Dark Moon Defender by Sharon Shinn

Another fun book to read in this series - Ellynor is a character we haven't met before, and she is that rarity, a sensible but interesting character. She is also that rarity in modern writing, though not in life, a women who can see her male relatives are oppressive and controlling in some ways but still loves them and wants to remain in the family. She also copes well in another restrictive environment, having an excellent sense of what to conceal and what is worth rebelling against.

Justin is the other main character. I am certainly not giving away any part of the plot if I say they fall in love - a couple always fall in love in Shinn books. However, when he objects to her going to nurse in a place he thinks dangerous, do they compromise and she goes with a guard? No, she goes alone and is captured. Marriage is about both parties wisdom and worries being accommodated, not one person getting their own way entirely, which makes me worry a bit about them.

We also see that Shinn is cheating with Senneth and Tayse, a couple from an earlier book. Because of Senneth's power the king is quite happy to have Tayse, a kings guard, trail around after Senneth permanently: most people have to come to some compromise about careers. I did enjoy this book, even though I think Shinn is not being realistic about relationships.

Dark Moon Defender first published 2006

Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia Wrede

This book is a retelling of the fairy tale of the same name. I enjoyed the story and plot, which makes more emotional sense than the original. I didn't enjoy the language and style. Wrede attempts an Elizabethan style of speaking for all characters, which doesn't quite come off. The characterisation is passable, but better for the villains than the heroes.

Snow White and Rose Red first published 1989

Two Miss Silver books by Patricia Wentworth

Both the The Brading Collection and The Benevent Treasure have jewelry or treasure playing an important part in the plot. I think Wentworth was running out of realistic plots - both these books were written in the fifties, near the end of her life. I enjoyed them both however, finding the characters interesting as usual, and enjoying the romance subplots. I didn't spot the actual murderer in one, only the accomplice, and though I was right in the other it was only because I noticed the fuss they made setting up their alibi.

It seems Umberto Eco was not as imaginative as I had thought in the method of murder used in The Name of the Rose; Miss Silver also predates Christie's Miss Marple.

The Brading Collection first published 1952,The Benevent Treasure 1956

The Ram Rebellion by Eric Flint & others

I liked this, but only just. This isn't one of the better entries into the Ring of Fire series, but it is still interesting. The stories were of variable quality. As a farmer's daughter, I was very interested in the farming stories; though I think most people would have found Birdie's efforts to combine American and German farming and Flo's worries about wool quality interesting. The ballet story was fun too.

The Brillo fables need not have been printed, or not so many, in my opinion. Parts 3 & 4 had interesting moments, but were a bit laboured. I liked the accounts of the Mormons in the new world - I like the way religion is taken seriously as a motivating factor in this series - and I thought Johnnie F.'s sense of when to get involved and when to pretend he hadn't noticed a thing was great.

Flint's refusal to take the easy plot path of winning a few big battles and assuming that will then automatically win hearts and minds is the most interesting part of this series. Parts 3 & 4 are set in Franconia, a nearby area that the Americans are trying to administrate and make more democratic, or at least have less witch burning and disease, and more religious tolerance and voting. The path to revolution, especially when you are trying to have a low death toll, but know you can't help breaking some eggs, is always problematic, and the difficulties aren't made small and palatable. Worth reading just for the consideration of the problems of changing a society.

The Game by Diana Wynne Jones

This is a wonderful story. Diana Wynne Jones usually does a great job of making all her worlds and characters totally convincing, and this book is no exception. I don't think there is a word out of place in this short book.

This book draws heavily on Greek mythology, but it isn't necessary to know any to enjoy the story; the world of the story is set up so well and is so internally consistent it carries you along without need for outside knowledge, except what we all know about families and how people think and behave. I and my daughter know lots of Greek mythology, but didn't realise Jones was using it till well into the book. Jones is so good at setting up new worlds of her own it comes as a surprise to see her using an outside mythology, and even then she fiddles with it (you'll get the pun when you read this highly recommended book).

The Game first published 2007

The Innocent Mage & Innocence Lost by Karen Miller

Karen Miller can tell a story that keeps your attention, but this duology could have been shorter while still covering the same ground. All the characters were a bit one note, and each seemed to have a very small emotional range. As this is her first effort, I hope to see some improvements in later books.

In particular she needs to do some research. One character goes up in the world and starts wearing silk and brocade instead of cotton and linen - in pre-industrial societies, cotton was by far the most expensive fabric, due to the labour costs of production; wool and linen were the most common fabrics. Royal families who go off in a coach for a picnic would not only have a coachman, but one footman at least to put down the step, open the door, hold the horses so the coachman can get down - as though a royal family would go anywhere without several attendants anyway. And the likelihood of a king in any society collapsing in a crypt and no-one noticing his absence till next morning is vanishingly small. But no, not a valet or page in sight.

A few contradictions as well - the mage king needs to do weather magic every few days in a special tower, but also does an annual visit of several weeks to the seaside.

The Innocent Mage first published 2005, Innocence Lost (also published as The Awakened Mage) 2006

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

This book, like some other famous children's books, is pushing a philosophy while telling a story - Theosophy in this case. As the philosophy of thinking positive works well in the story, it does the book no harm and does it some good.

Many women report this book struck them greatly as children. I read The Little Princess first when young, and still like it best, but can still read this book only skipping a few bits. And more parents should read it for its sensible comments on child rearing and child ruining. Not many adults come out of this book all that well. The exceptions are Mr Crawford, for his comment that if Mary's mother had carried her pretty manners into the nursery, Mary might have learned them; and the wise Susan Sowerby, mother of twelve cheerful children, who remarks she doesn't know which is worse for children, to be always given their own way or never given it.

Colin and Mary have been neglected and always given their own way to shut them up, but manage to save each other with the help of the garden - well Mary does more saving then Colin! And because Mrs Sowerby's advice is followed by other characters.

