Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin by Leon Uris

I went through a phase of reading everything available by Leon Uris, but I never read this one. It is about the army of occupation in Germany and the final third of the book center on the Berlin Airlift. And, after all, I was there. So I decided that it was high time that I read it.

After all eight or nine hundred pages (it is hard to tell - not all Kindle books have page numbers), I suspect that I may have started it at some point and not finished it. In Mila 18 and Exodus the history is very present, but it is all delivered as part of the story. In this one, characters and "story" are secondary to long lectures on the history. Sometimes the history is delivered by "Big Nellie," the omnipresent columnist, but sometimes it is just parked between passages of narrative.

A number of the characters have great potential, but we are not allowed to get close enough to any of them to care very much. The opening character is an Army captain, Sean O'Sullivan, from San Francisco. He hates the Germans personally for the deaths of his two brothers during the war. His persistent hatred is inconsistent with the character as developed and is consistently jarring. None of the characters seem very complete and the ones we spend the most time with all end badly.

The details of the Airlift are, as always in Uris' work, very thoroughly researched and were fascinating. For me, of course, there was the additional side note of the dates of Mother's letters and knowing that at this point or that we were in or near the action of the story. I found the "story" part of this book so disappointing that I almost with that it were simply a history of the occupation and airlift with the real names of the players. Of course, if it had been that sort of book I almost certainly would not have ever read it. Maybe I should hunt up some actual historical accounts of the airlift.

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

Somebody recommended these to me. I think I remember who it was. I was expecting something rather like the Charlayne Harris "Grave" books. Not exactly. Rather more like Dean Koontz's "Odd Thomas" stories. Of course, these dead people actually talk to our heroine, who rejoices in the name "Charley Davidson," unlike the dead who seek out Odd. Actually, the ghosts, for lack of a better term, rather remind me of the ghosts in the fluffy books by Sue Ann Jaffarian - chatty and a little vague.

There is definitely more sex than I think strictly necessary in a murder mystery, although as it involves a noncorporeal being maybe it doesn't count? And all the action she is getting doesn't stop her from indulging in ogling every male who comes her way.

The actual murder mystery was a little amorphous, the story was really about letting the reader know who/what Charley is and about her supernatural boyfriend/dream lover. Since we find out who/what he is, I am left wondering how this plays out in a series. So I guess the device works - I will have to buy the next one to find out.

The setting is Albuquerque and seems reasonably accurate, so there are many references to streets and neighborhoods with which I am familiar - not to mention green chile stew (as I recall misspelled "chili" - which as all real New Mexicans know refers to a concoction lacking subtlety and made primarily in Texas - and, incidently, not green). And then there is the character - actually one of the murder victims - named James Barilla - like the brand of pasta. Barela would have been quite acceptable, but Barilla? Really now.

It was fun, I won't resent (too much) reading the second, but it doesn't climb to the top of the charts - at least not my chart.

Mila 18 by Leon Uris

This was on the list of Kindle books being sponsored by the movie "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (American Version) - or maybe it was the offer which was sponsored. Whatever. At any rate, they had a list of books and you could get one (only one) for a dollar. I read and reread the list and finally decided to go with this old favorite which I hadn't reread for many years.

No wonder I reread it so many times. The characters are bigger than life, the situation is desperate, the action is dramatic, and the whole story is based on real events. The characters, not so much, but the heroism and self-sacrifice they displayed must of necessity have been shown by the people who lived through the defense and destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto.

The time and events of the book are, from all accounts, represented accurately - Uris is known for the quality and quantity of his research. Part of the danger to humanity in all ages is our unwillingness to accept the depths to which humanity can reach given the opportunity. When one of the Nazi officers discusses the probability of the defeat of the Third Reich, he casually dismisses the aftermath of the world's discovery of the incredible cruelty and viciousness which typified Nazi Germany with references to the short memory of mankind and by pointing out that the world has been informed of events like those which took place at Baba Yar and the existence of the extermination camps. Specifically appalling is the indifference of the Polish people to the things taking place around them, indifference so profound that it is indistinguishable from complicity. "Never forget."

Castle Terror by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Interesting. Classic gothic romance - I loved these things when I was a teenager; I may have read this when I was a teenager - it was published in 1965, guess I wasn't a teenager. A Jane Eyre opening - a young nurse goes to tend a mad girl in a Scottish castle (relocated stone by stone to some indefinite location on an island somewhere off some coast of the United States). There she finds a dying old man and his operatically dramatic wife - and his brooding adult son - and the charismatic keeper of the bird sanctuary on the island.

All the gothic cliches are there - insanity, murder, blackmail, secret passages, smuggler's caves which are submerged at high tide, and a deadly hurricane. Not to mention a Newfoundland named Thumbelina.

