Laura Goodin

"If you’re thinking that I’m just a middle-aged woman who should stay at home with her cats and her book club for a couple of decades until its time to go into a hospice and die, then you can think again.’ (Sybil in Chapter One.)"

So, its been another dreary week of blah work and same-old, same-old, has it? Yeah, I know. You deserve something for yourself. So you head to a book shop (of course) seeking an old time adventure, a ripping yarn, a tale of deering do and plucky heroes, a tale that involves absolutely no commuter trains and no grey-walled offices. Oh look, here’s one with a cover of a faded mustard colour and the title, After Bloodwood Staff by Laura E. Goodwin, printed in enticing Art Nouveau font. Perfect.

‘Why would you want me along? Fat, unemployed, out of shape.. how would I stand up to pirates or savages or wild beasts or even leeches? …. The thought of trudging through a jungle picking leeches off his private’s and drinking blood from a cut on the neck of his pack horse .. ‘ ( Chapter One In Which Hoyle Meets An Adventurer.)"

You start to read. Hoyle enters a bookshop (good man; already you like him) after his pretty awful week. He selects an obscure vintage 19th Century adventure novel called 'After The Bloodwood Staff' which has a cover of faded mustard colour and a title printed in enticing Art Nouveau font .. (Uh, what?.. ) But a strange women snatches it out of his hands. Sybil has convinced herself that it contains a Vital Clue to a mysterious artefact. Next thing Hoyle knows, he is travelling to a far flung land (Australia) to trudge through gum-tree-jungles alive with creepy birds (kookaburras) in search of the artefact described in the vintage novel, the Bloodwood Staff. It’s a bizarre journey for a soft middle-aged city dweller to set out on with someone he barely knows. But then again, why not?

" ‘What is this, Lord of the Rings? he thought irritably. Be careful what you wish for. You wanted an adventure? You wanted to do something meaningful? Well, here you go.' (Hoyle in Chapter 21)."

In this twist on the classic vintage yarn, with chapter headings like 'In Which Things Go Badly Wrong' and 'In Which The Anarchists Descend Into Anarchy', the redoubtable Sybil leads Hoyle and Ada, a foul mouthed 'urchin' from Sydney, into one predicament after another. We get kidnappings, hideouts, bad-guys, murders, daring rescues, mad evil villains, mysterious ancient powers, and even romance! It's all here, the adventure that is going to take you away from that working day dreariness. You might even close the book wondering, as I did, whether to just leave your present existence behind and charge off on a crazy adventure yourself. I mean, apart from the leeches, why not?… (mere)

'Everything is Geography.' Ty Kornotz, professor of, yes, geography.

Mud and Glass by Laura E Goodin, an affectionate satire of the academic world, is asludge with villians oozing about in layers even more murky than the Purple Bay Mud Flats. Unwittingly, Dr Celeste Carlucci, researching the odd behaviour of those flats, becomes the target of everyone who thinks she can help them find the missing Littoral Codex and thus the key to power and glory. Especially power. Their power.

We have media billionaires (ruthless), the Board of Governors (ditto), The Littoral League (rookies in ruthlessness), a curiously massive security team (ruthless on payment), librarians (never underestimate librarians), ninjas, and a surprisingly efficient resistance movement of geriatric academics. And there is the truly scary Miffy, former self-declared girlfriend of Celeste's new love interest, Russ.

'Only the really devious ones get tenure with no problems'. Grumpy Dr Garrick. He and the retirees form Brave Celesete's Band of Octogenarian Fighters.

Tenureless and struggling to survive until payday on toast and marmalade, Celeste is as keen to defend her cache of cookies from her friends as on dodging her multiplying enemies. Besides, how do you dodge them when you don't know who they are? With Pace as a friend, mind you, perhaps enemies would be safer company.

'So I dangle someone over a lava pit pit, once. So what? Is no one ever going to let me forget it?' Dr Pace (Don't Call Me Hypatia) Garoux.

Celeste gets shot at from a helicopter, assaulted and dragged along secret tunnels. Will anyone even explain to her what all this is about? It's a considerable hindrance to lecturing bored students about alluvial flow patterns even though her post-assault battered face does raises her credibility in their estimation. Wait a minute .. Alluvial flow patterns? Could the key lie in ... Geography?

