Review – Clear

Posted September 6, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Clear

by Scott Snyder, Francis Manapul

Genres: Graphic Novels, Science Fiction
Pages: 137
Rating:

Synopsis:
In the not-too-distant future, mankind no longer sees the world as it truly is. The invention of neurological filters has made it so one can view reality however they may choose—Old Hollywood monochrome, zombie apocalypse, anime… the possibilities are endless.

Neo-shamus Sam Dunes is one of only a handful who choose to live without a filter. When the death of an old flame reveals foul play, Dunes is set on a wild and twisting mystery that will take him from the city’s deadly underworld to the even deadlier heights of wealth and power.

Scott Snyder’s Clear is set in a world where the US lost World War III, and all its citizens go around using “veils” to hide reality from themselves. Everybody’s using a different veil, there’s very little shared reality now. It’s unclear how that’s meant to work when people with different veils are interacting: at times it seems like it’s just a visual thing, and then it says that you can go around with everyone in the world desiring you. How? Does it change behaviour, then? Then how does anyone ever interact? How would you ever know what anyone else is doing? And yet people are interacting, throughout the comic.

There’s a twist that makes very little sense, as well. Isn’t it obvious, I mean? If you have to pay to have a veil but you also have to pay — even more! — to have no veil (“clear”), then how does that work? What happens if you don’t pay for anything? I guess the answer is that that only happens if you can’t pay, and then you probably become a “wrk” or something and you’re not able to tell anyone what’s going on, but to me it was obvious that the twist was coming as soon as Dunes said he was paying more and more each year for clear.

The more I think about it, the more it all falls apart. Maybe with a bit more time/world-building it could resolve those issues — and also I’m sure there are people content to just fill in the gaps themselves, take it as read, and not ask “why” too much. It’s also possible there are explanations I missed; I’m not very visual, and graphic novels can be a bit overwhelming in terms of the amount of information they give me. Still, the impression I was left with was one of swiss cheese.

Rating: 1/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Francis Manapul, Scott Snyder, SF/F

Review – The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Posted September 5, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Mysterious Affair At Styles

by Agatha Christie

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 298
Series: Poirot #1
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
With impeccable timing Hercule Poirot, the renowned Belgian detective, makes his dramatic entrance on to the English crime stage.

Recently, there had been some strange goings on at Styles St Mary. Evelyn, constant companion to old Mrs Inglethorp, had stormed out of the house muttering something about ‘a lot of sharks’. And with her, something indefinable had gone from the atmosphere. Her presence had spelt security; now the air seemed rife with suspicion and impending evil.

A shattered coffee cup, a splash of candle grease, a bed of begonias... all Poirot required to display his now legendary powers of detection.

For someone who loves Golden Age mysteries, I’ve read shockingly little of Agatha Christie’s work. So when I had the random thought to try using the app Serial Reader again, the first serial I picked was Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles. In the past I haven’t been the greatest fan of Poirot per se (while thinking that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was pretty genius), and I can’t say my mind was changed like a lightning bolt by this one.

Which is not to say it’s not a fun mystery, but I disliked Hastings quite a bit. It’s the whole trope of a helper to the detective, who is a lot less clever, draws wrong conclusions, and both leads the reader astray and bigs up the detective in comparison. It’s a trend that started with Holmes and Watson (though Watson’s cleverer than many of the type, including Hastings), and just… not one I particularly enjoy. Perhaps that’s why, by and large, I prefer Sayers and Lorac.

Still, the solution is fun, and I enjoyed the read — it’s just inclined to make me think that Christie’s enduring popularity is in part due to her sheer prolific output, and thus the memorability of her name. Lorac is, for my money, a better writer, and much less well-known.

This does come across as rather negative, evaluating the book by what it’s not, but I find I have very little to say about the book in and of itself. It’s a fun mystery, I didn’t immediately see the solution, and if you’re interested in the Golden Age of crime, it’s definitely of interest.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: Agatha Christie, book reviews, books, crime, mystery

WWW Wednesday

Posted September 4, 2024 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

It’s Wednesday, so it’s time for the usual update!

