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Ink and Sigil by Kevin Hearne
I'm hit or miss with Kevin Hearne. I liked the first few books of his Iron Druid series but then stopped because there was nothing anyone could do to defeat the main character. I really like his seven Kennings books, the first more than the second. It was great world building with a really good story.
Ink and Sigil is set in the world of the Iron Druid. The Sigil Master Aloyisious or Al does magic by writing Sigils with special inks. He has this knowledge as a way to enforce contracts and treaties between our world and others. He is also cursed. The more he speaks to people, the more they hate him. He has to use to speech to text devices to keep people from hating him.
The novel starts with his lates apprentice dying. Investigation into the death leads Al to find out his apprentice was dealing with illegal sigils and the trafficking in fae creatures. Al needs to find out what's behind this trafficking.
It was a great story. All very pedestrian as they went from one clue to the next. The supporting characters were all suitably odd. Al's manager at his print shop is a battle seer goth woman. His tech guy does masturbation videos for youtube. His liaison to the fae world runs a gin bar. Everyone is quirky. Al has also hired a bogwart who was part of his apprentice's fae trafficking ring.
The story never grabbed me. All the solutions to the problems depended on writing a special sigil and they always worked. Not a lot of challenges to the protagonists.
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(04-22-2021, 01:18 PM)Greg Wrote: The Trials of Koli by M. R. Carey
This is the second book of the Rampart Trilogy. The first is the Book of Koli which I finished as well. I'm currently chomping my way through Carey's works. His most famous would be The Girl with All the Gifts.
This is another post apocalyptic world dealing with the people living in the ashes of an advanced technological society. Koli is our guide through England after the Unending world, where the environment around Koli is trying to kill him and his fellow citizens. His town of Mythron woods lives like a medieval village with just a few pieces of lost technology still in use. The people who can use the tech get to to tell everyone else what to do. Meanwhile the trees around the town are trying to kill the town. Koli runs afoul of the Rampart, as the users of the tech are called when he finds out that lies about the tech have been told. Koli is forced from the city to start his own adventures.
In the Trials of Koli, we get another narrator as well who is the girl Koli wanted to marry, Spinner. But from Spinner's narration of the events, that was mostly in Koli's mind. Spinner always wanted to marry into the Rampart clan. Koli recounts his story of his quest to get to London to find more tech which doesn't go smoothly. Spinner tells her tale of being in Mythron Rood which also doesn't go smoothly
There is subplot with a trans girl named Cup and how she deals with society. Koli meanwhile has a big relationship with an AI music player that has become more sentient in the process of getting downloads. Both Spinner and Koli meet all sorts of people during their journeys.
Finished “Fall of Koli”; Unusually upbeat for Carey, thank god. Very enjoyable.
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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It was very confusing for that glimmer of hope. Same thing happened with Boy on the Bridge.
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The Little Sleep by Paul Tremblay
A narcoleptic detective takes on the blackmail case of an American Idolesque game show contestant. Or does he? Our narrator PI Mark Genevich is completely unreliable. He has the worst form of narcolepsy which includes hallucinations. Some parts of the story actually happen and some parts of the story are hallucinations. It's frustrating. And the narcolepsy hasn't made Mark a very nice person, either. I found myself not really caring about his struggles. But the novel is a good exploration of how someone goes through his or her day struggling with the disease. Plus, I'm always up for a Boston based detective story.
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No Sleep Till Wonderland by Paul Tremblay
Another Mark Gerenevich adventure. This adventure had less of the delusion adventures but it was still hard to keep straight. I'm glad there are no more books in this series because I wasn't going to read them. Gerenevich is a broken character and there won't be any redemption for him. There was a little hope for him at the end of the adventure but not much. The nadir was a really awkward sex scene with him and one of the suspects.
I'm glad it's done.
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Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler
The Yeti gave this one to me with the threat there were a bunch more in the series. And as I started reading I got the feeling that I had read this before. Not enough to stop reading but just enough to think this is very familiar. Which probably detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
Someone is killing the cast at the Palace theater as they strive to put on a scandalous production of Orpheus. It is up to the logical May and the whimsical Bryant to find the killers. The book is set in the present and in 1940s London. The beginning and the end of May's and Bryants partnership. And also of the Peculiar Crimes Unit tasked with solving the odd crimes going on in London. There is an X-Files feel to the plot. And I had trouble keeping the characters straight for the longest time. Plus there is a lot of descriptions of the various spaces in the Palace Theater itself that I also found hard to keep straight. Maybe it's because of my advancing decrepitude.
I might read another in the series to see if I find more enjoyment in a fresh novel.
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The Burning by Jane Casey
Meh. Pretty standard fare police procedural. Young detective out trying to make a name for herself. Her name is Maeve. I started out with this series hoping it was set in Ireland due to the fact it's by an Irish author. But it is set in London and Oxford. Slough House author Mick Herron lives in Oxford so I'm getting to know Oxford pretty well.
There is a serial murder loose killing woman and then burning their bodies. Detective Maeve goes in to investigate the latest victim and finds there are subtle differences to this death. Is it possible there is a second copycat murderer out there? Of course. Is it the other narrator in the book? The odds seem to be pointed in that direction. It wasn't a very tricky puzzle to solve
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The Reckoning by Jane Casey
Maeve Kerrigan continues to solve crimes in London. She has a new partner who is a dick and might a mole inside the department. There's a dead girl. Then there's a missing girl. And there are a couple of dead pedophiles tied to the missing girls. And someone is spying on Maeve as well. Meanwhile Maeve's relationships with fellow detective continues to be rocky.
