The Books I Read In April

Fiction

'Agent 6' by Tom Rob Smith

I picked up this book in a charity shop, but should really have looked back at my review of Smith's previous book, 'The Secret Speech' (2009) but it had been eight years since I wrote it: https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-books-i-read-in-january.html so I had forgotten my previous warning. This book turned out to be as bad as I had expected back then. It is portrayed as the final book in a trilogy after 'Child 44' (2008) and 'The Secret Speech' featuring the former secret police officer Leo Demidov. As reviewers at the time noted, Smith fails to recapture the crispness and insight of the first novel. This book is a real mess. The premise is really contorted. Demidov has left the secret police but in 1965 his wife who we see him first encounter and pursue and his adopted daughters are permitted to travel to the USA to take part in a singing event at the United Nations. While there his youngest daughter and then his wife get mixed up in a successful plot to assassinate the black, Communist American singer Jesse Austin. This leads to the killing of both Austin's and Demidov's wives.

The rest of the book, taking place into the early 1980s is about Demidov trying to get out of the USSR so he can travel to the USA and find out who was responsible for the assassination and killing of the two women. However, this takes many years. There is a tiny chapter in which he tried to get over the border into Finland but a lot of the book is taken up with him operating in Kabul as an agent, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and then trying to get with a local agent and an orphaned Afghan girl to the USA where he finally finishes off his investigation before returning to imprisonment in the USSR.

The novel is effectively a series of fragments of story that are ill-connected. The portrayal of the situation in Afghanistan seems convincing but as Smith favours, very vicious in nature. Reviewers at the time commented on how it is often lifeless. The novel at 545 pages is far too long and like 'The Secret Speech' is gritty and yet really stretches credulity. Smith has gone on to write two other novels and has moved into scriptwriting for example for the TV series 'London Spy' (broadcast 2015). You often heard it said that 'everyone has a book in them' and it is clear that for Smith, 'Child 44' was that book and nothing he has produced since has come close to the quality of that. For some reason he lacks the ability to be in control of his material. He has the historical research but seems at a loss what to do with it and so goes for 'alarums and excursions' apparently with the view that these make a novel engaging, whereas in fact they reduce its coherence and feasibility. I will try to remember to stay well clear of his other novels if I see them on sale in a charity shop.

'Shiang' by C.F. Igguden

This is the second book in the Empire of Salt trilogy and is set two years on from 'Darien' (2017) which I read in February: https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-books-i-read-in-february.html  However, most of the main characters from the first book are only mentioned or encountered briefly. Only the Fagin-like character Tellius and his now lover, Lady Sallet, head of one of Darien's Twelve Families feature to any real extent. Most of the novel is about two groups of swordsmen travelling from Shiang to Darien. One lot led by sword saint Hondo are seeking revenge on Tellius for sharing the Mazer form of sword fighting, with people of Darien. 

The second group is led by a man called Gabriel who has been brought back from the afterlife to inhabit the body of a leading swordsman who was suffering a cancer and was being experimented on using one of the powerful stones which fuel a lot of magic in the world. As a result, Gabriel and the three others returned from the afterlife with him are gifted with superhuman powers. Gabriel seizes control of Shiang before moving to take Darien.

As with the first book we receive a passing comment which shows us that this is Earth, but clearly some distance into the future when so much has changed. It is not made clear but Darien [Dalian] and Shiang [Xi'An] are old Western names for actual cities in China. 

Both groups venture through mountainous regions, bickering among themselves and with people they encounter, with this breaking out into violence, especially for Gabriel's group. Hondo's group faces more casualties. In sequence both reach Darien where with the help of a premonition from an elderly noblewoman the city has been prepared to face some kind of grim invasion. Eventually Hondo's group allies with Tellius and the Families of Darien to fight the superhuman attack of Gabriel and his group. The final battle is substantial.

The fact that only a few elements are carried over from the first novel, makes this one really feel like standalone. It would have been nice to find out what had happened to many of the other characters in that first book as Tellius for much of it was on the sidelines. Overall, it rather feels a bit like a Marvel movie, with two groups of super-powered  rivals working their way to a final showdown. It is not bad for that though none of the major characters are sympathetic. Really the only person who is engaging is Marias a slave and admirer of the man whose body Gabriel possesses.

