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Novella
The artificial being which calls itself Murderbot decides to research its own dark past - the massacre that prompted it to name itself Murderbot. It heads for the space station where the massacre happened, posing as an augmented human, and teaming up with ART an autonomous research transport vessel. This is the second Murderbot novella (the first was All Systems Red) and the being is learning and growing all the time, which is fascinating. Posing as an augmented human means it has to interact with humans which makes it deeply uncomfortable. It would rather sit quietly and tune into endless media shows, but instead it has to be proactive. A friend recommended the Murderbot diaries, and I'm thoroughly enjoying them. Highly recommended.
Kitty has one London season to find a wealthy husband to save herself and her younger sisters from penury. With the help of her late mother’s friend she intends to launch herself into society, but her ‘aunt’ has a less than respectable past and doesn’t have the haut ton connections that Kitty needs. She takes a chance to latch on to the younger brother of Lord Radcliffe and ingratiates her self with his sister and mother, but Radcliffe himself is another matter altogether, and recognises Kitty for the fortune hunter she is. Yes, you guessed it, they start off as enemies and end up… well, you can guess. Regency Romances are my guilty pleasure. This was engaging and frothy, and a good debut novel.
I’ve been meaning to read Guy Gavriel Kay for the best part of twenty-five years and finally got around to reading the one people tell me is one of his finest. This is the story of how a courageous bunch of people plan to overthrow two sorcerer-conquerors and let the land regain its real name, Tigana, which has been wiped out of the minds of almost everyone on the Palm. The tyrants must die, and there ensues some nifty political skullduggery. Alessan, prince of Tigana, escaped death in battle because he was too young, but it’s now twenty years later and he has a plan, carried out with the aid of Baerd, Devin, and a supposedly ‘dead’ duke. The prose is gorgeous, but the pace is measured – at times downright slow. This is a long book. There are also some questionable ethics. Is it okay to do bad things if your intentions are good? It’s largely a tale of memory and identity. I have to admit I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected to, even though I appreciated the skill that went into creating it.
Seventeen year old Raine can see ghosts and speak to them, a talent she doesn’t want since it could get her killed if anyone found out. When the story opens she’s hiding out in a cult-like monastery with a lover who certainly doesn’t appreciate her. When she rescues an injured young woman from the snow, her actions bring destruction and all the inhabitants of the isolated monastery are killed by a neighbouring lord with the help of the Draoihn, powerful warrior magicians
I wasn’t all that keen on this one. There were a few moments when I considered not reading on, but I’m generally not a quitter. Artemis Jones is an outwardly respectable teacher by day and at night writes gothic romances under a pseudonym. Tired of the narrow curriculum at the finishing school she works at, she quits and heads to London, ostensibly to help out a friend who is trying to avoid the marriage mart, but with an ambition to find a sponsor to allow her to open her own school where young ladies can study the same academic subjects as young men. Dominic Winters, widowed Duke of Dartmoor has decided to find himself a new duchess, one who might understand his rebellious teenage daughter better than he does. Yes, these two meet and it’s instant attraction, of course, though neither will admit that it’s anything more than mutual lust. There’s a lot of sex in this book, which doesn’t generally worry me if it’s well written. Unfortunately Artemis is very forward for a Victorian lady. She drops her drawers at the slightest opportunity, and is quite enamoured of the Duke of Dartmoor’s ‘love truncheon.’ (I kid you not.)
I love T. Kingfisher’s writing. She’s a buy on sight author for me, even her horror books (and generally I don’t read horror). This is not horror, it’s a fantasy with fairy tale elements: a princess (youngest of three); a dog made of bones; a dust wife who speaks with the dead; a steadfast knight rescued from a goblin market; a chicken inhabited by a demon; two godmothers (fairy variety); and a cruel prince. Marra’s two older sisters have been married off (sequentially) to the cruel prince of a powerful northern kingdom. The first mysteriously died, and the second is wearing herself out, staying pregnant to avoid his beatings. Marra, hidden away in a convent in case the prince kills the second sister and needs a third wife, decides to do something about the situation, and sets off to murder the prince. She knows she can’t do it alone so she enlists the help of the dust wife who sets her three impossible tasks. These are a nice bit of misdirection. This is not the story you think it’s going to be. Marra and the dust wife set off to do the dirty deed (with the demon chicken and the bone dog) and pick up the steadfast knight and one fairy godmother along the way.