(Drivebycuriosity) - 2020 was a remarkable year. The Covid-19 Pandemic trapped my wife and me mostly at home, a tiny flat in southern Manhattan. No travels, rock concerts, museums and art galleries - and just short hikes to stay healthy. The imposed stay-at-home gave me a lot of time to read, at least one advantage.
Fortunately I enjoyed some interesting books - covering history, exotic & alternate futures, mysteries, economics & more - which I want to share with you (without spoilers). Below are my favorites from 2020:
"Tyll: A Novel" by Daniel Kehlmann is in set in this dystopian past. The 17th century was a dark period, especially in Germany, which was just a patchwork of independent kingdoms, duchies, electorates & free cities, loosely connected as The Holy Roman Empire. The devastating "Thirty Years War", which lasted from 1618 through 1648, reduced German population by about 20%. Armies marched through the country - murdering, burning, looting & raping everything what was on their ways. The plot leads into a dark history reigned by sheer horror and circles around fictional entertainer and court jester who traveled through the war stricken country. Some chapters are grizzly & dramatic, others funny and hilarious or resemble elegant stage plays, there are intellectual mind games, horror scenarios & philosophical discussions ( amazon).
"The Glass Kingdom" by Lawrence Osborne is set in a very sinister but fascinating Bangkok. Sarah, a young American, a drifter, came to some money. She moves from New York to Bangkok where she rents a flat in a huge apartment complex, called the "Kingdom", to “make herself invisible for a while”. Soon Sarah, who is naive and trustworthy, meets some neighbors and trouble is around the corner. The tension is slowly smoldering, getting stronger from page to page, reminding me of Patricia Highsmith´s psychological thrillers & Joseph Conrad´s exotic adventure stories. I also indulged into descriptions of a tropical metropolis, of the lush vegetation and the monsoon climate (amazon ).
"The Ballad of a Small Player"is another novel by Osborne, this time written in first person. The narrator, an aging Englishman who calls himself "Lord Doyle", came to a lot of money and went to Macau to spend his fresh fortune for gambling in the casino palaces. Like in "Glass Kingdom" the leading character is a drifter without an aim and certainly not shy of risks which leads to a chain of events. I do not like the leading character - not many will - because he is a pathetic gambler & drinker and behaves parasitic, masochistic and totally immorally. But his tale - as ridiculous & surreal as it seems - fascinated me anyway and kept me on the edge. And I indulged into Osborne`s descriptions of the splendid casinos, hotels & restaurants, the atmosphere there and the often weirdly acting Chinese & Western players. And there are sentences like "The rooms seemed underwater, the smoke static like fish milk suspended in water that isn`t floating". ( amazon)
"Only to Sleep" is a Philip Marlow novel by Osborne in tribute to Chandler. The novel is - of course - told in first person by Philip himself. He had aged a bit; now he is 71 and lives in Mexico & Southern California. Marlow gets hired - reactivated - by a Californian insurance company to investigate the death of an American client who´s widow had cashed a huge amount of money. The investigation drives Marlow to several places in Mexico. After reading about 60% I discovered the voice of Chandler served with Osborne´s unique style (amazon ).
"Snow" by John Banville is set in the Republic of Ireland in the 1950s - under the ban of a severe winter. A Catholic priest, who was guest in a remote country house, has been murdered and castrated. Detective Inspector Strafford arrives there from Dublin and starts his investigation. Even though the ending wasn`t really surprising (regarding the reputation of Catholic priests ) I love this book. As the title suggests, very winterly conditions play an important role and the reader gets immersed into an arctic setting - streets like glass, forests & houses covered with ice - which give the book a kind of fairy tale touch. Detective Strafford is smart, analytical & likable and I enjoyed his slow & methodical investigation. I had fun with the depictions of the other characters who are often weird & dubious. Banville certainly dislikes priests and the Irish Catholic Church. He showed again his talent for describing places & scenes and he constructed entertaining innuendos and kinky sex scenes. The Irish writers also touches Ireland`s troubled history and fragile political situation in the 1950. ( amazon)
Coincidence or not, I read two more novels also set in an arctic environment:
"Siberian Dilemma"
by Martin Cruz Smith follows Moscow`s criminal investigator Arkadi Renko, a
fictional character in a series of popular crime novels. The story is set in contemporary Russia. Putin & his comrades
had replaced the Communist leaders, but the criminal investigator is
still struggling with political dangers and an opaque system. The investigator is a very likable character, smart, but also
stubborn and follows his cases against all political and other risks.
