73 posts tagged “recommended”
Lissar is the king's only child but he takes no notice of her until she comes to adolescence and begins to resemble her mother, who had died years before but whose presence still dominates the court. Lissar would much rather be with her books and her dog, the unexpected present from the prince of a far-away land, and her reluctance to have anything to do with her father is reinforced when he decides that she is to be his next wife.
When Lissar rejects her father's advances, he rapes her and she then flees the only life she has ever known, eventually finding sanctuary in a snow-bound cabin. Still haunted by what has happened to her, Lissar effectively takes on a new identity as Deerskin, travelling till she can find something to replace what she has lost.
Deerskin is a beautifully written book, which I enjoyed immensely and in which I found myself very much empathising both with Lissar and with the inhabitants of the place she finally ends up. The only slight downside would be that the ending feels a little forced, as if McKinley too much wanted to tie up all her loose ends, when something more ambivalent might have been a bit more realistic given the foregoing events.
In this case, we have the creation of Sitka, a Jewish settlement in part of what was formerly Alaska - ceded to its Jewish inhabitants for 60 years, the settlement is now facing up to the realities of Reversion, as control of the land and all that stands on it goes back to the people of Alaska. Not a pleasant concept for the settlement's Jewish police force or many of its inhabitants.
Our protagonist is one of those police, a detective called Meyer Landsman who lives in a rundown hotel. One of his neighbours, a junkie, is killed execution-style and Landsman and his partner, who is also his half-Jewish cousin Shemets, find themselves drawn into the middle of bizarre plots about Messiah and the prophesied return to the promised land.
The book itself is enjoyably noir, written in a very hard-boiled style peppered with plenty of Yiddish expressions, succeeding even despite how desperately unpleasant Landsman is at times. In The Yiddish Policemen's Union, his only redeeming factor seems to be a desperate need to find out the truth, no matter how many toes he treads on, and that's always a good thing for a fictional detective.
As a result, when I had the chance to pick up a copy of Sister Light, Sister Dark (currently out of print in the UK, alas) I jumped at the chance and enjoyed it very much. In some ways, it could be easily pigeonholed as the stereotypical YA novel about a young person who discovers they are actually more than initially met the eye, but Yolen's writing and characterisation lifts this book above that.
Our protagonist is Jenna, who has been fostered by the Altites since she was a baby - they are a community of women warriors who have found a way to increase their numbers by means of their 'dark sisters', a shadowy counterpart of the majority of them who can only be seen by moonlight or artificial light. As with many YA fantasy books, there is a prophecy in relation to a child with white hair who will be the Anna, a child who has been orphaned three times and whose coming heralds 'the end of things'. As time goes on, more and more of the people associating with Jenna realise that she may well be the one whose coming was prophecied.
What I really liked about Sister Light, Sister Dark is the way that Yolen structures it, as the story of Jenna is also bracketed by both myth (so you can see how the actual story could be twisted to suit the needs of particular groups) and by academic discussion (often just as far of the mark). And although there's a budding romance between Jenna and a fugitive princeling she and her friend Pynt rescue, it's low-key enough not to annoy. The story continues and concludes in White Jenna, which I hope to get hold of.
Where Hallowed Murder is concerned, our protagonist is Jane Lawless who runs a restaurant - in this particular book, she's also acting as an alumnus adviser for her old sorority, one of whose members has apparently committed suicide. Jane isn't so sure and decides to investigate, discovering that some of the people around the sorority have issues with both religion and sexuality that make them prime suspects in Alison's death.
It's very much a book of its time, since it's set in the 1980's, and the whole sorority thing is a complete mystery to me anyway - I didn't guess the identity of the murderer, though, so I expect that if I get the chance to pick up the next book in the series (Vital Lies) then I probably will...
The universe in which these books are set is one of a future Earth where various cities have been rebuilt in such a way that they can travel across land in search of prey, that prey being other cities whose resources they can recycle. In the case of Mortal Engines, the main city we're talking about is London which is under the control of the Guild of Engineers.
Our hero is an apprentice Historian, Tom Natsworthy, whose job it is to clean the exhibits in the museum, but who inadvertantly crosses paths with one Hester Shaw, who is very much an anti-hero. She has a vendetta against the Head Historian, who Tom idolises, because he was responsible for the murders of her parents and her own disfigurement - Tom finds himself left behind by London and reliant on Hester to find his way back to some kind of safety, but of course things are nothing like as simple as he has always been led to believe.
It's an intriguing premise, peopled with characters who seem very real, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the series works out. The next book in the quartet is Predator's Gold.
