Tag: SceptreSummer Page 1 of 2

… when I am thinking about which skein of yarn I’ll have to turn into a pair of woollen socks, because it’s getting cold outside.

This summer hasn’t been very summery and it seems to have turned into autumn already. As I’ve mentioned last month already, this has definitely boosted my reading.

In August I read a lot of ARCs, see my quick reviews of a few of them here and here, and I re-read some comfort reads. That’s probably why I haven’t made any big reading plans for September so far. I have been thinking about making an autumn reading list though, I could add the few books left from my summer reading list. Planned for the immediate future is Pratchett’s Going Postal, since the #OokBOokClub on Litsy is discussing this next week. My other book club decided on reading Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, which is on the Booker longlist and supposed to be a very un-Booker book – so I’ve been told. It might very well be the first Booker book I’ll be reading.

What I’m longing to read is a book with a surprising plot twist. I can most often see a plot twist from miles away, despite lack of foreshadowing. That’s probably the current main reason why I’m re-reading books, or read romance novels; I know what I am in for and my brain can take a stroll for once. I am an over-thinker and I have a very hard time reading a book without thinking about its continuity, possible plot twists, etc. I am my own worst enemy, I spoil the plot/fun for myself. Most books I read this summer couldn’t surprise me. I’m not saying that they were bad, but once in a while I’d like to say “I did not see that coming!” Which book(s) surprised you with unexpected plot twists?

Better go do some stash diving for the perfect yarn. Can’t think of anything more relaxing than a comfort read on my headphones while I’m turning a ball of soft wool into a pair of reading socks right now. Even if I don’t encounter a plot twist in the book I’m listening too, I’m sure I’ll manage to twist the yarn I’m working with.

Quick Reviews for July ’21

By TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle

On August 2, 2021

In 42, A Game of Tropes, Freezer Books, Keep it short, Reviews

Without further ado, here are short reviews of books I’ve read this month.

How to Mars by David Ebenbach: A group of six scientists, three women, three men, won seats on a one way trip to Mars. They’ll be the heroes of a new reality TV show. And it is just as boring as it sounds. Even after two of them broke the cardinal rule of not having sex and managed to get pregnant. The book tried to be funny, but it wasn’t. The story was mainly about pregnancy and childbirth on Mars. 2/5 Harpy Eagles

Dustborn by Erin Bowman: Delta, the MC of this YA novel, will bring change. That’s clear from her name alone. An interesting mix of Mad Max Fury Road and Waterworld. Delta, needing to protect her pack/herd (why not tribe? are they animals?), has to go looking for the promised land; that land where there’s water and lots of plants and no one goes thirsty or hungry. Luckily she has a map on her skin. 1/5 Harpy Eagles

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: They say third time is the charm. Not when it comes to certain things, though. This was my third book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and I still don’t really gel with her writing style. I couldn’t connect to the female MC, she was too naive for me. And I still can’t believe she never tried her telekinesis when she was a child. Who wouldn’t do that? 2/5 Harpy Eagles

The Final Girl Support Club by Grady Hendrix: Another book that was not for me. Not because I don’t like slasher films, but because I just couldn’t connect to the MC. Furthermore, the book soon felt like a Thelma&Louise kind of road trip to me, and that’s definitely not my jam. 2/5 Harpy Eagles

It’s that time of the month…

By TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle

On July 31, 2021

In A Day in the Life of a Bookdragon

…when I am not thinking about much. School summer holidays are such a blissful time. No getting up at the break of dawn, no chasing the kids to bed at a certain time, and only a hand full of appointments to keep during the week.

You know what that means. Lots of time to spend with the kids and travel, or laze at the pool, and complaining about not getting enough pages read. Unfortunately, or fortunately?, the weather didn’t play along so far. We haven’t travelled much, but we’ve bought and read books. And yes, I have managed to read a lot this month; and bought a lot of books.

As you might have read already, I was time travelling a lot. But I’ve also read some romance, went to late 19th century England and Darjeeling with Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey to solve mysteries, and went to the moon to solve some kind of locked room – locked lunar station – mystery with Robinette-Kowal’s Lady Astronauts [review to come].

It’s no secret that I love words and their origins, yet my non-fiction read about the origins of Nine Nasty Words wasn’t what I expected. The fictional story about a girl growing up alongside the Oxford English Dictionary and noticing that not all words of the English language made the cut, though was fairly good. [Short reviews of both these books can be found in my Summer Reading List update.]

