Up Late With The Night Watch

Night Watch
By: Sergei Lukyanenko
Translation By: Andrew Bromfield
Publisher: Miramax Books (Hyperion)(2006)
ISBN: 1401359795

For once I’m writing about a book immediately after finishing (immediately, in this case, being three hours). The woman I adore picked this fun read up recently and recommended it to me. I devoured the 455-page book in two days as new English-language literature is scarce in Bucharest.

Night Watch is, first and foremost, a Russian novel. It’s a little sci-fi, mostly fantasy with some horror and a lot of mystery mixed in, but from start to finish it is very Russian. Lukyanenko fills the book with endless twists and turns, conspiracies, betrayal, and a grim expectation that everything will turn out adequately, maybe, but if it doesn’t, enh, that’s fate. Set in present-day Moscow, the novel follows the adventures of a mid-level operative of the local branch of the “Night Watch”, the forces of Light. Apparently creatures with supernatural powers unconsciously choose either Light or Dark as their powers manifest. For centuries the two camps opposed each other actively and fought long and bloody wars around the world for the right to shape the future of humankind. The conflict being too destructive, eventually the two sides signed an uneasy truce that regulates the behavior of all involved. Thus were formed the Night Watch (Good forces who patrol the world under cover of darkness, seeking out those who break the treaty), and the Day Watch (Evil, though self-centered may be a better description, forces who patrol the world by day, doing the same).

As black and white as the premise seems, Lukyanenko spends the whole novel (and presumably the two to follow) exploring the grey areas that exist even within that stark delineation of action and morality. This approach is nothing new: see George R.R. Martin, The Once and Future King, and countless other classics for other examinations of might vs. right, ends vs. means, and codes of conduct vs. reality. What Lukyanenko does well, however, is hint at grey areas that don’t exist but perhaps should. Despite the dark psychological questions in play, this is a thriller of a book and there are plenty of action scenes and stirring plot twists to keep the reader on his or her toes.

I enjoyed this book very much. It is quite readable and quick to get through, despite its density. It is broken down into three connected but distinct sections and story lines, preventing plot-fatigue and avoiding bogging down. My only real issue with it is that the plot twists and conspiracies, the complications that are the hallmark of Russian literature, didn’t grab me. They seemed to appear out of nowhere, to be revealed, analyzed, agonized over and resolved in 10 pages. By the third section it was just a matter of when the mysteries would appear, not if. I’m used to seeing these things hinted at throughout a book, allowing the drama, unease and suspense to build, but that just didn’t happen in this case. It is a shame as the book is extraordinarily well-suited for such tension, but not a critical flaw by any means.

Overall the book was fun and thought-provoking. It’s not the kind of thing to read on a cruise, but in you’re traveling or snowed in this month give it a shot and you won’t be disappointed. I’m actually guessing that the next volume in this trilogy will be even more interesting, but they haven’t been translated and released quite yet (Day Watch is scheduled for release on 21 March 2007 and Dusk Watch on 6 June 2007). I will grab copies as soon as I can, that you can bet on.

For another look at this book, visit “Simon’s Book Blog”, but be aware that he delves much further into the plot than I choose to.

Coming up (No, really, they are!):
-Just Kick It by Mark St. Amant
-Dies The Fire by S.M. Stirling
-The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth by Benjamin Friedman

Technorati Tags: Book reviews book reviews Sparky reading Night Watch Sergei Lukyanenko Witting Russia

(the general and) THE JAGUAR

The General and The Jaguar
By: Eileen Welsome
Publisher: Little, Brown (2 June 2006)
ISBN: 0316715999


I finished this one up over the weekend, in much less time than I thought it would take. This entertaining history is quite a fast read, which can be good and/or bad. My straight up recommendation is to give this book a shot if you spot it at the store: if you’re a reader you can power through it on a trans-Atlantic flight or a weekend on the beach. Even if you don’t have much time, it’ll only take a week or so to digest if you can find an hour a day for it. Either way you’ll have fun and learn about a little known slice of American history, one that contains some intriguing parallels to what’s happening today in the world.

Eileen Welsome has the knack for turning history into a story, which is a good thing. She does this by introducing you to the figures involved, major and minor, through their own words from letters, diaries, interviews, books and such, which is a good thing. She avoids speculating about motives for the most part, and doesn’t give in to the urge to put thoughts in their heads or words in their mouths, which is a good thing. She goes into details of key events, never neglecting to include temporal and event context, which is good. She gives the story a broader context to play in as well, occasionally discussing the build up to the First War To End All Wars in Europe, which is both useful and good. In the end, Ms. Welsome has published a history both cogent and timely (I love that phrase), both educational and rather entertaining, which is obviously all to the good.

