Genghis Khan And The Making Of The Modern World by Jack Weatherford

From The Week of March 28, 2010

Genghis Khan, spreader of knowledge. Genghis Khan, codifier of laws. Genghis Khan, peacemaker. Genghis Khan, consolidator of civilizations... Sounds more like a man worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than the bloody tyrant historians have handed down to us. But it turns out that one brave soul wants to make this exact case, that, rather than the Satanic force Matthew Paris and his ilk portrayed him to be, Genghis Khan forged, for the first time, a nation out of disparate and warring tribes and deployed that nation to create an empire that prized scholars, teachers and women. Mr. Weatherford has set himself a tall order, but though he doesn't completely convince, thanks to a dearth of corroborating evidence, his argument is surprisingly and fascinatingly forceful.

In the some 60 years Genghis Khan spent on this planet, he experienced the lowest of the low and the highest of the high. Mr. Weatherford walks us through Genghis Khan's life as it is understood, from his moderately low birth, to his enslavement by a rival tribe, to his escape and achingly slow rise to prominence through, what was then, the rather novel approach of valuing women and using them to create marital ties between himself and the tribes he sought as allies. Though he stood on the brink of total failure on numerous occasions, his strategy eventually won out, placing him at the head of a powerful force of unified tribesmen which he quickly set about reforming into one of the world's most successful fighting forces. What happened next comes down to us through legend, the consolidation of a remarkable empire that even threatened medieval Europe. And this, Mr. Weatherford argues, is the source of the legend of Genghis Khan. So while he was a tyrant, and while he did wage war for most of his life, he did so while promoting religious tolerance, the adoption of a common language, the creation of rights for women, and the standardization of routes of both trade and information capable of knitting the empire together. All the Europeans cared about, though, was whether or not he and his hordes would wash over them like a wave, demonizing him in order to rally resistance against the invaders.

Though medieval historians would have us believe that God delivered Christian Europe from the hands of the vile Mongols, Mr. Weatherford argues that we owe our non-Mongolian west to a trick of geography. For the two major, tactical advantages the Mongols had in the dry east were eliminated in the humid west. Their peerless cavalry exhausted itself far quicker in the dampness of Europe the same dampness that ruined the bows of their mounted archers so feared across Asia. Nonetheless, the Mongolian empire tried to leave their mark on the West, but all tides must ebb and so too did the invasion of the Mongols.

Mr. Weatherford's tale educates as much as it entertains which is the most successful combination for a biography of its kind. He leaves us wondering what it must have been like to live in the time of Genghis Khan for it's clear that rarely was there ever an empire whose fortunes hinged more on its founder than that of the Mongols. After Khan's death, his empire entered a phase of precipitous decline marked by royal excess, but this only serves Mr. Weatherford's case. Perhaps Genghis Khan was a butcher, but he was other things too. And after all, wasn't Augustus a butcher? Wasn't Constantine? Wasn't Charlemagne and Henry VIII? And yet their virtues are celebrated. If men like Genghis Khan were just butchers, they would have never have been smart enough, or lived long enough, to create from nothing what only Alexander could rival. (4/5 Stars)

Random Acts Of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack

From The Week of January 31, 2010

I found this vivid piece of near-future fiction trolling through various tags on Amazon.com. And though this is a highly disturbing read, its glory outshines its grit.

Set in New York City of the near future, and during a relatively rapid deterioration of society into lawlessness and decay, Random Acts Of Senseless Violence follows one upper-middleclass family through the eyes of its eldest daughter, 12 year old Lola who narrates the story through entries in her diary. Mr. Womack's excellent plotting allows us to watch Lola's sweetness give way to a kind of madness as she mirrors the decay of her city and her society. It tracks the toughening-up of her friends, the decline of her schools, the chaos of her streets and the devolution of her family all while breaking our hearts with a young girl's need to be loved and wanted.

