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Book review: Citizen of the Galaxy

15 November 2024
Edoardo
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Categories: Book review
Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein

Robert Heinlein was the Jekyll and Hyde of SF writers. Dr Jekyll wrote tightly plotted stories that whisked the reader into a future that was assumed as part of the story’s structure so that it did not require any long explanations as to how the young hero might be able to ride a rocket to the asteroid belt. And it always was a young hero, for these stories were aimed at teenagers – they’re now called Heinlein’s juveniles. There’s not a wasted word in them.

Mr Heinlein’s Hyde wrote interminable novels with only vaguely discernible plots whose main points appeared to be to advocate for guilt-free sex for everyone and, in particular, for men with their mothers (yucky but true), where no woman appeared whose nipples did not go ‘sproing!’ within a few moments of meeting our narrative hero. I was a teenage boy when I read these stories and the female form was a matter of intense interest and complete mystery to me at the time but I still thought this was icky. These stories were supposedly for adults and they are almost all dreadful.

I grew up with Heinlein’s juveniles and loved them. I moved on to his adult books and, having read the few decent ones early (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers) manfully ploughed through the nipple-springing dross (Time Enough For Love, I Will Fear No Evil) before finally giving up on The Number of the Beast.

I thought I had read all Heinlein’s juveniles so it was with delight that I discovered one that I had missed: Citizen of the Galaxy. I settled down to it, expecting to return to the effortless storytelling that had transplanted me into the future when I was young… only to be bored. Reader, I am truly sorry to say this story does something unique for Heinlein. It is tedious. It is humdrum. It drags on until you start looking to see how many pages before it ends. Looking at when it was written, 1957, it stands just on the cusp of when Heinlein stood on the brink of becoming a preacher rather than a writer. While it doesn’t have the worst excesses of his later works, there are signs. Read his earlier works instead.

Book from the Past

15 November 2024
Edoardo
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Categories: Things You Never Knew

If you were young in the late 1970s, early ’80s, you might remember this book. I certainly do. It had a huge impact on me when I read it, changing me from a strident teenage materialistic atheist into… well, something else entirely.

Today, I discovered my old copy, tucked away on a bookshelf in my parents’ house. It’s the 1978 reprint so I must have read it when I was 15. And I still think it has the best book tagline ever.

I think I will read it again.

Oswiu and Penda: the Showdown

10 November 2024
Edoardo
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Categories: History
Photo by By David Rowan, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

The payments and hostages bought Oswiu time but it’s clear that he knew they were all only stopgaps: this was Danegeld before the Danes had turned up but already it was clear that the payment was never enough: Penda would always come back for more. He was farming the neighbouring kingdoms, harvesting their riches at regular intervals.

With such store of treasure, and with the deserved reputation as the greatest warrior of his time, Penda had no difficult attracting warriors, and petty kings, to his cause. In 655, Penda decided that Oswiu was ripe for another shearing. This time, he gathered not only his own warband but the warband of the allied kingdoms: they would all feast on the Northumbrians. For the time, it must have been a vast army; Bede records that it was composed of 30 warbands, including those of the kings of Gwynedd, East Anglia and Deira (an unkind cut, that last, for Oswiu, as the man leading the Deirans was Œthelwold, his nephew, Oswald’s son).

In the face of such an army, Oswiu did as he’d done before: he dissembled and withdrew. Rather than offering battle, he offered money, aiming to buy off Penda and his allies.

A King Can’t Run

10 November 2024
Edoardo
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Categories: History

Sigeberht ruled East Anglia from 629 to 634. But in 634, Sigeberht abdicated in favour of his co-ruler Ecgric and entered a monastery. This was remarkable in itself: Sigeberht was the first Anglo-Saxon king to abandon power for the religious life. It’s an indication of how deeply the new religion had penetrated the warrior class even during the first generation of converts. Sigeberht was completely sincere in his renunciation of the life of the warrior, although it seems that not all his people were convinced. For at some point after he entered the monastery, King Penda came calling with his Mercian army. King Ecgric fell back before the advancing Mercians but Penda pursued them. Remembering Sigeberht’s pre-abdication abilities as a warrior and battle leader, Ecgric sent messengers to the once king, asking him to leave the monastery and join him in defending the realm. But Sigeberht refused, reiterating the final nature of his renunciation of the world; he would bear arms no longer.

