The Yiddish Policemen's Union

It's a bit of an odd fish, this novel. By Michael Chabon, it tells the story of a case being tackled by detective Meyer Landsman in Sitka, a district in Alaska set up by Jews at the end of World War Two, after the attempt to set up the state of Israel failed.

It's alternate history, but in an odd way. Chabon drops in bits and pieces of the alternate history he has created that led to this situation, but never quite gives real clarity as to how things turned so differently. I'm left wondering whether he has a nice little timeline packed away in his notes somewhere, or whether he just dropped in place names and events without a clear big picture of what happened. As with Abercrombie's lack of maps, I found the lacunae in the world building a bit annoying. The world created is interesting; I want to know more.

The story itself is standard hardboiled detective fare - down-on-his-luck alcoholic cop trying to redeem himself in his own eyes as well as the eyes of his colleagues and family, through solving a case which is not his and which he has been warned not to pursue. Nicely done, with interesting characters and sufficiently many plot twists.

Before they are hanged

It's been a slow start to the year; two weeks off with the kids, and back into the work/study/parenting routine, and not much time for reading. I've started this year with the second book in Joe Abercrombie's The First Law series, Before They Are Hanged.

It's very similar to the first; the same cast of characters, with the same clear character development arcs. Nothing too surprising. A few very nice battle scenes in this one - these are hard to do well, and often come off either dull or underwhelming, but these ones are quite tense, and you have a clear idea of what's happening, and get caught up in the excitement of it all.

I've got the same reservations about this as the previous one; there isn't quite enough going on (at least, in comparison with A Song Of Ice And Fire), and a bit of Empty World Syndrome (similar to Pern's). I felt that a map would help; one with more place names than are mentioned in the book always helps, just so you know that there is more out there (the author has, however, made his feelings known about maps). However, the characters are well-done, and a joy to read about.