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Leah Bobet’s An Inheritance of Ashes is a strong and often bitter draught indeed. Set in a world that is both post-apocalyptic, and recovering from a very recent brutal war with thr Dark God and the Twisted, poisoned creatures that followed it, the taint of loss and precarity leaves marks on every situation and relationship.

The centre of the story is life on Roadstead Farm, where two sisters struggle to eke out an existence, their childhood amity, borne out of a bond to protect each other from the anger of their widowed father, frayed by the tensions of survival. Marthe, the older sister, is pregnant; her husband Thom went away to the war and has not returned, and there is no word as to whether he is alive, or dead. Hallie, the narrator, is just 16, and has seen her family fragment around her, and her friend Tyler, one of the few who returned from the war, wounded, turn distant and bitter.

Into this place of quiet desperation comes another veteran of the war. Calling himself Heron, he has offered to serve as hired hand at Roadstead Farm in return for room and board over the winter. He bears with him in secret a dark relic, the weapon used to bring down the Dark God. John Balsam, the man who wielded the weapon, has been missing since the last battle, but the blade has come to Heron - how, he does not want to say - and he’s taking it home to Balsam’s family. But that road is long, and he will not get there before the winter falls and a man travelling alone is likely to freeze, or starve.

But not long after Heron’s arrival there are sightings on Roadstead farm, and elsewhere in the lake lands surrounding it, of the surviving misbegotten creatures, the Twisted Things. As winter draws near, more of the Twisted Things appear. Stranger still, someone, or something, is leaving messages written in stones on the riverside, begging for help. Fearing that Marthe will drive her away, as their father drove out his brother, Hallie is drawn into a web of secrets that only serves to further separate her from the grieving, angry Marthe.

Even what could be one bright thing in Hallie’s life, a slow growing attachment to her childhood friend Tyler, is burdened with secrets, sorrows, and the trauma of war and wounds, emotional and physical, that may never be whole.

But... when things are at their worst, and it seems that not just Riadstead Farm, but every homestead in the lake land, and the community of Windstown at its heart, are about to be overthrown by the same darkness that came before, love and truth find a way to break down the barriers of pride, and anger, and fear, and against all odds, prevail.

Reading a few short pieces of Eleanor Arnason’s pieces fiction that have come my way. Arnason is one of my favourite authors, both for the originality and gentle thought-provoking nature of her work and the skill of her craft. She challenges the accepted, leads her reader toward questions that require some contemplation, and highlights such important things as ethical decisions and respect for others. I like her work.

A Dog’s Story features Merlin and a young and not particularly noble knight named Ewan who Merlin has changed into a dog as punishment for attempting to rape a young woman after killing her brother. Ewan is actually happier as a dog, because he doesn’t have to think about right and wrong, and female dogs are usually quite willing at least when they’re in heat. Merlin trues from tine to time to restore him to his human shape, but he never really seems comfortable with it, and keeps asking to be a dog again. The story carries through to the end of Merlin’s story, his entanglement with Nimue, and Ewan’s restoration to human form, with finally some idea of what it is he wants to do as a man.

Stellar Harvest is the first of the Lydia DuLuth stories. Lydia works for an interstellar entertainment production company called Stellar Harvest, and she is on assignment on a new planet, location scouting, recording sights and sounds to be used in the next blockbuster entertainment starring icon Ali Khan. After spending some time in the town of Dzul, she heads into the wilderness for more local colour. Things become complicated when she shoots a local male who trues to steal her chool, an animal used for transportation. On this planet, most makes if the dominant species are altered - castrated - in the belief that unaltered men are only capable of passion-driven actions. Unaltered men are kept prisoners in their family homes, and traded for stud service. The male she encounters - Thoo - is an unaltered male who has escaped his family compound, longing to be free. Lydia agrees to taje him into the mountains where perhaps he can survive away from his kind, but his altered brother Casoon hunts them down and tries to capture Thoo. Unwilling to give Thoo up to captivity, or to allow Tho to kill Casoon to keep his freedom, Lydia comes up with an unexpected plan that gives both brothers a new chance at life.

The Warlord of Saturn’s Moons recounts a day in the life of a science fiction author, sometime in the not-too-distant future, as she goes about her everyday life, thinks about the world she lives in, and writes - a most exciting story, too, about a heroic red-haired adventurer and her mysterious, dark and brooding associate and lover, as they battle across the ice fields of Titan in a desperate attempt to foil the dastardly plans of the evil warlord of Saturn’s moons. The contrasts between hero and author, the thought processes of the author as she plots, more or less on the fly, and her thoughts about the polluted and violent world around her, make for an interesting and subtle commentary on the escapist and cautionary functions of science fiction. Plus, it’s both a damn fine character study and an exciting story-within-a-story.

The final volume in Marie Brennan’s Lady Trent’s memoirs recounts perhaps the most adventurous, and certainly the most fantastical, of all of the famous naturalist’s expeditions. In Within the Sanctuary of Wings, Lady Trent takes on the virtually impassable Mrtyahaima mountain range which separates Antiope - this secondary world’s version of Europe - from the Asian-inspired Yelang and its neighbouring countries, in her quest for new species of dragons.

The political situation is volatile. While full-scale hostilities have not broken out, there have been an increasing number of clashes between Scirlander and Yelangese forces around the world, and both sides are scouting their respective sides of the Mrtyahaimas, looking for ways of moving troops across the mountains and launching a formal attack.

Lady Trent is drawn into this when Thu Phim-la, formerly a scout for the Yelang army in the Mrtyahaima region, arrives at a lecture being given by Suhail in Scirland. He tells her that he has seen the remains of a hitherto unknown dragon species in the mountains, and promises to lead her to the region if she will argue the case of the Khiam Siu, a dissident movement within Yelang, who are seeking Scirland’s aid in deposing the current emperor and placing their own candidate on the throne. As it happens, the Queen of Scirland is somewhat in sympathy with the Yelangese dissidents, and after some political wrangling, the deal is struck. Scirland will support the Yelangese dissidents, in return for peace with Yelang, and as thanks for her involvement, Lady Trent will have the aid of the Scirland army, in the form of air transport - three of the zeppelin-like craft referred to as caerligers - and pilots, to transport her group into the mountains, and the guidance of Thu Phim-la, to pursue her quest in the highest mountains of the known world. Accompanying Isabella and Thu are her long-time associate Tom Wilkers, her husband Suhail, and Lieutenant Chendley, a military attache and mountaineering expert.

Naturally, things do not go well. They encounter winds that blow them off course, and are forced to land, but one of the caerligers misses the emergency landing and crashes, and must be destroyed to prevent it from falling into Yelangese hands. With only two airships, the full expedition can travel no further by air, so the army men proceed on their own covert mission, leaving Isabella and her companions to travel on to their destination on foot.

Thu leads them to a village not far from the site where he found the unusual specimen, but due to various delays, they have arrived in the wrong season for climbing into the high mountains, and are forced to wait. But eventually, they set off to climb to the point where Thu found the first specimen, and where he believes ha saw evidence of a second. The climb is perilous, but they are finally rewarded, with the discovery of the fully preserved body of a draconic species unlike anything any of them have seen before - except in the murals and other artwork depicting, it was believed, the gods of the ancient Draconean civilisation.

