4-star flight-worthy spy novel, easy-read. Better than most I’d say.

I didn’t know there was a first novel, being that I read the synopsis for this and liked it and started reading before I put it on my ‘currently reading’ list on GR and discovered this is book #2… but oh so what. It also works well as a stand-alone believe it or not.

I mean, it’s not full of philosophy and deep mysteries to solve—it’s simple in that sense, but the action and characters read like a good old spy movie, with enough connection to real world events to be intriguing.

A fast adventure, then drop it in the seat pocket for the next easy-adventure seeker on a 6h flight…

Hari Seldon sure was a tricky old boy… you think one thing and then in an instant, when you never expect it, it all changes, it all blows to smithereens—and Hari knew it all, even when it looks like he didn’t. And before you have a chance to catch your breath and come to grips with what’s just happened in the galaxy, it’s over. 

Bayta and Toren are the clashing attractive central couple in this story—Bayta, of course, being the intelligent unveiler of mysteries and revealer of secrets because of insight and her personal history in The Foundation, and her intuition and kindness. Oh, but don’t cross her! You can see Asimov really loves Bayta (apparently, she’s based on his wife Gertrude—aw, sniff, coo), and he makes us love her too. 

Complex (as usual) and unpredictable, the plot unfolds across the tumultuous galaxy to an unexpected climax. Science fiction at its best—by one of the greatest foundational authors in the science fiction genre.

On to book 3…

Not enough magic in this to warrant the title. Hints of it beneath a very atmospheric setting, but it isn’t a main character in the novel as we assume it will be based on title and synopsis.

I thought this was an adult novel as it started, but as it got going and we were into the thick of the plot it turned out to be suitably juvenile, after all—with a nod toward several adult themes.

The premise is intriguing, but the execution lacks what the synopsis promises. The setting is likely the best character in the novel, with even the voice of the island speaking louder, despite its whisper, and with more depth of personality than some of the human participants.

I don’t know if it’s a generational thing that even novels for 30 year olds are still yammering on about the hurts and heights of high school. Nothing wrong with it, I suppose, but just to point out that this isn’t an adult novel with the adult feel of life and responsibilities injected into a well-woven plot and established adult characters—it mostly has the feel of the extended immaturity of adolescence.

That said, it was an interesting story. I prefer Young’s YA novels, though.

Note to Kate Quinn: can I please be one of your beta readers?? (Not opposed to reduce to shameless begging here)

I LOVED this! Quinn’s writing is perfection. Her ability to connect historical events with the kiss of beautifully interwoven fiction never fails to provoke a smile or a tear…this is an additional super-wow novel by one of my favourite writers of the here and now. Man…I can’t get enough… 

I’ve just finished reading and I’m all full up with emotion and knowledge; I need to sit and contemplate for a while. That’s what a good novel does to you—and this one sidelined me for two days. It was all-consuming. I completely lost myself in the story, a character-rich retelling of a boggling reality from our recent history, with lessons for life and international relations on every page—lessons we still haven’t seemed to learn. This novel was pleasantly absorbing from start to finish, and beyond…

What a clever display of intelligent, well-researched writing that exudes a natural wit. It quietly allows us to slip into the thoughts and secrets of a diverse cast of irresistible characters–even if their attractiveness is bathed in incomprehensible circumstances and the unsavoury machiavellianism of mid-twentieth century military power struggles. The complexities of cross-world politics are explored through rigid relationships teetering on distrust, broken down through friendship. In the midst of the multiplying snake-pit of Russian-American relations during WWII, we enter the harrowing story of Mila’s war, her heartbreaking experience with love, the pain and burden of absentee motherhood, her life as a dedicated soldier, and her reluctant involvement in propelling two nations to a momentary break in their distrust to form a fraught partnership against a common enemy.

Mila’s is a story I never thought I’d be attracted to reading, but by Kate Quinn’s skilled pen this Russian sniper has become to me another newly revered heroic woman of history. The author’s note at the end of the book outlines the research that has gone into this project and piques my interest in the Russian Night Witches (et al) even more. The amazing-but-no-big-deal women of history and our world continue shine on…

Kate Quinn is a Master Storyteller. I will read anything she writes with confidence that I’ll love it. 

Love this series for a good bit of clean entertainment … the crime is followed by an intelligible pursuit for answers, an unfolding mystery that gets personal, all the danger and adventure that we love, overlapped with budding relationships and interpersonal tensions among our haphazard team of independent sleuths.

After the murder of an important mechanical engineer, a new wee buddy is introduced to The Aviary for the boys, Kit and Cordelia’s struggling attraction hits a major bump, and the sauce finally gets poured on Wrex and Charlotte’s tamed fire. Oh, and they work together through clues, against opposition and vile enemies, amid the blunders of a floundering government, and upon the political backdrop of Napoleon’s final defeat to solve this mystery for the inept authorities.

