Posted February 9, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Murder on Milverton Square
Genres: Crime,
Mystery Pages: 260
Series: The Milverton Mysteries #1 Rating: 
Synopsis: Addison Harper is abruptly summoned to Milverton at the behest of an abrasive lawyer. He plans to be in and out, back to the city lickety-split. Instead, he finds himself charmed by the small town with its delightful and eccentric residents, not to mention the rather easy-on-the-eye Sergeant Jake Murphy.
Despite the rocky start, Addison admits heâs had a pleasant day out. That is, until returning to find the prickly old lawyer on the floor, and very much dead. Worse, it looks like murder, and Addisonâs fingerprints are all over the crime scene.
Murder on Milverton Square is the first in a wonderful new cosy mystery series set in an enchanting small town nestled amongst stunning New Zealand scenery. The Milverton Mysteries features a chaotic cast of local busybodies, delicious baked treats, a demanding and disdainful ginger cat, a very slow-burn romance with a rather appealing policeman, and of course, murderâŚ
G.B. Ralph’s Murder on Milverton Square is a fairly short mystery story with a romance subplot. In some ways, the setup is classic: a death, an inheritance, the big city boy coming to a small town and getting enmeshed in trouble there, to the general suspicion of the populace. It’s set in New Zealand, though it’s relatively easy to forget that (though there are some scenes pointing out the wildlife, etc), and tries to give us an idyllic small-town life, etc, etc. Nothing particularly surprising there.
The same goes for the plot, as well, including the romance between Addison and the cop investigating the murder of his deceased relative’s lawyer, the gossipy older lady, the poking about, etc, etc. Nothing too surprising here.
It’s not bad, I just can’t say I got enthusiastic by it or surprised by it, and I don’t feel any particular urge to pick up another book in the series.
Rating: 2/5
Tags: book reviews, books, crime, G.B. Ralph, romance
Posted February 8, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 10 Comments
Ice Cream: A Global History
Genres: History,
Non-fiction Pages: 176
Series: Edible Rating: 
Synopsis: Be it soft-serve, gelato, frozen custard, Indian kulfi or Israeli glida, some form of cold, sweet ice cream treat can found throughout the world in restaurants and home freezers. Though ice cream was once considered a food for the elite, it has evolved into one of the most successful mass-market products ever developed.
In Ice Cream, food writer Laura B. Weiss takes the reader on a vibrant trip through the history of ice cream from ancient China to modern-day Tokyo in order to tell the lively story of how this delicious indulgence became a global sensation. Weiss tells of donkeys wooed with ice cream cones, Good Humor-loving World War II-era German diplomats, and sundaes with names such as "Over the Top" and "George Washington." Her account is populated with Chinese emperors, English kings, former slaves, women inventors, shrewd entrepreneurs, Italian immigrant hokey-pokey ice cream vendors, and gourmand American First Ladies. Today American brands dominate the world ice cream market, but vibrant dessert cultures like Italy's continue to thrive, and new ones, like Japan's, flourish through unique variations.
Weiss connects this much-loved food with its place in history, making this a book sure to be enjoyed by all who are beckoned by the siren song of the ice cream truck.
As always with the Edible Series, Laura B. Weiss’Â Ice Cream: A Global History has colour illustrations and a few recipes at the back, along with references and a bibliography. It’s a bitesize look at food history through a very specific food. (Yep, you’ve guessed it — ice cream.)
Unlike some of these volumes, it doesn’t get too pedantic about what counts here. It discusses gelato and, though it mostly sticks to milk-based iced treats, it does mention the water-based treats which have gone alongside it (sorbet, popsicles, etc). Though it does touch on most of the world here, it feels like it’s most emphatic about the USA’s part in popularising ice cream, and I don’t actually know if that’s as true as the book makes it sound. It does refer to the development of various well-known ice cream brands from the US, but the discussion of soda fountains and such seems very specifically USian.
Overall, it had the predictable effect: I learned some fascinating new things, and I really want some ice cream right now.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, history, Laura B. Weiss, non-fiction
Posted February 7, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments
The Tusks of Extinction
Genres: Science Fiction Pages: 101
Rating: Synopsis: When you bring back a long-extinct species, thereâs more to success than the DNA.
Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again.
The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the worldâs foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help. While she was murdered a year ago, her digitized consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth.
Can she help the magnificent creatures fend off poachers long enough for their species to take hold?
And will she ever discover the real reason they were brought back?
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.
I’ve been curious about Ray Nayler’s work for a bit, since my wife enjoyed The Mountain in the Sea, so I was quite interested in giving The Tusks of Extinction a shot. The blurb left me a bit unsure, though, wondering if it’d feel maybe a bit goofy and weird, with a human in a mammoth body.
