![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
My Whole Booklog 2022
Dec. 29th, 2022 01:26 am
1. John Scalzi: Fuzzy Nation
2. Lois McMaster Bujold: Paladin of Souls – Five Gods #2
3. Simon Beaufort: Deadly Inheritance – Sir Geoffrey Mappestone #6
4. Genevieve Cogman The Untold Story – Invisible Library #8
5. Una McCormac: Star Trek Picard: The Last Best Hope
6. Terry Pratchett: Mort – Discworld #4
7. S J Bennett: The Windsor Knot
8. Terry Pratchett: Night Watch – Discworld #29
9. Terry Pratchett: Equal Rites – Discworld #3
10. Jacey Bedford: The Amber Crown
11. Adrian Tchaikovsky: Elder Race
12. Sebastien de Castell: Tales of the Greatcoats – Greatcoats #5
13. John Scalzi: The Dispatcher – The Dispatcher #1
14. John Scalzi: Murder by Other Means – The Dispatcher #2
15. Terry Pratchett: Wyrd Sisters – Discworld #6
16. Meagan Spooner: Sherwood
17. Peng Shepherd: The Cartographers
18. Sean Lusk: The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudsley
19. Anna Harrington: A Relentless Rake
20. John Scalzi: The Kaiju Preservation Society
21. Jodi Taylor: A Catalogue of Catastrophe – St Mary's #13
22. Lianne Dillsworth: Theatre of Marvels
23. Elizabeth Vaughan: Warprize – Chronicles of the Warprize #1
24. Bernard Cornwell: The Winter King – Warlord Chronicles #1
25. Olivie Blake: The Atlas Six – Alexandrian Society #1
26. Davies, Russell T and Cook, Benjamin: The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter
27. Martha Wells: Artificial Condition – Murderbot Diaries #2
28. Sophie Irwin: A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting
29. Guy Gavriel Kay: Tigana
30. Ed McDonald: Daughter of Redwinter - Redwinter Chronicles #1
31. Amy Rose Bennett: Up all Night with a Good Duke
32. T. Kingfisher: Nettle and Bone
33. Lavie Tidhar: The Escapement
34. Brandon Sanderson: Dawnshard – Stormlight Archive Novella
35. Sophia Holloway: Kingscastle
36. Diana Wynne Jones: Deep Secret – Magids #1
37. Diana Wynne Jones: The Merlin Conspiracy – Magids #2
38. Lois McMaster Bujold: Warrior’s Apprentice – Vorkosigan #3
39. Lois McMaster Bujold: Barrayar: Vorkosigan #2
40. Lois McMaster Bujold: The Vor game – Vorkosigan #5
41. Lois McMaster Bujold: Shards of Honour – Vorkosigan #1
42. Lois McMaster Bujold: Cetaganda – Vorkosigan
43. Lois McMaster Bujold: Komarr - Vorkosigan
44. Lois McMaster Bujold: Brothers in Arjms - Vorkosigan
45. Lois McMaster Bujold: Diplomatic Immunity – Vorkosigan
46. Lois McMaster Bujold: Borders of Infinity – Vorkosigan
47. Andy Weir: Project Hail Mary
48. Dennis E Taylor: We are Legion (We are Bob)
49. Lois McMaster Bujold: A Civil Campaign
50. Lois McMaster Bujold: Winterfair Gifts – Vorkosigan
51. Lois McMaster Bujold: Cryoburn - Vorkosigan
52. Ash Bishop: Intergalactic Exterminators Inc.
53. Jodi Ellen Malpas: One Night with the Duke – Belmore Square #1
54. Naomi Novik: The Last Graduate – Scholomance #2
55. Martha Wells: Rogue Protocol – Murderbot #3
56. Sebastien de Castell: The Fox and the Bowman
57. Liz Williams: Embertide – Fallow Sisters #3
58. Jess Kidd: The Night Ship
59. Terry Pratchett: Guards Guards – Discworld #8
60. Terry Pratchett: Small Gods – Discworld #11
61. Terry Pratchett: Soul Music – Discworld #16
62. Terry Pratchett: The Truth – Discworld #25
63. Karen Traviss: Mother Death – Nomad #2
64. Elizabeth Chadwick: The Conquest
65. Juliet E McKenna: The Green Man's Gift – Green Man #5
66. Jim C Hines: Terminal Uprising – Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse #2
67. T. Kingfisher: Paladin’s Strength – Saint of Steel #2 Audiobook
68. C.S.Forester: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower– Hornblower #1 Audiobook
69. T. Kingfisher: Paladin’s Grace – Saint of Steel #1 Audiobook
70. Lindsey Davis: Falco, the Complete BBC Radio Collection Audiobook
71. Jim Hines: Terminal Peace – Janitors of the Post Apocalypse #3
72. Jodi Taylor: About Time – Time Police #4
73. Jodi Taylor: A Catalogue of Catastrophe – St Mary’s #13
74. Jodi Taylor: The Toast of Time – St Mary’s 12.5 – Audiobook
75. Jodi Taylor: About Time – Time Police #4 – Audiobook
76. Lois McMaster Bujold: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen – Vorkosiverse #17
77. Kevin Hearne: Carniepunk: The Demon Barker of Wheat Street – Iron Druid #4.4 Audiobook
78. T. KingfisherL Clockwork Boys
79. T. Kingfisher: The Wonder Engine
80. Jennifer Paxton: The Story of Medieval England from King Arthur to the Tudor Congest – Great Courses Series
81. Tanya Huff: Into the Broken Lands
82. Sarah Page: Mrs Wickham
83. T. Kingfisher: Swordheart
84. Jason Fung: The Obesity Code
