PotsandPlots

Another quiet month, but as ever, a few books have crept onto the list.

The Big Issue is always a good source of book seeds, and Doug Johnstone has delivered again. He often reviews the sort of sci-fi adjacent books I enjoy.

‘The Radiant Dark’ by Alexandra Oliva

“The Radiant Dark by Alexandra Oliva [Johnstone writes] is a first contact novel, but that idea of connection between humans and aliens serves as a vivid backdrop to a family drama that dominates this assured, contemplative and original novel.”

More about family than aliens, this novel appears to ask how much would our lives actually change if we suddenly found out aliens were real, especially if it took 11 years for a message to arrive.

‘Ode to the Half Broken’ by Suzanne Palmer

Ode to the Half Broken by Suzanne Palmer is set in post-apocalyptic America, 30 years after societal collapse. It promises an ageing sentient robot, a chatty cyborg dog and a found family to entertain us.

Johnstone describes it as “a quest story plotted as well as you might expect from a Hugo Award winner, as the characters at the centre undergo trials and tribulations that allow the author to make broader points about how we live now and how we might in the future, without hammering the reader over the head with them.

‘Yesteryear’ by Claro Claire Burke

The “Strong Words” newsletter from April 19th also contained an intriguing scifi adjacent book – Yesteryear by Claro Claire Burke (which I have since seen front and centre in a big Waterstones, so its obviously a big deal)

“Natalie lives on an Idaho ranch called Yesteryear, where she plays the tradwife for her gormless social media following. Away from the cameras she has teams of people to keep her family and image camera-ready while she effs and jeffs and keeps the snotty brood at arm’s length.”

The blurb says, “One morning, Natalie wakes up in a strange, horrible version of reality. Her home, her husband, her children―they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Is this a hoax? A reality show? A test from God? Natalie knows just two things for sure: this isn’t her perfect life, and she must escape, by any means possible.

As darkly funny as it is shocking and gripping, Yesteryear is an electrifying examination of tradition, fame, faith and the grand performance of womanhood.”

Sounds like a perfect book group read.

‘The Market of Dreams and Destiny’ by Trip Galey

Another great promoter of books is Bluesky. Iain Clark, who is definitely worth a follow, enjoyed The Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey. Now I want to try it too.

“Below Covent Garden lies the Untermarkt, where anything and everything has a price: a lover’s first blush, a month of honesty, a wisp of fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the Market’s most powerful merchants. After years of watchful servitude, Deri spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but also his place amongst the Market’s elite when he stumbles into the path of a runaway princess desperate to sell her royal destiny.

But news of the missing princess and her wayward destiny spreads. Royal enforcers and Master Merchants alike are after it. Outmanoeuvring them all would all be hard enough had Deri not just also met the love of his life, a young man called Owain, whose employers are using the Market for their own nefarious schemes.

Clark (on Bluesky) made the market beneath London sound entirely intoxicating and I’d love to give this novel a try.

‘Perspectives’ by Laurent Binet

I can’t even remember where I found Perspectives by Lauren Binet but it sounds like another riotus novel from the author of HHhH. I read the historical HHhH, about Heydrich’s move to assassinate Hitler, a long time ago, and very much enjoyed it. Binet had sinced passed out of my consciousness, but I’d like to read some more of his books.

“Florence, 1557. As dawn breaks, a painter is discovered lying on the floor of a church, stabbed through the heart.

Above him, the paintings he laboured over for more than a decade. At his home, a hidden portrait scandalously depicting Maria de Medici, daughter of the Duke of Florence, as a naked Venus. Who is the murderer? Who made the painting? As the city erupts in chaos, Giorgio Vasari, the great art historian, is picked to lead the investigation.”

“Bursting with characters and colour, Perspectives is a mystery like no other that shows us Renaissance Florence as we’ve never seen it before – a dazzling, hugely entertaining novel of court machinations, murder and art.“

Having recently read The Curse of Pietro Houdini and visited The National Gallery in London, I’m having something of an art renaisssance, so I’m looking forward to reading this one.

That just about wraps it up for May. Gardening is taking up more and more of my time, but there’s always room for more books.