Death at Gallows Green by Robin Paige - this is the next in the series after Death at Bishop's Keep, which I reviewed in September. Once again, our protagonist is Kate Ardleigh, recent inheritor of a house in Essex from her aunts, who tolerates the social niceties just as long as they help her plot her next penny dreadful under an assumed name.
This time around, the body of a police sergeant is found at the bottom of the local gamekeeper's garden and an unlikely group of investigators (Kate, of course, Ned the local police constable, Ned's childhood friend Sir Charles Sheridan and the as-yet-unpublished Beatrix Potter) work together to discover exactly what went on and where.
As before, it's an enjoyable read, as Kate continues to scandalise the neighbourhood with her behaviour (riding a bicycle, in public, with Ned!). The next in the series is Death at Daisy's Folly.
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs - I know I keep saying I won't start any new series, but this one is so good I just couldn't resist!
Our hero, this time around, is Mercedes Thompson who earns her living as a mechanic. Brought up by a pack of werewolves, Mercy is herself a skinwalker, and also associates with various otherworldly creatures including a vampire with a taste for VW's and her former boss, something mysterious and Germanic with a taste for metalworking. She also lives next door to the head of the local werewolf chapter, who is also her main source of entertainment as she loves to get him annoyed.
Mercy is a strong, well-realised character who doesn't just stumble blindly into problems that other people then have to rescue her from. There's also much less gratuitous sex than in many urban fantasy books, which is always a plus point for me since I prefer plot over porn any day. The next book in the series is Blood Bound and I'm looking forward to it already.
Abhorsen by Garth Nix - it's taken me a while to get round to this, the final book in Nix's trilogy, following on from Sabriel (reviewed in February) and Lirael (reviewed in April). Like the two previous books, Abhorsen is set in the Old Kingdom, where the lines between Life and Death are very thin and the eponymous Abhorsen's job is to make sure the dead stay that way.
This book pretty much carries straight on from where Lirael left off, with Lirael herself starting to come to terms with the fact that she has been pegged to be the next Abhorsen and what that will mean for her. In fact, you could pretty much consider Lirael and Abhorsen one immensely long novel split in two because of this.
However, it does take a little while for Abhorsen to really get going, in terms of story, but it's still an immensely satisfying read and one I enjoyed very much. I need to get on and read the other stuff he's written, since I see he's turned out another couple of series...
Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughan - I reviewed the previous book in this series (Kitty Goes to Washington) a few weeks ago and am slowly making progress through the to-be-read pile...
Once again, our hero is Kitty Norville, late-night radio host and werewolf, who had recently been 'outed' on national television going from human to werewolf. In an attempt to deal with the repercussions of that event, Kitty has taken the opportunity for a few weeks in a quiet cabin. However, it's soon clear that someone doesn't want her there and things only get worse when Kitty's lawyer is brought there, bitten by a werewolf.
Kitty has to call on all her own experience to help Ben deal with the things he's about to face, but she's not willing to cut and run just when her embryo pack needs her help. Again, as with the previous books, we get to see real tenacity and character development where Kitty is concerned, which helps make this series an enjoyable one to read. The next book is Kitty and the Silver Bullet and I'll be keeping an eye out for it.
Prospero's Children by Jan Siegel - once again, the first of a series and a more successful bookswap than some. In short, I really liked this book.
Fern and Will's father, a somewhat feckless art dealer, has inherited a house in Yorkshire and drags his reluctant children up there to inspect the new property. Fern has become used to managing things, although she's only 16, since the death of her mother after which she took over and grew up a bit too fast. Now she's about to discover that adult life is somewhat more complicated than she had thought because she had been thinking everything was logical and predictable.
In Prospero's Children, we find that a relic of Atlantis is still in existence, a key that was part of an ancient lodestone and which has tremendous power. It's coveted by a number of people Fern's father knows, but they cannot get hold of it without Fern's help and she's not particularly willing to give that assistance. Particularly since it seems that this key will cause more problems than it solves and the outcome of one of the others getting their hands on it could be disastrous.
I was especially impressed with the language in this book, which is almost lyrical in its descriptions both of the Yorkshire setting of part of the book and of Atlantis, the city that also plays a major part. Fern herself is an interesting character, learning that there is mystery in the world and discovering her role within it. I'm looking forward to reading the other two books, which are The Dragon Charmer and Witch's Honour (also known as The Witch Queen).
Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughan - I'd read and enjoyed the previous book in this series (Kitty and the Midnight Hour) last month, so when I got the chance to pick up this one and the next in the series, I jumped at it.
