Jacey Bedford's Journal

Audiobook Narrated by Peter Kenny

There’s a war raging throughout the Galaxy as the Iridians (and others) fight against the Culture. Horza, a human changer, an mercenary, works for the Iridians despite not believing in their gods or philosophy. He’s tasked with finding and securing the Mind, an autonomous super AI created by the Cuilture, which has ended up on Schar’s World, the planet of the dead. Balveda is a Culture agent with the same objective. They both end up on a ‘free trader’ ship the Clear Air Turbulence (CAT) and after a couple of disastrous raids directed by the captain Kraiklin, Horza takes over and persuades the crew, including his lover, Yalson, to go to Schar’s World, where they meet hostile Idirans in the tunnels deep below the world. I was disappointed with the ending, but it’s a cracking read – a fast-paced space-opera/adventure well read by Peter Kenney who does subtle accent changes and voices brilliantly.

This is a re-read via Audible. Audiobook read by Zara Ramm

Cage and Jones are in the process of setting themselves up as supernatural investigators in part of the building owned my Melek and Iblis. They sort out a student ‘haunting’ and a country house lethal ghost, but this also delves more deeply into Elizabeth Cage’s backstory. She finally learns and accepts what has gone before (in a way distant past), but now has to deal with consequences. Why is there blood on her doorstep every morning. What does the note mean by ‘I always send the serpent’? We do finally get some answers amid the questions, and yes, we also get the serpent. Well worth reading the whole sequence – in order. Don’t start with this one. Beautifully read by Zara Ramm.

Audiobook read by Zara Ramm

A previous version was read by Julie Teal, but this version is read by Zara Ramm, who always does such a great job on Jodi Taylor's books.

This follows White Silence, in which we met Elizabeth Cage who can read people's 'colours' and learn their moods. It's not exactly mind-reading, but in the first book she was trapped by Dr Sorensen in his clinic, with the idea that she would use her gifts for his ends. She escaped with the help of Michael Jones, sometime spy/shadowy government agent. For a while it all seemed as though her troubles were over, but now she's on the run, and drawn to the picture-perfect village of Greyston, where the women are bound to three sinister standing stones, with a tradition of a year-king, given all he wants and then sacrificed at the end of his year. Cage is lined up to become a member of the village’s evil community, but does her best to subvert their plans, rescue the doomed year king and escape with the help of Jones, his dubious friend, Jerry, and Ibliss, an odd and somewhat fey chap who seems to live wild in the woods.

Audiobook narrated by Zara Ramm.

I re-read (re-listened to) this because in the recent read of ‘Out of Time’ I had a question about Markham and whether Max knows the details of his origins. I was fairly sure she did, but I needed to remind myself. And yes, she does. So now I need to re-read Out of Time.

This is my original review: Following the plan to trap arch villain Ronan, and the unexpected twist at the end of the previous book, Hope for the Best, Max, Leon and their son Matthew (recently returned from the care of the Time Police) are trying to get on with the rest of their lives at St Mary's. Max is once more in charge of the historians and trying to impress their funders at Thirsk University, so she's planning a spectacular trip to ancient Crete, just before the huge volcanic eruption which heralded the end of the Minoan civilisation. But before that, Leon is arrested for murder by the dreaded Time Police, and Max, Peterson and Markham have to become private investigators. Then Doctor Bairstow (the boss) takes Mrs Brown (a government representative) on a jaunt to see the Princes in the Tower, accompanied only by Max. Everything goes wrong (of course) and Max is almost drowned, when the person she trusts with her life fails her. The betrayal leaves her shaken. Then there's the Crete trip. It's all going well until the volcano kicks off early and Ronan reappears at just the wrong moment. There's a satisfactory ending, and I did wonder whether this might be the final book, but then I checked and #12 is available for advance order. After a lot of hints in previous books we finally find out more about Markham, who is my second favourite character (after Max) and when the revelation comes, it's a doozy.

