Ok folks, I'm doing it. Watch this thread for 2019 book reviews. I'll be figuring out the details as I go along, so wish me luck!
1-The Three Musketeers. I always treat myself to something special for my birthday, and this is a long-time favorite. Adventure! Excitement! Romance! Danger! (But it's aching for a countertext from Milady's point of view.)
2-Twenty Years After. Everyone except Athos is discontented with their lives. Fortunately, more adventures await! You may find the various political factions confusing, but it's worth it for some superb set-pieces, including efforts to save King Charles I.
3-The Vicomte of Bragelonne. The friends are once again at odds, this time over a conflict between the King and his Superintendent of Finances. The latter is particularly well-drawn, and one genuinely feels bad for him even as he causes major trouble.
4-Louise de la Valliere. Plots, duels, and romances at court abound. Sadly, I've never found the titular Louise to be believable as a major love interest, but the secondary romances are charming. Also, Aramis is a jerk.
5-The Man in the Iron Mask. The climax of the series, in which things mostly do not end well for our Musketeers. Fouquet is once again the emotional center of the novel, and the big decision he makes is both shocking and believable. (Also, Aramis: still a jerk.)
6-The Mystery of Three Quarters. A Poirot sequel, licensed by the Christie estate. Hannah has Christie's knack for quickly and accurately drawing character, including Poirot himself. The plot, despite a clever kick-off, was not as well-done, but I'll still read the next.
7-Abducted. The first in the Lizzy Gardner series; in many ways a standard "serial killer comes back for the one who got away" story, but elevated by lively secondary characters and Gardner's moral commitments.
8-Dead Weight. Could have been a sharp and witty investigation of how diet culture kills, but never gets past the obvious. If you're the kind of person who can skip books in a series, skip this one.
9-A Dark Mind. The Lizzy Gardner series hits its stride: badass women running a PI agency, juggling multiple cases, dealing with their personal problems, and finding security in community.
10-Obsessed. More of the same, but in a good way. I especially liked how Ragan made the central client (radio host Madeline Blair) quite unlikable, while never ever implying that she deserves what happens to her.
11-Almost Dead. Ties together the themes of the first two books (living with trauma) and the second two (living in community). Don't read blurbs about this one if you don't want spoilers for the series.
12-Evil Never Dies. The final book in the series, and in many ways my favorite. What does it mean to seek justice? What kinds of compromises are acceptable? Both grim and dark, but not grimdark: the characters all want a better world, and begin to build it together.
13-Touch Not The Cat. If you can accept the premise ("my telepathic lover won't reveal his identity, only that we are related") then this is a neat take on the Gothic romantic thriller. Personally I found "which cousin should I date" moderately squicky, but YMMV.
14-Sherlock Holmes and the King's Evil. Thomas has an unfortunate tendency to over-explain, which bogs down these otherwise satisfying Holmes pastiches. If you're going to read one of Thomas's Holmes collections, make it Sherlock Holmes and the Ghosts of Bly.
15-Six Four. A brilliant depiction of internal politics in a Japanese police department, hung on the plot line of a cold case being reopened. Immersive and highly recommended, as long as you understand what you're getting.
16-Rashomon and Other Stories. It was hard to read this collection through anything but the lens of the titular movie, but my favorite story was actually "Yam Gruel," about a samurai who finds that achieving his desires does not make him happy.
17-Freefall. An adequate thriller about a young woman struggling to survive after a plane crash, and her mother's refusal to believe she's dead. The mother is well-characterized, the daughter less so, but you might enjoy this if you like wilderness survival with your thrills.
18-Someone Like Me. A single mother is threatened by her violent ex. Meanwhile, a young woman who survived a brutal assault can talk to ghosts - if what she is seeing is real. (con't)
18-con't. I found Carey's use of ghosts / alternate selves to be both narratively effective (I cared! a lot!) and thought-provoking about how we deal with trauma. Highly recommended, if you can tolerate depictions of domestic abuse. Otherwise, avoid - it's a central theme.
19-The Bone Mother. What I expected: horror-flavored myth retellings. What I got: a linked series of meditations on family, identity, migration, trauma, history, and grief, through the lens of magic. Recommended.
20-The Modern Griselda. Edgeworth was an inspiration to Austen, and here's one of the places where it shows: the book pokes fun both at ideals of wifely obedience and at the capriciousness and vanity expected of "society" wives.
21-Sherlock Holmes in America. Does what it says on the tin. A few stories are excellent, but most try too hard to establish historical authority. You shouldn't need to include Wyatt Earp or Roosevelt to write a great American Sherlock story.
22-Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night. I cried through about half of the book in the best possible way. Nat and Layla may not like each other much, but they both love Meraud, and they have to team up to rescue him when he gets himself into rather major trouble. (con't)
(con't) It's rare to find meaningfully Jewish characters in fantasy; the depiction of found family also deeply moved me, and made me miss mine so much. Best of all, this is a love story that never gets sentimental, but stays true to the "dailiness" and messiness of life.
(con't) In case it isn't obvious: highly recommended.
23-Elidor. Four children pass into a fantasy world, where they must guard the four great treasures of the land. But the book really shines when they come back to their own world, and have to grapple with a return to the everyday.
24-The Loney. A successful Gothic, atmospheric and creepy. On an isolated stretch of coast, a young boy and his family have come to visit a shrine. But who are the odd couple living on an isolated island? And what about the rumors of miraculous healings? CW child abuse.
25-Permission to Parent. Practical, useful tips from a therapist. Despite the title, Berman focuses on helping parents set appropriate boundaries, and on how to support your child with love. Surprisingly helpful for other kinds of relationships, too.
26-The Children's Game. In this thriller, Our Hero must combat a Russian disinformation campaign designed to throw Western democracies into chaos. Not typically the kind of problem you can solve with punching, but hey, it was satisfyingly cathartic to pretend it could be.
27-Coldbrook. A team of researchers opens a gate to a parallel world, with horrifying consequences. CW rape and body horror, among others. (con't)
(con't) One of the major characters gets off way too easy, but I appreciated that much of the story is about the perpetrators of harm doing what they can to make reparations. Once I got past the first two chapters, I couldn't put it down.
28-The Third Victim. A young woman escapes from kidnap and torture, and is able to identify her attacker. But did he really do it, or is something even darker going on? A very good legal thriller, in which the lawyers both investigate and debate ethics.
29-Somewhere in Time. I generally love time travel stories, but stories about a man who is essentially a time-traveling stalker do not age particularly well. Might be fun if read uncritically?
