Weekly Roundup

Posted May 4, 2019 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

Good morning, folks! It feels like it’s been a quiet week, but I really haven’t done nearly enough reading to suit me. Still, Wyrd and Wonder has kicked off, and there’s plenty of books ahead…

New books:

Cover of Once And Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy Cover of Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

A queer retelling of King Arthur and a book I’ve been wanting for months?! Yep, my Litsy swap partner for the Mythology and Legends swap spoiled me good. <3

Books read this week:

Cover of Uprooted by Naomi Novik Cover of Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews Cover of In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

Reviews posted this week:

–The Undefeated, by Una McCormack. I found this a little slow and prone to reminiscing about rather than telling the story, if that makes sense. 3/5 stars
–City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab. Rather too simplistic and middle-gradey for me, though I’m sure it’s a great read for the right audience. 3/5 stars

Other posts:

–Wyrd and Wonder Reading List. And I’ve been dared to/bet that I can’t read all of these by the end of May, so watch out!
–WWW Wednesday. The usual update post!

Out and about:

–NEAT science: ‘Vaccination safety.‘ Don’t worry, I’m not advocating against vaccines — the opposite! — but I was asked whether getting an extra MMR booster could harm you. (Answer: almost definitely not, but consult with your doctor who knows your individual health status.)
–NEAT science: ‘Pandas are not a stupid idea.‘ Really! They’re really well adapted to a bamboo diet, despite common misconceptions.
–Once Upon A Blue Moon: ‘Fire & Flame.’ Another short story written to go with a bookmark I stitched!

So what’ve you been up to this week?

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Review – City of Ghosts

Posted May 3, 2019 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Cover of City of Ghosts by Victoria SchwabCity of Ghosts, Victoria Schwab

This book is very definitely intended for a middle-grade audience, which made it not really my thing. It’s fun enough as an idea: Cassidy is the daughter of two professional ghost hunters. Her dad takes an intellectual approach, sceptical that ghosts could exist and focusing on the stories and records that surround paranormal phenomena. Her mother is a believer. Together they write books and now they’re filming a TV show, and Cassidy’s going along, to Edinburgh — the most haunted place in Britain. The thing is, Cassidy’s had a near-death experience herself, and come out changed — and with a ghost sidekick.

Naturally, it turns out that there really are hauntings in Edinburgh, and Cassidy finds herself nastily entangled in them, while also finding other people like herself who can pass through the Veil and experience the world of the ghosts. There’s plenty of room for more stories about Cassidy, her pet ghost, and her parents, and possibly room for some of the people she meets along the way. It’s in no way a bad book, but I found it less enjoyable because it is rather simplistic and short. I’m not the intended audience, so perhaps I shouldn’t be judging it at all — but then there are children’s books which are still completely enthralling to me, so it’s not impossible to make it work.

I probably won’t follow the further adventures of Cassidy, but I bet a kid of the right mentality would enjoy the heck out of it.

Rating: 3/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted May 1, 2019 by Nicky in General / 1 Comment

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

Cover of Magic Bites by Ilona AndrewsWhat are you currently reading?

I started a reread of Magic Bites, by Ilona Andrews, to kick off Wyrd & Wonder! I’ve been meaning to reread/finish this series for ages (as with so many series, I know), and it seemed like a good time. I’m ripping through it — and wildly entertained by the start of Curran and Kate’s relationship! “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…”

Cover of Uprooted by Naomi NovikWhat have you recently finished reading? 

Two rereads! First, I finished rereading Uprooted by Naomi Novik, which I just sort of tore through in a matter of two days. Then last night I also finished rereading Raven Stratagem, leaving me ready to go on and finally finish Revenant Gun. At this rate, I might even finish Revenant Gun before my wife gets there (if she likes the series and reads all three, I mean — if she does, she often beats me to the last book of a trilogy).

And Uprooted, I just sort of inhaled. I have Feelings about how Novik managed to make the Dragon go from incomprehensibly awful to “that’s… kinda cute actually”.

Cover of Magic for Liars by Sarah GaileyWhat will you read next?