What have you recently finished reading?

I think the most recent novel I finished was Heaven Official’s Blessing volume 4 (MXTX). I’m loving the series, but I did take a bit of a pause to breathe after volume 4, knowing that the next volume answers some questions about Hua Cheng — at least, I hope it does! And I’m so ready for Xie Lian and Hua Cheng to maybe acknowledge what’s between them a bit more.

I know a lot of spoilers, as well, which gives me the fascinating puzzle of trying to figure out where things fit in.

What are you currently reading?

All That Remains (Sue Black) is the book I’m currently reading most actively, and hoping to finish today. I find it’s a lot more personal than her later book, Written in Bone, and I’ve found myself crying several times. I just read the chapter on her work in Kosovo, which is pretty heavy stuff. She has a very practical approach to death, but coupled with a great respect for grief and for what families need, and what’s owing to a person even when they’re dead.

On Serial Reader, I’m about halfway through The Murder on the Links (Agatha Christie). It’s much of a muchness with other fiction of the period, and I’m maybe liking it a bit less because I do so dislike Hastings as a narrator, and (sorry…) I’m not a huge fan of Poirot. Not that it’s bad, just not entirely to my taste.

What will you read next?

The next volume of Heaven Official’s Blessing is definitely high on my list. Other than that, I’ve been steadily trying to whittle down the number of books I have partway read at any one time, so I’ll probably pick another of those to focus on; Christina Baehr’s Wormwood Abbey, probably, but maybe also Emily Henry’s Book Lovers, since that’s not in a series and I won’t simply want to start the next book in its place.

How about you, readers?

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Involving Food

Posted September 3, 2024 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

This week’s prompt is “Books Involving Food (That are Not Cookbooks)”, which… I’m sure I know a lot of books which incidentally mention food, but I’m not sure how many will stand out for me. Let’s see…

Heaven Official’s Blessing (vol 4), by MXTX. This one springs to mind because I just read it, and because (alas) all the food Xie Lian cooks is awful, if not deadly. Only he and Hua Cheng can stand it, and in volume four, it gets used as a weapon… I’ll pass on the Love for All Seasons stew, and the Incorruptible Chastity Meatballs.
Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. It’s been a long while since I read this, but all the descriptions of baking stuck in my head! It’s so full of good food for a vampire novel.
Chocolat, by Joanne Harris. I need to give this a reread, it’s been ages, but I always did enjoy it. And of course, it always makes me crave chocolate. (Oh no!)
Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree. Okay, it mostly involves coffee, but it does feature the tasty, tasty snacks made by Thimble.
The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (vol 1), by MXTX. The original Luo Binghe shows his harem favour by cooking for them… but the Luo Binghe that Shen Yuan meets after his transmigration will pretty much only cook for him. Unlike Xie Lian in MXTX’s other book, mentioned above, Luo Binghe really can cook. I have no idea if I’d like congee, but it makes me tempted to find out.
Cold Clay, by Juneau Black. Food keeps getting mentioned again and again, and it all sounds so tasty. Though in this book it is slightly macabre to think that Joe’s been making apple pies using apples from the orchard where his murdered wife was secretly buried.
The Biscuit: The History of a Very British Indulgence, by Lizzie Collingham. Time for some non-fiction! This one discusses biscuits, of course, but in a way that also tells us about a broader swathe of history too.
White Bread: A Social History of the Store-bought Loaf, by Aaron Bobrow-Strain. A whole history about bread? And not just any bread, but just… store-bought loaves? Yep. And it’s fascinating, and in many ways it’s a book about class.
A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles, by Ned Palmer. I found this one totally fascinating — and it helps that I really do love cheese.
Ice Cream: A Global History, by Laura B. Weiss. I love the Edible series in general, but I’ll stick to highlighting just one. My main complaint was that it wasn’t actually very global.

