Books | Karavansara

24 March 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

A Silk Road novel

I took the Sunday off, and decided to relax with a good book.
Silk Road is a very fine historical fantasy by Jeanne Larsen.
It was published in 1989 – my copy is a Henry Holt hardback I bought second hand about two or three years back, and then decided to save it for a good time.

From what I can see, the novel was not marketed as fantasy – the tag line reads “a novel of eight-century China”, and I guess this was sold as straight historical fiction.

And yet, there’s a lot of imaginative stuff, between these covers – gods and goddesses, ghosts, dragons.
There’s a nice dollop of Taoist magic, and a lot of Chinese mythology. Continue reading →

2 March 2014
by Davide Mana 7 Comments

Rainy nights with Sgt. Janus

It must be the season – it’s cold and rainy, and the countryside looks deserted and dreary.
I feel like ghost stories.
And while I’d like to go and write some, I’m having lots of fun reading the first book in the Sgt. Janus series, by Jim Beard, published by Airship 27.
Sgt. Janus, Spirit Breaker is a solid collection of stories that are at the same time very traditional and yet very original and fresh and new.
This is exactly what I needed in these lonely rainy nights.
Sgt. Janus – the man himself – is a fine addition to a long gallery of occult detectives, and I’ll certainly check out the other books in the series (there’s one out, Sgt. Janus Returns, and more to come).

10 February 2014
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Swords of the Four Winds

The so-called ebook revolution has brought back a number of genres and formats that for a few decades had been marginalized to say the least.
The short form is back – novelettes and novellas, novels in the 40.000-words standard of the paperbacks of old.
Pulp is making a big comeback, in all its assorted flavors – from hero pulps to adventure cliffhangers to sword & sorcery.

And for a fantasy reader, the return of sword & sorcery – the small-scale, proletarian, none-too-heroic kind of fantasy that normally involves rogues trying to save their own skin, not champions trying to save the world – is a much welcome event.

I’m currently reading – and very much enjoying – Dariel R.A. Quiogue’s Swords of the Four Winds, a highly satisfying collection of sword & sorcery stories set in the East. Continue reading →

3 February 2014
by Davide Mana 4 Comments

Templars – a quick fix

As I think I mentioned elsewhere, part of the fun of writing historical and psaeudo-historical fiction is, you get to read a lot of great books and file the experience under “research“.

And indeed, I’ve collected a huge library of books through the years, because of research.
Visitors to my house normally get the “I can’t see what this book may have to do with your work!” vibe quite fast.

Currently I’m trying to get some background and texture for a new project, and this means I can fully enjoy Graeme Davis‘ excellent Knights Templar, A Secret History, and pretend it’s hard work and not just great fun.
Because it is. Continue reading →

8 January 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Yellow Peril

Reading Yellow Peril! – An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear, by John Kuo Wei Tchen and Dylan Yeats, is a weird experience.
As the sub-title points out, this big book is a huge collection of texts and images mapping the relationship between the East and the West.
The East as imagined by the West, to be exact.

The effect can be shocking.
Especially for someone who grew up in a generally liberal household, in a country which had not (at the time) any experience with foreign immigration, reading old pulps – that’s me.

Understanding the actual racism behind some classic genre tropes is eye-opening, and helps put in perspective a number of cliches and stereotypes.

This is an important book, and highly recommended – but will raise a number of issues with the reader.
Which is a good thing, if not overly comfortable.

23 December 2013
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Relaxing with the Queen of Pulps

This is the Christmas week, so we’ll be not publishing a lot of contents.
January will mark the first anniversary of Karavansara, and we’re planning some celebrations.

But right now, I’m trying to recharge a little my batteries, and to do so I’m enjoying the marvelous book Vanguard published about the life and art of Margaret Brundage.
Excellent stuff – not only the pulp magazine artwork is gorgeous, but Brundage’s life is quite interesting.
The book is beautifully produced, and was an early Christmas gift.

Weird Tales: Meet Margaret Brundage, The First Lady Of Pulp Pin-up Art (fastcocreate.com)
Mike Gold: Margaret Brundage – Pulp, Pulchritude & Politics (comicmix.com)
MTV Geek Bookshelf: Pulp Pin-Ups, Bubblegum, And The Men Behind Superman (geek-news.mtv.com)
Scandelous Pulp: Why We Love it (pulpimages.wordpress.com)

16 December 2013
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Himalaya

I’ve just had the opportunity of browsing a copy of Philip Parker’s Himalaya, and I’m absolutely impressed.
The subtitle – The Exploration & Conquest of the Greatest Mountains on Earth – gives a good idea of what’s to be expected.
But the quality of the volume is surprising.

The book, published by Conway, is an absolutely gorgeous, one-stop reference on the geography and history of the Himalayan chain, featuring concise but nicely varied chapters on the major topics and a selection of great images.

Mountain climbers provide extra contents by remiscing on their experiences, while specialist authors cover geology, geography, politics and related topics.
The foreword is by Peter Hilary.

Himalaya is available both in hard-copy and in digital format – but I guess a color-able ereader or a tablet are indispensable to appreciate the graphic contents of this book.