a vintage year for scoundrels

The Inheritance - Robin Hobb | Megan Lindholm
Treason's Shore - Sherwood Smith
Blue Skinned Gods - SJ Sindu
Cosmoknights, Vol 1
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland - Jim DeFede
Cosmoknights, Vol 2
River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Road - Cat Jarman
The Sky on Fire - Jenn Lyons
The Silver Pigs - Lindsey Davis
On Vicious Worlds - Bethany Jacobs

The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society - Eleanor Janega
The Bright Sword - Lev Grossman
Off-Time Jive - AZ Louise
Between Dragons and their Wrath - Devin Madson
Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power - Leah Redmond Chang
The Sunforge - Sascha Stronach
Blood Sweat Glitter - Iona Datt Sharma
The Lotus Empire - Tasha Suri
Right Ho, Jeeves! - PG Wodehouse
Swordcrossed - Freya Marske
The Stardust Grail - Yume Kitasei

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland (three and a half stars), Cosmoknights Vols 1 and 2 (five stars), The Bright Sword (four stars), Blood Sweat Glitter (five stars)

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
I read this off the back of seeing Come From Away, which I absolutely loved. It's not the best prose ever - the author doesn't quite pull off what he's trying for with the shifting tenses, and the "mosaic of smaller stories" thing suffers slightly because the musical did it better* - but I really appreciated its dedication to telling as many stories as possible, as well as all the extra detail. The book did a particularly good job at conveying how difficult a job the air traffic control had to wrangle all these displaced planes, as well as bringing home the fact that many of the people on the diverted planes, including in some cases the crew, would have had no idea what was happening or why. (I did have a slight feeling about how many people were getting their news from the BBC, ngl.)

*of course it did, it's a musical, it has all those extra tools for that sort of thing AND it can take a few gentle liberties with the material

Cosmoknights Vols 1 and 2
This comic has everything. Space! Gorgeous art! So many women! Rescuing princesses from arranged marriages through the medium of mecha space jousts! What If Liberation Is More Complicated Than Just Rescuing Princesses From Arranged Marriages Through The Medium Of Mecha Space Jousts! Team ups for great justice! It's such a good time, I cannot wait for the next volume. And it's free to read!

The Bright Sword
In which a teenager arrives at Camelot, hoping to join the round table, only to find that Arthur and most of his knights fell at Camlann a fortnight earlier, and he and the remaining knights need to work out what the world should look like now. As a big fan of both Arthuriana and aftermath stories, this premise is very well targeted! And overall I liked this so much. At times it was a slighter more pessimistic take than I would prefer, to the point where there were moments that I wasn't sure I was actually enjoying reading it, but honestly given how well targeted to me it was, that might have been for the best, because when it worked for me it REALLY worked.

I also appreciated Grossman's sincere attempts to diversify the cast a little and give the women more to do. I didn't love

spoilers

the main disabled character getting Magically Healed

but overall a really solid attempt. I loved his Guinevere and would have liked to see more of her, and was also really fascinated by his interpretation of The Love Triangle:

spoilers

Lancelot is very much the bad guy and Guinevere genuinely was completely innocent!

- I don't think I've seen quite that version before, but there is so much Arthuriana I would not be surprised if it had come up before.

Speaking of, Grossman is clearly extremely well read on that front. It really felt like he knew the material really well and knew what he wanted to do with it, which is such a good feeling to have. It felt like it was particularly in conversation with The Once and Future King, but that might just be because a) it looms so large over this kind of retelling and b) I am basically always on some level thinking about The Once and Future King. I would love to read some scholarship on this book and its place within the genre.

(content note: non graphic rape and sexual abuse)

Blood Sweat Glitter
F/f roller derby romance novella! I inhaled this in one sitting. It's an absolute joy - funny, charming, with a lot of depth and substance to it. The characters, especially the main character, Eleanor, and their world, feel real and true; there's a lot going on in a relatively short word count to establish who they are and what the world they live in is like. It's beautifully grounded in its time and place - North London, early winter, after the initial horrors of the pandemic but still very much in their shadow - in a way that really worked for me.

I absolutely adored capable, lonely Eleanor, trying desperately to hold everything together. She and her love interest, Robin, are the catalyst for change in each other's lives in a way that's wonderful to see unfold. Robin too is a delight, and gradually coming to understand who she really is along with Eleanor was such a satisfying journey.

And as ever with Iona's writing, I found myself shrieking to myself in delight at some points and choking up at others - they truly are a master at subtly building to the point where you are suddenly extremely emotionally compromised and you can't quite explain why.

(Also I am very bad at roller skating, and I am scared of pain and falling over, but now I kind of want to join a roller derby team? Actually, on second thoughts, what I want is for my friends to join a roller derby team so I can cheer them on and buy all their stickers.)

Disclaimer: I received an ARC in return for an honest review, also the author is a friend.

Didn't finish:

The Weavers of Alamaxa - Hadeer Elsbai

The Weavers of Alamaxa
Sequel to The Daughters of Izdihar, which I enjoyed very much. Unfortunately this one sacrificed a lot of the things that I liked about its predecessor (character relationships! suffragettes!) in favour of a plot that would have been fine as a scaffold to hang richer worldbuilding and characterisation from, but didn't really work as the sole draw. I got about two thirds of the way through, at which point it became abruptly apparent that the dynamic I was most interested in was not going to get any more page time, so I stopped.

spoilery explanation

To recap, in the first novel, one of our heroines, the hot headed, privileged, but good hearted Nehal, ends up in an arranged marriage with Nico, who is already in a long term relationship with our other heroine, quiet but determined Giorgina. But instead of going the jealousy route or having Nico be a monster (he's a bit spineless but he cares a lot about them both, and he's Trying), Nehal immediately decides that this means Giorgina is Family and that she'd die for her if necessary (Giorgina is somewhat bemused by this), which I loved. Nehal also decides that she and Nico might as well be friends and allies if they're going to have to be married, which I also loved. I was really keen to see how the three of them were going to make their lives work, especially after Nehal turns out to be queer, but alas, Nico is unceremoniously killed off.