Richard Morgan's intriguing future is set in a time where the natural laws of ageing and death have been almost eradicated. A person's consciousness can be stored in a disc (stack) that fits into the spinal column at the base of the neck and the body becomes nothing more than a sleeve in which to inhabit.
Some people, like Laurens Bancroft, have lived for hundreds of years and are the rich elite called Meths (after Methuselah). When he is murdered before he is able to back up his consciousness, his next clone, with the vital block of data missing between back ups, employs Takeshi Kovacs, the last Envoy soldier, to investigate his murder.
Essentially it is this premise that makes the book an interesting read above a science fiction detective novel. The murdered can be brought back to see justice is done by identifying their killer. Criminals can be downloaded into the mainframe and kept on ice for years whilst others inhabit the body. People become reckless and regard their bodies as just worthless shells they can use and abuse.
I borrowed a copy of this book from the library but after reading it I immediately bought my own copy as I know it is one of those books that I will want to revisit. It is a beautiful work which so captures that state of being infatuated with another person. A love you want to be with all the time so you don't miss anything in their life; who you find yourself thinking about all the time, wondering what they are doing if they are not with you; wanting to be them.
Elio is a 17 year old Italian who has to vacate his bedroom for a visiting American, Oliver, who has come to stay in their idyllic family house as a retreat to write his academic thesis. A turmoil of teenage hormones, Elio is attracted to the older Oliver and following tentative moves, counter moves and rebuffs, they gradually, but inevitably, become physically and emotionally entwined.
The book, written in 1966, is set in a private boarding school for girls in Virginia during the American Civil War and is a cumulative first person narrative related by all the girls, teachers and a servant. In this way the reader gains insight into all the characters and reveals all the lies, petty dislikes and prejudices held amongst the group towards each other. The formidable Miss Martha Farnsworth and her slightly flaky and alcoholic sister, Harriet, keep a lid on this uptight and controlled community as the owners and teachers but with their own troubled past.
Into this powder keg is brought an injured Yankee soldier found in the woods by one of the girls. He is the catalyst, playing each and every one of the women and girls off each other in a bid to ingratiate himself into the school and avoid going back to the front, whereby events escalate to an inevitable death.
The whole brilliantly represents how mistrust, fear and a lack of candour in individuals can bring about war. There is also the literal reminder that we are all but our mothers sons and this delivers an emotional punch at the end after it is all too late. However, although the final lines addressed to the children seem to be directed at the reader - "You young ladies are at Farnsworth to learn and Miss Harriet and I are here to teach you. That is our duty and we must get on with it" - it doesn't feel as though the characters have learnt the vital lesson.
It's interesting that there have been various covers of the book and many, like the one above, play on the fact that there is a helpless man in the clutches of a group of haunted women! The author also wrote several plays, which is understandable as the book reads like a play, having the different characters telling their points of view. Cullinan also seems to have had a liking for the one word title as some of his other books are The Besieged and The Bedevilled.
The Film
There has been a previous 1971 film version of The Beguiled starring Clint Eastwood, which I was unaware of. I don't know how that one plays out or how the characters are portrayed, but like the new 2017 version it has cast actors far older than the ages of those in the book. Johnny McBurney the soldier is only a nineteen year old boy and most of the girls are between fourteen and eighteen.
This causes problems, because an older man making sexual advances to 14 year old girls on film would be just wrong! Therefore several character changes have been made: Harriet, the alcoholic sister, who I imagined Nicole Kidman would play well, is amalgamated with Martha and the backstory of their brother is not mentioned.
Edwina, the spoilt brat that all the other children dislike, becomes the teacher and her spurned chance of sexual awakening by McBurney thus more palatable.
Ella Fanning as the other eligible young woman does a good line in coquettish glances but the fact that unlike the book we are unable to see inside their heads leaves us at a disadvantage to what their motives are. Everything seemed rushed once McBurney has been operated upon by the "vengeful bitches". In the book by the end everyone was complicit in the final act as the soldier had made an enemy of them all but in the film we have Edwina giving herself to John in a rather unnecessary violent sex scene and is then distraught as he dies over his dinner in front of everyone. I'm not sure what the purpose of this was - was Edwina selflessly trying to quench McBurney's rage for the greater good or was it a last ditch attempt at her getting some?
The other puzzling unnecessary shots were of one of the girls looking in her telescope out from the front of the house. Was this to show how insular and isolated they were?
Another missed opportunity to adapt a book that's virtually given to the writer as a screenplay.
