In the Heart of Darkness - Eric Flint and David Drake

   1998; 445 pages.  Book 2 (out of 6) in the “Belisarius Saga” series.  New Authors? : No.  Genres : Alternate History; Historical Fiction; India; Byzantine Empire.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    The Malwa are coming!  And they’re threatening to overrun the eastern part of the (Byzantine) Roman Empire!  Quick, send somebody to give them misinformation about our armies there, to scare then by vastly overstating our strength!

 

    Not a problem, sir.  We’ll send General Belisarius to their empire in India, and have him fake becoming a turncoat.  The Malwa will never suspect they’re being duped.

 

    The traitors are coming!  Our spies say a group of plotters plan to assassinate the Emperor Justinian in Constantinople and overthrow the Roman government!  Quick, tell General Belisarius to take command of the loyal Roman armies in that area!

 

    Um, sir.  He’s already on his way to India.

 

What’s To Like...

    In the Heart of Darkness is the second book in a 6-book series co-authored by David Drake and Eric Flint.  The series is based on a historical military commander of the 6^th-century Byzantine Empire.  The authors imagine an alternate timeline wherein Belisarius is aided by an entity from the future.

 

    There are two main plot threads, as hinted at in the introduction.  The setting for the first part of the book takes is almost exclusively India, with just a few cutaways to the Empress Theodora and Belisarius’s wife Antonina, back in Constantinople.  Both those ladies are badass dudettes, neither of whom you’d want to get into a fight with.  In the second half of the book, Belisarius returns to Constantinople to deal with the coup d’etat.

 

    I enjoyed the settings in both India and the Eastern Roman Empire in the 6^th-century.  They felt real to me, and introduced me to empires and historical figures that I knew little or nothing about.  In the Heart of Darkness is an ambitious blend of Historical-Fiction and Alt-History, two of my favorite genres.

 

    Most of Belisarius’s successes are due to his own well-reasoned unpredictability, but he occasionally gets advice from “Aide”, a futuristic spirit, probably computer generated, hiding out in an amulet Belisarius wears on a chain around his neck.  Aide’s insight is valuable, but limited.  His chief contribution is gunpowder, something unknown in our 6^th-century world.  But his attempts to get Belisarius to make mechanized rocket launchers is fruitless because back then the manufacturing technology was quite limited.

 

    The ending, detailing the resolution of the coup d’etat, covers about the last quarter of the book, yet didn’t feel drawn out because it was exciting and action-packed, with the future of the Byzantine Empire hanging in the balance.  The Epilogue updates a number of plot threads, and presumably sets up the next book in the series.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Bolides (n., pl.) : very large meteors which explode in the atmosphere.

    Others: Talus slope (n.); Debouched (v.); Epicanthic (adj.), Dacoits (n., pl.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 487 ratings and 83 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.21*/5, based on 2,682 ratings and 52 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “How do you get off this foul beast?” hissed the Empress.

    “Allow me, Your Majesty,” said Maurice.  The hecatontarch came forward with a stool in his hand.  He quieted the horse with a firm hand and a few gentle words.  Then, after placing the stool, assisted the Empress in clambering down to safety.

    Once on the ground, Theodora brushed herself off angrily.

    “Gods—what a stink!  Not you, Maurice.  The filthy horse.”  The Empress glowered at her former mount.  “They eat these things during sieges, I’ve heard.”

    Maurice nodded.

    “Well, that’s something to look forward to,” she muttered.  (pg. 229)

 

    “I know that crowd, Maurice.  I grew up with them.  Forty thousand Hippodrome thugs can swamp less than a thousand soldiers—but not without suffering heavy casualties.  Especially in the front ranks.”

    She pointing (sic) toward the mob.

    “I guarantee you, Maurice, they know it as well as we do.  And every single one of that crowd, right this very moment, is making the same vow.”

    She laughed, harshly.  “‘Victory!’  is just their official battle cry.  The real one—the private, silent one—is: you first!  Anybody but me!”  (pg. 414)

 

Kindle Details…

    In the Heart of Darkness does not appear to be available as a standalone e-book, although you can purchase it as part of a 2-book bundle that includes Book One, An Oblique Approach, for $8.99.  Curiously, the other five books in the series are all available as discrete e-books, and cost $6.99 apiece.

 

“God, my husband has the worst taste in generals!”  (pg. 51)

    The use of profanity is light; just 8 instances in the first 25% of the book.  Most of those were of the milder ilk, but one was an f-bomb, which always feels out of place to me when the setting is the ancient world.  The expletive f**k simply wasn’t around until the 16^th century or so.  Other R-rated stuff includes several allusions to “adult situations”.

