Tangled Mind

He had replicated in the subatomic world what Newton had done for the solar system, using only pure mathematics, with no recourse to imagery. He had no idea how he had arrived at his results, but there they were, written in his own hand; if he was correct, science could not only understand reality but begin to manipulate it at its most basic level. Heisenberg thought of the consequences knowledge of this nature might have, and was struck with a feeling of vertigo so profound that he had to restrain the impulse to throw his notebook into the sea. [loc. 1199]

In this 'nonfiction novel', Chilean author Benjamín Labatut explores the darkness at the heart of science, and the tipping-point between genius and madness. What happens to the mind when scientific theories passes the limits of human understanding?

No other society has built media empires on such mountains of dead and mutilated women. But, to us, the Romans look like the weird ones because they were fascinated by murder in a different way. We have our mountains of dead fictional girls. But they had mountains of dead real men. [loc. 85]

Murder in Ancient Rome came in many forms, and Southon explores them all: the 'social death' of enslaved persons, which meant that their actual deaths were trivial; the infamous murders of assorted emperors (I did not know that Claudius was the only Emperor to have been poisoned); death as spectacle in the arena; ritual murder and sacrifice; the high rate of infant mortality, and whether all those dead babies were killed deliberately or not.

Pearl’s started to do this every night: take out the carpet bag and sit waiting for bravery to possess her, like the ghosts do, so she can put on the boy’s clothes and follow the map. But it turns out bravery is the hardest spirit of them all to catch. She calls and calls, yet it doesn’t come. [loc. 3106]

1854: the ominously named Agnes Darken lives in Bath, ekeing out a living as a silhouette artist. She worries that she won't be able to earn enough to support her widowed mother and her dead sister Constance's child; and she's recovering from a bout of pneumonia that nearly killed her. Luckily she has the support of her brother-in-law, Simon, a respected physician. When one of Agnes' clients is found dead, Simon takes charge and protects Agnes from the ordeal of being questioned by the police. Of course, he reassures her, it's mere coincidence. But then another client dies ... ( Read more... )

"It's about every person who has been made to feel like nothing. Violated mentally and physically. Extinguished. How many on this train have gone through an experience where ... the next day they have curled up into a ball, and screamed silently into a pillow?"
"It's probably easier to say who hasn't." Roz's voice was very quiet. Very small. [loc. 2654]

It's the night before Christmas Eve, and the sleeper train to Fort William leaves Euston with a number of passengers on board, including a killer, a stowaway, and former Met detective Roz Parker. Roz is heading north to be with her daughter, who's gone into labour prematurely. Social media influencer Meg intends to propose to her partner Grant. There are four students competing for a place in a quiz team; a couple travelling with their teenage children; a lawyer who seems familiar to Roz; an elderly woman and her son; and of course the train crew. Somewhere after Edinburgh, in heavy snow, the train is derailed by a tree on the line -- and shortly afterwards, one of the passengers is found dead.( Read more... )

Cleopatra Selene is an historical figure who should be much better known, particularly by young women of colour who look for someone they can personally identify and engage with in the historical record. [loc. 125]

I was only vaguely aware of the existence of Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony: I hadn't appreciated the arc of her life, from Egyptian princess to Roman prisoner to African queen. Draycott's biography, whilst admittedly a 'qualified reconstruction' rather than a rigorous examination of historical evidence, is an eminently readable account of the known facts, and the probable truths, of Cleopatra Selene's life. While there is little information about her childhood, there is ample information about aristocratic children in Rome around that time; though there are no records of her life in Alexandria, archaeological and historical evidence allows Draycott to describe city life in the first century BCE.

Women in modern evening gowns exposed more skin than this in public. Even so: the scandalous and experienced Violet Debenham had stopped talking at the sight of her. A thrill of triumph washed over Maud. [loc. 1781]

Second in the trilogy that began with A Marvellous Light, this novel has a very different setting -- the Lyric, a luxury liner sailing from New York to Portsmouth -- but shares some characters, and has the same balance of romance and magical whodunnit.( Read more... )

I did think I might make you stand, and then deliver..."

Novella-length audiobook, narrated by James Joseph and Ryan Laughton.

Toby, the eponymous thief, encounters a gentleman named Miles Carteret in a rural inn. ( Read more... )

Odd sighed. “Which one of you wants to explain what’s going on?” he said.
“Nothing’s going on,” said the fox brightly. “Just a few talking animals. Nothing to worry about. Happens every day. We’ll be out of your hair first thing in the morning.”

Technically a reread (first read in 2009: review here): I had a free trial of Audible with my new Kindle and wanted to try out an audiobook, and one of the '52 book club' prompts was 'audiobook read by author'... Odd and the Frost Giants is the story of Odd, a crippled half-Scots, half-Viking boy who runs away from home. It's not quite like the ballads his mother sings to him. Instead of a horse, a hound and a hawk, he finds himself in the company of a bear, a fox and an eagle, who are not what they seem.

They were not costumes; they were peeled-off parts of our mothers; without them, how could our mams be themselves, their real selves, their under-sea selves, the selves they were born into? They walked about on land with no protection, from the cold or from our dads falling in love with them, or from us boys needing them morning and night. [p. 236]

Life on the island of Rollrock is salt-stung, windswept, hand to mouth. Misskaella grows up lonely and bitter, 'a bit slanted, a bit mixed', ostracised by her family and slowly awakening to her bond with the seals that bask on the sands. She can see something within them, points of light like stars, that can be drawn together to bring a human out of a seal. She recognises that this is power, that this is freedom -- for her, not for the seal-wives that she sells. ( Read more... )

How else could one possibly face the prospect of being one-sixth of a dystopian nuclear code if not to simply laugh and go back to sleep? [loc. 1567]

Second in the trilogy that began with The Atlas Six, an intriguing addition to the dark academia shelf. In that first volume, six gifted magic-users were recruited by Atlas Blakely, Caretaker of the Alexandrian Society. By the end of the novel, one of the six had been removed ...

This review will contain some spoilers for The Atlas Six, though hopefully nothing major for The Atlas Paradox. Persons not wishing to be spoilt for the first novel in the trilogy should stop reading NOW.