Nov 06 2019

Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women #1) by Evie Dunmore

There’s an almost Hardy-esque quality to this book, from its impoverished protagonist’s longing for higher education to the frank discussions of sexual transactionalism to the desperately whipsawing balancing acts between respectability and happiness. Of course, since this is a romance novel written in the modern era, our main protagonists do find their ways towards a happily ever after, but the narrative along the way treads on topics rarely grappled with in the oeuvre. Reputation is a really big deal in Bringing Down The Duke, and I honestly can’t remember reading another romance novel where the renunciation of such comes in the form it does here. I’m probably being terribly vague so first, some details:

Bringing Down The Duke by Evie DunmoreAnnabelle Archer is the spinster daughter of a country curate who has been living as the helpmeet of her cousin’s large family since her father’s death. Over-educated but with no inheritance, her prospects seem bleak, till she wins a scholarship to attend Oxford University as one of its first women students. The catch is that she must participate in the suffrage movement that is sponsoring her, handing out pamphlets, buttonholing politicians and demonstrating for the cause.

Sebastian Devereux, Duke of Montgomery, has just been charged by Queen Victoria to steer her beloved but foundering Conservative Party to electoral victory. The last thing he needs is to be accosted by a beautiful, green-eyed bluestocking outside Parliament, especially when he’s also busy worrying about his younger brother, Peregrin, who seems determined to fritter away his life in the same way their father had. So when Peregrin invites Annabelle and several of her suffragist friends to a house party at Claremont, their estate, Sebastian wants nothing to do with them. And Annabelle, even though she’s been tasked with attempting to persuade Sebastian of the merits of her cause, soon finds herself at odds with a man she discovers she cannot manage in the way she does most of the men in her life.

As the two (inevitably) butt heads and fall in love, Evie Dunmore throws up such a series of unexpected but still heartrendingly realistic obstacles that I was actually afraid they might not make it to their HEA! Annabelle’s desperation to maintain her ambitions without forfeiting her social standing or, worse, placing herself in a legally precarious position is underscored by the backdrop of England’s 19th century women’s rights movement. A hundred and forty years on, the social and legal barriers to a prominent member of royalty marrying an almost literal nobody have broken down considerably, and women aren’t consigned to whichever role the most powerful men in their life decree. But back in the day, women were almost entirely at the mercy of their menfolk, and Ms Dunmore depicts this fraught era, where women were beginning to demand to be seen and treated as independent human beings, with insight and skill. I didn’t expect the depth or meaningfulness of the plot twists but I greatly enjoyed them, even as my heart suffered for the pain Annabelle endured.

One thing I did not enjoy suffering through was the occasional but extremely egregious typo. The worst one I can recall is the use of “withered” for weathered stone, and quite early on in the book too (I honestly try not to dwell on typos but sometimes they are so bad and become so numerous that I cannot let them go.) I certainly hope the romance department is getting its fair share of editorial staff, because that should have been caught very early in the publishing process. That aside, a terrific historical romance that doesn’t paper over how much life used to suck for women in Victorian England. I shall definitely keep an eye out for more in the series!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/11/06/bringing-down-the-duke-a-league-of-extraordinary-women-1-by-evie-dunmore/

Nov 05 2019

Anything For You (Valerie Hart #3) by Saul Black

Anything For You by Saul BlackWhen San Francisco homicide detective Valerie Hart is called to her latest crime scene, a deadly assault in an upscale neighborhood, she isn’t prepared for the victim’s identity, or for the emotional turmoil it brings to her newly reconstructed life. Having put her days of robotic alcoholic promiscuity behind her, she’s reconciled with her husband, police computer technician Nick. Their relationship has improved to the point of trying now for children. So the reminder of an illicit liaison from the days she put behind her is the last thing she needs.

Thing is, as far as affairs go, it was all rather tame. Valerie and prosecutor Adam Grant had gotten drunk together one night then gone back to her place, where they had proceeded to fall fast asleep. There had been some preliminaries but no consummation, and the two had been on smiling terms on the few occasions they’d seen each other afterwards. As such, Valerie is reluctant to recuse herself from the case: she’s a good investigator and she wants to find justice for a person whom she liked but didn’t like enough to allow herself to get emotionally compromised over. Plus, she’s morbidly curious as to Rachel, the wife Adam told her he’d never cheated on.