 

    The authors use a lot of historical technical jargon in the text, such as “negusa nagast”, a title for an Ethiopian prince.  I liked the “realism” it imparted to the text, but a glossary of historical terms would have been handy.  Typos were sparse; just a couple of plural/singular slips: introduction/introductions and resident/residents.  And there was a chase scene which went on way too long.

 

    More serious is the fact that the first half of the book (set in India) seemed completely irrelevant to the second half (set in Constantinople).  I got the feeling I was reading something that was originally conceived as two separate novellas, then got squished together to make a full-length novel.

 

    But if you like reading about diplomatic intricacies and you persevere through the never-ending chase, you’ll be treated to a great finish, replete with lots of thrills-&-spills, and where the bad guys are just as resourceful as the good guys.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  I think this is one of those series where you really want to read it in order.  I didn’t.  Learn from my mistake and buy the Books-One-&-Two bundle at Amazon.

Any Day Now - Terry Bisson

   2018; 344 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Alternate History; Coming of Age Fiction; The 1960s.  Overall Rating : 5½*/10.

 

    It’s the 1950s, and all over the USA, the times they are a-changin’.

 

    You can hear it on the radio.  The “big band” music of the two previous decades is being replaced by a new sound that makes you want to snap your fingers and move your feet.  They call it “jazz” for whatever reason.

 

    Clayton “Clay” Bewley Bauer’s was just in grade school back then, in a small town called Calhoun, Kentucky; just outside the much bigger city of Owensboro.  His future, like all those in the Bewley clan, is already set in place:

    Graduate from high school,

    Graduate from Vanderbilt,

    Get a job in upper management somewhere.

 

    That sounds good.  The trouble is, that’s the “old way”, and Clay yearns to be part of those times that are a-changin’.

 

What’s To Like...

    In Any Day Now we follow Clay through three phases of his life.  Let’s call the first one his “Jazz Phase”, in the late 50s, wherein high-schooler Clay is introduced to new music from his friends and new ideas in the science-fiction books he reads voraciously.

 

    The next one is his college years in the early 60s; and we’ll label this his “Beatnik Phase”.  Clay eschews his family's tradition of attending Vanderbilt and instead opts for a small college in Minnesota.  But he soon drops out of there and moves to New York to be part of the Beat Scene and fulfill his career dream of becoming a poet.  His third phase is his “Commune Phase”, set in the late 60s and early 70s, after he moves out west and embraces the hippie lifestyle, including partaking of lots of recreational substances.

 

    The storyline resonated with me in several ways.  Clay’s approximately the same age as I am; we both spent our childhoods in small towns; and both had our long-haired, “Peace-Love-Dove” counterculture days.  To be honest, though, I never was tempted to go live in a commune.

 

    The first half of the book is Clay's Coming-of-Age saga, and felt like Terry Bisson was incorporating parts of his youth into the story.  One example: both the author and the protagonist were born and raised in Owensboro, Kentucky.  At that point I was disappointed that there wasn’t a bit of the Alternative History that the Amazon blurb promised.  Then abruptly, around 50% Kindle, a timeline anomaly pops up, and leads to a very different world that's going to sorely test Clay’s ideals.

 

    The ending is so-so.  After some exciting events in the “commune community”, Clay gets a much-needed rest.  But nothing is resolved, which makes me wonder if Terry Bisson intended to one day write a sequel to this.  Alas, it won’t happen.  Terry passed away in January 2024, and Wikipedia lists Any Day Now as his final full-length novel.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.1/5 based on 24 ratings and 11 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.36/5 based on 189 ratings and 38 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    "It has to be real jazz,” said Clay.

    “So what’s real jazz?” Ruth Ann asked.  They were sitting on the hood of the Ford with the motor cooling underneath, still warm on their bottoms.

    “Felonious Monk, Charles Mingles, Billy Ladyday,” said Clay.  “Very experimental stuff.  But it has to swing.  White people don’t do it as well.  Coal Train is good.”  (loc. 447)

 

    They were calling themselves Redeemers.  They wore masks on TV and talked about freedom.

    “The freedom to burn things,” Rotella said.

    They burned bridges in Indiana, barns in Idaho, buses in Detroit, cars and crosses in Georgia, and two kidnapped King’s Men in a locked shed in Illinois.  MLK called them misguided pawns; the UN called them terrorists.

