Silent Sunday

Review: The Business by Iain Banks

I got this book as a gift from my great Internet friend Tracy – thank you very much my dear, I do appreciate your kindness!


Form: paperback
Genre: contemporary fairy tale
Target audience: adults
Pages: 393
Publisher: Abacus Fiction

Synopsis:

Kathryn Telman, is a very successful businesswoman in her late thirties. She’s managed to make a great career and she is definitely on her way up in the Business, a mysterious, very old, very rich consulting/investing company which once owned for a short period of time the whole Roman Empire. Yes, you read it right, THE Roman Empire - they are that old and rich.

While enjoying her sabbatical year Kathryn is contacted by another colleague who has an unusual problem - somebody has extracted his teeth, quite a lot of them, and no, it wasn’t a sad result of a pre-arranged visit to a dentist – and he has to go to Japan the very next day to sign a very important agreement. You see, the Business wants to acquire its own country to own a seat on the United Nations and the whole process needs careful preparations and a bit of deception. Why somebody wanted to steal that guy's teeth in the process, though?

All of a sudden Kathryn is nominated to head to a little exotic Himalayan country called Thuhn (fictional of course) – the very country the Business have selected as their newest purchase – to judge the impact the transaction would have on the citizens. Meanwhile she is approached with some blackmail material that could change the course of her life as it concerns a married man she’s been deeply in love with. It’s up to her what she is going to do with it. A coincidence or a subtle pressure? Then the prince who officially rules Thuhn proposes to her and she cannot believe it was a completely unpremeditated act either. The longer she thinks about her situation the more sure she is that something is going wrong at the very top. She decides to get to the bottom of it and minimize the fall out before anyone gets hurt.

What I liked:

First let me tell you that I did enjoy the idea behind the plot. The Business is written in the first person so from Kate’s point of view, peppered with various telephone and email conversations which indicate aspects of Kate’s life that she isn’t narrating herself. It shows how things are done in big corporations. Mind you Kate doesn’t feel as if she was a powerless little worker who is struggling against an evil machine of bureaucracy; she is the willing, sometimes even enthusiastic participant, and a skilled professional; her corporation can be hardly called evil, there are no huge conspiracies, threatening the well-being of humankind just the ordinary power struggle done discreetly under the carpet. Such a take is rather unique.

What I didn’t like:

My first problem: I couldn’t relate to the main character. Not really. Mr. Banks seems to have little idea of how a smart, modern and attractive young woman might think and operate; instead I suppose he projected on to her the rollicking lifestyle of a rich young Scotsman, complete with party dope smoking, endless drinks, meals out, an occasional roll in the hay etc. For example one moment she is sleeping around with her handsome chauffeur, a boy half her age, the other moment she is begging her beloved Stephen to f**k her (I quote her request verbatim here) despite the fact that she knows pretty well he has a family and is determined to stay faithful to his wife. Her musical tastes seem to be as incongruous as her personal life. Well, either she is a responsible adult, ready to settle down and marry ‘the right guy’, or she is still a wild girl always looking for a good opportunity to drag somebody to bed. Choices, choices.

My second problem with this book was that I didn’t manage to grasp of what this story is really about. Is it a parable trying to discredit the corporate world of international business? Is it about surviving on overwhelming capitalist power through duplicity? Is it about human relationships, disrupted intimacy, lost happiness and misplaced loyalty? Or is it just about a prince seeking desperately a princess and vice versa?

By the end, there aren’t any answers. You are left feeling a little cold, as if you visited the Himalayas without proper clothes. Although some hot plot lines are introduced they disappear to the sidelines. Some motives never get off the ground. With a bit more discipline, this could have really rocked; unfortunately it didn’t. Not to me, anyway. Actually I suppose this novel would make a great novella – a tight, exciting and fun rollercoaster of not more than 100 pages. As it was, I had to skip some text here and there because I was bored. The worst part? The courtship of the Thuhn prince (let me just tell you that the prince behaves as if he lived in the 19th century) and all the pages devoted to Kate’s globe trotting, where we are told in excruciating detail about her in-flight experiences, buying warm clothes, admiring a backside of a flight attendant, getting her meals, meeting whoever…as if I was so horribly interested in somebody else's life.

