Booklog 91/2024: T Kingfisher: Bryony and Roses – Audiobook

Narrated by Justine Eyre

Bryony and her sisters have sunk in the world after their rich merchant father lost all his money and then died. Bryony has taken over the gardening at their little cottage and while, travelling to a friend for turnip seeds, she gets lost in a vicious snow storm and stumbles across a magical house, a strange beast-man, and a rose garden. Yes, it’s a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but not quite in the way you expect. I love T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), and this somewhat creepy take on the fairy tale is excellent.

The audiobook narration works reasonably well, but the English accent is very Queen Elizabeth circa 1955. There’s a bit of an overexaggerated RP twang. Ah, I checked, she’s Canadian doing an English accent. It’s just a bit too London posh.

Booklog 92/2024: Adrian Tchaikovsky: Alien Clay – Audiobook

Narrated by Ben Allen
Adrian Tchaikovsky is such a good writer, his humans and aliens are brilliantly interwoven. Xeno-biologist and freedom fighter, Arton Daghdev, is exiled for his crimes to an alien planet where he’s imprisoned under an oppressive regime. At first he’s given some status because of his scientific work, but he’s soon busted to a basic work detail in the toxic atmosphere of this very alien planet. He  is tasked with discovering the origin of alien ruins, and the mystery of who the builders were, and where are they now. And he does indeed make that discovery, but not in the way the camp commandant expects him to.

Booklog 93/2024: Marshall Ryan Maresca: The Imposters of Aventil – Maradaine, Thorn #3

Perhaps I should have started with the first Thorn book, but having read a couple of other Maradaine books I thought I’d be OK with this one, however it’s probably not a great entry point for the Thorn books. There were a lot of secondary characters that I didn’t know as well as the author expected me to.  I really like Marshall Ryan Maresca’s writing in general. I loved The Holver Alley Crew, and I’d read one of the Maradaine Constabulary books which featured Minox Welling and Satrine Rainey, who reappear here, so I wasn’t entirely in the dark. It’s a bit slow to get going and all the minor characters get viewpoint scenes, which I found distracted me. Veranix Calvert is the Thorn – a vigilante sworn to crack a drug ring. When two unconnected imposters (which I always thought was spelled impostors, but apparently both are correct) suddenly appear on the streets of Aventil, leaving death in their wake, the Thorn becomes the focus of police attention. Enter Welling and Rainey. Veranix is split between the drug problem and the double-impostor problem. The pace picks up towards the end and there is a good finale and a nice wrap-up.

Booklog 94/2024: Jodi Taylor: The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal - Chronicles of St Mary’s spino

This is the origin story of Lady Amelia Smallhope and Pennyroyal, butler of many talents. When Millie Smallhope’s brother George marries a fortune hunter and her family falls apart, she’s shuffled off to a finishing school. Trying to get her diamonds back from her sister-in-law, she comes nose to nose with a burglar who turns out to be much better at thievery than she is, and she ends up throwing her lot in with him – Pennyroyal – who just happens to have a time-travelling pod, and be a product of Butler school, though Millie suspects he learned all he knows in the nick. The two embark on a career as bounty hunters – err – recovery agents – and we follow their exploits, including where their story intersects with the St Mary’s crew of disaster-magnet historians, and the Time Police, especially Team Weird. This is very engaging, and I stayed up far too late into the night because I couldn’t put it down. Shades of Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin with a time pod.

Booklog 95/2024: A.G Riddle: The Extinction Trials - Audiobook

Narrated by John Skelley

This is a post apocalyptic thriller about a bunch of people who wake up in a research facility in the middle of nowhere, and who must work together to unravel the mystery of why they are there and what they’re supposed to do next. They are part of the Extinction Trials, a plan to restart the whole human race. The strangers all have complementary skills, Owen, a fire-fighter who is good at pattern recognition, Cara, an ER doctor, Alistair, a mechanic, Will, a computer programmer, and Maya, a scientist. The air outside the facility is toxic, so venturing out to explore is very dangerous, but it’s their only chance as they have a limited amount of food in the facility. It turns out they are on an island, but there’s a boat… At each step on their journey they have to solve clues and evade danger. Every person (except Owen) is hiding a secret which impacts upon the solution. It’s fast-paced and well-narrated by John Skelley, however the twist ending is a bit deus ex-machina, and I could have wished that Maya and Owen had found the final solution themselves. It’s not quite an ‘Adam and Eve’ trope ending, but there are hints of that.