Golden Fool

Title: Golden Fool
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2003 by Bantam Books. Ooh, hard cover!
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 520


*grabs Fitz by the collar and slaps him around* Oh Fitz, you idiot. I don't think there's a person he cares for deeply who he didn't royally piss off in this here book. It's the second book of the Tawny Man trilogy, and things are heating up! The Witted have been divided to the Piebalds -and I'm glad I read the Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince, for I now get all these references!- who seek to be acknowledged by the non-Witted with violence, or worse. Then there are the Old Blood ones, who just would like to live life in peace, thank you. The rest of the Six Duchies are also divided, to those who want all Witted killed, and those who just kind of wish they would go away.

If that wasn't enough, the little prince's betrothal is happening like, right now, and Bingtown is calling for help with their war against a common enemy. Fitz is pretty much forced into becoming a teacher of the Skill, not to mention spying on pretty much everyone. There's not a quiet moment, and the pages just flyyyy by. So, onward to the third book! I've got 13 days to read 600+ pages...


... He suddenly looked about frantically. I found the brandy bottle and set it within his reach. He didn't even bother to pour. He uncorked it and drank from the bottle. When he set it down, I reached over and took it.
   "That won't help anything," I told him severely.
   He gave me a loose-lipped smile. "You see. We're trapped. I've trapped you, my friend. My beloved."
   I tried to fit my mind around what he was telling me. "If we lose, I die," I said.
   He nodded. "If you die, we lose. It's all the same."
   "What happens if I live?"
   "Then we win. Not much chance of that, now. Not much chance and getting worse all the time, I'd say. Most likely we lose. You die and the world spirals down into darkness. And ugliness. Despair."
   "Stop being so cheerful." This time I drank out of the bottle. Then I passed it to him. "But what if I do live? What if we win? What then?"
   He parted the bottle's mouth from his. "What then? Ah." He smiled beatifically. "Then the world goes on, my friend. Children run down muddy streets. Dogs bark at passing carts. Friends sit and drink brandy together."
   "Doesn't sound much different from what we have," I observed sourly. "To go through all this and make no difference at all."

The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince

Title: The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2013 by Subterranean Press
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 184


I found this pretty thing in a used books shop just around the time I was reading the Farseer Trilogy. I think. My memory is not so very good. This is apparently a Deluxe Hardcover Edition, illustrated even! Read it after finishing Fool's Errand and before starting the Golden Fool.

The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince tells one of the legends of the Six Duchies: the story of the Witted prince Charger and how he came to be. Told by Felicity, the nearest and dearest handmaiden to the Queen-in-Waiting Caution, AKA the Willful Princess, the honest account illustrates how, in the span of just two very short generations, the Wit-magic goes from an uncommon but accepted trait to a detested thing. Felicity is painfully truthful in her telling of the tale, and it sheds light to the Six Duchies of generations before any of the book series. A lovely yet sad story.


   From that day forth, all noticed a change in the Queen-in-Waiting. There was a glow to her cheeks, and she took to riding out very early in the morning with only the Stablemaster in attendance upon her and me trailing along behind. The wrath of the king over this was nothing to her. As always, they began their ride with a spirited gallop, at a pace my horse could not hope to sustain. But in those days, I did not catch up with them as easily as I once had. Often I did not see them again until they came riding back to find me. Then Queen-in-Waiting Caution would be pink-cheeked and laughing at my worries and saying they must put me on a fleeter mount the next day.
   But they never did.

Fool's Errand

Title: Fool's Errand
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2001 by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 661


And on with the next trilogy! These three are collectively called the Tawny Man books, and the story has hopped from Bingtown, liveships and pirates back to the Six Duchies. Fifteen years have passed since the end of the Assassin's Quest, and Fitz has spent about half of those wandering the world with his Wit-partner, the wolf Nighteyes, and the other half staying put and living life on the quiet, raising an adopted son. 

But when one person from your past knows where you live, another will find out, and soon people from Fitz's past come knocking so much that he might as well install a revolving door. The youngest member of the royal Farseer family goes missing mere days before his highly political and very important betrothal, and our hero finds himself dragged back in to court intrigue to help find him.

During Fitz's self-exile many things have changed in the big world, including the persecution of people who have the Wit, an ancient magic that allows them to converse and bond with animals. It wasn't really looked kindly upon during the days of the Farseer Trilogy, but now people are being hung, quartered, burned and so forth for having the Wit. And all of the Witted will not stand for that kind of nonsense. Things are heating up!


