Review: My Big Goblin Space Program: An Astronaut Reincarnation LitRPG

My Big Goblin Space Program: An Astronaut Reincarnation LitRPG by Scott Warren
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I keep forgetting that I've read books by Scott Warren before. The first was The Dragon's Banker , and the second Ought to be Dead . But wait! Before The Dragon's Banker I also partly read Devilbone , so this makes three and (nearly) three-quarters books by him that I've read. I'm happy to report that in this one, for the first time, he's got himself a really good editor and/or finally learned not to make so many mistakes in the first place, because the other three were spectacularly awful in this regard.

And that was a pity, because I otherwise enjoyed two of them (not Devilbone, which was way too dark for me), and thought they deserved much better editing to bring out their other excellent qualities, namely being well-plotted and original in concept.

This one is also well-plotted and original in concept, though it does remind me of a couple of things. One, of course, is isekai manga, where someone is reincarnated in another world, sometimes as a monster, and speed-runs technological development using the resources to hand. The other is Andy Weir, because of the astronaut aspect to this story. Yes, the reincarnator was an astronaut, who died in a rocket explosion, and now he's a goblin king. His ambition: to lift the tech level of his tribe of goblins to the point that he can finally visit the moon, albeit not Earth's moon but a larger and closer and quite likely inhabited one orbiting his new planet.

Since goblins are chaotic and accident-prone and not all that bright, but highly enthusiastic, this is something of a challenge, which he rises to. Aided by some evolved goblins who have specialist skills, he begins to develop various technologies, though (as is so often the case with these clever-engineer stories) he notably neglects technologies relating to food and cloth, which historically have been extremely important - but don't leave much archaeological evidence, and tend to be mainly "women's work" in a lot of societies.

This world is complete with a System, which has a personality but plays its cards close to its chest, and the usual trappings of a video game, like anything from the original Warcraft through Civilization or Sim City to Clash of Clans. As the isekaied first-person narrator notes, the rules of physics and, apparently, biology don't conform to those of our world. Goblins, for example, are not born through sexual reproduction, but spawn mysteriously overnight, while the existing goblins sleep. This neatly disposes of any messy relationship issues, leaving the narrator free to think about engineering (and the wellbeing of his tribe) all the time.

It's clearly some form of a simulation, which raises the question of whether the narrator's previous world was too, but he doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about it; he's an engineer, not a philosopher (dammit, Jim). He just gets on with climbing the Goblin Tech Tree in the direction of a moon landing.

This is only Volume 1 of a story that started life as a serial on Royal Road, and it ends at a fairly arbitrary point, rather than feeling complete in itself. Also, it's not the kind of book that has a plot, as such, being more in the manga or light novel style of being a series of challenges relatively easily overcome by an overpowered protagonist, though he does face some suspenseful moments. I enjoyed it, though, and found it funny, and was vastly relieved that it was better edited than the previous Scott Warren books I've read, so I will definitely be looking out for Volume 2.

It would make a good anime. The goblins are inherently cartoonish, for one thing.

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Review: Cicero James, Miracle Worker

Cicero James, Miracle Worker by Hal Emerson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is strong. It's the author's eleventh book, or so, and it shows. Very definite Dresden Files vibes, but from the point where Butcher had started to get a good handle on his craft, rather than the less successful early books.

The main character is a wizard-but-not-called-that (they're called "Miracle Workers" or just "Workers"), one of maybe a hundred thousand worldwide, who just wants a quiet life but ends up getting caught up in what amount to cosmic politics. He's snarky and in many ways immature, but whatever his faults, being on the side of evil, or even on the side of ignoring evil when he has the ability to oppose it, is not one of them.

There's swearing, not constant on every page, but in situations in which there would realistically be some. There's also torture, but it's not delighted in (the opposite, in fact), and it's not gratuitous - it's central to the plot.

