Jacey Bedford's Journal

Audiobook narrated by Tony Robinson

After an autobiography and several history books aimed at kids, this seems to be Tony Robinson’s first attempt at adult historical fiction, but he’s such a good narrator of other people’s books, his own seems to have landed without teething troubles. It covers the historical period of Alfred, later known as Alfred the Great, ruler of Wessex, and eventually King of the Anglo-Saxons until his death in the year 899. He was the youngest son of King Ethelwolf and three of his older brothers ruled before him. But this is not all from Alfred’s point of view. Chief amongst the viewpoint characters is Asser, idealistic monk (and eventually a bishop) who is credited with writing Alfred’s biography. The story concentrates of the rule of High Ethel Wolf, Alfred’s father and his children and heirs and also covers religious politics in Rome, with Asser and Cardinal Balotelli hoping for a better world, and to see an end to the predations of the Norlanders. For much of the story Alfred in in Rome, having been exiled by his father, while his older brothers jockey for position as the next High Ethel. The story moves from Anglo-Saxon Wessex to Rome and back again (several times) weaving a tapestry of historical fiction around real events. Expect Viking raids, down-to-earth rulers (good and bad), religious politicking, and some excellent characters. It’s a good listen.

Audiobook narrated ny Kat Riley and Ash Beverly

Lainie Eaves returns to Hideaway Cove after the death of her grandparents. She’s inherited the family house, but, being human, she knows nothing about shifters, which is a bit unfortunate as it turns out. She needs to see what's left of her inheritance, a crumbling house and a missing fortune in jewels. She doesn't know the cove and doesn't know that it's a sanctuary for shifters, having been sent away when it became obvious that she was 100% human. Then she meets Harrison Galway, a carpenter/builder when in human form - and also a griffin shifter. The premise is that shifters instantly recognise their one true mate - and Harrison sees Lanie and 'knows'. The rest plays out as you might expect with a spiteful member of the shifter community trying to eject Lanie from the town. These Hideaway Cove books guarantee a happy ending so I needn't outline the plot. It's lightweight, and at 4 hours 49 minutes, is a quick listen.  The readers make a decent job of it.

Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden

Edith Worms, secret writer of detective fiction, is the oldest daughter of a Victorian clergyman who learns he has inherited Wormwood Abbey, in Ormsdale, Yorkshire, currently inhabited by his two nieces after the sudden and tragic deaths of their father and brother. The family travels to the Abbey to view it and make provision for the two orphaned girls, not intending to stay there, but there are obvious secrets that Edith begins to unravel. Who is the clingy neighbour, Drake, and why is he always hanging around? What is the lawyer who comes up from Londoin looking for? And what is the salamander-like creature that Edith makes into a pet? Ye clue is in the family name, Worm, or should that be Wyrm? The reader is very plummy, which probably suits the character of Edith perfectly, but after a while it was a bit wearing on the ear, but at a few seconds under five and a half hours, it works. I probably won’t read on in the series.

Audiobook narrated by Carl Prekopp,

Nathan Byrn is half Blood Witch and half Fairborn. His father is the world's most dangerous Blood Witch and has always been absent from Nathan's life. After the death of his mother, Nathan has been raised by his gran along with three half-siblings. The council of Fairborn witches wants to use Nathan to trap and kill his father, and as a result they make Nathan's life a misery. He ends up fostered out to a council witch, kept in a cage  while being 'educated.' If Nathan doesn't receive three gifts on his 17th birthday he won't come into his powers, and will likely go mad and die. He must escape and find the Blood Witch Mercury, but her price for helping him might be more than he's willing to pay. Carl Prekopp reads this well, and voices Nathan vry realistically. Unfortunately much of this is Nathan being beaten, tortured or otherwise made miserable, and there's a bit too much of that before he finally makes his escape. Even so life is not easy. This is the first in a trilogy. It was an interesting listen but I probably won't seek out the other two books.

Audiobook narrated by Peter Kenny.

Audiobook read by Katie Villa.