    “Terrorism in the defense of liberty is no vice,” said Haig.  “It’s time the silent majority spoke up for America.”

    “Got a light?” muttered Clay.  (loc. 3649)

 

Kindle Details…

    The Kindle version of Any Day Now is presently priced at $9.99 at Amazon, which is rather steep.  Other Terry Bisson e-books are in the $2.99-$9.99 range.  It appears that a number of the author’s best-known works, such as Bears Discover Fire, are not yet available in e-book format.

 

Ernest was a rich kid working at being poor.  (loc. 862)

    There’s a fair amount of profanity in Any Day Now.  I counted 22 instances in the first 20%, but to be fair, half of those were the n-word racial epithet, which was mostly used to show Clay didn’t like the word, even though it was used frequently in the 1950s.

 

    Recreational drug usage is one of Clay’s frequent habits, and is generally presented in a positive and/or humorous way here, such as learning how “hold in” a toke, and how to properly prepare peyote before partaking of it.  I thought Clay’s first acid trip was presented particularly well.  Gay people are a common occurrence in both the Beat Scene and the hippie communes.  So if you’re a homophobe, you probably should skip this book.

 

    My biggest issue with Any Day Now is the storytelling.  Terry Bisson’s writing style is good, but the plotline doesn’t go anywhere or reach any conclusion.  Plus the previously mentioned genre-switch at the halfway point didn’t work at all for me.  Moreover, judging from the extremely low Goodreads ratings and several reviews there, I’m not the only one that felt this way.

 

    Despite that, I enjoyed Any Day Now, presumably because I could relate to so many of Clay’s experiences and have enjoyed so many of his sci-fi novels.  So let’s just call this one an ambitious and noble literary experiment that didn’t work.  RIP, Terry Bisson.  Your devoted fans dearly miss you.

 

    5½ Stars.  One last thing.  At one point during his Beat Phase, Clay goes to hear a 1950s hipster speaker by the name of Lord Buckley.  If you’ve never heard of him, go to YouTube and listen to some of his routines.  You will be amazed.

The Buntline Special - Mike Resnick

   2010; 295 pages.  Book 1 (out of 4) in the “Weird West Tale” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Steampunki; Alternate History; Western.  Overall Rating: 7*/10.

 

    It’s the 1880s Old West in a parallel universe, one where the western boundary of the United States is the Mississippi River.  The lands to the west of there are controlled by the Apache medicine man, "Geronimo", aka “Goyathlay”, and his Cheyenne counterpart, "Hook Nose", aka “Que Sul-La”.  Together, they weave powerful magic that keeps the White man from invading their lands.

 

    The exclusion of the Americans from Indian territories is not absolute.  A few towns and cities are allowed; they promote trade and cooperation between the two empires.  One of these is Tombstone, Arizona.

 

    As is true in our dimension, this alternate Tombstone seems to attract both the best and the worst breeds of gunslingers.  Wyatt Earp is the marshal there; his brothers are his deputies and Bat Masterson is one of his allies.  On the “black hat” side is the infamous Clanton clan and the McLaury brothers.  Into this tense stand-off rides the gunman who can gives the Earps the upper hand.

 

    Doc Holliday.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Buntline Special is the reimagining of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in a steampunk world.  In addition to the historically accurate participants, Mike Resnick includes others who were bystanders, such as Kate Elder, plus some interesting persons that weren’t there, such as Thomas Edison and Ned Buntline.  But there is no doubt that the main protagonist of the tale is Don Holliday.

 

    The presence of Edison allows for some marvelous inventions to come into play.  Things such as electric stagecoaches, lie detector machines, fluoroscopes, a super-hardened brass alloy, and, possibly the most intriguing one of all: robotic hookers.  Magic also figures into the storyline (useful hint: do NOT piss off a Native American medicine man!), and a couple of paranormal creatures are added to make things interesting.

 

    For the most part, the story is set in Arizona, in the greater Tombstone area.  The book includes five drawings strewn throughout the text; I thought they were a marvelous addition.  Since I’ve lived in Arizona for quite a while, it was neat to see one of our lesser-known tribes, the Hualopai, play a part in the story.

 

    There are some nifty “bonus sections” at the end of the book, including a Bibliography, a historical news article about the O.K. Corral gunfight, a Cast of Characters, and an “About the Author”.  The text abounds in witty dialogue, ingenious contraptions invented by Edison and manufactured by Buntline, and the goings-on at the bawdy house.

