Top 5 Tuesday — Air!

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Bionic Bookworm, now hosted by Meeghan Reads. If you’re interested in participating, check out their blog to get the details and the prompts for each week, then link your post back to Meeghan’s blog or leave a comment on her weekly post.

23 May: Top 5 books with air

Calm like a monk, or wild like Aang? Don’t forget to breathe deeply. 💨🍃
(Variant: flight)

So, the obvious choice: Books with „air“ in the title or air travel…

Airframe by Michael Crichton — ✈️ ✈️ ✈️

I read this quite a while ago, when it came out first as a paperback. 2006-ish? Back then I probably would have given it four or five stars, but tastes change. I remember starting to read this, while sitting in a plane, about to hurl itself down a runway to take-off and thinking “How stupid can I be?” If you want some well written, fast paced entertainment, without having to engage too much brain power, this is a good choice. Unless you are afraid of flying… 

Probably around the same time or a little earlier I also read this:

Air Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones — ✈️ ✈️ ✈️ ✈️

Funnily enough, I bought this at duty free in Heathrow Airport. This book is a loose collection of anecdotes of the shenanigans in the airline industry. They are told in the form of one day in the working life of an airport duty manager. Very British, very shallow, occasionally very funny – especially if you have flown a few times. Brain candy. This is probably a great read during a long-haul flight.

Similar theme, still part of my TBR pile:

Cockpit Confidential by Patrick Smith — TBR pile

I got this in 2018. At the time I was still a regular flyer and I guess I thought it would be entertaining and illuminating:

„Cockpit Confidential covers not only the nuts and bolts of flying, but also the grand theater of air travel, from airport architecture to inflight service to the excitement of travel abroad. It’s a thoughtful, funny, at times deeply personal look into the strange and misunderstood world of commercial flying.“

So much for non-fiction. This meme’s prompt is a good reminder that I still have this short story on my TBR pile:

Any Way the Wind Blows by Seanan McGuire — TBR pile

Pretty cover, right? Added to my TBR pile in 2020.

“In the original Tor.com story Any Way the Wind Blows, New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire presents a sweet tribute to Manhattan’s iconic Flatiron building–celebrating the longtime home of Tor Books as the publisher bids farewell for new office space.”

“Composed of travelers from nine different parallel dimensions, the Cartography Corps crew aboard the airship Stalwart Trumpet of Glory descends on the New York City in our universe to collect and preserve artifacts from the legendary turn-of-the-twentieth century landmark Flatiron building.”

Can be read for free here. Yes, I still need to read her Wayward Children novellas, they are burning a hole into my virtual TBR pile. I know, I know.

Last, but not least, if you are looking for a fun graphic novel series with good artwork, I highly recommend this:

Skyward Vol. 1: My Low-G Life — read in 2019 — ☁️ ☁️ ☁️ ☁️ ☁️
by Joe Henderson (Author), Antonio Fabela (Illustrator), Lee Garbett (Illustrator)

„One day, gravity on Earth suddenly became a fraction of what it is now. Twenty years later, humanity has adapted to its new low-gravity reality. And to Willa Fowler, who was born just after G-day, it’s pretty awesome. You can fly through the air! I mean, sure, you can also die if you jump too high. So you just don’t jump too high. And maybe don’t get mixed up in your dad’s secret plan to bring gravity back that could get you killed…“

Nice artwork, fun story. In Issue #2 Willa, the main character, started to live dangerously. There is a stunning panel, showing what happened to those that didn’t make it past G-Day.

I am not sold on the whole premise of this story and the world building seems flawed. Henderson claims to have researched gravity. I enjoyed this comic so much that I was willing to roll with it and suspend my major disbelief.

What did I like? The artwork, the colours, the humour. Willa is a little daft at times, but generally likeable, so is her dad. I liked the outfits people wear.

What did I not like? The holes in the world building, aka how would all this still work with really low gravity? Loose water, loose dirt, loose everything, the weather… What happens to the polar ice caps without water? However, the story telling works just fine, even without those open questions.

