I have eyesight problems. Apart from needing reading glasses this doesn’t usually cause me any angst or bother. However, I find it almost impossible to read text that is not in strong contrast to its background. Over the last few months I have lost patience with grey on white, dark brown on very deep cream, and, worst of all, white on yellow or pale blue. Yesterday I gave up with some white on light green. At best, it’s a strain, and at worst, it makes the thing unreadable. The header pic shows an example, currently in my fridge.
Sometimes I can just play with the text, bolding it, enlarging it, or altering the colour. That works most of the time online. Sadly, it isn’t an option in the kitchen, where I found myself trying to read cooking times in the aforementioned white on yellow on a packet. Even a strong magnifying glass didn’t help.
Why do manufacturers and website designers do it? Sometimes, I suppose, it might look pretty, though I’d have thought the benefits of the consumer or potential consumer being able to read the text would outweigh merely decorative issues.
I can only suppose that ‘they’ are all people with perfect vision, and that their families and significant others (and colleagues) share their good fortune. Or perhaps they use spectacles but have never found contrast to be a problem.
A friend’s blog turned up in grey on green. I asked her about it and she said it was the site’s choice and she hadn’t been able to change it… Fortunately, she gives virtually the same information on FB and in her newsletter.
I know I’m not alone. I know it isn’t by any means just age that brings with it difficulties dealing with coloured text. We (the sufferers) are not among the blind or almost blind, for whom different leaflets, programs, etc. have to be designed. We simply need glasses and clear reading material. Is it really too much to ask for?
Memories by Ruby Moone**** Well written historical thriller with a lot of excitement. A hussar returning from Waterloo finds himself declared dead and his inheritance sold. But his memories are also missing after severe injury.
One Trick Pony by Eli Easton**** I love this author’s work and at first I thought this was just another sweet romance (I prefer her paranormal books) but it ended up quite exciting with a kidnap and rescue.
The Beauty Within by HL Day **** A historical twist on Beauty and the Beast and The Frog Prince. I found myself suspending disbelief and reading avidly.
Painting with Fire by Lissa Kasey**** A lovely story involving abuse survival, doll painting, and fire fighting. Slightly marred by some careless proof reading e.g. at times it was clear the story had initially been written in first person and then changed.
His Shield by Sue Brown**** The writer ratchets up the tension to an almost unbearable degree and yet when the attacks come they arrive with a sense of shock. I loved all the three dimensional minor characters and will definitely read the sequel.
Moon’s Place by Blake Allwood**** Novella that is lifted from the ‘just a sweet romance’ level by the three dimensionality of the minor characters and the place itself. Obviously a shorter work can’t contain the same amount of excitement and mystery as, for example, the Big Bend series, but the story is well told and satisfying. I now want to visit the orange grove and the shop. Short stories and novellas definitely need exceptional writing to raise them to the four star level!
Life in the Land by Rebecca Cohen.**** Short, quirky romance with unusual magic. A family has hereditary abilities to interact magically with plants. Another beautifully written story.
Crime:
Still Life by Val McDermid**** Good thriller, well written as usual, but I guessed both crime scenarios before the detectives got there.
Readable but not special:
A Soldier’s Wish by N R Walker*** So over-sweet it made my teeth ache.
Cowboys don’t come out by Tara Lain*** Very pleasant and well written romance but in the end that’s all it was.
Pickup Men by LC Chase*** Another pleasant and well written cowboy romance with well developed characters but there’s no added element of mystery or drama.
Careful What You Wish For by Helena Stone*** Identical twins, one dead and one alive…
Fated Hearts by Garrett Leigh*** The story was adequately gripping but although I like shifters, war stories don’t really appeal to me and that’s what this was. Also, although it was set in UK the details of the locations were sadly hazy. The war, I should add, was a shifter one, not a human affair. Part of the Shadow Bound series which I won’t be reading despite the fact that Leigh is an excellent writer.
Not recommended:
Raising Kaine by Lissa Kasey** This novella is intended as an introduction to a series but manages to be totally confusing because the world building and character development don’t keep pace with the plot. The magic was interesting but lacked any explanation or back story. Seiran, apparently an avatar of the Green Man, helps to prevent a pipeline from going through Reservation lands, with the help of a powerful Fae. Topical, but weird. I usually like this author so I was disappointed.
Broken Wings by EM Lindsey (Book 3 of Broken Chains) This was advertised as a stand-alone but I was mystified and abandoned it. Also, I disliked the main characters so can’t be bothered to read previous volumes to clarify the plot.
The Pool Boy by Rachel Ember. It’s perhaps unfair to class this as not recommended. I downloaded it as free short story but didn’t read it once I’d read the blurb. I have no idea whether it’s good but the subject matter wasn’t for me. (Explicit d/s with rope.) However, she’s a good writer so if that’s your jam, try it!
