A Royal Pain

Title: A Royal Pain

Author: Rhys Bowen

Series: A Royal Spyness Mystery, book 2

Genre: Mystery

Published: 2008

Recommendation: A fun continuation of Gergie's adventures.

Rating: 7.5/10

Summary: Georgie is still penniless living in London when the queen asks her to host visiting princes of Bavaria whom the queen would like to marry her son to. But between dealing with the princess and her grumpy chaperon several deaths occur and it may be up to Georgie to find out what really happened.

Reactions: When I mentioned in my last review that I'll pick up the next book in the series, I really meant it. Yearning for more adventures of Georgie, I went to Borders, picked up this sequel and finished reading the book same night. As you may guess I found it enjoyable.

The book has a slightly different cast with the princess of Bavaria featuring in many of the adventures. But it's now clear that the queen Mary, Belinda, and Darcy are going to be recurring characters in the series. I am looking forward to seeing where Georgie's relationship with Darcy is going to go.

The mystery itself once again revealed itself to be pretty much as I expected, but with a few details I didn't pick up on. Georgie got quite a bit of detective action this time and was more clearly going out of her way to solve the mystery. Overall it was a slightly simplistic, but fun romp and I definitely recommend this book for those who enjoyed the first one.

Her Royal Spyness

Title: Her Royal Spyness

Author: Rhys Bowen

Series: A Royal Spyness Mystery, book 1

Genre: Mystery

Published: 2007

Recommendation: A funny light read that is almost more adventure than mystery.

Rating: 7.5/10

Summary: Georgie is a great granddaughter of queen Victoria, 34th in line to the throne and completely penniless in 1930s. She escapes her dreary life in Castle Rannoch to go to London and desperately attempts to make some money and fend for herself there. Until a murder occurs in her house and now she has to figure out who the murderer is and clear her family name.

Reactions: I picked up this book completely randomly on my last visit to the bookstore. I think the bright purple cover attracted my attention and the summary on the back looked quite witty, so I bought it. And the novel completely met my expectations: it was fun, witty, character driven, and a quick read.

The main character, Georgie, feels very modern. She is all about doing it herself, getting places and figuring things out. In fact I feel she was too modern, her thoughts seemed more like those of a contemporary woman than a pampered royal 70 years back. I ignored this aspect and found the rest of the story believable (mostly).

It's not a heavy mystery in terms of plot. The final resolution is not obvious, but not completely unexpected and the plot lacked the twists of more "serious" mysteries. Instead Gerogie gets into trouble, digs herself out and then gets into trouble again. It's fun to follow her adventures and the book resolution is fairly satisfying.

I finished the book quickly and had a lot of trouble putting it down while I was reading. I will definitely consider picking up more Georgie novels.

Flashforward

Title: Flashforward

Author: Robert J. Sawyer

Genre: Science fiction

Published: 1999

Rating: 6.5/10

Recommendation: Middling science fiction novel with few interesting ideas.

Summary: Lloyd Simcoe and Theo Procopides schedule their Large Hadron Collider experiment for 5pm sharp. Except instead of producing the Boson particle they expect, they find the whole world displaced 21 years into the future for a little over 2 minutes. Everyone experiences their lives 21 years from today. But how did this happen and what do the visions really mean is left to the interpretation of the world.

Reactions: I thought the premise of this science fiction novel was pretty neat. Being able to see what happened to you in 21 years and then return to deal with what you have seen can open many avenues for discussion. Robert Sawyer picks up one of the more obvious themes: predestination vs free will. Though there are some interesting discussions present, I felt the author didn't go in depth on many of them and didn't contribute anything particularly new to the discussion. His physics explanation for the phenomenon didn't interest me too much and I felt a lot of time was spent discussing various physics particles.

My biggest problem with the book though were the characters. I didn't particularly like the scientists in the novel, though I somewhat warmed up to them by the end of the book. But at least for the first third of Flashforward I struggled to keep my interest because I didn't like the characters too much.

Overall, it was an okay read. I was a little disappointed with the lack of interesting ideas and characters. But I did enjoy some very realistic glimpses of Toronto described in this book.

October Recap

And before I know it, October is all over. I spent last night giving out candy, but still have way too much left over. I don't even know what to do with the rest.

Once again, I finish the month and I'm low on my book count. I only finished the two Diana Gabaldon's novels, but since they were pretty thick can we count them as four? :) No? I didn't think so.