Luke Taylor has been looking for his missing twin brother for eighteen months with no success. A vague clue leads him to Unholy Island, a little further off the Northumbrian coast than Lindisfarne, and accessible only by a causeway at low tide. The locals, all with their own secrets, don’t like tourists and the island itself usually ensures that visitors spend no more than two nights there, but Luke is determined to stay longer and – surprise – the island lets him. He stays at Esme Gray’s B&B. Esme, who has run away from a troubled past with a controlling partner, is the island’s ward witch. She’s drawn to Luke, but still very wary of him. When Luke finds one of the villagers dead on the shore, suspicion falls on him, though Esme doesn’t believe he’s guilty. Gradually the truth is revealed, and Luke finds himself accepted by the suspicious islanders. This is set in the same world as Sarah Painter’s Crow Investigations books, which I very much enjoyed, but it’s a completely new sequence and can be read without having read the Crow books. Nicely read by Katie Villa

Audiobook read by Kate Mulgrew. An interesting take on Janeway from childhood to post-Voyager, including some of the bits from Voyager that readers might be familiar with. Particularly interesting for me because I missed some of the Voyager episodes and haven’t caught up with all of them yet. I might not have tackled this, but Una McCormack is always a reliable writer and this was well written, and also well read by Kate Mulgrew – who is the only possible voice of Janeway.

Audiobook Narrated by Peter Kenny

There’s a war raging throughout the Galaxy as the Iridians (and others) fight against the Culture. Horza, a human changer, an mercenary, works for the Iridians despite not believing in their gods or philosophy. He’s tasked with finding and securing the Mind, an autonomous super AI created by the Cuilture, which has ended up on Schar’s World, the planet of the dead. Balveda is a Culture agent with the same objective. They both end up on a ‘free trader’ ship the Clear Air Turbulence (CAT) and after a couple of disastrous raids directed by the captain Kraiklin, Horza takes over and persuades the crew, including his lover, Yalson, to go to Schar’s World, where they meet hostile Idirans in the tunnels deep below the world. I was disappointed with the ending, but it’s a cracking read – a fast-paced space-opera/adventure well read by Peter Kenney who does subtle accent changes and voices brilliantly.

Audiobook Narrated by Ryan Kennard Burke

I should have been pickier before buying this, but it was part of an Audible Twofer deal. Clueless Drake decides to become a farmer without knowing anything about farming. I gave up at Chapter five. By that time he’d bought lettuce and cucumber seeds for planting (so it’s spring?) and picked ripe blackberries – an autumn fruit. And not much else had happened.

Audiobook narrated by David Thorpe

The city of Ilmar is the main character in this book. Occupied by the heavy-handed Palleseen, its wretched poor and its seedy underworld struggle to survive. And next to the city is the Anchorwood, a primeval grove of trees that becomes a portal to other worlds when the moon is full. There’s an ensemble cast, a poverty-stricken priest, an innkeeper with two hidden cellars, a sorcerous pawnbroker and a pair of students with rebellion on their mind, but ultimately no single character comes to the fore. This is the city’s story.

Audiobook read by Indira Varma

I read this when it first came out, but this is a revisit via Audible. First of all, the reading is excellent. Indira Varma's pacing is pretty well perfect, and Bill Nighy reads the footnotes. It all started when fledgeling witch, Tiffany Aching, allowed her feet to dance with the Wintersmith one fateful night, and captured his frozen elemental heart. From that moment the Wintersmith sought Tiffany, intending her to be his bride, but first he has to make himself into a man - using ingredients from a children's rhyme. In the meantime Tiffany continues to learn witchcraft from elder witches in Lancre, far away from her home territory (the Chalk). We meet Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg again, and Granny has a plan, though it's not obvious to Tiffany, who has to work out how to defeat the Wintersmith herself. The Feegles are everywhere, especially good when trying to turn Roland (Tiffany's 'friend') into a hero to rescue the Lady of Summer. Oh, yes, and there's a sentient cheese.

