Author: Greig

Professional Librarian from Fife who likes books and music.

citadel?

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Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney) 1948 – 2007

Robert Jordan died on the 16th September after a battle with a rare form of heart disease.

This is something of note to me, personally, not only because I was a rabid fan of his Wheel of Time series for a long time but also because the online RJ community (particularly the newsgroup rasfwrj, where I lurked for years) played a huge part in my desire to be online and then played a huge part in my early online life.

Especially saddening, to everyone who ever was a fan, is that Jordan didn’t quite manage to finish the final volume of the series. So any form of closure (and I’m sure that a version of the final volume will see the light of day) will have to come by proxy and necessarily not quite be what Jordan would have made it.

RIP, Mr Rigney. My condolences and commiserations to his wife and family

walk-in?

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Kitchen Confidential

Anthony Bourdain

Kitchen ConfidentialAnthony Bourdain, thanks in large part to this book, now spends a lot of his time travelling the world making TV shows about cookery. Back when he wrote this he was the executive chef at a successful brasserie in Manhattan specializing in ‘peasant-style’ French cooking.
What he does in this book is tell his life story in terms of how he fell in love with food, how he ended up becoming a cook, how he nearly threw it all away before getting his life in order. He also throws in a few interesting truths about how the catering industry works and what it takes to run a successful kitchen in terms of equipment and attitude.
Sadly this book really doesn’t stand up to a second reading, much of his attitude coming off as false, more of a schtick than his real personality. After all, he comes from a comfortable background, had every educational opportunity and any hardship he went through was largely down to his own sense of entitlement.
If you’ve never read it before, borrow yourself a copy and enjoy it for what it is.

Rating: B-

deck?

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A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil

Christopher Brookmyre

blood-pencil.jpgThe latest Brookmyre to hit paperback is both about a murder case in modern day Scotland and a group of people growing up together as they go through primary and high school.
It seems to me to be about how our school days shape the rest of our lives and how hard it is to see people for who they really are in the here and now when you spent every day of your childhood building up an idea of who they are.
Like everything Brookmyre touches this is a fun, quick read. The problem lies in the fact that the little details about playground life are so much better drawn that the actual characters of the schoolkids. So you have to be told that everyone knows that this character isn’t a bad kid rather than him actually showing it through actions and attitude.
Also as he really does fall in love with the sections in the past the contemporary story seems a bit lightweight, more of an excuse than the actual point of the whole thing. Though I did like the banter between the hotshot lawyer and the pub landlady.
Better than the mountain of dross than can be found in the crime section in most bookshops/libraries I’d say it’s well worth a read. Just don’t expect prime Brookmyre

Rating: B+

toad?

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Storm Front

Jim Butcher

Storm Front by Jim ButcherFirst of the Dresden Files Series introduces Harry Dresden, Wizard For Hire.
In this book Harry attempts to solve a series of ghastly magical murders at the request of a detective in the local Police Department, and tackle a missing persons case at the same time. All while having to deal with Madame who happens to be a Vampire, dark Magicians, being under constant surveillance by the wizard’s council and, oh, the local Chicago mob.
It’s a pretty entertaining romp if wildly nonsensical at times. I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a decent piece of fantasy horror with a nice dash of humour.

Rating: B

14k?

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Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About

Mil Millington

Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued AboutMillington’s debut novel is inspired by some of the crazy and hilarious stories about his relationship with his long-term German girlfriend (and mother of his children) as detailed here.
The novel takes these anecdotes and fits them into a loosely plotted story of dodgy dealings and shifty politics within the university that employs his lead character, Pel.
Loosely plotted is generous. It basically amounts to a serious of very funny sketches that kind of hang together but not really.
Then again any book that features Laser tag, Triads, burial grounds and Library and IT in-jokes is hard to dislike entirely.
It really is frequently laugh out loud funny but then again if you’ve been following Millington since he used to write letters into Amiga Power, like I have, this will come as no surprise.
Hopefully one day he’ll get a hang of the telling a complete story thing and he’ll have something that I can praise to the hilt.

Rating: B-

chartreuse?

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Old Man’s War

John Scalzi

Old Man's WarScalzi’s debut novel is a stylish homage to Heinlein.
The central conceit of the novel is that the human Colonial forces recruit citizens of the wealthy western nations to become solidiers as they reach 75 years old with the lure that they’ll be young again and out defending humanity among the stars. It’s an idea that Scalzi has a lot of fun with as the new recruits go through basic training and on into relentless battle.
The prose can be a little lumpy at times and he’s not quite worked out how to show instead of tell, but it’s quite a lot of fun.
I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a diverting piece of old school science fiction

Rating: B+

sandwich?

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsThe final book of the Harry Potter series arrived at my door at 8.05am today. Four and a half hours later I had finished reading it.
I have to say that overall I’m quite happy with the way things turn out in the end. Rowling managed to tie up loads of the loose ends but not leave everything too pat. It was also quite refreshing to see her be utterly ruthless in dispatching beloved characters. The only problem is the serious amount of nothing much happening before things start to take off into one insane set piece after another.
I never make recommendations about Harry Potter books, you’ll either be reading it or avoiding it like the plague.
As for me, I quite liked it.

Rating: A-

disease?

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Unknown Pleasures

Chris Ott

Unknown Pleasures 33 and a thirdPart of Continuum’s 33 and 1/3 series of short books that examine recordings by beloved artists over the years.
This one looks at the rise of Joy Division at the making of their classic debut album, Unknown Pleasures.
Given the brevity of the book it cannot compete with works like “Touching From a Distance” or celebrate the myth to the extent that Twenty-Four Hour Party People did.
It’s a basic, functional little volume.
It’s worth picking up cheap if you particularly love Joy Division.

Rating: C+

drink me?

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Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Half Blood PrinceSixth and penultimate book in the outrageously successful JF fantasy series. I’ve reviewed this book before, back when it first came out.
Reading it a second time makes plain that some character’s motivations aren’t what they seemed to be the first time I read it, which makes the upcoming final book all the more interesting.
What else? Well I’d still rate the book the same, it’s entertaining enough, but it’s filled with flashbacks and the present day action is pretty sparse until the last third of the book. As for the big twist, well it’s still pretty shocking but I’ve changed my mind a great deal about it’s implications.
As before, no recommendation, but I did enjoy reading it.

Rating: B+