Lucas Blogs About Books

  Hey! It's this book again! So, what's this boo—oh it's another of Ursula K. LeGuin's Hainish novels ! That it is. This one is called City of Illusions . Okay, but what's its deal? All right, so this one takes place on Earth, or Terra (I have to admit that I'm irrationally annoyed when science fiction novels treat "Terra" as a more universal alternative to "Earth," but that has nothing to do with this book).  A young woman named Parth comes across a naked amnesiac with cat-like yellow eyes (like so amnesiac that he doesn't even remember how to talk). Over time, the amnesiac, Falk, learns the customs of Parth's people, including learning the new strain of Taoism that has been passed down through the centuries. Eventually, Falk decides that he needs to learn where he comes from, so he sets off for the mysterious city of Es Toch where the Shing rule the Earth with lies and illusions. Who are the Shing? No one rightly knows except that...

Yes, I did buy the sequel in hardcover instead of waiting a few months for the paperback version. Don't judge me. So, what's this book's de—wait, is this the sequel to the book you blogged about last week ? It is. This is Harrow the Ninth  by Tamsyn Muir. I'll try to avoid TEH SPOILARZ  for this book, but anything from Gideon the Ninth  is fair game. Okay. Anyway, so remember how in the last book, Harrowhark and Gideon are at Canaan House to figure out how exactly a necromancer can become a Lyctor? And by Lyctor you mean one of the saints of the God-Emperor the Necrolord Prime? I do. It turns out that the secret is to kill your cavalier and absorb their soul. But before we get into that, let's say a little bit about the ending of the first book. So, instead of anyone solving the mystery, the killer reveals herself to be Cytherea the First, one of the Emperor's original Lyctors. See she's not so keen on serving the Emperor any more and has decided to kill all...

"The most fun you'll ever have with a skeleton" is a pretty bold claim, especially once you realize that you do everything with a skeleton.   So, what's this book's deal? It's about lesbian necromancers . . . IN  SPAAAAAAAAAAACE! I see. Well, that's the elevator pitch version anyway. Gideon the Ninth  by Tamsyn Muir, is a sci-fi/fantasy novel about Gideon Nav. Who is Gideon Nav? A hard-headed, acid-tongued teenager who wants nothing more than to escape her childhood home of the Ninth House and join the Imperial Cohort. Oh no, this is gonna be one of those blogs where you have to preface the synopsis with a massive paragraph of exposition, isn't it? I'll try and make it quick. Ten thousand years ago the solar system of the nine houses (which is almost definitely our solar system) died, and the Emperor (who is revered as a god-king) revived it with necromancy. Subsequently, necromancy is a pretty big deal, and each house (headquartered on a different...

Yeah, that's right, I've been sick this past week. Should I get tested? No, my covid test came back negative. Also, since we only share cyber-space instead of meat-space, you're probably fine. Well, I hope you feel better. Wait, you're not going to give me crap about something so obviously absurd as a blogger taking a sick day? You've only done it once before, you've got good sick day credibility. Oh, so I do. Back next week.

Well, that's eye-catching.   So, what's this book's deal? Well, Hypothetical Reader, Magic for Liars  is a fantasy novel by Sarah Gailey. It's about Ivy Gamble, a private eye, who finds herself in the employee of Osthorne Academy when a member of the faculty is found bisected in the library. Bisected? You mean like split into two parts? Yep! Right down the middle. What kind of school is this? It's a magic prep school. Is Ivy a magic detective? No. But her twin sister, Tabitha, is on the faculty. So when Headmaster Torres still has lingering doubts about the official investigation, she hires Ivy to poke around and see if she can find any leads. Anyway, Ivy and Tabitha fell out years ago after finding out that Tabitha could do magic and she went away to a school like Osthorne. While Ivy interviews faculty and students she also finds herself flirting with Rahul Chaudhary, the physical magic teacher, while maybe, kinda-sorta letting him think that she knows how to do ma...

