The Chemickal Marriage

Nearly seven years ago I read a book called "The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters" by G.W. Dahlquist, which is set in a semi-steampunk, Victorian-ish, alternate reality. That book is full of adventure, mystery, and quite a lot of sex. As I said at the time, I'd find it very hard to recommend that book to anyone because of what they might infer about me, but it was a rip-roaring romp which I enjoyed quite a lot. At the end of that book, there seemed to be a few lose ends of story not tied up, but the bulk of the story appeared to be done. 

 The sequel, in 2009, called "The Dark Volume" continued the story without really achieving much. I was hugely disappointed, as I blogged at the time. 

 And now the trilogy has come to an end with "The Chemickal Marriage". I approached it hoping that it would be as good as the first book, but fearing it would disappoint as much as the second. Indeed it sat, unread, on my Kindle for the best part of a year before I got around to reading it. Well, its somewhere in the middle between those two books, but sadly closer to the sequel than the original. 

The great success of the first book was the way the author spent the first half of the book teasing the reader with suggestions and tantalising hints about the nature of the mysterious 'process', and with teasing of an erotic nature too, and then spent the second half of the book slowly revealing details of the strange alchemy, and also occasionally revealing erotic stuff too. It was compelling, as a reader, to try and figure out what was going on with the politics, with the science, and with the sexual politics, and then have your suspicions confirmed, or more commonly overturned as the story unfolded. 

The main failing of the two sequels is that they don't really have anything to tease and tantalise the reader with. Sure, we find out a few new things about the properties of the glass, but really there seems to be no purpose behind most of the events and revelations. Stuff happens, more stuff happens, characters die, characters that you thought might be dead turn out not to be dead, and so on, but its really just a jumble of events occurring (oh, and there's quite a lot less sex). Fundamentally, I didn't really care what happened next, I only really wanted the story to make some sort of sense and come to some sort of conclusion. Eventually, it does. The trilogy appears to be over, and that's that. But getting there wasn't half as interesting as the first book. Not even a quarter as interesting.

One thing I noticed in here, which I can't remember noticing in the first two books, is the way in which the author seems to keep getting ahead of himself in the action sequences. Characters, who may have been left behind pages before suddenly reappear without warning and promptly change the way a fight is going, or equivalent. It seems the author is in such a hurry to relate events to the reader that he occasionally loses track of what he's trying to convey. After a while I got a bit fed up with this. The first book was all about anticipation, here we never got the chance to anticipate anything. Things just happened, event, event, rush, rush, rush, event.

Also, the author seemed to forget some of the things he factored in at the start of the book. Early on, Chang wakes from unconsciousness to discover that he's been operated on and has some form of implant on his spine. A chapter later Dr Svenson looks at this and is shocked, but the reader doesn't really find out why he's shocked, and then... the author forgets all about this and it doesn't feature in the story again. This happened to a few other plot points too.

Another annoyance was the way the author stuck to the same pattern as the first book. There are 10 long chapters, each focussed on one of the three main characters. This worked really well the first time about, but I have to say that I really lost interest in all the chapters about Dr Svenson here. I totally didn't care about his story arc.

I could moan about this book for ages, which would give the wrong impression. It wasn't bad. It was quite engaging and enjoyable at times, but it is not a worthy successor to the original.

I wouldn't bother if I was you. Just read the first book and move on.

I really hope G.W. Dahlquist writes a stand-alone novel next time. Tease, tantalise, hint, reveal, action, reveal, twist, end. That would be great.

The Revelations by Alex Preston

I'm not sure if this book review belongs on this blog or on my other blog, but I've put it here anyway... 

The Revelations by Alex Preston
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you think that all Christians are hypocrites and the Alpha Course is a cult, then this is the book for you. However, if you are more realistic in your outlook then the shortcomings of this book will probably annoy you as much as they annoyed me.

The book follows the lives of four young (late 20s) Christians who are helping run 'The Course' for the first time. They are all musicians and the band they play in (at The Course) is known as 'The Revelations', hence the title of the book. The Course itself is clearly a fictionalised and exaggerated version of the Alpha Course, a popular introduction to Christianity course run by many churches in the UK and beyond. However, in the book, 'The Course' is clearly much more of a cult-like entity rather than being merely an entry point into mainstream evangelical Christianity. Indeed, one of the characters in the book refers to The Course as being a cult.

The book is clearly written by someone who is not a Christian and has issues with Christianity. I've been through an Alpha Course, and been involved with leadership in other similar courses, and as a consequence, the behind-the-scenes bits in this book simply do not ring true at all. Course leaders do not behave like this, talk like that, pray like that or sing worship songs like that. Basically, the Course in the book is so much of a caricature that it is unreal.

I know that not all Christians are perfect and honourable, but I can't believe in the scenario given here where all four characters leading the Course are hypocrites, liars, sexually promiscuous (with course attendees) and get drunk (again with course attendees) all the time. While you do get people like that in Churches, generally they are not invited to lead worship or evangelism groups.

The book is split into three sections, the first relates to the 'normal' weekly workings of the Course, the second relates to the weekend retreat, which anyone familiar with Alpha will be familiar with, and the third relates to the unraveling of the lives of the characters following the events of the retreat weekend. I'll not give spoilers.

Given what I've said above, I found section 1 to be unrealistic. I didn't like the characters, I didn't believe the scenarios, I didn't care what happened. But I'd paid for the book so I kept reading...

Section 2 was more interesting, and you do start to care a little for some of the characters. Particularly Lee, who is clearly a fragile character with various complicated needs, which obviously is going to start things spiraling out of control in the third section. But the prevalent sexual promiscuity and drunken debauchery through the weekend retreat is so far from believable for anyone who's ever been on one, that the thing is simply unrealistic. Half of it I could relate to, half of it would never happen like that. This is a book written by an external viewer imagining what might happen on such courses, not someone who's actually been there.

But. By the third section I was caring for the characters and genuinely wanted to find out how all this was going to resolve. There are a couple of twists that send the story heading off in directions you don't expect and it is a fun ride. Then the story ends, but there is still 10% of the book left... The final bit drags as a few final 'revelations' come out, some which are expected, some less so, and you realise that all that has gone before is not exactly as you thought. And at the end you realise that none of the characters are honorable, even the ones you thought were basically good people. Its all about money, sex and power. None of the characters has any other driving motivation. Which is a crap way to end the book.

I'm disappointed. The author could have filled his book with a variety of characters with different wants and desires, but actually no. As far as he is concerned, all Christians are drunken, promiscuous, hypocrites.

Given how far from reality that belief is, the ending is a huge let down.

Oh, and by the way, there is quite a lot of unnecessary sex in this book. With quite a few scenes with details which we really didn't need to know, and only serve to underline the hypocrisy of the characters further. We got the message, OK?

