Uncategorized – Sceptical Reading

This is the last book in the Hell's Library trilogy. Even days after finishing it, and I savoured it slowly, I am still what the title says: lost for words that is, not a God/dess; just in case you were wondering. It's the perfect ending to the trilogy. Claire, Hero, Brevity, and Rami are trying to save the Library from falling into the clutches of Hell's demons. The dream team have to outsmart Malphas by showing a united force to be able to save the Library of the Unwritten, or face obliteration. Hackwith poured her love for her characters and books into this story. She wrapped up this truly unique trilogy nicely, giving it a fitting ending.

It's 1606. James VI/I sits on the British throne. Daniel Pursglove sits in his majesty's prison suspected of performing witchcraft. On the anniversary of the foiled Gunpowder Plot a huge tidal wave destroys large parts of Bristol. Enter Charles FitzAlan, close adviser to the king, who offers Daniel a chance to win his freedom. Daniel is to go to Bristol to find one of the members of the Gunpowder Plot who managed to escape arrest and is now recruiting Jesuits. Unfortunately, the pace of the book is rather slow, and the verbose descriptions -although creating a wonderful atmosphere- slog down the story further.

Just one year later, 1607, and paranoid Kind James sends Daniel to infiltrate a Catholic household that is said to be full of supporters of the pope; among them the traitor Daniel already pursuit in the first book. Soon the bodies start piling up and Daniel is determined to uncover the killer, in a house where no one is who they pretend to be. The second book in this series couldn't hold my attention to the end. I kept skimming pages, because of the slow pace. The writing is good, but too descriptive for my taste.

Against all odds, the summer reading list actually worked for TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle. I thought I would discard the idea a few books, or days, into summer, but surprisingly I stuck to it. It definitely worked far better than monthly or weekly TBRs, probably because it left enough breathing space for whatever caught my eye. I’m a mood-reader after all.

My favourite read this summer was, as regular readers of the blog might be able to guess, The Chronicles of St Mary’s series by Jodi Taylor; the first book, Just One Damned Thing After Another, was on my summer TBR list and I just couldn’t stop after finishing the first book.

Another series I really enjoyed was The Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal. I obviously have a penchant for strong female main characters.

There were a few DNF books, as was to be expected. When you read more than 350 books a year, not all can be a winner.

The Lady Duck of Doom also read quite a lot of her reading list, but did not manage to read everything she wanted. Some books, like The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan and The Outside by Ada Hoffman got pushed back to my autumn TBR, and some wandered back onto the shelf, ready for another time.

At the moment, my mood tends to science fiction with a lot of action, and I really enjoyed the last book that I read for summer reading: A Big Ship at the End of the Universe by Alex White. It had some really nice characters, too, and I already put the second book in the series, A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy, on my winter reading list.

For TheMarquessMagpie, the summer reading list was also quite the success. Sticking to reading lists is quite the new development. Out of 20 books on the list, I managed to get through 15. Most of the rest has been pushed back because I didn’t want to start yet another series while so many are still waiting to be finished. I learned my lesson for the autumn list.

The most rewarding books were certainly Iron Gold and Dark Age by Pierce Brown. Besides enjoying great worldbuilding, a complex cast of characters, military and politic plots with high stakes and a wonderful writing style, you also feel quite proud after these 600 and 700-page behemoths.