'The House of Silk: The New Sherlock Holmes Novel' - Anthony Horowitz 2011.

The House of Silk is a novel with three parts; a fast-paced beginning, which gives way to a section of inaction, followed by an ending which feels almost 'tacked on'.  

I have not read anything by Anthony Horowitz before, but he has accurately replicated Doyle's writing style and Watson's voice remains consistent throughout. This initially drew me in and held my attention, but as the novel progressed the weakness of the plot could not be sustained on that alone.

There are really two mysteries in this novel, and the attempt to write two novellas in one is where the main weaknesses lie. The first mystery is that of the Flat Capped Gang, brought to the attention of Holmes by  Edmund Carstairs, a partner in an art gallery who believes he is being stalked. The art dealer had recently become caught up in gang activity in Boston, after some paintings he had sold were destroyed in a train robbery carried out by the twin brothers who lead the 'Flat Capped Gang'. Carstairs believes he is being stalked by the surviving leader because of his role in the other brother's killing by police during a raid.

The second mystery gives the book its title 'The House of Silk'. This mystery is introduced when someone  involved in the 'Flat Capped Gang' investigation is murdered and found with a single piece of silk tied around their wrist. Investigations into the House of Silk are thwarted at every turn. Holmes takes a great many risks throughout the investigation, and uncharacteristically makes a number of grave miscalculations.

There was something missing from this novel that I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps it was just different in 'theme' to the other Holmes stories I have read, which made this particular story feel it was not as wonderful as it could have been. In the end I'm not sure that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have approved of the plot. That might sound a little mysterious, but I don't want to give away too much. If you have not read any of the Sherlock Holmes novels I would recommend you start elsewhere, but fans of Holmes will find something here to enjoy.

Love it, Read it,
LR

'Women of Letters- Reviving the Lost Art of Correspondence' - Curated by Marieke Hardy & Michaela McGuire 2011.

This book is all about reviving the art of writing letters, the art of sharing stories in more than 140 characters, perhaps even the art of living and appreciating life enough to fill this space. This is also a book filled with the lives of amazing Australian women, so this post is for my aunt Rachel, who is the bravest woman I know.

'Women of Letters' began as a creative fundraising event for Edgar's Mission animal rescue centre and has grown into a monthly event, with an online community, and of course, the book which I just read. Hardy and McGuire invite talented musicians, actresses, politicians, writers and comedians to write a letter to topics as varied as 'the moment it all fell apart' or 'the best present I ever received'  and in the process revive the lost art of correspondence. At the monthly events, these writers then read their letters aloud to an audience, which lends a very intimate quality to the letters in this book, as each has a very distinct 'voice'.

This is a difficult book to comment on, as there are so many styles, and vastly different approaches to writing letters. But this is it's strength. It is a brilliant book to read a little at a time, I picked it up and read a couple of letters here and there, rather than from start to finish. Some of the letters were very candid, other were hilarious, and out of all the letters there were only two that I didn't like (and one of those was written by Paul Kelly).

I must admit that there are two things about this book which I would usually dislike. First is the 'celebrity factor'. Ever since I read a social science text with an infuriatingly pretentious introduction by Bono I have shied away from any kind of 'non literary' celebrity association. However, in this case I am willing to overlook this, because seeing Megan Washington's name was actually what made me pick up the book, and give it a proper look, rather than just a cursory glance. In addition, the actual idea behind the fundraising is based around famous Australia women, as so it isn't some tacked on celebrity endorsement.

Secondly, as any frequent reader of this blog will probably have noticed, I'm not really a reader of 'current' books. Those books that dominate newspaper columns and 'recommended this Summer' lists before falling into obscurity as mediocre. I had seen this book mentioned in a few Sunday newspaper reviews and there was a huge in store display, but I'm glad I swallowed my prejudices and gave it a try. 'Women of Letters' is something truly unique and well worth a read, it might even prompt you to see your own life in a different light.

Love it, Read it,
LR

'Deadline'- Mira Grant 2011.

'Deadline' is the second novel in the 'Newsflesh Trilogy' of zombie novels by Mira Grant, and if you haven't already read 'Feed' then I suggest you start there before diving into 'Deadline'.

