Update for March

I have been under going treatment for my diabetic eye condition which will be on going for the next for months (at least). This means that I won't be able to read as many physical books or e-books as I would have liked to so much of the tbr which I had planned on reading in February didn't go as planned. I will be concentrating on reading physical books and e-books from my own collection as that will allow me to take reading at my own pace, rather than trying to cram them all into a deadline that occurs when I borrow them from a library. 

I will also be listening to more audiobooks and I've reactivated my subscription to Audible as I find the service easier to use than Libro.fm, and I have access to more books that way. The audiobook service at my library isn't very good for me because their selection is too limited and I can't stream them directly from the website. When your eyesight is blurred to the point where you can't see properly, and your eyes are heavily photo sensitive, having to use an additional program to listen to audiobooks becomes problematic. 

I will also be renewing my membership of Listening Books as it has been quite a useful service to me over the past couple of years, but they do not always have the books available that I want to read as they need to cater for a wide variety of interests and they can't always get a audiobook due to copyright issues, which is another reason why I decided that reactivating my Audible subscription during this time would be useful. 

During this time, I will not be able to accept ARCs, or books for review from authors and publishers as I do not know if I will be able to read them. An audiobook that can be streamed online I will be able to accept, but not if it requires an Apple or Android device as I do not currently own one.

January Round Up

It is my aim, that, at the end of every month, I post a round up of books which I have enjoyed in that month, and give a little review of them, with the ratings that I have given them. I am not a literature graduate (my degree lies in the area of Zoology) so there are no doubt things that I will have missed which someone with more specialised knowledge in languages would have picked up on. I do have a keen interest in mythology, and ancient history but I don't hold any qualifications in the subject - most of it is self taught. I will be posting the synopsis of the book, and then a little review of what I thought about the book. In regards to audiobooks, I will only be posting what I have listened to, and the synopsis as I find it quite difficult to rate them. This is because unless I know the story from reading it previously, I don't always find them easy to follow because I get distracted, and I don't think that I can rate the book fairly if my concentration wanders while listening to it, and the choice of narrator can also impact how the book comes across so you aren't just analysing the author's writing, but also the production of the book and I don't want to give the author an undeserving low rating.The Bear and the Nightingale The Wolf Den Dogs of War and The House With the Golden Door are a mixture of physical books and e-books, and A Beautiful Evil is an audiobook. 

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden 

Synopsis:

 Beware the evil in the woods...

In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church.

But for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories. She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods. . .

My Review:

I have mixed feelings about this book. There are some parts that I really enjoyed, like the house spirits and the Russian  equivalent  of the Norse Landvættir, but there was quite a lot of it which I felt was repetitive and I didn't really like the priest. It dragged in places - the political wranglings slowed it down and there wasn't much depth with some of the characters. The end is a bit rushed, and I think more attention could have been given to Russian folklore and less attention given to the priest as he is the main reason why I don't like the story - Anna's point of view would have been more interesting, if there was going to a focus on Christianity. It is better than I expected as I've read quite a lot of YA fairy tales and this has some originality compared to others. Because of the flaws I've highlighted, I chose to give it 3.75 stars, as it's better than a three star book, but doesn't have what it takes to be a four star read. Over all, though, I am not impressed with the book enough to continue with the series right now and I don't think the book's content is entirely true to the synopsis. 

Rating: 3.75 stars

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper 

Synopsis:

Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii's brothel. Determined to survive. Her name is Amara. Welcome to the Wolf Den...

Amara was once a beloved daughter, until her father's death plunged her family into penury. Now, she is owned by a man she despises and lives as a slave in Pompeii's infamous brothel, her only value the desire she can stir in others.

But Amara's spirit is far from broken. Sharp, resourceful and surrounded by women whose humour and dreams she shares, Amara comes to realise that everything in this city has its price. But how much will her freedom cost?

My Review:

The book is surprisingly touching, given the subject matter, and does not got into explicit detail regarding sex scenes, which you would probably expect in a book set in a brothel. The author approaches the subject in a sensitive manner, which the reader can appreciate.  However, I have a few criticisms for the book.  I have for the book is that I would have liked to have learnt more about the other characters in the book, and as the book is written in the third person, it would have been more interesting if it had been written with different povs of the characters included, and I would have liked to have known more about the main character before she became a slave - you feel like there should be more to the story. Hopefully, this will get corrected in book two and three, as it is the first part of a trilogy. I have read other books set in this time period before - most notably Manda Scott's Boudicca series. It fails to have the epic scope that that series has (which, unfortunately, seems to be a common issue with more recent books) so because of this I can't give the book five stars. It is still worth the read and it is my second completed read of 2026.

