It feels weird to say this when it still feels very much like 2016, but the Ockham NZ Book Awards’ longlist for 2017 has just come out.

When I saw the list I did a wee Snoopy dance because my friend Frankie McMillan’s My Mother and The Hungarians is on it!

Frankie and HUNGARIANS are in the hunt for the Ockham Award for fiction; they’re in pretty fine company, too, including Love As A Stranger by Owen Marshall (who was my mentor in the NZ Society of Authors Mentorship Programme in 2005. )

One interesting thing about My Mother and The Hungarians is that it’s a collection of flash fiction (I think that’s 500 words or less — very short stories indeed, at any rate) so it will be interesting to see how it fares against the novel-length works.

Personally, I think it has a very good chance of making the short list so now I shall just have to wait and see whether the judges agree, a wait I suspect will be far less nerve-wracking for me than for all the longlisted authors!

I featured an excerpt from My Mother and the Hungarians here on August 23. To read it, click on:

The house on Holloway Street

A friend loaned me The Outcast from her bookshelf because I said I felt like  a break from SFF (Which I do read a lot if, it being my genre, so to speak.)

She thought I might enjoy it and she was right, I did. The Outcast is about 1950s, middle class, semi-rural England. In particular, it’s about a boy, Lewis, whose mother drowns in a tragic accident which only he witnesses. The Outcast explores the consequences of this traumatic event for ten-year-old Lewis, consequences that are exacerbated because his father is emotionally withdrawn (perhaps as a result of serving in WW2, but perhaps not — this aspect is not really explored in the book) and also jealous of his son’s closeness to his mother.

The second major character in the book is Kit, the daughter of a neighbouring family who carries a torch for Lewis from a very young age. She is also on the receiving end of her father’s physical violence, a violence that the family conceals from the rest of their small community.

Although promoted as a novel that explores the stultifying social and family mores of the 1950s, I thought the The Outcast was more a character study of the profound and enduring effect tragedy has on Lewis, shaping his transition from child to young man. His story is juxtaposed against a society that, although narrow, is still recognizable in terms of the tendency to judge on scanty information and happily speculate where no sound information is available.

I also particularly liked Kit’s character. Although the victim of domestic violence she nonetheless actively resists giving in to victimhood, chiefly through strength of personality and a fierce intellect.

The Outcast is not a plotless story, but its strength and focus is the indepth exploration of its characters and their motivations. In the sense that they remain true to character throughout, I am not sure they can be said to develop in a literary sense — but they do feel very real.

The Outcast was Sadie Jones’ debut novel. Shortlisted for the Orange Prize, it won the Costa First Novel Award in 2008.

Additional Information:

As mentioned, I read my friend’s copy of The Outcast, which was the mass market edition published by Vintage in 2008.

beachcombing
along the boulder bank
sandshoe, bottles, watering can

© Helen Lowe

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Recently, I’ve been focusing on poetry themed around the sea, including haiku. This is one of mine, from 2014, when I spent several months in a remote coastal location, finishing Daughter of Blood.

Prior ‘Sea’ Poems include:

“The Sea” by Tim Jones

“Dover Beach” (Excerpt) by Matthew Arnold

“Breathing You In” by David Gregory

“We are more than half water” by Helen Rickerby

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part 1 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“The Seafarer” Excerpt from the Anglo Saxon poem (Anonymous)

Two Short Poems by Bernadette Hall

“The woman who swims with jellyfish” by Janice Freegard

“the rough sea” — a haiku by Matsuo Bashō

… and I liked it.

Quite a lot, actually.

I thought it was an intelligent and engaging look at what a ‘first contact’ scenario might look like, with the tensions between what it really takes to establish effective communication set against the realities of our worlds divisions and fear.

Most of all, it was a hopeful film, both in the interactions between the human beings in the story and with the aliens.

I also liked both Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in their lead roles–Adams was compelling as the linguist on the ‘first contact’ front line and Jeremy Renner convincing as the scientist working with her.