85. Paul Cornell: The Witches of Lychford
86. Gilly Cooper: Riders
87. Jodi Taylor: The Very First Damn Thing – St Mary’s
88. Jodi Taylor: Santa Grint – Time Police short
89. Marshall Ryan Maresca: The Holver Alley Crew – Streets of Maradaine
90. Meredith Bond: Princess on the Run. – Royals and Rebels #2
I must confess this book almost hit the wall a number of times, but, somehow, I kept on reading. Isa is a Germanic princess who runs away from her English boarding school when she’s informed that her brother is dead. She’s sure he’s not and sets off to find him. She’s completely naive, has her horse stolen and is cheated out of her money on the first day. She has no idea of manners or what things cost, and she’s thoroughly irritating. She’s led a life of papmered luxury, has never had to do anything for herself and still tries to order people about imperiously. She’s trying to blag her way on to the mail coach to Margate (her brother’s last known whereabouts) when Sam, newly come into his title and (impoverished) estate and trying to turn over a new leaf, comes to the rescue and instead of continuing on his errand he tells the chit (going under the name of Miss Gunter) he’ll take her to Margate. Shortly thereafter they acquire a recently retired lady’s maid as a chaperone. Sam makes it seem that Margate is only a couple of days travel away (and it probably is by mail coach) but over thirty days later they are still on their way, having tried to avoid men who seem to either want to take Isa back to school, or kill her. The villains are never more than cardboard cut-outs. Yes, if this seems improbably, it is. Isa does gradually learn to say thank you, and of course the pair begin to fall in love. I’m not sure whey. If I’d been Sam I’d have bought her a coach ticket and sent her on her way. It takes 35 days to reach Margate from Reading, and not much happens on the journey. Sheesh! I wanted to like this, I really did, but Isa was so damned irritating.
I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time, but it’s not available on Kindle in the UK. I bought the real book, but the print is small. I begged a copy on pdf from DAW (who are my publishers as well) but it came up too small on my Kindle. Finally I figured I could read it on my 10 inch Kindle Fire because of the bigger screen. Whew! It was worth the wait. Highly recommended. I’ve read a couple of Maradaine books before (the police ones) but this starts a new sequence featuring Asti and Verci Rynax, who have decided to forego their larcenous ways and go straight – by opening a gadget shop selling Verci’s little inventions. It’s all going according to plan until all one side of Holver Alley burns down one terrible night, Asti, Verci and his family barely get out alive. Some of the other residents are not so lucky. The soon-to-be-opened shop is gone and along with it all the Rynax's money, leaving them with a debt. Having been brought up by a criminal father, the Rynax brothers have talents that they can use, so despite Verci’s disapproving wife, they set up a well-paying job, bringing in other Holver Alley residents as crew on the heist. It turns into something bigger when Asti discovers that the Alley didn’t burn by accident and the crew sets about making the perpetrator pay. Though this is the beginning of a new sequence and there’s a dangling thread for the second book to pick up on, this has a satisfying ending. The two main characters, Asti and Verci, are as close as brothers can be, but are also very different from each other. Verci
I love all things Jodi Taylor and her annual Christmas short story is a highlight. Instead of the traditional St Mary's illegal Christmas jump, we get the Time Police on their scariest mission yet, organising a Christmas party for a bunch of orphans to show the softer side (yes, that's right) of the bastard law enforcers. A Christmas party, an orphanage boy waiting for his mother. The taciturn Lt Grint finally has a glimmer of sympathy, but it could get him into deep trouble and he might drag others down with him - if they survive.
An Audible re-read of the short story in which we see Dr Bairstow travelling back from the future to set up St Mary’s Institute for Historical Research, getting the funding and acquiring the core staff, Major Guthrie, Markham, Dr Helen, Mrs Mack, Dr Dowson and Professor Rhapson etc. and finally Leon. It raises as many questions as it answers. How much of what’s about to happen does Dr Bairstow already know? Does he know who lives and who dies? Which timeline/parallel universe are we in?
