Lowly’s Book Blog

Hmm, I have some misgivings about this one. This fourth book in the Captain Alatriste series is packaged as a swashbuckling adventure, but somehow it falls short of the packaging.

Set in the later stages of the Spanish Empire, at a time when internal corruption was robbing the government blind, King Philip IV arranges the theft of his own treasure ship sailing in from the West Indies. The idea is to put together a band of fake pirates to take control of the ship and hand it over to the king’s trusted personal guard. That way the treasure goes straight to the coffers cutting out all the middlemen. Captain Alatriste, recently returned from fighting in Flanders, is given the task of recruiting and commanding the pirate gang.

Unfortunately as you start the book, it feels like you came into a movie halfway through. There are so many references to what came before that it is easy to get confused and lost. This feeling is not helped by the fact that the narration takes place in two different voices, one that of a 16 year old squire to the Captain in the first person and then moving to the third person to tell the same tale through the eyes of Alatriste. But yet the whole book is constructed as the personal memoir of the young squire written as an old man. Sorry, but the whole immediacy of the adventure is lost when the reader is constantly reminded that the whole story happened long ago with lines like ‘little did I know that I would one day wear that uniform.’

However, the big swordfight at the climax of the book was worth the wait. The other highlight was the wake for the condemned man due to hang. The wake actually takes place on the night before the hanging when the man’s friends, and friends of the friends, bribe their way into the prison with food and drink and spend the night drinking, gambling and bragging. Perez-Reverte portrays this scene with real colour and atmosphere.

The lashings of authentic Spanish poetry from the period do not help the flow of the story either. They may be intended to add realism, but I somehow have difficulty believing that anybody who pays for a hot meal by killing for hire is going to pause every few minutes and recite 4-6 lines of poetry. Better to leave the whole thing to an appendix.

I can’t believe it. I have adored Pulman’s Janna Mysteries from the moment I opened book 1, and Random House was giving away book 4 FOR FREE!! Thank you, thank you. And even better, I had a long train ride home that night.

Anyway, about the book. For those of you who have been reading the Janna mysteries much of this will be old news, but for the rest of the world I will try to catch you up. Janna is a teenager who has been raised by her single mum. So what? Well, the story is set in 12th century England, a time when single mums were not so common. Janna’s mother was the village midwife and herbalist and used her skills to support the two of them. Eventually however a new priest came to the parish and condemned Janna’s mother as a witch.

Now Janna is alone. She has learned some of her mother’s skills, but certainly not all. And over the previous three books Janna has been adding to her knowledge and investigating her mother’s death and her own parentage.

In book 4, Janna is far more confident of her skills and she has obtained some hard evidence about her mother’s early life. She decides to visit the abbey where her mother was a novice and see if anyone there can help her. Along the way she travels with a troupe of entertainers for safety. Strangely a dashing young nobleman joins the troup, apparently attracted by Janna. And then the murders start.

Pulman admits that she was inspired to write these books by the Cadfael series written by Ellis Peters. I remember one delightful summer when I managed to read all 20 of that series. The Janna Mysteries are not really a ripoff, more an homage designed to lead younger readers into Medieval history. But as a Cadfael reader, I was well familiar with the Civil War between Stephen and Matilda. In this book, that dispute becomes very important.

OK, four down. All wonderful. When can I get my hands on book 5. Janna is awfully close to finding her father, and I can’t wait.

Does it sound awful if I said I had read this before? OK maybe not these words in this order, but I am sure I have read it many times before.

David McRobbie has been writing books for young adults longer than I have been working in libraries. His first Wayne series was ‘old’ in the 90s, and now suddenly Wayne Wilson is back.

The book is actually a collection of anecdotes about young Wayne Wilson’s daily life. No detail is too small or insignificant to be included. It is generally funny, warm and a very light read.

But my question is why? There are literally hundreds of this kind of book being written by very mediocre writers and published every year.

Is McRobbie trying to tie into the Boys and Reading trend? Well perhaps 10 or 12 stories about Wayne would have done. None of my reluctant readers would be seen opening a 400 page book. It simply is not in the image. Someone might think you were a nerd.

