Jacey Bedford's Journal

Absurdist humour. The team of sorcerers at Dawson, Ahriman & Dawson are looking for a new recruit to take over the job of supreme being of a world in an alternate universe. Maybe the fat bearded chap who knows a lot about reindeer and jingle bells isn’t the right candidate for the job. Or maybe he is. Dawson (both of him) is in debt to Ahriman. Mt Sunshine is a soft touch and has a bottomless purse which doesn’t (can’t) exist. Mr Teasedale has booked a team of demons for a specific job…  And then there’s Harmondsworth who seems to manifest as a blue light or a flash Pentecostal fire. I should have expected this from Tom Holt, but it’s a long time since I read any of his books. I’ve been missing out. This is weird, surreal, quirky and fantastically imaginative.

Asti and Verci Rynax and friends have been taken into custody under false names  with no legal charge. While they work out how to escape, their friends/wife/potential lover are given a job by Josie Holt, which they can’t possibly achieve – but it’s their only chance to get Josie’s help to rescue the ‘boys.’ While this is happening Asti and Verci and their friends have been split up in Quarrygate prison, still not knowing why they are there. It turns out that there is a deeper plot and Asti is inveigled into leading a team of dubious criminals to track down enemies of the state. Unfortunately the real villain of the piece is even nastier than the group they were sent after. This is twisty and gripping. Unfortunately the Maradaine novels (which I love) are not very easy to get hold of in the UK for reading on Kindle, so I’ve only read #1 (The Holver Alley Crew) and this is #4, so I’m missing the backstories of some of the characters. It didn’t spoil it for me because Maresca covers the essentials, but I do like to read a series in order. (Some of them now appear to be on audiobook only.) Asti and Verci are great characters, brought up by an unashamedly criminally clever father they have been well trained in the arts of subterfuge ad they can hold their own in any criminal company. Verci is particularly talented at gadget-making (which comes in very handy in this book). Asti, though lethal, has been broken by torture in his former career as a spy. Sometimes he can barely hold it together, knowing that if he lets that other Asti loose there will be terrible consequences. Both men are vulnerable in different ways, which makes for very interesting reading. Highly recommended, but start from the beginning of the sequence if you can.

I love all things Jodi Taylor and I read this on the day it was published, but I’ve only just got around to listening to the audiobook. Once again, competently read by Zara Ramm. Lt Grint finally shows his humanity and it gets both himself and Jane into a lot of trouble as he tries to help a small boy whose mother has disappeared.

Not my favourite Cadfael. The Welsh are taking advantage of the fighting between Stephen and Mathilda (Empress Maud) and raiding across the border. The Sheriff is taken prisoner, and as a prominent young Welshman is being held in Shrewsbury and exchange of prisoners is arranged. The Sheriff, injured, is delivered to Shrewsbury, but before the Welshmen can take their own countryman the Sheriff is murdered. Cadfael once more sorts it out while also trying to make the course of true love run smooth. Philip Madoc once more plays Cadfael, but some of the other cast members have changed since the previous two stories I listened to. It doesn’t spoil the enjoyment, but it's a bit weird.

Gervaise Bonel, a guest at Shrewsbury Abbey, is poisoned with a monks hood potion and his stepson is accused. Brother Cadfael, one-time crusader and now a monk, takes on the case. Cadfael is a shilled herbalist and, indeed, brewed the potion himself for the abbey's infirmary. It's complicated by the fact that the dead man's widow, and mother to the accused boy, is Richildis, once long ago betrothed to Cadfael before they were separated by the crusades. The sherrif's sergeant is convinced that he has the killer bang to rights, but Cadfael is not so sure. I consumed this in audio book form as part of a sequence of full cast recordings by the BBC featuring the excellent voice of Philip Madoc as Cadfael. The book has been abridged for radio.

Lliterary references abound in a surreal mix of fantasy and parallel world happenings. Time travel, cloning and a hefty dose of literature rub shoulders in The Eyre Affair. It's 1985. Thursday Next, having fought in the (still ongoing) Crimean War, has become a literary detective in a version of Britain which takes its art and literature very seriously indeed. Acheron Hades, supervillain for the sake of it, steals the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and kills off a minor character, who then disappears from every copy of the novel in existence. That's just the start however. Having kidnapped Thursday's genius Uncle Mycroft , who has invented a way to step into books and to bring characters (and things) out of them. Acheron targets Jane Eyre - intending a despicable act of literary homicide. It's Thursday to the rescue in this seriously quirky literary caper. Audiobook ably narrated by Gabrielle Kruger.

