What I’ve Been Reading: The Subtle Knife, Titus Groan, Moscow Stations, Preacher: Ancient History

I have been reading things! Strange but true.

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

The second book in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and more enjoyable for me than the first (which wasn't too bad itself). Will was a better protagonist than Lyra, there were no talking bears, and the subplot with *spoiler redacted* had me turning pages as eagerly as anything I've read recently. I think if I had read these books ten years ago I would have thought them the greatest thing ever in the world; as it is, I quite like the way interesting ideas (like the intersection of physics and theology) are explored without any need for the kind of in-depth justifications that readers of "adult" speculative fiction would probably demand.

I feel fortunate not to have a chip on my shoulder about religion, as many of the reactions to Pullman's series seem to centre on outrage of some kind. I just enjoy reading the books for some not-too-fluffy light entertainment.

Oh, and there were Dementors. That was pretty weird.

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

A long time ago I read an excerpt from one of the books in the Gormenghast trilogy, and now I've finally read the first book itself. It's grotesque in the true sense of the word, and although the style is a bit dated it actually works perfectly in the context of the story. I loved the names of the characters - Prunesquallor the doctor, Swelter the obese, evil head chef, the gloomy earl Sepulchrave - and although almost all of them were completely unlikeable I still wanted to read about their bizarre, dysfunctional adventures. For once I didn't even have to skip through the big slabs of text where the author decides to describe the landscape, because even those sections were interesting to read. Nom nom nom.

Moscow Stations by Venedikt Yerofeev

I read this book by accident, because my sister had borrowed it from a fancy archival library and it was short enough to read in a couple of hours. It's apparently both autobiographical and fantastic; I'm sure I would have gotten more out of it had I a better grounding in Russian literature and Soviet history, because every second paragraph felt like an allusion to something I didn't understand. Still a good read, if by "read" you mean "experience of words gathering momentum and vast quantities of alcohol and hurtling into a surreal nightmare and then stopping".

Preacher: Ancient History by Garth Ennis

I really enjoyed the previous three volumes of collected Preacher comics, but Ancient History was ... quite bad. As a collection of backstories it didn't have anything to make up for the absence of the main narrative (which stays on the right side of ludicrous), and other than the Saint of Killers (who comes first in this volume) the characters whose histories were explored just weren't interesting. The writing in the last section seemed particularly terrible; Preacher always has a very pulp-fiction feel to it, but the retelling of the Good Old Boys' past is tedious and clunky rather than an entertaining pastiche.

I'm trying not to let Ancient History put me off reading any more Preacher, but it's difficult.

Next on my to-read list: Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. Hooray for fantasy that doesn't suck! (I hope!) And then I will have no backlog at all, and need to find something new to read.