The editing on the pre-publication review copy I had was good, with occasional small glitches such as might be left over after a skilled editor had gone over an average-quality manuscript (average-quality in terms of editing, I mean, not storytelling; that's excellent). The author covers himself with the fictional frame that this is a book written by an ordinary guy over a few days, so it may have some typos in it.

He also lampshades the fact that the whole scenario becomes reminiscent of the X-Men. There's a clear Magneto character, who I'd identified as such before the lampshade was hung, though I hadn't thought of the narrator's mentor as Professor X until he said it.

It's exciting and action-packed. There are chases and escapes and explosions and fights and monster encounters. There's a heist, or almost. There are emotional ups and downs, and if there are more downs than ups, it still manages not to be too dark in tone, and ends with an appeal for an attitude of hope, cooperation and mutual respect that I wholeheartedly endorse. There's intelligent observation about the state that San Francisco is in these days, without adopting either political extreme.

The worldbuilding is original, and well conveyed; we know pretty well what the magic can and can't do, so when it comes time to use some, the action isn't slowed down with explanations. It doesn't make it all the way to a fully realized "secret history", but it does the job it needs to.

The secondary characters are distinct and memorable, and each has a significant role to play. Their relationships have variety and feel real.

Even though it's not my usual fare (cozy secondary-world fantasy), I enjoyed it considerably, and will be looking forward to more in the series.

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Review: Secrets, Spells, and Chocolate

Secrets, Spells, and Chocolate by Marisa Churchill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven't read a lot of "magical academy" books, because they all tend to be the same: Harry Potter redone ineptly, with the serial numbers lightly filed off (but often hitting the exact same plot points with suspiciously similar characters). Frequently with extra cruelty, because what would YA be without some cruelty?

This one is clearly heavily influenced by HP, but it isn't just a bad fanfic or a rewrite. It's a book by someone who has read HP and thought, "Well, sure, but what if it was a magical cooking school? Also, female main character, ditch the Dark Lord, and amp up the whimsy." It's cozy in tone, though there is a bit of a dystopian situation going on.

It has, in other words, a little more originality than some, and since the author is a chef, the cooking aspect is done thoroughly and plays a key role.

The magic world is all related to cooking, and the worldbuilding is largely edible. Magical people ("Sages") go through a ritual when they're young that gives them a Blade, a chef knife which acts like a wand; for unknown reasons, you can only do this once, so if your Blade is destroyed or lost, you can't get another one. Spells are part recipe, and a lot of magic is infused into food and drink. It's reasonably well thought through, and well sustained throughout.

The main character is Sylvie Jones, whose mother was accused of cheating at the big magical cooking contest, the Golden Whisk, some years previously. There wasn't sufficient proof (partly because she didn't actually do it), and now she has been allowed to come back for Golden Whisk All-Stars, while Sylvie is being allowed to take the six-week course that can grant her entry to magical cooking school if she finishes successfully and manifests her Blade at the end. However, a dystopian Minister of Magic - uh, I mean, President of the CCS, the international authority over all magical cooking people - I forget what the abbreviation stands for - is setting them both up to fail. (Unfortunately, this is partly explained in a document which, because of a formatting issue with my review copy, I was unable to read, along with a couple of other documents that were important to the plot.) He's also introduced a hierarchical ranking system for Sages, is prejudiced against people who are from a Scullery (Muggle) background, and his daughter, who's at the school, is a cheat and a bully.

Sylvie's roommate is the daughter of Scullery parents who are not only magical, but can't cook. They're from Louisiana, but not at all participants in the rich Cajun or Southern cooking traditions. The two girls get off on the wrong foot at first, but then manage to get over it and form a key alliance.

Sylvie has a lot of trouble, in fact, deciding who can be trusted and who can't; most of the people she meets come under suspicion at some point, and the final culprit is someone she hadn't suspected, because their motive was, frankly, insane. This makes for plenty of suspense and some surprise reversals.