On the other hand…

Ms. Welsome devotes so much effort to introducing all the various personalities present in Columbus, NM before and during Pancho Villa’s inflammatory raid that a reader will rapidly be piled under the names of hotel guests, farmers, store owners, and cavalry officers, which is not a good thing. She gives us just enough backstory and follow-up on each of the personalities that I, for one, started to get interested in a number of them, but few receive the in-depth coverage I hoped to see given their introductions, which was not so good. She goes into great detail about environmental/social/political situations in camps, in town, in Mexico, for the Army, for Villa, but only once in a while, giving shapshots and not an evolving picture, which is not good. Overall she is prone to giving great detail about people, places, events, and environments at random times, then returning to her surface level story-telling for stretches, making for a very uneven understanding on the part of the reader, which is far from satisfying.

I would have liked to see less personal detail in some places, particularly with regards to victims of the raid and other bit players, in favor of more attention to the primary figures. Woodrow Wilson is a distant figure, but one who plays heavily in what happens. General Pershing doesn’t even appear until halfway through the book, despite his titular credit and photo on the dust jacket. Pancho Villa receives a romantic treatment in many ways (though Ms. Welsome does not shy away from reporting his dark side honestly and objectively) and is quite obviously the focus of the book. Her coverage of him, his actions and his impact on Mexico is comprhensive and should be duplicated for Pershing, at the very least.

The biggest gap, in my mind, is the post-Villa wrap-up. I didn’t get a feel for how this episode impacted the US or Mexico in the longer run (if it did). Ms. Welsome includes a “What Happened To Them?” section about many of the characters and the town of Columbus, a nice touch, but it is a very limited picture indeed.

In the end, this book suffers from a lack of depth but, to be honest, that lack is far from fatal. The book is eminently readable, objective, and focused. Would I like more from it? Sure. Am I fair in that request? Not entirely. Would I recommend it despite my personal irritation? Absolutely.

Technorati Tags: Book reviews Sparky reading The General and the Jaguar Eileen Welsome Bill and Olga Witting Pancho Villa

Puck Math

The Physics of Hockey
Alain Haché
Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002
ISBN 0801870712


I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a math geek. I’ll also admit that I’m a bit of a sports geek. One look at the URL you’re at now should confirm that. One brief visit to the parent site of this blog, WashingtonHockey, will confirm that I don’t have the slightest shame about combining the two interests either. If I spot a chance to include a bit of regression analysis, or some economic theory to a hockey story, well, my day is made. Imagine my excitement, then, when my lovely girlfriend’s father sends me a book as a gift. Getting any book is a treat, but when it’s got the words "Physics" and "Hockey" both in the title, well, I almost made an honest woman out of her just to show him my appreciation!

Since I’m being honest here, I’ll flat out say that if you don’t like either physics or hockey you’ll hate the book. If you like hockey but can’t tell sin θ from Sins of the Father, you’ll struggle (unless you’re a young, hockey playing Canadian male in which case you’ll be glad to know that your chance of making it to the NHL is about 1 in 6,000). If you like physics but can’t tell a check from a Slovak, it’ll be interesting but nothing spectacular (unless you’re a young, non-hockey playing Canadian male in which case you need to consider the odds of making an NHL-equivalent salary if you stick with physics as a career). If you like both, though, this is a treat, and this review is for you.

You know physics, and you know hockey, so you’ve got a good understanding of the shooting motion. The wind-up, the swing, the release, the curvature of the stick, that’s all familiar. This book, however, explains all the motions and interactions involved in the process and there’s more than you might think. The same goes for goalie positioning, skating, accuracy, checking, and player quality. You can see how the author determines that Ray Bourque’s window of opportunity for a goal on a slapper from just inside the blue line, through traffic, with a screened goalie in a partial butterfly was 0.3° (aperture from 70 feet using Δθx = 2arctan (Δx/2d) as the determining formula for horizontal margin of error). Speaking of the butterfly, Haché uses Felix Potvin and Patrick Roy to demonstrate why that particular stance is so popular, while choosing Marty Brodeur for reaction times. He explains salaries as a function of probability, not relative or absolute quality (though I’d like to see him address that now that we’ve got a cap). Bobby Hull is the model in the discussion of shot selection in the crease. Jaromir Jagr shows off his skating power. The list goes on and on and on.

This book lives on my bedside table, with occasional forays to the bathroom bookshelf. I don’t pick it up every day, or even every week, but I never go very long without re-reading a chapter. I don’t play hockey, but I love to apply this kind of knowledge of physics to day to day activities, be it carrying things or playing golf. If you’ve got a puck-crazy friend who did pretty well in high school physics, get ‘em this book, they really don’t need yet another collection of crazy quotes from the penalty box.

