Mysterious, gothic tale with a touch of horror…

The Brides of High Hill (The Singing Hills Cycle, #5)
by Nghi Vo

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.

The full stop to the sentence that is human history.

One Day All This Will Be Yours
by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky is definitely bonkers. 

Our main character sits on a farm at the end of time, the only survivor of the Causality War. The last human left alive. His only companion and pet is an allosaurus called Miffly. He riggs time so that any potential time travelers end up at his doorstep and he does his level best to kill them all to prevent war from happening again.

“I was the great gatekeeper, and my watchword was You Shall Not Pass.“

Things don‘t go as planned, obviously.

It was good, but I wasn‘t in love with it. It was a bit like a one-trick-pony. A bit much of one thing. It might have worked better as a shorter story.

🦖🦖🦖½

Novella, 144 pages.

He did not come out!

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower
by Tamsyn Muir

A witch builds a tower with forty flights and puts scary monsters in each of them. On the ground floor is a dragon with diamond scales. There are goblins and spiders and plenty more. There is also a golden sword for the prince that makes it to the top and rescues the lovely Princess Floralinda.

“He did not come out!“

Many princes enter the tower, but none make it to the top or come back out. Time passes. What is a princess to do but make her own way down? With a bread knife? Idle Tower Defense, top down. Amusing! And once Floralinda gets her groove, pretty murdery…

🐉🐉🐉½

Novella, 146 ebook pages or a little over 4 hours of audio. The audio is very well done.

On my TBR pile by the author:

Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as necromantic skeletons. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.

from the book blurb

Looking a god in the eyes…

Penric’s Demon (Penric and Desdemona, #1)
by Lois McMaster Bujold 

Young Lord Penric and his family are travelling. They come across another travelling party in distress. An elderly lady is dying. Penric goes to help and as the lady dies in his arms, her demon passes on to Penric. Turns out that she was a Divine of the Temple of the Bastard. And Penric has aquired a demon that carries the personalities and voices of the 10 or 12 ladies it has ridden previously. What is a male teenager to do? 

Pretty amusing. I had fun listening to this novella. Grover Gardner did a good job narrating this and gave Desdemona a convincing voice.

😈😈😈😈😈

Novella, 103 pages. Nominated for a Hugo in 2016, this series for now comprises of 12 novellas. I am pretty sure that I will continue at some point. I have not read anything else by Bujold set in this world.

According to Bujold’s website (couldn‘t find it actually…), the internal chronology of the World of the Five Gods is:
-The Hallowed Hunt
-Penric’s Demon
-Penric and the Shaman
-Penric’s Fox
-Penric’s Mission
-Mira’s Last Dance 
-The Prisoner of Limnos
-The Orphans of Raspay
-The Curse of Chalion
-Paladin of Souls

It’s not that kind of war.

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water
by Zen Cho

Bandits, a wayward nun, brawls in coffee shops, swearing, LGBTQ+ characters and adventure. Humorous, fast-paced fantasy novella.

Unexpected revelation halfway into it and the story kept veering off into further unexpected directions. 

Recommended if you liked Into the Riverlands (my review).

As far as I can tell the author is of Malaysian origin and the story involves people from South-East China that are a large Tai-speaking ethnic minority group in that region (Tong/Zhuang). I could be wrong though and this might be set in Malaysia. They are talking about sarongs, so maybe Malaysia is more likely… 

Anyway, entertaining. I had fun! Nice amount of snark. Good audiobook narration. My first story by the author. Probably not the last.

Zen Cho returns with a found family wuxia fantasy that combines the vibrancy of old school martial arts movies with characters drawn from the margins of history.
A bandit walks into a coffeehouse, and it all goes downhill from there. Guet Imm, a young votary of the Order of the Pure Moon, joins up with an eclectic group of thieves (whether they like it or not) in order to protect a sacred object, and finds herself in a far more complicated situation than she could have ever imagined.

from the book blurb

The heroes in wuxia fiction typically do not serve a lord, wield military power, or belong to the aristocratic class. They often originate from the lower social classes of ancient Chinese society. A code of chivalry usually requires wuxia heroes to right and redress wrongs, fight for righteousness, remove oppressors, and bring retribution for past misdeeds.

wikipedia

Author‘s website

Their day will come.

