Collected Miscellany

Life is weird sometimes.  I stumbled upon The Coming of Dragons (The Darkest Age I)  in the grocery store.  As I happened to have dragons on the mind I found out that His Majesty’s Dragon (the first in a series by Naomi Novik) was available for free for Kindleusers.  So grabbed it.  Who cares if you don’t read it right away if it is free. A free book is a free book, etc.

But when I couldn’t get a hold of The Book of the Sword (Darkest Age II) right away I went ahead and kept the dragon theme going by reading HMD.  It turned out to be a very interesting experience.  I am a bit torn about the series but glad I read the book.

Here is what Publishers Weekly had to say:

In this delightful first novel, the opening salvo of a trilogy, Novik seamlessly blends fantasy into the history of the Napoleonic wars. Here be dragons, beasts that can speak and reason, bred for strength and speed and used for aerial support in battle. Each nation has its own breeds, but none are so jealously guarded as the mysterious dragons of China. Veteran Capt. Will Laurence of the British Navy is therefore taken aback after his crew captures an egg from a French ship and it hatches a Chinese dragon, which Laurence names Temeraire. When Temeraire bonds with the captain, the two leave the navy to sign on with His Majesty’s sadly understaffed Aerial Corps, which takes on the French in sprawling, detailed battles that Novik renders with admirable attention to 19th-century military tactics. Though the dragons they encounter are often more fully fleshed-out than the stereotypical human characters, the author’s palpable love for her subject and a story rich with international, interpersonal and internal struggles more than compensate.

As practically every reviewer has noted the genre here is really, as Rachel Hartigan Shea put it in her WaPo review, “the dashing Brits-on-ships genre perfected by Patrick O’Brian.”  The dragons are the only fantasy aspect of the book and it really is historical fiction not fantasy.  But for puting dragons in just such a setting Novik deserves credit because  it is a creative twist and she pulls it off.

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It really is a different world when it comes to books these days.  Example: I actually picked up The Coming of Dragons (the first book in the Darkest Age trilogy) at the grocery store.  They had a large stack of what I assume were remainders that they were selling for highly discounted prices.  The cover art caught my eye and I decided to buy given the reduced price.

It turned out to be a good choice.  I will certainly be reading the rest of the series.

Here is the plot blurb:

Edmund, a king’s son in disguise, and Elspeth, a sea captain’s tomboy daughter, are the only two survivors of a terrible shipwreck. They just want to go home, but fate has other plans as they are drawn into the fight against an evil warlord terrorizing their homeland. Accompanied by a mysterious minstrel and haunted by magical powers they did not seek, Edmund and Elspeth journey across a savage land of wild boars, fierce rogue knights, and black magic.

Lake does a couple of things well.  First, she does a great job of mixing action and plot development.  There is an element of suspense that she carries right to the very last page and yet she fills in the details and develops the characters need to build the series.  You are trying to figure out the history and motives of the surrounding characters as well as what Edmund and Elspeth will do next.  It gives it a real page-turner quality.

And having a boy and a girl as the central characters gives it a nice balance as well.  Some readers like to have a protagonist they can relate to and Lake gives us both.  Plus, there unique gifts, personalities, and backgrounds make for an interesting friendship and even some tension.

The other thing that stood out to me was the way Lake develops a rather dark and troubling story without going over-the-top towards depressing or too dark.  It has the medieval feel and setting but also characters that aren’t clear cut; there is an element of brooding – of distrust and secrecy to go along with the mystery and fantasy aspects.

All of this combines for a unique YA fantasy fiction story.  Despite being a quest trilogy with magic and dragons it felt fresh and unique.  Which is much harder than it looks.

I look forward to reading the next two books and finding out what happens to this young duo.

I stumbled upon this interesting little book, Little Mook & Dwarf Longnose (part of the Pocket Paragon Book series), at a library sale.  Given my interest in fairy tales and young adult fiction I thought it would be worth the quick read.  This past weekend I pulled it out and read one afternoon.  It was worth it just for the introduction by one of the translators Thomas S. Hansen.

William Hauff’s life was cut short- from overwork and exhaustion no less – at the age of twenty-five but he still managed to leave a legacy behind.  And among German speaking children his fairy tales are second only to the famous Brothers Grimm.  The two stories in this collection are meant as an introduction to his work.