If I had written this post last night at 2am when I finished 'Deadline' it would have consisted of "No way, she [Grant] didn't, oh no she didn't, ah" and so-on, interspersed with mutterings about "too many cliffhangers for one person to handle" and finished off with "best book I have read all year". However, I have a nights sleep and a few hours of perspective and though those sentiments are still valid I have toned them down a little.

Anyone who has read my original review of 'Feed' will realise that I was totally smitten. I ordered 'Deadline' almost immediately after finishing 'Feed', and intended to savour it over a few weeks reading. That didn't happen. Despite having work and social commitments I still finished 'Deadline' in less than 24 hours. I enjoyed this novel immensely, despite it being missing some of the characteristics which made me love 'Feed'. By focusing only on main character Shaun, rather than the original shifting perspective, the tone of the novel was quite different. The other shift was away from what I saw as using zombies as an allegory for various other 'real-world' issues manipulated to control population through fear. While the theme of control through fear is still prominent, as the storyline moves deeper into determining the specifics of the manipulation it becomes less and less of an allegory and more of a whole-world-conspiracy story. While I did miss the focus on the truth, integrity and reporting of 'Feed', as long as the next book can void the many whole-world-conspiracy clichés I think it will still be a great read.

There were a few irritating points throughout 'Deadline', beginning with the repetition of the opening scene. While I understand that opening with a similar [read: almost identical] scene is a stylistic decision I think it was poorly executed. In addition, the repetition of some phrases and actions throughout the novel became irritating. This included constantly explaining how blood-testing units operate and their results, and mentioning whether or not the members of the group wanted snacks when someone went to the kitchen. The second one may sound silly, but no one EVER wanted anything, and yet every time a character goes to the kitchen this is repeated, and since a large portion of the book has them holed up in a house, it happens fairly often.

One of the biggest improvements in 'Deadline' was that the entire book was relevant to the plot and contributed to both building suspense and characters, rather than the dragging, irrelevant first section of 'Feed'. This was a major plus, and did not mean the sacrifice of the wonderfully unforgiving nature of the plot. Grant has no qualms about killing off main characters, or inflicting mental trauma on others, and this really adds to the overall tension.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and highly recommend the series, especially if you like zombies. I'm off to play Left 4 Dead 2, and pretend I'm Georgia Mason, wish me luck.

Love it, Read it,
LR

'John Dies at the End' - David Wong 2011.

This book was an odd choice for me, a whim really. It was mentioned in passing and the title intrigued me. Would I enjoy reading a book where the (presumed) main plot point is revealed in the title? I thought I might, and ordered it. It was only really downhill from there. This post is going to contain a lot of spoilers, so if you were intending to read the book, I suggest you look at some cute pictures instead.

'John Dies at the End' was written by Jason Pargin, editor of Cracked, as a series of extended blog posts under the psydonym 'David Wong', which is also the protagonist's name. There are so many things about this novel that don't work, and many of them can be tied to the inexperience of the writer and the format in which it was originally created, compounded by what I suspect was a complete lack of editing.

The format is a common one, with David Wong is recounting his adventures of the past year to a reporter, in the setting of the present day. As David is telling his own story, and often suggests he is 'mostly' honest, he falls into the category of an unreliable narrator, in much the same way that Nick is in 'The Great Gatsby'. There are brief interludes which focus on the reporter and David, but for the main 3/4 of the novel the action is taking place in the past. While this is a style which can work very effectively (it was one of my favourite elements of Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind) here it becomes increasingly irritating as the book progresses. When the 'reporter' plot point is finally resolved as being just a 'projection' and the segment of 'retelling' is finally over, the book almost redeems itself. The writing style and the plot is much more interesting in the final 50 pages then in the preceding 400.

Unfortunately I still strongly disliked this book in the end. Simply because it promised me one thing, and much like 'The Clash of the Titans' in which no Titans actually clashed, 'John Dies at the End' let me down. In fact, I am prepared to say that if John had actually died I might have been able to say that the few hours of my life that I spent reading it wern't wasted. But as the most undeveloped, irritating character lives on, I must add this book to the list of missteps in my reading history.

Love it, Read it,
LR

'Beatrice and Virgil' - Yann Martel 2010.

