The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August
In The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August our eponymous hero is a kalachakra, an ouroboron. (someone who when they die is reborn to the same life over and over) After suffering several lives filled with confusion, false diagnosis of insanity, and becoming prey to those who would know the future, Harry is found by the Cronus Club, a secret society, which protects those who are not "linear" from everyone else. They have one rule, don't intervene, don't change the course of history, it's been tried before and it led to disaster. But a message is being whispered from the future, the world is ending, can the kalachakra stop it?
I have been reading as long as I can remember and over the years must have read thousands of books.
Since the advent of my blog in 2011, I have read at a rough count 304 books, the majority of which were fiction novels with a few exceptions per year. I would say that split across the reviews the average score per book is about a 7. A few have achieved the ignominy of a Zero, or perhaps worse, a 2, and approximately 10% of the books I've read have received a 10/10.
Among these there is a Super Group, a Clique, the Creme de la Creme, an elite to which many aspire but few are chosen. If I refine my terms to only books read since 2011, this group contains Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller, The End Of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas, Genus by Jonathan Trigell and The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness. These are books which kept me awake all night, books I thought were genius, books I envied the writers for having written, books which I felt were somehow written just for me, and particularly in the case of The Crane Wife books which triggered deep personal and emotional reactions.
At roughly 2am this morning, as I cursed my iPad for having found itself on 1% and I still had 100 pages left to go, The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North joined their ranks.
I don't quite know how to explain fully just how good this book is, how much I loved it and why. It blew my mind. I thought it was incredible, brilliant, amazing and every other superlative thereof. I highlighted one line sentences, I highlighted full paragraphs, I got involved with the plot to an unreasonable degree, I stayed up with it as long as I could, I was engrossed in it, at times had physical feelings of excitement or anxiety. At first the central premise is not dissimilar to Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, but the books could not diverge more in terms of plot and style. They are completely different. But God, this book is great.
Ultimately, I think what I liked best was the secret society angle, that these individuals stand outside of the world as experienced by the "linear", but support one another; the implied criticism of psychiatry, and the blurred lines between theology/philosophy and quantum physics as the kalachakra search for the meaning behind their existence.
I had a little niggle in that one character has this deep antipathy to the Cronus Club and the reasons for this are never explained. Was he ever a member? What happened? And if not how did he survive without them? It's not a problem that we don't find out, I just really wanted to know.
I was also curious about the butterfly effect, the kalachakra believe inaction is the right response to complexity so established events, almost as in Doctor Who, must remain fixed. However each of them do different things with each life they are gifted. Medical training in one life, law in another, different wives, different lovers that kind of thing, how do these changes not ultimately change the course of history in infinite and complex ways?
I'd love to ask the author about this, who in fact is an established author called Catherine Webb, also sometimes known as Kate Griffin and not in fact Claire North, which hot on the heels of Robert Galbraith, does make me wonder what the point of such pseudonyms ultimately is!
Verdict : 10/10 - DO buy this book, DO read it, it's the best book I've read this year.
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Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 November 2014
Thursday, 3 October 2013
Book #53 To Say Nothing Of The Dog by Connie Willis
To Say Nothing Of The Dog
Length Of Time In Possession : 2/3 weeks (Part of A Blogging Good Read)
To Say Nothing Of The Dog has all the hallmarks of a book that I should really love. A time travel element, a historical/academic element and a 19th Century novel element, everything about it seems designed to appeal to me and I approached it with enthusiasm.
Imagine my disappointment therefore that I spent weeks on this novel barely getting through a few pages at each attempt and stopped before page 200 or so.
In many ways I saw it as a waste of a great opportunity. Time travel has been invented and yet all anyone does with it is research Coventry Cathedral on the whim of some rich woman who is trying to rebuild it in the future, with particular emphasis on 'the bishop's bird stump' a missing artefact.
In some ways this is part of the point & its all supposed to have a kind of tongue in cheek wit to it, but instead of being amused by it, I found it asinine and at times twee. I cared neither for the characters or the outcome and exited the novel shortly after the introduction of the superbly punchable Tossie at which point I decided the degree to which it was not worth the effort was painful.
