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In this novella she returns to the time of King Arthur, to the sons of Lot, the Orkney Royal family, who fight and squabble amongst themselves. The sons are Gawain (Gavin), Agravain (Agrin), Gaheris (Heris), Gareth (Gari), and their half-brother Medraut. In Ms Sperring's last 'Orkney' novella she concentrated on Gaheris and Lamorak, this time it's Gaheris again, but told by Llinos, the wife of Gawain. Gaheris is given the task of escorting Llinos home. He has the best of intentions, but then they enter an enchanted forest and all bets are off. It's a story of love, infidelity and loyalty. Highly recommended.
It must be more than forty years since I last read one of Andre Norton's Solar Queen books, but I'm a bit of a fan so I was pleased to discover a more recent book in the series. Solar Queen is a cargo ship eking out a living tramping around known space, led by Captain Jellico and featuring a crew who have become found-family. Dane Thorson is apprentice to the cargomaster – though by the sixth book in the series, he's probably more than capable of doing the job himself. When the Solar Queen salvages a derelict ship their good fortune turns into a nightmare as Dane and his fellow crewmembers try to find out what happened to the crew of their derelict. Instead of concentrating on Dane Thorson, Ms Smith writes from multiple viewpoints and brings in the rest of the crew, even finding a hint of romance for Jellico. The first four in the Solar Queen series were written by Norton herself, but from Book 5 onwards they are a collaboration. I picked this one because it's by Sherwood Smith, whose writing I enjoy. There's much more Smith than Norton in here, but that's no bad thing.
When their parents died penniless due to a scam investment the three Tregarth children are split up and Elinor ends up at Hathergill Hall as companion to her spoiled selfish cousin, Penelope. Dragons, small enough to balance on their owner's shoulder, are all the rage as a fashion accessory. Unfortunately Elinor's cousin has little sympathy with her expensive new pet, Sir Jessamyn, and the dragon, young and nervous, has an unfortunate habit of letting his bowels go when particularly alarmed - very unfortunate when he's sitting on Penelope's shoulder. When Elinor is pushed too far, she walks out, with the dragon, but without a plan, and with only a few coppers in her reticule. She loses what money she has when a coach hurtles around a corner and knocks her into a muddy ditch. Benedict Hawkins, passenger in his friend Aubrey's coach, does the decent thing and takes Elinor to a nearby inn. In the depths of misery, Elinor wishes she could be like society leader Mrs DeLacy… and the dragon grants her wish. As the important society matron she finds herself thrust back into the limelight in Hathergill Hall while Benedict, for whom she is developing feelings, is doing his best to woo Penelope for her money to save his estate. This is a lovely Regency romantic romp with added magic and dragons. Highly recommended.
Murderbot, its own name for itself which it believes it deserves, is a self-aware security android supplied by The Company to a small exploration team on a distant planet. Neither the Company nor the team of scientists know that Murderbot has hacked its own governor so it can't be forced to be an uncontrolled killing machine again. It doesn't have a very high opinion of humans and would like to be left alone to enjoy endless entertainment feeds, movies serials, books and plays, from which it possibly acquires its moral compass. Murderbot says "As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.” When the other exploration team on the planet suddenly goes dark, Dr Mensah leads her team of scientists to find out what has happened. Murderbot goes along, though really it doesn't much care about the fate of the other humans, only to find the other team's androids have
This is the third outing for Team Weird (Team 236), Matthew, Luke and Jane, almost ready to graduate from their training in the Time Police. It follows on from the second book and there are still elements of the aftermath from their adventures at Site X. Luke has lost two fingers to frostbite and is convinced that his father, head of Parrish industries, is the Mr Big (or rather Mr P) behind Site X, but he can't unearth any proof. After graduation, Jane is flattered to be chosen to help another team and discovers that there are as many dangers from her fellow officers as there are from criminals. After graduation, Team 236 go to check on a known miscreant, believed to be harmless, only to discover a gaping crater where his street used to be. Thus begins another adventure in this series which is a spin-off from, and crossover with, the Chronicles of St Mary's. This seems to be setting up a big bad for Team Weird, just as Clive Ronan was the big bad in the St Mary's books. Expect major peril, a touch of awkward romance, and guest appearances from the St Mary's cast of characters - mainly Max (Matthew's mum) and Mikey (Matthew's special girl). Jodi Taylor is a buy-on-sight author for me. Highly recommended. When I'd finished reading I immediately listened to the audible version, which is read beautifully by Zara Ramm.
I've loved T. Kingfisher's previous Saint of Steel books, so I knew I was in for a treat with Galen's story. The basic background is that the paladins of the Saint of Steel were suddenly cut loose when their god died. Some went mad, many died but these books chronicle the stories of the ones who lived. Galen might not be entirely sane, but he's transferred his allegiance to the Temple of the White Rat and is getting on with life as best he can. When bodies begin to turn up, mutilated in strange but different ways, Galen goes to investigate with a brave gnole guardsman, and meets Piper, a lich-doctor (that's a pathologist to you and me) who specialises in determining cause of death. Galen had given up hope of ever finding love, but Piper might be the one, if Galen can protect him from the traps that await all three of them.
When a corpse is found floating face down in Vilnoc Harbour, Temple Sorcerer Penric and his resident demon, Desdemona, are called in to solve a problem. The man is not quite as dead as he should be. In fact, his body is dead but is now possessed and reanimated. The tale unravels slowly. It's not quite a murder mystery but an exploration of death magic, which we first came across in The Curse of Chalion (chronologically later than the Penric stories.) There's a lot of soul-searching (literally). This is a more measured pace than Penric's action adventures. I've never yet met a Bujold book I didn't like. This is still well worth reading, but not my favourite in the series.