Monday, March 18, 2024

2024 book 59

 Martha Wells' The Wizard Hunters

I last read this like four years ago, and I’ve read a few hundred books since then (brag), but certain scenes/images have been stuck in my mind that whole time because they’re so vivid (all the stuff with the caves, and the giant passenger ship that I think is a big part of the second book). Anyway, this is the first book in the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy and the protagonist is a depressed playwright who is also the daughter of the badass couple from Death of the Necromancer. Their country is in a losing war against a mysterious enemy and she ends up in another world in a bid to find out more—lots of cool adventures ensue. The pacing and characters here are just on fire, totally captivating, this is such a good book. 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

2024 book 58

 Martha Wells' The Death of the Necromancer

This was also recently reissued as a revised edition by Wells, and I’m not sure if that was why, but I liked it way more than the first time I read it (when I thought it was just fine). Things start with a heist but revenge plans are put to the side when a dangerous sorcerer starts to come after our protagonist. (And he and his actress girlfriend/partner in crime are one of my favorite fictional couples right now.) I loved how this built up and came to a very satisfying conclusion. I love all the mutual respect/friendship/dedication to stopping evil dudes. Really good stuff. A/A-.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

2024 book 57

 Martha Wells' The Element of Fire

This was recently reissued in a newly edited version by Wells, so I figured that was a good excuse to reread this series, which I remember liking. This one is a pretty classic style fantasy novel featuring evil sorcerers, powerful fairies, court politics, etc. I love the main characters, the captain of the queen's guard and the queen's stepdaughter, who is half-fairy. It’s a little slow in the second half but still entertaining. 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

2024 book 56

 Natasha Pulley's The Mars House

I didn’t really look at the description before picking this up—I was like, hey, I like Natasha Pulley, cool! Our main character is a dude named January who’s a principal dancer for the London Ballet, except it’s the future and London ends up totally flooded bc of climate change, so January has to move to Mars. And Earth humans on Mars have to undergo a painful and debilitating surgery to adapt to Mars gravity, or else they’re second-class citizens, and he ends up as a factory worker, where he gets into a televised argument with a powerful politician. And then things pivoted to a place I didn’t expect: the politician proposes an arranged marriage for Reasons (it makes sense, as far as fake marriages in books ever make sense). Yes, y’all, this book involves A FAKE MARRIAGE ON MARS. Oh, and ALSO, they’re on a reality show. AND there are major politics at play. This book should not work!! And yet, it mostly does! Things get a little slow in the second half and one plot reveal takes WAY too long to come, but there are so many cool moments (mammoths!) and I was totally caught up in this world. Very fun read, slightly all over the place but I enjoyed that. A-.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 19th.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

2024 book 55

 Rachel Neumeier's Marag

Another delightful entry in the Tuyo series, this one is a prequel involving how Ryo's parents met and for married, solving some tribal problems and some supernatural problems along the way. This was a bit slow but in sort of a meditative way, and I was already invested in the characters and enjoyed seeing their early interactions. And seeing lots of other familiar faces. Very satisfying. A/A-.

2024 book 54

 Richard Osman's The Last Devil to Die

The mystery in this one was easier to figure out than in some of the earlier ones, but that almost doesn’t even matter when the character stuff is so good. The story here involves some missing heroin and the murder of an acquaintance, plus the usual shenanigans. Osman is apparently starting a new series but has said this one isn’t finished, but this is a pretty solid finale if he doesn’t return to it. A/A-.

Saturday, March 09, 2024

2024 book 53

 Richard Osman's The Bullet That Missed

This was so good!!! The plot involves the team working on the cold case of a journalist who was killed ten years ago while investigating some heavy duty financial fraud, but also a guy is trying to get Elizabeth to kill an old spy colleague. Some absolutely hilarious moments, some heartbreaking ones, amazing friendships and relationships as always, just very solid and entertaining. A.

Friday, March 08, 2024

2024 book 52

 Richard Osman's The Man Who Died Twice

Another very fun and entertaining read! This one involves spies, the mafia, stolen diamonds, ex-husbands, and lots of very hilarious senior citizens. I do think you can’t think about this series too hard because it is a little silly/unrealistic, but that’s why I like it—I mean, also the characters and their friendships are wonderful, but these are pretty escapist as murder mysteries go. A-.

Thursday, March 07, 2024

2024 book 51

 Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club

Several people I know have enjoyed this series, so I figured I’d give it a go, and I also enjoyed this first one a lot! It centers on a small group of people who live in a retirement village and look at cold cases as a hobby, at least until there’s an actual local murder. Soon they’re adopting detectives and basically taking over the investigation. It’s all pretty funny, but the characters were solid enough to keep me very invested, and the mystery ended up being more interesting than I anticipated. Looking forward to the next one. A/A-.

