2023 book 71

 Peg Kerr's Emerald House Rising 

Well, I really loved this. It has everything I love: magic, mystery, court politics, an ambitious heroine, etc. Our protagonist is a young woman who is apprenticed as a jeweler under her father when she discovers she has the ability to do magic, and obviously adventures ensue. But the plot never went where I expected, there are so many cool women, the magic is so interesting, and the conclusion is very satisfying. This was first published in 1997 but it feels very modern (though it is very hetero, but otherwise!). A.

2023 book 70

 Moniquill Blackgoose's To Shape a Dragon's Breath

This book was my JAM. It’s set in a fantasy version of our world in the 1800s, not fantastic just because there’s magic and magical science and dragons, but because the main colonizers seem to be from Norway (though everyone speaks “Anglish”—it’s one of those books where normal words are spelled slightly differently and math is called “anglereckoning” and so on, because Fantasy). The main character is an indigenous girl from a tribe that is mainly left alone by the colonizers, until she sees a dragon and finds its egg, and the baby dragon chooses to bond with her. But they haven’t had a dragon in her tribe in generations, and the only way she can learn to train it is to go to the white people dragon training school. Where obviously she has to deal with racist jerks and politics, but also makes some cool friends. I was even into the romance(s)! If I had any complaints, it’s that this book is not subtle, but I really liked it and am very eager for book two. A/A-.

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

2023 book 69

 Kim Fay's Love and Saffron

Rereading this for book club—it’s a little bit more of a traditional “book club” kind of book than we usually read, but I think most of them will like it—it’s the story of two women writing to each other in the 1960s and it’s very sweet and a teeny bit cheesy. Some of the historical events feel shoehorned in, but I like both the characters and I do love an epistolary novel.

2023 book 68

 Victoria Goddard’s Derring-Do for Beginners

I love how Goddard keeps fleshing out her expansive world, here with the origin of the infamous Red Company—more specifically, the origin of the always delightful Jullanar of the Sea and her first real friendship with the great swordsman Damien. Of course they’re both just awkward teens here! Jullanar is supposed to be going to a far-off college, but when that plan gets stymied, she leans into having an adventure. And Damien is a dude who mainly only cares about swordsmanship but also secretly wants friends, and when he’s tasked with teaching Jullanar the local language, he decides to teach her self-defense as well. PLUS there are some very cool middle-aged ladies in this book (I was more interested in Damien's mom than in him for the first few sections, haha). Very entertaining, and I look forward to meeting more of the Red Company babies soon. A/A-.

2023 book 67

 Ann Leckie's Translation State

Leckie's latest is another set in a new part of the Imperial Radch universe, centering on three characters—a young man of unknown origin who just wants to know where he belongs; a woman sent on an impossible quest by the new head of her family; and one of the mysterious Translators, who doesn’t want to do what they were designed to do. Eventually all three stories collide and the stakes get very high. Lots of good space politics and diplomacy, with a little bit of angsty pining for good measure. And lots of hugging for characters who need and deserve hugs! So good! A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on June 6th.

2023 book 66

 Ann Leckie's Provenance

This is set in the same universe as Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy, but a different part of that universe, which provides an interesting perspective on all those goings-on. The plot is mildly convoluted so I won’t try to explain, except that a young woman is trying to execute a plan to prove herself to her powerful mother, and things go awry basically immediately, and suddenly there are big political stakes. I really enjoy all the sci-fi politics and this has great characters and an interesting world. A-.

2023 books 64 and 65

 Ann Leckie's Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy

I finished both of these yesterday while traveling but didn’t get a chance to blog ‘em until now, and I’m just doing one write-up since they're part of the same story. Anyway, lots of good sci-fi action and politics, several very funny moments, and a ton of heart. Very satisfying and also very interesting! I love AIs with feelings!!!

2023 book 64

 Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice

I’m rereading these because a new book set in this world is coming out soon! Plus they’re awesome! The central character here is a giant spaceship in the body of a human; once she was a big spaceship with all sorts of capabilities and a bunch of human bodies, but now this one is the last piece left. And she is on a QUEST. A quest that is complicated when she comes across a former officer on her ship who is on drugs and at death's door. This is interspersed with flashbacks to twenty years earlier, showing what started her on this quest. I love AIs and specifically spaceships with FEELINGS, so I love this. 

