I Am Number Four, Pittacus Lore. Book 18

This is a very new release and is about to to be released as a film. I am keen to see it after reading this, I'm hoping they can jazz it up a bit more.
Pittacus Lore is a collaboration between Jobie Hughes and James Frey. There isn't much out there on Jobie. He is 30 years old, he lives in New York city, attended University and has an MFA in creative writing. He's got his own website with a rather smoochy-looking picture on it. Maybe I should start putting up studio shots of me looking all cleavage and saucy... come on, call yourself a writer? The interesting facts section about him includes as a highlight that he did wrestling in high school - yup that's pretty much the apex right there.
But I think Mr Frey might be a little more well-known to the tv-watching world. The man of 'A Million Little Pieces' fame. Personally I don't give a damn that he made some of it up. Nothing in this world is literal truth and if you enjoyed the story, then you enjoyed the story. People don't start screaming at the Coen brothers over their liberality with 'True Stories'. Did anyone pull up W when it was clear his version of weapons of mass destruction was a fabrication in order to get public attention??? Hmmm.
So James is still writing other titles and has is doing quite well out of all that publicity, thank you very much. He has signed a deal with HarperCollins for three books and a tidy sum - the world goes on.

So, the much-hyped I am Number Four.
(I am currently writing this while listening to one of the worst freakin comedy shows I have ever EVER heard on Triple R - I've never heard anything so crap. They're called 'Lime Champions'. I seriously have never heard anything so unfunny and talentless: WTF, Triple R? It may be affecting my opinion of the book as I progress - interesting phenomenon...)
This is the first title in the Lorien Legacies series.
Number Four is one of a number of aliens who have escaped their homeworld of Lorien (hmmm, really. I just don't think that's a coincidence and for goodness' sake, find your own names) to Earth. Lorien was under siege by the evil Mogadorians (and for some reason, this is reminiscent of something else) and the only way to save the race was for the nine Garde (guards of Lorien) and their Keepers (called Cepans) to flee. The Mogadorians hail from Mogadore and attacked Lorien, causing a genocide of catastrophic proportions. The nine dispersed without throughout Earth, each accompanied by their personal Cepan. They carry a chest that is locked to each Garde until their powers begin to develop. It is only when they begin to hit their 'teens' that their powers, or legacies, develop.
The natives of Lorien to all purposes look human. But they all possess super strength and tattoos that denote their number in the 'chain'. Each time another Garde is murdered by the Mogadorians, another tattoo appears on each of the remaining Gardes to let them know. The Nine can only be killed in numerical order due to certain spells that have been cast. Three are dead. Number Four's number is now up.
Number Four has spent the last ten years travelling from town to town, adopting new personas with his Cepan in order to avoid identification. He is beginning to get very fed up with the impermanence of it. But at this latest stop, where he has taken on the identity John Smith, he begins to settle into High School and finds a friend and a rather tasty girl. There are the usual bullies who don't like new kids and he has to figure out how to deal with them without revealing what he is.
It is during this stint that his first power develops - he can emit heat or light. So he now gets to learn about his legacy, what other powers he might develop and he begins to remember what happened on Lorien.
He soon becomes identified and the dark forces from Mogadore track him. So begins a battle of humungous proportions and another refugee Garde turns up to help John and his gang. Also composed of a dog who John has named Bernie Kosar. Turns out (and this is a no brainer to figure out) Bernie also hails from Lorien and is a Chimaera. The Chimaera were secretly shipped out, only John had a memory of them leaving - hmmm. Bit convenient.
So the battle rages in and out of the high school. I found this section to be badly written. It was dark, messy, and most of the time the spacial logistics were impenetrable. People are moving everywhere, in and out of the school and the nearby woods. And strangely enough, no one else in this SMALL TOWN notices a thing. I've lived in one of those towns: everyone notices everything. That's how it works. So the gang are spewing light, bullets and crap everywhere in an effort to stop the seeming hordes and hordes of Mogadorians and their gigantic creatures. John develops another legacy during the fight and uses that to quell the anger of the creatures.
They don't necessarily win, but they survive and live to fight another sequel.
I'm not keen to read this again unless it's to try and make my way into what can be very dense scenes at times so as to understand it better.
I will go see the film as it had better have some damn good effects.
I give it 6/10 for YA sci fi.

Such a Strange Lady: a biography of Dorothy L Sayers, Janet Hitchman. Book 17

 I’m gonna be very clear from the beginning of this review. This is one of the sloppiest, badly written, biased, unintelligent biographies and books I have ever read. And I’m not alone in this judgement. I now know why I was able to get this second-hand when it’s so hard to get hold of anything else either by or about Sayers.

Janet Hitchman is an elusive lass and it is very difficult to get any details about her off the internet. There is no bio on Janet in the book and there are many spare pages that could easily have been used for this purpose in the book. (An aside: I’ve recently become a production controller for a publisher and I now look at books in a very different way. I was twenty minutes late to meet a friend because I got distracted in a bookstore, just looking at the finishes on covers. How shame-making! But I know that if you've got blank pages in the end of a book, it costs you no more to whack something in them - like. an. author. bio.) I honestly have no idea how she got this book deal – she was apparently asked to do it by the publishers. The publishers, in turn, put out the Wimsey books. I’m going to put up a picture of the cover because every time I glance at it from more than one metre away, the illustration of Wimsey with the car behind him reminds me of a giant penis sticking out of Wimsey’s crotch. I’m not a usually dirty-minded person – but I think you’ll agree with me that it does evoke that image.

Janet has written a couple of other books, King of the Barbareens, They Carried the Sword, and Meeting for Burial. It is to her credit that these are all now completely unknown in the wider world, especially as one is her autobiography. I wouldn't mind reading it just to discover how she became so mediocre. I’ve spent at least half an hour on the net, searching for some sort of definite bio on Janet. I can’t find a thing.

Janet did not have access to any of Dorothy’s letters and did not interview any of Dorothy’s close friends. (whether that was their wishes or hers, I don’t know). So much of this bio is simply conjecture. And Janet is capable of that. She speculates on Dorothy’s childhood, her relationship (or lack of) with her illegitimate son, her sexuality (and Janet’s writing on lesbianism is naïve and almost homophobic), pretty much on every aspect of Dorothy’s life, Janet simply speculates. The blurb on the back states that she has employed almost Wimseyan methods to discover Dorothy’s lifestory. Well, Janet ain’t no Wimsey and is definitely no Dorothy L Sayers.  

Ms Sayers was a secretive woman and apparently loathe for anyone to put out a bio on her. This one was published in 1975, seventeen years after Dorothy’s death. Janet just don’t seem to have cared and despite having no access to definite facts or documents, thought she would have a go. As a result, this is a bland bio. I constantly found myself doubting what she gave as Dorothy’s motives for doing this or that. I couldn’t figure out if I was just cynical or being very precious about one of my favourite authors. Turns out there are other people who agree with me on her credibility.

Dorothy was indeed considered a strange lady. But was she that strange for her generation? She was no more peculiar than any of the Mitfords, or Agatha Christie (disappearing for a week with no explanation ever forthcoming), or Vita Sackville-West. I mean, she was an intelligent woman who knew her own mind, her formative years were spent at a time when frivolity and eccentricity was encouraged in those who could afford it. Janet treats her as a curiosity and I get the feel of a point of view of knowing adulthood condescending to a truculent child. As someone else has commented, she dishes the dirt in a gossipy manner. This bio is not worthy of Sayers. I am disappointed that I read it. Her response to Dorothy’s treatment of her son is that she considers it an enigma. Come on, it’s 1923, you are a famous female author and you’ve gotten laid and you’re pregnant. Well, let’s just announce it to the world. Dorothy’s own writing well illustrates her awareness and thoughts on the weight of society’s opinions of the time and she acted accordingly. She is perfectly justified in thinking she needed to keep it secret. Why adopt out (which is what Janet thinks she should have done) when you have a cousin whom you know will look after your child? In fact your cousin takes on foster children, she is a perfect option for you. You can visit and keep in touch, it won’t be remarked upon that the woman has another child in her house. Dorothy was also worried about money for a large portion of her life. Why would you risk poverty and ostracism when you know you can have your child well-provided for? It appears to me quite the logical thing for Dorothy to do.