30-The Doll-Master. Somewhat oversold as "tales of terror." Mildly creepy stories with light, if any, supernatural elements.
31-Furious. A woman's husband is murdered and her children kidnapped, which launches her into a quest that uneasily blends rescue and revenge. Unlike many other thrillers of this type, Faith feels responsible to other people's children, not only her own. CW child abuse.
32-Outrage. The second Faith McMann book. As in Ragan's other work, Faith begins to build community as part of her quest. Otherwise, it's more of the same - if you liked the first one, you'll like this one too.
33-Wrath. Final book in the Faith McMann series, in which Faith must confront what her quest has made of her, of her children, and of her found family.
34-The Expert System's Brother. On a dangerous planet, a small community ekes out a fragile existence. But after an accident, a young man is exiled by his twin sister, or rather by the ghost possessing her. He must survive, and she most come to terms with her ghost. (con't)
(con't) Unsurprisingly, the situation is not quite what it seems at first - and the twins end up with a chance to change the world. An interesting take on human ecological niches, AI (as the title suggests) and more.
35-Seventeen. A reporter at a regional Japanese newspaper looks back at the paper's coverage of a major disaster, and what it means for him today. Atmospheric but very slow; I preferred Six Four by the same author.
36-The Maw. A genuinely suspenseful caving thriller, where the seven members of a research expedition are pitted both against one another and against the unforgiving environment. A delicious pairing with Starling's The Luminous Dead.
37-My Sister, the Serial Killer. Pitch-black comedy meets dysfunctional family drama, in a novel about two sisters responding to a legacy of abuse. Does what it says on the tin, but so very much more. Recommended.
38-Retrograde. What would happen to an international group of researchers on Mars, if Earth descended into war? Fairly thin characters, but an interesting political and material situation for them to explore. Evidently the first in a series.
39-Leonora. An epistolary novel about a woman who befriends a hypocritical coquette, and how that noble choice has rather unpleasant consequences. I'm slowly reading my way through all of Edgeworth and this one was especially good.
40-Permafrost. Reynolds brings his signature baroque touch to this time-travel climate-change story. Can researchers in 2080 save the world by meddling with 2020? A great standalone adventure if you aren't familiar with his work.
41-Experimental Film. A spooky novel about a woman investigating an early filmmaker, who begins to see more and more parallels between their lives. But her counterpart disappeared mysteriously ... will she disappear too? Occasionally confusing but worth it.
42-Ararat. A mediocre horror-adventure novel about a team of scientists investigating what might be Noah's Ark at the top of Mount Ararat. Predictable conflicts ensue, though there are some nice moments of claustrophobic horror in the encampment they can't escape.
43-I have this marked in my notes as "exciting secret project," which means I can't write about it. But it was both exciting and secret!
44-Our Kind of Cruelty. A chilling portrayal of how an abusive stalker can think of himself as a good and loving man. What sets it apart from other novels in this genre is the last third of the story, which shows how the legal system enables the situation.
45-In the Vines. Gothic horror about a wealthy young woman uncovering family secrets, undermined by the book switching back and forth between timeframes in a frustrating way.
46-The Old Capital. A delicate, subtle novel about the adopted daughter of a Kyoto kimono designing family. Chieko's growth into her own identity is set against the city's rituals and the aesthetics of the natural world. Melancholy and lovely.
47-House of Doors. An entertaining sci-fi adventure about a group of people trapped inside an alien artifact. If they can pass the test, the human race will be allowed to live - otherwise, it will be destroyed. Some horror trappings, but not particularly horrific.
48-The Maze of Worlds. A sequel to the previous novel, and more or less the same thing over again. If you loved it, read both; if you found the first one mildly amusing, skip this one.
49-Another secret exciting project!
50-The Space Between. An astronomer moonlights as a detective to figure out what happened to her missing husband. While it wasn't predictable, it also didn't manage believable. Skip, unless you especially love the genre.
51-Flatlander. A sci-fi cop with a psychic third arm investigates crimes in Niven's Known Space universe. Fun stories if you like Niven's universe, sci-fi mysteries, or both.
52-Cross Her Heart. A woman with a dark secret must call on the power of friendship to save her daughter. I liked the found-family aspects of the book, but the romantic B-plot was forgettable and the "deep dark secret" fairly telegraphed.
53-Maria in the Moon. Catherine volunteers for a crisis hotline, as a way of avoiding her own trauma. I enjoyed the depictions of the crisis hotline community and Catherine's family, but the trauma plotline was rather meh by comparison.
54-The Fold. A group of scientists has cracked teleportation - or have they? Anomalies are piling up, and a consultant gets called in to figure out what is really going on. The mystery is both page-turningly compelling and a fair puzzle, if you're observant enough. (con't)
(con't) - My main complaint was the character of Mike, who is supposed to be a Sherlockian figure (brilliant! eidetic memory! exceptional pattern-matching!) but who comes off as more of a narrative convenience. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the hell out of this & will read more Cline.
55-14. Okay, so I immediately picked up another Clines. This one's about a team of misfits uncovering the secrets of their very strange apartment building - some of which are very dangerous secrets indeed. The ending is way over the top, but very entertaining nonetheless.
56-House of Cards. The first in the British trilogy that inspired the various TV shows. Exactly what you'd expect: twisty, bitter, brutal, and brilliantly political. Recommended.
57-To Play the King. Second in the trilogy, and much more specifically British: Urquhart versus the King. More of the very enjoyable same.
58-The Final Cut. The last in the trilogy, and my least favorite (though still good!). An aging Urquhart must defend himself against younger opponents, while also contemplating his legacy.
59-Patronage. My favorite Edgeworth so far. The noble Percys and the unctuous Falconers have very different ideas about the good life, and about how it should be achieved. Drama (and quite a bit of comedy) follows. Highly recommended if you like Austen, etc.
60-The Bookshop. A rueful novel about what communities will, and won't, tolerate. Opening a bookshop in a small village is all well and good, but undermining the local gentry is a step too far. I found it almost painfully sad.
61-Valley of Terror. Tries to link myth, psychology, and police work in rural China, but unfortunately doesn't succeed. I wanted it to be more rooted and less worried about where the next thrill was coming from.
62-Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James. James is a master of the Victorian ghost story: tales within tales, ominous ancient writings, and the like. Aside from the famous stories, there are some really wonderful spooky tales here, like "The Mezzotint." (con't)
(con't) - The second half of the volume gets a bit repetitive, as James certainly has themes he loves to harp on. Unless you're a completionist like me, get a good edited collection - and make sure it includes "The Mezzotint"!
