Ahoy there mateys! This be an abandon ship! I really loved the author's Semiosis Duology so I was excited to get a copy of this. Sadly, this one didn't float me boat at all. The writing was very stilted and the characters felt unnatural too. It be a shame when the premise felt so great. I am going to consider this one a miss but I would give the author's work another shot given how much I liked their previous books. Arrr!

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

The third book by this author, this be an excellent, fun, and intense read.  It follows Ryland Grace who wakes up in a craft with a fantastic case of amnesia and then has to save the world.  I almost want to get amnesia about this book so I can go back on the journey all over again.  Is that enough to get ye interested?  Because this book be so full of twists, fun reveals, and just plain awesome.

Scared that the science involved be too much for ye?  Fear not, much like the martian, the science is explained in an understandable way for the non-sciency person.  The only small flaw be some of the coincidence and unbelievability but the thrills be worth it.  I highly recommend.

So lastly . . .

Thank you Ballantine Books!

Ahoy there me mateys! I received this fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .

This is me sixth work by the author but not me last. This is set in the author’s early 1900s alternate Cairo where magic has returned to the world and Egypt is a major world power. First there was a short 40 page story about Agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi, then a longer novella about Senior Agent Hamed al-Nasr, and now this full-length novel set in the same world. Fatma stars but previous characters make appearances too.

A murder investigation drives the plot. The dead include a rich Englishman and his secret society dedicated to al-Jahiz. I have to admit that I knew early on who the murderer was but not how it all went down. Finding out was lots of fun.

I continued to love Agent Fatma. She rocks. I also really enjoyed the addition of new agent Hadia. The djinn, in all their variations, continue to be the highlight for me. I love the steampunk feel of Cairo and the lovely twisting of the historical elements. The world building rocks and I loved more insight into the city and its denizens.

The flaw of this novel was that the plot is quite scattered and Fatma doesn’t exhibit the brilliant intellect I expected of her. In addition there were just too many elements and I felt that most of them didn’t get the attention they were warranted. That said, I had fun with this and could read many more stories set in this world in whatever format the author chooses to write them in and starring lots of different folk. Arrr!

Side note: I found out there is another short story set in this world. I must track it down!

Ahoy there me mateys! I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings on book six . . .

I LOVE MURDERBOT!!!  I will read every new Murderbot book to come.  I will continue to reread this series over and over again.  This newest installment is no exception.  Murderbot helps solve a crime on Station.  Of course Sanctuary Moon is going to play a part.  Of course Murderbot is snarky.  Of course this book be grand.  Of course the entire crew should acquire a copy of this treasure.  Of course that be all the plot ye'll get from me.  Get it.  Read it.  If ye haven't yet met Murderbot what be ye waiting for?

Seriously ye layabouts, there are at least three good reasons to read this series:

1, I said so;
2, One of me favourite authors, Ann Leckie, talked about it in one of her blog posts.  She states, “This is volume 1 of the Murderbot Diaries, and I suspect a certain percentage of my readers don’t need to hear anything more. Go, purchase, download! You will enjoy this.”
3. Book one won the Hugo Award for Best Novella (2018), the Nebula Award for Best Novella (2017), and the Locus Award for Best Novella (2018).

ARRRRR!!!!!!!

Ahoy there me mateys!  As a reader, I am endlessly exhilarated when I learn new words and I also love seeing how language changes over time.  Back in the day, I read the professor and the madman which dealt with the making of the OED.  I adored it.  However it never occurred to me to ask if there were women that played a significant part in the OED.  Then Matey Kate posted a introduction to this book that listed this blurb:

"Summary: In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it."

She also posted a link to Matey Lisa's lovely review and I was hooked.  This is a historical fiction detailing the role of some of the women working on the OED.  The story is told through the eyes and life of Esme, a fictional character, whose father is one of the men tasked at defining the English words.

I absolutely loved this book.  For me it was the play on language and the insight into what the daily life of putting the OED could look like given that it took over 70 years to complete.  I had never thought about the rejected words and definitions or how male attitudes could have infringed on how it was put together.  I never thought about the prolonged length of production time had an effect on how words were chosen over time.  It was also interesting to get a different perspective on how events like WWI and women's suffrage impacted the OED.

As for Esme's story, I enjoyed the first half of the book best.  That was the section dealing with how the OED was put together and dealt with the men working there.  The second second was focused more on Esme's relationships and the voting rights issues and war.  It was well written, I just personally wasn't enthralled with the direction Esme's life took and how the focus shifted off of the OED.

That said, this book was a super quick and fun read and I recommend it to word lovers and historical fiction lovers alike.  Arrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank ye kindly Ballantine Books!

Side note: Did ye know that J. R. R. Tolkien was employed by the OED in 1919 and 1920?  He researched etymologies in the Waggle to Warlock sections.  Arrr!