Final verdict

Allegedly it is not the best position of this author and I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. However, it was loads better than my first encounter with Mr. Banks – that book I bought a year ago was a DNF just after several pages. I still want to read something by this author but I admit, next time I will go only for the very best.

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I got this book from rameau - thank you very much for your generosity and kindness!

Form: e-book, Kindle edition
Genre: sci-fi fairy tale
Target audience: YA

Synopsis:

Being a cyborg in New Bejing means being a second class citizen. Cinder knows it only too well – she has to work and earn not only her living but also the living of her small family, consisting of her stepmother and two stepsisters, Peony and Pearl. Fortunately Cinder is an extremely gifted robotics mechanic (not unlike little Anakin Skywalker), already renowned in the city despite her young age. One day even prince Kaito, the heir apparent to the imperial throne, pays her a visit in her little shop. He has an android to repair – an old one he keeps only for sentimental reasons. Or so he claims.

Cinder finds the prince very handsome, very kind and even funny. She is afraid to admit that she falls for him head over heels - after all she has a snowball in hell chance to be the right bride for a future emperor. She is over 36% artificial, she has no money to speak of and her stepmom simply hates her guts. Still a cyborg can dream, can't she? Well...soon enough her dreams must disappear - Peony, the nicer of her stepsisters, accompanies her to a local landfill site and falls ill. She catches a virus of lethumosis, a mysterious disease similar to the bubonic plague - incurable and very deadly. Of course Peony’s mother blames Cinder for it and decides to make her stepdaughter “volunteer” as a scientific guinea pig. So far none of those survived. The stepmom thinks she is so clever - not only she gets rid of Cinder, she is also paid for it. Sounds like a sweet deal but...Cinder returns. And she strikes back. ;)

What I liked:

The originality. It is not easy to work with such a well-known stuff as Cinderella and still produce an original book. Every kid and their parent can correct you (or at least have some remarks) but I must admit I was sold as soon as I started this one. New Beijing. Cyborgs. A handsome heir apparent who doesn’t want to be an emperor at all. A nice teenager girl who earns her living as an open-air market mechanic instead of whining, flirting, swearing and combing her hair. It was actually funny but reading about Cinder I thought all the time about Luke Skywalker or his dad. I couldn’t help it. Luke and Cinder were both orphans raised by foster families. They both had some shadowy secrets to discover. Cinder, like both Skywalkers, had a bionic limb (but no, she didn’t get hers because she fought her evil Sith lords with a light saber ;) ) and liked tinkering with robots. She also had a snarky android friend. The book, like the Star Wars movie, was peppered with funny scenes. Still it remained original.

Cinder and her love interest, prince Kaito, are real assets here. Both, despite their young age (late teens) have suffered serious losses and have to shoulder great responsibilities. Both are pressurized into choosing between an evil and another evil. I liked their slow romance a lot – no ugly love triangle, not many adventures, a YA book with just one kiss and still it kept me riveted! Well done! Making Levana an evil Lunar queen was a great move. The author reverted the usual order, popular in such stories – here an adult woman is an aggressor and a young, inexperienced man – her victim. Mind you it is an YA book so you won't find any sordid details here - prince Kai just grits his teeth and soldiers on, poor thing.

The pace of narration was great –  not too quick, not to slow but you didn’t want to stop reading. I especially enjoyed the build-up toward that great annual ball and you see, that’s the beauty of a well-told story: you know Cinder will attend the ball although she repeatedly declines the prince's invitation, you know the prince will finally fall for her and she for him but still you are wondering how and when and for what reasons. That’s how a good fairy tale adaptation should work.