The Tusks of Extinction
by Ray Nayler

Slow, contemplative and sad. This is not really my kind of writing, but the story was good, the language was clear and straight-forward. The non-linear storytelling is brilliantly done. 

Damira, a Russian scientist, fights elephant poachers in Kenia. To preserve her knowledge, her mind is uploaded to a „mind bank“ in Russia. Eventually she is killed by poachers, but we meet her again 50 years later as a mammoth and the matriarch of a cloned herd that she teaches how to live in the wild.

The mammoths live in a protected area, but poachers and hunters find ways. So does Damira, seeking revenge for her past and safety for her herd in the present. Another major character is a 16-year old poacher, following in his father‘s footsteps, hunting for mammoths in the thawing permafrost.

Major themes are revenge, greed, conservation and our impact on the natural world. The story is set in the not so distant future and is medium-to-slow-paced. If you are looking for a fast thriller, this is not it.

In the audiobook a female and male narrator alternate. I did not much like the male audiobook narrator. He sounded very fake and pretentious to me. But I did like the audio as a whole.

Love the cover.

Abrupt ending. It came so fast, I almost missed it.

First story read by the author. I might read something else.

2024 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Book Releases

One of my reading buddies pointed us towards this list of 2024 speculative fiction releases…. I tried to ignore it for the past two days, but I just caved. So here just an excerpt of those books that tickle my fancy. Check out the full list at your own peril.

JANUARY 2024 BOOK RELEASES

The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

Told through the eyes of a murdered scientist whose consciousness has been implanted in a resurrected wooly mammoth and this story speaks to the folly of forcing nature down an unnatural path.

Yep, this novella is already on my to-read-pile for February. Sounds wacky. I have never read anything by the author before.

The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

A love letter to Black readers of science-fantasy, The Principle of Moments is a symphonic, centuries-spanning adventure – unmissable for fans of the spacefaring found family of Becky Chambers, the alternate London of V. E. Schwab, and the virtuosic climate-craft of N. K. Jemisin.

Not sure, but it would definitely add to my reading of bipoc authors, which was not good last year.

A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen

It’s an average Thursday for Carter Cho… until the particle accelerator explodes and sends him back in time. Carter continuously relives the week never making it to Friday. Lonely and in need of help, he manages to pull Mariana into the time loop, and together they must find a way to finally reach the end of the week.

Sounds as if it could be a nice palate cleanser? Added it to my libby-request list.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late, in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.

Yep, reading this in February!

FEBRUARY 2024 BOOK RELEASES

Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan

Revolution is brewing in the semi-submerged city of Tiankawi, between humans and the fathomfolk who live in its waters. This gloriously imaginative debut fantasy, inspired by East Asian mythology and ocean folk tales, is a novel of magic, rebellion and change.

Water, underwater, someone living in the water — all tempting, but I would be keener if this was SF rather than Fantasy. Not sure yet.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

A Holmes and Watson–style detective duo take the stage in this fantasy with a mystery twist, from the Edgar-winning, multiple Hugo-nominated Robert Jackson Bennett.

Holmes & Watson is tempting, but the book blurb did not really sell this to me. Undecided.

Exit Black by Joe Pitkin

Die Hard meets The Martian–with a dash of Knives Out–in this action-packed sci-fi thriller.

Okay, bring it on! Well, anyway, sounds as if it could be right down my alley. Knives Out was weird, though… Requested it from Netgalley.

APRIL 2024 BOOK RELEASES

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

Nebula and Alex Award winner P. Djèlí Clark introduces a brand-new world and a fantastical city full of gods and assassins.

