Altered Carbon recently became a Netflix series, so I decided to do it the wrong way round – I watched and then read it. I know there’s more in the series, so I wanted to see if I liked the writing style so that I could explore further. In the world of Altered Carbon, people’s memories are stored in their “stacks”, in the back of their necks. People’s bodies are a “sleeve”, and those wealthy enough can rent sleeves, clone them, alter them, etc. Those […]
Michael Connolly gets his two detectives together
Dark Sacred Night is the first time Ballard and Bosch get together, but I’m not sure if they are greater together. At this point, Bosch is dealing with the ramifications of a previous case, where he met and became close to a drug addict who is haunted by her daughter’s death. Ballard is working solo for the whole book, as her partner is on leave. I’m not sure it would be possible to read this book out of sequence – knowing the background for both […]
Crime solving in Echo Park
Michael Connelly’s Bosch series are really enjoyable crime novels – Bosch is a detective who works really hard and is determined to solve crimes, even to the extent of being haunted by unsolved cases that are decades old. While the crimes can be unpleasant, Connelly doesn’t seem to relish his victims’ pain, and the detective shows appropriate disgust and disquiet when dealing with them. An insight is given to the police system, and how different politics can affect law enforcement. I’ve read a number of Bosch […]
#swordbae may be hot, but he’s not great at resolving conflict
I really enjoyed A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole when I read it last year, and promptly read A Duke by Default. Rereading it over New Year crystallised a few things for me, so this is a spoiler-riffic review, with some mild criticism. Background – the story is about Portia, who applies to apprentice in Scotland to make swords, and promptly falls for Tavish, the sword craftsman. While updating the business’ website, she researches more about the area and the ancient building it is […]