The books of 2013

1. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym - Edgar Allan Poe

This I read mostly because its relation to the Lovecraft story about Antartica. The nautical minutiae were quite boring, and I skimmed those parts. It was interesting to have read it, but I can't really say I enjoyed it.

2. Begravningsplatsen i Prag - Umberto Eco

As a study of how imagined slights can become more real, and reinforce your prejudicies this is an interesting romp through history. It's also a quite interesting stroll through the messy history of the late 1800 Italy and France. As satire it works quite well when everyone is grabbing for power and money, while blaming the jews claiming they all just want power and money. But, after a while it gets triesome, and repulsive. But, the coda is powerful and both scary and depressing, when the paranoid fantasy have emerged into the most famous forgery of all, the Protool of the Elders of Zion. Maybe we need to be reminded still that some people still belive the lie. It was not a fun read, but maybe it was a useful one.

3. Nästan död - Rex Stout

Sometimes I read classic crime, and this is one such occation. I found the main character, Nero Wolfe, to be strangely absent and fairly dull. The narrator is one of his hired men, and since you get to follow the action from his perspective you don't get to follow along the deep thoughts of the great detective. Compared to e.g. Sherlock Holmes he just grumpily orders people to do his legwork and the great feats of deduction are abscent. Also, the style is quite terse and I'd say slightly wooden. Nobody really comes alive much. I think the other crime novel I read this year, the Judge Dee one, left a more memorable impression.

4. The Magicians - Lev Grossman

Harry Potter for adults? In a way that is what this is. Sex, drugs and terrible relationships. The protagonist is a terrible annoying person who never really learns how to grow up and take responsibility for his actions. By the end of the book I was bored by him. That being said, the story was well written and quite a few pieces of the world building was quite inventive and fun.

5. De tre första evangelierna - Olof Linton

Maybe a bit old, but a quite nice overview of the gospels of Mark, Mathew and Luke. A few details I had either forgotten, or missed before. Interesting.

6. Science Fiction 101 - Robert Silverberg

The idea is great, with influential and well written stories and a master craftsman like Silverberg dissecting them all, and laying bare their innards. I really liked how he showed techniques and skills for making a story work. Even if I never write another piece again, it will definitely affect how I read from now on. Well worth the time.

7. Earth to Hell - Kylie Chan

Interesting take on some Chinese myths. Very odd with modern Hong Kong and gods and immortals poping out and in of the narrative. I think I need to read up on who all these people are. The fights are over the top and the weapons named and mysterious. Xuan Wu is an interesting character. Even though he is not present much, the duality of his character, the snake and turle, is interesting. It's not great literature, but quite fun. Maybe I'll read more of the mythology than the rest of the books in the series though.

8. The Death of Mr. Y - Scarlett Thomas

Would Heidegger make a good science fiction author? Would it be a good novel if you wrote as if Heidegger's Sein und Zeit actually described the world? How about Derrida? This was an interesting take on the nature of consciousness, language, time and space. Sometimes more than a little weird, but when it crosses into the same territory as Weaveworld, then it becomes interesting both as art and philosophy. It's all about worlds within a world and how you can imagine things into existence. I also liked the very British nature of this novel, both in the scenery and the language.

9. Tool of the Trade - Joe Haldeman

A regular spy thriller, with a science fiction twist. It fit really well with what's in my head right now and was an easy read. Haldeman knows how to craft a story and it was as entertaining as his last one. Maybe this one wasn't as memorable, but still ok. The main premise was interesting, about super hypnotic suggestions, and the historical set up was interesting.

10. The Unvanquished - William Faulkner

Interesting book, not the least for the picture it gives of the life in the South during the civil war. It sometimes felt a bit vague and wordy, but not excessively so. Oddly enough, that sometimes combined with the understated and breezing past events where you thought important things were happening. I think I need to read more by Faulkner.

11. Flamesong - M.A.R. Barker

The second novel of Tekumel is quite entertaining. Little of the Tsoylani empire this time, but lot of weird places and odd cultures outside the imperium. More than once there are info dumps, and they look clumsy. The Tlakotani hermit holding forth about the virtue of noble action was better. It made sense and was in character. I liked the science fantasy element of lost hi-tech. A decent mix of characters, all with varied history. I especially liked the boy, Ridek. His adventures were quite something.

