Books: Competence, Ravens, History, And The Wyld

[woodwardiocom]

Competence by Gail Carriger

Third in the Custard Protocol series, and something-in-the-teens for Carriger's steampunk fantasy books. This volume alternates between the POVs of Primrose and Percy Tunstell, siblings and officers on the Spotted Custard dirigible. This volume is about shenanigans in Singapore, a trans-Pacific flight, and South American vampires, but is also about Primrose coming out to herself as a lesbian, and Percy grumpily trying to figure out social rules. If you liked the previous books, you'll probably like this one, though it feels like not much actually happens.

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

A fantasy novel from the author of the Ancillary SF series, this is an engaging, imaginative read. Told in the second person (for interesting reasons) it's a tale of court and church politics in a pivotal coastal town, in a world where gods are real but very cautious. Highly recommended.

Kings Of The Wyld and Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames

Being the first two books in the Heartwyld series, a world where heroes organized like rock bands have Dungeons & Dragons-style adventures. The first is the story of Getting The Band Back Together to rescue the daughter of their frontman from a monster horde, with plenty of slayings, death, betrayal, and beer along the way. It plays with a lot of classic fantasy tropes. E.g., one of our heroes saved a kingdom and married a princess, becoming king along the way... and he's utterly desperate to get back on the road again. Rose is about the aforementioned daughter, now a grown adventurer herself, and how she lives in her father's shadow while tearing a bloody swath across the country and incidentally getting caught up in the aftrmath of volume one. Fun, briskly paced, recommended.

Remaking History And Other Stories by Kim Stanley Robinson

I like Robinson's work quite a bit -- I named a city after him in one of my own books -- but in these stories he tends to focus a bit too much on the quotidian. Mildly recommended.