2021 book 224

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s Knot of Shadows

This ended up being an apt story to read on Halloween, because it turned out to be a sad ghost story. Things start with a dead body being fished out of the harbor, except then…. he wakes up. And Pen gets called in, only to discover the guy is possessed by a ghost, but not his own ghost. And it just gets stranger and sadder from there. So this is /satisfying/, but not /fun/ in any way, and it kind of suffers in comparison to the whole fleshed out novel that precedes it. A-/B+.

2021 book 223

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Assassins of Thasalon

This is actually a full length novel (the others in the series are novellas), which is good, because it’s an interesting story and it’s nice to spend a little extra time with everyone getting JUSTICE! Anyway, someone tries to assassinate Pen's brother in law with sorcery, which starts to unravel a whole magical plot and his god is NOT happy about it. Soon he's off on a road trip with a saint and a new student to try and save the day! Just a really solid and fun story all around, lots of badass ladies and a cute puppy, what's not to love. 

2021 book 222

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s Masquerade in Lodi

This is another flashback of a novella, but a much more enjoyable one, as Pen and a young woman saint try and track down a runaway demon during a festival. There’s a minor mystery element, the plot moves quickly, and it’s all very CUTE. Super satisfying.

2021 book 221

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Physicians of Vilnoc

This is another one that isn’t fun or funny at all, but at least the pacing is better. It involves Penric getting involved in a mysterious contagious illness up at his brother in law's army barracks, and trying to solve what’s causing it and keep everyone alive. It’s fairly grim. I don’t really say it much in these reviews, but I do really like the religious system in these books, and there are some cool glimpses of it here. Doesn’t really offset the grimness, though.

2021 book 220

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Orphans of Raspay

I remembered liking this one less than the others in the series, and that proved to be the case on a reread as well. It involves Penric on a ship that’s captured by pirates, where he encounters two little girls (the titular orphans). But like, the whole time they’re about to be sold into slavery (sex slavery, it’s implied, in the case of the little girls) and it’s slow and upsetting. Like, the other books in this series are FUN and FUNNY, this is just “how will we avoid a terrible fate” for basically the whole book.

2021 book 219

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Prisoner of Limnos

Ok, I definitely think it’s more satisfying to read these in chronological order as opposed to publication order, because this one jumps right back to Pen courting the young widow. He’s not having much success, but when she finds out her mother has been imprisoned for political reasons, she comes right to him for help planning A PRISON BREAK! (She’s imprisoned in a convent but it’s still pretty dramatic). This one introduces some cool new characters and is pretty funny to boot. But it definitely is a better read as part of a series with Penric's Mission and Mira's Last Dance.

2021 book 218

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric’s Fox

Well, it turns out Amazon and Goodreads disagree on the reading order for this series; Goodreads choose publication order, where Amazon goes chronologically (doesn’t Amazon own Goodreads??). So I definitely read it in Amazon order last time and am accidentally doing Goodreads order this time, making this book a flashback. It’s set just after book two, and finds Penric teaming up with a couple characters from that book to solve the murder of a sorceress—and find her missing demon. Solid plot and satisfying for sure.

2021 book 217

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s Mira's Last Dance

As mentioned, this one immediately follows the previous book, with Pen (and Des) on the run with his love interest and her brother, which leads to Pen in disguise as a courtesan (with the help of one of Des' previous personalities). It’s all really funny and kind of sweet and there’s good dramatic tension, but still not resolution on the romance. 

2021 book 216

 Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric's Mission

I actually thought this storyline came a bit later than the third book, because it’s the one where Pen meets his love interest, but then I remembered that whole thing plays out over several books. Anyway, it’s several years after book two and Pen has been sent on a mission to see if he can be an effective spy, only things go wrong basically immediately. Good thing he has a smart ol' demon living in his head and the accompanying magical powers! Great characters as always, if a slightly unsatisfying end (because, as I mentioned, the next few books are basically all one story).

2021 book 215

 Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric and the Shaman

The second Penric and Desdemona book picks up a few years later, with Pen now fully qualified and working for the local princess/archdivine (am I the only one who would have enjoyed a book with Pen and Des in seminary?), when he’s enlisted to help search for a fugitive and solve a magical mystery. Great characters and humor, as always, plus some good dogs! 

2021 book 214

 Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric's Demon

I was in the mood to reread the Penric and Desdemona novellas, and when I went to look up the reading order, it turns out a new one came out last week! So that worked out very nicely. This first one is a strong start to the series, as a likable but inexperienced young man encounters a dying woman on the road—and ends up with her powerful demon (and the experiences of the 12 women the demon previously possessed).  Shenanigans ensue as Pen learns about his new powers and everyone tries to figure out what the heck to do with him. Good times.