Bottom line is that I know a lot of Christians and I don't know any people like these. Sure, I know Christians who have had affairs, sure I know Christians who drink too much occasionally, sure I know Christians who are motivated by greed, sure I know Christians who lie and cheat. But on the whole, the vast majority of Christians I know are not like this all the time. So in the end, I simply don't believe this story.

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

I don't really publish much on this blog these days, do I? And when I do it seems to be mostly book reviews. So not to break that pattern, here's another brief book review:

"The Final Empire" by Brandon Sanderson, subtitled 'Mistborn, Book One' was a book I knew nothing about until browsing my local Waterstones bookshop a few weeks back. It was a book recommended to me by one of those little "I like this book because..." cards with which the staff in the bookshop recommend some books at you. I flicked through the pages of several of these recommended books, and noted down the details of four of them. I then went home, downloaded the Kindle samples of each of the four and read them. On the basis of this, I bought (the actual physical books, in the bookshop) two of them and decided to read this one first (I would have bought the Kindle versions, as they were cheaper, had I not been buying these to take on holiday with me - I didn't really want to leave my Kindle sitting beside a pool while I went in for a dip, but I'll happily leave a paperback book in this manner). So anyway...

The setting of the book, as summarised on the cover, poses the question "What if the Dark Lord won?" and while the book is not intended to be set in the same world as Lord of the Rings, the premise is broadly similar to the situation which might have happened had Frodo failed to destroy the ring and if Sauron had got it and enslaved humanity for a thousand years. I say 'humanity' here as there are no elves, dwarfs, hobbits, orcs, or any other non-human species here. Well, none are apparent for most of the book, at least. So we start with the setting of a world (or at least an Empire, we never see beyond its boundaries) ruled over by an apparently immortal, possibly divine tyrant, who has turned a once green and pleasant land into a grim and murky land where trees and shrubs are brown, colourful flowers don't exist and a ring of volcanoes surrounding the main city in the empire spew ash into the sky constantly. By day there are ashfalls and by night there are mists, which the common people ("skaa") are too scared to go into. Basically, life is hard, death is common, and it has always been thus.

I'll say up front that my favourite kinds of fantasy books are those where the impossible objective is stated early on in the story and then we see, usually with a number of surprises and twists, how the impossible objective is eventually realised. This is one of those kinds of books, so I was inclined to like it from the word go. It isn't really a spoiler for me to reveal they the objective of our rag-tag band of heroes (I also generally prefer novels with a rag-tag band of hereos; much better than muscular warrior types) is to overthrow the tyrant, put someone else in authority, and - if such a thing were possible - to kill the 'Lord Ruler'. As this is a 'Book One' in a series of at least four parts (I don't yet know if part 4 is the conclusion to the series, or if the door remains open for further parts), I wasn't expecting all of this to be achieved in one book and, indeed, this book ends up in a very unexpected way leaving the reader wondering 'where on earth do they go from here?'. But the ending is actually far more satisfying than I was expecting - even 2/3 of the way through this book, I was expecting the book to end with a kind of "And so the war began..." type conclusion. This book doesn't go there, it is so much better than that. 

The book that this book reminded me most of is "Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay, and considering that this book measures up to Tigana in a rather favourable light, and that Tigana remains my all time favourite book of all time (!), I'd have to rank this book as one of the best I've ever read. OK, there are a few minor things wrong with it (some sections are too long; the narrative feels slightly odd on the rare occasions that it is not written from the point of view of one of the two main characters), but on the whole this is a world which it is a joy to lose yourself in, with characters you can believe in, and a plot that you actually care about. When I reached the end of this book I was on holiday and was really quite annoyed that I couldn't instantly download the next installment to my Kindle and keep reading. For what its worth, the other two books that this reminded me of were "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe - I know some people rate this as one of the greatest fantasy novels ever, and exploring the strange world of The Final Empire is much like finding out about the world in Wolfe's books - also there were some similarities in this to the Belgariad by David Eddings, but generally in ways which made me think 'this is better than the Belgariad because...'.

I could go into details about how magic works in this book/world, but I won't because it is much more fun to find out about it as you go along. I have to say that the way some of the magic usage is described in fight scenes does get a little bit of a drag, but that is a very minor niggle with an otherwise fascinating new take on how magic might work in a fantasy realm. In that respect (unnecessary descriptions of how magic works), this book also reminded me of "Master of the five magics" by Lyndon Hardy, which I read back in the 80s, but The Final Empire is so far above that book that the comparison is hardly fair.

Basically, if you like 'high' fantasy novels where a bunch of rag-tag heroes set out to overthrow an oppressive ruler, then you'll absolutely love this novel.

Best book I've read this year. Possibly the best I've read this century (hmmm, does it trump GGK's "Under Heaven"? I'm not sure, but they're in the same league). Certainly the most involving fantasy world I've lost myself in for a long time. Highly recommended.

Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

You may remember I reviewed "Rivers of London" last summer. "Moon over Soho" is the sequel. In the last review, amongst other things, I said:

1. "You know those detective stories where the male lead character meets attractive female characters and they rapidly find themselves in an explicit sex scene? This isn't one of those stories." and
   
2. "The fact that much of the romantic tension still remains at the end of the book suggests to me that the author intends to develop the relationships between these characters over several books..."

The first thing I should say is that Moon over Soho fails to follow in the footsteps of those observations. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Minor spoilers may follow, but I'll not give anything significant away.

Rivers of London ended up with one of the potential love interest characters seriously injured following the events described in that book. While she does have a minor role in this book, her part in the story is surprisingly brief and she only really exists here to make our hero feel a bit guilty, every now and then. The other potential love interest character from the first book doesn't feature here at all, so maybe I got the wrong impression from the first book, but anyway.

The story carries on with our hero, the apprentice to the supernatural-investigating police inspector, investigating two different but connected magical murder inquiries. In one, a series of apparently healthy and very talented jazz musicians die of 'natural causes' in unusual circumstances. In the other, a series of men die in very painful ways, apparently at the, erm, hands of a murderer with 'vagina dentata'. Nuff said. (Google it if you need more info, which you really don't.)

The story is entertaining and moves along at a good pace, which accelerates nicely towards the conclusion. Along the way we find out a bit more about our hero's family, a little bit more about magic, quite a lot about jazz, and a little glimpse into the country's magical past. I suspect there's more there for future books, but then again I was wrong in my predictions after the last book, so I could be wrong again.

As I hinted above, there is a lot more sex in this book than in the last. It kind of springs out of nowhere and seems a bit out of place, but then you come to realise that actually it is part of the plot and is there for a purpose. It actually does serve to make the conclusion a bit more involving.

There are fewer instances of the clunky writing/editing that I noticed in the first book, although there are still one or two points where the narrative jumps in a slightly disconcerting way - usually when providing a bit of back story for an event or character. But that's a minor niggle.