63-The Keeper. Shades of Stephen King: the social conflicts in a small Maine town come bubbling to the surface in supernatural form when the town beauty-turned-pariah dies. The plot never quite coheres, but some very good set-pieces and nice writing.
64-The Missing. Same small-town Maine setting, new supernatural horror. I found it quite a bit tighter and more gripping than her first effort, but no happy ending in this one. Be prepared.
65-Autumn in Oxford. A man is suspected of murdering his lover's husband. To save him, a young lawyer must unravel a complicated spy story and catch the real killer. A compelling blend of mystery and espionage, with historical grace notes.
66-The Luminous Dead. A woman lies about her past to get a caving job - and discovers she isn't the only one with secrets. Gritty sci-fi with body horror, claustrophobia, and some really screwed up relationships. (con't)
(con't) - Keeping the tight focus on a single character in a dangerous situation, without either exhausting or boring the reader, is really hard, and Starling does it masterfully. I loved it; highly recommended.
67-Where the Forest Meets the Stars. I liked the prickly, wounded main character, and loved her commitment to science. She deserved to be in a novel with a better premise than "magical child helps her find love."
68-Bios. A woman is cloned and bioengineered to survive on a toxic planet. But she's just a pawn politically - and the planet is far more dangerous than anyone has yet realized. Great premise; Wilson didn't quite stick the landing, but still worth a read.
69-The Wine-Dark Sea. Aickman specializes in eerie stories that slowly, claustrophobically build a sense of dread. Unsettling, surreal, and highly recommended, though you can really start with any of his collections and do well.
70-Last Man Standing. A surprisingly psychological thriller about the last survivor of an ambushed Hostage Rescue Team, his quest to figure out what happened to his friends, and the reasons why it all happened.
71-The Hollow Man. A locked-room mystery from the master of the genre. Famous for Dr. Fell's "locked room lecture," an explanation of all the ways the effect can be achieved, but for story I preferred The Judas Window.
72-As Long As We Both Shall Live. Trying really hard to be Gone Girl.
73-Perihelion Summer. Although the proximate cause is a near miss with a black hole, the novel is a chilling picture of life for climate refugees. Grim but recommended.
74-Avenger. I keep forgetting that I've read this book, which is weird as I enjoy it every time. The titular avenger hunts down a war criminal and returns him for justice; the final set-piece, in which the war criminal is extracted from his hideout, is superb.
75-Bee, Princess of the Dwarfs. A charming fairy story about Bee and George, who are separated by the Dwarfs and must undergo various trials to find one another again.
76-The Devil and the Deep. One of the best anthologies I read this year; it's all maritime-themed horror. I might be an easy mark because I'm scared of deep water, but I thought the collection did an admirable job of avoiding cliche and being humane, while also terrifying me.
77-The Ladies of Mandrigyn. I love Hambly's work! This series follows mercenary Sun Wolf and his second-in-command Starhawk. He's smart and ruthless, she's cold as ice, and I ship it so hard. (con't)
(con't) - In this novel, they have to (very reluctantly) fight an evil sorcerer. Sun Wolf ends up training and leading a force of civilians, which changes his life; Starhawk goes on a spiritual quest to find herself. Highly recommended.
78-The Witches of Wenshar. Sun Wolf and Starhawk must unravel a complex political situation, save a princess from being married against her will, and fight dark magic - all while figuring out how to have a relationship.
79-The Dark Hand of Magic. The most morally complex of the series. Sun Wolf's old mercenary troop asks him for help against a wizard who has cursed them - but Sun Wolf finds he's a different man. Meanwhile Starhawk is tempted by a life she thought she left behind long ago.
80-The Violet Hour. Bridgeport auto mechanic Cal finds himself in way over his head when he agrees to help a pregnant woman flee her abusive partner. A cut above most thrillers because Judson does such a good job with Cal's milieu.
81-False Hearts. A formerly conjoined twin must unpack the secrets of her abusive childhood to save her sister from a murder charge. Unfortunately the sci-fi setting, the mystery, and the extensive flashbacks never quite gel.
82-The Listener. In 1934, a young black man and a rich white child are connected by a secret telepathic bond. When the girl is targeted for kidnap, he is the only one who can save her - but will white society let him? (con't)
(con't) - I'm torn about whether to recommend this. On the one hand, it plays into some tropes about magical, wise black people. On the other hand, the black man is clearly the hero and racism is clearly what lets white people get away with murder. So, ymmv.
83-Rogue Moon. Reads like a bad pop-psych novel, but with an alien artifact on the moon as the McGuffin. I know it's supposed to be a classic, but I was left quite flat.
84-The Great Impersonation. A German spy sets out to impersonate an English gentleman in the tense years before WWI. While the writing is somewhat dated, Oppenheim creates a genuinely puzzling mystery and a final twist I didn't see coming.
85-Calendar of Crime. An Ellery Queen collection of "fair play" mystery stories, where you are given enough information to figure out the ending. I mostly didn't, but they're fun either way.
86-Special Deliverance. A group of humans from assorted universes, plus a robot, must navigate a strange puzzle-world. Lumley's House of Doors has a similar premise but executes quite a bit better; read that instead.
87-Tutt and Mr. Tutt. An early stab toward "legal thriller" short stories, but the dated language and odd pacing outweighed the pleasures available here.
88-A Shadow on the Wall. A classic ghost story about an ambitious rector who seeks to restore his church - and releases something terrible from a tomb beneath. For fans of M. R. James; for a more modern take, read The Loney instead.
89-The So Blue Marble. A creepy thriller about a young woman who is jerked back and forth between the terrifying (threats to her life) and the domestic (managing her two difficult sisters). Recommended.
90-The Bamboo Blonde. A less-successful sequel to the So Blue Marble. The same main character gets caught up in espionage and murder on her honeymoon, but without her New York life to contrast against, it feels thin and flat. Stick to the first one only.
91-The Power-House. An MP must stop a gang of anarchists from taking over London. Fine, but nowhere near as good as the Richard Hannay novels; read those instead.
92-The Whole Art of Detection. Very, very good Holmes pastiche stories. There are fun hidden references for big fans, but Faye never needs to beat you over the head with her knowledge of the characters or the era.
93-Time Was. Tom and Ben fall in love at a WWII experimental installation, and end up tossed across time, trying to find one another again by leaving letters in books. Very romantic if occasionally over-obscure.
