Posted December 29, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The Spoilt Kill, Mary Kelly
Wow, this book is such a complete downer. It features a divorced private detective who is investigating the theft of intellectual property (special designs for the items produced) at Shentall’s Pottery, who stumbles into a much darker mystery of the death of someone at the firm. It’s both a whodunnit and a who-was-done-in, with a structure that has the body discovered at the start, then a flashback to the investigation of the thefts, and then the aftermath.
It’s difficult to say much about the story without spoilers, but perhaps the least spoilery thing is that the detective falls in love with one of the people he’s investigating. When she finds out the truth, she’s less than pleased — even though she was keeping her own secrets all along, of course. The structure and this “love” story (which comes across as fairly creepy, since he snoops among her things and takes her out places on false pretences) are the story’s pretensions to a literary mode, rather than a paint-by-numbers crime story… but honestly, I prefer the paint-by-numbers. This is undoubtedly better written, but it’s grubby and psychological and slow.
Maybe if I was in it for the kind of story it turns out to be, I’d have enjoyed it more, but it lacks what many of the British Library Crime Classics have. It’s not a ‘cosy’ for me, as many of this series of reissues are; feels way too personal and definitely far too drear. There’s a certain attention to detail, of understanding the industry that she’s writing about, which makes this book stand out… and some of the psychological stuff and the interplay between the detective and the beloved would work better for me in a different context — but I can’t say I enjoyed it.
Rating: 2/5
Tags: book reviews, books, British Library Crime Classics, crime, Mary Kelly, mystery
Posted December 29, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Foxes in Love vol. 1, Toivo Kaartinen
I’ve loved the Foxes in Love Twitter feed for a while, so I haaad to have this collection of the various strips once it was announced… and a friend obliged. I’ve seen them all before, but they’re still so delightful.
There’s no overarching story or anything, so you can dip in and out as you wish. Instead, it’s a collection of slice-of-life strips, showing the lives of Blue and Green, who love each other very much. You get their musings about how lucky they are to be together, how they deal with setbacks like depression and bad days, little bits of silliness… it’s always delightful, or when it’s a little sad, it’s still always sweet because the foxes have each other.
Also, sometimes it’s just too real, e.g. this one: into the pit of irrational conclusions! I’m better about that than I used to be, but ooooh boy that rang true.
Rating: 5/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Toivo Kaartinen
Posted December 20, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The Secret Chapter, Genevieve Cogman
Genevieve Cogman has given us a proper heist story! We’ve seen Irene stealing books before, of course; that’s kind of the point. But this book is a traditional heist story, expanding the idea of Fae having archetypes into modern stories about thieves and crime bosses, as well. It’s fun to see Irene with a whole crew, even though this book doesn’t feature Vale at all — and fun to see her and Kai able to work together again.
There’s obviously a bigger plot accumulating, as well, so that though there’s a sort of “monster of the week” feel to the various thefts and negotiations and investigations, slowly the pieces are coming together on other big questions. Alberich was but a bump in the road, seemingly; there’s something even bigger to worry about, between the revelations of this book, the truce promised in the previous book. It feels good that six books in, the individual stories are still engaging — total popcorn for my brain, anyway — and pacy, while an overarching story keeps building at its own pace.
I’m fascinated by Indigo and the position this book puts Kai in; I’m super curious about Irene’s promised new apprentice. I love the way Sterrington has come back into things, and hope to see more of her. And it looks like the next book should see more of Vale again, maybe even at the same time as Kai — a book that’s Kai, Vale and Irene against the world has my full attention.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Genevieve Cogman, SF/F
Posted December 18, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
Goldilocks, Laura Lam
Oh boy, here I am finally, reviewing this. It’s been a heck of a year, and this wasn’t quite the right book for me earlier this year — I didn’t even get to the pandemic part, it’s just that the portrayal of a world slid out of control was too much for me in general. Goldilocks portrays a future version of Earth with women forced back out of the workplace, climate change out of control, and temperate areas overpopulated and struggling. A small crew of women are heading for a new planet, Cavendish, with the hope of finding and making a new home there, to save everyone.
