Books: The Bone Clocks By David Mitchell (2014)

David Mitchell once again takes the readers on a weird, wonderful journey with The Bone Clocks, a novel that defies being categorized.  Still, what strikes me is how he can take the “pop fiction” aspect of his plot and turn into a decent prose. The fact that it lacks pretentiousness is also a great feat.  

Much like Cloud Atlas, Mitchell uses the plot form of six (sometimes overly long) related narratives that span from 1984 to 2043. It begins with Holly Sykes in 1984, who at age 15 has decided that her parents (whom own a pub in Gravesend) do not understand her relationship with a 22 year-old boyfriend. After the latest fight with her mother, Holly runs away. Sadly, she realizes that while she loves Vinny, the 22 year-old only saw Holly as the latest fling. When she decides not to return home and face the humiliation of her family, Holly strikes out on her own, and as she narrates, the reader learns that Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. She tells us of her ability to hear “the radio people”, voices only she seems able to hear. And as she wanders deeper into the English country side, weird visions and bizarre coincidences bring her in contact with cabal of mystics and their sworn enemies. But her lost weekend, so to speak, comes to an end with the shocking disappearance of her little brother. And with that, the thread, this unsolved mystery will form the back bone of the narrative through the decades. We also meet Hugo Lamb, a dastardly Cambridge undergraduate, seducer, thief, and near-murderer; and Crispin Hershey, a successful English writer whom is obsessed with taking revenge on his harshest reviewer, one Richard Cheeseman. Then there is the conflicted father who feels alive only while reporting from occupied Iraq. 

As I noted, with these connected and overlapping novellas, we learn that there is an invisible battle going on in the margins of our society (the Anchorites and the Horologists), one that began long before the written word and continues well into the future, one were the fabric of reality is reshaped, repurposed and redefined. 

And yes, the connections and interweaving is gracefully managed, and there is some pleasure (you sense) in Mitchell’s sometimes linguistic notions to force readers to pay attention, but the book remains a bit overlong and static at times. While I don’t think many words are wasted, that all of this important to the narrative, I sometimes felt he could’ve condensed the plotting and still not lost the threaded tapestry of his story. Still, a remarkable work of meta-fiction, told with a sense of humor and a wink of the eye to those snobby literature reviewers who may see that while David Mitchell is a brilliant writer, the plot of The Bone Clocks borders on science fiction and fantasy. 

As noted in Slade House, which is connected to this book, Mitchell provides his Constant Readers with a few Easter Eggs, giving all of the sense that all his books exist in the same universe.

Books: The Silent End By Samuel Sattin (2015)

"In a mist-covered town in the Pacific Northwest three teenagers find themselves pitted against an unearthly menace that dwells beneath the foundations of their high school. Eberstark is an outcast and he’s tired of pretending everything is fine. His mother disappeared almost a year ago after a long battle with depression. His father is conducting experiments and running around town in the middle of night with a mysterious man known only as The Hat, ranting to Eberstark about beasts no one else can see. Then on Halloween night, Eberstark, alongside his only friends Lexi and Gus, discovers something in the woods to challenge his father’s apparent insanity: a wounded monster. Rather than stir the town into frenzy, the three friends hide the creature and are pulled into a web of conspiracy, dream-logic, and death. Faced down by living trucks, mirror-dwelling psychopaths, and hellish entities who lurk behind friendly faces, Eberstark, Lexi, and Gus find themselves battling to save not just themselves, but the soul of their quiet little town."

The Silent End is a mish-mash of horror, dark humor, fantasy and science fiction. It works because author Sattin has created believable, three-dimensional characters in Eberstark (the narrator’s last name and we go through nearly 90% of the book before his first name is revealed), Lexi and Gus. All are not your typical Hollywood heroes though, with Eberstark and Gus being basically nerds and outcasts, while Lexi is just the girl who should be popular (even with a bum eye) but revels in being a social pariah. They are characters that anyone who does not fit in with the typical hierarchy of High School, would see in them. The fact that he does not make them so irritatingly nerdy like the TV show The Big Bang Theory does is a strike in favor for Samuel Sattin.