94-The Corporation Wars: Dissidence. When a robot gains sentience and begins freeing her comrades, the corporation that owns her reincarnates a group of human warriors to shut her down. First in a very, very good trilogy.
95-The Corporation Wars: Insurgence. The situation gets even more complicated as multiple corporations vie for power - and for control of an Earth-like planet that promises a future for robots and reincarnates alike.
96-The Corporation Wars: Emergence. I won't spoil you, but you do get some very good answers in this third volume as to what's been going on and why. Secret conspiracies! AI renegades! Virtual realities! If you like space opera, definitely read the whole thing.
97-MEM. An art-deco alternate history in which memories can be extracted from people into human form, reliving the moment that they contain over and over again. One Mem is able to create her own memories, and must figure out what makes her different if she hopes to survive.
98-Close Reach. A somewhat implausible but entirely gripping sailing thriller. While on an Antarctic cruise, the main character's husband is kidnapped by pirates. Her efforts to rescue him land her in even deeper trouble.
99-Colours in the Steel. This fantasy trilogy is heartbreaking and epic as hell. Parker is concerned with how easy it is to destroy, and how hard to create or preserve. Unlike many grimdark authors, they're entirely on the side of preservation. (con't)
(con't) - But narratively, what they're interested in is the process of breakdown and decay, and in particular the effects of empire. In this case, the apparently invulnerable city of Perimadeia is brought low by old crimes coming home to roost. (con't)
(con't) - Bardas Loredan is a fencer-at-law. Essentially, he's a duelist who settles legal cases with his sword. That means he's killed a lot of men - and the story starts with him killing one that will have terrible consequences.
100-The Belly of the Bow. Follows the refugees from Perimadeia, and introduces Bardas's family. He's not the only exceptionally talented family member, and every one of them is terrifying.
101-The Proof House. The destructive impact of Bardas's family history is finally revealed; a new empire seeks to take advantage of the power gap created by Perimadeia's fall. Once again, a great series - but be prepared for only a few characters to find happy endings.
102-In Spite of Thunder. Did film star Eve Eden kill her first fiancee? Her now-husband thinks he may be in danger in this very good locked-room mystery.
103-The Blind Barber. Carr does locked-room-mystery as comedy, surprisingly successfully. There are mistaken identities and comic chases and ridiculous plans, and also theft and murder. Definitely in my top five Carr novels.
104-Black Milk. A Bradbury-esque idyllic small-town childhood meets gene tailoring, global pandemics, and self-replicating robots. Five kids' friendship is tested by what may be the end of their world. Superb.
105-Alien Child. A girl is raised by an alien, slowly realizing that she may be the last human on Earth. Sargent keeps her age-appropriate and believable, and never falls into sentimentality or easy answers about the girl's situation.
106-Twilight Zone. Edited by Carol Serling, this collection marks the fiftieth anniversary of the show. The stories vary in quality, but they do feel "Twilight-Zoney" based on my limited experience of the show.
107-A Choice of Gods. A few humans, and their robot companions, are left on Earth when all the other humans disappear. I found the angsty robots a bit annoying. Ditto the stereotypes about indigenous people (though these were also subverted effectively.)
108-The Miner. Soseki follows a young man who runs away from home and ends up working in (you guessed it) a mine. Carefully observed and beautifully written; I see why people call it "cold" but I thought it effectively portrayed alienation.
109-The Raft. Society collapses when everyone loses their memory. The premise is clever but the execution is nothing I haven't seen before - same old authoritarian impulses, except this time on a beach. Read only if you love the genre.
110-A Simple Favor. I haven't seen the movie, but the book is a nicely twisty story about a woman who ends up in trouble when she agrees to watch her friend's child. I wanted the mommy blogger bits to be sharper and funnier, though.
111-The Devil You Know. A philosopher offers to sell his soul to the devil ... and the devil is pretty sure there's a trick involved. He's right, of course; getting there is a fun ride.
112-The Swimming Pool. Rinehart is often compared to Agatha Christie. It's a fair comparison, though I find Rinehart more acerbic and better at portraying human dysfunction (usually enjoyably so). This mystery features a formerly wealthy family falling apart. Recommended.
113-Boston Blackie. I was hoping for Raffles-style "gentleman thief" adventure. Sadly, Blackie spends more time wrestling his conscience than having any fun.
114-The City and the Stars. I found myself very out of charity with this book. "Special young man repairs society, which is clearly broken because it's feminized, with his individualistic genius" is not only insulting, it's boring too.
115-The Oldest Confession. Apparently a caper novel about art theft, but slowly descends into tragedy. Conlon has a beautiful ironic way with narration and an eye for self-destructive impulses.
116-Red Moon. Discursive, digressive, and sometimes unfocused, but also a really brilliant social analysis-cum-adventure novel. (In other words, Les Mis in space.) If you're a fast reader, I suggest you try it; otherwise, you'll get hopelessly bogged down.
117-A romantic coming-of-age comedy about a girl who refuses to adopt the class conventions expected of her. Cute and funny, but I've now read Sharp novels I preferred; this one veers mildly zany.
118-The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository. A poor entry in the "what if literary characters came to life" genre. Joe McShlub becomes the Guardian of the Pages, etc. etc. Not really worth your time.
119-Pig Island. Horror-mystery about a journalist committed to uncovering the truth about a cult on a lonely island. For maximum pleasure, read this with Wilder Things, but if you're only going to read one, read the Powers.
120-Stormy Petrel. A young woman's vacation is interrupted by two very different men seeking refuge from a storm, and both claiming to have good reasons to be there. A bit more "domestic" than her other romantic thrillers, but with some very lovely nature writing.
121-Ravenwood's Lady. If proud Lady Cicely must marry Viscount Ravenwood, then she will - but he can never have her heart. (Spoilers: he gets her heart.) Good at what it does, without ever pissing me off - which is actually a pretty good trick.
122-Lady Brittany's Choice. A sparkling romp about Cicely's younger sister, and definitely the better of the two novels. Lady Brittany falls for her fiance's best friend. Charming nonsense and happy endings ensue.
123-The Enemy Stars. Four men from very different backgrounds are trapped on a space station together. Can they survive long enough to get home? Excellent premise, but the execution was only adequate. I often felt the characters' boredom more viscerally than I wanted.
124-My Cousin Rachel. All the creepy intensity of Rebecca, with an unreliable narrator and plenty of ambiguity to go around. Is the titular Rachel a murderess or a victim? Is the narrator in love or deeply entitled? Read to find out!
