uh-oh! Reading time distraction!

Tonight Nancy and Larry bought a Wii. I realize that we are probably the last two people on the planet to buy one, but now we own it. I just spent the last hour or so playing the thing and having a blast. Loser in the bowling takes tequila shots.  Guess who lost -- ME! Luckily we only did best 3 out of 5.

Will this be the downfall in Nancy's reading life? Hmmm. I doubt it, but I highly recommend one for all couples. 

*Seeker, by Jack McDevitt

Penguin
ISBN: 0441013295
 
Seeker won the 2006 Nebula Award for best novel. Its competition that year was

1. The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner
2. The Girl in the Glass, by Jeffrey Ford
3. Farthing, by Jo Walton
4. From the Files of the Time Rangers, by Richard Bowes
5. To Crush the Moon, by Wil McCarthy

Of those, only The Girl in the Glass  ever ended up on my shelves because I love Jeffrey Ford's work.

Seeker is a book of speculative fiction that will appeal to you if you're not into hard-core science fiction, and if you are a reader of mysteries. McDevitt has combined both into a story that begins with the discovery of a cup bearing some "English" letters, which antiquities dealer Alex Benedict and his partner Chase Kolpath trace back to a long-lost ship called Seeker.  To be very blunt, Benedict and Kolpath plunder what we would consider archaeological sites and sell what relics they come across. Today that's illegal, but somehow in the future, there's no problem with this practice and there's a huge market, although a movement is afoot to stop the plundering.

What's special about this particular cup is that the ship Seeker, thousands of years earlier, took a group of about a thousand people away from earth, destined for a new world, Margolia. Since the ship left, no one ever heard from these people again, and legends began to flourish about the hidden colony -- rising to the level of our own fascination with say, Atlantis. But with the cup found, Alex and Chase now have evidence that someone out there knows something about the Seeker and quite possibly Margolia, and they begin a long journey to discover all they can, with the hope of picking up more relics and making a fortune. Along the way Alex thinks they can also solve the mystery of what happened to the Seeker and its passengers. But there are others out there who don't want Alex and Chase to succeed.

How the judges passed up Ford's Girl in the Glass to give the award to this book is one of those mysteries I'll carry with me into my next life. It's not that it's a bad novel, au contraire.  While parts of the plot and some of the characters (aside from Alex and Chase) are often just so-so, there are some good scenes.  McDevitt's best writing shows itself when Chase ventures off into the home world of the physically repugnant Mutes (The Ashyyur -- a telepathic race with whom humans have a tentative peace), following a lead. McDevitt poses some strong moral questions in this novel while telling a good story.

I think I'll look for the other books in this series now. The combination of sci-fi and mystery appeals to me when I'm in the "I need to relax my brain" mode. I would recommend it to readers of speculative fiction, and for mystery readers who don't mind leaving Earth for the duration of the read.

--off to paperback swap

G'day...I'm joining the Aussie Author challenge

I was going through the closet I converted into the unread fiction shelves last night, sorting to see what's what, what's there, etc. and found a giant stack of books by authors from Australia. I'm like 4 months late joining, but better late than never, eh?

The challenge is being hosted by a real Aussie, bookwordlover, and here's the page where you can sign up.  I happen to really enjoy books from down under so this will be an easy challenge.

The Man From Saigon, by Marti Leimbach

First a thank you to Librarything's Early Reviewers Program for sending me this book. If you don't know about Librarything, get on over there. It is definitely the best book site on the web today.

The Man From Saigon is a work of historical fiction, set in 1967 during the Vietnam War just prior to the Tet Offensive.  Susan Gifford is a reporter who writes for a woman's magazine and is sent to Saigon to write about things of interest to women. She realizes, however, that the real action is not in Saigon, but out in the field, and off she goes. On her first foray in country, she meets Marc, another reporter, with whom she eventually falls in love. She also takes with her on her periodic jaunts into the jungle a Vietnamese reporter named Son.  It is on one trip to do a story on a refugee camp in the Delta that the soldiers with whom she is traveling are ambushed. She and Son are soon separated from the protection of the Army, but are quickly taken prisoner by three North Vietnamese soldiers looking for their own unit. Of course, this brief summary doesn't even begin to cover this story, but I don't want to give away the show for others who may wish to read the book. 