The Wimsey books too are dealt with in an objective and discursive manner. How can ANYONE be objective about Wimsey. He demands subjectiveness and adoration! He is one of the world’s most memorable literary characters and Janet does not do him justice. She goes into a lot of detail on Dorothy’s subsequent religious work – I suspect Hitchman is a devout Christian – her detail on this later work and her thoughts on many of Sayers’ life decisions appear to be informed by a religious sentiment. Her criticisms of the work and of Sayers are about as meticulous as mine are of her. She calls Harriet ‘tiresome’ and berates Dorothy for many silly mistakes. I don’t think I will go into the actual details of Sayers’ life as depicted by Hitchens for the reason that the motives attributed to Sayers’ every action and thought are just rubbish.

The only use this bio really had for me was to find out the basic facts of Sayers’ life and what else she wrote – I was much interested to discover she did a version of Dante’s Divine Comedy. I was also fascinated that she ended up married to someone whom she later discovered to be a complete dilettante and idiot. Much like a parallel author of her time, Nancy Mitford (forgive the repetition of this family twice in one post). I also knew nothing of her later passion for writing on religion. But I don’t feel that I know her anymore than from reading the Wimsey books. So, in my humble opinion, don’t get this book unless you want an unresearched and uninformed biography of one of the greatest ever detective novelists.

Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C Clarke. Book 16

How does one human condense Mr Clarke's life? Looks like Wikipedia has done it again: 'Sri Lankabhimanya Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, most famous for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, written in parallel with the script for the eponymous film, co-written with film-director Stanley Kubrick;[2] and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World.[3][4] For many years, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction.[5]'

And that is only the tip of the tip of the iceberg. He was born in England and due to lack of funds, became an auditor in the pensions section of the Board of Education instead of going to University. He then served in the RAF in WWII and it looks like this allowed him to earn a first-class degree in mathematics and physics at Kings College London. (I’m planning on doing that next year…)

NASA owes Clarke a huge debt as does Western Civilisation. He proposed the idea that satellites might possibly be of some us as telecommunication relays… Who woulda thunk it? Mr Clarke, of course.

I would also like to point out that he moved to Sri Lanka to lead a more ‘comfortable and open lifestyle’ that in the 1950s just wasn’t possible if you preferred the same sex. It has been claimed that it was to indulge an unhealthy appetite for the younger generation, this was found baseless by the Colombo authorities, so let’s just get it straight, shall we?

Plus, warm weather is always a pleasant thing isn’t it, she writes while sitting under a sun umbrella on the balcony under a cerulean sky.

He was named a grandmaster in 1986 (bit late on the uptake, world). He has won countless writing awards and is known as one of the Big Three is Sci Fi (the other two being Heinlein and Asimov).

I’m going to end here as there are a heap more Clarke books in my collection and I could go on. So I won’t.

Apparently the movie rights to this were optioned a while ago, but it is still in limbo-land - much like Rama (boom boom). It was written in 1972 and won the following awards: BSFA, Nebula, Hugo, Campbell and Locus. Clearly it’s a crappy book.

What makes Rendezvous With Rama so interesting and engrossing for me is the physics of Rama. It took me a while to get my head around the logistics of how the gravity plays out in a spinning cylinder. But once you get it, it's wonderful. The concept of a sea that lies in a band around the centre of the cylinder, held in place by gravity with its own movement and tidal waves is marvellous. The mental effort of visualizing the cylinder world is well worth it.

Humanity has moved beyond Earth and occupies parts of the Solar System. Bodies that come through the system from the galaxy and beyond are named in the manner of cyclones and hurricanes today. The naming system has moved onto religious deities and the Indian pantheon was the latest system. Hence, when an unknown object is spotted heading towards our system, the name allocated is Rama. Once it gets closer, it is found to be heading towards our sun and is, curiously, an enormous, long black cylinder. Where the hell it came from and who created it is anyone’s guess. It is the first evidence of life beyond the Solar System.  It has a diametre of forty kilometres. The mystery surrounding Rama is an ever-present threat in this novel. Not knowing its purpose or where the occupants are lends a creepy urgency to the story – the threat of the unknown. A nearby spaceship is sent by Earth to get to it before Mars can send a delegation or destroy it (they have become an aptly named aggressive race).

Commander Norton reaches Rama and they enter the cylinder through three airlocks. Everything to do with the cylinder or spaceship is now couched in terms of Rama. The Ramans like to do things in threes. Three airlocks, three spiral stairways leading from the centre of their end of Rama to the outer edge. The gradual changes that Rama undergoes are creepy and alien. His team slowly edge down one of the staircases, from zero gravity to the artificial gravity created by the spinning cylinder. Rama is dark, cold, and silent. There is a ‘belt’ of water that ‘splits’ the cylinder in half. On their side of the sea, there are low square buildings, no windows, no doors. All silent. On the other side of the sea are what looks like cities but again, they look to have no windows or doors. Rama has no occupants that they can discern. Are they all dead? Waiting to appear? On the other side of the Galaxy?

The crew begin to make their way towards the sea. As they do, Rama begins to wake up. Giant rods that are anchored at the other circular end of Rama glow with light and warmth. The sea, which is originally ice, melts and tidal patterns are observed. As the crew moves further into the city on their side of Rama, what look like mechanical creatures appear, scurrying to and fro, repairing and doing Rama-only-knows-what. They leave the crew alone but dismantle their equipment if they’re not around to keep an eye on it. These creatures all tend to be put together in threes. Three legs, three mid sections, etc.

Still, nothing ostensibly sentient appears. The sea is discovered to be a chemical soup, that is not hospital to homosapiens. The mechanoids dispose of all broken parts into the sea and it is clear that there are ‘creatures’ of some sort, whether organic or mechanical, in there. They try to traverse to the sea to reach the ‘cities’ but the wall on the other side of the sea is too high to scale.

Still the ‘real’ occupants do not show themselves. Theories are expounded: are the occupants long dead; the place is too clean to have ever been occupied, so are they in hibernation somewhere; are the Ramans waiting somewhere on the other side of the galaxy or universe for their ride?

The Solar System is in political turmoil regarding Rama and Commander Norton has to deal with transmissions telling him what to do and when. This is possibly the weaker part of the book. Rama is just too fascinating for me to want to be bothered with the political maneuverings. I just wanted to know about Rama.

Norton and the crew only have a limited time period in which to explore Rama. They can’t occupy it once it gets too close to the Sun. Mars also tries to send a device to blow up Rama that they have to defuse.

The characters, apart from Norton are very minor and not fleshed out. The book is too small for really getting into characters, plus Rama as a character dwarfs everyone else. It is the ultimate dark, mysterious stranger, full of unknown potential dangers.

In the end, they have to leave. We never get to find out if Rama has occupants other than the mechanoids. I’m still trying to decide if that’s a good or bad thing. Possibly a good thing – would they live up to my imagination? Maybe not, although I wouldn’t want to test mine against Mr Clarke’s. I’m sure whatever he thought of as a potential candidate would be far beyond what I could conjure.

