Review – Queer City

Posted July 8, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

Review – Queer City

Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the present day

by Peter Ackroyd

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 247
Rating: one-star
Synopsis:

In Queer City Peter Ackroyd looks at London in a whole new way – through the history and experiences of its gay population.

In Roman Londinium the city was dotted with lupanaria (‘wolf dens’ or public pleasure houses), fornices (brothels) and thermiae (hot baths). Then came the Emperor Constantine, with his bishops, monks and missionaries. And so began an endless loop of alternating permissiveness and censure.

Ackroyd takes us right into the hidden history of the city; from the notorious Normans to the frenzy of executions for sodomy in the early nineteenth century. He journeys through the coffee bars of sixties Soho to Gay Liberation, disco music and the horror of AIDS.

Today, we live in an era of openness and tolerance and Queer London has become part of the new norm. Ackroyd tells us the hidden story of how it got there, celebrating its diversity, thrills and energy on the one hand; but reminding us of its very real terrors, dangers and risks on the other.

Peter Ackroyd’s Queer City feels a bit like a list, somehow. There is analysis there, but it really just feels like a long list of evidence, sources, people — and mostly people being punished for being queer, in some sections, because that’s the only evidence he found. I found it a quite tedious read, unfortunately, despite the boistorous gay scene he describes.

…And mourns, as he seems to feel that queerness being more acceptable (more acceptable when he wrote this than now, in some ways) has led to a loss, to a vigorous community settling down. It’s not clear he thinks that’s a good thing, as a gay man himself.

I would give three warnings about this:

1. He defines “queer” weirdly and incorrectly as being a catch-all term for people who are unsure where they stand. I promise you, I’m very sure, but refer to myself as queer because I prefer it for a number of reasons. It’s a plastic term and often an umbrella term, and it doesn’t mean what he said it means. At other times he uses it differently, but I definitely sat up and took notice when he defined “queer” that way, i.e. definitely wrongly. Someone who says they’re queer might mean that they don’t know exactly what to call themselves, but that doesn’t mean that holds for everyone who is queer.

2. Where he’s ostensibly discussing gay men, he’s often discussing paedophilia and rape, instead. He makes no distinction between the two. He doesn’t offer comment on it or judge it.

3. The final chapter-ish hasn’t aged very well; there’s something rather sceptical about his tone towards the spectrum of gender queerness, and he also clearly does not foresee the tide of transphobia that has left Britain (and therefore London, the “queer city” he focuses on) to be referred to as “TERF Island”. I got the sense that he might be one of those people who think it’s gone “too far” himself.

Overall, I didn’t find it enjoyably written, and I also have… questions… about the author’s opinions.

Rating: 1/5

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Review – A Shropshire Lad

Posted July 7, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – A Shropshire Lad

A Shropshire Lad

by A.E. Housman

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 51
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Few volumes of poetry in the English language have enjoyed as much success with both literary connoisseurs and the general reader as A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad, first published in 1896. Scholars and critics have seen in these timeless poems an elegance of taste and perfection of form and feeling comparable to the greatest of the classic. Yet their simple language, strong musical cadences and direct emotional appeal have won these works a wide audience among general readers as well.

A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad is a classic, and I know a couple of the poems best by appearances elsewhere (Dorothy L. Sayers’ Strong Poison and Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising), but I was surprised on this reread by how… uninspired most of it seemed. And I was a bit surprised by the pro-suicide poems I hadn’t remembered.

I know part of it was Housman putting on personas and playing around, but overall it seemed fairly well-worn, words ill-chosen, etc. There are a couple of standouts — ‘White in the moon the long road lies’, which is quoted in The Dark is Rising, would be one of them — but mostly… I remembered it being better than this. Or at least, more enjoyable to me; I’m sure there are people who still think it deserves all the praise!

So that was a bit of a disappointing reread, anyway, but I was pleased to finally place the poem quoted in Strong Poison (briefly in the book, at greater length and with relish by Ian Carmichael in the radio play).

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Payment Deferred

Posted July 6, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Payment Deferred

Payment Deferred

by C.S. Forester

Genres: Crime
Pages: 192
Rating: one-star
Synopsis:

Mr Marble is in serious debt, desperate for money to pay his family's bills, until the combination of a wealthy relative, a bottle of Cyanide and a shovel offer him the perfect solution. Slowly the Marble family becomes poisoned by guilt, and caught in a trap of secrets, fear and blackmail. Then Mrs Marble ensures that retribution comes in the most unexpected of ways...

