I Would Like To Put This Book In The Freezer

This post may be considered a Spoiler and may also require a Trigger Warning.

Please consider yourself warned.


Still with me? OK...

I wasn't 100% sure what book I was going to read next. The bookshelf supplied me with book three in the Sister Fidelma mystery series by Peter Tremayne, "Suffer Little Children", which took me 8 days to read. I was looking forward to reading a relatively light Celtic mystery with murderous monks and nuns, full of neat little historical notes, with a heavy dose of Irish flavour. I was not expecting the medieval equivalent of Sandy Hook. Literally, 20 small children and 4 adults. Just unlucky timing on my part. If I had read the book a year or two ago I would still have been sad, but it probably wouldn't have resulted in me wanting to 'put the book in the freezer', if you know what I mean. I rarely cry over books but, yeah, this one got me bawling. Absolutely heart wrenching. Here's me returning to genre fiction to escape, and Fidelma gives me a sucker punch to the gut. Ugh.

I was already slightly irritated by this novel. This is the first novel in the series that is set in Ireland (book one is in England, book two in Rome) and Tremayne takes advantage of the locale to introduce the use of the Irish language, which is fantastic.  I love Irish, it's a gorgeous language.  My problem with it's use in this novel is that whenever a character uses an Irish term in conversation with another Irish speaker they follow it up with an explanation! I can accept the 'term, definition' style in non-dialogue narrative, but within dialogue it's ridiculous.  No one talks like that! There's a list of character names and descriptions, and a historical note (although my copy seems to have been printed without the noted map, which was also annoying) so there should be no issue with adding footnotes or a glossary if a character uses a non-English word.  I would prefer to be flipping pages than dealing with clunky, fake dialogue. It takes me right out of the story.

I complain, but I did enjoy this novel.  For one thing, the mystery itself did not disappoint. This series is great for political and religious intrigue, in addition to the regular human foibles which can supply motive. I did figure out who the killer was before the reveal, which was cool for me.  I never actually try to 'solve' the mystery, I rather enjoy that 'aha!' moment when the detective reveals the identity of the murderer, but in this case it did pick my spirits up a bit. So it has that going for it.  Also, I really enjoy the historical aspects of the stories.  Fidelma's Ireland is a place of equality for women, and a place of great scholarship.  Tremayne is the pseudonym of Celtic historian Peter Berresford Ellis, so all the historical laws and details are accurate.  It really adds a lovely depth to the story.  I just wish the story didn't include children being hacked to death.

Moving on.  My next read is one I've been looking forward to for nearly a year, Caitlin Kittredge's "The Iron Thorn", the first novel in her Iron Codex young adult / alternative history / steam punk series. The third volume is due out on February 12th, so I think maybe a marathon read is in order! I'm expecting darkness from this series, but hopefully no scenes involve the mass murder of children.  I'm so over that.

Happy reading!

Turn Off Doctor Who Good

The first novel read in 2013, Rob Thurman's "Moonshine", was completely devoured in 5 days! 5 days over a weekend counts as 'devouring' for me, since most of my reading is done on the bus and I spend less time on the bus on the weekend, and I also spend Sunday catching up on TV so it's basically a write off.  This weekend, though, found me thinking, "Another episode of Doctor Who? But... I could read, instead!" I can't think of the last book I read that was 'turn off Doctor Who' good but, seriously, this novel was That Good.  Which is crazy talk, because one can never have enough Doctor Who!

The Leandros stories are very action packed, which means that lots of the 'boring' elements are jumped over with frequent use of 'two days later' or Cal (the half-demon protagonist who makes me feel like a cougar) being unconscious for an extended period of time, and coming to when the action is about to get going again.  It's a teeny bit irritating on occasion, but it does keep the story moving at a quick pace so that's nice. Literally never a dull moment. There are lots of twists and turns in the plot, and every scene matters, which is awesome.  It's a  very economical style of storytelling, almost the complete opposite of so much of the 'literature' I've been reading lately! 