This book deserves every award it has received. It forced me to think very hard about the logistics of Rama and I was rewarded for the effort tenfold. That is so rare in a book nowadays. IN FACT, it’s a rare thing for any sort of popular medium. More, I say!

Catch up Post

 

Yes, it has been a while since I last posted - not that anyone reads this! ha! I have spent the last 3 months studying harder than I ever have in my life and putting up with one of most obnoxious people I've ever had to put up with my life. So the two things kind of cancelled each other out and my group came first in our Grad Dip group project. So I'm feeling pretty proud of myself at the moment (and the other 3 ladies in my group) and this includes my new job at Penguin that includes more free books than I can poke a stick or physically carry home! (it has also turned me into a freak - I now stand in bookstores, stroking covers and trying to estimate how much this finish or that finish cost) Oh - and if anyone has any spare cash they want to throw at 4 girls wanting to start up a viable publishing company, please get in touch with me ASAP! Anyways, study is OVER for a year and a half at least before I get going on the Masters. For now I just want to read, read, read!

I have actually been reading during this time but haven't had the time to analyse or write about much of it. It's a pity because I find I'm getting a lot more out my books by doing this. So I imagine the next 10 posts or so will be the books I've read in the last 3 months. I'll have to scan over them to refresh my memory, but I'll try to do them justice. Each and every one. The order will probably get completely thrown out too - oh well. I will do what I can.

Just thought I would let you know what's been going on. I don't think I will ever again have to put such an effort into anything than I did during September, this may be a negative in my life, but I know it has made me appreciate my spare time as I never have before.

Adios Amigos.

A.

Charlaine Harris, Dead until Dawn et al. Book 15

Another sinful Kindle purchase. It's books like these that make me appreciate the value of eReaders in concealing one's sordid little book purchases.
Charlaine has been a prolific little Madam for the last 25 years, according to her website.
She is fluent in mystery and ghost writing, giving her a most solid background to the Sookie Stackhouse series. She has put out a couple of books with a main character named Aurora Teagarden, a librarian who solved unsolved murders. She also did a the Shakespeare series.
She is involved with Sisters in Crime, the Mystery Writers of America and American Crime Writers League.
She grew up in the Mississippi River Delta area, and presently resides in Magnolia, Arkansas.
More recently, the everbusy Charlaine has released a series based around Harper Connelly, a woman who can find dead bodies and see their last moments through their eyes.
And on a more interesting note, she has dabbled in weightlifting and karate.
I decided to read the first of the Sookie Stackhouse after an unfortunate week in which I fell in love with Bill Compton. Due to this affliction, I decided a more intimate acquaintance with the character was due.
A Kindle aside here: what do you think the first thing you would search for on the Amazon Kindle site now that the True Blood series is out?? Nothing came up under True Blood. Nothing came up under Sookie Stackhouse. To find the books, you need to search for Charlaine Harris. This, I find, is one of the stupidest marketing strategies EVER. 
Back to the book. This book turned out to be a tad more raunchy than I expected. I assumed a lot of the 'lasciviousness' of the series was due to the HBO factor. (not that I'm against it!) But some of the scenes in the book were enough to make me blush in the lunch room at work. They were actually good sex scenes. I went to an author talk a few years ago and one of them commented that she couldn't write a sex scene unless it turned her on. If the same applies to Charlaine, then all I can say is, whoooo-eeeeh, Sister!
Dead Until Dawn is actually a lot of fun. It's definitely a tome I would place in the pulp genre but the characters are well fleshed out. Sookie is a lot more savvy than she appears in the TV series, giving her more depth.
Bill is decidedly more old fashioned (forgive me if I'm writing in an old-fashioned style myself at the moment - I've been reading some Georgette Heyer and watching a lot of Deadwood) in the book also.
It does run fairly parallel to the first season.
Sookie is a telepathic waitress in a time when vampires have 'come out of the closet' to the world and are beginning to live side by side with humanity. 
I enjoyed the books more than the TV series (except for the delectable presence of a Mr Stephen Moyer) and found Sookie to also be more capable. She does a lot more to fight off the killer and does it admirably.
I have since read a few more in the series (and I'm gonna lump em all in here) and have found them to be enjoyable pulp. Turns out if vampires exist, then a whole lotta other creatures are out there too. Charlaine has a hell of a lot of fun with this idea and I think that in the five or six I've read so far, a new 'creature' has been introduced each time. 
Sookie is a bizarre main character. A lot of the time it feels like Charlaine is trying to instill in her female readers a sense of decorum and propreity via Sookie's sensibilities. Sookie constantly talks about offering guests drinks as 'it's the polite thing to do', or making sure they are comfortable, 'my Gran brought me up right'. I feel as though I'm being taught manners - I don't need a book to show me how to entertain guests...
Regardless of the odd preachiness on how to behave like a decent Southern girl there's a lot to be said for the other 'lessons' on acceptance and tolerance of others. She is spot on in many instances when she relates the reactions to Sookie and other 'unnaturals' by 'humans'. 
The characters are all well-fleshed out (bad pun!) and the vampire characters are done well enough that they do all have something slightly impersonal in their manner that gives them a not-quite-human edge. The relationships Sookie has with Bill and Eric and Sam and Alcide and others are all suitably and satisfyingly intelligent and lusty. Jason Stackhouse is the same as his TV character (but I must say, the guy who plays Jason on TV puts in some of the most convincing and some of the funniest character acting ever. He plays the bimbo to utter perfection.) and is a suitable foil in many scenes that may otherwise become too serious.
These books do that well, they blend humour and the ridiculous just enough to make the supernatural theme a lot of fun. I'm never thinking 'well, that's just ridiculous, a shifter could never do that...' Charlaine pushes us just a little further into the world of the fabulous with each book and does it well.
I am not ashamed to admit I'll probably get through the rest of these in the next month.
Noice work, Ms Harris.

Peep Show, Leigh Redhead. Book 14

Leigh Redhead is a bit of a legend. She's done a hell of a lot of pretty cool things - a few of which I don't think I would ever have the courage to do and am probably a poorer person because of it.

Trying to go over her life in detail would take up a hell of a lot of space so I'll try to condense. She spent a lot of her youth moving around due to a mother who was a hippy/activist/groupie/conservationist.

Peepshow is a lot of fun to read. They're trashy and honest. I do wish I'd gotten Leigh to sign my copy when I had the chance to once, but I was too busy being in awe of her. Anyway, the main character, Simone Kirsch is sassy, sexy and not afraid to get down and dirty with Melbourne's crime and sex scene. Leigh's experience in stripping makes this book fascinating. It gets into what happens in the clubs and behind the scenes.

Basic premise is that a local club 'boss', Frank Parisi is found murdered in the bay. Simone's best friend, Chloe, is suspected by the brother of the dead man. Simone, who has just gotten her PI licence, begs for the chance to find who did it when they come to top Chloe. They agree to let Simone try for two weeks, but kidnap Chloe as insurance.

So Simone has to go undercover into the night life of Melbourne to discover who did it. On the way, she finds crooked cops, hot hot hot raunchy sex with a rather handsome guitarist, trannies, S&M queens, and red icypoles. I applaud the way Leigh manages to write Melbourne into her book. It's done naturally and she sticks to local places around St Kilda. There's no effort to include apparently famous landmarks (that no one outside of Victoria, Australia gives a toss about) and Simone visits the Greyhound Hotel regularly, hangs out at the Espy and local restaurants. She does it cleverly and without effort. Simone gets into a lot of tight situations and keeps a dry and clever wit throughout.

Her honesty about herself as a character makes her convincing. The other characters are equally real and well-written. Chloe has some one liners and scenes that are frikken hilarious. This book won the Reader's Choice at the David Awards in 2005 from Sisters in Crime - a high accolade for any writer.