Maybe Thumbelina saves it (as well as the heroine) from utter disaster. It is well written - for this sort of thing - from Bradley it would have to be. McCaffrey's romances stop short of the gothic cliche, this book completely embraces it. It was her fourth published novel, perhaps she was still searching for a marketable genre.

Hawkmistress! by Marian Zimmer Bradley

This is one of my favorites of the Darkover books. Perhaps, in part because it is character-driven and I find Romilly a particularly appealing character. The rest of the Darkover setting is in and around the story, but the reader is with Romilly all the way through - no shifting from one character or center of action to another. Not that Romilly hangs around any one place for long.

Like so many fantasy heroines, Romilly runs away from home to escape marriage. Her psi gift is handling animals and, after some fairly desperate adventures, she is welcomed by one of the armies contending for the throne. She trains and manages the large carrion birds which perform arial reconnaisance, and she trains war horses for the army. She comes close to losing her sanity and her life when she is unable to deal with the deaths of these creatures with which she shares rapport.

Throughout runs the thread of her relationship with a great hawk which she trained and with which she has a psychic bond. Romilly frees the hawk when her father takes it from her to give to her brother, but the hawk, Preciosa, never completely abandons her. Preciosa saves her sanity in the end and allows her to return to use her gift to rescue a man who had befriended her and has been taken as a hostage.

Rather than leap to the obvious romantic conclusion of the story, Bradley has Romilly take charge of her own life and go to a tower to learn to use and control her gift putting the possibility of marriage on hold until she has learned who she is and what she wants. Rather stylish.

And a deep sigh of relief - I can still speak up for Bradley - as long as I avoid her "historical" fantasies. Although I suppose that someday I am going to have to read The Mists of Avalon because that was one of my younger daughter's all time favorites.

The Fall of Atlantis by Marian Zimmer Bradley

After my big reread of Anne McCaffrey, I thought maybe I should revisit Bradley. Darkover is in many ways a more complex universe than Pern, and it has been many years since I read any of them. I happened to spot this in my Kindle library and decided to start there, although it isn't a Darkover story. Surprise! I don't think I had ever read it. Or if I had, I had totally forgotten it.

Frankly, it wouldn't be amazing if I had forgotten it. I may have started it and not finished it. It isn't bad, it just isn't nearly as good as most of Bradley's work. I think our Latin textbook, with a running story set in the last days of Pompeii, was more convincing. The characters seem a little flat and the plot is not particularly compelling. I was sure that I had it on the shelf, but I couldn't find it. I did find a two-volume version called Web of Light and Web of Dark, but not the full piece.

Bradley did a whole line of pseudo historical novels. Besides this, there is The Mists of Avalon and its sequel, the title of which escapes me at the moment, obviously set in Arthurian legend. There is another called The Firebrand that I think is set in ancient Troy. There are probably others which I don't remember or have never encountered.

I didn't sit down here to trash the book, but it was definitely disappointing from a writer like Bradley.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

This was a third reading. My other book club is doing it now - my first book club did it back in May, at my suggestion. So for a more complete discussion, see entries in this list for May of 2011. It is a stunning book, even third time through in probably too short a time. I remembered enough about the details of the sub-stories to be slightly resistant to continuing because I knew how horrifying so much of the detail was. The triumphant survivor of the story is the book itself, the Sarajevo Haggadah.

I am going to put Brooks' other titles on my wish list.

Stitch in Snow by Anne McCaffrey

Again, this one is purely a romance - a chance encounter with a stranger, both stranded by an unseasonal blizzard. I have always considered this book a candidate for McCaffrey's personal fantasy. Dana Jane Lovell is fifty year old writer of YA fiction who moved to Ireland to avoid taxes. She also has silver hair with traces of its original red. I have not, however, found anything to indicate that McCaffrey was a knitter.

The description of Dan Lowell, the romantic interest is point by point the same as that of Michael Carradyne in The Lady, including the mustache. I suppose it is really the other way around - Michael Carradyne is Dan Lowell transposed to Ireland, since this one precedes The Lady by a year. The suspense element is an accusation of murder against Dan, which is dropped as soon as they locate Dana on her lecture/book tour and she provides him with an alibi.

The book is pleasant and enjoyable. One of my favorite things is her "memory" - the journal in which she keeps track of where and when she has been and makes notes of potential characters which she encounters. It is so "writerish." Of course, the journal proves to be invaluable in substantiating her defense of Dan.

This is my favorite of her romance novels - possibly because the heroine is fifty, possibly because she is a knitter. The discussions of knitting are very real, I must suspect that McCaffrey did knit. I do have questions about someone knitting a large men's Aran in less than two weeks. I know I'm not a particularly fast knitter, but really - two weeks?