This is one of the most well-plotted works of apocalyptic fiction I've ever read and it's a shame that Mr. Womack has not been more widely acclaimed for it. Nihilistic? Yes. Frightening? Absolutely. Better for being both? Without a doubt... (4/5 Stars)

Conquistador by Buddy Levy

From The Week of January 31, 2010

Conquistador is Mr. Levy's startling account of the fall of the Aztec Empire. Mr. Levy frames his tale around what we know of its conquerer, Cortez, who, in 1519, came to shore with 11 ships, 500 men and dubious legal authority. In fact, at the time, he and his men were considered mutineers. However, after exploring the empire and adopting an ingenious strategy of cultivating alliances, and igniting hatreds between, various tribes, Cortez was able to conquer one of the world's mightiest empires in less than two years, achieving in the deed legitimacy in the eyes of his Spanish betters.

Though we look back now upon this time of European conquest with revulsion, noting in particular the cruelty that was a daily practice of conquerers of the period, it is difficult not to marvel at what, even now, seems an impossible feat. To conquer millions of people with but 500 soldiers, no matter the pre-existing divisions within the empire... That is a remarkable, if morally bankrupt, endeavor. Mr. Levy educates us on the deprivations Cortez and his men endured, the tribes they encountered, the battles they fought and, to his credit, the obscenities they wrought upon a people who welcomed them with open arms. The passages in which Mr. Levy describes the desecration of Aztec temples were particularly difficult to read. And yet, it is important to know that we are all capable of such cruelty when, armed by an insensitivity to the pain of others, we allow ourselves to be driven by the hunger to taste greatness. (4/5 Stars)

Nothing To Envy by Barbara Demick

From The Week of January 31, 2010

At the beginning of Ms. Demick's Nothing To Envy, the author describes satellite photos of Asia by night, of how the landscape veritably blazes with electric light save for one area which is as a black hole to the world around it. This is North Korea. It's a wonderful image and it doesn't take Ms. Demick long to use it to exemplify the extent to which this most mysterious nation has cut itself off from the rest of the world economically, industrially and informationally. North Korea is a black hole which sucks up the lives and dreams of its citizens who, according to Ms. Demick's account, are decades behind the rest of the world.

We know now that Communism does not work. Human nature is structured such that we compete with our fellows to succeed, to have more, to be the best. Our natures are antithetical to Communism which is based on an equal division of labor and reward. But Communism's failure is not solely the fault of competitiveness. Humans do not do well when power over other humans is bestowed upon them. In fact, having power over other people is perhaps the quickest way to corrupt a human being, to cause him to lose perspective on his ethics, his morality. And so the centralization of authority demanded by planned economies are doomed to create a tiny, corrupted, ruling class willing to jackboot its way over the prone bodies of its adherence in order to maintain but one goal, the preservation of power.

This is what has happened to North Korea which has chillingly become a living monument to George Orwell's 1984. To cement the political system in place, the leaders of the Communist revolution there have created a cult of personality around the ruling family, plastering their likenesses across billboards, requiring their framed countenances to be hung in living rooms, forcing schools to teach their words, and preventing anyone from hearing voices other than their own. Corruption, on the deepest, most profoundest level... The embodiment of absolute power and how it creates in those who have it a demand for slavish fealty from their subjects... And the worst part, as documented innothing To Envy, not even the widespread starvation of its citizens, brought about by famine, has ignited the faintest change.

Ms. Demick has drawn a heartbreaking portrait of daily life among North Koreans, brave and battered people living in a country that is a graveyard for their hopes and dreams. This is a shattering work. (5/5 Stars)

A World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester

From The Week of January 31, 2010

Mr. Manchester's account of Medieval Europe, its corrupted institutions, its painful trials, and its self-destructive arrogance, alternately burns with indignance and sighs with exasperation. Many have tried to explain or explain away the darkest time in the history of the West, that period roughly between the end of the Roman Empire and the don of 17th century enlightenment, a thousand year stretch of anti-science dominated by a zealous adherence to the Catholic church. Mr. Manchester adds to this debate by exemplifying the lengths to which powerful figures of the time, specifically bishops and monarchs, were willing to go to maintain a stranglehold on power. We see how, time after time, big institutions stomped out the ember of scientific knowledge, unless of course it suited them to foster it, all in the name of obedience to the lord.

