The Prestige / Christopher Priest

3.5 stars out of 5

In 1878, two young stage magicians clash in the dark during the course of a fraudulent séance. From this moment on, their lives become webs of deceit and revelation as they vie to outwit and expose one another.

Their rivalry will take them to the peaks of their careers, but with terrible consequences. In the course of pursuing each other's ruin, they will deploy all the deception their magicians' craft can command--the highest misdirection and the darkest science.

Blood will be spilled, but it will not be enough. In the end, their legacy will pass on for generations...to descendants who must, for their sanity's sake, untangle the puzzle left to them. 

3.5 stars--better that “I liked it” but less than “I really liked it.” I was engaged while I was reading, but every time I set it down, I had a struggle to pick it back up again. Totally on me, it’s not the book.

If you enjoyed Robertson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy (Fifth Business, The Manticore, World of Wonders), you will probably enjoy this book too. Unlike Davies, the ending felt rather Frankenstein-like to me. And I have to wonder if Erin Morgenstern read this before she wrote The Night Circus. I also keep thinking about Faust for some reason that I can’t put my finger on.

I’ve run into Nikola Tesla as a character in fiction on a number of occasions now, and here he is again! I can see the appeal--an extremely intelligent and talented man, but eccentric and (at least in younger years) darkly handsome.

If you’re not a fan of the epistolary format, you may want to give this book a miss. But if you love the idea of dueling magicians, this is the book for you.

Book number 350 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy reading project.

Sweep With Me / Ilona Andrews

4 out of 5 stars

Thank you for joining us at Gertrude Hunt, the nicest Bed and Breakfast in Red Deer, Texas, during the Treaty Stay. As you know, we are honor-bound to accept all guests during this oldest of innkeeper holidays and we are expecting a dangerous guest. Or several. But have no fear. Your safety and comfort is our first priority. The inn and your hosts, Dina Demille and Sean Evans, will defend you at all costs. [But we hope we don’t have to.]

Every winter, Innkeepers look forward to celebrating their own special holiday, which commemorates the ancient treaty that united the very first Inns and established the rules that protect them, their intergalactic guests, and the very unaware/oblivious people of [planet] Earth. By tradition, the Innkeepers welcomed three guests: a warrior, a sage, and a pilgrim, but during the holiday, Innkeepers must open their doors to anyone who seeks lodging. Anyone.

All Dina hopes is that the guests and conduct themselves in a polite manner. But what’s a holiday without at least one disaster?

A very fun novella, which I purchased while rounding out a book order that included a recipe book that I wanted very much. I’d read the story in installments online, but what fun to have it all in one book and be able to absorb it all in one evening.

I’m a true blue Ilona Andrews fan and I really enjoy the Innkeeper Chronicles, so this little offering was ideal for me. I always appreciate Dina and her gentle-but-firm ways of dealing with guests. Orro is a favourite character and we get to know him a bit better here, including getting to peek into his living quarters. And although I’ve always suspected it, we readers get to see why Orro has never left Gertrude Hunt Inn. Of course, Sean is right by Dina’s side, riding herd on difficult guests, taking interstellar assassins on field trips, and raining destruction on any battlefield he encounters!

I don’t know how many more of these adventures that the Andrews have inside them, but I’m hoping for many, many more. I never get tired of this world and we still haven’t a clue what has happened to Dina’s parents and Dina has yet to be reunited with Klaus, her brother (although he showed up at Maud’s beside at the very end of Sweep of the Blade). Fingers crossed for more Innkeeper Chronicles!

(There was also a teaser included for Emerald Blaze! I await it with impatience and anticipation.)

The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve / Stephen Greenblatt

3 out of 5 stars

Bolder, even, than the ambitious books for which Stephen Greenblatt is already renowned, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve explores the enduring story of humanity’s first parents. Comprising only a few ancient verses, the story of Adam and Eve has served as a mirror in which we seem to glimpse the whole, long history of our fears and desires, as both a hymn to human responsibility and a dark fable about human wretchedness.

