Will Quah Dot Com

The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown
Oct 09
I’ve always been partial to Dan Brown’s novels. I know he’s gotten a lot of crap over the years for plagiarism, for knocking religion, for making things up, for not being a great writer, etc. In fact, some friends of mine from Cambridge organised a special “Da Vinci Code” book burning, which while I understand the sentiment behind, I find a little shocking for educated folk, especially since they hadn’t even read it.
The Lost Symbol is the third to feature Prof Robert Langdon, world renowned symbologist. In this book, he’s tasked with discovering the Lost Word of the Masons to save the life of a long time friend from a tatooed madman. Much like “Angels and Demons”, the pace is fast, with most of the action taking place in the course of a single night. It’s rife with flashbacks and surreal leaps of logic, packed with trivia (that will no doubt come in handy at parties, if any of it is true), and follows the same general character mold he’s used in most of his other books – beautiful heroine who gets embroiled due to a family or professional tie, a hard ass law enforcement official who seems pretty evil, a scholarly father figure who’s not all he seems, and a deranged looney with a shaky backstory and serious need for therapy.
It’s all trite, but it’s a easy read that’s fascinating at most points, and keeps you chasing though the novel to hit the obviously written-for-the-film climax.
Don’t knock it til you read it, but wait for the paperback.

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
Jonathan L. Howard
Sep 09
If you like a witty turn of phrase, or reading the work of an author who juggles the English language with the sort of skill normally only seen on stage at performances of Cirque de Soleil, then this is a book you simply have to read. A weird amalgam of times and genres, it’s not as fantastical as it sounds.
Johannes Cabal has one year to get his soul back from the Devil, and he’s exchanging it for 100 new ones. To get these souls, he’ll have to travel across the country exploiting, abusing, threatening and coercing, all of which he’s not too bad at doing. To give him that extra edge though, the Devil has given him control of an infernal fair ground, crewed by the damned and designed to debase the souls of any who enter.
And so begins an unexpectedly entertaining jaunt that has enough fantasy to satisfy those with their heads in the clouds, enough reality to satisfy those with their heads screwed firmly on their shoulders, and enough esoteric goriness to satisfy those who like slowly turning screws into the heads (or indeed shoulders) of others.

Gods Behaving Badly
Marie Philips
Jun 09
As a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods”, this book immediately appealed to me – the ancient Greek Gods haven’t left – they’ve just downsized, becoming weaker, and more mundane, and live among us in a flat in London. Aphrodite has a phone sex hotline, Dionysus runs a club, and Artemis is a professional dog walker. When they get a house keeper, who Apollo has the hots for (by coincidence of course), things all go a bit downhill, leading to drama, the end of the world, and a (not so startling) revelation about the power of belief.
It’s all quite cleverly done, and while it certainly isn’t as dark as the Gaiman tales, it makes up for it with some very vivid characters and some awesome dialog. It’s a great summer book for beside the pool, and you don’t have to be a big fan of the ancient Gods to get into it (although it does help the irony).

Massacre in Marienburg
David Bishop
Jan 09
I’ve said before that I’m a huge fan of Warhammer, not just because it’s an awesome game, but because of the rich and highly detailed world that’s been spawned from it. Black Library books usually do a great job of plunging you vividly into that world, which is why I’m such a fan.
This book was a disappointment, however. I won’t go into the errors in detail, but lets just say that it was written by someone with a poor grasp of the lore of the Warhammer world (or someone taking a huge amount of artistic license). Above and beyond the errors (undead with emotions, necromancers that heal people, witch hunters with no grasp of organisation, etc), the writing was plodding, the dialogue cartoonish, and the wanton character deaths unnecessary. And worse, it left obvious room for a sequel. The only redeeming feature was the graphic and dynamic portrayal of swordsmanship and action.
The whole book read like one of those awful “written from the film” type books you sometimes get from movies, and it never really redeemed itself. It’s a shame that Black Library isn’t a little more picky about it’s authors, and a little more editorially aware of what they write.

Ice Guard
Steve Lyons
Jan 09
As a huge fan of all things Warhammer, there’s little that comes off the presses of the Black Library that I don’t love. But even if you don’t devote hours to the miniature hobby, you can still read and love the sci-fi romps that they produce.
Ice Guard is no exeption, featuring a thrilling “dirty dozen” style sqaud fighting feverishly to save a world and themselves from destruction. With amazing characters, nail biting suspense and awesome action, it’s a story that will get your heart pumping and your pulse racing, and deliver a good dose of alien and space gun action as well. And what’s more, it’s the sort of book you can put down for a day or two, and come back to without skipping a beat.