We're not spared from a few tropes at which I rolled my eyes. Sylvie's name appears on a magical apple that indicates that she is prophesied to do great deeds, so she's sort of a Chosen One, although as it turns out, not a full-on Chosen One, and, thankfully, not one of those spoiled characters who refuses to do any work and then gets their powers at the last moment by sheer plot convenience. She's smart (for a 14-year-old), she's a great cook, and she's creative in her solutions, though sometimes that creativity takes a somewhat destructive turn and causes chaos.

There's also a Convenient Eavesdrop, my absolute least favourite plot device, but it's brief and not pivotal.

What ought to be pivotal to the plot, given how much time and how much risk by Sylvie gets invested in it, is the subplot where she has to deliver a written message from the Resistance to the school's principal at a particular time (the day of the Golden Whisk competition). Because of the formatting issues, I didn't see exactly what was in the message, and unless I missed something the delivery was never shown to have happened, although there's a scene in which it's assumed that it was delivered. It also wasn't ever clear to me why it made more sense for Sylvie (a relatively low-powered kid with a big target on her back) to hang on to the message for several days, rather than giving it to the powerful and canny principal straight away and having her protect it from the suspected mole in the school in any number of ways, including just keeping it to herself and not telling anyone.

The book has a number of small flaws like that; things that don't quite make sense, like the school at night being protected by a number of magical traps but not locked, and scattered examples of a lot of common editing errors, particularly apostrophe errors, lack of a comma before a term of address, missing question marks from questions, missing opening and closing quotation marks and missing past perfect tense. There's a scene early on in which Sylvie goes into her and Georgia's shared room and there are "two boys and a girl" in there with Georgia, but only one of the boys ever gets mentioned or described, suggesting one had been revised out and then the earlier mention had been overlooked. It's just a little scruffy, and needs another pass or two, in other words. Since I saw a pre-publication version from Netgalley, perhaps it will get them.

All these small issues add up, and along with the fact that it's so very based on HP (though with more originality than some I've seen) keep it down in the lowest tier of my annual recommendation list. Still, if you enjoy cozy, like cooking, are a fan of Harry Potter/magical school stories, and don't think too hard about the plot, you'll probably enjoy this considerably. Sylvie is brave and clever, her motivation is clear and compelling, and all her mistakes are honest ones.

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Review: A Tower of Half-Truths

A Tower of Half-Truths by N.J. Prynne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was almost put off by the author's content warning right at the front, but I'm glad I decided to give it a go anyway. Yes, there is violence, but it isn't glorified, and the bad consequences are shown clearly. Yes, there is sex, but it isn't trivialized or casual, and when it gets explicit (which it does), it's after a lot of character development, and in a committed relationship that we've watched develop over time.

In fact, this book is strong in ways that a lot of books I come across are weak: worldbuilding, character development, and especially the romance plot. I don't believe I've seen a better romance plot, in fact, one in which the couple are both genuinely appealing; they actually have excellent reasons for not acting on their attraction and sensibly decide not to do so until those reasons are resolved, like adults; and the tension is built up masterfully over a long period of the development of the relationship, rather than the all-too-common "instalove, now fall into bed" approach. Top marks for the romance.

The worldbuilding is subtle, without a lot of infodumping, but it has plausible month names and day-of-the-week names, a 28-hour day, a pantheon with assigned areas of responsibility (that some people believe in and some don't), and several different schools of magic. Standard stuff, but it's dealt with in the background rather than being placed where you'll trip over it. There's an appendix that explains it all, but you don't need to read it to keep from getting confused, because it's revealed in context that makes it clear, as worldbuilding should be.

The main characters are, as I said, appealing, but damaged realistically by their backstories (not in a way that turns them awful, though). It's like a T. Kingfisher book in that way. The secondary characters also have a bit of depth to them; they're not just one-note. They can be a loyal friend who's also annoyingly boisterous and not that deep, a mother who's cold but, in her own way, caring, a toxic ex who's also going through his own stuff and has a genuine grievance, and so on. They have layers.