I read this when it first came out, so this is a re-revisit via Audible, decently read by Gerri Halligan. Jilly Cooper is one of those writers I class as a guilty pleasure. This stuff might have been OK in the 1980s, but it contains a lot of casual misogyny, sexism and racism, which gives pause today. But there are parts of this book (previous notwithstanding) that I simply lap up. It’s like Josephine Pullein-Thompson* but for grownups. Cooper is light and frothy and includes a lot of gratuitous sex, which was quite racy for the time these books were written. For all that there are plenty of females in this book it’s the men who have the agency. Set against the background of the world of international show-jumping in the 1970s this is essentially the story of heated rivalry between the rich and sophisticated Rupert Campbell-Black and half-Romany Jake Lovell, who marries for money in order to set himself up on the show-jumping circuit. Jake is something of a horse-whisperer, while Rupert, through brave and talented has a cruel streak a mile wide. There are interesting side-characters: Fen, Jake’s sister in law, whom he trains to world-class standard (though even she needs validating by a man eventually); Malise Gordon, Chef d’equippe of the British show-jumping team; Billy Lloyd-Foxe and his somewhat unsuitable wife, Janey. And then there are the two main wives. Rupert’s mistreated (physically and mentally) and neurotic wife, Helen, and Jake’s efficient and hard-working wife, Tory, who believes herself to be little more than a convenience, though she loves Jake with all her heart. It’s hard to review this without being spoilerish, but all the way through, Jake comes good and Rupert is an utter bastard, then close to the end something happens that puts Rupert in a new light and causes Jake to act completely out of character. I think it’s supposed to be a redemption for Rupert (because he becomes the reformed hero in some of the future books) but we already know he's physically courageous, so what he does doesn’t constitute redemption for me. I still enjoyed revisiting this book, but this time around I saw more flaws.
The first of Paul Cornell’s Lychford novellas, re-read in audio format. When a supermarket chain wants to disrupt the small town of Lychford residents are split in their like and dislike for the plan. Elderly witch, Judith, knows, however that the new build will break down the walls between worlds and let in malevolent beings from the faery world. Used to going it alone, she knows she needs allies. The new vicar, herself on the verge of losing her faith, and the airy-fairy owner of the magic shop seem unlikely heroines at forst, but Judith has chosen wisely. The Lychford novellas are now all available in one collected volume.
Excellently read by Brian Nishi.
I loved revisiting this book via audible. Halla is a great character, and so is Sarkis, the barbarian mercenary doomed to be trapped in an ancient sword and to serve the wielder. When Halla inherits all her uncle's property after keeping house and nursing him in his final years, the uncle's family try to find ways of disinheriting her or marrying her off to her cousin to get at her money. Halla draws the ancient sword, not realising Sarkis will materialise. The dialogue between the two is very witty. Reader, Jesse Vilinsky does a great job on Halla's dialogue, but less so on Sarkis whose accent varies from some sort of Scottish with a bit of Yorkshire and Geordie thrown in, occasionally drifting into Slavic. You get used to it, but it's not as good as it might be. Having said that, this is still five stars
An offshoot of Pride and Prejudice, this is the story of Lydia Bennet and what happens after she’s married to Wickham in disgrace, and sent north to a town she doesn’t know. But it’s not a complete fresh start, Wickham is unreliable, often drunk and visiting brothels. Lydia made one mistake, aged fifteen, and now she’s paying for it. She’s a social pariah, and must claw herself into independence and respectability. Lydia is fighting for her place in the world. An engaging short story with a satisfying ending. Nicely narrated by Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn.
The Broken Lands were shattered by mage wars and are full of malevolent and sadistic magics. The heirs of Marsan have to venture forth every so often to get fuel for the black flame which – in some unknown way – protects Marsan Port. In the Now the black flame is flickering so the heir to Marsan, Ryan, young and inexperienced, leads an expedition consisting of himself his friend Keeting, a few soldiers and two scholars, one young and one elderly, plus Nonee, a magically constructed being, created during the Mage Wars, whom the Marsan contingent think of a ‘the weapon’. Ryan’s story maps on to the previous expedition, many years earlier when Arianna, healer from Gateway, the border town on the edge of the Broken Lands, accompanied the then heir, Garrett. As we pick up the story, it’s been long enough that Arianna is dying of old age and Nonee (who seems to be ageless) is mourning her long-time friend. Nonee is the link between the two expeditions. We get Ryan’s journey and interspersed flashbacks to the previous journey when Nonee, as the nameless weapon, is released from a jail cell and forced to act as guide and protector. I like Tanya Huff’s writing. I started with the Four Quarters books and went through the Keeper chronicles and loved the Emporium stories and the Valor ones. This I’m not so sure about. The pacing is slow to begin with, Ryan and his crew spend what seems to be a long time in Gateway before the journey even begins. This gives the opportunity to take a deep dive into the characters who are surely going to be tested to the limits. Not all of them are likeable which makes this a challenging read.