    The O.K. Corral gunfight is the highlight of the book.  But it’s not the “final ending”; there’s another 50 pagers after that happens, mostly resolving the paranormal challenges of the plotline.  All the plot threads get tied up, and if this adventure tickles your fancy, there are three more books in the series . 

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.2*/5, based on 88 ratings and 48 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.49*/5, based on 1,334 ratings and 210 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Geronimo wants to know who he is facing.” said Obidiah.

    “Bat Masterson and John Henry Holliday,” replied Holliday.

    “Doc Holliday?”

    “The very same.”

    Obidiah turned to Geronimo and spoke to him in the latter’s native tongue.  Geronimo stared at Holliday and then said something to Obadiah.

    “He wants to know if you really killed seven men in a card game in Mexico.”

    “Probably not,” answered Holliday.  (pg. 55)

 

    “I don’t like you much, Holliday,” said Frank.

    “Well, you have that in common with a lot of other men,” said Holliday easily.

    “Oh? Sounds like they’d be interesting men to know.”  He looked around the saloon.  “Where are they?”

    “Buried in graveyards from here to Texas,” said Holliday.  “And a few in Colorado, just for good measure.”

    “You don’t make friends real easy, do you?” said Tom.

    “Let’s just say I’m choosy.”  (pg. 224)

 

“The government didn’t ask for me because of my winning smile.”  (pg. 34)

    There’s a small amount of profanity in The Buntline Special.  I noted ten instances in the first 10%, all of which were the mild epithets involving hell and damn.  Later on, there are a couple of f-bombs, an excretory product, and an SOB.

 

    My bigger criticism of The Buntline Special is with the pacing.  Far too many pages are devoted to discussing Doc Holliday’s terminal illness: tuberculosis, or as it was called in those days “consumption”.  Ditto for the repartee between the White Hats and Black Hats.  One of the baddies, Johnny Ringo, has it in for Doc, and a lot of ink is expended on those two taunting each other.  Bat Masterson’s sudden handicap, which we’ll not detail here, also is drawn out far too long.  On the other hand, the part I found really interesting, the roles played by the Native Americans, is given short shrift.

 

    Despite all this, The Buntline Special kept my interest, as did Book Two of this series, The Doctor and The Kid, which I read seven years ago, and is reviewed here.  I attribute that Mike Resnick’s writing and storytelling skills.  Book Four, The Doctor and the Dinosaurs, is on my TBR shelf.  I can’t wait to see how Resnick works T-Rex into this storyline.

 

    7 Stars.  Add ½ Star if you read this series in its proper order.  I have a feeling I should’ve done that.

Early Riser - Jasper Fforde

   2018; 400 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Dystopian Fantasy, Alternate History.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    It’s late autumn in Wales, and we all know what that means, right?

 

    Yep, it’s time to eat two or three times as much as we normally do, and hopefully gain twenty, thirty and if we’re lucky, maybe even forty pounds in a hurry.

 

    Because Winter is fast approaching, and come Slumberdown, the day we start our hibernation, we want to be as heavy as possible.  Just like the bears, we'll go to sleep, not wake up until Springrise, and all that extra poundage will keep us nourished in between.  “Slim and trim” is a fatal condition for hibernators.

 

    That’s the routine for most of the population.  But a few people have to stay awake, both to protect those hibernating and to fix anything that might break down.  Wintertime in Wales, and many other places, is exceptionally harsh.

 

    Charlie Worthing has just volunteered for the Winter Consul Services, those guardians of the deep sleep.  He has a lot to learn, not much time to do it, and above all, get rid of his dreams.

 

    Because dreaming can be a terminal condition.

 

What’s To Like...

    Every Jasper Fforde novel I’ve read has fantastic worldbuilding, and Early Riser is no exception.  Presenting a plausible scenario of modern-day civilization dealing with fantasy creatures during a rip-snorting Ice Age is no easy task, but Fforde handles it deftly.  The entire story is set in Wales, mostly in a place called the Gower Peninsula, which is both real and scenic.  It is told in the first-person POV, that of the protagonist, Charlie.

 

    There’s a handy schematic of a dormitorium (a what?) which reminded me of the underground structures in Hugh Howey’s Silo series, except here they are aboveground.  The text overflows with wit, a Fforde staple, and there are lots of neat weapons (most of which go “Whump”), and critters (most of which go “Chomp”) to meet and give a proper amount of respect to.