125-The Crime of Julian Wells. When a famous true-crime writer kills himself, his best friend vows to find out why. An unflinching look at violence, complicity, witness, and betrayal, going back to their time in Argentina during the Dirty War.
126-The Emperor's Snuff-box. Relies on a convenient coma to be tense, but overall a very good, fair locked-room mystery. If you pay careful attention, you'll catch a character making a telling error!
127-The Tattoo Murder Case. A vintage mystery set in the (at the time) illegal tattoo subculture of postwar Japan. Some body horror as well as murder; overall, very good.
128-If, Then. Starts out with a portrait of suburbia, ends with natural disaster and alternate realities, and you're never quite sure when it made the slip from the former to the latter. Highly recommended.
129-Dead Lines. Cell phones have awakened ghosts; not as silly as it sounds (especially compared to King's Cell), but works better as a portrait of grief than as a ghost-hunting horror story.
130-Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. I mostly don't review the non-fiction I read, since most of my non-fiction reading veers into work territory. But I was surprised and delighted at this tender, intimate, honest memoir of Gottlieb's journey to become a therapist. (con't)
(con't) - I hate-read her book about dating, and I was expecting this to be similar. (Yes, I do occasionally fall prey to the hate-read!) But perhaps unsurprisingly given the topic, she seems much healthier and more self-aware than in anything else of hers I've read.
131-Cut and Run. Medical examiner Faith finds out she's a twin the hard way - when a woman who looks like her is brutally assaulted. An adequate thriller, with the twin thing as a nice twist.
132-The Bridesmaid. Rendell finds grotesquerie in the inevitability of daily life better than anyone else I've ever read. Still, this story of a secret relationship isn't one of her better efforts.
133-A limp ending disappoints in this Victorian story-within-a-story. The setup (a crash landing in the desert, a strange woman telling her story) is entertaining but when you realize what is going on, it's rather disappointing. Plus, orientalism.
134-Smaller and Smaller Circles. Two priests in Manila attempt to solve a series of murders of young boys, while dealing with corruption and ineptitude all around them. A vivid evocation of the place and period.
135-The Informer. Another Takagi mystery, this one wrapped in the story of a man who is hired for a job that is just a bit too good to be true. Subtle, transporting, and emotionally rather than viscerally horrifying.
136-Honeymoon to Nowhere. The most classically constructed of the Takagi novels I've read. A groom disappears on his wedding night, leaving behind a confused and grieving bride. We follow her, as well as the inspector solving the case, who have a history of their own.
137-Adrenaline. The first Sam Capra thriller. Sam's a CIA agent whose pregnant wife is kidnapped; because of the circumstances, he's assumed to be a traitor when his office is bombed. Can he clear himself and save his wife?
137.5-"Sam Capra's Last Chance." Fills in the gap between the first and second of the series, but really only needed for completionists like me.
138-The Last Minute. Sam Capra book two. His infant son is still in danger, and so is the child of the woman he teams up with - first to buy their children back, then to take them. Don't read if child endangerment is a problem for you.
139-Downfall. Sam Capra book three. He's now managing bars all over the world (authorial fantasy, anyone?) as the face of a shadowy organization. When a woman walks into his bar who needs help, mayhem ensues.
140-Inside Man. Sam Capra book four. He ends up on the inside of an inheritance conflict between the three very different children of a powerful business tycoon. The end of the book jumps the shark quite impressively.
141-The First Order. Sam Capra book five (and last for now). I appreciate that the author wants to do world-building beyond just "Sam punches things, saves the day," but the shark was jumped in the last book and remains quite thoroughly jumped.
142-Stealing Worlds. Oh holy shit this book was good! I was dubious after reading the blurb, but Schroeder has something genuinely new to say about work, mixed reality, ecological crisis, and even blockchain. If you like your sci-fi with a heavy dose of ideas, read this now.
143-Courting Shadows. A young architect seeks to restore a church, but the work reveals deep flaws both in the architecture and in his soul. Quite a good modern take on the Victorian horror novel.
144-Below. I appreciated that this "killer squid" thriller had a lot of science in it, but it couldn't seem to make up its mind whether it was a scientific adventure with some thrillery bits, or an over-the-top implausible thriller. I'd have preferred the former.
145-The Cellar. Absolutely brutal in every sense. A family who keeps a slave in their basement gets their come-uppance. Do not read if you are easily squicked, particularly by bad things happening to children, but I found the main character very compelling.
146-The Chinese Orange Mystery. Ellery Queen must solve a mystery so bizarre that it appears utterly meaningless - but when the key fact is revealed, even the strangest aspects of the crime fall into place. One of the better entries in the series.
147-The Lone Wolf. First in the Lone Wolf series, about an ex-jewel-thief who becomes a detective. This one follows his journey out of crime. I'm sorry to say that I was rooting for him to fall back into it for most of the book.
148-The False Faces. The Lone Wolf goes to war, and must use his skills to save his country. Much better than the first book in the series.
149-Red Masquerade. Now this is what I wanted from the Lone Wolf series: a beautiful Russian princess! Her diabolical ex-husband! Art theft! Forgery! Blackmail! Revenge!
150-Alias the Lone Wolf. The Lone Wolf is retired and taking a vacation in the South of France, when he runs into trouble that only he can solve. Not my favorite of the series, but solid.
151-The Shut Eye. An excellent mystery about a woman searching for her missing son. Bauer has Rendell's eye for the complex interconnections of daily life, but her work is substantially less bleak. I'll be reading more of her, for sure.
152-Our Lady of Darkness. A classic fantasy-horror story set in San Francisco. A writer sees someone waving at him from a hilltop miles away - and when he goes to check it out, they're waving back from his apartment. Genuinely creepy.
153-The Labyrinth Gate. Portal fantasy from the superb Kate Elliott. Unusually for the genre, a newlywed couple is sent to the magical world together, and they're both competent adults who take good care of each other even in situations that seem impossible.
154-Mark Twain's Medieval Romance and Other Classic Mystery Stories. I'd read many of these in other contexts, but a bunch were new. I thought the anthologizing went a bit too heavy on "ambiguous ending" stories at the expense of other pleasures, but still rather good.
155-Nightwork. A man who has given up on life finds a hundred thousand dollars - and a corpse - in a hotel corridor. Taking the money thrusts him into a new life, and into danger.
156-House of Suns. Not one of Reynolds' best, but still a thrilling sci-fi adventure about "shatterlings," entire families of clones who get together every hundred thousand years to share their adventures. When a reunion is attacked, the survivors must find out why!
