Karl's Reading List

Published by Noisy Crow Ltd: Crosby Row, London, 2021. Having finished Scavenger: Zoid too quickly to use in the Reading Challenge, I needed another book featuring AI or robots, and got this one from the school library, knowing nothing about it except what I saw on the cover. In a lot of ways, Adam-2 is similar to Scavenger: Zoid. It is set in the distant future, in a world where robots have turned on humanity and now pockets of humans try to resist against them. Like in Scavenger: Zoid, a more sophisticated robot is introduced who starts trying to help the humans. That robot develops a friendship with a main human, while other main humans remain suspicious. The difference here is that the robot - the titular Adam-2 - is the main character, whereas the robot in Scavenger: Zoid was a supporting character. Having the story be told primarily from Adam's viewpoint is an interesting touch, particularly as Adam learns about both sides in the conflict and begins to have doubts about the ...

Published by Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd: Edinburgh, date unknown. First published 1823. Sir Walter Scott was an author who lived and wrote in the 18th and 19th century, and was one of the most popular authors of his day. He also was an author of predominantly "historical fiction," meaning that many of his books (this one included) were set in a far earlier time period than he was writing.  This makes reading his works doubly fascinating for me, because we aren't just getting a glimpse into the time period of the novel; we are getting a glimpse into the time period of the novel as interpreted by the time period that Scott lived in. Both are different from our modern culture, and they are individually different from each other as well. So, in Quentin Durward we get a tale of chivalry and honour set in 1468, with the norms of that time explained and justified by the norms of Scott's time - a setting and culture  doubly  removed from ours. What about the story, though? We...

Published by Penguin: UK, 2023. Audiobook by Penguin Audio, 2023.  Uploaded to Audible 28-09-2023.  On the surface, Unruly is a history of England, like other histories that I have read in the past - this one outlining events from the early kings through to Elizabeth I. However, author David Mitchell is more well-known as a comedian than as an author, and Unruly leans heavily into that.  So, unlike a regular history of the kings and queens of England, this one includes commentary on Brexit, comparisons of historical figures to Mitchell's daughter, ranting tangents on why history is occasionally so bizarre (eg. if the Bayeux Tapestry is not technically a tapestry and yet is the most famous 'tapestry' in the world, why has the definition of tapestry not broadened to include it?!) and a bit of colourful language here and there. I am not a fan of the last of these, but I do generally enjoy David Mitchell's comedic style - which also doesn't include swearing as much as s...

Published by Pan Books: London and Basingstoke, 1997. First published 1996. Alexander Kinloch is a reclusive artist, living in the highlands of Scotland and trying to stay off the radar as much as he can manage while still earning an income. One day, after learning that his step-father has had a (non-fatal) heart attack, he arrives home to his remote stone cabin to find four thugs demanding to know "where is it?" When Al fails to gives them a satisfactory answer they beat him up and leave him for dead. This mysterious event is the beginning of an adventure that sees Al reconnect with his estranged wife, help a horse disappear, do battle against his antagonistic step-sister and figure out the mystery of what has happened to the embezzled funds of his step-father's brewery. If that sound like a lot of disparate plotlines, it is, though writer Francis does manage to weave them together in a fairly readable fashion. This is the first book I have read by this author, and altho...

Published by Fabbri Publishing Ltd: Barcelona, Spain: 1991. First published 1886. This is one of Stevenson's more well-known stories, yet unlike Treasure Island is not one I had much of an idea of the plot of. I was also unaware, until after completing this novel, that Stevenson was Scottish, but it does make sense considering just how Scottish both the setting and characters in Kidnapped are. The story follows young David Balfour, whose parents have died, as he delivers a sealed letter from his father to his up-to-now unknown uncle at a rundown manor called 'The Shaws.' Very quickly David learns that his uncle intends ill towards his nephew, and this escalates into David being (surprise) kidnapped and put on board a ship bound for the Carolinas, where he will be sold as a "white slave". He never arrives in America, however, as, when the ship strikes and sinks a boat, David befriends the sole survivor, Alan Breck, and together the two manage to get the ship diver...

Published by Golden Press/Whitcombe & Tombs Limited: Auckland/Christchurch, 1973. First published 1881. I came across this book in a cool little bookshop in Kaikoura, and the idea of reading an early New Zealand text intrigued me. Campbell was born in Scotland, and after training as a doctor headed for the distant land of Australia, and then subsequently on to New Zealand, which he calls Poenamo  (we would now spell that word pounamu, and it refers to greenstone, highly favoured by Maori for carving and even for weapons).  Campbell arrives in 1840, the year that the Treaty of Waitangi is signed, and is therefore in the country before almost any settlers have arrived. Upon arriving, he lives first with an American, William Webster, who has taken a Maori wife and is known as 'King' Wepiha. He later lives in the Maori village of Waiomo as the guest of chief Kanini, before starting a small farm on the island of Motu-Korea (which he purchases from Kanini), and later moving to t...