It becomes apparent that there is a 'Moriarty' type criminal mastermind somewhere in the background in this story and it is both annoying and intriguing in the way that his storyline is not resolved by the end of this book.

The two primary crime stories are both resolved here, one in a satisfactory way, and the other a bit less so. Rather than being a single plotline in its own right, the second murder inquiry becomes merged into the larger 'Moriarty' type plot, so its conclusion is brief and not fully resolved. But don't let you stop that reading this excellent book.

So, should you read this book? Yes, I think so, but only if you read Rivers of London first.

Is it better than its predecessor? No, but its not significantly worse either. More of the same really. If you liked the first, then you'll like the second. And probably the third too.

Will I read the next installment of the story "Whispers Underground" when it is published in the summer? Absolutely, yes.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Just finished reading this. It seemed like quite a short book, or maybe I just got engrossed in it and read it faster than usual, its hard to tell when you're reading on a Kindle.

The basic plot (no significant spoilers) is that a young London uniformed police constable gets posted to the scene of an inexplicable murder and interviews one witness, who happens to be a ghost. As a consequence of this and other events, he ends up apprenticed to the London police's only supernatural-investigating inspector. Yes, more or less a London police 'X-Files'.

The plot is interesting, engaging, fast moving and fun. About 3/5ths of the way through the book, you think you see how its going to resolve, and then wonder how the author is going to pad that out for the remaining chapters, and then the plot twists, and twists again, and again. In quite a roller coaster ride of events.

For the most part, the book is well written, but there are a few clunky scenes where it seems that a few lines of dialogue or description are simply missing. For example, at the end of the 2nd murder scene events, one of the characters dies. I read the page about three times and its still unclear to me how they died. In one paragraph they were running past our hero, in the next they were dead and sprawled on the floor, but with no description connecting the two. In a couple of other places (though none as obvious as that one) there seem to be short snippets of description that are simply missing. But its not a huge problem, and didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the story.

You know those detective stories where the male lead character meets attractive female characters and they rapidly find themselves in an explicit sex scene? This isn't one of those stories. There's a nicely written underlying air of unresolved sexual tension that runs through parts of this story as the main character completely fails to have liaisons with his female co-worker and one of the other female characters in the book. The fact that much of the romantic tension still remains at the end of the book suggests to me that the author intends to develop the relationships between these characters over several books, and that very much makes me want to go straight on to the next book, although the reality of an unresolved storyline stretching across three or more books might get annoying after a bit. But maybe it won't come to that.

So, I'd recommend this book to you. Its a lot of fun, is quite interesting, and there's clearly much more involving these characters to come in future books.

Oh, and I've just discovered that Ben Aaronovitch was one of the writers on Doctor Who back in the late 80s. He is responsible for the scene in which a Dalek was first witnessed (by the 7th Doctor and Ace) hovering up the stairs! Actually, I remember that story with some fondness, although the SFX were typically rubbish, as I recall.

And one of the many problems of having a Kindle is that I could simply buy 'Moon over Soho' right now and start reading the next book straight away...

Kindle!

Reader, I bought one.

Thoughts to follow in due course.

Kindle?

I love the look and size of the new Amazon Kindle.

I like the idea, and the cost seems reasonable. But I have some doubts. So I'm weighing up the pros and cons... your opinions are appreciated.

Pros: Compact, portable, user-friendly, good battery life, large (and growing) selection of titles available, bookmarks in lots of books, no more piles of books cluttering up cupboards and wardrobes in my house, it now views PDFs natively, (some) titles are (a bit) cheaper than buying a physical book, instant purchase and read anywhere - no more 'I have nothing to read tonight'...

Cons: DRM, you can't lend books to other people, approx 2/3 of the books on my current Amazon Wishlist are not on Kindle, e-books aren't (on the whole) that much cheaper than physical books, some are even approx the same price as physical books, which is just cheeky...

One of my biggest concerns is related to the DRM. With my iPod, i'm still one of those people who buys the physical CD and then transfers DRM free mp3 to my iPod. That means that all my songs are on my current iPod, and I can transfer them to my future iPod, or future non-iPod mp3 player, etc. And even the DRMed downloads I have from the iTunes store are physically on my computer (with licenses), I can back them up to disc and keep them safe should anything go wrong.

I believe you cannot do this with the Kindle. Kindle titles are 'backed up' online by Amazon, so I have no control of my own media. If they muck up (which might not happen to me, but statistically is highly likely to happen to someone) then they'll lose the books that have been paid for. Potentially, you could end up paying for nothing. Also, I was reading into it and the book licenses are limited to a finite number of devices. OK, I don't need my books to be on many devices at once, but what if I upgrade the reader every couple of years? At some point there will come a time when I cannot add a book I have paid for to a new device that I own, because all the licenses have been used up on previous devices. A book on my shelf will never expire in this way, although it could get worn out by over-reading and need replaced.

But is this an important issue? I don't know. Its all hypothetical.

---

Update: just compared prices of all the books on my wishlist which are on Kindle...

If I bought all of them on Kindle compared to real books, I'd make a saving of £27.12, or 22% of the real book price. One ('hard to find') book in particular has a Kindle price of only 36% of the real book price. But then again, one on the list was more expensive on Kindle than in paperback, only by 45p, but hey.

Still undecided.

'Hood' by Stephen R Lawhead

I've just finished reading 'Hood' by Stephen R. Lawhead.

It was, erm, kind of OK.

I have had mixed experiences with Lawhead books. I loved the original Pendragon trilogy, loved 'The Paradise War', liked 'The Silver Hand', thought the resolution of the trilogy in 'The Endless Knot' was a bit 'meh', was really, really, really disappointed by 'Byzantium'. Thought the later two Pendragon books were quite good, and so on.

He is certainly a gifted story teller. Occasionally he is a great story writer.

In Hood we have great story telling. Shame the plot is sooooo slow. Nothing happens for chapters at a time. Indeed, the thing that I had expected to happen by about a third of the way into the book, only really happens at the end of the book. Or, in other words, this book is pure introduction from beginning to end. It is basically the setup for the rest of the trilogy or series or whatever it is. Luckily I have parts 2 and 3 sitting on my shelf, but a book that is all intro is irritating.

I will read the next one, but I have other things to read first.

Currently reading 'Under Heaven' by Guy Gavriel Kay. Which is great so far, but I'm only a few chapters in...

The Dark Volume by G.W. Dahlquist

You may remember I reviewed 'Glass Books of the Dream Eaters' a couple of years back. Well, this is the follow up.

If you loved Glass Books..., you've probably read the sequel already, so I guess there's not much point in reviewing it for you. So, what did you think?

