The Book Count 2026

[Greg]

Cave 13 by Jonathan Maberry

Back to some Joe Ledger action. Ledger is still messed up from the last case but he is ready to go back to work because the world always needs saving. This time Mr. Miracle seems to be the main culprit working in the Holy Land to steal, at first, religious artifacts. But he's a Maberry whack job so he has other deadly plans in play, too including some sort of hallucinogenic compound that drives people mad. Seems like we've gone down this road before. But it was entertaining as Joe scours the Holy Land for the bad guys.

This is the one area where my library lets me down. I have to buy these books to get my fix. But Maberry did introduce me to a new character from a completely different author and series. I currently have The Tomb on order at the library to find out more about Repairman Jack. Although, I have vague memories of reading this book back in the day when it came out in the 1980s

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Cave 13 by Jonathan Maberry

Back to some Joe Ledger action. Ledger is still messed up from the last case but he is ready to go back to work because the world always needs saving. This time Mr. Miracle seems to be the main culprit working in the Holy Land to steal, at first, religious artifacts. But he's a Maberry whack job so he has other deadly plans in play, too including some sort of hallucinogenic compound that drives people mad. Seems like we've gone down this road before. But it was entertaining as Joe scours the Holy Land for the bad guys.

This is the one area where my library lets me down. I have to buy these books to get my fix. But Maberry did introduce me to a new character from a completely different author and series. I currently have The Tomb on order at the library to find out more about Repairman Jack. Although, I have vague memories of reading this book back in the day when it came out in the 1980s

You got Cave 13?! Library just sneers at me.

[Greg]

Wool by Hugh Lowey

It's the book that is the basis for the Silo series. King Bob has mentioned this. I thought I would read in preparation for seeing the series. After I reading it, I might give the whole thing a miss. It just wasn't very engaging.

In a post-apocalyptic world, people live in a Silo. Everything is self contained of course. Different levels are devoted to different things and everyone wears a colored jumpsuit that denotes their station. The story flows through three people's perspective of the silo, starting with the sheriff who is trying to solve the mystery of why his wife opted to step outside the silo to certain death. Then we meet Juliette who is picked to be the new sheriff. She works down in Mechanical at the bottom of the Silo and doesn't want to come to the top to be the new sheriff. Things quickly go awry for her as she runs afoul of the power structure running the Silo.

It never really got suspenseful for me. Or interesting. It seems like I've read this one before and there was nothing really new to add. I don't know if I will read the remaining books in the trilogy.

[Greg]

The Lost Daughter of Sparta by Felicia Day

Felicia Day spent a lot of time reading Greek myths while suffering from insomnia. She came across a passing reference to Philonoe, sister to Helen of Troy, Clytemnestraand Timandra. The reference said Philonoe was made a God, but nothing else. Day wrote this Graphic Novel to fill out what happened. Philonoe was seeming cursed at birth with a port wine stain on her face. She might also have been cursed by Athena to betray her husband, when she marries, like her sisters. Philonoe makes a deal with Athena to break the curse if she completes three tasks before Philonoe's wedding day.

It was kind of an interesting companion piece to The Odyssey to see why Helen, Clytemnestra, and Timandra did what they did. There is a lot of female empowerment woven into the story as well as the gods try and show Philonoe that she doesn't have base her self-worth on how others perceive her.

[Greg]

Homebound by Portia Elan

I liked the writing but I don't think the book finished. It follows three different timelines. One in 1983. Another in 2080. The final is 2600. There is also a foray into text based gaming.

In 1983, we deal with Beck's a game developer working on a game started by her late Uncle, called Homebound. 2080 is the start of the race for the stars and the beginning of robot technology. 2600 is our world being ravaged by climate change. All the threads inform each other and give wider dimension to the story. The case is you know more than the participants and see the repercussions of what was done in earlier eras. And I was invested in what the different characters were doing but suddenly we were done and it felt like mid-story in all the different timelines.

I'd kind of recommend it because there is a really good twist in the middle that is very sad and the writing was good, but I feel that a lot of the story still needs to be told.

