Ahoy there mateys! This novel was described as "Le Carré meets Cabaret in this debut spy thriller as a gay double-agent schemes to protect his smuggler lover during the rise of a fascist government coup."  I actually liked this book despite some problems with it.  Most of the problems stem from the "Le Carré" description.  I thought the spy thriller was going to be full of daring-do.  I didn't know that Le Carré's work is described as "unheroic political functionaries aware of the moral ambiguity of their work and engaged more in psychological than physical drama." source  Because the main character, master spy Cyril DePaul, was a horrible spy.  The spy stuff sucked and there was no thriller aspects.  The characters were interesting if absolute disasters.  Cordelia Lehane was awesome and despicable.  I loved the life around the nightclub, called the Bee, the best.  The other problem was that the world building was based on the Weimar Republic and I couldn't get me head out of the parallels even if this was supposed to be an alternate world.  It didn't feel alternate enough.  The writing was lovely though.  I am glad I read this one even if I didn't love it enough to read the sequels.  I am willing to read something else by the author in the future. Arrrr!

Ahoy there mateys! The cover kept making me look at this and I still wasn't sold as the blurb seemed a bit silly.  I eventually gave in and I be glad I picked this up.  The basic premise is that Will wakes up one morning with 108 prophecies in his noggin.  He then sets up a scheme to make millions once he realizes these events come true.  I have to admit that I didn't like Will or his best friend at first but the story grew on me.  I needed to know why Will was given this information and how the world was gonna change because of it.  Of course he has to save the world.  I loved the Coach character.  I loved how mundane some of the predictions were.  The story does get a bit ridiculous but I had a very good time with it.  Enough to have added the author's book, anyone, to me ports for plunder list.  A very good popcorn sci-fi. Arrrr!

Ahoy there mateys! This book be a blend of sci-fi and fantasy.  The sci-fi elements include space ships, AI, and fun tech.  The magic involved glyphs and mind control.  The two main characters, Boots and Nilah, were fun.  Boots is a person who is born without magic (only one in every five million) and I loved how she had to deal with it.  Nilah is a famous race car driver who is accused of murder.  Then there be the rest of the crew who basically are rather forgettable overall (I don't even remember how many or their names).  While the book is fast-paced with lots of action and was enjoyable, I did find it rather derivative in terms of plot and character.  In fact, it has been a while since I read it and I can't really explain the plot because it sort of melds with other previous reads like it that stand out better.  I have no regrets though.  I did try reading book two and abandoned it so I didn't even bother to include that book in me stats for the year.  The cult plot annoyed me and so I decided to treat the first book as a standalone. Arrrr!

Ahoy there mateys! I read the author's book, the lie tree, at the beginning of the year as me first 19 in 2019 book.  That one was set in 1860 and I liked it enough that I wanted to try another of her books.  This book be set in the 1650s prior to the English civil war.  The author definitely knows how to pick interesting time periods and write unusual world building.  The main character Makepeace has a problem with ghosts trying to possess her.  I loved her and I loved reading about her weird circumstances.  Her early life was rough.  The consequences of what happen when she lets her guard down are cool and I don't want to spoil it.  In addition I like the magic held by the bad guys and how it worked.  This book was very creepy.  Much like in the lie tree, the atmosphere, characters, and magic are what fascinated me.  I still had some problems with the plot but not as much as in the lie tree.  Once Makepeace escapes the evil people and runs away through England, most of the creepiness went away.  I enjoyed it but loved the beginning much more.  That said, I am certainly finding the author's work to be different and refreshing in the YA genre.  I will be reading more of it. Arrrr!

Ahoy there me mateys! This be the first book in me Ports for Plunder – 19 Books in 2019 list. I have wanted to read this book for years and was so glad I finally did. I think that overall I liked this book even though I had major problems with the plot.

First things first, I absolutely loved the lie tree itself. I adored how it worked. I adored its creepiness. I adored the mystery surrounding it. It was just darn cool. The tree is definitely what kept me reading. I just had to know more about it. Ultimately, I was extremely satisfied with how the tree portion of the plot turned out even if I still have unanswered questions!

