Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted February 3, 2024 by Nicky in General / 30 Comments

It’s been a long week here. Unfortunately my wife’s grandfather died last weekend (not too unexpectedly), and the funeral had to happen very quickly, so we quickly dropped everything on Monday to sort things out to get my wife there on time. We managed it, which is all that matters, but I’m a little behind on comments and visiting people back thanks to the disruption and being away from home. I’ll catch up this weekend, since I’ll be back on my main PC!

In the meantime, here’s my usual weekly roundup, and I’m linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz.

Books acquired this week:

Not a lot this week, but my wife caved to my pouting and got me the final volume of the Scum Villain series, which I’ve already devoured:

Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 4 by MXTX

While the story was already over in the preceding volume, the fourth volume is full of short stories and extras that flesh out the world, the other characters, and what becomes of Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe.

Posts from this week:

I was a bit irregular about my posting schedule, but I think I did post a review every day. I have to, to even start to keep up with my reading speed — to avoid getting an even bigger backlog, I might need to post two in a day sometimes! So here’s this week’s roundup:

And other posts:

What I’m reading:

I’ve made a little project this week of finishing books I was partway through, leading to me finally finishing We Could Be So Good (Cat Sebastian), Sailor’s Delight (Rose Lerner) and Murder on Milverton Square (G.B. Ralph). I’ve also finished reading The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, having fallen rather in love with it.

For the weekend, I’m partway through Kelly and Zach Weinersmith’s Soon-ish, while also being tempted to start on Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Heather Fawcett).

Aaand a peek at the books I’ll be reviewing soon(ish):

Cover of Stone Star Season One by Jim Zub et al Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 3 by MXTX Cover of Fear Stalks The Village by Ethel Lina White Cover of We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

Cover of Stone Star Season Two by Jim Zub et al Cover of Sailor's Delight by Rose Lerner Cover of Murder on Milverton Square by G.B. Ralph Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 4 by MXTX

Not bad going for a week’s reading, I think!

How’s everyone else been doing?

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Review – Road of Bones

Posted February 2, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Road of Bones

Road of Bones

by Rich Douek, Alex Cormack, Justin Birch

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror
Pages: 128
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Horror, history, and Russian folklore collide in this brutal survival tale, where the worst prison in the world is merely the gateway to even darker terrors.

In 1953, the Siberian Gulag of Kolyma is hell on Earth--which is why Roman Morozov leaps at the chance to escape it. But even if they make it out, Roman and his fellow escapees still have hundreds of miles of frozen tundra between them and freedom. With the help of a mysterious being straight out of his childhood fairy tale stories, Roman just might make it--or is the being simply a manifestation of the brutal circumstances driving him insane?

Rich Douek’s Road of Bones is horrifying, and it’s one of those stories that is horrifying more because of the humans in it than anything else. The art is heavy, dark, in a way that’s appropriate but erases the individuality of people: there’s only the brutality of the Gulag and the brutality it breeds in everyone. It doesn’t always make it easy to follow exactly who is talking and to whom, though, and sometimes that’s important.

It ends up being a very gory story, and a harsh message; in the end, it almost feels like a cop-out that there’s a supernatural element here, given the real history and the real ways humans can be absolutely terrible. It just feels a little too obvious. It’s not shying from the brutality, but it risks giving it an excuse. A reason other than “humans are flawed, especially under pressure”.

I can’t say it was enjoyable, given the topic, but it was fascinating.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, vol 2

Posted February 2, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, vol 2

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, vol 2

by Mò Xiāng Tóng XiÚ

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 351
Series: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

[CHARACTER DEPTH LEVEL +10]

Three years have passed since Shen Qingqiu betrayed Luo Binghe, and now there are only two years left before his “deceased” disciple rises from the dead to claim his bloody glory as the protagonist. At least, that’s how the story is supposed to go.

In the midst of investigating a mysterious plague, Shen Qingqiu discovers that his actions have irreparably altered the plot—Luo Binghe has returned all too soon and Shen Qingqiu’s brilliant escape plan isn’t even ready yet! Worse, Shen Qingqiu can no longer predict his young disciple’s actions.

The only thing that hasn’t changed is Luo Binghe’s intense fixation on Shen Qingqiu himself, but even this obsession may be more than it seems. Not that Shen Qingqiu has the time to puzzle through all the inconsistencies. There are various parties at play in the changing plot, and if he doesn’t act fast, he may face a fate far worse than death.

The second volume of MXTX’s The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System is as gorgeous an object as the first, with black and white illustrations, helpful back matter, etc. The tone and style set in the first book continue, unsurprisingly, with SQQ being completely clueless — though LBH is a bit more opaque. The conflict does centre on a miscommunication (or, let’s be honest, a complete failure to communicate), but one that’s kind of unavoidable given the givens.

