Booklog 92/2025: Una McCormack: The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway – Audiobook

Audiobook read by Kate Mulgrew. An interesting take on Janeway from childhood to post-Voyager, including some of the bits from Voyager that readers might be familiar with. Particularly interesting for me because I missed some of the Voyager episodes and haven’t caught up with all of them yet. I might not have tackled this, but Una McCormack is always a reliable writer and this was well written, and also well read by Kate Mulgrew – who is the only possible voice of Janeway.

Booklog 93/2025: J N Chaney & Scott Moon: The Last Reaper – Last Reaper #1

Audiobook read by Ray Porter

Halek Cain is the last survivor of the reaper programme. He’s an unstoppable cyborg killing machine, currently on death row. Offered a reprieve if he rescues a renowned scientist from a lawless penal colony (on an asteroid) he accepts the job, discovering that he hasn’t been given all the information he needs. Of course the job isn’t straightforward and he ends up fighting both the inmates and his own side. This is apparently set in the Renegade Star Universe, but not having any previous knowledge of this doesn’t hamper the enjoyment of this story. Ray Porter reads it reliably well.

Booklog 94/2025: Sarah Painter: The Ward Witch – Unholy Island #1 – Audiobook

Audiobook read by Katie Villa.

Luke Taylor has been looking for his missing twin brother for eighteen months with no success. A vague clue leads him to Unholy Island, a little further off the Northumbrian coast than Lindisfarne, and accessible only by a causeway at low tide. The locals, all with their own secrets, don’t like tourists and the island itself usually ensures that visitors spend no more than two nights there, but Luke is determined to stay longer and – surprise – the island lets him. He stays at Esme Gray’s B&B. Esme, who has run away from a troubled past with a controlling partner, is the island’s ward witch. She’s drawn to Luke, but still very wary of him. When Luke finds one of the villagers dead on the shore, suspicion falls on him, though Esme doesn’t believe he’s guilty. Gradually the truth is revealed, and Luke finds himself accepted by the suspicious islanders. This is set in the same world as Sarah Painter’s Crow Investigations books, which I very much enjoyed, but it’s a completely new sequence and can be read without having read the Crow books. Nicely read by Katie Villa

Booklog 95/2025: Sarah Painter: The Book Keeper – Unholy Island #2 – Audiobook

Audiobook read by Katie Villa.

Luke Taylor has been accepted by the mysterious Unholy Island and the islanders, and has become the keeper of the island’s only bookshop, a position he’s inherited. The bookshop itself seems sentient, not revealing all it’s secrets until it trusts Luke. He’s just setting in when a box of books arrives from a bookshop in York. It contains a curse which strikes at Luke, and he’s only saved by the intervention of one of the three (scary) witch sisters who love on the island. He discovers that the York bookshop has since burnt down, killing the owner. And then he finds another cursed book in an Edinburgh bookshop. Who is sending the cursed objects and why? Luke’s feelings for Esme, the island’s B&B host, are deepening, but a newcomer to the island is determined to muscle in. More magical goings-on. Expect peril, magic and a touch of romance. Katie Villa reads well.

Booklog 96/2025: Andrzej Sapkowski: The Last Wish – Witcher #1 – Audiobook

Audiobook narrated by Peter Kenny.

This introduces Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher with powers and training that enable him to kill monsters (for money). I can understand how this made a good TV series as it's very episodic in nature, which fits the TV format perfectly, but there are no continuing consequences. It’s first-this-happens-and-then-that-happens, but it’s not first-this-happens-and-because-this-happens-that-happens. In other words, this is a series of novellas, unrelated except for the main character. It's not a novel with a single storyline, and characterisation remains at a surface level throughout. Peter Kenny does a good job on the narration, but I won’t be reading any more of these. Watching the TV series is better

Booklog 97/2025: Sean Oswald: Induction - Welcome to the Multiverse #1 – Audiobook

Audiobook read by Travis Baldree.
Oh my goodness, how boring. I gave up at Chapter 8 after listening to what felt like hours and hours of a gamer’s handbook outlining points for this and powers like that. There might be a story, but if so it hadn’t started by the time I lost the will to live. The premise sounded interesting, but the writeup gave no indication that this was basically a game scenario. Sure, Silas has to save the world, but it’s basically a game. Travis Baldree did his usual good job but he might as well have been reading the phone book for all the interest it held for me. Maybe you’ll love this if the minutia of RPG games is your thing. Sadly, it’s not mine. Travis Baldree reads it as well as he can, but there are long tracts that amount to the gamer-equivalent of reading the phone book.