I thought they had chemistry…

Although I read a review that suggested they didn’t have chemistry, I guess the reviewer and I must have seen different films. Just sayin’ 🙂

The ideas around linear and nonlinear experiences of time were also interesting.

All in all, “Arrival” joins my list of good SciFi movie viewing.

To check out the list I made a few years back, click on:

My Top SF Films

This, dear readers, is the book that I did not grok.

It comes with very good credentials, winning the Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award in 2006, being nominated for the Nebula Award in 2014 and winning the Hugo Award in 2015.

Written by Chinese SF author, Cixin Liu, and translated into English by American author Ken Liu, The Three Body Problem begins in the era of the Cultural Revolution but also takes place in the present day. To give some context, here is the backcover blurb from my paperback edition:

“1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China’s Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of humanity.

Four decades later Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang’s investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him n a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredictable interaction of its three suns.

This is the Three-Body Problem and it is the key to everything:  the key to the scientists’ death, the key to a conspiracy, and the key to the extinction-level threat humanity now faces.”

I began by being really engaged by the opening, Cultural Revolution phases of the book, only to stall once it came forward into present time and the Three-Body Problem game and events around it took centre stage. The game in particular did not engage me and it formed a large part of the book.

However, although I remained stalled for some time, I was determined to finish the book. In the end it became my aeroplane-journey read and my own wee game became how many boarding passes I would collect before I reached the finish line. Answer: nine boarding passes and six months, for a 424 page book.

In terms of why, I believe this is because:

• the strength of the book is the scientific speculation and the use of that to create the conundrum of the Three-Body (sun) world. The story is also unquestionably plot driven.
• Conversely, the characters exist chiefly to serve the plot, rather than being explored and developed in their own right. Overall, they are remarkably “flat”.
• And in the final part of the book, where the narrative shifts briefly to the Three-Body world, there are no point-of-view characters: effectively the story is being related to the reader, who is ‘told’ about the society and its culture by means of what is known as “the omniscient narrator” technique.

As a reader, I find this kind of storytelling unsatisfying. Since I have never been strongly drawn to games, I was not engaged by the considerable part of the book that centred on the Three-Body Problem scenarios. With hindsight, therefore, I can see that The Three-Body Problem was never going to be a book that appealed to me.

However, I suspect The Three-Body Problem will offer a great deal more to those who actively enjoy games, particularly problem-solving games (as opposed to “shoot ’em ups”), and who like their Science Fiction strongly grounded in real science — although I should note that the storyline does not necessarily adhere to what we know or theorise about the nature of the universe, so in this sense it skirts Space Opera territory.

The Three-Body Problem may also appeal to readers who prefer plot-driven stories and are (far) less concerned about character development.

But if, like me, you prefer characters and their development to get at least equal billing with the plot, then the chances are that The Three-Body Problem may not be for you, either.

—

Additional Information

I read the mass market paperback edition of The Three-Body Problem (Head of Zeus Ltd, 2016). I purchased my own copy rather than reading one made available by the publisher or author.

Regular visitors here will probably realise that crime fiction and whodunnits are not my usual reading fare, which in terms of fiction is firmly centred on Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Historical novels, with Contemporary Realism providing a consistent supporting thread.

So when reading Magpie Murders (as reported on yesterday) I was intrigued to notice the difference in my approach. When reading my preferred genres I am a far more demanding and critical reader. I expect plot and characters, subtext and pace to not only deliver but do so to a high standard.

With the crime/whodunnit novel, however, it was enough that it was reasonably well written and the storyline and characters reasonably engaging. In short, I set the bar less high.

I believe this is one very good reason supporting my decision only to review books I’ve enjoyed. Because if the ones I haven’t enjoyed are in my core genres then the chances are that the yardstick I’m using is an exacting one; even a very exacting one.

To be fair, though, I apply the same yardstick to my own writing so at least I’m being consistently exacting within those genres. 😉

Magpie Murders is a whodunnit, very much in the style of  the classic crime writers such as Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh. It’s even set in a 1950s English village.

One of the stories, that is.

