I just realised that I have read three books with the same title: "Nemesis". I guess it is a good title. A quick search at Goodreads returns 653 hits, so I guess just reading 3 of them is no big feat.
Isaac Asimov's Nemesis from 1989 is one of the few stories he never really connected to the full thousand year old story of mankind in space. It is a science fiction on a more local scale than most of his stories and it is not quite as good as most of his stories. In this story the "Nemesis" is the rumored secret twin star (or planet?) that threatens all life. It has been 15 years or so since I read it, give me a break! If you want to read Asimov, don't read this one first. His Foundation and Robot books are much more interesting.
Agatha Christie's Nemesis from 1971 is a classic mystery novel from a late Agatha Christie (Asimov was also old when writing Nemesis, is revenge something for old people?) where the nemesis is Ms Marple, instructed by a friend from beyond the grave (via lawyers, don't worry) to make something right that has been wrong. Not a great novel, but not bad either. You get what you expect kind of, but since it is a late Agatha Christie, she was 81 years old 1971, you also get a lot of rants about the youth thrown in for free.
Jo Nesbø's Nemesis from 2009 is making my whole blog theme crumble a bit, since Nemesis is just the translated title. The original is in Norwegian and named Sorgenfri which as far as I can tell doesn't mean anything close to "Nemesis". Anyway, let us pretend I'm an ignorant American and think Norway is a part of Minnesota and that Jo Nesbø is second generation Scandinavian Immigrant or something. Like Sig on the Deadliest Catch. So this nemesis is, no surprises, Harry Hole (pronounced Hoh-lea or something like that), a misfit of a police that can only handle one thing at the a time, and that is always to figure out the true happenings in connections to a violent crime. I have read a few Harry Hole novels and they have their charm but of misfit cops I would recommend Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly long before this Harry. Whether the translator choosing the title Nemesis is young or old I do not know.
Nemesis number 1 - Isaac Asimov

Nemesis number 2 - Agatha Christie

Nemesis number 3 - Jo Nesbø

Comments