The Year in Books I: 2005
A belated account of what I've read so far this year.
1. Wasteland of Flint - Thomas Harlan
Old-fashioned space opera that would not have been out of place in Amazing Stories c. 1950. The author takes familiar ingredients - galactic empires, space marines, ancient alien civilizations - and fashions them into a fresh story.
2. The Shadow of Saganami - David Weber
More space opera, set in Weber's Honor Harrington universe, which in turn borrows heavily on the tales of Horatio Hornblower and the history of the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars. Solid but not outstanding.
3. Dark Voyage - Alan Furst
The latest offering from the master of the 'historical espionage thriller.' I've recommended Furst before, and really can't do so enough. Like Patrick O'Brian, Furst has the uncanny knack of transporting readers back to his chosen period, in this case Europe of the 1930s and 1940s.
4. Flights of Passage - Samuel Hynes
The author's account of his training and time as a dive-bomber pilot during the Second World War, this book would mostly appeal to aviation buffs and the like.
5. Banewreaker - Jacqueline Carey
The first volume of a new fantasy from the author of the Kushiel's Legacy trilogy. I enjoyed Banewreaker, and will read the sequel, but didn't find the setting or characters as compelling as her Kushiel books.
6. The Million Dollar Wound - Max Alan Collins
Collins writes what could be called historical detective novels. He sends his protagonist, Nathan Heller, into the midst of real-life cases where the detective runs shoulders with all manner of historical figures on both sides of the law. In this the third volume of the series, Heller returns from service on Guadalcanal and becomes mixed up with Frank Nitti's Chicago mob and an attempt to infiltrate Hollywood. Fast-paced and based on solid research, this one hooked me (as you'll see).
7. Flying Blind - Max Alan Collins
Out of all the Heller books I've read this year, this one might be my favorite. Collins' Chicago detective becomes tangled up in the life, then disappearance of Amelia Earhart. The author's theory about the famous aviatrix's fate makes for compelling reading - this was an 'up-to-3AM' book.
8. The Final Solution - Michael Chabon
I loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and Chabon clearly has a love for 'genre' stories, so I was delighted to hear he'd written a novel about Conan Doyle's immortal detective Sherlock Holmes. I wasn't exactly disappointed, but I wasn't exactly thrilled either.
9. Ripples of Battle - Victor David Hansen
This is basically a book-long argument for the importance and primacy of military history, which probably sounds a lot drier than it really is - Hansen's style of writing history is very accessible to readers with only a casual interest in the subject.
10. Rainstorm - Barry Eisler
Eisler's conflicted assassin is pretty much the best thing going in the thriller business these days. Exotic locales, believable characters and plenty of action.
11. True Detective - Max Alan Collins
The first volume in the 'The Memoirs of Nathan Heller', True Detective takes readers from the end Heller's career as a detective on the Chicago P.D. pick pocket squad through the beginning of his friendships with both Eliot Ness and Frank Nitti.
12. Jeeves in the Morning - P.G. Wodehouse
It takes an extremely talented writer to write the same story repeatedly and make it fresh and funny each time; Wodehouse is the master of this trick. His Jeeves/Wooster stories all have the same plot: as a result of some (or several) misunderstandings amiable dolt Bertie Wooster finds himself in danger of becoming married or otherwise domesticated; his faithful and wise servant Jeeves must extricate him.
13. Moneyball - Michael Lewis
Do I even need to say anything about this book? If you're a baseball fan, you've no doubt heard of it. If you're not a baseball fan, you probably won't be interested.
14. True Crime - Max Alan Collins
Nathan Heller finds himself mixed up with outlaws Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and John Dillinger, as well as Federal Agent Melvin Purvis. Contains an interesting theory on the final fate of John Dillinger. (Most of the Heller novels contain an alternate theory on the crime the book centers around.)
15. The Reckoning - Charles Nichol
According to history's reckoning, Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe was murdered - stabbed in the eye - in a brawl over a tavern bill. According to Nichol's reckoning, Marlowe was murdered as a result of his involvement in the dark world of espionage and intrigue. The Reckoning is a careful and scholarly reconstruction of the events and circumstances leading to Marlowe's demise that reads like a LeCarre novel.
16. Why Not Us - Leigh Montville
Why Not Us is less an account of the 2004 season than it is a love letter to the experience of being a life-long Red Sox fan. An infinitely more satisfying read than the lackluster Faithful (see below), and an ideal way to introduce an outsider to the passion, drama, and loyalty that make up Boston fandom.
17. Last Citadel - David L. Robbins
A boiler plate historical novel set amidst the Battle of Kursk during WWII. Decent enough company for a plane ride or the like.