Before they have a chance to move the frozen remains, a massive avalanche separates the party, leaving Isabella alone, injured, and lost in the snow, not knowing if any of the others have survived. But then three of the beings long thought to be the Draconean gods rescue her from certain death and take her to their village. By the time her injuries have started to heal, winter is beginning, and even if the Draconeand were inclined to let her go - which they are not, though she is well treated - travel would be impossible.

Though she is deeply worried about the fate of her husband and companions, Isabella does what any scientist would do - she observes, collects data, and attempt to find a means if communication. A large part of the book is devoted to her experiences during the winter spent in the area that Isabella calls the Sanctuary, cared for, and guarded, by her three rescuers - Kahhe, Ruzt and Zam, sisters who are tending the yak herds belonging to their village while the other villagers spend the winter in hibernation. During this time, she learns their language, and a great deal about their ancient history, and current ways of life.

Eventually, Isabella meets the leaders of the Draconeans, and convinces them that she is not a threat to them, and they agree to let her go, knowing that eventually humans, who destroyed their ancestors, will find them. Isabella hopes to find a way to prepare humanity for the knowledge that they are not the only intelligent species on the planet, and to create a measure of sympathy toward this small community of survivors - but neither she nor the Draconean elders are confident that she can.

And of course, nothing goes according to plan. How it all works out is a triumph of many coincidences, but history often works that way, and this is a history, albeit that of an invented world. But it is a welcome conclusion, one that provides the best possible outcome for the Draconeans, and that made me very happy indeed.

And it is with this, her most challenging expedition, her greatest discovery, and her most important involvement in the politics of her world, that the memoirs of Lady Trent come to an end.

Throughout the entire series, Brennan’s message has been that while science, the quest for knowledge, can sometimes bring about unintended consequences due to the imperfect passions of human beings, it is nonetheless a vital enterprise, that the increase of knowledge is a good in itself, and it is up to us to use our knowledge wisely and justly. As Lady Trent says at the conclusion of her memoirs:

“If there is any conclusion to my tale (apart from my death, which I hope is yet a good way off), it is that the heart of it will never truly end. Although my memoirs are of course the story of my life and career, they are also a story of discovery: of curiosity, and investigation, and learning, not only regarding dragons but many other topics. I take comfort in knowing that others will carry this tale forward, continually unfolding new secrets of the world in which we live, and hopefully using that understanding more often for good than for ill.”

In the Labyrinth of Drakes, the fourth novel in Marie Brennan’s series concerning naturalist Lady Trent and her life-long study of all things associated with dragons, takes her to the desert country of Akhia to study the mating of dragons and attempt to establish a breeding programme.

War is looming, and one if the keys to victory may well be an adequate source of dragonbone. The bones of these large, aerial creatures are known to be unusually light despite their strength, but they also decay quickly - but in recent years, a method has been found that enables the preservation of dragonbone. The Yelangese have been hunting dragons, collecting the bones, and building an air force - zeppelin-like aircraft with gondolas made of dragonbone. The Scirland Royal Army is determined to build their own air armada, but there are not large dragons native to Scirland. Instrad, they have negotiated permission from the sheikh of the Akhian tribe of the Aritat to hunt and capture the great desert drakes in his territory. If dragons can be bred in captivity, Scirland can have its own source if dragonbone, and its own air force.

Sexism being rampant in Lady Trent’s time, it is actually her associate Tom Wilker who was originally asked to head up the scientific aspect of the project, but his insistence that Isabella be part of the mission has landed them both in a situation that is both rich in opportunities for close observation of the mighty dragons, but also fraught with dangers due to the political instability between the Akhian tribes, and between urban and desert dwellers - an instability that the Yelangese, who do not want to see Scirland with access to unlimited numbers of dragons, are more than willing to exploit.

And, much to Isabella’s delight, she learns on her arrival in Akhia that her companion from the latter stages of her voyage in the Basilisk, the archaeologist Suhail, is the brother of the Aritat sheikh, and closely involved in assisting the Scirlanders with their mission.

As Isaballa and Tom carry out their observations of the mating and egg-hatching behaviours of the dragons, they are kidnapped by enemy tribesmen. An attempt is made to poison them, and a Yelanese agent sets fire to the headquarters of the programme in Akhia. Surviving all of this, with more than a little help from Suhail, they undertake a final exploration into the deepest desert, facing sandstorms and the killing heat of high summer in their search for knowledge.

And in the end, they find, not answers, but data that leads to greater questions, in true scientific fashion. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s as much the love of science in both Isabella and Tom, and in Suhail, who becomes an integral part of Isabella’s life during these events, as it is the heroic woman adventurer, that makes these books so engaging. I’ve marked these books as fantasy, but in a very real way, they are also deeply, delightfully science fictional.

I enjoyed the first volume of Robert Jackson Bennett’s Divine Cities trilogy so much that I had to immediately read the next two volumes, to see where he was going with this fascinating and quite original fantasy world.

The City of Blades, the second novel in the Divine Cities series, takes up some years after the events of City of Stairs. Shaya Komayd is now the prime minister of Saypur, and is barely holding onto power as she tries to enact policies that will bring the Continent into the modern age - and improve life for its people.

The main character of this novel, General Turyin Mulagesh (retired) was governor of Bulikov during Shaya’s time there. And Shaya has used every trick she can think of to bring Mulagesh out of retirement to handle a delicate and dangerous operation. In the region of Voortyashtan, firmer home of the Divine of war and death - and the one most responsible for the cruel behaviour of Continentals toward their colonial subjects - a deposit of a strange metal has been discovered. Not only is it a superconductor of electricity - a new technology among the Saypuri - but it seems to actually generate a stronger current as it conducts. The key question is, is this an unusual, but natural substance, or is it a miraculous one, suggesting that some Divine creature remains active on the Continent.

Something is going on in Voortyashtan, to be sure - the last operative sent to investigate the possible miraculous nature of the strange metal seems to have gone mad, and then disappeared.

What Mukagash finds when she arrives at the military governor’s seat, Fort Thinadeshi in Voortyashtan is a bleak, relatively undeveloped region full of unrest. Voorrya was a deity deply involved with her people - her death wrought perhaps the worst devastation of any of the regions of the Continent on its inhabitants, and recovery has been even slower than in other areas. There are internal struggles between the people who live in the lowland river valleys and those living in the highlands. There is resentment against the Saypuri officials and military forces trying to establish order. There have been violent, possibly ritualistic atrocities committed in the countryside, indications that someone is trying to revive some of the miracles of the dead wargod Voortya. And then there are the Dreylings, a northern people, trading partners of the Saypuri, who are in Voortyashtan to rebuild the great harbour, so that trade and industry can enter and revitalise the region - but that may not be all they are working on. All in all, it’s a volatile mix.