The best comment I ever read about Burnett's books said that Cedric in Little Lord Fauntleroy effortlessly was a hero, Sara in A Little Princess shows herself a heroine by how she reacts to losing everything, but Mary turns herself into a heroine by her own efforts.

The Secret Garden first published 1911

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon

This was interesting, though a little long. It also had two plot lines which could have been 2 separate stories really.

The first plot line was about being homosexual when it was illegal and you could be executed if you were caught. That was very interesting, and the moral and social issues were covered well. In the eighteenth century what you did affected your family much more than now, even to job and marriage prospects; more pressure and guilt on the homosexual man.

The other plot line covered the mystery surrounding the death of parent many years ago, and efforts to solve it - this bit kept popping in and out of sight in the story line, as the trail went from one person to another. It wasn't as interesting.

Three Miss Silver books by Patricia Wentworth

Wentworth writes mysteries where people are murdered or kidnapped for ordinary human reasons, like money, sex, and being blackmailed; not a mass murderer or terrorist in sight. Lonesome Road is set just before World War II, Out of the Past and The Catherine Wheel soon after. There is a big difference in attitude to money: after the war everyone seems more worried about earning a living and have less expectation of living off richer relatives, and plan on selling large old houses due to the expense of maintaining and staffing them.

I enjoyed The Catherine Wheel most, for its imaginative setting, and because you can see the start of changes in attitudes to female roles. For a start, all the single women are working or running small businesses, in marked contrast to Lonesome Road. The Catherine Wheel also gives an interesting view of class divisions.

Lonesome Road first published 1939, The Catherine Wheel, 1951, Out of the Past 1955

The Life of the World to Come by Kage Baker

This Company novel starts with Mendoza deep in the past, but then shifts to the twenty-third century for the most part. The future is both familiar and unfamiliar, with what was then illegal being interesting. I thought the characters I christened The Three Nerds most amusing, and yet they were understandable people still.

The dual view of the same incident was very interesting and enlightening about the the two characters involved. I recomend this novel highly, and it could be read without having read any previous Company series novels.

The Life of the World to COme first published 2004

Mendoza in Hollywood by Kage Baker

This is one of Baker's Company novels, and is an excellent read. Baker balances humour and sadness well in this book. Watching the immortal operatives get carried away by their specialities is amusing, especially Imarti and Juan. I found I even caught a bit of their enthusiasm as they enthused. But immortals have seen plenty of sorrow in their long lives, and must cope with it in some way - and Juan, at the beginning of his immortal life, has to learn sorrow like everyone else.

This is set in Hollywood before there was Hollywood, in the 1860's, and there are a lot of references to films, serving to point out how the operatives treat that now (1860's) as something they are watching rather than living in, as history already because they know what happens next. Where they don't know what will happen next, they make as many mistakes as the average mortal.

Mendoza in Hollywood first published 2000

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan

Tan is a deservedly well regarded writer, but this story of survival means you go through a lot of shattering events with the main character. So not a fun book even if the ending is very satisfying. Worth reading just for the view of Chinese culture and history in the thirties and early forties, which is presented in an interesting and appropriate way, not at all info dump by sadistic author (I did all this research so the reader must suffer too...). Also has mother daughter relationships and some interesting points on memory.

Emma Watson - Joan Aiken and Jane Austen

I read 2 books completing Jane Austen's The Watsons, of which she only wrote five chapters. Austen family history relates how she intended the plot to come out, though of course Austen might have changed her mind while writing.

Joan Aiken's effort, Emma Watson, starts after the fragment Austen left, and while keeping the personalities of the characters established by Austen the same, changes the plot considerably. Merryn William's completion, The Watsons, uses the original five chapters and the intended plot where it is known. Her effort is a lot closer to Austen than Aiken's, but the Aiken version is much more fun to read and better written, with more lively language. Although she puts in unusual events, everyone's reactions to them ring very true to their characters.

William's version is worth reading, and is better than nearly all the other Austen efforts I have read, but seems a little flat, being without Austen's gift for the right word and the right incident to show someone's true character. I'll be keeping the Aiken version.

Emma Watson first published 1996, The Watsons 2005

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

This is the third Thursday Next adventure, but I think this could be read without having read the first two. I enjoyed this the most of the three. This is funnier if you have read some of the books which come up, but I'm sure I didn't get all the references, and I still enjoyed The Well of Lost Plots. One reviewer thought this worked well as a literary joke, but not as a mystery. This book is proof that if you set it up properly, you can have a deus ex machina work in a plot!

The Well of Lost Plots first published 2003

Three Serrano books by Elizabeth Moon

There are seven books in the Serrano Legacy sequence. The first four books, which I read quite a while ago, read well as independent novels. I have just read the last three, Rules of Engagement, Change of Command and Against the Odds, and I think they read a lot more powerfully if you know what happened in the earlier books, and also form almost one long novel.

Esmay and Brun are the most important characters, though there are multiple viewpoints and many minor characters get a chapter. I didn't find the many viewpoints hard to follow and never wondered which character was which. I thought Moon handled the many strands of the plot well, and I enjoyed these books.

One of the issues this book is dealing with is effective immortality through rejuvenation, and how this will affect society. I was pleased to see that Moon didn't think everyone's reaction would be the same, there are plenty of people opposing it on various religious and philosophical grounds. I also noted with interest that her rejuvenated people tended to conservatism and opposition to change - most authors depict effectively undying people as perpetual adolescents.

Rules of Engagement first published 2000, Change of Command 2000, Against the Odds 2001.

