she call it ‘Wolf Hall’?  Yeah, I get that the Howards etc were really important, but still…

Thirdly, I found the writing style very off-putting at first. I had lots of trouble with dangling ‘he’s and was confused a lot as to who was speaking, who was acting. I had to go back and re-read to figure it out.  I also didn’t much care for use of present tense. I dislike it in most books, but combined with the ‘he’ problem, it made reading the book more difficult and pulled me out of the atmosphere all too much.

I expect I’ll read the follow on ‘Bring Up the Bodies’ at some point or other. Because the story is interesting from this different viewpoint.

My Reading Year to Date

 

Just a note regarding the first half of the year.

I've read 40 books. Eeek!  In January, I HOPED to read 50 for the year.

In 2009 I read 24.
In 2010 I read 32.
In 2011 I read 41.

So 50 for the year seemed a reasonable figure. Now I've officially upped it to 75 for the year. Not sure I'll make it but I'm on track right?

I'm thinking the main reason for the change is that I've added mysteries to my reading. Over the previous years I was reading almost all fantasy and a bit of sci fi, mostly tomes. I tend to get caught up in them and daydream about them and have to stop reading a lot to think about fantasy and sci fi. Mysteries, not so much.

Looking at my list, the ones that have stuck with me most (for various reasons) in the order I read them rather than any order of precedence:

1. Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood] - way too close to reality not to think about.
2. The Alienist – Caleb Carr - Jjust plain fascinating look at the beginnings of deductive detecting.
3. Heresy, Prophecy, and Sacrilege by S.J. Parris.. Just a well-written, well-conceived series of historical mysteries.
4.Blackbirds – Chuck Wendig - Great book. Interesting premise, interesting characters. Bloody though.
5.The Crossing Places – Elly Griffiths - mainly because it so well used the setting of the book as a character.

And, I am out of control on buying books. In my defense, the were almost all on sale when I bought them but still! I need to avoid the shiny new (to me) and read what I have!  Argh!