157-Delirious. A competent thriller about a man whose life starts going haywire for no apparent reason - until he realizes that his old wrongs may be coming home to roost. There's a much more interesting book here about confronting the past, but that's not the one Palmer wrote.
158-Afterlife. A very odd hybrid of a book. On the one hand, you've got your standard FBI-manhunt story; on the other hand, half the book takes place in the afterlife. I'm not sure I exactly liked it, but it's ambitious enough that I'll check out Sakey's other work.
159-The Goda War. Two very different military leaders are after the Godas - planet-size, war-winning weapons from an alien culture. Who will get them first, and what will it cost their society?
160-Bedelia. A superb domestic thriller. Bedelia seems to be the perfect wife - so why is she so afraid of the young painter who has moved into the neighborhood? Read with the gender roles when Caspary was writing in mind; the book is also a powerful argument for freedom.
161-The Cloud of Unknowing. When David's nephew dies, was it because of his family's history of mental illness? Or was that history used to cover up a terrible crime? Beautifully structured, impressively written.
162-Greybeard. Aldiss's take on the "no new children are being born" story. Personally I preferred Children of Men.
163-Hide and Seek. A sequel-of-sorts to Cut and Run, following the FBI agent who spends most of that book in the hospital. She and an ex-lover hunt a stalker and find their happily ever after.
164-A Case of Conscience. A Jesuit discovers an alien race with a perfect sense of morality, but none of God. Oh, and they happen to live on a huge pile of natural resources. It's a great premise, but the execution is spotty. My preferred take on Jesuits and aliens: The Sparrow.
165-The Seven Secrets. A classic British mystery. A doctor calls in his private investigator friend when his fiancee comes under suspicion of murder - and refuses to explain her odd behavior. If you like your Golden Age mysteries with lots of melodrama, you'll like this.
166-Trophy. A group of elite businessmen hunt human prey. Can just two investigators, working apparently unrelated cases, take them down? Reasonably good, but I felt it could have been sharper on the social commentary - it stuck to the easy stuff.
167-Forty Thieves. Married PIs go up against a pair of married assassins in this chase-and-counterchase thriller. A bit heavy-handed about what the contrasting "good" and "bad" relationships look like, but entertaining.
168-The Institute. Kids are being kidnapped and taken to a secret institute, where they are slowly drained of their psychic powers. A nice take on the genre, with believable portrayals of kids and no easy answers. One of King's better recent efforts.
169-The Leavenworth Case. An early American detective novel that heavily inspired Agatha Christie. Christie's better on the human portrayals in her books, but if you like her plots then add Green to your list.
170-Bretherton: Khaki or Field Grey? A WWI mystery/espionage novel, in which most of the book leads up to the puzzling murder scene the characters first encounter. Relies a bit too heavily on characters repeatedly losing their memory for my taste.
171-The Gabriel Hounds. Christy and her cousin Charles decide to visit their eccentric great-aunt while traveling in Lebanon, and end up stumbling into a mystery. Beautiful nature writing and great atmosphere in the castle of Dar Ibrahim, plus drama! Romance! Adventure!
172-Wilder Girls. A girls' school on a deserted Maine island is now under quarantine, as the girls slowly succumb to a strange body-changing disease. Why has no one come to help them? And what lurks in the woods? Effectively creepy and deeply concerned with girls' lives.
173-And Chaos Died. I know this is supposed to be a classic, but a) the queer character gets "cured" as a plot point and b) the shattered point of view feels scattered instead of artful. Give it a skip.
174-Every Fifteen Minutes. A psychiatrist becomes the target of a sociopath. Underwhelming.
175-Involution Ocean. A sci-fi take on Moby Dick; I haven't yet read the original, but now I really want to.
176-The Devil and Her Son. A young woman gets into deep, deep trouble when she agrees to take the place of a new friend. The "devil" of the book is gloriously horrible, but I found the main character to be frustratingly foolish and passive.
177-The Cabin at the End of the World. Would you, personally, murder someone in order to save the world? And just how sure would you have to be? When four strangers show up at a family's remote cabin, claiming that the world will end, the family must make that choice. (con't)
(con't) - The characters are finely drawn and believable, even when they're doing stupid things. Be prepared for a frustratingly ambiguous ending, though I find that the ambiguity makes me think of it often. Do not read if you are easily squicked, especially by harm to kids.
178-The Diamond Master. There's a blackmail plot involving flooding the market with diamonds, and a combine of diamond brokers hoping to stop it. Sadly, disappointing compared to his Thinking Machine stories.
179-The Earl's Dilemma. Hilarious, heartfelt, and charming romance. When the eponymous Earl needs a wife, he settles on his best friend's sister - but she insists that she'll find him someone better, all while they are falling in love. I bought more Larkin immediately.
180-The Yellow Room. A charred corpse is found in the linen closet of a family's summer home. Carol, the daughter of the house, must investigate while dealing with her elderly mother, the father of her dead fiance, and the gossip of village life.
181-Trouble Follows Me. A young soldier in WWII meets the woman of his dreams - and gets caught up in espionage and murder. I'm generally a fan of Macdonald's work, and I had fun seeing him work in this genre.
182-The Shadow Hunter. A group of time-travel researchers bring a Neanderthal boy forward into their own time. Beautifully evokes his mind, and his liminal space on the edge of modernity but not of it.
183-The Black Angel. A young wife must prove her husband's innocence after his mistress is brutally murdered - but loses her own in the process.
184-Death-Watch. A man is murdered with, apparently, no one nearby. How was it done, and whodunnit? One of Carr's better stories, but I'd start with The Judas Window (for cleverness) or The Blind Barber (for comedy).
185-Rose Cottage. One of Stewart's gentler, warmer mysteries rather than a full-on thriller. A young widow returns to her former home looking for family papers, but they are gone. Who took them, and why? And what else might she rediscover by coming home?
186-The Burglar. A young woman makes a living as a burglar. When she accidentally steals critical evidence in a criminal case, she must solve it herself or risk her career. A clever premise and I loved the burglary bits, but the main mystery was unpersuasive.
187-The Great God Pan. A horror-fantasy novel about a woman who is coerced to see the supernatural world, and the terrible consequences thereof.
188-Six Scary Stories. Stephen King picked six great horror shorts; I won't try to summarize, but I found all six refreshingly different from each other and from King's own style.
189-The Fellowship of the Talisman. Despite the title, not a Tolkien rip-off - though there is a quest, of a young noble trying to bring a manuscript to Oxford for authentication. Fine, but not Simak's best work.
