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Booklog 2024: The Whole Thing
Dec. 28th, 2024 08:39 pmThe Christmas Day round of cooking, eating, unwrapping, snoozing, and watching Dr Who on TV is over for another year and I have enough pre-prepped food in the fridge to make kitchen duties fairly easy between Christmas and New Year. So there are a few spare hours on my horizon, and I managed to settle down with Jodi Taylor’s new Christmas short story, Lights! Camera! Mayhem!, on my Kindle.
I still have the audiobook version of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s City of last Chances unfinished, and I might well finish it before New Year’s Eve, but realistically, if I do, it will be my last read of 2024.
Counting the last one, as yet unfinished, I will have read 116 books this year, (including a couple of DNFs – did not finish – after giving them a fair try). Many of them I’ve consumed in Audiobook format, which is convenient and enables me to keep up with my reading when doodling around the house, in the kitchen, or in bed at night when any kind of light (even Kindle-light) disturbs my husband’s sleep. In the past I’ve mostly listened to audiobooks as re-reads, but this year I’ve consumed a fair few as first time reads. I’ve written a bit about some of my favourites on the Milford blog, and blogged all of them here. This is my full reading list for 2024. Roll on 2025. As before I will be trying some new-to-me authors as well as reading favourite authors.
Booklog 2024
- Jodi Taylor: Christmas Pie – St Mary’s 14.5 – Audiobook
- Sarah Hawkswood: Too Good to Hang – Bradecote & Catchpoll – Audiobook
- Sophie Keetch: Morgan is my Name – Morgan Le Fay #1 – Audiobook
- Cherryh, C.J.: Pride of Chanur – Chanur #1 – Audiobook
- T. Kingfisher: Paladin’s Faith – Saint of Steel #4 – Audiobook
- Sarah Hawkswood: Blood Runs Thicker – Bradecote & Catchpoll #8 – Audiobook
- C.S. Forester: A Ship of the Line – Hornblower #7 – Audiobook
- C.S. Forester: Flying Colours – Hornblower #9 – Audiobook
- Kevin Hearne: Trapped – Iron Druid #5– Audiobook
- Ben Aaronovitch and others: Blake’s 7: A Rebellion Reborn – Audiobook
- Sebastien de Castell: Crucible of Chaos – Greatcoats #5
- Dennis E. Taylor: All These Worlds – Bobiverse #3 – Audiobook
- Travis Baldree: Legends and Lattes – Legends and Lattes #1 – Audiobook
- Martha Wells: Fugitive Telemetry – Murderbot #6
- James Lovegrove: Firefly: magnificent Nine – Firefly #2 – Audiobook
- Kim Newman: Secrets of the Drearcliff Grange School (DNF)
- Lois McMaster Bujold: Demon Daughter – Penric and Desdemona – Audiobook
- Martha Wells: Network Effect – Murderbot #5 – Audiobook
- Neil Gaiman: Fragile Things – Audiobook
- James Logan: The Silverblood Promise – The Last Legacy #1
- Jim Butcher: Summer Knight – Harry Dresden #4
- Stan Lee’s Alliances – A Trick of the Light – Audiobook (DNF)
- Dennis E. Taylor: Outland – Quantum Earth #1 – Audiobook
- Dennis E. Taylor: Earthside – Quantum Earth #2 – Audiobook
- S.J. Bennett: Murder Most Royal – Her Majesty the “Queen Investigates #3 – Audiobook
- Dennis E. Taylor: Roadkill – Audiobook
- Dennis E. Taylor: Singularity Trap – Audiobook
- Sebastien de Castell: Play of Shadows – Greatcoats
- Joshua Dalzelle: Warship – Black Fleet Trilogy #1– Audiobook
- Dennis E Taylor: Heaven’s River – Bobiverse #4 – Audiobook
- Dennis E Taylor: A Change of Plans, Audiobook
- Amber Benson and Chris Golden: Slayers – Buffyverse – Audiobook
- Tamsin Muir: Gideon the Ninth; Locked Tomb Trilogy #1 – Audiobook
- Terry Pratchett: Monstrous Regiment – Discworld #31 – Audiobook
- Sarah Painter: The Night Raven- Crow investigations #1 – Audiobook
- K.J. Parker: Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead – Saevus Corax #1
- Sarah Painter: The Silver Mark – Crow Investigations #2 – Audiobook
- Sarah Painter: The Fox’s Curse – Crow Investigations #3 – Audiobook
- Sarah Painter: The Pearl King – Crow Investigations #4 – Audiobook
- Sarah Painter: The Copper Heart – Crow Investigations #5 – Audiobook
- Sarah Painter: The Shadow Wing– Crow Investigations #6 – Audiobook
