Restrained fantasy: The Immortal Conquistador by Carrie Vaughan

Apparently most of this book is an assembly of short narratives that have appeared in Ms Vaughan's other novels about the background of the main character Ricardo, or Rick, de Ávila, who started out as a young man as a member of the expedition of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in search of Cibola.

Firstly, I have to say how refreshing it is to have a main character from the times when Spain was conquering the New World who is not some bloodthirsty overambitious monster. In fact if there is anything that characterises Rick it is that he is the most mellow and laid-back of vampires, this too, is refreshing. Rick is balanced and reasonable and only fights when he has to to defend either himself or innocents. He is simply another person in search of a quiet [if eternal] life.

As befits its origin, the book is episodic, jumping between Rick's different adventures in different times. Obviously some parts are more interesting than others, I think my particular favourite rather than some of the major conflicts was Rick's encounter with Doc Halliday.

As a fluent Spanish speaker I have to say some of the Spanish is slightly suspect and repetitive. I think the author would benefit in future by using a Spanish speaker to fine tune her use of the language.

Altogether, this is a good solid vampire tale does not overstay its welcome. Rick makes for a compelling main character. I hope to read more about him in the future.

Many thanks, as always to Netgalley for allowing me to read a copy of this book.

A report from the Battlefront of a Covert War: Fentanyl Inc. by Ben Westhoff

I pride myself on being "aware" (that´s the old fashioned version of "woke"), but I know next to nothing about the world of drugs outside my meds. Nothing. Don´t even smoke. So this book came as a revelation. It addresses not only about the effects of drugs on health but molecular chemistry, international relations, organised crime, politics...

Since the British empire, perhaps even much, much earlier, drugs have been weaponised and used as a form of waging war, wielding influence and gaining economic dominance, at the expense of the most vulnerable segments of the target´s population. And, if anything, this book is a report from the battlefront of that covert war.

Having said that, comparing opium to Fentanyl is like comparing a blunderbuss to an AK 47. The insignificant amount required to take human life blew my mind.  It is ironic (or is it some form of twisted historic justice?) that the major provider of Fentanyl is the party on the losing side of the opium war. Oh for sure they banned the drug but based on a precise chemical formula, tweak the formula by a molecule and violà! No longer banned.

Fentanyl and the dark web were made for each other, one is the snake that can slither anywhere, even into the halls of the powerful, and the other is the vemon delivering the coup de grace...

I am writing this in lockdown. In these benighted days the world may believe we have bigger (or smaller) fish to fry but once the most immediate enemy is vanquished, we need to concentrate on demolishing or at least curtailing the more subtle beast, otherwise one catastrophe will inevitably piggy back on the saddle of another.

How do we do this? This book suggests knowledge, tolerance, co-operation and better universal medical systems. I already hear the scoffing of the ur fascists and the populists, well, let´s see they cope with Covid-19 first... The truth is we are all in this together and together we need to find a way out or at least a way to cope and co-exist.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me access to this most illuminating text.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Las novelas cortas de la historia de Penric. Fantasia sobresaliente.

De camino a su desposorio el joven noble Penric tiene un encontronazo, una anciana sacerdotisa del Dios Bastardo, el más excéntrico y díscolo dios de Los Cinco, muere en sus brazos de un infarto de miocardio. Al joven le deja un legado sorprendente, su demonio, y con “ella” las memorias, conocimientos y experiencias de doce mujeres (sin olvidarnos de la leona y la yegua …) con que había convivido anteriormente. Así el joven se embarca en una vida bien diferente de la que se esperaba al despertar esa mañana: novicio, sacerdote, curandero, mago y, ante todo, eterno estudioso de la vida, los conocimientos, los libros y las personas, y en particular, de las doce, muy diferentes, personas del sexo femenino con las que ahora se ve obligado a convivir en su cabeza y espíritu.

Con un guiño a la novela picaresca, y un fino sentido de humor, los avatares de Penric abarcan además la aventura y el romance.

Sitos en “El Mundo de los Cinco Dioses” las novelas cortas que narran las aventuras y desventuras de Penric son un alarde de la literatura de fantasía, un mundo donde los dioses y varios seres espirituales pueden intervenir en el día a día con una iconografía, cultura y política muy lograda y atmosférica.

Son también, una llamada a la tolerancia.

Morbid? Certainly: Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham

Many thanks to Net Galley for allowing me to review this text prior to general release.
This is the 16th Billingham novel starring his Detective Inspector Tom Thorne as the main character. Billingham is one of the school of British crime writers who began to flourish at the beginning of this new century which also includes another favourite author Mo Hyder, .worthy successors to the likes of Ian Rankin and Val McDermid. They all have in common their exploration of the sordid, grubby underbelly of British life, and their heroes are jobbing, fragile and challenged police officers with more than a few stresses and tensions of their own, 
I was lucky to read Billingham's first Tom Thorne novel "Sleepy Head", when it first came out, and "Their Little Secret" shares with that an imaginative and grotesque central conceit which acts as the main catalyst for the crime under investigation. This is written in typical Billingham style with the first person alternating between Thorne and the main antagonist, The plot is both convoluted and ingenious, starting out apparently as one thing and becoming another, the reader, like Thorne, is misled more than once. 
The characters are generally well portrayed though I cannot help but think that Thorne's entourage, including as it does two gay characters, is somewhat stereotypical and perhaps it was because of this or perhaps because I hadn't read the immediately preceding novels, I found the parts of the story that dealt with the different tensions between them to be the less engaging sections of the narrative.
If you like your crime imaginative and intriguing and are not put off by an exploration of human weakness, Billingham is certainly your guy.

