Well, since one of my Reading Resolutions for 2013 is to write some sort of review for every book I read (the other is to whittle down MountToBeRead - books I own & haven’t yet read - towering at 160ish volumes) - here’s some quick reviews of the last couple of books I’ve gotten thru:
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove - early Christopher Moore - it’s a fun story, with quirky characters and weird occurrences, but I like his later works, when he puts some satirical meat on the bones of his stories.
The Wreck of the River of Stars by Michael Flynn. A recco from Eleanor of Aquataine and I’d read & really enjoyed another work of his - Eifelheim. This novel wasn’t quite as high-rated, IMHO, but has some really good character development and, despite the apparent spoiler of a title, a compelling story. I put it on my “sf-tech” shelf on Goodreads, as technology plays an important role in the story. The setting ends up being as much a character as the actual ones - in that respect (and the “sf-tech” element), it reminds me of Larry Niven’s *Ringworld *or John Varley’s *Titan *series.
Picked up the audio version of Brandon Sanderson’s novellette Legion for free over on Audible - and I hope he does more with this character! Stephen Leeds has an intriguing mental condition that allows him to “split” his mental capacity into multiple characters, each with specialized skills. These personalities converse with him and provide insight into the problems that people bring to him. This episode deals with a missing camera that apparently takes pictures of historical events. The plot itself has an interesting premise, and I loved the conversations between Stephen and his personalities; however, the action felt a bit rushed and kinda fell flat at the end. I’d give it a 4/5 stars for concept, but only 2/5 on execution - so that averages to 3. As I said, I think Leeds has a lot of potential and I’d like to see a collection of his “cases”.
I read about Mrs Queen Takes the Train in the Shelf Awareness newsletter from 11 Dec 2012 - while I’m not a Royal-phile, the concept sounded intriguing: Queen Elizabeth sneaks out of Buckingham Palace to visit the decomissioned royal yacht, docked in Edinburgh. A couple of minor staff members (and a cheese shop employee) discover she’s gone walkabout and set out to find her and bring her back safely.
William Kuhn paints a sympathetic portrayal of a woman who has been the symbol of a country for 60+years and feels hemmed in by those expectations. He also draws some quirky supporting characters whose actions, along with those of Mrs. Queen, provide a lively and entertaining story. There’s definitely a British sense of humour in the novel; but Kuhn doesn’t quite “take the piss”, more of a gentle nose-tweaking here and there.