Books
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The Winter Crown by Elizabeth Chadwick – Review
This is the second part to the trilogy about Eleanor of Aquitaine. I have not read first part The Summer Crown and unusually for starting a series mid-way I don’t feel punished for not reading it. Ailenor (Eleanor) is already married to Henry at the beginning of the novel and whilst she is very fond of him she finds his lack of respect to her ideas galling. She is constantly reminding him that she is more than his brood mare to which he basically says yes dear. In that respect Ailenor feels very modern, she is very clever and there is a real sense that she knows her worth. Henry…
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The books I do not read
I am a recovering book snob. I’m in the process of overcoming the baggage I picked up whilst studying English Lit at university. I’m now able to read widely not caring for some invisible judge and yet there is one line I do not want to cross. Why can’t I read romance? That’s not to say I haven’t read any I’ve dabbled in the paranormal romance end of things and faeries who like to get hot and heavy. But straight romances in genre terms are problematic. A lot of this is bound up in my heavy allergic reaction to the tag chick lit. I have never been a chick, I…
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Review: Planetfall by Emma Newman
Planetfall is a breath-taking sci-fi debut from Emma Newman. It is a claustrophobic look at life in a human colony on a far flung planet with utopian ideals. The colony itself is self-sustaining with all waste being recycled. At the centre of it all is Ren the colony’s most accomplished 3-D printing engineer. Along with Mack, the closest thing the colony has to a leader they harbour a secret about its founding, one that has the power to destroy all they have achieved in the last twenty years. The arrival of Sung-Soo the grandson of Lee Suh-Mi the pathfinder, mission founder and ex-lover of Ren sparks change in this fragile ecosystem, one…
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Jane's Great Re-Read: Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett – a review
Carpe Jugulum is the last of the first wave of witches novels. This time GRanny and the rest of the Lancre coven are faced with invading vampires from Uberwald. There are now four witches in Lancre, Granny, Nanny Magrat and Agnes but covens work best with three, you know: the maiden, the mother and the other one. A lot of this novel is about how roles change over time and what its like to feel out of place in the world. Magrat has given birth to a daughter and is keeping the name secret until the naming ceremony. King Verence has summoned an Omnian Priest and sent invitations out to…
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Jane's Great Re-read: Maskerade by Terry Pratchett – a review
This is possibly my favourite Witches novel so I have to warn you I am biased on this one. I shall declare my interests here. 1. Agnes Nitt was the first time I saw myself represented so completely in a novel. I will explain more fully later but at 15 I was Agnes Nitt. 2. If you know me at all you know I take part in a lot of amateur musical theatre. The jokes and references in this one come thick and fast 3. Greebo gets his human on again. Aw yeah! Reading Maskerade was the first time that Agnes takes centre stage in a story and it was…
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Jane's Great Re-Read: Lords and Ladies By Terry Pratchett a Review
Lords and Ladies is the fourth Granny Weatherwax and the witches book. If Wyrd Sisters is Macbeth, Lords and Ladies is a Midsummer’s Night Dream. This picks up post Witches Abroad just when the trio have arrived back from Genua and sprints off into the distance. This book is about belief; it is about susperstition; it is about quantum and iron.
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Book Review: Phoenix Rising by Bryony Pearce
Phoenix Rising is the first novel in a brand new dystopian YA series about Pirates. The main character is Toby, chief engineer aboard the Phoenix. The novel is very fast paced. The main character,Toby, moves from saving the ship’s engines to discovering a stowaway. The action never stops, it is a very wild ride, with the enemy ship the Banshee captained by Nell and her daughter Ayla as well as prison breaks, epic battles and explosions. I love that the world is well realised, an environmental calamity has changed the world and governments have collapsed new states have sprung up with pirates scavenging resources from the floating junkyards that the…
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Jane's Great Re-read: Witches Abroad – Review
Witches abroad is the third in Granny Weatherwax sequence and one of my personal favourites in a strong field. Terry Pratchett’s books are like onions there are layers. The basic plot is Magrat is left a Magic wand by one of the ramptops witches who also happens to be a fairy godmother. There is a girl in Genua who is going to a marry a prince and this being Discworld it needs to be stopped. Let me take a minute there with my proud feminist hat on and punch the air. Women fighting against the established narrative that a young girl must be wanting to marry the prince. Anyhoo, something…
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Jane's Great Re-Read: Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters, the next in the Granny Weatherwax sequel. This is where we get all Shakespearean as Terry Pratchett takes on the Scottish Play with a good dollup of humour at all theatre. This is where Granny comes into her own as part of the coven with Magrat the Maiden, Nanny Ogg the Mother and Granny as well the other one. This was my first Discworld Novel and as such it does feel rather much like an old friend. There are some wonderful passages, not least the Storm that has been practising and random Andrew LLoyd Webber References. And that’s one of the reasons I really love Terry Pratchett, the…
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Jane's Great Re-Read: Equal Rites – Review
Another old friend to back and visit. My relationship with the Discworld novels is avid reader but not necessarily a re-reader They are novels to be inhaled and enjoyed and to laugh out loud and make others want to know just what has made you guffaw. Most folks will not send you to Equal Rites as a first port of call. The Discworld novels have various streams you can follow based on various characters. Rincewind, Death and Susan, Sam Vimes, Granny WEatherwax, Moist Von Lipwig, Tiffany Aching and there are a few true stand alones. Equal Rites is the first novel to contain Granny Weatherwax, but at this point she’s…
