Books books books. Book reports book reports book reports.Repeat.
JUST FINISHED
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The first of Willis’ Oxford Time Travel novels (in which Oxford historians use time travel for research purposes), in which Medieval history student Kivrin Engle travels back to 1320 on a two-week observation trip, during which she will pass for a local – but the drop goes wrong, and not only does Kivrin’s plan fall apart almost immediately, but also Oxford experiences a mysterious epidemic that prevents her professor from bringing her back (to say nothing of bureaucracy and academic politics). Despite Willis’ tendency to go into extreme detail and use inner monologues to go over every single possible aspect of each problem, it’s actually quite gripping as we find out what exactly went wrong, and as Kivrin realizes just how much danger she is in. Also, credit to Willis for not resorting to the kind of standard thriller melodrama other writers might resort to with this scenario (like, say, Michael Crichton). I also love how the story plays on the difference between reading history and experiencing it – so if nothing else it’s recommended reading for people who have a tendency to romanticize the Middle Ages as being all about kings and nobility and knights in shining armor and things.
NOTE: If you do read it, avoid reading the review quotes at the front (if yr edition has them, and if yr inclined to do that kind of thing), as one of them inadvertently gives away a major plot twist in the story.
JUST STARTED
Sixth Column by Robert A. Heinlein
Heinlein’s reworking of an unpublished John Campbell Jr story in which the rest of the world has been taken over by “PanAsians”, and as America also falls, six men form a resistance and devise a secret weapon to take the country back. My limited experience with Heinlein’s early work suggests this could be a mixed bag – especially in terms of possible racist overtones, though Heinlein was no racist and evidently the original story was so overtly racist to the point that Heinlein himself was offended by it – but we’ll see how it goes.
RECENT TITLES
The Jugger by Richard Stark
The sixth Parker novel, which I actually read in July but somehow completely forgot to include in the last update. In this installment, interestingly, there is no job for Parker – but a crooked cop seems to think there is. Parker is looking into a mysterious letter from elderly safecracker and former colleague Joe Sheer asking him for help. By the time he gets there, Sheer is dead, and local sheriff Abner Younger not only knows Sheer’s real name and criminal past (and possibly Parker’s), but also seems convinced he has a fortune stashed away somewhere. Donald Westlake (a.k.a. Stark) has disowned the book, saying he never should have made Parker respond to Sheer’s cry for help, because Parker would never do that. I don’t agree with that assessment, since Parker’s motivation isn’t friendship but making sure Sheer hasn’t compromised his own heavily-invested aliases. Anyway, I liked the premise, and as always, Parker is a fast, enjoyable read.
The High Window by Raymond Chandler
In which hard-boiled P.I. Philip Marlowe is hired by cranky old rich bat Mrs Murdock to find the Brasher Doubloon, which was left to her by her late husband. She wants proof that it was stolen by her daughter-in-law, former nightclub singer Linda Conquest. As usual, what sounds like a straightforward case becomes complicated and dangerous as other people connected with the case start turning up dead, and as Marlowe uncovers some deep and dirty secrets in the Murdock household. It’s classic Chandler – not as famous as The Big Sleep or The Long Goodbye, but beautifully written and packed with trademark humor. (“From thirty feet away, she looked like class. From ten feet away she looked like someone made up to look at from thirty feet away.”)
England Made Me by Grahame Greene
This is one of Greene’s early novels, which involves Anthony Farrant, a charming ne’er do well whose twin sister Kate gets him to take a job in Stockholm as a bodyguard for Swedish tycoon (and also her lover) Erik Krogh. Farrant agrees mainly to make Kate happy, but soon finds himself restless, and increasingly put off by Krogh’s shady business dealings. Greene gets a little too flashy with the prose at times, but the underlying plot flows well and kept me riveted to the end. What really makes it all work is the characterization – everyone from Anthony, Kate and Krogh to minor characters like Anthony’s girlfriend Loo and seedy expat journalist Minty are extremely vivid and well-written. Highly recommended, especially for Anglophiles and fans of Black Box Recorder (that means you,
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bedsitter23 ). Ubik by Philip K Dick
One of PKD’s most acclaimed works, as well as one of his most mindbending. The background involves a future where the dead are suspended in “half-life” so you can talk to them, and where the existence of telepaths, psychics and precogs create demand for “prudence organizations” that employ anti-psionic people to protect your privacy. The head of one such organization, Glen Runciter, is killed in an explosion rigged by arch-nemesis Ray Hollis, after which his team, led by Joe Chip, start experiencing a literal regression of reality – with fatal consequences – as Runciter sends them strange messages from beyond the grave. Or is he? Dick has a lot of fun with the possibilities, and even when he seems to go off-track, he manages to weave it all into a satisfying conclusion – which is saying something, since he also leaves several questions unanswered. Clunky as PKD’s writing style can get, this is easily one of his best novels – and one of the most fun.
The Gutter and The Grave by Ed McBain
I’d never read McBain before, and this is a Hard Case Crime reprint of the first Curt Cannon pulp detective novel (which he wrote using the character’s name as a pseudonym), and I generally like Hard Case books, so I gave it a try. Since the book was retitled and credited to McBain, they also changed the detective’s name from Cannon to Cordell. Anyway, Cordell is a Bowery lush and former PI, and is hired by old friend Johnny Bridges to find out if his business partner is embezzling from him. The business partner turns up dead, Bridges is the prime suspect, and Cordell must find the real murderer. The mystery part is okay as pulp noir goes – the weak link is Cordell, who spends a little too much time wallowing in the misery that turned him into a lush in the first place. Lawrence Block would eventually go on to create a better version of the alcoholic PI with his Matt Scudder books. But while I didn't get that much out of this, it did make me decide to look at McBain’s other work. After all, the guy who wrote The Asphalt Jungle can’t be all bad.
Lush life,
This is dF