We know now the folly of large institutions. We understand that they accrete power unto themselves and, in doing so, set about destroying themselves and all they stand for. For as lord Acton so ably put it, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And this is the shame of this world that is only lit by fire, that the two groups invested with absolute authority, the church and the state, were so self-interested and so corrupt, that they refused to relinquish any authority, no matter what cost to humanity in lives, in careers, in hopes. This is an excellent and depressing book about the power of ignorance and centralized authority. No correlation to our times at all, noooo... (4/5 Stars)

Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre

From The Week of January 31, 2010

In a future Earth covered in deserts and baked by a relentless sun, a healer moves across the land, from settlement to settlement, plying her trade and doing what she can to bring some measure of peace to the world's miserable inhabitants. Though the healer has her own knowledge gained from study in her mountain home, her dreamsnake, an alien creature whose bite delivers an intoxicating venom, aids her in her efforts and otherwise provides companionship to Snake in her long, lonely journeys.

Throughout her journey, we encounter the various societies that have sprung up in this hard land, from feudal towns, to egalitarian tribes, to technocratic enclaves where knowledge is jealously guarded. And so, while the story revolves around Snake's odyssey to replace the dreamsnake she has lost and the revelations that unfold as a result of her quest, the state of the world, its inhabitants and their societies, are the true stars of the show. Ms. McIntyre has created a vivid world whose sufferers are tested daily by an unforgiving sun and a radioactive landscape. Their beliefs and eccentricities propel the story to a rewardingly organic conclusion. Ms. McIntyre's superior skills never once let us down here as she makes believable a tortured land and its challenged people. (3/5 Stars)

Newton And The Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson

From The Week of January 24, 2010

The name of Sir Isaac Newton thunders across human history. Science and physics textbooks are riddled with his theories which give name and form to some of the most fundamental aspects of our universe. And so how it was that I knew nothing of the great man's second career as Britain's Master of The Mint bewilders me. But then, as Mr. Levenson argues, no one would have known about Mr. Newton's second life if it weren't for Newton's famous battle with William Chaloner.

A brazen and intelligent thief, William Chaloner was a forger of British coins which, it turns out, was a fairly popular profession in the late 17th century. Some accounts hold British coins of this period to be the most debased in the world. Enter Newton who, having not been financially compensated to his satisfaction for his theories of physics, sought out the post of Master Of The Mint as a means of securing his financial future. After revolutionizing the minting process, Newton set about prosecuting various counterfeiters, or coiners as they were called, until he came across William Chaloner who was, himself, a match for the brilliant mathematician.

And so we come to the setting of Mr. Levenson's wonderful book, the battle between Newton, the explainer of gravity, the great thinker, and William Chaloner, the thief and coiner, the man who professed his innocence so strenuously that he claimed to British authorities that he was merely perfecting the coining process as a means to help improve the protection of the British coin. And a battle it is too for we have never seen Newton so savage, so vicious, so bloodthirsty. But then you might be a bit savage when, after descending from your ivory tower of academia you're forced to wade through the filthy, mean streets of London's underground where the procurement of a fortune can only be achieved through means nefarious.

This is a delightful and fascinating read. (/5 Stars)

American Lion by Jon Meacham

From The Week of January 24, 2010

American Lion is Jon Meacham's excellent biography of Andrew Jackson, that most bellicose of early American presidents. An unknown figure outside military circles prior to the War of 1812, Gen. Jackson's star swiftly rose after beating back a British attempt, in 1815, to seize the port of New Orleans as a prelude to capturing and claiming the vast territory of the Louisiana purchase which Thomas Jefferson had bought from the French some ten years earlier. A mere 14 years after this noteworthy victory, Mr. Jackson became president of his nation, serving out two terms in the highest office before retiring to Tennessee where he died some eight years later. A farmer, a soldier, a judge, and a general, Mr. Jackson stands in the forefront of the second wave of American luminaries behind the nation's founders, for, he did has much to shape the future of his nation as any of his generation.

