woodge.com > books > book notes

		Below: dashed off notes on the last dozen books I've read.
		City Of Thieves • David Benioff hc 272 pages ISBN-10: 0670018708 ISBN-13: 978-0670018703 This is an excellent World War II story set in and around St. Petersburg (aka Leningrad) in 1942. Lev is arrested for looting a German corpse and Kolya is arrested for desertion. A colonel gives them a choice: die by execution or find him a dozen eggs for his daughter's wedding in four days. They choose the latter. The story is funny, horrble, suspenseful, heart-breaking and exciting. It draws you in completely and the writing has that effortless feeling. Great characters too. I really wouldn't want to tell you anything more. It's best to discover this story on your own. It's a quick read. [amazon] [21 june 2009]
		Prador Moon • Neal Asher pb 222 pages ISBN-10: 159780052X ISBN-13: 978-1597800525 Neal Asher's brand of SF is not for the squeamish. Prador Moon is set within his Polity universe. The Polity is the collective group of worlds which is run by AI and policed by Earth Central Security agents. Unlike the first Polity novel, Gridlinked (which I've read), this one does not feature ECS agent Ian Cormac. Prador Moon is a standalone novel which details the first contact with emissaries of the Prador Second Kingdom. The alien race known as the Prador are huge crab-like beasts who give new meaning to the world hostile. For instance they enjoy dining on humans and occasionally will eat their own young. (I found much to admire in their parenting skills.) This tale has two main characters: Jebel Krong and Moria Salem. Jebel Krong becomes a revenge-driven leader of the defensive forces; Moria Salem is getting used to having a new aug implanted on her skull. Think of an aug as like a small super-computing wi-fi connected interface to universe-spanning data bank. That would take some getting used to. Anyway, Prador Moon is a short book that moves quickly. It occasionally gets lost in head-scratching technobabble but only for a paragraph here and there. It's a nice diversion for Asher fans. But if you're interested, I'd suggest checking out Gridlinked first. That said, The Skinner is my favorite Asher tale and one I plan on revisiting some day. The Skinner also features some Prador characters. They are nasty! [amazon] [10 june 2009]
		Poison Study (Study, Book 1) • Maria V. Snyder pb 416 pages ISBN-10: 0778324338 ISBN-13: 978-0778324331 A couple months ago I had a Borders Gift Card burning a hole in my pocket and as luck would have it, there's a big fat Borders store a short walk from where I work. So I was browsing again and came across this title. I'm much better about impulse buys than I used to be so I checked out the comments on Amazon before snagging it. Well, as of this writing it's rated 4 and a half stars out of 5 from over 200 reviews. And sure enough, I was hooked by the second page. The plot concerns a young woman named Yelena sentenced to be executed for murder. But she's given an option: die by execution, or become the Commander's food taster, a life-long position (which is currently available since the last food taster died from poisoning.) Yelena chooses not to die and then gets caught up in the political intrigue surrounding the land known as Ixia. It's a breeze to read and the pace rarely flags although the rest of the story is not as strong as the first third. This book can stand alone but there are two more "Study" books featuring Yelena. They're on my list. 4 stars. [amazon] [4 june 2009]
		The Hidden World • Paul Park pb 384 pages ISBN-10: 0765355876 ISBN-13: 978-0765355874 This is the fourth and final book in Park's Roumanian series, easily the oddest series I've read to date. (Could be the oddest story as well but then I recalled Santa Steps Out by Robert Devereaux and for sheer oddness, that one's tough to beat.) There are three main characters in the Roumanian series: Miranda, Andromeda, and Peter. And their trajectory through these books is hard to summarize. Let's just say that the tale involves: an alternate world; conjurers; magical items (including a gun housing six demons, some of which get loose); possesion; a character that changes from female to dog to male to various combinations of the aforementioned; the titular spirit world; and a war between Roumania and Turkey. That said, I enjoyed the journey although at times I found it confusing. I'd recommend it to anyone bored with the same old thing. Also, lots of writerly types give this series high praise including Ursula K. LeGuin and Gene Wolfe. [amazon] [23 may 2009]
		The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo • Stieg Larsson HC 365 pages ISBN-10: 0307269752 ISBN-13: 978-0307269751 I first heard of this book from my Swedish step-father-in-law. I had asked him who his current favorite author was last August. Stieg Larsson's three books are very popular in Sweden. His second book is due to be published in U.S. this summer. Shortly after handing in the three manuscripts for his mysteries, he died. This was a very cool mystery about a disgraced journalist hired to investigate the disappearance of a young girl in the late sixties. The characters are all fully-realized, interesting individuals and story takes several interesting twists and turns. Curiously, the book's title in Sweden was Man Som Hatar Kvinnor which translates as The Man Who Hates Women. I like the English title better. Recommended for mystery-lovers. (There are a few Swedish words that are left in the text, but you'd guess their meaning from the context. Fröken is one example. It means Miss. And it may help to know that the suffix gatan means street.) [amazon] [5 may 2009]
		Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion Year History of the Human Body • Neil Shubin pb 256 pages ISBN-10: 0307277453 ISBN-13: 978-0307277459 Neil Shubin is a paleontologist who delves briefly into the history of the human body by way of fossils and DNA evidence. Sure, I learned stuff... like how interconnected all the species really are; and that mammals have three bones in the inner ear while other species have fewer; and that there's a gene called Sonic hedgehog; and how to extract DNA using common household appliances and items you could easily buy in a store (a blender is involved and I'm easily reminded of the Bass-O-Matic). But, really this short book (just over 200 pages) was a bit of a slog to get through (although the explanations are clear enough). I've read other non-fiction that was much more compelling. But if you've an interest in fossils and DNA and where we came from, you might find this enlightening. But since this book deals with actual science, I definitely wouldn't recommend this book to Creationists. Though I suppose a Creationist wouldn't be picking up a title like this one in the first place. They're probably looking for something more along the lines of Your Inner Godliness: A Journey Into the Four Thousand Year History of the Human Body. But I digress. [amazon] [28 april 2009]
