The King of Montréal

Finished August 21

The King of Montréal by Daniela I. Norris

This is an interesting alternative history novel. It is 1800, and Louis-Charles, the Dauphin of France, has ended up alone in Montreal at the age of fifteen. He had been smuggled out of jail in Paris and transported to the countryside to live with family friends, but when he began to look too much like his father as he grew up, they decided for his safety and the safety of the family he was living with to send him, with his tutor as an escort, to America, where he would go to the secretary of the late Benjamin Franklin and stay there. It would be up to him whether it was ever safe for him to show himself and return to France as king or live his life abroad. 

Unfortunately, the ship he was on was shipwrecked in a storm, and he was rescued by Basque fishermen and dropped off in Montreal. He lived on the streets, and tried to make enough money to hire an indigenous guide to take him to his destination in the U.S. He found himself making both friends and enemies, and his education and bearing shows as he navigates the unlikely place he has found himself in. 

This is a novel aimed at young adult readers, and with the main character being fifteen, that makes sense. It introduces readers to elements of history that are well-researched and incorporate real history as much as possible while giving the Dauphin a future that he didn't have. I really enjoyed this novel, and the way we get into the thoughts of the main character. 

Recommended for teens that like history, unexpected heroes, or a touch of romance. 

You Dreamed of Empires

Finished March 15

You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer

This historical novel takes us to a very interesting place and time. It is 1519, and Cortes and his troops enter the city of Tenochtitlan. As part of his entourage, Cortes has Aguilar, a friar who had been a captive of the Nahua, and knows their language, so can interpret from Spanish to Nahua. He also has Malinalli, a Nahua princess who had been enslaved as a concubine to an Aztec leader. She can interpret from Nahua to the Aztec language. 

Cortes is a less than gracious man, bad at interpreting situations, and a man without respect to his host. When first meeting the emperor Moctezuma, he attempts to embrace him, and nearly gets killed. After a short rest, the Spanish group is given a welcome meal by the empress, Atotoxtli, sister and wife of Moctezuma. We see the subtle messages being given and received, and we begin to see what some of those at the banquet, as well as those not attending, are thinking. 

Allowed into the thoughts of one of Cortes; captains, Jazmin Caldera, who begins to question their hosts intentions, and into the thoughts of Malinalli as she strategizes what to interpret, what to add, and what to leave out. We also understand some thoughts of Moctezuma, as his reliance on hallucinogens becomes an issue, and those of his sister wife Atotoxtli as she tries to appease him while also influence him.  

Tenochtitlan is a well-planned city, managing its resources well, and working well for its inhabitants. Enrigue gives us a sense of the size, details, and impressiveness of the city and its amenities. 

As we begin to understand the complexities of the situation, Enrigue takes us into an alternative ending to the encounter, a development that takes us into 'what if' questions. 

An amazing and enlightening read. 

The Last Days of New Paris

Finished November 2

The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville

This alternative history novel starts in 1950 in a Paris that doesn't resemble the one that really existed then, and then jumps back to earlier times to track how that Paris was created.

The premise here is that the energy created by the art and ideas of a group of surrealist artists was captured, and then misused as a bomb (the S-blast) in Paris creating destruction, but also giving life to creatures and animate forms originating in surrealist art. 

The creatures are taken from visual art and literature, and range from relatively benign to terrifying. These creatures were mainly acting against the German forces, and the Germans tried to create in a similar way, but also called on darker forces from below. 

The main character is a young man whose parents were killed in the first actions after the blast and who seems to be able to engage positively with some creatures, and follow clues to gain new weapons and use what now exists to continue the fight. But Paris has been sealed off from the world beyond, and he longs to leave to see a world more normal. As he tries to find a way out, he meets someone who seems to have come in, and who is trying to document Paris as it is now as a way of those not able to witness it for themselves to see it before the city is destroyed for good. 

There is a lot here about surrealism and the artists known for their work in this genre, and the notes at the end of the book help readers to understand some of the references in the text. There is also an afterword written by the author of how he came to write the book, which is also an interesting extension of the the alternative history. 