Yay, I did it! I read a surprising number of books about food for someone who isn’t interested in food, per se. I’m not a cook or any kind of gourmet, but food can be such a strong indicator of culture, it’s a fascinating way to look at society and history.

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – They Were Here Before Us

Posted September 2, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

They Were Here Before Us: Stories from Our First Million Years

by Ran Barkai, Eyal Halfon

Genres: History, Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 208
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
An epic and highly readable investigation into our very earliest ancestors, focusing on the land corridor thorough which humans passed from Africa to Europe and the evidence left behind of their lives and deaths, struggles and beliefs.

This is not a book about archaeological sites. We shall come across flint tools, bones, skulls, surprising structures, and layers of earth that we can date to different periods—but they are not the heart of the matter. This book is about us, human beings, and about our place in the world. About what we have done, where we came from, which other humans used to be here, why they are no longer with us, and how and why our lives have changed. It’s also about where we went wrong. What did early humans do because they had no choice and what is the price we paying for this now?

Taking as the focus ten sites in Israel, the land corridor through which the human species passed on its journey from Africa to Europe, the story ranges far and wide from France, Spain, Turkey and Georgia to Morocco and South Africa, North America, Columbia and Peru. The authors follow the footsteps of our ancestors, describing the tools they used, the animals they hunted and the monuments they built. Fascinating revelations include:

- The earliest evidence of human use of fire;
- The meaning of cave art and the transformative effect of touching rock;
- The woman for whom 90 tortoises were sacrificed;
- What happened in the Levant following the disappearance of elephants;
- The monumental tower built at the lowest place on earth;
- Why we should envy modern hunter-gatherers – and much more ...

This provocative and panoramic book shows readers what they can learn from their ancestors, and how the unwavering ability of prehistoric people to survive and thrive can continue into the present.

There isn’t much in Eyal Halfon and Ran Barkai’s They Were Here Before Us that will come as much of a surprise if you’re already familiar with the stories of humanity’s origin, though they do mention a few new-to-me theories and go into some of the history of how things were discovered which I didn’t know. The broad strokes are familiar, but they write very clearly and explain things well. At times there’s a touch of the travelogue, because they describe visiting various of the sites as part of giving their context, but it’s not the main point of the narrative.

They do some imaginative reconstruction in the course of this, trying to figure out why people might have put a swan’s wing here or built a tower there, but I felt like they didn’t go wild: they presented these ideas as theories, as a way of understanding the data, and it’s pretty clear when they’re guessing and when they’re stating a fact.

The book doesn’t have numbered references, but it does have a solid bibliography including both books and papers, most of which look reasonably well-related to the topic to my eye (though this isn’t my field).

I found it enjoyable, and the translation (by Eylon Levy) is very readable.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Eyal Halfon, history, non-fiction, Ran Barkai, science

Review – The Last Days of the Dinosaurs

Posted September 1, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World

by Riley Black

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 304
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
In The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, Riley Black walks readers through what happened in the days, the years, the centuries, and the million years after the impact, tracking the sweeping disruptions that overtook this one spot, and imagining what might have been happening elsewhere on the globe. Life’s losses were sharp and deeply-felt, but the hope carried by the beings that survived sets the stage for the world as we know it now.

Picture yourself in the Cretaceous period. It’s a sunny afternoon in the Hell Creek of ancient Montana 66 million years ago. A Triceratops horridus ambles along the edge of the forest. In a matter of hours, everything here will be wiped away. Lush verdure will be replaced with fire. Tyrannosaurus rex will be toppled from their throne, along with every other species of non-avian dinosaur no matter their size, diet, or disposition. They just don’t know it yet.

The cause of this disaster was identified decades ago. An asteroid some seven miles across slammed into the Earth, leaving a geologic wound over 50 miles in diameter. In the terrible mass extinction that followed, more than half of known species vanished seemingly overnight. But this worst single day in the history of life on Earth was as critical for us as it was for the dinosaurs, as it allowed for evolutionary opportunities that were closed for the previous 100 million years.