Grantville Gazette II edited by Eric Flint

I thought Grantville Gazette II didn't have as many fun stories as Gazettes I or III. Weber's The Company Men was a lot of fun, and so was Clark's alchemical style factual treatise on zinc. Several other stories were quite good. I have friends with firsthand experience in doing medical training and practice in countries without the hygiene/science beliefs we are used to, and thought Ewings's story on the problems of cross cultural medical training had an excellent and realistic grasp of the likely situation. But as an actual story it was a bit too long without a clear climax.

Grantville Gazette II published 2006

Two books by Ellis Peters

Fallen into the Pit is a detective novel set just after World War II. The author is trying to portray the tensions in the changing society and the emotional aftermath of the war for the people who fought and came home, which is all quite interesting. However to modern readers what is most striking is the children regularly playing unsupervised for hours in an area full of mine shafts. This book gives the definite impression modern children are over-protected physically, though the parent's concerns about manners and obedience and bad influences seem timeless. As soon as the second person died I guessed who had done all the murders and why, usually I have no idea whodunnit. An interesting and recommended book on the whole, though a few too many coincidences.

The Horn of Roland is not recommended unless you are a romantic who can believe six impossible things before breakfast. Like a person who has taken on their mother's vendetta so completely they try to kill a person over something that happened when they themselves were a baby is not mentally ill, but an otherwise normal person. And that a musician/composer has a daughter who does not play a musical instrument. Again, the villain is fairly obvious.

Fallen into the Pit first published 1951, The Horn of Roland 1974

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

I thought this book was pretty funny, with a quite a few lines that made me laugh. The mystery wasn't all that mysterious, especially once a few clues were dropped, but there were still a few surprises. Apart from the character with post-natal depression, everyone had plenty of energy to focus on being emotionally fulfilled. A very light and fluffy read, good for a laugh.

YA books by Friesen, Voigt, Pratchett & Aiken

The Wee Free Men: Tiffany is my favourite Terry Pratchett character (my husband the Rincewind fan is not that keen on her); and this is an excellent variant on the getting-back-your-stolen-sibling-from-fairyland plot. So excellent in fact, that you can read the whole book twice before realising the plot is actually familiar. Tiffany's conversation with Miss Tick is a delight, and so are the Nac Mac Feegles. Even in a YA book Pratchett can make you see the world differently.

Bad Girls by Cynthia Voigt: Usually I like Voigt, who has written some of my favourite YA novels, but I and my daughter found this one well written but not at all interesting or re-readable. I didn't understand the motivations of the bad girls at all. Why did they decide to start rumours, manipulate and annoy people?

The Isabel Factor by Gayle Friesen was very good, especially in comparison. Peer pressure and truthfulness clash in this book, in the shape of Jennifer and Isabel; to the horror of Anna who prefers to slide through life without trouble or notice but finds herself expected to side with both, while Karim & Zoe have another two sets of expectations for her. In my experience Canadian writers deal with teenage problems with a lot more subtlety and sense than American writers.

Joan Aiken's Creepy Company is a book of supernatural short stories. Although I think Aiken is a wonderful writer, I usually avoid her ghost stories as they are uncomfortably creepy and full of horrible people. These wildly imaginative stories are, as usual, uncomfortably creepy, though not all the people are horrible.

The Wee Free Men first published 2003, Bad Girls 1996, The Isabel Factor 2005, Creepy Company 1993

The Thirteenth House by Sharon Shinn

Though technically a sequel, you can read this without having read Mystic and Rider. This was possibly a better book I thought, a very enjoyable read. More clues to the overall situation, a villain unmasked, another journey. Lots of romance readers will hate it.

Romantic novels often underestimate the prejudice against cross class marriages. They also underestimate how much most people's identity is bound up in their family and place in society, and thus how much they will lose with a disapproved of marriage. I was pleased to see some actual contemplation of the costs of this situation. Unfortunately the character should have been contemplating the costs of a completely different situation, but we can all manage to be wise after the event! And however good your motives, taking away someone else's choice/memory is despicably unethical. I am referring to the character here, not the author.

The Thirteenth House first published 2006

Incline Our Hearts by A.N. Wilson

This is a well written and interesting novel, written in the first person. Unfortunately the protagonist has a very unattractive way of viewing the world and other people, so it is not always a fun experience to read. There were a few disliked-by-the-protagonist characters I felt were probably quite attractive people in real life. Apparently there are thinly disguised real people in this novel, which is not autobiographical but has a lot of elements from the author's life. Growing up middle class and male in Britain in the forties and fifties seems to have been an endurance test with not many moments of joy.

The increasing maturity and understanding of the protagonist is well done. He is twelve at the start, and as he gets older we get an increasingly nuanced view of his relatives. Interestingly, the objections made in the novel to a fictional biography of a fictional character mirror some of the objections made to Wilson's own biography of C.S. Lewis, published 2 years later.

Incline our Hearts first published 1988

Grantville Gazette III & Clifford Simak

I like the 1632 series a lot, especially the way that the main novels set up a world and cover the important events, and then you have the Grantville Gazette short story collections showing what else was happening to some other people at the same time. These stories are of variable literary quality - a definite thumbs down to Hobson's Choice, written in imitation seventeenth century prose - but really increase the richness of the world as a whole. People who like every loose end tied up eventually, this is your series! I don't myself, but still love the way that you can spend time with people not important enough for even a mention in the main books.

I particularly enjoyed Pastor Kastenmayer's Revenge, all about finding husbands for a group of refugee girls - and increasing the number of Lutherans. Also Hell Fighters and If the Demons Will Sleep, where we see librarians and nurses and monks dealing with a changing world, and meet a family living around Post Traumatic Stress Disorder quite successfully - if you accept their definition of success, of course, which at least one nurse is not willing to do.

I read some science fiction short stories by Clifford Simak collected in The Civilisation Game - though an excellent writer, he mostly doesn't read all that well now as his SF future had changes in technology, but no changes to society. This reads very oddly when there are women in his stories, and just as much so when you read a whole story with a large cast of male only characters in a workplace.

