Reading Roundup - January 2019

Happy New Year!

In 2018, I managed a fairly respectable bit of reading/listening. I got through thirty-one new(1) novels – although only one of them fit the old Found Horizons challenge, or I guess two if I can still count Soviet-era SF – and twelve new graphic novels, re-read thirteen novels, listened to nine substantial new audio plays, five regular or binged podcasts, and re-read an additional six novels with my daughter, Arya. Let’s see how we can do in 2019.

A Glimmer of Hope, by Steve McHugh(2)

We begin with the first volume of The Chronicles of Avalon, in which a young woman stumbles on the existence of a secret world of magical beings and strange powers, discovering a power of her own that she must learn to harness, before those who would see her harmed catch up with her, or the source of those powers consumes her.

This is one of a number of books that I’ve bought on Audible having picked up the Kindle version as part of my Prime subscription, and it’s not one that I would have gone for at price, but honestly it isn’t terrible. Layla Cassidy may be a little more badass than is entirely credible in a hard-working metallurgy student, but the absence of any chosen oneness is refreshing, as is the aversion of such tropes as love triangles or douchebag soulmates. Layla doesn’t fall swooningly in love with a dreamy-eyed protector who alternates between lovey-dovey and passive aggressive, and honestly it’s depressing that this absence is a virtue instead of a given. McHugh’s world is interesting, although it’s occasionally apparent that he’s operating in a setting established in someone else’s story, usually when someone goes on about how cool an apparently minor character is. This last is a symptom of the writing style, which is far more functional than sophisticated (he said, aware that it makes him sound like a bit of a pseud, but there it is.)

As a side note, it’s kind of weird to see a series like this set in England. There’s something odd about fantasy violence set in one’s own country, less because I genuinely think ogre massacres would go unnoticed in Wisconsin than because, on a subconscious level, my brain considers ‘the USA’ to be on the same ontological level as Middle Earth.

Terrahawks – Vol. 1 (audio play)

Big Finish continue their bid to license my entire childhood with the first volume of their continuation of the Gerry Anderson series Terrahawks. Never as famous as Thunderbirds, this was nonetheless my first experience of the Anderson canon, featuring a secret organisation dedicated to defending Earth against the threat of intergalactic warlord Queen Zelda. In retrospect, a lot of things about it don’t make a lot of sense - Earth’s entire defence force is five people, as many spaceships and an indeterminate number of Zeroid combat robots, but then the entire invasion force of an intergalactic conqueror consists of half a dozen ships, the Queen and her immediate family, and an indeterminate number of Cube combat robots – but I always loved it, and Big Finish do it proud. Original cast members Jeremy Hitchen, Denise Bryer and Robbie Stevens return (with Beth Chalmers filling in for the late Anne Ridler and Hitchen taking over Zeroid commander Sergeant-Major Zero from the retired(3) Windsor Davies,) which together with authentic early-80s sound effects and the original theme music recreates the feel of my impressionable youth in a hard-to-fail fashion. Also present and correct is the somewhat tongue-in-cheek style, satire and vaguely ludicrous scenarios of the original, although that does not leave the series without its more powerful moments, such as in an episode where Zelda targets Tiger Ninestein’s clones, killing several and forcing another to choose between his own life and the protection of the Earth.

The Return of the King, by JRR Tolkien (re-read)

Wrapping up my re-read of The Lord of the Rings(4), I went through The Return of the King this month. There’s a lot of stuff in this one I’d forgotten or, perhaps, skimmed through, most of which amplifies how much Jackson shrunk Middle Earth in his adaptation, so that Faramir’s defence of Osgiliath was a short charge with a few dozen knights and the Ride of the Rohirrim a few nights gallop rather than an extended trek through the forest of the Woses. Also, remember Imrahil? This also has some of the worst of Tolkien’s unconscious racism, with Haradrim troops including ‘huge black men like trolls, with red mouths and white eyes.’ Seriously, JRR, I’m trying to think well of you, but there’s only so much I can do with that, and with your ‘swarthy, slant eyed’ outsiders invading the peace of the Shire in the final part of the book. The Scouring of the Shire is another episode which I’d blanked a lot from, which is a shame because it’s where Merry and Pippin hit their stride as leaders, and the entirety of Sam’s romance with Rose Cotton plays out.

