The World of Books

Richard Woodman is a wonderful writer – a craftsman with words. His series of nautical fiction books featuring Nathaniel Drinkwater is one of the very best series in this genre. It may not be quite up there with C. S. Forester’s series about Horatio Hornblower or Patrick O’Brian’s series about Jack Aubrey, but it is fairly close. It is, for sure, fairly close in terms of realism, entertainment and skillful descriptions of life in the Royal Navy, along with other series like Alexander Kent’s Bolitho series, Dudley Pope’s series about Lord Ramage, and Dewey Lambdin’s Alan Lewrie series. Richard Woodman, along with these writers, can create suspense and describe battle scenes incredibly well. He’s also very knowledgeable and writes in a realistic fashion.

So far Richard Woodman has written 14 books about Nathaniel Drinkwater. In addition, he has written shorter series about James Dunbar and William Kite, some other nautical fiction books, and several factual (non-fiction) books about 18th century and WW2 history.

Nathaniel Drinkwater is a somewhat reluctant hero. He has the skills and the courage as well as the intelligence, but he lacks mentors to promote his career. In many ways he seem more human than some of the other heroes of nautical fiction novels – Drinkwater is a real man that makes mistakes, sometimes handles situations badly, has regrets as well as successes, is subject to temptations, suffering, worries, bullying, and much more. His vulnerability adds realism to Woodman’s books.

The series is also characterized by really outstanding descriptions of life in the ships – both below decks and on the quarterdeck, as well as a thorough understanding of the operation of naval ships and the navy. It is a wonderful series for friends of nautical fiction!

Praise for Richard Woodman:

There will not be a better novel of naval warfare until Richard Woodman’s next book appears.” –Times Literary Supplement

“There is no doubt that Nathaniel Drinkwater rates up there with the best of the nautical world.” –Midwest Book Review

Edgar-winner Andrew Klavan’s Empire of Lies (see also his True Crime) is a strange but appealing book. It is a thriller, but it is also a pretty wicked satirical book. It tells the somewhat strange the story of the middle aged Jason Harrow, a man living a pretty boring and extremely conservative life, but with a past full of reckless and wild behavior – he was a “cynically immoral” man, a drinker, and a sex addict. In the present his prime occupation seems to be to try to keep his past from ruining the life he has managed to build for himself. But this is no easy task.

And then he becomes involved in something what just makes it even harder, perhaps totally impossible. The past starts to spill more or less freely into his present. His former lover needs him and calls him back to New York City. His teenage daughter is mixed up with terrorists. So we meet Islamists, charismatic professors and murder, as well as a grand terrorist conspiracy that only Jason can prevent.

Empire of Lies is very entertaining and exciting. And the climax is just stunning. My only complaint is the prevalence of cheap political shots in the book. But if you want to be entertained and provoked, or can overlook the author’s political messages – this may be just it!

Links to books by Andrew Klavan at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Doghead (Danish title Hundehoved)is a somewhat quirky novel. It has received rave reviews in Europe – and has won the Danish Best Novel and Best Author awards, as well as Book of the Year, the Reader’s Prize and the 2005 Golden Laurel Prize. Not bad!

Strange, yet appealing, Doghead follows three generations of a dysfunctional, odd Scandinavian family. Perhaps all lives are odd at close enough range, especially when you search for the strange stories and the unlikely event? I don’t really know the answer to that – but I do know that the three generations of this particular family has oddities for many, many normal families. Rather than a family saga, Doghead is a collection of family stories, told more or less chronologically.

Askild, the alcoholic grandfather who ran scams in and survived a Nazi concentration camp is the pater familias. Also, there is Jug Ears, the father in the family. He was forced to wear an armor-plated corset as a youngster. His mother, in consultation with a doctor, decided that was the best way to prevent him from touching his ears. As well, there is the often-present narrator Asger. As a child he derived his satisfaction from wrestling his obese, mentally somewhat challenged aunt.

These are some of the main characters. But the stories are even wilder than the characters. Admittedly, there is some daily, average, sane life there and there, but not so much. Perhaps even so little that as a reader you wish for a little more of it – to get a grip, to grasp the picture, to give perspective to the story.

The story starts out in Norway after the Second World War. The grandfather, Askild, has return from the camp in Germany and is hailed as a hero for striking a German soldier over the head with a stick, even though he did it to steal, not as an act of courageous resistance. But the public created the heroes they needed, and Askild was glorified as “the Carpenter”. But in the long, run of course, being worshipped as a hero for such a deed cannot lead to anything good. And indeed, in Doghead the skeletons soon start to clatter out of the closets, one after another.