At the time I read Skyward, it sounded as if it might be adapted as a motion picture for Sony. I guess Covid-19 happened, so… 🤷‍♀️

So, any air-themed books on your shelf? What did you like and what can you recommend?

Blast from the past with Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb

Do you read romance? In that case you probably have come across Nora Roberts and her alter ego J.D. Robb. My mother loves the In Death series by Robb and in 2016 I finally got the first book of the series. Here is what I thought of it.

Naked in Death (In Death, #1) — read in 2016
by J.D. Robb

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Fairly stereotypical police procedural, with some futuristic gadgets and a love interest who is, at first, a suspect, as well as tall, dark, mysterious and the common alpha male of romance novels. I think the correct label is romantic suspense. The first book in the very successful In Death series by The Nora. My mum is a huge fan, so curiosity made me pick it up, to see what all the fuss is about.

I did not really like the relationship much at first between Eve and Roarke. He definitely had problems accepting her wishes, which bugged me. If you do not mind his consent issues, he’s fine as a romance MC. 

The world building could have been better. The gadgets and some futuristic concepts were not explained, so if they weren’t self-expalantory, you were left to guess. However, they only play a very small part in the story. If you want to read sci-fi with suspense, hands off this book.

This is mostly told from Eve’s view, third person. There is the odd change of POV, mostly to Roarke and sometimes to others. These changes are not well done and jarred me every time. It could be the formatting (or lack thereof), the various protagonists do all sound exactly the same as well, though.

The mystery wasn’t very gripping and, at least from the second half onwards, pretty predictable. 

The romance and sex were ok. Fairly tame, I like my nooky more explicit.

Bottom line: Ok, nothing gripping, as light entertainment on the side not bad. Decent writing. I wasn’t very happy with the early Roarke and his consent issues. I would recommend it and will probably read the next book in the series, to see where their romance goes.

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PS: I never got the next book in the series and don‘t feel tempted to get back to this series.

And a long, long time ago I read two romance novels by Roberts…

Birthright by Nora Robert — read in 2003

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

5000 year old bones are found at a construction site in a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Our heroine Callie, an archaeologist, comes to investigate. So does her ex-husband, annoying, but good-looking and charming Jake. And then a death occurs. Is the site cursed? And, least but not last, someone gives Callie some shocking news about her past that shake the foundations of her life.
If you are looking for a book with a serious archealogical twist, forget it. You are looking at a slightly upscale romance novel with a bit of mystery strewn in for added suspense. Not too trashy and quite a good read to relax after a hard day at work.

Three Fates by Nora Roberts — read in 2004

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Great fun! Roberts manages to give you low-brain-power entertainment, but with wit and a lot of humour, without getting too sloppy on the romance side of things. Did I mention steamy sex? 🙂

This is what the story is about: Three siblings embark on a quest to re-unite 3 parts of a mythical statue. They are not sure that it even exists, but they are determined to find out and try. From Ireland they travel to Eastern Europe, Helsinki, New York, to follow clues and find romance, adventure and a deadly enemy…

Out of this World by J.D. Robb, Laurell K. Hamilton, Susan Krinard, Maggie Shayne

And this one has been languishing on my bookshelf since 2015. Maybe next year?

Have you read anything by Roberts? What is your favourite?

Sloan McPherson, Pirate Cop.

The Girl Beneath the Sea (Underwater Investigation Unit, #1)
by Andrew Mayne (Author), Susannah Jones (Narrator)

New to me author that I picked up because of the glowing reviews of a goddreads friend, along the lines of „guilty pleasure“. My usual brain candy is romance or creature feature horrors, but why not! Added bonus: the main character, aka the titular girl beneath the sea, is a scuba-diving police officer in South Florida, dipping underwater for fornsic reasons. I love all things underwater.

