Ink & Quill

What do we remember of Mata Hari?

A dancer? Yes. A spy? Yes, that too. But what else?

In this fast-pace biography, Pat Shipman provides a fascinating account of how Margaretha Zelle MacLeod, Dutch citizen, became Mata Hari, and how this led her to be executed at the end of World War One.

Was Mata Hari a likable character, a gorgeous woman victim of her circumstances? Or was she a vile manipulator, eager and able to use men to retrieve her only means of sustenance: money? Was she by far the most intelligent women of her time, or an mere opportunist?

For anyone who is not familiar with Mata Hari, this is a very good start and will give the reader a pretty good idea who she was, what she was all about, and why she is still remembered today, for better or for worse.

In this great depiction of the lives and conquests of the Mongols throughout history, Jack Weatherford sheds light on an historical character that has been given a lot of bad press,

Ranging from before Genghis Khan’s birth to the end of the Mongol empire long after his death, the author portrays the culture and ideals of a people united under one ruler, one goal.

The reader will be taken back in time and into a world not that different from our own, and that the Mongols’ actions have helped shape.

In this futuristic series of 10 volumes set in “The City,” Spider Jerusalem, rogue journalist and truth seeker is out to get the politicians, and to expose them for who they are. In the decadent world they live in, Spider and his “filthy assistants” will stop at nothing, sex, drugs or videos to dig up the truth and expose the lies.

Very cyber punk, graphic in both senses of the word, this series is not for everyone. You like a foul-mouthed character with a habit of beating up his opponents to get the truth out of them, Transmetropolitan is for you! If you have more of a sensitive stomach, you might want to skip a few pages.

All in all an interesting take on the world toward which we are heading. A world of endless stimuli, endless commercials, extremely corrupt and evil politicians, self-indulgence in the form of medical conveniences, and drugs drugs drugs!!

Have you been wondering what happened to Snow White and if she is still happily married to her Prince Charming? And what about that Big Bad Wolf that ate poor Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, where did he disappear? Cinderella? The three blind mice? King Cole?

Rest assured, they are all alive and well… in Fabletown, a hidden area of New York City. But that is only for those who can pass for humans (aka Mundy). The others are kept in upstate New York in The Farm run by Snow White’s sister, Rose Red.

What are they doing there you ask? They have been kicked out of their homeland by the “Adversary.” And when you find out who that it, it will knock your socks off! Now is the time to confront said adversary, and to go home.

In this episode we review the whole series. Yup, all 18 books!

This is Paris through the eyes of five families: the aristocrats, the “low-life”, the Jews, the workers and the merchants. Five different perspectives from the Middle-Ages to 1968, five ways to look at Paris, to be in Paris, to make Paris what it is today. The novel shows the relationship between people and the city; how a city has an effect on its people, and how the people and their beliefs shape a city.

This is a fast read (despite its 800-something pages) and a very interesting look at the main events in French history that have left their mark on Paris.

This is not your typical book about New York. This one is all about impressions, about slices of life, about what a city does to you and how you can influence a city.

Manhattan Transfer is a wonder of literary mastery. Its shadowy characters evolve in a New York that evolves with them. A tremendous novel that takes you deep in the heart of a large metropolis. A pure jewel.

When you are the first 100 people on Mars, there are a few things that need to happen. First, you need to get along. That’s a given (but not as easy as it looks..). You also have to have an infrastructure that allows you to breath, travel, explore, and, maybe just live. Also not that easy.. Especially when you have factions on Earth trying to dictate how THEY want Mars to be, factions on Mars trying to replicate Earth, those who want Mars to remain the same, untouched and those who are simply trying to do their job! Not an easy combination.

Winner of the Hugo and the Nebula Award, Kim Stanley Robinson has created a very believable Martian colonization scenario from all perspective. Written in the third narrative but allowing every major player (and every major field of study) to have its own chapter, the author manages to present to his reader the various discoveries, joys, disappointments and road blocks that such a set of scientist (soon followed by various waves of immigration) deals with when faced with such a fascinating yet daunting endeavor.

Kim Stanley Robinson puts the science back in science fiction.

For all you dreamers out there, lets’ go to Mars!

A Classic of science-fiction, The Martian Chronicles are a gathering of little stories told from many perspectives, from the Martians witnessing the coming of large rockets from the sky, to the Earth people (scientists, families, or individuals) settling on a new planet with all the changes and adaptation (or lack thereof) that the move implies.

Each little story is a slice of life, a character study, an individual thrown in a situation to observe his or her behavior. More than a simple work of science-fiction, The Martian Chronicles are an observation on Mankind, their attitude, their behavior, their mentality. Dealing greatly with the themes of the Other (inside as much as outside), this novel is a wonderful peek at what humanity can do when it is at its best and at its worth.

In this first person narration, the main character, whose name the reader never gets to discover, struggles with hunger.

As his stomach remains empty, his head fills with delusions, inner monologues and streams of consciousness that lead the reader to wonder whether or not the narrator is sane. The question remains as to whether the hunger is the cause or the consequence of the narrator’s delusional state.

Focusing mainly on social interactions and personal dilemmas, Hunger is a psychological novel in the same vein as Dostoevsky’s The Double, albeit not as dark..

A must-read for anyone interested in the inner mechanisms of the human mind

The whole town is suddenly blind! No reason, no cause, but it is contagious. And it is spreading…fast!

The military takes matters into its own hands and in order to confine the epidemic, sends the affected into a secluded ward. Lost, only able to rely on themselves and each other, this is the story of a struggle.

Will they be able to retain their dignity when faced with adversity? When push comes to shove, will they allow themselves to do the unthinkable to help themselves and each other?

The story follows seven principal protagonists of both sexes, of various ages and from different social backgrounds. Helped in their misery by the only person who has miraculously retained her eyesight, will those seven people survive the horrors that mankind is capable of causing?

A heart-wrenching tale that will entice the reader and allow him/her to experience many and at times contradictory emotions. A fantastic work of literature by Jose Saramago, Nobel Prize winner for Literature.