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Booklog 69/2021: Georgette Heyer: Sylvester
It's a while since I've read any Heyer and I confess I found this a bit slow when compared to some of the more recent Regency romances. (Bridgeton comes to mind.) But Heyer is what it is. When Sylvester Rayne, Duke of Salford, decides it's time to marry he picks out five potential young debs, with all the right qualities, and asks his mother to choose. She refuses, of course, so Sylvester decides to look over them once again, not believing for a minute that any young woman he picked would refuse him, money, title and all. He's in for a shock when he meets Phoebe Marlow who considers him arrogant and when she (mistakenly) thinks he's going to propose she runs away, knowing her mother would pressure her into the match regardless of her feelings. An accident on the road forces Phoebe and Sylvester to spend time in each other's company and she discovers he isn't the monster she thought him to be. Thus starts a chain of events which leads to the obvious conclusion but on the way there are misunderstandings semi-accidental kidnappings, a scurrilous book, and a rescue. Not my favourite Heyer, but by no means the worst.
The Scholomance is a school for magic users, but forget about Hogwarts, this school is deadly and only the best (or luckiest) survive the everyday perils… knowing that when graduation comes, they will all be chucked in a pit with a bunch of powerful mals, hungry for flesh and for magic, and those who get out alive are deemed to have graduated. El (Galadriel) is an immensely powerful magic user, but her talents lie in darkness, and she knows no one likes her. In fact even her own grandmother believes she's cursed. So her mother brings her up solo. Because El won't give in to her urges to gain power by stealing the life force from those around her, the other magicians-in-training think she's a wimp in need of rescuing, when really she's on the edge of anger and violence all the time. When Orion 'rescues' her for the third time, making her look even more wimpy, she decides to do something about it, but Orion simply doesn't take the hint. He's the school hero, and everyone thinks she's his girlfriend, so suddenly the other kids will eat lunch with her and talk to her, but she knows it's only to get closer to him. But finally she might have the opportunity to make alliances that will help to get her through the graduation trial. A lot of this book is set-up and explanation of the magic system, so it's detail rich, and a bit infodumpy at times - though they are interesting infodumps. A lot of the action centres around defeating monsters lurking in the Scholomance's ducts and dark corners.
Leigh Bardugo is a buy on sight author for me. Her Grishaverse is complex and multi-stranded
Jodi Taylor's Christmas day short story. This is set during the events of 'Another Time Another Place' when St Mary's is under Treadwell's new (unfriendly) management. It's Christmas, and rather than being with their respective families Max and Markham are away from St Mary's, enjoying the hospitality of Lady Amelia Smallhope and her bodyguard/butler/thug, Pennyroyal, currently employed as bounty hunters, or, rather, recovery agents. There's a Flying Auction announced. Someone is auctioning off plundered historical artefacts at a specific place and time… and that place happens to be a near-derelict St Mary's in 1921. Markham manages to appropriate some of the aforementioned items (don't ask what he's got down his trousers) so they have to hide them, and return to St Mary's in their own time to retrieve them. Expect tea, toast and eggs, Parish Councillors, naked gardening and a very happy Christmas.
With the year drawing to a close, here's my list of books read in 2021. There are 73 in total, including re-reading a couple of my own. I'd like to give a quick shout-out to T Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon, particularly for the two Saint of Steel books I read this year; also to John Scalzi for his Old Man's War series. Special mention to Benedict Jacka for wrapping up his twelve book Alex Verus series in fine style. New to me this year was K.J. Charles's trio of excellent Will Darling adventures which I read one after the other. Julia Quinn, author of Bridgerton which hit TV screens this year, provided some lovely fluffy Regency romances - my guilty pleasure. There were single books from some of my favourite authors: Liz Williams, Juliet E. McKenna, N.M. Browne, Sebastien de Castell, Kari Sperring, and Lois McMaster Bujold. I had a great reading year, topped off by Leigh Bardugo's Rule of Wolves which at the very end promised another Kaz Brekker book. He's my favourite character from the Six of Crows Duology. Here's my full list. You can get my thoughts on these by scrolling back through this blog. Happy reading in 2022. (Don't forget my seventh book, The Amber Crown, is out from DAW on 11th January.)