The author is able to zoom in on some of the inherent ambiguities and contradictions of war, and of those caught up in it, at least the slice of it which she reveals here.  For example, the "truth" that was coming out of Vietnam from reporters was often suppressed, filtered or changed, as we know now, and as the author shows so well, and depended heavily on what those in charge of the war wanted everyone to know back home. Marc and his cameraman Locke ran into this censorship and official US doublespeak issue several times throughout the story.  The author also touches on the treatment of the native Vietnamese who were evacuated by the Army from their homes, whom the army called "victims of the Vietcong." (181)  People in the camps had seen their houses torched, their food supplies ruined, normal life disrupted, all by the Army when there wasn't even a battle going on. Then there's the moral ambiguity of it all, exemplified especially in the case of the main character, Susan, who comes to understand what's really happening while she's out there in the jungle and has time to reflect on her time and experiences in Vietnam. 


The Man From Saigon  is overall, a good reading experience. The characters, for the most part, were well drawn, and the sense of place was so realistically portrayed that you could almost feel the intense heat from the time to time. However, I thought the author overdid it in terms of Susan's day-to-day slog through the jungle, the progress of her foot injuries, and the abundance of detail about the rats and insects that were cooked and eaten while she was a prisoner. Had the story been a little bit tighter, it would have been excellent. But I would most definitely recommend it to anyone interested in reading about Vietnam, or about women's roles in Vietnam during the war. Ms. Leimbach has done a great deal of research here, and it's paid off.

It's Monday! What am I reading?

I'm back after a two-week stint of travel (yes, again) and recovery from said travel.  Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to recover, but coming off a cruise where I got no sleep and turning right around for a family visit up north for four days where I got no sleep left me pretty much fried.  So I spent the past week sleeping and reading. A vacation from my vacations, so to speak.

This meme is hosted by Sheila, at One Person's Journey Through A World of Books. Every week (okay, not last week because I was asleep pretty much all of last Monday) I offer my thanks to Sheila for hosting this. Today is no exception -- thank you!

So here's what's happening in my reading world -- I know it seems like a lot, but I had nothing but time--

this past week

Read and reviewed:
Fox Evil, by Minette Walters
The Time In Between, by David Bergen
The Shadow Year, by Jeffrey Ford
The Magicians, by Lev Grossman

Read and Not Reviewed Yet (I'll get there)
The Amnesia Clinic, by James Scudamore (an excellent book, by the way)
The Man From Saigon, by Marti Leimbach
Seeker, by Jack McDevitt 
A Thousand Cuts, by Simon Lelic 

currently: Currently I'm reading:
Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy, by William Irwin and
Blood Kin, by Ceridwen Dovey

plans for this week
In a few days, April begins, so I'll be moving to a different reading topic -- this time I'll be reading books that eventually became movies. Here's the plan for this week:

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
   I've read this one LOTS of times, but I love it so want to read it again

...and whatever else pops up from the TBR pile.

so that's it -- the unreviewed books will be reviewed shortly.

The Magicians, by Lev Grossman

I have this sort of fondness for books like this one, where the world of magic crosses over into our world and vice versa.  This book does set up two worlds that cross over back and forth, but at its core, underneath all of the elements of the fantastical, it's a story about a group of bored teens who become bored young adults who seek an escape from the mundane.