As in Bennett’s first novel in the series, The City of Blades presents us with a number of solid, well-developed characters, many of them women. There’s Mulaghesh herself, a somewhat bitter old soldier who just, at her core, wants to do something that really matters, that adds to the store of good in the world. there’s Voortyashtan’s Saypuri military governor, General Lalith Biswal, with whom Mukaghesh once served, and with whom she shares a horrific memory of a campaign gone so badly wrong that no one in Saypur wants to acknowledge it really happened. And there’s the Dreyling Signe, who is both a source of information and a person of interest and concern in the confusion and unrest that surrounds Mukaghesh’s mission - a brilliant technologist and engineer, who grew up as a poor refugee in Vortyashtan, and is the estranged daughter of Sigurd from the previous novel. And midway through the novel, Sigurd himself appears, now a Chancellor of the United Dreyling States, and acknowledged as the surviving heir of the assassinated Dreyling King, though he has taken no crown and was instrumental in the establishment of a democratic government in his homeland.

In this novel, Bennett engages in a complex discussion about the meanings and purposes of war, of violence. When is killing justified? How does killing, even to save one’s own life, change the killer? What is just in war? How does one decide, and how does one live with the consequences of that decision? Is life a good in its own right, or is it simply the state if moving toward death? Why do we worship war, venerate the killer, remember the violent dead?

Each of the main characters carries memories of committing violence, and their reactions, how the deaths on their hands, are varied. And they come together, through their violent pasts, to play their parts in the mystery of the possible rebirth of a god of war and death, and the legend of a final war that dwarfs all other wars, in a land that respects the act of killing, that venerates the weapons of destruction and memorialises acts of war. It’s a powerful piece of writing, with a powerful and very timely message.

Which leads us to the last installment of the Divine Cities trilogy, City of Miracles. At the end of City of Blades, The only main characters still standing are Turyin Mulaghesh and Sigurd je Harkvaldsson, and both are deeply scarred. Mulaghesh is soon to be drawn into the world of Sapuri politics by Saypuri Prime Minister Shaya Komayd. And Sigurd has seen his daughter killed by Saypuri soldiers, and become a hunted man, wanted for murder. Not even the influence of Shaya and Mulaghesh can clear him this time.

City of Miracles begins 13 years later with the shocking assassination of Shaya Komayd, no longer in politics. And Sigurd comes out of exile to perform one last service for his old comrade, employer, ally, and friend.

But what he discovers when he tracks down the assassin is much, much larger than the death of one woman, no matter how important and loved she was. The gods are dead, or departed from the world, but some of their children, the Blessed, remain. One such child was captured many years ago, set apart, tortured, by those who sought to make if him a weapon. But the events of the years that have followed freed him, and he want revenge, and to be so powerful that he can never be hurt again. And he has learned that killing the other Blessed can make him stronger, perhaps even change him into a God.

What Sigurd discovers is that Shaya spent her final years trying to oppose him, trying to locate and hide the children of the Divine from their brother and would-be devourer. And that Tatyana, Shaya’s own adopted daughter, may be one of the Blessed. With Shaya dead, it falls to Sigurd to protect Shaya’s daughter Tatyana, and the other Divine children Shaya tried to save. And stop the child of darkness from becoming the last and only god.

Sigurd has allies - some old, some new. Turyin Mulaghesh is no longer in her prime, but she is the Minority leader in the Saypuri government, and has some power and influence. And Sigurd discovers the woman who has been Shaya’s ally in her attempts to find and save the Blessed children, and is now Tatyana’s guardian - Ivanya Restroyka, the former fiancee of, and now very wealthy heir to, Shaya’s long-dead lover Vo Votrov. And there is Malwina, a young Blessed girl who worked with Shaya, and who has the gift of manipulating time.

The City of Miracles draws together the various themes that have resonated through the series - questions about faith, loss, grief, revenge, violence, and trauma, and how we as human beings react to them, are shaped by them, and recapitulate them. We have seen so many examples of one trauma begetting behaviours that creates more - from the violent response if a colonised nation taking revenge, to the madness of so many individuals, human and divine, in the face of loss and pain. The tortured become torturers, the colonised become colonisers, the bereft become those who bereave others, again and again, and in the course if this, create yet more pain and violence continuing down through generations. And yet.... the miracle is that there is a way to end the cycle. To let go of the pain. And when that happens, so many things are possible.

A profoundly meaningful conclusion to a powerful work of imagination.

Two of the Hugo nominees for best series - Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives and Robert Jackson Bennett’s Divine Cities - are by authors I’d never read before and had not had and particular desire to read. But in the interests of due diligence, I embarked on the first novel in each series.

Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, the first book in the Hugo-nominated Stormlight Archives series, is... impressive. The writing is finely honed, smooth, consistently solid in narration, description and dialogue. The characters are interesting, complex, well developed. The worldbuilding is a tour de force of imaginative, carefully integrated detail.

And it bored me. It’s too fond of itself, too precious. And it is very, very long. Someone really needed to take a dispassionate pen and slice about a third of the elegant prose away, leaving a tighter storyline, a more compact narrative in which things happen before you start longing for some action, some new twist to rekindle excitement. It meanders. Beautifully, to be sure, with each scene a set piece in itself, but beauty is not everything. I found that, most unusually for me, whenever I paused in my reading to do something else, I felt no impatience to get back to the book, or curiosity about what would happen next to any of the characters. If I had not been reading this as a Hugo finalist for best series, I likely would not have bothered to finish reading it.

The Way of Kings takes place in a violent and inhospitable world, where energy storms make life difficult, and have strange aftereffects, leaving behind them energy sparks that can be used, harnessed for many things. There are strange creatures, and there is war. The novel winds itself around three main characters: Kaladin, former soldier, son of a physician, natural leader, now a slave leading a crew of ‘bridgemen’ - slaves who carry the wooden bridges needed by the armies of the Alethi to cross the chasm-riddled battlegrounds where they engage their enemy, the Parshendi; Dalinar, highprince, warrior, seer of storm-induced visions and guilt-ridden brother of the former king of the Alethi, who has never forgiven himself for being in a drunken stupour when his brother was assassinated, and now devotes himself to protecting the life of his nephew, the current king, and training his sons to do the same, and trying to fix the problems at his nephew’s court the way his brother’s legacies and his visions tell him to; and Shallan, aspiring scholar, and artist, tenacious and insistent in her quest to earn a place as apprentice to the noble born, and controversial, master scholar Jasnah, though her intent is not to learn, but to steal a powerful artefact in the hopes of rejuvenating the fortunes of her family. They are, of course, connected. Kaladin serves in the warband of Sadeas, a highprince of the Alethi and rival, possibly enemy, of Dalinor, while Jasnah is the sister of the Alethi king, and Dalinar’s niece.

And it only took about one third of the book to show, in great detail, just how talented a natural leader Kaladin is, how guilt-ridden and obsessed with his brother’s legacy Dalinar is, and how very persistent and determined Shallan is to reverse the fortunes of her family. And it only takes just shy of half the book for things to start moving. And even though, finally, Kaladin led his work crew to do something, and Shallan did what she came to do, and Dalinor tried to do something with the situation around him, and they all had consequences to deal with, it really took dedication to read through to the end. And while I did develop some affection for the characters, and once the story started to move, there were some interesting bits, I find I have little inclination to read on in the series. I might look for a synopsis somewhere to see what happens, but I’ve no desire to wade through nine more volumes as slow-moving and over-written as this one.

Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs was considerably more engaging. Also well written, with interesting characters and situations, it is much better paced and much less indulgent. The setting is the city of Bulikov, once one of the largest cities in the world, still a major urban centre of the former colonial power referred to only as The Continent. Some seventy-five years ago, one of the countries colonised by The Continent, Saypur, staged a successful revolt, followed by its own imperialist drive. Saypur is now the coloniser, The Continent the oppressed colony.

Part of the response of Saypur to its new status has been to completely outlaw all shrines, relics, symbols, and references, written or spoken, to the deities of The Continent - with some justification, as supplication and invocation of these deities can produce miracles, or magic, and it is largely this ability to call on the Divine that gave the Continent its edge in conquering other nations. Ironically, the Continent, despite its imperial history, appears to have been very backward both socially and scientifically, depending almost wholly on the powers of its deities. In fact, it was the death of the Divines at the instigation of revolutionary leader Kaj Avshakta si Komayd that resulted in the collapse of The Continent and the resurgence of Saypur. Since the things created by the Divines ceased to be on their deaths, and much of the greatness of the Continental cities was built through the power of the Divines, much of the physical presence of the Continental culture, from household artefacts to entire cities, vanished when they died, and with them, hundreds of thousands of people living in them.

I feel some sort of commentary on Western colonial imperialism and the role that religion conversion and indoctrination played in subduing and assimilating colonised peoples may be going on here, but it’s not a direct one by any means. Particularly since the Saypuri, now that they are the dominent nation, are quite intent on keeping the residents of the Continent as subjects. There is a real anger among the Saypuri, not just due to centuries of exploitation and slavery, but an existential sense of injustice - why was it just the Continent that benefitted from the power of real divinities? If gods existed, where were the gods who could have protected Saypur?

The novel begins in Saypur-controlled Bulikov, where people resent being forbidden their divinities, and a Saypuri academic (and possible intelligence operative) named Efram Pangyui, who was studying the religious artefacts seized during the conquest of Bulikov and niw forbidden to the native citizens of the Continent, has been murdered.

Shaya Komayd, a Saypuri intelligence operative, has wrangled consent from the Ministry head (who happens to be her aunt; both are descendants of Kaj Komayd) to investigate the murder, at least on a preliminary basis despite her personal bias - Pangyui was a friend of Shaya’s.

As Shaya investigates, she becomes more and more aware that Pangyui’s death was just a small part of a conspiracy among those adherents of one of the Divinities - Kolkan, the most repressive, legalistic, and punitive of the six gods of the Continent - to restore the old ways. And it is possible that Kolkan is still alive.

Shaya is presented as a complex, evolving character with a relevant backstory. She’s both cynical and idealistic, practical and imaginative, highly intelligent and motivated. The other significant characters are equally interesting. Turyin Mulaghesh, the Saypuri military governor of Bulikov - jaded, frustrated, yet courageous and committed to doing the best she can for the people under her authority, Saypuri and Continental alike. Vohannes Votrev, wealthy heir to a Continental family once high in the favour of Kolkan, shaya’s former lover, a gay man in a culture that is fanatically conservative on sexuality, twisted by his family’s religious beliefs but still struggling to bring modern values, and economic stability, to his people. And Sigurd, Shaya’s secretary, bodyguard and covert operative extraordinaire, a lost and deeply wounded man with a dark past, painful secrets, and a devotion to Shaya that is the only thing that keeps him alive.

City of Stairs is a complex and thoughtful story, with many things to say about truth, history, belief, revenge and forgiveness. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to the nexr book in the series.

Voyage of the Basilisk is the third novel in Marie Brennan’s delightful series concerning the adventures of Isabella Camhurst, Lady Trent, scholar, naturalist, explorer, and student in particular of the fascinating subject of dragons. Lady Trent’s adventures take place within a secondary world that is inspired, in some very obvious ways, by nineteenth century England and Europe, and shares in both the sexist and colonial prejudices of that time, prejudices to which Lady Trent herself is a prime source of resistance.

As the novel opens, Isabella is about to embark on an extended sea voyage on the RSS Basilisk, captained by Dione Aekinitos. Her goal is to study dragons and related species in their native habitats all around the world. Travelling with her are her assistant Tom Wilkins, her young son Jacob, and Jacob’s governess, Abby Carew.

Lady Trent’s voyages take her into the Arctic, where she and Tom necropsy a sea serpent killed by the crew of the Basilisk, attempting to determine if the arctic sea serpents are of a different species than those found in tropical climates. She observes wyverns in the mountains of northern Lezhnema. And across the ocean, in Otholé, she studies the quetzalcoatl, the feathered dragons native to that continent. And in Yelang, she swims with the dragon turtles and ventures into the interior to seek out the tê lêng dragons, one of many draconic and related species known to inhabit that part of the world. In the Broken Sea, she examines komodo dragons and fire lizards.

As she recounts the events of her voyage, through to its truly magnificent and unexpected climax in a sea battle in the Broken Sea, Lady Trent often makes side comments about what the reactions to her exploits have been, often dwelling on the impropriety of many aspects of her adventures. As a woman, unmarried and often unchaperoned (the governess Abby not being the extremely adventurous type, and some of her expeditions being unsafe for her son), Lady Trent faces a great deal of rumour and scandal. Her associate Tom is assumed to be her lover, as is almost every other man she mentions in her dispatches home to the news organisation that has partly funded her world voyage. Perhaps the most scandalous alleged liaison is her growing friendship with an archaeologist she meets in Otholé, who is studying the ruins left behind by the ancient people known as the Draconiand. Suhail is Akhian, this world’s parallel to the Middle East and Muslim cultures, the speculation among those reading her dispatches - which do not quite conceal her appreciation of Suhail’s intelligence and charm - is intense.

The charm of the Lady Trent novels is their close resemblance to the journals of the extraordinary women of our own world, the Hester Stanhopes and Gertrude Bells who explored parts of the world deemed ‘exotic’ by European standards, some if them, like the imaginary Lady Trent, scientists in search of new truths, others simply wanderers with a desire to encounter different cultures - though more often than not, doing so from the perspective of presumed European superiority.

The other aspect of the Lady Trent novels that attracts me - beyond the whole ‘woman who engages in wonderfully transgressive activities like the pursuit of knowledge and a life of adventure and discovery’ thing - is the way that Brennan depicts the way that science was conducted when in its early years. The feeling of the world as an open book with so little known, and the hands-on researches that established the foundations of methods of research and deduction, hypothesis and testing, refinement and correction of earlier theories as more facts are observed. It’s a perfectly imagined look at how the pioneers of intellectual discovery did science.

Kang Kira is the Dragon Musado, a hero foretold in prophecy destined to be the protector of a king who will unite the seven kingdoms and restore peace and prosperity. But it seems as though the prophesy is doomed to failure. The foretold king, her cousin Prince Taejo, has been kidnapped by a dragon who demands the return of a talisman that Kira has taken from him, as part of the fulfillment of the prophecy. The dragon has taken the prince to a temple filled with Kira’s adversaries, and surrounded by the enemies of Prince Taejo’s kingdom. If she goes there to return the talisman, Taejo will never achieve his destiny - and she will likely be killed. Yet if she does not go, Taejo will die.

Thus opens King, the third volume of Ellen Oh’s YA fantasy cycle The Prophecy, set in a secondary world based on Korean history and myth.