I recently lent this book to my boss after my read for this review. She read it in one night and absolutely loved it.

If you're up for a well-written, trashy, full of wit, raunch, and tongue-in-cheek one-liners, then this one's for you. (and I do mean

'trashy' in a good way)

The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester, Book 13

Lucky 13!

The Demolished Man is fun to read. Problem was, I kept wanting to save it and drew the thing out over a month in bits and pieces and kept having to remember what I was up to, blah blah.

Demolished is fascinating for so many reasons, but I'm going to get to Mr Alfred Bester first.

He was born in New York City in 1913. He was raised without any specific religion, although his mother was a Christian Scientist. He went to Law School but dropped out. He was also a member of the Philomathean Society (ooh la la!).

His writing career officially began in 1939 when he won a short story competition (possibly rigged) and then contributed regularly to Astounding Science Fiction (I love the names of the comics back then, so dramatic).

In 1942 he was asked to join DC Comics (oh, things were so easy back then if you were a genius) and in 4 years turned his hand to radio scripts and in 1948 also began to write for television. A few years after, he began writing again.

Bester is most well-known for The Demolished Man and Stars My Destination (or Tiger, Tiger, depending upon which part of the Globe you hang out in). TDM won the first ever Hugo in 1953 (imagine doing that!) for best Sci Fi novel. Although, personally, I think SMD is the better of the two. He wrote a couple of other books as well and adapted a couple of his works for movies.

He died in 1987 from complications from a broken hip. Not long before this, he learned he was going to be honoured with a Grand Master Nebula award in 1988. I think I could die with a smile on my face knowing that.

The man left all his money to a bartender by the name of Joe Sudo. Apparently they were good friends and Bester would stop by each morning. That is brilliant - weirder than anything out of a Sci Fi Story. Makes me think of taking up bartending...

There is more I would like to include about this wondrous gentleman, but I will leave that for another day and another of his books.

The Demolished Man

Written in 1953 and a classic of Sci Fi - for so many reasons.

It's ingenious, especially for being written in 1956. More than than, it still holds up now for about 99 per cent of the book. The only part not meshing with current times really being that they've got a crystal thing going instead of USB ports, but give the guy a break. Who the hell has managed to predict USB ports??

Bester's creativity with text is refreshing and ingenious. He uses different fonts, superscripts and other variations to get across the idea of ESP communication. The text moves around and across the page in patterns when there are a group of Espers communicating. Sentences cross each other horizontally and vertically across the page. A typesetters nightmare, but a hell of a lot of fun for the reader to come across something so new from a book so old. (relatively old for sci fi).

The two main characters are strong and the scene where they agree to pit their resources against each other despite mutual respect is awesome. I got a tingle down my spine.

So at heart it's a police procedural set in a future where a section of humanity can read minds. The problem with crime now is that you can't commit a crime and get away with it because the law can read your mind. If you've done something wrong, then you're nicked.

Ben Reich, head of a powerful company that spans planets decides to kill his business rival, Craye D'Courtney. D'Courtney's company looks to be moving to launch a hostile takeover of Ben's Company, Monarch Utilities & Resources Co. So - how to do this when you're up against powerful 1st class esper detective, Lincoln Powell?

I love the get-around for this: Reich calls up his rather attractive advertising jingle writer and asks her to play him the most catchy tune she's ever produced. And you know what? It's damn catchy. I found myself walking around chanting it in my head after reading it. So whenever an Esper tries to 'peep' Ben, all they get is this mad jingle running around in his mind.

But Ben doesn't count on the daughter of D'Courtney being around when he shoots him.

So this puts a bit of a spanner in the works.

The bulk of the book deals with Ben and Powell both trying to track down this girl and then the detective trying to retrieve the memory from her although she has gone catatonic from the experience. It also covers Esper relationships - how they deal with each other, with trying to have relationships with non-Espers. With the idea that no one commits murder or serious crime and how people react when it happens, he comes up with a good solution.

Bester likes to play around with his words, which I appreciate. There are characters called @kins, 1/4maine, etc. I love this sort of stuff and it made reading it much more fun.

He also really thinks about what it would be like to live in a world with a section of society who have ESP. One brilliant scene depicts a reception area with a group of hopefuls who think they might have ESP and want to join the Espers Guild. The secretary in the room just sort of makes them sit around. What she is also doing is projecting a telepathic message to the room asking anyone that can hear the message to go through the door on the right. After a couple of minutes, one of the 'hopefuls' gets up uncertainly and goes through the door. The rest still sit around in ignorance. This is cool.

BUT - the ending. It kind of all gets wrapped up neatly and Reich is given the chance at a new life with a new personality that they are imprinting. There are revelations and a plea by Powell for people to open their minds as he believes we all have the potential to be telepaths. It's a bit twee to my mind. Reich is such a single-minded and brutal character that this whole plea for humanity sort of falls flat.

I still thoroughly enjoy the book - but as I've noted earlier, I still prefer Stars My Destination despite the novelty of this book.

7.5 out of 10.

Ship of Destiny, Robin Hobb. Book 12

This is a spoiler for anyone who hasn't read much of Robin Hobb. Which is probably just me.

I love Robin Hobb more and more every time I read another of her books. She is now in my top 5 list of people I would love to meet before I die.

This book only appeared on my bookshelf in the last 3 days, so it's a bit of a cheat from my bookshelf mission. But I honestly can't help myself. I'm on holidays so how am I expected to be able to resist her wondrous wiles? I absolutely and utterly cannot help myself. I'm captivated by her...I could write a song about how cool she is. Now that I've done some research, I'm even more blown away. I know this is a total RH love-in. I suspect it's just going to get worse so skip the next 2 paragraphs if you can't cope with the smalch. Actually, it's pretty much that all the way through, so read on at your peril.

Robin Hobb is the European Medieval Fantasy pen name for (fanfare) Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden (is it just me or is Astrid Lindholm suspiciously like Astrid Lindgren?). She writes under another pseudonym which is Megan Lindholm and covers contemporary sci fi.

MALR was born in California in 1952. She then spent a lot of time in Alaska. She married at eighteen and sold her first short story and began writing for children's magazines. It's kind of all been writing from there on. Her first Robin Hobb novel is apparently sitting at the 1 mill copies mark. She has a blog under the name Megan Lindholm: http://www.meganlindholm.com/ and another for Robin Hobb: http://www.robinhobb.com/ They kind of complement each other. She travels all over the world from what I can see.

What I really do like best about her is that she doesn't have a million degrees from what I can see. For such an astute writer who is capable of drawing what seem to be a million threads together in wonderful and perceptive ways, this is heartening to see.

There really isn't much more about her around. I guess if you want to know her daily musings, go check out her blogs.

This is the 6th book in her overarching European Medieval Fantasy genre.

I'm not entirely sure how to review this one since it's the last part of a series. It continues the Liveship Trilogy based around the Vestrit family fortunes and also continues a much larger thread of the 'Realm of the Elderlings' series.

It pulls together the far-flung members of the family and various others to shape the future of a changing world.

Malta Vestrit is a stunning character in this whole series. A once petulant and selfish brat, she pulls herself together into a worldchanger and Elderling Queen.

This book, as the name intimates, is based around ships. Ships that talk and think and feel and we now know were once a protective cocoon-wood for serpents that were 'mutating' into dragons. These were wrongfully destroyed by ignorant traders and the ships in this book are only now realising all that they could have been if not for humans.

The main boat is Paragon. A fascinating character - we don't know at the beginning why he is such a conflicted, distressed, angry and tempestuous being. We discover that he took on the young Kennit's death twice and absorbed all his childish anger and hate so that he could go out into the world and become a man. So Paragon is holding onto Kennit's rage and also has to deal with the fact that he is made from two separate dragon cocoons so there are 3 personalities raging within him.