Right now I am learning about the language of cults with Amanda Montell’s Cultish. I enjoyed her Wordslut very much last year and so far, about 20% in, Cultish doesn’t disappoint either. I’ve managed to read the first paragraph of Karen Coles’ The Asylum, a book club read for August. And I’ve started on Joanne Harris’s Orfeia. Furthermore I still have a few St Mary’s stories ahead of me; sadly, only a few.

Plans for August? Reading! As I’ve mentioned in my Summer Reading List update, I have a few books to read from the list left – I managed to tick two more off, though. Although I have kept away from requesting more ARCs this month, I have been invited by publishers to review a few books – Thank you very much! – which I’ll try to get to in August. Emphasis on try. There’s the usual Pratchett book for the Litsy.com #OokBOokClub, which is still running until November 2023; we’re reading A Hat Full of Sky right now and will dive into Going Postal next. And then there are those books that are tempting me from the sidelines, or TheLadyDuckOfDoom’s and TheMarquessMagpie’s current reading lists.

What about you? Any good books read recently? Any bookish plans for the next month(s)?

Sceptre Summer Reading List Update – The Rt. Hon. Harpy Eagle Edition

By TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle

On July 22, 2021

In A Day in the Life of a Bookdragon, Reviews

When I wrote that list, inspired by TheLadyDuckOfDoom’s example, I thought this would work the same way all of my attempts at TBRs do: down the drain within days. Fortunately, I was wrong. Now, about six weeks into my summer reading, I have only seven books left on the list; there were twenty-three to start with. Should be doable by the end of summer – when’s that exactly?

Did I really read all of the other books on the list to the last page? No, I bailed on two so far.

The first that I gave up on: Nine Nasty Words. I did not like the writing style, the hilariousness felt forced. Not to mention that my perception of what are nasty words is different from that of the author. I have a potty mouth IRL, but I am dialing it down for the people around me. Furthermore, I didn’t agree to the way some of the research was presented and what kind of conclusions the author drew. One of my issues was, e.g., that the author compared the spelling and use of that nasty F word at the times of William the Conqueror (that’s late 11^th century for non-history nerds) to the spelling and use of its 20^th century German counterpart. Poor form for a linguistics professor.

The second book I gave up on was The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking. I want it to be noted here that I did not give up because the book was bad, I gave up because I had somehow completely forgotten that the book was middle-grade. I might pick it up again at a later time, when I am in the mood for some really light reading.

Kit Rocha’s Deal with the Devil was absolutely not what I had expected. I thought I’d read about bad-ass mercenary librarians fighting for books. What I got was a dystopian romance with enhanced and cloned humans who have some sizzling between the sheets action.

The Dictionary of Lost Words, on the other hand, was really interesting. Based on historic events and the real events leading to the first publication of the Oxford English Dictionary, the author Pip Williams wove a fictional story about the forgotten female words in the dictionary. A story of growing up, of heartbreak, and finding your true self among the words of the dictionary.

Definite hits on my Summer Reading List have been The Calculating Stars, The Thief and Just One Damned Thing After Another. The only thing that kept me from binge-reading each of the series was starting the next series; which, of course, means that I got stuck on The Chronicles of St Mary’s with unfathomable consequences.

Now I am looking forward to the remaining seven books. I’ll be travelling to Mars (How To Mars) and outer space (Prime Deceptions), might meet the Rabbit Queen (Mary Toft; or the Rabbit Queen), learn about butterflies (The Butterfly Effect), and will hopefully find out who The Daughter of the Salt King is and Why Swearing Is Good For You, and eventually dive into the Octunummi. Not necessarily in this order, though.

Give me a break

By TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle

On July 8, 2021

In 42, A Game of Tropes, Reviews

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace, published 04 May 2021.

This action packed, gaming dystopia, in a world where two corporations are at war with each other and the general population has to suffer from it is good, but nothing outstanding. The cover is great, though.

Unfortunately, the whole book reads like YA in the vein of Divergent, the few added “fucks” don’t elevate it to adult Sci-Fi.