Many have noted that there is a little of John Irving is Ramland’s writing. I think that is correct. Fur sure, he holds taboos in disregard and loves salty humor just like Irving. And the tale is, in many ways, quite as wild as some of the wilder by Irving. And the characters are odd too, like the child with ears that are so excessive that other children fill them with mud and tiny snails. Even so Doghead is not “The World According to Garp,” say, or “A Prayer for Owen Meany.” As opposed to Irving’s characters, who often live charmed lives, the Eriksson’s inhabit a world that is rather shocking and where even childhoods are brutal. There is little warmth and trust, and little reason to trust – instead there is cruelty, evil, adultery, duplicity and violence.

Doghead is a strange book. A dark book. I am not sure I liked it. But I will remember it. And I do think it is well worth reading.

Links to Marten Ramsland’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Firewall was the sixth Kurt Wallander book to appear in English (the eight in Swedish). Again Mankell has written a crime novel that makes spending time with the glum police inspector from Ystad a thrilling experience.

Two seemingly random events start off the book: The first is the death of a computer expert in front of an ATM machine. The second is two teenage girls hitting and stabbing an elderly taxi driver to death.

The murder of the taxi driver is bizarre. Two young girls, 14 and 19 years old, claim they did it because they needed the more. 600 SKR, less than 100 dollars, was what they robbed him for. Interviewed, the girls are aggressive and unnerving. One of them refuses to talk unless the police fetch her chewing gum. Well, yeah, they killed the driver; but so what? Inspector Kurt Wallander is unable to understand why they did it. “It says right here,” a colleague says, pointing to the report. “They needed the money.”

To Wallander Sweden seems to have changed to the worse. As well, he himself suffers from diabetes and is nagged by his doctor about his drinking and eating habits. And, as usual, he has too much work and is lonely. So lonely, in fact, that with the aid of his daughter he seeks companionship via an online dating service.

Then one of the strange girls escapes from prison, and is found electrocuted at an electricity station. Gradually Wallander, with the assistance of a young computer geek, uncovers a cyber-terrorist plot that has penetrated the Firewalls of the international banking system, and is aimed at destroying the global financial system. And, slowly Wallander becomes convinced that the incidents are all connected. But finding and making sense of the connections is difficult and requires lots of stubborn police work. And, as usual, the police procedural aspect of the investigation is extremely well described and very interesting. The team gathers information, analyzes, and gradually starts to understand.

Firewall is a new great Henning Mankell book. I love the writing and the suspense, even though I felt the plot perhaps was a little too big this time. But the book still works and delivers excitement and thrills. Mankell is, without doubt, among the finest mystery writers in the world.

Links to Henning Mankell’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Read more review of books by Henning Mankell at Scandinavianbooks.com.

The Overlook is the 13th Harry Bosch novel (after 2006’s Echo Park) by bestselling author Michael Connelly. Here Bosch, now belonging to the LAPD’s Homicide Special Squad, reunites with his former flame, FBI agent Rachel Walling – a lady he has apparently wanted to get back in touch with. As well, Bosch has a new partner, a character by the name of Ignacio (Iggy) Ferras, who is not quite used to the somewhat tough style of Bosch.

The investigation concerns the murder of physicist Stanley Kent at a Mulholland Drive lookout (The Overlook). It seemingly a very professional hit. As it turns out, Kent worked at a hospital where some radioactive material has been stolen. And, the radioactive material in question is very suitable for making a dirty bomb. Thus, the case is one where national security is at stake. Consequently, FBI and Walling tries to take the case away from Harry Bosch. And, as we all know, Harry is extremely adverse to such overtures!

This is a fun and fast read, and an excellent police procedural, with an interesting murder case. And it is very suspenseful. The Overlook has Connelly’s trademark fast-paced action, plot twists, suspense, excellent character development, and spare, humorous writing. My biggest complaint is that it is a very short book, and that it ended way too fast. Another exciting and entertaining book by Connelly!

Links to Michael Connelly’s book at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Dudley Pope’s series about Lord Ramage is set between the years 1796 and 1807. They are well written and Pope has a vast knowledge about sail ships and ship handling. And his knowledge of the subject matter - both historical and nautical - shows through in every chapter.

Ramage starts with the hero, ranking third lieutenant, being unconscious in the middle of a furious sea battle, and roused by the enlisted men to assume command of the frigate Sibella. He wakes up to a disaster. The frigate is crippled and sinking, all the other officers are dead, and they are being attacked by a French battleship.