It's that not hard being green. So, you actually stopped playing Hades  long enough to write a blog post, eh? Yes, Hypothetical Reader, I was able to exert a modicum of self-control and sit down to write about this lousy book. Poisoning the well, aren't we? Maybe a bit, but we've got another inductee into the " books-that-I-didn't-finish " club. I struggled mightily to complete this book and gave up two-thirds of the way through. Dude! You were in the home stretch! I know, but each time I put the book down it got harder and harder to find the motivation to pick it back up. According to my book-mark, I even stopped in the middle of a chapter. Anyway, I just realized that I haven't even mentioned the title or author yet. You're slipping. Sure you wouldn't rather talk about Hades ? Well, that's certainly done a better job of holding my attention of late, but no. I'll blog about Brightfall by Jaime Lee Moyer. So, what's its deal? Well, it...

  Hmm, it's sort of book-shaped. Lucas, did you play video games all weekend instead of getting anything ready to post today? Maybe, why do you ask? You seem to have deployed the inOpportune cOntent rePlacement proceSs . Oh, yeah, see I picked up Hades on Friday and I've been spending a lot of free time trying to escape from the Underworld. Sorry. I guess the Dionysian impulse won out over the Apollonian. You're the worst, Lucas. ‾\_(ツ)_/‾.

I So what's this book's deal? Oh, this is The Obelisk Gate , it's the second entry in N.K. Jemison's Broken Earth trilogy. Wait, did you blog about the first book  without me? I did. And you expect me to be able to keep up? I mean, I can write you however I like. Maybe you read the first book but haven't read the second and I don't need to fill you in. Well, maybe you could just give me a quick recap of the story so far. Okay. So on this continent called the Stillness there are people called orogenes who can control seismic activity. They are feared and oppressed. An annoying feature of life on the Stillness are Fifth Seasons which are seismic catastrophes leading to conditions not unlike nuclear winter. The main character is Essun, an orogene who tried to escape and live a normal life until her husband, Jija, learned the truth, murdered their son, Uche, and ran off with their daughter, Nassun. All of this happens against the backdrop of a Fifth Season that is p...

Mammoths and rabbits and hoopoes! Oh My!   So, what's this book's deal? Well, the deal with The Empress of Salt and Fortune  is that it's a fantasy novella by Nghi Vo. It's set in Anh, an empire that is not unlike imperial China. Well, that covers a pretty lengthy history. Could you be more speicific? Well, I'm not familiar enough with Chinese history to say if it's an exact parallel with any particular period. So let's just talk a little about the story. You're the blogger. That I am. So, we start with Cleric Chih and their talking neixin (also known as a hoopoe ), Almost Brilliant, on the way to the first Dragon Court of the Empress of Wheat and Flood. However, on the way is Thriving Fortune, the home in exile of In-yo, the Empress of Salt and Fortune (the new Empress's predecessor), in the days before she orchestrated the coup that put her on the throne of Anh. And like any good cleric of the Singing Hills monastery, Chih can't pass up the opp...

This book has everything! Pocket watches, spiders, pistols, that thing where you keep a reanimated mouse skeleton as a pet. So, what's this book's de—Oh, it's a sequel to that book you blogged about last May. You mean Unnatural Magic ? Well, kinda. Whaddya mean kinda? How can something "kinda" be a sequel? Well, it is by the same writer, C.M. Waggoner, and it does take place in the same world, and one of the characters is the daughter of Jeckran and Tsira from Unnatural Magic . You're doing a very bad job of convincing me that this isn't a sequel. I can see that now, yes. It's just that the story doesn't really have anything much to do with the story of Unnatural Magic . Both stories are entirely self-contained. You don't need to have read Unnatural Magic to make sense of  The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry .   Gotcha. But that title's a bit of a mouthful. It is. Anyway, let's jump in. The story starts with Dellaria Wells — usua...

So, what's this book's deal? Well, the deal with Apocalyptigirl: An Aria for the End Times  is that it's the project Andrew MacLean worked on before he wrote and drew Head Lopper . As one might guess from the title, it's a post-apocalyptic sci-fi adventure comic. That does sound like a thing you would enjoy, Lucas. I did enjoy it, so let's talk about it. The protagonist, Aria— Wait, the word "Aria" in the title is a pun? Yep! Anyway, Aria is a young woman who's been sent to Earth27 to recover the Grand Photon, an energy source — and potential weapon — which was used to bring about the cataclysm which lead to the collapse of society. The thing is that Aria's mission was supposed to last a few months but it's already been several years. She's not completely alone, she's got her cat Jelly Beans, and the broken down mech she's been trying to repair, which she's named Gus, but neither of them is much of a conversationalist. Nor are...