Not sure, but it‘s P. Djèli Clark! I did request this on Netgalley, but Tor rejected me. I don‘t know, I like them, but they don‘t seem to like me… 🤷 Added to my libby-request list.

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes

A crew must try to survive on an ancient, abandoned planet in the latest space horror novel from S.A. Barnes, acclaimed author of Dead Silence.

I was not totally convinced by Dead Silence, but I am willing to give this another shot. Added it to my libby-request list.

JUNE 2024 BOOK RELEASES

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children of Time.

Adrian Tchaikovsky. I rest my case. Although I did DNF the last one. 😝 My Netgalley request is pending.

So much for the first half of this year!

Top Ten Tuesday — The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf

Top Ten Tuesday moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

https://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/

Topic for December 26: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf (Maybe share your holiday book haul?)

Hi there, I hope you had enjoyable and restful days over Christmas, if you are celebrating it. I spent the last few days at my parents‘ place, like every year. It was quiet and restful and I got a nice amount of reading done. No book haul though, as we stopped giving each other presents years ago. Well, ok, that‘s not quite true—I am taking two of my dad‘s books home with me, as my favourite online buddy reading group plans to read all Harry Hole novels by Jo Nesbø. I will join them for those and then decide if I want to continue with the series. I really want to broaden my genre reading though, as I have pretty much exclusively read Specfic over the last few years and I really need to mix it up.

The Bat (Harry Hole, #1) by Jo Nesbø — Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case.

Cockroaches (Harry Hole, #2) by Jo Nesbø — When the Norwegian ambassador to Thailand is found dead in a Bangkok brothel, Inspector Harry Hole is dispatched from Oslo to help hush up the case.

Winter’s Gifts (Rivers of London, #9.5; Kimberley Reynolds) by Ben Aaronovitch — When retired FBI Agent Patrick Henderson calls in an ‘X-Ray Sierra India’ incident, the operator doesn’t understand. He tells them to pass it up the chain till someone does. — I added this one to my Peter Grant backlist. Time to catch up with those missing one next year.

Silk and Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology — Princess and swordswoman, lawyer and motorcyclist, scholar and barbarian: there are many ways to be a heroine. In this anthology, seventeen authors find new ways to pair one weapon-wielding woman and one whose strengths lie in softer skills. — Storygraph recommended this one to me with their new recommendations feature, presumably because I read quite a few LGBTQIA+ books recently. The cover looks fun and one of the stories is by Aliette de Bodard, so I might give it a shot.

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes — A crew must try to survive on an ancient, abandoned planet in the latest space horror novel from S.A. Barnes, acclaimed author of Dead Silence. —This popped up in my libby feed and I did not hate Dead Silence (my review), so I might give it a try.

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes — Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, travelling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth’s first life forms – what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings. — Literary fiction is usually not my thing and a Booker Prize nomination sounds even more boring (sorry!), but this sounds interesting. Another addition to my libby list.

Heartsong: A Green Creek Novel (Green Creek, 3) by T.J. Klune — Heartsong is the third book in the Green Creek Series, the beloved fantasy romance sensation by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about love, loyalty, betrayal, and family. — I really enjoy TJ Klune and the first book in this series was a 5-star read for me. Next time I am in the mood for some nice werewolves, this might be the one. Another libby addition.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky — Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children of Time. — Tchaikovsky is an instabuy for me. Or an insta-add in this case, thanks to Netgalley. Fingers crossed that they will grant the request, it‘s still open.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde, #2) by Heather Fawcett — When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series. — Listening to the audio of the first book right now, should finish it soon. So delightfully charming!

Among the Living by Tim Lebbon — From the New York Times bestseller and author of Netflix’s The Silence comes a terrifying horror novel set in a melting Arctic landscape. Something deadly has lain dormant for thousands of years, but now the permafrost is giving up its secrets… — This is an upcoming horror group read by my favourite reading buddies. Have to check out the Netflix series. By I am always in for scary things in the Arctic or underwater…

They would write songs of what followed…

Spear
by Nicola Griffith

Arthurian legend. LGBTQIA+, some magical elements, some ancient gods, early Britain. 