So the novel, and the series, gets off to a very fast start. Ramage needs to somehow get out of the fight, but also has a difficult and challenging mission to complete, assigned to him by the infamous Nelson himself. So the action is fast and furious. And while the action slows down a little in the middle, the book never gets boring. There is a beautiful woman her, Marchesa di Volterra, intrigue, camaraderie, battles, romance, and excitement. As well, the ending is very suspenseful.

Ramage comes across as is an interesting and likable character with intriguing weaknesses and strengths.
Also, Pope presents the Royal Navy in a very realistic fashion - with all its flaws - its tendency to promote incompetent officers from wealthy and influential families, the internal politics, the problems posed by mentorship relations, and so on. A good start for the Lord Ramage series!

Link to Dudley Pope’s books at Ramage at amazon US, amazon UK, and at amazon CAN.

The third book of the Conqueror series about Genghis Khan is spellbinding. This book tells the dramatic story of the Mongol invasion and conquest of Central Asia, as far as modern Iran and Iraq.

Genghis, the great warrior who lives for his fights, has united the tribes and organized their armies into an effective military machine. He has sent emissaries out to places he has so far not conquered. Now he finds that some of his emissaries have been mutilated and killed, and that has efforts to set up peaceful trade have been rebuffed.

This is not a state of affairs that Genghis will tolerate. So, he marches his vast army west to punish and conquer the Muslim lands of central Asia ruled by Shah Mohammed, and prepares take war to the offenders. He lays siege, prepared to wipe out an Arab city with a garrison of 20.000. Then he learns that the Shah is on his way with a huge force, well equipped and far outnumbering his own forces.

Genghis: Bones of the Hills has vivid descriptions of bloody battles and of masterful sieges. It is also full of political intrigue. My respect for Genghis as a leader, strategist, tactician, and man increased a lot reading this book. The story is well superbly told by Conn Iggulden, who also throws in a number of interesting side plots, including treachery, a deadly rivalry between two of Genghis’ sons, rape and murder of Genghis’ sister, and rise of the shah’s son as a capable enemy.

This is historical fiction at its best. It is very exciting to read, it is fact-based, and it is told as a grand tale. The pace in this book just never lets up! And Genghis Khan, of course, is an exhilarating and heroic figure. Bones of the Hills is a compelling read. I already find myself looking forward to the next book in the series!

Links to the Genghis Khan series and The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan (C & T Asian Culture Series)
at amazon UK, amazon US: Genghis Khan, and amazon CAN: Iggulden: Genghis and The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan.

Some works of art are almost logically impossible. Often literature and art capture and present phenomena in ways that contribute to their understanding. This most certainly is the case with the wonderful novel Buddenbrooks. If it is at all possible to convey 19th century German bourgeois atmosphere and culture in a single book, then this literary masterpiece is, in the opinion of many, the most likely candidate to achieve that.

In the tragic year 1929, Thomas Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. And the primary reason was this novel, which he started to write at the impossible age of 22, and published in October 1901, when he was only 26 years old. As the Nobel committee says, “principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature”. And herein lies almost a logical impossibility: That an author, less than 25 years old, writes a novel which is not only stunning in its literary beauty and composition, tells an important and entertaining tale, and also contains a precise and correct description of the “zeit geist” of a class.

Mann wanted to write a book on the vast differences between the world of business on one side and art on the other, and present it as a family saga. He was, supposedly, inspired by the Grand Master of European literature, Stendhal’s (1830) Le Rouge et le noir (The Red and the Black (Penguin Classics)).

However, Buddenbrooks ended up being something else. It became a novel that reflects and illustrates the transition between the 19th century realistic style and 20th century symbolism in European literature, and which is, in fact, a little of each. A rich descriptive work, a saga mapping the lives of four generations of a wealthy Hanseatic family with complex and detailed character descriptions, intriguing in its use of symbols, with a subtle irony in its tone. It is – as evidenced in the subtitle of the book - The Decline of a Family - a tale of strength, decline, degradation and decadence. The last Buddenbrook, the musically gifted young Hanno, dies of a typhoid infection and with him, the family. Was it the negative influences of the artistic strain in the genes of the Buddenbrooks that explained the decline of the family business? Do art and business require vastly different abilities? What is the relationship of spirit (Geist) and life (Leben)?