This picks up the story of Slate, Caliban and Brenner along with Learned Edmund and Grimehug the gnole as they enter Anuket city and begin to scout around for whoever is creating the destructive clockwork boys. Slate and Caliban spend the first half of the book dancing around their romantic feelings for each other, which has its funny moments, but that just throws the seriousness of the mission into sharp relief. They’ve known all along that this is probably a suicide mission, but until now have possibly thought that there would be a way out. Now they’re not so sure. Once again this is well read by Khristine Hvam.
A forger, a paladin, an assassin and a scholar walk into a bar… not quite, but almost. These are the characters central to the story with the addition, later on, of a gnole, an intelligent, badger-like creature with a complex society. The forger is Slate, the paladin is Caliban, Brenner is the assassin and Learned Edmund the young and unworldly scholar. The gnole is Grimehug. This crew (all but Learned Edmund) consists of convicted criminals who are sent to Anuket City to discover (and if they can, put an end to) huge clockwork monsters which are smashing their way through Anuket’s enemies. Just in case they decided that running away is preferable to running into danger, Slate, Caliban and Brenner are given a magical tattoo that will eat them if they don’t stay on task. This is a story in two parts. This book covers the story of assembling the crew and making the journey to Anuket City. You’ll immediately need to move on to The Wonder Engine for the other half od the story. This is a re-read for me via Audible. It’s nicely read by Khristine Hvam who brings out some of the comedy, especially in Slate’s commentary. Highly recommended.
Not exactly a book, but delivered by Audible, so I’m reviewing it as one. This is a general overview of England (specifically) from post Roman times until Henry Tudor took the crown from Richard III on Bosworth Field. It’s delivered in handy bite-sized (30 minute) chunks and covers domestic as well as political history. There was a fair amount of it that I already know, but stringing it together as a continuous narrative made it a very good reminder of things I’d half forgotten. Jennifer Paxton wrote and read this production. Recommended.
Atticus O'Sullivan, his apprentice Granuaille, anfd his Irish wolfhound, Oberon, are in Kansas to check of Granuaille's mother when they are sidetracked by a travelling fair and a grisly sideshow that is more that it seems. This is a short read/listen, nicely read by Kirby Heyborne
This is a re-read via Audible, narrated by Grover Gardner, who does all of the Vorkosigan books. I have to be honest, I'm not that fond of his voice, but I love the books and I'm habituated to his reading. I have to be honest, though, this is not my favourite Vorkosigan book, but it does gently wrap up loose ends. and 'not my favourite' is relative. Ms Bujold is a terrific writer. This is the widowed Cordelia putting her life back together three years after Aral’s death. Miles is now the count, kept busy by his duties, his wife and his lively children. He features in this book only as a supporting character. Cordelia, Vicerine of Sergyar, 
Audiobook.
For a full review of the story see: https://jacey.dreamwidth.org/684676.html
Audiobook re-read 25/10/22. Zara Ramm is an excellent reader, and the perfect voice for both Max and Markham as they begin their alternative time-tripping career. There are some loose threads at the end of this book, regarding Max's next move against the agency that has already tried to kill her three times, and the potential fate of Treadwell, not to mention Hyssop, who might just be not as bad as we think she is. I'm already looking forward to Book #14
I’m a big Jodi Taylor fan, so I pre-ordered this and started reading it as soon as it appeared in my Kindle. The Time Police books are a spin off from the St Marys sequence and there’s often crossover. The main characters are Luke Parrish, Jane Lockland and Matthew Farrell, Team 236, or Team Weird as they are often known. Matthew is the son of Max and Leon, from St Marys, which is where the crossover usually happens. In this book, we’re still in the fallout range from adventures at Site X (in ‘Hard Time,’ the second Time Police book). As I suspected from the two previous books, Henry Plimpton, Mr P., is proving to be a perpetual, ruthless antagonist. There’s the mystery of what happened to Jane’s parents, because the real story is not what her awful grandmother told her. A couple of murders at Time Police headquarters prove that there’s a traitor in their midst – which is a massive problem for Commander Hay, longsuffering head of the organisation. Added to all that there’s a will-they won’t-they thing going on between Jane and Lt Grint. Expect weirdness from Amelia Meiklejohn, now working for the Time Police rather than running away from them. This is delightful, though not the place to start if you’re new to the Time Police books. I suggest you read them in order – better still, start with the first St Mary’s book and pick them all up in order. Highly recommended.
