Booklog 32/2018 - Rod Duncan: The Custodian of Marvels – Fall of the Gas lit Empire #3

The third Elizabeth Barnabus book set in the gas-lit Empire, following on from The Bullet Catcher's Daughter and Unseemly Science. Elizabeth is on the run from the authorities as both halves of Britain – independent and suspicious of each other – prepare to sign an extradition treaty that could send Elizabeth and all the Kingdom refugees back home against their will. If that happens the slimy Duke of Northampton will be waiting to snatch her into sexual slavery. Elizabeth takes to the canals in order to become invisible to the law, but eventually takes matters into her own hands in a dangerous, last-ditch attempt to be free. We meet some old friends from previous books. There's a slow burn romance with Patent Office agent John Farthing, a daring heist, and a satisfying resolution. I've thoroughly enjoyed the whole trilogy and I see that Elizabeth is back in The Queen of All Crows, book 1 of a new trilogy. Excellent!

Booklog 33/2018 - C.L. Polk: Witchmark

Due for release on 1^st July 2018, I had this review copy from Netgalley. The book is already available to pre-order from that large company named after a South American River – and it's well worth getting. The setting is Edwardian in feel with an ongoing war about to draw to a close. I'd say it's steampunky, but instead of steam it has magic and bicycles. Magicpunk? Anyhow, the main character in Miles Singer, a young doctor who has survived his part in the war, discharged after a spell in an enemy prison camp. He's left his wealthy and influential family behind to work as a psychiatrist in a veterans' hospital where he can (with all appropriate caution) use his magical talent for healing. If he's caught he'll be confined to a witches' asylum or enslaved by his own family. He puts his own freedom at risk to solve a problem illness for his patients, which turns out to be a wider threat and intersects with the concerns of a handsome stranger from another world. This certainly kept me reading and while not perfect it's an excellent debut.

Booklog 34/2018 - Georgette Heyer: Faro's Daughter

Trying to separate his young cousin from making a disastrous marriage with a young woman who is mistress of her aunt's gaming house, Max Ravenscar discovers that there's more to Deborah Grantham than meets the eye. Unromantic Max has a shock in store. There's a gentle comedic element to this as Deborah deliberately upsets Max when she could have allayed his worries in an instant if he'd only been less overbearing. Fun, but not my favourite Heyer.

Booklog 35/2018 - Juliet McKenna: The Green Man's Heir

One of my favourite books so far this year

A modern fantasy, rural rather than urban. Dan works with wood, moving from place to place so he doesn't get too close to anyone. A century ago, a person with a secret could simply move to the other end of the country and take up a new identity, but nowadays with CCTV and social media, it's not so easy. Dan has a big secret. His mother is a Dryad and that makes Dan… different. When a young woman is murdered and left in Derbyshire woodland, Dan realises that the culprit is from his world. She's not the first. The police are never going to find the serial killer, so it's up to Dan. Dan is a great character, always trying to avoid that attention of the local police, but rarely managing it. He's a big lad with powerful fists and usually at the top of the list when the Law comes around asking questions. I do hope Juliet McKenna makes this the first in a series. I'd love to read more. There's a wealth of British folklore in here, and a damn good story.

Booklog 36/2018 - Lois McMaster Bujold: The Flowers of Vashnoi

This is a Vorkosigan novella centered on Miles' wife Ekaterin who is working with scientist Enrique Borgos on a scheme to clean up the lands of the Vashnoi exclusion zone, radioactive since the Cetagandan invasion. When Enrique's bioengineered bugs go missing, Ekaterin discovers that the zone is not quite as uninhabited as everyone thinks. In the Vorkosiverse timeline, this comes after Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. I'm a Vorkosigan addict. I'd love to see another string of Miles books, but if I can't have those than this is a very nice stopgap. Ms Bujold can do no wrong.

Movie of the Week: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

I didn't have enormously high expectations of this, but I went in expecting fun and that's what I got. It's a rehash of 'Dances with Dinosaurs' but this time the dinos are off the island.

When a volcanic eruption threatens to turn the dinosaurs extinct there's a great debate as to whether nature should be allowed to take its course, but a privately funded foundation wades in with the offer to catch and ship the dinos off the island. They're supposed to be going to an uninhabited island, but...

So enter Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) who is the only person who can successfully catch the raptor, Blue, that he trained in the first movie. He ends up on the Island with Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). If they looked to be heading for a happy ever after in the first movie, they are now on the other side of that... but, yes, obviously the movie needed a way of stretching out the sexual tension.

Anyhow, it all gets doubly dangerous when the volcano erupts and the bad guys show themselves up for what they are... and I'm not going to go any further in case you haven't seen it yet.

Is it worth seeing? I think so. Chris Pratt is good in this kind of role and he makes it work. It's obvious from the ending that there's going to be another one.