For good or ill, morbid curiosity is one of Valerie’s driving factors:

In her early teens she’d dated a guy who had a fetish for getting into buildings when they were unoccupied. Together they broke into (or concealed themselves in until after hours) their school, the bus depot, the local swimming pool, a couple of cinemas, and three or four private residences. They did no damage, took nothing. Just went through various drawers and wardrobes and cupboards, barely exchanging a word. Neither of them knew quite why, but it was irresistible. Incredibly, they never got caught.

Now there was no getting caught. Snooping was what she was paid for. Being Police was a backstage pass to the world behind the world, the people behind the people, the lives behind the lives. The dirty thrill of it had never diminished. Finding what was hidden. The dark secret. The awful treasure. That was the force that drove her. Justice was an incidental by-product.

Fortunately, Valerie is usually pretty good at finding justice, too, not only for the dead but for those who survive. The object of her curiosity, Rachel, was also injured in the attack that killed Adam. Prints found at the scene point the finger at Dwight Jenner, an ex-con Adam helped put away. Dwight has since disappeared, and the key to finding him lies with the mysterious blonde bombshell of a girlfriend whose involvement with the Grants’ lives may go back further than anyone realized.

This was an impressively crafted mystery, particularly in the way Saul Black uses the shifting perspectives of Valerie and the mysterious blonde to manipulate the readers’ sense of reality. I was actually less shocked by whodunnit than by the clever revelation of how. I honestly can’t remember the last time I was this impressed by the use of a framing device in a mystery novel.

Valerie is also a refreshing heroine, particularly for a police procedural. She’s aware enough of her own flaws to understand why she sometimes makes bad choices, and is smart enough to at least try to resist. She knows she’s damaged, and the thought of motherhood does little to assuage her fears regarding her own moral character. This case especially, with its tangled relationships and twisted, fearsome loves, will dig up some really strong feelings as to what she herself might be capable of:

So far Valerie’s love had been for her parents and her sister and Nick. Would she kill to save them? Undoubtedly. Would she kill to avenge them?

No, she supposed, if she had impregnable faith in the law.

Which she did not. How could she? She was the law–and her faith in herself was ravaged, riddled, rotten with doubt.

Anything For You is a thrilling page-turner that starts out slowly before rocketing through twists galore to uncover the identity of a woman who would kill for love. It can be brutal in its examinations of sexual desire and misconduct, but still centers the experiences and opinions of two strong women with opposing senses of moral justice. Valerie especially is an impressive creation: frank about her flaws, uninterested in being nice, and dedicated to discovering the truth, no matter where it may lead her.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/11/05/anything-for-you-valerie-hart-3-by-saul-black/

Nov 04 2019

From Page To Screen: Alias Vol. 1 by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Gaydos

I came to this title from Powers, back when I was still actively collecting comic books in the earliest years of the 21st century. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really understand it. Yes, I thought it was groundbreaking that Marvel Comics was finally releasing R-rated comics, years after the success of DC’s Vertigo line had proven that such could be critically and commercially successful without diluting the publisher’s mainstream brands. And while I enjoyed what Brian Michael Bendis was doing with Michael Avon Oeming over on Powers, I didn’t really understand what he was saying there either (I’m pretty sure it was Mr Bendis’ work on Ultimate Spiderman that finally clicked with me narratively.)

Alias Vol 1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael GaydosSo when Netflix and Marvel released Jessica Jones, I thought fondly back on my experience with the comic book that had birthed her, even as I didn’t let it color my impression of the show. Which is a totally fine TV show, btw. The first season is definitely its best, but I’m still mad as hell about how they ruined one of my favorite comicbook characters in the second onward: fortunately, this is hardly a canon depiction (I hope.) Anyway, I knew I had this volume locked up safely from my children’s destructive impulses in my office, and only dug it out the other day to loan to the neighbor across the street. Of course, I decided I needed to refresh myself of the contents first.

