The books of 2006

1. Standing again at Sinai - Judith Plaskow

Feminist judaism, not an easy subject. Very interesting, and also very demanding. A book who made me think, about God, men and women. Worth reading for all christians as well as jews.

2. The Dreamthief's Daughter - Michael Moorcock

A new book about Elric. Apparantly this is to be the last series. It introduces a lot new material for the Eternal Champion mythology, and as Moorcock does these days, which ties into everyrything else written before. The comic book "Michael Moorcock's Multiverse" is probably the best way to get a grasp on this new take on the EC phenomena. A lot more action and sword and sorcery feel than Moorcock's work of late. Not as rip-roaring fun as before, but very good. I think this is going to end on a chord I like. The ending of "Stormbringer" and that feel is here. I can't wait until I've read the next two volumes!

3. The Skrayling Tree - Michael Moorcock

More goodness. We learn a lot more subtle hints about Melniboneans and the nature of their sorcery, and how time and space is just as involved as the mythology of the Champion and the Fiend. Heady stuff.

4. On Basilisk Station - David Weber

Nasty villains. Honourable space (wo)men and broadsides in space. Good old space opera with all it's flaws. It's a good yarn without any ideas about litterature theory or such seriousness. Hornblower in a spacesuit. You know what to expect. I had fun reading it.

5. The White Wolf's Son - Michael Moorcock

The final Elric story. All strands come together and a new era begins for the Multiverse. It actually manages to tie together all loose strings. Impressive. A lot of action in the Tragic Millenium, but it didn't have the same feeling of oncoming catastrophy like it could have. Too much of a family reunion sometimes, I gather. It also had moments of needless exposition, and some horrible typos. A good read, though. A bit sad. Elric finally dies, destroying it all. Stormbringer finally explained. It is done.

6. Reap the East Wind - Glen Cook

Great fantasy. Felt a bit like his Black Company books, on a greater scale with kingdoms in the balance. I also caught a fleeting sense of Steven Brust, in the pacing, tense dread and colourful characters. The air crackling with sorcery and dark games being played, thrones up for grabs. I think I like it fast, furious and dark. Basically an old god awakenes and tried to invade a kingdom with undead, while a revolution and another war start at the same time. Merry entertainment. Eat my sword. Chew on that spell. Die.

7. Steel Beach - John Varley

This is great fun! This is a book bubbling with cool ideas. Mankind have been shoved out of earth, and it was so humiliating you don't even speak about it. Now the benevolent all controlling main computer runs the show and everyone is living on the other planets in the solar system. This book is about the moon, and the very extreme society they have there. Everyone is fed and cared for by the computer and everything is safe. Now problems are appearing, and they are of a troubling nature. As much as it is a novel about some guys living in a futuristic utopia run by a mad computer, it's also very much a story about a man who is having a life crisis. We get to follow him/her through the highs and lows and I actually felt more for the protagonist than the plot, finally. A very bitter end, when she has learned to live with hirself, made me dislike the end. It's a good novel about the problems with utopia, and a good novel about the high art of living and surviving when you have reached the end. It also have lot of fun gadgetry and an amazlingly plastic and malleable social dynamics that is fun to read about!!

8. Nova - Samuel R. Delaney

A space opera novel, and a good one. Very much Vancian in feel. The characters are larger than life, and they are driven by mad passions. Also a very typical 60-ies Delaney, with strange and odd characters mixing with the space opera heroes. A lot of discussion about done, though, and didn't feel lecturing like in some of his later books. Great language, and magnificently paced and structured.

9. The Honor of the Queen - David Weber

Weber really managed to hit all my buttons with his villains this time. I really hated them, and it felt good to read about them being blown to kingdom come. If the blatantly foolish and silly snipes at politicians and diplomats weren't there, this might have been a really good one. Now it's fun, and silly entertainment. Hornblower managed another impossible battle, except her name was Harrington. A backwards planet meets modern technology and religious intolerance brings war and death. Potent brew.

10. Taltos - Steven Brust

More Vlad Taltos. I felt I needed some snappy dialog, intrigues and city fantasy. This time I got a strange story about the gods. A lot of food for thought about hand was not as thrilling as I had hoped.

11. Phoenix - Steven Brust

Since they were collected in one volume, I contined reading. Now the poor and the down trodden actually rise in an uprising while Vlad and the empire is actually involved in starting a war! Quite a bit of good old sneaky stuff here, and I liked it better than Taltos. I will seek out more of these...

12. Sodoms Dolk [The Dagger of Sodom] - Hans Capelen

Swedish mystery novel about an old archelogical artifact, some truly grisly murders and some disgusting characters. Well written and the geographical descriptions are very good. Three timelines and plots are woven together in an intriguing way. Well done. What is not as well done is the characters. They drink like J.R. Ewing from Dallas, and smoke like Bogart. Silly, to say the least. It feels like the author though he was writing for an American TV series of doubtful quality. It's sad, since it's a page turner with a good punch and an excellent crime novel.

13. Camouflage - Joe Haldeman

Interesting concept with two aliens on earth, who don't know who, or what, they are. I think it was a good way to write about how it is to be human, and not to be. A page turner and a decent thriller in the Clancy vein. I just wish the balance between the two aliens had been more even, structurally. One of them dissapeared a bit at the end, and I think Haldeman missed the opportunity to increase the suspense a bit. A nice book, but nothing special.