In terms of editing, the commas and apostrophes are in the right places (which is notable, these days), and the past perfect tense is used where it needs to be (also notable), though sometimes the form of the verb in the past perfect is wrong, and there are other verb tense slips. There are also quite a few mangled idioms, and some passages of probably the worst pseudo-archaic dialog I've ever seen, which is saying something. That last factor was bad enough to drop it down a tier in my annual Best of the Year rankings; it was going to be Gold, but I can't give a Gold-tier ranking to a book that murders early modern English grammar like that. Note, as always, that what I saw was a pre-publication version from Netgalley, and may not reflect the state of the published book, especially as I plan to alert the publisher to some of the more egregious issues via Netgalley's feedback form.

Overall, with a bit of a tune-up it would be excellent, and even as it is, it's solidly above average. I hope there will be more in this world and with these characters.

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Review: A Tower of Half-Truths

A Tower of Half-Truths by N.J. Prynne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was almost put off by the author's content warning right at the front, but I'm glad I decided to give it a go anyway. Yes, there is violence, but it isn't glorified, and the bad consequences are shown clearly. Yes, there is sex, but it isn't trivialized or casual, and when it gets explicit (which it does), it's after a lot of character development, and in a committed relationship that we've watched develop over time.

In fact, this book is strong in ways that a lot of books I come across are weak: worldbuilding, character development, and especially the romance plot. I don't believe I've seen a better romance plot, in fact, one in which the couple are both genuinely appealing; they actually have excellent reasons for not acting on their attraction and sensibly decide not to do so until those reasons are resolved, like adults; and the tension is built up masterfully over a long period of the development of the relationship, rather than the all-too-common "instalove, now fall into bed" approach. Top marks for the romance.

The worldbuilding is subtle, without a lot of infodumping, but it has plausible month names and day-of-the-week names, a 28-hour day, a pantheon with assigned areas of responsibility (that some people believe in and some don't), and several different schools of magic. Standard stuff, but it's dealt with in the background rather than being placed where you'll trip over it. There's an appendix that explains it all, but you don't need to read it to keep from getting confused, because it's revealed in context that makes it clear, as worldbuilding should be.

The main characters are, as I said, appealing, but damaged realistically by their backstories (not in a way that turns them awful, though). It's like a T. Kingfisher book in that way. The secondary characters also have a bit of depth to them; they're not just one-note. They can be a loyal friend who's also annoyingly boisterous and not that deep, a mother who's cold but, in her own way, caring, a toxic ex who's also going through his own stuff and has a genuine grievance, and so on. They have layers.

In terms of editing, the commas and apostrophes are in the right places (which is notable, these days), and the past perfect tense is used where it needs to be (also notable), though sometimes the form of the verb in the past perfect is wrong, and there are other verb tense slips. There are also quite a few mangled idioms, and some passages of probably the worst pseudo-archaic dialog I've ever seen, which is saying something. That last factor was bad enough to drop it down a tier in my annual Best of the Year rankings; it was going to be Gold, but I can't give a Gold-tier ranking to a book that murders early modern English grammar like that. Note, as always, that what I saw was a pre-publication version from Netgalley, and may not reflect the state of the published book, especially as I plan to alert the publisher to some of the more egregious issues via Netgalley's feedback form.

Overall, with a bit of a tune-up it would be excellent, and even as it is, it's solidly above average. I hope there will be more in this world and with these characters.

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Review: The Vanishing Castle: A Simarron Mystery

The Vanishing Castle: A Simarron Mystery by Marlena Cannon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A strong piece of work with a likeable protagonist, the self-doubting centaur Simarron. Cast out of his herd, he's come to the city (where centaurs mostly do manual labour) to work as a magical safety inspector. I love a fantasy civil servant, and I also like centaurs, so this was immediately a couple of points in the book's favour.