Kira sets off on a mission to rescue the prince, accompanied by Kim Jaewon, one of the supporters she has gathered during her quest to fulfil the prophecies. Their plan is to sneak up on the temple while the remains of Prince Taejo’s navy create a diversion. The early part of the mission is almost lighthearted, as Jaewon teasingly presses his suit and Kira pushes him back, but with some reluctance. It’s a nice touch, the reminder that simple things like courting the girl you like can co-exist with momentous prophecies and dangerous deeds.

The journey to the temple where the prince is being held has all the tropes of the fated journey - Kira and Jaewon encounter one situation after another, some requiring compassion, some requiring fighting, meeting with tests and allies who give them information about what to expect. It is very much in the style of legendary journeys, but peppered with the humour of human situations. Kira must navigate the dangers of the temple alone, facing still more tests, but not only does she save the prince, but fulfils the final requirements of prophesy, and is confirmed as Dragon Musado by the ancient king of dragons himself.

Next comes the hard part - facing and defeating the Demon Lord, driving out the Yamato, and uniting the seven kingdoms under the rule of the young prince.

This was a good end to an enjoyable story about belief, sacrifice, compassion, courage, and becoming at peace with ones’ self - all excellent ideas to be wrapped up in an adventure about a young girl finding herself, and finding true love, in the midst of chaos and turmoil.

Annelie Wendeberg’s historical suspense novel The Fall is a sequel to The Devil’s Grin, which introduces the character of Anna Kronberg, a brilliant German medical doctor and bacteriologist, living as a man, Dr. Anton Kronberg, in the Victorian England of Sherlock Holmes. I rather enjoyed the first volume, first because of the inclusion of Holmes as a character, and second, because of the interesting portrayal of the practical and psychological issues of being a woman passing as a man.

It took me longer to engage with this book, in part because it’s primarily a novel about Kronberg and Moriarty, with Holmes appearing infrequently, and because in this novel, Kronberg is now living openly as a woman, because it is now possible, though still extremely unusual, for a woman to be a physician or scientist.

As the title suggests, this novel take place during the run-up to the canonical Conan Doyle story “The Final Problem” and provides a plot for Moriarty’s to engage in and a reason for the final confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty to take place in Germany. And of course Kronberg is at the centre of it.

Moriarty’s plans require the expertise of a medical researcher capable of creating almost single-handedly the field of germ warfare. Having been connected to the organisation that Holmes and Kronberg brought to justice in The Devil’s Grin, he knows that Anton Kronberg is the scientist he needs, but it has taken some time to track Kronberg down, and realise that the woman he finds at the end of the trail is in fact the brilliant supposedly male bacteriologist he seeks. True to form, Moriarty kidnaps both Kronberg and her father, using the threat of harm to the old man to force her to create weaponised anthrax.

What follows is a deadly game of wits and power plays. Kronberg manages to get word of Moriarty’s plans to Holmes, while trying to persuade Moriarty that she is becoming more amenable to his plans. We know, of course, that Holmes will succeed in breaking Moriarty’s organisation in the end, and that Moriarty is doomed, but the price paid for this outcome by Kronberg is both high and bitter in the extreme.

As I said, it took me a while to fully engage, but the psychological complexity of the unfolding relationship between Moriarty and Kronberg, two brilliant and damaged people, both in their own ways tied as much to Holmes as they are to each other, made for fascinating reading.

The third Kronberg novel, The Journey, begins with Holmes and Kronberg - five months pregnant with Moriarty’s child - hiking through wilderness, hiding from Sebastian Moran, who is undoubtedly seeking them both to avenge the death of Moriarty. It’s not an unexpected scenario - even the most casual reader of the Holmes canon knows that it will be three years from the fall at Reichenbach before Holmes resurfaces.

The novel is indeed about a journey - several of them in fact, both geographical and psychological.

Kronberg’ pregnancy gives her several months of grace before Moran will take his revenge. Moriarty, before his death, gave orders that of anything should happen to him, she should not be harmed until after his child is born. The birth of the child is key to the disbursement of Moriarty’s considerable fortune. As Moriarty’s widow, she is entitled to inherit one-third as dower right, and to be the executor of a trust which provides for the child until their majority. Moriarty’s relatives want to control the child and the money. Moran wants to be paid.

Holmes and Kronberg spend her pregnancy travelling throughout England and Europe, sometimes together, sometimes not, knowing that when she delivers, the day if reckoning will come, one way or another. Hunted and hunting simultaneously, seeking to avoid Moran while setting a trap fir him at the end of the chase.

Meanwhile, Kronberg is forced to deal with her pregnancy, her hatred if Moriarty and inability to feel anything for the child, the loss of freedom, career, independence, that will follow on becoming a mother.

And emotionally, the time spent together, learning more about each other, brings Holmes and Kronberg closer in some ways, further apart in others.

I found the ending .... unsatisfying. The back and forth, maybe we have a relationship, maybe we don’t unravelling of emotions between a deeply repressed and controlled Holmes, and a woman who, like Kronberg, fears the ways in which a relationship might trap her as much as she might long for emotional intimacy with a man who is her intellectual equal, are perfectly good reasons for them to part after the birth of Kronberg’s child. Holmes remains in Europe, to hunt down Moran, Kronberg relocates to America, a more progressive country where she may find a career while living openly as a woman. That part worked.

What seemed too facile was the sudden deep attachment she has fir her daughter. She has struggled with this from the moment she became aware of her pregnancy. The abusive, manipulative, often violent nature of her relationship with Moriarty has weighed on her mind throughout. And it all vanishes in the act of giving birth. I could accept the beginnings of a change, but for all the trauma, all the ambivalence about being chained by motherhood that she expresses, to resolve itself into unconditional acceptance and love - it does not seem realistic.

With the two most interesting aspects of the series so far - the connection with Holmes, and the struggles of a brilliant woman living a life that rejects conventional female roles, functions and behaviours - apparently gone from the ongoing narrative line, I’m not at all certain that I’ll seek out any further adventures of Anna Kronberg.

Silence of the Sea, Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s sixth novel featuring lawyer and often unintentional detective Thora Gudmundsdottir, begins in a dramatic fashion. It’s the middle of a cold Icelandic night, at Reykjavik harbour. A large private yacht is due to come into port.

But this isn’t simply an end to an ordinary pleasure jaunt. The ship’s voyage is linked to the resolution committee appointed to wind up the affairs of one of Iceland’s failed banks - when the luxury yacht’s owner proved unable to pay back his loans, the committee had repossessed the vessel, sending a representative to collect the yacht and sail it back from the Continent to Iceland, to be advertised for sale on the international market.

Waiting for its arrival are a handful of people - some port officials, concerned that there may be a problem, as the yacht has not answered radio signals, the port’s security guard, and a few relatives of the passengers and crew. But when the craft appears out of the darkness, it’s moving too fast, on a collision course with the quay. Racing to the crash site, the officials are shocked to discover the ship has come into port with no one aboard.

Confused, and struggling with bureaucratic details, the elderly parents of the commission representative seek out Thora for legal advice and assistance. There is a sizeable insurance policy, and the question of who will be given custody of the man’s daughter, since both he and his wife were on board the yacht, and everything is complicated by the question of whether the people who disappeared are alive or dead. One of the things Thora will have to do to solve her clients’ problems is prove beyond reasonable doubt that Aegir Margeirson and his wife Lara are dead. And thus Thora is drawn into another mystery.

