I don't usually review books, because, well, I can never say what I want to. My calling was not to be a reviewer, clearly. However, I've read some fantastic books in the last two months, and I've been busting at the seams to share these 'must reads' with people. I've raved about these to my mum, Jazz and my cat, and as the cat can't read, that's fairly unsatisfying. So I figured, well, I should probably post about them, then I can stop feeling like I haven't raved enough.
The review order is basically from most recently read to last read. That's it. So here we go.
Summary: Mordred Pendragon, the Bastard Prince, has done a Bad Thing—again. Exiled to Canada for seven years, he has to find a job to pay his bills. For reasons he refuses to reveal, Mordred decides “Software Engineer” has a nice ring to it. And though experience with “killing the Once and Future King, my father” and “that time in feudal Japan” makes for a poor résumé, he is hired by a small tech startup in Toronto.
In the midst of dealing with a crippling caffeine addiction and learning C++, Mordred thinks he has finally found someone to anchor him to the world of the living: Alan, the company’s offsite lead developer. Except that Alan might not be a "living" entity at all—he may, in fact, be the world's first strong AI. Or a demon that mistook a Windows install for the highway to Hell. Or, just maybe, the ghost of Alan Turing, currently inhabiting a laptop.
Mordred's attempts to figure out his love life are hampered by constant interference from the Inquisitors of the Securitates Arcanarum, corporate espionage, real espionage, a sysadmin bent on enslaving the world, and Marketing's demands that Mordred ship software to the Russian Federation. Then Alan gets himself kidnapped. To save him, Mordred must ally himself with the company’s CEO, who will stop at nothing to rescue her lead developer so he can get back to work. But the Prince doesn’t just want to rescue Alan, he wants a Happily Ever After—and he will travel beyond Death itself to get one.
Too bad Alan is perfectly happy as a computer.
My thoughts: This is a book I happily (and tbh, excitedly) recommend to everyone. I've been rec'ing this high and low since I finished it the other day. It has faeries, the Unseelie court, Baron Samedi, the Loa, internet jokes, pranks involving IE6, Mordred, Excalibur, cyborgs, zombies, mathematics, physics, computer language (including an awesome scene where they use Hamlet and Shakespeare as a theoretical programming language) and Alan Turing. I'd probably rate it a soft R, for zombie gore, it's light on romance and has no sex, is m/m, f/f and m/f friendly. And it's a fabulous read, I stayed up way past my bedtime because I wanted to know how it finished.
Oh and it's set in the present day, in Toronto.
Stylistically, the prose reminded me a little of "Creatures of Light and Dark" by Roger Zelazny, particularly the last quarter. Honestly, this is one of the best books I've ever read.
Summary: The Danilov Quintet by Jasper Kent.
Books: Twelve, Thirteen Years Later, The Third Section, The People's Will, The Last Oprichnik. **Books 1 through 3 are out now, book 4 is out in the new year, early 2013.
It is a story that begins in 1812, in what seems Russia's darkest hour. Yet in the midst of Napoleon's invasion, a new and terrifying danger emerges, one which will haunt the Danilov family across generations - just as it already has a far more prestigious Russian family.
It will end a hundred and five years later - as the dynasty of the Tsars itself comes to an end - when the last of the Danilovs finally confronts the horror that his ancestor invited into the country, so many years before.
My thoughts: I started reading these purely because they're set in Russia, pre-Bolshevik Revolution (well, they end when the Revolution begins). Also, they were rec'd on the Historical Novels Blog, which has given me a ton of books to check out. Thank god I have Mr. Kobo, can I say, because honestly, without that amazing device, there is no way I'd be able to read as much as I like to. Books are heavy to hold. Mr. Kobo isn't. So yay for Mr. Kobo.
ANYWAY. These books. Vampires in Tsarist Russia. Okay, sounds good. So long as the vampires don't sparkle or spend over a century stuck in Russian high school. Oh good, they don't. Also? They are *nasty* fuckers. Even better. And then there's the weaving in the history around these nasty vampires and the Russian family that end up being vampire hunters and oh my god, this series is *amazeballs*.
"Twelve" wasn't the strongest book, which is a shame as it is the beginning of the whole mythos and the family line of the Danilovs. The book suffered a bit from first-novel-itis, and there's a lot of introspection. It's also written in first person, which I don't really have an issue with, but I do prefer third person, so there's that. However. Do NOT let that put you off. Gird up your reading loins, and read this book, because you need the information in it to follow the rest of the series. And you won't be disappointed. Also, in this book, I learned that Napoleon really was a bastard (not really news to me), and that the term 'hotshots' comes from Napoleon's tendency to heat up cannonballs before firing them, so they could crash through the Russian snow and ice of the Russian winter.