Simarron isn't supposed to be investigating the murders of a couple of alchemists, but he keeps feeling that it's his duty (he's very dutiful), and risks his job - which means a lot to him - rather than walk away from helping others. I liked him for that, and for his openness to befriending the other characters, even though they were very different from him and not without their annoying individual quirks. These did help to distinguish them from one another, though I found myself looking up names sometimes to remind myself who someone was; making the characters more memorable is an aspect that could be strengthened.

There are some other minor flaws. For example, there's an oddity of timing. At one point, Simarron casts doubt on the idea that the castle of the title might be developed as a resort because it takes a couple of hours to get there from the city. But later, he and a friend take from before lunch until nearly sunset to get to another part of the city - admittedly, it's winter, and we don't know how far north it is, but it still seems like across the city is further than out to the castle.

There was also a scene where a murder suspect was being interrogated, not in a closed room, but in what seemed to be the foyer of the police station, in front of a reporter and the main character. That seemed like an odd place and situation to use to interrogate someone.

Editing is mostly good, apart from the occasional place where I felt the past perfect tense was missing, the use of "may" where it should have been "might" (not every time, but sometimes) and a couple of minor and subtle vocabulary slips or poorly phrased sentences. I had a pre-publication version via Netgalley, and I will provide feedback to the publisher, so these may be resolved by time of publication.

In terms of worldbuilding, there's a bit of "Aerith and Bob," the use of this-worldly names and made-up fantasy names mixed together (sometimes a this-worldly forename and a made-up surname, sometimes a forename and surname that are both from a particular this-world ethnicity) with no apparent plan or consistency that I could make out. But the way the magic system works is, if not presented with full Sandersonian rigor, at least given enough detail that I gained a feel for what it could do. It mostly wasn't what the plot was built on or how things were resolved.

The mystery aspect is solid, with a fully developed mystery plot, not just a gesture in the direction of one like I sometimes see. There's no romance; Simarron notices the attractiveness of several people he meets, but doesn't do anything about it, and given that he's a centaur and they're not, that avoids a world of possible complications.

All in all, a capable piece of work, and the start of a series that I will be keeping an eye out for. The best thing about it is the main character, but it's also well plotted and does a decent job with the worldbuilding.

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Review: The Purple Sickle Murders

The Purple Sickle Murders by Freeman Wills Crofts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I recently read the sixth Doctor Thorndyke mystery, by Austin R. Freeman, Freeman Wills Crofts' contemporary, and felt that the series was going downhill, with the author recycling his material and not coming up with much that was new. In contrast, this fifth Inspector French book shows improvement over the earlier ones, and growth in the author's abilities.

Firstly, French is less of a generic Everyman or a crime-solving plot device and more of a developed character. The fact that he talks to his wife about the case is part of this. He's done that once before in the series, but more briefly, and this longer interaction provides characterization for both of them. What's more, French displays emotion and uncertainty, his minor mistakes (and the bad, but very human, choices of other people) have consequences that increase the tension, he has an emotional connection to another character, and instead of a relatively brief action sequence at the end of a plodding police investigation, as in the earlier French books, there's an extended period spanning multiple chapters in which we're kept in suspense about the fate of a character and in which multiple action sequences, chases, fights and desperate attempts to escape occur.

It's a strong piece of work, with (as is usually the case with this author) clever criminals defeated by the perseverance and sound police work of the detective. While Austin R. Freeman's "reverse mystery" approach gave the TV series Columbo its most famous feature - that the audience knows who committed the crime from the beginning - the beloved scruffy detective himself owes a lot more to Freeman Wills Crofts, in whose books clever, arrogant criminals are brought down by persistence and sound methodology employed by a policeman with an ordinary background.

While I won't be reading more Austin W. Freeman, at least for a while, I definitely want to read more Freeman Wills Crofts, if this is any indication of the future direction of his work.