While the novel creates an alternate universe for Mossglow (set in the Pacific Northwest that could be Washington state or Oregon (or combination of both)) to exist in, Sattin does borrow some themes from the works of Stephen King. Mossglow reminds me much of King’s fictional town of Derry, Maine - an extra place of ugliness where horrible things happen, yet the people who live there seem to exist in the ether of indifference. There is also a bit of Desperation in here as well, but Sattin also seems to make many nods to H.P. Lovecraft as well. And one could also say the book shares a universe with Twin Peaks.

Still, the book is well-plotted, entertaining and fun. The three main characters bond well together, working as a team to solve the darkness that has surrounded this town. Of course, it’s not perfect. It has a few nonsensical things (the Shepherd) and relies too much on coincidence and convenience; with a villain who seeks world domination from some sleepy backwater town that could not really exist in the world and whom must’ve taken a page from a many James Bond films. 

But it is, as I said, entertaining. And sometimes, that’s all that counts.

Books: Slade House By David Mitchell (2015)

David Mitchell is an interesting writer. Much like Stephen King has done over the years, Mitchell’s six previous novels appear to exist in the same universe with characters (and their offspring) intermixing in other novels. He also has a tendency to mix genres, something that was done in Cloud Atlas and others, which makes him hard to pin down as writer. And depending on your point of view, this is good or bad. Because of this, his books also tend to be densely filled tales which employ an unusual interlocking narrative structure along with linguistic smartness that may challenge a lot of readers brought up on a diet of popular fiction that employees the most basic sequence of events. 

His seventh novel, The Slade House, while filled with some of Mitchell’s typical panache, could be described as his most accessible novel to date.  

“Down the road from a working-class British pub, along the brick wall of a narrow alley, if the conditions are exactly right, you’ll find the entrance to Slade House. A stranger will greet you by name and invite you inside. At first, you won’t want to leave. Later, you’ll find that you can’t. Every nine years, the house’s residents—an odd brother and sister—extend a unique invitation to someone who’s different or lonely: a precocious teenager, a recently divorced policeman, a shy college student. But what really goes on inside Slade House? For those who find out, it’s already too late.”

The book spans five decades (though is began long before), starting in the final months of the 1970s to 2015. Like other Mitchell books, it bounces between genres, but that’s not so much of a distraction to the reader, as you turn pages to discover what comes next. This is what enables a reader, not familiar with Mitchell’s style, to enjoy a ghost story, a haunted house tale, and mixed up lives of those caught up in the thrall of Norah and Jonah. 

I enjoyed the novel, and would’ve stayed up to finish it last night (it’s a quick read, at only 238 pages), but I was weary from work and trying to struggle through the latest Robert Galbraith (AKA J.K. Rowling) mystery which I need to return to the library while only a third of the way through it (I’ll just put it back on hold and wait, because I do like these books). As I read the novel and approached this review, I became aware that Slade House is really connected a lot to Mitchell’s last novel, The Bone Clocks. Of course, he constructs this book in such a way that you don’t have to read any of his previous novels, but now that I know more about the way he writes, and do enjoy a writer who rewards their Constant Readers with these little Easter Eggs, I’ll have to read that 2014 novel. 

Postscript: With the year rolling quickly to an end, I’ll need to figure out my own way to finish a book (or two) within the next 3 weeks. I’ve given up the idea of reading 52 books this year, but I’ve already broke (I think) my own personal best when it comes to completing novels/nonfiction in 2015 -that list will be released closer to the end of the month. Should I read The Bone Clocks knowing it might be a difficult time (much like Avenue of Mysteries and City On Fire turned out to be), or pick up one or two more novels that follow a typical narrative structure?

Stay tuned.  

