Mars Reborn (Moon People #2)

Mars Reborn (Moon People #2)

by Dale M. Courtney

Blurb:

This Book is based on Earth into a new era of light speed travel thanks to the Powleens from a world called Sybon. And the adventure of 1st Science Officer Commander David Braymer’s journey on board his new ship called the Aurora, ”The Goddess of the Dawn”, Commander Braymer does a successful genesis and Colonization of Mars and resurrects Martians and animals that were frozen 100,000 years with mental powers. With also the war between worlds for control of the Galaxy with Earth and Powleens against the Arcons and the Thracians.

My Reaction:

Donald and I read this together to fill in a gap between books for the 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back podcast.  We read the first one along with the podcast, back in 2022, so when we noticed that the rest of the trilogy was available on Kindle Unlimited, we decided to give it a try.  

This would be another great candidate for the podcast, though I don't know if they'll want to return to the series. Lots of fodder here.  It certainly didn't fail to entertain us, and I wouldn't mind reading the last book in the series, one of these days.  It does take some extra effort to read, what with the lack of quotation marks in a very dialogue-heavy book!  I think the comedy value is worth the trouble, though.

The Legend of Rah & the Muggles

The Legend of Rah & the Muggles

by N.K. Stouffer

Blurb:

In another land far from the shoreline of Aura, war was raging, and Lady Catherine launched a raft with precious cargo aboard, her two infant sons. She wrapped the boys in royal blankets and quilts, and packed a jewel box filled with bright rubies and other gemstones between them. The raft drifted away with no charted destination but the babies' survival.

My Reaction:
Yet another 372-Pages read, shared with Donald, as usual.  

I'm updating my reading blog after four months or so, and I had almost forgotten this one.  How is that even possible?  

Top three things I remember about this book:

1.  You'll get whiplash from the stylistic changes in the beginning of the book.  It starts by recounting a nuclear war that causes (part of) the human race to mutate into a new species, then it turns into a wanna-be Harlequin romance, and then it morphs into a children's fairy-tale fantasy.  All within the first few chapters, if I recall correctly.  (It wanders off into something else later on, but I'll leave that for others to describe...)

2.  So many elements of the story are left hanging.  Zero payoff.  Highly annoying!  

3.  Do you vaguely remember that someone accused J.K. Rowling of plagiarizing her work with the Harry Potter series?  This is that book/author.  It's all absolute nonsense.  

Bonus thing I remember about this book:  There's a song, complete with lyrics and sheet music (though apparently it's as poorly composed as the rest of the book).  Some listeners recorded themselves playing or singing this song, and it still pops into my head from time to time, several weeks later.  Send help. 

The Land of the Moepek

The Adventures of the Teen Archaeologists: The Land of the Moepek

by Larry Elis and Denise Brown Elise

Blurb:

Three teenagers Billy who is seventeen, Thomas who is sixteen and Rebecca who is fifteen are from Britain and are the children of archaeologists. During a family vacation to Africa they meet Samirah and her two best friends Adam and Atikah. The six teenagers travel through the Pyramid of the Moepek and find their way to the underground city of the Moepek civilization using an ancient map. They not only encounter wild animals, dinosaurs, warriors, and assassins, but also realize they they are prisoners in the strange underground world. There is Naeduur who is the head warrior in charge of protecting the king and his royal family. Naeduur is furious at the six teens for entering into the Land of the Moepek. Naeduur would like nothing more than to destroy the teenagers. There is also Isabella. She is very powerful and can perform all kinds of magic. She will stop at nothing to destroy her enemies and those that get in her way. The Land of the Moepek is full of traitors and plots to destroy the entire royal family. Princess Assuenta with the help of the Teen Archaeologists must work to stop the assassination of her father the king and the destruction of her entire family. Not even her parents believe their daughter the princess. Princess Assuenta must find a way to make them believe or her father will die. The people of the Moepek are an extremely wealthy civilization with riches beyond the teens' imaginations. But all their wealth means nothing if they can't survive the gigantic flying dinosaurs and the gigantic gorilla creature that threatens them.

My Reaction:

(This was another 372-Pages We'll Never Get Back selection and a shared read with Donald.)

So.  What can one say about The Land of the Moepek, really?  It is utterly bananas and hilarious—just read the blurb for a tiny taste of the writing style.  

If you're the right kind of reader, this book (and the podcast episodes devoted to it) will be a source of amazing entertainment.  If you're not, you'll be convinced we're all nuts, my friend.  (Sorry, that was more a reference to the authors' other novel, Antigua: The Land of Fairies, Wizards and Heroes—also covered by 372 Pages and also highly recommended.)

I'm giving it 5 stars out of appreciation for the joy it gave.  

The Starlight Barking

The Starlight Barking

by Dodie Smith

Blurb:

Dodie Smith's The Hundred and One Dalmatians, later adapted by Disney, was declared a classic when first published in 1956. The Starlight Barking, Dodie's own long-forgotten sequel, is a thrilling new adventure for Pongo and his family, lavishly illustrated by the same artist team as the first book. As the story opens, every living creature except dogs is gripped by an enchanted sleep. One of the original Dalmatian puppies, all grown up since the first novel, is now the Prime Minister's mascot. Relying on her spotted parents for guidance, she assumes emergency leadership for the canine population of England. Awaiting advice from Sirius, the Dog Star, dogs of every breed crowd Trafalgar Square to watch the evening skies. The message they receive is a disturbing proposition, one that might forever destroy their status as "man's best friend."

My Reaction:

(This was another 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back read with Donald.)

It's been decades since I've seen Disney's adaptation of the first book, and I've never read it (though I have read I Capture the Castle multiple times, and seen the film version).  I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but I certainly wasn't expecting this.  It's... Well, it's just weird.  

It's impossible to say how I'd have felt about this as a member of its target audience—that is, a child, or at least someone who had read and loved the first book as a child.  Would I have found it charming or dull?  As an adult, I found there were a few oddities that stuck out (such as the strange bits about the different dog breeds and the importance of maintaining breed standards), but for the most part it was simply a bit boring.  Some elements were rather dark for children, too (thinking specifically of Sirius' motivation for whisking all the dogs away from Earth, which is a spoiler, but... Eh, I don't think it'll be a problem!)

It's a strange book, to say the least.  

 

I didn't know much about Dodie Smith's life before starting this, and was surprised to learn that she and her husband moved to live in the U.S. during WWII, because he was a conscientious objector.  That's interesting, given some of the jokes made on the 372-Pages podcast.  

I hardly know how to rate this one.  Personally, I didn't enjoy the book. 