I found Glass Books a really exciting and engaging experience. It really was one of those books you lose yourself in. But it wasn't perfect. Probably my greatest complaint about Glass Books is the ending - it comes too abruptly and leaves the central characters in an unresolved setting. Glass Books is a very well told exploration of an unfamiliar land, as you read you find out more about the people, more about the place, more about the science, etc. It doesn't all make sense at the outset, but as the story unfolds bits fall into place and you deduce what's going on, or it is revealed to you. But. It ends with the feeling that you've only been told about 9/10ths of the story.

The Dark Volume picks up where Glass Books left off and carries on the story. But the main problem is that there isn't a whole load of story that we were unaware of in the first book. There's still only 1/10th of the story of Glass Books left to tell. And this is padded out to fill a book the size of its predecessor. Indeed, I was very annoyed to discover that the story is still unresolved at the end of The Dark Volume, so we've actually been told less than 1/10th of the story. There's at least another volume to come.

Glass Books worked so well because it teased the reader with tantalising partial revelations for most of the first half of the book, which were then fully revealed later on. There was also plenty of adventure and exploration. But all the revelation was done in Glass Books, there was nothing really new to reveal here. And for the most part we visited the same locations as the earlier book. And the adventure was fairly run-of-the-mill. So, by the end, I really didn't care anymore.

I hope the next book is better. I also hope the next book concludes the story. But what I really want now is for G.W. Dahlquist to go and write a brand new adventure, with new characters and new twists and tease and tantalise us like last time.

Freddie and me

I'm not really one for reading biographies.

I don't think I've ever read an autobiography before.

I've certainly never ready a biography of someone I'd never heard of and who didn't actually live that interesting a life.

I'd never even seen a graphic-autobiography before.

But the story of a Queen-obsessed boy from the UK, moving to the USA and remembering important events in his life and how they relate to Queen concerts and album releases sounded like fun...

So is it any good?

Well, its alright. Obviously if you don't like comics / graphic novels, then this one is not for you. Also, if you don't really care much for the music of Queen then you'd probably best avoid it too. But if you shed a tear on the day when Freddie died and have ever sung along to a Queen song holding a (real or imagined) half microphone stand, then you'll probably relate to this guy and enjoy the book.

The artwork is good and the story is touching. But when the two most significant events in the life of the central character are the death of his grandmother and the death of Freddie Mercury, its not exactly the greatest or funniest story ever told.

Possibly the most interesting sub-plot in the book is the relationship between the central character (a Queen fan) and his younger sister (a Wham! fan), how they are divided by musical differences, then united watching the Freddie tribute concert. Given this sub-plot, the book actually ends on a really heartwarming note... which you'll have to read the book to find out.

Perhaps not as good as I'd hoped it would be, but well worth a read if you're a geeky Queen fan.

Not sci-fi books. Honest.

When is a sci-fi book not a sci-fi book?

Last year (you may remember) I read and reviewed 'The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters' by G.W. Dahlquist. Well, the sequel - 'The Dark Volume' - is out now (hardback) and I popped into my local bookshop to see how much they were selling it for. But it wasn't in the 'Science Fiction and Fantasy' section of the shop. I found it in the 'General Fiction' section.

But the book is clearly SF. OK, it might be a pseudo-Victorian setting, but it is quite definitely 'steam-punk' SF. They have impossible technology. Characters in the book are transformed into super-human (or certainly non-human) beings. So why is this book not shelved with the rest of the SF?

Another SF book I read recently, 'The end of Mr Y' by Scarlett Thomas (hey, I don't seem to have blogged about that one; it was quite good) is similarly shelved in General Fiction, not in SF. Yet that one features time travel and rewriting history.

So when is a SF book not a SF book?

The only conclusion I can come to is that it is not considered SF when mainstream reviewers actually like it. Then they class it as literature.

I had thought perhaps it was when an author who had not previously written SF wrote a SF novel, but then I realised that G.W. Dahlquist hadn't written anything before 'Glass books'. He's never written non-SF.

Its the same on TV and in movies. You get actors being interviewed trying to play down the 'science fiction' aspect of the show or movie that they're in. You know, they might be in Heroes - which is all about superheroes - but they still make out that its not a SF/Fantasy show and claim its really all about character and drama. But so is almost all SF!

Aaaaargh! It makes me want to scream.

'Making Money' by Terry Pratchett

Once there was a time, a few years ago, when I eagerly awaited the publication of a Terry Pratchett book. Luckily for me I have a birthday in November and Pratchett books tend to be published in early November, in time for Christmas shopping. I think I've had a present of a hardback Pratchett book for every birthday so far this century. I got 'Making Money' in November last year, along with a few other books, so it didn't get read straight away.

It wasn't really worth the wait. It is a disappointing read. Nothing of any interest actually happens in the book. The characters appear to be quite interesting at first glance, but aren't really fleshed out as the book goes on. The character of 'Adora Belle', for example, is just there. She doesn't do much, she doesn't grow as a character and we learn nothing about her through the book. I didn't really remember much about her from 'Going Postal', but that might be because there isn't much to remember. Maybe she is just a paper thin, 2D character. The main character 'Moist' isn't much better. He's a man who needs a challenge too keep him on the (reasonably) straight and narrow, but beyond that he doesn't have much of a fleshed-out character after two books.

Most of Pratchett's early books were funny and entertaining. In some of them the plot was secondary to the laughs. Later Pratchett books have tended to be humourous rather than funny, but the plots have often been interesting, clever and gripping. This book was humourous in bits but never gripping and rarely interesting. Which is a big shame.

I've read all the Discworld books. I realise that is nothing remarkable to several of the readers of this blog and probably marks me out as a geek to the rest of you. Here, in very potted form are my opinions on the series so far:

1. The Colour of Magic
   The first Discworld novel. Quite funny, made me want to read more but I wasn't expecting TP to become as huge a success as he did. If you haven't read any TP this is a good place to start, but it gets better after this.
   
2. The Light Fantastic
   More coherent and less episodic than the first book. Also much, much better. A very funny book with a great story. Rincewind is a fantastic comedy character.
   
3. Equal Rites
   Good ideas in here, but not as well done as The Light Fantastic. Introduces the character of Granny Weatherwax, who'll get to be in much better books later on.
   
4. Mort
   The first brilliant TP book. This is where he gets into his stride. Fantastic ideas and some really funny stuff. You could read this as your first Discworld book.
   
5. Sourcery
   Rincewind is back, yippee. Entertaining.
   
6. Wyrd Sisters
   Another brilliant TP book. This is the first proper book about the Witches and is one of the best Discworld books. This book is perhaps more clever than any of the books so far.
   
7. Pyramids
   I really, really liked this one when it came out. Philosophy and fantasy rolled into one. Excellent. Stands up well to repeat readings too.
   
