Review: Dragons, Heists and Other Retirement Plans

Dragons, Heists and Other Retirement Plans by Meg Pennerson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I went into this with high expectations - I love heists, generally enjoy dragons, and am reaching a stage of life where retirement plans are also of interest - but I was prepared to be disappointed, and unfortunately I was, somewhat. It isn't bad, but I felt it was lacking in a couple of ways.

A common complaint made against cozy fantasy is that it's boring. Now, I usually don't find it so - stakes don't have to be high and things don't have to be happening every second for me to enjoy a book. Actually, plenty happens (in a plot sense) in this one, but I never felt much of a sense of urgency or tension or suspense or even importance of the stakes until near the end. It meandered from one thing to the next, without the protagonists ever seeming to be in much danger or even to be strongly motivated. I'm not sure why this was; all of the elements were there. There was even a ticking clock after a while, something that had to be done within four days, but it still didn't feel as urgent as it should have. Perhaps it's something in the way the author conveys, or doesn't convey, the inner lives of the characters. The characters themselves, even though they had backstories and interests that should have made them more than just their archetype plus their plot role, still didn't feel to me like they had much depth, and it was probably for the same reason. I seldom got a sense of them feeling anything strongly, even when that's what was being described in narrative; it felt like I was being told it but not shown it.

Even when another, shorter ticking clock was introduced, I didn't find it plausible - it was one of those cinematic cliches where there's a very specific deadline after an exact amount of time for a phenomenon that will harm multiple people, even though if you think about it even for a second, the phenomenon concerned is something that will affect different people differently, and will affect all of them gradually. It's not a binary state of "after this exact second, everything will be irretrievably bad, but before that exact second, if we stop the phenomenon everyone will be perfectly fine almost immediately," but that's how it's represented.

But the book did have some original aspects, and wasn't just a rehearsal of standard tropes (despite occasionally making use of one). The protagonists are close female friends who, forty years before, at which time they were in their 30s, were a famous duo of criminals. That's where the heist comes in, though part of my disappointment was that we didn't really get to see the heist. We saw the heist fail, in a flashback right at the beginning, and we were told later on about how intricate it had been to set up, but that was it.

Largely because the heist failed - through the cheeky and crude intervention of another thief - the pair retired, one to keep magical cats and the other to get married to a solid, decent man and raise a son. She's now widowed. The story is about them coming out of retirement to clean up the continuing mess that their failure 40 years before led to, in the course of which they re-encounter their old rival and discover that he was a dupe of an unscrupulous businessman, and is now a rather pathetic old man.

I did appreciate the avoidance of one common trope. (view spoiler)[There are hints throughout that the unmarried one of the pair and the old rival might have some kind of romantic spark between them, but it doesn't end up coming to anything. I like the realism of this; most actual relationships that do get initiated don't end up with happily ever after, let alone attractions that don't lead to initiating anything, and I'm always glad to see an author going against expectations in this way. (hide spoiler)] Other people probably won't like it for much the same reasons that I do.

I also enjoyed the fact that the cats (and dragons) can talk to each other, but their humans don't understand them, even though they understand the humans. It provides a second set of viewpoints in the scenes, and most of the humour.

There's a subplot, which comes up near the beginning and at the end but not in between, about someone who is raising property taxes and driving older people out of their homes when they can't pay. (The word "foreclosure" is used, which isn't quite right; that's when you can't pay a mortgage. When you can't pay taxes, that's seizure.) I assume that's setup for the next book, since it isn't fully resolved or even given much attention in this one.

I wasn't engaged enough, though, to definitely want to continue with the series. It has potential and originality, but something in the style didn't quite connect for me. I increasingly make the distinction these days between sound craft and human appeal. The best books have both; a lot of books I read have human appeal, or, put another way, an engaging story, but fail to back it up with sound craft. This one has decent craft and some good ideas, but as a story it didn't reach me.

I received a copy via Netgalley for review, which may not be exactly the final version.

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Review: The Hermit Of Turkey Hollow: The Story Of An Alibi, Being An Exploit Of Ephraim Tutt, Attorney & Counselor At Law

The Hermit Of Turkey Hollow: The Story Of An Alibi, Being An Exploit Of Ephraim Tutt, Attorney & Counselor At Law by Arthur Cheney Train
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A wandering, sprawling and often amusing recounting of a trial for murder.

For the prosecution, the recently-appointed county prosecutor. What nobody knows is that in order to afford the bribe that got him the job, he has embezzled the trust fund that assists in the support of the accused, a harmless indigent known as Skinny the Tramp. He then had to borrow the money that was due to Skinny as his six-monthly interest payment.

