So I haven’t read The Hallowed Hunt yet, but I will probably this summer. But otherwise, I don’t find the World of the Five Gods to be particularly funny. But luckily this book was funny, and it reminded me of how funny a lot of the Vorkosigan Saga is. Even the more serious books like Memory or Barryar have their moments, but the outright comedies like Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance and A Civil Campaign are not only funny, but constructed like comedies, where the stakes can be real but ultimately work […]
Fitz is a fool
I don’t often read 600 pages in a day, but when I do I’m sat by a pool in 85 degree heat and it’s a book starring FitzChivalry Farseer. An incredibly welcome return to the world of Fitz and the Fool (how I’ve missed them!) sees us catch up with Fitz – now Tom Badgerlock – decades after their last outings. Now in his sixties, even if he looks half that thanks to the super skill healing he received last time around, Tom has settled […]
We are not all heroes
I was inspired to write this review by this tweet. YA is an interesting genre. Nix’s previous books (which I adore) have given us a very typical YA heroines. They are morally clear, they have self doubt which they work through, and they are generally good. In Clariel – which a lot of Nix fans didn’t like – we don’t get that. Clariel is a prequel to Sabriel – Nix’s first “Old Kingdom” book. It’s set a couple of hundred years in the past. Clariel […]
Mortal Engines
Steampunk interests me. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I’ve enjoyed several steampunk films I’ve seen. Mortal Engines was the first steampunk novel I’ve read. When I first picked it up I had no idea that it was a steampunk motif. Halfway through it suddenly dawned on me that this is what a lot of people talk about when they say a steampunk novel. Mortal Engines is set in the post-apocalyptic future where cities are movable and travel around devouring one another […]