The Cleric Chih accompanies a young bride and her parents to her aging, future husband‘s estate. Once there, the situation turns into a darker, gothic tale. The husband might have been married several times before and it‘s a mystery what became of his wives. Bluebeard? There is a half-crazed son wandering the grounds and something supernatural haunts the shadows.
The story doesn’t turn out the expected way. I should have paid more attention to the cover. The twist snuck up on me quite abruptly. Maybe a bit too abruptly. It was all very subtle, until it very much wasn’t. Dangerous, with a touch of horror.
I liked it, although my favourite of the five currently available novellas remains Into the Riverlands. It just had the best, most adventurous plot. Maybe even start with that one. Or go by publishing order. Although they are all standalone stories.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Tordotcom through NetGalley. Thank you kindly! All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.
Recommended. I will definitely continue with the series.
Nora Kelly is an archaeologist. She is sent on an expedition to find and excavate a lost camp of the infamous Donner Party. At the same time in other parts of the world, graves are dug up and corpses are destroyed and partly stolen. And it might somehow be related to Nora‘s trip into the Sierra Nevada mountains and what she might find. Enter freshly minted and insecure FBI agent Corrie Swanson, trying to make connections and to solve her first major case.
I liked Nora and Corrie and can see them becoming a dynamic duo in the books that follow this one. The rugged setting in the mountains appealed to me and the archeological theme drew me right in. I remember the books by Preston & Child to be faster paced, but it‘s been 20 years since I read the last one, so it‘s probably me.
I was entertained. Not massively so, but enough to maybe pick up other books by the authors. I might have another stab at the original Pendergast series.
Topic forOctober 10: Bookish Jobs I Would Do For Free (Real or Imaginary) (Submitted by Susan @ Bloggin’ bout Books)
I need to work to live, so never mind working for free in the real world. Let‘s go for imaginary! Let‘s have a look at my TBR pile—any opportunity to remind myself of what dwells on my shelves…
#5 — Hollow Space: Venture by C.F. Barnes, T.F. Grant — spaceship navigator, always high on the list of cool jobs! Not sure about this book though. It was a freebie on Amazon six years ago…
If you are familiar with James Bond, think Blofeld, SPECTRE, cats and a volcanic island full of villains. Add a substitute teacher as heir to the empire and you have a pretty good idea. Loved the talking dolphins! And the cats, naturally.
This is a light, quick and funny read. Not too silly. Some pop culture references. Entertaining and great for some low-brainpower days, when you need a laugh.
This book has a theme song!
I got the audio, because I finally wanted to listen to Wil Wheaton narrate a book. He seems to be Scalzi‘s go-to guy. He did a very good job, although I am not going to go out of my way to get more audios narrated by him.
Finally picked this up. My track record with Jemisin was very mixed so far, therefore it took me a while to actually read this.
SF murder mystery, planetary conspiracy. A newly minted Green Lantern with an unusual ring has to solve a murder on a planet hosting various alien races. They have managed to live in peace for 500 years, thanks to not quite natural circumstances. Someone is not content with the status quo. Voila, murder!
Really good artwork, I liked it a lot! I will definitely look for more comics by Jamal Campbell. I found this webcomic.
Good characters as well. Sojourner „Jo“ Mullein was fun. She managed to mix up that planet well and truly. I really liked the @At, inventive!
Some pointed comments on governments and how they should not treat their citizens. Some of the action scenes were a little hard to figure out.
Before he was murdered and mummified nearly a century ago, notorious bootlegger Collier “Peg Leg” Dazzle discovered and re-hid a famous pirate’s treasure somewhere along the coast of New England. A vast collection of gold and silver coins and precious gems, the bounty also contains the Stone of Avarice—the very item reluctant treasure seeker Lizzy Tucker and her partner, Diesel, have been enlisted to find. While Lizzy would just like to live a quiet, semi-normal life, Diesel is all about the hunt. And this hunt is going to require a genuine treasure map and a ship worthy of sailing the seven seas . . . or at least getting them from Salem Harbor to Maine.
My thoughts after the first 4 pages: Wow, this is silly and totally unlikely. I thought this is a cosy mystery with a funny twist, why are there supernatural skills and Infinity Stones? I am missing context… Yes, I figured out that it‘s the third in a series, after getting this for my mum at a sale. Why is there a raccoon on the cover of the German version?
In the 2nd sitting I made it to the end of chapter 3, page 42: Don‘t care. Still silly. Not even the fact that the female MC is a baker can save this. Flat characters, flippant tone that I find annoying, silly rules about interpersonal contact between people with supernatural skills in an attempt to get some tension going… The dead body is mildly interesting and unusual, but this is tripping all my eye-rolling triggers. Not for me.
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…
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:
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.
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:
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:
„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?
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.
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.
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…
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.
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…
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.
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)
Cathy's Reading Bonanza 