Review: Crucible of Gold – Naomi Novik

Crucible of Gold is the seventh in the Temeraire series - Napoleonic Wars with dragons.

The tale finds Laurence and Temeraire, who had been drummed out of the military because of rank insubordination (mostly on Temeraire’s part), still stuck in Purgatory (in this case Australia), and doing what they could to make the most of it. Laurence was mostly just glad neither of them had gotten shot.

Suddenly the British ambassador to the Chinese crown turns up with papers saying Laurence is reinstated (grudgingly) into the Aviator Corps. He also brings orders for Laurence and Temeraire to board the dragon ship still docked in Sydney and head to Brazil where Napoleon is attempting to destroy Rio.

Glad to be back in harness, glad to be doing something useful, both are eager to find themselves back in the war.

Naturally things go very very wrong.

I found Crucible of Gold to be as enjoyable as the first of the series, His Majesty’s Dragon, was. I did find Tongues of Serpents, book six, to be a bit of a slog, but this one is right back up there, with Temeraire being his usual mouthy and opinionated self, Iskierka driving him nuts, and the dragons’ captains doing whatever it takes to keep their dragons focused on the big picture: Napoleon.

(I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program)

The Dogs of Riga- Henning Mankell

 

 

When a raft holding two dead well-dressed men washes ashore in Skane, Kurt Wallander finds himself in the midst of an international mystery. Latvia? He knows nothing of Latvia, yet first finds himself partnered with a Latvian police major, and then has to travel to Riga to find the beginnings of the mystery.

I love these mysteries. Wallander is no hero, he’s not psychic, he’s not gorgeous, he’s not sure of himself. He’s just a guy doing the best he can dealing with a changing world he hardly understands.

Comments on Wolf Hall–Hilary Mantel

I’ve decided to write an actual review. A zillion have already been done. Instead a few comments regarding the book.

Firstly, it was certainly a different take on things, to look at Henry VIII from, of all people’s viewpoints, Thomas Cromwell’s. I knew little about him as an individual before I began the book, so not sure how close to what we really know Mantel stayed. But the character she created was certainly interesting, with depth and intelligence. He certainly changed throughout the book, growing to fit his increasing stature and importance.

Second, why the heck did she call it ‘Wolf Hall’?  Yeah, I get that the Howards etc were really important, but still…

Thirdly, I found the writing style very off-putting at first. I had lots of trouble with dangling ‘he’s and was confused a lot as to who was speaking, who was acting. I had to go back and re-read to figure it out.  I also didn’t much care for use of present tense. I dislike it in most books, but combined with the ‘he’ problem, it made reading the book more difficult and pulled me out of the atmosphere all too much.

I expect I’ll read the follow on ‘Bring Up the Bodies’ at some point or other. Because the story is interesting from this different viewpoint.

My Reading Year to Date

 

Just a note regarding the first half of the year.

I've read 40 books. Eeek!  In January, I HOPED to read 50 for the year.

In 2009 I read 24.
In 2010 I read 32.
In 2011 I read 41.

So 50 for the year seemed a reasonable figure. Now I've officially upped it to 75 for the year. Not sure I'll make it but I'm on track right?

I'm thinking the main reason for the change is that I've added mysteries to my reading. Over the previous years I was reading almost all fantasy and a bit of sci fi, mostly tomes. I tend to get caught up in them and daydream about them and have to stop reading a lot to think about fantasy and sci fi. Mysteries, not so much.

Looking at my list, the ones that have stuck with me most (for various reasons) in the order I read them rather than any order of precedence:

1. Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood] - way too close to reality not to think about.
2. The Alienist – Caleb Carr - Jjust plain fascinating look at the beginnings of deductive detecting.
3. Heresy, Prophecy, and Sacrilege by S.J. Parris.. Just a well-written, well-conceived series of historical mysteries.
4.Blackbirds – Chuck Wendig - Great book. Interesting premise, interesting characters. Bloody though.
5.The Crossing Places – Elly Griffiths - mainly because it so well used the setting of the book as a character.

And, I am out of control on buying books. In my defense, the were almost all on sale when I bought them but still! I need to avoid the shiny new (to me) and read what I have!  Argh!

Reviews:

The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe:

An amusing tale of a sword-jockey, a sort of private detective. He’s drug back, against his better judgment and wishes, to help his childhood friend (who happens to be a king) find out why the Queen murdered her son. Action packed adventure ensues, with lots of flashbacks to Eddie’s past which he’s been trying to avoid for years.

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The Dante Club – Matthew Pearl

In the last year following the Civil War, Longfellow and his fellow poets and friends, set about translating the Commedia by Dante into English in order to introduce it widely to America. Harvard’s powers that be are NOT happy about this and are trying to do everything they can to block him.  Might this include murder? The Dante Club, as they call themselves, begin to wonder, as two murders take place in Boston that enact two of the punishments Dante details in the Devine Comedy. Can they solve the murders, and catch the murderer and keep the police in the dark about the connection to Dante?

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Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance

A terrific romp through the Vorkosiverse with Ivan at his best.  I generally want to kick Miles when the story’s about him, but I almost always want to hug Ivan. The poor guy has spent his entire life trying to hide in the shadows and keep his abilities hidden under the nearest bucket. But he’s forced to step up his game when his ‘friend’ Byerly asks him to help out a damsel in distress. What’s Ivan to do (other than fall in love with her)? And when he finds out who she is, and just why assassins are on her doorstep, well, he takes drastic action.

A delightful book that had me quite often laughing out loud!

Review: Requiem for a Mezzo–Carola Dunn

 

This is the third of the Daisy Dalrymple series set in the flapper era in London. Nicely written fluff mystery, with good period details and interesting characters. Pretty good mystery too!

Certainly not difficult to read but good fun nonetheless.

Reviews:

 

Scourge of the Betrayer (Bloodsounder's Arc) by Jeff Salyards

What the heck is the Veil, why did the gods leave, what the devil is Braylar up to?
A scribe is hired by a group of infamous men led by a 'Black Noose' to record their actions as directed by their King. LIttle did the scribe know what he was getting into. And what few answers he might actually be given.
I enjoyed the characterizations, and the dialog, and the action. I was disappointed that the book itself offered no real resolution. I'll have to read the follow on in hopes of that. Still, a good read that left me wanting more. ( )

 

 

The Crossing Places (Ruth Galloway) by Elly Griffiths

Atmospheric and intelligent, The Crossing Places is about character and setting, The mystery is tied up with the setting deftly and altho I figured out most of the mystery fairly early on, I was unsure about much of it, enough to want to hurry through the book to find out how it all fit together.
Will definitely continue the series! ( )