Time spent in manfully attempting to read this book has meant a real shortfall in the usual number of books I would read in September which has caused it to aggravate me even further!
Other people I imagine might enjoy this book & the book it reminded me most of was Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series of which I am not a fan but many are.
Verdict : Not for me
Destination : Charity Shop
Length Of Time In Possession : 2/3 weeks (Part of A Blogging Good Read)
To Say Nothing Of The Dog has all the hallmarks of a book that I should really love. A time travel element, a historical/academic element and a 19th Century novel element, everything about it seems designed to appeal to me and I approached it with enthusiasm.
Imagine my disappointment therefore that I spent weeks on this novel barely getting through a few pages at each attempt and stopped before page 200 or so.
In many ways I saw it as a waste of a great opportunity. Time travel has been invented and yet all anyone does with it is research Coventry Cathedral on the whim of some rich woman who is trying to rebuild it in the future, with particular emphasis on 'the bishop's bird stump' a missing artefact.
In some ways this is part of the point & its all supposed to have a kind of tongue in cheek wit to it, but instead of being amused by it, I found it asinine and at times twee. I cared neither for the characters or the outcome and exited the novel shortly after the introduction of the superbly punchable Tossie at which point I decided the degree to which it was not worth the effort was painful.
Time spent in manfully attempting to read this book has meant a real shortfall in the usual number of books I would read in September which has caused it to aggravate me even further!
Other people I imagine might enjoy this book & the book it reminded me most of was Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series of which I am not a fan but many are.
Verdict : Not for me
Destination : Charity Shop
Friday, 15 March 2013
Book #20 Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Beautiful Creatures
Length Of Time In Possession : 3 weeks
At the age of 31, I should be perhaps too old for books aimed at the teenage market, but there have been several franchises I have really enjoyed : Harry Potter, Twilight (for my sins), The Hunger Games Trilogy, The Chaos Walking Trilogy, and Julianna Baggott's 'Pure' series, thus far.
I rather hoped that in the Beautiful Creatures novels I would find either books which transcend age ranges like Chaos Walking or an addictive guilty pleasure like Twilight.
I found myself disappointed :
In Beautiful Creatures, small town teen Ethan, reeling from the death of his mother falls in love with an enigmatic and unusual outsider who moves to the town. So..Twilight in reverse. The object of his affection Lena Duchenne, like Edward Cullen, is hiding supernatural abilities.
Lena belongs to a family of "Casters" - witches and wizards basically, who have the power to cast spells. A heavy curse was laid upon Lena's family generations earlier, after which, unlike other Caster families when their family members come of age they don't get to choose whether they will be Dark or Light and are instead claimed by whichever side wins.
I really like the premise of this book, yet I found it slightly tedious, the prose didn't pop off the page, the dialogue was flat, and I didn't become emotionally involved in the fates of the characters. The Civil War aspects dragged the book down and could have been explained in a much quicker way.
When I start a series I usually aim to read all the books, but I was so unenamoured of the novel, that what I did was look up synopses on Wikipedia. What I found was that even with the fantasy parameters which the book lies within; the plotlines of the following books descend into utterly ludicrous tripe.
Verdict : Not for me, I'm afraid 5/10
Destination : Passed to friend's child
Length Of Time In Possession : 3 weeks
At the age of 31, I should be perhaps too old for books aimed at the teenage market, but there have been several franchises I have really enjoyed : Harry Potter, Twilight (for my sins), The Hunger Games Trilogy, The Chaos Walking Trilogy, and Julianna Baggott's 'Pure' series, thus far.
I rather hoped that in the Beautiful Creatures novels I would find either books which transcend age ranges like Chaos Walking or an addictive guilty pleasure like Twilight.
I found myself disappointed :
In Beautiful Creatures, small town teen Ethan, reeling from the death of his mother falls in love with an enigmatic and unusual outsider who moves to the town. So..Twilight in reverse. The object of his affection Lena Duchenne, like Edward Cullen, is hiding supernatural abilities.