Things turn out darker than that hope, in a way that’s difficult to talk about without giving too much away. There are some twists that are worth experiencing as part of the story, with its multiple timelines and carefully timed revelations. I’m usually pretty good at guessing ahead, but one or two twists caught me on the hop.
In the end, one particular character came across as a little too straightforwardly villainous for me. I didn’t have an ounce of sympathy for their aims or their choices on the way there, and that sat oddly with my earlier impressions of them. I’d have welcomed something that felt a little more nuanced, perhaps, though I did find Naomi’s reaction to them was nicely ambiguous. The ending seemed to suggest that things were meant to be that way, but after a certain point, they just went beyond the pale for me.
Overall, though, I enjoyed it and would recommend it.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Laura Lam, SF/F
Posted December 18, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Burnout: Solve Your Stress Cycle, Amelia & Emily Nagoski
Burnout is a self-help book, so no surprises here: there’s a rather chummy writing style with simplified, bitesize “science” (some of it feeling more dubious than other bits), and there’s a fair bit of colloquial, “relatable” stuff like saying “(ugh)” every time they write the word “patriarchy”. The book is focused on women, or at least people who were assigned female at birth, and throughout it assumes that it’s speaking to women and that women are the only people who would benefit from the advice contained therein. I don’t think that’s true, though I think some aspects of burnout that they discuss tend to impact women more.
There are some interesting ideas and bits of advice in here, and the ways in which it emphasises exercise — or doing some kind of analogue for exercise, like lying down and tensing each muscle sequentially — are fairly doable for anybody, without an undue emphasis on fitness/weight. There’s a section about body positivity which is probably useful for some folks, and which emphasises the ways weight loss is a con.
Overall, I’m probably never going to be a huge fan of self-help books, but this one has useful information and is probably accessible to just about anyone who can put up with the sex/gender assumptions being made. It is probably not going to fix your brain; it certainly didn’t fix mine… but it can offer a useful perspective.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction
Posted December 12, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The Mortal Word, Genevieve Cogman
I didn’t love The Burning Page or The Lost Plot as much as I hoped, somehow, and I partly wonder if I just got stalled partway through them, thought about things too much, and jammed up. No such problem with The Mortal Word: this series is like brain candy for me, and I had the time to just swallow it whole… so I did. In this book, Librarians are brokering a peace between Fae and Dragons, and things have been somewhat thrown into disarray by the murder of a trusted servant, a man who was working to make the whole deal come off. Irene is called in, along with Vale… and Kai manages to insinuate himself into things via the Dragon side.
There’s a little more of Kai, Vale and Irene working together in this book, which always helps — they’re an epic trio, and I said not entirely jokingly to someone else that I think they should just all three marry each other and get on with it. There’s also another little opening into the Dragon society in the form of Mu Dan, a judge investigator tasked to assist Irene and Vale from the Dragon side of proceedings. (The Fae tasked to join them is Silver, which also leads to some very fun bits.) But mostly, there’s more of Vale, who is probably my favourite.
I find these books a tiny bit predictable, though perhaps not as predictable as I feared they might be; in a way it comes with the territory, since Fae acting out their archetypes have the most power, and Dragons like order. They just fly by in a sometimes-tropey way that’s delightful to me. I’m glad I’m catching up with the series now!
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Genevieve Cogman, SF/F
Posted December 10, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Murder Underground, Mavis Doriel Hay
Searching for something to read on the treadmill — not too demanding, but absorbing enough to sink into for a half hour here and there — I decided a British Library Crime Classic would be a good pick. It’s been a while since I tried Mavis Doriel Hay’s books, so I can’t remember quite how this stacked up, but it was an entertaining enough story. The young people are mostly fun — you can tell they are genuinely good people, even when they’re laughing at their elders or being a little stupid about a police investigation — though I couldn’t entirely tell the difference between Beryl and Betty at times, which got a bit confusing.
Basil, however, was really annoying, oh my gosh. Just stop prevaricating and incriminating yourself and tell the truth, man! And it’s not at all endearing that you lose track of what story you’ve told which person and get into a mess! Gah. He deserved to be in trouble with the police!
