Short Fiction Book Reviews: Volume II
An actual gentleman in the Soviet Union, an alien gentleman in Cambridge, a lot of psychopaths pretending to be gentlemen in the south of France, and, last and best of all, an arsenal of rednecks.
The end of the year was better for writing volume than the beginning of the year, but it’s still not going quite as well as I had hoped. At the moment I have several pieces that are 90% of the way done, so I’m going to take the next couple of weeks off, enjoy the holidays, and hopefully get a couple of those pieces to 100% with a goal to start the New Year off on a strong foot.
In the meantime Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
A Gentleman in Moscow
By: Amor Towles
Published: 2016
480 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
During the Russian revolution, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in the Hotel Metropol for the remainder of his life. While there, his life becomes intertwined with that of the hotel staff and three remarkable women. Together they make their way in a strange cosmopolitan society trying not to be crushed by Stalinist Russia.
Who should read this book?
If you like Russian culture, historical fiction, and urbane characters or really any two of those three I think you’ll like this book.
Specific thoughts: Yet another book that got made into a miniseries
I’ve always been interested in Soviet Era Russia, and this seemed like a pleasant way of experiencing it. (I still need to read Gulag Archipelago. I know! Unforgivable!) Also while the fact that a book got turned into a movie or TV series doesn’t guarantee the quality of that book, there is a strong correlation. So, similar to Band of Brothers, I watched the mini-series while more or less keeping pace in the book. I was somewhat surprised by how different the miniseries ended up being. Not in terms of characters, but in terms of tone and intensity. The Russia of the miniseries feels far more threatening than the Russia of the book. And while the miniseries is more accurate I found I preferred the book. Perhaps I have enough examples of savagery, and what I needed was an example of tranquility in the face of savagery.
On the other hand, I think the relationship between Rostov and Nina, and later Sophia, while fantastic in the book, was better in the miniseries. If I had to recommend one or the other I would recommend the book. Especially since there are some bits of the miniseries that I don’t think I would have understood without the book. Or at least I wouldn’t have recognized their importance. Still it was very close, and the mini series probably ended better.
The Humans: A Novel
By: Matt Haig
Published: 2013
320 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
A human mathematician, who has just proved the Riemann hypothesis, is replaced by an alien who must kill everyone who might know about the solution, or even know a solution is possible, because (somehow) the solution would allow humans to access a whole collection of technologies they’re not ready for.
Who should read this book?
If you like your science fiction saccharine and mainstream then this is the book for you. Otherwise I would skip it.
Specific thoughts: That transition from emotionless alien to proud human is entirely too easy
This is the second book I’ve read by Haig, and both books have been good, but neither has been particularly sophisticated. This lack of sophistication seemed more jarring in this book, than the previous book. Without rehashing things too much, in Haig’s previous book, The Midnight Library, everything works out for the protagonist through supernatural means. It’s cheesy, but there’s an inherent teleology to supernatural elements that makes a happy ending more believable.
Here we have the exact opposite. In Haig’s previous book, the protagonist was basically a ghost, in this one it’s an alien. Ghosts are like humans except dead. Aliens are unlike humans, except where they have to be or the story won’t work. Or at least aliens are generally interesting to the extent that they’re not human.
The alien in this story goes from an alien who doesn’t understand the first thing about humans, to so human he’s a caricature in the space of about fifty pages. Now, he’s taken the form of a human, which clearly helps to explain part of it. And certainly Haig includes some fish out of water scenes, but at every point where it counts his actions entirely conform to western Christian norms. Every point save one, which was obviously injected to provide some drama within a novel that was otherwise relentlessly predictable.
Super-Cannes: A Novel
By: J. G. Ballard
Published: 2000
400 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
A murder mystery. Paul Sinclair is trying to figure out why David Greenwood, the pediatrician at a super-high end business enclave (a position now held by his wife) snapped and went on a shooting spree killing numerous high level executives.
Who should read this book?
This book was recommended by Sam Kriss, a well known substacker, who might be the best non-fiction prose stylist I’ve encountered since Chersterton. He did a post in which he railed against lists of books (he’s famously contrarian) and as part of that rant he said:
I’d still definitely trade it—along with pretty much every other book on that list—for JG Ballard’s Super-Cannes, but it’s also very obvious to me that Super-Cannes would be a deeply inappropriate choice for the top spot.
