So, I wasn't going to keep up with doing the book reviews every month as I did for the first three months of the year. This list also includes the first books that I bought from a bookstore since COVID-19, as well as a few re-reads.
Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
"It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent Lano Tacsis brought two hundred men."
"She had vowed that she would never let a friend down, that she would do anything, anything at all, to protect them. A vow more sacred to her than the Ancestor, more holy than the church from tallest spire to lowest crypt."
On a world orbiting a dying sun, the ice slowly seeks to cover all of the planet. Life struggles to survive on a thin stretch of land encircling the globe only a couple miles wide. Nona Grey is saved from the hangman's noose and taken in by the Convent of Sweet Mercy to train to become a nun. It is here she'll be raised and trained in the ways of blade and poison and magic, for any Sister of Sweet Mercy is a force on her own. But Nona's enemies are powerful and patient, and will seek her out for revenge.
Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence
"There is a purity in rage. It will burn out sorrow. For a time. It will burn out fear. Even cruelty and hatred will seek shelter, rage wants none of them, only to destroy. Rage is the gift our nature gives to us, shaped by untold years. Why discard it?"
"At a separation of three yards and driven with the speed of a hunska full-blood Kettle's throwing stars allowed no opportunity for evasion. The left one would hit the closest woman somewhere in the neck; the right one would take the other woman in the right eye. Kettle was more accurate with her right arm."
Two years have passed since Nona Grey got her revenge on Raymel Tacsis, and the shipheart was stolen from the Convent of Sweet Mercy. Nona graduated from Red Class to Grey Class. Along with her previous studies, Nona will now learn new arts such as disguise, magical threadwork, and training with a sharpened blade to further hone herself into a weapon of the Church. The ice however continues to squeeze the world tighter and the country is being invaded from all sides. Also sitting outside the convent is the stolen shipheart and the murderer of Nona's friend. To get her revenge, retrieve what was stolen, and possibly save her country, Nona must leave the safety of the convent for the outside world.
Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence
"Perhaps no battle so ugly had ever played out across the Blade Hall sands before. But the simple fact was that Sister Iron, the presumptive Mistress Blade, retreated before the sword of Nona Grey, her own hair wet with sweat now. Sister Iron's own swordwork was now stretched to extravagant lengths, all within a packed handful of seconds that few possessed the vision to follow."
"Nona scanned the forces arrayed before her. She felt her devils moving beneath her habit, their voices crying out for blood, and she found herself in agreement. The Book of the Ancestor says that for everything there is a season. This was a time to reap. A time for death. A time to die."
The ice closes on The Corridor from the north and south, continuously forcing everyone closer together into the only land touched by the moon. Within the walls of the Convent of Sweet Mercy, Nona Grey completes her trainee period and must decide which habit to take up and how best to serve The Ancestor. Meanwhile, her enemies are both invading from outside the borders as well as scheming from within their walls. To bring peace, Nona and her friends need to uncover the mysteries and secrets of the moon high above Abeth, and the Ark hidden deep within the Emperor's Palace.
The last book of Mark Lawrence's "The Book of the Ancestor" trilogy. The book jumps between the present as Nona Grey completes her lessons in Holy class and takes her orders as a full nun of Sweet Mercy, and the escape from Sherzal's forces from three years prior that concluded "Grey Sister." A different set-up from the previous two books that mostly stayed in the present except for a couple excerpts chronicling the future (or present day from the perspective of "Holy Sister") attack on the convent. Like the conclusion to Lawrence's Broken Empire trilogy, the ending is such an epic culmination of all the prior events and the changes to the protagonist's character that the actions taken come as such a perfect surprise. The only downside to the story was my own impatience, not letting the story unfold word by word as it should. To explain, though I read this book after re-reading the first two, I originally read "Grey Sister" about two years ago. That's a long time to wait to see how one child can bring peace to a dying world. Because of this, I found my eyes constantly jumping from the page I was currently on to skim through words on the next page that popped out as something important, like looking for a constant teaser about what happens next. I guess it also doesn't help that this is the first book I bought since 2020, the first one of a batch I bought from Barnes and Nobles, and I guess I'm anxious to get to all the others as well.
Another of Lawrence's post-apocalyptic-style stories, the setting is a character itself. Lawrence imagines a world orbiting a dying sun and what that means for life on that planet. Most post-apocalyptic settings use desert wastelands filled with sand dunes and wrecked structures. Starting from "Red Sister" life only survives with the help of an orbiting giant mirror magnifying the sun's heat and driving back the ice. Everything in the band thrives as it should, but outside it the ice has covered the ground miles deep. It is this world that four original races arrived from the skies and settled on this world. Each race had their own unique physical or magical trait, and blending them allowed all four to survive on this harsh world. The history itself that Lawrence creates is fascinating to read and learn.
From his other two trilogies, I know that Lawrence has a way with writing fight scenes, but I only remembered why (again) when re-reading these books. It's not necessarily the fight itself, which can be extremely hard and, honestly, boring if you're just describing the characters' movements and strikes. No, it's the words inbetween, the ones that add meaning and suspense and thrill to the fight that make them so good.
Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
"Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of telltale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-timers."
"'It will help me if your guys grab them up, I don't want to have to shoot them all.'
'Got a conscience?'
'No, I've got thirty rounds of ammunition. Which isn't really enough. I need to parcel it out.'"
