Read & Rec'd, June 2004
Duende - Jason Webster
Fascinating - and perhaps rather fictionalised - autobiographical tale of a young British American academic who throws up everything and goes to Spain to live and learn flamenco as both music and a way of life. It's fast paced and evocative, very funny in places, and for someone who's lived in Spain (me) there's almost as much pleasure to be had reading and interpreting between the lines as there is in the story itself. When I finished it, I felt like meeting the guy for a drink.
The Butterfly Effect - Pernille Rygg
Sort of Smilla Light, a Norwegian detective story involving sexual deviations and a lot of snow. It was in the crime section but like Smilla, I don't think it's primarily a crime novel, so best to avoid prior genre assumptions. Beautifully written (and translated), it's one of those books that makes you stop often and think about the shape and texture of life.
From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1 & 2 - Alan Moore et al
As part of my on-going education in graphic novels, it was inevitable I'd bump into Alan Moore sooner or later. I'd already been pointed in the direction of Watchmen, but the classic superhero style and colouring had put me off a bit - Miller's Dark Knight tones of grey and noire had always been more my speed. Well, in From Hell Moore delivers dark as I've never before seen it in comics - this is quite simply a work of genius. As, in a lighter way, is The League, which uses a similar Victorian sensibility but this time to go once more into Watchman territory and give the façade of superhero fiction another thorough sand-blasting.
Lucifer - Mike Carey et al
While I'd always appreciated Neil Gaiman's Sandman series for the milestone it was, the languid Goth sensibility was never really my kind of thing - this spin-off, on the other hand, very definitely was. Reminiscent in tone of Michael Moorcock's multiverse novels, notably the Corum and Elric stories, there's a savage power at the centre of Lucifer which I often found lacking in Sandman. Carey's Devil is a hero in the antique sense of the word - and you don't want to get in his way. That plus some genuinely disturbing fantastic art from Dean Ormston. Outstanding stuff.
The Pursuit of Oblivion: a Social History of Drugs - Richard Davenport Hines
Hard-hitting and encyclopaedic in scope - everything you'll ever need to know about drug use, abuse and the blind, bigoted and just plain stupid government policies of criminalisation which have worsened the situation beyond measure. Will make you very angry.
Midnight Sun - Karl Edward Wagner
This collection was a gift from Jeremy Lassen at Nightshade Books. I'd forgotten all about Kane - having owned, read and re-read and then flogged to cover student bar bills my only copy of Nightwinds - but this brought it all back. Wagner was a bit of an overwrought stylist, but his story-telling and characterisation is second to none in the genre. Well worth acquiring, not least for the handsome binding that Nightshade have given it.
Muslim Spain and Portugal: a political history of Al-Andalus - Hugh Kennedy
Still reading this one - fascinating insight into the potential for a sophisticated and above all tolerant, multi-faith state that was destroyed when the Christians stormed south burning, killing and destroying everything in their path (so what changes, eh?). Makes you wonder what would have happened if it had been this state that backed Columbus's expeditions to the New World. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to write Alternate History...