Captain Corelli's Mandolin
By Louis de Bernières

Is love an antidote to the horror of war? A novel like this would almost have you believing that.

This book is beautifully written and is very funny in parts, sad and moving in others. As the war progresses, horrific. Life on the Ionian Greek island of Cephalonia can be hard but it is peaceful, apart from noisy celebrations of the Saint's day and arguments between a resident monarchist and communist. The island is far from the troubles of Thirties Europe until the troubles appear on their door step.

I recently read a book called Fateful Choices by historian Ian Kershaw. A chapter describes the decision by Mussolini to make his grab for some glory by invading Greece. The background is not glorious and neither is the result: humiliation for Italy, who were forced to retreat by the Greek army and resistance. Hitler was furious at this "adventure" by his partner in war but came to Italy's aid, invading and occupying Greece from the North. Greece was now under the thumb of both axis powers and Cephalonia was occupied by the Italians but with a small German detachment as well. Things can get worse however, as they did catastrophically when the Italian Fascists lost power and the Nazi's overran all Greece, bludgeoning any resistance away in a brutal and bloody manner. As the Nazi fortunes waned though, the communists took their own bloody revenge on the Greek people.

This is a beautifully written love story, but perhaps two love stories: that between a Greek woman and an Italian officer and also between the author and the Greek people. It's funny and moving but gets very sad and brutal as the War turns. The cover shows a still from the film version, with Nicolas Cage as Corelli. It is supposed to be disappointing so I might not bother watching it. The book deserves its accolades however.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
By Michael Chabon

Reading through a book, I occasionally write a little note to remind myself of a particularly good phrase or passage in the text. I attach this as a small "post-it" to the page.

One of my notes here was for a strange word I came across on a page in Chabon's novel. The word was Aetataureate and the context :

... a sizeable proportion of the citizens of New York City had the odd experience of feeling for the time in which they were living, at the very moment they were living in it, that strange blend of optimism and nostalgia which is the usual hallmark of the aetataureate delusion.

The USA was weeks away from the attack on Pearl Harbour and their entry into WW2. Not knowing the word, I wrote my note. Looking this up later, it turns out that this is a "nonce" word, something Chabon's made up to mean a "golden age" or a period of peak achievement. Well, there you go. He's a clever guy and a great writer, so that's a good combination in my book.

Chabon obviously loves this period in American history and loves New York. The novel is beautifully written and I also feel that "aetataureate delusion" and a nostalgia for a place in time he brings to life so well. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay won Chabon the Pulitzer Prize in 2001. I think a lot of people feel the pull of a "golden" age and have done since time the Ancient Greeks (if not before). This book contrasts the security and opportunity of New York with the increasing despair and desperation of Europe, entering the opposite of a Golden Age and closer to Dante's Circles of Hell. Not that the USA was a paradise, especially for blacks, jews or gays; but light-years better than elsewhere.

From Europe comes Sammy Klay's cousin, Josef Kavalier. Josef, a Jew from Prague, leaves his friends and family to escape Nazi Europe but feels a huge guilt at doing so, and a burning desire to save his younger brother from the Nazi's as well. With some talent as an artist and with Sammy's help as a writer, the cousins turn their skill to writing and drawing superhero comics, becoming successful in what would also be another Golden Age, this one for the comic book. But bashing Hitler and beating the Nazi's in a fantasy world can only assuage a guilt so far and Joe Kavalier remains obsessed and weighed down by the situation of his family. The European Holocaust is a constant, but background, presence in the novel.

Chabon sets the time and the place in wonderful detail here. The Jewish experience in New York, from the immigrants at the start of the Century and up to the start of World War 2. Not only does he know and love the people, including the lost world of European Jewry, but he is also in love with the old comic books; an industry forming just as the storm clouds gathered. Couple this with the fun of stage magic, lock picking and the escape artist, we have a full stage for the adventures. A funny book but also deeply serious and beautifully written.

Fateful Choices
By Ian Kershaw

I've recently read Professor Ian Kershaw's book Fateful Choices, a book subtitled "Ten decisions that Changed the World 1940-1941". Early in the Second World War, there were many extremely consequential choices to be made around the world. The fate of many millions of people was to be affected.