I really don’t know. Something fantastical, probably, since it’s Wyrd and Wonder. But then maybe not — who knows, when I’m in charge? Whims, whims, whims. Whims all the way down. I’m most tempted to finish up with Magic for Liars (Sarah Gailey), and then maybe diving into something new-to-me. Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, maybe!

What are you currently reading?

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Wyrd & Wonder Reading List

Posted May 1, 2019 by Nicky in General / 22 Comments

Text banner: Wyrd and Wonder: Celebrate the Fantastic (1-31 May) - plus a gorgeous stylised dragon glyph

So here we are. It’s May, and Wyrd & Wonder has begun! I promised I’d come up with some kind of reading list, and here it is. Will I be able to read all of these? Almost certainly not (but it is theoretically possible, I promise). Will I even try? Unlikely. But I always get along better with goals to strive for, and you never know…

This is not, of course, an exhaustive list, either. I could read something else. I probably will.

Rereads:

  • Magic Bites, by Ilona Andrews. I’ve been meaning to reread/finish this series for a while, and it’s a bit different to… almost everything else on this list!
  • A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan. Because the new book is coming out on my birthday this summer, and it’s always a good time to spend time with Lady Trent.
  • Sorcerer to the Crown, by Zen Cho. I actually got The True Queen as an ARC… and I’d like to reread this first. (Sensing any patterns?)
  • The Traitor Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson. I enjoyed this a lot the first time, but it’s been so long. Gotta reread this before I can read the sequel.
  • Valour & Vanity, by Mary Robinette Kowal. I’ve been rereading this series, and I’m up to this one, the last one I’ve read before!
  • Dreamer’s Pool, by Juliet Marillier. I want to read the whole trilogy, but I only read this one, and quite a while ago now, so… you’ve got the idea by now.
  • Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. I just got hit by the urge to reread this, so what the hey — it’s on the list!
  • Uprooted, by Naomi Novik. I feel like the amount I can remember about this is actually shockingly bad, so before I read Spinning Silver, I’d like to revisit!

Cover of A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan Cover of Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho Cover of The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson Valour and Vanity, by Mary Robinette Kowal

ARCs:

  • The True Queen, by Zen Cho. See above! I’m late to get this read… oops.
  • The Monster Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson. It’s time for me to read this! It really really is!
  • Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey. This is due out… 4th June. I should read it before then!
  • In An Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire. You may be sensing a theme here… I really need to stop procrastinating on ARCs.
  • Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire. It’s not out yet! I’m doing well here!
  • Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik. It’s my book club choice on Habitica! It’s also an ARC I’ve had for far, far too long.

Cover of Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey Cover of In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire Cover of Middle-Game by Seanan McGuire Cover of Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

From the backlog:

  • Snowspelled, by Stephanie Burgis. This is not very backlogged; I just got it, and I would like to get to it soon.
  • The Dark Days Club, by Allison Goodman. I might have started reading this at the start of the year and… put it down… and not picked it back up yet?
  • The Afterward, by E.K. Johnston. I’ve had this on my wishlist for a while, I forget exactly what I read about it, and picked up a copy recently.
  • Of Noble Family, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Time to finally finish reading this series!
  • Fire Logic, Laurie J. Marks. I have been meaning to read this for so very long, and recently picked up a physical copy. It’s time and past time!
  • Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, by K.J. Parker. I picked it up on a whim during my trip to Amsterdam, and I’d like to stay on top of this year’s book purchases. So, voila.
  • Trail of Lightning, by Rebecca Roanhorse. Apropos of the Wyrd & Wonder readalong!
  • The Ninth Rain, by Jen Williams. Ditto.

Cover of The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman Cover of The Afterward by E. K. Johnson Cover of Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker Cover of The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

Now I kinda want to do some kind of challenge about how well I can stick to the list… But I know myself. The number one rule has always gotta be “have fun, and stop reading it if you aren’t”!