I don’t know what it is about the ensuing fifteen years but, after my re-read, I finally understand why Jessica didn’t want to be a superhero. The final pages, where Jessica is so happy at finding someone who understands her, actually make sense to me now. Perhaps when I was younger, when I was single and before I became a mom, it was unfathomable to me that anyone wouldn’t want to be a hero. And I don’t mean that to say that you shouldn’t aim to be your best self, and a good, courageous person who fights for justice, but you don’t need to do that in the spotlight, constantly pitting yourself against cosmic powers beyond your comprehension. Not everyone is cut out for that, and that’s okay. It’s okay to just be an everyday hero, and not someone who has to risk their life saving the world as a matter of course.

Michael Gaydos’ art also holds up really well, even as it constantly astonishes me how Jamie Neumann, the actress who plays Brianna in the third season, is a dead ringer for Jessica Jones’ comic book depiction. I love Krysten Ritter but I come from watching her in romantic comedies and Don’t Trust The B– In Apt 23. She does a great job as Jessica but I also wouldn’t mind seeing someone less ethereally pretty in the role. Also, she so rarely gets to show off her comedic chops as Jessica that it seems almost a waste of her talents. Rumor has it she’ll be reprising the role in the upcoming Disney+ streaming service, continuing to diverge from canon, I imagine (tho, man, I cannot wait for her and Luke Cage to get back together again!)

Anyway, this is a really terrific look at the other side of being a superhero, the side that just wants to be normal but doesn’t really know how to cope. I enjoyed it a lot, coming back to it after fifteen or so years, more so than the TV show to be honest. Perhaps I’ll change my mind about that media in another fifteen. For now, I’ll just appreciate the comics a little more than I did before.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/11/04/from-page-to-screen-alias-vol-1-by-brian-michael-bendis-michael-gaydos/

Nov 03 2019

The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman

I hate to damn The Fall of the Kings with faint praise because it’s fine, really it is. It’s just that this book follows the perfect Swordspoint and the extremely good The Privilege of the Sword, and while The Fall of the Kings is an interesting combination of a university novel in a fantastic setting with a possible crisis of legitimacy in the city that forms the setting, it pales in comparison to the other two.

The Fall of the Kings

The story mostly follows Theron Campion, a young nobleman, designated heir of the Duchy of Tremontaine, sometime student at the University, prone to great passions. The city is never named, though to readers of the series it has come to be known by the name of its original and now most raffish district, Riverside. At the time of Swordspoint, Riverside was a dangerous district; sixty years later in The Fall of the Kings it is still poor, but no longer a place where casual killings are common. Theron’s family maintains something of a residence there, an eccentric nest for eccentric nobles, knocked together from a row of houses. The Hill is where most nobles live and intrigue; the University forms another quarter, ranged with the Middle City of burghers and merchants and much else besides.

Kushner and Sherman introduce a young magister of the University, Basil St Cloud, who is breathing fresh life into the study of ancient history through the novel method of seeking out original sources, rather than following the accepted scholarly practice of interpreting canonical texts. He has enthusiastic academic followers, and of course he has scholarly rivals. As is the wont of medieval-ish universities, disputes spill into taverns and sometimes turn into brawls. St Cloud begins to draw the attention of the powers-that-be because his research touches on the founding acts of the city’s present political order.

Centuries past, kings from the North came down and, with wizards and companions at their side, intermarried with the nobility who ruled the South. They united the two halves of the land, which grew prosperous with the city as its center and capital. Over time, though, the kings grew increasingly erratic and the wizards’ power waned until eventually a noble rebellion, led by a Duke of Tremontaine, succeeded in binding all of the wizards and killing the last king. Since that time, a nobles have ruled both city and countryside, North and South. The accepted wisdom is that the wizards were charlatans, the kings corrupt and eventually insane.

St Cloud’s work threatens to call that wisdom into question at a time when the North is restless and rumors of royalists run through the city. Theron himself begins to look like a potential plotter, although whether witting or unwitting remains unclear to those on the outside. From his own perspective, Theron is trying to discover who he is, to find the full depth of his love for St Cloud, and to lift some of what he feels is the dead hand of his family on his life.

