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What’s it all about?
The Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting Tales is a collection of ghostly and supernatural stories by Kate Mosse, set mostly in France or Sussex, area of the world that she knows very well and which have featured in her other works.
Why did I want to read it?
Creepy stories are ideal for this time of year. Plus I have a number of her books (not read) and had previously picked up and enjoyed The Winter Ghosts.
What did I think of it?
I really enjoyed this collection of quite gentle stories. They aren’t particularly gruesome and not really frightening, but they are very traditional, often about premonitions or the settling of old scores before a departed person can find peace or slippage into the past when visiting a historical setting (as in the title story). My favourite is probably The Revenant, set in the Fishbourne Marshes in 1955; a mysterious female figure appears to our heroine in the marshes seeking a form of justice for a crime which took place during the war. Very atmospheric.
I particularly enjoyed the stories set in Sussex as that’s the county where the Book God was born and I know enough of it for some of the places to be recognisable. One of the particular pleasures of the book is the author’s note for each story, giving some background on place or inspiration, especially interesting for those stories based on folklore.
I had planned to read a story a day and pace the book out over the run up to Christmas but got through them much more quickly than that, which should say something about the pleasures of reading these well-written tales.
W… W… W… Wednesdays poses the following questions:
- What are you currently reading?
- What did you recently finish reading?
- What do you think you’ll read next?
What am I currently reading?
I’ve started but not made much progress on A Fire Upon the Deep as mentioned in my last WWW Wed post.
The Jonathan Strange Update
Still on page 122. *sigh* But the TV series doesn’t start until the New Year so surely I can read the thing by then? Surely?
What did I recently finish reading?
I finished The Mistletoe Bride by Kate Mosse, lovely collection of haunting tales (as it says on the cover), very enjoyable and just right for the time of year. Had planned a story a day but got sucked in and finished it more quickly, obviously.
What do I think I’ll read next?
Not sure. On the Christmas theme I’m looking at Mystery in White, a crime novel to read on my Kindle app, and I also feel the need to re-read an old favourite so have picked up Goodbye Without Leaving by Laurie Colwin (I think she was fabulous.)
What’s it all about?
Christmas Tales of Terror is exactly what it says, a collection of scary stories for the younger reader all based around Christmas from the author of the Takes of Terror series (which started with Uncle Montague ages ago)
Why did I want to read it?
I really like Chris Priestly’s work, his love of the traditional MR James type story and his re-tellings of some famous tales for a young audience (a particular favourite being Mister Creecher) make him an author always worth seeking out.
What did I think of it?
Great fun. Set in an indeterminate but possibly Edwardian era they are nicely creepy and usually with a moral (though never in a heavy handed way). As I said, these are very much for younger readers so I didn’t find them scary but I think I would really have enjoyed them when I was about 10 (though I was reading HP Lovecraft at 11 so maybe not).
I will definitely be very careful where I pick my Christmas greenery this year…..
W… W… W… Wednesdays poses the following questions:
- What are you currently reading?
- What did you recently finish reading?
- What do you think you’ll read next?
What am I currently reading?
Have parked Trevor Royle and am reading The Mistletoe Bride by Kate Mosse as part of my Christmas reading. I’ve also started A Fire Upon the Deep (which I originally mis-typed as Depp which would be another kind of book altogether I think!) by Vernor Vinge at the insistence of the Book God and for Carl’s Sci-fi experience 2015.
The Jonathan Strange Update
Still stuck; still on page 122. It’s beyond embarrassing and becoming a joke. Must try harder.
What did I recently finish reading?
I loved Deadline by Mira Grant (my review is here) and also finished a book of ghost stories aimed a younger readership Christmas Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley. Great fun. Review will be up shortly.
What do I think I’ll read next?
Not sure. Flowers for Algernon and something else on the Christmas reading list (though I’m limiting Mosse to a story a day and at that pace it will take me up to Christmas Eve).
What’s it all about?
Deadline is the sequel to Feed which I read and loved some 3 years ago and am ashamed that I’ve only just got round round to picking this up. In order to avoid spoilers about the plot I’m going to lift from the blurb:
Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organisation he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. […] But when a researcher from the Centre for Disease Control fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a revenues pack of zombies in tow, Shaun’s relieved to find a new purpose in life.
So the novel picks up from where the last one left off, but this time it’s mostly from Shaun’s perspective and the conspiracy uncovered in Feed is still alive and well. Just worse. Much worse.
Why did I want to read it?
The zombie kick which I’ve been experiencing all year continues. Plus as I said I really enjoyed the tone and pace of the first book and this looked like it was going to be more of the same. Science + conspiracy + zombies, what’s not to like?
