ladyofastolat | Books read in August (Reply)

The Winnowing Flame trilogy by Jen Williams (only two books published as yet)
The Ninth Rain
The Bitter Twins

The world of Sarn has repeatedly been attacked by the creatures known only as The Worm People. Each time, they've been repulsed by the Eborans - taller, shinier and massively more long lived than regular humans. But the Tree God that gives the Eborans their power is now dead. Only a few Eborans remain, in a faded city full of death. Tormalin, called The Oathless, has no desire to stay with his dying people, and has chosen to leave for an irresponsible life of women, drink and adventuring. For the last few years, he has acted as bodyguard to an eccentic middle-aged noblewoman, Lady Vincenza de Grazon, who has scandalised her family by leaving her estates for a life of an explorer and wandering scholar. And then there is Noon, a Fell Witch, with the power to suck the life force from living things and expel it in gouts of green flame. Noon has spent most of her life imprisoned by a hypocritical religion which simultaneously condemns all Fell Witches, and exploits their powers for financial gain. When Noon has vivid dreams of the return of the Worm People, she escapes, and soon teams up with the other two as they explore the relics of the last attack of the Worm People. But the Worm People are returning...

As is becoming increasingly common, I enjoyed book 1 of this series, but grew increasingly bored in book 2, when the action picked up. The world-building is great, and book 1 took its time, revealing the backstory not in a big info-dump, but in intriguing bits and pieces throughout the book. But then everything got bigger and faster and more hectic in the second book, and while I didn't dislike it, as such, I found myself growing considerably less interested. I'll probably look out for book 3, though.

Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip

Loose Tam Lin retelling, set in a winter forest. I really wanted to like this. I very much enjoy Tam Lin retellings, as a whole, and the language was beautifully rich and poetic. But I just couldn't engage with it. I loved its beautiful writing, the characterisation just seemed flat.

Hannah Green and her unfeasibly mundane existance by Michael Marshall Smith

Adult novel with a child main character, borrowed entirely blind from the library. Hannah Green, aged 11, is sent to stay with her grandfather after her father struggles to cope with the break-up of his marriage. There she soon discovers that the old man who comes a-visiting is actually the devil, and her grandfather is several hundreds years old, creator of a cunning machine that converts bad deeds to energy. But something is wrong with the machine, and it must be fixed...

I enjoyed this at first. The narrative voice was chatty, readable and amusing. But before the half way point, I'd grown bored. Sufficiently bored, in fact, that 3 weeks on, I can't really remember anything about it, and therefore can't articulate just WHY it bored me.

1. The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter
2. Lady of Magick
3. Season of Spells

Fantasy trilogy set in an AU Britain, probably somewhere in the late 18th century, although this is undefined. Britain consists of England and what we would call Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Maine and Normandy, each with their own languages, traditions and gods. (Alba (Scotland) is independent.) It's a polytheistic country, with the elite favouring Roman gods, but many and various other local gods being worshipped (and, it's implied, genuinely existing.)

Against the wishes of his family, Gray Marshall is studying for a Masters degree in magick at Oxford, when he is unjustly disgraced and banished to the estate (in Brittany) of his unpleasant tutor. There he meets his tutor's daughter, Sophie, who has always been told that she has no magick, but is fascinated with the study of magickal theory nonetheless. Together, Grey and Sophie come to uncover a sinister plot that aims to strike at the very heart of the British monarchy...

I really enjoyed this series. It's not for everyone; grimdark is is NOT. Almost everyone in this series is really nice. Yes, there are baddies, but we kept meeting secondary characters who, by their role in life, I fully expected to be, if not actively evil, obstructive or bigoted or unpleasant, but almost everyone was nice. There was very little contrived melodrama and ridiculous emotional overreaction - and, when there was, it came from young characters who went on to mature and grow more reasonable in the later books. The whole series (which covers 6 or 7 years) is packed with competent, sensible, accomplished female characters, getting on with being competent and capable in a world (in Britain, at least; Alba is rather different) that doesn't expect women to be capable of anything much at all.

I'm surprised by how many bad or mediocre reviews the first book has on Goodreads, since I really liked the whole series. But, then, many of the bad reviews say that it's too slow, and if we've established anything from these book reviews of mine, it's that I like slow books, and often get bored when the action gets too fast, at the expense of characterisation. So, yes, I'd definitely recommend this series to people who like slow-moving fantasy-of-manners-type stories, packed full of nice, competent people, with the unpleasantness safely hidden off camera.

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy
The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle

Children's books. Humour. Four princes, each dismissed as a generic "Prince Charming" in the bards' tales, team up out of chance and necessity. There's Frederic (from Cinderalla), terrified of everything but excellent at etiquette and dancing; Gustav (Rapunzel), a hairy barbarian type, determined to prove himself more heroic than his 16 older brothers; Duncan (Snow White), quirky and strange; and Liam, a genuine hero, now despised by his people for refusing to marry the obnoxious - but very rich - Sleeping Beauty. Together they face of variety of evils, along with an ever-increasing cast of feisty princesses and others.

Granted, I'm not really the target audience for this series, but I really enjoyed it at first. But I just found it outstaying its welcome. Each book is around 500 pages, which just felt too long for a humorous story that pokes fun of fairy tale tropes. There is a third book, too, but I read just the first and last few chapters of that, to find out what happened to the characters. Perhaps I shouldn't have tried to read all 3 back to back.

Snowdrift and other stories by Georgette Heyer

Mostly a reprint of Pistols for Two, a collection of short stories which I've read and reread several times, but this collection also includes 3 additional early stories by Heyer, newly "rediscovered." All 3 of the "new" ones are set, either partly or entirely, in roadside inns in elopement-themed storylines. 2 of them contain the sort of Heyer romance that I find hard to believe in, but I still enjoyed the stories. There are themes and ideas here that she would later expand into full-length stories, but, really, I'm happy to read ANY new Heyer, and am not all that fussy about content.