Broke?

Nope, Baroque.  As in, The Baroque Cycle.  Quicksilver is the first book in this trilogy, and I just finished it up a bit ago.  Mr. Stephenson weaves an interesting tale here, setting it as a sort of historical fiction (people such as Asimov and Hooke are central figures), but it’s not dry.  He manages to pull in scientific discovery and inquiry, as well as cryptography and intrigue.

At times, I had some troubles keeping track of what was happening when (as the story jumps back and forth in time), but it was an enjoyable read.  Definitely looking forward to what happens in the remaining volumes.

Sometimes it’s better not to unlock things…

Duma Key Cover

And now we arrive at an author that I’ve been reading for quite some time now (I think around 18 years), Mr. Stephen King and his book Duma Key.  At this point, I find his writing style quite familiar and comfortable, and a very easy read.

This book, in particular, follows Edgar Freemantle as he recovers and rehabilitates from a quite serious accident.  Part of that recovery process sees him rediscovering his artistic abilities – and these end up blooming quite rapidly for him once he arrives in Florida, at a rental property on Duma Key.

Anyone who is familiar with King’s writings will quickly (and quite correctly) surmise that there is something more to Edgar’s art – something a bit more on the sinister side.  The revelation of what is behind it all doesn’t come until the last third or so of the book, however – up to that point, it’s just a slightly creepy (and suspenseful) story with an interesting cast of supporting characters.

While I didn’t find this quite as enthralling as the Dark Tower series, or past books set in Castle Rock, this is still a quite enjoyable read.

There’s more than wind to this city

Karen Abbott weaves an in history out of the Everleigh Sisters, and the Chicago vice district, in her book ‘Sin in the Second City:  Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul.’

In much the same way ‘Devil in the White City‘ by Erik Larson brought Chicago’s history to life, along with its less-desirable elements, Abbott paints a picture of what life was like in Chicago’s earlier days, how vice and corruption ran rampant through the city, and how the efforts to “clean things up” mirrored, to a degree, what was occurring throughout the country.

Far from being a dry, musty, historical commentary, Abbott definitely breathes life into her research, and you will learn as you are entertained

Show me the money!

Now we’ve arrived at another of my very favorite authors, Terry Pratchett, and his latest Discworld novel, ‘Making Money‘.  This novel continues the adventures of Moist von Lipwig, as he works his particular brand of influence and success on the banking systems as he did for the postal system.

For those of you not familiar with Pratchett’s Discworld series, the simplest description I can give it is to say that it is much like The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams) – but in a fantasy, not a sci-fi, setting.

Pratchett brings us an irreverent look at our own current day in world, but couched in the bright and colorful world of (most of the time) Ankh-Morpork, and it varied citizens (humans, magicians, trolls, dwarves, etc).  Not only is this a delightful fantasy setting, Pratchett can show us some very absurd things that exist in our own world.

This particular installment in the series (the latest) delves into, as you can imagine, the financial system.  It shows the teething pains as people grasp at the concept of money not being based on gold, but rather the guarantee of the government, amongst other story lines.

This book can certainly stand on its own (i.e., you needn’t have read the preceding books), and I’d say that anyone who enjoys fantasy fiction (or enjoyed the ‘Hitchiker’ series) owes it to themselves to check out not only this book, but the whole of the Discworld series.

Who are the Chandrian?

Come along, good and gentle reader, and sit beside the fire to be regaled with a well spun tale, brought to life by Patrick Rothfuss in the form of ‘The Name of the Wind.’

If you do a quick Google (or Amazon)( search on this book, you’ll see that much praise has been heaped on this book, and rightly so.  Not only is it a great fantasy story (and the first of three in the series), it’s an amazingly well-written story, plain and simple.

It’s been a long time since a book has drawn me in so deeply, getting genuinely concerned about what happens to Kvothe as the story alternates between current day and the story of his past.

As a fantasy story, it has all the necessary elements – a medieval setting (swords and inns), magic (though in a much different way), and evil creatures, just to name a few.  And as a story – I’m not entirely certain how, but this book wrapped into my imagination so well that I had a hard time putting the book down, especially when the story was hitting some critical points.