		The Amazing Book of Useless Information • Noel Botham pb 240 pages ISBN-10: 0399534687 ISBN-13: 978-0399534683 I received this book as a gift and was instantly drawn into its bizarre compendium of esoterica. I proceeded to annoyingly read several of the nuggets within aloud. Cool stuff and ofttimes funny. Here's a few samples: The band Aerosmith was stumped trying to find lyrics for what would become their hit song "Walk This Way" until they took a break and went to a screening of the movie Young Frankenstein, where they were inspired by the famous "walk this way" gag. An award-winning adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood was withdrawn from a recommended reading list by the school board in Culver City, California, simply because the heroine had included a bottle of wine in the basket she brought to her grandmother. Both women and men are most likely to have their first orgasm alone. More than 20 million meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere every day. Spain literally means "the land of rabbits." Bethlehem, which is considered by Christians the birthplace of Jesus, was an early shrine of the pagan god Adonis. It was believed that this god suffered a cruel death, after which he descended into hell, rose again, and then ascended into heaven. Each year there was a great festival in commemoration of his resurrection. [amazon] [23 april 2009]
		Iron Angel (Deepgate Codex, Book 2) • Alan Campbell pb 493 pages ISBN-10: 0553589326 ISBN-13: 978-0553589320 Last year I read Scar Night, the first in this trilogy. The main characters of Dill (the angel) and Rachel Hael (the un-tempered Spine assassin) are back. Briefly we meet up with Carnival as well. But this book expands on the world surrounding Deepgate and the whole mythology surrounding the archons (angel warriors) and the demigods. There are new characters like Hasp, who befriends Dill in Hell. And Alice Harper who regrettably finds herself acting as an agent of Menoa, Hell's de facto ruler. Other gods come into play including Cospinol, the god of brine and fog. And Cospinol's number two man, a giant named John Anchor (who is a really cool character). But the story is not as cohesive as Scar Night's story. There is much going on and much strangeness. It's a bit confusing in the first half but starts coming together more in the latter half. All in all, I'm a big fan of this trilogy so far. The story is endlessly inventive, gothic, and weird. I'm looking forward to the concluding book in the trilogy, God of Clocks, which is due this summer. [amazon] [4 april 2009]
		The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists • Gideon Defoe pb 176 pages ISBN-10: 0307274918 ISBN-13: 978-0307274915 A coupla years ago I read Defoe's first two adventures featuring the Pirates: The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates! In An Adventure with Ahab [amazon]. I'm a big fan of this kind of silly, absurdist humor and Gideon Defoe has a deft hand at it. I kept giggling along with this tale too. (It's undoubtedly the funniest book I've read all year.) The pirates don't even get names either. There's the Pirate Captain (who is always dreaming of a fine glazed ham); his second in command, the Pirate with a Scarf; and also the Pirate with a Nut Allergy to name a few. (There's also Jennifer.) And I also enjoy the chapter names which have absolutely nothing to do with the events transpiring within their respective chapters. One that comes to mind is: I Saw Sea Cucumbers Eat Jenkins! Good stuff. [amazon] [24 february 2009]
		Disquiet • Julia Leigh pb 128 pages ISBN-10: 014311350X ISBN-13: 978-0143113508 This novella recently got a bit of press and it sounded intriguing so I checked it out. It's a brief story about a family arriving at a large chateau in France. It's written in spare language but manages to set an enveloping gothic mood. The various characters in this extended family have some serious issues that they are dealing with. The central character, a woman, arrives with a broken arm and covered in yellowing bruises. Her sister-in-law arrives with her stillborn baby cradled in her arms. The whole effect is creepy and bizarre in a good way. It's a dark, poetic story. I'd be interested to see what this author does next. [amazon] [20 february 2009]
		Furies Of Calderon (Codex Alera, Book 1) • Jim Butcher pb 512 pages ISBN-10: 044101268X ISBN-13: 978-0441012688 Started this series of five books on a recommendation from my boss (who reads bucket loads of fantasy). This one is very exciting and does a lot with a cool premise. In this world there is a nation of Alerans who, somewhere around puberty, acquire the ability to command one of the six types of furies (or elementals). The six types are of wood, earth, air, fire, water, and metal. The different types of furies come with varied abilities and weaknesses. Someone commanding an air fury could command a wind strong enough and focused enough to enable them to fly for instance. There are a number of excellent characters both good and bad to follow in the Calderon valley of Alera. There's 15-year-old Tavi, who bristles at the fact that he has yet to command a fury of his own but his cleverness makes up for it. And Amara, an agent of the First Lord, Gaius Sextus. Amara commands a wind fury and gets embroiled in the intrigue surrounding Lord Gaius and a group of mercenaries and another Lord plotting to overthrow his rule. And then there are the savage Marat people: strong, proud, fury-less people who are split into various clans that don't all get along. There's a lot going on in this story and the action scenes are exciting and inventive. I'm looking forward to picking up the second book in the series (but first, I'll be making some detours). [amazon] [17 february 2009]
		The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need • Daniel H. Pink pb 160 pages ISBN-10: 1594482918 ISBN-13: 978-1594482915 Dad gave me this one for Christmas. I read it on the train. It's business book in the form of a graphic novel. Johnny Bunko's in a dead-end job, bored out of his mind, when he's visited by a sassy elfin sprite named Diana who teaches him six business rules to live by. They're all good but the one that sticks with me is #4: Persistence trumps talent. Here's a sample page from the book: [amazon] [26 december 2008]