Ok, so she goes diving and finds a corpse that has practically been murdered and tossed in the water while our MC was down there. Her dad is a treasure hunter and her uncle is in jail for drug trafficking, so naturally she comes under suspicion right away. To save herself and solve the case, she has to team up with the police officer that arrested her uncle and wrecked her youth. What else could go wrong?

Nothing special, but entertaining enough for a long trip by train. I might even be tempted to pick up the next one in the series.

Inside out

Eversion
by Alastair Reynolds

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

In the 1800s, a sailing ship crashes off the coast of Norway. In the 1900s, a Zepellin explores an icy canyon in Antarctica. In the far future, a spaceship sets out for an alien artifact. Each excursion goes horribly wrong. And on every journey, Dr. Silas Coade is the physician, but only Silas seems to realize that these events keep repeating themselves. And it’s up to him to figure out why and how. And how to stop it all from happening again.

From the book blurb

I read the book blurb, took a good look at the cover (blue version) and googled Eversion, which led me to watch animations of what sphere eversion could look like. Other than I tried to stay away from spoilers (this is me, going over my review again, shortening and „de-spoilering“ it…).

The story is quite odd, actually. It feels a bit like those idle games for smart phones, where you have to destroy your current evolution of the game in order to progress to the next level. Silas keeps figuring things out slowly and a little further with each progressive step of the plot. It‘s a neat way to create suspense. 

I am surprised that this book hasn‘t been shelved as horror. I found it quite claustrophobic and not a little creepy. It has been tagged as Space Opera though, which I don‘t think applies. Gothic steampunk time-travel space-exploration mystery?

I would have liked to connect more deeply with Silas on his journey of (self-)discovery. His ethical dilemma was well-done, but could have been… just more? Funny, I never thought I would turn into a reader wanting more character development.

Very good audio narration.

What I have read so far by Reynolds, I liked. I am going about it quite haphazardly though. Perhaps I should have a closer look at his back catalogue and make an attempt at a more coordinated reading experience. 

Read so far by Reynolds, both 5-star reads:
The Prefect (Prefect Dreyfus Emergency, #1)
Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidon’s Children, #1)

On my shelf, to be read:
Permafrost
Revenger (Revenger, #1) 

Unrest in the countryside

Sword Dance (Sword Dance, #1)
by A.J. Demas

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Interesting world. Names sound Greek, the architecture sounds a little more Roman. And the far away land of Zash reminds me a bit of Persia, maybe the hanging gardens of Babylon made an indirect appearance?

Damiskos, the main character, is a likeable fellow. Former soldier, not a terribly exciting job, gets sent to the countryside to make a deal about buying fish sauce for the troops. Fishy things start to happen, not just sauce-related. 

“Terza’s head, what a lot of ghastly people Nione seemed to have gathered around herself. Did he really have to stay out the week?“

Apparently he did. If Agatha Christie had ever written Fantasy, this is probably what it would have looked like. The requisite body might or might not have turned up. Damiskos gets support from unexpected quarters and has to pretend to be romantically inclined to towards the sword-dancing eunuch. Things do not go as planned. Do they ever?

Thrown in were some rather odd philosophers, some violence, a little not too graphic sex and various shenanigans. I liked the underhanded humour. Oh yes, and there were some serious topics woven into the narrative, about gender identity, equal rights, racism, power over and perception of others—nicely done.

This is not quick, the pace is rather sedate. Damiskos and the story take their time. It is well plotted though.

The world has potential for some more sweeping stories and there are two more books in this series. Recommended, if you are looking for a relaxed mystery with some action, light humour and a little m/m romance.

„… a dizzying week of intrigue, assassinations, and a fake love affair that—maybe—turned real.“

Dewey‘s 2022 Reverse Readathon > Hour 14 (9am EST): Audiobooks

Do you like listening to audiobooks?

I struggled at first with audiobooks, because I kept nodding off, when sitting still and listening to them. I have to do something else, that doesn‘t engage my mind, while I listen. 

