Books help us anchor our souls, or re-anchor them; particularly for us, the left-handed, given the things we have to do.

Abhorsen is one of my favorite series, full stop. The Keys to the Kingdom were … weird? But I remembered liking them well enough. And I haven’t been back to The Seventh Tower in years (since I started writing reviews). But somehow in there I managed to miss seeing the Left-Handed Booksellers of London.

It’s a fun older, lighter style of urban fantasy, set in 1980s London. You have magical booksellers, a missing parent (who of course is going to be magical), and all manner of mysteries, beasties, and mysterious beasties. On top of that, some delightful side characters (Merlin St. Jacques is my favorite) and some magically described scenes.

I think Merlin has explained to you that the mythic landscape is layered, and usually quite local. Entities and environments are generally confined to a particular geographic area and often also to particular times of day or night, phases of the moon, that sort of thing. Even weather, as with the things that come out after rain, or only when it snows. And they are bound by custom and lore to behave in certain ways, to do certain things, and of course these days are mostly dormant anyway.

I enjoyed this book. It’s not up to the level of Sabriel and it’s sequels, but it was a fun read and I’m glad to have found it. And I am curious where the apparent sequel might go, which is always a good sign.

Fantasy writers, they’re the bane of our existence!

Onward!

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

I don’t really need to review the Hobbit. It’s a delightful book and you’ve probably already read it. If you haven’t, you should.

What I can do though is highly HIGHLY recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis (the voice of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies). Oh, he’s good. And not just as Gollum, but as everyone.

I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.'

I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!

In The Quantum Magician, Bel pulled off the ultimate heist and changed everything. In The Quantum Garden, we got a sort of sequel-prequel, that sort of kind of answered how that all came to be (time travel is weird). Finally now, in The Quantum Evolution, we’re starting to get some of the effects.

It turns out that by showing off his Quantum MAGIC!(tm), Bel has brought quite a lot more attention than he ever intended to Homo Quantus. And now everone wants a piece of him and his.

The characters still drive teh book. Bel and Cass remain Bel and Cas. Stills remains delightfully crass. I was delighted to see Marie again.

And then… the Puppets. That’s quite the weird, uncomfortable part of these books and it’s even more to the fore in this one. It’s … probably worth something to have read it?

If this is the last book, it’s a weird one. There’s a big epic conclusion, but it doesn’t feel completely earned. The stakes are higher than ever, but it doesn’t feel particularly ’new’ this time.

Overall, the first book is the best. The next two are worth reading. And I would probably read a fourth. But for now… onward!

Dark Queen did quite a lot to shake up the world, so it’s about time to step back a bit and take a breath. After all, there’s no better time than Jane’s managing to really screw things up with her magic (finally) and is dying.

So now we have Shattered Bonds. The vampire world reeling, Jane dying and back in the mountains, and a new bigger badder big bad on the prowl.

At this points, things are all at once wrapping up (only 2 books left after this one!) and escalating to something bigger. I’m not a huge fan of Jane’s new place in the supernatural world, but even then I think it’s being dealt with in interesting ways.

My favorite part of this book? The continued melding of Jane and Beast.

Well, isn’t that just ducky.

Is not ducks, Beast thought. Is vampires.

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The Quantum Magician was a wonderful bit of scifi worldbuilding and technology wrapped around a heist novel. Future tech harnessing time travel and the forces driving the inflation of the universe and you have to sneak it right through a wormhole and maybe steal it all on the way.

I had no idea how to top that… but was curious to see.

Turns out… time travel.

It’s a risky choice. Time travel at a small scale can be a lot of fun. It helps you pull off heists after all. And yet… when you try to make it significantly larger, you really have to deal with the question: how does time travel work in this universe?

Well… it’s never entirely answered. Things get all sorts of quantum and fuzzy. Effects proceed causes (and sometimes you get neat little loops with no original cause at all). Other than that, I’ll let you see how they deal with it all.

I do still love the side characters the most. We get more Scarecrow, which is fascinating. And of course Stills and anti-piss (you’ll just have to see it).

