books and books review

Yes, I know, I keep forgetting to put these posts up. Here’s what I read last month.

The Time Traders — Andre Norton
A juvenile deliquent gets the chance to redeem himself by voluntering for what turns out to be a time travelling experiment. A very readable, fast paced coming of age story.

The Handmaid’s Tale — Margaret Atwood
Best book of the month, as you might expect. This is the novel that made Margaret Atwood famous, the classic dystopian story of an America taken over by the religious right. Slightly dated in places, but still chilling.

Fever Pitch — Nick Hornby
This is the book that made football cool for the intelligensia in the early nineties. Hornby writes well about his experiences as an Arsenal fan.

Alphabet of Thorn — Patricia A. McKillip
An orphan working in the royal library comes in possession of a book only she can read, the story it tells may be more than just ancient history. A decent novel by a veteran fantasy author.

Up Against It — M. J. Locke
An excellent hardish science fiction story by a new (to me) author.

Much, much too late with this list, I know.

Silver Princess, Golden Knight — Sharon Green
I took a punt on this, from an author I hadn’t heard anything before and was disappointed. A princess gets into trouble with the law and her father’s solution is to marry her off through a contest. She enters herself but of course falls in love with her main rival. At the end it turns out all her struggles were for nothing. The author really seemed to hate her heroine.

The Magicians’ Guild — Trudi Canavan
I was disappointed with this novel, as it looked like it was possibly going to challenge the class assumptions built into most epic fantasy novels, but it didn’t.

Rome and the Sword — Simon James
A military history of Rome, as told through the swords it used. An interesting conceit and a decent history.

Last Letters from Hav / Hav of the Myrmidons — Jan Morris
The original was written in 1985, a series of dispatches from a fictional city state located somewhere in the nebulous reaches of far Eastern Europe; the second was written in 2005, updating Hav’s story. The 1985 Hav was chaotic, a mixture of the histories and powers that had shaped it. The 2005 version was streamlined, totalitarian in a way you recognise from actually existing countries.

Dancing in the Glory of Monsters — Jason E. Stearns
A nuanced and interesting history of the wars in Zaire/the Congo.

Silence in Solitude — Melissa Scott
The second in the Silence trilogy, about a woman space pilot in a far future where physics is very different from our own and her struggles to find the lost road to Earth.