Most of Earth’s humans have been turned feral by a Krakau plague, though the Krakau have generously managed to cure some of them to be used as cannon-fodder in the Alliance Prodryan war in space. Cured human, Marion Adamopolous, Mops for short, and her multi-species crew of janitors have become so much more than cleaners and plumbers. They are now officially in charge of the spaceship Pufferfish and are the leader of Earth’s space force of one. In this book they make a dangerous trip to see why the Jynx, inhabitants of the planet Tuxatl, have been able to drive off the dangerous alien Prodryans. Might there be something that Earth and the Alliance can use against the vicious conquerors? Mops herself is running out of time as she seems to be reverting to her previous feral state, leaving crew members to step up. Good job she’s trained them well.
Marcus Didius Falco is a private investigator in Ancient Rome. These five books have been adapted for radio and I recall listening to a couple of them about twelve years ago. They were good enough that they stuck in my mind, so I jumped at the chance of getting them in one collection. Falco is voiced by Anton Lesser, who makes a superb street-wise, slightly world-weary Falco. The ongoing will-they-won’t they love story continues throughout the five books with Falco anxious to marry and settle down and Helena Justina happy just as they are.
I do love a hero who knits socks in his spare time. The Saint of Steel died and all his paladins ran mad. Only a few survived the shock and, three years later, Steven is still broken, but is gradually beginning to get his life back. Employed and sheltered by the Temple of the Rat, led by the indomitable Bishop Beartongue, the few surviving paladins of the saint are mostly tasked with suitable physical missions where violence is likely. Steven is acting as protector to a healer in a rough area of town. On his way home he sees a young woman being chased as a witch by the Hanged Mother’s priests, a particularly cruel sect. He saves her and then lets her go. Grace is a perfumer, trying to lead a quiet life as she’s run away from an unfair and two-timing husband. Steven and Grace meet again at an official palace event and are immediately thrown into a plot of assassination and false accusations. This is a romance but taut and exciting, as Grace’s landlady turns out to be a spy, and Grace is accused of attempted murder, again, by the Hanged Mother’s priests. This is a re-read via Audible. Christian Rodska reads very well, and I thoroughly recommend this in audio or written form.
This is the first Hornblower book chronologically, but the sixth in publication order. The series was written in the 1930s, through to the 1960s. This particular one being published in 1950. I can understand why these books made such a good TV series (1998 to 2003). Its nature is episodic and each chapter makes a good story in itself. Set in the French Revolutionary wars, Horatio Hornblower, a green seventeen-year-old midshipman is doubly green when seasick on his way to his first position, Seasick at Spithead are the words that dog his early miserable experiences of being a midshipman under a senior midshipman bully, and a weak captain. He comes into his own when transferred to the Indefatigable, presided over by the excellent Captain Edward Pellew. I read this book in my teen years, then watched the eight-episode series with Ioan Gruffudd perfectly cast as Hornblower, and Robert Lindsay as Pellew. There’s the story of the duel of honour, the cargo of rice, the fireship incident when Hornblower’s examination for Lieutenant is interrupted by an attack on the British fleet in harbour. Forester’s writing is as fresh today as it was when I read it in my youth. I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting Hornblower on audiobook, beautifully read by Christian Rodska.
This is a re-read for me via Audible. I like listening to audiobooks that I’ve read (and enjoyed) before. The Saint of Steel died and all his paladins ran mad. Only a few survived the shock and, four years later, are beginning to get their lives back. Paladin’s Grace is the story of Steven, and Paladin’s Strength is the story of Istvahn, a giant of a man, and Clara, lay sister of the order of St Ursa. Istvahn is travelling with a convoy of (empty) barrels while trying to find out more about the smooth men, who have left a trail of severed heads and headless bodies, not necessarily matching (and there are fewer bodies than heads). Clara is following a group of her sisters who have been captured and kidnapped for reasons that eventually become horribly clear. If I say any more it will be too spoilery. Suffice it to say that this becomes a romance between two middle-aged, somewhat over-sized people that is utterly charming. T Kingfisher is good at this sort of romance. Her dialogue is witty, and I forgive her for ignoring the fact that the two protagonists could get together far sooner if only they were honest with each other. Clara, in particular, has good reason for keeping her secret. Ms Kingfisher is extremely good at spinning out the sexual tension, and having the couple’s carnal intentions thwarted in a number of amusing ways.
Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos and her alien/human crew of ship-board janitors and sanitation specialists are more used to cleaning up plumbing disasters, but when a freak occurrence killed all the crew but the janitorial team, it put them in charge of a space-ship, the EMCS Pufferfish (i.e. they stole it). Humans are very much second-class citizens after all humans on Earth turned feral following a terrible plague, but some (like Mops) have been ‘cured’ and allowed to take up menial positions in the Krakau space fleets, or have become cannon-fodder in the ongoing hostilities between the Ktakau and the Prodryans. Mops and her crew have to go to Earth to see if they can discover the source of the plague, and discover a team of librarians made up of plague resistant humans. Perhaps humanity isn’t quite dead yet. This is the middle book of a trilogy (I have the last one lined up already) and Mr Hines doesn’t ease you into it gently by backtracking on the story in the first book. You need to be up-to-speed with the characters. I wouldn’t recommend reading this one before the first (Terminal Alliance), but it’s well paced and has some startling revelation.
