Hello and welcome to this Short and Sweet review roundup for September 2023, in which I’m taking a quick look at another three books that I’ve read (or listened to) recently. This time I’ve gone for quite the mixture of genres and styles, including a female-driven historical fantasy novel, a Star Wars audiobook that delves deep into the Dark Side, and a science fiction novel which sets a locked-room murder mystery on an isolated space ship. So read on to find out more, and if you’ve read any of these books yourself then do let me know what you thought of them too!
Children of Gods and Fighting Men by Shauna Lawless
The debut novel from Shauna Lawless, and book one in the Gael Song series, this effortlessly blends fantasy and historical fiction, the end result being a gripping tale of power, politics, magic and machination in 10th century Ireland. On the surface it’s a story of two women from vastly differing magical bloodlines – Gormflaith, one of the last surviving Fomorians, and Fódla, of the Tuatha Dé Danann – whose blood and beliefs place them at odds with each other. As they take their own, very different paths through human society though, the story becomes about how they steer events, shaping history in ways large and small, deliberate and unintentional.
I’d been meaning to read this for ages but hadn’t got around to it, so I was delighted to see it on the shortlist for the British Fantasy Award that I was on the jury for. I don’t read that much historical fiction/fantasy, but I’m not sure why because I always seem to enjoy it, and this was no exception. There’s not actually that much fantasy in it, and if you took away the magic it would stand up very well as straight historical fiction, brilliantly researched and beautifully told. Gormflaith and Fódla are both great characters in their own right (so good to see such a female-driven story), each one offering an interesting perspective on the changing realities of life in Ireland at the time, and the focus is very much on politics and soft power rather than action and adventure. I blasted through this in no time at all, and can’t wait to read book two, The Words of Kings and Prophets (which is out now).
Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah S. Dawson
The story of a Jedi who survived the fall of the Jedi Order, and became one of the Empire’s most feared new servants, this follows Iskat Akaris from her time as a Padawan all the way to the terrible events of Order 66 and beyond. It’s the story of an outsider who never fitted into the rigid structures of the Jedi, who always felt she was feared and misunderstood, and how that primed her perfectly for manipulation and, ultimately, the Dark Side. Yes, it’s a book about the Inquisition, but as well over half the book takes place before Order 66 it’s really more about the Jedi, their failings, and in a sense the inevitability of their fall.
If, like me, you aren’t that well up on Star Wars lore but think the red lightsaber-wielding Inquisitors make for great villains, this is the book to read to understand more about who they are, and why they exist. At times I found some of the characters and their motivations to be a little blunt and unsubtle, and it took me a little while to really feel like I was engaged with and committed to the story, but overall I thought it did a good job of exploring the grey area between the Jedi and the Sith. In particular I enjoyed Dawson’s determination to portray the Jedi’s flaws, and encourage the reader to consider what their own response would be in that situation. This isn’t the book for you if you want something entirely from an Inquisitor’s viewpoint, but that was ok by me – I’d probably have preferred a more even balance between Jedi Iskat and Inquisitor Iskat, but I can live with the imbalance.
I listened to this in audio, and while the music and SFX took a little while to get used to (most audiobooks being narration-only, after all), I grew to rather like the different sense of immersion that the whole package offered, with Kristen Sieh doing a great job with the narration.
Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson
When is a space opera not a space opera? When it’s written by Tade Thompson, who explains in his afterword to Far From the Light of Heaven that he doesn’t actually think this novel is a space opera…although blurbs from SF royalty like Martha Wells disagree! Whatever you want to call it, at its heart it’s a locked room mystery on a spaceship – after 10 years asleep, Michelle Campion wakes up to find the AI captain of her ship Ragtime is offline, and a whole bunch of passengers have been messily murdered. An investigator from their destination planet comes onboard to figure out what happened, but before long they’re fighting to survive against all manner of malfunctions and strange happenings on Ragtime.
For the first half of the book I was totally sold, as it developed from locked room mystery into creepy haunted house spaceship mystery – there were some weird goings-on, but it felt like the sort of book where you trust that everything will make sense in the end. As it got closer to the end though, it just started to feel overcomplicated, with some characters and ideas that I’m just not sure were necessary. There’s loads of great world building that I enjoyed a lot, but also an aliens element that – if you removed it – I think would actually make the book better, and allow for more time spent digging into the key characters. Campion is a great protagonist, super capable without feeling too perfect, but the investigator – Fin – could maybe do with a bit more development. All told there’s lots to enjoy, but I didn’t feel like it lived up to the promise of the first half.
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That’s all for this Short and Sweet roundup – if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading and I hope you found that interesting! I’ll be back soon with another review roundup and more books to talk about, but in the meantime if you have any comments about these roundups, or if there’s anything else you’d like to see me cover, do let me know. You can drop me a line in the comments below, or find me on social media.
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