Anders Monsen

Lost worlds and ports of call

Month: December 2021

Montalbano, the final book

December 29, 2021 /

It’s a bittersweet thought, coming to the end of Italian writer Andrea Camilleri’s last Montalbano book.

I was introduced to this writer almost a decade ago by my father. He lives in England, had read some of the books, watched some of the TV shows. I picked up one somewhere, at random, not knowing much about the author or the series. Since then I’ve searched high and low for all his books. Some I’ve found in used book stores, others more recently bought as they’re translated and published. They follow a standard formula, but I can’t put the down.

Camilleri died in 2019. By then he was already blind, dictating his last books. It’s an eerie parallel to the last books by Jack Vance, my favorite author, who also suffered from eye problems and dictated his last books. Camilleri was 93 when he died, Vance three years older at 96. Their styles of writing are vastly different. Both wrote mysteries, though Vance is more known for his SF and fantasy books.

It’s now the end of 2021, and I finally have Riccardino, the last Montalbano novel. Apparently it was written in 2005, with instructions to publish it after his death. Published a year after he died, this is an unusual step. When I last read the most recent Montalbano novel, The Cook of the Halcyon, it seemed that Montalbano was at a crossroads. What would happen in his life? How then, would a novel written over a decade ago, tie into that last novel?

At 254 pages, Riccardino is slightly longer than most Montalbano novels. My anticipation when I first started the novel was high. Why wait this long? How did it tie into other novels?

And then I read the book.

First, there was the blurb on the back cover, which mentioned the main character interacting with “the author.” Unlike any of his previous books in the series, Camilleri has avoided such a meta-novel, where the characters interact with the author. Not this one. It happens multiple times. It’s annoying, and dismisses everything previously written. The afterword almost has it makes sense. Camilleri thought it would be his last novel in the series, written when he was 80 years ago. That’s he write for another 11 years was then unthinkable. Maybe he saw reason and suppressed it for that reason. He should have burned it.

There are many frustrations with the Montalbano series: they are repetitive; they follow a formula; Livia: Montalbano’s long-distance girl-friend; many of the characters are annoying beyond belief. But, usually the plot (or multiple plots, interconnected in weird ways), are the main attraction. You sort of put up with the formula. Maybe you hope Montalbano finally moves on from Livia. He seems to do that a couple of times, but one ends in tragedy, the other in suspense.

So, Riccardino, which started off somewhat interesting (aside from the meta-fiction portion), falters at the end, devolving into some sort of brainstorming session between character and author. It then fades into nothingness. It’s a disappointing waste of time and money. Certainly not the way I wanted to remember the last Montalbano novel.

Soho Crime Books

December 24, 2021 /

I’m slowly amassing a collection of books published by the Soho Crime imprint. I’m only collecting trade paperbacks, as I’m intrigued by the near uniform design, especially on the spine, as well as the quality of the writers. All the books by the same author receive the same color, and colors vary from author to author. So far I have 136 books under this imprint, and that’s probably just a fraction of the books they’ve published.

Soho Crime publishes a lot of non-America authors. This includes writers from the UK, the Netherlands, Japan, Scandinavia, Africa, Asia. They also publish American writers, usually with a focus on specific country settings, from Nantucket to Laos, Alaska to Paris. Around seven years ago I started my collection with one book by Janwillem van de Wetering, based on a recommendation from a co-worker. The first book might have been Outsider in Amsterdam, or maybe The Corpse on the Dike. Since then I’ve added several van de Wetering books, as well as multiple other series. Other well-represented writers include Mick Herron and Peter Lovesey, and almost all the James R. Benn books.

Since I sometime organize my shelves by publishers and then writers, at one point someone wondered if I organized them by color, since he saw all the Soho Crime books, and all the authors had their own colors on the covers. I think I mentioned my shelving philosophy elsewhere; I don’t always organize books by publisher, only if they stand out, like my Golden Gryphon hardcovers, or a single shelf of Arkham House books (Although there are, I think, two or three exceptions for the latter publisher, where the Arkham House books are grouped with their authors.) I now have an entire bookshelf devoted to my Soho Crime collection. It’s not a tall bookshelf, though I’m sure the books will migrate to a taller one once they outgrow this bookshelf.

