Books wot I read in 2009
Posted 15 December 09 by Scott AndrewsBound to be a few I’ve forgotten, but for what it’s worth…
Dan Simmons – The Terror
900+ pages of grim as hell reconstruction of the doomed Franklin expedition in search of the North West passage. Simmons adds a spectral monster to the mix, which gives form to the potent combination of ignorance and fate which did for the Erebus and Terror. A gruelling but gripping read, with an unexpectedly redemptive ending.
Ian Rankin – Knots and Crosses
Rebus’ first outing. Dour, very Scottish, and a little overwrought, but it’s clear Rankin has talent to burn. Not quite good enough to make me want to read the rest, though.
Iain Banks – Matter / The Steep Approach To Garbadale / The Business / Canal Dreams
Canal Dreams was very disappointing. I’ve blogged both The Business and Garbadale. Matter is the best Culture book since Use of Weapons. Yes, I know Excession is brilliant but it’s too hard to follow, and Inversions is good but slight, while Look To Windward is 500 pages of people talking about something that never happens – yawn. At least Matter has a beginning, middle and end, a driving plot, some great characters, potent ideas and a pleasingly grisly dénouement.
Dean R Koontz – The Husband
Koontz is an odd one. Each of his books seems to begin with a long comic dialogue between two characters, before swerving left into a thriller. But I suspect, were he to try it, he’d be a better comic writer than a thriller one. His novels are resolutely linear, with heroes who win simply because they are morally pure in the face of evil so black that he doesn’t need to invest it with any psychological plausibility. They’re fast paced, gripping reads but I’d love to read a non-thriller comic novel from him; I reckon it’d be brilliant.
Robert Muchamore – The Recruit / The Escape
The Recruit is a superb alternative to the glamour and gadgets of Alex Rider and Young James Bond. Muchamore’s teen spy hero is a council estate asbo waiting to happen who finds himself in care after his morbidly obese criminal mum dies of a drug and drink binge in the first chapter. Thereafter it’s spy school and an assignment that dares to present shades of grey and complicated motivations rather than Dr No style supervillains and grand schemes. Thrilling, clever and fresh. The Escape, a WWII thriller set in the same universe, failed to grab me quite so much. Perhaps the casual brutality of it, while realistic, left too bitter a taste in my mouth.
Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy
Stunning but problematic. The third book could have been omitted entirely, or dealt with by a few lines of dialogue at the start of the fourth. It’s satisfying but nothing remotely surprising happens during it. The main issue is that his anti-misogynist theme occasionally overwhelms his good sense. In his world it’s impossible for any male character to have any issue at all with a female character without couching it in misogynistic terms like ‘bitch’ or ‘whore’. I seriously got to the point where I felt like throwing the book across the room every time some previously well balanced male character railed against a woman as a bitch whore in internal monologue or, at one point, out loud. It was gratuitous and lacked plausibility or genuine depth. That said – he writes great thrillers.
Douglas Coupland – Eleanor Rigby
Blogged
Christopher Fowler – Bryant and May on the Loose
Peerless. Word is Gambon and Jacobi are lined up for the telly version. Can’t wait.
Jonathan Coe – House of Sleep
Loved this, although I guessed the ‘twist’ a few chapters earlier than I think I was supposed to. Coe writes great characters and has a winning tendency to let his stories go way, way out there into realms that almost border on fantasy.
Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
His masterpiece. The Jungle Book reconcieved and set in a graveyard where a baby boy called Nobody is raised by benevolent ghosts and a Vampire named Silas. Mythic, touching, exciting and downright weird, this is quite simply the best children’s book published this year, possibly this decade.
