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October 11, 2010 Books of the Week:
Connie Willis is an amazing writer, and one of the high points of the first world science fiction convention I ever attended was hearing her read. Blackout does not disappoint. Willis returns to her time-travelling team in Oxford. Three of its members are set to go to wartime Britain to study various aspects of the Second World War. They depart at separate times to go to separate places. But of course something goes horribly wrong, and they can’t be collected. Blackout ends with them finally connecting with each other, but they haven’t found a way home. The completing book, All Clear, will be out in the middle of October. By the way, if you haven’t read Willis’s Doomsday Book, you’ve missed a tremendous treat. Her first time travel book, it won both the Hugo and the Nebula. My friend Miranda James has written a delightful mystery, Murder Past Due. This book is the very epitome of a conventional mystery. The hero is a widower with two adult children, and he lives in a big house large enough to allow him to have boarders. Since Charlie Harris works in a college library in Athena, Mississippi, it’s only natural that these boarders are college students. Charlie has a Maine coon cat named Diesel, a good nature and a bright mind, and a talent for finding out facts. What else can you want in an amateur sleuth? In Murder Past Due Charlie investigates the death of a arrogant, unpleasant, and very rich novelist who just happened to go to high school with Charlie. Seanan McGuire is a relatively new writer, but she’s gaining momentum in a major way. Seanan just won a major award at WorldCon in Australia, and I’m sure it’s just the first of many. An Artificial Night is a continuance of the adventures of October Daye, half-fae hero and former fish. Start with the first October Daye book, which I reviewed in this column. Many of you are enthusiastic Jeaniene Frost fans, and you know that I am, too. Eternal Kiss of Darkness is my least favorite title of hers, but I did enjoy the book. Kira Graceling, a private detective in Chicago, gets involved with the vampire Mencheres, whom Frost readers will know from the Cat and Bones books. The complications of vampire politics almost swamp this book, but Mencheres is a good character and Kira is much more resilient than the typical damsel captured-by-a-vamp-for-her-own-good. Ray Lilly, expendable ex-criminal who’s taken a new job as sidekick to a member of a magical group (the Twenty Palace Society) is all too eager to leap back into danger when a woman he doesn’t know summons him to a new job. It seems there’s a mysterious auction going on in the North Cascades, and the thing being auctioned off is dangerous to the world. Catherine, the woman who needs Ray to help her, is efficient but not likeable, and she doesn’t care about Ray at all. But Ray needs her. He’s dependent on the purpose and the excitement his involvement brings with it. Game of Cages is another interesting adventure with characters very different from typical urban fantasy fare. I’m looking forward to reading what Harry Connolly writes next. Blog I don’t think I’ll blog this week. Those of you who’ve lost a loved one know how unpredictable each day is. I’ll be back in the blogging saddle soon. Charlaine Harris |
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© 2010 Charlaine Harris |
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