Books read in April

1. The City & The City, China Miéville (one of the best I’ve read this year)
2. Creepers, by David Morrell
3. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights, Volume 1
4. Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
5. lost boy lost girl, by Peter Straub
6. Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman
7. The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo
8. The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas
9. Hourglass Museum (poetry), by Kelli Russell Agodon
10. The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi

REVIEWS (behind the cut):

TheCityandTheCity1. The City & The City, China Miéville
I don’t even know how to talk about or describe this book, except to say I loved it. It’s just … *happy sigh*

In simple terms, this is the story of a murder and the investigation by Inspector Tyador Borlu. This investigation is complicated by the fact that he lives in Beszel, a city that lives sybiotically with a foreign city, Ul Qoma; the two cities physically exist in a delicate balance and the mysteries that unfold from this one murder threaten to disrupt that balance.

The worldbuilding in this blows my mind. Such an imaginative place and a fully realized cultural and political systems for both cities and inbetween. The layers here are astounding. I could see this strange implausible city and city existing in East Europe somewhere.

The characters too were great. I immediately grew attached to Tyador, who is our weathered investigator. Somehow Mieville managed to portay Tyador as knowledgable and “having seen it all” without being entirely jaded. There’s this sense that beneath it all, he really cares about and respects people, and I love that.

This is the first book by Mieville I’ve read. I’ve heard a lot about his writing style being elaborate and challenging, so I expected this to be a beautifully written but slow read. Indeed, it was beautifully and clearly written and I poured through it quickly, carried along by the characters and the story.

If there was one frustration (not a bad frustration), it’s that I didn’t fully understand the consequences of breach and why it was such a terrible crime. It made the law seem arbitrary in a way and I wondered if that might be partly on purpose. It could be arbitrary or it could be vitally important. I don’t know which it is and it I suppose it doesn’t matter. It has me sitting pondering, making me want to reread.

It was a fantastic and, as I read the last line, I held the book to my chest and just sat there for a few moments soaking it in.

2. Creepers, by David Morrell
Creepers is a slang term for urban explorers, those who sneak into abandoned and derelict building to look into the past. Urban exploration is the jumping off point for this story, with a small group of creepers entering the sealed off Paragon Hotel in Asbury Park and it’s a part of what drew me immediately in. I’ve been fascinated with the idea of urban exploration for a long time, though I would never try it myself, as it’s highly dangerous and illegal.

I love thriller and horror stories that work this way: put the characters in an already dangerous situation (such entering a deathtrap hotel full of rotting floors and other life threatening risks), then intensify with something worse.

From page one, the story unsettled, a general eerie feeling. As the story progressed, I found myself increasingly sucked into the story and to a point of near anxiety. I don’t remember the last time I’ve been this close to being genuinely frightened by a horror tale. Though the fear went a way as the story moved into more well-trodden territory storyline-wise and the action sequences took over. Still, I couldn’t put it down until I reached the end. It was a fast, enjoyable read.

3. The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights, Volume 1
Discussed elsewhere.

4. Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
This is a book about way people, lives, moments, and fates cross and the ways they don’t. It begins with Debbie wishing for something good to happen. To her. Soon. It then branches off to multiple other characters, weaving together the lives of friends and not friends, adults and teenagers in to a slice of life narrative set in the 1960s. There was a couple of points where the multiplicity of characters became a bit confusing, because I couldn’t remember who so-and-so was, but the chapters (each of which reads a bit like a short story) work together well. And while not much seems to happen and there’s not much in the way of resolution, you do get to see the characters grow. You don’t quite get to see the “final result” of them (because change is ongoing), but you get to see the potential for who they might become, which is very cool.

In addition to a collection of interesting character (none of whom is presented as perfect or a villain), the story also offers some really wonderful writing. For example:

“Debbie and Patty stood inside a thriving mountain of rhododendrons, flowering with primeval abandon against a withered, sagging garage that was slowly subdividing into raw materials, basic elements and individual atoms on the edge of an oily, pothole-dotted forgotten cinder alley.”

5. lost boy lost girl, by Peter Straub
Summary: “A horror novelist searches for his nephew who disappeared a week after the boy’s mother committed suicide. Worried about a pedophilic murderer on the loose, he is led in his investigation to a haunted house with an unspeakable history.”

The summary makes it sound like a murder mystery, ghost story — and it is, in a way — but it is also a story of family, it’s burdens and disconnections. The story jumps back and forth in time and is very well written, vivid descriptions and excellent exploration of character. Somehow though, there was an emotional distance and I couldn’t really connect with the characters, no matter how well written they were.

I think I might have enjoyed this one more if I hadn’t accidentally first read the sequel, [In the Night Room] (which was very strange and I wasn’t that in to). While I enjoyed lost boy lost girl far better, I read it in the context of the sequel, so I already knew some of the mysteries revealed. It made it hard to get excited about the plot.

6. Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman
Two shape-shifting aliens of different species have been secretly been living on Earth for centuries, unaware of each other’s existence. When an ancient artifact is dredged up from the depths of the ocean, the two creatures both seek it out with the aim of understanding their own origins.

