The ultimate book-lover’s fantasy, featuring a young scholar with the power to bring literary characters into the world, for fans of The Magicians, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, and The Invisible Library.
For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can’t quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob — a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancee, and an utterly normal life — hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life’s duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world… and for once, it isn’t Charley’s doing.
There’s someone else who shares his powers. It’s up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them, before these characters tear apart the fabric of reality.
Paperback, 480 pages Published January 23rd 2020 by Orbit (first published July 23rd 2019)
ISBN:0356513777 ISBN13: 9780356513775
My Review
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review, and to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for organising the blog tour. And finally, to the author, for this great read.
Got to be entirely honest, I haven’t finished reading this book yet, because I’ve been terribly ill with a cold. My energy levels have been used on my various support appointments, so I’ve only been reading in short spurts because I can’t focus enough to read for longer. That being said, what I have read, so far, has been very impressive. I will finish it soon, but for now I will review based on my experience so far. I’m halfway through, after some concerted reading this evening (Friday 7th February).
The characters of Rob and Charley Sutherland are brilliantly well-written, they are funny and so realistic in their frustrations with each other and life. Their conversations flow naturally. Millie is an absolute riot, very ‘Enid Blyton-ish’ with her ‘jolly good’s and brisk bossiness getting Heathcliff to behave.
The descriptions are very clear, almost poetic at times. I especially enjoyed the description of Charley’s house and the mysterious lane. I could see them, one a place I’d love to live, with books stacked everywhere, and the other like something from a Dickens tragedy, all cobbles and fog.
I love the idea of ‘reading characters out of the book’, and Charley’s need to experiment potentially getting him into trouble. I was intrigued by the idea that there’s a secret group of characters hiding behind the real world, having escaped from their books. And the mystery of who is reading out villains to attack Charley and Rob really got me. Who is the Summoner? Why does he have David Copperfield in a basement? What has Charlie’s first book of literary criticism got to do with everything? I need to know what happens next, who everyone is and why they’re doing what they are. I’m also scared for Charley and Rob. I also think Rob needs to tell Lydia everything, because that Eric is a scoundrel.
The way the characters change depending on who reads them, the description of the magic of ordinary reading, it all feels so good to read. That doesn’t make sense, sorry. I just utterly love Parry’s writing, it’s so richly descriptive. You don’t need to have read the books she draws on to understand the plot (or not so far at least) because Charley can’t help educating people.
I feel that, if I were well, I’d have curled up with this book and read it in a day or two. It’s not a small book, about 400 pages; even I would have needed a couple of days at my peak. In my current state, it’ll be a bit longer.
So, based on what I’ve read so far, I heartily recommend this book.
Oslo, 2018. Former long-distance runner Sonja Nordstrøm never shows at the launch of her controversial autobiography, Always Number One. When celebrity blogger Emma Ramm visits Nordstrøm’s home later that day, she finds the door unlocked and signs of a struggle inside. A bib with the number ‘one’ has been pinned to the TV. Police officer Alexander Blix is appointed to head up the missingpersons investigation, but he still bears the emotional scars of a hostage situation nineteen years earlier, when he killed the father of a five-year-old girl. Traces of Nordstrøm soon show up at different locations, but the appearance of the clues appear to be carefully calculated … evidence of a bigger picture that he’s just not seeing… Blix and Ramm soon join forces, determined to find and stop a merciless killer with a flair for the dramatic, and thirst for attention. Trouble is, he’s just got his first taste of it…
Whitechapel, 1888: London is bowed under Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror.
London 2015: actress Julianne Bell is abducted in a case similar to the terrible Tower Hamlets murders of some ten years earlier, and harking back to the Ripper killings of a century before.
Falkenberg, Sweden, 2015: a woman’s body is found mutilated in a forest, her wounds identical to those of the Tower Hamlets victims.
Profiler Emily Roy and true-crime writer Alexis Castells again find themselves drawn into an intriguing case, with personal links that turn their world upside down.
So, today I’m reviewing the second Emily Roy & Alexis Castells novel, and introducing Alienor, who I adored when I read Blood Song.
This book is as twisted as the first novel, Block 46, and just as tightly plotted. We learn more about Emily and Alexis, their backgrounds and neuroses. The Whitechapel Murders of 1888 were tenuously linked to the investigation as the background for the abusive family history of the murderers. The modern murders are confusing until you get to the revelations later on. The betrayal at the end was an unexpected twist but made the whole book make sense.
As with books 1 and 3, Gustawsson alternates between the investigation and the personal history of the murderers. I like the insight I got into the background to the crimes but was frustrated that I didn’t put the clues together. I’m not very good at that, clearly.
Another fantastic book from Gustawsson and Orenda.
