16th September 2024

A fascinating prequel to the Rivers of London series in which we visit prohibition-era New York, see the Nightingale in full action, and learn quite a lot of history too.

It’s not quite what I was expecting from seeing previous descriptions of this novella from the author, but I thoroughly enjoyed in nonetheless.

We meet up with a Bertie Wooster type character, a minor practitioner, who has popped over to New York for a while and found himself naturally living in privilege, for the most part. Until the Nightingale appears and sets him off on a complex and daring mission.

My favourite thing though was the amount I learnt about the era, and particularly how the authorities treated various subcultures, and how those communities acted in defiance. There’s a number of interesting realities slipped in between the fantastic that made it educational and entertaining.

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16th September 2024

Bob Mortimer’s sequel sees Gary make new friends and new enemies as he considers relocating to his girlfriend’s new hotel, while suffering the repercussions of the first novel.

It’s still funny and wacky and there’s some interesting bits to speculate and wonder about. But I think somewhere along the way it has lost the magic of the first novel. It feels almost a bit too purposeful and with direction, and lacking in the same sense of whimsy.

It wasn’t bad in any way in particular. I love the interactions with Gary’s squirrel friend still in particular. But just doesn’t quite tickle me in the same way.

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13th September 2024

I picked this up because I enjoyed the films, and found that the voice of the narration very easily defaults to Millie Bobbie Brown’s in my head too.

While it opens in line with the film, the plot soon diverges into a different, perhaps less thrilling direction, and I’m learning new story rather than old in another form.

I was surprised by how I wasn’t that well engaged with the narrative. I’m not sure what about it led to this, but I suppose a sense that it was being less dramatic than it could have been, and that there’s a repeated trope of running away which felt more reactive than proactive.

I had imagined at the start that if I enjoyed it, I would pick up the rest of the series to churn through, but in fact I feel quite content now sticking to watching the films.

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7th September 2024

This sequel to Children of Time has been sat on my shelf for over three years, and it’s been five years since I read the first book. Yet I found it easily to slip back into and read - easier than the first from what I can interpret from my notes.

This time out, we meet a different group of human terraformers, who are deep in space, each with their own side interests, when they make a startling discovery. In parallel we are in the future, continuing the journey of book one’s characters as they learn about what has happened elsewhere.

I was surprised by how readable I found it. I don’t know if this is a shift of tone from the first book, or if I just don’t remember. But it’s relatively light, there’s a lot of little moments of humour dropped into the narrative, and moving between time periods and points of view is made very easy for the reader.

I certainly found it compelling enough that I will look out for a copy of book three, although the length might mean I put off reading it for another five years.

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31st August 2024

I was surprised that the reading order has meant that it’s three years since I read the previous book in this series, but I needed something quick and fun to dispel the disappointment of the book I read before this one.

It took me a good moment to get back into the plot and work out what was going on. I was surprised to find myself encounter some older familiar characters returning, and I’m not sure whether that made it more or less fun. It definitely gave a slightly different flavour to the series having a 21-year-old protagonist for part of the narrative instead of a teenager, and that’s led to one questionable scene.

Overall though Muchamore continues his trend of writing a solidly believable story about teenagers. It includes all the lust, moping, as well as convincing spy activity and training, that just makes his world make sense.

I got the enjoyment I was looking for revisiting this world, and am glad I picked it for that purpose.

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24th August 2024

I’ve been wanting to read this ever since it was published. It came with a massive publicity campaign which couldn’t possibly have missed me.

It’s the story of a vampire hunter, told by himself, in conversation with a historian who is also a vampire. Or at least it is for the opening few chapters that I got through before giving up.

I found the format really hard going. The choice of language is a bit weird - sort of slightly archaic but with random drops of repeated French phrasing, and occasional crude references dropped in that do nothing to make the narration seem likeable. And then the fact that the whole thing is verbal, in quote marks, and occasionally ally interrupted. Really breaks up the flow and makes it hard to focus on the actual story being told.

I had hoped after that format of introduction that it would settle down to a more normal narrative, but that’s didn’t happen in the next few chapters. Add to this that the font is really small, and there are 700+ pages, and I’m afraid there really wasn’t enough enjoyment to continue.

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24th August 2024

This short novel follows the small crew of an exploratory space vessel visiting several exo-planets. Each chapter is like a novella covering their time at a different destination.

It’s a lot more focussed on the science than previous Chambers novels that I’ve read, but that’s doesn’t stop it from having a compelling narrator/protagonist, and complex set of supporting characters, and a solid plot to build them around.

I enjoyed this brief visit to a new Chambers universe. She manages to build fascinating worlds with subtlety and utter believability that fill the reader with the wonder that the characters experience.

Looking forward to more of her books as I can find them.

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