Rating: 4 stars

Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky 

Synopsis: 

 My name is Rex. I am a good dog.

Rex is also seven foot tall at the shoulder, bulletproof, bristling with heavy calibre weaponry and his voice resonates with subsonics especially designed to instil fear. With Dragon, Honey and Bees, he's part of a Multiform Assault Pack operating in the lawless anarchy of Campeche, Mexico. A genetically engineered Bioform, he's a deadly weapon in a dirty war. All he wants to be is a Good Dog. And to do that he must do exactly what Master says and Master says he's got to kill a lot of enemies.

But who, exactly, are the enemies? What happens when Master is tried as a war criminal? What rights does the Geneva Convention grant weapons? Do Rex and his fellow Bioforms even have a right to exist?

And what happens when Rex slips his leash?

My Review: 

 A very thought provoking book exploring the nature of intelligence, in regards to humans, non-human animals and AI, and their right to exist and be free. It is a well written book, but there gaps which could have been explored a lot better than they were - the author himself is a zoologist, so I am quite surprised that he disregards the existence of sentience in non-human animals - there have been plenty of studies centered around the capabilities of non-human primates (particularly the Great Apes), elephants, cetaceans, corvids, even cephalopods, all of which are closer to 'human' than we give them credit for. The author also makes the mistake of implying that dogs need masters when work on the social behaviour of wolves has discredited the 'alpha' wolf theory - (see the work of L. David Mech, and pay particular attention to field studies he made in the 1980's in regards to the wolves of Elesmere Island.) These themes could have been explored in the book, as the rights of animals to be free of human inflicted cruelty and pain - there are more crimes in the book than just war crimes and human enslavement. Three storylines in particular could have been expanded upon better, the court case involving Murry and Rex's status, as I feel this has been explored better elsewhere. (Think of the court case involving Data's rights and the Exocomp episodes from Star Trek: TNG, and Channel 4's Humans). The third storyline which would have been a very interesting one to explore would have been the dolphin bioform, George as we only get a snippet of his story in the book. 

I enjoyed reading the book though I think it could have been handled a lot better, which is why it is not a 5 star read for me.

Rating: 4.5 stars

The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper

Synopsis:

Amara has escaped her life as a slave in Pompeii's most notorious brothel. She now has a house, fine clothes, servants - but all are gifts from her patron, hers for as long as she keeps her place in his affections.

As she adjusts to this new life, Amara is still haunted by her past. At night she dreams of the wolf den, and the women she left behind. By day, she is pursued by her former slavemaster.

In order to be truly free, Amara will need to be as ruthless as he is. She knows she can draw strength from Venus, the goddess of love. Yet falling in love herself may prove to be Amara's downfall.

My Review: 

I really enjoyed reading the next installment of the Wolf Den Trilogy. One of the things which I like most is learning about the structure of the Roman year, the festivals and what they did on those days, as I have an interest in paganism. The same observations made in the last book still apply here, however, but there are times in the story where my sympathy for Amara is lessened - she has her own flaws and is at times, naive for for some of the choices that she makes. 

Rating: 4 stars

A Beautiful Evil by Bea Fitzgerlad 

Synopsis:

 Pandora is the first human woman – made by the gods on Olympus for one simple purpose: to love and be loved by her new husband, the titan Epimatheos.

The only problem? He wants nothing to do with her.

Hurt and confused, Pandora struggles to find meaning in her new life. What's the point of being given all these gifts by the gods, if she can't get this infuriating, awful, frankly very rude man (with an admittedly quite nice face) to love her? Maybe she's failing at her life’s purpose. Or maybe she's destined for an entirely different one . . . ?

As Pandora and Matheos work to uncover why she was created, that fated connection between them feels increasingly difficult to ignore. And with that comes terrible risk. Because Matheos’s traitorous brother, Prometheus, is a seer – and before the gods captured him he issued a final warning: that Pandora and Matheos’s love will be humanity’s doom.

So . . . what do you do when faced with an all-powerful love . . . that just happens to threaten the end of the world?

Pandora’s about to find out.

My Review: 

This book is more than just a romance, which doesn't do it justice. I see that a lot of readers who were expecting it to be focusing on romance are disappointed with it, so in my opinion it has been mis-marketed. It is also (for some strange reason), been marketed as a YA book which I think is the wrong category for it.

It is the latest book in my journey exploring Greek mythology and it really highlights how women are often shaped for the needs of men, without regard to her own agency. Pandora does a good job of fighting against this and is able to have some freedom in the end working within the constraints put on to her. It is also a story about freedom for humanity in general, and how Zeus has tried to stifle that, and punish the gods trying to protect humanity against his cruelty and dominance. This is the more important message of the book, rather than the 'romance' category that it is put into. 

Rating: 4 stars