Peter James - Dead Man's Grip

I've been caught out by Peter James and his protagonist Roy Grace not once, but twice before.  The first two books in the series intrigued me and I read them, then I realised I'd been had.  Police procedurals can be good fun, but only (and this is a vital point) if you believe in the central character.  

This was the problem I had, nothing in the character of 'Roy Grace' from his name to the way he behaved to the products he owned rang true with me, which was why I gave up on the series.  The books were extremely well written and decently plotted, but there was just something about the main man that really didn't gel.  So, that was that, millions of other books out there, no need to return to something that wasn't doing it for me.

So, why on earth have I returned to Brighton (and Hove) and the world of Roy Grace?  Anyone with an eye on the book business will have an inkling.  It's all to do with price points, Amazon are offering a very few new releases at the stunning price of twenty pence. I struggle to think what else you can actually buy for that amount - probably what I think of as a penny chew and then settle on a copy of the 'i' newspaper.

That's what the book is up against then, a read today, throw away tomorrow newspaper that is pitching itself slightly above 'Metro'.  How did it do?

The surprising answer is - actually reasonably well.  I still find Grace a cardboard cutout character carted unconvincingly into circumstances.  He appears to have got himself a 'stunnah' for a girlfriend, so far so irritating and the dangling sub-plot of a missing ex-wife is still being milked to tedious levels.

My cewdulity dropped even lower when we left Brighton for a load of sub-Sopranos Noo Joisey gangster nonsense, with more terrible characterisation. But there is a curious quality behind all this, if Grace (and a few of the other characters) could be kept away from the action, there is an excellent thriller here.  

The action kept coming, the violent scenes were nasty enough to keep you reading and the pace made you want to find out what happened at the end.  Fundamentally though, some frankly unlikely characters and a propensity to wear its research very heavily let it down.  That said, it has to be the best lock-based 'tec outing since Vic Warshawski tried to find out what happened to cousin Boom-Boom.

So much for the story, how about the marketing channel?  They got me to buy, and read, a  book I would have otherwise ignored and twenty of my hard earned pence for it.  So, that is success? Well, up to a point.  

Would I buy another of these?  That's an easy one to answer, at twenty or fewer pence, I'm probably there.  If it was a great deal more, probably not.  The cheap price simply confirmed my prejudices against the main character and my feeling that the author is a better writer than this series is allowing him to be.

Richard Saunders - Taipei Escapes 1&2

Finally I find time to write about a couple of books that actually feature Keelung and her environs. These two sizeable tomes are invaluable for the long-term Northern Taiwan resident keen to eschew the tourist traps and the department stores and to actually experience what can be a truly stunning place.

Taiwan is not particularly well-served by the travel literature available in English.  Official government publications are well meaning efforts that are usually a straight translation of their Chinese counterparts. This doesn't mean that they automatically become of use to foreigners seeking  good day out, Taiwanese and western concepts of what is worth seeing can be described as varying drastically.

The 'usual suspects' of the travel world are here of course. Lonely Planet have offered an English guide to Taiwan since 1987 with Rough Guides joining the fray a little under twenty years later.  For the less energetic sightseer Insight and broadcasting and publishing behemoth National Geographic offer a much glossier alternative.  Most recently Michelin have produced an edition of their iconic 'Green Guide' providing a slightly different take on tourism again.

These books are all fine in their own way and are aimed squarely at two markets, the intrepid western backpacker wanting to experience something culturally different and the richer, older western tourist wanting exotic oriental experiences without the discomfort of backpacking.  Both these activities have their merits and  these books have their place too.  What they don't cater for is those of us who may be here for more than a week or so and want to see more of the countryside than 99% of locals.

So, into this breech has stepped Richard Saunders with these two splendid volumes (actually fully updated versions of earlier similar books).  Both provide a selection of ten one-day trips to tourist spots followed by an excellent selection of routes which stretch the whole gamut of activity from 'walk' to 'hike'.  