Lena belongs to a family of "Casters" - witches and wizards basically, who have the power to cast spells. A heavy curse was laid upon Lena's family generations earlier, after which, unlike other Caster families when their family members come of age they don't get to choose whether they will be Dark or Light and are instead claimed by whichever side wins.
I really like the premise of this book, yet I found it slightly tedious, the prose didn't pop off the page, the dialogue was flat, and I didn't become emotionally involved in the fates of the characters. The Civil War aspects dragged the book down and could have been explained in a much quicker way.
When I start a series I usually aim to read all the books, but I was so unenamoured of the novel, that what I did was look up synopses on Wikipedia. What I found was that even with the fantasy parameters which the book lies within; the plotlines of the following books descend into utterly ludicrous tripe.
Verdict : Not for me, I'm afraid 5/10
Destination : Passed to friend's child
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Book #15 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Night Circus
I'm going to start by saying The Night Circus is enchanting, truly and I really think you should read it. Particularly if you enjoy books that are set in the 1800's or at the turn of the century and have that "Victorian style" to them as I do. Erin Morgenstern has pulled that literary effect off really well.
From the start, the descriptions of the circus allow your creative imagination to run wild, it only opens at night, it has monochrome tents, a massive bonfire, hot sweet treats, a contortionist covered in tattoed symbols, a wishing tree, an ice garden and other such magical displays await within each tent.
At first it is difficult to see how the circus intersects with the other story we are introduced to. Two children, Celia Bowen and an unnamed boy, are sworn into combat against each other at a young age, a battle of two mentors in a case of nature versus nurture, their task is to grow up learning the craft of magic and to become practitioners, entering into a challenge when the moment arrives.
The moment arrives with the circus. The circus becomes that arena.
The Night Circus is brilliant. Enchanting really is the best way of describing it. All the characters have that certain je ne sais quoi, that piques your interest in them and keeps it there. You never really know any of them fully, but, that's part of the point, they have a mystique and that's why they are intriguing.
I loved the relationship between Celia and Marco as it unfolds but was frustrated with the fact that they both misunderstand the nature of the task at hand, seeing it as a talent contest rather than a duel.
A duel element with their competitive mentors assuming more of an influence may have given this novel a darker edge. But again, the fact that the darker edge it does develop in another way, perhaps negates this, but I still would have liked to have seen an aspect of it, at least at the start.
I loved all the characters and the fact that the contest had far reaching and sinister overtones. I would recommend this book to anyone, and will probably buy it for friends. 10/10
I'm going to start by saying The Night Circus is enchanting, truly and I really think you should read it. Particularly if you enjoy books that are set in the 1800's or at the turn of the century and have that "Victorian style" to them as I do. Erin Morgenstern has pulled that literary effect off really well.
From the start, the descriptions of the circus allow your creative imagination to run wild, it only opens at night, it has monochrome tents, a massive bonfire, hot sweet treats, a contortionist covered in tattoed symbols, a wishing tree, an ice garden and other such magical displays await within each tent.
At first it is difficult to see how the circus intersects with the other story we are introduced to. Two children, Celia Bowen and an unnamed boy, are sworn into combat against each other at a young age, a battle of two mentors in a case of nature versus nurture, their task is to grow up learning the craft of magic and to become practitioners, entering into a challenge when the moment arrives.
The moment arrives with the circus. The circus becomes that arena.
The Night Circus is brilliant. Enchanting really is the best way of describing it. All the characters have that certain je ne sais quoi, that piques your interest in them and keeps it there. You never really know any of them fully, but, that's part of the point, they have a mystique and that's why they are intriguing.
I loved the relationship between Celia and Marco as it unfolds but was frustrated with the fact that they both misunderstand the nature of the task at hand, seeing it as a talent contest rather than a duel.
A duel element with their competitive mentors assuming more of an influence may have given this novel a darker edge. But again, the fact that the darker edge it does develop in another way, perhaps negates this, but I still would have liked to have seen an aspect of it, at least at the start.
