Finished reading A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett, follow-up to The Tainted Cup. Another fantasy-set murder mystery, this one with a clear anti-autocratic subtext. Bennett makes the subtext explicit in an afterword, laying into the fantasy genre, and A Song of Ice and Fire and its derivatives in particular, for their love of autocracies.
Finished reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, another murder mystery, though not quite so noir-y as Cahokia Jazz. This one is set in an odd fantasy world, and we’re left with a clear path to more stories starring the protagonist and his brash boss.
Thinking back on it, the book feels somewhat similar to Bridge of Birds.
Finished reading Nonesuch by Francis Spufford, featuring time-traveling fascists during the London Blitz of early WWII. This book felt like Declare by Tim Powers, one of my favorites, but I think this was better. Certainly seems like it’ll be at the top of my year-end list.
Finished reading Radiant Star by Ann Leckie, latest book in her somewhat loose Imperial Radch series. This was a banger from page one, although/and I kind of figured out what was going on about a third of the way into it. It was just what I wanted, is what I’m saying, and at this point I’ll pretty much read anything with her name on it.
Finished reading Trudeau & Doonesbury by Joshua Kendall, a biography of the fairly reclusive cartoonist. This was very interesting, especially as someone who read the comic fairly religiously in the ’80s and ’90s; the throughline of the book was Trudeau’s growth from callow prep school lad to thoughtful feminist and advocate for veterans.