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This is set in Regency England, 1818. The hero of this book is Ned Rowlands, a fine coachman and a genuinely decent chap who is finessed out of his job driving the stage and thus becomes coachman for Lord August Ironminster, who has seen something special in Ned and wants him as his right hand man - both literally and figuratively. The charismatic Ironminster was an excellent (if occasionally reckless) four-in-hand driver who lived for his horses until he lost his arm in an accident. He uses an underhand scheme to get Ned fired from his old job in order to employ him. (When Ned finds out about this he inexplicably forgives Ironminster for the manipulation.) Ironminster is dying of consumption, but he's not about to let that stop him from winning a high-stakes race against his cousin. Ned gets involved in Ironminster's hair-raising and hare-brained schemes which have fatal consequences and land Ned in Newgate (not a spoiler because it starts with Ned in prison, looking back on what led him there). Ms Peyton's knowledge of carriages and driving is extremely well researched, or maybe she has first hand experience. You certainly feel that you know what it's like to drive a mismatched, high spirited team on a public road with potholes up to the axles. I'm familiar with (and a fan of) Ms Peyton's Flambards books and her Pennington books, but this was a title I hadn't come across before. I'm glad I found it.May. 21st, 2021
This is set in Regency England, 1818. The hero of this book is Ned Rowlands, a fine coachman and a genuinely decent chap who is finessed out of his job driving the stage and thus becomes coachman for Lord August Ironminster, who has seen something special in Ned and wants him as his right hand man - both literally and figuratively. The charismatic Ironminster was an excellent (if occasionally reckless) four-in-hand driver who lived for his horses until he lost his arm in an accident. He uses an underhand scheme to get Ned fired from his old job in order to employ him. (When Ned finds out about this he inexplicably forgives Ironminster for the manipulation.) Ironminster is dying of consumption, but he's not about to let that stop him from winning a high-stakes race against his cousin. Ned gets involved in Ironminster's hair-raising and hare-brained schemes which have fatal consequences and land Ned in Newgate (not a spoiler because it starts with Ned in prison, looking back on what led him there). Ms Peyton's knowledge of carriages and driving is extremely well researched, or maybe she has first hand experience. You certainly feel that you know what it's like to drive a mismatched, high spirited team on a public road with potholes up to the axles. I'm familiar with (and a fan of) Ms Peyton's Flambards books and her Pennington books, but this was a title I hadn't come across before. I'm glad I found it.
I read Old Man's War some time ago and am only just getting around to reading the rest. The premise is that Earth's elderly can sign up for a tour of duty as space soldiers in the Colonial Defence Force. They get a new, young, tough body with the advantage of a mature brain. The first book was John Perry. The second features Jared Dirac and Jane Sagan, a special forces intelligence officer who happens to be in a body cloned from John Perry's late wife (which doesn't have much bearing on this book until the end and then carries forward into Book 3). Jared Dirac has been created from renegade scientist, Charles Boutin's DNA in the hopes that he could extract information from Boutin's stored consciousness. He can't (at first) and is transferred into the Ghost Brigade, but ends up as a decanted consciousness in a warship (shades on Anne McCaffrey's 'The Ship Who sang' maybe?) Anyhow the plot is twisty. It's military SF concerning skirmishes and battles with a number of alien species, during which Jane Sagan, imbued with speed, strength and resilience beyond that of regular humans, plays an important part. The story is fast paced – a real page-turner. Though it's a sequel to Old Man's War, it doesn't feature John Perry but both Jane Sagan and Harry Wilson are strong secondary characters.
I had it in my head that The Old Man's War sequence was a trilogy, so when I saw this was the concluding book I grabbed it and read it, only realising when I was too far into the book to stop, that the OMW series has SIX books, and so I was reading the final one out of sequence. Bummer. I hate that. The good thing is that even though I skipped from Book 2 to Book 6, I wasn't left behind, so yes, you could potentially read it as a standalone if you really wanted to. Harry Wilson (from Old man's War and Ghost Brigades) is a point of view character, but then the story skips forward as a collection of novellas, each moving forward the reconciliation between the Colonial Union, Earth and the Conclave. I enjoyed revisiting Harry Wilson, and meeting Ode Abumwe and Hafte Sorvalh – both strong and clever women. There's a lot of politicking, but it's very enjoyable… now all I have to do is go back and read the three books that I missed.
So having already read the final book I went back and picked up book number three in the Old Man's War sequence in which John Perry (from the first book) and Jane Sagan (from the first and second books) are now settled in a colony with their adopted daughter, Zoe (the daughter of renegade scientist Charles Boutin from the second book). Also in the household are two scary-looking Obin, Hickory and Dickory, who are Zoe's minders because the Obin consider her to be barely one step away from being a saint. John and Jane are asked to head a new, experimental colony comprising colonists from ten established colonies. (Colonies are usually peopled with Earth-humans only.) The new colony is supposed to be on Roanoke, but when the colony ship arrives, the world they are presented with is not the one they were promised. And worse than that, the Conclave – an alliance of over four hundred alien races – is hunting them to wipe them out. As a complication of this they can't use any of the modern tech they've brought with them and have to rely on a contingent of Mennonites to show them how to farm the old fashioned way. But the Colonial Union is playing games in order to draw the Conclave into a trap and John, Jane and the colonists are in danger of being pawns in a dangerous game, until they figure out how to affect the outcome on the CU's games.