I was delighted to receive an advance copy of this book for review. I've loved all the previous Green Man books featuring Daniel Macmain, the son of a normal human man and a dryad mother. Dan, as befits his heritage, is a big, strong bloke who works sympathetically with wood, and who can see supernatural entities invisible to normal human eyes. His girlfriend, Fin, is a swan maiden and he regularly interacts with a couple of dryads who inhabit the Blithehurst estate where he works. In the first book in this series, Dan is a loner, working on building sites and moving on regularly so no one ever notices he's different, but now he's got a permanent home, and a network of friends which includes his boss at Blithehurst, the aforementioned Swan Maidens, and some wise women. The Green Man pops up from time to time to point Dan to a supernatural problem that needs fixing. This time young men are going missing in North Wales. One has turned up traumatised, after weeks, when he thinks he's only been gone for days. A beautiful young folk singer seems to be involved and Dan goes to Snowdonia to investigate. This leads him into the realm of the scary fairy and some shapechanging creatures of Welsh legend. Juliet McKenna knows her folklore and knows her characters. Dan may look like a thug (which he uses to his advantage on occasions), but he's thoughtful and resourceful. Highly recommended. You could start here, but I recommend you do yourself a favour and read the whole lot in order.
I like Elizabeth Chadwick's writing. She makes history come alive through personal stories. Sometimes her characters are real, and other times invented, but withing a strictly historical time frame. These characters are invented though set in the (very real) time of the Norman Conquest. This is a book of two parts, the first is about Ailith, a Saxon, happily married to Goldwin, a talented blacksmith, and living in London. Pre Hastings, a Norman wine merchant takes the house next to Ailith and Golwin and thus the scene is set for Ailith to be drawn into the Norman world after Hastings and to meet Rolf de Brize, Norman horse breeder who ends up with English lands after Hastings. The second part concerns Rolf and Ailith's daughter, Julitta, and Benedict who allows himself to be married to Rolf's other daughter, which is unfortunate as it turns out. During the twenty year span of the story the Normans are established in England and throughout this time Rolf is supplying war-horses to the king and his knights. There's some good detail in here and the story is an interesting read, though not my absolute favourite of Ms Chadwick's books (which would be the sequence about William Marshall). Well worth a look if you like your history romantic or your romance historical.
This is the second Nomad book, following on from 'The Best of Us'. Most of earth has been hit by die back - a virus that is killing major food crops. A few countries have isolated to avoid it, but many (America and Europe in particular) have been turned into a dead wasteland. Asia is one of the survivors (so far), as is Britain.
To tell the truth (see what I did there?) I’m not as fond of the later batch of Pratchetts that encompass Ankh Morpork’s industrial (and social) revolution, though that only means a four star review rather than five because Pratchett is always worth reading. This time he’s having a go at the press as William de Worde becomes the editor of the Discworld’s first newspaper. William only wants to tell the truth, but other people have reasons for keeping the truth under wraps. There are perils in publishing. (Incidentally Wynkyn de Worde was a real-life publisher in the early 1500s who worked with William Caxton and popularised the products of the printing press in England. He published – amongst other things – The Canterbury Tales, Robin Hood, and Le Morte d’Arthur)
Sex, drugs and music with rocks in arrive in the Discworld. Meanwhile. Death’s granddaughter, Susan, has to learn the family business quickly when Death himself (HE WHO SPEAKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS AND RIDES A WHITE HORSE CALLED BINKY) decides to take time out. Susan is 16 and attending a posh boarding school where she’s trying to grow up normally, but she suddenly finds she has to come to terms with her heritage. In the meantime a group of travelling musicians acquire some rather unusual instruments and start playing powerful music with rocks in. Terry Pratchett takes a satirical bite out of the music industry while addressing issues of bereavement. I love Death as a character. Good fun.
I love Pratchett's take on religion and religious philosophy. The small god, Om, currently in the shape of a turtle, has lost his power due to a lack of true believers. Om needs a disciple. Unfortunately the gentle Brutha is the only one available. This is a standalone in the Discworld series, with none of the usual cast of characters. It contains some profound ideas about religion and what humans do (or try to do) in its name. Mr P has some things to say about religion, but never loses the humour and absurdity that Discworld is known for.