Barely recovered from their last adventure (on the train) Team 236 (Team Weird - Luke, Jane and Matthew) are tentatively back in business (though still under supervision), but things aren't going well for the Time Police in general. Construction work reveals (or rather re-reveals) a huge cover-up from that last days of the time war, before Commander Hay became the TP boss, but it's something she'll have to deal with one way or another. A dinosaur shows up in Wales, which causes Hay to request the assistance of Maxwell from St Mary's. No one is quite sure which is going to be the biggest problem, Max or the dinosaur. In Ancient Rome, a St Mary's mission is trying to find out what happened to the city's founder, Romulus, when TP officer Varma turns up and kidnaps him. There's a gnarly knot in the time map which Matthew spots, but can he unravel it? And then everything goes tits-up when a time pod AI starts screaming murder. When long-time antagonist Henry Plympton reappears with a scheme to kidnap and murder the Princes in the Tower, things can't get much worse for the beleaguered Time Police. This book does feature Luke, Jane and Matthew, but also hefty chunks of Commander Hay and her long-suffering adjutant, Charlie Farrenden, Lt. Grint and his usual team, plus the aforementioned Varma and assorted characters we've met before. This book was published on 9th and by 10th October I'd galloped through it. A new Jodi Taylor is always a drop-everything-and-grab-it moment. Glad I did. The only thing missing was Markham... or was he?

Narrated by Ray Porter

Having started (accidentally) with the second book in the series, and enjoyed it tremendously, I immediately went back to the first in which Joe discovers he can time travel and uses his new ability to save his sister, Amy, who disappeared when she was a child, partly due to his 14-year-old self’s moment of inattention. Joe struggles to master his talents, calling on two old friends and one new one to help him figure it out – in the process falling in love. The plot races along and comes to an excellent conclusion. The question of whether Joe is supposed to be British or American (which I brought up in my review of Book #2) is answered definitively in Book #1 – he’s British, and he’s based in Cheltenham – which is a quintessentially British place. It makes the choice of American Ray Porter to narrate these books somewhat puzzling, especially since the author is British, too. Blackstone, the publisher of the wider series, is American, however, which maybe also explains some of the minor Americanisms which might have been inserted to make it more America-friendly. To be honest, Ray Porter is a great narrator who reads this very well, but I do feel as though a British-accented narrator would have made more sense. (Maybe Matt Addis, or Stephen Pacey.) It won’t stop me listening to the others, however. I'm lready lining up Book #3.

An original cast recording of a single episode length story in which the rest of the crew go in search of Dayna and Vila is left alone on board the liberator while ghostly figures stalk the corridors and get inside his head. Revenants? Demons? His alcohol-fuelled imagination? None of the above, but there is an answer. Paul Darrow (Kerr Avon), Michael Keating (Vila Restal) have very recognisably familiar voices, the others slightly less so. Published in 2015.

Narrated by Nicola Walker and a full cast. An Audible Original presented as a radio play. In the near future a crew of scientists launch from Earth on a Mars mission. By the time they get there, all humans on Earth have simply vanished. Against all odds they survive, start a colony and thrive for a thousand years. But when resources are running out and the Mars colony is threatened with extinction, they decide to send two time-travelling teams to Earth for find out a) why humans vanished and b) whether the Martian humans can re-colonise the homeworld. This story flips between the stories of the two teams, which eventually come together. Expect some timey-wimey-wibbly-wobbly stuff. Quite engaging, though, to be honest, I’d rather have a straight narration rather than a full-cast audio play.

Audiobook narrated by Victor Bevine.
After an alien invasion Earth is ruined. Even though the aliens have gone, the balance of the atmosphere has been destroyed and the seas are evaporating and the land is burning. Lucas is desperately trying to get back to his family in Portland, but when he arrives he finds nothing but a crater where the city used to be, a fellow refugee, Asha, and an alien ship which is not quite lifeless. Hardened by the last few years of suviving at all costs he doesn't trust easily, but it seems as though the only salvation lies in teaming up. This is a high body count book which combines post-apocalyptic survival with space opera. As the first book in a trilogy it doesn't quite have a cliffhanger ending, but it stops at a point which tempts you into the second book. The characters are interesting and Victor Bevine's narration is perfectly adequate.

