And now, a few words onInherent Vice, the latest book by Thomas Pynchon, the best writer in the world. Yes, I am biased ;-) 'Latest' is also slightly misleading here – yes it's correct, he hasn't written (or at least announced) another book since Inherent Vice. The fact that I've been savouring my proof copy (thanks to the publisher for that!) in small instalments since August 2009 is neither here nor there, of course...
Larry Sportello, Doc to his friends (and almost anybody else, too) is a PI living and working around Gordita Beach, LA (a thinly disguised Manhattan Beach, apparently). It's the time of Hippies, Surfers, Free Love, ubiquitous Marijuana (especially for Doc), and post-Manson paranoia. When he has a visit, nah, visitation from Shasta Fay Hepworth, aspiring Hollywood Actress and his ex-girlfried, with a request to look into a plot of the wife (and her lover) to abduct (amongst other things) her new boyfriend, the Real Estate Tycoon Mickey Wolfman a convoluted chain of events is set into motion which ends with – no, that would be telling. And you don't need to know to enjoy this book...
A few words on Riverrun, the initial installment in the trilogy of the same name by S P Somtow (aka Somtow Sucharitkul, award-winning author, feted composer/conductor and general busybody), a fascinating escapist 'dark fantasy', starring Vampires, Dragons, and the river that runs through the entire Universe, holding together all worlds – all wrapped up in a King Lear based background scenario. A great book, aimed at the older Adolescent to Adult market.
The story finds Theo Etchison on a family trip through the desert, on their way to bring their moribund mother to yet another cancer clinic (“movies can show everything about death except the smell”, he remarks). When they stop at a Chinese Restaurant in the middle of nowhere Theo is abducted into a parallel world by Peter Cushing Cornelius Huang, the herald of Prince Thorn. To Thorn Theo is not just a boy with an overly active imagination and weird dreams – he calls him ‘Truthsayer’, and worships/fears him as one who can see things as they are, who can read and ride the river which connects all worlds and realities. Thus Theo gets involved in a major fight to save (?) the universe by deciding who controls it, and especially who controls the river. His family also get drawn into the fight between mad King Strang, and his three estranged children, between whom he tried to split up his Kingdom (ring a bell?).
Tor.com have posted 12 Steampunk Sonnets by Roz Kaveney, Guest of Honour (and Poet Laureate) at Illustrious, this year's Eastercon (UK National Science Fiction convention), and I found them very readable and enjoyable; regardless if you are in the midst of Steampunk fever, or feel that the fad has really run its course by now.
The picture on the right is only related to this in my head (via Google image search - so other people's heads, and some piece of sofware, duplicate this leap) - it's a piece of art (a Pocket Watch Necklace) from Jezebel Charms, and rather, er, charming I though.
Ekaterina Sedia is a Moscow-born writer, living and working in New Jersey. She has 4 novels to her name (the first one, According to Crow, only as E. Sedia); The Secret History of Moscow is her 3rd one. She has won the World Fantasy Award for Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy which she edited. Her latest anthology, Bewere the Night, is due out in April 2011.
Galina is a misfit; she lives in Moscow and works as a translator when she's not institutionalized. She never fit in, and is considered to be mentally ill by her family and by society at large. But then her sister, her well-adapted and 'normal' counterpart, gives birth to her first child, and then turns into a Jackdaw and flies away... Yakov is a policeman, the grand-child of a British communist who came to Moscow on ideological grounds, and was shortly thereafter picked up by Stalin's henchmen as suspicious foreigner, and dissapeared forever. He witnesses a dog walker turn into a bird and fly away, and is, on the same day, assigned to investigate the spate of recent dissapearances in Moscow, which is how he encounters Galina. Together with Fyodor, a street artist living, literally, in the cracks of society, they follow the trail of the birds, who seem to dissappear into another world by flying through the reflections of doors in windows and puddles. They end up in a world which calls itself Underground.
And now, for a few words about Zodiac, Neal Stephenson's 2nd novel, which I enjoyed enormously. It might no be his most sophisticated writing, but is definitely up there with the most entertaining books I’ve read. Belongs on top of your reading pile!
Sangamon Taylor (ST to his friends) is an activist with GEE, the Group of Environmental Extremists, in their Boston office. He is a wizard with a Zodiac (a u-shaped semi rigid inflatable dinghy, usually with a serious outboard motor, for those not familiar with such matters), and a self-professed professional pain in the arse. Especially to big Chemical Industry Corporations. His territory is the labyrinth that is Boston Harbour, a preferred dumping ground (either directly, or through the sewer overflow system) for said Chemical Industry Corporations. He’s got a background in chemistry (ie knows his stuff), and a very practical and humorous handle on the topic: When I got back, bacon was smoldering on the range, filling the house with gas-phase polycyclic aromatics – my favourite carcinogenic by a long shot.
