Waiting on Wednesday (5)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's a thing I'm looking forward to: Without a Summer, by Mary Robinette Kowal (from Tor Books, April 2, 2013).

Jane and David Vincent, master glamourists, go to Long Parkmeade to spend time with Jane's family, but quickly turn restless. The year is unseasonably cold. No one wants to be outside and Mr. Ellsworth is concerned by the harvest, since a bad one may imperil Jane's sister Melody's dowry. And Melody has concerns of her own, given the inadequate selection of eligible bachelors. When Jane and Vincent receive a commission from a prominent family in London, they decide to take it, and take Melody with them. They hope the change of scenery will do her good and her marriage prospects - and mood - will be brighter in London. Once there, talk is of nothing but the crop failures caused by the cold and increased unemployment of the coldmongers, which have provoked riots in several cities to the north. With each passing day, it's more difficult to avoid getting embroiled in the intrigue, none of which really helps Melody's chances for romance. It's not long before Jane and Vincent realize that in addition to getting Melody to the church on time, they must take on one small task: solving a crisis of international proportions.

*****

This is a favorite series of mine; the two previous installments were both lovely examples of what's best described as "Fantasy of manners." They've got that Regency setting that I like so much, and the author goes to some trouble to avoid anachronistic language. I have some issues with this cover; the lady is too pretty to be Jane, and the gentleman is a lot younger than I pictured Vincent.  I suppose it might be Melody, whose face is her fortune. In any event, compared to, say, urban fantasy covers featuring women in back-breaking poses, this is hardly objectionable at all. And it doesn't affect how much I'm looking forward to the book, which is "a lot."

Monstrous Regiment

by Terry Pratchett.

It's been several months since Polly Perks heard from her brother Paul, gone for a soldier, and she's used to getting him out of trouble; so she cuts off her hair and puts on some of Paul's old clothes, and the next morning a young man called Oliver Perks enlists in the Borogravian Army. She's put a lot of thought into how to maintain the imposture, but it soon becomes clear that she's not fooling everybody; on the other hand, before too long, some of her fellow recruits aren't fooling Polly, either.

I talked my book club into reading this one after they'd shot down two other sf/f titles I'd suggested. (Even then they had to pick an alternative for people who couldn't get into the Discworld; reality is a crutch for people who can't handle fantasy novels.) I have a feeling they may not let me pick the book again for a while, since at least one other member has already told me she gave up after 50 pages.

Another friend remarked that this one isn't Sir Terry's best, but I enjoyed it all the same. It covers pretty much every reason ever mentioned in a ballad for a girl disguising herself as a man to join the military. I also really like the title; inside the story, Polly's squad is referred to a couple of times as the "monstrous regiment" because the recruits include a troll and a vampire, but of course the phrase is also a callback to the famous polemical work of 1558, John Knox's "First blast of the trumpet against the monstruous regiment of women." He was using "monstruous regiment" to mean "unnatural government," and the whole thing was about how no woman should ever rule over men. So that connotation is appropriate to the Discworld book as well, and I'm looking forward to seeing if any of my book club ladies got that; assuming any of them finished the book.

Waiting on Wednesday (4)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's something I'm very much looking forward to: River of Stars, by Guy Gavriel Kay (from Roc, April 2, 2013).

Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life - in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later - and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles towards the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai from the north.

Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor - and alienates women at the court. But when her father's life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has.

In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading to events no one could have foretold, under the river of stars.

*****

There's not much that makes me happier than a new book by Guy Gavriel Kay. I think he's one of the finest prose stylists writing fantasy today; his books are beautiful, and nearly always make me cry. I'm also endlessly fascinated by the way he builds his fantasy worlds on historical societies; the previous novel in this series, if you can call it that when there's 400 years between one story and the next, was based loosely on Tang Dynasty China, and this one evidently takes up with the Song Dynasty. I confidently predict I'm going to think it's fabulous.

Waiting on Wednesday (3)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's a thing I'm looking forward to: Leaving Everything Most Loved, by Jacqueline Winspear (from Harper, March 26, 2013).

The year is 1933. Maisie Dobbs is contacted by an Indian gentleman who has come to England in the hopes of finding out who killed his sister two months ago. Scotland Yard failed to make any arrest in the case, and there is reason to believe they failed to conduct a thorough investigation. The case becomes even more challenging when another Indian woman is murdered just hours before a scheduled interview. Meanwhile, unfinished business from a previous case becomes a distraction, as does a new development in Maisie's personal life.

