Booklog 69/2020: Naomi Novik: Uprooted—Audio

Read by Katy Sobey

Every ten years the dragon demands a girl… and so begins many a tale. But this dragon is a wizard, human-seeming, but ageless, abrupt, and icily cold. Agnieszka (and the whole village) knows he will choose Kasia, elegant and beautiful, but when the day comes, it’s Agnieszka who is chosen to serve. It's a fate almost as terrible as being drawn into the eerily malevolent wood, from which no one returns unchanged – if they return at all. Expecting to be a servant and a drudge (if not providing more intimate services) Agnieszka is surprised to find she has to learn magic. She struggles at first, but then finds her own style and gradually begins to learn. The threat from the wood is increasing as its corruption spreads and Kasia is caught up in it, driving Agnieszka to try to rescue her friend. Expect really scary trees, a touch of romance, some court intrigue, strong female friendship and LOTS of peril.

This is fairy tale-like, for certain values of dark fairy-tales, set in an alternate medieval Poland. I'm still getting used to hearing rather than reading a book. So far I find that I prefer listening to something I've read before, but this was a new book to me and the audio version kept me engaged. Katy Sobey's narration is easy on the ear.

Booklog 70/2020: Andrea K Host: The Silence of Medair – Medair #1

Medair is a royal herald who sets out to find the legendary Horn of Farak, the ultimate weapon against enemy invaders. She succeeds… and wakes (with the weapon) five hundred years later when the invaders, Ibisians, commonly called White Snakes by their enemies, have taken over and integrated. Unable to reveal her true identity, she's trapped into helping a 'White Snake' adept. Out of place and out of time, she struggles with/against her growing respect for what the White Snakes have become as another enemy threatens the borders. Medair has a magical bag with a set of magical artifacts as well as the horn, but does she want to use them to help the people who were once her country's enemies? There are some interesting philosophical conundrums. I was disappointed to get to the end of this, however, and discover it was part one of two books. Though there was an ending, not everything was resolved. There's a complicated (occasionally impenetrable) system of address - too complicated at times. My brain just glossed over most of it. There's also a deus ex machina change in the latter part of the book which was a bit strange. I liked this book, but I didn't love it and probably won't read the second volume. This is a self-published book and I feel that with some expert editing it could have been elevated from decent to excellent.

Booklog 71/2020: Jodi Taylor: Hard Time – Time Police #2

The second book in the St Mary's spin off series featuring Luke, Jane and Matthew (who is the son of Max Maxwell and Leon Farrell from St Mary's). The three of them are still trainee Time Police officers, known as Team Weird for their unorthodox ways of tackling situations that alternately drive Commander Hay slightly bonkers, while actually appreciating their originality (though she'd never tell them that, of course). This time they are sent to the seventeenth century to rescue a politician's daughter who has been dumped by a team of illegal time tourists. Unfortunately she turns out to be one of Luke's exes and she's not happy to be rescued, especially by him. She does, however give away some details of the illegal time travel organisation and Luke and Jane go undercover to see what information they can ferret out while Matthew spends some quality time with the time map. Expect peril, timeslips, Marie Antoinette, and Luke's mouth on overdrive. There's a brief intervention from St Mary's, some familiar character (Officer North, Major Ellis) and a fast-paced adventure. Jodi Taylor is one of my favourite authors, and this does not disappoint. I had this as an advance review copy from Netgalley. Publication is 15^th October 2020.