The great thing about Soho Crime books is that most of them are reasonably priced, also also the stories take place in unique settings. There are exceptions, of course, but in many cases their authors limit themselves to specific places. So, reading their books are a way to visit strange places without having to travel there. This isn’t an issue of quantity over quality, as most of the books I’ve read so far have been superb. For some reason I’ve always struggled with buying books that cost more that $10; likely from years of poverty and a minimum wage job to support myself during college. That was a long time ago, but it stick with me, and while some of their books are around $10, most are in the $16 range. For a trade paperback, that to me seems excessive. Still, that’s inflation, I guess.

One major problem that I face is that bookstores were I live don’t stock a lot of Soho Crime books. There’s one big-box store, and one or two small independent bookstores in my city. Otherwise it’s hit or miss with used bookstores. So far I’ve had best success visiting specialty bookstores, such as Mysterious Books in New York City or Murder by the Book in Houston. The latter is closer, a mere three and half hour drive away, and the two times I’ve been there this year I’ve walked away with a stack of books. When I was in NYC, a few years ago now, and seemingly a different lifetime, I found an equal number of books. (Prior to that visit it had been two decades since my last trip to NYC, and that was during a a time I didn’t read mystery books.) Otherwise, I find some in used book stores, a fact that gives me a twinge of guilt as the authors get none of my money.

So, if you want an introduction to great crime novels, check out any book published by Soho Crime. Pick one at random, or look at the cover to see if the location interests you. It might be the start of a mad collecting habit, like mine.

Dan Simmons’ Carrion Comfort

December 9, 2021 /

Back in 1989 I bought a paperback copy of Dan Simmon’s massive novel, Carrion Comfort. It had been published as a limited edition hardcover by Dark Harvest, and small press out of Illinois. At that time I was a poor student and couldn’t afford such luxuries, and anyway most copies of the Dark Harvest books that weren’t bought by individuals found their way into dealers’ hands who jacked up the prices.

As the years passed, I watched prices for this edition rise, and never pulled the trigger on buying a copy. Until now – 2021. I don’t frequent SF conventions any more, where I can peruse actual copies of books and look for imperfections. I have to rely on descriptions on the internet, which are suspect at best. Sure, I probably overpaid, but the person who sold it advertised a copy with the original wrapper. This usually means no spine damage, so I went ahead and bought it.

I can’t say I remember much about the novel. After all, I read it back over 30 years ago. I remember it’s about vampires, but not your usual blood-sucking kind. Since then I’ve bought almost all of Simmons’ books. There are exceptions. I don’t have the hardcover of Hyperion, which sells for $500 (if the seller is generous). I now own 24 books published by Dark Harvest, many accumulated when the prices were retail. That publisher long since has vanished, and several of their books exist that I lack; the only one I care about now is the 3rd volume of Night Visions.

So, first impressions of this book? Well, it looks good. I did read the prologue, and plan of reading the rest of the novel soon. I’m thrilled to finally have this copy, and only Hyperion in hardcover would make my Simmons collection complete (well, there are two recent books I haven’t picked up, but I’m not too thrilled with his recent work, so it can wait — sorry, Dan).

Still, this all goes back to my view of myself as a sort of haphazard collector. With books (authors) as with music, my tastes are both narrow and eclectic. I do wonder how to structure my collection once gone – to whom do I bequeath this small but moderately valuable collection? In the meantime, I do savor holding and reading these special books, produced by special publishers. If only I were more of a fanatic…Da

MCU in the TVU

December 9, 2021 /

The Marvel Cinematic Universe spans 20+ movies. For a while there also existed , separately from from those movies, various shows like Agents of SHIELD, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, The Punisher, Daredevil. The TV shows acknowledged the movies, while the movies ignored the shows. No sign of any of these heroes in the Endgame battle, no mention of Agent Coulson’s return from the dead in any of the Avenger movies. Once Disney absorbed Marvel, those TV shows fizzled. I’d watched most of them, though I gave up on the final seasons of Iron Fist and Jessica Jones once I heard these would be the last ones, and those characters and actors shunted off to the side. I didn’t read those as comics, unlike Daredevil; their story arcs meant little too me, though I wasn’t bothered like some others about the person who was Iron Fist.

With the massive success of most of the MCU movies, from individual episodes (with sequels), to the ensemble installments, I thought that Disney would pick up those shows. Instead, the launched limited series based on known characters: Loki, Wanda and Vision (the dead never stay dead in superhero life), the Falcon and Winter Soldier. I caught two episodes of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, then stopped watching, and never saw a single episode of Loki or WandaVision. These shows all seemed irrelevant, made of characters that meant nothing to me, arcs that were meaningless. However, that changed with Hawkeye.

