This is an incomplete list.
Fantasy
The Gentlemen Bastard Series, Scott Lynch
Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
Sanderson just writes solid fantasy. I think solid is the best word to describe it, because all of his books have been good, but I'm not sure I've read anything that is outstanding, though The Way Of Kings was pretty damn impressive. Warbreaker continues that tradition. It is about interesting characters in interesting places doing interesting things, people who betray and are betrayed, there's a little adventure and a little love. I think the best bit of Warbreaker is that it uses a novel system of magic consistently, that every person has Breath, and only one Breath, and if you give it away to someone they can use it, and if you have lots of Breath you can do lots of exciting things. Warbreaker is very much a book written between other projects, but like Locke Lamora, it's a good way to pass the time.
Non-fantasy Fiction
Fantasy
The Gentlemen Bastard Series, Scott Lynch
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Red Seas Under Red Skies
Given that these are two parts of the same story, I don't really think they count as different books. Scott Lynch writes fantasy about elaborate heists in a land that seems a lot like renaissance-era Italy. The hero is called (unsurprisingly) Locke Lamora, a man whom you sympathise with only really because he is the protagonist. As part of my evergrowing pile of fantasy books, it probably doesn't stand out, but it is still a good deal of fun.
Given that these are two parts of the same story, I don't really think they count as different books. Scott Lynch writes fantasy about elaborate heists in a land that seems a lot like renaissance-era Italy. The hero is called (unsurprisingly) Locke Lamora, a man whom you sympathise with only really because he is the protagonist. As part of my evergrowing pile of fantasy books, it probably doesn't stand out, but it is still a good deal of fun.
Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
Sanderson just writes solid fantasy. I think solid is the best word to describe it, because all of his books have been good, but I'm not sure I've read anything that is outstanding, though The Way Of Kings was pretty damn impressive. Warbreaker continues that tradition. It is about interesting characters in interesting places doing interesting things, people who betray and are betrayed, there's a little adventure and a little love. I think the best bit of Warbreaker is that it uses a novel system of magic consistently, that every person has Breath, and only one Breath, and if you give it away to someone they can use it, and if you have lots of Breath you can do lots of exciting things. Warbreaker is very much a book written between other projects, but like Locke Lamora, it's a good way to pass the time.
Non-fantasy Fiction
The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt
The Sisters Brothers is set in 1850s America, at the height of the gold rush. It is about a pair of brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters, who make their living killing for a man they call the Commodore. It is a rambly sort of book, that goes through several events without really connecting them except through the first person narrative of Eli Sisters. Eli is a fat man who describes his world in a nondescript manner that only emphasises (to me at least) the complete terror of living in the Wild West. Though he regrets killing, he still does it in a manner that seems to accept that it was in some way inevitable.
If there is one thing that comes through this book, it is that the Wild West was genuinely terrifying.
Romance? These books are about love, in any case.
All My Friends Are Superheroes, Andrew Kaufman
This is such a great book. It's very short, a hundred and twenty pages, and it took me a train ride to read it. It is about Tom, whose friends are all superheroes, and whose girlfriend is also a superhero, called the Perfectionist. But at their wedding, the Perfectionist's ex-boyfriend Hypno hypnotises her into believing that she can't see Tom, though everyone else can. Now she's on a plane to Vancouver, determined to make a new life, and Tom has the duration of that flight to try, one last time, to make her see him.
I don't really want to spoil anything else, but I seriously think everyone should read it.
The Lover's Dictionary, David Levithan
This is perhaps the opposite of the book before this. It is told in this weird post-modern way where he takes loads of words, puts them in alphabetical order, and then recounts incidents or little expositions that have to do with that word. For 'love', he says something like 'Don't even ask me to define this'.
It is fairly depressing, but still a book worth reading. Bittersweet and all that.
Non-Fiction
Quantum, Manjit Kumar
I'l be honest, I've been looking for a book on quantum for a while, and this had a pretty cover. Also The Guardian liked it. Kumar writes about the history of quantum mechanics, tracing it from Boltzmann and Planck to the arguments between Bohr and Einstein. Though the first bit of the book is a little irritating in that there is no maths and the assertions he makes about the nature of quanta are hard to understand (for me, anyway) without some maths, the book really comes into its own when it describes Bohr and Einstein arguing about reality. The best part of the book is when he describes Einstein's attempts at constructing thought experiments to try and disprove Heisenberg's Uncertainty, and Bohr defeating all of his attempts. There is one in which Einstein constructs a box of light which will stay with me forever.
17 Equations That Changed The World, Ian Stewart
I keep dipping it into this book, because I think 'Hey, maybe this time it won't be so bad', and then it is as bad as all the previous times, and then I forget again.
My problem is that there is not enough maths. There is some intuitive explanation, there is some history of these equations, but I would really like a mathematical description of these things. The general public really needs to get more numerate so that books are written for the rest of us. But I'll keep dipping into it, and maybe one day I'll have dipped into all of it, and then I'll have finished it.
