A Quiet Flame

I finished A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr the other day. I can't get enough of Bernie Gunther and his hard boiled cynicism. In this fifth book of the series, he winds up in Argentina in 1950. It was a fascinating read as Kerr knows his history well and expertly mixes it into his narrative.

So after I finished, I got on the Web to look up some of the events mentioned in the book. Curiously absent from Wikipedia is any mention of Nazi war criminals at all. None. Not even in the Argentina talk page. I can't even begin to speculate why.

But the lack of anything about Nazis escaping to Argentina on Wikipedia is part of the scary side of crowd-sourcing. Crowd-sourcing's design-by-committee ways are effective at keeping things unpublished.

Maybe nobody brought it up. Maybe it was suppressed. Maybe nobody cares.

In his author's note at the end of A Quite Flame, Kerr recommends Uki Goni's The Real Odessa as a resource on Nazis in Argentina. I certainly can't recommend any place online to get the same information.

I was rummaging around in Half Price Books the other day and there was a cart in there marked "Last Chance Collectibles Cheap". Ah, old books. I found a couple of treats. One was an old sci fi book I'll post about later. The second was Technical Writing: Third Edition by T. A. Rickard. It was copyrighted 1931 and is full of retro tech writing goodness.

The book is a style and grammar guide. Rickard was an editor for "Engineering and Mining Journal" , "The Mining Magazine", and "Mining and Scientific Press". According to the front matter, he delivered lectures at universities in an effort make engineers aware of good writing. If he had only known back then that 80 years later engineers would still write horribly, he may have given up after the first edition. From the first chapter:

It has been stated, by Sir James M. Barrie, that "the man of science appears to be the only man who has something to say, just now—and the only man who does not know how to say it". The friendly jibe of the novelist contains enough exaggeration to make it humorous to the followers of Huxley and Spencer; but could any litterateur poke similar fun at the exponents of the avowedly utilitarian branches of science—the men of technology—without suggesting an unpleasant truth?

Indeed the engineer does bungle language deplorably. He makes a fetish of efficiency, yet he shows no regard for the effective use of one of his most important tools—the pen; he believes devoutly in accuracy, yet he employs an instrument of precision as carelessly as a small boy handles a gun.

This book is better than most modern books on tech writing.

Yes, I have my copy. I will start it tonight, just to keep me from getting smacked by a spoiler or two. But I have to say, isn't it nice that there is so much going on related to a book? I wish more books caused this much anticipation. I'd rather see people in line to buy a book instead of an X-Box or Playstation.

Richard K. Morgan's previous releases were all fantastic reads. Unfortunately, his latest, Thirteen in the U.S. and Black Man everywhere else, is not up to quality or the imagination of the Takeshi Kovacs novels or even the wonderfully disturbing Market Forces. Thirteen is the story of Carl Marsalis, a product of genetic engineering to produce a super soldier. Yes, this has been done before, many times, so even the concept doesn't seem fresh.

I was also let down on several other levels. The first being that Morgan has exchanged subtlety for a political sledgehammer. In this future, the United States is fractured by fundamentalist Christians who secede and take their newly formed "Republic" back to the time of intense racial hatred and ignorance. At the same time, Islamic countries have seen the error of their ways and have modernized and civilized. Yes, this is science fiction, but it's also a political thesis on everything wrong with today's America. After a while the beating of Morgan's sledgehammer became annoying.

There are also a few too many extended talking head scenes. These are used to explain philosophy and history of this dystopian future. At these points the plot grinds to a halt and making through those scenes seemed like a chore.

Finally, while this is hard boiled fiction, it doesn't have the impact as such because of the above mentioned problems as well as the F-word used so much it loses any emphasis or impact. I'm not opposed to swearing in fiction, but I think it distracts from the story if not used properly. The repetitive overuse of it was most definitely distracting.

There are some good elements in the book that made it worth reading. I especially enjoy Morgan's way of creating terminology for future technology that helps the reader visualize it without too much digressing detail. This is something he's done in all of his books and Thirteen is no exception.

Also, as with previous books, his characters are well fleshed out and are motivated appropriately. The weakest character happens to be Marsalis, who is the main character. There is little to explain what makes him "not human" in the book. You just have to accept that people know he's a Thirteen and read on.

I only recommend this book for Richard K. Morgan fans and politically liberal readers who want to fantasize about their perfect future of a literally divided United States. If you haven't read Morgan before, I highly recommend starting out with Altered Carbon, a much more satisfying read.

Side Note: Inside the "racist" United States, Morgan's book was retitled from Black Man to Thirteen presumably to avoid offending black people. You see the main character is not only black, but he's British so the title couldn't be African American Man. I'm assuming Morgan sees the irony in that already.