Will America Change?, by Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies
With the most important and intriguing presidential election that I can remember coming up in the US, Will America Change? is a timely reflection on whether the world’s only hyperpower has the ability or the will to modify behaviours and attitudes which have a profound effect on all the countries of the world, from Argentina to Zambia. Parts of this book were previously published as Why Do People Hate America?, and this is very much a polemical work – but it is well structured and well argued, and certainly a thought-provoking synthesis of the reasons why these question needs to be asked.
The book takes as its starting point the premise that 9/11 was not in any way a watershed for America’s relations with the world – indeed, that America’s troubled relationship with Islam can be traced back to the voyages of Columbus, who set out to look for a new route to the East in the context of the struggle between Christianity and Islam in the Mediterranean. Considerable time is spent on contextualising current American foreign policy with a century and half of intervention in the internal affairs of other nations, invasions and occupations, proving that Iraq and Afghanistan are nothing new (see also A People’s History of American Empire). Through deconstruction of the post-9/11 West Wing episode Isaac and Ishmael, we see how even liberal, educated Americans perceive the world, through the characters’ own answers to the question of why people hate America. Many of their answers are predictably simplistic or just plain wrong.
The Fire Gospel, by Michel Faber
The latest in Canongate’s Myths series sees Michel Faber considering the role of the gospels in the Christian faith, by imagining what would happen if Matthew, Mark, Luke and John didn’t have the last word on the life and times of Jesus. Theo Griepenkerl is an archaeologist on a visit to Iraq, assessing the effects of looting on the collections of the museums over there, when a terrorist attack freakishly reveals to him a set of ancient papyrus scrolls hidden inside a statue. High-tailing it back to his native Canada, Theo sets about translating them from Aramaic (fortunately, that’s his specialism), and discovers them to be a contemporary account of the life of Christ, written by the hitherto unknown Malchus.
The co-incincidences required to bring this about are fairly fantastic, but that’s not really the point – they are contrived in order to bring the new gospel to light, and once Theo has translated it and got himself a publishing deal, that’s when the fun starts. Malchus’s gospel throws cold water on many aspects of the other four gospels, including, crucically, the manner of Christ’s death and his resurrection. It’s bound to cause trouble, but the unreligious Theo doesn’t really think much further than the size of the advance he can get out of a publisher.
In Search of Lost Tim, by Chris Meade (digital fiction)
I just finished Chris Meade’s experimental fiction (what he calls ‘magical musical graphical digital fiction’), and I wanted to share. In Search of Lost Tim (the title is a pun on the original translated title for Proust’s A La Recherche du Temps Perdu) combines drawings, videos, songs, puppets, slideshows, photos and prose to deliver an appealing tale of time travelling, love and loss. Tim of the title is actually Tim Times Two: one going through boyhood in the sixties, and one in the future, where everything has gone a bit Austin Powers (proving that everything comes around again eventually) and he’s a big noise in the the government. Future Tim communicates with Young Tim by means of the Futurizer, giving him missions to prevent the course of history being corrupted – the sort of thing every boy should have!
We see young Tim as a puppet, voiced by Meade, and read his accounts of his dull home life and crappy school life. The video segments, delivered as YouTube clips, are surprisingly touching given the simplicity of the puppet being used, while the diary passages are well written. Future Tim, along with his sidekick, known only as… Sidekick, is drawn in an engaging cartoon style. There’s also a genuinely bloggy-looking blog for a girl called Jenny, who seems to have stumbled across Tim’s time-spanning communications by accident, but turns out to be very central to saving the universe! Read more
Fire and Steam: How The Railways Transformed Britain, by Christian Wolmar
Mention an interest in railways and most people will assume you are a trainspotter – that’s rather unfair, because as Christian Wolmar comprehensively demonstrates in this excellent book, railways have shaped our lifestyles, our towns and cities, our working habits and much else, not to mention making a huge contribution to our survival in two world wars. This is a book about railways, NOT about trains – while the development of steam power necessarily gets some attention, Wolmar does not dwell on the details of what pulls our trains – instead the focus is on the development of the railway network and the huge social and economic effects of a truly revolutionary form of travel.
Britain is the land that invented railways, and they have shaped us in so many ways. There are some fascinating facts and figure in this book: before the railways came, over 200,000 cows were kept in London to provide fresh milk every day; whole areas of London owe their existence to invention of commuting, made possible by the railways, while many other places – Swindon, Crewe – owe their size and population to their roles in the railway system. The physical geography of so much of our country has been shaped by the railways – cuttings and embankments, viaducts and tunnels, our thriving city terminii and abandoned rural lines closed under the Beeching axe and now used as footpaths and bridleways. So too our society – railways enabled a new attitude to travel, to holidays (the growth of seaside towns owes everything to the railways), to industry and agriculture.
