El Palacio de la Medianoche, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I've been anxiously waiting for more by the author of "The Shadow of the Wind" and until he writes another novel for a more mature audience, I'm going through his novels for young adults. "El Palacio de la Medianoche" is the second I've read of his novels for teenagers, and I've found it just "enjoyable". A comparison with "El Principe de la Niebla" reveals some similarities in that they both have aspects of the gothic novel, but this one didn't seem to me as well-written or as effective as the first two. While "Principe" had a steadily growing atmosphere of suspense, mystery, and fear, this one seemed overly contrived and less involving.

The story revolves around a mysterious, evil character intent on murdering fraternal twins when they reach the age of 16. Elements of the plot are revealed slowly, what could have built up suspense and excitement, but I was sad to discover that this effect didn't work on me. There were some "switchbacks" in the story in the sense that resolution to mysteries are presented only to be discredited as lies later on. Even considering that there was a point to presenting the story as such, I felt that the way this technique was used failed miserably for me. Also, in spite of his efforts to flesh out Calcutta as a setting for the story, I felt it irrelevant to the story. Zafón efforts to make the city an integral part of the story didn't resonate with me because in spite of all the information given, I couldn't establish a believable connection between the plot and the locale.

It is hard to feel involved and to be gripped by your emotions if you don't really develop some kind of relationship with the characters. I cannot quite explain why the twins or the other member of the Chowbar Society never really grew on me, but the fact was that halfway through the novel I discovered that I didn't care enough for them to feel the excitement that they experienced in the story. An artifact that Zafón used well in the two novels I read previously is his play with the supernatural. The reader is made to struggle in figuring out what is real and what is fantastic. There is normally quite a bit of tension until the resolution finally arrives. He uses this artifact a little differently in this novel. I think he wasn't effective because there wasn't a clear, causal chain of facts to establish the foundation upon which he could have constructed a believable fantasy.

While I don't regret reading this, I think it is the only forgettable novel I've read by Zafón so far. I hope that I find "Las Luces de Septiembre" more in line with what I expect of his writing.

Heat, by Bill Buford

Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential left me with the desire to read more about the crazy underworld of the professional, restaurant kitchen. It was only natural that I'd be attracted to a book recounting the experiences of a writer who decides to start learning to cook professionally in his early forties. It's a rocking cool book. Buford talks about apprenticing (and suffering) in Mario Batali's Babbo's kitchen, about the passion for food in Italy, about the strange and fascinating personalities in the restaurant business, and about his obsessive research about various aspects in food and cooking. Of the latter discussions, my favorite one was his quest to discover when people started to use egg in pasta dough (yes, "pasta dough" would be an obscene redundancy in the Italian language, but I'm writing in English, so "lasciami in pace." The book culminates in Bufords apprenticeship with a Tuscan butcher and that segment is at the same time informative, amusing, and disturbing.

If you're a confessed foodie, you will want to read this book.

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

I just turned the last page. Wow. I really enjoyed the book for all the great ideas it contains. Snow Crash was written between 1988 and 1992, when the Internet and the world wide web were nothing like what they have become. Computer viruses were already a fact of life on the net, even the first several worms had gone around. Only the most paranoid and poorly informed people thought that a computer virus could infect a human being and we, hackers who knew better, used to laugh at them. This book turns things around and creates an interesting framework to support the speculation that it could very well be possible that such viruses would exist. Drugs, hackers, virtual worlds, skateboards, linguistics, organized crime, organized religion, geeks, and bionic dogs all play some kind of part in Snow Crash and make it a fun, exciting read.

All that said, I tried to start reading this book about three or four times until it would finally take. The first several pages seemed too focused on the hip action "glitz" and "glamour" and that turned me off for quite a while. To be honest, I didn't care much about the Mafia controlling pizza delivery stuff, I wanted good sci-fi from the get go. Since the story wasn't throwing this grappling hook on me early enough, I ended up losing interest and putting down Snow Crash after a few starts. When I decided to be more perseverant, I finally found what I was looking for and got really into it. My problem with this book, which is admittedly small, was the alternation of crazy, leave-you-breathless action in the style of The Matrix, with the scientific, speculative material. It felt to me like the two aspects of the story couldn't co-exist in harmony, that they had to take mutually exclusive access to the reader's attention. There are points in the story where they do go hand in hand, but most often, that doesn't happen. From my perspective, the ending is also a weakness: it is a bit abrupt, as if the author had suddenly decided he'd had enough of the story.

