Books: Career of Evil By Robert Galbraith (2015)

“When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg. Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality. With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time running out for the two of them.”

As I read Career of Evil, the latest thriller from Robert Galbraith –J.K. Rowling- I can further sense why fans of Harry Potter may not be interested in reading this series. The characters in these books are mean, including the heroes, and the tales are lurid and extremely unpleasant. Even though the Harry Potter books did show a dark part of life, that death was always just around the corner and people where ignorant, racist, and evil, but in the genre of fantasy, readers don’t notice the disquieting undercurrent so much. This can be why fantasy and science fiction work so well, insofar that while the writers do balance out their fantastical worlds with real human issues; the fantastical worlds are just that –a fantasy. 

But with these Cormoran Strike books (and even her Casual Vacancy novel), the author fully puts the mean streets of England on display, using course words and with darkness hiding very openly in the light. So, I could see why fans of Rowling, whom so adore her Hogwarts world, would see these books in conflict with how they perceive the magical world of Harry Potter. 

There is an interesting dichotomy here. I mean, one does not picture a person like Rowling (which maybe why she originally tried using the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith) associating or even knowing about the people she writes about in these thrillers. You sort of picture her as this high society woman who had nothing once and now is one of the richest people in England. And maybe that’s the point, that maybe before her huge success with those HP novels, she swam and spent time with folks whom have questionable morals. 

I do like that Robin and Cormoran continue to grown in their partnership. There are ups and downs to them (I’m still irritated by Robin’s fiancé, a character I don’t particularly like), and it’s interesting to note that while they genuinely like each other, they’ve not fully yet developed their whole Nick and Nora personas that readers may think they should’ve been by now. I think this slow relationship building feels more real and not designed to placate readers brought up on a diet of detective novels where everyone is getting along by the second book.

Books: My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry By Fredrick Backman (2015)

"Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy. She is also Elsa's best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother's stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal."

When Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa's greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother's letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

Fredriks Backman’s My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry is really about female empowerment (Elsa does not comprehend why she can’t like Spider-Man), about embracing all your oddities, and being the individual you were meant to be (there is irony that I finishing this book when world broke that David Bowie had passed). She’s precocious, wise (as all kids are in TV dramas and sitcoms, and in Roald Dahl books) beyond her years. But the book is also about loss and how we deal with it. Much like A Man Called Ove, this book goes with the idea that we hide our true selves behind masks, never letting out true selves out. Elsa needs to deal with the loss of her grandmother, but is surrounded by people –including her divorced parents- whom don’t know the first thing about taking care of their emotional life, let alone the emotional life of a seven (almost eight) year-old girl. But since a lot of parents are not honest with their children, Elsa decides the only way she can move on from her grandmother’s death, is to go on this journey and take, the mostly obtuse adults, along with her.

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry it a bit more serious than A Man Called Ove, but the darker themes remain. It’s a striking fairy tale that lives in the same neighborhood, as I said as Dahl, with a dash of Neil Gaiman to make it modern.  

Books: Saturn Run by John Sandford and Ctein (2015)

In many ways, John Sandford and Ctein’s novel Saturn Run is a throwback to the golden age of science fiction written by the likes of Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and many others. It takes us on a space journey full of hope and fears, where a group of Americans (think Andromeda Strain) travel to Saturn where it seems aliens of some sort have created something there. Sandford, known mostly for his mystery/thriller Prey series and Ctein (apparently his real name), an expert in photographic printing with degrees in English and psychics from Caltech, have created a believable novel about First Contact. By using real science, real technology that is –as noted in afterword- extrapolated as realistically as possible by setting some five decades into our future, we get a taught thriller, political agendas, and a wide, diverse group of people.

“The year is 2066. A Caltech intern inadvertently notices an anomaly from a space telescope—something is approaching Saturn, and decelerating. Space objects don’t decelerate. Spaceships do. A flurry of top-level government meetings produces the inescapable conclusion: Whatever built that ship is at least one hundred years ahead in hard and soft technology, and whoever can get their hands on it exclusively and bring it back will have an advantage so large, no other nation can compete. A conclusion the Chinese definitely agree with when they find out. The race is on, and a remarkable adventure begins.”

Of course, back in that golden age of science fiction, most of the villains were Russian. Here in Saturn Run, they’re the Chinese. Yet they’re not the mustache villains of old, though Sandford and Ctein still manage to make them a bit of a stereotype. I mean the book is directed at the U.S. market (and to fans of Sandford), so it’s not a huge surprise they did this. As a matter of fact, if a movie is made of this (which seems to be probable) I could see the Chinese changing the ending (just like there are two endings to the classic Godzilla vs King Kong). Also, there is no military on the Richard M. Nixon (a very clever joke), so we don’t get any crazy soldiers dictating U.S. military policy –which is rather refreshing. 

In many ways, this book also reminded me of The Martian, which was a how-to-novel about how a man could survive on Mars before he’s rescued. Saturn Run, with Sandford’s gift of pacing and Ctein’s science knowledge, does the same here, except on how a manned mission to Saturn can be accomplished in a short period of time. Neither Sandford or Ctein have Andy Weir’s knack for boiling the complex math and science needed down into everyday, non-science geek speak (it gets a bit prosaic at times), but there is a grand, epic adventure here, one that (in the right hands) could become a great movie –or at least, a 10 episode TV series.

Books: A Man Called Ove By Fredrik Backman (2014)

“Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse (especially for the people who can’t read the signs). People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time? Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, Ove’s very ordered life begins to unravel. “

The book had me at “curmudgeon”, something that I guess I’m kind of one. But while Ove reminds me of myself, he also reminds me of my grandfather, a man who seemed out of time as well. But Ove, in the book, is only 59 and is living in our modern world of the internet. But he can’t seem to understand why people can’t fix bicycles, or bleed radiators, or read signs that clearly state “vehicular traffic is prohibited in the residential area.” Then there is the cat, the one who shows up out of nowhere and continues to stare at Ove, as if he owed money to the feline.

Yes, A Man Called Ove is comical and heartwarming, as it features a vibrant woman named Parvaneh, a pregnant Iranian woman who tries her hardest not to dislike Ove (which, of course, irritates him to no end) who is right out of every Lifetime movie ever made, but Swedish author Fredrik Backman (translated by Henning Koch) also takes us on journey where we are made to think about who we are as humans, and how we want to live our lives. 

Also, as well, how we cope with loss, because Ove really is the epitome for those whom have tried to live a fair and steady life of doing what’s right, only to beset by many trials and tribulations. Over the years, he has been conned, ripped off and harassed. Saddest of all is the bus accident that left his wife, Sonja, the woman he adores more than anything in the world, paralyzed and their unborn child dead.  But our Volvo-loving curmudgeon is not that cranky as we are lead to believe –as it just takes Parvaneh and her family to reawaken Ove’s sense of doing the right thing.

It’s a quirky (but not in a bad way) and very charming novel. It’s has a deceptively simple premise that some may call too simple, but one I found to be perfect on this late December night.