History Book Review: A Hangman’s Diary: Being the Journal of Master Franz Schmidt, Public Executioner of Nuremberg, 1573-1617

Translated by C. V. Calvert and A. W. Gruner

Edited and with an Introduction by Albrecht Keller and an essay “A Brief Account of Criminal Procedure in Germany in the Middle Ages”, by C. V. Calvert

This is a diary of the executioner of the city of Nuremberg in Germany. It begins with an essay by C. V. Calvert followed by a brief introduction to the diary itself. If you’re interested in medieval justice, the essay is invaluable, explaining the various people who worked at the prison, what a cell looked like, the various punishments meted out and for what crimes. The language used is occasionally archaic, for example the translator uses ‘incendiary’ where we would be more familiar with the term ‘arsonist’. The introduction goes over some information about the city of Nuremberg and the text itself.

The journal is edited, with occasional notes in brackets explaining that information has been cut (generally items in lists, for example with thieves, where 2 or 3 thefts are given details and others left out for space). There are also some notes referring the reader to other passages (when someone is let off and is later executed or if two people are accused and executed on different days).

The diary entries alternate between terse single lines, “A thief hanged” and long passages giving tantalizing details of the crimes for which people were punished. The diary is a bit frustrating in that you’re never given motivations for the crimes, and in some places I dearly wanted to know more of what went on.

On the whole it was a quick, interesting read.

Movie Review: Train to Busan

Directed by Sang-ho Yeon, 2016
IMDb listing

Pros: great acting, fast paced, tense

Cons:

Passengers on a train from Seoul to Busan try to survive a zombie outbreak.

This is a fantastic horror movie. The acting is spot on with a good mixture of people you’re rooting for and a few you’re hoping die quickly. There’s very little introduction to the main group of initial survivors on the train, but among them are a pregnant woman, two older women, several high school baseball players, and a number of business men.

The film focuses on two principle characters: a father and daughter heading to Busan for the girl’s birthday. While he loves his daughter the father is a distant figure in her life, working long hours and hardly aware of what she’s up to. As the movie progresses, so does his relationship with his daughter and the world at large.

The cinematography is excellent. There’s a wonderful shot when the zombie first infect the train and people are starting to realize something is wrong when the camera zooms in on one zombie and then follows it in a close-up as it starts attacking people. With pulse pounding music it’s a terrifying scene, showing the chaos of infection and confusion.

The movie is hyper focused on the train but you do get occasional glimpses of what’s happening in the cities they pass, through news broadcasts, texts, phone calls and scenery as the train passes.

If you haven’t see this and enjoy zombie movies, I highly recommend it.

Book Review: Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

Pros: great characters, excellent world-building

Cons: I’d have liked a longer epilogue

Ten year old Regan Lewis strives to be normal, so when she notices that puberty isn’t hitting her like the other girls she starts asking questions. Walking home from school after a rough day of bad choices, she finds a strange door and stumbles into another world, a world populated by various equine races. Her presence means their world needs saving, but Regan doesn’t believe in destiny, and doesn’t want to be a hero.

This is the 6th book in the Wayward Children series, but is a complete standalone novella. Regan has not been in any of the other books and the story is completely self-contained.

I loved Regan as a character and enjoyed seeing her start to question the world and her place in it. I thought the Hooflands were wonderful, with a well developed culture between the various hooved races (which includes centaurs, kelpies, satyrs and more).

While I’d have liked a longer epilogue showing some of the fallout of Regan’s adventure I understand why McGuire ended this novella where she did. It wraps up this particular story nicely, though I’m hopeful there’s a follow-up novella that continues Regan’s story.

The copy of the book I reviewed was an advance reader copy, so it didn’t have the illustrations by Rovina Cai. I’ve seen a few of them on the Tor.com website and they’re quite nice and I can imagine they help add to the fairytale quality of the story.

If you love horses and character development, this one’s for you.

Video: The Impostor

Came across this hilarious video by Tom Ska last week. He's rated it 12+ for mild gore and strobing lights.

It's about the robot uprising in the future.

History Book Review: Paris, 1200 by John Baldwin

Pros: a lot of detailed information, a good amount of images

Cons: would have liked more information regarding festivities

The book focuses on the events in and around Paris around the year 1200. Since there aren’t a lot of documents detailing that specific year, the author pulls information from the decades before and afterwards. After the prologue there are 6 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are: The City and its Bourgeoisie; The face of Pierre the Chanter and Philip Augustus and the Hidden Visages of Women; King Philip and his Government; The Church, Clergy and Religious Life; The Schools; and Delight and Pain.