190-Fearful Symmetries. A very good horror anthology, edited by the inimitable Datlow. If I had a critique, it's that many of the stories seemed to want to set up larger narrative worlds to play in - but admittedly I did want more!
191-The Bat. There's a spunky old lady detective, a burglar who they call "the Bat," an embezzlement to solve, and zany antics aplenty. I didn't know this was part of a series, but I'll be reading all the others too!
192-The Man of Dangerous Secrets. A young heiress's fiances keep dying in accidents, and a handsome detective discovers they aren't accidents at all. Can he save her from a terrible plot? Melodramatic, romantic, delightful.
193-The Egyptian Cross Mystery. A schoolmaster in a remote town is found beheaded, and Ellery Queen takes the case. A meandering subplot about a local cult never quite satisfies.
194-Across a Billion Years. Silverberg doing space archaeology. I preferred the archaeological-bickering bits to the high space adventure second half.
195-Randomize. In this near-future setting, new gambling games require state-of-the-art encryption. But one woman has a clever plan to beat the house.
196-Emergency Skin. A nameless soldier slowly realizes that everything they have been told is a lie, as they return to a climate-ravaged Earth to extract its resources. I want more from Jemisin in this setting!
197-The Last Conversation. The main character wakes up, having lost her memory. Fortunately someone is there to help her remember. Unfortunately, they may not have her best interests at heart ....
198-Ambiguity Machines. Warm, humane, elegant and highly original science fiction stories. My main complaint is that I'd already read the best pieces in this collection in other anthologies; the new-to-me parts were the weakest.
199-The Immaculate Void. Links violence and abuse on Earth to ineffable cosmic horror. I was surprised by how very well-done it was, but consider yourself warned for body horror, child abuse, and more. Personally I couldn't put it down.
200-And on the Eighth Day. Ellery Queen investigates a murder in a remote religious cult. The cult's strict rules let Queen set up a clever situation, and I was impressed that the author wasn't just contemptuous of the practitioners.
201-The Priory of the Orange Tree. A superb standalone fantasy about a lady-in-waiting who is not what she seems to be, a dragonrider-in-training, and the dangers that face both their societies. Highly recommended.
202-Fata Morgana. A Parisian detective investigates a series of crimes connected to a mysterious toy-maker. Rich and dazzling, until a very disappointing ending. I'm sure it's supposed to work with the theme of illusion, but to me it just felt like a copout.
203-Death Spins the Platter. A locked-room mystery at a radio station, featuring the murder of a famous DJ. A clever setup, but I didn't care for either Queen's characterizations or his detective approach.
204-Gunpowder Moon. A murder on the moon has geopolitical implications. Each incident, involving death or otherwise, brings the US and China closer to global conflict - unless a group of scientists can uncover the real truth. Recommended.
205-Replay. A man travels back two months in time and has a chance to prevent his own murder. I should have adored this as it's full of things I like (time travel!) but I found the main character tedious and his investigation quite bone-headed.
206-Sefira and Other Betrayals. Gloriously, gruesomely creepy horror stories around the theme of, you guessed it, betrayal. Langan writes about horrifying things with just enough restraint to make you fill in the details, and feel it all for yourself. Recommended.
207-Out of the Silent Planet. I periodically re-read this as I love Lewis's descriptions of Mars, and it's not quite as cloyingly evangelical as the others in the trilogy.
208-Perelandra. Beautiful imagery and powerful myth-making, with some very nice Gan Eden retelling work. Sadly the handling of gender stuff squicks me, not to mention the proselytizing.
209-That Hideous Strength. I don't like this book much, but I had to complete the trilogy. Bringing things back to our world shows off just how heavy-handed Lewis makes the story.
210-The Dark Tunnel. Ross Macdonald's first novel; it's technically a spy piece, but you can see a lot of his later noir work in it too. A young professor and his German girlfriend are reunited after the war - but what has happened to her, and who is she working for?
211-Shining City. A very good mystery-thriller about a pair of PIs hired to vet a potential Supreme Court justice. They have to navigate the political landscape while trying to find the truth about his past. I'll be reading more by this author.
212-A Fine and Private Place. A nine-fingered mobster is murdered under the sign of nine - nine blows, nine words in the note taunting the detectives, etc. Gimmicky, yes, but Queen actually incorporates it into the plot.
213-The Black-Eyed Stranger. A crooked journalist tries to save a socialite from kidnapping - by kidnapping her himself. In his defense, it isn't an entirely foolish idea given the circumstances, but the whole book has that melodramatic quality.
214-Once Upon a Time Travel. A deeply disappointing time travel romance. A recent college grad goes back in time to make snarky comments (which are not as funny as the author thinks) and date a hot dude. If you find a good book along these themes, let me know.
215-Broken Stars. Ken Liu collecting and translating excellent recent science fiction from China. There are enough different styles represented here that you'll almost certainly find some new books to devour.
216-A Head Full of Ghosts. Tremblay doing an "is she or isn't she" possession story, with the conceit of a reality TV show as the framing device. My least favorite of the Tremblay I've read, but for what it is, it's well-done.
217-Dis Mem Ber: And Other Stories. Short stories of Oates doing Oates. If you like her stories of cycles of violence, you'll like these; if you don't, you won't.
218-The Sisters of the Winter Wood. A pair of Jewish sisters must fend for themselves when their parents leave town. They must navigate cruel faeries, a brewing pogrom, and the magical heritage of their family. An incredible take on Goblin Market, among other things. Recommended.
219-The Will and the Deed. An opera diva dies, leaving a shocking twist in her will. When her closest friends and family are marooned in a tiny Alpine village, it even leads to murder .....
220-My Lady Thief. Arabella may be an earl's granddaughter, but she was raised in the gutters, and her past haunts her. Can she find love with the man who once jilted her for her past? Bonus: sexy thief antics.
221-The Wimsey Papers. A short volume of in-character letters, published early in WWII. For fans of the series (I'm a huge one), it's wonderful to spend time with old friends. For others, skip it.
222-Sea of Rust. After humanity is destroyed by robots, freebots must still run and hide from the massive AI entities that want their memories. I liked the world-building, but didn't buy the Big Final Conflict as world-changing; maybe there'll be a sequel.
223-In the Fog. A Victorian-style "club" story, where each character has a different story to tell that link together in surprising ways - including to the framing story.