Audiobook read by David Tennant

Hiccup and Fishlegs get lost in the fog on a 'How to Board an Enemy Boat' lesson and accidentally board a Roman galley full of dragon poachers. Hiccup, who understands a bit of Latin, learns that the Romans intend to kidnap the heirs of two opposing tribes (which includes him) in order to set the two tribes agains each other. Unfortunately, though he and Fishlegs escape to tell the tale, Toothless is captured by Romans. Hiccup's dad doesn't listen to his son (what's new?) and falls for the Romans' ploy, so Hiccup and Fishlegs are both kidnapped by Romans. An old enemy, Alvin the Treacherous, resurfaces. now posing as a Roman. Hiccup amd Fishlegs end up in the Roman arena along with the heir to the other tribe.  Yes, they get away but there's a bit of a cliffhanger to lead into the fourth book. Nicely read by David Tennant.

Audiobook read by David Tennant

Included in the Audible three-book collection.

I’m a big fan of the movies, both animated and live-action. But the book and the film are significantly different. There’s no dragon-riding in the book, and Toothless the dragon is small and is an ‘Ordinary’ not a ‘Night Fury’. Nevertheless, the story is sweet and is about the relationship between an ordinary Viking boy, Hiccup, and his stubborn, cranky dragon. David Tennant reads it beautifully.

This is a re-read via Audible. Audiobook read by Zara Ramm

Elizabeth Cage and Michael Jones are taking a well-earned holiday in Scotland to get away from anything supernatural. Unfortunately, the supernatural seems to come to them. Cage has a ghostly encounter with a burning cottage, and a ghost who looks just like her, and that’s just the start of it. Iblis turns up again, with the powerful yet mysterious Melek, Finally, we get some revelations about who Elizabeth really is, but if I told you, I’d have to shoot you. Let me say that this is well worth reading/lidstening, though you should really start from the beginning of the sequence with White Silence. Once again, Zara Ramm’s narration is impeccable.

Audiobook read by Steven Pacey

This is a revisit via Audible. I was surprised to note that I first read this (in dead-tree format) in 2009 or 2010. I was tempted to the Audible version because the reader is Steven Pacey, who is excellent, and indeed the quality of the reading keeps you engaged throughout. It’s a long book and, in truth, is only the first part of the story as the trilogy is really one long story split into three nooks. This one introduces all the characters and the political set up. The characters are all flawed in some way. Logan is an engaging character but when the ‘berserk’ is on him, he’s The Bloody Nine, and would kill his own grandmother if she got in his way, but he’s still my favourite character. Or maybe he shares first place with Glokta, once the golden boy of the Union army but after a spell in the enemy’s prison he’s a mangled wreck who lives with constant pain. But one thing the enemy’s torturers taught him, is how to be a effective inquisitor. He’ll get a confession from anyone, guilty or innocent. An excellent listen.

My 2009 review of the whole trilogy

Joe Abercrombie – The Blade Itself; Before They Are Hanged; Last Argument of Kings.

Wow... just WOW! I make no excuses for this trilogy taking from mid October to Mid December to read because it's big, it's densely packed and it's fascinating with a broad sweeping plot, a cast of complex characters and cataclysmic action. Like life it's not tidy, and like life nobody's perfect – even the heroes. In fact, perfection is far from the state any of this bunch of assorted misfits achieve and there are no heroes, though at times people do heroic things. Yet at other times they run away.

So, take a bunch of assorted people who barely know each other and like each other even less and throw them together for great purposes and at the end of the day you have a bunch of cohesive comrades? Yes? Well, actually no. At the end of the day, they might have achieved things, but they still hate each other and don't like looking in the mirror much.

So – first things first – or maybe second. This isn't really a trilogy, it's one huge book split into three volumes. Don't think you could pick up book 2 or 3 without reading book one. How many pages? 422 + 570 + 695 (1600 give or take a few and the first one was a trade paperback so at a rough word count I'd say something like 250k per book).