His loyal companion throughout is Amber - who we have good reason to believe is The Fool from the Farseer Trilogy in a new aspect. She is still searching for her own heritage but it becomes clear she has her own internal vision she must follow if the entire land is to survive as it should.

Althea and Brashen are on Paragon with others and still quest after Vivacia who was stolen by Kennit.

Kennit, Etta, Wintrow and others are on board Vivacia, who early on in the piece discovers her heritage and turns into bitch queen boat for a while.

There are some fascinating twists and turns in this book and I couldn't shut the hell up with my oohs and ahhs as I realised what had just happened and what it meant for this character and that.

Robin Hobb's characterisations are her prime strength. This does not mean that her plot, narration, scene writing, exposition, etc. are not also all first class. But her characters shine. You can see them, hear them, experience what they feel about two lines after you first meet them.

Even the ones who wear veils! I am in awe of how much venom I will feel for a character, how much admiration or suspicion she can invoke in me for the people within her pages. I LOVE that a character like Malta who was a total pain in the arse in the first book and most of the second, began to show a hint here, a hint there that she was not to be lightly dismissed. Sure enough, she turns into one of the strongest characters in the series.

Then there's the dragons and the serpents. I felt pity and sorrow for the serpents, amusement at the arrogance and majesty of the dragon. Their integration into the story from an initial point where I didn't know why they were there was fascinating.

So by the end of this book, the two main ships, Vivacia and Paragon have come to accept their own past and futures. Paragon has a new face. Kennit carks it without having to give reparation to Althea or any of the others he trod on, Malta and Rheyn are on their way to becoming scaly Elderlings, Wintrow is a possibly missed opportunity for Amber but he's a bit of a hunk now, thank the gods that Kyle died a crappy death. For about five seconds in this book I felt sorry for him, but good old RH reminded me just in time of what a despicable pig he was. Althea and Brashen are now richer than rich which means a lot for the Vestrits and Bingtown.

There are a myriad of dragon mysteries that still await upriver and Amber is about to head on down to the next trilogy (well, that's my guess).

The last 100 pages of this book rocked. They drew a myriad disparate and what seemed unrelated storylines together seamlessly.

I am completely impressed by these books. I'm giving Ship of Destiny 9/10. The only reason it's not 10 is because my friend told me she likes the next series even better, so my hopes are high.

Solace & Grief, Foz Meadows. Book 11

There isn't much out there in the misty ether about Ms Foz Meadows. She likes cheese, webcomics and silly hats - her own words. She lives in Melbourne with a philosopher.

Further research shows she dislikes Rom-Coms and liquorice.

Solace and Grief is her first published tome.

It is touted as Book One of The Rare.

This is a good thing as I look forward to the second.

But before I get to the good bits, I do have a few bad bits.

Quick sum up.

Solace Morgan is a vampire. She doesn't discover this until she turns seventeen. She just kind of realises she must be a vampire. She runs away from the home she has been living in, meets up with a gang of misfits who turn out to have Tricks - they're almost a team of X-People. Solace has a past that she doesn't know about that begins to affect them all. They have lots of adventures, there is lots of teen lust, teen angst, and teen talk. There is a cliff-hanger, surprises, betrayals and magic.

Foz, you've got a great idea, interesting world setup, a good main character. BUT your story is choked by words, in particular, adverbs. I don't think there's a sentence in the book that doesn't contain one and many sentences contain several. They're getting in the way of action, plot, character development, and my understanding of what's going on.

Plus, there's a bit incongruity with Solace. She realises she's a vampire, but does nothing about it, doesn't think of the consequences, she decides she's a vampire and that's it. Nothing on trying to get hold of some blood or raw meat, no thoughts on what it would mean if she had to kill someone, nothing like that. If she knows so little about being a vampire, I'd expect her to do some research, thereby defining for the reader what a vampire is in this world. Nope, no research. So, then if she knows what a vampire is, why does she brush it off so lightly? Most readers of this genre are pretty vampire savvy nowadays. This must be acknowledged. And in my reading, this immediate acceptance and lack of curiosity doesn’t convince me in her characterisation. She's a teenager and she's a misfit, being a vampire would be one of the coolest things around. She joins a group of like-minded weirdos and spends her time not doing much at all, just deferring to everyone else in the group.

Of which there are not a few individuals. Foz tries to distinguish them, but she does this by telling us about them, instead of showing. You’re looking at a main cast of around 12 people – this is a hard thing to juggle in a YA-sized novel. They really need to act themselves more, show us what they’re all like, instead of being told.

Having said all that though, it really is a good read and I think it should do well with its target audience. There are some intriguing ideas in it and Sydney is used well as a location.

I loved some of the 'tricks' that the different characters had. Electra's ability to locate lost items and draw them to her for the group’s use is brilliant. It completely hits the spot. Manx as an aptly-named shape-shifter is also cool. Glide's ability to slip in and around alternate worlds is also fantastic and opens up just so many possibilities for future storylines. But these three are the only characters with tricks that I got a grip on. Electra herself as a characer was quite elusive. There is also Evan, who a friend pointed out, is kinda like the Xander of the group. He is, but not enough. He doesn't have enough heart.

A spectacularly brilliant character is The Duchess. She is wonderfully depicted in so many little mannerisms. More of the same please!

I think in a 10 out of 10 in the YA scale, this is sitting at around 5. I think if Foz tightened up her language, used less exposition and killed off some actually important characters instead of dragging in some unknowns and murdering them, she could pull the second book up to an 8ish.

If anyone else has read this, I'd love their thoughts...

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson. Book 10

Yup, I've joined the legions of Stieglies.

Another Kindle purchase - since I'm holed up in bed with a rotten chest infection, I don't have much else to do but read and update these entries.

One weird thing about the Kindle is that although it tells me percentage-wise how far in I am to the novel, I have no idea in 'real' terms how much I've read. How big is this book??? If I'm confused 3% of the way in, how far in is that? I'm used to judging these things by the visual size of a book - I wonder if I'll have less of a problem with this the more I use it?

Mr Larsson. Sadly passed away in November 2004, leaving only 3 of his apparently planned 10 Millennium novels.

I just started reading Christopher Hitchens' article on Stieg, but it went into later plots and as I may well read the other two books in the trilogy, I had to stop, which is a pity as I do like a bit of the Hitch.

Boy oh boy, can you tell that Stieg was a bit of a political man from this book. He REALLY doesn't like Nazis - and with good reason (not that you need much of a reason other than knowing what they stand for). He'd been threatened by them personally, as has his partner.

How's this? Stieg's original name is Stig, but he changed it to avoid confusion with a friend of his, Stig Larsson, who was a popular author. I guess Stig's feeling a little bit embarrassed now, eh?

Stieg was a bit of an SF fan (a HUGE SF fan would be more appropriate), which doesn't really show through in this book - his knowledge of crime fiction definitely does and I'm wondering if one of the characters in this book isn't a small tribute to Dorothy L Sayer's, Harriet Vane character. He mentions Sayers in the book and having a central figure in the book who is not what she appears to be named Harriet Vanger seems just a little 'suss' to me.

He spent much of his time in political matters and started the more than worthwhile group, Swedish Expo Foundation, aimed at reducing the influence of racist white-power organisations among young people. It's apparently quite an open thing in Sweden.

The guy was passionate about humanity, that much is clear from his legacy.

He also felt strongly about violence towards women, which really shows through in this book.

The book's correct title is, Men Who Hate Women.

