Quote of the Day, TV's Angel of Darkness, Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes,Deadhead and Buried by H.Y. Hanna,Thornbound by Stephanie Burgis, The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal, and Hope for the Best by Jodi Taylor

I've been busy reading and welcoming Spring/Summer! Here's a great quote to start things off.

Quotation of the Day

'It Is a Precious Thing that You Do'

"The point of the story is that a lot of you have probably encountered that situation, whether you're a journalist covering books, a bookseller or a publisher and you're deciding whether to champion something controversial.... In the end I didn't stop and that was partly because I had grown up with powerful stories of journalism in adversity; and because I was inspired by those sources; and because I had lived as a kid in books about this sort of thing. So as I embark on this next phase, maybe the hardest phase, of any of the investigative reporting I've done. As I relive that and much, much worse.... As I weather threats right now over this, I'm just grateful to you guys in this room. Honestly. Because it is a precious thing that you do. And getting the books out, and defending them, and telling the story in the media is really, really important. I think it matters to us as a country with a free press. I'm going to tell you right now it really matters to me. So, thank you, all of you. I really appreciate it."

--Ronan Farrow, a surprise additional guest speaker during yesterday's Little, Brown Literary Luncheon at BookExpo, discussing his forthcoming book, Catch and Kill

I read the Alienist many years ago, and found it well written but too disturbing and horrific for my tastes. However, when the TV series debuted on TNT, I recorded it and watched every episode unfold with excellent acting and a screenplay that moved swiftly and in an engrossing manner. So I am glad to see that there will be a sequel with the same great actors coming to TV soon. For once, the screen adaptation is better than the book.

TV: The Angel of Darkness

Melanie Field (Heathers) has been cast as a series regular in TNT's The Angel of Darkness http://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz40878879, a limited series based on the sequel to Caleb Carr's bestselling novel The Alienist. In addition, newcomer Rosy McEwen is set for a recurring role in the new series, which also features returning lead cast members from The Alienist Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning. Frank Pugliese (House of Cards) will serve as showrunner.

The Alienist "was a top 10 cable drama, having reached more than 50 million people across multiple platforms," Deadline wrote, adding that it earned six Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Limited Series. 

Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes was recommended to me as being an epic adventure of dark fantasy that had a strong female protagonist. I was expecting a short and tightly written novel, and was instead presented with an enormous tome of over 650 pages that could have spared readers a lot of tedium by being professionally edited.Orbit, the publishing label, is an imprint of Hachette, which is a mega media company that should have dozens of editors on hand to make sure that verbose wordsmiths are reigned in, especially with fantasy action/adventure/revenge stories like Seven Blades. 

That said, I slogged through this beast, mainly because I like a challenge (as does the protagonist, Sal the Cacophony), but it was rough going. The story is told from the first person, as Sal is being interrogated by Revolutionary officer Tretta Stern. Sal's tale jumps backwards and forwards in time, but is always dark, violent and full of modern swearing (be warned, those who don't like F bombs!), sex (Sal is bisexual) and drinking. Here's the blurb: Acclaimed author Sam Sykes returns with a brilliant new epic fantasy that introduces an unforgettable outcast mage caught between two warring empires.

Her magic was stolen. She was left for dead.
Betrayed by those she trusts most and her magic ripped from her, all Sal the Cacophony has left is her name, her story, and the weapon she used to carve both. But she has a will stronger than magic, and knows exactly where to go.
The Scar, a land torn between powerful empires, where rogue mages go to disappear, disgraced soldiers go to die and Sal went with a blade, a gun, and a list of seven names.

Revenge will be its own reward.

I don't know how acclaimed Sam Sykes can be when I've never heard of him, but I found his book to be like a John Woo movie, with lots of weapons and violence and death, and not enough story inbetween rounds of battle. I also didn't like the crude and cruel behavior by nearly everyone in the book, and those who weren't were seen as weak and pathetic. From what my son has told me, this novel has a number of similarities to the John Wick movie saga, with Keanu Reeves standing in for Sal. Cynical and violent movies with a high body count and lots of weaponry in the service of "vengence" or "justice" aren't my thing. The prose is workmanlike, but the plot stops and stalls way too often. So I'd give this book a C, and recommend it to mainly guys who enjoy death and mayhem.

Deadhead and Buried by H.Y. Hanna is an "English cottage garden mystery" and involves a young woman named Poppy who inherits a gardening business and house from her grandmother and ends up finding a dead body in the back garden, along with a ginger tomcat. Here's the blurb:

City girl Poppy desperately wants to pay off her debts, quit her dead-end job, find her father... oh, and keep a plant alive. But she knows that these are just hopeless dreams--until the day a letter arrives. Suddenly, Poppy is on a train heading deep into the English countryside to claim a mysterious inheritance. And the last thing she expects to receive is a cottage garden nursery--complete with romantic climbing roses, scented herbs, a bossy, talkative ginger cat... and a dead body.

Now she must solve the mystery or risk losing her new home and the chance for a fresh start. But who would want to murder a gardener in a sleepy little village? Could a reclusive inventor have something to do with the killing? What about the brooding crime author next door? And why is her long-lost cousin so desperate for her to sell the cottage?