Narrated by Wil Wheaton
Fantasy, science fiction or pure absurdist literature? You’ll need to make your own mind up about that. It’s probably all three. The premise is that the moon, all of a sudden, turns to cheese. What kind of cheese? Not sure, but because cheese is less dense than rock and because the moon’s mass has not altered, it’s suddenly bigger and brighter and everyone notices. Rather than following one main character this book works as a series of interspersed stories as people from different walks of life react differently. First we meet the staff of a museum which holds a piece of moon rock; rock until it isn’t. Then there’s an academic turned pop-science author, a bunch of NASA astronauts whose dreams have been shattered, three retirees who meet in a diner to put the world to rights, a young girl who simply wants to write her great fantasy novel, and a tech-bro billionaire who manages to stowaway on his own rocket -- not to mention the American top-brass and the president of the United States. This is quirky and absurd. Wil Wheaton’s reading is at once serious and funny. Maybe this isn’t for everyone, but I enjoyed the listen.

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.

Narrated by Carolina Hoyos.

This is Elizabeth Bear's debut novel from 2004. It's 2062 and Jenny Casey, ex Canadian Special Forces,  ekes out a living at the dangerous end of Hartford Connecticut, her only friends a crimelord and a rogue cop. She's in constant pain from the artificial body parts she acquired after a heli-crash when she was twenty five. She's almost double that, now, and, despite being engineered for combat, her body is breaking down. She's hiding from the government in general and Colonel Vallance in particular, but he's tracking her to use her special skills for a new high-stakes project. The story moves from Hartford to Toronto and there are things afoot that Jenny hadn't ever dreamed of, but the people running the project have let her down before and Jenny daren't let herself trust them again - but there are a couple of people she might be able to trust, one, in particular, from her past. Carolina Hoyos's narration is decent, if not sparkling, but I was sorry to realise this book doesn't really resolve. I don't mind reading series books, but I like a reasonable resolution at the end of each book. This seems to just stop on the point of something interesting, and there are unanswered questions about characters left behind that i feel should have been addressed here instead of (hopefully) in future books. Though I enjoyed this for what it is, I'm disappointed about the loose ends.

Written and narrated by Tom Baker, as you would expect this audio version brings the 4th Doctor to life beautifully.  There's a framing story. The Doctor is being interrogated on Gallifrey and is being asked to account for his actions. The main story emerges in which the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry land on a remote island where people are turning into scarecrows. But this quickly turns into something more surreal as the Doctor, Sarah and Harry end up in a strange dimension where the enemy is the Scratchman, i.e. the Devil. I'm a little perturbed when the narrative focus slips. This is largely written in the Doctor's first person point of view, but sometimes shifts into what Harry and Sarah Jane (and secondary characters) are getting up to and thinking. Am I being too persnickity? Is it something only an author would notice? To be honest it doesn't really spoil the enjoyment, but it is noticeable.

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

Narrated by: Alma Cuervo

The story of a lost generation ship, the Jacob's Ladder, currently stalled in a dying star system. The survivors of the original crew have split into factions, mainly Rule and Engine. Rien has been brought up as a 'mean'  a servant in Rule, and thought that was all there was, until she finds Sir Perceval, a genetically engineered 'exalt,' in Rule's dungeon, her hair and wings shorn. Perceval is Rien's half-sister and together they escape and journey through the bowels of the decaying world-ship accompanied by Gavin the Basilisk and Hero Eng (a presence in her mind). Trying to find the solution to an impending war between Rule and Engine. The ship's computational power has been split between 'angels', mainly Jacob Dust, Angel of the Library, and Samael the Angel of Death. The angels are battling erach other, playing a long-game for supremacy. The Kahn (Carn?) family, engineered and immortal, is battling with itself, Benedick (Rien and Perceval's father) his brother Tristen (from Engine) and their sister, who runs Rule. There's a lot going on, here. There's a lot going on here; sometimes it's confusing and disorienting, but always thought-ptovoking. The narration is well done. The accent American, but not heavy.

