Literature

The Taker and Other Stories, published by Open Letter Books and translated by Clifford E. Landers is the first of Rubem Fonseca’s works to appear in English, though I understand he’s been quite influential in Brazil for most of his career. He was a cop—commissioner of police, in fact—before picking up a pen. I didn’t know that before reading the book, but it fascinates me now that it’s come to my attention. These stories are dark, violent, and terrifying in some ways; many of the characters are so unapologetically apathetic about their behaviour and circumstances they border on the sociopathological. That’s the sort of thing that really gives me the heebie-jeebies (that’s the medical term, right?). “Night Drive” is the perfect opener for the book, and if The Taker is representative of Fonseca’s other work, then it’s a perfect introduction to his writing. The story is simple, semi-anonymous, and shockingly… Continue Reading →

We’ve reached the end of my current foray into historical adventure fiction, though that box my father sent me contained more than just four books, so no doubt I will make further sallies as the year progresses. Sword Song is the fourth and as of this writing last book in The Saxon Stories, a series of novels by Bernard Cornwell that explores the rise of King Alfred the Great and the making of the nation we now think of as England. Cornwell has chosen to write about the period using the adventure mode (quite fitting, really; all that fighting is a lot less fun when writing in other modes), using Uhtred, the displaced Lord of Bebbanburg as his narrator. All that maturing Uhtred did while he was a slave aboard a Danish trading vessel in The Lords of the North comes in handy in Sword Song, as Alfred gives him… Continue Reading →

This third book in The Saxon Stories takes rather an unexpected turn. Uhtred (our hero, such as he is), completes a period of service with King Alfred, whom he doesn’t much like, and then returns to Northumbria in order to take the first step in regaining his lost lands, killing Kjarten, the man who killed his adopted father. Things don’t go according to plan for Uhtred, as he is more or less immediately captured and sold into slavery. He serves two years aboard a Danish trading vessel before he’s rescued and returned to Alfred’s service. Well, a bit more happens than that, but you get the idea. In the real ninth century, being sold into slavery to the Danes probably would have killed Uhtred, hardy warrior though he was, and The Saxon Stories would have come to a rather swift and inglorious conclusion. But this is historical adventure fiction, so… Continue Reading →

Cornwell was already a veteran when he wrote The Last Kingdom, so there was no real danger of The Pale Horseman displaying any trace of a freshman slump. I’m pleased to say that he did not disappoint. Uhtred is again the narrator, but instead of focusing on his life with the Danes, The Pale Horseman shifts back to England and introduces Alfred and his political maneuverings in a more serious way. (Also his stomach problems, most likely colitis, a condition that I’m well aware is difficult to cope with nowadays, never mind in the ninth century.) It’s often easy to fall into the trap of thinking that people in the distant past, due to their lack of technological advancement or their ideas about the natural and social orders, were somehow less intelligent, less sophisticated than we are today. This idea is sadly reinforced by a lot of popular media, particularly… Continue Reading →

No doubt we’ve all had moments in our lives when we think “wow, I really should have listened to my father on that one.” As far as books are concerned, my biggest such moment was when I finally sat down to read Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series. I had been putting them off for years despite my father pushing them at me, and as a result I spent a long time in the dark when I could have been reading perhaps the best historical fiction ever written. My father didn’t raise any fools, though, so having learned my lesson about Patrick O’Brian, when he (my father) sent me a box full of Bernard Cornwell’s novels a while back, I put them in my stack, in the special spot I reserve for books that will allow me to blow off a little steam and have some fun. My father’s taste in historical… Continue Reading →