The Montmartre Investigation, by Claude Izner
Of all the possible set-ups for an engrossing series of crime novels, murder and mayhem as investigated by a 19th Century Parisian bookseller may not appear the most promising. Yet the exploits of Victor Legris are turning out to be a fin de siecle delight. The Montmartre Investigation is the third (of six) to feature the bookselling detective and is another first-rate escapist pleasure.
After a young woman is discovered strangled on Boulevard Montmartre, her face burned with acid, one of her shoes is delivered to Victor Legris’ bookshop. Inexorably, Victor and his assistant Joseph once again become embroiled in a dangerous mystery, as they try to uncover both the victim’s identity and the identity of the murderer.
But the story, although a good one, is only part of the appeal of The Montmartre Investigation. Top of that particular list is the city itself and Claude Izner’s non-sentimental evocation of a real-life, bustling, messy Paris is a joy. Victor Legris tours the city’s greatest hits, but also a demi-monde of alleyways, markets, bohemian salons and cafes, encountering the great and the not so good along the way. Also enjoyable is the milieu surrounding Victor Legris. This is now approaching serial drama as the lives of Tasha, his lover, Kenji, his partner and Joseph, his assistant are fleshed out and inter-connected.
Sword Song, by Bernard Cornwell
Sword Song is the 33rd Bernard Cornwell book on my heaving shelves. Cornwell has been a mainstay of my reading for years, but this is the first of his works that I have reviewed since starting Bookgeeks. Sword Song is the fourth volume of the King Alfred saga, focusing on the reign of Alfred, the wars against the marauding Vikings and the birth of the English state as we now recognise it
Our narrator is Uhtred – born a Saxon noble and a Christian, but raised by Danes as a pagan. His divided loyalties are the central theme of this saga. While he has no love for the Christian King Alfred, Uhtred’s fate is to fight for the kingdom of Wessex against the Danes and Norsemen who occupy half the country. When Alfred is surrounded by priests and monks, the bluff and pragmatic Uhtred, skilled in the application of violence, is a necessary member of his entourage. His directness often brings a smile:
‘If I told you every time Aethelwold talked treason,’ I said, ‘you would never cease to hear from me. What I can tell you now is that you should slice his head off.’
‘He is my nephew,’ said Alfred stiffly, ‘and has royal blood.’
‘He still has a removable head,’ I insisted.
I Love Your Blog Award
The Old Bat’s Belfry has nominated Bookgeeks for an ‘I Love Your Blog’ Award. She said “It’s a cool site with great author interviews and reviews. They did a panel about maps and visual aids not too long ago that I really enjoyed reading.” Gee, thanks!
So now, to make up for all the chain letters that I didn’t forward on when I was a kid, I am going to do my best to follow the conditions of the award, to whit:
- Add the logo of your award to your blog
- Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
- Nominate at least 7 other blogs
- Add links to those blogs on your blog
- Leave a message for your nominees on their blog
So, here are our nominations, all with a suitably literary bent:
Horror Reanimated – Mathew and I might have helped these guys get their blog off the ground, but the excitement they are generating among horror fans is down to superlative content – I especially love Bill’s short story where Sherlock Holmes meets Count Dracula!
26Books – set up by my former colleague James Higgs, along with Shane Richmond of the Telegraph, its bloggers have one objective: to read 26 books per year, whatever they fancy, and tell their readers about them.
Wiffle Lever to Full – Bob Fischer’s excellent blog in support of his rather splendid book.
The Librarything Blog – a wonderful insight in to my favouritest book cataloguing site. I love the competitions and the genuine sense you get of what it’s like to be on the team. If I lived in Maine, I know where I’d want to work!
John Connolly – like most big name authors who blog, Connolly doesn’t update every day, but when he does it’s worth reading – we loved the recent post about ‘books and being a blurb whore’.
Neil Gaiman’s Journal – a great insight on the demands placed on a successful novelist and screenwriter, which Gaiman uses to keep in touch with his fans.
Don’t Get Fooled Again – Richard Wilson’s blog, for the book of the same name, is a clearing house for sceptics everywhere, which he uses to focus on cant, deception, cultural relativism and wishful thinking wherever it occurs. Because he taught me how to be a good sceptic, I googled the ‘I Love Your Blog’ award and concluded it has a life of its own, despite having no official website – but I decided to join in anyway!
Hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do!