The characterisation is just that slight bit fluffed up to be almost eccentric in places—honestly emotional with bouts of heated and moments of restrained dialogue—but never caricature.

Good Regency Era Murder Mystery fun!!

My name is on the waiting list for the next one…I presume many more adventures for this lot ahead.

Pure YA, as in, if you’re older than 17, I suggest picking up Christie or Doyle at this stage for your mysteries, and for the drama needs, go with Brontë and Austen—this one is for younger audiences. That’s said, it’s not bad start to a series. A bit slow unfolding, but gets into the mystery with popping little clues and hidden passages and secrets from the dark past as it progresses. Ends on a cliffhanger…overlooking a meagre twelve inch trough—yeah, well, not so terrifying or compelling that I’m reaching after midnight for the second instalment.

A fictional tale told in all the exotic and sensational colours of a Bollywood drama—though in the drama-movie version the sexual encounters in this story would be muted song-masked scenes of shy flirtations. Here, we get the Americanised full-exposure. The western style storytelling lays bare the ugliness without reserve or euphemism, accepts and forgives even the undeserving and unlikeable characters, glorifies the impossible rise of feminist ideals in mid-twentieth century India, and ultimately finds a happy ending for everyone.

Very much fiction.

I mean, it’s based on <i>a</i> reality, somewhere, but it’s fiction. And it’s entertaining, easily readable fiction.

It’s a story about two young girls fighting for their independence in a classist society prone to ignoring women of their status; it’s a story about the search for the meaning of true love; it’s a story teeming with 3D characters and a handful of flat foils; it paints a light brush across Northern settings that will pique a reader’s interest.

If someone wrote a sensational and colourful drama about Brampton, I’d think them delusional and full of outrageous and inaccurate fantasies….. but I’d also love to read it, just to see what <i>might</i> lie beneath the mundane normalcy of our bustling everyday blah blah blah…

‘I fix people.’ This is the job summary of our main character. Only his fixing is of a more permanent nature. And like many, he hates his job and only stumbled into it because of who he knew, and one severely gross misunderstanding. But now it owns him, and he’s determined to make a drastic change, to escape the vicious circle, to have love—though he is clueless as to what love means.

Told from the perspective of a deranged hit man, we get the unreliable and delusional tale of his reformation—even if it is only in his daydreams.

It’s a Nordic Noir—dark, cold, gory, morbid, an overall depressing piece of gangster autobiography—but it reads like mid-twentieth American literature in places: a bit Holden Caulfield, a bit Hemingway, doses of the awkward damaged insanity of Vonnegut or Heller.

The subject matter is grim all the way through, but this ending is <i>almost</i> a happily ever after…

Realised at the end that this is the sequel to an earlier work. Oops. Don’t think it made much difference. It’s a classic Nordic Noir, but a tad more morbid and depressing in atmospheric feels than his other twisting-plot+intriguing-character driven works. This is what I’d call an ‘ugly read’ as the characters are not immediately loveable, and indeed don’t necessarily grow on you over the course of the story either, but there is enough of the unknown, plenty of unfolding plot with flashbacks to keep one entertained.

There is some relief by the end, if not exactly a happily ever after.

A fitting end to a very strange adventure. The storytelling was wooden and disconnected at times across this trilogy—and after the first book, I didn’t think I’d continue, but curiosity prevailed (and a stubborn determination to finish what I’ve started—if not too damaging to my sanity—well, and even sometimes if it is…) anyway, this story paid off in the end.

A roaming adventure that follows Vasya and Morozko over miles of broken and twisted farmland communities suffering the hardships of oppression and the elements with flailing faith, to the tensely divided Moscow of the 14th century. The adventure crosses between that which is tangible and seen into the magical world of spirits and manipulative gods both feared and revered by the people who cannot see them but know they’re there. Vasya lives in both worlds and in this third installation, she learns to navigate the strange relationships she has struggled with in the past. As she comes to understand and accept her special ability, despite increasing opposition on all sides, she grows in maturity, and even finally receives love for herself, much to our surprise.

We meet with all the characters of the earlier story: Sasha, The Bear, Constantine, Dmitri, Olga, Masha, and Morozko…and while it’s not exactly a bow-tied happy ending, it’s hopeful, with sparks of reconciliation and the ultimate conquering of true evil. 

A unique fictional adventure that reshapes one’s perspective of the mystical influence of folkloric animism in Russia’s long religious history; a definitively sprawling undertaking by a knowledgable author.