| <input ... > | <select ... ><option ... >Detect language</option><option ... >Afrikaans</option><option ... >Albanian</option><option ... >Amharic</option><option ... >Arabic</option><option ... >Armenian</option><option ... >Azerbaijani</option><option ... >Basque</option><option ... >Belarusian</option><option ... >Bengali</option><option ... >Bosnian</option><option ... >Bulgarian</option><option ... >Catalan</option><option ... >Cebuano</option><option ... >Chichewa</option><option ... >Chinese (Simplified)</option><option ... >Chinese (Traditional)</option><option ... >Corsican</option><option ... >Croatian</option><option ... >Czech</option><option ... >Danish</option><option ... >Dutch</option><option ... >English</option><option ... >Esperanto</option><option ... >Estonian</option><option ... >Filipino</option><option ... >Finnish</option><option ... >French</option><option ... >Frisian</option><option ... >Galician</option><option ... >Georgian</option><option ... >German</option><option ... >Greek</option><option ... >Gujarati</option><option ... >Haitian Creole</option><option ... >Hausa</option><option ... >Hawaiian</option><option ... >Hebrew</option><option ... >Hindi</option><option ... >Hmong</option><option ... >Hungarian</option><option ... >Icelandic</option><option ... >Igbo</option><option ... >Indonesian</option><option ... >Irish</option><option ... >Italian</option><option ... >Japanese</option><option ... >Javanese</option><option ... >Kannada</option><option ... >Kazakh</option><option ... >Khmer</option><option ... >Korean</option><option ... >Kurdish</option><option ... >Kyrgyz</option><option ... >Lao</option><option ... >Latin</option><option ... >Latvian</option><option ... >Lithuanian</option><option ... >Luxembourgish</option><option ... >Macedonian</option><option ... >Malagasy</option><option ... >Malay</option><option ... >Malayalam</option><option ... >Maltese</option><option ... >Maori</option><option ... >Marathi</option><option ... >Mongolian</option><option ... >Myanmar (Burmese)</option><option ... >Nepali</option><option ... >Norwegian</option><option ... >Pashto</option><option ... >Persian</option><option ... >Polish</option><option ... >Portuguese</option><option ... >Punjabi</option><option ... >Romanian</option><option ... >Russian</option><option ... >Samoan</option><option ... >Scots Gaelic</option><option ... >Serbian</option><option ... >Sesotho</option><option ... >Shona</option><option ... >Sindhi</option><option ... >Sinhala</option><option ... >Slovak</option><option ... >Slovenian</option><option ... >Somali</option><option ... >Spanish</option><option ... >Sundanese</option><option ... >Swahili</option><option ... >Swedish</option><option ... >Tajik</option><option ... >Tamil</option><option ... >Telugu</option><option ... >Thai</option><option ... >Turkish</option><option ... >Ukrainian</option><option ... >Urdu</option><option ... >Uzbek</option><option ... >Vietnamese</option><option ... >Welsh</option><option ... >Xhosa</option><option ... >Yiddish</option><option ... >Yoruba</option><option ... >Zulu</option></select> | | <select ... ><option ... >Afrikaans</option><option ... >Albanian</option><option ... >Amharic</option><option ... >Arabic</option><option ... >Armenian</option><option ... >Azerbaijani</option><option ... >Basque</option><option ... >Belarusian</option><option ... >Bengali</option><option ... >Bosnian</option><option ... >Bulgarian</option><option ... >Catalan</option><option ... >Cebuano</option><option ... >Chichewa</option><option ... >Chinese (Simplified)</option><option ... >Chinese (Traditional)</option><option ... >Corsican</option><option ... >Croatian</option><option ... >Czech</option><option ... >Danish</option><option ... >Dutch</option><option ... >English</option><option ... >Esperanto</option><option ... >Estonian</option><option ... >Filipino</option><option ... >Finnish</option><option ... >French</option><option ... >Frisian</option><option ... >Galician</option><option ... >Georgian</option><option ... >German</option><option ... >Greek</option><option ... >Gujarati</option><option ... >Haitian Creole</option><option ... >Hausa</option><option ... >Hawaiian</option><option ... >Hebrew</option><option ... >Hindi</option><option ... >Hmong</option><option ... >Hungarian</option><option ... >Icelandic</option><option ... >Igbo</option><option ... >Indonesian</option><option ... >Irish</option><option ... >Italian</option><option ... >Japanese</option><option ... >Javanese</option><option ... >Kannada</option><option ... >Kazakh</option><option ... >Khmer</option><option ... >Korean</option><option ... >Kurdish</option><option ... >Kyrgyz</option><option ... >Lao</option><option ... >Latin</option><option ... >Latvian</option><option ... >Lithuanian</option><option ... >Luxembourgish</option><option ... >Macedonian</option><option ... >Malagasy</option><option ... >Malay</option><option ... >Malayalam</option><option ... >Maltese</option><option ... >Maori</option><option ... >Marathi</option><option ... >Mongolian</option><option ... >Myanmar (Burmese)</option><option ... >Nepali</option><option ... >Norwegian</option><option ... >Pashto</option><option ... >Persian</option><option ... >Polish</option><option ... >Portuguese</option><option ... >Punjabi</option><option ... >Romanian</option><option ... >Russian</option><option ... >Samoan</option><option ... >Scots Gaelic</option><option ... >Serbian</option><option ... >Sesotho</option><option ... >Shona</option><option ... >Sindhi</option><option ... >Sinhala</option><option ... >Slovak</option><option ... >Slovenian</option><option ... >Somali</option><option ... >Spanish</option><option ... >Sundanese</option><option ... >Swahili</option><option ... >Swedish</option><option ... >Tajik</option><option ... >Tamil</option><option ... >Telugu</option><option ... >Thai</option><option ... >Turkish</option><option ... >Ukrainian</option><option ... >Urdu</option><option ... >Uzbek</option><option ... >Vietnamese</option><option ... >Welsh</option><option ... >Xhosa</option><option ... >Yiddish</option><option ... >Yoruba</option><option ... >Zulu</option></select> | | | | | |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Lightweight media tie-in for children, featuring Jodi Whittaker's 13th Doctor and her usual helpers. Expect several types of maze, a futuristic mechanical minotaur, a downed alien spacecraft in Ancient Crete, Daedalus and Icarus, modern London, and a monster in the underground. This reads pretty much like a self-contained TV episode with no major revelations.