A book like no other I've ever read. 

The Vengeance of Mothers

Finished June 21
The Vengeance of Mothers: The Journals of Margaret Kelly and Molly McGill by Jim Fergus, read by Laura Hicks and Erik Steele

This historical novel is based on some real historical people in terms of the native leaders, such as Little Wolf and Crazy Horse. This is the second book in the series that began with One Thousand White Women. The novels are inspired by a request made during peace talks with the Cheyenne, where Little Wolf suggested the government send one thousand white women to be the brides of young Cheyenne warriors, as a way to assimilate. In the Cheyenne culture, children were automatically of the tribe of their mothers, so in their eyes, the children would be white. The request was never acted upon, but Fergus' novels take the idea of that into fruition.
Here, the survivors of an army attack on a Cheyenne village have made the journey to the camp of Crazy Horse, where they are taken in. Around the same time, a group of warriors have ambushed a train to get the horses and ammunition that were being shipped on it. Also on the train was the last batch of women sent under the Brides for Indians program, and the survivors have been brought to the camp as well.
Margaret and Susie Kelly, survivors of the attack on the village are asked to talk to the women from the train and explain the current situation, and the cancellation of the Brides program, and offer them choices. The majority of women from the train volunteered for the program to escape a worse situation and have no wish to return to that situation. As we learn about the women, we learn about their histories, from incarceration, to mental institutions, widowhood to brothels and domestic abuse, the women are all willing to try to assimilate to the native culture.
As in the first novel in the series, the women have been given account ledgers, which a couple of them use as diaries. One of them is Margaret Kelly, who writes for both herself and her twin sister Susie. The other is Molly McGill, one of the women from the train, who worked as a teacher until her recent incarceration.
The journals are brought to the attention of a newspaper editor in the present day, and he sorts them by date, and transcribes them, moving alternately between the two memoirists as they pass through the remaining winter and into the spring of 1876. This is the frame of the story, but the story itself, told as diary entries is full of emotion, detail, and description.
The characters are drawn well, and with respectful acknowledgement of native culture and the unfair treatment by the US government. We really see life in the native encampments and the nature of the battles between the government forces, their allied native partners, and the tribes they warred with.
A wonderful story.

Knife Edge

Finished June 8
Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman

This is the second novel in the series that began with Noughts & Crosses. This story continues with Sephy's story as she is now a mother of a little girl, Callie. She struggles with her emotions around her situation, reviled by members of both cultural groups.
As she tries to find her own voice, she loves her young daughter, but fears for her future as a visible example of her parents' choices. When a letter reaches her, supposed written by Callum, it changes her feelings to the point where she feels much more alone, and more distrustful of those around her.
Her relationship with both her mother and with Callum's mother also changes, and her new friends only help a little.
We also see Jude and the situation he faces now that he is on the run, and has lost trust for some of the leaders of his group. Living on his own to stay under the radar, he befriends a trusting young woman. She brings him feelings that he didn't expect and doesn't want to feel, and makes him unsure of his own convictions. His reaction is tragic, and his solution to his new situation brings more misery to both him and to Sephy.
This series is not predictable in its plot changes, and the characters begin to grow more complex as we see them mature. This is a very interesting series, with its emphasis on race and cultural change.

