2021 Book Retrospective
At some point, I intend to begin properly reviewing books here on my website. That time however, has not yet come. The issue lies in the fact that, by the time I free up my schedule enough to write a review, a significant duration has passed since finishing the book I intended to review, and thus the novel is no longer fresh enough in my mind to pen a full, in-depth critique. So instead, I’ve come up with the bright idea to do a few retrospectives throughout the year on the books I’ve read so far, with the hope that if I keep up the habit, I might eventually become organised enough to plug out a few full reviews by the year’s end (baby steps!)
My intention is to cover everything I’ve consumed book-wise, fiction, non-fiction, and audiobooks alike, but with every project I undertake, everything always seems to grow arms and legs, eventually ending up taking about twice as long to complete as I had originally hoped, last year’s Conflux being a prime example! So, for the time being at least, this first entry into my literary retrospective will simply consist of the novels I’ve read so far in 2021. And so, without further ado, here are my overall thoughts and lasting impressions of the books I’ve chosen to dedicate my time to this year so far…
First up was On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. If that title sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the name of the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film which came out back in 2011. For those who still need their memory jogged, that was the one with no Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightley. The similarity in title comes from the fact that the film is based loosely on the book; I use the term loosely loosely, by which I mean: both feature Blackbeard, and a protagonist with the first name Jack… the similarities end there. As I understand it, from a half-remembered Wikipedia page I read once I’d finished the book, the original intention had been to follow the plot of the film more closely, but you know… Hollywood!
This is my third Tim Powers novel to date, the other two being The Anubis Gates and Expiration Date, and much like the other two, its one of those books that all comes together at the end quite cleverly. Anyway, I’m digging deep into my memory, as far back as January, so the details by now are a little bit cloudy, so forgive me if I make any mistakes in my summary. Jack Chandagnac (later nicknames Shandy because no one can pronounce his name!) is heading to the Americas to claim his father’s inheritance which was stolen by his uncle. On the voyage across the Atlantic, he meets a young woman names Elizabeth who he seems kind of smitten with. Pirates show up, capturing the ship with some kind of voodoo, and Jack is forced to join their crew. The Navy then rocks up, arrests the pirate crew, and through a twist of circumstances, Shandy saves the pirates and later becomes their new captain. Shandy meets up with Blackbeard and a bunch of other pirate dudes, and they head to the Fountain of Youth, which as it turns out is located in Florida of all places. Elizabeth tags along for the journey because her father wants to resurrect his dead wife into his daughter’s body, and Blackbeard becomes immortal. The book gets a little trippy at this point and I read this section over a few nights whilst my eyes were lulling shut from exhaustion, so my memory is hazy.
Jack, Blackbeard, Elizabeth and the others escape the Fountain of Youth. Elizabeth gets kidnapped, Jack goes after her, rescues her, fights Blackbeard, some clever reveals happen along the way, and there’s a happy ending where Jack and Elizabeth more or less sail off into the sunset. Like the other Tim Powers books I’ve read, there is nothing conventional about the laws of magic in On Stranger Tides; Vodun in this has its own unique system that you gradually get a feel for over the course of the book. I managed to figure out a few of the twists ahead of time, most likely because I’m getting to know Tim Powers’ style by now, but I was convinced at one point that it was going to be all tied up in a certain way, only for my expectations to be subverted.
In summary: great book, definitely recommended if you fancy a golden age of piracy themed fantasy novel. I felt there was a lull throughout the middle of the book, so I wouldn’t exactly say I couldn’t put it down, but like I said earlier, it is one of those books that the ending is so good that it makes the whole journey up to that point better by default.
Second on the list: Youth by Isaac Asimov. This is really a novelette rather than a novel. For those of you not familiar with the breakdown (which was me until I googled it about thirty seconds ago!) it goes: Short Story, Novelette, Novella, Novel, in ascending length. I think I read Youth in single sitting. It was a fairly simple story about a pair of boys finding two aliens, who, thinking that they are merely animals that they want to keep as pets, attempt to hide their discovery from their parents. Once again, it is made clever by the final reveal, this time notably delivered in the last line, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t figured out the twist way beforehand. It reminded me of a creative writing project one of my classmates wrote back when I was in prep school; I don’t know if he was inspired by Youth or if the similarities were merely coincidental, but the final twist was the same. Without giving too much away, Asimov is careful with his use of language in how he describes, names, and references certain things throughout the book (ironically, this is what gave the game away to me,) never revealing the true nature of what is going on until the last line. I did something similar whilst writing Flight Through Infinity, but instead of it culminating in some kind of big reveal, I instead left it open to speculation.
