melita's booklog - mostly

So work had gotten busy, I hadn't picked up anything, then COVID-19 hit. It's only in the last few weeks that I've really began reading regularly, and generally new stuff is all shorter lengths. Anyway, not in actual order...

I reread two books by Martha Wells--Between Worlds, a collection of stories starring characters from the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, and Network Effect. Network Effect is a forthcoming novel in her Murderbot series. I shelled out for an ARC (advanced reader's copy) a few months ago. It's much easier to read things on my phone, but I've read this one twice. All the feels! For anyone who doesn't know, Murderbot is a created android that's used as a security unit. It's sent out to mining colonies, planetary exploration missions, etc. as part of a security/insurance "bond". This occurs off-Earth in what's known as the Corporation Rim. Contracts are all, many people are indentured or in terrible contracts. Security units, SecUnits, have a mix of metal and artificial components and some farmed brain tissue. It was part of some sort of massacre and although its memory was wiped, its human brain tissue remembers bits and pieces. Murderbot decided never again! and hacked its governor module. It's continued to work for the Company (we still don't know its name) because it doesn't know what else to do. Four novellas later, it's out on another contract but this one specially written for it. 

Early on in the book, there's a scene where Murderbot has saved everyone again. The head of the group starts looking a little emotional and Murderbot quickly says, "No hugs!" (and thinks to itself, 'It's in the contract.') 

We get to see several characters from earlier the novellas and it's just lovely. I dearly love this series and hope Tor.com gives Wells contract for another book.

I also read the novella, "Indigo and Cloud" which is in the Raksura series.

Based on recs, I read Twelve Days of Faery by W. R. Gingell. I had to reread a few pages before I could remember the story at all. It's a pleasant enough trifle, but I won't be reading on in the series. The son of the king is cursed. If he falls in love (or lust) with someone, they end up severely injured or dead. A witch arrives to try to remove the curse, shenanigans ensue. Ending isn't qute what you might expect and the prince isn't a main character.

When I couldn't think of anything to read or reread, I picked up the ebook of The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel. It's the highlights of the long-running Dykes to Watch Out For comic strip. I'd read the previous collections and this in dead tree versions but it was fun catching up with Mo and the gang. The characters were moaning about politics and presidents then. I can't imagine what they would be like if the strip was still running.

I then read two books by Aster Glenn Gray: The Threefold Tie and Briarley. I'd seen recs for Briarley last year and then more for TTT so I decided to try TTT. It's set post-US Civil War. Two soldier become friends and more during the war. They continue the connection afterwards intermittently with one in New York City studying art and the other in a small town as a printer/newpaper publisher. The publisher falls in love with a woman and marries her. They later drag the artist out of the city to nurse him back to health. After some mixed signals, they end up in a polyamorous relationship. I liked it enough that I picked up Briarley which is set during WWII. A country vicar loses his way and ends up in a strange mansion that's surrounded by rose bushes. It's a  retelling of Beauty and the Beast but in this case the father doesn't let his daughter take his place. Very nice, but I haven't felt the need to track down the other books by this author.

I was getting a lot of recommendations for regency novels so I decided to try a new author to me, Charlotte Louise Dolan, who had good reviews. I picked Three Lords for Lady Anne. Lady Anne is an uncommonly tall young woman and heiress with scapegrace parent and a dead mother. After getting abandoned at a terrible relative's house, She ends up with another female relative who's never held with getting married and has had all kinds of adventures. To make her way once she becomes an adult, Anne becomes a governess. The woman who got her set up with Aunt Leticia (the adventuress), now decides that she should marry a man that she knows so she arranges for Anne to become the governess of his wards. Lord Leatham is also an adventurer and rarely in England so the boys and the estate are looked after by a Mr Trussell. Lord Leatham thinks Trussell is fleecing the estate but hasn't caught him yet. A fairly complicated plot ensues. Charming, doubt I'll move on to her other books.