Booklog 45/2019 - Patrick S. Tomlinson: Starship Repo

Ignoring the furore over accusations and counter accusations about this author (which I knew nothing about until I spotted questions on Goodreads), this is a review of… y'know… the actual book.

Firstname Lastname is a small-time grifter, one of the very few humans on an alien space station. Her name is the result of a clerical error on her immigration paperwork, but she owns it beautifully. She's recruited (or may that should be blackmailed) into the crew of a repo outfit, travelling the galaxy to repossess ships from all kinds of shady characters. What could possibly go wrong? It's a neat idea, and the (many different kinds of) aliens are interesting, though not always differentiated as much as they could be (or else I wasn't paying enough attention). Described as a 'romp' this is more properly a series of romps as each repo trip they make gets a little more hazardous each time. I would have preferred a more cohesive story rather than a series of barely connected escapades. Each escapade was well written, but didn't seem to have consequences that reverberated into subsequent capers. I put it down at about 20% and then went back to it only after reading a couple of other books.

Review copy from Netgalley.

Movie of the Week: Yesterday

This was a really sweet movie. Jack is a struggling singer songwriter playing gigs to three people and the landlord's dog. His manager (schoolteacher and long time friend) is still driving him to gigs and they are both hoping for the big time - though neither knows how to make it happen. While Jack is cycling home one night, all the lights (all over the world) go out for a few secoinds and Jack is hit by a bus. When he comes round in hospital it seems as though he's sideslipped into an alternate reality. No one has ever heard of the Beatles or their songs. Jack, accidentally at first, capitalises on this, becoming famous in the process, and feeling ever more guilty about it until he meets someone special. No, that's not the love of his life, she's been there all along. He just needs to open his eyes.

So yes, it's a musical, and a love story, and a love letter to the Beatles/Lennon-McCartney.

And if you're sitting on the back row amidst an audience of ladies of a certain age, then why shouldn't you sing along with the end credits. Oh, yeah!

Booklog 46/2019 - Jane Ashford: Brave New Earl

Regency Romance. Jean Saunders takes it upon herself to evaluate Benjamin Romilly's fitness to look after his son because she's heard that he's still mired in depression after his wife's death some five years ago. (She's a distant cousin of his late wife.) She's not entirely wrong. The boy is growing up wild, and, if not entirely neglected, barely knows his father. Jean shakes up the situation satisfactorily with predictable results