18. A Tale of Two Cities - Massarotti & Harper
Two beat reporters, one from Boston, one from New York, combine to pen an account of the season-long struggle in 2004 between the Red Sox and the Yankees. The authors alternate chapters and points of view, and oddly enough I found the New York side more interesting - probably because much of that material was new to me (whereas I read Massarotti throughout 2004).
19. Bodyguard of Lies - Anthony Cave Brown
This book is extraordinarily and long and dense with facts - the kind of book that keeps the reader constantly referring to the index. That being said Bodyguard of Lies is a riveting book, detailing the espionage and counter-espionage efforts surrounding the Allied invasion of Normandy.
20. Faithful - King & O'Nan
Prior to reading this book I would have thought it impossible to write a dull book about the 2004 Red Sox and their march to the title. I failed to take into account Stewart O'Nan, his dry-as-dirt game recaps, and his never ending quest for more foul balls. I'm sure O'Nan is a fine fellow, and he may indeed be, as the jacket copy proclaims, a 'promising young novelist,' but he should stay the hell away from sportswriting.
Stephen King, on the other hand, could probably write his grocery list and make it a thriller.
21. The Game - Laurie R. King
Sherlock Holmes turns up again in my reading. Laurie King has written a series of novels featuring the aged detective - and his (much) younger and (equally) brilliant wife, Mary Russell. The Game features another famous fictional character borrowed by King - Holmes and Russell go in search of one Kimball O'Hara.
22. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
See (12) above.
23. The Lessons of Terror - Caleb Carr
Though better known as the author of The Alienist Caleb Carr is also active teaching and writing as a military historian. This slim volume presents his views on the use of terror to achieve military and political ends.
24. Jeeves and the Tie that Binds - P.G. Wodehouse
See (12) above.
25. Hero - Joel Rosenberg
Passable science fiction - reminded me of The Four Feathers in it's themes of cowardice and duty.
26. The Professor and the Madman - Simon Winchester
This was a best seller a few years back I think. A popular history of how a lunatic and convicted murderer contributed to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.
27. The Thirty Nine Steps - John Buchan
More famous as a film (adapted by Hitchcock among others) this is the most famous of Buchan's Richard Hannay stories - all of them spy novels of the British Empire adventure type. Good fireside reading, if you can get past the many dated aspect. Like the British Empire, for starters.
More short reviews to come later...
1. Wasteland of Flint - Thomas Harlan
Old-fashioned space opera that would not have been out of place in Amazing Stories c. 1950. The author takes familiar ingredients - galactic empires, space marines, ancient alien civilizations - and fashions them into a fresh story.
2. The Shadow of Saganami - David Weber
More space opera, set in Weber's Honor Harrington universe, which in turn borrows heavily on the tales of Horatio Hornblower and the history of the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars. Solid but not outstanding.
3. Dark Voyage - Alan Furst
The latest offering from the master of the 'historical espionage thriller.' I've recommended Furst before, and really can't do so enough. Like Patrick O'Brian, Furst has the uncanny knack of transporting readers back to his chosen period, in this case Europe of the 1930s and 1940s.
4. Flights of Passage - Samuel Hynes
The author's account of his training and time as a dive-bomber pilot during the Second World War, this book would mostly appeal to aviation buffs and the like.
5. Banewreaker - Jacqueline Carey
The first volume of a new fantasy from the author of the Kushiel's Legacy trilogy. I enjoyed Banewreaker, and will read the sequel, but didn't find the setting or characters as compelling as her Kushiel books.
6. The Million Dollar Wound - Max Alan Collins
Collins writes what could be called historical detective novels. He sends his protagonist, Nathan Heller, into the midst of real-life cases where the detective runs shoulders with all manner of historical figures on both sides of the law. In this the third volume of the series, Heller returns from service on Guadalcanal and becomes mixed up with Frank Nitti's Chicago mob and an attempt to infiltrate Hollywood. Fast-paced and based on solid research, this one hooked me (as you'll see).
7. Flying Blind - Max Alan Collins
Out of all the Heller books I've read this year, this one might be my favorite. Collins' Chicago detective becomes tangled up in the life, then disappearance of Amelia Earhart. The author's theory about the famous aviatrix's fate makes for compelling reading - this was an 'up-to-3AM' book.
8. The Final Solution - Michael Chabon
I loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and Chabon clearly has a love for 'genre' stories, so I was delighted to hear he'd written a novel about Conan Doyle's immortal detective Sherlock Holmes. I wasn't exactly disappointed, but I wasn't exactly thrilled either.
