Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[ATDrake]

So while I was at the library, picked up Michael Ridpath's Meltwater and Sea of Stone, 3rd & 4th novels in his Fire & Ice series starring Magnus Jonson aka Magnús Ragnarsson, Intrepid Bi-National Icelandic-American Returned Expat Cop On Loan.

Meltwater was a pretty pulled from the headlines sort of story (as acknowledged in the author's notes in the back), making use of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruptions (obligatory Scandinavia and the World cartoon), to trap a WikiLeaks-analogue team in the country, with a dangerously hot story and enemies after them. Very current affairs. In the meanwhile, the series B-plot of Magnus looking further into his father's long-ago unsolved murder, as well as tensions with his estranged maternal family, picks up, introducing a few new characters as well.

The A-plot was done fairly well, doing a decent job of showing the motivations and tensions that affect a disparate group of international foreigners who'd put their lives on the line for a significant whistleblowing story but have differing levels of personal integrity, and the uneasy interaction they have with the Icelandic authorities (amusingly, they assume that Magnus is secretly a CIA plant, because his American-accented English is too good). Once again, the sagas and Nobel Prize-winning Icelandic author Halldór Laxness are invoked, but in a more backgrounded way; although the theme of moral dilemmas, personal sacrifice, and the cycle of revenge killings touches upon both the A and B-plots, setting up some events that kick off book #4.

Sea of Stone is the one where the investigation of Magnus' father's murder comes to a head, as well as the culmination of the simmering tensions in his estranged family on both maternal and paternal sides, and all is revealed in an interestingly twisty way. This is done in a deliberately very saga-esque sort of way, with grand passions leading to terrible outcomes as it turns out that the characters have gotten caught up in an intertwining net of cumulative tragedy which they cannot escape. Also how the effects of domestic tyranny from just one member can end up warping an entire extended family.

Like the sagas, it's one of those stories where there are few clear heroes or villains (well, maybe one for the latter, but it was one you already knew about going in), just people trying to cope as best they can with the bad life decisions that were all they thought could make under the circumstances and were blinded to other possible alternatives. This includes Magnus, who makes his own bad decision which turns out to be unnecessary, but was the best thing he thought he could do at the time.

This is one of the timeline-jumping ones, which brings Magnus back to Boston in flashback for part of his investigation, both showing how much he's changed since his time in Iceland and what things for him have stayed the same, as a long-term US immigrant, as well as laying the path for the eventual case-closing reveals, which includes some startling stuff that looks like it will have significant personal repercussions in the future, even though the case is ostensibly solved by the end. Although this is clearly planned as a wrap-up to the ongoing B-plot arc, I'm interested in seeing where future novels go with the eventual fallout, and possible reunion of the family on one axis, but further estrangement on another.

Also finished The Polar Bear Killing, an e-book exclusive novella set after the events of #4 but which doesn't really refer to them, gives no real clues in that regard, but provides a nice spotlight for Magnus' colleague Vigdís Audarsdóttir, who has the distinction of being Iceland's only black detective, thanks to her mother's long-ago one-night stand with a US serviceman at the Keflavík air base.

Throughout the novels, Vigdís' insider/outsider status, with her having been purely Iceland born and raised, but perceived as a foreigner by her own people due to her appearance (which she copes with by refusing to speak English at all), and Magnus' outsider/insider status, with him being a returned emigrant Icelander raised in the US and very Americanized, but treated as a regular Icelander by people who know he's an expat, until it becomes convenient to blame something about him on his American upbringing, get contrasted a lot to explore their differing receptions.

I actually really like Vigdís, so it was nice to see her get a spotlight, even though Magnus was kind of contractually obliged to swoop in with some case-solving hints, since it's technically his own series. (I hope Árni, another one of Magnus' entertainingly eccentric junior colleagues, gets a spotlight novella at some point.)

Anyway, this is another ripped-from-the-headlines sort of story, albeit in a more generic way, since hungry polar bears floating in from Greenland and the controversy surrounding how to deal with them now that tranquilizer darts are available, and animal rights activist protests of traditional Icelandic activities (normally for whaling), are a staple of local news stories, and provided a nice look into the mixed local and foreign cultural attitudes.

