So we reached the end of the year: Congratulations all and I hope you had a good one and are feeling rared up for 2024!
I felt like I had a pretty mediocre month in reading but now I look back on it there were a few gems. I read six books in December. This sounds like a lot but two of them were re-reads, one was a novella and one was a non-fiction encyclopedia style book. Still, let's get into it.
Between Two Fires - Christopher Buehlman
Starting the month off strong with one of my favourites of the whole year. Set in France during the Black Death where civilisation is falling apart, a robber knight, and a drunken priest must escort a very strange little girl to Avignon before all Hell literally breaks loose. This bizarre medieval horror-fantasy was a gripping read that had me desperate to know what happens next. Doing truly scary horror is difficult and many authors descend in to gloopy descriptions but Buehlman's voice kept the book menacing without going gross.
What Moves the Dead - T Kingfisher
A novella length adaption of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. Coincedentally I had just finished watching Netflix's adaption of the same book so when I realised the references were the same I was worried that I had spoiled it for myself. I had a second worry when i realised that gothic mushroom were involved (as in Mexican Gothic, another favourite). However I soon realised that Kingfisher knows what she's doing and found myself genuinely scared by the mysterious lake, the limping hares and the sense of impending doom. Great short read.
Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World - Philip Matyszak
Once you have squared your definitions of 'forgotten' and 'world' this was a perfectly pleasant if light runthrough of some of the lesser known tribes and peoples of the Mediterranean and Fertile Crescent from the Stone Age to the 'Dark Age'. I had assumed I was getting a more geographically varied view but it was a fine introduction to the topic. One thing I would have really liked was a timeline, as I couldn't tell who were contemporaries.
Light from Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki
And now we come to the not so fun stuff! I was really looking forward to this book and I didn't like it at all! I found almost every character irritating and the internal rules of the world Aoki had constructed didn't make sense. I don't love dunking on books so I'll leave it there and grumble more to my friends offline.
The Eternity Code and the Opal Deception - both Eoin Colfer
Audio Re-read of the Artemis Fowl series, specifically Book 3 and 4. I never particaularly cared for the Eternity Code installment but I enjoyed it this time and found <s>Elon Musk</s> Jon Spiroa very entertaining villain. Opal Deception is hard as we lose my favourite Commander Root but on the plus side we get Opal's immortal line "You're staring directly at me, that's very bad for my skin." One thing I have noticed on rereading these books is how much they valorise the fairy police, who seem to be a pretty racist internal organisation. I know it's a kids series, and a great one, but it jumps out at me a bit more as an adult.
So that's the month that was! I'll see you at the end of January and wish you a peaceful and happy new year!
Comments