On the academic side, St Cloud challenges one of his rivals to a public debate, a scholarly duel. St Cloud intends to defend the shocking proposition that magic was real. He had not intended for that to be the subject of the debate, but ideas ran ahead of his good sense, he was not in full command of his tongue. The narrative suggests that magic is at work in what St Cloud blurts out – he has by then acquired what purports to be a long-lost book of spells – but in both of these it was hard for me not to see the authorial hand rather than Fate at work, not least because in the first two books Riverside is set up as such a thoroughly non-magical world. The young scholars have their distinguishing features, but none is as compelling a character as Alec or St Veit from Swordspoint or Katherine from The Privilege of the Sword. Katherine and her long-time friend Marcus turn up in The Fall of the Kings as the current Duchess Tremontaine and her steward, a fusty pair from the old generation. I did not think that was true to Katherine at all, which is completely unfair because The Fall of the Kings was published before The Privilege of the Sword, but it definitely colored my perception of the characters’ interactions.

The book really picks up about three-fourths of the way through; Theron is in way over his head, and his piratical half-sister Jessica arrives from far ports. She’s livelier by far than the various scholars, intriguers, mystics, restorationists and sycophants who had to that point populated the pages of The Fall of the Kings. The last quarter of the book has the brio and panache that made the other two Riverside books so splendid. Finishing strongly is the best aspect of the book. Not everyone survives, not everyone gets the ending they deserve, but Kushner and Sherman tie the story’s strands together satisfyingly.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/11/03/the-fall-of-the-kings-by-ellen-kushner-and-delia-sherman/

Nov 03 2019

Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School #1) by Jen Calonita

Ngl, I totally picked up this book based on its cover, after my library website algorithms decided it was a good recommendation. I mean, honestly, just look at that cover! So charming! So irresistible!

Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School #1) by Jen CalonitaThe novel itself is slight and targeted towards middle-grade readers. It’s alright. The world-building is mild: essentially, a bunch of fairy tale villains decide not only to reform themselves but also offer their services in reforming young delinquents in Enchantasia, a realm now ruled by a coalition of four princesses: Snow White, [Cinder]Ella, Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. But not all the villains have abandoned their evil ways, and are rumored to be lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right time to strike.

Gilly is the 12 year-old daughter of a cobbler, whose family are so poor they live in a shoe. She steals from the rich in order to feed her family, to the chagrin of her parents. When she’s busted after her latest heist, she’s carted off to Fairy Tale Reform School, where she soon discovers that things may be even more sinister than they seem.

It’s a cute tale of what happens after Happily Ever After, incorporating a sassy and relatable teenaged heroine, and shedding a new light on familiar characters. I’m not sure if I’ll continue reading this series however, based on this first book. It’s not a long read at all, which would be a point in its favor, but while I enjoy the concept of a female protagonist in a magical school, it lacks the depth that can make books like these appeal to more than its narrow target demographic. Still, if someone recommends the rest of the series, I wouldn’t mind giving it another shot.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/11/03/flunked-fairy-tale-reform-school-1-by-jen-calonita/

Nov 02 2019

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Freshwater by Akwaeke EmeziI’m pretty sure I would have liked this more if it had been more speculative fiction and less MFA.

Thing is, it’s an entirely worthy book. If it wasn’t for Freshwater, I would have no idea what a non-binary trans person is, and I’m richer for having found out. But I didn’t find out from the book itself. Gosh, so this is a bit of a rabbit hole: starting from the information that Saachi, our protagonist’s mom, is from Malaysia, I felt compelled to dig more into Akwaeke Emezi’s life, and found a wealth of illuminating essays they’d written on-line as to their upbringing and journey to becoming who they are. And that made the narrative click into place for me, of a person named Ada, born a young girl but really possessed of separate (divine) selves that would, as she got older, come to the forefront as needed, couched in Nigerian Igbo mythology. It’s based on Emezi’s life, and I hesitate to say this but honestly feel that it’s a culturally Nigerian explanation for dissociative identity disorder and body/gender dysmorphia. This doesn’t make it any less valid, of course, but it also didn’t make it terribly interesting. I’m glad that Emezi is telling their story, and their Own Voices perspective is necessary, and introduces some really intriguing cultural aspects to their narrative, but augh, Freshwater is just so fucking MFA.