To my utter amazement, the wiki refers to two of these romantic suspense or romance novels (Ring of Fear and The Mark of Merlin) as gothics. Really? I don't think so. I just checked to see what Amazon had to say - they call them romantic suspense. On the other hand, they list a volume entitled Three Gothic Novels by Anne McCaffrey. It includes those two plus another one which I have never read. One of these days I'll get around to them - I think I read the Merlin one (I did remember that Merlin is a dog), but the other I had never heard of. For now, I think I will get back to the other two or three books that I have started - or the textbook for the class I am taking next semester.

The Lady by Anne McCaffrey

Ten year intervals. Restoree was 1967, Ring of Fear was 1977, and this one is 1987. We have traveled from Romance/Suspense/SF to Romance/Suspense to Romance. We have also traveled to Ireland, where, as we all know, McCaffrey lived for many years. And, a real surprise, I don't think I had ever read this one although it was right there on the shelf in the hall. I did find it a little slow starting - and longer than her usual, but once it got going it rolled right along.

Like Ring of Fear, its setting is horsey. This time an Irish breeding/training farm as opposed to the show circuit and a Long Island estate. The characters are a bit extreme, almost stereotypical. The good daughter, Catriona, is really too good for a twelve/thirteen year old. The religious fanatic wife/mother, Isabel, is at the point of psychosis. The American cousin, Patricia, is almost a cartoon of the British/Irish opinion of Americans.

When I characterize this as a romance, that is not to say that there isn't some of the rest. For one thing the principal romance involves the husband/father, Michael, of the horse farm and Selina, the wife of a wealthy financier. The affair begins while both are married, but the proprieties are observed in the long run. The fanatic wife/mother fasts herself into a hysterical and physical breakdown and dies. The financier beats and rapes Selina then beats her again in front of more than three witnesses - which is necessary if a woman is to obtain a legal separation in Ireland.

Now, if all this sounds appallingly Victorian - the setting is 1970. One theme of the book is clearly the position of women under the law in Ireland, but that isn't introduced until at least the half-way point - except that I had to keep flipping back to chapter one to remind myself that it was set in the 1970s not the 1870s.

Reading these back to back, inevitably I am finding bits that are very reminiscent of other works. An early crisis in the book is the death of Catriona's pony, Blister. She is behaving herself properly in the field at the hunt and an ignorant, arrogant fool runs them down at a jump and very nearly kills Catriona as well as breaking her pony's legs. It reminded me very stongly of the scene early in Dragonflight where the watchwher falls to its death to obey Lessa's command.

There are minor things, too. I have found more than one character named Maired, and I think the general physical type of the romantic men is decidedly similar - down to the mustache.

Ring of Fear by Anne McCaffrey

Pure unadulterated romantic suspense, plus horses and a cat. Not to mention a couple of murders and a whole lot of blackmail.

A slight twist on the usual formula: our heroine meets and marries the hero within the first few chapters, just a couple of days of story time. I suspose that one possibility is that the marriage gave McCaffrey license and excuse for rather more sex than she usually includes. There is a fair level of implausibility all around, but still it is good fun.

The publication date is ten years after Restoree. This one is considerably more consistent than the earlier one. The characters are more realistic and the flow is much more even. I think I may skip ahead and reread one of the very last of her romances. There's one where the main character is a rather more mature (read older) woman than the usual romantic heroine.

Restoree by Anne McCaffrey

This is the first book by McCaffrey that I ever read. And, guess what! It is the first book she ever had published. It came out in 1967 and I bought it along about then. I had just graduated from college and was still realizing that I now had enough money (on my princely salary of $8000 per annum) to occasionally buy a book. It is not available for Kindle - and the copy I just finished reading is not the first that I have owned.

There are clues that this is an early work. The characters aren't as clearly drawn and convincing as in later works, there are some inconsistencies in plotting, there are even a few spots where it drags a bit - but nothing that kept me from loving this book and rereading it many times. Another curious thing about this book in particular - it doesn't settle down cleanly on one side or the other of the line that separates McCaffrey's work into two categories in my mind. The setting and context here are clearly SF, but it shifts into what is primarily romantic suspense with the SF still dominating the action in the background, but the romance the story around the main character, Sara.

McCaffrey makes an interesting case for a society which has high technology only as a result of having captured it from invaders, and makes much of the technological voids left by having achieved space flight and such by springboard rather than by inventing it stone upon stone on their own. It is in some ways like an examination of Roddenberry's Prime Directive, which has become almost as fixed in current techno-SF as Asimov's Laws of Robotics. Sara frequently wonders why they don't have such commonplace conveniences as zippers, paper, and effective ground transportation. When the locals are ready to mount an expedition to Earth to invite them(us) to join their alliance against a mutual enemy, Sara is delighted to inform them that although earth does not have interstellar travel, there is a planetary defense system and that unaided by alien tech the people of earth have made some forays into space.