For the defense, Ephraim Tutt, a series character of the author's. He's motivated by a love for justice and a belief that his client is innocent. He's been called in by the town lodge, of which Skinny was once a member; they also believe that he's innocent, even though the sheriff, who's the head of the lodge, is a key witness for the prosecution.

Central to the case are two facts. There are eight witnesses who swear Skinny was in the town three miles away at 4pm; and the lumberjack who found the victim, the hermit of the title, breathing his last noted that the hermit's clock was showing 4pm when he expired. A perfect alibi - if the clock was running at the time, and on this point the defense hinges.

There's an uncomfortable night-time expedition over bad roads in an unreliable car (this is 1920) to check this point with the lumberjack, who's left town for another job. This trip turns out to be for nothing; he can't be located.

There are some suspenseful courtroom moments, and some good reading of his opponent by Tutt. Overall, though, it's not a tight plot, and the prose is sometimes verbose (as you'd expect from a lawyer). There's some casual racism towards Roma people and black people, and a good deal of contempt directed at the "hicks" in the small town. It was entertaining in its way, but not outstanding, and from me it gets three stars.

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Review: Twig's Traveling Tomes

Twig's Traveling Tomes by Gryffin Murphy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This one reads as if it was consciously crafted to appeal to the Platonic ideal of the cozy fiction fan, and indeed it is being published because it drew the attention of the "tastemaker" who discovered Travis Baldree. My cozy fantasy bingo card filled up quickly: tea, love of books, small business, gender and relationship diversity in all the usual ways (except that nobody is clearly trans), broadly D&D-style setting, quirky introvert protagonist being pushed out of her comfort zone by events, supportive love interest, cute familiar (though not until halfway through).

For me, contrarian that I am, this was almost a downside. It's not all the way to "made from box mix," but it does fall into my category of "if you like this sort of thing, this is definitely one." I personally prefer fresher ideas rather than variations on an established theme, but I know I'm in a minority there, and lots of people will love this unreservedly.

The worldbuilding, while not startlingly original, has had a bit more work than is often the case with cozy. Four kingdoms themed around the traditional four elements, elemental and natural magic, approximately the usual D&D species, though elves have brightly coloured skin and gnomes brightly coloured hair.

The editing is also a bit above average; there are several of the usual issues (occasional missing past perfect tense, "may" in past tense narration instead of "might," dialog sometimes punctuated incorrectly), but fewer examples than I usually see. The biggest problem is the vocabulary. The author uses a number of words that don't have quite the right connotation (the most obvious example being "amorously" for "lovingly" when it isn't sexual love), and a couple that sound similar to the word she means but are a different word, like "hurdling" for "hurtling" and "clamored" for "clambered". Both of those are relatively common confusions, and there may yet be more editing before publication; I had a pre-publication version via Netgalley for review.

The romance begins with instant attraction, then there's a long will-they-won't-they period (about three-quarters of the book) with minimal justification given. There's some very steamy kissing and some innuendo, but nothing more than that on screen.

There's nothing so badly wrong with it that I feel justified in dropping it to three stars, but I'm giving it four a bit grudgingly. Put that down to my curmudgeonly nature and dislike of the expected choice.

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Review: Look to the Lady

Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Kicks off with a great burst of fascinating, suspenseful, apparently inexplicable events, explains them, and continues that cycle until the end.

There's a wonderful contrast between Campion's persona of an upper-class twit who doesn't even quote classic literature (like Wodehouse's characters), but the cliches of the advertising industry, and his actual keen intelligence and wonderful ability to organize surprising events. This is assisted by his wide circle of lowlife contacts, so not only does he have a mask over his real personality, but he lives two distinct lives in different spheres (using a number of different pseudonyms, of which "Albert Campion" is one; his real first name, apparently, is Rudolph, and his surname a famous one from an old aristocratic house).

Like the previous book in the series, this one takes place around a very ancient country manor in a remote rural district of England. This one, though, protects an ancient chalice on behalf of the Crown, using a combination of subterfuge and what appears to be a supernatural guardian.

The action blasts along, with real danger at plenty of suspenseful moments, the characters are varied and amusing, and the title is a big hint at the villain. It's like an Edgar Wallace, but more clever, and I'm a big fan of Wallace even with his pulpy limitations. I'm looking forward to more in this fortunately long series.

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Review: There's Not a Bathing Suit in Russia: & Other Bare Facts

There's Not a Bathing Suit in Russia: & Other Bare Facts by Will Rogers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rogers was a comedian, known as the "Cowboy Philosopher," and this is a mixture of comic observation delivered in a down-home manner with actually insightful reflections on Russia. His introduction says that everyone has been writing about Russia lately, and the difference with this book is that he doesn't claim to know anything about the topic, but he's being too modest; he actually went there (unlike some of the contemporary pundits he pokes fun at), and has some thoughts that still resonate today.

