January 2010 Archives
Recommended to me in Libya by Lois, in exchange for my Bernard Cornwell and Dorothy Dunnett tips, the first in the Emperor series introduces us to Gaius and Marcus, two boys growing up on an estate just outside Rome.
As Rome's democracy descends into chaos, the boys turn into (teenage) men, defending their home with their trusted servants and slaves against the mob, and subsequently entering Roman high society through Gaius' uncle, senator-general Marius. Cleverly, Conn Iggulden keeps secret the future identity of the two key characters until the book's later chapters, and en route you learn about Roman society, customs and politics, the mechanics of the Army that maintained its Empire and wealth, and the upbringing, training and education of its ruling class.
However, as the blurb says, 'If you liked GLADIATOR, you'll love EMPEROR.', and the converse applies - if you found Gladiator a bit light, I suspect you'll feel the same about this novel. Not that that's going to stop me reading its successors.....
Amazon.co.uk link: Emperor: The Gates of Rome - Conn Iggulden
A relatively old novel by Helen Dunmore, telling the twin tales of independent women two generations apart.
Teenage Nadine is lured away from home by her exotic experienced older man, Kai, whose plans for her involve satisfying a British politician's secret sexual preferences. With parents focused on her disabled younger sister, it isn't long before Nadine falls out of the "system" and is persuaded to move in with Kai, into a Georgian terraced house ("ripe for renovation"), and sitting tenant Enid firmly ensconced in the attic.
As the two women become friends, we learn more about Enid's life and loves, and Nadine's self sufficiency.
Amazon.co.uk link: Burning Bright - Helen Dunmore
I started this yonks ago, before my trip to Libya I think, but had to return it to the library half read. Finally getting it out again over Christmas, and the second half was as fascinating as the first. Philip Marsden writes about his travels to and through the Caucasus in search of spirit-wrestlers (a Russian religious sect exiled to the Steppe), but mainly meeting nth generation descendants of Russian dissidents transported to the frontier of Empire/Union and left to fend for themselves, or not. Not all of those descendants sounds like they've going to survive much longer following the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of despair and alcoholism.
But that makes it sounds like a depressing book, and it's not. It's a fascinating account of another of those parts of the world that always seem to form the fringes of Empire, and yet have much to offer in their own right. Indeed, increasingly, this is an area that demands our attention - conflict in Georgia, breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (did you know that a whacking great mountain range divides North and South Ossetia?) ... not to mention oil, gas and US foreign policy.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Spirit Wrestlers: A Russian Odyssey
A pair of parallel stories about the Latter Day Saints - one revealing the faith's early history from a number of narratives focused around Ann Eliza Young, Prophet Brigham Young's 19th wife, whose divorce and subsequent crusading public speaking against polygamy split the Saints and was a cause célèbre in late 19th century America.
The second is set in the present day and focuses on the Firsts, a group that separated from the LDS mainstream over the issue of multiple wives, under the leadership of Ann Eliza's brother. Told from the perspective of Jordan, excommunicated as a teenager for holding hands with one of his sisters, who returns to his roots after his mother is charged with the murder of her husband.
There's plenty of detail, not just on the Mormons' religious beliefs, lifestyle and characters from both eras, but also on the early settlement and development of Utah - at the time still a Territory - and the wagon train exodus from the East and emigration from Europe that preceded it.
For me, the murder mystery element was less interesting - serving merely to show Mormon fundamentalism in a 21st century setting.
Amazon.co.uk link: The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff
This second novel in the Marshall Guarnaccia series is much better than the first. A good mystery involving the untimely death of a half Dutch, half Italian jeweller in a vacant top floor apartment, lots of detail on daily life in Florence, and the slow reveal of more of the Marshall's Sicilian home- and heartland.
Amazon.co.uk link: Death of a Dutchman - Magdalen Nabb
A speedy read, on a lazy New Year's Day, and so an appropriately festive time to read the first novel in the Marshal Guarnaccia series .... not that you'd be able to tell that from the list of other novels by Magdalen Nabb printed that the front of the book (unless they're in reverse chronological order).
Strangely enough, the Marshall is laid low with flu for most of the novel, only coming to the fore to apply his common sense to solve the crime eluding his colleagues and two detectives from Scotland Yard: the murder of retired Englishman, Andrew Langley-Smythe - shot in the back in his ground floor (horrors!) apartment in Florence's antique district.
The English detectives add to the plot's a mix of English ex-pats - the vicar and his wife, endlessly offering (and yearning for) tastes of home, the eccentric Miss White and inhabitants of the English library in Florence. On the Italian side, the focus is on new Carabinieri Bacci, resplendent in his uniform but woefully inexperienced, and the other residents of Langley-Smythe's building ....
Not the best in the series.
Amazon.co.uk link: Death of an Englishman - Magdalen Nabb
The perfect Christmas present from Sue - and all 600 pages demolished in a couple of days. The third and final installment of the Millennium series wraps up the loose ends left trailing at the end of The Girl who Played with Fire, and some, but not all of the mystery surrounding Lisbeth Salander.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - Stieg Larsson