Grantville Gazette III first published 2007; stories in The Civilisation Game first published 1939 to 1961.

Atmosphere: Gellis, Spider-Man and Vande Velde

I was trying to work out what was wrong with Overstars Mail: Imperial Challenge by Roberta Gellis; which is a perfectly competent adventure cum mystery story set in an future interstellar empire on one level, yet totally unsatisfactory on every other level. Then I read a quote by C.S. Lewis about the importance of atmosphere in book - world building they call it now I think. Gellis's book is completely devoid of anything that would tell you what sort of society you are reading about. You could be in any age or time, if the action wasn't set on a spaceship; which has obviously been chosen to give a small group of suspects. Not really worth reading.

The Best of Spider-Man: Vol 2 disconcertingly has 3 different artists with very different artistic styles in the one volume, which somewhat ruins the atmosphere. The second artist could not bring himself to draw wrinkles, so Aunt May's supposedly elderly face looks like she has been face lifted and botoxed till her face is a skull with skin stretched over it, yuck. Apart from thinking that choosing today's emotions as your major guide to life's big decisions is bound to lead to tears and regrets, I quite enjoyed it.

Ghost of a Hanged Man by Vivian Vande Velde is a children's ghost story with an abundance of excellently done atmosphere, both as a ghost story and as a picture of a place and time. There is nothing unusual about the story, except that it is so well done it is worth reading.

Overstars Mail first published 2004, The Best of Spider-Man in 2003 (I am not sure whether it the year's best for 2002 or 2003), Ghost of Hanged man first published 1998

Robb, Lackey & Koontz

Between travel, visitors, illness and other domestic dramas I am well behind in this journal. So I shall dispose of the bad and the so-so in this entry.

Earlier I read a JD Robb novel, the sixth in a detective series. I thought there would be character development over the series, but having tried the fifth and ninth I now know the plot of every one. Dallas is assigned a case, her extremely wealthy husband is involved (his building is blown up, there is a body in his house etc), they have hot sex often, lots more people die before the murderer/s are discovered and caught, the dead will include someone with a personal connection, and nobody changes or learns anything. A wonderful series for those who like to read the same book over and over.

Joust by Mercedes Lackey reads like a YA book, apart from a few mild references to adultery and prostitution. It is loosely based on Ancient Egypt, just add dragons. If you have nothing better to read it will do, but it is a teenage paint-by-numbers fantasy, obviously the beginning of a series.

I tried another book by the very popular Dean Koontz, Forever Odd, but gave up when it took Odd Thomas 2 pages to walk down a street for no plot or literary reason that I could see in the next 3 chapters. Koontz takes so long to get to the point of anything! And the narrator's gloominess is wearing even if he has excellent reasons to be gloomy.

Ceremony in Death first published 1997, Loyalty in Death 1999, Joust 2003, Forever Odd 2005.

Impossible Odds by Dave Duncan

Another fun stand-alone Blades tale, this time a journey to Duncan's version of Ruritania. More of the tale than usual is taken up with the tale of a main character before the Blades arrive, and the stakes are lower, as all that will happen if they lose is they will die.

I enjoyed Paragon Lost more, but this will re-read well I think. I always enjoy reading Duncan, and I am impressed at his ability to give each world he writes about quite a different feel; even his prose style seems to change a little for each separate world.

Impossible Odds first published 2003

Century by Sarah Singleton

This book is definitely worth reading. It is very well written and structured, and I found I was interested all the way through. The plot is not all that original for frequent fantasy and SF readers, but this book is so well done it doesn't matter. Mercy can see ghosts, but whose explanation and solution should she believe, and can she choose? And this isn't really a ghost story.

Century first published 2005

Final Witness by Simon Tolkien

A competent detective cum courtroom drama novel. The characterisation is very clear, and even if the police are sure they have the right person, the author makes you wonder mostly by showing how people are acting and reacting. Is the teenage boy making it up or reporting it as it was?

Final Witness first published 2002

Night of the Wolf by Alice Borchardt

This was a good book on the whole. I found the ending, how they got out of a tight situation, way too duex ex machina, but that was the only big flaw. I also thought there were more detailed sex scenes than needed, but probably most people wouldn't. And to my surprise, I didn't skip the fight scenes! Detailed accounts of fights usually bore me.

Night of the Wolf is part of a series, and although the second written it is the first in time, being set in the time of Julius Caesar. I liked the characters, and I liked the way Borchardt didn't make the historical setting overwhelming, it was just interestingly there and no more was said than we needed to know. A very competent writer.

Night of the Wolf first published 1999

Paragon Lost by Dave Duncan

Dave Duncan is aways fun to read, and this book was no exception. I enjoyed this book, which had a strong plot, characters I had no trouble telling apart, politics and a hero too clever for his own good. Also Durendal makes a cameo appearance for fans of the Kings Blades trilogy, though this is a self contained book set a decade later.

Duncan is excellent at magic systems, and I like the way magic is just part of the society, not especially feared or desired, just there like death and taxes. Even when abused by rulers, as naturally it would be on occasion, it is not magic that is feared but the ruler - in this case a mad Czar, based on Ivan the Terrible. The long journey to the mad Czar is interesting all the way.

Paragon Lost first published 2002

Monette, McCrumb and Goudge

Foggy Mountain Breakdown by Sharon McCrumb is a collection of short stories, and well worth reading. The first story is very striking, and there is a Rattler story for Rattler fans, but no Norah Bonesteel, alas. There are Appalachian stories and straight detective stories, and humorous stories too. A few stories are not that interesting, in the usual way of collections.

Don't read Melusine by Sarah Monette unless you like detailed accounts of pain, anguish, betrayal, and violent sex. And other horrible events and people, though some of them can't help themselves because of their dreadful past, or at least that's the excuse. I only managed a few chapters before giving up, though I did check out the end. I requested this book at the library because I read a favourable review, but was doubtful as soon as I saw it. Pretty boy covers rarely presage books I enjoy.

