Miscellany – June 2008

June has been the busiest of months so far. It was a long March, and a cruel April, but May flowered and here we are...

1. Tom Holt's Barking is yet another successful send-up of London's corporate culture. Holt's oeuvre is broadly comedic, ranging from wry looks at genuine history (Meadowland, Olympiad) to perverse looks at mythological sagas (Expecting Someone Taller, Who's Afraid of Beowulf?) and many others. Barking is about werewolves, unicorns (well, at least one), vampires, and how mythology distorts our views of both good and evil, because near-eternal life makes fools of us all. Highly recommended entertainment!

2. Bernard Cornwell's Sword Song has an embarrassingly bad title, but makes up for it by being an excellent fourth installment in the life of Uhtred, a pagan Saxon nobleman who was brought up as a Dane and now serves Alfred, King of Wessex (and some day, England). The highlight of this part of the series is the attack on London, which plays out very much like a modern Special Forces infiltration but with a lot more blood spatter. Excellent read, but you might want to get hold of the first three parts before you begin: The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, and Lords of the North.

3. Ian Sansom's The Case of the Missing Books starts with typical British farce as the half-Irish Jewish Londoner, librarian Israel Armstrong, finds himself in Northern Ireland running a library that doesn't seem to exist. He has to put up on a farm, in a refurbished chicken coop, and deal with locals who aren't particularly enamoured of him. The poor man suffers much, eventually finds the missing books, and never gets to see Gloria, his girlfriend whom we never see either (not even by the end of the third volume in the Mobile Library series). The next two I devoured immediately after; Mr Dixon Disappears and The Delegates' Choice are just as funny.

4. Simon Green's The Man with the Golden Torc is a typical Simon Green adventure. Strong hard-boiled wise-cracking hero (in this case, the man named 'Shaman Bond' or 'Edwin Drood') takes on mighty forces with outrageous companions, wild magic, and huge amounts of destruction. Outré manifestations, perversities and monsters all appear and disappear. Since this is a Simon Green ride, just enjoy it the way you enjoyed the Deathstalker epic, the Hawk & Fisher stories, or the Darkside series. You did enjoy them, right?

5. Ben Elton's savage wit has now been turned upon the dystopia that media trends seem to be driving us towards. His latest novel, Blind Faith, is all about a future of the Internet, religion and sex gone amok. Somewhat reminiscent of Orwell's 1984, it is set in a world in which everyone is Big Brother, and the rule of law is perhaps too democratically maintained.

I've actually read a lot more than this, but I haven't actually finished any of the six or seven books I'm reading at once while plotting my next research digression. That should be in time for the July issue. In the meantime, remember that the Kinokuniya and Borders discount cards are your very good friends...