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Review: Spelled in Ink: A hilarious paranormal cozy murder mystery and fantasy featuring a witty female amateur sleuth

Spelled in Ink: A hilarious paranormal cozy murder mystery and fantasy featuring a witty female amateur sleuth by Lina Hansen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I always go on the alert when a book's blurb or, in this case, subtitle goes out of its way to emphasize how funny it is. It's like a second-hand car salesman calling himself "Honest John." And I was right to be cautious in this case; for me, at least, it never got beyond "very mildly amusing," and was never within a thousand miles of "hilarious," nor was the female amateur sleuth notably witty. But maybe I missed something.

Paranormal it is. Cozy... maybe? Someone enjoys a cup of tea at one point, I think. Fantasy, definitely; this is an alternate version of our world in which magic is not only real but publicly known about, though not much trusted, and (in some ill-defined way) starting to wane under the influence of technology. It appears that people who are called "mages," but described at one point as "magically challenged" (so in what sense are they "mages"?), are working to accelerate this shift, and that Leonardo da Vinci was - and perhaps still is - one of them. The worldbuilding is not well defined, and its relationship to the plot is more to provide convenience when needed than to drive events.

The plot itself is unexceptional, and I found the characters bland and generic. The mystery plot is not particularly a focus, and it gets resolved relatively easily, though in a way that leaves a big "why?" to be, presumably, discovered in future books. There are hints that there will be a slow-burn romance between the magic-using first-person narrator and the magic-distrusting academic/burglar, but very little advancement occurs in that subplot in this first book.

All in all, it didn't do much for me, and I was surprised to see the author's extensive list of awards for her other writing at the back of the book. It's mostly decently edited, at least, though with some vocabulary and tense issues (mostly missing past perfect, but some present tense that should be past). I will mention these to the publisher, and they may be fixed by publication.

I received a pre-publication copy via Netgalley for review.

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Review: The Mark of Zorro

The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A rip-roaring, swashbuckling classic pulp adventure, providing part of the inspiration for both Batman and Superman, but set in Spanish California.

Zorro (which I didn't realize meant "Fox" in Spanish) is a champion of the oppressed under a corrupt governor; he stands up for the honest, godly friars, the simple "natives," and the proud hidalgo family that has got itself on the wrong side of the governor politically, giving the governor an excuse to pillage their properties for his own gain. Masked (with a mask that covers his mouth, unlike the many subsequent depictions), cloaked, and armed with pistols, a rapier, and a whip, he acts as a Robin Hood-style highwayman, robbing and otherwise punishing evildoers and protecting the innocent.

One thing that impressed me is that Zorro doesn't have things all his own way. He's at genuine risk of death or capture multiple times, and sometimes a turn of fate goes against him rather than in his favour, such as when he destroys a letter which, unbeknown to him, is a copy of one that's already been sent. This is one of the things that lifts this book above the usual run of pulp fiction.

At the time, I think the revelation right at the end that Zorro and the milquetoast caballero Don Diego were one and the same person was supposed to be a big surprise, but to a modern reader, rendered genre-savvy by superhero stories involving mild-mannered and/or wealthy alter egos to men of action, it's utterly obvious from the first. (There was a precedent - the Scarlet Pimpernel - but otherwise this is, if not the originator, at least the means of transmission of the trope to other properties.) He even engages in a love triangle in which he is his own rival, seeking to test and win the beautiful Senorita Lolita, daughter of the persecuted hidalgo who is out of favour with the dastardly governor. The parallel with Superman, Clark Kent and Lois Lane leaps immediately to mind. Lolita is, for her time, a strong female character, defiantly resisting the advances of the guard captain and riding for her life with considerable skill and daring.

