House of Odysseus by Claire North

In this second book of the Songs of Penelope, we return to the rocky island of Ithaca, home to Odysseus, who has been absent nearly twenty years, and to his wife, Penelope, who was left behind to wait, and keep things going as best she can.

Time is moving on though. Troy is defeated. Helen is back in Sparta with her husband Menelaus. Soldiers and sailors are now returned - all except Odysseus. On Ithaca, Penelope's position has become more precarious than ever after her son left in search of his father. With only a council of elderly men to support her, she needs to maintain peace and independence.
  Enter Orestes and Elektra, children of Agamemnon, caught up in their own Greek tragedy - their sister killed by their father, their father killed by their mother, Clytemnestra, who was in turn slain by Orestes in the name of justice. Remorse now seems to have driven Orestes to madness, and Elektra fears what will happen to both of them when word gets out. Their uncle, Menelaus, flush with his victory in Troy, seeks to take over Orestes' throne and make himself king of all the Greeks.

Book One, Ithaca, was told from the omniscient viewpoint of the goddess Hera. Now her role is taken over by Aphrodite, goddess of love with an eye for warriors' rippling muscles or women's softly turned limbs. She's sly and playful, but a fierce advocate of love in all its forms - romantic, familial, or just between friends.

Penelope is a lonely figure, in need of compassion and love. Her maids try their best but Penelope is still queen with the isolation and responsibility that position brings. She has though found a better path through the rules and restrictions laid down by the patriarchal society in which she lives than her fellow queens.  As the story evolves Penelope is proving to be just as wily and cunning as her renowned husband. While she manoeuvres men, playing them like chess pieces, and hiding her own involvement,  Helen employs a different sort of subterfuge. Subjected to her husband's beatings and repeated rapes, she hides her thoughts and feelings behind the cover of childishness and drunkenness, while biding her time for opportunities for revenge. Clytemnestra, throwing off any subterfuge, and openly taking a lover while her husband is absent was never going to succeed and live happily ever after; the rules of her world would never allow it.

I loved Ithaca with its story of the resilient, resourceful women of Ithaca, left behind to cope without their menfolk, and was just that little worried that House of Odysseus might not live up to it - but it did, possibly even surpassing it.

Ithaca by Claire North

 Most of us are aware of the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, of the long years spent away from home - first in the siege at Troy, then at the mercy of gods and monsters as he tried to make his way home - but here is the story of the wife, and island, he left behind. 

Hardly more more than a girl when Odysseus left, Penelope has unobtrusively kept their island kingdom going. With all the able-bodied men following their king to war, farming, fishing, and trading have fallen to the women. Life has been quiet, but they survived. 

Now, with the majority of Greek warriors returned from Troy, Penelope faces new problems, finding herself besieged by self-proclaimed heroes determined to win her hand, and kingdom, while eating and drinking their way through her stores. At first convivial, their mood is turning nasty. What can Penelope do to keep the peace? One day, she hopes, Odysseus will return, but until then, on an island of women, old men, and inexperienced youths, who can defend her? 

There seems to be a re-awakened interest in Greek myths at the moment, with books from authors as varied as Natalie Haynes and Stephen Fry, but Ithaca I feel is the best I've read from the women's point of view. Told from the omniscient point of view of gossipy, sarcastic goddess, Hera, wife of Zeus, this is retelling with a feminist feel. How the left-at-home women actually coped while their men were away is something we can't know, but here Claire North offers an alternative to the meek-mannered version of Penelope of myth. Dealing with an unruly mob of suitors, the threat of pirates along Ithaca's coast, and the unexpected presence of a disgraced queen, Penelope proves herself to be as sly and cunning as Odysseus himself..

It's a change of mood for Claire North, whose previous novels have been more fantastical in nature, but a book I would definitely recommend.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

review by Maryom

Hope Arden is easily forgettable - turn your back on her for a few minutes, and you'll not remember ever having seen . Her condition first appeared during her teenage years; her teachers forgot why she was in their class, her friends no longer recognised her and even her parents began to wonder who she was. Finding 'normal' life impossible, Hope left home and began living off her wits, but when no one can remember you from day to day there are obvious problems. It's impossible to hold down a job, get anything more than quick, basic medical attention, or even have friends or a steady relationship. Fortunately, it has one major advantage - that Hope is very good at stealing things. From helping herself to the basics of food and clothing, to the meticulously planned 'lifting' of expensive jewellery, this has become her way of life.
In Dubai, looking to steal a famous diamond necklace, Hope makes the acquaintance of Reina, a young woman torn between her interest in women's rights and social issues, and the demands of a new phone app, which encourages its users to strive for 'Perfection'. When this conflict leads to Reina's suicide, Hope feels driven to investigate and perhaps expose the app, and its backers, as something potentially dangerous.

It's one thing to invent a character with a 'quirk' but more than that is needed to make an entertaining story - and THAT is Claire North's speciality, as demonstrated in her previous novels, Touch (in which a 'spirit' could pass from one host body to another) and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, (a person living their life time after time). Again, with The Sudden Appearance of Hope, North has chosen a lead character, to all appearances as normal as the next person, but with an extraordinary ability, and put them in the middle of a fast-paced thriller-style read. Looking for a way to destroy the company behind 'Perfection', Hope finds herself travelling round the world, frequently in danger, putting her trust in people that certainly don't have her interests at heart, and finding that the uses of 'Perfection' could be more dangerous than she's imagined.