It’s a short read (it’s a novelette, so you’d expect it to be!) I think it took about an hour or so for me, and it was going for £0.49 on kindle when I bought it. I enjoyed it, and for that time commitment and that price, I think just about everyone should give it a look!
Inferno Squad. About once a year I get really nostalgic for Star Wars. I usually watch a few of the films to scratch that itch, but luckily, this year it coincided with the release of The Mandalorian season 2. However, eight episodes later, I hadn’t quite satisfied my hunger for a galaxy far far away. I turned instead to another great medium for Star Wars… videogames! (I bet you thought I was going to say books there.) I ploughed through Jedi Fallen Order (which was a brilliant game marred by a dumb difficulty curve for the final boss battle, but that is an article for another day!) and then realised I had never actually played the campaign for Star Wars Battlefront II (the PS4 one, not the OG PS2 game.) At about this time, I decided my next novel would be a Star Wars one. I’ve never read anything in the expanded universe and didn’t really know where to begin, so I figured starting with the new canon would make sense, and lo and behold! it turned out there was a tie in novel to Battlefront II’s campaign. Now, with the longwinded explanation as to why I decided to read this book out the way, on to the book itself.
In summary, its… meh. I didn’t not enjoy it—it starts out strong, but the main plot is just a bit… dull, I guess. It’s a prequel to the videogame campaign, which though possessing a few strong moments, I also was not overly impressed with. The issue I felt comes with the fact that the plot of the novel very much wants to do what the game’s story does; it wants the main character to realise that the Empire is evil and to switch sides and join the Rebels. Only, because the game does that, the book is not allowed. The protagonist, Iden Versio goes through a character development that doesn’t really make any sense when you see where she is at the start of the video game. She is transformed from hard-line Empire loyalist to Rebel sympathiser, only to be a hard-line Empire loyalist again as soon as the game kicks off. So… either she doesn’t undergo the development she’s made out to, or she just forgets about it a few years later? Either way, it doesn’t really matter. The book’s opening act is an interesting set up, there is strong action, but when it comes to the main plot, it doesn’t really hold up. If you are a hardcore Star Wars fan who has watched every episode of the Clone Wars, then you will probably read this regardless; if not, maybe give this one a miss.
Last one for this week, (otherwise this post is going to get ridiculously long) is Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle Earth. I regret reading this. I love The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit like just about any fan of fantasy. A few years ago, I made the mistake of reading The Silmarillion. Figuring that I was just a straight up Tolkien fan, I assumed I would also love The Silmarillion. I was wrong. I’d liken reading the Silmarillion to reading the Bible cover to cover; even if you are a born-again Christian, it’s probably going to be a boring affair. Sure, there is some great stuff in there, but maybe instead just choose to read a few highlights instead of slogging through the whole text. Unfinished Tales is much the same; there are some great moments in it, but you have to wade through a lot of quite dull material to find the good parts. Also, these stories are literally, as the title suggests, unfinished! I don’t really know what I was expecting beforehand, but several of them literally stop abruptly before they get to the ending! Others are just missing sections which Christopher Tolkien has done his best to fill in the blanks from his father’s notes.
What became abundantly clear to me through reading this is that Christopher Tolkien really is the world’s biggest Tolkien Scholar and his father’s number one fan, and Tolkien Scholar is probably exactly what you have to be in order to get your full enjoyment out of this book. I read it because I was hungry for some more Middle Earth and I didn’t want to reread TLOR or the Hobbit, but ultimately, I was left wanting. Probably give this a miss.
I think this brings us up to about March as far as my fiction reads are concerned, so expect a part 2 in the coming weeks.