Finally the cover art -I like it a lot and I find it really suitable, especially the title font. It took me to the Moon and back...;)

What I didn’t like:

Firstly I was a tad surprised reading that Cinder, left without any schooling or tutoring at 11, was such a fantastic mechanic. If the author made her stepfather live a little bit longer all of it would be far more creditable. Even Anakin had to be taught this and that.

I admit the baddies were a shade too one-dimensional. This novel deserved something better than an all-evil queen-autocrat or a horrible full stop horrible stepmother. I do hope though that it will be improved in next installments – it is just the beginning, right?

I also was a bit disappointed by so few world building elements and minor glitches. We know there are many cyborgs in New Beijing but we are shown just Cinder and her problems. The Lunar queen comes with a visit but we know very little about the settlements on the Moon – how they became possible at all, what discoveries and technical inventions allowed that (apart from magic that is). Once again – plenty of material to be developed in other books. Hopefully in a creative way.

Final verdict:

I am definitely interested in reading the next part of Lunar Chronicles. Actually I am pretty curious what path Ms Meyer will choose: will she continue adapting the same fairy tale or will she tell another story?  No matter what her choice is, may the Force be with her...ehem...good luck!

Review: Timeless by Gail Carriger (Parasol Protectorate #05)

Form: e-book, Kindle edition

Genre: fantasy steampunk

Target audience: YA and adults who like such novels (like me)

Synopsis:

Lord Conall Maccon, the Alfa of London werewolf pack and his lovely perternatural wife, Alexia nee Tarabotti, are planning a visit to Egypt. They have to – a very old vampire queen from Alexandria, called Matakara, invited them along. If somebody like her bothers to send an invitation you simply can’t say ‘no’ – the consequences might be…well, bloody.

Matakara is especially interested in little Prudence, Alexia’s daughter and not without a good reason – the little girl can do more than she can say, especially using full sentences. In order to keep the real reason of their journey hidden, Alexia takes with herself her old friend Ivy Hisselpenny Tunstell with her lovely hubby, her twins and a part of their theatrical troupe. Ivy and Tunstell have a new play in their repertoire – a spectacular love story between a werewolf and a vampire queen. It fits only too well what will happen to them in Egypt…

What I liked:

Little Prudence and Biffy stole the show – they were two major highlights of this book. Prudence is not only a toddler who can change into a vampire and/or a werewolf, wreaking havoc and having a great time, she also hates baths and for a very good reason (I can’t tell, it’s a spoiler). Her parents and her foster parent, Lord Akeldama, are hardly a match for her - their hands are always full of this girl. A scary thought – Prudence will be a teenager soon. Speak about an ultimate parental challenge.

Biffy exceeded my wildest expectations – not only he managed to find his place in the pack (previously being rather more fond of vampires, I can’t tell more because it would be a spoiler) but also he found a new love interest and one of his abilities proved you shouldn’t judge a man by his cravat or by his waistcoat. I really appreciate such twists in fiction, especially when they are not entirely serious.

What’s more, I liked the setting of this one (Egypt) although I grieve to say it wasn’t explored to the full. More in the next section.

What I didn’t like:

It pains me to admit it but in my humble opinion the last installment of this series is also the weakest. It seems the author, who previously kept rather high writing standards, spoiling her readers mercilessly,  ran out of steam. On the one hand I do understand – it is the fifth Alexia novel after all, how many new things you can think of... On the other hand it is a pity – perhaps it would be better if the whole series was one-two books shorter.

First of all the steampunk factor, so deliciously explored in previous books, here is almost non-existent. An example: in the first part Alexia was attacked by deadly mechanical ladybugs and barely escaped. The whole scene was a hoot. Here the same ladybugs are nothing more than a toy for her two-year-old daughter (and some other equally childish adults as well). See the difference? Another example: in the first novel Alexia became a happy owner of a not very beautiful or stylish but otherwise extremely useful parasol. A very important accessory as it saved her life many times. In the last book her husband orders a substitute (as the first was destroyed) and Alexia uses it…once or twice – so barely at all, as if she didn’t need it anymore. Sad but true, substitutes never work.