The first book of the City Watch sub-series, introducing Sam Vimes of the Night Watch. At the start Vimes is a burnt-out wreck of a man, fast disappearing down the neck of a bottle, but there's trouble stirring in the city of Ankh Morpork. There's always trouble, but this is a different kind of trouble and Sam must step up and sober up if he's to solve the problem of a new lethal weapon - a dragon. The City Watch is a joke, encompassing characters like Sgt Fred Colon Nobby Nobbs, who is barely human, and other characters who are definitely not human, plus Carrot, who is a dwarf despite being over six feet tall. There's political satire as well as humour and some deep character building. It's the beginning of Vimes character arc - my favourite out of all the Discworld characters. This is a good place to jump into the Discworld books if you haven't read any of them before.
A story that takes place in two timelines, centuries apart. Gil in 1968 and Mayken in 1628 on a doomed Dutch East India Company ship called the Batavia after the place it’s heading. (Batavia is now Jakarta.). In 1968 Gil, age nine, has come to a small seasonal fishing community on one of the Abrolhos Islands, off the west coast of Australia, to live with his curmudgeonly grandfather Joss, after his feckless mother has died. Gil is maladjusted after the circumstances of his mother’s death, and his grandfather doesn’t help much at first, being in the middle of a feud with one of the other fishing families. Gil manages to get himself firmly embroiled in the feud. Back in 1628 Mayken’s mother had died and her voyage (to join her father) embodies a fictionalised account of an infamous shipwreck and the terrible events that followed, when the survivors washed up on the inhospitable island. But before the wreck we follow Mayken, a bit of a wild child, as she explores the ship, and tries to catch a mythical shadow monster. The two stories run side by side. In 1968 there is an archaeological team digging the wreck, so Gil reads about the shipwreck and believes that Little May’s ghost haunts the island. The writing is elegant, but dark. The pace is measured. While Gil’s story is grim, it has a satisfying ending, however, we know from the start that Mayken/Little May did not survive the wreck and subsequent marooning of the Batavia’s survivors, but her story is still compelling.
The third Fallow sisters novel is split between London and rural Somerset. It’s spring and the four sisters are recovering from the events at Christmas, but they’ve come to the notice of the supernatural world. DJ Stella and fashion designer Serena (and her film actor boyfriend, Ward) are in the city where Diana the huntress sets Stella a task, and Serena keeps being dragged into the past. Bee is in Somerset, holding the family home together, content to be with her ghostly lover, Dark. Luna, the youngest sister (with her partner, Sam) is temporarily at home while her pregnancy progresses. Floating about, doing her own mysterious thing is Alys, the girls’ mother, enigmatic as usual, and not entirely trustworthy. This book weaves folklore into everyday occurrences, and all the sisters cope with magic of one kind or another. The characters (the main ones and the secondary ones) are wonderful. This is a family saga with added magic which is well worth reading, but start at the beginning with Comet Weather and Blackthorn Winter. There’s a fourth book in the 
A historical fantasy short story from the pen of the author of the Greatcoats, one of my favourite series. Thomas is an English archer who wants revenge on Sir Hammond, a knight, who has taken away half of Thomas’s family’s farm land. His bow is drawn and he’s about to take his shot when a stranger appears. The man, a nobleman by his dress, says to call him Master Reynard, and he comes up with a plan. He shows Thomas the probable consequences of actions not yet taken, and those that will be taken. Reynard’s plan skims over the battle of Crecy and Edward the Black Prince, and onwards to Agincourt where Thomas’s grandson faces off against the French, bow in hand. This is a short story with long consequences. Highly enjoyable.
Everyone raves about the Scholomance books. The first book in the sequence, A Deadly Education, gave us an entirely new concept – a magic school with no teachers (the school itself is magic) which is trying to kill its students unless they can glean enough magic to survive. In order to graduate (a battle through a monster-infested hall) a student has to make good alliances, be really lucky, and/or exceptionally talented. El (Galadriel) is supremely talented but with great potential for dark magic and death. In the first book she was hiding her talents, an outsider with not much chance of graduating, but she gradually acquired friends, and even a love interest in Orion Lake, a young man with a hero complex, and a penchant for killing the monsters that were trying to kill the students. In this book, graduation is approaching and El has a plan to get all the graduating class through without casualties (which is unheard of). Pretty soon that stretches to encompass the whole school. There is a bit of a cliffhanger ending (which I’m not fond of).but the third book, The Golden Enclaves, is due in September 2022 and is already available to pre-order. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, but a fair amount of the second rehashed similar themes, at least for the first half. It started to get more interesting when El’s plan kicked in. Still well worth a read, though. Recommended.
