Reviews and Comments

Bardas Loredan, ex fencer-at-law and former commander, puts his exceptional skills to work as a sapper, and suddenly finds himself a hero of the Empire and is thusly rewarded.

Some characters return, some fade away. A lot of battles. Some interesting bits on armour. Slightly bittersweet ending. Bardas continues to suffer at the pen of Parker. Must admit I liked this one less than the previous two, and I’d have liked a somewhat more definitive dénouement. Also realised I definitely prefer Parker’s protagonists when they are both the main character and a very shifty individual.

When the Church of the Invincible Sun needs dirty deeds done Sister Svangerd heeds the call. This time all she needs to do is help her pet priest steal a book. Easy, right?

Second in the Loyal Opposition series, wherein Svangerd and her priest continue her adventures and his travails. Svangerd remains a delightful foil to her long-suffering and constant sidekick. The story is fine, but Parker writing about tech, forgery, creating convoluted personas, etc. is spectacular. I absolutely adore the bits where his protagonist digs in and explains how it all works. It’s utterly believable, and I never tire of it. I just wish there was more. Will happily read the final book.

She is royalty, he is clad in underwear, together they’re taking on the Over City.

Carl and Donut’s escapades continue, now past the “training levels”, the real challenges lie before them. While I still find Donut charming, her catness seems to be waning, what with how caring she appears to be around virtual strangers. I’m still not personally convinced by the LitRPG genre, finding it slightly tedious at times.

Bardas Loredan, fencer-at-law, contemplates retirement completely unaware of the various forces conspiring against him, specifically. Personally, even.

Interesting book with overlapping viewpoints of various characters, some of which who are directly working against one another. Perimadeia, the city where most of the book takes place, has an absolutely fascinating system of law and lawyers.

Lacks the shifty narrator I’ve come to associate with Parker books, but I still found it a very enjoyable read. First in the series, and I’d definitely be finishing the Fencer trilogy.

High Queen of Faerie, yet exiled to the mortal realm, Jude is determined to reclaim what is hers.

I liked this even less than the previous one. The protagonist continues to be annoyingly overwrought, and her decisions continue to be tediously unsurprising. This wasn’t a particularly satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, nor was the “romance” in any way interesting or believable. Again, this book is not in any way written for someone like me and that is fine. I just think this genre probably has more captivating and compelling examples to offer.

Something strange is happening at the boarding house run by Miss Lemon’s sister, Poirot decides to find the answers.

Unsatisfying mystery with unnecessary twists, and almost no Poirot, and can probably win the award for most tenuously titled Christie novel. It’s.… not good, rapidly deteriorating into an inane, and tedious mess.

Jude continues her machinations to ensure the future of Faerie.

I enjoyed this less than the first book in the series. I suppose there was more political intrigue, but it all felt a little tedious. The “romance” fizzled completely for me. I suppose it’s to be seen as a slow burn, but they should both cut their losses and move on, seriously. Betrayal, turn-around, comeuppances, it’s all in here, but I’m just not invested enough to actually care very much. Only one book left, so will finish the series.

A pair of MBI detectives are sent to Money, Mississippi, to investigate a series of brutal murders, where each crime scene also appears to have an unexpected second body.

I feel somewhat ambivalent about this novel. It’s well-written, and interesting, but ultimately felt a bit unresolved. I’m sure I missed certain things that had I been more steeped in US culture I’d understand differently or better. Everett has a lot of fun with the character names, and it was a treat every time someone new entered the chat.

It’s a gruesome novel, and unfolds differently than first expected. I went in cold, then quickly realised The Trees is much more layered than a straight crime novel. While I didn’t dislike it, and will read more Everett, I suspect I started on a high point by reading James first.

They want sainthood, he wants freedom and belonging, sie wants protection and safety for a loved one, while she simply wants everything to stop going horribly wrong.

A delightful return to the Imperial Raadch universe in which Leckie shows us a small corner of the Raadch Empire during events previously detailed in the original trilogy.

Lots of politicking and Raachai incomprehension in the face of local customs. Plenty of genders, accompanied this time by a variety of religious practices. I took my time with this to savour it, and my only quibble (this is me problem) is that, unusually for a Leckie work, I failed to find a character to glom on to and adore unabashedly.

A disgraced historian who makes a living creating fake provenances discovers an intriguing puzzle.

The Orb of Cairado features a new protagonist, Ulcetha Zhorvena, a disgraced historian, and seems to be set around the time of The Goblin Emperor. A nice story, though short, and definitely in the same vein as the Thara Celehar books. For some reason I didn’t find it as engaging as the books featuring Celehar. I’ll be rereading it because I suspect my lack of engagement had little to do with the book itself.

A young Locke is sent off with strict instructions from Father Chains, and he tries oh, so hard, to follow them.

Novella taking us back to Camorr for a summer of storms, wherein our hero needs to behave himself. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy the world Lynch has built for the Gentleman Bastards series, so this was a lovely, albeit brief, return. I prefer Lynch’s novels, finding the format better suited to his writing. He just doesn’t have the space to do that thing he does so well in such a small space. I’ll not turn down any new story featuring Locke Lamora though!