Edison's Conquest of Mars

Edison's Conquest of Mars

by Garrett P. Serviss

My Blurb:

One edition falsely describes this as "an absolutely wonderful SF masterpiece", but then says it was written in 1947, so that shows how much they know!  It's actually a newspaper serial first published in the late 1800s.  Anyway... the same blurb that got the year wrong goes on to say the following:

"Edison's Conquest of Mars is a science fiction novel by American astronomer and writer Garrett P. Serviss. It was written as a sequel to Fighters from Mars, an unauthorized and heavily altered version of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. It has a place in the history of science fiction for its early employment of themes and motifs that later became staples of the genre."

Following the events of The War of the Worlds, in which Martians attack and lay waste to huge areas of Earth, humans across the globe must rally an effort to defend their planet from a repeat attack.  Fortunately for them, they are led by that amazing inventor and heroic warrior... Thomas Edison!  Will their efforts succeed (as is heavily implied by the title of this book)?  You'll have to read to find out! (Or not.  The title kind of gives it away, really.)

My Reaction:

Donald and I read this together for the 372 Pages We Won't Get Back podcast/book club.  

I haven't read much (any?) "space-themed" science fiction, though I've watched my share of TV shows and movies set in space.  Serviss apparently was the first or one of the first authors to write about... space suits, I think it was.  He also has a few other ideas that will be familiar to anyone who reads, views, or otherwise consumes space-y sci-fi.  

I give him credit for his creativity, but sadly, he wasn't much of a fiction-writer.  He had terrible pacing, practically no attempt at characterization, only the most barebone plot, and zero flair for storytelling.  Just awful, really.  Maybe a child without any expectations or experience of quality writing might enjoy this.  For everyone else, it's a curiosity, at best.  The occasional moments of unintended humor are the best thing this has going for it.  

One thing that particularly annoyed me about this book:

On the one hand, Serviss' version of Edison is an unapparelled genius, in this tale.  He reverse engineers alien technology (only his version is even better, don'tchaknow), conceptualizes and whips up new inventions and improvements on the fly (all behind the scenes, of course), and basically has the most amazing brain God has ever given a man.  

On the other hand, he continually makes idiotic strategic mistakes, at the cost of the other men's lives!  

"Hey!  There are some Martians coming!  Mr. Edison, should we use our powerful weapons to safely destroy them before they get too close, seeing as how they tried to annihilate us all on Earth just a while ago?"  

Edison says no.  Let's just wait and see what happens, first.  

Shocking surprise:  The Martians attack.  Many men are killed.

Edison:  "Oopsie!  Well, okay... Yeah, let's use our death ray... I guess..."  

And he never learns!  Some variation on this happens at least a few different times.  When you're on a mission to Mars to avenge Earth and protect it from further harm, you don't dilly-dally and pussyfoot, man!  You kill-kill-kill until every last Martian is dead.  (Or at least that's what I'd do, probably.  Hey, they started it with an unprovoked attack, and for all Edison's genius, it was only by a stroke of fortune that Earth's heroes were able to achieve the "conquest".  The Martians would be very lucky if I left any of them alive.)

Conclusion:  Glad to leave this one behind!

 

Death in Kenya

Death in Kenya
by M.M. Kaye

(Edited) Blurb:

When Victoria Caryll is offered a position at Flamingo, her aunt's family estate in Kenya's Rift Valley, she accepts-- knowing full well that the move will mean seeing Eden DeBrett once again.  She was once engaged to Eden, but it's been years since he broke her heart and married someone else.  The desire to return to Kenya, her childhood home, is strong, but she doesn't realize that the Rift Valley is now an unstable region still recovering from the bloody Mau Mau revolt. Worse yet, her aunt's household has just been thrown into grief and chaos by a gruesome murder. 

My Reaction:

I've been slowly working my way through M.M. Kaye's "Death" series of mystery novels.  After this one, there's only one left, and I'll be sad to see the end of them.  They're solid suspense novels set in the 1950s.  I think of them as historical, but I guess that's not technically true, as they were contemporary when written and published.  Still, to a modern reader, they have that very specific quality of mysteries written in the golden age of the mystery novel.  The "Death" series are all set in exotic locales, too, with the powerful atmosphere of the setting usually acting almost as a character in its own right.  

This was exactly what you'd expect it to be, if you're familiar with any other books from this series. It's very much a book "of its time", meaning that some of the attitudes might rub modern readers the wrong way.  Some are disturbed by the colonialism.  Others might be annoyed by statements like this:  "Eden's superior male intelligence had saved her from disaster..."  What's that, now?  To be fair, this heroine probably is of inferior intelligence, but why the need to include the word "male" there?  Surely the author didn't believe that men are generally more intelligent than women!  Then there's the irritating old trope of the momentarily unhinged woman needing to be slapped back to her senses due to hysterical laughter.  How much these things ruin the reading experience will vary from reader to reader.  I can overlook them, for the most part.  

I'd give this 3.5 stars if I could, but I'll have to round down to three for a variety of reasons-- coming down mainly to my gut reaction to the book. (That's how I determine most of my star ratings...)  But despite my quibbles, it's a great choice for escaping to a different place and time.  I do recommend Kaye to fans of Agatha Christie or Mary Stewart.  I can always count on these authors to deliver fiction that's charmingly unlike anything being written today.  (Or anything that I've come across, at least!)  The romance element is slight, but the mystery kept me guessing and uncertain until the end.  I saw one reviewer describe the conclusion as sad, and I'd agree, but on the whole, it's an entertaining read.  

Gump & Co.

Gump & Co.
by Winston Groom


Blurb:

The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. has gone bust and now Forrest is flat broke, sweeping floors in a New Orleans strip joint, when a fresh opportunity to play championship football puts him back in the limelight—and in the money. But fate turns fickle again, and he's soon out on the road selling phony encyclopedias and trying to raise his son, little Forrest, who needs his father more than ever.

Forrest's remarkable, touching, and utterly comic odyssey has just begun: in store for him is an explosive attempt at hog farming; his own dubious recipe for adding life to New Coke; an encounter with Oliver North of the Iran-Contra affair; and a chance yet again to unwittingly twist the nose of history.

My Reaction:

First things first:  This was another "372 Pages We'll Never Get Back" podcast/book club selection.  Like all the others, it was a shared read with Donald.  We'd both seen the movie before, but never read the first book.  I vaguely remembered having heard that the movie veered sharply from the book, and I had the impression that it wasn't something I would enjoy.  I'm not sure I even knew there was a sequel, but I wouldn't have cared if I had known.  