Oh dear, this book nearly hit the wall several times. I so wanted to like it, but sadly it annoyed me in several ways. I didn’t really connect with the characters. They all did things for the sake of 'plot' rather than doing things that arose out of their natural character. It’s 1816. The heroine, nineteen-year-old Eliza Melrose, is being launched into London’s high society now that her father’s newspaper business has taken off and made him very wealthy. She’s being forced into marriage with Frederick, the son of her father’s irascible business partner (a duke). Frederick is a dull young man with no character to speak of (at least not that we see) but he’s titled, so Eliza (coming from new money) should be grateful. Then she meets the young, taciturn (and unpleasant) Duke of Chester, Johnny, rumoured to have started the fire that burnt his family to death on the other side of Belmore Square. You can guess the rest. This is supposed to be sexy and scandalous, but to be honest I found there was way too much tingling going on. Every time she sees Johnny, Eliza practically has an orgasm on the spot. (And that starts before she’s even said hello.) Regency romance is my guilty pleasure. I’m a fan of Bridgerton, so I’m hardly a stickler for accuracy or even verisimilitude, and I’m OK with sex in a book, explicit or not. but this just didn’t sit right. Eliza writes for her father’s newspaper (under her brother’s name, which is fair enough) but she also climbs down drainpipes (and up again) without a second thought, barges into a brothel to bring her drunken brother home, and stands in front of galloping horses with complete disregard for safety (twice). She suspects that something is going on between her father and the irascible business partner, and that is teased throughout, but when all is revealed, it isn’t such a big deal. There’s certainly no real reason why Eliza must be married to Frederick. Any fertile woman will do for him. It has a happy ending (of course) but Eliza doesn’t really have much of a hand in bringing it about. Style-wise, there were also some arbitrary shifts into present tense, which seemed strangely unsettling. 
Russ Wesley accidentally gets mixed up with a bunch on intergalactic exterminators who are so impressed by his marksmanship that they insist he joins them. His friend Nina tags along and suddenly she and Russ are rivals for the one available place on the team. The book is quirky and entertaining, and there's some imaginative worldbuilding and a cool robot, but I admit I almost gave up at around 65%, though I persevered and it finished well. 
Audiobook, read by Grover Gardner.
Audiobook, read by Grover Gardner.
In the book Komarr, Miles met Ekaterin Vorsoisson, a widow by the end of the book, and fell deeply in love. Even though she was about to leave her husband, it's not seemly for Miles to court her so soon after her husband's death. Back on Barrayar he tries courting by stealth, keeping up contact but never admitting his feelings to her (though it seems as though he tells everyone else). Others are not so reticent and several bachelors come sniffing around the comely widow. As usual Miles manages to tie himself up in knots and this turns into a comedy of manner which is more like Georgette Heyer in space than one of Miles' usual full-on outings. His brother Mark turns up with one of the Koudelka girls, a scientist and a case full of butter-bugs, and installs a lab in the basement of Vorkosigan House. The scene is set for comedic disaster when the butter-bugs escape in the middle of the dinner party Miles has arranged to impress Ekaterin. Could anything else go wrong? Well, yes, quite a bit really, but like any good Georgette Heyer it all turns out right in the end. This is one of my favourite Bujolds. I read it years ago in dead tree format so this is a re-listen. Excellent.
Audiobook narrated by Ray Porter.
When Astrophage – a tiny alien lifeform – begins to swarm, effectively reducing the power of the sun, all the spacefaring countries on earth band together to build the Hail Mary to make a desperate one-way trip to Tau Ceti, the only star in the near galaxy that seems unaffected. It’s a suicide mission to try to prevent an extinction-level threat to humanity. Three astronauts are placed in a medically induced coma to sleep off the four years of the journey. It’s not without its perils. Ryland Grace, a biologist formerly in academia, but now a high school science teacher, awakes unable to move, speak, or remember and gradually works out where he is and what is mission is. Unfortunately, his two crew-mates have died at some time during the journey, so Grace is on his own. Gradually he begins to recall memories of events which led up to him being an astronaut. Fortunately, Grace is smart. Just like Andy Weir’s The Martian, he has to science-the-shit out of the situation. That’s where the comparison with The Martian ends, because it turns out that Grace is not alone. Enter Rocky, an honest to goodness alien, vaguely spider-like in shape (but bigger) with five arms and a rocky carapace. The alien communicates by musical chords. He (it) perceives the world around him with a kind of sonar and has no eyes, but gradually, even though they can’t survive in each other’s habitat/atmosphere, the two achieve a level of understanding and friendship. Rocky - the last survivor of his own mission to save his species from the Astrophage, turns out to be a brilliant engineer. There’s a lot of fascinating science in this book. I’m no scientist, but I’m assuming it’s more or less accurate. The relationship between Grace and Rocky is fascinating, and the solution to the Astrophage problem will save both their worlds. I consumed this via Audible. The narrator, Ray Porter, is excellent.
This is a re-read via Audible, read by Grover Gardner.
This is a re-read via Audible, read by Grover Gardner.
This is a re-read via Audible, read by Grover Gardner.
This is a re-read via Audible, read by Grover Gardner.