Medium-high recommend for the series as a whole. So far, the cases have been fairly well laid out, with plausible whodunnits and twists that mostly make sense. The contrasting cultural stuff is quite interesting and nicely depicted if you're interested, giving an entertaining picture of both Iceland and the outside perception of Iceland, and an imaginative tying-in of the cultural background to the cases. The first book is a little shaky in execution, but the rest soon find their footing, and #4 is a very well done cap to the B-plot and a fitting climax to the series as a whole. Also, the author puts up helpful photos of the locations he uses on his website (viz. the gallery for #3, which shows some of the locations as affected by the volcanic eruption), which is a nice touch. I've gotten to really like this series and hope there will be more.

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Glad to help!

It was pretty short, so I didn't feel overly put out. Still ... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking for something fairly whimsical and quirky to "balance the scales," so to speak.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Time travel and homages to Victorian comic novels. I wasn't sold at the very beginning but, once the protagonist was in Victorian Oxford, I was having a great time.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Time travel and homages to Victorian comic novels. I wasn't sold at the very beginning but, once the protagonist was in Victorian Oxford, I was having a great time.

I was a big fan of Willis's stuff back in the Doomsday Book/Impossible Dreams era, but I drifted away for unknown reasons. Might be good time to drift back. Thanks for the suggestion.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Limbo System by Rick Cook. A recent Baen purchase.

A bit of a slow start, and patchy in places, but quite fun overall. Astronomical FTL expedition stumbles across aliens who don't have an efficient FTL drive.

Next up: Revelation by C J Sansom. The fourth in his Matthew Shardlake series - a lawyer in 16th century London.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I've ditched Criminal Crumbs, I'm re reading Death of A Trophy Wife by Laura Levine, and reading The Bronze Horseman, by Paullina Simons. The latter is going quite slowly. It's a romance, hence my lack of enjoyment, but it's supposed to be a masterpiece of the genre, so I'll keep slogging through it until something snaps in me.

After reading Death of a Trophy Wife, I read another book in the same series, called Death by Pantyhose. I absolutely loved re reading that book, and the latter's siblings will get the same treatment, if I may say so. Re-reading Death by Pantyhose, which is a non foodie cozy mystery (the series is called the Jaine Austen mystery series), I picked up little things that escaped my attentions. Things that pointed to the murderer. These indications were subtly written into the book. Like I said, I'm going to re-read my favorite series, however it will be in disorder.

For now I'm reading a smart cozy called Deadly Pumpkin Slice, by Carol Lee. It's a quaint little story. Very much in the tradition of foodie family oriented cozy mysteries, the's a lot of talk about this and that. I'm curious about when will the amateur investigation begin. It's a short story with only 7 chapters, but over 100 pages. I've never read a cozy in this format.

After that it's back to my beloved Jaine Austen, with Shoes to Die For waiting in the wings. That's it for now.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

A talented author--no doubt. But wow! That's some of the darkest, foulest, bleakest, misanthropic stuff I've ever read. Not a single redeemable character; not a single ray of sunshine to be found. This was not a thriller set aboard a whaling vessel. It was not "Jack London on Crack." It was Black. Pitch. Freaking. Black.

Don't get me wrong: "Black" may have been exactly what the author was going for. Kudos if so--he nailed it. And he didn't do anything "wrong" (in fact I think his command of the language is vast). He just wrote a story that I couldn't take anything positive away from for myself. That doesn't happen very often.

Perhaps the Man Booker judges will love it. Good on Mr. McGuire, if so.

According to the review in the NYT BR -- that was exactly what he was aiming for -- and why it made the Booker list -- I am a huge fan of historical novels with Arctic/Antarctic/polar/whaling settings -- but I could go no further than the 'shipwreck' scene.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

According to the review in the NYT BR -- that was exactly what he was aiming for -- and why it made the Booker list --

I figured there was some sort of conscious effort to be the most ugly, sordid book written. Most people seem to be gobbling it up, though! I'm not really squeamish at all, but ... damn!

I am a huge fan of historical novels with Arctic/Antarctic/polar/whaling settings -- but I could go no further than the 'shipwreck' scene.

Same here (fan of the genre, I mean). Seemed right up my alley from the description. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all. Have you read Andrea Barrett's Voyage of the Narwhal?

[orlok]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I figured there was some sort of conscious effort to be the most ugly, sordid book written. Most people seem to be gobbling it up, though! I'm not really squeamish at all, but ... damn!


Same here (fan of the genre, I mean). Seemed right up my alley from the description. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all. Have you read Andrea Barrett's Voyage of the Narwhal?

Well I'm on board. Will likely give it a try, even if just to find out what the buzz is about.

[HarryT]

Recent reads:

"206 Bones", by Kath Reichs.