Overall, the first book is stronger. But this one has some fascinating ideas and I’m happy to get the chance to live in this world for just a few hours longer. Onward to see if it can be done–one more time. 😄

Yeah, this definitely fits this year’s ‘Judge A Book By Its Cover’ on the [[2024 Book Bingo]]. I mean… look at it! I love the title and have a soft spot for the illustrated manuscript style.

And then on top of that, it’s actually quite a delightful book as well. Win win!

I mention this because that’s how the world changes. It’s either so quick that we never know what hit us, or so gradual that we don’t notice.

In a nutshell, it’s the story of an alternate history Earth. Take a roughly medieval european tech level empire and an army corps of engineers (they build bridges) out on their own. Add a force somehow conquering everything, leaving said engineers really the only remaining hope. And then stick them in a city, the only hope to hold off against a siege.

But what really shines (for me–and your milage really may vary on this one) is the tone. The main character is competant (perhaps too much so at times) and wonderfully snarky.

I have strong views about not tempting providence and, as a wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it.

Things that have always been done? About to be undone–in the name of defending the city.

My belief is, either you understand things or you understand people. Nobody can do both. Frankly, I’m happier with things. I understand stuff like tensile strength, shearing force, ductility, work hardening, stress, fatigue. I know the same sort of things happen with people, but the rules are subtly different. And nobody’s ever paid for my time to get to know about people.

Yeah… he knows people better than he claims.

The people turn out to be—well, people; a collective noun for all those individual men and women, none of them perfect, some of them downright vicious, most of them monumentally stupid. As stupid as the emperor, the great hereditary lords, the priestly hierarchs, the General Staff and the Lords of the Admiralty, the merchant princes and the organised crime barons.

Anyways. You’ll know right away if you like this book or not. I loved it. Give it a try.

Of the people, by the people, for the people. I can’t remember offhand where that quote comes from; it was something to do with some bunch of wild-eyed idealists overthrowing the tyrant so they could become tyrants themselves. No good will have come of it, you can be sure. The people; God help us.

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No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

A haunted house? Let’s do SCIENCE!

Well, that’s the claim. Mostly, it’s a vehicle to get all our main characters in one place, plus a bit of conflict later on.

Other than that, we have character introductions. They’re some weird folks–the best kind for these stories. And then the house as character. It’s impressive how you can get such a feel for a place with only minimal (initial) description. And then the caretakers of the house. Quite the characters those two are.

And then… things get creepy. There’s little jumping out of the page to scare you. It’s not that sort of story. But it’s creepy nevertheless. Perfecting that evermounting sense of dread. And at that, it’s quite well done.

I think that I enjoyed this book more having listened to the audiobook. It’s a slow burn and… hard to describe just why it’s so intriguing?

Worth a try.

Journeys end in lovers meeting; I have spent an all but sleepless night, I have told lies and made a fool of myself, and the very air tastes like wine. I have been frightened half out of my foolish wits, but I have somehow earned this joy; I have been waiting for it for so long.

The third book of [[The Memoirs of Lady Trent]]. First she went to studing dragons in rocky mountanious islands–and almost died. And then she spent some time studying river dragons deep in the jungle–and almost died.

And now she’s off on a voyage around the world–akin to Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle–to study dragons. Only to almost die not once, not twice, but at least three times. Assuming I didn’t miss any.

Oh, and have all manner of other adventures along the way.

“I have never attempted to hide that I have had two husbands in my life. I have, however, neglected to mention that in between them, I had a wife.”

In any case.

“That should be my epitaph when I die: ‘she did not have to do it’.”

I’m still loving riding along with the titular Lady Trent on her adventures and learning all about how dragons work in this world right along with her. And this time, she’s actually bringing her son along, which gives a whole new dimension to the journeys–for the most part.

A fun book. I expect if you’ll like the first two, you’ll continue to enjoy this one.

Onward!

That… is a very weird and very silly book.

It’s got a frame story of one Wally Warmbottom. He’s shipwrecked on an island far from anything–but luckily, he’s got lots of paper and bottles to send out letters.

And some of those bottles have other stories in them. Such as the titular mooses and bazookas. And another about rocket(s). And a few others.

It reminds me of On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, with the same overwritten funny because it’s saying the same thing a bunch of times in a row sort of humor.

It gets old.

Or perhaps I got old.

My son seemed to enjoy it well enough though.