Fiction
'The Sword Saint' by C.F. Iggulden
This is the concluding book in the Empire of Salt trilogy and is set two years after 'Shiang' (2018). The city of Darien is under threat once again, this time from a new militaristic state, the Kingdom of Feal, that has arisen to its north and is sweeping through regions conquering them. An embassy is sent to insist on trade and is soon trying to manipulate the negotiations with the city's ruling Twelve Families through bribery and assassination. Ultimately given the cruelty of Feal's ruler was proves unavoidable. Now the major characters from the previous two novels, some of which we have seen nothing of since the end of the first book, 'Darien' (2017) are all brought back together in a kind of Magnificent Seven way to defend the city through a series of commando raids against the advancing Feal forces and defending the city's walls, drawing on the various magical and physical abilities they have.
This trilogy is actually post-apocalyptic, there are occasional hints to it being Earth with some memories of our cultures, but with the magic involved it might as well be fantasy. There is some magically operated machinery, as well as pure machines, notably repeating pistols, and as might be guess from the titles of the cities, it draws on East Asian culture, with mainly Chinese elements blended with some Japanese. This is an adventure story so a lot of it is about action. It is gory at times. The main thing is Iggulden deftly dodges what you might expect to happen next. The fact that the Fagin-like character from the first book, Tellius who looks like he is going to not live long ends up running Darien and having an apparently loving relationship with Lady Sallet, head of one of the leading Darien Twelve Families. It is like if an aged Bronn had married Olenna Tyrell in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. There is something unsatisfying about these books, but in general they are sound fantasy and certainly go down unexpected routes with the story which is a refreshing change from reworking over-used tropes.
'Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade' by Oliver Bowden
While down the years I have read novelisations of movies and TV series, this was the first time I had read one of a computer game (though it is a shame no-one ever wrote one of the 'Lords of Midnight' game on the ZX Spectrum). It was also the first time in many years, perhaps decades, since I had bought a book from a supermarket, in this case Lidl. Having long been fascinated by the Crusader States, I got into playing the original 'Assassin's Creed' (2007) which is set across 12th Century Syria and Palestine. I managed to kill 7 of the 9 targets before getting a new computer. If you know the game then the book follows the story of the game, with Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad as protagonist, very closely though Bowden makes efforts that each of the nine killings is portrayed differently, some in retrospect. The decent attention to historical detail and the political scene of the region of the time is brought over from the game to the novel. Bowden manages to pull off a reasonably adventurous story which may appeal more if you have not played the game.
The book continues as a bass for the extensive series of novels which followed this one. As a result the story continues for years beyond the game with Altaïr travelling to Cyprus and fighting for control the Assassins' society. Elements of the story are told by Niccolò Polo (Marco Polo's father) to his brother, Maffeo Polo, in the late 1250s, so as to provide a link for the spread of the Assassins to permit the successive stories. This section is almost like a second book. Again it has drama (and some romance) but feels a little rushed. Overall, not a bad book but may appeal more if looking for a decent medieval adventure without having experienced it already 'first hand' through playing the game.
'Death on the Riviera' by John Bude [Ernest Elmore]
This book was published in 1952, so 15 years after the last book by Bude that I read, 'The Cheltenham Square Murder' (1937): https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-books-i-read-in-may.html It features a Chief Inspector Meredith but I cannot find out what relation he is to Superintendent Meredith who appeared in Bude's earlier novels. He might be that man's son. We do find out he was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940, so it seems likely he was a young man back then, as the average age of soldiers in the Second World War was 26. Anyway, he has much the same manner as his 1930s superior.
We start off seeing this Meredith and Acting Sergeant Freddie Strang trying to navigate their way out of Dunkirk which some 6 or 7 years after the end of the war is still very disrupted by war damage. They quickly motor through France to the area around Menton on the French Riviera (seeing the title and knowing the preceding books' settings I had imagined this one would be set on the English Riviera in Devon). As is typical I imagine in real life even now (and of course in fiction, if you watch 'The Tunnel' (broadcast 2013-17)) neither of the British detectives have anything more than 'schoolboy French' even though they have been sent to liaise with French counterparts seeking to take down a British money counterfeiter operating in southern France.
This case runs parallel with the intrigues at the French property of a wealthy Englishwoman, Nesta Hedderwick, her niece and her various hangers-on some of whom in various ways are involved with the counterfeiting and have their own rivalries which ultimately lead to murder. They very much remind me of the set-up we see in Agatha Christie's 'The Mystery of the Blue Train' (1928) especially as it was dramatised in the TV series 'Poirot' in 2006.
