In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees live …
Although it is clearly drawing inspiration from Pinocchio, I still maintain the correct elevator pitch is John Connor × T-800 post-apocalypse. A sweet story, if you're the kind of person who enjoys asexual gay romance.
Although it is clearly drawing inspiration from Pinocchio, I still maintain the correct elevator pitch is John Connor × T-800 post-apocalypse. A sweet story, if you're the kind of person who enjoys asexual gay romance.
Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds …
Content warning
Not in detail, but not avoided
Pure wish-fulfillment, which is largely what I wanted and expected from this book. Emily Wilde, the implicitly autistic professor of faerie (the Folk) has not only won the heart of a fairy prince[1] and with her wits and daring won his kingdom for him, she is also through her understanding of their stories and her research skills uniquely poised to help him keep it against the next deadly peril that will present itself.
Technically we do as is traditional get some more of Wendell's writing, but only in the form of quotes from his letters—this time Emily is not incapacitated nor in need of rescuing at any point such that he would need to step in to cover the narration for her. In fact, she doesn't get her head spun by enchantments of the courtly fae or hostile fairy realms at any point in this story, even when Wendell isn't available to extend his protection to her, and I don't know whether she noticed that. Being an academically-tinged series I am hoping this is intentional and will be explored in future stories. In the meantime I am presuming this to be a perk of holding a fairy throne.
Perhaps it is because I don't read much romance, or perhaps because the fantasy mystery elements are presented in a way I find engaging—or because the narrator is relatable to me—but I am finding this series quite lovely. Would be nicer if it were queer rather than straight, although at least the two background couples are queer, and I could appreciate if it didn't move quite so quickly and delved deeper into politics and worldbuilding
I keep wanting to compare the Emily Wilde series with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. But they aren't exactly similar except for a few superficial elements. There just isn't anything more similar that I've read, including the handful of other romances.
[1] you don't have to have been striving for something to have won it
The #1 New York Times bestselling authors Preston & Child return with a thrilling tale …
Last of the series so far, and what feels like the end of an arc with one of the two co-leads finishing her probationary period at the FBI.
A couple of volumes ago we had a mystery with a decidedly science fictional resolution (which has had no discernable ongoing effect on the narrative; to my surprise this series remains determinedly self-contained). This time we get a supernatural mystery, so it seems any kind of solution is valid here. At the beginning I was hoping we were getting a monster story and I don't think this really counts. Perhaps next time. Surely New Mexico must have some kind of forgotten hibernating reptile or nest of venomous pterosaurs up in the mountains that people might stumble onto.
My remarks from the prior volumes continue to hold. Clean, functional writing. Short chapters, lots of cliffhangers. The kind of book that flies …
Last of the series so far, and what feels like the end of an arc with one of the two co-leads finishing her probationary period at the FBI.
A couple of volumes ago we had a mystery with a decidedly science fictional resolution (which has had no discernable ongoing effect on the narrative; to my surprise this series remains determinedly self-contained). This time we get a supernatural mystery, so it seems any kind of solution is valid here. At the beginning I was hoping we were getting a monster story and I don't think this really counts. Perhaps next time. Surely New Mexico must have some kind of forgotten hibernating reptile or nest of venomous pterosaurs up in the mountains that people might stumble onto.
My remarks from the prior volumes continue to hold. Clean, functional writing. Short chapters, lots of cliffhangers. The kind of book that flies by very fast. I will be reading more of them but I would hesitate to recommend them.
In 2008, nine mountaineers failed to return from a winter backpacking trip in the New …
Toned down a bit from Diablo Mesa, but still when I take a step back and think about it, very dramatic and I want to say florid except that the writing style remains functional. Being a little more down to earth, the author's note at the end explaining this novel as having been adapted from a true story, for which their movie deal fell through, made sense to me.
I found the reference to their own work in the "underappreciated" Ice Limit IV: Wormstorm cute. Along with reference to a few classic science fiction authors that made clear to me that yes, these are indeed meant as pulpy science fiction thrillers, not constrained to the mundane.