Riding the New York City subway at 2am, Jack Reacher finds himself on a train with five strangers, one of them matching the profile for a suicide bomber: all 11 points of a checklist distributed throughout the military and law enforcement. Of course Reacher attempts to diffuse the situation except he finds his assessment wrong. His actions though drag him into a far reaching conspiracy, stretching not just between eyes from Washington D.C. to Afghanistan, but actions that happened 30 years ago that could easily reshape the present day. Everyone thinks that Reacher has something and they're all stepping out of the shadows to come after him.
Finally, another Jack Reacher novel! After spending all of 2020 re-reading old books without a Jack Reacher book, I finally made it outside to a bookstore for the next book in the series. As always, the books are entertaining with the same type of vigilante justice, violence, and tactical knowledge I've come to expect from the "Jack Reacher" movie but also like "John Wick" and "The Equalizer." Lee Child does a great job putting action on the page, balancing movements with a brief explanation on their necessity that keeps the story moving without bogging it down. That said, the other half of a great mystery novel is trying to solve the case with the clues as they're presented, hopefully solving the mystery before the protagonist (which, once again, I failed to do). From the very start, the clues are dispersed and I once again learned it'll take a better eye than mine to solve it. Suspicions, of course, can only get you so far to finding the truth.
Peace Talks by Jim Butcher
"Wizards live a long time, and they don't do it by taking unnecessary risks. If you look up unnecessary risk in the White Council's dictionary, my picture is there. And my address. And all my personal contact information. And my permanent record from middle school."
"The old man glowered at me and thrust out his jaw. 'Boy, tell me you ain't dumb enough to try this.'
The Winter mangle immediately bayed for blood, for defiance, for violence.
I started drawing for power.
'Oh, I'm more than dumb enough,' I said through clenched teeth."
A negotiation has finally been announced between the Fomor and the rest of the supernatural community, and it's just Harry Dresden's luck that the talks are being held in his town, Chicago. As a representative of both The White Council of Wizards and of Mab and the Winter fae, Dresden's job is to keep the peace and make sure everything goes smoothly. Of course, nothing is ever easy for Dresden and a new mystery presents itself at the same time, a mystery Dresden must solve or risk losing his brother.
The sort-of newest Dresden Files book in the series ("Battlegrounds" in hardcover came out sometime last year too but I'm still waiting on the paperback). It's the newest one I've got and why I spent the first six months of last year re-reading ALL 15 of the previous novels in the series. I also went out to Barnes and Nobles the week it was released in paperback to pick it up, and spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out the new shelving system just to find it. After the heist-style story of the previous novel, "Peace Talks" puts the storyline back in the battle against the returned Fomor, a supernatural group that had retreated into the depths of the ocean when humanity began gaining their hold on the world. Though the Dresden Files has been running for 16 books, this is the first one that really feels like it ends on a cliffhanger. Having listened to several interviews with Jim Butcher, it does make sense as the storyline should be approaching a sort-of climax based on the plans he's revealed for the future of the series.
Maybe it was just because I waited so long for the next book, or maybe I'm just nostalgic for how the series used to be (Dresden taking on a monster of the week while solving a mystery) but this wasn't one of my favorites. I understand that the previous formula of Dresden being assigned a supernatural case that leads him to a greater understanding of the magical world is gone, replaced by things much bigger and more dire, but I still miss those stories. In regards specifically to this story, there was a good chunk in the beginning I felt was unnecessarily long though I understand its importance to the rest of the story. I probably would've tried to shorten the section, or cut it out somehow while still keeping the information the reader gathers from that part of the story (though I've never finished a story so of course, don't listen to me).
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
"God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time."
"There were five billion people down there. What was going to happen soon would make barbarianism look like a picnic - hot, nasty, and eventually given over to the ants."
The end of the world is upon us, as accurately predicted by a 16th century witch. The Antichrist has arrived on Earth ushering in the end times. A Hellhound is set out to great its master. After bidding their time doing what they do best, the Four Horsemen are also setting out to start humanity's end. Heaven and Hell are preparing for the last great battle. An angel and a demon though, having lived on Earth since The Beginning and having grown quite fond of their time here, set out to ensure that the apocalypse doesn't happen. Except one thing is derailing their plans: it seems that no one knows where the Antichrist really is.
For a book written by two people, the writing blended really well in that I couldn't tell it was written by two authors. Having read a bunch of books by Gaiman, I could pick up some of the elements of his writing, for example, transforming already established ideas and concepts in a way I've never thought of before. Having never read any Terry Pratchett but having watched the first season of "The Watch" by BBS, I could definitely pick out the side humor put in by Pratchett, like the author is making fun of his or her own characters in such a way that none of the story characters are even aware. The story blended their writing styles very well to create something so good and wouldn't be possible without the two of them working together.
Originally I'd meant to re-read this book BEFORE watching "Good Omens" the show on Amazon Prime but I was still in the middle of reading another book and besides, this book was too far under my bed to conveniently retrieve. The show and the book are basically the same in terms of story and theme. I think the book though has more jokes that the show didn't have, either because of time constraints, they just couldn't be fit in, or just wouldn't be funny to today's audience (the book was published in 1990). I think the main thing I'm sad that got cut from the show was the side remarks (because even in the book we never meet him) about Greasy Johnson - the third boy at the hospital during the baby swap scene.
Also, when I mentioned earlier that it was in an inconvenient place, I meant that it hidden in a box with other books I haven't read for a long time under my bed blocked off by a bunch of other crap next to it. And by a long time, I mean that I've had this book for over ten years now, as you can see from the yellow coloring on the pages and how every page turn felt like it might tear. Still a great book to read though.
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