Well, the execution worked out well, tying in Damira’s memories and past with how she’s experiencing the world now as a mammoth, with different senses and different priorities. It took a few pages for me to orient myself to what exactly was going on, but that’s very much intentional, because Damira’s a little lost in the memories too.
I was going to talk about one of the threads being rather weak, but actually looking back on it, I was wrong to think so. There are basically three threads: a rich hunter (from the point of view of his husband), Damira, and the son of a poacher. They do all three meet and make sense of each other, giving each other meaning and casting the point of the story into relief — and Vladimir’s point of view in particular really added emotional shading to the story, beyond just the obvious outrage of Damira.
Definitely eager to try more by Nayler now.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Ray Nayler, SF/F
Posted February 6, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Encyclopaedia Eorzea volume III
Genres: Fantasy Pages: 304
Rating: 
Synopsis: The third volume of the official Final Fantasy XIV lore books, written and compiled by the Final Fantasy XIV development team! This deluxe hardcover tome comprises records of adventures that transcend the bounds of space and time, from the ancient world to the very stars above.
Offering an astonishing amount of information covering the Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions, this third volume of Encyclopaedia Eorzea brings readers further into the realms of the global hit video game. Hundreds of richly illustrated, full-color pages present detailed explorations of the events that occurred in Etheirys, Norvrandt, and the sea of stars, as well as comprehensive descriptions of their histories, peoples, lands, and more.
An unending source of knowledge and inspiration to all those who seek truths across and beyond our star.
As ever, Encyclopaedia Eorzea‘s third volume is a wonderful expansion/repository of the lore for Final Fantasy XIV’s increasingly complex world. This volume covers the places and peoples of the Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions, giving us titbits of insight into the history of the First (the world we occupy during the Shadowbringers expansion), and the life of the Ancients (which impacts most heavily on the Endwalker expansion)… along with the lives of other tribes and peoples we meet along the way, like the Lopporits.
If you’re a casual player, you might not be interested in reading cover-to-cover, but it can be useful for a quick recap of the plot or of characters. Even being a relatively non-casual player, some of that stuff was helpful to me because I’ve forgotten some of the incidental characters.
If you’re a fan of the Ancients, there’s some fascinating stuff here about them. For example, Venat’s sword — and the fact that while Hythlodaeus may call himself a middling mage, he’s in fact very adept with aether. It provides a bit of additional insight on the characters, for sure, including the beloved ambystoma (listed ahead of Hermes, in fact).
The book comes with an insert giving you a code for the Wind-up Forchenault minion for your FFXIV account, which I have redeemed promptly!
Rating: 5/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Final Fantasy XIV
Posted February 5, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Sailor's Delight
Genres: Historical Fiction,
Romance Pages: 172
Rating: Synopsis: Self-effacing, overworked bookkeeper Elie Benezet doesnât have time to be in love. Too bad he already isâwith his favorite client, Augustus Brine. The Royal Navy sailing master is kind, handsome, and breathtakingly competent. Heâs also engaged to his childhood sweetheart. And now that his prize money is coming in after years of delay, he can afford to marry herâŚonce Elie submits the final prize paperwork.
When Augustus comes home, determined to marry by the end of his brief leave, Elie does his best to set his broken heart aside and make it happen. But heâs interrupted by one thing after another: other clients, the high holidays, his familyâs relentless efforts to marry him off. Augustus isnât helping by renting a room down the hall, shaving shirtless with his door open, and inviting Elie to the public baths. If Elie didnât know better, heâd think Augustus didnât want to get married.
To cap it all off, Augustusâs fiancĂŠe arrives in town, senses that Elie has a secret, and promptly accuses him of embezzling. Has Elieâs doom been sealedâŚor is there still time to change his fate?
Rose Lerner’s Sailor’s Delight is a slow burn, despite being a fairly short book, helped by the fact that there is a real sense of history between the two right from the start. The fact that Elie is Jewish and Brine is a sailor really shapes the story, through the Jewish holiday and Elie’s exploration of his feelings about and obligations toward people are all shaped by his beliefs and experiences as a Jewish man.
I don’t really know how to comment about the portrayal and whether it would satisfy someone looking for specifically Jewish queer romance (especially as Brine is not Jewish), but Rose Lerner has written in the past about being Jewish and the importance of Jewish representation, and I think the whole backbone of this book is about doing that.
The relationship between Elie and Brine is full of yearning. There’s obvious physical attraction as well, but also they obviously think about each other all the time, try to help one another, try to mesh their lives togeÂther, etc. It ends up surprisingly intense very quickly, and yet the steam level for the book is pretty low (no on-page sex).
All in all, it was one I enjoyed, though I needed the right moment for it — the intensity of Elie’s apparently unrequited longing was a bit much for me at one point, so I took a break from the book!