The novel is not bad and has some fresh ideas. It is mature rather than YA in the way it does not pull its punches in terms of the viciousness of what the characters suffer or how challenging working relationships can be especially with two men who 'know' they are the best at what they do. I do have the third book, 'The Sword Saint' (2019) to read and hope it recaptures the freshness of the ideas, situations and characters seen in 'Darien'.

Non-Fiction

'The Crossman Diaries. Condensed Version' by Richard Crossman, edited by Anthony Howard

Note this is the condensed version covering just the period of the two Labour governments, 1964-70. Unusually for the time Crossman made audio recordings rather than wrote a diary. In full as Howard notes, these run to 3 million words. Of these 1.06 million have gone into the published 3-volume version of his diaries. This version still runs to 300,000 words (compared to about 90,000 words for an average novel) and in my edition, including references, ran to 764 pages, the longest book I have read this year so far. When published in the 1970s they attracted a lot of attention and indeed condemnation, but were seen as the best insight into the running of the UK government that had been made available.

Richard Crossman (1907-74) entered Parliament in 1945 as a Labour MP and rose to be a Cabinet minister when Harold Wilson came to power. He was successively Minister of Housing, Lord President of the Council/Leader of the House of Commons and finally Secretary of State for Health and Social Services. The fact that Crossman recorded his thoughts means that the text flows in a brisk way when compared to the  'The Robert Hall Diaries, 1947-1953' (1989) which I read in February. However, this does settle down as the diaries progress through the years and it is clear Crossman who was 63 by the time Labour fell and an elderly father of young children, was becoming tired. 

At first he is a very clear admirer of Harold Wilson, but his impression, especially due to Wilson's persistent prevaricating and game playing with a range of ministers, erodes this. Him pressing on with the necessary but highly flawed 'In Place of Strife' approach working really just one-to-one with Barbara Castle alienated so many. Crossman's portrayal of the ministers notably of George Brown, but also people like Michael Stewart, Peter Shore, Fred Peart, Ray Gunter and especially James Callaghan highlights just what poor quality there was in the higher levels of the governments. So much of what he outlines shows the government floundering, ironically even more so after it had achieved a decent majority in 1966 than when it had a tiny one 1964-66.

While the Starmer government coming into office in 2024 had a much larger majority it is interesting to note how many of the same problems it faced compared to what the 1964 Labour government and its successor had to tackle. Notable was how far Labour were constrained by the Conservative approach to the economy of the previous 13 years and to a large part this choked off any real new directions in terms of policy and this is something true in 2024 as it was sixty years earlier. Of far less concern these days is the balance of payments and the exchange rate. However, there was recognition back then how the IMF and Swiss bankers had far greater control over the UK economy than the government itself. These days multinational corporations fill that role. 

Though Johnson was far from being a Trump there was a difficult relationship throughout with the USA as it threw itself ever deeper into Vietnam. The issue of immigration as now, was also a big topic at the time, in part of the expulsion of Kenyan Asians with British passports.  There was Enoch Powell's explicitly racist rhetoric in place of nowadays Farage and the online bigots, but still presenting a challenge at elections both for Labour and the Conservatives. As a result the good intentions of Wilson and his ministers, for Crossman especially around reform of parliament, particularly the House of Lords, but also in public housing and the health system were simply drowned in these other 'crises'. Crossman barely touches on what are seen as the successes of the period in terms of rights such as abortion, homosexuality, divorce, etc.

It is an insightful but disheartening read. As has become apparent with the current government, those of 1964-70, we hemmed in so much by Conservative economics and right-wing rhetoric which was amplified by such a large portion of the media. Reading it gave me the clear impression that Starmer, even with a decent majority from the outset, will be unable to achieve anything substantial and will be channelled in to being simply a watered-down version of the preceding Conservative governments and serving the needs of those already with immense wealth rather than the mass of the population, whose appropriate ire at how they continued to be treated is distracted by the focus on immigration. Of course, times have changed a great deal, but there is much in these diaries which can be seen as a warning to the current government and Labour supporters of how little success they should anticipate.