Noughts & Crosses

Finished March 9
Noughts & Crosses by Marjorie Blackman

This is the first book in a series for teens. The book is a story of our world, but shifted. Here it is blacks who dominate society (Crosses) and whites who were slaves only a couple of generations ago (Noughts), and are still the underprivileged class.
The novel opens with a rift between a privileged black woman, Jasmine, and her white housekeeper, Meggie. It then quickly moves a few years forward to a time when school desegregation is just beginning. Callum, the younger son of Meggie is one of the teens chosen to integrate into the high school. Sophy, younger daughter of Jasmine, also goes to the high school, and has maintained a surreptitious friendship with Callum over the years. Callum is a couple of years older than Sophy, but both lack awareness of the limitations of their social interaction.
While there is some movement on both sides to treat the whites more equitably, there is a large group of resistance at the power level, which includes Sophy's dad, who is a politician running to be the next prime minister. And the slow speed of change has some in the white community ready to take their actions from peaceful protest and change through policy to a more violent movement. Among these are Callum's father and older brother.
As the two young people try to stay friends and maintain their positive outlook, they find that society forces them into actions they hadn't contemplated, and drives them further from each other.
This is an interesting way to open discussions on social issues and race relations, and I look forward to seeing how the series develops.

Underground Airlines

Finished July 17
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

This novel of is set in a United States with an alternate history. This is a United States that didn't go through a Civil War, where Abraham Lincoln was killed just a bit earlier than in our reality, where slavery still exists in some states.
Given the state of things in the U.S. today, this is a novel with a terrifying premise. Victor is a black man working as an undercover slave hunter for the U.S. Marshall Service, in their mandate to enforce the 1793 Fugitive Persons Law. Why would a black man take on such a job? Easy, Victor himself is an escaped slave, blackmailed into this role to maintain his own freedom from being returned to that life.
The Underground Airlines of the title is the modern name for the Underground Railroad, still trying to free people, move them north, and help some of them exit the country entirely, many to Canada. At the point of this novel, there are only four states that still have slavery, known as the Hard Four. Other slave states renounced slavery at various times, and for various reasons. There are rules around the products that come from the slave states. Some other states have enacted Clean Hands laws to keep such goods out of the hands of their citizens. Some countries won't trade with the U.S. because of their situation.
With this particular case, Victor finds himself less able to distance himself from what he is doing, caught up in his own memories of slavery, escape, and a life of looking over his shoulder. The file is messy and raises questions, and the reaction of his unseen handler back in Washington is not normal for their interaction on these cases.
Staying at the same hotel as Victor is a white woman and her black son. Victor also gets drawn into their story, and finds a connection he didn't expect.
Winters has built a world with a history, laws, international connections, and corruption that feels so possible it is scary. Black people's skin colour is classified with a numerical and textual chart. For instance the man Victor is searching for is classified as "late-summer honey, warm tone, #76". Slaves are tattooed on the back of their necks with the logos of their owning plantation corporations. I was completely caught up in the story, barely able to put it down. A wonderful, disturbing, and important read.

Smoke

Finished June 13
Smoke by Dan Vyleta

This novel is set in an alternate England, one in which those with wicked thoughts or engaged in sinful actions emit smoke from their bodies. The less smoke one emits, the better one is, and the upper classes smoke very little. Of course, this lack of smoke isn't all natural, because they can afford substances that control the smoke, and of course control knowledge of these substances to maintain their reputation of superiority.  The time is the early twentieth century, in an England who has closed off many of its contacts with the rest of the world, especially in terms of new technologies and scientific learning.
In this world we are introduced to two boys of about sixteen, at an upper class boarding school. Thomas came to the school recently despite laws making such schooling compulsory, and thus is a bit of an outsider. Charlie is the son of one of the wealthiest families in the country, a gentle boy who is also highly intelligent. As the book opens, the boys have been woken in the night to undergo a peer controlled examination around the emitting of smoke. The exercise is a form of bullying and control. The unexpected result of this nighttime encounter has both Thomas and the upperclassman organizer of the examination forced to undergo private tutoring.
As the book unfolds, the action organizes it into sections. The first section is at the school, the second at the country house of Thomas' uncle, where both Charlie and Thomas learn more about the nature of smoke and the control of it and meet Thomas' cousin Livia. The third section is one that introduces more characters who are at a lower level of the social order, and the three young people discover that wealth and freedom are not always aligned. The fourth and fifth sections are set in London, with more understanding and manipulation of the nature of smoke and its meaning.
The quotes that introduce each section highlight the some of the inspiration for this novel, Dickens' world of complex plots, a London of dirty fog, and harsh realities. Even the cover image used draws from that time period of a dirty, dangerous city.
There is so much in this book to comment on that it is hard to know where to start, especially if one is trying not to give away plot elements. It abounds with secrets, personal ones, family ones, national ones. Secret labs to delve into scientific ideas outlawed by the state. Secret police who operate outside of state control. Secret feelings between people. Complex relationships between a mother and her children, between friends, between men and women. Smoke illustrates the complex worlds of reason and passion, social order, religion versus science, and ethical behaviour. There is also lots of action, from chase scenes and dramatic escapes, to a love triangle, to violent interactions.
An amazing read.