Immediate Family by Eileen Goudge starts with four friends at a college reunion, aged 36, all with sufficient money and fulfilling enough jobs to give lots of attention to their not very interesting emotional lives. One is married, one is divorced with a child, one has a boyfriend and the single one decides to have a child without a partner. By the end of the book there has been one divorce and one healthy baby, two breakups and two deaths (a parent and a still born child), one father found and three weddings - I probably missed a few other events in this action packed 18 months as I got bored and skipped more than half the book. This book reminded me why I so rarely read straight romances (as in books where the whole focus is on finding a bloke to sweep you off your feet).

Foggy Mountain Breakdown first published 1998, Melusine in 2005, Immediate Family in 2006.

We'll Meet Again by Hilary Green

This a pleasant enough book, if you have nothing better to read. It is set during World War II, and finding out about the people who did the radio communication and coding of messages for and from agents behind enemy lines was quite interesting, as were the characters. I found the events of the last quarter a bit unrealistic - the main character seems rather good at persuading higher authority to do things her way - which reduced my enjoyment of the book.

We'll Meet Again first published 2005

Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn

Sharon Shinn is always interesting to read, though sometimes I don't like her endings. She does very interesting societies and characters, and her villains are real people too. But in spite of there nearly always being a political plot line, she writes the climax of the novel as the climax of the romance plot line, which is occasionally not strong enough for the book as a whole. (I'm thinking of Wrapt in Crystal here)

So I read this one and was fascinated as usual by her story, but a bit apprehensive about the ending. However, it was quite satisfactory, as this is part of a series, so the romance bit ended this book nicely with the political plot line obviously to be continued in next volume. This was a good strong fantasy novel, as in enjoyable and well thought out rather than anything strikingly new, highly recommended if you like fantasy or romance.

Mystic and Rider first published 2005

The Sighting by Jan Mark

This is not science fiction or fantasy, even though the cover and title make perfect sense once you have read the book. UFO's do get a mention however. Jan Mark is a very good children's writer, with interesting plots and well differentiated characters and no facile answers to problems.

In this story 2 boys, with help from other family members, attempt to find out why their grandparent's generation became what one character refers to as a "thermonuclear family" - something happened and the brothers and sister never spoke to each other again. I enjoyed this book.

The Sighting first published 1997

The Angel and the Sword by Cecelia Holland

This is marketed as a historical novel, because as it is set in the ninth century Holland can pass off the fantasy elements as theology. An angel is protecting the main character, Ragna, because she is the last person descended from the line of the rightful kings of Spain; or possibly because her mother has power over the supernatural.

This is a well written novel, with a decent plot, but I just didn't find it very interesting. Ragna didn't seem a very consistent character to me, even taking into account her need for disguise.

The Angel and the Sword first published 2000

Poetry and other

This poem is by Margaret Stanley-Wrench, the last third in particular is lovely.

Hinterland

I like the backs of houses. Fronts are smug,

Stiff and formal, masks which smile at neighbours.

These roofs, shrugging, relaxed, these sun-warmed bricks,

Smooth, rounded bays, they are like lovers in bed

At ease, knowing and known. Cats stalk here.

The wagging lines of washing wave, the knops

Of hollyhocks knock and stroke the walls. A sunflower

Rises, bearded god with a black face.

And the swarthy, smiling, grape-bloomed neighbours stand

Amazed between the vines, the flower, the walls,

Themselves placid yet savage deities

Of these long gardens, of these hinterlands,

Green, warm and secret territory here

Like love behind the streets' correct facade.

Love, fierce and unexpected, sharp, uneven,

Sun and flower, the darkness and the sap

Surging through leaf and body, the quick flashed

Recognition of opened windows, white

Glances meeting, and doors, open wide.

There is another short poem by her here.

Otherwise I have mostly been re-reading - Flowers for the Judge (1953)by Margery Allingham, one of her charming light reads; The Corinthian (1940) by Georgette Heyer, not one of her best but with some funny moments and the usual amusing conversations; and The Gorgon in the Cupboard (2004), an excellent short story by Patricia McKillip, who is one of my favourite authors. This is one of the stories inspired by the Pre-Raphelite artists set (Victorian era), which all have women trying to live a human life in the confines of their society. We all need to live within the bounds of our society, but some times and some people seem to chafe more than others.

Other reading - Perry, Prozchazkova and Dylan Thomas

The Season of Secret Wishes by Iva Prozchazkova is a pleasant but unexceptional children's book of the girl moves to new place and meets interesting people type; only made slightly more interesting by being set in Prague before the Iron Curtain fell.

A Christmas Visitor is a short mystery novel by Anne Perry, and I'm sure I would have found the ending very moving if I hadn't got bored with the plodding pace and poor characterisation and skipped to the last chapter halfway through. And I was pleased to see an ending where they really did think family and justice more important than status and money.

Dylan Thomas' poetry did not fail to enthrall however - well, some of his poetry, he can be a bit opaque. This is my favourite.

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.


Dylan Thomas 1914 - 1953; The Season of Secret Wishes first published 1988, first translated into English 1989, Berlin Wall fell 9/11/1989; A Christmas Visitor first published 2004

Lost Children by Edith Pargeter

This is in some ways typical of a British post-WWII novel, containing a cross-class romance and friendships and social comment, both on class and on the acute shortage of housing in the post war period. It wasn't earnest and polemical about it though, and I enjoyed this book.

The style is a little stilted and wordy occasionally, but I liked the people, and the way there were four main characters and their interactions. I also liked how the novel left their history going on, some problems are solved or at least become manageable and some don't, like life.