Tracking the tale into the deep past, Greenblatt uncovers the tremendous theological, artistic, and cultural investment over centuries that made these fictional figures so profoundly resonant in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds and, finally, so very “real” to millions of people even in the present. With the uncanny brilliance he previously brought to his depictions of William Shakespeare and Poggio Bracciolini (the humanist monk who is the protagonist of The Swerve), Greenblatt explores the intensely personal engagement of Augustine, Dürer, and Milton in this mammoth project of collective creation, while he also limns the diversity of the story’s offspring: rich allegory, vicious misogyny, deep moral insight, and some of the greatest triumphs of art and literature.

The biblical origin story, Greenblatt argues, is a model for what the humanities still have to offer: not the scientific nature of things, but rather a deep encounter with problems that have gripped our species for as long as we can recall and that continue to fascinate and trouble us today.

My many hours spent listening to CBC radio tend to expand my TBR list beyond what I would usually choose for reading material. This book is but one example of that phenomenon, as I heard the author interviewed and became curious about this book.

It was interesting, although not quite as riveting as I could have hoped. Nevertheless, I learned a number of things that I found intriguing. I wasn’t fully aware of the creation myths of cultures surrounding the ancient Hebrews (Sumerians,Assyrians, Babylonians, etc.) but now I have some desire to learn more about all of those cultures.

I also learned more about St. Augustine and John Milton than I expected to (especially their sex lives!).

The Genesis story is so brief that it practically cries out for people to embellish it with fiction. I know that, as a child, I asked a lot of the same questions that Greenblatt explores in this book. I’m sure that this lack of detail has caused major headaches for Sunday School teachers for as long as there has been Sunday School. The tale has certainly inspired a lot of art work and it may be the ultimate tale of the “good old days,” referencing a gone-but-not-forgotten Golden Age.

Because Internet / Gretchen McCulloch

4 out of 5 stars

Language is humanity's most spectacular open-source project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Internet conversations are structured by the shape of our apps and platforms, from the grammar of status updates to the protocols of comments and @replies. Linguistically inventive online communities spread new slang and jargon with dizzying speed. What's more, social media is a vast laboratory of unedited, unfiltered words where we can watch language evolve in real time.

Even the most absurd-looking slang has genuine patterns behind it. Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch explores the deep forces that shape human language and influence the way we communicate with one another. She explains how your first social internet experience influences whether you prefer "LOL" or "lol," why ~sparkly tildes~ succeeded where centuries of proposals for irony punctuation had failed, what emoji have in common with physical gestures, and how the artfully disarrayed language of animal memes like lolcats and doggo made them more likely to spread.

Because Internet is essential reading for anyone who's ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message or wondered where memes come from. It's the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language, why that's a good thing, and what our online interactions reveal about who we are.

I found this author’s joy in her research to be contagious. She obviously loves linguistics and her interactions on the internet. In these days when there is so much contention and negativity on the interwebz, this is great to read.

As she points out, the use of slang presupposes that the writer knows the correct usage that they are deviating from and therefore is enjoying the process. And there have been panics about telephone use, among other technologies. Language evolves and someday in the not too distant future, people will look back at the situation today the way we look back at WWII terms entering the lexicon.

I loved how she traced the origins of certain internetisms or ways of expressing oneself, treating them as issues worthy of research. I also found her classification of people interesting, as I’m a Post Internet Person (I didn’t really engage in the world of the internet until after such sites as Facebook became things). My horizons were certainly expanded as I learned about facets of the net that I wasn’t aware of before.

If you are a closet linguistic like myself and you enjoy your playtime on the internet, you may find this book to be quite entertaining.

Timeless / Gail Carrige

4 out of 5 stars

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe's latest play, disastrous to say the least, can not put a dampener on Alexia's enjoyment of her new London lifestyle.

Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child, and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?

I’ve really enjoyed this series, though I think that the first book was probably my favourite of the five. I’m looking forward to reading both Carriger’s Finishing School and The Custard Protocol series. I’m glad there are more books in this alternate history to look forward to!