Riley Black’s The Last Days of the Dinosaurs is not entirely about dinosaurs — in fact, a large chunk of it is about what came after the dinosaurs, the period of renewal in which the avian dinosaurs and mammals recovered from the Chicxulub impact and dinosaurs didn’t.

The main body of the text is an imaginative reconstruction, based on the data we have, choosing examples from particular species to illustrate how the impact (and aftermath) affected different kinds of animals, and how some may have survived. It’s followed by an appendix which discusses some of the scientific evidence behind the reconstruction. None of this is footnoted or explicitly linked in any way to a specific source, unfortunately (though it accords with my knowledge as far as that goes).

So as a casual read for laypeople, this is fine — Black’s writing is clear and her enthusiasm for the subject spills out at all turns, but for those who read a claim and then want to see what it’s based on, this would be pretty frustrating.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Brian Switek, non-fiction, Riley Black, science

Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 31, 2024 by Nicky in General / 17 Comments

It’s been a pretty normal week, as things go, which is nice after feeling pretty busy and frazzled of late! It’s been a quieter week reading-wise, but that’s fine.

Books acquired this week

Without further ado, let’s finish off looking at my birthday haul (part one was last week, if folks are curious). As usual, it’s a mixture. Here’s the rest of the fiction…

A bit of romance, a bit of murder — as you do (at least around here).

And here’s the rest of the non-fic:

As ever, quite the mix. 🙂

Posts from this week

Aaand here’s the roundup of reviews posted:

History non-fiction: Colour: Travels Through the Paintbox, by Victoria Finlay (3/5 stars)
SF/F comic: Dominion vol 3: The Fist of God, by Thomas Fenton et al (2/5 stars)
SF/F cosy romance: Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea, by Rebecca Thorne (3/5 stars)
Chinese light novel, fantasy/romance/mystery with a dash of horror: Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 2, by MXTX (4/5 stars)

What I’m reading

As I mentioned, it’s been a quieter week reading-wise, but it’s been nice. I’m deep into Heaven Official’s Blessing, of course, and not taking long between volumes as it’s really designed as one continuous story (it was a webnovel). I also started using an app called Serial Reader again, which means I’ve been reading some Agatha Christie, small segments at a time. I’ve read a lot less Christie than you’d imagine, given my love for Golden Age crime. I’m now onto The Murder on the Links.

In any case, here are the books I’ve read this week which I’ll be reviewing on the blog sooner or later…

And th-th-that’s all folks! I hope everyone’s had a good week.

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

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 2

Posted August 30, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Heaven Official's Blessing

by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 438
Series: Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu #2
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
THE TOUCH OF A HAND, A ROLL OF THE DICE

Xie Lian has confirmed that the bewitching youth San Lang is actually Hua Cheng, one of the Four Calamities and a supreme ghost despised by all heavenly officials. Still, he has trouble matching the terror of his companion’s reputation with the charming, clever, and protective young man he’s come to know.

When a distress signal leads Xie Lian into Ghost City, a bustling metropolis containing all the horrors and delights of the dead, he sees Hua Cheng in his element—and his true form—for the first time. But despite their chemistry and care for one another, there are missions to fulfill and secrets to uncover, and Xie Lian’s centuries of troubled history are never far behind.

The second volume of Heaven Official’s Blessing finishes up with arc 1 and begins arc 2: I can see why some readers complain that the volumes are split in weird places, but I think it’d end up with ridiculously chunky volumes and then really skinny ones if it was split by arcs or something, and I bet you people wouldn’t like that either. Still, I agree it feels weird that it’s basically one continuous story, and you can’t stop and feel satisfied at the end of a volume; that’s kind of unavoidable, given it was a webnovel first.

As with the first volume, I’m sure that there are critiques of the translation, but it’s pretty internally consistent and it’s definitely readable, and not significantly better/worse than the translation of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, for example. I believe the translators are different, but something of the underlying style does seem to come through — though at times I could do without it (stop yelling, Qi Rong).

