Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany
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I have to operate a ‘one-in-one-out’ policy on books, because my flat is very small and books go soggy if you start piling them up in the bathroom.
There are a few heading for the Amnesty bookshop in Eversholt St this week.
Ratking by Michael Dibdin
is another in the Aurelio Zen series. Zen is called back into active service to solve the mystery of the kidnapping of the head of an Umbrian industrial family, and soon realises that it may be an inside job. There’s also a nice sideplot around Zen’s failing relationship with an Englishwoman, and the cultural contrasts there. I’m looking forward to reading his last novel, which has been reviewed along with his obituaries recently, after his untimely death earlier this year.
I didn’t manage to finish The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah by Karen Armstrong
It sounds like a fascinating, if overworked idea - there was a fairly short period of time around 5-600BC, when many of the worlds major religions were undergoing an enormous amount of change, and some of the greatest ancient philosophers were doing their work. It could be a fascinating story, but instead its long-winded and desperately in need of some heavy editing.
The Revolution of St. Jone, by Lorna Mitchell 
is from the Women’s Press Science Fiction series. In a post-apocalyptic future, cyborg humans run the world through a corrupted form of religion which preserves some familiar structures but is instead dedicated to playing video games and gathering memories into a giant database. St Jone is a missionary to ‘Yukay’ which seems to be a degenerated Scotland, where she realises that humanity has more to it than her masters would have her believe. A pleasant tale, very typical of eighties feminist science fiction, and good to brighten up a wet afternoon.
Technorati Tags: michael dibdin, karen armstrong, lorna mitchell
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