Monday, November 30, 2020

2020 book 223

 Jenn Lyons' The Name of All Things

The second book in the Chorus of Dragons series is a little more straightforward than the first, even if it is full of double crossing! There are two narrative voices, but they’re mainly telling the same story. I’m not sure the framing device works as well in this one, but the awesome new characters making friends with and/or fighting the awesome characters from the first book makes up for it. Great action, great friendships, great gods and goddesses. I’m looking forward to the next one (and also sad that this isn’t a completed series yet). A/A-.

Sunday, November 29, 2020

2020 book 222

 Jenn Lyons' The Ruin of Kings

I’m honestly not sure I totally UNDERSTOOD everything that happened in this book (there is a lot of monkey business with souls and mysterious parentage), but it was just the sort of epic fantasy that you can get totally immersed in, and I was definitely totally immersed. It centers on a young man, imprisoned, and he and his jailer are narrating his story from two different points in time, which I thought worked really well as a narrative. Lots of adventure and interesting relationships and very interesting characters and gods and goddesses and demons etc. Anyway, on to the next one! A-.

Friday, November 27, 2020

2020 book 221

 Patricia McKillip's Alphabet of Thorn

It's hard not to like a book about a young girl of mysterious origins translating a magical book, and also there are various powerful sorcereresses and a new young queen and a bunch of historical research. This was a little slow, but was the kind of interesting and gentle fantasy I like, and it wrapped up in a cool way. A-.

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

2020 book 220

 Maxine Kaplan's Wench

This was a fun book full of magic and adventure, though it didn’t one hundred percent work for me. It starts off with almost an Ursula Vernon vibe, as a tavern owner dies, and the teenage girl who basically runs the place (the titular Wench) discovers it's been requisitioned by the Queen, and goes off on a quest to take ownership. Of course things go wrong pretty quickly, magical artifacts ensue, the friends we made along the way, etc. I actually really liked the very end of this, but the last third needed more character moments for me to totally buy into it (all of the romance is just like, there all of a sudden) and the climactic action stuff felt kind of rushed after all the buildup. Still, I am here for a practical heroine, and this book has a few of them! This seems ripe for a sequel but doesn’t /need/ one, which is always a nice feeling—I’d like to see where these goofs end up next. B+.


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

Sunday, November 22, 2020

2020 book 219

 Patricia McKillip's The Bell at Sealey Head

Well, this book was a DELIGHT. It has a great cast of characters—an innkeeper who only wants to read; a young woman who wants to be a writer but whose aunt is trying to get her married off to the local rich guy; a housemaid in a house where doors open to another world; a scholar coming to town in search of MAGIC in the form of a mysterious bell that rings every night at sunset, etc. It's funny and sweet and action packed and has some good mystery elements. Great stuff. A.

Friday, November 20, 2020

2020 book 218

 Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca

We're reading this for book club this month, but I feel like I need to preface my comments with a little bit of backstory. So, I've read this once before, in seventh grade English class. I believe we were doing a unit on Gothic literature and read this after Jane Eyre; I imagine this is the book where I learned what FORESHADOWING is. Sadly I did not TAKE IN said lesson on foreshadowing, because one of those awkward memories that haunts me thirty years later is of me not reading the end of this book closely and assuming they were driving into the sunset (clearly I also hadn't read the first several chapters closely, because on this read it's pretty clear that Manderley is no more). This is to say that I went into this read harboring resentful feelings toward the book. And I can guess that 12-year-old Alicia found the endless descriptions of trees or whatever super boring, and definitely skimmed the end, because forty-something Alicia also thought it was a bit dull. The problem is that I read a lot of reviews of the new Netflix movie, because they were hilariously scathing, but then all the major plot points were fresh in my head, which really lowered any suspense the story might have had. But also, everyone in this book sucks (except Beatrice—narrator lady, accept her invitation! She will set you straight and help you!). Like, the narrator sucks for being a sad sack and never having an honest conversation with her husband, Maxim sucks for marrying a girl less than half his age and not at all preparing her for Society and also not having any honest conversations with HER (and also being a murderer), Frank sucks slightly less but he could have certainly set Maxim straight about the narrator's fears, and Mrs Danvers obviously is a stone-cold bitch, but not in a fun way. Anyway this book is a classic but I didn’t like it much, my bad. I am psyched to discuss it, though! B, I guess?

