Book Review: Sci-fi, fantasy, and medieval murder mysteries
I’m doing something little different for a blog post and wrote some short reviews for the novels I read this summer.
Book #1: Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
I’ve had this sci-fi book in my bookshelf for a very long time and had never read it (well, I had few years ago meant to but never got it). I kept my expectations low, mainly because I didn’t know what to expect from this type of genre of books. I’ve read books that are probably classified as sci-fi but the only space opera novel I’ve read before was The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds many years ago. Thankfully all the sci-fi stuff wasn’t too confusing to understand and honestly, I’m glad that there wasn’t too much technical spleech because not everything needs to be explained in worldbuilding and sci-fi doesn’t have to be overly realistic despite the “science” in fiction. I was surprised about the romance plotline, but I like romance and thankfully it was some good romance that made me root for the couple :D
I enjoyed this book so much that I read it in a week. The survival parts of the first part of the book were fun to read - I could have even enjoyed the whole book being just about the survival story, but I did also enjoy the other later introduced plotlines. The book features interesting cultures and worldbuilding. However, during the latter half of the book I got quite confused with many of the character names beginning with the prefix “Vor”.
I discovered that this book is part of one big storyline, and it saddens me that only the first book was translated to Finnish (though that might have something to do with the publishing house “Myrskykustannus” not existing anymore). Oh well, then I have to read the other parts in English.
Book #2 and #3: The Last Wish & Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski
I read the first two books belonging to the Witcher series around June and July. I also volunteered this summer at a medieval fair so they were quite fitting books to read around that time. I didn’t pretty much know anything about this series besides it being fantasy and that it also is a video game series. I don’t have that many notes about these books since I forgot to make them before I intended to write this compilation of book reviews. Overall, they were enjoyable to read, even got a laugh from me at few points, and I liked the format of every chapter being a short story. I also liked all the references to legends, folklore and fairytales, such as Beaty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and even The Wild Swans, I think? My favorite recurring side character was Dandelion (named Valvatti in the Finnish translation). Definitely will continue with this series at some point.
Book #4: Dissolution by C. J. Sansom
This is one of those books that I have previously read a part of, before putting it down. It has probably been ten years since then and my teenager self’s consensus at the time that it was “too boring” and “it took long for things to happen”. Having finally read it now I don’t really understand what I was thinking back then, maybe it felt too “adult”. I also didn’t have the same appreciation for historical accuracy and the details of medieval society, that are part of this novel, as now. Since it’s a murder mystery, of course I won’t spoil it, but it stars the disabled protagonist named Matthew Shardlake who is tasked with investigating a murder in a monastery. The novel is set in 16th century, during the time when reformation is happening and the monasteries in England are going through dissolution. This one also happens to be the first book of a series, which I might continue with if I find any of the sequels.