The Book to End All Books on Female Health: The Vagina Bible by Dr. Jennifer Gunter

I wish I'd had this book to hand when I was younger. I recall desperately looking for advice on cystitis as a young newly wed. Well cystitis is covered here as are periods, fertility, the menopause, STDs, hygiene, waxing, anatomical descriptions, practical advice, all dealt with frankly and openly from a feminist viewpoint, this book has it all on the things you always wanted to know about being a woman but could never quite pluck up the courage to ask that rather brusque male GP. And yes, there is even counsel for our trans sisters and brothers.

If you're a woman, get this book. If you're a guy looking for a useful gift for the woman in your life, even your mum, you could hardly give them something more useful or detailed.

Stabbing and dashing: Galway Girl by Ken Bruen

If James Ellroy had a British disciple that person would be Ken Bruen. He's been around a long time has Ken, I recall reading a few his novels back in the mid 90s, one of my colleagues really loved him. I used to really love James Ellroy, but have to say I got stuck one third of the way through one of Ellroy's most recent novels, Perfidia, finding it just too excessive and hard going. So it was a relief that I was able to finish Galway Girl. But it did require a ginormous suspension of disbelief and not a little patience with the paradoxically impatient stabby dashy style. 

Galway's quite a small place, isn't it? So how come so many people get stabbed to death there and how come the bishop's cousin and the bishop himself... OK, don't ask. Don't stop to ask. Don't think. Just grip the prose and go for the ride. And there you have it. An unbelievable plot, unbelievable characters, lots of unbelievable action... But written with some brio and in an extremely. Punchy. Sort. Of. Style.

I think I quite liked it...

Consejos de una Remainer a los que se oponen al procès

Consejos de una oponente del Brexit a los que os oponéis al procès... Tengo que empezar con una disculpa. Disculpádme por no escribir en Catalan, de momento lo estoy aprendiendo y no podría expresar todo lo que siento que tengo que expresar.

Los que apoyamos a Remain en el Reino Unido estabamos siempre a la zaga y, es mas, parece, hoy 18 octubre 2019, que estamos casi a punto de perder la guerra contra el Brexit. Se puede aprender mucho de un fracaso, las lecciones que se me occurren, son los siguientes:

1º. Actuad pronto. Actuad AHORA, porque de momento ellos tienen la iniciativa y llevan las de ganar.

2º. No os calléis. Nunca. No os ocultéis. Nunca. Si sale un indepe en la prensa, en el televisor en el medio que sea, procurad que alguien de vuestro lado salga también y hablando Catalán y cuanto más rango tenga, mejor.

3º. Nunca dejéis, por educación o reparo, que lleven ellos la voz cantante, porque si lo hacen, os aplastarán y encima ellos no tendrán ese reparo. Apareced en los mismos medios, discutid y disputad punto por punto sus mentiras. Preparaos bien y refutad las mentiras y exageraciones del otro lado. ¡Pero, ojo! La preparación NO SIRVE DE NADA si no se divulga en un medio poderoso como la tele o los medios sociales más pujantes.

4º. No dejéis nunca de presionar los políticos, del partido que sea, mejor, DE TODOS LOS PARTIDOS (menos, quizás que Vox, que esos os harán aparecer tal y como los indepes quieren que aparezcáis), de centro, izquierda y derecha. Ellos tienen sus partidos, vosotros también.

5º. Como todos los nacionalistas, harán trampas, mentirán, malversarán fondos, corromperán cargos públicos… No os sorprendáis cuando se descubra que esto esté ocurriendo. Porque ocurrirá así es como operan los nacionalistas. Sin escrúpulos. No contéis con la justicia o el gobierno, son demasiado lentos y puede que ya hayan sido infiltrados. Por supuesto no dejéis de denunciarlos, pero adoptar tácticas semejantes, al menos a corto plazo, puede ser una consideración.

6º. Sed coherentes y cohesivos. Es natural que haya disputas y divergencias, pero procurad socavarlos, al menos en público, montad mesas de coordinación para unificar mensajes, concentrad en lo que os une, no en lo que os divida, nunca les deis un resquicio por donde puedan colarse. Y tened en cuenta que hay muchas formas de protestar, que tu adoptes un camino no quiere decir que el que adopte otro es invalido, no. Sed solidarios y tolerantes con vosotros mismos.

7º. La financiación es fundamental pero no lo es todo, ni mucho menos. La visibilidad vale tanto o más; también, la movilización, las protestas y las huelgas. 

A mi modo de ver una de las cosas que más debilitó al movimiento Remain era que la major parte de sus seguidores parecían ser manifestantes de fin de semana, solo disponibles el sábado porque estaban trabajando. Hasta se aplazó una manifestación que se tenía convocada porque se descubrió que ese mismo día un centro hospitalario tenía un evento caritativo. Esto, injustamente quizás, da la impresión de desidia, de poca convicción, de pasividad. NO. Vuestra causa, es LA CAUSA. Nunca cedáis a otro. No, dinero no basta. Hay que dar la cara, estar en la calle, en los medios, en todas partes. Vociferantes y protestando.

8º. Nunca olvidéis, si perdeis, LO PERDÉIS TODO, LO PIERDEN TAMBIÉN TUS HIJOS Y POR MUCHO TIEMPO.

Buena suerte a todos, nos hará falta...