In Falkenberg, Sweden, the mutilated body of talented young jewelry designer Linnea Blix is found in a snow-swept marina. In Hampstead Heath, London, the body of a young boy is discovered with similar wounds to Linnea’s. Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1944. In the midst of the hell of the Holocaust, Erich Hebner will do anything to see himself as a human again. Are the two murders the work of a serial killer, and how are they connected to shocking events at Buchenwald? Emily Roy, a profiler on loan to Scotland Yard from the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, joins up with Linnea’s friend, French true-crime writer Alexis Castells, to investigate the puzzling case. They travel between Sweden and London, and then deep into the past, as a startling and terrifying connection comes to light.
Paperback, 300 pages Published October 1st 2017 by Orenda Books (first published February 5th 2017) ISBN:1910633704 ISBN13: 9781910633700 Series Emily Roy & Alexis Castells #1
My Review
Last year I reviewed Blood Song, the third book in the Emily Roy & Alexis Castells series. It was so good that I ordered the first two and I’ve just read them so I’m reviewing both, but in separate posts. Today it is book 1, Block 46. Tomorrow I will review Keeper.
This was a rather fantastic novel, linking events in Buchenwald Concentration Camp (where the author’s grandfather had been a prisoner for being a French Communist?/Resistance member) and murders in modern Falkenburg, Sweden and London, UK.
The main characters are introduced, although it is clear they have a past relationship and complex personal histories. Their backgrounds and personalities are slowly revealed. Emily Roy could be an unsympathetic character but for the pieces of vulnerability Gustawsson reveals in the narrative. I wasn’t sure about Alexis Castells, she seemed very self-involved, although that changed as I read, again her past was revealed in little bites that made her more understandable. They are both very complex, slightly damaged characters.
The plot was sufficiently twisted that I didn’t see the truth coming, even though the clues were there, looking back. I enjoyed the way the life of the criminals and the investigation intertwined throughout the novel, shifting between perspectives and giving clues to the reader while still hiding the truth. It didn’t feel contrived that a writer and a profiler would know each other or become involved in the investigation (even if I personally have reservations about the scientific validity of profiling) or that they would both end up in Sweden.
It was fascinating to learn about the Buchenwald Camp via fiction, I didn’t know that the prisoners and International Resistance had cached weapons and fought the SS as the Allied Forces got closer to them. I wonder how many SS officers escaped by pretending to be prisoners? *shudder*
Not having read the original novel, because my French is not great and Swedish non-existent, I can’t comment on the translation’s fidelity, but Karen Sullivan, who runs Orenda Books, wouldn’t allow a dodgy translation so I’m going to run with it being accurate.
I highly recommend this book, and the series actually, Also, the publisher, who is an absolute delight.
Elianor Paine is a Magistrate of the Peace in the Kingdom of Trist and a republican secret agent. She has 6 days to subvert her investigation, supplant war-hero Lord Vile, then coerce his adult children to start a revolution, before her masters discover the truth and have her killed. Just how far is she willing to go? And can she change the world without changing herself?
England, 1655. Following the brutal civil wars the country swelters under a cloud of paranoia, suspicion and the burgeoning threat of rebellion. With the fragile peace being won by Cromwell’s ever-efficient Secretary of State John Thurloe, the exiled king Charles Stuart sends two spies on a dangerous mission to wrest back the initiative. These spies are different, however: they are women. Their task? To turn Parliament’s spymaster into their unwitting accomplice. Killing Beauties is a dark tale of subterfuge, jealousy and betrayal. It is sometimes said that women are written out of history, but often they are not yet written in. Killing Beauties is based on the true stories of two female spies from the 1650s and gives them the voice that only fiction can. Pete Langman.Continue reading “Review: Killing Beauties, by Pete Langman”
In a post-apocalyptic world the human race has evolved beyond us through genetic engineering – and we’ve been left behind to make amends for the damage inflicted on the earth.
The reversal of the extinction of long lost animals is key to our reparations and all of these are housed in the Museum of Evolution – along with another species of human that hasn’t existed for 30,000 years.
Elise belongs to the lowest order of humans, the Sapiens. She lives in an ostracised community of ecological houses, built to blend with an idyllic landscape. Deciding to widen her stagnating life in the manufacturing base, she takes a chance opportunity to become a Companion to a previously extinct species of human.
But Elise has secrets of her own that threaten to be exposed now that she is away from the safety of her home. And while living in the museum, Elise realises that little separates her from the other exhibits…
Just had my post delivered. It was all books for blog tours. I’ll be reviewing Bella by R. M. Francis later this month, and a month later The Coronation by Justin Newland.
Thanks to the authors, publishers and blog tour organiser, Love Books Tours.
This is a review of Testing Pandora (Xandri Corelel #0), Failure to Communicate (Xandri Corelel #1) and Tone ofVoice(Xandri Corelel #2), but that would make the blog post title really long.