There's not much to say about this one... It's just boring!  As a native of coastal Alabama, it's vaguely interesting to see Mobile and one or two other local-ish places mentioned in the pages of a book, but the novelty wears off pretty quickly when there's nothing to back it up.  Simply mentioning that a character is in Mobile doesn't exactly paint a picture.  There's zero local color, unless you count Forrest's bizarre, exaggerated accent.  There's no atmosphere of the South, in my opinion.  (And one or two things about this book are rather insulting and annoying to me, as a born and bred Southerner.  These are cheap choices that show a painful lack of imagination and creativity.)  

Then there's the fact that the cover shows Forrest with his young son, so you expect that his son will play a large role in the story.  That's misleading.  Now, it's not that I loved "Little Forrest" or wanted more of the character in the book, but intentionally misleading covers irritate me.  

Nothing about this lived up to my already modest expectations.  The historical references are either dull or depressing, and there's precious little humor to be found in a book that's intended to amuse.  It's a dud.  

I'm sad to say that even the podcast didn't make this read particularly enjoyable.  It seemed to be a struggle to find much to say about it, and-- eh, I'm just glad this one's over.  Time for something different, thank goodness!

Antigua: The Land of Fairies, Wizards and Heroes

Antigua: The Land of Fairies, Wizards and Heroes

by Denise Brown Ellis and Larry Ellis

My Blurb:

Take hunks, chunks, and nuggets of ideas from some of the best-selling and most beloved fantasy novels and movies of the past hundred years.  Chop them up and reassemble them haphazardly.  Throw in some cuckoo ideas of your own to counterbalance the clichés and tropes.  Apply a liberal dose of exclamation marks-- and voilà!  You have this book!  

My Reaction:

(This was another reading assignment for the 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back book club podcast.  As such, it was a shared read-aloud with Donald.)  

Well.  What is there to say?  Where can you even begin?  Taken as a serious effort, this is not good.  It borrows too heavily from better works, characters are cardboard cutouts, it's repetitive and poorly-paced, and there are errors, plot holes (in the thinnest plot imaginable), and way too many exclamation marks.  

However, this is one of those books you simply can't judge against the same standard as a normal book, especially when you go into it knowing it's not a good book (by any stretch of the imagination).  It was a lot of fun to read and dissect, even without taking the podcast into account.  As much as it "borrows" blatantly steals from fantasy classics, it also occasionally throws a curve ball that you would never see coming, even if you were to spend hours guessing.  And ultimately, it has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, which is more than I can say about many objectively better-written books I've read!

Stormswift

Stormswift

by Madeleine Brent

(Heavily-Edited) Blurb:

The year is 1897. Deep in the mountain wilderness of the Hindu Kush, a 17-year-old English girl is brought to the primitive tribal kingdom of Shul, where she lives the life of a slave.  After two long years, she has the chance to escape back to her home in England, where she believes she will step back into her life as Jemimah Lawley and finally inherit her parents' wealth and luxurious home.  The hazardous journey takes her across Afghanistan with a man who hates her.  Little does she know that even more difficulties await her in England.  Is she truly Jemimah Lawley, or is she suffering from a delusion caused by her degrading ordeal as Lalla of Shul? Soon she is plunged into a new world, where she finds there are others who, like herself, are perhaps not what they seem to be. Life in England brings her strange adventures and a touching friendship, but also the heartbreak of love without hope. 

My Reaction:

So far, nothing else of Madeleine Brent's has lived up to my memory of Moonraker's Bride!  Stormswift is a pretty good read, but it's not a favorite.  At first, I felt it was going to be very similar to the last MB book I read, Golden Urchin, but then the story veers... I prefer Golden Urchin, though that had flaws, too... I will say this-- for a book that is very predictable in many ways, it still surprised me a few times!  I didn't see some of it coming, perhaps because so much happens in this novel that it's impossible to predict everything.  Stormswift did a good job of holding my interest.  I was entertained more often than not, but some things about this book did annoy me.  If you're not afraid of spoilers, read on.  

Hey, did you catch that?  

SPOILERS to follow!  

(As well as spoilers for Golden Urchin... and Rebecca!)

Stop reading now to avoid 

BIG,

BAD,

INFURIATING

SPOILERS!

I had problems with the hero in Golden Urchin.  For much of the book, he gave the heroine the hot/cold treatment and was frequently brusque with her as a result of his self-disgust.  He was angry with himself for being attracted to her while his beloved wife was slowly wasting away.  It wasn't fun to read.  Not my taste for a romance, at all.  

So when this book came along with a strong-and-silent hero figure-- Casper, the man who is Jemimah's unwilling rescuer-- and he's surly to her, but no-one else-- and then we eventually learn he is already married-- I assumed we were in for more of the same.  Another Golden Urchin-style, rather disappointing romance.  

This seems even more likely when we are told how amazing his wife, Melanie, is-- just like the tragic first wife in Golden Urchin.  I'll admit, I was disgusted with Melanie long before we were supposed to be!  She's soooo beautiful that men can't drag their eyes off of her, but somehow (because she seems so pure-hearted?) none of the wives of those men are resentful (as they usually would be, so the author annoyingly informs us-- because women are so petty that way, you know-- not like men, who are perfectly happy when other, more handsome, wealthy, or witty men attract the breathless attention of every woman in the vicinity).  No, women love Melanie, too.  She's just so, so, SO good, no-one can help but love her.  She's just that special!  BLEURGH.  

...Anyway, at some point you start to think that maybe Melanie is based on "Rebecca" from... Rebecca.  And if you think that, you're right.  She is (complete with the hideaway).  She's not pure.  Well, unless I interrupted before you could finish saying "pure evil".  She's wicked and rotten to the core, and poor Casper is tethered to a monster he can't escape, despite his love for Jemimah. (You're shocked, right?)  

Now, I still don't like the idea of "second-hand goods" in a romance of this kind.  Something in the nebulous and/or distant past?  Okay, fine, but please don't make the heroine meet, know, and even love the first wife/girlfriend.  I just don't want to read about that in a romance.  (It's depressing.  It's too close to real life.  It's not remotely "romantic", in my opinion.  I just don't LIKE it, okay?  I'm a horrible person who doesn't find romantic escapism in the thought of the heroine selflessly picking up the pieces after a man's wife has died under tragic circumstances.  Shame on me, I guess.  Whatever. It's not romance-novel-y enough for me.)

...But.  When the first wife is a "bitch-goddess" (hey, just quoting the book), I don't mind it quite as much.  Still not thrilled with the situation, but at least it's not a case of, "Oh, his first wife was a beautiful saint on Earth; how can he ever stoop to marry humble little me after having loved someone like her?  But if he doesn't mind me too much,  I'll happily devote my whole life to making him comfortable!  Even the stale, musty crumbs of his love would be a veritable feast!"  !!YUCK!!  