It’s hard for a coming of age book, especially one born from great pain, to not take itself incredibly seriously but when it’s both “serious” and “arty,” I just lose all patience. Towards the end, especially, the speculative fiction facade falls away and the narrative lies formless, liminal almost, a word the book never tires of invoking. I mean, if an even more navel-gazing Waiting For Godot in novel form is your jam, then you will probably thrill to this novel. Personally, I wanted more mythology, especially in relation to the ending, which would have been lovely had it had a stronger underpinning from the preceding text. I was also annoyed at the sentimentality of the conversations with Jesus, or Yshwa as he’s referred to in these pages. He’s considered a god like the ones inhabiting Ada’s body, only different, which only works for a little while before collapsing from a lack of intellectual rigor. Which, I get it, faith is personal and fungible, but the way it was presented in this book forced me through theological contortions that I found especially annoying because I’m neither Christian nor Igbo and so shouldn’t have to care this much about none of it making sense. I found myself incredibly exasperated and can only imagine how someone who is actually Christian and/or Nigerian would feel.

Anyway, Emezi is a terrific essayist and you should read those works before coming to Freshwater, which is alright if you can stomach the MFA-style writing that predominates towards the end.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/11/02/freshwater-by-akwaeke-emezi/

Oct 29 2019

Open Borders: The Science And Ethics Of Immigration by Bryan Caplan & Zach Weinersmith

Open Borders: The Science And Ethics Of Immigration by Bryan Caplan & Zach Weinersmith

(with colors by the amazing Mary Cagle)

As an open borders absolutist, I’ve been wanting a book like this to come along for years. Living in the USA, it’s almost mind-boggling that people aren’t more inclined towards immigration, given that the contiguous 48 states are one of the world’s best modern examples of the free movement of labor. Could you imagine Indiana making it illegal to hire someone simply because they’re from Ohio? Or saying they have to get a special permit if they do want to work there? It’s stupid, as are most current immigration laws (and not just in America! Other countries are just as punitive and terrible!)

Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith do a much more comprehensive job than I do here in not only addressing the current state of affairs — primarily in America tho they do touch on global issues — but also advocating for open borders on both economic and humanitarian bases. Their intended audience is American and, presumably, either mildly hostile to their argument or, like me, desirous of backup in the face of the mildly hostile or worse. And they provide A LOT of well-researched backup. They debunk some of the most egregious myths around the subject and advance persuasive cases for not only the overall benefits of immigration but also for keyhole strategies to soften any short-term negative effects, none of which I found particularly onerous to the immigrant once I realized they meant those who were non-citizens. Charging non-citizen immigrants more for the use of certain social services is akin to charging a non-members fee, and is hardly a violation of their human rights, IMO, especially when held up against their freedom of movement altogether (ofc, charging immigrant citizens more than native-born is an entirely different discriminatory kettle of fish.)

This excellently illustrated volume (clean lines, no clutter, lots of sight gags and a really luminous last few pages,) breaks down the heady philosophical arguments cleanly, making it very clear without ever saying so outright that xenophobia and racism are the primary drivers behind restrictive immigration laws. The economic arguments do get a bit convoluted, and the bit where Mr Caplan is arguing with his colleagues seems a wee bit personal, tho I suppose philosophers have been griping about each other in their texts for centuries now (it has been a long time since I’ve waded through the subject, so forgive me if I’m misremembering.) For the most part, this is a strong, easily accessible brief for an important and unfortunately all too contentious subject.