I might still read this again someday to recap on all the ideas of the integration of reality and virtual worlds (the idea of the gargoyles is what people are trying to achieve with augmented reality today), of hacking in the Metaverse (which sounds very much like Second Life with better HCI than what we currently have), and of intersection of linguistics and cognition. This book is so rich in ideas that it deserves a "companion" kind of summary to remind you of all the good stuff it proposes when you're done learning about the fate of the characters. (In the absence of the real companion, Wikipedia's entry for Snow Crash is a very good alternative.)

Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson

After I read Neuromancer, somewhere in the late 80s, I started stocking up on William Gibson books. The insanely complex, well-constructed world of Neuromancer and its fast paced geeky action had left a big impression on me, but, for some strange reason, I never got around to reading the books that I collected. In part, I think it was because Gibson's style is to hit the ground running and hope that you'll catch up with him somehow. He throws you into the story and it is up to you to figure out what his terminology means and what the context of the story is. It's a literary device that worked mysteriously well in Neuromancer, but one with which it took me a while to get comfortable. Even though I had enjoyed the ride immensely, it seemed that I was hesitant to do it again. Then again, there was also a strange feeling that I had read someone magnum opus and reading something else by the author smacked of a heresy of some king.

Pattern Recognition was plucked out of a bargain bin somewhere and sat in my shelf for several years until I decided to take the plunge. When I started to read it, I had a nearly physiological reaction to the writing style that I had enjoyed so much the first time. My heart would start racing as I felt excited to be reading Gibson again. Like the character in this story, who recited a mantra to get over moments of irrational reaction to something seemingly common place, I almost started saying "he took a duck in the face..." under my breath. I got head first into the story set in present day and couldn't wait to finish.

A mysterious series of short film segments, which is distributed on the web by a social network, is the heart of the story. Cayce Pollard, a woman with a talent to predict how products and logos are accepted by the market, is a enthusiast of these films, a "footage head". Spurred by her money hungry magnate, Hubertus Bigend, Cayce sets out to investigate who creates the footage and why. In the process, she visits London, Tokyo, and Moskow, attempting to unveil a sequence of small mysteries that leave the reader guessing at the turn of every page. The action is fast and rife with intrigue. The writing is peppered with socio-cultural evaluation and criticism. Ultimately, this is a fun book that sometimes feel like thrill ride and sometimes slows down to let you breathe and to reason out the pieces of the puzzle you are fed. Gibson is still the man.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John Le Carré

I had first tried to read this when I was about 15, at the height of my infatuation with James Bond stories. I tried and failed never getting past page 50. Even though I was reading Ian Fleming at the time, Le Carré was too different to seem good. As time went on, I watched a few movies based on his books and slowly I started to come to terms with the fact that I didn't have what it took to appreciate his stories earlier in my life.

After watching the first four MI-5 series (not to mention putting another 25+ years of age on), I thought it was time to retry this book, which is heralded as one of the best spy stories ever. This time, I did manage to appreciate the book very much and to enjoy the story.

It's all cold war, U.S.A., Soviet Union, East and West Germany. The context seems very real, very historic, and perhaps for this reason, exciting. The spies are human beings, flawed and mortal. The intrigue is deep. The plot twists and turns, but doesn't leave you behind.

The premise revolves around Alec Leamas, a British spy who runs an information network in East Germany and who lost one of his most important assets. Alec gets involved in a mission to assassinate the man who would have killed his informant. Just as he is assigned this task, though, his life seems to collapse all around him. He becomes destitute and takes to drinking. Things seems not ready to go anywhere in the story, but that façade crumbles page by page and the reader learns that the plot continues to evolve toward an exciting sequence of events. I enjoyed this a lot and will be reading more from Le Carré soon.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling

What else could I say that someone else would not have said at this point? It is Potter, it is good, and it is final. I am sad that it ends here, but I'm raising my glass to this brilliant author: To your great accomplishments, to the many hours of bewilderment and emotion you gave the world, and to your future works. I do hope you continue to write, by the way, even if it is not in the same universe anymore!

Into a Dark Realm, by Raymond E. Feist

Would it be fair to say: more of the same? You can always rely on Feist to put together a fun story, but there's a feeling of repetition here. For Pug fans like me, this is a bit of treat, but it is nothing like Magician. Characters get trained (get experience points?), go on a quest, get in trouble, get out of trouble, save someone. What is a bit interesting is the use of different "realms" of reality superimposed on each other in the story. Some of the characters band together to investigate a different realm to discover what lies behind a message that Pug from the future sent to Pug of the present. I'll keep on reading this "saga" because, as fluff goes, it is hard to get much better than this, but I don't have great expectations at this point.