At this point, I was just interested to see how the author would do away with Melanie so that Casper could be free to marry Jemimah.  It helped that Casper had finally started talking to Jemimah in complete sentences, so you could at least begin to form him as a character in your mind.  (Speaking of settling for crumbs!  "Thank you, kind author, for sparing the time to give us lowly readers a snippet of conversation between the apparent hero and heroine!  You are too, too good to us, O Genius of the Pen!") 

However, the author had something else in mind.  Jemimah won't end up with the attractive spy (who is also a brainy archaeologist!).  Oh, no.  Instead, she realizes she's in love with her rather goofy friend, the Punch and Judy man (who's actually a very wealthy member of the nobility who has already had more adventures than you can shake a stick at).  

~exasperated sigh~  

I mean, Lord Henry is okay, and under other circumstances I wouldn't have a problem with him as a romantic lead.  But when we first meet him, he's already happily shacking up with someone else!  In fact, his gypsy girlfriend is also a good friend of Jemimah's, until she's whisked out of the tale.  I was expecting her to return to the book, eventually.  I expected/wanted her to end up with Lord Henry.  

To make things worse, the author kills off poor Casper!  (You see it coming from a mile away, but it's still sad and infuriating when it actually happens.)  And then, just pages later-- though I believe months have passed, in the story-- Henry proposes to Jemimah, and we're supposed to get all misty-eyed about it.  I was just frustrated.  I didn't care what happened, at that point.  Might as well have just stopped reading, really.  Yeah, sure, just go off and have fun floating down the Mississippi, I guess, but it's not a happily ever after I can get all that excited about!  

I don't know... I didn't love the idea of Casper, but then just when I was coming around to it, MB snatched him away and gave us this other, even less attractive option, after I'd already decided he was merely Friend Material.  (And at least Casper never called Jemimah "Mim", which always makes me think of "Mad Madam Mim" from The Sword in the Stone!)

I guess I like my romances to be even more predictable than this one was!  I need to know which way to look and what to expect.  Give me time to form an attachment to the characters as a couple.  Dialogue and other interactions between the characters do wonders, but in this case, the interaction between Henry and Jemimah was just friendly talk.  It didn't make me want to see them together as a couple.  And apparently I really dislike this trope of "partner-swapping" in romances.  

Also, "Stormswift" is a poor name for this novel.  I get why MB chose it; it sounds very romantic and atmospheric and cool, but it/she really isn't important enough in the story to deserve to be the title, in my view.  It's a choice that prioritizes style over substance.

A Town Like Alice

A Town Like Alice

by Nevil Shute

Blurb:

Nevil Shute's most beloved novel, a tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback.

Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaya, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced on a brutal seven-month death march with dozens of other women and children. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her to return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life. Jean's travels leads her to a desolate Australian outpost called Willstown, where she finds a challenge that will draw on all the resourcefulness and spirit that carried her through her war-time ordeals. 

My Reaction:

I went into this book knowing little about it.  I knew it was famous and thought it had something to do about digging a well in Australia, with maybe some romance thrown in.  It turned out to be quite a ride, and on the whole, I enjoyed it-- but with a few caveats.  

Positives:

-- The main characters are all admirable, though toward the end I did find Jean almost annoyingly perfect.

-- The part of the book dealing with Jean's wartime experiences were gripping.  (However, at a certain point the repetition of the march became tedious, and I was ready for something different!)

-- The romance was sweet for a very brief while.  And then... Well, see the "Not Positives" list below. 

-- I actually found the story of the building of "a town like Alice" rather interesting, for a time.  I'm not sure it would be quite as easy as the book seems to suggest, but... Still interesting.  I like reading about people doing things, accomplishing things, building things.  

-- I enjoyed learning a little about the Australian outback, during this time period. 

Not Positives:

-- The format... It does lend the tale a sense of authenticity, but at the same time, it loses immediacy when one character's direct experience is filtered through another person's mind and voice.  Particularly as regards the romantic aspects of the book, this format was an odd choice. Did the author do this because he was better at writing in a more dry, factual tone than with the emotion that you might expect to find if it all came directly from Jean's perspective?  (Not that she seems very emotionally expressive, if it comes to that!)  

I don't know... I just didn't love Noel's contribution to the tale, if I'm honest.  It didn't appeal to me, at all, and I found it very odd and uncomfortable that he was writing about Jean's first romantic encounter with Joe.  What are we supposed to think?  Surely she didn't tell him all about that in such personal detail, so where did he get his information?  What are we meant to think?  Is he supposed to have just fantasized about it?  Gross!

-- I think it's probably a reflection of the times, with no ill will intended, but once Jean is in Australia, some of the references to the Aborigines are awkward, from a modern perspective.  

One instance that stands out in my mind is her reaction to a "sensitive, intelligent" white man who was married to a young Aboriginal woman who was "inarticulate" (which I took to mean that she stayed mostly silent in public) and always brought along a kitten or puppy on their visits to "town".  Does it not occur to Jean that this woman might behave differently in the privacy of her home?  Maybe she isn't comfortable speaking in this place where she may feel under the microscope.  And why bring up the pets at all?  Is it meant to indicate that she's very young/immature-- or that she's somehow mentally deficient or inferior, because she needs what we might today call an emotional support animal?  It left a bad taste in my mouth, honestly.  This woman hasn't done anything wrong, and Jean seems to be pitying the poor "sensitive, intelligent" man for having been driven by desperation to marry what Jean deems his inferior.  It's unpleasant.  

-- The bruises incident.  Yuck.  I don't get it.  Joe seems like a very nice man who wouldn't leave bruises on a woman.  And Jean, she's perfectly healthy, in her prime; she shouldn't bruise so easily.  How in the heck did she end up with so many bruises after a passionate make-out session?  What was Joe doing?  I don't believe that kind of bruising from a little "romance" is normal.  Even more disgusting is Jean's repeated flirtatious references to her bruises.  It reminded me of some stupid teenager bragging about a hickey and showing it off to her friends.  Gross, gross, gross!

-- The level of detail might lend a feeling of realism, but it can be overdone, and I think it was, in this case.  I don't actually need this much (boring, inconsequential) detail.  It made the book longer than it needed to be.  

Well, as I said, on the whole, I liked the book.  It won't be one I'll want to read again, most likely, but I might try to see a TV/movie adaptation, sometime.  

