A Good Book Is A Good Friend
Well, happy Valentine’s day, for those who like it. I view it simply as a Hershey’s-fueled plot in the guise of an ancient fertility festival. And I associate it with stress and bad memories. Less said about that the better. BUT, happy choco-and-roses day for you who celebrate such things.
I did get an awesome card from the Martian Mooncrab, one that made me snort coffee through my nose. Twice. And the Selkie made salted caramels. *drools* Excuse me while I peel another one out of the container. (The Little Prince sampled one and couldn’t take it. SCORE!) So it’s not all bad.
Work has sort of reached a standstill lately, since all my emotional energy’s been taking up with gathering evidence, getting a lawyer, and dealing with the energetic cost of the stalking and harassment. It takes so much out of one. Fortunately I’m sleeping again, and I have several assurances that it will be over or at least easier to deal with soon.
I haven’t been working-working much, but I have been reading. I’ve read Stephen Brust’s Firefly fanfic novel, which was pretty good. Not as good as The Phoenix Guards, which massaged my Dumas fetish so hard I fell in love with Khaavren the Tiassa. But it was pretty good and whiled away an entire afternoon.
I have, thank goodness, been on a good book run lately.
* The Fox and the Flies: The Secret Life of a Grotesque Master Criminal, Charles van Onselen. You may remember me mentioning this one, the examination of the life of Joseph Silver– pimp, procurer, police informer, and all-around sociopath. The book is a stunning examination of life as a criminal around the turn of the century, and deals with the international white slave trade as well. The author, van Onselen, spent 25 years following Silver’s trail across continents and archives, and the appendix detailing his search is some mighty fine reading.
Van Onselen believes that Silver was Jack the Ripper. His case is compelling–far more compelling than Patricia Cornwell’s (which unfortunately was smokescreened by the writer’s ego). The only flaw I saw was that witness reports of the last person the canonical five victims were seen with all stated a man of about thirty, while Silver had just turned twenty. However…life was hard in those days, Silver had a difficult face, and when weighed against other evidence van Onselen’s theory is by far the most clearly-bolstered one I’ve ever seen. Not that I’m a Ripperologist or anything.
Even if you don’t agree with the author’s conclusion, the book is well worth paying full hardcover price for, just for the historical story alone. I’d rate it right up there with The Devil in the White City for enjoyable clarity of writing. The Fox and the Flies is an academic work, but written without the downfall of most academic works–boring, dense, encrusted prose. It is, pardon the pun, a ripping good story.
* The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One), Joe Abercrombie. My editor at Orbit told me about this book and highly suggested it. Damn her, now I have to find the other two in the trilogy. This is fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, but without the complete lack of verite most fantasy is infected with. The book starts out with a barbarian Northman, Logan Ninefingers, in a fight to the death that ends up with him falling into a lake. There’s wizards, mythology, kings, princes, a self-absorbed nobleman, ancient legends, fencing–all written so well I was grinding my teeth with envy whenever I HAD to put the book down. This is a fantastic start to a trilogy, and I can’t wait to get the next two books so I can see what happens next. There are some tropes, true, but they’re handled so deftly and characterised so beautifully they take on the status of old friends instead of worn-out archetypes.
In short, I can’t say enough good things about this book, and I highly recommend it.
* In the Garden of Iden (The Company), Kage Baker. Six months ago or so, the Selkie loaned me this book. “You’ve GOT to read this,” she said. “Baker’s fearless.”
Well, I finally got around to reading it. I started it on the treadmill on Tuesday and finished it yesterday. Immortality. The Inquisition. Cyborgs. Elizabethan England. Botany. Burning at the stake. OMG! Baker IS fearless, utterly fearless, and doesn’t hesitate to make her characters suffer if that’s what the story calls for. This is a coming-of-age tale told with incredible sci-fi skill.
Some of the modern language jelled uneasily with the archaic dialogue, and I have a long-standing feud with time-travel stories or anachronisms in historical fiction. Baker slips up once or twice, but her characters are so compelling and the suspense is so deftly woven I found every slip forgivable and not more than a momentary irritation. All in all, highly recommended.
A run of three good books in a row is almost too good to be true. I have to get back to a mountain of work this weekend. The thing about stalking is, it robs an entire family of energy since they are “under siege” trying to care for the one member. Not only that, but it drains emotional energy needed for so many other things. I’m glad we have recourse, but I shudder at the thought of dealing with this without a lawyer; I shudder at the thought of dealing with this without someone to advocate for the family member in question. It is amazing that people think they can frock up other people’s lives because of personal drama.
*sigh*
In any case, have a happy Valentine’s Day, of whatever stripe you choose. Me, I’m happy to have salted caramels. And fantastic books.
Life is good.
Related posts:
