Nick can’t be talking about me, because I count how many books I read in a month. Ten this time. More than I thought I would manage this month, but there’s a lot of fluff on this list.
The Early Middle Ages — Rosamond McKitterick (editor)
This is intended as an introduction to and broad overview of (West) European history from 400 CE to 1000 CE, in which it succeeded reasonably well. Having some prior knowledge of this period helps though, especially if you got some grasp on the rough chronology.
The Sacred Art of Stealing — Christopher Brookmyre
Brookmyre’s slightly anarchistic thrillers are pure comfort reading.
An Imperial Possession — David Mattingly
A postcolonial history of Britain under Roman rule. What did the Romans ever do for us? Exploit our natural wealth, make our warriors into slaves and force us to grow cash crops for absentee landlords is the answer. This review at Blood & Treasure is why I bought this.
King of the Rainy Country — Nicolas Freeling
Another inspector van der Valk murder mystery, taking him far from his hometown of Amsterdam all across Europe.
Zoo City — Lauren Beukes
In Beukes’ near future/alternate South Africa (not quite clear which is the case) being a murderer can quite literally land you with a monkey on your back, or in Zinzi December’s case, a sloth. It makes her one of the new underclass, the Animalled, having to make a living exploiting the small magical talent to find anything she got along with her totem. Then she’s asked to find a lost person rather than a lost property.
Whoops! — John Lanchester
Readable if slightly out of date overview of why we were dropped in the shit when the financial crisis hit in 2007. Lanchester is the same guy who has written on this subject for the London Review of Books.
The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny — Simon R. Green
Green is a cheerful hack writer (and probably the last to deny this) and this is a volume in his urban fantasy series. The whole experience is like reading a mediocre superhero title (Alpha Flight say) long after the talent left. Still enjoyable though.
A Point of Honor — Dorothy J. Heydt
Mary Craven is a world renowned player in the VR game of Chivalry, whose alter ego Sir Mary de Courcy is that game’s current champion of the Winchester Lists. And now she has stumbled on a real world secret hidden in the game, people are trying to kill her and she has to fight both offline and online for her very life. Dated in its technological assumptions, but something of a precursor to novels like Charlie Stross’ Halting State and Walter John Williams’ This Is Not a Game.
Trading in Danger — Elizabeth Moon
Entertaining and competently written adventure science fiction. First in a series, but enjoyable on its own.
Making a Killing — Iain McDowall
Treading some of the same ground as Ian Rankin, this is a slightly disjoint police procedural set in the fictional town of Crowby.