a vintage year for scoundrels

Winter's Dawn - Arden Powell
The Masquerades of Spring - Ben Aaronovitch
Dishoom: From Bombay with Love - Kavi Thakrar, Naved Nasirm Shamil Thakrar
This Sceptred Isle: 55BC-1901 - Christopher Lee
The Valley of Fear - Arthur Conan Doyle
Foundryside - Robert Jackson Bennett
Very Good, Jeeves - PG Wodehouse
The Raven in the Foregate - Ellis Peters
The Legacy of Arniston House - TL Huchu
Rebel Blade - Davinia Evans
You Are Here: Nine More Stories - Iona Datt Sharma
The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K Le Guin
North Continent Ribbon - Ursula Whitcher

Metal From Heaven - august clarke
Menewood - Nicola Griffith
Hammajang Luck - Makana Yamamoto
Sheine Lende - Darcie Little Badger
The Last Hour Between Worlds - Melissa Caruso
The Fox Wife - Yangsze Choo
The Mountain Crown - Karin Lowachee
Breath, Warmth and Dream - Zig Zag Claybourne
Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
A Sweet Sting of Salt - Rose Sutherland
Thunder City - Philip Reeve
When the Dust Settles: Searching for Hope After Disaster - Lucy Easthope
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Beauregard Lionett
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne - Katherine Rundell
The Mischievous Letters of the Marquise de Q - Felicia Davin
Charmed Life - Diana Wynne Jones
Eight Days of Luke - Diana Wynne Jones
Cart and Cwidder - Diana Wynne Jones
Drowned Ammet - Diana Wynne Jones
The Spellcoats - Diana Wynne Jones
The Lives of Christopher Chant - Diana Wynne Jones

So at the end of January I a) got really into a Diana Wynne Jones podcast (Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones! It's great!) and then b) got covid, hence all the DWJ rereads. I hadn't read most of them in over twenty years and they really hold up - some aspects of them are definitely Of Their Time (casual fatphobia and casual racism of the sort that was very standard for white authors of children's books in the UK in the 70s; also what if more than one girl per book got to be both sympathetic and active, what then etc), but underneath and around all that they really are fantastic.

You Are Here (five stars), North Continent Ribbon (four stars), Menewood (five stars), Sheine Lende (four stars), The Last Hour Between Worlds (four stars)

You Are Here
Really excellent collection. I'd read most of the stories before, but the two new ones (one a novella!) were a real treat, and reading them together pulled out the thematic throughline between them in a way that only enhanced my enjoyment.

As the title and the introduction make clear, the theme is "You Are Here": this is the situation you are in; it may not be what you wanted or planned for, but it's where you are: what are you going to do now? It's full of people being forced to take an honest look at where they are and deal with it as it is, and how that process clarifies something about who they are. But it never runs the risk of becoming samey, because every situation and person is so specific, so grounded in their realities, and all the worlds are so varied - Cornish smugglers, a spaceship with a Romance Problem, a near future care home, a fantasy world with dragons (who WILL break your heart, but also put it back together again).

The people and worlds in this collection feel so real, partly because of all the excellent detail that makes the worlds of the stories feel vivid and lived in, and partly because they're never only one thing: a lot of the situations are sad and hard, but also people are kind and funny and complicated, and it's wonderful. I cannot recommend this collection enough tbh.

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

North Continent Ribbon
Another excellent collection! This one is a set of linked stories set in the same world: each stands alone, but together they build up a picture of the world and its concerns through the stories of a variety of very different people in very different corners of society. I enjoyed it very much.

Menewood
Sequel to Hild, which I also loved (lo these many years ago). This volume finds our heroine struggling desperately to build something and hold onto the things and people she loves in the midst of political turmoil and danger from all sides. It's ultimately hopeful despite some of the really terrible things that happen, and is really richly and vividly imagined with some excellent minor characters. I loved it.

Content notes: sexual assault and rape (I think all off page?), violence,

spoiler

infant loss

Sheine Lende
Prequel to Elatsoe, in which Ellie's grandmother Shane has to track down her mother and a local boy who have gone missing, maybe together, maybe separately. It felt very much like an old school children's/young adult book in a way that I really enjoyed (partly due to the 70s setting).

The Last Hour Between Worlds
Kembral Thorne is out on her own for the first time since her daughter was born and she just wants to have a nice time at a fancy party, but unfortunately: time loops, monsters, the machinations of eldritch beings etc. Also her ex-friend/ex-maybe love interest is there and she may be one of the only people she can trust. The beginning of this book is a little on the slow side, but once it's up and rolling the momentum just builds and builds. I particularly enjoyed how well constructed it was: every loop adds something and the twists and revelations are extremely well paced without seeming contrived. I really just had a great time with it and I'm glad there are going to be more (which makes sense given the strong urban fantasy but secondary world vibes).

Didn't finish:

Blood of the Old Kings - Sung-Il Kim trans. Anton Hur, The Chatelaine - Kate Heartfield

Blood of the Old Kings - Sung-Il Kim trans. Anton Hur
This was a perfectly good fantasy novel, but I have so many things I'm really excited to read that perfectly good wasn't quite enough to keep me reading.

The Chatelaine - Kate Heartfield
This was v good, but the revenants were more zombie adjacent than I could handle, alas!