Burning Paradise

Finished February 10
Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson

This novel takes the reader from Buffalo, New York down to the Atacama desert in Chile. This is in our world, but different. A world where history diverted from ours in the early twentieth century.
As the book begins, it is November 2014, and the world is about to celebrate one its most widely celebrated holidays, Armistice Day. It is a hundred years since the Armistice was signed at the end of the Great War, and the world has been relatively peaceful ever since, with a gradual growth in prosperity.
But only a small number of its people know why. They know that the world has been interfered with, that the dawn of radio communication provided a way for another entity to subtly control communication between people around the world, changing the course of history the world would have seen without this interference. This entity is using human technology for its own purposes, controlling the course of research, ensuring anything that would threaten its existence is quashed, defunded, redirected to a purpose better suited to its ends.
In 2007, this entity felt threatened to such an extent that it took drastic action, killing those scientists actively trying to reveal the truth. Cassie's parents were both killed at this time and her uncle Ethan nearly so. Those who survived went into hiding, communicating only face to face and by post, avoiding anything that involved radio communication or similar means of sending information for fear it could be intercepted.
Cassie and her younger brother Thomas live with their aunt Nerissa, outsiders of a sort, never able to reveal what they know about the world, relaxing only when together with others in their small Society. And they have an emergency plan should a threat like that of 2007 ever return. And one night it does. And so the plan is set in motion.
This is a story of an alternative world history, one where mankind is manipulated by an outside force, where peace is imposed artificially.  It seems like a better world in some ways, but is it really, and what would happen if the interference stopped. A book that gets you thinking, but also has green slime and giant insects. A great read.

Interesting Premise

Finished April 18
Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo
This satirical novel begins with an interesting premise. What if the slave trade had been reversed and Africans had enslaved Europeans. Beginning from this point, we join the world of Doris Scagglethorpe, aka Omoreomwara, a middle-aged woman who was taken by slavers at the age of ten. As the book progresses, we see both Doris' struggle towards freedom, and learn of her past, both before and after enslavement. There is a lot of subtle humour here in the cultures on both sides and the customs. Evaristo uses this subtlety to tone down some of the more violent actions here.
I liked the premise and while I found the book lighter than I expected, it was an enjoyable read. The satirical humour is what really made this book for me.

An Interesting Premise

Finished May 25
Resistance by Owen Sheers
This book is a fiction of an alternative history. Here the situation is that D-day was a bust and the Germans are winning World War II and have now invaded Britain.
The action takes place in a very small farming village in Wales. As the novel begins, the women in the village wake up one morning to discover that all the men are gone. There are no notes left for them, and very few clues as to where and why they have disappeared. Getting together, they decide it is in their best interest to keep things quiet and just as they have decided that and began to deal with the way their lives have changed a small detachment of Germans arrives in the village. As the Germans stay into the winter, they develop relationships of a sort with the village women and this changes everything for both sets of inhabitants.
On the women's side we see most of the story from the view of Sarah Lewis, a 26-year-old wife with no children. The German view is given from the view of their commanding officer, Albrecht Wolfram.
The characters are what really bring this book alive and we watch through their eyes as the reality of their situation sinks in and see how they deal with it. The what-if nature of alternative history brings an added element to the plot and a feeling of uncertainty about the future we don't normally get with historical fiction. I found the book fascinating and had a hard time putting it down.