8. Guards! Guards!
   Brilliant again. This one is probably (in my opinion) the best Discworld book of the lot. This is also probably the last book which you could read as your first exposure to Discworld, all the subsequent ones kind of rely on those that have gone before, to a greater or lesser extent. This one is jam-packed full of fully constructed characters and has a great and interesting story for them to be in.
   
9. Eric
   Ricncewind returns in a fairly slight story. Not great, but quite adequate.
   
10. Moving pictures
    I didn't like this on first reading. It improved the second time, but is still not great.
    
11. Reaper man
    Again, I didn't like this on first reading, but when I revisitied it a few years later I enjoyed it quite a bit.
    
12. Witches abroad
    The Witches are back in another highly entertaining story. I think TP had a lot of fun writing this.
    
13. Small gods
    This one ranks second to 'Guards! Guards!' in my opinion. Brilliant. I love all the philosophical ideas in this one.
    
14. Lords and ladies
    This picks up straight after 'Witches Abroad' but isn't half as good a story.
    
15. Men at arms
    The sequel to 'Guards! Guards!' is very good, and also one of the best Discworld stories.
    
16. Soul music
    This is kind of like 'Moving Pictures', but a bit better. Still not one of the greats though.
    
17. Interesting times
    Another Rincewind story. Funny and, erm, interesting. I like this one a lot.
    
18. Maskerade
    The Witches return in a fine story, which is a bit on the long side.
    
19. Feet of clay
    Another in the 'City Watch' thread, a great, gripping read.
    
20. Hogfather
    I loved this book on first reading, but subsequent reads haven't been as good. Quite philosophical again. This has been made into a TV mini-series which included the plot and some of the humour, but most of the interesting stuff got chopped out, which is a big shame.
    
21. Jingo
    Serious. This one marks the switch from frivolous to serious. Its about war. Its not about Iraq, honest. Not enough gags. I didn't like it much and have never tried a second read.
    
22. Last continent
    Rincewind again. OK, but not a great one. Some of the idas in here don't seem to fit with the rest of the story.
    
23. Carpe jugulum
    Quite a dark one this. All about vampires. I don't really like vampire stories much.
    
24. The fifth elephant
    Having done vampires, this one is about werewolves. The word 'gritty' might start to apply here. Less jokes than of old, more politics. A bit grim in bits. And the whole thing of the 'clacks' system becoming like the internet is dull.
    
25. The truth
    The first really good book for a few years. Introduces new central characters while characters we know well appear in cameo roles. Pratchett does this in subsequent books a lot, but (in my opinion) this is the only book where it really works well. Interesting plot and some good comedy moments.
    
26. The last hero
    Short story with pictures. Featuring Rincewind again. Nice but forgettable story.
    
27. The thief of time
    I never really 'got' this one. There are some interesting ideas tied up in a strange plot and I'm not really sure what's going on.
    
28. Night watch
    Serious again. Good story but with not a lot of laughs.
    
29. Monstrous regiment
    Back to war again. Serious. I didn't like this one at all.
    
30. Going postal
    A new character is introduced and lots of old ones cameo. Not a great or interesting story and not very funny. Disappointing.
    
31. Thud!
    Serious and political again but with some good bits. Best of the recent books, but that's not saying much.
    
32. Making Money
    Reviewed above.
    

The Portable Door by Tom Holt

During the 1990s I read a lot of books by Tom Holt. Some I quite liked, others I loved and one or two I really disliked and, in some cases, never finished. But a sucession of books that I didn't like much, culminating in 'Wish you were here' (published 1998, but I attempted to read it a couple of years later), which I never finished reading, put me off Tom Holt books for a bit.

You know the old cliche that every story should have a beginning, a middle and an end? Well, I found that Tom Holt books generally had good and interesting beginnings, clever and sometimes inspired endings, but often got a bit lost in the middle somewhere. It was as if he had a great idea, wrote it down in full and then thought 'hmm, this isn't long enough, I need to pad it out somehow' and added a few unnecessary twists and turns in the middle somewhere.

But anyway, 'The Portatble Door' got quite good reviews and sounded a bit more interesting than some of his late 90s output, so I finally got around to reading it.

Its good. Its funny. Its clever. It even has moments of greatness. Oddly enough, it isn't the middle of this book that Tom Holt had problems with, it seems to have been the beginning. The beginning of the book seems to go on for ages, indeed, it felt like well past the halfway point in the book before the story got going properly. Certainly its past halfway before the portable door of the title actually comes into the story and we (and indeed the characters in the story) begin to work out what is going on. Or rather, what is going on is revealed to the characters about halfway through the book and it feels like the majority of the actual story doesn't even begin until that point.

The book tells the story of Paul Carpenter, a reasonably talent free young man who has left school but so far failed to find a job. We meet him at his interview to be a general office dogsbody at a company called J.W. Wells & Co. While waiting for the interview he meets a skinny and sulky girl who he is instantly drawn to and, against all probability, both he and the girl (who we eventually find out is called Sophie) get jobs at J.W. Wells & Co. Given his CV, you wouldn't think that Tom Holt actually spent much of his time doing dull office jobs, so I guess he's spoken to a number of people who have done exactly that, and has channeled their experiences into the first half of this book. You see, in the first half of the book, before we really find out what is going on, we find out about Paul and Sophie and the dull, pointless, weird and occasionally inexplicable things they are given to do as office juniors. It is the office job from hell. Possibly quite literally.

But I won't spoil the surprise of what the company actually is and does. You can find that out by reading the book. Despite being a slow starter, it is a good and entertaining book and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of weirdness in their life.

It even verges close to being 'literature' at some points (not merely 'genre fiction' which most folk will label it as) as the book does touch on big themes in human experience. I suppose the main theme of the book is that you are not defined by what you do (in terms of a job, I mean), or what you look like, or even what species you are, its who you are underneath your skin that counts.

And the story of Paul Carpenter doesn't end there. There are three other books in the series, so far, so I'll probably get around to reading the next one - 'In your dreams' - sometime.

---

For what its worth, I found the first few of Tom Holt's fantasy books the most entertaining, everything from 'Expecting someone taller' (1987) and 'Who's afraid of Beowulf' (1988) through to 'Faust among equals' (1994). After that things got a bit too weird and convoluted for my liking, although 'My Hero' (1996) was good.

The Northern Lights / The Golden Compass

Last month I listened to the unabridged audio book of 'The Northern Lights' by Philip Pullman. Last night I went to the cinema and saw the movie 'The Golden Compass' based on that book. Here are my thoughts on both...

