Stridens skönhet och sorg by Peter Englund
This book by the renowned Swedish historian (now serving as the Perpetual Secretary of the Swedish Academy) explores the First World War through the diaries, letters, and official paperwork by and about a disparate collection of people.
As Englund says, it’s history at its most atomic. Copious footnotes explain the historical and factual background.
Refreshingly, the focus is spread away from the men at the (Western) front. We get insights into the lives of civilian schoolgirls in East Prussia, English nurses in Russian service, leatherbitten adventurers in East Africa, and French politicians.
By spreading his net wide and focusing laser-like on a few individuals, Englund shows the First World War for what it was: an international catastrophe that laid the bloody foundations of the last century and changed the world forever.
Hopefully this will soon be translated into English!
The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi
A novel set in a different universe than the Old Man’s War series, but which is basically the same as ours: sure, we’ve made contact with aliens but the only thing that happens to Earth is more embassies. Refreshingly, humans are on the bottom of the scale of galactic civilizations, which is a nice change from standard SF of this type where we naturally take our place with the big guys.
It’s an enjoyable yarn, competently spun.
The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross
The third of the Laundry novels is a pastiche of Ludlum novels, replete with moles, double-agents and Russians. The Laundry is preparing for CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, when the stars are right and the Elder Gods will again walk the Earth. However, a crazy gang of cultists wants to accelerate the process and have their sights set on our geeky hero, Bob Howard.
Stross’ trademark blend of Lovecraftian horror and spy thriller isn’t really well-blended in this novel. There are some rough patches, and the very literal homage to 30s pulp cultists is a bit over the top - but maybe you really need to look and speak like that to invoke nameless horrors from beyond spacetime?
Another anachronism is the rampant iPhone adulation, which will age badly … but these kind of novels have a short sell-by date anyway.
Two more Laundry novels are in planning according to Stross’ FAQ and indeed the Cthulhu mythos is a very deep well with lots of ectoplasm to draw on. Let’s hope the coming novels are a bit better than this one though.
Night of Knives by Ian C. Esslemont
A novel set in the same universe as Steven Erikson’s novels about the Malazan empire, and indeed sharing a lot of the same characters. Esslemont co-created the world with Erikson but he’s not as good a writer, unfortunately. I guess you can say that he’s simply a competent one, while Erikson is great.
This novel really doesn’t add much to the Malazan mythos and can be safely skipped.