 

    The tale is written in English, Jasper Fforde’s mother tongue, so American readers may have to suss out the meaning of some weird phrases such as “pumping out the zeds”, “come a cropper”, and “car park”.  But that’s a fun task.  Acronym-lovers will also be kept entertained, and any when’s the last time you read a tale where being fat is admirable and being thin is reprehensible?

 

Charlie and the reader both have lots of stuff to figure out, including:

    a.) What is Project Lazarus?

    b.) Who is Kiki, and why does he/she need the cylinder?

    c.) Is there a better alternative to the dream-quelling drug called “Morphenox”?

    d.) What’s so special about dreams involving blue Buicks, oak trees, severed hands, and being buried alive?

 

    There are some neat music references along the way: Tom Jones (well, he’s Welsh, so this is no surprise), Bonzo Dog Band, Mott The Hoople, The Dark Side of the Moon, Ziggy Stardust, Mott The Hoople (again!), Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album, Val Doonican (who?), and Richard Stilgoe (who?  Wiki him).  The text is very clean – only 9 cusswords in the first hundred-pages, and limited to scatological and afterworld references, plus the pseudo cuss-phrase “Gronk’s dung in a piss-pot” which made me chuckle.

 

    Like Charlies, you may find yourself wandering around in a fog while reading the first 300 pages of Early Riser, but if you persevere, you’ll be rewarded with a spectacular 100-page ending, full of lots of excitement and full explanations for what’s going on and why.  Early Riser is a rare standalone novel by Jasper Fforde, and is not set in the worlds of any of his previous series.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Come a cropper (n., phrase) : to fall heavily (a Britishism).

Others: Snaffle (v., also a Britishism).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 928 ratings and 262 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.87/5 based on 13,404 ratings and 2,204 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “The enemy aren’t the Villains, womads, scavengers, insomniacs, Ice-Hermits, Megafauna, nightwalkers, hiburnal rodents or flesh-eating cold slime — it’s the Winter.  To survive, you need to respect her first.  What do you need to do?”

    “Respect the Winter.”  I paused.  “Sir?”

    “Yes?”

    “What’s flesh-eating cold slime?”

    “It’s probably best not to think about that.”  (pg. 28)

 

    “Did you do any dreaming on your four-week sojourn to the dark side?”

    “No, ma’am.”

    “Good,” she said.  “The one thing I loathe more than winsomniacs is dreamers.  Feet on the ground, head out of the clouds.  Agree?”

    “Yes, ma’am.”

    “I don’t like subordinates always agreeing,” she said.  “Sycophants have no place in my department.  You’re to speak your mind when the opportunity calls for it.”

    “How will I know when that is?”

    “I shall inform you.”  (pg. 216)

 

“I hope the Gronk lays eggs in your brain, Mrs. Nesbit!”  (pg. 107)

    There are some nits to pick, but no show-stoppers.

 

    The first 3/4 of the book is not only confusing, it is also slow.  Charlie wanders around, trying unsuccessfully to make sense of what's real and what’s a dream, and what's happening to the various “non-productives” of the not-asleep society, namely the nightwalkers, winsomniacs, and Villains.  There’s also the matter of determining whether Gronks are real; a bet is riding on that.

 

    The “advertisements” at the end of the book, another Jasper Fforde staple, were great, and the footnotes were okay (although not on a par with Discworld footnotes in wittiness), but the abstracts at the start of every chapter didn’t do anything for me.  There were lots of chapters, but no list of them with their page numbers at the beginning of the book, so back-referencing was a pain.  But I read the hardcover edition, and this may not be true of the e-book version.

 

    Lastly, and leastly, the Wikipedia article on Jasper Fforde is in desperate need of updating.

 

    That's enough of the quibbling.  In the “Acknowledgements” section at the end of the book, Jasper Fforde mentions his “creative hiatus of 2014-2016”.  Early Riser was his first published book after that three-year gap, and maybe we should cut him a little slack.  To be clear, this isn’t a case of Early Riser being a poor book, it’s a case of his earlier books, particularly his Thursday Next series, being JUST. SO. GOOD. 

 

    7½ Stars.  One last thing to note, courtesy of Wikipedia:

 

    “The novel is notable because Fforde never uses a gender descriptive pronoun for the protagonist Charlie Worthing, referring to Charlie variously as they/them, I/me, and as simply 'Charlie'.”

 

    Incredible.  Only an exceptionally-skilled author could pull this off, and I am in awe that Jasper Fforde could do this.

