Books in August
Wow, this month just flew by!
Re-read. Definitely a hard slog, given how long it is and the extreme teenage angst; one thing the author gets perfectly, though, is how after the death of a loved one, the surviving person is straddling two universes, “the one with (the person) in it, and the one without.”
Re-read. One is seriously teary-eyed with this one, I’d forgotten how much.
Re-read. This experiment in reading the entire series back-to-back has definitely enriched my experience of the book, it feels much more whole to me now. Quite a marathon, though!
This volume of 26 stories represents the editor’s choice of the best British sf work of the year; as such, readers will vary in terms of which stories they like or do not like. There were a couple of stories that I had read in a previous anthology, both of which I really liked but won’t include in this review as I mentioned them in another one. That said, I most liked Ian Watson’s “Brave New World by Oscar Wilde,” a time travel tale; “Variations on Heisenberg’s Third Concerto,” by Eleanor R. Wood, which posits a parallel world where Heisenberg was a musician (a hobby he had in real life); C. R. Berry’s “What Happened to 70?”, a rather gonzo theory as to how time travel might really be achieved; “Pineapples Are Not the Only Bromeliad,” by R. B. Kelly, which reminded me of Kage Baker in a very good way; and “The World Is On Fire and You’re Out of Milk,” by Rhiannon A. Grist, which could well be exactly how we will carry out mundane tasks in the not-very-distant future. A lot of the stories in the volume are quite short, and there were some that I just didn’t think were very good, so a real mixed bag to me; still, the above-mentioned stories are worth seeking out.
Cleopatra Fox begins the new century, 1900, with quiet satisfaction that she had managed to solve a murder and do so in such a way that she receives no publicity, that being something a well-bred young lady in London would avoid at all costs. However, her fame is not entirely hidden, and when a young actress falls to her death at a theatre, an apparent suicide, the woman’s paramour (who is staying at the hotel owned by Cleo’s uncle) asks her to investigate. All of Cleo’s intentions seem to come to naught, though, as everybody she speaks to is adamant that the young woman had no worries that might lead her to commit suicide - but neither did she have any enemies, by all accounts being a wonderful person. How is Cleo to get a handle on the case, without risk to her own reputation?.... This is the second in a series about Cleopatra Fox, an energetic and resourceful young woman in a place and time when both of those qualities are frowned upon, by the upper classes at any rate. As with many cozies that I’ve been reading lately, there are occasional anachronisms here - I don’t believe a young woman in 1900 London would say she had “been tasked” with an activity, for example - but these books, so far at least, keep such missteps to a minimum, and the characters are all interesting and well-drawn. I also like how the author exposes the hypocrisy of the mores of the time, still very much steeped in the Victorian Era (the Queen didn’t die until 1903), while also showing how individuals acted according to their own positive moral compasses. Good fun.
There is perhaps nobody else alive today who can write believable characters as well as Stephen King; his way of describing ordinary people, how regular Americans speak to one another and to themselves, and his sense of place and time are all second to none. I believe “Billy Summers” is something like his 60th novel - proving the old adage about practice makes perfect as this is probably as near perfection as a writer can get! The title character is a paid assassin, who nevertheless has a code of ethics - he only kills “bad” people, although he himself decides who to define as “bad.” When he agrees to take one last job before retiring, he notes wryly to himself that in movies, the sub-genre of the “one last job goes bad” is about as cliche as it gets, and of course that is what proceeds to happen in his own real life too…. There’s much more to the character than just that, of course, and as we learn about his whole life (utilizing the “novel within a novel” approach that I seem to be running into again and again lately), Billy takes on a mantle of reality that only a few writers can attain. If you like King, you’ll like this; if you don’t like King, why the hell not? Recommended!
Forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway is back at the University of North Norfolk as the head of archeology, and she’s finding the administrative work to be quite the headache: aside from teaching, she has been responsible for hiring a new teacher, David Brown, to take on some of her former caseload, and he’s proving to be a real thorn in her side. Throw in the fact that a group of metal detectors calling themselves the Night Hawks find not only a possible Bronze Age horde complete with a skeleton but also a freshly dead body, and Ruth’s work becomes even more complicated as she is asked to help DCI Nelson and his police squad to uncover the identity of the former. When a seclusive couple is also found dead, the bodies begin to pile up faster than anyone would have suspected…. This is, I think, the 13th novel in the Ruth Galloway series, and as ever, Ruth’s personal and professional lives overlap in unexpected ways, particularly with respect to Nelson and his wife Michelle. I love this series, as it combines both hard science (the archeological part), police procedure and, essentially, well-defined people living soap opera lives (but in a good way). I think Ms. Griffiths’ writing becomes more lucid and precise over time, as she delves more deeply into the lives of her characters and as she explores the Norfolk landscape, in itself a character by now. This is one series where the reader really *should* start at the beginning (“The Crossing Places”) to get the full benefit of the story, but the new reader should be glad s/he did because there’s a whole dozen more books to get to after the first! Highly recommended.
Kate Sharp is back in England again, this time in a location management job for a documentary being filmed about Jane Austen. She is happy to be back, not least because she is reunited with Alex Norcutt, the colleague she met a month previously during a different film shoot. She’s back in Nether Woodsmoor too, a quaint English village just begging to be filmed in a Regency setting. But she starts off on a bad foot with the show’s producer, and before too long she’s trying to fathom the behaviour of the handsome professor who has a surprise for Austen fans, unless something goes awry…. This is the second book in the “Murder on Location” series and it’s just as enjoyable as the first. Nothing startling or astonishing here, just well-written prose and engaging characters working through some crimes in a gorgeous setting; all the attributes one needs for an enjoyable cozy, in fact. Recommended.
Kate Sharp is invited at the last minute to take part in a Regency weekend at Parkview, the stately home outside of Nether Woodsmoor. She had been hoping to spend her free weekend with Alex Norcutt as they explore their budding relationship, but his 12-year-old sister is visiting him while on a break from boarding school and as soon at they meet, Kate knows she must go slowly in getting to know Grace if the girl is to accept her as Alex’s girlfriend. Plus, she is intrigued by the possibility of actually dressing in authentic Regency clothing, eating authentic meals and otherwise immersing herself in the world of 1810! But on the first night in the house, another of the guests is murdered in his sleep and Kate quickly becomes the prime suspect, seeing as how the man’s bedroom was locked and the only way in was via the balcony, a balcony adjacent to the one leading to Kate’s bedroom…. I quite like this cozy series, of which “Death in a Stately Home” is the third: it’s set in the beautiful English countryside, complete with quaint village and villagers, and the main characters are believable and likable. It’s clear that Ms. Rosett has done her research, both into the Regency period, the works of Jane Austen and the workings of a small village that is somewhat, but not entirely, dependent on tourism for its living. And the addition of 12-year-old Grace, at least for this novel, was quite delightful! Recommended.
“Ça va bien aller” (all will be well). The phrase has helped countless Quebeckers through the pandemic, heartening passersby who see the phrase arranged underneath a rainbow in a million windows and storefronts for months. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is appalled when he learns that a respected academic, a statistician famous in her field, has co-opted that phrase to sell the public on a horrific solution to world-wide problems. When that individual is invited to give a lecture at a nearby college, he knows that it is only a matter of time before someone, maybe many someones, takes the law into their own hands to prevent the spread of her message…. First things first: living as I do in Montreal, I know that as I read this book my province was in the midst of the fourth wave of the pandemic, and that Ms. Penny’s setting of this story post-pandemic was an optimistic fantasy; that said, her choice to do so is just as valid as other ways authors and other creative people have found to address/not address that elephant in the room. Beyond that, her writing is as lucid and beautiful as ever, the overlapping storylines converge in a realistic way, and the characters are, as always, people that I’d like to spend time with in real life. This is the 17th book in the series, and although I’d love to have everyone in the universe read her compelling prose, I think it’s really important for this particular series that readers start at the beginning (“Still Life”). That said, I love this series; highly, highly recommended.
All that reading, plus (virtual) FantAsia in August - 15 films and 10 shorts, all seen at home but still taking up much of my time. I didn't bother to post reviews here, but did on the IMDB (where I'm Alisonc-1, if you want to look them up). And here it's nearly Autumn!
