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The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
I really enjoyed Ms. Tesh's book, "Some Desperate Glory". Enjoyed it so much, I forgot I had read it and re-ordered it from the library. It was really fun Space Opera. In The Incandescent, Tesh goes for a modern fantasy novel set in a prep school in England. The school teaches magic but the twist for this book is that novel is told from the point of view of one of the school masters, Dr. Walden. She's also responsible for keeping the school safe from demon incursions. Kids practicing magic tends to draw in demons.
The book was good not great. The plot kept swerving into unexpected directions. But it felt in a couple of sections things weren't quite clear which made them confusing. It was a bit of muddle.
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Out Law by Jim Butcher
A quicky from the Dresden Files universe. Dresden agrees to help former gangster Tripp turn his life around and go straight in repayment of a debt to mob boss of Chicago John Marcone. It's the usual cast of Butcher characters in abbreviated form. A nice appetizer that I needed to last longer but read through in a couple of hours. A good read for completists.
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The Keeper by Tana French
More from the fictional Irish town of Ardnakelty. Cal Hooper has to stop the local Big Shot from basically stealing everyone's farms for a giant new data center. This comes about because of the death of a local girl under mysterious circumstances.
The books are starting to feel the same. All the same grudges percolating away. A certain meanness of spirit and underhanded dealing I'm not used to from Irish people. I do revel in hearing the slang and the dialect of the people but a lot of times the characterizations seem a bit off. And for these books, it's about the characters interacting rather than dealing with the mystery.
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Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman
Dinniman takes a break from Dungeon Crawler Carl to talk about the colony planet New Sonora. Oliver is the fourth or fifth generation New Sonoran, an Earth Colony. Buy Earth has come a knocking and they want the planet for their own purposes. To do that, the Apex Corporation hosts a game where remotely piloted robots have come to New Sonora to wipe out the citizens in the name of putting down a terrorist uprising.
It's a bunch of battles between the settlers and the invaders interspersed with dialogue about rogue AI's and duplicitous corporate dealing. A lot of the book is problem solving and figuring out why New Sonora has been targeted in the first place. Plucky heroes against evil aggressors.
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(06-01-2026, 03:56 PM)Greg Wrote: Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman
Dinniman takes a break from Dungeon Crawler Carl to talk about the colony planet New Sonora. Oliver is the fourth or fifth generation New Sonoran, an Earth Colony. Buy Earth has come a knocking and they want the planet for their own purposes. To do that, the Apex Corporation hosts a game where remotely piloted robots have come to New Sonora to wipe out the citizens in the name of putting down a terrorist uprising.
It's a bunch of battles between the settlers and the invaders interspersed with dialogue about rogue AI's and duplicitous corporate dealing. A lot of the book is problem solving and figuring out why New Sonora has been targeted in the first place. Plucky heroes against evil aggressors.
An enjoyable one-off.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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A Parade of Horrible by Matt Dinniman
My excitement for these books is waning. It's more of the same with no end in sight. Well, maybe. But it's still 4 or 5 maybe as many 10 books away. I feel like I'm trapped in the dungeon. And there are so many different threads to keep track of. It's growing a bit confusing.
In this edition, Carl and Donut have to do seven heats of races with each heat having a different theme and race course. In between races, they go back to the garage and fix their damaged vehicle. After each heat, the last place team is eliminated, so you can't lose the race.
Carl and Donut are also trying to save Crawlers and NPCs by teleporting them to the Pineapple Cabaret via a vacuum and some other stuff.
So, I'm just kind of trudging along through the book, until we get to the last race and then it gets really exciting and I want to stay up all night and finish. Things for a few brief moments make sense as they have a giant parade on floor 11. Gods fight gods. Carl and Donut do crazy stuff. And then there is a cliff hanger. Plus a bunch interludes from other people that are in the Dungeon World.
I will read more. No, I don't like fun.
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The Brothers McKay by Craig Johnson
Another journey to Absaroka County with Sheriff Walt Longmire and the usual cast of characters. Pepper McKay, maybe the most hated man in the county, at least to the people who know him is found dead in the Widow woman Creek due to a blunt head trauma. His three sons are the prime suspects and the more Longmire investigates the sketchier their stories become. One of the sons is even sleeping with the same woman Pepper was sleeping with. There are big allusions, according to the author in the foreword and from Walt during the course of the story to the Russian Novel, The Brothers Karamazov. It almost makes me want to read that book but as the story shows, Brothers Karamazov was the first book in a trilogy and the author died before writing the other two books.
The whole story takes place against a giant forest fire burning in the mountains above the ranch. As he is want to do in so many novels, Longmire finds himself trapped in the elements. The fire is a change of pace from the usual blizzard and at least Longmire has the trusty mule, Borax for company.