Booklist does a great job of capturing the slim volume:

This petite double feature celebrates nineteenth-century German fantasist Hauff, an unsung contemporary of the Brothers Grimm. Like others in the publisher’s Pocket Paragon series, the book is a pleasure to hold and behold, featuring rich, glossy stock, decorative embellishments, and beautifully reproduced artwork. Though the story “Little Mook” gets top billing, “Dwarf Longnose” is probably better known due to earlier versions illustrated by both Maurice Sendak and Lizbeth Zwerger. The two stories, though, have much in common, each chronicling the adventures of a small, physically odd character who carves his place in the world by dint of cleverness, good-heartedness, and fairy-tale magic. It’s a theme that holds allure for many children, although the high ratio of text to visuals (Russian illustrator Pak’s striking tempera paintings appear only once every five or so pages) makes it most suitable for sharing with middle-graders. The cogent preface by co-translator Thomas S. Hansen will enlighten college-level students of comparative lit, who will enjoy encountering this elegant volume in their libraries as much as Hauff’s intended audience.

The Little Mook involves a poor dwarf forced to make his way in the world alone and penniless.  He finds work with a bizarre cat lady and then stumbles upon a magic staff and slippers. These magic tools help him to find work in a kings court only to have the jealousy of those around him form his undoing.

The second story tells the tale of how a once beautiful young boy is kidnapped and turned into a long nosed dwarf by a witch.  He escapes but no one recognizes him in his deformed state.  He finds work as a chef for a duke only to have his life threatened by a neighboring prince.  With the help of princess who had been turned into a goose he finds his old form and escapes and returns to his family.

The stories themselves, while entertaining, are probably more interesting as part of the history of fairy tales and German folklore than as bedtime stories for your kids (not that they wouldn’t serve that purpose).  But for me the useful intro and the art work, when added to the stories, made it easily worth the two dollars I paid for it.

An odd, yet educational, little find.

I will be honest.  I am an Olen Steinhauer fan. Have been since I picked up his first book, The Bridge of Sighs, some time ago (and started reading his blog as well).  His crime series set in an unnamed Eastern European country during the Cold War was in my sweet spot as a former grad student with a focus on the Cold War: great writing, interesting characters, an espionage/crime thriller with the Iron Curtain as a backdrop, what’s not to like?

But Steinhauer has put that series to bed and has started a new direction or at least a new series with The Tourist.

Here is the plot as outlined by the publisher:

Milo Weaver used to be a “tourist” for the CIA – an undercover agent with no home, no identity – but he’s since retired from the field to become a middle-level manager at the CIA’s New York headquarters. He’s acquired a wife, a daughter, and a brownstone in Brooklyn, and he’s tried to leave his old life of secrets and lies behind. However, when the arrest of a long-sought-after assassin sets off an investigation into one of Milo’s oldest colleagues and exposes new layers of intrigue in his old cases, he has no choice but to go back undercover and find out who’s holding the strings once and for all.

This book carried risk and reward. New is exciting but what happens when the author leaves a much loved series behind and starts a new project? Sure, it is still what I like to call a literary thriller, but what if Steinhauer stumbled on his first stand alone?  Made me a little nervous, I will admit.

Another element of pressure, and an opportunity to stumble, was provided by the pre-publication publicity – which has been known to trip me up in the past.  The publicity  put Steinhauer in the pantheon of great spy thriller writers like Le Carre, Deighton, Graham Green, etc. Not an easy label to live up to.

Well, as I noted earlier, I am happy to report that Steinhauer didn’t stumble but merely brought his talents to a different task. I am in no position to label him the next Le Carre etc. but he certainly has tapped into the same vein and talents that kept me reading these type of authors.

The Tourist is a great and thought provoking read for anyone who enjoys the thriller aspects of the espionage genre but prefers better – and more philosophical – writing than your average airport pick up.

More below.

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If you like your crime thrillers complex and dense then you will want to check out Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo’s latest Nemesis.

Being the lazy blogger that I am, allow me to reproduce the publishers copy to introduce the plot:

Grainy closed-circuit television footage shows a man walking into an Oslo bank and putting a gun to a cashier’s head. He tells the young woman to count to twenty-five. When the robber doesn’t get his money in time, the cashier is executed, and two million Norwegian kroner disappear without a trace. Police Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case.