How many main characters? Well Abercrombie adds a few as we get into each new book, but for starters we have three, starting with Logen Ninefingers, the Bloody Nine, berserker barbarian. Logen is a humane, intelligent, uneducated warrior who will kill his enemies at the drop of a hat, but when Ninefingers takes over he'll kill anyone in his way – and that includes his friends, too. Then there's Glokta, once the Golden Boy of the Union, master swordsman and brave colonel in the Union army, but a few years on the receiving end of the masters in the torture chambers of Gurkhul soon changed him into a twisted cripple, living in constant pain, whose purpose in life is now to inflict pain on others in the name of the King's Inquisition. If you're guilty Glokta will make you confess. Actually, if you're innocent he'll make you confess, too. His latest swathe of victims may well have unearthed major corruption in the government, but if he exposes it he's pretty sure that he'll be the next body found floating in the harbour. Then there's Jezal dan Luthar, the Union's current Golden Boy, but if this is the best the Union has, it might as well give up now when the barbarians in the north attack at the same time as Gurkhul in the south. Luthar can swing a sword a bit, and he turns a pretty leg in a uniform, but he's never seen real action and would probably sprint a mile if he did.

As the books progress we get a series of additional characters unfolding which include Byaz, a master mage with a power complex and a determination to steer the Union to victory even if it kills everyone in the way – including the Union's own citizens. Ferro, carrying demon blood in her veins and a raging desire for vengeance over the Gurkhish which has consumed all she ever was or might be. The Dogman, left leading the Northmen's resistance in Logen's place against their new king who is bent on cutting the heart out of the Union and slapping down the resistance from his own people. Hard! Colonel West, honest soldier from common stock who has risen because of his talent, but he has a temper which will get him into trouble if he's not careful, especially with his sister, Ardee, a wilful, bored fish out of water, perpetually drunk and none too discrete with her favours.

And this is all there is to save the Union. Can they do it? Maybe they can, but there's a price – a terrible price. Good deeds have terrible consequences. Quests come to nought. Sieges bravely defended depend on money from shady sources, blackmail. The least trustworthy prove their resilience and the most trustworthy fail. Last minute rescues don’t exactly save anyone.

To say this is a dark work is an understatement of the word dark, but it's not without its quirky twisted humour and its sympathetic characters, foremost amongst these being Glokta whose world-weary commentary exposes wry humour and a deep intelligence. Despite his job and his willingness to detach body-parts from innocent men with rusty pincers, he may be the most honest and honourable soul in the hierarchy of government – which might not be saying much, but it might have to be enough.

It may have taken me two months to read 750,000 words of the 'First Law' trilogy, but it was worth it and I highly recommend it to anyone who's got a strong stomach. The Guardian quote says it's 'Delightfully twisted and evil,' and I reckon that's spot on the money.

Audiobook narrated by Ray Porter.
This is the last (for now) Bridgeman book and this one enters a somewhat convoluted wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff. Joe is sent to retrieve a focus object which has been inveigled form it’s owner and is in danger of being lost from history. It turns out that there’s an organisation called Extempero which consists of a bunch of billionaires using focus objects for time-tourism. Joe makes a hasty jump to save the day, but it doesn’t turn out well. He has to make another jump to ameliorate the situation, but that one has an even worse outcome, and then he gets the opportunity to change his own timeline again. We go from ancient China to an earthquake in San Francisco – twice. Once again Scarlet makes an appearance to complicate things.

Narrated by Ray Porter

Having started (accidentally) with the second book in the series, and enjoyed it tremendously, I immediately went back to the first in which Joe discovers he can time travel and uses his new ability to save his sister, Amy, who disappeared when she was a child, partly due to his 14-year-old self’s moment of inattention. Joe struggles to master his talents, calling on two old friends and one new one to help him figure it out – in the process falling in love. The plot races along and comes to an excellent conclusion. The question of whether Joe is supposed to be British or American (which I brought up in my review of Book #2) is answered definitively in Book #1 – he’s British, and he’s based in Cheltenham – which is a quintessentially British place. It makes the choice of American Ray Porter to narrate these books somewhat puzzling, especially since the author is British, too. Blackstone, the publisher of the wider series, is American, however, which maybe also explains some of the minor Americanisms which might have been inserted to make it more America-friendly. To be honest, Ray Porter is a great narrator who reads this very well, but I do feel as though a British-accented narrator would have made more sense. (Maybe Matt Addis, or Stephen Pacey.) It won’t stop me listening to the others, however. I'm lready lining up Book #3.