- R.S. Ford: A Demon in Silver – War of the Archons #1 – Audiobook
- C.S. Forester: The Happy Return – Hornblower – Audiobook
- K.J. Parker: Saevus Corax Captures the Castle – Saevus Corax #2
- Lindsey Davis: A Body in the Bath House – Marcus Didius Falco #13 – Audiobook
- K.J. Parker: Saevus Corax Gets away with Murder – Saevus Corax #3
- Lindsey Davis: The Jupiter Myth – Marcus Didius Falco #14 – Audiobook
- Lois McMaster Bujold: The Sharing Knife #1 Beguilement – Audiobook
- Lois McMaster Bujold: The Sharing Knife #2 Legacy – Audiobook
- Lindsey Davis: Shadows in Bronze – Marcus Didius Falco #2 – Audiobook
- Lindsey Davis: Venus in Copper – Marcus Didius falco #3 – Audiobook
- Lindsey Davis: Poseidon’s Gold – Marcus Didius Falco #5 – Audiobook
- Jodi Taylor: The Something Girl: Frogmorton Farm #2 – Audiobook
- Lindsey Davis: A Dying Light in Corduba – Marcus Didius Falco #8 – Audiobook
- Mercedes Lackey: Beyond – The Founding of Valdemar – Valdemar #1 – Audiobook
- Sarah Painter: The Broken Cage – Crow Investigations #7 – Audiobook
- Sarah Painter: The Magpie Key – Crow Investigations #8 – Audiobook
- Jodi Taylor: Killing Time – Time Police #5
- Anthony Hope: The Prisoner of Zenda – Audiobook
- Lois McMaster Bujold: Penric’s Demon – Penric #1 – Audiobook
- Juliet E. McKenna: Green Man’s Heir – Green Man #1 – Audiobook
- Lois McMaster Bujold: The Hallowed Hunt – Five Gods #3 – Audiobook
- Lindsey Davis: The Iron Hand of Mars – Falco #2 – Audiobook
- Alexander Kent: Richard Bolitho, Midshipman – Bolitho #1 – Audiobook
- Alexander Kent: Midshipman Bolitho and the Avenger – Bolitho #1 – Audiobook
- Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time – Alan Grant #5 – Audiobook
- Charles de Lint: Jack the Giant Killer – Jack of Kinrowan #1 DNF
- Jennifer Roberson: Sword Dancer – Tiger and Del #1 – Audiobook
- Genevieve Cogman: Scarlet – The Scarlett Revolution ‘#1
- Beverley Watts: Grace – Shackleford Sisters #1
- Robin McKinley: Dragonhaven – Audiobook
- Jodi Taylor: Storm Christopher – Frogmorton Farm #4
- A.C.Riddle: Lost in Time – Eddie LaCrosse #1 – Audiobook
- Alex Bledsoe: The Sword-Edged Blonde – Audiobook
- C.J.Archer: Honour Bound – Witch Born #1 – Audiobook
- Lindsey Davis: Last Act in Palmyra – Marcus Didius Falco #6 – Audiobook
- C.S. Forester: Hornblower and the Atropos – Hornblower #5 – Audiobook
- C.J. Sansome: Dark Fire – Shardlake #2 – Audiobook
- Sarah Hawkswood: Wolf at the Door – Bradecote & Catchpoll #9 – Audiobook
- Sarah Hawkswood: A Taste for Killing – Bradecote & Catchpoll #10 – Audiobook
- Guy Gavriel Kay, Ysabel – Audiobook
- David D. Levine: The Kuiper Belt Job – Cannibal Club #1
- Lois McMaster Bujold: Penric and the Bandit – Penric and Desdemona #13
- Hazel Cushion: Reading Companion and History Briefings for Just One Damned Thing After Another
- Naomi Novik: Throne of Jade – Temeraire #2 – Audiobook
- Adrian Tchaikovsky: Service Model – Audiobook
- T. Kingfisher: A Sorceress Comes to Call – Audiobook
- Martha Wells: System Collapse – Murderbot Diaries #7
- C.L.Polk: The Midnight Bargain – Audiobook
- Andre Norton: Moon of Three Rings – Moon Magic #1 – Audiobook
- T Kingfisher: Bryony and Roses – Audiobook
- Adrian Tchaikovsky: Alien Clay – Audiobook
- Marshall Ryan Maresca: The Imposters of Aventil –
- Jodi Taylor: The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal – Chronicles of St Mary’s
- A.G. Riddle: The Extinction Trials – Audiobook
- Dana Chamblee Carpenter: Bohemian Gospel – Bohemian Gospel #1 Audiobook
- Dennis E Taylor: Not Till We Are Lost – Bobiverse #5 – Audiobook
- Elizabeth Bear: Dust – Jacob’s Ladder #1 – Audiobook
- Lindsey Davies: Two for the Lions – Marcus Didius Falco #10 – Audiobook
- Benedict Jacka: An Inheritance of Magic – Inheritance of Magic # – Audiobook
- Benedict Jacka: An Instruction in Shadow – Inheritance of Magic # – Audiobook
- C.S. Forester: Hornblower and the Crisis – Hornblower #4 – Audiobook
- Juliet E McKenna: The Green Man’s War – Green Man #6
- Kesia Lupo: We are Blood and Thunder.
