The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson

When you lose yourself in the world of a book it's nice to have the change to re-visit.  However there's always the danger that the things you loved will have changed, and that reading more may even ruin your memories of what went before.  Of course, there are other possibilities as well.

The Alloy of Law is based around 300 years after the events of The Hero of Ages (the last book in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy).  Unlike many fantasy books, the world has moved on and made technological advances.  In our terms they are somewhere around the Victorian era, with trains and new-fangled electric lights.  But advancement doesn't mean that all is well in the world, nor does it mean that magical ability is unimportant.

There are 3 types of magic in this world, although at the time of this book only two are in common use and knowledge.  Allomancy involves 'burning' metals internally to provide different powers, for example burning tin increases the user's senses.  Feruchemy involves 'storing' traits in metals for use at a later time, for example gold allows for storage of health.  Handily there is a table in the back of the book detailing the effect of each metal for the two types of magic.  I would have appreciated the addition of nicknames next to each metal as I have a tendency to get some of them muddle.

Of all the fantasy books I've read this is one of my favourite 'types' of magic, and so it was fascinating to read about its use in a whole new setting.  Technological advancements are made based on the priorities of a culture and so there are subtle but visible differences to the way things developed in our world.

Clearly this book features a whole new set of characters, although the heroes from the original trilogy are frequently referred to as 'deities' of various religions.  The new cast are dynamic, believable and somewhat crazy - so basically everything you could want in a book.  The relationship between Wax and Wayne is beautifully written, with all the casual digs and inside remarks that you would expect from a long-standing friendship.

The plot has the feel of a Western, with the 'heroes' returning from the wild Roughs to the Big Smoke and retaining the same ideas of law and order that they had before.  The era setting and prominence of guns certainly help with that feel - although of course these guns have to be specially crafted to be of any use.  I thought the storyline was really well designed, and it definitely feels like a story that happens to be set in a world with magic, rather than a series of events for the sake of magic.

So, back to those memories of what went before... Well I can definitely say that this has changed my perception of the original trilogy.  Because while I very much enjoyed what I'd read before, this was so much better.  Many of the concepts and references make more sense if you've read the Mistborn trilogy, but I think there are enough explanations that you could read this as a standalone book if you wanted to.  And you really should want to, because it's brilliant.

A Vicky Hill Exclusive - Hannah Dennison

Looking round the crime books in my local library I saw a book in the 'recommended' section by Hannah Dennison.  On further inspection it was the fourth book in a series, and the first book was nowhere to be seen.  Back at home I had a look on my Kindle and decided that 84p was an alright price to give something different a try.

A Vicky Hill Exclusive is set in a small town in Devon and follows newspaper reporter Vicky Hill.  Vicky is desperate for her big break so that she can move forward from writing obituaries but life in her little town is just to boring to get any big scoops.  That is, unless the last man she attended the funeral of had actually been murdered.

As I mentioned, I picked this book up as one of its successors was marked as a crime book, and I suppose it's fair to classify it like that given it follows a murder investigation.  However, a few chapters in my husband asked me how the book was so far and the description I gave definitely made it sound like chick lit dressed up as a detective story.  And it wasn't the best costume.  First-person storytelling very much hinges on the storyteller, and if that person is shallow and ever-so-slightly clueless then that is the impression you get of the whole story.

Don't get me wrong, I did actually enjoy reading the book once I got into it.  It definitely fulfilled my criteria of being something modern, different and not too taxing.  And the overall plot was fine.  It was mostly just the characters that were lacking, which is always a bit of a problem for me.  I'm not exactly rushing to buy the next book in the series, but given I was looking for a break from other series that's hardly a problem.  That doesn't mean I would rule out the second book in future, if I need to escape into a harmless world.

The Ambassador's Mission - Trudi Canavan

For Christmas I was given the Traitor Spy trilogy books, which 'follow on' from the Black Magician trilogy (albeit about twenty years later).  My original plan was to look online for plot summaries of the original three books so that I would be fully up-to-date ready for the newer trilogy.  Only then I realised that I wouldn't get round to doing this and so dived straight in.

The Ambassador's Mission starts in the city of Imardin in Kyralia, where the Magician's Guild is based.  Care is taken to catch up the gist of what has happened since the previous books, which in some ways helps to reference key events but at the same time made me realise quite how long my reading gap had been.  This was compounded by me getting confused with other books.  Partly the Age of the Five, which kind of made sense given they have the same author, but also the Mistborn series.  I think it was the reference to houses that did it.  Or perhaps the flashbacks to a young girl from a poor background hiding magic powers and being held by criminals... (are all fantasy books just the same plot?)

Anyway, the plot itself is built up around two main strands, the happenings in Imardin and those in Sachaka - a foreign land seen as both exotic and dangerous.  Sonea is contacted by an old friend to try to flush out a murderer, at the same time as the Guild are deciding whether to clamp down on contact with the criminal world.  Meanwhile her son, Lorkin, has found that life is a little too safe and predictable and that he would rather go to work in a country where people may want to kill him.  As you do.

This was a very enjoyable reading experience.  I find Trudi Canavan's style of writing very accessible, without seeming patronising or like something is missing.  My initial confusion with other books made it difficult to get to grips with the characters at first, however once settled in I found them to be generally believable and understandable.  Little sub-themes were appreciated as much as the main plot.  One of my favourite concepts was the Kyralians amusing other races with their over-politeness, a fate understood by any Brit that's been abroad.

In terms of the plots, there was only one element that I 'guessed' ahead of time, and this was because the clues had been laid there.  Presumably if I could work it out with my current scatterbrain then you're supposed to do so.  The balance as the first book of a trilogy was worked perfectly.  It feels like the plotlines have been sufficiently wound up for this to constitute a story in its own right, and yet they are sufficiently open that you feel more needs to be known.

