Camp Concentration
by Thomas M. Disch
192pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 6.5/10
Amazon Rating: 4/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.81/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.81/5

Today marks the beginning of the first in what will hopefully be many Blogger Book Club Discussions. Larry from OF Blog of the Fallen came up with the idea of selecting an older book every month to discuss on various blogs. It’s a casual discussion with an entire week for posting reviews and no obligation to participate every month. The October discussion book is the dystopia Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch, which was originally published in 1968.

During the 1970s, America is at war. The poet Louis Sacchetti has been imprisoned for dodging the draft, finding five years in jail preferable to life as a soldier, possible death, and participating in a cause he believes to be morally wrong. The story begins when Louis has finally been allowed to have some paper and immediately begins writing a journal about his time as an inmate. Shortly after the writer has started his daily musings, there is a gap in time between entries and it is noted that the format has changed from handwriting to typing. Louis then tells of being snatched away from this prison to a new prison known as Camp Archimedes, which one of his captors promises will be a better place for him with movie nights, access to a library, coffee, and a weekly allowance of funds. In return, Louis must continue writing his journal and recounting his factual observations.

Soon Louis discovers the real purpose of Camp Archimedes – its residents are part of an experiment to test Pallidine, a new drug derived from syphilis spirochete intended to enhance intelligence. Those who have taken the medication are becoming smarter; however, any person who has taken it dies approximately nine months later. This leads the inmates to study alchemy and ways to create an elixir of youth so they do not meet this fate of an early death.


Camp Concentration has a very academic feel and was reminiscent of books I read in college because of the journal format, the references to literature such as Faust, and the discussion of concepts such as genius being inseparable from madness without the involvement of the factor of luck. It was a book that seemed to be more about ideas and making points through plot and character than one that was about plot and character featuring some contributing ideas. This book fell more into the category of interesting than enjoyable – while I’m glad I read it, it wouldn’t be my ideal choice for curling up on the couch with a cup of tea and a book on a lazy day.

The weakest aspect of the novel for me was that I didn’t form any emotional connection whatsoever to anyone in the book, including the narrator. My favorite books are those where the characters take on a life of their own and seem like real people. In spite of the fact that the entire book is written in first person perspective through journal entries, which would afford the most intimate look into a character’s mind, the personalities in the book always seemed very distanced to me, as a reader. Although we know about how Louis struggles with his religious faith as a Catholic, his strong views about the war, and his love of poetry, the book never delves into why the narrator has specific viewpoints, likes, dislikes, and beliefs. It is just expressed as a fact – which is fitting with the instructions Louis was given on writing in his journal and with the overall tone of the story. However, a story very tragic at heart – about people who are condemned to die by a corrupt society to gain knowledge for said society to use – failed to move me in any way since it never made me care about what happened to anyone in the book.

This is a book that would probably benefit from a reread since I’m sure pieces of it would come together better after knowing what was coming. On the first read through, I found myself feeling like it was not that original or challenging since it did not introduce me to concepts I had not encountered and thought about before (which may also have something to do with the fact that it was written before I was born – I would be interested in knowing how much influence it had on later works). This makes me think that I probably missed a lot since it is supposed to be a very thoughtful book – or perhaps my expectations based on what I’d heard about this book were just too high.

Camp Concentration is an engaging story containing a vast amalgam of ideas, and while I am glad I read it, it did not leave much of an impact on me.

6.5/10

Other Blogger Book Club reviews of Camp Concentration:

Maledicte
by Lane Robins
464pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 7/10
Amazon Rating: 4/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.3/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.56/5

Maledicte is the debut novel of Lane Robins, who is writing a loose sequel to this book that takes place in the same world but features different characters. Since all the loose ends are tied up in Maledicte and the story arc definitely feels like it has a conclusive ending, it works well as a stand alone book. The concept and plot of this character driven fantasy were not particularly complex, but it was very readable and kept me turning the pages to find out what happened next.

The Earl of Last has no heirs other than an illegitimate son Janus, whom he captures unwillingly from a life in the slums and teaches the ways of the court. Miranda, Janus’s childhood friend and lover who is left behind, runs away to the temple of Black-Winged Ani, the goddess of love and vengeance. The people no longer believe in the gods, yet when Miranda leaves the temple she has a mysterious black sword and a thirst for vengeance that will not be quenched. She disguises herself as a young man, takes the name of Maledicte, and vows to find Janus and his father. (Note: From this point on, Maledicte will be referred to as a male since he has shed his identity as the woman Miranda – and that’s how it was in the book.)

