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Audiobook, read by the author. This prequel to Legends and lattes is a light-hearted, cosy fantasy about an unexpected interlude, friendship, the power of fiction, and first love. Viv is an Orc mercenary who is injured in a battle against a necromancer and is deposited in the quiet port town of Murk to recover, with the promise that her mercenary pals, Rackham's Ravens, will come back for her.. Bored, she finds a scruffy bookshop, and ends up with a book she can't put down. The bookshop owner, Fern, is struggling, but Viv sticks around, inadvertently falling for the local baker. When one of the necromancer's former operatives comes looking for a place to hide a valuable stolen artifact, Viv gets involved. She rescues a satchel that hosts a bony homunculus, enslaved by the necromancer. Yes, the necromancer fially puts in an appearance and Viv does wat must be done, leaving to rejoin the mercenaries with some regrets. I was in the mood for cosy and light after tackling Consider Phlebas, and this was just the ticket. Expect orcs, gnomes, elves and a whole load of skeletons. Very enjoyable.
Re-read via Audible. Audiobook Narrated by Zara Ramm
Hugely enjoyable revisit via audible recounting the origins of Smallhope and Pennyroyal, recovery agents extraordinaire. Beautifully read by Zara Ramm.
Original review of the Kindle version: 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.
Audiobook Narrated by Ryan Kennard Burke
I should have been pickier before buying this, but it was part of an Audible Twofer deal. Clueless Drake decides to become a farmer without knowing anything about farming. I gave up at Chapter five. By that time he’d bought lettuce and cucumber seeds for planting (so it’s spring?) and picked ripe blackberries – an autumn fruit. And not much else had happened.
Audiobook narrated by David Thorpe
The city of Ilmar is the main character in this book. Occupied by the heavy-handed Palleseen, its wretched poor and its seedy underworld struggle to survive. And next to the city is the Anchorwood, a primeval grove of trees that becomes a portal to other worlds when the moon is full. There’s an ensemble cast, a poverty-stricken priest, an innkeeper with two hidden cellars, a sorcerous pawnbroker and a pair of students with rebellion on their mind, but ultimately no single character comes to the fore. This is the city’s story.
Dan Mackmain has Greenwood-blood, due to being the son of a dryad and a mortal man. His girlfriend, Fin is a swan maiden, and in the previous seven books, they’ve developed a network of friends of the magical persuasion (a sylph, cunning men, wise women stc.) who have helped with the various magical problems the Green Man has sent Dan to solve. In this book, Dan and Fin decide enough is enough and they decide to take a West Country holiday, renting a nice little cottage for a week. Unfortunately within an hour of arriving they find a newborn baby girl abandoned on their doorstep. Doing the right thing, Dan calls the police and the child is quickly reunited with her parents, who live in the same village. All good then? No, of course not. Dan realises the baby is a change child, probably a tiny baby hag. When Dan and Fin set off to find the real stolen child things get complicated. They find the child, but Fin is trapped in a kind of netherworld, leaving Dan with the problem of exchanging the real human child for the changeling… and then the problem of dealing with the changeling baby. But the real problem is the hag who engineered the whole problem in the first place. She’s banjaxed Dan and Fin’s phones and their car won’t start, so they aren’t able to ask their friends for help. So Dan ends up with the problems of feeding and changing the baby while trying to rescue Fin and then… but that would be telling. Suffice it to say that Dan and Fin don’t get much of a holiday. I recommend you read the book. Excellent tale from the pen of Ms McKenna.
Anja is nominally a healer, but she’s mainly an expert in poisons, or rather, antidotes. The king calls on her services when his daughter, Snow, is exhibiting signs of an illness that might be poison-related. The king seems quite benign for a wife-murderer. It transpires he caught his queen cutting out the heart of Snow’s sister, and ran her through on the spot, though too late to save the child. Snow is all the family he has left. Anja is swept off to a remote country estate with her lab equipment, a chime-adder and two bodyguards. The young princess is obviously not well, and is getting worse, but Anja eliminates all the obvious causes… until Snow’s strange silver-coloured apple appears to have an otherworldly origin. Helped by a talking cat and one of her bodyguards Anja discovers the strange silver world through the mirror, one in which some reflections take on a life of their own. There are echoes of Snow White with a touch of Rose-Red, but this is not a straight fairy tale retelling. The story, though fairy-tale-like, has a life and logic of its own. It’s dark fantasy told with a light touch. T. Kingfisher is one of my favourite authors.
Audiobook read by Indira Varma
I read this when it first came out, but this is a revisit via Audible. First of all, the reading is excellent. Indira Varma's pacing is pretty well perfect, and Bill Nighy reads the footnotes. It all started when fledgeling witch, Tiffany Aching, allowed her feet to dance with the Wintersmith one fateful night, and captured his frozen elemental heart. From that moment the Wintersmith sought Tiffany, intending her to be his bride, but first he has to make himself into a man - using ingredients from a children's rhyme. In the meantime Tiffany continues to learn witchcraft from elder witches in Lancre, far away from her home territory (the Chalk). We meet Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg again, and Granny has a plan, though it's not obvious to Tiffany, who has to work out how to defeat the Wintersmith herself. The Feegles are everywhere, especially good when trying to turn Roland (Tiffany's 'friend') into a hero to rescue the Lady of Summer. Oh, yes, and there's a sentient cheese.
Audiobook narrated by Finty Williams.
This is not advertised as a YA book, but it definitely is. Twelve-year-old Dara of Westwood captures and trains a falcon with the help of her supportive family. Much of the early part of the book is concerned with this, but when Minalan the Spellmonger becomes the new Lord of Sevendor, ousting the hated Sir Erendal, magic comes into the equation. Contending with new talents Dara plays an important part in saving Sevendor from an attack by a neighbouring lord, then goes on to enter a magical competition which leads to unexpected consequences. It’s a fairly standard coming-of-age tale with a few exciting sequences. Finty Williams' voice carries traces of her mother's (Judi Dench) and the narration is good, but the story is a bit slow. I generally like keeping up with what's available in the YA field, but I probably won't seek out then next book in the sequence yet. Although this is labelled as Spellmonger Cadet #1 I gather that it’s a YA retelling of events in a previous book. I guess I started in the wrong place.
Audiobook read by Will Watt
Stephen Oakwood is looking for his dad. Stephen’s magic use has brought him to the attention of The Winged, a mysterious group who hold the key to his father’s location. This continues directly from the previous two books, so not the place to start with this series. The narration is good. Stephen has taken a job as bodyguard to Calhoun, the heir of the Ashford family, At the same time he's trying to build his magic by raiding wells of power illegally, and making more sigls for himself, for both defence and offence. His long-term quest to find his father is resolved early in the book. He also seems to be finding more favour with his estranged mother and is becoming more involved with the Ashford family generally, though he's still wary of them, and rightly so. The head of the family – his grandfather – doesn’t seem to care much for him and only sees his value in how he can be used. There is a secret magical society, the Winged, alternately seeking to recruit or kill him. He must choose a side, his family or the Winged. He doesn't much care for either. I thought this was going to be the third book in the trilogy, but the ending is - if not a cliffhanger - not really resolved, and it seems as though this is going to be a series rather than a trilogy. To be honest, I'm a fan of Jacka's writing in general, but this was a little disappointing. It reads a bit like a middle book. It meanders, but doesn't really go anywhere. Sure, by the end of it, Stephen's life is moving into a different phase, but he's not settled. Sure, he foils an assassination attempt (on Calhoun) and kicks arse in a major set-piece fight or two, but there are no major wins. Stephen learns a few things, but he still doesn't have all the knowledge he needs. So there's obviously going to be a follow-on. Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus novels were a buy on sight series for me, this series less so. Stephen is not such an engaging main character as Alex, maybe because Alex had made all his coming-of-age mistakes by the time the series started, and in this series we're living through Stephen's uncertainties and missteps.
Audiobook read by David Tennant
Hiccup and Fishlegs get lost in the fog on a 'How to Board an Enemy Boat' lesson and accidentally board a Roman galley full of dragon poachers. Hiccup, who understands a bit of Latin, learns that the Romans intend to kidnap the heirs of two opposing tribes (which includes him) in order to set the two tribes agains each other. Unfortunately, though he and Fishlegs escape to tell the tale, Toothless is captured by Romans. Hiccup's dad doesn't listen to his son (what's new?) and falls for the Romans' ploy, so Hiccup and Fishlegs are both kidnapped by Romans. An old enemy, Alvin the Treacherous, resurfaces. now posing as a Roman. Hiccup amd Fishlegs end up in the Roman arena along with the heir to the other tribe. Yes, they get away but there's a bit of a cliffhanger to lead into the fourth book. Nicely read by David Tennant.
Audiobook read by David Tennant
The second in the How to Train Your Dragon collection on Audible.
The Viking boys move on from dragon-training to lessons in how to be a pirate. Hiccup and his friend Fishlegs are once more tormented by the bigger boys, led by Snotlout. This is all complicated by the search for the buried treasure of Hiccup’s infamous ancestor. It turns out to be more complicated than it looks like it’s going to be, and Toothless is instrumental in saving the day. Read nicely by David Tennant.
Audiobook read by David Tennant
Included in the Audible three-book collection.
I’m a big fan of the movies, both animated and live-action. But the book and the film are significantly different. There’s no dragon-riding in the book, and Toothless the dragon is small and is an ‘Ordinary’ not a ‘Night Fury’. Nevertheless, the story is sweet and is about the relationship between an ordinary Viking boy, Hiccup, and his stubborn, cranky dragon. David Tennant reads it beautifully.
Audiobook read by Steven Pacey
This is a revisit via Audible. I was surprised to note that I first read this (in dead-tree format) in 2009 or 2010. I was tempted to the Audible version because the reader is Steven Pacey, who is excellent, and indeed the quality of the reading keeps you engaged throughout. It’s a long book and, in truth, is only the first part of the story as the trilogy is really one long story split into three nooks. This one introduces all the characters and the political set up. The characters are all flawed in some way. Logan is an engaging character but when the ‘berserk’ is on him, he’s The Bloody Nine, and would kill his own grandmother if she got in his way, but he’s still my favourite character. Or maybe he shares first place with Glokta, once the golden boy of the Union army but after a spell in the enemy’s prison he’s a mangled wreck who lives with constant pain. But one thing the enemy’s torturers taught him, is how to be a effective inquisitor. He’ll get a confession from anyone, guilty or innocent. An excellent listen.
My 2009 review of the whole trilogy
Joe Abercrombie – The Blade Itself; Before They Are Hanged; Last Argument of Kings.
Wow... just WOW! I make no excuses for this trilogy taking from mid October to Mid December to read because it's big, it's densely packed and it's fascinating with a broad sweeping plot, a cast of complex characters and cataclysmic action. Like life it's not tidy, and like life nobody's perfect – even the heroes. In fact, perfection is far from the state any of this bunch of assorted misfits achieve and there are no heroes, though at times people do heroic things. Yet at other times they run away.
So, take a bunch of assorted people who barely know each other and like each other even less and throw them together for great purposes and at the end of the day you have a bunch of cohesive comrades? Yes? Well, actually no. At the end of the day, they might have achieved things, but they still hate each other and don't like looking in the mirror much.
So – first things first – or maybe second. This isn't really a trilogy, it's one huge book split into three volumes. Don't think you could pick up book 2 or 3 without reading book one. How many pages? 422 + 570 + 695 (1600 give or take a few and the first one was a trade paperback so at a rough word count I'd say something like 250k per book).
How many main characters? Well Abercrombie adds a few as we get into each new book, but for starters we have three, starting with Logen Ninefingers, the Bloody Nine, berserker barbarian. Logen is a humane, intelligent, uneducated warrior who will kill his enemies at the drop of a hat, but when Ninefingers takes over he'll kill anyone in his way – and that includes his friends, too. Then there's Glokta, once the Golden Boy of the Union, master swordsman and brave colonel in the Union army, but a few years on the receiving end of the masters in the torture chambers of Gurkhul soon changed him into a twisted cripple, living in constant pain, whose purpose in life is now to inflict pain on others in the name of the King's Inquisition. If you're guilty Glokta will make you confess. Actually, if you're innocent he'll make you confess, too. His latest swathe of victims may well have unearthed major corruption in the government, but if he exposes it he's pretty sure that he'll be the next body found floating in the harbour. Then there's Jezal dan Luthar, the Union's current Golden Boy, but if this is the best the Union has, it might as well give up now when the barbarians in the north attack at the same time as Gurkhul in the south. Luthar can swing a sword a bit, and he turns a pretty leg in a uniform, but he's never seen real action and would probably sprint a mile if he did.
As the books progress we get a series of additional characters unfolding which include Byaz, a master mage with a power complex and a determination to steer the Union to victory even if it kills everyone in the way – including the Union's own citizens. Ferro, carrying demon blood in her veins and a raging desire for vengeance over the Gurkhish which has consumed all she ever was or might be. The Dogman, left leading the Northmen's resistance in Logen's place against their new king who is bent on cutting the heart out of the Union and slapping down the resistance from his own people. Hard! Colonel West, honest soldier from common stock who has risen because of his talent, but he has a temper which will get him into trouble if he's not careful, especially with his sister, Ardee, a wilful, bored fish out of water, perpetually drunk and none too discrete with her favours.
And this is all there is to save the Union. Can they do it? Maybe they can, but there's a price – a terrible price. Good deeds have terrible consequences. Quests come to nought. Sieges bravely defended depend on money from shady sources, blackmail. The least trustworthy prove their resilience and the most trustworthy fail. Last minute rescues don’t exactly save anyone.
To say this is a dark work is an understatement of the word dark, but it's not without its quirky twisted humour and its sympathetic characters, foremost amongst these being Glokta whose world-weary commentary exposes wry humour and a deep intelligence. Despite his job and his willingness to detach body-parts from innocent men with rusty pincers, he may be the most honest and honourable soul in the hierarchy of government – which might not be saying much, but it might have to be enough.
It may have taken me two months to read 750,000 words of the 'First Law' trilogy, but it was worth it and I highly recommend it to anyone who's got a strong stomach. The Guardian quote says it's 'Delightfully twisted and evil,' and I reckon that's spot on the money.
There’s a secret society of only four members, dedicated to finding and preserving magical objects, to keep them safe from people who might try to use them. It’s pretty quiet. There aren’t that many magical objects to be found, and Frank, who is the chap in charge, is secretive. When news of an artifact in Hong Kong reaches Frank he sends Magda to find it, and she’s immediately plunged into danger when it becomes obvious she’s not the only one on the trail. This is a likeable enough book, with some twists, though an author should always be a bit wary of using quotes such as ‘Like Michael Creighton at his finest.’ (Sadly, it’s not.) It does start with one of my pet hates, which is the character you are introduced to first, and invest in, ends up dead very soon. The main character is her daughter. Anyhow, despite that, there’s a mix of intrigue with a touch of romance in the air. Things come to a head when the Society’s magical artifacts are stolen and Magda and co, fly off to America to retrieve them, finding much more than they bargained for, not just the villain from Hong Kong, but something much more deadly. The epilogue introduces a new character and the promise of further adventures, but it doesn’t look like a follow-up has appeared yet.
Booklog 63/2025:
Oct. 5th, 2025 10:36 pm
DNF
Narrated by Steven Brand
It’s no good, I tried to like this – and some bits I did like. The character of the ranger Asher was fascinating, as were the two Greycoats he teamed up with, but the story kept sidestepping into various factions of Greycoats, elves (good and bad), students of magecraft, and royalty. I found it confusing, the story spread across too many participants and, sad to say, I didn’t really care about most of them. The narration was okay – not sparkling, but OK, though after a while it started to feel a little ponderous. I tried to stick it out and reached close to 45% of the way through, but in the end I simply wasn’t enjoying it enough to carry on, even though I wanted to find out what happened to Asher.
Audiobook narrated by David Morley Hale.
This was a revisit for me. I read the Kindle Version in February 2023, and thoroughly enjoyed it, but was tempted to the audiobook by the quality of the narrator. David Morley Hale does a marvellous job, voicing Thomas Piety as a gut-rough northerner. Piety returns to Ellinburg from a horrendous war, bringing back his surviving soldiers (including his second, Bloody Anne, and his war-damaged brother, Jochan) to take back his ‘streets’ and his businesses (brothels, gambling dens, taverns and protection rackets) only to find they’ve been taken over and his aunt (who was caretaking) has fled to a convent. Thomas has to take over his territory again, brutal blow by brutal blow. But it seems as though the threat of war is not over. There’s a fearsome Queen’s Man in town who can make life very uncomfortable, and short for him. When he’s informed that foreign infiltrators are responsible for the takeover, he’s pushed to do something about it lest they invade his city. His watchword is the right man for the job, and it seems as though Thomas is the right man to oust the foreigners, helped by the Queen’s Man (who happens to be a woman – very attractive, but lethal). This is a high body-count book, full of conflict and peril, but it also shows the effects of violence on men’s souls. Thomas is a great character, very human despite his criminality. My original review is on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37884491-priest-of-bones
I had this as an ARC from Netgalley.Aurelia Lyndham, a would-be novelist who has recently lost her beloved mother and aunt, inherits a bookshop in which the characters from the books on her recommended-reads table (all classics) come to life at midnight. She meets Marmee and Laurie from Little Women, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, two of the three sisters from Sense and Sensibility, Sgt Cuff from The Moonstone, and Count Vronsky from Anna Karenina. All the characters appear just as their books have ended, so they know the contents of their own book, but not what happens next. She hits upon writing a sequel to Anna Karenina to give Vronsky a happy ending. At the same time as this is happening, she’s messing up and then fixing her own love life with the sometimes-stand-offish Oliver, originally a blind date and then her editor at a small publishing house. Apart from the appearance of fictional characters, there are few fantasy elements in this book. It’s really a straightforward slow-burn romance, which could have been a slightly faster burn if the two participants had actually spoken to each other about their feelings. Hmm, not sure about an editor who reads your pages and makes editorial suggestions while you’re still working on your first draft. That might be the second fantasy element in this novel. The setting is London, but there are a few little blips that show the author is American – fall instead of autumn for example – but nothing too horrendous. Altogether a little slow, but a cosy romance, even if you could see the end coming a mile off.
Due for publication 3rd November 2025
Booklog 58/2025: Jim C Hines: Kitemaster
Sep. 23rd, 2025 12:13 am
Nial Sarnin is a twenty-one year old widow with a small talent to manipulate the ever-blowing wind. On the first anniversary of her husband's death, she is preparing to fly his spirit kite to carry his spirit to the stars when something changes in her own affinity with the wind. Her power grows and she becomes a kite-master. Shortly thereafter she's commandeered by the kiteship midnight Rain, whose captain has befriended the runaway Prince Vikaan, fleeing from his mother, Queen Kavaya who plans to use the power of dragons to destroy her enemy cities, and thus rule the world. Nial must learn to use her powers quickly in order to thwart Kavaya's plans and save the Captain and crew of the Midnight Rain and her own family, held as hostages for her good behaviour. Jim Hines always tells a good story. This is very readable, with good major characters and some excellent set pieces. And no, Nial doesn't find a second love. She remains a widow, true to the memory of her late husband.
This is a love story of a most unusual kind. Shesheshen is a monster. She’s an ill-formed, amorphous swamp-blob who can absorb the body parts of people she eats, using their bones to construct a human-like frame which helps her to shapeshift and pass for human. She doesn’t need company – and anyway she would be just as likely to eat a visitor as chat over tea and sandwiches. And then… she meets poor awkward Homily, the second daughter of the baron, Shesheshen’s enemy, the woman who killed her mother. Homily is sweet and caring and, what’s more, despised by her toxic family. At first all Shesheshen is thinking is that Homily will make a good mother to her impending egg brood, and kindly provide the sustenance they need when they burst forth from their egg sack inside her and eat her from the inside out. But gradually Shesheshen is falling in love. There's a nice twist towards the end. Horror and whimsy combine to make this a delightful story about love and family with a dollop of dark humour as Shesheshen discovers more about being human and Homily discovers more about being a monster. This is thoroughly enjoyable.
What happens to slayers or Chosen Ones, when they start to age and want to retire? In this case, a former Hunter of Artemis (Jenny), a very elderly wizard (Temple), and a half-succubus former PI (Annette) settle down together to run Second Life Books in Salem, MA, in a sentient house. Annette's grandkids come to visit and all is cosy in this peaceful town until some of the locals start to summon things better left in the demon realms. Our three retired heroes have to try to save the world one more time, and while doing do save some misguided kids who've been turned to the demon side. Expect a haunted van, a cat with tentacles and a looming apocalypse.
The story is told in rotating chapters from all three main character viewpoints. It's quirky and fun despite being horror-adjacent. Jim C Hines can always be relied on to entertain.
Arcady and Everen. Everen and Arcady.
Dragons are long gone from the human world, trapped in another dimension and worshipped as gods, but Arcady, casts a spell and accidentally traps Everen in the human world, and the only answer to an insoluble problem is for the two to bond. I started reading this but then got sidetracked and didn’t feel like going back to it. Not sure if that says something about the book, or about me. Sorry
Narrated by Elizabeth Bower and Tim Bruce
A slightly different take on Jane Eyre. In this version Jane Aire, age 30, teaches witchcraft at Lowood School and is sent to Thornfield Hall at the request of Edward Rochester because there is something wrong, maybe a curse. Some things play out in a familiar manner – Jane causing Rochester to be thrown from his horse etc. Some characters are familiar: Mrs Fairfax the housekeeper, Blanche Ingram the would-be second Mrs Rochester. There’s no mad woman in the attic, but the first Mrs Rochester is still in evidence, and instead of Grace Pool we have Dr Pool. There’s a supernatural mystery to solve, and Jane falls in love with Rochester (of course) while solving it. Nicely read by Elizabeth Bower with Tim Bruce reading occasional passages from Rochester’s point of view.
The fourteenth Mercy Thompson book takes place just after the incident with the Soul Taker, a magical artifact that damaged Mercy’s access to the magical world. Though partly fixed, she’s still suffering and on top of that, still being stalked by the evil vampire Bonarata, from a few books ago, but Mercy shoves this all aside when her half-brother, another of Coyote’s half-human children, turns up in the Tri-Cities, unable to communicate because of a spell, but obviously in deep trouble. Mercy and her make – werewolf alpha, Adam – go rushing off into the depths of a Montana winter in an unusually vicious snowstorm, to find a Frost Giant who is responsible for the brother’s condition, only to find that there’s more to it than they first thought. Expect bad weather, an unusual wedding party with fae, a vampire and a ghost, a missing magical harp and, potentially, the end of the world unless Mercy can fix all this mess. Unfortunately, she can’t even fix herself. As you might expect, Mercy goes through the mill, but, hey, the world doesn’t end.
I listened to this via audiobook, some three years after the first reading. It's narrated by Amara Jasper. It's a love story on many levels, and I think that was more obvious on the second 'reading.' Amara Jasper manages the different character voices very well. Once again I loved it.
In my review of the Kindle version, I said: 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.
Audiobook narrated by Nigel Planer
When Ian, a graphic novel author, inherits a country cottage from his aunt, who’s presumed dead after disappearing ten years ago. He’s slightly disconcerted to find that the overgrown garden looks different depending on which window he looks out of, or whether he walks around the house and visits it in person. And the kitchen door has been unaccountably blocked up. It turns out that the cottage is situated on a number of intersecting ley lines and that there are a number of alternate realities. Saffy, an attractive local esoteric shop keeper, confirms that he’s not actually going bonkers, and he sets out to explore the alternatives. Opening up new doors increases the possibilities and the puzzlement. Unfortunately he’s already lost his literary agent into the wrong reality, and then he’s tasked with finding a doppleganger pope. The reading is good and the story quirky.
Narrated by Zara RammThis is a school of magic story from the point of view of the teachers, in particular one teacher. Dr Saffy Walden (Sapphire, not Saffron) is the director of magic at Chetwood School. She's largely administrative, responsible for the magical safety of the ancient school and its 600 students, though she does teach A-Level invocation to four sixth formers, which includes protecting them from their own foolishness on occasions. Saffy is brilliant at her job and one of the most talented academic magicians, but demons are masters of manipulation and after an incident in which she calls on its power to save a couple of foolish students from a Higher Demon, Saffy's Phoenix demon might not be bound as tightly as it should be.
I listened to this largely because I really like Zara Ramm, the narrator (who usually reads all the St Mary's books) and I was right, the narration is excellent. The story starts off slow-burn but picks up dramatically. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.
DS Peter Grant and his extended family are trying to take a holiday in Scotland - Aberdeen to be precise. There's his partner, Beverley, a minor riber goddess, their twins, cousin Abigail (and DCI Nightingale who is training her in the arcane arts). And then there's Peter's mum and his dad, and old jazz musician, plus his band and their disreputable manager. Dad and the band have a gig at the Lemon Tree, a well known Aberdeen venue. It turns out to be a working holiday as a strange corpse (with gills) turns up, and Abigail's talking foxes spot some strange things. Expect giant seagulls, corrupt oil companies, selkies, mermaids, the local police force and some very strange goings-on culminating in danger on board an oil platform in the stormy North Sea. T(I was particularly intrigued because in my muso days, I played a gig at the Lemon Tree, and stayed in Foot Dee (Fitty) which gets regular mentions.) The story was entertaining, but not my favourite Rivers of London book. This is from both Peter's viewpoint and Abigail's as the story diverges and comes back together. I did find Abigail's teen slang a bit wearing, and wonder how that part of the book will age, as slang changes so rapidly. It's good addition to the Rivers of London series, but not the place to start.
Another Grimdark winner for Joe Abercrombie, well read by Stephen Pacey.
Europe is in turmoil, plague and famine go hand in hand, the church is split and her holiness the pope, a ten-year-old child, calls upon the services of her 'devils', tried and convicted transgressors. There's a vampire, a werewolf, an undying knight, a female soldier, an elf, and a necromancer, all shepherded by an unwilling monk who would rather be a librarian. Their task is to make sure Alexa, newly discovered heir to the empire of Troy, gets safely home and crowned. But there are complications. Alex has been brought up on the streets of the Holy City, living by her wits. She's a better thief than a princess, but her newly introduced Uncle Michael says she's the true heir, and it's better than being shredded by the shady folks she owes money to, so Alex goes along with it. They have many adventures on the way to Troy. They are attacked, shipwrecked and attacked again, mainly by Alexa's cousins who believe they hare the rightful Emperor. And then... when they reach their destination, there are betrayals, from the highest, disguised as political expediency. The characters are fabulous, the plot twists, twisty. If anything, the fight scenes - which are well written - last a little too long. It does resolve but then there's a bit tagged on to the end that leads into a second book in the sequence. Not exactly a cliffhanger (thank goodness). Stephen Pacey does a marvellous job differentiating the voices and accents from a growly, insane werewolf to a cheerful elf with little to be cheerful about.
Did Not Finish. Can’t really say why not – a mixture of not engaging with the story and not getting along with the American accented narrator, Romy Nordlinger. It wasn't terrible, just not for me.
Narrated by Kate Rawson
Competent outlaw Scarlett McCain is a bank robber and (when she needs to be) killer in a fragmented future England dotted with fortified cities wit a whole lot of dangerous wild nothing inbetween. Running from the scene of a successful bank robbery she finds a wrecked coach, with a whole lot of dead bodies and only one survivor, gangly Albert Browne, himself on the run from implacable hunters from the Faith Houses. It turns out that Albert is way more than he seems and Scarlett is, reluctantly, stuck with him. The reluctance gradually turns to respect throughour various adventures, and this isobviously a set-up for further adventures. This moves a bit slowly at first (despite the characters being chased through inhospitable countryside full of monsters). Kate Rawson narrated Sarah Painter’s Crow Investigations books, and while her style works well for them, it works less well for this. This might be a book better read than listened to.
Audiobook narrated by Humphrey Bower.
The final book in the Chaos Walking trilogy whicfh follows Todd and Viola, sometimes together, sometimes apart, as they get sucked into the politics of New Prentisstown and a manufactured war with the Spackle. Whether he wishes it or not Todd gets semi-adopted by the mayor (now President) Prentiss, and begins to follow a dark path even though he resists as much as he can. Viola is swept up in a rebellion of sorts as the women healers go on the rampage, using terror tactics against the mayor and his army. Add to that the arrival of a new scout ship with two of Viola’s old friends, and the impending arrival of thousands of settlers with no other option but to make the planet their home. Complicate all this with the mayor’s mental powers, and the ‘noise’ that all men acquire on exposure to the planet, and this is an excellent conclusion to the trilogy. Humphrey Bower’s reading is excellent. He switches accents and voices seamlessly. There’s a bonus short story, Snowscape, tagged on to the end of this recording.
This is the BBC audio adaptation in four short parts. It’s much truncated from the full novel, but it works. Eric, an aspiring teenage demonologist conjures a demon, but instead of a regular demon he gets wizard Rincewind who’d been previously trapped in the demon dimensions. Rincewind suddenly has the ability to grant Eric’s three wishes, but as most ‘three-wishes’ stories, things don’t go as expected.
Narrated by Humphrey Bower.
This picks up where the Knife of Never Letting Go ended. Todd and Viola have arrived in Haven, where they hoped to get help, only to find that Mayor Prentiss and his army got there first, and that they have galloped headlong into a trap.
Todd and Viola. Separated, the two must do what they can to survive the increasingly authoritarian town run by the mayor (now the president). There’s a resistance movement, the Answer, which seems more benign, but when do freedom fighters become terrorists. There are no good sides here, just bad and worse. And in a war nobody wins. Once again, Humphrey Bower does an amazingly good reading a broad cast of characters.
Narrated by Humphrey Bower
In Prentisstown there are no women, and all men leak thoughts involuntarily all the time. It’s known as noise, and is a feature of this planet with what appears to be a failing human colony. Todd, almost but not quite a man until his upcoming birthday, is in the swamp with his talking dog Manchee, when he finds a crashed scout ship and a girl whose parents have been killed. Thus starts the story of a boy’s journey to manhood. Todd has been deliberately kept innocent of some terrible facts, and misinformed about others. Why did the women die, and what happened in the war against the spackle, the planet’s indigenous beings? Answers to these questions are hard-won as Todd ends up fleeing with the girl, Viola, pursued by Mayor Prentiss. It seems as though Todd and Viola can’t catch a break as they run from danger headlong into trouble. This is well read by Humphrey Bower who differentiates between the characters with a selection of voices and accents which are pitch perfect. I’m only disappointed that it has a cliffhanger ending – and I’ve said in other reviews how much I hate those. In this case it worked because I moved straight on to the next book.
Narrated by Nicola BarberThe war is over. Celestaine has killed the Kinslayer, and is accounted a hero, but the land and its many and varied people are devastated. This is a story of consequences. Still carrying (and using) the magic sword which did the killing, Celest sets off to make reparations, to put things right for the people who've suffered. She sets off together with two orc-like, brutal Yorughan (one of whom is her lover), and a prince of the beautiful flying people who have been stripped of their wings. On the way they collect an undead bard, and the Undefeated, who is not what he seems. They are shadowed by a pair of artifact collectors, who are also not what they seem - or at least one of them isn't. They are looking for the Kinslayer's Crown, a magical artifact that Celest hopes will restore wings to the flightless. Their quest takes them through a bleak collection of places where people are just scraping by, some of them seeking revenge, some trying to rebuild. They have a string of adventures, each a set piece, and, of course, the ending is not quite what we expect, and is certainly not a fairy tale happy-ever-after, however there is some redemption, for more than just Celestaine. She's a good character, though tends to lengthy introspection, and she's voiced well by Nicola Barber, who manages all the voices very well.
Narrated by Catherine HoJessamyn Teoh, raised in the USA by Malaysian parents, goes back to the land she left when she was a toddler. Her father has been ill, but he goes to work for a relative while Jess and her mother are closeted with family. Jess future plans have been scuppered, she daren't tell her parents she's gay, and keeps ker girlfriend secret. So when she starts hearing voices, she puts it down to stress, but it's just one voice. Jess is being haunted by the ghost of her dead maternal grandmother Ah Ma, who was a spirit mediun and avatar for Black Water Sister, a mysterious and fearsome deity. Ah Ma needs to settle a score with a rich and powerful gang boss and she intends that Jess help her to do it. This is a story about spirits, gods, ghosts and family secrets and Jess needs to sort it all out before she can get her life back on track. The reading is good, the story interesting, and the contemporary Malaysian setting is fascinating.
Narrated by Rupert Degas
I avoided this book for years, knowing that it was the first in a trilogy which the author is struggling to finish, however I really enjoyed this. The reading by Rupert Degas was terrific (excellent vocalisations) and the whole thing kept me hooked. This is a story within a story with the occasional smaller story inset. Kote is an inkeeper, or is he? When the Chronicler arrives in search of a hero's story, he gets Kote to open up, for Kote is really Kvothe, something of a legend. Kvothe himself says: 'I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the university at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.' But this story is about Kvothe's early life. We don't even get as far as his expulsion from the university. We see Kvothe's early life with his parents in a group of travelling players. That part of his life ends suddenly, in a massacre and young Kvothe ends up living hand to mouth on the streets of a pitiless city, eventually gaining entrance to the university where his troubles continue, but so does his absorption of knowledge and of magic. It's a good story, full of ups and downs, and barely takes us to Kvothe aged about 16 or 17. It doesn't really come to an ending, but it stops in a reasonable place and there is a second book, which, again, I'm reluctant to read because the third seems stuck in its author's head and isn't appearing on the page any time soon, if ever, which is a great pity because this is a magnificent beginning. There's an epilogue which teases that the story Chronicler has heard so far is barely the beginning and is set to hook the reader into the next book.
Audiobook narrated by Zachary Quinto
Tony Valdez is a dispatcher. He kills people for a living. No, not like that. In this world those people murdered (as opposed to those who die naturally, or by accident, or suicide) come back to life, reappearing in the place they’ve always felt safest. So, licensed dispatchers can kill those maimed in an accident or on the verge of death because of (say) surgery that’s gone wrong, and they’ll reappear (probably in their own beds) to have another chance of living, restored to the condition they were in a few hours earlier. Tony is busy doing his job in a hospital (which includes counselling families about when dispatch is not right for their loved ones – ones with terminal illness for instance) when he’s called to the emergency room, to an old friend who has been badly injured falling out of a car on the freeway. Before the friend is dispatched, he secretly gives Tony a crypto-wallet, and from then on Tony is involved in a world of schemes and billion-dollar plots with vast cryptocurrency accounts in the balance, and some of Chicago’s wealthiest billionaires vying with each other for both the crypto-wallet and Tony’s friend. It’s a tightly-knitted plot and Zachary Quinto is perfect to voice Tony Valdez. In fact, if they ever film this, he IS Tony Valdez – and I’d like to see that.
Audiobook read by Kate Reading & Michael Kramer
This is the final book in a trilogy chronicling the story of four parallel Londons (Grey, Red, White and Black) begun in A Darker Shade of Magic and continued in A Gathering of Shadows. My review of the second book said it was plot-light, and on consideration I think the events in the second and third books could have been covered in one book. There's plenty happening in A Conjuring of Light but the narrative jumps around to various different viewpoints, many of them unnecessary characters you are neither interested in nor care about. Lila and Kell, the main protagonists, are together, and Captain Alucard's love affair with Prince Rhy is more to the fore. Holland, in White London, has been inhabited by Black London's Osaron, a powerful being, a god-like entity who wants to be a king. Osaron seems pretty much set to subsume Red London. He's taken the city, all except for the warded palace, and so Kell, Lila, Alucard and Holland (in chains) set off for the floating market to acquire a device which they hope will trap and destroy him. This is the final book in a trilogy so you can pretty much guarantee peril followed by success. Unfortunately by the time I got half-way through this book I was losing the will to live, and then I followed an advert and read the blurb for The Fragile Threads of Power, set seven years on from the trilogy - and the blurb told me who lived, who died and what the two main protagonists did afterwards. It somewhat took the shine off listening to the rest of the story, but I'm no quitter, so I upped the reading speed to 1.3 and kept going. Schwab's writing style is elegant, but by the end neither Kell nor Lila had really developed much. We never found out about their origins, so questions asked earlier in the trilogy were left unanswered. Prince Rhy, Kells adoptive brother, grew up out of necessity, but the most convincing character arc was Holland's. He is, in fact, the hidden hero of the trilogy. The first book was read by Steven Crossley. The second and third were read by Kate Reading & Michael Kramer, depending on whether we're in a male or female point of view. I actually preferred the narrator of the first book, as I always prefer a single voice telling the story.
Murphy Lawless, pseudonym for C.E. Murphy, has written a whole series of shapeshifter romances. This is the first. Anna is a conservationist who spends her time on expeditions observing and protecting rare animal species. She's mostly funded by the Gladiator Foundation owned by the reclusive Garius Beren, who just happens to be a bear shapeshifter tied into the tradition of Roman gladiators. Within hours of meeting (at a gala for the foundation) Garius and Anna fall instantly in love and are kidnapped together by Remus, a wolf-shifter and Garius' enemy, who runs illicit arena games on a secret island off the Italian coast. Anna proves up to the task of outwitting Remus and releasing Garius (in bear form) from the arena. But that's just the start. It seems that Anna and Garius are fated mates (that's a thing in the shifter world) but Garius is overprotective and it nearly causes disaster. This is a fun read, tightly written and a real page-turner. Lawless is an assured writer and not a word is wasted. I read it on kindle which meant I could ignore the tacky half-naked male torso on the cover. I hate those kind of covers, but I guess the reader knows exactly what they're getting.
Before I start a review I have to say that this has one of those cringeworthy covers that I hate: the half-naked, well muscled male torso with a dipping waistband and no face. It also has a title that doesn't reflect the story. I don't recall much lace at all. However, having said that, I was in the mood for something light and this fitted the bill. It's a time-travel-to-17th-century-Scotland story which owes something to Outlander and pays its debt with a plethora of pop-culture references. Widowed Andrew McIver, head of his clan in his mid twenties, needs to remarry quickly to provide an heir before his grasping uncle steps in to take over at the upcoming clan gathering. Modern American geek Evangeline (Van for short) goes off to a SCA event and wades into a pond, nearly drowning and emerging four centuries earlier and half a world away. Andrew rescues her from drowning and from then on is stuck with her because she's having way too much fun to attempt to go home. She manages at once to be an annoying motor-mouth and the saviour of the castle kitchen. Expect an unconventional heroine, a family feud, interference from the local Fae, and the unexpected invention of a 17th century bicycle.
Narrated by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer
This continues the story of four parallel Londons (Grey, Red, White and Black) begun in A Darker Shade of Magic. The first book was complete initself. This, being the middle book of a trilogy, doesn't feel complete (it's plot-light) and it has a cliffhanger ending. Lila and Kell parted at the end of the first book, though it was pretty obvious that their story would continue. They spend the first half of this book just missing each other as Lila (feeling special for no justifiable reason) returns to Red London, having spent four months aboard a privateer ship with Captain, Alucard (who is actually one of the better characters) . She's learning the unfamiliar language and also learning magic. Kell has spent the intervening four months missing Lila and frowning. He doesn't have much character development in this book apart from brooding. There's a contest for magicians, organised by Kell's adopted brother, the prince, Rhy. In the first book Rhy died, only to be brought back by Kell tying his own life-force to Rhy's, but that means if anything happens to Kell, Rhy suffers, too (and vice-versa) so the king and queen are restricting Kell unbearably. When both Kell and Lila enter the magic competition, in disguise, sparks fly. ( I should point out here that Lila is a novice and all the other mages are the best of the best, so she should have been mincemeat on Day One, but because she's special she seems to get all the luck. That bit isn't very realistic. Yeah, OK, it's fantasy, but you know what I mean.) (I should probably also point out that the magic competition takes up a lot of page space without moving the story forward.) At the same time something is happening in White London as, freed from its previous cruel rulers, it begins to regenerate under Holland's kingship. (Spoiler: Holland did not die at the end of book one after all.) But Holland is being ridden by a darker power from Black London, and Red London is in danger. Unfortunately, just as this segment of the story seems about to resolve, something happens which pushes the story towards the third book and Book Two simply stops. Have I said how much I hate cliffhangers? Fortunately, I already had the third book waiting, ready to go. The first book was read by Steven Crossley. The second is read by Kate Reading & Michael Kramer depending on whether we're in a male or female point of view. The viewpoint characters are mostly (but not exclusively, Kell and Lila. This works well, but I'm glad I had a bit of a gap between the first and second book, otherwise the change of reader would have been jarring.
Audiobook narrated by Kyle McCarley
Khat is a krisman, one of a race of engineered humanoids built to survive in the Waste. Separated from his people, by choice, he’s considered less than human by most people, except for his (human) partner, Sagai and Sagai’s family. Khat and Sagai survive by hunting and trading relics (potentially magical) of a previous civilisation. Though wary, Khat is tempted to join an expedition to the Waste organised by the Warders, mages who serve the Elector of Charisat. Khat and Elen, a minor Warder, are the only survivors of that expedition and both get caught up in a deadly game of upper-class politics. Though this is a solidly written, second-world fantasy, it’s not easily comparable with Wells’ brilliant Murderbot books. It’s complex and twisty, but the narration is a bit stodgy.
I had this book as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) from the publisher via NetGalley and was very pleased to be able to take a peek before publication. I've read all the other Elizabeth Cage book (and every Jodi Taylor book I can get my hands on) so I was really looking forward to this - and it did not disappoint. Note for new readers, this in NOT the place to start. Go back and read White Silence, Dark Light and Long Shadows before tackling this one. Elizabeth Cage can read people's auras. She sees them as colours and can tell their mood and whether they are lying or not. No one can keep a secret from her. In White Silence, this led to a great deal of trouble via Doctor Sorensen in the wake of the sudden death of Elizabeth's husband, Ted. Incarcerated in Sorensen's clinic, Elizabeth met Michael Jones, a somewhat shady character with dark governmental connections. In the previous three books they saved each other (a lot), and as this fourth book opens Elizabeth is living a quiet life, which is exactly how she likes it - or does she? Things are changing. Something happened last Christmas that she can't quite remember, and on top of that she might have accepted a freeelance job from an unnamed government department that Jones seems very familiar with. And then she finds blood on her doorstep. Iblis and his mangy dog, Nigel turn up. Iblis speaks in eighteenth century cadences and likes to eat fish and chips, drink Elizabeth's beer and watch her TV. His partner, Melek, is something of an enigma and might or might not have powers, but certainly knows a lot more about Elizabeth than she's telling. Then Elizabeth gets a note, apparently in her own handwriting: 'I always send the serpent...' Elizabeth doesn't know what's going on which, apparently, is for her own good. Yeah, right. During the course of this book she finds out. Written in Jodi Taylor's quirky style this is a supernatural thriller. Expect danger, magic, revisiting the scenes of former adventures and - oh yes - a serpent. Something is trying to rise from the darkness under a bad moon. Highly recommended.
Audiobook narrated by Emma Newman.
No one wins a war, and that's especially true in the war between Lascanne and Denland. Emily Marshwic stands by as, first, her brother-in-law and then her little brother are called to the front to protect Lascanne from the Denlanders who have killed their own king and are now trying to force their republican politics on fiercely royalist Lascanne. First the men and when Lascanne runs out of soldiers, the women are called up, one female from each household. Emily has two ssters but one has a baby and the other is an air-head who wouldn't last two minutes in the army, so rather than send one of the female servants, she goes herself - one of the few upper class 'ladies' to go through basic training and arrive at the front- a battleground of swamps and jungles. It's grim and she's had barely enough training to wield a musket, but she learns, and learns who she can trust - a small company of officers known as the Survivors Club which includes her brother-in-law and a young battlefield warlock. Emily's perceptions of the war and who/what started it are called into question and it's only after the fighting is over that the peace can be won. Expect a lot of blow-by-blow battle scenes, emerging (steampunky) tech versus magic, and an unusual love triangle. There's not a lot of magic, just enough to make this into a secondary-world fantasy. There are some excellent supporting characters, and Emily Marshwic is a believable heroine. Emma Newman's narration is excellent.
Narrated by Harrie Dobby
Tamsyn Pride returns to her Grandmother's house, Rosemount Cottage, in Much Wenlock on the death of the old lady, but gradually realises that something unnatural is going on. Her grandma didn't die of a heart attack, but who killed her and why? Gradually Tam begins to remember a magic she's been spelled to forget, but even her grandmother's best friend, Bridie, isn't telling everything she knows. There's a 'magical' council and the chairman is making a bid for power. This is a halfway decent story but there are a few plot-holes and a bit of a weird ending. It's designed to lead on to a second book, but I probably won't pick that up immediately. It's very well read by Harrie Dobby.
Audiobook read by Steven Crossley
There are Four Londons: Grey, our own, where George III rules over a land almost devoid of magic; Red where magic is commonplace; White where danger lurks and rulers claw their way to the top with cruel magic; Black, of which the least said, the better. Kell's home city is Red London, but he is one of the rare magicians who can travel between realities. Officially he's the king's envoy, unofficially he's a smuggler of dangerously illicit goods. His smuggling catches up with him when he's set up to smuggle a magical stone across the border between Londons. It immediately puts him in danger and in Grey London he meets Delilah Bard, pickpocket and small-time criminal with a thirst for adventure. First she robs him, then she saves him, and he saves her. They end up working together to get the dangerous stone safely back to Black London where it can do no harm to the other realms, but there are others chasing the stone, and their magics might be stronger than Kell's. This is tightly written and engrossing. I thoroughly enjoyed both the story and Steven Crossley's excellent narration.
What if Prince Charming is not only devastatingly handsome and as charming as his name, but also a con-man, liar and fraud? That’s what the first book in this series explores, together with the princesses he’d duped (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rapunzel etc.) who were hot on his trail and out for payback. In the follow-up book Charming himself is caught up in another twisted fairy tale as he ends up in the stately home of an ensorcelled beast along with two other hapless victims, Hans and Will. The beast is as much a prisoner as they are, and only solving the riddle can save her. Charming might even have feelings for her, but he has a date with Mephistopheles, and time is running out. Our princesses need to free him. They come across two potential enemies, or maybe powerful allies, in the Bear Witch and Red Cap (analogues of Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood). More delightful grown-up fairy tale nonsense from the assured pen of Jade Linwood. And though this has a satisfying ending there’s obviously another book to come. Looking forward to it.
Audiobook read by Travis Baldree.Tane Carver faked his way through magical university to prove a point - that the flaw in magic lies in the mage - but when he revealed his secret (that he personally had no magic at all) he was expelled. Now the dean has called him in because one of the students (someone Tane was close to) has been murdered using magic, and Tane's unique skills - of spotting the flaw - are needed. He accidentally acquires a sidekick/partner when Kadka, a half-orc ex guard, attaches herself to the investigation. Life gets complicated when an old flame turns out to be the Blue Cap in charge of solving the crime. This is fast-paced though Traviss Baldree (who I usually like as a narrator) does tend to drawl, and occasionally sounds a little bored, but the narration works well enough to keep the story interesting.
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