I still do more eye-reading, my average for audiobooks is one per month. I always listen to a sample first, it is very important for me that I like the narrator. I even have some favourites and I sometimes even pick a book purely based on who narrates it. Case in point: I am a Sherlock Holmes fan, but the deciding factor for picking up my current audio, Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Audio Collection: it is narrated by Stephen Fry.

I read faster than a narrator usually reads out the books, so I tend to listen to audios at a speed of 1.5. 

Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Audio Collection
by Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen Fry (Narrator)

I am reviewing this 72-hours monster in chunks, the first part you can read here. For this readathon I am currently making my way through The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

I have listened to these stories today: A Scandal in Bohemia, Holmes & Watson meet The Woman / The Adventure of the Red-Headed League / A Case of Identity / The Boscombe Valley Mystery / The Five Orange Pips / The Man with the Twisted Lip / The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle ★★★★☆

Some of these stories are more obscure or I have actually never read them. The stories span a good amount of years, in which Watson lives away from Holmes, happily married to Mary and running a doctor‘s practice. He very much leads a life of his own, but frequently accompanies his friend Holmes on his cases. This Holmes, the real one, is never as aloof, hurtful or downright dismissive of others.

There are many visuals know from the many screen adaptations though and sentences and remarks that have made their way into the shared consciousness of Holmes‘s fans.

More reviews to come, as I slowly progress through this audio.

Reading the real deal

Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Audio Collection
by Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen Fry (Narrator)

A Study in Scarlet 
The very first Sherlock Holmes story. John Watson meets Sherlock Holmes. The mystery wasn‘t terribly exciting. Two Americans turn up dead. Obviously there is a back story. Utah, Mormons, romance… ★★★½☆

The Sign of the Four 
The sequel. Holmes & Watson meet Mary Morstan. And Toby, the dog with the supernose. The backstory takes us to the Andaman islands. I have read this one several times and so far it is my favourite.

I still astonishes me how (relatively) human and social Holmes comes across in the original. TV has a lot to be answered for.

This audiobook monster is narrated by the adorable Stephen Fry, who did his usual stellar job. Some interesting forewords are included.

More reviews to come, as I slowly progress through this audio.

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The last time I read The Sign of the Four was in 2016. Here is what I had to say about it back then:

Re-reading a classic.

This is my favourite Holmes story. I was fascinated about the description of his drug use, when I read this first as a teenager.

With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks.

The plot is (mostly) fun. We meet Mary, Toby, Wiggins and get to read many immortal sentences from the Sherlock Holmes universe.

I know the plot so well that I find it hard to be critical about it. The only part I truly do not like, is Jonathan Small’s story. It drags and I find it a little boring. It’s too long and feels like an afterthought, that got stuck on to inflate the page count. 

And from today’s point of view Doyle’s description of Tonga comes across as pretty offensive. But this was published in 1890, so I can acknowledge that and live with it.

And even back then they wrote bad insta-love! It also struck me as strange during this re-read, how jovial Holmes is and how often he laughs. Should I blame the BBC for that?

Behind the Three Pines

Hinter den drei Kiefern: Ein Fall für Gamache
by Louise Penny

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

My first Gamache, but the 13th of the series, so I am most likely missing some context.

Gamache, the chief of police of the province of Quebec, is in the witness stand of a murder trial. The chief prosecutor is pretty hostile towards his main witness. Through the questioning we are told the story of the murder that happened in the village of Three Pines. So much for the beginning. There is more to it, with a pretty modern problem.

Slow. A lot of talking and reminiscing. Set-up for the community that lives in Three Pines and its guests. More talking. Little doing. The murder only happens a third into the book. And the accused sitting on that bench during the trial is never named, which in my opinion is a pretty lame gimmick to create suspense. Of which there was little to none. The last 30% are a bit more speedy, but the wrap-up is quite repetitive.

Some of the characters stay one-dimensional, I struggled to keep them apart until the end. The woman with the duck was just a silly caricature.