With this book, the Alexia/Conall storyline may have reached the end of its natural life span. Not every thread is wrapped up, but that’s not always necessary or even desirable. Things that were amusing in previous books (Lord & Lady Maccon living in Lord Akeldama’s third best closet, for instance) are becoming less entertaining. Prudence makes up for that as she becomes a character in her own right (and that will make The Custard Protocol interesting).

I must say that I was glad to see Biffy settled into his new role(s). He’s made the shift from vampire drone to young werewolf-about-town quite successfully, found a new squeeze, and shown some career potential. I’ll miss him more than Alexia and Conall, I think.

Such a fun world and I look forward to future expeditions into it!

Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen / Vicki Delany

3 out of 5 stars

In Rudolph, New York, it’s Christmastime all year long. But this December, while the snow-lined streets seem merry and bright, a murder is about to ruin everyone’s holiday cheer…

As the owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, Merry Wilkinson knows how to decorate homes for the holidays. That’s why she thinks her float in the semi-annual Santa Claus parade is a shoo-in for best in show. But when the tractor pulling Merry’s float is sabotaged, she has to face facts: there’s a Scrooge in Christmas Town.

Merry isn’t ready to point fingers, especially with a journalist in town writing a puff piece about Rudolph’s Christmas spirit. But when she stumbles upon the reporter’s body on a late night dog walk—and police suspect he was poisoned by a gingerbread cookie crafted by her best friend, Vicky—Merry will have to put down the jingle bells and figure out who’s really been grinching about town, before Vicky ends up on Santa’s naughty list…

I tried to get ahold of this book for the Christmas season, but was way too late! But, since this author will be attending a conference that I will attend in August, I decided that I would read it anyway. I have previously read her Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mysteries, so I thought it would stand me in good stead to see what else she had to offer.

Imagine my surprise then, when I felt like I was re-reading the Bookshop Mysteries! There are so many details in common. The protagonists are both young women who moved away from small communities and returned, both of them have set up speciality shops, both have best friends who run bake shops, both re-encounter a man they used to date, both have dogs that they barely have time for, both meet an attractive man who has newly moved to the community, both of them discover dead bodies, both have a member of the police force that they don’t get along with, and neither of these women trust the police to fully investigate the deaths. That’s a lot of overlap.

Don’t get me wrong--I finished the book. It was good enough to hold my attention to the end, although I was pretty sure of the destination. There were details that were delightful. This one is set in Rudolph, N.Y., billing itself as Christmastown USA. The main character is called Merry of course and her father (born on Dec. 25) is Noel and he is a dead ringer for Santa Claus. Merry’s dog, a young Saint Bernard, is called Matterhorn (though she calls him Mattie most often). Delany shows talent in naming her characters although I raised an eyebrow when the BFF in this one was named Vicky!

I realize that if you enjoy a particular pattern, you will enjoy a repeat of it. Witness myself and my obsessive reading of Ilona Andrews’ writing. Those novels too repeat a formula over and over and I shamelessly enjoy them. So, if you enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mysteries, I have absolutely no doubt that you will enjoy the Year-Round Christmas Mysteries and vice-versa.

Invader / C.J. Cherryh

4 out of 5 stars

Nearly two centuries after the starship Phoenix disappeared, leaving an isolated colony of humans on the world of the atevi, it unexpectedly returns, threatening the stability of both atevi and human governments. With the situation fast becoming critical, Bren Cameron, the brilliant, young paidhi to the court of the atevi is recalled from Mospheira where he has just undergone surgery. Upon his return to the mainland, he Cameron finds that his government has sent in his paidhi-successor, Deana Hanks—representative of a dangerous faction on Mospheira who hate the atevi.

Haunted by the threat of assassination, Bren realizes his only hope may be to communicate with the Phoenix as the spokesman of the atevi—an action which may cut him off for good from his own species. Yet if he doesn't take this desperate action, he may be forced to witness the destruction of the already precarious balance of world power.

I am well and truly hooked on this series! Bren Cameron is such an understandable main character. I’ve struggled with non-English languages--specifically several undergraduate courses in Ancient Greek--which almost broke my brain. The necessity of doing math in one’s head in order to know which word ending to use would reduce me to jelly in no time.