Still, if only people would just talk instead of making assumptions…

All in all, it’s a lot of fun, totally over the top, and I felt like I had to bump up my rating from the previous book. It’s still not 100% my thing in every possible way, but I had enough fun that that doesn’t matter. I’m curious how it’s going to wrap up in the next volume.

Rating: 4/5

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WWW Wednesday

Posted January 31, 2024 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

It’s Wednesday, so time to address the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What have you recently finished reading?
  • What are you reading next?

And linking up with Taking on a World of Words.

Cover of Murder on Milverton Square by G.B. RalphWhat are you currently reading?

I’m getting back into a book I’d abandoned for a little while, Murder on Milverton Square by G.B. Ralph. It’s a mystery set in New Zealand, and so far it’s not filling me with special enthusiasm, but it’s enjoyable enough light reading, if that makes sense.

Cover of Sailor's Delight by Rose LernerWhat have you recently finished reading?

I finally finished reading Sailor’s Delight by Rose Lerner! I know I’d talked about it several weeks in a row, and now I’ve finally got back into it. I love the way it works out, but mostly I love how careful it is to ground the story in the Jewish year and Jewish ways of thought. I haven’t read a lot of stories with that kind of basis/setting, and I enjoyed learning a little more through story.

Plus, the relationship between Elie and Brine is sweet.

Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 4 by MXTXWhat are you reading next?

Volume four of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System! I’ll be honest, I’ve peeked ahead a little bit: this volume is short stories, and I knew roughly what each one contained, so I’ve peeked at some of them to see how they play out. I’ll be sad to see this world finished: it really sucked me in more than I expected.

What about you? What are you currently reading?

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Review – Fear Stalks The Village

Posted January 31, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Fear Stalks The Village

Fear Stalks The Village

by Ethel Lina White

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 304
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Ambling along the lanes of a sleepy village in the Downs, passing cosy Tudor cottages rustling with wisteria, a novelist imagines the sordid truth hidden behind the quaint, rustic facade. Her musings are confirmed when a spate of anonymous poison pen letters shocks the community, turning neighbour against neighbour and embroiling everyone from the rector and the ‘queen of the village’ Decima Asprey to the high-born Scudamores. With venom in the air, the perpetrator a mystery and dark secrets threatening to come to light, a shadow of shame and scandal stretches over the parish, with death and disaster following in its wake.

Revelling in the wickedness that lies beneath the idyllic veneer of village life, White’s 1932 mystery is an inventive interwar classic and remains one of the foundation stones of the village mystery sub-genre of crime fiction.

Ethel Lina White is great at creating a tense atmosphere and then drawing every possible ounce of drama out of it, and she’s very successful here. It gets a little melodramatic at times, but it makes sense given the febrile atmosphere of the story. It opens in an idyllic village, where everyone knows one another — and where everyone is suddenly a suspect after poison pen letters begin to be received.

I found the resolution of the mystery fairly obvious, though I hadn’t anticipated some of the dramatic twists and red herrings along the way, so it took a while to figure out why it worked out that way and how the mystery gets unravelled.

White also does some interesting things with the characters, making them feel surprisingly real for a crime novel of this period. There’s some genuine psychological depth to the doctor in particular, and they aren’t all straightforward stereotypes. I actually felt sad about some of these scenes, and much more involved than I usually do with classic crime — there’s three in particular that really struck home.

As a note, anyone with triggers concerning suicide should read this book with care. There are two successful suicides, with varying degrees of description, and an additional almost-suicide that’s quite closely described.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – A City on Mars

Posted January 30, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – A City on Mars

A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?

by Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 448
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Earth is not well. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away—no climate change, no war, no Twitter—beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it? Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea. Space technologies and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn’t spark conflict back home. In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won’t create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind. In the process, the Weinersmiths answer every question about space you’ve ever wondered about, and many you’ve never considered:

Can you make babies in space? Should corporations govern space settlements? What about space war? Are we headed for a housing crisis on the Moon’s Peaks of Eternal Light—and what happens if you’re left in the Craters of Eternal Darkness? Why do astronauts love taco sauce? Speaking of meals, what’s the legal status of space cannibalism?

With deep expertise, a winning sense of humor, and art from the beloved creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, the Weinersmiths investigate perhaps the biggest questions humanity will ever ask itself—whether and how to become multiplanetary.

Get in, we’re going to Mars.

Zach and Kelly Weinersmith cover a lot of information about the colonisation of Mars in this book, but they do so in a breezy, conversational way that makes it really easy to read. I found the whole thing fascinating, if a bit disheartening: somehow from popular culture you’d think we were really close to putting settlements on Mars, at least within the next decade or something, but the Weinersmiths make it clear we’re not there yet, for a bunch of reasons.

