Books read in July
The Chronicles of St Mary's series by Jodi Taylor
An Argumentation of Historians (book 9)
And the Rest is History (book 8)
And then re-reads of the previous books, although I was skimming quite a bit by the end:
Just One Damned Thing After Another
A Symphony of Echoes
A Second Chance
A Trail Through Time
No Time Like the Past
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Lies, Damned Lies, and History
I noticed book 9 of this series in the library, and remembered that I'd rather enjoyed the series (which is about time-travelling historians) when I read in back in 2017. I had almost entirely forgotten everything that happened in the first 7 books, but as I read book 9, I began to suspect that the reason I remembered nothing about the big and traumatic recent events being referred to was not because I'd forgotten them, but because I hadn't actually read book 8. So I read that one, too, then decided to revisit the first book... and just kind of went on from there.
Here is my review from last time, in which I acknowledged the series' many flaws, admitted that I almost gave up after book 1 and again after book 2, but said that I came to enjoy it quite a bit by the end. I pretty much agree with that assessment this time round, too... although this time I enjoyed it less. I don't think this can be attributed to knowing in advance what was coming, because I couldn't remember much. Perhaps it's just that flaws that I could tolerate - just - over the course of 7 books came to annoy me too much over 9. Or maybe it just got too samey, with the cast of unprofessional idiots lurching from one disaster to another without every appearing to learn any lessons. Still, it was easier to just keep clicking "next" on my Kindle rather than actually make a decision on what to read next, so I kept going, but skimmed more and more as I went on.
Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones (re-read)
This was a re-read inspired by going an old-fashioned village fete. I remembered that Enchanted Glass involved a village fete, but I couldn't remember anything much about the story, except a vague memory of enormous marrows on a roof. (All village fetes need enormous marrows.) Not one of my favourite DWJ books, but still an enjoyable read.
Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne series by Brian Staveley
The Emperor's Blades
The Providence of Fire
The Last Mortal Bond
Fantasy trilogy. The emperor has just been assassinated, probably by treachery. The story centres on his three children, aged between around 17 and 21 or so. Adare, the oldest (but exluded from the succession because of her sex), has been trained for politics, and deals with the political fall-out. The heir, Kaden, has been off in a remote monastery for half his life, learning how to be emotionless and serene. His brother, Valyn, has spent half his life as a cadet in an elite corps of airborne warriors. As external threats gather, from foes both human and inhuman, the three of them must play their part in a fight for the very future of humanity.
I quite enjoyed the first book of this series, although the author made some strange choices. Adare, at the heart of the action, got very few chapters indeed, most of them beginning with a brief summary of weeks of off-camera developments. Instead, the vast bulk of the book focused on the training experiences of the two brothers, with their various tests and trials. In terms of the overall plot of the trilogy, the first book should probably have shed at least half of the words it devoted to these experiences.
However, ironically, it turns out that I actually enjoyed these slower, not-perhaps-entirely-relevant training chapters more than the actual plot, because I got less interested during the course of book 2, and skimmed much of book 3. It all turned into one of those predictable modern fantasy series in which millions die, and unstoppable gods-in-human-form and/or super-powered immortal races once through extinct unleash hideous grimness on the world. I quite liked the main characters in book one, but disliked the whole lot of them by book 3, and stopped caring if their world got destroyed.