Exactly how he switches identities is left vague; the questions of how he carries round his two outfits (including different saddles and horse tack), and why nobody recognizes his horse, aren't ever addressed. Nor do we really care, though, because there are plenty of swordfights, lots of riding about rapidly, daring maneuvers, chases, a rescue from jail, all good adventurous stuff. I can see why it was filmed the year after publication (with Douglas Fairbanks both producing and in the Zorro role). The film was popular enough that the book was republished under the movie's title, The Mark of Zorro, rather than the original The Curse of Capistrano, even though he only makes the iconic "Z" mark once.

Although Zorro is a champion of the oppressed natives when they get unjustly beaten or otherwise individually mistreated, it's taken as read that they are inferior beings who are in their proper place under the Europeans. Only one of them gets a name, and since he's deaf and dumb, he gets no lines; another gets a single line, but no name.

At the end, his antagonist is killed (in a legitimate duel, because they are both of the caballero class and thus allowed to kill each other legally; Zorro doesn't otherwise kill anyone, though he whips several people severely), and Zorro publicly reveals his secret identity to all after securing a commitment from the governor to be more just, or else. When the original standalone book became the first of a series, in an early instance of retconning, this was all ignored; the antagonist lived on, the secret identity was maintained, and Zorro went on fighting corruption and injustice.

I've read a couple of other Johnston McCully books, and they are a superior level of pulp fiction: well plotted, told in competent, fast-moving prose, with plenty of action, and heroic, noblebright protagonists whose abilities don't strain credibility too much. Nor does he rely on coincidence to keep his plots moving, which was almost a universal fault in books of the time. I'll be looking for more of his stuff, definitely.

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Review: The Black Abbot

The Black Abbot by Edgar Wallace
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not a typical Edgar Wallace novel, but I'm starting to think there are no typical Edgar Wallace novels. He was the Melissa McShane of his day: prolific, competent, didn't just work to the same formula all the time, but wrote widely varied books within a broad genre category, most of them good.

This one has just enough of a mystery to it that I've tagged it as "classic-mystery," but, despite the country-house setting, it isn't one of those where the wealthy man is murdered in his locked library. There's a mysterious figure, believed by some to be the ghost of the Black Abbot of the title, who wanders the grounds at intervals; a legendary treasure supposedly buried by an Elizabethan ancestor, which every generation since has put in huge effort searching for; an eccentric, scholarly earl; his practical, athletic younger brother, who runs the estate; their neighbours, a lawyer with a gambling problem who has embezzled extensively to support his habit and is about to be found out, and the lawyer's sister, who is engaged to the earl but in love with the younger brother (who reciprocates); the lawyer's chief clerk, who is too clever by half and also in love with the sister; the earl's former secretary, who tried to get the earl to marry her but was foiled by the younger brother; a footman who is selling information to the clerk; and a Scotland Yard sergeant who looks remarkably like a monkey. (This is purely colour, with no direct impact on events; that's not a criticism, because I believe that there's a place for purely decorative elements in a well-written book.)

It's a promising cast, and it doesn't disappoint. There are plenty of twists and turns, lots of peril and suspense, and it's all well told, with the couple of coincidences playing not too much of a pivotal role in the plot. The sequences in the underground ruins of the monastery have a "perilous dungeons" feel. The financial back-and-forth is easy enough to understand while still being full of reverses and shocks. The romance aspect is, for Wallace and for his time, not badly handled. All of the characters have a bit more to them than their archetype and their plot role, and nobody is unmixedly a villain without any redeeming qualities. As Wallace books go, it's a strong one, and gets a recommendation from me.

The Project Gutenberg editor has put in some work to get rid of a number of typos in the original, which I appreciate.

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Review: A Silent Witness

A Silent Witness by R. Austin Freeman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not a strong entry in the Thorndyke series for me, and I'm thinking I might stop seeking these out. Freeman is recycling a lot of his material, and relying on multiple unlikely coincidences to hold his plots together, and what's more, I figured out most of the mystery well before Thorndyke started into his usual detailed recap.