DNF

Narrated by Steven Brand
It’s no good, I tried to like this – and some bits I did like. The character of the ranger Asher was fascinating, as were the two Greycoats he teamed up with, but the story kept sidestepping into various factions of Greycoats, elves (good and bad), students of magecraft, and royalty. I found it confusing, the story spread across too many participants and, sad to say, I didn’t really care about most of them. The narration was okay – not sparkling, but OK, though after a while it started to feel a little ponderous. I tried to stick it out and reached close to 45% of the way through, but in the end I simply wasn’t enjoying it enough to carry on, even though I wanted to find out what happened to Asher.

Audiobook narrated by Russell Boulter.

I jumped into this series at number #7, but didn’t have any problem getting into the characters despite not having any idea of what happened in books #1 - #6. It’s AD 46 and Roman centurions Cato and Macro have been posted to Judea to investigate Longinus, Roman governor of Syria, and to try to mitigate the effects of Roman oppression in a hearts and minds operation. Yeah, right! Religious figures are revolting (literally), and after Rome crucified the last charismatic Judean leader, Jehoshua, the whole place is a revolt waiting to happen, stirred up by local tribesman, Bannus. Add to that opportunistic Parthians eager to fight Rome and Macro and Cato have an almost impossible task. Macro is the seasoned centurion, happy to charge in regardless. Cato, his junior, but slightly more upper class, is a clever thinker. Together they make a good pair when the fort they’ve been assigned to is full of corruption. This is read quite well, if a little ponderous, by Russell Boulter, but he has a strange pronunciation of the letter A, as in last. He doesn’t have the short northern A, so it doesn’t rhyme with ass. Neither does he elongate the A-sound to rhyme with arse, but somehow manages to rhyme it with air, so last sounds like lairst. I can only think it a deliberate choice, but it kept pulling me out of the story at first, though by the time I reached the end I’d almost stopped noticing. The blurb says for fans of Bernard Cornwall, and I would also say for fans of Lindsey Davis’ Falco – though without the lightness of touch.

Audiobook narrated by Tom Weiner

I read this post-apocalyptic novel years and years ago, in a different century, though it might well have been a different planet. Published in 1964 (but written before the USA's Civil Rights act of 1964 and the Voting Rights act of 1965) this deals with pressing issues of the day - the threat of nuclear war with the USSR, and the issue of race in what was still a partially segregated country.

Under the threat of war, Hugh Farnham builds a nuclear bunker, just in time. When the big one hits, the Farnhams (Hugh, his wife Grace, adult son, Duke, daughter Karen, and black employee, Joseph, together with Karen’s  friend, Barbara) are catapulted into a different time, where there are no signs of any other human beings. Initially Heinlein turns sections of this book into a survival manual. Farnham is a prepper, but still has to work out how to build a (small) aqueduct, and we're right there with him for a blow-by-blow account. There's a bit of Swiss Family Robinson in here - to start with, at least. And then everything changes when they discover that they've been catapulted 2000 years into the future where the African and Asian peoples who were not wiped out in the mutually destructive US-Russian war, are now a technically advanced civilisation which runs on slavery.

This has not aged well in the 65 years since publication, and was probably problematic, even then, with its racism and sexism. It has to be judged as a piece of history, possibly one that we would prefer to forget. I can see that Heinlein was trying to write something approaching satire, but in doing do, created blatant stereotypes. Bear in mind that he was writing this as Martin Luther King was making his ‘I have a dream’ speech. His reversal of racial roles is clumsy and (good grief!) the dark-skinned people have a penchant for cannibalism. (Yes, really!) All the characters are unlovable. Grace is permanently drunk, drugged insensible, or high, and is Klansman-level racist. The son, Duke, is not much better, racist-wise. Hugh prides himself on treating Joseph as an equal, which he does, but there's still a certain air of condescension. Karen, the daughter, is a bit of an air head, and Barbara, having fallen for Hugh (goodness knows why) only wants to do what he wants her to do in order to please him. The female characters are weak and dependent.