Then Egypt. It is a perfect setting for such a fantasy steampunk novel: full of old ruins, mysterious monuments and intriguing secrets from the past. Our Alexia should have had plenty of fun there, right? Wrong. She gets dusty, goes up in a balloon and…she is thrown into the Nile. She sees the temple of Hatshepsut, half buried in the sand ( and very rightly so, it was excavated and restored only in the 20^th century but still such a pity) and is promptly chased away. No pyramids, no sphinxes, just one old vampire queen and even she, the famous, horribly old, horribly scary Matakara, barely speaks or moves or kills. She dies. Kind of anticlimactic, you must admit.

Overall reading this one I felt a bit sad – it was supposed to be a glass of fine wine; unfortunately it tasted as if that wine was heavily diluted and then doctored a bit, sweetened and scented. Oh well, I’ve always knew ending a series is definitely more tricky than starting it.

I am also not a very big fan of the cover art. Why feature a sphinx or the pyramids if Alexia never gets close to them?

Final verdict:

If you liked the series like yours truly you will read the last installment anyway. Timeless wasn't very bad, especially compared to other books of this genre, but, compared to other Parasol Protectorate books I found it a bit wishy-washy.

Chocolate - what else?

I can't believe I haven't written anything about chocolate yet - my drug of choice, my favourite indulgence since time immemorial, something worth living for. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC and it was rather not so sweet - the seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor. The majority of the Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". I think I would still love it.


After fermentation, the beans are dried, then cleaned, and then roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because this cocoa mass usually is liquefied then molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids.

Image via Wikipedia

The Latin name for the cacao tree – the tropical plant source of all things chocolate – consists of two words packed with candy-loving meaning. Theobroma cacao. It derives from the Greek words for god (theo) and food (brosi), roughly translating to “food of the gods”. Small wonder people love it so much. Chocolate played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies. All of the areas that were conquered by the Aztecs that grew cacao beans were ordered to pay them as a tax, or as the Aztecs called it, a "tribute". However, chocolate can be bad for you and for your pets. All because of a substance called... theobromine exactly.

Theobromine is an alkaloid, meaning it’s part of the everyday chemistry of the plant world. Plant alkaloids are nitrogen-based, typically with with flourishes of carbon, hydrogen and occasionally other atoms such as oxygen. The formula for theobromine is seven carbon atoms, eight of hydrogen, four of nitrogen and two of oxygen.

And while this may sound like a recipe for the routine, alkaloids are anything but. The first plant alkaloid isolated (in 1804) was morphine from the flowering poppy. Other notable examples include cocaine (1860), nicotine (1828), caffeine (1820), strychnine (1818) and a host of pharmaceuticals including the anticancer drug Vincristine; the blood pressure medication, reserpine; and the antimalarial compound, quinine.

Theobromine, 3-D model

Theobromine is mostly known as a mild stimulant in humans; it contributes (along with caffeine and a few other compounds) to that famed lift that people get from eating chocolate.

There is some evidence that if people get carried away with chocolate consumption, of course, theobromine will make them a little twitchy. According to theNational Hazardous Substances Database: “It has been stated that “in large doses” theobromine may cause nausea and anorexia and that daily intake of 50-100 g cocoa (0.8-1.5 g theobromine) by humans has been associated with sweating, trembling and severe headache.” Occasionally, people (mostly the elderly) have needed hospital treatment for a theobromine reaction.

But if one looks at LD50 values, it’s obvious that the alkaloid is far more threatening to other species. LD50 is an oral toxicity measurement; it refers to the dose that will kill 50 percent of a given population and is usually calculated in milligrams of poison per kilograms of body weight. Thetheobromine LD50 is about 1000 mg/kg in humans. But for cats it’s 200 mg/kg and for dogs it’s 300 mg/kg – in other words, dangerous at a far lower dose.

The different toxicities have to do with the way different species metabolize the alkaloid; humans process it much more efficiently than canines. And in small amounts, theobromine’s effects can make it medically useful. But even here, it shows complexity. It increases heart rate and at the same time it dilates blood vessels, acting to bring down blood pressure. It can also open up airways and is under study as a cough medication. It stimulates urine production and is considered a diuretic. It interacts with the central nervous system, although not as effectively as caffeine.This varies, of course, by animal size and shape and breed. Mind you theobromine is more concentrated in dark chocolates making them more dangerous than milk or “white” chocolate. The dark chocolate effects are so acute for canines, that the alkaloid has been tested with some success as a means of controlling coyote populations. Interestingly, rats and mice are much less affected; their theobromine LD50 is much more like that found in humans.

Now some sweet quotes:

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” - Charles M. Schulz

"It’s not that chocolates are a substitute for love. Love is a substitute for chocolate. Chocolate is, let’s face it, far more reliable than a man.” - Miranda Ingram

"Strength is the ability to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of those pieces." - Judith Viorst

"Chocolate makes everyone smile-even bankers." - Benneville Strohecker, chocolatier

"Chocolate: the poor mans' champagne." - Daniel Worona

"There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles." - Anonymous

"Chocolate is nature’s way of making up for Mondays." - Anonymous

"Biochemically, love is just like eating large amounts of chocolate." John Milton, The Devil's Advocate

Show me your doodles and I will tell you who you are...

I don't know why but I've always loved doodling, especially when reading a book or listening to a lecture. I also draw doodles when I write my reviews. Imagine yourself I found out today is a National Doodle Day in the UK so I decided to post something about one of my favourite pastimes.

Apparently doodle patterns can be as revealing as your longhand. For instance, emotional people who crave harmony tend to go for rounded shapes and symbols such as circles, suns, flowers, hearts, lips and balloons. More down-to-earth, practical people who desire order draw square shapes and things that represent material security, such as boxes, doors, forts, towers, block letters and numbers. And determined people with a lot of mental and physical energy draw pointed or masculine images, from stars to arrows, zigzags, spires, stick figures and lightening.

 Why doodle?

• Doodling is good for you because it helps relieve boredom and frustration, allowing pressure to be dispelled in a creative, playful way. The urge to doodle gets stronger as stress levels rise 
• Underlying preoccupations can surface and take shape as doodles. 
• Doodling maps your mind as you plan something new, worry about money or dream of a lover. Subconsciously, it may actually help you sort out your problems. 

Know what your style means...

• Some symbols crop up again and again – such as the sun, stars, boxes, arrows, hearts, flowers and waves. This may be because they have special significance for human beings and are symbols that represent our aspirations, needs and feelings 
• People who prefer straight lines tend to have strong willpower and self-control and like facts. Those who prefer curved strokes are more flexible, imaginative and emotional A single object represents the person doodling while the background scene or space represents the world around him or her. Several objects may represent people who are important to the doodler, different aspects of a situation, or parts of him or herself 
• If your doodle consists of a single object or pattern, how big is it in relation to the space? A large object shows you are outgoing, appear confident and have a busy life. A small object suggests you observe more than participate, like your personal space and prefer a quiet life 
• If you doodle at the top of the page, this is linked to dreams and aspirations. The bottom of the page is associated with security and material concerns. The right is concerned with the future and the outside world and the left relates to the past and family 
• People who are sensitive or hesitant tend to draw with short, light or sketchy lines. Determined people who feel strongly about things use longer, firmer strokes
•  Digging into the paper or going over and over something are signs that someone is frustrated, obsessed or stuck with a problem 
• Heavy shading or criss-crossing of strokes suggest depression or worry

Do you like doodling? What technique do you usually employ? I usually have a felt-tip pen, a gel pen or a pencil nearby and yes, my doodle tend to differ, depending on my mood. I rarely use colour but I do draw a lot of human faces, flowers, stars and different symbols. The second doodle from the top is mine :)

My source

Silent Saturday