The thing I like about these books is the story is self contained. Yes, there are myriad personal relations amongst the wide array of characters that span multiple books but you can get through the novel without having to remember a million piles of details.
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Platform Decay by Martha Wells
Another entry in the Murderbot Diaries. Kind of lost track where we are in the series and the story starts in the middle of the action which made me wonder if I had missed a story. But explanations slowly surface. Murderbot is on a rescue mission to a huge torus space stations where Murderbot's friend, Mensa's children and wife are being held hostage. It's more of the same Murderbot as he angers over the decisions of humans and anger at his rising emotions. He has a new subroutine to analyze the emotions as they pop up.
The story felt short, more of a novella than a full length novel. If you like Murderbot, you'll like this. There are a few signposts towards growth, but not many. Just another adventure with no real destination in sight.
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The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
There are eight animal avatars responsible for eight different factions of the kingdom. Neema is a Raven and is devoted to books and history. But due to circumstances and long held grudges, she finds herself swept up into the competition to choose the new ruler of Orrun. But she is ill prepared for the upcoming deadly competition. She is also tasked by the outgoing emperor with solving a murder mystery. Twists and turns abound as Neema tries to stay alive and perhaps become the new ruler of Orrun.
Really good world building. I grew angry about halfway through the book when I realized that the trilogy for which this is the first book is not complete and the next book isn't due until next year.
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The Devil and the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson
While I wait for the sequel to The Raven Scholar I thought I would check out more Ms. Hodgson's work.
Set in Georgian London, Thomas Hawkins is a man desperate to not be sent to the debtors prison, Marshalsea. Yeah, spoiler, he fails. What follows is a torturous period where Hawkins navigates just a hellish existence in the prison. The prison is a for profit enterprise where everything the prisoner needs has to be paid for or else he goes without. To make matters more complex, Hawkins has to solve the murder of the man who previously slept in his cot and the main suspect, the devil of the title, is his cell mate. Good times.
The descriptions of the conditions of the Marshalsea are harrowing. And at least Hawkins, a gentleman, doesn't have it as rough as the people as the regular people. Despite that, it is an awful existence. I almost needed a bath after reading.
But it's quite entertaining and I will be reading the next books in the series.
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The Velocity of Revolution by Marshall Ryan Maresca
Maresca takes a break from his Maradane series of novels to write this odd dystopian hispanic flavored novel. The story has a lot to do with motorcycles and magic mushrooms. Most of the people who love his Maradane sequence hate this novel because of all the drug use and polyamory sex scenes.
But it was different, in a good way. Wenthi is a motorcycle cop in the city of Ziaparr charged with tracking down the people fomenting revolution. The city is in the hands of the conquerors and heavily divided by a strong caste system. Naturally, the invaders are at the top of the caste and the natives are at the bottom of the caste. Wenthi must infiltrate the gang in order to find out who the leader of the uprising is. Part of the problem is the biker gangs use magic mushrooms to bond with each other and their leader. The faster the bikes go, the deeper the bond.
Naturally, exposure to the inside of the revolutions shows Wenthi things about society he would rather not know about. You can sketch out the rest from there. But it is different. Maresca does like world building.
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Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Boy does Adrian write some dense little books. First off it's Space exploration. Fun. Except the explorers are scientists turned prisoners who have run afoul of Earth's government. The scientists had the audacity to want to do science without adhering to the narrow confines the government required. They tried to revolution and were sent to a distant planet for their trouble.
The planet of Kiln is no joy ride either. The operators of the prison/research facility on Kiln would really like to know who built these structures all over the planet. They would also like to know why every piece of flora and faun on Kiln wants to eat them. Fortunately there are plenty of expendable prisoner/scientists to find out.
Adrian loves inventing new messed up ecologies and the world of Kiln is a peach. The world building is combined with political commentary on the duties of being scientists and seeking the truth no matter where it leads.
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Leviathan by Robert McCammon
The end of the Matthew Corbett saga finds Corbett press-ganged into finding a magic mirror when all he wants to do is go back to New York to be with Berry. They must travel to Venice to the last know resting place of the mirror. Unfortunately, a brother-sister duo of a notorious crime family also want the mirror. The hunt is on.
Kind of a good conclusion to a series that seemed to have started a million years ago. It's more about the heinous characters that Corbett encounters rather than Corbett himself. He's no Sherlock Holmes. But he does triumph in the end. The series could have continued but I think McCammon was done.
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Reading Jodi Taylor’s “Time Police” series and having a good time.
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(07-09-2026, 02:29 PM)Dr. Ivor Yeti Wrote: Reading Jodi Taylor’s “Time Police” series and having a good time.
Glad you’re enjoying. Thus far, I’ve enjoyed all of Jodi Taylor’s work.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
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