Many of my reading buddies love Gamache, but this was way too cozy for me. And the plot was a little silly. It is very unlikely that I will pick up another one of the series or by this author, unless I come by it very cheaply. Maybe #14…

2.5 pine cones, rounded up to 3 for the tears-inducing ending.

PS: 
– Initially bought for my mum, who did not finish it. I should have listened to her reasons.
– I don‘t read many straight mysteries anymore and never in German, so this was a bit of an an uphill struggle.
– Reading a novel in German again wasn‘t as much work as I had feared. 
– This is the first book of the series published in Germany and consequently released books do not seem to follow the original sequence either—I didn‘t check too deeply though. Very odd, why didn‘t the German publishers start with the first book?
– The first book of the series, Still Life, was made into a movie and I would watch it.
– The English original is called Glass Houses: A Novel, which is more meaningful for the book than the German title „Behind the Three Pines“.

Literary Awards: Anthony Award Nominee for Best Novel and Nominee for Best Novel in a Series (Bill Crider Award) (2018), Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel (2017), Lefty Award Nominee for Best Mystery Novel (2018), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery & Thriller (2017)

Titanic meets The Shining

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes (Author), Lauren Ezzo (Narrator)

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Space — a repair crew, about to travel back home after a last finished job, picks up a distress signal. They follow the signal and discover a luxury liner that was lost in space many years ago. Think Titanic in space. In international waters or space the deal is Finders / Keepers, so after some brief deliberation the crew decides to salvage the ship. 

Haunted house territory, suspicious noises, ghostly sightings in a ship in space. So not my thing, really, psychological horror… The suspense did not kill me. And I did not really feel creepy horror vibes either. Mostly I was rolling my eyes, not in fright, but acknowledgement.

The traumatic past of the main characters is revealed in flashbacks. I figured that was just window-dressing, but it actually served a purpose towards the end, when it was revealed why and how the disaster came to pass. The reveal was a disappointment for me, I had hoped for something more ingenious. 

The audiobook narrator with her breathy and sometimes frantic voice grated on my nerves a bit. And the MC was much too whiny. I also could have done without the romance thing.

Bottomline this was not a winner for me. It‘s a decent book, but for me it lacked suspense, it lacked horror, the reveal was meh, I didn‘t like the MC… so this is a 3-star read at most.

I can see this as a pretty good, light horror / action movie.

Blast from the past, a comic series from the 70s…

Yoko Tsuno: TWO-IN-ONE: Unterirdische Begegnung / Die Orgel des Teufels
by Roger Leloup, Harald Sachse (Translator)

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Two issues collected in one softcover edition, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the German comics publisher Carlsen, translated into German from the original French.

Roger Leloup is a Belgian comic strip artist, novelist, and a former collaborator of Hergé, for whom he created drawings for The Adventures of Tintin. He is most famous for the Yoko Tsuno comic series, which was first published in 1970. (info transcribed from Wikipedia)

The first issue, Yoko tsuno le trio de l’etrange (CROSS OVER, was published in 1972. Yoko Tsuno and her colleagues get sucked into an underground world while scuba diving and meet aliens living in a subterranean colony. It‘s an SF adventure story with quite a lot of action and conflict. The story was not my cup of tea, I skimmed through the last few pages.

The second issue in this collection is L’Orgue du diable, first published in 1973. Katz Castle, a real castle towering above the river Rhine, and its surroundings are the place of action for this one. This part of the Rhine Gorge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I have come past this particular stretch by train many times, trying to catch a glimpse of the Lorelei from my train window. The first frame of this comic gives a realistic view of the setting…

(Photo at the top taken from Wikipedia)

Here is the text of Heinrich Heine‘s poem Die Lorelei with an English translation:
https://www.ogn.ox.ac.uk/sites/defaul…

Anyway, back to Yoko Tsuno! Another mystery, this time a less speculative story, about a massiv pipe organ. I liked the artwork depicting real settings. But generally, as mentioned above already, this type of comic is not really my thing. Not bad, but I won‘t pick up any other issues of this series.