C.S. Forester’s Payment Deferred is a horrible little story. I’m not saying it’s not well-written, but the protagonist is horrible in so many ways, and it’s basically the story of how he and his family become ever more twisted by a murder that he commits and then more or less successfully hides, for money (of course for money).

Mr Marble doesn’t seem like a great person to begin with, alcoholic and disinterested in his family, but murder brings out the worst in him, and the contamination seems to spread. It takes a long time for Mrs Marble to realise what’s happening (the portrayal of her is vicious and misogynistic), but eventually she too understands the murder, while the kids don’t, but definitely get twisted by the situation their parents have created.

If I hadn’t been reading this as a serial via Serial Reader, I’m not sure I would have finished it. It’s just relentlessly unpleasant. It’s meant to be — there’s no way Mr Marble is meant to be any kind of hero — but all the same, it’s not the kind of reading experience I generally enjoy. Still, it’s interesting as an example of a sort of inverted mystery, where the suspense is not “whodunnit” but “will he get away with it?”

Rating: 1/5

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted July 5, 2025 by Nicky in General / 29 Comments

Oop, it’s the weekend! And today the movers are coming, so this post has been prewritten and I just need to remember to push the publish button. (I’d schedule it, but then WordPress wouldn’t send out any emails saying there was a post, because they have some kind of bug.)

Edit before posting: things didn’t work out for me to post this earlier, so wooo, the movers have been! It’s been a busy, busy day.

Books acquired this week

Two books to review this week, both of which are pretty exciting!

Cover of Cinder House by Freya Marske Cover of What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for both of them. I’m hoping to tuck into them veeeery soon.

Posts from this week

Time for the roundup of reviews posted…

What I’m reading

As usual, let’s start with the roundup of books read since last week…

Cover of The Green Ages by Annette KehnelCover of Cyanide in the Sun and Other Stories of Summertime Crime ed. Martin Edwards Cover of The Future of Dinosaurs: What We Don't Know, What We Can, and What We'll Never Know, by David Hone Cover of R.U.R. by Karel Capek Cover of I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf, by Grant Snider

It wasn’t a huge reading week by my standards — especially because I finished three of those last weekend and then didn’t read much the rest of the week, but it’s not too surprising, what with the move!

I’m not sure if I’ll be reading much this weekend, or what I might be reading. I guess for that we’ll have to wait and see.

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!

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Review – A Breviary of Fire

Posted July 4, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – A Breviary of Fire

A Breviary of Fire

by Marie Brennan

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories
Pages: 168
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”

The words of composer Gustav Mahler animate this collection of sixteen tales from award-winning author Marie Brennan, inspired by mythological and folkloric traditions around the world. Here you will find flames of revenge, immortality, and grace, as a valkyrie seeks peace, a queen weaves and unweaves her own fate, and a goddess vanishes from mortal memory — but never from the page.

Marie Brennan’s A Breviary of Fire is a collection of short stories — some shorter than others — that fit broadly into the traditions of several different world-regions, each being based on mythology, or at least mythology-adjacent. It’s a pretty quick read, especially as some of the stories are more like prose poems or at least microfiction (which, to be clear, is something I’m enthusiastic about).

For me the most memorable ones were probably the Norse and Greek stories, just because they’re the mythologies I’m most familiar with (having studied them from the English Lit/learning to translate Old Norse angle); I really liked her take on Penelope, and her ponderings on the fate of Hella in Norse myth.

I enjoyed pretty much all of them, though; they all felt like they were at exactly the length the idea required, which can be a really annoying thing with short fiction.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol 8

Posted July 3, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, vol 8

A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation

by Misaki, Momochi, Sando, Lamp, Magonote

Genres: Fantasy, Manga
Pages: 162
Series: A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation #8
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

When Lizel mysteriously finds himself in a city that bears odd similarities to his own but clearly isn't, he quickly comes to terms with the unlikely truth: this is an entirely different world. Even so, laid-back Lizel isn't the type to panic. He immediately sets out to learn more about this strange place, and to help him do so, hires a seasoned adventurer named Gil as his tour guide and protector.