Arkadi travels to Irkutsk, known as the "Paris of Siberia", to find his
girlfriend Tanja, an ambitious journalist who is investigating the lives
of 2 Russian oligarchs and oil billionaires. "Siberian
Dilemma" is partly a detective story, but also a glance into the
shallows of contemporary Russian economy & politics, served with a
grim sense of humor & psychology. The plot has long slow moving
parts, spiced with musings about modern Russia, but there are also some
really scary encounters and dramatic events - perfectly developed page
turners. I indulged into Smith`s intense narrations of the loneliness
& beauty of the winterly taiga and could almost feel the Siberian
chill. ( amazon)
"Little Siberia" by Antti Tuomainen (a finish author) is
set in a tiny Finish town close the Russian border in the middle of a
severe winter. The story is told in first person. The
narrator is a priest, but a very untypical cleric, almost agnostic,
with military combat & martial arts experiences. A meteor
hits, a tiny piece of metal, worth about a million euro. Many people
need this money and try to get the meteor which starts a chain of
incidents. The novel is full of surprises
& violent actions, served with dark humor. I enjoyed
Tuomainen`s style, the weird characters and his depiction of the deeply
frozen town & environment. ( amazon )
"Real Life" by Adeline Dieudonné tells the story of a girl who has to grow up with a brutal father: "A big game hunter, a powerful predator, and a mother, who is submissive to her husband´s violent demands" . The debut novel by the Belgian author is told in first person by a girl who is about 10 years old in the begin of the novel. The narrator reports how her life is changing over about 5 years. There is a grizzly accident which chances her and her brother`s lives ; she has encounters with neighbors and she is threaten by her red neck father, who is getting more and more violent and abusive. It turns out that this girl is highly intelligent and determined and has the gift for analytical observations. She painstakingly describes her puberty, how she cares for her younger brother and reveals her thoughts and feelings, her fears and sexual desires. "Real Life" is a glance into a dark & bizarre world and reminds my of Brothers Grimm`s sinister tales, just without witches & sorcerers. It is a horror story, spiced with violence and cruelty, but also an observation about of life, growing up and life. ( amazon)
"Death Of A Red Heroine" by Qiu Xiaolong, an exile Chinese living in the US. The plot is set in Shanghai in 1990 and follows fictional Chief Inspector Chen Cao and his assistant Yu who investigate the death of a young woman. The investigators have to deal with China`s political situation. They - and the other characters - are still shaped by China`s history and by the terror and chaos which had ruled the country in the years after the communist revolution in 1949. Some are still trying to recover. In the 1990s the political climate has mellowed but people have still to follow the rules of "The Party" and every action has to be political correct, a situation some "progressives" want to implement in the US. Chen acts like a chess player who does not only consider the results of his movements but also the movements of his opponents. I learned a lot about China and was highly entertained ( amazon )
"The Executioner Weeps" Frédéric Dard . A man meets a woman - in an unorthodox way. A story told millions of times. The plot, told in first person by an French artist and painter, is set in sunny Spain, but it gets darker and darker, giving the reader a Hitchcock feeling. I enjoyed the psychological & analytical musings, the humorous descriptions of the landscape around Barcelona, the architecture and the locals. ( amazon)
"Eilleen" by Ottessa Moshfegh. The name giving Eilleen shares her thoughts & impressions with the reader. Her reflections are sometimes amusing, but also kinky, dark and gross. Eillen looks back on her life and reports about her youth in the 1960s when she was "strange, young and mousy". Then the narrator was single, lived in Boston with her father, whom she loathed, and she worked as a secretary in a prison for young males because "no bank would have hired her". Being unhappy with her life she thought about radical changes which brought her into a challenging situation. The novel touches topics like morbid obsessions, latent & open homosexuality, pedophilia, dysfunctional families and more. ( amazon).