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Review – The Undefeated

Posted April 30, 2019 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Undefeated by Una McCormackThe Undefeated, Una McCormack

Received to review via Netgalley

The Undefeated follows Monica, an adventurer who made part of her fame and fortune by marrying a famous writer and part of it by becoming a journalist, as she goes back to the planet where she was born. The story is partially told through flashbacks to Monica’s childhood, which illuminate just why she was so interested in documenting the situation in conflict-torn areas. The Commonwealth was determined to annex other planets, forcing them into instability and then swooping in to “assist”, taking control and absorbing them into the Commonwealth. Monica’s home suffered just such an annexation, and in the process — well, I won’t give spoilers!

In addition to the theme of the Commonwealth’s aggressive annexations, there’s the issue of the jenjer: genetically modified people whose expensive modifications are paid for by people who then own them. Monica’s been surrounded by jenjer all her privileged life, and even travels with one now, but there’s something unsettling going on. Something coming.

I found the story a little slow, in that at times it was just a précis of Monica’s life — not so much showing us what happened as describing it at a remove. It would have had to be a whole novel to cover all the interesting stuff in Monica’s life, yes, but it did feel a little like we were skimming past stuff without really getting a chance to absorb it. ‘This happened, it meant this to Monica, then another thing happened.’

There are some great bits — the parts about Monica’s childhood work well, and her slow dawning of comprehension re: the jenjer. It was certainly an interesting read — I was never bored, or even frustrated exactly, but I felt like it could’ve been a lot more immediate and thus impactful.

Rating: 3/5

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Weekly Roundup

Posted April 27, 2019 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

Good morning, world! I need to queue up these posts further in advance, because I’m writing this at Late On Friday Night and wife would like to be asleep. Whoops.

Received to review:

Cover of The Toll by Cherie Priest

Bought:

Cover of Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis

Read this week:

Cover of Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt by Rosalie David Cover of Spineless by Juli Berwald Cover of An Incredible Crime by Lois Austen-Leigh

Reviews posted this week:

–Ragged Alice, by Gareth L. Powell. Enjoyed the setting a lot. The plot is a bit shakier, but I’d read more in the same world. 3/5 stars
–Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee. It’s still brilliant, ’nuff said. And better for a reread, even. 5/5 stars
–Catullus’ Bedspread: The Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet, by Daisy Dunn. Not sure if author knows whether they’re writing fiction or not. 2/5 stars
–The Bull of Minos, by Leonard Cottrell. Way out of date and focusing on fairly discredited archaeologists, but interested in its own dated way. Not really about the Minoan civilisation at all. 2/5 stars
–Hacking the Code of Life, by Nessa Carey. Really accessible and easy to read; could’ve wished for a bit more meat on it. 4/5 stars
–Searching For The Lost Tombs Of Egypt, by Chris Naunton. Fascinating stuff and it all seemed plausible and not pie-in-the-sky; Naunton isn’t actually saying all these tombs will be found or that there’ll be miraculous treasure if we do find them. He’s just weighing up the evidence. 4/5 stars
–King Arthur: The Making of the Legend, by Nicholas J. Higham. Absolutely great. This looks like it could be another book going in search of a dubious historical source for King Arthur, but actually it dismantles every one of them with meticulously explained evidence. 5/5 stars

Other posts:

–Top Ten Tuesday. Kinda less a Top Ten and more just my First Ten, but that was the prompt!
–WWW Wednesday. The usual update!

How’re you doing, fair reader? Big reading plans this weekend?

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Review – King Arthur

Posted April 26, 2019 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of King Arthur: The Making of the Legend by Nicholas J HighamKing Arthur: The Making of the Legend, Nicholas J. Higham

*clapping*

*clapping intensifies*

*standing ovation*

Much as I’m tempted to leave my review at that, I’ll be a little more rigorous. Higham’s book methodically examines every claimant for the original model for King Arthur, from Lucius Artorius Castus to the myths about the Narts, mostly focusing on the theories about a specifically historical Arthur. He examines each claim thoroughly, discussing its merits… and where each and every one falls down. The vaunted similarities between myths are barely similarities, the alleged likelihood of transmission to Britain is shaky, and so on and so forth. History isn’t my beat, but wherever Higham touched on the fiction that built the Arthurian mythology, he’s correct (as far as my knowledge and memory goes; it has been some years for me, admittedly).