Memoirs of a Master Forger, by William Heaney
I am intrigued and impressed in equal measure by this book. It’s a literary hoax, purporting to be the autobiography of a non-existent book forger, a literary hoaxer himself, a serious wine buff, and, oh yes, someone who can see demons. That Gollancz have dressed it in a faux-antique jacket and presented it as an autobiography (complete with blog for the author) suggests they are going along with this conceit because it enhances the reader’s enjoyment, and to be fair I would say this is true. The author is Graham Joyce, in point of fact, and in the US it will be published under his own name, with the title How to Make Friends With Demons. All this frivolity must not distract from the fact that this is an excellent, literate, compelling novel which could easily pass for literary fiction in the mould of The Gargoyle or similar.
William Heaney, our narrator, works for an unspecified youth organisation, something which brings him in to contact with government and funds a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, including a passion for fine wines. As well as his day job, Heaney is writing deliberately bad poetry for a friend to pass off as his own to an arts establishment that can’t seem to get enough of it, and working on scamming substantial sums of money out of impressionable book collectors by faking up first editions of 19th century masterworks. The proceeds for this go not on special vino but on supporting a drop-in centre for the homeless. Yes, quite the enigma, Mr Heaney, even before we get to the business of the demons.
Bill and Joe’s Big Horror Adventure
In February 2008 Bloody Books published the first full length title in their brand new horror line. The book was MEAT. and Stephen King immediately endorsed the novel saying of its author “Joseph D’Lacey rocks!” and horror fans across the world have echoed his sentiments.
Five months later, Bloody Books released their second horror novel, Through a Glass, Darkly by Bill Hussey. This distinctly British tale of demonic folklore, steeped in the traditions of the genre, has also garnered rave reviews internationally.
To celebrate the ongoing resurrection of horror, Bill Hussey and Joseph D’Lacey have teamed up, (with a little help from us Bookgeeks), to create Horror Reanimated, a blog for dark times. Here they discuss trends in the genre, the function of horror and the reason it persists in literature, art and film.
The blog features interviews, professional horror writing tips, reviews, original fiction, dark art, Bloody Books publishing news and much, much more…
Bookgeeks’ Mathew F. Riley will be sharing his genre book reviews with Horror Reanimated, as well as other things of darkness that tickle his fancy.
Win signed copies of The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson [closed]
This giveaway is now finished, but be sure to check our Free Books page regularly for more giveaways!
When Simon A reviewed The Gargoyle, by Andrew Davidson, he was hugely impressed, describing it as “a stunning paen to the redemptive powers of love, with a standout cast of characters, making it one of the best books I have read this year so far.” He’s not the only one: it’s just won Amazon.co.uk’s Rising Stars competition, meaning it’s received the best user reviews out of eight excellent debut novels.
The folks of Canongate have given us five signed copies of The Gargoyle to give away – and these hardback editions are a thing of beauty, so don’t hesitate – UK readers should e-mail their name, e-mail address and postal address to giveaways@bookgeeks.co.uk. And while you’re waiting to find out if you’re one of the lucky five, why not check out the official UK website for the book.
Saturn Returns (Astropolis Book 1), by Sean Williams
Saturn Returns is book one of Sean Williams‘ space opera trilogy Astropolis, and it’s an intriguing and promising, if occasionally confusing, start which was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. For me, the term ‘space opera’ evokes the works of Peter F. Hamilton, Iain M. Banks and Alastair Reynolds, and Williams has much in common with these great writers, underpinned by an impressive breadth of vision. Moral ambiguity, compromise and uncertainty abound in a universe beset by internecine strife and technological reversals.
The Continuum is in decline – it was the peak of human civilisation, an interconnected galactic milieu reminiscent of Banks’ Culture universe. Populated by a range of different flavours of humanity – gestalt entities, singletons (who, perversely, can exist as multiple independent copies rather like the central characters of Reynolds’ House of Suns), and Primes, humans who have been around since our own times – the universe was run and orchestrated by the Forts, super-powerful gestalt entities operating like human equivalents of giant distributed computer networks. Now the Forts have been attacked by the Slow Wave, some kind of information bomb, and the old galactic order is crumbling.
Crusaders, by Richard T. Kelly
At a time when the Labour Party appears to be in severe danger of eating itself, and faces a strong prospect of a return to Opposition at the next General Election, it’s fascinating to be reading a novel that takes the rise of New Labour as its political backdrop, and reminds you of the heady sense of potential, of excitement, that attended the build up to their election victory in 1997. Yet Richard T. Kelly‘s Crusaders is a bleak novel, which juxtaposes the decline of the Church of England with the resurgent Labour Party, and shows how both organisations, with their own traditions of crusading zeal, are fundamentally incapable of righting the social and economic ills of run down inner-city housing estates (and perhaps many other national ills). The Reverend John Gore has a foot in both camps – once a Labour activist of the old school, he is now on his way to the fictional area of Hoxheath, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there to ‘plant’ a church.