"The Bishop´s Bedroom" by Piero Chiara. An Italian in his thirties has a little sailboat and likes to travel all over the Lago Maggiore, a lake shared by Italy & Switzerland on the southern edge the Alps (Alpen). He becomes friend with Orimbelli who invites him into his mansion on the lake`s shore and later joins his travels. They share a lot fun, but then things are changing. I indulged into the descriptions of the various travels on Lago Maggiore and the frequent visits of the restaurants around the lake. They woke my appetite to stay there sometimes and to dine in the frequently mentioned places. The plot, set in the year 1946, a year after WWII, is humorous, sometimes hilarious and spiced with psychology. I liked the style which seems conservative today but has a lot of charm. ( amazon)
I have been reading science fiction since I was a boy. The genre inspires my thinking. Everybody should read scifi:
"And Shall Machines Surrender" by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. The young author from South Thailand tells a very special version of a distant future - with strong Asian & female aspects. The plot is set on an exotic & luxurious world called Shenzen Sphere, an artificial planet which circles around a red star. Shenzen is a future Byzantium with complex rules, a fascinating and a kind of baroque world. Shenzen Sphere is created and controlled by AIs. Some citizens, members of a chosen elite, incur a symbiotic relationship with an AI, which turns them almost into half-gods, but there are problems. The merge of humans & AIs into highly complex powerful & dangerous persons is a fascinating idea. I indulged into Sriduangkaew´s utopia, or is it a dystopia and her wonderful descriptions of
images, sceneries & food. And I love the names of her characters,
like "Nataku Contemplates a Flight of Sparrows" or "Benzaiten in Autumn"
(referring to a Japanese goddess). Who else gets such ideas? "And Sriduangkaew`s universe is dominated by interesting & strong women. I would like to visit this place. (amazon )
Besides novels I browsed a lot collection of scifi short stories.
"The Year`s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories No. 4" edited by Allan Kaster offers many stories which are optimistic and deliver a "we can do it" message. They are pro science, pro technology and pro progress.
The anthology has 2 gems at least: "At the Fall" by Alec Nevala-Lee. The story follows Eunice, a smart aquatic creature equipped with an artificial intelligence. Eunice was developed by scientists who want to protect the fauna on the ground of the ocean ground which might be endangered by mining rare metals. "At the Fall" blends lots of chemistry and ocean biology with a gripping story (this is a spoiler free blog).
"This is Not the Way Home" by Greg Egan. Aisha had won a trip to the moon where she is supposed to stay a week, but complications arrive. The Australian author wrote a thriller based on physics & mechanics with a lot information about possible live on moon. (amazon )
I also enjoyed the anthology:"Alien Dimensions Science Fiction Short Stories #18" which contains 9 short stories by different authors. My favorite take is "Gene - Reality" by Neil A. Hogan. A very smart scientist is tinkering with superstrings, the basic elements of our universe (as far as we know), also called the "genes of the universe". Guess what will happen? The very short story (just 4 pages) is a real masterpiece and Isaac Asimov would have been proud of it.
I also like "Titan´s Spores" by Olga Werby. Three people are flying to Jupiter moon Titan to start terraforming the trabant. They have colonies of genetic engineered fungi on board which should change the moon`s atmosphere, but ........ .The collection has another strong horror story: "The Pride of Tau Ceti" by Gustavo Bondoni. A spaceship has suddenly stopped on an interstellar flight! Weird things are happening now, leading to sheer horror. (amazon )
The collection "Spring into SciFi" 2019 edition contains 13 short stories by different authors. There are 4 gems at least:
"Pause" by Sam Fletcher. A family has a device which can pause time, but it can be used once in lifetime. The user can move freely around over 24 hours her personal time, while everything else is frozen. There are almost infinite ways to use this device and sometimes it can be extremely valuable. Do the protagonists waste this chance? A thrilling little fairy tale about a fascinating philosophical topic.
