Books I have read recently

Alien Earth by Megan Lindholm.

You might better know her from her work under the alias of Robin Hobb.
Alien Earth is a scifi story, written in 1992, probaply before Lindholm got famous with her Assasin-books. The story of the book in nutshell;
Earth is dying. And with Earth, humanity. While humankind has advanced in technology, it is not far enough developed to move the species to new planet. And then come the Arthroplana in their living Beastships. They transfer humans to knew planet, where evolution is based on co-operation instead of fighting for the place in the sun. The planet's ecosystem welcomes humanity, giving it its own niche in the grand dance of the world. But humanity is just visiting. To ensure that they would not damage their new planet, the population dwindles to several thousands; to minimize the resource usage, people become smaller and smaller.
The largest rule is; you should not cause impact on the planet. People should not walk the same path repeatedly in case they leave too big a tract; and walking outside the designated areas is illegal.
John Gen-93-Beta is a person who dosent really like where humanity is at the moment. Captain ing the Beastship Evangeline ensures he is sleeping years at a time, while the ship is traveling from one place to another. He is the leader of crew of one, Connie, who has once been mentally "adjusted". Not even Connie herself knows why she was adjusted for, but she is pretty sure whatever it was, the adjustment didnt really work.
Also on the board is the owner, the real captain of the Beastship Tug, who is obsessively interested in Earth-literature, and a stow-away, who has been in hibernation since he left Earth, thousands of years ago.
After getting comission from Earth Affirmed, Evangeline and its passangers head to Earth, to see if its still habitable. But things dont go as planned, and captain and crew are stuck on planet that is very foreign from the friendly planet where humanity has lived hundred generations, and to which humanity has been trying to adjust.
The book has a message on it, and more twists you can imagine. This is surely the best book from the author I have read. I couldnt make myself give the book a rest.


Mister Monday by Garth Nix

I have previously read from this author the Abhorsen-trilogy, as well as Across the Wall, which I thought was collection of short stories about the Kingdom, where where trilogy takes place. Instead it had one longish short story about Kingdom, and lots of older stories from Mr. Nix' career.

Anyway, Mister Monday is the first book out of seven, in series named Keys of the Kingdom, which dosent have anything to do with the Kingdom mentioned earlier.
The books are very fastpaced. On the other hand, something is happening all the time, but there isint much time for conversation. His books handle like action films, lots of action, little talk. This makes them breathtaking, but not very deep.
Relationships between characters aren't really built; in this book the character Leaf appears exactly twice in person and once via email. Still the reader has to think that Leaf is a close friend of the protagonist.
To the book. At the beginning of time, there was the Architech. He built the House, and after the House, he built the Secondary Realms, aka the Universe. The House is millions of levels high, and its function is to record what happens in the Secondary Realms, to smallest detail.
Then the Architech went away. Before leaving, he left behind The Will, which tells how things should work from there on. He left seven people to take care that the Will be done, but instead they tore the Will apart and inprisoned the parts on the far reaches of Time and Space. Then they split the House and the Secondary Realms to their own domains; each one would get certain parts of the House, and authority over Secondary Realms on one given weekday.
The book starts when one fragment of the Will escapes. It fools Mister Monday to give the Minute Key, one of the fourteen keys to the House to Arthur Penhaligon, who is just about to die of asthma attack.
Then Arthur has to start running, because Monday wants his key back.
The book is very orginal in its execution, and while it draws parallels between Architech and God, there is no religious message, though one who knows of such things will probaply find the book even more interesting read. The House, where Arthur has to travel is very orginal, and does not really follow the rules of normal fantasy. Its very fast paced, to a fault, as some characters are introduced and left way too fast, only to come back hundreds of pages later in their designated function.
It is very hard to think will someone be trustworthy, when the decision has to be made from few impressions. Reader has to trust into the judgement of the main character, as he spends time with the people much longer than Nix bothers to tell us about.
All in all, good book, but little sketchy on times.

Bartimeus-trilogy (Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, Ptomely's Gate) by Jonathan Stroud.
I started reading this last summer, when I encountered the translation at the library. I finished the last part in english last month, and finally Im going to write something down on the subject.

After Gladstone, a mighty magican, took over Great Britain in the 19th century, England has been the world's greatest empire, the home of the greatest magicans, who form the government and backstab each other to gain more power.

All of the power of the magicans is based on demons they summon and command; sometimes they infuse objects with them, trapping the demons inside, and thus greating powerful objects. Great care is to be taken while dealing with the demons, as they would very much like to get their hands on the summoner. The summoning is based on the true names of the magicans and of the demons, and with the magican's true name in his hands, demon can do much to rip control from him.
The books are written from the perspectives of the young magican Nathaniel and his demon, djinn Bartimeus. Unfortunately for Nathaniel, Bartimeus finds out his true-name, and so he must put his faith on the demon, who can sell him out for the other demons or to other magicans, everyone wanting his hide.

In the first book, Nathaniel, who is only 12-years old and goes by the name of John Mandrake, summons Bartimeus to gain vengance against high-ranking government magican, and bids Bartimeus to steal the Amulet of Samarkand, incredibly powerful talisman that makes its wearer safe from all magic. Things dont go as planned, and soon Nathaniel and Bartimeus find themselves homeless, trying to prevent the goverment falling into the hands of a conspiracy.

In the second book, Nathaniel, now 14-year old, summons Bartimeus as the policeforce he is operating cant seem to solve what causes destruction at London. Bartimeus finds out for his disapointment, that while he has been away, Nathaniel has grown more and more ruthless. However, he is but a slave, what can he do to change that?

In the third book, Nathaniel, now 17-years old, is at the top of the game. He is the propaganda minister, one of the most powerful magicans and politicans of the Empire. However, war is on at the colonies of America, and it isint going well.
Bartimeus is nearly at the end of his rope. Since the second book, he has been constantly on the mundane world, a tiring thing for a demon. Dimished in size and strength, he can barely open a doors anymore. And the conspiracy, long thought finished, is still around, and ready for the final move.

When I first saw the books, I thought "another Harry Potter-clone". But the cover (see above) was very intriguing, and I had nothing better to do, so I started reading. It ended up not being anything like Harry. For one thing, its very dark. Nathaniel, in the beginning quite innocent boy who wants to get to the top, progressively rises higher and higher by walking over other people. On the same time, Bartimeus, a very uncommon personality for demon, despires how boy he quite liked turns more and more into the sinister magican John Mandrake.

I quite recommend this.

Other books to come later on. Hopefully I get more interest in updating this blog - it deserves it..