Eddie's Monthly

I read four books during my time in France and Amsterdam, a decent pace considering I was kept busy by various tourism-related activities.

L'ami retrouvé – Fred Uhlman

Old man tells the story about when a new kid arrives in his school and changes his life. We watch as their relationship evolves in late 1930s Germany.

Typical small book they have you read in french school, to remind you that nazism bad. The book is not terrible but it's nothing exceptional. I hate how many fucking latin expressions the author uses in the beginning, none of them being common. It gets better after and the prose becomes decent. Not gonna lie, I thought the two guys were gonna turn out gay, but I guess having a jewish boy and a german aristocrat boy become friends was already subversive enough at that time. Having the old man reminisce on his past self gave some interesting mature insights into the events, which were much needed for this otherwise fairly insipid novel.

The Animal Farm – George Orwell

Work conditions are rough on the Manor farm. The animals are overworked and fed too little. During one of their meeting, an old pig shares his new ideology and his wish to overthrow the humans exploiting them by means of rebellion. Soon after his death, two other pigs take the head of this new movement and wait for the best opportunity to rebel. This doesn't take long and the animals soon find themselves in the control of the farm, being able to shape every aspect of it. How will they organise everything?

The very first book I read from front to back in english was 1984, but I never came around to reading this other work of Orwell. It is an interesting allegory of the 1917 Russian revolution, admittedly very critical. Some characters are almost one to one (Napolean-Staline, Snowball-Trotsky, Squealer-Molotov...), but there is still a lot of liberty taken to tell a story that is not just satire. It simplifies the authoritarianisation process enough for a child to follow, while delivering a compelling enough story at the same time. Short and to the point, I like Orwell's writing style; I liked the novel.

Tu Tueras le Roi (You Will Kill the King) – Sandrone Dazieri

After the events of the first and second books Colomba is more than tired, and unofficially retired from the police force. She lives secluded in an old village wanting nobody to bother her. But you can't always get what you want, and during a thunderstorm, a troubled young man, Tommy, breaks into her shed, covered in blood. Turns out he is of interest to the police; his parents were just murdered and he is the prime suspect. Not Colomba's business, she is retired anyways, at least until she realises that Tommy exhibit all the signs of being one of the Father's (main antagonist of the first book) victims. This cannot be, she killed him herself, could there be another one?

This is the last book in the “You Will Kill X” trilogy, and I found that it was a great ending to a superb series. I also liked it more than the second one. You can read about the two previous ones in my June and May Readings. It seems like the author took in all the critiques of the first and second books to heart; none of the defaults of the first books are found in this one. Dante has been made less OP, there is less romance coming out of nowhere (it is still there but makes sense), the antagonist has believable resources... The story is a bit convoluted at times but makes sense after the big reveal, without anything feeling contrived. The author divided the book into multiple small parts and chapters that made this thicc boy (600+ pages) digestible. There is one main question that is left unanswered, and that has been left unanswered since the first book. We will most likely never get that answer and it is killing me. If you like investigation stories (this is not very police focused at all), I would strongly recommend this trilogy.

Le Droit à la Paresse (The Right to Laziness) – Paul Lafargue

This is a response to the Droit au Travail (Right to Work) movement/ideology that was put forward during the 1848 French Revolution. Defined roughly this way: “This right is the one of every human to be able to live by working. Society — by all general and productive means it possesses, and which will be organised later — must be able to provide work for every able-bodied human who can't find work otherwise.” This will most likely be my next contribution to the Bookclub, so keep your eyes peeled for an analysis of that.

I have brought back with me, from France, more than 20 books — and although most of them are for the Bookclub — you can expect the next few [Month] Readings to have a couple of extra books.

This month has been quite busy for me, some of you might know I got married and that comes with a lot of time commitment. This is why I only have a meagre three books to present here. Fear not, next month is my honeymoon; I will have ample time to read to my heart's content.

Tu Tueras L'Ange (You Will Kill the Angel) – Sandrone Dazieri

Colomba is back into service as a police chief, after her very difficult last case. Her next one starts off even worse; while responding to a call at the Rome train station, she discovers that all the first-class passengers of a train have been murdered. Everything points to a terrorist attack, which is later confirmed by a revendication from two Daesch men (ISIS for the anglos). But something feels off, and Colomba will enlist the help of Dante to help her solve this mystery; another conspiracy?