It all seems pretty rote, still. The crimes are kind of interesting. But the clues are held back until the end and then everything gets abruptly solved. Most of the book is Maeve fighting with her colleagues. I still have two more books in the series.
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(05-30-2021, 06:11 AM)Greg Wrote: Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler
The Yeti gave this one to me with the threat there were a bunch more in the series. And as I started reading I got the feeling that I had read this before. Not enough to stop reading but just enough to think this is very familiar. Which probably detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
Someone is killing the cast at the Palace theater as they strive to put on a scandalous production of Orpheus. It is up to the logical May and the whimsical Bryant to find the killers. The book is set in the present and in 1940s London. The beginning and the end of May's and Bryants partnership. And also of the Peculiar Crimes Unit tasked with solving the odd crimes going on in London. There is an X-Files feel to the plot. And I had trouble keeping the characters straight for the longest time. Plus there is a lot of descriptions of the various spaces in the Palace Theater itself that I also found hard to keep straight. Maybe it's because of my advancing decrepitude.
I might read another in the series to see if I find more enjoyment in a fresh novel.
I'm almost done with book II. Better book, fewer moving parts, all set in present day.
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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The Last Girl by Jane Casey
I continue to plod through this series. If in order to read this series, I had to buy the books, I wouldn't be reading this series. Lots of whining. And I had completely forgotten this book when I started in on the fourth book. I went to check the order of the series and the listing said I needed to read The Last Girl next before reading the book I was starting. I was happy to realize I had The Last Girl and started to read it, quickly realizing it was the book I just finished. The Old Timers hits hard some days.
The Last Girl starts with a double murder of a mother and a daughter. The husband is knocked unconscious. The other daughter discovers the murder after finishing up her swim in the pool. Cue detectives.
Maeve continues to fight with everyone around her including her partner Derwent. Rob, her boyfriend and fellow police officer, continues to be too good to be true. There is also a gang war going on between two mob bosses introduced in the reckoning. Maeve's stalker also pops up.
As the to the main murder, it's full of despicable characters. The father is a self involved lawyer who's been cheating on his wife since the wedding. The Wife's sister doesn't want anything to do with the family. It's all ugly. The series really could use some levity.
I have one more book from the library and then I think I will be done with this character.
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The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey
More Maeve. More Dewent. Rob is out of town. Women are being horrifically murdered and the murderer might be Dewent since the murders are similar to one he was accused of committing when he was a kid. Maeve is still on the outs with her boss. Maeve still breaks the rules to find the truth of the case. Maeve is again attacked and almost killed. Maeve still can't come to turns with being in a committed relationship. Maeve's stalker is still out there!
The mystery was pretty good in this one but I guessed who was the culprit early on. I'm waiting for Maeve's current boyfriend to be killed off so Maeve and Dewent can get together. Why else would they fight so much?
I know I said I was done but I kind of need to see if my guesses pay off so I'll be ordering a few more of these from the library.
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Book III of Christopher Fowler's Peculiar Crimes Unit is even better than Book II. He is hitting his stride; lot's of very English social commentary.
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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On reserve from the library....
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The Plea by Steve Cavanaugh
Legal Thriller. Eddie Flynn is a confidence man turned lawyer using the tricks he learned tricking people to game the legal system. And the clock is ticking. Always ticking. We only have an hour to get this thing done. We have a day to free my wife. Etc. The stakes are sky high. If he doesn't solve this case, He'll go to jail. His wife and daughter will die.
The book takes place over a day. It is not a slow burn. It's a gallon of gas on a California Hillside in mid-July and they already through in the lit match. Eddie has a day to get a billionaire tech bro convicted of murder to make him his lawyer and get the tech bro to do a plea deal so the CIA can use him to get his current law firm. His current law firm is suspected of laundering money for the drug cartels and the CIA wants to indict the law firm and collect all the money. But there is something shady going on and it's up to Eddy to find out what. The puzzle at the center is who killed the tech bros girlfriend?
Lots of zany characters. Lots of double crosses. Lots of cool legal maneuvering. Lots of lots.
The book is told in first person narrative and it gets a little old. Eddie is always explaining things. Every chapter needs at least a page of backstory to explain what is going on or why Eddy uses a certain character to help him or how Eddy got to where he is. Lots of interruptions in the narrative. I think this technique was used even more in the first novel and I gave up on the author. But plenty of people I follow recommended him so I thought I would dip back in to see what I missed. This book was better than the first. There had to be a lot of suspension of belief. It's almost an urban fantasy story set in the legal world.
But it was an interesting story and I'm now reading the next book in the series. The Book Count does not stop!
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Thirteen by Steve Cavanuagh
More trials shenanigans. More absurd trial stuff. Flynn is hired to be second chair on a murder trial involving a celebrity. Everything is on the line. But Flynn knows the guy is innocent. As a matter of fact a serial killer might be plotting against the actor. It's up to Flynn to find the truth.
Either I'm getting used to the style or the author is getting better. There was as much explaining as in previous novels. The plot was suitably unique. And the book is quick read. Time to find out if there are any more of these books to check off the list.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm
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