Book Log 5/2014 - Scott Lynch: Red Seas Under Red Skies - Gentlemen Bastards # 2

I really enjoyed the first Gentleman Bastards book, The Lies of Locke Lamora. This one picks up where that one left off – though some of the story is told in flashback and you gradually piece together everything that's happened. Locke and Jean are out on their own, exiled from Camorr, bitterly missing dead comrades, running a major con against the powerful owner of what appears to be a mega-casino, a heavily-guarded elderglass tower full of many ways to part fools and their money. The scam is almost complete, but then fate and politics intervene in equal measures. Repercussions from their clash with the evil bondsmage, The Falconer, in the first book start to catch up with them, while the ruler of the city decides that they are the perfect people to go out and stir up a pirate rebellion on his behalf, and he takes drastic measures to ensure their compliance. Scam collapses in on scam and Locke and Jean are all at sea – in more ways than one.

Scott Lynch is an author not afraid to be cruel to his characters. Both Locke and Jean are put through the mill, physically and emotionally and the ending, while a win of sorts, is bittersweet as it leaves them in a precarious place ready for the next book, Republic of Thieves, which, of course, I had to buy for my Kindle immediately.

Book Log 6/2014 - Joss Whedon and others: Serenity – Those Left Behind - Firefly

I don't read comics, I have some difficulty identifying characters from the drawings – whether that's a fault in the artwork or a fault in my perception is a moot point. However I'm a Firefly fan and a Joss Whedon fan and this full colour hardback seems to be the only way to get this story, so I splashed out. It's a beautifully presented with extras such as the pre-production memo for Serenity (the movie). And I can more or less tell which character is which, so a win for the illustrator, Will Conrad.

The story bridges the gap between the last episode of the Firefly TV series and the beginning of Serenity, the movie. It sees the return of Agent Dobson, with a grudge, and the Hands of Blue. It leads up to the departure of Inara and Shepherd Book and leads into the (unnamed) agent who becomes the antagonist in the movie. The story is hardly complete in itself, just a brief episode in the lives of Serenity's crew, but it does fill a hole – and anything Firefly is fine by me.

NHot a good starting point for Firefly, however, so if you haven't bought the boxed set TV series (and why not?), doo yourself a massive favour and  buy it now. Watch the TV series, watch the movie and then fill in the gap with this.

Book Log 7/2014 - Ann Leckie: Ancillary Justice - Ancillary #1

Breq was a space ship, the Justice of Toren, equipped with enough power to destroy planets and enough ancillaries to invade and conquer 'uncivilised' worlds in Radch 'annexations', however now she's just Breq, human (more or less) and alone despite her memories. She's the last surviving ancillary (corpse soldier) of the One Esk division, of Justice of Toren, and she has a self-imposed mission.

There are two stories here, the one happening in the now, and the backstory that led up to it. In one Breq is alone, in the other, she's an omnicient AI running a ship full of ancillaries and human officers.

The action opens on an icy planet when Breq, in pursuit of an artefact she needs to complete her mission, comes across Seivarden, once a lieutenant on Justice of Toren a thousand years before. Old habits die hard and without really justifying it as an act of kindness Breq rescues Seivarden and ends up acting as a nursemaid. Seivarden is a recovering junkie, driven to dark places after jumping the intervening millennium in cryo-stasis and waking up in a universe that seems to make no sense.

Breq and Seivarden hardly seem to like each other, but their paths intertwine, at first almost accidentally and then with growing reliance.

To be honest the beginning seemed a bit slow because there are so many ideas in here and the set up requires an understanding of the way all Justice of Toren's ancillaries are a part of the central ship's intelligence, each one fully aware of the whole. But once I got over the initial strangeness I found that Leckie does a marvellous job of writing this without making it too confusing for the reader. One Esk comprises twenty linked individuals and each one is referred to as I, but it works.

Pronouns are confusing too, at first. Everyone is referred to as she, whether they have a curvy or straight physique, and you get very few clues as to what gender individuals are, which actually works well in this context. Breq has problems with pronouns in the non-Radch worlds because she can't get the hang of gendered pronouns and sometimes makes the wrong call.

As an adjunct of an AI you'd expect Breq to have no emotions, and, indeed, she can and does carry out instructions from her superior officers even if that means going against her personal feelings. It's one of these actions that she's forced to carry out that drives the plot and we do discover that Breq has feelings, she just doesn't express them in quite the same way as we might expect.

This is a book with big ideas, that doesn't sacrifice characterisation for ideas and though Breq's future seems inevitable, we find that there are choices which depend on personalities as well as logic.

Intelligent, thoughtful, complex and engaging, this is one of those books that you end up thinking about long after you've read the last page and closed the volume. It deserves all the awards it's up for.

Book Log 8/2014 - Scott Lynch: The Republic of Thieves - Gentlemen Bastards #3

In the third outing for Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen the bondsmages finally catch up with them, but not in a way Locke was expecting. Instead of instant death he finds that the immediate problem he was left with at the end of the second Gentlemen Bastards book is solved by none other than the mother of his old enemy The Falconer.

Much against their will, Locke and Jean are hired to fix an election in Karthain to the benefit of one faction of bondsmages. There are rules. They have funds, which they must spend or lose, and they are to stop at outright murder. All other dirty tricks are allowed.

There is a problem, however. There always is when Locke's around. The opposing faction has hired Sabetha, Locke's lost love, previously mentioned, but never met. Sabetha, like Locke and Jean, was brought up as a Gentleman Bastard by Father Chains. She has all of Locke and Jean's skills and a streak of utter ruthlessness. What's more she's not tongue tied and helpless in Locke's presence as he is in hers.

It's an interesting situation. While Sabetha gets the jump on them, initially, Locke is vividly reminded of their shared past and so we get two stories: the election and the rekindling of Locke and Sabetha's relationship, and the story of their childhood and the first flowering of shared passion.

And who wins the election in the end? You'll have to read the book to find out, but suffice it to say there's bound to be another book – which is good news.

Highly recommended.