A girl without a name (or many) grows up in a hidden valley, with her mother as her only company. She dreams of a lake and hears travellers talk of a king and his court. So she eventually leaves her mother with nothing much besides a skinny horse and an old spear. Pretending to be a man, she has adventures, meets knight, joins into battles and eventually makes it to Caer Leon, the court of King Artos. That‘s just another waypoint of her journey though.

I liked it. The style is very similar to Hild (my review), although less complex and more accessible. Peretur (Welsh version of Percival) is a likeable character. A little non-plussed about the world. Experiencing and exploring a foreign world through her eyes worked well. All the other characters come to life easily. I had to brush up a little on my Arthurian character knowledge.

The story is around 200 pages, depending on the edition. Considering the relative shortness, this is a well realized world with vivid settings. Very athmospheric, with a plot that tends to wander off into the blue here and there. I wasn‘t in a hurry, so the glimpses at scenes unrelated to the overall plot were charming. Lyrical. It didn‘t come across as a massively emotional book to me, but I liked the gentler tones. To round it all off there is a light dash of queer romance without drama and some interesting, relaxed relationship dynamics.

The audiobook is narrated by the author herself and she does a very good job.

I think I talked myself into 4.5 stars… 🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️½ 

About the book on the author‘s page:
“Spear is set in sixth-century Britain: like Hild, but with magic—not only the wild magic of the landscape, and of love and the human heart, but also the sword-swinging, monster-killing magic of myth and demigods. … Think of Spear as Hild let off the leash, unbound by those pesky historical constraints—and set a hundred years earlier, in Wales rather than England. … What takes centre stage is the journey of Peretur, a girl and then young woman who leaves home to find out who she is.“

About the cover art and the illustrations in the book

Sometimes you have to look into every possibility, even the dumb ones.

Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, #6)
by Martha Wells

Re-read. Murderbot finally is on Preservation Station. Things are awkward, even more so when it discovers a dead, murdered human. 

“No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.“

Station Security is not impressed, but they reluctantly agree to work with Murderbot, when they realize that it knows what its doing. 

“I had archives of everything that had happened since I hacked my governor module, but I hadn’t had as much relevant experience in that time. But what I did have were thousands of hours of category mystery media, so I had a lot of theoretical knowledge that was possibly anywhere from 60 to 70 percent inaccurate shit.”

Well, Station Security didn‘t know that…

I had forgotten who had done it, although it‘s only been two years since I have read this. Fun! I practically breezed through this one. Still all the bots… 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖 

PS: Although this book was the sixth published in the series, it is set before Network Effect (published as #5). It is described as a standalone.

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Comments for my first read in 2021:

Muderbot is back in novella length. Snark and sarcasm abound. I felt a bit meh about the full-length novel, so I am very happy that my favourite ‘bot has returned to form. There wasn‘t anything particularly new, just another crazy day, tracking down a murderer and making sure one’s humans don‘t come to harm. All the stars.

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The Murderbot Diaries in chronological order / not publishing order
– Obsolescence, #0.1, short story published in Take Us to a Better Place, not read yet. Got the kindle freebie to catch up.
– Compulsory, #0.5, short story published in Wired Magazine after Exit Strategy
– All Systems Red (start the series with this one), #1, novella. My updated review.
– Artificial Condition, #2, novella. My updated review.
– Rogue Protocol, #3, novella. My updated review.
– Exit Strategy, #4, novella. My updated review.
– Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, #4.5, short story, 19 pages. My review.
– Fugitive Telemetry, #5, novella. Murderbot has to deal with a dead body. Detective Murderbot!
– Network Effect, #6, novel (my least favourite, might have to re-read this as well)
– System Collapse, #7, novella, set directly after Network Effect. My review.