** Georgette Heyer – Envious Casca
*** David Wingrove – Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom
*** Soseki Natsume- Botchan

As I understand it, the modern American detective novel arose in part in reaction to all those British puzzle-mysteries (by Conan Doyle, Christie, etc), in which the murder was done in some ingenious way not revealed until the very end, when we learn that it was a rare poisonous snake, a trained rat sent down a convenient drainpipe, or the butler. How Dashiell Hammett would have hated Envious Casca then, in which the murder is not only a locked-room mystery but takes place at an English country manor, peopled by an eccentric cast of etc etc. The writing is good and the characters are fairly interesting, but the mystery is partly predictable (it’s not that hard to figure out, though the character twist is satisfying) and partly gimmicky (the way it’s done is kind of silly, and the clue that gives it away is frankly lame). The book whiled away the time but I probably could have found a better way to occupy myself.

Chung Kuo is an epic science fiction novel, set about 200 years in the future, when the Chinese rule an earth spanned by a single massive city, in which 40 billion people live stacked many levels deep. The rulers hope to prevent change and progress, but a dissatisfied faction agitates for change and starts a rebellion. I love a good epic, and luckily there are seven more books after this one. It took a while to get into the book, and to start being able to remember all the different characters and the bits and pieces of mandarin thrown in, but once I got into it I enjoyed the rest of the book and all the different story threads. One compelling thing about the book is that neither side is unambiguously good or bad. The rebels represent freedom and progress, but also violence and cruelty, while the rulers represent oppression and stasis, as well as culture and philosophy. In temperament, I side with the rulers, but then I remind myself that they basically want to control what everyone does and says and stifle all innovation. So that keeps it interesting.

Apparently Botchan is a popular favorite in Japan, about the misadventures of a somewhat self-centered young man who becomes a teacher at a country school. At first I thought he was just a thoughtless oaf, but he turns out to have good basic principles, and he sticks to them admirably. The story is small and light and the book passes quickly, but it’s a good time with some good values thrown in. I can see why it’s popular.

** Karen Tei Yamashita – Brazil-Maru
**** Patrick O’Brian – The Mauritius Command
*** Rafael Sabatini – Scaramouche
*** Robert E. Howard – Cormac Mac Art

I’ve read a little bit before about the large Japanese community in Brazil, and I was really looking forward to learning more about it from Yamashita’s book. Some of that aspect of the book was very interesting, but I ended up feeling like the story was specific to a particular community, a sort of utopian commune sort of group — which is fine, but I didn’t end up finding those specific people as interesting. The story didn’t stay interesting for me, and the characters didn’t really feel real.

More great O’Brian, I’ve given up on saying much beyond that about his books.

Scaramouche was a great adventure novel, very entertaining.

I’ve been meaning to reread some Howard, particularly the Conan books. I found this one used, but no Conan. It was okay; much of the problem was that some of what’s in the book was actually written by David Drake (who I’ve gotten tired of), and some of what’s left was unfinished (and the book doesn’t really make this clear). That said, I enjoyed the Howard bits and look forward to reading more.

** Yasunari Kawabata – Snow Country
**** Patrick O’Brian – HMS Surprise

Snow Country was less a story or even a character study as much as a snapshot or piece of a mood. Kind of a haiku, but taking a lot longer to read. It describes a woman who’s basically a geisha at a winter village, where people come for skiing and other winter activities, and a man who visits her three times, seems to promise to take care of her, and then doesn’t. It was kind of absurd to me that so much emotional weight is supposedly placed on what seemed to be a very brief, shallow connection; there didn’t seem any compelling reason for either to care deeply about the other, or for the woman to think the man was serious or to become so attached to him. I enjoyed a lot of the moments but overall found it uncompelling.

HMS Surprise is #4 of the Aubrey/Maturin series and one that introduces maybe the most beloved supporting character of all: Jack’s once and future ship, the HMS Surprise. Plus there’s Sophie and Diana and all the usual crew.