There was something very familiar about the whole scenario of Dave Eggers' easy to read novel but I couldn't place it.
An IT businessman, Alan, and his team are in Saudi Arabia to bid for a contract to supply a vanity project by the King. A folly city is being built in the desert but so far it is falling short of expectation due to lack of funding. They arrive to give a presentation but are put in a tent with no wi-fi, no food and every day discover that the King is unable to meet them or are fobbed off with excuses.
During the interminable wait, Alan thinks about his ex-wife, his grown-up daughter and his neighbour who killed himself. He has a cyst at the top of his spine, which he worries is cancerous.
He is introduced to wild drug and hooch-fuelled parties through contact with Danish civil servant Hanne, discovers some contradictions of life in Saudi Arabia through local taxi driver Yousef and develops a romantic attachment to doctor and surgeon Zahra
JG Ballard's novel of social breakdown encapsulated in a high rise skyscraper was written in 1975, when the Barbican in the City of London was the height of fashion. The story is timeless, however, and easily translates to the modern cityscape's of 21st Century - "the ragged skyline of the city resembled the disturbed encephalograph of an unresolved mental crisis."
It has a brilliant hook of a first sentence - "Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months."
Ballard seems to explore two main aspects of human psychology in the book. The often examined nature for setting societal strata - even in a building containing purely high income professionals, the residents set about dividing the floors into groups with higher ranking upper classes on the top floors and the "proletariat" with children at the bottom. Social subdivisions are based on power, capital and self-interest.
The story takes a while to get used to because its told from the point of view of a five year old boy, Jack, who lives with his Ma in a single room. He has never left it and objects in the room are treated as people, addressed with capital letters, as they are his only friends. They have a TV but the things he sees on it are perceived as not the outside world (as he knows nothing but the room and his mother does not want him to believe there is more out there) but unreal.
Old Nick provides food and clothing and removes the trash. He is the father and visits in the night to have sex with Ma while Jack sleeps in Wardrobe. It is gradually revealed that Ma was abducted while at college and been held captive for seven years. Two years into her captivity she gave birth to Jack.
Michael Punke's story is based on true historical events but includes a mix of real and imaginary characters and embellishes the facts.
Hugh Glass was a fur trapper in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, exploring and exploiting the wild frontiers in the early 19thC. He is savagely attacked by a bear defending its young, and the fur raiding party he is with decide to leave him behind as he is slowing them down. The party leave two of their number (young lad Bridger and wanted man Fitzgerald) to look after him but Fitzgerald persuades Bridger that Glass should be left to die and they commandeer his rifle and knife, thus leaving him nothing for protection or for hunting food.
Against the odds, Glass crawls his way to the river and gradually to help, with the thought of revenge keeping him going.
David Ebershoff's book is a work of fiction inspired by the lives of painters Gerda Gottlieb and her husband Einar Wegener, who became the first person to undergo gender affirmation surgery to become a woman in 1930. All the other characters and story are conjecture or made up by the author, which is important to bear in mind.
Greta and Einar live together in the creative quarter of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he is a slightly more successful painter of landscapes than she with portraits. One day, however, when her female subject is unable to sit for her, she persuades Einar to put on stockings and a dress in order to finish the painting. This sparks an awakening in him and Lili is born.
Lili poses for Greta's portraits and she begins to go out to balls and the opera accompanied by an understanding wife. As the portraits become more successful, Greta encourages Einar to become Lili despite his reluctance - perhaps as he can see what blinds Greta.
As Lili becomes more established, she explores new relationships that causes Greta to worry about losing her husband and resent Lili.
And so another film franchise comes to its conclusion.
Having read the first half of the book a year ago, it took me a while to get back into the story. There are a lot of things that need tying up - the rebellion, the final confrontation between Snow and Katniss, the healing of Peeta and choosing between him and Gale.
I found it all too rushed.
The rebellion is happening without Katniss, as she is being used for propaganda. There are lots of Hunger Games type traps set around the streets of the Capitol, however, which heightens the peril for Katniss and her team.
As always with a civil war, it is the general innocent populace that suffers most - yes, they enjoyed wealth whilst the other Districts suffered, but are they responsible for the political actions of their leader? They die caught in the crossfire and as a result of the callous traps that take anyone regardless of faction.
Most of the pages are spent being chased or avoiding death, to the detriment of the characters.
Colm Toibin's short and easy novel is a small pleasure to read. It's not trying to be clever or convey any deep messages - just a simple story told well.