This is a book I recommend without any hesitation – and can, myself, not wait until the next in the series hits the shelves!

Break on through to the other side

Gateways cover

Now to visit one of my (now) favorite authors, F. Paul Wilson, and his book ‘Gateways‘.  This is one of the Repairman Jack series.

This book in a great continuation of the story, and the characters, that readers of the Repairman Jack books have come to know.  For those unfamiliar with them, Jack is a “fix it” man who takes care of the problems that just can’t be handled in a, well, normal manner.

These stories remind me quite a lot of the old pulp fiction paperbacks of my dad’s (my what a journey that find in the basmement started!) – take one rough and tumble guy who’s not afraid to use a gun and right wrongs, throw in a healthy dose of suspense and the supernatural, and you’ve got yourself a good time.

I heartily enjoyed this book, and seem to finish these in no time at all.  If you’ve ever read a Doc Savage or Nick Carter – Killmaster pulp novel, you should feel right at home in this series.

Tick tock tick tock time is running out!

Watchmen cover

Next up for review, if you couldn’t tell by the graphic to the right, is ‘Watchmen‘, by Alan Moore.  This is yet another one of those greatest-of-all-time geek reads that I never got around to – until now.

I must admit, my interest in reading this stemmed from seeing previews for the upcoming film, and wanting to know what the story would be like (and whether or not I wanted to see the film).

For myself, it was an enjoyable enough read, and one I would recommend – just not to the exclusion of anything else you might have on your personal “to read” list.  The story, while slightly dated (yet futuristic, to a degree), definitely had some points that stike home in today’s world.

I just couldn’t help myself from thinking that this sort of dysfunctional, “real world”, setting seemed so much like Batman that I couldn’t help comparing, and then of course, feeling it fell somewhat short.  For those of you without the Batman predilection that I profess, however, you’ll get a kick out of it.

I’ll take “What happens in Winter” for $200, Alex

Next up is another book I finished a bit ago.  It was one I had always heard rave reviews about, but had never personally read.  So, at long last, a copy of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson was delivered to me via eBay.

This is a thouroughly entertaining, and very well-written, scifi tome.  Per some of the online reviews you can read, this book is what introduced the word “cyberpunk” into the lexicon.  Released in 1992, this book follows the adventures of a protagonist (conveniently?) named Hiro.  The main setting for the book is the Metaverse, what we, today, would simply call virtual reality running over the internet.  Reading the book now, 16 years after publication, you can really get a sense of how prescient Stephenson was.

So much of the technology and computing seems completely in line with what we have today.  Some of it you may have to look past, but there is very little of it that seems out of tune with our day and age.  Thankfully, we’ve not arrived at the rather harsh future Stephenson paints.  And we can also be thankful that we aren’t hooked into our computers (ala The Matrix) to the extent we can physically “crash” due to a computer virus (though it is an interesting theme that we may encounter som day yet).

In the end, I’d recommend this to any person who is intersting in scifi without hesitation.

Do You Speak It?

The first book up is one I finished up a bit ago, but took me some time to complete: ‘A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900′ by Andrew Roberts.  This book presents an interesting take on major historical events, showing how a common language (English) manage to unite the United States and the British Empire (and, subsequently, the nations that came from it).

This book is intended, if not in actuality, then in spirit, as a continuation of the works started by Winston Churchill.  While it is an unique view of historical events (and peppered with interesting, yet trivial tidbits), it is a history tome.  As such, it will depend on your tolerance for diving into history for how interesting you’ll find the book, or how quickly you’ll go through it.

Personally I found the book interesting, but got bogged down in the history of it (a trait of my own, no fault of the author’s).  In general, Mr. Roberts’ style is easy to read, but he does have a tendency of jumping around a bit, or slipping in some minor information that takes you out of the narrative flow.  In the end, I’d recommend this book to you if you’re interested in the intertwined history that America and the British Emprire had (and continue to have).

Slight change of topic

I figure gadgets aren’t quite enough to deal with here, as topics go.  So, I’m going to start cataloging (and do some mini-reviews) of the books I’m reading.  I’ll go back through some of my more recent completions as well.  You’ll notice that I’m trying to alternate between fiction and non-fiction titles as we go along.