   I drew a breath and made my question as plain as possible. 'What is your name, your real name?'
   'Ah.' His manner was suddenly grave. He took a slow breath. 'My name. As in what my mother called me at my birth?'
   'Yes.' And then I held my breath. He spoke seldom of his childhood. I suddenly realized the immensity of what I had asked him. It was the old naming magic: if I know how you are truly named, I have power over you. If I tell you my name, I grant you that power. Like all direct questions I had ever asked the Fool, I both dreaded and longed for the answer. 
   'And if I tell you, you would call me by that name?' His inflection told me to weigh my answer. 
   That gave me pause. His name was his, and not for me to bandy about. But, 'In private, only. And only if you wished me to,' I offered solemnly. I considered the words as binding as a vow.
   'Ah.' He turned to face me. His face lit with delight. 'Oh, but I would,' he assured me.
   'Then?' I asked again. I was suddenly uneasy, certain that somehow he had bested me yet again.
   'The name my mother gave me, I give now to you, to call me by in private.' He took a breath and turned back to the fire. He closed his eyes again but his grin grew even wider. 'Beloved. She called me only "Beloved".'
   'Fool!' I protested.

Richey Edwardsin jäljillä

Nimi: Richey Edwardsin jäljillä
Alkuperäinen nimi: A Version of Reason: In Search of Richey Edwards
Kirjoittaja: Rob Jovanovic
Julkaistu: 2009, suomennos LIKEltä 2011
Genre: Elämänkertamainen juttu.
Sivuluku: 307 + liitteet ja viitteet


Tunnustan hypistelleeni tätä useammankin kerran kirjakaupassa viimeisen noin vuoden aikana, ja perjantaina Richey Edwardsin jäljillä oli viimein reilussa alennuksessa. Jee! Lauantaiaamuna oli jo luettu. Kesäloma, mikä ihana tekosyy.

Jovanovicin kirjassa ei sinällään ollut mitään uutta tietoa Edwardsin katoamisesta 1.2.1995 tai sitä edeltävistä tapahtumista, mutta hän oli kirjoittaessaan käynyt henkilökohtaisesti tutustumassa katoamislegendan tärkeimpiin kohteisiin, ja jopa Manic Street Preachersien kotikaupunkiin Walesissa. Hän keskittyy myös vahvasti siihen, miten suhteellisen helppoa ihmisen oli vielä 1995 kadota jäljettömiin niin halutessaan, ennen valvontakameroiden määrän räjähdysmäistä kasvua ja kaiken maailman mikrosirupasseja. Richey Edwards oli (on?) älykäs ja paljon lukenut kaveri, joka tunsi tarinat kartalta pudonneista muista kuuluisuuksista, ja usein puhui ihailevasti näiden katoamistempuista. Ei siis liene ihan turha toivoa, että hän löysi jostain rauhan.

Mitäs sitä seuraavaksi lukisi...


   Kaikki Richey Edwardsin liikkeet tammi-helmikuussa 1995 - ja varsinkin tämä viimeinen automatka - pyrittiin myöhemmin selvittämään pienintäkin yksityiskohtaa myöten. Ajomatkan Walesiin olisi pitänyt kestää korkeintaan kolme tuntia, joten päivän tapahtumissa oli usean tunnin aukko. Miksi hän olisi ylipäätään mennyt asunnolleen? Ajoiko Cavalierin Walesiin Edwards vai joku muu? Ja jos kuljettaja oli Edwards, menikö hän asunnolleen hakemaan jotain? Ja jos meni, mitä tuo jokin oli? Nämä eivät vaikuta itsemurhaa hautovan miehen teoilta. Mitä hän mahtoi suunnitella?

Dark Matter

Title: Dark Matter - A Ghost Story
Author: Michelle Paver
Published: 2011 by Orion Books
Genre: Ghost story
Pages: 252 + extra bits


Last one today, I swear! The SO bought this in London and told me to read it as it's proper scary. Pfft, I thought, how scary could it really be?

Really fucking scary, actually!

It's the year 1937, and a small expedition is leaving from London to the Norwegian islands of Spitsbergen, known these days as Svalbard. The story is told through the journal of Jack Miller, a poor man with big dreams and skills to use the wireless. The goal is to spend a year in the Arctic studying nature and weather. But it's hard for dwellers of London to understand just how cold it gets, and how dark and long the northern winter can be. How lonely and empty it can get with no-one else for miles around, and how terrifying it is when suddenly you're not alone anymore.

I read Dark Matter pretty much in one sitting. It's been years since the last time I did that! I didn't want to put the book down as I was pulled in to the mystery. I haven't been this properly scared since I read James L. Grant's On the Banks of Lethe, my favourite horror book. This has got to be my second-favourite.


   For the first time since reaching Gruhuken, I thought about the men who were here before us; who built this hut from logs dragged up from the beach, and lived through the 'dark time', and then left, leaving nothing but a tin plate and a blizzard of bones.
   What must it have been like? No wireless, maybe not even a companion; at any rate only one, in a hut this size. To know that you're the only human being in all this wilderness.
 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Author: Mark Haddon
Published: 2004 by Vintage
Genre: Murder mystery
Pages: 268 + appendix


It's been a bit of a reading-spree again. Bought this on Tuesday at the Gatwick Airport, and after finishing Rivers of London on the flight from hell home, I started this and finished it on Wednesday.