The Christmas Cat by fledge ***** A verse rendering (based on The Night before Christmas) of a story for Supernatural fandom. So far, it’s only on the challenge LJ but I think it should be viewable. I’m not an SPN fan but the author happens to be my daughter! She also writes on AO3 as Fledhyris, so I hope she’ll upload this there. https://spn-bigpretzel.livejournal.com/1499453.html
Colorblind by blackchaps*** AU SGA where everybody wears a different coloured collar to show their sexual status. From the author’s notes I gather this was an early fic. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14993054
The Sweep of Easy Wind by blackchaps*** Semi au SGA/SG1 – military use Go’uald tech on military prisoners. John/Rodney. Probably needs full familiarity with both shows to make sense. https://archiveofourown.org/works/785073
Pros Big Bang (October 2021)
Eight stories, of varying quality, but even the ones I enjoyed needed total familiarity with canon to be understood properly so I won’t go into details. For those of you who are familiar with Pros, you can find the collection, both stories and art, on
This short mm romance is set in my fae ‘verse. It is very loosely linked to Living Fae in the sense that Harlequin, the main narrator of that series, visited Australia and met one of the characters briefly in one of the volumes. But these are Australian fae, living near the Murray river, north east of Adelaide in South Australia and they are not normally in touch with their British counterparts. I have visited some of the locations I describe, and my account of the wildfires owes much to my own knowledge of the Portuguese fires as well as to my Australian friends’ experiences. So I placed my paranormal romance in a very real.setting. Murray wants to ask Morgan to marry him but the right time for a proposal never seems to arise then events overtake them. Despite the worries about the fires I can assure readers there is a HEA ending to this tale.
I am extremely grateful to my editor, MA Naess. She lives in South Australia and kept an eagle eye on all aspects of the story. I got very confused over the correct usage for Big Bend, partly because I’d just been reading Blake Allwood’s romance series set in the US location known as Big Bend. I made the cover pic/post header based on a photograph by Dave Hoefler on Unsplash.
You’ll find the story under the Free Stuff tab. It’s currently the last in the list. (They are not in publishing order but divided by type and as I said, this falls in my fae ‘verse.) Enjoy!.
…and yes, we keep our fairy lights up all year round.
Authors new to me: 11 this month, with 9 of them worth reading.
Non fiction:
Unthinkable by Helen Thomson**** Sub-title: An extraordinary journey through the world’s strangest brains. Fascinating but… The author is a neuro scientist by training and a journalist by profession. I could have done with either less or more neuro science and a lot more detailed psychology. I found the book particularly interesting when it dealt with aspects of synesthesia which I have to a certain extent. Now I think I know why I can’t watch violent films. (This was a requested birthday present for my husband.)
The Prosecutor by Nazir Afzal****Fascinating autobiographical account of Afzal’s life which recounts the setting up and growth of the Crown Prosecution Service. As a lawyer by training and as a resident of Greater Manchester where Afzal saw the retirement end of a long and illustrious career, I was looking forward to this book and thrilled when it went into e-book format. It did not disappoint – but I could have done with a timeline because Afzal’s account of events is sometimes confusing.
Science for Hippies by Tom Thumb*** I assume it’s a pen name… Well written explanation of why people should not believe things like anti-vax conspiracies. However, I was not the target audience. Husband thought it was useful (it was bought by him) but then he has friends who believe in conspiracies of one kind or another whereas I don’t. If you do have friends, family or neighbours who need to listen to rational arguments this is for you. It is good, in that it doesn’t start from the premise that people might be stupid and it doesn’t preach.
Beginner Diwali Burfi Recipes by Monica Sawyer – stars on hold till I’ve tried some, but the instructions are clear and look easy enough.
Speculative and paranormal general fiction
The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth Book 1) by NK Jemisin***SF/fantasy which I bought partly because it had a black author and I and others were trying to promote them, but also because it had awards and rave reviews. Brilliant world building and the story is absorbing with nteresting and subtle social commentary. However, as with a lot of general SF, it has two dimensional characters – despite one thread being written in second person(which is quite hard to read and must be very hard to write). I might get the sequel.
The Tunnels Below by Nadine Wild-Palmer.** This got rave reviews as a book for teens that incorporated diversity. Yes, there were, as reviewers said, ‘vibes of Neil Gaiman and Lewis Carroll’ but the writing is second rate, the plot is derivative and the characters were mostly annoying. If you have teens, point them at e.g. Gaiman’s Neverwhere before they read this. And at Terry Pratchett’s Dodger. (Then get them to compare…)
Speculative and paranormal mm fiction
An Irregular Arrangement by AL Lester***** Short story introducing the author’s ‘border universe’. Intriguing, quirky and very well written. The Fog of War***** is the first full length novel in the series which I will definitely be following. There are both mm and ff pairings,
Medium to Well by Edie Montreux*** A medium helps to tone down a haunting. Rather repetitive at times as if the author didn’t quite believe the reader would recall the previous chapters.
Red’s Wolf by Beth Laycock*** Nicely told modern version of Red Riding Hood set just north of Manchester. Could have done with being longer.
Master of Hounds by RA Steffan**(Book1) If I hadn’t had so many recs from friends I might have abandoned this. The story is nice enough (mm romance in a fantasy kingdom) but the world building is very poor and all the myriad minor characters are completely two dimensional stereotypes. I won’t be continuing.
Historical mm fiction
The Ballad of Crow and Sparrow by VI Locey****Western with nice detail about life in the wilderness in the nineteenth century.
Just a little wickedness by Merry Farmer*** Poor editing, Americanisms and some plot holes. But the basic story – a viscount/valet romance in the Victorian era, mixed with the ‘modern’ slave trade (children) was enough to keep me reading. I won’t, however, be looking for this author again.
The picture shows Plitvice National Park from a Croatian holiday website. It’s in the Monty Don programmes.
Hidden Assets ***** All4. Irish/Flemish thriller. The Irish and Belgians have clearly been watching Scandi Noir and decided to join in. I’m really hoping for another season.
Monty Don’s Adriatic Gardens**** BBC iPlayer. Lovely gardens and plants, and some fascinating details about hidden aspects of places like Venice.
The Bay Season 3 **** ITVhub. The Morecambe based police show seems to have got well into its stride despite some new faces. Another interesting mystery.
Death of Andy Warhol- Autopsy: The Last Hours of Andy Warhol BBC4****. Interesting look a the death of someone famous through the eyes of pathologists.
Maya Angelou on Robert Burns**** BBC4 (1996) A lovely watch for Burns Night. Maya visited Scotland and interacted/performed with some native Burns fans.
Race and Medical Experiments: What’s the Truth **** All4. Seyi Rhodes looks at the history of US and UK problem experiments which have contributed to vaccine hesitancy.
I also half watched the following, but kept falling asleep so can’t give adequate reviews:
Martin Clunes: Islands of the Pacific. ITV Hub – beautiful look at French Polynesia in ep 1
Tyrant. Amazon. Very violent as well as interesting but I kept closing my eyes, which was fatal
The Dark Woods. More4. German Noir. I lost track of events and characters.
I’m continuing to watch the following:
The Green Planet BBC1
The Great Pottery Throwdown Ch4
Dogs behaving very badly Ch5
The Impressionists BBC4
Death in Paradise BBC1
Vera ITV
Peston ITV
PMQs BBC Parliament
And, when husband gets home from an extended trip:
*Tomatoes – cherry, halved, or if using larger, thickly sliced. Tinned will not work for this.
*Onion – any, sliced or roughly chopped then softened gently in a frying pan.
You can use either tomatoes or onions or both. Quantities are flexible but see method and adjust for your pan. Leftovers will keep in the fridge to add to easy mince…
*Bought puff pastry. (All the TV chefs tell you to use bought puff and filo pastry.)
*Butter (35g)
*Sugar (25g). Granulated or caster. Brown might be interesting.
*Balsamic vinegar (2 tablespoons)
*Herbs and seasoning
Method:
Roll out the pastry to fit the pan you are using plus a little extra diameter. Do this first, before getting things hot.
Turn on the oven to pre-heat. I use 180C and mine is supposed to be a fan oven, but you know your oven best.
In a pan that will go on the hob and in the oven, melt the butter, sugar and vinegar, stirring, until they caramelise. Be careful because caramel is very hot – this is not a recipe to suggest to your child who is just learning to cook. It’s really easy but needs adult handling!
Now turn the heat right down and place the tomatoes/onions in the caramel. You need a single layer with as few gaps as possible. Cherry tomatoes make a very pretty tarte. Onion is good at filling in the spaces. Make it decorative if you feel that way inclined but watch your fingers on that caramel. Sprinkle with chosen herbs and seasoning.
Place your pastry shape on top, Tuck down the extra using a spoon, maybe the one you measured the vinegar with and/or stirred the caramel. Make a couple of slits in the pastry to act as vents.
Bake for about 35/40 minutes.
You now need to turn this out onto a plate. Place the plate over the pan and use oven gloves to invert the entire thing. You might need to go round the edge of the pastry with a knife beforehand in case the sticky caramel has stuck it to the sides of the pan.
That’s it. Delicious. Serve with e.g. potatoes or bread and maybe coleslaw or a green salad.
The unicorn is a life-size or at least horse-size sculpture at a forge near Leatherhead in Surrey.
Since I write fantasy, I read and watch a great deal in the genre. In some films and books I might find inspiration – not directly, but in the sense that I write in the same general space, e.g. urban fantasy. Other books have had an undoubted influence on me. Since I grew up in the days of black and white television on a really small screen I can definitely say that books were my first introduction to fantasy and it’s intriguing to find my favourites now getting new life and wider appreciation via TV shows, some of which I also love.
I want to talk about some of my favourites and why I think they work so well, with the occasional mention of apparently similar works that don’t, for me, hold the same appeal. Fantasy often tips over into sci fi or speculative fiction and into fairy tales or legends. Sometimes it takes those as a starting point and sometimes it references them. If I have left out some of your favourites it could be because I regard them as belonging to those other genres.
I have liked fantasy since I was quite young. My introduction to the genre included the following.
The Princess and the Goblin (and the sequel) by George MacDonald. I adored these books and their dream-like illustrations (think old hardbacks). I think the concept of an unknown world beneath our feet really appealed. Later interactions with books like The Borrowers, or Truckers had a similar effect but those started with assumptions about our own world, whereas MacDonald’s offering built the fantasy kingdom for the princess first and then provided goblins beneath the castle.
Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest in Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare. These are wonderful retellings for children. They tease out the essentials from the plays and certainly had me believing in Titania, Oberon, Puck, Ariel and Caliban in a way that for example Enid Blyton’s stories never managed. Perhaps that’s because the plays are for adults, rather than children, so the characters have a depth that those in children’s books rarely achieve. I had the tales read to me from a very early age and think they probably inspired my first literary effort, a play for the Brownies to perform which included a fairy called Bluebell. I was too young to be a Brownie but my mother was Brown Owl and let me join in since I was the author. I don’t think, however, that my fairies had any depth.
Kipling’s Just so Stories were written for children but also appeal to the adult reader. The stories have inbuilt morality tales, like Aesop’s Fables, but don’t quite preach to the reader as those do, and have live animals doing all sorts of things like the ones in Beatrix Potter’s Tales, but again, the reader senses a deeper and richer back story. Yellow Dog Dingo, The Butterfly who Stamped, and Old Man Kangaroo have stayed with me much more vividly than Peter Rabbit. Even thinking about How the Rhinoceros got his Skin makes me feel itchy to this day.
The Silver Chair by CS Lewis. I was totally unaware (until I got to university…) that this was part of a series. I recall my parents being scornful about it because it didn’t deal with ‘real’ children, but it appealed to my sense of adventure and to the daydreams that included creatures like giants and marsh wiggles, and of course, heroic princes who in turn had to be saved by children like me. When I did, as an adult, read the Narnia books, I was somewhat disappointed to find the religious imagery and message embedded in them. I did love the films and TV series, especially the BBC version.
My next foray into fantasy was probably The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle. I liked it a lot, but felt faintly cheated and wanted more. I think this is probably why trilogies and series work better for fantasy lovers. Once the reader has accepted a world and immersed themselves in it, they don’t want to leave at the end of a single volume. There are too many places to visit and threads to follow.
Lord of the Rings. A friend was raving about this and I was given the books for Christmas just after my sixteenth birthday. (My book lover son-in-law points out that if I hadn’t read and reread them they would be valuable…) I read the trilogy first, then The Hobbit, and then Tree and Leaf which is an essay about fairy stories plus an example of one. I never got on with The Silmarillion, which always read, to me, more like a history book which was a perfectly valid concept but not to my taste. I soon discovered that ER Eddison (The Worm Ouroboros) and Lord Dunsaney (The King of Elfland’s Daughter) predated Tolkien, but I still think Tolkien was the author who made fantasy take a leap into the twentieth century and spawned a plethora of similar books. I tried Stephen Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Fionavar Tapestry but didn’t care for the way their characters originated in our world and somehow got magically transported to another. I gather their niche genre is now called portal fantasy. I started reading Terry Brookes. I enjoyed his Magic Kingdom books (despite being ‘portal’) but found the Shannara series derivative with most of the characters stereotypes based on Tolkien figures, fighting battles and fulfilling quests without making me really care about the outcome. I enjoyed Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Series but can’t remember much about it, which suggests I wasn’t sufficiently immersed. Lord of the Rings definitely sparked my imagination and also my admiration of a style that switches effortlessly from heroics to the scent of mushrooms, enhancing both. ‘High’ fantasy is quite hard to read – Eddison’s work is a case in point – and the struggle to adapt the reading brain to a continuously heroic style can, for me, detract from immersion in the world. Tolkien avoids this by giving us endearing personal scenes and reactions before returning to the grand quest. I think it’s this that changes the way epic fantasy is seen and makes him such a popular figure.
Arthurian legend was another of my favourites from my teens onwards. Anya Seaton’s Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon, and TH White’s The Once and Future King are the authors I recall with greatest enjoyment, and I liked the film Camelot (and the animated prequel The Sword in the Stone, based on White’s books. There are others (whose names I have forgotten) who exasperated me with their odd attitudes to English history and place names, things which needs to be respected even while the fantasy kingdom is built. I wasn’t so keen on either Rosemary Sutcliffe’s The Silver Sword or Bernard Cornwell’s Last Kingdom series (I love his Sharpe books) because they lifted the fantasy saga into historical reality which spoilt it for me, but I enjoyed Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy. I have visited places like Tintagel with a frisson of pleasure even though I know perfectly well that Arthur is not a historical figure. I have written about the Arthurian court, or at least about Lancelot and Merlin, and I have set my fae series on Alderley Edge which is one of the many reputed resting places of the knights of the round table. I did not enjoy what I saw of the TV Camelot series. The characters weren’t ‘my’ Arthur, Merlin, etc. however good the filming and acting may have been.
Three series I thoroughly enjoyed are:
Game of Thrones by George RR Martin, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams
I have watched the entire TV series of Game of Thrones and adored it but still, actually, prefer the books and would very much like Martin to write the final one. It remains to be seen whether he will alter the ending. He has suggested readers are in for some surprises. I love the sprawling politics of the series, and the way the individuals interact both knowingly and unknowingly with forces much greater than themselves. I know Martin based his ideas on the mediaeval Wars of the Roses but history, whilst fascinating, doesn’t have quite the impact that novels like this do, possibly because we are very aware that historical protagonists are long dead whereas the novels have a sense of immediacy.
Politics and social commentary are a large part of The Wheel of Time, too. I did read the entire series, ably finished after Jordan’s death by Brad Sanderson, but I got a bit annoyed with Jordan in the middle of the fourteen books. He would spend page after page creating a detailed world, which was very well done, but then when the volume ended there was the feeling that the plot had not been furthered very much. The TV show (which intends to condense the books into eight seasons) can’t, of course, have the luxury of dwelling on descriptive detail but I think that makes it all the better. I am absolutely loving it, despite the liberties it takes with the plot and the sequencing.
I wish someone would make a show using Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. The four volume trilogy (!) has all the same elements as the Martin and Jordan series, with the personal stories set against a background of world politics and a clash of cultures. I think it’s probably my favourite of the three series.
I started to watch The Witcher but gave up. I understand the series was based on a Polish novel and some video games arising from it. It disappointed me because there didn’t seem to be any backstories or depth to any of the characters or locations, major or minor, and whilst further viewing might have remedied this, in the books and shows I love, the backstories themselves have backstories and these are obvious from the first chapter or episode.
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is much loved even by people who don’t usually enjoy fantasy. I really like the way he comments on the human condition and on various social evils in the course of stories about a totally alien world with a number of cultures and some intriguing characters. Part of his success lies in using humour rather than preaching. However, a lot of authors have tried to copy him by attempting humour in stories of trolls, dragons, etc. Usually, they fail because their humour is too heavy handed. Pratchett’s situations are funny because none of the protagonists find them even slightly amusing. The lecturers at Unseen University never laugh at themselves, for example. I love the Discworld novels and have enjoyed the films I have seen so far.
Last but by no means least we come to something I regard as my own corner of fantasy, urban fantasy. (Although I have written both a series and a stand-alone that do not take place in our world.) Urban fantasy sets the scene in our modern era and has paranormal activity taking place in well known cities in our world.
My absolute favourite has to be Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series, with her changeling, October, living in San Francisco but alternating between being a private detective there and a knight of Fairyland. The way folk tales, fairy tales and legends are woven into this modern story is wonderful.
Laurell Hamilton’s Merry Gentry series has the same attributes but relies a little too much on sex to sell the stories to the reader.
Tanya Huff’s series, including the Blood series, the Smoke series and the Enchanted Emporium series, set in Canada and the far north west of US do a similar job but in, for example, her Blood series, she invokes sympathy for vampires, something that can’t be said of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles whose characters were, for me, uniformly unpleasant. I loved Deborah Harkness’ All Souls series, which also presented vampires in a sympathetic light. I believe it has been filmed but not on a streaming service we subscribe to.
The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik presents an alternative reality where dragons fought on both sides in the Napoleonic wars. As a lover of dragons I am enchanted by these books and the way they show dragons as a normal part of our history. Peter Jackson has bought the film rights but nothing has happened so far. One of my favourite fanfics fuses Temeraire with Cornwell’s Sharpe, which is an interesting concept and actually fairly obvious, but it took a fanfic writer to think of it.
And finally, Harry Potter by JK Rowling. (There seems to be some kind of pattern here for fantasy writers to use multiple initials…). It falls into the urban fantasy niche. I first read the books when I was reading them aloud to school classes and kept ahead by borrowing from students. I loved the way they enticed reluctant teenage readers into grappling with long and unillustrated chunks of text but at a personal level found the writing rather flat and the characters slightly annoying. I was also seriously upset when the author killed off Harry’s owl and in an interview compared it to putting away childish things. The films changed my perceptions of the characters and the stories. I was able to focus on the school – so like my own UK boarding school except that our staircases stayed put – and the magical elements. I am aware that a lot of people object to the author making money from their work despite their current unpopularity arising from their stance on gender issues. All I can say is that I usually divorce the work from the author (you have to assume Tolkien was pretty misogynistic) and that for many writers, actors, etc. we have no idea of how they view or viewed things that concern us, because they never told us. I understand the feelings about JKR making a profit but I continue to enjoy the films.
As I said at the beginning, I have read fairly widely in the fantasy field and have mentioned here only the books that have stayed with me as examples of how to – or, of course, how not to. There are plenty of others that don’t quite meet fantasy criteria but are excellent Stephen King’s Dark Tower series is a good example. I thought about it and decided it would fit best on a shelf with magic realism alongside writers like Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, both of whose work I like but would not class as fantasy. On a lighter note I decided The Clangers are sci fi. Then there are others that whilst perhaps enjoyed at the time were not memorable or remarkable in any way. Eddings’ The Belgariad is one of those. I got tired of his style even though I initially devoured the series.
To sum up what appeals, I think it’s the world building, with the depth of the societies and their cultures, then the characters, with real personalities including flaws. The plot is often the same: a quest of some sort and people either meeting up to follow it or meeting along the way. There’s almost always absolute evil but rarely absolute good. The ‘hero’ is most often plucked from an ordinary life and is not any kind of ‘superhero’. Sometimes there’s romance, and occasionally there’s sex; those aren’t the main elements, just a pleasing addition. The book has to give me access to a new or alternative world, with a sense of wonder, and make me care about what happens there. My favourites do exactly that.
This is the same tree that appears in my snowy post and in my social media icons. But, obviously, without snow. It’s the sycamore at the bottom of our garden. I watch it changing its seasonal attire all year roundand also watch the magpies who live in it.
This is my last review post of 2021. I’m considering trying a new format for my reviews in 2022 but haven’t quite settled on anything yet. It might look something like ‘the very best of’ actually reviewed then the rest just listed with stars or no stars. Or I might do film reviews less often. Or…
Anyway, here are my December reviews – film, booksm short stories and fanfic.
TV and film.
Wheel of Time Season 1***** (Amazon Prime) Fabulous retelling of the long series by Robert Jordan, finished after Jordan’s death by Brad Sanderson who is consulting editor for the show. There are changes, yes, but I think they tighten and improve the narrative. The casting and acting is great, the locations, real and created. are superb and the filming is high quality. Now we have to wait for Season 2 but they’ve almost finished filming.
Terry Pratchett’s The Abominable Snow Baby ***** (Channel 4). Nicely done animated version of a Pterry short story. A slightly overdone Christmas message but saved by the actors voicing the characters. Granny (Julie Walters) is superb.
Hot Fuzz***** However often I watch it, I love every moment.
The Christmas Lectures**** BBC4. Jonathan Van Tam takes teenagers through various science and maths aspects of the pandemic. Very well presented and I liked the way he split the hour long lectures into shorter sections with different experts. That’s a good way to keep both his live and his viewing audience interested. Recommended viewing for anyone who wants the science/maths unpacked or for anyone who has teenagers.
Death in Paradise Christmas Special**** BBC1 I’m not sure this usually delightful series can stand the expansion to an hour and a half but the case had a great ending and there were some highly amusing moments in the tropical storm.
The Witcher (abandoned) Pales into insignificance beside Wheel of Time. Pretty actors but that’s about all I can say. I’ll be posting more about my tastes in fantasy, books and films, in 2022.
Books
The excellent. (No five stars this month but these were very good.)
Boy Banned by RJ Scott**** Great story about a song contest and a romance with one of the main characters on the autistic spectrum, beautifully depicted. (RJ knows exactly what she’s talking about from family experience.) I have now read novels based on various competitions: baking, property refurbishment, magician skills, and singing. I think it has become one of my favourite tropes!
Love’s Bequest by Blake Allwood**** A great finale to the Big Bend series. Ghosts, villains, angst, archaeology, and a lovely re-visit to much loved characters from previous volumes. One tiny niggle: the family trees were ‘pictures’ so wouldn’t enlarge on my Kindle and were too small to read.
Transposition by Gregory Ashe**** Hazard and Somerset Bk 2. Fascinating case where detectives are marooned with killer and victims. Brilliant descriptions of snow and storm. Some slightly confusing head-hopping but I love these guys anyway and must get the rest of the series.
Changing Worlds by Cari Z**** Great culture clash and alien planet sci fi. Lost a star because once Jason and Ferran were married I couldn’t see the point of the erotic interludes.
In this bed of snowflakes we lie by Sophia Soames.**** Touching romance between two rather awkward students. Rescued from college romance trope by the setting (Oslo in winter) and the age of the students (not teens). I loved the protagonists and the all-encompassing snow, exquisitely described.
Thicker than Water by Becca Seymour**** I think this was a re-read but I couldn’t find any evidence… It’s quite an exciting story with shifters, drug crime and mm romance all set in and around Sydney, but since I kept getting those ‘read this, knew that’ vibes, I wasn’t as engrossed as I probably was first time round. I nearly downgraded it to three stars but then thought that would be unfair and anyway, I could recommend it.
The readable (and some of you might rate them higher)
Charles: Learning to love by Con Riley*** A pleasant and well written romance but it lacked the ‘extra’ elements of mystery or outside drama that I’ve come to want in the genre.
Cinder and Ashes Bk 1 by X Aratare*** Ends on cliffhanger so presumably you have to read Bk 2***. I did and guess what? Another cliffhanger. I may continue because they’re on KU but I wouldn’t pay to own them. It’s an mm retelling of Cinderella that threatens to continue for an entire series. Still, it’s an interesting twist on the original.
Double Trouble by Barbara Elsborg*** First in the Lost and Found series. The ‘trouble’ was that I didn’t like the characters, either the ‘heroes’ or the villains. Exciting story with shifters, fae, vampires, etc. but not really for me. I won’t be reading the sequel.
Lacuna by NR Walker*** I normally adore this author’s writing but this was a fantasy (unusual for her) and I found the style slightly jarring. There were moments of almost archaic formality in the dialogue then we got things like marmalade (where previous descriptions had fruit pastes) and ‘dick’. Plus, I wasn’t really invested in any of the main characters. If you like high fantasy, this could work for you and if you’ll read anything by her, go ahead. I was vaguely disappointed.
The Key to his Heart for Christmas by Rebecca James*** A novella. Quite well written and a pleasant story (fire fighter picks up a homeless man on the way home) but the romance is a bit too sudden and there is too much explicit sex for my taste.
The poor This is the point at which I tell you not to bother.
Ghost Hunted by BL Maxwell** There was far too much ghost activity for the story to be creepy! And the writing was very repetitive.
Three Nights with the Manny by AJ Truman** OK, it was a sort of prequel novella to The Single Dads’ Club but I didn’t find it at all likely. Instant lust, yes; instant love – in this case, no. There was no character development to underpin the reactions, and most of this short story was explicit sex.
And the abandoned but this is my taste, not necessarily yours.
Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney. The reviewers who praised this ‘thriller’ said they were hooked from the start. At the 15% mark (on my Kindle) I was still bored rigid so I gave up. For all I know it might have brilliant twists, as mentioned in reviews, but as I didn’t care what happened to Amelia or Adam I wasn’t wading through the book to find out.
Scintilla by Elizabeth Noble. The story starts with BDSM in a club – I’ve discovered I can’t cope with too much erotica of any kind but especially BDSM without some initial character development.
Pity the Dead by Rylan Cavell. Ghosts plus humour but I didn’t get to grips with the characters living or dead, or the humour, so gave up.
Short stories
Recommended
Christmas Roses by Fiona Glass***** Gorgeous brief sequel to December Roses, free in Fiona’s newsletter and hopefully later available elsewhere. A really beautiful story that questions all kinds of aspects of time travel, ghosts, etc. but manages to be very sweet and both sad and happy.
Five Gold Blings by Clare London**** Sweet and gentle story of a delivery driver who ends up with a vlogger and a partnership – both personal and business.
By the pricking of my robotic thumbs by Mary Robinette Kowal**** Interesting sci fi story exclusive to New Scientist (Christmas Special Issue).
Readable
Stardust Wake by Si Clarke *** An introduction to the characters from The Left Hand of Dog (mentioned in November reviews). Interesting if you have read or intend to read that, but not really a stand-alone.
Christmas with the Lumberjack by Daniel de Lorne*** Competent short story about loggers in Australia.
I also read numerous really short stories and ficlets in newsletters and FB posts. Too many to mention individually but they have kept me well entertained.
Fanfiction
I was still mostly reading in the Stargate Atlantis fandom. My own contribution, among others, to the Secret Santa went ‘live’ with authors revealed, on Christmas Day. (See my dashboard – https://archiveofourown.org/users/moth2fic – if you’re interested.)
Nevertheless, he persisted by mific***** Written for me in the SGA Secret Santa gift exchange. John, Rodney, Ronon and Radek get stuck on a planetary outpost during a routine inspection. Really gripping. 11k, https://archiveofourown.org/works/35838310
Not What It Seems by blackchaps**** SGA – an AU where scientists are slaves. 88k https://archiveofourown.org/works/743701 (and no, I hadn’t read this before I wrote my Secret Santa)
No Rest at all in freedom by Telesilla*** SGA. John ends up with wings when aliens see him as some kind of saviour. Although I like wingfic, these wings weren’t particularly appealing. 27k. https://archiveofourown.org/works/430985
And there is other fanfic out there…
A Bright, GuiltyWorld by Brumeier**** Trixie Belden mysteries but here Trixie is grown up with a new boyfriend and the mysteries are paranormal. I don’t know the original canon but I enjoyed the story and would like more! https://archiveofourown.org/works/34267990
Noah and the amazing multi-coloured dreamboat by Small_Hobbit**** Amusing Christmas ‘musical’ mash-up in this writer’s Sherlock Holmes AU with talking animals. 2739 words. https://archiveofourown.org/works/35070046
Last year’s special meal. No idea why the sprouts look fuzzy. (They weren’t but I altered the photo to get the colours right, so…)
Happy Solstice and some holiday cooking.
Easy Trimmings
Whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year you probably have a main dish (veggie or not) with lashings of extra veg and… all the trimmings. My daughter (who is veggie) agrees with me (I’m not veggie) that this is the best part of the celebratory meal. It is, of course, possible to buy all the trimmings or side dishes from your favoured supermarket or corner shop. However, some things are incredibly easy to make at home and (a) they taste better (b) you get much bigger quantities for a lower price (c) they make the kitchen and most of the house smell good.
Cranberry sauce.
Traditionally, this goes with turkey but so far as I’m concerned it goes with almost anything though I’ve never tried it with fish. (I don’t like turkey – find it a bit dry and bland – so we usually have chicken.)
Buy a punnet of cranberries well before the shops start to run out in December. Freeze it. Just throw it in the freezer.