It helps, of course, that his arguments come out strongly in favour of the common-sense conclusion that Arthur is a legend, as many legends are, with many sources and very little agreement between those sources about the kind of man/king he allegedly was. He’s also using some good common sense when he points out that the absence of evidence doesn’t mean any crazy theory could possibly be true. And he doesn’t just state why this is so: he goes through it, explaining why one translation should be favoured over another or how likely an interpretation is.

For my money, this is an excellent analysis of the ideas about a historical Arthur and in many ways of the claims for various fictional sources as well. Ultimately, if you long for Arthur to be real, this book won’t satisfy. If (like me) you’ve long understood that Arthur works best as an ideal, a chimera, a changeling who can be all things to all people, then you’ll be well satisfied that there seems to be no evidence that will pull the Welsh Arthur from my clutches or the Roman auxilliary from Sarmatia from anybody else’s.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt

Posted April 25, 2019 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt by Chris NauntonSearching for the Lost Tombs of Eygpt, Chris Naunton

When someone talks about looking for the tombs of people like Imhotep, Alexander the Great and Cleopatra, I think there’s always a chance that it could go the wrong way and turn out to be weird fabrications and confabulations piled on top of wishful thinking. Fortunately, Naunton’s book isn’t that at all, despite discussing the chances of finding those graves (and several others). Instead, he lays out the facts very clearly, describes the differing interpretations of the existing facts and the theories about where to look, and then — as far as I can tell, not being an Egyptologist — weighs them up in a down to earth, matter-of-fact analysis. The fabulous potential riches of Herihor’s tomb are cut down to size, and hopes of finding Imhotep’s tomb undisturbed are gently dissuaded.

Which sounds unfun, perhaps, but Naunton’s discussion of the past work and current findings are pretty fascinating to me, even if the conclusion is that we’ve probably already found as much as we’re going to find in one case or another. He doesn’t totally dismiss things that genuinely remain possible, but he’s pragmatic about it, and rightfully sceptical of things like refusal to reveal methods of analysis (for example in the case of the scanning done in Tutankhamen’s tomb that allegedly clearly showed another room, which can’t be replicated by other teams).

Fascinating stuff to me — I ate it up.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Hacking the Code of Life

Posted April 24, 2019 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Hacking the Code of Life by Nessa CareyHacking the Code of Life, Nessa Carey

This is a pretty slim volume which introduces the latest in gene editing technology, mostly but not exclusively referring to CRISPR, and its potential uses and implications. I was a little surprised there isn’t more to say about it, but Carey’s explanation of how CRISPR works is beautifully easy to comprehend (enough to make me update my own mental way of explaining it) and her analysis of the state of the art is pretty well on point as far as it goes.

Despite the boundless optimism I’ve seen around CRISPR, for all its potential it hasn’t changed the biomedical world yet (though labwork has already been transformed, as I understand it), and Carey is rightly cautious-but-optimistic in tone. My main complaint is just that I wanted more.

Rating: 4/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted April 24, 2019 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

Cover of An Incredible Crime by Lois Austen-LeighWhat are you currently reading?

Too much, as ever. The first two my eyes fall on are Spineless, by Juli Berwald, and The Incredible Crime, by Lois Austen-Leigh. The former is fascinating, though I’m gonna have to have a squint at the notes at the end — there’s at least one claim where I can’t find a source by googling. The latter is… well, it’s a Golden Age crime novel, so relaxing in the way I find almost all of those books relaxing: it’s not yet all about the most gruesome murder or the most twisted serial killer. It’s usually more of a puzzle. I’m not far into it, really, though.

Cover of Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt by Rosalie DavidWhat have you recently finished reading?

Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt, by Rosalie David. There were some odd decisions at points — like a chapter where David seemed to be taking the Bible fairly literally as a historical document, which I’ve previously understood is not a very good idea — but it goes through the beliefs of Egyptians both common and aristocratic, as far as we can understand them, explaining the evidence and implications..

Cover of Hild by Nicola GriffithWhat will you be reading next?

Why do I still try to answer this part? I’m fairly sure I’m never accurate. At a guess… well, I need to finish Hild sometime in the next week in order to get the Game of Books points for reading it on time for the book club. So that, maybe?

What are you currently reading?

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