The Hornblower Series - C.S. Forester

I read about half of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels a few years ago, and was completely addicted to his tales of adventure on the high seas. The novels are amazing in their detailed description of life on a King's ship at the turn of the 19th century. They follow the two main characters through naval battles, political intrigue, domestic challenges, and international espionage.

Jack Aubrey is an up and coming British Royal Navy officer in the time of the Napoleonic wars. Stephen Maturin is his ship's surgeon, and sometime spy. Aubrey is a character who viewed the world in black and white. The needs and traditions of the service are always foremost in his mind. For Maturin, the world is a much more complex place. The Maturin character in particular gives these novels a depth that allow the O'Brian novels to exist as something more than great stories.

C.S. Forester's novels were the inspiration for the O'Brian works, so I had to give them a shot. I started on Christmas Eve, and have read 6 books so far. The only reason I'm writing this entry, and not reading the next one is that the bookstore is closed right now!

Forester's Hornblower novels lack the depth of the O'Brian books, but stand as truly great stories. The O'Brian works are very enjoyable reads, but the later novels suffer from too much exposition on the tedium of life ashore. This may appeal to some, but I eventually lost interest in the series. No such problems with Hornblower. Horatio Hornblower is like Jack Aubrey without the boring home life! So far, every book is packed with action. If you enjoy historical fiction, these books will not disappoint.

Still in the queue:

• Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point
• Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
• David Liss' A Conspiracy of Paper
• Carl Hiaasen's Sick Puppy
• Bob Dylan's Chronicles Volume One
• Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities
  

Stormy Weather - Carl Hiaasen

Stormy Weather is another fun read from Carl Hiaasen. Like Skinny Dip, reviewed on this page one week ago, Stormy Weather is a character and dialog driven romp through south Florida.

One key figure in this book, who shows up as a minor character in Skinny Dip, is someone called Skink. Skink also answers to "The Captain." The Captain is a former high profile Floridian who goes off the radar, and is a little "off." This character reminds me of a friend in the Cincinnati kayaking community. Maybe Hiaasen has met him?

After two good results, I can now say that Hiaasen has joined my list of authors who are safe buys. I'm pretty sure that any novel of his that I pick up will give me a few hours of good fun.

Up next on the Bedside Table are:

• C.S. Forester's Lieutenant Hornblower
  
• Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point
• Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
• David Liss' A Conspiracy of Paper
• Bob Dylan's Chronicles Volume One
  

The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson

The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is the novel that, along with Snow Crash, put Neal Stephenson on the map in the mid 90's. Stephenson has since written a string of imaginative, thought provoking books that all touch on some aspect of the nature of information and it's movement. While it's never stated, Diamond Age seems to be set about 50 - 75 years after Snow Crash.

The first part of the title is a reference to the names that anthropologists and historians use to describe the technological ages of humans: Stone Age, Bronze Age, etc. Some believe that we will one day have the ability to create objects and devices at the atomic level. One result of this might be the ability to synthesize carbon based objects which use the crystalline structure of diamonds. This may yield materials that might be, among other properties, extremely light and rigid. Hence, the Diamond Age.

Like the other his works, Stephenson touches on a wide variety of subjects. The future according to Stephenson includes the perfection of nanotechnology, obsolescence of nation-states, distributed consciousness, and an emphasis of culture over ethnicity.

Set in this world is the story of John Hackworth, a leading nanotech engineer, and Nell, a young girl of humble birth. Hackworth is commissioned to create the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, a futuristic book which is capable of tailoring its content to the reader's interests and abilities. Nell's life is changed dramatically when her brother gives her the primer after mugging Hackworth and stealing a copy of the Primer.

Diamond Age was not an easy book to get into initially. I read the book over the course of two months, with other reading interspersed. I never really lost interest, but it took awhile before the book really grabbed me. Stephenson writes with a focus on narrative. There is relatively little dialog, and the characters are not as fully developed as some might like. In spite of these things, the book is well worth the effort. The stories of Hackworth and Nell are compelling, and the vision of the future put forth is like nothing I've ever read. Unlike most science fiction, Diamond Age and Snow Crash contain a future world that could believably exist in our lifetime.

Up next on the Bedside Table are:

• Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point
• Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
• David Liss' A Conspiracy of Paper
• Carl Hiaasen's Sick Puppy
• Carl Hiaasen's Stormy Weather
  

Skinny Dip - Carl Hiassen

My most recent read is Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip. I picked up the book the other day on a whim and plowed through it in a day.

Skinny Dip is character and dialog driven fiction. The plot is original and well constructed, but it's the characters that make you want to keep reading. There's a chronically inept biologist, his remarkably resilient wife, a morally bankrupt Florida agri-mogul, and his dim-witted minion. Hiaasen weaves sparse narrative with crisp dialog to keep the story moving along.

This is not life changing, morally uplifting fiction we're talking about here. The book is simply fun, easy reading. I found myself biting my lip to avoid waking my wife with laughter. Fans of Elmore Leonard will recognize and appreciate the style of entertaining, well written crime fiction. I'm not ready to put Hiassen up on the throne with Leonard, but he's close. I liked Skinny Dip well enough to go back to the store for two more of Hiaasen's novels today. I'll let you know how they stack up.

Books currently on the bedside table are:

• Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age
• Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point
• Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
• David Liss' A Conspiracy of Paper
• Hiaasen's Sick Puppy