A bit of a tangent here, but one of the things I was interested in exploring when I began my Booker challenge was how my taste in novels would change, if at all, as a result of genre deprivation. Maybe two novels isn't enough for a definitive answer on that one, but I feel pretty confident in saying that it hasn't changed my taste at all, it's just made me appreciate genre stories even more than I did before. I enjoy the adventure/mystery/suspense of these stories more than I could ever appreciate the navel gazing of the literati.  Not that there aren't non-genre novels I enjoy, obviously! I just prefer genre writing.  End tangent.

Working in a used-book store, I see a lot of urban and paranormal fantasy books.  One of the things I love about this series is that Rob goes beyond the current fads in fantasy characters, delving deeper into mythology.  There are werewolves and vampires, yes, but also a plethora of other nasties! I love the level of research that she puts into the non-human elements of the story. I even looked up a few I wasn't familiar with, although Rob does a great job of describing them all in their creepy evilness so it isn't necessary if you don't enjoy doing extracurricular research for a novel! There are also demons of her own device, primarily the Auphe, who are the nastiest of the nasties and thoroughly frightening. The scariest of the monsters for me, so far, was in the first book, "Nightlife", but both novels have moments where I'm so scared I find I'm holding my breath as I read! 

I realize I haven't said really anything about the plot, but it's twisty and turny, and I don't want to spoil any of that for you.  Suffice to say I loved this book, and the ending was OMG heart wrenching! If you like urban fantasy at all, I'm sure you'll love this series!

I'm going to go rifle through my bookshelves and find my next read.  I have a few thoughts on what it may be, but I may surprise myself....

Happy reading!

Super-Bugs and First Novels

The holidays are past for another year, I hope you found time to read amongst the madness joy of your festivities! My choice for my first non-Booker book, and my last novel of 2012, was Daniel Kalla's medical thriller "Resistance". I figured I had a few extra days off so I could afford to be kept up all night! It took me 10 days, between December 20th and 30th, I'm just a bit late to posting about it!  I read two of Kalla's other titles, "Cold Plague" and "Pandemic", a few years ago and they were fantastic! Both those novels feature Noah Haldane, an investigator with the WHO, who puts me in mind of a more realistic Robert Langdon, jetting around the world solving mysteries. I think I finished both of them in under 5 days, they were so intense!

"Resistance" wasn't quite as suspenseful as the Haldane books, but it was still a very fun read. It was more of a mystery than a thriller, about a super bug being intentionally spread among drug addicts along the west coast of North America. The medical terminology is kept light, and all necessary concepts are explained clearly and concisely. Some science professionals get too technical in their novels, and I find myself just skimming any parts that I don't get. I've never felt that the story is held back by the technical aspects in any of Kalla's novels, which is nice. It also helps that the topics he explores are socially relevant. An antibiotic resistant super bug is a real threat, and the over-use of antibiotics is frequently covered in the media, so the base knowledge is already there. I found it directly relevant to my own life as well, as a friend was admitted to hospital with pneumonia (and several other infections) shortly after I started reading this novel, so that certainly helped with my own fear levels!

I found this story read a lot like a 'first novel', even though it's Kalla's second, in that the bones of the structure are fairly obvious. It really doesn't hurt the story any, I just found myself noticing what he was doing as a writer. Also, with such a large cast of characters - a drug researcher, a CDC official, an infectious disease specialist, a police detective, and a shady criminal all share narrative space - some of them do come across a bit... not stereo-typed, but maybe flat? It's difficult for a character to show real growth when you're only 'with' them every fourth chapter. I am looking forward to reading his more recent novels to see how his writing has progressed. I've heard particularly good things about "The Far Side of the Sky", which I understand may be the beginning of a trilogy.

My first read for the new year is Rob Thurman's "Moonshine" - the second book in her Leandros series.  Although it also suffered from some 'first novel' issues, I loved the first book! The characters were interesting and funny, plus the story was action packed! I've heard great things about how the series progresses, so I'm really looking forward to this one!

A very Happy New Year to you all! May all your 2013 reading be enjoyable!