This short ghost story is a classic, featuring Mr Garrett, a librarian who, while searching for a book requested by John Eldred, encounters a black-clad mouldering clergyman, so strange it causes him to pass out and be given recovery leave. On the train to the seaside he meets the Simpsons, a mother and daughter, who offer him lodgings. He learns that they are in an inheritance struggle over the missing will of a clergyman called Rant, and Garrett pieces together their story with John Eldred's search for a very particular book, and the spectre of the long-dead clergyman. Beautifully read, as might be expected, by David Suchet.

I love Diana Wynne Jones' storytelling. I picked this audiobook out at random and didn't realise it was one of the sequels to Howl's Moving Castle until Sophie and the fire demon Calcifer cropped up part way through. The main character is Charmain, a teen who is given the task of looking after Great Uncle William's house while he is away being cured of an illness by the elves. Uncle is a wizard and the house itself proves to have magic. It bends space and time. The corridors lead to many different places depending on the way Charmain turns. She's dismayed to find the house in complete disarray and hasn't a clue how to do the laundry or the washing up until Peter, Uncle William's new apprentice, arrives unexpectedly.  And there's trouble with kobolds, the local magical creatures. Really, all Charmain wants to do is to curl up with a good book, and since her mother forgot to pack Charmain's own books, she's quite happy to settle down with a spell book instead. When she gets an answer to her letter of application and is summoned to the Royal Mansion to help catalogue the king's library, the plot, about the king's missing gold, and the dodgy heir to the throne, kicks into gear. Kristin Atherton is the reader. Her narrative voice works well, but I don't particularly like the way she voices different characters, especially the children who are gratingly high pitched. Everyone speaks with an unidentifiable weird accent. I should probably have read this instead of listened. Four stars for the book, but only two for the performance.

Audiobook.
Although this is number three in the chronological list of Hornblower stories, it’s one of the last to be written. It’s choc full of technical sailing ship details, most of which went over my head, but I presume everything is accurate,  so I’m full of admiration. The detail is not indigestible by any means. We begin with Hornblower’s ill-advised marriage to Maria which he is going through with simply because he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings. She calls him Horry, which makes him squirm. He’s been promoted to the rank of Commander and been given the captaincy of the three-masted Hotspur, small in comparison to the naval ships of the line. He’s managed to request Mr. Bush as his first lieutenant and their friendship is strong enough for Mr. Bush to call him ‘sir’ instead of (as it was before Hornblower’s recent promotion) the other way around. The Peace of Amiens is still holding, but it’s looking like the war with Napoleonic France will soon reignite, so Hornblower and the Hotspur are stationed off the port of Brest, keeping an eye on shipping and estimating the strength of the French navy. Various adventures, naval confrontations and personal dilemmas make this a gripping listen. It’s well narrated by Christian Rodska

This is a re-visit via audiobook. The first Elizabeth Cage book was read by Kate Scarf whose voice is light and easily listened to. She’s not a million miles away from the timbre of Zara Ramm who has voiced all but one of Jodi Taylor’s St Mary’s books and their spin off series featuring the Time Police. Julie Teal’s voice is heavier, more produced. She’s a good reader, but my expectations of Elizabeth Cage’s narrative voice was set by Kate Scarf’s reading of White Silence, and since I bounced straight on to Dark Light, the tonal quality of the two voices was jarring. It rankled a bit and took me about half the book to get used to the new voice. I note that the third book, Long Shadows, is being read by Zara Ramm. I’ll get to that one next…

This is a re-read, or rather a re-listen. It’s the first Elizabeth Cage book, and most unusually for a Jodie Taylor audiobook, this time not read by Zara Ramm, but by Katie Scarf. She makes a good job of the reading. Elizabeth Cage can see colours surrounding people – their auras, though she doesn’t use that term. She can tell their moods and their state of being, whether they are happy or unhappy, troubled or serene, good or evil. When her husband Ted dies she is tricked by Sorensen, his boss into staying over at the Sorensen private clinic and is kept there under threat of being sectioned. Sorensen, it turns out, has been curious about Elizabeth’s abilities and has been watching her for years. Now he has the opportunity of finding out what she can do. Enter Michael Jones, another inmate at the clinic – or is he? Well, yes he is, but he’s more than that. No spoilers. Elizabeth begins to trust him, but should she? The ending is not quite cliffhanger but it’s definitely open to a follow-up.

