WWW Wed Jan 9

Oh, hello, Wednesday. I knew this would happen to my blogging when I got back to work after vacation. And by ‘this’ I mean the mid-week “Is it Friday yet?” haze.

Anyway, here’s the reading update.

1. What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently. Beastly Things by Donna Leon. The twenty-first and I think last my library has of the Commissario Guido Brunetti series. Guido, it’s been fun.

Recently. Er, Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon. The twentieth one. And before that Quiet by Susan Cain.

Next. I’m not sure. If I’m in the mood for a reread, I might go for Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin; if I’m in the mood for something literary, I have The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Audiobook update: I’m about done with Run by Ann Patchett, and up next is The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (and it’s only five discs long! Dune, by comparison, was eighteen). Now I want to watch the Baskerville episode of the BBC Sherlock. Tomorrow, perhaps, because this evening I intend to make gingersnaps.

A Random Post

1. Powell’s. I have switched from storing my books wishlist at Amazon to Powell’s due to corporate heartlessness and fishy ebook politicking. This is not to say that I will cease to shop at Amazon if the price is right, but that I will give first consideration to the indie bookstore.

2. USPS. So the books I ordered from the indie bookstore are taking an eternity to arrive. They did ship within three days of my online order, but it’s been nine days since then. Why exactly does the United States Postal Service require up to twelve business days to deliver my mail? Why? It’s not like I ordered the books because I felt like not reading them. Seriously, people.

3. Other Uses for Crochet Hooks. They’re wicked at unclogging clogged shower drains.

4. And Speaking of Yarn and Stuff. I can now make fingerless gloves. That’s right. I have yet to make a pair that actually fits me, but I could if I wanted, and in the time that it takes to watch two feature-length films, no less. Guess what everyone’s getting for Christmas?

5. Sherlock Holmes. I sampled the recently published Study in Sherlock edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger. While few of the stories actually featured the great detective, falling more into the realm of “loosely inspired by,” it was still a most enjoyable collection of short mystery stories.

Good thing I didn’t make a resolution

I’m glad, in hindsight, that I did not formalize the resolution I contemplated about diligently reviewing every single book I read this year. If I had done so, I would find myself already six reviews behind. Since I had the wisdom, or perhaps the foresight, not to set myself up for failure, I can in good conscience leave you with only a list of brief descriptions.

• Making Money by Terry Pratchett. In this sequel to Going Postal, the con man turned postmaster general Moist von Lipwig tackles the Royal Bank. We read this book aloud in the car during our Thankstmas Oklarkansas road trips in November and December.
• Farthing by Jo Walton. Thanks to the excellent taste of the Nickersons, I thoroughly enjoyed this alternate history mystery featuring Peter Carmichael. After making peace with Nazi Germany, the corrupt politicians of Great Britain try to consolidate power.
• Ha’penny by Jo Walton. Sequel to Farthing. The last book, Half a Crown, is in the mail and cannot arrive soon enough.
• The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card (20%). Despite an action-filled opening, I couldn’t get hooked on this story of Danny, a gatemage whose forbidden magic makes him hunted by his own family.
• How to Live Safely in a Science-Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. Charles Yu fixes time machines. When he unexpectedly comes across himself, he unfortunately shoots himself, leading him into a time loop that forces him to come to terms with his unhappy relationship with his father, the inventor of time travel, who has been missing since Charles was seventeen. Snappy writing and delightful meta-commentary about science fiction make this a perfect afternoon read for science fiction fans.
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle from The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes edited by Leslie S. Klinger. What is there left to say about the best of the best Sherlock Holmes stories, complete with snarky footnotes? I love Sherlock Holmes.

So a lot of things have changed in my life, but I’m going to write about books

I’ve discovered a new favorite author: K. J. Parker.

I read his Engineer Trilogy during June and July, since I always saw them on the shelf in bookstores and needed something of length to get me through a tumultuous month.  I liked them so much that I ordered his Fencer Trilogy online after a fruitless search through used and new bookstores alike, only to discover that the books had UK covers–they haven’t been published over here.

I’ve since read the first one, Colours in the Steel, which is about the siege of a city and the strange magical connection between several people who seem to be guided by luck, or instinct, or tragedy.  The coolest part by far is the career of the protagonist, Bardas Loredan, who is a fencer-at-law.  Yup, trial by combat, fencing-style.

Meanwhile, I’ve also read the tenth Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes novel, The God of the Hive, and it was familiar and funny without being spectacular.  Book nine was a bit bizarre, so I was glad to have a normal-strange story, including spies and bolt-holes and chases around London, instead of a weird-strange one, including Druid-style sacrifice and Holmes’s long-lost relatives.

And lastly, I think I’ve discovered my least favorite Terry Pratchett novel, Moving Pictures, which is to say that it’s hilarious but hasn’t got Sam Vimes or the Patrician or even terribly many wizards in it.  After I finish the last hundred pages (in which I hazard a guess that Discworld won’t be destroyed by creatures from other dimensions after all), I’m going back to K. J. Parker’s Fencer book two, The Belly of the Bow.

Perhaps there will be another siege.

The Last Sherlock Holmes Story

While I tend to shy away from Holmes/Ripper novels (a great conundrum to Holmes fans why the great detective did not address that case), The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin was a stellar explanation of the truth behind those strange and terrifying events.

Prefaced, in traditional fashion, by the editors of the long-lost but recently found Watsonian manuscript, the tale is in Watson’s own voice rather than that of Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer of the known Holmes tales.  Watson’s true narrative pays homage to the Canon by being scrupulously correct in its dates and references.  However, the fiend behind the Whitechapel killings is nothing like what Watson originally thought: a primitive, brutal psychopath.  No, Watson gradually begins to suspect that Holmes suffers from a dissociative personality disorder, brought about by his addiction to cocaine.

The writing is beautifully authentic, creating the atmosphere of an original Holmes story with grace and ease.  The references to Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson, Mrs. Watson, former cases, and of course Moriarty lend the tale its familiarity; but the chilling truth, withheld until the end of the story, reveals a very different confrontation at Reichenbach Falls.  It is dark, oh so very dark, and absolutely delightful.

I don’t know how I’d never heard of The Last Sherlock Holmes Story before.  Holmes fans will love it.  I certainly did.

The Man From Hell

The Man from Hell by Barrie Roberts is a short novel in the “Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” series by various authors.  Holmes acted in-character, disappearing midway through the story and leaving Watson not to follow his advice in his place.  Plus, there were extended narratives, written and spoken, filling in the background of what was happening now by supplying information from twenty years ago, in Australia.  Watson’s voice was persuasive, the mystery sufficiently but not too complex, and Holmes got to fence with a villain.

That said, is it all right that I thought this book a little dull?  It did “Sherlock Holmes” perhaps a bit too convincingly, being rather narratively straight-laced.  Not that I want a story in which Sherlock Holmes is a woman, an alien, or a criminal (and believe me, I’ve read these), but I want the author to put a very slight spin on the language, or the setting, or the characters.  Such a spin was not discernible.  I read the last chapter with only the mildest engagement, glad, I suppose, that Holmes was recognizable, but sorry that he wasn’t more individual.

December 18

I’ve recently read two books involving Sherlock Holmes, each in their own unusual way.

The first was Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon by Larry Millett, a Sherlock Holmes in North America adventure.  While the style and tone was, for the most part, spot on, it was evident that Millett was strongly invested in communicating the local history of the town which was the site of an actual great fire.  While I have no doubt that his extensive description of the town architecture, countryside, and inhabitants was brimming with historical accuracy, I wasn’t particularly interested.  In fact, I skimmed the middle part of the book to get to the final confrontation.  It was…all right, but I’m glad I saved a bit of time.

The second was The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar, and it is not a Sherlock Holmes book at all.  It is a steampunk novel that interprets the word “Victorian” loosely, throwing in anyone and everyone from Shakespeare onwards.  Mycroft Holmes makes an appearance as a clue-giver to the protagonist, and his brother, the world’s foremost consulting detective, has a sly role as a resurrected automaton, though if you weren’t clever enough to interpret the initials S.H., you might not know he was even in the book.  The book makes no pretense to loyalty to the original Holmes because it has none.  Nevertheless, despite the overall strangeness of the circumstances, I liked Tidhar’s shadowy Holmes a bit better than Millett’s more accurate rendition.

…And the book I’m reading now, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, is a collection of essays by David Grann, the title essay of which tells the story of the mysterious death of a real-life Conan Doyle expert.  While that essay was the only one concerning Holmes directly, Grann writes that the mystery behind each of the essays was what first drew him to the widely disparate subjects.  I’ve only read two so far, but I understand that there’s a squid coming up.  Excited?  Yes.