Secret Murder: Who Shall Judge? - Ellen Kuhfeld

   2011; 157 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Alternate History; Murder-Mystery; Historical Fiction.  Overall Rating : 4½*/10.

 

    Once upon a time, every grade school student learned that Columbus discovered America.  Oh, there were a few folks who said Leif Erikson did it a half a millennium earlier, named the new world “Vinland”, and left a few artifacts here to confuse the archaeologists before packing up and going back home.  But it was agreed that Leif’s trip, even if it happened, didn’t count because the Vikings never established any permanent settlements.

 

    But what if they had?  If so, it’s reasonable to assume that once the rest of Europe found out, other European countries would jump at the chance to explore this brave new world, particularly France and England.

 

    True, sailing technology in 1000 AD wasn’t as advanced as it would be in 1492, so the pace of colonization would be slower.  And since the Black Plague hadn't happened yet, the natives in America would be spared being ravaged by the pandemics that germ-carrying European explorers would later inflict upon them.

 

    It is logical to assume that the Vikings would settle in the north, mostly in Canada.  How the French and English and “Skraelings” (the Viking term for indigenous Americans) divvied up what is presently the United States is anybody’s guess, but some sort of equilibrium would be established.  And trade between the various factions would commence.

 

    That's the basis for this tale.

 

What’s To Like...

    Secret Murder: Who Shall Judge? is an ambitious blend of historical fiction and murder-mystery, set in an alternate world where Northmen (read “Vikings”), French, English, and Skraelings coexist and trade with one another.  The exact place and time are unclear, but probably somewhere along the present-day US-Canada border (most likely Minnesota since that’s the author’s home state), and in the 1200s, give or take a century or so.

 

    Our protagonist is Ragnar Forkbeard, a merchant down from the (Canadian) Northlands to participate in, and hopefully gain a big profit from, a weeklong trading fair.  There’s bad blood between him and another Northman there, the banished Thorolf Pike, but both keep a somewhat civil tongue since they’re in English territory, where English law prevails.  Things are tense but peaceful, until Thorolf is found dead with an arrow in his chest.

 

    The book opens with a prologue that details the Alt-History scenario described above, and since I'm a history-buff, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The settings are limited to the trade fair and a nearby abbey, plus the surrounding forest area.  There’s almost zero cussing, no sex, a minimum of onstage violence, and lots of mead to wet everyone’s whistle.  I'd definitely call this a cozy mystery.

 

    The historical element seemed well-researched.  Ellen Kuhfeld uses a lot of Viking terminology which gives a nice “feel” to the storyline.  Some of the terms are defined, some not. so it would’ve been nice if either a glossary or footnotes had been utilized to explain things like Ringerike, liripipe, nithing, etc.  Nonetheless, at 157 pages, Secret Murder: Who Will Judge? is a quick and easy read.

 

    The title reference, introduced at 33%, is a Northland law covering a justifiable homicide situation, and which I’m presuming is historically factual.  There are a couple of poem/chants woven into the story; I thought the one at 86% was particularly stirring.  Thoughts by any of the characters are given in italics; I’ve always liked that way of handling them.  I enjoyed the mention of a gleeman; I don’t think I’ve come across one in a story since when I read Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Misliked (v.; archaic) : considered to be unpleasant; disliked.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.1*/5, based on 22 ratings.

    Goodreads: 3.27*/5, based on 11 ratings and 1 review.

 

Excerpts...

    “We must plan the rest of our investigations.  Matilda might solve this for us – but when have we ever been fortunate enough to have the answer drop into our laps like that, hm?”

    “Last fall.  Remember we stopped at the Dancing Bear to ask if travelers had seen the robber we were after?  And there he was, drunk as a monk in the corner.”  Dirk had a weakness for interrupting.

    "Hm.  Thank you, Dirk.  That’s once, men, once in the last year.  The rest, we had to work for.”  (loc. 370)

 

    “Thorolf was outlawed – who cares who kills him?  It’ll be a bother, but we’re only here for a week.”

    “The baron cares.  Why do you think that Southerner was talking about Thorolf taking companions onto his pyre?”  Ragnar saw Olaf still didn’t understand.

    “You’ve mostly traded to the east, where customs are more reasonable.  The laws are different here.  Except for self-defense, you’ve got to be some kind of lawman or soldier before you’re allowed to kill people.  Do it yourself, and they’ll hang you.  It’s called justice.”  (loc. 538)

 

Kindle Details…

    Right now Secret Murder: Who Shall Judge? is priced at $3.99 at Amazon.  Ellen Kuhfeld has written a number of other books, mostly hard-boiled detective tales and cozy mysteries, all under several different pen names.  She is also a coauthor of Minnesota Vice, a collection of short stories, along with Mary Kuhfeld. 