The setup is one we've seen multiple times before in the series. Young, newly-qualified doctor, who has been taught by Thorndyke, is (without much enjoyment or enthusiasm) doing an easy locum job, stumbles across a couple of odd happenings that are, by complete coincidence, connected, and also meets a nice young woman who becomes the love interest (but doesn't ever get much of a personality or play any real role in the plot to speak of). Freeman even reuses another plot device from an earlier book: (view spoiler)[the property that backs onto another one, indicating, when Thorndyke looks at a map that we, the readers, are not privy to, that particular people are likely connected to the crime. (hide spoiler)]

This young man, the narrator, bumps into several people who are important to the plot in a place where he is only present by complete accident. He's too stupid to live, and keeps failing to take elementary precautions, even though he's only escaped being murdered by the villain by several strokes of luck.

The villain's plot is moderately clever, but overly elaborate, and is detected because of his inept attempts to cover up what doesn't actually need covering up in the first place. The narrator and Thorndyke's assistant profess complete bafflement, long after it was obvious to me how various identities fitted together and what the crime had been.

On balance, not a recommendation, and something of a disappointment.

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Review: The Crystal Key: The Dream Rider Saga, #2

The Crystal Key: The Dream Rider Saga, #2 by Douglas Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Contemporary cosmic fantasy is not my usual fare. I tend more to cozy and secondary-world at the moment. But I had read, and enjoyed, the first in this series, so when it popped up on BookBub I grabbed it. I was not disappointed.

It's that rare thing, a supers novel (more or less) that's had good and thorough editing, though there are a few basic errors here and there that the editor presumably missed. (Even very good editors do miss a small percentage of errors.)

It's also a good story. Everyone gets to step up, even a couple of minor characters, and the main characters grow and develop. Even though their powers are considerable by the end, they never make the challenges feel trivial or take away the tension and danger and the need to make smart choices. They're characters I could feel for and cheer for, despite their flaws.

The relationship dynamics between the characters, and their personal issues, are also well developed and help to drive the plot, even though the main plot driver is the machinations of external parties. There's a twist that I absolutely did not see coming, too, which still made sense even though it recontextualized a lot of what had gone before.

It's a strong piece of work, and while it doesn't have the extra depth of reflection that would propel it into the Gold tier of my annual recommendation list, it's firmly at the top of Silver: soundly constructed and enjoyable.

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Review: Modern Magic: A contemporary fantasy novel

Modern Magic: A contemporary fantasy novel by Beth Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The shadow of the late lamented Sir Terry Pratchett looms over every humourous fantasy novel, and especially every British humourous fantasy novel; comparisons are inevitable. This one doesn't set out to imitate him too closely, though the influence is there, mainly in the more-than-Dickensian names, but also in the general feel of the world: diverse people doing their best to get along, noblebright main characters, a lot of imperfections in how things work day-to-day, and yet somehow it all manages to operate.

In a Terry Pratchett book, or even a Tom Holt book, to which this also bears some similarity because of the corporate bureaucracy, the nerdy auditor, Hop, would probably have been the main character or at least the love interest, and Ivy, the actual main character, would have been less capable and less attractive, but still have triumphed through sheer perseverance and good intent. (She does have perseverance and good intent, though.)

The identity of the people behind all the trouble sticks out half a mile, and no tropes were averted or even given a twist in that part of the storytelling.

It is, though, a generous and kind-hearted story, in which more-or-less ordinary, imperfect people trapped in a less-than-ideal system dare to challenge it and overcome at least the worst consequences of the fact that others are abusing it from selfish motives, and those people in turn get some comeuppance. I found it amusing rather than hilarious, but it was consistently amusing, and didn't try too hard for laughs (which usually fails). It was decently edited, too, with a few minor glitches, mainly vocabulary or simple typos.

It's a recommendation from me, and I'll be looking for more from this author.

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