But then maybe there were some bills that needed paying, and revisiting an old friend in an old formula is a great way to publish quickly. Sorry McRobbie, but I have read much of your work that was far better.

Ahh, now I have finished a book that is truly a work of speculative fiction. This term has been recently as more acceptable than scifi. But mostly I classify books as either scifi or fantasy. This book doesn’t fit either place.

To my mind speculative fiction asks ‘what if?’ In this case the question is ‘What if Gulliver’s Travels was true?’ Based on what we now know about 18th Century Europe, the answer has to be that the European empires would immediately travel to Liliputia and its neighbors, claim the land and resources and enslave the inhabitants. Add 120 years and then Adam Roberts arrives on the scene to describe the results. The English have enslaved the Liliputians and their like to work in factories, creading products of incredible finesse and delicate design. The French on the other hand are ‘allied’ with the giants which they find to be exceptional war machines. Naturally, France and England are at war, aren’t they always?

Abraham Bates is a young crusader for the rights of the Lilliputians. The opening section very nicely characterises him as a young man on a hopeless quest to free the little people from enslavement. The second section of the book introduces our heroine, Eleanor. She is from an impoverished gentle family and forced to marry a wealthy factory owner. Her chapters very nicely remind the reader of what life was like for a upper class women of the mid 19th century.

Both Abraham and Eleanor get caught up in the war. France has invaded England, taken London and are moving north to York to take posession of a super cannon invented by Eleanor’s father. Abraham, Eleanor and her fiance the Dean of York are travelling north as friends of the French when the Lilliputians begin a battle for freedom. And very effective fighters they are too.

This book is another that can be read on meny levels. On the surface it is an adventure. But so was Gulliver’s Travels. We all know that Swift was an extraordinary satirist and nothing on the page meant exactly what it said. I would dearly love to read this book again after refreshing my memory by Gulliver again. I suspect this book is a very effective sequel.

I attended the book launch for this book, and the whole idea seemed fascinating at the time. I quickly got it added to my ‘work’ reading list and even managed an immediate deadline for completion. And I am glat that I did.

This is the most unusual scifi book that I have read in a very long time. It is written for kids, but it is certainly not written down. I spent the whole time reading this book wishing that I remembered more of my Philosophy 101 course from my university days. I understood the story alright, but I think the whole book was could be read at a whole different level. It turns out I was right.

Anyway, the plot… The book opens in the distant future. The action takes place during a doctoral interview. How unusual is that? This young student has made her specialty the life of one of the founders of their new society. He was a young man of independence who had great skill in solving problems creatively. The story moves back and forth between the interview and the events of Adam’s life as retold by this student. Does this sound boring? Be honest.

Beckett’s artistry is in keeping this story riveting. Very quickly we like this young student and are cheering for her success. She claims to have made new discoveries, and found new interpretations, and we are with her all the way. She has to succeed. And every reader will want to be like Adam, proud and independent with the strength and determination to do what he believes is right, regardless of others. If that’s not enough, let me assure you that there is a twist at the end that caught me.

As soon as I had finished, I handed the book on to the philosophy teacher. Her enthusiasm convinced me that Beckett really had added many more complex layers that I, and many readers, will simply miss. Might I suggest that you keep a copy of Philosophy for Beginners at hand as you read this book. You will truly enjoy the story even more.

My editor keeps saying that I go on too long with my reviews. Well, he’s not going to be happy with this one because there is a lot to say.

This book is another in the growing Indiana Jones genre. You know the plot, a clue to the location of an ancient treasure has been found and our hero has to race the bad guys to locate the treasure and rescue it for humanity. Sometimes this ancient treasure has supernatural powers, and sometimes it is simply the power of truth.

This time Jack Howard is looking for artefacts from the beginnings of Christianity. First he finds the ship that wrecked under St Paul. But before long he is under Vesuvius looking at an ancient library left by Emperor Claudius. There he finds that Claudius left a precious document, but another archaeologist from the early 20th century has already found it and moved it to a new secret location. The bad guys in this case are a special committee within the Catholic Church, because exposure of this treasure could easily destroy the Church.