9. Ripples of Battle - Victor David Hansen
This is basically a book-long argument for the importance and primacy of military history, which probably sounds a lot drier than it really is - Hansen's style of writing history is very accessible to readers with only a casual interest in the subject.
10. Rainstorm - Barry Eisler
Eisler's conflicted assassin is pretty much the best thing going in the thriller business these days. Exotic locales, believable characters and plenty of action.
11. True Detective - Max Alan Collins
The first volume in the 'The Memoirs of Nathan Heller', True Detective takes readers from the end Heller's career as a detective on the Chicago P.D. pick pocket squad through the beginning of his friendships with both Eliot Ness and Frank Nitti.
12. Jeeves in the Morning - P.G. Wodehouse
It takes an extremely talented writer to write the same story repeatedly and make it fresh and funny each time; Wodehouse is the master of this trick. His Jeeves/Wooster stories all have the same plot: as a result of some (or several) misunderstandings amiable dolt Bertie Wooster finds himself in danger of becoming married or otherwise domesticated; his faithful and wise servant Jeeves must extricate him.
13. Moneyball - Michael Lewis
Do I even need to say anything about this book? If you're a baseball fan, you've no doubt heard of it. If you're not a baseball fan, you probably won't be interested.
14. True Crime - Max Alan Collins
Nathan Heller finds himself mixed up with outlaws Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and John Dillinger, as well as Federal Agent Melvin Purvis. Contains an interesting theory on the final fate of John Dillinger. (Most of the Heller novels contain an alternate theory on the crime the book centers around.)
15. The Reckoning - Charles Nichol
According to history's reckoning, Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe was murdered - stabbed in the eye - in a brawl over a tavern bill. According to Nichol's reckoning, Marlowe was murdered as a result of his involvement in the dark world of espionage and intrigue. The Reckoning is a careful and scholarly reconstruction of the events and circumstances leading to Marlowe's demise that reads like a LeCarre novel.
16. Why Not Us - Leigh Montville
Why Not Us is less an account of the 2004 season than it is a love letter to the experience of being a life-long Red Sox fan. An infinitely more satisfying read than the lackluster Faithful (see below), and an ideal way to introduce an outsider to the passion, drama, and loyalty that make up Boston fandom.
17. Last Citadel - David L. Robbins
A boiler plate historical novel set amidst the Battle of Kursk during WWII. Decent enough company for a plane ride or the like.
18. A Tale of Two Cities - Massarotti & Harper
Two beat reporters, one from Boston, one from New York, combine to pen an account of the season-long struggle in 2004 between the Red Sox and the Yankees. The authors alternate chapters and points of view, and oddly enough I found the New York side more interesting - probably because much of that material was new to me (whereas I read Massarotti throughout 2004).
19. Bodyguard of Lies - Anthony Cave Brown
This book is extraordinarily and long and dense with facts - the kind of book that keeps the reader constantly referring to the index. That being said Bodyguard of Lies is a riveting book, detailing the espionage and counter-espionage efforts surrounding the Allied invasion of Normandy.
20. Faithful - King & O'Nan
Prior to reading this book I would have thought it impossible to write a dull book about the 2004 Red Sox and their march to the title. I failed to take into account Stewart O'Nan, his dry-as-dirt game recaps, and his never ending quest for more foul balls. I'm sure O'Nan is a fine fellow, and he may indeed be, as the jacket copy proclaims, a 'promising young novelist,' but he should stay the hell away from sportswriting.
Stephen King, on the other hand, could probably write his grocery list and make it a thriller.
21. The Game - Laurie R. King
Sherlock Holmes turns up again in my reading. Laurie King has written a series of novels featuring the aged detective - and his (much) younger and (equally) brilliant wife, Mary Russell. The Game features another famous fictional character borrowed by King - Holmes and Russell go in search of one Kimball O'Hara.
22. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
See (12) above.
23. The Lessons of Terror - Caleb Carr
Though better known as the author of The Alienist Caleb Carr is also active teaching and writing as a military historian. This slim volume presents his views on the use of terror to achieve military and political ends.
24. Jeeves and the Tie that Binds - P.G. Wodehouse
See (12) above.
25. Hero - Joel Rosenberg
Passable science fiction - reminded me of The Four Feathers in it's themes of cowardice and duty.
26. The Professor and the Madman - Simon Winchester
This was a best seller a few years back I think. A popular history of how a lunatic and convicted murderer contributed to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.
27. The Thirty Nine Steps - John Buchan
More famous as a film (adapted by Hitchcock among others) this is the most famous of Buchan's Richard Hannay stories - all of them spy novels of the British Empire adventure type. Good fireside reading, if you can get past the many dated aspect. Like the British Empire, for starters.
More short reviews to come later...
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