And more will be known soon, I'm sure.  Although I'll make sure to read something else in between I doubt I'll be able to wait too long to continue on to find out more about the Traitors.. and the Rogue.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

For my first book of 2014 I used a tried and tested method of selection - I stared at the bookshelves until something looked ok.  I wanted something fairly modern that wouldn't prove too much of a challenge, and so a book that I seemed to be in the minority for not having read it fitted the bill.

The Da Vinci Code is, for the most part, set in Paris and is effectively one big cryptic treasure hunt.  Only the stakes are a bit higher than in most treasure hunts, what with it starting with a murder and the 'hunters' being wanted by the police.

As I'd expected with such a popular book, the writing style was very easy reading (if a bit boring in places during extended 'technical' explanations).  What I hadn't expected was to be so amused by the chapters.  It was almost like the concept of sections within chapters didn't exist, with many chapters just 3 or 4 pages long.  And when I found the chapter that was less than a page long I actually audibly laughed.

The best theme for me was the cryptology as I find codes and wordplay absolutely fascinating.  Although it was a worry on occasions how slow the characters were to pick up on certain clues given their professions, most notably the very obvious mirror writing.  In general the characters were alright - not strong enough that I grew particularly attached to them but they were deep enough to carry the storyline (the main ones at least).

Overall I'd say that the story was a good escape from everyday life, which is always a good point in a book.  While I enjoyed reading it the chances of me re-reading are slim, but I might add another of Dan Brown's books to my huge 'To Read' list.  At some point.  In the future.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

One of my new reading discoveries for the year was the short story, and how it can be much less frustrating to read a collection of them rather than having to constantly stop reading at a crucial point in the book.  And so with life being busy (and me still not wanting to decide which book to read) I embarked on the next Sherlock Holmes collection.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes begins, as you would expect, with the return of Sherlock Holmes.  His apparent death is handily explained and then forgotten about so that we can return to normal.  Let that be a lesson to all authors - never kill your most popular character just because you want to write about something else for a while.  In fact, the return to the 'golden days' was clearly required to such an extent that all changes in Watson's life are wiped out so that he can return to live with Holmes.

With much of the first story being dedicated to setting the 'new' scene there are really only 12 'proper' short stories in the collection.  As would be expected, these vary greatly in subject matter and crime type.  There are brutal cases, kidnappings, burglaries, and the odd instance of no crime being committed at all.  More of the stories in this series feature Holmes working against the police rather than for them, which adds an interesting extra level to each plot.

As I read the stories over a fair length of time it is difficult to say if any stood out as better than the rest.  I do remember that in The Adventure of the Six Napoleans I worked out where the plot was going.  This means it must have been fairly see-through, given my lack of concentration lately!  Still, the series as a whole was an enjoyable read.

My target for 2013 was to read 30 books.  I think it's fairly safe to say that 13 is well short of the mark.  Some major changes happened this year and reading is one of several parts of my life that got ignored.  Still, I got some new books for Christmas and remain hopeful that this will set me off on the right path for 2014.  Happy new year!

Archangel - Robert Harris

So, the reading kick didn't really happen as I had hoped.  It took me almost a month to read the next book I selected - yet another case of slowly reading a few chapters and then finishing most of the book off in the space of a day or so.  And then it's taken me over a month to start writing about it.  But I do have an excuse for that part.  I finished reading this while I was in the early stages of labour, and strangely free time has been in short supply since then!

Not wanting to make a decision I asked my husband what book I should read next, and he picked something by Robert Harris.  Archangel was the next book for me to read (in the order they were written) and so that is what I read.  Archangel follows an academic called Kelso in a historical-mystery-scavenger hunt, searching for a notebook that belonged to Stalin.

In the same way that The Shadow of the Wind made me realise my ignorance about the Spanish Civil War, reading this made me realise how little I know about the rise, existence and fall of the USSR.  Possibly knowing more would have enabled me to get more out of the book in terms of background context, but just enough background was provided that the plot still worked perfectly well.

The characters involved aren't the sort of people I'de want to spend the day with, however they fit the grittiness of the setting and plot.  While it's not the sort of book that I'm desperate to have back on my 'to read' list I enjoyed the time I spent reading it (well, except for the pain I was in....).

The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle

There are many different reasons that people decide to try a new author or a new series of books.  For me, with Sherlock Holmes it was this book that was the reason.  Scanning down the list of 100 must-read novels on the Telegraph website I decided that this seemed a good pick.  But, not one to do things by halves, I started from the beginning.  And now that I've read the target novel I plan to continue to read the others.

The Hound of the Baskervilles tells the story of the Baskerville family, and the mystery and misfortune that has surrounded them.  Although Holmes and Watson are introduced to the affair in London much of the story takes place in the Dartmoor area, where the Baskerville residence is situated.  After one prominent member of the family has met their death in strange circumstances, should the surviving heir be worried of meeting a similar fate?

I confess, it took me quite a few chapters to get into this book.  However, I should also confess that this is likely to be my fault.  Starting a new story when over-tired or sat in a noisy office will never do it justice.  Once safely curled up under a blanket on the sofa, though, I couldn't put it down.  And for this reason I am now over-tired again.

The story is engaging, so much so that even in the last few chapters once the culprit is revealed there is still the urgent need to read on and find out more.  After the short stories it was nice to return to a Sherlock Holmes book with sub-plots and twists.  So many different threads of clues to unravel and then neatly stitch back together.

This isn't a book where characters develop or the world changes drastically.  Instead it is a book that is very true to itself.  It is a detective story, and a very good one.  I would recommend reading earlier Sherlock Holmes stories first, so as to get used to the style of delivery, but if you've ever thought that this is a book you should read then you were right.