2023 book 63

 Ngaio Marsh's The Nursing-Home Murder

I liked this third Inspector Alleyn book less than the first two. It involves a prominent politician who dies while in surgery for appendicitis—and the surgeon and one of the nurses both have personal reasons for wanting him dead (stupid ones), and one of the other nurses is a “bolshie” and also wants him dead (there is some ridiculous stuff with politics in this one), so could it have been murder, and if so, who did it. Blah blah. I’m wondering if all of these books will follow the formula where the inspector makes everyone reenact the crime, which felt more organic in the other ones. I mean this was fine, I still enjoyed the diversion, but not particular interesting as mysteries go. B.

2023 book 62

 Ngaio Marsh's Enter a Murderer

The second Inspector Alleyn book finds Alleyn and the journalist from book one (who has become a Watson-esque figure) off to see a play together, when one of the actors is murdered on stage!! Because someone swapped fake bullets for real ones! And the dead guy sucked and lots of people had motive! This is occasionally more melodramatic than the first book (romance-wise) and is also mildly silly, but I do enjoy reading a chill classic murder mystery. And I appreciate that the inspector is kind of a drama queen. A-/B+.

2023 book 61

 Ngaio Marsh's A Man Lay Dead

I’m always looking for more classic mysteries a la Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie (the latter unfortunately tends toward racism and antisemitism), so decided to check out another woman writer of the 1930s, Ngaio Marsh. This is the first of her Inspector Roderick Alleyn mysteries and involves a murder at an English house party, which is legit my favorite subgenre of murder mystery. Interesting characters and even though I was /pretty/ sure I knew whodunnit, Marsh kept me guessing a little. There is some silly side business with Russian secret societies and their sacred knives (and bizarrely depicted accents) but otherwise this was solidly entertaining. I will be checking out more in this series. A-.

2023 book 60

 Martha Wells' Witch King

Wells' latest is a return to fantasy for her, involving a powerful demon and his best friend, a witch, who escape a mysterious imprisonment and must figure out who captured them, and why—and also find the witch's wife, who is missing. This is interspersed with flashbacks to the story of how they met fighting an invasion and became mildly legendary. Really cool world building and magic stuff here and I enjoyed reading this a lot, I just found the ending to be slightly anti-climactic. Still very entertaining though. Wells is so good with characterization. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in May.

2023 book 59

 Peter S. Beagle's The Way Home

So this is two novellas set in the world of The Last Unicorn—the first, which isn’t new, is totally beautiful and moving, about a little girl who goes to find the now elderly King Lir to get help dealing with a griffin that is preying on the children of her village, and of course she runs into Schmendrick and Molly Grue on the way. Great narrative voice, I’ve read it several times and always love it. The second one is new, and picks up with that same little girl on her seventeenth birthday, off on a journey to rescue her sister from Fairyland. But it’s one of those stories where someone is just JOURNEYING the entire time, and not getting anywhere (literally, bc it’s Fairyland), and it’s a bummer, and also she gets raped which is entirely unnecessary for this story. It has a vibe that I would say is “suffused with melancholy” and I found it very slow and occasionally tiresome. It does pain me to say that. I guess that averages out to a B+?

2023 book 58

 Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn

I’m rereading this not just because it’s one of my all-time favorites, but because a companion came out today featuring two novellas set in this world, one of which I’ve already read, but one is new! A perfect excuse to revisit a classic. I will say I’m reading the recent reissue this time, and there do seem to be some changes to the text (minor additions, as far as I can tell, though in one case two versions of the same sentence appear, an awkward error). I hope they reissue more of Beagle's books soon.

2023 book 57

 Jessa Maxwell's The Golden Spoon

Great premise on this, but I found the execution unsatisfying. It’s billed as a murder mystery set at a show that is basically GBBO but set in Vermont, but the murder doesn’t happen until 80 percent of the way in, and there are really no mystery elements at all. (Someone is also sabotaging the bakers, but the author immediately shows the reader who that is.) And the characters, aside from one reveal, aren’t interesting enough on their own. In the back half, a lot of the POV sections don’t feel real/authentic at all, and things feel pretty predictable. Maybe this was a marketing issue, but I was pretty disappointed. B/B-.

2023 book 56

 Laurie J. Marks' Dancing Jack

This is an older work by Marks that was recently reissued, about a country that was ravaged by a plague seven years ago, and the three middle-aged women (a farmer, a riverboat pilot, and a toymaker) who are going to help put things right. It’s sad and dark and weird at times, but also hopeful? I had some mixed feelings about the end until I read the author's note and then I was like, well, ok. A-/B+.