The Eight, by Katherine Neville

December 29, 2008 by Nekkidblogger · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Fiction, Katherine Neville, book review, historical fiction 

Katherine Neville’s The Eight is a book that transcends genres. It is a work of fiction as well as a crime novel and a thriller. Or it is a swashbuckling adventure, The Eight, by Katherine Neville
a historical mystery, a puzzle, with elements of fantasy thrown in. I still don’t really know. But I think it is a little of all.

The Eight has been compared to the writings of Umberto Eco and Dan Brown, and there is some substance to such comparisons. Like in works of those writers, Cathrine Neville’s plot is big and rich with symbolism and interpretation. The story revolves around an ancient chess set named the Montglane Service. Crafted by a Sufi master in Babylon, it was later given to the medieval French emperor Charlemagne.

The set supposedly has vast occult powers. Its parts have been spread around the globe and there are hidden forces working to find and unite the pieces. Two sets of players, actually. And the struggle for control over the pieces is referred to by them as “the Game”.

The Game spans centuries and generations. It is played out much like a tense game of chess with real players. The key player is Catherine Velis, a financial computer expert. She is sent to Algiers, seemingly as a “punishment” by her firm. However, she soon realized there is much more to it than that. In reality, she is a pawn in a big chess game where the stakes are incredibly high. And, as well, a parallel path is taken by Mireille de Remi, a young novice discovers that her abbey is the hiding place of a chess set, and who struggles to survive in the heart of the French Revolution. The stories of these two women, two hundred years apart, slowly converge in the book. A number of important historical figures – Rousseau, Voltaire, Talleyrand, Napoleon, and others play smaller roles in the book as well.

The book tells a large tale and has a big, convoluted plot. I found it a nice interesting read. Good fun, really, and to some extent a cult book. Still well worth a visit, in my opinion.

See, also by Katherine Neville, from amazon US: Calculated Risk, The Magic Circle, and her most recent book, The Fire: A Novel.

Or, if you prefer amazon UK, use this link:Katherine Nevilles books. And here is a link to the German translation of The Eight: Das Montglane-Spiel at Amazon DE.

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First Among Equals, by Jeffrey Archer

December 27, 2008 by Nekkidblogger · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Fiction, Jeffrey Archer, Thriller, book review 

First Among Equals, a book written by Jeffrey Archer (now Sir Jeffrey Archer) in 1984, is a tale about four gentlemen aspiring to become the Prime Minister First Among Equals, by Jeffrey Archerpof Great Britain: Fraser, Gould, Kerslake and Seymour. They all enter the House of Commons in the 1960s, each aspiring to win the highest office and to reach 10 Downing Street. But only one man can do it.

Jeffrey Archer, the master storyteller, narrates in detail the lives of each man – the ups and downs each face – and winds it up with the final battle. And the competition for the highest office of the land is fierce.

The suspense is gripping, the twists in the plot are multiple, and the man who becomes the Prime Minister is revealed only in the very last paragraph of the novel.

First Among Equals has been filmed as a TV-mini-series by the BBC. It is a great read.

You can read more Archer-reviews and more about Jeffrey Archer here.

Order First Among Equals by Jeffrey Archer from amazon UK!

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Voices, by Arnaldur Indridason

December 25, 2008 by Nekkidblogger · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Arnaldur Indridason, Fiction, Icelandic writer, book review, crime book, inspector Erlendur Sveinson, recommendation 

The plot in Voices bears certain similarities to the plot in Gaston Leroux’s 1908 mystery, The Mystery Of The Yellow Room, and to some other classical mysteries as well. However, Voices is much more psychologically penetrating in its approach than any of these. Yet another deeply satisfying tale of the odd Reykjavik inspector Erlendur Sveinson!

In Voices, Santa, Voices, by Arnaldur Indridason an employee named Gudlaugur, is found murdered in the basement of a stylish hotel in Reykjavik a few days before Christmas, and in a sexually compromising position: with his pants on his knees and a condom on his penis. The manager, understandably, is desperate to keep any whiff of scandal away from guests arriving to spend a cheery holiday amid reindeer and Icelandic hot springs.