One of the other things I loved about this book was the time period. The juxtaposition of belief in God versus dealing with the discoveries in science and how that reflects on mankind’s place in the world was one of the central themes in this book. An archaeology dig and fossil discussions were used to illustrate these points and as I dig archaeology, I loved the ideas around the topic. I would have liked even more of the excavations themselves to have been explored in the book but alas that wouldn’t have been relevant to the plot. This book comes down firmly in favour of science and not God, so more religious readers may not be down with that.

In addition to archaeology, the book also has a heavy use of the development of photographs as plot points. This was the time of post-mortem photos of deceased family members. It is rather morbid to the modern sensibility but during the period of the book the practice was beginning to thrive. I loved how the photos were used in this book and the technology discussions involved.

So with all of these fun things aside, the major problem was the far-fetched nature of the plot. The main character is Faith Sunderly. Faith is in the transition period between childhood and adult responsibilities. Being a girl in 1860 is no picnic. Faith’s family is also horrible too. Her father is abusive and crazy. Her mother is conniving and self-centered. So much of this plot revolved around the fact that Faith runs wild on the island. I can buy a little of that because of the messed up family dynamics. But seriously, with there being servants in the household and Faith’s little brother being put under her charge, Faith should not have been able to run amok and not be missed. I just found this part implausible given the era and circumstances and was annoyed with how it played out. Also Faith’s father worship was creepy given his abuse and lying and negligence.

The murder mystery aspects of the plot were laughable. The author tried to use Faith’s naivete as an excuse for why she didn’t catch on to who the murderer was. And yet in the next breath, Faith’s cleverness and cunning are lauded. And the final reveal of the murderers and reasons for the killing were not to me taste at all. Then there were the odd things like a harrowing trip through the waves in a rowboat that almost ends in disaster and yet a 14 year old girl with no experience makes the same trip multiple times by herself. Nope not buying it. There are many other problems that I can’t get into without spoilers.

So in short, I enjoyed most of the writing style, Faith’s character in general, Faith’s interactions with her brother, the technology, the tree, and the time period. I was not a fan of how the plot unfolded and had trouble suspending me disbelief for the majority of the plot points. Cool world-building kept me reading. I am glad I finally gave this one a shot even if the book was unsatisfying on the whole. The lie tree was worth it. Arrr!

Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/

Ahoy there me mateys!  For those of ye who are new to me log, a word: though this log’s focus is on sci-fi, fantasy, and young adult, this Captain does have broader reading tastes.  Occasionally I will share some novels that I enjoyed that are off the charts (a non sci-fi, fantasy, or young adult novel), as it were.  So today I bring ye a non-fiction title:

the poisoner's handbook (Deborah Blum)

Except this review has a twist.  The First Mate and I listened to this one together.  We discussed the book as we listened and I enjoyed his viewpoint so I ordered asked him to write a review.  So you get one from me and a bonus additional review from me crew.  Please note that I write like I talk and the First Mate writes like he thinks.  Hope you enjoy!

From the Captain:

I first heard about this book from the amazing what's nonfiction? blog.  Y'all should read her excellent review.  I thought this would be one the First Mate and I could enjoy together and I was correct.  The shortened title is a bit misleading because while it is about poisons, the actual focus is on how forensic medicine was established in New York City during the Prohibition era.  Absolutely fascinating!

This historical account has quite a mix of features.  There is the chemistry behind poisons and also how chemists learned to establish cause of death using experiments.  It discusses how the coroner system worked before the use of science (craziness!).  There are true crime stories with the sordid details of both how the murders happened and the sensational trials afterwards.  There is insight into how horrible the over-the-counter medicines of the day were.  Prohibition is discussed at length as was manufacturing and the unhealthy working conditions (the radium chapter!).  Political machinations abound.  But the heart of the story is Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, two of the hardest working men I have ever had the pleasure of reading about.  Seriously they are heroes for mankind.

