89, NG29, E81, / WG60, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Stuart Turton, The Devil and the Dark Water

Ansich liegen mir historische Romane nicht besonders, aber hier ist völlig faszinierend, wie Turton den klassischen Whodunnit auf den Kopf stellt und vor allem wie am Schluß nach der Auflösung ein ganz ungewohnter Ausgang aufgezeigt wird. Wenigstens wird die ungeschriebene, vor allem von Agatha Christie bekannte Regel, dass der unwahrscheinlichste Charakter sich als Täter erweist, hier beibehalten. Und ich muss leider zugeben, bis zum Schluss fiel es mir sehr schwer nicht an übernatürliche Phänomene und gar den Teufel zu glauben, so überzeugend war alles beschrieben...

This was a merchant vessel flying United East India Company colours, which meant profit went before every other consideration. It wouldn't matter if the ship made it back to Amsterdam if the cargo had spoilt, or if the trade at the Cape had been handled badly. The Saardam could drift into port full of bodies and the Gentlemen 17 would still call it a success so long as the spices weren't damp.
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The rich mistakenly believed their wealth was a servant, delivering them whatever they wanted.
They were wrong.
Wealth was their master and it was the only voice they heeded. Friendships were sacrificed at its behest, principles trampled to protect it. No matter how much they had, it was never enough. They went mad chasing more until they sat lonely atop their hoard, despised and afraid.
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He'd travelled into the afterlife, hollering for help and hearing nothing back. He knew there was no God waiting. No devil. No saints or sinners. There were only people and the stories they told themselves. He'd seen it himself. People gave the heavens a voice, so they had something to ask for: a better harvest, a healthy child or a milder winter. God was hope, and mankind needed hope the way it needed warmth, food and ale.
But with hope came disappointment.
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Power should be a burden, not a shield. It should be used for everybody's betterment, not merely for the person who wielded it.
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The nobility was like that. They gorged on scandal, but quickly forgot what they'd eaten. After all, there was always more coming.
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It was the devil brought want, he preached. Tempting people with fripperies: sugar, tobacco, alcohol; things that distracted them, that disappeared to quickly, that always needed replacing, things to go mad chasing.
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(Stuart Turton, The Devil and the Dark Water, 2024)

82, NG27, E74, / WG55, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Stuart Turton, The Last Murder at the End of the World

Auf der Suche nach Lesestoff stieß ich auf das dritte Buch von Stuart Turton, das irgendwie an mir vorbeigegangen war. Zu dem zweiten Buch hatte ich mich bisher nicht aufraffen können, aber die Synopsis dieses Buches ließ mich schon fast Fäden ziehen. Und es enttäuschte nicht, so eine perfekte Mischung von Dystopie und Whodunnit habe ich schon lange nicht mehr gelesen. Allein das Konzept der KI-Sicherheitssystemsteuerung als Ich-Erzählerin ist einfach genial. Vielleicht sollte ich mir das zweite Buch jetzt doch mal zulegen. Auch wenn Turton selbst meint, dass alle Bücher von ihm grundverschieden sind.
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There are moments in history when entire empires, whole branches of the future, rest precariously on the words of a single person. Usually, they're not even aware of it. They don't have time to plan, or consider. They simply open their mouths and speak, and the universe takes on a new pattern.
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This woman was just flesh and blood, and a thin layer of skin. How terrifying must the world seem to somebody with this little armour? Why would any species that dies so easily invent something as terrifying as murder?
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The world ended ninety years ago because too many people just let it,' I say. 'They had a chance to change things, to write a different future, and instead they gave themselves to apathy. They let themselves believe the job was too big so they wouldn't risk failing. This is how you save the world, Emory. One failure at a time, but always in the right direction.
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(Stuart Turton, The Last Murder at the End of the World, 2024)

76, WG51, E68, / NG25, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Agatha Christie, Death in the Clouds

Diesen Band hatte ich zum letzten Mal vor drei Jahren wiedergelesen, aber nach der Verfilmung mußte er einfach nochmal ran. Bei diesem Buch finde ich tatsächlich beide Versionen sehr gelungen.

Poirot shook his head.
"Life can be very terrible," he said. "One needs much courage."
"To kill oneself? Yes, I suppose one does."
"Also to live," said Poirot, "one needs courage."

(Agatha Christie, Death in the Clouds, 1935)

75, WG50, E67, / NG25, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Agatha Christie, One, Two, Buckle my Shoe

Weiter geht's mit dem guten Poirot und nach der Verfilmung war natürlich das Buch auch fällig, schon weil ich es sehr lange nicht mehr wiedergelesen habe, vielleicht sogar nach der Jahrtausendwende nicht mehr. Die Struktur mit dem Kinderreim ist schon genial, dafür hatte Christie wirklich ein Händchen.
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Poirot sighed. He said:
"The world is yours. The New Heaven and the New Earth. In your new world, my children, let there be freedom and let there be pity... That's all I ask."
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(Agatha CHristie, One, Two, Buckle my Shoe, 1940

