A Rare Triple
April 12th, 2008
I can’t remember the last time I read three books in a row that I really liked:
- Robert Hutchinson: Elizabeth’s Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England. (Precede or follow with Patricia Finney’s excellent novel Firedrake’s Eye for best effect. Would someone please make a movie of this?)
- Michael Chabon: The Yiddish Policeman’s Union.
- Catherynne M. Valente: In the Night Garden.
Of course, this means I have a stack of technical books waiting for me; I hope at least one is as good.
They did kind of make a “historical” movie about Elizabeth not too long ago, but it was very painful to watch – felt too much like a propaganda against Spaniards. Let’s face it, Catholics were killing Protestants and vice versa all over the Europe (especially in France) in those times, so nobody is “good”. England also had more ships than the Spanish Armada in the battle of Gravelines, but the movie implied otherwise.
If you haven’t read yet, I highly recommend The Chronicles of Amber. It’s a fantasy, but I think that you’ll appreciate the similarity between the adventures and misadventures of the main character and Napoleon (or perhaps the Carthaginian general Hannibal).