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, historical fiction, romance, Rose Lerner
Posted February 4, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment
The Fireborne Blade
Genres: Fantasy Pages: 192
Series: The Fireborne Blade #1 Rating: Synopsis: Kill the dragon. Find the blade. Reclaim your honor. Itâs that, or end up like countless knights before her, as a puddle of gore and molten armor.
Maddileh is a knight. There arenât many women in her line of work, and it often feels like the sneering and contempt from her peers is harder to stomach than the actual dragon slaying. But sheâs a knight, and made of sterner stuff.
A minor infraction forces her to redeem her honor in the most dramatic way possible, she must retrieve the fabled Fireborne Blade from its keeper, legendary dragon the White Lady, or die trying. If history tells us anything, it's that âdie tryingâ is where to wager your coin.
Maddilehâs tale contains a rich history of dragons, ill-fated knights, scheming squires, and sapphic love, with deceptions and double-crosses that will keep you guessing right up to its dramatic conclusion. Ultimately, The Fireborne Blade is about the roles we refuse to accept, and of the place we make for ourselves in the 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.
Charlotte Bond’s The Fireborne Blade was obviously meant for me the second I saw that cover — or perhaps even more meant for my sister, let’s be honest. It has an interesting structure of jumping back and forth in time, and it becomes obvious why at the end (it’s not just the author not knowing where to start the story!).
It seems like a straightforward quest story, with an object at the end, and what we get is something a bit more tricksy. I was also expecting to feel much less ambivalent about how the book ends, but the book dodges being too obvious and straightforward about that, and gives us something unsettling and morally ambiguous. At least, I found it so — vengeance probably shouldn’t seem the clean and simple thing it is in some novels, so this isn’t a criticism at all!
I have so many questions about the world, and loved the little glimpses of other knights, other dragons, and all the customs around them. It’s a story that’s pretty complete in itself, but left me curious about what more would look like.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Charlotte Bond, SF/F
Posted February 3, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment
Blue: The Science and Secrets of Nature's Rarest Colour
Genres: History,
Non-fiction,
Science Pages: 224
Rating: Synopsis: Blue is the most widely beloved colorâbut in nature, itâs the rarest hue of all. True, physics paints the sea and sky blue, but we canât bottle this trick of the light. And blue pigment requires such complex chemistry that blue creatures, plants, and minerals are few indeed. Artists and kings have treasured blue dye like precious gold since the time of the pharoahsâand who today can help but marvel at a morpho butterfly in the rain forest or a blue jay at the window?
Science journalist Kai Kupferschmidt has been enraptured by blue since childhood. In his quest to understand the mysteries of his favorite color, he takes readers on a vivid journeyâfrom a biotech lab in Japan and a volcanic lake in Oregon to his native Germany, home of the last blue-feathered Spixâs macaws. Deep underground where blue crystals grow, and miles overhead where astronauts gaze at our âblue marbleâ planetâwherever he finds this alluring color, it always has a story to tell.
Kai Kupferschmidt’s Blue is a book-length meditation on all things, well, you guessed it. It discuss blue as a pigment, blue as a historical and cultural thing, blue in linguistics, blue in plants, blue dye… you name it, it discusses it. Kupferschmidt is fascinated, and he’s sharing the journey, and along the way he explains some complex things very succinctly and clearly.
The book is also beautifully illustrated, all in colour, and has a section with further reading and sources, including image sources. All-in-all, beautifully presented and a joy to read — exactly the kind of curiosity I enjoy, zooming in on one subject and unravelling the things that touch it.
It’s shorter than it looks, given the illustrations and the full pages printed blue; I’d say it’s meant to be an object you enjoy looking at as much as anything else. I sped through it!
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, history, Kai Kupferschmidt, non-fiction, science
Posted February 2, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Road of Bones
Genres: Graphic Novels,
Horror Pages: 128
Rating: 
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
Tags: Alex Cormack, book reviews, books, comics, graphic novels, horror, Justin Birch, Rich Douek
Posted February 2, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, vol 2
Genres: Fantasy,
Romance Pages: 351
Series: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System #2 Rating: 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 âdeceasedâ disciple rises from the dead to claim his bloody glory as the protagonist. At least, thatâs 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 plotâLuo Binghe has returned all too soon and Shen Qingqiuâs brilliant escape plan isnât even ready yet! Worse, Shen Qingqiu can no longer predict his young discipleâs actions.
The only thing that hasnât changed is Luo Bingheâs 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 doesnât 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
Tags: book reviews, books, Mò XiÄng TĂłng XiĂš, romance, SF/F
Posted January 31, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Fear Stalks The Village
Genres: Crime,
Mystery Pages: 304
Series: British Library Crime Classics Rating: 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 âqueen of the villageâ 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, Whiteâs 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
Tags: book reviews, books, British Library Crime Classics, crime, Ethel Lina White, mystery