Much has already been said on the subject of the anti-religious message in the book(s) and how this has been played down (or dumbed down) for the film, but if you actually consider 'The Northern Lights' by itself, without reference to either of the books that follow, the message is not as clear or as anti-religious as some believe. Certainly, in the book, the Magisterium (i.e. the church) is portrayed as being a sinister, corrupt and possibly evil organisation. Similarly, in the film, the Magisterium are clearly made out to be the 'bad guys', although here the picture is painted in much broader brush strokes. But neither the book or the film goes as far as to suggest that there is any spiritual power behind the Magisterium, it could simply be an entirely man-made organisation. Of course, if you've read the other books, you'll know that 'The Authority' (i.e. God) is a character with a part to play, but that is not clear in the first book or film.

Possibly the greatest achievement of the book is the concept of 'deamons', the animal-like personifications of the souls - and constant companions - of every human in Lyra's world. At the start of the book the concept is completely alien to the reader (or, in my case, listener) but Pullman conveys the concept so well that by the middle of the book the reader is truly shocked by the idea of separating the human from their deamon, so the experiments at Bolvangar seem really horrific. In the film the deamon concept is also handled well and must have been a nightmare for the animators. Perhaps the film should have emphasised the idea that humans and their deamons can't be separated by more than a few metres and that there is physical pain if this is extended. Also, the horror of the chamber in Bolvangar is lost in the film because no real explanation is given, there is no warning of what might happen, and it all happens so quickly that the importance of the scene is lost. Indeed, that scene is probably the film's greatest failing.

Dust. The book and the film are all about dust. In the book, dust is something mysterious that Lyra is keen to find out about. In the film there isn't half the mystery about it and it is more just taken as being part of the world, but isn't really very interesting. One of the key things about dust in the book is omitted from the film (though may be at the start of the next one, I suppose) when Lyra and Pan discuss dust and decide that if the Magisterium and Mrs Coulter, etc. think that dust is bad, maybe it's actually good... But what dust actually is is not revealed in either the book or the film - its one of the mysteries that we hope will be revealed in future bits of the story.

One of my favourite things about The Northern Lights was the concept of 'ambaric' power. This is mentioned several times but never explained in the book. Although (slight spoiler here) I was really disappointed by the discovery in the third book that ambaric and electric power were just the same thing, it would have been cool if they had turned out to have been different somehow. In the film, however, although it is never named, various things (airships, carriages, etc.) are apparently powered by cool, blue, gyroscopic machines, which I assume to be an imagining of ambaric power. Nice touch.

One of the oddest decisions in the film was to change the sequence of events from that in the book. I was surprised that the re-ordered sequence of events worked quite well. Thus the big fight at Bolvangar was moved to the end of the film, rather than the end of the middle section of the book, and the bear fight was moved earlier in the film rather than being towards the end of the book. The only thing contrived about the change in order was the explanation (or lack thereof) of why the raiders should have taken Lyra to the bear king as a gift. In the book it makes sense that they take her to Bolvangar, but taking her to the bears makes no sense.

In summary, the book is a great read full of action and big concepts which are thought provoking and interesting. The film dispenses with much of the subtlety in the book and makes everyone clearly good or bad (except Lord Asriel, who remains ambiguous), but is a surprisingly faithful adaptation (faithful to the spirit of the book, if not the chronology), which is gloriously realised and reasonably gripping. I'd recommend both.

However, in my opinion, the second book is not as good as the first and the third is disappointing, so we'll see what happens with the next two films...

---

By the way, I think the book(s) would have been better adapted into a TV series or mini-series, as the books are quite episodic in nature, but I guess that hasn't happened. Also, I really do recommend the audiobook versions of the books. They're read by the author himself, but all the dialogue is performed by actors, so it feels more like a radio play than a talking book. Very nice.

The Golden Compass

How good does the Golden Compass look? If you haven't seen the trailer (or even better, the 'Comic Con' clip compilation) head over to the official site [www.goldencompassmovie.com] and watch it now. Fantastic.

The only problem I have with this is that 'The Northern Lights' (the UK title of the book that this film is based on) is by far the best and most interesting book in the trilogy ('His Dark Materials' by Philip Pullman). So this movie will be followed by two others that are not quite as good as it. Also, rumour has it, the film plays down the anti-religion message of the books, which I can see is quite easy in the first movie, but how can you do the third one without it - its the very heart of the book?

The "Contour" Road Book of Scotland (1948)

I've been having to sort through all the stuff in my Mum's house to see what is worth keeping, what is worth selling and what is worth giving away. Her house goes to its new owners on Friday this week (or rather, thay come to it - the house isn't moving). Boxes and boxes of stuff have gone to charity shops. Even more boxes and boxes of stuff have gone to the tip. Now all I'm left with is a few boxes of (possibly) antique books that I'm not sure what to do with.

But I'm keeping some of the books. Given my fascination with maps of all kinds, I'm finding all the old atlases the hardest thing to part with. So I'm not parting with a couple of my favourites.

This book is fantastic. I'd actually completely forgotten about it until I was sorting through all the old books last week. My Mum bought this in 1948 (when she was 21, three years before she was married). At the time she and her friends did quite a lot of cycling round bits of Scotland, and I think this kind of book was invaluable to the Scottish cyclist.

It basically is a road map book of Scotland (you probably guessed that from the title), but with one major difference to most road maps - it gives side elevations of the route as well as plans!

For example, suppose you are planning on cycling across the Cowal peninsula from Dunoon to Otter Ferry; the road marked "144" in this map:

All you do is look up Route 144 in the book and you get a picture like this, showing you the profile of the road, with footnotes on sharp bends, junctions, etc. Fantastic.

I've driven over this road a few times. The above profile probably gives you a good indication of why I'm not planning on cycling the Glendaruel to Otter Ferry stretch...

They don't make books like this anymore (as far as I know). Shame.

---

So, do you have a favourite road in Scotland that you want to see the profile for? Let me know and (if its in the book) I'll scan it and put it online for you. As a 'starter for 10' here's the infamous Applecross road:

Terry Pratchett: Wintersmith

Just finished reading Terry Pratchett's latest 'for younger readers' Discworld book. It was OK.

In general, given the quality of some of TP's books for 'grown ups', I have found the kids' books disappointing. But this is probably the best of the bunch so far. For some reason, TP seems to think that if you're doing a kids' book it needs to have a much smaller story than adult books - so some of his grown up books have had plots involving wars, governments, countries, etc., but the kids books all happen on a local level. And contain more 'knob gags' and swearing references (though often implicit).

I'm stuck halfway between liking and being offended by the stereotypically Scottish (blue skinned, orange haired, kilt wearing, drinking, swearing, stupid) Feegles - half the time its funny but it veers dangerously close to racism at times. You couldn't have a comedy race of stereotypically Jewish or Indian or Chinese characters in a book like this, cos there would be outrage - even Welsh would probably not be received well - but Scottish is OK? Hmmm.

