Goodreads Blurb: The Sworn Sword is a novella by George R. R. Martin that first appeared in the Legends II anthology series. This is the second in the series of Dunk and Egg stories.
Goodreads Blurb: A novella originally published August 25, 1998 in the Legends anthology, edited by Robert Silverberg. Set in the world of the Song of Ice and Fire series eighty-nine years before the events of the main cycle, the story relates the adventures of Dunk (eponymously called Ser Duncan the Tall) and his squire, Egg.
Goodreads Blurb: It’s said that women and men are from two different planets when it comes to communication, but how can they overcome the obstacles of prehistoric times when one of them simply doesn’t have the ability to comprehend language?
Ehd’s a caveman living on his own in a harsh wilderness. He’s strong and intelligent, but completely alone. When he finds a beautiful young woman in his pit trap, it’s obvious to him that she is meant to be his mate. He doesn’t know where she came from, she’s wearing some pretty odd clothing, and she makes a lot of noises with her mouth that give him a headache. Still, he’s determined to fulfill his purpose in life – provide for her, protect her, and put a baby in her.
Elizabeth doesn’t know where she is or exactly how she got there. She’s confused and distressed by her predicament, and there’s a caveman hauling her back to his cavehome. She’s not at all interested in Ehd’s primitive advances, and she just can’t seem to get him to listen. No matter what she tries, getting her point across to this primitive but beautiful man is a constant – and often hilarious – struggle.
With only each other for company, they must rely on one another to fight the dangers of the wild and prepare for the winter months. As they struggle to coexist, theirs becomes a love story that transcends language and time.
Goodreads Review: Holy Crap, was this good. Young Woman travels back in time and meets beautiful green eyed Neanderthal man – from there the rest is history. Eeeh, I loved this, I hope there’s a sequel.
The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science is Rewriting Their Story by Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse
Goodreads Blurb: In recent years, the common perception of the Neanderthals has been transformed, thanks to new discoveries and paradigm-shattering scientific innovations. It turns out that the Neanderthals’ behaviour was surprisingly modern: they buried the dead, cared for the sick, hunted large animals in their prime, harvested seafood, and communicated with spoken language. Meanwhile, advances in DNA technologies are compelling us to reassess the Neanderthals’ place in our own past.
Goodreads Review: A fascinating look through the study and findings of research into the Neanderthals. And although they clearly don’t mean to, when they get to the bit describing Neanderthals in popular culture, they give a good list of novels to read next. I would recommend this book to anyone who is even the least bit interested in history or culture.
Goodreads Blurb: Anna has just lost her taste for the big apple . . .
Anna has a life to envy. An apartment in New York. A well-meaning (too well-meaning?) partner. And a high-flying job in beauty PR. Who wouldn’t want all that? Anna—it turns out.
Turning a minor mid-life crisis into a major life event she packs it in, heads back to Ireland, and gets a PR job for a super-high-end coastal retreat.
Tougher than it sounds. Newsflash: the locals hate it. So much so, there have been threats—and violence.
Anna, however, worked in the beauty industry. There’s no ugliness she hasn’t seen. No wrinkle she can’t smooth over. Anna’s got this.
Until she discovers that leaving New York doesn’t mean escaping her mistakes.
Once upon a time she’d had a best friend. Once upon a time she’d loved a man. Now she has neither. And now she has to face them.
We all make mistakes.
But when do we stop making the same one over and over again?
Goodreads Review: Warning: unless you’re a hardcore Anna & Joey shipper this may not be the book for you. It’s the majority of the plot, and the setting with the quirky villagers and vandalism mystery takes a back seat to romantic waffling. Which is a shame, because if they had been included in a book with say Helen as the main character I think they could have really been quite spectacular.
Goodreads Blurb: Brought to you by Its Majesty’s Government. Greatest Britain: For a Global Universe.
Agent Isaac Steele has problems. He spends all his splibs on drink and drugs. He has some deep-seated and very much unresolved issues with his parents. And his robotic partner at Greatest Britain’s Department of Clarification, Dr Timothy Stephens, is ruled more by his heart than his hard drive.
But all these issues take a back seat when Isaac stumbles upon a case involving the most sensitive information in the cosmos – a Never File, inaccessible to all except those with the highest clearance. He is expressly forbidden to involve himself. So naturally he does.
So begins an investigation that will take him across the Discovered Universe, into the path of the mysterious Forever Man, and eventually to answers about his past. Along the way, he will have to contend with aliens, robots, monsters, bureaucrats and, perhaps most deadly of all, his own numerous flaws.
Goodreads Review: Oh Isaac, I just want to wrap you up in a blanket and give you a hug. I mean …. A normal reaction someone would feel for a fictional character. 🤣😁
Goodreads Blurb: This magical account of King Arthur’s last night on earth spent weeks on the New York Times best-seller list following its publication in 1977.
Even in addressing the profound issues of war and peace, The Book of Merlyn retains the life and sparkle for which White is known. The tale brings Arthur full circle, an ending, White wrote, that “will turn my completed epic into a perfect fruit, ’rounded off and bright and done.'”
Goodreads Review: By far and away the weakest of the series – honestly I would recommend giving it a skip unless you’re deeply invested in hearing Merlin navel gaze about war and the nature of man for more than half the page count. I enjoyed the scenes with the geese and Arthur’s walk with the hedgehog, but other than that – my God was this a boring book.
Goodreads Blurb: The Candle in the Wind is the fourth book from the collection The Once and Future King by T. H. White. It deals with the last weeks of Arthur’s reign, his dealings with his son Mordred’s revolts, Guenever and Lancelot’s demise, and his perception of right and wrong.
Goodreads Review: Thank Goodness Mordred exists – otherwise everyone else would have to feel even an ounce of guilt for their part in the destruction of Camelot. Still, on the brighter side – I now hate Lancelot again, order is restored.
Goodreads Blurb: The Ill-Made Knight is based around the adventures, perils and mistakes of Sir Lancelot. Lancelot, despite being the bravest of the knights, is ugly, and ape-like, so that he calls himself the Chevalier mal fet – “The Ill-Made Knight”. As a child, Lancelot loved King Arthur and spent his entire childhood training to be a knight of the round table. When he arrives and becomes one of Arthur’s knights, he also becomes the king’s close friend. This causes some tension, as he is jealous of Arthur’s new wife Guinevere. In order to please her husband, Guinevere tries to befriend Lancelot and the two eventually fall in love. T.H. White’s version of the tale elaborates greatly on the passionate love of Lancelot and Guinevere. Suspense is provided by the tension between Lancelot’s friendship for King Arthur and his love for and affair with the queen.
Goodreads Review: Well, this is certainly the closest anyone’s ever come to making me like Lancelot – and I don’t know how I feel about that. I rather enjoyed my seething resentment of him 🤣😁
Goodreads Blurb: The Queen of Air and Darkness, is the second book in his epic work, The Once and Future King. It continues the story of the newly-crowned King Arthur, his tutelage by the wise Merlyn, his war against King Lot, and also introduces the Orkney clan, a group of characters who would cause the eventual downfall of the king.
The original second book in the series was The Witch in the Wood, published in 1939. It has the same general outline as the replacement work, but is substantially longer and most of the text is different.
The Wee Writing Lassie 