Mr. Meacham ably covers the totality of Mr. Jackson's life, from his successes to his failures, from his allies to his enemies. He documents the family of Old Hickory, lavishing special attention upon two figures closest to America's seventh president, Rachel Donelson, his much-loved wife who died just prior to Jackson's inauguration, and Andrew Donelson, his nephew and adopted son who became the President's private secretary during his years at the White House.

Setting aside the quality of their research, successful biographies hinge on one thing, animating the subject in question, making the reader feel as though they know the subject and can predict their actions. Mr. Meacham achieves this goal by focusing more on the man and his life than on his eight years in the White House and all the predictable struggles inherent to that office. Quality work based on a difficult subject. (3/5 Stars)

The Imperial Cruise by James Bradley

From The Week of January 24, 2010

In 1905, seven senators, 23 congressmen, a future president of the United States and the daughter of the then sitting president, Theodore Roosevelt, embarked upon a three month diplomatic cruise to Asia which, or so Mr. Bradley argues in The Imperial Cruise, determined the course of American-Asian relations for the next 50 years. And yet, labelling the cruise an important event in American history does not do it justice. The breezy role call of luminaries aboard ship passes over the brightest star in that constellation, Alice Roosevelt, a young woman of such fame and fortune that she was often hailed as the American princess. And though the diplomatic mission visited Japan, Korea, China and the Philippines, cementing at each turn American policies that would change the future of the nation, it was Ms. Roosevelt who attracted the crowds in tens of thousands who flocked to see the spirited, first daughter of a nation that would come to dominate the century ahead.

Though Alice Roosevelt's fingerprints are all over Mr Bradley's tale, his broader theme, that President Roosevelt's Aryan belief in white, Christian superiority was the driving force behind his belligerence towards Asia, is startling. A great deal of research has clearly gone into supporting this contention and the weight of Mr. Bradley's findings largely convince. Yet something of the claim feels a little too neat, a little too tidy. We sometimes reach for elaborate reasons to explain incomprehensible events when arrogance and a sense of self-importance will do well enough.

Mr. Bradley has chronicled a remarkable three months in American history and, in doing so, goes into some detail of the American war with the Philippines and the recent, cultural developments in Japan and Korea. This is an excellent piece of non-fiction that could've been 50 pages longer. Some of the foreign dignitaries and leaders encountered by our American delegates have been given quite short shrift. (4/5 Stars)

Counting Heads by David Marusek

From The Week of January 24, 2010

Counting Heads is a failure. Sold as a futuristic thriller revolving around the efforts by various combative factions to seize a cryogenically frozen head, Mr. Marusek spends far more time lavishing attention upon his world than he does attending to his plot which, half the time, has nothing to do with a frozen head, much less any search for it. The characters are interesting and Mr. Marusek can certainly write well, but this is world-building porn, not a story driven by any goal, at least not any goal that matters to the reader.

Writing science fiction is a difficult balancing act. It must challenge our way of looking at the world without veering too far away from what we can relate to. For if we can't relate to the characters in any meaningful way, we cannot care about what befalls them. Mr. Marusek spends the first 200 pages trying and failing to convince us to care about his characters and then the next 200 pages thrusting them aside in favor of the plot he neglected in the first 200! That's hardly what I'd call balance. Frustrating, annoying and unsatisfying for anyone not completely captivated by world-building fiction. (2/5 Stars)

