I discovered Ian Rankin whilst in Edinburgh on a business trip. We had a lot of spare time, which is unusual on one of those trips, and Russ & I wandered all over downtown, checking out music shops, bookstores, and all the various historical sites (though we managed to miss out on a few, I found out later).

While in a bookstore, I was taken aback to find a whole shelf devoted to Ian Rankin, of whom I had never heard. Upon discovering that he was a writer of what might be called “hardboiled police procedurals” sort of in the vein of Michael Connelly, I picked up the first three books in the Inspector Rebus series to read on the flight home. Soon as I landed, I went on Amazon and ordered all of them.

Witch Hunt is out in paperback… I bought it in hardcover as soon as it came out, though, and finished it today while sitting in the doctor’s office. Yes, I’m a bit behind.

So how is it? Well, it’s not up to the level of Resurrection Men, not quite, despite a great ending. Of course, Rankin’s had many books over which to develop Rebus’ character (remember when he was into jazz? Somewhere along the line, it morphed into 60s rock ‘n’ roll). Here, the characterization feels rushed; splitting the main plot across so many protagonists (I count four seperate detectives, only two of whom have anything approaching an emotional arc) has weakened the power of his writing, despite a truly wonderful last paragraph that does reach for a satisfying conclusion and barely makes it.

Still, quite good. The setting is London this time, not Edinburgh, so I didn’t end up with my usual keen desire to go back. I really liked that city.

When I got home, I found the new Lemony Snicket waiting in the mailbox. Of course, there will be thirteen books in this series. How could it have been otherwise?

I just finished reading Air by Geoff Ryman. I had gotten most of the way through it–it’s deceptively long, the edition I have has nice small print–and then I had lost track of where I set it down. But now I’ve finished it…

Usually books about how the future is going to hit are somber affairs that try to scare the future-thinking out of you. Ryman here has written a book where the future, and the interconnectedness that the titular Air (a sort of mental Internet) brings, are indeed frightening and even deadly, but are still something to embrace. It’s a book about adapting to change, rather than only fearing it.

The Net-jargon throughout is cute and correctly used, which is refreshing! More importantly, however, the novel is cast fom the point of view of a rural area somewhere in the west of China, so all the jargon is fresh and unfamiliar; this makes for a real change from something like Cory’s books, where the jargon is immediate and assumed as part of everyday life. Here the story is one of culture clash, where one of the cultures is still very much an agricultural one.

If you can handle the slow, somewhat dreamy pace of the narrative, it’s definitely worth reading. I believe it just picked up an award in Canada–well-deserved.