I loved all the characters and the fact that the contest had far reaching and sinister overtones. I would recommend this book to anyone, and will probably buy it for friends. 10/10
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Book #48 The Portable Door by Tom Holt
The Portable Door
The Portable Door by Tom Holt was recommended to me by several followers on my Twitter account as a good fun fantasy novel, and a good introduction to Holt himself a writer these followers liked.
In The Portable Door, following what appears to be the world's oddest and most disastrous job interviews Paul and Sophie are appointed as junior clerks to J.W Wells & Co. From the start, their office is odd, and they can't really quite make out what it is that the company does....
I think I need to say again, that fantasy isn't really my thing, I've never been into Pratchett or his peers, and the closest I've come to really loving a fantasy novel is Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which, in theory, I loved more for its interesting philosophical questions than any fantasy element. Anyone I've ever recommended that book to has likewise been very impressed with it.
However, Jen recently recommended me the 'A Song Of Ice And Fire' Series which I read in April and are reviewed in this blog. I now consider myself a massive fan of the series. So, when the TV series began in the States, and a review in the New York Times by Ginia Bellafante said :
Therefore it pains me to say that to a certain degree I felt that The Portable Door was a decidedly male novel. In my head, its average reader, is a man, possibly spotty, who does a mundane day job, probably in computing, has difficulties socially, and potentially lives with his parents and/or has a large collection of comics. I've been involved with a man not unlike that, and it's him I see as the target audience for this novel. On the other hand, I am a woman who owns a Spiderman hoodie, loves superhero movies and knows far more about computers than I do about either make up or shoes. So, this leaves me a bit torn, I am possibly guilty of as big a sin as Miss Bellafante by considering this book "male". In the end I have to say that there's something in the narrative voice that makes me feel that way, something that isn't present in A Song Of Ice And Fire, like Holt, in his mind, has a solely male audience too.
I didn't particularly like either awkward, slightly neurotic Paul, or rude, abrasive Sophie and that's a problem, considering they are the 'leads' in the novel. I think it also suffers from my having read it in too close a proximity to Rivers Of London and Moon Over Soho. Those books deal with a magic department within the Metropolitan Police and The Portable Door is about a company dealing in magic, so there is some similarity, but the former are just better books.
Where I DID like it though, was really, when it got going, and Paul and Sophie discover more and more about the organisation in which they work. There's magic, and goblins and a pretty decent mystery going on. Paul gets sexually harrassed by his boss's Mum, and that's quite a fun subplot.
Another criticism is that I wondered why it always seems necessary in some novels to have a romance between the protagonists, a man and a woman never seem able to be just mates with a really great friendship or working partnership. It sort of leaves you thinking : "You're going to get together anyway, so just get together now and let's have done and get on with the rest of the story".
When reviewing Moon Over Soho, I mentioned that its "current" vibe may inevitably date it. In this novel Holt references Esther Rantzen's chat show and "Cilla's Blind Date" neither of which have been broadcast in about ten years, the references aren't strictly necessary either and I think its something writers need to consider. Although, there is nothing worse than what Sebastian Faulks did in 'A Week In December' where he invents new names for things you recognise from popular culture such as calling the Costa Award by some other name or calling MySpace "YourPlace", so you know what he's actually referring to but the name is all wrong, terribly annoying and pointless. That's a terrible book anyway avoid it like the plague.
In the end, I warmed to The Portable Door, after say the first third, once the action got underway. At the end of the day, I'm a sucker for magic, and that's what saved it, but I am incredibly torn in my overall opinion. Ultimately, there are two further books in The Portable Door story, 'In Your Dreams' and 'Earth, Air, Fire and Custard'. As with Shikasta and The Crystal Cave, I'm interested enough to eventually read the follow ups to see how it all turns out but not so interested that I'll be rushing immediately to do so, the way that I did with A Song Of Ice And Fire.
There was one quote I particularly liked regarding the perils of dealing with people who know magic and that was:
Overall my reaction to the book was mixed and I think I'll only give it a 6/10
The Portable Door by Tom Holt was recommended to me by several followers on my Twitter account as a good fun fantasy novel, and a good introduction to Holt himself a writer these followers liked.