Exit Music, by Ian Rankin
Exit Music is the 17th in Ian Rankin’s series of Inspector Rebus novels and the one that sees the grumpy bugger head off into retirement. Of course, this being Rankin and this being Rebus, the good detective does not go gently into that good night, instead spending his last days investigating a vicious murder and winding up his superiors. Plus ca change, pal.
A seemingly simple murder sees its tendrils snake far into Edinburgh society. The murder may be about localised drug dealing and criminal low-lifes. Or it may be big business and a shady deal with Russian oligarchs. Or possibly ambitiously slick Scottish politicians. This being the valedictory episode, it may even be about Rebus settling an old score, or someone settling one with Rebus. So many touch points from previous novels are present and correct and the real motive might be any one of them. Whatever the solution turns out to be, this is intricately plotted stuff, with rounded, credible characters and a fully realised setting. Exit Music is clearly several leagues above the overwhelming majority of crime novels.
Jar of Fools, by Jason Lutes
Owen Priestley gets all arty in Bookgeeks’ first graphic novel review.
If anyone has heard of Jason Lutes before this UK publication of Jar Of Fools it’s probably due to his work Berlin: City of Stones. Not exactly prolific, Over the last 15 years Lutes has published a handful of graphic novels: Jar of Fools, Houdini the Handcuff King, and the Berlin series among them.
Jar of Fools follows an alcohol addled, broken-hearted magician as he comes to terms with the end of a relationship and the unexpected suicide of his escape-artist brother. His journey is framed by the increasing senility of his mentor and the attempts of a low life con-artist to persuade the magician to educate his young daughter in the ways of magic.
A sense of detachment, of being out of time saturates this book; the magician’s acknowledgment that he is no longer relevant and the literal underworld the characters inhabit support this feeling. The magician’s own traditional take on his vocation removes him from the modern world – his kind of magic is the magic of smoky clubs, starched collars and sleight of hand, an antiquated form of showmanship made redundant by CGI, Vegas and television. In the magician’s aging mentor’s own words, how can you top Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear on peak-time TV?
Mark Sarvas, author of Harry, Revised
Mark Sarvas is best known as the host of the popular and controversial literary weblog “The Elegant Variation” which has been mentioned in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Guardian (A Top 10 Literary Blog), Forbes Magazine (Best of the Web), Los Angeles Magazine (A Top L.A. Blog), The Scotsman, Salon, the Christian Science Monitor, Slate, The Village Voice, NPR and numerous other fine publications (and we’re not jealous, oh no). His debut novel, Harry, Revised, was published in 2008 by Canongate in the UK and Bloomsbury in the US.
Mark lives the quiet life in Los Angeles, where he has been a newspaper editor, travel agent and bass player. He has written episodic comedy for HBO and Showtime as well as screenplays for Warner Brothers, producer David Foster, and the World Entertainment and Business Network.
We picked Mark’s brains about books, writing and whether or not he’s a grammar nazi…
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19, edited by Stephen Jones
October can’t come around quick enough sometimes.
Stephen Jones‘ 19th annual selection of some of the most accessible and harrowing genre fiction out there is the foremost reason for me, (as is the onset of what will hopefully be a glorious autumn, a time when we lovers of the spook can anticipate those long nights settling in again…)
2007 was a fruitful year in horror, as Jones’ painstaking dissection of all-that-is-dark related activity shows. Personally I would like to see more of his comment and opinion in this introductory section, which is a relatively comprehensive list of books, comics, television, DVD, film, stage, merchandise and other related genre releases, (although Jones does comment on much of the genre television in the US and the UK). It would, of course, be impossible for Jones to keep track of everything published over the course of twelve months, but this section is a very useful primer for the fan who might have missed something along the way.
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Kat Falls
Kat Falls grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and now teaches at NU, where she is continually inspired by her students’ creativity. She started writing Dark Life as a writing exercise. Knowing that her 12-year-old son loved reading about the ocean, Wild West pioneers and, of course, the X-Men, she combined his interests and created the premise for a story that kept her up nights plotting and world-building.
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The Book That...
Robert Lloyd Parry: The Book I Would Like To Be Buried With…
This special twentieth Bury Me… features grand panjandrum and actor Robert Lloyd Parry, the man behind the Nunkie Theatre Company, responsible for many an uneasy evening with the master of English supernatural stories…
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The Bookgeeks Competition
The Richard T. Kelly Column
Richard T. Kelly
Richard T. Kelly’s exclusive monthly column, in which he addresses various matters literary, writers and their books, the publishing business and his own experiences as a writer. Richard is a novelist, screenwriter, biographer and journalist, and you can read his column exclusively on our sister site, Bookhugger.co.uk.Connect with Bookgeeks
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