Also, stylistically it feels a bit stilted with people calling each other by their names in dialogue rather more than modern authors would allow. ("Well, Mr. Farnham, what do you think? "I think we're going to die, Barbara."). Dialogue - especially the women's - is stiff an unrealistic.

This is not an easy book to swallow. Tom Weiner is the narrator, and he reads it like it's written, i.e. somewhat stiff and formal, He does well with male voices, but less well with the female ones. The narration works as the period piece it is.

The book wouldn’t pass muster today.

Audiobook narrated by Nicole Pool and Teri Schnaubelt

Organic worldships, peopled by women, are part of the Legion, but ships/worlds are slowly dying.

Zan awakes on Katazyrna with no memory after trying to enter a world-ship called the Mokshi - again. She has survived the raid, barely, but hasn't succeeded in gaining either entry or knowledge. Her sister, Jayd is the daughter of Anat, leader of the Katazyrna, a clan that lives by raiding other worlds. They have their sights set on the Mokshi, but so does the Bhavaja clan, their sworn enemies. Zan and Jayd have a plan, unfortunately Zan can't remember it, but Jayd forges ahead - sent to the Bhavajas by her unfeeling mother to marry Rasida, the murderous Bhavaja leader. This is to seal a truce, but the Bhavaja's break the truce immediately. Katazyrna is compromised and Zan is recycled to the dark and dangerous lower levels, findng new companions and reclaiming threads of memory (most of them not very useful).

I'm sorry if this description sounds garbled. The story is complex. People are either not who they thought they were or are unreliable narrators. The world concept is strange. There's a lot of slime and gore, a high body-count, grand-scale lies and betrayal. The worldbuilding is, in part, brilliant, but let down by lack of clarity. Sure, you can just go with it, but the worldships are never explained, we have no idea of their size or shape, or how they work. Yes everyone is a lesbian - hard not to be in a world of women, and what does it matter anyway? Women get pregnant spontaneously, and give birth to things that the worldships require, not necessarily to children - in fact children are very rare and seem to be prized, however adults are largely canon-fodder, their lives discarded willy-nilly.

Yes, I know this book won a Hugo, but there were times when I almost gave up on it, however, credit where it's due, the narrators did an excellent job and I gritted my teeth an made it to the end - just.

Narrated by Louise Brealey

Set in 1648 Alinor, a wise woman crushed by poverty helps a young man to safety in the ever-shifting tidelands, not realising until it’s too late that he is a proscribed Catholic priest and possible spy. Sadly, this did not hold my interest, maybe because the narration wasn’t very gripping. I reached Chapter Five. Did not finish.

I listened to this via audiobook, some three years after the first reading. It's narrated by Amara Jasper. It's a love story on many levels, and I think that was more obvious on the second 'reading.' Amara Jasper manages the different character voices very well. Once again I loved it.

In my review of the Kindle version, I said: I love T. Kingfisher's writing. She's a buy on sight author for me, even her horror books (and generally I don't read horror). This is not horror, it's a fantasy with fairy tale elements: a princess (youngest of three); a dog made of bones; a dust wife who speaks with the dead; a steadfast knight rescued from a goblin market; a chicken inhabited by a demon; two godmothers (fairy variety); and a cruel prince. Marra's two older sisters have been married off (sequentially) to the cruel prince of a powerful northern kingdom. The first mysteriously died, and the second is wearing herself out, staying pregnant to avoid his beatings. Marra, hidden away in a convent in case the prince kills the second sister and needs a third wife, decides to do something about the situation, and sets off to murder the prince. She knows she can't do it alone so she enlists the help of the dust wife who sets her three impossible tasks. These are a nice bit of misdirection. This is not the story you think it's going to be. Marra and the dust wife set off to do the dirty deed (with the demon chicken and the bone dog) and pick up the steadfast knight and one fairy godmother along the way.