"Thirteen Years Later" picks up a few years later. Aleksei Danilov, the hero of the first book, is still alternating between his wife in St. Petersburg and his mistress in Moscow. He has an adult son with his wife and a four year old daughter with his mistress. And his nemesis is still around, and is quite possibly the most fantastic evil bastard I've read in a book for a very long time. Twelve is set in 1812, and Thirteen Years Later in 1825, hence the title. So, where the first one had the historic background of Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the burning down of Moscow, this one focuses on the Tsars and Tsar Aleksander dying and the corronation of Tsar Nikolai. Things happen, which I won't explain, because they are spoilers and if you read these books - and you should - you don't want spoilers.
This one is in third person and is all the better for it. The story is fantastic, the narrative engaging, the characters all likable, even the ones we want to hate. The vampires are still nasty mofos, but now individual vampires are coming across as sympathetic. By this book, I have learned that "verst" is a Russian unit of measurement of distance, a little more than a mile; that "voordlark" is Russian for vampire and that "oprichnik" is what Tsar Ivan's elite force of murderous bastardos were called. These are all relevant. Not so relevant, but to my mind, awesome, was the reason for lowering a flag to half mast when a ruler dies - so Death can raise his own flag.
"The Third Section" is not just the third book, but the name of the Tsar's secret police/spy network. Aleksei is an old man now, in Siberia (no, I'm not saying why or who with). His daughter, Tamara, works for the Third Section, her cover is as a madam at a brothel, the same one her mother worked at when she met Aleksei. There's a reason for this, which, spoilers. Dmitry, Aleksei's son, is serving in Sevastopol, as the alliance of France (Napoleon III), England and Turkey are trying to beat the crap out of Russia in the Crimean War. I am thrilled that Kent doesn't shy away from gay relationships. Damn, there's so much I want to say about these books, and I can't because of the spoilers!
Suffice to say? These are truly amazing books, and please, perservere with the first one, because the other two are phenomenal, full of history, details, fantastic characters (my favourites being Aleksei, Domnikiia, Iuda, Tamara, Konstantin II, Wylie, Prometheus... if I continue this list, it'll be everyone.) From book 2, they're written in third person.
Seriously, such good books.
Summary: The Demidov Trilogy by Tom Rob Smith.
"Child 44" is based on the crimes of Ukrainian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, also known as the Rostov Ripper, who was convicted of and executed for 52 murders in the Soviet Union. In addition to highlighting the problem of Soviet-era criminality in a state where "there is no crime," the novel also explores the paranoia of the age, the education system, the secret police apparatus, orphanages, homosexuality in the USSR and mental hospitals.
"The Secret Speech", the title refers to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 address admitting Stalin's crimes. The book continues to develop the theme begun in Smith's first work. Leo's nationalism evolves as a microcosm of the country's social revolution. The book serves as a good illustration of the internal conflict the citizens felt under Stalin's reign.
"Agent 6", It is 1965. Leo Demidov, a former secret police agent, is forbidden to travel with his wife and daughters from Moscow to New York. They are part of a "Peace Tour," meant to foster closer relations between the two Cold War enemies. On the tour, Leo's family is caught up in a conspiracy and betrayal that ends in tragedy. Leo is haunted by the question: what happened in New York? In a surprising, epic story that spans decades and continents—from 1950s Moscow to 1960s America to the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s—Leo's long pursuit of justice will force him to confront everything he ever thought he knew about his country, his family, and himself.
My thoughts: Personally, I thought "Child 44" was the strongest of the trilogy. "Agent 6" was enormously engaging as well, but "The Secret Speech" had two things I hate - a protagonist with no redeeming value whatsoever and a whiny, selfish teenager.
HOWEVER. That aside, all three of these books are incredible. They are bleak, as Soviet Russia was bleak. Smith accurately conveys the fear and the tension that filled the every day lives of those who lived and worked in the USSR and the almost naive ideological world-view of Leo, who works for the secret police, the precursor to the KGB. It's a very tough read in some places, and it doesn't gloss over the horror of life in the poorest parts of the USSR or what prisoners who are held by the secret police go through in interogation. Leo begins the books as an unreliable narrator, because his worldview is blinkered to the USSR and the State approved ideas, but as events proceed, and as he and his wife grow closer, his naivety slowly shatters and he becomes a truly amazing character.
If you have an interest in the history of Russia and the USSR, like a good thriller and aren't easily squicked (there are some truly gross scenes, just fyi), these books will be right up your alley.
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Archangel Chronicles Bundle Volume One
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I am so happy, I can't even. These three forthcoming books pick up after the end of book three, but it's not essential to have read the first three novels to follow these new ones. So what's going to happen in these three? Well, the Holy Grail has gone missing and Bad Things start to happen. It's up to the Archangels and their allies to fix things up. There are new characters and old, and the continuing relationship between Gabriel and Michael as they work through this new challenge presented them. The books are called, in order:
The first book is The Chinese Gold Murders, which sees Judge Dee traveling to a new posting in the countryside with his faithful family retainer, Sergeant Hoong. On the journey, they are waylaid by two highway men, who, after being beaten in a sword fight by Dee, become his retainers and assistants. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai are so impressed with Dee that they give up their life of crime and join his retinue on the spot. The novel is set in the spring of 663AD.
Longing, in springtime.