Ms Quinn's Rokesby series delves back to an earlier generation of Rokesby's and Bridgertons, two families entertwined by longstanding friendship and neighbourliness. Everyone expects tomboyish Billie Bridgerton to marry one of the Rokesby brothers, Edward or Andrew, no one is sure which, but with one in the navy and the other in the army, the brother left at home is George, heir to the Earldom. Unfortunately Billie has never been able to stand George and the feeling is mutual. However when Billy falls out of a tree on to a barn roof and is stranded there by a sprained ankle it's George who comes to the rescue. You can see where this is going, right? And you're not wrong. But it's a pleasant journey to the inevitable conclusion. Quinn handles historical romance with a light touch. There's lots of humour and witty dialogue.
To be published 21st July 2020. Orbiting Uranus is Haven, a privately financed habitat which aims to take in Earth's rejects. It's run by religious idealist Kyle Umber, but he's allowed himself to become nothing more than a figurehead while Waxman takes over the running while manufacturing drugs on the side. Raven Marchesi is a newcomer to Haven, an ex prostitute with a good brain that she's never had the opportunity to use. She thinks Waxman is her meal ticket, but soon realises he's bad news. In the mean time, enter a scientist from Earth, Tomas Gomez, intent to exploring Uranus' oceans, looking for evidence of life, or a reason for the lack of it. This is a book of two halves, the personal and the scientific. It's competent, but neither story really grabs. It's emotionally level all the way through with nothing to really lift either the story or the characters into the realm of exceptional, even when the scientist makes an incredible discovery. I know he has a long and illustrious history in SF, but I confess this is only my second Ben Bova book, which I read as an e-ARC from Netgally. I didn't particularly enjoy the first. On this showing I probably won't search out any more.
Lady Cassandra has no desire to marry. She's still wedded to the idea of her one true love, Timothy, who died on the morning of their wedding before the ceremony but after the night of passion that left her pregnant. That means she's outcast from the Ton. When Devlin defends her reputation publicly, they end up more or less having to marry, but Cassandra's stipulation is that there will be no sex as she remains faithful to her first (dead) love. Dev thinks he'll be able to change her mind and this is more or less what the book's all about. It's lightweight but readable – and, of course, predictable. Devlin is a seafarer, but he isn't really a scoundrel, so it's a pity about the title.
Julia Quinn might not always be totally historically accurate, but she's immensely good fun and handles her historical romances with a light touch and great dollops of good-hearted humour, which makes her always very readable. This is the newly published fourth book in the Rokesbys series, set in the generation before her Epic Bridgerton eight parter. Georgiana Bridgerton's reputation is in tatters because she was kidnapped and spent hours alone with her kidnapper, which means, of course, that in the eyes of society, she's been defiled (even though she escaped before anything could happen). If she's to salvage her reputation she's going to have to marry the scoundrel who kidnapped her. Enter Nicholas Rokesby, childhood friend who's almost like a brother. Almost. They aren't in love but Nicholas thinks that their friendship will carry them through. Will they fall in love. Guess! A good read. I galloped through it in one sitting.
This novella shines a light on to a dystopian future where climate change, capitalism and class have brutalised the human story on Earth. Mao, Lupe and Hotep are firewalkers. They repair and retrieve tech from the brutal equatorial desert to the Anchor, the base of the space elevator that takes those who can afford it, and who fit the profile, up to the waiting space liner. Given the task of figuring out why the power supply from the solar fields is browning out Mao & co. set off into the desert in a 'bug' which is barely up to carrying the three of them, keeping them cool (ish) and supplying them with water. They make some discoveries that change the way they see the world. The characters, particularly Mao, are well drawn. Mr. Tchaikovsky manages to wrap a gritty, gripping adventure into a piece that starkly outlines our own (current and future?) social problems. It's a quick read, but when it comes, the ending is fast, maybe too fast. This is a novella, but it could so easily have been a novel. The last chapter had enough to fill a book (which I would be happy to read). 
Young Jacob Fletcher, as an apprentice, should be safe from the press gangs. Unfortunately this particular press gang isn't bothered about the rules and Fletcher finds himself the lowest of the low on His Majesty's frigate Phiandra, pitted against the French. Meanwhile at Coignwood Hall the late Sir Henry is still warm while his not-so-grieving widow and her two sons frantically search for his will, which unfortunately leaves everything to a previously unknown bastard son. So the bastard must die. Fletcher, unaware of the reason, is very aware that someone has it in for him. This is a rollicking adventure with a lot of seafaring detail which seemed to be accurately portrayed. The cover says 'part Flashman and part Hornblower,' that's not too far from accurate. The Fletcher sections are a lot more gripping than the Coignwood sections and I must admit I skimmed some of those, but by and large this is an excellent read.