What did I think of it?
I wasn’t sure if I would like the book quite as much with the shift in protagonist but I needn’t have worried, this is just as exciting as Feed and I came to like Shaun just as much. The thing that I can’t talk about without spoiling the first book was a concern as I thought it would become really annoying or at best a bit unbelievable but actually it works really well because everyone recognises that it isn’t normal (and I have either said too much already or been so cryptic that you’re all scratching your heads wondering what I’m on about).
And it has another cracking ending which makes me very keen to read the final book in the trilogy, already downloaded and being saved for the holidays.
Another fine entry in an excellent run of reads. Waiting for it all to crash and burn 🙂
What’s it all about?
I can’t do any better than the blurb on the back cover to explain what Lock In is all about:
Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. 4% suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And 1% find themselves ‘locked in’ – fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus.
Because one of the highest profile victims was the President’s wife a lot, and I mean a lot, of effort and money was put in to managing this. So those who are locked in, known as Hadens after the First Lady, have access to what are basically robot bodies to which they can connect their consciousnesses so they can move around an interact with the world and get jobs; a virtual reality space called the Agora which is dedicated to their needs; and some people who have survived the disease but have been left with the ability to allow Hadens to enter their minds and have access to their bodies for a fee (they are known as Integrators).
It’s against this background that our story plays out, a sci-fi murder mystery in which one of the FBI agents is a Haden, a very famous one too. Chris Shane became ill and locked in as a child and then a poster boy for the illness as his Dad, a famous sportsman, used him in his campaigning. His Dad’s a nice guy actually so not an exploitative thing at all, by the way.
And now he’s just joined the FBI and has a nasty Haden-adjacent murder to solve with his partner, Agent Vann.
Apologies for the info dump, but there’s a lot of backstory it’s worth getting your head around, and I’m not spoiling anything (I think).
Why did I want to read it?
John Scalzi is one of those authors whom I’ve heard a lot about (and follow on Twitter where he is very entertaining) but had never read, though I do have Redshirts downloaded and after this may add it to my Sci-Fi Experience reading list. I had picked up the companion short piece to this which gives an oral history of the disease and the technological advances made to support those who have been incapacitated by it. It’s a very good read and led directly to me picking up the novel.
What did I think of it?
This is the third of the novels that got me through my recent bout of illness and it was exactly what I needed, a really well written and interesting murder mystery set against the politics of disability. The murder itself is fascinating but what adds depth to it is the debate that goes on underneath, about whether the amount of money spent on helping survivors is justified, whether it goes beyond helping people cope and gets into the realms of giving them an advantage over those who have not been locked in. The prejudice, whether intentional or the result of ignorance, is overt and realistic.
But as I said, this is primarily an ingenious puzzle. I really liked both Shane and Vann, and there was a rich cast of supporting characters. The solution to the murder was clever and plausible and it was great fun to read.
I hope this becomes a series as I would definitely read more.
Recommended.
I really need to find a different way to say that as I seem to have been using it a lot recently 🙂 but I mean it!
What’s it all about?
So imagine you’re just going about your daily business when you hear something like static, the sort of noise you get from your TV when you have all that snow in the screen. What if (almost) everyone else heard it like you, in their heads, at the same time? What if it wasn’t just noise but there were words as the experience is repeated, three times? “My Children” “Do not be afraid”. “Goodbye”. Then nothing. What do you think would happen?
That’s what The Testimony is all about.
Why did I want to read it?
I discovered James Smythe earlier this year when I read The Explorer and The Echo in rapid succession, and since then I’ve been getting my hands on the small number of other titles he has published. He’s an intelligent writer of sci-fi thrillers, cleverly plotted and proper page turners. The Testimony is the fourth of his novels I’ve read and I think one of his earliest.
What did I think of it?
I thought this was fantastic. It’s worth putting it in context; I was going through a bout of illness and was stuck on the sofa and needed something diverting to help me stop feeling sorry for myself and so glad that I picked this up as it was exactly what I needed. It’s one of those narratives told in the first person by a number of different people (I think I read somewhere there are 26 narrators) with the full range of nationalities and genres and ages and experience of the phenomenon which becomes known as The Broadcast.
Of course, humanity does not behave well and instead of bringing everyone together the whatever-it-is actually tears the world apart because they don’t know what it is or where it comes from and as humans will gaps are filled in and assumptions made. So we have terrorism and ear and suicide and protests and disaster and accusations of hoaxes. And then something else is thrown into the mix and people become very very afraid. Unlikely to end well.
I was particularly interested in the people who’d didn’t hear anything and wonder what all the fuss is about. Is there something wrong with them? As you might expect others wonder about them too; if it’s the voice of God and you haven’t heard it are you going to hell?