Until he's able to find a way home, Lizel figures this is a perfect opportunity to explore a new way of life adventuring as part of a guild. After all, he's sure he'll go home eventually... might as well enjoy the otherworldly vacation for now!

Volume eight of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation continues the action of the previous volume — and Lizel’s manipulation of events. Someday someone is going to outmanoeuvre him and he’s going to get quite the shock, but for now he’s the master. I loved the extra glimpses of Shadow and his attempts to suss what Lizel’s up to.

And, look, you can say “deep camaraderie” all you want, but in this volume Eleven goes to sit at Lizel’s feet while he’s reading, gets his hair pet and cheek scritched, and then nibbles on Lizel’s finger. Come on now.

We have some real Gil/Lizel moments too, don’t get me wrong — Gil’s face when he thinks that Lizel’s trying to do something in order to go home, aaah. I think it’s both determination to do it if that’s what Lizel needs, and grief at the idea of losing him.

Very curious what else will happen to wrap up the invasion of Marcade, and then what Lizel does to get back to what he was doing before…

Rating: 4/5 

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Review – A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks

Posted July 2, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks

by David Gribbins

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 289
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

From a Bronze Age ship built during the age of Queen Nefertiti and filled with ancient treasures, a Viking warship made for King Cnut himself, Henry VIII's spectacular Mary Rose and the golden age of the Tudor court, to the exploration of the Arctic, the tragic story of HMS Terror and tales of bravery and endurance aboard HMS Gairsoppa in World War Two, these are the stories of some of the greatest underwater discoveries of all time. A rich and exciting narrative, this is not just the story of those ships and the people who sailed on them, the cargo and treasure they carried and their tragic fate. This is also the story of the spread of people, religion and ideas around the world, a story of colonialism and migration which continues today.

Drawing on decades of experience excavating shipwrecks around the world, renowned maritime archaeologist David Gibbins reveals the riches beneath the waves and shows us how the treasures found there can be a porthole to the past to tell a new story about the world and its underwater secrets.

David Gibbins’ A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks was perfect for my mood and exactly what I’d been hoping for. I’ve been fascinated by underwater archaeology since watching certain episodes of Time Team as a kid, but I’d read another book recently about wrecks that really didn’t satisfy. This worked well, though!

As usual with this kind of thing, he doesn’t quite stick to just twelve shipwrecks, because contextualising each ship in comparison with other similar finds, documentary evidence, etc, can be really helpful — but each chapter does focus on a particular period and context, and there’s detail about the archaeology as well as the context surrounding it. My favourites were the earliest chapters/oldest wrecks, since modern history tends to leave me tuning out, but the author made all of it engaging.

I might maybe wish for numbered footnotes, but I feel I’m on a losing streak with those: few authors feel that’s necessary in a book for laypeople. I definitely wish the bibliography etc were printed in the book; my copy has a link where you can find the resources on the author’s website, but link rot is a thing and I wish people would be more cautious about it and just put the info in the darn book.

Rating: 4/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted July 2, 2025 by Nicky in General / 7 Comments

Cover of R.U.R. by Karel CapekWhat have you recently finished reading?

I reread Karel Čapek’s R.U.R., which I’d forgotten I’d read before. I think I “got” it better this time than previously, judging from my previous reaction. It’s still weird how all the men are in love with Helena, though.

Before that, I finished David Hone’s The Future of Dinosaurs, which… well, I’ve already posted the review; it was interesting, but quite dense to get through. At the same time, I guess it was kind of bitty as well, since it covers a broad range of topics.

Cover of The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by Sara LodgeWhat are you currently reading?

I’m most actively reading The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective, by Sara Lodge, which I’m finding quite interesting given my interest in the development of crime fiction as a genre. It’s not really about that, but it does discuss fiction alongside the real-life female inquiry agents, etc. It’s funny reading it and thinking about Sayers’ Lord Peter thinking he’s so clever and innovative by recruiting Miss Climpson etc; clearly just a couple of decades before that was a whole well-known thing, based on the evidence of ads in papers and at least one court case so far.

As ever, I have a number of irons on the fire — probably too many — but I’m not making a lot of progress on anything else I’m reading.

What will you read next?