Those reasons can roughly speaking be broken up into categories: the things we don’t know about human bodies and how they’ll react to low or no-gravity situations, the technology we don’t yet have, the stuff we don’t yet know about Mars, and the legal framework that is currently ambiguous/contested/not likely to produce happy, harmonious space settlements.

The whole time I was reading, I couldn’t stop thinking about James S.A. Corey’s Expanse books, which wrestle with the aftermath of these issues in a fictionalised way: Belters are physically different to those born on Earth, the whole political structure (and the implosions thereof), the issue of childbirth, etc, etc.

Anyway, the Weinersmiths have solid reasonings for the things they assert, it all makes sense, it’s wonderfully readable for the layperson, and there are lots of illustrations which make it all a bit more fun along the way.

Rating: 4/5

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Top Ten Tuesday: New To Me Authors in 2023

Posted January 30, 2024 by Nicky in General / 40 Comments

This week’s topic from That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday is all about authors I discovered for the first time in 2023. I don’t keep very good track of this, but I’ll take a look at my 2023 books and see if anything jumps out… I’m not trying to pick authors whose books are perfect, just some that (in looking back over the year) stand out to me.

  1. Mò Xiāng TĂłng XiĂš. This one’s on my mind because I’m eager to read the last volume of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System. I haven’t read danmei before, and a lot of the stuff the story takes for granted is new to me… but I had fun getting into it, and the characters linger in my mind. I only seem to have one review up so far, but reviews of volumes two and three are coming soon!
  2. Juneau Black. I discovered the Shady Hollow series in November or so, and tore right through them. They’re cosy crime stories, only the intrepid detectives are a fox and a bear — in fact, everyone in this town is an animal. It reminded me of the Redwall books, only a different genre.
  3. Akane Tamura. I don’t think I reviewed any of the volumes of this manga on the blog, but I tore through A Side Character’s Love Story, and I’m very eager to read more. The romance is a slow burn, but they communicate with each other so well (most of the time, at least) and they’re really sweet. The whole series seems to be available on Kindle Unlimited, at least in the UK, by the way…
  4. Ali Hazelwood. I’d been meaning to try her work for a while, but this was the year I started! I’ve only read the three novellas collected into the Loathe to Love You book, and I didn’t love all of them equally, but I had a good time.
  5. Fonda Lee. Once more, I’d been meaning to read her books for a long time (I’ve owned a copy of Jade City since it came out), but I got started in 2023 by reading her new novella, Untethered Sky. It made the list of my favourite reads this year.
  6. Travis Baldree. I loved Legends & Lattes instantly, and it made my top ten books from 2023! I enjoyed the prequel as well, though not quite as much.
  7. Malka Older. A similar story to some of the others: I intended to read her work before, but finally got round to it this year, via the novellas The Mimicking of Known Successes and The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles. I loved them both.
  8. Cassandra Khaw. Not all her books appeal to me, but I absolutely loved The Salt Grows Heavy, so I think I’ll give more of them a try!
  9. Thor Hanson. Let’s get some non-fiction up in here! I enjoyed both his book about bees, Buzz, and his book about how animals and ecosystems are adapting to climate change, Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid. He’s written a couple of other books, and I’ll probably pick them up at some point.
  10. Tom Ireland. As far as I can tell, he’s only written one book, so I’ll have to keep an eye out in future. I really loved The Good Virus: absolutely right up my street in every way. Bacteriophages are fascinating, maybe a way forward for dealing with antimicrobial resistance, and his anecdotes, case studies and interviewees were all engaging.

That was pretty difficult, not because I don’t read books by new-to-me authors, but because it’s sometimes a bit of a gamble. Plus, for graphic novels, the creative team often don’t work together on any other titles, and you’re never quite sure if what you enjoyed about it was a particular storywriter or the work of the whole team or what.

What about you? Is this a difficult topic for you, or could you easily name ten new-to-you authors you loved in 2023?

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Review – Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers: The Art of Reflection – Histories Forsaken

Posted January 29, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers: The Art of Reflection – Histories Forsaken

Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers: The Art of Reflection - Histories Forsaken

by Square Enix

Genres: Game, Non-fiction
Pages: 304
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

A gorgeous, oversized, full-color art book showcasing the artwork from the massively popular online video game Final Fantasy XIV.

Delve into the breathtaking world of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers in this deluxe volume featuring hundreds of beautiful illustrations of characters, environments, equipment, and more. Offering concept art, reference images, and messages from the artists, this book is a must-have not only for fans of the game but for any who appreciate top-tier game art.

