I have #mecfs so I have a lot of time for reading, mostly #fantasy and #SciFi but I'm happy to dip into nearly anything.
Ratings: 1 star: I didn't like it 2 stars: it was okay 3 stars: I liked it 4 stars: I really liked it 5 stars: it was brilliant
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With two sons of her own, and twelve rescued orphan boys filling the informal school …
A series of cloyingly moralistic tales from Jo's school of wayward boys, where love & kindness are all that's needed to create fine upstanding gentlemen.
It is 1974 on the island of Cyprus. Two teenagers, from opposite sides of a …
Through the tragedy of Cyprus, explores the intergenerational trauma of civil war & exile. How the opportunity for a new life is unmoored from culture and weighed down by grief & guilt. I liked the fig tree as narrator.
"A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in …
An autistic woman decides she needs to learn how to have good sex, and falls big time for the escort she arranges to teach her. All a bit silly & obvious but reasonably well done, and the sex is explicit & steamy without being ridiculous. I do wonder if autistic traits can be magically turned off by Mr Right, though ....
Conspiracy. Betrayal. Rebellion. Peace is just another kind of battlefield...
Savine dan Glokta, once Adua’s …
A cynical take on the deep power of finance & capitalism in an age of rapid industrialisation. Numerous players (pawns) strive for 'power' with varying degrees of cunning & strategy. Provides his usual hefty dose of backstabbing and dry wit, and a touch less graphic violence.
A woman struggles for wholeness after her son commits an unspeakable crime. She finds it through building a labyrinth, and relationships with those that help. Very readable and engaging, but its deeper purpose evaded me.
I am a Weyward, and wild inside.
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London …
A line of women connected by their suffering at the hands of psychopathic men, and their uncanny affinity for the natural world. Witchcraft wins.
ETHIOPIA. 1935.
With the threat of Mussolini’s army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt …
(2 stars = it was okay)
The invasion of Ethiopia by Italy under Mussolini. Brutal violence and horrific use of modern weaponry against poorly armed but committed defenders. Operatic & impressionist, oft-times too much.
As a Victorian clergyman’s daughter, Edith Worms has seen everything — until a mythical salamander …
A period fantasy set in Victorian England - with dragons! Excellent characters who are all very nice to each other and share some fine adventures. A good easy comfort read.
The extraordinariness of whales, what they mean to us, and their immense connections across the globe and beyond. Beautifully written, but occasionally lapses into flowery waffle and an overload of metaphor. Chapter on plastic is particularly painful.
For one young girl, discovering what it means to become a woman in a family, …
A teenage girl in 1970s Uganda comes to terms with patriarchy, family & sisterhood. A bit slow without much emotional connection, but the detailed dive into Ugandan culture & history is fascinating.
For just a moment, things seem to be under control for the soldier known as …
More with our other favourite (but much less violent) rogue AI. Perhaps too much time spent on emotional intricacies rather than plot. The alien Translator and the Ship/Station AIs are quite pleasing though.
The life & career of an Indigenous police woman. Her upbringing is burdened by no end of horrific substance-fuelled abuse - it's a wonder she came out so functional. Time in Queensland police force in the 2000s is less devastating, but affects her more, with the institutionalised racism and corruption on top of the job's nature giving her PTSD. (refer Peter Dutton)
A fierce international bestseller that launched Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows …
A straightforward but damning account of the patriarchy in modern Korea. An unusual mix of fictionalised autobiography and footnoted essay.
The first murder in 500 years. Twenty billion suspects. One hope.
The City Enduring, a …
An interstellar justice-bringer (a Green Lantern) is called to help a planet that hasn't seen crime in generations due to the use of an emotion-suppressing gene therapy. But that order starts to unravel as she tries to get a handle on the situation, her own emotionality proving invaluable. Brilliant dynamic artwork.
Similar premise to his first book: gay boy with alcoholic mother in Glasgow. But different enough and also superbly executed. Full of precisely drawn, skin-crawling characters & behaviour, from the psychopathic but protective brother, the deadly Protestant vs Catholic brawls, and the slimey alcoholic older male "role models". Such an unattractive cover!