14. Brevet till hebréerna - Olof Linton

A chapter for chapter exegesis and analysis of a book in the bible. Interesting and informative for those, like me, who can't read the original text, lacking the language.

15. Act of God - Graham Phillips

Showing a peculiar connection between the religious reforms of Akhenanten, the explosion of Santorini and a small Cananite tribe with peculiar religious ideas, this book almost makes me convinced that an enormous vulcanic eruption created monotheism as we know it today. Contrary to the fanciful cover blurbs, this book is fairly low key and presents a lot of facts and evens which the author argues for are connected in a way not commonly thought. It starts with an odd grave situated across the famous grave of pharao Thutankamun, and goes into detail like how the calamities affecting Egypt in the bible might be based on natural effects of a major vulcanic eruption. The idea that the thunder heard across the world roughly 1400 BC might have made such an impression that it is still today considered the angry voice of god is fairly mind boggling. I like this hypothessis!

16. Rats and Gargoyles - Mary Gentle

Being fairly well known, and often praised, I felt this book had to be read. The language is colourful and sometimes a bit too descriptive! There are a lot of smells, colours and other impressions. Sometimes a scene is not even described in any other way than thus, totally ignoring what people do, say or where they stand in relation to each other. Beautiful and sometimes extremely confusing. Often the plot is everything. Every symbolic meaning is possible, while none is actually explained. The sad thing is that most of the time you're waiting for all the pregnant possibilities to happen, and when the great revelation has come, it goes so slow you no longer feels it matters. It was hard to read, and while I can't say it was bad, I can't say I actually enjoyed it either. I really hope Ash is a bit easier to read. I do remember loving Golden Witchbreed once, so I hope Gentle don't dissapoint with Ash like in this book.

17. Conan's World and Robert E. Howard - Darrell Schweitzer

A story by story study of Howard's own Conan stories, noting what makes each great or not. Often very funny when the author jests about the limitations of these simple yarns. While it's obvious Schweitzer enjoys Howard's tales, he has a good eye for when they work or not. Also contains some notes about revisions and publication history. I found it enjoyable and a good guide to the best of adventure stories.

18. All my sins remembered - Joe Haldeman

Smallish book, but it contains a lot. A man who works as a secret agent, undercover, and doing all kinds of questionable things. As someone else. I think there's a moral point here. A bunch of quite interesting aliens, and some really good spy stories rounds out the package. I liked it.

19. Thorns - Robert Silverberg

Elegant, emotional and all the flair of a Silverberg in the swinging sixties. Two broken humans are forced together, and in each other they find humanity again, only to be exploited and hurt by that. This is a very good novel. Read it.

20. Pojkår [Boyhood]- J.M. Coetzee

This is not a very special book, by any means. It's slim and taciturn, while frank and very personal. In a sense it's a very closed book. The young boy, the protagonist, is racked by doubts and fear. Those feelings of helplessness that are so much the rules of existence for being a child. It almost closes in on you, turns yourself into the mind of the small boy. It's powerful. At the same time is it a very interesting book about a very weird society, where everyone knows their place and the social rank and race are everything. South Africa is depicted as a country of social claustrophobia. I'm defenitely going to read the next biographical book, about his adolescence.

21. Ballroom of the skies - John D. MacDonald

Decently short and with a approriate punch. A fairly good story about alienation and extraordinary psychic powers. Maybe the ending could be considered a bit abrupt and the protagonists change of heart about the meddling extraterrestials is a bit unconvincing. Not too bad, though.

22. Fynd och Fusk i Bibelns Värld - En bok om vår tids Jesus-apokryfer [A Book about Jesus apocrypha] - Per Beskow

All kinds of apocryphical texts and hoaxes exposed. People like to think all kind of weird things about Jesus and the early church. Most of these "revelations" are just silly. Just watch the popularity of crap like Dan Brown writes... A very interesting book. Every latter day saint should read it. Even though I doubt they'd understand how they've been scammed.

23. Duellen i Mad River [Mad River] - Donald Hamilton

A Cheap Western, bought at a supermarket. Timeless drama of jealousy and revenge. What I like about a good Western is that it's a moral tale. A good man, righteous and just, fights for what he believes in or shows by absence those values. A perfect fit for simple entertainment. This time the plot was convoluted and the characters a bit wooden. Still, a good yarn. Just like it should be.

24. In the Ocean of Night - Gregory Benford

An alien artifact, hints of myriad civilisations among the stars and beings stranger than dreamt of. It's a perfect example of good sf, with wonder, dreams and mysteries. It's also starkly poetic, waxing lyrical about the cold, black ocean of night -- the sea of stars in the darkness of space. The protaginist could best be be described as "Heinleinian", able and frank doing what he feels is right. At the same time he is emotional and human, if not alltogether deeply and truly portrayed. Perhaps it's intentional, since he is supposed to be a bit dense. The mysteries are good, and the story very entertaining and you cheer on the good guys attempt at truth in the face of stubborn denial of the values of science. The closed minds and fear of civil liberties of contemporary USA is there, and the value of fighting for freedom is underlined. Benford is one of the good guys, make no mistake about that! Let's not go silently into that dark night, into that ocean of cold, dark night.