Daren

I bought this on the basis of good reviews and it sounding pretty interesting. Both proved out in what was a great book. Although not very clear from the blurb, this book is partly about one of many cities founded by Alexander the Great on his rampage around the world - he had a thing for naming cities after himself- thus Alexandria. The one in Egypt is the one which hung around. Most of the others (historian consider there were a dozen or so) fell to ruin or were overtaken by other cities. Most have not been discovered.

The Alexandria in this case was known as Alexandria under the Mountain, its re-discovery by Charles Masson, in Afghanistan, is the primary topic of this book. Or is it? This book resolves the question of who exactly Charles Masson is. The events of this book take place from 1827 to 1853. Events I learned about from Flashman (volume 1) and Dalrymple's Return of a King, amongst others.

I liked this quote from early on in the book, P2 of my edition. Given it is page 2, I am not giving anything away when I say Masson at this time was known as Lewis - his real name, Private James Lewis, and his 'walking away from Agra' was him deserting from the British East India Company Army.

As he left Agra behind, he had no way of knowing that he was walking into one of history's most incredible stories. He would beg by the roadside and take tea with kings. He would travel with holy men and become the master of a hundred disguises. He would see things that no westerner had ever seen before, and few have glimpsed since. And, little by little, he would transform himself from an ordinary soldier into one of the greatest archeologists of the age. He would devote his life to a quest for Alexander the Great.

And so Edmund Richardson unpicks a complicated story, breathtaking in parts and heartbreaking in others, particularly the way Masson was manipulated by the British East India Company, and taken advantage of by others.

This really was excellent reading.

I also earmarked this quote, from right at the end: P258 of my edition.

How does history get written? Look closely and you will realise something important. Often it's not because of a professor sitting in a library, but because of someone like Masson: a strange and wonderful character fighting through the snows, chasing an impossible dream. Knowledge, as we hold it in our hands today, is formed not just from scholarship and experiments, facts and equations. It is also made of stories.

The reference to stories ties back in to some of Masson's experiences explained in the book.

I could write a load more, but will resist. Highly recommended if this is in your wheelhouse.

5 stars.

For $2NZ I picked this up in a small town second hand shop - a surprising find, a book I have been looking for for a number of years.

I was surprised by this book -to find a young Richard Halliburton vagabonding around the world when I am more used to his travelling in style or at least sparing no expense. Writing articles for newspapers as he goes, picking up the royalty cheques in the next major city is a fine way to meet ongoing costs, but Halliburton appears almost allergic to money - no sooner does he receive a windfall than he heads to a casino to blow the majority, leaving him just enough to move on.

Jumping trains, stowing away on ships and most often buying the cheapest ticket available (third in the case of trains or deck / steerage depending on the ship) and sneaking or talking his way into first class. From time to time he is indulged by high society, lent clothes and attends parties, but for he main he is vagabonding with others. He pairs up with companions and for periods they travel together, but never for very long. He also pairs up with ladies (the romance of the title) but is very discrete if there is anything more than companionship.

Page 2/3

"A wave of exultation swept over me. Youth - nothing else worth having in the world... and I had youth, the transitory, the fugitive, now, completely and abundantly. Yest what was I to do with it? [...] I wanted freedom, freedom to search the farthermost corners of the earth for the beautiful, the joyous and the romantic.

The romantic 0 that was what I wanted. I hungered for the romance of the sea, the foreign ports, and foreign smiles. I wanted to follow the prow of a ship, any ship, and sail away, perhaps to China, perhaps to Spain, perhaps to the South Sea Isles, there to do nothing all day but lie on a surf-swept beach and fling monkeys at coconuts.

I hungered for the romance of great mountains. From childhood I dreamed of climbing Fujiyama and the Matterhorn [...] I wanted to swim the Hellespont where Lord Byron swam, float down the Nile in a butterfly boat, make love to a pale Kashmiri maiden beside the Shalimar, dance to the castanets of Granada gypsies, commune in solitude with the Taj Mahal, hunt tigers in the Bengal jungle - try everything once. I wanted to realize my youth while I had it, and yield to temptation before increasing years and responsibilities robbed me of courage."

Published in 1926, the 600 day journey beginning and ending in America covers a lot of ground. With a penchant for mountain climbing, he tackles the Matterhorn, the rock of Gibraltar (and is promptly prosecuted for taking photographs in a military zone), Kheop' pyramid and Mount Fuji. He is also not shy of a long trek when required, travelling overland from Myanmar into Thailand through a rough and overgrown trail (a route not unlike other vagabonding books I have read).

Roughly his journey takes him from the USA to Europe - Switzerland, France, Andorra, Spain, Gibraltar, Monaco to Egypt, on to India up through Kashmir and very close to Afghanistan, to Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Russia and Japan, before returning to the USA.

4.5 stars, rounded up

For $2NZ I picked this up in a small town second hand shop - a surprising find, a book I have been looking for for a number of years.

I was surprised by this book -to find a young Richard Halliburton vagabonding around the world when I am more used to his travelling in style or at least sparing no expense. Writing articles for newspapers as he goes, picking up the royalty cheques in the next major city is a fine way to meet ongoing costs, but Halliburton appears almost allergic to money - no sooner does he receive a windfall than he heads to a casino to blow the majority, leaving him just enough to move on.

Jumping trains, stowing away on ships and most often buying the cheapest ticket available (third in the case of trains or deck / steerage depending on the ship) and sneaking or talking his way into first class. From time to time he is indulged by high society, lent clothes and attends parties, but for he main he is vagabonding with others. He pairs up with companions and for periods they travel together, but never for very long. He also pairs up with ladies (the romance of the title) but is very discrete if there is anything more than companionship.