This is the second book in the “You Will Kill ...” franchise; you can read all about the first one in my May Readings article. While I didn't have any trouble finishing the book, it took me a bit more time than the prequel. The pacing is still good here, more consistent I would say than in the last book. How engaging the story is throughout the book is a bit less consistent here, but still overall good. The overarching plot is developed better here, and the conspiracy elements are not just slapped on at the end in an unsatisfying manner like in the last book. Some elements are a tad contrived here and there but it's mostly nitpicking. The antagonist is interesting to read about but is a bit more OP here with some resources that are a tad unbelievable. The story seems more focused on Colomba this time, with the all-mighty Dante taking the back seat; a positive change in my opinion. Their relationship does evolve here, and there is a subtle hint of romance budding, on Dante's part. If you read my last review, you know I praised the platonic nature of the relationship between the two main protagonists of the opposite sex. I'll have to read the last book to judge whether or not the romance is unnecessary. The prose is still impeccable; despite the few negative points I mentioned I would strongly recommend it if you liked the first one. And I know I will be reading the next book.

L'existentialisme est un humanisme – Jean-Paul Sartre

I read this for the Bookclub; I could discuss it here, but I actually wrote a whole article for this one, so keep your eyes peeled for it.

His Dark Material: The Golden Compass – Philip Pullman

Kids are being taken from their homes all around Great Britain, including Rogers, Lyra's best friend. Lyra is the niece of a very important political and scientific character and has been raised at Oxford College where Rogers works as a kitchen helper. One day her uncle comes back from the Great North to present his findings on Dust a cosmical substance that he just discovered. In the photograph he showed, while adults were covered in Dust, kids seemed devoided of it. Was that the reason Rogers and the other kids had been abducted? Lyra will have to go to the Great North to discover the truth...

I had a bit of trouble getting into the book, I found the very beginning a bit verbose and the writing obnoxiously british (I will not elaborate). It also uses vocabulary and grammatical constructions I was not familiar with (read: I did not understand), which made my reading experience less than smooth. However, the writing becomes less pretentious as the book moves on and I didn't have too much trouble finishing the book. It was also hard to get into the world; very little is explained in the beginning and we are dropped in a scholarly world – everything is cryptic to the reader. The rules of the universe are also not really defined clearly; what is fiction/exists (in that world) and reality is never explained. The pseudo-fictitious nature of the world was also off-putting. Lastly, the main protagonist is a kid, which goes on an adventure to save kids; this is a kid's tale. I am not very fond of that but hopefully, she grow up during the other book (I made the mistake of buying the trilogy set). I am not the target audience for this book, so why on earth did I get it? Well, I have already professed my love to the Passe Mirroir book series by Christelle Dabos. Looking for more, was told that this book series inspired her. I will probably read the sequel, just in case in it the series becomes something I would like.

Only three books this month, how shameful. But fret not, I have a whole three weeks of honeymoon that I plan to capitalise on.

Thank you for reading my logorrhea, Eddie

In an effort to archive my thoughts on the books I read, and ramp up my contributions to the Printhouse, I will be writing about my readings a given month. I will not give ratings, and will just share some thoughts, after having written a short synopsis. I will translate the titles in foreign languages if it makes sense and try to keep it relatively spoiler free. April's readings can all be read in my previous article Reading again.

Bunch of Michael Crichton stuff

I read Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton in preparation for my previous Reading Again article. As stated in it, I realised that it wasn't as great as I remembered, so I went on a quest to figure out if the guy that wrote Jurassic Park was the great writer people made him out to be online. This lead me to read Jurassic Park, The Lost World and Timeline. I will talk about those books more in my upcoming Appendix.