In the MCU movies, Hawkeye has no special powers. He’s not a god, not a genius, not a super soldier or gamma-augmented shapeshifter. He’s just phenomenal with a bow and arrow. His character arc in the movies went from minor to slightly more than minor, but to me he always seemed like the everyman, more so than the childish Ant-Man. Played by Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye seemed like a reluctant hero, yet one who went through major emotional turmoil. He lost his wife and kids in the Thanos snap. He lost his best friend in the effort to bring back his wife and kids. He lost himself twice, first when Loki took over his mind, and second when he became Ronin, and went on a rampage against organized crime. When Marvel/Disney announced a Hawkeye TV show (or rather, set of 6 episodes), I though nothing of it, as I figured it was a strange concept. Of the previous shows, I enjoyed Daredevil the most, as he came across as a tragic figure, yet still able to rise each time. How would the writers pull off a decent show about the least powerful Avenger?

They would do this by lining up Hawkeye’s next generation Avenger, someone who actually might figure in future Marvel movies. As far as the other newer TV shows go, the Falcon might be the new Captain America, the Loki show is simply the writers on some heavy drugs, and WandaVision sets up crazy multiverse and magic stuff that can always be undone. With Clint Barton likely aging out and moving on, there needs to be a new Hawkeye, and what better than to introduce a character in their early twenties who can play the role for a few movies? While Disney/Marvel can’t let go of certain characters, they can reimagine them. The Falcon taking over as Captain America? Weird but ok, I guess. No super soldier serum there, but maybe the mantle means more. Iron Man is dead, so who will take over his role? I’m sure they’ll find someone. As for Hawkeye, why not a young woman? This actually makes better sense than a junior Clint Barton.

I don’t know much about the actor playing the role of Kate Bishop. I haven’t read the comics upon which the show is based. I therefore don’t care how loyal the show is to the comics. What I care about is whether the show works, and two episodes into Hawkeye, I think it does. It’s tough to analyze a 6-show venture. The first two or three episodes will generally introduce characters, which leave two or three episodes to push along a good story and wrap up an arc. So far, that’s what’s happened. The first episode introduced Kate Bishop, the person who will likely take over as the new Hawkeye. The second showed more of Clint Barton. Since the next episodes will be released once a week, I expect these will now feature both characters as they learn to work with each other.

So far I’ve not seen anything in the first two episodes to make me not want to keep watching Hawkeye. Unlike Falcon and Winter Soldier, the social commentary is at a minimum. The actors in both series are great, but in Hawkeye it’s more about the story. And, so far at least, it’s fun. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier show came across as dreary. Why watch a show that just beats you over the head again and again with misery?

I know there’s an entire industry out there trying to predict Disney/Marvel ventures, spinning up YouTube entries on speculations and insider information in an effort to build up their own rep and cred. My few words here aren’t part of that, but rather a musing on why one show means more to me than others. I’d throw this in the pot about why I probably won’t watch the Boba Fett show, and would rather see the Cara Dune character in a series played by the original actor (even though I know little about actor herself, she played the character well). It’s all a matter of taste, and in some cases I think certain shows work, and others don’t, but I realize other people have other opinions. So be it. In the end, my simple musing mean little to the powers behind those shows. The fact that I’d like to see more Daredevil shows with Charlie Cox means nothing to the powers that be, nor to Mr. Cox.

Still, whatever happens in the Hawkeye show, and whether or not the actor playing Kate Bishop takes over the mantle of the famed archer in future movies, the two episodes so far have been a worthwhile way to spend a few minutes of my time. I hope it continues. I hope it bleeds over into the movies.

At some point in the future, the MCU will lose steam. It will come to an end. People may tire of superheroes. They for sure will tire of crap stories. As long as the stories are interesting, they will matter. For now, I think Hawkeye fills that need. It’s a heck of a lot more fun and meaningful than the other Disney/Marvel shows.

Addendum: I drafted this after only two episodes of Hawkeye, and before reports exploded on web sites that the Charlie Cox could (would/) replay Daredevil somewhere in the MCU. Since then I’ve watched two more episodes, and the show only gets better. Two episodes remain in the Hawkeye show, and I really wish there were more than just six. It seems we’re only introducing characters, and I just don’t want that show to end.

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