Month: October 2022

book collage, October 2022

book cover collage for October 2022, titles and authors below

The Return of the Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner
The Harbors of the Sun, by Martha Wells
Seasonal Fears, by Seanan McGuire
Blackfish City, by Sam J. Miller
The Island of Missing Trees, by Elif Shafak
Babel, by R.F. Kuang
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir of Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan
Eyes of the Void, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Three Mages and a Margarita, by Annette Marie
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, by Theodora Goss
The Premonitions Bureau: A True Account of Death Foretold, by Sam Knight
A Damsel and a Demigod, by Annette Marie, read by Nelson Hobbs
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, by Casey Cep
Birds, Beasts, and Relatives, by Gerald Durrell
Warping Minds and Other Misdemeanors, by Annette Marie, read by Iggy Toma
The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood
We Set the Dark on Fire, by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Dark Arts and a Daiquiri, by Annette Marie, read by Cris Dukehart

We Set the Dark on Fire, by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Dystopian YA fiction, nicely done in that it’s not in-your-face preachy. Daniela Vargas is one of the top graduates in an elite school that trains women for service to powerful men – but in an important role, either as his powerful social and household counterpart, or as the mother of his future children. Daniela, however, has a secret past; her documents were forged by her family, who were desperate that their child escape a future in the abused lower classes. Naturally Daniela’s secret becomes a cudgel, as forces in the rebellion force her to work with them or lose everything. I really liked how this book was executed; the dystopia was subtly done, as was Daniela’s internal conflict between clinging to privilege and risking everything. Warning: cliffhanger ending.

The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood

Novella, the Odyssey story told alternately by Penelope and by a Greek chorus of maids (Odysseus and his son hanged twelve maids upon their return, for “disloyalty”). I loved the alternate perspectives and how each narrator defended their own versions of the tales, as well as the biting calling-out of double standards as relating to sex and class. Really great read.

Warping Minds and Other Misdemeanors, by Annette Marie, read by Iggy Toma

The main character is one of my favorite tropes, the snarky criminal with a good heart, who is forced to work with the police to stop an even worse crime. Great one-liners and snappy comebacks, good handling of tension throughout. Toma’s voice was perfect for the character, though I’m not a huge fan of using falsetto to voice the very strong female characters.

Birds, Beasts, and Relatives, by Gerald Durrell

Second in the Corfu trilogy, which explores Durrell’s idyllic childhood on the Greek island of Corfu. For those who loved the first book (and who wouldn’t?) it’s more of the same: more zany and semi-fictionalized family antics, and more hilarious and wonderful gushing over the animal life of the island. The portraits of islander culture are a little problematic from a PC point of view, but it’s of a piece with the time. The ending note is bittersweet, though, and hints at the eventual loss of paradise with the coming of war.

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, by Casey Cep

Began as a true-crime story of an Alabama minister suspected of causing multiple deaths for insurance payouts in the 1970s, and segued into Harper Lee, her investigation of this trial, and her fraught writing journey. I really enjoyed this book, which did a beautiful job of patiently sketching out the environment and ambience of the small-town South, as well as pulling together an incredibly sympathetic and emotional portrait of Lee.

A Damsel and a Demigod, by Annette Marie, read by Nelson Hobbs

Side novella for the Guild Codex series. Frankly not very good; the supposed master strategist character makes a chain of questionable decisions, and although for this genre I don’t mind love stories that come out of nowhere, I really did hate how poorly the guy used his magical electricity powers. I could have done so much better! Even so, Hobbs did a great job with the audio reading, and Marie’s snarky, snappy dialogue was still a fun time.

The Premonitions Bureau: A True Account of Death Foretold, by Sam Knight

Traces the efforts of a psychiatrist who (in cooperation with a journalist) attempted to collect premonitions of disaster, that they might be recorded, verified, and quantified. Of those, the vast majority came to nothing but a couple of “superstar” prophets seemed able to repeatedly foresee accidents like plane crashes. The book spends a lot more time digging into the personalities involved, as well as the science of psychology at the time, than the “bureau” itself… but to be fair the project did eventually fizzle out without causing much lasting change, so without those asides the book would be a lot shorter.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, by Theodora Goss

Riffs on the fact that a lot of classic monster stories involve the creation, and subsequent destruction / abandonment, of a monstrous woman. After the death of her parents, Mary Jekyll digs into her late father’s affairs and discovers not just a previously unknown sister named Diana Hyde, but other women who were brought into being by famous fictional mad scientists. The women band together to make their way in the world, helping Sherlock Holmes and Watson solve a string of murders along the way. The writing was perfectly decent, but the plot felt really more like a way to string together all these related stories, and there were so many characters that none of them felt particularly fully-realized.

Three Mages and a Margarita, by Annette Marie, read by Cris Dukehart

This is total fluff urban fantasy, and utterly enjoyable. Hot-tempered Tori stumbles upon an ad for a bartending job in a mysterious club; the club a place where magic-users (called “mythics”) meet to hang out and plan adventures. Even though Tori is human, some of the mythics (who are improbably hot*) decide to adopt her, and she deems the paycheck and company worthy of returning to the job. Danger and derring-do ensue; I particularly appreciated that Tori managed to hold her own despite her lack of magic, and that the characters did not spend a lot of energy on love triangle drama. It’s the first of a series so there’s some serious info dump, but the conversation flows easily. Fun, light read.

* the conceit of “one’s magic is only as strong as one’s physical body, and therefore if you want to be a strong mage, you are motivated to work out” is as good a reason as any for the main characters to be extremely fit.