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

2020 book 217

 Elizabeth Wein’s Code Name Verity

I did mention the other day that reading the latest prequel just made me want to reread the original, so I did, bawling for the last several chapters. Just one of the most gutting books of all time, while also being the story of the awesome friendship between a girl spy and a girl pilot in World War II. Lots of adventure and heart etc, and a reminder that Nazis are bad.

Sunday, November 15, 2020

2020 book 216

 Laura Lam and Elizabeth May's Seven Devils

I’d seen a couple of sci fi fans raving about this book, and I’m here for action packed feminist sci-fi, so picked this up. And parts of it were really fun, but a lot of it dragged. It just had too much going on and didn’t come together. Part of the problem is that there are five POV characters who all have present day stories AND flashbacks, and some of them are more effective than others. But also like, there are diminishing returns for the number of heists in a single book. It just kind of feels like it’s spinning its wheels. Also, this is the first of a duology, so the end isn’t really satisfying. A lot of this is very grim (like genocide grim) and I don’t think I’m going to bother with the second one. B/B-.

Thursday, November 12, 2020

2020 book 215

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s Masquerade in Lodi

The latest Penric and Desdemona novella is actually set earlier than the last few, but while I was a little disappointed not to see Penric's family, I did like it a lot. It finds Penric, accompanied by a wry young Saint, on the trail of a possessed man. Solid plot and great characters. I always enjoy the Penric-Desdemona interchanges. A-.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

2020 book 214

 Elizabeth Wein's The Enigma Game

I don’t know why Wein keeps expanding the Code Name Verity-verse, but this is a fairly strong outing in the series. It focuses on Julie's brother Jamie and her friend Ellen, stationed near each other in 1940, and a new character, Louisa, a biracial girl from Jamaica who's taken a job an an aide to an elderly woman. This is a pretty solid story full of wartime action and intrigue, code-breaking, and identity (Ellen is a Traveler, the old woman is originally from Germany, and many people are racist to Louisa). It took me a little while to buy Louisa's narrative voice (I buy that she wants to help in the war effort but her fascination with planes is just Wein being obsessed with pilot ladies, her usual MO). But eventually it all comes together to a mostly satisfying end. It just makes me want to reread Code Name Verity though. A-/B+.

Monday, November 09, 2020

2020 book 213

 Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman's The Fall of the Kings

This is kind of more depressing/more sinister than I had remembered--I think I just remembered all the academic politics, and not so much the other politics, the spies, and the creepy professor who gets too into his research on ancient (bloody, horny) rituals. I did like how things wrapped up but it does feel ripe for a fourth volume, lots left hanging.

Saturday, November 07, 2020

2020 book 212

 Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword

The sequel to Swordspoint is set a few decades later, and focuses on the Mad Duke inviting his niece to live with him—and train with the sword. Obviously political intrigues and duels ensue! My favorite part of this is how all the teen girls are obsessed with a tragic romance novel, so real. And of course the triumphant ending! So good.


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Content warning for mentions of rape.

Friday, November 06, 2020

2020 book 211

 Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint

I’m glad I remembered that I own this book, because it’s just the sort of thing I was in the mood for. It’s about a young man who makes a living sword-fighting, who gets caught up in some political intrigue. It’s basically set in historical Europe, except everyone is way more gay. I recall liking the other two books in this series a lot more, though this one is also an engaging read for sure. B+.


Thursday, November 05, 2020

2020 book 210

 Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle

The epitome of a comfort read! I’ve actually reread this a little bit too recently to love it as much as I ought, but obviously it’s still great. Still mad Miyazaki took out all the funny stuff with the sisters and the love interests etc.

Tuesday, November 03, 2020

2020 book 209

 T. Kingfisher’s Paladin's Grace

Still rereading comfort reads (necessary today more than ever), and what is more comforting than one of Ursula Vernon's cute fantasy romances? I mean, minus the severed heads and all. But the likable hero and heroine and all the entertaining secondary characters balance that out!

Monday, November 02, 2020

2020 book 208

 Victoria Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor

Did I reread this book once already this year? Yes. But is it reassuring right now to read a book about a guy working from within the government to make the world a better place for everyone? Also yes. I mean does this book need three lengthy scenes about the protagonist's family not understanding what his job actually is, no, the first two would suffice, but it is awesome to read about how everything comes together in terms of insider/outsider culture. I also like that this is about a bunch of middle aged dudes who care  about each other. Perfect thing to get lost in right now.