2021 book 213

 Makiia Lucier's Year of the Reaper

I really enjoyed Lucier's first two books, so was psyched for her third, a stand alone. And I also really enjoyed this one! It's set in a place where two countries have been at war for over fifty years—until a princess from one country marries the king of the other. And out protagonist is a young noble who was kidnapped and imprisoned, and has returned home after three years to find said married couple in residence at his brother's estate. But soon there are all sorts of assassination attempts aimed at the new queen—and the little baby prince—and he can’t help getting involved. Especially since the king's little sister (a historian!) is in the mix too. (Just when I was worried about how heteronormative this was, it's revealed that the brother is gay). Anyway, the assassin's identity is pretty easy to figure out, but it’s still interesting to see how things will play out, and the plot and characters are satisfying. Content warning for lots of plague deaths and references to torture. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on November 9th.

2021 book 212

 Louise Erdrich's The Sentence

So I always love whatever Erdrich writes, but man, I LOVED THIS. It's a bit of a departure in that it’s not set in Erdrich's usual fictional world—BECAUSE IT'S SET IN THE MF-ING BOOKSTORE THAT SHE OWNS IN REAL LIFE! Are you kidding me?! I am pretty sure all the characters are fictional (except for, you know, the owner Louise, who appears here and there in the background), and probably her store is not actually haunted by a very annoying deceased customer? Aaaaanyway, the protagonist and narrator is Tookie, who gets a job at the bookstore after being released from prison (her sixty year sentence was commuted), and at first you’re like, this is going to be a fun and sweet book! Tookie has an interesting personal life and their coworkers are an amazing cast of characters! And then you get to a heading that reads “February 2020” and the realities of the past year and a half hit you in the face like a brick (not just Covid—the bookstore is in Minneapolis, and the sadness of the George Floyd murder and the protests play a part). Not to mention the ghost going from annoying to slightly more sinister. And yet Erdrich somehow brings it all home. So good. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on November 9th.

2021 book 211

 Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe

I made book club read this, which of course meant I had to reread it so it would all be fresh in my mind! And it totally holds up to a rereading—all the clues to the mystery are there, but there are also just so many details about the world and characters to notice too. Not to mention crying about ghost dogs (I grew up with a springer spaniel so am especially invested in Kirby). Such a great book.

2021 book 210

 Olivie Blake's The Atlas Six

This is one of those books TikTok is all over, but I hadn’t been impressed with several of their other buzz books so was like eh. But then Tor snapped this series up and since I usually like their books, I was like, sure, I’ll give it a shot. And it was awesome! It’s about six people (mostly in their twenties but a couple seem to be early thirties), powerful magicians, who are selected to try out to be part of an elite secret society descended from the library of Alexandria (who hoard its knowledge! So rude!). But only five will make it through…. Obviously some of the characters work better than others, but the plot and the magic and the tension keep things moving. Great reveals near the end. The only bummer is having to wait for the sequel. A/A-.

2021 book 209

 Ovidia Yu’s The Frangipani Tree Mystery

I was in the mood for a cozy mystery now that it feels like fall, and wanted to start this series about a young woman working for the police in Singapore in the 1930s, but this first volume is just the meandering road that gets her the job. She’s mission educated and on the verge of being assigned to work as an assistant/housekeeper to the local (British) police inspector, but ends up working as the nanny to the acting governor’s mentally impaired daughter after her previous nanny dies a mysterious death. The characters here are pretty underdeveloped, partially to try and throw in some red herrings, but the plot is pretty obvious. The writing itself is weirdly inconsistent and repetitive. The setting is interesting and I was interested in the protagonist and her friends and family (who are barely in this) but this book was not a satisfying mystery at all. B/B-.

2021 book 208

 Freya Marske’s A Marvelous Light

So this was pretty much my jam, being a mashup extraordinaire: a queer historical magical mystery! One hero is assigned a new government job as punishment—the liaison to England’s magical community. Except he did not know magic existed! And now bad dudes are after him (and cursing him) because of something his predecessor did! Enter his magical counterpart (and love interest), a scholarly sort who is like, let’s go to my family house so I can research your curse etc. adventures and romance ensue (honestly I would have liked this a bit more if it was a magical mystery with some romance and not a romance set in a magical mystery). Great characters, interesting families and side characters, mentions of bad ass ladies, totally calls for a sequel (which I assume will involve one of the side characters falling in love while further unraveling things, I’m rooting for it to be one of the women, perhaps the very competent secretary??). A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on November 2nd.

