Books finished in 2026
Herman Melville, "Moby Dick"
Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" is one of the most famous books ever, probably, and while it was mentioned in many places, I never took interest in it. This all changed when I started following @mobydick, and from the quotes, I could clearly see the explicitly superb language; and that's with not even complete sentences sometimes. Then, I noticed that I can buy the whole thing for 7 euros; and so I did.
And this thread section will be about what followed.
First of all, I was maybe not concerned but curious if the language itself will not be an obstacle for my reading. Mid-1800s English is a bit different from the one we have now, but in the end, it went much better than expected. I had to google "ere," and I'm still confused as to what it means and how it should be used, but other than that, it was just a little bit more peculiar English. Punctuation was more robust then, is what I noticed.
Plot wise, I am impressed that the whole thing holds so well. The old mental models and world views might worsen experiencing the story. But not here. In fact, Ishmael, the narrator, feels like someone with whom I could go along just fine. Now it makes me wonder, if he was any different from people back then, or did we evolve in the direction he was already exhibiting?
Ishmael is probably my favourite kind of narrator -- a deuteragonist; so, someone playing the second fiddle to the main focus of the story, which would be Captain Ahab in this case. He seems very easygoing and has an autistic focus on the subject of whaling, to the point that around half of the book are various descriptions of whale parts and other aspects of whaling. I found it very instructive, but at times, it felt like too much.
"Moby Dick" uses a technique, which I know under the name of legacy character (and I'm not interested in researching the proper name now), which happens when before you show the character, you build them up through other characters talking about it; maybe by some other sources, too. And that is the case with Captain Ahab, who's mentioned a lot before making his first appearance. And then, that's also a case of titular Moby Dick, who's introduced with all the Ishmael research on whales.
Due to those scientific passages about whales and whaling, the pacing was kind of on and off for me. After the first 200 pages, which I swallowed within a month, I got stuck with plotless descriptions of whales. Not necessarily a bad thing; maybe it's the part where the book got old, after all. I did, however, learn a lot about the trade: why would they hunt whales and how would they do that, in a very minute details. Now I'm interested in knowing more.
A minor thing that I mentioned here before, but let me re-iterate again, was showing me a bit different punctuation, which is, I suppose, a bit archaic, but it feels more natural to me, so I absorbed it; it also showed me how to use semicolons. So, for that alone, it would was worth diving into those 600 pages (it took me, like, probably 400 pages for it to sink in).
So, to summarise, I can recommend it, for a number of reasons. Now I'm curious about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket," which I bought in the meantime, and which, as the title suggests, is also set on a whaling ship.
Ireneusz Gwidon Kamiński, "Mściciel przypływa z Rugii"
"Mściciel przypływa z Rugii" (lit. "The Avenger Sails From Rugia;" I doubt it was translated to any other language) is a book by Ireneusz Gwidon Kamiński, with action set in the 16th century in Pomerania. It's a mixed beast, having, on one hand, a rather solid -- even if not the most original -- plot; and on the other hand, one of the more cheesiest language that I encountered, bordering on cheap and overdone pulp. But because the story and characters are good, I am going to assume that it was on purpose.
The story follows a turmoil between Protestants, the Great Inquisition, the Elector of Brandendburg, as well as Polish forces, all fighting for the dominance of Pomerania. Quite a mix. If I had to compare this to anything, it would be Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, although sans magic and technology. I had a lot of pleasure with this book, oftentimes due to its outlandish language.
However, how come I read an obscure 1984's book with almost no DuckDuckGo results? Funny you should ask. So, over twenty years ago, I would party a lot at a friend's apartment, and that very book was on the shelf in her room, courtesy of her boyfriend. It would be there, and we would often joke about what the plot could have been, but to my knowledge, no one ever read it. Fast-forward twenty years, the curiosity got better of me, and I finally found it on an Internet sale, and gave it a shot.
One more thing I need to compliment the book for, as an island aficionado, is that it taught me about Rügen (the titular Rugia, which is the Latin name), a small island in Germany. Back then, it was not so German. It's very picturesque, and three times the size of Malta -- my usual point of reference for islands -- which is way more than I imagined when I was reading the book.
The Difference Engine
I knew about William Gibson's and Bruce Stirling's "The Difference Engine" since the late 1990s, but the non-future sci-fi setting was making me less interested. It's not a strict steam punk, but it's close enough, and I was just not my thing. But now, over a quarter of century later, I am more opened to alternate histories. The final spark was reading that "The Chaos Engine," one of my favourite games from the Amiga era, was spiritually based on the book.
In the alternate timeline, a mechanical computer, based on Charles Babbage concepts, has been successfully built and is running the world. The British engine is steam-powered, but its French counterpart, called the Great Napoleon, is running on compressed air. There is no global network, but Britain-wise, it acts as a giant database having all the information going through it (including, e.g., all the telegrams). A lot of attention is paid to physical constraints of this concept.
The book is split into 5 iterations followed by a set of loose materials, filling in gaps and acting as a What Happened To Them kind of epilogue. Iterations 2, 3, and 4 have the same protagonist, with the first and the last ones having their own; but in the end, all connects nicely. Unlike in other William Gibson's books, there's a single leading character in each part, whereas usually it's a team and interweaving plots.
Another note should go to the language used, which imitates the 1855's one, and to my surprise, had a lot of English words that sounds more Polish than their modern equivalents, to just name a few: cravat, foetor, valise, or shawl. My wife even joked that it makes it more approachable to me than some native speakers. As a more language-conscious person, I appreciate the writing style a lot here. Top notch.
And, due to its connection to "The Chaos Engine," it creates a lot of context to the world-building of the game, very much like happened with The Legend of Zelda games and Studio Ghibli movies. It could be that it's a better deal than a direct adaptation. I gotta hand it to culture: it's a great concept when done well.