Sigurdardottir tells the story in two time sequences, alternating between Thora’s persistent search for the truth if what happened to the passengers and crew of the ill-fated Lady K, and the sequence of events, from the departure from Lisbon to the final departures of the last humans alive on board. By the time the novel reaches its end, we know the whole story, even the parts that Thora can only guess at based on the evidence, and the parts that only one of those on board the Lady K knew for certain.

Sigurdardottir is a master at slowly unveiling the horrors that the human heart is capable of encompassing, and Silence of the Sea is a clear indication that she has not lost her touch.

One of my favourite fantasy series is Katharine Kerr’s Deverry Cycle. The series itself is complete, as of 2009, with the publication of The Silver Mage, and Kerr has gone on to other things, but I’ve always hoped that one day she might go back to Deverry and tell us more.

With the release of the collection Three Deverry Tales from Book View Cafe, Kerr has given her readers at least a taste of more Deverry. Two of the three stories - The Bargain and The Lass from Far Away - are set in Deverry’s “past” and deal, somewhat peripherally, with people who make some kind of appearance in the published cycle. The third story, The Honor of the Thing, is set in 1423, some 200 years after the conclusion of The Silver Mage. In her brief intro to the story, which features all-new characters (though of course, all-new is a relative thing in Deverry), Kerr suggests that there is an unsold Deverry novel, to which this story is a prologue. One hopes that she will be able to publish this new Deverry novel through Book View Cafe, because I really want more of Deverry, and these three tales, entertaining as they are, are not enough.

One of my most distracting first-world problems is the multiple consequences of there being too many books and not enough time. With so many interesting books clamouring for my attention, I often find that I’ve read, and deeply enjoyed, the first one or two books in a series, but then gotten distracted by other equally interesting and enjoyable books, and years go by before I get around to the next in the series.

Some two or three years ago, I read Intisar Khanani’s secondary world fantasy novella Sunbolt, about a young thief and potential mage named Hitomi. And now I am finally reading Memories of Ash, the novel that continues Hitomi’s story.

It has been a year since the events related in Sunbolt. Hitomi, has survived the desperate awakening of her magic in the casting of the sunbolt that killed the monster threatening her and the breather Valerius - a kind of vampire who feeds, not on blood but on the breath and life force of others, but at great cost. Near death, and with much of her memory burned away, Valerius brought her to the healing mage Stormwind and persuaded her to help Hitomi.

Now, she is healthy, and has regained some of her memories, though it is likely that she will never completely regain her past. More, Stormwind has been teaching her magic, for her own protection and that of those around her, even though she is a rogue mage, one who was never tested and enrolled in the mage academy.

But her old enemy, the dark mage Blackflame, is about to cause more devastation for Hitomi. He holds an old grudge against Stormwind, and has persuaded the Mage Council that she is guilty of crimes against the Council. At Stormwind’s insistence, Hitomi hides her true abilities from the mage sent to bring Stormwind to trial, but once she discovers that Stormwind has been betrayed and will be found guilty, Hitomi sets out to rescue her teacher and mentor.

Hitomi dares much, and risks everything, to save Stormwind in this well-crafted and thoroughly engrossing tale of adventure and intrigue. I am just as enchanted by the lead character as I was in the first installment of these chronicles, and Khanai’s worldbuilding is a delight. And the story is only beginning, with so many different paths and possibilities for Hitomi’s future. I very much hope that Khanani will soon be ready to give us part three of the Sunbolt Chronicles.

In A Torch Against the Night, Sabaa Tahir continues the story of Elias and Laia, two people with very different pasts struggling against an empire that has become corrupt, violent and cruel.

Elias and Laia, fleeing the destruction of the military complex of Blackcliff, part military training school, part imperial barracks, part prison, have embarked on a desperate mission to free Laia’s brother Darien from the feared prison of Kaur.

The ascent to power of the new Emperor Marcus, a particularly vicious former Mask - a magically augmented Imperial soldier - has brought about political instability, which Elias’s mother, Keris, the ruthless Commandant of the Imperial Academy, seeks to use for her own ambitions. The rebellion of the .scholars, a conquered servant class, has been brutally put down by Marcus and the Commandant, and Helene Aquila, Elias’ former ally, has been appointed Blood Shrike - the leader of the Emperor’s personal military force, the Black Guard - and her first task is to find, torture and execute Elias for his treason.

It’s a non-stop chase across deserts and mountains, with the political terrain as uncertain as the physical. Allies are tested, traitors uncovered, unlikely partnerships formed, and long-laid plots revealed.

Tahir takes her characters in directions I had not expected, and the twists in the story kept me quite fully engaged. Looking forward to the next volume.

The world of Artemis was created as a pleasure planet for the richest citizens of a technologically advanced galactic empire, one in which both science and psionics interacted to enable almost fantastic feats of science and engineering.

Created from an airless asteroid, seeded with genetically engineered life - even to the humanoid servants who lived on the planet, serving as resort personnel - Artemis was a playground for the elites. But empires end, and violent power struggles among the ruling families of this empire brought about its destruction. Lost is much of the psionic technology, and the remaining planetary civilisations, while still space-faring, are much diminished. Lost also is the location of Artemis, where for 500 years, the genetically altered humans and animals have been left to build a functioning society. Their past as a vacation resort is still very much a part of their way of life - they have no advanced technology of their own, and live in the same simple agrarian ways set for them by the long-absent “seegnurs.”

Griffin Dale is a historian, archeologist, and anthropologist, whose field of research is the old Empire. In his research, he discovers clues to the location of long-lost pleasure planet Artemis, and being somewhat young, over-confidant, and a bit hungry for glory, he sets out alone to check his findings. But not only does he find Artemis, but his shuttle, which he intended to use to observe the planet from a closer distance than the high orbit of his spaceship, suffers mechanical failure due to the presence of destructive nanobots in the atmosphere, a relic of the wars that raged between imperial factions even on Artemis. Trapped on the planet, he is fortunate to encounter three Artemisians - two genetically adapted humans, Adara and Terrell, and an adapted puma, Sand Shadiw, who is telepathically bonded to Adara.

Together they embark on a quest to uncover what may remain of the old technologies, so that Griffen can go home again.

In Artemis Awakening, the first of two novels following the hunt of Griffin, Adara and Terrell seek information from a respected loremaster who has studied the technology left behind by the seegnurs - an adapted human known as the Old One Who Is Young because of some mutation that has left him with an extended life span. But instead they are drawn into his unsavoury secret plots, which include a forced breeding program intended to re-establish the psionic powers of the ancients in a new generation of Artemisians who would be bound to him.

As they work together to foil his scheme and rescue the unwilling participants of his program, both Terrell and Adara begin to manifest unexpected abilities. Terrell, descended from a line of Artemisians bred to be the perfect tour guides, turns out to have the ability to link telepathically with Griffin, who is, after all, descended from seegnur stock. And Adara, together with her bondmate, is somehow in communication with the awakening consciousness of the artificially created planet itself. The developing love triangle between Griffin, Adara and Terrell is handled in a refreshing manner, with both men keeping the lid on the potentials for pointless competition and jealously, and acknowledging Adara’s right to make her own choices, or no choice at all, in her own time.