I have to say firstly, that I don't care much for the translation. Who, in this day and age, for a thoroughly modern book, uses the word 'anon'?? Come on! And not just once, but several times. This really makes me uncomfortable with how much of the original 'feel' of the novel is coming through. In an interview with Stieg's widow, she commented that the translated novel was also toned down a bit. Hmmm.

This book took quite a bit of getting into.

We were subjected to continuous repetition of family histories so that we were able to identify all the characters in the plot. This got fairly tedious and if it wasn't for that fact that I was too sick to do anything else but read, I would have put the book down.

I don't rate the male main character as much as I do Salander. She's a firecracker! A tiny little slip of a thing with a lot of depth.

It wasn't until halfway through that I began to want to know whodunnit. I do think I like that you have to wait until half-way into things for the two main characters to join forces. It did leave Salander a little out of things though. Stieg was busy setting up her background and personality, which in the long run is more important I guess since the books are about her (I don't know if Mikhael appears in the other two...), but it meant the main plot of the book didn't really get her attention until late into play.

But from halfway in, the book becomes a whirlwind of unanswered questions that need resolving.

I also like that, although pretty much everything gets tied up at the end, there is still the very much unanswered mystery of Salander herself. We find things out about her gradually, it's almost a strip-tease.

I think one of the reasons she is such a popular character amongst women is because she appears physically weak but intellectually, she's a bit of a frikken genius. (it's kind of like 'Good Will Hunting' syndrome for women) She's not classically attractive but she gets more than her fair share of sex. She's also socially disaffected which locks right in on Gen X and under. I found myself getting a bit annoyed at how much I was falling for this obviously 'marketed' character. But we barely know anything about her past, just vague references to 'the All Evil',and that's how it stays - a teaser for the next book.

She is introduced well. To the world, she's an idiot, but we soon discover she's far from it, but she presents this image on purpose. She's an entirely capable character. She cares for her ailing mother, she rides a motorbike she built from scratch (wish I'd done that with my Vespa, then I'd know how to fix it without the extortionate pricetag!), she's the best computer hacker in Sweden, she gets revenge on her own terms and saves the day - of course - I never doubted she would for one second.

And this book is very much about revenge. Mikhael wants revenge for the legal arse-whipping he got for being stooged by a dodgy finance mogul he was trying to expose. Sound confusing? Yes it is.

I'm enjoying being able to make notes wherever I want on my Kindle. I have noted at one point, early in, that I just have no idea what's going on or what these two guys are talking about and the reason behind it. It really does take a long time to get going. There are disparate threads everywhere, but eventually they come together.

He gets asked to spend a year researching the family tree of a rival financial giant but the real purpose of the research is to find out what happened to Harriet Vangard, the niece of the head of the Vangard Company. In return, the head of the Vangard family promises Mikhael the information he needs to bring down the dodgy financial mogul mentioned earlier. Sound intricate? Yes it is.

Salander works for a high-tech security firm. She investigates people and comes up with results better than anyone the company's owner, Armansky, has ever come across. This is actually a weak point within the novel. She comes up with info on people that no one knows and Armansky just doesn't know how she does it. Durr. Um, hacking anyone? So we still think she's just this amazing researcher who can find out stuff until about just under halfway into the book when Mikhael Blomqvist realises the only way she could have gotten a certain piece of info about him was by hacking. Yeah, I'm sorry but what else was she doing? It's just naive to pretend we hadn't figured that out the second Salander can provide private details about people that no one else had come up with. Come on! We know she's a computer whiz, of course the girl is hacking.

So that gripe aside, I love the relationships in this book. We've got people being honest and open about sex and what they want. Blomqvist has a friend who is married but she and he are completely open in their sexual relationship that has spanned decades. If anyone else doesn't like it, they can go jump. Nice work there and much needed for the US and Australian audiences, I think. People manage to just have sex in this book and they work through the emotional outcomes. There's no accusations and guilt and screaming - just talking about it all. That was great.

But - he really does get into a lot of raping and murder and incest and the like. Page turning and best-seller material that it is. Is that needed when you've got two such charismatic people as your leads? I might have to think about that further - I imagine that there is more of the same in the other two novels.

One other thing is Stieg's obvious preaching about violence towards women and the spread of Nazism. I am NOT saying both aren't disgusting and repulsive and that there needs to be more publicity about both. I'm saying that he gives stats on percentages of violence of men towards women but not of women towards women or women towards men.

There is a plethora of unsympathetic male characters and only one female (who dies).

Stieg really seems to like women as Blomqvist, the male lead is irresistible to the ladies.

Salander pretty much detests all men, except of course, the devilishly seductive Blomqvist. It's a huge theme in this book but I get the feeling he's only included it to balance out the violence and hatred he's allocated to the killers in the book.

This is turning into an epic.

It's a great page turner - after the halfway point. It's got elements of Christie and Sayers - Wiki likens Salander to 'Modesty Blaise', which I haven't read, but is now on my list. He also apparently based her a lot on Pippi Longstocking which I think is fair.

I do want to read more about what she does with her life, so there may be another Stieg appearing here in the next couple of months.

Diary of a Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith, Book 9

Another Kindle download!

What a name - Weedon. How many are there today? Would their nickname be 'Wee' or 'Weedy', I wonder... Does anyone out there know a Weedon? For that matter, who would keep that surname for long nowadays, as it is?

I seem to have a couple of oldies in my collection so far - but there are two newbies coming up. I've finally finished assignments for this semester. I haven't stopped reading, but I've been slack on the output.

The Grossmiths. Turns out Weedon's first name was William, but he preferred Weedon - um, I guess that sums him up, really. These two lads were quite the rounded types. Weedy was born 1854 - 1919, George got his shot from 1847-1912 and was a bit of a go-getter. He is listed as having been an English comedian, writer, composer, actor and singer. Take that, Russell Brand! George is also famous for having created some of the more memorable characters from the Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas. He's got a bit of a write-up in Wiki - go have a perooose, if you fancy.

Weedy pursued art for a while but was never really successful.

So the brothers collaborated on Diary of a Nobody. It was released in book form in 1892, having previously been a column in Punch. It has never been out of print since.

Diary of a Nobody is a landmark lampooning of middle-class English insecurity and morals of that time.

Charles Pooter, the 'author' is secure in his little world of domestic bliss, making the odd pun to impress his friends and wife, being suitably scandalised by his son who has been fired from a most sensible position and takes up with a local theatre group. He is incapable of recognising his wife's grievances against his middle-class rigidity.

(I have just discovered that my Kindle version does not include the original illustrations drawn by Weedy! At least offer the option for a fee?! Hmmm)

He is a clerk in a local firm and aspires to much more than he deserves in all his uptight repressiveness. His wife, Carrie, does have a word at him once or twice, which just slips off his back.

What really makes this book funny is how understated it is. Charles takes himself so seriously that he simply does not understand the remarks that people make towards him are often sarcastic. At one stage, some pages from his diary have been ripped out, we don't really know by whom, but he won't stop questioning everyone. He mentions at breakfast that he is hoping to have it published and is mystified by the amusement of his wife and son. Even when Carrie states that she doesn't think that could ever happen, he is offended and taken aback at such an opinion.

He disapproves of everyone he considers inferior to himself which leads to a few incidents he is drawn into by this snobbery. He is never at fault, much to the dismay of his all-too-human servants who cannot move without him correcting them. It appears that the two friends he has, Gowing and Cummings are particularly intruding and obnoxious, but Charles keeps them since they're the only fellows who will put up with him.

The son in this, Lupin, is a fascinating illustration of the youth of the time. He is in love, then out again, then in again. He doesn't want to work, he wants to act. His attitude is exactly that of a teenager/20-ish lad of today and Charles has just as much a battle to understand him as any parent of today. Lupin brings various unsavoury friends around, many of whom are actually quite fascinating, but Charles in all his snobbery misses this and can only concentrate on what 'class of fellow' they are.