 

 

“Finns are strange.  Half of them are enchanters, and the other half think they’re enchanters.”  (loc. 1093)

    Sadly, Secret Murder: Who Shall Judge? has a lot of weaknesses.  We’ll skip the nitpicky stuff and just list the major issues.

 

Murder-Mystery Aspect.  This was poorly done and slow-moving.  The key clue is an arbitrary one and not convincing.  The perpetrator could have simply denied everything and no one would be able to prove otherwise.

 

Alt-History Aspect.  Largely undeveloped.  The entire “new world” consists of a trade fair and an abbey.  We don't even get to visit Ragnar’s home turf, the Northlands.  Fans of Alt-History are going to be disappointed with the scant attention paid to world-building.

 

The Historical Fiction Aspect.  The Norsemen and English factions are both done well, but the French and Native Americans are barely mentioned.  The story could have just as easily been set along the east coast of medieval England without any “alt” plotline needed.

 

The Ending.  Weak at best, disturbing at worst.  Ragnar figures out who the actual murderer is, obtains a confession, but doesn’t turn his findings over to the English authorities.  Instead, he allows an innocent rival to be framed for the murder, where the punishment will be death-by-hanging.

 

    What kind of moral to a story is that?!  I suppose you could call it “Viking Justice”, but the crime was committed on English soil, and the people reading this aren’t Medieval Norsemen.  Should we really have our protagonists framing others for capital offenses just because they’re bullies?

 

    4½ Stars.  Despite its flaws, I still enjoyed reading Secret Murder: Who Shall Judge?, but that’s probably because I love all the three genres covered in this book.  Perhaps it would have been better to pick just one of those genres (hint, hint!!  Alt-History!!) and narrow the story’s focus.  I for one would love to read a book, or even a series, chronicling the adventures of English, French, Native American, and Viking heroes and spanning the entirety of pre-Columbian North America.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke

   2005; 850 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Alternate History; British Historical Fiction; Dark Magic; Fantasy.  Laurels: Shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award (2004) and the Guardian First Book Award (2004); winner of the Time Magazine’s Best Novel of the Year (2004), the British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year (2005), the Hugo Award (2005), the Locus Award – Best First Novel (2005), the Mythopoeic Award – Adult Literature (2005), and the World Fantasy Award (2005).  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    England has lost her magic.  She’s apparently forgotten all about it somewhere along the line.  This realization comes at a pretty bad time, too.  Napoleon is kicking everybody’s butt over on the continent, and the reigning King of England is locked away in Windsor Castle because he’s stark raving mad.  It would be nice if someone would brew up a potion or a spell to cure him, and whup up on Bonaparte while they're at it.

    There are a couple of self-proclaimed wizards in England, most notably the “Learned Society of York Magicians”.  But they’re “theoretical” magicians, devoted solely to combing through ancient books and manuscripts, looking for incantations and spells long gone.  None of them has ever attempted to cast a spell, nor do they intend to.

    There are also a couple of street wizards around, but they just use some cheap sleight-of-hand tricks to entertain poor street urchins for a pittance.  The most famous one is Vinculus, but he looks more like a beggar, and has never done anything truly magical.

    However, things are about to change.  Some upstart named Mr. Gilbert Norrell has just moved to London, and he’s called out the theoretical magicians, much to their chagrin. He’s issued them a challenge.  They are invited to meet him and watch him try to do some unequivocal feat of magic.  If he fails, he’ll leave London at once and never bother them again.

    But if he succeeds, the Learned Society of York Magicians must agree to disband forever and never call themselves magicians again.

What’s To Like...

    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is divided into three “volumes”, namely:

        Mr. Norrell (1%-24%),

        Jonathan Strange  (24%-58%), and,

        John Uskglass (58%-93%).

    These are not separate books, and this shouldn’t be considered a trilogy.

    The novel is set in the early 1800’s (1806-1817, to be exact), mostly in England, but also with excursions to Portugal, Italy (primarily Venice and Padua), and an otherworldly place called “Faerie”.  I liked that the fairies here are rather evil creatures, making them much more interesting than if they were Tinkerbells.  Terry Pratchett would be proud.