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

I have really enjoyed Daryl Gregory's work in the past and tordotcom novellas are great so I was excited to get a copy of this.  I did not know the premise before reading this, but having been a fan of a boy band back in me young (stupider) days, I found this to be a hoot.

This story follows the aftermath of an end-of-tour party of WyldBoyZ whose teenage band members are animal-human hybrids.  Their manager is murdered and Detectives Luce has to solve the case.  But the fan base is rabid, the party was out of control, and the suspect list super long.  It doesn't help when the fans, I mean suspects, are dressed in full animal costumes!

Aye, the premise be silly but don't let that fool ye.  This is so wonderfully put together.  There are puns, lovely chapter titles, and the quirkiness that I love about the author's writing.  There is also subtle jabs at the ideas of personhood, fame, and greed.  The murder mystery's resolution was entertaining but the boy band shined.  I highly recommend this one.  I will continue to read Gregory's backlist and whatever he puts out next.  Arrrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank you tordotcom!

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this historical fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

The cover drew me in, I have heard good things about the author, and I have always been intrigued by the story of Jeanne d'Arc.  This was a quick read with a fun premise but ultimately rather forgettable with some substantial differences of the "history" that really irked me.

This version tells the story of Jeanne d'Arc from of the perspective of her believing that the divine inspiration wasn't angels but rather evil beings and that she had no choice but to eventually succumb to their demands.  Cool.  

Not so cool is how the author chose to make it a bad romance.  She didn't explain why the evil beings wanted Charles on the throne, added in a Moorish husband for Jeanne, and gave it a happily ever after.  What?  Umm burned at the stake?  Jeanne also has no agency or spunk and is rather boring.  Men run her life.  Rape is a subplot as an excuse to get her to leave her village.  The demons threaten with no real logic or skill.

With all that fascinating history and myth to draw from, the author somehow manages to make a Jeanne D'Arc story where not much happens and where the events that do are rather nonsensical.  She doesn't even use the traditional timelines or bare bones of the historical record.  This novel fails on both a historical history front and the fantasy front.  So it must walk the plank!  Arrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank you Quercus Books!

Ahoy there me mateys!  I loved the author's naturalist memoir h is for hawk and was gratified to get a copy of this new offering from the publisher.  I started reading it and realized that I missed listening to the author read her own work.  So I got an audiobook copy and felt that was the best way for me to experience these stories.

Unlike her previous book, this is not one larger narrative but rather a series of essays and snippets on various topics.  I listened to this in short bursts and this was both the highlight and the weakness.  I would have loved many of the topics to be explored in more depth but also found the majority of the subjects fascinating.

The favorite was the titular story which concerned swifts.  I knew nothing about them and was spellbound reading about them and then proceeded to share facts about the birds with every person I came across that day.  Other awesome topics included search for life near volcanoes, ostrich farming, and the market for finches.  Birds are a central theme to this work.

What makes this collection so wonderful is not just the animal facts but how the author muses on nature, philosophy, history, climate change, politics, etc.  It is not heavy handed, even when I don't agree with the viewpoint, but it is thought-provoking.  Macdonald views the world in ways I don't and that makes this book so worth reading.  Arrrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank ye kindly Grove Press!

It is time to abandon ship me mateys!

Another book I just couldn’t bring meself to finish. This is a young adult dystopian novel. The book has a interesting premise of young teens and children fighting against the establishment so that they can have basic rights like a less dangerous workplace, food, and better salaries. Basically the children are trying to start their own union. It’s a world reminiscent of the factory settings of the turn of the century where bad things like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire occurred. Except instead of making clothes, the children are making weapons of war. Oh and there are interesting diseases because of genetically modified corn. That was cool.

The world building was fun and the I liked two of the main characters. Basically this story is told from the perspective of three different children. Ty (a girl) and Colin (a boy) are best friends who work in the factories. Lena is the daughter of the rich dude who runs that area of the country.

Ty was tenacious and feisty and fierce. I loved her. Colin was overall a decent character. I didn’t adore him by himself but his relationship with Ty was lovely. Lena was basically a fluffy headed naive moron. She meets Colin. Insta-love kinda happens and then the book derails.

The major problem was that I just become bored. I felt that the story was too slow and got too involved in the romantic ideas between Lena and Colin. The beginning of the story and set up was fine. But the plot was agonizingly slow. I stopped reading at 52.1% and the major movement of forming the union hadn’t really begun.

Overall the politics of forming the children’s union just seemed too simple and the relationship between Lena and Colin seemed to have taken center stage, So I gave up.

It is a shame that an interesting premise and some great characters could not save this book for me.

This review was originally featured on me blog at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/

Ahoy there mateys!  The First Mate and I have very different reading tastes.  However I love reading reviews of books I don't necessarily want to read meself.  Here be one such review by the First Mate for a nonfiction book about the making of a tv show which was received from NetGalley for honest musings  . . .

