"The Lost Future of Pepperharrow" by Natasha Pulley

I love Natasha Pulley's books. Technically The Lost Future of Pepperharrow is the sequel to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. I would definitely recommend reading the first book before getting into this one. We follow the same main characters: Keita Mori, a Japanese samurai and clairvoyant turned watchmaker, and Thaniel Steeplton, a translator and composer. In this book, we Keita, Thaniel and their daughter Six travel to Japan: Thaniel is sent on an assignment to the British legation there, and Keita is being blackmailed into appearing in his homeland by Japan's new Prime Minister.

I loved the setting of the 19th century Japan. I should really read more books set there. Natasha Pulley did a wonderful job conveying the sense of what it is like to be a foreigner in a different culture and explaining the intricate nuances of the Japanese language. She is a masterful storyteller. We follow different point of views and different timelines, and just like in her other books, the ending is exquisite and wholly satisfying. This book also contains some of the most beautiful declarations of love. 

Pulley's books are magical. They have the right mix of a historical setting, steampunk elements, adventure and romance. There was also a brief cameo appearance of a character from her other novel The Bedlam Stacks. Perhaps in the next installment Keita Mori and Thaniel Steepleton will go visit him in Peru :).

5 out of 5 stars. She is definitely one of my favorite writers.

"Reaper Man" by Terry Pratchett

The sheer number of Terry Pratchett's books has always intimidated me. But when my bookclub picked one of his novels as our next read, I took the plunge. Reaper Man technically is book number 11 in Pratchett's expansive Discworld series. However, having read the book, I can honestly confirm that his novels can be read in any order.

Pratchett's writing is witty, clever and hilarious. I kept chuckling throughout the book. It is filled with puns, wordplay and clever allusions to customs, historical facts or other books. Overall, I got the impression that Pratchett really loves and gets humanity. He laughs at people, but it is always good-naturedly and with deep affection. It really touched me for some reason.

Now to the plot. The book begins with Powers that Be determining that Death has been exhibiting an unforgivable character flaw - he has been showing sympathy. They thus decide to fire him. Death receives his verdict and goes into a retirement of sorts where he tries to live the rest of his life among people. In the meantime, living things all over Discworld cannot properly die what with Death's job being vacant. All sorts of mayhem ensues as the world is filled with built up lifeforce.

Apart from Death, we follow other hilarious characters: wizards from the local magical University, a clairvoyant, a boogeyman, and a whole bunch of other undead creatures. They all try to figure out what is going on as things start spiralling out of control, and Death is learning a thing or two about being alive.

I really enjoyed this book. 5 out of 5 stars.

"The Jane Austen Society" by Natalie Jenner

The Jane Austen Society is Natalie Jenner's debut novel which is coming out on May 26th here in the US. As a huge fan of Jane Austen, I tend to be interested in anything that has her name in the title or has anything to do with her characters.

This is a historical fiction novel set in Chawton, England, in the 1940s. Chawton is where Jane and her sister Cassandra finally settled after their brother Edward inherited a large estate of the Knights family (the family was a distant relation to the Austens and adopted Edward as they themselves were childless). We follow several different characters in the book: a country doctor, a schoolteacher, a scullery maid, a farmer, and even a Hollywood star. All of them share one love: Jane Austen's novels.

The author uses the omniscient voice so even though we follow different characters at different times and the perspective changes, the narrative is always in the third person. I personally prefer this style of writing. The story flows smoother and I don't get distracted by different "voices".

As one can discern from the title, the characters eventually band together to form the Jane Austen Society designed to preserve the place where Jane Austen spent the last 10 years of her life. Throughout the novel, each of the characters deals with their own personal struggles and tragedies, and somehow reading Austen helps them cope with loss and pain, and pulls them back to joy and life. Through this new project of establishing a society, all of them acquire an additional purpose and drive, and I loved watching the many transformations the characters go through.

I ended up really enjoying this book. In fact, I think it might become a favorite. Every year, I review 12-20 galleys of upcoming novels. This is one of those rare occasions, when I am planning to buy a finished copy for my library, and will definitely read it again. There something cozy and nostalgic about the setting in rural England. There are also multiple references to Austen's characters, which is always a plus for an Austen fan. 5 out of 5 stars. What a delightful read!