This book picks up quickly from where the first book left off. There is a great deal of tension provided by Bren wondering just how well he understands the atevi society around him. The atevi seem to thrive on intrigue and when that is combined with the cultural differences and a complex language, this is a fearsome barrier to understanding.

Despite this, Bren seems to have made a very favourable impression with the atevi around him. He is packed into a suite next door to the current ruler, complete with a large staff who all vie to provide the best service, be the most useful, and just generally receive his thanks. Technically they are Damiri’s staff, but she mock-accuses him of trying to sweet talk them away from her. Plus, she lets us know, all the female staff are longing to get their hands on him! Ah, the allure of novelty!

Cherryh leaves us at a critical juncture, making me wish I had book three in my hand right this minute! However, I’ll have to wait until the library produces it from one of the branch libraries. In the meanwhile, I’ll work on other books in my reading queue.

Book number 349 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy reading project.

Bloody January / Alan Parks

3 out of 5 stars

When a teenage boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, Detective Harry McCoy is sure of one thing. It wasn't a random act of violence.

With his new partner in tow, McCoy uses his underworld network to lead the investigation but soon runs up against a secret society led by Glasgow's wealthiest family, the Dunlops.

McCoy's boss doesn't want him to investigate. The Dunlops seem untouchable. But McCoy has other ideas . . .

In a helter-skelter tale - winding from moneyed elite to hipster music groupies to the brutal gangs of the urban wasteland - Bloody January brings to life the dark underbelly of 1970s Glasgow and establishes Alan Parks as a new and exciting voice in Scottish noir.

Wow, this is down and dirty Tartan noir! Harry McCoy is not your typical main character detective. Harry grew up in care, in a church run institution and his best buddy from those days is now one of the major crime bosses in Glasgow. This, obviously, is going to cause some issues for McCoy. Talk about conflict of interest!

I generally prefer noir mysteries to the cozies. And I did like this one, but I found some of the over-the-top violence and a lot of the language off-putting. It’s not like I have never sworn in my life, but I do try to moderate it (my mother taught me that people pay more attention when you swear if you don’t do it very often). Probably the amount of profanity is accurate for 1970’s Glasgow, but it was a little much for 2020 me. There’s a lid for every pot, but this one doesn’t fit me.

I was excited to recognize Irn Bru when one character was guzzling a bottle of it. I’d just heard a radio program about small brands that stood up to huge ones and Irn Bru in Scotland outsells CocaCola! Recognizing the brand gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling in an otherwise cold and gray book.

If you love dark and gritty crime fiction, this is the book for you.

We Are the Weather

2.5 stars out of 5

Some people reject the fact, overwhelmingly supported by scientists, that our planet is warming because of human activity. But do those of us who accept the reality of human-caused climate change truly believe it? If we did, surely we would be roused to act on what we know. Will future generations distinguish between those who didn’t believe in the science of global warming and those who said they accepted the science but failed to change their lives in response?

In We Are the Weather, Jonathan Safran Foer explores the central global dilemma of our time in a surprising, deeply personal, and urgent new way. The task of saving the planet will involve a great reckoning with ourselves—with our all-too-human reluctance to sacrifice immediate comfort for the sake of the future. We have, he reveals, turned our planet into a farm for growing animal products, and the consequences are catastrophic. Only collective action will save our home and way of life. And it all starts with what we eat—and don’t eat—for breakfast.

This is not a bad book--it is just not what I thought I was getting. I heard the author interviewed on CBC radio, which prompted me to put a hold on it at the public library and I had to wait for quite a while to get a hold of it. I hadn’t realized that it was mostly a memoir, detailing the author’s struggle to adhere to his own beliefs about what he could personally do about climate change.

I struggle with knowing what I can do about such a huge issue and I was hoping for advice. Most recommendations are either nebulous or on a higher level (i.e. governmental) than I am capable of influencing. This sounded like it had practical strategies.

I don’t disagree with the author, I will try to reduce my dietary impact on the environment. I just felt that he had already covered this in a previous book and that the contents of this book could have been expressed in an essay, rather than an entire hardcover book.