[Greg]

The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey

Hey, it's book 2 of The Captive's War trilogy. Do I remember anything about Book 1? Not a sausage. A few bits and pieces came back to me during the reading of TFOB, but not a lot. I get the strong feeling that once the trilogy is done you need to read them all at once. Because Book 2 felt a lot like a book 2. It's mostly set up. Not a lot of action. Not a lot happens. A few more deaths but it's mostly dealing with the Carryx overlords. We get more backstory on how the Carryx function. Some groups go off to explore a planet. Another inspects a spaceship. The brush up against the ongoing war the Carryx fights. And back at the palace world, we see the humans interacting and building their new society. Everyone hates Alkhor, who the Carryx put in charge. Alkhor hates what he is doing but it is the only way for the humans to survive. No great strides are made in ending their captivity. 

It was all kind of blah and then it ended. Maybe it will pick up in the third book which if this actually a trilogy should be the final book. But I have doubts. They have a lot of ground to cover to get to the finish and the pace of the story isn't all that fast.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey

Hey, it's book 2 of The Captive's War trilogy. Do I remember anything about Book 1? Not a sausage. A few bits and pieces came back to me during the reading of TFOB, but not a lot. I get the strong feeling that once the trilogy is done you need to read them all at once. Because Book 2 felt a lot like a book 2. It's mostly set up. Not a lot of action. Not a lot happens. A few more deaths but it's mostly dealing with the Carryx overlords. We get more backstory on how the Carryx function. Some groups go off to explore a planet. Another inspects a spaceship. The brush up against the ongoing war the Carryx fights. And back at the palace world, we see the humans interacting and building their new society. Everyone hates Alkhor, who the Carryx put in charge. Alkhor hates what he is doing but it is the only way for the humans to survive. No great strides are made in ending their captivity. 

It was all kind of blah and then it ended. Maybe it will pick up in the third book which if this actually a trilogy should be the final book. But I have doubts. They have a lot of ground to cover to get to the finish and the pace of the story isn't all that fast.

Yeah, I’m waiting for these to *pop*. I get the feeling that more than a trilogy is planned because there is a fuck-ton of set-up going on. Great world-building, but fer chrissakes get a move on!

---

Adrian Tchaikovsky: Shroud and Children of Strife.

Dude needs an editor.

[Greg]

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao

That was really good for a first book. Peasant girl Wei Yin manages to get picked to be a concubine in the soon to be emperor's court during a nationwide hunt. Wei Yin really only hoped to get a bit more food for the village and maybe an education for her brother Bao. Instead, she becomes the number one to a very cruel royal son and finds her involved in court intrigues beyond her imagination. 

Wei Yin's story is not a happy one. But the book is a really fun read. A good twist on the Asian emperor stories. Nice use of magic. Very enjoyable.

[Greg]

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Natalie is a devout Christian Trad wife with millions of followers on Instagram. Millions of people follow her to watch videos from her Yesteryear ranch where she lives with her husband Caleb and five going six kids. Natalie is also an unreliable narrator as the story jumps back and forth in time as we see her lonely days in college, finding Caleb the perfect husband, how she became an influencer and finally how it all starts to fall apart. Then sequence changes as Natalie wakes up in the past in what could be the Yesteryear Ranch from the 1800s. She is still married to Caleb but she has a different set of kids. She feels like she is losing her mind as she struggles to figure out how she got in this predicament.

Almost every character in the book is horrible from Natalie's family to her in-laws. There is a lot of discussion about how the internet affects us and the problem of internet disinformation. It's ultimately a sad and tragic tale.

[Greg]

It Could Have Been Here by Lisa Jewell

I am late to the party on Lisa Jewell. This is here 24th novel and I'm not sure but it could be the sequel to another mystery. Another story is hinted at but knowing the previous book isn't necessary to understanding this book.

Jane Travelly is walking her dog when she comes across a stray dog in the woods near her crumbling mansion of a house. Finding the dog starts the mystery because everybody saw the dog with a young lady and the young lady is not to be found. Jane goes on a mission to a house near Hampstead Heath to see if she can find the missing girl. The clues drip out as we find the girl's family life is horrific indeed. The focus does not stay solely on Jane as many chapters are told from the viewpoints of the other characters in the book.