As is characteristic for Bude novels, a lot of theories are thrown up and there is satisfaction in following Meredith who aided by a pair of very capable French detectives chases up the various clues and decoys before being drawn into also investigating a killing in the Hedderwick household. That trait that Bude develops so well, is combined with his acute eye for place. In all the books of his I have read, the location is as much a character as the people and so it is here, really conjuring up an assortment of locations along the Riviera very atmospherically.
Naturally the story is of its time and some tropes, such as the speed of the romance would likely to be resisted by a modern author even writing about 1952, the fact that Bude does paint such a rich picture of location and provides such a surfeit of feasible options, means it remains engaging for a modern reader. Unfortunately this was the last of the Bude books that I have. I do still have quite a number of others from the British Library series or crime novel reprints.
'The Peripheral' by William Gibson
I have been reading books by Gibson, one of the 'fathers' of Cyberpunk since the 1990s. Back then while we admired his imagination, I did feel as if his story construction was rather 'clunky' as if you could see all the pieces being moved into place, very conscious of the author at work. This book, published in 2014, is almost at the other extreme and I would have been able to engage with it if there was more clarity and structure. As you would expect, the concepts are sound.
A woman called Flynne lives in the USA in the early 21st Century but at a time when the economy has decayed so much that the only real rural employment is in synthesising drugs. She lives with her brother, Burton, who has lost lots of his body serving in the Marines and has a meagre pension. The siblings make money by playing games on behalf of wealthy customers so they can advance without having to put in the grinding time. Flynne takes over one job from Burton and in the game has to fly around a futuristic building keeping miniature paparazzi drones away from a party being held in the building. While doing this she witnesses the murder of a woman guest by a man.
Subsequently Flynne finds out that this was not a game but effectively a portal into things happening in London 70 or so years into the future. People from that time, notably Wilf Netherton a publicist and Ainsley Lowbeer, a police detective, wanting to identify the perpetrator begin to connect to Flynne's time. By manipulating the economy back then they are able to produce equipment which allows Flynne, her brother and others to project themselves into synthetic human avatars (the so-called 'peripherals') in the future London and so interact. The objective is to 'correct' things so that the 'Jackpot' a slow-developing apocalypse does not occur or so severely, so creating a different timeline from the one Netherton and Lowbeer inhabit. In both times people are seeking to kill Flynne and those supporting her, which leads to various action scenes.
Gibson's portrayal of the society and its technology in the two times, is interesting. The sense of projection through a vivid computer scenario reminded me of Christopher Priest's novel 'The Extremes' (1998) and the movie 'Source Code' (2011) but Gibson's approach is fresh. His 'slow' apocalypse is very believable and in fact has become more so as things have steadily unwound in the world in the years since this novel was published. Despite these positives, the book is a nightmare to read. Even when you are familiar with which time the current chapter is focused on (and some are only 1-2 pages long) there are so many characters and then ones from one time slot appearing in the other or communicating surprisingly easy between the two that it is a real challenge to follow where the story is going.
Gibson is great at thinking up corporations and slang, but often it makes the dialogue really difficult to follow. I suppose he wrote it for multiple readings because once you have finished it, you understand it well enough to start reading it. However, life is too short for such an approach, so what you have is a real mess with the odd gems shining out from it but for a lot of the time the reader is bewildered about what is going on and when. Thus, it is a very frustrating read.
Non-Fiction
'Charlie Brooker's Dawn of the Dumb: Dispatches from the Idiotic Frontline' by Charlie Brooker
I had rather expected an analysis of UK or Western society along the lines of what Michael Moore produces. Instead this is simply a collection of short articles that Brooker wrote for 'The Guardian' newspaper, television review section 2004-07. If you know Brooker's style he has a weirdly amiable but acidic tone and outlines grave violence towards those he despises but in a way that sort of washes over you so you do not really take on board the severity of what he is saying (unless you were a US supporter of President George W. Bush in which case you felt Brooker should be executed). Looking at these articles from 18-21 years later, it is interesting how prescient they were. Brooker even starts mentioning Donald Trump. This book also reminds us how many of the traits we see in the Trump presidencies were already been established under the Bush administration, notably the apparent acceptance that the US President can be proud of his cluelessness.
Brooker spends a lot of time talking about reality TV programmes, which did not originate in this period but were really getting into their stride. Unsurprisingly what he was saying back then has simply continued to manifest, in fact going to greater extremes than he even cautioned in those days. You feel he loves to suggest he hates the people in the reality programmes but actually carries a lot of affection for the formats and at least some of the individuals in them, plus an enduring curiosity about them. The final thing to say about these articles is especially in the more pensive and speculative ones you see Brooker snagging on lots of developments which would go on to form the basis of the 'Black Mirror' (broadcast 2011-14 & 2016-) the dystopian TV series that has now run to 7 seasons with most episodes featuring a unique story/concept. Many of these are clearly grounded in what Brooker was thinking/writing about in the mid-2000s.