My disappointment is my own and your experience of the book may be entirely different. In fact, I hope your experience is entirely different.

Making Space, Clutter Free / Tracy McCubbin

3 out of 5 stars

Discover the freedom of a beautiful home, personal purpose, and joyful inner confidence

Decluttering expert Tracy McCubbin offers revolutionary help to anyone who has repeatedly tried to break their clutter's mysterious hold. Her powerful answer lies in the 7 Emotional Clutter Blocks, unconscious obstacles that stood between thousands of her clients and financial freedom, healthy relationships, and positive outlooks.

Once a Clutter Block is revealed--and healed--true transformation of home and life is possible. Her empowering techniques and strategies help you:


Recognize and overcome your Clutter Block(s) to liberate your home.
Lighten and purge without the rigidity of the other methods.
Use your home to attain life goals like health, wealth and love.
It's time to break through your Clutter Blocks and discover the lasting happiness waiting for you on the other side!

A pretty average offering in the decluttering genre. I usually read a book like this early each year as inspirational literature to help me motivate myself to do the things that need to be done to keep my household under control. I didn’t find this one as motivational as I could have hoped.

Part of the problem for me was a lack of useful advice for my Emotional Clutter Block. I’m correctly diagnosed--I’m an Avoider. However, her hint for dealing with this block was pretty much “Just do it.” Give yourself a reward after. My feeling is “why not reward myself and skip the work part?” It’s a perennial problem for me and I’ll continue to struggle with my avoidance behaviour.

So people with the other Emotional Clutter Blocks may find the book more relevant than I do. Plus people who haven’t read many books in this genre. At least I got started on my worst problem: paper & filing. I’ve done a pile of shredding and I’ve planned my attack on the paper piles, so I guess I have got moving toward my goal. My best trick so far is to leave something out in an annoying location when I’m done for the day, to encourage me to return to the task the next day. (The shredder is still sitting out in my livingroom, asking me to finish the task).

Your mileage may vary.

Fall of Angels / L.E. Modesitt

3.5 stars out of 5

In Fall of Angels, Modesitt moves deep into Recluce's past to chronicle the founding of the Empire of the Legend, the almost mythological domain ruled by women warriors on the highland plateau of the continent of Candar. He tells the story from the point of view of Nylan, the engineer and builder whose job it is to raise a great tower on the plateau known as the Roof of the World. Here the exiled women warriors will live and survive to fulfill their destiny. Here a revolutionary new society will be born...if Nylan can get the tower built and defenses in place before the rulers of the lowland nations come with their armies to obliterate them all. And if Nylan can learn to control the magical powers that are growing within him. 

In this book, we get the beginnings of Westwind, the kingdom which gave us Creslin in The Towers of the Sunset, which is my favourite of this series so far. We also find out that both the Order and Chaos populations on this fantasy world are originally from elsewhere, marooned on this planet and seemingly doomed to conflict over it.

This “stranded on another planet” plot line is a familiar one. Think of the Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman, the Foreigner series by C.J. Cherryh, and the Saga of Pliocene Exile by Julian May. The struggles that the small Angel force face when they are stranded were well realized. It would definitely be a challenge, especially coming from a high tech society where so many things are manufactured for you.

It is told from the point of view of Nylan, one of the few men in the Angel population. He is pretty consistent with a Modesitt main character: he’s an engineer, learning about his black mage potential; he is taciturn; he really wants people to acknowledge how much work he has done, but he’s not willing to let people know this; he works himself half to death in search of this approval. Once again, the story is a bit heavy on the description of all of his engineering projects for my taste and a bit light on the interpersonal relationships. But this just seems to be a hallmark of Modesitt’s writing.

Not my favourite series, but not bad either.

Book number 348 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy reading project.

Memory / Lois McMaster Bujold

4 out of 5 stars

Forced to abandon his undercover role as leader of the Dendarii Mercenaries, Miles Vorkosigan persuades Emperor Gregor to appoint him Imperial Auditor so he can penetrate Barrayar’s intelligence and security operations (ImpSec). Simon Illyan, head of ImpSec and Miles’ former boss, is failing physically and mentally, and Miles sets out to find out why -- and who, if anyone, is behind Illyan’s rapid decline.