You see, the hypothesis is that Claudius, a cripple, travelled with his friend Herod Agrippa to Judea to meet this young man who was gaining fame as a healer. This carpenter from Nasareth did not heal Claudius, but did present him with a scroll and a warning. When Claudius became emperor, this scroll was sealed and hidden with his friend who lived in Herculeum. Later Claudius faked his own poisoning and escaped for life as a hermit in a small villa on the slopes of Herculeum. In 79 AD Vesuvius got excited and buried a couple of cities, and Claudius as well.

At first I found the whole idea a little over the top. But the longer I read, it seemed more plausible. Gibbins is nothing if not thorough in his archaeological information. Since Gibbins is really an archaeologist by training he does have some credibility, certainly more than many others who are writing in this genre.

But I suspect his publisher would sell more books if there weren’t quite so many ancient history lectures found in the text. Every now and then Gibbins, in the voice of Jack Howard, stops all action and goes on for a page or three about ancient history. All right already…if I were that interested, I am perfectly capable of looking it up for myself.

This is a good read, but keep your brain engaged or you will be lost.

I have been reading so much adult fiction in the past few weeks that it was a refreshing change to see this book in the shops. This is one book from a series that I have to read before anybody knows it is in the school, so reports got put on hold while I read.

Now, how to summarise the plot. For those who have been reading the series, they know that Arthur has to recover the 6th Key, and the 6th part of the will. This key is in the care of the most powerful sorcerer in the House. Saturday was given care of the Upper House, and in her effort to reach the gardens, she has been building a tower for 10,000 years. Nothing is dissolving the lower house. Arthur manages to gather his assistants and enter the Upper House without too much trouble. But then the fun begins…

A friend of mine read this book and threw it down when he had finished. Yes, this is an unsatisfactory ending. But then the end of book 6 in a seven part series has got to leave you hanging. Remember Harry Potter? Except Rowling led the reader to believe that the last book was all planned out. Little did we know the surprises in store. Nix has left everything to our imagination. Arthur collected the 6th part of the will, but who knows if he even got the key…

I felt this book was lighter than many of the others. More like a simple, straightforward adventure without a lot of distraction. It was as though once Arthur realised he was transforming into a Denizen, he simply got on with the job and did what he had to do. It may only be a week, but this Arthur is much older and more mature than the youngster who encountered Mister Monday, all those years ago.

 I saw this just last weekend, and it is not very often that a book leaps to the top of my reading list, even replacing the book currently underway, but this one did. My excuse, of course is that I knew lots of people would be waiting for me to finish so they could begin.

Now if you haven’t read Wolf of the Plains, stop here and go read it. This review, even this book will make no sense until you are done. For those still with me, this is the next in the continuing story of our friend Temujin, now Ghenghis. We last met encountered the young man as he first took the title Khan of Khans as he united all the tribes of the Mongols into one fighting force. This book tells the story of the conquest of the Chin.

Within the story the reader gains a real appreciation for the intelligence of this man. He encountered walled cities for the first time, realised that he did not have the equipment, tactics, or skills to win, so he sent his brother off to find someone who could help. Patience, a willingness to learn, these are not usually qualities associated with Ghenghis Khan.

And the pace of the story reflects the pace of the battles. Yes there is plenty of blood around, but often it is a matter of internal discipline rather than sweeping battles. There are action high points, like the battle for the pass and the reinforcements/supply convoy for Beijing. But this is also a story of developing tensions within the family. When the assassin comes for Ghenghis, and nearly succeeds, the question arises about the line of succession. And the many sons of the Khan are promising to provide their own excitement as they reach manhood.

I have seen this is going to be a trilogy. If my memory of history is correct, there is going to be a lot of ground to cover in the last book. But I will patiently wait for another year to give poor Ghenghis a chance to return to his tribal lands to rest and heal before he heads for Europe.