First Second Press has always been one of my favorite publishers and I’m so, so glad they decided to print this. Open Borders is smart, practical and full of heart, and fully fits with their philosophy of quality reading material for all.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/10/29/open-borders-the-science-and-ethics-of-immigration-by-bryan-caplan-zach-weinersmith/

Oct 28 2019

The Silence Of The Girls by Pat Barker

The Silence Of The Girls by Pat BarkerGosh, I still can’t get over how clunky that title is.

That said, I was disappointed with this novel. Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy is one of the all-time best examinations of the horrors of war, and her skill at writing about armed conflict and the toll it takes on the men who fight in it and the women who pick up the pieces at home is readily apparent here in this retelling of the Trojan War. Achilles is the glorious hero with mother issues; Patroclus is his sensitive best friend and sometime lover; Agamemnon is the prideful and selfish commander-in-chief, and Ajax has acute PTSD, even as he keeps fighting day by day. On the Trojan side, there are a lot of broken dads begging for the return of their children. And then I guess there are women.

Briseis is our main viewpoint character, tho we get A LOT of Achilles. And that’s the main problem here. Despite this book being ostensibly about Briseis and the overlooked Trojan women who are treated as mere belongings by their Greek captors, Achilles sucks the air out of every scene he’s in just by showing up. I get it, he’s an interesting, complex personality but if I wanted to read a book about Achilles, I’d go read one of the hundreds of titles already out there. Ms Barker’s penchant for war heroes overwhelms Briseis’ tale. She even admits as much towards the end, where Briseis says that her story can only begin now that Achilles is dead. Then why not start our story there?!

I greatly enjoyed reading about Briseis’ background and her experiences, as the one-time princess of Lyrnessus becomes a slave to Achilles and struggles to survive the final days of the Trojan War, claimed by Agamemnon (who was 100% wrong, btw. Clytemnestra was a fucking heroine) in a snit over who gets the best prizes. And yes, it’s nice to read a version of Greek legend which deals realistically with what happened to the average woman involved. But this never really felt like Briseis’ story, only like Achilles’ story told occasionally from her point of view. Which I wouldn’t be so disappointed by if The Silence Of The Girls hadn’t been described as more overtly feminist. I understand that Briseis was constrained by her situation such that agency was difficult to achieve, but to then juxtapose that with all the cool shit Achilles does is a huge disservice to the character.

I also honestly don’t feel like I learned anything new from TSotG about the time or place or events. Maybe if you’re not familiar with how awful the Ancient Greeks actually were, you should read this. Otherwise, I’d recommend Madeline Miller’s Circe (she also writes about Achilles! I haven’t gotten round to it because I don’t care about pretty, violent young men with mommy issues, but I’ve heard it’s pretty good) if you want feminist retellings of Greek legend, or Jo Walton’s The Just City for more on how the Ancient Greeks weren’t all they’re cracked up to be, or even Ms Barker’s afore-mentioned Regeneration trilogy for compelling, realistic depictions of war. TSotG, on the other hand, is probably something you can skip.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/10/28/the-silence-of-the-girls-by-pat-barker/

Oct 26 2019

The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series takes place mostly in an England that’s a republic a Wales that’s a socialist republic; of Scotland there is practically no mention, though I cannot say whether that is a comment or happenstance. The Crimean War was still being fought in 1985, and there are various other bits of history that have been jumbled around. Far more important, though, is the difference in the role of culture. Croquet is a major competitive sport, and books are taken very seriously indeed. Riots have been known to break out over differing interpretations, librarians are top-ranking civil servants, and some groups aim for political power by changing the canonically accepted versions of certain texts.

The Woman Who Died a Lot

Thursday begins the series as a literary detective, and over the course of several books she levels up, revealing an ability to read herself into books, so that she is interacting with the characters and possibly changing the original text. She discovers more and more about the BookWorld, including its own special guardians, called Jurisfiction. In the outside world, there are more and more interactions with the ChronoGuard, a time travelling police force where her father is a long-serving agent. The books are wildly inventive, and often hilarious.