Children's
Wyrmeweald: Bloodhoney, Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
Unashamedly, this is me being nostalgic for The Edge Chronicles. But it still stands really strongly on its own. The second book in this trilogy continues the odd story of the first, of a land where kith live off dragons however they can, and weird and wonderful creatures kill them or not as they will. Everytime I read Stewart and Riddell I am stunned that these are children's books, because they are so well written, with so much depth, that it is only the obvious happy endings that really signify anything else. Happiness, I tell you.
The Song of the Quarkbeast, Jasper Fforde
This is so much fun. I finished it, then read the book that comes before it (The Last Dragonslayer), and then read it again. I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks (as I do) that children's fiction started to go downhill round about the time I grew up (if indeed I have).
The thing about this book is that the heroine is exactly who you want her to be: a no-nonsense girl who just wants to fix the problems she has in as straightforward a manner as possible. Read, read.
In Progress
The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee
I have been sitting on the second one for a while, having been distracted by physics and the Wild West. Am halfway through it.
The Talented Mr Ripley has yet to grip me, though I'm told it will. I'll write about them once I've read them.
The Sisters Brothers is set in 1850s America, at the height of the gold rush. It is about a pair of brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters, who make their living killing for a man they call the Commodore. It is a rambly sort of book, that goes through several events without really connecting them except through the first person narrative of Eli Sisters. Eli is a fat man who describes his world in a nondescript manner that only emphasises (to me at least) the complete terror of living in the Wild West. Though he regrets killing, he still does it in a manner that seems to accept that it was in some way inevitable.
If there is one thing that comes through this book, it is that the Wild West was genuinely terrifying.
Romance? These books are about love, in any case.
All My Friends Are Superheroes, Andrew Kaufman
This is such a great book. It's very short, a hundred and twenty pages, and it took me a train ride to read it. It is about Tom, whose friends are all superheroes, and whose girlfriend is also a superhero, called the Perfectionist. But at their wedding, the Perfectionist's ex-boyfriend Hypno hypnotises her into believing that she can't see Tom, though everyone else can. Now she's on a plane to Vancouver, determined to make a new life, and Tom has the duration of that flight to try, one last time, to make her see him.
I don't really want to spoil anything else, but I seriously think everyone should read it.
The Lover's Dictionary, David Levithan
This is perhaps the opposite of the book before this. It is told in this weird post-modern way where he takes loads of words, puts them in alphabetical order, and then recounts incidents or little expositions that have to do with that word. For 'love', he says something like 'Don't even ask me to define this'.
It is fairly depressing, but still a book worth reading. Bittersweet and all that.
Non-Fiction
Quantum, Manjit Kumar
I'l be honest, I've been looking for a book on quantum for a while, and this had a pretty cover. Also The Guardian liked it. Kumar writes about the history of quantum mechanics, tracing it from Boltzmann and Planck to the arguments between Bohr and Einstein. Though the first bit of the book is a little irritating in that there is no maths and the assertions he makes about the nature of quanta are hard to understand (for me, anyway) without some maths, the book really comes into its own when it describes Bohr and Einstein arguing about reality. The best part of the book is when he describes Einstein's attempts at constructing thought experiments to try and disprove Heisenberg's Uncertainty, and Bohr defeating all of his attempts. There is one in which Einstein constructs a box of light which will stay with me forever.
17 Equations That Changed The World, Ian Stewart
I keep dipping it into this book, because I think 'Hey, maybe this time it won't be so bad', and then it is as bad as all the previous times, and then I forget again.
My problem is that there is not enough maths. There is some intuitive explanation, there is some history of these equations, but I would really like a mathematical description of these things. The general public really needs to get more numerate so that books are written for the rest of us. But I'll keep dipping into it, and maybe one day I'll have dipped into all of it, and then I'll have finished it.
Children's
Wyrmeweald: Bloodhoney, Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
Unashamedly, this is me being nostalgic for The Edge Chronicles. But it still stands really strongly on its own. The second book in this trilogy continues the odd story of the first, of a land where kith live off dragons however they can, and weird and wonderful creatures kill them or not as they will. Everytime I read Stewart and Riddell I am stunned that these are children's books, because they are so well written, with so much depth, that it is only the obvious happy endings that really signify anything else. Happiness, I tell you.
The Song of the Quarkbeast, Jasper Fforde
This is so much fun. I finished it, then read the book that comes before it (The Last Dragonslayer), and then read it again. I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks (as I do) that children's fiction started to go downhill round about the time I grew up (if indeed I have).
The thing about this book is that the heroine is exactly who you want her to be: a no-nonsense girl who just wants to fix the problems she has in as straightforward a manner as possible. Read, read.
In Progress
The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee
I have been sitting on the second one for a while, having been distracted by physics and the Wild West. Am halfway through it.
The Talented Mr Ripley has yet to grip me, though I'm told it will. I'll write about them once I've read them.
The Talented Mr. Ripley will grip you. Like good old-fashioned psychological thrillers, it takes time. And, if you know anything about Highsmith herself, she's fully capable of shocking your pants off.
ReplyDeletei am eminently impressed by her ability to make me root for someone who is clearly a deranged killer. can't wait to buy the second book.
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