Books: Avenue of Mysteries By John Irving (2015)

In John Irving’s latest novel, Avenue of Mysteries, we meet Juan Diego, a neurotic writer, obsessed with taking his beta-blockers and Viagra and perving on women old and young. During his childhood in a Mexico slum he was known as the “dump reader” for his love of books. Now as a middle-aged writer, he’s on his way to the Philippines to confront his past. While that is the simplest of explanation, it is of course, not the whole story. As past and present, 2010 into 2011, collide it becomes increasingly clear that Juan Diego’s reality contains many magical aspects, such as when he meets the sexually voracious mother-daughter pair who may turn out to be genuine succubi. Or the fact that he’s on the only one who can understand his sister Lupe, who appears to speak gibberish to everyone else. She also, apparently, can read minds. But both are extremely smart, with Juan Diego apparently gifted with the ability to learn to read in both Spanish and English (which comes in handy multiple times). 

Lupe, of course, is much like Irving’s most famous clairvoyant, Owen Meany. She is wry, often rude, often offensive (especially to the Catholic Church), but one of the most interesting characters the author has created in a while. It’s too bad she does not stick around for the whole book. Unlike many of Irving’s book, the only autobiographical aspect between him and Juan is that they’re writers. But much like real writer, the fictional Juan Diego has a bestselling circus novel set in India, which could prove distracting for long-time fans whom are already convinced the author prime has long time passed. 

I also found the book difficult to get through, but I thought perhaps I was distracted with work issues and the Thanksgiving holiday. While I did not find it as unpleasant as say Until I Leave You, it’s clear to me that Irving tried to make a novel that wasn’t going to be compared to him, that this was not going to be another veiled, semi-autobiographical tome. And I’m unsure if Irving’s intention was to create an unreliable narrator, but I found Juan Diego to be that (and the book is not told in first person). The whole mystery of the mother-daughter is also distracting, with no clear resolution –are they succubi or ghosts?  

Granted, Irving remains a wonderful wordsmith, but his plots are getting odder and more creaky than stairs in a dilapidated ghost-house.

Books: Star Wars: Lost Stars By Claudia Gray (2015)

When Bantam books began releasing Star Wars novels set after Return of the Jedi, I realized that George Lucas was never going to go beyond that last film –though in 1992 no one thought he would do the prequel films as well. Only one book, beyond the novelizations of the A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, had been released, which was Alan Dean Foster’s 1978 novel Splinter in the Mind’s Eye. 

At the time, I honestly thought this novel was going to the premise of episode five. Years later, I would learn I was partially right. Foster, who had ghost written the original novelization, was handed the script for a Star Wars follow-up, one that was designed as a cheap-to-make sequel had not the original proved such a success. It seems back then, Lucas and 20^th Century Fox were hedging their bets and so Lucas had created a treatment that became Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.

Anyways, like many a Star Wars fan, I began to collect and read these novels that would eventually be known as the Expanded Universe. But they started to come out so fast, I began to buy them and not read them (something that still happens to this day). But I was also interested in other genres, other books, TV and movies. If I had devoted myself to just reading Star War novels, I may’ve been able to read all them between 1992 and 2012 when Disney acquired the franchise and announced a new series of movies, plus saying the current EU was going to put aside in favor of a new timeline. 

I know some fans were hoping that certain characters and storylines in the EU would make it into what is now known as The Force Awakens. Much like my other beloved franchise, Star Trek, I kind of understand why they’re doing this. Mostly, though, it’s so Disney does not have to pay any novelist rights to popular characters and situations that have molded the EU for 20 years. 

I will also admit, part of the reason I stopped reading the EU was I felt the bad guys threatening our main charterers like Luke, Leia and Han with death was pointless. As a reader, I knew that no writer of any of those novels would be able kill off such beloved people, so when a situation rose where an evil creature pointed a blaster at the head of, say, Princess Leia, I was taken out of the book because I knew, knew, that she would not die. 

Now it’s 2015, and Disney is about to release The Force Awakens in a month, and Disney/Lucasfilm Books have started a whole new Expanded Universe 2.0. Much like the old EU, these books don’t have to read in any sort of order, as they are stand-alone novels. But some will have minor connections to the upcoming new trilogy. 