*****

This is another series I've been following for a while. I picked up the first one because I was interested in the time period; they're set between the world wars, mostly in England. And I liked the character of Maisie, finding her way as a professional woman in a profession she doesn't share with very many people. I think these would be great mysteries to recommend to people who don't read mysteries, but like historical fiction.

Waiting on Wednesday (2)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.  So here's a thing I'm looking forward to: What Darkness Brings, by C.S. Harris (from NAL, March 5, 2013).

The death of a notorious London diamond merchant draws aristocratic investigator Sebastian St. Cyr and his new wife Hero into a sordid world of greed, desperation, and the occult, when the husband of Sebastian’s former lover Kat Boleyn is accused of the murder.

Regency England, September 1812: After a long night spent dealing with the tragic death of a former military comrade, a heart-sick Sebastian learns of a new calamity: Russell Yates, the dashing, one-time privateer who married Kat a year ago, has been found standing over the corpse of Benjamin Eisler, a wealthy gem dealer. Yates insists he is innocent, but he will surely hang unless Sebastian can unmask the real killer.

For the sake of Kat, the woman he once loved and lost, Sebastian plunges into a treacherous circle of intrigue. Although Eisler’s clients included the Prince Regent and the Emperor Napoleon, he was a despicable man with many enemies and a number of dangerous, well-kept secrets—including a passion for arcane texts and black magic. Central to the case is a magnificent blue diamond, believed to have once formed part of the French crown jewels, which disappeared on the night of Eisler’s death. As Sebastian traces the diamond’s ownership, he uncovers links that implicate an eccentric, powerful financier named Hope and stretch back into the darkest days of the French Revolution.

*****

I used to read a lot of Regency romances, and I've read some nonfiction about the period as well, so this series of historical mysteries set in the early 1800s is right up my alley. I stumbled across the first one when it was new and I was still searching for a series to take the place of the late Kate Ross's Julian Kestrel novels, and I was completely smitten with Sebastian St Cyr on first meeting.

I have to admit, though, I've fallen behind on this series; I've got, I think, two to catch up on before I can go on to this one.

Waiting on Wednesday (1)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. Given that my List of Books I Want to Read Before I Die only seems to get longer, never shorter, this is one way of assuring that I never lack for something to post at least once a week.

So here's a thing I'm looking forward to: Six-Gun Snow White, by Catherynne M. Valente (a limited edition from Subterranean Press, release date February 28, 2013).

Valente’s adaptation of the fairy tale to the Old West provides a witty read with complex reverberations from the real world. Snow White is the daughter of a Crow woman abducted and forced into marriage by an unloving white magnate called only Mr. H. She gets her name in mockery, as white is “the one thing I was not and could never be.” When her father remarries, Snow White’s glimpse into the second Mrs. H’s mirror suggests they share the yoke of female subservience, but the two are inevitably at odds—so the young woman dons a man’s clothes and, like Huck Finn, chooses the “Indian Territory” that so frightens Mr. H’s world. Enter a pursuing Pinkerton’s detective, a pony named Charming, seven kick-ass outlaw ladies, and a variety of showdowns as Snow White searches for meaning, love, and a semblance of belonging. Any attempt to derive a simple message from this work would be an injustice to the originality of the atmosphere, the complexity of the interplay of its elements, and the simple pleasure of savoring Valente’s exuberant writing.

*****

This is not the description of the book on Amazon; I found this one on the Tor.com blog, which posted an excerpt. I generally like retold fairy tales anyway, but I'm particularly looking forward to this one because I read the first few pages on the blog and I'm dying to know what happens next. I just hope I manage to get hold of it; the product page for it at Subterranean indicates it's a limited edition of 1,000 signed and numbered copies, so it may sell out pretty quick.

Kinsey and Me

This book collects a number of short stories by Sue Grafton; the first half of the book is devoted to Kinsey Millhone stories, followed by a number of more personal stories that Grafton wrote to deal with her own reaction to her mother's suicide (that would be the "and me" section). Separating the two is an essay on the nature of the hard boiled private investigator.

It's oddly disassociative to read the whole book; the two halves don't seem to go together. The Kinsey stories are little gems, and would make great episodes for a TV series; reading them made my husband regret that he'd once heard Grafton describe the measures she's taken to ensure that Kinsey never ever appears on screen. The "and me" stories are more like reflective vignettes, beautifully written but largely plotless and much darker in tone; and that's saying something when you consider I'm comparing them to hard-boiled detective stories where people are pushed off roofs and shot on the freeway.

I enjoyed the book; I'm just not sure what to make of the second part of it.