The plot just chugs along but nothing was really compelling. Jane as the detective is dogged rather than brilliants happening upon clues because she is looking rather than using great deductions. It's a solid read but not too exciting.

[Greg]

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

Mad Mabel was the youngest person ever sentenced to prison for murder in Australia. Now, 81, Mabel is living out here life on a quiet street in a Sydney suburb where people don't know her past but they soon will. The novel is told from her viewpoint and flashes back and forth between her young life leading up to the murder and her present day life with her neighbors. Mabel is gruff and sarcastic and is really sick of the neighbor 7 year old coming to bother her. Things begin to unravel for her when she finds her neighbor dead in his kitchen.

Now the author plays tricks. They never really look that hard at the dead neighbor. It's more about the murder she goes to jail for. The present day murder is only a vehicle for all Mabel's neighbors to learn her secrets, too.

There is also a big gotcha in the book that I kind of figured out halfway through the book. Is one of the characters in the story or part of a delusion. As mysteries go, it wasn't much of one.

[Greg]

Burn to Shine by Jonathan Maberry

It was nice to be back in Joe Ledger. Back among people I know well at this point. All the in-jokes were on full display.

An old RTI nemesis is back with plans of sowing chaos around the globe with munitions invented in the last Joe Ledger story. There are a lot of throwbacks in this book. Plus characters from other books in the Marburry universe I haven't read. I guess I need to check out his Pine Deep novels. I do appreciate the books tell one complete story. But they do end abruptly and I need to go and get the next book to see where we are going. Fortunately, my library carries Book 5 in the series after not carrying books 2-4

[Greg]

The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson

It's the initial book in the Repairman Jack series. Repairman Jack popped up in one of the Joe Ledger series so I thought I would check him out. It has to be odd for Maberry to use a character from another author, but here we are.

Repairman Jack repairs peoples problems. Tragedy at an early age got him into this line of work. He lives off the grid. He doesn't have papers. He barely answers his phone. On the heels of a bad break up, Jack has to find the missing aunt of his ex-girlfriend. He also needs to find a stolen necklace by midnight of an old dying India woman. Jack is hired by her stick up the butt grandson, here in New York as part of the UN mission.

Who could have guessed that both mysteries would be tied together? Well, anyone who has ever read a book before. I saw most of the amazing plot points coming from a mile away. I kept waiting for some mystery or suspense or Jack doing cool things, but no. I spent a lot of the booking waiting for the big reveals to support what I already suspected.

Part of the problem but not glaring is this book came out in the late 1980s and what might have been revelatory in case of action is no longer the case. Maberry does a lot better with these types of supernatural stories but I'm sure his roots lie in Wilson's stories. Sadly, I ready Maberry first.

[Greg]

My Grandfather, the Master Detective by Masateru Konishi

A very meta book that talks about historic mystery novel tropes while solving little mysteries that align with those tropes. Kaede visits her grandfather regularly while he suffers from a very particular form of dementia. One of the ways they help strengthen his mind by talking about little mysteries that occur. Kaeda also has male friends, one of which is an actor and the other a teacher. The actor talks a lot about mysteries, too. Mysteries keep popping up. There is murders and kidnappings and missing persons and Grandfather solves them all easily despite his diminished capacity. 

The book ends with a not to the Lady or the Tiger by having you determine which of the two suitors Kaede ends up with.

It all felt very forced and simplistic. Not a lot of insights given in to how murder mysteries work, they just acknowledge the tropes and then use the tropes.

[Greg]

Legacies by F. Paul Wilson

Repairman Jack returns to help a doctor who cares for AIDs babies. She is supposed to inherit a house from her father but strange things are going on with the sale. It doesn't help that her hated half-brother is the one who wants to buy the house with the help of some shady backers.

More of the same with less of the mysticism of the last one. Jack still doesn't come across as a competent hero. The whole book is a McGuffin hunt and it's pretty underwhelming. There are a couple of neat interactions where Jack proves his cleverness but not a lot. A lot of the characters are very stock especially Jack's arms dealer and his girlfriend.

I think I have sated my appetite with this series.