With the situation desperate, Ecgric refused to accept Sigeberht’s answer and had him dragged from his monastery. But even when forced from the monastic life, Sigeberht refused to resume the life of war. He was a monk now and would no longer bear arms nor trade in lives. Ecgric tried to delay, withdrawing into the marshes, but his army was tracked down by Penda’s scouts. The East Anglians had no choice but to give battle.

 Even at the end, Sigeberht clove to his vows and refused to take up weapons, wielding only a staff in his own defence.

 To no avail. The Mercians cut down the East Anglians, killing Ecgric and Sigeberht, and significantly reducing East Anglian power.

However, it turned out that reduction was not sufficient for Penda for when their successor, King Anna, looked on course to restore East Anglian power Penda invaded again, killing another king.











Sigeberht,
who ruled East Anglia from 629 to 634. But in 634, Sigeberht abdicated in
favour of his co-ruler Ecgric and entered a monastery. This was remarkable in
itself: Sigeberht was the first Anglo-Saxon king to abandon power for the
religious life. It’s an indication of how deeply the new religion had
penetrated the warrior class even during the first generation of converts.
Sigeberht was completely sincere in his renunciation of the life of the
warrior, although it seems that not all his people were convinced. For at some
point after he entered the monastery, King Penda came calling with his Mercian
army. King Ecgric fell back before the advancing Mercians but Penda pursued
them. Remembering Sigeberht’s pre-abdication abilities as a warrior and battle
leader, Ecgric sent messengers to the once king, asking him to leave the
monastery and join him in defending the realm. But Sigeberht refused,
reiterating the final nature of his renunciation of the world; he would bear
arms no longer.             With the situation desperate, Ecgric
refused to accept Sigeberht’s answer and had him dragged from his monastery.
But even when forced from the monastic life, Sigeberht refused to resume the
life of war. He was a monk now and would no longer bear arms nor trade in
lives. Ecgric tried to delay, withdrawing into the marshes, but his army was
tracked down by Penda’s scouts. The East Anglians had no choice but to give
battle.            Even at the end, Sigeberht clove to
his vows and refused to take up weapons, wielding only a staff in his own
defence.             To no avail. The Mercians cut down
the East Anglians, killing Ecgric and Sigeberht, and significantly reducing
East Anglian power.            However, it turned out that
reduction was not sufficient for Penda for when their successor, King Anna,
looked on course to restore East Anglian power Penda invaded again, killing
another king.

Penda the King Killer

10 November 2024
Edoardo
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Categories: History
Photo by Violetriga

The brooding figure of Penda of Mercia loomed over Oswiu’s rule. Following his defeat of Oswald, Penda became the pre-eminent king in the land. Although he does not seem to have made any serious efforts to enlarge Mercia by incorporating surrounding kingdoms into his own, he was able to remove bordering kings who displeased him, apparently at will. He disposed of three kings of East Anglia, two during their reign and the third in his retirement.

Alongside his exploits as a killer of kings, Penda also forced Cenwalh, the king of Wessex, into exile, as well as repeatedly raiding into Northumbria, at one point laying siege to Oswiu in his Bamburgh stronghold. On that occasion, the prayers of Aidan turned back the flames by which Penda was attempting to burn Oswiu out of his stronghold. But there were other occasions when Penda ravaged the north: Oswiu quite literally bought his kingdom and his life, handing over a vast haul of treasure to Penda. (The Staffordshire Hoard might represent some of this treasure as much of the items appear to have been of Northumbrian origin, although if that is the case quite why the hoard should have been buried and forgotten is a mystery. It wasn’t just treasure Oswiu handed over: Penda took his son, Ecgfrith, as hostage for his father.

Book review: The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

10 November 2024
Edoardo
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Categories: Book review
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

You know, I think I might be the problem here. The story begins brilliantly, with an obscure present-day scholar specialising in an even more obscure 18th-century poet being given the chance to travel back in time to meet the object of his studies – only to be marooned in the past. There are beggar kings and warlocks, and all sorts of villains and goodies, although every character has depth, and the story is turbo-charged, powering through adventures in London and Egypt.

So, I ought to love it. And for the first half I did. But then, to be honest, I started getting a bit lost. Because the hero, and the villain, and various other people, all start swapping bodies and I simply lost track of who was who and why they were trying to kill/flee from/avoid other characters. Now, if I had read this when I was 18, when my brain was like a sponge and I could soak in all the details of a story, then I wouldn’t have had any trouble following our hero through all his changes of identity. But now, with my brain pretty full, it all washes through but much less sticks – so I got lost.

