Holiday Reading

Well, I'm back from my camping holiday.  I'd like to say that everything was lovely, but those of you who live in the UK will know that I'm lying through my teeth. It was wet.  It was cold.  I don't think I had one day where I didn't get rained on, even though the BBC weather people claimed that I was only in for 'white cloud' rather than 'pissing it down at regular intervals'.

*sigh*

Still. I'm British and a bit of rain never hurt anyone so I still went for walks, explored castles, ate ice-cream and all the other stuff that British people do when they are pretending that being steadily rained on is no problem whatsoever.  Backbone. I haz it.

You would think that with all that rain I would have got a lot of reading done.  Not as much as usual actually. We were with a large group of people so I did that thing called socialising every evening which meant I had little time to read.  I managed 2 1/2 books which wasn't bad going I suppose.

Traitor's Moon by Lynn Flewelling
This is the third of the Nightrunners series which I'm enjoying immensely.  This book was a little quieter and had a lot of passages which dealt with politics, especially between the faie and the humans.  The story begins when Alec and Seregil, who have spent the last two years essentially running from the terrible things that happened in book two, are asked by the queen to accompany princess Klia on a diplomatic mission to Aurenfaie.  The queen is hoping to gain help from the faie with the war again Plenimar.  This is awkward for Seregil who was banished from Aurenfaie, but a series of rules enable him to go with Klia, along with Alec and the wizard Thero.  During the book our heroes encounter the entrenched politics of the faie, as well as the hatred many still feel over Seregil's previous actions.  Like all the books the world building was fabulous, and the author handles a large cast of characters with dexterity.  The introduction of the different faie clans was at first a little confusing but I soon settled into the book and was easily able to follow what was happening.  In the end this was a less action packed book than the previous two. I loved the progression in Alec and Seregil's relationship and the way that Alec was able to find out more about his past.  The downside was that some parts were a little dull, especially all the political wrangling, but that didn't mean the book wasn't worth reading.  I'm looking forward to reading book 4, but I think I'll read the short story anthology Glimpses first, as that is the right Chronological order for the series.  Grade: Very Good.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
This was a book which several people had recommended to me, plus I'd heard a good buzz about it.  It was written in the 1980's so it's been around a while.  The story follows Richard De Vier who makes his living as a swordsman for hire to noblemen or women who need satisfaction for a slight or problem.  He lives in the very dangerous Riverside with his obviously higher born lover, Alec.  During the story Richard is offered two jobs and he accepts one and rejects the other, leading to unforeseen consequences.  I have to admit that this book didn't work too well for me.  I didn't like any of the characters and even the honourable Richard and very flawed (and possibly part insane) Alec left me a little cold.  I also really didn't like the plot which involved political machinations mainly led by the character of the duchess whose icy smiles and deviousness made me want to smack her hard around the face.  The other characters, who were all mainly male, were mostly dupes in her political and social games and that drove me nuts, although I get the impression it was supposed to be amusing.  She didn't even get her comeuppance by the end.  That's not to say that other people won't like it, especially if you like comedy of manners and characters who twist the actions of others to meet their own ends. Having said that the world-building was very good with the characters and setting of Riverside being particularly effective.  The writing too flowed well. I just didn't like the plot or the main characters.  Grade: Poor.

On Fire II: Still Burning by Drew Zachary
This was the half book that I read.  It was a book I had on my phone for those 'just in case' times when you accidentally forget a book.  A couple of weeks ago I did forget my book when my daughter was at gymnastics so I started it then and finished it this week.  The story follows a few years on fromthe previous book On Fire.  Sam is now a qualified junior school teacher and he and Robert are living in a small Canadian town where Robert has the job of fire chief.  All seems to be going well until Robert is injured in a fire and Sam has to take time off work to help Robert recover.  It's at this point that Sam is made more aware than ever of the prejudices of small town life.  I really liked On Fire and so I was hoping that this would be a good read too.  Whilst I still liked it, there isn't very much to the book other than some progression in the relationship, a few difficulties to resolve and a whole lot of sex.  Whilst this was OK, I really would have liked to see a little more of a maturing of Sam's character. He doesn't seem that different from the much younger Sam in the first book - and even his sexual staying power hasn't improved with age!  The sex scenes were well written but very repetitive and I skipped through the last few.  Overall, this was a decent read and a nice opportunity to revisit two characters that I had liked a great deal from the first book, but it didn't blow my socks off and got a bit dull towards the end.  Grade: Good.


So there you go.  A bit of a mixed bag, but it was nice to read something that I'd bought rather than a book I had to review.  The tent has now gone away until next year. I only hope we get some decent summer weather when we get it out again!