In any case, I suspected the murderer early on, though I suspect I have an eye for Golden Age fiction patterns by this point. (And this one fits the pattern to a T; fairly unlikeable person gets killed, unlikeable person did the deed, order is restored at the end…) It worked pretty well, overall, and the clues come together well. Enjoyable!
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, British Library Crime Classics, crime, Mavis Doriel Hay, mystery
Posted December 10, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Meteorite: The Stones From Outer Space That Made Our World, Tim Gregory
Most of the science in this book is not my field at all (some touches on biology a little bit), so I come to this as a complete layperson… and I wasn’t entirely enthused by the idea of a book about meteorites, admittedly — or at least, not sure it would work out to be my kind of book — because it’s not my field, and that’s for a reason! But Tim Gregory writes so clearly and with transparent passion about what he’s doing that I was immediately absorbed. You can tell that he loves his subject, and is eager to communicate it — and he’s a great communicator. You can make any subject boring if you’re not good at writing, and likewise, I think perhaps you can make anything interesting with the right style.
As far as the actual science and history he discusses goes, I’m not really qualified to comment, but everything seemed to hang together and make sense. I didn’t notice anything that jarred against what I actually know or could quickly look up. If you’re interested in space, and in cosmochemistry, then I think this is probably one for you!
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, non-fiction, science, Tim Gregory
Posted December 9, 2020 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments
Well, it’s been a minute since I did this. Oops.
What are you currently reading?
I’m in the middle of The Mortal Word, by Genevieve Cogman; I was bemoaning the lack of Peregrine Vale in the previous book, and lo and behold, this one’s a murder mystery. Here’s hoping there’s plenty of Vale in this one (though I hope Kai isn’t as relegated to the sidelines as he appears to be here).
I’m also reading Murder Underground, by Mavis Doriel Hay. I can’t remember how I felt about Death on the Cherwell, but Murder Underground is doing okay — even if Basil is a silly ass who would do a lot better by not lying to the detectives!
What have you recently finished reading?
I finished up Meteorite: The Stones From Outer Space That Made Our World, by Tim Gregory. I love non-fiction books of all kinds where you can really feel that the writer loves their subject, and this is one of those. Cosmochemistry isn’t my thing at all, but Gregory’s so excited about it, it made me excited to read.
What will you be reading next?
As usual, I’ve no idea. My wife’s thinking of reading Red, White and Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston, so maybe I’ll buddy read that with her? Or I’ll get back to something on the Shelf of Abandoned Books… ahem.
What are you all reading?
Tags: books, Casey McQuiston, Genevieve Cogman, Mavis Doriel Hay, Tim Gregory, WWW Wednesday
Posted December 9, 2020 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment
The Lost Plot, Genevieve Cogman
I expected to steam through this on a reread, since these books are totally candy for my brain… but actually I stalled on it halfway through, again. I must conclude again that it’s mostly the lack of Vale — he barely appears in the story, and is barely relevant to the plot at all, which is largely in another world. It’s great that we get to see more of dragon society and Kai’s place within it, and we get some movement on Kai’s arc… and it’s also great to have a different setting for this book (Prohibition-era New York)…
But it really suffered for me without any sign of Vale. Which is greedy, probably; he’s important, yes, but he’s not part of the Library. He’s a human, albeit a convenient one, and tied to a specific world — it’s almost weird he’s managed to be such a big part of the plots so far!
I do still feel unsure about the ending. The will-they-won’t-they between both Kai and Irene and Kai and Vale always felt like a distraction; I was much more excited about the three of them working together in an intense friendship, balancing each other out. Irene and Kai as a couple don’t quite work for me without Vale, and yet he immediately becomes little more than a third wheel there. I’m hoping that feeling will be proved wrong by the next book!
In any case, it is still a lot of fun to run around after Kai and Irene, and to meet another Librarian and more dragons. The change in setting is fun, a reminder that it isn’t all steampunk worlds, and seeing Irene trusted by the Library with a difficult task is great after her shaky start in earlier books.
It’s just not my favourite.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Genevieve Cogman, SF/F