So what of the plot? Well, the nearly-thirteen year old main character Tiffany Aching inadvertently does something silly early on in the story, which changes the seasons, and spends the rest of the book trying to restore things back to the way they should be. Along the way she has to, basically, be more grown up than the grown ups in the story and deal with the unwanted romantic advances of the Wintersmith. And there's a storyline involving her male friend Roland which ultimately seems pointless. I think TP just wanted to keep him in the story somehow.

The main problem I have with this book is that TP chose to start it with a chapter which, chronologically, comes near the end of the book. This ends with a 'but all this hasn't happened yet' type line and we jump back 6 months or so. By choosing to do this, the author is more or less saying 'the start of my story is not very interesting' and has to give the reader a tantalising glimpse of something exciting coming up to keep them reading through the dull bits. Books that start like this are never great.

Its a shame. We used to get two 'grown up' Pratchett books a year, now we get less than one as his writing seems to have slowed down a bit and he's now doing these kids' books. Still, the next 'grown up' book can't be too far away, so here's hoping.

But, of course, the next book on my 'to read' list is another kids' book - out at midnight tonight...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...?

Only a few days left before the final Harry Potter book is unleashed. What will happen? How will JK resolve the story? Here are some of my predictions, guesses and fears:

1. I really hope that Dumbledore remains dead. If he comes back to life he's just a Gandalf clone. If he advises from beyond the grave he's just an Obi Wan rip-off. Please let him remain dead. However, I give it 50:50 either way.
2. Sirius Black is resurrected. I'm expecting this. Maybe the death of Dumbledore was a ruse concocted by Dumbledore and Snape so that Dumbledore could somehow bring Sirius back? Of course, if Sirius comes back from death there's no reason why Harry's parents can't come back too.
3. One out of Harry, Ron & Hermione dies part way through the book. Personally I'd like it to be Harry, but I'm not sure. I don't think Harry will end up living happily ever after, but Ron & Hermione might. Unless his parents come back to life, dying is the only way Harry can be reunited with them.
4. Ginny dies. Surely?
5. Snape is a good guy after all. I'm still expecting this. Even though he killed Dumbledore in book 6, this was because he was either (a) constrained by the unbreakable oath or (b) doing exactly what Dumbledore wanted or (c) both. Snape ends up being head of Hogwarts? Oh, go on.
6. Draco Malfoy rebels against his father and becomes a good guy. Draco couldn't kill Dumbledore, he's not all evil. Time for a bit of redemption.
7. Voldemort doesn't die. He is stripped of his powers and forced to live as a pure muggle. He (of course) then commits a crime and is put in muggle prison...

Or I could be way off here. We'll see next week.

Please comment on these thoughts. If you want to comment after reading the book, please start your comments with a very obvious spoiler warning. I will add comments below after I have read the book - I will also include spoiler warnings. Cheers.

'Ysabel' by Guy Gavriel Kay

For well over a decade now I have classed Guy Gavriel Kay as my favourite author. I have thoroughly enjoyed all his books with only one of them ('A song for Arbonne') being, in my estimation, merely very good. His last book - 'The last light of the sun' - was fantastic, the 'Sarantine Mosaic' (two books: 'Sailing to Sarantium' and 'Lord of Emperors') was outstanding, 'The Lions of Al-Rassan' (currently being made into a movie by Ed 'The Last Samurai' Zwick) was great and 'Tigana' remains the best book I have ever read. So to say that I had high expectations of this book is a complete understatement.

My first impressions (before reading the actual book) were that 'Ysabel' is a much slimmer work than any of his previous books (except possibly 'The Wandering Fire' - the slimmest of the three volumes which make up the epic 'Fionavar Tapestry' - but that is a third of a story, this is a stand alone novel) and a slight worry in that this story, unlike all his previous works, is set in this world - all the action takes place in 21st century France. But neither of these issues is actually important. It may be different to his previous works, but is not any poorer because of this.

There may be some 'spoilers' in what I am about to say, but I will keep them minor and will not reveal anything that will spoil your enjoyment of the book. Promise.

All GGK books are about people. Sure, some of those people are caught up in world changing events, but the heart of the books is the people and how they change, act and interact, rather than being too concerned with the changes in the world - indeed, the Lions of Al-Rassan concludes with an epic battle between two nations and the book ends without revealing which nation triumphed (ok, so it tells us in the epilogue, but the main point of the ending is that two friends ended up on opposite sides in the battle and that one had to kill the other - it actually didn't matter which side 'won'). Ysabel is no different, it is primarily a story about a 15 year old boy, Ned Marriner, the relationships within his family and the ancient and supernatural events that he gets caught up in - and how he (and his family relationships) changes as a result of the events.

I think having the main character as a 15 year old is a brave move for GGK. In all of his previous books, the main characters have been adults - thinking like adults, behaving like adults, having adult responsibilities, dealing with adult relationships, etc. Here we have Ned, a teenager with teenage responsibilities (e.g. homework), teenage interests (iPod, music, etc.), teenage desires (girls...) and teenage attitudes thrown into a world where he has more intuitive understanding of events than all the adults around him. Not that he understands anything, but that's where things get interesting. All previous GGK books have involved some degree of sexual politics and in a few of them a sexual liaison has been pivotal to the plot development. By having a (not sexually active) teenager as the main character, GGK has forced himself to approach the relationships between the main characters in a completely different way. Here, all the main relationships are family ones, putting a very different spin on things. But this is good.

This emphasis could put Ysabel in the same playing field as J.K. Rowling and Phillip Pullman, although the story is much more subtle than the Harry Potter books and less epic than the His Dark Materials books. Although the themes of children approaching adulthood in Pullman's books are echoed here.

They say that all stories should have a beginning, a middle and an end. This story doesn't really follow that pattern. Two thirds of the way through the book I felt like I was still reading the beginning, but the apparent lack of 'middle' and the brevity of the 'end' were not problems in any way - the main story in the book is a slow-building thing which gradually gives us information and gives us clues which all come together at the end. Indeed, I suppose the book is much more of a 'thriller' than most novels that fall into the category of 'fantasy'.

In that sense, Tigana was the perfect fantasy. The beginning set up the premise - there was a seemingly impossible objective that the various princpal characters were setting out to achieve. The middle described all the actions they took to achieve the goal and the ending was the point where everything came together to actualy achieve the goal, and a final - utterly gobsmackinly masterful - twist in the tail. In Ysabel the objectives are not clear for at least the first half of the story - the main characters simply get caught up in the midst of extraordinary events - and even when one of the objectives becomes clear, most other things remain obscured until the closing two chapters of the book. We simply get swept up in events and carried along at an ever increasing pace until the conclusion.

While I really enjoy the fantasy elements of GGK's books - getting to explore fantasy worlds which sometimes reflect and sometimes differ from our world - the heart of these books is always the characters. Here we have a group of perfectly realised and totally believable people in extraordinary circumstances. Masterful.

