The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 196

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

Goodreads Blurb: What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?

Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.

The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilisation rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: A well done mystery with a fascinating and heartbreaking premise.

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 195

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Goodreads Blurb: The future of storytelling is here.

Life has thrown Zelu some curveballs over the years, but when she’s suddenly dropped from her university job and her latest novel is rejected, all in the middle of her sister’s wedding, her life is upended. Disabled, unemployed and from a nosy, high-achieving, judgmental family, she’s not sure what comes next.

In her hotel room that night, she takes the risk that will define her life – she decides to write a book VERY unlike her others. A science fiction drama about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes.

What follows is a tale of love and loss, fame and infamy, of extraordinary events in one world, and another. And as Zelu’s life evolves, the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Because sometimes a story really does have the power to reshape the world.

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: This was an amazing tale of the deep moving forces of culture, family, and love spanning even into the world of robots. Plus the profound communication between an author and her characters – and that twist at the end, my God, you don’t see it coming. Either that or I’ve completely misunderstood the ending. Whatever the case, would recommend.

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 194

Gryphon Precinct by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Goodreads Blurb: Humans and elves, dwarves and gnomes, wizards and warriors all live and do business in the thriving, overcrowded port city of Cliff’s End, to say nothing of the tourists and travelers who arrive by land and sea, passing through the metropolis on matters of business or pleasure–or on quests. The hard-working, under-appreciated officers of the Cliff’s End Castle Guard work day and night to maintain law and order as best they can.

Cliff’s End is rocked by the death of Lord Albin. As soon as the funeral ends, Albin’s son Blayk takes over and starts instituting wholesale changes in how the Cliff’s End Castle Guard is run: enforced retirements of older guards (including Captain Osric), surprise promotions (including Grovis to replace Osric as Captain of the Guard), sword requalifications for all guards, and much more.

Worse, Blayk has split up Lieutenants Torin ban Wyvald and Danthres Tresyllione and given them new partners. Lieutenant Dru, still devastated by the loss of Lieutenant Hawk, also has a new partner. All three detectives catch separate cases, but the more they investigate, the more they realize that all three are related–and connected to a conspiracy that targets the King and Queen themselves!

An all-new adventure of the Cliff’s End Castle Guard!

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: A fun and thrilling romp through the world of political conspiracy. My favourite one of these books yet 📚

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 193

Goblin Precinct by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Goodreads Blurb: Humans and elves, dwarves and gnomes, wizards and warriors all live and do business in the thriving, overcrowded port city of Cliff’s End, to say nothing of the tourists and travellers who arrive by land and sea, passing through the metropolis on matters of business or pleasure–or on quests. The hard-working, under-appreciated officers of the Cliff’s End Castle Guard work day and night to maintain law and order as best they can.

A new drug called Bliss is sweeping across the slums of Goblin Precinct. It makes people feel better–but if they take too much, they overdose and die. It doesn’t truly become a concern for the Castle Guard until one of the overdoses turns out to be a former elf lord who is wanted for war crimes.

The Captain of the Guard must put his best detectives, the half-elf Danthres Tresyllione and the ex-soldier Torin ban Wyvald, on the case to find out what happened to the elf. But when the magickal examiner discovers the truth behind Bliss, it becomes a firestorm of controversy that brings the Brotherhood of Wizards into the case–and that never ends well…

An all-new adventure of the Cliff’s End Castle Guard!

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: And the endings of this fascinating fantasy just continue to top each other 😎

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 192

Unicorn Precinct by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Goodreads Blurb: Humans and elves, dwarves and gnomes, wizards and warriors all live and do business in the thriving, overcrowded port city of Cliff’s End, to say nothing of the tourists and travellers who arrive by land and sea, passing through the metropolis on matters of business or pleasure-or on quests. The hard-working, under-appreciated officers of the Cliff’s End Castle Guard work day and night to maintain law and order as best they can.