68, WG44, E60, / NG24, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Die Geschichte von Eskarina Smith, die zwischen dem Dasein als Hexe und Zauberer hin- und hergerissen ist und eigentlich beides sein will, ist immer faszinierend zu lesen - besonders das Duell zwischen dem Archchancellor und Granny Weatherwax.
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They both savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were ignorant of only ordinary things.
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'There were more old people. The world was full of them,' said the wizard.
'Yes, I know. And now it's full of young people. Funny, really. I mean, you'd expect it to be the other way around.'
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(Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites, 1987)
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Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

Die Abenteuer von Death, der für eine kurze Zeit erleben muss, wie es ist sterblich zu sein, könnte ich immer wieder neu lesen. Auch die parallel dazu laufende Geschichte von Windle Poons, der erst nach seinem Tod richtig beginnt zu leben, ist immer wieder gut. Von Ludmilla und Lupine hätte ich allerdings gerne etwas mehr gelesen. Oh well.
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Everything that exists, yearns to live. That's what the cycle of life is all about. That's the engine that drives the great biological pumps of evolution. Everything tries to inch its way up the tree, clawing or tentacling or sliming its way up the next niche until it gets to the very top - which, on the whole, never seems to have been worth all that effort.
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'Hang on though,' said the Bursar, who had managed to catch up with events. 'Why should that worry us? We don't have anything to fear from the dead, do we? After all, they're just people who are dead. They're just ordinary people. People like us.'
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Contrary to general belief, Bill Door wasn't very familiar with funereal decor. Deaths didn't normally take place in tombs, except in rare and unfortunate cases. The open air, the bottoms of rivers, halfway down sharks, any amount of bedrooms, yes - tombs, no.
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Was that what it was really like to be alive? The feeling of darkness dragging you forward?
How could they live with it? And yet they did, and even seemed to find enjoyment in it, when surely the only sensible course would be to despair. Amazing. To feel you were a tiny living thing, sandwiched between two cliffs of darkness. How could they stand to be alive?
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Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
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(Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man, 1991)

66, WG42, E58, / NG24, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent

Immer wenn ich denke, dass es für diesmal reicht mit der Discworld, will noch ein Band wiedergelesen werden, wie jetzt der Band über die Discworldversion von Australien. Vielleicht sollte ich mal die gesamte Serie von Anfang bis Ende - okay, bis ca. Unseen Academicals - lesen...

How could you ever make any progress against minds like that? If some god somewhere had said, 'Let there be light,' they'd be the ones to say things like 'Why?' The darkness has always been good enough for us.'
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I THINK PERHAPS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. PEOPLE'S WHOLE LIVES DO PASS IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES BEFORE THEY DIE. THE PROCESS IS CALLED 'LIVING'.
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Historians have pointed out that it is in times of plenty that people feel like going to war. In times of famine they're simply trying to find enough to eat. When they've just enough to go round they tend to be polite. But when a banquet is spread before them, it's time to argue over the place settings.
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(Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent, 1998)
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Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic
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Abgesehen von der Geburt der 8 Mini-Discworlds bei dem roten Stern enthält dieser Band auch die Verwandlung des Bibliothekars der Unseen University in einen Orang-Utan, der neben Death zu einem der bekanntesten (und genialsten) Charaktere der Discworld wird. Den Band hab ich wirklich schon zu lange vernachlässigt.
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Boring, it thought. What a strange thing to say. Trees can be bored, of course, beetles do it all the time, but I don't think that was what he was trying to mean.
,
From here it also looks a great deal bigger, because space is not really big, it is simply somewhere to be big in. Planets are big, but planets are meant to be big and there is nothing clever about being the right size.
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(Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic, 1986)

64, WG40, E56, / NG24, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Einer der Gründe, den Band wiederzulesen - abgesehen davon, wie genau Rincewind es schafft einen ausgewachsenen Magierkrieg zu verhindern - war wie Lord Vetinari in eine Echse verwandelt wird. Immer wieder gut.

Despite rumour, Death isn't cruel - merely terribly, terribly good at his job.
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It wasn't lost. It always knew exactly where it was. It was always here.
It was just that everywhere else seemed to have been temporarily mislaid.
.
'Talent just defines what you do,' he said. 'It doesn't define what you are. Deep down, I mean. When you know what you are, you can do anthing.'
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(Terry Pratchett, Sourcery, 1988)
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Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
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Nach 16 Jahren hatte ich das meiste aus dem Buch schon wieder vergessen und diese Discworldversion des Rattenfängermärchens wiederaufleben zu lassen war ein echter Genuß. Eine der wenigen Sachen allerdings, die mir noch präsent waren, war die Begegnung von Maurice mit Death, der bekanntermaßen eine Schwäche für Katzen hat - immer wieder richtig schön.

It went against everything a cat stood for. This is what thinking does for you, he thought. It gets you into trouble. Even when you know other people can think for themselves, you start thinking for them too.
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He wasn't exactly lost, because cats never got lost. He merely didn't know where everything else was.
.
'I suppose there isn't a Big Cat in the Sky, is there?'
I'M SURPRISED AT YOU, MAURICE. OF COURSE THERE ARE NO CAT GODS. THAT WOULD BE TOO MUCH LIKE ... WORK.
Maurice nodded. One good thing about being a cat, apart from the extra lives, was that the theology was a lot simpler.
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(Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, 2001)