That's right, it's that thing I hate where the qualitative is quantified for no discernible purpose. But it is also kinda fun. So here are the rules: this is based solely on my own enjoyment of the extant Canterbury Tales; the General Prologue and Here Taketh the Makere of This Book His Leve are excluded, only portions of the text marked as tales will be considered; prologues count as part of their tale; in the event that I deem two tales to be equally enjoyable there will be a tie;  I'll try and come up with a pithy summation of each tale; and of course, we start with the worst: 24) The Prioress's Tale : Basically Blood Libel.  This one is just straight-up anti-semitic garbage. It has no redeeming value. It serves no purpose beyond defaming Jews and feeding a Christian persecution complex in spite of the fact that it was written in a country whose Christian king had expelled all Jews more than a century before it was written. It's trash. 23) The Parson's Tale :...

Well, I never need to reuse this picture again.   The Intro That's right, we've finally arrived in Canterbury, readers (Hypothetical or otherwise), this is the final installment of Whan That Month , a mere three months behind schedule. This month I'll be reading the longest of the tales (by about twenty pages) and something that's not a tale at all, so let's jump into— The Parson's Prologue Chaucer reckons that it's about four in the afternoon when the Manciple finishes his tale , and Harry Bailly triumphantly proclaims that they lack only one tale (the math definitely doesn't check out there, especially since The Manciple's Prologue is about the lack of a tale from the Cook). So he turns to the Parson who, having listened to the other pilgrim's tales on the road to Canterbury without comment replies, "Y'all need Jesus." And rather than a tale proceeds to deliver— The Parson's Tale Which, as it turns out, is a lengthy guide to p...

Hey, Hypothetical Reader! I'm taking my first V! A! C! A! T-I-ON!  in the summer sun since the pandemic started, so I'm gonna take Connie Francis's advice and put away the books and play it cool. You know that song is about summer vacation from school, right? Well, I didn't know before I started listening to the whole song, but I do know that now. But I'll be too busy doing the mashed potato to a juke box tune and park my car 'neath an august moon to think about that. It's "August moon" like the month! Whatevs, there's no real posts until 28th for the final installment of Whan That Month ! Until then stay safe, get vaccinated, and keep in touch with your loved ones!

Remember Cowboys and Aliens ? No? Me neither.   So, what's this book's deal? I thought you'd never ask, Hypothetical Reader. The deal with Lake of Fire  is that it's a comic book written, colored, and lettered by Nathan Fairbairn and drawn by Matt Smith. The pithy synopsis is that it's crusaders vs. aliens. Perhaps a less pithy synopsis is in order. Yeah, okay, have you heard of the Albigensian Crusade ? You mean the twenty year campaign of extermination against the Cathars in the Languedoc region of France in the early 13th Century? Yes, that Albigensian Crusade. Lake of Fire  takes place in 1220, about halfway through. After a couple of pages showing a spaceship crashing, we cut to Theo and Hugh, two teenage boys who have set off to join the crusade before the campaigning season is over. However, when they arrive they discover that a family friend, Count Henry, has been dispatched to bring them home and has overtaken them on the road. Sensing an opportunity to get...

That's right, this photo's still goin' strong. The Intro Last month  time sort of got away from me and I only covered the Second Nun's Tale (a translation of the life of Saint Cecilia), which makes up the first half of the eight fragment. So let's see how Chaucer follows that up in–  The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue Shortly after the Second Nun finishes telling the life of Saint Cecile, and just as the pilgrims are nearly at Boughton-under-Blee (about five miles away from Canterbury), the party is overtaken by a chanoun (that is to say a member of the order of Augustinian canons, who can be distinguished by their white surplices and black habits) and his yeman (yeoman). It turns out that they've been riding hard because they wanted to join the company and Harry Bailly is more than happy to accommodate them, if they can add to the merriment by telling a tale or two. The Canon's Yeoman is more than happy to volunteer information about his master, who as i...