The Russian revolution was still relatively recent at the time, and he first discusses the Russian refugees he encountered in Paris. All of them claimed to be dukes or higher, and his reflection is that they obviously hadn't had those positions based on any merit, since they're doing menial jobs and not even doing them very well. No wonder Russia was in a mess if they were in charge.

On the other hand, he skewers socialists for being much better at giving speeches and publishing newspapers than they are at running anything. Nobody could run a country the size of Russia very well, and they aren't doing so. This isn't entirely their fault, but if someone isn't good at something, they should admit it and leave off, is his opinion. Not to mention: "We all know a lot of things that would be good for our Country, but we wouldent want to go so far as propose that everybody start shooting each other till we got them. A fellow shouldent have to kill anybody just to prove they are right." Something that more and more people in today's America should probably be reminded of.

The first section, where he's clowning around and being satirical and describing his journey before he gets to Russia, is less interesting than his observations after he gets there, but it is fun in its own way. The whole thing is short, and well worth reading.

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Review: The Good Comrade

The Good Comrade by Una Lucy Silberrad
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Not, as you might assume from the title, a socialist novel.

The "Good Comrade" is the name given to the McGuffin, a rare blue daffodil, but it's named by the heroine in honour of the three men who love her, and one of them also independently thought of her by the same title. The book is a reflection on the nature of relationships, mostly between men and women, but also in families, and between unrelated people with no romantic connection. Being English, it also has a strong theme related to social class, that most English way of people relating to other people.

I picked it up from Project Gutenberg a while ago on the recommendation of a fellow member of the Codex writers' forum. That forum is for speculative fiction writers, but it isn't spec-fic, or my other main reading genre, mystery/thriller; if anything, it's a romance, but a very unusual one. The big strength of the book, as of its heroine, is that it's unexpected and not like others. (Authentically not like, rather than "not like other girls".)

The heroine, Julia, comes from a family that has fallen into relative poverty from its already very minor social status because of the father's gambling problem. He was encouraged to leave the army with the rank of captain, which he still uses. In English literature, a retired army officer only having made captain often indicates that he was either unpromotable or terminated his career early for probably dodgy reasons, and in this case it's both. (Christie's Captain Hastings is an exception.)

The family, however, do everything they can to put up a good front and conceal their fall. Their drawing room, for example, is better furnished than the rest of the house, since that's the part visitors see. Julia, the middle daughter, sees this for the trumpery it is, and is the only one who has much gumption or tries to do anything other than marry for (relatively minor) advantage. She's not as good-looking as her two sisters, but I found it fully plausible that several men fell in love with her anyway, because she's such an interesting person - intelligent and not overly bound by convention (including, it's remarked by one of her admirers, the conventions of the usual unconventional person, the bohemian - she doesn't have that pose either).

This is probably why she goes on a day's walk in his company. They've become friends, non-romantic, and enjoy each other's company - they are "good comrades," in fact. This occurs in the Dutch village where Julia is working as a paid companion in the house of a bulb grower, a prosperous merchant who loves his trade for its own sake, as does his son, rather than purely for the money they can make from it. The pair, Julia and her male friend, get lost on their walk when a fog comes down, and spend the night outside together, perfectly innocently - but her Calvinistic Dutch employers are obliged to treat her as having compromised herself utterly and dismiss her without a reference. (This is 1907.)

The plot doesn't follow convention much more than Julia does, though it's not experimental; it just doesn't go in the expected directions, and is mostly unpredictable, though I did spot what Julia's next move was likely to be after her dismissal. (view spoiler)[She competently and daringly steals a chemical formula that she has inferred her male friend was trying, and has failed, to steal for the British government from a local Dutch chemist, and sends it to him anonymously, but he, of course, knows instantly that nobody else could have known about his mission or done this. (hide spoiler)]

There are some great character observations, of Julia's father, of his friend, of Julia's several suitors, and of course of Julia herself. Her character develops and is revealed through the choices she makes, and she's an admirable person without being perfect at all. Also, various characters take action and are inspired by each other, or their ideas about each other. The characters and their relationships are the great strength of the book.

Its weakness is that the author's style is patchy. She can convey a sense of place wonderfully, but she doesn't write beautiful prose for the most part, and is difficult to quote because her well-observed points tend to be a paragraph or two long rather than a sentence. She's also rather given to comma-splicing. That kept the book off the Platinum tier of my annual list, but it's certainly worthy of five stars as far as I'm concerned.