We Were One by Patrick K. O'Donnell

From The Week of January 17, 2010

We know from those who have engaged in man's darkest and most enduring pursuit that war is a hellish thing. It has inspired us to achieve feats of technology and unity undreamed of in times less desperate, all while requiring us to pay a grievous cost, in the form of the stains on our souls and in the form of the innumerable lives that have been snatched away by its brutality. Thanks to a free press and to modern technologies, some of which were inspired by war, the talk of war is now steered by a war's justness, not its glory. Citizens can properly assess the cost of conflict, to grasp whether or not their leaders are lying to them about its righteousness. Which is what makes reflecting upon the 2003 Iraq War so achingly painful. We knew its price. We knew it was launched on shaky intelligence. We knew it was bankrupt. And yet we went on, largely because we had no choice, because a handful of men now decide the fates of millions.

These are points worth making. Perhaps Mr. O'Donnell has even made them in some of his other works. However, We Were One is not a macro view of war and its weight. It's a personal tale of one unit in Iraq, in that ugly war. It is about a unit of men who took a town, Fallujah, invested with insurgents and made it safe. They did not achieve this goal through overwhelming force of numbers, of weapons, or of air support. In fact, they had no technological advantage over the enemy at all. They were hard men who took a hard town because they owed it to their fallen friends.

We Were One is a story about brotherhood and bravery. There are no Rumsfelds here, no Bushes. There is just courage in the face of overwhelming fire. We can debate the virtuousness of war all we like, but when they happen we must not look away from those who fight them. For we will miss something precious indeed, the lengths to which human beings will go to save their friends and comrades when their lives are on the line.

Moving and tragic. I could have wished for a bit more criticism on the war from Mr. O'Donnell, but that wasn't his objective here. We Were One is about soldiers, not wars. And to that end, it is a tale told very well. (4/5 Stars)

The Score Takes Care Of Itself by Bill Walsh

From The Week of January 17, 2010

In 1979, coming off a 2/14 1978 season, the San Francisco 49ers, then one of the NFL's most pathetic franchises, hired a head coach with no prior experience in the NFL. He was 48-year-old Bill Walsh, a collegiate coach who, while a known commodity in the, was an unknown to the team's beaten-down fans.

Nine years later, in 1988, Bill Walsh would retire, having transformed not only the 49ers into the most successful NFL franchise from 1980 to 2000, he forever changed the style of play in a league once dominated by hyper-basic, run-first offenses. Bill Walsh won three Superbowls not by getting lucky, not by stepping into the right team at the right time; he won because he installed an ethos in the 49ers, from the players to the secretaries, an ethos that demanded commitment to detail, respect for ones fellows and success from ones endeavors. He changed the culture of a team and, in doing so, rewrote the NFL's record books.

In The Score Takes Care Of Itself, Bill Walsh, over a series of interviews conducted a few years before his death, ruminates over his successes and failures, spending as much time on his philosophy of success as he does the glorious history of his time at the 49ers. In words eerily familiar to what one might hear at a seminar on good corporate culture, he expounds on his belief that success is based as much on attitude and deportment as it is on talent, and that people are defined as much by their comrades and coworkers as they are by their own actions.

Here are the thoughts of a good man reflecting upon his successful life, a man who achieved more than anyone could've dreamed before voluntarily stepping away and letting someone else take the glory of his creation. We would be fools to ignore his wisdom. We would be unkind not to acknowledge his goodness. (4/5 Stars)

A Few Seconds Of Panic by Stefan Fatsis

From The Week of January 17, 2010

A Few Seconds Of Panic is Stefan Fatsis' delightfully funny look inside a modern NFL locker room during training camp, the gruelling, summer portion of the NFL year where rosters are set, plays installed, and camaraderie forged for the difficult season ahead. But Mr. Fatsis, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and currently a contributer to NPR's All Things Considered and Slate's Hangup And Listen, doesn't just want to report on football players; he wants to endure training camp as a player would. And so, in the tradition of Paper Lion, he negotiates himself an invitation to the Denver Broncos' camp under Mike Shanahan, trying out at one of the more marginal positions on a football team, punter.