You can start to thaw the berries but they’ll thaw as you cook so don’t worry. Put them in a pan with sugar, not too much but they can be tart – I use about two tablespoons of white granulated to a large punnet. Add a glass of orange juice plus shreds of orange rind if you happen to have been eating oranges or tangerines, a small glass of port (though sherry/madeira/etc would probably do) and make sure the liquid just covers the berries. If not, add a little water or more juice/alcohol. You can leave out the orange if you’re allergic to citrus or the alcohol if you’re teetotal. Though bear in mind that alcohol is burnt off during cooking so the sauce will not be alcoholic and is suitable for children. Put the pan on a medium to low heat and cook till most of the berries have burst. Then carry on till the liquid has reduced a bit but don’t go too mad as you are not making jam.
Store in the fridge – it will keep well into the new year if allowed. Ours isn’t and doesn’t.
Bread sauce
I think this is meant to go with turkey, too, and of course would not be suitable for kosher Jewish meals so just serve it with anything you like! Again, probably not fish.
Buy sliced white bread for this, even if you normally eat brown or whatever. Either buy a crustless loaf or cut off all the crusts which you can then turn into croutons if you feel inclined. I use about half a loaf for a dish of sauce that lasts through the holiday week for meals and sandwiches.
Peel a small onion and stud it with cloves. You might need to use a skewer to make little holes to help the cloves go in. Pour milk (any kind so maybe Jews or Vegans could use oatmilk) over the studded onion and bring to the boil then leave to cool. You can do this the night before you make the sauce and store the infused milk in the fridge but don’t take the onion out till you’re about to make the sauce.
Tear the bread roughly. Heat the infused milk and stir in the bread which should gradually turn into a mushy sauce mixture.
Stuffing
The kind you serve separately, either in a dish or in little balls, not the kind you put inside a roast.
Breadcrumbs. You need lots and the easiest way is to let half a loaf go a bit stale then whizz it in a food processor. (Tear it up first.) Add herbs – your choice. Sage is traditional with some meats, but other herbs work well. Thyme is popular. Also add things like sultanas and chopped dried apricots to make a more celebratory dish. You can create this mix well in advance.
Chop an onion very finely and cook by boiling in water then when the onion is translucent and glossy, add your mix, a little at a time, till you have the right consistency.
You can then make balls which are fiddly but give a crust that some people like, or just put the mix in a dish, dot with butter and bake on the bottom of the oven for about half an hour. (That’s what I do.) If you’re making the balls you’ll need a firmer initial consistency and you can use flour for rolling otherwise you’ll have ended up stuffing your hands and fingernails… I prefer the dish format, because I like the texture – more of the stuffing remains soft.
Dressing for e.g. shredded red cabbage, salad potatoes, etc.
I use half and half mayo and greek style yoghurt. You can also add a little mustard and/or lemon juice. This gives a good dressing that works better than either mayo or yoghurt alone. It clings nicely to the salad. My mother in law used soured cream instead of yoghurt but I think that was a question of what used to be available.
This actually goes well with fish e.g. salmon fillets
You might notice that I don’t mention seasoning i.e. salt and pepper. I use very little salt in cooking because nowadays a lot of people prefer to control the amount they add, at table. However, most dishes gain flavour if you add a pinch of salt when you start cooking. It’s up to you. Pepper, I prefer fresh ground and served at table though it can be a nice addition to dressing.
Don’t forget:
You can prepare all your veg in advance but make sure you put root veg like potatoes and parsnips in cold water to stop them discolouring. It really does make all the difference on the day of the big meal if half the work is already done.
Brandy butter
Intended to go with mince pies but I’m not wild about mince pies, or about custard or white sauce which traditionally go with plum pudding. So I have the pudding with brandy butter and very good it is too. (Indigestion tablets are recommended as a follow-up.) Leftover brandy butter tastes really good on toast, by the way. Just saying.
You can buy this and sometimes I do because I run out of cooking space and time, but really, all you need is butter, icing sugar, and brandy. Mix and then store in the fridge. The brandy might make it a bit sloppy but it should firm up in the fridge. Still, don’t use too much liquid!
As I’m posting this on the solstice I thought I’d share the card I made for my daughter’s birthday, which is on the solstice. I enjoy doing 3D decoupage (as well as cooking!) and this time made my own design using the inner sides of envelopes. It’s dead easy, and only needs sharp scissors, those little sticky fixers, and patience.
I’ve enrolled my books in the Smashwords End of Year sale which runs from 17th December till 31st December. They’re all at 50% off which means the novels are now $1.49, the novellas and story collections are $0.99 and Silver Chains is free. The coupon will automatically be applied at checkout.
If you’ve ever thought about reading any of them, take advantage of this. In the new year I am considering raising some of the prices because I strongly suspect the low price makes people think the novels are just novellas or short stories.
I’ve also written you a holiday gift story which is now under the free stuff tab here. It’s called King of the Wood and is about plant shifters and mm romance (nothing explicit). The cover is based on a photograph from our garden. I thought it was very good of the holly and ivy to grow together for me!
I’ll be posting some holiday recipes later this week – before most of us do the celebration cooking, anyway!
(Incidentally my free stuff page is a mess but one of my friends is going to help me sort it out after the holiday. Meanwhile, you can still download stuff – it just looks disorganised.)
Jay's World 