Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovksy – release date 2nd March, 2021
#science fiction #time travel #humour
BLURB:Welcome to the end of time. It’s a perfect day.
Nobody remembers how the Causality War started. Really, there’s no-one to remember, and nothing for them to remember if there were; that’s sort of the point. We were time warriors, and we broke time.
I was the one who ended it. Ended the fighting, tidied up the damage as much as I could.
Then I came here, to the end of it all, and gave myself a mission: to never let it happen again.
I am really looking forward to this novella. For starters, it’s about time travel and there’s a dinosaur on the cover – what’s not to love? The icing on the cake is that it is by one of my favourite authors, who is going through an insanely prolific patch right now. We can guess what Adrian was doing during lockdown last year… writing, writing and more writing! I’m intrigued to see how the humour surfaces, too. Anyone else have this one on their TBR pile?
I really enjoyed the first book in this entertaining series – see my review of The Monster MASH – and when I saw this offering pop up on NG, I immediately requested it. Though I was a tad disappointed to see that it was the third, rather than the second book, in the series.
BLURB:In The Heat Of Battle The hard-won cease-fire between the battling immortals doesn’t last long. In the blink of an eye, human surgeon Dr. Petra Robichaud is back on the frontlines, and starring in yet another of the oracle’s prophesies. As the only healer who can talk to the dead, Petra doesn’t have much choice about her role—even when her breathtaking ex-lover shows up at exactly the wrong time…
REVIEW: The above isn’t all the blurb, as it seemed a tad chatty in the second half, without adding anything the reader needs to know. For starters, anyone who recalls M*A*S*H, the 1970s and 80s hit TV series, will immediately understand the vibe that runs through this entertaining fantasy story. Petra Robichaud is a surgeon who works in a military hospital that patches up humans, gods, monsters and demi-gods fighting in the never-ending war between old and new gods. It so easily could have been a bleak, angsty read – but it isn’t. Without being tasteless or inappropriate, there are plenty of humorous moments that had me grinning in this finale that ties up this entertaining trilogy.
Petra is struggling to commit to Marcus, the love of her life who she’d mourned – until demi-god Galen crashed into her life. However, he had to return to the front, and because he’d helped her in the first book, his punishment was to be turned into a mortal. They had agreed that their love for each other was probably doomed, so agreed to move on… The romance probably features a bit more in this slice of the adventure – but there is also so much else going on, it didn’t slow the pace and detract from the madcap quality of the humour. It’s always a tricky balance, to successfully pull off comedic moments, without reducing a full-on action adventure story to a farce. However, I think Fox has managed to produce a steady stream of humour – not necessarily laugh-aloud episodes, but certainly they had me grinning throughout – and keep the tension and stakes sufficiently high that the pages flew by as I stayed reading longer than I should to discover what happens next. The only slight niggle I have, is that I’m not sure what the title has to do with anything – this isn’t set in London and while a werewolf certainly features, the main narrative isn’t centred around him. But I’m not going to quibble about it – if Fox wants to use 1970s pop song titles for her books to go with the M*A*S*H theme, that’s fine by me…
All in all, this is an entertaining and satisfying ending to this original, quirky fantasy tale and I’m very glad I picked it up. Recommended for fantasy fans, who like their action-adventure tales accompanied by a dollop of romance and plenty of humour along the way. While I obtained an arc of Werewolves of London from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own. 8/10
Brainfluff 