Golden Urchin

Golden Urchin 

by Madeleine Brent

Blurb:

Mitji lived with the Aboriginal tribe for as long as she could remember, but with her white skin, thin nose, and red hair, she does not look like the rest of the tribe.  As she nears womanhood, her oddness has made her an outcast and she must leave her people. She goes on a walkabout, in search of the walypalya, the tribe with red hair and white skin like her own, who had come from the great waters— perhaps they would receive her kindly and let her stay with them. On her wanderings she comes upon a white man, lying half-dead in the blazing heat, and nurses him back to health. Together they made their way to his home. There, Mitji becomes known as Meg and comes to understand that she is herself one of the walypalya. There are new dangers amongst this tribe, and Meg must confront the terrors of a long sea voyage before she can find happiness on the other side of the world. Only the knowledge gained from her Aboriginal tribe can guarantee her survival and that of her friends.

My Reaction:

Golden Urchin is a fascinating, well-written escapist adventure with excellent pacing and a truly heroic heroine.  I knocked my rating down down half a star to 4.5 (and round down, since half-stars aren't available on Goodreads) because I felt there was room for improvement in the romance department, and it wasn't quite a five-star book for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Madeleine Brent does it again!

Mitji/Meg's adventures are endlessly interesting to read, especially when she's surviving in the wilds of Australia and Africa.  Of course, I have no idea how realistic some of this information is... For instance, I've watched survival shows and seen people get terribly ill from suddenly switching to a diet of only meat, so I'm curious how certain things in this book would actually have worked out.  I also have my doubts that a naturally very fair-skinned person can somehow become more or less sunburn-proof, just through exposure to sun as a child.  It was still fun, though, and as long as you read it as escapist literature and not a survival guide, none of that matters.

Yes, it's predictable in many ways.  It has a formula to follow, but it does so in such a way that it still holds your attention.  To be honest, I don't mind a certain amount of "formula".  You know (in broad strokes) what to expect, and that can be comforting.  Even if I know the general direction the story's headed, I'm interested in exactly how it will get there, and the book is the journey to that destination, not merely the ending itself.  

Mitji/Meg is sometimes almost too perfect, but I never found her version of "a little too good to be true" annoying enough to want to stop reading.  I like her best as "Mitji"; she's especially captivating in the early chapters.

The romance... Well, I don't want to venture into spoilers, but it's just not to my tastes, unfortunately.  I seem to remember that the romance in Moonraker's Bride was better, and I think I liked that book better, over all, but Golden Urchin is a wonderful adventure and tale of survival.  I'm glad to have more novels by Madeleine Brent yet to read for the first time.

The Wolf Road

The Wolf Road
by Beth Lewis


Blurb:

Elka barely remembers a time before she knew Trapper. 

She was just seven years old, wandering lost and hungry in the wilderness, when the solitary hunter took her in. In the years since then, he's taught her how to survive in this desolate land where civilization has been destroyed and men are at the mercy of the elements and each other. 

But the man Elka thought she knew has been harboring a terrible secret. He's a killer. A monster. And now that Elka knows the truth, she may be his next victim. 

Armed with nothing but her knife and the hard lessons Trapper's drilled into her, Elka flees into the frozen north in search of her real parents. But judging by the trail of blood dogging her footsteps, she hasn't left Trapper behind-- and he won't be letting his little girl go without a fight. If she's going to survive, Elka will have to turn and confront not just him, but the truth about the dark road she's been set on. 

The Wolf Road is an intimate cat-and-mouse tale of revenge and redemption, played out against a vast, unforgiving landscape--told by an indomitable young heroine fighting to escape her past and rejoin humanity.

My Reaction:
Elka is a powerful character with a distinctive voice and real depth, and because Elka is the novel, that means the novel has depth and unique appeal as well.

This is the most compelling book I've read in a long while. For the most part, I'd say it's very well-crafted, too. I've seen another reviewer refer to moments that strained her suspension of disbelief, and I agree they are there, but fortunately the story is strong enough that I could shrug them off and continue with the adventure.

The Wolf Road deals with some dark and truly horrific subjects, but there are also many moments of honest beauty, and the overall message is one of hope. I loved it.


Tidbit:
"'Ain't no monster. Monsters ain't real 'cept in kids' imaginations, under the beds, in the closets. We live in a world a' men and there ain't no good come out of tellin' them they monsters. Makes 'em think they ain't done nothin' wrong, that it's their nature and they can't do nothin' to change that. Callin' 'em a monster makes 'em somethin' different from the rest of us, but they ain't. They just men, flesh and bone and blood. Bad'uns, truth, but men all the same.'"

Shadow Moon

Shadow Moon
by Chris Claremont and George Lucas


Blurb:

War and chaos have gripped the land of Tir Asleen. An ancient prophecy reveals one hope: a savior princess who will ascend to the throne when the time is right. But first, a Nelwyn wanderer must face forces of unimaginable malevolence and dangerous, forbidden rites of necromancy that could bring back a powerful warrior from soulless sleep.

My Reaction:
Shadow Moon was the latest selection for the 372-Pages podcast (and a shared read-aloud with Donald). I can safely say that I would never have read this book, otherwise. I hadn't even seen Willow until shortly before starting the book-- in preparation for reading-- and neither movie nor novel were especially appealing to me.

(I think that I have some resistance to new-to-me fantasy novels, though I usually enjoy them well enough once I start. I just never believe I will like it, for some reason. It doesn't tantalize me like some genres do. I was more open to fantasy as a younger reader, and maybe it's time to give some of it a try. Part of the problem is that fantasy = looooong books, in my mind, and that's a turn-off.)

Anyway, the 372-Pages verdict was that this is the worst thing they've read to date. I certainly didn't enjoy the book, and there were times when I dreaded reading it, but I can't agree that it's the worst. No, for all its many faults, Shadow Moon is not as bad as Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff, in my opinion, though I can see why Mike and Conor might disagree. (Bob Honey had more in the way of comedy fodder, and ultimately I think it comes down to the sheer number of pages and words. This was a long, long book. At least the steaming pile of crap that is Bob Honey was short. Still too long for me to endure, though. The only DNF of the podcast, so far.)

So... Shadow Moon... The chief problems are as follows:

-- If you read it because you liked Willow, you'll be disappointed by the fact that there's almost an entirely new cast of characters, and even the ones from the movie who do survive into the bulk of the book are changed to the point of being nearly unrecognizable.

-- What passes for a plot is stretched thin, and it moves at a snail's pace.

-- The characters aren't endearing or even interesting. Some are mere cardboard cutouts.

-- The descriptions of "magic" are far too long and repetitive. I would've been okay with a little of it, but honestly, at some point, you just stop caring. The endless descriptions of Thorn suffering agonies or being exhausted likewise hold little appeal. When a character bounces right back from being ripped apart on the molecular level (or something like that), there's no chance of anything ever truly harming him, so why even bother paying attention?