The romance was only part of the plot. The title refers to the isolated family situation of several of the characters, the four main are all effectively motherless, and one is illegitimate. You can see the times changing, he is still presented as a sympathetic character!

Lost Children first published 1951

Give It Up! by Mary Carlomagno

The subtitle of this book is My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less. Carlomagno decided her stressful life needed a bit of change. As a child she had been given up something small each Lent; as an adult she realised Lent was supposed to make you in some way a new person. So every month for a year she gave up one item or activity and assessed its place in her life. At the end of the month it was re-introduced, often in lessor amounts or differently.

Alcohol was her first effort, and she found it astonishing how much social pressure she experienced when she was with a group of people and was the only one not ordering alcohol. There was also pressure to keep up and drink the same amount as everyone else.

Giving up her mobile phone was not a good idea overall, as it inconvenienced everyone around her. Giving up chocolate led to no changes. Giving up TV proved one of the most difficult, even though she picked a month when her favourite sports team wasn't playing.

I thought giving something up cold turkey for a month and then re-introducing it, possibly with changes, was a sensible idea. A month is short enough to manage for most people's willpower, and long enough to work out your level of dependence and if you want to change it or not. It also gives you a good idea of how much it changes your social interactions, and whether that change is good or bad or neutral.

Giving up eating out (Carlomagno bought 3 meals a day) was one of the most valuable changes, as she re-discovered fresh food, choosing your own portion size, and re-connected with her mother over cooking.

Giving up shopping (by which she meant clothes and shoes and personal adornment rather than groceries) had a large and permanent impact on her finances, as she hadn't realised the amount she spent, how much she never wore anyway, or how much she bought just because she shopped socially with friends.

Of course, everyone would have to look at their own life for a list of things to trial - not being a single young women in a big city, in an average month I don't do 9 of the 12 things she chose to give up!

Give It Up! first published 2006

Terenesia by Greg Egan

This book was fascinating to read, but I'm not entirely sure about the ending, which seemed a bit fast to me. Though on reflection (and re-reading the last page) probably what I thought was a sub-theme was what the author thought was the main theme. Oops.

The setting really seemed like a possible future 2030, the science and the politics likely to have sprung from our present. As this book was published 8 years ago, this is all the more cause for admiration. The science was a little daunting in parts, though not impenetrable and still very interesting.

I thought the relationships and people were very well done. This included the homosexual scenes, which have come off as pretty icky in some books I've read, but here were very good and a necessary part of the book and characters. (And yes, I've read some pretty yuck heterosexual scenes as well.)

All in all, this was the best straight science fiction novel I have read in ages, and I look forward to reading more of Greg Egan.

Teranesia first published 1999

Mulengro by Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint is a prolific author whose style is always good and characterisation excellent. I find some of his more popular characters irritating, and his view of the world a bit cloying sometimes, but he is a good reliable read, sometimes excellent.

Mulengro is one of his earlier books and edges close to horror - the body count is pretty high! I enjoyed the depiction of the modern Romany (gypsy) world view, and I admired de Lint's ability to sympathetically portray characters with very different world views and attitudes. Even when the characters were interacting you could still see and understand both points of view.

Mulengro first published 1985

Men of Stone by Gayle Friesen

Finally a decent book from the library! Sometimes it seems only the Young Adult genre is writing interesting books that deal with ordinary people ethical issues - I mean, most of us don't have that many murderers around, or find only we can save the world/country/family.

This book doesn't gloss over the pain caused by death and bad parenting and bullying and hate, but it doesn't make it look like you can't go on from there either. The first half of this book seemed well done but not unusual, but the second half was excellent. This book contains a sensible conversation about reasons for not fighting; and a very old person who actually seems like a real person grown old and not your generic always-been-old stock character. I recommend this book.

Men of Stone first published 2000

Stan Lee, Smith and Colfer

We'll go from best to worst here. Alexa is a comic book (or graphic novel if you are under 35), I read the first 3 episodes, and it was quite interesting till the last few pages of episode 3 where it went all obvious and ordinary. Though perhaps I should mention this is the first graphic novel I have read in 20 years or so. Alexa is a comic book artist who objects to the normal depiction of females in graphic novels by wearing skintight jeans and skivvy. This comic is drawn by males, what a surprise.

Behold, a Mystery! by Joan Smith is a Regency romance cum mystery, quite competent (usually they are abysmal) though I skipped a few boring bits. I was only mildly interested in who done it and who the heroine would marry.

The Wish List by Eoin Colfer had a strange view of goodness, in fact a perfectly pukable view of goodness. The heroine's good deeds and bad deeds are perfectly balanced when she dies (this Ancient Egyptian theology is presented as Christian, the Pope and Martin Luther are both sobbing into their soup) so she is sent back to overbalance the scale one way or the other, by helping someone else achieve their wishes. A kiss in a television studio between two elderly people who regret not kissing in their youth is described as a moment of pure goodness (getting there has needed some deception and manipulation), complete with ethereal light. On the other hand, what seemed to me truly a moment of pure goodness later in the book, where someone asks for and receives forgiveness, in the ordinary difficult way, passed without such light. I have not read a decent story ever about someone coming back after death to fix things, they are all revoltingly sentimental at the least.

Alexa (story by Stan Lee words by Steven Roman, pictures by 8 blokes and 3 women, the women did the colouring in and the lettering) first published 2005; Behold a Mystery! first published 1994, The Wish List first published 2000.

Friend of My Heart by Judith Clarke

This short book has the slightest of plots and the strongest of themes. I read it every few years, and sometimes pick it up to just read a few pages for the humour, and the astonishing way the author manages to tell us something about every character's attitude to love or who they love. Just about every type of love is covered here from several angles, hopeless, happy, contented or mistaken, parents and children, romantic, friends, siblings. Read this delightful book!