Artemis Invaded, the second novel, finds Griffin, Adara, Sand Shadow and Terrell on a mission to explore a forbidden region of Artemis known to its inhabitants as Maiden’s Tear. Legend has it that the surviving seegnurs of a massacre fled to that region - but were killed by their enemies before they could use whatever they sought to fight back, or escape. Griffin hopes that he will find another secret installation of the seegnurs, and something to help him return to his home planet.

But the Old One and his chief lieutenant, Julyan, who escaped to destruction of his secret breeding facility, are on their trail, seeking revenge. And unknown to Griffen, others from his own civilisation have followed his trail to Artemis, fully intending to find, and use, the old imperial technology to rebuild an empire. Where Griffin wants knowledge, and to help his companions maintain the integrity of their own world, those around him seek power that could unleash horrors not seen in war since the end of the old empire. But to prevent that from happening, he may need to give up all ties to his family and his own world.

The Artemis books are quite a lot of fun. It’s refreshing to see a post-apocalypse story where what survives may actually be more worth preserving than what preceded it. And the ways in which the narrative subverts all the romantic tropes of handsome offworlders and spirited alien women is a pleasant change from the usual. An enjoyable story, complete in two volumes, but with room for more if the author ever decides to return to Artemis.

John Scalzi’s Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome is an odd but interesting piece of fiction. It’s a companion of sorts to his novels Lock In and Head On, in that it is, quite literally, what it says on the label. It’s written as a selection of personal accounts by medical researchers, doctors, journalists, scientists, business people, and people with Haden’s Syndrome, illuminating various aspects of the fictional disease that creates the world in which thise two novels are set.

It reads as if it were real, which is a testament to Scalzi’s gifts for characterization. The narrators have their own voices, perspectives, insights, into the ways American society develops after the world-wide catastrophe that is Haden’s Syndrome begins. My only regret is that Scalzi didn’t take the opportunity to give us more than a few casual remarks on what happened in the rest of the world while all this was unfolding in the US.

Stone Mad is the second work of fiction by Elizabeth Bear to feature Karen Memery, a former prostitute and temporary US Marshall, and her wife Priya Swati. Retired from the hospitality industry and ready to embark on married life on a horse ranch purchased with the reward money from their previous service to the US government, Karen and Priya are out for a fancy evening on the town in not-particularly-exotic Rapid City when they are drawn into an adventure involving table-tapping, poltergeists, spiritualism, illusionists and a few actual supernatural creatures.

This is a delightful western steampunk fantasy romp, complete with some very serious meditations on the responsibilities of being in love.

Katherine Arden’s The Girl in the Tower continues the story of Vasya, rebellious and half-magical wild girl, in the very patriarchal land of feudal Muscovy. Vasilisa Petrovna, the daughter of a country boyar and his first wife, herself the child of a woman thought of as at least half witch, has always seen the spirits and ghosts that live in countryside and in households. From her childhood she has held the attention of the immortal spirit known as Morozov, the winter-king, the one who comes for the dying. Alone, cast out by her village after the death of her father and the accusations of a maddened priest who both fears and lusts after her strangeness, Morozov has gifted her with a horse out of legend and provisions and gold enough for her to travel the world - for a girl like Vasya there can never be peace in marriage or convent, the only two respectable choices for a woman of her time and place.

In her early travels, Vasya encounters the horrors of burnt-out villages and stories of girls taken by bandits to be sold. When she impulsively tracks the bandits with the help of the household spirit of one if the kidnapped girls, she stumbles into a vast plot to destroy her kin, the rulers of Muscovy. Forced to conceal her identity and pretend to be a boy, Vasya faces bandits, ghosts, Tatars, horrified priests, outraged siblings and vengeful princes, and a deathless minster who seeks in a girl of her grandmother’s bloodline the restoration of his powers.

And survives. Vasya’s spirit carries the story once more, with her courage and determination to live life in her own terms.

If Tomorrow Comes, the second novel in Nancy Kress’ Yesterday’s Kin trilogy, begins about ten years after the conclusion of the first book. Earth has survived the spore cloud, but at great cost - in some regions, notably Russia/Central Asia, as many as 30 percent of the population have died due to mutations that disabled the immunity to the disease in most humans. Some animal species have been decimated, causing ecological chaos. Some humans want to reach out to their cousins on World - now called Kindred by most people - others blame then for the chais and destruction.

In the ten years that have passed, two ships have been build based on the ancient alien plans left by the Kindred - one by the US and other pro-Kindred factions, intended to carry a diplomatic mission, and the other by Russia, which is believed to have been destroyed after a failed attempt to disrupt the building of the US ship.

As the novel opens, just hours before the Friendship is due to depart, an elderly woman tries to contact authorities - she’s discovered something worrisome about her grandson, who is part of the team headed for World. But before she can make her concerns known, the, ship lifts off early, to foil any last minute sabotage attempts. As the focus of the narrative shifts to the voyagers, we the readers know only one thing - one of the men on board has a secret agenda.

The personnel of the Friendship is primarily diplomats and scientists - to open negotiations and, if necessary, assist the Kindred in the creation of a vaccine effective for their biology - and a squad of battle-hardened US Rangers. The journey, using alien technology, is fast and relatively uneventful. What happens when they arrive at World, however, is unexpected and catastrophic.

The first shock is the realisation, from star placements, that they have experienced a time dilation effect of 14 years, something the Kindred had not warned them about. Instead of arriving years before the spore cloud is due to reach Kindred, it is now due in less than three months. Suspicion, especially among the military contingent, is immediate, made worse by the fact that they have difficulty contacting World, and communicating once contact is made. And then disaster. The Russian ship appears above Kindred, fires on the Friendship, and then on the planet itself, destroying all of their major cities.

One shuttle, containing six Rangers and three scientists, reaches safety on Kindred. Where they find a largely agrarian, low-tech society and no viable vaccine. Most of the population has returned to family homesteads in the country where they are preparing to die.

The story that follows is one of repeated cultural clashes, and unexpected meetings of minds, not just between Terrans and Worlders, but between medical scientists and the military, as a desperate fight to save the planet from chaos and destruction begins.

It’s going to be very difficult waiting for volume three.

Lock In is possibly the most interesting of John Scalzi’s novels that I’ve read to date, and not just because of the disability angle, although that is a significant part of it. On face, it’s a science fiction murder mystery, with lots of puzzles and sleuthing, murders and attempted murders and even an explosion, and it all takes place within the context of a cosy-cutting government bill that will materially affect the lives of millions of severely disabled people who are dependent on expensive, usually government-subsidised, life support mechanisms and assistive devices.

