Andrew Adam
Simply tremendous, even better than its predecessor. I think it benefits from a tighter focus - with the hospital tent as a hub for all the key characters, rather than the more chaotic and coincidence-dependent interactions of Ilmar. And because so much of the world-building was done in City of Last Chances, there's more space to explore certain elements in more depth (don't, under any circumstances, read this without reading CoLC first, or you'll be baffled).
There's a dark reflection of Discworld here, with Jack as the Rincewind of a universe whose stories tend towards the tragic rather than the comic. The scene where three characters flee a palace is pure Pratchett, right up to the moment where it isn't, and the immortal wizard in his tower is a superb cameo.
I won the third book in this series in a sweepstake, so should probably declare an interest, but I'm very glad that gave me the nudge to read the first two!
It's an absolute classic, not much more to be said. Beyond the fact that this is the first of many re-readings in which I've actually understood the meaning of "Every vessel in the town was filled with water" - previously I had thought it very odd that they would swamp all of the boats that they'd surely need were Esgaroth to be burned down. Oh, and I finally looked up what a mattock is.
What a week to finish reading this (EHRC guidance released and it's baaad). Travis is so clever that I sometimes struggled to keep up, but what a book. An incredible set of insights and reflections on living outside the gender binary, and the restrictions placed on our self-expression by a society that is all the poorer for it.
For those who've read it - I'm a bit of a Steve, but plan to finally get round to piercing my ears and finding more fun clothes to wear. Life is for us, not for them.
It was fine, I thought it slotted well into the timeline following P&P. A very talking-heavy finale, and it felt a little strange to switch to viewpoints other than Elizabeth's. I'm not a hardcore Austen fan (though I hope to read more), so don't share the strength of opinion held by some reviewers!
Having finally watched (and delighted in) the 90s TV adaptation, I thought it was time to revisit a book I'd previously not appreciated in my teens. And gosh, it is good! I picked up on the nuances of tone much better having been primed to watch for them, and Mr & Mrs Bennet's lines benefitted greatly from this. Looking forward to following up with Death Comes to Pemberley, and possibly The Other Bennet Sister.
My inner socialist rebelled at the insights into the economy and society of the period, but I'm not going to let that get in the way of a good time.
I enjoyed it! The comic beats were particularly strong in the first section - I was impressed by the rhythm of punchlines at the end of pages marrying with the continuous narrative. Bleakly relatable commentary on career setbacks and comparing oneself with others, and predictions of the next inevitable steps of surveillance capitalism.
A good choice for book club, lots to chew over! Paints a vivid picture of life in 70s Northern Ireland, and the compromises and challenges facing those trying to cross community divides, whether through marriage, business, or illicit love affair. I felt things were tied up a bit too neatly/coincidentally towards the end, and struggled to quite understand the reasons for/ speed with which the protagonist fell for her love interest, but it was an engaging read.
Maybe I'm being over-generous in my rating - it doesn't quite follow the premise set out in the blurb, but the author does several things excellently:
- he runs through millenea of British history in an accessible manner - making it a useful primer, especially for those of us who (thank goodness) weren't made to learn English monarchs by rote
- he maintains a healthy scepticism throughout, reminding us of the bias of the sources he references, and skewering many falsehoods that we take for granted
- throughout, he reinforces the point that "British" is not a static concept - we've been invaded, conquered, assimilated and generally mixed up so many times over the centuries, that genetically and culturally, we are European
- importantly (much to the chagrin of another reviewer), he doesn't shy away from the fact that *we are not the good guys* throughout much of history - pointing out the atrocities inflicted by European powers on each other and on societies across five other continents (and pithily describing the conflict between the Dutch and British East India Companies as "baddie versus baddie")
- and I can't not mention his class awareness, which is evident throughout. The arrogance and entitlement of monarchs, despots, and ruling classes are on full display.
The author clearly deplores the delusion behind British exceptionalism, and I wholeheartedly agree with him.
I can't count how many times I've read this before (my father's battered old cloth-bound copy, once left out in the rain and missing its final page), and despite having no talent for sailing whatsoever, I've always loved it. It's telling that the modern film adaptation felt the need to liven it up with German spies, and make the kids so much less likeable - the book very slow, but with Titty (yes, I hear the sniggers) as its beating heart, it shows the power of imagination and adventure. Thoroughly wholesome, albeit through the lens of Empire.
My god, the *Lore* within this book. Never have I been more grateful for a glossary and Dramatis Personae at the front (to discover it after reading would have been infuriating, given how much back-and-forth checking of character names I ended up doing).
All of which is to say, an excellent novel, but one that demands your attention in order to understand what's going on. The narrative is passed like a baton between a vast cast of characters from one chapter to the next; many things are implied but never stated outright; other terms are picked up from context (I enjoyed Siblingry as the in-universe equivalent of a union); and new lore is dropped in regularly and without ceremony (yes, there are demons; yes, there are Infernal Realms, keep up).
I was given the third book in the series by the publisher, decided I needed to read the first two first, and then set it aside for maybe three months because two chapters were enough to confirm I didn't have the mental capacity to keep up. Once I was ready (and got the nudge from my extremely patient library that their limits were about to be reached), I devoured it. But I might read something lighter before moving onto books two and three.
I had a tremendous time - some things I anticipated, some things I absolutely did not, and some things that I expected, did not come to pass. It left my brain in a bit of a tangle at times - partially in terms of plot/chronology, and partly in terms of the uncanny valley of this version of Victorian London that's clearly different from our universe's equivalent - the Oxford of His Dark Materials springs to mind. I'm intrigued to find out where the author goes next!
I enjoyed the (relative) emotional heft of this one, if a bit overwhelmed by SecUnit's unerring ability to give lots of different entities very similar names. I found the final act fell a little short - lots of fun and interesting elements, but could have done with hearing more from the humans about the ethical dilemmas involved, given that's essentially the key USP of the Perihelion and Preservation factions.
A really impressive bit of world-building - so many layers of intrigue. I liked that this took the idea of a thieves guild (that I'm most familiar with from Discworld) but took it to a far grittier place. Clearly set up threads for subsequent books in the series, but I've not yet decided if I'm going to go any further - Locke reminds me a bit of Kvothe from The Name of the Wind, though maybe a little more grounded.
Enjoyable enough to pass the time, after one chapter I was fairly convinced it was X-Men fanfic. Pretty basic though, lots of wish fulfillment, far too little world-building (tell me more about the fascism!), and, from reading reviews about the Sixties Scoop, a bit problematic in its inspirations. If you like happy endings and easily-resolved conflicts, it's fine as a light read.