I’ve spent the week in Germany, meeting up with an old friend. I’ve had a good time but, for once, very little of my time has been spent on books. The temperature in the UK and here in Germany has been unusually high, C35+/F95+, so I’ve spent the days lazily, talking, eating and drinking.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve read and bought this week and what’s coming up next.
My reading this week was all Science Fiction. It was a very mixed week. The Elizabeth Moon story delivered the engaging Space Opera I’d hoped for. The new Ann Leckie book was so disappointing that I set it aside. The German Sci Fi novel fell prey to a melodramatic audiobook dramatisation. My week was rescued by ‘’The Bighted Stars’ which is excellent, but I haven’t finished it yet.
As captain of the astral pleasure yacht Sweet Delight, Heris Seranno has performed more unlikely heroics than she ever did as an officer in the Regular Space Service. Now, she is joining her feisty noble employer and friend, Lady Cecelia, on what should be a well-deserved relaxing trip to the remote world of Xavier.
Unfortunately, Xavier is also the starting point for an invasion of Familias territory by the bordering Benignity of the Compassionate Hand—a predatory criminal empire. Their name happens to be the only thing remotely merciful about them.
Heris is the only one who can lead her rag-tag fleet in a desperate fight against a seemingly unstoppable enemy. But if she is to save the Familias Regnant, she will first need to uncover an enemy hiding within her own ranks…
Elizabeth Moon’s ‘Winning Colors‘ (1995), the third book in The Serrano Legacy series, lived up to my expectations. It was a fun read and had some interesting changes in direction.
I liked that not all of the attention is on Captain Serrano. For me, seeing the world from Lady Cecelia’s horse-obsessed, aristocratic and recently rejuvenated point of view added variety and made the world-building richer.
The plot took a sharp turn towards the Military SF genre, with an exciting, if slightly improbable space battle. I like the way Elizabeth Moon is pulling Serrano back towards her Space Force roots. I think it will give the rest of the series some new angles to work with.
The Temporal Location of the Radiant Star has always been a source of both conflict and hope for the people of Ooioiaa. However, the imperial Radch see it only as an inconvenience, an antiquated religious site soon to be absorbed into their own, superior culture. But local politics is complicated, and the Radch have made one last concession: One last man will be allowed to join the mummified bodies in the temporal location to become a “living saint”.
But this one decision will ripple out to affect every part of the city. Amidst a slowly worsening food shortage, riots, and a communication blackout from the rest of the Radch Empire, a religious savant will entertain visions of his own sainthood, a socialite will discover zer comfortable life upended, and a young man sold into servitude will find unlikely escape.
I’d expected to enjoy Ann Leckie’s lastest Radch novel, ‘Radiant Star’ (2026) as much as it’s predecessors. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. I set the book aside at 26%
My review is HERE
A strange find at an archaeological dig site in Isreal may change our view on human history and religion.
When science fiction author Peter Eisenhardt is called by the multimillionaire John Kaun to help at the site, he does not understand why. At first.
Once he finds out that the team in Israel has found a manual of a modern video camera in an ancient tomb, he begins to see why Kaun asked for him. Due to his research, Eisenhardt is an expert on fictional time travel and many of its theories. If this manual is not a joke and is actually 2000 years old, Eisenhardt may help answer two simple questions. Where is the camera? And what could be on it?
I bought ‘The Jesus-Video’ to sample some German Science Fiction. I picked ‘The Jesus-Video’ because I liked the premise and because it was available in English as an audiobook (albeit an all-cast audiobook).
Unfortunately, the all-cast version was a dramatisation that took an OK thriller and turned it into something so melodramatic it was almost a comedy.
My review is HERE
I bought six novels and one short story collection this week. Two of the novels are SF books continuing series that I’ve been reading. Two are stories about FBI agents coming up against strange challenges. One is a thriller on a cruise ship, and one is a thriller with a bit of humour and a bit of speculative fiction thrown in. The short story collection has stories from some of my favourite Urban Fantasy writers in it, so I’m thinking of it as a comfort read.
Alex used to break into houses illegally. These days, it’s his job.
Alex is part of a small firm of consultants who break into offices and homes to test their security. It’s fun, it’s well paid, and he’s very good at it. It’s almost like he’s grown up at last.
But when he gets fired from his firm, evicted from his flat and dumped by his girlfriend, all in the same evening, he decides to steal one last job from his company without their knowing. A job they had already decided not to accept.
Big mistake.
Before long, Alex is in remote northern Scotland, following the trail of an ambitious young man who supposedly fell to his death with no witnesses in sight.
And if Alex doesn’t get to the truth soon, he may well be the next one over the edge…
Reporter Jack Parlabane thrives on chasing stories in unlikely places, and where could be less likely than a fan convention on a cruise liner celebrating a contentious Sixties TV series? But unlike the media family exploiting their show’s renewed relevance, he’s not there to stoke controversy: he’s there to solve a murder.
Already in deep water with his employer, Jack desperately needs a win, and solving this decades-old mystery could be it. Problem is, he’s in the middle of the Atlantic, and someone onboard has already killed once to keep their secret.
And that’s not even the tricky part. No, the tricky part is definitely the dead body locked in a stateroom with him, covered in his blood. Now Jack has to solve two murders, otherwise the only way he’s getting off this ship is in handcuffs – or in a body bag.
Special Agent Daniel Stansfield is ready for a change. Burnt out and defeated by the job, it’s his last day with the FBI. But before he can turn in his badge, he’s summoned back to Denver, the city he ran from four years ago, with a chilling message: it’s happening again.