I am caffeinated, sorry. Been to Maccys for breakfast with my sister and we had two Millionaire’s Lattes each. Might make this review a bit bouncy.
In the far future, genetic engineering is used to strip all sapient species of disability. But when humans have a brief fad of natural birth, disabled children start reappearing. They’re quickly termed “Pandoras,” the value of their very lives brought into question, and laws are put into place to prevent their births from happening ever again.
Xandri Corelel is one of these Pandoras, a young autistic woman scorned by her family and fighting to eke out a living on the streets of Wraith. Then she meets Chui Shan Fung, captain of the first contact and refugee ship Carpathia. Captain Chui has been watching her, and knows about the talent for understanding alien species that Xandri has cultivated. She wants Xandri as part of her crew–but first, Xandri must pass a test to see if she’ll even fit in.
Wary but hopeful, Xandri joins the Carpathia at Psittaca, a newly-discovered planet peopled by parrot-like sapients. Learning to understand this new species is the easy part compared to trusting her new crew mates. As Xandri continues her diplomatic efforts with the Psittacans, it becomes apparent that the Carpathia’s crew aren’t the only ones to have discovered the planet, but these other visitors don’t have good intentions. In order to protect this beautiful new world, Xandri must find it in herself to overcome years of abuse and neglect, and trust in her new crew.
As one of the only remaining autistics in the universe, Xandri Corelel has faced a lot of hardship, and she’s earned her place as the head of Xeno-Liaisons aboard the first contact ship Carpathia. But her skill at negotiating with alien species is about to be put to the ultimate test.
The Anmerilli, a notoriously reticent and xenophobic people, have invented a powerful weapon that will irrevocably change the face of space combat. Now the Starsystems Alliance has called in Xandri and the crew of the Carpathia to mediate. The Alliance won’t risk the weapon falling into enemy hands, and if Xandri can’t bring the Anmerilli into the fold, the consequences will be dire.
Amidst sabotage, assassination attempts, and rampant cronyism, Xandri struggles to convince the doubtful and ornery Anmerilli. Worse, she’s beginning to suspect that not everyone on her side is really working to make the alliance a success. As tensions rise and tempers threaten to boil over, Xandri must focus all her energy into understanding the one species that has always been beyond her: her own.
Xandri Corelel has spent six months living among the Ongkoarrat after her unceremonious firing from the crew of the Carpathia, and though she misses her home, she has settled into her new life. Then Diver arrives with news that changes everything.
The Hands and Voices–squid- and whale-like symbiotic aliens–are masters of bio-engineering and grow a wide variety of species of coral. Now they are in the process of creating coral that can withstand vacuum, with a most stunning end goal: To grow entire spaceships out of living organisms. The Starsystems Alliance is desperate to lure the Hands and Voices into the Alliance and bring this new technology into the fold. And the Voices and Hands are willing, with one stipulation.
They will only negotiate with Xandri and the crew of the Carpathia.
Returned from exile, Xandri is given the lead on this new mission. She quickly discovers that willingness isn’t the problem; the Hands and Voices want to join, but they want full equality in their membership–including the ability to attend council meetings in person. Amid the sunshine and surf of the tropical, idyllic planet of Song, it seems the biggest hardship Xandri and her friends will face is the task of re-rigging a spaceship to carry creatures the size of killer whales.
I’ve got Testing Pandora and Tone of Voice as ebooks, and Failure to Communicate as a paperback, and I’ve just realised I can get Tone of Voice as a paperback too, so I’ve ordered it. As I write I’m still only 43% of the way through Tone of Voice, but I love these books so much I had to tell you all about them.
You’ve read the very comprehensive book descriptions, right? You don’t need me to re-cap, do you? Because I can. But there might be spoilers.
I won’t then.
Just talk about the writing, Rosie, and try to focus.
Kaia Sonderby is a very fluid writer and her characters spring to life. There are no stereotypes or caricatures. In Xandri we have a sympathetic, realistic depiction of an autistic woman. She is complex and traumatised from years of abuse, and the Carpathia is the first place she feels at home, but she struggles to trust her colleagues.
She battles the inner voice that tells her not to show too much emotion, or any, in case it’s the wrong one; it’s her mother’s voice. The same voice tells her she’s not good enough and nobody will like her, and why can’t she be ‘normal’? The voice of abuse, control and punishment. Her new crew, and friends, help to drown out that voice with acceptance and love. She’s confused by these feelings, too.
She’s not supposed to be able to feel them or empathy. Not according to her parents. Or the ‘experts’ they took her to as a child. Yet, she is an expert at identifying the mannerisms of other species, at reading their body language and negotiating with them. She’s learnt to be, in order to survive. She’s fascinated by the universe, by all the wondrous beauty around her. The descriptions of synesthesia make me slightly jealous, to hear colours and taste sounds must add so much depth to perception of the world. I love the descriptions of Xandri’s experiences as she navigates life. I recognise those experiences as something we have in common. The feeling of utter joy in beauty and beauty in everything, the wonder at the universe, confusion in personal relationships, the feeling of the physical power of a crowded place forcing air out of the lungs, something you can touch. Shutting down. The need for quiet. Forgetting to eat. Being absorbed in an interest to the exclusion of all else.
