January 2021 Roundup – Reading, Writing and Blogging… #BrainfluffJanuary2021Roundup

January has slipped by quietly without very much going on, given that we are now back in full lockdown, again, while the Government grapples with this new, highly infectious variant. Meanwhile the vaccination programme is proceeding apace. Both sets of parents have had their first vaccination and my sister, who works in a pharmacy has had both her jabs. I’m hoping Himself will be getting his sooner, rather than later as he is a key worker who has to go out every day and regularly travels to London.

We have had the grandchildren staying over several times – including little Eliza, again. It was another successful visit where she seemed very happy to be with us. Right now, we are still coping with some hefty family issues, not improved by COVID and the lockdown. Thank goodness we are part of my daughter’s support bubble, so we can be there to help out when needed.

Reading
I read fifteen books in January, and again, I can’t fault the quality of the books. I did DNF The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell, but that was because it was too dark for me to cope with – the writing was excellent. My Outstanding Book of the Month was The Night Parade of 100 Demons – A Legend of the Five Rings World novel by Marie Brennan, and my Outstanding Audiobook of the Month was Tombland – Book 7 of the Matthew Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom.

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My reads during January were:

Spirited by Julie Cohen – review to follow.

AUDIOBOOK I Shall Wear Midnight – Book 4 of the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett – review to follow.

Black Sun – Book 1 of Between Earth and Sky series by Rebecca Roanhorse – see my review.

Nikoles – Book 2 of the Tuyo series by Rachel Neumeier – review to follow.

Cruel as the Grave – Book 22 of the Bill Slider mysteries by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles – see my review.

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Haunted House Ghost – Book 5 of the Braxton Campus mysteries by James J. Cudney – review to follow.

By the Pact – Book 1 of the Pacts Arcane and Otherwise series by Joanna Maciejewska – see my review.

OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE MONTH – The Night Parade of 100 Demons – a novel in A Legend of the Five Rings World by Marie Brennan – see my review.

Murder at the Ritz by Jim Eldridge – see my review.

Defending the Galaxy – Book 3 of the Sentinels of the Galaxy by Maria V. Synder – review to follow.

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OUTSTANDING AUDIOBOOK OF THE MONTH – Tombland – Book 7 of the Matthew Shardlake series – review to follow.

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell – see my review.

The Monster MASH – Book 1 of the Monster M*A*S*H series by Angie Fox – see my review.

The Expert System’s Champion – Book 2 of The Expert System series by Adrian Tchaikovsky – see my review.

The Lord of Stariel – Book 1 of the Stariel series by A.J. Lancaster – review to follow.

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Writing and Editing

I’ve made steady progress with Trouble with Dwarves, which is the second book in my Picky Eaters series, featuring grumpy old dragon, Castellan. I’ve now written the opening adventure featuring the ice giants and am now working on the closing chapters of the book, which I hope to have completed by the middle of February. I’ve also completed several editing projects and am continuing to work with my father-in-law on his memoirs.

Overall, I wrote just under 44,000 words in January, with just under 26,000 on the blog, just over 1,200 on lesson reports for Tim, and just over 16,000 on my writing projects.

Blogging
January was a better month for the blog, as I wasn’t going anywhere and managed to get back into the rhythm. I’m still not doing very well at visiting other bloggers – and I will try to do better! In the meantime, I very much hope you are all able to continue to stay safe, while waiting for your vaccination. Take care.x

*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of NETGALLEY arc Black Sun – Book 1 of the Between Earth and Sky series by Rebecca Roanhorse #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #BlackSunbookreview

I thoroughly enjoyed Trail of Lightning – see my review – so was delighted to see this pop up and even more delighted to be approved for it. Would I enjoy this epic fantasy?

BLURB: A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.

Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.

REVIEW: In many ways, this epic fantasy adventure treads very familiar ground. There is a Chosen, whose destiny weighs heavily upon his young shoulders and who has had to endure much in the long, arduous training for his Task. There is another Chosen, whose appointment was rather an unwelcome surprise to those who find themselves serving her. And there is an ominous prophesy. So far, so good and reasonably predictable. I never have a problem with that – after all, if I wanted something completely different from the main genre conventions, I wouldn’t be reading Fantasy.

But what does make this one stand out is the setting. Because it isn’t set within a late medieval/Early Modern European historical backdrop, like so many epic Fantasy adventures – this one is nested within the pre-Columbian American civilisation, which gives everything a fresh spin. As Roanhorse is an experienced writer, whose characters ping off the page and whose narratives produce plenty of twists and adventures, that difference works really well. I particularly liked that the currency is cacao beans, for instance, while the religion, the clothing and general customs give an enjoyable sense of originality and freshness.

My favourite character is Xiala, a Teek sea captain. Her particular sea-calming magic means she is tolerated by an all-male crew, even though they generally don’t like women aboard ships. I love her robust attitude to life, and her very straightforward view of things, which contrasts well with Serapio, whose whole outlook has been skewed by the fact he has been prepared for a particular day and a particular time since his birth. Overall, the pacing works well, although there were times when I felt it could have moved a little faster in the earlier stages of the story. But as we approached the Big Day, the action and pacing picked up nicely. I’m not a fan of being left with a cliff-hanger ending, so I very much hope that Roanhorse has the second book well on the way, because I certainly want to know what happens next.

