I last did this kind of post about 9 months ago, so I thought it was time for a refresher on 'the kind of books that do not turn Grac's crank' - as always, ymmv and someone out there is bound to be thinking that I wouldn't know good writing if it kicked me in the arse for including one or more of the following:
- Surrender None and Liar's Oath by Elizabeth Moon - the prequels to Moon's better known Paksennarion books, I'd heard good things about this series regardless of authorly misbehaviour. I found the first quite tedious and the second not a great deal better and bailed midway through.
- A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliot - I can see why some people loved this book but I just wanted to shake the protagonist till she rattled.
- The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson - the basic premise (what if the Black Death had pretty much put a stop to Western civilisation?) was intriguing but the book itself, not so much.
- The Usurper's Crown by Sarah Zettel - loved the first book, enjoyed the series as a whole, but is it really a good idea to have a prequel as book 2 in a series? Nope.
- Noir by K.W. Jeter - writing that cries 'look at me, I am so cool and edgy!' usually isn't either, imho.
- The Poison Tree by Tony Strong - mediocre mystery set in Cambridge gets subsumed by writer's desire to shock with kinky sex
- The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway - apparently people either tend to love or hate this book, there is no middle ground
- The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman - yes, if you try hard enough it is possible to make Tudor times and Dr John Dee boring, honest!
- The Dante Trap by Arnaud Delalande - see above and change to 18th century Venice and a serial killer replicating the nine circles of Hell
Fortunately this is just a sliver of what I read the rest of the time, so it's not all bad! However life is really too short to read stuff that doesn't hit your buttons, not when there's other stuff out there that's much better...