The book was good but very dense in parts, with a concentration on some of the minutiae of the process involved. For some the process was quite tedious to describe, with a lot of back and forth between the rulers, ministers, the military or parts of government. This was the case for the USA and Japan. I was surprised at some of the debate inside the Japanese government, although Kershaw makes it plain that there was only one road that was likely to be travelled: conquest and war. For the Nazi government, only one person mattered, the Führer. This was also the case for Italy, although Mussolini's hold on the levers of power were much weaker than Hitler's. To me, the most fascinating was the War Cabinet in Britain, taking some days to hammer out a collective decision on whether to fight or seek "terms". Churchill was only recently elevated to Prime Minister and had to tread carefully. In the end, it is unlikely that the decision could have gone any other way.

A section later in the book stood out to me because of its echo of some more modern concerns. Here in the United Kingdom in the year 2026 and there has been mention of a "decline" of the country for a few years, also a number of attacks on Jews and a rise in anti-semitism. This seems to be a problem manifesting in both Europe and the USA.

From "Berlin/East Prussia, Summer-Autumn 1941", page 441 (Penguin paperback) :

That Germany's "redemption" could only come about by "removing" the Jews had been one strand of political culture stretching back to Richard Wagner - though neither the great composer nor practically anyone else imagined this to mean physical extirpation. Amid widespread conservative-reactionary cultural pessimism framed by a lost war, the end of the monarchy, socialist revolution and a hated democratic system, anti-semitism found a fertile breeding ground.

The phrase "cultural pessimism" stands out because it seems to be something becoming pervasive. As stated, this can be a dangerous development if it leads to the search for scapegoats. Europe has a bad history of hatred and we must never forget that. Whatever the targets and however the hate is reformulated.

Lyonesse: Suldron's Garden
By Jack Vance

This was a fantastic book and my estimation of Jack Vance's writing, already high, has increased a notch. I loved his Dying Earth books but Suldrun's Garden might have surpassed it.

This is the first volume in the Lyonesse trilogy and tells the story of a princess who goes against the marriage plans her father has for her and ends up paying for it. However, meeting a Prince and having a child, her legacy takes an unexpected turn. This is not a "fairy tale" although it does have fairies (as well as ogres, halflings, changeling and magicians). The Fairy world is a slippery thing though and not one to take lightly, as we learn. The world can also be brutal and violent in places although Vance does not dwell on this aspect; but we are prepared for it from an early point. In some ways, Lyonesse is like a cross between George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, Tolkien and the great Welsh mythological epic The Mabinogion. Vance obviously spent much time carefully building the world of the "Elder Isles" and he does an excellent job at bringing it to life and creating an almost believable back-story that intersects our own history. This novel has it all: action and danger, adventure, magic, betrayal, loyalty and love.

I think love is central to the novel. Not just the love between a Prince and a Princess, but a boy and girl, and also a magician and the children he grows close to. This is the emotional heart of the tale and one that is very affecting on occasion. Jack Vance writes beautiful prose and we care about the people in the story.

There is a satisfying conclusion to the novel and a great setup for the next. Suldrun's Garden is followed by The Green Pearl and Madouc. I am looking forward to reading these.

City
By Clifford Simak

And now for another old but "classic" science-fiction novel, this time Clifford Simak's City. I read this before Slan and enjoyed it more.

City is a "fix-up" novel from 1952, based on stories published in Astounding Science Fiction between 1944 and 1951. This is the story of Mankind's future, and far future. It is a melancholic story, almost elegiac, and one of a long sad decline. The age of exploration and excitement is over and most people fade away into a "dream" world of their own, or take other post-human form, thus separating themselves from humanity.

The book has a grand sweep, jumping ahead in time but keeping some focus on human history through the Webster family and their robot servant "Jenkins". Jenkins lasts a long time and sees the slow eclipse of humanity. As well as the robots, animals have also been bred and modified to be our intelligent companions. Dogs are no longer mute but think and talk and have their own civilisation, mindful of avoiding the mistakes we made: violence and war in particular.