What sets these works apart from anything else available (and there is very, very little) is the attention to detail.  Everything from pet-friendliness to location of bathrooms has been investigated in detail.  Saunders is also meticulous in providing the Chinese for anything of importance, something that locally translated materials always forget (they just exchange Chinese for English).  He also provides hand drawn sketch maps of the routes and some mouthwatering photos to whet your appetite.

It seems almost churlish to be in any way critical about such a wonderful project which is obviously done out of love for the environment of Northern Taiwan and a desire to share it with others.  Richard may possibly live in a fortified Tianmu condominium and spend his time counting the billions he has made from these books, but I think that is somewhat unlikely!  

So many thanks for the time and effort put in, but here are a couple of suggestions for future versions.  Once you have packed your rucksack with the recommended supplies, these books are actually relatively heavy.  A simple, but rather environmentally unfriendly, solution has been to simply photocopy the relevant pages.

How about, given the amount of hardware that people carry around these days, offering both in an e-book format? Being able to carry both books around in your phone or tablet would be incredibly convenient.

Finally, just because I want the world on a stick, I keep looking at these books and thinking how amazing it would be if the maps and text could meld together on the page in the way that Alfred Wainwright did.  The old curmudgeon produced fabulous hiking guides to the hills of Cumberland and Westmorland that look like this. 

Imagine that for walks around Jiufen and Jinguashi or Fulong, it would be quite spectacular and far nicer than anything available in Chinese.  The ultimate accolade I presume would be for a Chinese publisher to produce a translated version. I hope that happens one day.

To purchase these estimable books: In Taiwan, they are on the shelves at Eslite (various branches) and Page One (Taipei 101).  Also online from Eslite http://www.eslite.com/product.aspx?pgid=1002123202052489

If you can't find them there, contact the publisher http://www.communitycenter.org.tw/publications

Also highly recommended is Richard's guide to Yangmingshan, but that is, as they say, another story.

Alan Garner - The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

I thought it was time to revisit this ahead of the imminent arrival of 'Boneland', a third 'Tale of Alderley' a mere 42 years after the first.

My first problem was nothing to do with Garner at all, it was the dreadful edition of the book that I have.  For me, the image above 'is' the cover to this book, not this monstrosity;



I have, it appears, a US young adult edition that commits a heinous sin in the blurb on the back cover. It describes the action as taking place in 'the mountains of Wales', because some good citizen of the States has picked up that it is riffing on Celtic myth, put two and two together and got it very wrong indeed.  Alderley Edge, Mobberley, Macclesfield and the like are all in Cheshire, a very great distance from the Welsh border.

On to the book itself, I raced through it and it was like meeting an old friend again.  When Cadellin exhorts the 'Maggot breed of Ymir' to scarper, I found myself wondering why this never made it on to the big (or even small) screen, it's gripping stuff.

The early sequences with Selina Place are unsettling and the general sense of foreboding is palpable.  I enjoyed the scenes in the mines with the Svarts but thought they went on a bit too long and lost the tension a little.

The second half of the book is essentially the 'quest', when they travel from A to B with X to give it to Y with many exciting events on the way.  So far, so Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, but the difference here is that the fantastical events are grounded in a very real bit of British countryside, not a weird otherworldly realm.

Another thing that always puzzled me was why Gowther went along with them.  The usual deal for children's fiction is that their 'appropriate adults' are in the dark about what is going on, whereas he literally goes for the journey.

The various episodes of peril are well done and who could fail to appreciate a character called 'Angharad Goldenhand'?  We go along for a bumpy ride and then, all of a sudden, it's all over.  The ending comes as bit of a jolt and we are reminded that this is a very slim volume for those brought up in the Harry Potter generation.

Overall, is it a classic of its genre? Yes.  Is it well-written? Up to a point.  Some of Garner's other work I would rate more highly - particularly 'The Owl Service', but this book is far better than the second volume 'The Moon of Gomrath'.

I look forward to reading 'Boneland', which much surely be the last Alderley Tale that he will write.  I'm still hoping for that film adaptation though; perhaps 'Weirdstone: Closer to The Edge' would appeal to the younger cinema-goer today?