Friend of My Heart first published 1994

Forest Mage by Robin Hobb

Hobb is very good at trilogies, and I read this thick book, the second of The Soldier Son Trilogy, in 2 days. I did think at the end that the hero had taken a long time to arrive there, considering it was clear to me as a reader where he had to go. But it didn't seem long as I was reading it.

Someone wrote that Lewis and Tolkien cured writers of thinking hero's physical journeys were easy and not important enough to write about. Hobb makes you walk every step of the hero's mental, moral and emotional journey, as well as detailing the physical journeys. And yes, it is all interesting. We learn more about the Specks people, and what has happened to the Plains people. What we need to know from the first book is put in appropriately. An excellent reading experience, bring on the third book!

Forest Mage first published 2006

Other, Luckett, and Flint

I borrowed a book called The Delaney Christmas Carol from the library, thinking it would be an updated version of Dickens. It was three novellas by three authors, each story being a romance; unfortunately the boring sort where at least one person is very rich, both people are exceptionally beautiful, and an overwhelming feeling of mutual lust is a sure sign you are soul mates. The past, present and future were all astonishingly similar. I tried each story but didn't manage to finish any. Avoid this book.

More fun was a re-reading of Dave Luckett's The Truth About Magic and The Return of Rathalorn, fantasy books for children with a good story and good characterisation - both the heroes and the villains have entirely understandable motivations. You can see a whole workable, even if not always admirable, society in the background. An excellent introduction to class, prejudice, and standing up for the right without wrecking your society or yourself. I also thoroughly recommend his Tenabran trilogy for adults.

I also read An Oblique Approach (free in Baen's online library) by David Drake and Eric Flint, which is an alternate history, Byzantium sixth century. A couple of "computers" have popped back in time to change history. A fun light read, and I enjoyed looking up to see which characters were historical (answer lots, who'd have thought we know so much about the sixth century), though way too many people are excellent at their jobs and repartee as well. Style is a bit variable.


A Delaney Christmas Carol first published 2004, The Truth About Magic 2005, The Return of Rathalorn 2005, An Oblique Approach 1998

Sight Unseen by Robert Goddard

A retired policeman decides to re-investigate a case he wasn't satisfied about, and collects a witness (the usual rootless single depressed middle-aged male) to help him. They wander around asking questions. People start being attacked, murdered, framed, committing suicide etcetera. We are really none the wiser as to why, even though some lost items turn up, until someone decides to Explain All to save someone else. Pretty forgettable.

A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo

For someone who skim reads fights, I read a lot of military SF. I like John Ringo, and this was his first novel (available free on the internet), which I haven't read before. I noted a few first novel type faults, which he doesn't have in later books; except for his strange way of referring to a planet as having mostly one type of terrain and climate all over - a mostly swampy planet? I don't think so. The utterly unrealistic cover picture is not his fault however, and not like anything he describes either.

The peace-loving aliens have arrived - peace loving in a no physical violence sense, as they are commercially rapacious, aristocratic (with serfs), and not all that truthful. Unfortunately, the war loving aliens are on the way, so they are all that is available in the way of allies.

I find it hard to believe the USA military is as stupidly hidebound as portrayed in this book, though not that the Chinese were better at working out more about the aliens. As for dumping lots of privates and NCO's in a camp without a command structure (ie officers and administrators) in place, surely no army has ever been so stupid. Still, you can't have a war novel without a few mistakes to give chances for heroes.

There are a few quiet military history jokes about which nation does best at fighting aliens, and I enjoyed it overall - Ringo is good at making you care about his characters. I am looking forward to reading the next, Gust Front, which is also on the net.

A Hymn Before Battle first published 2001

Inherit the Earth by Brian Stableford

This novel kept me mildly interested all the way through, though I did keep stopping to read other more interesting looking works. There are lots of kidnappings, possible murders, people who are dead or maybe have faked their deaths, and the usual wrong side of the law hackers for hire. There are lots of pompous and initially opaque conversations, with people who want power and influence and for other people to stop playing god because it interferes with them playing god.

The main character has very few warm human relationships; mind you I can't blame him for breaking up with his histrionic girlfriend in the first chapter. Supposedly this book is about the problems of extended life and possible immortality (the population is much reduced after a series of possibly man made plagues). At the end the main character decides to change his life and career path drastically, but to what we don't know. This book was mildly interesting, but not fun.

Inherit the Earth first published1998

What Child is This? by Caroline Cooney

Most fairy stories have the happy ending achieved through a lot of sorrow, pain, hard work and keeping on going. This Christmas story follows that pattern and throws in a few musings on God and choices and what makes a good person. And it shows a few law abiding respectable adults who are not good people.

"Christmas was only a chance: you could take the chance, or you could ignore it. You could open your heart, or just deck the halls with boughs of holly." p146
This is an excellent story which I highly recommend at any time of the year.

What Child is This first published 1997, I read the Macmillan 1998 edition.

Lost In A Good Book by Jasper Fforde

The second hand bookshop had this filed under detective. I said I thought it was fantasy or SF. They said they did have trouble deciding. I can see why libraries stick to alphabetical order.

It's best to read The Eyre Affair before reading this book, the second in the Thursday Next series. Thursday is the heroine, a detective in special ops, the literature section, in a rather different world than ours. Except for bureaucracy and people, which are much the same.

These books are fascinating while you are reading them, but I do have trouble picking them up again after putting them down, though less in the second half of this book. I think Fforde is getting better as a writer.

The world of this book is indescribable in a few sentences, but Fforde is worth reading just for the strangeness. Some people can go into books, for example. I do hope there is more of Miss Havisham in the next book.

Lost In A Good Book first published 2002

Under Orders by Dick Francis

I have usually found Dick Francis a nice reliable read, good for convalescence in particular. I like the way you find out something about different industries or professions in most books, and I like the way his characters are shown to be affected emotionally by violence and other wrong doing. Too many detective novels of the more violent sort behave as though the emotional effects of violence and crime don't exist at all. I like the way his villains rarely look like villains from the outside - most real life villains don't, after all.