- Alexandra Walsh: The Wind Chime – Audiobook
- Anne McCaffrey: Dragonsong – Harper Hall (Pern) #1 – Audiobook
- James Felton: 52 Times Britain was a Bellend – Audiobook
- Robin McKinley: Rose Daughter – Audiobook
- The Infinite Monkey Cage – Series 1 – 5 – Audiobook
- The Infinite Monkey Cage – Series 6 – 9 – Audiobook
- Rebecca Fraimow: Lady Eve’s Last Con
- Joe Haldeman: The Forever War – Forever War #1 – Audiobook
- Elizabeth Chadwick: The Greatest Knight – William Marshal #2 – Audiobook
- James Lovegrove: Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon – Audiobook
- Jodi Taylor: Lights! Camera! Mayhem! # A Chronicles of St Mary short story
- Adrian Tchaikovsky: City of Last Chances – Tyrant Philosopher #1 – Audiobook
Calvin Cutter, film maker extraordinaire, returns to St Mary’s to make a new series of Tempora the Time Travelling Tourist, and Max is tasked with babysitting Astrid Gustafssen, the series star. What could possibly go wrong? Well, for starters Adrian, one of the teapot time travelling siblings, takes Astrid to Troy, and loses her. Unfortunately most of St Mary’s staff were in Troy at that time, so since you can’t go back to a time you’ve already visited, only Max, Markham, Adrian and Evans can form a search party and both Max and Markham will die at midnight if they don’t get out of Troy before their younger selves arrive. No pressure then. And while they’re at it they encounter Odysseus and Diomedes on a secret mission to steal the Palladium which ultimately leads to the fall of Troy. Once again, history hangs in the balance. I love Jodi Taylor's St Mary's books.
Audiobook narrated by Dennis Kleinman.
Narrated by Rosalyn Landor
Narrated by George Wilson
When her sister, Jules, is left let-down and pregnant by a wealthy young man on a space-tourist liner, Ruth Johnson, an experienced con artist, poses as Lady Evelyn Ojukwu to con Esteban Mendez-Yuki out of some of his family fortune in order to give her sister and impending baby some financial security. Arriving on the artificial world of New Monte, Lady Eve sets about wooing Esteban, but she has reckoned without Sol Mendez-Yuki, Esteban’s unconventional half-sister with whom she is developing an interesting relationship. Unfortunately, Sol has borrowed a substantial sum from the shady Alfred Alonzo for a business venture that’s hours away from failing, and Alonzo recognises Lady Eve for who she really is, so things get complicated. Alonzo wants Sol to be in debt over her head, but Ruth is not so sure she’s happy with that idea. Sol is not the spoilt rich kid that she expected a Mendez-Yuki to be. To be honest this book took me a while to chew through, but that says more about my personal circumstances than it does about the book.
Not exactly books, but an amusing listening experience. Professor Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince ramble through various aspects of science with a varied panel of comedic and academic guests for each (approx.) 30-minute show as first broadcast on BBC Radio4. Fascinating facts presented in an amusing way, and can be consumed in small bites.
Read by Bianca Amato
Audiobook. History you didn’t learn in school. A wry account of the awful things Britain has done over the centuries from hanging monkeys to massacring nations, causing famines, and starting the opium wars in order to get access to tea. It would be funny if it were not so tragic, but James Felton reads it well, and it fairly zips along. Yes, fellow Brits, our ancestors were really this awful, collectively if not individually.
Audiobook read by Sally Darling.
Narrated by Emma Gregory
Aimed at the upper end of the YA age range, this is a story in two parts with two focus figures, Lena and Constance. Lena is a cryptling, one of the hidden people who service the revered Ancestors, condembed to that life because of a facial birthmark. When she is accused of being a mage and sentenced to death she bolts from the walled city of Duke's Forest and into the woods where she encounters Constance, who is a mage, and desperately trying to re-enter the city of her birth, a city to which she is heir. Constace is also a mage and her stated purpose is to destroy the spell which hangs over Duke's Forest ,a spell of cloud-darkness and corruption which will eventually cause the dead to rise. Constance directs Lena towards Emris, a hunter-mage, who takes her under his wing and initiates her into magical education. (She does seem to pick it up a bit too easily, but that's probably necessary to move the story forward and keep pace with Constance's narrative.) When it transpites that Lena has the key to the spell to which Constance is trying to find the key, and that Constance is in trouble, she heads back to Duke's Landing. There are some twists in this, two strong female leads presenting alternating storylines, and an interesting magic system. There's also an unreliable narrator element which is difficult for any author to pull off, but Ms Lupo manages it successfully.
Dan Mackmain, the son of a dryad and a mortal man, is given another job by the Green Man, but he has to figure out exactly what the job is before he can do it. We’re about halfway through the book before Dan discovers the real (urgent and dangerous) problem, but not to worry there’s plenty of action right from the start including a bunch of pickaxe wielding kelpies in search of lost property. The stakes get higher as the book progresses, and Dan brings in help from a lot of the characters we’ve met in earlier Green Man books, ones who have a foot in the human world and the magical one. Besides kelpies, expect swan maidens (and men) dryads, wise women and cunning men, not to mention dangerous hags and a main antagonist who might be impossible to overcome… but Dan has a plan. As usual Ms McKenna keeps up the pace, the interest and the danger while showing a vast understanding of British folklore and traditions. I had this as an advance reading copy from the publisher. It’s due out on 15th November, and well worth reading – though if you haven’t read the other Green Man books (starting with Green Man’s Heir) I recommend you treat yourself and start from the beginning.
The final Hornblower book, unfinished art the time of Forester’s death. In chronological order it’s #4 following Hornblower and the Hotspur. Set in 1805, Hornblower gives up command of the Hotspur to James Meadows, leaving Lt Bush behind to support the new captain. While on his way back to England he’s called to attend the court martial of Meadows who managed to run the Hotspur aground the day after he took over. Court martial over, Hornblower and the Hotspur’s officers are returning to England in a civilian water-boat, when they are chased down by a French warship which will inevitably catch them. In a daring move Hornblower turns the tables and briefly the Hotspur officers, through vastly outnumbered, take the French ship through subterfuge. Hornblower takes an important set of despatches and on return to Plymouth and then London discovers that they are very important. Together with two Admiralty secretaries and an admiral Hornblower formulates a plot designed to draw the French fleet out of their very secure port… and that’s where it ends. I thought another author might have finished off the novel, but all we get at the end if a minute of Forester’s notes indicating the successful end of the plot which leads to the battle of Trafalgar. There are a couple of additional short stories which adds an extra hour to the reading. The narrator is the late Christian Rodska, who is perfect for Hornblower. Good as far as it goes.
Narrated by Will Watt.
Narrated by Will Watt.
Narrated by Gordon Griffin
Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
Narrated by Ray Porter
Set in thirteenth century Bohemia, this is a book of two parts. It doesn't go where you expect it to go, which makes the ending a little disjointed. It feels as though the author changed her mind part-way through and instead of a happy-ever after, turned and charged in another direction completely. Mouse is a healer, trained at and sheltered by Father Lucas at the Abbey. She has powers of compulsion and necromancy, which she (mostly) conceals and tries not to use. When young king Ottakar shows up, wounded, Mouse saves his life and agrees to accompany him back to Prague as his personal healer and ward. They fall in love, but Ottakar must marry for dynastic reasons, and now to someone who doesn't know her own parentage. Mouse is shuffled off, but it doesn't end well, especially when she discovers who her father really is. I really enjoyed the forst part, but the second part lost my sympathy. The book is read by Justine Eyre, and I've said before that I don't particularly like her English accent (she's Canadian) because it's too 'royal family' with words like 'here' turning into 'heeyah.' She sounds as though she's specialised in trying to sound like Queen Elizabeth II circa 1955. A little too clipped. A little too posh. If you want a book read in an English accent, why not pick an English actress to do the job? There are two more books in this sequence, set in the present day, but I won't be picking them up.
N
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.
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.
Narrated by Ben Allen
Narrated by Justine Eyre
Narrated by Chris Abernathy and Chelsea Stephens
They say you should never go back. This used to be one of my favourite Norton juveniles, but I haven't read it for the best part of forty years. Sadly, the sucks fairy has visited it in the intervening time. The story is slight but interesting enough, but the language is stilted, especially the dialogue. This is something I was always aware of in Nortons, but forgave for the sake of the stories. Because this is an audiobook it's a lot more difficult to ignore. I suspect I previously glossed over the style for the content. The narrators do the best with what they've got, but they have to stick to the script, and they sound awkward doing so. This audiobook is a two-part collection, but I'm stopping at the end of Moon of Three Rings and will not be listening to Exiles of the Stars.
Narrated by Moira Quirk
The Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships and a load of SecUnits to a newly-colonized planet in danger. Unfortunately the B-E version of rescue is shipping the colonists off to become indentured labour. Murderbot, the rogue sec-unit/cyborg who dismantled its own governor chip to become autonomous, is developing some kind of fault akin to PTSD. Can it figure out what's wrong with itself in time to help save not only the colonists they know, but also the separatists who haven't a clue what's happening? Murderbot ad some of its humans travel halfway around the planet hoping to reach the separatists before a Barish-Estranza extraction team can whisk them away. Unfortunately, B-E beats them to it, and they not only have more fire-power but they also have more sec-units, killing machines that will do exactly as their humans tell them to do. Murderbot's quirky voice is what makes these books so good. I've always been a sucker for self-deprecating dark humour.
Narrated by Zoe Mills.
Charles is a robot valet, the latest in robot service technology, working for the master in a large but seemingly isolated manorial-style house. Everything is going very well. Each day he repeats the same tasks, quietly content, until one day he cuts Master’s throat with a razor, for no apparent reason. After that he’s on his own, heading for diagnostics to find out what’s wrong, and to hopefully be reassigned (since he’s only committed one small murder, so far). But many mansions are in decay and diagnostics has queues that could take hundreds of years to work through, even supposing they were working at all. Then Charles meets The Wonk, a rather strange robot with a rather strange agenda, and his situation begins to change. The Wonk is determined to find the reason for the full-scale collapse of society, and drags Charles (or Un-Charles) along with her until they reach a place where questions might be answered and all is revealed. A quirky, engaging story with some interesting thoughts on AI and the parameters of robot programming. 
A short introduction to the world of Jodi Taylor's historians who investigate historical events in contemporary time. (Don't call it Time Travel.)
Bandit, Roz, spots what looks like an easy mark, a soft young man with a treasure map, in a country inn. He easily attaches himself with the intent to wait until the young man has found the treasure and then rob him. Unfortunately for Roz, the soft young man is Penric, who is neither as young nor as soft as he looks, and is posessed of a very clever demon, Desdemona. Pen is one step ahead of Roz all the time, well, maybe until a whole outlaw band turns up, anyway. Penric's treasure is not at all what Roz expects it to be - though those of us who have read earlier Penric stories, could have guessed what it was likely to be - and Penric is less concerned with being robbed than with giving the young bandit a chance for redemption. Another satisfying entry in the saga of Penric and Desdemona.
Ten years ago, the criminal gang known as the Cannibal Club split up after a job-gone-wrong. Now Cayce, son of their former leader, Strange, wants to get the band back together to break his dad out of a top security facility in the Kuiper Belt. After ten years, for various reasons, some of them aren't quite up to the job any more, but Cayce is persuasive. To finance the rescue they undertake a series of jobs, each more perilous than the last. Each character takes it in tourn to take the viewpoint, and finally they get to the Kuiper Belt facility to discover that it's not quite as simple as Cayce made out. This was action packed, quirky and fun, and I enjoyed the different viewpoints, though in the end it left me not knowing which character to focus on. There was, however, a good twist at the end.
Narrated by Kate Reading. 
Audiobook narrated by Matt Addis
Narrated by Matt Addis
Audiobook narrated by Steven Crossley
It's 1805. Young, eager Horatio Hornblower has been given captaincy of the Atropos, one of his Majesty's smallest ships worthy of a captain, and only carrying 22 guns. She's still fitting out when Hornblower arrives in Portsmouth after a journey from Gloucestershire on a fast canal boat. His wife, Maria, is within days of giving birth to their second child. His first order is to organise Nelson’s funeral procession up the Thames. Then he's sent to join the Mediterranean fleet, so with his new daughter barely hours old, he sets sail. His first officer is a little dull and unimaginative, and he has a European prince on board as a new midshipman. Gradually he sets everything in order. He has to retrieve treasure from Marmeris Bay off the Turkish coast, without alerting the Turkish authorities. It's a difficult and dangerous mission which he completes by the skin of his teeth. After that he rejoins the Mediterranean fleet andengages the Catillia. It's really a collection of short stories strung together, but it hangs together as a novel. Christian Rodska's reading is good, though his first Lieutenant sounds just like Mr Bush in previous novels.
Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
Set in the Elizabethan era, Isabelle is working as an apothecary's assistant in London, having run from her husband, Nicholas, six years earlier. An attempt to poison the queen sets an investigation in motion which brings Nicholas (part of Walsingham's spy-ring) to investigate and in doing so find his wife again. There's a romance and a mystery, an evil mother-in-law, and witchcraft. The narration is decent, but not spectacular.
A fantasy gumshoe novel. Eddie LaCrosse has left his former life and become a private investigator. He’s drawn back to his former life where he was a baron and good friend of the king until his lover (the princess) was killed. The queen has been accused of killing and eating her own child, and the king is wracked with grief. Eddie has to solve the mystery of what really happened, but there’s a twist. There’s an added complication because he recognises the queen from an earlier time.
Sam Anderson, one of the inventors of time travel, is subject to his own invention as a punishment for murdering his girlfriend. He’s innocent, but he does it to save his daughter from being accused. He’s sent back to the time of dinosaurs with no hope of getting back. There’s a twist. Interesting story and good narration.
A Frogmorton Farm short story featuring Jenny and Russell Checkland and an invisible golden horse called Thomas, who smells of warm ginger biscuits, and who helped Jenny over a rough period in her growing-up years. The Checkland kids are off on a school trip, so Jenny and Russell are looking forward to some couple-time. Unfortunately a storm front is moving in and the power is out. When Jenny's dangerous cousin Christopher shows up, things aren't looking good for Jenny. Her aunt is in trouble and fear (as well as rain) is in the air.
Read by Noah Galvin who has the perfect voice for teenage Jake who helps out at his dad’s zoo, which just happens to hold about 200 of the world’s remaining Dragons in a large protected wilderness. When he finds a dying dragon and a defenceless baby, he takes care of the tiny creature, thereby breaking a number of laws. The style is chatty and engaging. The narrator is brilliant, bringing Jake to life.
This was sweet enough. An arranged marriage. A misunderstanding that could have been resolved if the two protagonists had talked to each other. Grace is the eldest daughter of the Rev. Shackleford, whose good sense, if he ever had any, has evaporated. He sells Grace to a duke in need of a wife for a dowry to get himself out of a financial squeeze. Sadly the author doesn’t seem to know that a dowry is the opposite of a bride-price and usually comes with the bride from the bride’s father.
The Scarlet Pimpernel with Vampires, told from the viewpoint of servant girl, Eleanor, who just happens to look enough like Marie Antoinette to be invited to take part in a daring rescue in revolutionary France with the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Along the way she faces a crazed vampire, is captured by revolutionaries, and begins to wonder who the real villains are. I confess I never read the original (though I’ve seen several movie and TV versions) but this is intriguing enough.
Read by Stephen Bel Davies
Audiobook. Sadly, did not finish, possibly because of the reader Taylor Meskimen who seemed OK at first, but gradually began to get on my nerves with a soft, even voice. I’ll probably give it another go later because generally I’m a big fan of Charles de Lint’s urban/faerie fantasies.
Original review from 2012