I highly recomend Mud and Glass not only for the zany romp through mythical Krasnia but also for the sharp allegory of the greed and methods of the powerful widely employed in our world. As well digs at the poverty of the tenureless tribe, and the insistence of every academic that theirs is the only discipline that counts, Laura E Goodin lobs a few scrunched up theses at the plot to starve Purple Bay University of funds, to appropiate research for the betterment of billionaires everywhere, and to dumb down everything else - a plot wierdly familiar to people who live outside mythical Krasnia too. With intellect and altruism their only strengths, persuasion and reason their only weapons, and a library to die for their only equipment, can our motley band strike back at the forces of greed and evil?

PS. After reading Mud And Glass, I feel in a strong position to advise you to not ever order a cup of macadamia-chilli icecream, even if you do want to 'feel more alive'.… (mere)

When I think of an ‘adventure story’, I remember (with much fondness) a range of middle-grade books featuring motley crews of characters each intent on solving The Mystery and proving themselves worthy of the respect of their peers. Members of the Scooby-gang, students at Hogwarts, the expedition party of dwarves, hobbit and wizard that decided to steal treasure from a dragon and found a ring along the way – all these stories were built around the foundational concept of adventure. And yet we keep restricting this word (even if only subconsciously) to middle-grade fiction. What a waste! Time for us all to embrace the concept again, and I heartily recommend Mud and Glass as the place to start. Let me sum up why:
- Helicopter chases
- Secret passageways
- A lost ancient manuscript. Not just a manuscript, a codex
- A gang of elderly troublemakers
- Hidden research
- Stolen research
- Faked research
- A swamp, a cliff and a shifting river
- Nearly magical cookies
- Evil bureaucrats
- Disillusioned drama students
- Sentient mould
- Student ninjas.
Need I say more? Mud and Glass is cleverly written, witty, almost completely angst-free and is specifically designed to remind you that no matter what age you are, you are more than just the sidekick to someone else’s adventures. So have a read, have a cookie, and then go out and have an adventure.
… (mere)

As the cover suggests, Mud and Glass is a quirky adventure story brimming with both action and comedy. Goodin takes her readers straight into the action as her protagonist, geography academic Celeste, helps her two colleagues recover a strange and awfully heavy box. From there, Celeste is thrust into a world of intrigue. She is not sure who she can trust as she encounters an array of characters and groups all with vested interests in the Littoral Codex. The plot pivots on the desire of these various disparate groups to lay their hands on the glass filters that will enable them to decipher the Littoral Codex. The race is most definitely on!

Mud and Glass is on one level a fantasy novel, in that the protagonist finds herself, somewhat reluctantly, on a quest in an imaginary world not quite but awfully similar to our own. Fantasy or fanciful – it really doesn’t matter, as ultimately Mud and Glass is a work of satire. Perhaps the novel belongs beside Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and it is certainly reminiscent of both Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum and AS Byatt’s Possession, in terms of the themes and ideas that motivate the plot. Yet Goodin’s novel is nothing like those two much heavier works of fiction. Mud and Glass is at once riveting and lighthearted, and at times a romantic read.

Goodin’s plotting is excellent, as is her characterisation, many of the minor characters vividly and convincingly portrayed. The pace is fast, the story enormously entertaining. I especially love the way Goodin portrays Celeste as an impoverished, half-starved and perpetually ravenous academic craving tenure. Mud and Glass is probably not a book to be read if you are feeling hungry, unless you have a ready supply of sustenance!

A light read Mud and Glass is, but it is not without depth. Quite the contrary, I found the novel insightful and thought-provoking. Through the lens of her protagonist, Goodin provides a powerful allegory for all the ‘have-nots’ the world over, pitting their wits against the corporate ‘haves’ who hold all the power. In Mud and Glass this latter group is is represented by the university governors, but above all by the Praxicopolis dynasty. Now there is a word worth unpacking!

Unpretentious, punchy and upbeat and filled with wit, Mud and Glass is an absorbing and compelling read, truly a novel to devour.… (mere)