12. Chthon - Piers Anthony

A friend of mine said he had heard that Anthony had only written one serious novel, and that one was Chthon. I'm glad that I tracked it down, even though the rest of his production is not known as quality literature. The structure of the novel is interesting, and the plot is well developed. I wonder to what extent the underlying misogynia is a part of the protagonist or the author, but apart from that unpleasant streak, it's a good read. It's basically a guy who finds out who he is by encountering a massive pseudo-artificial intelligence, used as a prison. Naturally, Freudian associations are easy to make. The science fiction elements are well done, even though the sociological fabulations are nonconvincing as anything but symbolic representations, or servery misogeny. I choose to believe it's part of the advance structure of mirrored dichotomies. Nothing else I've heard makes me believe I need more experience of Anthony than this, but it was worth it.

13. The Lost City of Z - David Grann

Ever since I read 1491, a fabulous book, I have been fascinated by ancient South American cultures. Percy Fawcett is a very intriguing explorer, and I can understand why so many have been following his fate in the jungle like one of the most dazzling stories in the pulps. I found the story of his exploits in the Amazonas very interesting, and how he while still being a Victorian imperialist still could evolve lot of admiration for the native cultures he encountered. He must have been quite a character. It was a bitter sweet end to read how those big cities of the Amazon now have been discovered, right where Fawcett looked for them, but not made in stone with pillars and columns like he envisioned. I also find it most amazing that those circular cities sounds a lot like what Plato described as Atlantis. Poor Fawcett.

14. The Paths of the Dead - Steven Brust

Once again Paarfi is at his history writing. Fun as usual, but apart it felt very much like it didn't really start. Much of it was travelling and introductions. As always in this series, it's fun to discover the history of the setting. Next volume promises to be interesting, since the Lord of Castle Black is one of my favourite characters.

15. The Lord of Castle Black - Steven Brust

Very fun to learn more about the backstory of Morrolan. There are big battles and more fun stuff.

16. Sethra Lavode - Steven Brust

Finally it all falls into place. Zerika is Empress and they finally neutralize the threat from the Pretender. It was all great adventure and quite fun. It really made me want to go back and read those stories when Vlad meets Aliera, Morrolan, Sethra and the Necromancer. Now they all are much more faceted and more intriguing. Quite fun but slightly sad in the end when some of the long time friends dies. I will probably not re-read this soon, but it was well worth it.

17. Från Holmes till Sherlock - Mattias Boström

Non-fiction about both Holmes and his creator. I didn't knew the Sherlock Holmes fandom were that old and that the heirs of Arthur Conan Doyle was such an incompetent and greedy bunch. It made me want to re-read the stories, and watch some of the tv-serials.

18. Look to Windward - Iain M. Banks

Slightly slow but well composed story. I liked how the theme of guilt and how to live with that was handled. I didn't remember the Culture stories I'd read being that filled with weird aliens, but they were fun. It was also interesting to know a bit more of how a Hub works. But, some of those parts of exposition felt a bit slow and I wonder how they story would have felt without them? Would you have felt the same empathy with the Hub Mind without those scenes? I liked the idea of a destructive plot, but maybe the story would have felt less lazy had it become clear that was what was going on before the first half of the book?

19. The Man of Gold - M.A.R. Barker

It shows that Barker was not a very experienced writer, for the structuring of the novel is odd. Long stretches are just people trundling along. I do like that he managed to make it natural to describe how things looked and worked, by switching the perspective to a new protagonist, when he introduced Tlayesha. Sometimes it do feel like a dungepon crawl, and the main protagonist is usually just along for the ride, which can feel a bit odd. It still is a fascinating world and since this was a re-read I guess that proves something.

20. The Case of the Lazy Lover - Erle Stanley Gardner

I felt it was time to read a mystery novel again. Once more I read Perry Mason. This case was really convoluted. Everyone lied, changed their stories and brought new facts to the table. I actually thought it was too complicated. Some of the other cases were layed out clearly, and then there were oddities Drake and Mason kept investigating. This time there were so many people, so many plot threads and things developing that I think it kind of buried the neat and complex story. Maybe Gardner got lost a but himself in this one. I will tackle another one before I'm done with mysteries for this time.

21. The Case of the Amorous Aunt - Erle Stanley Gardner

This was a quite entertaining case, but since I was hungover it felt a bit complicated in the middle. I really liked how Gardner juggled the different characters and how none was really unimportant. Oddly, the only one that was sidelined was the aunt in the title!

