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Books read in August and September 2024
Wednesday, 2 October 2024 12:24Silk and Steel ed. Janine A Southward
In Ascension - Martin MacInnes
The Library of Broken Worlds - Alaya Dawn Johnson
Long Live Evil - Sarah Rees Brennan
An Excellent Mystery - Ellis Peters
Carry On, Jeeves - PG Wodehouse
The Vanished Birds - Simon Jimenez
Moonstorm - Yoon Ha Lee
The Hidden Palace - Helene Wecker
The King's Peace - Jo Walton
The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle
The King's Name - Jo Walton
The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett
Immoral Code - Lillian Clark
The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen - Bee Wilson
The Republic of Salt - Ariel Kaplan
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - CM Waggoner
This Enchanted Island - Tansy Rayner Roberts
(that's a lot of books starting with "The" in September, I wish I'd noticed in time to make it a clean sweep)
This was a pretty frustrating anthology, in that I felt like a lot of the stories had a lot of potential that wasn't quite realised - I kept finding myself thinking, "I like what this is going for, but it hasn't quite pulled it off", or "this could be good, but it needed more space to develop". I was also pretty disappointed that the Tremontaine story, "The Sweet Tooth of Angwar Bec", is powered by a transphobic trope: the duel at its heart stems from the accusation that one of the women is "a man in a dress".
That being said, there were a few stories I really enjoyed (the first three in the book!). Freya Marske's "Elinor Jones vs. the Ruritanian Multiverse" was a lot of fun (despite trying to cram slightly too much in). Neon Yang's "Princess, Shieldmaiden, Witch and Wolf" was beautifully written and really satisfying, one of the few stories in the book that felt like it was actually the right length. And Alison Tam's "Margo Lai’s Guide To Dueling Unprepared" was a sheer sparkling delight.
The King's Peace/The King's Name
I picked up this duology as an example of both early Jo Walton and early aroace representation, and ended up loving it. It's a really absorbing AU King Arthur story (with a female lead) which really gets into one of the things I like in Arthuriana: the idea of a small group of people trying to build a better world and then to hold it together, knowing it might run aground if too many people let their pettiness and selfishness get the better of them, but trying anyway. It also acknowledges its status as one of many versions of the legend in ways that really worked for me.
Content note that book one basically starts with a relatively explicit rape scene - I ended up respecting the way the aftermath and reverberations, including further encounters with one of the people responsible, are handled across the duology, even when I didn't always like it, but mileages may vary.
Additional, related content note:
(This experience is also linked slightly more closely with the protagonist being aroace than I would have preferred, though it's not a straightforward case of this being what made her aroace, she clearly wasn't particularly interested prior to the incident either.)
The Tainted Cup
I had such a great time with this! Fantasy murder mystery in which our detective duo are an autistic investigator (who struggles to leave her room due to Overwhelm) and her newly minted dyslexic sidekick: I loved them both and am very glad there's a sequel already on the cards. The world was very vividly drawn and had some definite Cemeteries of Amalo/Gormenghast type vibes, which I enjoyed a lot. Recommended!
(NB I don't do amazingly with body horror and this slightly tested my limits, but it was definitely worth it!)
Immoral Code
I picked this up for the aroace main character (who is consistently referred to as acearo, not a construction I'd heard before). Overall, it's a fun YA thriller in which a group of teens plan a heist to steal money for college for one of their number from the billionaire father who abandoned her, and I had a good time, even if the voices of the main teens were pretty indistinguishable to me. But I really hated the ending:
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society
Cosy mystery takes a supernatural turn when the local librarian/amateur investigator starts to wonder why no-one's questioned the fact that multiple murders have happened in quick succession in her small town, and why it is that she keeps coincidentally stumbling over crucial pieces of evidence to solve them. Which is a cracking premise! I ended up wanting more from the way it played out, but it was still an enjoyable read, and I think I'm partly marking it down because I loved the author's (very different) previous two books a lot.