2021 book 207

 Michelle Sagara's Cast in Shadow

I fully admit that I've had a hard time starting this series because of its name: The Chronicles of Elantra. Because I DRIVE AN ELANTRA. How did no editor put a stop to this?? The car definitely predates these books! Anyway, this weirdly has like an urban fantasy feel re: characters and plots, but set in a high fantasy world. Our protagonist has a Sad and Mysterious childhood backstory (and magical tattoos of unknown origin), but now works for a branch of local law enforcement, where she's assigned to work a case with a dude from her Sad Past and also with a Dragon person (this world also has lion people and eagle people, among others, it rules). But the case is related to her Sad Past and she is the key!!!! Ok, I know I sound facetious, but this was actually a fun read, I will definitely check out more in this series. B+.

2021 book 206

 Helene Tursten's An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed 

The sequel to An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good is not humorous, but is still entertaining, if in a more uncomfortable way. It finds our 88-year-old protagonist traveling from Sweden to South Africa, reminiscing about some of her past murders (new to the reader) along the way, but then she's just hanging out with a tour group on safari for most of it. Eventually some violence does occur (justified), but the end reeks of white saviour-ness (I don’t know how much of these attitudes are because this is by a Swedish author). I am still kind of rooting for the policewomen to nail her. B+

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

2021 book 205

 Tamara Shopsin's LaserWriter II

This is an interesting little novel about a young woman who gets a job at an Apple repair shop in 1994. There is not much plot to speak of (though there are some undercurrents), but it’s very evocative of a specific time and place. I enjoyed the characters and the bits about the history of Apple computers, but could have done without the scenes where printer parts talked to each other. Cool interstitial graphics, very nostalgic. A-/B+. 

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.

2021 book 204

 T. Kingfisher's Paladin's Hope

Yay! It’s another romance in Ursula Vernon's paladin series! Of course this means that we immediately start with people investigating a dead body, because the romance is between a paladin and the local forensic pathologist (but like the fantasy world version), who has the power to see how people died. Solid plot, really interesting as the duo teams up with a gnole to investigate a series of bizarre murders (as always, I am here for the gnoles). The romance was super cute, I was rooting for these two dudes pretty hard, and if the late turn towards melancholic self-pity to cause conflict feels formulaic, well, this is technically a romance novel, lol. It works out in a supremely satisfying manner, for sure. A.

2021 book 203

 Jordan Ifueko's Redemptor

So I did not love this as much as its predecessor. I felt like the pacing was a little off—like it only got good three quarters of the way in, and before that the protagonist is just plagued with self doubt, literally haunted by demon children, and making all the obviously wrong choices. I did really like that last quarter, but all of that stuff should have come a lot earlier! B+.

2021 book 202

 Jordan Ifueko's Raybearer

I often have limited patience for YA fantasy books—awkward or melodramatic writing, too much focus on romance, etc—but y’all, this was GOOD. It was so good that I refused to wait the estimated two weeks for my library hold on the sequel, and straight up bought it before I was even finished with this one. It’s centered on a young girl whose mother conceived her as a weapon/pawn in her political games—but she is determined to resist her mother's orders, and to find her own path. I really enjoyed the narrative voice here, even if she occasionally wallows in self pity. ;) This goes all sorts of unexpected and interesting places, lots of fascinating political and cultural stuff, idealism, feminism, great friendships and bonds, magic, a mystical leopard, just so much to love here. Really good stuff, A.

2021 book 201

 Diana Wynne Jones' Eight Days of Luke

I recently discovered this book existed and was psyched to read a new (to me) Diana Wynne Jones story! It was a nice pleasant read, about a boy named David with unpleasant relations, who meets a mysterious boy named Luke, who is obviously Loki, and gets involved in a quest to keep him free. I definitely wanted more from the ending, like another chapter at least, but this was pretty fun. A-/B+.

2021 book 200

 Aden Polydoros' The City Beautiful 

This book should have been my catnip—queer, historical, VERY Jewish fantasy? I mean, yes please! But it didn’t totally work for me. Maybe because it’s a lot darker than I usually go for—I’m fine with dybbuks, but serial killers and serial child rapists are not fun to read about. I also did not enjoy reading the several lengthy anti-Semitic speeches where villains talked about how Jews are vermin. So content warnings all around, I guess. Anyway, this is the story of young Alter Rosen, whose father died on the way to American (1890s Chicago, to be precise) and now he is struggling to get enough money together to bring his mother and little sisters over. And then his friend (and crush) is murdered, and weird stuff starts happening, and a cocky thief from his past turns up…. Parts of this are a little slow, parts are kinda upsetting. I was one hundred percent here for loud socialist downstairs neighbor Raizel, a wannabe journalist. It was interesting to see which Jewish phrases/concepts were specifically defined and which were left to context (or I’m just a nerd about these things). I wanted to love this, and did love how rooted in Jewish history it is, but it was just a little too dark for my tastes. B+.

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 A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.