So, my apologies, Mr Powers. I think you probably wrote a brilliant story but it’s one I am no longer able to appreciate.

Book review: Replay by Ken Grimwood

10 November 2024
Edoardo
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Categories: Book review
Replay by Ken Grimwood

This is basically Groundhog Life – but before you going throwing claims of ripping off ideas at Ken Grimwood, his book came out in 1987 while Groundhog Day came out in 1993. So Grimwood’s in the clear – unless, of course, he’s like his hero. For his hero, Jeff Winston, is maundering along into dissatisfied middle age when – he dies. And wakes up, 18 again, but with all the memories of what happened during the next 25 years of his life.

It’s the ultimate do-over. A whole life, with all the knowledge of your previous life, where you went wrong, where you went right, and everything that happened in the wider world to give you a leg up this time round.

It’s a wonderful exploration of the opportunities and temptations of such a situation and a book so good that I did something I very rarely do with novels – I read it again. The first time I read this was about eight years ago and now I’ve replayed it and it’s just as good second time around – not quite what Winston finds. Highly recommended.

Book review: Squadron Airborne by Elleston Trevor

8 November 2024
Edoardo
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Categories: Book review
Squadron Airborne by Elleston Trevor

If the characteristic art of World War I was the poem, that of World War II was the novel. Perhaps it reached its highest form in Evelyn Waugh’s incomparable Sword of Honour trilogy, but there were many other fine novels reflecting on the war, such as The Cruel Sea, Schindler’s Ark and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

This isn’t quite one of them. Elleston Trevor went on to write the successful Quiller spy series under the pseudonym Adam Hall. Squadron Airborne is formed from personal experience during the war; it largely follows a single squadron through a few weeks of the Battle of Britain, looking equally at pilots and ground crew, the point of view changing frequently. He does a good job of showing the importance of the ground crew to the whole battle but, presumably because the language was so second nature to him, he uses air force terminology so liberally throughout the book that it’s often hard to understand what exactly is going on: I still don’t know what a mag drop is and why it’s important.

Read for an insight into how all the members of a squadron played a vital role in getting and keeping the planes airborne.

Book review: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

8 November 2024
Edoardo
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Categories: Book review
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

It’s been a long, long time since I enjoyed a bad book so much! OK, that’s a little unfair. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars isn’t really a bad book: it doesn’t push propaganda or advocate for any of the usual nihilistic philosophies that you find undergirding most of modern literary fiction. It just sets out to tell a story, a relatively old-fashioned story at that: a space opera. Galaxy spanning, bouncing planets, a go big story dialled up to the nth power. There were a lot of these in the early days of science fiction but it’s been years since I read anything like this and, yes, I had a blast: sentient symbiotic body suits, evil aliens, FTL drives, battles in space, all the classic tropes of space opera.

It’s great fun to read a story where the writer commits so completely to going BIG with not the slightest consideration of probability. So our heroes can cross the galaxy and arrive at an unknown star to find not only the baddies arriving there too, but previous characters, likewise left thousands of light years away, turning up too. The book is delightfully full of unlikely meetings, a nearly perfect heroine with an unfortunate tendency to accidentally kill the people closest to her, and aliens both evil and ugly.

Objectively, the book breaks many of the fiction writing rules you find in how-to-write-your-novel books, from telling rather than showing through Mary Sue characters to the aforementioned coincidental meetings so by those measures it ought to be terrible. But it isn’t. The sheer enjoyment of the writing carries it through.

Book review: The Crusades by Christopher Tyerman

1 November 2024
Edoardo
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Categories: Book review
The Crusades by Christopher Tyerman

It’s not easy to cram four hundred years of military, religious and political endeavour into less than 50,000 words but Christopher Tyerman does stirling work. In particular, he works hard to disabuse the reader of many of the false ideas about the Crusades that have become common currency: that they were a land grab by European nobility, that they should be viewed through contemporary political lenses and that the Crusaders were uniquely barbaric.

The main problem with writing about the Crusades is that Steven Runciman casts a long shadow. His books became the source of almost all popular views of the Crusades and it’s only now that his legacy is slowly being unpicked.

Tyerman acknowledges that he is not the writer that Steven Runciman was, but he sets out to gently correct many of the myths that Runciman promulgated about the Crusades. Unfortunately, Runciman was a writer with an eye for the telling detail and no compunction about employing these details to bolster his own rhetoric. Tyerman is nowhere near his equal as a writer, but he is a much better historian.

So read this book for a more staid, but more truthful, account of the Crusades.