Published in 1926, the 600 day journey beginning and ending in America covers a lot of ground. With a penchant for mountain climbing, he tackles the Matterhorn, the rock of Gibraltar (and is promptly prosecuted for taking photographs in a military zone), Kheop' pyramid and Mount Fuji. He is also not shy of a long trek when required, travelling overland from Myanmar into Thailand through a rough and overgrown trail (a route not unlike other vagabonding books I have read).

Roughly his journey takes him from the USA to Europe - Switzerland, France, Andorra, Spain, Gibraltar, Monaco to Egypt, on to India up through Kashmir and very close to Afghanistan, to Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Russia and Japan, before returning to the USA.

4.5 stars, rounded up

A short story from Stephen Graham Jones, published by Tor.Com and available free.

Set in the future when time travel is available, but set up in a way that the traveller can't alter the past. People are using it to go back in time and reap vengeance, killing people they have grudge against, but because it happens in a different reality stream it is real, but doesn't effect reality.

When the protagonist goes back he is surprised what he discovers - but it is a short story so no more plot outlining.

Very quick and fairly simple, a basic 3 star read.

#5 in the Graff series by author Carrie Vaughn. This is a backstory filler, taking us back to Graff on his home planet as a teenager, and then out into the world where he is placed in a space port with a mentor from home to help him transition into him under-cover duties and life off-planet, before commencing his placement at the Trade Guild Military Academy.

This short story sets out another part of the origin story of Graff, who we have come to know from the other four parts released by Vaughn.

There are some lessons learned, and at the end the first link with a character from Sinew and Steel which was the original short story (albeit second in publication, as a prequel was published second in order!).

This was a quick and enjoyable read, for me it sat around the middle of the series for quality - not quite the best, but better than the weakest, so a return to 4 stars.

This is the second non-fiction book I have read by Adrian Conan Doyle, youngest son of Sir Arthur. This is the first in published order (1952) with Lone Dhow, which was perhaps a little better than this one, likely because this is his first book.

It outlines the journey of the author and his wife Anna as they leave Morocco for something more interesting - to seek out big fish (mostly seeking game fish, but also sharks, rays etc) among the islands and along the coast of Tanzania. They buy a small launch and establish a small crew comprising an engineer who is constantly fixing the engine which breaks down with painful regularity) and a supposed navigator (they have several of these, of wildly varying expertise).

There are multiple tales of various big fish - barracouda, sharks, skip jacks, jew fish, dorado (he caught the world record dorado on this journey), kingfish, cavalli jack; also rays of all types - manta, eagle, death, torpedo and leopard as well as small fish - stone fish, horned trunk fish, garfish, grunter and other things such as sea snakes, sea scorpions & sea slugs.

There is an interlude where they seek out overgrown ruins on the island of Songa Manara, which Wikipedia tells me was excavated and researched in the 2000s. The author also regularly takes to the inland with his rifle in search of game (the all-fish diet wearing thin) and meat for bai, but is largely unsuccessful in this.

There are various black and white photographs, the quality matching the era, so not great, but interesting still. A map of the Tanzania (Tanganyika & Zanzibar at the time) coastline, while small scale is helpful for placing their movements up and down the coast.

In case you are wondering, I am not sure of the meaning of the title - perhaps I missed the key phrase in the narrative that links this!

4 stars.

The third of the Border Trilogy - to bring together the main characters from book one (All the Pretty Horses) and book two (The Crossing). John Grady Cole from the former, Billy Parham from the latter.

I was surprised to be thrown straight into the story - they are both working on a ranch together. No explanation of how either got there from the ends of their previous stories - I must admit, I expected it to loop back at some point... spoiler - it doesn't.

In reality this is John Grady Cole's story - the story of his falling in love (with a prostitute) and his unwavering ambition to free her from her bonds and marry her. I won't outline more of the story, but much of the book is other people (especially Billy Parham) trying to turn him from his goal, given the lack of sense Cole was making.

I will come out and say it was an unsatisfying conclusion. I enjoyed this far less than the other two books, and while it gave closure in some sense it was far from satisfying. Perhaps I should have expected that in a McCarthy novel - but I didn't need a nice ending, just a resolution more defined than I got.

Those familiar with McCarthy's writing will be unsurprised. The sparse conversations, the lack of punctuation, the irritation (for me at least) Spanish dialogue, the graphic violence. At least this one avoided the long detailed side stories of little relevance (for the most part).

I gave the first book 5 stars; the second four. I am generously giving this one three!

***

Number #9 book from the Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte series from Arthur Upfield, published in 19457.

I have decided to plant the following on author and character in each of my 'Bony' reviews as background: - Upfield is an interesting writer, British by birth, emigrated to Australia at the age of twenty. He fought in the Australian Army in WWI. Following the war he travelled extensively in Australia working with stock and farming and developed an understanding of the Aboriginal culture which was to inform much of his writing. His 'Bony' character is a Detective Inspector in the Queensland Police Force, and is of mixed parentage - his mother an Aboriginal and his father white. It is rare to have a mixed race Aboriginal character held in high regard, and protagonist of a series of books.

This story takes part in the small town of Merino, where a swagman was murdered in a small hut. Bony turns up and acts a part that has him arrested for vagrancy and jailed for 10 days during which he is to paint the fences of the police station. This, of course, if the perfect way to gain knowledge of the comings and goings of the people of the town. Almost immediately he comes clean with the police officer and they establish a way in which Bony leads the investigation seeming from custody, so that few know his real identity.

As with all of the books in Upfield's series the story rolls out very slowly and Bony picks his way through the clues (some of which are not disclosed to the reader until he announces them to others - something that might be considered a bit of a cheat in modern writing), before events escalate and it all comes together in a climax of rush and rescue.

More than usual interesting characters in this story, but with more of the same good description of the outback Australian setting.