So that’s why I read it. And if Kriss’ words carry any weight, that’s probably why you might want to read it.
If you have no idea who Kriss is? Then I guess I would recommend it if you like murder mysteries and critiques of managerial modernity, while also holding the suspicion that all high level executives are secretly powerful paedophilic psychopaths.
Specific thoughts: The power of suggestion
I was about half-way through this book when I started really wondering why I was reading it. Unlike most of the time where I’m terrible at remembering where I picked up recommendations, this time I was able to uncover the Kriss quote from above, and it all came back to me.
Predictably, if you know anything about intellectual biases, my enjoyment of the book immediately increased. I also started paying closer attention because, now, if the book wasn’t good it wasn’t the book’s problem, it was obviously my problem.
Even with this greater attention I’m not sure if it really landed with me. As is often the case I wonder if I would have experienced greater resonance with the scenes and themes if I had experienced a period of true debauchery at some point in my life. This is particularly a problem given that much of the book is more suggestive than concrete, and I don’t have much foundation for those suggestions.
Hopefully without spoiling things too much, the ending was particularly reliant on suggestion—too much in my opinion. Should anyone else out there end up reading it (on the basis of Kriss’ suggestion, I imagine, since it certainly couldn’t be on the basis of my recommendation) then I would be curious to hear your reaction.
Monster Hunters International Series
By: Larry Correia
Published: 2007
650 Pages
Published: 2010
548 Pages
Briefly, what is this series about?
The adventures of Owen Zastava Pitt, who is plucked from his normal life as an accountant and thrust into the secret world of monsters and myths when he kills his boss, who just happens to be a werewolf. Following his miraculous survival he is recruited into Monster Hunters International (MHI). Given that Correia is a staunch libertarian, MHI is not some arm of the government, it’s a private organization. In fact, the tension between MHI and the government forms a major theme of the series.
Who should read this series?
I had been looking for a new pulpy series to keep me warm during the long winter nights, and this perfectly fit the bill. If you feel a similar need, you lean libertarian, and you don’t mind sympathetic portrayals of rednecks, then this series might be right up your alley.
Specific thoughts: Correia is the anti-Scalzi
These days everything ends up getting dragged into the culture wars, including science fiction. Correia has been on the anti-woke side of things for over a decade. In 2013 he started a campaign called “Sad Puppies” which was aimed at making the Hugo awards less woke. (Or less diverse, or less politically correct, or whatever your preferred term is.)
There are many candidates for the other side of that fight, but I think John Scalzi is a reasonable pick for that “honor”. I’ve read some Scalzi (in fact the first formal book review I did in this space was a Scalzi book) and he’s okay. His plots are interesting, and his world building is adequate, but his tone has a tendency to grate and his sense of humor is entirely too snarky for me. But there’s a lot of snark going around, so I’ve developed a pretty thick skin. Consequently, while I didn’t hate his books, I was always pretty lukewarm. I never really entirely pinpointed why that was… Until I started reading this series.
When I read Monster Hunters International it hit me that whatever it was that Scalzi was doing, Correia was doing the opposite, and I loved it. I understand that’s probably too general to be helpful, so allow me to restate: Scalzi’s books are the kind of science fiction scrawny male nerd “allies” might read in their dorm rooms on Saturday night rather than having a date. And think that they’re reading “military” sci-fi. Correia is the kind of science fiction angry MAGA rednecks would read if they were actually literate. And whatever pretenses I display in this space, genetically I’m at least 75% angry MAGA redneck, with a tattoo of the Gadsden Flag on my soul, so a book full of good-ol’ boy gun nuts really scratches an itch.
So far I’m only two books in, so obviously things could change (as they often do) as the series progresses, but so far I’m thoroughly enjoying things. I will also say that Correia’s Grimnoir series was fantastic as well, so I may have found one of those authors where I want to read everything he’s written.
It is my hope that you’ll want to read everything I’ve ever written, however that seems unlikely. But if you want to get me a gift for Christmas, consider reading something from the archives. The farther back you go the spicer the takes and the worse the writing!