Friday, May 30, 2014

53. The Doomsday Book - Connie Willis

Historians who travel back in time necessarily take a lot of risks. But when Kivrin goes back things definitely go pear-shaped.  Firstly, she arrives extremely ill, and nearly dies, and then things go from bad to worse.

Meanwhile, back in her own time, a major outbreak starts up and puts the team who she hopes will open the net to retrieve her are equally ill and have no idea that she isn’t where she should be, but is instead in the midst of the Black Death.

I can see where some people found this book repetitive and slow going. It is that, especially in the first 200 pages or so. But at the same time, it is riveting, and emotional and awesome in its breadth and depth of understanding.

52. Merchant's House - Kate Ellis

First in a series. Wes Petersen is newly assigned as a detective sergeant to Tradmouth, a small city on the coast of Devon. When he arrives he finds that a friend of his is heading up a dig nearby. Wes has a degree in archaeology, so wants to spend free time with his buddy Neil and hear about what they are discovering. In the meantime, a woman is found murdered and he’s drawn immediately into a complex and baffling case. Do they even know who the murdered woman is?

I found the mystery a bit too easy, but I liked the characters and the setting was well drawn. I love the parallel to what is being discovered at the dig with what is happening in current day. It seems little changes over time. Little that matters, anyway.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

51. Half a King – Joe Abercrombie

Prince Yarvi, with a withered hand, has always known he'd never be king. His father and his older brother are warriors. He's perfectly content to become a minister, and for this he is suited. He's smart and clever (not the same thing).

But then all his plans go awry. His father and his brother are killed by treachery. And he's drawn into a complex world he's not equipped for. Then things really get bad.

This is Joe Abercrombie's first shot at YA fiction.  His adult fiction is bloody and uncompromising and deals with multiple layers of morality. I'm delighted to say the only thing that has changed in this book, is the level of violence.  His world is still just as complex and multilayered and his characters have to try to wend their way through choices that are bad, worse and impossible to make.

Very nice job.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

50. The Dante Connection - Estelle Ryan

A fun romp with a woman who has highly functional autism and who has been befriended (to her amazement) by a thief and his cronies. Second of the series. If you like art theft and puzzle solving females, this is a fun read.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

48. Mystery Mile - Margery Allingham

The second Albert Campion book, a bit better than the first, but Albert is still getting fleshed out. Not a bad mystery, though, and the setting and characters are well drawn.

47. The Damascened Blade - Barbara Cleverly

The third of the Joe Sandilands mystery series. Joe ended the Great War stuck in India and he can’t seem to ever make it home. Here he begins taking a vacation to the NW frontier to visit one of his mates from the war.  Unluckily for him, he gets a call and finds himself assigned to protect an American heiress who is looking for the mystery, magic and exotic wonders of India. She didn’t find that in Simla where she’d been pretty much locked up in the British cantonment, so she weedles her way to the one place where a shooting war could break out any time.

Not long after she arrives, along with some British high mucky mucks, a Pathan group arrive to escort a doctor through the Kyber Pass to Kabul. On the night of the welcoming dinner, one of the guests ends up poisoned.

I love this series, set in the 20s, and Joe is an interesting mix of stern DCI and military type who understands how politics can complicate matters.  Lovely local color and always an exotic feel for this series.

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

46. Flashman - George MacDonald Frazer

Accidental hero, admitted cad, coward, sexist, racist  and all-round asshat, Flashman stumbles into situations which kill better men and leave him looking like a shining example of the British Empire.

A satire of the Victorian ideals and prejudices, it is painfully funny and takes no prisoners.

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

45. Behold, Here’s Poison - Georgette Heyer

I really enjoy Heyer’s mysteries. The murders are intriguing but really secondary to the complex social interactions of the characters. And the dialog is sparking and very much ‘airy persiflage.’ 

44. The Phoenix Guards - Steven Brust

More or less a retelling of The Three Musketeers set in Brust’s fantasy world of Dragaera.  Humorous swashbuckling antics in the highly political arena of House politics the disparate friends defy the odds and manage duels with all sides.