In The Portable Door, following what appears to be the world's oddest and most disastrous job interviews Paul and Sophie are appointed as junior clerks to J.W Wells & Co. From the start, their office is odd, and they can't really quite make out what it is that the company does....
I think I need to say again, that fantasy isn't really my thing, I've never been into Pratchett or his peers, and the closest I've come to really loving a fantasy novel is Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which, in theory, I loved more for its interesting philosophical questions than any fantasy element. Anyone I've ever recommended that book to has likewise been very impressed with it.
However, Jen recently recommended me the 'A Song Of Ice And Fire' Series which I read in April and are reviewed in this blog. I now consider myself a massive fan of the series. So, when the TV series began in the States, and a review in the New York Times by Ginia Bellafante said :
The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.I was INCENSED by what I saw as horrifying sexism, and also by its implication that the incest subplot was particularly attractive to women, whereas I have known women to cease reading the novel because of the storyline. I hated the implication that women, or rather normal women, could not or should not enjoy A Song Of Ice And Fire or fantasy novels in general.
Therefore it pains me to say that to a certain degree I felt that The Portable Door was a decidedly male novel. In my head, its average reader, is a man, possibly spotty, who does a mundane day job, probably in computing, has difficulties socially, and potentially lives with his parents and/or has a large collection of comics. I've been involved with a man not unlike that, and it's him I see as the target audience for this novel. On the other hand, I am a woman who owns a Spiderman hoodie, loves superhero movies and knows far more about computers than I do about either make up or shoes. So, this leaves me a bit torn, I am possibly guilty of as big a sin as Miss Bellafante by considering this book "male". In the end I have to say that there's something in the narrative voice that makes me feel that way, something that isn't present in A Song Of Ice And Fire, like Holt, in his mind, has a solely male audience too.
I didn't particularly like either awkward, slightly neurotic Paul, or rude, abrasive Sophie and that's a problem, considering they are the 'leads' in the novel. I think it also suffers from my having read it in too close a proximity to Rivers Of London and Moon Over Soho. Those books deal with a magic department within the Metropolitan Police and The Portable Door is about a company dealing in magic, so there is some similarity, but the former are just better books.
Where I DID like it though, was really, when it got going, and Paul and Sophie discover more and more about the organisation in which they work. There's magic, and goblins and a pretty decent mystery going on. Paul gets sexually harrassed by his boss's Mum, and that's quite a fun subplot.
Another criticism is that I wondered why it always seems necessary in some novels to have a romance between the protagonists, a man and a woman never seem able to be just mates with a really great friendship or working partnership. It sort of leaves you thinking : "You're going to get together anyway, so just get together now and let's have done and get on with the rest of the story".
When reviewing Moon Over Soho, I mentioned that its "current" vibe may inevitably date it. In this novel Holt references Esther Rantzen's chat show and "Cilla's Blind Date" neither of which have been broadcast in about ten years, the references aren't strictly necessary either and I think its something writers need to consider. Although, there is nothing worse than what Sebastian Faulks did in 'A Week In December' where he invents new names for things you recognise from popular culture such as calling the Costa Award by some other name or calling MySpace "YourPlace", so you know what he's actually referring to but the name is all wrong, terribly annoying and pointless. That's a terrible book anyway avoid it like the plague.
In the end, I warmed to The Portable Door, after say the first third, once the action got underway. At the end of the day, I'm a sucker for magic, and that's what saved it, but I am incredibly torn in my overall opinion. Ultimately, there are two further books in The Portable Door story, 'In Your Dreams' and 'Earth, Air, Fire and Custard'. As with Shikasta and The Crystal Cave, I'm interested enough to eventually read the follow ups to see how it all turns out but not so interested that I'll be rushing immediately to do so, the way that I did with A Song Of Ice And Fire.
There was one quote I particularly liked regarding the perils of dealing with people who know magic and that was:
The very worst your kind can do to each other is kill someone. That's practically Vegan when you consider what we get up to sometimes.
Overall my reaction to the book was mixed and I think I'll only give it a 6/10
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