-- There's nothing good or enjoyable in this world, apparently, and the whole book is very "blah". A well-plotted, fast-moving dystopian novel is one thing, but in something as sluggish as this, it's just one more reason to not want to bother.

I was vaguely curious about how the story progresses into the second and third books-- though not curious enough to want to read the books!-- so I looked them up online. I've had no luck finding a detailed synopsis or answers to my specific questions. It's a fittingly dissatisfying end to my experience with this novel.

I was considering awarding the book 1.5 stars rounded up to 2, mostly in reaction to the mere suggestion that Bob Honey is the superior work... But after writing this review, I realize that I can't do it. This is a one-star book, I'm afraid.

Trucking Through Time

Trucking Through Time
by Charles E. Harris


(My Silly) Blurb:

In the middle of what they believe will be just another job hauling cargo, trucking duo Chad and Dale end up having the adventure of a lifetime.  This isn't a simple trip across the country: Chad and Dale are... trucking through time!

My Reaction:
Wow.  Another great selection by the 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back podcast book club. (As always, this was a shared read-aloud with Donald.)

In the immortal words of Dale Rhea (*ahem*), this is indeed a stirring tale of "mystery, drama, excitement, compassion, horror, and romance along with many, many other words that could never explain the trip [they] took"!

Truly.

Look, there's no way I can fully explain this book.  Just know that it's bizarre and unintentionally hilarious, but there are also some sections that are boring and/or  repetitious.  (Fellow podcast-listeners, by no means is this a 64-Squares situation, though!  Rest assured on that count!)  Harris had a tendency towards preachiness on his pet subjects, too, and there will be times when you'll shift uncomfortably in your seat and reflect that sometimes a book reveals a bit too much about its author...

The humor (again, completely unintentional) is wonderful, but the writing is bad (thus my rating).  If you're going to read it, I recommend giving the 372-Pages podcast a listen. 

(However, I must say I'm surprised that Mike and Conor didn't notice/mention the fact that Harris obviously "borrowed" his idea of the white girl adopted by Indians from Dances with Wolves, which incidentally was also about the Sioux and had a character-- the titular wolf-- named "Two Socks", which Harris one-upped with his own richly-developed character named "Three Socks"!)

One final note: I can't help but wonder who designed the cover art.  I can't find any credit for it.  Did Harris create it himself?

The Eye of Argon

The Eye of Argon
by Jim Theis


Blurb:

This is not a hoax. Jim Theis was a real person, who wrote The Eye of Argon in all seriousness as a teenager, and published it in a fanzine, Osfan, in 1970. But the story did not pass into the oblivion that awaits most amateur fiction. Instead, a miracle happened, and transcribed and photocopied texts began to circulate in science fiction circles, gaining a wide and incredulous audience among both professionals and fans. It became the ultimate samizdat, an underground classic, and for more than thirty years it has been the subject of midnight readings at conventions, as thousands have come to appreciate the negative genius of this amazing Ed Wood of prose.

My Reaction:
Donald and I read this... long short story? extremely brief novella?... together after seeing that it had been chosen for the "book club podcast" 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back.  I'd never heard of it before this and can almost guarantee that, were it not for the podcast, would never have read it.

It's such a short work that you can't really write much about it without giving away what passes for the plot.  Suffice it to say that it's amazingly bad-- yet perversely entertaining.  This has undoubtedly been the most fun I've had reading something so poorly written.

It must be experienced to be fully appreciated.  I might have shared a quote to tempt you, at this point, but there are too many dizzyingly awful ones to choose among; I couldn't do it!  However, it's available for free online (be sure to find a version with the illustrations), and it doesn't take long to read.  If you're a connoisseur of bad literature, it's not to be missed.

Like other reviewers before me, I don't know how to rate The Eye of Argon!  Is it one star because the writing is so unfathomably atrocious-- or five stars because it had us howling with laughter?  A three-star rating seems impossible, because there's nothing mediocre about this... this... whatever it is.

DNF: The Long Ships

by Frans G. Bengtsson 
(translated by Michael Meyer)


Blurb:

This saga brings alive the world of the 10th century AD when the Vikings raided the coasts of England.

Acclaimed as one of the best historical novels ever written, this engaging saga of Viking adventure in 10th century northern Europe has a very appealing young hero, Orm Tostesson, whose story we follow from inexperienced youth to adventurous old age, through slavery and adventure to a royal marriage and the search for great treasure. Viking expeditions take him to lands as far apart as England, Moorish Spain, Gaardarike (the country that was to become Russia), and the long road to Miklagard. The salt-sea spray, the swaying deck awash in slippery blood are the backdrop to fascinating stories of King Harald Blue Tooth, the Jomsvikings, attempts to convert the Northmen to Christianity, and much else. Like H. Rider Haggard, Bengtsson is a master of the epic form.

My Reaction:
This was to have been a shared read with Donald, but we didn't get very far.  I think we were only 16 or 17% through the book (having skipped the introduction for fear of spoilers) when we decided that we just weren't that into this saga.

My main interest in the book was that it was about the Vikings and written by a Swede.  Donald (my husband) is Swedish, so I thought this might be something we could both enjoy.  I don't really know much about the Vikings, but obviously they're one of the more exciting parts of Scandinavian history, so I was curious.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the book was boring, but it wasn't exactly gripping, either.  You know that nothing too terrible will happen to Orm, since he's the hero of the saga and has to live at least until the end.  That knowledge takes away much of the suspense you might otherwise feel on his behalf, which has a flattening effect.

However, I think what bothered me more was that the novel suffers from "Too Much Action Syndrome".  It's just a fairly simple, straightforward cataloging of the events of a fictional character's life.  "And then he did this, and then he did that, and then (after a spate of lackluster poetry) he did this other thing."

Aside from our hero and Krok (who does stand out, as the leader of the expedition), one character is hardly distinguishable from the next-- or at least we both had a hard time remembering who was who and what their names were.  In keeping with the rest of the book, the characterization felt shallow.

There wasn't enough conversation, charm, and distinct personality (to suit my tastes).  Maybe this changes for the better, later in the book, but we tired of waiting for more depth and color in the tale.

I'm disappointed that we didn't enjoy this more.  It wasn't dreadful, but we weren't excited to keep reading.  After my recent capitulation to the interminable The Far Pavilions (and the flood of elation that followed), I didn't hesitate to suggest that we could set this aside as a DNF, and so we did.

Maybe one or the other of us will try reading it with better luck, at some point in the future.  If so, I suspect it will be Donald who conquers Red Orm; this has been another reminder that sagas really aren't for me.