The Books I Read In January

Fiction
'Get Wallace!' by Alexander Wilson
I have often be interested in what were called 'Classic Thrillers', there was even a series of reprints with this title, written in the early 20th century and inter-war period.  This is the fourth book in the series of eight published by Wilson 1928-39, featuring the fictional Sir Leonard Wallace as head of MI6, the British overseas intelligence agency.  Wilson was a bigamist and philanderer who created four families.  Drawing on his knowledge of South Asian languages, he worked for MI6 between 1939-42 when he was sacked, it appears as a result of fabricating evidence of spying and lying about a burglary; his last novel was published in 1940 though he lived on until 1963.

One thing about classic thrillers is that they can be very much of their time.  This is not an issue in terms of the threats they address, though they can be informed by racist and sexist attitudes.  The greater problem is that they are often restrained in the threats they present and the dialogue is often very gentlemanly even between enemies.  Those traits certainly feature in this book.  There are some characteristics which stand out from other thrillers of the period but ironically their impact is muted. Wallace has only one arm though this does not hinder his activities.  He is married and has a son who are targeted by assassins in this novel.  His Rolls Royce has a facility to allow him to disappear into its boot.  In many ways, despite references on the cover to him paving the way for James Bond, he is most like George Smiley the character in a number of John Le Carré novels, especially as he is as much a manager as an operative in his own right.

The story is around a spy ring successfully stealing secrets from British, French, German and Soviet military institutions making use of highly convincing impersonations of leading staff (an approach used in 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' (1915) too) and then selling them to the highest bidder.  At the heart of the plot is the traditional father-daughter criminal team, Stanilaus and Thalia Ictinos (similar to the set-up of Fu Manchu and his daughter in the Sax Rohmer novels published 1913-73.), though they are Greek and Thalia is largely excused her crimes at the end of the novel.  They have recruited a number of British criminals on the run to staff the operation.  It is based on the Isle of Sheppey in Essex and most of the action takes place in the Thames Estuary and London. The error which leads Wallace right to the criminals' location is really feeble.

The elements which might be seen as atypical include the simple shooting dead of one of Wallace's men and the fact that Stanilaus Ictinos is really just an operative for a respected big businessman, characteristics which you might expect in a novel today.  However, these in themselves might have startled a reader in 1934, but are so weakly handled in this book as to drain them of tension.  There is a lot of chasing around Essex and in London without any real tension.  There is one reasonable fight aboard a ship in the estuary, but we are never in any doubt that everyone will come out of it successfully, even the quirky, quoting lieutenant of Wallace's, Cousins or the MI6 heavy Shannon.  I guess the lack of genuine tension, the very earnest dialogue and rather tiresome pursuits is why Wilson has been forgotten when, in contrast, people keep remaking 'The Thirty-Nine Steps'.  Overall, interesting but not very engaging.

'The Secret Speech' by Tom Rob Smith
This book is horrendous and I advise you not to buy it.  That is the simple summary of this review.  This is the second book in a trilogy which began with 'Child 44' (2008), detective stories set in the USSR in the mid-20th century.  I had seen the 2015 movie of the book.  I have also read novels by Ivy Litvinov, Martin Cruz Smith and Stuart Kominsky also set in the USSR and Josef Škvorecký set in Communist Czechoslovakia.  I had found the tension between solving a crime and dealing with the state and party's view of the 'truth' enthralling.  'The Secret Speech' is set largely in 1956 following the so-called 'secret speech' by Nikita Khrushchev denouncing the extremes of the regime of Josef Stalin, 1928-53.  These revelations lead people who have been persecuted under Stalin to seek revenge, unsurprisingly.  This puts the 'hero' of the trilogy, Leo Demidov, a former secret police officer, though now a homicide detective, in a difficult position.

The book is very fragmented and the sojourn to take part in the 1956 Hungarian Uprising in Budapest appears unrelated to the rest of the book.  You feel as if Smith had been told to increase the number of pages rather than actually advance the story.  Once characters return from Budapest the story comes to an abrupt halt.