Arra Cynnis is the youngest child in one of the most powerful families in the wealthy district of Unicorn Precinct. When she’s found murdered, with the culprit’s identity hidden from the magickal examiner’s spells, the Captain of the Guard sends his best investigators. Ex-soldier Torin ban Wyvald and half-elf Danthres Tresyllione have two viable suspects: Arra’s fianc, who is the cousin of another member of the Castle Guard, or the unknown person with whom Arra was having a torrid affair.

Torin and Danthres must navigate the difficult political waters of Cliff’s End’s upper classes in an attempt to determine the girl’s killer. Complicating the case is the unexpected appearance of Torin’s estranged father, who has come to return the detective to his far-off homeland of Myverin, and he won’t take no for an answer . . . .

An all-new adventure of the Cliff’s End Castle Guard!

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: I just flew through this one – desperate to see who did it, who killed her, – and I have to say, I never saw it coming. Normally I’d be embarrassed about something like that, but with this book I was having too much fun to care that I was being slow 🙂

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 191

Dragon Precinct by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Goodreads Blurb: Humans and elves, dwarves and gnomes, wizards and warriors all live and do business in the thriving, overcrowded port city of Cliff’s End, to say nothing of the tourists and travellers who arrive by land and sea, passing through the metropolis on matters of business or pleasure–or on quests. The hard-working, under-appreciated officers of the Cliff’s End Castle Guard work day and night to maintain law and order as best they can.

Gan Brightblade is one of the world’s greatest heroes and a personal friend of the Lord and Lady of Cliff’s End. So when he’s brutally murdered in grubby lodgings in Dragon Precinct, on the eve of a great quest, the Captain of the Guard puts his two best investigators on the case. The half-elf Danthres Tresyllione and ex-soldier Torin ban Wyvald soon discover that the crime scene is empty of any forensic evidence–physical or magickal. They have no clues, and heat is on.

The Lord and Lady want their friend’s murder solved–now. The populace is mourning the loss of a great hero. The ever-unhelpful Brotherhood of Wizards could take over the case at any minute. And then another member of Brightblade’s party turns up dead….

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: I think I’m really starting to like police procedurals – but if there’s one genre I absolutely love, it’s fantasy. Especially swords and dragons kind of stuff. So when I stumbled on a book that mixed the two it was like striking gold. And I did, I really did.

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 190

William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return by Ian Doescher

Goodreads Blurb: Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back and William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return. Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages. Something Wookiee this way comes!

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: This has to be my favourite of the original trilogy – both in Shakespeare and otherwise 💜💜

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 189

Theogony by Hesiod

Goodreads Blurb: This translation contains an introduction, commentary and interpretive essay and well as numerous notes and annotations to provide the history and background of the epic, and the mythological context in which it is placed. Hesiod’s straightforward account of family conflict among the gods is the best and earliest evidence of what the ancient Greeks believed about the beginning of the world. Includes Hesiod’s “Works and Days”, lines 1-201, and material from the Library of Apollodorus.

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: Wow, no one does a twisted family tree like the Gods of Olympus. Although looking back that should have been kind of obvious 😁

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 188

Insomnia by Stephen King

Blurb: You’ll lose a lot of sleep…. Ralph does. At first he starts waking up earlier. And earlier. Then the hallucinations start – the colours, shapes and strange auras. Not to mention the bald doctors who always turn up at the scene of a death.

That’s when Ralph begins to lose a lot more than sleep. When he begins to understand why his hitherto mild-mannered friend, Ed, is getting out of control – dangerously so. And why his hometown is about to become the new Armageddon….

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: Oh my God that Ending! Fuck you Stephen King for making me feel all these emotions! The man should be in book prison for that ending alone 🤣

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 187

Sociopath by Patric Gagne

Goodreads Blurb: Patric Gagne realised she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing” felt.

She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with…something.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.

But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: This was not the book I was expecting to read – but I see now that that’s on me. This fascinating, insightful, and brilliantly raw tale of a woman struggling to fully accept her sociopathic nature is a must read for anyone. Particularly those who see the word ‘sociopath’ and think ‘ooh new horror movie villain’. Prepare to feel very guilty about yourself.

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