Who knows? The next week or two are gonna be pretty focused on moving into the new house, and then organising and shelving my book collection. Something unexpected might jump out at me! Right now I have no plans except to pick up whatever I feel in the mood for, to be honest. It’s likely to be non-fiction, given the givens.

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Review – The Future of Dinosaurs

Posted July 1, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Future of Dinosaurs

The Future of Dinosaurs: What We Don't Know, What We Can, and What We'll Never Know

by David Hone

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 272
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Discover the latest frontiers in dinosaur research with Dr David Hone.

Ever since we first started discovering dinosaurs in the early-1800s, our obsession for uncovering everything about these creatures has been insatiable. Each generation has made huge strides in trying to better our understanding of these animals and in the past twenty years, we have made more discoveries than in the previous two hundred.

There have been extraordinary advances in palaeontological methods and ever more dinosaur fossils promise a landslide of new data and huge leaps forward in our understanding of these incredible animals. Over time, we have been bale to look at the sizes and shapes of bones, we have identified patches of fossil skin, we have looked at footprints and bite marks and we've calculated mass estimates and walking speeds.

With surprisingly little data to work from, we can put together a picture of an animal that has been extinct for a million human lifetimes. But for all our technological advances, and two centuries of new data and ideas, there is stull much more we don't know. What parasites and diseases afflicted them? How did they communicate? Did they climb trees? How many species were there?

In The Future of Dinosaurs, palaeontologist Dr David Hone looks at the recent strides in scientific research and the advanced knowledge we've gathered in recent years, as well as what we hope to learn in the future about these most fascinating of extinct creatures.

David Hone’s The Future of Dinosaurs: What We Don’t Know, What We Can Know, and What We’ll Never Know has a very descriptive title that tells you pretty much what’s to come. The seventeen chapters cover various aspects like anatomy, physiology, mechanics and movement, appearance, etc, discussing a little about what we do know, and illuminating where that knowledge can grow, and where we may never know more.

For the enthused dinosaur fan who reads loads of popular science books about dinosaurs, there’s probably not a lot here that’s very surprising — certainly I’m a fairly moderate dinosaur fan, and I wasn’t very surprised by most of it, though I did learn some snippets here and there. For example, about the fact that dinosaurs could and modern birds can isolate infection in one part of the body rather than tending to see systemic spread like humans. I want to do a bit more research into how; more localised immune responses, rather than a lymphatic system…? Or some kind of trigger-happy immune cell policing things harder? I’d like to know.

It’s a pretty dense book, with some black-and-white photos and illustrations; it looks very slim on the shelf, at least in the edition I read, but it has tiny text, so there’s more here than you’d think.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Cyanide in the Sun

Posted June 30, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Cyanide in the Sun

Cyanide in the Sun and Other Stories of Summertime Crime

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 288
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

“All about them, happy holiday-makers were strolling and laughing, evidently oblivious of the prevailing perils of their chosen resort...”

A cold case of poisonings heats up at a quaint guest house. A string of suspicious murders follows a crime writer’s tour bus. Two seedy stowaways uncover an infamous smuggling ring. Everyone needs a break now and then, but sometimes getting away can be murder.

In this new anthology, Martin Edwards presents a jam-packed travel-case of eighteen classic mysteries, featuring short stories from crime fiction legends such as Christianna Brand, Anthony Berkeley and Celia Fremlin alongside rare finds revived from the British Library archives. Including intriguing notes on the stories and their authors, this volume is your ticket to a thrilling journey from 1920s seaside skulduggery through to calamity in 1980s suburbia – perfect for armchair travelling or your own summer getaway.

Cyanide in the Sun and Other Stories of Summertime Crime is, as usual, edited by Martin Edwards and collects a range of “classic” crime stories (where “classic” means mostly within a certain period of crime fiction, rather than “well known and has stood the test of time”, etc), this time themed around holidays.

There’s a surprising number of short ones in this volume, which makes it speed by quite a bit, and I feel like there was less reliance on the same few obvious names (though of course Christianna Brand, Anthony Berkeley and Julian Symons do appear), maybe. Perhaps the net is being cast a bit wider now, with so many collections already out there.

As usual, there were one or two I didn’t care for, but it’s an interesting collection as a whole.

Rating: 3/5

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