From the First Mate:

Full disclosure: prior to reading Moonlighting: An Oral History, I had never watched a single second of Moonlighting.  Though vaguely aware of it having been a popular television show from my youth, it was mostly fixed in my mind as the antecedent of the "Moonlighting curse" often mentioned in snarky articles about the downfalls of “will-they-won’t-they” driven entertainments.  During the period of Moonlighting's height I was more into cozy mystery series like Murder, She Wrote and action/adventure series like MacGyver and Airwolf.  Just wasn’t in my wheelhouse at the time.

So, why read a book about a show I’ve never watched?  One, after reading and loving Cary Elwes’ incomparably awesome As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, I’ve found a love for the background stories of how television and film are made.  And two, I was a huge fan of the cancelled-too-soon Now and Again, which was created by Moonlighting’s showrunner, Glenn Gordon Caron.  It wasn’t until after I read this book that I became aware of the recent controversy around Caron, the show Bull, and actor Eliza Dushku.  Had I known I might have passed.

Regardless, Moonlighting: An Oral History turns out to be a truly fascinating glimpse in the creative chaos that resulted in a show that many cite as one of the peaks of 80s television.  Writer Ryan Scott sets the stage for us, explaining what television was like at the time and where the major players were at that point in their careers.  Being an oral history, the vast majority of the book is told directly through the words of the people who were involved.  The show runner, producers, writers, editors, assistants, directors, stars and guest stars.  The only major person missing is Bruce Willis, which doesn’t quite come across as the glaring omission that one would expect.

In the book’s introduction, Scott lays out his thesis for the book. His perspective is that the traditional narrative about the show (that the audience abandoned the show after the sexual tension was resolved in season 3) is incorrect and that many other factors contributed to the show’s decline in season 4.  The result of this thesis is that the book is kind of structured in two parts.  The first part details the good times of how the show was created, the rise in popularity, and how happy everyone was with the work that was being created (even if the work was incredibly stressful).  The second part then details how it all fell apart, points fingers at where responsibility lay, and carries us through the aftermath of the final season.

Overall it makes for a very entertaining read.  Reading about groundbreaking television as told by the people who made it was pretty cool.  All involved were still enthusiastic about what they viewed as quality work they’d done.  Reading the kinda gossipy finger pointing about what went wrong was a bit less interesting, though.  Ultimately, most of the credit for the show’s quality is heaped at the feet of Glenn Gordon Caron and Bruce Willis, while most of the criticism lands on Cybil Shepherd.  At the very end of the book there is also some suggestion that widespread use of cocaine may have played a factor, too.

The oral history format comes with positives and negatives.  On the plus side, it certainly seems like everyone gets their chance to have their say about the various topics covered.  Individuals get criticized and then get to respond to said criticism.  We also get to experience multiple voices and perspectives on some of the pivotal moments of the show.  On the negative side, memories are fickle things and often the details don’t agree between the stories.  For example, everyone present at Bruce Willis’ audition agrees he got up onto a piece of furniture but they disagree on what piece (a table or filing cabinet) and when (at the beginning, or punctuating a moment at the end) and what he was wearing (camo or khakis).  Or whether Orson Welles showed up in a limo or a friend’s old beat-up car.  These inconsistencies just tend to jump out in the format.

As said, the only thing really missing from the book is Bruce Willis being interviewed.  But everyone is effusive in their praise of him being a professional that consistently elevated the material he was given.  Not really sure how much his perspective would’ve added.  Nice to have, but the amount of people interviewed here does seem to give a pretty good picture of what was going on while the show was being made. Did Scott succeed in proving his thesis? I think so.  From what we’re told by virtually everyone involved, season 4 and 5 of Moonlighting were a practically different show from the first 3 seasons.  It’s kind of hard to believe a show could be radically changed and not lose some of its audience.  That said, I was not watching at the time, so I can only go by what I’ve read and what is available online today.

Intrigued by the descriptions of this groundbreaking television, I went online to watch some of what I had just read about.  I really quite liked the seven minute Sandahl Bergman/Bruce Willis dance sequence from “Big Man on Mulberry Street.”  The “Atomic Shakespeare” appealed a bit less.  And I have to admit that I was unable to finish the pilot, despite it featuring one of my favorites, Brian Thompson, as a villain. Moonlighting the show may not have been for me, but I found this book fascinating.

Recommended to fans of Moonlighting who want the inside story and anyone else who likes reading about the behind the scenes goings on of television.  Avoid if gossipy finger pointing isn’t your thing, or if you don’t like knowing the dirty details of how entertainment is made.

Side Note from The Captain: While I enjoyed reading this review, I certainly never plan on reading the book or watching the show.  Though I stole a peek at the dance dream sequence and very much enjoyed that.  Arrrr!