A bit of a catch up on what I have been reading over the last few months.
The Long Cosmos by Terry Pratchett and
Stephen Baxter
This is the final book in the Long Earth
series and in it we find the combined inhabitants of Long Earth come to realise
that there is a more advanced civilisation out in the Long Cosmos that has
focused its attention on them. It aims to pull together several of the threads
introduced in earlier books, giving more background to several storylines and
offering up an interesting conclusion.
‘2070-71.
Nearly six decades after Step Day and in the Long Earth the new Next post-human
society continues to evolve.
Joshua
Valiente, now in his late sixties, wants to make one last, solo journey into
the High Meggers. Only it’s an adventure that turns into a disaster. Alone and
facing death, his only hope lies with a group of trolls.
As
Joshua confronts his mortality, the Long Earth receives a signal from the
stars. A signal picked up by radio astronomers but also in more abstract ways,
by the trolls and by the Great Traversers. Its impact will be felt by all who
inhabit the Long Earths.
The
message is simple but its implications are enormous: JOIN US.’
This is part of an ongoing series about
humans and aliens and the possibilities around their interaction. It has a
different view point being from a Chinese author and this along with the
complexity of some of the ‘science’ being proposed, can make it a challenging
read, however the characters and overarching story are compelling and thought
provoking.
‘Imagine
the universe as a forest, patrolled by numberless and nameless predators. In
this forest, stealth is survival – any civilisation the reveals its location is
prey.
Earth
has. Now the predators are coming.
Crossing
light years, they will reach Earth in four centuries’ time. But the sophons,
their extra-dimensional agents and saboteurs, are already here. Only the
individual human mind remains immune to their influence.
This
is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a last-ditch defence that grants
four individuals almost absolute power to design secret strategies, hidden
through deceit and misdirection from human and alien alike. Three of the
Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total
unknown.
Lou
Ji, an ambitious Chinese astronomer, is baffled by his new status. All he knows
is that he’s the one Wallfacer the aliens want dead.’
Sue picked this book up for me when we
visited Hemingway’s house in Key West. I found it a difficult read; partly I
think for the ‘voice’ used to tell the reader when Spanish was being spoken; secondly,
I think the slow pace of the book is a side effect of the period it was written
in (we now prefer faster paced action stories in our rapid pace information
age) - also I think I found the characters unsympathetic (our ideas of morality
and what is acceptable also changed over time). I am not sure it stands the
test of time as an enjoyable read, but has merit for the subject and for a
glimpse into another time.
‘High
in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up
a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer, has been sent to
handle the dynamiting. There, in the mountains, he finds the dangers and the
intense comradeship of war. And there he discovers Maria, a young woman who has
escaped from Franco’s rebels.’
The Whispering Swarm by Michael Moorcock
Well this was an odd book! I am not sure
if I got the joke. Was this really an autobiographical story or some sort of
vehicle to explain the author’s influences? I found it a little self-indulgent
and I lacked empathy with the ‘mail character’. Being unfamiliar with his other
works I do not know if it is a typical Moorcock book or not. I am not sure I am
tempted to find out.
‘London
is just recovering from the Blitz and years of austerity. For a young man named
Michael Moorcock, the future is rife with possibilities. From his time as the
youngest editor in Fleet Street to the first inklings of his future career as a
writer, as he picks his way through the hidden backstreets and private worlds
most Londoners don’t know about, he believes hi is safe.
Until
he meets a strange Carmelite monk, goes through a locked gate, and discovers a
different London hidden in plain sight. A city filled with fantastical people
and unbelievable stories. A society full of dangers, magic and love. A place
which calls to him with a whisper only he can hear!’
This was an interesting concept but it
was too strung out and esoteric for a full novel and would have been better as
a short story.
‘What
does love feel like beyond death?
Jane’s
husband Jim has just died – or not quite. For Jim, a mild-mannered chaplin at
the hospital where Jane works as a surgeon, has left his body to Polaris, a
shadowy cryonics organisation that promises to do away with mortality forever.
Stranded in the realm of the Living, reeling from the loss of her husband, Jane
sets out to confront Polaris and to discover just where, exactly, his body is
now. Meanwhile, awake in a strange new world, an afterlife of sorts, his body
gone but his consciousness intact, Jim learns that the cost of eternal life is
higher than he could ever have imagined.’