It is rare that I actually dislike a book. I enjoy reading, enjoy narratives, and enjoy various styles of writing, even if I am not always convinced by the characters or plot, or the writing is simply of poor quality, I can usually find something that redeems a book. The only redeeming element of 'Beatrice and Virgil' is not enough that I can say I enjoyed it, and I would not recommend anyone read it. The book was originally given to my sister (who didn't read it) as a gift, I decided to read it as I was intrigued by the blurb and seemed to be outside the, admittedly quite wide, scope of novels I read.

'Beatrice and Virgil' is a story of two layers. The first layer the is protagonist Henry a writer who wrote a very successful first novel, but is having a lot of difficulty writing his second, which he wants to be about the Holocaust. Through the fame of his first book he is contacted by a taxidermist who requests help in finishing a play he is writing. The second layer is the play, which is about a Donkey named Beatrice and a Howler monkey named Virgil. The two animals are close friends and have been driven from their homes and are travelling around a country called 'Shirt' which is stripy. It is eventually deduced by Henry that the play is actually about two Jewish people fleeing from persecution during the Holocaust.

The only redeeming element of this novel was a couple of sections of the 'Beatrice and Virgil' play, especially the scene in which Virgil describes a pear to Beatrice who has never seen or heard of one. There is something beautiful about the way this section is written. Unfortunately a couple of pages of excellent dialogue cannot redeem this book for me. The whole plot of the book is completely pretentious and the way in which it is structured feels forced, as though the author is trying desperately to convince the reader that the book is being clever.

Ultimately Yann Martel awkwardly and forcefully attempts to batter readers into believing that a subtly brilliant story has been created, by writing about an author who cannot write a book about the Holocaust and including segments of a play about the Holocaust, and thus actually writing a book about the Holocaust. What it really feels like is that Martel is simply writing about himself, not so subtly. After the huge success of his novel 'Life of Pi' which won many awards, including the prestigious Man Booker Prize, Martel seems to have been beset by overwhelming pressure to produce another award winning novel. I have not read 'Life of Pi' and now have absolutely no desire to, but if anyone has read it and thinks it really is deserving of all the praise I may be convinced to give Martel one last chance.

Love it, Read it,
LR

'Feed'- Mira Grant 2010.

I must first admit that I have a soft spot for zombie books, and apocalypse books in general, which is what originally made me buy this book online. Mira Grant's book 'Feed' did not disappoint, it had a sizeable helping of gadgets and gore which is expected of this kind of book, but what made me love it was all the unexpected angles on inquiry into society.

The first surprising thing was the setting, or rather the time of the setting, 20 years after the 'Rising' is not you usual starting point for a zombie novel. In the genre the good (who could go past 'World War Z'?) and the bad (I want 5 hours of my life back- 'Married with Zombies') seem to have all, or at least most, of their action taking place during the main 'rising'.

My favourite part about reading this book was thinking of it as an allegory for the US fear-mongering in response to the threat of terrorism. Yes, my university degree impacts on how I read zombie novels, and I am well aware that Grant may not have had any intention of it being read like that, but it doesn't make it any less interesting as a political commentary in the face of a threat.

Since I have also been reading extensively on propaganda, communication techniques, narrative theories and all sorts of other wonderful things (like disconnection from traditional media sources and what that means for politics), Grant's version of future news media as blogging was also fascinating. I especially enjoyed some of the commentary on 'ethics' and 'truth' because if you ignore the zombies this book has a lot of insightful observations about the media culture in the US (and the rest of the world).

Another plus for this book was decent non-Mary-Sue female protagonist! I don't want to give anything away, so I shall not say any more. But I did find it really refreshing to read a novel filled with a number of interesting, multi-dimensional female characters, rather than a token cookie-cutter female victim or hero.

My final good point about this book is fearless plot progression. I recently read the first book of the Codex Alera Series (which I will review when I read the next few) but my main bugbear with Jim Butcher is his addiction to ALMOST killing all/most of his main characters in every single book, only to have them revive in time for the rest of the series (Harry Dresden *cough*). It drives me mad.

The only downside to this book was the slow plot development in the first third of the book, I feel like there was a lot was superfluous information which, while helping to build a picture of the 'world', but didn't really contribute anything to the main plot.

An interesting little tit-bit I discovered, Mira Grant is actually Seanan McGuire, I can see why she wanted to name herself Mira...

Love it, Read it,
LR