Wednesday, March 06, 2024

2024 book 50

 Barbara Comyns' Our Spoons Came From Woolworths

So this has been on my to-read list for years (my best guess is I read a good review when it got reissued like ten years ago), but I’m reading it now because Ann Patchett raves about it in one of her recent videos where she discusses backlist books, and she compared it to both The English Understand Wool AND Nancy Mitford, so you bet your bippy I bought it immediately. Buuuuut maybe my expectations were too high after those comparisons? It was fine, but didn’t reach the heights of those books, and I really felt like the characters weren’t super well developed. Very charming narrative voice though. (Oh, plot summary: it’s narrated by a naive young woman who has married a young artist and they have to try and survive in poverty because he won’t get a real job.) B+.

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

2024 book 49

 Tana French's The Hunter

This was JUST as good as The Searcher; I love these characters and this mildly sinister Irish town. Trey and Lena both get to be POV characters in this one, which I think fleshes things out a lot. Anyway, this is set two years later and centers on Trey's deadbeat dad coming back to town, and also there’s a whole thing with a scam involving mining for gold, and eventually someone ends up dead. I did end up really liking this as a mystery, but for me the story is so much more about the characters and their relationships, just really compelling. A.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

Monday, March 04, 2024

2024 book 48

 Tana French's The Searcher

I never read this when it first came out, partially because I didn’t love her previous book, and partially because it was fall 2020 and I wasn’t in the mood for a literary mystery. But there is a sequel out tomorrow, I am back in the mood for literary mysteries, and this was GREAT! It’s about a former Chicago cop who has moved to a small town in Ireland basically on a whim after his wife leaves him and he leaves his job, and he’s looking forward to restoring his lil house and fishing and whatnot, when a local kid asks him to investigate a missing brother. But he’s new to this small town and doesn’t really understand the locals and their secrets. AMAZING characters and atmosphere here, totally sad but a wonderful ending. A.

Saturday, March 02, 2024

2024 book 47

 Micaiah Johnson's Those Beyond the Wall

I have been VERY eagerly awaiting the sequel/companion to The Space Between Worlds, and this may have even surpassed my expectations?! The story is set ten years later and the protagonist is a minor character from the first book, Nik Nik's girl runner/mechanic—but many of the characters from the first book are prominent. Anyway, things kick off with a series of grisly deaths that are clearly related to world-hopping, and our protagonist and her cohort have to figure out how to stop it. I loved seeing the inner worlds of the emperor and the runners, and seeing more of the politics between the city and the people outside it. Once again, totally gripping action and trenchant commentary on class and poverty, but most importantly, amazingly vivid characters and world. I can’t wait to see what Johnson does next. A.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 12th.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

2024 book 46

 Micaiah Johnson's The Space Between Worlds

This was one of my favorite books of 2020, and I've had it on my list to read for book club ever since, and I finally made it a pick this month because a companion novel is out in a couple weeks! Anyway, it was JUST as good on a reread, still totally gripping and fun but also really hitting on some complex themes. The protagonist is a young Black woman whose job is to hop between different worlds for research purposes, but she can only travel to worlds where that version of her has died--and she's died on so many worlds. SO much happens in this and it's such a fun but also a GOOD read, can't wait for the followup.

Monday, February 26, 2024

2024 book 45

 Seanan McGuire’s Aftermarket Afterlife

Gonna give this one a big YESSSSS bc it’s from the POV of ghost babysitter Mary, who rules, and which means we get to spend time with ALL the characters as she bounces around, plus it’s super action packed. I mean, SO much goes down. I think this may actually have been my favorite of the series (despite some dark moments), which is impressive since it’s like the thirteenth book. But Mary is such a good POV character, so much insight into an increasingly complicated family. Really good stuff. A/A-.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on March 5th.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

2024 book 44

 Seanan McGuire’s Backpacking Through Bedlam

This one picks up where book eleven leaves off, wrapping up those storylines and hopping back to our world for some family reunions and more battles with the Covenant. Another fun and action-packed one and I do like seeing the larger groups of the family and their various friends and allies together, very entertaining. I do wonder when one of the major characters of this series had a kid though; I have skipped a couple of the novellas because sometimes I’m not in the mood for bonus material, so maybe it was mentioned in one of those? A-.

2024 book 43

 Seanan McGuire’s Spelunking Through Hell

Ooh, now THIS was firing on all cylinders! It’s the story of Grandma Alice, who’s spent the last fifty years hopping through different dimensions searching for her missing husband. If you’re like, awesome, I want to read about a badass eighty year old, she looks twenty and has a bunch of magical tattoos, but she’s still pretty cool. This was just really fun, lots going on, new allies and new enemies. My only complaint is that these need a better proofreader; at one point she calls a character her son-in-law and the character is her daughter-in-law's father. I’ve noticed other things like that along the way as well. Still, very minor in the grand scheme of things. A/A-.