Also appreciated that the Corrie Swanson/Homer Watts relationship thread was resolved into "yes" (and again hoping we don't see forced conflict between them in the future, but I don't expect it), as …
Toned down a bit from Diablo Mesa, but still when I take a step back and think about it, very dramatic and I want to say florid except that the writing style remains functional. Being a little more down to earth, the author's note at the end explaining this novel as having been adapted from a true story, for which their movie deal fell through, made sense to me.
I found the reference to their own work in the "underappreciated" Ice Limit IV: Wormstorm cute. Along with reference to a few classic science fiction authors that made clear to me that yes, these are indeed meant as pulpy science fiction thrillers, not constrained to the mundane.
Also appreciated that the Corrie Swanson/Homer Watts relationship thread was resolved into "yes" (and again hoping we don't see forced conflict between them in the future, but I don't expect it), as well as Agent Sharp as Corrie's new mentor. I'm hoping we get at least one more book with him as her mentor before she graduates from probation. I am also feeling like I made a good choice starting with this spin-off series instead of going direct to the main Pendergast series (who I'll note hasn't felt the need to step in for the epilogue and tie things into a bow since The Scorpion's Tail), as we get to see Corrie Swanson learn what it is like to be an FBI agent as she experiences her own first cases. I can carry that perspective back into the older series later and see how it does or does not resonate with this.
Still not a fan that we tend to get the story all the way up to a dramatic confrontation, and then once the confrontation is dealt with we get something like an epilogue summary of what was later confirmed or discovered in the fallout to the case. I realise there isn't as much tension nor drama to be had in these, and it would probably sap a lot of momentum out of the books, but I am interested in that sort of careful forensic sifting through clues to bring the true story into focus.
But they are fun and fast reads. At the time I write this there remains one more in the series published, and I'm sure it won't take me too many more days to get through it.
This book did not go how I was expecting it to go. I had told others that Preston & Child thrillers had a reputation for getting a bit extravagant in their development and resolutions, but apparently I hadn't really believed it.
Which made this one more entertaining for me, I think. I spent about ⅔ of Diablo Mesa expecting it to be much like the atomic mystery of The Scorpion's Tail, and wondering just how the clues uncovered would be explained as having given a misleading impression. But, no, it went way out there. More-so than if Old Bones had featured the cannibal cults and ghosts that I had initially been expecting.
Having been lulled into a false sense of security after the first two books in the series featured more ordinary treasure hunts and conspiracies, I am curious to see how the next couple will follow on …
This book did not go how I was expecting it to go. I had told others that Preston & Child thrillers had a reputation for getting a bit extravagant in their development and resolutions, but apparently I hadn't really believed it.
Which made this one more entertaining for me, I think. I spent about ⅔ of Diablo Mesa expecting it to be much like the atomic mystery of The Scorpion's Tail, and wondering just how the clues uncovered would be explained as having given a misleading impression. But, no, it went way out there. More-so than if Old Bones had featured the cannibal cults and ghosts that I had initially been expecting.
Having been lulled into a false sense of security after the first two books in the series featured more ordinary treasure hunts and conspiracies, I am curious to see how the next couple will follow on from this one. Do we return to normalcy, or will it become (somehow) still more extravagant?
The writing is fast and functional, but I am entertained and mostly getting what I want out of these.
P.S. Corrie Swanson's prospective romance did make a reappearance here, but it seems we are taking a slow path on whether that goes anywhere. Nora Kelly, however, moves much faster. I was not expecting that one.
Content warning
vague tangential spoilers for the previous volume in the series, Old Bones
Much less spooky ghost story than Old Bones, much more open thriller. I did end up wondering how small the area it takes place in is, given all the near-daily travelling back and forth was going on. Some threads wrapped up a bit too neatly in the end and I think I am going to have to accept a bit of serendipity along the way if I keep reading these. But I am accustomed to going along with that in other detective stories.
Perhaps more surprisingly, a couple of threads in each of Old Bones and The Scorpion's Tail were not wrapped up, with the ambiguous matter of ghosts in the former and the provenance of Nora's knife in this volume. Although I certainly assumed when it came up that it was a gift from Pendergast for the times when adventure continued to find her, I did expect it to get addressed explicitly at some point. Perhaps that's a longer-term mystery, although I don't think so. Am also curious whether the sheriff Watts will prove to be a recurring member of the team, or even a romantic interest for Corrie, or if he is a one-off guest character.
