Books Irony Has Read (Since October 2006) OCTOBER 2006: Poseidon's Gold - Lindsey Davis Well, this is a Falco book - it sort of rocks by default. If you want to read the Falco novels, I recommend starting with the first one, The Silver Pigs. What follows are a series of pretty standard Film Noir detctive novels which are set, for no particular reason beyond the author thought it would be cool, in first-century Rome. Trust me, they're hideously entertaining.     NOVEMBER 2006: His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik This is pretty much a Pern ripoff, but it's a fun and interesting Pern ripoff, which puts it a long step above most - including the last few actual Pern novels. There are a few historical errors but none I would consider unforgivable. Bookstores tend to put it on the same shelf as Eragon, but Eragon doesn't deserve to be in the same store as His Majesty's Dragon.     DECEMBER 2006: Thud! - Terry Pratchett Honestly not one of the better 'watch' novels. Everything seems to be developing nicely as a fairly straightforward mystery story, and then it blindsides you with supernatural stuff that really doesn't feel like it belongs. Oh, well... a bad Discworld book is kind of like a bad Pixar movie: disappointing, but still infinitely better than 90% of the crap out there.     DECEMBER 2006: The Anglo-Saxons - Geoffrey Hindley This is a pretty dry read, especially if you're not an historian. Most of the book is organized geographically rather than narratively. Because it's an overview, nothing is covered in a lot of detail. I found all the interesting stuff to be near the end, where it discusses things like Queen Aethelflaed, the Battle of Hastings, and who really embroidered the Bayeux Tapestry.     DECEMBER 2006: Night Watch - Terry Pratchett A lot of people think this is the best of the Discworld books. I'm not sure I would agree, but it is darned good. There's so much happening, you have to read it twice to really take it all in. The best part, definitely, is all the assorted origin stories crammed into it... I'd always figured Nobby Nobbs was kind of a fungus that sprouted in the Watch house one day.     JANUARY 2007: Last Act in Palmyra - Lindsey Davis Have I mentioned I adore the Falco books? I've read reviews that didn't like this one, but I found it to be the most suspenseful of the lot so far. You can tell the author gets sadistic pleasure from tormenting her readers with too many suspects. There's also a running joke about Hamlet (no, it's actually not an anachronism - read the book if you don't believe me), and a thankfully non-running one about molesting a camel.     JANUARY 2007: The Tower Menagerie - Daniel Hahn Apparently, people in England didn't know there were such things as zebras until the 1800's. This book not only tells you that, but answers the nagging question of what they used for the Z in alphabet books prior. Also has great stuff like drawings of elephants made by people who'd never seen one, and a history of the animal rights movement. Very informative and entertaining.     JANUARY 2007: The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien My friends applauded when I told them I'd read this right through - apparently they've never been able to. I actually really enjoyed it. It's a lot drier than The Lord of the Rings (which was dry to begin with), but if you can make it through the opening couple of chapters it's a pretty good read, with lots of sex, violence, and guys marrying their sisters. Typical Northern European mythology, really.     JANUARY 2007: Time To Depart - Lindsey Davis This book has its climax in a brothel. No, I have not been saving that one, I thought it up on the spot, and it's true. How I do adore the Falco books. They're one of the few things, right up there with The Princess Bride and Back to the Future, which I love so much that I will never, ever participate in their online fandom. I will not let them be defiled with OOC slash, Mary-Sues, and High School AUs. Viva Falco, Dude.     JANUARY 2007: A Dying Light in Corduba - Lindsey Davis Hmm. Well, being a Falco book, this was of course an entertaining read, but everything just kind of unravelled at the end. Things were progressing nicely, and then the big revelation happens not because the hero figures it out but because Dea ex Machina pops up and tells him. Oh, well - see my above thoughts on bad Discworld books. Maybe Three Hands in the Fountain will be better.     February 2007 2007: The Twelve Caesars - C. Suetonius Tranquillus Suetonius is supposed to be famous for his impartiality, but one notes in reading this book that he really doesn't like emperors. The best any of them get from him is a grudging "eh, he was sort of okay". The rest of the time our fearless historian is busy recording stuff that belongs on the bathroom wall: CAESAR PAVLOS PVEROS FUTUIT and such forth. Which is, of course, exactly what makes his book extremely entertaining.     February 2007: Three Hands in the Fountain - Lindsey Davis Ahhh, much better. The tone of this one is different from a lot of the other Falco books... there's less attempt at mystery per se, stringing us along with multiple suspects or conspiracies. This is almost more of a horror novel, and it works quite well. This is a story to make the reader very glad we have proper police nowadays... and it's impressively funny for being about a serial killer.     February 2007: Lives of the Later Caesars - unknown This is a really strange book, folks. The author uses six pseudonyms, rather randomly assigned to chapters, and covers the emperors from Hadrian to Heliogabalus. The first couple of biographies are quite reputable, and it goes downhill fast into fiction from there. Historians have no idea who wrote it or why it was written, and tend to curse because it's nevertheless about all they've got.     March 2007: Two for the Lions - Lindsey Davis Another Falco book. Come on, folks, how many different ways can I tell you that these rock? I'm always looking forward to the next one, while simultaneously dreading the day I run out of them. This is a particularly good one, too... sex, violence, murder, gladiators (and gladiatrices), wild animals (the scariest of which are the geese), exotic cities, and a seven-foot clove of garlic. Don't worry - that last one's extinct.     April 2007: The History of Alexander - Q. Curtius Rufus The fact that this book took me a damn month to wade through tells you a lot. The original text was by Q. Curtius Rufus, whom history shows to have been a dick. The introduction is by Waldemar Heckle, who is also a dick - I know because he's taught courses I've been in. And the translation is by John Yardley, who might not be a dick, but is sure a damned boring writer. Not recommended.     April 2007: One Virgin Too Many - Lindsey Davis Have I mentioned that the Falco books kind of rock hardcore? This honestly isn't one of the better ones, but it does have the best 'escape from certain death' in any story, ever, in the history of mankind. Davis is really good at setting things up that look like random historical detail and turn out to be important later, often in really funny ways. There are also lots and lots of jokes about sinful nuns.