The Woman Who Died a Lot begins with Thursday unable to enter the BookWorld and the ChronoGuard disbanded. Structurally, this was a good move on Fforde’s part: toning back Thursday’s abilities so that she could not just pull out a trick from a previous book and solve the problems. What problems? Well, a week from the novel’s opening a cleansing pillar of divine fire is due to destroy a major part of Swindon, Thursday’s adopted home town, and messages from the future indicate that mere hours after the cleansing fire her son Friday will cold-bloodedly murder a local teenager.

As the story proceeds, it also becomes clear that the characters are contending with a villain returning from previous volumes, Aornis Hades. She is capable of manipulating people’s memories so subtly that they have no notion that they have interacted with her at all. The first few times that the characters’ lives are retroactively changed are some of the best passages in the book. Fforde does not signpost the changes at all — the characters have no idea — but attentive readers will note differences and pick up that something is going on. Moments like that are Thursday Next at the series’ best, inventive strangeness that feels perfectly natural within the setting. It’s not that strong all the way through — the contortions teeter a bit between wonderfully surprising and trying too hard, plus I never thought that any of the major characters were in serious danger — but it is an enjoyable jaunt, a good continuation of the tales of Thursday Next.

The Woman Who Died a Lot is the seventh Thursday Next novel and seriously not a good place to start. Begin at the beginning, with The Eyre Affair

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/10/26/the-woman-who-died-a-lot-by-jasper-fforde/

Oct 23 2019

Edge of Empires by Donald Rayfield

Edge of Empires is a one-volume history of Georgia from the earliest discernible traces through June 2018, a remarkable feat of synthesis and scholarship. In fact, the main text runs just four hundred pages, so in some sense Rayfield positively gallops through four millennia of events in the Transcaucasus and eastern Anatolia. He’s very up front about the kind of history he is writing: primarily a tale of who ruled what bits of land when, and who contested that rule.

Edge of Empires

Here’s Rayfield on his geographic scope:

“… [Georgia] as a country in its modern (de jure) boundaries; secondly geographically, as the region of Transcaucasia between the Black Sea to the junction of the Iori and Mtkvari (or Kura) rivers, and between the high Caucasus to the little Caucasus around the lower reaches of the Çoruh and the upper reaches of the Mtkvari (or Kura) rivers; finally, historically, with boundaries which at periods reached far into today’s Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia.” (p. 7)

And here he is on the people who form the subject of this study:

“To Georgians, a Georgian has always been both someone whose native language is Georgian, as well as any native of Georgia, regardless of ethnicity. The Georgian language belongs to the Kartvelian group of languages (a group never proven to be cognate with any other language group): to this group also belongs Mingrelian (Georgian megruli) and Laz. … Both Mingrelian and Laz are as close to Georgian as, say, Portuguese is to Spanish, so that there is a degree of mutual intelligibility. Two thousand years ago, the differences may have been merely dialectical. The fourth member of the Kartvelian group is Svan, now spoken by 50,000 people in the high mountains of the central Caucasus. Svan is an archaic member of the Kartvelian group, further from Georgian than, say, Romanian from French. Most Mingrelians and Svans are (and have long been) bilingual in Georgian.” (p. 7)

I’m very glad Edge of Empires exists. The next most recent one-volume, general history of Georgia that I know of is The Making of the Georgian Nation by Ronald Grigor Suny and first published in 1988, with a revised edition appearing in 1994 that added a chapter about the end of the USSR. Quite a bit has happened in the intervening quarter century, both in Georgia and in Georgian history. When Suny’s second edition appeared, Georgia hadn’t finished its 1990s slide toward anarchy, nor had it yet suffered the Russian invasion of 2008. In Georgian history, study of the Soviet period has been greatly assisted by the rescue of both Communist Party and secret police archives by people I know who carried them out of a building that was due to be developed as a hotel. The documents were moved to a location where electromechanical telephone exchanges had only recently been replaced by electronics, a huge empty space with the reinforced floors necessary to support vast amounts of paper. It all worked because a historian had a day job with the phone company. True story. To my knowledge, they are the most openly accessible archives of any former Soviet republic Communist Party and secret police; I have held the first volume of Cheka reports from newly Bolshevized Georgia. Rayfield has been able to incorporate new scholarship, new sources, and new perspectives in his work of synthesis.

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