In Ascension - Martin MacInnes
The Library of Broken Worlds - Alaya Dawn Johnson
Long Live Evil - Sarah Rees Brennan
An Excellent Mystery - Ellis Peters
Carry On, Jeeves - PG Wodehouse
The Vanished Birds - Simon Jimenez
Moonstorm - Yoon Ha Lee
The Hidden Palace - Helene Wecker
The King's Peace - Jo Walton
The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle
The King's Name - Jo Walton
The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett
Immoral Code - Lillian Clark
The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen - Bee Wilson
The Republic of Salt - Ariel Kaplan
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - CM Waggoner
This Enchanted Island - Tansy Rayner Roberts
(that's a lot of books starting with "The" in September, I wish I'd noticed in time to make it a clean sweep)
Silk and Steel (three stars), The King's Peace/The King's Name (four stars), The Tainted Cup (four stars), Immoral Code (three stars), The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society (three stars)
Silk and SteelThis was a pretty frustrating anthology, in that I felt like a lot of the stories had a lot of potential that wasn't quite realised - I kept finding myself thinking, "I like what this is going for, but it hasn't quite pulled it off", or "this could be good, but it needed more space to develop". I was also pretty disappointed that the Tremontaine story, "The Sweet Tooth of Angwar Bec", is powered by a transphobic trope: the duel at its heart stems from the accusation that one of the women is "a man in a dress".
That being said, there were a few stories I really enjoyed (the first three in the book!). Freya Marske's "Elinor Jones vs. the Ruritanian Multiverse" was a lot of fun (despite trying to cram slightly too much in). Neon Yang's "Princess, Shieldmaiden, Witch and Wolf" was beautifully written and really satisfying, one of the few stories in the book that felt like it was actually the right length. And Alison Tam's "Margo Lai’s Guide To Dueling Unprepared" was a sheer sparkling delight.
The King's Peace/The King's Name
I picked up this duology as an example of both early Jo Walton and early aroace representation, and ended up loving it. It's a really absorbing AU King Arthur story (with a female lead) which really gets into one of the things I like in Arthuriana: the idea of a small group of people trying to build a better world and then to hold it together, knowing it might run aground if too many people let their pettiness and selfishness get the better of them, but trying anyway. It also acknowledges its status as one of many versions of the legend in ways that really worked for me.
Content note that book one basically starts with a relatively explicit rape scene - I ended up respecting the way the aftermath and reverberations, including further encounters with one of the people responsible, are handled across the duology, even when I didn't always like it, but mileages may vary.
Additional, related content note:
spoilers
this results in a pregnancy that she isn't able to abort for destiny reasons, even though that's usually an option in this world - she's allowed to have complicated feelings about this, but I the reader did not love it as a plot point.(This experience is also linked slightly more closely with the protagonist being aroace than I would have preferred, though it's not a straightforward case of this being what made her aroace, she clearly wasn't particularly interested prior to the incident either.)
The Tainted Cup
I had such a great time with this! Fantasy murder mystery in which our detective duo are an autistic investigator (who struggles to leave her room due to Overwhelm) and her newly minted dyslexic sidekick: I loved them both and am very glad there's a sequel already on the cards. The world was very vividly drawn and had some definite Cemeteries of Amalo/Gormenghast type vibes, which I enjoyed a lot. Recommended!
(NB I don't do amazingly with body horror and this slightly tested my limits, but it was definitely worth it!)
Immoral Code
I picked this up for the aroace main character (who is consistently referred to as acearo, not a construction I'd heard before). Overall, it's a fun YA thriller in which a group of teens plan a heist to steal money for college for one of their number from the billionaire father who abandoned her, and I had a good time, even if the voices of the main teens were pretty indistinguishable to me. But I really hated the ending:
spoilers!
what if the billionaire who abandoned his daughter is actually ok once he's been reminded she exists! Maybe he'll just GIVE her the money if she agrees to hang out with him on a regular basis, whether she wants to or not! This all seems fine.The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society
Cosy mystery takes a supernatural turn when the local librarian/amateur investigator starts to wonder why no-one's questioned the fact that multiple murders have happened in quick succession in her small town, and why it is that she keeps coincidentally stumbling over crucial pieces of evidence to solve them. Which is a cracking premise! I ended up wanting more from the way it played out, but it was still an enjoyable read, and I think I'm partly marking it down because I loved the author's (very different) previous two books a lot.