The 12th book in the Temperance Brennan series about a forensic anthropologist. In this one, Tempe wakes up seemingly having been buried alive in an underground vault (and which of us hasn't had that happen? - it's so annoying!) and the story is told in flashback as she pieces together her memory of the events leading up to it. Very good, as always in this series.


Just finished "Forge of the Titans", by Steve White, which I bought from Baen in 2003. Baen description:

When Derek Secrest was suddenly pulled out of Naval flight officer school to take part in a top secret government project involving telepathy—because tests showed that he had a strong latent talent for psi powers— he thought things couldn't get weirder. He was wrong.

Soon he was contacted by a mysterious woman who could open portals at will through spacetime. Her powers seemed godlike—and they were. Millennia ago, extra-dimensional beings with great powers had come to earth and taken on human form, remembered in legends as gods and goddesses—and titans, the ancient enemies of the gods. The godlike beings had driven off the titans, but now the old enemy is returning, with a new plan to use humans with psionic abilities to rule the Earth, and not be driven from it this time. And the titans always did have a fondness for human sacrifice.

Unless Derek and a handful of other telepaths can join forces with the ancient gods to defeat the titans, the world will be plunged into a new dark age of terror and death. Even so, judging from mythology, how much can you really trust a god. . .

Very enjoyable. Recommended.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Next up, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ by Nicolas Notovitch.

Finished The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ by Nicolas Notovitch, a controversial manuscript since its first publication in 1890, The Unknown Life of Jesus is the original text of Nicolas Notovitch's efforts to learn of the years of Jesus' life unaccounted for in the Bible - when he was between the ages of 13 and 29.

During Notovitch's travels through India, he learned of ancient manuscripts allegedly documenting Jesus' visit to Buddhist monasteries. Notovitch eventually persuaded a monk to read from these documents, and as an interpreter translated, Notovitch transcribed. The resulting text resembles the Gnostic Gospels, and offer remarkable insights - they portray Jesus as angering the priests of Brahma due to his teachings that all humans are equal regardless of caste, and as one who claimed that within each person resides "a part of the spirit of the Most High".

Originally disdained as a hoax by scholars and theologians, The Unknown Life of Jesus has since acquired some credibility as corroborating information surfaced. A good read in total.

Next I'll take up something lightweight, so The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken by Tarquin Hall.

[WT Sharpe]

Just finished Max Carrados by Ernest Bramah (1914), the first in the Max Carrados series. It contained eight short stories about Max Carrados, the blind amateur detective, most of which were okay, but had a tendency to not play fair with the reader, in my opinion. Too often the solution came by way of a last minute revelation consisting of information that had been available to the detective, but not to the reader. The last story, however, "The Game Played in the Dark", was thoroughly satisfying, as not only were all of Carrados' cards on the table in that one, but he played them with finesse and flair.

I note, also that this is one of those writers who defines poverty as being in such dire straits as to be only able to afford one housekeeper or a single servant. Oh, the pain.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just finished Max Carrados by Ernest Bramah (1914), the first in the Max Carrados series. It contained eight short stories about Max Carrados, the blind amateur detective, most of which were okay, but had a tendency to not play fair with the reader, in my opinion. Too often the solution came by way of a last minute revelation consisting of information that had been available to the detective, but not to the reader.

My feelings exactly. And the fact that his blindness seemed to be no impediment whatsoever.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by orlok

Well I'm on board. Will likely give it a try, even if just to find out what the buzz is about.

Just bought the Audio book of The North Water, so that should be interesting...

[Dngrsone]

Finished Seduced by Madness by Carol Pogash. I know someone who has the same types of mental problems as Mrs. Polk (mild Schizophrenia, narcissism, and the ability to believe anything they say), so the story leading up to the murder was a bit scary to me, since I can only imagine that person (and several of my relatives, sad to say) having those kinds of problems and reactions.

I had already cut the cord by the time the trial occurred IRL, so I knew nothing about this case going in. Sheer madness, the entire trial. She will be eligible for parole next year, but I doubt she will get it.

Anyways, interesting book in a scary/sad/stranger-then-fiction way.

Now on to the fourth Foreigner book, Precursor by C. J. Cherryh.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by orlok

Just bought the Audio book of The North Water, so that should be interesting...

I'll be curious to hear your take on it. I don't consider myself overly sensitve (and I actually like a bit of grit and/or seediness), but it just seemed the author went out of his way to inject unnecessary ugliness at every turn.