I found a lot to like about the sweeping history and its philosophical airs, even though not a great deal happens and there is little actual science. It's a quiet and reflective novel. In the end, the dogs are the robots' best friends but still have a yearning for the past and their Human companions (the "websters"). I enjoyed City quite a lot.

Slan
By A. E. van Vogt

Another "classic" old science-fiction story from the 1950's. I read van Vogt's Voyage of the Space Beagle a while ago and enjoyed it but it had a few faults. It definitely showed its age in places but that did not distract from the whole too much. Slan was not as good as that.

Slan is about a race of genetically advanced humans capable of mind-reading as well as having far superior intellectual and physical powers than normal human beings. Standard humans are their antagonists and the two "races" have fought a terrible war hundreds of years ago, leading to these "slans" (named after the scientist who first came across their new biology) being hunted and exterminated to almost extinction. Slans have to hide to survive. Our focus is on a young slan boy as he grows up and fights back.

I was disappointed with Vogt's novel. Like the Voyage, Slan showed its age and was a bit superficial, with little character development or human interest. But given all that, it was much more basic than I expected: much more like a book for children and I didn't find it well written. Maybe it is best characterised as an adventure story for boys. However, it's not a long read, and not dull, so I did finish it.

There are many books that work for both children and adults, some aimed at young readers but still accessible and enjoyable to adults too. I've taken an interest in some E. Nesbit books for example but "The Hobbit" also springs to mind, as do many Robert Louis Stevenson works. Slan didn't really rise to this level at all; perhaps not rising much above its pulp origins (from wikipedia, "first serialized in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction (Sept–Dec 1940))". I have a few other Vogt's on my book shelf though and I will try another sometime in the hope I find something better.

Beggars in Spain
By Nancy Kress

A bad cover, but a short, interesting and readable book. Don't get me started about book covers ...

This award-winning novella is set in the near future; a future that might as well be today given how familiar it is. Genetic engineering is now capable of changing and improving many aspects of us, and not just the physical traits of height, strength or looks. A discovery has led to the capability of modifying the coding that relates to sleep and this leads to the birth of people who do not need to sleep at all.

The sleepless turn out to have a big advantage over those of us who spend so much of our lives in bed. They can do a lot with all the extra time: learn, practice new skills, make money. This advantage leads to worldly success but also jealousy, and eventually increasing antagonism. As history shows, humanity usually doesn't appreciate a group of people "better" than us, even if they are decent, moral, law abiding citizens. The novella follows the lead character and her "sleepless" group through a world that starts to turn against people like her.

This was a short and quick read (100 pages) but well told. A very believable tale told without unnecessary drama or excitement and better for that. The book has easily seen flaws if you think about it but nothing glaring to put one off the main point. The novella has been expanded into a full novel and there are also sequels, and I might check them out at some point, but as a satisfying tale, the short version is one I would be happy to rest at.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
By Claire North

This novel is about a man who dies only to discover he is re-born in the same year and in the same place as he was before. He then lives through the same period before dying, then being re-born yet again; this happens every time he dies. So, immortality apparently but of a slightly different configuration to one we normally find in works of fantasy. The difference between this novel and Kate Atkinson's Life After Life is that Harry August remembers his previous lives. I really liked Life After Life and I like this novel as well, perhaps more. It was certainly a novel I savoured reading.

Written in the first person, after dying once or twice Harry comes to realise and accept what is happening and all the possibilities this presents: good and bad. It turns out that there are also a few terrible dangers being someone with this condition. The dangers come from the "linear" sorts (i.e. normal like you or me) as well as people who live and die the same way he does. These special people are uncommon but have formed a secret "club" over the course of history. They sometimes get messages from the future due to the way their lives can overlap.

It turns out that the future is going significantly wrong and Harry needs to find out why; and if things can be fixed.

A really enjoyable almost-mainstream science-fiction novel. Claire North is definitely a novelist to read again. In fact, Slow Gods is on my queue now.