"Agents of Evolution" by Elizabeth Hosang. An intelligent software program, which works as an autonomous search agent on the Internet, got the order to find another intelligent program, a military logistics agent, which got lost on the World Wide Web. The story is told in first person by the AI, who painstakingly explains all the barriers it had to cross. A fascinating glance into how an AI might think and shows what hard science fiction can deliver these days.
"The Candle In the Window" by Andrew Sweetapple. The plot begins as a kind of old fashioned adventure story but turns suddenly in something very futuristic. Amazing! (amazon )
The collection "Sleeps with Angels" with stories by Dave
Hutchinson is full of funny ideas, a kind of weird future-punk. My
favorite is the story "The Incredible Exploding Man". The author bends
quantum physics & the "Many Worlds Theory" into a hilarious plot.
Even Philip K. Dick would have been proud of such a story. (amazon )
Sometimes I got tired by fiction and I need something a bit more real. Below my favorite nonfiction of 2020:
"Venice - Pure City" by Peter Ackroyd describes how the Mediterranean place evolved over the times. The book is written like a biography, a pleasure to read and highly informative. Ackroyd informs the reader in an entertaining way about Venice´s economy, architecture, art, cuisine, fashion, social life, her struggle with enemies & competitors, and much more. I learned that Venice was once a partner of Byzantium, the second capital of the Roman empire, but it became a rival and eventually overtook the regional leadership as Byzantium`s power declined. Venice benefited from a strong fleet of merchandise ships and a navy which bullied competitors like Genoa out of the lucrative trade routs. Therefore Venice could control there extremely profitable trade with spice to the rest of Europe with an enormous surcharge, which turned the city into an incredibly rich metropolis. (amazon )
The biography "Elizabeth I" by Anne Somerset explains why this queen become so famous. During her reign the queen was immense popular and she returned the love of her subjects. Maybe her popularity was based on a pleasant personality. She enjoyed the "bath in the crowd", she liked to tease and to flirt and she indulged into elegant word plays, dancing, fashion & music and she promoted theater (including William Shakespeare).
Elizabeth wasn`t a great politician. She often was irresolute & driven by emotions and seemed to be obsessed with some of her favorites who got away with almost anything, including the Earl of Essex, who later in his career led a rebellion against her (for which he got eventually executed). The Queen frustrated her secretaries, advisers & councillors like William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and Walsingham, by ignoring their advises or procrastinating her decisions sheer endlessly and often she changed her mind and canceled decisions. It seemed that she felt more enmity towards her councillors than she did against her arch enemy Philip of Spain. Elizabeth´s indecision was partly caused by her frugality. She aimed to avoid high expenses - for example for military actions - which would have caused higher taxes (which in turn might have supported her popularity).
It is an open question of Elizabeth was either a lover of peace & harmony or weak & incompetent. She possessed certainly intelligence, charm and willpower and she had a lot luck by having a long life, strong health, support of competent people and being able to avoid to be assassinated or executed. (amazon )
Robert C. Allen, the author of "Global Economic History - A Very Short Introduction", tries to explain why the world is divided into rich & pour countries. I find Allen`s explanations interesting and I am impressed how many facts he collected, processed and displayed. The little book is spiced with a lot of valuable tables & charts about standards of living, national incomes (GDPs) and other economic data of the past. If you want to know how much a Florentine worker earned in the 17th century or how workers in London thrived in the 18th century, this is the book for it. I was impressed how dynamical the living standards in the Western World spiked in the recent 3 centuries - a real explosion.The book is part of the impressive "A Very Short Introduction" library by Oxford University Press oxford ) ( amazon).
Enjoy!
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