Reading

Books read: 2

1. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
2. A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Favorite book: A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Authors:

Male: 0

Female: 1

Blog

Posts: 2

Now I am off to read some more of Robert Sawyer's Flashforward. Planning to finish the book in the next few days.

A Breath of Snow And Ashes

Title: A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Author: Diana Gabaldon

Series: Outlander, book 6

Genre: Historical fiction

Published: 2005

Rating: 7.5/10

Recommendation: Anyone who got this far in the series will enjoy the book.

Summary: The revolution approaches and Jamie & Claire cannot ignore it any longer. They prepare for the oncoming conflict as well as fight plenty of battles closer to home. And the time at which their death was reported is looming closer and closer.

Reactions: So far this month continues to be all about Diana Gabaldon. I immediately started reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes after The Fiery Cross and I finished it within 10 days. The speed with which I completed the book is entirely representative of what I thought of the plot: it was fast paced, enjoyable, and gripped me until the end.

I cannot say that the book is formed as one big solid plot arch, but rather a number of smaller events. Yet, compared to the previous book in the series, the plot stayed much more on track. We got to see a resolution to a whole lot of conflicts started in earlier books: Stephen Bonnet, the relationship between Roger and Brianna, Malva's apprenticeship with Claire, Mrs. Cameron's gold, and the death notice in the newspaper. I was quite satisfied with the ending and while I will definitely be reading the latest book in the series, An Echo in the Bone, I don't feel the need to start on it immediately.

In some ways this book is educational for me as well. I know only a bare minimum about the American revolution and I feel the book is giving me insight into the period in a much more entertaining way than a history textbook would have. I just hope the facts are not completely inaccurate, but I suspect a lot of research has gone into this book to make it believable even to those who know more about the revolution than I do.

Overall, it was a very pleasing experience to get back to the characters, follow their lives once again, and continue with their adventures. The main characters are the reason I keep coming back to the book and I will be looking forward to their future adventures.

The Fiery Cross

Title: The Fiery Cross

Author: Diana Gabaldon

Series: Outlander, book 5

Genre: Historical romance

Published: 2001

Recommendation: If you got to book 5, no reason to stop now.

Rating: 7/10

Summary: Claire and Jamie continue building a settlement on the Ridge. Bree and Roger are planning to marry. But nothing runs smoothly. The war is coming and early conflicts are beginning already. And Jamie is starting to look around for Captain Bonnet to seek vengeance.

Reactions: I picked up The Fiery Cross to continue with Claire and Jaimie's story and it didn't disappoint. Plenty of adventures, descriptions of life on the Ridge, family intrigues, and so forth. I enjoy Diana Gabaldon's writing and her setting the mood of people living in wilderness, struggling to do various things with primitive tools, and waging war. In particular, it's interesting to follow Claire's progress in growing penicillin on stale bread and practicing medicine in general.

Even though it took me almost a month to read through this 1400 page tome, I stayed drawn into the story throughout. Yet, at the same time, at the end I felt there was no good overarching plot to the novel. I would describe the book as a number of disconnected stories set consecutively.

Still, having finished the book, I feel ready for more of Claire and Jamie adventures. And I think everyone who got to this point would not leave the series now.

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On a related note, I went to listen to Diana Gabaldon talk at a local book store yesterday. She was an engaging speaker and had a very appreciative audience that was 99% female with a mean age of about 55. Diana spoke about becoming a published writer and her writing process. In particular, she described writing various scenes for a book independently and then pulling them together. Somehow that didn't surprise me.

I now have signed copies of A Breath of Snow and Ashes and her recently released An Echo in the Bone. So it seems there will be plenty more Outlander hours in store for me.

Of course I couldn't spend two hours at the bookstore without picking up several other books as well. So a couple of Robert J. Sawyer books join my reading stack since I've been hearing a lot about this Canadian science fiction writer and on a whim I also picked up the next book in Kitty series as well. So now I am well-stocked for my fall reading...

September Recap

Well, the spirit of the new school year didn't stick with me for very long. I did remember how to procrastinate quite well ;) and sat on a book review for almost 3 weeks after book completion. Even now this wrap up post is coming several days late. It's hard to feel bad though after a thoroughly enjoyable camping trip so I won't.

Reading
Books Read: 2

1. Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre
2. Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn
   

Favorite book: Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn

Authors
Male: 0
Female: 2

Blog
Posts: 3

I actually spent most of this month reading The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon which took me weeks to finish since it's over 1400 pages (paperback edition). Review for The Fiery Cross is forthcoming, but meanwhile I am planning to meet Diana Gabaldon since she is going to be passing by on her new book tour.