Son of the Morning by Mark Alder
I enjoyed the idea of this a lot even if
it is not overly original. The span of the story was rather grand but it was helped
with interesting characters and finely crafted nods to historical references. I
enjoyed this book very much.
‘Edward
the Third stands in the burned ruin of a church. Another French raid on the
south coast of England. The king is beset on all sides and terribly in debt. He
needs a victory against the French to rescue his Kingship. But this is a war he
cannot win.
By
his divine right as king, Philip of Valois can summon seven angels to fight for
him. A French army that marches beneath his banner never loses.
Edward
should be able to call his own angles, but they have not spoken since his
father was king. Is God truly on the side of the French?
But
a banker makes Edward an offer. The help of a young boy. A Luciferist who
carries one of the keys to Hell. For a price, Edward could open the gates to
Hell and take an unholy war to France.’
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
This was a book that inspired my reading
at an early age and revisiting it I think I noticed more of the cleverly
crafted ideas than I would have as a boy. I would recommend this to any young
person first starting to explore books, words, numbers and the often-absurd
English language.
‘When
Milo receives a mysterious and intriguing package through the post, all his
previous feelings of boredom are banished. Having nothing better to do, he
points his pedal car towards the strange land beyond the Tollbooth, and quicker
than a flash he’s entered the Kingdom of Wisdom, where everything is
unexpected.’
This was another book bought for me by
Sue, and as a short story it is a much more accessible and enjoyable read than
Fore Whom the Bell Tolls. I would recommend it for its excellent use of
language to conjure up a scene and to evoke an emotional response.
‘Set
in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Havana, Hemingway’s magnificent fable is
the story of an old man, a young boy and a giant fish. In a perfectly crafted
story, which won for Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature, is a unique and
timeless vision of the beauty and grief of a man’s challenge to the elements in
which he lives’.
Perhaps a little too clever for itself.
There are some interesting ideas and a very political message that the author
is trying to get a cross, but it drags at times and feels quite self-indulgent
at others.
‘Damilola
Karpov is a pilot. Living in Byzantion, he makes his living as a drone pilot –
capable of being a cameraman who records the events unfolding in Urkaine or,
with weapons aboard his drone, of making a newsworthy event happen for his
employers: CINEWS, INC.
His
recordings are known as S.N.U.F.F.: Special Newsreel/Universal Feature Film –
an esoteric sacrament in Movism, the post-antichristian religion of Byzantion
and Urkaine.’
Another interesting idea though it feels
a little forced and reads a bit like a screen play rather than a novel, but
nevertheless it is a fun and entertaining read.
‘Fifteen
years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. Most of those afflicted
experience nothing worse than a fever and headaches. A few suffer acute
meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And 1 percent find
themselves ‘locked in’ – fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond
to stimulus.
It
may not seem like a lot. But in the US alone that’s 1.7 million people ‘locked
in’… including the President’s wife and daughter.
Spurred
on by grief and the sheer magnitude of the suffering. America undertakes a
massive scientific initiative. Nothing can fully restore the locked in, but two
new technologies emerge to help. One is a virtual-reality environment, ‘The
Agora’, where the locked in can interact with other humans. The second is the
discovery that a few rare individuals have minds that are receptive to being
controlled by others, allowing the locked in to occasionally use their bodies
as if they were their own.
This
skill is quickly regulated, licensed, bonded, and controlled. Nothing can go
wrong. Certainly, nobody would be tempted to misuse it, for murder, for
political power, or worse.’
I enjoyed this story, though the setup
is vague and contrived, the main story line is involving and engaging even if
the conclusion is a trifle unsatisfying.
‘Brendan
Doyle, a specialist in the work of the early-nineteenth-century poet William
Ashbless, reluctantly accepts an invitation from a millionaire to act as a
guide to time-travelling tourists. But, while attending a lecture given by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810, he becomes marooned in Regency London, where
dark and dangerous forces know about the gates in time. Caught up in the
intrigues between rival bands of beggars, pursued by Egyptian sorcerers,
befriended by Coleridge, Doyle somehow survives. And learns more about the
mysterious Ashbless than he could ever have imagined possible.’