He is money-conscious and class-conscious. He is a tight-wad towards his wife, but will think nothing of buying himself a whole new outfit for a holiday by the coast.

I guess this is best summed up as, 'the Non-Adventures of a Late-Victorian Middle-Class Snob'. It's also an interesting record of everyday life for people of the time.

I do love this book.

WARNING. Do not read on trains in case of fits of giggling and snorts of amusement.

Black Beauty, Anna Sewell, Book 8

This is the first book I read on my spanky new Kindle! I'm quite enjoying it, having read a couple more since then. I do love that I can grab a book out of thin air and it will simply appear. I'd have been ridiculed and burned at the stake for such fancy hardware only 20 years ago in the backwater of a town I grew up in!

Anna Sewell 1820 - 1878. Just from reading the book I would take a wild guess that she grew up with an alcoholic somewhere in the family. She really doesn't like them. Just a minute, she grew up a Quaker. She fell over at the age of 12 and due to lack of proper medical treatment, she was lame for the rest of her life. She got around in horse-drawn carriages - hence her love of horses and pleas for the humane treatment of animals.

She was sickly, it appears, for most of her life. She dictated Black Beauty to her mother from her bed over a 6 year period. It was published in 1877, when Anna was 57 years old. Black Beauty immediately did well and broke publishing records, at the time being the 'sixth best seller' in the English language. Go, you Beauty! Unfortunately for Anna, she died 5 months after publication.

It was intended to be only really for people who worked with horses, it was a plea to induce people to treat them with more understanding and kindness.

I really did like this book as a child, reading it now I'm not as big a fan, but it still plucked at the heartstrings one or two times.

Beauty is born into an idyllic and caring farm. Her mother is loving and the owner is humane to all animals under his care. The various servants around the place take care of animals and any mistreatment is punished. Sewell really pushes throughout the book that animals have no means to alter their living conditions if we have placed them in artificial ones. It is up to us to take care of their welfare.

For one reason after another, Beauty is successively sold into gradually worse conditions. His/Her innocence ( I recall that gender doesn't much come into it for horses) is replaced by wisdom and knowledge of the cruelty of man. I think about half of the wrongdoing towards horses in this book is caused by people who have been 'on the drink'. I wonder if a different attitude would have prevailed had this been written in continental Europe???

Anyway, the horses Beauty comes across all have their own stories to tell of life. I think only one horse that Beauty encounters doesn't have a past filled with cruelty or harshness. Ginger, who Beauty becomes quite good friends with, is known for her temper, but as she explains, she can't help it as she has only known cruelty from Man and why should she let herself be further exploited. The kindness of the place they are in does cool her attitude for a while. They are later sold together and she teaches Beauty how to 'buck' against their cruel conditions. They are soon separated and Beauty is exposed to much cruel treatment, in particular - the 'holding up' of horses' heads is discussed. The practice of keeping horses heads held right up so they look 'proud'. This damages their necks, windpipes and stamina. Beauty only has to put up with this briefly before moving on to a new owner, whose drunken stable hand whips the bejesus out of her causing her to stumble due to a missing shoe and ruins her knees. She is sold off to harsher treatment again and then onto a kind cabbie who is a good soul and has a loving wife and daughter. She encounters Ginger as well, who is looking the worse for wear and we are pretty sure we see her dead in a cart, taken through the streets of London. Beauty considers that this is a good thing, for Ginger is now in a better place than the 7 days a week hell she was in previous to this.

The cabbie takes a turn for the bad, and Beauty is sold to a 'hire horse' type place. It's the equivalent of our 'rent a car' yards. She is subjected to mercilesss treatment by those who hire her as they need to get the most value they can from her.

Eventually she collapses, is given a brief time to recover and sold. Turns out, she has been bought by a gent who was once a stable-hand years ago for Beauty and accidentally had given her pneumonia. He recognises her and vows to never sell her and she ends up in a nice little stable with a meadow nearby and some nice ladies to drive around occasionally. So it all ends up nice and cosy.

There are exhortations throughout to be kinder to animals and to see things from their point of view. I think it definitely influenced me when I was young and I do remember shedding a tear or two during my many readings of the book.

I don't know how well this is holding up now amongst the youngsters. Most of the 'occupations' Beauty finds herself are now all but obsolete. It still gets included in classics reprints, but it's not one that is spoken about much anymore, which is a pity as it really does help kids see things from the animal's point of view.

The cruelty in this is vivid, but dumbing it down as happens in most of today's children's books, does no one any favours whatsoever.

A good read.

Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding, Book 7

This was read after a night at home watching trash tv and drinking too much wine.

Not that I'm making excuses, mind you. I do love an equally witty and intelligent parody of an already monstrously witty and intelligent author.

Helen Fielding b. 1951 in Yorkshire. Studied English at Oxford (go Helen) and worked for the BBC on various projects from 1979 till 1989 doing research and production and various things.

She was mostly unknown in the wider world until she was asked to write a column based on life as a single hag. Not unsurprisingly, she chose to write it anonymously and exaggerate the character. She was a bit of hit and the rest of the Bridget Jones story is history. Helen now spends her time between Los Angeles and London. You know, a lot of these successful writers have the double life situation. I think there must be something in it...

Anyways. Bridget Jones - trash bag and singleton. Expressing every woman's inner angst, one wine at a time. Interestingly, Wikipedia labels Bridget Jones as a franchise. And well they might, after reading a bit further. There is a third movie in the works and Helen is in the midst of scripting the stageshow! How about the Bridget Jones steamroller? Or who's that guy in X-Men? That's him! The Bridget Jones Juggernaut. It'll be a TV series next - any money. Can I bet that? Five hundred on Bridget Jones, the tv series in the next 3 years - containing most of the English cast from the movies but not Renee.

Back to Bridget. A smoking, weight-watching, borderline alcoholic singleton trying to get by whilst not particularly enjoying her publishing job. What the? Honey, do you KNOW how many people are dying to get into publishing? That point aside, she has to deal with an obnoxious toff a boss who spends her life on the phone deciding what house to purchase next.

Bridget's mother is a marvellous bundling up of Lydia and Mrs Bennet. Her father is an admirable version of Mr Bennett in many ways.

Daniel Cleaver the office getabout is a fantastic Mr Wickham substitute with just the right amount of initial mystery and temptation but soon turns into an annoying git upon closer inspection.

Mr Mark Darcy. Not far off a perfect copy of the original. I would actually say that we needed a bit more of him earlier on. He really only starts making an entrance in the last third, by which time he's made some pertinent declarations that show he's a bit interested in Our Bridg. But is there enough of her bumbling to base this on? I'm just not sure.

Bridget's anguish regarding her weight and age are fantastic and the cast of supportive and not-so supportive friends is brilliant.

The mother running off in search of a more glamourous life is clever beyond words in it's imitation of Kitty and in particular, the attitude displayed by her mother is similarly spot on and in itself an intelligent lampoon of that particular demographic.

This is definitely a book to be read with a bottle of wine - not in order to make the book more palatable but in order enhance your evening's reading enjoyment.

And the entire diary format that logs every minute of her drunken slurrings and her daily meltdowns makes it all the more intimate.

This is one clever little tome. I do recommend it.

Just Kids, Patti Smith. Book 6

Author Bio - Patti Smith - Rock Legend and Poet Extraordinaire. And that's it. Look her up for yourself and listen to her songs. In absentia, the second author is Robert Mapplethorpe - again, look him up for yourself and immerse yourself in his imagery.

As soon as I finished this book, I started reading it again.