La Passe-mirroir: La Mémoire de Babel & La Tempête des Echos – Christelle Dabos

Where to start? Those are the last two books in the Passe-mirroir quadrilogy, but the tone and vibe are much different from the first two. Much like the previous two though, they do form a cohesive entity together; the first and second book happen one after another, then two years go by and book three and four happen after another. I won't provide a synopsis for those books; I wouldn't want to spoil anything. Book three opens two years after the events of book two, and Ophélie sets out on an adventure leading her to take on another identity and try to infiltrate a “university”. This passage is very reminiscent of the event of the first book when Ophélie had to be kept hidden from the court. We are presented with a couple of secondary characters, but, although they are written well, aren't as in-depth as the ones in books one and two, which are barely present here. The relationship between Thorn and Ophélie is a bit frustrating; it feels like we are back to square one for half of the book, however, they do work well together for the rest of the book and in book four. Books 3 and 4 are investigations, like book 2, but more of a quest-investigation than an investigation-investigation. Action, dialogue and reflection are still very well balanced and the writing is still great. We discover another Arch; it feels very fleshed out and coherent. Books 3 and 4 take place on this Arch, and throughout the series we only see two Archs in detail and four in total out of more than a dozen. This universe could easily have supported many more volumes, but I believe the author was done with it and decided to conclude it at four books. This is why the last book is a wild ride; I did not have the time to breathe. Revelations after revelations, plot twists after plot twists, complications after complications... This last volume is very convoluted and mostly focuses on Ophélie and tries to explain every mystery in the series so far. It takes most of the space and is very esoteric; I'm still not quite sure what the rules of that world are. Ophélie is still as resourceful but it seems that she is a sort of a “chosen one”, which brings about some convenient aptitude and pieces of knowledge to her. There is, to my regret, here no room for the secondary characters we had grown to love in books one and two, they make a brief appearance the time of a chapter here and there. And I hated the ending, apart from feeling a tad rushed, the biggest offense is that it didn't end how I wanted it to. Unforgivable. Despite this, the writing is still on point – although maybe a bit less fleshed out in this last volume – and the story – albeit a bit overly complex – is great and truly original. I would still highly recommend those four books even if I did sorta trash talk the last two.

The House in the Cerulean Sea – TJ Klune

I chose this book based on the recommendation of a writer here on the Printhouse (readers will know whom I'm referring to!), you can read the synopsis of this book in their article Reading Roundup: A wealth of magicians. I really liked this book, it is very much a “feel good” book, which I really needed after reading the two books above. There is very little drama here, and the tense situations are defused almost immediately. Everyone has the right words at the right time and they're all emotionally super intelligent. This is not a critique; all the points above are part of the feel-good experience. Apart from that, all the characters are well-developed, endearing and all-around walking green flags. The character arc for the main protagonist is very satisfying and develops naturally, and so does the romance here. If I had to say something negative about the book, it would be that the “big reveal” can be seen from a mile away. Overall, I very highly recommend this book.

Tu Tueras le Père (You Will Kill the Father) – Sandrone Dazieri

Colomba Caselli is an out-of-service Commissioner of the roman murder unit due to an incident. Her boss calls her back to work on a particular case; a boy was taken, his mother decapitated, and everything points to his father doing it. Colomba's boss doesn't believe it and gives her the name of an atypical consultant, who has a gift for finding lost people, Dante Torre. He had been abducted as a kid and raised by his captor, the Father, in a silo. Although he escaped, the case was never solved. As they investigate this new case, Dante finds a metal whistle displayed in plain sight; he swears it belonged to him as a kid. Could the Father be back? This was a chonky boy, but the pacing was good so it didn't feel like it. I had read this book and the sequel before, but not the third installment, which is why I decided to start again. I am currently reading the sequel. One flaw in this book is that there are a bunch of characters that are very secondary, but whose names we are still supposed to remember; it took me a while (read: halfway through the book) to have a semi-complete idea of the hierarchy of characters and who they were. I can also remember so many italian last names. The main characters, Columba and Dante, are well-developed and go through independent character development, but their relationship also evolves naturally and satisfyingly. I liked that the author didn't fall into the trap of making them fall for one another just because they're of the opposite sex, this makes their relationship more meaningful in my eyes. They both suffer from debilitating PTSD, which is shown here as such and not just as a character trait. Dante I found is a bit OP; he is a bit of a walking encyclopedia, and has seemingly endless money and connections. Colomba is appropriately resourceful and her connections are within reason what you could expect a police commissioner to have. The Father is a really interesting concept/antagonist; always making calculated moves and is almost always a step ahead, almost. The book is punctuated with “before” chapters, which deliver some cryptic exposition and break the frenetic pace of the main story, in a good way. The story/investigation unfolds in a credible manner, with a good balance of action and research. The ending explanation was a bit out of the left field and I found, unsatisfying. However, it does not take anything away from the rest of the book. If you like police-type investigation books, with a lesser focus on police and more on investigation, I would recommend this to you.

That's it for this month, 7 books; it will probably be a bit lighter in June.