Note: I am disappointed that, with all the academic vigor and attention to mathematical accuracy the author devotes, he described Mark Recchi giving "110% at every shift." That’s blatantly impossible. Dale Hunter, sure, but Recchi never gave more than 102% when I’ve seen him…

My Battle Of Algiers is just that

My Battle Of Algiers: A Memoir
Ted Morgan
Published by Collins, 31 January 2006
ISBN 0060852240


I received a dated pre-release copy of Ted Morgan’s My Battle Of Algiers as a free bonus when I recently dropped $20.00 at the local used book store. Intrigued and delighted by a Free Bonus Book I picked it up and raced through it before even touching the other four in the bag; Mr. McMurtry’s westerns and Mr. Kierkegaard’s laboured prose could wait a few more days. I finished the 270-page work in little more than an afternoon on the beach; despite the serious subject matter and attention to detail the book never drags and never bogs down.

Mr. Morgan’s memoir starts with his reasons for publication (more on that preface later), followed by what I consider to be the most important part of the book from an American perspective: the Introduction. Titled “A Child’s History of Algeria”, it is actually a 25 page, concise, incisive, comprehensive introduction to colonial Algeria from a sometimes-French, sometimes-Algerian, sometimes-objective mix of perspectives that somehow never gets confusing. Skimming briefly through the centuries in a page or two, Mr. Morgan seems eager to run through the history, damn the context style, until 29 April, 1827 when the slap of a fly whisk against the cheek of French consul Pierre Duval brings him to a sudden halt. From this point on, Mr. Morgan dances through the following 130 years, briefly pulling key events, people and ideas out of the crowd of history for us to see, then turning to the next with hardly a pause, keeping the swirl of events intact without ever losing the beat. His pace slows as the situation grows ever more complex after the Second World War, eventually coming to a deliberate halt in October of 1956 when France hijacked a plane carrying four leaders of the rebellious Front de Libération Nationale (FLN – National Liberation Front of Algeria, the main rebel group in Algeria). Wistfully and with the air of fatalism pervading the memoir, Mr. Morgan sets aside his historian’s pen and turns to his own story. In his words, “It was at this point, in the fall of 1956, that Algeria entered my life.”

With the body of the memoir we see Mr. Morgan’s intentions in writing and publishing. He made it clear in the preface, but I’d forgotten those three pages halfway through the marvelous introduction. Mr. Morgan plainly sees parallels between the French colonial history in Algeria and the U.S. occupation of Iraq, between the FLN and the Iraqi resistence groups, between the brutal behavior of the French paras and Légion Étrangère, and the behavior of American and British Soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gitmo. Make no mistake, this book is intended as a glimpse into the pit and seems to serve as a sort of confessional for the author (he beat a captive to death early in his tour while trying to get information). It is a protest and a warning, one man’s wake-up call to the reader. It was, unfortunately, not particularly successful in my case.

Mr. Morgan tells much of the story as a first-person account of life as a young French officer in the bleds of Algeria and the teeming streets of Algiers and the country collapses into chaos. He intersperses the narrative with occasional anecdotes, additional context, or brief paragraphs describing the greater impact of events. In this way he confines himself to an intensely personal account, and not one I find particularly convincing as a political lesson. He offers example after example of the brutality of the French troops, colons, and government while treating the FLN with kid gloves. I do not question the justice of the Algerian rebels, but jus ad bellum does not give either side a pass on jus in bello, nor does the lack of one justify the lack of the other. What struck me most vividly from his account is the casual brutality on both sides, the glimpses behind the scenes at some of the demonized and iconized figures of the conflict, and the view of Algiers as a city trying to carry on business as usual while engulfed in bitter, bloody strife. His personal experiences do not lend themselves to making wide-reaching geo-political judgements, but they do offer a rarely seen glimpse of the details, the day-to-day insanity of a city engulfed by guerilla warfare against a foreign occupier.

I recommend this book rather strongly, particularly for those who are sick and tired of big-picture coverage of Iraq and broad histories of prior wars. You will learn something, and you will enjoy doing so.

Mr. Morgan, né Sanche de Gramont, is a noted biographer and the only French citizen to win a Pulitzer (he took the name "Ted Morgan" later when he received his American citizenship). When drafted he returned to France from Worcester, MA where he worked as a fledgling journalist for the Worcester Telegram. Mr. Morgan went through the hierarchy of French military schooling, eventually receiving his 2nd Lieuenant’s bars and a billet in Algeria upon graduation in the fall of 1956.