Eilis Lacey is a young daughter in 1950s Ireland. Her father has died and most of the other siblings have left the family home to make their way in the world. Unbeknownst to her, her mother and older sister Rose have arranged for Eilis to travel to Brooklyn with the help of Irish American priest Father Flood.
The unpleasant, rough journey in third class does not start the new life off well, but Eilis settles in to a boarding house with nicely sketched characters - all women trying to make their way in the world - and a shop assistant post at a local superstore. At a local dance, she meets italian Tony, who gradually charms her and introduces her to his family. As future plans are made, a tragedy back in Ireland recalls Eilis to her family. Tony and Eilis secretly marry in order to seal the promise that she will return, but is it enough, when family and friends in Ireland conspire to set her up with a suitable boyfriend?
On a NASA manned mission to Mars, a storm hits the Habitat and the crew have to evacuate the planet. Botanist and mechanical engineer Mark Watney is hit by flying debris and separated from the rest. Despite a desperate against-the-clock search, the crew have to leave without him, assuming him dead.
The rest of the book is an exploration of the inherent will to survive against all the odds, as Mark explains in his log the day to day struggle to live on a hostile planet totally alone. The thorough and technical descriptions given on the processes of setting up camp, growing potatoes etc can become a bit dull and difficult to visualise for the unscientific mind, but Mark's humour and positivity keep you engaged, as do shifts of focus to NASA control and the rest of the mission crew, who are all well written characters.
A real tension sets in once a rescue plan is instigated and the reader feels the frustration with every unexpected and sometimes forbiddingly signalled setback.
The Scorch Trials is book 2 in the Maze Runner series and continues where the previous book left off. Thomas and the remaining bunch of Gladers are told they have been infected with the Flare (the virus that gradually turns humans into mad Cranks) and the only way to be given the cure is to make their way to the Safe Haven across the Scorch (the desert left across the equator following solar flares).
Sound convoluted? Well it gets worse.. and that's the problem.
The reader has to suspend belief and accept that all the hardships, changes in character and deaths are down to the organisation WCKD needing to subject the young people to a wide range of emotional experiences in order to record brain activity and thereby use this to save the human race.
I was looking forward to reading this after so enjoying John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, but sadly this does not compare. The Fault in Our Stars appealed to all ages because although the characters were young adults, it contained philosophical and thought-provoking passages about mortality and life that everyone thinks about. Paper Towns has no interesting snippets or quirky asides but is a novel about fitting in, something that every teenager ruminates over and comes up against - the pecking order and cliques in high school, becoming an individual in your own right and conforming with society. As an adult, this has either been embraced or reluctantly accepted.
Quentin Jacobsen was best friends with Margo Roth Spiegelman before high school, but peer pressures mean that cool girl Margo can't be seen to hang out with geek Quentin as they get older. One night, however, she appears at his window and encourages him to drive her out around late night Orlando to dispense revenge on her two-timing boyfriend and her friends.
The first in a trilogy, Don't Point That Thing at Me, is told in the first person by eccentric, aristocratic art dealer Charlie Mortdecai. He has a witty, upper-class turn of phrase which is the main delight in this tale of art theft, murder and evasion from both the authorities and criminals. The comparison with P G Wodehouse is strong, with references to Bertie Wooster made by the author. Mortdecai also has a man-servant who helps him out of predicaments, but Jock Strapp (one of a few puerile puns), although loyal, is a dense heavy with no mirror to Jeeves.
There is a plot but it was difficult to keep tabs on it. As Mortdecai himself says "If I have not always made clear the rationale of these events, it is partly because you are probably better at that sort of thing than I am and partly because I confess myself quite bemused by finding that the events which I thought I was controlling were in fact controlling me."
At 140 pages, Philip Roth's novel is a short and quick read, but it covers a lot of ground. It does this by skipping chunks of time, with details mentioned briefly, but with a focus on pivotal conversations and moments that have a real bearing. There is very little to no description provided to set scenes and the reader fills in the blanks.
Simon Axler is an actor in his fifties who has done film, TV and lots of theatre work. He has a crisis of self-belief in his ability and can no longer perform, bringing him close to suicide in his depression. He spends time in a psychiatric institution and befriends a woman whose reason for being there is shocking. This is the storyline you want to be explored and developed, but instead we have Pegeen Mike, a young lesbian daughter of former stage actor friends, who is wanting to lay low after splitting from a passionate affair with a female university dean.
