Saturday, June 13, 2009

Farthing, by Jo Walton

Farthing, by Jo Walton

Imagine a world where England made peace with Nazi Germany after the Battle of Dunkirk and World War II never really happened. Hilter overtook all of continental Europe and got into a prolonged war with Stalin, still going strong in the 1949 of the book. Against this setting we find a murder of a senior Parliment official in the opening pages. There are two voices telling the story, with each chapter flipping between them. Lucy Khan, a member of the Peerage disgraced by marrying a Jew, and Inspector Carmichael, a lowborn detective at Scotland Yard. While ostensibly only one story, each character is actually telling a slightly different one: Carmichael goes about solving the mystery, but Khan is really describing the slide of England into fascism. The characterization was weak, with most people falling into one of three categories: good, evil, or stupid. This made the whodunnit aspect fairly straightforward; I thought it was obvious what happened only a few chapters in. The politics are what makes the book interesting, however, and are presented in such a fashion that a fascist Britain becomes a very believable thing.

One throw-away line that made me smile was when it was mentioned that Guy Philby became junior minister at the Foreign Office. The name Guy Philby is a mashup of Guy Burgess and Kim Philby of the Cambridge Five, the most successful espionage ring ever uncovered. Walton also refers to the famous “scientifiction” book Nineteen Seventy-Four; ironically it was purchased as a gift for the framed suspect to take his mind off the situation. If the content was similar to our Nineteen Eighty-Four then I suspect it won’t be much of a distraction!

Overall I enjoyed the book, although it was a bit heavy-handed in places. The ending was really good, however, with the author not taking the easy way out by granting the protagonists happy endings and having the villains exposed. Instead, we get a more realistic yet disturbing finish, setting up the next book in the series.

First Sentence:
It started when David came in from the lawn absolutely furious.

Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi

Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi

Set in the near future where Earth is involved in an interstellar war, our hero joins the Colonial Defense Forces when he turns seventy-five. The Fountain of Youth hasn’t been found and neither has technology or medicine extended life-spans to hundreds of years, so what the army wants with the elder generation is the mystery explored in part I. Parts II is more straightforward space military fiction, and part III gives a closer look at the aliens along with a satisfying conclusion.

Scalzi writes in a fashion that is both engaging and smart, something I treasure in pulp fiction. For instance, part I ends with an excellent foreshadowing of what happens at the conclusion of part II, but is subtle enough so that you don’t realize it until it hits you in the face. Humor is prevalent as well, with the main character cracking jokes at which nobody laughs throughout. One of my favorite parts was when we find out the names our band of friends give to their personalized AIs: Asshole, Dipshit, Bitch, Dickwad, Fuckhead, Satan, and Sweetie. Clearly one of the crew wasn’t as disturbed as the rest when the AI was activated! I quite enjoyed this book and look forward to the sequel, The Ghost Brigades.

First Sentence:
I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, by Lauren Willig

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, by Lauren Willig

I read the other day that Brad Meltzer said it is okay for men to read chick-lit so I’m not embarrassed at all to say I loved The Secret History of the Pink Carnation! Using the device of a book-within-a-book, this is set in both present day and in 18th century Europe in a world where the Scarlet Pimpernel was a real secret agent. We are introduced to Eloise, a modern grad student investigating the successors to the Pimpernel: the Purple Gentian and the Pink Carnation. She is interesting, but the historical figures are where the book shines.

While a lot of fun, this doesn’t even try to be historically accurate. The women from the 18th century are sassy, well-educated, and would fit in to today’s society without any trouble; the men from all era are generally arrogant cads but eventually revealed to have hearts of gold. The inner monologues are quite modern and funny: “Kissing Amy. Bad idea. What the devil had he been thinking? He hadn’t been thinking at all; that was the problem. At least, he hadn’t been thinking with any part of him that worked in a logical manner.” Another bit I enjoyed: “Like? What an incredibly inadequate word like was. To say that he liked the idea of Amy dressed up as a dancing girl would be like saying Midas liked gold, or Epicurus liked food, or Miss Gwen liked poking her parasol at people.” And from the modern era, an affliction that Merck will surely have a pill for soon: “Unfortunately, I knew exactly what I was suffering from. LIPID (Last Idiot Person I Dated) syndrome: a largely undiagnosed but pervasive disease that afflicts single women.” Funny stuff.

Comedy, historical fiction, and contemporary chick lit are an interesting mix. While I wouldn’t call this overly intellectual, I would call it fun. I think I’ll try the next few in the series and see if they hold my interest.

First Sentence:
“...The city of your birth awaits your return.”

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