I found the first two chapters a little boring, being very detailed explanations of the various important nobles and churchmen of the day. I did enjoy the section on women, though due to a paucity of source material it’s less about actual women and more about sculptures depicting allegorical women (like Ecclesia and Synagoga). The government chapter was hit and miss with regards to my personal interest though if you’re researching bureaucracy in the middle ages, it’s an excellent chapter. The later chapters were very interesting for me, particularly the sections on how mass was performed and the seating arrangement in the choir at Notre-Dame de Paris. For most of the book the author fudged the year, bringing in information from as early as the 1180s and ending around 1215, with the fourth Laterin council. I was a little disappointed that the author stuck to the single year when talking about holidays and festivals, as the city was under papal interdict for most of the year and so wasn’t allowed to celebrate Easter, weddings or other major festivities. Christmas celebrations got a minor explanation but again, I’d have liked more.

There’s a handful of black and white images, including some nice panels from a Bible Moralisée made around that time, and some stained glass and sculpture photographs.

Paris is a fascinating city and it’s cool reading a book dedicated to a single year in it. There’s a wealth of minor details regarding life at the time (like the debate over whether prostitutes should be allowed to donate a window in the cathedral), and at the end of the book I felt like I had a fair grasp on what life was like there.

If you like the middle ages and want more detailed information about city life, universities, and government, it’s a good book.

Video: Lord of the Rings theme song with lights

I saw this video on youtube and had to share it. The Lord of the Rings theme is a wonderful piece of music, and the light effects (making it look like the game Rock Band) is fun. The pianist is Patrik Pietschmann, who has a lot of other theme songs on their channel.

 

Books received in October and November 2020

Many thanks again to the publishers who sent me book the last few months.

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire - I've enjoyed the other books in the Wayward Children series, so I'm anticipating loving this. While they are interconnected stories, many of them can be read as standalones, and as novellas they're quick reads when you're pressed for time. Out January 12, 2021.

A young girl discovers a portal to a land filled with centaurs and unicorns in Seanan McGuire's Across the Green Grass Fields, a standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-wining Wayward Children series.

“Welcome to the Hooflands. We’re happy to have you, even if you being here means something’s coming.”

Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late.

When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to "Be Sure" before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines—a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes.

But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem…

The Conductors by Nicole Glover - I've read this and it is fantastic. It reminded me of Delia's Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer, which I loved. The characters were fun. I loved seeing a married couple working together and the community of friends they rely on. Out in March 2021.

A compelling debut by a new voice in fantasy fiction, The Conductors features the magic and mystery of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series written with the sensibility and historical setting of Octavia Butler’s Kindred. Meet Hetty Rhodes, a magic-user and former conductor on the Underground Railroad who now solves crimes in post–Civil War Philadelphia.

As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Hetty Rhodes helped usher dozens of people north with her wits and magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband, Benjy, have settled in Philadelphia, solving murders and mysteries that the white authorities won’t touch. When they find one of their friends slain in an alley, Hetty and Benjy bury the body and set off to find answers. But the secrets and intricate lies of the elites of Black Philadelphia only serve to dredge up more questions. To solve this mystery, they will have to face ugly truths all around them, including the ones about each other.

Honeycomb by Joanne M. Harris - I was sent an Advance Reader Copy (ARC), which is an unfinished version of the book. So some of the images are still pencil drawings. I'm surprised that in addition to full page illustrations there are also several half page ones that wrap around the text. It's going to be a beautiful book. I love fairy tales and should enjoy the collection. This comes out in May, 2021.

The beauty of stories; you never know where they will take you. Full of dreams and nightmares, Honeycomb is an entrancing mosaic novel of original fairy tales from bestselling author Joanne M. Harris and legendary artist Charles Vess in a collaboration that’s been years in the making. The toymaker who wants to create the perfect wife; the princess whose heart is won by words, not actions; the tiny dog whose confidence far outweighs his size; and the sinister Lacewing King who rules over the Silken Folk. These are just a few of the weird and wonderful creatures who populate Joanne Harris’s first collection of fairy tales.

Dark, gripping, and brilliantly imaginative, these magical tales will soon have you in their thrall in a uniquely illustrative edition.

The tales are beautifully illustrated by renowned illustrator Charles Vess (Stardust, Sandman, The Books of Earthsea).