22. Wizard - The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla - Marc J. Seifer

I've wanted to read some more on Telsa, and what he did. This was maybe not the best biography, but at least it was exhaustive. The author does not write very fluently, and keeps obsessing on minituae of patent litigations and other things which feels less than engaging. After a while it becomes clear that he has an agenda to show off his research proving Tesla's primary efforts in fields where others have been considered the discoverer and inventor. Marconi, for example, clearly based all his work on Tesla's basic research. Sadly it becomes clear later on that Tesla had some tragic flaws in his character which wrote him out of history due to financial and legal problems. But, I did take away a new understanding of what a remarkable individual he must have been, and how crucial he was for most of all our modern technology.

23. Mina Uppfinningar - Nikola Tesla

After the former book, I felt I wanted to read Tesla's own words. It is clear that he was a very peculiar individual. I start to feel he must have been suffering from quite a few mental problems, and was probably synesthesiac to boot. He clearly had some OCD and idée fixe issues. That being said, some of his inventions are clearly imaginative, and I at once started to refresh my knowledge of electricity and physics in order to understand what he did, and tried to do. If nothing else, I learned some (old)new things.

24. Money Shot - Christa Faust

I liked the style of this novel. Very terse, very restrained but also quite funny in a deadpan way. This was really a story about a MacGuffin, and then complications unravel depths of criminal conspiracies. Quite well done. Some scenes are quite strong and packs some emotional punch. I like this pulp style crime story, and it both hurts and entertains.

25. Choke Hold - Christa Faust

So, this is basically one long chase scene following the last novel. I found this one more detailed and brutal and sometimes it was just abuse and abuse and no relief. In the end you'd had no catharsis and I think it fell kind of flat. I mostly just felt depressed by the ending. Still, the style is just as well done as Money Shot. Addendum: A few days later thinking on it, I think I must say that this book is a failure. In the first book Angel starts in trouble, fights against her nemesis and like the classic Western hero steps out of line to protect the order that must be. She prevails, but suffers personally. In this book she is on the run, suffers defeat and humuliation and everything she fought for in the first book is revealed to have been totally meaningless. To cap it off, those resposible for her troubles gets away and she is on the run. It's not entertaining, and it's not art. It's just depressing, and a big middle finger aimed at the first book. Me not like.

26. Never Surrender (Or Nearly Good Looking) - Biff Byford & John Tucker

This is the autobiography of Biff, and the history of Saxon. Say what you like about Biff, but he is not a great writer. There are way to much repetition and skimming over som parts which might have deserved some more attention. That being said, he has led a very interesting life, and I think it's a fun read. Sometimes Biff is quite forthcoming with opinions, and sometimes it's not to say the kindest things. But, even when he tells of betrayals and things which could have been better he still finds time to say nice things about people. He is a decent bloke. While he obviously feels quite hurt by Graham Oliver, and he claims Paul is a better guitarist, he still admits Graham's significant contributions to the band. That's admirable. For me it was also interesting to get a glimpse of why some of those albums seemed to be so uneven, and what made the band great when it all worked out. Saxon is my first musical love, and reading this book made me a happy fan. Never Surrender! Keep rocking, Biff!

27. The Pride of Chanur - C.J. Cherryh

I read this one ages ago and was thinking of tossing it and the follow ups. Re-reading it I think it was subtler than I gave it credit for the last time. There are more going on with gender roles and the how the biologies and societies shape individuals than usually happen in science fiction adventures. In addition to that, there's a quite decent adventure going on, so I was well satisfied with it. While it felt like over long when I read the whole series the last time, I think I must go back and read the rest again.

28. Hårdrock! - Rickard Jakbo

While this book was a bit silly, and sometimes more autobiographic than I think the author intended, it was a decent book. Since it is be the one to kick in the doors, and sometimes put a foot in mouth while trying to kick. But, it was fun. I really don't agree with all it says, and Jakbo have managed to let a few factual errors in, it

29. Det Mörka Tornet [The Dark Tower:The Gunslinger Born #1-7] - Stephen King

I've read about King's big story about the Dark Tower for ages. I know I will never read all those big tomes, but I felt a graphic novel I could handle. It was a strange story, and I think I can see some of the seeds of a bigger tale in there. It probably is not one I care to follow, though. Also, it was less of a self contained story than I had hoped. If there was any imediate issues I had with it, it was the too young hero showing off sexual and martial prowess in a wish fulfillment way that aged authors sadly often write. But, I can see why the setting and the conflice could engage people. Not any more of this for me, though.