The MC is an orphan, she lost her parents in the war when she was eight. She’s an introvert, yet needs to broadcast her gaming stream to earn money. She helps strangers, but is bristly towards her friends – she shares her hotel room home with eight other people. When she finds information about one of the corporations at war, she’s the only one who … yada yada yada

2/5 Harpy Eagles

Armchair Time-Travelling with St Mary’s

By TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle

On July 7, 2021

In 42, Adventurer's Guide, Reviews

Oh, excuse me. That’s wrong. The highly secretive St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research doesn’t do time travel, they ‘investigate major historical events in contemporary time’. The historians of the institute are to observe and document, otherwise History will right itself (by erasing them). Add a bunch of eccentric scientists, technicians and engineers who like to blow things up on a regular basis, and you have a fun romp through time. In the case of this first book in the series, Jodi Taylor’s Just One Damned Thing After Another, the catastrophes stretch from Norman conquest England, to France during World War I, the Cretaceous Period and the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria – mind you, that wasn’t St Mary’s doing, though they tried their best.

If you’re into history, and explosions, mayhem, snarky characters, an extra portion British humour, lots of tea and even more booze, this is the series for you.

Jodi Taylor definitely did her homework in preparation to this book. Honestly, she even knows how to distinguish whether a British person has Saxon or Norman ancestry, something only history nerds know. [Yes, I knew before I read the book; guess that’s saying enough.]

5/5 Harpy Eagles – queue the next book, please.

PS: Yes, I noticed the parallels to the TV series Timeless – which I binged with my daughter ages ago – but I venture that St Mary’s was first and is better.

The Acronyms are back

By TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle

On July 7, 2021

In 42, Reviews

Or in other words, I’ve read the sequel to The Rise and Fall of the D.O.D.O. This time Nicole Galland did not co-author with Neal Stephenson, but wrote Master of the Revels with his blessings. It was published 23 February 2021.

The first book in this series was my first BuddyRead with TheLadyDuckOfDoom. I enjoyed the book very much and had been looking forward to a sequel ever since. To pass the time until said sequel might hit the shelves, I listened to the short stories, or rather DEDEs, of The D.O.D.O. Files on the Bound App.

Master of the Revels picks up right where DODO left off. Tristan, Mel, Frank, Rebecca, and the rest of the small team that had been cast out of the original D.O.D.O. programme have made Frank and Rebecca’s house their headquarters and are trying to stop Gráinne from changing history.

Gráinne’s latest plan to prevent the evolution of modern technology involves changing the witch scene(s) in Shakespeare’s Macbeth by adding real, very dangerous spells. Of course, Mel and Tristan are trying their best to prevent this, which results in the reader spending time with Will Shakespeare, and the titular Master of the Revels, Edmund Tilney, in Jacobean London.

I enjoyed this sequel, including the brush up on Shakespearean London. In fact, I couldn’t put it down and read it until the small hours of the morning. Still, there are a few things that I didn’t like about the book.

Mainly, the lack of help for some of the characters on DEDE who have gone AWOL felt strange. I’m not spoiling the story beyond what you can find in the blurb and in the pre-published prologue; contrary to all the rescue attempts we’ve seen in DODO, nobody seems to be too stressed to look into the missing DOer(s). Their absence is noted, and is fretted about, but it seems to be the opportune moment to introduce new and other characters’ stories. We know why Frank is absent, from the prologue, but not even Rebecca seems to be too worried about it at first; until she vanishes without further explanations. Tristan’s not reporting back leads to his new-to-the-whole-thing-but-Shakespearean-actress sister to be sent to 1606 to make sure the ‘cursed’ play turns out right. These plot holes are mildly annoying, especially since I am sure the reasons for the longer than planned absences will not or cannot be explained in the next sequel.

4/5 Harpy Eagles

Ghosthunting in Edinburgh

By TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle

On July 6, 2021

In 42, Beyond Mother Goose, Reviews

T.L. Huchu’s The Library of the Dead, published 04 February 2021, is the first book in a new Urban Fantasy series set in a post-apocalyptic(?) Edinburgh.

Ropa is a 15 year old ‘ghostalker'[sic], which means she talks to ghosts and delivers their messages to friends and family within the city limits of Edinburgh. From time to time she dabbles in exorcism too. When a charity case ghost asks her to find her lost son, Ropa finds herself in the middle of a scheme that she can only solve with the help of old and new friends.

I liked most of the world-building, though I would have liked to know more about how Edinburgh, or Great Britain, or even the world, ended up being what it is right now. It’s hinted at only very vaguely. The titular Library of the Dead also only makes up a small part of the story and I would have liked to see much more of it. I hope it gets a bigger part in the sequel(s).