While searching for the Earl of Last, Maledicte intrudes in the home of the sickly Baron Vornatti, who also harbors animosity for the earl after he slandered his sister’s name. Lonely and intrigued by the handsome youth, Vornatti coerces him into staying the night in his house with the aid of his servant Gilly, who slipped a drug into Maledicte’s wine that put him to sleep. Vornatti teaches Maledicte the ways of the court, where he becomes a controversial figure with his poor temperament yet manages to win the favor of the king. Maledicte awaits the arrival of Janus and his reaction to him – if Janus no longer loves him, he will kill him, but if he does, he will include him in his plans for revenge.


This is a story for those who enjoy flawed characters – perhaps flawed is even a bit of an understatement. The main character is Maledicte himself with a lot of focus on Gilly and some on Janus. Maledicte is possessed by the goddess, giving him a penchant for bloodlust, and he is selfish and not a particularly nice person due to the fact that he kills rather easily. He only cares about Janus and Gilly, with whom he forms a friendship early in the story. However, his motives are at least somewhat understandable since he is driven by Black-Winged Ani’s desire for vengeance and there are a few times when he shows glimmers of human feeling. Janus is even less likable than Maledicte and has no excuse other than greed and a desire for power. The most likable character is easily Gilly, who is generally good but still far from perfect. Gilly loves Maledicte but tells him he will not kill for him, yet he often finds himself committing actions he disagrees with morally in order to protect Maledicte. (Janus also hates Gilly because of his feelings toward Maledicte and would kill him if not for the fact that it would displease Maledicte, which makes him seem even more despicable.) Even though I enjoy reading about anti-heroes, I found I had real empathy for Gilly and liked reading about him the most.

The plot, court intrigue, and character relationships were very uncomplicated, making this an easy and fun book to read. The writing style is more convoluted, bordering on what many would refer to as purple prose, but I did not think it was excessive (of course, I like more verbose writing as long as it is not to the point of being so descriptive it is boring).

The perspective is always third person, although whose perspective it is changes often. At times, it is Gilly, occasionally it is Maledicte himself or the king or even for a short time that of Kritos, the man who actually stole Janus away from Maledicte by order of the earl. Some may find this distracting but it did not bother me at all.

At times, I did find myself questioning character actions. Why would the baron take in an intruder who just appears in his home one night? Why would a nice guy like Gilly be so enamored of Maledicte when he was so evil at times? Why would the king and many other court members be so fascinated by Maledicte when he is so disagreeable and disobedient to the rules? Mostly, I thought they made sense after some reflection, though. The baron was alone other than Gilly with an illness that confined him to bed a lot so he was probably glad for the company, especially after finding out their common enmity for the earl. Gilly was an empathic person and had the gift of seeing the gods’ work so he knew what a large part of Maledicte’s problem was even when others did not and would have been the type to want to help him. As far as the king and some women of the court go, I suppose Maledicte was somewhat mysterious, although I’m not finding the answer to that question comes as easily as the other two.

Maledicte was a dark tale containing some characters I grew very attached to, although they did not seem to contain great depth. I did feel that the story was lacking something I cannot put my finger on in its simplicity, but it was a good debut novel and I am looking forward to reading the next book set in this world.

7/10

Read the Prologue

One of my favorite bloggers, Tia from Fantasy Debut, nominated me for an I Love Your Blog Award yesterday. Thanks, Tia – I love your blog too!

Now I’m supposed to nominate seven blogs that I enjoy, which is really hard since I read and love a lot of blogs! (They’re all linked to from the sidebar if you are curious.) Fantasy Debut would without a doubt be in my top seven, but it seems as though you are supposed to pick blogs other than the one you received the award from so here is my list:

The Swivet Contains a lot of interesting behind the scenes information on publishing/agenting and Colleen is absolutely hilarious. (Her Twitter comments were keeping me particularly entertained during the Vice Presidential debate the other night.)

OF Blog of the Fallen One of the more diverse speculative fiction blogs out there with lots of commentary and some reviews. Not all the books mentioned are in English nor are all of them traditional/epic fantasy or the usual science fiction/space opera novels being discussed. It’s always interesting and thoughtful.