Since I haven't come close to finishing it, I feel guilty giving it a star rating, but since goodreads seems to require that, I'll have to give two stars...

DNF: The Far Pavilions

The Far Pavilions
by M. M. Kaye

(My Ruthlessly Edited Version of the) Blurb:

This sweeping epic set in 19th-century India begins in the foothills of the towering Himalayas and follows the adventures (and romance) of Ashton/Ashok/Ash.  A young orphan born to English parents but raised as an Indian, he struggles to belong completely in either culture. 

(Some think that) M.M. Kaye's masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that ranks with the greatest panoramic sagas of modern fiction.

My Reaction:
I have been slogging arduously through this "saga" for months and months (because I've lacked motivation to read, not because it's at all challenging material), only to finally decide that the time has come to throw in the towel and let this become a DNF (Did Not Finish).

The novel started off promisingly enough, and I did enjoy parts of it and was touched by aspects of it (Ash's adoptive mother, Sita, in particular), but the enjoyable moments became too few and far between, and I eventually recognized that there wasn't anything that could happen in the remaining quarter of the book to make it worth continuing to read.  So I just skimmed the rest!

I found that my two main predictions proved correct...

SPOILERS FOLLOW!!
.
.
.
.
(Wally dies; Ash and Anjuli go off in search of their peaceful valley in the Himalayas)
.
.
.
.

...which was all I even remotely cared to know, at that point, and skipping to the end means that I probably saved myself another month or two of forcing myself to read something I no longer wanted to read.  (Ah, sweet relief!)  Basically, I spared myself the Second Afghan War portion of the novel, and I count myself lucky. 

The Far Pavilions has 964 pages.  A book that long might be okay if it's a real page-turner.  This was not one of those books.  Also, the novel seems to have been promoted as more of a romance than it really is, so there's an element of false advertisement.  (Though to be honest, I don't think a stronger emphasis on the romance would've helped in this case, because this author's version of romance leaves me cold... It's not her strong suit, imho.)

If you're interested in the history of India as part of the British Empire, give this a look.  Personally, I found it just didn't keep me interested enough, so I rarely wanted to read it, which is a very bad quality in such a long book!  Part of the problem is that I'm probably just not cut out for sagas.  Terribly sorry, but I get bored; I got bored, and now I'm so so so happy to put this book behind me and never look back.

I'm giving it three stars because while I just couldn't find the will to finish it, parts of it were good.  I think it deserves three stars despite my difficulties with it.

Dark New World

Dark New World
by Henry Gene Foster and J.J. Holden


Blurb:

Society crumbles after an EMP attack, and the terrifying nightmare has only just begun…

Three people from different walks of life each experience the end of America. Cassy is a 33-year-old prepper and single mother, away on business. Ethan is a hacker and conspiracy nut living underground. Frank is a family man out camping with friends and family. When a devastating EMP attack in the middle of the night destroys America’s infrastructure, they are propelled on an unforgettable journey across an ocean of chaos to reach safety… Safety from an unknown invader and from once-fellow Americans now hungry and desperate. Dark New World is a prepper story of survival and the fight to retain humanity in the face of an apocalyptic event.

My Reaction:
(I listened to the audiobook version of this title.)

Hm... I found myself rolling my eyes and scoffing far too often, while listening to this short novel.  I can't do more than round it up to three stars, unfortunately.

The blurb describes this as a "prepper story of survival", and that's about right.  The heroes/heroines are preppers, and the whole thing feels like it's very strongly aimed at preppers-- which is fine.  I mean, if you're writing a book for preppers, I suppose this is what you get.  It does feel a little cartoonish at times, though... It's like someone took a long list of things a prepper might think about when planning for a disaster scenario, then went down it and checked them off, one by one.  (...And yet this book doesn't go into great detail about how to be a prepper.  In my opinion, that doesn't really belong in a work of fiction, anyway.  This is more of a prepper-themed adventure.)

At first, it's refreshing to have characters who are prepared (for once) for the disaster at hand.  I enjoy the "planning and taking calculated action" portions of post-apocalypse/doomsday stories, myself, and this has a lot of that.  However, planning can get dull after a while-- and to keep the drama high, our primary heroine, Cassy, has to find herself in some bad situations, some of which she (as a prepper/survivalist) should probably have been able to avoid.  

Cassy-- well, pretty much all of the characters, to be honest, started to get on my nerves after a while.  Too many of them were stereotyped, for one thing.  Yes, sometimes stereotypes exist for a reason, but I can only handle so many of them in one dose.  (Oh my gosh, that teenage girl!  So annoying!)

There were times when I felt I was almost being lectured or preached at-- or at least bombarded with heavy-handed "lessons", which is unpalatable.

I also have some issues with the timeline and pacing.

First: Maybe it's naive, but I don't think that society would break down quite so quickly as it seems to do in this book-- or at least not so completely in such a short space of time.  I do think it would/could happen at some point, but friendly next-door neighbors threatening to shoot one another in only one or two days?  ...I find it doubtful.

Second:  (Spoilers to follow!)  The story sped up at the end to the point that I had a hard time keeping track of what was happening to whom, because the perspective shifted so frequently.  I'm still not entirely sure what happened to injure Cassy and how she ended up in the bunker.  Of course, part of the problem is that I was doing yard work while I listened and may have been distracted for a few moments-- but I still think the pacing was a bit off in the last section of the book.

Readers may be disappointed that there's not a completely satisfying conclusion at the end of this first installment of the series.  At least all the main characters have come together, but there's still a long way to go before they reach relative safety-- and you have to continue with the next book to see if/how they make it to Cassy's farm.  Based on a little peeking, the series will have at least four books-- maybe more-- and it sounds like each one leads directly into the next.  Very serialized.  At the moment, I doubt I'll bother with the second book.  The premise of the series still interests me, but I found too many of the characters too annoying to want to spend much more time listening to or about them...

Merlin's Keep

Merlin's Keep
by Madeleine Brent


(Edited) Blurb:

They called her Jani, but she once had another name-- and a past she never knew.

From far-off Tibet to England's rich countryside, this marvelously enchanting novel unfolds the incredible saga of a lovely young half-caste whose strange destiny pulls her into a world of love and terror-- all while a mysterious power moves slowly toward her, threatening her sanity... and her life.

My Reaction:
This was another very good read from Madeleine Brent.  The protagonist, Jani, is an appealing, capable girl (and later, woman) who demonstrates admirable loyalty and strength of character.  She may be a little too good to be true, but she remains likeable throughout the book.