This is a fast paced story that’s taking you through the streets of Edinburgh, with a fun group of characters. Potential YA readers might be stumped by the 80s and 90s pop culture references throughout the book. I’m still curious to know how young Ropa – in a time sometime in the future(?) – came to know all those things.

3.5/5 Harpy Eagles; I’ll give it 3 Goodreads stars though, because I wanted more background knowledge to the world and wanted to see more of the library.

Astronettes? Lady Astronauts? Astronauts!

By TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle

On June 24, 2021

In 42, Adventurer's Guide, Audio Feedback, Reviews

Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut Universe series is the latest rabbit hole I fell down. Or should I say a black hole that drew me in? Three main works have been published so far, as well as two novellas. Book four will hopefully hit the shelves next year.

I’d wanted to read The Calculating Stars for some time but the audiobook kept gathering dust on my TBR. After listening to The Original, co-authored by MRK, I decided to not ignore it any longer.

In this alternate history the fate of humanity is threatened shortly after the end of World War II. This time not by war, but by a meteorite, which hits the east coast of the United States of America. The impact is similar to the one that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, and doesn’t bode well for humanity. Colonising space might be the only option for humanity’s survival.

Elma York, a child prodigy with two doctorates and former pilot in WWII, is at the heart of this series. She’s working as a computer for the International Aerospace Coalition to help bring the first man to space. But with her skills as a pilot she soon wonders, why she can’t become an astronaut, too. Women will be needed in space colonisation sooner rather than later. Which leads her to notice that not only women are left out of the space programme.

This character driven story uses the sexism and racism of the 1950s and 1960s, sprinkles a good portion of humour, lots of ambition, some grief and heart break, and character flaws on it and out comes a story with characters to root for.

Without wanting to give away too much about the content of the sequel novel, The Fated Sky, let me just tell you, I bought book two and three (The Relentless Moon) right after finishing The Calculating Stars.

The Fated Sky reminded me, in part, of Weir’s Martian and Artemis – in part! Yet, it is it’s own unique story about the possible colonisation of Moon and Mars, including months of space travel with all its obvious dangers, but far more interesting and gross are the not so obvious dangers, like regurgitating vacuum toilets. I’m looking forward to the third book in the series, but I am pacing myself a bit, because the fourth book, The Martian Contingency, won’t be published before 2022.

The audiobooks are narrated by the author herself. Something that I enjoy very much in general and enjoyed with this series in particular. MRK does an excellent job giving Elma and her friends and foes a unique voice.

Lastly, I’d like to point out that I truly appreciate all the research that MRK put into the series to represent science and history as accurately as possible. I especially enjoyed the lengthy acknowledgements and lists of bibliography at the end of the books, which probably only represents a fraction of what the author actually learned and looked up.

5/5 Harpy Eagles for The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky

Quest to steal a stone

By TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle

On June 23, 2021

In Adventurer's Guide, Audio Feedback, Buddyreads, Dungeons & Bookdragons, Reviews

The Thief the first book in The Queen’s Thief series by Meghan Whalen Turner, published 27 December 2005. TheLadyDuckOfDoom and myself had this book on our #SeptreSummer reading lists and we accidentally on purpose read it at the same time; or rather we listened to it (see below).

Gen is a thief, currently in prison for stealing from the royal court and then unwisely boasting about it in a tavern.

The king’s magus needs something found, a trinket from the gods, and he needs a master thief to help him find it. So he dregs Gen out of prison and onto a horse and the quest begins.

Like all good quests to find hidden treasure this is a journey through enemy territory, dangerous terrain and with travelling companions who can’t stand each other. It could be very boring, if it wasn’t for the stories of the old gods and goddesses they tell each other to while away the time on the road.

Although the stories might be inspired by the myths, stories and the countryside around the Mediterranean, this series is not a retelling of any myths, it is set in its own fantasy world and has its own unique voice and plot.

Some reviewers classify this novel and series as Young Adult. I’m not so sure about this. The protagonist might be on the younger side and is often described as a boy and not a grown man yet, though the story reads far more mature than your average YA fantasy. Probably because the usual tropes, like chosen one, love triangle, etc, are missing.

The narration by Steve West is excellent and was the main reason for me to pick this book up as an audiobook. In fact, it was so good that I hopped from book 1, to book 2 The Queen of Attolia, book 3 The Kind of Attolia, and books 4 and 5, A Conspiracy of Kings and Thick as Thieves.

4/5 Harpy Eagles

4/5 Duckies