New Readings and Ramblings

Lately I've been engaged in a lot of reading, most of it non-fiction in various areas of interest. A lot of it is related to child development and parenting, because that is the main focus of my life right now, but I am also doing readings for an Art History course I am taking and am still always reading books on Mesopotamia as background for a novel I have been working on for quite some time. The few fiction that I have been reading lately has been the result of a conscious effort to branch out a little and add some new authors to my regular reading rotation. I started reading Henning Mankell after watching the excellent BBC Wallender series with the sublime Kenneth Branagh and from there I have started on the Ian Rankin Rebus novels, just because I always meant to give them a go and the last few years I seem to be reading more mystery novels than anything else. I have also recently started reading science fiction and fantasy novels again, after a long hiatus, and am realizing how much I enjoy those genres when done well. I prefer novels that are written in a fast-paced hard boiled style rather than the more baroque and convoluted writing styles, though I do have a special place in my heart for certain stylists. China Mievelle has written the best book I have read in years, The City & The City, but I have enjoyed many of the authors I have sampled lately. Two books of note that I have just finished are from the pulpier end of the genre spectrum, but very enjoyable and right up my alley, are Andy Remic's Kell's Legend and David Gunn's Death's Head. Remic is unabashedly riffing on David Gemmell, who is one of my favorite authors to read, especially his Troy trilogy. While Remic's writing is nowhere near as smooth as Gemmell's, and he doesn't quite have the same heroic spirit as Gemmell, he handles action and pacing well, and comes up with some very inventive villains and situations. David Gunn's book is very well written, he has a stripped down prose style which is direct and clear, and he develops an intriguing character and comes up with some very intriguing environments for his hero. I love the Ferox (from a latin word for fierce whose savage culture is a good contrast/mirror for the ranking system of the Death's Head legion.