The artbook for Final Fantasy XIV’s Shadowbringers expansion is just as beautiful as you’d expect, and features a lot of stuff you might not otherwise see: various character designs, promo art for past events, and details from the dungeon designs (which was probably my favourite part). It’s all gorgeously reproduced here, and the book comes with the Dulia-Chai minion. (Yes, I’ve redeemed mine, so no, it’s not for sale.)

I was a little sad though, because unlike the Heavensward book, there are no comments from Yoshi-P or the art or development teams. It’s just the images. There’s a lot of detail here, don’t get me wrong, but I found the little bits of commentary in the Heavensward book — there wasn’t a lot of it, but there was some — really charming, helpful, and illuminating.

It’s a lovely book, though, just bear that in mind.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Script & Scribble

Posted January 28, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – Script & Scribble

Script & Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting

by Kitty Burns Florey

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 190
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Steeped in the Palmer Method of Handwriting she learned in Catholic school, Kitty Burns Florey is a self-confessed “penmanship nut” who loves the act of taking pen to paper. So when she discovered that schools today forego handwriting drills in favor of teaching something called keyboarding, it gave her pause: “There is a widespread belief that, in a digital world, forming letters on paper with a pen is pointless and obsolete,” she says, “and anyone who thinks otherwise is right up there with folks who still have fallout shelters in their backyards.”

Florey tackles the importance of writing by hand and its place in our increasingly electronic society in this fascinating exploration of the history of handwriting. Weaving together the evolution of writing implements and scripts, pen-collecting societies, the golden age of American penmanship, the growth in popularity of handwriting analysis, and the many aficionados who still prefer scribbling on paper to tapping on keys, she asks the question: Is writing by hand really no longer necessary in today’s busy world?

Kitty Burns Florey’s Script & Scribble is a short history of handwriting, far from comprehensive, and larded heavily with the author’s own opinions and experiences (which I know would drive some readers wild, since some prefer a more objective, less personal account). It comes with a lot of different illustrations of different types of handwriting, along with some explanations about how exactly they’re formed.

The author is an unabashed fan of handwriting, though not a Luddite (accepting the need for typing skills, enjoying the use of her own computer, etc). I can’t help but feel if she’s not a Postcrossing member, she ought to be — most postcards I receive via Postcrossing are handwritten, and all of the ones I send are.

(Full disclosure: I work for Postcrossing! But I’m also a fan of it and frequently send and receive postcards on my own dime.)

Her elegy for written items seems a little premature to me, though perhaps that’s a peculiarity of my family; we send written letters a fair amount, and corresponded often via letters while I was at university around the time this book came out. That said, our handwriting isn’t brilliant, and I’m sure the handwriting experts she consults would have plenty to say about my rounded, mostly-cursive hand.

It’s an interesting read and quite quick, but doesn’t feel very in-depth. By the time it’s reaching the modern period, it’s focused solely on the North American picture, even specifically the US. I’d have loved something a little more general.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – In the Shadow of the Fall

Posted January 27, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – In the Shadow of the Fall

In the Shadow of the Fall

by Tobi Ogundiran

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 160
Series: Guardians of the Gods #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Ashâke is an acolyte in the temple of Ifa, yearning for the day she is made a priest and sent out into the world to serve the orisha. But of all the acolytes, she is the only one the orisha refuse to speak to. For years she has watched from the sidelines as peer after peer passes her by and ascends to full priesthood.

Desperate, Ashâke attempts to summon and trap an orisha—any orisha. Instead, she experiences a vision so terrible it draws the attention of a powerful enemy sect and thrusts Ashâke into the center of a centuries-old war that will shatter the very foundations of her world.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Ashâke wants to be a priestess, but the orisha don’t speak to her. Desperate to understand why, she attempts to summon and bind them, and thus gets tugged into a whole world of trouble. It takes a while for the story to show you exactly why, though: a little bit gets revealed, then you spend a bit of time with Ashâke exploring the world and getting a little more context, and then a little more of the story comes out.

There are some really fascinating details — I loved the scenes with the griots, in particular — but the story turns out to be on quite a big scale. Zoomed out, whole-plane-of-existence stuff, rather than one temple among many, or one unremarkable girl. I wonder almost if it might’ve worked better as a single novel, rather than two novellas: where we’re at by the end of the book obviously isn’t the end, and it’s a little unsatisfying because of it.

It did also feel very familiar, and I’m trying to remember in what way. The beats of the story really reminded me of something: I think it might be Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights, actually, where Lyra ends up with the Gyptians for a time… Not that the two books are the same or anything, but I did get this uncanny sense of familiarity that I’ve been trying to pin down.

In any case, it has whet my appetite for more: I’m very curious what comes next, how Ashâke has changed as a result of the revelations, and what the world will look like when the events of the story are done.

Rating: 3/5

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