Life updates
It's been a relatively slow month for books, largely because I've a child who is nearly 1 (like literally, in 3 days time, he'll be a year old: how on earth did that happen?) who has been quite ill. I'd love to read more, but he keeps me awake. The fight to close my eyes or pick up a book is a nightly thing.
Nonetheless, I have also been tinkering. People who've read how I read my books know I use a little carry-around MP3 player to do so, but this requires generating the book into an audio form at my computer before I can enjoy it. The voice of my choice was deconstructed last month, so I've been puttering at making my own little reading machine to avoid this. More on that in future months, I hope.
Rereads or books off-catalogue
The Great Game: Past Imperative, Present Tense and Future Indefinite, by Dave Duncan
I wanted to read this series again because it was August bank holiday weekend! Pretty sure that's the only UK-only holiday ever mentioned in a Dave Duncan novel: there are a few Scots stories, so I might be wrong there - worth investigation! I love Edward, the duty and morality and sense of honour are just wonderful in this delightfully captivating series.
The Finding by kb0
"Harry learned to survive at the Dursleys with tricks, although he didn't call it magic. He meets Ginny on the train platform and their magic finds the other, disrupting plans and breaking rules. Major canon events are routinely abused from different points of view. Mentions most major chars and then some. 39Chapters, 457,939 words."
I enjoyed this, I've not come across a Super Harry plus Ginny before. It was a bit weird, her starting out as a 10-year-old, but the story kinda worked and it was a bit fluffy and neatly-done.
Did Not finish
Lilith Potter by Atticus_breakfast_cereal
"The Dursleys never raised Harry Potter. They dropped him at an orphanage and let the world forget him. Hogwarts doesn’t know what to do with the boy who turns up without a wand, without a trunk, without the right kind of fear. The Hat hesitates. The staff improvise. Harry gets a table no one wants to look at. Lilith sits with him anyway. Wearing the same plain tie that belongs to no house. Harry slips out of the Great Hall and into the kitchens. He expects to be alone. He isn’t."
I felt like I could have quite enjoyed this but it was very cerebral, and wasn't really striking a chord so gave up after about an hour. Got to chapter 22, roughly Christmas of book 2.
New reads for September
5 stars to Of Sorcery and Science, by Mike Chen
Book Description:
A teen who is The Chosen One in a fantasy realms finds himself a nobody back home—that is, until magic appears in the real world and he must re-enter the portal to save a doomed realm. Months after entering a portal, becoming a powerful mage, and saving a distant realm, disgruntled Asian American high schooler Andy Lao returns home to find that absolutely no one believes what happened to him. In fact, things are worse than ever before as his subpar science and math grades make him a target of his parents' disappointment. But how do you think about tests and college applications when you’re The Chosen One of a magical land? One day, at the portal's location, Andy sees a glowing bit of mana on the ground. And with that, magic is possible again. But when a mysterious, surly teen girl comes through the portal, she claims to be the Chosen One . . . and that Andy’s the one who doomed the realm. Together, they’ll save magic—because the answer lies in modern science.
My Thoughts:
I was really looking forward to reading this and, despite it taking me far longer than I planned, I wasn't disappointed. I did worry a little that everything was going to be over and done with and there wasn't a lot happening, but thelast couple of chapters picked up the pace nicely and ended the story for me with a smile. Perhaps a little younger than the YA I enjoy the most; it feels a bit odd to me that Andy's got so much parental and emotional stuff going on and yet he's driving around and all sorts, but perhaps that's me just getting older. A crackingly clever story for younger teens though.
This Book: has 288 pages, a community rating of 3.88, was first published in 2026.
Coming up
I am going to Paris in October half term. I must therefore reread The Bourne Identity, as having got a copy of it in Braille as an impressionable preteen, pretty much all my thoughts about France came from there early on. I'm looking forward to standing in places mentioned by the author. I'll try and avoid getting shot on a boat, though.