Though there's never any chance that a 43-year-old sportswriter will ever actually make the regular season roster for the Broncos, his fellow team mates, amused and delighted by Fatsis' attempt to kick his way their world, welcome him their fold. They open up to him in ways they would never open up to a regular reporter. And though the success of this book does not hinge solely on the congeniality of the players he competes and trains with -- his charming descriptions of teaching himself to punt prior to trying out with Denver definitely entertain --, A Few Seconds Of Panic would be much poorer for the Broncos shutting him out, dismissing him as a joke.

It's trendy to cut down professional athletes. They are grotesquely over-remunerated for the jobs they perform. and if we aren't discussing their bloated wages, we're pointing out how much trouble they get into, who has the most DWIs, who beats his wife, who hits the Crack pipe. This ignores, of course, that the owners and administrators of the leagues these athletes work for have traditionally been the ones to scale up their profits, to extort more money from fans through tickets and merchandising, and that players have tried mostly to earn for themselves a fair slice of that greedy pie. The lesson here? That we should never judge people we don't know. Without all the facts, we're forced to make generalizations and generalizations about a group of people are, if not outright wrong, are certainly unnuanced and unfair. The players Mr. Fatsis encounters are three-dimensional, possessing morals and dreams and flaws just like the rest of us. Yes, they are handsomely compensated for playing a game, but then they also possess an uncommon drive to succeed, to be better, a drive which has thrust them up into the stratosphere of success. They are people and I, for one, find that gratifying. As is this book... (4/5 Stars)

A Meeting At Corvallis: The Emberverse 03 by S. M. Stirling

From The Week of January 17, 2010

Though The Protector's War offered little indication that this series was headed in the right direction, A Meeting At Corvallis goes a long way to redeeming the Emberverse. For if Mr. Stirling struggles sometimes to flesh out his characters beyond the archetypes upon which he has based them, he certainly knows how to set up and execute a war. And it's a big one too, an apocalyptic clash of post-Change civilizations the outcome of which will determine the rights and freedoms of the survivors who will live under the victors.

There's so much action and plot development here that the two-dimensional characters become secondary to the story, mere placeholders for its main thrust, a battle to the death between freedom, defended by Juniper's clansmen and Mike's Bearkillers, and feudalism, forwarded by the Lord Protector and his army. Though I'll likely stop reading here, this volume has considerably improved the chances that I might someday read on. For even if Mr. Stirling succumbs to cliches and Dungeons-and-Dragons cheesiness, he's not afraid to ante up the lives of his characters and roll the dice of fate to see what shakes out. (3/5 Stars)

The Protector's War: The Emberverse 02 by S. M. Stirling

From The Week of January 10, 2010

Though The Protector's War inherits the flaws of its progenitor -- see my review of Dies The Fire for a rumination on this series' two-dimensional characters --, it has just enough blood-thumping action to paper over the cookie-cutter nature of most of its heroes and villains. In a wish to write about a modern world stripped of both modern technology and the rule of law, Mr. Stirling has neatly amalgamated medieval Europe with a 21st century landscape of starving cities and successful communes. But while we can credit him for originality of premise, something here feels just a bit too lifted from the pages of some Dungeons and Dragons campaign: the evil overlord who seeks to impose his cruel will upon a desperate public, the brave witch who stands up to him, the honorable mercenaries who defy him, and the poor serfs who get caught in the crossfire. Perhaps it's too much to ask for nuance from a story premised on the notion that the fundamental laws of the universe have inexplicably changed overnight -- this does seem like suspend-your-sense-of-disbelief territory --, but I needed more.

You can supercharge your story with heart-stopping action all you like. If the plot is cartoonish, and if I can't be made to care about the players involved in this contest of wills and political systems, then the theatrical battles, the hostages, the negotiations, and the blood oaths of vengeance are reduced to a soap opera.