Aye, that list of topics may seem overwhelming but it really is a very accessible book.  The science components are easy to follow.  Toxicology turns out to be endlessly interesting.  Each chapter is loosely dedicated to a different toxin.  A lot of the work Norris and Gettler did to establish forensic guidelines involved trying to determine if a death was from murder or natural causes.

I loved this one and only had two minor quibbles.  The Prohibition sections, while extremely interesting, seemingly advocated that the government was actively poisoning people to cause deaths.  Because of how the book jumps in and out of the discussion of Prohibition (somewhat frustratingly), the facts were a bit misleading.  Aye, the government put more toxic chemicals into the industrial substances bootleggers were reverse engineering to make the hootch.  The industrial alcohol was never meant for human consumption.  This did lead to deaths.  The government was trying to discourage the use of these toxic chemicals as alcohol additives.  Stupid on the part of the government and absolutely evil on the part of the bootleggers.  But drinkers were determined to get alcohol any way they could regardless of known health risks.  The Snopes article about the issue actually quotes Blum's material and clarifies the complexities of the issue.

The other quibble is with the audiobook narrator, Coleen Marlo.  She did a fantastic job except for a pet peeve of mine.  Accents.  She distinguished some of the people by giving them accents when quoting them.  The French, Brooklyn, and other choices just sounded so fake and cliché.  Annoying.  Though the First Mate didn't really have the same problem.

All together a wonderful read where upon finished leads me to want more information about a variety of topics.  I love when that happens.  Arrrrr!

From the First Mate:

A few weeks back I read Jeffrey Toobin’s book on the OJ Simpson trial, “The Run of His Life,” and I commented to the Captain how fascinating it was that so many areas of forensic science were obtuse to the jury in that case.  We’ve lived in a post-”CSI” world for so long that it’s difficult to comprehend a world where DNA and fiber analysis are not understood by most people. The Captain, of course, had a book in mind that showed that there was a time when even the police were skeptical of what uses forensic science could be put to.

The subtitle of this book “Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York” is really more accurate than “The Poisoner’s Handbook” as a title.  While the book does detail a few murderers who are involved in “the poison game,” the real focus of the book is the efforts of Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler to establish the role of forensic science as a vital component of crime investigation in the 1920s and 30s.  Norris is the New York Chief Medical Examiner and he deals with the seemingly endless bureaucratic attacks by various New York City Mayors. Gettler is the head chemist and he figures out all sorts of chemical tests that need to be performed in order to determine what chemicals may have led to a person’s death.  When the men get started they’re vilified by the establishment (Norris is himself arrested for performing an autopsy) and are constantly fighting for funds and respect.

Each chapter of the book is nominally devoted to a single poison but typically it exists simply as a central focus from which to talk about what Norris and Gettler were up to in a particular time frame.  Specifically, we typically get the process by which Gettler figured out how to measure the amount of a particular poison in the human body. Unfortunately, a very reliable aspect of his process involved poisoning dogs and examining the effect various levels of dosing had on the animals.  The radium chapter was particularly harrowing.

A peculiar aspect of the book are the chapters devoted to the poisonous properties of methyl and ethyl alcohol.  I’m certainly not denying that alcohol is a poison, just that it’s not one that is typically thought of when considering the poisons that are used to kill people.  Particularly interesting were the sections on the adulterants that the US government mandated be added to methyl alcohol to make it even more lethal in an effort to further deter people from drinking it.  I have to admit that this book is the first I’ve ever read about the odd chemistries that were involved in the battles between bootleggers and the government. I’ll certainly be keeping my eye out for more.

Ultimately, “The Poisoner’s Handbook” is a fascinating read.  It’s technical enough that you get really do come to understand the broadest outlines of how the poisons work, while also being accessible in giving you heroes you can root for in Norris and Gettler.  They changed the world for the better, and their path to doing so was full of interesting, grotesque, and surprising turns. Highly recommended.