Kaia writes from personal experience of being autistic and assigned female at birth. Her characters range across species, gender and sexuality, relationship arrangements, as well as neurological designations. They are sympathetic, even when totally alien and/or the bad guys.
I adore the Psittacans, introduced in Testing Pandora. They are parrot-like and very playful, and their relationship with Xandri is a lovely continuing storyline. The Hands, in Tone of Voice, cephalopod-like symbiotes of the whale-equivalent Voices, are also creeping into my ‘aww they’re so cute, I want one!’ book. I hope they make appearances in future novels.
The developing friendship/romantic relationship between Kiri, Diver and Xandri is by turns sweet and frustrating as they all try to work out where they stand with each other. The alternating perspectives of Xandri and Diver inTone of Voice really illustrate this well as they reflect on events as they happen and the reader sees things from different angles. They love and support Xndri for who she is, not who they think she should be.
The planets the Carpathia crew visit are interesting and different. They make reference back to Ancient Earth when they want to explain something, like the gravity or the air. Song is mostly an ocean planet with heavier than standard gravity, Psittacca is a jungle, with a thick atmosphere and lighter than standard gravity, Stillness has invisible predators, Wraith is dark and heavy, highly populated and urban.
The tech seems reasonable. An advanced sentient species from another solar system that develops FTL travel (slingspace), arrives on Earth and saves humanity from ourselves by sharing tech and finally inviting the Earth sentients to join the Alliance is a different take; normally humans centre themselves in that bit of the back story or plot. As the humans are the ones who are a bit behind, it’s perfectly reasonable for the tech to be a bit different. The AI is particularly advanced, Carpathia is a character in her own right.
I found the idea that people would use gene editing and screening to remove disability from the different species in the universe quite disturbing. Not unexpected, given that in Iceland people selectively abort foetuses with Down’s Syndrome and genetic screening of embryos can be used to prevent Tay Sachs during IVF treatment even now. While germ-line genetic manipulation is illegal, gene therapy for single-gene mutation disabilities and diseases can be treated – although it is extraordinarily expensive. Autism, and neurodivergencies in general, are much more complex, very few autistic people have the same genes that are related to the differences in brain wiring, so deleting us is not happening soon, but frighteningly, it’s something some researchers are working towards in the name of ‘curing’ us.
The only way to cure us is to kill us off and screen all embryos for any of the 1000+ genes involved.
Sonderby touches on this in her novels as the ‘Pandora Question’ is brought up in Tone of Voice. After the fad for children au naturale shows that disabilities continue to exist in germ lines, it’s banned and all people are given free embryo screening if they want children. Later, after the Anmerill muck-up, the questions return. It’s debated in the Starsystems Alliance council meetings and on the news casts. Even Carpathia crew are scared of Xandri. Whether people like Xandri should be allowed to exist, whether they’re dangerous, or even real people, are normal topics of conversation.
Sounds familiar if you have any understanding of the history of autism and the way autistic people are treat still.
I love that the author touches on these subjects, as well as the abusive ‘treatments’ Xandri was subjected to, while other characters try to find out more information from Ancient Earth to change the narrative about the Pandoras, just as Neurodiversity activists work to change the narrative about us now. They may be set 4000 years in the future but they reflect our current situation. Children are subjected to abusive ABA, autistic adults are discriminated against, people debate whether we have the right to exist or should be ‘cured’ as though it were a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
These strands to the narrative aren’t heavy handed, they’re background and if you aren’t involved in the online autistic community you might not pick up on them. I like that, these novels are good stories, not polemic. It’s good autistic representation within a complex universe and with a strong plot.
Two
women at opposite ends of the social scale, both brutally murdered.
Principal
Officer Dan Foster of the Bow Street Runners is surprised when his old rival
John Townsend requests his help to investigate the murder of Louise Parmeter, a
beautiful writer who once shared the bed of the Prince of Wales. Her jewellery
is missing, savagely torn from her body. Her memoirs, which threaten to expose
the indiscretions of the great and the good, are also missing.
Frustrated
by the chief magistrate’s demand that he drop the investigation into the death
of the unknown beggar woman, found savagely raped and beaten and left to die in
the outhouse of a Holborn tavern, Dan is determined to get to the bottom of
both murders. But as his enquiries take him into both the richest and the
foulest places in London, and Townsend’s real reason for requesting his help
gradually becomes clear, Dan is forced to face a shocking new reality when the
people he loves are targeted by a shadowy and merciless adversary.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 