Narrated by John Skelley

This is a post apocalyptic thriller about a bunch of people who wake up in a research facility in the middle of nowhere, and who must work together to unravel the mystery of why they are there and what they’re supposed to do next. They are part of the Extinction Trials, a plan to restart the whole human race. The strangers all have complementary skills, Owen, a fire-fighter who is good at pattern recognition, Cara, an ER doctor, Alistair, a mechanic, Will, a computer programmer, and Maya, a scientist. The air outside the facility is toxic, so venturing out to explore is very dangerous, but it’s their only chance as they have a limited amount of food in the facility. It turns out they are on an island, but there’s a boat… At each step on their journey they have to solve clues and evade danger. Every person (except Owen) is hiding a secret which impacts upon the solution. It’s fast-paced and well-narrated by John Skelley, however the twist ending is a bit deus ex-machina, and I could have wished that Maya and Owen had found the final solution themselves. It’s not quite an ‘Adam and Eve’ trope ending, but there are hints of that.

Narrated by Ben Allen
Adrian Tchaikovsky is such a good writer, his humans and aliens are brilliantly interwoven. Xeno-biologist and freedom fighter, Arton Daghdev, is exiled for his crimes to an alien planet where he’s imprisoned under an oppressive regime. At first he’s given some status because of his scientific work, but he’s soon busted to a basic work detail in the toxic atmosphere of this very alien planet. He  is tasked with discovering the origin of alien ruins, and the mystery of who the builders were, and where are they now. And he does indeed make that discovery, but not in the way the camp commandant expects him to.

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.

I read some good reviews of this, but I simply didn't get on with it. Stopped at Chapter Nine and did not finish. Not sure whether it was the narrator, Moira Quirk, or the very slow story, Possibly a combination of both. The writeup offered a heart-pounding, epic science fantasy, but it didn't deliver, or it was just such a slow-starter that I got bored before the good bits. Really sorry.

Narrated by Ray Porter

Original Bob goes in search of Bender, one of his early clones who set off to explore the galaxy more than a hundred years ago, and was never heard from again. He organises an expedition which tracks Bender down to Heaven’s River, a huge artificially constructed world, a topopolis, populated by an aggressive sentient beaver-like people. In the meantime the Bobiverse is in trouble. Bob’s clone descendants are down to the 24^th generation and there’s replicant drift. Civil War is brewing. The new generations of Bobs have plans of their own, especially the Trekkie-like faction that wants the Bobs to follow the prime directive (which doesn’t actually exist except for on an old TV show) and to stay separate from humanity and other biologicals. I love the Bobiverse books for their snarky humour, fannish references (Douglas Adams, Star Trek, Star Wars etc.) and interesting concepts. The stories are greatly enhanced by Ray Porter’s narration. There’s another Bobiverse book in production, but this is the last in the series for now.

Ivan Pritchard, an impoverished computer programmer, buys into an asteroid mining expedition, a last throw of the dice to keep his wife and kids out of poverty on a troubled future Earth. It's all going well, a big strike is going to make them all billionaires until Ivan touched something unusual. It coats the arm of his space suit with a chrome-like substance and continues to work its way into his body, replacing flesh, bone and blood with alien nanites until Ivan is a silver effigy of himself, but with movement and mind intact. From then on things get complicated with the scientific community and military at odds. And,,, could it be that Ivan is not alone in his new body. Does whatever he has become intend to save or destroy humankind and what can Ivan do about it? Tense and exciting, this grabs your interest and holds on to it. Excellent narration by Ray Porter.

Audiobook, read by Ray Porter

The students we first met in Outland are busy trying to make their new colony work on alternate Earth after the Yellowstone supervolcano has all but destroyed our own, but life in Rivendell is getting complicated, especially when a bunch of older refugees think that their age entitles them to run the place.  There are moral dilemmas and hard decisions. Bill and Kevin continue to explore a variety of alternate Earths, including some inhabitable and others decidedly not - including one still occupied by dinosaurs. I'm a sucker for society-building novels, so I loved this. I hope it's not the ;last one in the series. The reader is Ray Porter who reads Taylor's Bobiverse book. He does an excellent job.