Though it is billed as a romance-- and though Jani's romance is certainly a big part of the story-- I found that aspect less satisfying than in Moonraker's Bride (by the same author).  I'm not sure what was lacking... Maybe it just needed more scenes of the two interacting before the "declaration"...  So, the love story could've been improved upon, but in general, Jani's relationships are well-drawn and strong-- particularly her touching bond with Sembur.

The book has its minor flaws, but for the most part, I enjoyed the experience and look forward to reading more from the author (and I'm still completely impressed that he, as a man, was capable of writing female voices so convincingly).  However, I do think I'll try to wait a while before reading another Madeleine Brent novel, because they do seem to follow a definite pattern.  The author struck on a formula that works-- hits most of the right notes for me, at least-- but if read back-to-back, one might feel a little too similar to the next.


Specifics:
--The featured cover on Goodreads is misleading.  If you read Merlin's Keep on the basis of a steamy cover, you'll be disappointed.  While there is romance, pretty much everything happens behind closed doors.  The bigger misfortune would be if potential readers are put off by the suggestion that it's a bodice-ripper, because this book is not a "trashy romance", by any stretch.

--Coincidences?  Oh yes, they're here in droves, as in Moonraker's Bride.  Though actually, maybe it's less coincidence in Merlin's Keep than "fate" and mysticism.

--I could have gone through my whole life not knowing that sometimes when a cow gives birth, her uterus comes out, too, and must be pushed back inside-- but thanks to this book, I am now cursed with that nightmarish image.  Thank you so very, very much, book.  Ah, what a wonderful world!

Moonraker's Bride

Moonraker's Bride
by Madeleine Brent

(Edited) Blurb:

Born in a mission in China, Lucy Waring now finds herself with 15 small children to feed. How she tackles this task gets her thrown into the grim prison of Chengfu, where she meets a man about to die. He asks her a cryptic riddle, and its mystery echoes through all that befalls Lucy in the months that follow, even when she is brought to England, where she discovers danger, romance, heartache, and mystery as strange events lead her to doubt her own senses. It is only when Lucy returns to China that she finds the answers to the mysteries of her past. It is there, at the moment when all seems lost, that she finally finds where her heart belongs.

My Reaction:
Now, this was a great read!  Much more gripping than any other gothic novel-- heck, any novel, period-- that I've read in a while, and with a thrilling, emotional romance that I actually cared about, for a change.  Moonraker's Bride was an absolute treat to read.  I could deduct some small fraction of a star for minor quibbles, but this one is easily rounded up to five stars.

Is it sexist for me to admit that I was ever-so-slightly skeptical when I learned (before starting the book) that Madeleine Brent was the pseudonym of a male author?  I should never have doubted: he had far greater skill at writing romance than a great many of the female authors I've been reading, lately.  I know next to nothing about the author, actually, but I can't help but picture him as one of his own characters-- Mr. Marsh.

I fear I can't go into a detailed reaction without possibly spoiling the story, so I'll save specific commentary for the next (spoiler-warned) section.  Suffice it to say that the novel was a highly addictive blend of adventure, mystery, and romance, enlivened by occasional sparks of humor.  I look forward to exploring more of the author's work.


Specifics (with SPOILERS):
--  Though the Chinese setting was not a special attraction to me when I selected this book, I ended up finding it an interesting and well-written element of the novel.

--  "You must always remember that you are an English child, dear.  That does not make you better than a Chinese child, of course, but it is right to take pride in your own country."  (This seems to be an unpopular opinion, in much of the West, these days, but I agree wholeheartedly that pride in one's own country is natural and healthy and does not stop one from appreciating what's good about other countries.)

--  "One way in which I knew I was a foreign devil was that I could follow and understand a tune in the same way as Miss Prothero.  To the Chinese children the melody meant nothing, and neither did the time.  They simply shrieked out the words, all on the same note and as fast as possible."  (I imagine that some readers are bothered by this and certain other instances that may not be politically correct.  Personally, I just wonder if this is a truthful depiction of how Chinese peasant children of the time would have sung a European tune-- especially since these children were raised in an English-run mission, with daily exposure to European music-- hymns.  It seems they should be as capable of singing along as the average English child.)

--  Parts of the mystery were easy enough to solve, yet there was enough uncertainty (about everything except that brass shield!) to keep me wondering for a good while exactly how it would play out.  And by the time it was all perfectly clear, I was thoroughly hooked on the romance and wouldn't have dreamed of stopping reading, even if the mystery had been tidied up chapters earlier!

--  My new literary crush is Nick Sabine.  I'm not sure I can pin it down precisely-- the wicked sense of humor? the devil-may-care attitude?-- but he's a thousand times more engaging and likable and real-seeming than the last dozen or so heroes I've "met".  I vote "swoon-worthy"!

--  I looked up the definition of "moonraker" long before it was ever spelled out in the book.  What a strange word!  And a strange explanation for it, too...

--  If I had to find faults with Moonraker's Bride, they'd be as follows:
1. There are a great many coincidences... But those don't really bother me when the book is entertaining.  Just heap on a little more suspension of disbelief.
2.  Stereotypes?  Well, yes, there are some, but they could've been much worse.
3.  Though I like Lucy, she is almost too good to be true, most of the time.
4.  Is it realistic that a man like Nick Sabine would be "experienced"?  Yes.  But I still don't love that aspect of the character... It was the one thing I would've changed about him, I think.   However, that seems to be something we're supposed to expect, if not applaud, in the hero of gothic novels.

--  There are times that Lucy is just a bit too naive and slow on the up-take, but I'm happy to overlook them.  Especially when they yield moments of hilarity like her answer to the question, "Do you like cats?" and her belief that Mr. Gresham has brought her to England to be his concubine.  (!!!)

--  It's funny how often fiction gives us two maps to a treasure that are useless individually, but consulted simultaneously will supposedly point the direction-- or a map ripped in half so that the halves must be joined to be useful.  I can't quite picture how that works... It seems that one half would have to be better than the other, if not completely sufficient.

--  This book has at least a couple of references to "spoonsful" of this or that.  The word "spoonsful" just looks completely wrong to me.  Possibly some people think that's correct, but I'm sticking with "spoonfuls".   (And after looking it up online, I've now seen the word "spoon" so many times that it looks ridiculous-- nonsensical.  Funny how easy it is to do that...)

--  "Never change."  ~~swoon~~ ;o)  (Yet at the same time... People do change, whether they want to or not... And it would be nice to think that someone would love you even when you do change over the years.  But now I'm reading too much into something that's surely meant just to be a sweet, charming "I love you" between the hero and heroine.)

-- I didn't realize until just now that this was published in the early 1970s!  I would've guessed it was written earlier than that-- maybe about twenty years earlier... (That's a compliment, by the way...)