So, yeah… JRR Tolkien, a writer of his time, but also the creator of so many of the tropes which so dominated a century of fantasy writing that they now seem like clichés. Despite the jading of years, however, those tropes do not seem stale here. Tolkien was not a great writer, at least in terms of the pure quality of his prose, but his line of epic descriptive and declamation has a timeless quality that serves very well here. Again, for all his hatred of allegory, it can’t be ignored that the closing chapters of The Return of the King are about soldiers coming back from war to find themselves and their home both changed in ways that are not always compatible. Sam, Merry and Pippin may come home with skills that not only allow them to overthrow Saruman and his ruffians, but to play key roles in the restoration and advancement of the Shire, but Frodo only comes back broken, unable to participate in the lifestyle he has protected.

A Conspiracy of Alchemists, by Liesel Schwarz

Elle Chance is an adventurous airship courier; a daring pilot, determined to make her own way in the world. Don’t worry, though; this isn’t actually important to the plot or anything. Recommended by her booker, Patrice, she takes a job for the mysterious Hugh Marsh, but her package is stolen by Alchemists, who are intent on remaking the world to their own ends. Marsh is a Warlock, somewhat immortal and sworn to oppose the Alchemists, and Elle might be the one thing that both the Warlocks and the Alchemists need to achieve their goals.

Despite a promising set-up, A conspiracy of Alchemists suffers from a contrived plot and a highly unconvincing romance based, as ever, on the magnetic appeal of an authoritarian douchebag who suddenly starts treating the female lead with the bare minimum of common courtesy. Or maybe it’s the title. Are women in Steampunk alternate-Victorian England still suckers for a title? Also, what is ‘spark’, the power source for the Steampunk revolution, if it isn’t – and they say it isn’t – magic? There’s a balance in these things between ‘show, don’t tell’ and ‘just go with it,’ and this novel leans too much towards ‘just go with it.’ I’m not a fan of the world set-up that magic in the light world (as opposed to the shadow world of faeries and vampires) all originates with a female Oracle who is the gilded prisoner of the men who use her magic, but while she may swoon a little too easily in the direction of our sexy, shirtless warlock-in-particular, Elle certainly has no truck with this scenario. I do feel that ‘go home and get married’ is a sub-optimal way of avoiding this fate – Marsh actually talks about going into hiding mere pages before it turns out that they have just gone home – but there it is.

Also, there’s just not enough of Lucretia the sassy vampire. She was a rare breath of Austen and I missed her after she left to winter in Castle Dracula(5).

The Half-Blood Prince, by JK Rowling (re-read with Arya)

As we approach a year since I started re-reading Harry Potter with my daughter, we’re coming into the home straight with the end of The Half-Blood Prince(6). Harry now knows that it is his destiny, because of Voldemort’s attempt to kill him, to either destroy the Dark Lord or at last to be destroyed. Dumbledore sets out to teach him about Voldemort’s past, and to uncover to him the secrets of Voldemort’s immortality. Meanwhile, Harry’s feud with Professor Snape comes to a head, and the Order’s absolute trust in Dumbledore as their sole strategist sets them up for a crisis.

Bit of an odd fruit, this one. The build-up of Voldemort’s past is pretty good, and the black lake remains fairly horrible, but the teenage romance is… Man, I don’t know. I didn’t do much in the way of teenage romancing, so maybe it is like this. Who knows. Anyway, overall the book is good; I enjoyed it, and so did Arya, although what she takes in about the books is a strange and curious business. She can identify Dolores Umbridge from a brief description in The Deathly Hallows, but despite her excitement at the Quidditch scenes was completely unable to recall even that Harry is the Gryffindor Seeker, let alone what any of the other positions are.

Cry Fox, by Ben Aaronovich (graphic novel)

Completing a trifecta of Rivers of London graphic novels – thanks to my early-year birthday – Cry Fox is another single-case story, with Peter’s cousin Abigail caught up in a ransom kidnapping and then held, along with DS Sahra Guleed, to be part of a people hunt for diabolical dipshit landowners. It’s brief and focused. The fact that the two captured characters are women has… unfortunate implications, but they retain agency throughout and are never damseled.

While the title mostly relates to the fox-hunting aristos, the story also involves Abigail's contacts among the talking foxes of London and environs (although this doesn't explain them any more than any of the novels that they have appeared in.) I'm rapidly becoming more interested in Abigail's corner of the weird world than Peter's, and that's a boost for this story for me.

(1) New to me.

(2) New year, new format!

(3) At time of recording; he passed this January.

(4) I’ll probably leave The Hobbit to read with Arya, but might take a swing at The Silmarillion some time.

(5) No, really.

(6) Apparently, I never noted the end of The Order of the Phoenix, but we did.