This book managed to live up to my high expectations. I can happily recommend this to anyone.

Sigh, probably another three years to wait for the next GGK book...

'The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters' by G.W. Dahlquist

For the past few months I've taken to listening to the BBC's 'Daily Mayo' podcast - or rather some of them. Every week one of the podcasts features a bunch of literary types reviewing some new books. Generally two books a week. Almost always they select books which are 'literary fiction' and which all the reviewers enthuse about at length.

A couple of months ago, one book divided the reviewers, some loved it, others didn't. Perhaps it says something about my character that, of all the books I've heard reviewed on the podcast, this is the only one I've bought for myself...

Midway through reading this book, my wife asked me what kind of book it was, what genre? I found it quite hard to find a simple answer to that question. Some reviews have described it as 'Victorian Sci-fi' which is probably accurate, but misleading. I think I'll stick with my eventual answer - its simply an 'Adventure' story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, although it was frustrating at times and highly rude. It's certainly not an adventure story for kids!

So what's it about? Well, its set (for the most part) in 'the city' - somewhere that clearly is Victorian London, without actually being Victorian London. This is a city filled with posh hotels, parks and train stations that have never existed in London. Furthermore, when the story strays out of the city, we are taken to towns, railway stations and country houses that have never existed. But we have characters from England, Germany, France and other real places mixing here.

The story follows three very different characters: a young lady who came to the city to find a husband, a rogue for hire who is employed to kill a nobleman and a German naval doctor, who starts off in the retinue of a visiting German prince.

The book was originally published in ten smaller books, delivered in weekly installments. Each of the installments follows one of the three main characters, although they all come together in the fourth section, before going their separate ways again. These sections are not subdivided into chapters and each makes for quite a long read (especially the last one).

Fundamental to the books is the 'alchemical science' of the cabal of baddies who use the strange powers of a mineral called 'indigo clay' to empower, control and brainwash certain characters in the story. The powers of indigo clay or the blue glass which it can be made into are slowly revealed as the story goes on, so I won't spoil any of the surprises here. What we know initially (from the book cover, indeed) is that the blue glass can be used to store (or steal) the memories of people. What we also learn, early on, is that there is a 'process', using the blue glass, by which people are transformed into (apparently) more empowered, determined, ruthless and capable people than they had been before the process. Initially, it appears that those transformed by the process are driven by a heady cocktail of most of the seven deadly sins (most notably lust, pride and wrath) without being fettered by feelings of guilt or equivalent. But more is revealed as the book goes on.

While no mention of anything biblical is made in this book, I couldn't help but be reminded of Romans 1v21-32 when reading about the baddies in this book:

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

This kind of describes the folk who have been transformed by the process. It is against this that our three unlikely heroes find themselves fighting.

Along the way, as in all good stories, the three heroes also undergo a kind of transformation. The virgin Miss Temple finds out an awful lot about sex and sexual depravity, the killer 'Cardinal Chang' (neither a cardinal nor asian; long story) ends up saving people out of love and Dr Svenson ends up killing a lot of people, contrary to his own life-saving beliefs.

OK. Let's talk about sex. There appears to be an awful lot of sex in this book, but actually most of it doesn't happen. The first few sections of the book each appear to be building up to inevitable sexual encounters... which don't actually happen. In much of the middle section of the book the sexual encounters mentioned happen 'off screen', as it were, and are referred to but not described. On a few occasions in the book, the heroes witness the baddies in a few sexual acts, but these are not actually described in much detail - most is left to the imagination of the reader. But the baddies are people driven by lust, amongst other things, so they talk about it and refer to it and attempt to control others by it, so something implicitly sexual pervades quite a lot of this book. At one point Miss Temple wonders "if she has become the most depraved virgin in history" and that kind of says it all. But the book is not about sex, it is just a book full of sexual references. One further thought about sex before I move on to other aspects of the book. When 'given over' to their desires by the 'process' it appears that women are equally happy to engage in sexual encounters with other women as well as men, but the men feel no such urge... why is this?

Anyway, as we find out, sex is used by the baddies as a control mechanism on others, and the real plan of the baddies is to take control of key players in the government of both England and Germany. There's lots of to-ing and fro-ing, politics and backstabbing, a bit of swashbuckling, quite a lot of fighting and also quite a bit of that erudite word play that Victorians seem to engage in, usually while sitting in 'parlours' or 'drawing rooms'. All this is written, with relish, by a man who clearly has an excellent grasp of the English language. The story is, for the most part, really gripping and you really want to know what happens next... I found myself planning ahead to the next time I'd have an opportunity to read, and really appreciated the fact that I had four flights to various European locations in the past couple of weeks.

The book doesn't reveal things very quickly. It is a bit of a tease really - it hints at things but never goes for the full reveal until much later in the book. Indeed, some things are never revealed, and I, having finished the book now, found that quite annoying at the end. I am still left with questions.

Take the whole 'alchemical science' thing - who invented it? It is referred to as being 'old' and 'ancient' in the book, but how did the villains find out about it? And speaking as a scientist, I want to know how its supposed to work - there are machines and pipes and electricity and steam and furnaces and bellows, but no clear explanation (or even tantalising hints) about how the thing is supposed to actually work.

And what about the missing artist? OK, so I figured out what had actually happened to him quite a long time before it was revealed, but his back story isn't adequately painted in.

But most of this is nit-picking. For at least nine tenths of the book - that is, while you're immersed in the story - it is a highly enjoyable and gripping ride. Its just a shame that not everything is neatly sewn up at the end and that the ending itself is very abrupt. I want to know what happens next - there's not another novel there, but there is at least a half chapter missing where we should see how the remaining characters try to fit back into their old lives.

The book is not a book which tackles issues, but a few philosophical points are flirted with along the way. Are we simply the sum total of our experiences? If some of those experiences were taken away from us (so that we not only couldn't remember them, but didn't know that there was anything to remember) would we still be the same people? What if we could experience things that other people had experienced, and could remember their memories - would we then be different people? Or is there something inherently me that is independent of experience and memory?

For example, in the story, the virgin Miss Temple experiences the senstations of somone else's sexual encounter, and is left with the same memories that the other person had. She knows what it felt like and can remember it. Is she still a virgin after the experience? Given that she experienced and could remember the depravity of the others, would that make her depraved? In the book, the author seemed to think not. Miss Temple's resolve was even more against the villains after she shared their experience than before.

The problem I am left with after reading this book is can I recommend it to anyone? Certainly, I enjoyed it. But if I recommended it to you, would your opinion of me be changed?

You probably would enjoy it though.

Sorry for the extreme length of this posing. It wasn't intended. Next on my reading list is 'Ysabel' by Guy Gavriel Kay, my favourite author and the only author I have read multiple books by where I haven't been disappointed by any of his books... yet.