Breathing Just a Little

 As predicted, my churn of new book completions has dramatically slowed in February compared with January, now that I am back to work and to my regularly scheduled life. I have, nonetheless, completed two  more new-to-me novels after the month opener, Offshore (reviewed here ) and am close to finished a non-fiction book (which will be reviewed soon, it is giving me much food for thought). This was an enjoyable story, with many moments of what felt like genuine insight and pathos, somewhat weakened by its very predictable rom-com beats and further flawed by a too-neat ending. Phoebe, the main character, was an appealing person who I could engage with, and I thought most of the secondary characters were surprisingly vivid and well-drawn. I especially liked Marla, the caustic sister-in-law to be; Juice, the groom's 12 year old daughter; Jim, the best man; and above all, Lila, the spoilt, often bratty, but compellingly attractive (and I don't mean just beautiful, I mean as a perso...

The 2025 Hugo Awards for SFF works will be announced in August this year. I often like to have a stab at reading to the list for short stories, novels and novellas, and this time I had a big head start, having already read 4 of the 6 novels. Here are my thoughts on the novellas - another post to come on the novels!  If I was giving the prize? It would go to either The Butcher of the Forest or What Feasts at Night. This is a little surprising, as fantasy-horror is not one of my favoured subgenres usually, but these are two very good works. Best Novella Nominees 1. The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo: 7.5/10 This is the fifth in a series of novellas. The Singing Hills novellas are set in a fantasy world that is closest in analogue to Imperial China, with shades of both Mongolian and Inuit influence. The central conceit and driving device of the series is the journeys of Chih, a travelling archivist and cleric, who gets themselves into a range of problems and adventures as they record ...

 The 2025 Hugo Awards for SFF works will be announced in August this year. I often like to have a stab at reading to the list for short stories, novels and novellas, and this time I had a big head start, having already read 4 of the 6 novels. Here are my thoughts on the short stories! Novella and novel review posts to come. The six stories on the list are: “Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones “Marginalia” by Mary Robinette Kowal “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is” by Nghi Vo “Three Faces of a Beheading” by Arkady Martine “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim While I have given a tie mark to the two I think are the strongest, if it were me, I would give the Hugo to We Will Teach You How to Read We Will Teach You How to Read because I think what is does is strikingly original in both form and affect, and I think risk-taking innovation like that should...

This has been a slow month so far with new books, as I have been pretty frenetic with life and work commitments. I've read one of the Stella Prize shortlisted books (Cactus Pear for My Beloved) which I reviewed here , and also one pretty average mystery novel that I haven't reviewed, but other than that, I've only finished these two spec fic books. I've just started (and will finish and be reviewing!) another Stella nominee, Translations, and am wending my way through the Terry Pratchett official biography which will definitely get finished this month, which will make six. However, that might end up being all she wrote given the timetable of the next 12 days, which includes both a heavy workload and a higher than average volume of social engagements. Ahhhh well, not every month can be *all* about books... Of these two, I would recommend the first to fantasy and fairytale fans without hesitation, but the second (the classic - a Booker nominee that I somehow missed when i...

A friend put me on to Nghi Vo's Singing Hills novellas at the very beginning of March, and I have been picking my way through them ever since. Having just finished book 5 last night, I thought they were definitely worth a review, although the cycle is not finished yet (book 6 is expected out later this year). I have only added the first cover image, but the cover art style is the same for all of the books. The Singing Hills novellas are set in a fantasy world that is closest in analogue to Imperial China, with shades of both Mongolian and Inuit influence. The central conceit and driving device of the series is the journeys of Chih, a travelling archivist and cleric, who gets themselves into a range of problems and adventures as they record the stories of empresses, handmaidens, cultivators, ghosts, tigers, bandits, and many more. In order, the novellas are: 1. The Empress of Salt and Fortune 2. When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain 3. Into the Riverlands 4. Mammoths at the Gates 5....

This month's new book reading kicked off with two tonally different but not lore-dissimilar fantasy books set partially or mostly within the realms of fae / fairy, both in terms of actual locations but also themes, characters and meanings. Both books were enjoyable (and substantially better than Weyward, the not-great witch book that closed out February reading), but ultimately, I think one was more successful than the other. I'm giving a genre-reader recommend to both (as you will see below!) but if you only want one fae-based fantasy for your lists, go with Greenteeth. Commencing when Temperance Crump, a young wife and mother who is also a witch, is thrown into Jenny Greenteeth's lake to drown, and Jenny decides to rescue rather than eat her, this story rollicks around through England, Wales, Scotland and fairyland, and draws in a positive mash-up of folklore, Arthurian mythos, fae legends, and fantasy's greatest tropey hits. It is enjoyable, even very enjoyable, with...