Recommended for fans of epic fantasy adventures, especially with a fresh setting. While I obtained an arc of Black Sun from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

Sunday Post – 10th January, 2021 #Brainfluffbookblog #SundayPost

This is part of the weekly meme over at the Caffeinated Reviewer, where book bloggers can share the books and blogs they have written.

It’s been an unexpectedly busy week. On Tuesday we were supposed to be doing the handover of the grandsons, when my daughter got in touch to say that she was running a temperature and covered in a rash. So I said we’d keep the boys until she felt well enough and knew it wasn’t COVID. They stayed with us until Friday, which was an unexpected treat. We were able to take them for walks on the beach and play games, in between Frank’s online lessons. We even managed to play a hilarious game of Playdohionary (like Pictionary, but using Playdoh instead) and I taught Frank knockout whist. The pictures are from our walk on the beach last Thursday when the weather was glorious for the time of year, without a breath of wind…

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On Saturday, I spent the morning working on my father-in-law’s memoirs – we worked on a document together using Shared Docs in OneDrive, which made the whole process so much easier. And then I caught up with writing some of my end of year blogs. As you may have gathered, not much writing of Trouble With Dwarves got done – but hopefully I can get back to work in the coming week.

Last week I read:

Black Sun – Book 1 of Between Earth and Sky series by Rebecca Roanhorse
A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.

Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.
This was a thoroughly entertaining epic fantasy that hit all the main tropes within the genre – with one stunning exception… it’s set in a civilisation based on pre-Columbian America. That gave it a verve and freshness that was very welcome. Review to follow.

Nikoles – Book 2 of the Tuyo series by Rachel Neumeier
For generations the Ugaro of the winter country have traded peacefully with the Lau of the summer lands. But now a fatal mistake has created bitterness and hatred on both sides of the river, threatening to destroy a peace that has become tenuous.

Nikoles Ianan realizes, too late, that he should have prevented his own people’s unforgivable trespass – he should at least have tried. Now it seems impossible for a single Lau soldier to do anything to prevent the escalating tragedy … until the most famous scepter-holder of the summer country arrives.
I loved TUYO, the first book in this series – see my review – which has made my Outstanding Reads of 2020 list. So I picked this one up with huge anticipation. While it didn’t quite hit the heights of the first book, it nonetheless proved to be a gripping read and a very welcome addition to this classy fantasy series. Review to follow.

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DNF – The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell
As the age of the photograph dawns in Victorian Bath, silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of her clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then another, and another… Why is the killer seemingly targeting her business?

Desperately seeking an answer, Agnes approaches Pearl, a child spirit medium lodging in Bath with her older half-sister and her ailing father, hoping that if Pearl can make contact with those who died, they might reveal who killed them.

But Agnes and Pearl quickly discover that instead they may have opened the door to something that they can never put back…
This is one that I couldn’t get through, despite being very well written and the plotting and characters are beautifully portrayed. But… I had somehow assumed that Agnes would be one of those blithe, crinolined heroines who is full of derring-do, and undaunted by anything. She isn’t – this is a whole lot darker and more sombre and I simply couldn’t cope with the more serious tone. So I’m featuring it as there is no criticism of the writing, just the wrong book at the wrong time…

My posts last week:

December 2020 Roundup: Reading, Writing and Blogging…

Friday Face-off featuring The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein

*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of Bear Head – Book 2 of the Dogs of War series by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Can’t-Wait Wednesday featuring The Night Parade of 100 Demons – a Legend of the Five Rings novel by Marie Brennan

*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of Inherit the Shoes – a Jersey Girl Legal Mysery series by E.J. Copperman

Six Favourite Heroes from my 2020 Reading List

Sunday Post – 3rd January 2021

Interesting/outstanding blogs and articles that have caught my attention during the last week, in no particular order:

The Art of Recycling https://masonsmenagerie.wordpress.com/2021/01/07/the-art-of-recycling/ I loved the blend of art, poetry and practical tips in a post that manages not to be preachy about this issue…

Thursday Doors – the first of 2021 https://jeanreinhardt.wordpress.com/2021/01/07/thursday-doors-first-of-2021/ Regular visitors will know that I make a habit of featuring this quirky weekly post of Jean’s that shows her talent for the unusual and visually arresting…

Escapist Landscapes – Pt 1 https://cindyknoke.com/2020/12/12/escapist-landscapes-pt-1/ And if you are in the mood for more wonderful places to gaze at, then you’ve come to the right place…

Hoping for Snow https://platformnumber4.com/2020/12/18/hoping-for-snow/ I absolutely loved this article – Becky has a way of bringing the past alive…

THE CONFESSIONS TAG https://spaceandsorcery.wordpress.com/2021/01/05/the-confessions-tag/ We are all accustomed to sharing our reads in a variety of book blogging tags – but what about the books we didn’t read/passed over/plain disliked?

Thank you for visiting, reading, liking and/or commenting on my blog. I hope you had a peaceful, healthy week – and do take care. x

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 30th December, 2020 #Brainfluffbookblog #CWC #WOW

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 – Black Sun – Book 1 of the Between Earth and Sky series by Rebecca Roanhorse – release date 21^st January, 2021.

#epic fantasy

BLURB: A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.

Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.

I thoroughly enjoyed Trail of Lightning – read my review – so when I saw this one available on Netgalley UK, I immediately requested it and was thrilled to be approved for an arc – yippee! So I’m looking forward to tucking into this one very soon😊.