Kitty Goes to Washington literally follows on right where the previous book finished, with late-night radio host Kitty Norville leaving town after she breaks with her pack (since she's also a werewolf) and goes on the run across country. While travelling, broadcasting her show from various parts of the US, Kitty gets a call to say she's been summoned to a Senate committee hearing on the supernatural creatures the US government has now found are living among them.
While she's there, we meet a bunch of new characters, as well as some familiar faces from the previous book, and things kind of resolve themselves just in time to set up the next book in the series (Kitty Takes a Holiday) which is currently part of my teetering to-be-read pile. Enjoyable as ever, I look forward to seeing where the author takes things and am pleased to see that so far she's written 5 books, so I still have 2 more after the next one...
Gallows Thief by Bernard Cornwell - another swap, this time a standalone novel from the man who's best known for the series of books featuring Sharpe. This is set around the same period, shortly after the Napoleonic wars have finished, leaving one Captain Sandman at something of a loss for what to do next. If circumstances were normal, he'd now be playing cricket and enjoying the life of country gentleman, except that his father has recently committed suicide and left enormous debts, meaning that Sandman must find some source of income.
In this case, he gets an unexpected summons and ends up working as an investigator for the Prime Minister, since the Queen has been petitioned over the guilt of a man who's scheduled to hang - the man in question is Corday, a portrait painter, who has been convicted of the rape and murder of a noblewoman. There is, of course, more to this whole situation than meets the eye and while the purpose of his appointment was really to look as if things were being done, Sandman was not expected to find out who really had committed the murder for which Corday is due to be executed.
Cornwell is a competent enough storyteller and clearly knows the period in which his stories are set, but there was just something a little unengaging about his protagonist. I've seen reviewers on Amazon comment on this book being essentially Sharpe Lite, and while I've never read any of that series, I can see how the comparisons would be easily drawn. In some ways too, the plot is all a little too neatly pulled together, possibly because Cornwell wished to avoid the temptation of another series. I doubt I'd make great efforts to read anything else from this author, but he kept me interested through to the conclusion and that's enough for me.
Black Dog by Stephen Booth - though there are plenty of people writing as prolifically as anything in series of books that people rave about, I rarely find myself joining in. I have to read series in order, so that often means I don't catch up with stuff until later (the Rebus books were one example of this) and I'm beginning to wonder how I missed out on Stephen Booth before now.
Black Dog is set in the Peak District, with not one but two police officers carrying their own particular emotional and psychological baggage - Ben Cooper is local to the area, the son of a well-respected police sergeant, while Diane Fry struggles under the dual burden of being a woman in the police and an outsider at that. Right at the outset of her coming to Derbyshire, Diane becomes involved in the disappearance of a teenage girl and discovers that even the apparent quiet of the countryside can cover a multitude of sins.
I really enjoyed this book, mostly because of both the setting and that I couldn't quite see where Booth was going with it. In some ways it could be argued that the amount of angst he's given both his protagonists is likely to be a hindrance, but there's also an interesting tension there because of it and because of the things they never get around to explaining to one another. The series continues in Dancing With the Virgins and I look forward to catching up with the rest of this author's work.
The Boy I Love by Marion Husband - I've joined this UK based book-swapping website and this is one of the first books I got through in exchange for something of mine which was just languishing on the shelves. I thought it sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go.
It's the story of a small town and a number of the men who have returned from World War I, all with their various mental and physical scars. The main characters are Paul, the son of the town doctor, whose charismatic older brother got his girlfriend pregnant while on leave from the army and then died in an accident after visiting Paul in hospital. Paul himself is homosexual, carrying on a clandestine relationship with local teacher Adam, and who seizes at the idea of marrying in order to ensure that his brother's child isn't given up for adoption and also to give himself a cover for his true predilections.
While in the trenches, Paul had also served with Patrick, who has also returned from war to re-establish his parents' butcher shop. Patrick's brother has been left seriously disabled and they live together, in a very surly and unhappy way, while Patrick tries to keep his own desires under wraps and also avoid the attentions of his female shop assistant. Although he had never acted on his fantasies, partly because they were sergeant and officer, Patrick had been half in love with Paul since they had first met.
I have to say I pretty much went through this book in one sitting, as I very much enjoyed the writing style of the author (and will certainly keep an eye out for her other books). Although this book is set in a period of time when homosexuality was illegal, there's very little sense of that and I struggled with the idea that family members who were aware of both Patrick and Paul's leanings should be quite as generally accepting as they are. I also figured out the 'oh no, plot twist!' way before it actually occurred, as well as expecting something that doesn't really come to anything to be more of an issue than it turns out to be. These are, however, minor flaws and possibly just my own pickiness...