The short story that the film is based on goes by the bizarre title of The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (referring to a severe form of humiliation meted out to people who deserved punishment - being brushed in hot tar and then coated with feathers). It is the original tale from which all other versions stem whereby the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
The tale is told in the first person by a gentleman who, while travelling in France, makes a visit to a private mad-house as he has heard great things about their methods of treatment. A friend introduces him to the superintendent, Monsieur Maillard, who welcomes him and invites him to dine with six other guests. The behaviour of the guests becomes increasingly eccentric, but the gentleman is uncertain whether it is the peculiarity of the Europeans (and doesn't want to make a social faux pas) or that he is dining with lunatics.
The end of their meal is interrupted when a group of freakish apes crash into the room and a fight ensues. The real guards and doctors of the asylum had been locked in the basement, tarred and feathered. One had escaped, released the others and they had now successfully recaptured the mad-house.
Chad Kultgen's novel focuses on the way the internet, social media and texting has altered relationships - familial, friends and partners. None of it in a good way. Fathers and mothers start extra-marital affairs with ease via dating and sex websites; friends are developed online but with no context or meaning; partners express their love and urges to each other via text but find it difficult to talk to each other when face to face. Because of this whole new world of communication, people have lost the art of telling people how they really feel except online where no-one can see them or interact in an emotional way. This is cleverly conveyed by all the real life conversations carried out with the word "said" - there is no adjective that conveys emotion and lets you or the other characters know how they are feeling. Its easier to text about sex than talk face to face about it - there is no embarrassment and talking dirty can be less restrained or awkward.
44 children have been brutally murdered - found naked with their stomachs removed and mouths stuffed with ground bark.
The true enemy in Tom Rob Smith's novel set in Stalinist Russia, however, is the state system and its ideological viewpoint. Having read George Orwell's 1984, the nightmarish scenario "Imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever" was one I was familiar with but wasn't aware how much was history.
The reason a killer has been allowed to get away with so many murders is because the state does not recognise crimes like murder - that is a capitalist weakness. As everyone is happy and content in Russia, there should be no need for crime. Each murder is treated as an isolated incident with no co-ordination and a convenient person who is not the ideal Stalinist citizen is rounded up, tortured until they confess and then executed.
Leo Demidov is an MGB State Security Officer who has carried out these practices for years in return for advancement and security, but when a scheming, jealous partner incriminates Leo's wife as a spy, he is demoted and sent to a remote outpost for not agreeing (and thereby going against the State).
With nothing to lose, disillusioned Leo starts to investigate the true serial killer, but its difficult to get evidence when fear of the State is greater than fear of a murderer.
The final confrontation between Leo and the killer is rather a subdued affair following the thrill of the chase and a massive plot reveal, but everything is tied up nicely.
If you intend to read the book, don't read any further as I am going to reveal the twist...
.. or books, as the Seventh Son is the title covering the first two separately published books in the Spook series by Joseph Delaney - Spook's Apprentice and Spook's Curse. Delaney's books are set in a fictional County in medieval England, but taking inspiration from real places in Lancashire, where he lives. There is a definite Northern feel, with characters walking over fells and saying Aye a lot, which immediately sets alarm bells ringing with me about the adaptation, looking at the cover of the book (the film poster) which has Jeff Bridges as the Spook and Julianne Moore as a pale red head (I am guessing a witch).
Tom Ward starts learning to be the Spook's Apprentice and leaves his family to be taught in the ways of imprisoning boggarts, witches and ghosts.
The first book focuses on this initial training and Tom's gradual introduction to Alice, a young girl with pointy shoes, who persuades him to help Mother Malkin, an old crone of a witch to escape her imprisonment by the Spook. Realising his error, he tries to kill the newly risen witch and she becomes wick - a shapeless form that can take over the body of another. The finale is set for a great showdown where the reader is looking for clues as to who out of Tom's friends and family might be the witch in disguise.
Having foiled the attempt by Jeanine Matthews and the Erudite to mind control the Dauntless to do their bidding, Tris, Tobias and a group of rebels are pursued as they move from faction to faction. The visits to Amity, Candor and the factionless give us a bigger picture and help flesh out the differences within the different groups. It also brings together characters from each faction, where familial and friendly loyalty sometimes overcomes the faction traits.
Jeanine continues to pose a threat, expanding her control to include Candor and experimenting on Tris in order to overcome the Divergent strain that is resistant to the mind control serum.
The last 100 pages are non-stop action, whereby the factionless and Dauntless team up to storm the Erudite's fortress, which is protected by controlled Candor.
The second book in the trilogy is much more satisfying to read and provides at least some explanation for the strange divisions in the society, with a grand reveal at the end:
