Jacey Bedford's Journal

The 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

1. Jodi Taylor: Christmas Pie – St Mary’s 14.5 – Audiobook
2. Sarah Hawkswood: Too Good to Hang – Bradecote & Catchpoll – Audiobook
3. Sophie Keetch: Morgan is my Name – Morgan Le Fay #1 – Audiobook
4. Cherryh, C.J.: Pride of Chanur – Chanur #1  – Audiobook
5. T. Kingfisher: Paladin’s Faith – Saint of Steel #4 – Audiobook
6. Sarah Hawkswood: Blood Runs Thicker – Bradecote & Catchpoll #8 – Audiobook
7. C.S. Forester: A Ship of the Line – Hornblower #7 – Audiobook
8. C.S. Forester: Flying Colours – Hornblower #9 – Audiobook
9. Kevin Hearne: Trapped – Iron Druid #5– Audiobook
10. Ben Aaronovitch and others: Blake’s 7: A Rebellion Reborn – Audiobook
11. Sebastien de Castell: Crucible of Chaos – Greatcoats #5
12. Dennis E. Taylor: All These Worlds – Bobiverse #3 – Audiobook
13. Travis Baldree: Legends and Lattes – Legends and Lattes #1 – Audiobook
14. Martha Wells: Fugitive Telemetry – Murderbot #6
15. James Lovegrove: Firefly: magnificent Nine – Firefly #2 – Audiobook
16. Kim Newman: Secrets of the Drearcliff Grange School (DNF)
17. Lois McMaster Bujold: Demon Daughter – Penric and Desdemona – Audiobook
18. Martha Wells: Network Effect – Murderbot #5 – Audiobook
19. Neil Gaiman: Fragile Things – Audiobook
20. James Logan: The Silverblood Promise – The Last Legacy #1
21. Jim Butcher: Summer Knight – Harry Dresden #4
22. Stan Lee’s Alliances – A Trick of the Light – Audiobook (DNF)
23. Dennis E. Taylor: Outland – Quantum Earth #1 – Audiobook
24. Dennis E. Taylor: Earthside – Quantum Earth #2 – Audiobook
25. S.J. Bennett: Murder Most Royal – Her Majesty the “Queen Investigates #3 – Audiobook
26. Dennis E. Taylor: Roadkill – Audiobook
27. Dennis E. Taylor: Singularity Trap – Audiobook
28. Sebastien de Castell: Play of Shadows – Greatcoats
29. Joshua Dalzelle: Warship – Black Fleet Trilogy #1– Audiobook
30. Dennis E Taylor: Heaven’s River – Bobiverse #4 – Audiobook
31. Dennis E Taylor: A Change of Plans, Audiobook
32. Amber Benson and Chris Golden: Slayers – Buffyverse – Audiobook
33. Tamsin Muir: Gideon the Ninth; Locked Tomb Trilogy #1 – Audiobook
34. Terry Pratchett: Monstrous Regiment – Discworld #31 – Audiobook
35. Sarah Painter: The Night Raven- Crow investigations #1 – Audiobook
36. K.J. Parker: Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead – Saevus Corax #1
37. Sarah Painter: The Silver Mark – Crow Investigations #2 – Audiobook
38. Sarah Painter: The Fox’s Curse – Crow Investigations #3 – Audiobook
39. Sarah Painter: The Pearl King – Crow Investigations #4 – Audiobook
40. Sarah Painter: The Copper Heart – Crow Investigations #5 – Audiobook
41. Sarah Painter: The Shadow Wing– Crow Investigations #6 – Audiobook
42. R.S. Ford: A Demon in Silver – War of the Archons #1 – Audiobook
43. C.S. Forester: The Happy Return – Hornblower – Audiobook
44. K.J. Parker: Saevus Corax Captures the Castle – Saevus Corax #2
45. Lindsey Davis: A Body in the Bath House – Marcus Didius Falco #13 – Audiobook
46. K.J. Parker: Saevus Corax Gets away with Murder – Saevus Corax #3
47. Lindsey Davis: The Jupiter Myth – Marcus Didius Falco #14 – Audiobook
48. Lois McMaster Bujold: The Sharing Knife #1 Beguilement – Audiobook
49. Lois McMaster Bujold: The Sharing Knife #2 Legacy – Audiobook
50. Lindsey Davis: Shadows in Bronze – Marcus Didius Falco #2 – Audiobook
51. Lindsey Davis: Venus in Copper – Marcus Didius falco #3 – Audiobook
52. Lindsey Davis: Poseidon’s Gold – Marcus Didius Falco #5 – Audiobook
53. Jodi Taylor: The Something Girl: Frogmorton Farm #2 – Audiobook
54. Lindsey Davis: A Dying Light in Corduba – Marcus Didius Falco #8 – Audiobook
55. Mercedes Lackey: Beyond – The Founding of Valdemar – Valdemar #1 – Audiobook
56. Sarah Painter: The Broken Cage – Crow Investigations #7 – Audiobook
57. Sarah Painter: The Magpie Key – Crow Investigations #8 – Audiobook
58. Jodi Taylor: Killing Time – Time Police #5
59. Anthony Hope: The Prisoner of Zenda – Audiobook
60. Lois McMaster Bujold: Penric’s Demon – Penric #1 – Audiobook
61. Juliet E. McKenna: Green Man’s Heir – Green Man #1 – Audiobook
62. Lois McMaster Bujold: The Hallowed Hunt – Five Gods #3 – Audiobook
63. Lindsey Davis: The Iron Hand of Mars – Falco #2 – Audiobook
64. Alexander Kent: Richard Bolitho, Midshipman – Bolitho #1 – Audiobook
65. Alexander Kent: Midshipman Bolitho and the Avenger – Bolitho #1 – Audiobook
66. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time – Alan Grant #5 – Audiobook
67. Charles de Lint: Jack the Giant Killer – Jack of Kinrowan #1 DNF
68. Jennifer Roberson: Sword Dancer – Tiger and Del #1 – Audiobook
69. Genevieve Cogman: Scarlet – The Scarlett Revolution ‘#1
70. Beverley Watts: Grace – Shackleford Sisters #1
71. Robin McKinley: Dragonhaven – Audiobook
72. Jodi Taylor: Storm Christopher – Frogmorton Farm #4
73. A.C.Riddle: Lost in Time – Eddie LaCrosse #1 – Audiobook
74. Alex Bledsoe: The Sword-Edged Blonde – Audiobook
75. C.J.Archer: Honour Bound – Witch Born #1 – Audiobook
76. Lindsey Davis: Last Act in Palmyra – Marcus Didius Falco #6 – Audiobook
77. C.S. Forester: Hornblower and the Atropos – Hornblower #5 – Audiobook
78. C.J. Sansome: Dark Fire – Shardlake #2 – Audiobook
79. Sarah Hawkswood: Wolf at the Door – Bradecote & Catchpoll #9 – Audiobook
80. Sarah Hawkswood: A Taste for Killing – Bradecote & Catchpoll #10 – Audiobook
81. Guy Gavriel Kay, Ysabel – Audiobook
82. David D. Levine: The Kuiper Belt Job – Cannibal Club #1
83. Lois McMaster Bujold: Penric and the Bandit – Penric and Desdemona #13
84. Hazel Cushion: Reading Companion and History Briefings for Just One Damned Thing After Another
85. Naomi Novik: Throne of Jade – Temeraire #2 – Audiobook
86. Adrian Tchaikovsky: Service Model – Audiobook
87. T. Kingfisher: A Sorceress Comes to Call – Audiobook
88. Martha Wells: System Collapse – Murderbot Diaries #7
89. C.L.Polk: The Midnight Bargain – Audiobook
90. Andre Norton: Moon of Three Rings – Moon Magic #1 – Audiobook
91. T Kingfisher: Bryony and Roses – Audiobook
92. Adrian Tchaikovsky: Alien Clay – Audiobook
93. Marshall Ryan Maresca: The Imposters of Aventil –
94. Jodi Taylor: The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal – Chronicles of St Mary’s
95. A.G. Riddle: The Extinction Trials – Audiobook
96. Dana Chamblee Carpenter: Bohemian Gospel – Bohemian Gospel #1 Audiobook
97. Dennis E Taylor: Not Till We Are Lost – Bobiverse #5 – Audiobook
98. Elizabeth Bear: Dust – Jacob’s Ladder #1 – Audiobook
99. Lindsey Davies: Two for the Lions – Marcus Didius Falco #10 – Audiobook
100. Benedict Jacka: An Inheritance of Magic – Inheritance of Magic # – Audiobook
101. Benedict Jacka: An Instruction in Shadow – Inheritance of Magic # – Audiobook
102. C.S. Forester: Hornblower and the Crisis – Hornblower #4 – Audiobook
103. Juliet E McKenna: The Green Man’s War – Green Man #6
104. Kesia Lupo: We are Blood and Thunder.
105. Alexandra Walsh: The Wind Chime – Audiobook
106. Anne McCaffrey: Dragonsong – Harper Hall (Pern) #1 – Audiobook
107. James Felton: 52 Times Britain was a Bellend – Audiobook
108. Robin McKinley: Rose Daughter – Audiobook
109. The Infinite Monkey Cage – Series 1 – 5 – Audiobook
110. The Infinite Monkey Cage – Series 6 – 9 – Audiobook
111. Rebecca Fraimow: Lady Eve’s Last Con
112. Joe Haldeman: The Forever War – Forever War #1 – Audiobook
113. Elizabeth Chadwick: The Greatest Knight – William Marshal #2 – Audiobook
114. James Lovegrove: Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon – Audiobook
115. Jodi Taylor: Lights! Camera! Mayhem! # A Chronicles of St Mary short story
116. Adrian Tchaikovsky: City of Last Chances – Tyrant Philosopher #1 – Audiobook

This hard-to-categorise book probably should come under the heading of just plain weird. Weird but fascinating. Alan appears to be human but isn't. His father is a mountain, his mother is a washing machine and his six brothers are, variously: a seer, an island, an undead homicidal maniac and a set of three Russian nesting dolls. All their names change sentence by sentence. Alan may be Ashton, or Abe or anything beginning with A. The seer brother has a range of names beginning with B and so on and so forth.

There are various different plot strands involving Alan and his present life in modern Toronto and his childhood living in a cave inside his father in remote Kapuskasing in Northern Ontario. In the present Alan works with his punk friend, Kurt, to set up a wireless network to give free internet access to the residents of his home area in Toronto using only reclaimed technology recovered during Kurt's dumpster diving expeditions. We also meet Alan's house-sharing neighbours, a bunch of disaffected youngsters, and also see Alan's childhood in flashbacks. We learn about Danny's (literally) murderous behaviour and how Alan feels responsible. When Danny (Dave, Don, Dwight or anything beginning with D) comes back from the dead and starts to stalk Alan and threaten Alan's friends and family, something has to be done.

In the meantime Alan has become involved in the problems of the neighbours, in particular Mimi who, like Alan, isn't quite human, (she has wings), and Krishna her unpleasant boyfriend who is one of the few who recognises the not-quite-humans trying to fit in to society.

The plot strands do mesh, but only in the messiest, most chaotic way, pretty much like life. There is a revelation at the end, but that part feels a bit rushed. It's not a comfortable read. Despite some minor gripes it's fascinating and totally original and kept me turning pages.

Now that I've finished it, however, I think I need a little lie down in a darkened room. My brain is still spinning.