The new universe began last year with Star Wars: A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller, which is a prequel novel to the new animated TV series Star Wars: Rebels (also note, the two previous animated series dealing with the Clone Wars are considered canon in this new timeline, even though they came before Disney bought the franchise). Star Wars: Tarkin by James Luceno, Star Wars: Heir to the Jedi by Kevin Hearne, and Star Wars: Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp all followed. Again, these are standalone tales that are set before and during and consecutively with Episodes I-VI (and none of which I’ve read). 

Starting in September of this year Disney/Lucasfilm Books began releasing titles under the moniker of Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. These novels would begin adding pieces, some small, and some big to the greater whole of the newest trilogy.  Aftermath by Chuck Wendig, is set primarily after the events of episode VI, but The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure by Jason Fry, Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure by Cecil Castellucci, and Smuggler's Run: A Han Solo Adventure by Greg Rucka are all set within Episode IV-VI (and much like Aftermath, I’ve yet to read them).

This brings me to Lost Stars by Claudia Gray. I admit at first I was not interested in reading this YA tale, even though it was supposed to contain clues that would be explored in The Force Awakens. But I kept seeing reviews that said the book was surprisingly well written, engaging, and fun. So, I thought what the hell. Why not?

Lost Stars gives us a macro view of some of the most important events in the Star Wars universe, from the rise of the Rebellion to the fall of the Empire, but it’s not totally Forrest Gump mashed with Romeo and Juliet and then mixed with Star Wars (yet it is). The novel opens 8 years after the fall of the Old Republic where on the planet Jelucan we meet Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell. Ree’s family history is she’s part of the original settlers of the planet, while Kyrell was part of the second-wave of settlers. Ree’s generation are generally known as farmers who shun technology (mostly because they’re poor), and live off the land, while Kyrell’s generation are rich and embrace the new technology the Empire is giving them. But both believe the Rebellion to be wrong and know the Empire is right. As they age, they become friends. They train together so by the time they enter the Imperial corps, they become competitive to see whom they can impress the most. But as the Empire tightens its grip on the galaxy, as historical events unfold, both begin to question their loyalty to the Empire. But only one will make a decision that will put them both in opposite ends of a conflict that is tearing the universe apart.

I simply enjoyed this book. I found all the characters to well written, especially our two star-crossed lovers. I liked that Gray gave us a closer, inmate look at the events of episode IV-VI through different eyes, I like the idea that she had characters asking questions like how weird it was a small rag-tag group of rebels were able to destroy the first Death Star (and even question the oddness of its one weakness). Also, funny enough, why Darth Vader ordered the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive to be disabled at Bespin if the Empire was so sure they were going to defeat Luke Skywalker and the rest at Cloud City (a plot hole I never thought about). The novel does get a bit “fannish” when late in the novel, after the events of Return of the Jedi, a squadron of fighters travels to a planet where some remnants of the Empire is supposed to hanging out, and its only identification is 5251977. Why not just use THX1138 as a name for a planet?

There is, as advertised, a post skirmish with the Empire that has some bearing on The Force Awakens. It's a chapter set about a year after ROTJ that also features the final confrontation between Cree and Kyrell over the planet Jakku, the desert world where Rey lives and where Finn crashes onto (and one can assume the downed Star Destroyer seen in the trailer, the one stuck in the sand, the one where Rey appears to be investigating, is the same one mentioned in this book). There is not much more of a revelation here, just a bit of backstory. Oddly, though, after reading 500 pages of this book, I did not feel cheated that this is the only glimpse into the next film. It seemed a logical aspect within the novel, and not something designed merely to get you to read a YA book. 

Finally, I’m unsure if I’ll continue reading these new novels set in the new canon (that also includes the latest novel Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed which serving as an introduction to the new video game, also serves as another peek into the new movie series). There is much I want to read, both old and new (I mean I have hundreds of unread books just waiting for me here at the house, and each time I add new ones, well, things don’t ever get caught up). But never say never, I guess.