For all of this, I will read on, but only because the next installment appears to thrust this saga towards something of a satisfying conclusion. Mr. Stirling has all the ingredients here, but they just don't quite brew together into something more than palatable. I was hoping for an evolution from Dies The Fire. It never materialized. (2/5 Stars)

Beyond Band Of Brothers by Dick Winters

From The Week of January 10, 2010

By any measure one might wish to employ, Mr. Winters is a hero. That is a distinction often designated to members of the Greatest Generation, perhaps too often. But in his humility, his bravery, and his equanimity, Mr. Winters stands out in a sea of souls.

There is, in some people, a fundamental goodness apparent to all those with eyes to see virtue. No, there are no saints -- everyone has moments of ugliness, of brutality --, but there are those blessed with a strength of spirit which causes the rest of us to line up behind them in hopes of having that serenity shield us from harm. And so it should come as no surprise that, in an ugly war, grinding to a painful conclusion, Mr. Winters, minus his gear and his commander, stepped up to gather his men scattered across the French countryside and lead them on a vital mission to help secure the Utah beachhead at the Battle of Normandy. His tactics in this action were so successful, they are still taught at the West Point Military Academy as a textbook example of an assault on a fixed position.

Mr. Winters went onto fame and modest fortune. The exploits of Easy Company, which he would eventually command, were chronicled in Band of Brothers, the 2001 HBO miniseries. But I gathered from these personal reflections of the man that he couldn't have cared less if he was remembered by the greater world. His faith and his upbringing prepared him to live his life fully and successfully, and in a way not defined by the epic events of 1944, where the fate's of continents were decided in blood.

Even if this effort had been poorly written, and it is assuredly not, its spirit would set it apart. Here is an example of a life lived well and with dignity. (4/5 Stars)

Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnases

From The Week of January 10, 2010

With the cheer and good humor one might expect of the absolutely insane, Dean Karnazes introduces us to the world of ultramarathons and their runners. Defined as a race longer than the standard marathon (40 kilometers or 26 miles), ultramarathons attract a special kind of person who, by dint of innate ability or through extensive training, is able to suppress the body's customary responses to immense pain and crushing fatigue in order to complete what are, by any normal measure, superhuman feats of endurance. Though this company of formidable wills must surely experience its fair share of arrogance and self-importance, we find, in Ultramarathon Man, a kind of serenity of spirit that appears to be a hallmark among those able to push their bodies beyond ordinary, physical barriers.

Mr. Karnazes, in particular, seems unaffected by feats. Rather, he is attracted to the opportunity to be alone, to think, to dream, and to reflect upon ones life while running through the night. The challenge is important -- no one would suffer so if it wasn't --, but perhaps finding oneself is the original lure, not the pursuit itself. And so this is a story about a mental journey as much as a physical one, an odyssey of self-discovery, of fitting together the pieces of a life which, thanks to the noise of the everyday, remain scattered and unsorted.

What kind of clarity would we find at the end of a 100 mile run, when our bodies have been pushed beyond our limits, when we've reached inside ourselves for the last ounce of will to go just that little bit farther? When you burn away the detritus of your mundane life, what do you find underneath? Can we endure the pain to find out? Mr. Karnazes is certainly one example of a man who met his measure and pushed through, to find himself capable of undreamed feats. What could we accomplish if, one night, at a loss, we laced up our runners and left the warm comforts of our familiar homes for the unfamiliar road?

A successful book in every respect, as insightful on matters of the human spirit as it is inspirational with regard to what we can achieve if we put ourselves to it. (5/5 Stars)

Savage Kingdom by Benjamin Woolley

From The Week of January 03, 2010

Mr. Woolley's account of the founding of the Jamestown Colony, the first British venture onto what would become American soil, is lively, populated with the decrees of a jealous king, the pursuits of ambitious men/A> willing to do anything to make their mark, and the high-handed attempts of intolerant Europeans to impose their values and their sense of order upon the natives already inhabiting the land so coveted by the white men from the east. Bouncing back and forth between London and the new world, Mr. Woolley chronicles the deprivations of 17th century, cross-Atlantic voyages, the men who braved them, and those poor souls who tried to build some measure of European settlement on a North America untamed by "civilized" hands.