The main trouble with this book is that Smith forgets he is writing a novel rather than a fictionalised social history of 1950s USSR and especially the Gulag system.  There are really no sympathetic characters in the novel, those that have a crumb of humanity are shown as self-righteous and indeed selfish to the detriment of others.  The bulk of characters, whether officials, criminals or members of the public are shown as utterly corrupted by the system that they are in.  Even Demidov's adopted 14-year old daughter appears despicable.  Thus, we are tossed from one nasty character in unpleasant circumstances to another, to another.  This book can be condemned as suggesting that all Russians of a certain generation did not have a redeemable quality between them.  Furthermore, the scale of cruelty and torture in a whole range of forms, makes this book verge on 'torture pornography'.

Overall it is a very unpleasant read and I will be staying well clear of 'Agent 6' the final book in the trilogy and I can only hope that Smith stays away from writing any more novels in the future or that he restricts them to sale to sado-masochist perverts.

'Son of the Tree' by Jack Vance
This book was published as a magazine story in 1951; the copy I have was produced in 1974 when it was still possible to have a 128-page book (selling for 30p) put out on sale.  I have not read other work by Vance but was reasonably impressed by the book.  It is a simple tale set sometime in the distant future when humanity has colonised many parts of the galaxy and in many cases has evolved into a range of forms.  It features Joe Smith who is following after a man who is the rival for the affections of a woman back on Earth.  By the time the book opens Smith has got so far through space that Earth is believed to be a mythical rather than real place.

The book has charms of old science fiction of the kind I noted when reviewing stories by John Wyndham last year.  Despite the fact that humanity has spaceships able to travel between the stars, they still use slide rules and women take men's surnames when they marry.  Vance is so locked into his own time and culture that he has included these things without thought.  Despite this, he does well in creating interesting societies and a brisk story featuring cultural imperialism.  Smith arrives on Kyril a theocracy where the Druid class are supported by a mass of peasants; the religion focuses on the worship of an immense tree stretching right up into the atmosphere.  The leaders of Kyril are rivalling with those of the oligarchy with two factions, Mangtse, to have influence over Ballenkarch, a planet being united under a leader who turns out to have come from Earth.  The construction of the societies and their factions and the use of individuals, often acting unknowingly on the behalf of others is well handled.  There are twists at the end which seem rather rushed and highly improbable which rather undermine a good story; Smith also seems to be forgotten in the closing sections of the story.  Perhaps this is intentional because throughout you have felt his quest was rather forlorn anyway.

Overall I enjoyed the story despite it feeling dated.  Vance quickly conjures up interesting details and portrayals of societies in a science fiction setting.  If I stumble across any of his books in the future I would certainly take a look at them, which, as you will know, is not something I say often these days.

Non-Fiction
'A Short Economic History of Modern Japan' by G.C. Allen
The first word of caution is about the definition of 'modern'.  This was the third, updated version of the book published in 1970.  However, apart from some additions at the end, really it differs little from the first version published in 1945 which only went from 1867-1937.  If you accept that it really simply focuses on those seventy years, then this book is pretty good.  Allen intentionally avoids a deterministic approach which was too common in writing about Japan in the late 20th century.  He neither sees state intervention nor private enterprise or the zaibatsu which straddled both, as providing the 'answer' to Japan's economic success in this period.  Indeed he skilfully shows how diverse the Japanese economy remained, embracing both tiny, specialist industry alongside conglomerations.  He does well in reminding the reader of the role of agriculture and craft industries alongside the pressing forward of heavy and then consumer industry.

Allen highlights the weakness of the Bakufu economy before the Meiji Restoration, but also the ground work laid for future success, notably in terms of high literacy levels and a compliant workforce feeling as if they belonged to a family with their employers, that were able to benefit Japanese industry in the following decades.  He also highlights the flaws in the Japanese government's approaches to banking and currency.  Another strength is how he shows Japan's growing empire was woven into the economy of the Home Islands and what each could provide the other.  Overall, this is a comprehensive and importantly, nuanced book.  However, the limits of its chronology need to be recognised.  The revisions were not genuine revisions and despite some efforts to add material on the post-war situation, aside from the Occupation period, it is poor.  Furthermore, because so little is included on the Japanese wartime economy there is a unfortunate disconnect between what happened 1937-45 and how that aided or hindered what followed.