Books – Castle in the Air

The sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle. In this one Jones riffs on Arab mythology with the whole genie-in-a-bottle thing, but mixed in with her own take on things magical and mundane. The characterisations are wonderful and once again I find no difficulty with the style which I would judge to be highly accessible to older children as well as teenagers (if anything, even more so than Howl’s Moving Castle). The magic carpet, the genie, the princess and the carpet-seller all provide a merry romp that is highly recommended.

Current Mood:  calm

Current Music: Dr Who Season 6 Soundtrack

Originally published at blog.a-cubed.info

Books – House of Many Ways

Billed on the cover as the “long-awaited sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle”, which is a bit bizarre given the much earlier existence of Castle in the Air, this is the third book set in the world of Howl’s Moving Castle. Like the earlier two the writing is highly accessible to adults and children alike, I think. As with Castle, Howl and Sophie appear but are not the primary characters. They are more in evidence in this one that in Castle, though. This has a little bit of a darker tone than the earlier two (Castle is slightly lighter than Howl, but this is darker than both, I think) and features both a nasty supernatural being and its horrible offspring (more horrible in some ways because they just about appear human). The main magical gimmick this time is the epnymous house which appears to have only two rooms but if one turns immediately upon entering the doorway between the two rooms, one ends up elsewhere. In fact almost all of the doors operate this way. Combined with various magical appurtenances for breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, this makes life in the house interesting and potentially fattening. It has a wonderful library as well with a humorously twisted spell-book. Once more, highly recommended.

Current Mood:  calm

Current Music: Dr Who Season 6 Soundtrack

Originally published at blog.a-cubed.info

Books – The Atrocity Archives

This is a novel and a short story. The novel is called The Atrocity Archive and the short is called The Concrete Jungle. Having endured Gene Wolfe’s abysmal Cthulhu Mythos story and Jonathan Howard’s mediocre one, I felt like re-reading a better modern take on the Lovecraftian Oeuvre. Actually, I’m currently also working my way through “Necronomicon – the Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft” (which will take me a while being all his Mythos short stories and the short novels to boot in one beautiful edition, but I’d go mad if I tried to just read straight through it, I think). This is, I think, my favourite Stross book. I still rate Glasshouse as his best book, but this is my favourite. Its a wonderful blend of comedy and horror. It’s rather reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in juxtaposing the horrors of real life (in this case the Kafka-esque horrors of working for the UK Civil Service) with the beasts from the outermost darkness. With his usual skill, Stross has added a consistent explanation for the ability of the Mythos creatures to do things like possess people’s minds. Things lurk at the bottom of the Mandelbrot Set and mathematics and computation are all that is needed for applied demonology. Combining the myths about Nazi obsessions with the occult (mostly false, but they make a good basis for fiction) with the droll tone of a Len Deighton spy novel, the Atrocity Archive is a dark but immensely funny tale.

The Concrete Jungle “explains” just why there are so many CCTV cameras in the UK (something I’ve struggled to do as part of my work). It’s all so obvious when explained by the story’s protagonist, Bob Howard. The infamous new town of Milton Keynes forms the backdrop to a great short addition to the memoirs of Landry Agent Bob Howard.

Current Mood:  calm

Current Music: Dr Who Season 6 Soundtrack

Originally published at blog.a-cubed.info

Books – The Jennifer Morgue

As with The Atrocity Archives, this is a novel and short combination. The novel features the eponymous Jennifer Morgue while the short Pimpf introduces Bob’s first subordinate. Bob’s middle names are introduced in the Jennifer Morgue but I must shamefully admit I didn’t get the joke until the title of thoe short and name of Bob’s subordinate hit me over the head with a mallet. Stross had clearly been planning that little joke from the start. It even works in-character since Bob is an acknowledged pseudonym for the memoir writer.

Having done Len Deighton for The Atrocity Archive, Stross takes on Fleming for the Jennifer Morgue. Well, actually it’s a bit more Broccoli than Fleming, for obvious in-story reasons. Stross isn’t content just to riff off Mr Bond, though. He take the Bond mythos well through its paces while subverting most of its tropes on the way through. This is a little more lighthearted than the Atrocity Archive, due mostly to the emulated style and approach. It’s still firmly embedded in the Chulthu Mythos as well, though.

Pimpf, in addition to the Travaglia pun, is a nice little tale of internal ambition and MMORPG danger in a world in which the right (or is that wrong) sort of computation is actually applied demonology. A nice little addition to the series.

Current Mood:  calm

Current Music: Dr Who Season 7 Soundtrack

Originally published at blog.a-cubed.info

Books – The Fuller Memorandum

The third Bob Howard Laundry Files novel is just the novel, but two shorts are available on Tor.Com (Down on the Farmand Overtime) and both of those are worth reading before tackling this. I’m not cognisant of the spy novels that form that structure of this one (by Anthony Price) but it’s a brilliant piece even without knowing that. Given Stross’ attention to detail I’m sure it’s a pretty good take on that style. In addition to lacking a finial short, this takes a darker turn again after the exuberence of the Jennifer Morgue. The Stars are “Coming Right” and Bob’s world is getting darker. Rather than contrast the horrors of real life and those of the Mythos, in this book they’re intertwined in what Stross himself describes as the scariest thing he’s ever written. It’s very dark, though the leavening of human prevents it from being unbearably so (I like my horror with a good leavening of black humour). A nice British variant on the Hellboy concept is thrown in for good measure, while Bob finds out more about the past, present and future of the Laundry, himself and the world (maybe even the universe).  Great stuff. I’m looking forward to The Apocalypse Codex (next but one book from Stross, IIRC) and hoping for at least one Laundry short in the meantime given his current resolution to write more short fiction this year.

Oh, and if you’re waiting for Stross to take on LeCarre, you’ll have an interminable wait. Not only does he thinkg it doesn’t fit with the Laundryverse, it’s also been done (Tim Power’s Declare, which I read last year on Stross’ recommendation).

Still not caught up on the book reviews, I’m afraid, despite today’s ist of entries. Intercontintental business trips mean I read but don’t write up. I’m catching up a bit, though, with four outstanding just now though of course I’m reading new stuff as well so that may go up again if I don’t get round to writing them up for a few days again, particularly as I’ll be off on another ICBT next week.

Current Mood:  calm

Current Music: Dr Who Season 6 Soundtrack