Re-read. Definitely a hard slog, given how long it is and the extreme teenage angst; one thing the author gets perfectly, though, is how after the death of a loved one, the surviving person is straddling two universes, “the one with (the person) in it, and the one without.”
Re-read. One is seriously teary-eyed with this one, I’d forgotten how much.
Re-read. This experiment in reading the entire series back-to-back has definitely enriched my experience of the book, it feels much more whole to me now. Quite a marathon, though!
This volume of 26 stories represents the editor’s choice of the best British sf work of the year; as such, readers will vary in terms of which stories they like or do not like. There were a couple of stories that I had read in a previous anthology, both of which I really liked but won’t include in this review as I mentioned them in another one. That said, I most liked Ian Watson’s “Brave New World by Oscar Wilde,” a time travel tale; “Variations on Heisenberg’s Third Concerto,” by Eleanor R. Wood, which posits a parallel world where Heisenberg was a musician (a hobby he had in real life); C. R. Berry’s “What Happened to 70?”, a rather gonzo theory as to how time travel might really be achieved; “Pineapples Are Not the Only Bromeliad,” by R. B. Kelly, which reminded me of Kage Baker in a very good way; and “The World Is On Fire and You’re Out of Milk,” by Rhiannon A. Grist, which could well be exactly how we will carry out mundane tasks in the not-very-distant future. A lot of the stories in the volume are quite short, and there were some that I just didn’t think were very good, so a real mixed bag to me; still, the above-mentioned stories are worth seeking out.
Cleopatra Fox begins the new century, 1900, with quiet satisfaction that she had managed to solve a murder and do so in such a way that she receives no publicity, that being something a well-bred young lady in London would avoid at all costs. However, her fame is not entirely hidden, and when a young actress falls to her death at a theatre, an apparent suicide, the woman’s paramour (who is staying at the hotel owned by Cleo’s uncle) asks her to investigate. All of Cleo’s intentions seem to come to naught, though, as everybody she speaks to is adamant that the young woman had no worries that might lead her to commit suicide - but neither did she have any enemies, by all accounts being a wonderful person. How is Cleo to get a handle on the case, without risk to her own reputation?.... This is the second in a series about Cleopatra Fox, an energetic and resourceful young woman in a place and time when both of those qualities are frowned upon, by the upper classes at any rate. As with many cozies that I’ve been reading lately, there are occasional anachronisms here - I don’t believe a young woman in 1900 London would say she had “been tasked” with an activity, for example - but these books, so far at least, keep such missteps to a minimum, and the characters are all interesting and well-drawn. I also like how the author exposes the hypocrisy of the mores of the time, still very much steeped in the Victorian Era (the Queen didn’t die until 1903), while also showing how individuals acted according to their own positive moral compasses. Good fun.
There is perhaps nobody else alive today who can write believable characters as well as Stephen King; his way of describing ordinary people, how regular Americans speak to one another and to themselves, and his sense of place and time are all second to none. I believe “Billy Summers” is something like his 60th novel - proving the old adage about practice makes perfect as this is probably as near perfection as a writer can get! The title character is a paid assassin, who nevertheless has a code of ethics - he only kills “bad” people, although he himself decides who to define as “bad.” When he agrees to take one last job before retiring, he notes wryly to himself that in movies, the sub-genre of the “one last job goes bad” is about as cliche as it gets, and of course that is what proceeds to happen in his own real life too…. There’s much more to the character than just that, of course, and as we learn about his whole life (utilizing the “novel within a novel” approach that I seem to be running into again and again lately), Billy takes on a mantle of reality that only a few writers can attain. If you like King, you’ll like this; if you don’t like King, why the hell not? Recommended!
Forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway is back at the University of North Norfolk as the head of archeology, and she’s finding the administrative work to be quite the headache: aside from teaching, she has been responsible for hiring a new teacher, David Brown, to take on some of her former caseload, and he’s proving to be a real thorn in her side. Throw in the fact that a group of metal detectors calling themselves the Night Hawks find not only a possible Bronze Age horde complete with a skeleton but also a freshly dead body, and Ruth’s work becomes even more complicated as she is asked to help DCI Nelson and his police squad to uncover the identity of the former. When a seclusive couple is also found dead, the bodies begin to pile up faster than anyone would have suspected…. This is, I think, the 13th novel in the Ruth Galloway series, and as ever, Ruth’s personal and professional lives overlap in unexpected ways, particularly with respect to Nelson and his wife Michelle. I love this series, as it combines both hard science (the archeological part), police procedure and, essentially, well-defined people living soap opera lives (but in a good way). I think Ms. Griffiths’ writing becomes more lucid and precise over time, as she delves more deeply into the lives of her characters and as she explores the Norfolk landscape, in itself a character by now. This is one series where the reader really *should* start at the beginning (“The Crossing Places”) to get the full benefit of the story, but the new reader should be glad s/he did because there’s a whole dozen more books to get to after the first! Highly recommended.
Kate Sharp is back in England again, this time in a location management job for a documentary being filmed about Jane Austen. She is happy to be back, not least because she is reunited with Alex Norcutt, the colleague she met a month previously during a different film shoot. She’s back in Nether Woodsmoor too, a quaint English village just begging to be filmed in a Regency setting. But she starts off on a bad foot with the show’s producer, and before too long she’s trying to fathom the behaviour of the handsome professor who has a surprise for Austen fans, unless something goes awry…. This is the second book in the “Murder on Location” series and it’s just as enjoyable as the first. Nothing startling or astonishing here, just well-written prose and engaging characters working through some crimes in a gorgeous setting; all the attributes one needs for an enjoyable cozy, in fact. Recommended.
Kate Sharp is invited at the last minute to take part in a Regency weekend at Parkview, the stately home outside of Nether Woodsmoor. She had been hoping to spend her free weekend with Alex Norcutt as they explore their budding relationship, but his 12-year-old sister is visiting him while on a break from boarding school and as soon at they meet, Kate knows she must go slowly in getting to know Grace if the girl is to accept her as Alex’s girlfriend. Plus, she is intrigued by the possibility of actually dressing in authentic Regency clothing, eating authentic meals and otherwise immersing herself in the world of 1810! But on the first night in the house, another of the guests is murdered in his sleep and Kate quickly becomes the prime suspect, seeing as how the man’s bedroom was locked and the only way in was via the balcony, a balcony adjacent to the one leading to Kate’s bedroom…. I quite like this cozy series, of which “Death in a Stately Home” is the third: it’s set in the beautiful English countryside, complete with quaint village and villagers, and the main characters are believable and likable. It’s clear that Ms. Rosett has done her research, both into the Regency period, the works of Jane Austen and the workings of a small village that is somewhat, but not entirely, dependent on tourism for its living. And the addition of 12-year-old Grace, at least for this novel, was quite delightful! Recommended.
“Ça va bien aller” (all will be well). The phrase has helped countless Quebeckers through the pandemic, heartening passersby who see the phrase arranged underneath a rainbow in a million windows and storefronts for months. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is appalled when he learns that a respected academic, a statistician famous in her field, has co-opted that phrase to sell the public on a horrific solution to world-wide problems. When that individual is invited to give a lecture at a nearby college, he knows that it is only a matter of time before someone, maybe many someones, takes the law into their own hands to prevent the spread of her message…. First things first: living as I do in Montreal, I know that as I read this book my province was in the midst of the fourth wave of the pandemic, and that Ms. Penny’s setting of this story post-pandemic was an optimistic fantasy; that said, her choice to do so is just as valid as other ways authors and other creative people have found to address/not address that elephant in the room. Beyond that, her writing is as lucid and beautiful as ever, the overlapping storylines converge in a realistic way, and the characters are, as always, people that I’d like to spend time with in real life. This is the 17th book in the series, and although I’d love to have everyone in the universe read her compelling prose, I think it’s really important for this particular series that readers start at the beginning (“Still Life”). That said, I love this series; highly, highly recommended.
All that reading, plus (virtual) FantAsia in August - 15 films and 10 shorts, all seen at home but still taking up much of my time. I didn't bother to post reviews here, but did on the IMDB (where I'm Alisonc-1, if you want to look them up). And here it's nearly Autumn!