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com 

"The Light Birgade" by Kameron Hurley

The Light Brigade is a Sci-Fi novel set in a distant future on Earth and on Mars. By this point, humans have successfully colonized the Moon, Mars and are envisioning moving further into space. On earth, geographic divisions are no longer along country/nation borders. Instead, the entire planet is divided between six major corporations who are de-facto and de-juri governments of their respective territories. Citizens of those territories have the most rights and benefits, residents basically have to work very hard for the same benefits, and ghouls are the lowest rung of society and have to scavenge to survive.

Our main character Dietz was able to rise from ghouls to resident and has now enlisted in her corporation's army in order to earn citizenship and more importantly to avenge the deaths of her younger brother and girlfriend who died in what was reported as Mars' attack on Sao Paolo.

I loved this novel. It is fast paced, entertaining, has great characters and is filled with poignant themes of what is reality, what is truth, and how does one break out of the vicious circle of war and power-grabbing. It also portrays war as a senseless timewarped meat-grinder where soldiers are stripped of all identity, are expected to blindly follow orders and the meaning of "heroism" loses any meaning.

There is also a time-traveling aspect to the novel which I personally always like in Sci-Fi novels. Overall, the more I think about it, the more things I find to ponder. This would make a great book for a bookclub. 5 out 5 stars. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the book:

"None of this is real," Andria said. She began to move around me. "This reality, more than even the one we see, is a complete fabrication. It exists in your mind. Like pain. Like pleasure."

"Truth is a point of view."

"We are, all of us, caught within a massive loop of time, bouncing around in the spaces between things."

"The Queen's Fortune" by Allison Pataki

The Queen's Fortune is a historical fiction novel about Desiree Clary who was Napoleon's first fiance, then a member of his extended family, and later the queen of Sweden. The book is written from Desiree's point of view and covers a period of about 70 years: from 1789 to 1860. Much of the story is focused on Napoleon and his relationship with Josephine. Personally, I've been fascinated with Napoleon and Josephine's love story ever since I watched the 1987 film with Jacqueline Bisset when I was a kid. So the fact that so much of the book was focused on that tumultuous relationship is the aspect I really liked. However, in other ways, this novel was a letdown.

The main character Diseree is painfully lackluster. In the beginning she is young and inexperienced so the fact that she just goes with the flow and does what is expected of her makes sense. However, in some instances she behaves in ways that are hard to understand and the author never attempts to provide any explanation. For example. as a woman whom Napoleon basically discarded in favor of Josephine, she suffers horribly as she is forced to watch Napoleon's budding love affair and then marriage. Diseree's sister is married to Napoleon's brother Joseph and Diseree lives with them in Paris thus spending a lot of time with the Bonaparte family. She chooses to never confront Napoleon about his actions, and silently endures her pain. Moreover she is forced to spend a lot of time with Josephine. In the book, this relationship comes through as very strained and superficial. Yet, the author never discusses how a young woman, replaced by such an enigmatic personality and beauty would feel about it. Or how that relationship would change over time.

Apart from her sister Julie, Deseree does not have any friends. As a person, she seems to be quite unremarkable: no personality, no accomplishments, no ambition. Things just sort of happen to her. She is caught up in the circumstances, but there is absolutely nothing remarkable that can be said about her own role in history or the lives of the people around her. She is said to have been pretty. But even in her family life, she makes zero effort to be a good wife and mother. After her husband becomes the king of Sweden, she leaves him and her son for years at a time and spends time in France. We never get any information as to what exactly she did in France during the many years she spent their. She complains about Swedish winters, but never goes to see her son and husband even in summertime. I found this particular aspect of the book frustrating. Since it is fiction, nothing precluded the author to at least speculate why she would stay in France.

Unlike other characters in the book, Deseree also seems wholly unconcerned about the fact that she only ever had one child early on in her marriage. At a time when children died frequently in infancy, it seems unbelievable to me that a woman in her position would not want more children especially since in her case providing an heir to the throne was so important.

Aside from poor character development, the book also does not provide a good sense of Napoleon's genius. In addition, very little information is given about his military campaigns. Desiree sees him as overly ambitious, proud, and increasingly, almost manically power-hungry. Perhaps the whole point is that Desiree herself was just a simple girl from Marseille who somehow due to a remarkable chain of events got sucked into the whirlwind of events and people surrounding Napoleon. She never wanted to be a queen, thus on become one, she made zero effort to use her position to accomplish anything. Judging from this book, hers was a life spent in the shadow of other great people, and thus the history simply forgot about her. Even the book that is supposed to be about her life reads more like the story of Josephine. The only bit of her story that I found interesting was the fact that her son married Josephine's granddaughter. Thus, the two women loved by Napoleon founded the Swedish royal dynasty that is still in power today. I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.