Yet another re-reading of one of my favourite books. Miles Vorkosigan at his chaotic best. He flunks out of Military academy by breaking both legs in a rash jump on the physical test, gets sent to stay with his Betan grandmother, takes on an obsolete cargo freighter and its near obsolete jump pilot, attempts to smuggle arms into a war zone and accidentally ends up running a mercenary fleet in his alter ego personality as Admiral Miles Naismith. Miles is a great character to read about, though if he were mine in real life, I’d probably want to strangle him. The fact that he is so real to me is testament to Lois McMaster Bujold’s excellent writing. Science fiction or fantasy, I heartily recommend everything she writes. This is the third book in the Vorkosigan series. The first two are about Miles’ parents. This is the first Miles book, so it’s one of the good starting points for the whole series. Read them all. You won’t be sorry.

Augustus (Gus) was once a world class showjumper, but now grumpy, old and lame he ignores Flo, a young girl trying to befriend him. The only creature he'll talk to is his lifelong friend, the magpie. The magpie reminds him of his youth and his long-forgotten burning ambition to fly. Each time he jumped he hoped he would fly, but he never did. Gradually Flo wins him over, though the ending is a little bit sad, though poignant.

Rosa Mandolini is the 10 year old daughter of a household of painters of magical illuminations, images that hold specific spells from keeping milk fresh to protecting the city. He hopes to pain magical illuminations one day but at the moment all she seems to be able to paint are radishes with fangs. Looking for a way to help her family she finds an old box in the cellar, an illumination of a crow on its lid. Opening the box, the crow illustration comes to life, but not in time to stop her from opening the box and releasing the Scarling, a vicious illumination obsessed with wiping out the Mandolini family by unmaking their magical illuminations and plunging the city into chaos. With the help of the crow and her former best friend, Rosa must stop the Scarling. T. Kingfisher is one of my favourite authors. This book borders on middle grade and the younger end of YA, but it's a perfectly fine adult read, too.

Audiobook – well read by Kristin Atherton.

I've read the last few of these out of order, but no matter, this was still engaging as our heroine, spy/librarian, Irene, together with her dragon-prince lover, Kai, their friend Vale, the great detective, and Irene's new Fae apprentice, Catherine, who suffers from an over-abundance of enthusiasm. The team is up against old enemies. After several kidnap and murder attempts it seems that Lord and Lady Guantes (I might have spelled that incorrectly as I listened rather than read) are back, which is surprising because Irene's pretty sure she killed Lord Guantes previously. Enter Kai's snotty brother, Shan Yuan who is anti-Fae (and anti-Irene as well) which is a problem. Bad situations become worse, until Irene learns a truth that she would rather not have known. Don't start reading this long-running series here. I suggest starting from the beginning with The Invisible Library. You'll not regret it

This is a book of four novellas, each narrated by a different character and each outlining an incident in the life of Gaheris, one of the five Princes of Orkney, sons of King Lot who rebelled against King Arthur. The Serpent Rose and The Rose Knot, the first two novellas have been previously published, and I have read both, but I was glad to revisit them and then continue on to the final two. The Orkney boys are - in birth order - Gawain, Agravaine, Gareth, Gaheris and their half-brother Medraut. Gawain is the most famous, of course, and Gaheris seems unremarkable in comparison, but here Kari Sperring brings out his importance to Arthur, the Round Table and those around him. The Orkney brothers are hot-tempered and argumentative, and  Agravaine, in particular, doesn't like Gaheris and takes every opportunity to make that plain. Gaheris, tall and powerful, has the Orkney temper, but we mostly see him overcoming it. Even Arthur remarks that he is a man made for peace in a time of war. Each novella is narrated by a different character, Gaheris himself, Llinos, his brother Gareth's wife, Thorn, a half-magical woman who recounts meeting Gaheris, and Gawain whose account is sad and self-recriminatory. The Sepent Rose recounts the story of Lamorak, his infatuation with Gaheris is a problem and Lamorak's eventual downfall.  The Rose Knot tells of Ghaeris and Llinos's brief, illicit relationship, eventually resolved. In the third novella, the half-magical woman, Thorn recounts meeting Gaheris as his brother's squire, and the second time when he comes to her domain in rags and lifts an ancient curse. The final novella, ten years later, has Gawain blaming himself for the consequences of Agravain's rebellion against Arthur. It ends just as the battle of Camlann, Arthur's final battle, is about to begin. Kari Sperring's prose is fluid and elegant, her  research into the original sources (recounted at the end) is impeccable. I love this book.