According to Wikipedia, Silberrad was thought of as a "middlebrow" writer, who steered a course firmly between the conservatism that stood for the way things currently were and the radicalism that wanted to burn it all down, aiming along what would actually be the trajectory of the 20th century: gradual improvement in various social measures, particularly the equality and freedom of women. That's probably why I like her book. I myself concluded long ago that, as well as being middle-aged and middle-class, I'm also middlebrow; no point in denying it, might as well embrace it. And my own politics are neither radical nor reactionary. Julia is just the kind of intelligent (though not necessarily highly educated), capable and determined character I enjoy reading about, and I recommend the book unreservedly.

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Review: Tusks, Tails and Teacakes

Tusks, Tails and Teacakes by T.L. Stone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If the cover and the format of the title didn't clue you in, this is cozy fantasy of the Legends and Lattes variety. Sword-and-sorcery/D&D world (with tieflings carefully renamed as "hellkin" and tabaxi as "panthera" for legal distinctness), in which an adventurer leaves the life and settles down in a nice little town running a hospitality business. It isn't just one of the several clones, though; it has its own original plot and characters in the same subgenre, so if you're a Travis Baldree fan you can read it and enjoy it without feeling like it's just an inferior ripoff.

The reason for the protagonist, a half-elf rogue named Lira, to come to a small-town tavern and start working there is a strong one, not less so for the fact that it's a version of the inciting incident for half the cozy mystery/romance books set in small towns: she's originally from there, and left after her grandmother died, in order to go on the road with an adventuring party. Now, in the wake of the loss of a companion (told in the prologue), her party has broken up, and she's come back to get something she stashed when she left with them originally some years previously: her grandmother's recipe book, all she has of the woman who raised her apart from the memories. Unfortunately, she buried it in the tavern cellar, and someone has since built a stone wall on top of the spot (it never becomes clear who, or exactly why, or when), complicating the retrieval.

Presumably at some point she came back, because there's also some gold buried with the book, and she didn't have any when she left with the party; it was apparently from a subsequent quest. This is a bit of continuity that didn't fully make sense to me.

As she works, along with a dwarf woman who she caught attempting to rob the tavern, to tidy the place up and bring in more clientele as a cover for plotting to get her book back, she discovers that she likes it here and likes doing this and is making friends. But then the past comes back to bite her, and there's a confrontation, in which one of my not-favourite tropes occurs. (view spoiler)[The protagonist suddenly develops powers which she explicitly did not have ever before at the critical moment, and has immediate full use of them, enough to foil the opponent. (hide spoiler)]

Before I proceed to more critique, I want to say that I did enjoy this considerably. The worldbuilding, while off-the-shelf, felt a lot less like scenery flats than in some other books in the genre, the plot mostly made sense and progressed organically, the characters felt like they belonged in their world rather than ours (although with some up-to-date attitudes that are de rigueur in the genre), and the wee beastie - a stoat, not a racoon as per the blurb - was endearing. It managed to sit firmly in its subgenre without just being made from box mix, and shows decent writing ability.

The stove pinged my worldbuilding geekery briefly, though. Both the oven and a "burner" on the stove get "turned off," implying that this isn't a coal or woodburning range but (probably) gas. Where is the gas coming from? It's not magic, because in this setting magic has become relatively uncommon, after the teaching of magic was forbidden some decades previously. It just seemed not to fit well with the general tech level.

The editing is just a little scruffy, too. Most of the issues are with commas where they shouldn't be, and most of those are between adjectives that are not coordinate, but lots of people make that mistake. Most of the other commas where they shouldn't be are after "of course" when it's just confirming a previous statement; word processor grammar checkers are not sophisticated enough to distinguish that from the case where you do need a comma, because you're providing completely new information. Apart from these usage issues, though, there are a number of words that are either mistyped or not typed at all, and therefore missing from the sentences that require them. I've seen plenty of books far worse than this, and I didn't spot any vocabulary being used incorrectly, but it has room for improvement.

The other thing that I wasn't completely sold on was the rapid progression of a couple of romances, one of which hit marriage and the other moving in together after about a month of dating in both cases. And in the case of the second one, it was between people who hadn't known each other long or very well before they started dating (I may as well call it that, because even though that's not a concept that was around in the time periods of our world that sword & sorcery approximately evokes, relationships in this book's world follow modern practice). There was no plot reason for it to be only a month, either; it could have been longer. I won't give it my "weak-romance" tag, because that's for people who decide to get married after barely spending any time together, and this isn't that, but it does seem precipitate.

So there are ways in which it could be better (from my point of view; some or all of these things may not bother you whatsoever), but I liked it, and want to continue with the series.

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