Inspector Erlendur, who became known to crime readers when Indridason won the Gold Dagger for crime fiction with Silence of the Grave, is on another complicated case. Erlendur and his team investigate the death of this long-term employee, whom his colleagues neither noticed nor liked, against the disapproval and even hostility of the hotel staff. Erlendur, following some strange impulse, rather than return to his empty flat at the end of the first day of the investigation, takes a room at the hotel – perhaps more to spite the manager than anything else. It isn’t a nice room and the heating doesn’t work, but it forms the nucleus for the story over the few days that follow, as Erlendur quietly observes and absorbs the “voices” and rhythms of the hotel, and increasingly has to try to explain to various colleagues and his daughter why he isn’t home for Christmas.

Erlendur, using the hotel room as his base, talks to and becomes acquainted with the staff of the hotel. He talks to the chambermaid who found the body, to a seedy British guest, to the manager, and the others. Along with a picture of the dead man emerges
a picture of a hotel with layers and layers of secrets. So does the dead Gudlaugur.

Meanwhile, Elinborg, Erlendur’s female assistant, works with a case where a small boy has repeatedly arrived in hospital with minor injuries, which give rise to suspicions of parental cruelty. This story is seamlessly intertwined with the main story, and creates a whole in Voices where the two cases reinforce one another into a study of childhood and consequences of childhood experiences and abuses. As well, Erlendur himself has lost a brother at an early age, and somehow we see how this has affected to relationship to his own drug-addict daughter.

Voices is another outstanding novel by Arnaldur Indridason. The story has well-developed characters that as a reader you are either drawn to and empathize with or feel appalled by. The text is spare and direct. The plot is well developed, complex and well paced. Indridason knows how to make you turn the pages. Reading Voices is very worthwhile.

You can read more about Icelandic crime at ScandinavianBooks.com!

Other great Icelandic crime books by Arnaldur Indridason at amazon.com US include Tainted Blood, Jar City, and Silence of the Grave: A Reyjavik Murder Mystery.

If you prefer to order from amazon UK, you may follow these links: Arctic Chill, Voices, Tainted Blood, Jar City, and Silence of the Grave.

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What is the name of Stieg Larsson’s third book?

December 15, 2008 by Nekkidblogger · 3 Comments
Filed under: Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomkvist, Stieg Larsson, Swedish writer, book news, crime book 

For a long time I have been certain that the third book in the Millennium-trilogy by Stieg Larsson would be named Castles in the Sky. That is that name many people use, and which is used at stieglarsson.com.

However, now I am not so sure. Just today I came across translator Steven T. Murray’s page on Wikipedia, and there I found that he was currently engaged in translating the third book of the Millennium-series, entiteled The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

This title makes some sense – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – all titles with “The Girl Who”, so that it becomes a series by virtue of the naming. Also, Castles in the Sky makes sense from the point of view of the content of the book, but since the book is to a large extent about Lisbeth Salander, so does “The Girl Who Kicke the Hornets Nest“.

Oh well. I guess we will soon know which it is!

PS: See reviews of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire at ScandinavianBooks.com!

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Pan, by Knut Hamsun

December 13, 2008 by Nekkidblogger · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Fiction, Knut Hamsun, Nobel Prize Winner, Norwegian writer, book review 

I enjoy reading Knut Hamsun, the famous Norwegian Nobel Prize winner in Literature. He writes elegantly, lyrical, and beautiful, and I like his Pan, by Knut Hamsun sense of humor as well.

Pan: From Lieutenant Thomas Glahn’s Papers (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) is about Lieutenant Thomas Glahn, living in a hunting cabin up in the Northern part of Norway, along with his dog, Aesop. He lives not far from the village Sirius, and interacts with people there. Then something happens which turns his life upside down.

Pan is a wonderful Knut Hamsun book. Otto Weineger claimed it was the most beautiful book ever written. In Pan, Hamsun is concerned with the beauty of nature and our relationship to it. His descriptions are beautiful. His mastery of language, and his very conscious use of it, is intruiging. He uses language to underscore what is happening. For instance, when Glahn is alone, his sentences are long, drawn out, but when he talks to women, his sentences are short, distinct, intense. In addition, the story in Pan is as beautiful as it is heartbreaking.

Pan, in my humbe opinion, is one of the most interesting books written by Hamsun, a true masterpiece. At the center of the book is the eternal battle of the sexes. The book is full of pure poetry and “lyric outbursts”. Pan is also, deservedly, one of the most widely known works by Knut Hamsun.

Read more about Knut Hamsun at Scandinavianbooks.com.

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