    The book is billed as a Fantasy, which is why I picked it up.  But as the title hints, it is really more about the relationship between the two protagonists.  Jonathan Strange and Gilbert Norrell have different personalities, different views on the history of English magic, and different ways of becoming proficient in it.

    The book is written in 1800’s English, which didn’t bother me, although the author seemed to find any excuse possible to use the words “chuse”, “surprized”, and “connexions”.  I liked the usage of other archaic words, such as shewed, dropt, sopha, learnt, stopt, popt, headach, ancles, scissars, standers-by, and learnt.  But I can see where this might get tiresome for some readers.

    The primary storyline theme of the book is: why is there no more magic in England, and what can be done to recover it?  Each protagonist has his own opinions on this.  Jonathan Strange argues that there is a pressing need to learn magic, since there are damsels to save and a French dictator to defeat.  Mr. Norrell, urges caution since one doesn't know what sort of beasties might be unintentionally unleashed by the casting of spells.

    The book is also Historical Fiction, and I thought this was done quite well.  It was fun to get the “feel” for how the Napoleonic wars were conducted, and in times of peace, how travelers passed the time while vacationing in Italy and other parts of western Europe.

    There are some drawings scattered throughout the text; they were a nice touch.  I can relate to Mr. Norrell’s book-hoarding, and I enjoyed visiting Shrewsbury (where Ellis Peters’  Brother Cadfael series is set), and Windsor Castle, which I’ve walked through.  The ending ties up most of the main story threads, including the identity of the man with the thistle-down hair.  There is one major plot thread left unresolved, which could conceivably be developed into a sequel.  But I don’t think Susanna Clarke has any plans to write one.

Kewlest New Word…

Quern (n.) : a simple hand mill for grinding grain, typically consisting of two circular stones, the upper of which is rubbed to and fro on the lower one.

Others : Phaeton (n.)

Kindle Details...

    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell presently sells for $8.54 at Amazon.  ANAICT, Susanna Clarke has only one other novel available as an e-book there, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, which is a collection of short stories, some of which are set in the same world as this book.  It is priced at $9.99.   

Excerpts...

    It had never occurred to him before that Strange would need books in Portugal.  The idea of forty precious volumes being taken into a country in a state of war where they might get burnt, blown up, drowned or dusty was almost too horrible to contemplate.  Mr. Norrell did not know a great deal about war, but he suspected that soldiers are not generally your great respecters of books.  They might put their dirty fingers on them.  They might tear them!  They might – horrors of horrors! – read them and try the spells!  Could soldiers read?  Mr. Norrell did not know.  (loc. 5053)

    “Go to the store-room at the foot of the kitchen-stairs.  In the chest under the window you will find lead chains, lead padlocks and lead keys.  Bring them here!  Quickly!”

    “And I will go and fetch a pair of pistols,” declared Lascelles.

    “They will do no good,” said Mr. Norrell.

    “Oh!  You would be surprized how many problems a pair of pistols can solve!”  (loc. 12826)

She wore a gown the colour of storms, shadows and rain and a necklace of broken promises and regrets.  (loc. 2689)

     As shown in the header of this review, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was nominated for, and often won, all sorts of literary awards in 2004-05, and there are a slew of reviews at Amazon and Goodreads overflowing with gushing praise.  Yet, for me the book was a let-down.  Outside of fairies and wizards, there are very few otherworldly critters to meet and greet, and for the majority of the book, the magic is rather tame.

    There are a slew of characters introduced, probably close to a hundred in all.  That in itself is okay since this is an 850-page epic, but putting a Cast of Characters at the beginning of the book would have been a real plus.  There are also a slew of footnotes, which worked well, but seemed to be there mostly to make the Alternate History storyline seem convincing.  For me, it didn’t succeed.

    But my biggest issue with JS&MN is the pacing.  Despite being well-written, and an easy read, I found it to be a slow-go.  Volumes 1 and 2 seemed to get bogged down with way too many descriptions, plot tangents, and people and places that had no later impact on the storyline.

    There is good news, however.  If you can stick it out until about 70%-Kindle or so, everything comes into focus deftly, and the pacing picks up significantly.  It probably sounds like a cliché, but if the first 500 pages had been skillfully edited to half their content, this would’ve been a dynamite read.

    7½ Stars.  In summary, if you’re someone who typically reads Jane Eyre or David Copperfield and want to expand your literary horizons to include Fantasy novels, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell might thoroughly thrill you.  OTOH, if you typically read Harry Potter or LOTR, and want to read something a bit more highbrow, this might be a bit of a slog.