Seemingly innocent people are waking up on the side of the highway, with no memory of how they got there, wearing the skin of victims they’ve allegedly never met. And they each share one haunting detail: a strand of a stranger’s hair is tied around their tongue.
Now Daniel is pulled back into the gruesome cycle, and every clue leads him deeper into the shadows of his own past. He will have to confront the ghosts of his traumatic childhood and face what’s been hunting him all along – before he and the people he loves become the next victims.
It was a dark and stormy knight, and nine dark defenders embarked upon a most perilous quest. They’re the ultimate defenders of humanity, modern-day knights who do dark deeds for all the right reasons.
In this all-star collection, nine of today’s hottest paranormal authors bring us thrilling, all-new stories of supernatural knights – stories that are brimming with magic, mystery, and mayhem.
John Marcone sets aside his plans to kill Harry Dresden to go head-to-head with a cantrev lord in Jim Butcher’s “Even Hand”. Kate Daniels is called upon for bodyguard duty to protect Saimen, a shifter she trusts less than the enemy in Ilona Andrews’ “A Questionable Client”. Cormac must stop a killer werewolf before it attacks again on the next full moon in Carrie Vaughn’s “Gods Creatures”. And in Vicki Pettersson’s “Shifting Star”, Skamar gets more than she bargained for when she goes after a creature kidnapping young girls and enlists the aid of her frustratingly sexy neighbor.
When everything’s on the line, will these knights complete their missions and live to fight again another day? Find out in Dark and Stormy Knights! Included are stories from Ilona Andrews, Jim Butcher, Shannon K. Butcher, Rachel Caine, P.N. Elrod, Deidre Knight, Vicki Pettersson, Lilith Saintcrow, and Carrie Vaughn.
Fleet Lieutenant Esmay Suiza never wanted to become a hero. After a traumatic, war torn childhood and years of being plagued by nightmares, she is content to spend her years with the Fleet following orders and staying under the radar. Even after she finds herself the leader in a fierce battle against a treasonous captain, and the center of a subsequent military trial, Suiza wants nothing more than to return to the ranks.
Then she’s promoted and sent to the deep space repair ship Koskiusko. Suiza once again finds herself in the heart of danger.
The Bloodhorde, a violent group of barbarian warriors, has made plans to sabotage her ship and clear the path for a full invasion. Suiza is thrust into command, leading the revolt against the invaders before a second wave of brutality threatens the lives of her fellow soldiers.
Naira and Tarquin have escaped vicious counter-revolutionaries, misprinted monsters and the pull of a dying planet. Now, bound together to find the truth behind the blight that has been killing habitable planets, they need to hunt out the Mercator family secrets.
But, when the head of Mercator disappears, taking the universe’s remaining supply of starship fuel with him, chaos breaks loose between the ruling families. Naira’s revolution must be put aside for the sake of humanity’s immediate survival.
When a husband, wife, and son are murdered in their Denver home and the family’s teenage twins vanish, the case draws the attention of FBI profilers Helen Belle and Benedict Hoffman. It triggers more than professional alarm. It mirrors a horrific case they investigated five years ago, when a boy slaughtered his family and went mute after speaking only a handful of haunting words. Among them: Midnight Man.
Then, nearly thirteen hundred miles away, one of the twins is found dead in a snowy Ohio field, and the parallels between the past and present cases grow more disturbing. Identical suicide notes. The same symbolic blood imagery. And a shared obsession with an online fantasy game. Its mastermind is an influencer who manipulates his most vulnerable and alienated players into killing the people they love most.
The Midnight Man is back.
Helen and Benedict must hunt the darkest corners of the internet to find him before someone else falls prey to an insidious evil that, for now, is in total control of the game.
This week, I’m contiunuing my summer binge of SF novels and, as I’m still in Germany, I’m reading two German crime novels translated into English.
Louise Boni, maverick chief inspector with the Black Forest crime squad, is struggling with her demons. Divorced at forty-two, she is haunted by the shadows of the past.
Dreading yet another a dreary winter weekend alone, she receives a call from the departmental chief which signals the strangest assignment of her career – to trail a Japanese monk wandering through the snowy wasteland to the east of Freiburg, dressed only in sandals and a cowl.
She sets off reluctantly, and by the time she catches up with him, she discovers that he is injured, and fearfully fleeing some unknown evil.
When her own team comes under fire, the investigation takes on a terrifying dimension, uncovering a hideous ring of child traffickers. The repercussions of their crimes will change the course of her own life.
This is the first book in what could be an interesting series. I like the Black Forest setting, and I couldn’t resist a German crime novel that starts with a Japanese Monk walking through the snow.
Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend has to come to an end.
When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow-to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her legacy.
But when a competitor offers her a final mission, it’s one she can’t refuse.
Soon, she’s thrust deep into a world of corporate espionage, duty-bound duels, and shadowy secrets.
What she uncovers will change humanity’s existence in the stars forever.
A cyberpunk novel with a Samurai enforcer as the main character, how could I NOT read that?
If the book is as much fun as the cover, I’ll be very happy.
The silent forest hides many secrets . . .
When a badly decomposed body is discovered in a forest, Judith Krieger, a police detective from Cologne, is assigned to the case.
For years burdened by a terrible memory, Judith knows that this is her last chance to recover her famed abilities. Chain smoking and suffering from chronic fatigue, she gets started with the investigation. But Judith makes mistakes, and is forced to blur the boundaries between work and her own past.
With everything at stake – her job and even her identity – she has no choice but to solve this case, but is she still the cop she once was?
This might be a little dark for me but the reviews are positive and the main character sounds intriguing.
Mike Finn's Fiction 