Seriously, though, the flight was half-full of loud, horny, loud, tired and very, very loud teenagers, plus a baby and a toddler right across the aisle. Thank whatever higher power there may be for noise-cancelling headphones and a good book to sink in, because, fuck.

Our narrator is Christopher. He's 15, lives with his widowed father, and has Asperger's syndrome. He likes to go for walks in his home neighbourhood in Swindon at night-time, when there aren't other people around. On one walk he comes across the neighbour's dog, Wellington, who has been murdered with a garden fork. Christopher decides to find out who killed Wellington, since the police are not all that bothered, and to write a book about it. This is that book.

The chapters are quite short and numbered with prime numbers. Like Christopher, I like prime numbers too. They're fun to figure out. The story itself is engaging and well worth all the praise it has received. I was watching the news just before we headed for the airport (so before buying this) and found out that there's a play of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time in London now! Sorry I missed it.


I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though Father had told me to stay out of other people's business. 
   This is because I do not always do what I am told.
   And this is because when people tell you what to do it is usually confusing and does not make sense. 
   For example, people often say 'Be quiet,' but they don't tell you how long to be quiet for. Or you see a sign which says KEEP OFF THE GRASS but it should say KEEP OFF THE GRASS AROUND THIS SIGN or KEEP OFF ALL THE GRASS IN THIS PARK because there is lots of grass you are allowed to walk on. 

Rivers of London

Title: Rivers of London
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Published: 2011 by Gollancz
Genre: Urban fantasy
Pages: 390


The SO and I took a trip to London and Cardiff last week, and I'd kind of been saving this one for the trip. Seemed suitable. And Rivers of London was just the ticket for some fun, light and very London-y holiday reading. The series -there's more! Yay!- has been described as Harry Potter joining the London police force. It's also like the Dresden Files in London.So, you know, what's not to like?

Peter Grant is a probationary constable at the beginning of the book, heading for a dull desk job. Then he happens to chat with a ghost at a strange murder scene, and attract the attention of the last wizard in England, the Inspector Nightingale. Bye bye dull desk job, hello really creepy murders! If those weren't enough, the nominal rivers are feuding, and Peter is saddled with building a bridge between them. Pun attempted.

I'm happy I bought the first two books of the series at once, because I definitely want to read more of Peter's adventures. Rivers of London is fun and entertaining, and so detailed with London -and police procedures, too- that you can pretty much follow the action on a map.


   Sometimes I wonder whether, if I'd been the one that went for coffee and not Lesley May, my life would have been much less interesting and certainly much less dangerous. Could it have been anyone, or was it destiny? When I'm considering this I find it helpful to quote the wisdom of my father, who once told me, 'Who knows why the fuck anything happens?'

This was about where I realised I liked the book. On page 3.

Ship of Destiny

Title: Ship of Destiny
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2000 by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 903


And the last of the Liveship Traders trilogy! I remember that it was the same last time, too, that I ended up liking the characters most in the end who I'd liked the least in the beginning. Except Amber. I always love Amber.

It's even harder to say something now without spoilers than with Mad Ship. Hobb carries the characters surely -and sometimes with breath-taking speed- towards the ends of their current stories. I was sad to see them go (finished the book about a week ago, in a sordid hotel room in London), but I'm also eager to jump into the next book on my quest to finish the three trilogies before the new book comes out. I've got about two months...


   He suddenly felt sorry for Brashen. He hated it when his feelings switched back and forth like this. But he couldn't control them. Impulsively, he offered, 'I promise I won't kill you, Brashen. Does that help?'
   He felt Brashen's convulsion of shock at his words. Paragon suddenly realzed that Brashen had never even considered the ship might kill him. That Paragon would now promise thus made him realize that the ship had been capable of it. Was still capable of it, if he decided to break his word. After a moment, Brashen said lifelessly, 'Of course that helps. Thank you, Paragon.' He started to turn away again.
   'Wait!' Paragon called to him. 'Are you going to let the others talk to me now?'
   He almost felt the man sigh. 'Of course. Not much sense in refusing you that.'
   Bitterness rose in Paragon. He had meant his promise to comfort the man, but he insisted on being grieved by it. Humans. They were never satisfied, no matter what you sacrificed for them. If Brashen was disappointed in him, it was his own fault. Why hadn't he realized that the first ones to be killed were the ones closest to you, the ones who knew you best? It was the only way to eliminate the threat to yourself. What was the sense of killing a stranger? Strangers had small interest in hurting you. That was always done best by yout own family and friends.