It would be too easy, I feel, to dream up a condition such as Hope's and focus on only the good side of it, but it's obvious that the author has thought through the negatives as well - especially the social and emotional side. Even when surrounded by people, Hope's is a very lonely existence; she can hardly make friends when they'd forget her after a few minutes, and her love-life, such as it is, is reduced to a series of one-night stands.

Something I particularly liked with this story was the 'social commentary' side - highlighting the modern obsession with looking good, wearing the 'right' clothes, being seen in the 'right' places. The 'Perfection' app takes celebrity/lifestyle/diet magazines one step forward, with a  cynical
manipulation of people's insecurities and the desire to emulate the rich and famous. The app advises (or dictates) what to eat, how much exercise to take, which clothes to buy, where to be seen. It's a constant reminder of how you measure up, or drop behind, on your search for that perfect image, rewarding 'good' behaviour with bonuses, privileges, and medical procedures to take you nearer to your goal, and penalising if you don't follow the rules. It feels like something that's only a technological step or two away ...

For a while I thought I knew where the story was leading and how it would end, so I was pleased that an extra twist or two meant it didn't pan out the way I expected. I'm not quite sure whether to label this 'sci-fi' or not - most of it doesn't seem that far-fetched; it's only Hope's strange affliction that seems out of the ordinary.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars

Publisher - Orbit

Genre - Sci-fi, thriller, adult fiction

Touch by Claire North

review by Maryom

Imagine that by taking hold of someone's hand, you could become them, could jump from body to body as you wished, and stay there for as long as you liked, from seconds to years. This is what 'Kepler' and others like him can do. Now someone has decided that it's time to stop him - but its easier to evade an assassin if you've some idea of who sent them and why. So begins a game of cat and mouse as Kepler tries to track down the person behind it, while trying to avoid those pursuing him.

This latest novel from Claire North is a mind-stretcher in the way that The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August was. The author takes one of those throwaway 'just imagine' or 'what if' scenarios that we all have from time to time and weaves a compelling thriller around it - with Harry August, it was re-living the same life several times; with Touch it's being able to move from body to body.
The thriller aspect is fast-paced, action-packed, full of twists, turns and deviousness. It starts with the 'bang' of a murder and Kepler running for his life, and carries on at this breathless pace; as a game of hunter and hunted it's up there with the best of spy thrillers.
The sci-fi 'just imagine' aspect is well thought through, and gives the reader plenty to think about - the morality of being able to take over another person's body, with or without their consent; the impact such action has on both host and 'guest' - maybe it explains those minutes of forgetfulness that we all experience from time to time, maybe it accounts for long-term memory loss, but for the 'guest' there's the choice of taking over another person's life completely - almost cradle to grave - or of drifting from one host to another, never putting down roots, or having family and long-term friends. It has its advantages though - for a few short minutes, Kepler can be anyone he wants - football player, actress, president....

I loved Harry August but there's something just a bit more satisfying about Touch, making it a 'must read' whether you're a sci-fi lover or not.

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Orbit

Genre - Adult, sci-fi, thriller

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

review by Maryom

Harry August's first life was fairly uneventful, much like any other life - until he died and found himself re-born, back exactly where he was the first time. As an adult trapped inside a child's body, he didn't find his second life much fun...but then he started to understand, found there were others like him, and settled into a pattern of being born, living seventy years or so, then dying only to be re-born.
Now at the end of his eleventh life, a warning has been passed back from the future that the world is in danger. Its life too is ending, as it is bound to one day, but at an unprecedented early era.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August has been cropping up regularly on social media any time the book-conversation has touched on time travel and/or reincarnation, so, spotting it at my library, I thought it was time to check it out myself.

In a similar vein to Kate Atkinson's Life After Life it's not about time travel as such, but reincarnation into the same body. Harry is one of the "kalachakra" who return time and again to re-live their lives. Having discovered that major events can rarely be changed, most of them have adopted a hedonistic lifestyle funded by time-traveller's style insider dealing and bet-placing, leaving global events to play out on their own. Some though like Harry have acquired over their many lives a mass of scientific knowledge spread over many fields - and one rogue kalachakra is placing everyone and everything in danger by his pursuit of knowledge and power.
This mix of philosophy, sci-fi and thriller makes for an amazing read. It stretches the reader's imagination in the way that Life After Life did, raising thoughts of what would it be like to live an infinite number of times, to have the opportunity to try on different careers, loves, or lifestyles, against a race-against-time "will the hero save the world' backdrop. It starts excellently, grabbing the reader's attention instantly with hints of the catastrophe that must be averted, and continues well, darting back and forth across Harry's lives, building a personal rivalry between him and the 'villain'. The only slight let down, hence not quite the full 5 star read, was the ending, with the said villain changing from a believable searcher for truth and power into a Bond-style bad guy caricature, lacking only the swivelling chair and a white cat.

Definitely a book that deserves a re-read to see how the plot elements slot together, though I suspect knowing the ending may detract from it.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars

Publisher - Orbit

Genre - Adult, sci-fi, time travel, thriller