Because this, you see, is a whodunnit within a whodunnit, with the contemporary story centering on a missing manuscript and an editor’s realisation that a famous crime writer’s suicide may in fact be murder…

In many ways, Magpie Murders is a kind of roman-a-clef, except the key turns—not on the characters being thinly veiled real people—but on the world of books and publishing and best-selling authors. Both the stories work, although I found the contemporary tale, which bookends the more classic whodunnit, the more compelling of the two. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the latter tale.

For me, the greatest interest in the story was in the character exploration of the deceased author, Alan Conway, particularly his relationships with former lovers, friends, and family, as well as his frustrated ambitions. I also thought the fact that Alan Conway’s detective, Atticus Pund, was terminally ill added interest to the otherwise “by the numbers” vintage whodunnit.

Magpie Murders is an enjoyable and undemanding light read that should please all those who like whodunnits and the era of vintage crime writing in particular.

—

Additional Information:

I read an uncorrected proof copy, trade paperback size, 203 pp, obtained from my NZ publisher Hachette as part of their pre-Christmas roadshow.

the rough sea —
stretching above Sado Island
the Milky Way

by Matsuo Bashō, 1644-1694

—

No consideration of sea poetry (my current theme) would be complete without at least one haiku — and this one, by the great Matsuo Bashō is among the most famous. The haiku is from the classic book, The Narrow Road To The Deep North.

—

Prior ‘Sea’ Poems include:

“The Sea” by Tim Jones

“Dover Beach” (Excerpt) by Matthew Arnold

“Breathing You In” by David Gregory

“We are more than half water” by Helen Rickerby

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part 1 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“The Seafarer” Excerpt from the Anglo Saxon poem (Anonymous)

Two Short Poems by Bernadette Hall

“The woman who swims with jellyfish” by Janice Freegard

Never say never…

I thought I should reassure followers and those who have not been able to get through via text or phone (the systems have been somewhat overloaded) that I and all my family and friends are OK following the severe earthquake overnight.

Although considerably larger than than Christchurch earthquake of February 22nd, 2011 that did so much damage here in Christchurch, it was centered approximately 95 km to the north and consequently felt considerably less violent than the February 22nd ‘quake.

It was far more prolonged, however, being ca. 2 minutes in duration as opposed to 30-odd seconds and still a very disturbing event, with subsequent evacuation of coastal, tsunami-risk areas.

This, again

The worst-hit area appears to be the coastal township of Kaikoura in North Canterbury, which is currently cut off. The resort of Hanmer Springs is also cut off and there has been significant damage in the Marlborough township of Ward. All the State Highways to the north are closed or on reduced traffic; SI railways and those in the Wellington region are also closed.

To date, two people are known to have died, one in Kaikoura in a house collapse and one at Mt Lyford station in North Canterbury. However there may well be others who are injured and the aftershocks, many of them major earthquakes in their own right,  are continuing. Our experience from 2020-2011 suggests this could continue for some time.

Needless to say, my thoughts are with the families of those who have died and all those who have been affected by this major event. I will post again if and when there is further news of substance.

“I know” — how can this be? But I’ve been a mad reading loon of late and chomped my way through not one but five books!

Although to be fair, I’ve been reading one of them for months. In truth, I could not “grok” it and although I shall discuss some of the reasons why that was the case, I was determined to finish it.

Now you may be thinking, is Helen going to break her own rule and talk about a book she didn’t enjoy? The answer is “yes”, but also “no” since I didn’t hate it by any means and I think it will appeal to many readers. (In fact, I know it already has.) So to me, that makes for an interesting discussion, and when we get to it I hope you’ll agree.

Anyway, here’s the full list of what I have been reading, several of which I enjoyed very much, others of which I enjoyed well enough, and one which I did not grok — but I intend to be mean and let you find out which is which as the posts arise:

• Magpie Murders by Michael Horowitz
• The Outcast by Sadie Jones
• The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu)
• Zero World by Jason Hough
• Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

First up will be Magpie Murders, but not until Wednesday because Tuesday, of course, is poetry day here on “…Anything, Really.” 🙂