Structured in three parts, The Magicians follows the life of Quentin Coldwater, who, when we meet him, is on his way to interview for a place at one of the ivies. He's talented, an overachiever, with parents who are way too interested in themselves and their lifestyle. He grew up reading a series of books that are strangely reminiscent of the Narnia series, and he's interested in magic. He's also arrogant and always looking for something better, which he thinks will satisfy his need for happiness. When things go awry and he finds the interviewer dead, he receives a mysterious invitation, which turns out to be a chance to sit for an exam at a Hogwarts-like institution (complete with secret entry), passes and finds himself enrolled. The first part of the book examines his time at this place (Brakebills), the second part covers life in Manhattan after he graduates from there, and the third part covers his life after Quentin realizes that there's got to be more than taking drugs, having sex and being steeped in total ennui and lackluster living, none of which makes him happy at all. Can we say Bret Easton Ellis?

While the author did manage to get his message across and this he did well, I was rather disappointed in the overall whole.Here comes the niggling: I didn't like any of the characters at all, because frankly, they're just not likable people. In fact, most of the time, they're odious. My favorite character wasn't even human. This book just didn't come together well --- moving through each section sometimes felt choppy and while the story moved along, sometimes the pace was just off.  And I could forgive all of that, because there were a few very well-written scenes in this book -- (especially in part three), and a really good story line involving a Narnia-like adventure of children finding themselves in an alternative and magical world called Fillory -- if it weren't for the fact that I felt like I was reading a rehashed Harry Potter novel much of the time. I wanted something original, something, well, magical, and didn't get it. Plus, there were a few unresolved plot holes that I kept hoping the author would pick up and never did. Arrgh!

However, each person brings something different to the table whenever they pick up a book, so although it wasn't exactly my cup of tea, many people gave this book four- and five-star ratings.  I love speculative fiction, and I'd recommend The Magicians to people who also read in that genre, with the caveat that you've probably seen most of this in other books.

*The Shadow Year, by Jeffrey Ford

Winner of the 2009 World Fantasy Award, The Shadow Year is another good book by Jeffrey Ford.  It's also on the longlist for this year's International IMPAC Dublin Award.  If you haven't read anything by this author, you are really missing out. He's a very good writer, and the other books I've read of his are The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque and The Girl in the Glass, both of which are offbeat but well worth your attention.  


Shadow Year  is set in the 1960s, in a small town on Long Island. It's a coming of age story, a quasi-mystery story, with a bit of speculative fiction all thrown in together. I've seen this book compared with Stephen King's writing, and yes, perhaps to a wee bit, I can see why.  Here, though, we're introduced to a rather sad and dysfunctional family.  The main character of the novel is a 6th grade boy who lives with his older brother Jim, a younger sister Mary, and a set of parents who have some serious problems. Mom is an alcoholic and lives in a quasi stupor most of the time, while Dad works three jobs to make ends meet.  The children's grandparents live in an apartment attached to the house. The sixth grader is the narrator of the story (we're not given his name), and through his eyes events of a particular year unravel themselves.   While Mary runs numbers in her head and plays with imaginary friends to help cope, the boys have their own space in the cellar below the stairs: Botch Town, where the town they live in has been faithfully recreated out of clay and what ever other materials are handy. The boys often go down and recreate events happening throughout the town using the clay figures they've created.

As the story gets rolling, strange occurrences begin to take place.  A prowler is looking in through windows throughout the neighborhood.  Jim decides that the boys will take on the case and while they're working on that, a boy from the narrator's school disappears.  Even worse, the boys come across a man dressed all in white (known as Mr. White) driving a white car with bubble top and fins, who starts watching them. But as these events happen, the boys realize that Mary's a step ahead of them and has recreated them in Botch Town.

The reader is drawn in from the very beginning and stays there throughout the novel. You want to know what happens not just in the sense of these strange events, but to the family as well, because you genuinely care about all of these characters. Plus, Ford has this incredible way of evoking a nostalgia; my guess would be especially from people who grew up during the 60s. There's a reality to the atmosphere he creates that keeps you reading more. There are parts that are downright laugh out loud funny, while the family situation and other, more grief-laden scenes keep it real. And although the final payoff may not be as worthy as the tension that grips you up to that point, it's still a strangely satisfying ending.


Definitely recommended.