30. Blindsight - Peter Watts

As first contact stories goes, this one is pretty interesting. The aliens are well thought out and the interactions with them are suitably mysterious. Where it falls down is the characters. All are some kind of post-human, and it makes sense since the theme of the novel is about transcending consciousness and exploring what it mean for sentience. What makes it fall down, for me, is that they are all psychotic and I can't related to them at all. Sure, it's witty to send out a bunch of individuals with fractured psyches to mean an alien which is just as fractured. But, I stopped caring about the protagonist partway into the book. The other fault is the long sections of exposition and inner monologue about the nature of consciousness, and the extremely technical language. Everything was described in a prose that is everything but transparent. It was not a bad book, but when I multiple times wondered what had just happened, or how the hell things really looked, you lost me.

31. Fatale - The Devil's Business - Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Occult horror and noir, what's there not to like? I'm usually not that fond of the sketchy style of drawing comics, but this time the rough style fits the rough mood of the story. I like the fact that the story is not rushed, but instead quite moody and keeps developing over multiple volumes. I'll read more of this.

32. The Integral Trees - Larry Niven

Classic sf with a post scientific society in an odd environment. There were some interesting observations about how to organize a society in there, and some good chuckles about how the characters in the books had kept some science and jumbled some. I can't say I'm all ready to read the second novel, though. Decent sf, but not all that engaging. Interesting contrast and similiarity to Blindsight with another setting where the geometry of the place making you dizzy. Niven had a totally clear and free flowing language, though. I liked it a lot better than Watts.

33. Port of Call - Jack Vance

This was one of the Vancian space adventures in the Gaean Reach. I have read quite a bit of Vance, but it felt like I was missing out on the Gaean stories, and this one passed my way and was cheap. I picked it up. It turns out this is a novel almost totally devoid of plot. The protagonist is chucked out from his spaceship by his aunt, and then he works his way across the galaxy on a freight ship and sees strange worlds aplenty. But, there are just worlds and odd events, they are not really related in any plotwise fashion. While it was the same sparkling imagination, the same quirky characters and the colourful language as usual, something felt missing.

34. Permanence - Karl Schroeder

This was a book that contained multitudes. Interesting speculation about the character of sapient life, interstellar colonisation and some truly outré aliens. The plotting is tight, and the mysteries are well made enough to survive the final wrap up with the sensawunda intact. Schroeder has the same way of making the stark coldness of space beautiful in the same way Al Reynolds do. Maybe the most distinct quality of thos novel is the sense of otherness that permeates it all. The humans, dare I say it, souls are cast out into the otherness and there they are confronted by what it means to be alive. Pretentious? Well, think Schroeder have done something significantly different from much other sf I've read in a long time.

35. Global Frequency - Warren Ellis

The idea of 1001 agents ready at a minutes notice to handle all kind of threats against us all could be kind of creepy. Handled by Warren Ellis it's clear that he has some political barbs aimed at the military and similar hierarchical structures, undemocratic in their very nature. Some of the illustrators were better than others, but for once it fitted well to have jarring styles in one book.

36. Greenmantle - Charles de Lint

This was in effect two books in one, and still not. It was a story of some people and how their lived changed in the crossfire of their interactions. I liked the mafia hit man a lot. He felt real. I also felt for the single mother and her fight to stay on top in a world that had not always been nice. The supernatural stuff didn't convince as much. Even though the idea of trying to write a novel about how Mystery intrudes into normal people's lives is a good one, it felt a bit, well, meh. Maybe it felt a bit pretentious. It was a decent read, but not really because of the things that the novel was supposed to be about.

37. Evil Tree - Hendrix/Tholin/Sällström

Horror comics is problematic. Usually horror needs slow moving parts wich builds mood. The only exception I've found was the Matheson's haunted house novel I read. Once again it spoils the mood in this piece, which has a really decent story and decent art. If there's anything I felt was lacking with the art was that it wasn't as expressive as I think faces needs to be to carry mood and emotions in horror. Good enough.