224-Mortal Memory. A young boy returns home to discover a family murder. While the eventual solution to what happened is very clever, too much of the book is spent on something that feels indistinguishable from "entitled psychopathic dude - why did he do it?" Not Cook's best.
225-Here All Along. A superb introduction to Judaism, or a useful overview for people who are already familiar, with lots of interesting perspectives. The chapter on theology alone is worth the cover price. Highly recommended.
226-In the Dark. Eight guests are invited to a remote mountain lodge, but they start being picked off one by one. (The parallel to the Christie novel is explicitly made in the book.) Which of them is responsible, and will they be found while any survive?
227-The Semper Sonnet. A really terrible thriller about a newly discovered Shakespeare sonnet. I liked that the clues were all hidden in the sonnet itself, but everything else was either implausible, frustrating, silly, or all three.
228-The Assize of the Dying. Two very good crime novellas; the first is a very clever setup (an innocent man curses the men responsible for framing him), while the second succeeds entirely on the character portrayals.
229-Blue Moon. I love the Jack Reacher books because they're well-constructed, well-written, and it's wonderful to watch Reacher being thoroughly competent. In this case, Reacher takes up the cause of an elderly couple and ends up fighting organized crime.
230-Seven Keys to Baldpate. Somewhere between thriller and romantic farce, as people keep showing up at a deserted mountain resort to chase the same pile of money. Amusing.
231-Wolves of the Calla. I don't typically pick up series in the middle, but I really wanted to re-read the last Dark Tower book and this was the best place to pick up the story. The series has its flaws, but overall it's an incredible feat of myth-making. (con't)
(con't)-In this volume, Roland the gunslinger and his ka-tet must defend a small farming village from outsiders who seek to steal their children. There's deliberate shades of the Magnificent Seven, plus a creepy robot and great small-town flavor. (con't)
(con't)-While I can't recommend starting the series here, it's one of the best-crafted installments. The town's problems are effectively portrayed, while the story still connects out to the larger tale and the characters get effective development. Highly recommended.
232-Song of Susannah. Some wonderfully dramatic sequences, but structurally one of the messier installments in the series. The party has been split up and you're following them in semi-parallel, while King maneuvers them to where he wants them for the last book.
233-The Dark Tower. While there's still a little get-everyone-where-they-belong shuffling, overall this book is very good. It probably could have been split into two books, as the first half (hunting down those who are attacking the Beam) feels different from the second. (con't)
(con't)-But each bit is very good at what it does (heroic battle against the odds, dogged quest through disaster), and the ending is deeply satisfying - to me it's the only possible way this series could have ended. Despite its flaws, I highly recommend the series.
234-The Unique Hamlet. A passable Holmes pastiche, with a potentially ground-breaking Shakespearean discovery at its heart. Probably not worth reading unless you're out of other Holmes material.
235-Sherlock Holmes and the Mayfair Murders. Another disappointing attempt. The author doesn't understand how to portray Holmes, and the attempts to create drama with the police refusing Holmes' help are not very successful.
236-The Hallowed Ones. An Amish community is one of the few spared among an epidemic of vampires. Decent YA, with the main character's longing for her Rumspringa convincingly conveyed. I'll probably read the sequel.
237-The Jupiter Theft. Strange aliens move into orbit around Jupiter and begin assembling mysterious machinery. The story focuses on the astronauts who are able to be nearby, and on the implications back on Earth. I'll read more Moffitt, since this one was quite good.
238-Trent's Last Case. A sendup of detective fiction, in which the amateur detective falls in love with a suspect and gets a number of important things about the case wrong. Entertaining.
239-Sweet Days of Discipline. A woman looks back on her boarding school days, and on her complicated relationship with a fellow student.
240-The Judas Cat. When the local recluse dies, apparently frightened to death by his cat, the town decides to accept it as an accident - except for a trio of determined detectives, who fight corruption and small-mindedness to get to the truth. (con't)
(con't)-I liked the investigators (two journalists and a cop), and the tensions within the town were nicely portrayed. Unfortunately I thought there was a bit too much going on - the book would have done better with a bit more room for each plotline to breathe.
241-The Nutmeg Tree. A sparkling romantic comedy about a free-spirited woman who gets into endless trouble, not least when she reunites with her prim-and-proper daughter. Charming and highly recommended.
242-The Three Beths. A daughter searches for his mother, and discovers two other missing women with the same name. Somewhat gimmicky; not Abbott's best work.
243-My Dearest Holmes. An important work in the history of Holmes/Watson slash. Their forbidden love is used to make sense of inconsistencies in some of the existing stories, and the resolution of their relationship is woven into the plot. Recommended.
244-Our Children's Children. Humans from the far future flee back into the mid twentieth century, hoping to escape a terrible alien invasion. But the world is not prepared for a billion refugees, and the aliens may be coming after them. (con't)
(con't)-I would have liked this book better if the premise weren't so exceptional - the execution was perfectly fine, but I wanted better, both in terms of high adventure and political maneuvering.
245-Rogue's Holiday. While officially on vacation, a young inspector encounters a mysterious woman who seems to need his help badly, but who keeps refusing it. Can he help her, even without his department's resources? Entertaining and melodramatic.
246-To Wake the Dead. One of Carr's better locked-room mysteries - it's clever without being over-intricate, and never gets ponderous. A young man trying to win a bet ends up discovering a murder - and finding it hits closer to home than he ever expected. Recommended.
247-Father of Lies. A novel about how institutions and individuals both conspire to let abusers prosper. Major warnings for child abuse and complicity. Some light supernatural elements, but mostly the horror here is people.
248-Elusive Isabel. A handsome diplomat must repeatedly foil the schemes of a beautiful young spy. Hijinks ensue. Second only to the Thinking Machine stories, among what I've read so far.
249-Hothouse. A far-future climate change story, in which jungles have taken over Earth and humans are nearly extinct. Worth reading for the inventive world-building even if the plot gets somewhat wonky.
250-Every Day is Mother's Day. Mantel's early work. A black comedy about family and the edge of the supernatural. In this one, a widowed spiritualist believes she is being haunted; she might be, or it might just be her daughter's machinations.
251-Revenger. Feminist body horror pirate space opera! Two sisters go to space to make their fortune, and become the victim of a notorious pirate. The survivor swears to rescue her sister, and sets a black and bloody course to do so. Highly recommended.
252-Shadow Captain. The sequel to Revenger, told from the point of view of the other sister. She's been rescued, but at what cost? And now that they're free, where will they go? Lots of thrilling set-pieces and a situation where the characters are genuinely stuck. Highly rec'd!
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