I’ve been reading lots more of those books!
Pirate Enlightenment – David Graeber
RIP to David Graeber, who died in 2020 just before the release of his incredible collaboration with David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything, possibly my favourite ever book. Pirate Enlightenment feels very much like a chapter cut from that book – and make no mistake, it was nice to have more of anything, but its something of an extended digression and the evidence base is fairly weak even in the context of the miracles Dawn of Everything managed to produce from weak evidence.
The Time of Contempt – Andrzej Sapkowski
If Blood of Elves didn’t have a climax, this one is ‘Ooops – all climax’. I very much enjoyed Geralt’s Penn and Teller-esque lawyer friends in this one, and otherwise it’s all about the bloody farce at the mages’ gathering that takes up the entire middle of the book.
Baptism of Fire – Andrzej Sapkowski
Sapkowski has officially lost control of how to structure a novel at this point, and worse still his main characters are bogged down in an interminable trek through featureless swamps and forests. Eventually, with a chapter to go, Sapkowski snaps and teleports everyone into a more interesting setting, but all pretence that this is not one long shaggy dog story that started with Blood of Elves is gone.
HMS Surprise – Patrick O’Brien
O’Brien swings for the car park here, with lavish (and only slightly racist) depictions of Company-era India as a backdrop to Maturin’s pursuit of the hateful Diana Villiers.
The Mauritius Command – Patrick O’Brien
This one feels like a nice gentle comedown after the chaos of Surprise. Aubrey and Maturin doing normal things together, playing to their strengths, often funny, often thrilling. O’Brien repeats the trick of having a French commander who we never see or meet but who regardless dominates Aubrey’s monologues. It’s a good trick!
Welcome to Dorley Hall – Alyson Greaves
A black comedy experiment in how insane a setting and plot can be before the audience fails to have their hearts warmed by a plucky, struggling protagonist and a secondary cast with hearts of gold; playing on the same pitch as Dear Evan Hansen, somehow.
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
Somehow I had never read this excellent monk-bothering murder mystery. Wasn’t expecting Baskerville (yes) to be quite so much of a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, but I greatly appreciated it. The book that made me look up the most Wikipedia articles about various heresies since Books of Jacob.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant – Seth Dickinson
This was apparently expanded from a short story and it feels it, with the different acts swinging wildly in pace from breakneck to painfully slow. None of that really matters though because Baru is a delight to hang out with, the archetypical “going to change the system from the inside” who is just a little bit too thrilled to be good at her job.