This is a really enjoyable thriller showing how the things can fall apart all too easily. Although they are quite different books it did remind me at times of The Three which I read earlier in the year, probably because of the structure.
There are worse things to do when you are feeling poorly. Recommended.
What’s it all about?
The world has been devastated by a virus which has turned the huge majority of the population into *gasp* zombies. However, time has passed and the survivors have fought back and stabilised areas of the USA and have optimistically started to rebuild civilisation (as far as they can anyway). The book follows our main character, known only by his nickname Mark Spitz, over three days in Zone One (Manhattan) as he and his small unit sweep up straggling zombies so that the island can be re-inhabited.
Why did I want to read it?
I’m in bit of a zombie kick at the moment, plus I’m pretty sure I saw this favourably reviewed in a blog that I can’t remember (I really must get better at recording recommendations from other bloggers so they can be properly acknowledged) and was keen to give it a go as it sounded a bit different.
What did I think of it?
I thought this was a really well-written and affecting novel of the zombie apocalypse. I liked the structure, split over the three days of single weekend where we got to know the characters, how they are doing now and just as importantly how they got here. Flashbacks are used effectively to describe the suddenness of the epidemic, and how devastating it was for individuals. For example Mark Spitz comes home from a weekend away with his friend to find his infected mother attacking his father and just has to make a run for it. I liked the fact that not all of the survivors are the ones you would obviously think would make it. And the story of how Mark Spitz got his nickname is great.
My only quibble isn’t with the book or the author Colson Whitehead, whom I wasn’t at all aware of (my knowledge of contemporary US mainstream fiction is patchy at best to my shame), but rather with the critical reaction to it. As I’ve said I thought this was really well written, a strong story with an interesting approach to a staple of the horror genre but a number of the reviews I read talk a lot about the marrying of genre and literary fiction, because Whitehead has won a Pulitzer prize and that somehow makes his approach to the subject matter more valid and of greater value than more obviously genre authors (to some commentators at least).
And perhaps it’s just my own sensitivity but I get annoyed at the idea that it’s OK to like genre fiction as long as it is written by someone who is a mainstream author, so we can all pretend it isn’t really genre fiction at all but using tropes to talk about something else, as if that isn’t what genre and speculative fiction does anyway.
But, climbing down from my soapbox, you should give Zone One a try, it’s a really good take on what happens when you think you’ve overcome the zombie hordes and worth reading.
What’s it all about?
Shoggoths in Bloom is a collection of shorter fiction by Elizabeth Bear, must-award winning sci-fi and fantasy author. Includes a couple of tales that bagged her one or two Hugos.
Why did I want to read it?
I’ve read some of her work before in anthologies and her stories have always stuck out for me (she was probably my favourite from the recent Lovecraft themed collection which I read and reviewed here), particularly as she often writes tales related to the Cthulu mythos. So I wanted to get to know her work better.
Plus I loved the cover.
And the title.
What did I think of it?
A really strong collection showcasing the variety of her work. If I’m honest I was a tiny wee bit disappointed in the title story, which was good but not great IMHO. But there wasn’t a bad story in here and my particular favourites were:
- Tideline – one of the Hugo winners, very moving. Loved Chalcedony.
- In the House of Aryaman, A Lonely Signal Burns – a murder mystery in a futuristic India, with one of the characters being a genetically manufactured hyacinth parrot-cat
- Cryptic Coloration – dealing with mythical beasties in the real world
- Confessor – what’s really going on in that hidden lab up that mountain trail?
There are some themes that Bear is clearly interested in, mythical creatures and genetic modifications but two. I like the fact that she writes well across a range of genres and she is a genuine pleasure to read. I’ve already got my hands on more of her stories. Recommended.
W… W… W… Wednesdays poses the following questions:
- What are you currently reading?
- What did you recently finish reading?
- What do you think you’ll read next?
What am I currently reading?
I have reached an impasse with Trevor Royle’s book on Scotland in WWI for some reason, must pick it up again. Currently totally immersed in Deadline by Mira Grant, another page turner.
The Jonathan Strange Update
Still stuck; still on page 122. It’s beginning to get embarrassing…..
What did I recently finish reading?
I finished Shoggoths in Bloom by Elizabeth Bear, The Testimony by James Smythe and Lock in by John Scalzi. I was ill and housebound and spent 3 days on my sofa with a blanket and hot water bottle so nothing for it but to read 🙂
What do I think I’ll read next?
Hmmmm. May start Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge for the Sci-fi Experience and/or something Christmassy in the short story line.
Bride of the Book God 