The Queen and I
Sue Townsend
January 2009
If the name Sue Townsend seems familiar, it’s probably because you remember this author and playwright from her legendary “Diary of Adrian Mole” series, which many of us had to read as kids in school. As well as expanding on that line of books (he’s now in his thirties), she’s also branched out into other tales, including this one about the Royal Family in less that royal circumstances.
Britain has become a Republic, thanks to the hypnotic effect of a subliminal TV broadcast, and the first act by the new government is to abolish the monarchy. The Queen and her family find themselves packed up and sent to live in council housing, without servants, money, or a clue.
How they deal with the uncommon situation of living as commoners is the basis for this darkly humorous look at one of Britain’s favourite institutions in the flesh.

Interred With Their Bones
Jennifer Lee Carrell
December 2007
As a huge (and I mean HUGE) fan of Shakespeare, it’s always nice to see something source his works and reference his career in different ways than the usual plays, adaptations and history novels that abound. This book, although it doesn’t immediately leap out at you from the shelf, does just that.
Beginning with the burning of the modern Globe Theatre in London, the murder of a celebrated Professor of Shakespeare, and the receipt of a mysterious clue by the books heroine, the book takes you on a jaunt through the scholarly world of Shakespeare like you’ve never seen it before, with guns, fires, explosions, and murders in practically every chapter.
Drawing inspiration pretty heavily from the Da Vinci Code, the book also features a wildly eccentric cast of characters, and you just KNOW that one of them will turn out to be a treacherous murderer… the question is which? (there’s even a character reminiscent of Sir Lea Teabing!).
While it may not be completely original in plotline, it certainly is a good read, and contains a host of great trivia for anyone who’s ever picked up some Shakespeare and fallen in love with the Bard.

The Pillars of the Earth
Ken Follet
November 2007
It’s not often that someone has a book that I want to borrow, and even rarer that someone has a book that I’ve not read or read about. Naomi put me onto this one, and although I was a little tentative at first, since some of the historical fiction these days can be a bit dry, after just a few pages, I was snared.
The book (which is satisfyingly thick at 1087 pages) follows the gradual rise of the Kingsbridge Cathedral in the 1300’s, told through the lives of those who lived in and around it. Through truly clever story telling, amazing attention to detail, direct simple prose, the world of 14th century England is laid bare for the modern reader. The plots are amazing, but not overly complicated, and the characters are beautifully crafted, yet despite this, you remain somewhat detached from them as you observe from afar their actions over the decades spanning tale.
This book may not be everyone’s cup of tea, (or stone jug of watered ale) but if you’ve ever walked through a Cathedral, and marveled at the architecture, the grandeur, and the weight of history pressing down upon you while you wander the stone halls, then this is a book you’ll not want to put down.
And the second book from Follet, World Without End, is already out.

The Blade Itself
Joe Abercrombie
May 2007
The first in what looks set to be a thrilling trilogy, “The Blade Itself” takes you on a roller-coaster ride through a fantasy world that seems at times both strangely familiar to our own history, and also completely alien. Following a number of distinctly different characters, each with a very different yet strongly personal narrative voice, you end up with a vibrantly rich tale that’s both very personal and staggeringly epic. Shying away from the usual “four adventurers” mold, you are instead faced with characters as varied as a crippled, viciously vindictive Inquisitor (the loathesome yet utterly human Glotka) to a brashly arrogant and yet still subtle Mage (Bayaz, first of the Magi), to the weak and self-absorbed anti-hero swordsman and accidental Champion of the Empire. The characters show great depth, and the story telling is broad enough to trap even non-fantasy enthusiasts, yet still satisfyingly magical enough to grip any lover of swords and sorcery. It’s also one of the most gratuitously violent novels I’ve read in a long time, which doesn’t pull any punches. Literally.

The Swarm
Frank Schatzing
June 2006
They say we know more about space than we do about the depths of our very own oceans, so the idea that some form of advanced intelligence may be lurking down there beneath the waves (the premise behind this book) is not so far fetched (and god knows, it’s not like we have much advanced intelligence up here on land!). What starts as random accidents and attacks by rogue marine animals soon escalates into full scale war between surf and turf, in which man seems to be losing, and quickly, although a team of scientists and some hard line US Army characters help deal with the problem (and with each other, eventually). While not the most satisfying book (I could have cheerfully done without the ending), the idea behind it is cool – and makes you wonder whether those eco-nutters are really onto something, while also giving you an idea of just how much we really rely on the deep blue sea. It’s also fairly thrilling, and I for one could barely put it down. Most of the scientific facts are straightforward and well explained, so you’ll certainly pick up a few things for your next dinner party conversation. All I can say is, when is the movie coming out?