Buddenbrooks was controversial at the time of its publication. When it was published, the book outraged the citizens of Lübeck. They viewed the book as a thinly veiled account of local incidents and figures, even though Thomas Mann never mentions the name of the city in the book. But the book, as we read it today, is much more than a vicious report about the decadence of bourgeois life in Leipzig – it is a many-sided, almost ambiguous work of art that also contains a tender elegy for the old bourgeois virtues.

A true literary masterpiece that still shines in its richness and beauty.

Links to Thomas Mann’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Most of the historical fiction series about the Age of Sails have a book where the hero deals with mutiny. Horatio Hornblower, Alan Lewrie, Jack Aubrey and Richard Bolitho have all had to deal with this problem. And here, in Mutiny, Julian Stockwin places Thomas Kydd in this setting as well!

This fourth book in the Kydd series is probably the best book so far. Kydd is very busy here. Initially he serves as a master’s mate on board the 64 gun ship Achilles. He helps an Italian nobleman escape Italy before the arrival of the French – and becomes involved with a married woman as well.

Then he becomes embroiled in the fleet mutiny at the Nore. And now he, as a newly appointed officer, has to decide whether his loyalty is to the navy or to his former mates. His decision is very difficult. And Stockwin’s way of dealing with this is extremely interesting (no spoilers!). And it is exactly the twists that Stockwin do in his writing about the mutiny that makes this book so great! It is perhaps the best description of the events at the Nore I have read!

Without revealing more, the book ends with Kydd taking charge of a gun deck at the battle of Camperdown. And what a battle it is! Kydd does a great job, is noted, and steps up to a temporary rank of lieutenant.

In my opinion Stockwin’s writing is getting better as the series progresses as well. His grip is surer, his prose more pointed, and his style more appropriate.  (Read more about the Kydd series at Leserglede.)

Links to Julian Stockwin’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Praise:

‘Julian Stockwin tells his sea story with a proper amount of salt and nice attention to historical detail. His hero Tom Kydd takes us inside the action at two of the defining events of 1797 - the Nore Mutiny and the Battle of Camperdown - for a thrilling read.’

– Tyrone G. Martin

‘Leaves the reader almost tasting the sea-salt on the wind and wanting to search out the previous books … Long live Kydd’

– Good Book Guide

Among the crime novels by Benjamin Black published so far, this is my personal favorite. It is as much fiction and literature as it is crime fiction – very lyrical, slow paced, with some wonderful conversations, great observations and outstanding story telling. It is actually written by Man Booker Prize-winning author John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black. And the novel won a nomination from the Mystery Writers of America for the 2008 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

The novel is set in 1950s Dublin and Boston – and a Dublin that is masterfully described in bits and pieces with a dank and fog-draped atmosphere that pervades everything, a city that oozes existential dread and breeds melancholy.

We follow Quirke, the complex, melancholic and conflicted coroner in 1950’s Ireland. His background, it turns out, is somewhat special. As a child, he was rescued from a Catholic orphanage by Judge Griffin and raised alongside his own biological son, Mal. However, over time the two sons have started to resent one another and the distance between them has grown.

Mal is involved in a cover-up of the death of a girl named Christine Falls. The cover-up is detected, by coincidence, by Quirke. Doing an autopsy, Quirke finds that Christine Falls did not die of pulmonary embolism, as Mal wrote in his report. What is Quirke to do with what he believes is the truth about the Christine Falls case? And – should he pursue the case and learn more, or let it rest? It seems Quirke has less of a choice than he initially thought – whether he can let the case go or not is not the question – the case will not let him go. And thus Quirke becomes an accidental detective.

Black masterfully lets the tension build, and lets details play out, knowing very well that the anticipation of violence often is more frightening than the action itself. Or, as chess grandmaster Nimzowitch stated it: The threat is often more effective than its execution. And, indeed, there is relatively little violence in the novel itself – even though it is present as a distinct possibility in most of the book.

The plot itself is somewhat convoluted. The big, overall plot involves some corruption, some conspiracy and the Catholic Church, and isn’t all that plausible. Yet, it’s not less probable in any way than most plots in crime fiction books. However, the details of the plot concerns misplaced love, jealousy, abortions, unwanted children, failed ambitions and similar problems – which are all very plausible in the context provided by Black, and all elegantly described and exploited. And the plot twists and turns, as it should. As well, irrespective of the quality of the plot, the writing and use of effects is so great in this book that the plot does not really occupy the driver seat, at least not for me. Rather, I was fascinated by the psychological insights in this book as well as by the writing.

Christine Falls is a fascinating read!

You can read more about Benjamin Black at leserglede!

Links to the books by Benjamin Black at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN. Also, links to Bokkilden and Haugenbok.