This is the first novel he has written since his wife died, she researched and edited for him, some people suspect she did the actual writing. Under Orders isn't up to his usual standard. The information about new technology and web gambling is info dumped instead of being integrated gracefully into the text, ditto the information needed from previous books - this is one of his rare sequels, the third book about Sid Halley. There is too much repetition, too much telling instead of showing.

I still enjoyed it, but if you haven't read a Francis before, try an earlier one.

Under Orders First published in 2006

Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie

This novel is set in a detective agency and has two dead bodies and missing people and missing diamonds. However it reads like romance, or maybe chick lit, so is a light fun read, and gets good marks on the style and plot. Characterisation not so hot - most characters were defined by one or two quirks. I kept losing track of which character was which in the pool of potential villains and who they are or were married to, but got them sorted out in time for the denouement.

The dialogue is pretty good, and the musings on relationships are higher quality than most romance/chick lit books - which isn't saying much I know! I borrowed this from the library, having seen Crusie's name recommended.

Fast Women first published 2001 -why it is called that I can't imagine.

Zorro by Isabel Allende

This was a fun read. Allende's version of Zorro explains why and how he got his passion for justice and his almost superhuman skills; and covers his adventures and travels mostly up to the age of 20. The first Zorro story was written in 1919, and since then there have been TV, movies, books and comic versions.

This novel is in the magical realism genre. I haven't read a lot of magical realism, but what I have reminds me of the Brothers Grimm (random magical events and the main theme is people's choices) crossed with soap opera (only with less yelling, much better written dialogue, and more honourable characters).

"Heroism is a badly renumerated occupation, and often it leads to an early end, which is why it appeals to fanatics or persons with an unhealthy fascination with death. There are all too few heroes with a romantic heart and a fun-loving nature." Zorro, page 1

So in this Zorro expect exciting events, secret rooms and passages, deep affection, decisions made with honour and lack of common sense, and unusual people. And enjoy yourself.

Zorro (this one) first published in 2005

Stories by Ted Chiang & Eric Flint

Reading short stories lately - Ted Chiang's Stories of My Life and Others is from the library, and while I'm not sure I'd want to own the whole lot I am glad to have read them. The title story is excellent, as are several others, but some are depressing - Chiang is better read as part of an anthology with other writers, in spite of his gift for memorable and absorbing stories.


I didn't find Towers of Babylon, his take on the Tower of Babel, depressing, though probably that is a matter of taste. It was fascinating, even though Egan's description of it as SF for Babylonians is quite accurate! Seventy-Two Letters is also highly recommended.

I have also been re-reading stories from the Ring of Fire anthology, notably The Wallenstein Gambit. The Ring of Fire/1632 series have a lot of charm, and are fun to read. My husband and daughter are both reading as many as I own currently. Unusually for a People-Dumped-Back-Into-The-Past plot line, what can be done and what can't has been thought out very carefully. Also religion (Judaism, Protestant & Catholic Christianity) is being covered seriously as a part of society and a motive for people's actions; not in every book or story, but it is one of the continuing threads.

Ring of Fire first published 2005, all stories first publication; Stories of your Life and Others first published 2002, stories first published 1990 to 2000

Roma Eternal by Robert Silverberg

This is an alternate history, as a set of linked short stories. The Roman Empire did not fall, Jesus & Muhammad did not found religions. The stories can be read individually, which is good as a couple are not very interesting, and some are merely OK.

Some are very good - Silverberg mostly does better with the stories about people on the edge of great events than the people in the centre; I think because the characterisation is better in those stories. Several stories are concerned with people's choices, some admirable and some not, and in others people have very few choices they can make.

Silverberg is good on world building - Majipoor the world in the Majipoor series was very memorable - and he has no trouble making this changed world believable. There is also the interest of working out which historical event he is mining in some cases.

Roma Eterna first published 2003, stories in it first published 1989 to 2003

Christie, Childs, and other reading

More detective books - I read a 1920's Agatha Christie, Murder in the Mews, and then two from the 1960's, The Clocks and Third Girl. The differences in society in the two decades were very clear. In The Clocks, I felt Christie was having trouble with the 1960's speech and society, it seemed to be set earlier in time, perhaps she had written it earlier in time. In Third Girl, she used the the point of view of an elderly person looking at the 1960's, which worked very well stylistically, even if the elderly person was the irritating Poirot.

I also tried Laura Childs' Blood Orange Brewing, which was an utter failure. I was really bored very quickly. It seems to be one of a series of detective novels set around people who run a teashop.

Otherwise I have read a lot of New Scientist magazines, the most interesting articles being one on how people make decisions, and one speculating how differing oxygen levels in the atmosphere have contributed to evolution and extinctions, with fascinating explanations of how (and possibly why) birds have much more efficient respiratory systems than mammals, and reptiles much less efficient. Some species of ducks fly over the Himalayas when migrating, humans need oxygen to climb them.

The Clocks first published in 1963, Third Girl in 1966, Murder in the Mews 1927, Blood Orange Brewing in 2006

Family Reunion by Caroline Cooney

Caroline Cooney is a very prolific author, mostly young adults, but manages to turn out surprisingly good books. Her family relationships and characterisation in particular are excellent, and mostly there is a strong plot. I don't like her horror books, or the simpler thriller books she writes for reluctant readers.

Family Reunion is one of her funnier books, especially recommended for those with embarrassing or irritating relations. I enjoyed it, even though stepmothers and divorce came into it - usually I get bored with teenagers emoting about their difficult times, but not with Cooney. Not quite as funny as Tune In Anytime, (one of the rare Cooney's with not very good parents), but definitely worth a re-read.

Family Reunion first published 1984