The changeling (alien #1) is the main character of the story, as we see it shift from being a great white shark to a dolphin to finally a human, killing a random person as it does so to take its place. While it can mimic and learn, it starts off with so little understanding of humanity and its social norms that it’s perceived in its human form to be insane and its lack of humanity and lack of concern over human life is terrifying. Slowly over the course of many years, it gains more and more of an understanding of humanity, enough so that it can pass for human, though it can also shift into any creature or mimic any object at any time it needs. Always it seeks to better understand humanity and along the way to try to find one of its own kind or to learn of its own history (the length of its life so long that it forgot its own identity in being ocean creatures). While, there is an emotional distance toward all of the characters, caused in part from it being mainly from an alien point of view, I eventually grew to care about what happened to the changeling.

By contrast the chameleon (alien #2) was rather one dimensional in its desire for bloodshed and destruction. Likewise the human scientists researching the artifact were not very interesting, but the the focus wasn’t so much on them as characters anyway; it was more about their work on the artifact.

Despite the coincidence of two shape-shifting aliens of different species happening to be on Earth at the same time, the lack of emotional connection to most of the characters, and the quick-fix of an ending, Camouflage was an enjoyable read.

7. The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread was a rather enchanting tale. It had an Arthurian quality to it with little mouse Despereaux acting the knight and falling in courtly love with the human Princess Pea. Many adventures happen all told in wonderful prose.

The story opens with Derpereaux, who is born with his eyes open and doesn’t behave much like a mouse. He doesn’t scurry or focus only on food. He reads stories that begin with “Once upon a time…” and loves the colored light through the stained glass windows and to listen to music. This un-mousely behavior has him branded as an outcast by mouse society and cast out.

The story then tells of Chiaroscuro, a rat from the dungeon that wishes only to see and be close to the light — a desire that leads him to disaster and has him longing for revenge.

Another key character is Miggery Sow, a young girl who is abused to the point she has cauliflower ears that can barely hear at all. She longs for the glitter of being a princess. Migs was the hardest for me to read about, because her life and her character seemed so unfair.

I was a little uncomfortable with the fact that in the book the beautiful seem to be good and noble, while the ugly seem to be bad or at least stupid. And yet, it’s Chiaroscuro and Migs that I felt the most sympathy for, as they seemed to have the most depth of character. Also, the story shows that forgiveness and kindness can lead to peace and hope.

8. The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas
What a fun adventure story! The four friends — d’Artagnon, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis — who have been a mainstay of popular culture are a delight to read on the page. They don’t necessarily have much depth of character, being more like delightful fools than grown adult men, but they are quite funny and they present their own definition of honor.

D’Artagnon is interesting, because he’s the youngest of the group, fresh from his home village in the city of Paris and desiring to be a Musketeer. Despite being a total hot-head about some things, in some ways is the most mature character of the group, kind of steering the others like wayward children. The one exception is Athos, who becomes a kind of father figure to d’Artagnon and helps guide him to the right course, when the situation gets over d’Artagnon’s head. I really like their friendship.

The intrigues and adventures are great and keep you reading to find how how our heroes make it through. Though I was surprised to find that the Cardinal was not the supreme villain in the story. He is a dangerous foil for our characters, but it also sometimes their friend.

No, the major villain in the story is Milady de Winter, who has to be one of the original femme fatales. Seductive and dangerous, she lures men into traps, often having them enact her revenge for her. She’s a really great villain and fun to read, even if she is a caricature of evil womanhood (as most femme fatales are).

Anyway, superfun, if long read. And I’m totally interested in reading more of the d’Artagnon romances, especially The Man in the Iron Mask.

9. Hourglass Museum (poetry), by Kelli Russell Agodon
Discussed elsewhere.

10. The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi
I have really mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, I liked the apocalyptic worldbuilding in which an independent Thailand struggles to survive against a number of calamities, from threat of starvation, genetically engineered diseases, internal political conflicts, and the greed of Calorie companies seeking to rob them of their independence and genetic seedstocks. The writing brings this world to life in vivid detail.

I also liked the core plot, which centered around Anderson Lake, a blonde, blue eyed foreigner looking to root out the secret seedstocks of the country and use them for his company’s profits. His story is weaves together with many other characters, including a Chinese refugee (referred to as a Yellow Card), Jaidee and Kayla (members of the Environmental Ministry), and Emiko (the windup girl of the title), each of whom has their own agenda. The stories remain independent in the beginning and then come together in a swirling chaotic collision that had me on the edge of my seat.

I’m also a big fan of Kayla, who represents a complicated and interesting female character. Out of everyone, she’s the only one who shows a significant amount of growth.

However, these likes are contrasted with some rather big dislikes. Unfortunately, many of the characters rely heavily on racial stereotypes for their characterization.

The most notable of these characters is Emiko, the Japanese made windup girl, a genetically engineered human designed to be obedient and servile. She fits neatly into the dainty, exotic Japanese female stereotype, which is exacerbated by the fact that it’s a white man who represents much of her salvation. She is presented as little more than a victim of brutal abuse with little to know agency of her own. Our first introduction to her is a gratuitous, graphic, and public rape only 45 pages into the book, and this is not the only such graphic portrayal of this in the book. It’s so brutal and unnecessary that I almost quit reading. The rapes and violence toward her are meant to show the human hatred of her kind, I suppose. But he could have explored the issue of genetically engineered people and what that means for humanity in different and more effective ways.

So, yeah, I’m torn on this one. While I couldn’t love it for a number of reasons, I didn’t hate it either, and I’d be willing to try something else written by Bacigalupi in the hopes of liking it better.