From the European's point of view, this truly was a savage land, riddled with a bewildering array of tribes woven into a confounding network of alliances and feuds. And because it's always easier for man to fall back on prejudice when faced with what is incomprehensible to him, we watch as European values are imposed on the natives, the misunderstandings that erupt as a result, and the dark outcomes that inevitably conclude a clash of civilizations which know nothing of one another.

A fun read that educates without drying us out with burdensome detail. I was particularly captivated by the economics behind the colony's launch, as well as the wooing of Pocahontas by John Smith. It's amazing to what lengths humans will go to claim what they covet and to protect what they claim. (3/5 Stars)

An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina

From The Week of January 03, 2010

Later developed into a 2004 Hollywood film starring Don Cheadle, An Ordinary Man is Paul Rusesabagina's recount of his life in Rwanda, from his chaotic youth to his stint as manager of the Diplomate hotel, a popular, prestigious establishment based in the country's capital of Kigali. It was from this position of moderate influence that Mr. Rusesabagina saw the 1994 Rwandan Massacre unfold, a genocide which he summarizes in effective and painful detail here. Though Mr. Rusesabagina is a Hutu, the ethnic majority which instigated and carried out the massacre, he is at pains to debunk the differences between the Hutu and the Tutsi, arguing convincingly that these are little more than conceits ginned up by radicals set on slaughter as the means of righting historical wrongs. This is a tragic fact which both illuminates the massacre and makes it all the more painful to watch unfold.

Mr. Rusesabagina has to essentially tell two stories here, his own history and that of the genocide, and it's a credit to his abilities and his charisma that he manages this remarkably well. Interweaving fables from his youth with scenes of refugees from the massacre hold up in his hotel -- they resorted to using the hotel's pool for drinking water --, he paints a picture of the siege mentality he was forced to adopt during the massacre in which he took in and protected dozens of at-risk Tutsi. Though one is left with the impression that Mr. Rusesabagina is glossing over some of his less pleasant connections to a regime which authorized the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people, there's more than enough painful honesty here to lend his account the weight of authenticity.

Mr. Rusesabagina was an entrepreneur just trying to live his life and raise his family when the world, or fate, intervened and presented him with an opportunity to become an oppressor or a voice for the oppressed. Bravely, Mr. Rusesabagina chose the latter, even though it could have cost him his life. And in that sense, his story is an illustration of the age-old morality problem of speaking out at risk to ones health, or staying quiet in the face of injustice. There's little doubt on which side Mr. Rusesabagina comes down on. (4/5 stars)

The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks

The week of January 03, 2010

Uneven is perhaps the best description of this trilogy from Brent Weeks who certainly has the potential to refine his future work into efforts of brilliance. The Night Angel trilogy follows the maturation of an orphan boy in a fictitious kingdom who begins his life in a guild of thieves. He's eventually apprenticed to a legendary assassin who, as a part of the boy's training, installs him in the nobility so that he might learn the ways of every walk of life. Thus begins the young boy's transformation from street rat into an instrument of vengeance, of dark justice, and one of the only entities capable of defending his home from ruin.

On the dark fantasy meter, The Night Angel falls short of Joe Abercrombie, but remains a solid 8/10 for shocking violence and other mass acts of cruelty. The realism which might have earned it a truly oppressive, Abercrombian 10/10, is intentionally muted by gallows humor which is quite engaging. All the elements are here to craft a memorable series, but too often Mr. Weeks dissolves into the timeless fantasy cliche's of magical swords, and haunted woods, and mystic witch healers, and unbearable "I just can't be with you" sacrifices. It was a promising beginning, holding in it echoes of some of Raymond Feist's work with Jimmy from the Riftwar Saga, but then matters just went down hill from there. Still, Mr. Weeks knows how to do action sequences and these end up saving the series. (2/5 Stars)