The end of arc 1 gives us a visit to Hua Cheng’s domain, followed by some answers about Xie Lian’s past in the form of confronting Qi Rong, his cousin, with Hua Cheng figuring out what happened during an infamous and bloody event, and manipulating matters so that Xie Lian can no longer claim all the blame for himself. There are some really nice character/relationship moments there, and then act 2 begins, which seems to be all a long flashback to Xie Lian’s life before godhood (going into his first ascension afterwards, in book 3).

All in all I’m really enjoying it. There’s a lot more detail and complexity than in SVSSS, which makes sense since there are eight books in total. I fear how MXTX is going to torture Xie Lian and Hua Chung… but I’m all-in.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, horror, Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù, mystery, romance, SF/F

Review – Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea

Posted August 30, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea

by Rebecca Thorne

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 336
Series: Tomes and Tea #1
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters… all complemented by love and good company. Thing is, Reyna works as one of the Queen’s private guards, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives isn’t so easy.

But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she’s thoroughly done risking her life for a self-centered queen. Meanwhile, Kianthe has been waiting for a chance to flee responsibility–all the better that her girlfriend is on board. Together, they settle in Tawney, a town nestled in the icy tundra of dragon country, and open the shop of their dreams.

What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum. In a story brimming with hurt/comfort and quiet fireside conversations, these two women will discover just what they mean to each other… and the world.

Rebecca Thorne’s Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea is unashamedly inspired by Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes, tapping into the same “stone-cold badass decides to settle down and serve hot drinks” vein. Reyna is one of the queen’s elite bodyguards, but after a serious incident in which she nearly gets killed in the process of protecting her queen — a queen who is clearly psychopathic — she decides to listen to her girlfriend’s suggestions and run off to run a bookshop/teashop somewhere the queen won’t find them for a while.

This is all somewhat stymied by her girlfriend Kianthe being the most important mage in her country, if not the world, and also as a result effectively a foreign diplomat. Needless to say, they can’t settle into total obscurity: Reyna’s battle prowess is quickly obvious, as is Kianthe’s ability as a mage.

Because of the psychopathic queen and the action scenes, this doesn’t quite fit into the same niche as Legends & Lattes, to my mind. Reyna hasn’t really put down her sword so much as decided to stop serving that queen, which is really not the same. It also feels a lot “younger”, perhaps because things are very black-and-white: the queen is obviously a monster, from a line of monsters; Reyna’s old partner in the guard is a bit slimy and definitely after her body; Kianthe is at times a bit of a sullen teenager about her power and how it marks her out without making people care for her as a person (and even obscuring who she is as a person). It doesn’t reckon very well with Reyna’s probable trauma or even with Kianthe’s anxiety (though we see her having panic attacks, it doesn’t feel like they get addressed very seriously).

It also focuses a bit more on the romance aspect, and a lot less on the practicalities of putting together a shop and drawing in customers, compared to Legends & Lattes. All in all, it feels like some of the themes and framings of YA, and it left things feeling less complex. That’s not a bad thing if that’s what you’re interested in reading, to be clear — but it could be disappointing for those who really just want another Legends & Lattes, and I found it a mite unsatisfying.

There is an ongoing plot as well which will clearly continue through at least another book, so there’s that as well. That’s an opportunity for some of the things I’ve mentioned to change/develop, and I’m curious enough about the characters and world to read it.

Overall, I had a fun time, without falling in love with it.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Rebecca Thorne, romance, SF/F

Blog Interruption

Posted August 29, 2024 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Welp, folks! All the reviews I have written and ready to post are saved on The StoryGraph… and according to their X account, they might not be back for “at least a few more hours” from their recent post, after their planned maintenance went wrong.

So… here’s a fun GIF of Hua Cheng from Heaven Official’s Blessing, in lieu of the review of volume two I might’ve posted today.