In essence, it's a memory of and for Robert Mapplethorpe by Patti Smith. She has created a poetic, touching and inspiring account of her life and more specifically her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe.

A few things stood out for me in this book. Firstly, Patti Smith knows how to put words together - which isn't news to the world - yet her prose in this book is highly understated and delicate. Some of her musical lyrics are not as subtle at times. She depicts their much of their life together in their 20s in the 1960s. They were discovering themselves, the world around them and both were learning how they were going to make their marks on the world.

Turns out these two kids met when they were both twenty. They had both vowed to dedicate themselves to art. Their dedication to each other and art resulted in a strong and passionate friendship that lasted until Robert's death.

It is very much her retelling of their relationship, as it can only be. It tells of their drive and single-mindedness in reaching their respective goals. I did find myself wondering at times, if Patti was such an 'innocent' as her writing portrays - she's no angel, but her apparent non-plussedness at meeting Jimi Hendrix, writing a song for Janis and just hanging with a million other 'names' is a little unbelievable. I'm not being cynical, I'm just a little dubious that one could spend so much time with household names - people who were changing Western culture and be so blase about it.

Anyway, it is incredible to me the way Patti and Robert got a room at the Chelsea and proceeded to make their mark on the world.

While this is a book Patti promised to write for Robert, he is highly elusive. While I completely have a feel for Patty and identify with her in so many ways, Robert's presence is far more cryptic. I feel that she almost deifies him and it has created a distance between the reader and Robert. I just don't have any insight onto his thoughts - even though we know there are times that he is troubled by his sexuality and his art, I found that it didn't bother me that much. Nowhere near as much as when Patti was going to get recorded.

However, it is an inspiring record of two extraordinary human beings and I thoroughly recommend this book, if not just for the name-dropping. Honestly, what girl in her 20's writes a song for Janis Joplin and gets to sing it to her??

Dune. Frank Herbert. Book 5

Frank Herbert - I'm going to make this brief since my review is so bludy long. This is all pretty much straight from Wiki, I'm afraid. b. 1920, d. 1986. Born in Washington, USA. He lied about his age after high school to get a job as a reporter in his local rag, the Glendale Star. He served in the US navy for 6 months during WWII as a photographer and was discharged for medical reasons. He studied creative writing at the Uni of Washington, got some short stories published, met Beverley Ann Stuart, a fellow writer and they got hitched and had two kids. He never finished the course but continued in the journalism field for some years
Dune took 6 years of research and was prompted by an article he was meant to do on Oregon sand dunes that got out of control. Although it was published in '65, it wasn't until '72 that he was making enough to become a full-time writer. He then split his time between homes in Hawaii and Washington, the Washington house intended to be an 'ecological demonstration project'. (With his passion for the environment you can only thank the stars that he didn't have to live through the disgusting disregard for it that most of the world's leaders currently display.)
So for more info, look him up yourself.
First published in 1965, this book is considered by not a few people to be the greatest sci-fi novel written.
I first read this book during a flight to and from China and Japan. I didn’t get much out of it at the time, I must say. I suspect that was due to the perils of trying to read an intricate novel during air-plane travel. It was a stupid idea at the time and I’m glad I gave the book another go.
For some reason, early into the book, I was bothered by the names of the characters. Paul and Jessica are the only two average names in the whole thing. The rest are a mix of futuristic-Middle Eastern-semiotic monikers. Each time a new name comes in, it’s an exercise in trying to decide how I should be pronouncing them. I found this distracting – I have a thing about character names, so it could be just me with this problem – if anyone else thinks the same, let me know! It kept kicking me out of the text, at any rate. How am I supposed to pronounce ‘Bene Gesserit’ or ‘Sardauker’ or ‘Feyd-Rautha’.
Anyway, on with the show.
This is a cavalcade of political, religious, ecological and spiritual goings-on. I found the Bene-Gesserit infiltration of nearly every culture, House and political system fascinating, especially their implantation of myth and religious fervour. Herbert gives an insightful account of the foundations of religion and belief and an amazingly in-depth understanding of ecological processes in water-poor systems.
It will probably take another reading to get my head completely around the intrigues and machinations of the book but to sum up: House Atreides, composed of Baron Leto, his concubine , Jessica ( a Bene Gesserit ‘nun’) and their son Paul arrive on the Planet Arrakis to take over from House Harkonnen who are at the end of their tenure. Accompanying them is an entourage of loyal followers who will follow Leto to the death as House Atreides is an honourable and principled House.
The Harkonnens are another kettle of fish entirely: avaricious, violent, deceitful and dishonourable. The corpulent Baron Vladimir Harkonnen plots against the House Atreides in order to regain control of Arrakis with good reason. Arrakis produces the Spice, a valuable mind-altering and addictive substance, whoever controls the spice production, controls half of civilisation.
This isn’t all the novel covers – the Bene Gesserits are pissed at Jessica for producing a son against their instructions. There is a prophecy of the Kwisatz Haderach who will save…I was never sure here, I don’t think he was going to save just Dune, he would also bring peace or order to the galaxy. I don’t really want to recount the entire book here, but try to give an overview. So the Harkonnens raid the new House Atreides, Leto dies and Jessica and Paul are left for dead in the desert of Dune – which pretty much covers the whole planet. They are picked up by some Fremen, who turn out to be more numerous than anyone thought as the Harkonnens have done everything they can to keep them repressed and subdued. The Fremen live under the desert and are in the midst of a project to bring water back to Arrakis based on the teachings of an Imperial 'missionary'. This will allow people to live on Arrakis without the constant search for water.
Jessica discovers that thousands of years ago, a Bene Gesserits have visited Arrakis and implanted the prophecy of the Kwisatz Haderach into the culture of the Fremen as their religion is based on BG teachings and systems. Jessica uses this to help Paul and herself survive and Paul fulfills his destiny – there is a hell of a lot more in this novel that is fascinating and so creative.
I found myself drawn in to the relationship between Paul and his mother, Jessica. It is so rare for this sort of relationship to be explored so much in a novel and it is done so well. Their bond plays a crucial role in events and allows them to both reach their full potential.
I don’t think there is a false note in any of the characters, I never found myself thinking that a character was unbelievable. The sister of Paul who comes late into the action is quite a chilling mix of youth and wisdom. I really really liked her and hope she appears in later books (of course she will). The evil Baron Harkonnen is a brilliant study of greed in all it’s forms. A huge, fat bastard who indulges every vice he has to his own detriment. His son and his nephew are also similarly repulsive in their own ways, though not anywhere near to the extent of the Baron.
The political plays are brilliant and sufficiently intricate to maintain interest.
Paul’s internal struggles to figure out who he is and what he is meant to be are sufficiently grounded in human emotion to keep him believable despite the powers he develops.
There was a lot covered in the novel, which perhaps made it a little too intricate for a single read. I don’t know if Herbert intended this as a one-off when he wrote it or had more in mind. I suspect the latter because The Guild who control access to planets and The Imperial Court are not given enough time for my liking. They’re crucial to the plot, but more space is needed for the characters from them that are brought into play. I don’t know how much longer the book would have needed to be, but I’m thinking a two-parter wouldn’t have gone astray.
There is a large time-jump that threw me out when I first realised it had occurred – you then play catch-up as Herbert unfolds what has happened. It keeps you on your toes as a reader, but I wanted to know more about the interactions that had developed in that time – more on the Harkonnens and Paul and Chani’s relationship.
I will stop here – but I really enjoyed this much more the second time round since I was able to give it my full attention and not disturbed by air-flight attendants with endless rounds of food and drink or yelling kids or people next to me having to get up to go the toilet even though they already did 5 minutes ago and this is a frikken plane, hold it in for a bit!
On the sci-fi scale this gets a big 8.5/10.