A Dribble of Ink Provides fantastic in-depth reviews and I love the asides. Lately there have been a few posts on video games as well which is never a bad thing (even if I do never have time to play them anymore!).

The Book Smugglers Ana and Thea write very lengthy, involved, entertaining, and at times hilarious reviews and have tons of personality that shines through in each review. They both read and review a LOT – I haven’t yet figured out how they find the time for it all but I’m certainly glad they do!

Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews Reviews, lots of photos of books to drool over, and a feature on fantasy art which has shown some fantastic work – those are the reasons I keep going back to this one.

Adventures in Reading I actually only became recently acquainted with this blog but it’s quickly become one of my favorites. Love the reviews and Joe’s also a huge fan of Elizabeth Bear’s “Promethean Age” novels too. (It’s Elizabeth Bear week there now and I’m very excited to read the review of All the Windwracked Stars, which is coming out later this month.)

Ann Aguirre The blog run by the author of Grimspace and Wanderlust – whether she’s answering reader questions about Vel the sexy alien bug or writing about her latest favorite book, Ann just cracks me up. Plus she runs a lot of giveaways and tends to have more creative criteria than leaving a comment.

There it is – my seven nominees! Wow, that was a tough one.

Revelation Space
by Alastair Reynolds
592pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 7/10
Amazon Rating: 3.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.84/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.03/5

Renowned science fiction author and former astronomer Alastair Reynold’s first novel is Revelation Space, a combination space opera and hard science fiction novel. While there are five novels that take place within this universe, this novel is followed by two direct sequels, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap. This was the first book I read by Reynolds, and while I found the story enjoyable, I did think the book was far longer than necessary.

Archaeologist Dan Sylveste is studying the remains of the bird-like alien race Amarantin, which was mysteriously wiped out nine hundred thousand years ago. When many of the workers abandon the dig due to a huge storm coming their way, Sylveste refuses to leave since he has discovered a huge obelisk and desires to translate the writing on it to see if he can glean any significance from it. Sylveste believes the Amarantin somehow caused their own demise and believes it may even be associated with their discovery of spaceflight; therefore, he believes it is vitally important to learn what happened so humanity can avoid making the same mistakes. Unfortunately for Sylveste, many disagree with his view and there is a coup, resulting in his imprisonment for a time.

Ana Khouri, a soldier, is separated from her husband during relativistic travel and ends up in Chasm City. By the time she joined up with her husband at their original destination, his life would practically be over so she remains in the city, working as an assassin to provide adventures for the rich who hope to be able to tell stories about surviving the attempt on their lives. One day Khouri is kidnapped and taken to a woman known only as the Mademoiselle, who coerces the woman into serving her and sends her on a mission to murder Dan Sylveste. To get Khouri near Sylveste, the Mademoiselle arranges for her to meet Ilia Volyova, a member of the ship’s crew on Nostalgia for Infinity, who is seeking Sylveste as the only man who can help with the plague their captain has contracted. Volyova is searching for a new gunnery officer since the previous one went insane and accepts Khouri without realizing her real motives for joining the crew.


Revelation Space is very bogged down by verbosity. It is a very dense book, containing many long paragraphs (including one that was over an entire page long), which can make for difficult reading at times. This book was so hard to focus on that it took me a month and a half to read the entire book, but it was intriguing enough that I kept it on my nightstand to read on occasion instead of putting it back on the shelf for later. This was during a time when work was stressing me out so that may have contributed to the problem – I often found it easier going on the weekends and finished it while I was on vacation. I still wouldn’t recommend it to anyone looking for a light read since it is very wordy and full of scientific explanations.

This is a science fiction book that is nearly as heavy on the science as on the fiction. Astronomy and physics are at times relevant to the plot, and there are various alien species and advanced technologies. The crew members of Nostalgia for Infinity are only partially human since they have enhanced themselves with machinery (the disease the captain is suffering from preys on nanotechnology). Dan Sylveste has a simulation of his dead father Calvin that he sometimes refers to for advice, even though the two of them never got along well in life and certainly have their differences still even when Calvin is no longer alive.

The characters are not particularly likable unless you enjoy reading about flawed, selfish people who are not good or even mostly good types. All the major players have committed murder at some point, although none of them did so out of motives that make them seem purely evil for it. Personally, I enjoy gray and flawed characters so they did not bother me, but those who tend to gravitate toward people they can root for as being on the side of right and justice may find these personalities to be rather despicable.

