C Gockel Writes

Book Review: The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

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Book Review: The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

$1.99 on Amazon US & Canada September 11, 2023
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada
(also available in United Kingdom, Germany, Australia)

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This isn’t really a review–it’s a heads up that this book is currently on sale in the U.S. I have read the entire series, and it is well worth your time. This is technically the second book in the series, but it can be read as a standalone.

Features authentic emotions and complex characters set in a mythological world reminiscent of ancient Greece. If you can’t get it at your favorite vendor, check your library. It is traditionally published, and a NYTimes Bestseller.

From the blurb:

Discover and rediscover the world of the Queen’s Thief, from the acclaimed novel The Thief to the thrilling, twenty-years-in-the-making conclusion, The Return of the Thief. The epic novels set in the world of the Queen’s Thief can be read in any order.

New York Times-bestselling author Megan Whalen Turner’s entrancing and award-winning Queen’s Thief novels bring to life the world of the epics and feature one of the most charismatic and incorrigible characters of fiction, Eugenides the thief. Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief novels are rich with political machinations and intrigue, battles lost and won, dangerous journeys, divine intervention, power, passion, revenge, and deception. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, Patrick Rothfuss, and George R. R. Martin.

The brilliant thief Eugenides has visited the Queen of Attolia’s palace one too many times, leaving small tokens and then departing unseen. When his final excursion does not go as planned, he is captured by the ruthless queen. The Queen’s Thief novels have been praised by writers, critics, reviewers, and fans and have been honored with glowing reviews, “best of” citations, and numerous awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Newbery Honor, the Andre Norton Award shortlist, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. 

This edition of The Queen of Attolia includes “Knife Dance,” an exclusive story about Eugenides by Megan Whalen Turner, an introduction to the characters from the world of the Queen’s Thief, and a map of the world of the Queen’s Thief.

Book Review: Wolf’s Head (The Forest Lord Book 1) by Steven A. McKay

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Book Review: Wolf's Head (The Forest Lord Book 1) by Steven A. McKay

Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

I picked this very accessible retelling of the Robin Hood legend on recommendation of my author friend, Steve Beaulieu. I really enjoy the books from the time period, I respect Steve’s opinion, and I decided to take a chance.

The descriptions of the 1300s aren’t as detailed as in the Dooms Day Book (one of my favorite book of all time!) and Winter Pilgrims (also highly recommended.)

That said. I’m now three books in. The characters are very relatable, the tone upbeat, it’s very exciting, and the plot is fast paced, but with enough introspection to make me care.

If you’re looking for a rousing adventure in the middle ages, and a great retelling of Robin Hood, I recommend it.

Currently, Wolf’s Head is only available on Amazon. It is in Kindle Unlimited if you are a subscriber in that program.

Book Reviews: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

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Book Reviews: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

$1.99 as of April 16, 2023 in United States
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(Also available in Canada, Australia, United Kingdom)

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Editor’s Note: This is one of my favorite books of all time. Sometimes darkly humorous, always heartfelt and engaging.

“A tour de force.”—The New York Times Book Review

Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering, and the indomitable will of the human spirit.

For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity’s history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received.

But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin—barely of age herself—finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history’s darkest hours.

Book Review: Decision at Doona by Anne McCaffrey

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Book Review: Decision at Doona by Anne McCaffrey

Available at: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia

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This is a book of alien contact that I found charming … and charmingly dated in some ways! In the book the human settlers and members of an alien village get along just fine. Their respective governments, not so much.

Although the setup envisions populations on Earth that will likely never happen, the ennui of “captive” urban populations is prescient. Also, the desire for resources, and the human (and alien!) need for freedom and meaning.

Book Review (with caveats): Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britains Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben Macintyre

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Book Review (with caveats): Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britains Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben Macintyre

Available at: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay and your Public Library!

This book is greatly flawed with factual inaccuracies that make me want to give some people a stern talking too. It is also entertaining and informative if one reads between the lines.

I first became aware of Rogue Heroes through the BBC docuseries of the same name. It tells the adventures of the Brit’s guerrilla fighting force, the SAS, in the Sahara during WWII. The descriptions of the desert and the characters was very entertaining. However, watching it I was struck by something: the character of “Paddy” Maine the “mad Irishman” seemed to be not of a person, but of a stereotype of an Irish person. (In the U.S. the Irish are very accepted. Not so all over the world.)

[Read more…]

Book Reviews: Seeing Like a State – How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott

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This was one of the best books I’ve ever read, and yet I’ve hesitated to write a review. It’s a difficult book to the describe, it’s a book that goes beyond being anti-Communist or anti-Capitalist to something much deeper.

States, whether capitalist or communist, want things that are orderly and commodifiable. They want to be able to count things, take those numbers, plug them into an equation and compute worker productivity, GDP, tax rates, or how many grains of food stuff can be grown on one acre of land. They want to know how much each acre of land is worth, each house, each tree, each plot of land, and each person.

This book is a fascinating study of how countries, communist, capitalist, and in the middle try to make things more easily countable–and how that results in famines, environmental destruction, and emotional misery.

It isn’t boring. The book is told with anecdotes of grand failures that result when planners, far away from their planning in both consequence and space really Fuck Things Up–whilst thinking they’re being very smart and scientific. It’s entertaining and troubling. It’s also actionable and can help us build better cities, help our farmers, foresters, and natural habitats.

It’s not exactly hopeful to realize your state sees you as a widget in a giant machine.

But society isn’t a machine and we’re not a widgets. Society is much more like an ecosystem, constantly evolving in response to the environment, and we’re the organisms within it, flowing through the ecosystem based on our needs and wants, and we’re smarter together as a collective than any central planner.

If you know your state wants to widgefy you, you can work with that knowledge, and fight plans that attempt to cement you into widget status and make you poorer, less healthy, and miserable.

I highly recommend this book. It will help you identify the “widgetification” of you, animals, and natural resources. You cannot fight something if you don’t know it is happening.

Other essential readings include: The Intelligence Trap, Free Speech – A History from Socrates to Social Media, and The True Believer