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Book Review: The Geographer's Library
The Geographer's Library is Jon Fasman's first novel; I will probably read his second when it comes out in October.
It's rare for a mystery novel to draw me in. Successful points: a likable but somewhat unreliable narrator, wide-ranging storylines (Moscow, Siberia, Estonia, Turkey; 1200 through modern times) and just a bit of magic.
The narrator is a small-town New England weekly newspaper reporter, newly graduated from school. One of the profs of his school turns up dead, and he's asked to write the obituary. Paul feels like the story isn't adding up, especially after the town coroner is murdered, and the more he digs, the less sense it makes. Apparently the prof was twice arrested for shooting a firearm on campus, but the police were convinced to squelch the investigations.
Add a love interest, a professor who knows a bit of the story but wants to know what else is happening to his department, and a gung-ho police-person, and you have a fairly standard potboiler. (Ho hum).
But what makes this story work for me is that chapters alternate with a history of the court geographer of Sicily from 1200 who gathered a library of alchemy instruments. The stories of these 14 instruments as they pass from hand to hand through the ages is what does it for me- there's a gradual sense of fate about it, but also the work of a shadowy hand in action. The eventual denoument for Paul feels a bit... cheap, as he really shouldn't have survived it, but that he does. I guess somebody hsa to live to write the story.
It feels a bit like a less intense Cryptonomicon with less math and many fewer pages (375 or so). If you like Neil Stephenson, but don't mind a bit of alchemy, it's possible you'll like this. It was a quick read.
This book came from the remainders at a book-sale last fall; I flipped to a random page and the writing style drew me in. Something made me think it would be a good choice for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
melted_snowball's dad for Christmas. He liked it enough he wanted to give it back so I could read it. And I'll give it back to melted_snowball's mom when she's here next weekend, for his dad to give to someone else to read. I'm not sure it's as successful a novel as all that, but it was a good find on the remainders shelf.
It's rare for a mystery novel to draw me in. Successful points: a likable but somewhat unreliable narrator, wide-ranging storylines (Moscow, Siberia, Estonia, Turkey; 1200 through modern times) and just a bit of magic.
The narrator is a small-town New England weekly newspaper reporter, newly graduated from school. One of the profs of his school turns up dead, and he's asked to write the obituary. Paul feels like the story isn't adding up, especially after the town coroner is murdered, and the more he digs, the less sense it makes. Apparently the prof was twice arrested for shooting a firearm on campus, but the police were convinced to squelch the investigations.
Add a love interest, a professor who knows a bit of the story but wants to know what else is happening to his department, and a gung-ho police-person, and you have a fairly standard potboiler. (Ho hum).
But what makes this story work for me is that chapters alternate with a history of the court geographer of Sicily from 1200 who gathered a library of alchemy instruments. The stories of these 14 instruments as they pass from hand to hand through the ages is what does it for me- there's a gradual sense of fate about it, but also the work of a shadowy hand in action. The eventual denoument for Paul feels a bit... cheap, as he really shouldn't have survived it, but that he does. I guess somebody hsa to live to write the story.
It feels a bit like a less intense Cryptonomicon with less math and many fewer pages (375 or so). If you like Neil Stephenson, but don't mind a bit of alchemy, it's possible you'll like this. It was a quick read.
This book came from the remainders at a book-sale last fall; I flipped to a random page and the writing style drew me in. Something made me think it would be a good choice for
melted_snowball's dad for Christmas. He liked it enough he wanted to give it back so I could read it. And I'll give it back to melted_snowball's mom when she's here next weekend, for his dad to give to someone else to read. I'm not sure it's as successful a novel as all that, but it was a good find on the remainders shelf.