Poppy might not know her pansies from her petunias, but that doesn't stop her digging for clues. The only problem is that she could be digging her own grave too...

This book follows British English spelling and usage.

While I enjoyed the requisite eccentric English side characters, I found Poppy the protagonist to be weak and pathetic. It seems to be a theme in a number of books I've read that young British women hate themselves and all seem to have had terribly cold and cruel parents. The prose was clean and the plot easily followed, but there wasn't enough cat and cozy in this mystery to make me want to read more in the series. I'd give it a B- and recommend it to those who are interested in plants and gardening.

Thornbound by Stephanie Burgis is the second in the Hardwood Spellbook series of magic fantasy (I read the first, Snowspelled, several months ago). Burgis provides clean and lyrical prose that moves these swift 'mystery' plots along at a rapid pace. I like the protagonist, Cassandra Hardwood, because she believes in education for women and is a bibliophile like myself, though in her world, women are denied magical training based on their gender. Here's the blurb:

Cassandra Harwood scandalized her nation when she became the first woman magician in Angland. Now, she's ready to teach a whole new generation of bright young women at her radical new school, the Thornfell College of Magic…
Until a sinister fey altar is discovered in the school library, the ruling Boudiccate sends a delegation to shut down Thornfell, and Cassandra’s own husband is torn away from her.
As malevolent vines slither in from the forest and ruthless politicians scheme against her, Cassandra must fight the greatest battle of her life to save her love, her school, and the future of the young women of Angland.

This slender volume packs a real storytelling punch, and I like that there is a lesbian love story as well as the inevitable heterosexual love story and marriage. A light and fun read, I'd give this magical tale an A, and recommend it to anyone who has read Snowspelled.

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal is the sequel to the wonderful The Calculating Stars that I reviewed in my last blog post. Kowal's prose is excellent and evocative without being sticky sweet with nostalgia about the era (the late 50s and early 60s). The plot is regimented and snappy, and the characters charming and believable. Here's the blurb via Publisher's Weekly: Kowal continues her exquisite exploration of race and gender relations in an alternate 1961 that is still shockingly close to our own. The stunning second part of Kowal’s duology picks up 10 years after a meteor strikes Earth (depicted in The Calculating Stars) with series heroine Elma now serving as a pilot to the lunar colony. After she survives being taken hostage by a terrorist organization opposed to space travel, Elma is asked to join the first Mars mission, replacing a close friend and incurring the resentment of the existing crew. For Elma and her colleagues on both ships, contained in close quarters for three years far from family and friends, the journey is filled with tension, joy, terror, and sorrow, including the deaths of crew members and an anxious period when contact with Earth is cut off. The clever details of life in space—from baking challah in zero gravity to finding tricks for communicating privately, as well as the more horrifying practicalities of how to deal with illness and corpses—create an immersive world that will stay with the reader well past the final page.

I enjoyed this book more than its predecessor, mainly because more happens to Elma in this book, in terms of the space program, and there's more about race relations and how untenable life on earth is becoming due to global warming. There's also a lot about the difficulties of space travel and general living conditions in zero gravity. A well told page turner that deserves an A, and a recommendation to all those who read the Calculating Stars.

Hope for the Best by Jodi Taylor is the 10th and final book in the Chronicles of St Mary's, which I've read all the way through from book one. Honestly, the protagonist in these books, Max, tries my patience (to be fair, she tries everyone's patience) because she tends to be impulsive and reckless with her own life and eventually everyone else's. That said, she has an firm grasp of history and an interestingly crude and cynical interpretation of major historical events, and with her eccentric/crazy cast of side characters in St Mary's, she manages to keep history on a somewhat even keel.  Here's the blurb:

You can't change History. History doesn't like it. There are always consequences.
Max is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands. Especially when she's had A Brilliant Idea. Yes, it will mean breaking a few rules, but - as Max always says - they're not her rules.
Seconded to the Time Police to join in the hunt for the renegade Clive Ronan, Max is a long way from St Mary's. But life in the future does have its plus points - although not for long.
A problem with the Time Map reveals chaos in the 16th century and the wrong Tudor queen on the throne. History has gone rogue, there's a St Mary's team right in the firing line and Max must step up.
You know what they say. Hope for the best. But plan for the worst.

Of course Max's plans go awry, but there are safeguards that happen to make things come right in the end. That said, SPOILER ALERT, I was once again pissed off about the blatant sexism displayed in the book, as Max is outraged by being double crossed by the time police, but it takes two men, Dr Bairstow and her husband Leon to fix the situation and get Max her son back. Never mind that she could, and should, have rained hell down upon the Time Police (and the female head of the TP) as a mother and a member of St Mary's, but the fact that as a woman she is incapacitated by her emotions and therefore unable to get rid of Clive and get her son back is a bridge too far into misogyny. Since this is the 10th book, I would really have liked to see Max triumph, instead of relying on her father figure and her husband to pull her out of a terrible situation. Still, it wasn't a bad book, and the prose was fun and clean, while the plot ziplined along. I'd give it a B-, and recommend it to anyone who has read the other 9 books in the series, and isn't bothered by the sexism woven throughout the text.