Revelation Space is an intelligent and compelling story, although it does have the rather large and common weakness of being very wordy. It is not an easy read and it does require more work to read than many books, but it was definitely worth reading and I will be acquiring the rest of the series.

7/10


There are quite a few new or soon-to-be new books coming up that I am very excited about. So I’m going to go all fan-girly for a moment (ok, a few moments).

Both Nation by Terry Pratchett and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman were just released a few days ago (September 30 in the US). Two YA books by the co-authors of Good Omens coming out on the same day… seems a bit coincidental. I look forward to reading both of those. I also love the cover of The Graveyard Book.


The October release I’m the most enthusiastic about is All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear. I actually thought this book was supposed to come out in December for some reason until a couple of days ago so I was thrilled to find out it was coming out sooner than I thought. It’s the first one of her books I’ve heard about coming out in hardcover (I’ll have to deal with a mismatched set, I guess, since I’m not waiting for paperback). Norse mythology, magic and technology – this sounds fantastic. I love how Bear handles mythology so I am really looking forward to this one – and October 28, its release date.

The final Mistborn book Hero of Ages is coming out on October 14. I still haven’t read The Well of Ascension yet so I’m not quite ready for that one, although I did enjoy the first book in the series.

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks has been getting some attention lately (Fantasy Book News and Reviews, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, Fantasy and Sci-Fi Lovin’ Book Reviews, Grasping for the Wind). It just came out September 30 and the second part of the trilogy Shadow’s Edge is to be released on October 28. The final book is coming out about a month after that – none of that waiting forever for the next book with this set. It also sounds like my type of book – a character driven story about an assassin containing blurred lines between good and evil. I’ll have to check that one out at some point.

What else is exciting that I’ve missed?

The Alchemy of Stone
by Ekaterina Sedia
304pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 8/10
Amazon Rating: 4/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.13/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.78/5

The Alchemy of Stone is the third novel by Ekaterina Sedia, author of The Secret History of Moscow and According to Crow. This beautifully written, character-driven story focuses on themes of social inequality and humanity within a fantastic steampunk setting combining science and magic. While it is a thoughtful tale, it can be read quickly and easily without getting bogged down by too many themes and not enough storytelling.

Mattie is an automaton created by Loharri, a prominent figure among the mechanics of the city. Capable of both thought and feeling, Mattie craved her independence from her master and became interested in alchemy upon discovering Loharri’s fear of the alchemists, a group in opposition with the scientific mechanics. She boldly asks to be an apprentice to an alchemist and is accepted since it is apparent she is intelligent enough to learn the trade. Upon finishing her studies, Mattie moved to her own home as an emancipated automaton, to Loharri’s great chagrin. However, she is not completely free. Mattie occasionally needs to be wound up with a key or she will cease to function – a key that her creator refuses to give up to her.

Tired of their fate of turning to stone, the gargoyles seek Mattie’s aid in creating a potion to prevent this from happening. Mattie’s quest for information leads her to the Soul-Smoker, who contains the soul of a dead woman who had looked into this problem before Mattie. She strikes up a friendship with the lonely Soul-Smoker, feared by those who possess souls. While seeking information that could help with treating the gargoyles, the unpolitical Mattie finds herself involved in the political struggles between the Alchemists and the Mechanics.


The Alchemy of Stone is mainly told from the third person perspective of Mattie, but it also offers occasional glimpses from the collective perspective of the gargoyles. Although it is partially about the city and politics, the book is mainly about Mattie, who is an interesting character in spite of (or perhaps because of) her not-fully-human nature. In many ways, Mattie seems human considering she has emotions, can love, and can learn, but she is also more tolerant than the human characters and immune to prejudice against others. Also, Mattie was created as a woman and it is a part of her as much as if she were born a human woman with her built in feminine garments. With her love/hate relationship with her creator and struggles to be truly liberated, Mattie is very sympathetic.

The writing is very lovely – not verbose yet descriptive. It tends to convey mood and feeling very well.

Sedia does an excellent job of writing a story with themes that are intertwined into the story. They are part of the tale itself and it never feels heavy handed or as though the book is being used to convey personal beliefs – both story and ideas work together and fit together.

The Alchemy of Stone is not a fast-paced book but an introspective book about society and people, particularly one character’s personal struggles. Those who enjoy character-driven stories rather than those filled with action and adventure would probably enjoy this novel.

8/10