Wednesday heard that a project that had gone very silent is now GO!!!
What I read
Finished Witchmark, wow, perhaps a bit breathless? (I do like it when our protag/s can occasionally stop for a breather/a good night's sleep/leisurely cup of coffee, but that's me), but I have now bought the next in the series.
On to Samit Basu, Chosen Spirits (2020), set in Delhi in that genre I think of as 5 minutes or so into the future, i.e. the tech and the socio-politico-economic set-up looks like a not too distant extrapolation from where were are. This was much more slow-build - the early sections seemed to be very readable (i.e. not plonky info-dumpy) world-buildy getting to set up the characters and situation. Very good, though I wonder whether there were specific things - it was clearly a very situated story set in a very particular place - I was not getting.
Also very slow build, or perhaps in this case more appropriately slow burn, Aster Glenn Gray, Honeytrap (2020), about a US and a Soviet agent who have to work together (in the first instance: this is a long duree story) over what appears to be a rather amateurish assassination attempt on Khruschev during his visit to the USA. And are both tasked by their superiors to see if they can honeytrap the other into gay indiscretion... This was okay if you are into Cold War era spy fic with m/m romantic element, or vice-versa. I realise that Brierley set a very high bar for me with AGG's works and this didn't quite reach it..
Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa (2020) (this was on promotion with Kobo in my recs this week). There was a certain amount of buzz and hoohah about it earlier this year. I was somewhat meh. I though it was written in that identikit MFA style without any particularly individual voice and dragged a bit - problem of how do you write about someone who is a stuck state of anomie without inducing a certain anomie in the reader? Just me?
Also read: Slightly Foxed 61, the latest Literary Review, and continuing to keep up with the Tales of Lindford.
On the go
Just started, CL Polk, Stormsong (The Kingston Cycle #2) (2020).
Up next
Well, there may be something in the interim, not sure just what at the moment, but MR Carey, The Trials of Koli is out at the beginning of next week.
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