While Hole’s girlfriend is away in Russia, an old flame decides to get in touch. Former girlfriend and struggling artist Anna Bethsen invites Hole to dinner, and he can’t resist a visit. But the evening ends in an all too familiar way as Hole awakens with a thundering headache, a missing cell phone, and no memory of the past twelve hours. That same morning, Anna is found shot dead in her bed. Hole begins to receive threatening e-mails. Is someone trying to frame him for this unexplained death? Meanwhile, the bank robberies continue with unparalleled savagery.

As the death toll continues to mount, Hole becomes a prime suspect in a criminal investigation led by his longtime adversary Tom Waaler and Waaler’s vigilante police force. Racing from the cool, autumnal streets of Oslo to the steaming villages of Brazil, Hole is determined to absolve himself of suspicion by uncovering all the information needed to crack both cases. But the ever-threatening Waaler is not finished with his old archenemy quite yet.

Now let me confess that I didn’t read The Redbreast or any other of Nesbo’s earlier works.  To be honest I didn’t want to read a 500 plus page book to see if I wanted to read another almost 500 page book.  Call me closed minded but that is quite a commitment in my world.

So instead I just dived into Harry Hole’s world with no background.  And it worked just fine for the most part.  I am not sure, however, if my not having read the back-story as it were lead to my frustration with the dense and over-layered plot.  And the ending was clearly a “to be continued” situation; which is unsatisfying to a degree.

But as noted above, Nesbo creates a complex – if at times convoluted – story with lots of characters, a dash of psychology and philosophy and enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing.

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The next few books that I plan on reading and reviewing will be on the time period from the discovery of the New World to the Napoleonic Wars – I know that is a large period of time.   I will be bouncing around in this time period.

The first of these books is Napoleon’s Wars by Charles Esdaile.  At 565 pages, it is an excellent political history of the Napoleonic Wars.  Esdaile’s basic argument is that the chief motivating factor for Napoleon and his wars was his ego and his lust for power.   Napoleon was never truly happy unless he was fighting for glory and fame.

Before going any further, I want to say that Esdaile is not completely objective.  He is English and an Anglophile.  Although he supports his argument remarkably, you must keep in mind that he blames Napoleon for a lot of things that went wrong in Europe at this time.  I think that Napoleon screwed up Europe for nearly two decades, but I am not sure that he is to blame for everything.  For example, he is not responsible for the initial break-up of Poland – they can thank the Prussians, Russians, and Austrians.

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Sometimes books I read or receive just get lost in the hustle and bustle of life. I am sure this never happens to you, but sometimes I just am not that organized. But I am trying this year to improve catch myself when books get lost.

One such book is Best-Loved Chinese Proverbs by Theodora Lau.  Here is the publiser blurb:

“By filling one’s head instead of one’s pocket, one cannot be robbed.”

The appeal of Chinese proverbs is profound and universal. With brevity, clarity, and simplicity, these carefully chosen words help pass wisdom and insight throughout the ages. This timeless, eloquent collection of proverbs offers fundamental truths about the natural world and the human condition, on subjects such as:

Ability • Adversity • Beauty • Chracter • Conflict

Cooperation • Deception • Defeat • Fortune • Greed • Happiness

Honor • Inspiration • Knowledge • Leadership • Love

Moderation • Necessity • Neighbors • Obstinacy • Opportunity

Perseverance • Pride • Sincerity • Strategy • Success

Thought • Trust • Victory • Wisdom • And More

And really there is not much else to add to that.  If you have an interest in China or just enjoy Chinese Proverbs (or pithy insights in general) then this is the kind of book you will want.

It is attractively designed – including traditional calligraphy with a pronunciation key – and laid out by subject as noted above.  It is a handy book to have on the coffee table or to dip into when the mood strikes.  It is also handy if you are looking for a particularly apt quote to use to introduce a subject; a creative twist on quotable quotes.

Here are a couple of my favorites so far:

• “First attain skill; creativity comes later.”
• “Fashion is a tyrant who dictates never-ending change.”
• “That which is beautiful is not always good.  But that which is good is always beautiful.”
• “Often one finds destiny just where one hides to avoid it.”
• “Pleasure cannot be pursued to its limit, for pleasure could also be a fountain of sorrow.”

Do you have a favorite saying or proverb?  If so leave in the comments.  If not, check out this handy collection.  Who knows you might learn something . . .