Xenon's Seventh Circle

Yes, I know. Apart from a fleeting visit with Daleks (Daleks and Jack! On New Year's Day!), I haven't posted anything in about nineteen years. So I thought I'd talk about books.

I usually read non-fic, so I don't post about reading much. I've read a lot of palaeontology and history this year, but I also got back into fiction a bit. Susanna Clarke, who wrote Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, put out a new book, called Piranesi, which is about a bloke in a cave. Sort of. You'll just have to read it.

Then I read a book called Across The Bright Sea, by Lauren Volk, which is supposedly a children's book, but yeah. Whatever. It's about a little girl who was a foundling, raised by an outsider on a tiny island, and it's fab. Shades of the equally wonderful Rooftoppers, by Katherine Rundell, which is also a book about a young girl who was a foundling raised by an oddball. And is also wonderful. Shortish reads, since they're (supposedly) for kids, and both great. Rooftoppers came out years ago, and how it hasn't been adapted for the screen yet, I have no idea.

And then I read A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik. She wrote the Temeraire series, about dragons fighting the Napoleonic Wars, which gave the world Izkierka the pirate dragon, and her slightly unwilling human, John Granby (and yes, Temeraire too, but he's less interesting). Now she's writing a new series, set in a psychopathic school for wizards. If it doesn't eat you first, you graduate. Very promising first installment.

After that was A Declaration On The Rights Of Magicians, by HG Parry, which is a heavily researched alternate history, in which Pitt and Wilberforce fight demons. Blinking giant doorstop of a book, but fun, and full of real history, as well as monsters and stuff. There's a sequel due out soon. HG Parry is quite new, and has only written one other book so far, which I've bought but not yet read. It's called The Unlikely Escape Of Uriah Heep, and sounds buckets of fun:

For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can't quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob - a young lawyer with an utterly normal life - hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other.

But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world, and for once, it isn't Charley's doing. There's someone else out there who shares his powers and it's up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them - before anyone gets to The End.

Back to non-fic at the moment though - Wonderful Life, by Stephen Jay Gould, on the Burgess Shale, and a book called Survivors, by Richard Fortey, which is about natural history. Fortey's fab. A great writer, and also one of the world's leading experts on trilobites, so you can immediately see that he's a good bloke. Uriah Heep will probably come next.

So there you have it. I also watched the Robert Downey Jr film Dolittle, which is very, very silly, and a lot of fun. I don't think I've watched anything else in aeons though.

If you're feeling friendly, say hello to seal_girl, by the way. She's trying this place out for size. Has been known to write wonderfully arcane crossovers (Ironside meets the Doctor!), so should fit in perfectly with some of you lot...

Okay, so back in November (ish) sabethea made a post discussing a particular list of "One Hundred Books You Must Read", and asking for other people to make their own recommendations on a similar theme. I had intended to have a go at answering the question at the time, but there was fandom_stocking, and dw_50ficathon, and some stuff involving actual real people too, believe it or not. But here now, belatedly, is a book post. There aren't one hundred recommendations, although I might just about be able to squeak that if pressed. Due to reasons of space, most of my books are packed away just at the moment though, so I have nothing to refer back to, which complicates things. Neither is this is a list of "Books You Must Read", because that sort of thing is clearly nonsense. Instead it's a jumbled and probably incomplete list of books that I've especially enjoyed, or that have made, at some point, a particular impression. Not such a snappy title, I know, but a far less obviously inaccurate one.

( Books... and quite a lot of rambling, sorry. )

Otherwise entitled "Incoherent Temeraire Flailing". For I have new Temeraire! Somehow they managed to sneak out a new book without me knowing anything about it. I did vaguely know that there was one due in 2012, but I had never thought to look for it as early as March. And then suddenly my very nice American friend was asking me if I wanted to borrow his copy, as I always wait for the British version (nicer covers - these things are important). So I not only had surprise!dragons, but I also had seriously awesome dragons. This all made for a highly unproductive weekend.

( Dragons! Swords! Cannons! )

I seem to have run out of Temeraire books to read, which is annoying. There’s a fifth one on its way – Victory Of Eagles, in a few months, though annoyingly that’ll be in hardback. I can’t have four paperbacks and a hardback! It’ll look all wrong! The American paperback might be out sooner than the British one I suppose, but the American editions aren’t nearly as pretty, so that’s not an option either. *grumble* No fair with the complications...

( Anyway... )

Never tell your mother that you're enjoying a book... ;) I let slip a while back that I'd really liked Temeraire, by Naomi Novik, and my mother decided that she would get me some others in the series for my birthday. Not that it's not appreciated, exactly - it's just that this is my mother, and therefore things can rarely be expected to go to plan. In her defence she did ask for titles, and even for a blow by blow account of how to find the dratted things in Ottakars. Or Waterstones, as we're supposed to pretend that it's called nowadays. It did all mean, though, that I couldn't go straight on reading the series, as I'd hoped; I had to wait for my birthday. And then of course my mother forgot the titles, but I suspect vaguely remembered something involving dragons, and wound up asking a shop assistant for help. The long and the short being that she bought me books three and four, which is appreciated. Obviously. But of course it meant I had to wait even longer so that I could get hold of book two myself. These things are sent to try us. ;)

( Continues... )