Collected Miscellany

Michael Jecks’ ninth book in his medieval murder series, The Traitor of St. Giles, is the best yet. The first few books in the series were a little long on detail and short on plot, but that has been remedied in the last few books in the series.

Here is a brief summary of the plot from the book’s website:

It is 1321 and the King’s favourite, Hugh Despenser, is corruptly using his position to steal lands and wealth from other lords. His rapacity has divided the nation and civil war looms.

In Tiverton rape and murder have unsettled the folk preparing for St Giles’ feast. Philip Dyne has confessed and claimed sanctuary in St Peter’s church, but he must leave the country. If he doesn’t, he’ll be declared an outlaw, his life forfeit.

Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, and his friend, Bailiff Simon Puttock, arrive at Lord Hugh de Courtenay’s castle at Tiverton for the feast. When a messenger arrives calling for the Coroner, Baldwin and Simon accompany him to view the body of Sir Gilbert of Carlisle, Despenser’s ambassador to Lord Hugh. Not far off lies a second corpse: the decapitated figure of Dyne. The Coroner is satisfied that Dyne killed the knight and was then murdered: Dyne was an outlaw, so he doesn’t merit the law’s attention, but Sir Baldwin feels too many questions are left unanswered. How could a weak, unarmed peasant kill a trained warrior? And if he did, what happened to Sir Gilbert’s horse – and his money?

When Baldwin and Simon are themselves viciously attacked, they know that there must be another explanation. A more sinister enemy is at large, someone with a powerful motive to kill. But there are so many suspects …

Although the plot has many twists and turns and Jecks tries to keep you guessing about who the murderer is, I think it was a little easy to figure out the murderer by the middle of the book. Despite this, Jecks has increasingly written more interesting books with better plot lines and better character development – this shows when you compare the first book (The Last Templar) with this one.

Jecks balances the right amount of background information with the plot. He gives just enough background information to interest you, but not too much to bore you. In the earlier books, I think the plot got lost amongst the details of the time period. Don’t get me wrong, I think historical accuracy is good, but I think that can overpower the plot of the book if there is too much of it.

I think you will enjoy The Traitor of St. Giles.

Readers will recall that I am attempting to read the first six books in the Harry Potter series before book seven comes out on the 21st. I had thought I was making decent progress until I ran into this little fact:

–> First three books: 1085 pages. Last three books: 2282 pages. Book five is nearly 900 pages!

For those of you counting at home, that mean I have to read nearly 2300 pages in six days (Sunday through Friday, I finished book three Saturday night). It adds up to 380 pages a day. I might not have time to actually post given that I will be reading every waking moment!

Be sure to check back to see just how much in I can read in a week.

I have decided to re-read the first six books in the Harry Potter series prior to reading the seventh, and final, installment when it comes out on July 21.

I have been in a bit of a funk when it comes to fiction lately and figured this would be an interesting way to get out of that and make my reading of book 7 all that more interesting. I will post a review/discussion of each book as I finish them leading up to the big number seven.

So if you are a Potter fan stick around for some discussion leading up to the big day. If you are not a fan, sorry but it is a pop culture phenomenon so you might as well get used to it.

The National Book Association Of America was kind enough to send this to me, so I thought I would share in case you hadn’t seen it.

When the first book in this series, The Traveler, was released much of the discussion centered around marketing and the author’s “off the grid” status. And the marketing and hype worked to a degree. The book got a lot of press and made it into the New York Times bestseller list, but it never achieved the “breakaway hit status” the publishers had hoped for.

It seems the publishers decided to take a slightly different approach for the second book in this planed trilogy The Dark River. As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been as big a marketing splash this time around. Although they have once again set up an interactive web site. Of course, marketing for the first book in a series is bound to be different than that of the second.

Enough about marketing, what about the book itself? Well, I think the second book is better than the first. The characters are a little more developed and the plot is more involved. It does, however, have the problem that all middle trilogy books seem to have in that the story line seems to build only to leave the reader hanging for the final book.

For more details, and possible spoilers, see below.

Continue reading →

I have some reviews to write, but here are some links that might be of interest:

– Open Letters Monthly’s July issue is avilable. It has lots of good stuff including:
* A huge, feeling analysis of Vincent Bugliosi’s huge book on the Kennedy
assassination.

* A busy round-up of the reviews of Ian McEwan’s ‘On Chesil Beach’.

* A review of the Pope’s intriguingly conciliatory book ‘Jesus of Nazareth’.

– The storySouth 2007 Million Writers Award for Fiction has been announced:

The winner of the 2007 Million Writers Award for best online short story is “Urchins, While Swimming” by Catherynne M. Valente, published in Clarkesword Magazine. Valente’s story received 31% of the public vote. The runner-ups were “All the Way to Grangeville” by A. Ray Norsworthy (Eclectica Magazine) and “The Infinite Monkey Theorem” by Marshall Moore (Word Riot).

Click the bove link to read the stories.

– Boldtype also has a new issue out:

The best cure for wanderlust, short of a plane ticket, is reading about a remarkable trip. This month, we bring you a bevy of books chronicling extraordinary journeys. An intrepid travel writer reports from the torrid zone, while a ghostwriter becomes entangled in intrigue in Budapest. Vikram Seth sneaks into Tibet from China, a child soldier winds his way through West Africa, and a collection of Indiana Jones-wannabes get themselves in trouble in sweltering climes. Vic Darkwood offers a wicked satire of Englishmen abroad; and a Magnum photographer teams up with Orhan Pamuk to sketch a complex portrait of Istanbul. We close with an interview with “Dishwasher” Pete Jordan, who spent ten years trying to wash dishes in all 50 states. The only danger you’ll face, of course, is that these tales are as likely to spark your desire to travel as assuage it.