I always enjoy the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan, but this is the best book in the series so far in my opinion. I’ve always been entertained by Miles’ forward momentum, his dual roles as Lord Vorkosign and Admiral Naismith, and his willingness to plunge into danger with only a skeleton of plan. This is the book when Miles grows up and becomes a much better human being.

The book begins with Miles making a very serious error in judgement and being removed from his Imperial Security position by Simon Illyan, the head of ImpSec. Now, Lord Vorkosigan must find out who he is when he’s not pretending to be someone else. When something bad happens to Illyan, it is Miles who steps up to the plate and convinces the Emperor to let him investigate. This installment may not have interstellar travel or gun fights, it has a more “spy novel” vibe.

I wonder if Bujold became tired of the military type adventures and decided to change Miles' life course? If so, I highly approve and I can hardly wait to read the next book in the series.

Book number 346 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project.

Autopsy of a Boring Wife / Marie-Renee Lavoie

4 out of 5 stars

Like a Québécois Bridget Jones’s Diary, Marie-Renée Lavoie’s Autopsy of a Boring Wife tells the hysterically funny and ultimately touching tale of forty-eight-year-old Diane, a woman whose husband leaves her and is having an affair because, he says, she bores him. Diane takes the charge to heart and undertakes an often ribald, highly entertaining journey to restoring trust in herself and others that is at the same time an astute commentary on women and girls, gender differences, and the curious institution of marriage in the twenty-first century. All the details are up for scrutiny in this tender, brisk story of the path to recovery. Autopsy of a Boring Wife is a wonderfully fresh and engaging novel of the pitfalls and missteps of an apparently “boring” life that could be any of ours.

Although I read a fair amount of Canadian literature, I fall short in the category of French Canadian fiction. This was a delightful example of that category and reminds me that I should seek out more such books. The translation was extremely well done. I really only became aware once, when Diane asked her neighbours if they watched American television--that isn’t on the translator, it just reminded me that watching foreign programming is a much bigger deal in Quebec than in the rest of Canada.

Both of my sisters have divorced and I couldn’t believe how much of Diane’s dialog could have been excerpted directly from our phone calls! One of my sisters, like Diane, seemed to believe in the “magic of being married,” that it would somehow bring her husband back. It didn’t, for which we are all very thankful. I never married, so I never had to go the divorce route, but I did have once break-up which caused me to be volcanically angry. Diane restricts herself to destroying the house with a sledgehammer and pushing furniture out the second story windows. I think that would be very satisfying. I’ve always considered going to flea markets to buy cheap crockery to smash when necessary--somehow I’ve never got around to it. Probably because I know that I’d be the one who had to clean up after the event was over.

I’m glad I asked my mother when she was still alive if she was disappointed that I had never married or produced children. She looked at me a long moment, then said, “You’re the happiest one of my children. Don’t change.”

A Game of Thrones / George R.R. Martin

5 out of 5 stars

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

What a pleasure to read! GRRM writes fabulous fantasy. I can see why this was turned into a TV series--the world is so well realized. I could easily picture it in my mind’s eye. Yes, it’s a violent, dark world, but there are also moments of kindness and compassion. Martin’s female characters have to live within the bounds of this very medieval society that he has created, but they find creative ways to achieve agency and to become formidable in their own right.

The boundaries between good and evil are muddy in GoT. I found myself cheering for people on both sides of the battles. For example, I love both Catelyn and Tyrion. I also have to admit that I love any fantasy world that includes dire wolves and mammoths. I’m hoping that there will be more prehistoric animal action in upcoming books.

Maybe it’s because I’m Canadian, but the Stark’s motto, Winter is Coming, really speaks to me. I could feel the chill of standing on the great North wall, looking out into the wilderness and wondering what was out there in the dark and the cold.

It has taken me a long time to start this series, but I look forward to continuing with it in 2020. I’m interested in every character introduced thus far--I realize that Martin is famous for killing off his characters, but I’ll take what I can get!

Book number 345 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project.