Mo Wenstein moves from the deep south to Grundy, Alaska to leave her old life (and her interfering parents) behind. She’s looking for a change and she certainly gets one. Chance leads to her taking a job as a cook at the bar and grill, a focal point for the whole town. Meeting Cooper Graham is inevitable, but he’s not the most pleasant or sociable character. She has her suspicions, but when a naked Cooper turns up on her doorstep with a bear-trap around one ankle and then changes into a big, black wolf, her suspicions are confirmed. There has been a series of wolf attacks in the area and Cooper might be guilty, but even he’s not sure as memories of wolfing-out are hazy at best. Increasingly committed to Cooper, Mo is sure he’s not the killer, but who is, and why? This is snappily written with some quirky dialogue. Mo’s is a good main character. The reader, Amanda Ronconi, is mostly good when in Mo’s internal voice, but her male characters, especially Cooper, sound as though they are recovering from laryngitis. There’s a fair amount of explicit sex if that’s the sort of thing that worries you. The tag on the image says ‘ONLY FROM AUDIBLE’ but there’s a Kindle edition, too.

This is the first of Karen Traviss Star Wars books dealing with the chaps in white armour. They are all clones of the same person, grown to maturity in 12 years and trained by a Mandalorian drill sergeant, so you might expect them to be very similar to each other, but withing the first page Ms Traviss has four very individual characters on the page, Niner, Fi, Atin and Darman. This particular squad of commandos is comprised of surviving leftovers of other squads following a devastating battle (in the Clone Wars timeline), so rather than being trusted teammates, they are still getting used to each other. They have been tasked with destroying a separatist bioweapon. Darman is separated from the rest and meets a very inexperienced Jedi Padawan, Etain Tur-Mukan. A bond begins to develop (definitely a no-no as far as their bosses are concerned) and they are separated at the end. I don't usually read tie-in fiction, but I've loved Karen Traviss' other books so so reading this was a no-brainer and I was not disappointed. She gets under the skin of the squaddies and presents fully rounded characters as well a breakneck action. Highly recommended.

Another outing for Peter Grant and the Folly – that branch of London’s Met Police which looks after cases which show signs of ‘weird bollocks’ – i.e. Falcon cases, anything to do with magic and the supernatural. Peter is now on the brink of becoming a father, His wife Beverly, a minor river goddess, is carrying twins, due any day now. So, of course, Peter gets involved with a double murder that might or might not be something to do with seven linked rings and the Spanish Inquisition. Which, of course, no-one expects… Yes they manage to get that joke in, plus a few Dr Who easter eggs (Mr A has written for Dr Who.) Expect the usual magical police procedural plus the return of one-time friend, now magical antagonist, Lesley, plus an added helping of the Angel of Death, or at least AN angel of death.

Audiobook. This is a standalone which follows on from A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Lovelace, the ship-board AI in the first book has, due to circumstances, been lodged in a humanoid artificial body (which she calls the Kit) and is staying, planet-bound, with an engineer called Pepper, trying to fit in (on account of if the authorities discover what she is, she’ll be terminated. Much of this is Lovelace, now called Sidra, trying to make sense of her new world and the people (some human, some alien) in it. There’s a second story, set in the past about a girl called Jane 24 who (at the beginning) is a slave in a scrap reclamation factory with a load of other Janes, perhaps bred for the life. When Jane 24 escapes she finds herself in a hostile world of scrap-heaps, threatened by feral dogs, and only survives because she stumbles across a derelict abandoned shuttle which still has a functional AI, Owl. Owl educates and raises Jane 24 for years, all the time in the hope that Jane can find the right components in the scrap-dump to make the shuttle functional again. Of the two stories I much prefer that of Jane 24 to Sidra