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British Christmas Reads: The Eight Reindeers of the Apocalypse and The Christmas Swap

25 Dec

We have a lot of holidays going on right now and I hope which ever one(s) you celebrate are filled with happiness and joy. Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Blessed Yule! Happy Kwanzaa!

Often because of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol I often picture the archetypal Christmas as one set in the UK. Here are two very different holiday related reads set there that I enjoyed this year in case you are looking for something festive. Hope you join us in the New Year for more reviews from our library staff. Happy New Year to all!

The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse
by Tom Holt
We read The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse for our December Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Discussion. Though Santa is an important character in the story he takes more a guest staring than leading man role; this is a good pick for those looking for something timely, but a little less saccharine than a lot of holiday entertainment. The novel is part of Tom Holt’s J.W. Wells & Co. Series, the first of which The Portable Door was recently adapted as a movie. The firm (and the series) is named for the character from Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operetta The Sorcerer. Imagine the British version of the TV show the Office merged with Terry Pratchett’s Disc World and you get the concept for this funny fantasy satire series which has office harassment taking the form of coworkers transforming into tea cups and interns literally left to save the world while their clueless bosses make a hilarious mess of things attempting to climb further up the corporate ladder. Check this one out to mix some ha ha ha’s with your ho ho ho’s!

The Christmas Swap
by Talia Samuels
The Christmas Swap is also set in the UK and written by another British author, Talia Samuels. This is more of a warm, fuzzy, feel good holiday read. Margot Murray is still healing from a recent breakup from her girlfriend when a work friend, unlucky in love Ben, offers her the perfect holiday getaway at his family manor house, all she has to do is pretend to be his girlfriend. However, when they arrive at the manor, Ben’s sister is immediately suspicious thinking Margot is a gold-digger and sets out to prove her hidden motivations. The twist is that of course Margot feels instantly attracted to Ellie. This is former chef Samuels’ first romance, but it was a treat so I hope we will see more from her in the future. The audio book is added fun since the two characters, Margot and Ellie, each get there own narrators: Kim Bretton and Emma Fenney and both give vibrant performances and interestingly juxtapose what each of the characters is outwardly saying, but internally keeping secret. Kim Bretton is an Audie Award nominee, a Broadway World Award winner, and was voted Best Actress in Nashville by the Nashville Scene. Emma Fenney trained as an actor at Drama Studio London, following a degree in Drama & Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths College, University of London. If you love a posh British accent then these two will delight.

You can learn about some staff favorite holiday classics in this past post. Looking for some quirky holiday music-checkout this past post!

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Redefining Humanity: Ancillary Justice and All Systems Red

31 Jul

Ancillary Justice
by Ann Leckie
We read Ancillary Justice for July’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Discussion Group. The book has an interesting premise that Radch Space Ships have consciousness and as part of them are individual bodies that do work like assisting the officers on and off the ship. Although these bodies can walk around and interact as individual people, they also share the wider consciousness of the ship itself. In the case of this particular ship, Justice of Toren, all of it has been destroyed, but one ancillary, Breq. Breq has only one goal now to get revenge for Justice of Toren no matter what it takes. The story picks up on a remote isolated planet whose cold climate is vividly depicted by the author and gave me flash backs to my time visiting Greenland. The Radch civilization that Justice of Toren was part of did not differentiate by gender and therefor Breq often is confused with how to define those she interacts with and often guess wrong when communicating with them. This adds an interesting perspective to the story and though the ships are given emotion (to better and more quickly make decisions) there is still a disconnect between Breq and the other humans she interacts with. If like our book club, you enjoy Ancillary Justice, there are two additional novels in the Imperial Radch Trilogy, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy.

All Systems Red
by Martha Wells
We read All Systems Red for our April Book Discussion. All Systems Red is a novella so it is quick, but action packed read, which focuses on the self-identified Murderbot, a security unit who has overcome its governor module, but still mostly does its job as usual, though Murderbot secretly spends hours watching its favorite soap opera. It was interesting when reading Ancillary Justice to compare Breq with the Murderbot from the novel we had read earlier in the year. Both are aware of the separateness from humans but in neither case do they pine to be human and instead are content in their cyborg state neither fully machine nor all human. Neither feels the need to define their gender, though there are hints in both cases that they may have a “female” body. I think this moves away from older works where often robots or cyborgs longed for humanity in order to be seen as real. Now that we are more accepting of neurodiversity and more fluid gender identities, these stories seem to be transitioning to being more about acceptance. I really enjoyed the humor found through out the story and also checked out the next two in the series. Besides the standard audio recordings for the series you can also listen to them in graphic audio with a full cast recording. I really love the graphic audio versions they remind me of old fashioned radio dramas for a new generation.

If you would like to join our book club, our next meeting will be on Monday, August 26 at 6 PM at the Main Branch. We will be discussing C.L. Polk’s fantasy, Witchmark. I’ve enjoyed and blogged about Polk’s The Midnight Bargain and Even Though I Knew the End.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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