January 2012

Stuff I’ve Been Reading: January 2012

Books followed by slightly inane descriptions of them.

1. Making Money by Terry Pratchett. Aloud in the car, sequel to Going Postal.
2. Farthing by Jo Walton. Alternate history mystery by a SFF author!
3. Ha’penny by Jo Walton. Book two, see above.
4. The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card (20%). Not in the mood.
5. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. An existential father-son novel, set mostly in a time machine.
6. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle from The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes edited by Leslie S. Klinger. To gear myself up for the BBC Sherlock, which I have mixed feelings about.
7. Greenwitch by Susan Cooper. The Dark Is Rising sequence book three, leftover from December.
8. The Grey King by Susan Cooper. Book four.
9. Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper. Book five.
10. Half a Crown by Jo Walton. Alternate history mystery book three.
11. River of Darkness by Rennie Airth. Post-WWI police procedural, very well done.
12. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. A supposedly iconic mystery by a pseudonymous author of whom I’ve never heard. Detective stuck in bed, solves historical mystery about Richard III.
13. Dune by Frank Herbert. I have a crush on Paul Atreides.
14. Mystery and Manners by Flannery O’Connor. Look! Nonfiction! This book is too quotable to review: you’d do far better just to read it yourself.
15. Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert. But I don’t have a crush on this Paul.
16. A Study in Sherlock edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger. Sherlock Holmes-inspired short stories.
17. The Blood-Dimmed Tide by Rennie Airth. Ten years later, police procedural book two.

Best Mystery: Hard to say! Either Jo Walton or Rennie Airth. If I had to commit, I might pick Walton, but it’s terribly close.

Best Science Fiction: Dune.

Best Reread: Holmes, naturally.

The Dark Is Rising Sequence

I read the five books of The Dark Is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper when I was about ten years old (and a paperback sold new for $3.95). It’s about an epic struggle between the Dark and the Light: the Dark is trying to win the earth and the Light is trying to keep the earth for mankind. The protagonists are children and each book stands alone (except the last one).

I loved these books when I was little and enjoyed them again these past couple of weeks. I was surprised by how exactly I remembered them, a sign that they were written well enough to have quite an impression on me at the time.

1. Over Sea, Under Stone is about the Drew siblings–Simon, Jane, and Barney–and their holiday at the Grey House with their mysterious Great Uncle Merry, who turns out to be an Old One for the light. They find a treasure map that leads them to a Thing of Power that they must keep away from the Dark.
2. The Dark Is Rising is about Will Stanton, the seventh son of a seventh son and the last Old One to be born. On his eleventh birthday he comes into his powers and with the help of Merriman will find the six Signs and unite them before Midwinter.
3. The Greenwitch sees the Drews and Will together, back at the vacation home, tying up loose ends from the first adventure. Jane is the main character of this one, which might be why I remember liking it best.
4. The Grey King sees Will traveling in Wales, alone on a quest to wake the Sleepers with the help of Bran Davies, a boy with an unusual heritage. Winner of the Newbery Award and the one I like best as an adult.
5. And in Silver on the Tree, the Drews, Will, Bran Davies, and Merriman (or Merriman Lyon, or Merry Lyon, or Merlion, or Merlin) unite to fight the last battle, in Wales and throughout history, to keep the Dark from rising at last.

These books were a delight, and I’m glad some subconscious spontaneity spurred me to pick up the first one again.  They made an excellent interlude while I waited for my third Jo Walton alternate history-mystery to arrive in the mail. And now I’m off to read Half a Crown.

13. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows

TBR #13. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley.

First sentence: “Tendrils of raw fog floated up from the ice like agonized spirits departing their bodies.”

I LOVE FLAVIA DE LUCE.

Ahem. I know that isn’t a proper review, so let me try to explain more coherently why. She’s a charming eleven-year-old detective who has an expertise in chemistry and a passion for solving crimes. Her vivid voice and macabre fascination with death, as well as the adventures and drama she get herself and her family into, are positively delightful. The inhabitants of Buckshaw, the de Luce home, and of the surrounding village make the hijinks all the better.

I mean, in the opening scene, Flavia has flooded the parquet floor of the ballroom with water from the hose and waited overnight for it to freeze so she can ice-skate inside. How can she possibly top that for mischief? But she can. With birdlime and fireworks.

Start reading with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and love Flavia too.

16. Look to Windward

TBR #16.  Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks.

First sentence: “The barges lay on the darkness of the still canal, their lines softened by the snow heaped in pillows and hummocks on their decks.”

This is a Culture novel.  Start with The Player of Games or Use of Weapons.  If you like those, you will like this one.  If not, you probably won’t.

I liked it.

Sadly, I’m running out of Iain M. Banks books–just a couple more hard-to-find SF books, a short story collection, and the massive Algebraist, before I will have to switch to Banks’s mainstream fiction.