The setting is America, in a world changed by the emergence of a new disease, named Haden’s Syndrome after one of its more prominent victims. It looks a bit like the flu, then meningitis follows. Many die. Some recover, unchanged. A small proportion, however, are so neurologically altered that they can no longer control any of the voluntary functions of the body - they are locked in, unable to move, speak, blink, but they are fully conscious. Massive research has enabled these people to be fitted with neural nets - computers integrated into their brains - which allow them to control external devices, from voice synthesizers to robotic bodies, affectionately called “threeps” - and to interact with each other in a virtual space known as the Agora. More, it is discovered that a tiny fraction of Haden survivors who are not locked in, known as Integrators, have neurological changes that allow them, when fitted with a special neural net, to virtually ‘host’ the awareness of a locked in Haden, allow them to experience the sensations of being in a functional human body. All of this - the research, the nets, the robotic bodies, the computer space needed to host the private and public online worlds of the Hadens - is government subsidised, and is the basis of an entire industry. And all will be subject to massive change when the new laws come into effect.

The story begins with a murder investigation. It’s newly minted FBI Agent Chris Shane’s first day on the job. Shane, along with Agent Leslie Vann, a firmer Integrator, are part of the FBI section that handles crimes involving Hadens. An Integrator, Nicholas Bell, has been found, seemingly confused, in a hotel room with a very bloody, very dead corpse with no ID. The fact that Bell is an Integrator means that even if his body killed the unknown man, he himself may not have committed the murder. It’s the start of very complicated case involving murder, industrial sabotage and conspiracy to manipulate an entire industry for corporate gain that will end up having implications for all Hadens in America.

The novel explores in considerable detail the practical, ethical and legal issues arising when a person can act at a distance through a robotic body, or through another, specially enhanced human being, and that aspect of the book is fascinating. Inevitably, all sorts of disability issues arise, from the question of financial support for research and accommodation, to discrimination, harassment and hate crimes. Particularly interesting is the debate over accommodation versus cure, which parallels such conversations in and around a number of real life communities, including the Deaf and neurodiverse communities.

Something that’s been noted in other places is Scalzi’s choice not to specify the gender of the protagonist. We have no idea of Chris’ biological sex, nor their identification as man, woman, non-binary, or agender. It makes sense - Chris was infected at the age of three, and has lived outside their human body ever since - gender doesn’t make a lot of impact when one’s primary presentation is a metallic genderless robot, and one can experience physical desire only through the body of another person, who could be of any gender. If Chris has a sense of being gendered, it doesn’t enter into their public life and doesn’t need comment in a book that focuses entirely on their public life. Similarly, it s not until late in the book that it Is confirmed that Chris is biracial - again, it’s nit something you can tell from the metal bodies that Hadens use to move in the physical world.

One weakness of the book is that we have no idea what is going on with research and support for Hadens in other parts of the word, or whether any of these technologies exist in other developed nations, or how international trade might affect the various plots and machinations to take control of the American Haden support industry. We’re not even sure if the Agora is for American only.

All in all, a complex and interesting novel, with a solid story, and more meat on it than one finds in some of Scazi’s other novels, which have tended to be exciting and engaging tales, without a lot to challenge one’s thinking. Lock In does both.

“The Secret Life of Bots,” Suzanne Palmer; Clarkesworld, September 2017
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/palmer_09_17/

Palmer’s suspenseful yet very funny novellette takes place on a nearly derelict space ship on a suicide mission to stop an enemy worldkiller from reaching Earth. So much of the ship is falling apart, all the available standard bots are working nonstop to keep the ship going just long enough to deliver its payload. When there are reports of an infestation, the Ship AI pulls an outdated bot with dangerous instabilities out of storage to deal with the problems. It turns out, the dangerous instability is creative thinking, and the ship needs some of that badly if it’s going to fulfil its mission.

“Cake Baby,” Charlie Jane Anders; Lightspeed Magazine, November 2017
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/cake-baby-kango-sharon-adventure/

“Cake Baby” may not be the funniest science fiction romp I’ve ever read, but it comes awfully close. Sharon and Kango are two surreal characters with a real talent for fucking things up royally, which is why they may not be the best pair of interstellar adventurers to hire for your dirty work. But they manage to survive, thanks to their far more practical crewmate, ex-cultist stowaway Jara, and their ship’s computer Noreen. Very funny stuff. Really. Read it.

“The Dark Birds,” Ursula Vernon; Apex Magazine, January 9, 2017
https://www.apex-magazine.com/the-dark-birds/

Vernon often tells dark tales. This is one of them. In the forest lives a family. There’s a Father, of curse. And there is always a Mother, a Ruth , a Susan, and a Baby. When Mother has a new daughter, Ruth disappears, Susan becomes Ruth, Baby becomes Susan. That’s how it always is. Until it isn’t.

“The Fall of the Mundaneum,” Rebecca Campbell; Beneath Ceaseless Skies, September 28, 2017
http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-fall-of-the-mundaneum/

In 1914, in a building in Belgium that houses a vast collection of books and artefacts, a man is waiting for the German army to arrive. He imagines that this great building, an establishment of knowledge and history, will be handed over honourably, to those who, while conquerors, will respect its importance. Right up to the end, he answers letters sent in by those seeking answers from the great collection, cataloguing the strange contents of a valise sent from his colleagues in Köhn, with a hasty message he understands only too late.

“Queen of Dirt,” Nisi Shawl; Apex Magazine, February 7, 2017
https://www.apex-magazine.com/queen-of-dirt/

A young martial arts instruction with the gift of seeing things most people don’t must find a way to save herself from a hive of otherworldly things seeking a new queen, and her students from the potentially dangerous consequences of contact.

“Remnant,” Jordan L. Hawk and K. J. Charles; Smashwords
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/404000

Historical m/m romance, of the explicit sort, about two pairs of occult detectives. Apparently each of the authors is known for writing a series based on one of the pairs in this story, which is well-written, and lots of fun, both in terms of adventure and eroticism. The setting is London. A long dead Egyptian spirit is killing people, and ghost hunter Simon Feximal, with his companion Robert Caldwell, is investigating. Arriving from America just in time to lend assistance is American philologist Percival Endicott Whyborne and his companion, Griffin Flaherty. A nice blend of mystery, adventure and erotica.

“These Deathless Bones,” Cassandra Khaw; Tor.com, July 26, 2017
https://www.tor.com/2017/07/26/these-deathless-bones/

Khaw has excellently inverted the trope of the evil stepmother here, with a story of a queen married to provide a new mother for a prince whose own mother has died. But in this dark fantasy, the queen is a just avenger, and the young prince a cruel budding psychopath whose years of torturing small animals and throwing tantrums to punish the servants have led step by step to the unforgivable.

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My life in books

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Leah Bobet: An Inheritance of Ashes

Eleanor Arnason: Selected Short Fiction

Marie Brennan: Within the Sanctuary of Wings

Marie Brennan: In the Labyrinth of Drakes

Robert Jackson Bennett: The Divine Cities

Hugo Best Series Finalists: Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jackson Bennett

Marie Brennan: The Voyage of the Basilisk

Ellen Oh: King

Annelie Wendeberg: Two Anna Kronberg Novels

Yrsa Sigurdardottir: Silence of the Sea

Katharine Kerr: Three Deverry Tales

Intisar Khanani: Memories of Ash

Sabaa Tahir: A Torch against the Night

Jane Lindskold: Artemis Duology

John Scalzi: Unlocked

Elizabeth Bear: Stone Mad

Katherine Arden: The Girl in the Tower

Nancy Kress: If Tomorrow Comes

John Scalzi: Lock In

Short Fiction: May 15, 2018